Zhuge Yu-ah answered my remark.
— You mean the culprit would go after the canisters I took.
— But, that also means you could be in danger. So I’d like to assign an escort to protect you.
— Oh, there’s no need for that. Just discovering someone trying to steal the poisoned canisters would be enough to prove everything—and I’ve got a reliable ally who’ll keep me safe too.
I let out a soft chuckle.
Fair enough. The Clan Lord fit every part of that description.
The Grand Elder stepped toward the kneeling man and removed his gag.
“I know your name. Wang Gyeong, isn’t it?”
“…”
“You should answer. That’s what good boys do.”
The sheer pressure radiating from the Grand Elder felt powerful enough to kill a man on its own.
Wang Gyeong, drowning in suffocating fear, barely managed to speak.
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
“Then may I ask what you were doing here?”
“T-that is…”
“You were trying to switch out the poisoned canisters, weren’t you?”
“Ugh!”
The Grand Elder glanced at the bundle next to him and spoke.
“Heo Cheong.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I’d like you to inspect those canisters.”
At that, Heo Cheong moved immediately. He emptied the tea from the canisters and tested them, then reported,
“Poison was detected in these three canisters on the table.”
At those words, Wang Gyeong squeezed his eyes shut.
“You’re not someone capable of acting alone. You were surely acting under orders. Who was it?”
Faced with such thunderous questioning, Wang Gyeong finally spoke.
“It was all my doing. Lord Hyeon-ri… ngh!”
He suddenly realized his mistake and shut his mouth, but everyone had already heard.
I gave a bitter smile to myself.
Calling him ‘Lord Hyeon-ri’ instead of the Grand Elder must’ve come naturally to him—it was a habit.
Which meant someone had ordered him to refer to the Grand Elder that way.
Whoever that was was likely the one who orchestrated this plot.
Not recognizing the Grand Elder’s authority.
That said a lot.
Now that I thought about it, both the Grand Elder and the Clan Lord were killed in my previous life.
And among the Clan Lord’s children, none survived except for Zhuge Yu-ah.
They’d eliminated the main bloodline.
Which meant…
The culprit had to be from a collateral branch.
The most coveted prize in the Zhuge Clan was the clan itself. To take it, the direct line had to be erased.
So which of the collateral branches had done this?
Just then, the Grand Elder sighed and spoke to the Clan Lord.
“Yul.”
“Yes, Father.”
“You know where to go now with the clan’s warriors. I’ll leave the cleanup here to you.”
“Understood.”
.
.
.
That evening,
I learned the full story from Palgap.
Thanks to his friendly nature, he’d already made connections with the clan’s attendants and maids.
“So, you’re saying this was all orchestrated by the Grand Elder’s younger brother?”
“Yes, that’s what they say. Zhuge Dong-u (諸葛同祐), the Grand Elder’s younger brother, was the one who prepared the poison and built his own faction. He was trying to take control of the clan.”
“I see.”
Just like that, the threat hanging over the Zhuge Clan was resolved.
So why did I still feel so unsettled?
Just then, one of the Grand Elder’s attendants came to see me.
“I bring a message from the Grand Elder.”
“Yes?”
“As you may know, there’s some trouble within the clan, and we’re no longer able to properly host guests. He has asked that we escort you home. Please understand.”
“I understand. So please don’t worry.”
Though it looked like a polite dismissal, the Grand Elder was actually protecting us. A storm of bloodshed was about to hit the clan.
Then I should do what he wants.
“Understood. I’ll prepare right away.”
“Please make haste.”
.
.
.
Not long after, we left the Zhuge Clan estate.
Normally, guests wouldn’t be sent off in the evening, so the fact that we were urged to leave at such an hour showed just how urgent things were.
Our escorts were, surprisingly, the Grand Elder’s personal attendants and guards.
It showed how concerned he was for our safety.
We traveled for about one hour before arriving at a guesthouse.
It was a fairly well-known one, and the Grand Elder’s attendant had even secured a luxury room for us.
He didn’t need to go that far…
But accepting the gesture without refusing was the proper way to honor his goodwill, so I gratefully accepted it.
Everyone dropped off their luggage in their rooms and came down to the first-floor dining hall.
We took our seats, ordered food, and waited for it to arrive. Meanwhile, a group at a table across from us was already eating.
The clothes they wore looked oddly familiar.
“Those outfits…”
Chief Administrator Yu recognized them.
“They’re escort guards from the Changin Escort Bureau.”
Seeing them brought an odd sense of comfort.
And then, I spotted a familiar face.
Huh?
What’s Master doing here?
A short while later,
I got the chance to speak with him.
“Master, did your escort mission go well?”
He answered,
“The escort to Zhejiang Province was completed safely, and I’m currently en route for another mission I was hired for.”
But I didn’t see any cargo around that looked like it belonged to an escort mission.
And since he’d stepped away from his group to talk with me, it probably wasn’t a person either.
Which meant… he must be carrying something on his person.
Then a question hit me.
While the Escort Chief doesn’t lack authority, it’s the Bureau Chief who usually accepts jobs.
An Escort Chief wouldn’t normally take a mission on his own.
So there could be only one explanation.
Though he held the title of Escort Chief, my master either held equal status to the Bureau Chief within the bureau or had been delegated that authority.
Whatever the case, if it’s him, I know he’ll do fine.
Thinking that, I chatted with him for a while, catching up after so long. But suddenly, my stomach churned.
It was the same nausea I’d felt in front of the Institute of Tranquility.
My master noticed my pale expression and asked,
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“I think I’m just tired. I suddenly feel nauseous…”
He looked shocked, eyes going wide.
“Wh-why do you look like that, Master? What’s wrong?”
“Hah! How could I not be surprised? It hasn’t even been a year since you started learning martial arts from me, and you’ve already entered the Evil Sensing Phase (邪感期).”
“The Evil Sensing Phase?”
“Yes. That nausea you felt is proof that you’ve entered it.”
Master calmly explained it to me.
“The internal cultivation technique you’re learning from me, the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art, is a method that gathers exceptionally pure and refined Qi.”
I knew that, of course, but I pretended not to and listened quietly.
“That’s why it protects against falling into qi deviation and resists anything that clouds judgment.”
I’d benefited from that a lot in my past life.
There were times when people would use drugs or incense to impair judgment in order to manipulate negotiations to their advantage.
But I’d never felt this kind of nausea before.
“When your cultivation reaches a certain level, you begin to have adverse reactions to impure influences from the outside.”
“And this nausea I felt was that reaction?”
“Exactly.”
“Then what does this reaction say about my current cultivation level?”
“It means you’ve definitely reached the level of a First-rate warrior.”
But I’d been a First-rate martial artist in my previous life and never experienced anything like this.
Master, noticing my confusion, gave a gentle smile and added,
“To be precise, it means you’re nearing the Peak level.”
“What? P-Peak?”
I was stunned by his words.
Peak?
That hadn’t even occurred to me. I thought my internal Qi was only at a First-rate level.
“Then… am I going to keep feeling this nausea every time?”
“No, you won’t.”
Master laughed lightly as he spoke.
“It disappears once you fully reach the Peak stage. You might still feel a sense of revulsion, but it won’t be uncomfortable.”
“I see.”
At that moment, I realized I’d forgotten to ask something important.
“Then, what exactly is this nausea a reaction to?”
“The answer is simpler than you might think. Why do you think it’s called the Evil Sensing Phase?”
“That’s… no way.”
I continued,
“Is it revulsion toward evil Qi?”
“Exactly. The Evil Sensing Phase is a rejection of evil Qi—meaning the aura of the Unorthodox Sect or demonic energy.”
“That’s why you were able to warn me before my eldest brother’s heir ceremony that you sensed a murderous aura from the Unorthodox Sect.”
“That’s right.”
Master nodded and continued.
“But I’d like you to keep this to yourself.”
“To myself?”
“Not a word to anyone. Except me. The reason is…”
I smiled faintly.
“I think I already know. I’d better keep this secret, for the sake of my own long life.”
Unlike members of the Demonic Cult who proudly proclaim themselves as such, most Unorthodox Sect members hide their identities.
And people who hide who they are usually don’t have good intentions.
What do such people fear the most?
Someone who can see through them.
To protect their plans, eliminating threats like that is a matter of course.
“You’re wise.”
“So, if I’m feeling nauseous now, that means someone from the Unorthodox Sect or the Demonic Cult is inside this guesthouse?”
“Yes. More precisely, someone from the Unorthodox Sect.”
“What does someone from the Demonic Cult feel like, then?”
“You’ll know when you experience it for yourself.”
With that, Master rose from his seat.
“Oh dear, I’ve been away too long. I should be going.”
“Ah, I’ve kept you too long.”
I returned to the dining area.
“All done talking?”
“Yes.”
“You must be tired. Shall we turn in for the night?”
“Let’s do that.”
Just then, a man who’d arrived not long ago finished his meal, let out a sigh, and left the guesthouse.
And the nausea that had been tormenting me began to fade.
Ah, I can breathe again.
Then, it hit me. Something I’d missed until now.
The nausea I’d felt at the Institute of Tranquility happened when I encountered Zhuge Gyeong.
And when he left, the feeling vanished.
That means… he was the source of that nausea.
And Master had said clearly—
“A revulsion to evil Qi—meaning the aura of the Unorthodox Sect or demonic energy.”
So why did I feel that from Zhuge Gyeong?
He’s a member of the Zhuge Clan, one of the Orthodox Sect families.
Ah… damn it!
I just realized why I felt so uneasy earlier when I heard that Zhuge Dong-u, the Grand Elder’s younger brother, was behind this plot.
If Zhuge Dong-u had taken over the Zhuge Clan after the Clan Lord’s death, I’d have known his name.
But I didn’t recognize it at all.
That can only mean one thing.
Zhuge Dong-u wasn’t the one who destroyed the Zhuge Clan.
Someone else did.
I turned urgently to the Grand Elder’s attendant.
“We have to return to the Zhuge Clan immediately.”
“What? For what reason?”
“The Zhuge Clan is in danger.”
The Zhuge Clan estate was in chaos.
“Arrest those men!”
“Ugh!”
“Damn it!”
The warriors dispatched under the orders of the Grand Elder and the Clan Lord were rooting out everyone aligned with Zhuge Dong-u.
In the midst of it all, a man was calmly walking somewhere as if out on a stroll.
“Tsk. It’s over.”
He clicked his tongue with mock regret.
“Shame, but I’ll have to wrap things up here. If I stick around and they find out I supplied the poison, I’m done for.”
If they traced the poison back to him, it could expose the higher-ups behind him. That couldn’t be allowed.
He soon entered his room.
There, he tore down a piece of paper attached to one wall.
Behind it was a talisman drawn in deep crimson.
The formation in front of him was linked to others placed throughout the Zhuge estate.
Its name was the Mist of Delusion Formation (渾我眼膜陳法).
As its name suggested, it blurred the eyes and confused friend from foe.
Originally, it was to be activated after both the Grand Elder and the Clan Lord were dead.
But now that Zhuge Dong-u’s plot had been exposed, he would surely be replaced.
That couldn’t happen.
He needed to achieve something significant to be acknowledged by those above him.
Though the Grand Elder and Clan Lord were still alive, he believed in the power of the Mist of Delusion Formation.
“Hehehe… Let’s see if they can break the formation while cutting down their own kin in the chaos.”
–TL Notes–
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