Chapter 193

Jin Ja-gang was in the middle of his afternoon training when he received word from a Qingcheng Sect disciple that Tang Ha-ran wanted to meet him at the southern mountain gate.

“In my personal opinion, she seemed very angry.”

“Angry?”

Jin Ja-gang had no idea why Tang Ha-ran would be angry. He didn’t know whether it was directed at him or someone else.

Woon-jeong found it strange.

“She must be a young lady with a lot of anger. Last time too, after sending Poison Dragon benefactor away, she stayed quiet for a while then suddenly got angry and left.”

The Qingcheng Sect disciple asked.

“Will you go? If you don’t want to, I’ll decline for you.”

Jin Ja-gang immediately thought of Dan Ryeong-gyeong spitting blood every morning at dawn. He couldn’t not go. Wiping the sweat flowing on his body and the blood seeping from burst capillaries, he answered.

“I’ll go.”

Woon-jeong tried to dissuade Jin Ja-gang.

“Will it be alright? She’s very angry…”

If a Qingcheng Sect disciple was concerned enough to try to stop him, it must not be ordinary anger.

“The fairy maiden says she’s getting better, but it looks like she’ll need at least another half year of recuperation. Even now, her internal organs are continuously damaged, so she probably has pain every day like her insides are being clawed by fingernails.”

“Ah, this is troublesome. Whether it’s medicine or food, she needs to eat well to recover, but here there’s hardly anything to eat but grass…”

Qingcheng Mountain principally doesn’t eat meat. Most Taoist sects, like Buddhist sects, are vegetarian.

At Woon-jeong’s words, the Qingcheng Sect disciple who had come to deliver the message glared at Woon-jeong. This was because he was speaking badly of Qingcheng Sect in front of an outsider. Woon-jeong had a relatively high rank because even though he was young, he was a disciple of Taoist Bok-cheon, who was like a senior brother to the sect leader. Still, realizing he had spoken wrongly, he noticed the look and closed his mouth.

“It should be fine. And I have a debt to Young Lady Tang, so I have no choice but to go because of that.”

The debt Jin Ja-gang owed to Tang Ha-ran was incurred because of Woon-jeong. The debt from eating the Clear Blood Gland Snake was considered settled, but he owed a debt for her agreeing to hold back Woon-jeong who was pursuing him.

Woon-jeong smiled awkwardly.

“Primordial Heavenly Venerable. The connection from that time has now become the opposite… truly, connections are mysterious things that cannot be predicted or rashly judged.”

* * *

Tang Ha-ran…

Wanted to become an empress.

In the Tang family where descendants were precious, even women could become family heads and take on great enterprises if they had ability. The current Tang family head was also Tang Ha-ran’s great-aunt, and though she was now overshadowed by Tang Qing’s presence, she was still nominally the family head representing the Tang family to the outside world.

Therefore, Tang Ha-ran had also dreamed since childhood of making the Tang family into the greatest family in the martial world with her own hands.

When she grew up and realized her abilities were insufficient for that, Tang Ha-ran was briefly in despair. However, if she couldn’t do it herself, she could achieve her dream through her husband.

If she assisted her husband and spread the Tang family’s name throughout the world, wouldn’t that also be fulfilling her dream!

Establish the Great Tang Sect of Sichuan!

The lofty goal that anyone with Tang family blood would dream of.

Tang Ha-ran wanted to definitely achieve that dream with her own hands.

But…

Grandfather Tang Qing, who knew this better than anyone, had entrusted Tang Ha-ran to Mang Ryo.

Tang Ha-ran’s teeth chattered when she thought of the humiliation she had suffered from Mang Ryo. She couldn’t bear the unbearable anger of having her position reversed with someone she had looked down on and despised.

Occasionally, Tang family daughters had to make unwanted marriages for political reasons or to continue the family line… but no matter what, this wasn’t right. How could he entrust all authority over her marriage to someone like Mang Ryo, who was no different from a street thug?

Mang Ryo had even treated Tang Ha-ran like a consumable and threatened to marry her off to a leper if she didn’t obey.

In the Tang family, the King of Hell Plaque meant Tang Qing’s will, and Tang Qing’s will was the Tang family’s will.

It was something Tang Ha-ran absolutely could not go against.

But she had to find a way.

She couldn’t just fall for Mang Ryo’s schemes and marry Poison Dragon, who was as rootless as Mang Ryo… Tang Ha-ran waited for Jin Ja-gang while forcibly suppressing her killing intent.

Soon a Qingcheng Sect disciple and Jin Ja-gang appeared together. Jin Ja-gang was walking with a slight limp.

Even that displeased her.

Jin Ja-gang had clean enough looks to be mistaken for a woman, but that was all – he had a pathetically peaceful expression and eyes.

Moreover, he didn’t possess the background and powerful martial arts that Tang Ha-ran wanted.

He was fundamentally unqualified to contain Tang Ha-ran’s ambitions.

Grind, grind.

Tang Ha-ran ground her teeth while glaring at Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang noticed Tang Ha-ran’s killing intent but didn’t show it and greeted her.

“Thank you for before.”

Tang Ha-ran glared at Jin Ja-gang without answering. Her killing intent gradually intensified.

“Ah, Young Lady Tang Ha-ran. If you do this here…”

Tang Ha-ran suddenly raised one corner of her mouth in a smile.

“I want to have a martial contest with Poison Dragon… That much should be acceptable, right?”

It was a sudden suggestion.

The Qingcheng Sect disciple tried to stop her.

“Having a martial contest with such killing intent on Qingcheng Mountain is difficult to permit.”

“Didn’t you only take issue with killing intent inside the mountain gates? Are you going to interfere even outside?”

The Qingcheng Sect disciple said firmly.

“Saying you’ll harm a guest our sect has agreed to protect right at our doorstep – are you speaking seriously?”

“You accepted a major figure of the evil faction as a guest? Ah, so that’s what Qingcheng Sect’s hospitality means.”

The Qingcheng Sect disciple’s face reddened. The evil faction is the enemy of the Martial Arts Alliance. Moreover, if you connect Qingcheng Sect, which hasn’t even joined the Martial Arts Alliance, with the evil faction, it becomes very troublesome for Qingcheng Sect.

“Primordial Heavenly Venerable! This disciple doesn’t mean that…”

Then Taoist Bok-cheon appeared.

“I’ll handle this.”

Taoist Bok-cheon was holding an ordinary iron sword behind his back as he walked leisurely down the mountain path. It seemed like a relaxed gait, but in the blink of an eye he was already in front of them.

“Strictly speaking, they’re not guests but people temporarily taking shelter. Since they came with serious injuries, it’s human nature to care for them briefly out of old sentiment.”

“Aren’t those taking shelter guests?”

“Qingcheng doesn’t have the generosity to treat unwelcome travelers as guests. In that sense, you’re not a guest either.”

Taoist Bok-cheon smiled slightly as he spoke.

“Did you come to urge me to keep my promise?”

“That’s right…”

Tang Ha-ran started to speak then closed her mouth. What she was thinking of was her promise with Jin Ja-gang, but the promise Taoist Bok-cheon had made was to oversee a wedding ceremony.

The promise Taoist Bok-cheon mentioned was the latter.

Tang Ha-ran frowned.

“Isn’t joking going too far in the current situation?”

“Joking? I clearly confirmed it last time.”

“I have no interest in the Taoist’s disciple!”

“I already heard that then.”

Tang Ha-ran’s face flushed red.

Taoist Bok-cheon looked at the carriage and asked Tang Ha-ran.

Whether the Tang family was interested in his disciple. Naturally Tang Ha-ran had answered that she wasn’t interested.

Then only Bian Bu and Jin Ja-gang remained in the carriage.

Naturally it wouldn’t be the older Bian Bu, so who would be left?

Tang Ha-ran looked at Taoist Bok-cheon in confusion.

What on earth was Taoist Bok-cheon talking about!

But Taoist Bok-cheon looked at Tang Ha-ran with a calm face and said.

“Having lived uselessly long in this world, I end up seeing things I shouldn’t see, knowing things I shouldn’t know, and learning things I don’t want to know. Let me say just one thing.”

She didn’t want to hear it. But Tang Ha-ran couldn’t help but listen, curious about what he would say.

Taoist Bok-cheon spoke to Tang Ha-ran in a low, admonishing tone.

“Don’t do things you’ll regret. If you must do them, then don’t regret them either.”

Tang Ha-ran found Taoist Bok-cheon’s words extremely irritating for some reason.

“That will absolutely never happen. Qingcheng interferes too much even in places outside your own territory. Do you intervene even in simple martial contests between disciples?”

Taoist Bok-cheon slowly shook his head.

“Call it an old man’s worry. But I cannot agree to killing in any form. Whether it’s our territory or not, I can’t just watch and ignore someone trying to harm people before my eyes. And…”

Taoist Bok-cheon looked back at Jin Ja-gang.

“Did you agree to the martial contest?”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Tang Ha-ran, who was still emanating hostility and killing intent toward him, and said.

“I never agreed. But I do have one debt to Young Lady Tang. If she asks me to repay that debt, I would have to enter the contest.”

Taoist Bok-cheon’s face frowned slightly.

“Debt is a very bad word in the martial world. That was rash.”

“I couldn’t defeat Taoist Woon-jeong, so I received Young Lady Tang’s help.”

“…”

Even the great Taoist Bok-cheon was momentarily flustered when Woon-jeong’s story came up.

Taoist Bok-cheon let out a very long sigh.

Woon-jeong had been given the easy task of monitoring Jin Ja-gang’s departure from Dayi. It was something sent to let him gain outside experience.

But not only did he help Jin Ja-gang attack an Emei Sect master, he brought the evil faction’s matriarch Dan Ryeong-gyeong to Qingcheng Sect… In that short time, he had caused every possible incident.

“This too is karma, and a connection that the Heavenly Venerable watches over.”

Taoist Bok-cheon seemed to have nothing more to say.

“If both sides agree to the martial contest, I’ll serve as witness.”

Tang Ha-ran pointed at Jin Ja-gang.

“Hurry up and agree.”

Jin Ja-gang had both goodwill and puzzlement toward Tang Ha-ran. However, having incurred a debt, he thought he should repay it.

“Will this repay the debt?”

“No.”

Tang Ha-ran showed a small medicine bottle.

“You can only get this antidote if you defeat me.”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Tang Ha-ran for a moment, then asked Taoist Bok-cheon.

“How should the martial contest be conducted?”

“There are no special rules. Whether rules or conditions for the contest, it just needs agreement between both parties.”

“What happens if someone gets hurt?”

“Naturally you might get hurt or even die. But the essence of martial contests is competing in each other’s martial arts. It’s proper etiquette to stop at an appropriate point rather than taking lives.”

Tang Ha-ran shouted.

“No limits! Wouldn’t that be more convenient for you too?”

Taoist Bok-cheon’s brow furrowed. He was about to say something when suddenly a chilling energy emanated from beside him.

Jin Ja-gang was gradually revealing the emotions he had been suppressing as he focused on Tang Ha-ran.

“That would be better. I don’t really know what an ‘appropriate point’ means either.”

Tang Ha-ran let out a scoffing laugh as if incredulous.

“Ha, do you think you’ll be a match for me?”

“No. You’re an opponent I can’t win against by holding back.”

Tang Ha-ran was struck speechless as if caught off guard.

“And yet you’ll attack me? Without even asking for any reason?”

“Didn’t Young Lady just say so? To receive the antidote.”

Tang Ha-ran felt a surge of emotion and anger rose again. Even though she was emotionally causing a disturbance, Jin Ja-gang wasn’t asking for any reason at all. That annoyed her even more.

If he asked for a reason, she could have said something. If he asked why she was doing this, she might have been able to express her frustrated feelings at least once.

But he wasn’t asking anything. Even when she said she’d kill him, he was being defiant and telling her to go ahead.

He had seen her being defeated even by Woon-jeong, so his own abilities were obvious!

Was he only interested in the antidote?

Only the antidote!

Not her, but only the antidote!

Tang Ha-ran’s frustration to the point of madness was expressed through drawing up her internal energy.

Whoosh!

Her eyebrows shot up and her collar trembled. Then it instantly calmed down. This was the characteristic reaction of Tang family internal energy cultivation methods. The internal energy’s influence didn’t show much externally but sank inward.

Tang Ha-ran ground her teeth as she spoke.

“Let’s see how long you can act so arrogantly.”

Crack!

Tang Ha-ran drew a whip from her waist and struck the ground.

Her shattered dream.

Because of Jin Ja-gang, the loyalty she had devoted to her family until now had become worthless in an instant.

Anger surged.

She hated Jin Ja-gang!