Children were greedy.
Or else, they were curious.
Children who were not that way were not highly valued within the Namgung Clan.
Why?
Because they were judged to have no desire or ambition.
Human beings, by nature, needed something they wanted in order to move.
They ate because they were hungry, and they slept because they wanted to sleep.
As children grew, they began pursuing not only basic desires, but something higher.
Because that was how the Namgung Clan taught them.
‘But this child wanted nothing.’
A child who merely shut himself inside his room.
That was why no one had paid him any attention.
A child no one cared about, and no one kept in check.
That was Namgung Yeon.
“Is that truly the first request you make of the clan head?”
“Yes.”
Do not worry.
From now on, I’ll be asking for all kinds of things.
Namgung Yeon said so inwardly, and with his gaze.
His father, Namgung Mu, would have understood what meaning that gaze held just by looking at it.
He would also come to realize that the succession structure would become very complicated from now on.
It did not matter.
The winner of the succession structure was already as good as decided anyway.
“There are three months left. What can you, who have never learned martial arts, do in that time?”
“What would I need to do?”
What is your standard, Father?
Namgung Yeon asked calmly.
It did not matter what answer came from his father.
Through his countless experiences, he had already seen through everything Namgung Mu could imagine.
Namgung Mu met his son’s eyes for a moment, then set a somewhat unreasonable condition.
Of course, along with a fitting reward.
“First-rate. If your martial arts rise to the level of a first-rate martial artist or above within three months, I shall grant you what you want.”
“First-rate...... Understood.”
Namgung Mu felt an unclear emotion as he watched his son answer calmly.
A first-rate martial artist.
It was a realm an ordinary martial artist could reach after training for an entire lifetime.
Of course, that was based on someone training alone, without any fortunate encounters or connections.
Prestigious clans and famous sects produced first-rate warriors as if stamping them out.
But it was by no means easy.
That was because most of them reached first-rate only after passing the age of twenty.
It was a realm that required more than ten years of harsh training.
‘Would you even be able to gauge the level of first-rate?’
So just escape third-rate.
That was his father’s true intention.
Of course, Namgung Mu, wearing the mask of the clan head, did not show it at all.
“Where should I prove myself?”
“The Group Leader Selection Trial.”
The Group Leader Selection Trial.
It was an evaluation battle that allowed one to secure an advantageous position when the Young Clan Head Competition began.
If one became a group leader there, it would become good experience for leading warriors in the future.
The clan elders also valued that part more highly.
Namgung Yeon nodded.
That point could be called the opening of the competition, so there would be no better stage.
“Good.”
“Is there anything else you want?”
“Please give me one person.”
A person......
A faint smile passed over Namgung Mu’s lips.
It seemed his son had already grasped the important things.
It was an emotion revealed only briefly, but his mind was already flowing toward the thought that supporting him would be acceptable.
“What kind of person do you need? Shall I attach an instructor to you?”
“No. There should be someone named [Nam Hoho]. I need a bastard to do the cleaning.”
“Nam Hoho......?”
It was a name he had never heard before.
The clan head had no need to go around memorizing the name of every single member of the household.
However, the unexpected part was why he was asking not for a martial arts expert, but for an ordinary cleaner.
There was no need to ask.
Everything was his own choice, and so long as he was a member of the Namgung Clan, he had to take responsibility for that choice.
In this place, if one could not become strong, one would simply be culled.
“Very well.”
The clan head’s final approval had been given.
***
“How was he?”
“Yeon seems to have changed a great deal.”
“Yeon has?”
Namgung Mu spoke briefly with his wife, Soyeon, about Namgung Yeon.
It had been a short meeting, but the impression it left was extremely strong.
Namgung Mu gave his thoughts in brief.
“I thought he was a child with no greed and no drive.”
“......”
At Namgung Mu’s words, Soyeon closed her mouth and thought back over Yeon all this time.
It was true.
He had wanted nothing.
That was why she had worried about him even more.
It was the first time Yeon had ever asked for something.
On top of that, his gaze had changed as well......
Namgung Mu opened his mouth as though boasting.
“But that was not the case. The boy was coiled up, healing his wounds.”
“He was only waiting through all those long years? Without a single tantrum?”
“That is precisely what I have expectations for.”
How much pain must he have suffered through all those years?
Had he borrowed the power of medicinal ingredients to connect his fine meridians one by one?
Or had he cried, prayed, and circulated his energy?
Any method was fine.
Was what mattered not the fact that he had endured so much and overcome his own weakness?
With that level of mental fortitude, he would do his work properly even if he claimed a place for himself.
“So long as he grows stronger within Namgung’s framework, what does the method matter?”
“To think Yeon suffered that much......”
“Do not worry too much. He did not seem ordinary.”
As Soyeon’s eyes reddened, Namgung Mu held her hand.
Looking at him as another man, his son was not the sort to collapse easily.
Moreover, if one was a child of a martial clan, should he not gladly accept this much hardship with a smile?
“Let us watch over him.”
“Please let me visit him once every seven days and nights.”
“He is your son.”
Soyeon smiled brightly at Namgung Mu’s words.
He was a firm clan head on the outside, but to her, he was a warm man.
That was Namgung Mu.
“Then I should help him prepare to leave.”
Soyeon rolled up both sleeves.
He was a direct descendant of the great Namgung.
She could not let him go anywhere and be cowed.
With eyes sparkling brightly, Soyeon headed to her son.
***
“Pack this too, and this too......”
“Mother.”
“This is for washing your face. If you sprinkle this before you sleep, a fragrance good for the body will settle in......”
“Mother?”
“And this is...... yes?”
In the middle of explaining in a frenzy, Soyeon looked at her son.
Namgung Yeon sighed and said, “I can’t carry all this.”
“Can’t you just have people carry it for you?”
“And I’m just going right nearby. It isn’t even as far as Wuhu.”
“My child, still, take it all with you, all right?”
Namgung Yeon sighed, then nodded.
Anhui Province.
Among its places, he intended to move only within Hefei.
It was a distance he could reach within a day if he rode a horse or used lightness skill.
He was going somewhere so close that, if he fell, his nose would touch it, yet she was showing this much devotion.
This must be a mother’s heart.
That was why Namgung Yeon could not bring himself to refuse.
Perhaps it was because he knew this was the last time.
“All right. Instead, please send these along with people. I intend to move ahead first.”
“Very well. Should I not attach guards to you?”
“I will go first and look at the land.”
There was nothing within Hefei that was not under the Namgung Clan’s influence, so what gutsy bastard would dare touch the Namgung Clan?
Among the vast region, there was a place Namgung Yeon had his eye on.
A place he had always favored as a hideout during his countless regressions.
‘I handled it with violence before. Will it be the same this time too?’
Namgung Yeon took a simple bundle and a sword, then left the clan estate in secret.
His official purpose was recuperation in a quiet place.
As he rode in a palanquin, he heard the clan’s people whispering.
“Who is that?”
“I heard it’s Young Master Yeon?”
“Ah......”
They soon lost interest.
From time to time, he heard concerned remarks as well.
“What a shame about his poor health. The clan head must be worried.”
“Tsk, exactly. He is still his child, so of course he must pity him.”
And some also let out sighs of relief.
It was obvious who they were.
“Still, that means one competitor has been reduced, does it not?”
“True. The direct descendants are already so powerful......”
“Must be nice. Some people get treated like that and travel in comfort.”
They were remarks that would never be possible in an ordinary clan.
But this was the Namgung Clan, where one was judged only by strength.
Namgung Yeon, too, did not think much of it.
‘They too ultimately died while working for the murim.’
So how could he hate them?
He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
For now, he only needed to focus on becoming stronger.
Time passed, and Namgung Yeon arrived at his destination.
One escort warrior stood beside him.
THUMP, THUMP. When he knocked on the door of the old martial hall, a man revealed himself.
“Welcome. Who are you?”
“I am Namgung Yeon.”
“Namgung......? N-Namgung, you say?!”
“Yes.”
Namgung Yeon spoke calmly and entered the small martial hall.
And the hall master stared at him as if looking at a madman.
‘It always puts my mind at ease.’
Namgung Yeon looked slowly around the martial hall and smiled faintly.
It had been a long time.
The southernmost edge of Hefei.
A martial hall standing on a low hill.
It was a nameless martial hall, but from the hill, one could see Chaohu Lake, the pride of Hefei.
One of the five largest lakes on the continent.
And one of the places where calamity would someday occur.
‘This martial hall is an excellent place to look out over Chaohu Lake. And......’
Namgung Yeon cut off his thoughts and turned to speak to the hall master.
“I will buy this martial hall.”
“......Pardon?”
“I said I would buy the martial hall.”
Namgung Yeon tossed him a pouch filled with gold ingot.
A single gold ingot was enough money for an ordinary person to live on for a lifetime with plenty left over.
For ordinary people, a gold ingot was something difficult even to see.
If that did not make it feel real, how about putting it this way?
“It is enough money to feed an entire village. For that much, you can hand over this whole martial hall, can you not?”
“......”
“Why? Is it not enough?”
Showing up out of nowhere and slinging money around?
What the hell is this bastard?
He said he was from the Namgung Clan, but was his sense of money completely shattered?
The hall master of the martial hall, who had been caught up in something bizarre since morning, wore a dazed expression.
It seemed he still could not grasp what was happening.
“You just need to take yourself and leave. Ah, I suppose you cannot do that.”
“What do you mean by......?”
Namgung Yeon smiled quietly.
He had always used violence whenever he took this place.
Why had he done that?
The reason was simple.
‘To think this place, which no one had paid any attention to, was the starting point of destruction.’
In the far future.
The Namgung Clan would have to abandon Anhui and flee.
Because enemies would come surging in from Jiangxi, from Zhejiang, from Jiangsu, and from Hubei as well.
‘I tried to solve this with money-slinging, but I still can’t let it pass.’
They were an unknown enemy, and they were the ones trying to swallow this entire murim.
They were monsters that did not follow the distinction between righteous and evil.
The place where every calamity began was right here, this hidden martial hall.
That was why he had always had to seize this place by force.
Namgung Yeon’s ultimate enemy.
This martial hall was where its pawns were operating in the shadows.
The identity of the enemy that led them to destruction was none other than-.
“I have much to tell the demonic forces-.”
“KRAAAAGH!”
WHOOSH—!
The attack came flying the instant Namgung Yeon finished speaking.
Though it had come as a surprise attack, Namgung Yeon dodged it by leaning his waist back slightly.
“Young Master!”
“Stay still.”
Namgung Yeon stopped the escort warrior, who was about to step forward, and gripped the handle of his sword.
His body was still weak, but he could handle this much.
The violence directed at you bastards had been repeated countless times, and now its limits would disappear.
‘Does this make the money-slinging pointless too?’
With that idle thought, he took his stance.
It did not matter.
There would be more than enough places to spend money going forward.
“KIEEEAAARGH—!”
“You’re noisy.”
Namgung Yeon’s sword burst out from its sheath.
The sword of Namgung.
A sword bearing the will to swallow everything and place even nature beneath its feet.
[Sovereign Sword Form]
“This time, things will not go as you bastards wish.”
Kneel before the sovereign of mankind.
Namgung Yeon’s sword moved.