Chapter 25 — You’re Full of Malice
Namgung San-yeong only returned to the manor when the sun had risen.
Her step was unusually full of pep… but that was only natural.
After 17 years of that bastard child causing her trouble, she could finally turn him into a puppet.
She’d had to join hands with some fanatic monks to get here… but she planned to have martial masters from her home clan eliminate them after the Dark Sovereign’s visit.
Once she cut them off, she would have no remaining weaknesses within the Nine Dragons Branch family.
She could finally commence her grand plan of making either Tang Gyu-jin or Tang Yu-chang the clan head!
‘The Namgung Noble Clan promised that if this matter is properly taken care of, they’ll give me their full support instead of lightly aiding me from afar. I’ll have a real chance!”
Becoming the true owner of the Sichuan Tang Clan, the rulers of the western martial realm, would be her reward for having endured all that humiliation.
But as soon as she returned to her pavilion, her joy cooled completely.
Outside the gates was Tang Gyu-jin wearing an expressionless face.
Namgung San-yeong had a bad feeling about this…
“My dear daughter, did you wait for me because you were worried?” she asked. “How long have you been waiting out here in the cold?”
Feigning a smile, she tried to approach her daughter. However, Gyu-jin took a step back, evading her mother’s caress. “Why did you do it, Mother?” Gyu-jin asked.
“What are you talking about—?”
“I was at the White Pavilion.”
“…!!”
“Did I make too difficult a request when I asked you to leave Woon-hwi alone?”
C-crack.
Namgung San-yeong felt like the mask she wore in her heart was fracturing.
‘That fanatic!’ San-yeong thought.
He had assured her that everything would be fine when he took that large sum of money!
“Explain yourself, Mother!”
“…Yes. It was a difficult request indeed.”
“Mother!”
“It was for you! For you and Yu-chang!” Namgung San-yeong shrieked with bloodshot eyes. “How can I stand by while that damn bastard bares his fangs at you two! The Nine Dragon Branch Family is meant to be yours! Not his!”
“You should be honest, Mother: You don’t think it should belong to ‘me’ but rather to ‘you’.”
“You…”
“I tried to put my faith in you to the end… But it appears it was all for naught,” Gyu-jin said coldly as she walked past Namgung San-yeong.
Namgung San-yeong desperately clung to her daughter’s shoulder. “Gyu-jin!”
“Let go of me! You are no longer the mother I once knew…!”
Gyu-jin walked away, her eyes puffed red.
Namgung San-yeong stood in a heartbroken daze for a good while before recomposing herself.
She had been abandoned by her daughter.
There was now only one thing remaining for her.
“I have to go back to the temple.”
* * *
Reaper Scans
[Translator – Nano Sashin]
[Proofreader – Gorm]
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* * *
Shatter!
The White Bone Wraith stared intensely at the broken spirit tablet near his feet.
The temple he had spent the last few years building up was being destroyed by Namgung San-yeong.
“Amitayus, Amitayus—”
“Don’t pretend to be a monk, you fake wannabe! You can’t do your job right even though I paid you a fortune!”
“Your eyes are full of malice, lady. Malice is the source of all evil. First, please calm yourself.”
“How can you say that when my plans are about to go to waste because of you?!”
The White Bone Wraith took a moment to consider: Should he snap this woman’s neck right here, right now?
No. Now was not the time.
He could always do it later. For now, he needed this woman’s help to safely create a foothold inside the Nine Dragons Branch Family.
“Follower—”
“How do you plan to compensate—”
“Follower Namgung!!” the White Bone Wraith roared, cutting her off.
Namgung San-yeong jolted in fear, but she also felt bitter.
How dare he treat the future owner of the Tang Clan like this?
“I only just learned that our plans have gone awry. There was no way for me to anticipate that a sorcerer capable of defeating my disciple would have planted himself in such a small manor.”
‘Small manor.’ It was an insult to Namgung San-yeong.
However, she didn’t have the courage to continue causing a scene.
For the first time, the White Bone Wraith was being serious, his posture domineering. It almost reminded her of her husband in his youth.
Of course, she couldn’t just be a pushover either.
Namgung San-yeong bit her lip and glared with even more animosity. “What are you saying? You don’t intend to just give up, do you?”
The White Bone Wraith returned to his usual distorted posture, his head tilted unnaturally. “Of course not! Uhehehe! We have our own pride to maintain! We can’t let a brat who has yet to reach adulthood make a fool of us!”
“Then go take care of him right away—”
The White Bone Wraith interrupted Namgung San-yeong, saying, “But I think we need to recalculate the fee.”
“What was that?”
“You should have told us how powerful the sorcerer behind the illegitimate child was! Because you didn’t give us all the details, I lost not only my disciple but also a wicked beast!”
Shatter!
The pieces of broken furniture around Namgung San-yeong exploded into tiny fragments and flew off in all directions.
“You…” Namgung San-yeong muttered.
“Bring me another chest! Or I’ll instead shower you with the curse I’ve prepared!”
Namgung San-yeong’s fist trembled. She had never been disgraced like this before.
“Ehehehe. You don’t want that now, do you, Follower Namgung? Bring me another chest at once.”
She fought to contain her anger. There was still business that needed to be taken care of. “…Fine,” she said, “I’ll pay the new fee.”
‘Just you wait. Once the job is done, I won’t let you guys off easy,’ she vowed.
Namgung San-yeong intended to turn the wrath of the Dark Sovereign against them.
“Bring them in,” she ordered.
Thud!
Her servants promptly brought in two chests filled with silver ingots.
“I’ll give you one more chest than you requested. However, I will no longer accept an excuse like ‘the payment is insufficient’,” she said as the malice within her eyes intensified. “Use every method at your disposal. Take care of this properly, even if you have to go overboard. Do you understand?”
“Ahahaha! This is why it’s always a pleasure doing business with you. Of course I understand.”
The White Bone Wraith lightly twirled his hand, and a gust of wind snatched away the chest in the blink of an eye.
“This time, I will go myself to take care of it. Will that be satisfactory to you?”
Namgung San-yeong’s eyes finally eased up.
The White Bone Wraith was the best sorcerer she knew. If he took matters into his own hands, then no matter how great the mastermind behind Woon-hwi was, they would be brought to their knees.
“It is, but I’d like to propose one more condition.”
Maybe because he’d been paid a generous sum, but the White Bone Wraith was quite easygoing as he responded, “I’ll accept as long as it’s not too difficult a request.”
“Find out who the mastermind behind that bastard child is,” demanded Namgung San-yeong.
“Ufufu! I already intended to do so, to avenge my disciple. Interrogating them will be easy once I turn them into advanced jiangshi. I promise to share the information with you after I’m done with them.”
Namgung San-yeong nodded her head in agreement.
Right before the White Bone Wraith could call upon his disciples and wicked beasts, something made him suddenly turn his head.
Flap, flap!
Dozens of messenger birds, all beast jiangshi raised by the Black Bone Ghost Valley, flew into the temple.
But they were meant to only be released from their farms in the event of an emergency.
‘Could it be…?’
The White Bone Wraith used a sky-soaring palm technique to fly up and snatch the messages from the birds, and the contents made his blood boil.
—Six farms in Batang County have been destroyed. Current status: 32 wicked beasts deceased, 64 wicked beasts injured. Half the injured are likely to not survive.
Cause of damage: Ambushed by the bird monster Ju.
—Yechi County Farm has been completely annihilated.
Cause: Hunted by the bird monster Ju.
It’s likely that it will appear at other farms soon. Requesting reinforcements.
—Jiuzhaigou County reporting damages.
…
…
“What the hell?!”
All of the secret farms he had set up across Sichuan over the last decade, away from the watchful gaze of the junior lord and the divine cult, had been wiped out.
* * *
‘He’s probably enjoying his meal by now.’
With enough stamina, a Ju could fly hundreds of miles in a day. It could feasibly roam an entire province in one night.
I’d given him orders to get out if he encountered a beast jiangshi or a wicked beast around his level, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
This should enrage them, making them come after me even harder in the midst of their Dark Sovereign assassination plan.
This would help me rope in and trap even more people, forcing Namgung San-yeong into an even more difficult position.
「Junior Lord!」
「Is there anything else you require, sir?」
「I overheard some very useful news in the Righteous Wind Hall.」
Meanwhile, the ghosts were more desperate than ever to get in my good graces. They had been instilled with the hope that if they were obedient and useful, they could earn a new life as wicked beasts.
I couldn’t waste this opportunity, however, so I ignored them and focused on my training. Now that I had mastered the spear, it was time for the dagger-axe.
The dagger-axe was a type of polearm similar to a spear. However, unlike the spear, tipped with a double-edged blade, the dagger-axe featured a scythe-like blade on one side. Its specialties were stabbing in from the side and hooking enemies, and it was said to have seen a lot of ceremonial use in ancient times.
“Hmm?”
When I finished going through all the movements of the Gust Returning Dagger-Axe I had mastered, I looked over and found Tang Gon tilting his head in confusion for some reason.
“What’s wrong? Are you impressed once again by my genius? Isn’t it about time you get used to it? Or is my genius so impressive that you can’t help but be astounded again and again?” I sighed. “This is why it’s exhausting being a genius.”
“Please stop being such as ass,” he responded.
“My dear Instructor Gon, why are you becoming so cold toward me?”
“Why don’t you think back on your actions and figure it out?”
I thought long and hard, but nothing at all came to mind…
I gave it up as a lost cause.
“Did you have some fateful happenstance last night?” he asked me.
“Fateful happenstance? When would I have such an opportunity when my daily routine is being locked up in here and drinking with you?”
“That’s how it should be, but… hmm…”
“What’s wrong? Can you get to the point already?”
“Your inner-energy circulation has become much smoother. Normally, that should only happen if your meridians are purified or if you’re starting to create a pathway into the Gateway of Life and Death… Hmm…”
Oh, it had to be from the fight last night.
Going all out while using both my sorcery and inner energy must have advanced my synchronization of purposeful intent.
But for him to have noticed that just from a simple show of martial arts… Tang Gon really had quite the discerning eye.
“You’ve now become quite proficient with weapons,” Tang Gon said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Getting calluses made it difficult at first, but that’s stopped.”
Polearm-type weapons, such as spears, had three primary actions:
Swing the polearm out.
Pull the polearm in.
And thrust forward with the polearm.
I’d diligently trained with various polearms to master the swing, pull, and thrust. As a result, I was able to perform those movements perfectly even with my eyes closed.
My master’s philosophy was that the basics were the most important when it came to martial arts. Thus, I didn’t let the weapons leave my hand for even a moment.
This foundation would surely come in handy in the Dark Sovereign’s test.
Not to mention, swing-pull-thrust lead nicely into the Eight Strokes of Eternity.
‘I think it’s about time I start learning swordsmanship as well.’
It was finally time for me to start practicing the Heavenly Demon’s Nine Swords.
“Instructor Gon.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know a good blacksmith?”
First, I needed to make a sword that suited me.
