The Youngest Son of the Nanyang Jin Family - Chapter 369

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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 Jin Family of Luoyang – Chapter 369

Whoooosh—
A breeze swept through, carrying the fragrance of plum blossoms in abundance.
Yet something was amiss.
Though I had passed through the Black Plum Forest and not a single blossom remained in sight, the scent that pierced the nostrils was so potent it induced headaches and made breathing itself a struggle.
Heo Baek, walking through such a place, surveyed his surroundings through the eye slits of his mask.
“So a place like this truly exists.”
Beyond the Black Plum Forest, somewhere in this desolate expanse.
Heo Baek’s pace carried an unmistakable excitement—not merely from the exquisite landscape unfolding before him, but from the opportunity to unearth secrets that had slumbered for over a thousand years.
His anticipation was not his alone.
The subordinates accompanying him and even the Demon Sect disciples shared in it.
They could barely contain their excitement at the prospect of uncovering hidden secrets that countless others had failed to discover despite a thousand years of searching.
The Demon Sect disciples were intoxicated with hope, while Heo Baek wore a deep smile, contemplating what awaited him in this place.
But then, unexpected news pierced his ears.
-Leader, it is Jin Cheon-u.
The sudden transmission halted Heo Baek’s footsteps.
His eyes sank to their darkest depths.
“So, another trial is bestowed upon me?”
Heo Baek closed his eyes slowly, thinking of Gwanbaek.
The fact that Jin Cheon-u, who should have known nothing, had entered Sichuan and moved to this place meant only one thing—the Divine had intervened.
The Divine ceaselessly presents trials.
As if commanding one to endure them, overcome them, and rise above.
Gwanbaek’s eyes opened slowly, and his lips parted.
“What are they doing?”
“Qingcheng and Emei… and even the Dang Family have gathered together and entered through Guihua Valley.”
The colossal orthodox sects that sustained Sichuan.
Their names alone were formidable enough to make one tremble, yet to Heo Baek, such renown meant nothing.
Rather, Jin Cheon-u.
These three characters carried far greater weight than those three organizations combined.
“A truly tiresome karmic entanglement.”
Heo Baek laughed hollowly and shook his head.
There had been countless opportunities to nip the bud.
Gwanbaek’s gaze had always been fixed upon Jin Cheon-u, and had he willed it then—in the Eastern Four Families or even before—he could have crushed him without hesitation.
But that wretch had survived death’s threshold countless times and had now grown into an existence even I could not easily touch.
Heo Baek clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow.
“Send the Demon Sect forward. In the meantime, we shall secure the object.”
“Yes!”
Heo Baek’s pace quickened as he moved ahead.
A Demon Sect Disciple’s strength would be sufficient to restrain the Dang family, Cheong Seong, or Ami, but it was clear they wouldn’t last long once Jin Cheon-u stepped in.
I had to complete my objective quickly before that happened.
It was the moment Heo Baek’s mind grew impatient.
It was the moment when Heo Baek’s heart grew impatient.

* * *

The landscape was so overwhelmingly magnificent that anyone would have gasped in awe.
This wasn’t unique to us alone.
Ami, Cheong Seong, and even the Dang family—all of them.
The deeper we ventured, the more breathtaking the vista became, leaving them speechless as they turned their eyes in all directions, drinking in the sprawling panorama.
As if they wished to remember it until their dying breath.
“Wow, this is incredible.”
“Indeed.”
“Aren’t you amazed?”
Chaeseoha stared directly at me and asked.
It was because of my lukewarm response despite witnessing such a sight.
“The noise is unbearable. More irritating than the scenery itself.”
Screeeeeee—!
In that instant, a violent gust swept through again, emitting an eerie shriek.
The moment it reached my ears, it felt as though my eardrums would burst. I quickly covered Chaeseoha’s ears and furrowed my brow.
“See?”
“If only the sound didn’t exist, this would be a place I’d want to remember until death itself.”
Chaeseoha also seemed displeased with the piercing wail, her brow remaining furrowed as she muttered.
She wasn’t the only one suffering from the noise.
The others around us covered their ears as well.
“This truly is the gate of hell.”
“Ha, ha-ha— I’m, I’m right, aren’t I?”
Just then, Yeon-un approached with an awkward expression.
With Haryeon, both of them covering their ears, he trembled as if seized by chills and clicked his tongue.
“If we were trapped here, we’d go mad before we starved to death. Ha— this is truly a place I never wish to visit again.”
That’s why people rarely sought this place out.
No matter how captivated one became by the beautiful scenery, it wouldn’t take long before the ear-splitting wind would terrify them. Those with weak spirits might lose their minds from the wind sound alone.
If it was like this in broad daylight, what would the night be like?
I shook my head and looked forward.
“We’re almost there.”
In that moment, the seemingly endless canyon finally came to an end.
The instant we stepped from the narrow passage into the vast open plain.
The people once again held their breath at the sight that unfolded before their eyes.
People held their breath once again at the sight unfolding before their eyes.
Whoooosh—
A wind unlike anything before.
And so I couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment for an entirely different reason.
Flowers surrounded us on all sides.
And not ordinary ones—black plum blossoms.
Though it was not the season for plum blossoms to bloom, these flowers bloomed in full splendor, releasing an intensely pungent fragrance.
“Ugh!?”
“Gah!”
From all around came the sound of people holding their breath and covering their noses.
The acrid stench pierced not merely the nostrils but invaded the very mind itself, causing even Myeong-suk and Dang Cheon-ro to furrow their brows.
“This… this place is….”
Chaeseoha, her nose covered, spoke in a nasalized voice as she asked. Her eyes fixed intently on the black plum blossoms before she carefully approached and plucked one of the flowers.
“Plum blossoms….”
“This is the Black Plum Forest. A sight you can only witness in Sichuan.”
Black plum blossoms that bloom year-round.
A place that ceaselessly releases their intense fragrance.
Chaeseoha, who had taken a step forward, suddenly stopped and looked down.
“B-bones?”
Beneath her feet lay a skeleton.
The clothes it wore had long since decayed away, leaving only bleached bones scattered across the ground.
I furrowed my brows and approached to examine it.
“Someone driven mad by the flower’s fragrance.”
“At this intensity… it does seem possible.”
Even with her nose pinched shut, the scent penetrated relentlessly, causing Chaeseoha to furrow her brows. The fragrance was so potent that even the mentally sound could scarcely endure it—those without such fortitude could only succumb to madness.
“Circulate your inner energy to endure it. If you breathe deeply, you’ll die.”
At my words, Namgung Yeon, Seol Ha-yeon, and Yeon-un nodded in acknowledgment.
Chaeseoha hastily withdrew cloth from her robes and covered both her and Haryeon’s mouths and noses.
While this method wouldn’t be as effective as using inner energy, if I simply regulated their vital essence from beside them, they would be spared from descending into fatal madness.
I turned my gaze toward Dang Cheon-ro.
He surveyed the Black Plum Forest with a single glance, his brows furrowed, and I could see him speaking to Myeong Jeong and Cheong Do-sang.
“Look at this. Footprints.”
The moment he discovered the faint traces on the ground.
The expressions of all three men grew grave.
Extremely faint, yet unmistakably real.
All other traces had been erased, leaving only a single mark—one that appeared to have been overlooked in the erasure.
From this, one thing became clear.
Someone had ventured into the Black Plum Forest.
Whether it was a single person or multiple individuals remained unknown, but their suspicions had proven correct.
“It seems certain that someone is here.”
Dang Cheon-ro’s sharp gaze swept across the Black Plum Forest.
I couldn’t see where those who had entered were located at all.
All that caught my eye were the countless black plum blossoms blooming across the vast landscape.
Literally, a black plum forest.
Finding people among the densely blooming plum blossoms that covered all directions seemed far from easy.
That was when it happened.
I could see Haryeon breaking off black plum blossoms alongside Chaeseoha, and after briefly observing the flower petals held in the child’s hand, I turned my gaze away.
“This way.”
“Hmm? How did you know?”
“If we head toward where the most petals have fallen, it should lead us in the right direction.”
“Haha! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Traces are not limited to mere footprints alone.
If many people had moved through here, the petals would surely have been disturbed.
Moreover, those who brushed past would leave their own marks, and each of these details becomes a trace left behind.
More importantly, since our quarry didn’t even suspect they were being pursued, there would have been some carelessness on their part.
Thus we moved swiftly, carefully observing our surroundings.
We continued forward toward where the petals had fallen most densely. Before long, the trees bearing black plum blossoms grew even more densely packed around us, so much so that they obscured even the sky.
This was why the surroundings grew progressively darker.
In that moment, I turned my gaze.
“Right!”
At my sudden shout, Dang Cheon-ro at the front turned his head, and simultaneously a sword cut through the black plum blossoms, aimed at his head.
A perfect ambush.
Dang Cheon-ro hastily extended his arm to deflect it, but the sword flew faster and sought to pierce through his brow.
However.
Clang!
Myeong Jeong’s sword, swung from behind, knocked it away.
Simultaneously, the black-robed figure who revealed themselves gasped and retreated, and Cheong Do-sang’s sword, unwilling to miss the opening, pursued them fiercely.
Slash!
The sword felled several plum trees, but the black-robed figure had already vanished into the darkness.
“Dark Form Demon Cloud Step!”
“Formless Twenty-Four! How is this possible!”
The Dark Form Demon Cloud Step was an organization directly under the Sect Leader, known as Formless Twenty-Four.
Within the Dark Sect, they were the unit that handled covert operations—and while their martial prowess was formidable, they were specialists in ambush and concealment, making them adversaries one would rather not face in a place like this.
“So they really are from the Dark Sect! These bastards!”
Screech!
Cheong Do-sang, his expression fierce, gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
The powerful energy gathered in it swept across the surroundings in an instant.
It seemed he intended to fell every tree hiding them and expose them all.
And indeed.
A dozen or so trees fell helplessly, and from within them, those concealed leaped high into the air, scattering in all directions.
Tap tap tap!
Movements executed with unwavering precision.
Moreover, the swift and nimble yet powerful motions proved that the claim of being directly under the Sect Leader of the Dark Sect was no fabrication.
Cheong Do-sang, Ami, and the members of the Dang family turned their eyes in all directions, attempting to track them, but it was a futile effort.
Something flew through the air.
Boom, boom, boom—!
Black mist surged up from all directions, obscuring their vision. Cheong Do-sang, who hastily extended his sword and unleashed a powerful sword wind to disperse the mist, succeeded in clearing it, but completely lost track of the opponent’s presence.
“Do not scatter! You must stay together!”
“Disciples, deploy the Azure Smoke Lotus Formation!”
The voices of Myeong Jeong and Cheong Do-sang rang out loudly.
The enemy was the Dark Sect.
Though their numbers barely exceeded twenty-four, for anyone who had even heard whispers of their notorious reputation in the past, this was a situation that could not be taken lightly.
As if to prove this severity, Myeong Jeong’s expression remained furrowed and tense, while Cheong Do-sang, scanning his surroundings sharply, appeared more focused than ever.
However, the Dang family was different from them.
They were cautious, yet showed no intention of falling into the opponent’s designs. While concentrating and observing their surroundings, there was a sense that they were attempting to read the opponent’s intentions.
Was this the difference between the rulers of Sichuan?
I glanced sideways at Seol Ha-yeon.
Judging by how she focused even more intently than the others, watching three locations simultaneously, I could sense her resolve to firmly imprint anything worth learning from them into her mind.
Without realizing it, I let out a small laugh and turned my gaze toward Namgung Yeon.
“Learn from this as well.”
“Yes!”
“And… behind you.”
“…!?”
Clang—!
Before my words even finished, Namgung Yeon hastily retreated and swung her sword. At the same moment, a blade emerged from the empty air, targeting her, and the two swords clashed with a sharp, piercing sound.
Screech—!
As Namgung Yeon’s feet dragged and she was pushed back.
The black-robed figure was drawn back into the darkness once more.
However, I could not simply let them escape.
Whoosh—!
I drew my sword in an instant and cut down the black-robed figure.
Watching the bisected body fall along with blood, a small smile played at my lips.
“Now that they are enemies, there is no need for hesitation.”

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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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