Chapter 70
“Are you bringing that one too?”
“Yup! Uncle said I could!”
“Have you named it yet?”
“Of course! It’s Baekwoon (White Cloud)!”
“White Cloud… that name suits him perfectly.”
Jaeha, who was standing next to her, nodded in approval.
“You have no idea. At first, she came up with names like Whitey, Fluffy, and Cloudy—stuff you’d give to a mutt.”
“And wasn’t there something else? Piga? Pigachu or whatever it was? Some weird nonsense name with no meaning.”
“T-That’s why I went with Uncle’s suggestion and named him Baekwoon!”
As they brought up her embarrassing naming attempts from a few days ago, Eunsowol’s cheeks turned bright red.
“Still, Fluffy might’ve been cute too. What do you think, Baekwoon?”
Baekwoon stared at Eunsowol, then sharply turned his head away without answering.
“You’re banned from naming things from now on.”
Dokgoryong looked down at her with a face full of disgust.
But why did Baekwoon’s expression look exactly the same as Dokgoryong’s?
Meanwhile…
“AAAAAARGH! You worthless pieces of trash! You let that thing get away and caused this disaster?!”
Crash! Smash!
The sounds of things breaking echoed endlessly. Members of the Mukhyang Clan clenched their eyes shut.
Even after smashing and breaking everything in the room, the Mukhyang Lord’s fury hadn’t subsided. His face was red with rage, and he was breathing heavily.
“What about the baby?! Did you find the Thunderbeast cub?!”
“I-I’m sorry… We haven’t found it yet…”
“You idiots! What do you mean you still haven’t found it?!”
The Lord grabbed a ceramic vase and hurled it at one of his subordinates with all his strength. It hit the man squarely on the forehead, making him stumble for a moment. But he quickly stood straight and bowed deeply.
“I apologize, my lord! We’ll search every inch of Black Poem Valley and find it!”
The reason the Mukhyang Lord was this furious?
Because they had lost the Thunderbeast they’d gone through great lengths to capture.
The mother Thunderbeast died resisting after exhausting all her strength, and the cub—the only one left—had gone missing.
They’d searched Black Poem Valley for seven days and nights, inspecting every exit and scrutinizing everyone who left. Yet, the Thunderbeast had vanished without a trace.
The Mukhyang Lord held his face in both hands and muttered in despair.
“No… no… no… We need it. For their sake… If we don’t…”
As he whispered incomprehensible things, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“That’s it! Lee Jaeha! Where’s Lee Jaeha?! We need someone who can replace the Thunderbeast! Go get him—now!”
A silence swept over the room. The subordinates exchanged glances, which made the Lord sense something was off.
“…What are you all doing? Go get him, now!”
“M-My lord… Lee Jaeha and his group… they left the valley completely a few days ago…”
The Mukhyang Lord’s pupils constricted.
“Then go out and bring them back!”
“T-That’s… a problem! They’re currently under the protection of the Sichuan Tang Clan!”
“…What?”
“The Sichuan Tang Clan. Someone wearing a green robe with the Black Tortoise emblem recruited them.”
The Sichuan Tang Clan. Though they were from the neighboring province, they wielded great influence in Yunnan as well.
Messing with them would definitely jeopardize their future operations.
“They’re probably in Sichuan by now—my lord!”
The Mukhyang Lord clutched the back of his neck and collapsed. Members of the clan rushed toward him in panic.
Choking and trembling, he screamed with a vein bulging in his neck.
“AAAAARGH! You useless fools! I’m going to die because of you idiots!”
Once again, the sound of destruction echoed from his room.
It was so terrifying that no one dared to pass the hallway outside his door.
Except for one person.
“The great ones will come to punish meeeeee!”
Hearing the anguished screams from inside, Pungnyanggwi narrowed his eyes.
“‘The great ones,’ huh…”
He watched the Mukhyang Lord for a moment, then disappeared without a trace.
Ten days after leaving Kunming.
As always, Eunsowol’s group traveled by light footwork. When the sun began to set, they found a suitable place to camp.
After a simple meal of fish caught from a nearby stream, they each spent their free time.
Dokgoryong, warming up alone, beckoned to Eunsowol, who was playing hand games with Baekwoon.
“Hey, kid.”
Eunsowol looked up. He had taken off his top for exercise.
Broad shoulders, thick chest, sharply defined abs without an ounce of fat.
He had a body fit to be displayed anywhere.
‘So many scars…’
One couldn’t even imagine the kind of life he had led. There was hardly a spot on his body untouched by scars.
“You doing that again?”
“Yeah. Get on.”
Dokgoryong lay flat on the ground, chest down. Eunsowol grumbled as she looked at his wide back.
“Sigh… I’m not a dumbbell, you know.”
Still, she climbed onto his back. Her view instantly elevated.
“One, two, three…”
And with each number, her view bobbed up and down.
Dokgoryong had started doing push-ups with Eunsowol on his back.
He sometimes used her like this for nighttime workouts.
It felt like riding a giant drop ride.
“Two hundred fifty… two hundred fifty-one… two hundred fifty-two…”
As Eunsowol counted diligently, Dang Jinak approached.
He, too, had taken off his top and took a position next to Dokgoryong.
Then he started doing push-ups as well—faster, even more aggressively.
“Huff, huff… Big bro! You’re not at your best today, huh?”
Dang Jinak grinned, sweat dripping down.
Dokgoryong’s back muscles twitched, and Eunsowol’s view dropped much faster than usual.
“Ah!”
The rapid up-and-down movement made Eunsowol wobble, but Dokgoryong didn’t stop—in fact, he pushed even harder.
Seeing that, Dang Jinak flinched—then sped up to match.
“Ahhh! U-Uncle, I’m dizzy!”
She could barely speak, like she was riding a cart over rocky terrain.
“Ack! I bit my tongue!”
After nearly five hundred push-ups, Eunsowol collapsed onto the ground, dizzy.
But the battle between Dokgoryong and Dang Jinak wasn’t over.
Dokgoryong continued as usual, while Jinak copied him with determined eyes.
Their shared energy ignited a fierce rivalry—it had long stopped being exercise and turned into a competition.
“You both look like idiots. Right, Baekwoon?”
Kyurung!
Eunsowol leaned against a tree and watched the two compete.
After a full hour passed, both men were drenched in sweat.
Dang Jinak, barely standing with trembling legs, glanced at Dokgoryong.
Dokgoryong’s chest rose and fell as he slicked his wet hair back and glanced sideways at Jinak.
The faint upward curve of his lips seemed to say: I won.
Jinak let out a dry laugh and collapsed flat on the ground.
“You really are… incredible, big bro…”
“…What is?”
“Using light footwork all day and still training at night… Wow… You’re a monster.”
Dokgoryong raised an eyebrow, and Jinak chuckled.
But his laughter soon faded. Clenching his fist, he spoke again.
“What do you think of me, big bro? Am I strong enough to survive the martial world? How can I become as strong as you?”
His eyes were filled with sincerity. His usual playful smirk was nowhere to be found.
“What’s a young master of the Tang Clan doing asking a drifter for guidance?”
“You’re strong, big bro! And there’s so much more to learn from you than just martial arts!”
‘Uncle Jinak is strong too… So why is he like this?’
He had surpassed all his siblings and was called the Tang Clan’s greatest genius—why was he so insecure?
“I was ashamed of how useless I was in Black Poem Valley. Please, tell me honestly. Am I someone who can help you?”
Dokgoryong scratched the back of his head, annoyed, then finally answered.
“I don’t know your real strength. I haven’t seen you fight properly, so I can’t judge. And it’s not right to evaluate someone else’s skills without knowing them. But there’s one thing I do know.”
“What’s that?”
“If you head into the martial world alone, you’ll be found dead in a ditch before the month is over.”
‘Whoa, that’s harsh.’
It would’ve been less shocking if he’d just said, “You’re weak and flashy.”
As expected, Dang Jinak froze in place, clearly stunned.
