A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 65

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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 65
His face bore the unmistakable light of genuine admiration.
“Your family’s pressure point technique is incredible. There’s no coldness to it at all.”
“The effect won’t last long, so hurry!”
Splash, splash.
Yang Do Jin was already swimming with water up to his neck.
Deng Xiao Xiao, watching him, spoke up.
“Hong Seol, you should transform back into a cat. Sorang will be cold when she emerges….”
“Oh!”
Understanding Deng Xiao Xiao’s intention, I flipped through the air in a somersault.
‘When Sorang comes out, I’ll wrap her up tight in my embrace. My fur is warm, after all.’
At times like this, I couldn’t be more grateful that I was a cat.
Yang Do Jin had nearly reached the center of the pond.
Hong Seol and Deng Xiao Xiao watched anxiously from a distance.
“Meow!”
“Just a little more!”
The moment Yang Do Jin’s hand barely touched the child dangling limply before him.
An ominous voice echoed low through the cave.
“Hehehehe, so a little mouse has wandered in.”
“Kyaaah!”
Before Deng Xiao Xiao’s scream had even finished, over a dozen men emerged from the shadows.
They were all dressed in black from head to toe, and each bore a black feather-shaped tattoo somewhere on their limbs.
“Damn it! I didn’t hear their footsteps!”
Yang Do Jin’s anguished cry rang out.
Because the pressure point technique had dulled his body’s senses, even his ears had failed to detect the Black Eagle Gang’s approach.
Frightened, Hong Seol and Deng Xiao Xiao retreated a couple of steps backward.
With the pond at their backs, the children had nowhere to run.
The men, knowing this, made no move to rush.
“These tiny mouse brats daring to lay their hands on the precious medicinal materials we’ve been preparing.”
‘Yang Do Jin was right!’
Hearing those words, I felt as though struck by lightning.
‘They really did… kidnap the children to make medicine!’
I had thought that even an evil sect like the Black Eagle Gang wouldn’t stoop to such a thing….
Every hair on my body stood on end.
“Don’t move!”
One of the Black Eagle Gang members approached them.
Deng Xiao Xiao quickly raised one hand into the air and positioned herself in front of Hong Seol.
“Back off!”
“…!”
As Hong Seol gasped in surprise, Deng Xiao Xiao glared at the men and whispered quietly.
“You can’t transform into human form in front of them.”
“Yaaaoooong…!”
Hong Seol, who had been about to insist she could fight too, hesitated.
‘Perhaps this could become an opportunity for a counterattack.’
If I exploit their carelessness, their belief that I’m merely a beast!
Hong Seol’s eyes hardened as she glared at the Black Eagle Gang members.
Unaware of her gaze, a man with black feathers tattooed across his forearm laughed grotesquely.
“Those who submit obediently will be reserved as medicinal ingredients for the very end.”
“That won’t happen!”
Deng Xiao Xiao, who understood as a child of a martial arts family that momentum was everything in combat, shouted fiercely.
The man’s outstretched hand was met with Deng Xiao Xiao gritting her teeth and pushing back. She even attempted a pressure point counterattack.
“Oho, quite skilled!”
But the gap in inner energy between an adult and a child was insurmountable.
“Is that all you have?”
Thud, thud.
The man pressed Deng Xiao Xiao back with casual ease, as if toying with her.
‘What should I do…! Is there anything I can do?’
Then something caught Hong Seol’s eye.
‘What is that?’
A small underground chamber near the Pond.
Inside lay scattered fragments of broken pottery and what appeared to be unidentifiable medicinal herb residue.
‘Someone must have stayed there.’
One particular object seized Hong Seol’s attention.
It was a long rope hanging in front of the underground chamber.
‘Attached to it is… a fire striker?’
I had seen the Changcheon Division members bring such items on long missions.
The fire striker, shaped like a long rod, was said to be a miraculous device that would ignite with just a blow after opening the bamboo tube cap.
And apparently it was extraordinarily expensive.
‘Why on earth would something like that be in such a place?’
Hong Seol tilted her head at the incongruity of the object.
In that moment, a memory surfaced.
It was something the family head Nam Goong On had once told me.
“Training martial arts with your father is fine, but if you ever wish to learn formation techniques or mechanical traps later, come to me.”
Hong Seol’s ears had perked up at the intriguing words.
“Mechanical traps? You mean those things where pitfalls appear and poisoned arrows rain down and all that?”
“Yes. Normally they’re installed to prevent intruders. The Nam Goong Family Estate has many of them, so you must always be careful when wandering alone.”
“Wow, how would I learn to recognize such things?”
At Nam Goong On’s suspicious gaze, Hong Seol’s voice became barely a whisper as she made excuses.
“No, I didn’t mean I’d wander alone….”
Hong Seol, who had already followed the family head Nam Goong On in the middle of the night once before, knew better.
Nam Goong On spoke with a faint sigh.
“It’s simple to recognize a mechanism trap, Hong Seol.”
“Yes?”
“Anything that seems unnatural. You must suspect and examine all such things.”
The rope and fire-starter apparatus hanging before the small cave entrance.
‘Yes, that’s definitely the mechanism trap I’ve only heard about!’
If the person who stayed in that cave had installed this mechanism trap, there could be only one reason.
‘To prevent any unexpected intruders!’
“Meow!”
At Hong Seol’s sharp cry, her tail puffed to its fullest, Deng Xiao Xiao and Yang Do Jin turned to look at her in unison.
Hong Seol quickly darted toward the small cave beside the pond. One of the Black Bandit Gang members behind her called out.
“Boss! Should we catch it?”
The man fighting Deng Xiao Xiao let out a scoff at the sight.
“Why bother with a kitten? Leave it.”
That was when it happened.
Deng Xiao Xiao pushed her opponent back with all her strength.
“Oof!”
While her careless opponent stumbled, she threw herself after Hong Seol.
“Do Jin!”
“Let’s go!”
Yang Do Jin, having freed the rope from So Rang’s body, launched himself into the small cave after Hong Seol.
Hong Seol, gripping the fire-starter apparatus with both front paws, opened the lid and blew hard.
Rumble!
A sound like thunder echoed as the rocks shattered.
Soon thick clouds of dust billowed upward.
* * *
“Cough, cough!”
“What happened? Are we alive?”
Beside Yang Do Jin, rubbing his dust-reddened eyes, Deng Xiao Xiao, bearing bruises here and there, looked around.
The small cat Hong Seol and young So Rang as well. The four of them were now inside the small cave together.
The entrance was blocked by a pile of earth and stone, triggered by the mechanism trap Hong Seol had activated.
“Meow!”
Hong Seol bounded forward on all fours and embraced So Rang. She held the child so tightly that even her tail clung firmly to the girl’s body.
But So Rang’s body was ice-cold. Hong Seol let out a sorrowful cry.
“Mew!”
Then Deng Xiao Xiao approached and held Hong Seol and So Rang tightly in her arms.
Yang Do Jin, exhausted though he was, barely managed to open his arms and embrace them all.
Thump, thump, thump….
Thanks to this, the three of them could feel each other’s heartbeats through their bodies.
Though they had known each other for such a short time, they felt like family to one another.
As time passed, So Rang’s pale lips gradually regained their natural color.
Noticing warmth returning to So Rang’s body, Hong Seol let out a sound of joy.
“Meow!”
Relief flickered across Deng Xiao Xiao’s face as well.
“Hehe… You’re alive, Sorang.”
“Huff. Huff.”
Yang Do Jin collapsed backward with a sigh of relief.
And he spoke as though without regret.
“We’re… going to die here, aren’t we?”
For a long moment, no one answered.
Do Jin’s words were true.
They had managed to evade the Black Bandit Gang’s pursuers by hastily activating some mechanism that had been set up by someone.
But as a result, the four of them were now trapped in an underground chamber shrouded in complete darkness.
It was a narrow refuge with neither water nor light.
If they remained here for just three more days, the children would perish.
But Hong Seol had something to believe in.
‘The Nam Goong Family will surely come to rescue me!’
Because I believed in that, I could boldly activate the mechanism.
If, by some chance, they abandoned me and didn’t come looking…
‘I don’t think I’d want to live anyway.’
It would have been different if I had never known such love existed in my life.
But a child who had already discovered that sunlight existed in the world could no longer remain in this dark cave.
‘Grandfather… Head of the Family, Medicine Master, Uncle Baek, Uncle Heuk, Jeok, Changcheon Master, Elder Nam Goong Mu Young, Mae Ran…!’
Hong Seol endured the silence by silently reciting the names of those she longed to see.
“Hey, if we somehow manage to get out of here safely, want the three of us to be friends?”
Yang Do Jin, who had been quiet throughout, suddenly spoke.
Deng Xiao Xiao, who had been quietly sniffling, answered abruptly.
“A beggar and a young lady from a martial arts family being friends? That’s ridiculous! …But okay.”
“Meow?”
At her words that started and ended so differently, Hong Seol’s eyes widened like apricot pits.
“Since we’re in such extraordinary circumstances. If we’ve crossed the line between life and death together, we’re friends. What about you, Seol?”
“Meow!”
Hong Seol nodded and expressed her agreement repeatedly.
“Alright, the three of us will be friends once we get out.”
After that, they all fell silent for a long time.
Then, with a loud thud, a single beam of light suddenly pierced through the darkness.

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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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