Ch. 40
"Yes, family head. I will continue to do so in the future."
The family head laughed as if he found it amusing and then nodded.
"I am grateful for what you have done for the Silver Wind Force. Thanks to you, the main family has decided to seriously pursue the security escort business again. I know that it is by no means easy to enjoy such a reputation."
He seemed to know in quite detail what had happened at the mountain bandit strongholds, and he had a pleased expression.
When I finally left the Danli family, I was empty-handed.
The family head wanted to give me something, but I didn't know how long a good relationship with the Danli family would last.
Just as Pae Maseong had let go of his hand with the Cho family one day, I might also have such a relationship with the Danli family, and I wanted to be able to make a decision easily then.
And since I also had enough wealth to not be envious of others, I had no lingering feelings.
After finishing all the work, I went to the place where Pae Maseong and the children were waiting, and the children who had been scattered everywhere, practicing their martial arts, ran towards me.
"Senior Brother!"
The sound of numerous children calling out in unison shook the air.
Fate seemed to be making a new plan for me again, and I took a deep breath and looked at them.
I had no idea what would unfold now, but I wasn't just scared.
Well, wouldn't it work out somehow?
* * *
"Senior Brother, people are coming!"
The child who ran over, shouting loudly, was Dan Yujong.
He was the child I was paying the most attention to among the children who had come from Nether Shadow Valley.
Among the children who had come from there, there were children who were treated with importance in the novel.
There were also children who would help Pae Maseong and become elders of the Heavenly Demon Sect in the future.
I knew that those children's martial prowess was outstanding and that they were unusually intelligent, but I didn't feel like stepping up and taking care of them.
Those children would shine even if I didn't step up, and they would get along well with Pae Maseong.
And above all, those children would become Pae Maseong's people, so it seemed that I shouldn't step up and steal their hearts.
I don't know if it was because I kept my distance, but those children really did get close to Pae Maseong and became his force.
The children who had not been mentioned in the novel came into my eyes.
There were children I had a soft spot for from the beginning.
They were children who didn't stand out or do better than others now, but for various reasons, my eyes and heart just went to them.
As if they knew that I had such feelings for them, those children were good to me.
At first, being called Senior Brother was very unfamiliar and strange, but after some time, it sounded as natural as if it were my name.
"Everyone, to your positions."
The number of times the Heavenly Forest had sent a pursuit team would be close to twenty by now.
There was no way that what had happened in Nether Shadow Valley would not be known to the Heavenly Forest.
Moreover, the First Class children had been left there, and the First Class children who had been there would have come out of the undone Nether Shadow Valley and asked for help from others, so it was a natural result that they would come looking for us.
Because of that pursuit, only the Heavenly Forest was unilaterally suffering sacrifices, and I couldn't understand how long they were going to continue that reckless pursuit.
Just listening to Dan Yujong's voice now, it was like that.
As he said that people were chasing us, the child was speaking as if he were so excited and happy that he didn't know what to do.
"Yujong, shouldn't you show a little bit of tension?"
"Yes, Senior Brother."
Even the voice that answered like that sounded like a singing voice.
It wasn't just Dan Yujong.
The other guys also rummaged through their poisonous creatures as if they thought that now was the time to confirm the skills they had been honing.
One of the things that had surprised me about the children of Nether Shadow Valley was that these bastards had increased their poisonous creatures in a way I hadn't even thought of.
I had thought that we had brought out enough poisonous creatures from Nether Shadow Valley, but seeing Pae Maseong and me subjugating the mountain bandit strongholds, the children must have realized how useful poisonous creatures were.
And they seemed to have thought that it would be insufficient for them to share it.
In the case of other children, if they had reached that conclusion, they would have fought each other and solved the problem by having one more for themselves, but these bastards had first tried to get offspring by mating the same species.
But that did not go as the children had intended.
The poisonous ones would kill each other while mating, and there were frequent cases where the number of individuals almost decreased sharply from the beginning.
But the children of Nether Shadow Valley were not children who would be daunted by such things.
Those children prevented the mating ones from attacking each other and forced them to increase their numbers.
These guys had obtained young poisonous creatures in that way at first.
The young poisonous creatures also had a huge advantage in that they were easy to tame.
As a result, mating the poisonous creatures and getting offspring to tame them became an important daily routine for the children of Nether Shadow Valley.
But these guys were not satisfied with that and kept creating hybrids.
They mated scorpions and centipedes, and as time went on, they also kept mating things that were absurd.
What was driving me crazy was that in that process, useful guys also came out.
If the work had failed every time, I would have told them sharply not to do it, but the hybrids created in that way were highly poisonous.
But it wasn't just that they had the advantage of being highly poisonous; their poison also had the advantage that it was difficult to find an antidote.
As a result, at some point, I was even at the point where I was curious about whether there were any new hybrids and was peeking around.
The children were sensitive to my thoughts and feelings, and they knew well what I liked and was waiting for.
So they competitively created hybrids and presented one of each of the offspring they had obtained to me.
The children seemed to be putting in a lot of effort and struggling to tame the offspring, but the poisonous creatures that came to me seemed to regard my body as their home.
When I changed my clothes, they would naturally come into the new clothes and take their places.
When we fought, even if I didn't do anything special, they would attack the people who were attacking me as if they recognized them as their enemies.
So my enemies would often die before I could do anything in earnest.
That was what had happened so far.
"Don't fight with poisonous creatures today; use the swordsmanship you learned from Senior Brother Pae."
At my words, all the children's shoulders instantly drooped.
The children's swordsmanship was definitely not improving well, so they were discouraged when they were told to fight with swordsmanship.
Still, once I said that, they did not disobey my orders.
Although there were times when they would secretly apply the poison of the poisonous creatures they had to their swords and fight.
And the children's swordsmanship skills were not poor either.
Everything was relative, and it was just that they didn't stand out next to Pae Maseong, but from the time they came out of Nether Shadow Valley, the children already had some expertise in swordsmanship.
In that state, they met the pursuit team of the Heavenly Forest and almost committed a massacre.
The people who had come to kill the children all became corpses without a single one left, and the children were busy releasing their poisonous creatures on the corpses to feed them to their fill.
Seeing that, I didn't think that just because they were children, they were cute or innocent at all.
The poisonous creatures ate the corpses in a set order, and after the ones that ate the bones had passed, the corpses were left without a trace.
That was the reason why the pursuit team of the Heavenly Forest disappeared without a trace every time.
"The harvest is good this time too, Senior Brother. The pursuit team is really fun. Why do they carry so much money in their pockets when they come to chase people? If it were me, I would have left the money at home. Are they doing this to help us?"
Dan Yujong said as he gathered the money pouches that the dead pursuit team members had in one place.
The money gathered in that way had piled up quite a bit, to the point where if we wanted, we could buy a manor and even run a small martial arts school.
"Senior Brother, the Grandmaster has come."
Another cheerful voice was heard from somewhere, and behind it, Yeon Cheongha was coming.
Yeon Cheongha was looking at the children of Nether Shadow Valley with a loving gaze.
His expression had become so gentle that it was hard to believe that that person had been one of the three great assassins of the Heavenly Forest.
It seemed that he was being recognized for his skills in the Blood Martial Force of the Danli family, and now he was so full of dignity that it would be believable even if he were said to have been born and raised there from the beginning.
The children looked at Yeon Cheongha with expectant eyes, and Yeon Cheongha distributed what he had brought, loaded on a carriage, to the children.
Thinking that the children couldn't eat delicious things because we were living in the mountains, he seemed to always buy things to eat.
"Go and eat. Don't forget to thank him first."
When I said that, the children were excited, bowed to Yeon Cheongha, and ran to the carriage.
The children called me Senior Brother, and since Yeon Cheongha was my master, it would be good if the children could call Yeon Cheongha master, but Yeon Cheongha politely refused that.
Saying that he had enough disciples with the two of us.
So the children called him Grandmaster of the Blood Martial Force, and Yeon Cheongha was satisfied with that title.
"How have you been, master? I'm sorry for not being able to visit you."
"Is there a need to say that? I know how busy you are. I also want to come even one more time, but I can't find the time."
Yeon Cheongha had firmly established his position in the Danli family, and the name of the Blood Martial Force he was in charge of was rising day by day.
Yeon Cheongha always showed his pleased heart, saying that it was all thanks to us that he was being recognized.
"It's a real relief that the world's perception of the Heavenly Demon Sect is improving because of you. It feels like things that would have been hard to imagine in the past are happening on their own."
Hearing those words, I also agreed.
Although there had been a Heavenly Demon who had dreamed of a demonic world for a long time in the Heavenly Demon Sect, their demonic world was reminiscent of laying a blood-red carpet in the Central Plains.
Since voluntary submission was unimaginable, they must have tried to force them to kneel under the sword, but now there were many people who had a good impression of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
After talking about this and that, Yeon Cheongha secretly gave me a look.
It seemed that he had something to say without Pae Maseong knowing, so I followed Yeon Cheongha for a little while under the pretext of seeing him off.
Pae Maseong also sent us off together without any particular suspicion.
"Is there something you want to say, master?"
"There is something that is bothering me about Maseong. I've heard that the people of the Cho family are looking into Maseong."
For some reason, I had a feeling that it was the matter I knew, and a wave of anxiety washed over me.
(End of Chapter)