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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: A Tragic Return
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Only a cold, empty wine bottle remained where Hyeolma had been.
The remnants of the wine cup, crushed beyond recognition into dust, slowly trickled through the cracks in the table.
Seop Mugwang arrived just as the last of the dust had fallen through the cracks, leaving only a faint trace behind.
Hyeolma had left, a few people had returned to fill the empty seats, and the cold sweat that had drenched them had completely dried.
“I'm sorry, but we have to go back now, kid.”
Seolhwa looked up at Seop Mugwang.
He seemed to be in a hurry.
So rushed, in fact, that he didn't even seem to find the presence of the wine bottle suspicious.
“Let's go.”
Taking a silver coin from his pocket and placing it on the table, Seop Mugwang swiftly lifted Seolhwa into his arms.
He briefly found the child's cold body temperature strange, but having no time to spare, he immediately used his lightness technique and headed for the family estate.
The two of them went straight to Seolhwa's quarters.
He had just set her down in her room and was about to turn away.
Seolhwa grabbed his hand.
“Please tell me, too. What's going on?”
Seop Mugwang's expression hardened. After a moment of hesitation, he let out a low sigh and spoke.
“The subordinates I assigned a mission to have returned. Without a single word that they were coming back.”
The presence Seop Mugwang had sensed earlier belonged to his men. A presence that should not have been in Hefei at this time.
“They were the ones investigating the Hwaoru.”
“!”
These were the same men who, until just recently, had been reporting that they had uncovered information the Hwaoru was hiding.
The very men Seop Mugwang was planning to join once they had more concrete information had returned to the estate without any report or message.
“I need to find out what happened.”
If they had simply misunderstood a directive to return due to a miscommunication, there would be no problem.
But if that wasn't the case…
“I want to go, too.”
“No.”
“I'll just watch from a distance.”
Seop Mugwang furrowed his brow.
He had explained because it was related to the Hwaoru, but he couldn't take a child somewhere potentially dangerous.
However, Seop Mugwang knew Seolhwa well.
*'If I say no, she'll just try to sneak in secretly.'*
That could lead to a more dangerous outcome. Besides, he didn't have time to argue with her.
“Then stay with your guard. I'll allow it if you promise not to come within ten zhang.”
“Yes. I promise.”
“It's at the Cheonho Hall.”
With those words, Seop Mugwang disappeared.
“Ryeon.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Ryeon was already behind her.
“Let's go.”
Tap, tatat.
Seolhwa and Ryeon followed Seop Mugwang toward Cheonho Hall. The two had to stop on the wall surrounding the hall.
Below the steps of Cheonho Hall, in the wide courtyard.
Five figures stood in the center of the courtyard, their bamboo hats pulled low, dressed in dirty robes.
Members of the Black Dragon Unit surrounded them, while Namgung Mucheon and the clan heads stood halfway up the steps of Cheonho Hall.
Seop Mugwang stood between the two groups, just below the steps of Cheonho Hall, facing the members of the Bipunggeomdae.
To keep her promise to Seop Mugwang not to approach within ten zhang, Seolhwa silently watched the situation from the wall.
Seop Mugwang's voice carried over.
“Why have you returned without a single message? I never gave you orders to come back.”
One of the five Bipunggeomdae members stepped forward.
He slightly lifted his bamboo hat and spoke.
“Weren't you the one who ordered us to stop the investigation and return, Commander?”
“Who told you that? That I gave such an order.”
“We certainly received that order. Here, we even have proof.”
The Bipunggeomdae member took something from his robe and held it out to Seop Mugwang. The moment Seop Mugwang stepped closer to take it.
Shwaaak-!
“!”
The Bipunggeomdae member flung something at him.
Chaaeng-!
The Bipunggeomdae member swung his sword, and Namgung Mucheon blocked it with his scabbard almost simultaneously.
“Kuh… I apologize.”
Seop Mugwang retreated.
“Poisonous powder.”
Kaaang-!
When Namgung Mucheon struck the sword away, the Bipunggeomdae member staggered back, unable to resist the force.
With a series of shings, the Black Dragon Unit drew their swords in unison, aiming at the men in bamboo hats.
The sharp sound of weapons being drawn echoed through the wide courtyard below Cheonho Hall.
In that time, Seop Mugwang, having neutralized the poison, stepped forward again.
He, too, had drawn his sword.
“What is the meaning of this? Did you really think you could accomplish anything with such a pathetic powder?”
Beneath the bamboo hat, the Bipunggeomdae member's eyes glinted with killing intent.
The other members behind him were also emanating killing intent, their hands on their swords.
Seop Mugwang looked back at his subordinates.
“Drop your swords now and explain this situation. If you do, I will forgive this minor disturbance…”
“Why… did you abandon us…?”
“…What?”
Seop Mugwang's expression froze.
The Bipunggeomdae member at the front took off his bamboo hat.
In that instant, the faces of everyone gathered contorted in shock.
The head of the man who had thrown off his hat was covered in scars, as if it had been split apart and pieced back together.
“Didn't we tell you again and again that we wanted to return? That we wanted to quit…! After pushing us into hell…! Why didn't you help us…?”
The Bipunggeomdae member's voice was filled with anguish. Full of resentment.
“If only you had been there, Commander! We! We…!”
The other four members also removed their bamboo hats.
Thud. Thud, thud. Each time a hat hit the ground, the onlookers swallowed hard.
The other four men looked the same as the first.
“…What happened to you?”
“The main family cannot defeat them. That place, the Hwaoru…”
The Bipunggeomdae member began to tremble violently.
“That place… is a den of demons…”
Not just him, but the other members were trembling as well.
Their faces turned deathly pale, as if consumed by terror.
“That place… is hell, Commander.”
“First, get treatment from the medical hall. We'll talk about the rest after…”
“…I'm sorry.”
At that moment, the five Bipunggeomdae members charged at Seop Mugwang and the Black Dragon Unit.
The clash happened in an instant.
“Kuaaack!”
The Bipunggeomdae was an elite unit composed of some of the family's finest masters.
While the Black Dragon Unit was strong, they were no match for them.
A Bipunggeomdae member's sword instantly cut down a Black Dragon warrior, his blood soaking the ground.
Before the fallen warrior's body even hit the ground, three nearby Black Dragon members rushed in.
Two swung their swords while one closed in on the Bipunggeomdae member.
“Don't kill them!”
Seop Mugwang shouted.
The Black Dragon warrior who was closing in reflexively froze.
Don't kill them?
But they attacked the family's own unit within the estate?
Just as he turned to Seop Mugwang, questioning the order, the Bipunggeomdae member, having pushed back the other two swords, lunged for his throat.
Swish-
“!”
The Black Dragon warrior stared down with terrified eyes at the sword blade that had stopped just shy of his neck.
It was so dizzyingly close that his bobbing Adam's apple could have touched the blade.
Something fell to the ground beside him with a thud.
Rolling across the ground was the head of the Bipunggeomdae member who had just been aiming his sword at him, his eyes still open in death.
A blue robe fluttered.
“Kuhk!”
“Huk.”
“Ugh.”
The heads of the other Bipunggeomdae members engaged in combat fell one after another.
It took only an instant for Namgung Mucheon to subdue the four Bipunggeomdae members.
All that remained was the one member facing Seop Mugwang.
“Brother!”
Seop Mugwang screamed in despair.
It was obvious that these men, his subordinates, had been victims of the Hwaoru.
He didn't know what had been done to them, but they were not men who would betray the Namgung.
So, they should have been subdued first, and only after finding out what happened and why they attacked the family's forces should their crimes be judged.
How could he, how could he just kill them without asking a single question?
Why?
“Kill him. There's no time. If you don't, I will.”
“Brother…”
“…Kill me.”
Seop Mugwang stared with trembling eyes at the last member standing against him.
Beyond their crossed blades, the Bipunggeomdae member lifted his head, his eyes contorted with sorrow.
“The Family Head's words… are right…”
Tears of blood streamed from his eyes.
Tears filled with resentment, fear, and agony.
Tears of bitter regret flowed down.
“Hurry… kill me… Commander…”
“…You…”
“I… don't have much time left to hold on. So…”
Hold on? To what?
But it didn't take long to understand what he meant.
“Kugh…”
The Bipunggeomdae member's internal energy began to waver, and then, it started to surge violently.
It was like an explosive about to detonate.
“Co-Commander…”
“!”
His hand gripping the sword, his arm, his entire body began to tremble violently, and his eyes became bloodshot.
Soon, tears of blood streamed from his eyes, and veins bulged all over his body.
His body began to slowly expand as if being inflated with air.
It looked as if he would burst at the slightest touch.
“Kuuugh… I, I don't want to d—”
Shwaaak-
Dark red blood splattered across Seop Mugwang's face.
