The Dang Clan's Dilemma
“But the two of you… you’ve been out having quite the extravagant fun, haven’t you?”
At Yeo U-hui’s words, Yoo Eunhyeon finally understood why Ju Yu-ryeon had been trying so hard to slip away unnoticed. The girl who had been about to flee before a single word could leave her mouth suddenly spun back around and began blinking furiously at him. Naturally, Eunhyeon could only tilt his head in confusion at first, but the reason soon became clear.
“Yu-ryeon told me it was all your idea, Eunhyeon—that you were the one who insisted on going out to play.”
“Huh? Me?”
Eunhyeon recoiled in genuine shock at the completely unexpected accusation, but Yu-ryeon, apparently deciding that mere eye signals weren’t enough, pressed right up against his side and jabbed him repeatedly in the ribs while forcing out a laugh.
“Ohoho. Look at this one. Trying to play dumb, are we?”
“You’re talking absolute nonsense. It wasn’t me—there’s a witness… Ah. That guy’s not here.”
Eunhyeon had been about to call on a witness to refute Yu-ryeon’s ridiculous claim, only to realize Ho Won-jik was nowhere in sight and promptly shut his mouth. He would have liked nothing more than to ask where the fellow had gone, but with Dang Eunseon and Dang Jaseung present, even that felt a little awkward to bring up.
“Don’t you worry, Eunhyeon. Do you think this is the first or second time I’ve been fooled by this wretched daughter of mine? I never believed her in the first place.”
“If you weren’t going to believe her, why keep bringing it up?”
As if this sort of exchange were only natural, Yu-ryeon planted a hand on her hip and shot back. Yeo U-hui waved her hand dismissively, clearly done listening, and turned a businesslike smile toward Dang Eunseon.
“I apologize for the personal interruption.”
“Oh, n-no, it’s fine. Please, continue.”
Dang Eunseon, who had been watching the whole scene with third-party amusement, waved her hands and shook her head. Yeo U-hui offered her a light word of thanks before turning back to Eunhyeon.
“Ahem. We may have gotten a little off track, but… you know better than anyone how much trouble this daughter of mine causes me, don’t you, Eunhyeon?”
“Yes, well…”
As a friend, Eunhyeon didn’t mind Yu-ryeon at all, but the thought of having a daughter like that made him fully understand just how exhausting it must be. Yeo U-hui’s words made perfect sense.
“Anyway, that’s why I already knew the two of you were here in Chengdu. Not that I came to Sichuan because of you—I had official external business. But once I learned you were here, I figured I might as well see your faces and perhaps ask for a little help.”
“Business? External business… clan business, then?”
As the Outer Chief who handled all of Uiseon Suga’s external affairs, it was only proper for Yeo U-hui to take the lead whenever something arose. Especially when the matter involved the Dang Clan, the Heavenly Martial Alliance, and even the Demonic Cult—coming in person was the wiser course.
“Yes. We requested aid from Uiseon Suga.”
It was Dang Eunseon who answered in Yeo U-hui’s place. When Eunhyeon turned to look at her, she rolled her downcast eyes anxiously and continued.
“Our Dang Clan is in a very difficult position right now. Sichuan has always been close to the Demonic Cult, and with Emei and Qingcheng—core pillars of the righteous path—also here, the region has long been a place of fierce confrontation. As you know, our clan has maintained neutrality between them. It was never easy, but we weren’t lacking in ability either, so there were no major problems.”
When she paused, Yeo U-hui added a word of agreement.
“That’s how the Seven Great Families survive in the murim.”
“Yes, exactly as the Outer Chief says. But recently, clashes between the righteous and demonic paths have grown frequent, and the situation has changed. When the conflict was mild, we could keep lines open to both sides and maintain the balance. Now that the hostility has intensified, we’ve become everyone’s enemy. Most of our businesses are being obstructed by both factions, and the Dang Clan has fallen into serious hardship.”
Tears welled in Dang Eunseon’s eyes as she finished. She dabbed them with a handkerchief, and Eunhyeon began to grasp the clan’s predicament.
Neutrality was a strategy that worked best when the two sides were not locked in extreme opposition. Once the fighting truly heated up, neither side would leave a neutral party alone. After all, that party could become an enemy at any moment. Both the righteous and demonic factions would certainly pressure the Dang Clan to choose a side.
Especially for a power as large as the Dang Clan—once open war began, they would become a dangerous variable. If they refused to pick a side, eliminating them outright would be cleaner, and the two factions had almost certainly reached a tacit agreement on that point.
“We can’t just join one side either. Do that, and we risk complete isolation if things go wrong.”
Dang Jaseung’s words drew a nod from Eunhyeon. Choosing a side now carried far too high a risk of being discarded once their usefulness ended.
“Hmm. It’s extremely difficult… In the end, the only option is to grow strong enough that no one dares touch us, isn’t it?”
As if the earlier commotion had never happened, Ju Yu-ryeon, who had been quietly lost in thought, spoke up. Judging by her expression, she had simply been dragged along by her mother and knew none of the details. Eunhyeon nodded in agreement.
“If they understand that touching us would cost them dearly, then in the current climate of intense conflict, they might actually hesitate to make a move.”
With open enemies already standing right in front of them, neither the righteous nor the demonic path could afford to exhaust major strength dealing with the Dang Clan—doing so might leave them vulnerable to the other side. In such cases, the only real option was a show of force that made clear: touch us and you die.
“But… the Dang Clan doesn’t have that kind of strength right now.”
Dang Jaseung spoke bitterly. Eunhyeon offered no reply, yet he had already guessed as much. The Dang Clan were no fools; they would have thought of the same solutions he and Yu-ryeon had reached so easily.
So that’s why they put their hands on the Red Steel Poison Corpse? This… I might really need to pull my feet out of this mess.
He still didn’t know exactly what the Red Steel Poison Corpse was, but from what he had heard, it sounded capable of becoming a true asymmetric force.
Since the other side had not brought it up first, however, Eunhyeon pretended ignorance and turned back to Yeo U-hui.
“So in the end, that’s why you requested help from Uiseon Suga, another of the Seven Great Families? To be honest, I don’t know much about these things—is it even acceptable to offer aid in a situation like this?”
Eunhyeon truly knew little about the treaties and cooperative arrangements between murim sects, so he asked Yeo U-hui frankly. Knowing this, she wore an expression that was neither affirmation nor denial.
“There’s no rule saying we can’t help. But we do have to decide exactly how and with what.”
In truth, Eunhyeon wanted to tell her not to help at all, yet he had no intention of dictating Yeo U-hui’s decisions. Su Hwa-seon and he had already left the family; they neither could nor had the right to interfere in major clan affairs.
Could Aunt not know about the Red Steel Poison Corpse? Whether the Dang Clan is hiding it or has already revealed everything, both are problems…
As Eunhyeon sank into thought, Dang Jaseung spoke as if to reassure him.
“Don’t worry. We’re not openly asking to borrow Uiseon Suga’s military strength. If that were the case, we would have contacted every one of the Seven Great Families. Not that I think anyone would have helped even then.”
At those words, Yu-ryeon leaned in and whispered into Eunhyeon’s ear.
“The Seven Great Families aren’t all that tightly bound, you know. Especially in a case like this—openly dispatching warriors would risk earning the enmity of both sides, so everyone tends to hesitate.”
Yu-ryeon’s point was sound. A neutral alliance existed only to deal with shared problems; each family still had to look after its own non-shared affairs. Of course, if the Dang Clan fell, the others might be next, so it wasn’t entirely someone else’s problem—they would want to help to some degree. Direct military aid, however, would be difficult.
“What we requested from Uiseon Suga is not martial force.”
“Then what?”
Having listened to the conversation, Yu-ryeon now asked in a low, serious voice, all traces of her earlier frivolity gone. Yeo U-hui, who already seemed to know the full situation, folded her arms and watched her daughter take the lead with a complicated expression.
“Uiseon Suga possesses medical arts that may well surpass even martial power, do they not? Receiving support in that field would be more than enough for us.”
“But the Dang Clan shouldn’t be lacking in medical knowledge either.”
Poison and medicine were two sides of the same coin; mastery of one implied mastery of the other. Their primary focus differed, of course, so they would fall short of a true medical family like Uiseon Suga—but teaching them a bit more advanced medicine was unlikely to change the overall situation.
“How could that be? Compared to Uiseon Suga, we are still greatly lacking. And would we not gain something from the exchange as well?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Yu-ryeon still looked unconvinced, while Eunhyeon, knowing of the Red Steel Poison Corpse, gave a small nod.
Judging by the name, it involves doing something with corpses. Recreating that would require medical skill. Hmm… so the Dang Clan hasn’t fully recreated the Red Steel Poison Corpse yet?
A technique the entire murim had once feared so greatly would not have survived intact—that much was certain. Yeo U-hui and Dang Eunseon both glanced at Eunhyeon’s expression as if they had noticed something.
“Something still feels off. There’s more to—”
Yu-ryeon, still unsatisfied, started to speak, but Dang Jaseung cut her off.
“Of course, that isn’t all. In reality…”
Sensing that the real point was finally coming, Eunhyeon pricked up his ears—only for a sudden clamor to erupt as someone pounded on the door.
“Director! It’s an emergency! Specimen Number Six has suddenly begun coughing up blood! We need you for detoxification!”
“What?! I’m on my way!”
Dang Eunseon’s eyes flew wide. She shot to her feet and, without so much as a word of apology to her guests, bolted from the room in a frantic rush.
Once the storm had passed, Dang Jaseung let out a long sigh and apologized in her place.
“Ah… my apologies, Outer Chief. To leave guests like this is truly inexcusable.”
“No, it’s fine. Shall we leave it here for today? I’ll explain the rest myself. We also need some time to talk among ourselves.”
“Would you? I’ll have someone escort you back to your quarters.”
“Thank you.”
Yeo U-hui offered a polished business smile. Dang Jaseung, looking exhausted himself, returned a faint smile and hurried out. Moments later a servant entered and bowed to the three of them.
“I will show you to your lodgings.”
“Please do. Come along, children.”
They followed the servant to a modest yet elegant detached residence.
“I already know the rest, so this will do. Instead, could you have a meal brought right away?”
“Yes, understood.”
The servant, clearly accustomed to guiding Yeo U-hui, bowed smoothly and departed. Once inside, she turned to Eunhyeon.
“There are a few empty rooms. The innermost one and the one across from it are mine and Yu-ryeon’s, so use any of the others. I’ll call you when the meal is ready—we can finish our talk then.”
“Wait, just a moment—”
Yu-ryeon, full of questions, tried to protest, but Eunhyeon, who needed time to sort his thoughts, strode into an empty room without looking back.
“Haa… Fine.”
Yu-ryeon had no choice but to nod. And so the three of them temporarily returned to their separate rooms.