Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 47

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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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#047

 

-Kuguugung….

 

I raised my head at the sound of a massive bolt opening.

 

Earlier, when I kicked the silver coin pouch to break the bamboo tube, the mechanism malfunctioned and several devices seemed to move in succession.

 

At the end of the hideout.

 

The massive iron door that Pyo Hoseong, one of the leaders of Wol Ak O Seong, had been blocking was opening.

 

Beyond it was a plaza so enormous that this hideout would look like a child’s playhouse in comparison.

 

“This space is….”

 

I enter as if entranced.

 

It was truly an unfamiliarly high space.

 

Though it was the same cave, I could tell.

 

Anyone could see that while the previous area was artificially made by human hands, this place was a natural cave.

 

In the center of the plaza, white light was streaming down to the middle.

 

On both sides, as if people had been there until recently, numerous ledgers and boxes containing treasures were scattered about.

 

There was nothing on the altar.

 

It only gave the feeling of an altar meant for offering something as tribute.

 

-….

 

The sound of my first step climbing toward the altar echoes through the massive cave.

 

Cold air.

 

The faint smell of old dust lingering at my nose.

 

In my ears, the sound of underground water flowing like a waterfall, incomparably more massive than in the artificial hideout, filled the plaza.

 

The white light streaming down to the center of the plaza was moonlight pouring through a massive crack in the cave ceiling.

 

In the center of that altar was a stone shelf, as if asking for something to be placed upon it.

 

The material is unique.

 

It wasn’t simple stone.

 

“…Is this moonstone?”

 

Moonstone refers to a high-purity silver aggregate that carries moonlight. Though rare in the underworld, it’s sometimes treated as an expensive metal that substitutes for gold ingots, so it’s used as payment in the underworld, making it impossible not to know.

 

“How peculiar… From the ceiling where moonlight shines to the entire altar, everything is made of moonstone. For what purpose?”

 

Moonstone is softer than silver. Therefore, it’s an unsuitable metal for making altars or shelves.

 

Moreover, even the angles are strangely curved so that moonlight converges toward the center of the altar.

 

It’s not even something made long ago.

 

While this massive hideout began naturally, the massive altar and other structures filling it were all made recently.

 

“….”

 

I looked around with puzzlement.

 

“There’s no way to know for now.”

 

I withdrew my gaze from the empty altar and came back down.

 

I moved my feet toward the mountain of human traces piled below.

 

Treasures were half-spilled from being packed, and books and ledgers were scattered here and there.

 

The owner of this place seemed to have left while busily working on something until recently.

 

‘They were definitely caught off guard.’

 

From the scattered objects and papers, just by looking at how they were scattered, I could infer what state of mind their last user was in.

 

These weren’t traces left from hiding something or hastily gathering things. They were from everyday actions, in the middle of that flow of naturally continuing work while promising to continue next time.

 

Even the upper-tier Wol Ak O Seong of the Ilsikya Faction had spent a long time carefully preparing a hideout in a mine among forests and caves that were advantageous for concealment.

 

If I hadn’t used my method, it would have been nearly impossible to even find the Wol Ak O Seong hideout in front before reaching this place, and even if I had found it, their formation and the application of Jacheon-amsa would be waiting if I couldn’t subdue them at once, so it made sense that this place was exposed defenseless.

 

I bent my knees and reached toward the pile of ledgers scattered on the floor.

 

-Chwareureuk.

 

I flip through at high speed, checking the contents.

 

The first ledger was a list of mine workers. The second was food supply records. Up to the third with its array of useless information.

 

I frowned and continued checking the contents while rummaging through the paper bundles at a steady pace.

 

-Tuk.

 

Among the pile of papers, something heavy and foreign caught my fingertips.

 

“This is a book?”

 

It was a thin book the size of two palms put together, with a cover reinforced with thick leather.

 

『Ten Thousand Poisons Strange Solutions 』.

 

Anyone could see it wasn’t an original but a mess of a counterfeit mixing transcription and rubbings.

 

Much of the content was also lost.

 

But it definitely seemed to be a transcribed copy of that Ten Thousand Poisons Strange Solutions book that Tang Eul-jin had left behind.

 

As far as I know, the records left by Tang Eul-jin, said to be the greatest genius of the Sichuan Tang Family, were lost in the fire that occurred when the Tang Family declined, so this could be one of the lost knowledge links of the Tang Family.

 

If the Tang Family’s traitor had a thirst for knowledge, this would certainly be compensation worth salivating over.

 

I quickly flipped through the pages.

 

Then I stopped in the middle.

 

There was a section that was incomparably more worn with hand marks and ink stains spread and tattered compared to other papers.

 

One was content about how to make Jacheon-amsa, starting with the subtitle ‘Jacheon-amsa Mixing Method’.

 

The other second was content recorded about the flower called ‘Baekhua-modo ‘, which was its antidote.

 

[…Jacheon-amsa and Baekhua-modo are both conflicting and complementary . Regarding silver, Jacheon-amsa disperses upon contact with silver, and Baekhua-modo, which detoxifies Jacheon-amsa, becomes stronger.]

 

[…Once harvested, Baekhua-modo continuously weakens in energy….]

 

[Baekhua-modo has such strong absorptive properties that it draws and absorbs energy from each other, surpassing even Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng of the same form. This applies without exception even to bodies within half a shichen of consumption-.]

 

[…Five times at monthly intervals, it must be exposed to full moon light reflected on moonstone at midnight to revive, and beyond this it becomes stronger… its end is the restoration of even broken danjeon….]

 

Now I’m certain.

 

All the jumbled information in my head is becoming organized.

 

“Now I understand…. Why the Sichuan Tang Family, skilled in poisons, couldn’t properly deal with Jacheon-amsa….”

 

I naturally recall the realization I had during my time as Salsoo.

 

A blacksmith makes swords well.

 

But the answer to the question of whether the blacksmith is also the one who uses swords best is separate.

 

While there are those who specialize in making poisons and weapons, to use them creatively, an assassin must have extensive miscellaneous knowledge. They collect scattered bits of knowledge from all directions and piece them together to create one new picture.

 

In that sense, this incident was one where the Sichuan Tang Family members, buried in only the world of poisons, couldn’t help but not know its cutting edge.

 

Typically, colorless and odorless formless poisons are rare, high-difficulty category poisons in the Martial Arts World.

 

When facing such high-difficulty poisons, fundamentally, since the Sichuan Tang Family are poison specialists, they become absorbed in the process of finding antidote formulas, which is the fundamental solution to this problem.

 

Among their unique classification methods for identifying hundreds and tens of thousands of poisons, the most basic stage and most commonly used first method is the silver-based poison component identification method.

 

And the silver used in that process usually involves the method of using common silver spoons and silver chopsticks nearby.

 

This utilizes the property of arsenic, the most commonly used category in poisons, which immediately turns black upon contact.

 

In most cases, there would be no problem in achieving the purpose of detecting poison using this method.

 

If there’s a poison that reacts to silver, it would definitely react somehow.

 

The Sichuan Tang Family must have used this method too.

 

‘But the Sichuan Tang Family couldn’t filter it out in this process.’

 

I press my brow.

 

A memory suddenly comes to mind.

 

When I was inexperienced as an assassin,

 

The forge in the north-eastern region that I visited on my master’s recommendation.

 

A snow-covered mountain valley.

 

The old craftsman sweating in front of the blazing furnace said bluntly.

 

‘Tsk, you want me to prepare pure silver chopsticks for this commission? You look like a novice, but there’s usually no pure silver among silver tableware.

 

What use is something so flimsy? Especially if it’s going to be used for assassin contracts? If that’s the case, we’ll have to add a massive amount of copper or tin compared to existing methods, making it look like silverware on the outside only! You should have told me in advance – do you think materials fall from the sky?!’

 

An assassin inevitably accumulates miscellaneous knowledge.

 

Each piece of that miscellaneous knowledge increases the success rate of contracts, and in life-or-death moments, it can be applied like a superior martial art to save one’s life.

 

Knowledge that only a blacksmith would know.

 

Knowledge that martial artists who look down on blacksmiths would be even less likely to know.

 

All silver tableware used in daily life must be mixed with copper or tin to increase its strength.

 

‘All tableware mixes copper and tin with silver to increase strength. And this poison precisely targeted that gap…’

 

So here again.

 

Suppose there’s a poison that needs to be verified,

 

and following the conventional order of poison verification, silver chopsticks were used to check for poison reactions with silver, but there was no reaction whatsoever.

 

Would the Sichuan Tang Family, who knows so much about poisons that they have countless other things to verify, bother to bring another silver tool to double-check the silver reaction, even considering ‘purity’ with the silver tools they had already tested?

 

No.

 

They would immediately move to the next step.

 

If it were those with shallow knowledge of poisons who have few methods available, they might check again with a “nothing to lose” attitude, like catching a mouse with a cow’s hind leg, and might discover something.

 

But precisely because this is the Sichuan Tang Family, who can usually find antidotes for any poison, this vast and extensive knowledge became their own downfall.

 

As they say, anything that would be detected by mere silver would be a cheap poison used by third-rate people.

 

If there’s a poison that the renowned Tang Family cannot properly identify, they would judge it to be surely a high-grade poison of an unimaginable method they never considered, so they would naturally dismiss the most basic and common method of silver after seeing no reaction.

 

‘This Jacheonamsa is not a common poison that changes the color of silver, but rather colorless and odorless, while simultaneously using high-purity silver as a catalyst to convert invisible energy into poisonous mist. And only when accumulated in high density in such windless, sealed spaces does it convert violently enough into toxic components to be visible… Then it makes sense that people only died in this mine.’

 

The Sichuan Tang Family’s silver vein is an area that boasts rare high purity throughout the entire martial world.

 

Moreover, with even the air holes blocked so not a breath of wind passes through, it’s a structure optimized for increasing density.

 

If mist-form poison is dispersed in such a place, anyone within that space can be poisoned to death.

 

Even if that mist were contained and moved outside, the toxicity wouldn’t be maintained unless silver exists in high concentration in the surroundings.

 

Furthermore, even if it touched silver chopsticks or silverware, household silver items contain copper components for neutralization, making it difficult to expect significant effects.

 

In other words, the situation of the Young Master gradually becoming sickly can also be theoretically explained.

 

‘Certainly, the Young Master’s quarters had such a thick concentration of Baekhwahyang incense smoke for treating his illness that it tickled my nose even when I met him from a distance.’

 

In other words, that quarters minimizes ventilation normally to increase the concentration of Baekhwahyang incense smoke.

 

If someone were to release Jacheonamsa very faintly each visit, mixed with that incense smoke, it would gradually accumulate in the quarters’ space without being scattered by wind.

 

Even if the surrounding objects were changed to silver out of concern for poisoning, since they’re mixed with other metals for daily use, in this case the silver objects placed to prevent poison would instead become conditions that continuously activate Jacheonamsa, albeit weakly.

 

‘Or if they placed even a piece of silver inside the bed area, they could sufficiently control the intensity of the illness.’

 

The one carrying Jacheonamsa stays away from silver, so they won’t even be poisoned themselves – it’s perfect.

 

Maintaining Baekhwahyang incense for treatment also provides a rational justification to prevent excessive ventilation of the quarters.

 

To notice the information that this Jacheonamsa reacts with silver requires only ‘high-purity silver’ that would show a violent reaction, and unless one is a blacksmith who directly handles metals, the only place ordinary people might have high-purity silver is ‘silver coins’ whose purity is strictly controlled for monetary value.

 

In a way, it caught them off guard.

 

Until now, at least in the martial world, there have only been poisons that discolor silver, not poisons that react using pure silver itself as a catalyst.

 

And aside from all this.

 

“That bastard… he definitely said Cheonmasineugyo again this time, didn’t he?”

 

The archer who died shaking his bell frantically at the end.

 

I’ve definitely heard what that bastard said before.

 

From what I know, Wol Ak O Seong’s origins are as water bandits.

 

All I know is that they’re a group of five assassins from the Ilsikya faction, whose base is so lowly they wield power in Sichuan.

 

‘Is there something else besides that?’

 

While directly fighting, I tried to interrogate at least the archer since his skills were definitely not built up as a water bandit.

 

“And at the end, he definitely said Namgung Family…”

 

It’s confusing.

 

Of course, the archer might have been spouting nonsense to induce an opening in me.

 

So it’s ambiguous to consider all of it trustworthy information.

 

But…

 

That bizarre final cry-like shout.

 

The letter that Hwangpyo, the Green Shadow Assassin, was sending to someone.

 

Something keeps appearing when I try to forget it.

 

And in completely unrelated, independent situations.

 

‘Actually… even in my previous life, maybe countless things were happening beneath the surface that I just didn’t know about.’

 

Even if I wanted to capture and interrogate the archer, he’s already dead.

 

Not only the word “cult member,” but again I heard the unfamiliar term Cheonmasineugyo.

 

As far as I know, and in my previous life, there are four major factions called Jeongsamahyeol in this world, and Cheonmasineugyo isn’t among them. The only group that can currently call themselves cult members is the Sun and Moon Sect.

 

‘…Come to think of it, there might be someone within the Namgung Family who’s secretly colluding with outside forces.’

 

The final scene of my previous life comes to mind.

 

The bamboo forest where white rain fell.

 

The Masked Man who watched as oil was poured over me struggling there and I was burned to death.

 

And beside that Masked Man, eight cult members emitting purple demonic energy.

 

And at the end, a question I had never once considered until now arose.

 

‘Those cult members… were they really cult members belonging to the Sun and Moon Sect? No. Stop thinking about it. I can’t know the answer right now anyway. What are you doing, Namgung Hwi.’

 

I cut off the endless stream of random thoughts. Nothing changes in my actions for now anyway.

 

I refocus my scattering purpose.

 

Even if situations I don’t know about are happening beneath the surface, I must focus only on taking care of myself and my growth.

 

If I worry about other things too, I’ll get swept up and perish together.

 

Rather, if I’m anxious, that’s all the more reason I need to quickly establish my foundation in the Namgung Family.

 

I shook my head to clear my complicated thoughts.

 

And when I was rummaging through the bundles of papers in front of me again.

 

“Hm…?”

 

Suddenly, between the books, I saw a faded piece of paper sticking out.

 

At the end of the paper scrap was a seal pressed with candle wax mixed with gold, dried and about to fall off.

 

‘…This is it!’

 

Transaction records.

 

What I was looking for.

 

And in a way, something related to the culprit behind all this chaos.

 

But what froze my gaze wasn’t the content. It was the red seal stamped at the very bottom of the paper as proof of the transaction.

 

I looked again several times wondering if I was mistaken, but it’s certain.

 

It’s none other than this.

 

One of the five great martial families.

 

Among them, it’s the seal of the Hwangbo Family.

 

‘Was the Hwangbo Family the direct sponsor?’

 

Regardless of Cheonmasineugyo or whatever, what this certificate currently shows clearly demonstrates that the background of the traitor within the Sichuan Tang Family is the Hwangbo Family.

 

I quickly scan the contents.

 

[One bottle of degraded Jacheonamsa, and conditional transfer of Baekhwamodo.]

 

[…rubbing of Mandokgihae to Tang Family Elder Yi… handling… in exchange for…]

 

[The remaining Baekhwamodo to be stored with the Hwangbo Family according to official transaction with the existing Sichuan Tang Family…]

 

[…urging once again to receive three moonstones and more than five boxes of pure silver ingots from Elder Yi… managing with silver ingots but there are limits… moonstones are absolutely necessary for Baekhwamodo…]

 

“…I see.”

 

My eyes gleamed coldly in the darkness.

 

“Elder Yi, and the Hwangbo Family…”

 

Even if I didn’t know everything else, I could now clearly understand who was behind this incident and the reason it all started.

 

I gather all the evidence and tuck it into my clothes.

 

There’s no reason to stay here any longer.

 

“First, I need to meet with the head of the Sacheon Party and Steward Gam as quickly as possible.”

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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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