My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 90

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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 90. The Iron Blood Blade Parts the Stars
The moment the sparring match began, Dan Mok Hwaryeon slowly raised her wooden sword before her.
“Well then, shall we? I do hope you don’t get knocked out of the ring in one blow.”
Not that she’ll last long anyway.
Despite her words, Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s contempt for Peng Seoyeon was nakedly visible.
Peng Seoyeon couldn’t hide the tension in her face and swallowed hard.
At the sight of this, Dan Mok Hwaryeon smirked.
Not that it was surprising.
How long had it been since Peng Seoyeon had engaged in a sparring match like this?
But she was different.
She had never ceased her training all this while.
Already it felt as though she had won simply by that alone.
Suddenly, Dan Mok Hwaryeon even found herself wondering if perhaps she had been training so diligently in martial arts for a day like this.
Trampling an ignorant weakling was always thrilling.
And watching the face of an opponent who only then understood their place after falling to her blade was even more intoxicating.
Of course, just because this was a match she was certain to win didn’t mean she intended to yield the first strike.
Though Peng Seoyeon seemed pathetic, that was no reason to give her an opening.
So Dan Mok Hwaryeon launched into her attack with speed.
Slash!
Peng Seoyeon barely dodged Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s ferocious opening strike.
The attack, aimed with precision at the back of her neck, grazed her hair by the narrowest margin.
It was the sort of moment that would make even the onlookers’ hearts skip.
But there was no time to catch her breath—the second and third attacks came immediately after.
Just as everyone expected, Dan Mok Hwaryeon began pressing her advantage with practiced skill.
Barely blocking some attacks and narrowly evading others, Peng Seoyeon faced Dan Mok Hwaryeon with precarious desperation at every instant.
Slash!
Clang, clash!
But how could this be?
The sparring match, which she had thought might end in just two or three exchanges, was unexpectedly dragging on.
The Peng Seoyeon who had seemed so vulnerable was surprisingly managing to defend against Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s attacks consistently.
Moreover, the attacks that at first she had barely managed to evade, she was now handling with increasing ease.
And soon she even began mounting counterattacks.
Clink!
Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s eyes grew sharper.
Contrary to her expectation of finishing quickly, Peng Seoyeon’s spirited resistance was beginning to wound her pride.
‘Fine. Let’s see if you can withstand this as well.’
She created distance and shifted into her stance.
Dan Mok Hwaryeon then began to unfurl the Falling Star Twelve Swords.
Unlike other martial techniques of the Dan Mok Clan, which boasted a weighty, solid style, the Falling Star Twelve Swords focused on swiftness rather than weight.
Soon a blade pattern resembling falling stars descended toward Peng Seoyeon.
Whoosh!
Everyone watched with worry in their eyes.
This would surely be difficult to withstand. This match would be Peng Seoyeon’s defeat.
That was what they all thought.
And yet—
“Hmph!”
Peng Seoyeon’s eyes blazed, and she began deflecting every single one of Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s attacks.
The blade that swung forth parted all the falling stars.
So naturally, so utterly perfectly!
This was an extraordinarily difficult feat even for one who had trained martial arts without ceasing.
And if it was not an ordinary attack but an advanced technique like the Falling Star Twelve Swords that Dan Mok Hwaryeon now employed, it was all the more so!
“How exactly are you managing to deflect my Falling Star Twelve Swords so easily…?”
Dan Mok Hwaryeon could not bring herself to finish the question, held back by pride.
Yet she could not hide the disbelief written across her face.
The same was true for those watching the match.
“What—how is that even possible?”
Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo, and even Peng Sejin, stood with eyes wide.
But perhaps the most astonished was Peng Seoyeon herself.
She stared blankly at the wooden blade held in her own hands.
She too was utterly bewildered as to how this had happened.
Peng Seoyeon had been acutely aware of her body’s stiffness—a consequence of six years without martial training—and the frustration weighed heavily on her.
Yet she couldn’t deny the truth of it.
Even a year or two of rest would dull her movements noticeably; after more than six years away, how could she expect to move as she once had?
Beyond that, Dan Mok Hwaryeon and the other members of the Six Dragons and Three Peaks had grown without pause during her absence—if Peng Seoyeon recovered her former skill, she’d be no match for them.
They were called the greatest prodigies of the Orthodox Martial World, after all.
A single day’s rest changed one’s enlightenment and growth; the gap between them could only be starker with each passing moment.
Yet now, in this instant, that expected outcome had shifted.
She had merely watched Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s Falling Star Twelve Swords, envisioned how to deflect it, and willed her body to move.
Of course, seeing a technique in action and mentally grasping how to counter it was possible only because of the remarkable talent Peng Seoyeon possessed.
But to execute it as she’d imagined—that was another matter entirely.
Yet she had done it.
Smoothly. Perfectly.
Peng Seoyeon swallowed without thinking.
It was strange.
Now that she saw this, the unusual lightness she’d felt in her body this morning, and every detail of her present state, felt entirely new to her.
The air she drew in and released felt different; the opponent’s movements, each one she tracked, appeared transformed.
The sensation in her fingertips as she gripped the blade differed from before; with each step forward, the vital energy coursing through her felt transformed.
And that was not all.
From crown to toe.
An indescribable warmth seemed to fill and envelope her entire body.
This sensation was unprecedented.
It felt as though her body had crossed into a realm entirely different from before.
She couldn’t even imagine what was happening to her.
Peng Seoyeon gripped her wooden blade tightly.
Perhaps,
‘I might be able to win.’
Confidence began to bloom within her.
Peng Seoyeon slowly took her stance.
It was the blade technique she had once wielded with the greatest confidence.
“Hmm.”
In that instant, both Dang Mujun and Hwangbo Cheonwoo, who watched the sparring match, gasped in admiration.
The momentum radiating from Peng Seoyeon was anything but ordinary.
Crack!
At that sight, Dan Mok Hwaryeon ground her teeth and cried out.
“Don’t mock me! Do you think I’d lose to someone like you? Never! Never!”
She quickly infused her wooden sword with Inner Energy.
Her intent was clear—to strike Peng Seoyeon down before she could attempt anything.
Dan Mok Hwaryeon then unleashed one of the ultimate techniques of the Falling Star Twelve Swords: the Falling Sun Spinning Wheel.
Whoosh!
Though executed with a wooden blade rather than steel, the ferocity of it was formidable.
“Sister!”
Peng Sejin cried out in alarm.
The savage blade technique seemed about to strike Peng Seoyeon down.
Then,
Flash.
Light blazed from Peng Seoyeon’s eyes.
What unfolded in her hands was the Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade.
The Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade.
It was one of the blade techniques the Peng Clan took pride in—literally, the iron blood blade that severed the stars.
Like a single ray of light drawn across the night sky.
Slow yet swift.
Sharp yet gentle.
Such were the hallmarks of the Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade.
While other Peng Clan blade techniques were domineering and exhilarating, this one carried subtlety and mystique.
That blade technique cleaved the tail of the falling star that illuminated the heavens.
Shrieeek!
In that moment, Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s Falling Sun Spinning Wheel lost its force before Peng Seoyeon’s Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade.
‘This can’t be!’
Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s eyes widened in shock.
Yet it was far from over.
Even after cleaving through the star, Peng Seoyeon’s Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade showed no loss of momentum—it surged toward Dan Mok Hwaryeon with the force to swallow her whole.
‘Ah! No!’
Peng Seoyeon’s own face registered shock at the sheer magnitude of power pouring forth—far greater than she had anticipated.
At this rate, Dan Mok Hwaryeon would suffer grave injury.
Then—
A whoosh.
Dang Mujun materialized before Dan Mok Hwaryeon in an instant, pulling her clear of the blast radius.
Crash!
The Sparring Arena floor erupted in a tremendous explosion, split wide open.
Had Dang Mujun not intervened, there was no need to say what would have become of her.
The wooden sword she had dropped lay shattered across the torn earth.
The match’s outcome was now beyond dispute.
“Hah…….”
Peng Seoyeon, having unleashed the Iron Blood Plucking Star Blade, stared at the devastation in disbelief before dropping her gaze to her own hand, still gripping the wooden blade.
This—how could such destructive power even exist?
Even when she had been hailed as the finest among the Three Peaks disciples, she had never witnessed such force.
At this point, she found herself genuinely curious about what was happening to her.
Then—
“I cannot accept this!”
Dan Mok Hwaryeon, having narrowly avoided disaster thanks to Dang Mujun, shrieked with her face flushed crimson.
“Whatever underhanded trick you used, this is cheating! There’s no way I could lose to you like this otherwise! Right?”
“Sigh.”
Never had shameless whining reached such heights.
Peng Seoyeon was growing weary of Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s brazenness.
Regardless of what anyone thought, Dan Mok Hwaryeon babbled on without an ounce of shame.
“Come on, be honest. What filthy trick did you pull? Huh? Anyway, I’m not accepting this result, so remember that! Understood?”
“Enough.”
“What do you mean, enough… Huh? What?”
She thought it was Hwangbo Cheonwoo speaking, but it was not.
It was Dang Mujun.
Dan Mok Hwaryeon looked up at him and flinched.
The man she admired above all others wore an expression of cold fury she had never seen before.
That fact struck her like a blow.
Dang Mujun had always treated her warmly, no matter what she did.
His icy gaze was something Dan Mok Hwaryeon could scarcely believe.
Then—
“That’s enough.”
Peng Seoyeon opened her mouth.
She gazed at Dan Mok Hwaryeon with eyes narrowed to slits.
“I knew you wouldn’t apologize. You probably never even considered the possibility of losing, did you?”
“…….”
“So there’s nothing more to be gained from speaking with you. I have no further desire to see your face, so I’m asking you to leave this house.”
A sound like grinding teeth.
At Peng Seoyeon’s words, Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s face turned red.
“Fine. Wonderful. I wasn’t staying here because I wanted to anyway.”
She laughed bitterly and spoke to her attendants.
“Let’s go.”
“What?”
When Hwangbo Cheonwoo repeated the question, Dan Mok Hwaryeon answered irritably.
“I said let’s go. So we should disappear, shouldn’t we?”
“I think that instruction was meant for you alone, not us.”
“What did you say?”
Hwangbo Cheonwoo chuckled and waved dismissively.
“I’m staying longer—I have some drinking to catch up on thanks to you today.”
“Hmph. Suit yourself. We’re leaving.”
Dan Mok Hwaryeon seized Dang Mujun’s arm.
Then—
A swift motion.
Dang Mujun withdrew his arm from her grasp.
With utter coldness.
In that instant, Dan Mok Hwaryeon’s face went blank.
Somehow the situation was unfolding in a way she hadn’t anticipated.

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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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