Chapter: 3
Jin Yeongyeong and Dan Seoyeon moved their conversation to the wooden veranda so they could explain in detail how the misfortune that had befallen the Dan Family Manor had come about.
The old, hollow veranda of the desolate estate groaned loudly, almost screaming, every time Dan Hyeonwoo stepped on it.
It hadn’t made sounds like this twenty years ago.
Dan Seoyeon went into the kitchen.
But when she came back out, all she was carrying was a single cup of plain water.
There wasn’t even a pinch of tea leaves left to brew for the brother who had returned after twenty years.
Dan Hyeonwoo took the cup from her and drank it down in one long, refreshing gulp.
“Just when I was thirsty—you noticed and brought me water.”
“You don’t have to put it so nicely. You can see the state of the Dan Manor for yourself.”
“I’m serious. I really was thirsty.”
“Let’s just say that’s how it was. But, Brother… how have you been all this time?”
“I wandered around the Central Plains, did this and that. I just lived like that.”
“After you disappeared, the family was in chaos. Everyone searched for you for over ten years.”
“Don’t tell me the Dan Family declined because you were looking for me?”
“No, that’s not it. I just wanted you to know how much everyone worried about you and searched for you.”
“I’m sorry. You must’ve suffered a lot because I was gone. While Father and Mother were looking for me, they may have neglected you.”
Dan Seoyeon pressed her small lips tightly together.
She couldn’t outright deny his words.
Life was too harsh now to dwell on the past.
That was why she had tried to forget—but in truth, she had resented her brother deeply.
Ten years.
Ten years in which their parents roamed the Central Plains searching for him.
It was just a short phrase when spoken aloud, but during those years, Dan Seoyeon had endured everything alone.
That time had hardened into a knot deep in her heart, one that still refused to loosen.
And seeing her brother—who had once declared he would become a renowned martial artist of the Jianghu—return home in such a shabby, withdrawn state only added to that knot.
In the end, Dan Seoyeon changed the subject.
“But you look incredibly young, Brother. If we went out together, people might think I’m the older one.”
“That can’t be true. I just happen to look a little young.”
“A little? How can a thirty-seven-year-old have not a single wrinkle?”
“Well… maybe that’s just how it is? More importantly, tell me why the Dan Family Manor ended up like this.”
This time, it was Dan Hyeonwoo who changed the subject.
After mastering the Manmu Divine Art, there had come a point when he simply stopped aging.
As Seoyeon watched her brother deliberately steer the conversation away, she rose to her feet.
“I have to go work at the inn now. You should hear the rest from Mother.”
“You work at an inn?”
“How else am I supposed to live? If I’m lucky, I might bring back some leftover food. But don’t get your hopes up—those days are rare.”
She opened the creaking door of the Dan Manor and stepped outside.
Dan Hyeonwoo remembered how exceptionally bright Seoyeon had been as a child.
If he hadn’t left home back then, she might have grown up receiving all of their parents’ love, studying freely, and living an entirely different life.
But now, Seoyeon was painfully thin, her frail body marked everywhere by the traces of hardship.
‘I’ve done something unforgivable to Seoyeon as well. I’ll repay it—no matter what.’
Dan Hyeonwoo turned his gaze to his mother, Jin Yeongyeong.
Since it was something that would have to be said sooner or later, she began speaking calmly.
“After you left home, your father and I did search the Central Plains for you. But we never neglected the Dan Manor or the Danhwa Silk Shop.”
“Then why did the Dan Manor fall into this state?”
“The Danhwa Silk Shop was actually growing. As you know, your father had an extraordinary talent for business. And with his good character, people lined up to trade with him.”
She continued in an even tone.
Just as the Danhwa Silk Shop was flourishing and becoming the best silk shop in Hangzhou, a newly rising merchant group called the Mokhwa Merchant Guild appeared.
True to the word ‘cotton’ in their name, their main goods were plain cotton cloth—more like a fabric shop than a silk merchant.
The problem was that they began selling silk as well.
Their silk was far inferior in quality compared to Danhwa’s.
But the price was less than half.
Despite suffering obvious losses, they stubbornly kept those prices, slowly encroaching on Danhwa’s market.
As time passed, it became inevitable that Danhwa’s silk sales began to falter.
No business could win against price alone.
In the end, Danhwa had no choice but to lower its prices, even at a loss.
The Mokhwa Guild lowered theirs again.
Danhwa followed.
Soon, even commoners could dream of wearing silk.
The struggle escalated until one side would inevitably collapse.
One day, amidst this brutal price war, Father went to visit the Mokhwa Guild.
He believed it was time to talk.
He proposed a compromise, saying that continuing the bloodletting would only leave both sides in debt.
But all he received was the guild master’s sneer.
That was when Father learned the truth.
From the very beginning, the Mokhwa Guild planned to destroy Danhwa—the only shop producing truly high-quality silk—then sell inferior silk at inflated prices.
Father was devastated.
All the money he had saved had already been poured into the price war.
The only option left was to borrow money and endure until the Mokhwa Guild collapsed.
That decision became the fatal mistake.
At first, the lenders approached us like kind, supportive people cheering on the Dan Family.
But they were wolves in sheep’s clothing—vicious men connected to the dark martial factions.
Under normal circumstances, your father would never have made such an error.
But the shock of the Mokhwa Guild master’s plan, the fear of losing the Dan Family entirely, and his desperate determination to protect it clouded his judgment.
Crushed by Mokhwa’s continued pressure and unable to bear the interest on the loan sharks’ money from the Nine Dragons Sect, the family fell rapidly into ruin.
The speed at which debt piled up—from both the silk shop’s losses and the usurious loans—was beyond imagination.
Even then, Father struggled on with everything he had.
But three years was his limit.
At the end of last year, he finally collapsed while working, his body too heavy to support him.
And since then, he had lain in his room, barely conscious, slowly wasting away—unable to make even the simplest decisions.
After listening to the full story, Dan Hyeonwoo asked heavily,
“Is the Danhwa Silk Shop completely gone?”
“Rather than gone, it was taken over by the Mokhwa Guild—for a price so low it was absurd.”
“And this estate?”
“Everything else was taken. This estate is all that remains. But even that… I doubt we’ll be able to keep it much longer. The Nine Dragons Sect won’t leave it alone.”
“I understand the situation now.”
“Hyeonwoo, you just came back after so long… I’m sorry to burden you with nothing but bad news.”
“No, Mother. I’m the one who should apologize. If only I’d come back even once… I lacked the courage, and only now am I truly facing it.”
Jin Yeongyeong shook her head.
There had been a time when she would have given up every last possession just to find her runaway son.
Her longing had burned so fiercely that she would have traded her own life to bring him back.
Dan Hyeonwoo took her hand.
“Mother, you don’t need to worry anymore. I’m back now. The Dan Family will rise again. And we’ll reclaim the Danhwa Silk Shop as well.”
“Thank you… even if it’s just words, my son.”
She thought of it as nothing more than her son’s bold reassurance.
But Dan Hyeonwoo was different.
A firm resolve was already kindling into flame in his heart.
‘I made Ju Uncheon—once nothing more than a mere prince—emperor, even within the Forbidden City where the crown prince had already been decided. I killed the Blood Night Heavenly Demon with my own hands.’
There was nothing he had failed to accomplish.
This time would be no different.
As always.
Dan Hyeonwoo stood up.
“I want to see Father.”
“He’s probably asleep, but I suppose you want to see his face at least.”
Jin Yeongyeong led the way, with Dan Hyeonwoo following behind.
At the threshold of the room, he hesitated.
Even as the greatest under heaven, stepping over this threshold was not easy.
After all, he had run away from home because of a fight with his father.
But Dan Hyeonwoo shook his head.
From this moment on, he was the head of the Dan Family.
Without hesitation, he stepped inside.
* * *
The father who was said to be asleep lay with his eyes open, staring blankly into empty space.
The moment Dan Hyeonwoo saw him, it felt as though his heart had shattered.
His father had once been dignified and handsome.
A pillar of the family, known for his generosity and kindness.
And yet, now, he couldn’t even recognize the son who had returned after twenty years.
No—he didn’t even notice Dan Hyeonwoo entering the room.
“Father.”
Even knowing there would be no answer, he called out—for the first time in twenty years.
His breath caught painfully in his throat.
He had led an empire into peace and prosperity.
Yet he couldn’t even protect his own family.
What had he been doing all this time while his father became like this?
Regret weighed heavily on his chest once more.
‘If only I’d asked His Majesty for even a small favor…’
The emperor would surely have taken care of his family and watched over them.
The thought left a bitter taste.
‘No. What’s past is past. What matters is what comes next.’
There was still a chance to turn things around.
Perhaps this was the last chance.
The fact that his parents were still alive when he returned was something he should thank heaven for.
With that resolve, Dan Hyeonwoo took Dan Yuseon’s pulse.
As he closed his eyes and felt the acupuncture points, meridians, and even the smallest channels, Jin Yeongyeong spoke.
“Hyeonwoo… the physicians said your father’s illness can’t be cured. Even the most famous doctors in Hangzhou all shook their heads.”
They weren’t wrong.
Mediocre doctors couldn’t cure him.
And by Dan Hyeonwoo’s standards, even Hangzhou’s famed physicians were mediocre.
‘But that guy… he could cure him.’
Dan Hyeonwoo spoke.
“Mother, please allow me to write a letter.”
“There’s still ink and paper in your father’s study.”
“I’ll be back shortly.”
He entered his father’s study for the first time in twenty years.
This was the very room where he’d fought with his father and run away.
Nothing had changed.
After grinding ink and writing the letter, Dan Hyeonwoo returned and placed his hand on his father’s back.
Slowly, he infused him with energy.
The Manmu Divine Art’s energy—Muya Heavenly Qi.
A power meant to draw forth the energy of heaven itself.
Unlike ordinary internal energy techniques used by martial sects, Muya Heavenly Qi was fundamentally different.
Its greatest characteristic was its impossible purity.
To the point that internal energy cultivated through Muya Heavenly Qi was cleaner even than the inner power refined from the Shaolin Temple’s famed elixir, the Great Restoration Pill.
Dan Hyeonwoo was certain.
‘Among the tens of thousands of internal cultivation methods under heaven, none produce energy as pure as Muya Heavenly Qi.’
With such energy, even without medical skill, he could revive his father’s severely depleted vitality.
‘He won’t be able to leap out of bed right away, but…’
It would buy enough time until the physician he summoned arrived.
Perhaps, before that man even came, his father’s condition might partially recover.
That was the kind of power Muya Heavenly Qi had shown him throughout countless battles.
It was internal energy—yet something beyond internal energy.
Muya Heavenly Qi didn’t merely reside in the dantian, meridians, and acupoints.
It permeated every part of the human body.
Muscles, blood vessels—even every single bone.
That was why it had elevated Dan Hyeonwoo to the position of the greatest under heaven, and why it had overwhelmed the Blood Night Heavenly Demon’s internal energy.
Holding his father’s wrist, Dan Hyeonwoo closed his eyes and poured Muya Heavenly Qi into him.
The energy passed through the wrist and minor meridians, gently and warmly sweeping across the body where turbid energy had accumulated.
He felt the impurities dispersing.
Just as expected.
Still, he didn’t let his guard down.
He gave it everything he had.
Cold sweat beaded across his forehead.
He wasn’t a real physician, and his father’s condition was dire—he couldn’t afford even the slightest mistake.
He focused harder than he had even when facing the Blood Night Heavenly Demon.
No—his concentration now surpassed even that.
Perhaps because of that—
The ashen, lifeless pallor of his father’s skin slowly began to regain a healthy hue.
And it didn’t stop there.
Moments later, his father’s fingertips twitched—just slightly, but unmistakably.
Jin Yeongyeong, who had been watching in confusion, widened her eyes and gasped.
“Gasp…?!”
Instinctively sensing that she must not interfere, silence fell once more.
Yes.
It was silence.
“…!”
But amid that breathless astonishment—
Dan Hyeonwoo opened his eyes and gently released his father’s wrist.
At the same moment, his father’s once-fixed eyes slowly rolled, coming to rest on Dan Hyeonwoo.
Meeting his father’s gaze, Dan Hyeonwoo smiled for the first time in ten years.
It was a smile so painful, it burned.
