The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 207

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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 207
A low rumble echoed through the air.
I flinched at the sudden sound, wondering if Namgung Wan had done something, but that wasn’t it. The noise came from the sky that had been brooding all along. Rain began to fall, one drop at a time.
Unlike me, Cheon-ma, who hadn’t moved an inch, continued speaking.
“You must be wondering. Why would I tell you such things? Why would I reveal information that would be disadvantageous to me if you were to die?”
Cheon-ma smiled faintly.
“Because you won’t die, will you?”
“….”
“I’m not reproaching you. It’s only natural for those with life to fear death. All living things are selfish.”
I clenched my fists and glared at Cheon-ma.
“I don’t understand what you’re thinking. If you have no intention of killing me, and you already know I won’t choose death, then why make such a proposal? Is it just some twisted hobby?”
Cheon-ma sighed.
“Child, did my words offend you? What is there to be offended about?”
“….”
Cheon-ma gazed at me intently. That alone was threatening enough to steal my breath away.
“I answered a question you must have harbored for a long time.”
“You’re just telling me, that’s all?”
“Yes. Can you not imagine how much time and experience would be required for you to learn this information on your own? Yet I’m providing it without any price. You still become emotional whenever matters concerning your father arise.”
Cheon-ma picked up the teacup with an indifferent tone.
“If you have more questions, ask them.”
“…You want me to keep asking?”
“It seems you have quite a few curiosities.”
I was so dumbfounded that even knowing Cheon-ma sat across from me, I nearly burst into hollow laughter.
Cheon-ma continued.
“What do you think I’m doing right now, from your perspective?”
“….”
“Don’t question my intentions. Just observe my actions. You think too much. Don’t be swept away by negative emotions. Simply accept goodwill as goodwill.”
It was truly absurd. If I had told my past self, “You’ll sit across a table from Cheon-ma and have a conversation,” I would have dismissed it as madness.
But if Cheon-ma truly had no intention of killing me and meant to answer my questions….
‘This is an opportunity.’
I asked immediately.
“What do you mean by my father being an adversary?”
“It seems the Jegal Family Head didn’t explain it properly. Well, I suppose that’s natural.”
I furrowed my brow.
I asked about my father, but suddenly Jeggal Hwa-mu is mentioned?
Cheon-ma continued.
“The more you change the future, the easier it becomes for me to move.”
“…Easier to move?”
“You defied the heavenly law by reversing time itself. Did you think only you could escape from that?”
“You defied the natural order by reversing time, yet you thought only you could escape from it?”
“The Threads of Heaven?”
Cheon-ma didn’t lie when I asked—he even offered a kind explanation.
“You could call them the Heavenly Mechanism as well. Terribly bothersome things they are. They arrange fate and let it flow. I too am bound by the Heavenly Mechanism.”
I understood upon hearing that much.
The countless threads tangled around Cheon-ma’s form—they were connected to what he called the Threads of Heaven, the Heavenly Mechanism, destiny itself.
Cheon-ma continued.
“And the Jegal Family Head was originally fated to die now. I arranged it that way over long ages.”
“But you just said Heaven arranges fate, didn’t you?”
“Indeed. So I spent vast stretches of time repeating their deaths, weaving them into destiny itself.”
Them.
I could tell he wasn’t speaking of Jeggal Hwa-mu alone.
“Yet you saved Jeggal Hwa-mu, who was fated to die.”
“….”
“The Heavenly Mechanism has been thrown into disarray.”
Cheon-ma laughed softly.
“Thanks to that, I can move freely like this now. You could say it’s thanks to you.”
So interpreting Cheon-ma’s words… originally he couldn’t move as he pleased, but because the Heavenly Mechanism was disrupted, he could now act freely?
As if punctuating my doubt, Cheon-ma spoke.
“If you save someone, then I can kill someone.”
“Then the sudden attack on the Murim Alliance was….”
“Yes. The attack on the Murim Alliance… normally it would have been impossible to do now. But you thrashed about far too much.”
I bit my lip hard.
Cheon-ma chuckled and confirmed it.
“It became possible thanks to you.”
“And the reason you targeted only Namgung Wan’s arm was…?”
“Yes. Your suspicion was correct. Targeting only Namgung Wan’s arm. He is one of the great central axes of the Heavenly Mechanism. His death would have a tremendous impact on it. So I merely sought to strip away his power.”
“So as long as he doesn’t die, it’s acceptable?”
Cheon-ma narrowed his eyes and gazed at me as if I were adorable.
“Of course there is some impact… but not enough to cause him to exit this theatrical performance. Would you stop a play because a puppet’s arm fell off mid-scene?”
“….”
“This isn’t something only I know—the Jegal Family Head understands it well too.”
“Jeggal Hwa-mu… knows about this?”
“Yes. But the reason he didn’t tell you?”
Cheon-ma lowered his voice.
“Having scattered the Heavenly Mechanism so thoroughly just to extend one life thread, he couldn’t bring himself to tell you the truth. And he feared you wouldn’t save him if you knew it. He too is a selfish human, after all.”
I glared at Cheon-ma and spoke firmly.
“Wanting to live isn’t selfish. It’s only natural for a person.”
It was something I hadn’t been able to say before.
Moreover, he was the one who made Jeggal Hwa-mu and the Jegal Clan this way, yet he dared to blame them instead.
“Though you’re no longer human, so you wouldn’t understand.”
There was no way to call that a human being.
Even at my mockery, Cheon-ma’s expression remained utterly unchanged.
“It is only natural that those who possess life fear death. Why would I not understand the agony of death? To save all sentient beings from that suffering is precisely what I must do.”
“Then why do you kill those very sentient beings you’re supposed to save?”
“Who has died?”
At his composed response, my face twisted in disbelief.
“There are countless cult members who died under your command, and you ask who has died?”
What about the Third Young Master who just died? Under whose orders was he fighting when he fell?
Cheon-ma spoke with utter indifference.
“As far as I remember, they remain alive.”
“….”
This mad charlatan of a cult leader.
I had grown sick of it.
Cheon-ma continued in his flat tone, completely unmoved by my expression.
“The conversation has grown long. You asked what an adversary is.”
Round and round we went, returning to my original question.
“Every time I have moved against the Mandate of Heaven, an adversary has stood to oppose me.”
An adversary has opposed him?
In that instant, Namgung Ryu-cheong came to mind.
I could not see Namgung Ryu-cheong from this angle, but it was not difficult to imagine what he was doing. He was likely watching me with a tense expression, filled with concern.
Cheon-ma continued.
“If you die, your father becomes the adversary. If your father dies, then Namgung’s child. If Namgung’s child dies, then suddenly another whose origins become difficult to trace. Adversaries arise in such a manner.”
Cheon-ma looked at me and smiled as though satisfied.
“And you are an adversary I have created with my own hands. That is why I anticipate you greatly.”
I stared at Cheon-ma in shock.
What? Now I am the adversary? Not Namgung Ryu-cheong?
He had said that if I died, my father would become the adversary, but I had not interpreted that as meaning I myself was the adversary.
“So do your utmost, strive until death itself. I leave my power with you for this very reason.”
I flinched in surprise.
Power? Could it be he came originally to take the Golden Eyes?
Not knowing this, I had been conversing with him based on his words that he would not kill. Goosebumps erupted across my entire body.
And now I could finally understand clearly how Cheon-ma operated.
He does not kill—he poisons with toxins, he severs limbs, he reclaims abilities. The hidden meanings behind his words that he will not kill.
“I await the day you stand before me.”
With those words, Cheon-ma rose from his seat as though he had said all he needed to say.
I asked urgently.
“What do you mean that you created me?”
Cheon-ma regarded me quietly for a moment.
“Ask your father about that. If you are able to meet him, that is.”
At his ominous tone, I widened my eyes and cried out.
“What have you done to Father!”
Cheon-ma did not answer. Instead, he turned his body and gazed up at the sky where rain poured down relentlessly.
Despite standing directly beneath the torrential downpour, he remained completely dry. The overwhelming mastery of his inner energy left me speechless.
“When the time comes, even the heavens shall bow before me.”
“….”
As I watched Cheon-ma and he grew distant, my entire body suddenly went limp. I collapsed against the backrest, unable to support myself.
My hands trembled violently. No—my entire body shook uncontrollably.
The moment Cheon-ma vanished, Namgung Wan approached me.
“Are you alright?”
“…No.”
Namgung Wan looked down at me and gently stroked my head.
“I’ll tell you more in a moment.”
He understood my unspoken meaning—that I would explain once all the Demonic Cult members had left. Namgung Wan nodded in acknowledgment.
Then I felt a hand grasp mine from beside me. The hand holding mine was trembling. It was Yalyu.
His pallid face was so ashen that one would believe him if he claimed to have just conversed with Cheon-ma.
The Demonic Cult members who had entered in perfect formation covered the Third Young Master’s corpse with cloth and carried him away with solemn reverence.
Cheon-ma, who had walked to the entrance of the inn, turned to face us.
“….”
“….”
Our eyes met, and Cheon-ma smiled.
The instant I bolted upright, his voice reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity, regardless of distance.
“Kill them all.”

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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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