The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 12

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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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Episode 12
“……I see.”
Jin Cheolyun nodded and smiled softly.
He recognized the change in Dang Youhyeon.
And he accepted it.
What he could do was help this transformed man fulfill his purpose.
He wanted to support those who sought to walk the righteous path.
“I’ll prepare at once. What material shall we use?”
“Eternal Cold Iron.”
‘What?’
Dang Gangheon answered in his stead.
“We have Eternal Cold Iron that came from Beihai Binggong recently, don’t we? We’ll use that.”
“I accept your command.”
A hundred years might pass, and its value might rise and fall, but Eternal Cold Iron remained Eternal Cold Iron.
Even if he had spent little time at home, wandering battlefields, he knew its worth.
Dang Youhyeon found himself opening his mouth without thinking.
Dang Gangheon, seeing this, spoke in an unusual tone.
“Originally, the direct line of the Dang Clan forges their Blades from Eternal Cold Iron. You’re no exception.”
“Thank… you.”
According to his memory, it was no lie.
He had simply thought it an excessive gift for a prodigal son returning home.
“Now that our discussion is finished, please follow me.”
‘Me too? Wasn’t the workshop rule always absolute silence and no outsiders permitted?’
Dang Youhyeon tilted his head at the memory of being driven out before he could even look around.
Yet thinking that time brings change, he didn’t question it and followed along.
The smoke that had been swirling at the entrance grew fiercer as they entered the workshop where blade-forging truly took place.
The master craftsmen recognized Jin Cheolyun and gathered before him one by one.
“We will forge a Blade for the young master. Prepare the crucibles—we’ll be working with Eternal Cold Iron!”
“Yes, understood!”
Loud affirmations rang out.
The master craftsmen of the Lotus Workshop that he ran offered no disagreement.
There was no shadow of doubt in their eyes.
They trusted their Workshop Master, and he repaid that trust with results.
It was a truly ideal relationship.
‘I envy that.’
As Dang Youhyeon made this brief observation, a block of cold iron was placed before him.
“Please drip your blood onto it.”
“My blood?”
“Yes. This Blade will be for one person alone.”
Jin Cheolyun handed him a knife that lay nearby.
“A Blade that knows its master will walk with him all the way to where he must go.”
Dang Youhyeon gazed at Jin Cheolyun for a moment, then took the knife and drew it across his finger.
It was the very same finger he had bitten through days ago.
Drip. Drop.
Blood seeped into the Eternal Cold Iron.
Once the bleeding stopped and he withdrew his hand, Jin Cheolyun quickly handed him cloth to bind the wound.
“Will you watch?”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from the forge.
A realm of craftsmanship that he could never dare enter had begun.
Clang! Clang!
The surging heat intensified as the craftsmen moved in perfect unison.
“There—strike a bit harder!”
“We need more fuel!”
“Make it thinner than that! Put your strength into it when you strike!”
The heat that could melt steel and steal a man’s breath, the sound of hammers striking metal as if to tear the ears, and the hands that made it all happen—all of it churned together and seemed to swallow him whole.
Though it was right before his eyes, it felt like watching a mirage.
Dang Youhyeon forgot even to breathe as he watched them work.
Clang!
Though he was only striking metal, a crystalline note rang out through the workshop.
In this space where flames danced and steel sang with passion, no one could coax forth a sound without that burning fervor.
Only the craftsmen welcomed by the roaring fire could perform here, and only they truly lived and breathed.
Clang!
What rose with the flames from the forge was their passion, and what was driven into the steel by the hammer’s strike was their very soul.
Though he had never walked the path of a craftsman, he could sense it dimly enough.
The Blade, shaped to hold his vision—what was carved into it was not a sharp edge or delicate pattern, but the entirety of who they were.
Hisssss!
As the white-hot steel was gripped with tongs and plunged into a bucket of water, pale mist wrapped around them, weaving an air of mystery.
At last, the finished Blade was sharper than sharp, clearer than clear.
A Blade the world would never see again.
“It is complete.”
“Well done.”
Dang Gangheon gazed at the Blade resting before him and gave Dang Youhyeon a gentle push from behind.
Understanding the gesture, Dang Youhyeon slowly reached out his hand.
‘How can this be?’
His fingertips trembled.
‘It is my Blade.’
In the past, every detail—the hilt worn smooth by his grip, the blue heat-lines—was identical, as though someone had traveled back through time alongside him.
Still warm from the forge, the Blade fitted into his palm as naturally as if it had always been a part of him.
‘My Blade.’
A Blade for him alone, no one else.
Light but substantial, sharp yet gentle.
Such a Blade now rested in his hand.
There was no ornate decoration, no unusual shape.
Only the blue heat-lines traced across it like radiating light marked it as distinct.
Yet that very simplicity stirred his heart all the more.
A lantern that illuminates the soul shines brightest when it is most plain.
Dang Youhyeon closed his eyes.
A tremor began in his heart and flowed down to his fingertips.
‘And so we meet again.’
My Blade.
He opened his eyes once more.
And he made a vow.
This time, he would wield it not as a Blade to extinguish souls, but as the Sohonbi—a Blade to illuminate them.
No longer would he burn himself up with the flames of vengeance to cut down his enemies, but become instead a light that would illuminate others.
“Let the Second Young Master give it a name yourself.”
And so he answered Jin Cheolyun’s request with a history about to be written.
“I shall call it the Sohonbi.”
Jin Cheolyun smiled gently and turned the name over in his mind.
“The Sohonbi. The Sohonbi…… There could be no better name for it.”
“I am humbled by your praise, though my naming sense is lacking.”
Dang Youhyeon answered with a faint smile.
Jin Cheolyun glanced at Dang Gangheon, then bowed respectfully.
“Please visit us anytime. I have a feeling we shall meet again before long.”
Pat. Pat. Pat.
With those words, the other craftsmen all bowed in unison.
The Workshop Master’s acknowledgment.
What fool would cast aside such a thing, earned from so few?
Dang Youhyeon was certainly not one.
“I truly hope so.”
* * *
As they made their way back to the Dang Clan House, Dang Youhyeon kept rolling up his sleeve to glimpse the Blade, and Dang Gangheon chuckled in amusement.
“Does it please you so much?”
“Yes.”
Pleased beyond measure.
How could he not treasure a Blade forged for him alone?
Dang Gangheon laughed warmly and patted Dang Youhyeon on the back.
‘Ow.’
“Since you’ve proven yourself so capable, my heart rests easy. You’re free to leave the clan now.”
‘What?’
Hold on. Are you joking right now?
Why are you casting me out?
Wasn’t our time together good?
‘Am I really being expelled like this?’
No. I don’t want this.
He wasn’t ready to abandon a clan that, though tilted and impoverished, still flowed with milk and honey.
“It’s time you began your Jianghu Journey.”
‘Thank goodness.’
At fifteen, it was early—yet compared to his brothers, who had already ventured into Sichuan to broaden their horizons, he was running late.
Dang San, the eldest, had begun his Jianghu Journey at ten years old.
‘Even accounting for the generational gap, this is unusually early. The clan’s influence must have weakened considerably.’
After all the effort he’d put in to rebuild it!
‘These fools. They need to manage the clan properly.’
Dang Youhyeon bit his lip hard before asking calmly.
“Where would you suggest I go?”
“Naturally, we start with Sichuan.”
He’d expected as much.
Still, he felt a twinge of disappointment.
After building something grand, he was being sent off to the clan’s own backyard?
It wasn’t enough.
‘The entire Central Plains wouldn’t be enough to search right now.’
Understanding how the Central Plains currently operated and preparing for any contingency by locating hidden secrets would take time.
‘If I want to venture farther, I’ll need to build some merit on this journey.’
Dang Youhyeon’s fists clenched.
“What shall I do?”
“Nothing complicated. Clean up your own mess.”
That meant settling the Baekwharu and, more importantly, recovering the circulated poisons.
No poison left to recover? So what.
This was as good a time as any to conduct a full inspection of Sichuan.
“I’ll handle it.”
He was curious how Sichuan had changed in his absence.
* * *
‘This wasn’t what I expected.’
Dang Youhyeon sighed, surrounded by courtesans.
The moment he entered the Merchant District, cloying voices attached themselves to him, and with each step, more women fell into line.
“Young master, come with me. How long have I waited for you to visit?”
“I’ve waited only for you, young master.”
“Follow me. We have the finest Bamboo Leaf Green prepared.”
“If you come to our establishment, we have both Fish Fragrance Six Dishes and Palace Treasure Chicken ready!”
So they’d learned to recognize a deep-pocketed mark.
Dang Youhyeon exhaled sharply.
‘Either the rumors haven’t spread, or…’
Within the Dang Clan, Dang Youhyeon was a hot potato.
His shocking reversals and audacious conduct were so notorious that the saying went—both the birds of day and rats of night chattered about him.
Yet the moment he stepped into the Merchant District, people rushed at him like this. It meant the news hadn’t leaked to them yet.
‘So they still think I’m just a ruffian.’
This had its own utility—he could let it stand, and these people would either naturally fall away or produce something worthwhile.
“Out of the way, all of you! I’ve got business with that young master!”
People like this, for instance.
A long scar splitting his face. His robe torn open at the chest. A sword hung at his hip.
The portrait of a street ruffian.
‘Men like that provide the most useful information.’
The kind of things about Dang Youhyeon that no amount of hearsay could teach him.
The man shoved the courtesans aside and planted himself in front of Dang Youhyeon.
His already considerable bulk looked even larger with his arms folded, his belly thrust forward.
‘I already hate having to look up at him because of his height.’
Dang Youhyeon tilted his head in invitation, and the man huffed through his nostrils with a sharp snort.
“Listen here, young master. If you’ve borrowed money, you’d better pay it back on the double.”
‘Me? Borrow money?’
There was no need to sift through her memories for that one.
A young master of the Dang Clan borrowing money?
That made no sense whatsoever.
‘In any case. There are deadbeats everywhere, it seems—both here and there. Tiresome.’
Dang Youhyeon clicked his tongue and flicked his fingers.
The man advanced regardless, breathing hard.
When the distance between them had narrowed to barely a pace,
Crack!
Dang Youhyeon’s fist connected with the man’s jaw.
“Urgh!”
With a sharp cry, the man stumbled backward.
Dang Youhyeon watched the reeling man and rotated his wrist.
“Hell. It’s been so long, my aim’s off.”
He trudged forward, grabbed the man by the collar, and hauled his upper body upright.
“Clench your teeth.”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The brutal sound echoed through the street.
Sichuan Dang Clan Genius Reborn
Author |
Yi Il-yeong
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dreambooks.

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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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