My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Chapter 16. Let Us Return to Hebei
“No. We cannot do that.”
It was an utterly peaceful night.
Yet at Yeo Woonhwi’s words—words that shattered that very peace—Peng Seoyeon shook her head with a resolute expression.
“Dear.”
“Father will never forgive me for running away from the clan. No, even if he forgives me, he will never let you off alive.”
For so long, she had tried her best to put that place out of her mind.
After wandering through hardship from place to place, she had finally settled down here in Sodam Village, and only now had her heart begun to find true peace.
And now, he wanted them to render all those years of shared suffering meaningless and go back…?
She did not want to. Why would they ever?
Now, there was nothing in this world more precious to her than her husband and daughter.
Returning was simply out of the question.
Peng Seoyeon could not understand why Yeo Woonhwi was suddenly bringing this up.
Of course, it was not as though she did not miss her family or the place where she was born and raised.
Yet her father, who refused to acknowledge her love for Yeo Woonhwi to the very end, had tried to force marriage arrangements upon her just to tear the two apart.
Among those offers were several serious proposals from prominent clans.
So she had left. Giving up everything.
She knew that if she stayed, she would never have a future with Yeo Woonhwi.
She refused a life she did not want—a future bound to be spent in lifelong regret.
On the dawn she secretly fled the clan, Peng Seoyeon had made up her mind.
No matter how much she missed them, no matter how much she longed for home, she would gladly endure it all.
To her, the present suggestion brought as much turmoil as that fateful dawn.
She had never dreamed in a million years that Yeo Woonhwi, of all people, would tell her to go back.
“Father has probably erased me from his life already. In the clan’s eyes, I no longer exist. If we say we’re returning now, what will everyone say?”
In truth, she did not care about the gaze of others.
If Peng Seoyeon were the type to care about such things, she would never have fallen in love with an orphaned, penniless scholar like Yeo Woonhwi, nor would she have abandoned everything to run away with him.
Yet what kind of look would her father give her and her husband?
To him, it might look as though she were returning in defeat, regretting her youthful recklessness and surrendering to the clan.
Peng Seoyeon hated the thought of that.
Yet Yeo Woonhwi thought differently.
“Dear, that is not true. Father must still miss you, his daughter.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Think of Yul-i.”
Peng Seoyeon looked at her husband, wondering what he meant.
Yeo Woonhwi continued in a calm, steady voice.
“No matter what Yul-i did, could we ever erase her from our hearts or our minds? Wouldn’t we spend every day worrying if she was well, if she was safe, and missing her terribly?”
“Still…”
“Of course, he must have been furious. Not only did you disobey his wishes, you vanished into thin air. But that cannot be all. I truly believe every parent’s heart is the same.”
“……”
Peng Seoyeon grew choked with emotion at his words and fell silent for a moment.
And Yeo Woonhwi genuinely meant what he said.
Before Yul-i was born, he had never understood the saying that one only knows a parent’s heart once they have a child of their own.
Yet after Yul-i came into the world and he raised her, he came to understand it with painful clarity.
Just how boundless a parent’s love for their child truly was.
Though Yeo Woonhwi was an orphan, he was endlessly grateful to have learned that truth.
“Well, he is famous for being a fierce and unyielding man, but he cannot be entirely heartless. Though, of course, he probably still won’t see me as family, haha.”
Yeo Woonhwi scratched the back of his head.
“But you and our daughter Yul-i—he will surely welcome the two of you with open arms.”
“Dear.”
“Trust me. I am certain he spends every night missing you, waiting for his daughter to return. And shouldn’t we tell our Yul-i soon that she has grandparents?”
“Well, that’s…”
Peng Seoyeon, too, had imagined more than once how much her mother and father would adore Yul-i if they saw her.
Though she had always quickly brushed away that fleeting anticipation and excitement.
She had believed it was impossible.
And the biggest reason she had never voiced such thoughts was her husband, Yeo Woonhwi.
Though he had never said it out loud, Peng Seoyeon knew deep down that he harbored guilt toward her.
And she was right.
Yeo Woonhwi had always carried a sense of guilt toward his wife, Peng Seoyeon.
He believed that a woman who had been the precious jewel of a renowned martial clan, cherished and showered with high hopes since childhood, had thrown away everything solely because of him.
If she had never met him, how much would she still be enjoying?
He was certain she would have lived a grand, glorious life.
So why had Yeo Woonhwi brought this up to her today?
The recent incident with Tang Guhwi had played a major role.
In his past life, he had failed to protect her.
And in this life, he had learned the truth for the first time.
His wife’s poisoning, and the sinister conspiracy lurking behind it.
Fortunately, he had not lost his wife in this life, yet the more Yeo Woonhwi thought about it, the more his heart sank.
He had regressed and vowed to live protecting his family, yet in the brief time he left to gain strength in the Cave of the Martial God, something terrible had nearly happened to his wife.
The thought haunted him.
What if he had arrived too late?
What if that poison had not been a slow-acting one, but the kind that took one’s life instantly upon exposure?
It was horrifying.
Had that happened, would he not have spent this life consumed by madness and vengeance once more?
Though, with his daughter Yul-i still by his side, he could not say for certain what path he would have taken.
Regardless, ever since returning from Sichuan, Yeo Woonhwi had been turning the question over in his mind.
How could he best protect his family?
Was there a way to keep them completely safe, even during the times he had to leave their side?
And this was the answer he had found.
Returning to his wife’s clan.
It was undeniably the absolute best choice available to him.
In his past life, right up until the moment he met his end as the Blood Demon, his wife’s family, the Hebei Peng Clan, had never been entangled in any major crisis.
In fact, unless the Heavenly Demon Cult invaded and plunged the Murim into a battle for its very survival, nothing catastrophic was ever likely to happen to the Hebei Peng Clan, one of the Murim’s Five Great Clans.
And there was one more thing.
Something Peng Seoyeon did not know.
Back when Yeo Woonhwi and Peng Seoyeon eloped under the cover of night, her father, Peng Mugang, had vehemently opposed their relationship.
‘He swore on his life that he would never permit it.’
Yeo Woonhwi himself had believed that the man would never forgive his runaway daughter or the man who stole her away until his dying day.
Yet that was not the truth.
How did he know?
Because not long after his wife died, that very man had appeared in Sodam Village.
The man known as the Tiger of Hebei, Peng Mugang.
The Dominant Saber of Hebei, Peng Mugang, who had once commanded all of the Central Plains with his blade alone, had held his cold, lifeless daughter that day and wept endlessly.
And impossibly enough, he had apologized to Yeo Woonhwi.
He said it was all his own fault.
That things had ended this way because he had been greedy and forced his will onto his daughter until the bitter end.
Then, he had made an offer. He asked if Yeo Woonhwi would send Yul-i to the Hebei Peng Clan.
‘He swore he would raise her with the greatest care and reverence in the world.’
Yeo Woonhwi had refused that offer.
Back then, having just lost his wife, he was in the depths of despair.
Now, he had nothing left in the world except his daughter, Yul-i.
And so, driven by stubborn pride, he had resolved to prove everyone wrong by raising Yul-i well on his own.
Yet before long, Yeo Woonhwi came to regret that decision to his dying breath.
He should have sent her when Peng Mugang offered.
Had he done so, his daughter would not have lost her life waiting for him alone inside a burning house.
Because of that, he had spent the rest of his days consumed by vengeance as the Blood Demon, eventually meeting a wretched end as the public enemy of the martial world.
Therefore,
now that he had regressed and been granted a second chance, he could not afford to make such foolish choices ever again.
He needed to rethink everything from the ground up.
There was no reason to be stubborn.
He had not lost anything yet. That was what mattered most.
First of all, he had once again inherited the power of the Martial God in this life, and he was confident he could defeat anyone who was not among the Twelve Venerables of the World.
And in time, he was certain he could surpass even them.
Yet he asked himself a question.
Assuming he had no martial arts—assuming he had no power to protect his family—what would be the best possible choice in that worst-case scenario?
He thought it over hundreds, thousands of times.
And lined up the few choices that came to mind.
Soon, the answer became clear. The best move for a powerless man was to return to the Hebei Peng Clan.
Had they been there from the start, who would have dared poison and murder his wife?
Even Tang Guhwi would never have dared to attempt such a thing.
Not unless he wanted an all-out war between the Hebei Peng Clan and the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Furthermore, judging by the nature of the crime, the Orthodox sects—who valued righteousness and chivalry above all else—would have stood unanimously with the Hebei Peng Clan.
And Yul-i would never suffer the same fate as in his past life.
Yes.
The best choice for the weakest of men was also the supreme move for Yeo Woonhwi, who possessed the power of the Martial God.
Right now, he and his family needed the secure sanctuary that was the Hebei Peng Clan.
Yeo Woonhwi was certain of it.
And for that sake, whatever trials he might face from now on did not matter in the slightest.
None of it could ever be more important than losing his family.
Of course, small troubles might arise once they went to the Hebei Peng Clan, but he was no longer naive, foolish, or weak enough to endure petty harassment and insults sitting down.
Thus, there was nothing to fear.
“Everything will be fine. Let us return. To Hebei.”
Unlike his usual self, Yeo Woonhwi was resolute.
Seeing him like this, Peng Seoyeon could not bring herself to refuse.
“Instead, if it ever gets too unbearable, let’s make a run for it again. Haha.”
“What on earth are you saying?”
At Yeo Woonhwi’s jest, a soft chuckle finally slipped past Peng Seoyeon’s lips.
Though a lingering worry remained on her face, she nodded.
Yeo Woonhwi wrapped his arms around Peng Seoyeon in a gentle embrace.
And so, they decided to leave Sodam Village and return to Hebei.
Yet before that, there was one thing he needed to do.
As Yeo Woonhwi gently patted Peng Seoyeon’s back, a sharp gleam sparked in his eyes.
