Chapter 53
* * *
“You naughty little rascals!”
The tea room of the Changcheon Pavilion rang with his voice. Hong-seol and Jeok, having removed their Human Skin Masks and returned to their true forms, clung to each other, pressing their cheeks together and trembling.
“W-we’re sorry, Grandfather!”
“W-we’ll never do it again...”
“Do you have any idea how worried I was!”
Namgung Ho’s face was beet red.
“As punishment, both of you will clean the entire training ground and the warehouse in the outer courtyard used by the Azure Sky Unit. And you are not to receive any help from the maids!”
“Y-yes!”
Hong-seol and Jeok nodded frantically. If that was all, it was a light punishment compared to the trouble they had caused.
Namgung Ho continued with a stern expression.
“That is not all. Both of you will copy the Records of the Great War Between Justice and the Demonic Cult from beginning to end!”
“G-Grandfather...”
At those words, Jeok looked as if he had been struck by lightning.
To copy the Records of the Great War Between Justice and the Demonic Cult from start to finish would require them to be glued to their desks for at least a full week.
Hong-seol, unaware of how difficult that task was, simply blinked.
“Ahem, Father.”
Namgung On interjected with a cough. But he only received a thunderous scolding from Namgung Ho.
“Being the Clan Lord won’t save you! Don’t even think about interfering just because you think the punishment is too harsh.”
“Um, Father.”
This time, Yuhwa stepped in.
“Oh, yes, Yuhwa. You, at least, know how much I’ve been suffering, don’t you?”
Namgung Ho’s voice turned as warm as a spring breeze. His attitude was noticeably different from when he addressed his son, the Clan Lord Namgung On.
“Of course. However, there is something I must tell you.”
Yuhwa gestured kindly toward the trembling Hong-seol.
“Hong-seol, show him.”
“Ah!”
Realizing something, Hong-seol rummaged through her clothes and pulled out a small wooden box.
“What is this?”
Click.
Inside the box sat a mouse made of gold, resting quietly.
Yuhwa smiled.
“This is the winning prize for this year’s Anhui River Crossing.”
“What? Our Seol-ah won?”
Namgung Ho jumped to his feet. It had been a long time since the Namgung Clan had won the Anhui River Crossing.
After all, Namgung Baek hadn’t participated in the Anhui River Crossing since the tragedy three years ago.
“Since Hong-seol went in Jeok’s place and brought honor to the Namgung Clan, wouldn’t it be alright to exempt them from their punishment?”
Hmm.
Namgung Ho’s face clouded with contemplation. Then, he suddenly let out a hearty laugh.
“Very well! I shall exempt you from the punishment of copying the *Records of the Great War Between Justice and the Demonic Cult*!”
Hearing this from the side, the Clan Lord Namgung On sighed inwardly.
‘Father is truly too soft.’
Namgung Ho spoke firmly to Hong-seol and Jeok, who were bowing politely.
“However! There must not be a next time. Do you both understand?”
“Yes, yes!”
The two children, hands clasped respectfully, nodded incessantly.
“Go now and clean the training ground and the warehouse. Quickly!”
“Yes!”
The children’s clear voices echoed through the sky.
* * *
Cough, cough.
Hong-seol was sweeping the training ground alone with a broom taller than herself.
Namgung Jeok was busy organizing the warehouse where they had stolen the Basic Art of Disguise and the Human Skin Masks.
‘What on earth happened here?’
The training ground was unusually messy today. The corners were littered with fallen poles and peacock feathers.
“Miss Hong-seol?”
A familiar voice suddenly reached her ears, and Hong-seol’s eyes lit up.
“Oh?”
Thump, thump.
A well-built man emerged from the afternoon sunlight.
It was the face of Namgung Uigyeol, the Master of the Azure Sky Unit, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Master of the Azure Sky Unit!”
Overjoyed, Hong-seol ran over and clung to his leg like a cicada.
Perhaps because he had been traveling, Namgung Uigyeol’s face was tanned dark.
“Why has it been so hard to see you?”
“I’ve been quite busy. By order of the Grand Patriarch, I’ve been patrolling the areas around Hefei. Today, I was also busy selecting warriors for the outer courtyard.”
“Why the areas around Hefei?”
“Well, we received intelligence that one of the leaders of the Unorthodox Faction recently arrived in Hefei.”
A leader of the Unorthodox Faction?
So far, Hong-seol had only learned about the Orthodox Factions and the Demonic Cult.
Seeing Hong-seol blinking blankly, Namgung Uigyeol smiled, his eyes crinkling.
“Shall we have a quick lesson on the martial world?”
“I’d love to!”
Namgung Uigyeol sat down, leaning against the corner of the training ground, and began to explain as Hong-seol sat beside him.
“The Unorthodox Faction is also known as the Black Path. It means a group that walks a path that is not righteous.”
“Are there famous places in the Unorthodox Faction? Like the Five Great Clans or the Nine Great Sects of the Orthodox Faction?”
“Hmm... If I had to name some, there’s the Green Forest bandits, the Yangtze River Water Bandits, or the assassin organization known as the Killing Pavilion. Oh, and the information network known as the Hao Sect is also considered part of the Unorthodox Faction.”
Hao Sect?
Hong-seol’s ears perked up at the name she had heard somewhere before.
Ah, it was the place mentioned in her conversation with Elder Namgung Muyeong a while ago.
They were composed of people like inn waiters or courtesans in brothels, and they were said to be excellent at gathering and manipulating rumors.
“But if you’re talking about the most powerful Unorthodox Faction these days, it would be the Black Eagle Gang.”
“The Black Eagle Gang?”
‘A flock of black eagles.’
Hong-seol found the name fascinating and traced the characters on her palm.
Ever since she learned to write, it had become her habit to trace the strokes of new words she heard with her finger.
“Yes, they are famous for tattooing black feathers on the bodies of their members.”
He lowered his voice.
“In fact, my patrolling of the area with the Azure Sky Unit was related to the Black Eagle Gang.”
A look of tension crossed Hong-seol’s face.
If the Master of the Azure Sky Unit had to move himself, it was clearly a serious matter.
“The leader of the Black Eagle Gang is the Poison-armed Eagle. They say she is over one hundred and twenty years old this year.”
‘If she’s one hundred and twenty, how much older is she than me?’
She tried to count using her ten fingers and ten toes, but she couldn’t quite get the math right.
After struggling for a moment and giving up on counting, Hong-seol asked Namgung Uigyeol.
“Is such a person still...”
Hong-seol swallowed the words, ‘alive?’
Even if they were of the Black Road, it felt too impolite to ask.
“Yes, she is remarkably spry, heaven knows how. We received intelligence that she has hidden herself in Hefei.”
Hefei was the absolute territory of the Namgung Clan.
Because of this, most Unorthodox Faction members couldn’t even set foot there.
Hong-seol asked with concern.
“Is the Black Eagle Gang trying to expand into Hefei?”
“That could be it. Or perhaps they were hired by someone.”
“Hired?”
“To kidnap an important figure or take a life, for instance. The Poison-Armed Bird is notorious for her ghost-like Claw Technique and her terrifying Sound Arts.”
“Sound Arts...?”
“It’s using Inner Energy within music to inflict internal injuries on an opponent. And as you know, the Claw Technique is a skill that uses fingernails.”
Hong-seol imagined an old woman clutching an opponent’s heart with sharp, pointed nails.
A shiver ran down her spine.
“I didn’t find anything unusual while patrolling the vicinity, but... we don’t know who she might be targeting or where she is now. So, you must be careful, young lady.”
Namgung Uigyeol added seriously.
“After all, the Poison-Armed Bird is an incredibly vicious and dangerous old woman.”
* * *
A young woman was waiting for food on the second floor of an inn, having nothing better to do.
At a glance, she looked to be about twenty years old.
She had her black hair tied back tightly, and her body was as agile as an eagle’s.
Even while resting at the inn, she carried an object wrapped in cloth on her back.
The round shape that tapered toward the end looked unmistakably like a ‘pipa’ instrument.
The woman licked her red lips with her tongue.
“I wonder if this place’s reputation is as good as the rumors say.”
The Red Flower Inn where she stayed was a fairly well-known inn and restaurant within the city of Hefei.
While it was beautiful due to its interior decorated with red flowers, there was, in fact, another reason for its fame.
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