My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 67

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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 67. Continuing the Investigation
“Understood. Then please, follow me this way.”
Having wrung every useful detail from the White Lang Group, Jegal Gil and his party were now guided by Peng Sejin to the chamber where the corpses of the Demonic Cult Black Slaughter Brigade and Sailim Group members lay.
Under normal circumstances, they would have been buried long ago once the Peng Clan’s initial inquiry was complete—but the Murim Alliance’s insistence on reopening the investigation from the start meant they remained uninterred.
“Ugh.”
The moment they stepped into the mortuary, everyone’s face twisted in disgust.
“No matter how many times I do this, I never get used to that smell.”
One of the Murim Alliance investigators voiced what every person in the room was thinking, and they all nodded in agreement.
Of course, the bodies had been treated immediately upon collection to prevent decay, yet still the reek emanating from them was somehow sickening and suffocatingly foul.
For that reason, everyone lingered near the entrance, unwilling to approach the corpses.
Save one. Jegal Gil alone showed no hesitation, striding forward toward the bodies with steady purpose.
Seeing this, his companions felt compelled to overcome their reluctance and follow him.
They began examining the bodies of the Sailim Group and the Demonic Cult Black Slaughter Brigade one by one, meticulously.
Whether he had frequent occasion for such work, or whether he simply brought absolute seriousness and diligence to his duties, Jegal Gil handled the bodies with remarkable competence.
His practiced efficiency made a deep impression on Peng Sejin.
The thought formed: this man did nothing carelessly.
Then, abruptly—
“……!”
Jegal Gil’s eyes widened.
He had spotted something peculiar, and began rapidly re-examining the other bodies.
“Have you discovered something, sir?” his companions asked, drawing near.
Jegal Gil paused in thought, then shook his head.
“There’s something odd here, certainly… but no, I can’t determine anything definitive yet. I’ll need to inspect things more thoroughly.”
He returned to his examination of the corpses.
His expression was full of unresolved questions.
How much time passed this way?
Once his investigation was complete, Jegal Gil led his party out of the chamber.
“Phew!”
Having emerged from that stale, confining space, the fresh air outside felt remarkably clear.
“You certainly don’t waste time, even on your first day here,” Peng Sejin observed.
Jegal Gil nodded in response.
“In a case like this, time is everything. Moving quickly now saves headaches later.”
“I see.”
As Peng Sejin nodded his understanding, Jegal Gil withdrew a sheet of paper from his robe and made additional notes.
It was clearly his habit to record observations whenever opportunity allowed.
“I think we’re finished here. Though if we need to revisit anything later, I’ll impose on you again.”
“Of course.”
Jegal Gil tucked the paper away again and looked toward Peng Sejin.
One final place remained to be visited.
The scene of the incident itself.
***
A mountain some distance from the Peng Clan.
Upon arriving, Jegal Gil surveyed the surroundings and asked, “Is this the place?”
“Yes, it is.”
Peng Sejin nodded and added a brief explanation.
“There is a main road through here, but given its width, foot traffic is surprisingly sparse. There are several similar paths in the vicinity.”
“I see.”
It was a place of considerable natural beauty.
Which made it difficult to accept that such a horrific massacre had unfolded here.
“At the time, this place was like hell itself. Bodies lay everywhere. The stench of blood was overwhelming—nearly impossible to breathe,” Peng Sejin said, his face darkening as he recalled the scene.
It was hardly a pleasant memory.
“Why did the Crown Prince come to this place?”
He’d learned that the Crown Prince had discovered it first—not by chance encounter with other travelers.
The question might have been offensive, but Peng Sejin answered without apparent discomfort.
“Having heard that the Sailim Group had departed so suddenly, I came to pay my final respects.”
“Your final respects? Do you mean to say—”

No matter how much it had been expected of them, did those people who had committed every kind of atrocity within the clan truly deserve such consideration?
One might have thought it more natural to celebrate their departure.
But Peng Sejin’s thinking ran otherwise.
“Yes. The friction that arises between us and those sent by the Murim Alliance is hardly welcome, you understand. Of course, they never showed proper respect to the Peng Clan until the end, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon our own principles. If this were merely a matter between individuals, I might overlook it, but I believed it could affect the relations between the Murim Alliance and the Peng Clan.”
“Hmm. I see.”
A truly remarkable man.
Once he stepped into combat, this man who bore the name “Gwangryong” displayed a ferocity befitting that reputation—yet now he showed himself as a coldly calculating politician.
And yet at other times, he seemed nothing but endlessly kind and gentle.
He was a figure one could never quite pin down.
One thing was certain: he was exceptional enough to more than justify his place among the current Six Dragons Three Peaks.
In any case, Jegal Gil’s face showed he understood Peng Sejin’s answer sufficiently.
Above all, there seemed almost no possibility that Peng Sejin was entangled with the Demonic Cult.
He had no reason to be.
Soon Jegal Gil began examining the surroundings methodically.
The more he considered the situation, the clearer the Demonic Cult’s intent became.
Their aim was likely to undermine the morale of the Orthodox Martial Arts World and the Murim Alliance by eliminating the Sailim Group.
What struck him as more puzzling, however, was why the Sailim Group had left the Peng Clan so hastily, so soon after their arrival.
Over an injury to a member of the White Lang Group?
Though it might be reason enough for others, the Sailim Group as he understood them would never have left the Peng Clan in such haste for something so trivial.
If anything, they would have lingered, strutting about shamelessly and causing more trouble.
Hmm.
Something subtle about this entire incident felt incomplete, as though a crucial piece were missing.
Though he couldn’t yet say what.
Then,
“Mm?”
Something caught Jegal Gil’s eye as he paced slowly through the surroundings.
What was that…?
His eyes gleamed.
He had found a new clue.
Jegal Gil carefully collected it at once.
Without anyone knowing.
There was no need to share every clue before he had drawn firm conclusions about the truth of the incident.
Until something concrete emerged, he intended to investigate further on his own.
Jegal Gil examined the scene further but found nothing else of note.
Soon he nodded and turned his gaze to Peng Sejin.
Today’s investigation was over.
***
Evening had come without his noticing.
It was a late hour when others would be fast asleep.
Yet Jegal Gil continued to probe this incident deep into the night.
“Hmm.”
He arranged the papers upon which he had written copious notes in order across his desk, then gazed at them intently.
This was his method alone.
He had always worked this way, spreading out his materials and pondering them.
Some might not understand why he clung so stubbornly to a case whose conclusion seemed already obvious.
But Jegal Gil’s thinking differed.
No case was ever truly obvious, one had to believe.
At least not for an investigator.
There might be something more waiting to be found.
Or he might be understanding the truth of the case incorrectly—and it was only by approaching every matter with such humility that one could prevent more innocent people from suffering injustice and catch even one more criminal who had escaped judgment.
Because he had always worked this way, the Murim Alliance recognized Jegal Gil as their finest investigator.
Yet he did not pursue the work merely to earn such recognition.
Everything traced back to the reason he had taken up this calling in the first place.
Long ago, a close friend of his had died suddenly one day.
Everyone had assumed it was a sudden death.
But the investigator examining the matter at that time had uncovered the truth.
His friend’s death was actually murder born of resentment, and the method of killing had exploited a severe allergic reaction his friend had always harbored against a particular food.
The young Jegal Gil, watching from the sidelines, had been profoundly moved by that investigator’s work.
That experience had led Jegal Gil to set aside his family duties and become an investigator.
The Jegal Family had never before produced an investigator for the Murim Alliance.
But the members of his clan did not welcome Jegal Gil’s choice.
Rather, each time they saw him, they would lecture him about why he was wasting his time on such trivial matters.
However, his elder brother—Jegal Moon, the supreme strategist of the Murim Alliance—was different.
He had always defended his younger brother.
Jegal Moon was the only blood relative who supported the path Jegal Gil had chosen.
For this reason, Jegal Gil felt a deep sense of gratitude toward his brother.
Moreover, he was prepared to do anything his brother asked of him.
And it was this very incident that his brother had asked him to investigate.
So Jegal Gil resolved to devote himself even more thoroughly to this investigation.
He would question every seemingly obvious fact, then question it again, and if there were any other hidden truths lurking beneath the surface, he would uncover them without fail.
And sure enough.
The more closely he examined this incident, the more irregularities emerged—and they were not one or two.
Above all, there were the wounds on the corpses.
Several members of the Sailim Group had clearly died at the hands of the Demonic Cult Black Slaughter Brigade.
These were wounds inflicted during their flight—fatal blows they had received while trying to escape.
Yet if they had fought to the point of mutual destruction, the battle should have been extraordinarily fierce. Strangely, every corpse bore only uniform, clean, and efficient wounds—nothing more.
Moreover, the method was nothing but simple cuts and stabs.
What was the problem with that, one might ask?
These were not brawls between amateurs ignorant of martial arts. Both the Sailim Group and the Demonic Cult Black Slaughter Brigade consisted of masters who had reached considerable heights in their respective disciplines.
So it would have been natural, in such desperate moments, for each to draw upon their ultimate techniques.
Yet when examining the corpses, there was no trace of any such thing anywhere.
How could this be?
And there was something else.
Jegal Gil gazed at the new clue he had placed on his desk—one discovered at the scene.
It was a leaf.
An ordinary tree leaf.
But that leaf had turned a dull grey.
To Jegal Gil’s knowledge, this meant one thing.
A specific poison had been spread across that location.
If it was poison, it would certainly have been used by the Demonic Cult.
No matter how reckless the Sailim Group might be, they would not normally carry poison with them.
Especially not when they possessed such absolute confidence in their own martial arts.
Jegal Gil soon drew out several powders and began sprinkling them one by one onto the leaf.
After a long moment without response, the leaf reacted to one particular powder, its color shifting back to green as it regained its natural appearance.
The poison had been neutralized.
“Internal Energy Sealing Poison…”
The Black Slaughter Brigade had used this poison—one that prevented the use of Internal Energy the moment it was administered—against the Sailim Group?
The notion that the Sailim Group could have fought to mutual destruction with the Black Slaughter Brigade under such conditions made no sense whatsoever.
And if the Black Slaughter Brigade merely intended to kill the Sailim Group, why use Internal Energy Sealing Poison? Why not simply strike them down in one blow?
The more he unraveled the incident, the more questions accumulated.
So then… hmm.
Jegal Gil rose slowly from his seat.
He had organized most of the various materials in his mind.
Yet there remained several threads of evidence he could not untangle.
In such cases, it often proved far more helpful to return to the site where the incident had occurred.
He soon gathered his sword.
Night had long since fallen.
The other warriors of the Murim Alliance had already sunk into deep sleep.
He considered waking them, but decided against it.
Since he intended only to make a brief visit, it was better to go alone and return quickly.
Fortunately, the location was not difficult to remember.
Moreover, a keen memory was both a hallmark and a strength of the Jegal Family.
“Well then, let me pay it a visit.”
And so Jegal Gil set out alone into the darkness.
Toward the place where the incident had occurred.
Unaware of what awaited him there.

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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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