A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 118

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 118
Dang Song Baek quickly concealed himself in the shadows.
“Oh my heavens!”
The servant A Ran, who had arrived moments too late, felt her face drain of all color.
“Miss! Miss!”
A Ran’s hands trembled like aspen leaves. The precious young lady she had nursed since infancy lay collapsed before her eyes—such a reaction was only natural.
She fell to her knees with a heavy thud.
Kneeling beside Dang Bo Young, she was scarcely able to draw breath.
“I… I warned you to be careful with the medicinal broth… and yet this has come to pass…”
Then a desolate shadow fell across the wailing A Ran.
“So it was you all along who caused this calamity?”
A Ran recoiled, her palms scraping against the ground as she faced Dang Song Baek’s ghastly visage.
“P-p-please… spare me…”
In the gathering dusk, Dang Song Baek’s pallid eyes gleamed with an eerie light.
“Spare you? What benefit would I gain from letting you live?”
“I… I will become your servant! Command me to crawl, and I shall crawl. Command me to bark, and I shall bark!”
A Ran spoke without knowing what words were spilling from her lips, desperate and frantic.
She had to survive—at least for now.
Only then could she someday vindicate her young mistress’s suffering.
“Is that so?”
Her thoughts were cut short by Dang Song Baek’s icy words.
“A servant, you say… I do need such a person. But it seems I can no longer trust anyone.”
Dang Song Baek’s smile was bitter and metallic. A Ran felt her skin crawl with dread.
“Ever since my defeat in the Family Master selection, I have become someone entirely different.”
That terrible laugh—the very one her mistress had shuddered at in horror.
The chilling rasp that accompanied that expression burrowed into A Ran’s ears.
“Swallow this.”
A small wooden box fell before her with a soft thud.
The moment A Ran opened it and glimpsed its contents, her hair stood on end.
Involuntarily, a strangled sound escaped her throat.
“Wh-what is this?!”
“Yes. A Linked Soul Blood Gu.”
A Linked Soul Blood Gu.
A creature born in male and female pairs, also called the Solitary Gu.
Whoever swallows one half falls under the absolute control of the one who possesses the other.
The Linked Soul Blood Gu causes both halves to convulse in agony when one suffers pain.
In essence, it meant Dang Song Baek held A Ran’s very life in his hands, ready to squeeze it at will.
The servant A Ran, drained of all color, prostrated herself beneath Dang Song Baek’s feet, her palms scraping frantically against the ground as she begged.
“P-please… spare me! I was wrong! I beg you… anything but the Solitary Gu…”
“Please, please save me! I was wrong! I beg you, anything but loneliness…”
More than a decade had passed since I became a servant of the Poison Chamber Master rather than a servant of the Dang Family.
With my exceptionally keen eye for detail, I had grown familiar with virtually every poison—I was A Ran, after all.
Because of that very talent, I had managed to notice the Poison Chamber Master brewing some strange medicinal broth to feed to Dang Bo Young.
Ironically, that same keen perception had driven me into this corner.
“Will you surrender your life this instant? Or will you swallow the Linked Soul Blood Poison?”
Dang Song Baek drew a short blade from his sleeve with a fluid motion and grasped it firmly.
A flash of light.
The tip of the blade was stained an ominous black.
It was clearly a supreme toxin—even a mere graze would bring instant death.
Seeing this, A Ran opened the wooden box with trembling hands.
From the beginning, there had been no choice.
A gulp.
The sinister sensation of it sliding down my throat was unmistakable.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Though I retched as if about to vomit, the Linked Soul Blood Poison that had taken root within me showed no sign of coming back up.
“Well done.”
Dang Song Baek lifted the chin of the tear-stained servant A Ran.
“I shall show mercy and continue to use you as a servant. Of course, before that….”
He withdrew a hidden blade from his breast.
“I’ll cut out that useless tongue of yours. So you can never speak idle words again.”
A dull thud.
Without hesitation, the blade came down, and blood sprayed. Thus the servant A Ran became forever unable to speak.
And Dang Bo Young—that bright and beloved child who had contended for the position of Young Master—
became a body that could still breathe, yet could never open her eyes again.
* * *
“I was foolish that day.”
A sigh tinged with regret escaped Dang Song Baek’s lips.
“…I should have ended it all at once.”
Foolish sympathy born from having raised her, from the bonds of care.
For a time, he gazed downward in silence.
Upon the bed lay a girl, breathing shallowly with faint, labored gasps.
Today, her face seemed strangely unfamiliar to me.
“Indeed, she bears no resemblance to me whatsoever.”
With resolve hardened, Dang Song Baek withdrew a small poison pill wrapped in paper from his breast.
Thousand Blossoms in Full Bloom Poison.
It was the name of the toxin he had brewed as a medicinal broth and fed to Dang Bo Young.
This pill, condensed to a far more potent concentration, would bestow upon his daughter a merciful death as a form of rest.
“What a waste. Had the Nam Goong fools not summoned Wan Li Yi Xian, I could have kept her alive and used her as material for the Improved Crimson Hand Elixir.”
Bringing the poison pill close to his daughter’s lips, he offered a final farewell.
“This is all a sacrifice for the Great Cause, so do not resent me.”
Just as he was about to slip the elixir between those thick lips.
“What exactly is this grand undertaking?”
Dang Bo Young’s eyes snapped open with a flash.
“…!”
Dang Song Baek stumbled backward, startled.
In the commotion, the elixir tumbled across the floor all the way to the Quarters door.
The elixir came to rest before a young man’s feet.
The burning sunset cast its glow such that the boy’s silver hair seemed to be aflame.
That boy, Nam Goong Baek, withdrew a silk handkerchief from his robes and carefully wrapped the elixir—crafted from Thousand Blossom Deadly Poison—before picking it up.
“Evidence secured.”
The moment Nam Goong Baek finished speaking, Dang Yi Woon beside him thrust his head out and launched himself forward.
“Next up! Apprehend the culprit! Hyaaah!”
Crack!
A lightning-swift palm strike hurtled toward Dang Song Baek’s chest.
“Hah!”
Dang Song Baek crossed his arms to block the sudden assault and leaped backward.
Seizing the opening, Nam Goong Baek called out.
“Seol Ah, this way!”
Hong Seol, who had been lying in disguise as Dang Bo Young, sprang to her feet with explosive force.
She scaled the wall like a bird in flight, racing toward where the two young masters stood.
“Brother!”
The instant Hong Seol reached Nam Goong Baek’s side, he swept her into his embrace with his robes.
Dang Yi Woon quickly retreated to stand guard before Nam Goong Baek and Hong Seol.
Meanwhile, Dang Song Baek appeared utterly bewildered by the unexpected turn of events.
“Who are you?”
Hong Seol, standing beside Nam Goong Baek, smiled brightly and brought her hand to her chin.
In an instant, the face mask was stripped away, fluttering in her grasp.
It was something that had been tucked away in Hong Seol’s belongings until yesterday.
“…Nam Goong…Seol?”
Only then did Dang Song Baek’s eyes widen as he recognized Hong Seol’s face.
“I’ve been had! Damn it!”
His mind had been so consumed with anxiety over Wan Li Yi Xian’s arrival that he’d failed to see through the disguise.
“Hehe.”
The child who had been masquerading as Dang Bo Young was even laughing innocently.
‘To think I, of all people, was deceived by a mere child….’
Dang Song Baek’s pride wounded, he ground his teeth.
Then Dang Yi Woon spoke.
“How did you find the taste of that palm strike just now?”
Dang Song Baek, his poison rising, shot back a response.
“The palm strike of some green brat is nothing but a mild irritation….”
“The effects should start showing soon.”
Huh?
True to his words, the paralysis toxin spread, and Dang Song Baek staggered for a moment.
Yet his voice remained utterly composed.
“You’re still foolish, Young Master Dang Yi Woon.”
Dang Song Baek looked directly into Dang Yi Woon’s crimson eyes and tossed an antidote pill from his sleeve into his mouth.
“Is there any poison in the Dang Family that I, the Poison Chamber Master, cannot cure?”
His words were no mere boast—Dang Song Baek’s breathing was already stabilizing rapidly.
“It seems only three of you have come….”
He sneered at Dang Yi Woon and drew a large needle from his sleeve.
“I cannot fathom what you were thinking.”
Dang Song Baek adjusted his glasses and smiled coldly.
“I still have much work to do for the Dang Sect, so I shall silence you all.”
He meant to kill the children and eliminate all witnesses.
The tip of the large needle pointed at the three children’s necks like a venomous snake poised to strike.
That was when Hong Seol’s voice rang out, clear as a bell.
“The Poison Chamber Master is the foolish one… truly foolish, isn’t he, brother?”
Hong Seol whispered softly toward Yi Woon, and he nodded in response.
Reassured, Hong Seol confidently used her newly learned word.
“The Poison Chamber Master is the foolish one! Why else would the Dang Family Master and the Fierce Snake Squad not come with us?”
Hong Seol smiled brightly.
“The Fierce Snake Squad is busy ransacking the Poison Chamber right now. Looking for evidence of who made that poison pill.”
Hearing this, Dang Song Baek’s expression turned ice-cold.
“Then I have all the more reason to silence the girl here and take the poison pill!”
He abandoned all pretense and swept his sleeve outward.
Whoosh!
Seven hidden blades flew toward the children.
They were coated with the deadly Soul-Stealing Water.
“…This much is nothing!”
Nam Goong Baek gritted his teeth and drew his sword.
Clang clang clang clang clang!
As he swung his blade with lightning speed, the flying hidden blades fell one after another.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
The sound of wind grazing his ear made Nam Goong Baek’s blood run cold.
Hidden behind the hidden blades flying like arrows was a tiny hair-thin needle.
“Are you alright, Seol Ah?”
“Yes, yes! I’m fine, brother!”
Had the wind from his own sword not changed the needle’s trajectory, it would have struck her for certain.
Seol Ah would have been hit without question.
“Treacherous bastard…!”
Nam Goong Baek glared at Dang Song Baek’s face, grinding his teeth.
“Hmm, what a shame. But what about this?”
Where did these hidden weapons keep coming from without end?
This time, another volley of flying blades erupted from all directions, their edges gleaming.
“Fall back!”
“Watch out, Seol Ah!”
The moment Nam Goong Baek and Dang Yi Woon stepped forward to shield Hong Seol, drawing upon their inner strength.
Boom!
A dull sound erupted as a leather pouch burst, and thick smoke billowed upward in waves.
Dang Yi Woon, recognizing the smoke’s nature, cried out.
“It’s poison gas! Hold your breath!”
“Damn it, I can’t see anything ahead…!”
Whoosh!
Seizing the moment, flying blades descended from all directions, targeting the children.
Perfect!
Dang Song Baek exulted inwardly.
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
A crystalline sound rang out through the billowing smoke.
“What…?”
It should be impossible to see through this smoke!
‘Did the Nam Goong Family’s young heir truly master a blade technique that transcends sight?’
Like peaches after rain, the flying blades and countering needles clattered to the ground and rolled away.
Whoosh!
Soon a gust of wind swept through, dispersing the poison gas.
When the smoke cleared, two long shadows stretched across the ground.
Dang Song Baek faced two masters who had reached such an extraordinary realm that he could not even sense their presence.
Then a voice like thunder rang out.
“As expected, Seol was right. You are the culprit.”
Dang Song Baek’s face went pale as he recognized the voice’s owner.
“Y-you… how did you get here…?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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