Chapter 11. Activation of the Four Gods (1)
"Huh? A gathering of the young masters?"
"That's right."
Yeon-wi wasn't even looking at Yeon Ji-pyeong. He was riffling through some papers, reading them quickly, as he seemed to do regularly.
"There's usually a gathering for the young masters of the Seven Great Families every year. However, every five years, everyone must attend. This is one of those years."
A flustered look appeared on Yeon Ji-pyeong's face.
"M-Me? I'm going?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Oh, uh, no! It's not that, it's just..."
Yeon-wi handed over a folded piece of paper. Yeon Ji-pyeong received it respectfully.
"Here's the permit for the gathering. It's in Hefei, Anhui Province, forty-five days from now. To get there on time, you'll want to leave at least two weeks early."
"A true master of shin-beop could make the trip in five days, at most. But you have the Great River to cross, and you're unfamiliar with the area. Also, since it's a formal event, you'll want to arrive looking presentable, so two weeks is about right."
"The Azure Hawk Squad will be your escort. Have a good trip."
Yeon Ji-pyeong's eyes widened.
"The Azure Hawk Squad?"
"Not the entire squad. Just one team, but the Azure Hawk Squad Leader himself will be with them."
The Azure Hawks were the best of the best, even among the Yeon Family's fighters. The Yeon Family kept their numbers small, but every single member was a top-tier master.
The fact that they were sending a squad they almost never let out into the jianghu showed just how important this young masters' meeting was.
"Um... Father."
"Speak."
Yeon Ji-pyeong looked troubled.
"For a young masters' gathering, shouldn't my older brother be the one to go?"
Yeon-wi, who had been flipping through documents, raised his head and looked at Yeon Ji-pyeong.
Yeon Ji-pyeong flinched.
He had seen it countless times, but his father's gaze was still frightening. It was as clear as that fancy glass they imported from the West.
‘Brother… I’m still scared of Father.’
He gulped, waiting for what felt like an eternity.
"Your brother is in danger."
"Yes?"
Brother is in danger? What did that mean?
Yeon-wi turned his body towards Yeon Ji-pyeong.
"Don't you think your brother has been acting very different lately?"
Yeon Ji-pyeong was taken aback.
His father was always a man of few words, except when it came to martial arts, academics, family laws, and etiquette. Receiving such a personal question felt unprecedented.
"Yes, a little. He seems...different."
"It's not just a little."
"..."
"His personality, his skills...he's not the Ho-jeong I used to know. It's as if he's a completely different person."
Yeon Ji-pyeong had also strongly sensed Yeon Ho-jeong's change.
Martial arts aside, he especially felt a significant change in his personality. Lately, when he looked at his brother, he truly seemed like an adult.
"But...what do you mean, he's in danger?"
"The young masters from the Namgung Family will be there, too, of course."
"Ah!"
"With the way Ho-jeong is now, he won't back down from a fight. Not from any kind of fight, whether he can handle it or not."
Yeon Ji-pyeong bit his lip.
He understood why his father wanted him to go. It was as if his father was sending him to protect his brother.
"Please...just ask my brother what he wants, for once."
"..."
"Please, Father."
Yeon-wi's eyes deepened.
He stared at his second son for a moment, then nodded.
"I will."
"Thank you."
"That's all, you can go."
Yeon Ji-pyeong bowed his head and left the head of the family's chamber. Yeon-wi stared at the closed door for a moment, then returned to riffling through the papers.
But only briefly.
Yeon-wi removed his hand from the documents and leaned back in his chair. A flicker of confusion crossed his usually indifferent eyes as he stared up at nothing.
"...Change, huh."
Whoosh!
The heavy sound of the iron staff cutting through the air was brutal.
"Huff, huff!"
His entire body was screaming. From his legs to his waist, back, and shoulders, there wasn't a single spot that didn't ache.
The iron staff was as tall as Yeon Ho-jeong and weighed nearly twenty geun. He'd been swinging that thing since dinner, past midnight. It was a miracle he was still standing.
Drip.
A drop of blood fell from the hand holding the iron staff.
That was it. He was done. Yeon Ho-jeong thrust the iron staff forcefully.
Bang!
The rock that the end of the staff hit shook slightly.
A strong vibration was transmitted to the hand holding the iron staff. His wrists, elbows, shoulders, and even his spine—all the joints in his upper body—seemed to creak. His grip gave way, and his bloody hand slid down the staff.
"Ugh."
Clang!
The iron staff fell to the ground.
Yeon Ho-jeong, catching his breath and looking down at his hands, frowned.
"Is this all I've got for now?"
Originally, the weapon Yeon Ho-jeong trained with was the sword.
But the sword just wasn't for him. He was better off fighting with his bare hands, using yuk-jang.
Fighting and fighting like that, he finally found a weapon that suited him.
It was a giant axe attached to a six-foot spear shaft. It was a heavy weapon, weighing dozens of geun, but it was perfect for his style and his skills.
Later on, he even attached a chain to the axe, turning the area ten jang around him into a whirlwind of destruction.
'And here I am, unable to even handle a simple iron staff.'
To use a long, heavy axe like that, you need to master staff fighting, spear fighting, and hand axe techniques. And yet, he couldn't even swing this iron staff, which was less than twenty geun, all night.
He'd felt it during his horse stance training, too. This was going to be a long, hard road.
Yeon Ho-jeong picked up a hand axe placed under a tree.
His torn palm stung. He fiddled with the axe a few times and then threw it at a fairly thick tree.
Whoosh! Thwack!
The axe lodged firmly in the tree.
‘Not bad.’
Yeon Ho-jeong sat with his back against the tree where the axe was stuck and looked up at the sky.
‘I know how to get stronger. And I'll put in the work, more than enough.’
He had to prevent the family's destruction. To prevent destruction, he had to become stronger first.
But that alone was not enough.
‘I can't just sit around and wait.’
It'd be tough, but even if he somehow regained all his old skills in a year and a half, it still wouldn't be enough.
If he used the Black Demon Emperor's power, and every trick and strategy he knew, he might be able to stop the family from being wiped out. But there would be casualties, no doubt about it. And those casualties could be his father, his brother...
That...that would be too much to bear.
‘I need more than just my own strength to protect the family. I need a backup plan, whether it's information, allies, anything.’
He needed to get so strong that he wouldn't need tricks or strategies. But even then, one slip-up, and it could all fall apart.
‘The problem is.’
Yeon Ho-jeong's face crumpled.
"I don't know who the hell they are."
After he learned martial arts from his master, the first thing he did when he stepped out into the world was to hunt down the ones responsible.
Of course, he couldn't find them on his own. So he dove into the Black Faction, the underworld, which was supposed to have way better intel than the White Faction, and started chasing leads.
But, still, no luck. He couldn't figure out who was behind it all.
"One thing was for sure: it wasn't the Black Faction."
It was definitely White Faction, orthodox stuff. Twisted, almost unrecognizable, but the qi and the way they used explosive force...it was clearly White Faction.
"To deploy that many masters, it had to be one of the Nine Great Sects or the Seven Great Families. No one else could pull that off."
And decisively.
"...There's a good chance there's a traitor on the inside."
He wasn't sure. There was no proof, and his father wasn't the type to let a traitor slip by.
But what if, just maybe, there really was a traitor within the Yeon Family?
Yeon Ho-jeong, who had been deep in thought, grumbled.
"Whatever. No point in stressing over things I can't know right now. It's funny, I'm not usually the type to overthink things."
It was because it was his first time dying and his first time regressing. And it was even more so because the object he had to protect was his family.
‘Anyway, I need more intel, more power. To build up my strength quietly, without anyone noticing...’
Yeon Ho-jeong's eyes twinkled.
‘I guess that's the only way.’
At first, he was going to wait until after he'd sorted out the family business. But then he realized, he could use 'him' to kill two birds with one stone.
‘Even if he can't help directly, just using his name would be a huge advantage.’
Yeon Ho-jeong stood up.
"Alright, I've decided."
"Decided what?"
Whoa!
Yeon Ho-jeong looked beyond the forest. Yeon-wi was standing with his arms crossed at the entrance of the bamboo forest leading to his residence.
"Father."
"Were you training?"
Yeon Ho-jeong was inwardly flustered. He'd been so caught up in his thoughts that he'd blurted out all sorts of things without realizing it, and he was worried his father had heard him.
"When did you arrive?"
"Just got here. I called out, but you didn't answer."
‘Phew.’
A sigh of relief escaped him. Judging by his demeanor, his father didn't seem to have heard his words.
"What brings you all the way here?"
Yeon-wi looked at Yeon Ho-jeong's hands.
"Your hands are all scabbed over."
"Huh? Oh, you mean this?"
"You swung it until your hands became like this?"
"It's nothing."
He just shook his hands off, as if it were no big deal. It had to hurt, but he didn't even flinch.
"You're not training with the sword?"
"Yes."
"We have plenty of excellent martial arts in the family. But we're a bit short on manuals for staff and spear techniques."
"I'm good."
He knew plenty about high-level staff and spear techniques. Besides, his real weapon wasn't a staff or a spear anyway.
"That's not alright. You're the eldest son of the Yeon Family. You need to train in martial arts that are worthy of your position."
"It's not right to force myself to learn martial arts that don't suit me."
"What?"
Yeon-wi was quite surprised.
"Are you saying, then, that the sword does not suit you?"
"That's right."
"Why do you think so?"
"What's there to think about?"
"Explain what you mean."
"Martial arts is something you feel in your body, not just in your head. If I focus on my body and find a way to move better, more efficiently, then that's the path I should take."
"And that path is staff techniques for you?"
"To be precise, it's something else, but I should properly learn spear and staff techniques first."
