My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 107
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107. The Benefactor’s Name Is Mu-wi
“How could you…”
Dang Gu-hwi.
The name that spilled from Yeo Un-hwi’s lips made Seol Ja-gyun’s eyes widen in shock.
The Crown Prince of the Sacheon Dang Clan—the man who had sold him poison.
Their transaction was something no one else should have known about, so Seol Ja-gyun couldn’t fathom how that name had come from this stranger’s mouth.
Gasp!
It was only then that Seol Ja-gyun realized his blunder.
This man had clearly shown his distaste for Dang Gu-hwi—the signs were unmistakable.
He should have played ignorant to the end. Damn.
“Ah, so you bought the poison directly from that wretch, did you?”
“Ahem. I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
“Is that so?”
At these words, a smile tinged with killing intent deepened across Yeo Un-hwi’s lips.
To encounter someone connected to that bastard all the way here in Beihei—he hadn’t expected it.
He had already crippled Dang Gu-hwi beyond recovery and exacted a measure of revenge, yet the mere mention of that name set Yeo Un-hwi’s killing intent ablaze anew.
Before the Regression, that man had caused his wife to be poisoned without his knowledge; after the Regression, he had tried again—making him one of the very few people Yeo Un-hwi despised with every fiber of his being.
And this very man had used the same poison on Seol Ja-gang, the Ice Palace Master himself and Yeo Un-hwi’s own brother.
Yeo Un-hwi turned his body to examine Seol Ja-gang’s condition more carefully.
Then he opened his mouth slowly.
“Judging by the symptoms, he used quite a substantial amount.”
The dosage appeared to be several times greater than what had been used on his wife.
Why, though?
The reason was obvious.
“At first, he wanted him to die slowly, without anyone noticing. But later, impatient for the end, he multiplied the dose. Ruthless, truly.”
Seol Ja-gyun’s eyes grew impossibly wide.
It was as if this man had peered into the depths of his own heart and drawn out his innermost thoughts with perfect accuracy.
“How could you possibly know that? But as you said yourself a moment ago, there were reasons for all of this…”
“I’ve decided. Whose side I’m taking.”
Without need to hear another word, Yeo Un-hwi cut short Seol Ja-gyun’s protest.
Then he moved to stand beside Seol Jong-woo.
“I’m taking this side.”
“What? Why?”
“The man you were allied with doesn’t sit well with me, and the poison you used sits even worse.”
“That’s insane! Purely on that basis? Are you mocking me?”
“Yes. Purely on that basis.”
Yeo Un-hwi nodded as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
That mere reason Seol Ja-gyun had dismissed so casually—he had no idea how much weight it truly carried for Yeo Un-hwi.
He could never imagine it.
From his response, Yeo Un-hwi grew only more certain.
He had made the right choice in taking this side.
“Besides, what you think is of no concern to me. Now then, let’s see. All those standing over there are enemies, yes? Is that correct?”
“Yes, it is.”
Seol Jong-woo nodded in response to Yeo Un-hwi’s question.
“Good. Clean and simple.”
“No! Everyone, attack at once! We can’t end this like this! We have superior numbers!”
Seol Ja-gyun ground his teeth and roared.
But having all witnessed the Mu-wi that Yeo Un-hwi had displayed, none of them moved rashly.
Watching his hesitant subordinates, Seol Ja-gyun shrieked like a desperate animal.
“You idiots! If we fail, we’re dead anyway! So if you want even a shred of life, draw your blades and fight! Fight, damn you!”
At Seol Ja-gyun’s words, those who had momentarily lost their will to fight regained their senses and gripped their weapons once more.
Soon their eyes began to gleam with killing intent.
Yes—even if not quite two hundred, their numbers exceeded a hundred.
If they all rushed at once, no matter how formidable the master, the outcome was uncertain.
As the thought took hold, their grip on their weapons tightened with renewed strength.
At the change that came over them, Yeo Un-hwi laughed as though amused.
Interesting.
“You all seem eager. Come, then.”
A roar.
Despite their lingering fear of Yeo Un-hwi, Seol Ja-gyun’s subordinates threw themselves at him with the thought that death awaited them either way.
The momentum was quite formidable.
But then—
Thud.
As Yeo Un-hwi planted the True Footstep, a vast wave of Qi erupted outward.
In that instant, the bodies of the charging warriors froze solid as stone.
In that fleeting moment,
Whoosh.
Yeo Un-hwi’s form seemed to vanish, only to reappear directly before Seol Ja-gyun—the one who had retreated farthest to save himself, goading the others toward death.
“How like him, making others die for his own sake. Birds of a feather, as they say.”
Yeo Un-hwi regarded Seol Ja-gyun with a look of pure contempt.
In that instant, gripped by the terror of encroaching death, Seol Ja-gyun waved his hands frantically in protest.
“No, wait! I only bought the po—the poison! That’s all I did!”
But before he could finish speaking, Yeo Un-hwi’s fist drove directly into Seol Ja-gyun’s face.
Crack!
With a deafening sound, Seol Ja-gyun’s body flew through the air and slammed into the wall.
Boom!
The wall shattered, and his body continued through to the next wall, embedding itself deep within the stone.
Seol Ja-gyun lost consciousness, his face completely caved in.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Silence fell over the palace hall as the dust settled from what had happened in mere seconds.
The sound of pulverized stone falling to the ground was audible with crystalline clarity.
Yeo Un-hwi turned slowly and dusted off his hands. Then he looked at Seol Jong-woo, whose face had gone blank, and smiled.
“Don’t worry—he’s not dead. After all, he’s the palace master’s own brother; that makes him quite valuable. Handle the rest as you see fit.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Seol Jong-woo nodded, his expression dazed.
Though calling him “not dead” felt generous when the man had essentially been pulverized.
“So. Do the rest of you still wish to fight? I have no particular objection, you understand.”
As Yeo Un-hwi cast his gaze toward the warriors still loyal to Seol Ja-gyun,
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
Without the slightest hesitation, they cast their weapons to the ground and shook their heads vigorously.
“No, sir! We surrender!”
“Indeed. We will accept our punishment.”
Having witnessed what befell Seol Ja-gyun, they had abandoned all thought of resistance.
Push through with superior numbers and somehow prevail?
Madness!
If they could but meet their former selves—the ones who’d harbored such thoughts, however briefly—they would have slapped that face with great satisfaction.
They learned something that day.
They learned that a human being could be sent flying such a distance by a single punch.
How could one dare rush forward after witnessing that? Only the insane could.
Even if death awaited them, they preferred to die with dignity.
Thus Seol Ja-gyun’s Rebellion ended as nothing more than a fleeting dream.
For all his meticulous preparation, all of it had been in vain.
Victory had been within sight when Yeo Un-hwi arrived.
One might say fortune had utterly abandoned him.
Had Yeo Un-hwi arrived even half a day later, matters would have played out very differently.
But there was no point dwelling on that now.
“Well then. That matter is settled.”
Yeo Un-hwi approached Seol Ja-gang, whose condition appeared grave.
His face had grown darker than before, and his state looked increasingly dire.
Before Yeo Un-hwi’s arrival, Seol Ja-gang had recklessly drawn upon his internal energy in anger at Seol Ja-gyun’s treachery, which had only worsened his plight.
Time was now critical. Treatment could not be delayed a moment longer.
Yeo Un-hwi turned his head toward Seol Jong-woo.
“Move the palace master inside at once.”
Seol Jong-woo nodded at Yeo Un-hwi’s words.
This man clearly possessed some knowledge about the poison that had afflicted his father.
***
Seol Ja-gang, now swiftly moved to the bedroom, breathed in labored gasps.
To all appearances, he might not survive the night.
“I… what exactly are you planning to do?”
The Court Physician, who had attended to the palace master Seol Ja-gang all along, had taken his place at the bedside.
He wanted to ask what was on Yeo Un-hwi’s mind and opened his mouth, but Seol Jong-woo held him back with a look that said to wait and observe.
Soon Yeo Un-hwi extended his hand toward Seol Ja-gang.
A deep hum resonated through the air.
Golden Qi poured forth from his palm in brilliant cascades.
The radiance wrapped itself around Seol Ja-gang’s body.
A gulp.
Unable to fathom what was happening, Seol Jong-woo—having resolved to observe—simply swallowed hard and watched in silence.
A rushing sound filled the space.
Then something impossible occurred.
Black Qi was drawn out from Seol Ja-gang’s body.
It coalesced into a dark sphere the size of a child’s fist.
“Hmph. He’s used quite a lot of it.”
His suspicion had been correct.
The Qi extracted from Peng Seo-yeon’s body had been far smaller and lighter.
The sphere dissolved with a wisp of sound.
It vanished in Yeo Un-hwi’s grasp.
With it, the golden light that had been flooding the room began to fade and soon disappeared entirely.
Yeo Un-hwi released a short breath and looked toward Seol Jong-woo.
“It’s done.”
“Yes? …Gasp!”
As Yeo Un-hwi spoke, the sallow, ashen complexion that had plagued Seol Ja-gang began rapidly returning to health.
Even at a glance, it was clear his condition was improving.
“I’ve completely extracted the poison that was ravaging his body, but his vital energy is depleted. He’ll need to convalesce for about two months, and then he should fully recover.”
Blank astonishment.
Seol Jong-woo could not believe what he had just witnessed.
Poison extracted like that?
This was nothing short of a miracle.
But what was even more astounding was how casually Yeo Un-hwi had accomplished this tremendous feat, as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
Who on earth was this man?
“Well then. Shall we step outside and talk? This isn’t the place for what we need to discuss.”
The moment Yeo Un-hwi left the room, he extended his hand.
“Hand over the Ice Emperor Herb.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Having helped this much, surely you can spare one?”
“Ah, yes. Of course. Naturally. Please wait just a moment.”
Ordinarily, the palace lord’s command would be required, but now it hardly mattered.
It couldn’t possibly matter.
Yeo Un-hwi was a great benefactor of Beihei Ice Palace.
He had prevented Seol Ja-gyun’s rebellion and even saved the palace lord from deadly poison.
Though how he’d managed it remained a mystery.
What appeared before Yeo Un-hwi’s eyes was a bundle brimming with Ice Emperor Herbs.
“No, no—just one would do.”
“That simply won’t do.”
However precious the Ice Emperor Herb, it was nothing compared to the kindness Yeo Un-hwi had shown.
He seemed like the sort who paid little heed to others’ words.
But from Seol Jong-woo’s perspective, it was only natural.
In his view, Yeo Un-hwi felt like a person Heaven itself had sent for their sake.
“Our Ice Palace repays revenge tenfold, but our gratitude surpasses even that. We are still far from balanced. Beihei Ice Palace shall never forget this debt of kindness.”
Silence.
He’d heard this sort of thing before.
Wasn’t this the same thing the Sacheon Dang Clan said?
Who was the original, really?
In truth, Yeo Un-hwi had a tendency to give excessively.
He’d quelled a rebellion at a critical moment and healed the palace lord from a grave poisoning.
The suppression of the rebellion had been something that happened by circumstance, but curing the poison had been born of his own goodwill.
Though perhaps it was because the sight of Dang Gu-hwi slowly wasting away from poison had seemed too close to ignore.
In any case, Yeo Un-hwi reluctantly picked up the bundle.
“More to the point—might you tell me your name, my benefactor?”
“You already asked that and I refused. There’s no need to know. Just consider what happened today finished and forget about it.”
“But surely that’s impossible…….”
Seol Jong-woo’s face fell visibly.
Tsk.
At the sight of it, Yeo Un-hwi clicked his tongue and tossed out his words as though casting them aside.
“Mu-wi.”
“Yes?”
“Remember it that way.”
“Ah. Yes.”
“Well then, I’m off. Thank you for your trouble.”
“Wait, at least stay for a meal—”
But before Seol Jong-woo could finish, Yeo Un-hwi had already vanished.
Without a trace, as though he had never been there at all.
Seol Jong-woo smacked his lips with regret.
“Mu-wi, he said. Mu-wi.”
It was an unfamiliar name he had never heard before.
It seemed word of Youling Shenjun had not yet reached Beihei.
Which made sense—so little time had passed since it happened that it was only natural.
In any case, he genuinely hoped the day would come when they met again.
Seol Jong-woo wished for it with all his heart.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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