Poison Flower, Serpent-Scorpion, Poison Ghost
The Finance Hall Master found the returning rascals utterly adorable.
I sank into deep thought, replaying a conversation from a few days before.
"So you're telling me it really wasn't you?"
"Who on earth would I ever do such a thing for, if not you, Young Master? Everything I've ever done was always for your benefit — sincerely so, at that..."
"Any sane person would find you suspicious..."
"Even if I am a friendly sort who smiles easily, hearing that does wound me a little...?"
"Fine, forget the succession rankings and all that. Then why in the world did you take so long to step in during the whole Qingcheng Sect affair?"
"That would be..."
The day I made Dang Giyeong my thrall, an impromptu hearing had convened in the mountains.
"It's because that Qingcheng fool's words were so unbearably rude, that's why."
"'He was rude, so you joined in late'? What kind of explanation is that supposed to be?"
When I shot back at him, irritation plain on my face, at an explanation that kept skipping whole steps—
"Did he not tell you back then that he was the one who devoured my mother...? Those words struck a nerve in me — someone who had lost everyone around him and survived alone. So I reasoned that if you slit his throat for it, the matter would pass without any real punishment."
"So that's why you egged me on? Wow... just look at this guy. And the plan was to swoop in only if I was in actual danger?"
"That was the original plan... though honestly, from about halfway through, I was so fascinated by the way you kept scurrying about that I simply watched."
"Hah... Then what exactly happened during the ambush at the hermitage?"
"That incident... will take rather a while to explain. Would that be alright?"
He scratched his head, announcing in no uncertain terms that the story would run long, and I gave a nod and answered.
"It's not alright, so just give me the three-line summary."
"Pardon? Ah... yes..."
Dang Giyeong spent a moment sorting things out in his head, then leaned back against a tree and began unwinding the day's events from his own point of view.
"Well, you see... I'd heard at the meeting that you would be inheriting the Young Clan Head's seat before long, and I figured that if you started studying for it like the Clan Leader or the young masters of the other families, you'd end up a half-corpse. So I resolved to take you somewhere pleasant for a change of air."
"I remember that much..."
"So at the squad leaders' meeting I let slip only that I'd be away somewhere, then went straight to you, gathered you up, and we set off for that hermitage."
"Yes... and so we went to the hermitage."
"Anyway, we were short on wine, so I popped down to buy some — and the very moment I stepped out of the village at the foot of the mountain, wine in hand—"
His three lines were long since spent, and he had severed the story at the most tantalizing point, so I pressed him.
"What happened at that moment?!"
"You did instruct me to keep it to three lines, Young Master, so I really cannot say more. A shame, truly."
Wham—!
Thwudududuk—!
Only after the startled birds scattered into the sky did he resume, tenderly stroking the fresh lump blooming on his head.
"Anyway, the instant I turned back toward the hermitage, a prickle of dread ran up my spine and I threw myself backward on pure instinct — and would you look at that, out of nowhere a sword came slicing through the space I had just vacated."
Dang Giyeong explained the scene with great enthusiasm, even acting out the moves...
"Thankfully, my superb instincts spared me the indignity of being cut in half... but the faint wisp of demonic qi leaking from it told me that if I failed to pin that thing down right there, it would be headed straight for you, Young Master. So I drew up my innate true qi."
"Wasn't that what you used sprinting back to the Dang Clan?"
"Oh, come now... I'm no fool. With an obviously dangerous opponent standing right in front of me, would I truly flee and leave a master at my back, however much innate true qi I burned?"
"No, but the Medicine Hall Master said—"
"What utter nonsense... Anyway, the moment I blatantly raised my energy in a mutual-destruction stance, the thing bolted straight up the mountain. I was debating whether to give chase when it occurred to me — hadn't I left my daggers behind?"
"..."
"So, concluding that chasing it was pointless anyway, I ran myself half to death back to the Dang Clan and reported everything."
"If my luck had been any worse that day, I'd genuinely be dead, huh?"
"You did say you wouldn't die, Young Master. And indeed you didn't... so didn't it all work out rather nicely?"
Wham—!
Leaving Dang Giyeong to fondle yet another lump on his skull, I mulled it over for a long while before opening my mouth and asking, quietly.
"So you are a man of the Dang Clan?"
"Yep."
"Then we're good... I was fully prepared to pop your heart like a bubble if you lied."
"Th-that sort of thing is... possible?"
"Of course it's possible. Whether you fled to the North Sea or all the way to Japan, one flick of my finger and — bang. So don't even think about running."
"Yes... yep."
With that exchange as our closing note, we had returned to the inn...
Finishing the recollection, I set about sorting through one thought after another.
The most likely suspects are the squad leaders. Setting aside Dang Giyeong and Dang Jihyeon...
The Dang Clan's forces were organized into six squads — Dark, Red, Green, White, Yellow, and South.
Of those, once I set aside Green Heaven Squad Leader Dang Giyeong, whom I had vetted with my own eyes, and White Heaven Squad Leader Dang Jihyeon, who hadn't even received word that I had gone out when the hermitage was ambushed, a full four names remained on the suspect list.
Dark Heaven Squad Leader Dang Jiha, who had caught the poison aura seeping from my body when I was poisoned and carried me on his back to the Medicine Hall. Red Heaven Squad Leader Dang Yun, who despite the face of a mountain bandit had helped me out in any number of ways. Yellow Heaven Squad Leader Bi Gwang, the only squad leader who bore no Dang name at all. And South Heaven Squad Leader Dang Jongcheon, so taciturn that I had never once exchanged a word with him.
Should I strike Dang Jiha and Dang Yun from the list? But then again, there's no proof of their innocence, either...
While I spent days on end wringing my head over the question, the carriage clattering diligently along arrived at the Dang Clan before I knew it.
"Young Master, we've arrived."
"Oh... already?"
Maybe it was because I had finally put my long-frozen brain through a real workout, or maybe it was the relief of reaching home at last — either way, I dragged myself upright with a face drowning in exhaustion and shuffled down from the carriage.
"Our little treasure's come home! You adorable rascal!"
Wrapped in the fervent bear hug of the Finance Hall Master, who greeted me with a beaming smile, I felt a strangely familiar sense of suffocation and spoke to him.
"Khh... Hall Master... let go, please..."
"Aigoo... you adorable little thing. I could just gobble you right up in one bite."
"Du-sik... get the Hall Master off me..."
"Hall Master, at the very least release the Young Master first..."
"You get over here too! Aigoo, my precious little treasures!"
Dang Jihyeon had moved to intervene, but one look at Dang Giyeong snagged in the man's arms alongside me sent her quietly backing away, step by careful step...
Only after a long, effusive display of affection did the Finance Hall Master finally set us down, whereupon he began personally hauling away the treasures loaded in the other cargo wagon as he remarked:
"Ah, right... the Clan Leader is asking for you lot. Just unload your things and go straight to him."
"Father, you say? Yes... understood. Then let's meet in front of the Clan Leader's Hall a bit later."
Faced with the Finance Hall Master's beaming smile — on a face that had been a portrait of tears every single day — I thought, so that old man can make an expression like that after all... I passed word to the two squad leaders to gather in front of the Clan Leader's Hall, and headed for my quarters.
Around the time we returned to Sichuan, strange rumors had begun spreading through every corner of the Central Plains.
"So it's true, then — what they're saying about that Dang Clan Young Master?"
"That's the word! You still haven't heard the news, that he left the Zhuge Clan's treasured jewel of a daughter behind and went flitting in and out of the courtesan house like it was his own front gate?"
"And have you two heard this one? They say the fellow, drunk on his own pretty face, has even taken to fooling around with married women."
"Hah... the world is truly coming to an end. The Poison King was the very picture of purity and devotion — how on earth did his son turn out like that?"
"Well, anyway — there was quite the debate over whether the man's epithet should be 'Lust-Poison'... or 'Poison-Lust'... But they figured that pinning a name like that on the Dang Clan's heir would send them all straight to an early grave, so in the end it was decided: Poison Flower."
"Puhahaha! Poison Flower, for a man? I'd be too ashamed to step outside my own front door. So who in blazes pinned that one on him?"
"The Haomun, as ever, wouldn't you say? They do so love cooking up nicknames."
"Those bastards have gall to spare, they do."
And so in Hubei, the epithet "Poison Flower" began to spread...
"I'm telling you, they carried the Second Young Master in on a stretcher..."
"Do you hear yourself? The man was barely Third-Rate until last year — and now, after barely a single year, you'd have him at the Peak Realm?"
"You never saw it with your own eyes, so I suppose I can't blame you for not believing... but the sight of the Second Young Master, poisoned and wheezing away without the slightest resistance, while that fellow climbed right on top of him with an absolutely wicked grin — it's still burned into my mind."
"My, my... and is that why you people keep calling him the Poison Serpent?"
"Isn't it a fitting name? The way a great serpent coils around its prey before sinking in its fangs... Ooh, look at my arm. Just talking about it raises gooseflesh all over again."
"...Then why stop at Poison Serpent? Why not call him Serpent-Scorpion?"
"Now that's a fine idea! Serpent-Scorpion... the perfect epithet for that fellow."
"Are you in your right mind...? If word of that ever reaches the Dang Clan's ears..."
"Oh, we'd simply have the Haomun leak it out bit by bit. No trail would lead back to us, wouldn't you say?"
In Hebei, the epithet "Serpent-Scorpion" spread from mouth to mouth...
"Branch Chief, what's that?"
"This? A letter from the Namgung Clan."
"What on earth could be written in it to put such a delighted look on your face?"
"It says they'd like us to spread the word that the Dang Clan's Young Master's epithet is 'Poison Ghost.'"
"A Poison Ghost? Why on earth?"
"How should I know? Although — it seems this Dang Muyeong fellow is at the Peak Realm?"
"Then he's been hiding his strength all this time?"
"Hmm... I'd wager so. And a man at the Peak Realm has certainly earned himself an epithet, so just pass the word along — have the others spread the name 'Poison Ghost.'"
"Understood."
Namgung Han herself had made it perfectly clear that she would accept the whip in the treasured sword's stead — and yet, honestly, this was beyond the pale: Dang Muyeong had gone and walked off with the real sword, sending her nothing but the whip. And so a letter brimming with the pettiest of revenge against him arrived at the Haomun.
In Anhui, the epithet "Poison Ghost" began to spread.
"Is someone badmouthing me right now...? Why are my ears suddenly itching?"