My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 48

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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 48. Even If He Falls into Qi Deviation
Hwaaaaagh!
As the air rippled, Peng Duohuan felt the strange illusion of invisible walls closing in on him from all sides.
“Khhaaagh!”
An overwhelming pressure seized his chest, choking off his breath.
Thrum-thrum-thrum!
At the same moment, Yeo Unwhee’s wooden sword descended toward his head with glacial slowness—yet it seemed to swell larger with each passing instant.
What in the world was happening? This made no sense.
It had to be an illusion, and yet Peng Duohuan trembled as though death itself hovered inches away.
He had never experienced anything like this.
When the wooden sword drew level with his face, Peng Duohuan clamped his eyes shut without thinking.
Pressure hemmed him in from every direction, the sword loomed impossibly vast—what could he do?
“Kraaaagh!”
A scream tore from his throat unbidden.
And yet—
the wooden sword halted an inch from his nose.
The tremendous force that had suffused the air vanished as though wiped away.
Mm?
Peng Duohuan opened his eyes.
He turned his head slowly, taking in his surroundings.
All was still, as though nothing had happened at all.
Just as it had been when he first arrived.
In the distance, he heard birds singing.
Thud.
His legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Hah… hah… hah…….”
His entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
He could make no sense of what had just transpired.
What on earth was that?
“Are you all right?”
Yeo Unwhee extended a hand to Peng Duohuan, who still stood gasping and bewildered.
Peng Duohuan stared up at him vacantly.
What exactly was this man?
“Ah? What’s happening over there?”
No Ilbong, returning belatedly from his errand, called out from a distance.
As he approached, Yeo Unwhee smiled down at the dazed Peng Duohuan.
At that smile, Peng Duohuan swallowed hard without meaning to.
For the first time in his life, he found himself afraid of another person’s smile.
It was as though he had been possessed by a ghost.
***
A few days later.
The entire White Wolf Brigade assembled at the Training Ground.
They gathered at the Training Ground located in the outermost corner of the Peng Clan’s sprawling training complex—a place few ever visited.
Why was that?
“Commander. All twenty-four members of the White Wolf Brigade are now present!”
“Mm.”
As O Chaemu made his report, Yeo Unwhee stepped forward before the brigade, and every member saluted him in unison.
“We greet the Commander!”
“Good. You’re all well rested?”
“Yes!”
At their spirited reply, Yeo Unwhee nodded in acknowledgment.
The gesture was entirely natural.
As though he had been the brigade’s commander from long before.
Even those among the White Wolf Brigade who had once resented him now accepted this reality without hesitation.
The fact that this man was their superior.
Their bearing toward Yeo Unwhee had transformed completely in the aftermath of Geukak Soma’s death.
Those who had been wounded in the fray had rested well—their faces bore good color now.
This was the day they returned after completing their leave, which had begun following the bandits’ subjugation and Geukak Soma’s execution upon their return to the Peng Clan.
The White Wolf Brigade’s standing had shifted. Now they had to decide what missions lay ahead, and begin training anew.
Until now, O Chaemu and Gu Taesan had managed everything themselves—but that would change.
Because they’d found a new leader.
But before that,
“You said you had something to tell me?”
Before gathering like this today, O Chaemu had sought out Yeo Unwhee first.
And he’d said that all the brigade members had something to tell him.
“Yes!”
O Chaemu nodded.
At that, Yeo Unwhee let out a soft laugh and spoke.
“Don’t tell me you all still resent me being leader and want me to step down on my own?”
“No, no, that’s not it at all.”
Yeo Unwhee had meant it as a joke, but O Chaemu stammered and waved his hand in denial.
It seemed the kind of thing that would provide good teasing material for a long time to come.
Then Gu Taesan and the other members exchanged glances, chuckled, and immediately took on aggrieved expressions as they complained to Yeo Unwhee.
“That was all Deputy Leader O Chaemu’s doing alone. We were just pawns who knew nothing about it.”
“That’s right. We were merely being used. The real culprit is Deputy Leader O Chaemu!”
At the eager betrayal of the twin riders Ki-su and Ki-sang, O Chaemu’s face flushed red.
He quickly looked to Gu Taesan and Do Gyeong for support, but they too stared off into the distance, abandoning him.
“What?! These treacherous bastards stabbing me in the back?! They say you can’t trust anyone in this world……!”
“All right, I’ll keep that in mind.”
As Yeo Unwhee nodded in acknowledgment, O Chaemu waved his hands in denial once more and pointed at the members.
The look of utter injustice on his face was quite a sight.
“No, Master. That’s not what I mean—those bastards are in on it with me too. It’s all an act!”
“Ha, so whether it’s the members or the deputy leader, nobody’s got loyalty? How am I supposed to rely on anyone then?”
“If you leaned on anyone, Master, their shoulders would sink under the weight. You’re just too heavy a burden.”
“What?”
Ha ha ha ha!
Everyone burst into laughter.
The White Wolf Brigade members and Yeo Unwhee had fallen into trading jokes.
It was proof that their hearts had opened to one another.
The shared experience of fighting a battle where life hung in the balance had forged a deep bond among these warriors.
Though it seemed their leader, Yeo Unwhee, hadn’t needed to risk his life at all.
“All right, enough joking around. Let’s get down to business.”
“Yes, Master.”
O Chaemu nodded and swept his eyes across the members behind him before opening his mouth to Yeo Unwhee.
“Through our last battle, we realized how far we still have to go. The fact that we survived at all was entirely thanks to you, Master.”
“And?”
“If we ever face someone like Geukak Soma again, we want to fight better than we did then. And we’d like to be of help to you, Master, even if only a little. So……”
O Chaemu paused, took a deep breath, and spoke in a loud voice.
“We want to become stronger! Make us strong, Master!”
“Make us strong, Master!”
The moment O Chaemu finished speaking, all the White Wolf Brigade members shouted in unison.
It seemed they had gathered in this Training Ground, the most remote corner within the Peng Clan where no one would find them, just to say this.
“To become stronger.”
They didn’t speak carelessly of wanting to win.
They understood better than anyone.
The gap between themselves and a Great Demon Lord like Geukak Soma.
To acknowledge that gap without reckless arrogance was a crucial thing.
Only by accurately recognizing their own level could they truly be ready to grow stronger.
In that sense, the White Wolf Brigade now had enough preparation to move forward.
And even without Yeo Unwhee, they would grow stronger through their own strength alone.
Because Yeo Unwhee already knew what their future would look like.
Hab Gyeokjin, who had shown his worth during the battle with Geukak Soma, still had much room to develop.
But they had set aside their pride above all else and asked this of Yeo Unwhee.
Coming at it this way, Yeo Unwhee couldn’t simply pretend not to know.
It was interesting.
That he, who had been a Blood Demon before his return, and these men, who had been the Red Wolf Brigade, were now entangled in this way.
Just as Yeo Unwhee no longer lived the life of a Blood Demon, so too would they.
Yeo Unwhee made his decision.
He would make them far stronger than the Red Wolf Brigade was, stronger than anyone knew.
Of course, he had grown strong through the Martial God’s Legacy without any real training to speak of, but just as those who have stood at the pinnacle possess a wisdom that cannot be taught, he too had already grasped what these men needed and what they didn’t.
Above all, Yeo Unwhee, having studied and taught literature for so long, was more than prepared to train and lead them.
“Very well. Let it be so.”
Yeo Unwhee nodded at once.
The faces of everyone in the White Wolf Brigade brightened.
“But you should all steel yourselves. My methods are quite rigorous and demanding.”
“Yes, Commander!”
They answered with determination set firm on their faces.
O Chaemu and Gu Taesan’s eyes gleamed with resolve as well.
‘Perhaps this works out for the better.’
Now that he had become commander of the White Wolf Brigade, if he was to accept them, he would have to put them through such trials.
Yet commendably, they had come to him first with their request.
So Yeo Unwhee would make them strong.
Stronger than they imagined.
And beyond anyone’s contempt.
***
“Uhhh… no, no! No, no! Argh!”
In a darkened room.
A man thrashed about, drenched in cold sweat as nightmares seized him.
He cried out and jolted awake.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp…….”
It was Peng Duohuan.
Since that day at the Training Ground when he’d encountered Yeo Unwhee, Peng Duohuan had been plagued by nightmares without end.
His daily life had become nearly impossible to bear.
At first, shame and rage consumed him after suffering such a defeat.
The grotesque figure he had cut and the image of Yeo Unwhee watching him with that smug smile kept flickering across his mind.
Here he was, confidently stepping forward to teach Martial Arts, and this was the result?
But those emotions soon faded, replaced by something worse—the shock of that day refused to fade, only growing larger, gnawing at him relentlessly.
So Peng Duohuan had barricaded himself in his room for days, refusing food and drink alike.
Of course, no one understood why someone who had seemed perfectly well until recently would suddenly behave this way.
They assumed he must be ill.
When Peng Gyeongho learned of this, he came to investigate.
“What is the meaning of this? What are you doing?”
His son sat with the blanket pulled up to his face.
Yet something about him seemed uneasy, agitated.
The son who had spoken so confidently of using direct confrontation to force Yeo Unwhee to step down as commander had become utterly strange.
Something had clearly happened.
But the problem was that he refused to speak of it.
So Peng Gyeongho tried every way to coax the truth from him.
Yet the moment he saw his son’s face, Peng Gyeongho found himself at a loss for words.
“What in heaven’s name——”
“Please, Father. I wish to be alone right now. Will you leave me?”
After days confined, his eyes had grown hollow, his face gaunt and sunken.
Who could believe this was his tall, confident son whose smile had once shone so brightly?
Faced with his son’s plea, Peng Gyeongho could only turn and leave the room with a dazed expression.
It seemed he would have to send for a physician.
“Ughh…….”
In truth, Peng Duohuan was the one truly going mad.
Since that day, he had not been able to think clearly for even a moment.
That instant kept replaying in his mind, over and over.
Boom!
Immobilized by the colossal pressure bearing down from all sides, the enormous form of a Wooden Sword descending toward him.
“Nngh…….”
Merely recalling it caused Peng Duohuan to squeeze his eyes shut.
Was this Qi Deviation?
No—it felt like Qi Deviation was breathing down his neck.
And yet, one question refused to leave his mind.
‘What… exactly is he?’
An ordinary scholar?
Impossible!
That man was an extraordinary master, of that there was no doubt.
An absolute master who had reached a realm Peng Duohuan had never dared to even dream of approaching.
Perhaps one of the Martial World’s pinnacle figures—the head of the Peng Clan itself. He might stand shoulder to shoulder with Peng Mugang. And at such a young age, no less.
Could such a thing even be true?
‘Come to think of it, does the clan head know about this? No. From accepting him into the family so readily, to entrusting him with the White Wolf Brigade… Perhaps he already knows everything.’
Never had delusion worn such a shape.
Each thought spiraled into the next, a chain of worries that gnawed at him relentlessly.
For two more days Peng Duohuan wrestled with the torment before finally reaching a decision.
This could not go on.
If he continued like this, he would fall into Qi Deviation.
The position of White Wolf Brigade commander no longer mattered to him.
It had ceased to matter at all.
Now he would risk Qi Deviation itself if it meant knowing the truth.
He had to uncover the identity of that monster—the one everyone mistook for nothing more than a scholar lost in books.
And so, after several days had passed, he left his room.

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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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