The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 75

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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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Chapter 75

 

At Seolyeo’s words, Soya tried sniffing with her nose.

 

She could smell a sour scent mixed with the thick aroma of medicinal herbs.

 

“This is the smell of the Northern Lands?”

 

“Yes! It’s the smell of a demon beast from the Northern Lands!”

 

At Seolyeo’s innocent answer, Soya’s eyes widened in shock.

 

‘A demon beast…!’

 

She remembered Father’s words about how the plague spreading through the village was deliberately spread by someone with malicious intent.

 

‘That person, no, that demon beast harbored evil intentions and spread the plague.’

 

Soya recalled encountering a demon beast from the Northern Lands during the Mountain God Festival three years ago.

 

One of the Four Fiends, Chaos.

 

He was incredibly strong. So strong that even Hyeoni Elder Brother, who had transformed into a massive tiger, couldn’t defeat him.

 

‘Back then, we could only repel him with White Tiger’s help…’

 

Soya glanced at the White Tiger Sword hanging at her waist.

 

‘I need to inform Father and stop that demon beast from doing more evil.’

 

Soya called Chirpy over and whispered something to her.

 

Soon, Chirpy nodded vigorously and flew up into the air.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, the demon beast carrying the scent of the Northern Lands that Seolyeo had detected was none other than ‘Qiongqi’.

 

As one of the Four Fiends, he was carrying out orders from Hyeon Rabaek, the master of the Northern Region.

 

Three years ago, his lord had sent scarecrows extracted from his own spirit core to White Tiger Palace to investigate Chaos’s death, but was instead dealt a blow and couldn’t move properly for some time.

 

In reality, it was Tae Irim who had killed them, but Hyeon Rabaek, unaware of this fact, thought it was Baek Saeon’s doing.

 

Thus, after finally recovering his strength, Hyeon Rabaek gave orders to Qiongqi, the only one among the Four Fiends who had previously managed to deal damage to Baek Saeon.

 

Lure Baek Saeon outside White Tiger Palace and eliminate him.

 

Qiongqi deliberately left traces of himself where the Western Lands met the outskirts of the Central Region.

 

‘I succeeded in luring Baek Saeon out of White Tiger Palace as planned, but…’

 

He had faced Baek Saeon in a war long ago.

 

Consumed by the ambition to cut off that Western Lands tiger’s head and present it to his lord, he had fought against him and nearly died by his sword.

 

Only by scattering poison insects was he barely able to escape from that place and survive.

 

‘He was a vicious bastard.’

 

The sight of Baek Saeon immediately cutting away his contaminated flesh when bitten by the poison insects and then swinging his sword was as chilling as a war god risen from the Underworld.

 

If the demonic poison that later reached his spirit core hadn’t paralyzed him, he would never have been able to escape alive.

 

‘If I fight him head-on like back then, I’ll just die a dog’s death again.’

 

Although he had lured Baek Saeon this far, remembering that man who was like a war god made him unable to move rashly.

 

‘Fortunately, tonight is a night when fog covers the moon.’

 

His poison insects were affected by even the smallest light.

 

Therefore, even in the thicketed mountain, they couldn’t completely avoid sunlight and had to hide underground, only infiltrating through the fingertips of people gathering wild vegetables.

 

It wasn’t just sunlight that affected the poison insects, but moonlight as well.

 

But if the fog would cover the moon tonight. If it would just block that bright moonlight.

 

‘I have a chance of winning too.’

 

So if I can just buy time until then…

 

“Hello, mister.”

 

At the voice that suddenly came from behind, Qiongqi startled and turned around.

 

A small girl with snow-white hair was smiling brightly at him.

 

‘This child is…’

 

It was Baek Saeon’s daughter whom he had brought along.

 

‘Perfect. If I use the child, I can tie Baek Saeon’s hands and feet.’

 

Qiongqi was looking at Soya and plotting sinisterly in his mind.

 

Suddenly, Soya began sniffing around.

 

“What, what are you doing?”

 

“Mm-hmm, this is it.”

 

As he watched in bewilderment, Soya soon smiled brightly as if nothing had happened and muttered to herself.

 

“Say, mister. Have you seen my father by any chance?”

 

“Your father, you mean…”

 

“Baek Saeon, the Family Head of the White Tiger Family, is my father. I miss Father, so would you come with me to look for him?”

 

Qiongqi looked at the child speaking to him with bright, clear eyes.

 

Soon, he smiled generously and extended his hand to the child.

 

“Of course, child. I’ll take you to your father.”

 

“Wow, thank you!”

 

The child smiled brightly and took his hand.

 

All his worrying about how to lure Baek Saeon’s daughter was for nothing, as things worked out far too easily.

 

There wasn’t even a single guard in sight.

 

“A plague that contaminates people’s spirit cores sounds really scary.”

 

Qiongqi looked at the innocent child chattering away, unaware of his dark intentions, and smiled sinisterly to himself.

 

‘Hehe, good. I’ll lure this child to a secluded place and use her as a hostage against Baek Saeon…’

 

Just as he was about to lead the child down a more secluded mountain path, Soya suddenly shouted.

 

“Oh? Mister, over there! Come this way!”

 

“Wait, not that way…”

 

“Oh my? Did you see that? There was a rabbit over there!”

 

The child began running off on her own.

 

‘Damn it. This is why children are…’

 

Qiongqi chased after Soya, sweating profusely.

 

‘How does that tiny thing have so much stamina?’

 

Soya bounced up the steep uphill path without any difficulty.

 

Just like a squirrel… no, much smaller and lighter than a squirrel, yes, just like a baby bird…

 

‘What? Where did she go?’

 

Qiongqi, who had been chasing Soya, suddenly lost sight of the child at a dead end and looked around frantically.

 

“Seolyeo, now!”

 

“Grrrowl…!”

 

At the same moment Seolyeo in the form of a large wolf pounced on Qiongqi, Soya transformed into a small bird with a ‘poof!’ and flew up.

 

“Chirp, chirp!”

 

Soya flapped her wings vigorously in the air and cried out as if calling someone.

 

“Ugh, what, what is this…!”

 

Qiongqi, pinned under Seolyeo, struggled to push him away.

 

And at that moment.

 

Swoosh—

 

With the sound of cutting through the wind, wide robes fluttered.

 

“Chirp!”

 

Toward the man who appeared with his fine white hair flowing, Soya flew over with a flutter.

 

“Cotton Ball, you.”

 

It was none other than Saeon.

 

Just moments before, Saeon had been investigating the mountain with his attendants.

 

But suddenly appearing Chirpy had grabbed Saeon’s collar with her beak and pulled him.

 

When Saeon, who had recognized that the bird was the small skylark that was Soya’s friend, was confused, he heard Soya’s bird cry echoing throughout the mountain and rushed over like an arrow.

 

He had run so fast that Chirpy was panting as she chased after him.

 

“You’re not in the village, so why are you here…!”

 

“Chirp! Chirp! (Father, that man is a demon beast! Seolyeo said she smelled the scent of the Northern Lands from him!)”

 

“What?”

 

Saeon turned to look where Soya was pointing.

 

“Grr, urgh… Damn it…!”

 

Qiongqi raised his body, and the recoil pushed Seolyeo back.

 

“Seolyeo!”

 

Soya quickly released her beast transformation and approached Seolyeo to support her.

 

Taking advantage of that gap, Qiongqi tried to flee, but Saeon, who had seen through his identity, immediately blocked his path.

 

“One of the Four Fiends, Qiongqi.”

 

“Damn it, Baek Saeon…!”

 

“This time I’ll finally cut off your head.”

 

Saeon raised the corner of his mouth in a crooked smile and drew his sword.

 

Realizing there was no escape route, Qiongqi also drew his weapon and charged at Saeon.

 

Saeon chuckled softly and gracefully swung his sword, pressing Qiongqi back.

 

‘…!’

 

Soya’s eyes gradually widened as she watched.

 

She had heard countless times through Sanho and other people that Father was strong.

 

She clearly remembered the sturdy back that had saved her life in her childhood, but since coming to White Tiger Palace, she hadn’t had the chance to see his martial arts…

 

‘Amazing…!’

 

Father’s martial arts that she witnessed directly were truly strong! Incredibly strong! Really, really incredibly strong!

 

‘He’s handling that terrifying demon beast like he’s dealing with a child.’

 

Slash—

 

His long sword cut diagonally across Qiongqi’s body in a long stroke.

 

“Gr, grrrgh… Baek Saeon…”

 

Soya gulped and gripped the White Tiger Sword tightly.

 

She had previously seen Chaos, who had also worn a human shell, tear through his shell and burst out.

 

“Keeeeeeeeek!”

 

Soon, tearing through his shell, Qiongqi’s true form emerged from within.

 

It was a poison insect queen as large as a house with countless legs.

 

“Grrrrrr… Grrrr…”

 

Qiongqi’s true form, having lost its human shell, could no longer speak human language and made strange sounds.

 

Qiongqi suffered from the sunlight streaming through the thicket and trembled with its countless legs.

 

“Ugh.”

 

Saeon’s expression soured at the sight.

 

“Oh my, Father. Hurry!”

 

When Saeon didn’t immediately finish it off, Soya called out in a worried voice.

 

Saeon took a troubled deep breath and readjusted his grip on his sword.

 

“I’ll warn you in advance, this won’t be a very pleasant sight to see.”

 

Saeon said with a haggard expression.

 

“The moment I kill this thing, poison insects will come pouring out. How about you children cover your eyes and step back?”

 

“I’m going to help Father and everyone too!”

 

“Growl, growl!”

 

When Soya clenched her fists and shouted, Seolyeo also pounded the ground with her front paws beside her.

 

“Chirp chirp!”

 

Even Chirpy called out in a spirited voice.

 

At this, Saeon burst into laughter and nodded his head.

 

“Most will burn to ash in the sunlight, but some might attack people, so we need to kill them as soon as we spot them.”

 

Soon, the moment Saeon slashed Qiongqi’s true form.

 

Its body burst and hundreds of poison insects came pouring out.

 

“Chirp chirp!”

 

Chirpy got excited and started jumping around among the insects.

 

Sanho and the attendants who had followed Saeon arrived just in time and all raised their weapons to kill the poison insects.

 

Soya also stabbed the poison insects that were scurrying away with her White Tiger Sword, making ‘pop! pop!’ sounds as she killed them.

 

Seolyeo also struck down poison insects with her thick front paws beside Soya.

 

“They really are horribly ugly.”

 

Saeon’s expression grew even worse at the sight of the insect corpses.

 

It was around the time when things were gradually being cleaned up.

 

“Chirp!”

 

Chirpy, who had been excitedly jumping around beside Soya, pecked and ate one of the poison insects with her beak.

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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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