Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God - Chapter 17
Chapter 17 – Run Away, Junior Lord
Tang Gon found Woon-hwi both enigmatic and easy to understand.
‘Does it mean nothing to him? That he was, essentially, evaluated?’ Tang Gon wondered.
Tang Gyu-jin was far too nice. Meanwhile, Tang Yu-chang was far too ambitious, not to mention his lofty pride.
Tang Gyu-jin couldn’t withstand the pressure of being evaluated, while Tang Yu-chang found being evaluated unpleasant.
No, “unpleasant” was not the right word. Rather, he was wrathful.
He acted as if being a member of the Nine Dragons Branch Family naturally meant one should follow him.
That was why, when Tang Gon had chosen not to support him, he had shown his displeasure rather than attempt to persuade Tang Gon to support him.
Because Tang Yu-chang had been trying to validate himself through his high status instead of proving himself, Tang Gon had become angry with him.
However, Woon-hwi was the complete opposite.
He acted as if being evaluated was only natural.
No, to be more precise, it was more like he simply did not care.
For example, look at him now.
He was not concerned in the slightest that Tang Tae and Tang Jin had left immediately.
Tang Gon wondered if Woon-hwi was only acting like their actions did not wound his pride, but no… Having been around Woon-hwi a while, Tang Gon could tell that was absolutely not the case.
Woon-hwi had confidence, as if certain they would follow him sooner or later, as if receiving a perfect score had always been inevitable.
‘…It might be that the one actually doing the evaluating was Young Master Woon-hwi.’
Woon-hwi had said he had seen the three of them even in the midst of his duels with Tang Yu-chang and Tang Gyu-jin.
It was unlikely he had heard their conversations from within that thunderous clamor, but he might have seen their expressions and gestures.
If that was how he had gauged Tang Tae and Tang Jin, then his certainty that they would inevitably follow him made sense.
From what Tang Gon knew, one did not simply come to possess that type of attitude.
It was a capability only of rulers who had others to act as their hands and feet.
Tang Ho-san and the Dark Sovereign…
Tang Gon wondered, Why did the faces of those two come to mind?
* * *
“Ahhhhh! Arghh!”
“Y-Young Master! Please calm down—”
“Shut up! Everyone, get the fuck out!!”
“Kyaaaah!”
The Red Pavilion had been thrown into pandemonium.
Since losing his duel with Woon-hwi, Tang Yu-chang had been shrieking like a madman, unleashing his fury on everything around him.
Items and furniture were destroyed and maids and servants ran away, frightened out of their wits.
“Woon-hwiiiii!! I’ll kill you. I’ll absolutely kill you!!”
Tang Yu-chang could not forget the look Tang Ho-san had given him at the practice grounds.
Apathy.
It was akin to the look one gave an ant crawling by.
Tang Yu-chang knew very well what that look meant.
Wasn’t that the very same look his father had shown that bastard in the past?
Tang Yu-chang could not let things stay like this.
He was the one who would someday surpass the Nine Dragons Branch Family and become the head of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
He could not stay defeated by such lowly trash.
“…Dark arts! That’s right. It must have been dark arts! There’s no other way that piece-of-shit bastard could have beat me! There’s no other way to explain it!!”
Tang Yu-chang had been biting off his fingernails until his fingertips were bleeding, but now, as if he had chanced upon some huge secret, his complexion brightened.
“His backer must have cast some sort of wicked sorcery on the bastard. That explains how he was able to have such a match with Sister. How dare he deceive us in front of so many of the members of our clan! But I guess that’s lowly trash for you!”
Tang Yu-chang spent a long time wracking his brain for a way to unmask Woon-hwi’s wicked guise and capture his father’s attention once more.
But there simply was not enough time.
There was not even a month left until the Dark Sovereign’s visit.
“I need to send word to Mother.”
Namgung San-yeong was currently taking care of a certain matter outside the family estate.
He had wanted to not cause his mother to worry, but now was not the time to be concerned about that.
He hurried to ring the bell to summon a maid.
At the same time, elsewhere.
「Where in the world is this?」
Captain Spider had been stuck to the side of Namgung San-yeong’s carriage for two days as the carriage headed outside of the Nine Dragons province and entered some forest.
「Eesh, I shouldn’t go so far away…!」
Ghosts restricted by the magic imprisonment chain were unable to venture too far from their master. If they did, the link with their soul would break and they would perish.
Just as Captain Spider feared that he would need to head back, the carriage finally came to a stop before a shabby temple deep inside the forest.
It was a miracle it had not already collapsed.
However, Namgung San-yeong tidied up her appearance like she was accustomed to the place and stepped down from the carriage.
“Wait here.”
“As you command.”
After ordering her personal guard—brought with her from the Namgung Noble Clan—to stand guard outside, she pushed against the shrine’s main door and it creaked open.
“The master templar is waiting.”
“I didn’t even send notice ahead of time. Interesting.”
“The master templar can see 1,000 kilometers away and peek at 1,000 things in the future. He sent me ahead knowing your arrival was imminent, Follower Namgung.”
“Hohohoho. That ability is indeed the reason I continue to seek him.”
The one who had opened the door was a pagegirl whose complexion was as pallid as the dead.
On her forehead were inscribed red words that shone ominously.
「Jiangshi! And an advanced jiangshi at that!」
Captain Spider was greatly shocked to see the disturbance before him.
Advanced jiangshi were jiangshi who retained their memories from their time alive and could think and act on their own.
They were so difficult to create that most Fangshi practitioners were reluctant to refine even one.
But this temple was using an advanced jiangshi as a servant?
「What in the world is this place?」
The entire place reeked of danger.
At this point, Captain Spider deliberated once more.
If he brought back what he had learned so far to the junior lord, the junior lord would still be very pleased.
However, that was it. The junior lord would not release the magic imprisonment chains for only this much information.
「If only I could figure out what kind of people they are…!」
And so Captain Spider decided to endure the danger because obtaining additional information could lead to a huge jackpot.
Moreover, he had been an elder of the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon when alive.
He might be in a miserable state now, but he was not afraid of this kind of danger.
Fwip, shwip!
Captain Spider nervously tried as much as possible to not trigger the advanced jiangshi’s senses. After securing a safe distance, he followed behind the two of them.
Namgung San-yeong arrived at quarters in the deepest parts of the shrine.
Jangle, jangle.
There, a middle-aged man with sunken eyes and matted long hair like a vagrant was ringing a bell.
“I beseech thee. I beseech thee. Please bestow upon me more divine decrees. Please grant me more illuminating divine decrees. I ask of thee.”
“Greetings, Master Templar.”
Namgung San-yeong respectfully bowed at her waist to greet him.
The bell he had been ringing suddenly stopped moving.
“I see you’re once again here because something is not going smoothly!” he said.
“If that were not the case, why would I come seeking you, Master Templar?” replied Namgung San-yeong.
“How greedy you are! Even on ordinary days, god serves as witness to people loyal to him. He despises people who only come to him when they need something and proceed to demand every little thing from him!”
“But what does he think of people who, every time, pay fortune-telling fees that normal people can’t even conceive of?”
“Then he thinks they’re cute! Heehee! Heehee!”
Pleased by the response, Namgung San-yeong nodded and gestured with her chin at the servant who had come with her.
The servant set the load from his back onto the ground, and it made a rather heavy thud as it sent dust flying.
The one referred to as “Master Templar” cocked his head bizarrely and approached the load. “Then shall we see how cute god finds this?”
His movements looked bizarre. He moved like a doll whose joints were broken.
The servant had a look of fear on his face and hurried to step away from the load. However, Namgung San-yeon looked as calm as ever.
「Is he from the direct line of the Mao Shan Sect? But he looks shadier than that… Maybe from a sect derived from them?」
Captain Spider fully utilized all his knowledge to try to determine the identity of this “master templar.”
Not only did he have the ability to create advanced jiangshi, but he also had the skills to deploy formation spells in various places in the shrine.
Someone this skilled should be fairly well-known in Jianghu.
However, no matter how much he thought about it, no one came to mind.
It felt like something was tickling his brain, on the brink of being remembered, but it would not come to him.
The master templar opened a crate among the load and smiled widely upon seeing that it was filled with silver ingots. “God, does this please thee? It does, you say? Heehee! I am pleased as well,” he said. “It seems God is very satisfied.”
But suddenly…
Bang!
Namgung San-yeong plodded over and shut the crate’s lid with one hand.
“Then you should put in an equivalent amount of work for me, right?”
“In the material world, don’t people put down a deposit before work commences?”
“If you are successful, I’ll add another one of these crates as payment.”
“Heeheehee! Then that changes things.”
The master templar cackled wildly like a madman for a while before abruptly stopping.
Menacing shafts of light could momentarily be seen highlighted in his eyes.
His limbs, which had been moving with a life of their own, had returned at some time to their rightful place and now stiffened. He stood fully upright and began to emanate an aura of unusual authority.
He was emanating such a strong aura of power that he seemed a completely different person.
“What may I help you with?” the master templar asked.
Namgung San-yeong’s eyes sparkled. Whenever she had seen the master templar looking like this, he had always delivered whatever she asked for.
“Do you recall the favor I requested not long ago?”
“Your son—”
“He is not my son.”
“Then I will refer to him as your family’s illegitimate child. In any case, isn’t the brainwashing you asked for already in progress?”
‘He’s talking about the junior lord.’
Captain Spider approached more closely to better hear the details.
“I bet you already know that your spell isn’t taking effect. I wish for you to strengthen it.”
“Hm. Is brainwashing him not enough?”
“It looks like that won’t be enough to appease my anger.”
“Please do explain.”
Namgung San-yeong’s eyes shone menacingly as she asked, “Can you make him an advanced jiangshi?”
Since the quarrel with Tang Gyu-jin, her thoughts had completely changed.
‘It can no longer end at the Dark Sovereign’s visit! If Gyu-jin really does tell that bastard child the truth… I need to make sure he can never escape my grasp.’
On top of that, on her way here she had received a message from Tang Yu-chang.
That bastard and his backer have used some kind of wicked sorcery, so my position is in danger. Even Sister has…
If the contents were to be believed, then she could not leave him be.
“I see you wish to exploit him for the rest of his life. Kya kya kya!” The master templar burst out laughing loudly.
「These crazy scoundrels!」
Captain Spider felt a wave of nausea and furtively backed away.
Even though he still did not know the master templar’s identity, he was sure the man was highly ranked.
Meaning he would be too much for Woon-hwi to handle when Woon-hwi had yet to fully recover his past life’s level of skill.
Captain Spider felt it necessary to notify him of the peril.
If he reported everything he had seen here, Woon-hwi would probably be able to immediately determine the master templar’s identity.
Not to mention that it would make it easier to put countermeasures into place. That was the junior lord’s specialty, after all.
However…
Grrr.
Shivers went up and down Captain Spider’s back, and he promptly stopped moving.
A bestial cry reverberated through the area.
But it was not the sound of some wolf howling in a forest.
This sound had a far more menacing quality to it. It was the sound of multiple things.
「Death ki? No, this is closer to monster ki! Then… Don’t tell me, they’re beast jiangshi!?」
Beast jiangshi, as their name implied, were jiangshi made from dead animals.
Because they could be made by sewing various corpses together like patchwork, they boasted a unique disposition like the magical monsters of legend.
There were not many sects capable of creating these jiangshi because they required such high skill… but it wasn’t too much of a surprise considering this place used an advanced jiangshi as a mere servant.
Captain Spider quickly looked around.
In various places in the temple where darkness had heavily fallen, will-o’-the-wisps could be seen slowly lighting up.
One wisp, then two wisps, then three…
The continuously increasing number of wisps now numbered close to twenty.
A smell rotten enough to sting one’s nose came wafting his way.
One by one, they were looking at Captain Spider with saliva drooling from their mouths.
Advanced jiangshi, beast jiangshi, temple, master templar, dangerous atmosphere…
There was only one place that possessed all of these attributes.
The Black Bone Ghost Valley.
What had begun as a branch of the Mao Shan Sect had later been assimilated into the Heavenly Demon Cult. The group had been loyal for hundreds of years.
However, due to a recent conflict with the junior lord, they had caused a commotion, wanting to withdraw from the Unorthodox Alliance.
「Dammit…! It was Black Bone Ghost Valley, not the Namgung Noble Clan! Like the junior lord said, my intelligence really has degraded since possessing the body of a spider. How could I have not thought of the Black Bone Ghost Valley?」
In the unorthodox faction, the Black Bone Ghost Valley specialized the most in Fangshi techniques for controlling wicked beasts and zombie servants.
However, since they hardly left the Tian Shan Mountains, the Captain Spider had failed to consider them as an option.
Moreover, weren’t the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Unorthodox Alliance in the midst of a civil war?
If they were planning on expanding into the Central Plains despite their restrictions, Woon-hwi would be in immediate danger.
The problem was… Captain Spider could not see any way out of this place.
He was already encircled by wicked beasts.
Regardless of Captain Spider’s nervousness, within the quiet quarters, only the voices of the master templar and Namgung San-yeong could be heard.
“If you provide the cost of the required ingredients, then it should not be a problem.”
“Are you telling me the fees you have been collecting all this time are somehow not enough?”
“Fees and material costs are separate matters, don’t you know? But since you, Follower Namgung, have been a long-time patron of mine, I will ask for only the actual cost. I shall not make a profit here. What do you think? Do you agree?”
“Fine. I’ll add another crate to this, then. Will that be enough?”
“That will be sufficient!” The master templar smiled widely. “I’ll start by taking care of the unwelcome guest you have brought with you.”
Before Captain Spider could escape, the Master Templar rang the bell in his hand.
Ding! Di-di-di-ding!
At this moment, the wicked beasts that had been waiting, all of them bizarrely shaped, burst through the darkness and tore apart Captain Spider.
「Run away, Junior Lord…!」
Captain Spider’s last will was weakly conveyed to Woon-hwi through his spirit.