A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 233

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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 233
Is this what it feels like to be chewed alive?
With each breath, my ribs felt as though they were being crushed inward.
“N-no, that’s not it…”
Nam Goong Do found himself instinctively dropping to his knees, his eyes squeezed shut.
I could feel the other’s gaze sliding across my body like a blade.
It was a sensation as though my very bones were being pierced through.
“What is your name?”
“I am called Nam Goong Do, my lord.”
Even as he spoke, Nam Goong Do risked a furtive glance upward, stealing a glimpse of the feet of the one before him.
In the next instant.
Crack!
Someone lifted Nam Goong Do by the collar with casual ease.
“Ugh!”
“How dare you steal a look at your lord’s face!”
The man wearing spectacles, his neck flushed with rage, was none other than Dok Ryung Ma Gun Dang Song Baek.
Behind him stood Je Gal Seon, her face concealed behind a translucent veil.
The arms exposed beneath her sleeves were skeletal, and her gaze was vacant—like that of a corpse.
It was the look of one who had abandoned all hope in this world.
Yet Nam Goong Do, gasping and flailing with drool streaming down his chin, did not recognize who they were.
Dok Ryung Ma Gun spoke in a chilling, hoarse voice.
“You need only speak the word, my lord. If you wish it, I shall tear out the eyes of this Nam Goong brat this very instant.”
“Let me see his face, then.”
Nam Goong Do could not even muster the courage to open his eyes.
‘Please, spare me. Spare me. Spare me!’
A soft clicking of the tongue was heard.
“How pathetic. I find it hard to believe that the blood of Nam Goong Wi flows through such a wretched creature.”
“N-Nam Goong Wi…? Gasp—could it be… the Changcheon Sword Master…?”
Though Nam Goong Do was dull-witted and negligent in his studies, he had heard the name of the Changcheon Sword Master spoken often enough.
He also knew that his lifelong rival was none other than the Heavenly Demon.
The man called lord brought his face close to Nam Goong Do’s, his crimson eyes gleaming.
“Go ahead, look upon me to your heart’s content.”
“Haa—gasp!”
The grotesquely split mouth seemed ready to swallow Nam Goong Do whole in a single bite.
“I am your ancestor—the Heavenly Demon whom the Changcheon Sword Master so desperately wished to kill.”
Nam Goong Do’s jaw trembled, his teeth chattering together with a sickening sound.
“An irritating noise.”
Crash!
At those words, Dang Song Baek slammed Nam Goong Do’s face against the cave wall.
Then, gripping the back of his head, he tore him away from the stone.
“Cough, cough! Cough!”
As Nam Goong Do coughed, blood caking his mouth and nose, broken teeth scattered from his lips.
With all his teeth gone, the sharp clicking sounds had mercifully ceased.
“Much better.”
The Heavenly Demon lifted Nam Goong Do’s chin with a single finger.
“Now then, you worm. Why did you burn my Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill?”
“I, I, I didn’t do it on purpose, Your Majesty….”
Nam Goong Do’s voice, leaking from his toothless mouth, was utterly servile.
Any pride he once held as a member of the Nam Goong Family had long since been abandoned.
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because Nam Goong Baek… I couldn’t bear to watch that bastard recover….”
“Nam Goong Baek?”
At hearing such a trivial name, a thin crack appeared on the Heavenly Demon’s brow.
Thud!
Dok Ryung Ma Gun released Nam Goong Do’s body and quickly approached the Heavenly Demon, whispering urgently.
“The eldest son of the Nam Goong Family. The one you deliberately poisoned….”
“Ah.”
As memory returned, the Heavenly Demon nodded slightly.
Unlike Dok Ryung Ma Gun, who responded swiftly to the Heavenly Demon’s every gesture, the woman standing behind remained vacant and motionless.
“The Nam Goong squabbling among themselves is no concern of mine, but stealing my Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill demands a price.”
With those words, a crushing aura began to suffocate the space.
“Ugh, ughhhh…!”
It felt as though thousands of needles were piercing his skin.
Unable to summon his protective qi, Nam Goong Do felt as naked as a man standing alone in the heart of Beihai.
“P, please spare me! I’ll do anything!”
Nam Goong Do prostrated himself, his forehead striking the ground repeatedly.
‘How could the Heavenly Demon have been after it all along…!’
He was nothing but a worm who would die the moment this being released even a fraction of his power.
He had no choice but to grovel.
“I, I’ll tell you anything about the Nam Goong Family!”
“Could information from your mouth possibly be worth as much as the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill that could detoxify me?”
Half-mad with terror, Nam Goong Do scrambled to offer something of value.
“I, I’ll reveal the secret techniques of the Heavenly Sword Technique! Or the Heavenly Wind Divine Method! Or, or, I’ll tell you the weaknesses of the Sword King Nam Goong Ho, so please, give me a chance!”
“The Sword King?”
At the Heavenly Demon’s question, Dok Ryung Ma Gun interjected.
“One of the current Five Undefeated Kings of the realm, and the Supreme Patriarch of the Nam Goong Family.”
Yet the Heavenly Demon seemed utterly unmoved.
“Does this world still possess martial arts unknown to me? Besides, Nam Goong techniques are predictable.”
Over his long existence, he had crossed swords with Nam Goong warriors countless times.
“Not a single one of them ever surpassed Nam Goong Wi.”
What tormented the Heavenly Demon was not the skill of Central Plains martial artists, but a vicious addiction.
“If that is all you have to offer, then the time has come to pay with your life.”
The Heavenly Demon raised one hand.
A sharp chill of terror coursed down Nam Goong Do’s spine.
‘At this rate, I’m going to die without moving an inch…!’
It was the first time anyone had shown no interest in the Nam Goong Family’s martial arts.
At that moment, a cunning thought flickered through Nam Goong Do’s mind.
‘Wait, what if I provide information about another sect’s techniques instead of the Nam Goong Family’s?’
And what if that sect was one that fought against the Heavenly Demon during the Righteous Demon Great War?
This would work.
The Heavenly Demon would surely be interested.
Desperately turning his thoughts over, Nam Goong Do cried out loudly.
“There, there is a cat-human female!”
At those words, Dok Ryung Ma Gun glanced back at Je Gal Seon.
Beneath the cloth covering her face, hot tears streamed down in droplets.
But Nam Goong Do himself saw nothing, consumed only with saving his own life.
His only concern was how well he could sell Hong Seol to the Heavenly Demon.
“That cat-woman is the sole surviving heir of the Southern Barbarian Night Beast Palace!”
“Yes, the Southern Barbarian Night Beast Palace. I remember now. I personally reduced it to a place where not a single stone remained upon another.”
At those words, Nam Goong Do exulted inwardly.
‘Perfect! If a descendant of a sect bearing such a grudge still lives, he will naturally want that information.’
If fortune favors him, the Heavenly Demon might even take revenge on that woman instead of destroying his dantian.
“So, what of this woman?”
“She, she has learned a martial art called the Twelve Beast Martial Art, commanding beasts, and also…”
Nam Goong Do stole a glance at the Heavenly Demon’s face.
Damn.
He wore an expression of profound boredom.
‘From Nam Man to Beihai, is there truly no martial art this man does not know?’
Then what confession about this cat-woman could possibly save his life?
“Have you nothing more to say? It seems the time has come for you to become meat.”
The Heavenly Demon, weary even of deliberation, pointed at Nam Goong Do’s brow with his finger.
“You burned away my only hope of completely curing this addiction with your own hands, so I shall burn you until not a shred of flesh remains.”
With those words, flames erupted across the Heavenly Demon’s palm.
Fire that only those of supreme martial prowess could summon—Samadhi True Fire.
“Wait, wait just a moment! There, there is something unusual!”
The Heavenly Demon still regarded him without warmth.
“That cat-human female has two red eye-flower shaped marks on her wrists!”
In that instant, the Heavenly Demon’s crimson pupils trembled ever so slightly.
It was only for a moment.
But in that moment, Nam Goong Do instinctively understood that this was his only path to survival.
Nam Goong Do recited the facts I knew with desperate urgency.
“According to that girl, this mark was proof that my mother loved me…!”
The Sammai Divine Transformation subsided.
“Ah, I see. Tell me more details.”
* * *
Fortunately, the fire that broke out at the Nam Goong Estate Manor did not spread extensively.
Nam Goong Do had targeted only the Ancestral Shrine where the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill was kept.
As a result, Wi Sa, who had allowed Nam Goong Do into the estate, ended up imprisoned in Thunder Prison.
“It’s just that the young master expressed a final wish to pay his respects to the Grand Patriarch…!”
“You took a bribe and now you spout such nonsense!”
Though an enraged Nam Goong Ho did send Wi Sa’s jaw flying.
The real problem was that Nam Goong Do, the actual culprit, had vanished.
The Nam Goong Family even mobilized the Beggar Sect to search for traces of Nam Goong Do, but ultimately found nothing.
That was why Hong Seol had been distressed even after ten days had passed.
“Were you truly so upset?”
Nam Goong Baek, sitting at the edge of the stairs like in childhood, asked.
From all the crying, Hong Seol’s face had swollen considerably.
In that state, Hong Seol nodded.
Nam Goong Baek poked Hong Seol’s puffy cheek.
It was a playful gesture, as if they had returned to their childhood days.
At that motion, Hong Seol glared at Nam Goong Baek with grievance.
“…Hic, waaaah!”
Then she began sobbing pitifully with her whole heart.
A flustered Nam Goong Baek circled around Hong Seol. Looking at him, they were unmistakably like their childhood selves.
“I, I’m sorry, Seol Ah!”
The only difference was that Nam Goong Baek, his ears burning crimson, didn’t dare place even a single finger on Hong Seol without hesitation.
“I suffered so much and achieved mastery of the Yin-Yang Divine Art in that short time!”
Remembering the time she had been put through by the Northern Sea Ice Palace Master, Hong Seol cried even more sorrowfully.
“I was so happy thinking that this time my brother would finally escape that terrible torment!”
“Seol Ah, I feel relieved instead.”
“How can you say such a thing?”
“Instead, I have this token that you risked your life to find for me, don’t I?”
Nam Goong Baek produced the Golden Cat Sect token from his bosom and showed it.
“With this alone, I can do without the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Pill. So stop crying.”
And after hesitating slightly, he added.
“…Your beautiful face will be ruined.”
Hong Seol, whose eyes still glistened with tears, pouted her lips before breaking into a bright smile.
“That’s right. So this token must never be taken from me by anyone!”
“Of course.”
Nam Goong Baek pulled his lips into a smile, and at that sight, Hong Seol found her heart stolen without her realizing it.
“By the way, the Golden Cat Sect has an interesting function I hadn’t noticed before.”
“A function? You mean besides granting the holder an invulnerable state? There’s something else?”
“Indeed. Look here.”
Nam Goong Baek’s fingers flipped the Golden Cat Sect over to reveal its reverse side.
As he grasped the Golden Cat Sect and drew his energy through it lightly, distinct characters materialized on the back.

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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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