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Chapter 193. Eight Years of Hardship and Suffering (14)

Eun-Ah, in particular, was having a blast.

Now, there were as many as twenty-three people under her in the hierarchy.

To be precise, if she were to judge things by strength alone, there would be twenty-four people below her. However, Yeo-Seol was the head honcho’s woman, so her strength was irrelevant.

Huff, huff.

Eun-Ah, who had been happily wandering around, suddenly raised her paw and struck at the empty air.

Thwack!

“Ugh...”

One of Ma-Ra’s assassins, who was moving in the shadows, groaned in pain as he was smacked by Eun-Ah’s paw.

While it was only natural for him to feel irritated after being hit out of nowhere, Eun-Ah was a beast of truly unfathomable strength, even to the twelve assassins who made up Ma-Ra’s personal guard.

Each of them was, at the very least, a First Rank Assassin. However, Eun-Ah was still able to find them very easily, no matter how they tried to hide. And when they struck back, it turned out that her thick hide made her simply impervious to their weapons.

There was absolutely nothing they could do.

The assassin who had been hit by Eun-Ah quickly disappeared again, paying attention to his stealth technique even more diligently than before.

‘Just how the hell does she keep finding us? Are we leaving something behind? Or maybe it’s the sound of our breathing? Or a trace of scent? Just what the hell is it?’

The assassins kept thinking about better methods to stay hidden as they continued to hide.

Ma-Ra didn’t bother to get involved as long as Eun-Ah didn’t take things too far. After all, this “bullying” actually allowed their stealth and assassination techniques to improve!

At first, Eun-Ah had just teased them while carefully watching Ma-Ra, testing the waters as she looked out for any signs of anger. Then, as she understood Ma-Ra’s attitude, she slowly ramped up the intensity.

Of all of the travelers, there was just one group who looked at the assassins with a pitiful expression: the Ten Swords of the North Sea.

They and the assassins, two groups that originally should never even have met, had now forged an inextricable bond and felt the pain of empathy.

‘How the hell did we end up having to bow down to a freaking pet?’

Of course, all of them knew that Eun-Ah was no ordinary beast. How many tigers in this world—or how many animals in general—were Absolute Masters, let alone such powerful Absolute Masters?

Still, it wasn’t easy for them to adapt to a situation where they, as humans, had to act subservient to a beast.

No, to be frank, their hearts wouldn’t allow them to adapt.

Right then, Eun-Ah looked toward the Ten Swords of the North Sea.

‘Hiik!’

Eun-Ah was very simple.

Whenever her eyes met someone’s, she would target them.

Huff, huff.

Eun-Ah walked forward, huffing proudly. She pranced over to the Ten Swords of the North Sea, who were desperately avoiding her gaze. They all froze, nervous.

Eun-Ah’s target was already decided—the one who had first met her gaze, the youngest of the Ten Swords.

Eun-Ah had fought with them earlier to teach them the pecking order and ended up winning. However, to her dismay, that victory came with some unpleasant consequences.

Because the soft-hearted Yeo-Seol had protested to Woo-Moon with a sad expression, Eun-Ah was disciplined by him at the end of that day. After that, she made sure only to tease the Ten Swords of the North Sea when Yeo-Seol wasn’t looking.

Thwack!

Eun-Ah’s thick paw hit the youngest Sword in the back of the head.

He didn’t even let out a sound.

Although he had every right to groan in pain and tattle to Yeo-Seol and Woo-Moon about it, he didn’t have the slightest intention to do that. None of them did.

They just gritted their teeth and fanatically practiced their techniques and cultivated whenever they had time.

All of them vowed to beat up that white tiger someday.

There were twenty-three people below Eun-Ah.

Among them, there was only one who wasn’t subjected to Eun-Ah’s mischievous pranks and instead even received her favor(?).

Yu Yu.

Since Yu Yu had been through so much at such a young age, Eun-Ah took great pity on her. Instead of bullying her, Eun-Ah actively took great care of her.

“Faster!”

“Wrong! Your breathing slowed down, and your sword lost its sharpness!”

After teaching Yu Yu martial arts for some time, Woo-Moon suddenly spoke to her with a solemn expression.

“While I’ve told you that I’d take you on as a disciple and I have been teaching you martial arts, it seems we haven’t actually held the Master-Disciple Ceremony yet. I kept putting it off because I thought it would be better to do it properly when we had the time, but it seems like that’ll never happen if we keep delaying it like this.”

Ma-Ra suddenly appeared right as he finished and grabbed his mouth, stretching it on both sides.

“Smile. This sternness doesn’t suit you, idiot.”

“Mmmph, move! What are you doing in front of my disciple?”

After a brief scuffle, Woo-Moon finally chased Ma-Ra away.

Yu Yu, who had been quietly giggling at the sight, quickly became serious.

“Ahem. Because it feels like the proper ceremony won’t happen anytime soon, let’s hold a simple one for now. Let’s start, then.”

Woo-Moon awkwardly made a serious and stern expression of a master again while Yu Yu sincerely bowed to him.

After the ceremony ended, he smiled with a relieved expression.

“Now, you’re officially my disciple. I’ll be teaching you even more strictly in the future, so don’t even think about slacking off.”

“Understood!”

Originally, Woo-Moon was only planning to teach Yu Yu enough martial arts to defend herself, not wanting to take her on as a full-fledged disciple.

He didn’t want to make her a part of the murim; he just wanted to keep her by his side and take care of her until she was able to stand on her own two feet and find her own path.

Moreover, if he could find her a good match, he would even introduce her to someone and help her live a quiet and peaceful life.

There was no part of him that felt regretful over the neidan of the Blood-Horned Poison Serpent or that her acquired qi was wasteful.

It was Yu Yu herself who had other plans.

She wanted to learn martial arts properly and become a truly strong person so that she could help other unfortunate children.

In the end, the world was all about strength.

If one had strength, money and power would follow.

Even if you were the greatest merchant in all of the Central Plains, even if you were the emperor himself, all that meant nothing in front of a truly powerful martial artist. The wealthy could become beggars, and the noble could lose status in an instant.

If she wanted to help others, she had to be strong herself. That was the only way she could help as many people as she wanted.

This was Yu Yu’s conviction.

Of course, she also wanted to learn martial arts in order to help Woo-Moon fight Martial Heaven, but that particular motivation was a secret that she kept from him.

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you this, right? You have a senior brother, Yu Yu.”

“Huh? A senior brother?”

Yu Yu’s eyes widened at the sudden revelation.

“He’s currently cultivating alone somewhere. I’ll pick him up when I return to the Central Plains, so you’ll be able to meet him then. He’s probably... what, a year older than you?”

Woo-Moon thought that Yu Yu would be happy to hear about a new senior brother who could play the same role as her big brother, whom she would only meet in the afterlife. However, her reaction was completely different from what he had expected.

She just stood there quietly, expressionless.

“A senior brother... I see.”

‘What’s with her reaction?’

As Woo-Moon was puzzled, Ma-Ra called out.

“Woo-Moon, I’m sleepy. Let’s sleep.”

Woo-Moon smirked.

“You know what, you’re right. It’s been a while; let’s put down some fur and sleep on a soft mattress for once.”

“Mmm.”

Yeo-Seol’s expression brightened at Woo-Moon’s response. Seeing that, Yu Yu couldn’t hold back anymore and giggled.

Right at that moment, Eun-Ah, who had been harassing the Ten Swords of the North Sea and the assassins in the distance, perked up her ears at Woo-Moon’s words and quickly tried to flee.

“Where do you think you’re going?! Come here this instant.”

ROAR!!

Eun-Ah let out a roar as if rebelling, startling the people around her. However, she immediately rolled over onto her side when Woo-Moon ran over and prodded her with his foot.

“It’s time to sleep. You used to sleep on my stomach all the time; you still have a long way to go to repay that debt. This isn’t even that hard for you anyway. Why are you being a baby? Ha... this is why they say raising children is a thankless task.”

Mew...

Hearing what Woo-Moon said, although Eun-Ah grumbled, she knew that what he was saying was true.

She weakly walked over and lay down next to him.

Woo-Moon was the first to lie down on Eun-Ah’s side.

“Ah, how nice!”

Ma-Ra went to lie down on his right while Yeo-Seol went to his left. They were in plain sight, but Yeo-Seol was far more open-minded than people of the Central Plains, while Ma-Ra had no such notion as caring about others’ opinions in the first place/

The Ten Swords of the North Sea and the assassins looked at Woo-Moon with envious gazes.

‘Such a convenient mobile bed. I’m so jealous.’

‘And we have to sleep on this hard ground again...’

Yeo-Seol smiled happily.

“Ahh, so soft. Hehe... it’s so warm.”

Eventually, Yu Yu went to lie down next to Yeo-Seol, and the Ten Swords of the North Sea and the assassins also made camp and fell asleep.

***

The next morning.

Woo-Moon woke up and roamed around, hunting some game and starting breakfast. Because of his time at the inn, helping the workers and cooking for himself, his cooking skills were rather passable.

Of course, he also wanted to be spoiled by his partners. To his dismay, however, the wall between his wives and the kitchen was thicker than the Impenetrable Golden Wall.

As a disciple of the North Sea Ice Palace since childhood, Yeo-Seol always had someone else cook for her, and to Ma-Ra, a knife was merely a tool to kill people.

As his disciple, Yu Yu also had the duty to tend to her master, but she also happened to be a horrible cook. She had been wandering around with her brother since she was young, so how would she know the intricacies of fine cuisine?

Because of that, Woo-Moon had told Ma-Ra, Yeo-Seol, and Yu Yu that he wanted to teach them how to cook a few days ago.

While Ma-Ra had immediately refused, Yeo-Seol and Yu Yu were delighted, their eyes shining. They actually felt sorry and embarrassed about not being able to cook.

Except for when he was teaching martial arts, Woo-Moon was just like a kind neighborhood oppa. So, Yu Yu was all smiles whenever she was being taught how to cook.

Woo-Moon salted a rabbit and baked it covered in clay, serving it with some cooked vegetables.

After finishing the satisfying meal, Yeo-Seol suddenly looked around.

“Where did Eun-Ah go?”

Woo-Moon had scolded Eun-Ah when she had tried to take more food after eating seven whole rabbits, telling her that she couldn’t be too greedy when other people had to eat as well.

Eun-Ah had disappeared afterward.

“I don’t know. She must be grazing somewhere.”

Suddenly, Yeo-Seol’s expression became strange.

She knew that as a spiritual beast, Eun-Ah wasn’t an ordinary tiger. However, she was still very surprised to find out that Eun-Ah not only ate cooked meat but also vegetables.[1]

Even now, she was amazed whenever she saw such behavior from Eun-Ah.

‘Let’s go find her.’

Yeo-Seol walked carefully, looking around. Eventually, she heard the sound of a tree breaking in the distance.

‘What was that? Is she over there?’

Yeo-Seol moved over, and as expected, Eun-Ah was there.

Eun-Ah was chirping happily with a tree as big as her own body in her jaws. She was heading toward a river flowing nearby.

Yeo-Seol carefully followed her, and fortunately, Eun-Ah, too distracted by her food, didn’t notice her.

Thud, thud!

Yeo-Seol’s expression grew strange again.

Eun-Ah waded into the river with the tree in her jaws and shook her head from side to side without any hesitation, washing the tree in the water.

‘Wait, is she going to eat that?!’

As it turned out, Eun-Ah was in fact going to eat that.

After washing the tree clean, Eun-Ah started chewing on it. The sound of the tree shattering echoed loudly through the forest.

‘...’

Yeo-Seol was speechless at the unimaginable sight.

After a while, Eun-Ah finished her satisfying meal and looked up with a full belly and a great smile, moving to waddle back to where Woo-Moon was.

It was at this moment that she noticed Yeo-Seol.

Huff!

Eun-Ah stared at Yeo-Seol with her mouth wide open, utterly flabbergasted.

1. Tigers are obligate carnivores, but they actually eat plants to help with digestion. ☜