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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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After seeing off Ho Cheon-an, who had departed on the Tang family’s Flying Heaven Carriage, Black Cat organized the thoughts swirling in her mind.
Ho Cheon-an had requested her to find out about his origins.
‘Could he have lost his memories for some reason?’
Tracing Ho Cheon-an’s activities wasn’t that difficult, but she couldn’t extend beyond a certain point.
Considering the Wolbok-dang’s information network, it was a strange situation.
‘It wasn’t just blocked. Senior Ho clearly lived in a hidden place when he was young.’
Probably a secret place.
‘For a person to live without leaving any traces, there’s no answer other than a secret place.’
Other information brokers would curse at such words.
Secret place.
Or a secret realm.
Secret places or secret realms usually referred to places that were hidden, where natural formations were formed as some creature that could instinctively handle qi on energy veins took residence.
‘Spirit beasts, or demonic beasts. Or spirit grass.’
The spirit beasts or demonic beasts people talked about weren’t really beings from another world.
They were just species that were difficult to grow in normal natural environments or had difficulty accumulating qi for survival or reproduction.
Or those that had mutated and survived due to long-term exposure to extreme qi.
To ask her to find such a secret place?
It was the height of putting the cart before the horse to request finding a place where one could touch billions if only found.
‘I didn’t think a person would come out of a secret place.’
Because secret places were generally created over time, Black Cat was also trapped in preconceptions.
It wasn’t easy to think that people could create secret places as needed.
However, Black Cat’s frame of preconceptions broke after experiencing Hyeon Cheon-ja’s secret cave.
‘If people can create such an extraordinary secret cave with their abilities, what reason is there that they can’t create a secret place?’
Black Cat also couldn’t know if the creator of Hyeon Cheon-ja’s secret cave was really Hyeon Cheon-ja, but it was certain that he was a genius and expert that transcended eras.
Is there a law that such a person can’t exist in the present age?
Black Cat thought of Ho Cheon-an.
If Ho Cheon-an hadn’t let her experience Hyeon Cheon-ja’s secret cave herself, could she have come up with such thoughts?
Black Cat felt burdened.
In the end, had Ho Cheon-an given her a hint to know about his past?
‘If Senior Ho knows about others’ enlightenment, it’s more plausible that he gained such ability in a secret place.’
Although it was a completely wrong inference, Black Cat, who had no way of knowing that Ho Cheon-an had been hit by a truck and flown from another world, thought it was more plausible that Ho Cheon-an had gained the ability to see enlightenment in a secret realm rather than gaining it from bare ground.
‘It won’t be an easy task.’
Even if the Wolbok-dang members were excellent, it was still a matter of finding a secret realm.
Since it was uncertain whether it would succeed even if she personally took charge of the matter, Black Cat decided to make time.
‘Wait for me, Senior. I’ll return with a good gift.’
Black Cat smiled slightly as she thought of Ho Cheon-an.
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Click.
As soon as I heard the sound, I kicked out of the carriage and jumped out.
My legs had no strength, so I rolled on the ground, but even the collision with the ground was incredibly welcome.
“Oh my, are you alright?”
“…Ugh…”
The one who grabbed me and helped me up was a middle-aged woman.
“Th-thank you.”
“It’s nothing. You seem to be around second-rate, but it looks like you had severe motion sickness from the Flying Heaven Carriage.”
I trembled for a moment.
How many times had we flown up on the hill roads?
I couldn’t remember. I only remembered that it was more than twice.
“Oh dear, oh dear, tsk tsk… To think you came riding Tang Do-yeon’s Flying Heaven Carriage.”
“Well, it looks like the person’s soul has all but left their body.”
People around who looked like maintenance staff each made a comment seeing my state.
“I’m sorry for giving you such a shocking experience, guest. That child didn’t mean any harm…”
I unknowingly looked at the middle-aged woman, who smiled awkwardly and made a fist salute.
“I am Tang Chu-ye, the Ten Nights Hall Master.”
“…As I am a Sacheon outcast, please just call me Outcast Ya.”
“Alright. Outcast Ya. First, I’m telling you this so you don’t have a bad impression of the Sacheon Tang family, but our family doesn’t make such monstrous carriages. It’s just the result of one craftsman going overboard, and such ridiculous driving is impossible unless it’s Do-yeon.”
I sat on a chair with Tang Chu-ye’s support and drank the water she handed me.
“To begin with, no matter how sturdy the carriage is, how can it fly through the air? The horses wouldn’t even be able to withstand that impact. It’s because Do-yeon perfectly coordinates the four horses with her man-horse unity horsemanship technique that she can dissipate that impact.”
“…Then what about that air posture control you mentioned?”
“Sigh, even among craftsmen, there are eccentrics. Why would they research a function to balance in the air when vehicles don’t fly in the first place… Anyway, you’ve suffered a lot because of Do-yeon and that child.”
So, are you saying I was accidentally caught up in the collaboration between the only reckless rider and mad engineer in the Tang family and was brought to the Tang family riding a carriage roller coaster?
“But Miss Do-yeon was saying something about being a specialist Flying Heaven Carriage coachman…”
Tang Chu-ye’s face reddened.
“Those children even argued that they should take a test to drive the Flying Heaven Carriage. They even made the test themselves. But people who want to drive the Flying Heaven Carriage…”
There wouldn’t be any.
“Sigh.”
Right, isn’t Tang Do-yeon of the same generation as that Tang Do-gyeong?
If she’s compatible enough with Tang Do-gyeong, who caused all sorts of commotion saying he would create fist techniques, Tang Do-yeon must have quite an unusual personality too.
Let’s be careful when meeting anyone of the Do generation in the Tang family from now on.
“It might be giving you both the disease and the cure, but thanks to riding the Flying Heaven Carriage, you arrived at the Tang family compound quickly, right? So please rest well and replenish your energy in the guest quarters.”
“…Yes.”
“Even if you make any mistakes in the Tang family compound, if you say you came riding Do-yeon’s Flying Heaven Carriage, they might overlook it once.”
Just how far has its notoriety spread?
I wanted to protest that they shouldn’t let guests ride it in the first place if it’s that bad, but the thought that such protests wouldn’t have been listened to if they were going to work in the first place flashed through my mind, so I gave up.
Anyway, I did gain one free pass to prevent mistakes.
Come to think of it, that woman was in the Tang family.
If she made the air posture control device, it makes sense.
As I was stabilizing my mind and body while adapting to land sickness, Tang Do-yeon, whose face had become shiny after finishing the handover of the carriage, appeared.
It seems the stress from head to toe had been completely relieved due to the exciting ride.
“Shall we go, Outcast Ya?”
“…Yes.”
Do-yeon and I left the armory and started walking through the Tang family compound.
Perhaps due to the black hat characteristic of Sacheon outcasts, attention immediately gathered.
To begin with, this is the Tang family compound where only Tang family people live.
Since even external personnel can only enter and leave with permission, it would be a spectacle just to see an unfamiliar person walking around, and on top of that, that outsider is a Sacheon outcast.
Although no one blocked the way, the gazes were quite piercing.
“First, let’s unpack at the guest quarters and then go to greet the Family Head.”
“…You mean the Family Head?”
I asked back in surprise.
Meet the head of the Tang family?
Me, just a second-rate martial artist Hocheon-an?
An opportunity so precious that a storyteller could make a living for life just by telling the tale of meeting the Tang family head?
“Hoho, yes. Oh, come to think of it…”
Tang Do-yeon pondered for a moment and then nodded.
“Well, since you’re the person involved, it should be fine. Have you perhaps heard the news that brother Do-gyeong created a new martial art?”
“You mean the one after the Fierce Tiger Fist technique?”
“Oh, you’ve heard? Outcasts seem to be quite well-informed… It’s called the ‘Tang Family Fierce Tiger Dark Dragon Fighting Technique’. I heard that Outcast Ya helped in creating that martial art. I don’t know the reason why the Family Head wants to meet you, but I think it might be because of that.”
“Hmm.”
It seems the martial art Tang Do-gyeong created is quite useful.
I was a bit puzzled that they said I had a share in it.
In fact, if we talk about the crafting skill that goes best with assassination techniques, it’s undoubtedly gambling.
After all, the core of assassination techniques is secrecy, deception, and dexterity.
And in fact, my gambling skills are closer to magic techniques than those of real gamblers.
Anyway, since I’ve mastered it all, the type doesn’t matter much, but real gambling techniques are supposed to deceive without the victim even knowing they’ve been deceived.
It’s better not to draw attention in the first place than to deceive flawlessly while being noticed.
The reason I demonstrated my techniques in front of Tang Do-gyeong was that I knew he would struggle due to lack of proficiency in assassination techniques after gaining enlightenment.
Gambling techniques give quite a lot of correction to assassination techniques, so I thought if he could absorb even a little of the gambling techniques, it would help in learning assassination techniques.
I wasn’t certain, but it was a kind of intuition I had built up while living as Ho Cheon-an.
It seems injecting gambling techniques into Tang Do-gyeong had an even greater effect than I thought.
“How is the martial art that Tang Do-gyeong created? I mean, the internal evaluation within the Tang family.”
“He held a demonstration of the martial art gathering the direct and branch line members of the Tang family, and most gave an enthusiastic response. There were quite a few blood relatives who clamored to learn it right there, even though it was an incomplete martial art.”
“Oh.”
Is this a sign that I can expect a hefty reward from the meeting with the Tang family head?
It seemed they had called me like this to have a meeting with the family head, give some words of encouragement, and provide a reward, since I had also contributed to Tang Do-gyeong creating a good martial art.
Hey, if I play this right, I might even be able to sell the Jade Wine Command Pill at a very high price.
Should I invest that money properly in some merchant group?
Memorizing which merchant groups will prosper or fail is the basics of basics in Murim Cheonha.
If you miss out on that, you’ll have to run around working your bones off to earn money instead of training in martial arts, when money could be copying itself automatically if you knew.
While imagining such things, we arrived at the family head’s quarters.
“Are you that ‘Brother Ya’, the Sacheon outcast?”
But somehow, the atmosphere felt strange.
Tang Guanglie, the head of the Tang family, was glaring at me with burning eyes.
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