A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 188

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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 188
At the sight before him, Dang Yi Woon’s heart began to pound.
At last, the moment of reckoning had arrived.
‘Seol Ah, you can do this!’
Mahjong, drawing lots, matching paper tiles!
‘No matter what kind of wager this man proposes, you must win!’
After all, they were gambling with gold coins stolen from the Nam Goong Family Estate’s warehouse.
Clatter.
In the next moment, coins came cascading out from Hong Seol’s purse.
Though a few silver coins were mixed in, most were copper.
Yes, the very same copper coins used to buy snacks in the Market District.
“Huh?”
Dang Yi Woon tilted his head in confusion.
“…Weren’t we supposed to be gambling with gold coins?”
At those words, Hong Seol looked at Dang Yi Woon as though he’d said something absurd.
“Gold coins? Where would I get that kind of money? I simply came here to pay the price and gather information.”
Dang Yi Woon’s mouth fell open.
“Then what exactly is ‘Hawk’?”
“It’s a code name. Without saying ‘Hawk,’ there’s no way to enter this place.”
“Seol Ah, where on earth did you learn something like that…?”
Instead of Dang Yi Woon, who shook his head in disbelief, Nam Goong Baek asked this time.
“What kind of place is this, Seol Ah?”
“It’s the Ha O Moon An Hui Branch.”
“…!”
“But come tomorrow, it will no longer be the Ha O Moon An Hui Branch.”
That’s right.
Ha O Moon.
An organization where all manner of lowborn individuals gathered—courtesans, thieves, gamblers.
Though they possessed intelligence networks rivaling the Beggar Sect, their point-based structure made their true nature difficult to discern.
One day a branch appears in a bustling Pleasure House; the next, in a remote Inn.
For Ha O Moon, wherever the branch leader resided became the branch itself.
The Manbok House was merely one among countless such locations.
“The bald man sitting at the entrance is the leader of the Ha O Moon An Hui Branch.”
The man who had bowed deeply when they revealed themselves as Hawk!
So he was the leader of the Ha O Moon An Hui Branch.
Now Nam Goong Baek began to understand how matters had unfolded.
Yet questions still remained.
“Ha O Moon is fundamentally an Orthodox Sect organization. Why then would they cooperate with us?”
“Well, about that…”
Hong Seol hesitated before producing a small slip of paper from her garment.
The handwriting belonged to someone Nam Goong Baek knew well.
[
“Come to a tea house called Manbok House on the first day of the lunar month, and you’ll hear the information you seek. Simply mention the name ‘Chamsuuri.’ Miss even a single day, and you won’t get your answer. Be warned.”
]
Beneath the seal reading ‘Black Bandit Gang Leader’ was a vivid sketch of a feather tinted red at its tip.
“Dok Bi Jo…!”
She had clearly orchestrated this beforehand.
Nam Goong Baek trembled as he recalled the grueling training he’d endured alongside Dok Bi Jo.
‘That old woman must have either done Ha O Gate a favor in the past or blackmailed them into this.’
Regardless, it was thanks to rumors of the Nam Goong Family searching for the Golden Cat Sect reaching Dok Bi Jo’s ears.
Hong Seol’s heart felt ready to burst with joy.
‘Revealing my connection to the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace at the Murim Five Families Tournament actually worked!’
Nam Goong Baek, who had entered that hollow, abandoned sect at the time, still didn’t know this truth.
If he learned that Hong Seol had revealed her origins, he would undoubtedly rage about how recklessly dangerous it was.
For this reason, the Nam Goong Family had unanimously decided to keep this fact hidden from him.
Nam Goong Baek asked Hong Seol in a slightly tense voice.
“If the bald man is the Ha O Moon An Hui Branch Leader, then who exactly is that man in the ash-gray robe?”
Hong Seol answered with a trembling voice.
“The Ha O Gate Master.”
“What!”
“…!”
“His name is Baek Yeon. His epithet is the Ghost Scribe.”
The Ghost Scribe—Nam Goong Baek had certainly heard that name before.
Hong Seol continued.
“And the Ha O Gate disciples call him ‘He Who Defies Oblivion.'”
A man who carries within himself all the memories of Ha O Gate.
A man who has never been anything but the Ha O Gate Master from the day Ha O Gate was founded until now.
The man in the ash-gray robe spoke again in that eerie, toneless voice.
“What would you like to know?”
Hong Seol swallowed hard and asked.
“Please tell me where the Golden Cat Sect, the sacred treasure of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, is located.”
Blink, blink, blink, blink!
The eyelids covering the man’s glassy, hollow eyes suddenly began moving violently up and down.
“Gasp!”
Startled, Dang Yi Woon stepped back a pace.
Then, seeing Nam Goong Baek staring at the man without flinching, he stepped forward again.
His expression betrayed wounded pride at his own fear.
Dang Yi Woon asked in a trembling voice.
“What on earth is this, Seol Ah?”
“Shh.”
Hong Seol raised a hand, signaling silence. This was not the moment to answer Yi Woon’s questions.
She needed to hear the answer from Ha O Moon’s master, Baek Yeon.
The Nam Goong Family Estate’s intelligence network had failed, the Young Rats had failed, the Beggar Sect had failed—only Ha O Moon remained as a beacon of hope.
‘They say meeting the Ha O Moon master even once in a lifetime is difficult.’
Without Dok Bi Jo’s help, this would have been impossible for her as well.
‘Please, just tell me the answer!’
Help me find the Golden Cat Sect so I can stop Baek Oppa’s addiction!
It was precisely when Hong Seol clasped her hands tightly before her.
Suddenly, chaos erupted from outside.
“Seize Myo Hong Seol!”
Crash!
The Inner Chamber door burst open.
A group of men with demonic expressions stormed in.
“Myo Hong Seol! Survivor of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace! At last, the day of vengeance has come!”
“Pay for your sins with your life!”
The ominous aura emanating from the group drained the color from Yi Woon’s face.
“They must be those who hold a grudge against the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, Brother!”
Nam Goong Baek furrowed his handsome brows.
“…But how did they know Seol is a direct descendant of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace?”
Bewildered, he had no time to ponder further.
Whoosh!
The man at the front savagely swung his axe.
“Not so fast!”
Nam Goong Baek instantly channeled his inner force into his blade, deflecting the man’s strike.
In the process, several strands of Hong Seol’s hair were sliced by the axe blade and fluttered away.
Had Nam Goong Baek been even slightly slower, it would have been her neck instead of her hair.
“Ugh!”
Nam Goong Baek groaned between his teeth as he blocked a relentless barrage of attacks without pause.
Though he had drawn upon his protective inner force, the soreness in his wrists suggested his opponent was quite skilled.
‘If it were one-on-one, perhaps…’
But the space was cramped, and there were far too many enemies to face.
Though half a dozen had already fallen outside the door, the remaining brutes poured in endlessly.
“Today I shall see the blood of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace!”
“Move aside!”
“Brother!”
Yi Woon could barely manage to block the blades coming at him.
Nam Goong Baek made his decision.
“Seol Ah, this won’t work! We must retreat!”
But Hong Seol was stubbornly unyielding.
“No! I must get an answer about where the Golden Cat Sect is!”
Hong Seol made no attempt to shield herself, her gaze piercing through the Ha O Gate Master’s face with unwavering intensity.
Whoosh!
The axe blade whistled through the air once more.
“Ugh!”
This time, Dang Yi Woon couldn’t evade—blood sprayed from his shoulder.
Yet Hong Seol’s eyes and ears remained fixed entirely upon the Ha O Gate Master.
Blink, blink, blink… blink.
The man in the ashen robe’s eyelids were closing with increasing slowness.
‘Please… almost there!’
That was when it happened.
“Fire!”
“Fire!”
As if misfortune piled upon misfortune, someone had set a blaze.
Flames spread through the decrepit tea house in an instant.
Acrid smoke billowed in thick clouds.
Hong Seol’s eyes stung as she blinked, yet she still gazed upon the Ha O Gate Master.
Blink… blink.
At last, the man’s eyelids came to rest.
Then a voice devoid of all emotion emerged.
“I have found the answer to your question.”
“Seol Ah!”
“Please, Seol Ah! I beg you!”
Nam Goong Baek and Dang Yi Woon called her name with desperate urgency, but for Hong Seol, that was not what mattered now.
“We’ll die at this rate!”
“Let’s go, Seol Ah!”
Dang Yi Woon and Nam Goong Baek seized her by both arms and pulled.
‘No, just a moment more, just a moment…’
Hong Seol rooted her feet to the ground using the thousand-pound anchor technique, resisting their pull.
Just as the Ha O Gate Master was about to speak his answer.
“The sacred treasure of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace is currently…”
Crack!
A hand blade struck the back of her neck.
Hong Seol’s consciousness faded to darkness.

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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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