My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 23
Chapter 23
- That Despised Scholar
Early dawn, when night birds called with lazy cries.
“Mmm… nya… Candied fruit… I wanna eat more candied fruit… Just one… just one moore…”
Yul-i was murmuring in her sleep.
Beside her, Peng Seoyeon was likewise sound asleep.
Then,
“Mmngh?”
Blinking her bleary eyes, Yul-i woke up.
She poked Peng Seoyeon, who was sleeping next to her, with a little finger.
“Mmm? Yul-ah, what is it?”
“Mommy. I need to pee.”
She seemed to need the privy.
With eyes only half open, mother and daughter slipped out of bed and quietly headed outside.
A short while later, having finished, the two returned to the room.
Yul-i scrambled back onto the bed, offered a sweet, contented smile, and quickly fell back asleep.
Watching her daughter with a soft smile, Peng Seoyeon climbed into bed as well.
Knowing the child would kick off the covers before long, she carefully tucked Yul-i in anyway, then pulled up the blanket to go back to sleep.
Or rather, she tried to.
Sensing something amiss, Peng Seoyeon opened her eyes and looked to her side.
The spot where her husband should have been lying was completely empty.
She looked around the room.
“Husband?”
Yet Yeo Woonhwi was nowhere to be found.
Peng Seoyeon wore a puzzled expression.
Where on earth could he have gone at this hour?
***
At the summit of a towering mountain that overlooked all of Hebei in a single sweep.
On a narrow peak barely large enough for a single person to sit, someone was seated in quiet meditation with his eyes closed.
A faint hum rippled through the air.
Soon, a mystical golden light radiated from his body, pushing back the darkness and scattering brilliant radiance.
How much time had passed?
The golden glow slowly receded, just as gently as it had arisen.
The man sitting in meditation slowly opened his eyes.
“Phew… The Third Stage at last.”
This man was Yeo Woonhwi.
He had just surpassed the martial realm he had attained as the Blood Demon in his past life.
During his days as the Blood Demon, he had fought ceaselessly without giving the slightest thought to caring for his body.
As a result, he had suffered countless life-threatening wounds.
Yet without even allowing time for a full recovery, the moment he could move at all, he would pick his next target and rise to his feet.
It was a string of sheer madness possible only for someone who treated his own life like a toy.
Naturally, his body could never remain intact.
Because of that, he had never been able to properly refine the Heavenly Martial Divine Art, a once-in-an-eon fortuitous encounter he had obtained.
Or more precisely, the thought had never even crossed his mind.
For Yeo Woonhwi, the sole purpose of living had been nothing other than hunting down and slaughtering the scum of the martial world.
But things were different now.
Yeo Woonhwi was no longer the Blood Demon, a murderous fiend driven mad by vengeance.
Now, his only concern was how safely and completely he could protect his precious family.
And to do that, Yeo Woonhwi had to grow stronger.
Stronger than anyone else.
Besides, he possessed the Heavenly Martial Divine Art.
The Heavenly Martial Divine Art was the martial art of the Martial God, the greatest supreme master in all of history.
Raising his mastery of this art was the quickest path to attaining power surpassing all others.
What he needed to do to protect his family had become crystal clear.
So there was no reason to delay, nor any room for complacency.
Thus, every morning at the break of dawn, Yeo Woonhwi climbed up here to focus entirely on cultivating the Heavenly Martial Divine Art.
Fortunately, no one ever came to this place at this hour, allowing him to concentrate solely on his cultivation without the slightest disturbance.
Thanks to this, Yeo Woonhwi’s progress advanced at a pace incomparable to his previous life.
Even so, he hadn’t expected to reach the next stage quite so swiftly.
He felt gratified, yet somewhat bewildered.
What Yeo Woonhwi did not realize was this:
he had already inherited in full everything that the Martial God, Hyuk Jong-hu, had accomplished in his lifetime.
All he truly needed was the time to quietly assimilate it all.
He had merely been unable to do so before his regression; now, things were different.
Without even knowing it, Yeo Woonhwi had become fully prepared to take in everything of the Martial God.
‘The Third Stage of the Heavenly Martial Divine Art.’
Searching his memories of his past life, he estimated that at his current realm, he wouldn’t be easily pushed back even if he fought one of the Twelve Venerables of the World.
Of course, it would depend heavily on which of them he encountered.
He thought it might still be difficult against the ‘Four Sovereigns,’ including the ‘Martial Sovereign’ and the ‘Crimson Monk.’
After all, they stood at the very pinnacle even among the Twelve Venerables of the World, the absolute masters of the present Murim.
Even so,
‘If I staked my life, I could probably take an arm with me.’
Yeo Woonhwi let out a quiet chuckle at his own thought.
Without realizing it, the mindset from his days as the Blood Demon had slipped out.
Really, what would he even do with a severed arm…?
Yeo Woonhwi shook his head.
It was not just about protecting his family.
To protect his family’s happiness, he had to survive no matter what.
From now on, he had to discard the old Blood Demon’s way of thinking.
It wouldn’t be easy right away, but Yeo Woonhwi made up his mind.
‘Still, life here is far more bearable than I expected.’
It had been a month since he came to the Peng Clan.
Yeo Woonhwi felt that adjusting to the Peng Clan was much easier than he had anticipated.
Anyone who knew how Yeo Woonhwi had been treated in the Hebei Peng Clan lately would have gasped in disbelief at such a thought.
What he was enduring was a level of pressure that would have driven anyone else to tears.
Backbiting, contempt, isolation, and ostracization.
Short of outright physical violence, Yeo Woonhwi was enduring virtually everything else.
Yet to Yeo Woonhwi, it was all simply laughable.
To him, this couldn’t even be called pressure.
Nor could it be called suffering.
He was a man who had suddenly lost his deeply beloved wife without knowing why, and had wept tears of blood while clutching the ashen remains of his daughter’s body.
And how harrowing had his days as the Blood Demon been?
Even as his flesh was torn, suppurating, and rotting, he had paid it no mind, fighting on and on.
To someone like him, his current circumstances were like child’s play—merely childish and cute.
So it was hardly a problem.
Yet that didn’t mean he intended to remain passive forever.
When the right time came, he planned to respond.
Very slowly, and very thoroughly.
In truth, Yeo Woonhwi had no intention of hiding his martial arts indefinitely.
So long as what he practiced was neither the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon Cult nor the arts of some past master of the Unorthodox Faction, there was no reason to hide it in shame like a criminal.
However, if it became known that his martial arts belonged to the Martial God—the greatest in all history—countless riffraff would likely swarm in greed for the Heavenly Martial Divine Art.
Therefore, he intended to remain cautious only until he was certain beyond a doubt that he would lose to no one.
Until then, it was best to reveal his presence slowly and naturally.
“…Mmm.”
Lost in thought for a long while, Yeo Woonhwi suddenly furrowed his brow.
The rising sunlight was tickling his eyes.
Before he knew it, the sun was coming up.
‘Shall I head back, then?’
Yeo Woonhwi dusted himself off and stood.
Then, without hesitation, he leaped down into the dizzying abyss of the cliff.
A smile spread across his face as he plummeted at terrifying speed.
He already missed his wife and daughter.
***
“Hup, haaa-up!”
“Hrrgh-cha!”
“The formation is breaking! Get your heads on straight!”
Morning broke.
The mornings of the Hebei Peng Clan were always filled with the spirited shouts of martial artists.
After completing the hellish run that the Hebei Peng Clan took pride in at the crack of dawn, the warriors trained intensely until lunchtime.
And after lunch, of course, the training continued.
Thus, unless one was made of unyielding iron and bone, the Hebei Peng Clan was a place where no one could last even a single day.
In the midst of this continuous training that pushed them to their limits, a ten-minute break finally arrived.
A brief moment, and all the sweeter for it.
As they lay sprawled about, panting heavily, one of the warriors spoke up out of nowhere.
“Seriously, isn’t that guy completely insufferable?”
“What? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Who else? That ‘scholar bastard.’”
“Ah, him.”
Before anyone realized it, the term ‘scholar bastard’ had become universally understood throughout the Hebei Peng Clan.
That was how thoroughly displeased all the Peng Clan warriors were with Yeo Woonhwi.
In fact, while it had started out as mere dislike, they hated him far more now.
Why?
Ordinarily, when a crowd openly mocked and ridiculed someone together, that person would naturally shrink back and lose heart.
Yet somehow, this scholar fellow didn’t care in the slightest, walking around with an easy grin.
Seeing that only made the warriors despise him even more.
For a man who knew no shame was never well-liked.
And so, one after another, they were busy badmouthing that ‘scholar bastard.’
Just then,
“Tsk, tsk. I see you boys still have energy to spare.”
“Ah, you’re here, Squad Leader.”
“What are you all whispering about? It looks pathetic.”
“Ahaha. Well, you see…”
The warriors quickly grumbled to their superior about the scholar bastard as well.
At that, Squad Leader Noh Ilbong let out a dry laugh.
“So. You’re saying you harass him, but it doesn’t faze him in the slightest, which makes you hate that scholar bastard even more?”
“Yes. I can’t tell if he’s completely brainless or just has guts of steel.”
“You all certainly have too much free time on your hands, wasting it on nonsense like that.”
“…”
The warriors immediately thought Noh Ilbong was scolding them.
However,
“If something like that was going on, you should have told me right away.”
“…Pardon?”
“Something that entertaining.”
“Ahaha…”
Noh Ilbong grinned broadly.
“There’s an established way to teach fellows like that a proper lesson, isn’t there?”
“What kind of…?”
Uncertain of what Noh Ilbong meant, everyone tilted their heads in confusion.
Regardless, Noh Ilbong began to cackle as if something were endlessly amusing.
“Let’s make him shit blood. The way we do things around here.”
