My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 141

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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 141. The Heukmuon Thirteen Group
“Tonight, the moon shines particularly bright.”
Late into the evening, Dok Go-young dismissed his subordinates and stood alone with a cup of wine, gazing up at the sky.
His face and eyes held a tangle of emotions too complex to name with a single word.
“From childhood, you were such a stubborn thing—never listened to your older brother.”
Dok Go-young’s thoughts turned to his younger sister.
Contrary to what he was murmuring, the truth was that his sister had always been clever and quick to smile as a child.
Without a single rough edge, she was far too bright to be the sister of this Lord of Darkness.
As time passed and she grew into womanhood, she remained luminous—meeting a man she loved at a fitting age, bearing children, seeming destined to live always in sunlit places.
He had believed nothing but happiness awaited her.
But misfortune came without warning.
One day when torrential rain fell without ceasing for several days, his sister lost her husband and child both.
No one had foreseen it.
After that, left alone, she grew slowly ill.
Mentally, and in body.
Nothing could console her.
And a long time passed.
Years enough for a small tree planted alongside her daughter to grow tall, its crown lifting above her gaze.
Through all those years, his sister held fast to her family and became increasingly wasted away.
She had not shown that bright smile in so long.
The cheerful, laughing sister of old was gone.
Then, one day—
“Brother! Brother! I saw her—I saw Wol-i!”
“What… are you saying?”
His sister said she had glimpsed a girl who bore an exact resemblance to her dead daughter.
Even Dok Go-young, catching sight of the child from afar, was startled.
The resemblance was uncanny.
As though his sister’s dead daughter had come back to life.
But it turned out the girl was the Daughter of Namgung Clan.
Yet this mattered not at all to his sister.
She was content simply to stand at a distance and watch over the child.
She needed say nothing, do nothing—that alone made her happy.
His sister had found a reason to live again.
To be honest, he had wrestled with whether this should be allowed.
He had worried she might chase phantoms, nurturing only hollow hopes.
But when Dok Go-young saw his sister’s smile return to life upon discovering the girl, he could not bring himself to stop her.
All he could do was watch.
Just as his sister watched over that child.
And so one day, as he set out as he did most days to observe the girl from afar—
his sister learned that the Daughter of Namgung Clan had become the target of a vicious murderer.
But this killer was far beyond what his sister and her guards could handle alone.
Yet his sister did not hesitate; she threw herself forward with her guards to intercept the murderer and protect the girl, meeting her death in that act.
Along with the girl.
In the end, even at the cost of her own life, she could not save her.
This entire story had been relayed by one of his sister’s guards, who had survived crippled and barely alive.
The more he dwelled on it, the more his heart ached.
Why had the world been so cruel and unforgiving to his sister?
Yet at least in that final moment, his sister had died as a mother protecting her child—perhaps she found some measure of peace in that?
Would she be content with her own death? Or…
As his thoughts deepened, Dok Go-young shook his head.
What good was further reflection? It was time to let her go.
He refilled his cup and raised it toward the moon.
Above the wine, the moon appeared, curved gracefully like his sister’s smile.
“Yes. This is enough. So rest now, stop your suffering, and find peace in that place.”
Dok Go-young drained the cup.
Tonight, the wine tasted peculiarly bitter and sweet at once.
The night of the Sado League’s master deepened quietly like this.
***
Unlike Baeklang Dae’s initial anxiety, the time spent at Sado League passed without notable incident.
This was both because they had come as guests invited by the Lord of Darkness himself, and because from the start their lodging had been arranged in a place where they would have little cause to encounter other members of the Sado League.
Thus, except for the rare occasions when Dok Go-young sought out Baeklang Dae on his own, the group made every effort to avoid confrontation, keeping to the vicinity of their lodgings as much as possible.
Though in truth, it made little sense to roam about the Sadomaeng as though they owned the place.
But that restraint didn’t last long. The members of Baeklang Dae had grown accustomed to grueling daily training sessions, and before long, their bodies began to itch for exertion.
And so, within Baeklang Dae, episodes of sudden restlessness began erupting every few hours.
Like this:
“Argh!”
Ki-su and Ki-sang, who had been lying sprawled on the floor, let out simultaneous cries and sprang to their feet as one.
Do-gyeong promptly struck the pair of them.
Thwack!
“Back down.”
Gurgle.
A minute later, the brothers were resurrected.
“Argh! I can’t take this anymore!”
“Take what?”
It fell to O Chae-mu to contend with the pair.
“We need to work up a sweat!”
“You mean to tell me you want to train right here, is that it?”
“Why not? There’s a Training Ground attached right next door.”
“True enough. Not that I’d call it proper training, but—”
O Chae-mu let out a hollow laugh at the twins’ utter confidence.
“Have you two forgotten this is the Sadomaeng?”
“No way.”
“Then what do you think the people of the Sadomaeng will make of us training in the Training Ground?”
“Hmm. Maybe they’ll think we’re diligent and dedicated? That they should learn from us?”
“…That’s enough. Enough.”
Today was a particular case of words failing to land.
Not that they usually fared much better.
The twin brothers chuckled as O Chae-mu shook his head in resignation.
“Don’t worry so much. We’ll just do some light exercises to break a sweat.
“Sure, sure.”
The moment O Chae-mu nodded half-heartedly, the twins bolted excitedly toward the Training Ground.
“Well then. I suppose I should too.”
“Been bored out of my mind anyway.”
Once the twins had opened the floodgates, every member of Baeklang Dae rose and headed out without exception.
Gu Tae-san, Peng Do-hwan, and Do-gyeong were no different.
“You as well?”
“Feeling sluggish. You should come too, shouldn’t you?”
“Tsk. I’m not sure anymore.”
O Chae-mu followed along as though he had no choice in the matter.
And so, with the exception of Yeo Un-hwi, who had taken to an afternoon nap, the entirety of Baeklang Dae filed out into the Training Ground and began warming up.
Perhaps unprecedented in the annals of the Martial World?
The Orthodox Faction’s military corps, training in the deepest sanctum of the Sadomaeng?
In any case, they all began their exercises lightly enough.
Trading idle gossip between sets.
But then, a group arrived at the lodgings where Baeklang Dae was staying.
At first glance, their intentions seemed far from benign.
A savage aura emanated from them in waves.
Initially, Baeklang Dae had tried to ignore them, assuming they’d come merely to scout, but the group brazenly proceeded all the way to the entrance of the Training Ground where Baeklang Dae was exercising.
Unable to ignore them any longer, the eyes of Baeklang Dae finally turned toward the intruders.
“Well, well. So it’s you lot? The Orthodox Faction fools who had the audacity to seek out the Sadomaeng?”
The intruder swept his gaze across Baeklang Dae from head to toe, then curled his lips into a sneer.
“All this fuss over besting a wounded Absolute Demon.”
“Seems like they stumbled backward and happened to catch a rat. Lucky break, I’d say.”
“That’s right.”
Even with ears plugged, the tone was unmistakably provocative, and the brows of Baeklang Dae rose sharply.
“Who are you? Who are you lot?”
“Us? We are the Heukmuon Thirteen Group.”
At the name Heukmuon, the eyes of Baeklang Dae widened.
Pleased by the reaction, those spouting provocations grinned wickedly.
“Hmph. Still, you’ve managed to hear of our names. Not bad for your sort.”
Of course he’d heard of them.
There was no way not to know that name.
Heukmuon was an organization composed solely of the most exceptional talents within the Evil Faction, and it was through them that the Evil Faction had achieved its current extraordinary growth.
They had even distinguished themselves in the conflicts between the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Sect.
In response to Heukmuon, the Murim League had created the Sarim Dan.
Of course, those formed before were different, but the name Sarim Dan had left a rather unpleasant memory for Baeklang Dae.
In any case, it was standard practice for Heukmuon’s talents to eventually assume positions of utmost importance within the Sado League.
The Sado League’s supreme military commander and Myeol-hon-dae were prime examples.
In other words, Heukmuon was both the present and the future of the Sado League.
And now, such individuals had come directly to Baeklang Dae, picking a fight without preamble.
The reason, of course, was apparent.
There were quite a few within the Sado League who viewed the arrival of Baeklang Dae—the military force of the Hebei Peng Clan, one of the Five Great Clans of the Orthodox Martial Arts—with considerable displeasure.
Yet until now, no one had dared voice such grievances openly, and that was solely because they feared Dok Go-young.
But young men, still in the flush of their years and lacking restraint, were a different matter.
These were the ones who had suddenly burst into the Lodging where Baeklang Dae was staying.
The Heukmuon Thirteen Group understood just how many harbored resentment over this matter.
Yet no one had stepped forward.
The same held true for those arrogant members of the First and Second Groups within Heukmuon.
Heukmuon operated on a strictly merit-based system—the stronger the martial ability, the higher the rank within the First or Second Groups; the weaker, the lower one’s standing.
For this reason, the Thirteen Group that had come to confront Baeklang Dae now was the lowest-ranked military unit within Heukmuon.
And so the Thirteen Group had decided to seize this opportunity.
The First and Second Groups—you couldn’t do it, but we can.
A sort of rebellious heroic impulse, a need to prove something.
Besides, Heukmuon members were among those whom Dok Go-young, their lord, favored in a way that set them apart within the Sado League.
So they harbored the confidence—or rather, the sheer arrogance—that Dok Go-young would not severely reprimand them for such actions.
“What’s your business?”
At O Chae-mu’s words, a man from the midst of the Heukmuon Thirteen Group, who had been tossing a short sword back and forth like a toy, grinned and opened his mouth.
“Nothing special, really. Since we’ve run into each other like this, how about we have a bit of sparring?”
Why did so many of these people enjoy sparring and dueling?
For a moment, the Heukmuon Thirteen Group seemed to overlap with the Sarim Dan of old.
But O Chae-mu had learned from the Sarim Dan incident better than anyone.
He knew what those with such malice really wanted from sparring—and only one thing.
To overwhelmingly dominate their opponent and inflict humiliation upon them.
And if that result didn’t materialize, it was obvious what they would do next—no need to even see it.
So O Chae-mu’s answer was decided from the start.
“I refuse.”
“What?”
“Let’s not create trouble for each other. That’s it. Come on, everyone—let’s go back inside.”
O Chae-mu turned his body as if the matter wasn’t worth his time.
Of course, how could he not feel heat rising in his chest?
But given the location and the circumstances, he didn’t want to cause an incident here.
In a place like this, restraint was victory.
It was then.
Shwing!
A short sword came flying from nowhere, grazing O Chae-mu’s cheek and embedding itself in the wall behind him.
“Brother!”
“I’m fine.”
Fortunately, his cheek only stung a little—no serious wound.
But a killing intent flickered involuntarily across O Chae-mu’s eyes.
“Ah, sorry. My hand slipped.”
“What?”
“Ha-ha. Your eyes look terrifying. So—how about now? Want to fight, huh?”
The man who’d thrown the short sword grinned provocatively.
Crunch.
His teeth ground together without his volition, but O Chae-mu held firm.
No—he had to hold firm. No matter what.
Fortunately, O Chae-mu maintained his composure well.
And Baeklang Dae, too, was not so foolish as to rise to every provocation.
No longer the unthinking Baeklang Dae of old, recklessly charging forward without a second thought once their blood was up.
Shwing! Shwing-shwing!
In that instant, the man who had thrown the Short Sword at O Chae-mu’s cheeks flushed crimson.
Whoosh.
Two Short Swords came slicing through from nowhere, grazing his face as they flew past.
“Ugh!”
“This is how you use a Short Sword, kid.”
Ki-su and Ki-sang grinned viciously, their eyes glinting with killing intent.
“You bastard! Tired of living? All of you—get him! Kill him!”
The entire Heukmuon Thirteen Group’s eyes blazed with fury as they threw themselves at Baeklang Dae.
“There we go, there we go! Now that’s proper Evil Faction!”
“Who was it that started this trouble and crawled all the way here anyway? Come on! You sons of bitches!”
The twin brothers hurled themselves at them with equal savagery.
…….
Right. He’d forgotten.
That there were still hollow-headed fools within Baeklang Dae who refused no provocation and accepted every challenge.
And so the fight began.
O Chae-mu’s head throbbed.
Ah. He had no idea anymore.

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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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