Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 82

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 82. Self-Control is in My Heart (2)

Moyong Su Jeong looked calmly at her Younger Brother who had transformed into some beast that could be either a bear or a wild boar, and spoke composedly.

“Sit down. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

“…Alright.”

Moyong Bi, suppressing his excitement, sat down with a loud thud!

Seok Woong spoke carefully.

“Family Head, then I’ll take my leave.”

“Won’t you have some tea?”

“I have many matters to handle. Please, you two have your conversation.”

Indeed, an experienced steward was different. Thinking that his presence might make them hesitate about what they could or couldn’t say, Seok Woong quickly vacated the room.

Perhaps he felt awkward in this excitement-filled atmosphere.

A moment later.

“I brewed this with the tea leaves Su Hyang brought this time. The innkeeper took great care of it.”

“…It is good.”

“I heard from Su Hyang that the innkeeper also gifted you some polygonum multiflorum?”

“It was delicious.”

“I must thank him properly later. Though I’m sure you’ll handle it well on your own.”

“Of course.”

Though his answers came promptly, Moyong Bi’s face remained serious.

After moistening her throat with a sip of tea, Moyong Su Jeong’s face became much calmer and more relaxed.

“You’re going to win the Late-Stage Expert tournament prize money?”

“Naturally!”

“Yes, it would be good if you could win the prize money.”

“Not ‘if I could win’ – I absolutely must win it.”

“Before that, I want to know why you’re so excited first.”

Moyong Bi’s expression became strange.

“I told you just now, didn’t I? The more money, the better!”

“I know that too.”

Moyong Su Jeong’s face gradually became serious.

“One hundred thousand nyang is certainly a tremendous amount. For a family like ours, it’s enough to become wealthy in an instant. Moreover, if we add the one hundred seventy thousand nyang set aside for business funds, it would probably be enough to live comfortably for a lifetime.”

“….”

“I understand everything you’re saying. Since you care for our family far more than this incompetent Elder Sister, I think you could get excited. But from my perspective, you seem too different from usual right now.”

Moyong Bi took a deep breath.

He had certainly gotten excited. And since he hadn’t explained the reason, he thought it was natural that both Su Jeong and Seok Woong would be flustered.

“Tell Elder Sister. Why are you so desperate for money?”

“Elder Sister.”

“Yes.”

“The Secret Place has no money.”

“…?”

“Of course, if I sold all those weapons, I could get my hands on a fortune. Millions of nyang, maybe even ten million nyang wouldn’t be impossible.”

This wasn’t an exaggeration but the truth.

The Divine Weapons and Strange Artifacts stored in the Alliance Leader’s Residence were treasures that could be called priceless. If even one of these were released into Jianghu, there would be a bloodbath from Murim Warriors fighting to possess it.

There were over ten such weapons.

There were even several more that he hadn’t brought from the residence. If he calculated all of them, he could become one of the wealthiest magnates in Hubei Province based on assets alone.

What if he sold all the various Spiritual Medicines and Internal Injury Medicines as well?

He could truly get his hands on astronomical amounts of money.

“But I can’t sell those items.”

“Right, you shouldn’t sell the weapons that our ancestors prepared for their descendants.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?”

“If we’re about to starve to death, what does it matter about ancestors or anything else? If we need to sell, we sell.”

Moyong Su Jeong was flustered.

“That’s….”

“But right now, we don’t have the ability to sell them.”

“What?”

“Should I tell you precisely? We could sell them. But we can’t handle the consequences. The moment it’s revealed that we sold treasures, do you think the greedy scoundrels of Jianghu would just stand by and watch?”

“…!”

“We’d be lucky if we could properly survive even one day. I guarantee you, the Main Family House would be destroyed within three days at minimum.”

The seriousness and gravity in his voice was conveyed completely.

Moyong Su Jeong unconsciously rubbed her arms. She could feel the goosebumps that had risen.

Her Younger Brother was right.

Treasures in the hands of the powerless, those without the ability to protect them, weren’t treasures but disasters.

Even if they left her hands, there would be those who would draw their swords asking why she sold them. It was, so to speak, a crime of impudence.

What was truly frightening was that one could become endangered just from rumors of having treasures, even without ever possessing them.

But the powerless had no way to resolve that injustice. Even if they said from the beginning that they never had any, that it was all rumors, would those blinded by greed believe them?

That’s why the powerless could only feel bitter.

“The Main Family House must become strong. As quickly as possible.”

“Why?”

Moyong Su Jeong’s face became completely serious too.

“I can understand what you’re saying. But Elder Sister thinks your excitement seems excessively sudden.”

“….”

“Setting everything else aside, I want to know that first. I really want to hear it.”

Though it might seem frustrating, Moyong Bi understood her.

Moyong Su Jeong maintained an attitude of learning and acquiring knowledge at every moment.

In some sense, that attitude was largely due to circumstances. She had learned through experience that she and the family wouldn’t be endangered if she learned and knew even one more thing.

That heart soon led to understanding of her blood relatives.

Due to guilt toward her Younger Brother, she hadn’t been able to properly understand anything until now. But finally, she had resolved the old emotions with her Younger Brother and they had become truly sibling-like siblings.

That’s why she wanted to know. Her Younger Brother’s true feelings.

She didn’t want to dig out secrets he didn’t want to tell, but she definitely wanted to know what she was allowed to know.

As Family Head, as an Elder Sister, Moyong Su Jeong wanted to understand her family members.

Moyong Bi finally realized Moyong Su Jeong’s feelings.

‘You fool, you stupid fool.’

He could get excited without considering the consequences.

The problem was that he had already forgotten the conversation with Elder Brother that he had recalled while apologizing to Su Hyang.

‘Su Jeong is right. Not for my sake, but for Su Jeong’s sake too, I should have explained calmly.’

Was this a different kind of problem from the apology he had made to Su Hyang?

No. Fundamentally, it was the same problem.

Just as he needed to be clear when he had to honestly convey his feelings, getting excited and making a fuss just because only he understood the situation while others didn’t would accomplish nothing.

Crucially, Su Jeong was the Family Head.

He should treat her as Family Head, not as his Great Grand Niece. There would be things Moyong Bi as Family Head should learn from her, and things he as Great Grand Uncle should teach Su Jeong.

Now was exactly that time.

“Ahem! I got a bit too excited.”

Moyong Bi smiled awkwardly.

“I was a bit like a wild boar. Right?”

Only then did Moyong Su Jeong smile.

“I was surprised, but it looked good seeing you so spirited. There was something overwhelming about it?”

“I have various sides to me.”

“You won’t show me your drunkard side anymore, will you?”

“I might have a drink occasionally.”

“Right, one cup at a time is fine. Just restrain yourself when Su Hyang is watching.”

“Of course.”

Moyong Bi, now much calmer, drank his tea.

With a different mindset, the tea’s fragrance felt even richer.

“This is really good?”

“Right? When things aren’t going well, I drink strongly fragrant tea while reflecting on myself. If I can’t sense the fragrance as well as usual, it means I have less composure than normal, and if I can sense it well, it means my condition is fine.”

What a profound child.

Even after living over fifty years, one must learn such things.

After savoring the fragrance several times, Moyong Bi set down his tea cup and spoke.

“You know that the main family house is in a more precarious situation than expected, right?”

“I didn’t know it was precarious, but I did sense that something was floating uncertainly.”

That was instinct.

It also meant that Moyong Su Jeong had talent as a leader. She lacked experience, but if she just followed her instincts, she would never be called an incompetent leader.

“We crushed Hwang Gyu. We brought Ten Swords Gate’s reputation down to rock bottom.”

“So?”

“It means our main family house’s reputation has spread throughout all of Wuhan, knowingly or unknowingly.”

“I know that.”

“Wuhan is a city with developed commerce. All kinds of merchants travel here and there by ship. Do you know what this means?”

Only then did Moyong Su Jeong’s face become serious.

“Our main family house’s reputation spreads throughout all of Hubei?”

“It could spread even beyond Hubei.”

In fact, various major merchants from other regions would come to Wuhan by ship to do business.

If they encountered rumors about the Moyong Family, it meant those rumors could naturally spread to other regions.

“You know about the matter with the Ho Yeon Family, right?”

Her face hardened completely.

Moyong Su Jeong’s face, which had only looked kind, became cold as ice.

“I know.”

“Our main family house was branded as a family of fraudsters and chased all the way to Hubei.”

“Right.”

“You also know that Father was convinced that Ho Yeon Family spies had been secretly active in our main family house for a long time, right?”

“Of course. One of the reasons you secretly learned martial arts was to avoid the Ho Yeon Family’s eyes, wasn’t it?”

“I heard it directly from Guo Lao. Father must have told only Guo Lao separately.”

“….”

“As time passed and Father and Mother passed away, those bastards probably had no more business with our main family house. From the outside, we were a ruined martial family after all.”

“That would be the case.”

“At this point, we practically crushed Ten Swords Gate.”

Moyong Su Jeong’s eyes wavered.

She finally completely realized what her younger brother wanted to say.

“The Ho Yeon Family will target us again?”

“The possibility is very high.”

Conversely, there was also a low possibility that they wouldn’t.

The reason was simple.

‘Wudang Sect.’

While hearing the circumstances from Guo Lao, there was something suspicious.

That was precisely the existence of Wudang Sect.

‘Heo Do Jin In might have helped us. But if it was revealed that my surname is definitely Ho Yeon… Still, if it was Heo Do, he might have pulled strings to at least keep us alive.’

The problem was what came after.

‘No matter how I think about it, it’s suspicious. He protected us but neglected the Ho Yeon Family spies coming? Didn’t he have the loyalty to care that far?’

That could be the case, but considering Heo Do’s personality, there were aspects that didn’t add up.

That thought soon extended to Myeongjin Hall.

‘Did that great grand nephew really obtain the Myeongjin Entrance Token by chance?’

Just when it was needed, he obtained the Myeongjin Entrance Token through heavenly fortune?

That Myeongjin Entrance Token which was said to be as difficult as plucking stars from the sky to officially obtain?

People lined up wanting to obtain connections with Myeongjin Hall, and furthermore Wudang Sect, even if it meant paying thousands or tens of thousands of nyang, so what were the odds that a young family head of a ruined family would luckily encounter some Taoist and get his hands on a Myeongjin Entrance Token?

‘There’s something there.’

Moyong Bi, having organized his thoughts, continued speaking.

“You understand, right? Right now our main family house is facing great danger. Even if the Ho Yeon Family bastards aren’t watching, we must move thinking that they are watching.”

“…I see.”

“Naturally, we must become stronger as quickly as possible. Common sense? Leisure? Those are problems for later. Right now, I think somehow building up our strength is the priority.”

“Right, now I understand. But I have one question.”

“….”

“If it’s that urgent, wouldn’t it be better to liquidate the business funds instead? Entering the late-stage expert competition to win prize money could become a bad move that draws even more attention from the Ho Yeon Family.”

Moyong Bi smiled.

How comfortable it was to talk like this.

“As expected, Elder Sister is smart.”

“Compared to you, I’m no different from an idiot.”

“That exact part is important.”

“That I’m an idiot?”

“I’m suspicious of Wudang Sect.”

“What did you say?”

Moyong Su Jeong was greatly flustered.

“I heard that Wudang Sect helped our main family house settle in Wuhan. But why?”

“I’ll keep that part to myself for now.”

He would tell her what he could tell her, but if there were things he couldn’t reveal right away, he would honestly discuss those points too.

Seeing her younger brother’s intense gaze, Moyong Su Jeong soon nodded.

“I understand. You must have your thoughts.”

How well she understood like this.

“So, entering this late-stage expert competition means you want to observe the Wudang Sect Taoist Disciples’ reactions rather than obtain prize money?”

“That’s not it.”

Moyong Bi’s eyes blazed with greed again.

“It’s not difficult to see through those Taoist Disciples’ true intentions. But it’s hard to get one hundred thousand nyang in one go.”

“….”

“Whatever happens, one hundred thousand nyang comes first!”

And one more thing.

‘There’s one matter where I can use those bastards.’

He couldn’t bring himself to say this.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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