Chapter 1446: I Cannot Do It Alone. (1)

“…What a mess, that is.”

Tang Soso looked at the Tang Family, now in shambles, with a despondent face.

“Why is it like that, Soso?”

“Um… ugh.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, then shook her head. Then she spoke in a voice laced with a sigh.

“The Tang Family is far more complicated than it looks. And the people living within it are suppressed by very strict rules and restraints.”

“Other sects have that too…”

“The Tang Family is on a different level. Before I came to Mount Hua, my dream was to escape the Tang Family and live freely—doesn’t that say it all?”

“…I see.”

“Right. You were going to marry Chung Myung, weren’t you?”

“Do you want to die? Why bring that up now?”

“…I’m sorry.”

That alone was enough to roughly explain it. From the start, Tang Soso was the type to fight to change anything unjust. The Tang Family’s house laws were so strict that someone like her had to live quietly subdued.

“All that suppression, all those centuries of pressure finally burst…”

Worry flashed in Tang Soso’s eyes as she looked at Tang Gunak. Even Tang Gunak might not be able to handle this situation smoothly, she feared.

“Father…”

Meanwhile, Tang Gunak looked around with a pale face.

“To begin with, why is that our fault?”

The one yelling now, veins bulging in his neck, was a man named Tang Yeon-Hong, known as one of the most earnest craftsmen in the workshop.

Because of that, even the taciturn Tang Gunak trusted him greatly…

“Isn’t it because of you people who, after having everything made as you asked, come back unable to use it properly and just complain?”

Hearing Tang Yeon-Hong’s rebuke, Tang Jaho’s eyes went wide with fury.

“Are you saying our skills are lacking and that’s why we couldn’t use the secret techniques the workshop made for us?”

“I won’t deny it if you put it that way.”

“Huh?”

Tang Jaho glared at Tang Yeon-Hong as if incredulous.

“Now I see the workshop people were truly remarkable. The workshop made the Tang Family’s glory for us, and we, foolish as we are, lacking skill, couldn’t even properly eat the feast they set out?”

“Hyung, calm down a bit.”

“Do I look like I can calm down? If that remark isn’t insulting us, then what is it?”

At that, someone who had been silently listening snorted.

“The workshop people’s words may be a bit much, but it’s not entirely wrong to say you couldn’t use what was made. You always asked for stronger poisons, then when they finally made them you’d just toss them around carelessly. Do you know how delicate poisons are!”

“What?”

“Even if they gave you enough poison to last a month, you’d burn it all in a single fight and later, in panic, throw whatever was at hand. Didn’t you say as much? If that’s not proof of lacking skill, then what is?”

“Have you said your piece?”

Tang Jaho’s eyes reddened with anger.

“Do you think we have nothing to say? We took those crude things out and risked our lives to earn money, while what did you do? You took poisons more valuable than gold and rare minerals under the pretense of research and wasted them all! If we’d kept that money, the Tang Family would’ve prospered twice as much!”

“Watch your tongue! Wasted them! Do you even know what research is before you talk?”

“Why should I know that! Ultimately, you’re right! It’s the same with this matter. Without us, do you think you could’ve made those proud poisons and secret techniques? Always ‘let’s see, let’s see’—these fools!”

“Hyung! That’s going too far!”

The fight, which had seemed to subside briefly, flared up again with shouts all around.

Watching them bare their teeth at one another, Tang Gunak pressed his throbbing brow.

“Was it this bad?”

He had expected discord. With each person playing very different roles, it was natural resentment would build.

But Tang Gunak had never imagined it would be this intense.

At first they hesitated, watching him. But once one by one spoke and the floodgates opened, they poured fierce accusations at each other as if they’d forgotten the Family Lord’s presence entirely.

The craftsmen, long suppressed by the warriors’ authority, vented their fury.

And the Tang Family women watched the men clawing at each other with cold eyes.

“It had festered inwardly to this extent.”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

He had never said it aloud, but Tang Gunak had pride in the Tang Family he controlled—the confidence that the Tang Family had broken free from the rotten swamp of the elders and begun to exert influence across the Central Plains, not just Sichuan.

But now he had to admit it: the Tang Family he knew was not the whole. Perhaps even he, the Family Head, had only seen the shell of the Tang Family.

“They’ve managed to hold on in this state.”

The Tang Family had kept the same system for centuries. While times and the world changed, the Tang Family alone did not.

And the side effect festered inwardly rather than showing outwardly—those sharing the Tang surname secretly held such animosity toward each other.

If the Ten Thousand People Clan hadn’t attacked the Tang Family, Tang Gunak might have lived his whole life never knowing this.

He might have ended his life proud, looking at the Tang Family castle built ever higher on a shaky foundation—never knowing that the fortress, already warped at its cornerstone, would someday collapse miserably.

Tang Gunak suddenly looked at one person: Chung Myung, gazing over from afar with a strange expression.

There are things you don’t understand until you’ve lost them—Tang Gunak felt the truth of that deep in his bones.

“No more talk! As soon as we go to Shaanxi, gather the remaining money and refill the poisons first. What is a Tang Family without poisons?”

“Do you think poison, once made, will fly out and fell people by itself? Secret techniques can work without poison, but what can poison do on its own? Of course we must build the workshop first!”

“Poison or workshop, don’t you know none of it matters without us? How utterly foolish…!”

“What did you say? Say that again!”

Just as another outcry was about to erupt, Tang Gunak’s voice, laden with authority, cut sharply into their ears.

“Enough!”

Those who heard the shout fell silent at once. Even in this state and despite the excitement, the authority of the Sichuan Tang Family’s Family Lord still commanded respect.

“We are gathered to talk. This is not a place to cast blame upon one another.”

“…Yes, Family Lord.”

“We’re sorry. We got carried away…”

Watching them forcibly restrain their emotions and step back, Tang Gunak let out a soft sigh.

“I know you all carry much emotion toward each other.”

“Family Lord…”

The overseer spoke, sweating coldly.

“S-sorry. At a time like this… We should all restrain ourselves.”

“No.”

Tang Gunak shook his head.

“It’s precisely at times like this that conversation is more necessary. Perhaps… if not now, the opportunity will never come again.”

It might be an ill-timed place, of course. But Tang Gunak considered this moment extremely important. If they regained even a bit of composure and could hide their feelings again, the chance for such honest talk would be gone forever.

“So do not hide—speak frankly. What is the problem? And…”

Tang Gunak looked evenly across them all.

“What must be changed so that the Tang Family remains the Sichuan Tang Family in the future.”

The retainers of the Tang Family showed faint flickers in their eyes.

In truth, Tang Gunak hadn’t been particularly submissive nor pleaded in an unusual way. Yet one could clearly feel that the Family Lord was speaking with genuine sincerity now.

Then Tang Gunak’s gaze turned toward the Tang Family women seated to one side.

“And the same goes for you.”

The Tang Family women looked at each other instead of speaking.

“I know it won’t be easy. But I can offer an opportunity; whether to accept it is entirely up to you.”

Anxiety flickered in the women’s eyes.

They had raised their voices countless times—sometimes small complaints, sometimes fierce protests. But their voices were always, at some point, ignored.

Knowing that, should they keep repeating it? Promising to change something that hadn’t changed in centuries?

No—there’s no reason. They might pretend to listen for now, but the Tang Family will become what it always was. And they will pass that fate on to the children they bear.

Noticing the women’s strangely cold gazes, Tang Gunak sighed deeply and spoke.

“To be honest, regaining the Tang Family’s glory won’t be easy.”

It was a dispiriting statement. Yet the people waited for Tang Gunak’s next words without showing disappointment.

“No—maybe it’s possible. If I sacrifice my life, if you sacrifice your lives, if everything is sacrificed… by the next generation or so the Tang Family’s name might ring out across the land again.”

Tang Gunak suddenly looked up at the sky—a bright sky with no stars looking down on him anymore.

“But… what would that be for?”

“…”

“The reason the Tang Family exists is to protect its people and their descendants. Then what meaning is there in fame and wealth preserved by sacrificing your lives?”

“…Family Lord.”

“What I want to discuss now is not how the Tang Family can rise again as the Tang Family.”

Tang Gunak stared at them all with resolute eyes.

“It’s how the Tang Family can avoid repeating past mistakes. How can we become the Tang Family the ancestors intended, a place where everyone can be happy?”

Speaking slowly and with emphasis, Tang Gunak gently shook his head.

“I cannot do it alone. No one can do this alone.”

It was a quieter voice than Tang Gunak’s usual tone, but it carried unmistakable sincerity.

“So speak. I beg you.”

Tang Gunak’s earnest gaze turned once more to the women.

After a brief silence, Tang Sobo quietly stood from her seat. Looks of bewilderment poured onto her.

“Sobo?”

Tang Sobo stepped forward a little and sat down again.

It was only a couple of steps—at most a few paces closer before she sat down again.

But the significance of that step was not small. The Tang Family women glanced at Tang Sobo, then all rose in unison and moved forward.

Tang Sobo hesitated, then spoke.

“Then…”

“Speak.”

Tang Gunak nodded.

“C-could we also possibly learn martial arts? Instead of marrying into powerful families, could we go to Mount Hua and become Mount Hua disciples?”

At those words, the young Tang Family daughters widened their eyes. Especially since some half-suspected their own fate, every nerve was tuned to the answer.

“…Is that what you want?”

“No… It’s not that, Family Lord. We know what to do for the Tang family. We’ve been taught since childhood. When those born to ordinary households toil and starve in the fields, what duty falls upon those of us who live in comfort.”

“…”

“Still… I just wanted to ask once. Is it really all right?”

Tang Gunak nodded.

“If that is what you want, if that would make you even a little happier, I’ll allow it. But my thinking is a bit different.”

Disappointment fell over Tang Sobo’s face, which had shone with cautious hope.

She thought the next words would reveal Tang Gunak’s true intent. In the end nothing would change. It would go on as before…

“Rather than learning Mount Hua’s martial arts, how about learning the Tang Family’s martial arts?”

“…Yes?”

“If you wish, I will allow you to remain in the Tang Family without entering into marriage. From this moment onward.”

This was a declaration to overturn the household laws the Sichuan Tang Family had upheld for centuries.