The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 168

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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 168
“How impressive! So? You should interrogate that Buddhist monk instead—why did you come looking for me!”
I lowered my gaze briefly before looking at my aunt.
“According to the monk, you asked for that medicine first.”
My aunt let out a derisive snort.
“Ha! Just because I’m trapped here, even that Buddhist fool spins lies.”
She then muttered while looking at me.
“Ah, so you made him say that? You coerced him. Didn’t you?”
“….”
She had no idea whatsoever.
My aunt was completely unaware that the monk was connected to the Demonic Cult.
If she’d known the monk was a puppet of the Demonic Cult?
The moment his name came up, she would have been seized with terror.
Even if she tried to act, her level of skill would have exposed her immediately.
‘I came here hoping she might know something, but it was pointless after all.’
My aunt continued muttering to herself as if half her mind had fled.
“I didn’t trust that monk….”
She scattered resentment and hatred in all directions.
As I listened to what spilled from her lips, I caught onto something suspicious.
“The monk suggested that medicine to you first?”
I deliberately sent her a contemptuous look to provoke her.
“Coming all this way just to blame others. Stop spouting such pathetic lies.”
As expected, my aunt bristled, her eyes bloodshot as she glared at me.
“I wanted medicine to make someone crippled!”
“Not medicine to create a Heavenly Demon Incarnation?”
“Ha, a Heavenly Demon Incarnation? I didn’t even know such a medicine existed until then!”
So my aunt had simply been used.
But why, exactly?
I couldn’t fathom why the Demonic Cult would target me specifically.
‘Did they somehow know in advance that I would regress…?’
And if the Demonic Cult truly used my aunt….
‘Then who was the other medicine meant for?’
Baek Li-myeong was a target my aunt had arbitrarily changed. And if they’d aimed for him from the beginning, there would have been no need to wait six years.
‘Could it be… Grandfather?’
No. A master of Grandfather’s caliber rarely consumed elixirs.
At that level of cultivation, one no longer measures achievement by internal energy.
A master like Grandfather focuses on breaking through barriers.
Elixirs provide little benefit and instead hinder the cultivation needed to transcend those barriers. They only become a distraction.
It would have been no different six years ago when my aunt first obtained that medicine.
Even afterward, though Grandfather occasionally entered secluded cultivation, I’d never once heard that he consumed any elixir.
Someone my aunt would target.
I wondered what she was even hesitating about.
“The last medicine was meant for my father, wasn’t it?”
I clenched my fan so hard it nearly shattered.
“Yes! I targeted your father from the start!”
My aunt burst into laughter. She sounded half-mad.
“But for some reason, he never consumed the elixir! Not once in six years!”
Because his inner energy had been compromised.
Father had been unable to consume the elixir all this time.
“So I tried to target you instead, but that bastard Baek Li-myeong was so insufferable. What does he have besides being the eldest grandson? How dare he disrespect my son? If I’d just dealt with him properly, my son could have become the Baek Li Family Head…!”
My scalp prickled as if I’d plunged my body into an ice-covered lake, and all the blood in my veins turned cold.
“Then let me tell you something too.”
Originally, there was no need to speak of this, but….
“I’ve known all along that my aunt tampered with my elixir and caused me to fall into demonic cultivation.”
I stepped closer to my aunt.
“But my grandmother destroyed the evidence so thoroughly that I couldn’t find a single thread to pull.”
When I opened my eyes after regression, I was only six years old, and I had no cards to play in gathering evidence.
“So I made my aunt commit the same crime once more.”
My aunt looked at me as if I were spouting nonsense.
“Remember when the Twin Cousins were driven out to Gogye Hermitage? They were expelled for trampling peonies in front of the Namgung Minor Family Head. Did you know I was aware of the Namgung Minor Family Head being there? That’s why I gave them the peonies.”
“….”
“When the Twin Cousins threw mud at me, did you know I was aware there was a stone inside? That’s why I deliberately caught it and threw it back.”
If she thought about it even a little, she would realize it made no sense that I knew these things.
But my aunt, already suffering from paranoid delusions, would hear it differently.
My aunt’s face gradually contorted.
“I believed that if my aunt harassed the Twin Cousins, she would certainly tamper with my elixir again. After all, she’d already succeeded once before, hadn’t she? I was certain she would try again.”
People don’t change easily, after all.
“So I deliberately let my aunt know through So Nok that I was consuming the elixir, bit by bit.”
“You… you orchestrated all of this?”
I nodded.
“My aunt was so worried I wouldn’t tamper with the elixir. But then she tampered with Baek Li-myeong’s instead!”
I smiled radiantly.
“Thank you, Aunt. Now that Baek Li-myeong is gone, I’m the sole heir to the Baek Li Family!”
* * *
A man with long white hair loosely tied stood leaning against a wall with his eyes closed.
“Ah, so you made her say that? You coerced her. Didn’t you?”
‘As expected.’
Baek Li-ui-ran wasn’t even worth discarding. She was merely a common person blinded by inferiority complex and jealousy.
There were countless people like her. Humans who couldn’t acknowledge others’ success for no good reason and thrashed about trying to tear them down. When you examined the reasons behind such absurd actions, there was nothing substantial.
Jealousy. Envy. And stupidity.
They always committed the same mistakes and regretted it afterward, never seeing it coming. It was a pathetic display I couldn’t fathom—one I’d witnessed countless times before.
‘Ah, this isn’t my memory.’
I grasped at the fleeting confusion and steadied myself.
The inherited memories from successive Jegal Family Heads far outnumbered the years I’d lived as Jeggal Hwa-mu.
Loss of self.
My identity blurred as memories tangled together. That’s why I deliberately avoided opening those inherited recollections.
Jeggal Hwa-mu quickly summoned a different memory instead.
The warmth of a hand I couldn’t push away, resting quietly in mine.
“Anyway… she’s kind, isn’t she? Damn, I’m furious.”
Then I sensed a rapid presence approaching from the distance.
“Already chasing after us? That’s fast. Hmm? No, it’s not.”
I thought it was someone from Baek Li-yeon’s family coming to retrieve her, but it was someone entirely different.
Between slightly bristling bangs, crimson-tinged eyes gleamed. A distinct teardrop mole marked the space beneath his left eye.
It was the first time since we’d met in front of the pleasure boat.
Jeggal Hwa-mu pressed his temple and spoke.
“You’re later than expected.”
“….”
If he’d asked me instead of that fool, word could have reached the Baek Li Family Head and Baek Li-ui-gang much faster.
It was a question I couldn’t bring myself to ask—why he’d asked that man when he knew I had the means to contact them.
My insides twisted.
Jeggal Hwa-mu lifted the corner of his mouth and spoke smoothly.
“Yeon is inside.”
He stepped aside slightly in front of the decrepit door, gesturing for Yalyu to enter.
Yalyu stared fixedly at Jeggal Hwa-mu and didn’t go in.
Jeggal Hwa-mu smoothed his lips.
“What a shame.”
Yalyu openly ignored him.
Jeggal Hwa-mu opened his mouth again.
“Byeok Yalyu. Did you properly eliminate the demonic energy?”
In that instant, Yalyu’s eyes sharpened.
Jeggal Hwa-mu let out an exasperated sigh.
“You didn’t eliminate it.”
“Shut up.”
The Byeok Family is investigating your past too. Did you know that?”
“I know.”
Yet you cling here anyway. You have no conscience. How does it feel to distance yourself from Yeon’s side? How much longer do you think you can hide it?”
“….”
“While Cheonsan Yeom-je lives, they won’t be able to touch you… but there’s not much time left, is there?”
Yalyu spoke without the slightest change in expression.
“What’s that got to do with you? You’ll be dead by then anyway.”
Jeggal Hwa-mu paused briefly before bursting into laughter with a sharp “Heh.” After coughing several times, he finally managed to compose himself and lifted his head.
“Calling someone like this good… Hah, Yeon. Really….”
Yalyu, who had remained silent until then, opened his mouth.
“Has Yeon ever told you anything about me?”
Jeggal Hwa-mu clicked his tongue.
“What is this… More blind than a dog.”
At that moment, the old door creaked open and the White Cat emerged alongside Baek Li-yeon.
From within the open doorway came the sound of indistinct screams and curses.
Jeggal Hwa-mu asked gently.
“Is it all finished?”
“Yes. Here’s the fan. It worked well.”
My exhausted voice emerged without my realizing it. I forced my rigid face to relax, and then someone suddenly rushed at me, startling me.
I barely managed to stop myself from attacking reflexively.
“…Yalyu? When did you arrive?”
Yalyu tilted his head slightly to look at me.

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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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