Chapter 168
After leaving the Chilya Hall, Yeo-il headed straight for the Baekseogwan.
The Baekseogwan was an archive located within the Chilya Palace, a place where the palace’s records and the officials’ books were compiled and stored.
Every day at the hour of the Dragon, court attendants were required to clean the Baekseogwan thoroughly, which meant that all officials had to vacate the premises.
But today—
“…Ugh.”
Because they needed time for a secret meeting away from prying eyes, the attendants in charge had been knocked unconscious and neatly stacked in the inner area of the Baekseogwan.
When the fourth and final attendant collapsed, a middle-aged man who had been hiding beneath a desk, waiting for Yeo-il, crawled out with a groan.
It was the Head of the Ju family.
Cradled in his arms was a small girl—Jang Yul.
Unlike the day she had first arrived in Xinjiang, Jang Yul was now wrapped in a soft, plush fur cloak. In just two days, her face had grown plump and rosy, and she threw herself into Yeo-il’s arms the moment she saw her.
The Head of the Ju family asked anxiously,
“How did it go, miss?”
Holding Jang Yul, Yeo-il warned him with a cold expression,
“I told you not to call me that. I am the Head of the Wi family.”
“Shh! Lower your voice, miss. What if even a passing sparrow hears us?”
As he whispered, his face was etched with deep anxiety.
Naturally so. Having become a double agent overnight, any man short of extraordinary nerve would feel as though enemies lurked on all sides.
[You say you decided to join hands with Young Lord Cho I-ryang? Hah! Of course, to catch a tiger one must enter the tiger’s jaws, but… indeed, if you can deceive the young lord’s eyes, it would be the best possible move, miss.]
[Do not call me ‘miss.’]
Earlier that dawn, when Yeo-il had abducted the Head of the Ju family from the Cho family’s residence.
For over an hour, he had rambled on about how Cho I-ryang—once merely the Cho family’s heir—had become a Grand Lord, how he had begun gathering allies, and with what mindset scholars like himself had come to join hands with him.
Exhausted from listening, Yeo-il knocked him unconscious, intending to resume the threats after nightfall—though it somehow felt like the roles were reversed. At that moment, the Head of the Ju family asked about her future plans.
[But what do you intend to do by joining hands with him?]
[That is none of your concern.]
[No need to be so cold—tell me. I might be of help, you know. Of course, I understand you cannot trust me just yet, but in truth, I have waited years for a moment like this. For someone among us to stake their life and defy the Grand Lord… And now that chance has finally come, yet the one who raises the sword in our stead is such a young miss! Thus, I, Ju Tae-seon, swear here and now! Taking the Sect Leader’s grace and your valor as my example, I too shall stake my life against the Grand Lord and the Heavenly Martial Order—!]
[Shut up.]
Just recalling events from an hour or two ago filled Yeo-il with a thick weariness. She sat down and answered,
“He said he’d show me if I brought him Jin Cheong-ak’s arm or leg.”
A short sigh escaped the Head of the Ju family.
“The Grand Lord said such a thing? Hoh… He was a young man who, despite his greed, at least kept to certain lines.”
The bitterness in his wide eyes faded, replaced once more by cold clarity.
“What was his reaction when you refused? Did he demand something else? He’s not one to be blinded by money or women, so perhaps he asked for one of the rare elixirs he obsessively collects—”
“I said I’d do it.”
At first, the Head of the Ju family did not seem to understand.
Then he glanced at Jang Yul, who had taken a book from the shelves without permission and was now reading it atop Yeo-il’s knees.
Slowly, his mouth fell open, his face going blank.
“…May I ask why?”
“Because it’s the fastest way.”
His eyes quivered rapidly.
“D-don’t tell me you truly intend to take the Second Grand Lord’s arm—”
“That’s for me to handle. Tell me the other thing we need to confirm, besides the death list.”
“Handle it yourself? What are you even—honestly.”
With a deep sigh, the Head of the Ju family continued,
“The other thing… Haah. To be frank, I don’t know if it can even be confirmed. I would rather pray that this prediction is wrong. It’s not something we can deal with.”
So what is it, exactly? Annoyed by the deliberate delay, Yeo-il furrowed her brow. After a brief pause, the Head of the Ju family spoke in a heavy voice.
“…Do you know of the Ye family?”
Yeo-il nodded.
“Then this will be easy to explain. There are not many survivors of the Ye family—at most four. Half of them have entered the Cho family and now serve Cho I-ryang.”
Immediately, Ye Ju-woon came to mind, the man currently acting as Cho I-ryang’s loyal hound.
But what did they have to do with this?
“Are you saying Ye Ju-woon has become a vessel for a soul?”
“More precisely, that it may be inside him. The ancient one sleeping within.”
“….”
“And not only Ye Ju-woon. His younger sibling has also taken refuge with the Cho family, and judging by my intuition, that child’s body may also have had a gu implanted. The reason… I still don’t know. Perhaps with Ye Ju-woon it was a means to extract loyalty, but why commit such an atrocity against a child….”
Letting out a long breath, the Head of the Ju family continued with a troubled expression.
“It seems they used a very rare gu, something like the Golden Silkworm Gu. This is only speculation, but that gu might be the vessel. Especially in the child’s case. Who would suspect that the answer lies in a child’s belly? No one would even want to think it. If that is the truth… then the child would have to die.”
The death list.
‘As if that weren’t enough, now there’s gu as well.’
Yeo-il swallowed the sneer rising to her lips. These methods were all too familiar.
‘To kill a Yang Gu, the host must die?’
Nonsense.
The Golden Silkworm Gu’s notoriety had given rise to such rumors, but the truth was different. If the host truly had to die, Jin Cheong-ak could not have survived this long.
A Yang Gu could be destroyed using a Yin Gu.
But even without a Yin Gu, there were ways to eliminate a Yang Gu—without killing the host. Yeo-il and Gi-eul had escaped the Heavenly Martial Order’s grasp because they knew that method. It was only a stopgap, still dangerous, but effective.
Unable to hold back any longer, Yeo-il let out a laugh.
Truly… did this not drive the point home once again?
That the Heavenly Martial Order and she herself were not so different after all.
That all that remained of her life’s path was nothing more than the knowledge of how to wield utterly horrific methods of slaughter….
“What will you do?” the Head of the Ju family asked.
Yeo-il slowly rose to her feet.
“First, I’ll check the death list. If that item is not the vessel, then next will be Ye Ju-woon and his sister.”
“You mean to kill them?”
“Of course.”
“……”
“If we miss this chance, there will be even more victims. Those whose names are written on the death list will be massacred one by one.”
Yeo-il deliberately refrained from saying, It doesn’t have to be killing. Though she would accept the Head of the Ju family’s help, she had no intention of letting her true identity be discovered.
“…Grand Lord Cho I-ryang said he would spare our lives once he ascends to the position of Sect Leader.”
Of course he would. There would be no need to painstakingly gather materials when he could simply seize the Bliss Pills of the Black Night Palace.
“Then make Cho I-ryang the Sect Leader.”
Turning her back on the Head of the Ju family, who could not even muster a reply, Yeo-il said,
“I’ll be going now. If I need you, I’ll call for you—so don’t wander about needlessly.”
Leaving the Black Night Palace with Jang Yul in her arms, Yeo-il leapt across rooftops, climbed over the walls of the Wi family estate, and entered the inner quarters.
Perhaps excited from being carried as she bounded through the air, Jang Yul beamed brightly, shaking the book in her hands. Come to think of it, she had taken that book along.
“Mu-myeong.”
At her call, Bang-u emerged from the shadows.
“This child will be staying with the Wi family for the time being. Protect her well.”
After a long silence, Bang-u spoke in a voice so low it seemed to drag the listener’s ears down with it.
“…This child.”
Yeo-il turned to look at him.
“How did you come to know this child?”
“A pointless question.”
“Please answer.”
“The Sect Leader entrusted her to me.”
“……”
“She said she would be a trump card against the Heavenly Martial Order. I don’t know the specifics.”
Bang-u’s eyes were unusually dark.
Having spent no short amount of time together, Yeo-il knew him well enough to tell—he was clenching his teeth, forcibly suppressing his emotions.
His fists tightened until his nails threatened to pierce his flesh as he asked,
“…What happened to the woman who was with the child?”
“She had a guardian? That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“She’s a shy child. She doesn’t easily follow strangers, so how—”
“That’s enough.”
Cutting him off coldly, Yeo-il ushered Jang Yul into the room, then stood before Bang-u, who had dropped to one knee.
“Stop beating around the bush. If you have something to say, say it plainly, Mu-myeong.”
After a brief silence—
“…What I want to say is….”
