Chapter 5. Moyong Family (4)
Memories of the past surfaced.
It was a conversation he had with his older brother when he had come to the Murim Alliance while Moyong Cheon was struggling with Neunghyung’s demonic energy.
“Alliance Leader, your complexion doesn’t look good.”
“That’s because I didn’t wash my face.”
“…I have no excuse.”
“Are you drunk? Why are you suddenly like this?”
“Isn’t it because of the Alliance that you’re suffering? You must have endured so much because of the main family since you were young.”
“Please stop. The way you keep addressing me formally as ‘Alliance Leader’ is giving me chills.”
“You brat! Chills?!”
“Heh.”
“Good grief, how are you still unable to distinguish between public and private matters at your age?”
“Leave me be. It’s just how I am.”
“Then why don’t you quit being Alliance Leader and take over as head of the family? At least your workload would decrease. They say people age quickly once they suddenly retire.”
“Honestly, that does sound better than the Murim Alliance. If they don’t listen, I can just beat them all up and no one would complain.”
“……”
“I’m joking. Just pass it on to Daeho properly.”
From that moment on, his brother had jokingly told people that Moyong Cheon was also the head of the family.
It was just a joke.
But it seemed his brother hadn’t meant it as one.
“…Who asked you to do something like that?”
Co-head of the family.
Not only had he treated him—an illegitimate child who had been mistreated by the family—as a true brother, he had even elevated him to the position of co-head.
“Damn it… making me all sentimental.”
Moyong Cheon wiped his eyes with his fist.
Crying like this—how embarrassing. Guess I really have gotten old.
After carefully placing the memorial tablet back and extinguishing all the candles, he left the ancestral hall.
“Are you finished, Young Master?”
“Yeah.”
Sensing the unusual mood, Gwak No spoke even more cautiously.
“I will escort you to your room.”
The two began walking again.
Whoooosh.
The wind was cold.
His chaotic thoughts refused to settle. Then again, he hadn’t even fully accepted the fact that he had been thrown twenty years into the future.
At that moment, a girl’s voice rang out from afar.
“Hey! Don’t tell me you just got back now? You crazy—!”
The girl couldn’t finish her sentence. Gwak No silently waved his hand to stop her.
The girl glared at Moyong Cheon, thumped her chest in frustration, and turned away sharply.
But Moyong Cheon paid no attention to them.
It felt as if his brother’s hand was reaching up from underground, grabbing his shin and shaking it violently. His legs felt unbearably heavy.
After some time passed—
“Please get some rest, Young Master.”
“Hm? Ah… thank you.”
“Would you like something to eat…?”
“It’s fine. Go get some rest.”
Seeing him nod weakly, Gwak No felt confused. From earlier, the young master’s behavior had been completely different from before.
Normally, he would’ve told him to eat more and gain some weight, but now it didn’t feel like the right moment to say such things.
“I will take my leave. Please rest well.”
“Alright.”
After Gwak No left, Moyong Cheon got off the bed and sat on the cold floor. The chill rising from the ground helped clear his head.
And as his mind cleared, the tangled emotions became sharper.
“Brother…”
Though he had escaped the Heavenly Punishment after turning forty, in his memories, Moyong Heon always had a sickly complexion.
“Father and uncles committed things no human should do in the name of the family’s revival. I have no face to look at you.”
When he was young and growing more broken each day, his brother would cry whenever he saw him.
Back then, Moyong Cheon had found even his brother disgusting.
He thought his brother cried in front of him but wagged his tail behind his father like a dog, pretending to have done something good.
But on the day the forbidden technique was completed—when the elders tried to kill him to eliminate future trouble—his brother’s actions erased all that hatred.
“Even beasts cherish their own young! Since when did our family fall lower than the demonic sects?!”
His brother, in true rage, had been ready to fight their father and uncles.
If his brother hadn’t been a once-in-a-generation genius, he might have been expelled.
Or perhaps even killed.
After that, their father died of illness, and his brother revealed his true strength, crushed the uncles, and became the head of the family.
That was when it all began.
From then on, the two of them worked together to rebuild the rotten family from its roots.
“…We did all that, and yet…”
He recalled his brother’s bright smile—and his nephew Daeho’s bold and cheerful face.
Unlike the other nephews, Daeho had been kind and resolute like his father. Moyong Cheon had cherished him like his own son.
“Uncle! Take care of your health and come again next year! By then, Sujeong will be able to speak!”
The boy had laughed like someone who had lived fifty years, despite his young age.
“Daeho… instead of one year, I came back after more than twenty.”
A sigh escaped him.
“To see things like this… it would’ve been better to stay dead.”
Whether it was heaven’s joke or something else, he had returned to this world in the body of his descendant.
But then, his expression gradually turned cold.
“No… that’s not right.”
Better to be dead?
Yes, the thought had crossed his mind.
But thinking about it properly, this was an opportunity.
“I don’t know if this is the heavens playing tricks or the ancestors watching over me, but I’ve returned. Whatever happened, I can’t leave the family like this.”
He and his brother had rebuilt this family with immense effort.
Anyone who committed corruption—whether blood relative or loyal retainer—was expelled without exception. They established proper laws and discipline and raised the strength and spirit of their warriors to the highest level in the northern martial world.
After becoming Alliance Leader, he couldn’t focus much on the family due to war—but his brother had filled the gaps.
“I won’t give up. No—I refuse to.”
He would uncover everything.
Why they moved from Liaoning to Hubei. What this Hoyeon family was. How his brother and Daeho died.
And what kind of lives the current descendants were living.
“To do that… first…”
He recalled the condition of the estate.
“No matter how I look at it, they’re not in a good situation. That’s one thing—but…”
He looked down at his body.
“The real problem is this.”
This body—his descendant’s body—was far from normal.
Not just weak muscles, but even his internal organs were frail.
Everything was a problem. Just moving a little made him short of breath.
“As the eldest son of the Moyong family, did he not even learn proper martial arts?”
Moyong Cheon closed his eyes and examined his body internally.
After a moment—
“Huh?”
He was startled.
“What is this bizarre condition?”
He stared blankly at his lower abdomen and checked again.
Same result.
“The dantian is… crushed?”
The dantian was the core of gathering qi—a storage for internal energy.
But his was twisted and deformed.
Not only was it extremely small, its shape was completely unnatural.
“How is this even possible?”
Qi moves and forms based on intent.
Naturally, the dantian is formed through focus and awareness of qi.
Once created, it grows with the owner, usually becoming round as its density increases.
“But this… it’s too crude to have been intentionally made like this…”
Did the family not know?
Even he hadn’t noticed—because this wasn’t his original body, and his sensitivity to qi was too weak.
“I don’t understand.”
More than anything, it was strange that no physician had examined him.
Even if they lacked money, this was clearly not something to ignore.
Moyong Cheon narrowed his eyes.
It felt like he had fallen into a world that shouldn’t exist—a place where his common sense as the former Murim Alliance Leader didn’t apply.
“What matters is that I have to live in this era.”
He was still dazed, but he couldn’t just die helplessly.
To survive, he had to live.
Just like always.
“Then I need to fix this body first.”
A weak body leads to instability in both mind and emotions.
There was a reason sages said a healthy mind resides in a healthy body.
“Damn it.”
He bit his lip.
“No matter what, I’ll have to learn that damned technique again.”
Destroying and rebuilding a dantian was extremely difficult.
It required a long time—and success wasn’t guaranteed.
But that technique…
The one that could place both body and qi under complete control from the very beginning—
“Brain Gate Heart Technique…”
The worst forbidden art hidden by the Moyong family.
No normal person could master it.
Most who tried went insane or died with their brains destroyed.
Even those who survived aged rapidly and died within a year.
No wonder it was rumored to be a demonic art.
“…Damn it. Maybe it’ll be easier this time.”
He had learned it before the age of ten and reached the beginner stage in less than a year.
Learning it wasn’t the issue.
In fact, it expanded mental capacity dramatically.
The problem was the madness, emotional instability, and splitting headaches.
He had tried to kill himself multiple times because of it.
“But it should be fine. Back then, I didn’t know anything.”
Even now, it wouldn’t be without risk.
“I’ll do it. I can’t wait years.”
Once he made a decision, he moved forward.
But first—
He suddenly stood up.
The dizziness hit again, but it didn’t stop him.
“I need to meet Sujeong first.”
* * *
Outside, the night had deepened.
The air was damp and cold.
Pulling his clothes tighter, Moyong Cheon recalled Gwak No’s words.
“Acting head of the family, was it?”
All he remembered of Sujeong was her face as a baby.
Yet he felt a strange sense of attachment.
“Why is she only acting head? Why not take the position properly?”
He felt both nervous and expectant.
A strange feeling.
“Is this it?”
Though much smaller, the layout was similar to the old main house.
“It’s small…”
His nostalgic gaze turned cold.
“So this is the family’s reality now.”
Just as he was about to knock—
BANG!
A loud noise echoed from the front gate.
“Hey! Open the door!”
Moyong Cheon frowned.
Who’s making that pig-slaughtering noise in the middle of the night?
BANG! BANG!
“We’re here to collect a debt! Open up!”
