Little Demon Reversion to Youth

Chapter 14

On General Manager Ximen's desk were various documents piled high.

"What's all this?"

Baekji suddenly reached out, picked up a document from the desk, examined it, and said, "This is the White Mountain Sect's property? They're incredibly rich, aren't they? Even if General Manager Ximen secretly embezzled some, no one would know."

"Do I look like someone who would do such a thing?"

When Baekji and Yang Soryeong turned around, General Manager Ximen was entering the door.

"I was just saying that if it were me, I would. So, General Manager Ximen is not that kind of person."

General Manager Ximen inwardly gritted his teeth.

He couldn't understand why Yang Soryeong kept this crazy servant around.

"Acting Sect Master, now that you are the master of the White Mountain Sect, I will assign you a proper servant."

"No. Baekji is not a servant, but a disciple."

General Manager Ximen also knew that the two were playing master and disciple.

'Sigh... be patient. This young lady doesn't seem normal either. It won't be long now. I have to endure until then.'

General Manager Ximen changed his mind. It might be better to let her play with the crazy servant.

"What brings you here?"

"Since I have become the acting sect master, shouldn't I see the Sect Master and the Young Sect Master?"

"The two are recuperating in a secret place, so they cannot meet anyone. If their minds are disturbed, it will only cause harm."

"Then please convey a message for me."

Yang Soryeong said, glancing at General Manager Ximen's face.

"The Songhua Hall is nice, but it's a bit hot. So I would like to go up to the back mountain to spend the summer."

"It would be difficult if the Acting Sect Master were to leave the estate."

"That's why I'm going without anyone knowing. If the White Mountain Brigade is guarding the Songhua Hall, no one will know, right?"

General Manager Ximen's mind raced. The reason he had placed the White Mountain Brigade at the Songhua Hall was because of a possible assassin.

If Yang Soryeong were to die now, the White Mountain Sect would truly become a sect without a master.

'I don't know what Mo Dahou or Hu Yeonjo might do. This might be a better way.'

General Manager Ximen came to a conclusion and said, "Let's do that."

"Don't I need to tell the Sect Master?"

General Manager Ximen was flustered for a moment, then quickly composed himself.

"The current head of the White Mountain Sect is the Acting Sect Master. Who would dare to question what the Acting Sect Master does? I will report to the Sect Master at an appropriate time."

"Alright. Please do so."

Yang Soryeong and Baekji left General Manager Ximen's office.

"It seems the Sect Master and the Young Sect Master are still not in their right minds."

"I told you they would be."

Seeing General Manager Ximen make decisions on his own, Yang Soryeong judged that the Sect Master and the Young Sect Master were definitely not normal.

"General Manager Ximen also didn't seem to believe that the two would recover."

"So is he trying to embezzle the property?"

Baekji recalled the documents on General Manager Ximen's desk.

"If General Manager Ximen takes everything and runs, the rest will become beggars and suck their thumbs."

"That could happen. Money is blood, and money is wings. Even martial artists need money to live."

Yang Soryeong chimed in.

Yang Soryeong, who had inherited the blood of a merchant family, knew well how frightening money was.

Although Mo Dahou and Hu Yeonjo were full of vigor, if they had nothing, they were nothing. Who would follow a brigade leader who couldn't even pay his subordinates' monthly wages?

Baekji suddenly recalled the gold and silver ingots and bank notes in Bai Renguang's secret vault.

'Does General Manager Ximen know about the secret vault?'

Baekji said to Yang Soryeong, "You go on ahead, Master."

Baekji turned back and went to General Manager Ximen's office.

"What now?"

"I need clothes. The season has changed. What's the use of just giving me food? You have to give me clothes too."

General Manager Ximen sighed and called a servant.

"Take him to the warehouse and give him some clothes."

Baekji followed the servant to the warehouse, picked out this and that, and came out with a large bundle.

That night.

Baekji came out of his room wearing black night clothes. In his hand were more night clothes.

Ajok and the others looked at him with strange eyes.

"What are those black clothes?"

"You all change into them too."

"We're not thieves, so why do we have to wear such clothes?"

"Are you trying to commit the crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors?"

Ajok and the others silently changed their clothes.

The more they trained, the more monstrous Baekji seemed. That was why Ajok and the others couldn't move when Baekji got serious.

Baekji, Ajok, and the others left the Songhua Hall without the White Mountain Brigade noticing.

'What? The security is rather lax.'

That was to be expected. The White Temple Brigade and the Great Light Brigade had left the estate on a mission.

Since the White Mountain Brigade had to guard the estate alone, they were concentrating their guard on key locations such as the stone chamber where the Sect Master and the Young Sect Master were, and the general manager's residence.

Thanks to that, Baekji was able to go to Bai Renguang's residence with ease.

"There are guards."

Guards were posted at Bai Renguang's residence. But for some reason, it was lax.

"You all stay here."

Baekji climbed over the wall and hung from the eaves of the second floor. His movements were as graceful as a night bird's.

Ajok and the others looked at Baekji with envious eyes. With such skill, they could rob all the wealthy households in Xi'an.

'Snake, snake, snake... I am a snake.'

Baekji, hanging from the eaves of the second floor, crawled up like a snake and went over to the third-floor window.

'What? There's nothing here.'

The third-floor pavilion, where Bai Renguang kept his collection of martial arts secret manuals and precious items, was empty.

He thought he knew why the security was so lax. Since there was nothing to guard, they were just posted there for show.

'He's cleaned it all out.'

Baekji clicked his tongue.

Only the scroll of the woman Bai Renguang had spoken to hung desolately on the wall.

It felt like the woman in the scroll was glaring at him, and his heart skipped a beat.

"As you can see, the thieves have cleaned it all out. It wasn't me. By the way, your husband and son will be going to that world soon. The whole family will be able to reunite. You don't need money there, right? Don't glare at me."

Baekji went behind Bai Renguang's desk and turned the secret handle.

Sreureuk.

The wall opened.

When he went inside, the items in the secret vault were still there.

'It seems General Manager Ximen didn't know about this place either.'

Baekji was pleased.

He put all the gold and silver ingots and bank notes into the sacks he had brought.

He skimmed through the secret manuals on the bookshelf and put them back in their place.

'No wonder they get cultivation insanity from learning such useless things.'

Baekji divided the items into four sacks and came out carrying two.

When he looked out the open window, he saw Ajok, Senior Oh, and Jang Sam huddled together in a dark corner.

Baekji threw the sacks.

"Heok!"

When he just threw the sacks, which looked heavy, Ajok and the others held their breath.

'He must be crazy, to throw that.'

Ajok quickly went out to catch the sacks, but something was strange.

Weren't the sacks falling slowly, as if someone was holding them? When he looked closely, he saw that a rope was tied to them.

Still, it was strange. He hadn't lowered them with a rope, but had thrown them at an angle, yet they were coming down so slowly.

But there was no time to think further.

Ajok quickly caught the sacks and untied the rope.

Baekji threw the second sack, then went inside, brought out two more sacks, and threw them.

Then he flew through the air and landed next to Ajok.

He had jumped from the third floor, but there was not even a sound when he landed.

"Wow. How can he do that?"

Ajok and the others were amazed.

Baekji whispered, "They're heavy, so each of you carry one."

"What's so... about this?"

Senior Oh tried to lift the sack filled with gold ingots and almost stumbled forward.

Baekji caught Senior Oh.

"Ugh, why is this so heavy?"

Senior Oh muttered, embarrassed.

He had thought it was nothing since Baekji had thrown it so lightly, but he had almost been crushed by the weight.

"Let's go."

Baekji's group carried the sacks and returned to their quarters at the Songhua Hall without any further inspection.

"What's all this?"

Jang Sam tried to open a sack.

"Don't open it. If you do, it's the crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors."

"Why is everything the crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors? Does that make sense? What kind of crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors is opening a sack?"

Jang Sam grumbled.

"Disobeying the master's words is the crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors."

Baekji picked up all four sacks at once and went to the Songhua Hall.

"What is this?"

Yang Soryeong asked.

"Yes, I'll use it later. Is there anywhere to hide it?"

Baekji looked around, then pried open the floorboards under Yang Soryeong's bed, put the four sacks in, and closed it again.

"This way, no one will know."

"What is it?"

"It's the money Bai Renguang collected."

"What? You stole it? You can't do that! That's theft!"

"No. General Manager Ximen has already emptied the Sect Master's warehouse. This was in a secret vault. If General Manager Ximen finds out, he'll take this too. I'm hiding it on behalf of the Sect Master."

Baekji made a plausible excuse.

"General Manager Ximen took the Sect Master's things?"

"Yes, it seems he's planning to clear out the property and run."

"Then what do we do?"

"That's why I brought it. With just this, we can live."

He didn't go so far as to say they could start a sect, not just live.

"Let's just go on a mountain trip with a light heart."

The next day.

Yang Soryeong, Baekji, Ajok, and the others went up to the back mountain through a path that General Manager Ximen had secretly opened for them.

* * *

The night Baekji left.

General Manager Ximen paced back and forth on the third floor of Bai Renguang's residence.

"Fifteen steps. Including the other rooms, it's a total of ninety steps. It's ten steps short."

General Manager Ximen confirmed that the length of the third floor measured from the outside and the inside was different.

"Ten steps, a space of ten steps is enough to hide funds."

General Manager Ximen knocked on the wall. He knocked here and there, and when he knocked behind Bai Renguang's desk, a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

"Here it is. As expected. You can't fool my eyes."

General Manager Ximen had discovered a strange point while reviewing all the documents related to the White Mountain Sect's assets.

A whopping half of the assets were missing.

The missing portion mostly came from documents that the Sect Master managed directly.

General Manager Ximen had his subordinates move the items in Bai Renguang's warehouse on the third floor.

He had moved them under the pretext that the Sect Master was in seclusion and might be robbed.

But there were no embezzled funds.

That was why he had come here secretly in the middle of the night. And he had finally found the secret vault.

General Manager Ximen found the secret handle quickly. With his skills, once he knew there was a vault, finding the handle was no big deal.

Sreureuk.

The vault door opened.

When he went inside, General Manager Ximen was dumbfounded.

The vault was empty.

'Which bastard came here first?'

It was so clean that it didn't seem like it.

Baekji had transferred the gold and silver ingots and jewels into sacks and had even cleaned up thoroughly.

General Manager Ximen looked at the empty chests and the bookshelf with the martial arts secret manuals and his mind raced.

"The Sect Master anticipated this and moved them elsewhere! If a real thief had broken in, they wouldn't have left the martial arts secret manuals as they were. These secret manuals are peerless techniques. Then where on earth did he move them?"

General Manager Ximen let out a deep sigh.

General Manager Ximen thought of Bai Renguang and the Young Sect Master, who were barely clinging to life in the dark stone chamber, and muttered, "In that case, I'll have to keep the Sect Master alive for now."

General Manager Ximen took the martial arts secret manuals and left the secret vault.

* * *

"Gasp! I'm dying. I think I'm going to die!"

Senior Oh panted for breath.

He had been climbing up and down the ten-zhang cliff all day. He had no strength left in his body.

Senior Oh, who had barely climbed to the top of the cliff and was lying down, kept making dying sounds.

Baekji approached and pushed Senior Oh with his foot.

"Aaaack!"

Senior Oh screamed and fell off the cliff.

Splash!

Below the cliff was a deep pool. It was water collected from a waterfall that fell from the middle of the cliff.

"Puaah!"

Senior Oh, who had fallen into the water, swam desperately and crawled to the shore.

"You cruel bastard!"

Senior Oh glared up at the top of the cliff with venomous eyes.

Ajok was desperately climbing the cliff, and behind him, Yang Soryeong was climbing.

Yang Soryeong's lips were chapped from the harsh training, her hair was disheveled, and she was covered in grime.

Jang Sam was sprawled out on the shore.

Baekji, sitting on the edge of the cliff and chewing on a bellflower root, gestured.

"Hurry up. We have to eat dinner."

"Hee-ing."

Below the pond was another cliff. To eat dinner, they had to climb the cliff, dead or alive.

"Brother, I'm just going to die."

The sprawled-out Jang Sam said with a groaning voice.

Whoosh!

Baekji flew from the cliff. To jump down a ten-zhang cliff.

Baekji's martial arts were improving day by day.

'Is that a human?'

Senior Oh glared, but when his eyes met Baekji's, he flinched and lowered his head.

"Who said they wanted to die?"

Baekji asked, chewing on the bellflower.

(End of Chapter)