After returning from hearing about the Diamond Vajra Body from Abbot Jeong Hyeon, I rejoined the group that had been waiting for me beneath Mount Song.

“Was everything resolved well with the matter that reminded you of Brother Cheon?”

“Yes. Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Oh my. We’ve already grown used to waiting for Brother Cheon, so there’s no need to worry.”

“You didn’t storm off without any explanation and get sulky, did you?”

“Of course not. I merely thought this would be a good opportunity to engrave my importance into Brother Cheon’s heart.”

“Heo.”

Before me, utterly dumbfounded, Tang Sowol lifted her chin brazenly and placed a hand over her chest. Then she urged me for an answer.

“Well? If there’s something you’d like to say to me, now would be the time.”

“I’m always grateful.”

“That’s far too ordinary.”

“Then how about this—because you were here, I didn’t lose my way back.”

“Mm. That was fairly touching, but still a bit lacking.”

“This isn’t easy. I’m not exactly eloquent with words… Then how about this?”

With a grin tugging at the corner of my lips, I reached out and took Tang Sowol’s hand. Warm flesh settled snugly into my palm.

She hadn’t undergone rebirth through bone transformation, nor had she been lax in her training, yet her hands were smooth and slender without a single callus.

Hadn’t she said that after reaching the Sub-Perfection stage, she learned a martial art that removed calluses? I’d heard it was a type of body-manipulation art, quite popular among female martial artists.

Thinking that there truly were all kinds of martial arts in the world, I brought my hand closer.

Palm upon palm. Our fingertips teased one another, sharing warmth, and before long, the angle shifted.

Fingers slid past each other, brushing lightly, and naturally interlaced. I asked again,

“I won’t tell you not to wait. I’ll always return to clasp hands like this, so for my sake, leave one hand free.”

Tang Sowol stared blankly at her hand and then at my face, before nodding with an expression of complete satisfaction.

“Pass! That was excellent, Brother Cheon! Just keep doing that from now on!”

“I’ll try.”

Fortunately, it seemed to please her.

I let out a sigh of relief—but only briefly. As if refusing to look directly at us, Tang Jincheon’s eyes, which had been chasing empty space with a hazy gaze, regained focus.

He wasn’t broad-minded enough to completely ignore Tang Sowol and me flirting, but reacting to every little thing was exhausting—something he’d surely learned over the past few years.

“So? What exactly did my son-in-law rush up there for?”

“Oh, it was nothing. I merely went to ask Abbot Jeong Hyeon to teach me a method to counter the Diamond Vajra Body.”

“Son-in-law. How did you come back looking so intact? Don’t tell me—!”

“I don’t know why both the Abbot and Father-in-law harbor such ominous preconceptions about me, but I simply received instruction in an ordinary, peaceful manner.”

“Are you sure that’s not just how it felt to you?”

“Tsk. Can’t you even take a joke? Wipe that pitiful expression off your face. Isn’t it creepy?”

“I learned it from Tang Sowol.”

“Now that I look again, you do seem a bit pitiful.”

Tang Jincheon solemnly retracted his own words. The Tang Family really was harmonious.

Watching our exchange, Seo Mun-Hwarin shook her head and spoke up.

“That aside, it’s surprising to hear you say you received instruction after asking for help in breaking a sect’s secret art. Did you perhaps make some sort of deal?”

“Well. If you call it a deal, then yes. The Abbot burdened me with a debt of the heart.”

“To these ears, it sounds like you went and acted like a bandit.”

“It turns out the Diamond Vajra Body itself isn’t some Shaolin-exclusive secret art, but rather a term referring to the highest attainment of external body cultivation of the era. It’s just that many Shaolin warrior monks achieved it and were called such, leading to the misunderstanding.”

In simple terms, there was no such thing as an Diamond Vajra Divine Art like people commonly imagined as Shaolin’s secret technique.

After I explained it clearly, Seo Mun-Hwarin finally nodded.

“Ah. If that’s the case, it makes sense. You went to ask because you already knew this.”

“No? I only learned it just now from the Abbot. Until then, I also believed something like an Diamond Vajra Divine Art truly existed—at least some realm known only to Shaolin.”

Seo Mun-Hwarin stared at me silently with an expression that clearly said, Then you really did go up there with the mindset of a bandit, didn’t you?

It was truly narrow-minded and full of malice, but since she didn’t say it aloud, I decided to let it slide with just a few presses on her crown.

I had Seol Lihyang press down firmly on Seo Mun-Hwarin’s head and then slowly started walking.

Behind me came Seol Lihyang’s giggling, Seo Mun-Hwarin’s embarrassed yet pleased voice, and the lingering warmth in my hand as I organized my thoughts.

I’d brushed it off half-jokingly, but it was true that I felt a debt of the heart toward Abbot Jeong Hyeon for his help.

Grateful, yet with no suitable way to repay it—thus, a debt of the heart. But what was the Tang Family’s motto?

Repay kindness twofold, repay grudges tenfold.

Now that I was part of the Tang Family, I should follow its creed.

A Shaolin elder was scheduled to suddenly commit mass slaughter at the Murim Alliance.

I didn’t know what circumstances drove him to it, nor the exact point when he would snap… but I knew it would happen before long.

Before my regression, his Shaolin background, his usual reputation, and rumors heard secondhand combined to bury the incident somehow.

In fact, it almost succeeded. Whether coincidence or not, from after the incident until the Demonic Cult invaded, Shaolin’s external activities noticeably decreased.

It wasn’t to the point of sealing their gates, but they stayed holed up on Mount Song to the extent that anyone could sense something was off—almost as if in self-reflection.

I intended to stop it.

And while I was at it, I planned to repay the debt owed to Abbot Jeong Hyeon… to Shaolin.

The best course was to remove the reason the elder went berserk in the first place.

Failing that, I could subdue him without killing him and hand him over to Shaolin.

It was the moment I added a clear line to a schedule that had previously held only vague goals.

***

After finishing matters at Shaolin, we decided to head to the Murim Alliance—but that didn’t mean leaving immediately.

At the very least, shouldn’t we explain the outcome of this meeting to the Tang Family’s retainers before departing?

Tang Sowol and I were often away from home, so it might be fine for us, but it wasn’t easy for Tang Jincheon, the clan head, to leave the Tang Family indefinitely.

The present Sichuan Tang Family was being spoken of as the greatest family under heaven and was in the midst of rapid expansion.

The absence of the final decision-maker would inevitably put the brakes on many of the family’s moves.

Thus, I cautiously asked Tang Jincheon, who was walking ahead.

“Thank you for your concern, Father-in-law, but is this really all right? I have Senior Seo Mun-Hwarin with me, so I’ll manage somehow.”

“That’s enough. If I can’t protect what must be protected before profit, how could I stand proudly as clan head, as a father, and as a father-in-law? Don’t overthink it. I’ll simply entrust full authority to Cheong for a while.”

Tang Cheong wasn’t young. Naturally, his successor training was nearing its final stage.

Though his martial prowess was somewhat lacking, he was said to be more than capable as the young clan head—handling internal affairs and building his own power base.

If so, things would work out somehow.

“I’m worried that the Heavenly Demon might be plotting something. Just as with the Four Dark Alliances, I fear he might send someone to the Tang Family as well.”

The Demonic Cult’s martial artists were comparatively weak. It wasn’t that they were strong—rather, the Heavenly Demon was abnormal. Others lacked either skill or talent.

Thus, even the strongest besides the Heavenly Demon were only at the Sub-Perfection stage… yet hadn’t the Heavenly Demon already elevated the Sword Demon, if only halfway, into the Flowering Stage?

He wasn’t a complete Flowering Stage master, but he was clearly on a different level from Sub-Perfection martial artists.

If even a half-Flowering Stage opponent attacked the Tang Family, the clan—having no absolute master left to oppose them—would be overwhelmed unilaterally.

Hearing this, Tang Jincheon let out a dry laugh and shook his head.

“The Tang Family isn’t as easy a place as my son-in-law thinks.”

“I’ve never thought it was easy.”

“Then answer me. Why do you think poison is dangerous?”

“Because it’s insidious and lethal?”

“Not wrong, but there’s a bigger reason. Once made, if one knows how to handle it properly, most poisons can be used by anyone.”

“Ah.”

Tang Sowol and Tang Jincheon, born with poison-spirit constitutions or transformed through rebirth into complete poison beings, could emit poison as naturally as using martial arts.

Ordinary Tang Family martial artists, however, carried poison with them and applied it through various methods.

Thus, poison arts were closer to techniques of how to spread poison more effectively.

If one set aside the premise of surely poisoning the opponent and considered only whether poison could be used at all, then even a third-rate martial artist—if they knew the handling well—could wield terrifyingly lethal toxins.

Well. There might be the minor side effect of one’s own body melting after a single use, but still.

“The poisons the Tang Family has accumulated over time are far from few. And thanks to you annihilating the Thousand Poison Gate, we also brought back all the poisons and knowledge left there.”

“Come to think of it, the Poison Demon was a Sub-Perfection master and yet handled poison that even worked on Flowering Stage martial artists.”

“As the Tang Family stands now, assuming the battle is fought within our grounds, even the Murim Alliance Lord wouldn’t deal with us easily.”

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to invite the Murim Alliance Lord one day, poison him, and then swallow the Alliance whole—!”

“I’ve never even considered such a thing. Do you think I’m you?”

“I was joking.”

“Please don’t joke like that elsewhere. Thanks to you, my heart flutters every single day at my age.”

“But I have Tang Sowol.”

“That was sarcasm!”

Tang Jincheon shouted in alarm, then soon let out a deep sigh with a weary expression.

“Anyway, don’t worry. As you said, if it’s only a half-Flowering Stage opponent, they won’t even cross half our threshold. Of course, if the Heavenly Demon himself comes, that’s another story.”

“In that case, even if we’re all here, it would be hard to predict victory.”

“Perhaps because I’ve never seen it myself, I just can’t believe it.”

Scratching his head once, Tang Jincheon continued.

“Still, even if we leave things to Cheong, it’ll be hard to proceed as before. It can’t be helped. For a while, we’ll halt business expansion and focus on solidifying our foundation.”

“Oh. The Chief Steward will be delighted. Less work, after all.”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Oh?”

“Strengthening our foundation involves just as much work as expansion. We’ve started more projects than I can count…”

“Uh… I know I’m not one to say this, but isn’t that being a bit too harsh on the Chief Steward?”

“Hmph. We’re continually increasing manpower, and this time I’ll appoint those I’ve been watching closely as Deputy Stewards to assist him, so it’ll be better than before.”

“Oh?”

“Though they’ll also take on the additional work created by the Orthodox–Unorthodox Pact.”

“Oh…?”

***

After arriving at the Tang Family, Tang Jincheon entrusted full authority to Tang Cheong as planned.

Upon hearing the policy of focusing on internal consolidation and the details of the Orthodox–Unorthodox Pact, the Chief Steward wore a smile of utter enlightenment.

It was astonishingly similar to the smiles of the eminent monks I’d seen at Shaolin. Looking closer, he was actually standing unconscious.

Fortunately, he came back to his senses upon hearing that Deputy Stewards would be appointed.

Anyway, after wrapping up matters at the Tang Family, we headed to the Murim Alliance.

After greeting the waiting Alliance Lord, I decided to put the plan I’d been mulling over into action.

“By the way, Alliance Lord. I heard that among the Murim Alliance elders, there’s one from Shaolin. Do you know where he is?”

“Hmm? If you mean that elder, he’s probably in his office. Why? Is there something you need to convey from Shaolin?”

“No. I just wanted to request a spar.”

“A s-spar?”

The Murim Alliance Lord made a baffled expression at the idea of someone requesting a spar with a person of higher cultivation than themselves.

Taking a cue from the Chief Steward’s recent expression, I put on the most harmless smile I could muster.

“By the way, are incidents where an arm flies off due to a mistake during a spar common in the Murim Alliance?”

“You lunatic! Are you really going to carry out that insane plan of cutting down suspicious people one by one?!”

The Murim Alliance Lord shrieked and reflexively grabbed his cudgel.

How unfair.

It all came from the best of intentions.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep