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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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Meeoooowww-
“Oh my~ Our precious darling~”
Black Cat had really found the snow leopard quickly.
Finding it in half a day in this vast Sacheon was quick.
The rumored snow leopard was smaller than expected.
With a height of just over 1 meter, it was almost the size of a large dog but a bit too tiny to be called a tiger.
Today’s client, Kang Chi-san, who lost the snow leopard more than four times a year, rushed out when he saw Black Cat leading the snow leopard into the house.
“Master! How do you handle our precious one so well! I want to learn your techniques!”
“Hmm… I heard the snow leopard often runs away. Are you perhaps mistreating it?”
“That’s absolutely not true! We’re doing our best for our precious one!”
As mentioned before, the snow leopard request was a periodic one.
It’s been about 2 years?
Originally, a group of four outcasts known as the Snow Leopard Capture Team used to catch it professionally.
However, since it had become strong enough to break capture tools, they stopped doing it since the last time or the time before.
“I’ve seen it brought back tied up or in cages many times, but I’ve never seen someone like you make our precious one return on its own feet! Please teach me!”
“Hmm. I see true eyes. The genuine attitude of a cat lover!”
I just wanted to go back and rest quickly.
Still, since Black Cat had practically done all the work for this request, I had no choice but to follow her as she enthusiastically dispensed cat-raising tips.
“Hmm! These items all look valuable, but I don’t think the servants would let the cat scratch them. Stack some logs in a corner of the yard so it can scratch its claws.”
“Where does the cat relieve itself? Prepare a place by spreading fine sand in a corner of the yard.”
“What’s this? Kumquat scent? Mint scent? Get rid of all of it.”
Meow.
The creature seemed to like Black Cat’s storm of instructions, rubbing its face against her body.
Befitting a precious spiritual beast, its fur was so glossy that even I, who didn’t mainly find cats charming, felt like touching it.
“Master, thank you so much.”
Whether there was really some connection or not, after the snow leopard’s place was reorganized under Black Cat’s direct command, it settled down with a satisfied expression.
“Ah~ That feels good.”
“Hmm.”
The bulging pouch Kang Chi-san gave us.
When I opened it, it seemed to be about 5 times the amount of this request fee.
In fact, Black Cat’s actions were equivalent to cutting off a steady source of income for the future.
If we had kept our mouths shut, the snow leopard would have continued to run away, and each time, Black Cat could have gone out and quickly brought it back.
“Senior, you’re not thinking that we missed the opportunity to get requests to bring back the snow leopard every time, are you?”
“No? I didn’t? Think that at all?”
“Your speech pattern is totally weird. In the first place, it’s not a request we could have milked for that long. In just a year or two, it would grow to almost human size, and at that size, it wouldn’t be able to hide in Sacheon anymore. If it had run away a few more times, it would have gone completely wild beyond Sacheon.”
“Hmm…”
“I thought it was just someone keeping it as a decorative spiritual beast since I heard it often ran away, but unexpectedly, it was someone with the right mindset, so I gave them a chance.”
I was curious about what she would have done if she hadn’t given them a chance, but I didn’t want to dampen Black Cat’s mood, who seemed to be smiling, so I didn’t voice it.
“It seems we’ve experienced each basic type of request once now.”
“Hmm. Is that so? Eliminating black path practitioners. Attacks. Delivering duel letters. Returning runaway cats… Didn’t we miss requesting duels?”
“That’s impossible because you’re already rumored to be a supreme master.”
Generally, a sect would only be dismantled when dueling someone of similar rank.
Would it be a blow if a peak master lost to a supreme master?
The supreme master who requested the duel would just be criticized.
“So, about that…”
I carefully observed Black Cat’s reaction while outwardly acting casual as I continued speaking.
“Do you have any thoughts on earning some side income?”
“Side income?”
It’s just my pure guess, but Black Cat seems quite wealthy.
First, that veil woven from the whiskers of a Flood Dragon is a costly item; moreover, she doesn’t seem to care much about request earnings.
The amount Sacheon outcasts earn is quite substantial.
Masters are masters, and money-making is money-making.
With this amount, anyone, master or not, would be tempted.
Still, the fact that she doesn’t raise any complaints about this 20% distribution is impossible unless she’s rich.
“Hmm… I might as well hear what it is.”
“I know of a secret cave (秘洞) whose traces I’m aware of.”
“You know about such things, Senior?”
“When you do outcast work, you come across various pieces of information.”
Even if I knew about it at my current level, it would be a place I couldn’t handle, but with Black Cat, it’s possible.
Trustworthy outcasts have too weak martial arts. And if I took several peak outcasts, who knows what might happen.
“A secret cave… Is it certain?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve confirmed up to the entrance of the secret cave.”
And this is also the final verification of Black Cat.
In this world, nothing is more specific than material things.
If I were to name the person I’ve built the most trust with while living as Ho Cheon-an… it would be Yeo Jin-sang or Jeong Sam.
But even with those two, if I took them to the secret cave and put a qi-invigorating treasure in front of them, I couldn’t be sure if they were people I could trust and turn my back on.
It’s an unknowable problem whether Black Cat has done something to me.
However, by looking at Black Cat’s attitude so far and the actions she’ll take in front of the qi-invigorating treasure, I’ll know how far I can trust her.
“How far is it from Sacheon?”
“It might take about 3-4 days on foot.”
“Alright! I was feeling stuffy, wearing only these gloomy clothes and black hats lately. An outing~.”
Despite my tension, Black Cat nodded readily.
“Going out? Just the two of you?”
Yu Sa-yeon looked back and forth between me and Black Cat before pulling my ear.
“Are you two dating?”
“Has this innkeeper gone mad?”
“…Ho Cheon-an, you’re not in a position to get angry, are you? For you to date a woman like Black Cat, even a million bows wouldn’t be enough.”
It was sad that I couldn’t refute it because it was too true.
“Well, fine. It’s been noisy anyway because of Da Jeryong from the Gyeongyang Restaurant. The Sun Society members are fuming, saying they’ll find the outcasts who insulted Da Jeryong, and is this your doing too?”
“What’s the Sun Society?”
Yu Sa-yeon silently touched her forehead and slid it to the top.
Ah, I see. It means they’re a group of bald people.
“Don’t underestimate the Sun Society. From masters of Yang energy techniques to wealthy merchants and high-ranking officials. They have members not just in Sacheon but everywhere in the Nine Provinces. It’s especially scary because all of their members aren’t revealed.”
“If they’re Sun Society members, shouldn’t we be able to recognize them from 10 li away…?”
“Wigs.”
“Ah.”
I see. Countless Sun Society spies must live as if they’re not bald while actually being bald.
I might have meddled with a group I couldn’t handle.
It was surprising that I didn’t know about such a large group, but since there were no options to make fun of bald people in the game version of Murim Cheonha, it made sense that I might not know.
But come to think of it, Black Cat made fun of the bald person, so it has nothing to do with me, right?
If it’s Black Cat, she could easily fend off an attack.
At least there are no supreme bald masters in this Sacheon.
“So when you leave, don’t go out all cheerfully. Change your clothes well in the middle and slip out quietly. Black Cat stands out in many ways.”
“Right. Thanks for the advice.”
“If you want to cause trouble, do it outside where it has nothing to do with me, got it?”
Anyone watching would think I’m someone who only causes trouble.
It’s too much to treat me like this just because I’ve been noisy a few times lately after being quiet for 7 years.
We left the inn at dawn after reporting our outing to Yu Sa-yeon.
“If you pull out this string here and fold it like this… the black hat folds up just like a bamboo scroll.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Black Cat let her bangs fall to cover her eyes.
Judging by how her eyes weren’t visible through her hair, it seemed she was using her Black Shadow Qi technique on that part.
It’s not that I wasn’t curious about Black Cat’s face. But as they say, curiosity killed the cat. I didn’t want to know badly enough to risk danger, so we left Sacheon without incident.
“Hmm. It’s been several days, but we haven’t seen a single bandit. It’s peaceful.”
Typically, when you set out with a beauty like this in the martial arts world…
[Kehehehe!! I, the mountain bandit chief, have appeared!]
[Kyaaah! You! We’ll take good care of that pretty one beside you, so leave her and go! Wuhahaha!]
It would be expected for bandits to appear spouting such vulgar lines, but this was Sacheon.
Sacheon, where evil sects have been eradicated and twisted sects thirsty for righteous deeds swarm.
In Sacheon, if word spreads that someone was robbed of even a single coin by bandits, masters from each sect would competitively rush out to capture them, then parade around Sacheon, proclaiming in all directions that they had caught bandits.
Up to several days’ walking distance from Sacheon was a clean zone.
Black Cat and I arrived at the secret cave entrance without any interference.
Secret cave (秘洞)!
There are numerous extraordinary encounters in martial arts novels, and most are lumped together under the term ‘extraordinary encounter.’ Still, in Murim Cheonha, these encounters are divided into several categories.
One of them is the secret cave.
The biggest characteristic of a secret cave, if one had to say, would be mechanisms and tests.
And the fact that the rewards are processed into easily usable forms is perhaps its biggest attraction.
For example, let’s say we met the thousand-year Flood Dragon that supplied the primary material for the veil Black Cat is wearing.
After an epic battle and overcoming numerous hardships, we barely defeated the thousand-year Flood Dragon. But what are these internal core whiskers that the Flood Dragon gives?
They’re materials.
If it’s material, you need to process it to use it.
If it were processed into a finished product, its value would skyrocket. Still, you need to find other materials required for processing or find a craftsman… the effort to turn the material into a finished product is no small matter.
Also, what if, by some extraordinary encounter, you obtained a martial art technique?
But it turns out to be a technique you can’t learn now?
I’m currently learning the quick blade, but the martial art I obtained is the myriad sword technique.
Such things happen frequently, even if you encounter an extraordinary event.
But secret caves are different.
Because they judge your qualifications to learn martial arts through tests and traps in the secret cave, you can usually remember the martial arts placed inside if you break through it.
Even if what’s inside is an elixir or a qi-invigorating treasure, since people have arranged it, it’s usually in a form that can be used immediately without any special processing.
Secret caves are the most suitable extraordinary encounters for me now, who lack the means to process even if I obtain materials.
“Let’s go in.”
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