Chapter 218
Chapter 218
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 218
Chapter Title: Dang Family Manor
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Dang Mujin wandered the streets of Sichuan Province with a melancholy expression, like a lone wolf.
To put it more bluntly, it meant none of his friends were willing to forgo a soft bed and warm meals to accompany him.
'A lonely life.'
Of course, Dang Mujin had no intention of pitifully sleeping on the streets.
As the sun set, Dang Mujin went to the house where Three-Eyed Buddha and Bloodied Wanderer were staying and spent a comfortable night there. Bloodied Wanderer was already calling Three-Eyed Buddha 'big brother.'
*
The next morning, Dang Mujin slipped back into Dang Family Manor and went to find Dang Jesun.
Dang Jesun maintained a consistently calm demeanor even though his son had returned after wandering abroad for a year. It was as if his return meant everything was fine.
Dang Mujin felt a bit hurt by his father's indifference, but he decided to change his mindset.
'It's actually a good thing that he wasn't worried.'
As Dang Mujin was leaving the treatment room, he ran into two people. Dan Seolyeong and Namgung Myeong.
Dang Mujin shot a glance at his friend who hadn't joined the hardships, then approached Dan Seolyeong.
"I got held up longer than expected because there was more work than I thought. Sorry."
"I knew it wasn't because you were out playing. Even accounting for that, you were too late, so I was upset."
Dan Seolyeong put on a deliberately displeased expression, but it was clear from her face alone that her anger had already dissipated. Her personality was clean-cut, without any lingering grudges.
However, she looked a bit tired today.
Namgung Myeong slyly interjected.
"You know what? Thinking you'd be back by evening, Dan Seolyeong paced in front of the annex all last night. She probably didn't sleep properly."
Dan Seolyeong spoke in a shrill voice.
"When did I?"
"No need to hide it. I saw everything."
"You're talking nonsense. You get out too."
When Dan Seolyeong pointed at Namgung Myeong and gestured for him to leave, he smirked.
Dang Mujin had to yield to his wife, pretending at least, but Namgung Myeong had no such obligation.
However, someone quietly approached and grabbed Namgung Myeong's shoulder. It was Hyeon-gong.
"Namgung Myeong, obey Madam's orders obediently."
"...Why?"
Hyeon-gong ignored Namgung Myeong's question and subtly reached out to seal his acupoints.
Only after both his shoulders were sealed did Namgung Myeong realize what was happening. That opportunistic bastard had recognized the top powerhouse in Dang Family Manor.
"Hyeon-gong, you!"
Namgung Myeong hurriedly twisted his body, but with his acupoints sealed, he couldn't escape Hyeon-gong's grip.
Without any hesitation, Hyeon-gong tossed Namgung Myeong over the wall, then clasped his hands in a fist salute before Dan Seolyeong.
"Madam. I've eliminated the evil one."
"Well done."
Dang Mujin watched the two in their absurd exchange before bringing up an important matter.
"How's Yeongie?"
"She walks well now, and lately her speech has opened up—she talks quite a bit."
"She's in the annex right now?"
"If you're going, wait a bit. She just fell asleep. I wonder if she forgot her dad's face."
Dang Mujin felt the need to change the subject again, so he rummaged in his bosom and handed Dan Seolyeong the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher.
"Want to take a look at this?"
As Dang Mujin expected, Dan Seolyeong's attention was immediately drawn to the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher.
The one she had made was a round bamboo tube encasing the internal mechanisms.
But now, with the cylindrical body replaced by thick black whale whiskers, it looked like a completely different object despite the unchanged structure.
Even so, Dan Seolyeong recognized the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher at a glance. Her round eyes sparkled with interest.
"Did you make a new one? What's this black stuff?"
"Whale whiskers. I replaced the leather straps inside with whale tendons. I also reinforced the other internal parts a bit."
"How's the power?"
"Beyond what I expected. And beyond what you can imagine. If you can handle it well, it can subdue most martial artists. Even Bloodied Wanderer coveted the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher, which is how he got tangled up with us. Believe it?"
Pride filled Dan Seolyeong's face.
Though Dang Mujin had improved the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher, she was the one who had laid the foundation and created the original. Credit for its creation went nine out of ten to her.
Dan Seolyeong spoke confidently.
"Good. Next time, I'll make something even more amazing."
"Huh? Is that possible?"
"Of course. Maybe it's time to move beyond needles and launch something else? Or we could make a hidden weapon that's easy to handle. Using nothing but needles every day is weird, right?"
She seemed to have already thought of something. Dang Mujin nodded but earnestly warned her.
"Sure. But it's best if it doesn't catch other people's eyes. Even this Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher had tons of people coveting it. Someone might try to harm you."
"With all the experts in the household, what could happen?"
Dan Seolyeong handed the Storm Plum Blossom Needle launcher back to Dang Mujin and began walking slowly.
Dang Family Manor's walls came into Dang Mujin's view. Not only were they much sturdier than before, but they now enclosed a vastly larger area.
It looked like they had demolished several house sites around Dang Clinic and incorporated them within the walls.
Just a few years ago, Dang Clinic had been a small attachment next to Qingcheng Chengdu Branch. Now it was larger than Qingcheng Chengdu Branch itself. A complete reversal of host and guest.
"By the way, what happened at home?"
Expanding such a modest estate like this would require a lot of money.
Of course, it wouldn't be hard with the money Dang Mujin had brought, but the problem was that they had already expanded the estate before his arrival.
Dan Seolyeong remained confident.
"Fortune came knocking, and I didn't let it slip away. Come see."
Dan Seolyeong led Dang Mujin to the back of Dang Family Manor.
In the wide backyard that had been empty yesterday, a fair number of people were now practicing martial arts. Most of them were faces Dang Mujin didn't recognize.
However, several familiar faces were mixed in. The warriors he had brought from the Demonic Cult were each gathering three or five people and teaching them martial arts.
"That uncle over there was the start."
Dan Seolyeong pointed to one of them. He was the man from next door to Three-Eyed Buddha who had passed the time twisting straw into sandals and hats.
"Not long after you left, that uncle took in a disciple. He said he needed some side income."
"Good thinking."
Just as physicians leave behind medical texts before dying, warriors have a desire to take disciples and pass on their martial arts. Those who had escaped the Demonic Cult and settled in Chengdu were no different.
"It was fine with one disciple, but when it became two, then three, they couldn't train in his house yard anymore. That's when he came to me asking if he could use Dang Clinic's yard."
"You allowed it, I see."
"Yeah. He promised to give me a share of the income from the disciples, so I agreed right away."
That must have been the funding source for expanding the estate and building new walls.
Money from one or two disciples wouldn't amount to much. But seeing the number of people training in the backyard changed his mind. The sum might be larger than expected.
"By the time he had five disciples, word spread. Rumors that people who went near Dang Clinic became disciples of incredible masters. Thanks to that, crowds came, and the other uncles raced to take disciples too. Even disciples from minor and mid-tier sects switched over, causing several of those sects to collapse."
The leaders of small sects were almost without exception first-rate experts. Sect leaders of mid-tier sects, often treated as veterans, were typically at the peak of first-rate or on the verge of breaking through to absolute peak.
In such circumstances, Qingcheng Chengdu Branch could firmly hold Chengdu for two main reasons.
First, because Qingcheng Sect's martial arts were excellent, and second, because the warriors dispatched from Qingcheng Sect headquarters as branch leaders were all absolute peak experts.
However, even in Qingcheng Chengdu Branch, lay disciples learned martial arts not from Branch Leader Yellow Spirit Master but from Chief Instructor Jin Song, a first-rate warrior. Mid-tier sects with absolute peak leaders as sect heads were in a similar situation.
Now that absolute peak experts were directly taking disciples, the previous dynamics couldn't continue. It was only natural for people to flock to Dang Family Manor.
Qingcheng Sect at least could maintain its lineage by accepting those who sought its prestige, but the other minor and mid-tier sects completely lost their competitiveness.
They couldn't even protest. Rashly complaining might get them killed. Quarrels among martial artists usually ended in blades drawn, and Dang Family Manor overflowed with absolute peak experts.
Dang Mujin gave a wry smile.
"It's a bit sorry for the other sect leaders."
"What can we do? We can't tell the uncles not to take disciples or to send away the ones they've already accepted."
"True enough."
Those learning martial arts benefited. Those teaching benefited. But the homeowner who provided the yard gained the most reliably.
Dang Mujin stood a little apart, watching the people teach their disciples.
Dan Seolyeong seemed unconcerned, but Dang Mujin found the scene profoundly strange.
Warriors usually went to great lengths to hide their martial arts from others. Martial artists often drew blades over secretly watching training sessions.
But these people were exceptions.
Unlike those who remained in the Demonic Cult headquarters out of pure worship of power, for these people, martial arts were not an end but a means.
A means to survive. A means to protect the Demonic Cult from the outside.
Thus, they didn't obsess over the purity of martial arts or adopt a closed-off attitude to hide them.
Moreover, much of the martial arts on display here were influenced by the Demonic Cult's core protective techniques.
Their arts appeared diverse at a glance, but Dang Mujin realized they were the same yet different, different yet similar. That commonality must be why they didn't hide from each other.
Hong Geolgae, who had approached unnoticed, said,
"Namgung Myeong found this sight amusing too. Seems you do as well."
"Namgung Myeong?"
"You know what kind of guy he is."
For a habitual thief of martial arts, what did it mean to have so many techniques displayed openly?
Namgung Myeong was undoubtedly the one who stood to gain the most from Dang Family Manor.
"If time passes like this, their martial arts might evolve like Kunlun Sect's."
"What do you mean?"
"There's a story like that."
Hong Geolgae recalled the tales his master, Great Wind Beggar Paeng Cheon, had told him.
Now a Beggars' Sect member, Great Wind Beggar had once been a Kunlun Sect Daoist. Thanks to that, Hong Geolgae knew quite a few stories about Kunlun Sect.
Unlike other sects, Kunlun Sect's history was unique.
While other sects were founded under a founder of exceptional talent, Kunlun Sect had no single founder—or rather, it might have dozens or hundreds.
Long ago, countless Daoists lived on Kunlun Sect's many peaks. Each built a small Daoist temple on their peak and immersed themselves in cultivation in their own way.
Over time, they gradually mingled and learned from each other. Even now, Kunlun Sect feels less like a single sect and more like a massive collective.
Just as countless individuals sharpening each other birthed Kunlun Sect's Azure Heavens Sword and Cloud Dragon Eight Forms, someday within Dang Family Manor's walls, a unique martial art of the manor might sprout.
If people wanted to stay within these walls. And if these walls endured long enough, it was certain.
Hong Geolgae thought so as he glanced at Dang Mujin.
He didn't look all that reliable.
*
Dang Mujin returned to the annex and cracked the door open slightly.
Dang Yeong, who had grown so much in a year, was still sleeping innocently. Dang Mujin gazed at his daughter's face for a long while before quietly closing the door and stepping out.
'She won't have forgotten who I am, right?'
No way, he thought, yet he suspected an eighty percent chance of that exact reaction.
She was only two, and they'd been apart for a year. Recognizing him would be the stranger thing.
'Still, I hope she does.'
Dang Mujin walked about with slightly dejected steps before heading to the herb storage behind the treatment room.
It was the nostalgic place where he used to decoct herbal soups all day long—and where he had first encountered the strange physician.
Dang Mujin thought no one would be there, but unexpectedly, two people were. Dang Jesun and Mok Wan-ah.
The decoction pot that should have been on the fire was pushed aside, and Dang Jesun was stoking the flames nonstop with firewood. Glimpsed inside the fire were taro roots and some unidentified fruits.
"...What are you doing?"
At Dang Mujin's words, the two startled and looked up.
Mok Wan-ah's eyes sparkled upon spotting Dang Mujin.