My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 112

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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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Episode 112. The Five Great Clans Arrive in Hefei
The sky was impossibly blue, and a gentle breeze carried the pleasant coolness of a perfect day.
In the garden of the Hebei Peng Estate.
Butterflies—pretty ones that Yul-i adored—fluttered across a flower bed ablaze with five brilliant colors, yet today she had no interest in them whatsoever.
“Mother, when are Father and Grandfather and Uncle coming?”
Yul-i, who had been strolling through the garden holding her mother’s hand, looked up and asked.
Peng Seoyeon smiled warmly and replied.
“After Yul-i sleeps just a few more nights, they’ll be here before you know it.”
“Okay…….”
She nodded obediently, but her face was clouded with undisguised disappointment.
Since this morning, Yul-i had been asking the same question over and over.
Father and Grandfather and Uncle—all three of them—had left for Anhui Province.
With their promise to return quickly, Yul-i had managed to stay cheerful those first few days.
She’d eaten sweets with Grandmother, taken walks with Mother.
She’d watched the butterflies in the garden and scattered seeds for the occasional bird that flew by.
But that was only the beginning.
For a child as young as Yul-i, days stretched on with unbearable emptiness.
She’d wake to find Father gone.
The training hall where she used to learn martial arts with Grandfather stood empty and silent.
When she wandered about, her uncle—whom she always ran into—was nowhere to be found all day.
Even the Baeklang Dae’s training grounds, once bustling with noise and energy, felt hollow and desolate.
After repeating this disappointment several times, Yul-i’s spirits had sunk to their lowest point.
The people she saw every day.
Her father, whom she loved most in the world next to Mother; her uncle, who always looked at her with such fondness; her grandfather, who had kept her close at his side under the pretext of teaching her martial arts—she missed all of them terribly now.
“Sniff.”
Unable to bear her melancholy any longer, Yul-i let out a small whimper and clung to Peng Seoyeon’s skirts.
“Oh, my darling. It’s alright. It’s alright. They’ll be here soon, I promise.”
Peng Seoyeon gazed at her with tender concern, stroking her hair gently.
It was then.
“Ha! There you are!”
Someone appeared before them.
A man with a frame far larger than ordinary—Gu Wangpiao the Elder himself.
Peng Seoyeon recognized him and smiled brightly.
“My goodness. What brings you here?”
Gu Wangpiao laughed heartily and answered her.
“What brings me? I came to see this pretty little miss, of course! Hahaha!”
His gaze shifted to Yul-i with a broad grin.
Yul-i, who had been hanging on Peng Seoyeon, lifted her head slightly at the mention of her name and looked up at Gu Wangpiao.
“Me?”
“That’s right! This is when I should come running—I’ve hardly had the chance to grow close to you, have I?”
Gu Wangpiao slowly bent down and settled into a crouch, then flashed a meaningful smile as he greeted her.
“Yul-i. Hello? Your Great-Uncle is here!”
“Great-Uncle?”
“Ha! That’s right, that’s right! Great-Uncle!”
Hearing Yul-i call him “Great-Uncle,” Gu Wangpiao’s mouth spread into a wide grin.
In truth, having been excluded from the Five Great Clans’ gathering, Gu Wangpiao had been counting the days until he could meet Yul-i like this.
Until now, he’d had precious few opportunities to grow close to her.
And the reason was, ironically, Peng Mugang.
The way Peng Mugang treated Yul-i like a treasure beyond price—he kept her hidden away and guarded so closely that Gu Wangpiao could scarcely see her at all.
And whenever Yul-i happened to pass by on her way somewhere, if there was even a hint that she might encounter one of the other elders, Peng Mugang would materialize like a ghost and subtly obstruct it.
Not that he didn’t understand Peng Mugang’s feelings.
Look at Yul-i! How could anyone not adore her?
Had he been in Peng Mugang’s position, he would have felt no differently.
If Yul-i went around calling every elder in the Peng Estate “Grandfather,” and running to all of them equally—
Just thinking about it twisted his stomach a little.
And if, on top of that, she came to prefer one of the other grandfathers to him……?!
That was absolutely unacceptable.
Gu Wangpiao wanted to be Yul-i’s favorite grandfather—her very favorite.
So he had seized this opportunity while Peng Mugang was away to come and truly befriend her.
For the longest time, his one wish had been to have a little daughter who resembled his late wife.
Yet heaven, indifferent as ever, had granted Gu Wangpiao four sons who all resembled him.
In the end, having no daughters, he’d hoped at least to see granddaughters who took after their mothers.
Instead, he’d watched eight grandsons appear in succession—stout-cheeked little toads, every one of them stamped with his sons’ faces.
Of course, it wasn’t that his sons and grandsons weren’t lovely or precious; still, there was an undeniable longing he couldn’t shake.
Then, returning from a long absence, Gu Wangpiao had met Yul-i, the daughter of Peng Seoyeon—and she was precisely the granddaughter he’d always truly wanted.
He resolved, again and again, that today he must absolutely win her favor.
“Come now, come. Why linger out here? Why not step inside? Or were you on your way to tend to other business?”
“Oh no, I was just taking a walk.”
“Perfect, then! I happen to have something to give you—let’s go at once!”
Something to give?
Peng Seoyeon tilted her head in curiosity, then followed Gu Wangpiao and Yul-i toward the room.
Once inside, Gu Wangpiao set down the large bundle he’d been carrying onto the table.
Peng Seoyeon eyed the sizeable bundle—nearly as big as Yul-i herself—and asked.
“What is this?”
“What do you think? Gifts I’ve brought for Yul-i.”
“This is… all of it?”
“Indeed!”
The bundle was packed with gifts that children Yul-i’s age would love.
His secret weapon, so to speak.
In truth, the moment Peng Mugang had left the Peng Estate, Gu Wangpiao had wanted to rush straight here.
But for the first few days, he’d held back, uncertain whether Peng Mugang might return; then he’d spent the next several days preparing gifts for Yul-i, which was why he’d arrived a bit late.
“Yul-i? Your old grandfather has brought you a heap of gifts.”
“Gifts?”
“Yes, indeed. Now, let me see….”
Gu Wangpiao began pulling items one by one from the bundle and showing them to Yul-i.
“Ooh!”
As dolls and all manner of presents emerged, Yul-i’s eyes went wide.
The morose expression from moments before vanished without a trace.
Watching Yul-i’s eyes sparkle with curiosity, Gu Wangpiao let out a low, pleased chuckle.
‘Excellent, excellent.’
The first button of his campaign to befriend Yul-i had snapped neatly into place.
All his effort in asking around about what girls Yul-i’s age enjoyed, then gathering a heap of such things, had paid off.
“Goodness. Still, why did you bring so much?”
“Bah, is this a lot? Never mind that. So long as Yul-i is happy, that’s all that matters. Isn’t that right? Haha!”
Gu Wangpiao laughed heartily.
Then his eyes flashed with a steely glint.
‘I shall be Yul-i’s favorite grandfather, Clan Patriarch.’
And so, as the grandfathers waged their silent war for Yul-i’s affection, Peng Seoyeon could only shake her head and smile wryly.
***
A chill.
In the carriage, Peng Mugang sat with solemn composure when suddenly his entire body shuddered.
Hmm? What was that?
Peng Mugang shivered uncontrollably, then tilted his head in confusion.
Beside him, Peng Sejin spoke up with a puzzled expression.
“Father, is something wrong? Has something happened?”
“No, no.”
A vague unease had seized him, but at Peng Sejin’s question, he shook his head.
It was probably nothing—just his mood.
Sometimes, when traveling a long road, such things happened without reason.
Right now, no matter how he thought about it, there was no earthly reason to feel any sense of ominous dread.
“In any case, the cleanup—how did it go?”
At Peng Mugang’s question, Peng Sejin answered swiftly.
“A few members of the Baeklang Dae have just finished tidying things up and returned.”
“Good. Well done.”
This concerned the bandits they had encountered on the road not long before.
Peng Mugang wasn’t certain how the other clans had handled theirs, but he found it deeply troubling to simply leave brigands hiding in fear of them.
As had always been his way, Peng Mugang harbored a visceral hatred for thieves and robbers who preyed upon and trampled ordinary people.
No—it was revulsion.
He regarded such creatures as mere vermin, eating away at the world itself.
So, even though they’d already passed, he’d issued orders for Peng Sejin to have them dealt with.
Peng Mugang nodded slowly, as if satisfied.
Soon Peng Sejin cracked open the carriage window and peered outside.
“We should be arriving soon, Father.”
“Good.”
Beyond the distant hill, Anhui Province came into view.
***

“What in the world is happening here? Why has everyone gathered like this?”
A man living in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, tilted his head at the unusual bustle around him, and spotting a familiar face in the crowd, he posed the question.
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“That the Five Great Clans are gathering here in Hefei today, all in one place.”
“The Five Great Clans? All together?”

Now the commotion made sense.

“Look, there they come now.”

The first to arrive was the Hwangbo House.
A middle-aged man of massive build rode at the head of warriors who carried an air of vitality tempered with restraint.
This was Hwangbo Gyun, Patriarch of the Hwangbo House and master of the Mad Wind Divine Fist, along with the Iron-Blood Heavenly Sword Order.
Beside Hwangbo Gyun rode Hwangbo Cheonwoo, called the Strong Dragon among the Six Dragons.
The crowd was overwhelmed by the fierce, dominating presence that radiated from them.
Next to appear was the Sichuan Dang House.
Warriors dressed in green followed behind a middle-aged man who emanated a sinister aura, like a poisoned dart moving in silence.
This was Dang Jinwoo, the Poison Sovereign who led the Sichuan Dang House of this age.
He had come to Hefei together with the renowned Red Moon Order.

“Then the one standing beside him must be the Crown Prince of the Sichuan Dang House, Dang Guhwi.”
“Tsk, your news is awfully stale.”
“What do you mean?”
“When did the successor of the Dang House change? How can you still say that?”
“Huh?”

Dang Guhwi was no longer the heir to the Dang House.
Why was that?
One day he had fallen into a state of Complete Paralysis, unable to move even slightly, much less speak.
Yet no one knew why, or at whose hands, such a fate had befallen him.
The common speculation was that someone had taken revenge on Dang Guhwi for his habitual misdeeds.
But even amid such whispers, the Sichuan Dang House refused to reveal why he had come to such a state.

“Then who is that person standing beside him?”
“Who else? Isn’t it obvious? Doesn’t the Sichuan Dang House have someone far more suited to be heir than that Crown Prince?”
“Ah, yes.”
The man recalling the conversation quickly thought of someone.
Dang Mujun, the Poison Dragon.
One of the greatest talents in the history of the Sichuan Dang House.
A man with a gentle, sorrowful expression entirely unlike his father—that was Dang Mujun.
As they vanished from sight, not long after, others began to appear.

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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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