Chapter 24. Shedding the Skin

A willow-branch–slender waist, hands as white as jade and fluttering like willow leaves, and the tautly drawn curve of the collarbones connecting neck, chest, and shoulders.

She was a beauty who seemed capable of making countless men weep with her figure alone.

Even the voice with which she called him “grandfather” was as gentle and soft as her appearance. If the man looking at her had been someone other than Dong Bong-su, anyone would have felt intoxicated and fallen into a daze.

At her call, Tang Wu turned his head toward her. His gaze had already grown far gentler than when he had been looking at Danri Ganghae earlier.

“Just let it go. He’s from a rural town, so he doesn’t know any better.”

Rural town.

To them, Bongyang was nothing more than the countryside, Danri Family was merely a minor rural clan, and Danri Ganghae was no more than a yapping puppy.

A tiger does not react to the barking of a puppy. Tang Wu nodded at the masked woman’s words.

“Very well. Hua. This should be enough to teach this fellow how wide the world really is. Tsk. To think that someone who claims to be a descendant of the orthodox path has so little to do that he’s been drinking and making a drunken scene since morning.”

Tang Wu clicked his tongue as he looked at Danri Ganghae, who lay unconscious with foam at his mouth.

The reason he had dealt a bit harshly with Danri Ganghae and the Black Five Group was meant as a warning.

It was like showing a puppy how vast the world truly was. Of course, whether the unconscious Danri Ganghae would understand it that way was another matter entirely.

“If it were up to my temper, I’d like to snap this fellow’s wrist right here, but I can’t bring myself to be that cruel to a child of the orthodox path. When he wakes up, tell him clearly that if he goes around harassing just any woman, he won’t die a natural death. Understood?”

Tang Wu released another wave of chill as he spoke to Gi Dae-hyo.

Only then did Gi Dae-hyo grasp what had happened. It was certain that Danri Ganghae had treated Tang Wu’s granddaughter, who had stopped by the inn, the same way he usually treated a courtesan.

Most likely, having been bewitched by the masked woman’s alluring appearance, Danri Ganghae had tried to remove her veil or had openly behaved indecently.

They were truly lucky. Even among orthodox sects, an incident like this could easily have ended in bloodshed. And given the difference between the Sichuan Tang Family and the Danri Family, it hardly needed saying—this would have ended with bloodshed on the Danri Family’s side alone.

“ ... Y-yes, yes!”

Fearing Tang Wu’s heart might change, Gi Dae-hyo answered in a hurry.

After hearing his reply, Tang Wu, together with the masked woman Tang Hua, passed between the fallen members of the Black Five Group.

Srrrk.

For some reason, every time Tang Wu took a step, the members of the Black Five Group began to regain consciousness one by one.

As he walked, he was retrieving all the needles he had deployed earlier using remote object manipulation.