Chapter 60
The guard was not someone who revealed their martial prowess in front of others and coveted merits, but rather a shadow of the master they protected.
They were people who placed the reason for their existence and the basis of their success in the safety of their master.
Even with Ya Socheong joining in, Danli Cheon held on for quite a long time.
Ya Socheong thought that Danli Cheon would soon collapse, but that was his misjudgment.
The reason Danli Cheon had faced them for a long time was simply to find any clue as to who the two were and why they had appeared before him. Once he judged that he had no chance of winning if he stayed there for long, Danli Cheon flew away without delay.
Ya Socheong, unable to follow him due to his internal injury, sprinkled the poison powder he had on him with all his might.
But Danli Cheon dodged it with ease, made a scornful face, and then disappeared.
"Brother, are you okay?"
Pae Maling said as she supported Ya Socheong.
"He was quite something."
"Is this the time to be saying that? Hurry up and move to another place and do your energy circulation. I'll protect you."
That was what he needed anyway.
"Don't think about anything else for now and just focus on treating your internal injury. We can always catch Danli Cheon again. Even if we can't, don't worry about that for now and just focus on healing your wound. They said that if distracting thoughts get in the way, something could go wrong while you're doing your energy circulation."
Pae Maling seemed to be only worried about Ya Socheong.
"Why can't we catch him?"
"The poison powder didn't even reach him..."
"That was a feint. It was to make him think he had dodged it and feel relieved. The tracking scent I really wanted to put on him is all over his body, so you don't have to worry. We just have to follow him within three days, so we have plenty of time."
"Really?"
Pae Maling looked at him as if she hadn't thought of that.
Seeing her somewhat dejected face brighten, it seemed that she had been very disappointed at having missed Danli Cheon.
For now, it was urgent to leave that place.
They could be misunderstood by those who saw the dead guards.
For a while, only a deep silence lingered in the place where Ya Socheong had left with Pae Maling.
* * *
After finishing his energy circulation, Ya Socheong noticed that Pae Maling had been standing there in a tense state without moving, protecting him.
"You've worked hard, Maling."
"Are you still not feeling well, brother? Your face looks dark."
"It's because I have something to think about."
"Something to think about?"
"Yes, Danli Cheon probably didn't need to let it be known that he was a person of the Heavenly Demon Sect. Since his claw technique was something he had created himself, there would have been no one who could recognize it. But wherever Danli Cheon passed, it is said that a demonic head appeared."
Pae Maling tilted her head as if she hadn't thought about that, and then slowly nodded.
"That's true."
"I have a feeling that someone is trying to use us. It seems that there is someone who needs to tarnish the reputation of the Heavenly Demon Sect, and I am thinking about who that is and for what reason."
Pae Maling also seemed to be thinking.
"Among the third prince and the fifth prince, it's highly likely that Danli Cheon has sided with the third prince, right?"
"That's right. If it's the third prince who seems to be receiving the emperor's favor on the outside."
"Then could it be a rumor spread by the fifth prince's side?"
"It would be right to think so, but it could also be a rumor spread by the third prince's side, aiming for that. But I don't know what benefit there is in such a rumor spreading."
Pae Maling nodded and said that there was a way to find out.
"It seems the time has come for me to use this."
Then she proudly took out a plaque.
"It's a plaque that only the direct descendants of the family head of the Danli family can have."
It seemed that if you had that, you could use the information organizations that were out from the Heavenly Demon Sect.
Pae Maling was puffed up with a face that said to just trust her, and Ya Socheong just hoped that things would go well.
He had no desire to reach a dead end so quickly.
* * *
But Pae Maling had never used that plaque before, and as time went on, Ya Socheong laughed at her clumsiness.
It seemed that she wanted to show him a cool and well-done side of herself, but when that didn't go as planned, Pae Maling became tearful.
"There's no need to be so hasty, Maling. If you get anxious, the other person will also know that you are. Then they will use your anxiety, and from then on, you will be dragged along by them. If that happens, won't you be the only one at a loss?"
Pae Maling also nodded.
Everything he said was right.
"You don't have to feel too much pressure. What you couldn't do today, you can do tomorrow, and if you can't do it tomorrow, let's just think that a day will come when you can. And if you still can't do it, you can just think that it was not something we could do. We are not omnipotent, and we are humans with limits."
"Aren't you disappointed in me, brother?"
"What's so great about me that I would be disappointed in you? We need to be a little more generous with each other. You should also cherish yourself."
Those words certainly helped Pae Maling.
Ya Socheong rather cherished her more and treated her kindly when things didn't go well for her.
As a result, she was able to resolve things calmly without being anxious anymore.
After that, things went well.
A lot was known about Pae Maling to the people outside as well.
When she became the foster daughter of the family head of the Danli family, she was called Danli Maling.
But Pae Maling herself valued her relationship with her brother, Pae Maseong, more, so she wanted only Ya Socheong to continue to call her Pae Maling.
Still, when she met people as the foster daughter of the family head of the Danli family, she introduced herself as Danli Maling, and she heard a lot of valuable information from the people she met in that way.
"It took a long time, so there was a lot of delay. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Still, I'm relieved that we seem to have gotten the information without being too late."
Unexpectedly, an informant who had acquired a new identity as the head monk of a small temple and was living there met the two of them at the temple and said.
Ya Socheong was greatly surprised to learn that the head monk was an informant of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
It was because he thought that the Heavenly Demon Sect had really penetrated deep into various places.
No matter what, it was hard to imagine that the people of the sect who believed in and served the Demonic God would be hiding their identity as the head monk of a temple, so he shook his head several times.
It was the same for Pae Maling.
"I have looked into the part you mentioned in detail. And I have found out that Danli Cheon has become a trusted subordinate of the third prince. Danli Cheon is drunk on the money that the third prince gives him, and it seems that he thinks he will gain great power when the third prince ascends to the throne later, but the third prince is just using him as a pawn to be used and discarded lightly."
Ya Socheong, who had experienced Danli Cheon for a short time, had also guessed that that would be the case.
Who would share a great will and entrust a great task to a person who was soaked in alcohol and could not even take responsibility for his own words and actions?
"But since Danli Cheon's martial prowess is considerable, it seems that he has handled the tasks that the third prince has entrusted to him without any mistakes so far. It is said that Danli Cheon's contribution is great in the fact that the third prince has been firmly holding his position until now."
"I thought so."
"Since it seems that there is something else you are curious about, I will tell you that first. Danli Cheon probably didn't want to reveal who he was, even if it was just to avoid being chased by the sect's pursuit team. If possible, he would have kept his distance from the sect and would have never done anything that would reveal that he was a person of the sect."
The two of them nodded at almost the same time.
"The people who are continuously spreading the rumor that Danli Cheon is a person of the sect were the people on the third prince's side. Seeing them do that, I wondered if there was a person of the sect on the fifth prince's side or if there was a person of the sect among the fifth prince's important supporters, and I looked into it, and that was correct."
"Is that really true?"
Ya Socheong had also thought about that to some extent, but he was surprised when it was confirmed through the head monk's words.
"It is known that the fifth prince's maternal family has a deep relationship with the sect. It was so secretly hidden that it was difficult for us to find out, but it is said that when the fifth prince's mother was young, she was almost in a dangerous situation during a trip, and the martial artists of the sect saved her. As their exchange deepened, it is said that both the fifth prince's maternal uncle and maternal great-uncle married women of the sect."
If so, it was a deeper relationship than he had thought.
"The story was so thoroughly kept secret that not many people within the sect knew about it. But the third prince's side found out about it. So they are hell-bent on spreading bad rumors about the sect to use that as a pretext to attack the fifth prince someday."
It was a dumbfounding thing.
Without even knowing that, Danli Cheon had been acting as the third prince's sword for his own safety, harming the reputation of the sect.
"Which family are the fifth prince's maternal aunt and maternal great-aunt from?"
When Pae Maling asked, his answer followed.
"I know that they are all from humble families. It is said that they tried to leave the family, fearing that the fifth prince would be in danger because of them, but the family members cherished the two of them very much and are protecting them until the end."
It seemed that they had met sincere people among the people who would swallow you if you were sweet and spit you out if you were bitter, entangled in the palace intrigues.
"We must find and eliminate Danli Cheon quickly. And we must let it be known that Danli Cheon did not commit the acts as a person of the sect, but as a trusted subordinate of the third prince."
"It seems that you can do that. It is said that it is true that Danli Cheon ate the inner core of a spiritual beast. The fight will become more difficult as time goes on. As time goes on, he will absorb more of the inner core's internal energy and will be able to use it freely."
Ya Socheong nodded.
"I heard that all the people whom the third prince considered an eyesore were killed by Danli Cheon. They say that no one who was hit by his claw technique survived. The third prince is a greedy and corrupt person, and if he usurps the throne as he wishes, many people will suffer."
Ya Socheong, who had not known that he had to be interested in such things, sighed deeply inwardly.
Until he had left the Heavenly Demon Sect, he had not thought that things would get this big, but for some reason, he had gotten deeply involved in the palace intrigues.
In any case, it was about time to start moving.
He had to go while the tracking scent he had sprinkled was still there.
(End of Chapter)