My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Chapter 8. Monster
“Please take care of the dishes, then.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have them sparkling clean. Our Yul-i, have a good trip with your mother.”
“Okay, Daddy, bye!”
Today was market day in a neighboring village near Sodam Village.
Having quickly finished the dishes, Yeo Woonhwi swiftly prepared to follow Peng Seoyeon.
‘Now then, shall I get going?’
This was a sort of trailing.
A shadow to protect his wife.
The reason was the culprit who had poisoned Peng Seoyeon.
Yeo Woonhwi was certain the culprit would appear again before long.
It was because of the nature of the poison the culprit had used.
If it were a poison that claimed a life in a single stroke, there would be no need for the culprit to show up again.
However, the poison Peng Seoyeon had been afflicted with was one that slowly drained life away over time.
They would want to verify, at the very least, that the process of her life force being steadily eaten away by the poison had begun.
And the moment they discovered that Peng Seoyeon was, in fact, not poisoned at all—
‘They’ll show themselves.’
Thus, Yeo Woonhwi had been secretly tailing his wife for days on end.
Yet, the culprit had still not revealed themselves.
There was no telling right now when they might appear.
All he could do was silently linger around his wife and keep watch.
“Auntie, I’m here.”
“Oh my, you’re here, young mistress?”
“Hello!”
“Our pretty Yul-i came too? Now, what can I get you?”
“Hmm. One carrot and, um, two cucumbers, please. How much are the eggs? Ack, that’s too expensive. Please give me a discount.”
“If I discount it any further, how are we supposed to make a living?”
“Oh, Auntie, with so much to live on around here, are you really going to complain? If you give it to us at this price, we’ll come by even more often.”
“I really can’t with you, young mistress. Fine, take it for that much.”
“Oh, Yul-i’s mother is here? I was wondering who it was. We just got some fresh fruit in. Buy some! I’ll throw in a bunch of extras just like last time.”
“Yul-i’s mother! Our fish is fresh today too. Hurry over here.”
“I only have one pair of hands! Let me look around slowly.”
“That’s right! Mommy only has one body! Take your time!”
“What was that? Hahaha.”
Pfft.
He really couldn’t help but smile.
Contrary to her breathtaking beauty, Peng Seoyeon was warmly welcomed and adored by the market folk thanks to her easygoing nature and unique charm. And with the lovely Yul-i by her side, no less.
Watching his wife and daughter, Yeo Woonhwi caught himself wearing a silly, blissful grin before snapping back to his senses.
‘Ahem. This isn’t what I came here to do.’
Yet how could he help it when they were so utterly adorable?
Had the old saying not proclaimed that a cough, poverty, and love could never be hidden?
It was right around when he was warmly watching Peng Seoyeon and Yul-i immersed in their shopping.
Hm?
Someone among the bustling crowd caught Yeo Woonhwi’s eye.
A faint, subtle murderous intent was flickering through the crowd.
Unless one were a remarkable master, they wouldn’t have even noticed.
Before long, the source of that killing intent revealed itself near Peng Seoyeon.
‘Found you.’
Yeo Woonhwi’s eyes turned colder than ice.
The bustling marketplace.
An herb gatherer, who had arrived carrying a large bundle full of medicinal herbs over his shoulder, slowly rose to his feet after selling off all the herbs dug from the mountains.
Soon, dusting off both hands, he looked around the market a few times and slowly made his exit, as if finding nothing else of interest to buy.
Not long after leaving the village, he slowly turned around to look back in its direction.
“How strange. I was sure I had successfully poisoned her back then.”
He felt glad he had taken the precaution to observe the situation further.
Otherwise, he would have failed this mission without even knowing, which surely would have earned him a severe scolding from that person.
Still, no matter how much he thought about it, it was truly bizarre.
This was the first time such a thing had happened.
Rrrrrip.
The man slowly peeled off the skin from beneath his neck upward.
It was a human-skin mask.
It had been crafted with such exquisite detail that ordinary folk would never have noticed in the slightest.
The face revealed beneath was sharp, with fierce eyes and a hooked nose, entirely unlike before.
Dark killing intent spilled heavily from his narrow, slit eyes.
“Well, I’ve made another move, so that should do it.”
There could never be a second mistake.
Just then.
“So it was you.”
“Gasp!”
The man recoiled in sheer shock, leaping back.
“W-Who’s there?!”
To have his back taken.
Even granting that he had let his guard down in relief, it was unbelievable.
And yet…
“Y-You?”
“Oho.”
A slender scholar stood before him.
It was Yeo Woonhwi.
“Seems you recognize me?”
He recognized him all too well.
Who Yeo Woonhwi was.
The husband of the woman who was his target today.
However…
‘What, was it just my imagination?’
The man, having investigated them for quite some time, quickly relaxed his guard.
He knew very well who his opponent was and what sort of man he dealt with.
That man was nothing more than an ordinary scholar who knew no martial arts.
The information received before taking on the master’s commissioned task, as well as the investigation conducted after arriving in this village, made it clear.
Though the scholar had left the village for a fortnight in between, that was of no consequence.
It was impossible to learn peerless martial arts in a mere fortnight.
The investigation had concluded long ago, and preparations were complete.
Even so, taking utmost care upon care, he had found the most natural place to poison the target woman without anyone noticing and carried it out.
Though strangely enough, the poison had failed to take effect, prompting him to strike again today.
How this scholar had suddenly materialized before him was somewhat baffling, but he paid it little mind.
If he was in the way, he needed only to clear him aside.
His thoughts settled, the corners of the man’s mouth curled up.
“All by yourself, it seems.”
“As you can see. Though my wife and daughter are back at the village market.”
“Did you see?”
“You using poison? Of course I saw. Quite clearly, in fact.”
Just as the culprit had stealthily administered the poison, Yeo Woonhwi had secretly neutralized it without a trace.
Though the culprit had no way of knowing that.
Shring, shrrk.
“Ha, you certainly have a keen pair of eyes, don’t you?”
Two daggers settled into the culprit’s hands.
Pointing at Yeo Woonhwi with the reverse-gripped daggers, he said:
“If only you’d feigned ignorance, you might have lived. Heh-heh. Though you would have suffered a lingering agony all the same.”
“Let me ask you one thing. Why on earth did you do this? What grudge is behind it?”
“Why? Heheh. Fine, since you’re a dead man anyway, I’ll tell you.”
The man sneered viciously and continued.
“The sin of daring to covet that person’s woman, and the sin of daring to betray that person for the sake of a wretch like you! That is why the two of you wretched dogs must die. Remember it well!”
Yeo Woonhwi’s brow arched slightly.
Swoosh.
In that instant, the culprit’s figure sank into the earth, only to reappear right before Yeo Woonhwi.
It was truly an elusive movement art.
The culprit then slashed the reverse-gripped daggers in a crossing arc.
Countless necks had been severed by this very technique.
Today would be no different.
Yet those two daggers, slicing down with fierce intensity, froze before Yeo Woonhwi as if time itself had stopped.
“W-What?”
There was no sensation of cutting into flesh.
Startled, the culprit checked his daggers.
At the very intersection where the two blades crossed, Yeo Woonhwi had blocked them with the edge of his open palm.
A blow that should have severed the hand clean off had failed even to scratch the flesh, completely halted in its tracks.
“H-How could this…”
He knows martial arts—this bastard!
And at that, a formidable master.
“Kuh, in that case!”
Quickly composing his startled heart, the man gathered himself and pressed his assault.
Boom, thud! Kaaang!
Fwoooosh!
Unleashing sharper, deadlier strikes, he poured everything he had into the attack.
Yet Yeo Woonhwi effortlessly deflected every single fierce assault with a casually raised hand edge, as if stirring a gentle breeze.
“Pant, pant. Damn it all…”
For his strikes to fail so utterly—how could this be possible?
Yet he could not simply give up.
If even a single strike landed, he could kill him.
Steeling his resolve, he squeezed out every ounce of strength to accelerate—
Whir, spin.
Craaash!
Thrusting the blades out to either side, he spun toward Yeo Woonhwi at breakneck speed like a top.
Relying on that rotational momentum, he struck straight down at Yeo Woonhwi’s crown.
As if intent on splitting him in two.
However—
Clack.
Yeo Woonhwi caught the blade plunging toward his crown with his bare hand.
Effortlessly.
Even this strike failed to reach Yeo Woonhwi.
“Is this all you have?”
“Krk.”
As Yeo Woonhwi applied strength to the hand gripping the blade—
Snap!
The blade shattered instantly.
The culprit’s eyes widened to their absolute limit.
Yet he had no time to react.
Yeo Woonhwi, who had strictly defended until now, raised his fist and drove it forward.
WHAM!
The fist smashed squarely into the culprit’s face.
So tremendous was the strike that a shockwave of qi blasted out behind the impact.
And then—
KABOOM!
The culprit’s body was hurled far into the distance, slamming violently into the ground.
With an earth-shattering roar.
“Kaaargh!”
His meridians were scrambled, and his heart vessels ruptured.
From that single blow alone.
“Guaaargh!”
Blood gushed from the culprit’s nose and mouth.
How… how could this happen?
He was a man counted among the strong throughout the Murim.
While it might be a stretch to match the realm of legendary masters, he was confident in putting up a fierce fight against any warrior if he fought with intent to kill.
And yet… and yet…
What in the world was this monster?!
Even having weathered countless battles across the martial world, he had never once heard of a fight like this.
This was on the level of… the Clan Head. No, far beyond even that…
“Hey.”
Yeo Woonhwi, having closed the distance at some point, looked down at the crawling culprit and spoke.
“Earlier, that talk about ‘that person’ and whatever else.”
The culprit barely managed to lift his trembling head and look up at Yeo Woonhwi.
That composure, that gaze… Why had he only noticed it now?
When everything began to go awry, he should have realized it.
That something had gone terribly, irrevocably wrong.
“Tell me that story again.”
This bastard was a monster. An absurd, incomprehensible monster.
Yeo Woonhwi’s lips curled into a faint smile.
At the sight of that smile, chills ran through his entire body.
Death was standing right before his eyes.
