I Will Become a Phoenix More Noble Than the Emperor - Chapter 78

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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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78.

“What happens if I win?”

“Well, if you beat me, I’ll tell you.”

“Good. I’ll challenge you!”

Cheers erupted from the surroundings at the appearance of a new challenger. Chaegyo grinned and lifted a new wine bottle, and the contest began. One bottle, two bottles, three bottles, four bottles—even after emptying them all, Chaegyo’s face remained unchanged and perfectly fine.

Eventually, when the new challenger retched and vomited, it was another victory for Chaegyo. Excited, Chaegyo shot light around her, creating a spectacle like fireworks exploding.

Everyone made a fuss with enchanted faces.

“As expected of Lady Chaegyo! You’re truly amazing!”

“Ha. If the Phoenix Competition’s theme had been a drinking contest, it would have been decided already.”

“But is it really okay for you to be doing this here? Shouldn’t you be preparing for the next trial?”

“The next trial is the Land of Immortals, right? You should go there and come back to tell us about it! Seeing you here like this, you must have already figured out how to get there, right?”

What crowded around Chaegyo in a bustling manner were young men and women. Dizzyingly beautiful handsome men and beautiful women urged her with eyes full of expectation. Despite the contest being over, Chaegyo, who had drained the last bottle in one go, licked her lips and smiled.

“I wonder? Did I figure out how to get there?”

At that ambiguous answer, they screamed in shock.

“Lady Chaegyo!”

“Oh my, do you know how much money I bet on Lady Chaegyo? You’re really doing this to us!”

When complaints burst out, Chaegyo burst into laughter.

“Aha, so you’re more worried about that petty money than me?”

“No, no. That’s not what I meant…”

“Ah, the Land of Immortals doesn’t open for another hundred days. There’s plenty of time left, so what’s there to worry about?”

“A hundred days! How many days have passed since the third competition started? …So, um, only a few days are left now…”

“Let me see. Did you all bet money on me too?”

When Chaegyo asked probingly, several people avoided her gaze.

“Oh my. You bet on other candidates, didn’t you?”

Chaegyo giggled as if she wasn’t displeased by that fact. Chaegyo, who had downed another drink, licked her lips with her tongue and fell into thought for a moment.

“Hmm, should I place a bet too?”

At those words, everyone’s faces became bewildered.

“You mean you’re betting money on yourself?”

Then Chaegyo chuckled.

“Who said I’m betting on myself? Hey there.”

Chaegyo called over a pleasure house staff member and held out one of the rings she was wearing.

“Go right now to the biggest gambling house in Myeonggyeong and place a bet in my name.”

“Ah… Lady Chaegyo. Um, candidates cannot bet money on themselves.”

“I’m betting on Kang Seon-o though?”

At that shocking statement, everyone’s eyes opened as if they would pop out.

“Ka, Kang Seon-o? That… you mean the sixth candidate, right? Gasp, are you going to yield the Phoenix to her?”

“Wait, Lady Chaegyo. You’re not giving up on the competition, are you?”

“You have other plans, right? Right?”

Then Chaegyo, who had been wearing a strange smile until just now, suddenly waved her hand as if annoyed.

“Alright, alright, enough. Let’s stop talking about headache-inducing topics like competitions and the Land of Immortals and just drink more! Ah, shall we throw drinking game dice this time? Hey, bring the drinking game dice!”

Then a pleasure house staff member hurriedly brought the dice.

“Lady Chaegyo. These are newly acquired drinking game dice. You’ll like them.”

Chaegyo took the splendid golden drinking game dice and read what was written on them.

“Wet your clothes with alcohol and dance?”

As the staff member had predicted, Chaegyo’s eyes sparkled as she was delighted with the new drinking game dice.

When she threw the dice without warning, the young men and women’s gazes immediately focused on the dice, and giggling laughter flowed from inside the pleasure house beyond the stone wall.

A man secretly hiding in a tree near that pleasure house had been watching Chaegyo, who had been drinking since early evening.

“…”

The man holding his breath confirmed that Chaegyo was pouring alcohol over the clothes of a man who had been caught by the dice’s penalty, then left that place. It was Wi Gong-un who brushed off his clothes as if something dirty had gotten on them only after getting away from the pleasure house.

Since he had confirmed there was nothing more worth watching, there was no reason to keep looking at that pathetic sight.

Wi Gong-un’s eyes sank strangely as he poured the perfume he had brought over his clothes, feeling as if the smell of alcohol and tobacco had permeated even his own clothes.

After the third trial was announced, only two candidates were confirmed to still be staying in Myeonggyeong.

One of them, Chaegyo, wasn’t even going home and was eating and sleeping at the pleasure house, holding banquets every night.

He had watched thinking there might be some other scheme, but there wasn’t.

Chaegyo was sincerely just playing and eating. As if there were no tomorrow.

‘How pathetic. For such a person to be a Phoenix candidate, things have really gone too far.’

Moreover….

‘She’s going to bet money on Kang Seon-o?’

The stupid fools at the pleasure house made a fuss thinking there was some hidden meaning behind it, but Gong-un knew the reason why Chae-gyo had placed her bet on Seon-o.

Because it was entertaining.

So Chae-gyo was merely treating Seon-o as entertainment. Like those courtesans or drinking game dice. But Seon-o wasn’t someone who should be ignored and toyed with like that.

Well, what would a debauchee who plays around at pleasure houses even during the competition know anyway.

But on the other hand, it was fortunate that such a pathetic bastard was one of the candidates. It would be easy for I-ryeong to eliminate at least one of them.

Therefore, Gong-un had secretly arranged for more handsome men and beautiful women to be brought into the pleasure house that Chae-gyo frequented, and supplied fresh entertainment including new drinking game dice.

He had also personally prepared plenty of highly addictive alcohol made from poison and herbs he had concocted himself, so Chae-gyo would have a hard time escaping from that paradise for a while.

But there was nothing he could do about the other candidate, Bu So-yoon.

From the day the third trial began, barriers had been created all around the Bu Family Estate. Not only that, but private soldiers were stationed everywhere, making it impossible for anyone to set foot in the Bu Family Estate.

So So-yoon would complete her cultivation within that safe space and enter Flower Cloud Island.

But the real problem was the other two, whose whereabouts, activities, and thoughts were completely unknown.

Gi-rim and Seon-o.

‘Gwak Gi-rim will probably use the same method as Bu So-yoon.’

Of course, Gi-rim didn’t have an impregnable house like So-yoon’s or the financial power to mobilize private soldiers. But instead, she had something more solid.

‘Those who follow Gwak Gi-rim will eagerly help her.’

Those who owed her favors or respected her would be determined to hide Gi-rim, so finding her would be more difficult than infiltrating the Bu Family Estate.

And to be honest, Gi-rim wasn’t Gong-un’s current concern.

“….”

After the trial began, Gong-un had to suppress his desire to follow Seon-o for several days.

He wanted to tail Seon-o again and find suspicious aspects about him, but if he failed this time too, he would have to endure the humiliation of being accused of chasing after Seon-o’s tail because he wanted his attention again.

Therefore, Gong-un was desperately suppressing that urge and deliberately not seeking out Seon-o’s whereabouts.

Well, even if he didn’t follow and cause trouble, Seon-o wouldn’t be able to enter Flower Cloud Island anyway.

This trial wasn’t so easy. It wasn’t a difficulty level that could be solved with luck or tricks.

Candidates from great families would know information about Flower Cloud Island, but for Seon-o, who came from a ruined family and had no one to help him, even finding a way to enter Flower Cloud Island would surely be an obstacle.

‘If he can’t even enter and gets eliminated, it’ll be quite pathetic.’

Gong-un tried to sneer while imagining Seon-o’s frustrated appearance after being eliminated in vain, but somehow when he imagined Seon-o’s despairing expression, he didn’t feel good. The sound of Chae-gyo giggling happily after successfully bringing down Seon-o wouldn’t be pleasant either.

Suddenly, the image of I-ryeong as the Phoenix appeared in Gong-un’s mind.

The Prime Gods who would be loyal to her. Himself caught between them….

Would I-ryeong really become his master like this?

He was just bewildered by himself for continuing to have such doubts.

If not I-ryeong, then who? That promiscuous Yang Chae-gyo? That arrogant Bu So-yoon? Gwak Gi-rim, who was even more boring than I-ryeong?

“….”

…Or perhaps, Kang Seon-o, who made him unpleasant just by thinking about him.

‘…You should at least try to enter Flower Cloud Island, Kang Seon-o. If you’re truly a Phoenix candidate.’

It was at that moment when Gong-un was once again helplessly lost in thoughts of Seon-o, glaring at mid-air.

When he felt a sharp, subtle pain in his neck, Gong-un’s eyes hardened.

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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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