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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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On the first floor of the crowded inn,
“Buy some information! It’s about the winner of this year’s Dragon-Phoenix Gathering!”
a young boy carrying a simple information sheet published by the Haomun Sect wandered among the customers.
“A newcomer to the martial world! The crippled tiger who came down from the mountains! And many other interesting stories!”
“A crippled?”
Then, a large man wearing a black tunic stopped his chopsticks and held out a coin to the boy.
“Hey, give me one of those.”
He usually bought information sheets from the orphans who sold them for the Haomun Sect as a form of charity, but today, there was something that caught his eye.
The winner of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, the Clever Tiger, Sima Mancheon.
A faint smile played on the lips of the large man, who was reading the information sheet with Mancheon’s portrait.
“He’s a brat who likes to stand out.”
A faint smile played on the lips of Muk-gang, the Dharma Protector of the Esoteric Buddhist Sect, the Immovable King.
“Hmph… the genius who can deceive even the heavens.”
He savored his tea with an expression that was hard to decipher, whether it was pleased or mocking.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
In a room decorated with portraits of a beautiful, blond-haired girl, Wang Meiyang,
the Seventh Elder of the Sun Moon Holy Cult and a traitor to the Emei Sect,
“Si! Ma! Man! Cheon!”
Ma Yang’s blade swiftly cut through Mancheon’s portrait in a cross shape.
Her large chest heaved up and down, her body flushed with anger. Her breath came in ragged gasps.
“Haah… haah…”
She couldn’t forget the humiliation of that day.
‘Hey, you old hag, stop picking on the cute kids and play with me.’
‘It’s a chicken coop! It’s a stable! Clean the stables-!!’
The latter part was a hallucination born from Ma Yang’s paranoia, but still.
“That brat with no taste in women…”
She was a bit older, but she was still an attractive woman, and she had never been insulted like that before.
And as a master who had reached the peak realm, she was always treated with respect wherever she went. So…
“I will never forget this humiliation!”
She steeled herself, her beautiful purple eyes filled with tears, her face trembling with anger.
And beside the flushed Ma Yang,
-Kiiing~! Kiiing~ Kiiing~!! (Friend is in four pieces! Friend is four times better!!)
The Ten Heavenly Swords, Longyuan, chattered happily, looking at the quartered portrait of Mancheon.
“huh……”
At that sight, Ma Yang, who had been venting her anger alone, felt a sense of futility. To regain her confidence,
she locked the door and,
wearing only underwear that covered her private parts, stood in front of a full-length mirror, enduring the embarrassment.
“It’s not that bad, right?”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
On the second floor of an inn under the jurisdiction of the Nangong Family,
Yan Wuyong, the Tenth Elder of the Sun Moon Holy Cult, was waiting for the true head of the Nangong Family,
the Thunder Emperor, Nangong Tian, one of the Ten Great Masters, for a deal as a Demonic Sect elder and a personal transaction.
“Hehe- hehehehehe.”
Unlike his usual awkward, fake laugh, he was genuinely pleased, reading a cheap information sheet filled with gossip. The notorious public enemy of the martial world,
Wu Ming, the Nameless, was so absorbed that Wuyong raised an eyebrow and asked,
“What’s so interesting?”
“Hmph… he’s my nephew. He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
Wu Ming handed him the information sheet with a proud expression. It had a portrait of a certain person.
[Shocking news for the Nine Great Sects! Terror for the Five Great Families! The Clever Tiger Sima Mancheon appears!!]
As expected, it was a sensationalized, worthless piece of information designed to increase sales.
“To think the baby I saw at his first birthday party would grow up to be like this… it’s a new feeling.”
“I find you more surprising.”
Almost everything about Wu Ming was shrouded in mystery.
Wuyong thought it would be a good opportunity to extract some information from him and brought up a topic he usually avoided.
“Come to think of it… you said you killed the orphanage director who raised you. Was that your first kill?”
Wuyong’s cautious question was a probe, but surprisingly, Wu Ming answered readily.
“No, my first kill was a five-year-old child.”
“What?”
“When I was about five, the orphanage director gathered me and the other orphans and taught us some simple martial arts for a few days.”
Wuyong’s expression hardened at the calm words.
“And then he said, ‘Alright, you understand. Now, kill each other.'”
“So you killed them?”
“If we didn’t, we wouldn’t get any food. To eat, we had to kill. When I was young, I thought that was just common sense.”
Wu Ming, the one who had experienced it, recounted his past nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.
“I lived like that, and when I was about fifteen, the orphanage director suddenly…”
“…said, ‘Deviation and unexpected, how could someone like you reach such a realm… you monster,’ and attacked me.”
“So, well, I killed him as I was taught… ah!”
Wu Ming’s eyes widened as he realized something while speaking. His mouth fell open foolishly.
“Now that I think about it… it wasn’t an orphanage at all, was it?!”
“You’re a bit slow on the uptake.”
Wuyong let out a weary sigh at the absurd remark, but…
“Haha.”
he soon realized from Wu Ming’s awkward smile that it was just his usual silly joke and scowled. Wu Ming shrugged.
“Sorry. I thought the atmosphere was getting a bit tense.”
Just as the annoyed Wuyong was about to retort,
-Creak
“Excuse me. Here’s the chicken porridge you ordered.”
the door opened, and a well-dressed waiter, too well-dressed to be a simple waiter, brought in two bowls of chicken porridge.
“Chicken porridge…?”
“Ah, I ordered it. You haven’t eaten anything since the day before yesterday. Even if you’re a jiangshi, you need to eat something to replenish your energy.”
A deal with the true leader of the Nangong Family, Nangong Tian, a man both revered and feared throughout the martial world.
Wuyong was so nervous that all his plans could be ruined if something went wrong, that he couldn’t bring himself to eat.
Even though he had replaced his body with a jiangshi’s, he couldn’t control his emotions.
“It must be nice, being able to eat in a situation like this.”
Wu Ming immediately agreed with Wuyong’s sarcastic remark.
“Of course, it is.”
He scooped up a spoonful of porridge and put it in his mouth, savoring the savory aroma and warmth.
“You have to eat to live.”
He looked at Wuyong with his muddy black eyes and offered him the chicken porridge.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you if anything happens.”
He offered an awkward smile.
“That’s why you hired me, right?”
“hmm……”
Wuyong silently accepted the chicken porridge and took a bite.
Even though his body didn’t need food, why did it taste so good? It was strange.
At that sight, Wu Ming continued the conversation with a satisfied expression.
“Ah, and speaking of old times, it reminds me of when we first met in our true forms.”
“Don’t.”
Wuyong tried to stop him, not wanting to hear the story, but it was too late.
“I was quite flustered when some little girl asked me to join her plan to destroy the martial world.”
“If I had known you were such a joker, I would have never shown you my true form.”
A plan that couldn’t be executed without the cooperation of the world’s best assassin, Wu Ming.
He had met him in his true form as an equal partner in the deal, but it had been a lifelong mistake.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
In the scenic Martial Alliance garden,
Mancheon felt a complicated emotion welling up inside him as he watched Gwahae skillfully mend his torn tunic with her delicate fingers.
Her profile, slightly tilted as she focused on her sewing, her half-closed blue eyes, her long eyelashes.
The soft warmth of her shoulder against his, the pleasant scent that tickled his nose.
Her well-developed thighs, revealed by the shorts she wore for ease of movement, her slender waist, her full chest, visible even through her clothes.
He had always thought of her as a baby dragon, a child who loved sweets and naps.
But she had become a woman. Now she was a big dragon, a big dragon.
Anyway, he had expected her to grow up, but seeing this feminine side of her,
his heart pounded.
“Hmm… it’s done.”
Gwahae bit the thread to cut it and shyly handed him the mended tunic.
“How is it?”
He immediately put on the tunic.
Honestly, his father had sent him a generous allowance through Jang Sam, so he could have just bought a new one, but…
he was very happy that his cute disciple, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, had taken the trouble to mend it for him.
And it was good to save money when he could.
“When did you get so good at sewing?”
He asked, curiously, since she had never been interested in such things.
“I practiced.”
Gwahae smiled shyly and took out a red silk bundle of snacks she had been cherishing.
“This is…!?”
It was a silk pouch with the characters of Sima Mancheon embroidered in gold thread, worn and tattered with time, but with signs of mending here and there.
“You… still have it…”
“Because it’s a precious gift from you, Mancheon.”
-Thump
She leaned her head against Mancheon’s shoulder, their bodies close.
Mancheon had thought of it as a reunion between a master and disciple, between close friends, but…
the reunion Gwahae wanted was different.
She intertwined her arms with his, like a snake coiling around its prey, and laced their fingers together.
“I missed you.”
It was a reunion between a man and a woman in love.
And at the sight of the snake squeezing its prey, Xiaoshao, who had been watching, was about to intervene, but…
“Stop. What right do you have to interfere between them?”
Jegal Yan, Jegal Liang’s granddaughter and Gwahae’s friend, blocked her way.
“Get out of my way. I need to talk to Young Master Sima…”
“You’re a man, aren’t you?”
A cold sensation, as if cold water had been poured over her. Xiaoshao’s expression hardened.
Of course, she wasn’t saying that Xiaoshao was a real man.
“Young Master Nangong and Young Master Sima are just friends of the same sex, right?”
“You… now…!”
Jegal Yan’s sharp eyes, just like her grandfather Jegal Liang’s, pierced her weak spot.
‘This woman… she knows I’m a girl, and she’s saying this.’
Due to her family’s circumstances, Xiaoshao had to be officially a man, regardless of her true gender.
Her fists clenched at the reality that she couldn’t even be properly jealous of the man she liked being with another woman.
“sigh……”
Frustration, sadness, jealousy, a whirlwind of emotions.
And at that moment, another visitor appeared.
“Young Master-!!”
The Sima Family’s servant, guard, and assassin,
Jang Sam-bung, rushed towards them in a panic, on the verge of shouting, ‘Run away-!!’
-Click-clack click-clack.
The sound of regular, dignified footsteps echoed through the air.
Was it already summer? Pink peach blossoms swirled in the wind.
An alluring yet dignified figure, with beautiful red eyes.
Sima Yeonhwa had arrived.
Besides Jegal Biying, Sima Bu had many “friends” in the Martial Alliance, so she had no trouble entering.
“Who are you?”
Jegal Yan, sensing the unusual atmosphere, blocked Yeonhwa’s way again, but…
“I’m a precious family member of the person behind me. His only younger sister.”
she smiled and casually ignored Jegal Yan.
Following the red thread of fate, the unbreakable bond of blood, she approached her beloved brother.
“Yeonhwa…?”
“I missed you, Brother.”
He had heard she was coming, but Mancheon stood up at his younger sister’s unexpected appearance, and…
the tunic, with its many mended patches, the traces of another woman, naturally caught Yeonhwa’s eye.
“Your clothes are quite worn out. Give them to me.”
She reached for the tunic, to cover it up, to erase the traces, but
-Slap!
Gwahae slapped Yeonhwa’s hand away.
She warned the one who dared to touch the dragon’s treasure, her blue eyes flashing.
“Don’t touch. He’s mine.”
“Ha…? hahaha”
A laugh escaped Yeonhwa’s lips at the absurd words.
My precious brother… my Xiaoxuan, and mine alone.
“My brother is yours? That’s a funny thing to say.”
But contrary to her amused tone, her dark red eyes were not smiling.
Two girls, their gazes locked, with no intention of backing down.
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Ay all the girls is there!!
I feel bad for Xiaoshao tbh