Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God - Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Let’s go a round.

Skitter!

Captain Spider climbed down the roof of the house where grand matron Namgung San-yeong resided.

‘No matter what happens, I will obtain information about the sorcerer and return to the junior lord!’

Captain Spider’s head was filled only with the desire for any sort of accomplishment.

He couldn’t live like a small fry forever.

In truth, every moment he lived as a spider drained him of his human dignity. He could feel his intelligence and ego deteriorating as well.

To stop that, he needed to enter the good graces of the junior lord.

He knew that the junior lord was the type who never forgave anyone who betrayed him once, so he had no hope but for the junior lord’s mercy.

‘If possible… I could ask him about my daughter’s whereabouts!’

Captain Spider quickly shook his head, dismissing thoughts about the reason he’d had been forced to betray the junior lord.

He needed to focus on his work first. No matter what happened, he needed to at least find the sorcerer and see if he dropped some crumbs.

‘She’s with someone…’

Captain Spider narrowed his eight eyes and observed Namgung San-yeong.

An unfamiliar woman was standing in front of her.

At first, he thought that maybe that other woman was the sorcerer, but he soon realized that she was Namgung San-yeong’s daughter because of how similar their faces looked.

The Thousand Petal Beauty, Tang Gyu-jin.

From what he remembered, she was the successor to the Nine Dragons Branch Family who had, oddly enough, gone and joined the Qingcheng Sect.

She’d been born with talent that was difficult to explain, and she’d ended up being taken in by Taoist Woo-ho, a close friend of her father, Tang Ho-san.

Although she hadn’t received her full certification yet, the Thousand Petal Beauty was the representative female master of the Qingcheng Sect. Her fame had even reached the ears of the Cult.

However, the biggest reason Captain Spider remembered Tang Gyu-jin was because within this house that was filled only with scumbags, she was the only one who treated “Tang Woon-hwi” with warmth.

Of course, due to her leaving for the Qingcheng sect, everything had ended up like this.

‘But compared to her brutal mother and younger brother, she looks a bit more gentle.’

However, the blood of Namgung San-yeong couldn’t be judged by appearance alone.

Captain Spider suspected that the two of them were scheming something, so he carefully perked his metaphorical ears.

Namgung San-yeong’s annoyed voice reverberated within the room.

“Are you saying you will stab a dagger into your mother’s heart?”

“It’ll be nothing compared to the dagger you’ve stabbed into Woon-hwi’s heart, Mother.”

“Don’t forget that I carried you in my stomach, Daughter. You dare—”

‘Woon-hwi?’

It was clear that the junior lord was the topic, but rather than scheming, it seemed that the mother and daughter were having quite the disagreement.

A very emotional disagreement at that.

What was going on here?

Captain Spider couldn’t understand it, so he just blinked his eight eyes.

***

Fwoop, fwoop, fwap!

The long staff in my hand moved quickly, leaving many shadows in the air.

Dispersing Flower Staff Technique.

This martial art was usually learned by warriors from outside the Sichuan Tang Clan when they joined the clan.

The staff was the most basic form of all weapons: spears, swords, blades, axes, even whips.

For me, whose goal was to learn the sword, the staff was a basic weapon I needed to master.

As I looked at the straw scarecrow, I could see that I had created deep indents in it. None of the indents deviated from the target marks I had initially created.

Smack!

I ended it with an upswing.

Crunch.

The scarecrow’s head was severed at an angle and fell to the ground.

Tap.

I rested my staff and let out a deep breath. “Fuu.”

Because I’d been swinging the staff without using any inner energy, with the goal of pure training, my entire body was drenched in sweat.

And…

Fwoosh.

As I circulated my inner energy to cleanse my exhaustion, I felt something shake within my dantian.

Wriggle!

My inner energy was slowly condensing into an “essence.”

Two manifestations.

It was the level when the appearance of yang light could be seen, when the inner energy of the dantian began to show its characteristics and began to affect the body as well.

In the Poison Dragon Essence Art, the level of Ghost Dragon—when I would be able to start producing poison—wasn’t far away now.

At that level, it would be possible to produce poison and imbue it into weapons.

The satisfaction I was gaining from slowly climbing the stages couldn’t be explained in words.

It made sense now, why martial artists couldn’t forget this joy and continued to devote themselves to martial arts even when they got old.

I pushed out my hand toward Tang Gon, who had been observing me with a scrunched face from the side. “Five coins.”

“Damn it! Here! Take them!”

The coins dropped into my plan.

Hehehe. From the weight, I could tell there were indeed five.

He could have attempted to cheat me at least once, but seeing how he never had, it seemed this old man had some integrity.

“Lighten up a little. A martial arts instructor should be glad that his cute disciple is achieving great things. How can you sit there with a frown on your face?”

“That disciple is robbing his martial arts instructor when he should be showing respect instead! I have no more money left, really!”

“Then why do you keep making bets?”

“Because I am angry! I’m pissed off! I need to win a little as well!”

He had thrown away his manners and was just openly making his complaints known.

‘This is why gambling is dangerous, everyone. Never gamble. You’ll turn into him if you do.’

It had already been ten days since I began learning martial arts from Tang Gon.

During that period, I had cleanly robbed him of his money, and I was now progressing into the foundational techniques of the Eighteen Basic Weapon Arts.

Mastering the Feathered Steps and basic fist, palm, finger, and leg techniques was a world of its own, but I was now attempting to learn the weapon arts after just barely beginning my journey.

Tang Gon had objected to it at first. He had said it would be too much for me to learn weapon arts because I still had many assassination techniques and poison arts I needed to learn.

However, because of my solid reasoning (he immediately fell for it when I said, “You scared?”) he had ended up teaching me a few techniques.

He had made a bet, however, saying he would take me for all the money I had and whatever.

This was the result.

“Wait, but didn’t you say that yesterday was your first time wielding a staff?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll kill you if you’re cheating, all right?”

“Hoh! Is that how you should speak to your second young master!”

“Go and tell the grand matron if you don’t like it.”

It turned out that after having even his soul robbed, Tang Gon became brazen without limit.

“Just hammer this into your head: It might be a little weird for me to say this myself, but I’m a genius with the Wild Wind Dance. Would it be any different for these foundational techniques?”

“That’s because the Wild Wind Dance is the culmination of all the martial arts of the Tang Clan! Since you grew up watching the martial arts of the Tang Clan since you were young, it makes some sense that you’d be able to somewhat see its ‘flow’ and learn its form. But the Eighteen Basic Weapon Arts are different—”

Tang Gon laid out all his reasoning as if trying to prove that he wasn’t going crazy… before just giving up and letting out a sigh.

“Argh! What’s the point in saying all this? In the end, I was robbed today as well.”

“That’s why I lowered the bet to practically nothing for you. Where else will you find such a kind disciple who cares so much for his master’s financial well-being?”

“Practically nothing? That was half my monthly wage!”

It seemed like he might actually explode if I prodded him any further, so I swiftly changed the subject.

“More importantly, my feet keep twisting toward the right during the second technique. How am I supposed to move my hips there?”

“…How cheeky. How did I end up being bound to a boy like you?! Argh!”

One of Tang Gon’s strengths was that even while complaining, he never cut corners when he taught me.

Thanks to that, I’d been able to learn martial arts at an accelerated pace.

All the martial arts I’d known before had just been knowledge memorized from the Heavenly Demon Archive.

I was glad I could quickly amend my weak practical skills and narrow the gap between the practical and the theoretical.

After that, I continued to practice the Dispersing Flower Staff Technique. Only after asking questions about the movements and receiving answers to those questions did we finally finish our lesson.

Around twelve hours later, the lesson finally ended, and I headed to the same place as always.

“You’re here again, Young Master! Come in!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know there’s no one else who comes and spends as consistently as me.”

“You are the best, of course. I will guide you to your usual seat. For your food and drink…?”

“The same as yesterday.”

“Please enjoy a quick and comfortable time! You lot, what are you doing! Serve the young master this instant!”

It was the tenth day since I’d begun to regularly visit the Clear Wind Tavern.

Since I always ordered a full plate with alcohol, the owner of the shop always showed me and Tang Gon respect whenever we came.

“Are you perhaps the owner of this establishment, Young Master?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

We were enjoying a ten-year-old Shaoxing wine when Tang Gon said something odd while staring deep into his wine cup. “Or do you have some shares of ownership in it?” he continued.

“I don’t have anything of the sort. As if the grand matron would give me something like that.”

“…Then why do you come here every day? There are many other taverns around here.”

Why? Because I was waiting for someone.

However, when I took a look around, I found that the person I was waiting for wasn’t here today either.

The tenth failure in a row.

Were there no followers of the Demon-Worshipping Divine Fire Sect in this area?

But I was pretty sure they had a secret branch in Jiulong County.

Maybe they had all died or at least been hurt in the civil war?

Unease dominated my mind since I had no way of knowing, but I tried as much as possible to not let it show. I just continued to leave my mark.

Still wishing that someone would find this mark at some point.

“Why? Don’t like the wine?”

“Of course I like it. It’s good. But, hmm! No, well, it’s not like I don’t like drinking, but…”

The reason Tang Gon always hung around with me like this, even while complaining, was because I treated him with drinks worth much more than the money I took from him.

What other ordinary member of the clan would be able to enjoy such expensive drinks and food every day? It was all thanks to me.

Of course, I didn’t have nearly enough funds to pay for all this.

Then where was I getting the money? Nowhere. Everything was being put on my pavilion’s tab.

She would probably fall over from shock when she received the bill in a month. ‘That’s why you shouldn’t have done those things to me, Mother. Kekeke.’

“By the way, did you hear the news?”

“What news?”

“The first young lady returned today.”

“…Elder Sister did?”

“Yes.”

I felt a little weird for a moment.

Tang Gyu-jin.

Although I hadn’t seen her yet, she had left a very clear mark in the memories of “Tang Woon-hwi.”

She was the only person he had been able to lean on in this broken family.

In fact, Tang Gyu-jin had sent letters regularly to “Tang Woon-hwi.”

Asking how he had been, if he was living comfortably, if his martial arts training was going well, asking if he would go on a walk since the weather was nice, and so on. Each letter had been filled with worry and concern for him.

They had continued to arrive while I lived my life, but I had never responded to them.

I didn’t think I had a need to since I wasn’t “Tang Woon-hwi.”

Even if Tang Gyu-jin showed favor to “Tang Woon-hwi,” the problem was whether she would continue to do so in the future.

I was planning on enacting my will to completely destroy Namgung San-yeong.

Would Tang Gyu-jin still be able to stand on “Tang Woon-hwi’s” side? Probably not. She would take her mother’s side.

“I hope she’s made a graceful return.”

Still, for some reason I hoped she would keep her good relations with “Tang Woon-hwi.”

Well, I had no idea if that would be the case or not.

I put down the cup I had gently toasted with Tang gon.

Clack!

“I think it’s about time.”

“Are you really thinking of going through with it?”

“Yeah.”

“The manor will become a chaotic mess.”

“You’re smiling too much to pretend to be worried.”

“Ah, really? Oops.”

Tang Gon tried to suppress the wriggling in the corners of his lips, but he seemed to be having a difficult time doing so.

I mean, it probably was incredibly entertaining to watch this unfold from the sidelines.

There was nothing more fun than watching people fight or watching something go up in flames, but he was going to be able to enjoy both at once. Yeah, this was going to be a masterpiece.

I had strengthened my body somewhat, and the Dark Sovereign’s visit wasn’t too far off either. I was going to have some real fun playing with fire.

***

“Deliver this… to the Red Pavilion?”

Hyeong-sam’s eyes quaked when I handed him the letter.

The Red Pavilion was where Third Young Master Tang Yu-chang lived. He probably felt like I’d just ordered him to throw himself into the tiger’s den.

“Why? You don’t want to? Should I get someone else?”

“N-not at all! I will relay the message you have given me, Young Master!”

“Yeah, yeah. Ah, also, if I hear that this letter leaked to someone else, I’ll kill you. Okay?”

“I… I’ll keep that in mind!”

I mean, he hadn’t needed to shout all that. What a loud guy.

As I tapped him on his shoulder to send him on his way, I saw beads of what seemed to be either sweat or tears on his face.

The letter in the envelope read as follows:

Dear Tang Yu-Chang.

Let’s go for a round of sparring, pussy.