Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Dang Yuchang
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Dang Yuchang had finished his closed-door training, but he was dissatisfied with every recent event that had unfolded.
"Still no particular reaction?"
"Th-that's right."
"You're not skipping the tonic or anything, are you?"
His sharp gaze pierced the woman's heart.
Her face drained of color as she prostrated herself flat on the floor.
She was the maid who delivered the tonic to Unhwi every day.
"W-why would I, of all people, l-lie to you!"
"Hmm."
"It's true! You can call the other maids to confirm!"
Dang Yuchang glared at her for a long while before issuing the order to dismiss her.
"Fine. You're dismissed."
"Y-yes...!"
She barely managed to leave the hall, her legs still trembling. It was a miracle she didn't trip.
"Muyoung."
"Your command."
At the quiet call, a voice came from the ceiling.
"Get rid of her."
"Accident?"
"Just make it a simple runaway. Her family's a mess anyway, right?"
"As you command."
Swoosh!
The presence on the ceiling vanished.
In just a few days, the woman would stop showing up at the estate, reported as a simple runaway to the authorities.
Any connection to the slow-acting poison would be completely severed. A clean cutoff.
"It's strange. Too strange."
Tap, tap.
Dang Yuchang drummed his index finger on the desk, lost in deep thought.
It had been ten days since Unhwi ingested the slow-acting poison.
Symptoms should have started appearing by now, but there was nothing unusual. That was odd.
It was impossible without an antidote.
"That means Unhwi's backing is far bigger than I thought."
He had planned to brainwash and control Unhwi as he pleased, but now that plan was unraveling.
He would need to reassess the mysterious backer's level and redraw his plans.
But Unhwi's issues weren't just this one.
"He even seems to be getting along with Dang Gon."
According to the spy planted in the White Residence, Dang Gon appeared reasonably content with his guard duties.
"And even my sister says we should embrace that bastard."
He clicked his tongue, recalling the argument between his mother and sister not long ago.
Since then, the mother and daughter had been locked in a cold war.
"What a headache. All the traps related to that bastard are slyly missing their mark."
Was it luck, or was the backer's skill that superior?
From one to ten, nothing pleased him.
"In times like this, my sister should step up even more. How can she be so naive? Has she been holed up in the Qingcheng Mountains for the past five years? She doesn't know the world, but this is too much."
Dang Gyujin was set to fully descend from Qingcheng Mountain in the year she turned thirty and take over the Nine Dragons Branch Family completely.
But in Dang Yuchang's eyes, Dang Gyujin wasn't up to the task.
Her martial prowess was top-tier among the later-generation disciples, but leading a family required entirely different qualities.
How could someone so naive lead this vast estate? The Nine Dragons Branch Family, destined to surpass the main house and become the central clan!
"In the end, I'm the only one qualified to succeed the Dark Lord."
Dang Yuchang twisted one corner of his mouth into a sneer.
He had tried to step back for Dang Gyujin's sake until now, but no longer. He intended to ignite his ambitions in earnest.
He was confident that only he could lead the Tang Clan of Sichuan—currently at its peak—to greater heights.
So he would show them soon enough.
He would crush that bastard, become the Dark Lord's disciple, and even keep his sister under his thumb!
With the covert support from his maternal South Palace Clan, it was far from impossible—that was Dang Yuchang's conviction.
"Young master, a messenger from the White Residence has arrived."
He was reorganizing his plans around Unhwi when the steward's voice suddenly came from outside.
"From the White Residence?"
That meant from Unhwi. The pathetic bastard wouldn't have done anything on his own, so was the backer finally revealing itself?
"What do they want?"
"They sent a letter."
"A letter? Bring it here."
Dang Yuchang frowned upon receiving the letter.
―Wanna spar with me, dickhead?
The phrase scrawled on the envelope particularly grated on his nerves.
"...How vulgar."
Frowning, he broke the wax seal and examined the letter carefully.
Was it a ploy to provoke him into hastily opening it and inhaling hidden poison? But contrary to his expectations, there were no such devices inside.
The contents were nothing special.
It simply said that they had been distant as brothers with little interaction, so they should have a proper one this time.
If there were any grudges between them, they should settle it all like true martial artists with a single spar.
Dang Yuchang didn't even feel like laughing.
"Desperate to survive, huh? Guess he has enough brains to sense his own doom."
With this, Dang Yuchang was convinced.
Unhwi dodging his traps so far had been mere luck. The noose was steadily tightening around the bastard.
Unhwi must have sensed it, hence this plea.
He—or his backer—wanted a direct meeting to persuade him.
"Tell them I received the letter, but while I appreciate the proposal, I refuse."
Dang Yuchang sent the White Residence servant away without even writing a reply.
But half a shichen later, another letter arrived.
―Scared?
"...From now on, if anyone from the White Residence shows up, don't even let them through the gate!"
Dang Yuchang swallowed his surging rage at being toyed with by a mere bastard.
But when he finished his business and stepped out of the hall.
―Scared?
Seeing the huge graffiti on the wall made his lid finally blow off.
"Tomorrow at noon, second training ground! Tell him that! I'll smash that bastard's head into the shitter!!"
* * *
The news that Dang Yuchang had accepted the challenge spread immediately to the White Residence.
"What an idiot. If he was gonna do it anyway, why play hard to get?"
As I chuckled, the lingering spirits shook their heads.
「He's the idiot. The Young Branch Leader's provocation arts can shatter even the composure of Shaolin high monks.」
「A brat not even twenty yet—no matter how mature he acts, he couldn't handle that level of spice.」
「Now all that's left is for him to get thoroughly beaten and toyed with.」
Their tone was exactly like, 'I got done like that back in the day...'
「Still, he fell for the provocation quicker than expected.」
"The Tang Clan folk have the strongest pride among all the clans in the jianghu."
Handling poisons and hidden weapons was seen as underhanded in the righteous world of the jianghu (even if it wasn't).
In fact, the humiliations and scorn the Tang Clan endured from the jianghu to reach their current position were immense.
Because of that, the Tang Clan stuck even tighter together, gradually becoming a closed-off group that fought struggle after struggle to achieve today's prosperity.
All that remained for them was towering pride and unyielding tenacity.
And that nature hadn't changed.
Would they back down from a taunt like, 'Scared? If you're scared, just drop dead'?
"And if I take down Dang Yuchang with this, my standing in the branch family will shift. Getting close to the Stormwind Corps will be much easier too."
I had already sent a recommendation letter about myself to the Dark Lord from the main hall.
Soon, Namgung Sanyoung wouldn't be able to retrieve her recommendation either, leaving her totally boxed in.
「How do you even come up with these ideas—」
"It was just like this when I first became master's disciple. The Black Bone Ghost Valley's young valley lord and his gang kept provoking me. They even harassed the female members of my guard unit."
Black Bone Ghost Valley was a formidable power among the seventy-two demon sects.
That's why their newbie demons strutted around with puffed-up chests in the Demonic Entry Palace.
「You don't mean that incident—」
"You guessed it?"
「W-was the Demonic Entry Palace Incident the work of the Young Branch Leader?」
"What's the lesson here?"
「What is it...?」
"You gotta smash their pots first and foremost when you beat them. Got it?"
「The Young Branch Leader's brilliant wisdom is beyond words, and your keen insight is something we can never match!」
「Please continue to lead us righteously from here on!」
The 'Demonic Entry Palace Incident' referred to the event where Black Bone Ghost Valley's young valley lord—stripped bare like a corn cob and reduced to rags—was hung at the main gate at dawn.
「Back then, four of Black Bone Ghost Valley's secret elixir storehouses got completely looted too.」
「They shat blood for years chasing the culprit, but who would've thought it was the Young Branch Leader—」
「Even the young valley lord, the only one who knew the culprit, lost his marbles and couldn't think straight. Ha—」
「After that, the former young valley lord got chased out of Ghost Valley too. As far as I know, Black Bone Ghost Valley still hasn't recovered—」
One of the New Cult's Seven Great Mysteries turned out to be my doing, so they were all buzzing.
In the end, the lingering spirits' verdict on Dang Yuchang was simple.
「...How much he'll get looted. Poor bastard.」
Sympathy from shared suffering, as expected.
* * *
Ever since returning to the estate yesterday, Dang Gyujin had felt a constant tightness in her chest.
'I have to do something, somehow!'
It was because of the matter between Unhwi and her mother.
In truth, she had been thrilled when she received word that the Dark Lord would soon visit the estate and she was to attend the event.
It had been five years since she left the Nine Dragons Branch Family. She was curious how much the clan had changed.
But the moment she arrived at the estate, she heard thunderous news out of nowhere.
Nothing had changed in how they treated Unhwi.
Truth be told, she had always felt considerable guilt toward Unhwi.
She wanted to protect him from her mother and younger brother's torment somehow, but she had up and gone to Qingcheng Mountain herself, leaving him isolated like an abandoned island.
She hoped he was doing well, but he clearly wasn't.
Especially after hearing about the recent incidents surrounding Unhwi—how despairing it had been.
So Dang Gyujin had confronted her mother, Namgung Sanyoung, demanding to know what was going on, only to get harshly scolded instead.
"Forget that lowly bastard! Once this clan head's visit is over, you'll never have to see him again anyway."
"...What do you mean by that?"
"Just what I said."
Namgung Sanyoung shuddered as if even discussing Unhwi was unpleasant.
"After this event, we're expelling that bastard from the clan."
Namgung Sanyoung didn't mention the conspiracy unfolding specifically to oust Unhwi.
She couldn't predict what backlash that might provoke.
'She's always been soft-hearted since she was young, but... this is too much! If those Qingcheng bastards hadn't filled her head with useless ideals!'
Namgung Sanyoung had no intention of sending Dang Gyujin—the next Nine Dragons Branch Leader, perhaps even aiming for Tang Clan head—to some third-rate Qingcheng Sect.
That pathetic Qingcheng Sect might have had a name in the old days, but now it was just a faded plum overshadowed by the Tang Clan's prestige!
So when Dang Hoseon notified her unilaterally of Dang Gyujin's mountain entry without consultation, she had gone on a hunger strike and even protested.
But Dang Gyujin's entry proceeded by force.
From that point, Namgung Sanyoung severed the last thread of her marital bond. Instead, her obsession with her two children intensified.
"...Hoo! Fine. If that's Mother's decision, I have no choice."
Had her words finally gotten through to this woman?
Namgung Sanyoung looked on with expectant eyes, but Dang Gyujin's gaze sharpened.
For a moment, a chill ran down her spine.
"If that's the case, then I'll reveal the 'truth' too."
"What? You wouldn't—"
"Yes. Mother's right about that much."
"Jina!!"
"No matter what Mother says, my mind won't change. I thought things would be different now... guess I was wrong. I'll convey it properly to Unhwi."
Dang Gyujin had no intention of yielding.
"Are you truly the child I painfully birthed?"
"Unhwi lost the very mother who painfully birthed him. Because of us, mother and daughter."
"You insolent—"
Namgung Sanyoung clutched her chest. She could barely breathe.
Why had she always harshly scolded Unhwi, who posed no threat to her two children?
To hide the truth. She didn't know what reaction Unhwi might have if he learned it.
It could completely derail the succession structure she had painstakingly built.
Her daughter knew that better than anyone, yet she spouted this nonsense without a care...!
"Do you know, Mother? The fact that I could cure my illness and enter Qingcheng Sect—all thanks to Unhwi. He's my lifesaver. So you can't do this."
"!!"
"I'll pretend I didn't hear what you said about Unhwi today. So please straighten your mind before the Dark Lord arrives."
Dang Gyujin turned abruptly and strode out of the hall.
Thud.
Namgung Sanyoung sank limply into her seat.
The reunion with her daughter after years apart had ended not in joy, but with an ultimatum. It wounded her deeply.
"In the end... simple expulsion won't cut it."
Namgung Sanyoung bit her lip hard, as if resolving something, grabbed her outer robe, and summoned a separate carriage to board.
'Now!'
The giant spider that had been waiting pounced right after, sticking flat to the carriage wheel.
Clack-clack-clack—
Roll, rumble....