The great stone door was splitting apart.
Suddenly, the poison master, Dang Wunghwang, spoke up.
"You, did you say your surname is Jeong and your name is Seomye?"
"Yes, Lord Head of the Family," Jeong Yeonsin replied, staring straight ahead.
His tone was calm.
Even with the head of the Dang family beside him, he could not afford to glance away.
His life was now at stake.
He wished for Ma Gwangik's safety.
Dang Wunghwang seemed unconcerned.
He looked up at Jeong Yeonsin for a moment before continuing, "Your demeanor and conduct show refinement. You are not just some wandering swordsman. Do you happen to know someone named Hwancho Doin?"
"The one who wrote the Chaegeundam, right?" the boy answered quietly.
The Jeong family of Hanan was the foremost in Sinya County.
He worried that showing off might seem like the behavior of a nouveau riche.
Thus, as a blood relative, he had to be cultured.
Even the children raised in the family could not neglect their studies.
They had skimmed through the Great Ming Classics and the Four Books and Five Classics, and even the Chaegeundam, albeit superficially.
Dang Wunghwang's bushy beard lifted at the corners of his mouth.
"You have some knowledge. You have woven together Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism well. There are many profound sayings about how to live one's life that are worth pondering."