A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 57

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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 57
Unkempt whiskers adorned his face, a ruddy fist of a nose, and a gourd flask hung at his waist.
And tied to his belt were nine distinct knots.
“Master Tian Tong Gai!”
Nam Goong On and Bing Yu Hua, recognizing him, hurriedly bowed in respect.
Tian Tong Gai, the Beggar Sect Master.
Leader of one hundred thousand beggars, and the one who held the information of the Central Plains in the palm of his hand.
The very person they had been searching for so desperately was here.
Wan Li Yi Xian—the one who could heal Hong Seol’s yin-yang meridian imbalance. The only person who could reveal his whereabouts.
Yet Hong Seol alone tilted her head in confusion.
‘Tian… dung dog?’
Dung dog… dung dog.
Could this old grandfather be a dog-human hybrid?
‘But even for a beggar, to have “dung dog” in one’s name…’
Just as Hong Seol pouted her lips in disapproval—
Nam Goong On and Bing Yu Hua quickly lowered their heads and clasped their fists in salute.
“I, Nam Goong On, a disciple of the Martial Arts World, pay my respects to Master Tian Tong Gai.”
“I, Bing Yu Hua, a disciple of the Martial Arts World, pay my respects to Master Tian Tong Gai.”
Hearing their words, Hong Seol’s eyes widened in shock, her mouth falling open.
‘It’s Tian Tong Gai, not dung dog!’
She had nearly committed a grave discourtesy.
“Little one.”
After finishing her salute, Bing Yu Hua gently patted Hong Seol’s shoulder.
‘My turn!’
Hong Seol, reading the cue, quickly clasped her fists in salute.
‘Tian Tong Gai, Tian Tong Gai. I mustn’t mess up the name!’
Lost in that thought—
An entirely unexpected word burst from Hong Seol’s lips.
“I, Hong Seol, a disciple of the Martial Arts World’s spicy flavor, pay my respects to Master Tian Tong Gai!”
“What? Spicy flavor? Hahahaha!”
A hearty laugh suddenly echoed through the dim shop.
“Spicy… flavor, you say… Hehehehe. Our Hong Seol certainly has quite the pungent bite to her in many ways.”
Nam Goong On turned his head away with shaking shoulders, and even Bing Yu Hua covered her mouth with her sleeve as laughter escaped.
Only Hong Seol stood there blankly, her eyelashes fluttering.
“Isn’t it ‘spicy flavor’ of the Martial Arts World?”
Tian Tong Gai, the laughter fading from his lips, rubbed his ruddy nose and spoke.
“Yes, if you grow well like this, perhaps the Myo Estate’s Hong Seol will become a pungent and spicy presence in the Martial Arts World.”
Myo Estate’s Hong Seol.
Hearing those words, Hong Seol was so startled her tail nearly burst out.
‘This grandfather knows I’m the Myo Estate Girl!’
Hong Seol opened her trembling lips, her body taut with tension.
“Do… do you know who I am?”
“Is there anything under heaven that escapes my knowledge? I already know you are a cat-human hybrid, and that your body cannot cultivate inner energy.”
Hong Seol’s heart plummeted like a stone.
‘Then he must also know that I was rejected and cast out because my mother didn’t love me….’
The moments just before, when I had walked through the Market District holding Bing Yu Hua and Nam Goong On’s hands like a cherished child, now felt like a cruel lie.
Because my true self was nothing more than an abandoned child.
No matter how I pretended to be the daughter of the Nam Goong Family Estate, I could never truly become one of them—a pitiful, forsaken child named Hong Seol.
“Elder!”
Bing Yu Hua spoke up urgently.
“In fact, there’s something I wanted to ask your help with regarding this very matter.”
“Hmph!”
At that stern rebuke, Yu Hua’s mouth snapped shut.
Tian Tong Gai spoke with a solemn expression.
“Even if I, a beggar, sleep with the sky as my roof and stones as my bed, there remains a code of conduct. Since this child has sought me out, I shall hear her words first.”
Stung by his words, Bing Yu Hua took a step back.
“The both of you—wait outside until I have finished speaking with this child.”
“My lady.”
Nam Goong On gently wrapped his arm around Bing Yu Hua’s shoulders as she stood frozen in place.
Even then, Bing Yu Hua could not tear her worried gaze from Hong Seol.
“But still, how can you leave Hong Seol alone like this….”
“There is nothing to fear with Tian Tong Gai. Come.”
Only after Nam Goong On urged her several times did Bing Yu Hua reluctantly leave.
The moment they vanished, Tian Tong Gai gestured for Hong Seol to come deeper inside.
There lay only a rough straw mat and a small wooden table haphazardly assembled from branches.
“Sit.”
Hong Seol, glancing nervously around, knelt obediently upon the mat.
Tian Tong Gai, sitting across from her, rested his chin on the wooden table and studied her face.
“It seems to me that your destiny has already changed.”
“…!”
Hong Seol’s head snapped up as she stared at Tian Tong Gai’s face.
‘Does this grandfather somehow know that I’ve lived through time again?’
“I speak of how you caught the eye of Nam Goong Ho, that old man, just before death, and thus entered the Nam Goong Family Estate.”
Ah, so that’s what he meant.
The tension drained from my body.
“I am grateful for that, truly grateful….”
Ever since Nam Goong Mu Young had told me I could change my destiny, I had thought about it repeatedly.
What would I change if I could reshape my life as I wished?
And my answer had always been the same.
Yet why did something rise up in my throat, choking me, when I tried to speak those words?
The child finally spoke, swallowing her sobs as though stifled by hiccups.
“…I just want to be a child loved by my mother.”
It was the first time she had voiced her true heart aloud.
The courage to speak it came from the question that Hong Seol had carried all along.
‘Does Mother truly hate me? Then what of that tender lullaby from my childhood?’
The story she had heard recently in An Hui Province only deepened the mystery.
‘Uncle said so himself. That Mother has been searching for me. When she found the wrong child, she even fell ill!’
“Does Mother truly despise me?”
Tian Tong Gai’s expression suggested he found the question obvious.
“There’s nothing to see in that… well now.”
Seeing Hong Seol’s eyes brimming with tears, Tian Tong Gai feigned reluctance and withdrew a bundle of cloth from beneath the low table.
“Come, let me divine your fate.”
“A divination? Then I can know my destiny for certain?”
“Of course. Why else would they call me Tian Tong Gai?”
Hong Seol’s face brightened as she quickly traced the characters with her finger.
Tian Tong Gai.
One who communes with heaven.
‘Yes! This grandfather can reveal the truth to me!’
As he unwrapped the cloth from the object, several thick paper tablets the size of Hong Seol’s palm came into view.
Yet the images drawn upon them were quite peculiar.
A man in grotesque robes hung upside down; beneath a radiant sun, a naked child rode upon a horse….
On some tablets, a man with an eagle’s talons and a mountain goat’s horns glared with fierce eyes.
“Is, is this a picture of ghosts?”
Seized by sudden fear, Hong Seol turned away without daring to touch the tablets.
Then Tian Tong Gai, with scarcely a tooth remaining in his mouth, laughed widely.
“Tsk tsk, are you frightened?”
“What, what exactly is this?”
“Tools used for divination.”
“For divination?”
Hong Seol asked again, clearly bewildered.
She had heard of fortune tellers before.
Usually they spread straw mats in a corner of the Market District and sat with a low table before them, seeking customers for readings.
What they carried were typically ancient coins, grains of rice, or bamboo containers bristling with sticks.
Not paper tablets with such images drawn upon them.
“These are objects that came from the distant Western Regions. In all this vast Central Plains, only I can divine with these.”
Hong Seol tilted her head at his subtly boastful tone.
“But grandfather….”
You’re a beggar, not a sage.
Hong Seol swallowed hard.
She could not fathom why the leader of the Beggar Sect himself would take up the role of fortune teller here.
“Even if one is born clever despite suffering from Yin-Yang Severed Meridians, being young means understanding nothing. A fortune teller, you see—it’s a profession where one can observe and hear all manner of things.”
“Ah!”
As if struck by sudden realization, I clapped my palms together sharply.
“The Beggar Sect is an information organization!”
Before I could even finish the thought—’So that’s why you did it’—Tian Tong Gai continued.
“That’s one reason, but it’s also my hobby. The art of divination itself.”
Tian Tong Gai waved a paper tile before my nose.
“Especially these Western Regions artifacts—each tile carries its own meaning, making them all the more wondrous and mysterious.”
“Did Elder Nam Goong Mu Young also have his fortune told with these?”
“Tsk tsk, yes.”
His clouded eyes blinked as if recalling some distant day from the past.
“A shabby child came to me, but his eyes gleamed with brilliance. He worried about how to become wealthy, so I presented the tiles to him just as I do now. The tile he chose that day was this one.”
Tian Tong Gai unfolded one of the paper tiles to show me.

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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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