My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 15

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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 15. A Resolution
Late into the night, the moon hung luminous above Sodam Village, casting its pale light across the sleeping settlement below.
Tap.
With a light sound, a man appeared atop the high mountain peak that overlooked Sodam Village.
It was Yeo Un-hui.
He had just returned from concluding his business in Sacheon.
Yet instead of heading straight home, why had he paused here?
“Sigh…….”
It was because his thoughts had suddenly grown heavy.
Yeo Un-hui settled onto the great boulder atop the peak, gazing up at the moon with eyes gone distant.
After the incomprehensible event of Regression, he had sworn to spend this life protecting his wife and daughter, preserving his family’s happiness.
But that vow lasted only so long before memories surfaced—his wife’s sudden death in his Previous Life.
He had discovered that behind her death lay hidden conspiracy, and behind that conspiracy stood another hand pulling the strings.
Now that he knew, he could not simply sit idle.
So he had chosen the surest path: revenge against all those entangled with her death.
‘Dang Gu-hui.’
The eldest son of the Sacheon Dang Clan—the mastermind who had orchestrated his wife’s death.
He was garbage of the worst kind, beyond all reckoning.
Though not by deliberate design, Yeo Un-hui had beaten to death Heuk-baek Ssang-ma, who had conspired with Dang Gu-hui in those filthy schemes, and finally shattered Dang Gu-hui’s Dantian.
In the end, Dang Gu-hui had become neither living nor dead—a cripple.
A cripple, he thought.
Would it not have been cleaner simply to kill him?
……
Yeo Un-hui shook his head.
No.
Compared to the sins Dang Gu-hui had committed thus far and would have committed in the future, this was far too merciful a method.
As Dang Mu-jun had said, a human like Dang Gu-hui—stripped of his martial arts and of everything he had enjoyed since birth—would find it far more painful to drag out a wretched existence.
Now all of Dang Gu-hui’s remaining years would surely be a living hell.
That would suffice.
Unlike his Previous Life, no future would arrive in which garbage like Dang Gu-hui became the patriarch of the Sacheon Dang Clan.
In this life, the patriarch of the Sacheon Dang Clan would likely be—
‘Dang Mu-jun.’
He had already seen it.
He had witnessed what path that man with such enormous talent—a man who had failed to become patriarch in the previous timeline—had chosen and how he had lived.
Many futures would change because of this.
Yeo Un-hui could only hope those changes bent toward something better.
In any case, he need no longer concern himself with that quarter.
‘But this…….’
Yeo Un-hui gazed quietly down at his own two hands.
They were delicate hands, closer still to those of a scholar than to one possessed of formidable martial arts.
Yet it was not this detail that occupied his mind now.
‘I have spilled too much blood on these hands of late.’
In this way, he was no different from the Blood Demon he had been in his Previous Life.
Not that he harbored regret.
Those creatures had deserved death—every one of them—for the peace of his family and Sodam Village.
Half-hearted mercy born of reluctance to shed blood only invited retaliation, which would ultimately bring far greater regret.
Yet still—
‘Even having done all this, such a thing befell my wife.’
In pursuit of protecting his family, Yeo Un-hui had sought out the Martial God’s Martial Arts anew.
He had rooted out utterly anything capable of harming his loved ones by even a mote of dust, and ensured none of it could ever approach them again.
And yet.
Even having gone that far…….
Images from both his Previous Life and this one flickered through Yeo Un-hui’s mind in alternating succession.
His wife, poisoned by toxin.
His wife, whose complexion darkened and whose body grew weaker with each passing day.
His wife, who had met death without ever knowing its cause; and Yul-i, weeping inconsolably.
Himself, left alone.
And then—the raging flames, and Yul-i.
Sigh.
Yeo Un-hui’s expression grew turbid and confused.
It would never happen again—he would ensure it never did—yet the mere memory of that horrible time in his previous life weighed heavy on his chest.
He possessed the Martial God’s Martial Arts.
And still it wasn’t enough? Was he not enough?
Even now?
Then what was he supposed to do?
Must he stain his hands with more blood to do it?
Would that let him protect his family more completely?
“…….”
No. That wasn’t the answer.
This was enough.
He didn’t want to hold his beloved wife and daughter in hands drenched with more blood than this.
A long breath escaped him.
Yeo Un-hui shook his head as if to clear the tangle of thoughts, and gazed down at Sodam Village.
A cold wind swept across the ridge.
It was truly time to go home.
A light still burned in the house—his wife waiting for him, he imagined.
‘She’ll have gone to bed already, surely.’
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Everything that had tormented him moments before dissolved, if only for now.
There was a home to return to. Such a blessing it was.
Tap.
With a light, swift step, Yeo Un-hui’s figure vanished down toward Sodam Village.
***
Several days later.
“Well, look who it is.”
“Ha. You’ve been well, then?”
“So you went to help your cousin and now you’re back already?”
“Don’t even get me started. I’m never helping that cousin again, I swear it. Two months just getting there and back—it flew by like nothing.”
“That’s what I told you at the time. Why go all that way? Tsk, tsk.”
At the entrance to Sodam Village.
Two men stood chattering away, welcoming back the gatekeeper who’d been gone two months.
“Oh, I heard something on the way back. Have you caught wind of it?”
“Of what?”
“Well, they’re saying all the bandits in these parts have simply vanished.”
“What? That’s nonsense. There are mountains all over this region, and each mountain has its bandit lair. For them all to disappear? Come on, that doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
“I’m telling you it’s true. And supposedly each of those lairs is completely empty. Everything’s still there—just the people. Gone. Every last one of them.”
“The, the people all gone?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
The man who’d been dismissing the whole story as nonsense felt his throat tighten without meaning to.
Just imagining it sent a creeping chill up his spine.
“Well now, that’s a strange thing indeed. Maybe the mountain spirit took pity on poor folk like us and decided it was time those bandit dogs got what they deserved?”
“Ha! Now that’s a thought. Well, in any case—the bandits are gone, and that’s good news, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. Absolutely right. Ha ha ha ha!”
The two men burst into raucous laughter after their long chat.
The truth was, bandits had set up camp in nearly every nearby mountain, and their constant harassment of common folk and merchants had been a source of endless frustration.
Sodam Village, tucked away in its remote corner, had suffered less than others, but walk just a short distance outside and you’d almost certainly encounter them.
And the bandits themselves were all different—some would let you go unharmed if you handed over what you had, while others seemed to enjoy cracking your skull for sport.
That itself was almost a mercy.
If you fell into the hands of the truly vicious ones, you counted yourself lucky to escape with your life.
So the idea that those cursed bandits had vanished without a trace—well, it was almost too good to be true.
Just then, someone passed by them with a light greeting.
A small, lovely girl was nestled in his arms.
The man who’d just returned to Sodam Village tilted his head in confusion.
“Wait, who’s that? I don’t recognize the face.”
“That’s Yul-i’s father, obviously.”
The man’s eyes went wide with surprise at his friend’s words.
“What? Yul-i’s father? But wasn’t Yul-i’s father supposed to be… thin? Looked like one good push would knock him flat on his back?”
“Was he?”
“And his whole manner was different too, I could have sworn.”
“Maybe he’s been training or something lately.”
“No, that’s not how people work.”
“Never mind that nonsense—let’s get some food, shall we?”
“Ah, yes… yes, let’s do that.”
Yet the man who had returned to Sodam Village after two months still tilted his head in bewilderment, watching Yul-i’s father recede into the distance.
No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t the man he’d known.
“Does a little exercise really change someone so much in two months? Really?”
Maybe I should start working out too.
In that moment, the man pressed a hand to his own softened belly and contemplated the matter seriously.
“Hey, aren’t you coming?”
“Oh, right. I’m coming.”
But it didn’t last long—the man hurried after his friend, who was whining about hunger.
By then, the image of Yul-i’s father, transformed like a different person, had already vanished from his mind.
***
Sodam Village was a place where peace reigned every day.
Though bandits had descended upon it not long ago, causing a brief crisis, they had swiftly returned the money and never shown their faces again—and the village had reclaimed its familiar tranquility.
Yeo Un-hui gazed slowly across the village and smiled quietly.
‘When I first left that place, everything felt so hopeless. But arriving in this village… it all felt so right.’
The kind villagers, with not a trace of prejudice.
Landscapes that shifted subtly with each season, yet remained beautiful all the same.
Of course, hardship and suffering—heat and cold—were the same wherever one lived.
Yet despite all of that, laughter never seemed to leave this village.
He loved that.
‘It’s a good place. Truly.’
That was why he wanted to stay here as long as possible.
But…
After pondering something for a while, Yeo Un-hui’s expression hardened with resolve.
Just then,
“Father, I’m hungry.”
His daughter Yul-i tugged at his hand and whimpered.
Yeo Un-hui smiled and lifted her into his arms.
“All right, Yul-i. Let’s go eat with your mother.”
“Mmm, okay.”
With Yul-i held against him, Yeo Un-hui walked back home.
Dinner had ended, and night had settled deep over Sodam Village.
“Mm-hm, mm-hm… hehe…”
Yul-i was sleep-talking.
His wife Paeng Seo-yeon stroked the girl’s hair.
Yul-i loved having her hair stroked like this.
Even when she slept, she always turned her head toward her mother.
Watching his daughter and wife, Yeo Un-hui smiled softly.
It was a peaceful night.
But then,
“Husband.”
As Paeng Seo-yeon looked at him, Yeo Un-hui slowly brought up the words he had been preparing.
It was something he had spent days wrestling with.
And he already knew well what his wife’s reaction would be.
A moment later,
“I’m sorry? What do you mean by that…?”
Paeng Seo-yeon’s eyes widened as she heard his words.
She looked thoroughly astonished.
This was something her husband would never have said—or so she’d believed.
A brief silence fell.
Paeng Seo-yeon asked, her expression dazed.
“Do you mean that? Going back… back to Habuk?”
At his wife’s question, Yeo Un-hui nodded slowly.

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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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