The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Merchant Group - Chapter 286

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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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The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 286

Chapter 286. Bold Investment (4)

I bit my lip.
This nauseating aura was unmistakably that of the Black Path.
Since this was the Hebei Peng Clan, one of the prestigious orthodox sects, all the auras here should be righteous.
So why did I sense this repulsive Black Path energy?
I began searching for the source of that aura.
“….”
My gaze turned toward a man.
“Is something the matter?”
At Peng So-hyup’s—or rather, the Small Patriarch’s—question, I smiled and shook my head.
“Nothing at all. But… do you know who that man is? He appears to be acquainted with Peng Wen.”
“Ah….”
He nodded.
“You’re right, Eun Small Merchant Leader. That man is one of Uncle’s aides. He wasn’t visible when we returned to the Main House, so it seems he was away somewhere.”
In that instant, what I had found unclear suddenly became comprehensible.
The Elder Son, who had been the Small Patriarch, was first-rate in ability. Given his talent, reaching the peak realm was impossible.
In my previous life, Peng Wen only ascended to the peak realm. For a prestigious family like the Hebei Peng Clan, one should reach the transcendent realm to truly stand as House Master.
Moreover, it wasn’t just his martial prowess that was lacking—his grasp of situations was also poor.
No matter how plausible my plans were or how well I executed them, any man with even a modicum of intelligence wouldn’t have rushed into the inn so recklessly.
In my previous life, his actions after becoming House Master were nothing but incomprehensible.
Even accounting for the Hebei Peng Clan not being particularly brilliant, it was excessively severe.
Then how could such a man drive out his own brother?
And how could he employ assassins to target his nephew’s life, ultimately succeed, and become House Master?
The most likely explanation was that he had a capable aide playing the role of strategist beside him, and everything collapsed rapidly after that person left.
That aide was surely this man.
Then the question that arose here was singular.
Why did that aide do such a thing?
Could it be that his purpose was to weaken or destroy the Peng Family’s power?
Unless the Peng Family had become his enemy, it would be difficult to accomplish such a thing.
But I soon shook my head.
Why complicate matters with speculation? I could simply capture him and ask.
.
.
.
Two days had passed since the sentence on Peng Wen was carried out.
He was whipped repeatedly until the pain made him lose consciousness, but they splashed water to revive him and completed all two hundred lashes.
Then they severed his right hand.
If they sealed his dantian in this state, his inner energy would dissipate and the shock could prove fatal, so the sealing was scheduled to proceed a fortnight later.
For now, Peng Wen was confined to a small separate pavilion.
That would be his dwelling place going forward.
Meanwhile, his original quarters were undergoing extensive renovation. The House Master had issued orders to erase every trace of Peng Wen.
Once the construction was complete, Peng Kang-un Minor Patriarch would move in.
Though Peng Wen had plummeted from his position as Minor Patriarch in an instant and suffered such a fate, I felt little pity for him.
He had committed grave sins.
His ugly jealousy and obsession had driven his younger brother from the family and left him missing.
And his nephew had nearly died, forced to navigate countless perils and brushes with death.
In my previous life, he had ultimately lost his life.
Considering the suffering they endured, I could not call two hundred lashes and the loss of a hand painful.
Moreover, in my past life, countless members of other families had died meaninglessly because of Peng Wen.
Now that I thought about it, even the House Master’s death seemed suspicious.
While I was lost in such thoughts, Yeo Eung-am Warrior entered my room urgently.
“My lord!”
“What has happened to him?”
Jin Yu Warrior and he had been under my orders to surveil the man from whom we had sensed the Black Path’s aura earlier.
He was someone named Chu Seon who had entered the Peng Family twenty years ago, worked as a servant, and was promoted to attendant after catching Peng Wen’s eye.
I had suspected he would soon show suspicious movements, so I ordered him watched, and it seemed my premonition was correct.
“An emergency, my lord!”
“An emergency?”
“He has escaped the separate pavilion.”
Merely escaping the pavilion would not warrant such urgency.
“But before he left the pavilion, he gave tea to the warriors who were guarding the area.”
Yeo Eung-am Warrior’s report continued.
“So we secretly obtained the tea and examined it, only to find it contained a sleeping draught.”
“What?”

* * *

Chu Seon moved with urgency, cursing Peng Wen in his mind.
‘That stupid bastard! Can’t even eat when it’s spoon-fed to him! This worthless piece of trash! A cursed wretch with nothing but bloodline to his name!’
His curses grew increasingly vicious.
And no wonder—he had endured for twenty years for this moment.
Yet it had all been ruined in a single night.
The order he had received from his superiors was simple.

“Peng Wen, make him the House Master.”

In exchange, what I was promised was a miraculous elixir.
A legendary elixir capable of elevating his martial prowess to the absolute pinnacle in a single stroke.
Having already ascended from the third-rate realm to the first-rate level with just one such elixir before, he possessed unwavering confidence in its efficacy.
Thus, he entered the Peng Family, attached himself to Peng Wen, expelled the Second Son—his greatest rival—from the clan, and successfully elevated Peng Wen to the position of Small Patriarch.
But then he encountered yet another obstacle.
The House Master discovered martial talent in Peng Kang-un, Peng Wen’s nephew, and declared that if he won the championship at the Yongbong Martial Arts Tournament, he would grant him the position of Small Patriarch.
So he hired assassins, but they suddenly destroyed themselves.
To investigate the details, he absented himself—a critical mistake.
In his absence, Peng Wen led his subordinates and committed a foolish act.
Yet he still thought it would be manageable.
Even if Peng Kang-un became Small Patriarch, he could reclaim the position.
But what possessed the House Master, he issued an order to Peng Wen: two hundred lashes of the whip, amputation of his right hand, and the sealing of his dantian.
‘He remained silent even when the Second Son was expelled. What on earth is he thinking?’
It made him wonder if the Second Son wasn’t even the House Master’s biological son.
In any case, the reason he was moving so urgently now was because orders had arrived from above.
The order was to rescue Peng Wen before his dantian was sealed.
As the Elder Son of the current House Master and former Small Patriarch, he was a figure who had directly participated in all major and minor affairs of the clan.
Thus, he still possessed considerable utility.
The problem was that sealing the dantian would be disadvantageous in many ways. Therefore, he had to be rescued before the sealing occurred.
So he waited for the right moment, and moved now that the guards had begun to relax their vigilance.
Initially, the warriors had refused the tea he offered.
But they were human, and with the cold being as bitter this year as it had been last year, they eventually accepted and drank the tea he provided.
Naturally, he hadn’t laced it with sedative from the start; he added it only when they had lowered their guard against him.
Through a secret passage he had secretly constructed over the past twenty years as a precaution, he slipped out of the Hebei Peng Family Residence.
‘It was wise to have prepared this passage.’
Then he made contact with the warriors who had been hiding nearby.
“The time has come.”
“We have been waiting.”
They were warriors provided by his superiors.
Five in total.
Few in number, but all elite first-rate warriors. They hurried after Chu Seon toward the Hebei Peng Family Residence.
They passed through the secret passage and entered, then cautiously made their way to the small separate pavilion where Peng Wen was confined.
The reason he brought them along was that Peng Wen’s frame was so large he could not pass through the secret passage.
Thus, they would have to scale the wall.
Peng Wen was also a martial artist, so scaling a wall would normally be easy, but the Peng Family’s walls were extraordinarily high.
Moreover, with his right hand gone and still suffering from the aftereffects of the whipping, he needed the assistance of the other warriors.
Should they be discovered while escaping, they would also need to buy time.

The Warriors guarding the Separate Pavilion were asleep.
“Are you truly certain about this?”
“I used a rather potent sedative, so they’ll sleep for at least half a day.”
Chu Seon then opened the door and stepped inside.
Peng Wen, who had been drinking to dull his pain just moments before, sat quietly before the table.
“Master, I shall escort you outside.”
“Have they arrived—the ones you spoke of?”
“Yes, they have.”
“Very well, let us depart.”
Peng Wen rose from his seat, bundle already prepared in hand, and left the Separate Pavilion without hesitation.
This was the family that had abandoned him.
So it was only fitting that he abandon this family in turn.
‘Just wait and see! I shall never forget what I do this day, Father.’
After leaving the Separate Pavilion, they reached a stone wall suitable for scaling.
“Where do you hurry off to with such haste?”
At the unexpected voice, they froze.
“What! You?”
“Uncle, if I’m not mistaken, you were forbidden from leaving the Separate Pavilion, were you not?”
The figure who appeared before them was Peng Kang-un.
The newly appointed Minor Patriarch, and Peng Wen’s own nephew.
“And these individuals beside you—I’ve never seen Warriors from our Peng Family before. They don’t appear to be ours at all, do they? Perhaps you should return to the Separate Pavilion.”
Peng Wen’s face twisted, and he spat out his words like venom.
“Silence! This is all because of you, you wretched boy!”
“Why would it be because of me? All of this is of your own making, Uncle.”
“No! You should never have been born!”
His eyes blazed with murderous intent.
“How fortunate that we meet here. Today I shall kill you!”
He turned to the Warriors beside him.
“If you kill this boy, I shall reveal the location of treasures I have hidden away.”
The Warriors looked toward Chu Seon.
Chu Seon assessed the situation. Peng Kang-un had but a single Guard.
Yet that unnervingly calm demeanor troubled him.
‘Is he relying on that one Guard?’
Then Chu Seon’s eyes caught sight of Peng Kang-un’s trembling hands.
A smile curved Chu Seon’s lips.
There were only the two of them. He was merely feigning composure.
And since matters had come to this, killing Peng Kang-un here would be most advantageous.
He nodded his head.
At his approval, five Warriors stepped forward.
It was then.
“This is… didn’t I make myself perfectly clear? I said I would never forgive anyone who tried to harm Kang Un-i.”
“…!”
At that voice, Peng Wen and Chu Seon went rigid as stone.
Because that voice was….
The voice of House Master Peng Jin-song.
Thud, thud, thud.
They swallowed hard, their bodies tense as they watched Peng Jin-song approach slowly.
He regarded Peng Wen with a complicated expression and asked.
“Wen. Those Black Path scoundrels reeking of villainy beside you—did you bring them here yourself?”
“….”
“You should answer.”
His tone was almost gentle. Yet there was no gentleness in his voice at all.
Trembling, Peng Wen collapsed to the ground.
“F-Father. That is….”
“You should answer.”
Peng Wen clenched his teeth, and as if steeling his resolve, he cried out.
“Yes! I was trying to leave this house! Since this family abandoned me, my abandoning this family is….”
But he could not finish his words.
Something grazed past his face and flew away.
Turning slowly to look behind, a dagger was embedded in the stone wall.
Blood dripped.
And blood flowed along the wound that had opened on his face.
“How long! How much longer! Must I tolerate you!”
Peng Jin-song rebuked him sharply.
“Even when you drove out your Second Brother so mercilessly, I turned a blind eye. Because you are my son, and he is my son as well. And I thought you would come to regret this. But you have not.”
“….”
“Now you would harm your own cousin… even beasts would not sink so low.”
Peng Jin-song exhaled deeply, then laughed with hollow resignation.
“Ha ha ha! Yes, let us end this now.”
Then he issued a command into the empty air.
“Throw them into the Underground Dungeon.”
Before his words had even finished, Warriors came rushing from the surroundings and prostrated themselves, crying out.
“We obey your command.”
Peng Jin-song glanced at Peng Wen and spoke.
“Take that one to the Dungeon as well. There are no exceptions.”

* * *

I decided to leave the Peng Family Residence today.
Last night, Peng Wen made a foolish choice.
While keeping watch over him, I noticed suspicious movements and quickly reported them to Peng Kang-un Minor Patriarch.
It was an opportunity to elevate his standing.
And I also informed the House Master of this fact. After all, the final decision rested with him.
The House Master came rushing over immediately.
As a result, Peng Wen was thrown not into the Separate Pavilion, but into the Underground Dungeon.
And everyone who had been with him was also thrown into the Underground Dungeon, where they were currently being interrogated.
The House Master himself sensed something suspicious about Peng Wen acting alongside Black Path Warriors.
The full details of this incident would come to light soon enough.
Now that I’ve done all I can, it’s time to leave the Peng Family Residence.
Besides, I have a mountain of accumulated work waiting for me.
I need to resume the construction project of the Merchant Guild’s Beijing Branch, and I must report various matters to the Emperor, including the sales performance of the fire-breathing devices.
And….
Sigh, just thinking about it makes my head spin.
At that moment, Palgap entered the room and spoke.
“Young Master, there’s someone outside to see you.”
Hmm? Who could it be?

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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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