Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Your Eyes Brim with Venom
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Namgung San-yeong didn't return to the manor until dawn broke.
Her steps were lighter than usual.
For the past seventeen years, the bastard son who had plagued her headaches was finally within her grasp as a puppet.
Sure, she'd joined hands with these fake Taoists for it, but after visiting the Dark Lord, she could have the experts sent from her parental home secretly eliminate them.
Once she cut off the tail, she would have no more weaknesses left in the Nine Dragons Branch Family.
Finally, she could set in motion her grand plan to install Dang Gyujin and Dang Yucheong as family head!
'If I handle this matter well, the clan promised to actively support me instead of keeping their distance like now, so victory is within reach!'
Wasn't becoming the true master of the Sichuan Tang Clan, which dominated the western martial world of the Central Plains, the perfect recompense for her life of past humiliations and scorn?
Drip!
But the moment she returned to the main hall, her elated heart cooled in an instant, like a lie.
Dang Gyujin stood in the grand hall.
With an expressionless face.
...An ominous premonition struck her.
"My daughter, your mother was worried and waited up until now. How long have you been out here? The dawn breeze is so cold."
She forced a smile and approached her daughter, but Dang Gyujin stepped back, avoiding her mother's touch.
"Why are you like this, Mother?"
"What are you—"
"I was at the White Manor too."
"!!"
"Was my plea not to touch Unhwi really that hard to follow?"
Crack.
Namgung San-yeong felt as if a crack had formed in the mask she wore over her heart.
'That fake... he really did it!'
After taking all that money and boasting that there'd be no issues!
"Say something!"
"...Yes. It was hard for me."
"Mother!"
"It was for your sake! For you and Cheong's sake!"
Namgung San-yeong's eyes turned bloodshot.
"That bastard dares to bare his teeth at you two—how could I just stand by and watch? This Nine Dragons Branch Family belongs to you two from the start! Not that bastard's!"
"You need to speak properly, Mother. It wasn't 'ours'—you thought it was yours, didn't you?"
"You—"
"Even so, I believed in you until the end... Guess it was my mistake."
Dang Gyujin brushed past Namgung San-yeong coldly.
Namgung San-yeong urgently grabbed her daughter's shoulder.
"Hwaya!"
"Let go! You're no longer... the mother I knew!"
Dang Gyujin's eyes were red and bloodshot as she left the main hall.
Namgung San-yeong stood there in a daze for a long while before turning back with a hardened face.
She had been abandoned by her daughter.
Now, only one path remained for her.
"Let's go back. To the shrine."
* * *
Crash!
The White Bone Sorcerer stared blankly at the shattered ancestral tablet fragments scattered at his feet.
The shrine where he had stayed for years past was being wrecked by Namgung San-yeong's hands.
"Amitabha, Amitabha—"
"Don't play the Taoist, you fake! You gorged on all that money and can't even do one job right!"
"Your eyes brim with venom. Venom has ever been the root of all evils. Calm your heart first."
"Thanks to you lot, things have gone wrong, and that's what comes out of your mouth? You dare?"
The White Bone Sorcerer pondered for a moment.
Should he snap this woman's neck right now?
No, not yet.
Even if he did, to safely set foot deep inside the Nine Dragons Branch Family, he needed this woman's hand.
"Patron."
"How are we supposed to—"
"Patron Namgung!!"
A roar like a lion's bellow.
Namgung San-yeong snapped to attention.
But resentment welled up in her as well.
Daring to treat her, the future head of the Tang Clan, so rudely?
"We only just learned things went awry. Who could have foreseen a mere drunkard secretly holed up in that tiny manor devouring my disciple?"
Tiny manor. Another insult to Namgung San-yeong.
But she could no longer rage.
The White Bone Sorcerer's first serious demeanor overwhelmed her like glimpsing her late husband's old self.
But she couldn't yield like this.
Namgung San-yeong bit her lower lip hard and glared even more ferociously.
"So? You're not saying we're giving up just like that, are you?"
"Of course not! Heh heh! We have our pride too! We can't just be toyed with by some brat not even worth calling an agreement and call it quits!"
The White Bone Sorcerer reverted to his eerie form, his head tilting oddly to the side again.
"Then let's move right—"
"But we need to recalculate the price, don't you think?"
"What?"
"You should have told us the drunkard behind that bastard son had real skill! Because you didn't explain properly, I lost my disciple and my demon beast!!"
Thud!
The furniture shards scattered around Namgung San-yeong exploded outward in all directions.
"You!"
"So bring another one of those chests! Or else I'll pour every curse onto you, Patron Namgung!"
"!!"
Namgung San-yeong trembled with fists clenched. When had she ever suffered such humiliation?
"Heh heh heh. So that can't happen, right, Patron Namgung? Hurry and bring more."
"...Fine. We'll recalculate."
But anger was anger. Business was business.
'Just you wait. Once this is over, I won't let you lot off easy.'
Namgung San-yeong planned to direct the Dark Lord's wrath toward them.
"Bring it."
Thud!
Servants set down two or three chests filled with silver ingots.
"I'll give you one more chest than demanded. But no whining about the price being short this time."
The venom in Namgung San-yeong's eyes intensified.
"Muster every trick you have—overdo it if you must—and finish the job properly! Got it?"
"Hahaha! As expected, Patron Namgung, you're easy to talk to. Of course."
With a casual wave of the White Bone Sorcerer's hand, a sudden wind swept in from nowhere, snatching all the chests away.
"I'll go myself this time. That ease your mind?"
Only then did Namgung San-yeong soften her sharp gaze.
Indeed, the White Bone Sorcerer was the best sorcerer she knew.
If he went personally, no matter how great Unhwi and his backer were, they'd crumble.
"But one more condition."
"As long as it's not too much."
Had he pocketed quite the sum?
The White Bone Sorcerer seemed rather relaxed.
"I want you to pinpoint exactly where that bastard son's backer is."
"Heh heh heh! Since it ate my disciple, I planned to find out for revenge anyway. Turning it into a ginger corpse makes interrogation easy. I'll share everything after."
As Namgung San-yeong nodded heavily in agreement—
The White Bone Sorcerer, about to call his disciples and demon beasts, whipped his head the other way.
Flutter!
Over a dozen messenger birds flew into the shrine.
Special waterfowl corpses raised in the Black Bone Ghost Valley.
The problem was they were all emergency releases from the ranches.
'...No way?'
The White Bone Sorcerer hurriedly flew up with his flight technique and snatched the letters from the birds.
Their contents set his rage boiling.
—All six ranches in the Pa-dang region annihilated. Reporting current damage. Dead: 32 demon beasts. Injured: 64. Half or more expected to die soon.
Main cause: Sudden raid by monstrous bird (head?).
—Small ranch in the Stone Village region totally wiped out.
Cause: Hunted by the monstrous bird's flock.
Predicted to appear at other ranches soon. Request swift support.
-Damage report from small ranch in Gu-chae-gu region.
.
.
"What is this!"
The secret ranches he'd secretly set up across Sichuan over the past decade, evading the brat vice leader and the new cult's eyes, had been wiped out.
* * *
That guy must be gorging himself happily by now, right?
With enough energy, Zhu could fly hundreds of li in a day without issue.
So circling an entire province in one night was no problem.
If mid- or high-rank waterfowl corpses or demon beasts appeared, he'd instructed it to judge and avoid wisely.
Dosed with so many drugs, it'd charge even harder during the Dark Lord assassination plan.
Then the ones behind would come crawling out in droves.
Namgung San-yeong would sink even deeper into the mire.
"Vice Leader, oh Vice Leader!"
"Need anything more? Anything at all?"
"Soma heard some juicy news from the Pure Wind Pavilion this time—"
Meanwhile, the wraiths were desperate to catch my eye even more.
Beyond just obeying me for reincarnation, as demon beasts, they'd gained hope for a new life.
No wonder their asses were twitching with excitement.
Of course, I couldn't hand out such opportunities freely, so I pretended not to hear and focused on training.
Swish swish swish!
I'd handled the spear, so now the glaive.
Unlike the spear with blades top and bottom, the glaive had a blade on one side, curved like a hook.
It excelled at whipping or dragging enemies in.
Apparently used a lot ceremonially in ancient times?
"Hmm?"
"What's up? Awed by my genius again? Shouldn't you be used to it by now? Ah, or is my talent so outstanding that admiration spills out every time? Ah, the burden of genius is heavy."
After demonstrating all the forms of the Whirling Wind Glaive Technique I'd learned today.
Dang Gon tilted his head with a puzzled look.
Then he dismissed my bragging with ease.
"Please stop your bullshit."
"Master, your speech grows colder by the day."
"Ponder deeply with hand on heart why that is."
As told, I placed my hand on my left chest and thought.
But I truly had no idea.
End.
"Did you perhaps gain some fateful encounter last night?"
"Fateful encounter? Besides drinking with Master, I've been stuck in the White Manor—what?"
"That makes sense, but... ha!"
"What's so weird? Explain properly."
"Your internal energy flow is much clearer. Normally, you'd see this after meridians are cleaned or life-death gates slightly unblocked... ha!"
Ah, from the hearty battle at dawn yesterday?
Using spirit power to the max alongside internal energy for the first time in ages must have deepened the mind-body fusion.
As the fifteen tigers said, for the time being, the more intensely I used internal energy, the stronger the unity of spirit and flesh would grow.
Still, to notice the change so quickly just from a martial demonstration.
Master Dang Gon's insight was impressive indeed.
"Even so, you seem fairly proficient with weapons now."
"Yeah. At first, blisters kept forming and it hurt, but not anymore."
Polearms like spears fall into three main motions.
Parry: Rotate to push outward.
Pull: Draw in and press.
Thrust: Stab and counter.
I'd steadily trained various polearms to master parry-pull-thrust perfectly.
Now, I could execute them flawlessly even with eyes closed.
Master's creed was that basics are paramount in martial arts, so I'd never let a weapon leave my hands.
This would prove very useful in the test before the Dark Lord.
And.
Parry-pull-thrust leads straight to the Eight Eternal Sword Forms.
'Time to learn swordsmanship soon?'
The moment to begin entry into the Heavenly Demon Lone Sword had arrived.
"Master."
"Yes?"
"Know a good smithy?"
First, I planned to forge a sword suited to me.
Reincarnation Demon God Chronicles