Chapter 347: Chapter 347

‘The Master of Slowness and Silence?’

Choi Yeonseung was surprised. Despite its power, the Master of Slowness and Silence didn’t attract many household members because of its personality.

Of course, being an evil god constellation played a role in that, but there were also many hunters in the world who would serve an evil god constellation or do anything as long as they received more power.

However, the reason not many hunters wanted to serve the slowness constellation was its reserved and lazy nature. Thus, it was hard to believe that many hunters were suddenly making contracts with this constellation.

Just like Choi Yeonseung, the goddess of sloth was also perplexed.

-Isn’t this strange...?

-Right?

-For a constellation as lazy as this one, you’d think that it wouldn’t want to let mortals into its household...Maybe it had a change of heart.

In comparison to the Abyssal races, humans had short life spans and were impulsive, traits which weren’t a good fit for the Master of Slowness and Silence. Instead, some Abyssal races that were more laid-back, like vampires, who often hibernated, would be more suitable for the slowness constellation.

“Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons, may I ask where you received this information from?” Choi Yeonseung asked cautiously.

Asking a prideful constellation for the source of their information was definitely risky. However, the Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons answered in a calm manner.

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ says that it was his household member, Illaphael, who obtained this piece of information.]

‘Umm...’ Choi Yeonseung frowned. If an angel found out about this, then it was certainly possible.

-What if the angel is wrong?

-What are you saying, goddess of sloth?An angel wouldn’t make such a mistake.

-No...

Choi Yeonseung accepted that the Master of Slowness and Silence was making a move. Otherwise, a large clan in China wouldn’t have declared independence like that.

The constellation had to have promised something to the clans!

“...By the way, was it always like this in China?”

“?”

Videos were quickly popping up all over the internet, and Aine felt something was wrong as she was watching them. No matter how diverse China was in terms of landscape, something was off.

There were huge trees and strange rocks in places where there were supposed to be dozens of tall buildings... On top of that, there were only dirt roads where overpasses and highways were supposed to be.

Looking at the videos, Aine couldn’t even see any cars. Instead, she saw carriages that looked straight out of old historical dramas.

“I-is this a new tourism policy the Chinese government has come up with?”

“That’s absurd... It’s erosion!”

Sometimes, when dungeons exploded, the environment inside the dungeon seeped out and replaced the one in the outside world.

It was already troublesome when monsters escaped from the dungeon, but it was ten times more problematic if the outside world changed to be exactly like inside the dungeon. Fortunately, the environment would go back to normal after all the monsters were defeated...

‘This isn’t the size of a dungeon though...?’

On a closer look, the current appearance of Chengdu, as it was shown by the Kunlun clan, wasn’t an erosion caused by a dungeon. It was clear that the hunters had borrowed the power of a constellation.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s an environment that neutralizes modern weapons.”

“Certainly...” Aine nodded. She didn’t know what this environment was exactly, but they wouldn’t have changed it like this without some sort of plan.

She was certain that the clan had come up with a way to respond to a possible retaliation of the Chinese government.

“Still, it’s a fantastic view.”

“Yeah. You don’t see something like this in the stark big cities.”

Choi Yeonseung and Aine watched the video and admired the scenery. It was certainly intriguing to see that the skyscrapers had been replaced by traditional houses and the cars had been replaced by carriages pulled by horses.

It was as if a big city had gone back in time!

“...Uh, then what should we do?” Han Seha asked cautiously. She knew that Choi Yeonseung wouldn’t stand idle, so she wanted to help as well...

“What do you mean? I’m going to help your company,” Choi Yeonseung replied.

“Huh? Aren’t you going there?”

“Huh? Why me?”

“...”

Han Seha was lost for words.

‘This...?’

The most natural thing was to assume that Choi Yeonseung would rush to Chengdu. After all, he had provided a lot of humanitarian aid recently...

“I thought you’d go there.”

“It’s not vampires that took over the city, but a hunter clan, so it won’t be as bad as last time.”

“You’re right,” Aine agreed. “This incident was caused by humans, so they won’t take hostages. They’re not that stupid.”

She didn’t know how the Kunlun clan would defend itself, but she had a rough idea of how they would act in the international community.

They would likely denounce the atrocities committed by the Chinese government and appeal to other countries by saying things like “We had no choice! Please help us!” Therefore, they wouldn’t take foreigners hostage.

“Then you really aren’t going to do anything?”

“That’s right. I have work to do.”

“?”

“If you’re going to run the company, you have to learn the basics. Pay attention to what I’m saying.”

“...”

Han Seha was stunned. She hadn’t become an A-grade hunter to sit at a desk and study... She didn’t want to study!

“Now, come.”

“...Okay...”

Nevertheless, Han Seha couldn’t say no to Choi Yeonseung, so she sat down at a desk with a sullen expression.

***

Lee Changsik put down the clan report for a moment and turned his attention to the screen.

‘The atmosphere is unusual.’

It wasn’t just one incident. All in all, it felt like a series of events that were shaking the world. It felt like a tranquil river had turned into a raging one, flowing rapidly and fiercely!

The constellations who had been fighting had fallen, humanity had gotten its hands on a constellation realm which had been previously blocked, and strange things kept happening in China.

“Father.”

Lee Changsik’s son, Lee Changuk, came knocking on the door for a visit.

“I heard you’re teaching new clan hunters. Is it going well?”

“Of course. I’m glad you came.”

Surprisingly, Lee Changsik was actually telling the truth. The Demon clan still had a lot of losses overall, but it had also achieved several valuable victories in the recent clan battles.

Thanks to this, Lee Changsik experienced a sense of joy and satisfaction that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. It was the joy of finding young hunters who didn’t know how to fight and making them stronger!

That was what clan battles were supposed to be about. They weren't meant for clans to fight each other over their interests.

“Father, if you need it, I would like to help even if it means leaving my clan...”

“That’s absolutely not possible.”

“...”

Lee Changsik quickly realized that he had replied too brusquely and coughed slightly.

“Right now, the clan is focusing on raising young, prospective hunters. If you come in, the atmosphere will be disrupted.”

“Yes... I thought so.”

“So why did you come?”

“This time, the Bulgae clan has decided to go on an expedition to China.”

“Uhm...”

Lee Changsik sighed but he wasn’t too surprised. Given the recent events, China had no choice but to pay a high price to hire hunters.

Hunters from several clans had been injured in the Guangzhou incident. Moreover, when they tried to de-escalate the situation, the military acted arbitrarily and ignored the hunter clans.

A lot of discontent had accumulated, and there was the Kunlun clan, starting a rebellion.

From the perspective of the Chinese government, it was an embarrassing situation in which they more or less had no control over the hunter clans. Therefore, foreign mercenaries would certainly come in handy.

The Chinese government could no longer recruit hunters for free on the basis that there were many large clans out there; they exercised humility and offered money in advance to foreign clans to come over and help.

“Father, you’ve been on an expedition in China before, so I came here for advice.

“Um... Yeah, I understand.”

Lee Changsik was a former A-grade hunter. In addition, he had been active since the first generation, which made it safe to say that among the hunters of the present generation, few people were more experienced than Lee Changsik.

“Firstly...”

“Yes?”

“Don’t go to China.”

“Oh, really?”

“Secondly, if you do, be suspicious of absolutely everything except for your comrades.”

“I understand.”

“The third thing. If you kill a monster, make sure you have solid evidence that it was you who killed it. If you don’t, they’ll deny that it was you who killed it...”

Both of them spoke with solemn expressions. After a few more minutes, Lee Changsik finished more or less what he had to say. Then he suddenly became curious and asked, “By the way, why did they make the request to Bulgae?”

The Bulgae clan was one of the three largest clans in South Korea, but compared to the other two clans, they had a relatively small number of hunters. Thus, that kind of request was more suitable for the Golden Blood Fish clan or the Six-Eyed Turtle clan.

“This is top secret information... Has an erosion occurred anywhere?” asked Lee Changuk while pointing to the map.

Videos from China had surged all over the internet, but then they suddenly stopped. It was clear that the party had taken them down and stopped the flow of information.

However, the Bulgae clan had managed to get something from the Chinese government.

“Apparently, this area is growing bigger and bigger.”

“That’s not surprising.”

“And... It’s said that in this area, the power of martial arts becomes much stronger.”

“...?!”

At that, Lee Changsik’s eyes widened, and he wasn’t sure he had heard that right. As far as dungeons went, particular types of magic were either stronger or weaker depending on the type of dungeon. For example, if a dungeon had a strong fire affinity, fire magic was naturally stronger in it, while frost magic was less effective.

Thus, it wouldn’t be impossible for there to be an area where martial arts were stronger; it would just be unprecedented and amazing.

‘What is this?’

“Didn’t Hunter Choi Yeonseung get a request?”

“It seems the Chinese government didn’t want to contact him.”

“I see.”

No matter how much control the party had, the public still had eyes.

Choi Yeonseung had averted a crisis committed by the government and the military in Guangzhou with just his powers. Everyone who had a conscience would be grateful.

The Chinese clans and hunters who were present witnessed it and spread the word, so everybody knew about those events, even if they didn’t talk about it in public.

Thus, what if Choi Yeonseung came once again to China and helped more than the Chinese hunters or military? If that happened, many clans would be dissatisfied and flee abroad, or even worse...

‘I have to tell him about this!’

Lee Changsik was convinced. He didn’t know if Choi Yeonseung wanted to go, but it was an opportunity that Choi Yeonseung couldn’t miss as a constellation.

“I’ll go and convince Choi Yeonseung, but can he move with the Bulgae clan?”

“...Of course. The Chinese won’t notice anything.”

Lee Changuk was puzzled, but he nodded without making any further comments.

***

-There’s really nothing useful.Even running this company with my feet would be better.Can’t I just give it plants from the Abyss?

-Successor, it’s impossible unless you take care of it with your own power.

-That’s true.

The orcs were doing a great job farming, but that was mostly thanks to Choi Yeonseung’s power, so it was impossible for ordinary companies to grow Abyssal plants without his powers.

Even if they succeeded once, the companies that bought the seeds would inevitably fail...

‘In the end, I have to research it and create a new seed or find a kind of seed that works without magic’

Choi Yeonseung pondered on it. Ever since the Abyssal gate had opened, Earth’s vegetation had changed in many ways due to magic power, and as such, a staggering amount of new seeds had been discovered.

Large countries like the United States, China, Russia, and India had an advantage in this regard. Since their land was so vast, they could find more seeds and had a higher chance of finding useful ones.

“Ah, I should’ve looked for some seeds to bring back when I went to Guangzhou last time... The owner would’ve disappeared anyway.”

“Can’t we just go there, break down their doors, and take what we need?” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Really? Is that okay? Um...”

“What...? That’s insane...”

“I guess it wouldn't work.”

In the meantime, Choi Yeonseung received a call from Lee Changsik.

‘He’s not going to say that he won’t manage the Demon clan anymore, right...?’ Choi Yeonseung thought to himself before picking up.