CHAPTER 04
“Excuse me…? Who did you say you were…?”
The young man stared blankly at Heo Cheon’s face.
As far as he knew, Lord Heo had long since passed sixty and was approaching his seventieth year.
If this was the son of such an old man, he should have been at least forty years old.
Yet his skin was so fair and youthful that he looked barely past twenty.
And that was not the only thing that bothered him.
“I was told that the son of this household died twenty years ago…”
Before the young man could finish, Heo Cheon said,
“That’s what people were told, I suppose. But here I am.”
“Could it be that you practiced the Art of Preserving Youth…?”
“What are you trying to pin some cheap trick on me for? It’s purely because of my cultivation.”
“Ah… I-I apologize. I see. So you really are Lord Heo’s son. I must have been mistaken for a moment. To say such an absurd thing when you’re clearly alive and well… Ha, hahaha…”
Cold sweat poured down the young man’s face as he thought to himself,
‘This is bad! I’m screwed if I stay here!’
Who could have imagined that such an absurdly powerful martial artist would be the Manor Lord’s son?
If he wanted to save his life, he needed to retreat immediately.
The young man gave an obsequious smile and said,
“Oh my! On such a joyous occasion, shouldn’t a family spend the day together in harmony? We’ll be going now…”
“Yes, just as you said. Since a guest is leaving on such a joyous day, it would be rude not to send him off properly.”
Heo Cheon’s fingers rapidly tapped various points on the young man’s body.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
At first, the young man’s right arm went completely limp.
Then his left leg became as floppy as an invertebrate.
Finally, his head drooped forward.
“Here, consider this a welcoming gift for a guest. With the level of your internal energy, it should last… thirty or forty years? Something like that. Oh, come to think of it, that’s exactly how long it took me to leave home and come back. Heh, I guess guests who arrive on an auspicious day really are something special.”
“Guh… Gaaah…”
Heo Cheon spoke cheerfully with a smile, but none of his words reached the ears of the young man, who had been rendered half-paralyzed in an instant.
After dealing with the young man who had barged into his family estate and caused such a commotion, Heo Cheon approached the fallen Im Ho-pil.
“Chief Steward, are you alright?”
“U-Ugh… Thank you for helping me, but how do you know me well enough to speak so casually when we’ve only just met… Huh?”
Im Ho-pil stopped speaking and frowned.
It was strange enough that this young man was acting so familiar with him.
But somehow, the young man’s face also looked familiar.
Yet no matter how hard he searched his memories, this was definitely the first time he had seen him.
‘Who on earth is he?’
Just as Im Ho-pil’s confusion was growing—
“If you’re curious, five nyang.”
“Curious? Five nyang? What does that—wait! Those are definitely the words frequently spoken by the protagonist of that Chivalrous Hero novel the Young Master used to read… Gasp! Could you possibly be…!”
Heo Cheon grinned.
“Chief Steward, I never took you for someone who would develop the skill of casually declaring perfectly healthy people dead. When did you start practicing that?”
The Chivalrous Hero novel whose protagonist Heo Cheon had just imitated was none other than the one Im Ho-pil had recommended to him.
That was why Heo Cheon had decided to try the line.
Fortunately, Im Ho-pil still remembered it.
“A-Are you really the Young Master?”
When Im Ho-pil asked with an expression of disbelief, Heo Cheon nodded.
“It’s been a long time, Chief Steward. I took too long to come back, didn’t I?”
“I-Is this a dream? Are you really the Young Master?”
“I am, so explain what’s going on first. Who the hell is that guy?”
“That guy…? Gasp!”
Im Ho-pil suddenly noticed the young man who had been rendered half-paralyzed and recoiled in surprise.
“D-Did you do that to him, Young Master?”
“Who else would have?”
“Good heavens…”
The martial arts of the young man Heo Cheon had defeated were superior even to Im Ho-pil’s.
The fact that Heo Cheon had reduced such a person to this state meant that his martial arts were on an entirely different level.
Now that he thought about it, even Heo Cheon’s youthful appearance was obviously due to his martial arts.
Yet such a feat was absolutely impossible using only the martial arts of the Heo Family Manor.
Im Ho-pil therefore asked with genuine curiosity,
“Where in the world have you been all this time? The Murim Alliance told us that the Young Master had died in battle.”
Heo Cheon gazed toward the distant sky.
“Let’s just say I was forcibly sent on a long vacation far away as a reward for making great contributions.”
“What?”
Im Ho-pil tilted his head at Heo Cheon’s evasive answer.
“We’ll talk about me later. Tell me about that guy.”
“Phew. Before that, I’ll bring Madam here first.”
“Mother? Come to think of it, where is she now?”
“She has temporarily taken refuge at your maternal grandfather’s estate together with the youngest young lady.”
“My maternal grandfather’s estate? The Jo Family Manor? Hmm, if she’s there, she should certainly be safe… Wait a minute. The youngest? I have a younger sibling? A younger sister, too?”
When Heo Cheon had checked on his family twenty years ago, he had heard nothing about this.
When he asked in bewilderment, Im Ho-pil looked slightly embarrassed.
“Well… as you know, the relationship between the two of them has always been very good, so ten years ago… Ahem.”
Heo Cheon was stunned.
‘Good heavens. A late-in-life child? A late-in-life child?!’
When he had been young, he had repeatedly begged his parents to give him a younger sibling, but they had never paid him any attention.
‘Wow. They actually had another child at their age.’
He felt a slight sense of betrayal, but his joy and relief were far greater.
After all, his parents must have been terribly lonely after being separated from their only son. How much comfort must their daughter’s presence have brought them?
‘I wonder what she looks like.’
Both of Heo Cheon’s parents were widely renowned for their good looks.
Since his younger sister had inherited the blood of both of them, she was naturally bound to be beautiful as well.
Heo Cheon himself certainly wasn’t lacking in the looks department.
“That really is good news. But Chief Steward, since that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to explain the exact situation to me first rather than bringing Mother here in the middle of all this chaos? You’ve been changing the subject so obviously that it’s almost painful to watch.”
“Well…”
Im Ho-pil looked conflicted.
Even so, he was reluctant to tell Heo Cheon about the family’s troubles immediately after the young master had finally returned home after so many years.
That was why he had kept changing the subject.
Heo Cheon said,
“Chief Steward, I’m the eldest son of this family. I should at least know what’s happening in my own household. That’s only right, isn’t it? So? What exactly happened?”
Faced with Heo Cheon’s repeated questions, Im Ho-pil finally let out a deep sigh, as though admitting defeat.
“Phew. Please follow me.”
Inside a dark room filled with the strong scent of medicinal herbs, a painfully thin old man lay motionless on a bed, his face unmistakably marked by illness.
It was Heo Cheon’s father, Heo Jung-man, the Lord of the Heo Family Manor.
“…How long has he been like this?”
“This is the fourth year.”
“Four years in a coma. Did he suffer qi deviation?”
“Yes. After the War Between the Righteous and Evil Factions, the Manor Lord wanted to strengthen the family’s weakened forces. He said that he absolutely had to break through to the Peak Realm somehow, so he continued pushing himself through excessive cultivation. Then, one day…”
“I see. So that’s what happened.”
The founder of the Heo Family Manor had been a master of the Peak Realm, but every generation after him had been unable to advance beyond the First-Class Realm at best.
It was not that their descendants were particularly less talented than their ancestor.
The problem was that the martial art they had inherited was incomplete.
The Clear Void Heart Method.
It was a Daoist cultivation method. Its energy was pure, and it was quite suitable for laying the foundation of martial arts.
But it had one fatal flaw:
There was no method within it for advancing into the higher realms.
Thus, no matter how hard one trained throughout their entire life, the First-Class Realm was the limit.
The reason the founder of the Heo Family Manor had reached the Peak Realm was because he had cultivated the complete Clear Void Heart Art.
In other words, the Heo Family Manor was a branch family whose original sect still existed elsewhere.
Heo Cheon already knew this background well.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. He pushed himself even at his age. So, what about that reckless brat who barged into our home and caused such a scene? His internal energy seems similar to ours. Is he from the same sect?”
“Yes. Just as you guessed, that man, Yeo Chang-hae, is a descendant of Hero Yeo Jong-san, the ‘Fist Hero of Jiangdong,’ who was a fellow disciple of our founder.”
“Then why did someone like him come barging into our house? Hmm. Something smells fishy.”
Both the Heo Family Manor and Yeo Chang-hae’s family had inherited incomplete versions of the same cultivation method from their original sect.
That did not mean their methods were exactly identical.
And if they differed, perhaps each side possessed something that could fill in the deficiencies of the other.
Once Heo Cheon thought that far, he could roughly understand Yeo Chang-hae’s intentions.
“I see. He wanted to see our family’s martial arts manual, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“When did he start coming here?”
“He first came this spring.”
“Spring? He’s been at it for quite some time.”
Since it was now autumn, he had been coming to the Heo Family Manor for at least six months, practically wearing out the doorstep.
“At first, I politely refused him. Although they were descended from the same sect, there had been absolutely no contact between our families for all these years.”
Heo Cheon nodded.
Indeed, he had no memory of ever interacting with any descendants of Yeo Jong-san when he was young.
At that point, they could practically be considered strangers.
“Furthermore, we couldn’t allow outsiders to learn about the Manor Lord’s condition, so every time he came, I told him that the Manor Lord was away.”
“I see. So after repeatedly getting rejected, that Yeo Chang-hae fellow finally lost his temper and showed his true colors?”
“Lost his temper?”
At Im Ho-pil’s puzzled expression, Heo Cheon explained,
“Ah, that’s a Japanese expression that isn’t used in the Central Plains. Never mind. Continue.”
“Japan? What’s that?”
“It exists. Some island country across the sea, full of monkey bastards. A pretty vicious bunch.”
“…I see.”
Im Ho-pil decided not to question it further.
“In any case, just as you guessed, the man gradually revealed his true colors. He insisted that he had to meet the Manor Lord no matter what. I refused, telling him that it was impossible. Eventually, today, he simply barged into the estate with his men.”
“That could have turned into a serious problem.”
“Yes. Just in case, I had Madam and the young lady evacuated beforehand. But if you hadn’t returned today…”
“That’s enough. We handled it without any major problems. Forget about that guy. Now, shall we deal with Father’s condition?”
“Do you have some way to treat him?”
“He suffered qi deviation, didn’t he? If it were an ordinary illness, there wouldn’t be much I could do either…”
Heo Cheon smiled confidently.
“But if it’s a problem with martial arts, that’s a different story.”
Heo Cheon postponed his reunion with the rest of his family for a little while longer.
Instead, he went into his father Heo Jung-man’s study and casually flipped through an old booklet about the thickness of a finger.
The title Clear Void Heart Method was written neatly on its cover.
“Hmm. So this is the cultivation method our family uses.”
He had learned it as a child, but since he had only learned the introductory portion, this was the first time he had properly examined the entire manual.
After carefully reading through the manual several times, Heo Cheon tilted his head.
‘Something’s strange.’
The principles of the Clear Void Heart Method itself were not particularly different from those of other Daoist cultivation methods.
That was why the method was exceptionally stable. Unless someone overexerted themselves or circulated their energy through an incorrect path, it was almost impossible to suffer qi deviation from practicing it.
‘No matter how many times I look at it, there’s nothing here that should cause qi deviation. Where did things go wrong?’
As he continued examining the manual with growing curiosity, Heo Cheon’s eyes suddenly lit up.
‘Oh-ho. Look at this. Here, here, and even here? Now that I look closely, this isn’t simply an incomplete version after all.’
Astonishingly, there were clearly intentional gaps between certain formulas within the Clear Void Heart Method.
If proper formulas containing the principles of advanced martial arts were inserted into those gaps, the Clear Void Heart Method could be significantly improved.
‘Perhaps the person who passed this incomplete version of the Clear Void Heart Method down to our founder intended for him to fill in these gaps himself and establish his own branch of the art.’
It was difficult for a person to see beyond the limits of their own understanding.
Heo Cheon had not only mastered peerless martial arts that could not even be compared to the Clear Void Heart Method, but his knowledge and understanding of various martial arts had also grown tremendously through the recent War Between the Righteous and Evil Factions.
That was why he was able to instantly recognize the intentional gaps in the Clear Void Heart Method—and understand their meaning—something the members of the Heo Family Manor had failed to notice until now.
‘Father must have vaguely realized this too. That’s why he suddenly pushed himself so hard.’
He had been thinking about the future of his family rather than himself.
But his cultivation was only around the First-Class Realm.
Unlike his son Heo Cheon, he lacked the martial knowledge and insight needed to fill those gaps.
Nor did he have a network of connections from whom he could seek advice.
The Heo Family Manor was like a stagnant pond in Hangzhou, and the heads of the family had traditionally been extremely introverted.
“In the end, it’s like a sparrow trying to keep up with a stork and tearing its legs apart.”
Trying to charge blindly into something without knowing what you were doing could be this dangerous.
“Alright. I’ll examine this properly later. For now, let’s go back to Father.”
Now that he knew the cause of the problem, fixing it would be as easy as eating cold porridge.
Heo Cheon immediately headed for his father’s room.
The maids who had been tending to Heo Jung-man, who could barely move on his own, were startled when Heo Cheon suddenly entered.
“Young Master, what brings you here all of a sudden…?”
“All of you, get out.”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t let anyone come in until I tell you to.”
Faced with the sudden dismissal and one-sided command, the maids did not know what to do.
But for the time being, they followed his orders.
At the same time, one of the maids hurried away somewhere.
Judging by the direction she was heading, she seemed intent on calling Im Ho-pil.
He was the only person in the Heo Family Manor who might be able to stop Heo Cheon.
Heo Cheon paid no attention to this.
He closed the door and approached his father, who was lying on the bed.
“Father. It’s me, Cheon. I’ve been away for so many years due to circumstances beyond my control. But what in the world happened to you? Lying here like this… Are you really going to make this unfilial son suffer by worrying about you so much that you’ll have to beat some sense into me?”
A vertical crease appeared between Heo Cheon’s brows as he spoke words that sounded somewhere between a complaint and a confession.
“Do you know why I wasn’t completely miserable even after living comfortably in another world and then being dropped into such a backward place? It was because I had hoped that my parents would still be alive and healthy, waiting to welcome me home. I didn’t come back just to see Father in this state! So…”
Heo Cheon paused and took a deep breath.
Then he suddenly clenched both fists tightly and finished his sentence.
“From now on, you’re not allowed to be sick without my permission.”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The moment he finished speaking, Heo Cheon’s fists began hammering rapidly across Heo Jung-man’s entire body like a machine gun.
