The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 157

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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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Chapter 157
* * *
The pavilion where Baek Li-myeong resided was not far away.
Before the firmly closed door stood Baek Li-ui-muk, his expression vacant and hollow as he stared at the entrance. His gaze was that of a man lost in despair.
The last time I had seen my uncle was when we bid farewell to Baek Li Pae-hyuk.
Not much time had passed since that day, yet the skin that had once been smooth and taut now hung loose and withered, and streaks of silver threaded through the hair at his temples—as if he had aged six or seven years in a single moment.
‘It seems he truly did step into the abyss of obsession and barely escaped.’
The vital energy visible within his body through my golden eyes was profoundly unstable.
“Uncle.”
So lost in thought was he that only upon hearing my voice did he notice our arrival.
“How did you—no, the children with you—how did they even know where this place is? I distinctly ordered that no one be allowed to enter….”
His voice was hoarse and rambling, thick with exhaustion.
“Baek Li-myeong came looking for me.”
“What? No, when…?”
My uncle waved his hand dismissively. He seemed too worn and depleted to even muster the strength for a proper response. Despair hung heavy across his weary features.
“Go back….”
“Uncle, I’ve come to help my older brother.”
I cut through his words, pressing forward.
My uncle’s mouth fell open in a daze.
“I cannot promise that I will succeed.”
“You help Baek Li-myeong? Ha, that’s absurd….”
I interrupted him again, my tone turning ice-cold.
“If you tell me that you don’t need my help, I will leave immediately.”
Seo Ha-ryeong and Yalyu exchanged glances, clearly startled that I would abandon our efforts so readily after all the trouble we’d gone through.
“….”
My uncle’s lips, which had seemed about to form words, sealed shut as if glued.
“What would you have me do?”
My uncle’s eyes wavered. He swallowed hard several times before finally speaking.
“How could you possibly help?”
I exhaled slowly.
“I understand. Then I shall take my leave.”
I turned away without hesitation.
I had taken perhaps ten steps when—
“No! Wait!”
The sound of frantic footsteps rushed toward me.
My uncle seized my arm and blocked my path.
“I beg you. I’m begging you.”
“….”
When I said nothing, my uncle suddenly dropped to his knees.
“Please, I implore you. Save Baek Li-myeong. I have wronged you terribly all this time. I was wrong. I beg you like this—please, help our Baek Li-myeong. Please….”
* * *
I pushed open the heavy door.
The moment I stepped inside, the acrid stench of blood assaulted my senses. Blood stains and footprints scattered chaotically across the floor, as if someone had vomited blood multiple times.
Seo Ha-ryeong frowned slightly as she surveyed the surroundings and asked.
“But tell me, Yeon. Would you really have refused to help if your uncle had opposed it?”
I smiled faintly.
“He’s the one who needs help, so why should I compromise?”
Seo Ha-ryeong’s eyes widened.
“I simply thought that if I insisted on helping, he would try to obstruct me instead.”
He would have pestered me with questions and tried to shift the responsibility onto my shoulders.
Seo Ha-ryeong nodded in admiration.
“I see… so you had a plan all along? You did well to stay quiet.”
“Well, if he’s someone who values his own pride more than his son’s wellbeing and opposed it to the end… then that’s simply where my brother’s fortune runs out.”
As I ventured deeper inside, I felt the rampaging vital energy radiating from the center, sharp enough to pierce the skin.
Seo Ha-ryeong spoke in a slightly frightened voice.
“This really looks dangerous. Yeon, will you be alright?”
I turned to Seo Ha-ryeong and spoke.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“What kind of favor?”
“Bring Seok Tae-ui here. You can find him through Eon-du or Geum-swe. And…”
I hesitated.
The memory of our last parting conversation held me back. But this was no time to dwell on such trivial matters.
I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them as I spoke.
“Go to Hwa-mu as well…”
“Who is Hwa-mu?”
“The Jegal Family Head.”
“Ah, right. That was his name.”
“Tell him to inform me of how my request turned out. He’ll know what to do.”
I immediately retrieved my nameplate and handed it to Yalyu.
“Show him this and obtain the finest horse available, then go find my grandfather.”
Yalyu gazed at the nameplate and spoke.
“He’s probably already sent someone.”
“That’s uncertain.”
I scoffed.
Yalyu looked at me with concern.
“If I leave, what about you?”
“Namgung Ryu-cheong is here. The Namgung Clan is no ordinary family—my grandmother wouldn’t dare lay a finger on him.”
Yalyu clenched his fist, then accepted my nameplate.
“…I understand.”
“Thank you.”
Yalyu and Seo Ha-ryeong left, and I heard the door close firmly behind them.
I gazed intently at Baek Li-myeong. Through my golden eyes, I could see clearly the nature of his rampage.
The form his rampage had taken was deeply familiar to me.
I etched it clearly into my vision as I spoke.
“Elder brother, can you hear me?”
“….”
“The situation has become rather amusing, hasn’t it?”
“….”
No answer came in return.
From his body, drenched in sweat and trembling violently, faint heat shimmer rose into the air.
Blood trickled down from his lips once more, already stained crimson. Baek Li-myeong was desperately struggling to suppress something.
I collapsed behind Baek Li-myeong’s back. Whether from the Snowfall Pearl Orb or the demonic cultivation, my vital energy felt frigid.
“I came saying I would help, but what happens now rests with heaven. Whatever the outcome, do not resent me.”
I placed my hand on Baek Li-myeong’s back, at the Life Gate acupoint.
Along with a sensation so cold my fingertips stung, I felt the rampaging vital energy’s flow distinctly. I began carefully seizing control of the wild energy.
It was familiar work to me.
Handling natural vital energy had always meant wresting control from it.
It was one reason I had confidently offered to help with the demonic cultivation.
‘The meridians are already damaged.’
Had I delayed any longer, the damage would have been irreversible.
I felt the energy gradually spreading through my senses.
‘So this is what triggered the demonic cultivation.’
Inner power was fundamentally sensitive and difficult to control.
The moment it begins to slip from control, it immediately spirals into rampage.
This is why someone stands guard during breathing exercises.
Even the slightest shock or faintest stimulus could cause loss of control and instantaneous rampage.
Conversely, this meant that with just a small stimulus, one could be pushed into demonic cultivation.
Even inner power already settled within one’s body carries such danger—how much more so the process of taking elixirs and external energy into one’s body?
Naturally, it was far more perilous than ordinary breathing exercises.
This was why my uncle stood guard after Baek Li-myeong consumed the elixir.
Perhaps my uncle protected Baek Li-myeong from external dangers.
But… he could not protect him from internal ones.
* * *
I slowly exhaled and opened my eyes.
Baek Li-myeong sat with his head bowed low.
The flow of vital energy I felt through my fingertips had now become calm and stable.
I finished and withdrew my hand. Baek Li-myeong’s body lurched forward.
“Oh!”
Just before Baek Li-myeong’s head struck the floor, a long leg extended and blocked him. It was Namgung Ryu-cheong.
“Is it finished?”
“Yes.”
Namgung Ryu-cheong lowered Baek Li-myeong to the ground slowly, using only subtle movements of his feet rather than his hands. Then he extended his hand to me.
“You stood guard?”
Namgung Ryu-cheong nodded.
“How long?”
“About two days.”
“You must be exhausted.”
“Look who’s talking.”
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“No.”
“I’ll need to recruit new warriors for the Baek Li Family. They were nothing but cowards.”
“Ha ha.”
I grasped his offered hand with a slight smile and rose to my feet effortlessly.
“And shouldn’t I be the one worried about you?”
“Hm?”
Namgung Ryu-cheong suddenly fell silent.
“What, were you worried?”
He spoke as though stepping forward was only natural, yet he had been worried.
Stepping outside, the darkened sky suggested it was approaching the late evening hours.
At a sudden sound, I turned to see a chair placed just beside the door and the figure of my uncle.
He appeared to be living in a different time, as though he had aged years in mere moments. The burst blood vessels in his eyes and the lines etched across his face spoke volumes of the anguish he had endured.
“Yeon…”
My uncle seemed desperate to ask what had become of Baek Li-ui-muk, yet he feared the answer I might give and could not bring himself to ask.
I spoke first, offering him clarity.
“He’s alive. Go see him.”
My uncle rushed inside without hesitation.
The cool night breeze swept through, sending my hair dancing in the wind.
“Now that it’s over, go rest.”
“I’m not sure…”
This was only the beginning.
I turned to Namgung Ryu-cheong, whose expression seemed unfamiliar, and asked.
“Where have you left Seok Tae-ui?”

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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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