Book 1 Chapter 9: Minor Clan Lord Yang(4)
Translator: Hwarang
Editor: Jay
I stood outside listening to their conversation.
I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose. I came here to see them and apologize,but instead I overheard what they said.
It is embarra.s.sing to say but… seeing her like this, my mother sounded cute. Even though she acted all tough and fierce on the outside, when she was alone with my father she is really well-mannered and lady like.
I looked at the sky. At first I thought that the heaven allowed me to reincarnate for myself, then I thought the heaven allowed me to reincarnate for Byuk Lee Dan, but now I think the heaven allowed me to reincarnate for my parents.
Then I thought to myself, ‘is this really all right?’ I am someone who never truly understood what love or family was. I am a really terrible person who couldn’t sleep at night unless I dished out revenge that was ten times worse than what I had received.
Creak.
Mother opened the door and came outside. She was surprised to see me.
“Dan-Ah? Why didn’t you come in when you arrived?”
I went inside and said what I wanted to say.
“Don’t sell it. It’s no use even if you sell it.”
“Did you hear our conversation?”
“Yes, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation.”
“It’s alright. But what do you mean it’s no use?”
“Even if you pay them back it’s no use.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Because he is someone who will not let this matter go even if we pay them back.”
I looked at my father and asked him,“Aren’t I right? Or have I misjudged him?”
Before he left, Yang Gi Chul’s eyes were full of ill intent. It was the eye of someone who truly wished to kill the other party. I saw this plenty of times in my previous life.
The look in his eyes told me the answer.
“Let your father take care of this. Take your mother and stay at your uncle’s house for a while.”
From what I heard my mother had a younger brother who lived farther away in Ahn Hwe. He said this to protect me and my mother.
“Are you trying to fight them?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“This is something I need to know. Isn’t this something related to our clan?”
Because this was first time the Byuk Lee Dan said something like this, my mother’s face brightened. This was the parental love. With just one word their expression changes.
“Let your father will take of this.”
From this conversation I confirmed that father was a very strong person, but I didn’t want to leave this problem completely to him.
“Allow me to help you take care of this mess.”
“Why are you being selfish? Why aren’t you thinking about your mother?”
“But if something happened to you, father, then wouldn’t mother also be deeply saddened?”
“What a rude thing to say!”
Father got angry, but there was a smile on my mother’s face.
“You are wrong. Rather than being depressed my whole life, I would rather die a hundred, no a thousand times, together with my family.”
Mother looked at father and said, “Even though we have lived with each other for so long, do you still not know me?”
Father gave a light sigh.
Why wouldn’t he know? He knew perfectly well that in situation like this, mother would try her best to not leave his side.
If I was still the old Byuk Lee Dan, father would have convinced my mother by saying that she needed stay alive for me. But since I barged in, saying that I am going to help him, he didn’t have time nor a way to convince her.
“It is dangerous time and anything can happen.”
Mother just gave a small laugh, “I think it’s been awhile since I felt this excited.”
Without even realizing it, I wore a small smile. She acted very lady like when she was having a conversation with my father before, but right now she was showing her fierce side.
While looking at me she asked, “Aren’t you getting excited as well?”
“I am also getting fired up.”
“Right?”
I felt sorry for my mother, but I will not allow anything exciting to happen here. I planned on wrapping up this whole mess without letting any of those trash set a foot here.
“I plan on taking Kw.a.n.g Du with me to train in the mountain for a few days.”
“Be safe.”
My parents agreed hesitantly. Right now, they wanted to send me away as soon as possible.
As soon as I left their room I went to find Kw.a.n.g Du.
“Huh? What did you just say?” Kw.a.n.g Du asked me with wide eyes.
I don’t know why, but it was so much fun teasing Kw.a.n.g Du.
“You are coming with me to go to Lord Yang’s house.”
“Do you really hate me that much? Why are you bringing me to something so dangerous?”
“I have good news and a bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
“Well I think I want to be slapped first, so tell me the bad one first.”
“This all happened because of you.”
He lowered his face in shame.
“Please tell me the good news now.”
“You are the only person that I trust.”
Kw.a.n.g Du gave a small sigh, “It’s a shame how terrible your social life is.”
After saying that, there was a little smirk on his face. I think what I said about him made him feel really happy. Such a simple guy.
“But why are we going there? The Gaju-nim asked us to do something there right? It’s not like we are going there for no reason right?”
“If you want to think like that to calm your heart down, then feel free do think however you like.”
“Saying that, you don’t mean…?”
“We caused this mess, so we need to take care of it.”
“Oh my G.o.d! You have a plan, right young master?”
“We will think about it along the way.”
“Where do you have to be hit so that you become a completely different person?”
“You can become like that too. Where we’re going, many people will try to beat you up or kill you.”
I don’t know why I am naturally making these jokes, but this was something that I had never thought to do in my previous life. Was it because I gained my youth back, or was it because I felt resentment towards my previous life? Or maybe it was because of Kw.a.n.g Du. It was fun conversing and joking with him. Anyway, it seemed that even my mind had gotten younger as well.
“Get ready. We will leave soon.”
I had my reasons for bringing Kw.a.n.g Du along. It was so that I could make up my mind about his future. Was I going to let him just clean the yards all day, or was I going to invest in him and take him along with me throughout my journey? I didn’t know which was the right choice, but I would let fate decide.
“… I will kill him. I’m going to cut him piece by piece and feed him to the pigs. Skin him alive and toss him in the salt basket. Gut him up…”
Yang Gi Kang was thinking of the most gruesome way to kill me. Even though he was whistling because half his teeth were missing, his ill intent could still be felt.
“…I’m going to break all his bones. I’m going to make him cry, make him regret that he was ever born.”
He let rage consume him. The servants around him couldn’t even breathe. It wasn’t because of his curses or rages, nor was it because of the medicinal scent the bandages had. It was because any mistake… no even a breath could have gotten them killed.
The maid who was taking care of him was scared to the bones because she was afraid that his rage could be taken out on her.
Luckily, before that happened, Yang Gi Chul came in and excused them from the room.
“You may leave.”
“Yes, Milord.”
The maid desperately prayed outside that once she went back inside, Yang Gi Kang would be dead. But that was never going to happen, because he would receive the best treatments and the best medicine.
Yang Gi Chul gave his son a disdainful look.
“…Father.”
“You stupid rascal. You let that punk beat you like this.”
Yang Gi Kang was ready to cry.
“That punk!”
He was about to say that Byuk Lee Dan was a lot stronger than he expected, but he thought better of it. Right now he couldn’t say anything to his father.
“Please kill that punk! And his parents too! No, not just them, wipe out their whole clan!”
If he was a normal parent, he would have disciplined his son, but this was Yang Gi Chul. Would he really let something like this go? Would he change his mind after coming back home?
“I already plan on doing that.”
He couldn’t forget what happened that day in front of all his subordinates. He couldn’t forget Byuk Do Jun’s stare and actions that day.
‘He dared to ignore me?’ He was someone who didn’t let go of grudges that easily.
‘He dared to talk back to me? Someone whose clan isn’t even in the top ten. Ha, it’s laughable!’
Even if his son didn’t say anything, he was going to wipe out their clan. He might not get his money back, but he would get their heads.
Yang Gi Kang grew excited seeing his father’s rage and said, “Send our subordinates immediately and wipe them out!”
“You idiot! They are already expecting something. There will be too many casualties on our side.”
Did war happen overnight? They didn’t have a legitimate reason to wipe out the Byuk Clan. If he did something without reason, he would making an enemy out of Kang Ho and most likely become the laughing stock of the city. He was still calculating even though he was full of rage.
“So I invited someone over.”
Yang Gi Kang could roughly guess who it was.
“You called Hyeol Gun?”
Yang Gi Chul gave a nod while making an evil smile.
“Since they angered me, they should be prepared to take my wrath.”
Kw.a.n.g Du and I were in a carriage headed for Dong Pyung. This was where the Yang Clan’s manor was located.
I wanted to save time by going on horseback, but since Kw.a.n.g Du was still a novice at riding, I decided that we should use a carriage. Even though we arrived a few days later, I wasn’t too worried.
Duu. Duu. Duu.
The scenery outside quickly changed. Even though it had been twenty days since I came into this life, there was still no news about my death. I was worried that I might have reincarnated in a different era, but I discovered that I was reborn on the day that I died.
I understood the gravity of announcing the news about the death of the Murim Alliance master. But it might be problematic if a couple of months pa.s.s without an announcement.
“Do you have any money that you have been hiding?”
“Am I such a person who could save twenty thousand nyang?”
Kw.a.n.g Du gave a deep sigh.
“Of course not.”
“So I don’t have it.”
Someone could have asked that if I lived over thirty years of my life as the Alliance Master, shouldn’t I have some money hidden away? Have at least one secret storage somewhere? But my answer was no.
Since I was young, all I did was train like a madman. I had no desires besides getting stronger. I loved the feeling of defeating my enemy and getting stronger, such that I didn’t have any feeling for money. In my eyes piece of gold was just another piece of rock.
After becoming the Alliance Master, I didn’t need things such as money. Was I going to get cold? Was I going to go hungry? Everything that I needed, the Alliance took care of it for me. If I had the thought of saving money I could have saved thousands, no, millions of nyang. But I didn’t have such thoughts and wasn’t very attached to the material things in life.
The amount that the alliance invested in me was innumerable. All of my medical pill and herbs that they gave me couldn’t be counted. But of course they got back their investment during my campaign against the Thirteen Demon Alliance. Anyway, because of their investment I was able to reach the peak of martial arts, and I was grateful for that.
“What have you been reading so intently?”
I think he was curious about the book that I had been reading since we got in the carriage. So I showed him the book I was reading.
Kw.a.n.g Du looked surprised and said, “What? Isn’t that the Brightmoon Sword Art? Isn’t this the Gaju’s personal technique?”
“Yeah. Why are you so surprised?”
“Because this is such a precious technique. Aren’t you afraid that you will attract attention and someone will try to steal it?”
“I think the way that you are acting is attracting more attention.”
“Oh.”
Kw.a.n.g Du said normally, “HAHA, isn’t the Brightmoon Sword Art just an ordinary technique?”
“I’m going to tell father what you just said.”
Kw.a.n.g Du said with a crying face, “Why are you teasing me!? Gaju-nim, the Brightmoon Sword Art is the best sword art in the world.”
“Saying that, you seem really suspicious.” (TL note: lol I feel bad for Kw.a.n.g Du)
“So what, young master!”
The Brightmoon Sword Art really didn’t stimulate me at all. ‘Not too shabby, I’d rate it as a mid-tier’. It wasn’t that I was belittling this sword art, but because I was extremely proficient in martial arts, there weren’t many techniques that could excite me anymore. The purpose of learning this technique was so that I could hide my original techniques.
“But how did you come out carrying this precious thing?”
“This is just a copied version. The real one is still within the clan.”
“No that’s not what I meant…”
“What if someone steals it from me?”
“Yes, that’s what I am afraid of!”
“Don’t worry. To practice this sword art you need to have an understanding of certain ki flow or it will be useless.”
“Oh, so that’s how it was.”
When I told my father that I wanted to learn Brightmoon Sword Art, I received a copied version of it. I went inside and glanced through the ki circulation manual that goes along with it. I was able to remember most of the contents of that book due to how good my memory had become.
Practicing two cultivation techniques was not recommended, because it can cause Qigon Deviation if you’re not careful. Of course that was for almost everyone else in Kang Ho, but who was I?
If I practiced something that was comparable to the Heavenly Protection Cultivation Technique, I might have gotten some backlash, but I wasn’t worried since I was going to be mastering such a mediocre cultivation technique.
“You know young master, you look really awkward when reading, because you usually don’t read much.”
“Do you want to learn martial arts?”
Kw.a.n.g Du hesitated, then said no.
“Your answer is pretty late.”
“No. I don’t have any talent for it.”
“What does your talent have to do with anything? Haven’t you seen Yang Gi Kang, even he knows some martial arts.”
“He was raised from a good family. He probably would have learned it from a good master.”
“To become a person of Kang Ho, having a good family and master is not that important.”
“Then what is more important?”
“Fate.”
“What fate?”
“Fate with Kang Ho.”
Kw.a.n.g Du stared at me with wide eyes, blinking couple of times before questioning me “Ehh, what do you mean by that? You must be joking. If you don’t want to answer me then don’t.”
To become a person of Kang Ho, fate was the most important. If you didn’t have fate then you will die prematurely, or even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to learn.
As I was enjoying the scenery outside Kw.a.n.g Du asked me, “How do you know if I have fate with Kang Ho?”
“I don’t.”