Chapter 120: Stolen Goods (6)
Translator: bjgoofy
The Divine Thief and I had both been paralyzed, a case of Mutual Destruction, but this was inside Sichuan's Tang Family compound.
This was as good as a guaranteed capture.
Just as I was celebrating inwardly, I heard Yeondu cry out.
-Hissss!
Startled that I had collapsed, she licked my face and kept butting her head against my cheek.
She seemed to think I was hurt. But with my acupoints sealed, all I could move were my eyeballs, so I had no way to tell her I was fine.
'I want to tell her not to worry, but I can't speak.'
Then, after nudging me for a moment, Yeondu apparently lost her temper. She whipped her tail against the rear of the woman slumped on top of me several times.
After that, she wriggled away and disappeared in the direction of the Family Head's Hall.
It seemed like she was going to fetch Hwa-eun or someone else.
I considered sending my thoughts to Cho and Hyang, but since Yeondu had already gone, people would come flooding in soon enough.
In the meantime, I decided to simply bask in the joy of having caught the Divine Thief.
'Three wishes, huh. What should I pick? Then again, what kind of wishes can a thief grant? Probably just stealing something from somewhere, right? That makes wishing a bit awkward....'
I was in the middle of deliberating over those three wishes.
A woman's distinctive scent drifted faintly from atop my chest.
'Wait, does this woman wear some kind of perfume? And she's kind of heavy.... W-woman!? Hold on. Was the Divine Thief a woman!?'
A sudden question flashed through my mind.
I was certain that Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, had told me the Divine Thief was a man of similar age to himself.
'Then what on earth is she? It's definitely not the Face-Changing Technique, is it?'
The thought that briefly crossed my mind was something Grandfather had explained when he once taught me the fundamentals of martial arts: the Face-Changing Technique, a martial art that altered one's facial appearance, and the Bone-Shrinking Technique, a martial art that allowed one to freely adjust height and muscle mass. Could this person have used both?
The idea was that perhaps the thief had combined those two techniques with some voice-altering art I didn't know about to produce a gender-swapping effect.
But on reflection, the woman had already changed from Seol noona's face to that other face.
On top of that, the distinctly feminine scent wafting from the woman collapsed unconscious on my chest was strongly insisting that she was, in fact, a real woman.
Moreover, setting the face aside, if she had lost consciousness and her martial arts had come undone, she should have reverted to her original body, yet she remained in a woman's form.
I quickly sent my thoughts to Cho and Hyang.
'Hyang! Cho! Bring your mother or whoever else is nearby to the entrance of the Golden-Furred King Bee's nest! Dad collapsed! Hurry!'
The reason I sent such an urgent message was that something felt off. What if the woman was just a decoy?
And the real Divine Thief was someone else entirely.
If that were the case, then even collapsing inside the Tang Family compound was no reason to feel safe.
Since no warriors had been stationed on this side to avoid revealing my position, if the real Divine Thief happened to find us, he could scoop us up like a fisherman snatching a clam while the crane and the shellfish fought each other.
'Please.... Don't let me get stolen! Don't let me become Stolen Goods!'
After an anxious wait, the faces that appeared were, thankfully, people of Sichuan's Tang Family.
From the direction of the compound entrance came Seol noona, hastily draped in something like a covert operations outfit, and from the Family Head's Hall came Hwa-eun with Hyang and Yeondu perched on her shoulders, along with the family elders and warriors.
-Cock-a-doodle-doo.
And as dawn broke and the sound of a rooster crowing reached them, the people who had been rushing over stopped and turned toward the direction of the crowing.
"A rooster!"
"The rooster has crowed!"
The Divine Thief's Notice of Theft was valid only until the first rooster crowed.
I had no idea who the woman was, but the first rooster had crowed, so the Divine Thief would withdraw.
That was the Unwritten Rule of the martial world.
'By the way, if the Divine Thief retreats, is there no reward?'
The deal was three wishes if you caught the Divine Thief, but I was curious whether there was any reward if the thief simply withdrew.
And there was also the matter of the identity of the woman I had caught.
***
The woman lay unconscious on the bed, felled by Yeondu's bite.
Grandfather, who had released my acupoints, took a brief look at the woman, then ordered that she be moved to a guest chamber. So rather than being treated like a captured thief, the woman was receiving the hospitality afforded to a guest.
"So what is she, exactly? At first I assumed the Divine Thief had used the Bone-Shrinking Technique and the Face-Changing Technique, but it turned out that wasn't the case."
When I asked while gazing at her, Grandfather approached the bed and took the woman's wrist in his hand.
Then he showed us her wrist, smiling.
"It seems the old thief has passed his title on to a disciple. This girl is probably the new Divine Thief."
"That woman is the Divine Thief!?"
"Her!?"
The woman, who didn't look much different in age from Hwa-eun, was apparently the new Divine Thief, according to Grandfather.
When Hwa-eun and I stared at him in surprise, Grandfather pointed to the woman's wrist again and spoke.
"Do you not see the Heavenly Silkworm Thread wound around her wrist? The Heavenly Silkworm Thread is the Divine Thief's sacred relic. That means this girl is the Divine Thief. I wanted to give that old man a thrashing, but I suppose I'll have to settle for the disciple."
Grandfather confirmed the woman's identity as the Divine Thief by the thread wrapped around her hand.
Just as he said, a thread as fine as enchanted silk was wound around her wrist.
And once her identity was confirmed, Hwa-eun's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"Why would a young female Divine Thief come to steal our Soryong? It doesn't seem to be about the poisons. Surely she doesn't have some other motive?"
"Other motive?"
"Like she took a fancy to Soryong?"
"Oh, come on. She's a woman I've never even met."
When I made an incredulous face at Hwa-eun's suggestion, she wagged her index finger and said,
"A woman or a man spots someone from afar and their heart is stolen, so they kidnap them. It happens. Think of Spear Dragon's case, Soryong. If Spear Dragon had been just a little more wicked, wouldn't it have turned out exactly like that?"
What Hwa-eun meant was that a Spear Dragon gone dark could very well have done such a thing.
I thought it was a preposterous opinion, but when she brought up Spear Dragon, I found myself nodding in spite of myself.
Because Hwa-eun had said she'd never once had a proper conversation with Spear Dragon either.
'No, well, when you put it that way, maybe it does seem plausible? But wait, thinking about it... in this world, the only daughter of the Tang Family and the Divine Thief both admire the reincarnated me? That might not be so bad.'
Just as I was gazing at the woman's face again, mulling over whether what Hwa-eun said could be true, another displeased voice spoke up from beside me.
"If she's the Divine Thief, that's even worse! A so-called hero of the Central Plains martial world sealed my acupoints and stripped me of my clothes! Just wait until she wakes up! I'll, I'll challenge her to a duel!"
The reason Seol noona was so furious was none other than this.
When the woman had arrived in front of the Training Grounds where the Golden-Furred King Bee lived, she had clearly been in the form of Seol noona.
From her face to her figure and even her clothes.
I had wondered how the woman had been wearing the distinctive clothes of the Beast Palace.
As it turned out, she had sealed the acupoints of Seol noona and the Beast Palace warriors accompanying her, knocking them all unconscious, then dragged Seol noona into the bushes and taken her clothes....
Unlike the Central Plains style, Beast Palace clothing resembled the garb of Yunnan's ethnic minorities: a short skirt and a simple top.
Unlike Central Plains women, who wore an additional white inner garment and underclothes beneath their outer layer, Beast Palace attire had nothing under the outer garment aside from thin undergarments. Being dragged into the bushes and stripped was essentially the same as being left bare, which was why she was so furious.
And the clothes the Divine Thief had left behind didn't even fit, which made her angrier still....
Under the searing gazes of Hwa-eun and Seol noona, the Divine Thief began breaking out in a cold sweat on the bed.
Subjected to the chilling stares of the two women, she seemed to be suffering from some kind of nightmare in her sleep.
***
The next day, an unexpected visitor came to the Tang Family.
I was resting after lunch when the signal horn sounded from the Nine Progress Gate entrance.
Hwa-eun and I rushed over to find a grimy beggar standing there with a smile.
It was the Beggar Emperor.
"Have you all been well?"
"Beggar Emperor, Elder!?"
"Greetings, Beggar Emperor, Elder."
The man smiling before us was none other than the Beggar Emperor, from whom we had already received help once before.
After bowing courteously, I asked with care.
"What brings you to the Tang Family, Elder? Has there been any negligence on the part of the warriors attending to you?"
"Has anything been lacking, Elder?"
Hwa-eun and I asked politely in roundabout fashion, but what we really meant was, 'Did you come because you ran out of Yellow Powder Bugs?'
Since we'd heard he was one of the three strongest in the martial world, we had been providing him with snacks of Yellow Powder Bugs, not as an outright bribe but as a modest gesture that was sort of a bribe yet not quite one. We were asking in case he'd run out.
We had received one report that the warriors were taking care of it, but perhaps he needed more, or perhaps something wasn't to his liking.
At that, the Beggar Emperor laughed heartily and patted my shoulder.
"Heh heh. As if! The warriors are doing a fine job. And I'm well aware of the kindness behind your gesture. Today, I simply came to see you."
"To see me?"
When I blinked in surprise at his words, a Sound Transmission reached me.
[I hear you caught the Divine Thief's disciple?]
'Disciple?'
According to Grandfather, the woman who had collapsed from Yeondu's bite was this generation's Divine Thief. But the Beggar Emperor referred to her as the Divine Thief's disciple.
According to Hwa-eun, the Beggar's Gang specialized in intelligence work.
Their information would be more accurate than Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, so the woman's true identity was apparently the Divine Thief's disciple after all.
"Yes, well, how did you...."
[Don't answer. Just listen. That fellow is hiding nearby.]
'?'
I flinched at the words that something was hiding nearby, and the Sound Transmission continued.
[I sent my sworn younger brother the Divine Thief's disciple ahead to help you out a little. But before I could even give you a heads-up, the Guard Flag went up. You have no idea how startled I was.
In any case, it seemed like our intentions aligned perfectly, so I just watched. But I never expected you'd actually catch her. Heh heh heh.]
His voice brimmed with excitement.
So that was why the Divine Thief hadn't come in person and sent his female disciple instead: it was all the Beggar Emperor's intelligence maneuvering.
The Beggar Emperor was taking credit, claiming that the disciple's arrival was the result of his own scheme.
[No need to thank me too much. It's a reward for the matter with Na-ok. My sworn brother may be a thief, but he's supremely talented, so three gifts from him should be of great help to you.]
Hearing the full story, it seemed he had intended to reward me for helping Song Na-ok.
Since he'd told me to just listen, I would save my thanks for later. For now, I decided to escort the Beggar Emperor inside.
I was grateful that he was looking after me like this, even if belatedly, and I couldn't just leave him standing at the gate.
"Beggar Emperor, Elder, please come inside the compound. Since you've come all this way, at least stay for a meal and look around...."
Just as I was about to usher him inside,
the Beggar Emperor suddenly spun around and shouted.
"What are you doing, you fool! Get out here already! Aren't you going to come get your disciple?"
When the Beggar Emperor bellowed toward the far side of the river, a light breeze stirred, and behind him appeared a solidly built old man, scratching his head.
"Good to meet you, Young Hero. I'm the Thief Emperor, the Divine Thief, Gal Ji-hong."
Wait, I'd heard he was a famous master thief of the martial world, but his build was more like a cattle rustler's.
The old man, whose frame was so massive one would sooner guess his surname was Paeng than Gal, bowed in greeting toward me.
"It is an honor to meet you, Divine Thief, Elder. I am Soryong, and I offer my greetings."
'Whoa! This man is the Thief Emperor? Wait, I thought he was a thief? Was this thief actually a cattle rustler!?'
After greeting the cattle-rustler-looking man, a question came my way.
The Beggar Emperor seemed to find my introduction odd.
It appeared strange to him that I hadn't stated my family name when introducing myself to an elder.
"Soryong? Was it not Wei Soryong?"
"Ah, I was adopted by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, so my name became just that."
"The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace!?"
At the news that I had been adopted by the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, the Beggar Emperor's eyes went wide, and the Thief Emperor nudged the Beggar Emperor's side, saying,
"Brother, you didn't mention any of this."
"Hey, I'm hearing this for the first time too. I'd heard he went south to the barbarian lands recently, but adopted in the meantime? How does such a peculiar fellow even exist? Just the other day I heard he became the successor of the Fist Emperor, and now he's the adopted son of the Beast Palace."
The Beggar Emperor regarded me with wonder-filled eyes.
I was about to reply that when a man gets serious about poisons, becoming the adopted son of the Beast Palace isn't all that difficult, but a question came from beside me.
"By the way, Yeong-ryeon wasn't hurt, was she? If the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons thought she was me and went all out, it could have been bad. Seems that old man's martial arts have improved. I was certain that even if the Guard Flag went up and the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons stepped in, she wouldn't get caught. So, our Yeong-ryeon was caught by the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, yes?"
He seemed to assume his disciple had been captured by Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons. I called Cho with my mind and summoned the others as well.
"Hyang, Snow, Ice, Yeondu."
-Tsurur?
-Kkukku?
-Hissss?
As the creatures whose names had been called popped out from my and Hwa-eun's embrace and cried out as if answering, the Thief Emperor blinked in astonishment.
That he wasn't too shocked suggested his martial prowess was strong enough to have sensed something in my arms. But the fact that they were responding to human speech seemed to catch him off guard.
Soon after, a shadow fell over them from the sky, and when Cho appeared as well, I spoke to the Thief Emperor.
"Your disciple was caught by these little ones, Elder."
"!"
"!"
The beggar and the thief stared with wide, stunned eyes.
***
"Hic.... I'm sorry, Master."
"It's alright. It would be stranger not to get caught surrounded by things like those.... Even I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't have been caught...."
"Hic...."
The Thief Emperor had asked to check on his disciple first, so we escorted him to the room. There, his disciple had just woken up.
After reuniting master and disciple, we moved to the Family Head's Hall, exchanged greetings with the elders, and heard from the Thief Emperor why he had tried to steal me.
"......So that's why I wanted to borrow your help."
"Ah, I see. So you want to raise the Spiritual Creature known as the Silkworm to obtain cocoons, and you need my help for that?"
"Exactly! Since you caught Yeong-ryeon, I'll naturally grant you three wishes, so don't worry about that. Just hear out this request as well. I'll repay this separately!"
'Silkworms, huh....'
After hearing the rough outline, I understood the gist of it.
He needed to raise a special kind of silkworm but didn't know the method and was struggling, so he wanted my help.
I nodded along to the Divine Thief's words and asked,
"You said there aren't many eggs left?"
"That's right. Only three remain."
"Ah, and the wishes for catching your disciple, will you grant any wish at all?"
"Of course! As long as it doesn't go against moral principle, I'll steal whatever you desire and erase whatever life you want gone. Just say the word!"
The Divine Thief beat his chest and spoke as though he'd pluck the very stars and moon from the sky.
I smiled and said to him,
"Then, hand over those eggs... I mean, would you be willing to give them to me?"
"Hm? You want to see them? Does that mean you're accepting my request!?"
To his gleeful question, I answered again,
"Of course I'll make sure you get the cocoons. But my first wish is those eggs."
"?"
'Why are you giving me a question mark? I said hand over the eggs.'
Moths were also venomous creatures.
First order of business: confiscation.
After all, he'd clearly said he would grant any wish.
*****
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