Chapter 671
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 671
Chapter Title: Mother?
Yeon Baek-pung was immediately moved to the medical pavilion the moment he was discovered.
It was because the young clan leader had suffered a severe injury to his dantian and needed urgent treatment.
Only three people remained at the scene.
Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Ha-min, along with Yeon Gong-hu.
Yeon Gong-hu's presence was a stroke of immense luck for Jin Na-yeon and her daughter.
While Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Ha-min were treated as outsiders and met with disdain, Yeon Gong-hu was the legitimate bloodline of the Yeon Clan.
"Make way."
An elder pushed through the thick crowd and stepped to the front.
It was Great Elder Yeon I-gyeong.
He still found the situation utterly absurd and scanned his surroundings.
"To think there was a place like this in the clan leader's chamber... And for it to vanish into thin air..."
His voice dripped with disbelief.
He shook his head slowly, his gaze settling on the three.
"What exactly happened here? Why is the young clan leader in that state?"
All eyes turned to them.
Everyone there had a rough idea of the circumstances.
A massive bed.
Yeon Baek-pung.
Jin Na-yeon.
Yeon Ha-min, draped in a bloodstained robe over her torn clothes.
Yeon Gong-hu.
And finally, Ha Mu-baek, who had soared into the air after the clan leader's chamber vanished.
Only a select few with high cultivation had recognized Ha Mu-baek.
He had appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Yeon Gong-hu stepped forward, pulling Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Ha-min behind him.
"This isn't the place to discuss it."
The household servants crowded behind Yeon I-gyeong.
Their curious stares were fixed on his family.
Yeon I-gyeong glanced back, frowning at the servants before nodding to Yeon Gong-hu.
"You three, come with me to the Elder Council."
He declared it to the gathered servants, then leaped into the air.
Yeon Gong-hu followed, while Yeon Ha-min scooped up her mother and took flight.
Upon arriving at the Elder Council, they followed Yeon I-gyeong into the great elder's office.
"Can you speak freely now?"
Yeon Gong-hu nodded at Yeon I-gyeong's question.
A quick scan of the surroundings showed no sound-blocking barrier in place.
Even with Yeon Gong-hu's senses, he could detect several presences nearby.
He wanted to ask them to leave, but even if Yeon I-gyeong ordered it, they'd just return.
Those who could approach the great elder's office were elders anyway.
And they weren't even bothering to hide their auras.
Yeon I-gyeong gave a wry smile at Yeon Gong-hu's reaction.
"My apologies. My abilities are limited to this extent. The title of great elder carries prestige but no real power. All I can do here is meet you three alone—and that's it."
Yeon Gong-hu was well aware of his position.
So he decided to try erecting a barrier himself.
He slowly circulated his internal energy and projected it around his body.
It felt different from protective aura.
The barrier Ha Mu-baek had used when he visited.
Yeon Gong-hu hadn't sensed it at the time, but he'd pieced together a guess by reviewing the events.
He moved his energy according to that hypothesis.
His internal energy gradually expanded outward.
Feeling that power, Yeon I-gyeong frowned.
"What are you doing?"
There was no hostility in the energy, so he issued a curt warning to stop him.
"It's ready now."
His face was flushed red, drenched in sweat.
He had managed an imperfect barrier.
Yeon I-gyeong sensed the clumsy energy lingering around them.
Then Yeon Ha-min stepped forward.
[Stop it, Brother. An incomplete barrier like this won't fully block sound, and fragmented rumors leaking out could be even worse. Better to let the whole story spread as is.]
Yeon Gong-hu looked surprised, as if he hadn't considered that.
Worry for his mother and sister immediately followed.
[Let everything spread?]
How humiliating for women.
Yeon Ha-min nodded with a cold expression.
[It doesn't matter.]
And it truly didn't.
They were leaving the Yeon Clan anyway.
Discarding the Yeon name.
With things this far gone, clan laws meant nothing.
No need to search for Yeon Ja-gyeong either.
Yeon Gong-hu's eyes trembled slightly.
He read his sister's resolve in that icy face.
Yeon Gong-hu withdrew his energy in response.
Yeon I-gyeong watched the two alternately before speaking.
"How much longer must I wait?"
"Understood."
Yeon Gong-hu began recounting the events.
Yeon Ha-min and Jin Na-yeon added details.
Yeon Gong-hu hadn't known what happened when the clan leader's portrait descended underground.
Jin Na-yeon couldn't use sound transmission, which was why Yeon Gong-hu had tried the barrier.
Between him and Yeon Ha-min, transmission would have sufficed.
But following Yeon Ha-min's wish for the eavesdroppers to spread the full story...
They simply conversed openly.
As the tale unfolded, Yeon I-gyeong's face grew grim.
He never imagined Yeon Baek-pung capable of such a thing.
Or that Yeon Baek-u was a Demonic Cult defector.
Incredible as it was, the storyteller was Yeon Gong-hu.
He had no choice but to believe.
Yeon Baek-u had planted the Black Demon Dormant Blood Curse in Yeon Baek-ryang—and now the Black Demon Crimson Blood Curse in Yeon Baek-pung.
It was horrifying.
Yeon I-gyeong was speechless.
The three departed.
Those gathered to eavesdrop left as well.
Only Yeon I-gyeong remained alone.
"In that case, there's only one who can become the next young clan leader."
He muttered bitterly.
Yeon Ja-gyeong's youngest son.
Vice Pavilion Lord of the Dragon Training Pavilion, Yeon Baek-jin.
They'd likely summon him as the new young clan leader.
Naturally, he'd become the next clan leader.
The issue was that Yeon Baek-jin wasn't married yet.
Who would be the young clan leader after him?
Would it be Yeon Baek-jin's son, once he married and had children?
Or...
Yeon Gong-hu, son of the second brother Yeon Baek-un, or Yeon In-hu, son of the third brother Yeon Baek-pung.
One of them as the next young clan leader.
Among that generation's children, Yeon Gong-hu and Yeon In-hu stood out far above the rest—no other candidates possible.
Especially Yeon Gong-hu.
"To think he had reached the transcendent realm..."
Yeon Gong-hu hadn't stated his level outright.
But fighting the high overseer on equal terms said it all.
And what of Yeon Ha-min?
He'd heard she manifested sword aura, but that was just yesterday.
Even in a haze of lust, she'd held off Yeon Baek-pung for a significant time.
"Baek-un. If you'd lived... the Yeon Clan might have surpassed the greatest families to become the world's top sect."
Yeon I-gyeong's lonely murmur went unheard.
Yeon In-hu and Yeon Da-hye stayed by their father's side in the medical pavilion.
After emergency treatment, the physician left to prepare herbal decoctions.
The diagnosis was as expected.
Permanent dantian destruction.
He had lost his internal energy forever.
Without his dantian, Yeon Baek-pung could no longer be the Yeon Clan's young clan leader.
"Father, why on earth? What happened?"
Yeon In-hu muttered in frustration.
He'd heard Yeon I-gyeong had taken the three to the Elder Council to investigate.
They needed to hear the statements to plan their response.
All the clan law details flashed through Yeon In-hu's mind, then faded.
Without context, none applied.
Before news from the Elder Council, an unbelievable rumor reached them first.
The source was Cho-hye, a maid from Madam Yu's residence, Golden Brocade Hall.
Not from the Golden Brocade Merchant Group, but a native Yeon Clan girl, so the rumor spread rapidly through her maid friends.
Its sheer incredulity fueled its speed.
Even the medical pavilion's maids and servants gossiped excitedly.
Yeon Da-hye shot to her feet upon hearing it.
"N-No way..."
Her body trembled in disbelief.
"I-I have to confirm it."
Her father's well-being was irrelevant now.
A father reduced to an ordinary man without his dantian.
What mattered was her mother.
As Yeon Da-hye rushed out, Yeon In-hu hurriedly followed.
"Da-hye!"
He glanced briefly at his father on the bed, but chose his mother too.
Heading hastily to Golden Brocade Hall, they ran into three people.
Jin Na-yeon's family.
After speaking with Yeon I-gyeong, they were seeking Ha Mu-baek.
The moment they left the Elder Council, Ha Mu-baek's thousand-li transmission reached Yeon Ha-min.
Come to Madam Yu's Golden Brocade Hall.
People were sneaking toward Golden Brocade Hall everywhere.
The rumor was too unbelievable.
Far more than the clan leader's chamber vanishing.
News of the young clan leader's shattered dantian and lost martial arts had spread clan-wide, quickly cooling interest in the chamber.
Those gathered around Golden Brocade Hall couldn't enter.
Ten guards from the Golden Brocade Merchant Group stood like an iron wall.
It wasn't that they couldn't overpower them.
The master had set them to bar all visitors, leaving no pretext to force entry.
Doors and windows beyond the high walls were shut tight, offering no view inside.
Then Yeon In-hu, Yeon Da-hye, and Jin Na-yeon's family arrived at the main gate in the wall's center.
All five entered without hindrance.
Heuk Hwa-rin awaited them as they opened the door.
"This way, please."
She guided the five to the reception room.
A stunning beauty speaking with Ha Mu-baek's group caught their eyes.
Her beauty was overwhelming.
A breathtaking allure that stole one's breath.
Only one person could be here.
But the gap between before and now was too vast to accept.
She rivaled Yeon Ha-min in beauty—no comparison possible.
Beauty at the pinnacle, enough to turn the Five Flowers of the Martial World into six.
That's why it was unbelievable.
Because it was Yu Wol-a, in her fifties.
Had her beauty shown subtle signs of age like Jin Na-yeon's, acceptance might have come quicker.
"Mother?"
As Yeon Da-hye desperately denied reality, Yeon In-hu stepped forward and asked.
"You've come."
Yu Wol-a smiled gently.
That voice was unmistakably her mother's.
"M-Madam Yu. Th-Thank goodness. This is wonderful. Congratulations..."
Jin Na-yeon was the first to rush toward Yu Wol-a.
"I can't face you, Madam Jin. I'm truly sorry."
Yu Wol-a bowed deeply in apology.
Jin Na-yeon shook her head.
"No, Madam Yu has nothing to apologize for."
It was true.
The sinner was Yeon Baek-pung.
Yeon Da-hye had wreaked havoc on Jin Na-yeon and her daughter.
Yu Wol-a had merely apologized for her family's wrongs and cared for Jin Na-yeon and her daughter as best she could.
Their relationship was actually good.
People just didn't know.
Yu Wol-a had helped Jin Na-yeon immensely.
That's why Jin Na-yeon could genuinely rejoice in and congratulate Yu Wol-a's dramatic change.
"N-No, this can't be!!!"
A scream like a wail burst from Yeon Da-hye.
"Y-You left me like this hideous monster, and Mother, Mother...!"
Trembling violently, Yeon Da-hye glared at her mother and tore off her face veil.
Her self-proclaimed hideous face was fully revealed.
It strikingly resembled Yu Wol-a's face before treating the vein blockage.
"H-How could you!!!"
Tears streamed from her venomous glare.
"You said you'd treat me! You promised! But only you get treated! What is this?!"
Her resentful cries erupted repeatedly.
Yeon Da-hye knew her disfigurement stemmed from vein blockage syndrome.
She remembered childhood treatment attempts.
But years passed with promises of finding a physician, leading to this.
Now, only her mother regained radiant beauty.
It felt cowardly. Infuriating.
Overwhelmed by emotional turmoil, Yeon Da-hye wasn't in her right mind.
The others simply watched.
Only Ha Mu-baek frowned.
"Tch."
A sharp click of the tongue.
Yu Wol-a flinched at the sound.
She gazed at Ha Mu-baek with pleading eyes.