My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 125

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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 125. A Day Full of Laughter
“Arrrrrgh!”
“Uhhhhh! One, two, three, four, five!”
“Kgh.”
“Hey, you! Snap out of it! Don’t fall asleep! Did this guy pass out?”
“Lay him on his side and splash some water on him!”
“Yes!”
The training of Baeklang Dae proceeded as peacefully as ever today.
Baeklang Dae, continuing to absorb training of an intensity far beyond what came before, was diligently drilling the Fenglong Hunyuan Gong that Yeo Un-hwi had taught them each dawn at the Peak Training Ground.
It was truly not easy.
Just as Yeo Un-hwi had sworn—things were only going to get harder from here.
Baeklang Dae endured only because they had occasional rest days scattered throughout.
And so today’s training too was nearing its end.
“Well done.”
The moment training finished.
As soon as Yeo Un-hwi disappeared, every member of Baeklang Dae collapsed flat on the ground.
They lay there in a daze, staring up at the sky and catching their breath.
After some time had passed.
“What should we prepare?”
Gu Tae-san spoke first, wiping sweat from his brow.
Then O Chae-mu answered.
“I don’t know—I want to prepare something special, but I can’t figure out what.”
This was about a birthday gift for Yul-i.
No one had told them to prepare a gift, but it seemed each of them wanted to come up with something.
The problem was, no one could decide what that something should be.
“Tsk-tsk. What kind of thing are you worrying about?”
“Right, I know.”
Watching Gu Tae-san and O Chae-mu, the Ki-su and Ki-sang brothers clicked their tongues and shook their heads.
“Huh? Have you two already decided?”
Gu Tae-san looked at them with surprise.
The Ki-su and Ki-sang brothers flashed confident grins.
“Of course we have. We decided long ago. After all, we’ve given gifts to the neighborhood kids from time to time.”
“What? You two had that side to you?”
“Is that what you thought of us? Just some third-rate street thugs going around causing trouble?”
“We’re hurt.”
“So what did you prepare?”
“Well, we can’t just not show you.”
“Come on, don’t be mysterious about it—show me already.”
When the Ki-su and Ki-sang brothers proudly produced what they had, Gu Tae-san’s face went blank.
“Isn’t that a short sword?”
“Yes. A short sword for self-defense.”
“You’re going to give that to Yul-i? And you’ve been giving these to neighborhood kids all this time?”
“Of course. Kids love them so much. Plus, this one has a serrated blade so it cuts with a really satisfying—”
“Enough!”
Gu Tae-san brought his fist down on the heads of Ki-su and Ki-sang before he could hear another word.
“Ow! That hurts!”
“Does it hurt? Watching you two, who’ve trained countless child bandits, hurts my heart. Come here so I can hit you more!”
“Eeek!”
“Someone stop him!”
As Ki-su and Ki-sang fled from the raging Gu Tae-san, they looked to Do-gyeong, but he only shook his head in disgust.
When would those two ever grow up?
Regarding Yul-i’s birthday gift, Yeo Un-hwi had already said it was fine—they didn’t need to prepare anything, just offer their congratulations.
Yet despite agreeing with those words, Baeklang Dae was deliberating behind the scenes.
And the same was true of Baekmu-dae, which was led by Elder Gu Wang-pyo.
The rumor spread far and wide that ever since Elder Gu Wang-pyo learned of Yul-i’s approaching birthday, he had been agonizing every day over preparing a gift on an entirely different level from his previous offerings.
Among the Martial Forces inside the Peng Estate, only Baekho-dae had remained untouched by birthday gift worries.
“They’re certainly making a fuss, aren’t they? Ha-ha. What’s gotten into them?”
“…….”
The members of Baekho-dae, observing Baeklang Dae and Baekmu-dae as they passed, let out hollow laughs.
Unlike the other clamorous Martial Forces divisions, Baekho-dae, unswayed by the commotion, appeared remarkably composed.
Indeed.
Their leader, Peng Sejin, was not the sort of man easily shaken by atmosphere.
How reassuring that was.
But it was a grave miscalculation on their part.
The moment Baekho-dae’s training ended, Peng Sejin spoke.
“Baekho-dae! I’m calling a meeting after lunch. Everyone must attend!”
“Pardon? A meeting? Why all of a sudden?”
“I think we ought to gather and decide on something together.”
“Decide on what?”
“Yul-i’s birthday gift.”
“You want to hold a meeting about that? Like the other divisions?”
“What, do you object?”
Peng Sejin’s eyes glinted.
That sharp gleam—visible only outside of combat situations—made the Baekho-dae members flinch.
When Heo Uk-il, the vice-commander, nodded subtly from behind him as a signal to comply, the others finally grasped the mood and managed awkward smiles.
“Ah, no, of course we should! Ha ha ha! Right, everyone?”
Just as the others would not yield to him, Peng Sejin gathered with Baekho-dae, pooling their thoughts on what gift to give Yul-i.
And that was far from all.
Everyone at the Peng Estate who knew Yul-i wrestled with the same question.
They all loved her, after all.
***
“Hya! Hya-hya!”
While the Peng Estate bustled with preparations for Yul-i’s birthday gift, she was diligently learning Martial Arts from her grandfather, Peng Mugang.
‘Ugh. What am I doing? I still can’t get it, can I.’
Peng Mugang, watching her swing the small Mok-do earnestly, let out a short sigh.
He still hadn’t settled on a birthday gift.
For some reason, the more he deliberated on what to give, the more vividly one thing surfaced in his mind—that sword, that sword, that sword.
Finding himself contemptible for it, Peng Mugang shook his head and looked at Yul-i, diligently training, once more.
Then, quite suddenly, he opened his mouth.
“Yul.”
“Yes, Grandfather!”
Yul-i looked up at him with wide eyes.
“What would you like as a gift?”
“A gift?”
“Your birthday is coming soon, isn’t it.”
“Oh, that’s right!”
Peng Mugang had initially wanted to surprise her with a secretly prepared gift.
But at some point, he thought—wouldn’t it be better to hear what Yul-i truly wanted and give her that, rather than just a surprise?
“What I’d like to receive… what I’d like… um.”
Yul-i seemed to have nothing particular in mind, and pondered for quite some time, tilting her head.
“Or do you have any wish at all?”
Framing it as a “wish” sounded rather grand, but he thought he could certainly grant whatever his young granddaughter desired.
“Oh, I do have one!”
At his words, Yul-i’s face suddenly brightened, as if she’d thought of something at once.
And at his granddaughter’s answer, Peng Mugang’s eyes widened considerably.
Then,
“Yes. So did I.”
Peng Mugang smiled gently at Yul-i.
That day, Peng Mugang decided what Yul-i’s birthday gift would be.
Though it did make the coming days rather busy.
What wish had Yul-i confessed to Peng Mugang that day?
***
On a day of crystalline skies and laughter, Yul-i’s birthday had arrived.
“I am grateful to all who have come to celebrate my granddaughter’s birthday. May it be a joyful time for you as well.”
As befitted the birthday of the Peng Estate’s granddaughter, who wielded considerable influence throughout Hebei, guests came from all quarters to offer their congratulations.
Peng Mugang, the Clan Patriarch of the Hebei Peng Clan, regarded the many visitors and laughed heartily.
At his side, Dan Hee-young, Peng Sejin, and Yeo Un-hwi cradling Yul-i, along with Peng Seo-yeon, received the guests in garments more radiant than usual.
Murmur, murmur.
It was a festival atmosphere indeed.
The Peng Estate had been beautifully decorated throughout for this day.
Though time had been too short to summon everyone of note from the entire Martial World, one thing was certain: this was the most spectacular and grandest celebration Hebei had seen all year.
“Yul-i! Happy birthday!”
“Su-a!”
Friends from Sowol Academy had come to Yul-i’s birthday celebration as well.
Yeo Un-hwi and Peng Seo-yeon smiled as they watched Yul-i, now surrounded by her friends, laughing brightly.
Though various things had happened, bringing Yul-i to Hebei and having her attend Sowol Academy felt like a truly good decision.
Had they not done so, Yul-i would surely have seemed lonely on a day like today.
“Wait, you’re really giving us food? For free?”
“Of course! The Clan Patriarch has ordered it. There’s a place set up over there—eat as much as you like and take some with you too!”
“What a day this is! Ha ha ha!”
Word had spread that today, regardless of status, all who visited the Peng Estate would be provided with free food.
Naturally, many came to the estate, and not a single person was turned away—everyone enjoyed the delicious food the Peng Estate had prepared.
But that was not all.
One of the largest training grounds within the Peng Estate had been transformed beyond recognition.
The children who saw it were left speechless.
“Wow!”
An enormous playground had been built—exactly the kind of thing children would love.
It had all the usual playground equipment children enjoyed, and many things they had never seen before.
What caught the children’s eyes most of all was a large water playground created by digging a shallow pool beneath a big slide.
The depth was just right—no danger of drowning or injury—and light balls floated on the water’s surface for the children to play with.
Right beside it, there were washing facilities where children could clean off after playing in the water.
And it wasn’t only the Sowol Academy friends who had been invited today who could play there.
Children from the neighborhood could all come in and play together.
Of course, these things hadn’t appeared on their own—all three divisions of the Martial Forces had been mobilized, and they’d worked quite hard.
But seeing Yul-i, her friends, and the neighborhood children playing joyfully without distinction, even they felt an unbidden smile of satisfaction rise to their faces.
And so Yul-i’s birthday celebration became exactly what she wished for—a day when everyone in the neighborhood smiled.
Dan Hee-young, who had surveyed the birthday celebration that Peng Mugang had prepared, looked at her husband with an expression of astonishment.
“My goodness, you. How did you come up with such a thing?”
She had begun to doubt whether this was truly the same man who had spent all his time giving their children nothing but blades and weapons as gifts.
“Ha ha. Is that so?”
Peng Mugang smiled sheepishly and recalled once more the wish Yul-i had told him not long ago.
‘I hope it becomes a day when my friends, grandfather, the neighborhood children, and all the uncles and aunts can smile with such tremendous, tremendous joy!’
That girl.
When asked what she wanted and what she wished to do, she gave an answer like that.
Because of that, Yul-i felt even more precious to Peng Mugang.
So he had tried, in his own way, to create such a day for Yul-i and the people around her.
Of course, the actual work had been done by the Peng Estate’s martial artists, including the three divisions of the Martial Forces.
He naturally intended to give them a separate reward.
Enough that they wouldn’t utter a single complaint.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“The slide is so much fun!”
“You guys, come over here and play with us!”
In any case, Yul-i’s birthday celebration was becoming filled with the laughter of people, exactly as she had hoped.
Thanks to this, the world learned through Yul-i’s birthday celebration.
They learned that the rumor that the Clan Patriarch of the Peng Estate disliked and hated his daughter was false.
That in fact he cherished and loved his daughter and granddaughter more than anyone else.
Though such calculation had not been his original intent.
In the meantime, Hwang Bo-gyun, who had disappeared for a while, reappeared with a confident expression and handed over a certain book.
When asked what it was, he said it was an internal cultivation method he had secretly devoted great effort to creating during that time, and that he would teach it to Yul-i himself.
At that, Peng Mugang let out a snort of derision and flung the book far away, whereupon Hwang Bo-gyun turned pale and cried out as he rushed after the book.
“No! Not my precious cultivation method! Peng Estate, just you wait!”
……
“Elder Gu, what is that in your hand?”
“Ahem. Oh, it’s nothing.”
As Peng Mugang asked with furrowed brows, Gu Wang-pyo hastily tucked the book he had been holding back into his robes.
On it, the title “Butterfly Sword Technique” was barely visible.
Thus Gu Wang-pyo kept in his heart the sword technique made solely for Yul-i, containing the insights he had cultivated over several days.
In any case, they were grandfathers who had prepared truly peculiar gifts.
As the three grandfathers, including Peng Mugang, were fussing over Yul-i’s birthday gifts, it happened.
“Ha ha ha!”
A loud laugh rang out, and someone appeared before them.
“The Peng Estate is positively filled with joyful laughter. I must have chosen my timing perfectly.”
“Huh? Wait—you?”
A man in shabby clothes. Peng Mugang’s eyes widened at the sight of him.
“How have you all been? It’s been quite a while.”
The middle-aged man smiled, letting out a soft chuckle.
An utterly unexpected visitor had just arrived at the Peng Estate.

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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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