Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#003

-Old man.

My master absolutely despised being called ‘master.’

How peculiar.

That’s why I would sometimes call him master, and sometimes old man, toward the one person who truly cared for me.

I always went out on assassination missions after finishing my intense training sessions with my master.

And when I returned after completing them, I would often ask this question to the old man who greeted me:

-Why exactly am I not allowed to handle bladed weapons?

It really wasn’t funny at all.

An assassin in name, yet forbidden from using weapons with blades.

Allowing assassination missions for survival, but limiting the targets and restricting the process to only bare hands, surrounding objects, and club-type weapons—no blades.

Strangely enough, this was similar to the prohibition my father had imposed on me before being expelled from the Namgung Family, which didn’t sit well with me.

Still, I accepted it because I initially assumed all of this was my master’s unique training method to push me harder.

No matter how skilled an assassin may be, they are inferior to martial artists.

To martial artists, they are disposable tools to be used once and discarded.

But when my master promised to teach me, he said he would show me a path beyond that…

I believed that not allowing blades in assassination missions was an essential and unavoidable process for perfecting the technique.

But even after completing training that should have taken twenty years in just three years, my master still wouldn’t allow me to use blades.

Instead, he always added the words ‘be patient.’

No matter that I possessed only a handful of internal energy, less than a rat’s tail, and despite reaching a level where I could skillfully manipulate that energy to kill targets with a dull tree branch without much difficulty, my master never allowed me to wield any sharp, gleaming bladed weapon, and he emphasized the need for patience.

I couldn’t understand it.

Starting from that, my complaints accumulated one by one, and then one day, after holding back and holding back, I exploded.

‘When was that again.’

That’s right.

I had worked myself to death trying.

I had received the title of First Dark Emperor,

but after being insulted, I abandoned an assassin’s specialty of surprise attacks for a frontal confrontation, only to be utterly destroyed by a young rising dragon who had emerged in the martial world less than five years ago, and barely managed to return alive.

-Why do you refuse to allow me weapons with blades until the very end?

I thought I had lost because I lacked a proper weapon.

As soon as I arrived, I shouted at my master, spilling out everything I had bottled up.

-Why do you always tell me to be patient, old man? Why do you always tell me to hide my true nature? What exactly is this true nature?

-Stop spouting that fucking bullshit about ‘patience is victory, endurance ultimately wins’!! I’m just an assassin anyway! In the end, I can’t even reach the peak…! In front of a real master, a real martial artist, I’m just desperately trying to flee, living such a pathetic life!

-My life is…!

-My existence is…!!

That must have started as just an angry question at first.

-I, I… always… tried my absolute best…

And at the end.

I looked at my red eyes reflected in my master’s pupils and muttered with a tearful voice.

-How long must I continue living like this, always enduring alone…?

***

-Thud!

I dragged Namgung Cheon to one side of the stable, away from people in the courtyard, and threw him down. White breath rose in the cold stable air.

Even in the annex, this place was deserted.

-Crack!

I grabbed Namgung Cheon’s head.

I slammed it mercilessly against the stable post.

“Kuh… kuhk.”

Namgung Cheon flailed about.

His arm, completely shattered from start to finish, dangled like wet laundry, fluttering in the air.

-Moo…

A cow that had been eating grain porridge looked at us with bewildered eyes.

In those round cow eyes was reflected my image: holding Namgung Cheon’s mangled head firmly against the dung-covered floor, jumping up and driving my knee down vertically with all my might, over and over.

“Uh. That… uhhhh… that… that is.”

The frozen courtesan looked at me.

Looking at her, I spoke calmly.

“Go.”

“…Th, thank you!”

The courtesan ran away frantically, not caring that her expensive flower-embroidered shoes were getting buried in the stable’s dung-covered floor.

In her haste, even the silver pouch from her bosom scattered about.

“Oh my. I didn’t even want the money.”

I picked up the silver pouch with indifferent, dead fish eyes and brushed it off.

“…You… You, what exactly are… you.”

What filled Namgung Cheon’s eyes as he looked at me was fear, pain, and beyond all that, terror at not understanding why he had suddenly ended up like this.

“Did you get some kind of fortuitous encounter? The mule bastard who always got beaten up couldn’t possibly be like this. No, no. Before that, how dare you do this to me, to me, a young master of the great Namgung Family…?”

“I’m also a young master, you know.”

“Sh, shut up! You mule bastard!”

Namgung Cheon spat out the words.

“Are you confident about the consequences?”

“Consequences?”

“Y, yes.”

Namgung Cheon’s cheeks trembled.

“Do you know who my backing is? If I report all of this to the vice family head, no, before that, to the Swordmaster Patriarch, you’ll be sent to the dungeon, not just the annex!”

“Even with a broken arm and smashed front teeth, you still don’t grasp the situation?”

“Th… these injuries… I just need to go to a physician. If I just go to a physician, they’ll heal somehow. R, right!”

Namgung Cheon spoke with an excited voice, filled with elation.

“You bastard, even though you’re standing there with killing intent, I know you can’t actually kill me. I don’t know how you suddenly learned such martial arts, but I know better than anyone that your head is complicated right now, right? How are you going to cover this up? Did you think I’d let it slide if you apologized?”

“…”

“No, no. Ha, haha! There’s no need to apologize now. You’ll just be slaughtered like livestock by our father, no, father isn’t even necessary. If I report to the Swordmaster Patriarch, you’re destined to die like a dog while begging for forgiveness-!”

-Crack!

Namgung Cheon’s neck turned in my palm.

“Sorry. Your cheeks were trembling.”

“Kuk!”

“Whether it’s your father, the Swordmaster Patriarch who protects you, or whoever takes whatever measures, that’s all after you become half-crippled.”

“…What? What kind of nonsense-“

I pointed to the stable.

“Even if you go to the physician you’re talking about, to achieve optimal treatment effects without any aftereffects, treatment must begin within half a shichen of the injury. But if that half shichen passes?”

And I blocked the entrance to the stable.

“Your body will live forever after today—absolutely forever—a cripple’s life completely removed from a martial artist’s existence. So, regardless of my punishment, what kind of treatment will you receive for the rest of your life?”

“…”

“That’s right. I can’t kill you. Because you’re blood family. But I can make you a cripple.”

“This… bastard has such a foul mouth!”

“So from now on, listen to what I say. Unless you want to miss the timing to see a physician and live as a half-cripple for the rest of your life.”

I spoke in a calm voice.

“From now on, when the physician asks how you ended up like this, you’ll say you fell from the well in the backyard. Don’t worry. Your injuries are plausible enough for someone who fell from such a high well.”

“You think the Apothecary will believe such bullshit? In the end, you’ve cowered too, haha! I’ll tell the truth, your pathetic little scheme…!”

“Then you’ll become a discarded pig bastard whose limbs were shattered by a mule, exposed to the whole world.”

“…!”

I point to my own ribs, gauntly exposed between my torn clothes.

“And in this prestigious Namgung Family, you know better than anyone how discarded failures are treated and live.”

Namgung Cheon flinches.

“Congratulations. You’ll receive the same treatment as me. Or rather? Since you became a half-cripple after being beaten by a failure like me, you’ll probably be treated even lower than me.”

In my black pupils, a red glint flashes.

“There’s no escape for you. The more you grit your teeth and charge at me, the only thing left for you is hell. So choose your future words and actions wisely, Namgung Cheon. Then…”

Looking into those eyes, I grab his collar and whisper.

“I’ll let you keep your limbs and honor.”

Namgung Cheon’s eyes gradually change to those of a frightened pig.

He looks down at his arm.

He looks at me.

He looks to the side.

-Moo…

The bulging eyes of an ox watching all this quietly come into view.

Namgung Cheon is reflected in those eyes.

As those eyes meet, Namgung Cheon’s eyes gradually begin to resemble the ox’s eyes.

Those eyes slowly turn.

They look at me.

“You… are you really the Namgung Hwi I know?”

“That’s right, of course.”

I said, looking at Namgung Cheon.

“This is the true Namgung Hwi.”

***

And Namgung Cheon was at least not an idiot.

When a direct bloodline member of the Namgung Family came injured, the apothecary was in chaos.

To Eul Ji-so the Apothecary’s repeated questions about how he got so injured, Namgung Cheon desperately insisted that he had fallen into the deep well while drawing water for a cold bath at dawn from the well at the annex.

“No matter how high the well is, such serious injuries…”

“The well is high! And it’s slippery with moss!”

Namgung Cheon shouted urgently.

“If my brother Namgung Hwi hadn’t happened to pass by and pulled me out… I would have been truly dead!”

At those words, Apothecary Eul Ji-so looked at me with surprised eyes.

“What? None other than Young Master Namgung Hwi saved Young Master Cheon…?”

His gaze suddenly discovered my swollen hands and battered knees.

“Then Young Master Hwi’s battered hands and knees were also injured while trying to save Young Master Namgung Cheon?”

“It’s nothing much.”

I answered briefly.

“Fortunately, I was able to save my elder brother safely, so this much is a small price.”

Eul Ji-so grasped my hands.

Looking at me with sparkling eyes, he repeatedly exclaimed in a voice filled with emotion.

“Such brotherly affection is surely something the family head would be pleased about. Truly admirable. Admirable…”

Behind us, Namgung Cheon, who was being wrapped in bandages all over his body, gaped his mouth as if dumbfounded.

His gaping seemed to say ‘that demon bastard.’

“…”

When I stared at him quietly, Namgung Cheon subtly closed his mouth and turned his head to the side.

“The family head will surely be proud. Especially since, as far as I know, Young Master Cheon is known for playing many mischievous pranks.”

Now I could be certain.

Both earlier and now, the brief glance the Apothecary gave Namgung Cheon before turning back to me clearly showed he knew what kind of behavior Namgung Cheon had been inflicting on me.

But since it wasn’t his jurisdiction, he couldn’t interfere.

From that perspective, Namgung Hwi, who had been bullied all this time, threw his body to help his enemy Namgung Cheon.

The reason was none other than blood relation, family.

From the Apothecary’s standpoint, practicing medicine to save lives, this would truly be a touching story.

“I, who practice love through medicine in this harsh world of martial arts, cannot remain still after hearing this.”

Apothecary Eul Ji-so wiped the moisture from his eyes and rummaged through his robes to take out something.

“Since I’m just a physician, this is all I can offer you, Young Master.”

“What is this?”

“This is also nothing much, as Young Master Namgung Hwi would say. Of course. I am the Apothecary after all.”

It was a small wooden box.

When opened, a bluish pill the size of a pinky nail was visible.

Behind us on the bed, even Namgung Cheon, surrounded by the Apothecary’s disciples being wrapped in bandages, craned his neck out to see.

Incidentally, his mouth was also wrapped in bandages to stabilize his cracked jaw.

To me tilting my head in confusion, Eul Ji-so said.

“It’s the Taeul Jiso Pill.”

“Mmph?!”

Namgung Cheon’s eyes bulged as if they would pop out.

I held the pill and examined it from various angles.

“Taeul Jiso Pill? That’s unfamiliar.”

“It’s something only I can make in the Namgung Family, a medicinal pill I present to the family head and five patriarchs once every five years. When consumed, it can boost about ten years’ worth of internal energy at once. This time, we secured many auxiliary ingredients, so after presenting the allocated amounts to the family head and patriarchs, there happened to be one spare pill left.”

“…Mmph… Mmph mmph!!”

Behind us, Namgung Cheon can be seen jumping up and down inside his bandages.

Seeing this, Eul Ji-so said.

“Haha, Young Master Cheon is also extremely happy. That’s right. For martial artists with internal energy below the Gapja level, this is something they’d really want to line up for, it’s so timely.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes, actually this spare Taeul Jiso Pill was originally going to be given to Young Master Namgung Cheon with the agreement of the vice family head and the Sword Master who had been requesting it for some time, but if it’s going to Young Master Hwi who threw his whole body to save Young Master Cheon, they’ll surely have no complaints. Right, Young Master Cheon?”

“Mmph mmph! Mmph mmph mmph! Shi-t…! Shit…! That’s mine, mine…!”

Namgung Cheon’s eyes were so bloodshot he was even coughing up blood.

Eul Ji-so covered my eyes as if feeling sorry and said.

“Oh my… Young Master Namgung Hwi, don’t worry too much. Young Master Namgung Cheon seems to be showing such symptoms from his head injury, but I, Eul Ji-so, can cure all of that.”

“Yes, if that’s the case.”

Eul Ji-so glared at the physicians standing to one side.

“You fools! What are you standing around for? Aren’t you going to treat Young Master Namgung Cheon? You’re startling the fourth young master!”

“Yes, Apothecary!”

Physicians from all sides rushed over and restrained Namgung Cheon’s limbs.

Simultaneously, with skilled hand movements, they inserted a golden needle into the neck of Namgung Cheon, who was struggling while looking at the Taeul Jiso Pill.

“Kek…”

Namgung Cheon fell backward like a rotten tree, and silence returned to Yakwangdang.

…They say the difference between medicine that kills and medicine that saves is as thin as a sheet of paper.

“Anyway, Young Master Namgung Hwi. Just trust me, Eul Ji-so, completely regarding your brother’s matter and don’t worry. Actually, I’ve only seen this in books about ancient heroes.”

Reddening his eyes again, Eul Ji-so said.

“Actually, I was well aware of the misdeeds Young Master Cheon had been committing. But instead of seeking revenge for those acts, you repaid them with kindness… Really… Even though I’m an outsider who doesn’t bear the Namgung surname, I feel respectful and reassured.”

“Actually, I said it was nothing much… but it was quite difficult.”

I spoke in a calm voice.

“How difficult it is to repay grudges with revenge, no, to repay them with kindness… even getting a sweet taste in my mouth…”

I showed the scratches and scrapes all over my body.

“Since I ‘threw’ my whole body to save him, my knees swelled up like this… My fists also got badly swollen from scraping against the well walls so much.”

Eul Ji-so squeezed his eyes shut.

“What beautiful brotherhood this is. Don’t worry. This Eul Ji-so will roll up his sleeves and help with anything concerning Young Master Namgung Hwi from now on.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh right, while you’re returning to the annex, could you temporarily keep Young Master Namgung Cheon’s belongings as well? It seems he’ll need to recuperate here for a while. The Sword Master, Young Master Namgung Cheon’s guardian, happens to be away on external business.”

What I received was a bundle of Namgung Cheon’s ruined clothes. And from within that pile of clothes came a clanking sound.

I took it out.

It was a wooden plaque surrounded by a bronze ring, engraved with a dragon’s seal.

“This is…?”

“That’s probably an access pass that the Vice Family Head specially gave to Young Master Namgung Cheon as both a gift and to help him.”

Eul Ji-so said.

“Isn’t the Heir Apparent Selection Competition coming up soon? With that, you’ll be able to freely enter any building belonging to the Namgung Family until then.”

The Apothecary said “Ah,” and added a comment.

“Furthermore, you’ll be able to charge purchases on credit to the owner of that plaque.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, my memory is a bit hazy but I’m certain. You can charge purchases on credit based on trust, and the amount was probably up to three hundred silver coins. Though you can only use it until around the competition, in any case, there should be absolutely no problem using it anywhere within Anhui.”

I stared intently at the plaque.

“…Is that so…?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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