Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: The Whereabouts of the Believers
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The shock from the man wielding Reverse Taiji had been immense, but I quickly gathered my thoughts.
From the moment I resolved to live as Dang Un-hwi and embrace the life of Yeon Un-hwi—nay, from the moment I vowed revenge for my past life—I had never once imagined that path would be an easy one.
Thus, nothing had changed.
If anything, it felt even better now.
I had confirmed clues about those enigmatic foes with my own eyes, however slight.
From the standpoint of heavenly law, Reverse Taiji was an unholy art that could scarcely be established.
Unraveling it alone would reveal far more about them.
On top of that, I had my suspicions, so I decided to tie up this incident by sorting through the fragments flashing in my mind, one by one.
Nor were there zero leads on Master's whereabouts or those of the faithful.
Tam had devoured only the soul of the White Bone Net Master—thankfully, the corpse remained intact.
Of course, hauling the whole thing would be a hassle, so I neatly severed just the head and returned to where Dang Gon and Dang Gyu-jin waited.
“…What’s that?”
“Hm? What else? The White Bone Net Master’s head, obviously. I brought it to present to the Branch Leader. It’s gruesome, I know, but bear with it.”
“Even so, carrying it like that is a bit much!!”
Dang Gon pointed accusingly at the bamboo pole in my hand, his face a picture of disbelief.
At the end of the pole—easily ten feet long—hung a white flag fashioned from scraps of the man’s robes, alongside the severed head.
Proudly emblazoned on the flag in his own blood were the words:
Fwirl~ Luck!
—Dang Un-hwi帅气地讨伐白骨 (Dang Un-hwi Handsomely Subdues the White Bone).
The strokes, dashed off in one go, evoked the flair of a heroic stele. Utterly majestic—raw power incarnate! Ka!
“Isn’t it cool? Gotta spread word far and wide that I took down the White Bone Net Master.”
“That’s the kind of barbaric stunt unwashed fiends pull!”
“Exactly.”
I planted my hands on my hips and puffed out my chest.
Ahem!
“Learned it from the best.”
“Stop that right now!!”
Among the denizens of the demonic path, some paraded the severed heads of slain foes to boast of their supremacy.
My skills are unmatched—come at me once you’ve reached this level. That sort of thing.
A custom born of the Demonic Cult’s endless power struggles, as commonplace as breathing.
Back when they mocked me for my crippled dantian, I’d used the same trick plenty of times to shut up the loudmouths.
It worked like a charm every time, so why not here?
Was it really that big a deal?
Come to think of it, I recalled the orthodox sects didn’t go in for such displays…
「How dare they...! Mocking the exalted traditions of our Divine Cult! I won’t stand for it! Young Cult Leader, give the order! I’ll thrash that heretic with my staff!!」
「Exposing heads is a cherished Divine Cult tradition—a fine way to proclaim our eternal victories! It even goads the Black Bone Ghost Vale into folly—do not dismiss it!」
I glanced at Dang Gyu-jin, hoping for backup.
But he scratched his cheek with an awkward grimace and nodded.
Better to heed Dang Gon, it seemed.
Tch, too bad.
In the end, I took down the head and slung it over my saddle.
One alone looked weak(?), so maybe add Baek Dong and the other four inspectors’ heads too—
“Ah! Just bring it normally, would you!!”
* * *
Dang Gon’s staunch opposition won out in the end, and the White Bone Net Master’s head ended up neatly(?) wrapped in his own robes.
“Aw, now it looks too tame.”
I smacked my lips in disappointment, and Dang Gon’s brow furrowed deeply once more.
“What, you trying to act like some backwater fiend? We’re a renowned orthodox clan, representatives of the righteous—”
“Vicious, insidious, stingy, vengeful, ill-tempered—aren’t those the Branch Family’s mottoes?”
“…Can’t argue with that, but still, we’re orthodox! Leaders of Sichuan’s martial world!”
As Dang Gon and I bickered, Dang Gyu-jin cut in with a question.
“Not heading straight back down the mountain? What’re we doing here?”
“Looking for something.”
I led the pair back to the shrine’s original site.
The flames had died down considerably, leaving only scattered embers.
The shrine’s halls had mostly been reduced to rubble.
Just frames and foundations remained. Even the walls had collapsed entirely—a proper ruin.
Namgung San-yeong made no secret of her reluctance to enter, but I paid it no mind.
“Everything got blasted away— what’s left to find?”
“Something will be. Most records might’ve burned, but the important stuff? They’d have protected it somehow.”
“Fair point. I’ll take this side.”
“Then I’ll handle that area. Sorcerers usually set up altars under big trees like these—bound to turn up something if we dig.”
Dang Gyu-jin and Dang Gon split off to cover separate zones.
“Mother, help me out here.”
“Shouldn’t I head back to the Branch first and report this to the Nanheom Hall? We can request an investigation team for the details—”
“Who knows when their remnants might slink back? Go alone if you want—just don’t mind not knowing what I bring home.”
“…No. Let me help, please. It’s family business, after all. Can’t have the lady of the house sitting it out?”
Namgung San-yeong forced the brightest smile she could muster.
Her lips twitched wildly—she was barely holding back her fury.
Even steeped in the Dang Clan’s ways, who thinks of backstabbing the moment their toothache fades?
She’d clearly wanted to slip back during my absence and purge any evidence tying her to this mess.
But after a veiled threat about the boredom of defiance, she was finally bowing her head again.
Watching her stick to her guns with her daughter right there? The woman had spine, I’d give her that.
Better to shove her aside for good when the chance arose.
『What on earth happened between you two?』
Dang Gyu-jin sent over a transmission, curiosity piqued by our unlikely harmony.
『Oh, just a mountain of fun times.』
『…Fun for you, maybe?』
『As long as someone enjoyed it.』
Dang Gyu-jin’s face twisted in bafflement.
『……Fine, whatever. So what exactly are we hunting for here?』
With Namgung San-yeong watching, he wanted this via transmission.
『Letters exchanged with Cheon Mountain. Or related documents.』
『Ah! Tracking the White Bone Net Master’s puppets, huh.』
『Exactly. No matter how secret they thought they were, Guryong County is the Branch Family’s front yard. For them to hole up here so boldly? Someone pulled strings in the middle.』
The precise reason Black Bone Ghost Vale had infiltrated Sichuan undetected was Dang Ho-san’s silent approval—but Dang Gyu-jin didn’t know that yet.
So his thoughts veered elsewhere.
His voice deepened in the transmission.
『You’re after ties to the South Palace Clan, aren’t you?』
Dang Gyu-jin’s gaze flicked toward Namgung San-yeong.
She grew visibly agitated as time wore on.
Same conclusion on her end, no doubt.
Proof of collusion between the South Palace Clan and the Demonic Cult would crush any comeback dreams.
Yet she couldn’t interfere.
That would only stoke Dang Gon and Dang Gyu-jin’s suspicions further.
Yeah. Keep sweating it out.
『We might even learn what schemes the Demonic Cult had cooking here.』
I neither confirmed nor denied Dang Gyu-jin’s question.
But that was enough.
He grasped the gravity of this affair now.
‘Spread out and search, you lot.’
「What should we seek, Young Cult Leader?」
‘Letters exchanged with Cheon Mountain.’
The Divine Cult mattered, the Assembly mattered, but I had a higher priority.
‘Among them, there’ll be mention of the Dark Demon God Myth Clan or Master’s whereabouts.’
* * *
Since awakening as Dang Un-hwi, I’d haunted Cheongpung Inn nearly every other day.
Yet no one had ever checked my coded message.
Perhaps the Divine Cult’s civil war had escalated, pulling the Dark Demon God Myth Clan’s faithful from Sichuan.
But the war had calmed enough for the Assembly to mobilize.
And a conspiracy brewed right here in Sichuan’s heart.
The Dark Demon God Myth Clan—more sensitive to such whispers than anyone—should’ve stirred by now.
No one claiming the message meant trouble.
—Something’s befallen the Dark Demon God Myth Clan. No doubt.
That was my unavoidable conclusion.
I’d targeted the White Bone Net Master for that reason.
He had to know something.
With the civil war winding down, the clan must be in dire straits—hunting remnants tooth and nail if any lingered.
So the Net Master likely held scraps of intel, but Tam’s sudden appearance ruined it.
Master’s whereabouts were surely there too… now lost.
Yet I knew the man and how Black Bone Ghost Vale operated.
They never discarded records lightly.
Ultra-secret ones went into custom vaults or traps.
‘Fifteen, time to earn your keep?’
「A-as I said, I’m just a lowly grunt with scarce knowledge, but—」
Other wraiths subtly raised their clubs.
Reduced to the miserable runt without the White Bone Net Master, Fifteen half-sobbed out a frantic barrage.
「The White Bone Net Master often lurked in the Black Bone Hall at the shrine’s deepest recess—hours at a time without emerging—so if you search there thoroughly, you’re bound to find something—I humbly surmise—」
「Hear that, wraiths? What’d the runt say?」
「Black Bone Hall? A few shichen? Something like that?」
「Where the hell’s Black Bone Hall?」
Led by the sniveling Fifteen, we reached a tiny pavilion at the shrine’s innermost depths. Or rather, its foundations.
Just stone bases and charred pillars stood amid the ash—doubtful we’d find anything here.
「You lying, runt?」
「Spitballing till you get caught, then off with a hand?」
「Eek! No, sirs! It’s true! Believe me, elders! Young Cult Leader!!」
His desperate eyes rang true enough.
“Seems legit.”
Wraiths paused clubs mid-swing, still wary of Fifteen.
「Found something?」
“Maybe.”
I plucked a metal shard from the ash pile.
「What is it?」
“Trap mechanism fragment.”
「Then—」
“There’s one nearby.”
I whipped up a gale, blowing ash and debris from Black Bone Hall outward, then paced the ground slowly.
Sichuan’s damp climate and rugged terrain favored dry woods since antiquity.
Ordinary wooden floors felt hard.
Metal- or stone-plated ones felt solid.
Subtle difference, but my senses didn’t lie.
「Here! Something below—plenty of it!」
Wraiths, slipping freely underground, pinpointed the vault.
I stomped down, channeling inner power into my foot.
BOOM!
The floor shattered amid the blast.
A vast, deep secret chamber yawned below.
Shelves lined the walls, crammed with documents sorted by date and type. One groaned under gold bars.
“Find something?”
“M-my gold’s all here—”
Dang Gon and Dang Gyu-jin rushed over at the noise.
Namgung San-yeong peered down, stunned.
I dropped into the chamber first.
A shelf of official missives.
Among them, orders straight from Cheon Mountain— in their unique script, illegible to outsiders.
As former Young Cult Leader, I read it effortlessly.
Most concerned ranch damages from rampaging beasts—Ghost Vale Lord had hounded the Net Master relentlessly.
One promised a visit soon.
The letter I sought lay right below.
—……Currently, three suspected Dark Demon God Myth Clan remnants spotted in Dosong County’s secret base. Pursue and capture alive. Before the Sovereign arrives.
My grip tightened on the letter.
Finally.
The faithful’s whereabouts.