My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Episode 2. This Time, Without Fail
“Daddy—!”
His adorable little daughter beamed brightly, waving her hand.
Beside her, the wife he had longed for so desperately placed a pretty flower crown she had woven onto their daughter’s head.
Yeo Woonhwi smiled and waved back at his daughter, but a dazed numbness still lingered within him.
‘Is this truly real?’
Though several days had passed, Yeo Woonhwi still could not bring himself to believe his current reality.
Even for something surreal, there were limits; this was on an entirely different plane.
All manner of thoughts had crossed his mind.
Was it a formation? Or an illusion art?
Yet neither seemed plausible.
Those who had opposed Yeo Woonhwi on the Great Snow Mountain were, in any case, all people who professed the righteous path of the Orthodox faction.
Would such people ever employ illusion arts like this?
Yeo Woonhwi shook his head immediately.
‘They would sooner curse it as a wicked sorcery than ever stoop to using it.’
They were people who prized outward appearances and hollow reputations above all else.
Moreover, even if there had been a separate caster, it made no sense for anyone to conjure this caliber of illusion right before the eyes of so many orthodox masters.
Furthermore, this was at a level that even arch-fiends renowned in the Unorthodox Faction for illusions, such as the Rakshasa Witch or the Lustful Dream Young Master, could never dream of mimicking.
Having fought and ultimately severed their heads himself, Yeo Woonhwi knew that truth better than anyone.
If so…
His thoughts soon fell into place.
He did not know by what conditions or for what reason such a phenomenon had occurred, but without a doubt—
‘I truly… regressed.’
It was miraculous.
His memories as the Blood Demon were no dream, and now that he had returned to the past, everything had reverted to how it once was—except for him alone.
He was no longer the ordinary scholar Yeo Woonhwi, ignorant of even the basic character for martial arts; he was still the Blood Demon, driven mad by vengeance.
The sensations of tearing through the entire Murim in pursuit of revenge were still vivid.
Even the thirst for vengeance that could never be quenched, no matter how many he slaughtered.
Yet.
Sworn before the heavens, among all that slaughter, he had never once taken a meaningless life.
Every last one that perished by his hand was scum who deserved to die.
Though his hands were soaked in blood, he felt no guilt for a single one of them.
Yeo Woonhwi—the Blood Demon—was neither so frail nor so foolish as to drown in regret over the past.
“Giggle!”
Suddenly, the sight of his wife Peng Seoyeon and daughter Yeo Soyul caught his eyes once more.
Revenge.
Revenge, was it…
“I suppose… there is no longer any need for revenge.”
Whatever the cause, he had regained the wife and daughter he once lost.
It was as if the very reason for vengeance had ceased to exist.
For he could gaze upon the ones he had yearned for so desperately right before his eyes.
A strange feeling welled up within him.
Yeo Woonhwi had spent all those long years in sheer desperation, consumed purely by vengeance.
Yet now, he was to lay it all down.
It felt like prying away a sword he had gripped so tightly and for so long that his hand had bruised black and blue.
It was not easy, but it was what he had to do.
And now, a new purpose had taken its place.
To protect his wife, his daughter—his family.
Was there any need to overcomplicate it?
A life granted to him once more.
He did not know how he had been given this chance, nor what end awaited him, but Yeo Woonhwi resolved to live solely for this single goal he had just chosen.
‘To do that…’
Yeo Woonhwi stared quietly down at his hands, then clenched them into tight fists.
There was something he had to do before all else.
“I packed some food for you—rice balls and dried meat. Make sure to eat along the way.”
Early in the morning, Yeo Woonhwi accepted the packed lunch handed to him by his wife, Peng Seoyeon, and smiled gently.
“Thank you.”
“You said it would take about half a month, right?”
Yeo Woonhwi nodded.
“I don’t know what business it is, but take care and see it through well.”
“I am sorry for leaving so suddenly.”
At that, Peng Seoyeon shook her head.
“Think nothing of it. It’s not as if you are someone who would get into foolish trouble. Just return safely.”
“I shall.”
“Daddy, when are you coming back? Can’t I come too?”
Yeo Woonhwi scooped up Yeo Soyul as she whimpered, clutching the hem of his robe.
“Daddy has urgent business to attend to. I’ll be back in no time. Can our Yul-i be a good girl and wait just a little while?”
“Mmh… But I want to go with Daddy.”
“Yul-ah, after Daddy leaves, shall we go to the market together? Mommy will buy you those candied sweets you like.”
“Heh, really?”
“Of course. Shall we have two today?”
“Yay, yay!”
Yeo Soyul, who had been pouting, instantly broke into a grin at the thought of eating sweets.
“Haha.”
Every little gesture was utterly precious in Yeo Woonhwi’s eyes.
Having once lost and regained his daughter, his heart swelled with all the more tender affection for her.
“Then, I shall be on my way.”
With that, Yeo Woonhwi set off on his journey.
After walking for a good while, he glanced back over his shoulder to find his wife and daughter still waving their hands.
Even when he gestured for them to go inside and rest, the two of them only waved back with even brighter smiles.
At that sight, the smile on Yeo Woonhwi’s face refused to fade.
Though they would be parted only for a short while, he would miss them. Terribly so.
Naturally, he did not wish to part from his beloved family for even a fleeting moment.
Yet it was an unavoidable choice.
For the sake of the future.
Yeo Woonhwi did not want to lose his family. Never again.
To ensure that, he needed strength above all else—power immense enough that nothing could ever tear his family from him.
But at present, Yeo Woonhwi possessed no such strength.
For only Yeo Woonhwi’s soul had regressed; the martial prowess he wielded as the Blood Demon was no longer within him.
It was deeply frustrating.
At this rate, he would be forced to merely watch as the tragedy of the past repeated itself.
To him, such an outcome was utterly horrific.
So unbearable that dying would be preferable.
That was why he had decided to act immediately. To obtain power.
How, one might ask?
The reason the ordinary Yeo Woonhwi, who knew not a single stroke of martial arts, could become known as the Blood Demon.
The reason he was able to whip up a storm of blood across a Murim teeming with countless masters.
It was because Yeo Woonhwi had obtained the miraculous fortune left behind by the Martial God.
And the cave where everything belonging to the Martial God—the one hailed as unrivaled throughout all history—lay hidden.
The only person in this world who knew its location was himself.
In this life, he intended to find it much sooner.
This was a memory from long ago.
“…Pursue him! He couldn’t have gone far.”
Countless men carrying swords and torches were scouring the area.
“Haa, haa…”
Having barely shaken off their pursuit, Yeo Woonhwi clutched his blood-drenched arm and ran wildly toward anywhere he could.
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it! Damn it all!’
He had failed.
Failed to kill the rotten martial artist who had set his village ablaze.
And now, wounded by a sword strike from that very martial artist, he was fleeing with his life hanging by a thread.
He had been lucky.
It was only because the opponent had been poisoned that he managed to escape.
Had it not been for that, his life would have ended on the spot.
Yeo Woonhwi had never learned a shred of martial arts.
That was precisely why he had prepared so meticulously.
Even so, the assassination had ended in failure.
His target was a master reputed to have attained the first-rate realm.
When he actually faced such an expert, the man was nothing short of a monster.
Once the few traps he had prepared failed to work, there was nothing someone ignorant of martial arts could do.
‘To think I was this helpless…’
It was a moment that made him keenly, bitterly aware of his own powerlessness.
Yet he could not allow himself to die like this.
Because he had to kill the bastard who burned his village and caused his daughter’s death.
To do that, he had to survive by any means necessary.
Only then would another chance come.
“Pant, pant…”
He had lost a great deal of blood, but his obsession with vengeance was that profound.
With ferocious, stubborn tenacity, he kept running.
Yet escape was no simple feat.
To evade pursuit, he had to delve deeper into places where no one would ever find him.
And so, Yeo Woonhwi took refuge in a certain cave that had remained undisturbed for hundreds of years.
“Phew. Found it.”
Not covered in blood or in a ghastly state as in his past life, an uninjured Yeo Woonhwi stood before a cave hidden deep within the mountains.
He had just arrived here after a three-day trek from his home.
Yeo Woonhwi wiped away the trickling sweat and smiled.
“My memory was faint, but I’m glad I found it.”
In truth, to call it a cave was generous; the thickets were so dense that the entrance was entirely obscured.
On top of that, it was choked with thorny vines, making it a place neither beast nor man would ever bother entering.
Yet for that very reason, it had served as his sanctuary in his past life.
Back then, plunging straight through the overgrown thorns, his entire body had been shredded and pierced in a bloody mess.
Though not fatal blood loss, his condition had already been horrific back then, making the agony and memories of that day linger with vivid dread.
But now, much was different from that time.
“Well then.”
Rustle, sweep.
Yeo Woonhwi slowly began creating a gap to squeeze into the cave.
There was no need to rip away everything.
Simply pushing the thorny vines and thickets to one side was more than enough.
Before long, once the entrance was sufficiently cleared, Yeo Woonhwi slowly poked his head inside.
But then—
“Ugh! Cough, cough!”
The sudden gust of dust rushing into his nose and mouth nearly suffocated him.
Back then, he had been too frantic to notice, but now he realized the air at the entrance was downright foul.
It was so bad he worried breathing it in alone might bring on a lung ailment.
It seemed to be because the cave had been sealed off by vines and undergrowth for hundreds of years without a single soul passing through, leaving it completely unventilated.
But,
‘This is nothing.’
Such trivial discomfort could not halt Yeo Woonhwi’s steps.
He was a man already accustomed to the agony of his flesh tearing apart and his blood pouring out.
Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve, Yeo Woonhwi stepped inside without hesitation.
His eyes gleamed brighter than ever before.
Inside lay the Martial God, hailed as the strongest in all history.
Everything that belonged to him slept within.
