Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Chapter 13 - Sichuan, Conclusion (3)
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The moment she faced Dang Un-gyeong, Dang Hwa-seo felt her mind becoming strangely calm.
Not so much a sense of tranquility, but rather a coldly burning sensation.
If one had to name it, it was refined rage.
-There's a woman who will bear Mok Geom's seed on your behalf. Everyone in the Tang Clan will turn a blind eye. Young Lady, you just need to raise that child as your own, isn't that right?
The verbal dagger he had crafted still pierced Dang Hwa-seo's chest unyieldingly.
Thus, nothing but rage filled her vision.
What kind of face did he have the gall to show while coming out to greet her?
Dang Hwa-seo stared at Dang Un-gyeong out of sheer curiosity, and he flinched, bowing his head.
In that moment, she could sense it.
His nerves were directed toward Mok Ri-won, and the emotion he showed was fear.
'Truly...'
A hollow laugh escaped her.
Even in this moment, that fool wasn't afraid of her.
Her rage boiled a shade more intensely, but Dang Hwa-seo held it back.
After all, the recklessness of a mongrel like him meant nothing to her anymore.
"You can't even properly summon the guests."
Dang Hwa-seo said coolly.
"The title I should be hearing here isn't Young Lady—it's Dragon-Phoenix Squad Leader."
Dang Un-gyeong lifted his head.
His expression turned blankly incredulous, and Dang Hwa-seo unleashed her aura.
Hwaaak!
"Kuhk...!"
A groan escaped Dang Un-gyeong's lips.
As he staggered back, Dang Hwa-seo spoke.
"Is this how the Tang Clan treats its guests?"
" S-Sorry...."
"Forget thinking the Tang Clan will protect you. Remember this: I have no intention of setting foot in this place, but if I wish, I can take the position you're after anytime. I've done it before, and I can do it again."
Dang Hwa-seo raised her hand.
At the tip of her index finger, a dark green aura flickered.
It was poison.
Paralysis toxin and nerve poison.
Punishment enough to make him writhe in agony for the day.
Tok—
As Dang Hwa-seo pressed the poison to Dang Un-gyeong's solar plexus, he convulsed violently.
"Guhk...!"
Dang Un-gyeong's eyes widened as if they might tear.
His breath came in ragged gasps, and his body spasmed as if seized by a fit.
Thud!
Moments later, Dang Un-gyeong collapsed.
The Tang Clan warriors standing behind him went pale.
Dang Hwa-seo said.
"What are you waiting for? Lead the way."
Her tone remained sharply perilous.
The Tang Clan warriors gulped dryly before hurriedly guiding Dang Hwa-seo and her group inside.
*
Entering the depths of the Tang Clan, Dang Hwa-seo let her expression darken.
'...Has it been six years?'
She had left home at sixteen and was now twenty-two, so exactly that much time had passed.
Yet the Tang Clan hadn't changed a bit.
Simply seeing the buildings in their places was enough to conjure memories of those days.
A courtyard with a pond came into view.
Dang Hwa-seo recalled being dragged there.
Beyond it stood a building with tightly shut doors.
That was the dungeon where she had been locked away for days on end whenever punishment was due.
Taking a few more steps revealed the training ground where she had practiced her hidden weapon arts until her hands and feet blistered.
And the massive building beyond that...
'...It's all the same.'
It was the poison arts training chamber that Dang Hwa-seo had both feared most and grieved over.
Her brow furrowed deeply in anguish.
Her steps halted momentarily.
Mok Ri-won, who had stopped alongside her, asked.
"...Little Sister?"
"No. Let's go."
Dang Hwa-seo turned her head away from the training chamber.
But she clenched her fists tightly and pressed onward.
"...We've arrived."
The place they reached was all too familiar to Dang Hwa-seo.
'My home.'
It was the pavilion where she had once lived.
In the distant past, it had been the one place where she could somewhat relax.
A bitter smile tugged at Dang Hwa-seo's lips.
"Leave us."
With those words, the subordinates who had escorted Dragon-Phoenix Squad here vanished.
"Let's go in."
"You know this place?"
"It's where I used to live."
"Ah...."
Curiosity lit up Mok Ri-won's eyes.
Dang Hwa-seo couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"I'll unpack and introduce it properly, so no need to be so eager."
"I-I'm not eager!"
Mok Ri-won straightened his back as he spoke.
As the mood softened, the other squad members began chiming in.
"Big Sis! You were so cool putting that slimy bastard in his place just now! Obviously the laxative poison too...."
"Nerve toxin."
"Ooh."
Jegal San flinched and stuck out his tongue.
Hyeun and Il-un giggled at the sight, while Namgung Jincheon crossed his arms and merely commented.
"My house is bigger."
He seemed to be comparing it to the home he had lived in at the Namgung Clan.
These people never gave her a moment to brood, and just conversing like this eased Dang Hwa-seo's heart.
"So-hyang, you're the maid of this pavilion, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Then could you show the male squad members their quarters?"
So Hyang nodded and led the men away.
"This way, please."
"Little Sister! See you later!"
Mok Ri-won waved energetically as he departed.
Now alone with Hyeun, Dang Hwa-seo playfully warned.
"Don't go thinking of causing any trouble here."
"Jeez, such a worrywart. You think I'd meet just any guy? Especially cowards who threaten families—I'd never."
Hyeun shrugged teasingly.
It was meant as comfort, but it didn't feel entirely trustworthy.
Noticing her skepticism, Hyeun pouted.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because the guys you've met so far don't seem all that great, for someone who claims not to meet just anyone."
"You don't know until you try."
Hyeun grinned mischievously.
What an incorrigible woman.
"Fine, let's go. White Phoenix, you'll room with me."
"Here?"
"You said you'd behave."
"Still. I need some alone time too."
"Suit yourself."
Giggling, Dang Hwa-seo walked the pavilion's corridors and opened the bedroom door at the end.
Clack.
The door opened smoothly, as if well-oiled.
The interior was the same—even after six years, the room was preserved exactly as she had left it.
Cleaned, but untouched.
"Is this the Squad Leader's room?"
Hyeun asked, brimming with curiosity.
Dang Hwa-seo nodded.
"Yes."
"It's so spacious. I noticed at the Alliance too, but you really don't collect much stuff, Squad Leader."
Dang Hwa-seo could only smile faintly at that.
Part of it was her natural dislike for accumulating things, but the main reason was something else.
'Six years as a fugitive.'
Having lived a life where she never knew when she'd have to flee, she wasn't in the habit of holding onto possessions.
Even now, when acquiring something new, Dang Hwa-seo first pondered how to dispose of it later.
"Enough. Unpack and let's go. The others are waiting."
"Not the others—the Mok lay practitioner... Yes, the others."
Cutting off the nonsense with a glare, Dang Hwa-seo tossed her luggage onto the bed.
She stepped out and entered the inner quarters.
Fortunately, the pavilion had two guest rooms, and the male squad members had divided them as they had at the Alliance.
Mok Ri-won emerged from one, beaming.
"Little Sister! There's a huge jar in the room! Could it be a chamber pot...."
"Ah, it's quite valuable, so best not touch it carelessly. One of those could cover a common family's living expenses for a month."
"Hup...!"
Mok Ri-won froze stiffly.
Jegal San chuckled before asking.
"So what now? Given the mission, we should see the Clan Leader first...."
He trailed off vaguely, and Dang Hwa-seo nodded.
"We need to meet the Clan Leader. He's the final decision-maker, after all."
Dang Hwa-seo turned to gaze out the window.
Far off stood the tallest pavilion in the Tang Clan.
At its topmost floor would be her grandfather, the Clan Leader.
'...I'll have to face him after all.'
The thought of meeting him brought tension surging at last.
But it wasn't tension born of hatred for an enemy she despised.
It arose because she knew him all too well.
Because she knew the man through the count of pains etched into her body.
'He never backs down from a decision once made.'
A man whose stubbornness went beyond mere obstinacy.
A man who chose any means necessary for his goals.
Of course—hadn't he used even his own blood kin to fulfill his lifelong wish?
Dang Hwa-seo recalled the last time she had faced him.
The eyes gazing down at her, steeped in obsession for his wish; the poisonous aura that choked her breath just by proximity.
Dang Hwa-seo closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
'...I have to overcome it now.'
As she steadied her resolve, So Hyang entered.
"Miss."
"What did they say?"
"...He says to come alone at once."
"I see. Understood."
Dang Hwa-seo looked at her squad members.
"Then let's g—"
"...He said just you, Miss."
She halted.
Dang Hwa-seo turned to scrutinize So Hyang's expression.
The mix of distress and apology made it clear this was a unilateral decision from their side.
"Big Sis, no."
Jegal San warned.
Dang Hwa-seo agreed to an extent.
The intent behind summoning her alone was obviously far from proper.
But she couldn't back down.
"This is the mission. One where we must persuade the other side, no less. As Squad Leader, I can't sit it out."
Dang Hwa-seo reaffirmed her stance.
Not as the Tang Clan's Young Lady, but as the Murim Alliance's Squad Leader.
Thus, she needed to act with even greater boldness.
"I'll be back."
Dang Hwa-seo followed So Hyang out.
The squad members could only stand there helplessly.
*
The Sichuan Tang Clan was a truly peculiar sect.
It had no choice but to be.
A sect and a clan.
It possessed both elements, which were quite ill-suited to coexist—and that was precisely the Sichuan Tang Clan.
To become a disciple, one had to join the Tang bloodline.
This was an ironclad rule they had established to prevent the leakage of their secret poison arts.
In Dang Hwa-seo's view, that very rule had ruined the Tang Clan.
'That rule turned the Tang Clan into this insular family.'
To become allies, one had to become blood kin and prove it with blood.
Fail that, and they were deemed enemies coveting Tang secrets.
In short, the Tang world was black-and-white.
Only black and white, foe and friend.
And at that extreme stood the man behind this door.
Poison King Dang Sa-geuk.
Dang Hwa-seo stood at the entrance to the top floor of the Clan Leader's pavilion, steadying her breath.
She couldn't prolong it.
Since he would already sense her presence inside, such hesitation might be seen as weakness.
Dang Hwa-seo soon spoke.
"May I enter?"
A brief silence followed.
Dang Hwa-seo counted inwardly.
'One, two, three, four, and...'
-Enter.
Exactly at five, a raspy, phlegm-choked voice resounded.
'Even this hasn't changed.'
Dang Hwa-seo's gaze darkened.
And the door opened.