Chapter 98: Cleaning Up-2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 98: Cleaning Up-2
Creak.
Sun-woo slowly pushed the door open.
As he did, the scene inside came into view.
Madam Un Ga-ryeo, the Third Madam, and the Human-Faced Spider were all inside. The Human-Faced Spider was asleep on the bed, using Madam Un Ga-ryeo’s lap as a pillow, while the Madam gently stroked its head.
The Third Madam, Geum Jeok-hwa, sat in a chair, quietly watching them.
When did they get so close?
Marveling at the Human-Faced Spider’s sociability, Sun-woo stepped into the room.
"My Lord!"
"My Lord!"
As he entered, both Madam Un Ga-ryeo and Geum Jeok-hwa greeted him warmly.
Sun-woo swallowed a bitter taste as he watched their reactions. He had to tell these women, who were welcoming him so joyfully, about the deaths of their husband and son.
Gulp.
He swallowed hard. He could hardly bring himself to speak.
To tell them he was a fake. To tell them their husband and son were dead.
"............"
"My Lord, are you hurt anywhere?" Madam Un Ga-ryeo asked with concern.
Even her kindness felt like a heavy burden to Sun-woo. He was about to say the most terrible things imaginable to this woman. It would be a profound tragedy, and it was certain to break her heart.
But he had to say it. The longer he kept this hidden, the greater the grief she would eventually have to bear.
Wrooooooom.
Sun-woo slowly began to circulate the Zhu-Rong Art.
Soon, his wrinkles vanished, his frame became slightly slighter, his muscles leaned out, and his height decreased just a fraction.
He now wore the face of Tang Se-gi.
"What!?"
"Gi-a!?"
Madam Un Ga-ryeo and Geum Jeok-hwa were struck with horror. How could her husband, Tang Jin-cheol, suddenly transform into Tang Se-gi?
"Madam Un Ga-ryeo, Third Madam... I have something urgent to tell you."
"I am not Tang Jin-cheol."
He began to circulate the Zhu-Rong Art once more. His thin features sharpened, and muscles began to fill out his slight frame. His facial structure shifted again, transforming into a face entirely different from Tang Se-gi’s.
As the last traces of Tang Se-gi’s face vanished, Sun-woo spoke.
"And of course, I am not Tang Se-gi either."
Having returned to his true form, Sun-woo quietly gazed at Madam Un Ga-ryeo and the Third Madam.
The die was cast. He would begin unravelling the tangled knots from here.
*
Madam Un Ga-ryeo and the Third Madam were beyond shocked by Sun-woo’s sudden transformation.
Who on earth was this man? Who could freely alter their face, bone structure, and even height at will? And to do so using the appearances of her husband, Tang Jin-cheol, and her son, Tang Se-gi?
However, shock quickly turned to hostility.
Madam Un Ga-ryeo leaped up and drew the sword she had kept behind the bed.
Swish!
Her blade lunged toward Sun-woo, coming to a rest against his throat.
Drip.
A bead of blood began to trickle down Sun-woo’s neck. Her sharp blade had slightly nicked his skin.
It was a faster transition to combat than he had expected. Though Sun-woo was inwardly startled, he maintained a stoic expression. He couldn't afford to show weakness here. She wouldn't cut him down until she knew the truth of the matter anyway.
He had to remain as composed as possible.
"Please, calm down and listen to what I—"
"...Since when?"
Madam Un Ga-ryeo cut him off. It was a question heavy with implications.
"Since when have you been masquerading as that child?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Hearing that tremor, Sun-woo felt his heart tighten again. But he couldn't stop now.
"From the very beginning."
This answer, too, carried many meanings.
The corners of her eyes twitched. She was likely shivering with a sense of betrayal. She was a woman who had been tormented by guilt, believing she had committed an atrocity against heaven by being intimate with her own son.
But the man she had shared her heart with wasn't her son? Then where was her son?
"Did you kill him?" Madam Un Ga-ryeo asked directly.
If he had been disguised as Tang Se-gi from the start, then surely this man must have killed her son. Her hand gripping the sword began to shake violently. If this man admitted to killing Tang Se-gi, it meant she had shared her bed with her son's murderer.
A maddening rage surged within her. Her elegant face began to flush a deep, angry red.
"No. He is dead, but I did not kill him," Sun-woo said calmly, having anticipated this reaction.
He could never admit to killing Tang Se-gi here. If she found out he was the killer, she would undoubtedly do everything in her power to take his life. To have been intimate with the mortal enemy who killed her son—how shameful and agonizing would that be? In the worst-case scenario, she might even take her own life.
"........."
Hearing Sun-woo’s words, Madam Un Ga-ryeo slowly lowered her sword. The fact that he had disguised himself as her son to be with her was loathsome, but she needed to know the truth.
"What happened?" she asked, her eyes filled with sorrow.
Sun-woo took a deep breath. From this moment on, he had to tell the lie of a lifetime—a masterful blend of truth and falsehood.
He had no other choice. To convince them and achieve a result that would satisfy both himself and Tang Seo-yoon, honesty alone wouldn't suffice. He needed a lie—specifically, a lie they could accept.
After calming his nerves with a deep breath, Sun-woo began to speak.
"My name is Sun-woo, of the Jang family. I am the disciple of a master who went into seclusion long ago."
In a way, since the Yin-Yang Demon, the creator of the Yin-Yang Harmony Divine Art, had vanished from the world, he did qualify as a hidden master.
"My master took me in when I was a wandering orphan, having lost my parents at a young age. For twenty long years, he passed his martial arts down to me. Perhaps because I had some talent, I was able to achieve a certain level of mastery."
The background was set. Now it was time for the narrative.
"Then one day, while I was practicing as usual, my master called me over. He told me that a great bloodbath would soon sweep across the Central Plains. He said the slaughter would begin at the Tang Clan in Sichuan, and he ordered me to go there personally to quell the disaster."
It was a cliché setup that sounded like it came straight out of a heroic epic. However, to the Tang Clan, which had just suffered near-total annihilation at the hands of the Demonic Cult, it was a story that carried significant weight.
"My master, whose martial arts reach the heavens, read the celestial signs and noticed the movements of the Demonic Cult in advance. Predicting the storm that would engulf the Tang Clan, he sent me down from the mountain."
Sun-woo swallowed and stole a glance at Madam Un Ga-ryeo and the Third Madam. They looked stunned. Still, since they weren't showing outright rejection or disbelief, he considered it a success so far.
"My master told me that once I reached Sichuan, there would be an ally to help me. He said it was an organization formed twenty years ago when the Demonic Cult was first defeated, created specifically to prepare for their eventual return."
Now, it was time to expand the world-building. He couldn't do this alone; he had to invent a fictional organization.
"I headed straight for Sichuan after leaving the mountain. I arrived soon enough, but I had no way to enter the Tang Clan. Is the Tang Clan not a place notoriously xenophobic toward outsiders? I agonized over it and began wandering around the estate, searching for the ally who was supposed to help me."
Sun-woo paused to catch his breath before continuing.
"But finding an ally in the vast land of Sichuan was incredibly difficult. I began wandering the night streets aimlessly. A month passed like that, and then... he found me."
"He?" Geum Jeok-hwa asked.
"Young Master Tang Se-gi."
"What?!"
He threw in a slight twist. A version of Tang Se-gi completely different from the one they knew would be the crucial element to make his lie convincing.
"He was the very ally my master had spoken of."
*
One of the most common tropes in "scoundrel possession" stories is the revelation that the original owner of the body, thought to be a worthless drunkard, was actually a hidden powerhouse acting the part for a secret purpose.
Why are clichés called clichés? Because when executed well, they provide a plausible sense of conviction and entertainment.
Sun-woo told the lie without hesitation.
"What!"
"That's impossible!"
Madam Un Ga-ryeo and the Third Madam reacted vehemently. To them, it was utterly nonsensical. The idea that the profligate Tang Se-gi belonged to an organization preparing for the Demonic Cult's return was absurd. Madam Un Ga-ryeo, despite being his mother, knew better than anyone that Tang Se-gi lacked that kind of capability.
She began to lose faith in Sun-woo’s words. The Third Madam felt the same; her gaze toward Sun-woo turned sharply cold.
Sun-woo felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He had expected this reaction, but seeing it in person was still unpleasant.
"Listen here, Young Master Jang. There’s a limit to how much you can mock us. What kind of nonsense is this? That scoundrel knew about the Demonic Cult and was preparing for them? Even a passing dog would laugh at that."
Geum Jeok-hwa began to criticize him sharply. As a cold and rational woman, she declared Sun-woo’s words to be pure fiction. Even the mother who gave birth to him was shaking her head; to Geum Jeok-hwa, who was more of a third party, it sounded like a blatant lie.
"Young Master Jang, though I love my son dearly, I pride myself on knowing his capabilities better than anyone. That child did not have such potential. Please do not treat us like foolish women who know nothing."
Madam Un Ga-ryeo glared at Sun-woo with eyes that had turned icy. She was certain this was a ploy to toy with them. Her coldness was beyond imagination, making the very air in the room feel frozen.
But if he gave up here, everything would be over.
"I know better than anyone that it is difficult for you to believe me. But I ask that you listen to me until the very end, just this once. You can judge me afterward."
Sun-woo spoke with a gaze of absolute sincerity. Having reached the Transcendent Realm, his eyes possessed a profound depth that added weight to his words.
"Continue," Madam Un Ga-ryeo said. She didn't believe him, but she seemed willing to listen for now.
Geum Jeok-hwa looked dissatisfied with the Madam's permission, but she remained silent.
"In truth, Young Master Tang was a decisive weapon of the Tang Clan, raised specifically to counter the Demonic Cult. The Clan Head himself recognized the Young Master’s extraordinary martial talent from a young age and taught him personally."
"The Clan Head!?"
"My Lord did!?"
Madam Un Ga-ryeo and Geum Jeok-hwa blurted out in surprise. Why was the Tang Clan Head being brought into this now?
"That is correct. The Tang Clan Head had also long predicted and prepared for the Demonic Cult’s return. He was secretly grooming his successor."
One way to add credibility to a lie is to use the name of someone famous. Sun-woo had no qualms about using the name of the deceased Poison King to complete his fabrication.
"That makes no sense. Gi-a was always frequenting the pleasure districts. How could he have been practicing martial arts?"
"He used body doubles for everything. As the secretly raised successor of the Poison King, his identity could not be exposed. Therefore, he deliberately acted like a scoundrel to avoid public scrutiny."
It was a cliché. A total cliché, but Sun-woo spat it out without a second thought. Everyone involved was dead anyway, so what did it matter? He began to add layers to Tang Se-gi’s "scoundrel" behavior.
"Then, the reason he committed those atrocities was...?" Geum Jeok-hwa asked, her expression one of shock.
"Yes. It was an unavoidable choice to protect the Tang Clan. In fact, while acting like a scoundrel, Young Master Tang Se-gi was tirelessly rooting out Demonic Cult spies. He used his reputation as a cover to hunt down and kill numerous infiltrators."
Sun-woo continued to sugarcoat Tang Se-gi’s villainy without blinking an eye. If Tang Se-gi were watching this from hell, he would probably die of rage all over again.
"That can't be right. Among those he killed were women and children," Geum Jeok-hwa interjected.
She was right. If his excuse for killing was rooting out spies, how could he explain the women and children?
"They, too, were pawns of the Demonic Cult."
"That's impossible!"
"Madam, a cult finds it much easier to infiltrate the weak—like women and children—rather than healthy men. Their fragile bodies and minds were indoctrinated into the Demonic Cult, and they were ultimately used as pawns."
Sun-woo took a breath and continued.
"Furthermore, they were already in a state known as 'Soul-Lost Persons'—essentially living corpses. Young Master Tang Se-gi was merely granting them the mercy of death."
"What...!"
Soul-Lost Persons. It was a technique used by the Demonic Cult to create "Living Jiangshi." Those subjected to it looked like normal people on the outside, but their internal consciousness was gone, leaving them as nothing more than dolls that followed orders.
Geum Jeok-hwa fell silent. It sounded plausible, yet it still felt forced.
"That can't be true."
Madam Un Ga-ryeo interjected again. She was the one who had cleaned up after Tang Se-gi’s rampages. He had clearly harassed the wives of ordinary commoners, killed their husbands, and beaten children to death. She knew his words lacked credibility.
"I was the one who handled the aftermath of that child's evil deeds. They were ordinary commoners."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Didn't I just say? I was in charge of the cleanup."
"Did you see them yourself?"
"What?"
"I mean, did you personally perform an autopsy and verify the state of their bodies?"
"......."
She had no answer. Of course she hadn't. All she had done was hand over some money to the local magistrate and the victims' relatives. The Great Matriarch of the Tang Clan would never have personally inspected the corpses of commoners.
"It may be hard to believe, but it is the truth. Young Master Tang was no scoundrel. On the contrary, he was a hero who saved the Tang Clan."
Sun-woo continued calmly. The key to winning with a lie was an unwavering, stoic expression. Framing a piece of trash like Tang Se-gi as a hero was utter nonsense, but he had to maintain his poker face to give it even a shred of credibility.
"Then... why did Gi-a die?" Madam Un Ga-ryeo asked, her face tearful.
Got her!
Sun-woo cheered inwardly. Judging by her reaction, she seemed to find it quite convincing. He had to keep the momentum going.
"Sigh."
Sun-woo let out a long, heavy sigh, wearing an expression of profound bitterness.
"It is all my fault. Thanks to the Young Master’s assistance, we were able to find the location where the Demonic Cult warriors, who were casting a shadow over the Tang Clan, were hiding. It was extremely dangerous, but to uncover the mastermind's identity, I infiltrated the place and soon learned who was behind it all."
Sun-woo paused, choosing his words carefully. Nothing draws someone into a story like building suspense.
"Who was the mastermind?" Geum Jeok-hwa asked, unable to contain her curiosity.
"The mastermind was none other than the Poison Demon!"
"What!?"
"The Poison Demon!?"
The women were utterly shocked. The Poison Demon? Who was that? He was a legendary Elder of the Demonic Cult who had been known as the world's greatest poison master even before the current Tang Clan Head. The realization that such a man had been targeting the Tang Clan sent a chill down their spines.
"Once I realized the Poison Demon was targeting the Tang Clan, I tried to escape quickly to inform the Clan Head. However, the Poison Demon had already seen through my disguise, and I found myself in mortal peril."
Sun-woo continued with a grave expression.
"It was Young Master Tang who saved me then. As a Super-Peak master trained in the Tang Clan’s secret arts, he stood his ground against the Poison Demon and urged me to flee while he bought time. I shouted that I couldn't leave him, but he had already lured the Poison Demon far away."
This time, Sun-woo put on a sorrowful face, and his eyes began to moisten. What he needed now were tears.
"In the end, I managed to escape safely, but the Young Master appeared before me later, suffering from wounds so severe he was hovering between life and death. And he told me... that there was a traitor within the Tang Clan."
Drip. Drip.
Sun-woo’s eyes grew rimmed with red, and soon, heavy droplets began to fall. He looked so pitiful that one couldn't help but feel sympathy for him.
"With those final words, the Young Master drew his last breath."
At Sun-woo’s words, Madam Un Ga-ryeo’s eyes also began to well up, and Geum Jeok-hwa took her hand firmly in a gesture of shared grief.
Seeing their reactions, Sun-woo cheered inwardly. It seemed his outrageous lie had gained a significant amount of credibility.