The Fortunate Sword God of the Zhuge Clan - Chapter 5

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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 5.
“Y-yes? How could you possibly… I mean, what are you…?”
Ran seemed not to know what she was saying.
“The order got mixed up. I should have asked what you meant first.”
“Oh, ah! That is… well, you see…”
Ran caught her misstep and let out a helpless sigh.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. The Mokga needed to prepare, so I was asked to keep it secret….”
“Prepare? What sort of preparation are you speaking of?”
“Well, you see, it’s because the Jeegal Family is withdrawing me from their house, so they said it would need to be announced at an official gathering in two days….”
Ran glanced at Mukhun nervously, like a child being scolded by her parents.
“B-but I haven’t forgotten the Jeegal Family’s kindness! And since the distance is close, I’ll be able to visit them often….”
“I see.”
Mukhun listened to Ran and felt certain of something.
‘This child truly doesn’t understand what she’s done.’
It was as he’d expected.
“You buried a gift beneath the Cypress Tree to persuade the main family?”
“Huh? You found that too?”
Ran jumped back in surprise, then added hastily:
“How did you find it? How did you know I’d hidden something? How did you even…?”
Mukhun answered Ran’s barrage of questions with a composed expression.
“To answer your first question, I found it by chance.”
“You dug up the ground by chance?”
At Ran’s skeptical look, Mukhun offered a faint smile.
“Yes, it was a fateful pull.”
It wasn’t a lie.
What else could the golden gleam that appeared before his eyes be but fate?
But Ran, who knew nothing of this, looked doubtful.
“…Never mind. What about my second question?”
“How did I know it was you who hid it?”
“Yes. Couldn’t you think it was a gift sent down by destiny itself?”
At Ran’s pouting answer, Mukhun let out a quiet laugh.
“You hid it so well that I can see why one might think that.”
In truth, he hadn’t found it before.
In those days when his knowledge was incomplete, had he discovered it, he likely wouldn’t have known precisely what it was and might have eaten it simply because it was hasuo.
No — he would have.
Wanting to change his inborn constitution, oblivious to its ineffectiveness.
‘Perhaps she chose my room for that very reason.’
It was a plan that showed considerable study of the Jeegal Family, but the other party was formidable.
“That’s precisely why it seemed suspicious.”
“Suspicious because I hid it well?”
“Yes. What you hid is something that nature cannot produce.”
Mukhun gazed at the Cypress Tree in the Manor as he continued.
“Do you know what you hid?”
Ran pondered Mukhun’s question before speaking.
“Isn’t it some kind of ginseng or other?”
Mukhun shook his head.
“It’s called Hundred-Year Hasuo — a precious elixir of heaven and earth. The Mokga’s Family Heirloom.”
“What?”
Ran’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“A… a… a Heirloom? You’re lying, aren’t you?”
“It’s the truth. Knowing this, I was certain it was no gift of destiny.”
“S-so they told me to bury a Heirloom here? As a gift to take me away?”
Even as Ran spoke, her expression suggested she couldn’t believe her own words.
“Don’t misunderstand. You are precious to the main family. However….”
Mukhun looked directly into Ran’s eyes.
“Do you truly believe the Mokga sees you that way?”
Ran’s pupils trembled rapidly.
“That is….”
Ran couldn’t answer Mukhun’s question at once.
“Don’t deny it. You know it yourself, don’t you?”
Mukhun spoke with resolve, studying Ran’s expression.
The child was quick to read situations.
Though he’d asked the question, Ran had already begun to piece together what trouble she’d become entangled in.
“In two days, the Mok family will come to the main house claiming that a Family Heirloom has gone missing and requesting our assistance.”
Mukhun walked slowly toward the Cypress Tree.
“But what if that very heirloom were to be discovered beneath this Cypress Tree? How do you suppose they would react?”
“…The Jeegal Family would say we stole it….”
“Exactly. They’ll claim the main house took their heirloom. Of course it isn’t true, but once the Hasuo is found, it won’t be easy to deny.”
“…I see….”
Ran seemed shaken, falling silent for a long moment.
Mukhun waited quietly for her to speak again.
There was no point adding more now—it would only cloud her thoughts.
“…I understand what you’re saying, but….”
When Ran finally spoke, her voice came out strained and hollow.
“Then was I being used? Though it doesn’t seem like… because….”
“Because the person who ordered you to do this was your biological father?”
Ran startled, drawing a sharp breath.
“…How do you know all of this…?”
Mukhun released a thin sigh.
He’d suspected as much, but had hoped it wasn’t so.
It was a petty act to commit while wearing the mask of righteousness.
And the wound it would inflict on Ran’s heart—how deep it would cut.
Yet he could not avoid what had already transpired.
“From the Mok family’s perspective, you are the ideal spy.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Once they decided to plant something in the main house, they would have scouted the most accessible location to approach undetected.”
Mukhun rolled up his sleeve, revealing his thin, frail arm.
“And if there happened to be a direct heir who was sickly and rarely ventured outside?”
“…Then that area would be the safest place to bury it…?”
“Precisely. And you are my personal attendant. Moreover….”
Mukhun’s gaze shifted to Ran’s hair.
“You happen to have the same brown hair as the Mok family.”
“….”
Ran said nothing, lowering her head.
“But…he confirmed I was his true daughter in another way, didn’t he?”
“When he grasped your arm, did your Dantian surge with warmth?”
“…Yes.”
Ran answered in a hollow voice, as though she’d exhausted her capacity for surprise.
“He claimed it was the Mok family’s energy and used that to insist you were his daughter, but….”
Mukhun hesitated before continuing.
Ran’s face had begun to crumble, as though tears might come at any moment.
Yet he could not stop now.
“Women naturally possess strong Yin Energy. When someone like the Mok family, whose Internal Energy is rooted in Yang, channels their force through you, it creates a temporary warming sensation in the body.”
Whether by her own will or not, Ran had moved as a spy for the Mok family.
For that reason, facing the truth was not her choice but her obligation.
A person must not become a criminal for deeds they never knew they committed.
Which is why he could not relent now.
“Without knowledge of Martial Arts, anyone would be deceived.”
Mukhun looked down at Ran with a bitter expression etched across his face.
“Do you understand now what you have done?”
Ran nodded quietly.
“…Did you… discover the Hasuo there and deduce all of this on the spot?”
“…Yes. I considered the sequence of events necessary for this to all make sense.”
Yet these were not the only pieces of evidence.
In his past life, Ran had vanished not long after the incident occurred.
At the time, it was said she’d grown weary and quit her service.
But thinking about it now, she must have realized what she’d done and fled.
The Mok family had promised to take her in, so she would have gone to them….
Sigh.
Surely there had been no happy ending waiting for her.
“I see. You truly are remarkable, sir. Such knowledge, such depth of thought….”
Ran’s voice trembled as she bowed her head low.
Though unseen, her weeping was plain from her tone alone.
“But… hic! I… hic! I’m so sorry… to be fooled so stupidly… hic! I’ve made such a grave mistake for the Jeegal Family….”
Mukhun offered her a handkerchief.
The moment Ran took it, she blew her nose with hearty abandon.
Mukhun let out a quiet laugh at the sight.
“I’m sorry. Hic!”
“It’s fine. A blocked nose must be cleared.”
“No, I meant… hic!”
Ran rubbed away her tears and forced herself to continue.
“For being stupid. Hic! I’m so sorry. Sniff!”
At her words, Mukhun’s expression grew solemn.
“You cannot claim to be blameless. Yet foolishness is not your true sin.”
“But….”
“If punishment is to be given, the deceiver must answer before the deceived. Wouldn’t you say?”
Ran nodded slowly.
“And yet… I’m still foolish, that hasn’t changed. In fact….”
Ran looked up at Mukhun, her face full of remorse.
“I understand in my mind that what you say is true, but I find myself hoping it’s a lie.”
At her confession, Mukhun merely nodded in acknowledgment.
“I understand.”
Because Ran had been his personal attendant for some time, Mukhun had spoken with her at length on many occasions.
Not all attendants were the same, but the Jeegal Family had taken in many children who had lost their parents young.
Ran was one of those children.
Perhaps that was why.
Despite the brightness she usually showed, Ran often felt loneliness keenly.
Her attachment to family was equally strong.
It was no wonder, then, that she had fallen for the Mokga elder’s words so easily.
Besides, Ran was barely his own age now.
Even knowing the truth, accepting it would not be simple.
‘There’s no helping it.’
Mukhun did not truly blame her for this.
When others possess what one lacks, the hunger to claim it becomes overwhelming.
He understood that longing better than anyone.
“Then come to the Manor at the hour I specify, two days hence.”
Yet one cannot close one’s eyes before reality.
“Two days from now? Here, sir?”
“Yes.”
No matter what becomes of it, one must open one’s eyes and face reality directly before moving forward.
Mukhun wanted to give Ran that opportunity.
“And this man who claims to be your father—is he Mok Chungwu, the Mokga elder?”
“…Yes. That’s correct.”
As he had suspected.
Mok Chungwu, the Mokga elder.
In his past life, the man who had found the Hundred-Year Hasuo and brought it back, and the one who always raised objections to Mukhun’s words at the Maeng council meetings.
By reclaiming the Family Heirloom that the current patriarch had failed to protect, he had risen to become the patriarch of the Mokga himself.
‘He orchestrated this entire affair with that very aim from the start.’
It was not the first time that council meetings had been prolonged by his insistence on prioritizing Mokga interests above all else.
Though he had been among the first to fall in the war against the Imperial Palace, Mukhun harbored some measure of pity for him….
“See for yourself. His true nature and the truth behind all that has transpired.”
Since he was the one who had initiated this conflict, Mukhun had no intention of letting it pass.
In two days, the fates of Ran and Mok Chungwu would be reversed.
***
Mok Chungwu, the elder of the Hokbuk Mokga, was in an exceedingly fine mood from morning onward.
Today was the long-awaited meeting with the Jeegal Family.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would not have welcomed it so eagerly.
‘Dogs and all—it’s always Jeegal Family this, Jeegal Family that! It’s been that way forever.’
Mok Chungwu harbored considerable pride in his own clan.
The Mokga’s meditation technique, the Danyang Divine Art, and their sword method, the Fei Huan Duan Tian Sword Method.
In Mok Chungwu’s estimation, these two families were no less worthy than the Namgung Family, renowned throughout Zhongyuan for their swordsmanship, or the Habuk Paeng Family, celebrated masters of the Dao.
‘It is simply that fewer people means fewer talents emerge.’
The Hokbuk Mokga had traditionally produced few practitioners of Martial Arts.
The Danyang Divine Art, the foundation of their Martial Arts, was a meditation method that placed heavy demands on one’s constitution.
Without an imposing frame and bone structure, even the most exceptional talent could not enter the Danyang Divine Art.
Aside from this limitation, Mok Chungwu took pride in the fact that the Mok family’s Martial Arts yielded to no other.
‘Yet these worthless scholars with no proper Martial Arts to speak of are called one of the Five Great Families?’
That the Jeegal Family, located in the same Hokbuk province, was ranked above the Hokbuk Mokga had always rankled Mok Chungwu.
The current Patriarch’s refusal to contest this evaluation only deepened his resentment.
For this reason, he had always detested gatherings with the Jeegal Family—but not today.
Today he was on his way to the Jeegal Manor to retrieve the Hundred-Year Hasuo that he had hidden there, having deceived some foolish servant of theirs.
If word leaked that he had recklessly moved a Family Heirloom, it would not end with mere punishment….
Yet all blame would fall squarely on the Jeegal Family’s shoulders.
There was no reason he should be discovered.
The sickly second son of the Jeegal Family kept to a room near the Manor.
He rarely left it, and thanks to this habit, Mok Chungwu had successfully buried the Hasuo there.
The boy was said to be clever enough, but as a member of a Martial family who had failed to cultivate any Martial Arts, he was nothing but chaff.
Why would such a wretch suddenly decide to dig beneath a tree?
It was a flawless plan.
With this scheme, the Hokbuk Mokga would rise above that cursed Jeegal Family to become the supreme house of Hokbuk.
They might even claim the seat among the Five Great Families that the Jeegal Family would vacate.
Moreover, this would not end merely with the Jeegal Family’s ruin.
The current Patriarch would face accountability for his failure to properly safeguard the Family Heirloom.
Of course, he would not step down from his position over this alone.
But if one of the elders were to recover it?
If Mok Chungwu himself were to retrieve the Hundred-Year Hasuo?
He would hold leverage to seriously discuss the transfer of Patriarchal authority.
‘Yes, that is surely how it will unfold!’
How could his spirits possibly be dampened?
Mok Chungwu grinned, his already narrow eyes narrowing further, as he stroked his rust-colored goat beard.
Though his muscular frame demanded five meals a day, today even thought alone left him sated.
He had already spread word throughout the household that the Hundred-Year Hasuo had vanished.
When he retrieved it with his own hands, this night would become the finest of his life.
That is how it should have been.
If only the Hundred-Year Hasuo had actually been where that foolish servant girl had said it was.
‘She said it was buried right here!’
Mok Chungwu tore at the earth beneath the Cypress Tree with mounting fury.
But contrary to what the servant had told him, the Hundred-Year Hasuo was nowhere to be found.
‘Could it be… Has that insane girl realized the Hasuo’s value and run off with it?’
If so, this was a catastrophe.
He had grown careless, thinking of it as merely a large ginseng plant.
‘Have I… lost the Family Heirloom?’
Something that should never have happened had come to pass.
‘Cursed wench, no wonder I haven’t seen her!’
He wanted to search for her immediately, but time was not his ally.
He had slipped away during the gathering, claiming he needed to visit the privy.
If he remained absent much longer, it might raise suspicions.
‘What do I do? How do I handle this…!’
From behind Mok Chungwu, lost in thought, came a small but distinct voice.
“What are you doing there?”
“Gasp!”
Thinking his scheme had been discovered, Mok Chungwu spun around with a start.
“Oh? You seem quite startled. I was merely asking a question.”
Jeegal Mukhun, the Jeegal Family’s sickly second son, stood before him with a faint smile.
‘Ah, right. This is that wretch’s room after all.’
Relief flooded through Mok Chungwu at the realization that he had not been caught. He cleared his throat lightly.
“Ah, ahem! Young Master of the Jeegal Family, it is nothing. I was merely taking a stroll.”
“I see. So you have a hobby of digging at the earth while you take your strolls?”
Like a dog, one might have added.
The words went unspoken, yet the gleam in Mukhun’s eyes carried that very implication, and it set Mok Chungwu’s teeth on edge.
“…Ahem. Well, yes. It’s merely one of my minor hobbies. I apologize for disturbing the Jeegal Family Manor. It’s just been so difficult to restrain myself….”
Mukhun chuckled at Mok Chungwu’s excuse.
Mok Chungwu was displeased, but he had nothing else to say.
Digging through the earth while crouched down with such a massive frame—was that really a hobby?
Even by his own reckoning, it was a laughable excuse.
Fortunately, Mukhun seemed to have accepted it without suspicion.
“That’s a relief. I had worried perhaps….”
But in the next instant, Mok Chungwu’s body went rigid at what Mukhun did.
“I thought you were digging so desperately through the earth to search for this.”
In Mukhun’s right hand, drawn from his robes, hung the Hundred-Year Hasuo that Mok Chungwu had been seeking so desperately.

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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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