Chapter 168. The Value of the Precious Scroll

He spoke in a low voice, as if steadying his emotions.

“There were even children among them.”

“I know.”

“Even if they didn’t die, didn’t you say they would feel pain? They did not attack us; they behaved politely. Why did you insist on poisoning them? It’s hard to understand.”

He drew a long, heavy sigh.

“I wanted, as much as possible, to trust Young Lady Tang and not press the matter, but doubts have piled up in my mind. If this becomes a problem later, better to clear it up now.”

Namgung Jin set his cup down, pointed toward the balcony, and asked bluntly.

“Exactly what were you thinking when you poisoned them?”

“I wanted to verify a few things because the situation in the North Sea seems worse than I expected. So I wanted to confirm a few things: their overall strength and if there were martial forces among them.”

“Strength?”

Namgung Jin echoed.

“Yes. As Young Lord will expect, they are by no means one of the North Sea Ice Palace’s main forces.”

Namgung Jin fell silent. He, too, had judged the visitors’ martial prowess and felt the same deep disappointment. From the start, he had believed the traces found in the gorge belonged to the Bloodless Full Moon Sword—only to be let down.

A faint wind-sound from the north grew quieter as it drifted past. Over the gentle ripples, Tang So-hwa added in a steady voice.

“With that meagre force, they cannot hide from the Blood Sect’s pursuers for three years. For reasons I don’t yet know, their main forces appear to be separated from them. So I deliberately put the lineage scroll forward, hoping that news of us would reach the decision-maker.”

“……”

“As I said earlier today, they treat the sulfur poisoning as a death sentence, so they will come looking for us again soon. They know they can survive if they find me. While word reaches their decision-maker, I intended to use the poisoning to move a few of the North Sea bloodline here.”

She spoke plainly.

“If we hold a few North Sea bloodline here, even if the decision-maker orders our death, we’ll at least gain time.”

Namgung Jin kept silent for a moment—he could not quite grasp what he had heard. Then, incredulous, he asked,

“Are you saying you intend to keep them as hostages?”

“Yes. The North Sea Palace’s bloodlines have attachments stronger than mere clan. If one of their own is sick, they will not harm us for a while. If things go badly for us, we can use that interval to flee to the Central Plains.”

“Young Lady Tang—”

“Yes?”

“How can you say so calmly that you poisoned them just to take them hostage?”

Namgung Jin’s voice tightened.

Tang So-hwa, who had been watching the window, shifted her gaze inward. An icy silence settled between them. She felt Namgung Jin’s discomfort, and so she turned back to the window and offered a phrase that might be easier for him to hear.

“Rather than trying to take hostages, I just want to secure a safer channel for negotiations. We have no intention of harming the North Sea bloodline, but we cannot be sure of their intentions. I wanted at least a little safety while we talk.”

Namgung Jin still wore a troubled expression, but the subject was uncomfortable enough that he let it drop. After a long pause, he changed the topic and asked another question.

“Why did you need to check whether they had martial force?”

“I thought there would be some structure among the North Sea bloodline. It isn’t possible for a group to maintain itself for years purely by raw force. Naturally, I expected they would have martial force. But… I don’t know.”

There might once have been a martial force, and now they were gone. Tang So-hwa’s eyes darkened. In truth, their disappearance made the decline of that bloodline easier to understand.

She could not help but take a tired breath and rub her brow.

“If they had a martial force, we could have gained much more. The situation isn’t unfolding as we hoped.”

“Huh?”

Namgung Jin, despite the futility of his earlier anger, responded with a bewildered look.

The notion that if a martial force were to hand over the storehouse to strangers made no sense to him: the clever would not offer up their granaries. Only fools are cheated by a smooth tongue.

Tang So-hwa did not argue. She only folded her hands in her lap and looked out toward the dimming horizon, where the faint sounds from the North Sea were already fading into the night.

“… Why do you think the martial force would willingly give us so much?”

Unexpectedly, Tang So-hwa answered simply.

“Because the martial force understands the value of a precious scroll.”

“You mean the lineage record you mentioned earlier?”

“Yes.”

She nodded.

An ordinary clan’s precious scroll differs greatly from the records kept by a powerful clan or an outer palace. Precious scrolls record the spirit of the founding ancestor, the land they settled, the names of blood relatives, and the relationships between direct descendants and younger branches. They also organize members of the same generation into ranks, and sometimes note the positions they held or the territories they governed.

For a bloodline as vast as the North Sea Ice Palace, their precious scrolls served as both historical record and ledger. Large branches had split off from the main line, each maintaining its own detailed register. Some records were surprisingly extensive, listing not just names but also property, official posts, and occasionally unique traits or personal histories.

After the fall of the Tang Clan of Sichuan, Tang So-hwa witnessed splintered members of the clan brandishing their own lineage records. They used them to prove their blood ties to the clan and claimed the Tang Clan’s inheritance as their own.

Namgung Hyun allowed it without even a word to Tang So-hwa. At the time, he was hell-bent on punishing her and had already severed all funds and support within the Namgung Clan, so it was hardly surprising.

Namgung Hyun, claiming they were a branch of the Tang Clan, brought before her those who had seized the Tang Clan’s inheritance, and even forced her to confirm it herself.

The inheritance she remembered was transferred to the branch lineage of people she had never even seen before.

But to So-hwa, those weren’t just simple inheritance.

Ye-hwa’s first business, the textile shop in Shaanxi; the private residence on the Yangtze River where her father stayed while searching for Tang Hak; and the pavilion in Hainan where the Grand Elder spent his later years.

All the things she could never afford to lose were stripped from her before she even realized it.

Namgung Hyun’s humiliation was successful, and Tang So-hwa still has not forgotten that disgrace.

She relaxed the white-knuckled fists she had been clenching and hid her hands inside her sleeves.

The North Sea Ice Palace’s inheritance had likely been similarly seized by opportunists. Judging by the current situation, checking the precious scrolls of the three noble families ruling the North Sea might reveal who was responsible.

Some might argue for ignoring old records and simply starting fresh as descendants of the North Sea Ice Palace, instead of dealing with the complex process of linking the main and branch lineage.

That would be easier.

However, a martial force would fill in the erased names, reclaim the full inheritance of their ancestors. Only then could the inheritance of the North Sea Ice Palace be recovered without resistance.

Time could not be reversed, but it was possible to reclaim what remained and restore lost authority.

To Tang So-hwa, an inheritance was something precious left by the clan; to others, it was merely wealth. Many had rushed in at the scent of money, so objectively, inheritance was just a material resource. And the North Sea Ice Palace needed wealth more than anyone.

The bloodline of the North Sea Ice Palace, once under the control of the Blood Demon, would inevitably have to wage war against him if they reclaimed the palace. The restored precious scroll would justify confiscating the property of the North Sea nobles and serve as a tool to rapidly secure military supplies for war.

If the soldiers understood the consequences of a restored precious scroll, they would willingly disclose how to remove the Blood Demon’s Gu poison.

‘But…’

Would this young Young Master truly understand the heavy heart that necessitates valuing a mere scrap of paper to reclaim the foundation of a fallen clan whose name was trampled upon?

Tang So-hwa doubted it. He would probably consider the attachment to clan records a stuffy, outdated formality.

“To the Young Lord, you probably see the record as nothing more than paper listing dead names.”

“Not at all.”

Her gaze drifted back into the clinic. Namgung Jin was lost in thought, seemingly trying to grasp her reasoning, furrowing his brows as he stared out the window.

“Should the Namgung Clan ever be destroyed and I must restore it, I, too, would not easily surrender the precious scrolls. If there is a record of the sacrifices of our members, I would give everything I have to reclaim it. We cannot forget them.”

The Young Lord regarded the lineage record as necessary to remember the sacrifices of his followers.

Once again, the process of thought is different, but they arrive at the same conclusion.

“However…”

Namgung Jin added in a somewhat skeptical tone,

“The North Sea Ice Palace has been gone for so long—would its precious scrolls even still exist?”

He turned his gaze inward to look at Tang So-hwa.

She nodded.

“Yes. The Blood Sect values the bloodline of the North Sea Ice Palace highly, so they have left the records untouched.”

The Blood Demon had not only refrained from destroying the North Sea Ice Palace’s precious scrolls but had even stored both the originals and copies in the Jin Yin Mountain archives.

While living there, there were too many things she had to read, and she had not asked the slow-witted Blood Sect member to interpret them.

Once, when she asked the archive custodian how one could train in martial arts without the framework if a newly obtained secret martial arts manual were stored in Geumunsan, she was able to hear from that Blood Sect bastard about the existence of a handwritten copy.

However, when she had once asked how one could train in martial arts without the framework, if a newly obtained secret martial arts manual were stored in Jin Yin Mountain, she was able to hear from that Blood Sect member about the existence of a handwritten copy.

In principle, the originals remained in the archives, while multiple copies were made: one kept in the archive, and the rest sent to the North Sea training grounds for education. The copied precious scrolls included not only the new martial arts texts but also the prefaces written by ancestors to help students understand martial principles correctly.

The North Sea Ice Palace’s farm was located in the North Sea, so it should be findable without going to Jin Yin Mountain.

‘…But if the North Sea Ice Palace ignores me, all this thinking on my own will be useless.’

So-hwa felt a tightness in her chest. She looked at Namgung Jin, who was studying her closely. The Young Lord’s expression was dark.

“… Do you still harbor doubts about me?”

Namgung Jin shook his head and sighed.

“No. The doubts seem to be gone, as I’ve concluded it would be easier on my mind to just trust Young Lady Tang and go along with it.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I don’t know if it is a relief. It makes me realize that Young Lady Tang is a frightening person.”

Tang So-hwa did not understand why that should be a bad thing. She had rarely seen anyone unafraid of her. Even the eccentric Black Sky Demon often tensed up before her. No one had ever considered her completely safe.

In any case, Namgung Jin’s words suggested his doubts were indeed gone. He asked no further questions.

The distant noise from the North Sea had also faded.

Thinking the conversation concluded, Tang So-hwa closed the window and took a cloth from the drawer. As she began tidying the side table where she had poured water, Namgung Jin moved to take the cloth from her.

“I’ll do it.”

“No, I’ll handle it.”

“You’ve been thinking a lot. Sit comfortably and save your mind for other matters.”

“… I can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or not, but I’ll do it. If you handle it, it could be dangerous for the Young Lord, as this isn’t just plain water.”

Namgung Jin immediately withdrew his hand and frowned.

“…Were you going to serve that as tea again?”

“They came here suspicious of us, so naturally, I would have refused. If they insist, we can pretend to spill it. But why do you keep asking such things?”

Tang So-hwa lifted her gaze while wiping the side table. When their eyes met, the Young Lord gave an awkward smile.

“Hmm. You must be tired, just finish that and rest. I’ll handle the rest.”

Whether he meant it or not, Namgung Jin adopted a precise posture, tidying the medicinal needles and tableware. Perhaps intending to sweep as well, he went to the corner to fetch cleaning tools.

‘Indeed, he must be troubled seeing the situation unfold firsthand.’

Cleaning helped clear the mind. Since the Young Lord likely had much on his mind as well, she quietly stepped aside.

They would soon have many tasks, and both needed to clear their minds and conserve their strength.

Though Namgung Jin did not manage to rest or clear his thoughts that day, Tang So-hwa had no way of knowing that.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep