A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 220

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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 220
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“Exhale.”
The sun had barely crested the horizon on this early morning.
Nam Goong Baek, dressed immaculately in martial robes, took a deep breath before the Training Cave.
After returning to Anhui, Nam Goong Baek had finally secured permission for closed-door cultivation following a lengthy private audience with the Family Head, Nam Goong On.
Behind the Nam Goong Estate Manor, several deep training caves had been prepared for precisely such occasions.
As I turned my head, a deep cavern nearby caught my eye.
Its entrance was layered with golden rope and talismans.
Dimly visible within was an ancient ancestral shrine.
‘The place where the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Elixir rests….’
A place I would never set foot in again.
Nam Goong Baek turned away and faced the training cave before me once more.
‘Once I enter here, the earliest I’ll emerge is three years from now.’
Ideally five years, or longer if my body endures.
‘By then, Hong Seol will have given up and found a suitable match for marriage.’
The thought alone left a hollow ache in my chest, but Nam Goong Baek gritted his teeth and pressed on.
‘This is the path I chose. And it’s a path for Hong Seol’s sake as well.’
He lifted his gaze toward the dark cavern entrance before me.
Though the eldest son of the Nam Goong Family was entering closed-door cultivation, no one had come to see me off.
That was because of my request to enter seclusion quietly.
Once I ventured deep into the cave, warriors from the Changcheon Division would seal the entrance with boulders.
‘Farewell, Seol Ah.’
Nam Goong Baek offered a silent farewell in his heart, steeled his resolve, and took a step inward.
Pant, pant.
The sound of someone breathing heavily and rushing toward me reached my ears.
“Elder Brother!”
It was Hong Seol.
Her hair, normally tied neatly on both sides, was disheveled in places today.
‘How troublesome.’
That’s precisely why I hadn’t told Hong Seol the time of my seclusion.
The fact that she could arrive here so quickly meant she had been anxiously watching my every move.
All while barely sleeping.
‘Still, I’ve been given one last chance to see Hong Seol’s face.’
I was deeply grateful, but I couldn’t let it show.
Yet today, Hong Seol’s expression was different from usual.
She, who had always shown me nothing but smiles, was now pouting her lips.
“…You’re really going through with this, you stubborn Elder Brother!”
With that, Hong Seol suddenly threw a silk pouch into the cave.
“When you’re bored inside, open this!”
Nam Goong Baek’s eyes widened at her reproachful tone.
I’ve been seeing new sides of Seol lately.
Hong Seol was spilling out every thought she harbored, as if Nam Goong Baek were utterly exasperating.
“In my short life, I’ve never seen a dog as disobedient as you, Elder Brother.”
At those words, Nam Goong Baek’s eyebrow twitched.
A dog?
Does Seol perhaps think I’m a canine beastman rather than a wolf?
Come to think of it, I’d never shown her my transformed appearance.
Or perhaps it was meant as a slur.
After all, wasn’t it common for people to call the Nam Goong Family’s wolf beastman a dog?
But if that wasn’t what she meant, then perhaps…
Nam Goong Baek sighed softly, recalling crude language he’d once overheard from street ruffians.
“In matters between men and women, they say a man’s name begins with ‘Elder Brother’ and ends with ‘you bastard!'”
Even if Seol hurled such harsh words at me, I had no defense.
After all, I’d just accepted the Golden Cat Sect and announced I would enter seclusion.
Moreover, I’d told her to abandon the Yin-Yang Divine Art and leave the Nam Goong Family.
Of course, it was all ultimately for Hong Seol’s sake.
Perhaps being despised would actually bring me peace of mind.
But Hong Seol did not back down.
Instead, she opened her already large eyes even wider, clenched her fists, and cried out.
“I’m telling you clearly—I will not give up!”
“…What?”
“While you’re in seclusion, Elder Brother, I will continue training in the Yin-Yang Divine Art! And I won’t leave the Nam Goong Family either!”
These were words Hong Seol had resolved and resolved again throughout the journey from Deng Peak.
She thought that if she expressed her opinion this firmly, Nam Goong Baek would break his stubbornness and emerge from seclusion after a reasonable time.
Of course, he would be furious for a moment.
“So what.”
But Nam Goong Baek’s voice that returned sounded forlorn rather than angry.
Hong Seol was taken aback.
“Yes?”
“And if danger strikes in that process, will you sacrifice yourself for me without protecting your own body?”
“I can protect myself.”
Nam Goong Baek spoke in a hollow voice.
“Even from the Heavenly Demon?”
“…!”
Hong Seol swallowed involuntarily.
The Heavenly Demon had awakened.
It was a fact Hong Seol already knew through the Martial Alliance’s intelligence network.
But something felt wrong. This time was different…!
Unlike what the historical records described, there were no rumors of the Heavenly Demon suffering from excruciating agony.
But one thing was certain.
‘The Heavenly Demon hasn’t found the antidote yet. That’s why they’re searching for a way.’
So they must have sent people to Shaolin to find the Golden Cat Sect.
Which meant….
“…The Heavenly Demon must be targeting the Nam Goong Family.”
Since the Golden Cat Sect had fallen into Nam Goong Baek’s hands.
“But Elder Brother, there’s also a possibility that the rumor never reached the Demonic Cult….”
Nam Goong Baek shook his head lightly.
“No, there’s another miraculous elixir here, isn’t there?”
The Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill.
Not only were the materials difficult to obtain, but it supposedly took three hundred years to create a single pill—an antidote of the ages.
“The remnants of Birochae I encountered at Deng Peak mentioned it. They said there were rumors long ago that the Nam Goong Family’s ships carried a remarkable elixir.”
The newly emerged leader of Birochae was at least a master of the highest caliber.
When the Nam Goong Family’s assault made their defeat inevitable, the water bandits bit down on the poison pill and vanished.
There was nothing ordinary about a single aspect of them for common water bandits.
At the time, I had assumed the Demonic Cult had been exterminated from the Central Plains and let it pass.
“I suspect those who attacked the Nam Goong Family’s ships were members of the Demonic Cult. And….”
Nam Goong Baek continued slowly.
“That means the Demonic Cult already knew of the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill’s existence.”
As if his thoughts had already been organized long ago, he appeared quite composed.
“I’ve thought about it for a long time. On the day I was poisoned by the Plague Hand toxin, why did the fierce beasts attack the Nam Goong Family?”
If the Branch Family Master Nam Goong Yeol had conspired with the Demonic Cult out of jealousy, it would have ended with only poisoning me.
But the fierce beasts ransacked the Medical Pharmacy first, as if it were planned.
It was clearly an intentional act.
“It must have been because they had information that the Nam Goong Family possessed an elixir capable of completely curing the Heavenly Demon’s poisoning.”
After tearing through the Medical Pharmacy without finding the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill, the fierce beasts resorted to a cruel scheme.
They poisoned the eldest son of the Nam Goong Family. Even kindly informing him of the poison’s name.
“Surely, the reason they poisoned Elder Brother was…!”
“Yes. Once you realized it was a poison with no other cure, you’d attempt detoxification using the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill.”
In that process, they could identify its location and intercept it.
The story about the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill being aboard the Nam Goong Family’s ship was merely a false rumor born from all this.
“The Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill, and now the Golden Cat Sect too. The Nam Goong Family has become a gathering place for everything the Demonic Cult desires.”
And the Demonic Cult would never abandon the means to save the Heavenly Demon.
Isn’t the Demonic Cult where those who dream of unifying the Martial Arts World through the Heavenly Demon gather?
After a brief pause, Nam Goong Baek lowered his voice.
“The Nam Goong Family will inevitably be engulfed in war before long.”
Then a sharp voice followed without a moment’s hesitation.
“Then I’ll fight too! To protect the Nam Goong Family.”
Nam Goong Baek shook his head as if exasperated.
“No, you cannot do that, Seol Ah.”
Anyone else, perhaps—but not you.
Not you.
‘At least in this lifetime, let me live in peace, loved and loving.’
“You are not bound to the Nam Goong Family. There is no need to remain here out of childhood debts.”
We have already received far more than life itself from you.
Nam Goong Baek closed his eyes, recalling all that Hong Seol had given him.
How intoxicating the fragrance of late spring blossoms could be.
How joyful mornings shared with family truly were.
How wonderful it felt to laugh aloud.
Nam Goong Baek had learned all of this from Hong Seol.
His voice had grown quieter, fading with each word.
As though bidding an eternal farewell.
“So you must leave this place—as far as you can.”
He spoke words he had agonized over for so long.
“Yes, marrying Dang Yi Woon and departing for Sichuan would be acceptable.”

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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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