The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 186

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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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The Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 186
“This madman?”
I cried out without thinking.
It didn’t matter whether Jegal Jin was in front of me or not.
I couldn’t hold back otherwise.
‘Has he truly lost his mind?’
Father causing trouble wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence, so I thought I’d grown somewhat accustomed to it.
‘What am I supposed to do with this man?’
No matter how unhelpful he’d been to my life, he was still my father.
‘Should I really expel him from the clan?’
He’d committed an offense too egregious to overlook.
The reason was written in the letter.
[Father-in-law, I heard you haven’t yet decided on the position of Young Lord.]
[My second son takes after me—he’s quite sharp, if I do say so myself.]
[Since things have come to this, why not bring him to the Jegal Clan once?]
Ugh.
I crumpled the letter without even finishing it.
‘Damn it.’
Curses spilled from my lips. What else could this be but madness?
He dares mention the Jegal Clan regarding an illegitimate child?
‘No matter how connected they are, this crosses every line.’
This wasn’t a matter that could be settled as mere bastardy.
‘What kind of mind sends something like this?’
I wanted to crack open my father’s skull and examine his brain again.
Ah, I thought I’d given up on Father after turning fifteen, but he’s far more of a reckless fool than I imagined?
Cold sweat dripped down my face.
As I read this, fury erupted endlessly, but the important thing wasn’t me.
‘His reaction.’
The reaction of Jegal Jin sitting before me.
That was the greatest problem.
‘His eyes are cold.’
I couldn’t tell what emotion lay within them—whether it was anger or resentment.
But they certainly weren’t kind eyes.
What must Jegal Jin be thinking upon receiving this letter?
‘What else? He probably wants to kill us.’
My father and me.
Wouldn’t he want to dispose of us both, finding us both unbearable?
I think I would have, if I were in his position.
As I was gauging Jegal Jin’s reaction like this,
his lips slowly parted.

* * *
What Jegal Jin first felt was neither interest nor anything of the sort.
Just a slight irritation and a touch of sentiment.
No, sentiment wasn’t even the right word.
‘A sight for sore eyes.’
This so-called grandson sitting before him.
He was grandson in name only—nothing more.
It couldn’t be helped. He was the spawn of a man who deserved to be chewed to death.
‘Bang Cheon-ho.’
The Lord of the Clan of Yoryeong Bang, the man who had taken his daughter.
When he had spirited her away only to cause her suffering and ultimately her death, I had wanted to obliterate the entire Bang clan and everything else, but—
I could not.
Because my daughter had spoken.
‘Please, even if you cannot embrace him, do not harm him. He is a pitiful man.’
Do not harm the Bang clan.
Because those were my daughter’s words, I never laid a hand on the Bang clan.
Unable to act, I severed my interest.
That was the best I could do.
‘Yuhui.’
Jegal Yuhui.
She had been beautiful and brilliant.
My only daughter among my four children, and my eldest.
I had believed without doubt that she would accomplish great things, even if she could not inherit the position of Lord of the Clan.
But meeting some worthless man had ruined everything.
I lost my daughter.
I lost even the little laughter I had left.
And so time passed, and this boy appeared.
The child of Bang Cheon-ho.
The son of Yuhui.
My grandson.
And moreover, the predecessor of Yoo Cheon-gil, that dog of a man?
‘This is absurd.’
How could fate weave itself together in such a way?
It was beyond comprehension.
Every thread seemed tangled as if demanding my attention.
At first, Bang Cheon-ho had begged me so pathetically just to write a letter of recommendation that I had obliged him with that alone.
A child who carried my blood?
That was not particularly important to me.
How many grandchildren did I have anyway?
There were quite a few intelligent children, and there were plenty who caught my eye as well.
My failure to appoint a successor in that situation was merely a manifestation of my own stubbornness.
It meant there was no reason to keep that child in my sights, regardless of what happened.
This time was no different.
This was merely curiosity.
‘What kind of man is he.’
What kind of man could he possibly be to become Yoo Cheon-gil’s predecessor.
I conducted a thorough background investigation, but while there were plenty of strange aspects, I found nothing conclusive.
The Cheongwol Sect had acknowledged it.
Bang Cheon-ho’s child, Bangseong-yeon, was indeed the Sword Saint’s predecessor.
No matter how deep the connection between Yoo Cheon-gil and Jegal Jin ran.
If the Cheongwol Sect acknowledged it, there was nothing for me to say.
I intended to let it pass like that.
It was clear I didn’t want to be entangled in this.
But then.
‘Shin Chang stepped forward.’
The current sect leader, that damned fool, acted on his own authority.
Whatever he promised the executives, he brought about the Cheongwol Sect’s participation in the Yongbong Conference, something that had never happened before.
His only reason was a desire to see the Sword Saint’s predecessor, the Protagonist.
I knew he was mad, but I never imagined he’d be this insane.
‘The reason is obvious.’
Shin Chang’s reason for wanting to see Bangseong-yeon was simple.
But I didn’t want to imagine it, so I ignored it.
This too was my unwillingness to be entangled.
It was stubbornness.
Because I hated my daughter who left my embrace and ended her life so miserably.
Because I despised Bang Cheon-ho, who took away such a daughter and lived so wretchedly.
So I didn’t want to see that son of his either.
‘Sigh.’
Yet that Bang Cheon-ho dared to mention the Jegal Clan.
What came to mind upon hearing this was justification.
A pretext to face him. Or perhaps.
‘The hope that I might be able to eliminate him completely.’
The expectation that I could completely remove that irritating man before me.
With that single hope, I summoned Bangseong-yeon.
Summoning a participant to the strategist’s quarters might disrupt the event.
But using a letter as a pretext would allow it to pass, so I carried out my plan.
And thus I faced Bangseong-yeon.
“….”
“….”
Upon facing him, my first impression was this.
‘He’s handsome.’
Remarkably so.
He was a beautiful man with soft, delicate features, as if he’d inherited all the best traits from his father.
And.
‘He resembles her.’
Within those soft features lay my daughter.
As if to prove he was my child, everything Jegal Jin had cherished was contained in that small face.
Damn it all.
That displeased me. Even more so.
“Why did you choose that?”
“Pardon?”
It irritated me that the man had chosen to drink that particular tea.
Suryeong tea.
‘The tea my daughter favored.’
Before she left home, it was the one she endlessly enjoyed.
Bangseong-yeon had chosen it from among all the countless varieties.
Jegal Jin despised suryeong tea. Its distinctive flavor repelled me, and I never drank it.
Yet I kept it in my quarters nonetheless—I was well aware it was solely because of my longing for my daughter.
As we began our conversation.
“Should I call you Grandfather?”
The audacious man spouted such nonsense.
I responded immediately.
“I have no memory of having a grandson like you.”
“Then shall we settle on calling you strategist?”
He spoke as if that was precisely what he’d hoped for.
That inexplicably displeased me.
When I remarked that he didn’t resemble his father.
“Of course not. There’s nothing good about resembling that man.”
He offered a most satisfactory answer. I found it pleasing. At that thought, I shook my head inwardly.
I proceeded to probe him with several questions.
His responses were remarkable.
“You’ve already investigated everything anyway. It will be exactly as written in your records. There’s nothing more for me to tell.”
“….”
An unwavering confidence, utterly devoid of anxiety.
How many men had ever displayed such composure standing before me?
Certainly none among those who called themselves my grandsons.
While those others trembled at the mere meeting of eyes, how was this man so resolute?
‘An absurd fellow.’
He seemed unaware of why he was even here.
So I told him.
I handed over the letter I’d received from the Bang Disciple, and his face flushed the moment he read it.
“Is he seriously insane!?”
Watching him curse at his own father, Jegal Jin found himself laughing without thinking.
The moment he laughed, he covered his mouth with his hand.
“Ah, well, I should mention that my father is an eccentric fellow, but I have absolutely no ambitions regarding your clan. Really, I don’t.”
His hurried words sounded genuinely desperate.
He had no ambitions toward the Jegal Clan.
Though those words should have been natural, something kept pricking at Jegal Jin’s chest.
“No interest? Are you saying the Jegal Clan is so insignificant that it falls outside your concern?”
So he threw out a barbed jest that didn’t suit him at all.
Hearing that, Bangseong-yeon frowned.
“What are you saying? If I took interest, that would be even stranger. Besides.”
Then, looking into Jegal Jin’s eyes, he spoke.
“It seems the Jegal Clan has some problem right now, so I wouldn’t deliberately—”
“What?”
“Ah.”
Bangseong-yeon stopped mid-sentence and covered his own mouth.
The expression of someone who’d made a mistake.
Seeing that, Jegal Jin spoke with a hardened expression.
“What did you just say?”
The Jegal Clan has a problem.
The certainty with which he’d uttered it ignited anger.
How could he possibly know?
“It would be better if you answered truthfully.”
That was something only those within the Jegal Clan could know.
Yet this son of the Bang family had discovered it? Impossible.
Drawing out a cold voice, I pressed for an answer.
“Sigh… That’s not it.”
Bangseong-yeon sighed and pointed somewhere with his hand.
Letters scattered all around.
He pointed to several of them.
“I didn’t want to look, but… they caught my eye, so I ended up reading them.”
“What?”
He read them? At those words, I checked the letters.
The letters were from the Jegal Clan, but since they weren’t classified as top secret, there would be no problem with anyone reading them.
However.
‘They’re encrypted.’
If one deciphered the cipher contained within them, the story would be different.
“What you’re saying now…”
You deciphered this cipher?
Jegal Jin stared at Bangseong-yeon as if it were absurd.
“I’m truly sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose… No, it’s just that once I see something, I can’t forget it… My mind just… Ah, I really didn’t mean to do this.”
“….”
Bangseong-yeon hastily offered his excuses.
He had indeed deciphered it correctly.
He’d even memorized it all from just a brief glance and deciphered it.
All while conversing with me.
“….”
Jegal Jin’s eyes twitched.
This shouldn’t be happening.
This is problematic.
Reason pressed down upon Jegal Jin.
“Listen here.”
“I really didn’t want to do this… Yes?”
“From now on, I will ask you questions. Answer without leaving out a single detail.”
“Yes…?”
Jegal Jin’s mouth began firing questions at Bangseong-yeon as if following pure instinct.
And so time passed.

* * *
I entered the inn late and sat down quietly.
Normally I would have gone to rest at the inn where I was staying, but today I felt hungry and needed to eat something.
[Tsk tsk. You look completely drained.]
I didn’t respond to Yoo Cheon-gil’s words. I lacked even the strength to answer, just as he said.
‘Ugh… I’m exhausted.’
I’m dying. Jegal Jin had so many questions to ask—he bombarded me with tedious inquiries.
About the current sentiments of the Central Plains.
Or what I thought would happen if war broke out.
He kept asking all sorts of bothersome things that made my head spin while answering.
‘What is this?’
Why would he ask such things?
I’m already nervous just from Father sending vague messages…
‘Wait, could it be.’
Was he trying to drain me dry with those questions? If so, it made sense. They were certainly the type of questions to do that.
‘Damn it.’
This head of mine caused trouble for no reason.
‘Why did I even look at it?’
I glanced at the scattered letter out of curiosity.
Something strange caught my eye. The moment I felt an ominous sensation, I averted my gaze, but my eyes had already confirmed the entire contents of the letter.
My one redeeming quality—my memory and intellect—had interpreted everything on its own.
‘…There’s a problem with the Jegal Clan.’
It seemed something rather complicated was happening within the current Jegal Clan.
In such circumstances, when my father was about to cause trouble, I inadvertently spoke it aloud.
That became the issue, and Jegal Jin began hurling words at me.
‘Damn.’
I wasn’t sure if I’d really gotten myself into a mess.
As I wiped away the remaining cold sweat and steadied my breathing.
[That bastard Jin seemed to like you quite a bit. What do you think?]
“…?”
Thinking this was absolute nonsense, I looked toward Yoo Cheon-gil.
Like him? What the hell was there to like?
‘His eyes were murderous from the start. That makes no sense.’
How could those eyes, filled with the intent to kill, be the eyes of someone who liked me?
I couldn’t believe it.
It was obvious he hated me.
Of course he did.
‘How could he possibly like me.’
I’m the son of the reckless fool who took away his daughter.
And that reckless bastard had even spouted nonsense about not being able to enter the Jegal Clan.
‘He’d be justified in tearing me to shreds.’
I wondered if my survival was nothing short of a miracle.
“Phew…. This is killing me, truly.”
Since arriving in Hannam, there hadn’t been a single peaceful day.
And tomorrow was the main tournament, so I’d hoped to rest a bit comfortably.
‘Comfortable, my ass.’
There hadn’t been a single peaceful day.
My life was always like this anyway. Nothing ever works out.
Trouble erupts wherever I go, so I can never live in peace.
‘Sigh.’
Still, the biggest ordeal was over, so I thought I should just fill my belly and get some proper rest.
Scrape.
Suddenly, the sound of a chair being dragged across the floor came from ahead.
Sensing a presence, I lifted my head.
‘Huh?’
Shadow stood there—familiar but unwelcome.
A kind smile, a small frame, the kind of impression that would make anyone say he seemed like a good person.
[This bastard….]
Yoo Cheon-gil frowned upon seeing the Young Man. I wondered why he’d show such a reaction to someone with such an approachable appearance.
‘Look at that aura. It’s something else.’
I was not particularly different from Yoo Cheon-gil either. No matter how I looked at him, he gave off a harmless impression.
But I was not looking at the man’s face—I was observing something else entirely.
‘…Is he even human?’
I let out a silent gasp of astonishment. No matter how I examined him, it was difficult to regard him as a person.
The reason I said this despite his appearance being so vivid was simple.
‘This is practically a Demon.’
The demonic energy emanating from him.
A dark, murky, and utterly repulsive aura was pouring out in torrents.
This was almost exactly the level of energy that Demons possessed.
‘What in the world is this man?’
An aura that humans could never naturally emit.
Only a Demon—and one harboring immense resentment at that—could possess such a thing, yet this man carried it.
“Would it be alright if I sat for a moment?”
The man asked with a sorrowful expression on his face.
Who was this man? I recalled his name.
He had definitely been a colleague of Seo-pyeong’s.
From that, I had already grasped something important.
“Ah, that’s right. I haven’t introduced myself yet. I am….”
“Baekcheon-in.”
“Oh?”
The moment I spoke his name, his eyes widened.
His expression asked how I could possibly know.
‘It was easy enough to know.’
All those who participated in the Dragon Phoenix Conference had their information made public, so anyone could learn their identities if they wished.
The problem was.
‘That’s not his true identity.’
There was something more to this man. As I pondered this realization—
[Listen carefully.]
Yoo Cheon-gil spoke to me.
[This man. He belongs to the Demonic Cult.]
…?
The moment I heard those words, my mind went completely blank.

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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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