My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 87

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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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Chapter 87. Such Petty Malice
Six Dragons Three Phoenixes.
The term referred to the most brilliant Rising Talents in the current Orthodox Martial World, and some boldly declared that they would lead the Orthodox Martial World in the years to come.
Each of them possessed a distinct temperament.
The Namgung Clan’s Cheonryong was a true man of great ambition, while the Peng Clan’s Gwangryong was gentle yet fiercer than anyone.
The Dang Clan’s Dokyong possessed a warmth unmatched by any other, and the Hwangbo Clan’s Gangyong was bold and expansive.
The Shaolin Sect’s Muryong honed himself through quiet discipline, while the Zhuge Clan’s Jamryong gazed upon the world in serene contemplation.
The Three Phoenixes, known as Cheonha Ilsaek, were also regarded as equally capable of leading the Orthodox Martial World alongside the Six Dragons without any shortcoming.
They were talents worthy of being called the finest in all the land.
And now, three of these remarkable individuals had just arrived in Hebei.
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“We’ve arrived.”
“Faster than expected.”
“Still, it’s been ages since we were last at the Peng Family Estate. How long has it been?”
“I think it’s been five years?”
“Wasn’t it longer than that?”
“I’m not sure. My memory’s hazy on it.”
“Well, either way it’s been more than five years, hasn’t it? Time really does fly.”
“Hmm? There’s someone standing over there.”
Two men had just arrived at the Peng Family Estate and were chattering away as they walked.
Meanwhile, a sharp-eyed woman stood among them without speaking once, her expression visibly displeased.
Yet no one paid her any mind.
Her perpetual frown was simply her nature.
They had long since stopped taking notice of it.
“Come in, then.”
A man emerged from the Peng Family Estate to greet the newly arrived visitors.
It was Peng Sejin, wearing a gentle smile.
“My, my. The Crown Prince of the Peng Family Estate has come out to receive us personally. How deeply moving.”
“Must you tease? Anyone listening would think you were the Crown Prince instead.”
“I’m not teasing—I’m in earnest. Isn’t the standing of the Hebei Peng Clan rather higher these days than that of our Hwangbo Clan?”
“Ahem. Cheonwoo, you know, you really do have the same sense of humor as the Hwangbo Clan Patriarch. It’s uncanny.”
“I apologize. That’s far too great an insult to me.”
“No, no. Enough, both of you. Sejin, I’ve told you countless times—don’t take this rascal Cheonwoo seriously.”
Dang Mujun offered Peng Sejin a wry smile.
“It’s been far too long. I’ve already heard tales of the Dang Clan’s troubles in Sichuan. You’ve had your hands full.”
“I’d rather not speak of hardship before you, given all that the Peng Family has endured of late. Though to be fair, there have been blessings mixed in with the trials.”
“Well, that’s how it is. Ha-ha. Still, the fact that we’re all alive and well is enough to be grateful for.”
Whenever Dang Mujun encountered this man in ordinary conversation, he found it hard to believe this was truly the Gwangryong.
“Come then, let us go inside.”
They made their way to the Patriarch’s chambers.
Proper protocol demanded that guests pay their respects to Peng Mugang, the Clan Patriarch, upon arriving at the Hebei Peng Clan.
“We greet you, Patriarch.”
“Ah. You’ve come. Good. You all look well.”
Peng Mugang welcomed them with unusual warmth.
They were all roughly the same age as Peng Sejin.
Peng Mugang had watched them grow since childhood on occasion, so his joy at their arrival was all the greater.
“I hope this visit brings you joy and pleasant memories.”
“Yes, Patriarch.”
As they emerged from the Patriarch’s chambers, Peng Seoyeon was waiting for them.
“My goodness, how long has it been!”
Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo approached her with delighted expressions.
“Have you been well?”
“We’ve managed well enough. And you—how have you been all this time?”
“I’ve been well too. But we shouldn’t stand here like this. Come inside. I’ve had food and drink prepared. You must all be hungry?”
“Of course. You know what we like. We’ve practically starved getting here from Beijing.”
“Beijing to here isn’t that far. Besides, you bought provisions at every stop and ate constantly along the way.”
“Eating while traveling doesn’t count as a proper meal if you’re not seated at a table.”
“What law is that supposed to be?”
“That’s just how we do things in the Hwangbo Clan.”
“All right, all right. This conversation will never end if we keep at it. In any case, let’s hurry inside.”
Thus they were all led into the room where the meal had been prepared.
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Soon the room filled with cheerful laughter.
“I’m telling you, you have no idea what I’ve been through because of Father’s pranks.”
“You’re just as much of a joker as he is, if not worse.”
“Why would I slap Father?”
“No, I mean—if you take my words like that, what does that make me?”
The exchange between Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo was so natural it drew laughter from everyone listening.
As they enjoyed this rare moment of levity with friends, Hwangbo Cheonwoo lifted his cup and spoke with genuine warmth.
“Now that Peng Seoyeon is back, the next time we all gather, we’ll finally have all Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes assembled. How long has it been? Ha! The others will be thrilled to hear it.”
At his words, Peng Seoyeon smiled softly.
The kindness behind them moved her deeply.
But then—
“Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes? That’s ancient history. And you really think it works like that? How presumptuous.”
The woman who had sat in silence until now, her face twisted with displeasure, spoke with unmistakable contempt.
She was Danmok Hwaryeon, one of the Three Phoenixes.
She deeply resented that their party had come all this way to Hebei Peng Clan to meet Peng Seoyeon.
She could not fathom why they needed to travel here just to see her.
All eyes turned toward her.
The warmth drained from the room in an instant.
Danmok Hwaryeon’s lip curled in a sneer as she continued.
“She abandoned her family and everything else, didn’t she? Yet here comes the Peng Clan, welcoming her back without so much as a hesitation?”
“Hey, what are you talking about?”
“Hwaryeon, that’s too far.”
When Hwangbo Cheonwoo and Dang Mujun rebuked her, Danmok Hwaryeon’s irritation only deepened.
Dang Mujun’s words in particular stung.
Because in truth, she harbored feelings for him.
That was precisely why she had tagged along when Hwangbo Cheonwoo and Dang Mujun mentioned heading to Beijing.
She had hoped to find a way to separate Hwangbo Cheonwoo from Dang Mujun and spend time with him alone, but the unexpected detour to the Peng Estate had ruined all her carefully laid plans.
Beyond that, Danmok Hwaryeon harbored a profound dislike for Peng Seoyeon.
At first, it was the way Peng Seoyeon surpassed her in everything that rankled.
Her martial prowess, the way people gravitated toward her, even her beauty.
It was the first time Danmok Hwaryeon had ever felt inferior to anyone.
An inferiority she had never experienced with the other Phoenixes—only with Peng Seoyeon.
And when word reached her that Peng Seoyeon had abandoned it all and vanished with some scholar, she had laughed for an entire day, holding her sides.
How could someone be so stupid as to throw it all away?
She had convinced herself that Peng Seoyeon was not even worth her attention.
Yet recently, she had returned.
Shamelessly so.
It made Danmok Hwaryeon wonder if she possessed no dignity at all.
She had expected everyone to point and mock her.
So why—!
Crunch.
Why were they taking that woman’s side instead?!
Danmok Hwaryeon found the entire situation unbearable.
“You.”
Peng Sejin, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke.
He was not himself.
This was the face of the man called Gwangryong.
Oh no.
Hwangbo Cheonwoo and Dang Mujun squeezed their eyes shut.
There was no one more frightening than this man when his temper ignited.
Stopping him now would be impossible.
Peng Sejin’s gaze grew glacial as he fixed it upon Danmok Hwaryeon.
“Do you understand that you have just insulted a member of the Peng Clan within the Peng Estate itself?”
“I—I didn’t do anything wrong. I only spoke the truth as I see it…….”
“Silence!”
At Peng Sejin’s roar, Danmok Hwaryeon flinched.
“I have no patience for further quarreling. Apologize. Apologize to my sister and to the Peng Clan at once, or I will cut out your filthy tongue where you stand.”
“…What? You’d do that to me, a daughter of the Danmok Clan? You think you can bear the consequences?”
“Tck! Right. There’s nothing more to say.”
Peng Sejin rose from his seat. He looked ready to draw his blade.
Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo agreed a hundred times over that Danmok Hwaryeon was wrong, but they couldn’t allow the tragedy of Peng Sejin actually cutting out her tongue.
For his sake if nothing else.
So they braced themselves to stop him by any means necessary.
But then,
Whoosh.
Peng Seoyeon, who had been watching the situation quietly, stepped in to calm the enraged Peng Sejin.
Peng Sejin’s gaze turned toward Peng Seoyeon.
She shook her head.
Don’t do it.
“Sister. But—”
Peng Sejin, whose face had turned as cold and terrifying as his name Gwangryong suggested, softened at his sister’s intervention and returned to himself.
Peng Seoyeon gently patted his hand as if to reassure him.
It was remarkable.
The Gwangryong, who once ignited never calmed until he had run his full course—and yet in a single gesture from Peng Seoyeon, his fury vanished in an instant.
Then Peng Seoyeon’s gaze shifted toward Danmok Hwaryeon.
“Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps what you’re saying could be true.”
To others’ eyes, what she had done seemed nothing but foolish and childish.
She had cast aside all the love and privilege she had taken for granted since birth and walked away.
And from that day forward, Peng Seoyeon wandered through shabby houses she had never imagined, trembling in cold rooms, searching for a place to live.
On bitter winter days, her hands cracked from doing laundry.
Makeup and adornment were unthinkable.
It would be a lie to say it wasn’t difficult.
But—
“I don’t regret those days. I was happy. Those moments were every bit as rich and good as the ones you spent. Truly.”
As Peng Seoyeon spoke, the expression on her face was one that Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo had never seen before.
From that face alone, they could sense something of what feelings had sustained her through those years.
Not everything, but something.
For reasons they couldn’t quite name, they found themselves thinking Peng Seoyeon was remarkable.
But Danmok Hwaryeon had no intention of backing down.
“Is that so? Then prove it.”
“Prove it?”
“Yes! If you compete with me in a Martial Contest and fight me to a draw, I’ll acknowledge you. Not right now, of course. How about in three days?”
Ha.
In that instant, everyone in the room let out an incredulous laugh.
So outlandish and absurd was what Danmok Hwaryeon was saying.
Danmok Hwaryeon had trained her martial arts ceaselessly to this day and was still counted among the Three Phoenixes.
Peng Seoyeon, by contrast, had been away from the Peng Clan estate for some time, living as an ordinary person.
Even granting that she might have practiced in her spare time and never fully abandoned her blade, her depth of training during those years was simply incomparable to Danmok Hwaryeon’s.
“Sister. Pay it no mind. You have no obligation to accept such a demand.”
“That’s right. Exactly. Look, you really need to stop. Okay?”
“Stop what! That’s what she said! That the time she spent away from the Peng Clan was just as rich as the time we spent! So prove it! Show whether the time you spent can possibly match ours! What’s wrong? Scared? Afraid you can’t prove it?”
For what reason, she couldn’t fathom.
Peng Seoyeon didn’t understand why Danmok Hwaryeon was pushing so hard against her.
She hadn’t made any mistake toward her, nor had she done anything to warrant such resentment.
Then suddenly, clarity came.
This was simply malice.
Danmok Hwaryeon simply disliked her.
And so she decided.
“Fine. I’ll do it. Let’s have the Martial Contest.”
She had no wish to avoid such malice, nor did she wish to lose to it.

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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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