A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 223

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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 223
The Snow Wind Squad was unmistakably tense.
A figure who appeared to be their leader stepped forward.
He was a middle-aged man whose eyebrows were split into several strands as if a blizzard were sweeping across them.
“Ha, Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do!”
Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do.
He was a warrior from the Northern Sea, renowned for possessing a sword technique as cold and piercing as the winter wind itself.
A flicker of joy crossed Bing Yu Hua’s face.
She slipped out from behind Hong Seol and stepped forward, asking eagerly.
“It’s me, Bing Yu Hua! How is Sister So Wol? Is the Palace Master well?”
“A traitor of the Ice Palace dares to crawl in here!”
Crash!
A thunderous sound accompanied a brilliant sword strike that grazed her feet, instantly freezing the ground white.
“Get back!”
Hong Seol quickly pushed Bing Yu Hua behind her and took a defensive stance.
“Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do! It’s me! Bing Yu Hua!”
Bing Yu Hua tried to step forward again, frustrated.
But the man called Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do remained silent, his posture ready to strike at any moment.
“Medicine Master, please step back!”
Hong Seol stared intently ahead while raising one arm.
Her sleeve billowed as she drew her inner strength to its peak.
“Seol Ah! No, Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do is the Northern Ice Palace’s greatest master!”
Ignoring Bing Yu Hua’s trembling plea, Hong Seol fixed her gaze on the opponent.
Beneath eyebrows like shredded silver strands, his eyes gleamed with ferocity.
‘This is strange. He seemed close to the Medicine Master in the past… Why is he so angry?’
Then Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do, who had remained silent until now, drew a deep breath from his core.
“The atmosphere is already ominous, and now a traitor walks in of her own accord!”
Clang!
The man called Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do drew his sword and pointed it at Bing Yu Hua.
Ice fragments resembling delicate frost scattered in the wake of his blade.
He was sincere. He truly despised Bing Yu Hua.
“Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do! What on earth—”
“I don’t want to hear it! The Palace Master herself would not remain calm upon seeing your face!”
‘Palace Master? Does he mean the Northern Ice Palace Master?’
Hong Seol sharpened her vision and gazed toward the distant Northern Sea Ice Palace.
A crystalline lake shimmered with azure waters.
Within it rose pristine white walls, and pavilions that lifted their eaves toward the heavens gleamed brilliantly.
As Hong Seol surveyed the pavilions, a thought crossed her mind.
‘Wait, could the Palace Master be—’
Hong Seol looked at the guards surrounding her.
Gone was the worry from moments before about needing to build a raft.
Every one of them had a sharp glint in their eyes—truly worthy of those selected by Family Head Nam Goong On.
But Han Pung Geom, leader of the Snow Wind Squad, was no less formidable.
He growled into the air.
“Traitor Bing Yu Hua! This time, the Palace Master will shatter not just your dantian, but your limbs. The same goes for these outsiders!”
Upon hearing this, Hong Seol suddenly lowered her arm and smiled brightly.
“Perfect. Then do as you please.”
With that, she plopped down on the ground, crossed her arms, and closed her eyes.
“Miss…?”
The sword-wielding martial artists stood bewildered, unsure what was happening.
“Ah!”
Upon seeing Hong Seol, Bing Yu Hua let out a sudden cry of realization.
She then sat down in the same manner and closed her eyes.
“Yes, do as you wish, Han Pung Geom!”
“But… why…?”
“Miss…?”
The dumbfounded martial artists, following Hong Seol and Bing Yu Hua’s lead, lowered their swords one by one.
* * *
The pristine white walls of the ice palace gleamed brilliantly under the afternoon sun.
Hong Seol sat in that same posture before the Palace Master’s Hall of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.
Bing Yu Hua was in the same position.
The martial artists of the Snow Wind Squad, radiating a frosty aura, had brought them here.
The energy they emanated was enough to intimidate even experienced warriors.
All their weapons had already been confiscated.
“Miss… is this truly alright?”
At Pyo Du’s hesitant question, Hong Seol opened her eyes and smiled.
“More than alright. It’s actually advantageous.”
“Pardon? What do you mean…?”
“Thanks to them, we’ve reached the ice palace without having to build a raft.”
“Ah!”
Pyo Du’s mouth fell open as he grasped her meaning.
“If we’d fought back there, we’d only have been injured and never made it inside the Northern Sea Ice Palace at all.”
This was an application of experience I had gained during childhood in Nam Man’s O Dok Valley.
‘Back then too, being captured alive allowed me to avoid the earthen jars buried on the forest floor and enter the estate safely.’
There was only one problem.
‘What if the Snow Wind Squad intended to kill us quietly without reporting to the Palace Master…?’
The martial artists around Hong Seol seemed to harbor similar concerns.
“Miss, if the Snow Wind Squad’s warriors had intended to dispose of us quietly, we’d all be dead by now.”
“That won’t happen.”
Hong Seol spoke with absolute certainty.
“We can’t simply dispose of those bearing the Martial Arts Alliance’s flag without reporting to the Palace Master, can we? Even if the Northern Sea people are as xenophobic as they come.”
Hong Seol gazed at the Palace Master’s Hall before her eyes.
“Besides, it’s clear the Palace Master isn’t here right now. That means they can’t kill us immediately.”
“But how do you—”
“The flag.”
“Ah!”
Now that she mentioned it, the flag that should have been fluttering above the Palace Master’s Hall was indeed absent.
“I saw it come down while we were clashing with the Snow Wind Squad.”
That meant the Palace Master would be away for at least two or three days.
Hong Seol had already made a rough guess as to why the Palace Master had left.
‘Thanks to that, I’ve bought us time.’
Time to gather precious information about the Northern Sea Ice Palace that outsiders couldn’t know.
Judging by how the Snow Wind Squad Leader treated Bing Yu Hua, something was clearly amiss.
Perhaps it was connected to when the Northern Sea Ice Palace had severed ties with the Central Plains in the past.
An old knot.
Untying it would be the key to bringing the Northern Sea Ice Palace to our side.
‘I should have brought Jjik Jjik and the others.’
Hong Seol briefly regretted the thought, then shook her head.
The creatures called Jjik Jjik, who had been given the name “Blue Mouse Squad,” were still performing brilliantly as intelligence operatives.
Thanks to them, we’d raided numerous large and small bases of the Demonic Cult multiple times.
Bringing the small four-legged creatures all the way to the Northern Sea, when they were already running themselves ragged gathering intelligence, would be a significant loss.
‘I’ll have to find another way.’
Just then, Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do emerged from the Palace Master’s Hall with a severely contorted expression.
A small girl in martial robes followed close behind him in quick, hurried steps.
Judging by her white martial robes, the girl was undoubtedly a member of the Snow Wind Squad.
‘Why is that girl so flustered?’
The answer came soon enough.
Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do suddenly bellowed.
“Of all days, the Palace Master had to go out today! Seol Eung, you couldn’t even anticipate this beforehand—what have you been doing?!”
“I-I’m terribly sorry, Leader.”
The dispirited girl, Seol Eung, bowed her head repeatedly.
“This is exactly why you can’t trust half-breeds with responsibility!”
Half-breed?
One of Hong Seol’s eyebrows twitched at the Snow Wind Squad Leader’s harsh words.
In her childhood, Hong Seol had heard that word far too many times herself.
“If your father hadn’t apologized countless times, I would never have allowed a half-breed like you into the Snow Wind Squad!”
Hong Seol could see that the girl called Seol Eung was holding back tears with all her might.
“Lock these people in Thunder Prison for now and post guards.”
Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do’s lips curled with displeasure as he glanced over Hong Seol’s group.
At that moment, Hong Seol deliberately raised her voice and spoke to Pyo Du.
“Oh right, you asked earlier, didn’t you? What would have happened if we’d fought by the lake?”
“Huh? Yes, well….”
Pyo Du nodded with a reluctant expression.
The fact that he was agreeing to a question he hadn’t even asked suggested the man had sharp instincts.
‘I should find an opening to provoke him a bit.’
Hong Seol glanced subtly at Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do standing to the side and continued.
“Even if we had fought, we would have won. At the very least, we would have been evenly matched.”
It was a clear provocation.
At Hong Seol’s words, the tendons on Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do’s forehead, who had been standing silently, twitched.
“A brat from the Central Plains with barely dried blood on her head, spouting such arrogance!”
Then Hong Seol shot to her feet.
“Why don’t you shut that foul mouth of yours!”
It was an unusually sharp retort, unlike the typical Hong Seol.
Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do flinched involuntarily at Hong Seol’s icy momentum.
‘How could I be overwhelmed by a girl not even twenty years old?’
She was clearly no ordinary child.
Only then did Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do realize he hadn’t even properly asked who the person he’d brought was.
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve heard that the current Martial Alliance Master, Eon Soo Ryang, is absolutely doting on his daughter….’
What if that thunderbolt of a girl was actually the Martial Alliance Master’s only daughter!
Even someone as dismissive of outsiders as Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do had no desire to incur the Martial Alliance Master’s wrath.
He felt his mouth go suddenly dry.
“W-wait. Who exactly are you?”
Hong Seol lifted her nose proudly and spoke with confidence.
“Just provide a guest room until the Palace Master returns. I have nothing more to say to a mere Snow Wind Squad commander.”
The gazes of the two locked in silent confrontation sparked with tension for a long moment.
In the end, it was Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do who backed down.
“…Do as she says. However, keep them separated and ensure they cannot communicate with each other.”
With those words, Han Pung Geom Baek Yi Do turned and walked away with heavy steps.
‘Perfect!’
Hong Seol, who had been keeping her lips tightly sealed on the surface, silently cheered inwardly.
In truth, Hong Seol had a reason for engaging in that battle of wills just now.
‘Seol Ah, the youngest-looking girl in the Snow Wind Squad.’
Making her an ally was Hong Seol’s immediate objective.
‘And this girl will probably admire a courageous older sister.’
Just as she herself had been captivated by Deng Xiao Xiao, whom she’d humbled the Myo Family Estate twins against in Anhui Province.
Now it was time for Hong Seol to become that kind of presence for someone else.
And sure enough.
“Wow….”
Seol Ah stared at Hong Seol with her mouth agape, utterly mesmerized.

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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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