Chapter 6

This was far beyond anything he could comprehend.

“Eat.”

If he didn’t eat it, that fist would probably be flying at him again.

“Y-yes.”

Milyeong swallowed it immediately.

“If you really want to run, kill yourself. I can’t chase you into the afterlife.”

...Was that something a human should say?

“Here. Use this if you need it when you head to the afterlife.”

He even returned the poison capsule.

The humiliation and injustice alone made him resolve out of pure spite that he would live no matter what.

Seeing his determined expression, Jeok Wigang smiled.

“Good. Stay alive like that. Then good days will come.”

Would they?

Would they really?

All he could picture was a bleak future.

“Um... then what should I do about reporting? If I stop sending reports, they’ll get suspicious.”

“You should report. Just report everything exactly as it is.”

“What?”

“Hide nothing. Report the truth.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. If he annoys me later, I’ll just go over and flip the place over.”

Milyeong suddenly thought:

With the Hao Clan’s strength... surely they can capture this monster?

His pupils trembled as he studied Jeok Wigang.

Jeok Wigang grinned.

“Why? Curious? Whether the Hao Clan can catch me or not?”

“N-no.”

“As if. It’s written all over your face.”

Quick. Too quick. There was nothing this monster wasn’t sharp about.

“Why are you staring like that?”

“I—I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“You said you’re eight... so what level is your martial realm?”

“My martial realm? That’s what you’re curious about?”

“Yes.”

“Second-rate? No... since I don’t even have qi, I guess I’m technically third-rate.”

“What?”

“I don’t have qi.”

What kind of absurdity was this?

“No qi? Then what was that I just saw?”

“That? I just threw a punch.”

“You just threw a punch and produced that kind of power?!”

“I even held back. If I really punched, it’d be dangerous.”

Jeok Wigang smiled, and Milyeong truly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“I don’t have a dantian. So I can’t gather qi at all.”

“What?”

A human without a dantian—where did such a thing exist?

“I really don’t. It sucks. I want to use qi and techniques like everyone else.”

No dantian. No qi.

Yet he had that much strength?

“You don’t believe me? Want to check?”

Jeok Wigang boldly exposed his lower abdomen.

It was the area where vital points gathered.

And he was exposing it proudly.

That skin probably can’t be pierced at all...

Judging from his confidence, he really did lack a dantian.

“N-no. I believe you.”

Jeok Wigang smiled.

That smile was frightening.

There was a reason heaven had not given him a dantian.

If that insane strength were combined with qi cultivation?

Just imagining it was horrifying.

He was practically a walking natural disaster even now.

Jeok Wigang stretched and grumbled as he walked.

“Man, I need to grow faster. Sneaking around like this is annoying.”

Milyeong thought:

He was already a monster.

When he grew up... what kind of monstrosity would he become?

One thing was certain:

From now on, the martial world would revolve around him.

And many martial artists would despair.

Seeing someone this strong without qi, their lifetime of bone-grinding training would feel meaningless.

Thinking that, he wanted to see it.

The path this monster would walk.

“Hey, do you know the way to Turtle-Wind Sect?”

“What? Yes, I do.”

“Lead the way. You wasted a lot of my time.”

“Y-yes! Please follow me.”

Milyeong quickly used his Lightfoot Arts.

He wasn’t sure how fast he should go.

“Full speed.”

“Y-yes!”

After all, this monster had caught up to him instantly even when he ran full speed before.

He tossed aside all thoughts and shot forward toward Turtle-Wind Sect with all his might.

After a while, a voice suddenly came from right beside him.

“At this rate, when will we arrive?”

And then—

“You just point with your finger.”

“Huh? What do you—”

PAAANG—!

Before he could finish, tremendous wind pressure smashed into his face.

It felt like his skin would peel off.

“Point properly, will you?”

Barely enduring the wind, Milyeong pointed shakily.

How long did it last?

Suddenly, the wind vanished.

“That the place?”

Impossible. Already?

Full-speed running would normally take half a shichen.

He looked down.

Turtle-Wind Sect was right there.

He had merely blinked a few times.

“Y-yes. That’s it.”

“Good. Now be quiet.”

“Yes.”

What was he planning?

Jeok Wigang cupped his ear with his palm.

It looked like he was trying to hear better.

Could he really hear the conversation inside Turtle-Wind Sect from here?

It was about a hundred jang away—around three hundred meters.

Milyeong held his breath.

“Hm. Nothing much.”

“What?”

“The sect master and the strategist are talking. Just pointless chatter.”

“You... can hear them from this far?”

“Yeah. If I focus.”

Milyeong stared blankly.

No dantian, no qi—and yet there was nothing he couldn’t do.

“Hm...”

He listened a little longer, then clicked his tongue.

“Great. Now they’re talking dirty. I came all the way here at night for this?”

Came all the way here?

He blinked twice and arrived...

But Milyeong stayed silent.

Saying something wrong might get him hit again.

“What do I do? Should I just barge in and ask them? Whether they’re plotting to attack True Martial Sect? If I grab the sect master and shake him around, he’ll probably spill.”

“What?! What about the fighters of Turtle-Wind Sect?”

“Hm? Why bother with them? Isn’t it enough to take down the leader?”

“They’ll never open the gates!”

“Really? Then should I blow them all away? Ugh. Moving is so annoying.”

Milyeong stared in disbelief.

Annoyed... at the idea of fighting an entire sect.

“Turtle-Wind Sect might be unorthodox, but they don’t commit evil deeds.”

“They might attack True Martial Sect.”

“What? Attack True Martial Sect? They’d have to be insane!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean—who would dare touch the youngest son of the lord of Heavenly Martial Castle?”

What?

“What are you talking about? I’m talking about True Martial Sect. Why bring Heavenly Martial Castle into it?”

“The master of True Martial Sect is the youngest son of the lord of Heavenly Martial Castle.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No. No one told me.”

“Then when you asked me to list sects hostile to True Martial Sect... it was to eliminate threats to True Martial Sect?”

“Yeah. To wipe out anything that might endanger the sect.”

“No need. Even if you didn’t, no sect around here would dare touch True Martial Sect.”

“Then... who annihilated our sect in my past life?”

“What? Annihilated? True Martial Sect is perfectly fine. Did you have a dream or something?”

“...”

Jeok Wigang felt something was off.

If things had gone as he remembered, something should have already happened at his age.

At eight, he had already been living as an orphan.

But nothing had happened.

He wasn’t an orphan.

A suspicion rose.

“What’s the current era?”

“The Era of Crimson Dominion.”

“What? The Era of Crimson Dominion? Not the Era of Ten Warlords?”

The Era of Ten Warlords had been the era of his own childhood.

“No... the Emperor of the Ten Warlords died twelve years ago. The Crimson Dominion Emperor rules now.”

Jeok Wigang froze.

He had thought turning into a baby meant going back in time.

But he hadn’t.

He had been completely mistaken.

What was this?

He retraced his memories.

He had taken Thousand-Days Drunk and the Elixir of Heaven’s Reversal from his younger brothers.

Could it be...?

He looked at Milyeong.

“You know the Elixir of Heaven’s Reversal?”

“Yes. Isn’t it the miracle pill rumored to revert your whole life and turn you into a child? They say it makes you an infant again, but honestly... it sounds like nonsense. How could one pill turn a dying old man into a child? Impossible.”

It wasn’t impossible.

He had taken it himself.

Revert an entire lifetime?

So that’s why he became an infant.

Then why had his brothers fed it to him?

To run away?

If he became a baby, he couldn’t chase them.

True—he could barely move as an infant.

Even if he had seen them flee, he couldn’t have followed.

As if that wasn’t enough, they even made him sleep.

He laughed weakly.

He had been stupid to believe he’d reincarnated.

Waking in his mother’s embrace made the illusion feel real.

Still, one thing was certain:

His parents’ love was genuine.

Even though he wasn’t their biological son, they loved him even more than a real one.

Even now.

They were his parents.

His brothers had done it to escape, but they had given him a tremendous gift.

Hmm... should he forgive them?

Thinking again...

Ungrateful brats.

He treated them so well, yet they ran away.

Still, they gave him a gift, so he would punish them... only a little.

Jeok Wigang sniffed the air.

No trace of his brothers’ scent.

They must have erased it.

One brother was outstanding at pill-making.

He must have created something that erased scent.

Or they had fled extremely far.

Smell had its limits.

Jeok Wigang looked back at Milyeong.

“Then do you know the Four Heavenly Demon Lords?”

“What person of the Central Plains doesn’t know them?”

“Really? I’ve never heard.”

“People avoid mentioning them. The name is practically taboo.”

“Strong?”

“Very strong. When they were active, almost forty percent of the martial world was destroyed. If the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Heavenly Martial Emperor hadn’t stopped them... imagining today’s martial world is terrifying.”

“Heavenly Martial Emperor... that’s...”

“Your grandfather.”

“Really? Then why did my father leave Heavenly Martial Castle?”

“Because of your mother. The Heavenly Martial Emperor opposed the marriage. But the master of True Martial Sect chose your mother anyway. He was expelled, became a son-in-law in a sect that had only daughters, and inherited the sect. Even so, because his son had married into the sect, the Heavenly Martial Emperor supported True Martial Sect greatly. Thanks to that, the sect grew to twice its size.”

Sure, he had support—

but Jeok Wigang also knew his father had worked hard.

He knew because he had seen and heard everything.

Now he finally understood why the youngest son of Heavenly Martial Castle became the master of True Martial Sect.