Chapter 505
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 505
Chapter Title: What Was That Book?
Jeong Nam-cheon looked surprised at his granddaughter, who had stormed in clearly furious.
Ever since she had witnessed all the clan's major and minor affairs under his watch, their relationship had grown distant.
She rarely came to see him, no matter the occasion.
She never even complained when he inspected the letters she exchanged with her older brother.
She simply dodged his surveillance with their own secret code.
Yet here she was now, her face flushed red with anger.
"Grandfather. Isn't this going too far?"
Jeong Nam-cheon was baffled. She had barged in and started berating him right away, interrupting his work.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"I get it—you need the entire clan under your watchful eye to feel satisfied. Especially after what happened a century ago. But even that has its limits!"
Jeong Nam-cheon furrowed his brow.
Her words had begun as an accusation about his surveillance of the whole clan.
"It's necessary."
His tone shifted.
From bewilderment to gravity, and potentially anger depending on the circumstances.
"Yes, so invading a woman's private quarters is also 'necessary,' I suppose."
"What?"
Jeong Nam-cheon's face filled with confusion.
It was an unexpected turn.
Instead of moving from gravity to anger, bewilderment and fluster took hold.
Invading a woman's private chambers?
He had never given such an order.
He had inspected Jeong Myeong's letters before they reached Jeong So-rin, so he hadn't entered her quarters.
But suddenly, intruders in her private chambers?
For Jeong Nam-cheon, it was bewildering and absurd.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Someone came into my study to check the book I borrowed from the archive and took it away. They did it while I looked away for a moment—truly a master at work. And when I stepped out briefly, they erased every bit of its contents and put it back. That's two intrusions into my private quarters."
Jeong Nam-cheon was troubled by her breathless outburst.
He had no subordinate capable of such a feat.
Not to mention, slipping into Jeong So-rin's private study in her annex and stealing a book without a trace?
None of those watching her had that level of skill.
As Jeong Nam-cheon's thoughts reached that point, he flinched.
Jeong So-rin seemed too agitated by the intrusion into her private space to think deeply.
Even though the clue was right in her own words.
She had called it a "truly masterful expert."
Yet none among those watching her were such experts.
No one capable of it existed—yet it had happened.
That pointed to one conclusion.
Thus, Jeong Nam-cheon's expression hardened once more.
Gravely serious.
"It seems there's an intruder in the clan."
"Pardon?"
Jeong So-rin was the flustered one now at his sudden declaration.
"Didn't you say it yourself? A truly masterful expert."
At his response, Jeong So-rin fell silent, pondering, then let out a soft gasp.
"Ah..."
Being sharp-minded, she quickly pieced together what had happened.
"You were too upset to see it clearly. None among those monitoring clan affairs could fool your eyes and steal a book from your study."
She nodded at Jeong Nam-cheon's firm assertion.
"Secret Guard Unit! Find the intruder at once! Raise the clan's defenses to maximum!"
Jeong Nam-cheon bellowed with infused inner energy.
Activity buzzed outside the office.
'Who could it be...'
A chill ran down her spine.
Not a clan surveiller, but an outsider who had infiltrated her private quarters?
It was her study, but her annex was a woman's solitary domain—practically her chambers.
'How brazen!'
Her face flushed red again as she bit her lip.
From rage and humiliation.
"Could it be a lecherous fiend?"
Her voice trembled slightly.
Jeong Nam-cheon looked at her.
"No recent rumors of such fiends in the martial world, so probably not. Even if it were, no fiend would dare target our clan first. If it is, he's as good as dead."
"I'll search too."
With that, Jeong So-rin turned and hurried away.
Ha Mu-baek had watched the entire scene.
He had tailed her secretly when she left her annex for the patriarch's residence.
'This is trouble.'
He scratched his cheek.
He had no choice.
He had become the shameless lecherous fiend who sneaked into a lone woman's chambers.
The Jegal Clan erupted in commotion.
It wasn't all bad for Ha Mu-baek.
It made it easier to scout the place.
As clan members searched every corner, Ha Mu-baek slipped through their gaps to examine the Jegal Clan thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Jeong Nam-cheon sat lost in thought in his office.
'Who could it be?'
It couldn't be a lecherous fiend, as Jeong So-rin guessed.
No thug would dare infiltrate the Jegal Clan unless utterly mad.
The Demonic Cult was a more likely suspect.
They had set the stage and invited them, after all.
But it was too peculiar for Demonic Cult work.
Stealing into a woman's chambers just to erase a book's contents?
'Come to think of it, I didn't ask what book it was.'
If an outsider took interest enough to erase its contents, it was no ordinary tome.
Realizing this, Jeong Nam-cheon stood and headed to Jeong So-rin's annex.
"Is So-rin here?"
Jeong So-rin, searching her annex for traces of the intruder, stepped out at her grandfather's call.
"What brings you here?"
"I realized I forgot to ask something earlier. What was the book you borrowed from the archive?"
"Ah."
At his question, she fetched the now-title-only book from her study.
"This one."
Jeong Nam-cheon flinched upon seeing the title.
Because of the two characters: "Prime Origin."
He hadn't known such a book existed in the clan archive.
Having some knowledge of secrets tied to Prime Origin through Chaos, he couldn't help but be shocked.
"This book was in the clan?"
Flipping through, the rest were blank pages, as she said—contents erased.
One question: Was it possible to erase contents so perfectly in such a short time?
It looked like the cover had been swapped with fresh paper.
Yet the binding cord showed no signs of untying and retying.
"Does it seem possible to erase a book's contents like this?"
"That's what puzzles me too."
She had examined it again in her study.
Seeing the impeccably vanished contents, Jeong So-rin concluded the intruder wasn't a lecherous fiend.
No fiend would bother with this, nor possess such skill.
"I'll take this and look into it."
"...Yes."
She had no reason to refuse.
Still, she didn't reveal that the author was Jegal Mu-gun.
Some intuition told her to keep it hidden.
Jeong Nam-cheon headed to the archive.
He needed to change the record from borrowed by Jeong So-rin to himself.
After finishing, he quietly made for the patriarch's residence, then slipped out of the clan secretly.
With the clan in chaos hunting the intruder, no one noticed.
Except one.
Ha Mu-baek knew.
He sensed Jeong Nam-cheon's presence leaving the Jegal Clan.
Ha Mu-baek followed quietly.
It was the clan head moving covertly, after all.
The moment Jeong Nam-cheon saw "Prime Origin," his first thought was to consult Chaos.
That's why he moved so secretly.
He continued stealthily even after leaving the clan.
The core of the nine-layered formation.
Chaos was there, so he headed swiftly and covertly toward the deep foothills of Yungzhong Mountain.
Young Lord Jegal Go-pung was focused on his tasks.
After completing the nine-layered formation, he had concentrated on raising envoys with his son, Jegal Gwang.
For key areas, he trained Jegal Clan branch warriors and sent them as envoys.
For dangerous spots, he dispatched suitable second- or third-rate wanderers.
Though second- or third-rate originally, their skills now reached first-rate.
Having learned famed orthodox martial arts collected by the Jegal Clan, no one would peg them as wanderers.
Of course, he had implanted harsh, brainwashing-like suggestions.
They believed this was not the Jegal Clan but a secret sanctuary of the Sesegwaneum Faith.
A place where the leader prayed for the coming new era.
Of course, there was no leader.
Jegal Go-pung.
He was merely another grand envoy.
This operation was under Patriarch Jegal Nam-cheon's orders, after all.
The Sesegwaneum Faith had already become a massive force.
Claiming to be its leader would only arouse suspicions of disloyalty toward Jegal Nam-cheon.
Thus, Jegal Go-pung and Jegal Cheol-san called themselves grand envoys only.
If a true leader needed to appear, Jegal Nam-cheon would step forward under another identity.
Jegal Gwang sought out Jegal Go-pung.
"What is it?"
"Contact from the Luoyang covert intelligence."
Jegal Go-pung straightened at his son's words.
Luoyang matters were crucial too.
One reason they had escalated this so largely was to check the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
"What happened?"
"Jeon Dok-u has vanished."
Jegal Go-pung's face hardened at his son's report.
"What did you say?"
"He secured the inn's ownership and then disappeared."
Jegal Go-pung scowled.
"The nine assassins vanished too, I presume?"
"Yes."
Luoyang was vital, so he had handpicked top wanderer envoys—yet this.
"Heavenly Eye Pavilion?"
"Their movements were suspicious. With help from clan members in the alliance, they entered the Righteous Heaven Alliance, but couldn't scout the pavilion—their guards were tight. Still, the atmosphere felt off."
Jegal Go-pung's expression grew graver.
"A headache. It's a key base... and the landowner vanished."
And not just that.
He was a major funding source.
The head of Luoyang's top merchant group.
The estate construction funds were to come from his pockets.
But he vanished after securing the land.
"Tell the Secret Guard Unit to tighten security here and at the clan. Luoyang's atmosphere is off. If Heavenly Eye Pavilion caught on, they'll send people to Yungzhong Mountain."
"Understood."
They didn't know the Jegal Clan was already in uproar because of Ha Mu-baek.
Nor did they notice the gaze watching them.
The man Stone Fortress called Mu-pung had arrived and was observing them covertly.
At that moment.
Another man watched the Jegal Clan from afar.
"Damn. This is a pain. What happened to put them on such high alert?"
The man scouting from a high vantage, hiding stealthily—a Heavenly Eye Pavilion informant.
He paced anxiously, unable to approach the Jegal Clan.
Blissfully unaware it was all because of Ha Mu-baek.