A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 76

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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 76
The days that followed were like hell itself.
I had once believed there was no greater torment than slowly awaiting death.
Yet in that moment, I discovered a loss far more profound existed in this world.
At first, I found it strange that I could feel this way.
‘Why?’
The affection Hong Seol showed me was nothing particularly extraordinary. After all, I had been showered with love my entire life.
Then, suddenly, I understood.
Among all those people, only that child had ever truly seen the loneliness within me.
“You mustn’t die, even when you turn twenty!”
“I’m absolutely on your side, older brother.”
“Ha, ha ha….”
Nam Goong Baek smiled sadly, recalling that conversation from that day.
The one child in this world who truly understood me.
Nam Goong Baek endlessly replayed that moment when Hong Seol lay there, her face drained of color.
‘I can never, ever see Hong Seol like that again.’
Nam Goong Baek clenched his teeth fiercely.
“What do you think, Baek?”
It was only natural that Nam Goong Ho’s voice, tinged with satisfaction, failed to reach his ears.
“Baek!”
“Yes?”
“Did I not ask what you thought of Seol’s martial technique? Isn’t it remarkable?”
Hong Seol, too, was watching him with her ears perked up, curious about his praise.
Without even shapeshifting, she looked just like a kitten waiting for praise with its front paws pressed together.
But this time, I could not give Hong Seol the praise she desired.
Nam Goong Baek hardened his expression and replied.
“…It is not a remarkable achievement.”
Upon hearing those words, Hong Seol’s eyes instantly glistened with tears.
At that sight, Nam Goong Baek’s heart ached sharply, despite having deliberately given such a harsh answer.
“Is that so?”
Nam Goong Ho wore an expression of surprise, as if taken aback.
He had thought that if anyone could recognize Hong Seol’s talent at a glance, it would be his eldest grandson, who was called a genius.
“Hmph, it seems your eye for talent is still lacking.”
Yet the seasoned Nam Goong Ho knew how to steer the conversation as he wished.
“Why don’t you try learning martial arts more properly? Then your eyes would open to recognize Hong Seol’s true talent.”
“I refuse.”
At Nam Goong Baek’s sharp refusal, Nam Goong Ho lowered his voice in reproach.
“Did I not tell you that a path to your salvation might open? Yet why have you abandoned everything?”
Whether the nagging had grown tiresome, Nam Goong Baek closed his eyes and bowed his head. But Nam Goong Ho did not cease his reproach.
“One must live with hope; only then does heaven take pity and open a path to survival.”
It happened then.
My heart wounded by Nam Goong Baek’s words, I bolted through the door and vanished.
“Hong Seol…?”
Sensing something amiss, Nam Goong Baek lifted his head and rushed after me.
“Truly, raising a child is no simple matter.”
Left alone, Nam Goong Ho sighed.
* * *
“Hong Seol!”
Without channeling my inner force, my Heavenly Wind Divine Method was pitiful compared to Nam Goong Baek’s.
Tap-tap-tap!
His footsteps suddenly echoed right behind me.
He would certainly catch me soon, but I refused to stop.
‘I don’t want to talk to him right now!’
After all my arduous training.
I thought my brother would rejoice in my accomplishment with me!
My disappointment was as great as my expectations.
‘I hate you, brother!’
The moment I squeezed my eyes shut and quickened my pace.
“Ha…”
An unexpectedly ragged breath reached my ears.
Bewildered, I glanced back.
Nam Goong Baek knelt on one knee, clutching his chest with one hand.
“Brother…?”
His chest heaved with labored breathing. At the sight, worry seized me.
‘Is he hurt? Could his poison be flaring up now…?’
My running feet halted.
“Brother!”
Abandoning my flight, I scurried over and crouched before Nam Goong Baek.
“Brother, are you alright? Is something wrong with your body?”
Nam Goong Baek exhaled sharply, squinting one eye.
Soon, his pale, delicate hand brushed away the tears streaming down my startled face.
His breathing, which moments before had been ragged, now settled into perfect calm.
“Am I alright? I wonder who should be asking whom that question.”
I’d been deceived!
At this, my eyes welled with tears.
“What! You weren’t hurt at all—you were just pretending!”
Hearing my words, Nam Goong Baek deliberately wore a sorrowful expression.
It was an expression he never showed to Heuk, Jeok, or anyone else.
“So you wished for me to suffer?”
I furrowed one brow and puffed out my cheeks, staring at his face.
Nam Goong Baek was deliberately feigning disappointment, whimpering like a child. Hong Seol knew this all too well.
Yet whenever I met those blue eyes and that delicate face, my heart grew inexplicably weak.
“That’s… well, it’s not that…”
At my softened words, Nam Goong Baek smiled gently.
The two of us settled side by side at the Pond in the Back Garden.
After watching the silk carp play in the water for some time, I asked.
“Was my performance really that poor?”
“Hm?”
Nam Goong Baek, who had been lost in thought, seemed to comprehend my words and wore an awkward expression.
“…No.”
“Then it was acceptable?”
“Remarkably so.”
“Then why did you say such things?”
Nam Goong Baek sighed, then picked up a white pebble from the edge of the Pond.
“I was worried.”
“About what?”
“I feared that if you became ambitious about martial arts, you would desperately seek to receive the Pursuing Palace Blood Technique, no matter the cost.”
After finishing, Nam Goong Baek tossed the white pebble into the Pond.
Splash, splash.
The pebble sank without bouncing across the surface even once.
It was because the heart of the one who threw it was utterly troubled.
“You’ve heard of the dangers of the Pursuing Palace Blood Technique, haven’t you?”
Hong Seol nodded quietly. It was something I had already heard about so thoroughly that I was sick of it.
Nam Goong Baek sighed again.
“Still, everyone cherishes you so much that there’s no way they wouldn’t have told you such things.”
After hesitating briefly, Nam Goong Baek seemed to make a decision and looked down at me.
“But there is still something you need to know.”
“Yes?”
At his voice, which sounded more subdued than usual, I tensed.
“This is about my body. And it’s also about you.”
Nam Goong Baek gazed beyond the far side of the Pond. There was nothing there.
“You know that I was poisoned with a toxin that manifests when I turn twenty, don’t you?”
Hong Seol nodded. Nam Goong Baek continued matter-of-factly.
“After that incident, my family searched everywhere for a way to save me.”
Of course they would have.
Even just recently, the Medicine Master had traveled through the Central Plains at great risk.
“But we could not find a way to create an antidote. Even the Poison King of the Sa Cheon Dang Family, second to none in toxins, threw up his hands in defeat.”
A massive white serpent.
I recalled the form of Poison King Dang Yi Mu, whom I had met at the Lake atop Dae Chuk Mountain.
His appearance, though fearsome at first glance, seemed almost divine.
A poison so virulent that even an antidote eluded discovery—I couldn’t fathom how devastating such a toxin must be.
“Yet my family refused to surrender. My father delved through our ancestral records, searching relentlessly until he uncovered a solution.”
Hong Seol blinked quietly, waiting for Nam Goong Baek’s next words.
“The Golden Dragon Jade Blood Elixir.”
A legendary medicine said to neutralize every poison under heaven—the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Essence itself.
The Golden Dragon Jade Blood Elixir was an antidote crafted from that essence, a treasure so rare that one might search the entire realm their entire life and never lay eyes upon it.
The reason was simple.
The Golden Dragon Jade Blood Essence was extraordinarily difficult to obtain, and crafting it into an antidote required three hundred years to complete.
“Yet the Nam Goong Family Estate possesses one such elixir, passed down through generations—a treasure brought back by Changcheon Sword Master Nam Goong Wi, who once battled the Heavenly Demon.”
With that, Nam Goong Baek’s body would surely recover fully.
For there existed no poison in this world that the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Elixir could not neutralize.
Yet there was a reason Nam Goong Baek had not yet obtained it.

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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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