Chapter 58: Needle Hidden in a Sack

Ten days had already passed since the friendly sparring of the Sichuan Tang Clan had ended.

It had been an unexpected and shocking outcome, the kind of story perfect for wagging tongues.

Yet, surprisingly, the results never crossed beyond the gates of the Tang Clan.

“Everyone knows, right? No one outside the clan is to hear a word about the friendly sparring.”

“Of course! Who knows what kind of mischief those who envy and resent Young Lord might cause if they hear of it!”

“Right, exactly. It’s only proper that we protect him with all our might.”

“Just like Young Lord said, let’s quietly gather strength beneath the surface.”

“Yes, at least until the day when no one dares to look down on us anymore.”

The sparring had brought a great change to all who belonged to the Sichuan Tang Clan.

Not because of the result, but because they had witnessed the process with their own eyes. Their hearts, once filled with defeatism, had shifted, and their unity had solidified completely.

Most importantly, all members of the two squads who had fought suffered only light injuries, so there were no disputes afterward.

The only incident that worried the clan members after the sparring was just one.

It was when Jang Yi, who belonged to Young Lord’s squad, was suddenly found collapsed in the stables.

Perhaps the fatigue of harsh training and the duel had finally struck him. He had collapsed, struck by sudden dizziness.

Since Jang Yi was the type who had never even caught a cold and was built like an ox, everyone was startled.

He even complained of a stiff neck and had lost an entire day’s worth of memory.

But it ended with a touching scene—Young Lord Sewoon himself personally cared for him.

In any case, though the clan members strove to hide their clan’s affairs…

“Hey, doesn’t it seem like the Sichuan Tang Clan is making quite a stir these days?”

“Oh, so you think so too?”

A needle cannot help but reveal itself even when hidden in a sack.

Even without mention of the sparring, there were plenty of reasons for the Tang Clan to become the topic of gossip.

And most of those reasons were, of course, thanks to the achievements of Young Lord Tang Sewoon.

“Did you hear? The Green Dragon wiped out Naegang Mountain Keep all by himself during an escort mission.”

“Naegang Mountain Keep? Isn’t that the one that was about to be accepted into the Seventy-Two Keeps of the Green Forest?”

“Bah, that must be a false rumor. Its chief, the Flying Calamity Axe, was said to be at the Peak Master Level. How could the Young Lord of the Tang Clan take him down?”

“Have you all lived fooled until now? It’s true! Haeweol Escort Agency crossed paths with Green Dragon’s escort squad, and they swore the keep had been completely destroyed.”

“Wow, if that’s true, then Green Dragon should be brought into the Nine Dragons Four Phoenixes!”

“I still can’t believe it. No one actually saw the fight with their own eyes.”

Tang Sewoon had taken up the role of Chief Escort of Tang Clan Escort Agency and was quickly settling all the backlogged escort missions.

The Tang Clan Escort Agency, under Sewoon’s leadership, returned to its old creed:

“Grace must always be repaid, and enemies must be engraved in blood.”

Sewoon did not always clash with the Green Forest bandits who hindered escort missions.

Negotiation came first.

But when bandits underestimated them, recalling the weakened Tang Clan of the past, or when they tried to extort more money through threats, Sewoon drew his sword without hesitation.

As the number of keeps closed by Sewoon’s hand grew, clients who had first entrusted escorts with doubt began to return with trust, giving the agency steady and continuous work.

But the Escort Agency was not the only place within the Sichuan Tang Clan now flourishing.

“Please, I must see Divine Physician today…”

“Sigh, it’s already my third day waiting. How long has it been for you?”

“T-two days…”

“Ha! That’s nothing. Stop whining after so little waiting.”

The Tang Clan’s medical hall, Heaven’s Medicine Hall, was also bustling with people.

Patients lined endlessly before the gates—more than double compared to before.

The fame of Tang Sewoon’s medical skills had grown beyond rumor. Even renowned officials and famous scholars of Sichuan came quietly to join the line.

In the past, people had turned to the Tang Clan only as a substitute, since Mount Emei was too far away. Now, however, they came with faith and certainty in Sewoon’s skills.

Moreover, Sewoon had been recognized by Lord Geum Hwa, Sect Leader of Mount Emei.

It was an open secret that they corresponded by letter and shared treatment methods. Naturally, the rumor only grew larger with each passing day.

“Sigh, I don’t think I’ll get treated today either…”

“I rented a room at the inn down in Tang Family Slopes. Stay the night and come back tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, really? Thank you!”

Even Tang Family Slopes, once filled with only abandoned homes after blood relatives had left, began regaining vitality.

As waiting times grew longer and many patients left untreated, they needed places nearby to stay.

Since traveling back to Chengdu was too far and sleeping rough under the open sky was too hard, demand for lodging rose.

Thus, the Tang Clan’s estranged blood relatives began returning to their hometown, Tang Family Slopes, opening shops and inns one by one.

And they could do so only because Tang Muyeol lent them the funds.

Grateful for a Clan Head who bore no resentment toward them and instead embraced them, the returning relatives sincerely expressed their thanks by faithfully paying rent and working to support the clan.

But as the Tang Clan’s prosperity revived and its fame grew, so too did envy and jealousy.

What slanderers seized upon was none other than the mine the clan had received as compensation from the Murim Alliance.

“Tsk, tsk, looks like the Tang Clan’s rise won’t last long.”

“Hm? What do you mean by that?”

“Haven’t you heard? The Young Lord of the Tang Clan is throwing away all the silver he earns.”

“Come now, explain properly.”

“Don’t you see the wagons full of worthless ore hauled into the Tang Clan every so often? All the money earned by the Escort Agency and the medical hall is being wasted in that abandoned mine, chasing after gold.”

“What? Really? Ha, I knew it. A bad habit never changes. Green Dragon’s martial arts may be outstanding, but his brain is lacking.”

Thus, rumors about Tang Sewoon spread beyond Sichuan to all corners of the Central Plains.

Two opposing views clashed.

One was that he was the most promising candidate to succeed Lee Hoseong of Qingcheng Sect as Sichuan’s foremost prodigy.

The other was that he was a fool drunk on glory gained through luck and hollow fame, wasting himself on pointless endeavors.

But no matter how loudly others gossiped—

Kang!

Ka-kang!

“Hoo…”

Sewoon paid no mind. He was buried in the smithy, hammering away.

That night, after finishing at Heaven’s Medicine Hall, Sewoon did not return to his quarters.

Instead, he went to the empty smithy of Ten Thousand Iron Hall and gripped the hammer.

“Now, even the blacksmith’s craft, to master for the clan’s revival…”

From outside, clan members were moved to tears as they watched Sewoon, believing he was exhausting himself for their prosperity.

But—

‘Hoo… Truly a dreadful Yin-Cold Qi.’

In truth, Sewoon was not training blacksmithing.

He was cultivating martial arts.

Or rather, he was paying the price for his past reckless overexertion.

At the same time he was forging materials, the Golden Bridle Movement Technique was being executed.

Sss, ssshh.

But unlike usual, the flow of qi was not smooth.

Traces of Yin-Cold Qi clung like frost across the meridians of his entire body, obstructing the flow.

The Yin-Cold Qi he had wielded against Nameless’s Extreme Flame Radiance still lingered inside him, rampaging wildly.

‘I may have fulfilled the minimum condition to activate the second ability of Heavenly Net… but it was still too much.’

Sewoon thought bitterly.

Upon reaching the Supreme Peak Realm, one more of the five sorceries sealed within Heavenly Net had been unlocked.

Following the Pursuit Thread at his ring finger—

Now, the ‘Ice Wheel Thread’ at his little finger.

Anything the thread touched would freeze solid, and it granted the extreme Yin power capable of opposing any Yang-heat Qi.

But because of this, the backlash after using it was also severe.

‘…The sorceries of the Demonic Path truly are dreadful.’

Unlike Pursuit Thread, which embodied the essence of sorcery from the orthodox Shrine Maiden Sect, the other four sorceries were deeply tied to the unorthodox and heretical paths.

They were based on the secret legacies of the Great Demonic Masters who had once possessed the Ten Demonic Weapons, as well as the materials used to forge them.

He had inscribed the formulas of the sorceries exactly as they were within his memory, but to manifest their proper effects without backlash—

He absolutely needed to let Heavenly Net absorb the special materials originally used in the forging of the Ten Demonic Weapons.

In the case of Ice Wheel Thread, it was from the forging of that person’s demonic weapon.

Sewoon pictured someone in his mind.

Doesn’t it thrill you? The sight of the world turning white, frozen and extinguished.

A woman with snow-white hair, alluring as she brushed it back before him.

I want to witness Blood Demon destroy the world with my own eyes, from the front row.

That day, she had abandoned her throne over the North Sea Ice Palace, surrendering it entirely, and joined the Blood Cult.

The madwoman.

Among the Ten Demonic Weapons, she was the master of the Water White Fan—

And one of the Five Great Demon Lords who defended the Blood Cult: the Ice White Demon Lord, Seol I-rang.

In that annihilating space… Demonic Craftsman, I want you there.

A chill ran down his spine.

Sewoon shook his head, forcibly banishing Seol I-rang’s sinister voice from his thoughts.

Chiieek!

He burned away the last remnants of Yin-Cold Qi from his meridians.

‘Phew, at least I’ve purged all the Yin-Cold Qi inside me. But if I use Ice Wheel Thread again, the same thing will happen all over.’

There were only two ways he could wield Ice Wheel Thread without backlash.

To surpass the wall of Supreme Peak and reach the Transformation Realm.

‘Or to absorb a spiritual beast that contains extreme Yin-Cold Qi.’

But to pursue the latter, at the very least, he would need a Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.

And there was no way a miraculous herb or spiritual beast would suddenly fall from the sky.

“In the end, it just means I need to raise my realm as quickly as possible.”

The only realistic path left to him was the first.

But compared to Supreme Peak, breaking through the wall of the Transformation Realm was by no means easy.

Even in his past life, the longest period of stagnation had been when he was attempting to cross that very wall.

Still, the fortunate part was that he already had a path in mind.

Swoosh.

Finishing his forging, Sewoon set down the hammer.

A strange light flashed in his eyes.

‘I must head to the Murim Alliance as soon as possible.’

If one wished for a bear’s gallbladder, one had to go into the bear’s den.

But—

Of course, he first had to finish his tasks before departing.

Whip!

Sewoon suddenly shot his hand swiftly up toward the ceiling.

In an instant, Heavenly Net spread like a web, snaring something and dragging it violently to the ground.

Thud!

“Gahk!”

Though the ceiling had appeared empty, a black figure tangled in Heavenly Net crashed hard to the floor.

“You should know well enough—spying on another’s cultivation in secret is a crime you cannot excuse even in death.”

Sewoon spoke coldly toward Nameless, whose Stealth Technique had been pitifully exposed.

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