After leaving the Oral Transmission Pavilion, Sohwa stopped walking not long after. At the entrance leading to the Medical Division, two martial artists were standing who were, by any measure, clearly there to see her.
“It is not easy to catch a glimpse of your face these days.”
At Namgung Jin’s words, Tang Sohwa answered calmly.
“As you know, we are short on hands and I have been busy.”
“Where have you been these past three days?”
Namgung Jin asked bluntly.
Judging from their expressions, neither of the two seemed to have time to waste on small talk.
If she tried to change the subject, it felt like they would say what they wanted regardless of who might be listening.
Right now, all the reception rooms in the outer compound with sound-blocking formations were full.
Recalling the formation in her own room, Sohwa hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“I hear there are many visitors in the outer compound and all the places suitable for conversation are full. If you do not mind, would you come with me to my quarters in the inner compound?”
“Let us do that.”
“Yes! I am fine with anywhere.”
Sohwa personally led the two of them into the inner compound.
She guided them into the small room attached to her sleeping quarters and, as a matter of courtesy, asked,
“Shall I have tea brought out?”
“No. We do not have time for a long talk.”
The moment Namgung Jin sensed there was a formation, he got to the point.
“Where have you been the past three days?”
Instead, it was Tang Sohwa who countered with a question.
“Where did you hear that I went?”
“I heard you went to deliver letters on the Clan Head’s orders, but at least in the Namgung clan, no one believes that.”
“Then what do those people think I have been doing all this time?”
When Namgung Jin kept his mouth shut, Yeon-a answered in his place.
“They are worried that Young Lady Tang might have been kidnapped by the Blood Cult again and also...”
When even Yeon-a trailed off, Namgung Jin ended up continuing.
“They say demonic warriors ran rampant, but no matter who looks at it, it was the work of the Blood Cult, was it not? Because the headquarters was half-destroyed as the price for provoking the Blood Cult, people are guessing that Young Lady Tang went to negotiate with the Blood Cult or something of that sort.”
They called it a negotiation, but she was not a top expert who could threaten the Blood Cult, and her position was ambiguous for someone to say she represented the Tang clan. So “negotiation” was a generously wrapped expression.
“If that is what they suspect, then they must think the Blood Cult was satisfied with my proposal. After all, I came back in one piece.”
“Not everyone thinks that. I, for one, do not.”
At those words, Sohwa asked calmly,
“What do they think I handed over to the Blood Cult?”
“There are some who suspect that Young Lady Tang agreed to get rid of the antidote that removes the Blood Cult’s dokgo.”
Yeon-a nearly nodded without thinking. One of Wudang’s elders had said something similar.
“I see.”
Tang Sohwa still showed no agitation.
She had been away from her place for three days, and there was no one in the Tang clan who could make the antidote for dokgo.
If someone from one of the three sects had asked for more antidote in that time, the Medical Division of the Tang clan would have had no choice but to say they did not know what that was.
From their position, they could misunderstand and think the Tang clan no longer wished to share the antidote for dokgo.
It was strange to try to get more when they already had the antidote in hand, but it was not something impossible to say.
Tang Sohwa had, in front of everyone, said the antidote’s shelf life was one month, and it took a fair amount of time for the three sects to return home, so the antidote’s effective period was cutting it close.
Perhaps reading her thoughts, Namgung Jin said something similar.
“Yesterday, people said we should go back before the antidote we received from headquarters spoiled. A lot of people were persuaded by that. So we were waiting to speak with Young Lady Tang when we ran into Yeon-a’s dojo. We thought it was just us, but it turns out they were saying similar things in Wudang as well.”
“Ah, we are not leaving because we doubt Young Lady Tang! That is absolutely not it! It is just that... from the beginning, the Hubei branch has had some complicated circumstances, so Wudang’s manpower has been heavily drawn off to the branch. As you know, the Sword Sovereign has also been staying there up until the Duel Tournament... so in a situation like this, it is hard to leave the main sect empty for long...”
Yeon-a gave a long string of excuses, worried that whoever was listening might be hurt.
But the one listening compressed all of that into a single sentence.
“So you are saying there is talk of leaving the Tang manor and returning to your main sects.”
“Yes...”
“Has a date been set as well?”
“It was an opinion that came up in haste, but perhaps because they do not think it is entirely wrong... Mm, and on top of that, they say so many people have come in to help the Tang clan that there are not enough pavilions for visitors to stay in...”
As Yeon-a, uncomfortable, started circling around with her words again, Namgung Jin summarized.
“The discussion began yesterday, and today the Clan Head decided we are to depart.”
At that, Sohwa fell silent for a moment, as if thinking, then asked Yeon-a,
“Is it the same for Wudang?”
“Yes... It came up for us yesterday as well, and the Sect Leader made the decision today.”
Yeon-a knit her brows.
“To be honest, the reason is also the same as Namgung’s. We were so uneasy we sat here waiting, determined to meet the Young Clan Head and Young Lady Tang.”
“Could it be that Mount Hua’s circumstances are similar as well?”
“They likely are. It looked like they were packing as well, hiring carriages.”
At Namgung Jin’s answer, Sohwa sank into thought.
It was a misunderstanding anyone could have, to think she had been frightened and gone to negotiate with the Blood Cult.
But for that story to come out all at once, as if by prior agreement, was strange.
'It is as if someone is trying to separate them from the Tang manor, is it not?'
Sohwa realized that she had worn the Blood Demon’s patience down to the very last bit. It seemed he had reached Geumeunsan and checked the situation.
As she had anticipated, the Blood Demon appeared to be trying to come after her.
It was something she had intended, but now that she was gauging the Blood Demon’s movements, she began to feel tense.
Under the table, Sohwa laced her fingers together. The red crescent moon engraved on her pale fingers betrayed her unease.
Considering the nonsense she had spouted in the Great Desert, what the Blood Demon wanted from her would only increase from here on out.
The Blood Demon had already laid his hand on the Tang manor, and he knew the Tang clan was her weakness.
Now that the Tang clan had been taken as a hostage by the Blood Demon and had even been attacked, she could no longer keep playing tricks and waiting for a convenient day.
The Blood Demon would cross over to the Tang manor whenever he pleased in order to threaten her. The fact that he had responded immediately to her bait made that suspicion all but certain.
'But once the Blood Demon is gone, all of these worries will be meaningless.'
Lifting her gaze, Sohwa looked at the two later-generation prodigies.
The man whose life had been cut short by a Blood Cult trap and the woman whose leash had been tied to a sorcerer now stood on the opposite side of the Blood Cult.
If time flowed on as it was now, the two of them would blossom into their full capability and become the real powers of the Martial Alliance.
And when they reached their prime, the Tang clan would be safe for a considerable time.
For reasons she did not know, the two of them trusted her enough to come and tattle on their own sects’ affairs.
'So if something were to happen to the Tang clan, would they not help?'
A vague confidence took hold.
Sohwa breathed in the flower scent that had seeped into the room.
As the scent of peonies she had never cultivated filled her lungs, optimistic thoughts gradually pushed back her anxiety.
The gouged nail marks faded and her heart grew calm.
Many things were different from before.
The demonic warrior who had turned Sichuan into a wasteland was gone.
If she could prove that the Blood Demon could be killed, the Alliance [N O V E L I G H T] Leader would move.
Once the shackle that was the Blood Demon was gone, he would no longer be able to avert his eyes from reality.
The Alliance Leader was a seer who had fought countless battles against the Blood Cult.
If he joined the fight, it would not be difficult to hunt down and eliminate the Blood Cult, who were hiding.
Sohwa did not believe the words that Heaven dictated fate, but she faintly sensed the meaning of “mandate of Heaven.”
It felt as though each person had been given their own role.
And eliminating the Blood Demon—
That felt like something only she could do.
Her body, which reacted to the Blood Demon’s blood, felt like a deliberate creation.
A means to send back to nature the Blood Demon, who denied the cycle of the world. Like a mutant someone had forcibly created in order to remove the monster that blocked the flow of all things.
Even as she regarded herself as an object, Tang Sohwa’s face was tranquil.
Contrary to her expectations, Min Doyu had brought back more than enough materials to disrupt the Blood Demon’s body, and thanks to that, she had succeeded in making the poison smoke.
Compared to making him take medicine, the chance of poisoning him had become incomparably higher.
'The flow is not bad.'
Even so, to quell the faint unease tickling one corner of her heart, Sohwa let herself want a little more.
“I would like to ask the two of you for a favor.”
“Of course! Anything is possible. Ah, what kind of favor is it?”
Without even hearing it, Yeon-a accepted first. Namgung Jin gave her a slightly clouded look for a moment.
But Yeon-a, eyes shining, seemed not to notice that gaze as she waited for the answer.
Sohwa pretended not to see the burdensome brightness in her eyes and spoke.
“If possible, I would like you to keep your headquarters from going too far away and have them stay somewhere nearby.”
