Chapter 06 ..
This was far beyond what he could comprehend.
“Eat.”
If he didn’t eat, that fist would come flying again, right?
“Ah, yes, sir.”
Mi-ryeong quickly swallowed the food.
“If you really want to run away, just kill yourself. I won’t chase you all the way to the underworld.”
…Was that something a person should say?
“Here. Use this if you need it on your way to the underworld.”
He even returned the poison pill.
Humiliated and resentful, Mi-ryeong’s stubbornness flared—he would survive out of sheer spite if he had to.
Seeing his determined expression, Jeok Wigang grinned.
“Good. Stay alive like that. Then good days will come.”
…Really?
Will they?
All he saw ahead was a bleak future.
“Uh… then what about the report? If I don’t submit one, they’ll get suspicious.”
“You have to. Just report it exactly as it happened.”
“Pardon?”
“Report everything honestly, without hiding anything.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yep. And if they annoy Jung later, I’ll just go flatten them once.”
Mi-ryeong thought for a moment.
‘With Hao Sect’s power… could they possibly take down this monster?’
His pupils moved restlessly as he studied Jeok Wigang.
Jeok Wigang smirked.
“What? Curious? Wondering whether the Hao Sect could catch me or not?”
“N-no, sir.”
“Oh, please. It’s written all over your eyes.”
He was sharp.
There wasn’t a single thing this monster wasn’t good at.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“I… I have a question.”
“What?”
“You said you’re eight years old… so what level is your martial cultivation?”
“My cultivation level? That’s what you’re curious about?”
“Yes.”
“Second-rate? No, wait—since I have no inner energy, am I third-rate?”
“…What?”
“I don’t have inner energy.”
What nonsense was this?
“You don’t have inner energy? Then what did I just witness earlier?”
“That? I just punched.”
“A regular punch has that much power?”
“I even held back. If I hit seriously, it’d be a disaster.”
Mi-ryeong stared, unsure whether he was joking or not.
“I don’t have a dantian. So I can’t accumulate inner energy.”
“What?”
What kind of human didn’t have a dantian?
“I really don’t. It’s a shame. I wanted to use inner energy and perform proper martial arts, too.”
No dantian, no inner energy… yet he was that powerful?
“You don’t believe me? Want to check?”
Jeok Wigang boldly revealed his lower abdomen.
That was the area where vital acupoints gathered.
Mi-ryeong immediately understood why he was exposing it with such confidence.
‘There’s no way I could pierce that hide… right?’
Seeing how boldly he presented it, maybe he really didn’t have a dantian.
“N-no. I believe you.”
Jeok Wigang grinned again.
Somehow that smile was terrifying.
There must be a reason heaven hadn’t given him a dantian.
What if this insane strength was combined with inner energy?
The mere thought was horrifying.
He’d be a walking natural disaster.
…Actually, wasn’t he already one?
Jeok Wigang stretched and started walking, grumbling.
“Ugh, I need to grow up fast. Sneaking around like this is annoying.”
Mi-ryeong wondered:
‘He’s a monster now… how monstrous will he be once he grows?’
One thing seemed certain:
The martial world would revolve around this monster.
And many martial artists would despair.
Seeing someone this strong without even having inner energy—how meaningless would all their decades of hard training feel?
Thinking about that, Mi-ryeong suddenly wanted to see it:
The path this monster would walk.
“Hey, do you know the way to the Gui-pung Sect?”
“What? Yes, sir, I do.”
“Lead the way. You wasted a lot of my time.”
“Y-yes. Please follow me.”
Mi-ryeong quickly used light-footwork.
But he wasn’t sure how fast he should go.
“Run at full speed.”
“Yes, sir!”
He remembered—this monster easily chased him down even when he’d been running full-power.
He pushed aside all other thoughts and sprinted toward the Gui-pung Sect.
After running a long time, he suddenly heard a voice right beside him.
“At this rate, when will we arrive?”
And then—
“You just point with your finger.”
“Yes? What do you mea—”
PAAAANG—
Before he even finished speaking, an overwhelming wind pressure slammed into his face.
His skin felt like it was peeling off.
“Point properly.”
Barely resisting the storm-like wind, Mi-ryeong forced his shaking finger to point the direction.
How long had they been moving?
Suddenly, the pressure vanished.
“Is that it?”
…Already?
In the blink of an eye?
Even at full speed, it should’ve taken half a shichen (one hour).
Mi-ryeong looked down.
Sure enough—the Gui-pung Sect was right there.
He was speechless.
“Y-yes. That’s the place.”
“Good. Be quiet now.”
“Yes.”
What was he planning?
Jeok Wigang cupped his hand around his ear.
Was he… trying to hear sounds from that far away?
That was at least a hundred jang (about 300 meters)…
Mi-ryeong held his breath and watched.
“Hm. Nothing important.”
“Sir?”
“The sect master and his strategist are talking. Just nonsense.”
“You can hear conversations from that distance?”
“Yep. If I focus.”
Mi-ryeong stared blankly.
This was ridiculous.
No dantian, no inner energy—yet he lacked nothing.
“Ugh…”
After listening more, Jeok Wigang clicked his tongue in irritation.
“Ugh! They’re talking dirty. We came all the way here at night for this?”
When had he suffered getting here?
Mi-ryeong kept quiet.
One wrong word and he might get hit.
“What should I do? Should I just barge in and ask if they’re plotting to attack Jinmu Sect? If I grab the sect master and shake him, he’ll probably spill.”
“What? What about the Gui-pung Sect’s martial artists?”
“Huh? Do I need to care about them? Isn’t it normal to just grab the leader?”
“They won’t let you through.”
“Really? Then should I blow them all away? Ugh, too much effort.”
Mi-ryeong stared in disbelief.
He found wiping out an entire sect too troublesome.
“Gui-pung is technically demonic-aligned, but they don’t commit severe atrocities.”
“But they might attack Jinmu Sect.”
“What? Attack Jinmu Sect? They’d have to be insane.”
“Why?”
“Who would dare touch the youngest son of the Heavenly Martial Saint, the Lord of Cheonmu Castle?”
…What?
“What are you talking about? I’m talking about Jinmu Sect—why bring up Cheonmu Castle?”
“The Jinmu Sect Master is the youngest son of the lord of Cheonmu Castle.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Of course not… no one told me.”
“Then when you asked to list the sects hostile to Jinmu… it was to eliminate those that might attack Jinmu?”
“Yep. I wanted to remove any threats to my sect.”
“No need. No sect in this region would dare touch Jinmu on their own.”
“Then… who the hell destroyed our sect?”
“Pardon? Destroyed? Jinmu Sect is perfectly fine. Did you dream it?”
“…”
Something felt wrong.
Thinking about it—
If history had flowed normally, something should have happened by now.
At eight years old… wasn’t he already supposed to be an orphan?
But nothing had happened.
He wasn’t an orphan.
A terrible feeling crept in.
“What year is it? What era name?”
“Hongryeok.”
“What? Hongryeok? Not Manmu?”
Manmu was the reign title from his childhood.
“No… Emperor Manmu died twelve years ago. Hongryeok is the new emperor.”
Jeok Wigang froze.
He thought becoming a baby meant he’d returned to the past.
But he hadn’t.
He’d been living under a complete misconception.
What on earth happened?
He retraced events before meeting his parents.
He had eaten the Celestial Drunken Elixir and the Half-Heaven Reversal Pill his brothers gave him.
Could it be?
He looked at Mi-ryeong.
“Do you know the Half-Heaven Reversal Pill?”
“Yes. They say it rewinds a person’s life and turns them into a child. Rumor claims it returns you to an infant’s body… but it’s nonsense. A mere pill turning a dying old man into a baby? Impossible.”
It wasn’t a rumor.
He had eaten it himself.
Rewinds your life?
Was that why he became a baby?
Then why did his brothers give it to him?
To run away again?
If he was a baby, he couldn’t chase them.
True—he’d been helpless as an infant.
Even if he saw them escaping, he couldn’t have followed.
And they’d even put him to sleep to be safe.
He let out a hollow laugh.
He’d believed he’d returned to the past.
What a fool.
Waking up in his mother’s arms made him misunderstand even more.
But one thing was clear:
His parents’ love was sincere.
Even though he wasn’t their real son, they loved him more than a real one.
Even now.
They were unquestionably his parents.
His brothers had done it to escape him…
But in the end, they had given him a tremendous gift.
…Should he forgive them?
Thinking about it carefully… they were ungrateful brats.
After everything he’d done for them—they ran away?
Still… since they gave him a great gift, he would only beat them a little.
Jeok Wigang sniffed the air intently.
No trace of his brothers’ scent.
They must have masked it somehow.
One of them was a prodigy in pill-craft.
He must have made something to erase their smell.
Or they had simply gone far, far away.
There were limits to finding someone by scent alone.
Jeok Wigang turned back to Mi-ryeong.
“Then what about the Four Heavenly Demon Horses?”
“Who in the Central Plains doesn’t know of them?”
“Really? I never heard of them.”
“People avoid mentioning them. The Four Heavenly Demon Horses are practically taboo in the martial world.”
“Are they strong?”
“Very. When they were active, one-fourth of the martial world’s powers were wiped out. If the Heavenly Martial Emperor hadn’t stopped them, imagining today’s world is terrifying.”
“The Heavenly Martial Emperor is…”
“Your paternal grandfather.”
“Really? Then why did my father leave Cheonmu Castle?”
“Because of your mother. The Emperor opposed the marriage, but the Jinmu Sect Master chose your mother. He was expelled and became the son-in-law of Jinmu Sect, inheriting it through his wife. Still, since it was his son’s new home, the Emperor supported them greatly. Thanks to that, Jinmu grew to twice its size.”
True—his father had worked hard too.
He knew all of this firsthand.
Upto this point, Jeok Wigang’s thoughts continued—
(Your provided text cuts off here. If you send the rest, I’ll translate that too.)
