My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 142

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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 142. The Ghost-Eyed Demon Lord, Ma Se-ak
“What—what are these bastards!”
The fight between Baeklang Dae and Hekmun Thirteen Unit erupted when Ki Su and Ki Sang threw themselves at the Hekmun Thirteen Unit, who had arrived spoiling for a fight.
Yet all of Hekmun Thirteen Unit, confident they would win decisively, found themselves deeply shaken.
The battle was unfolding in an entirely different direction than they had anticipated.
The moment the fighting began, every member of Hekmun Thirteen Unit drew their weapons and rushed forward.
But Baeklang Dae met them bare-handed instead.
To any observer, it would have seemed reckless beyond measure.
Yet in that brief exchange, Baeklang Dae had read Hekmun Thirteen Unit’s techniques and concluded they could handle them without weapons.
Without any prior agreement, every member of Baeklang Dae engaged the ferocious Hekmun Thirteen Unit with nothing but their hands.
Hekmun Thirteen Unit found it laughable.
They couldn’t fathom what audacity drove these men to face them unarmed.
Perhaps a proper beating would teach them a lesson—they’d maim someone, make an example.
They vowed to make these fools beg for mercy before the day was done.
But as time passed, it was not Baeklang Dae that was being pushed back—it was Hekmun Thirteen Unit.
‘How is this possible.’
Their bewilderment was absolute.
Hekmun Thirteen Unit had assumed Baeklang Dae could never match them.
After all, aside from the day they beheaded the Absolute Demon, Baeklang Dae had done nothing to make a name for themselves in the Martial World.
Though they were called the Three Great Forces representing Hebei Peng Clan, they were merely guardians of a single household.
Hekmun, by contrast, was at the vanguard of the Martial World itself—roaming Central Plains and facing both Orthodox Sects and the Demonic Sect in relentless combat.
The most dangerous missions were entrusted to higher units like Hekmun’s First and Second Units, and even more perilous work to the Myeolhon Unit, the finest of their elite. Still, it was difficult to say that Hekmun Thirteen Unit lacked battle experience or strength.
So they believed without question that they would not lose, even in a confrontation.
Indeed, they had worried only about how much restraint to show.
Now they were learning just how catastrophic that miscalculation had been.
And what’s more, Baeklang Dae seemed remarkably accustomed to this chaos—this street brawl.
It wasn’t long before,
“Hhhhgh.”
only Baeklang Dae members remained standing.
All of Hekmun Thirteen Unit lay sprawled across the ground.
In truth, this was an inevitable outcome.
Baeklang Dae had already been acknowledged as strong by Jo Il-ha, the commander of Myeolhon Unit, one of the finest elites of the Sadoemaeng.
There was no conceivable way the lowest-ranked unit of Hekmun, no matter how formidable Hekmun itself might be, could withstand them.
“Hah. You bastards were all bluster for nothing, weren’t you?”
“Exactly. We thought you lot had some skill, but clearly not.”
Ki Su and Ki Sang brushed off their hands, laughing as if genuinely baffled.
They couldn’t help but think these men were pathetically weak.
They did not understand.
Hekmun Thirteen Unit was not weak—Baeklang Dae had simply grown incomparably stronger than before.
“Compared to Myeolhon Unit, you’re nowhere near it. Yet you call yourselves the future of the Demonic Sect? It’s hilarious.”
As Ki Su and Ki Sang shrugged their shoulders mockingly, the faces of the Hekmun Thirteen Unit members sprawled on the ground flushed crimson.
Finally, one of them could bear it no longer and crossed the line.
“Ugh! You bastards! Die!”
It was the man who had thrown the short sword at O Chae-mu so confidently before.
His eyes gleaming, he hurled a short sword at them again in a sudden strike.
The blade was aimed precisely at Ki Su’s throat.
Had he not evaded, it would have been a killing blow.
But,
“Where are you looking?”
Ki Su dodged the attack with ease.
But the fact that there was no injury didn’t mean he felt no anger toward the man who’d thrown it.
Heat flaring up at the sight of an attack meant to kill him, Ki Su seized the man’s arm in an instant.
“This bastard keeps trying to kill people?”
“Hey, hey! That’s enough!”
Do Gyeong, noticing Ki Su’s anger flaring, shouted too late.
Crack.
Using his own shoulder as a fulcrum, Ki Su wrenched the man’s arm and drove him straight into the ground.
“Kaaahhh!”
A horrible scream tore from the man’s throat.
“Damn it!”
Ki Su’s face suddenly fell.
He should have held back, but he’d reacted a touch too violently to the man’s killing intent.
He hadn’t meant to go this far.
Looking at the man now, it wasn’t just one arm that was broken—his entire shoulder had been pulverized, hanging in tatters.
The other member of the Hekmun Thirteen Unit who’d been rolling on the ground and barely pulled himself together gnashed his teeth and shrieked.
“You bastards! Do you know who we are!”
“Did you think you’d walk away from this!”
So it was fine for them to come at unarmed men with weapons and scatter poison, was it?
Ki Su’s moment of thinking he’d been too harsh evaporated as the Hekmun Thirteen Unit’s shameless audacity drew hollow laughter from every member of the Baeklang Dae, including the twin brothers.
“Ha. Still not thinking straight, you fools?”
Just as another commotion was about to erupt, someone appeared.
“What’s going on here?”
A man had just materialized in their midst.
“Haah!”
His mere arrival caused the entire Hekmun Thirteen Unit, who’d been radiating confidence moments before, to shrink back at once.
The Baeklang Dae regarded him with puzzlement.
He wasn’t the Hekmun Master, but whoever he was clearly terrified these men who’d been raging without cause.
The eyes of the Baeklang Dae fixed upon him.
Indeed, the energy quietly flowing from him was extraordinary.
It felt like standing before a wild predator with your own eyes.
The entire Baeklang Dae tensed, swallowing hard.
He was Ma Se-ak, second-in-command of the Sadoemaeng and master of the Ghost Eyes.
“Who said anyone was welcome here?”
“I, that is… it was…”
When Ma Se-ak appeared, the man who’d been screaming in agony bit his lips until blood ran, swallowing his pain.
It revealed how deeply these men feared him.
Ma Se-ak slowly surveyed the scene around him, then smiled coldly.
His expression said he understood exactly what had happened.
There had clearly been a fight, yet the two sides looked utterly different.
The Hekmun Thirteen Unit looked like they’d been rolling on the ground the whole time—a complete mess—while the Baeklang Dae appeared pristine.
“I see.”
They’d come here despite being told not to, picked a fight, and gotten thoroughly beaten.
Men bearing the Hekmun name, no less.
Irritation flared sharply in Ma Se-ak’s chest.
He fixed them with a gaze of absolute ice.
“All of you. Go back at once and await disciplinary orders.”
“B-but sir, we—”
“Disobeying the Sect Leader’s command alone should warrant your necks being severed on this very spot. Shall I oblige?”
“N-no, sir.”
“And you.”
Ma Se-ak approached the man whose shoulder had been completely shattered, groaning softly.
“Yes?”
The man flinched and began to tremble.
Ma Se-ak’s eyes flared blue.
His gaze fixed on the man’s shattered shoulder.
Through the Ghost Eyes, Ma Se-ak could see everything.
The exact extent of the damage.
In the next moment, his eyes returned to normal.
He shook his head.
“You’re done.”
“Sir?”
“As of today, you’re expulsed from the Hekmun. Go to the Medical Bureau for treatment, and leave this place within days.”
“P-please, I’m fine! The injury will heal!”
“No. It’s not just the shoulder bone—your tendons, nerves, and muscles are all damaged beyond recovery. And since you’re right-handed, you’ve lost the use of your dominant arm. You’re worthless now.”
“No, please! Give me a chance, I—”
Crack!
Ma Se-ak’s fist sent the man flying backward.
The man lost consciousness in a single blow and crumpled to the ground.
Then Ma Se-ak’s killing gaze swept across the Hekmun Thirteen Unit.
“I’m barely restraining myself from slaughtering every last one of you right now, so don’t test my patience. Take that pathetic wretch and get out.”
“Yes, yes!”
Unlike their arrival, bristling with confidence, the Hekmun Thirteen Unit withdrew in haste, tails tucked between their legs.
“I’m grateful.”
However it had happened, O Chae-mu stepped forward to express his thanks for stopping a fight that could have escalated further.
But the answer that came back was steeped in menace.
“Don’t misunderstand.”
Ma Se-ak’s eyes glinted savagely.
“You’re not the only ones I dislike.”
His expression made clear he meant himself as well.
Ma Se-ak’s gaze was so fierce that O Chae-mu and the others of Baeklang Dae fell silent for a moment.
It was the bearing befitting one of the Ten Great Masters and second-in-command of the Sadoemaeng.
“Hmph!”
Soon after, Ma Se-ak left the place, making clear he wished no further confrontation.
“Ha. This is quite something.”
Only then did Baeklang Dae truly grasp the reality of their situation.
The only one here who welcomed them was Dok Go-yeong, master of Hekmun, and him alone.
They were thorough unwelcome guests.
Uninvited guests who had nonetheless received an invitation.
It was, without question, exhausting.
Meanwhile, in the quarters, Yeo Un-hwi could only laugh quietly to himself.
“Wear and tear all around, but it’s all experience, experience nonetheless.”
***
On the day of the clash between Baeklang Dae and Hekmun Thirteen Unit.
The night had grown late without anyone noticing.
Ma Se-ak sat at the table in his room, reading quietly from a book.
Few would know this.
That Ghost Eyes enjoyed reading.
At that moment, someone entered his room undetected by anyone.
Ma Se-ak kept his gaze fixed on the book as he spoke.
“How was your journey?”
“Well, sir.”
A man obscured by shadow began to make his report to Ma Se-ak slowly.
“The atmosphere within the Demonic Sect has seemed unusual of late.”
“Mm?”
Ma Se-ak paused briefly in his reading, then returned to it as before.
“Has something happened?”
“We cannot yet determine precisely what it is, but it seems certain they are preparing to undertake something in the near future.”
When spying on various factions, spies were sometimes planted to gather information, but for organizations like the Demonic Sect, where it was difficult to embed agents in the deeper reaches, reading the atmosphere of that faction was paramount.
Discerning the mood of a target organization and anticipating what lay ahead was often remarkably accurate.
Of course, they could not know precisely what would happen or how, but even this much proved sufficiently useful.
Ma Se-ak then instructed his subordinate to pay closer attention to further observations of the Demonic Sect.
His subordinate continued with his report.
“Elder Jang Chung has delivered the information he promised.”
“I see.”
Ma Se-ak nodded.
It was a transaction that had continued for a long time.
“However.”
“Mm?”
“He wishes the payment to be increased soon.”
Ma Se-ak’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“By how much?”
“He wishes for an additional twenty percent, sir.”
“Tsk. Money-mad old dog. Sometimes I wonder which sect he actually serves.”
“What shall we do?”
“Tell him we agree.”
“Yes.”
“And Sa Ho.”
“Your command, sir.”
At Ma Se-ak’s call, another silhouette emerged from the shadows.
“From now on, you are to watch Baeklang Dae thoroughly.”
“Yes.”
In truth, Ma Se-ak had come today precisely to see what sort of men made up the Baeklang Dae.
Since the Hekmun Lord hadn’t arranged any formal gathering, there had been no chance for their paths to cross until now.
All he’d managed was a brief glimpse of them in passing, early on.
So he’d come ostensibly to offer some guidance and satisfy his curiosity—only to find that the Hekmun Thirteen Unit had already made their move.
‘Interesting.’
The Baeklang Dae, met in person, defied his expectations.
Those fellows were formidable indeed.
That a man as sparing with his praise as he was had reached such a conclusion was itself remarkable.
And against Orthodox Sect members, no less.
“Hmm.”
After all the reports had finished, Ma Se-ak found himself alone in the room, gazing slowly out the window.
“The old age passes, and a new one arrives.”
It was something ‘he’ had said when he’d sought Ma Se-ak out not long ago.
Ma Se-ak smiled faintly to himself.
“A most intriguing notion, that.”
In his eyes burned an ambition beyond measure.

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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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