Chapter 205
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 205
Chapter Title: Pointing the Spear Southward (1)
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Thanks to the intensive care from Geum Sihyeon, the kingly, godly, majestic healer of the martial world—who had already far surpassed his master in true qi refinement, detoxification, and the arts of the bedchamber.
It had only been three days since he'd wandered in a delirium for four full days, yet Agaseol Kyungdujang had recovered enough to stand on her own two feet and prance about the grounds with sprightly steps.
"Aigo, Kyungdu-nim. Did you cough just now?"
"Die!"
"Waaah! Baby Kyungdu's gonna kill her little brother!"
Blood kin were always scheming to catch each other off guard, so with a prime opportunity in hand, Moyong Taek began his merciless days of tormenting Moyong Seol.
Of course.
"Seol-ah. Time for your medicine."
"Uwung. Already ate it."
"...Sister. This is a problem."
"Uwung."
Once shame regressed, there was no turning back.
In the private moments left alone with Geum Sihyeon, Moyong Seol had fully devolved into the irreversible Baby Seol Kyungdujang, plunged into darkness.
If her face weren't so pretty, it would've shattered a millennium of affection with its catastrophic antics.
"Kyaa...!"
But beauty was plausibility itself.
Geum Sihyeon retaliated against Babyjang's beaming, fluffy smile—which turned even her dramatics into charm—with the dramatic choice of feeding her the medicine mouth-to-mouth.
Crossing a line was hard the first time, but once crossed, one ended up tap-dancing atop it.
Of course, he was well aware that crossing it first thing in the morning might make the entire day vanish in calamity.
A thread of lingering regret trailed long behind.
"So, what are you gonna do?"
"Hmm..."
Moyong Seol trailed off.
When she'd heard that Sima Ran was the one who'd poisoned her, she'd felt not betrayal, but emptiness.
I let you leave the family.
I gave up the successor position.
I even agreed to let you marry outside.
I did everything!
Though Sima Ran was her stepmother, Moyong Seol had made genuine efforts to normalize their mother-daughter bond.
But alongside a deep-seated hatred whose roots she couldn't even pinpoint...
"...Someone egged her on, for real?"
"No proof, but."
Geum Sihyeon calmly relayed what he'd learned from Sima Ran.
The Sima family had aggressively pursued political marriages to expand their influence.
Out of one son and three daughters, they'd married off all three girls to prestigious families—one of whom was Sima Ran.
"The current lady of the Nangong Family, Sima Hyang, definitely had a heavy hand in this."
"Sima Hyang... Nangong Baek's..."
"Mother."
Whether it was deliberate meddling from the Azure Heaven Society angle against the Moyong Family, which was close to Geum Sihyeon...
Or a mother's personal vengeance for losing her child... that was still unclear.
But.
Karma always came full circle.
"If I just say 'let it go,'... you won't, right?"
"If you'd been the one poisoned, would you have let it slide?"
Moyong Seol grinned broadly.
"No way."
They were, after all, the pair who'd pure-heartedly devastated the Central Plains Martial World Gallery.
"Come in."
Taking in the sight of Sima Ran's former quarters, now neatly demolished as if they'd never existed.
Geum Sihyeon entered the family head's chambers.
As always, no one else from the Moyong Family was present; only Moyong Danha sat loftily in the head seat, puffing on his pipe.
"Forget-Worry Grass isn't good for the body."
"As a physician? As a son-in-law?"
"Both."
Moyong Danha sucked deeply on the pipe.
Then exhaled a long plume of smoke.
"Does it ease your worries?"
"Couldn't say."
"No chance for a rejuvenating return to youth now. You should take care of yourself."
Geum Sihyeon effortlessly snatched the flying pipe from the air and smiled as he offered his advice.
"I don't like you, you little shit."
"You're saying that insincerely."
The two exchanged eerily similar smirks.
Moments later, a sigh poured from Moyong Danha's lips.
"I wasn't a good husband."
Sensing that one more word would bring a killing blow, Geum Sihyeon clamped his mouth shut.
"The family weighs heavy on me."
Words he'd never shared with anyone—not even his children—began to spill from Moyong Danha's mouth.
The tale was somewhat disjointed.
Why he hated being family head.
Why his relationship with his wife Sima Ran had soured.
Why he'd entered a political marriage with the daughter of the North Sea Ice Palace.
How much he secretly cherished Moyong Seol.
That he actually wanted to chuck it all and wander the rivers and lakes.
After a torrent of stories.
"So, I don't want to give my daughter to some moronic bastard who wants to pile up concubines."
"Concubines? I have no plans for that. Political marriages? Out of the question."
Moyong Danha's sharp gaze pierced straight at Geum Sihyeon.
"Then what is my daughter to you?"
"My principal wife."
"And the other girls? Side wives?"
"All principal wives."
"Are you insane?"
"I hear that often."
Moyong Danha snatched the pipe back with qi manipulation and repacked it with Forget-Worry Grass.
Before he could ignite his Samadhi true fire.
Sizzle—
Geum Sihyeon's subtle burst of Yanggang Finger Force lit the pipe perfectly.
"Already supreme under heaven in vice."
"Such harsh words."
Geum Sihyeon protested seriously, but Moyong Danha wasn't wrong in the slightest.
Immunity to All Poisons made him resistant even to acute alcohol poisoning.
Moyong Seol might've wrecked her waist, but he'd gained inner power boosts from it, so he was adept in carnal matters too.
And with skill trees maxed in gambling, calligraphy, erotic paintings, stealth, stalking, assassination arts, and more.
He was the only one denying it.
Far from forgetting his worries, a faint fury built in his chest as Moyong Danha puffed on the pipe again.
"Let's hear which other families' daughters you've bewitched. You can at least tell me that much, right?"
A casual toss of a question.
But with each name from Geum Sihyeon's lips, Moyong Danha felt a throbbing headache.
"You... are you a fucking lunatic?"
"A true man embraces all four great seductresses—"
Another flying pipe cut him off.
Watching the sight, Moyong Danha let out a deep sigh.
No matter how urgent the marriage, his daughter's taste in men seemed disastrously poor.
"I can't stand it anymore."
"Pardon?"
"Don't dodge this time."
Moyong Danha shot to his feet and grabbed Geum Sihyeon by the collar.
.
.
.
"Heh. Suits you."
"Father-in-law... you did this to me..."
Moyong Danha chuckled, looking somewhat relieved at Geum Sihyeon, who groaned nonstop with a purple bruise blooming over one eye.
"So, with all those factions in your pocket, what exactly do you plan to do?"
It was a question as if he'd laid down all burdens.
Geum Sihyeon straightened his posture and answered earnestly.
"I will rule supreme over all under heaven."
At that grandiose declaration.
Moyong Danha unwittingly recalled the past.
The previous Moyong family head, his father.
Moyong Daun.
What were his dying words?
- You must rule supreme over all under heaven!
Though it hadn't come to pass in his own generation, he'd planned to pass those words as his own dying charge to his children.
Hearing them from a blood outsider felt oddly nuanced.
"Haha... hahaha...!"
Yet Moyong Danha felt a strange relief.
And then.
"If even a speck of salt forms in Seol's eyes, I'll hunt you down and kill you."
He acknowledged Geum Sihyeon from the depths of his heart.
Matters at the Moyong Family had finally reached a close.
Considering relations between clans, there was no full severance, but Sima Ran had been neatly packaged and shipped back to the Sima family for a full refund.
- You! How dare you do this to me!
- You're trying to shove aside our Wicheon and make that lowly scum the head! I know it all!
Of course, she'd thrown a tantrum of epic proportions on her way out, but surprisingly, father-in-law had stoically accepted the truth.
Naturally, there was no change in the young master position.
Yongtaek had said he preferred being a playboy of the pleasure district and a romantic lyricist over playing young master anyway.
Of course, he'd passed out from a mahjong tile to the head for saying it.
Serves him right.
And Moyong Seol, who by martial prowess was no exaggeration to call the top candidate for young master succession.
"Uwung."
"No uwung."
"Aang."
"No aang either."
"Ing ing."
"...Sister Seol. Please."
Had she learned nothing from the Baby Kyungdujang crisis?
Whenever they were alone, she stuck to him clingily, unleashing 29 years of ripened charm in utter shamelessness.
- Arrrung.
One regressing toddler like Luri was plenty.
Luri periodically barged into his mindscape with her krang arrung antics, but she'd readily understood his grand plans from the start.
A bit immature, sure, but she had all the makings of a vice sect leader.
- Heet.
Shooing Luri from his mindscape, it was time to focus on the present.
"You can barely walk properly now—how do you plan to keep up?"
"This is your fault, Sihyeon."
"Can you handle it?"
"I'll just die if I can't. Wouldn't that be romantic?"
He flicked her forehead sharply, where late-night passion lingered.
.
.
.
In the end.
"We'll meet again in Xi'an."
"Hm."
"Sihyeon! Come quick! No causing trouble!"
"Take care, you rascal."
"That bastard's off to whore around—urk, guk!"
To father-in-law, who'd threatened to kill him if the wedding didn't happen this year.
To Seol, to Moyong Wicheon, to Moyong Taek.
With farewells exchanged.
He departed the Moyong Family, short but eventful.
Having come from the western edge of the Central Plains at Tianshan to the eastern edge at Liaoning.
I wouldn't head straight back to Xi'an; I'd take a brief tour of the Central Plains first.
- Those who seek to be supreme under heaven, come to Baekdu Mountain.
I'd initially thought to follow the phrase at the end of the Northern Bright Divine Art and visit Baekdu Mountain.
But the night I considered it and slept.
- Idiot! You'll die if you go now!
- You're not ready yet. Amitabha.
The Heavenly Demon remnant and the bald remnant appeared in my nightmare to stop me, so I put it off for now.
Well... it felt ominous...
So, the goal was south.
Northern Bright Secret Record tour first.
Learn the Life and Death Division arts at Phoenix Mountain in Liaoning, then the Eight Desolations Six Harmonies Art at Mount Tai in Shandong, then the Lone Guest Nine Swords at Mount Buta in Zhejiang.
That'd complete all the martial arts pointed out in the Northern Bright Secret Record.
Then, or perhaps midway.
Drop by the Nangong Family.
And flip it over like the Tang Family.
For now, that was the plan in my mind.
"Kyau!"
"Yeah, let's go."
I spurred on the journey.
Yeah.
Gotta hold the wedding before Sister Seol turns thirty.
Ideally as a group ceremony.