My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
7화. 전생엔 일어나지 않았던 일?
No one knew what had become of the ruffians who had stormed Sodam Village.
Yeo Woonhwi had dumped their corpses deep in the mountains where wild beasts prowled, and the rain that fell shortly after had washed away even the remaining traces of blood.
“Phew.”
Yeo Woonhwi washed his face in the stream.
Was it because he had just taken lives?
Even though not a drop of blood had stained his hands or his face, he had felt the urge to do so.
He quietly gazed at his reflection in the running water.
It was the first time he had killed since his rebirth.
Did he regret it? Not at all!
He did not regret it in the slightest.
They were men who deserved to die.
Scoundrels like that never changed.
Those who had once tasted power, persecuting the weak and exploiting them, would never return to what they once were.
Because doing so was far too sweet and easy.
Yeo Woonhwi knew all too well that when their lives were at stake, they might pretend to have reformed for a fleeting moment, but they would never truly become good.
Of course, perhaps there might be a single exception somewhere in this world.
Yet across two lifetimes spanning no small amount of time, Yeo Woonhwi had never once seen or heard of such an example.
Therefore, Yeo Woonhwi placed no faith in that faint possibility.
For putting misplaced trust in such a slim chance might only cause countless more people to suffer.
Then why was Yeo Woonhwi acting like this?
He was simply a little afraid of returning to his family so casually after taking lives.
He even worried that some lingering scent of blood might remain on him.
He was worrying about things he had never once fretted over after losing his family in his past life.
After all, back then, there had been no need to.
Regardless, he could not stay like this forever.
Soon, Yeo Woonhwi stirred the water over his reflection and rose to his feet.
It was time to return to his family.
***
“Daddy!”
His precious daughter, Yul-i, who was the apple of his eye, came running and threw herself adorably into his arms.
“Has my little Yul-i been good while I was gone?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Did you miss Daddy?”
“Yeah, yeah!”
Seeing his daughter, all the tangled thoughts that had clouded his mind just moments ago seemed to vanish completely.
Indeed, family was all he had—
“Did you have a good trip?”
“Ahaha. D-Dear.”
Only then did Yeo Woonhwi notice Peng Seoyeon glaring at him with sharp, piercing eyes.
It was because several days had already passed beyond the half-month he had promised his wife.
Furthermore, since he had not properly explained what he had to do or why he needed to leave for half a month, Yeo Woonhwi’s offense was far too grave to simply brush aside.
Ugh.
Yeo Woonhwi was at a loss for an excuse.
After all, what good would come from spouting pathetic excuses?
In times like this—
“I am truly sorry. I have no excuse.”
“You know you did wrong, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, yeah! Daddy was bad!”
Yul-i chimed in right along with Yeo Woonhwi as he nodded.
At that sight, both Yeo Woonhwi and Peng Seoyeon could not help but let out a soft chuckle.
Yet, as if some lingering grievance still remained, Peng Seoyeon cast a slight side-eye and asked:
“How are you feeling?”
“Me?”
“Who else would I be asking here, if not you?”
“Be asking!”
“Haha!”
Yul-i seemed to have taken a liking to parroting words today.
Yeo Woonhwi kissed Yul-i on the cheek and beamed with a grin.
“Haha, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Hmm… Huh?”
Peng Seoyeon brought her face closer, as if she had noticed something.
Yeo Woonhwi widened his eyes and asked:
“What is it?”
“Dear… hasn’t your skin gotten clearer? You look a bit taller, too. And your shoulders seem broader……”
“Ahem. What are you talking about? It’s not like I’m at the age for a growth spurt.”
“No, really, you seem subtly different. Right? Yul-i, how does Daddy’s skin feel? Touch it, Yul-i. Isn’t it bouncy?”
“Daddy’s skin is bouncy. Bouncy!”
Fond of the word ‘bouncy,’ Yul-i bounced up and down.
“Ahaha……”
Meanwhile, Yeo Woonhwi was thoroughly flustered.
The phenomenon that had occurred in his body after absorbing the Martial God’s orb and remaining unconscious for over half a month.
People called it the ‘shedding of the mortal frame.’
Just as his wife said, he had grown slightly taller, his complexion had cleared, and his body was now in optimal condition to cultivate and wield martial arts.
His wife, Peng Seoyeon, had swiftly noticed that transformation.
Indeed, a wife’s intuition was never something to be taken lightly.
“Dear……”
Peng Seoyeon’s eyes narrowed in an instant.
“Just where on earth did you go?”
“Uh, well… the thing is.”
No matter how hard he racked his brain, Yeo Woonhwi could think of no better excuse than a hot spring.
Perhaps this was the most desperate crisis Yeo Woonhwi had faced since returning to the past.
Just then—
Gurgle.
Yeo Woonhwi’s stomach let out a loud rumble.
“Mommy, Daddy’s hungry!”
“Haven’t you eaten?”
“Ahaha. Well, that’s how it turned out.”
“Oh, honestly. Hurry inside. I’ll make something right away. I’ve been wondering when you’d arrive and had your favorite meat broth simmering for days. I’ll boil some noodles to go with it.”
“Whoa. That sounds delicious.”
Phew.
Thanks to his rumbling stomach, he had narrowly escaped the crisis.
Having weathered the storm, Yeo Woonhwi carried Yul-i inside the house.
And then—
“Hmm-hmm~”
Delighted by her husband’s safe return, Peng Seoyeon hummed as she prepared the meal in the kitchen.
Yet, as Yeo Woonhwi watched her back, his eyes grew heavy with complex emotions.
Why?
‘How… did this happen?’
During the brief time Yeo Woonhwi had been away, something entirely unforeseen had occurred.
Yeo Woonhwi’s gaze shifted toward Peng Seoyeon’s hands.
The area beneath her fingernails was faintly discolored.
A shade of black.
That was…
‘Poison.’
He did not know since when.
What was certain was that Peng Seoyeon was currently poisoned.
And as far as he knew, this was something that had never happened in his past life.
Yeo Woonhwi’s gaze turned frosty and cold.
***
Before long, night deepened, and the hooting of an owl echoed from afar.
“Mmm… mmm… Candied sweets… I want one more candied sweet.”
Nestled in her mother’s arms, Yul-i sleep-talked adorably.
Sitting quietly, Yeo Woonhwi looked at his fast-asleep wife.
Her breathing, however, was faintly ragged.
His eyes brimmed with turmoil.
Yet there was something he had to do before anything else.
Silently, he reached his hand toward his wife.
Hummmm.
Then, a gentle light arose from her body, and—
A finger-sized green bead emerged from her form.
It was an astounding miracle.
Something unbelievable even when witnessed with one’s own eyes.
Ordinarily, the only ways to neutralize and purge poison were through excreting it, sweating it out, or vomiting up the venom along with the tainted essence.
Yet to form a Poison Pill and extract it without causing the slightest harm to the body was something beyond words.
Perhaps if it were the Poison Venerable of the Sichuan Tang Clan, famed as the supreme master of poisons under heaven, it might be possible; but no other person was ever known to have accomplished such a feat.
All of this was possible because Yeo Woonhwi had mastered the Martial God’s art, the Heavenly Martial Divine Art.
The Heavenly Martial Divine Art was purer than anything in the world, possessing the power to purge all foul and wicked things.
It was truly a divine martial art bestowed by the heavens, far surpassing the mere term ‘divine art.’
“Whew… So this is it.”
Yeo Woonhwi gazed at the Poison Pill resting on his palm.
After staring briefly at the bead teeming with sticky, vile energy, Yeo Woonhwi stored the Poison Pill inside a small gourd bottle.
Soon, his sleeping wife’s breathing grew calm and steady.
By immense fortune, it was not the type of poison that destroyed all internal organs in a short span to claim a life.
Moreover, because not much time had passed since she was poisoned, it appeared there would be no lingering aftereffects.
Even so, there was no doubt that this was an exceptionally potent, deadly poison.
It was a venom that caused one to slowly wither and waste away over a long period before dying—in a sense, the most sinister kind of poison.
‘Poison… To think it’s poison.’
…Just what was going on?
His mind grew tangled.
What grudge could someone harbor to resort to such a horrifying poison?
Above all, what confounded Yeo Woonhwi was that in his past life, before his wife succumbed to illness, she had never been poisoned like this… No, wait.
Yeo Woonhwi lifted the gourd bottle containing the Poison Pill.
‘Could it be……?’
Was his wife not struck by an illness, but actually murdered by poison?
And in his past life, had he simply been completely oblivious to it?
Judging by the nature of the poison, this seemed an undeniable truth.
Ha, haha……
Fury surged from deep within.
It had indeed been strange.
His wife was the daughter of a martial clan renowned throughout the Murim; she had grown up ingesting all manner of spiritual medicines and cultivating martial arts since childhood.
In other words, if anything, she was far healthier than ordinary people, completely removed from being frail or sickly.
Yet in his previous life, such a woman had suddenly collapsed and fallen ill.
And before long, her condition had deteriorated so severely that every physician gave up on her, until she finally breathed her last.
Back then, Yeo Woonhwi had cursed the heavens.
The heavens that had stolen his wife away so abruptly.
Yet as it turned out—
‘There was a culprit behind it all along.’
In the end, he had lost both his wife and daughter to someone else’s hands.
In his past life, he had failed to protect anyone.
Yeo Woonhwi shook his head in spite of himself.
Incompetence. Such appalling incompetence made him want to vomit.
Moreover, the culprit was a master.
A master skilled enough that even his wife, who had attained a commendable level of cultivation, failed to realize she had been poisoned.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Yeo Woonhwi’s head cooled into an icy calm.
And from this moment forth, he resolved to uncover who that culprit was.
Never again would he lose his wife while remaining blind to the truth. Never again.
Yeo Woonhwi clenched his fists in fury.
