A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 202

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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 202
Won Mok, the Dining Hall Master whose face had flushed crimson, continued his relentless pursuit.
It was because Hong Seol and Yi Woon had fled in the direction of the food storage.
“You wretched creatures! As if stealing the offerings I so carefully prepared for the Ullambana Festival weren’t enough, now you’re going to ransack the food storage!”
Hong Seol’s eyes widened to the size of fists as she bolted in panic.
“Meow! (Why is this old man so fast!)”
Did he really need to employ divine movement techniques just to chase a single cat and a single snake?
In moments, the tip of her tail would be seized in Won Mok’s iron grip.
‘What… what do I do?’
Suddenly, an old wooden pavilion came into view.
‘That’s it!’
If I extended my claws and scaled the roof, I could escape Won Mok’s frenzied pursuit, at least for now.
The problem was Yi Woon.
‘As a snake, he can’t climb walls!’
There was no time to hesitate.
Hong Seol swiftly seized the young snake in her jaws and lifted him.
Ssshhh!
The startled serpent writhed and coiled in alarm.
That was when it happened.
“No, you mustn’t! You cannot!”
Won Mok suddenly halted, and a cry of anguish burst from his lips.
‘Huh?’
Hong Seol turned to look back, the young snake still held in her mouth.
“Taking a life in a place where the Buddha resides is forbidden, little cat!”
‘Ah, so this old man thought I was trying to eat Yi Woon.’
It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption.
Cats hunting snakes was quite common, after all.
Seeing Won Mok’s eyebrows furrow with genuine sorrow, I could sense his sincere distress.
Suddenly, I felt the urge to lift his spirits.
Though I had only been at Shaolin for two days, I sensed something dimly.
Each time Won Mok looked at me, he seemed to yearn endlessly for someone.
‘Well, tomorrow is the Ullambana Festival anyway… and I’ve eaten plenty of delicious things from this old man.’
This much should be fine.
Hong Seol opened her jaws and set the young snake gently on the ground.
What was known as ‘releasing life’ in Buddhist practice.
The young snake, stunned and bewildered, slithered away and vanished into the undergrowth.
Won Mok clapped his hands in delight.
“Yes, well done, little cat! That is the compassion of the Buddha.”
Seeing his joy, I felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
‘Well, since I’m already doing this… where should I…? Got it!’
This time, Hong Seol rose onto her hind legs and pressed her front paws together in a reverent salute.
Won Mok was so delighted he nearly swooned.
“My goodness, I thought she was merely a cat, but she’s actually a Bodhisattva—a Cat Sage!”
How precious, how absolutely adorable….
Crouching down, Won Mok gently stroked the kitten’s head with affection.
“Meow.”
The kitten, now equally delighted, swished the tip of her tail back and forth.
A young serpent hiding among the brush, with only its head peeking out, watched the scene in utter disbelief.
Just moments ago, it had been chasing her desperately for its life, and now she was a “Cat Sage.”
It was all thanks to that cunning kitten’s shameless performance!
‘Where on earth did Seol learn to act so brazenly?’
Could it be from that slick Nam Goong Heuk?
Dang Yi Woon never once considered that Hong Seol might have learned it by watching him.
‘Well, regardless. Seol is truly worthy of becoming the Dang Sect’s daughter-in-law!’
Just look at that audacity.
The way she subdues even me, a serpent, without hesitation!
‘One day, Seol will surely become the matriarch who rules the Sichuan Tang Family.’
The young serpent flicked its tongue contentedly, lost in pleasant reverie.
* * *
Hong Seol had been so captivated by the Dining Hall keeper Won Mok’s affections that considerable time had slipped away.
It was well into the Hour of the Ox—the deepest part of night—before Hong Seol and Dang Yi Woon could slip into the Dining Hall.
Flip!
The moment she confirmed no one was present, Hong Seol executed a swift somersault through the air.
In an instant, the fluffy kitten vanished, replaced by a mercenary with a sturdy build.
Dang Yi Woon underwent the same transformation.
After lashing his tail several times with force, the mercenary with the distinctive tear marks became visible.
“You’re certain the Golden Cat Sect is really here?”
Dang Yi Woon still seemed unconvinced.
“Yes, absolutely certain!”
Hong Seol spoke with confidence.
“Do you remember what happened earlier today? When the Janggyeonggak Hall Master came and caused a disturbance?”
“Right, when you dropped the ladle, I thought something terrible was about to happen.”
Dang Yi Woon sighed.
In truth, he had been ready to rush out and shield Hong Seol from harm.
If she hadn’t stopped him, he surely would have, regardless of the consequences.
Even if his identity as the young master of the Sichuan Tang Family had been exposed.
“Why did you intervene? To help Mu Yeop?”
Hong Seol flicked out her pink tongue playfully.
“Well, that was part of it, but actually….”
With a mischievous smile, Hong Seol suddenly fixed her gaze upon Dang Yi Woon.
“Mu Yeop, when we were first assigned to the same room together, he seemed completely dispirited.”
“That’s right. He even said he’d sleep outside.”
“Isn’t that strange?”
“What do you mean?”
“Mu Yeop, who seemed to have lived his entire life with a broken spirit, suddenly stood up to the monks of Janggyeonggak.”
Dang Yi Woon’s eyes narrowed as if tracing through his memories.
“Wait—could it have been because of the Golden Cat Sect?”
“Exactly, brother!”
Hong Seol smiled brightly.
“Mu Yeop had a reason to protect it with his life.”
Hong Seol placed one hand atop the towering pile of firewood.
“He must have hidden the stolen Golden Cat Sect token right inside this woodpile!”
Hong Seol thrust her hand into the firewood and rummaged through it, her eyes widening.
“Huh?”
Bewildered, Hong Seol turned and began dismantling the woodpile.
“You’ll hurt your hands! Let me do it.”
Dang Yi Woon tried to stop her, but Hong Seol paid him no mind.
Soon the woodpile collapsed, and logs scattered in all directions.
“…It’s not here.”
Hong Seol murmured in disappointment.
“This doesn’t make sense.”
What on earth had she overlooked?
Hong Seol bit her lip, struggling to find the answer.
For some reason, the clues Maeng Woo Hee had given her kept circling through her mind.
‘Those who came asking the Old Man about the Golden Cat Sect all stammered. They, all of them, stammered…’
As she turned the clue over in her mind again and again.
A thought struck her like lightning.
“No way!”
Immediately, a look of chagrin washed over Hong Seol’s face.
“It’s my mistake. Mu Yeop had an accomplice, brother!”
Hong Seol spoke with conviction.
“The accomplice beat us to it and took the Golden Cat Sect token from inside the woodpile!”
Dang Yi Woon furrowed his brow in confusion.
“But Seol Ah, you said all those searching for the Golden Cat Sect stammer. Isn’t Mu Yeop the only hired hand who stammers?”
“There was a hired hand who couldn’t speak at all, brother!”
Dang Yi Woon furrowed his brow.
Now that he thought about it, he remembered being impressed when the mute hired hand passed the test on the day they carried water buckets.
Hong Seol cried out with a look of frustration.
“That person never had to worry about being caught stammering in the first place!”
* * *
Mu Yeop was dreaming.
A distant shadow suffused with a faint golden glow was beckoning to him with such tender affection.
‘Who could it be…?’
My heart pounded wildly.
I wanted to rush toward that figure at once.
If I could just run into those arms, it felt as though this grueling journey would finally end.
Yet strangely, I could not see who the shadow belonged to.
Just as I opened my lips, overcome with an aching longing.
‘Ugh!’
Suddenly, a blackened tongue swelled up from my mouth.
The tongue that choked my mouth began to spill outward.
‘What’s happening to me? Why am I like this?’
The forked tongue coiled around my body like a vine, and then burrowed through the ground.
Before I knew it, my legs had taken root in the earth and would not move.
‘Please, please…! Release me, let me go!’
In that moment of desperate prayer with clasped hands.
“Gasp!”
Mu Yeop’s eyes snapped open, cold sweat drenching his face.
“Did you have a pleasant dream?”
At that chilling voice, I felt a chill run down my spine.
After blinking several times, the owner of that voice finally came into focus.
A fair-skinned boy with two beauty marks beneath his eyes.
But he was not the ‘Beggar’ I had known.
His eyes burned with a crimson light as chilling as an assassin’s gaze.
“B-brother, why are you…ugh!”
“Shh.”
Dang Yi Woon silenced him, pressing his index finger against his own beautiful lips.
“It’s still the middle of the night. Don’t be so loud.”
Then he twisted one corner of his mouth into a smile.
I had never seen a smile so terrifying in all my life.
Or had I, perhaps, once before?
That Dok Ryung Ma Gun I had met in Xinjiang.
The one who commanded me to go to Shaolin to find the Golden Cat Sect—he had smiled exactly like this.

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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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