Chapter 69

Even just uttering those words made his face burn hot. Cheong-ra thought Dang Ran-yeong might mock him, but the other's response was unexpectedly calm. He reached out and lightly scratched Cheong-ra's straight nape with his fingers. As Cheong-ra turned his head away to avoid him, Dang Ran-yeong fiddled with his ear and asked,

"In what way do you want me to act basely?"

"That's... up to you. Anyway, just like you've been doing."

"Alright. I'm very good at doing base and bad things, so it won't be difficult."

As Dang Ran-yeong replied and rubbed Cheong-ra's earlobe, Cheong-ra felt goosebumps all over his body. Though the water was warm, he felt his hair standing on end. His request didn't end there, so he continued,

"But, you have to take care of me."

"What exactly do you mean by 'take care of you'?"

"Don't just do whatever and then abandon me afterward."

He recalled how unpleasant it was when Dang Ran-yeong had beaten him at the mansion in Xiangyang and then left him there. However, Dang Ran-yeong seemed to interpret Cheong-ra's words differently and asked in an ambiguous voice,

"Are you asking to be lovers or something?"

"What are you talking about? Why would I want to be lovers with Young Master Dang?"

Cheong-ra lifted his head abruptly and spoke with a serious expression. His relationship with Dang Ran-yeong was only until the beauty contest, and he had no intention of becoming lovers or anything like that. A bit of interaction and physical intimacy was enough. The mere thought of becoming lovers was absurd and made him feel hot and flushed.

Finding it suddenly irritating, he pushed away the other's hand that was still fiddling with his ear. Dang Ran-yeong stared at Cheong-ra.

"I don't particularly want that either, but Young Master Baek Ri's reaction makes me want to be spiteful."

"...What do you mean by that?"

Dang Ran-yeong didn't reply and returned to his original position. As he leaned back against the tub, the water rippled and slightly overflowed. Cheong-ra was now very conscious of the foot that had moved past his thigh and was touching his buttocks. He made his final request.

"And don't call me Young Master Baek Ri."

Usually, the term "Young Master" is used to show respect for the other person. However, recalling how he had addressed Neung Jeong-dong at The Pavilion of Golden Fragrance, it didn't sound respectful at all. It subtly irritated him every time he heard it, so it would be enough to just call him Young Master Baek. Dang Ran-yeong nodded readily to this suggestion as well.

"Cheong-ra."

That wasn't what he meant by not using "Young Master." Surprised by the sudden intimate use of his name, Cheong-ra looked up.

"Is this too intimate?"

As he said this, Dang Ran-yeong's eyes curved, making the mole under his eye move. Before Cheong-ra could say anything, he continued,

"Beauty."

Frozen in the bath, Cheong-ra doubted his ears and asked back,

"Beauty? You're going to call me Beauty?"

"Why? It suits you perfectly."

"Young Master Baek is enough!"

Cheong-ra protested, but in truth, he secretly liked the term "Beauty." Wasn't even Zhou Yu, known as a genius strategist of Wu (In the Romance of Three Kingdoms), called Zhou Beauty because of his good looks?

Anyway, both "Cheong-ra" and "Beauty" felt too ticklish to him. He remained silent for a moment, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart. Dang Ran-yeong didn't say anything more after that, so silence continued. He felt a tickling sensation near his solar plexus, as if there were feathers in his chest.

Finding the silence particularly uncomfortable, Cheong-ra repeatedly closed and opened his eyes. The one who had unsettled him by calling him "Beauty" was enjoying the bath comfortably with his arms crossed and eyes closed. While wondering how long he should stay bathing with this person before it would be appropriate to leave, something occurred to him.

"Young Master Dang, come to think of it, if it's alright, could I have those rat and pig figurines?"

Dang Ran-yeong opened his eyes, which he had been keeping closed, at Cheong-ra's words. His pupils, set in languid eyes, shone with a particularly green light, like pieces of jade.

"What rat and pig?"

"You know, those zodiac figurines. The ones placed in my room at The Pavilion of Golden Fragrance."

Cheong-ra spoke, recalling those cute and delicate figurines. However, Dang Ran-yeong's brow furrowed. It seemed he not only didn't remember, but didn't know about it at all. Cheong-ra, flustered, explained at length.

"Zodiac figurines in the shape of a rat and a pig appeared in my room. Miss Yeo-jin said that Young Master Dang probably put them there... Didn't you?"

Dang Ran-yeong's eyes immediately sharpened. He straightened his lazily stretched body, causing the water to splash again. Looking directly at Cheong-ra, he denied it.

"What are you talking about? I never put anything like that there."

***

In a dark corner of the cavern, corpses were neatly lined up in a row. Even though the opponents were Blood Cult members, the nuns of the Hengshan Sect had left traces of minimal tidying up, unable to simply abandon the dead.

Someone appeared there with a torch, casting flickering light.

The faces of the dead all bore expressions of pain and fear. Their bodies below the neck were torn to shreds, revealing how brutally they had died. There were likely two types of people who could kill humans so mercilessly.

Those with extreme grudges, or those who enjoyed slaughter.

"Or both..."

A voice emerged from the cavern that had seemed empty. The speaker wore a white mask, making it impossible to identify them. They walked lightly across the floor, which had turned dark red from dried blood. In the direction they were heading, there was an overturned brass bowl on the floor.

"The precious sacred stone was destroyed, but even that was for the Demon Army."

The white-masked figure muttered while easily flipping over the heavy brass bowl with one hand. They carefully scraped off the reddish oil that had stuck and hardened inside with their fingertips. After coating a wick with the oil, they lit a fire using their palm as a bowl. A blue flame rose.

Ignoring the burning of their hand, the white-masked stranger rummaged through the floor and found what they wanted. It was a small cotton ball that had fallen, white and unlit. The stranger dusted off the dirt from the cotton ball and looked around. A smile spread across their face as they discovered a dagger stained with red blood.

They scraped off the dried blood from the dagger into powder and smeared it on the cotton ball. Then they lit it with the blue flame.

The cotton ball burst into a large, intense flame. It was an incomparable reaction to when blood from other civilians or Mu-hwa had been used.

"Hmm, as expected..."

Watching the flame burn as if consuming life itself, the red eyes behind the stranger's mask flickered ecstatically. Grinning under the mask, they muttered in admiration,

"This harvest will be excellent."

Chapter 4

"Now there are eleven..."

Cheong-ra frowned as he looked at the eleven figurines and muttered.

After finishing the business at the Hengshan Sect, Dang Ran-yeong immediately returned to The Pavilion of Golden Fragrance in Chang'an. They had traveled so quickly that it took less time than the journey there, and Cheong-ra even experienced carriage sickness, which he hadn't before. Nam Gang-ryong's face had also turned pale, while Dang Ran-yeong alone remained fine throughout.

Upon arriving at The Pavilion of Golden Fragrance like that, they barely acknowledged Yeo-jin's greeting before barging straight into Cheong-ra's room.

Where only the rat and pig had been placed before, eleven of the twelve zodiac figurines were now neatly arranged. Dang Ran-yeong, who didn't know about them, scanned the figurines with an irritated gaze and muttered,

"Why is the rabbit missing?"

"Because I have the rabbit."

Cheong-ra intended to end it with that answer, but Dang Ran-yeong ordered him with his eyes to bring it out. Cheong-ra had no choice but to take out the jade rabbit he had been carefully keeping in his luggage. Now that he had taken it out and placed it on his palm, he realized the rabbit figurine was too small and cute for a martial artist like himself to carry around, so he made an excuse.

"I bought it a while ago to give to Martial Sister Song when I return to the sect."

"You bought it in Dragon Spring, didn't you?"

Dang Ran-yeong replied with a face that seemed to know exactly where Cheong-ra had bought what and what he had done. His tone suggested that since Cheong-ra had returned to Moon Lake Sect and rested sufficiently, he should have had plenty of time to give it to his martial sister. As Dang Ran-yeong snatched the jade rabbit and rolled it in his palm, Cheong-ra flinched.

"I forgot to give it to her. It can happen when you're busy."

Cheong-ra insisted firmly. Then he quickly took the jade rabbit back from Dang Ran-yeong's hand and carefully tucked it back into his sleeve. Yeo-jin, who had followed the two in confusion, cautiously asked,

"Um, Lord Owner. What's the matter? Is there some problem?"

"Yeo-jin, has anyone else entered this room besides you?"

"No, as far as I know, no one else has entered this place except me."

"Then who brought these figurines?"

At Dang Ran-yeong's words, Yeo-jin's face turned pale. She looked back and forth between the lined-up zodiac figurines and Dang Ran-yeong, then gasped.

"They were like this even before you left, so I just thought you had placed them here, Lord Owner. I'll look into what happened right away."

Yeo-jin hurriedly left the room. Cheong-ra quietly examined the small zodiac figurines and then asked Dang Ran-yeong,

"Can outsiders enter The Pavilion of Golden Fragrance?"

"We manage it so they can't. 'Usually,' it would be correct to say they can't enter."

"Usually?"

Cheong-ra didn't miss the meaningful tone and asked. Dang Ran-yeong slowly looked around the immaculately maintained room interior and answered,

"It means Blood Cult members have sneaked in here a few times. It was about time for a purge anyway. How troublesome..."

Cheong-ra closed his mouth at Dang Ran-yeong's words. The zodiac figurines suddenly looked different to him. Before, they had just seemed nice and cute, but after encountering the Blood Cult members, he felt a sense of vigilance. However, looking at the collection of figurines that was only missing the rabbit he had bought, Cheong-ra felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

"Then, what if it's not the Blood Cult, but the work of a highly skilled master?"