A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 89

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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 89
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Despite the chaos erupting outside, the Youth Dormitory remained silent as a tomb.
All the disciples had fallen asleep early, their hungry bellies clutched in their arms.
The children, exhausted from a full day of grueling labor—chopping firewood, drawing water—snored deeply with no intention of waking.
Among them, only Woon Young remained awake.
Woon Young gazed at her own bandaged palms, bathed in the pale moonlight filtering through the window cracks.
A thin, trembling voice escaped the lips of the ten-year-old girl.
“Mu Gwi Geom, sir… do you think I can do this?”
The voice scattered into the empty air without answer.
“There isn’t much time left before the children must leave….”
Woon Young spoke with evident fear, her eyes cast downward.
“I’m asking whether I can truly protect these children.”
Again, there was no response.
Woon Young clenched her palms tightly, her sad eyes fixed upon them.
“I see. Since there’s no one to help me, I must do whatever it takes. Please grant me strength, sir.”
Crackle.
The sound of footsteps crushing fallen leaves came from outside.
Woon Young tensed, pressing herself against the wall as her eyes gleamed, fixed upon the doorway.
Creak….
Poking her head through the Youth Dormitory door was the fortunate young lady of the Nam Goong Family Estate.
Her words could not come out smoothly.
“What is it?”
‘She’s colder than I expected.’
It was nothing serious, but attempting to lie made her legs tremble inexplicably.
Hong Seol recited the lines Nam Goong Baek had taught her in a quavering voice.
“Um, well, you see…. The Sect Master is calling for you.”
“Me? Again?”
In that moment, Hong Seol saw it.
Woon Young’s face drained of color, consumed by terror.
‘That’s… that’s the same expression I wore when facing Chung Ok at the Myo Ga Jang back then….’
The sect master of an entire martial faction and a young disciple tasked with menial labor.
While it could be difficult, the terror seemed somewhat strange.
“Wait!”
At Hong Seol’s words, Woon Young, who had begun moving slowly, turned back.
Hong Seol asked in a trembling voice.
“Is the Sect Master… doing something to you?”
At those words, the girl’s complexion turned ashen. But Woon Young, who had hesitated, walked toward the door without answering.
Hong Seol rushed forward and grabbed her wrist. Woon Young flinched in surprise, recoiling sharply.
“Ah!”
Woon Young batted away Hong Seol’s hand with trembling fingers.
“Let go! Unless you’re prepared to take the beating meant for me for arriving late.”
“What?”
As Hong Seol reeled from the shock, Woon Young took several steps past the corner of the wall—and that was when it happened.
Tap, tap-tap!
Someone struck several vital acupoints in an instant, and Woon Young’s entire body went rigid as a wooden log.
As Woon Young toppled backward, the last thing I saw was a fair-faced youth with silver hair and azure eyes.
‘The young master of the Nam Goong Family…!’
“Brother!”
Hong Seol cried out in alarm, pointing at Woon Young as she tumbled to the ground.
Without intervention, the back of her head would have struck the hard floor with a sickening crack.
Nam Goong Baek caught her with a reluctant gesture, lowering her gently to lie on the ground.
“Phew.”
Only then did Hong Seol release a breath of relief.
The brother before me stood with his chin raised proudly, awaiting praise.
“Did you see, Seol Ah? This is how acupoint striking is truly done.”
“…Yes? Ah, yes, of course…”
But Hong Seol remained dazed, reeling from the shock of learning Woon Young’s secret.
Unaware of this, Nam Goong Baek was busy demonstrating the superiority of his acupoint technique to Hong Seol.
“It’s far more elegant than the methods of the Deng Family Estate, wouldn’t you say? If you stay at the Nam Goong Family, perhaps one day you’ll learn it as well.”
Why was this young master suddenly boasting about his acupoint technique in front of me?
And what was the Deng Family Estate?
Lying sprawled on the ground, I couldn’t begin to fathom this enigmatic young master.
I’d thought him someone who rarely spoke, yet here he was chattering away freely in front of this girl called Seol Ah.
I snapped back to awareness with a start. This was no time to be lying here.
‘If I’m late answering the Sect Master’s summons, the children might be beaten in my place!’
I struggled to move, but the numbing acupoint strike left me completely paralyzed.
“It’s useless. Don’t underestimate the acupoint techniques of the Nam Goong Family.”
With those words, Nam Goong Baek drew the short blade he always carried with him.
It was the blade he hadn’t left at Haejeon Pool thanks to Nam Goong Ho’s group.
The moment I saw the blade, my face drained of all color.
‘Surely he doesn’t mean to kill me?’
There was no mercy in the way he aimed it at me.
‘I’m not afraid of death, but if I die, the children left behind…’
His blue eyes gleamed with sudden intensity.
Slash!
The blade cut mercilessly across my body.
‘Ahhh!’
I tried to scream, but no sound emerged.
Yet something was strange. I felt no pain at all.
In that instant, Hong Seol’s trembling voice burst forth.
“Brother! It’s here. There’s a small bow character written on it!”
The sound of fabric tearing filled the air as the cloth fragment was torn apart in her grip.
‘I’ve been discovered!’
Woon Young’s heart began to race uncontrollably.
‘The previous Sect Master strictly forbade me from ever showing that mark! These children have found out!’
There was no other choice now.
‘I must fight to protect these children and myself!’
Woon Young clenched her teeth.
“If you tell me what this is about, I can help you….”
It seemed the child called Hong Seol was whispering something near her ear, but this was not the time to pay attention to that.
Woon Young focused her mind.
She could not speak, but she could still blow air through her paralyzed lips.
It was precisely the Hour of the Pig.
Whiiiiing…!
Woon Young’s faint whistle pierced the dark Changnyeong Mountain.
The entire mountain trembled for a moment.
Shiiiiing!
A dark shadow shot high into the sky, then plummeted downward like a hawk diving at its prey, targeting a single point.
Its trajectory was unmistakably aimed at Hong Seol, who sat beside Woon Young.
In Hong Seol’s bright pupils, a gleaming blade reflected the moonlight.
“A, a jiangshi…?”
The corpse’s complexion was ashen, with patches of flesh missing—undeniably a corpse.
Hong Seol froze in place.
In that moment.
“Move aside!”
Clang!
Nam Goong Baek, stepping in front of Hong Seol, clenched his teeth and drew his sword.
He immediately channeled his azure inner force upward to block the descending blade of Mu Gwi Geom.
Boom!
The collision produced a sound so violent it seemed impossible that mere swords had clashed.
Mu Gwi Geom, having met the blade without taking a single hit, bounced backward five zhang in retreat.
Hong Seol, who had kept her eyes tightly shut, looked upward.
“Ugh….”
Nam Goong Baek, who had received Mu Gwi Geom’s blade with his entire body, staggered and dropped to one knee with a heavy thud.
His feet were buried an inch into the ground, and a thin trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.
“Brother!”
Hong Seol cried out, her face drained of color.
“…Seol Ah, are you hurt?”
Thanks to Nam Goong Baek fully receiving Mu Gwi Geom’s blade, Hong Seol remained completely unharmed.
“It wasn’t me—it was my brother!”
“It’s nothing. But where did that Disciple go?”
Hong Seol turned around, her face crumpling with distress.
What caught her eye was Mu Gwi Geom releasing the acupoints of the collapsed Woon Young.
The corpse’s complexion was ghastly pale, its fingernails grown wild and unkempt—the sight made Hong Seol’s skin crawl.
The jiangshi hoisted Woon Young onto its shoulder and disappeared into the Youth Dormitory.
Into the place where all the children lay sleeping.
And in that very next instant.
A tremendous, tempestuous aura erupted from somewhere.
“Mu Gwi Geom! How dare you lay hands on my grandchildren!”
Nam Goong Ho, his eyes wide as saucers, had drawn his blade and rushed forth upon sensing the jiangshi’s presence.
“Grandfather!”
“Today I shall taste your blood!”
Despite Hong Seol’s cry, the enraged Nam Goong Ho bolted toward the Youth Dormitory like a thunderbolt.
Mu Gwi Geom burst out from the dormitory entrance and caught Nam Goong Ho’s blade with a single raised hand.
Screeeech!
A bone-chilling sound reverberated across the Sect Grounds.
Though the jiangshi had seized the sharp blade with bare flesh, it rang out as though steel had collided with steel.
It was the legendary technique of the Changnyeong Sect—the Unbreakable Hand.
Watching this unfold, Hong Seol’s palms grew slick with sweat.
‘An ordinary person would have fumbled and dropped the sword by now!’
But Nam Goong Ho was known as the Sword King.
He let out a derisive laugh, then suddenly unleashed a powerful sweep that tore the jiangshi’s grip away.
Then he bellowed forth.
“It’s been decades since we last crossed blades, yet your sword is far duller than it was then!”
Though the Sword King Nam Goong Ho had his blade trained upon the jiangshi—or rather, Mu Gwi Geom—there was not a flicker of hesitation in its eyes.
“…”
“Today I shall remind you of the humiliation I suffered at your hands in the past!”
The moment Nam Goong Ho’s feet struck the ground, Mu Gwi Geom also drew his blade and raised his remaining hand like a claw.
Whoooosh!
In the blink of an eye, dozens of exchanges unfolded in the air.
Mu Gwi Geom leaped to evade Nam Goong Ho’s horizontal slash and lunged for his head.
“Not so fast!”
Nam Goong Ho countered with a piercing thrust.
Clang clang clang clang!
The crystalline ring of two blades clashing in rapid succession echoed across Changnyeong Mountain.

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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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