Chapter 198
Chapter 198
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 198
>Chapter Title: Proselytizing (2)
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The grand pavilion, boasting the greatest popularity among Nanzhou's young ladies.
But where there are flowers, bees are sure to gather.
As the women's gazes converged on Jeong-hyeon, there were more than a few who took displeasure at the sight.
"Tch."
One among them.
A man who had heard that the woman he secretly admired frequented this place had pretended it was mere coincidence to join her table—and now his face flushed red with rage.
Even though she was seated with him, her eyes kept drifting toward that scrawny gigolo-lookalike over there.
Unable to contain his fury any longer, the man rose to his feet.
And as he approached the Jade Face Young Master, the woman who had been sitting with him belatedly startled and chased after him.
But before she could stop him, the man was already right in front of Jeong-hyeon.
"You gigolo bastard, looks like you've come here to toy with women."
At the man's insult, the Jade Face Young Master glanced up at him from his seat with eyes misty with melancholy before quickly turning his head away.
For Jeong-hyeon, meeting someone's eyes head-on at such close range was simply too difficult.
But the man took that attitude as a deliberate slight.
"You bastard!!"
His anger boiling over, the man could no longer hold back and swung his fist.
From Jeong-hyeon's perspective, whose five senses had been heightened to the extreme by the Ghost Spirit Divine Art, that punch crawled along like a sluggish inchworm.
No matter that the side effect of the Ghost Spirit Divine Art made her body freeze when people drew near—she was still a graduate of the Demonic Path Academy, where only the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's top talents were trained.
Thwack!
Her palm shot out so fast that no one else could even see it, slamming into the gut of the man mid-swing.
"Guh…."
The man who had started it all collapsed with a choked groan.
Right after, the eyes of the woman who had come chasing him widened in shock.
'How could he be so taciturn... and yet so imposing.'
It wasn't taciturnity. She simply kept her mouth shut because talking to people was so hard.
But regardless of Jeong-hyeon's circumstances, the woman was already smitten.
And she wasn't alone.
All the women in the pavilion, watching the scene from their seats, had fierce storms raging in their eyes.
The Jade Face Young Master, with his androgynous air and beautiful face. Yet contrary to that fragile aura, he had instantly subdued the instigating man with raw power.
That contradiction struck the women even harder.
The woman who had chased after the man realized it with a woman's keen intuition: this place was crawling with vultures eyeing the same prey.
So she acted boldly.
Using the incident with the man she had been with as an opening, she resolved to be the first to strike up a conversation with the Jade Face Young Master.
"A-are you alright? You must have been really startled, right?"
As the blushing woman approached and spoke first, Jeong-hyeon couldn't hide her surprise.
'Is it really happening just like Young Master said?'
Il-mok had told her. She wouldn't even need to open her mouth for proselytizing.
Just sit there in the pavilion, and women would come to her.
Of course, Il-mok hadn't foreseen a situation quite like this. He'd merely expected that dangling bait would eventually draw a bite.
Either way, things were unfolding exactly as Il-mok had predicted, so Jeong-hyeon followed his instructions.
Even as her breath caught in her throat with the woman right in her face, she pulled a letter from her sleeve and held it out.
Rustle.
"W-what's this?"
Jeong-hyeon didn't answer the woman's question. She simply rose silently and slipped past her, leaving the pavilion without a word.
The woman, entranced by that silence as she watched Jeong-hyeon's retreating footsteps, belatedly came to her senses and unfolded the letter the Jade Face Young Master had left.
It listed a place and time.
'A secret meeting... with me!'
She took it as the Jade Face Young Master's invitation.
It was an invitation, indeed. Just one for a religious gathering.
* * *
Meanwhile.
Dark shadows had been watching the pavilion from afar, and soon they followed Jeong-hyeon out and into an alley in the marketplace.
"Hahaha! Did you see that brilliant performance? That's the acting I personally taught them!"
Baek-cheon shouted to his three new female disciples with a face overflowing with pride.
But the three women's expressions were thoroughly unimpressed.
'No matter how you look at it, that didn't seem like acting…'
'Sigh. No point telling him; he won't listen.'
They had realized within a single day that Baek-cheon was utterly mad.
In the meantime, Baek-cheon's eyes blazed.
'As expected, the Young Master is a genius without a doubt! Achieving such results with not a single line of dialogue, just through direction!'
True to the man who had vowed to dedicate his life to acting, he couldn't help but be deeply impressed by the scene Il-mok had orchestrated.
And true to the mad actor he was, he had no intention of just standing there in admiration.
"Alright. Now that you've witnessed your senior's splendid performance firsthand, it's your turn to step up!"
With that, Baek-cheon took the lead out of the alley, and the three women sighed in unison as they watched his back.
* * *
By evening.
Those who had finished proselytizing began returning to the Nanzhou Heavenly Demon Divine Cult branch.
Baek-cheon and the three women who had proselytized in the streets. And the Jade Face Young Master Jeong-hyeon, who had flitted from one pavilion to the next after the first, stirring the hearts of countless women.
On top of that, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, Jin Ha-yeon, and Gu Yang-mun.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a and Jin Ha-yeon, who had been guarding Il-mok, had gone out to support proselytizing after Dam-bin and Joo Seo-yeon returned from their nap.
Incidentally, Gu Yang-mun, who had just woken up, joined them.
Of course, Jin Ha-yeon and Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a handled male proselytizing, while Gu Yang-mun managed female, so they moved separately.
Among those returning to the branch, most headed straight for the baths.
The three women were exhausted after hours of traversing the marketplace and chatting up men, and Jeong-hyeon was no different.
She usually enjoyed bathing alone at odd hours away from others, but today there was no helping it.
Despite having trained in martial arts and mostly just sitting, her body was drenched in sweat.
Enduring the women's stares while holding her seat had drained an immense amount of mental energy.
Jin Ha-yeon, who had barely sweated, went to attend Il-mok. Gu Yang-mun followed her, and Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a headed to the baths.
To wash out the black dye coating her red hair for concealment.
And so, as the five women undressed to enter the baths together.
"……."
The three women who had learned acting from Baek-cheon stared dumbfounded at something.
'Is that... covered by bandages?'
They couldn't hold back their admiration. Above all else.
'To think of disguising a woman like that as a man.'
They wondered if even a beauty trap instead of a pretty boy ploy would have been just as effective, thanks to Il-mok's bold decision.
"Eek."
Jeong-hyeon, who had a similar experience back at the Demonic Path Academy, hurriedly crossed her arms to cover herself with a startled face.
'Th-this is why I like bathing alone.'
As she thought there was no helping it this time, she felt another piercing gaze.
It was Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a.
Jeong-hyeon sensed something odd in the girl's stare.
Having spent time together, Jeong-hyeon had noticed one peculiarity about Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a.
Her attitude was completely different when Il-mok was nearby versus when he wasn't.
It wasn't like she bullied anyone or anything.
She was friendly to everyone around when Il-mok was near, but utterly indifferent to all when he wasn't.
The girl who only showed interest in others when Il-mok was present had, in this moment, found some spark of light.
She knew it too. That Il-mok still saw her as a little kid or a little sister.
Given that he had openly stated his preference for women past marrying age, denying it would be foolish.
In other words, Il-mok liked mature women.
'If I just had those, I'd have a chance too.'
Jeong-hyeon shivered at the blazing fire in Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a's eyes.
* * *
While a minor commotion brewed in the baths.
"We have returned from proselytizing, Young Master."
Il-mok nodded at Jin Ha-yeon's report and said,
"Good work. Oh, and has Baek-cheon Young Master returned as well?"
"Yes, Young Master."
"Then, please fetch Baek-cheon Young Master for me."
Jin Ha-yeon turned to leave at Il-mok's command, with Joo Seo-yeon and Gu Yang-mun starting to follow.
"You two stay here."
The two froze with expressions like puppies desperate to poop, and Il-mok shook his head.
A moment later, when Jin Ha-yeon returned with Baek-cheon, their faces lit up.
'Really, what are they, some kind of dogs?'
They looked just like dogs wildly wagging their tails and panting when the owner who had gone to work came home.
'...Dogs the owner doesn't welcome would be stray intruders rather than pets, huh?'
As Il-mok had that silly thought, Baek-cheon, summoned by Jin Ha-yeon, spoke up.
"What is it, Young Master?"
"Ah. Truth is, I called you because I have an important task to entrust to you, Baek-cheon Young Master."
"To me?"
Il-mok nodded gravely at Baek-cheon Young Master's question.
Il-mok hadn't just idled in the branch while the others were out proselytizing.
He had trained to escape the damned side effects of his demonic arts and fallen into contemplation after bathing.
'Even if it's dirty and despicable, I'll definitely reach Transcending Demon!'
Thanks to that cursed obsession, once one issue came to mind, his thoughts wouldn't stop.
After solving the gender imbalance with the Jade Face Young Master strategy, another problem had surfaced in Il-mok's mind.
It was worry over the gathering to be held two days from now.
This time in Nanzhou, the gathering and proselytizing differed from Gorang County.
In Gorang County, they had proselytized and held a gathering, then purged the villainous Red Silk Room to stoke the followers' faith.
But this time, to preserve the element of surprise, they had first dismantled the Nancheon Society before starting proselytizing.
Right after, they had pulled in the places under Nancheon Society's management to the Maitreya Bright Cult's umbrella.
'That was more threat than proselytizing.'
Even if those people attended the gathering, they'd be stiff as boards, steeped not in faith but in tension and fear.
Since they couldn't hold a gathering with just such people, that's why they had proselytized in the streets like in Gorang County.
But problems remained.
Those from brothels and pleasure houses would be terrified, and those lured by honey traps wouldn't even know what the Maitreya Bright Cult was, arriving confused.
Two utterly mismatched groups coexisting.
After agonizing for a long while over how to unite them and loosen the awkward, tense atmosphere.
Il-mok had finally found the solution.
"This task is something only Baek-cheon Young Master can accomplish."
By utilizing the peculiar asset named Baek-cheon.
"If it's a task to spread word of our Divine Cult's great achievements and draw attention, I will accomplish it no matter what, Young Master!"
At Baek-cheon's firm affirmation, Il-mok smiled brightly and replied,
"Then from now on, sing after me and memorize the lyrics, melody, and rhythm."
The solution Il-mok had devised for unity.
"To me a strong~ peace. To me a strong~ peace."
It was a hymn.