The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 270
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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 270
“…!”
What in the world was this? My mother was the daughter of Cheon-ma?
‘So I’m the granddaughter of Cheon-ma?’
The crowd’s astonished gazes turned toward me.
“What does this…?”
“Why would Cheon-ma appear here?”
Wi Ji-baek had already stepped back a pace. His expression was that of a hunter gazing upon prey caught in a trap. Victory already gleamed in his eyes.
“Is it truly so?”
“Is what this person says factual?”
I regarded those who had posed the questions with disdain and spoke.
“You believe the words of someone who was just attempting to poison my cousin?”
I could see Wi Ji-baek’s expression stiffen at my composed demeanor. If I showed panic now, it would only serve their purposes.
I continued, turning my gaze toward my aunt.
“You speak of poisoning, but to be precise, it was a toxin designed to drive Myeong-i and myself into demonic cultivation deviation—not death. If they intended to kill, they would use a lethal poison, not one that induces demonic cultivation deviation!”
The crowd began to murmur in response to my words. Most people believe what they wish to believe rather than the truth.
“A poison that induces demonic cultivation deviation?”
“Does such a poison exist?”
“Gasp, then Baek Li-yeon becoming a crippled cultivator was….”
I allowed the crowd sufficient time to react before continuing.
“Moreover, that poison was from the Demonic Cult. All evidence from the investigation into my aunt at that time remains intact!”
No, there was absolutely no evidence remaining.
The Buddhist Monk who had given the poison to my aunt was already dead—how could it be proven?
What remained were merely the investigators and documents from that time. But there was no way to verify the existence of such evidence right here and now.
In other words, if I said it existed, then it existed.
“Yet the Demonic Cult gave poison to make Cheon-ma’s own blood fall into demonic cultivation deviation?”
I laughed as though astounded and cried out.
“Your words don’t align in the slightest!”
The crowd, which moments before had regarded my father and me with demands for clarification, now turned their contemptuous gaze upon my aunt.
My aunt protested with a flustered expression, insisting her claims were true, but her words had already lost all credibility.
“She’s lost her mind to slander!”
“My goodness, how close we came to being deceived!”
“To bring such a person here! The Wi Alliance Leader has lost his senses as well!”
As crude ridicule and mockery poured forth.
“Silence!”
A shout infused with tremendous power thundered through the surroundings like a tempest.
It was Wi Ji-baek.
The ridicule and mockery ceased in an instant.
Wi Ji-baek glanced at my aunt with disdain and spoke.
“No wonder she’s Cheon-ma’s blood—attempting to bewitch others with a treacherous tongue.”
And I continued speaking toward the now-silent crowd.
“There’s no need for such word games! The evidence is right before our eyes!”
Wi Ji-baek’s gaze turned toward me.
“Only the blood kin of Cheon-ma can absorb the Cheonma Jibow!”
Wi Ji-baek pointed at me and shouted.
“Didn’t you all see it with your own eyes! The Cheonma Jibow being absorbed by that woman!”
I immediately refuted him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I deflected while feeling the Cheonma Jibow’s intention still vividly lingering in my mind.
“Why are you blaming me for the Cheonma Jibow burning on its own?”
It wasn’t a lie. I had done nothing, and the Cheonma Jibow had indeed burned of its own accord.
That was when it happened. A sudden gust seemed to sweep through.
It was so fast that I only realized the figure had appeared once they were already before me.
I saw my father drawing his sword. It was a matter of an instant. But my father was one beat too slow.
And just before the opponent’s hand reached me.
Boom—!
I felt my father hurriedly embrace me and pull us back several steps.
Even cradled in my father’s arms, my hair whipped wildly from the tremendous shockwave.
My grandfather attacked Taego Jinperson’s back, and the Taego Jinperson who had been reaching toward me hastily raised his body to block it. After that, they stood at a distance as if they had never collided at all.
From just one collision, the Ceremonial Platform was already half-destroyed.
My grandfather spoke in a sharp, cold voice.
“What are you doing, Taego Jinperson?”
“I was merely attempting to verify something.”
“How dare you try to verify my granddaughter right before my eyes?”
Taego Jinperson answered calmly.
“If she were truly innocent, there would be no need to be so sensitive about it.”
“Suspicion is most disagreeable!”
The piercing gaze of Taego Jinperson from the moment the Cheonma Jibow burned.
From that moment on, Taego Jinperson had been suspecting me.
Perhaps, as one who had kept the Cheonma Jibow for so long, he had sensed something.
Wi Ji-baek shouted triumphantly.
“Baek Li Family Head, why do you obstruct? If she is truly innocent, then the truth can be revealed here!”
“There is nothing to explain!”
Following my grandfather’s movements, the Baek Geom Disciples who had come with him also drew their swords.
Clang, clang, clanging!
In response, Wi Ji-baek’s allies and the Wi Family warriors drew their swords.
Furthermore, the Alliance members surrounding this place also drew their swords.
Gongson Chong-sa cried out in alarm.
“Stop! Lower your swords! Everyone, please calm yourselves! This is becoming far too heated!”
Wi Ji-baek paid no heed and spoke, looking at me.
“Baek Li-yeon, when do you ever stop flapping that mouth of yours? Why do you hide in the shadows? Why not step forward and face me with confidence? Surely you don’t wish to bring shame upon your family!”
In that instant, my resolve wavered despite myself.
If this conflict truly erupted because of me….
That was when my father seized my arm with an iron grip.
Wi Ji-baek turned to my grandfather, his voice dripping with suspicion.
“Or could it be that the Baek Li Family Head knew as well? To transform the bloodline of Cheon-ma into an Orthodox Path martial artist! Have you no fear of heaven?”
That was when it happened.
“It’s you who has no fear of heaven!”
A sharp voice rang out, and a stone flew from the crowd, landing weakly at his feet.
Thud. The tension that had been drawn taut as a bowstring shattered.
The crowd turned as one toward where the stone had come from. There stood a woman of about thirty, possessed of striking beauty.
“If you had any shame, how dare you show your face again!”
“You!”
Wi Ji-baek’s eyes widened in shock. She was one of his women.
Not just one, but five or six of them had gathered together. Even now, murmurs of admiration could be heard at the sight of these women.
The woman called out, not toward Wi Ji-baek but in another direction.
“Gongson Chong-sa! Taego Jinperson! Did we not make an agreement with you? That this wretch would never show his face before people again! You made such a promise, and yet you allow this situation to unfold?”
The complexions of Gongson Chong-sa, Taego Jinperson, and especially those who had pressed the Murim Alliance Leader for answers, drained of all color.
How could it be otherwise? They had believed these women had all departed.
But I am no fool, nor would I take the Murim Alliance’s promise at face value.
Suspecting they might break their word, I had kept several of them as guests. Those with nowhere else to go readily agreed to my suggestion that they remain, just in case.
Taego Jinperson spoke in a placating tone.
“We had no intention of breaking our promise. However, the matter of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect is….”
The woman cut off Taego Jinperson’s words, her voice sharp as a blade.
“The Demonic Cult? You are the demonic cult to us!”
“….”
Taego Jinperson’s expression hardened. When had he ever been treated in such a manner?
The woman, her fury rising to the crown of her head, continued her relentless exposure.
“Wi Ji-baek, you shameless disciple of Saek-ma! You masqueraded as the Murim Alliance Leader, yet do you think your crimes have been erased?”
Wi Ji-baek’s face flushed crimson with rage.
Though decades had passed since Saek-ma’s disappearance, his infamy was so great that many still remembered him.
“Was it not enough that you abducted and toyed with one hundred women? When we tried to escape, you set fires to destroy the evidence!”
The woman looked toward me as she spoke.
“Had it not been for Baek Li, you would have burned us all to ash!”
The crowd’s shocked gazes now turned toward Wi Ji-baek.
Wi Ji-baek’s lips trembled with the fury of one who wished to tear her limb from limb.
But what could he possibly say?
A brief silence descended.
“I have one question.”
The voice was calm, yet it commanded the attention of everyone present in an instant.
Baek Li-ui-gang gazed at Baek Li-ui-ran and spoke.
“Where did you hear that only the bloodline of Cheon-ma can absorb the Cheonma Jibow?”
“….”
“Where did you hear about the bloodline of Cheon-ma?”
No one could answer.
It was only natural. No one here—not even I—knew anything about the Cheonma Jibow’s true capabilities.
If such a rumor existed, it would have spread far and wide. So where could it have come from?
It could only have come directly from the Demonic Cult.
My eyes gleamed with realization.
“Now that I think about it, Aunt, when you were struck from the family registry, I distinctly recall your dantian and meridians in your limbs were sealed. Yet you look exactly—precisely—the same as you did ten years ago. As if you’d learned some forbidden sorcery….”
In an instant, all eyes converged upon Baek Li-ui-ran. The gazes had transcended mockery and ridicule, transforming into pure contempt and wariness.
The Alliance members’ vigilance turned toward her.
Even Wi Ji-baek’s allies, unfamiliar with the intimate details, began to retreat cautiously from Baek Li-ui-ran, drawing their blades with suspicious movements.
Wi Ji-baek could not have failed to notice this shift.
“Silence that wicked tongue!”
A moment of explosive tension hung in the air, as if violence would erupt at any second.
A disheveled Alliance member bearing a messenger’s flag suddenly appeared before the Ceremonial Platform, pushing through the crowd. He looked desperately urgent.
The messenger ignored all surrounding circumstances and thrust a letter directly into Gongson Chong-sa’s hands.
Gongson Chong-sa’s face mingled bewilderment with relief as he hastily unfolded the letter. His complexion hardened immediately.
Lowering the letter, Gongson Chong-sa spoke with grave weight.
“The Demonic Cult forces have appeared near Muuhan.”
Wi Ji-baek’s eyes seized upon me like a drowning man grasping at salvation, and he cried out.
“I see! Baek Li-yeon, who absorbed the Cheonma Jibow, must be their target!”
“Wei Family Head! Do not speak such foolish words. Can you not see this was orchestrated? This is designed to sow discord among us….”
That was the moment.
“Kyaaaaaaagh!”
“What…!”
A sudden scream pierced through the gathering.
All turned in alarm to see Baek Li-ui-ran, her body withered like a mummy. And there, at her throat, was Yalyu—appearing as if from nowhere—his grip unyielding.
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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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