Chapter 199 – My Child

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

“…How on earth did…?”

Gongsun Su murmured in a dazed voice.

He had clearly stabbed her chest with a dagger, twisted it, and thrown her into the rushing water below.

He’d gone soft at the moment of stabbing and failed to pierce her heart or lungs, but it was still a fatal wound.

Not something an old woman over seventy could survive.

Ju-seong teased from beside him.

“How do you mean, how? You expect a martial artist who fell off a cliff to die?”

Gongsun Su completely ignored Ju-seong’s nonsense beside him and stared at the figure pushing the wheeled chair.

“…Heuk-wol? Is that you, Heuk-wol?”

“Yes, elder brother.”

Heuk-wol was wrapped head to toe in a mask and headscarf to avoid the poison fog’s effects.

Ju-seong, recognizing her only by her voice, waved his hand.

“Oh, Lady Heuk-wol. Hello.”

Heuk-wol seemed taken aback by Ju-seong’s innocent attitude, sighing before nodding in acknowledgment.

Ju-seong shifted his gaze to the figure in the chair.

The Blood Flower Crone sitting cross-legged in the chair.

Her chest was entirely wrapped in bandages, leaving her gaunt upper body exposed.

With that appearance, she actually looked like an ascetic monk in ragged attire.

-CHWA-REU-REU-REU…

But watching the red threads criss-cross like snakes and tentacles to restrain the rebels, she was definitely the evil path’s sovereign.

The Blood Flower Crone’s face was completely caved in on one side… probably injuries from falling off the cliff.

The Blood Flower Crone kept her own children tightly bound to merely subdue them, but showed no mercy to the other members.

-PU-GEO-GEOK! KKU-DEUK! WA-JI-JI-JIK…

“Wow… That’s insane. There’s so many.”

Everywhere he turned, red threads rippled. They were the webs of the Human-Faced Spider.

The Blood Flower Crone’s wheeled chair was connected to only a few dozen strands, yet…

“KAHUK! Suddenly from the wall, thread…!”

The crimson threads strung throughout the entire Maling River gorge.

When the threads extending from the Blood Flower Crone touched the ones already hanging there…

… those hanging threads also came under her control and rippled together.

The Heavenly Silkworm Thread might be superior in sharpness, durability, and versatility,

But the sheer quantity was incomparable.

Having collected all the web her friend the Human-Faced Spider had spun over decades and strung it throughout the gorge to use as a weapon…

That was the true master of the Maling River, the Blood Flower Crone.

The Blood Flower Crone slowly opened her wrinkled mouth and intoned in an aged, yet murderously charged voice.

“Through my own lack of virtue…”

Strangely, though the voice itself was the trembling rasp of an old woman on death’s door, the volume was enormously loud.

A body in decline, yet the internal energy within it was at an awe-inspiring level.

-KOWA-AK!

Five strands of thread ensnared a fleeing member.

“Sect Master! Please…!”

He begged, but the red threads immediately pulled his limbs and head in different directions, dismembering him.

The Blood Flower Crone continued in a sinister voice.

“Not having earlier eradicated the traitors, I shall take this opportunity to cleanse my lack of virtue.”

-TU-PEO-PEO-PEO…

Over a dozen strands twisted into one thick red spike and shot forward, skewering three or four members like kebabs.

Pandemonium.

The southern camp of the Maling… Gongsun Su’s camp… had become a living hell, a bloodbath.

‘…Damn, the level is different.’

Ju-seong stood blankly in the middle of that bloodbath, dazed.

Since reaching Three Flowers Gathering, he too had considered himself among jianghu’s apex fighters.

Of course, if he counted from the top on his fingers, he’d probably be in the upper dozens.

But the truly absolute masters seemed to have crossed yet another wall.

The Green Forest King only showed the aspect of crushing each opponent like a beast, so the gap hadn’t felt visceral.

He was a battle maniac to the bone, a master of destroying humans directly with his own hands.

But the Blood Flower Crone was vividly demonstrating the difference in tier.

Controlling hundreds, thousands of threads at once, each individual thread casually snapping even first-rate or peak-level martial artists.

Gongsun Su, who had reached super-peak, could certainly resist for a while, but…

“…Is he an idiot?”

Gongsun Su had already dropped to his knees with his head bowed, sitting like a sickly chicken.

“Hey, get up. What’s a grown man doing, being pathetic even before fighting?”

“…”

Ju-seong dashed over and smacked the back of Gongsun Su’s head.

“You son of a bitch!”

Raging fury like fierce fire whirled in Ju-seong’s chest.

“You disgusting parricide bastard. You dog of a man.”

For the first time in a while, Ju-seong was enraged enough to make his fingertips tremble.

“Acting like this, you know the Sect Master will forgive you, don’t you?”

Sparks flew in Ju-seong’s eyes.

Gongsun Su… he hadn’t observed the man long, but he could roughly tell what kind of creature he was.

A selfish, cunning opportunist.

A would-be hero who always assessed his chances before acting.

This creature had seen the Blood Flower Crone appear wielding her red threads, realized he had no chance of winning, and immediately dropped to his knees.

‘Because…’

The Blood Flower Crone as “Sect Master” was a cold-blooded demon without tears,

But the Blood Flower Crone as “mother” was an endlessly generous old woman.

“You knew the Sect Master truly treated you with a mother’s love.”

Ju-seong seized Gongsun Su by the collar and spat.

“Yet such a bastard tried to kill his mother?”

-BBEO-EO-EOK!

“You beast, less than an animal.”

Ju-seong struck Gongsun Su across the face. Yet Gongsun Su only subtly circulated internal energy to protect his face, showing no other response.

His target for begging forgiveness was already decided.

“Hey, look at me, you vermin.”

Ju-seong decided to simply beat the bastard to a pulp before the Blood Flower Crone could turn her attention to him.

-BBEO-GEOK! PEOK! KWA-DEU-DEUK.

However much they were both Three Flowers, there was a difference in tier between Ju-seong and this wretch.

A realm forcibly attained through some unknown method.

Versus a realm reached by accumulating peerless martial arts, legendary elixirs, connections with beautiful women, and the myriad tales of jianghu.

‘Anyone who’s read an adventure story knows which side is stronger.’

There had to be a difference between them.

However much Gongsun Su tried to protect himself, there was no way he could withstand Ju-seong’s harsh fists.

“You cast aside a mother’s love like a worn-out shoe, and now you try to rely on it again? Go ahead… try getting beaten to death by a real orphan.”

As the wretch’s ribs were breaking and internal injuries setting in, an aged voice struck the back of Ju-seong’s head.

“…That’s enough, Mad Dragon. He is my child.”

The magnificent internal energy made the entire gorge hum. Ju-seong too threw the wretch’s collar aside and exhaled deeply.

“…I see the Sect Master counts even this dog of a man as her child.”

The old woman with half her face crushed gave a half-smile and answered.

“Of course… he is my child, whom I rescued and raised with my own hands.”

“…”

Gongsun Su gripped his thighs fiercely with both hands and hung his head. To Ju-seong’s eyes, even that looked like an act, and his brow furrowed.

The Blood Flower Crone looked utterly like refuse stuck to her wheeled chair.

“Lady Heuk-wol. Did you save the Sect Master?”

Heuk-wol nodded.

“Gongsun Su’s movements were suspicious, so I secretly tailed him from beneath the cliff, staying hidden. Thanks to that, when elder mother fell, I was able to leap into the river with her and rescue her.”

The Maling River had waterfalls everywhere, and the din of countless birds and monkeys living amid the vegetation was deafening.

If she had hidden among the broad leaves and tailed from below the cliff, she could have fooled Gongsun Su’s eyes and ears.

Ju-seong asked about the rest of the group.

“Where are Yang So-an and Eight-Hook Ghost?”

“Looking for us?”

Behind Heuk-wol, Eight-Hook Ghost and Yang So-an appeared.

“Mm.”

Ju-seong nodded.

In the end, while the eldest son and daughter fought, it was the unambitious children who hadn’t picked sides who truly cared for their mother.

Ju-seong said to them.

“Lady Pyo-eum came with me.”

Yang So-an nodded.

“Mm… Pyo-eum is the youngest, so we didn’t include her in this plan. But we were worried when things got out of hand… thank you, Young Hero.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Ju-seong nodded in acknowledgment, then looked around.

Gongsun Su, meanwhile, kept his head bowed and said.

“Mother…”

The Blood Flower Crone deliberately ignored him, turning to Ju-seong instead.

“When will this vicious poison fog clear? At this rate, Mad Dragon… no, Poison Dragon.”

“Poison Dragon… That’s got a nice ring to it.”

Ju-seong nodded. A sobriquet given by a esteemed figure like the Blood Flower Crone was certainly worth claiming as his own.

“But the character for ‘dragon’ is traditionally a sobriquet for upstarts. It’s customary.”

“I’m an upstart. I’m only twenty-four.”

“Hmph… Having achieved Three Flowers Gathering, how can you call yourself an upstart? You could face the renowned masters of jianghu and not be lacking.”

“Well…”

Ju-seong made a show of waving his hands modestly. The Blood Flower Crone ignored his theatrics and continued.

“Let’s see… You wield poison with such ghostly skill, and you have Shu lands as your base… a master of poison from the west, so Western Poison would fit.”

“My, to have a compass direction in my sobriquet…”

Ju-seong scratched the back of his head, feeling abashed.

If a sobriquet carried a compass direction, it meant that man was counted among the five strongest in that area of the Central Plains.

For example, another alias for Shaolin’s strongest warrior… Buddhist Vessel of the Two Vessels… was Northern Venerable.

So the sobriquet of Western Poison was rather excessive for Ju-seong’s current position.

Of course, it depended on how you defined “the west” of the Central Plains.

“When you say west, does that not include Shaanxi Province? Well, I suppose Shaanxi is the north, isn’t it?”

In Shaanxi were Mount Hua and Zhongnan, so Ju-seong couldn’t compare to their top fighters.

The Blood Flower Crone looked at Ju-seong, who asked such questions, with exasperation before replying.

“Instead of trying to fit yourself to the sobriquet, strive to become a person who fits the sobriquet.”

“Such profound meaning.”

Ju-seong nodded solemnly just as a white-clad woman leaped over the stone wall and came running.

“…Mother.”

Her voice was as cold and composed as before, but the end quivered slightly.

Ju-seong focused on what the woman had called her.

‘Only she and Gongsun Su call her “mother” rather than “elder mother.”‘

Gongsun Su and the Silver Thread Lady called the Blood Flower Crone “mother.” The other siblings, regardless of how much affection they had, called her “elder mother.”

Perhaps Gongsun Su and the Silver Thread Lady were particularly dear children to the Blood Flower Crone.

The woman stared at the Blood Flower Crone with bloodshot eyes. She seemed to be desperately holding back tears.

Ju-seong clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘Speaking as a physician, holding it in will make you sick. Better not to hold it.’

While Ju-seong was internally prescribing advice even a quack could give, mother and daughter were exchanging a silent conversation through their eyes.

The Blood Flower Crone smiled gently and said.

“Silver Thread, child… how long will you keep holding back like that? I told you it’s fine to cry when you want to cry.”

Despite the Blood Flower Crone’s words, Silver Thread merely raised her sleeve to wipe away the single tear that had escaped, then spoke calmly.

“…I was in the middle of confronting Gongsun Su’s faction, who was attempting to illegitimately seize the Crimson Spider Sect. But in the end, it finished by mother’s hand.”

The Blood Flower Crone shook her head.

“Even without me, this crazy fellow would have delivered the sect master’s seat to you.”

Ju-seong shrugged.

“Anyway, he’s better than a parricide. By the way, the Silver Thread Lady seems kind-hearted. She’s just pretending to be cold and aloof, isn’t she?”

The Silver Thread Lady shot Ju-seong a glare.

“…When have you ever seen me to say such things about a person?”

“But even someone like that has abandoned martial pride.”

“…!”

The Silver Thread Lady’s eyes flew open, and the Blood Flower Crone’s expression also sank.

The Blood Flower Crone raised her right hand with a grave expression.

Looking at it, her left hand was completely shattered, with numerous splints bound to it.

“Su, and Silver Thread.”

In the voice of a mother admonishing her children, she said.

“Picking up random things and eating them is something only infants do.”