Chapter 64: When I came home… (3)

Cale looked to one side.

"Why is he not waking up?"

Sui Khan looked down after hearing the nonchalant question.

He could see the back of the person who was currently serving as his chair.

"He keeps seizing when he wakes up so I am continuously knocking him out."

It was the Emperor who was plopped over on the ground.

Everything except his face was black at this point.

"Good job."

"Why thank you."

Sui Khan accepted Cale's praise as if it was not a big deal.

"…Crazy bastards."

Number 7 subconsciously mumbled before making eye contact with Choi Han.

"...!"

He subconsciously looked away after seeing that cold gaze.

Choi Han was the bastard who had knocked Number 7 unconscious over and over.

"Now then, shall we chat?"

Cale looked around at the people in this area.

The unconscious Emperor, and the still conscious Number 7, patriarch, and Chief of Staff were here.

Sui Khan and Choi Han were with Cale as well.

The rest of the group was doing other things right now.

'The children went with Eruhaben-nim.'

The ancient Dragon had gone with Aphei to look for a suitable place to plant the World Tree.

Raon had been roaming around Aphei before he, On, and Hong all went with Eruhaben.

'That's good.'

Cale was feeling a bit freer with On, Hong, and Raon not here as he started to speak.

"What's wrong with you?"

His eyes turned toward a person.

"...."

The Huayans patriarch. Reddock Huayans.

That once extremely confident bastard was avoiding Cale's gaze in an almost exaggerated manner.

It was truly over the top.

"Pfft."

Cale turned his gaze toward the direction of the laugh.

"What is it, team leader-nim?"

Team leader Sui Khan responded with actions instead of words.

He walked over to the kneeling patriarch.

"Ugh!"

The patriarch tried to get away from Sui Khan's reach but Sui casually pulled at the patriarch's top.

"Huh?"

Cale looked at the patriarch's shoulder.

"Huh?"

He then looked at Sui Khan again.

"...."

Cale then looked back at the patriarch's shoulder.

"…It was purified?"

– Holy moly.

The cheapskate could not hide his shock.

"…This works?"

Cale's subconscious words caused a fire in the Huayans patriarch's eyes.

"What? This works? You mean you did that without knowing?!"

Pow!

"Ugh!"

However, he soon had to lower his head. Sui shook the hand he used to smack the patriarch on the back of the head before grabbing him by the head and making him sit down properly.

"...."

"...."

Number 7 and the Chief of Staff looked at the patriarch's shoulder with honest looks of shock.

There was a thunderbolt-shaped burn mark left there.

It looked pretty painful.

However, that was not important.

Following the thunderbolt-shaped mark, the Huayans patriarch's shoulder down to his chest had turned back from black to regular skin color.

Of course, that area was red from being burnt.

– Wow! Our power can even purify people who are poisoned with dead mana?! Cale, we are so cool!

Cale completely ignored the cheapskate's frivolous voice.

"This is good."

Cale calmly looked down at the Huayans patriarch.

"Let's use this time to purify you completely."

"…! No-!"

The Huayans patriarch looked at Cale with dread.

'…He honestly seems petrified.'

Cale found it odd that the patriarch seemed quite petrified. It did not seem like he had this look just because he was scared of losing his powers.

"It seemed to be quite painful."

Sui Khan resolved his question.

"I was in charge of keeping an eye over this bastard last night."

Sui had to watch over the patriarch while Choi Han kept an eye on the rest.

"He was in serious pain. He did seem to have strong endurance though."

"Oh."

Cale let out a short gasp before observing the patriarch's complexion.

"Hmm. I guess he does have some cold sweats. He is pale too."

"Yeah. He's probably holding it in because he is in front of you. At night time, he just begged me to knock him out. It must be quite painful."

The patriarch watched Cale and Sui Khan chat with him in the middle with a look of disgust. However, he could not say anything.

'It's terrible.'

He had never felt such pain in his life.

It felt as if bugs were gnawing on his skin very slowly, with the thunderbolt-shaped scar at the center.

In addition to that, he felt quite a lot of pain every time those 'bugs' bit him.

Crackle. There was the pain of a current going through him as well as the feeling of being burnt.

The biting, current, and burning all came together. Nonstop.

It was terrible and completely dreadful.

However, the thing that was the worst of it all was…

His power decreased and that so-called 'purification' happened with the pain.

Smile.

"...!"

The patriarch subconsciously opened his mouth after making eye contact with Cale and seeing him smile.

"Just kill me!"

'Yes, please just kill me.'

"Aren't you planning on killing me anyway? Just kill me now! What good will it do you to keep someone like me alive? Hmm?"

"Yeah."

"…Huh?"

The Huayans patriarch blankly looked at Cale, who answered so easily.

"I will let you die if you properly answer the things I want to know."

Cale asked before the anxious Huayans patriarch could even open his mouth again.

"What did you do with the King of Roan?"

"...."

The Huayans patriarch closed his mouth.

Cale reached his hand out at that moment.

Crackle. Crackle.

A rose gold current crackled in his hand.

"!"

The patriarch urgently opened his mouth.

"I, I don't know!"

"…What?"

"What happened in the Roan Kingdom was not under my jurisdiction! I don't know!"

Cale slightly scowled at this reaction.

'He seems to be telling the truth.'

The patriarch's reaction seemed real.

'Then something is weird.'

Cale's mouth opened.

"Then why did they use white magic in Duke Orsena's Estate?"

While the Roan Palace crumbled and the king disappeared…

Duke Orsena's Estate was burning in the capital.

Furthermore, young lady Orsena had disappeared.

The only person who survived, the youngest young lady Orsena, had mentioned white magic.

"T, that-"

The Huayans patriarch, who had a different look on his face, was stumbling over his words.

Cale extended the hand with the Fire of Destruction forward and commented.

"Oh, you are hesitating?"

"Fuck!"

The patriarch swore before speaking in a weak voice after seeing the rose gold light right in front of his face.

"The incident at the Duke's Estate is not my jurisdiction either."

"Hmm."

Cale's hand headed toward the patriarch's leg.

"B, but I helped them!"

Cale's hand stopped after hearing the patriarch shout. Cale's gaze then headed away from the patriarch to someone else.

"Your face looks quite weird right now."

Blood Cult's Number 7. A single drop of cold sweat dripped down his cheek after he heard Cale's comment.

'W, when did he see the look on my face?

Was he not looking at the patriarch?'

Cale gave an order to Reddock Huayans without caring whether Number 7 was shocked or not.

"Continue."

"…The Blood Cult side and we are currently in a cooperative relationship."

He warily looked at Cale before speaking.

"In return for the Blood Cult helping us, they requested that we work with them every so often. The incident at Duke Orsena's Estate was one of those things."

"Are the jiangshis what they were helping you with?"

"Yeah."

"Then do you know why the Blood Cult did that at Duke Orsena's Estate?"

"That-"

A low voice came from next to them as the patriarch opened his mouth.

"Patriarch."

Number 7 was looking at the patriarch with a stoic face. It was as if he was saying that he would not leave the patriarch alone if he said anything more.

"Ugh!"

However, Number 7 slowly lost consciousness after feeling pain on the back of his head.

"…Again...!"

He could not even finish his sentence.

Choi Han moved the unconscious Number 7 to one side as he addressed Cale.

"Please feel free to continue, Cale-nim."

"…Okay."

Cale was silent for a moment before nodding his head while the patriarch had a look of disgust and weakly started to speak.

"I don't really know why the Blood Cult did that at Duke Orsena's Estate."

"You don't know?"

"But!"

The patriarch urgently continued to speak after seeing Cale ready to push the rose gold light toward him again.

"The Blood Cult is currently at an important time."

"...."

The patriarch peeked at the unconscious Number 7 and continued to speak after seeing Cale staring at him.

"Their plan is to start the Great War of the Triumvirate between the Good faction, Evil faction, and the Demon Cult."

The Great War of the Triumvirate.

That phrase made Cale's eyes cloud over.

For someone who read fantasy novels for many years and read a few wuxia novels in the process as Kim Rok Soo, he could draw a picture as soon as he heard the patriarch say the Great War of the Triumvirate.

The Triumvirate.

Good faction.

Evil faction.

Demon Cult.

These three factions were the major martial artist forces of the Central Plains, otherwise known as the wuxia world.

It meant that the Blood Cult was going to scheme to create a great war between the three major forces.

'If the Great War of the Triumvirate really breaks out…'

All of the Central Plains' mountains and streams would be full of blood from battles.

It would be a relief if only martial artists died during those battles, but…

'Based on how these Hunter bastards have done things, they will probably drag in martial artists, civilians, and even the military.'

He could already feel it.

'This is going to be even more of a shitshow.'

An even greater shitshow will take place in the Central Plains with the Blood Cult than in Xiaolen.

"How is the Duke's House of Orsena related to the Great War of the Triumvirate?"

"…In addition to the Great War of the Triumvirate, it is time for them to pick a new priestess."

"Priestess?"

"Yeah."

The Huayans patriarch sighed once before continuing to speak.

"I'm sure you don't know much about the dimension with the Blood Cult. But the Blood Cult has their god, the Blood Demon, and there is a position of the priestess, the person who helps that god and delivers the will of the heavens."

'I know all of that.'

Cale wanted to tell him that he knew about this but decided to just listen.

He thought that Choi Han and Sui Khan probably didn't know these things.

"The current Blood Demon goes through the process of choosing a new priestess before selecting the next generation's successor."

"So what you are saying is that you don't know the details about what the Blood Cult is doing. But the Great War of the Triumvirate and the selection of the priestess… You believe that the incident at Duke Orsena's Estate happened because of one of these two reasons?"

"Yeah."

"You revealed everything easier than I thought."

One corner of the Huayans patriarch's lips curled up at that comment.

"I can't die alone."

"Yeah. Based on what I observed, it looked like you Hunter households were in competitive relationships with one another."

Cale returned to the beginning after receiving a decently satisfactory answer.

"So then, who was responsible for the incident at the Roan Palace?"

"...."

The patriarch closed his mouth.

Cale just waited. It was because he saw the fear in the patriarch's eyes.

He seemed to be thinking about a different fear despite looking right at the rose gold light.

"…Will you really kill me?'

"Yeah."

Of course, Cale had no plans on killing him.

He was planning on pulling out as much information as possible.

"…I will respond because you said that you will kill me."

The patriarch clenched his eyes shut before opening them back and starting to speak.

"Five Colors-"

It was at that moment.

"Cale-nim!"

"Shit!"

Choi Han pulled Cale back while Sui Khan grabbed the patriarch by the back of his neck and flung him back.

Baaaaaaaaaang-!

A large explosion occurred.

The Huayans patriarch's body burst and exploded.

It truly had happened in an instant.

In the instant that the veins on the patriarch's face turned red and Sui Khan and Choi Han acted after sensing something was off… The patriarch exploded and died.

"…What the hell?"

Cale looked toward the location of the explosion.

The patriarch had disappeared without a trace.

Only some black blood was left where he had been.

"Did he die because he brought up the Five Colors Bloods just now?"

Nobody answered Cale's question.

He slowly looked down toward the only conscious person. He looked at the Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff was captured and brought here because he was the Huayans patriarch's close confidant who had been secretly working for him for a long time.

He was shaking quite a bit while looking at where the patriarch had died. It was as if he saw the thing he feared the most.

"…It looks like the chat is going to be a bit longer than I thought."

Cale was speaking calmly but felt a mysterious iffyness.

The Five Colors Bloods.

It was uneasiness toward the household with that weird name.

* * *

Tap tap tap.

Cale sat on a couch and tapped the screen of the item he had placed on the table.

Tap tap tap.

Cale tapped again after not seeing any response.

Tap tap tap.

"Are you not going to answer me?"

At that moment…

Oooooong– oooooong–

The mirror started to vibrate.

It was as if it was disgusted.

Or maybe it was a bit scared.

Cale looked down at this divine item that the God of Death had given him before smiling and gently speaking.

"Now then, time to pay up."

Oooooong– oooooong–

The mirror vibrated as if it was shaking.

"It looks like I will need to be paid for everything I did. I have a lot of time so let's discuss everything without leaving anything out. Hmm?"

Oooooong– oooooong–

The mirror was shaking intensely.

As for Cale, he was smiling brightly.

– Time to get money!

He was smiling brightly while hearing the cheapskate cheer.

—

Translator's Comments

Money time!