Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 41

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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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#041

 

“I’d like to guide you personally.”

 

Despite my repeated attempts to dissuade him, Steward Gam insisted on accompanying me to the end.

 

“If Steward Gam guides me, you might get entangled in any trouble that arises later.”

 

“If I were concerned about Elder Yi’s reactions, I wouldn’t have sent letters outside in the first place.”

 

Steward Gam was adamant.

 

“The reason Namgung Hwi came here, and the reason he stepped forward so readily—everything started with me. How could I just sit back and watch? I’ve been managing the Sichuan Tang Family’s affairs since the time of the Previous Patriarch. I have that much sense of responsibility.”

 

“…”

 

“Besides, the mountain paths of Sichuan are extremely treacherous. Regardless of martial arts, outsiders are bound to get lost, so it’s proper for this old man to accompany you on your first journey.”

 

“If you insist, then I understand.”

 

Though I said that, I knew as well.

 

Steward Gam had absolutely no need to step forward this time.

 

At the very least, if he was worried about getting lost, he could have sent his subordinates.

 

He could have even sent the servants.

 

But he stepped forward personally. Steward Gam wanted to share the burden of risk even if the consequences of my actions turned out wrong.

 

In a way, this could be interpreted as Steward Gam’s own answer to the relationship of trust I had mentioned during the Mangeop Return Pill exchange process.

 

And he judged that I was someone who would recognize this.

 

“I’ve received your answer clearly.”

 

That’s why Steward Gam didn’t question my seemingly random words that I suddenly blurted out in the middle of our path toward the mine, and quietly responded with a smile instead.

 

I pointed to Steward Gam’s changed attire.

 

“By the way, I’ve been curious since earlier—what’s with that changed outfit?”

 

“Ah, this?”

 

Steward Gam looked down at his hemp martial robe with green stripes.

 

“This is clothing that only the lowest disciples in the Tang Family wear.”

 

“The material seemed to suggest that, but I was curious why you specifically changed into it.”

 

“…During Sichuan’s golden age, it would have been unthinkable, but recently in areas where Sichuan’s influence is faint—the complete outskirts—things aren’t so… favorable.”

 

“…”

 

“So as a precaution, since my martial arts are weak, I change into clothing that would be considered a lower position to prevent unnecessary danger from exposing my identity.”

 

Steward Gam puffed out his chest with an awkward smile.

 

“Well, how about it? This way, even if we’re attacked, they’ll focus on Namgung Hwi, who obviously looks like a high-ranking Sichuan official, and just pass by this old man as a useless low-ranking rookie, don’t you think?”

 

“Ah, so that’s why you gave me fine clothes.”

 

“Exactly. Please hold the torch higher too. So that Namgung Hwi’s face is more visible than mine.”

 

“With my face, they’d probably run away mid-attack and go after Steward Gam instead.”

 

“Don’t worry, with the torch held high, the gold embroidery on your clothes will sparkle and you’ll look like a noble young master to anyone.”

 

“Uh… Well, I’ll take it as meaning to hold the torch high to brighten the surrounding view since the path is narrow.”

 

The distance to the silver mine was far. The mountain terrain was rough, and we climbed up a narrow path barely wide enough for a wheelbarrow for quite a while.

 

“I thought this before too.”

 

Steward Gam, walking somewhat breathlessly, turned around and said.

 

“Really, Namgung Hwi’s reactions are different from ordinary martial artists. Hehe.”

 

“Is that a compliment?”

 

“It’s the greatest compliment this ignorant old man can give.”

 

“I’m not used to compliments, but I’m pleased.”

 

“Not used to compliments? How modest. With your good background, excellent skills and talents, you must have grown up receiving admiration, expectations, attention, and praise from your family and everyone around you since birth.”

 

“…Haha.”

 

By the time we arrived at the small cabin below the silver mine, the sun was setting into dusk.

 

“What is this cabin?”

 

“After the incident occurred, it’s a temporary residence and supply station that the three elders of the Tang Family built to use until the situation is resolved.”

 

It was a space that would be packed if four or five people entered.

 

Various poisons and medicinal herbs were scattered messily on wooden shelves along the walls.

 

Used weapons were placed haphazardly, and faded robes hung on the walls.

 

In the red dusk coming through the window frame, I could see dust slowly floating in the air.

 

Judging by the shelves of the supply station filled with bottles that showed actual use rather than display, it seemed the Tang Family hadn’t been sitting idle.

 

‘Well, regardless of whether the cause is really ghosts, curses, or schemes, it’s poison for now, so it would be ridiculous for the Sichuan Tang Family to just sit back.’

 

In the Central Plains, when it comes to poison, the Tang Family would be offended to be called second-best.

 

No matter how much the Sichuan Tang Family had declined and maintained less than half of the poison arts secrets from their golden age, their expertise in poison was still valid.

 

Their main source of income, the silver mine, was completely blocked, and one of the apparent causes was poison, so it was obvious they would desperately try to find the cause while combining makeshift antidotes.

 

The problem was that nothing had been revealed until I came, and now the atmosphere was almost skeptical about resolving the situation and identifying the cause.

 

…At least regarding Elder Yi and the family head that I had seen.

 

“Steward Gam, please stay here. From now on, I’ll go up alone.”

 

“You’re not going inside, are you? It’s still… dangerous, whether that’s really Jacheonamsa or not.”

 

“I’ll be careful. But I think I’ll have to go inside to examine various things.”

 

“That’s absolutely not allowed. I accompanied you this far thinking you would only examine the mine’s surroundings. If something happens to Namgung Hwi while examining the interior, I won’t be able to face anyone.”

 

Steward Gam was adamant.

 

“Is the reason you’re stopping me because of the poison presumed to be Jacheonamsa?”

 

“People definitely die showing symptoms of poisoning. But there’s nothing in the air. Colorless, odorless. No traces whatsoever. The conclusion that it’s the lost Jacheonamsa is most likely, but… there’s no antidote for that. I’m not doing this because I doubt Namgung Hwi’s martial arts or self-defense abilities.”

 

I nodded.

 

“If that’s the reason—”

 

—Rip!

 

I grabbed an old robe hanging nearby and tore it into cloth strips.

 

I reached for the shelf and, looking at the bottle colors, attached labels, and abbreviated characters, quickly selected six medicines I wanted: Wangwei, Yejin, Bihwan, Samcho, Danggui, and Bakyeon.

 

I pulled over a clay pot, poured them in, stirred with my finger to mix, then repeatedly soaked the cloth strips and wrung them out.

 

During this process, the water that initially showed a blue tint changed to black, then to green again, and finally to black with a reddish tinge as it soaked into the cloth.

 

After this entire process, I wrung out the perfectly dyed cloth once more and showed it to Steward Gam.

 

“I’m confident in my lightness skill. With this, even against that Jacheonamsa, I can endure for half of half a moment, and I won’t be helplessly defeated.”

 

“…This…is.”

 

Steward Gam blinked.

 

“Don’t tell me… you just made a Poison Detection Mirror on the spot?”

 

“First, I don’t think it’s a curse. I think it’s purely poison, and under that premise, since I couldn’t possibly create an antidote for poison that even the renowned Tang Family can’t identify, I excluded that option and instead made a Poison Detection Mirror that shows sensitive color changes to all medicinal materials except human breath.”

 

This was something I had combined hundreds of times in my previous life to survive.

 

From the perspective of an assassin with high consumption costs, especially during my days as a low-ranking assassin with even less money, I couldn’t carry antidotes for every poison, so I focused on detection instead—it was difficult to make but equally useful.

 

“Anyway, it has no detoxification function, but at least if anything spreads in the air, I can quickly become aware of it. Then I’ll immediately turn around and run out.”

 

I wrapped the cloth around my neck and let the end flutter in the air.

 

“I promise. The moment I notice even a single thread at the end of this cloth changing color, I’ll return immediately. I don’t want to die either.”

 

“Even fairly skilled Tang Family members find it difficult to get the proportions right for that Poison Detection Mirror… No, setting everything aside…”

 

Steward Gam looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

 

“Really, your approach is different from ordinary people. While others obsess over the poison’s composition and detoxification and end up helpless without even daring to approach, you completely abandon detoxification and focus on detection to prioritize detailed field investigation… Where on earth did you learn such methods…”

 

Steward Gam said with a resigned voice, “Ah.”

 

“Well, you probably saw this in a book too. Have a safe trip.”

 

***

 

“So this is the place.”

 

I stand in front of the silver mine entrance.

 

I look back.

 

No one is there.

 

Beyond the mountain ridge, the red dusk is now hanging at its very end, and darkness is about to descend. Beyond that darkness, far below in the distance, I can see the cabin where Steward Gam would be. A torch would be lit, but he won’t be able to see what happens here now.

 

In that case.

 

“…Let’s give it a try.”

 

My eyes narrow to thin slits.

 

Once again, I wrap the scarf tightly around my face to guard against poison, pulling it up over my nose and mouth like a mask and securing it firmly.

 

The eyes that showed above it were no longer those of Namgung Hwi, the fourth son of the Namgung Family, but the eyes of an assassin from my previous life, one who had been active in the field.

 

My breathing, which had been repeating in a regular pattern of one exhale and one inhale, begins to change.

 

Two short inhales and one long exhale.

 

I keep my mouth slightly open and my tongue relaxed, ensuring there’s no gap between exhales and inhales, connecting them organically.

 

‘Even the Sichuan Tang Family couldn’t find it. No matter how skilled I am, I need to be as secretive and calm as possible. But I can’t miss anything.’

 

I bend my waist and place my five fingers against the wall.

 

Like a cat extending its claws, I raise my fingertips, and from those fingertips I raise them once more so that only the very tips of my nails touch like spider legs.

 

I also sharpen my toes, checking and assessing the ground.

 

From the entrance of the mine to the walls and floor, I quickly and systematically scan the surroundings, touching with my hands any place that looks even slightly suspicious as I advance.

 

In the gathering dusk and darkness, my calm eyes move rapidly. My two fingers scan areas while my two eyes assess the characteristics of what they’ve touched, and after identifying the next area to be scanned, if I judge it identical and see no need to touch it, I boldly skip over it.

 

I touch and examine even the grass roots and stone fragments that I would normally pass by without a thought.

 

What initially allowed me to advance barely ten steps in a quarter-hour gradually becomes faster. I advance by selecting and consolidating overlapping and matching locations.

 

From the outside, it merely looks like I’m walking somewhat cautiously.

 

But even this was perfected through considerable effort to hide my true abilities while not giving anything away, to blend it into a posture that appears ordinary and clumsy.

 

An assassin’s job isn’t just killing targets.

 

Since they always enter the enemy’s territory alone and independently, they must be extremely sensitive to all mechanisms, structures, traps, ambush points, and such.

 

That’s why situational assessment is more important and must be more delicate than killing the target itself.

 

You die if you’re too slow, and you die if you miss something.

 

If you don’t want to die fluttering helplessly after becoming an eagle diving for a mouse only to get caught in a spider’s web, you must be able to detect even the most transparent spider threads.

 

-Hiss…!

 

There’s nothing at the mine entrance or surrounding area.

 

As I enter the mine interior, I light a branch fitted with a resin-soaked pinecone that I had attached near my calf.

 

Then I hold the Poison Detection Mirror up to the thin smoke emanating from it.

 

Perhaps thanks to the slight modification in the mixture, the black color of the Poison Detection Mirror only changed to a very light gray, showing no dramatic transformation.

 

“Well then, shall I continue the investigation.”

 

Relying on the torch, I advance while touching the floor, walls, and ceiling section by section with my fingers.

 

Though I held a torch in one hand, my advance speed actually increased because the space had become somewhat narrower.

 

And above all, the darkness.

 

Darkness was like a homeland to me.

 

With darkness as the final piece, all of this was something I had repeated obsessively during my assassin days.

 

Assassins must always perform missions under poor supply conditions. Since I couldn’t carry every antidote, I was using again the field method I used to employ when I would unconditionally retreat upon discovering unbearable poison smoke.

 

While I had come ahead partly because there were questionable aspects about Elder Yi, all of these things were absolutely impossible to do while others were watching.

 

The Sichuan Tang Family had definitely said they investigated the mine.

 

But nothing came of it, and people continued to die.

 

As Steward Gam said, how desperate must they have been to think it was the curse of previous generations.

 

And if they were to examine this mine again, what would come of it? I could understand the skeptical attitude of the family head and everyone else.

 

But my thinking was different.

 

It’s not that I’m dismissing the Sichuan Tang Family.

 

But my master had said.

 

Those with all-weather talent excelling in everything exist only in the delusions of dilettantes.

 

The Sichuan Tang Family is a force with deep knowledge about poisons.

 

And I had seen countless times how those with deep knowledge in one field, paradoxically, become buried in that deep knowledge and when they step even an inch outside it, they crumble more helplessly than ordinary people who have only shallow knowledge overall but are therefore free of prejudice.

 

I hadn’t just observed it—I had used it to attack and eliminate them, so I know and am certain of it better than anyone.

 

The pride and reputation of being an overwhelmingly superior expert in one field unconsciously brings the delusion that one is looking down with supreme and pure cognition not just in that field but in everything.

 

The Sichuan Tang Family are experts in poisons.

 

In other words, they are experts ‘only in poisons.’

 

Even at the same scene, what such a Sichuan Tang Family sees and what I see would definitely be different, I thought.

 

Of course, they would have observed above a certain level. But if my thinking is correct, for someone to play such tricks against the Sichuan Tang Family, the opponent must have also come with sharpened blades.

 

It would be at a level that only someone with professional-level expertise in this field could detect—.

 

-Click.

 

My body stops abruptly.

 

I look at what caught on the tip of my pinky nail.

 

“Yes. Something like 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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