My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 73

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 73. The Way of an Honest Man Did Not Work
“Ugh. Gasp.”
The man who had been trying to claim Jegal Gil’s life found himself pinned by Yeo Unhui instead, rendered completely immobile.
Any attempt to struggle came too late.
Yeo Unhui flicked his fingers, sending out a Finger Wind that released the pressure points on Jegal Gil’s body.
Yet Jegal Gil simply stared at Yeo Unhui with a dazed expression.
He wondered if he was seeing an illusion.
Otherwise, it made no sense for someone who should be in Hebei to appear so suddenly before his eyes.
And yet—
“Why are you staring like that? It’s not as though we haven’t seen each other before.”
Yeo Unhui smiled faintly as he spoke, and only then did Jegal Gil realize that he was not, in fact, seeing things.
“Y-you. How did you come to be here?”
Jegal Gil stammered.
Ever since meeting Yeo Unhui, one impossible situation had followed another.
“Well, how indeed?”
“That is to say—”
“We can discuss that presently. But what shall we do about this one?”
Yeo Unhui gestured toward the assassin with a tilt of his head.
The man was no longer a friend or anything else—merely an enemy who had sought Jegal Gil’s life.
As Jegal Gil’s gaze turned toward him, the man flinched.
As if sensing the fate that awaited him, fear had already filled his eyes.
Yeo Unhui spoke.
“Just tell me what you want. I’ll dispose of him at once.”
“No. Leave him to me.”
At this unexpected answer, Yeo Unhui turned his head to look at Jegal Gil.
Jegal Gil’s eyes now gleamed with an icy coldness.
His expression showed no more hesitation.
For a moment, Yeo Unhui and Jegal Gil exchanged glances in silence.
A brief stillness passed. Then Jegal Gil spoke again.
“I am going to become what you told me about before. Starting now.”
He had come to a thorough understanding.
If things continued as they were, the outcome was inevitable.
So Jegal Gil had decided to change.
This would not do. No—even a moment of hesitation was a luxury.
There was only one path to defeating them from the beginning.
Perhaps he had known it long ago.
But he had simply turned away from it to the very end, unwilling to stain himself.
In the end, that too was his selfishness and stubbornness.
So he would hesitate no longer.
“Hmm. Are you truly resolved? A half-hearted vow is worse than no vow at all. It will only shorten your life.”
“I understand.”
Jegal Gil nodded.
Yeo Unhui gazed deeply into Jegal Gil’s eyes.
He wore an expression entirely different from when they first met.
It was the gaze of one who had chosen his path.
“I see. You have made your choice. Very well. Then I understand. I shall leave this man to you.”
Whether to kill him or let him live was now Jegal Gil’s responsibility alone.
Yeo Unhui then spoke softly with a light laugh.
“I shall gladly support the path you walk from this day forward. When the journey grows too weary and lonely, come to Hebei.”
“May I truly do so? I may visit quite often.”
“If you bring good wine, I shall welcome you gladly. Though I must secure my wife’s permission beforehand, so send word ahead if you would.”
Yeo Unhui winked, and Jegal Gil let out a soft laugh.
The two of them had become like old friends whose hearts were one.
It was fortunate. To know such a person.
Jegal Gil truly believed this.
Though the time had been brief, in those moments Yeo Unhui had exerted an enormous influence on him.
His words, his deeds, the very heights of his martial mastery—nothing was without shock.
Moreover, he had saved Jegal Gil not once but twice, even when death had seemed all but certain.
How could one not be grateful?
“Then I wish you the best of fortune.”
When Yeo Unhui took his leave, Jegal Gil nodded.
In the next instant, Yeo Unhui vanished.
Like wind itself.
Heh.
A hollow laugh escaped Jegal Gil’s lips.
“Really… quite an extraordinary man.”
No matter how he thought about it, the whole thing defied logic.
Within the Murim Alliance itself, it wasn’t difficult to move freely so long as one avoided the restricted areas, but to slip in and out of the Murim Alliance building undetected by anyone—that was an entirely different matter.
The Murim Alliance was the apex organization representing the Righteous Martial World.
Naturally, it did not keep its security so loose as to permit outside forces easy entry.
Every moment of every day, the Murim Alliance’s warriors stood vigilant, their eyes sharp, guarding the organization.
And most of them were masters who had reached considerable heights in their craft.
Even if one managed to evade one or two pairs of eyes, to move past the scrutiny of every single guard on duty—that was simply impossible.
Yet Yeo Unhui moved in and out of the Murim Alliance as easily as though it were his own home.
Moreover, the distance alone from Hebei to here…
At this point, one couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly a man at all, or perhaps an immortal.
Or could he actually be an immortal?
That would explain everything…
Jegal Gil soon shook his head.
Ridiculous. Absurd.
Where in this vast world could one find an immortal who married, bore children, and served his in-laws?
But then again, what did it matter? If this immortal—if that’s what he was—continued to help and save him like this, Jegal Gil would welcome it gladly.
“Phew. Well then, I suppose it’s time I attended to my own business.”
Jegal Gil’s face, which had been wearing a smile moments before, gradually turned cold.
Then he approached, slowly and deliberately, the man pinned down by Yeo Unhui’s power, unable to move.
A man he had once considered a close comrade—though it had all been a lie—and who until mere moments ago had sought to kill him.
Tap. A light sound.
Jegal Gil released the Mute Point on the man’s throat, allowing him to speak.
The man immediately began to offer excuses in a desperate voice.
“L-listen, I think there’s been some misunderstanding here. It was just a joke—just a prank.”
“So when the tables turn and your position becomes precarious, you resort to empty words? If you’re going to make excuses, at least try to make them sound plausible.”
The light in Jegal Gil’s eyes was no longer as it had been before.
The man had, in a manner of speaking, killed both Jegal Gil and his elder brother Jegal Mun, and they had somehow returned to life.
And so the man now squirming shamefully before his eyes appeared to Jegal Gil as nothing less than an eternal blood enemy.
In the face of Jegal Gil’s utterly frigid gaze, the man whimpered and begged, over and over.
“Y-yes, yes. I admit it. But I was only following orders from above. You understand, don’t you? People like us—we have no choice but to obey, even if we don’t want to. I really didn’t want to do this!”
“Is that so? Then why did you seem to take such pleasure in killing me? And why did the prospect of my brother’s death fill you with such glee? Isn’t that right?”
“Th-that is…”
In that instant, the man’s words caught in his throat.
‘Damn it!’
A slip of the tongue.
It would have been far better to say nothing at all.
But he had not imagined it would come to this.
How could he have known?
Just one drop of poison on his lips, and everything would have been finished—he could never have foreseen that some extraordinary master would suddenly appear, subdue him, and save Jegal Gil.
But it was too late to regret now.
Whoosh.
“W-wait, wait!”
As Jegal Gil drew slowly toward him, the man’s face twisted in desperation.
“I’ll do anything you ask! I’ll even go back and tell them that it’s best to keep you alive, that you’ll be useful. Tell me what else you want—anything at all! I swear I’ll do it! So please, spare my life. I can’t die like this, I can’t!”
He pleaded with Jegal Gil with every ounce of strength remaining in him.
It was truly laughable.
The man who, just moments before, had toyed with his life and mocked him mercilessly—the sight of him now, seeing his own life hanging by a thread, was so repugnant that it made Jegal Gil’s stomach turn.
Nearly made him retch.
Though Jegal Gil’s face grew colder and colder as he looked at him, the man continued his attempts to persuade Jegal Gil regardless.
“You know as well as I do that killing me will only mean sending others after you! To kill me now would not be wise at all. In fact, it would only plunge you into even greater danger.”
“Well, I suppose that would certainly be the case as things stand.”
At Jegal Gil’s response, the man’s face brightened considerably.
His words had found purchase.
And as the prospect of escape opened before him, his thoughts began to shift in new directions.
‘Damn him! To inflict such humiliation upon me!’
If I can just survive this crisis, I will kill Jegal Gil with my own hands—of that much I am certain.
And I will do it in the most terrible way I know.
But from Jegal Gil’s lips came an answer he had not foreseen.
“You’re lying.”
“What?”
“You. When you truly make up your mind to kill someone, you wear a certain expression—and you haven’t the faintest idea what it is.”
“My… my expression? What do you mean?”
A soft chuckle.
Jegal Gil laughed—but there was something different about him now, something the man had never glimpsed before.
There was something in that look that made the hair on his neck stand on end.
“You… you there.”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? That killing me would be useless. That you’d send others instead. That I’d be drawn deeper and deeper into crisis.”
Jegal Gil, who had been laughing with his hand over his mouth, suddenly stopped. His eyes turned cold as ice as he fixed them on the man.
As if he were looking at a stranger.
“But that won’t happen.”
“What?”
“Because I’ve decided to walk a different path than before.”
“What do you mean—”
Scrape.
What?
His throat burned hot.
In that instant, the man saw Jegal Gil draw his blade.
The man’s eyes widened.
“No, wait… I… gck!”
Blood poured from his mouth and throat in thick gushes.
He stared at Jegal Gil with an expression of utter disbelief.
“You… you…”
“Once, I truly regarded you as a friend. So I grant you this mercy. Be grateful for it.”
“You bastard… I… here…”
“Farewell. To hell with you.”
“…Khhh.”
With blood foam bubbling from his lips, the man went limp.
Jegal Gil gazed for a moment at the corpse of what had once been his friend.
Then a shudder of rage ran through him at the wretched reality of it all.
This morning, Jegal Gil could never have imagined it.
That his friend would come to kill him. That his own hand would cut his throat.
Why did the man I called friend try to murder me? And why did I have to end his life with these hands?
Because of me? Because of you? Because of someone else?
An old face surfaced in Jegal Gil’s mind.
The source of all this. The architect of it all.
Jang Cheong. Senior Elder of the Murim Alliance.
Everything—all of this—had stemmed from him.
If he were honest, he wanted nothing more than to rush to that man right now and scream at him.
How could the senior elder of the Murim Alliance commit such vile deeds? Did he have no conscience? Had he no shame?
But he knew it would be pointless.
The language of honest men means nothing to him.
So tonight, Jegal Gil made his decision.
He would not live as he had before.
Now it was his turn to move.
In ways they could never imagine.
Jegal Gil’s eyes burned with a ferocity they had never known.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————