The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 41

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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 41
“You’re bold, I’ll grant you that. But hand over the witness and leave. Then we won’t touch you.”
A killer hidden deep in the forest issued the warning.
Did Dang Youxuan fall for it? Not quite.
“You dare threaten me?”
“You’ll regret this.”
“That’s your problem, not mine. If you can’t kill me, your master’s ambitions die with me.”
The voice in the darkness rumbled like an animal’s growl.
“A masterless dog searching for a master? So much for being clever. That was just children’s gossip.”
“Stray or hunting hound—dead is dead.”
Whoosh!
A throwing star streaked toward him.
Dang Youxuan twisted aside, but instead of dodging, he drew his short sword and batted it away.
“That’s your last warning. There’s only so much a foolish young master’s rashness can excuse.”
“……Hmph.”
Dang Youxuan had been gazing blankly at a tree, but now his expression shifted—his lips pulled back in a sharp grin.
“Your orders don’t include killing me, do they?”
“……!”
Killers do not engage in dialogue.
Unless they’re toying with an opponent of far inferior skill, most complete their commissions quickly and quietly.
Yet Dang Youxuan had survived multiple exchanges of words.
The meaning was singular.
Dang Youxuan’s death was not part of the contract.
‘They want to stop the Dang Clan, but they can’t afford to touch him openly. That’s it.’
A man who ventures into the Martial World dying on the road is unremarkable. Dying while handling clan affairs is equally ordinary.
But involvement in something this delicate changes everything.
With so few knowing the truth, the person who ordered his death would be exposed instantly.
Killing Dang Youxuan here meant being prepared to lose limbs in retaliation.
Men who thought three moves ahead would never accept such a loss.
“The Dang Clan’s fighters—hear me! They’re coming for you. But I won’t let you fall. Ride with everything you have!”
“Yes, Master!”
Crack-crack! Crack-crack!
Dang Yongmyeong spurred his horse forward, gaining speed.
Dang Youxuan felt wind brush the back of his head, and one corner of his mouth twisted upward.
The Dang Clan’s fighters. With those words, any attack on them became an attack on the clan itself.
“Pointless tricks! You think that stops me from killing you!?”
“Who finishes faster—you killing all of us, or us reaching the Dang Clan?”
Dang Youxuan tapped his own temple.
“Use that brain of yours. If you want to live.”
Whap!
Throwing stars came from both sides, aimed at his head and waist.
Dang Youxuan gripped his flying dagger like a short sword, wielding it in reverse.
Clang! Ting!
The deflected stars embedded themselves in the earth.
Impossible to retrieve without revealing themselves.
“I may have to revise my opinion. Perhaps you’re not so ignorant after all.”
Snap—!
The man flicked his fingers, and killers emerged from the trees in perfect unison.
Killers revealing themselves was extraordinary.
It meant only one thing: they would not leave until their target was dead.
The last man to step into view called out.
“I am Guho of Salgak’s Hubei Division. Today, I am the one who kills you!”
Whirrrrr!
Curved blades like crescent moons rained down from every direction.
Behind them came short swords and throwing stars, followed by sharpened stones—every gap sealed, nowhere left to slip through.
It was an assault approaching the level of a formation technique, nearly impossible to evade without mastery of Swordsmanship Art.
‘They actually think this can kill me?’
Heh.
Laughter escaped between his teeth.
There were ways to deflect such a deluge without Swordsmanship Art—ways that definitely existed.
Whoooooosh!
Dang Youxuan channeled Internal Power through the Flying Dagger in his hand.
Hiss!
At the same moment, the Flying Dagger spun with savage velocity.
Dang Youxuan hurled the Flying Daggers from both hands as if casting them to the wind.
One. Then another.
Three Flying Daggers spiraled outward, creating a small vortex as they drifted away.
Crash…….
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
The vortex quickly became violent and turbulent, like a raging storm.
“What in the——!”
Following the slowly drifting incense burner, the vortex of Flying Daggers sucked in the surrounding weapons and tools.
And then.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
It exploded forward at explosive speed.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
The assault that had been charging toward Dang Youxuan reversed entirely, now bearing down on the assassins.
Scythes bit through limbs, Throwing Stars and stones crashed into foreheads and bodies, embedding themselves deep.
“Dang Youxuaaaaan!”
Guho screamed, his voice cracking with agony.
“If you wanted to kill me, you should have been prepared to die for it.”
Dang Youxuan cast another Flying Dagger with an impassive expression, clearing away the debris scattered across the carriage.
“I don’t think merely exposing your four aliases is enough, do you?”
He flicked his hand, and the Flying Dagger returned, settling neatly into his palm.
Eyes that forgot nothing of what must be protected, yet held no mercy in the killing—the gaze of one intimate with battle.
Only then did Guho understand.
The description he’d heard of Dang Youxuan when accepting this commission—”an ignorant brute, Young Master”—had been a delusion, a fantasy.
“Our family keeps our lips rather sealed.”
Dang Youxuan swung his arm wide and hurled the Flying Dagger.
Whoooosh!
The Flying Dagger flew so fast the eye could barely follow it, then blurred and vanished in an instant.
“So if you don’t want to die, learn to investigate your target properly. Understand?”
“Wha——?”
Crack!
While Guho stood startled, the Flying Dagger materialized before his eyes and pierced clean through his forehead.
“Compare notes with the rest in the underworld.”
Dang Youxuan smiled faintly as he turned away.
Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter.
The carriage emerged from the forest and entered the city.
It was Sichuan.
* * *
The moment Dang Youxuan returned, he proceeded directly to the main hall with his companions.
“Dang Yongmyeong and three others, mission complete and reporting back.”
“Well done.”
Dang Gangheon welcomed them with a radiant smile.
“Thanks to you, our ancestors can finally rest easy.”
“Not at all. Young Master’s contributions far exceeded ours.”
“Youxuan?”
Dang Gangheon turned his head to look at Dang Youxuan, who stood a pace away, speaking quietly with Cheon Danya.
“My lord. How can you sit idle when you hear your descendants speaking so humbly? That was never your way.”
“He’s charming, so I’ll indulge him.”
‘He’s my own son, yet how can he be so shameless?’
Exasperation flushed his cheeks, which quivered faintly.
Dang Gangheon glanced back at Dang Rai, his eyes speaking silently.
What is this now?
The Head wouldn’t act this way…….
Isn’t this a sign of imminent catastrophe?
Dang Rai swallowed the urge to nod a hundred times over, his eyes cast downward.
“The witness mistook Young Master for the Head……. The deception proved useful.”
Dang Gangheon exhaled deeply and gestured for Dang Youxuan to come closer.
Dang Youxuan then entrusted Cheon Danya to Dang Unyeop’s care and stood beside Dang Rai.
“Youxuan. I’ve heard from them. You’ve done well. Thanks to you, I can finally lay to rest the bitter grief our ancestors carried.”
“Not at all. It was only my duty.”
If I hadn’t survived, my descendants bore that sorrow—so I must be the one to resolve it.
If not me, then who?
“My heart wishes to commend your achievements, but to do so, we must first see this matter through to its end.”
Dang Youxuan nodded in agreement.
Distorted history cannot be set right by witnesses and evidence alone.
Truth must be revealed on the basis of witness and evidence, and only then—with acceptance from the many and an apology from those who distorted it—can true correction occur.
“As fortune would have it, the Sect Conference is but seven days hence. I was just about to depart today.”
Dang Gangheon slid a Flying Dagger across the table toward Dang Youxuan.
“Let us settle this matter cleanly when the time comes.”
“Yes. I understand.”
On the day the Dang Clan’s accomplishments would be revealed,
On the moment when lost prestige would be reclaimed,
It was a declaration that long-suppressed retaliation would begin.
Dang Youxuan contemplated this.
If that were the case, he would be the one standing foremost to bring it to pass.
* * *
Seven days later.
Dang Youxuan arrived at Songshan with Dang Gangheon, where the Sect Conference was being held.
‘Those bald-headed monks still holding the position of Martial Alliance Leader—how ridiculous.’
The seat of Martial Alliance Leader should rightfully belong to the one who has achieved the greatest merit and possesses the greatest wisdom.
Yet in recent years, Shaolin had monopolized the position entirely.
Though capable individuals could have emerged from Wudang, the Namgung Clan, or the Jegal Clan.
No matter how many talented people Shaolin possessed, such a concentration ran counter to the balance and circumstances of the Martial World.
‘While other sects weakened, they must have banded together like a single block of iron.’
If that were so, then he would need to create a wedge to crack their solid alliance.
Upon arriving at the conference hall, two Shaolin monks guarding the entrance pressed their palms together in salute.
“Amitabha. We bow before the Dang Clan Master.”
“My son who undertook the role of escort, and a witness. May they enter the conference hall alongside me?”
The Shaolin monk glanced briefly at Cheon Danya, whose face was veiled in cloth, and replied.
“Today’s conference contains no matters of great import, so it should pose no difficulty. Please, enter.”
The moment they stepped into the conference hall, the air grew suddenly heavy.
Was it the deliberately dim lighting, or the gathering of so many sect leaders?
Or perhaps it was simply that they did not welcome outsiders—Dang Youxuan and Cheon Danya—in their midst.
‘Children playing at games they don’t understand.’
Dang Youxuan gave a soft snort of contempt and took his seat in the chair prepared by the Shaolin monk, behind Dang Gangheon.
At a table of equal height, seated at its center, the Martial Alliance Leader—the Divine Monk Beopgye—looked around and spoke.
“Amitabha. It seems all have gathered. Let us begin the conference.”
It was an entirely orthodox proceeding.
They discussed the true efforts to rebuild the Central Plains, devastated by war—which regions to support and where to dispatch personnel.
Just as the tension was beginning to ease during this unremarkable discussion, Beopgye opened his mouth.
“The final agenda item was brought forward by the Dang Clan.”
Beopgye set down a Bamboo Slip with a gentle motion.
“There are doubts concerning the achievements of Sa Yang-geom in Yunnan during the Jungma Great War. Is that correct?”
“It is.”
“Clan Master Dang!”
Seol Cheong-un, the sect master of Jeomchang and known as the One-Sword Cloud-and-Sea, brought his fist down hard against the table with a bang.
“You must answer for the words you speak. If you dare to diminish Sa Yang-geom’s legacy, I will not forgive it.”
“Naturally.”
Seol Cheong-un glared at the unmoved Dang Gangheon, then straightened in his seat.
Though it appeared at first glance that he was merely concerned for his ancestor’s accomplishments, both Dang Gangheon and Dang Youxuan understood the truth.
Excessive fury was the mask worn by those who feared the revelation of truth.
“As this matter is weighty, I fear I may not convey the meaning adequately. Might the Clan Master speak directly?”
“Of course.”
Dang Gangheon retrieved the speaking token before him to indicate his intent to address the assembly.
“Listen well.”
At the same moment, the eyes of Dang Youxuan standing behind him grew sharp as a blade.
“The exploits of the death squad dispatched to Yunnan during the Jungma Great War were Dang Gangheon’s. Jeomchang distorted and seized them.”
Sichuan Dang Clan: From Rags to Riches
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Lee Il-young
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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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