Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God - Chapter 5
Chapter 5 – Six Years
“My dear son!”
Namgung San-yeong had sired two children with Tang Ho-san.
Their first child, the eldest daughter Tang Gyu-jin, had demonstrated talent so incredible that it caught the eye of not just the Tang Clan Village but even the Nine Sects as well. Yes, everyone in the Sichuan Martial Realm knew of her, the ‘Thousand Petal Beauty’.
Their second child, Tang Yu-chang, was gifted in his own right—though not quite as talented as his elder sister—and had already comfortably earned himself the title of ‘Dark Shadow Genius’.
The two siblings were the promising tiger cubs within the Tang Clan Village who, rather than in any way tarnish it, only glorified the reputation of their father all the more.
To Namgung San-yeong—who wasn’t so blessed as to enjoy a good marital life with her stiff-as-a-board husband—these children were her pride and joy.
“Have you been well?”
“Just when did you come back?” queried San-yeong in pleasant surprise. “Did you obtain what you desired?”
Knowing that the clan head was soon to visit, Yu-chang had undergone six months of seclusion training of his own volition, determined not to show any undesirable traits in front of the Dark Sovereign.
“I can still improve in many ways, but I have at least a small victory in obtaining shadow ki.”
San-yeong pulled him into a hug. “Well done, my son! I knew you could do it!”
Shadow ki allowed its user to become as unseen as a shadow, an excellent technique to have mastered even within the Tang Clan Village. Managing to cultivate even a small amount of it was something to be proud of.
The mother-son duo were enjoying their brief reunion when Yu-chang said something that made one of San-yeong’s eyebrows twitch.
“I heard what happened with the bastard child. Such language. He was so rude to you, Mother.”
“Don’t even mention that foul child. He doesn’t even understand the kindness I have shown him by raising him. To show such insolence toward me! I will not stand idly by as he—”
Yu-chang cut her off then. “So if I may.”
“Hmm?”
“If someone really is supporting him from the shadows, it would be a mistake to frighten the snake away by disturbing the brushes. We cannot let that happen, can we?”
“Yes, you are right. If someone would dare undermine the Nine Dragons Branch Family, then we must crush them at their roots. What do you propose we do?”
“When the clan head visits, we will recommend the bastard to him.”
San-yeong’s eyes widened involuntarily at the shocking suggestion. “What?”
Her son only raised the folding fan in his hand to his mouth, hiding his smile. “Would his backer not then also raise their voice in support of him? We may not yet know how the bastard is being used, but—”
“But they’ll surely do something, perhaps feed the boy an elixir, to try making his display of abilities look somewhat appropriate. Whoever is backing him will have no choice but to reveal themselves to take credit… and that is when we’ll capture them both in one fell swoop.”
“Yes. Precisely that.”
Finally on the same page with her son, San-yeong burst into laughter.
“Ohoho! That is quite the scheme. The boy will have no excuse to give. By the time all is said and done, he will have already fallen out of the clan head’s favor and so be expelled from the clan. Is that your plan?”
“That’s right.”
“However, if we’re not careful, the blame for this could also fall upon our Nine Dragons Branch Family. The clan head could grow furious that we couldn’t control even a single child.”
“That will depend on how we frame it. I will claim to recommend him out of brotherly love, that any trouble that comes from it is the boy’s fault, until all arrows point to him as the root of the problem…”
And in the process, make Yu-chang and his sister seem all the more favorable in comparison.
“But what do you mean by ‘trouble’, my son?”
Yu-chang gave a sly smile at Namgung San-yeong’s question—the very smile he learned from her—and launched into a full explanation of the plan.
Once all the details had been laid out, San-yeong seemed satisfied. However, she still let out a deep, regretful sigh.
“Your elder sister, really! She needs to open her eyes, as you have. She would be excellent in all things, if not for her blind spot when it comes to that child.”
“That just shows how very kind she is at heart. Do you not see yourself, though, how her thoughts too will change after this event?”
Gyu-jin, the eldest of the two siblings, was one of the only people within the Nine Dragons Branch Family who saw Woon-hwi in a favorable light, a fact which San-yeong had always thought a shame.
Just then, the door suddenly slid open to reveal the head maid.
“Please excuse the intrusion, Grand Matron, but there is an urgent message for you.”
“What is it?”
“The first young lady will be visiting Jiulong County in ten days’ time.”
“Jin?” San-yeong echoed. “I had heard she planned to come for the occasion. So she will finally be paying us a visit, ohoho. What is the problem with that?”
“Well, it does appear to be the case that—”
“Out with it!”
Worry narrowed San-yeong’s eyes, causing the head maid’s head to droop even lower.
“We don’t know where she heard tell of it, but the young lady was greatly displeased after hearing what happened at the White Pavilion—”
“What did you say?”
In her anxious frustration, San-yeong was so busy staring daggers at the maid that she failed to notice a spider climbing up above the window.
* * *
Swish! Swish! Swish!
It had been two whole months since I had last taken even a single step outside my cramped room at the White Pavilion. There, quietly, I trained.
My body moved at a fierce pace, each movement possessing the ferocity of a predator chasing down its prey to rip into its throat.
Bam! Bam!
The Twelve Fierce Tiger Steps.
As one of the best basic techniques passed down among vagabonds, it allowed the practitioner to use their entire body as a weapon. Needless to say, mastering it was beyond difficult.
Even now, parts of my body were even screaming out as I trained.
I forced unused muscles to move, right down to the ligaments that strained under the sharp, punctuated movements.
However, there was no better martial art for training my body in a short amount of time.
Every day, I swallowed the ghost pills to cleanse my pressure points and meridians and strengthened my body through extreme muscle training. The result was a steady improvement in my physical abilities.
However, I didn’t have the time to revel in these changes, not if what I learned from Hyeong-sam about the happenings of the martial realm were anything to go by.
“The H-Heavenly Demon Cult? But hasn’t it been six years since the last Heavenly Demon went missing?”
Six years!
It had already been six years.
Six years since the death of ‘Yeon Woon-hwi’.
“That’s why the Nine Great Demon Sects split apart, enveloping the Heavenly Demon Cult in a civil war—”
To be sure, I had assumed some time would pass after I used the Primordial God’s Fate Reversal, but I never expected the gap in time to be so great.
It was my mistake. I had believed the difference would amount to only one, maybe two months. Yet in the years that followed, the world had well and truly changed from the one I once knew.
The Cult was broiled in a civil war, and the members of the Unorthodox Alliance were attempting to seize control over one another. The Central Plains were also eagerly awaiting any chance it provided to eliminate Tian Shan.
It was complete chaos, so great in scale that something could combust at any moment.
The urgency of It left me feeling all the more anxious.
I needed to leave the Nine Dragons Branch Family as quickly as possible.
The obsessive drive to learn more about the details of the Cult’s situation only grew.
“No…” I muttered to myself. “Not yet.”
But I cut that obsession short.
Reckless action as ‘Tang Woon-hwi’ would only lead to irreversible damage. No matter how urgent the situation was, caution had to be my friend more than it ever had before. I needed to take my time with it, learn everything I could, and look for the right opportunity to strike.
The Society had to be involved in the fragmentation of the Cult in some way. I was sure of it.
“The only thing I can even attempt would be making contact with the secret division. But even that’s too dangerous.”
Sichuan should have its own secret branch of the Cult, as all clans did. I just needed to look around for more details. I might even learn something about the whereabouts of my missing master.
That was all I could do, all I could even attempt.
However, I couldn’t be satisfied with just that. There was no telling whether that would give me enough to know where my master had gone.
I needed even more information. I needed a method to learn the truths made secret about my master without catching the eye of the Society.
I could think of only one way.
“The Dark Sovereign’s visit.”
The visitation from the person who rivaled my master in the rankings of the Ten Grand Masters Under Heaven.
I wondered, then, if there was any way I could use his visit to my own ends.
Flap!
The deep breath I let out after using all twelve techniques was laced with an acrid, metallic aftertaste.
I was still too inexperienced with the motions.
After going over all the flaws in my movements, I performed the Twelve Fierce Tiger Steps once again.
My goal was their completion.
I still had a long road ahead of me.
After who knew how long of me focusing purely on my martial arts, my body collapsed like a drenched piece of cotton.
I ate another ghost pill—my supply of which was beginning to run out—and sat in the lotus position to practice the Poison Dragon Essence Art once more. My inner energy began to circulate along that familiar path, as if it had already become one with my body.
One revolution, two revolutions, three revolutions…
After circulating my inner energy a few times, its impurities and my fatigue were expelled from my body.
The training allowed me to maintain some stamina without having to eat any food. Of course, contrary to popular belief, that didn’t mean I never needed to eat.
When I opened my eyes after finishing my ki circulation, I saw a swarm of spiders dropping off a bigu pill in front of me.
“What, this again? I told you to bring me something else!” I griped with a furrowed brow. “I’m fed up with this. Do you want what happened to your friends to happen to you?”
The captain spider gave a startled reply.
「Th-the security in the kitchen is t-tight these days! Sneaking this out of the seclusion training grounds was the best we could do! Please believe us, Junior Lord!」
In truth, I hadn’t turned all the elders into ghost pills.
I had set aside the ones who were weak-willed and, thus, easy to control, or those who participated reluctantly in my betrayal simply because they were unable to oppose pressures from the Society, all so I could use them for my benefit.
By implanting them in spiders or ants, I made them into excellent porters who could secretly bring me food and drinks. They also informed me of the internal affairs of the branch family while they were at it.
“Ugh, this tastes awful.” While forcing myself to chew the bigu pill, I asked, “Well, do you have any additional news? Like where the Dark Sovereign is at this point.”
The captain spider nodded its head enthusiastically.
「Tang… Yu-jang? Yu-chung?」
“You mean Tang Yu-chang.”
It seemed that his intelligence was starting to deteriorate after spending the last few months as a spider.
「Ah, right! That was the name! Anyway, that son, Tang Yu-chang, returned from his seclusion training.」
“About time. If the schedule proceeds as planned, the Dark Sovereign’s visit isn’t too far off. Is that all?”
「N-not at all! It seems that he is scheming something with the Grand Matron against you, Junior Lord.」
“A scheme?”
Intrigued, I gestured with my chin for him to continue.
The captain spider seemed to regain his spirit at that, as he spilled everything he saw and heard.
“So they’re planning on making an example of me during the event? Because they believe someone is backing me?”
「That’s right!」
“Bastards. They think they’re writing a novel or something.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, but I couldn’t fault the mother-son duo for suspecting something like that. The pushover that had taken everything they’d dished out until now had suddenly begun to openly oppose them, almost like he had lost his mind and come back as a new person entirely. No wonder they assumed I had some hidden support network.
How could they suspect that the junior lord of the Heavenly Demonic Cult had incarnated?
Theirs was a reasonable conclusion to draw.
「What will you do now, Junior Lord? You’re not one to just sit by and take it.」
“If that’s the plot they’ve penned, I think I’ll be able to sketch out a decent picture if I frame it well enough.”
Nothing was easier than using an exposed scheme to retaliate against the aggressors.
“Recommendation. A recommendation.”
However, I soon became bored.
“Well, I don’t think I’ll need to do any additional work.”
「H-huh? What do you mean by that?」
“Do I need to explain every single thought I have to you?”
「N-not at all! I only asked to sate my own curiosity. Please do not pay me any mind. H-hahaha!」
Trying to keep up my rapidly fluctuating mood was probably hell for him.
Even while bossing him around and using him, I needed to constantly keep him down so that he knew his place. The people of the Unorthodox Faction were betrayers by nature, after all.
In any case, my decision remained the same.
There was nothing I needed to do, at least not yet. They were already going to recommend me to the Dark Sovereign all on their own, and I, who was once the Junior Heavenly Demon, would have caught the Dark Sovereign’s eyes no matter what they did. All I needed to do was keep my act up so that that duo didn’t suspect a thing while I laid the stage for their downfall.
Using the opportunity it offered me to show off even more wouldn’t be so bad.
After that, I could change my identity by faking my death under the pretense of extreme training, or I could even become the Dark Sovereign’s disciple for the connections it would help me make with the core players of the martial realm of the Central Plains. That would help me obtain higher quality information much easier, and it would be a more efficient path for me to find the whereabouts of my missing master.
There were many things I could do, so in the current moment, there was exactly one thing I needed to do.
In the next few days, I needed to bring my body to peak condition.
I began preparing to train again.
「How intense…」
The captain spider shook his head in disbelief.