The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 45

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

Chapter 45
Dang Yuhyeon watched Muo disappear into the distance but did not return to Jamwol Temple.
There was nothing more to gain there.
Having established a contact point through Muo, it was better to leave the elimination of the backing forces to the Mu Faction.
‘I only need to know how deeply connected they are to the Dang Clan.’
As Dang Yuhyeon descended the mountain swiftly, he recalled an Evil Sect that had been active a hundred years ago.
But since he had defeated them before uncovering their identity, he remembered little more than their faces.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I should have at least gotten their names or which organization they belonged to.’
He was just wondering whether to review the history of Evil Sects out of necessity when he heard the sound of hoofbeats and screams.
“Aaahhh! Please, save us!”
Dang Yuhyeon instinctively concealed his presence and looked down the slope below.
“We don’t care about your lives. Hand over the map.”
“The map we carry is truly all we have!”
“Don’t lie! I know you always keep one on you!”
Several armed martial artists surrounded a merchant caravan with their wagon.
Roughly a dozen of them.
Dressed in black to conceal their identities and demanding only the map suggested this was no simple banditry.
‘These men have something going on.’
They might be connected to the group that left traces at Jamwol Temple.
The moment that thought reached him, Dang Yuhyeon threw himself into motion.
Thump!
He launched himself into the air and extended his hands, unleashing the Flying Catkins Palm.
In an instant, deep green force engulfed the black-clad figures.
“Scatter!”
Their leader, Jang Yeomho of the Fire Scorpion Blade, sensed the attack and retreated with his subordinates.
Crash!
The ground split open like a broad leaf, dividing the black-clad men from the merchants.
Thump.
Dang Yuhyeon stood in the center of it all, like a leaf vein.
The leader’s eyes swept over Dang Yuhyeon from head to foot, trying to read him.
“The colors of the Dang Clan. Passing through, or interfering?”
“Hard to say.”
An ambiguous answer.
It was enough to provoke those who had drawn their killing intent to its height.
Jang Yeomho gestured to his subordinates.
‘Kill him.’
‘Yes, sir!’
Whoosh!
Three of them leapt forward at once, hurling their blades.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dang Yuhyeon tossed out his Flying Blade and casually deflected them, but then a smaller man wielding a saber curved like a crescent moon began hacking away relentlessly.
As he bounded left and right like an acrobat, the other two pressured Dang Yuhyeon from both sides, hurling their blades.
Before him, attacks rained down without ceasing; behind him, those he needed to protect remained.
He could not twist his body to evade as he normally would.
Even though every attack would need to be met head-on, Dang Yuhyeon simply stared at his opponents without showing any particular movement.
‘Did they think I’d throw myself into danger to protect these merchants? A pointless assumption.’
Dang Yuhyeon twisted his body, defying their expectations.
“……!”
And he drew his sword in a wide horizontal sweep.
Shiiing-shiiing-shiiing-shiiing-shiiing!
Countless blades were swept away in an instant.
“What——!”
Jang Yeomho and his men could not respond in time to the unexpected turn of events.
‘It seems my skill with the sword hasn’t yet become known.’
Or perhaps they had assumed that as a member of the Dang Clan, he would be skilled only in Flying Blade techniques.
Either way, it worked in his favor.
Because of it, he could catch them off guard like this.
“Haaaah!”
Dang Yuhyeon drew his sword in another wide arc.
Swoosh!
Blood sprayed into the air in an instant.
Dang Yuhyeon had severed their necks with a single stroke.
Horror flickered across the faces of the remaining assassins in black.
Dang Yuhyeon flicked the blood from his blade and sheathed it.
“I’ve made my decision.”
“……!”
“I’m stepping in.”
“……This monster.”
“I appreciate the compliment.”
Dang Yuhyeon laughed softly and closed the distance in a blur.
His form vanished and reappeared before them in the blink of an eye.
A Flying Blade now rested in his palm.
‘When did he—?’
Jang Yeomho’s face contorted.
He hadn’t seen Dang Yuhyeon approach so close, hadn’t seen him draw the Flying Blade.
He’d chosen the wrong opponent.
The realization consumed him.
But there was no retreating now.
Death from a failed mission was the same as death in combat.
“What are you doing? Kill him!”
“Yes, at once!”
“Too slow.”
Whoosh!
As Dang Yuhyeon swept his arms outward, two Flying Blades shot forth and pierced the chests of the black-clad assassins.
“Gasp!”
“Argh!”
Both collapsed in a heartbeat.
“How do you expect to kill anyone if you’re that slow?”
Dang Yuhyeon channeled his Internal Force into his legs and kicked Jang Yeomho in the abdomen.
“Agh!”
Jang Yeomho clutched his stomach a moment too late.
‘What kind of strength……!’
In unarmed combat, such things were not uncommon.
But Dang Yuhyeon’s blow carried such force that Jang Yeomho felt as though his viscera might rupture.
‘So the rumors about the Dang Clan’s second son weren’t idle gossip. That epithet—Gae-sim-dok-rang—was earned for reason!’
Even as Dang Yuhyeon rushed forward like a wolf, the upper tier remained untouched, uncompromised.
‘A monster.’
Jang Yeomho gritted his teeth.
To charge recklessly or fight carelessly would be death.
‘After all, the Flying Blades need time to be thrown again.’
If he could exploit that gap, he could gain the upper hand.
So he had thought.
“You underestimate me too greatly.”
Dang Yuhyeon did not withdraw his outstretched arm.
Instead, he pressed his index and middle fingers together and flicked them.
The Flying Blade that had pierced through Jang Yeomho’s subordinates returned, now puncturing another man’s skull.
“Choke!”
Jang Yeomho froze at the impossible sight.
It couldn’t be.
The trajectory of a Flying Blade was fixed, was it not?
A straight line. At best, a gentle curve.
Once thrown, a Flying Blade did not return unless one deployed a Broad Leaf technique.
‘Yet it changed course and came back?’
Whoosh! Whoosh!
While Jang Yeomho stood paralyzed, more of his men fell, blood spraying across the ground.
“Ever heard of the Flying Swallow Falling Star Feather?”
Dang Yuhyeon’s voice cut through the sharp ring of metal.
“What kind of trick is that?”
“Not a trick. It’s a proper Flying Blade art of the Dang Clan.”
A meteor suspended in emptiness, drifting through the void.
Meteors that fall from the sky are swallowed by twilight’s maw, but Dang Yuhyeon’s meteor never breaks—it stitches the void with unbroken light.
Endless and relentless, his falling stars wove an inescapable pattern.
A flash that seduced the eye and ultimately stole life itself.
Shrill! Shrill!
The Flying Blade sliced cleanly through the air.
It moved in dizzying spirals, so quick the eye could barely follow—as if Dang Yuhyeon were toying with Jang Yeomho himself.
“How dare a whelp—!”
Jang Yeomho’s jaw clenched as he swung his sword.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from his palm and crawled up the blade.
“Do not underestimate me and this Fire Scorpion Blade!”
Boom!
The fire-laden sword energy shot forward with vicious force.
“The Fire Demon threatens to consume all with its fierce appearance, but flames are fragile things—they die at the gentlest breeze.”
A flick.
Where Dang Yuhyeon’s fingers conducted, the Flying Blade obeyed.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
One blade carved a channel like flowing water, parrying the sword energy.
Crash!
The other blade wove through like a shuttle and pierced Jang Yeomho’s throat.
A choking rattle.
Jang Yeomho collapsed, spraying blood instead of final words.
Ju Mandeok, the merchant lord who had held his breath watching the battle, straightened once he was certain the fight had ended, bowing repeatedly.
“You are Gae-sim-dok-rang? Thank you for saving us!”
“He may yet live—do not lower your guard.”
“Yes, of course!”
Dang Yuhyeon raised a hand to stop Mandeok from checking on himself, then turned to search Jang Yeomho’s corpse.
‘A token?’
To be thorough, he searched the others as well and found that all of them carried tokens inscribed with “Renhuo.”
‘So they belong to Renhuo House? I’ve never heard of such a name before. The similarity in characters—could there be a connection?’
Countless possibilities swirled in his mind, none of them quite falling into place.
‘I’ll examine this more carefully later.’
Dang Yuhyeon tucked the tokens into his robe and turned away.
“You are safe now.”
“Yes. You have shown us tremendous kindness. Thank you.”
“It was nothing to thank me for. But what did they demand of you that made them so hostile?”
“They wanted an old map. Something passed down from my ancestors, though I never understood why they wanted it.”
“May I see the map for a moment?”
Perhaps because Dang Yuhyeon had saved them, Ju Mandeok readily produced the map.
As Dang Yuhyeon examined it carefully, his eyebrows rose.
‘Now I understand why they coveted it.’
Though it appeared to be an ordinary map of Sichuan, certain regions were marked with red dots.
Several of these matched known habitats of the Ten-Thousand Year Fleece Flower.
If such was the case, then the other marked locations surely held similar importance.
‘Interestingly, the Abandoned Temple I visited is marked here as well.’
Whoever Ju Mandeok’s ancestors were, it was certain they had some connection to the Dang Clan.
This map was necessary to find that connection and unravel the mystery.
“I will keep this map. It will be put to use more befitting your ancestors’ wishes.”
Ju Mandeok hesitated before answering.
He had thought it no ordinary object, given his ancestor’s dying words to always keep it near him. But if it had attracted both the Evil Sects and the Dang Clan simultaneously, it was clearly something of considerable value.
Yet now that the map was in his possession, he would inevitably face dangers like today’s again.
Having narrowly escaped harm this time was no guarantee he would survive the next encounter.
Ju Mandeok pressed his lips together, then handed the map to Dang Yuhyeon.
“I hope that giving you this map honors my ancestors’ intentions.”
“I will not let you regret it.”
Dang Yuhyeon tucked the map into his robe and pointed toward the wider path.
“The terrain here is treacherous—keep to that road and do not stray.”
“Thank you. I will repay this debt.”
“Then.”
Dang Yuhyeon offered a polite nod and vanished into the forest.
Ju Mandeok watched as Inying disappeared from sight, then set about refitting the carriage before departing along the road Dang Yuhyeon had shown him.
Sichuan Dang Clan: From Mediocrity to Genius
Author |
Lee Il-yeong
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editorial Director |
Editorial Department
Published by |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260615052
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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