Son
The day Namgung Clan Estate sent word that Dang Garyeong had passed away, Dang Hyeongeuk’s mind was so hollow with shock that he barely remembered how he had even made it to Anhui.
...Garyeong.
He had prayed with all his heart that it was some terrible mistake.
With trembling fingers, he stroked his younger sister’s cheek as she lay there with her eyes peacefully closed.
Her face was still beautiful, but unlike before, it held no warmth at all. It was cold to the touch.
You sent word that you would return to the main house, and yet you lounged about here without a care. No matter how long I waited, you never came, so in the end, this elder brother came for you himself. Now then—open your eyes.
He could hear people around him stifling their sobs.
Are you truly going to lie there forever? Open your eyes, just a little. Open your eyes...
For a moment, grief closed up his throat, and no sound would come out.
His vision blurred with tears, and his chest hurt as if it were being carved open by a blade.
After a moment of haggard breathing, his shoulders heaved, and he dragged in air in ragged gasps.
"Namgung Cheon! Where are you!"
He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and roared in fury.
So he had claimed he cherished her more than his own life—then how could Garyeong be lying here while that man did not even show his face?
As he swept the area with bloodshot eyes, his gaze suddenly caught on Namgung Cheon, who sat not far away in a daze.
"You still have the nerve to breathe? I’ll not let you off so easily today—!"
He strode toward him with the force of someone ready to snuff out his breath on the spot, but then he froze, startled, and could do nothing but stop short.
Eyes emptied of life, staring at nothing but the void.
Cheeks gone gaunt, lips without the slightest trace of color.
He looked nothing like a living man.
He had lost his younger sister, yes—but Namgung Cheon had lost the beloved he had vowed to spend his life beside.
So the grief crushing him must surely be no less than his own.
The body that had been held up only by anger finally sank to the floor in a dull collapse.
If he had known it would end so meaninglessly, he never would have let her leave the main house.
He swallowed his belated remorse and wept, but the more he cried, the more only Garyeong’s smiling face came to mind.
Just once.
If he could see Garyeong alive again, even one more time...
From that day on, Dang Hyeongeuk lived while burying that wish, the deepest wound in his heart, like an unhealed scar.
At times, he would fall into thought and drift back to those long-lost days, but eventually he would close his eyes and face reality once more.
It was a wish that could never be granted now; what good was there in clinging to it?
Just as the face of that cherished person had begun to fade at the edges of memory—
"A young lady named Cheongwol from Qinghai Province requests an audience with the clan heads of Sichuan Tang Clan and Namgung Clan Estate."
Garyeong appeared before him again.
As if two decades had slipped by in a single breath, she stood exactly as she had when she left the main house.
---
For a moment, Dang Hyeongeuk could only stare, stunned beyond belief, before he hurriedly turned his head to look at Namgung Cheon.
Sure enough, Namgung Cheon’s lips were trembling as though he had been struck by a violent shock.
"Her name... What did you say her name was?"
After Dang Hyeongeuk had first told him the name, he had repeated it over and over again to himself—there was no way he could have forgotten it.
It was less a question than a demand for confirmation.
"Cheongwol. If I have somehow been rude, then I—"
-thud
Before she could finish, Namgung Cheon reached out almost unconsciously and seized Cheongwol’s arm.
"...?"
He had meant to confirm whether the person before him was real or some illusion, but Cheongwol, who had no way of knowing that, was thrown into a panic.
"Hey now. You’ve frightened the child."
Unable to bear it any longer, Dang Hyeongeuk lightly grasped Namgung Cheon’s wrist and pulled his hand away from Cheongwol.
He understood the man’s feelings all too well, but for now, they needed to approach this slowly—for Cheongwol’s sake as much as anything.
"Let us move elsewhere first. Gangjin."
Sensing that the atmosphere was anything but ordinary, Dang Gangjin answered at once.
"The jade pendant is on my person. Please, come to the clan head’s quarters."
---
Just a moment ago, they had still been bidding one another farewell—so how had matters turned into this?
With her hands resting on her knees, Cheongwol cast nervous glances around the room.
Dang Gangjin and Dang Sohye remained silent, while Dang Hyeongeuk examined the jade pendant with a low hum.
And Namgung Cheon—the one who had startled her by abruptly seizing her wrist—was still staring at her as though he had lost his soul somewhere along the way.
Had the two clan heads perhaps noticed that she was connected to the Im family?
Come to think of it, had Dang Gangjin not once said that Dang Hyeongeuk might know the pendant’s owner?
As unease rose in her chest, Cheongwol bit lightly at her lower lip, silently chiding herself for being careless.
Just as she was trying to force down her anxiety and covertly raise the inner power in her dantian—
"I heard you came from Qinghai Province."
Dang Hyeongeuk’s low voice reached her ears.
"...Yes."
"I was told your parents are still there, living as traveling merchants."
"That’s right."
As the lies left her lips, her breathing grew heavier, but by now there was nothing she could do about it.
Even if she poured every shred of her inner energy into the Sunflower Manual, could she even make it past the threshold of the Tang Clan?
No matter how she measured it, she could not see a way out. Frowning deeply, she was still searching for a solution when Dang Hyeongeuk let out a long sigh and spoke again.
"Then let me ask plainly. What is your relationship to the owner of this jade pendant?"
Feeling as though the ground beneath her feet had opened into a bottomless cliff, Cheongwol swallowed dryly.
"...I’m sorry, but that’s hard for me to say."
She tried one futile struggle after another, but Dang Hyeongeuk’s gaze remained fixed on her, piercing straight through her defenses.
"No, I must know. Because..."
A translucent, flower-shaped jade pendant of pale green was held out before Cheongwol.
"I carved this pendant myself."
---
Grandfather.
Like you said, I should have just forgotten about revenge and lived an ordinary life.
-BOOM!
With a deafening crash of splintering wall, Cheongwol’s body shot out of the clan head’s quarters.
Inner power poured from her dantian like a torrent and surged through her meridians in an instant.
From the perineum straight to the Yongcheon point without the slightest hesitation.
Qi gathered and compressed at the tips of her feet, then exploded outward, slicing the air with a shrill tear.
She had never imagined she would end up using Yin-Yang Grind in a way taught to her by Yu Baekheon like this.
Outside, the startled gazes of Hong Chilsong, Ak Seo-ah, and Seomun Hwi flashed by as they waited for her.
...
If Seomun Hwi somehow learned who she truly was, what kind of expression would he make?
"Stop right there!"
Perhaps because that fleeting thought crossed her mind, she left just enough of an opening for Dang Hyeongeuk, who had pursued her with Thunder Pursuit Steps, to close the distance.
-whoosh!
From Dang Hyeongeuk’s sleeve, white dragon whips shot toward Cheongwol’s ankles again and again, but without true force behind them, they only struck the ground.
By the time Cheongwol steadied her breathing and widened the gap between them, Dang Hyeongeuk shouted in desperation,
"I am not trying to harm you! I swear upon the name of Sichuan Tang Clan!"
Yet Cheongwol acted as though she had heard nothing, continuing toward the end of the inner hall.
Once she made it out of the inner hall, even if they caught her, too many eyes would be watching, and the matter would be hard to settle cleanly.
And it was not as though he could recklessly unleash a powerful martial art on Cheongwol, who was almost certainly his niece.
As he stood there, unable to go forward or back, staring only at her retreating back—
suddenly, a colossal pressure slammed down over his shoulder, forcing him to halt in place.
Startled by the strange energy he had never felt before in his life, he turned with difficulty, only to see Namgung Cheon flash past him like lightning.
They say it’s swordsmanship without a sword. So this is what it meant?
The Emperor’s Sword Form.
It was the moment when Sichuan’s sky turned into the Namgung Clan’s boundless blue heavens.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have allowed such a thing, but now he felt nothing but relief.
...This time, please don’t be late.
---
Cheongwol was startled when her entire body suddenly felt as heavy as cotton soaked through with water, but she calmly gathered her inner power and tried to shake off the invisible force pressing down on her.
Her resolve to avenge her family was, for now, nothing more than a burden dragging at her feet.
Only after seeing the blade pressed to her throat did she understand.
She was still not ready to lay down her life with humility.
Grandfather, if you can see me, please help me. Please...
Just as she barely managed to leap over the final wall of the inner hall—
Namgung Cheon’s hand appeared again and seized her shoulder once more.
"Hng...!"
Perhaps because she had poured all of her strength into moving forward, her body lost balance and pitched toward the floor without even a chance to recover.
By all logic, she should have rolled across the ground in a miserable heap.
Instead—
"You’re safe now."
What received her was not the cold, hard floor, but the strangely gentle embrace of a man’s arms.
...
The sorrow in the man’s eyes was so deep that Cheongwol could only look at him, forgetting even to struggle free.
"I’m sorry I was so late."
They had met for the first time today, and yet what was he apologizing for?
When the man finally shed tears, Cheongwol felt a stabbing ache in her own chest as well.
There was no reason for it at all, which made it all the more strange.
"No matter what happens now, I will protect you. So don’t worry about anything anymore."
Namgung Cheon’s trembling hand gently brushed Cheongwol’s cheek.
"My son."