Chapter 85: Lets Bait the Fools Who Made Us Suffer
Sa Gong-pae was not in a good mood.
Out of jealousy toward Yeon Cheong-un, he had spread rumors that could harm his reputation. When that action resulted in the visit of the Gluttonous Demonic Lord, he had been appalled.
However, once that crisis passed, his stomach began to twist again.
“Do they think the Qingcheng Sect, the center of the orthodox factions and one of the Nine Great Sects, is a sidekick to some nobody? What do they take the great Qingcheng Sect for…”
The Sichuan Tang Clan had accommodated the people of the Qingcheng Sect in the guest rooms and treated them cordially.
They showed the highest hospitality, expressing gratitude for bringing their precious benefactor to the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Sa Gong-pae took the Sichuan Tang Clan’s attitude in a different way.
“Yeon Cheong-un… Yeon Cheong-un… Yeon Cheong-un!”
In Sa Gong-pae’s twisted eyes, it seemed as if the only important person was Yeon Cheong-un, and the Qingcheng Sect was out of their concern, so they should just receive moderate hospitality and leave.
They did not treat the Qingcheng Sect with the highest respect.
They did not respect the Qingcheng Sect and himself.
They treated only Yeon Cheong-un specially.
“It’s absurd…”
Sa Gong-pae’s inner mind was twisted.
Everything seemed to get in his way.
Although he was struggling so much, no one looked at him.
They did not treat him specially.
It was absurd.
“Damn it!”
Sometimes, when he felt a sense of incongruity about everything surrounding him, he felt as if he were the only one looking straight at this absurd world. In that way, he felt like he was a tragic hero who was special.
However, looking straight at reality, he was merely a common nobody of the Qingcheng Sect.
To someone, to the absolute majority of the martial world, the mere fact that he was a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect was a great thing, but the twisted Sa Gong-pae had no room to look back at himself.
Having no room meant pushing away everything that approached. Whether it was good or bad, he could not take it in and pushed it away. It narrowed his vision and made him single-minded.
He paced around the spot, looking like the epitome of those who cause trouble and run wild while putting forward wrong beliefs.
“You also seem to have a lot of complaints?”
Someone spoke to Sa Gong-pae.
“Who are you?”
Like someone whose shameful part, which he did not want to show others, had been caught, Sa Gong-pae reacted hysterically.
However, the other party brushed off Sa Gong-pae’s resistance.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down. I just came to find you after hearing that there was a Qingcheng Sect disciple of my age. Isn’t the Qingcheng Sect the number one prestigious sect in Sichuan? Its history is even older than that of the Emei Sect. Since we are of similar age, we will see each other for a long time in the future.”
He came and flattered him.
Perhaps because he soothed a part of the complaints he harbored, Sa Gong-pae also looked at the other party with a slightly softened attitude.
Just as he said, the other party was a young expert who appeared to be of a similar age to Sa Gong-pae.
“But…”
While searching the young expert as if exploring him, Sa Gong-pae suddenly mentioned the words he had spoken.
“You also…?”
“I felt like we would understand each other. Don’t you sometimes feel that way too? I think I’m right, but strangely, everyone around me says I’m wrong. Hypocritical and narrow-minded people ignore my words. The ones who should be ostracized are actually those people.”
“…”
An emotion that can easily be felt during the turbulent years of youth.
However, Sa Gong-pae could deeply sympathize with those words.
It really felt like they would understand each other.
“…Yes. Exactly.”
“As expected, you think so too? Glad to hear that.”
Perhaps because of the sense of kinship, even though they had only exchanged a few words, the distance felt narrowed. Sa Gong-pae looked at the other party while letting down his guard.
“By the way… who are you?”
“This is the Tang Clan. Naturally, I’m a person of the Tang Clan, who else would I be.”
At Sa Gong-pae’s subsequent question, the other party laughed sheepishly.
***
After Yi Hwa joined, a strange tension flowed.
First of all, Tang Sa-yeon looked at Yi Hwa as if she were a stray cat.
She growled as she looked at Yi Hwa, who was holding my hand as if we were close siblings.
“Isn’t the distance a bit too close?”
I wanted to tell her that too.
‘If it weren’t for the divine power of fire.’
For unknown reasons, just keeping this girl Yi Hwa close made the divine power of fire settle inside me.
It felt as if I were regulating my breathing through qi circulation.
Therefore, I could not push Yi Hwa away.
Thinking of it that way, I could realize once again that the martial arts I learned were very unique.
As expected, celestial grade.
I wondered if it was related to the master’s previous mentions of the unity of heaven and man, or my head being open.
Seeing that Baek Mu-ho, who possessed the divine power of Earth like me, could not obtain the divine power of fire through Yi Hwa, Yi Hwa felt like an existence prepared for me.
‘It seems Master Heavenly Demon took action, right?’
In any case, if this was Master Heavenly Demon’s arrangement, I couldn’t ignore it as a disciple.
Master Zhang Sanfeng had also permitted it.
For some unknown reason, Master Zhang Sanfeng, who had rushed to hell saying he had to see Master Heavenly Demon, told me to take Yi Hwa in.
It felt like the relationship between Master Zhang Sanfeng and Master Heavenly Demon had drifted apart somewhat. The fact that he went to confirm with Master Heavenly Demon meant this matter was not agreed upon among my masters.
Although he felt displeased, he did permit it.
‘The heaven side is also quite complicated.’
Fortunately, Yi Hwa, the subject of controversy, responded appropriately to Tang Sa-yeon’s prickly behavior.
“I’m sorry. I’m still not stable…”
The setting Yi Hwa brought up was simple.
Demonic practitioners raided and wiped out her family, and she fled to the Great Forest, which rejected human touch, as a last resort, and I rescued her.
When a young girl who lost everything to the Demonic Cult’s vicious hands is trying to wash away her anxiety by leaning on the person who saved her, interfering with that because it looks unpleasant would quickly paint one as a heartless person.
“…Could I stay like this a little longer?”
‘Whether it’s inborn, or she is clever.’
It was a question seeking permission, but the answer was already set.
Being called a Divine Maiden, she is indeed proficient at fitting herself to the situation.
“Tch!”
Tang Sa-yeon, realizing she was in an unfavorable situation, clicked her tongue and clung tightly to my opposite arm.
Because she pressed her upper body close, a soft presence came into strong contact through my arm.
If it were usual, Baek Mu-ho would tease me about having flowers in both hands, but his reaction was unexpectedly different.
“That girl… are you taking responsibility for her? Seriously? Completely?”
“Probably?”
“To your home?”
“Won’t it turn out that way?”
Although I hadn’t discarded the thought of Yi Hwa being a walking thunder bomb, the divine power of fire was a power I couldn’t afford to lose, after all.
Ultimately, it would proceed toward taking her along.
“Uh… that’s troublesome…”
Baek Mu-ho, who had been excited to tease me until just now, stroked his neck for some reason, his face stiff with tension.
[Come on, stop the useless talk and return quickly to cure that Myriad Poisons Divine Lord guy. Didn’t you say everything will be resolved only if you cure him?]
[Yes, that’s right. When did we have time to dawdle while leaving a patient whose condition is unpredictable? Hurry up.]
In the meantime, the words of Mister Hua Tuo and Mister Bian Que were also significant.
‘Oh? Has Mister Hua Tuo’s sulkiness fully cleared up?’
Suddenly, the two of them were matching their words as if they had reached a consensus.
‘It feels like their thoughts are all playing separately…’
Although I couldn’t grasp it precisely, I felt that indeed, various thoughts were tangled in this matter.
‘Well, it won’t change anything anyway.’
Since I also had something I wanted, I was actively trying to restore the Myriad Poisons Divine Lord.
Whatever was tangled in it, as long as it wasn’t a bad thing for me, there was nothing to make an issue of.
With each carrying complicated thoughts, my and my companions’ steps turned back toward the Sichuan Tang Clan.
***
Upon returning to the Sichuan Tang Clan, an atmosphere unlike before was flowing.
‘It’s in a stir.’
How should I put it, like a phase where conscription had started ahead of a war?
Such a sign was felt from the boundary of the village.
Chief Tang Man-ok seemed to have turned things upside down properly.
There were also those who recognized me, showing signs of flinching upon seeing me enter from the outside.
“Oh! You’ve returned quickly.”
Whether he had been waiting anxiously for my return, Chief Tang Man-ok came out to the front gate to welcome me.
“Did you get the ingredients?”
“Yes.”
“Haha! Thank goodness. Truly thank goodness.”
Chief Tang Man-ok clapped his hands in joy.
Most of the people who realized the meaning showed bright smiles and anticipation.
However.
‘There are more than expected…’
Not a few people did not rejoice at all. Although they were a tiny minority, considering the scale of the Sichuan Tang Clan, the size of that minority was hard to gauge.
Although all of them might not be conspirators involved in this matter, my spine chilled at the thought that they would have actively gone to war had the situation turned out poorly.
‘It’s not a situation where I can relax until the very end.’
“Mu-ho.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know how to brew medicine?”
“You want me to do even that?”
Baek Mu-ho frowned, thinking I was asking him to do something out of the blue.
“It’s better if we all act together until the end.”
Baek Mu-ho also soon stiffened his face and began to grasp the situation.
“Is it that serious?”
“They are people who crossed the line the moment they laid hands on the family head. Someone who has crossed the line once is prone to extreme moves. Besides, they would know the laws of the Tang Clan better than anyone.”
“…A grudge must be repaid.”
Kindness is repaid twofold, grudges tenfold.
The Sichuan Tang Clan was famous for taking thorough measures to the point of being called vicious.
The chief manager himself stepped up and deployed a scheme to occupy the attention of the inside. Being capable, he must have secured sufficient clues about the internal spies.
“Since he turned the inside upside down to that extent, they are highly likely caught. Bloodshed will probably be unavoidable.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being careful.”
As a member of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Tang Sa-yeon, who sensitively gauged the size of the ambition and the anxiety that the perpetrator must be feeling, quickly accepted my opinion.
Until the end, we cannot let our guard down. Not until the Myriad Poisons Divine Lord recovers and gets up.
At that moment, Mister Hua Tuo offered an opinion in my head.
[Then how about making a sound in the east and striking in the west?]
“Make a sound in the east and strike in the west?”
[You brought back plenty of ingredients. That much is enough to make four or five portions and still have leftovers. If we use that as bait, wouldn’t we be able to reduce damage?]
If they think there is no way to end this quietly anymore, they might openly stage a rebellion.
However, before doing that, if there is a way to take action, they will focus on it.
If it is a method to ruin the medicine I am trying to make, they might consider it worth trying.
[Give some of it as bait, and you brew the real one yourself. As for setting fire to brew the medicine, since you have the newly acquired power, it won’t be difficult, right? It draws their attention elsewhere, so it’s enough to buy time. Even if something goes wrong on that side, you can just complete this one and feed it to him.]
It was a plan devised by considering even the worst-case scenario.
Perhaps because he was a famous figure of a warring era, he was also quite clever in tactics.
“That’s good.”
Although it was a muttered response, Baek Mu-ho, who caught my thoughts immediately, nodded with a strange smile.
“Let’s bait the fools who made us suffer.”
Baek Mu-ho had the face he made when playing a very vicious trick.