The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 229

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 21

Inside the room where only someone’s rumbling breathing echoed.

The White Tiger Family members who had been eating were scattered and collapsed here and there.

Creak—

The closed door opened, and one of the villagers entered to check, then looked outside and said.

“They’re all asleep.”

At those words, the Village Chief and a group of people entered the room.

“Tsk. They’re sleeping like logs without a care in the world.”

The Village Chief poked Su Ri’s body, which was collapsed near the door, with his foot and clicked his tongue as if finding it pathetic.

“What about the one we sent to our lord?”

“He hasn’t returned yet.”

“We sent him two hours ago and he still hasn’t returned?”

The Village Chief frowned slightly and asked back.

“What should we do, Village Chief?”

“For now, we’ll proceed as previously ordered. Our lord said to handle the White Tiger Family as we see fit, and to kill the Dragon Emperor’s Bride on the spot, but…”

Thud.

At that moment, a dull sound interrupted the Village Chief’s words.

It was the sound of the White Tiger Family’s third son, who had been collapsed on the dining table, tossing and turning and bumping into something.

When the Village Chief gestured to a man standing nearby, he quickly checked Gayul’s condition.

Gayul was snoring with his eyes closed.

“It seems he turned over in his sleep.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

The Village Chief cleared his throat and focused everyone’s attention again.

“Our lord ordered us to kill the Dragon Emperor’s Bride immediately upon finding her, but wouldn’t it be a bit wasteful to just kill her like this? There’s a reason we used sleeping pills instead of poison, heh heh.”

“Yes? What do you mean…?”

“We’ll complete the evil magic that couldn’t be finished 20 years ago. Killing her can be done after that. Move the Dragon Emperor’s Bride to the altar.”

“Yes, Village Chief.”

It was when the villagers approached to move Soya according to the Village Chief’s instructions.

Grab!

“Cotton Ball, snore snore…”

Gayul grabbed Soya tightly with both arms while talking in his sleep.

The villagers tried to pry Gayul away from Soya, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t separate them.

“Since he’s a White Tiger beastman, his grip strength is too strong. It’s hard to believe he’s actually sleeping.”

“He won’t budge no matter how we try to pry him off. What should we do?”

“Could he possibly be awake…?”

“Chicken skewers, meat dumplings, strawberry rice cakes, snore snore…”

When they looked at him with suspicious eyes, Gayul continued his sleep talking, mumbling the names of various foods.

“…He ate the most during dinner and wasted our food supplies, and even his sleeping habits are strange.”

The Village Chief looked at Gayul, who had become one lump with Soya, with a troubled expression.

“We don’t have time, so just move them together.”

“Yes, Village Chief.”

In the end, it took four strong men to lift Soya and Gayul together.

The Village Chief instructed some villagers to tie up and watch the White Tiger Family members, then headed somewhere.

It was the very suspicious warehouse that Soya had discovered with Heuksa during the day.

The Village Chief placed his hand on the lock and muttered something.

Then black energy flowed out through his palm…

Rumble—!

The lock crumbled to pieces, and as the door opened wide, the thick scent of evil magic spread out, enough to engulf the village.

The villagers entered inside and placed Soya and Gayul on the altar.

“What should we do about the White Tiger Family’s third son? It seems he’s completed his second growth stage…”

A villager looked at Gayul, who was still snoring loudly, with an exasperated expression and asked.

“If we cast evil magic on a beastman who has completed second growth, we won’t be able to steal his abilities and will only corrupt his spirit core, right? Just like what happened with the Former Empress.”

“It would be a waste of a valuable test subject with a sturdy body, but since he won’t come off, there’s no choice. Prepare the ritual as is.”

“Yes, Village Chief.”

It was when they were busily moving to prepare the ritual.

“So right now, you brought me here to steal my abilities using forbidden evil magic?”

At the clear voice coming from the altar, the Village Chief was startled and turned around.

“Wh-what…!”

Soya, who had definitely been asleep, was sitting up perfectly fine, staring straight at them.

“Are you people evil magic users from the Northern Lands?”

“What’s going on…? We clearly saw her fall asleep after eating the sleeping pills…”

“Ah, if it was the food you provided, I purified it right after confirming you had put sleeping pills in it.”

Soya smiled coldly and produced red light from her palm.

It was the Vermillion Bird Heavenly Lady’s purification ability.

“The Vermillion Bird Heavenly Lady’s power cleanses everything that’s contaminated.”

The food they provided felt a bit unsettling, but when she was wondering what they might have done to it.

[I’ll check it.]

[Gaya, it’s dangerous…!]

Soya tried to stop him, but Gaya had already taken a big bite of the meat on the table.

[It’s okay. Somsomi will save me anyway.]

After seeing Gaya collapse and fall asleep during the meal, everyone guessed what had been put in the food.

“Th-then, the people who were sleeping…”

“Of course they were pretending to sleep. They’re probably all awake by now dealing with your group.”

She was a bit flustered by Gayul’s unexpected action of pretending to talk in his sleep while holding onto Soya, but they managed to deceive them successfully.

“Th-that’s…!”

The Village Chief’s fingertips trembled, then his eyes gleamed brightly as he shouted.

“Magnificent! To think divine beast power could be used in such a way!”

Deep greed dwelt in his brightly shining eyes.

“That ability will be mine…!”

“Not a chance!”

With a resounding voice, a large tiger pounced on the Village Chief.

“Kuh, kuhk…!”

“Grrrowl…!”

Gayul pressed down on the collapsed Village Chief’s head with his front paw and roared.

“Ah, ahhh! It’s a tiger!”

The evil magic users from the Northern Lands, who had never seen tigers, were terrified by Gayul’s roar and ran away.

However, some of them fainted on the spot when the large tiger’s shadow immediately pounced on them.

They were people whose natural physical strength wasn’t strong enough, relying on the wicked power of evil magic.

Even without Soya joining in, the evil magic users were blown away by Gayul’s attacks like autumn leaves in the wind.

The situation was resolved in the blink of an eye.

“Wow, our Young Master handled that very cleanly!”

Su Ri, who had somehow followed them, admired while tying up the people who had been knocked down by Gayul with rope.

“Cotton Ball, are you okay?”

“Elder Brother, there should be someone behind the altar. Please check.”

“Yeah, just trust me!”

Soya asked Gayul to handle the cleanup and then approached the village chief.

“I have something I’m curious about. If the Former Empress truly was the last Shield Bearer of the Black Tortoise Clan.”

The Shield Bearer of the Black Tortoise Clan that Soya had seen was clearly in a state of being afflicted by evil magic.

“Did you people do the same thing to her that you just tried to do to me?”

But how could they have used such terrible evil magic on the Empress who would have been in the Imperial Palace?

Unless they had backing from somewhere else.

“…The dead Former Emperor didn’t want the Dragon Emperor’s Bride to awaken the divine beasts according to the oracle’s contents and become stronger than himself.”

The village chief who had been glaring at Soya slowly began to speak.

“So twenty years ago, he joined hands with our sasu-sa to steal the power contained in the Empress’s spirit core.”

“…!”

Soya’s face instantly hardened with shock.

The Former Emperor – wasn’t that Irim’s biological father?

“If the evil magic succeeded, it would be an opportunity to steal the Empress’s special ability and make it ours, so we had no reason not to accept the Former Emperor’s proposal.”

The village chief spoke with a wistful expression as if recounting pleasant old memories.

“In the end, the evil magic failed, but it wasn’t a bad experience. If we had known from the start that we couldn’t steal the special abilities of beastmen who had completed their second growth stage, we wouldn’t have wasted our efforts, tsk.”

“You’re saying it wasn’t Hyeon Rabaek who made the Former Empress that way… but the Former Emperor?”

Unable to believe it at all, Soya’s eyes trembled violently.

“Hyeon Rabaek? Oh my, you didn’t know at all. Well, it was a story that only circulated within the Northern Lands.”

When his name came up, the village chief snorted derisively.

“The Former Emperor forcibly took a woman from the Brocade Snake Tribe who had been in marriage talks with the head of the Black Tortoise Clan, brought her to the Imperial Palace, and made her his empress. After the Empress died and Hyeon Rabaek harbored resentment against the Imperial Family, he cut off the remaining direct bloodline with his own hands and awakened the ancient evil that had been sealed.”

“…!”

“It was truly regrettable. Because our actions with the Former Emperor became known to Hyeon Rabaek and earned his wrath, even though the evil had awakened, we couldn’t serve it as our master and had to hide.”

The village chief muttered that it was fortunate they had at least stolen the sealing ability of the Black Serpent Tribe.

Thanks to the sealing ability, they were able to hide the village from Hyeon Rabaek.

Otherwise, that madman would have killed them all just as he had cut off the Black Tortoise Clan’s bloodline with his own hands.

“…Then.”

Soya, who had been looking at the village chief with a shocked face, clenched her fists tightly and asked.

“Then, does His Majesty also know about this?”

“The current Emperor captured our sasu-sa who had been coming and going from the Imperial Palace as soon as he usurped the throne, so there’s no way he wouldn’t know.”

“…”

“It was done in utmost secrecy, so I don’t know how he found out, but it was truly regrettable. If only the Former Emperor hadn’t died, we had planned to gather the daughters of various families who would become the next Dragon Emperor’s Bride in the Imperial Palace and repeat the same thing.”

“How could you do such a thing…!”

Soya was enraged by their behavior of having no qualms about sacrificing innocent people.

“But you’re already under the most lonely and ancient curse.”

The village chief looked at Soya and muttered as if finding it fascinating.

“What did you say…?”

“Evil magic is originally a technique that draws upon the power of evil. But your soul has a curse carved into it that is condensed from the very power of evil itself.”

“What does that mean…”

That was the moment.

Screech—

Screech—

Screeech—

Along with a chilling sound like something being scraped away,

“You will be abandoned by the person you love most.”

A resentful curse filled with malice scraped against Soya’s eardrums.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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