The Eldest Daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan Protects Her Family

Beyond the yard full of peach blossoms stood a small pavilion and one hall.
The Alliance Leader Cheong was a Daoist of Kunlun.
Kunlun, being far away, did not involve itself much in the affairs of the Martial Alliance and did not often participate in headquarters events.
Perhaps that was why the Cheong family’s Alliance Leader had been reappointed five times.
Amidst sects and great families that always checked one another, Kunlun — the weakest and least ambitious of the great families — unexpectedly benefited and produced the Alliance Leader.
I had heard he had not done anything remarkable during his first term, and perhaps because of that he was reappointed as Alliance Leader ten years later.
Sohwa took in the modest lodging and understood why this martial man had become the one to hold the Alliance Leader post the longest.
A manner that showed no clinging to power put observers at ease. It made one feel as if, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ whenever one wished, one could remove that Daoist and sit in his place.
Behind an old wooden pillar an old man in robes was probably visible. If the scent in the air hid him, there was no scent at all coming from the Alliance Leader.
No matter how well one concealed their inner energy, those who had cultivated qi and blood for a long time inevitably left a trace of scent. Like the dust smell gathered in an old study.
Either the Alliance Leader could very carefully conceal his qi-blood, or his temperament smelled similar to the peach-blossom fragrance.
Sohwa raised her eyes and looked at the peach tree that touched the pavilion.
Thinking that, she suspected the Alliance Leader had deliberately hidden his lodging behind the peach tree.
When the Four-Season Pavilion Lord stopped in front of the steps, a voice with a trace of laughter was heard.
“The Pavilion Lord will be busy preparing for the finals, so go on. Tang Sohwa, come up.”
The Four-Season Pavilion Lord silently bowed to the Alliance Leader and then looked at Sohwa. Without giving any real warning, he passed by her and left for the Alliance Leader’s lodging.
Only after the sound of the door closing did Sohwa climb the steps.
“I pay my respects to the Alliance Leader.”
“All right. Sit.”
Sohwa sat and waited for him to speak.
There must be a reason he asked to meet.
But it seemed to be the headquarters’ taste: the Alliance Leader said nothing and stared at her. No different from Zhuge Inhwi.
Fortunately, Sohwa had always conversed with her own father in this manner, so she was not flustered. The momentary silence. She was not disturbed by that oddly unaccountable silence.
Realizing the Alliance Leader was quietly inspecting her, Sohwa let him look and killed time.
She wondered whether the reason her father had taught her the silence of a moment was because of the old man before her. Had her father been embarrassed by this situation?
After an age-like moment passed, the Alliance Leader let out a laugh.
“I wondered why the Pavilion Lord’s expression was so sour, but you truly know nothing. A rarely calm person.”
“Thank you.”
“That was not praise.”
The Alliance Leader was someone who displayed his insides plainly. That, too, was not very surprising.
After all, there was also an old man at home who spoke slovenly for his age.

“Inhwi, your insides were a mess, weren’t they.”
The Alliance Leader burst into laughter at something he found funny.
“Aren’t you curious why I called you?”
“I am curious.”
“But you show no sign of it.”
“People often tell me I have no expression. If I offended you, I apologize.”
Sohwa said that and twisted the corner of her mouth.
The Alliance Leader, amused, looked down at her and then lowered his gaze. Picking up a fallen peach blossom from the table, he spoke.
“As I grow old, there are fewer and fewer things to say. There are many days I keep my mouth shut all day. So when I happen to have a conversation, I blurt out the same things I used to say, again and again, and repeat that tiresome behavior.”
He sighed lightly as if he were fed up.
“I have long tried to stop that disgusting habit and quietly sort my thoughts.”
His words sounded sincere but did not make sense.
Surely the one who led the Alliance would have reason to speak.
“But then my mouth began to itch again and I could not help it. Perhaps senility has set in. I suddenly wanted to talk, so I brought you here.”
“What sort of story would you like to tell?”
“Not important matters. I suddenly remembered a dream I once had and wanted to blather about it. You can let it pass one ear; just listen lightly.”
He reached his hand beyond the railing and set the peach blossom back on the tree. The dropped flower floated back to the branch as if gently.
For an instant, as if a wind had come, the rich scent of peach blossoms tickled the tip of the nose.
“In the dream I saw Kunlun annihilated.”
Sohwa quietly kept her mouth shut.
The Alliance Leader’s voice filled the empty stillness.
“I was very enraged. I wanted to go straight to Kunlun, but strangely I could not. I was certain I meant to go, yet suddenly I thought I must not.”
He let out a hollow sigh.
“It was a dream, but of a very distant future. About twenty years from now the demonic cult would run rampant and Kunlun would be annihilated, and the Tang Clan and the Mount Emei faction, and other small Sichuan sects and unorthodox forces would vanish in an instant. Fortunately, three Daoist sects with good judgment reversed the Martial Alliance’s decision and rushed off, and they stopped the cult’s eastward advance.”
Sohwa took the Alliance Leader in with her eyes.
He still did not give his gaze to Sohwa and was looking beyond the railing.
“Ah, now that I think on it, I remember you. What an absurd dream — you massacred the Namgung Clan Head and his retainers and caused an upheaval in the Central Plain. Rumors ran rampant that the Tang Clan had been part of the demonic cult and that you were a cult spy.”
For a moment Sohwa’s breath faltered.
How could she forget?
This was the future she remembered.
The Alliance Leader was speaking of events after her death.
Holding back the question that sprang to her lips, Sohwa listened closely to the Alliance Leader’s words. She feared he might stop speaking.
“The rumors about the Tang Clan did not last long. It was not the demonic cult that ran rampant. Those who used demonic arts imitated the cult. The Four-Season Pavilion Lord was the first to speak of such things, but at the time I did not believe him. Perhaps frustrated, the Pavilion Lord left headquarters saying he would bring me proof. But he did not return and suddenly died, so I could not convey the Pavilion Lord’s words to the Council. And I did not want to inform them. It seems my senility had deepened.”
The Alliance Leader let out a laugh tinged with self-deprecation.
Sohwa held her breath for a moment. Concentrating made her breath tremble at the Alliance Leader’s single sigh and gesture.
To avoid disturbing the Alliance Leader’s mutterings, she swallowed her breath as much as possible.
“I returned to Kunlun leaving the Alliance Leader post. I intended to restore Kunlun before I died. To recreate lost manuals, to raise Kunlun disciples.”
His voice, which had been hazy as if wandering through a dream, suddenly became clear.
“But perhaps because I returned to my hometown, my head grew clearer. Only after several months did I realize something strange.”
“…….”
“Sometimes a thing Inhwi said would come to me, but the memory would fade as soon as it came. It was certainly a conversation in my lodging. Yet I had no memory of having such a conversation, and Inhwi’s voice was not audible, so I thought my mind had become odd.”
Hearing the Alliance Leader’s words, Sohwa thought of a certain remedy she knew. Oseoksan. It seemed someone had clouded the Alliance Leader’s mind.
“Only after that symptom repeated for months did I suspect someone had touched my mind.”
“…….”
“Scattered memories pointed to one place: the Zhuge family’s archive. I returned to Hubei and went straight to the Zhuge family. Naturally, the family head did not wish to show me the archive. But strangely, Inhwi’s elder brother led me into a secret passage that entered the archive. There was no time to be suspicious. At the time my vision went dark and all was fear, so I wanted any straw to grasp at.”
The Alliance Leader laughed hollowly, rubbing his knee.
“And Zhuge Jihwi was not honestly threatening to me.”
“…….”
“Why do such rumors exist? There was a rumor that the Zhuge archive contained Outland martial arts. Half of it was true. There were not many Outland martial arts, but the records from Outland filled a shelf. The Blood Demon had collected Outland miscellanea: not only martial arts but records on jiangshi and human-skin/clay masking, and arts that muddled a person’s mind, medical arts, and all manner of strange records.”
The Alliance Leader paused briefly, then added.
“And among them were arts that connected everything. There was even mention of connecting time.”
Sohwa thought of the Blood Demon at the Alliance Leader’s words.
“They wrote of cutting the end of time and reconnecting the past’s start — they called those places ‘Passages.’ But making a temporal Passage was not something any sorcerer could do. It was written that only those chosen by their god could do it. Honestly, I had little interest in such extravagant talk and skimmed over it at first. I was more interested in the ‘Passage’ that connected spaces. The ones in our Central Plain called sorcerers were the first clans to fall into the Blood Demon’s hands, and according to records they made Passages connecting distant places at the Blood Demon’s will. The locations of passages left in the Central Plain were even mapped.”
“If such records existed, why did the Zhuge family not seek out the Blood Demon first?” Sohwa, who had remained silent, asked.
The Alliance Leader smiled.
“The records of that sorcery were a forgery made by Zhuge Jihwi, so perhaps neither the family head nor others knew.”
“Zhuge Jihwi, the Little Clan Head?”
“It was not only Inhwi who had awakened strange meditative methods. At first I did not know either. Only after I entered that archive several times did I realize. Perhaps after repeating dozens upon dozens of lives.”
“…….”
Sohwa’s face hardened.
He had said he had repeated countless lives.
That the repetition of life did not end in a single cycle.
Sohwa’s expression darkened, but the Alliance Leader did not notice. He continued to spin out his dream-story.
“The first time I entered the archive I was naive and was tricked by the cunning Zhuge Jihwi’s scheme; I took the map and searched for Passages, and thus I could go to Geumeunsan very easily. Geumeunsan was called the Blood Demon’s stronghold. I went intending to kill the Blood Demon in his stronghold. But the Blood Demon was not there. He had already moved his base to the Central Plain and was moving between Geumeunsan and the Central Plain. At first I did not know that and, enraged, I cut down any Blood Cult vermin in my path, searching for the Blood Demon. I went to the hall that the Blood Cult guarded with all their might. Naturally I thought the Blood Demon would be inside. Would they not risk their lives guarding the hall for their lord? But when I broke through the escort and entered, do you know what I found?”
The Alliance Leader sneered as he spoke.
“Absurdly, in that large hall there was one old woman.”
Sohwa blinked slowly.
She had guessed who that old woman would be.
The Alliance Leader sighed as if to confirm her thought and said,
“In their terms, she was a sorcerer chosen by the god. Someone who could make a temporal Passage.”