Chapter 219: Guangdong Jin Manor-1
Chapter 219: Guangdong Jin Manor-1
The Jin Family Stronghold, the overlord of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, was known as the most powerful sect in all of Guangdong.
Its master, the Mad Demon Staff Jin Gong-mu, was a man famous for his extreme arrogance.
He refused to exchange even a single word with anyone he deemed unworthy of his stature, and if he felt that he or his Jin Family Stronghold had been insulted, he would erupt in furious rage and pursue revenge tenfold with relentless tenacity.
The people of Guangdong Province feared Jin Gong-mu and were terrified of provoking his ire.
For one misstep could bring retaliation not only upon oneself but upon one's family and sect as well.
He was a man who was an unwaveringly reliable ally to those on his side, but a true nightmare if he became your enemy.
Yet Jin Gong-mu the Mad Demon Staff, who was viewed that way by the world, now lingered indecisively in front of a secluded outbuilding in the rear courtyard of the Jin Family Stronghold, unable to decide whether to enter or not.
For a man who had always shown only a cold and self-righteous demeanor, it was an uncharacteristically irresolute sight.
"Huuu."
Jin Gong-mu let out a low sigh.
It was because he could not clearly tell whether he truly wanted to go inside or not.
Inside that outbuilding was the person who had dictated the course of his entire life.
The person who had made him unable to live out in the world as he was now.
Jin Gong-mu had always resented and hated him.
And yet, at the same time, he had always worried and longed for him.
But now, that man had finally returned.
And in an aged and weakened state, at that....
Jin Gong-mu did not know what kind of expression he should wear before him, nor what he should say.
That was what kept making him hesitate.
It was then.
From inside the outbuilding came the scolding voice of an old man—ringing and clear, yet somehow drained of vitality.
"If you've come, why are you loitering instead of coming in?! Look at you, the master of the Jin Family Stronghold, pacing around like a constipated puppy about to shit!"
Jin Gong-mu flinched at the voice.
He had not expected the man inside to sense his presence.
After his expression changed several times in a brief moment, he finally frowned as if he had no choice and opened the door to the outbuilding.
Ddeolkeok!
As he stepped inside, he spoke brusquely.
"It seems your time in the mountains bore some fruit after all. You even sensed my presence."
At that, the old man scoffed and replied.
"Hmph! I merely developed keen hearing from being around so many beasts."
Jin Gong-mu, who had been entering after opening the door, stopped his steps abruptly for a moment.
The smell of medicine had suddenly assaulted his nose.
The room was filled entirely with the strong scent of medicine.
Jin Gong-mu's expression darkened slightly at the smell, and he soon opened his mouth again in a sullen tone.
"Your voice is brimming with energy. You could have stayed in the mountains for another ten years. Haven't you returned too early?"
At that, the stubborn-looking old man, who lay with a face that was a picture of illness, scoffed again and retorted.
"Hmph! It seems you've grown into the role of family head indeed. Now you even know how to slight your father for coming home. Don't worry. As soon as my body recovers a bit, I'll take So-eun and return straight to the mountains."
Jin Gong-mu flinched at those words.
And then he immediately cried out, his voice tinged with nerves.
"To the mountains again.... If you must go, Father, go alone! Why take So-eun with you again?! What sin did that child commit?!"
At that, the old man, Jin Sa-mong, burst out in a yell.
"Sin! How dare you call the weighty responsibility of reviving the Natural Staff a sin?! Is that what the master of the Jin Family Stronghold should be saying?!"
It was a voice so thunderous it was hard to believe it came from an old man so clearly ill.
But his son, Jin Gong-mu, was no less loud than his father.
"Exactly! When I said I would bear that weighty responsibility, you beat me senseless to stop me! So why are you doing this now?! What, did our great-great-grandfather Jin Ji-in of the Natural Staff suddenly visit you in a dream and ask a favor?!"
At those words, the old man Jin Sa-mong could no longer speak and shut his mouth firmly.
Because when his son Jin Gong-mu was young, the one who had adamantly opposed and forcibly beat him to stop him when he said he wanted to challenge the Natural Staff was none other than Jin Sa-mong himself.
As his father failed to retort, Jin Gong-mu continued to shout.
Words that had been pent up inside him came pouring out in a sudden surge of emotion.
"Why did you do this to me, when you wouldn't even let me utter a single syllable of the Natural Staff?! One day you suddenly took your young granddaughter and vanished into the mountains without a word, and now after fifteen years you appear and say you're going back to the mountains?! Is that what you should be saying to the son you've met after fifteen years, in that condition?!"
Jin Sa-mong, the former master of the Jin Family Stronghold, had one day suddenly thrust the position of master upon his son Jin Gong-mu as if passing off a burden, and had abruptly left for the mountains.
And so Jin Gong-mu had no choice but to become the master of the Jin Family Stronghold without knowing the reason, without any preparation.
Without any proper handover, without a father at his side to offer advice.
It was by no means an easy thing.
Jin Gong-mu knew his own inadequacies well, and thus thought himself unfit for the position of the Jin Family Stronghold's master.
But he ultimately had to become the master of the Jin Family Stronghold, and even if he knew his own shortcomings, he could not allow others to know them.
Because if he were looked down upon, it would directly tarnish the honor of the Jin Family Stronghold.
So Jin Gong-mu gritted his teeth and pushed himself relentlessly.
'I will absolutely, absolutely not let that happen.'
To avoid being looked down upon, he nurtured a fiercer venom within himself and concealed himself behind a cold and arrogant expression.
From outsiders, from the disciples of the Jin Family Stronghold, and even from his own family.
Those years were exceedingly harsh.
Years in which he had to endure even when his insides festered and burst, just to bear the weight of being the master of the Jin Family Stronghold.
And so, fifteen years passed.
But... even now, after all that time, the situation had not improved much.
Jin Gong-mu still lived hiding his inadequacies behind a cold and arrogant expression.
And probably... he would continue to do so in the future.
That Jin Gong-mu, if he ever met his father again, had wanted to ask him one thing for certain.
Just why he had to do it.
Why he had to leave him and the Jin Family Stronghold as if running away.
He did not even hope for an apology from his father, who had always been stern and frightening.
He just thought he wished his father would at least explain, so he could understand the reason.
But the father he met again was the same as before.
He wore the same stubborn expression as before, and still said only what he wanted to say.
So he hadn't even been able to bring up what he really wanted to say, and yet....
"Umm...."
That father was now squeezing his eyes shut at the sound of his son's resentful shouting.
For Jin Gong-mu, it was nothing short of bewildering.
And what bewildered him did not end there.
After a moment, his father Jin Sa-mong let out a deep sigh and then said,
"We... must revive the Natural Staff. With the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff, one cannot reach the transcendent peak."
What?
The moment he heard those words, Jin Gong-mu's eyes flew wide open.
He thought he might have misheard.
Cannot reach the transcendent peak with the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff?
Could that be true? No, why only now....
He asked in a trembling voice.
"...What did you just say?"
Then Jin Sa-mong weakly repeated his earlier words.
"With the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff, the transcendent peak cannot be reached. The path to the transcendent peak is blocked. I only came to know this fact fifteen years ago."
For a moment, Jin Gong-mu was struck speechless.
He had struggled like a madman all this time to reach the transcendent peak.
But no matter what he did, the realm of the transcendent peak had never opened its path to him.
Until now, Jin Gong-mu had thought it was because of the limits of his own talent.
It was because he lacked the talent to reach the transcendent peak.
Jin Gong-mu let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.
"Heo!"
One day, his father took his daughter Jin So-eun and went up into the mountains, and his greatest worry after being suddenly thrust into the position of master was the fact that he himself was not a transcendent peak master.
Because if it became known that the master of the Jin Family Stronghold, the strongest sect in Guangdong Province, had not reached the transcendent peak, other sects would surely look down on him and challenge him.
The foremost power in Guangdong Province without a transcendent peak master.
He knew all too well how meaningless that was.
Because it would mean he was an easy number-one figure, one who could be toppled at any time, inviting challenge rather than commanding respect.
So the choice Jin Gong-mu made was to act.
He desperately pretended to be a transcendent peak master.
He avoided contact with others, claiming he disliked meeting people beneath his stature, and to prevent anyone from seeing him as easy prey, he thoroughly asserted his pride and retaliated viciously against even the slightest harm, ensuring no one dared to belittle him.
That was it.
All of this was to hide his weakness.
And... his inferiority complex as well.
And yet....
Jin Gong-mu asked his father with trembling eyes.
"Are you saying... that was the limit of the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff? That no matter what I did, I couldn't reach the transcendent peak because of that?"
At Jin Gong-mu's question, Jin Sa-mong silently nodded his head.
Then Jin Gong-mu, who had been looking at his father with briefly shaken eyes, exploded with rage in a single moment and shouted.
"Why! Why are you telling me this only now?! Why didn't you say it back then! How much! Not knowing that truth, how much I...!"
Jin Gong-mu choked up with sorrow and could not continue speaking.
The years of his life flashed by before his eyes.
The countless efforts he had made to become a transcendent peak master.
And the many things he had turned a blind eye to for the sake of those efforts—his family, his clan, himself....
Then Jin Sa-mong let out a sigh and murmured quietly.
"...I'm sorry."
It was an unbelievable thing.
His father, who had always been strict and stubbornly obstinate, had apologized to him.
Jin Gong-mu laughed hollowly again.
"Ha!"
Since childhood, he had always been deeply afraid of his father, who was always blunt and stern.
So he had no choice but to give up even his youthful dreams at the coercion of that frightening father, and yet....
That father was now apologizing to him.
It was strange.
At that unbelievable fact, he somehow felt angrier.
Jin Gong-mu asked his father with a twisted smile.
"So, is that why you ran away back then? Because you couldn't bear the role of a family head who couldn't reach the transcendent peak? So you shoved that role off onto me?"
At his son's question, Jin Sa-mong squeezed his eyes shut.
The resentment laced in that voice seemed to pierce his heart like needles.
Jin Gong-mu burst out laughing.
It was a laugh threaded with strands of fury.
"Ha! Haha! Hahahaha! I see. Not knowing that, I actually thought you were going off to revive the Natural Staff or something. Fooled again, dreaming like a fool! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!"
At his son's despondent laughter, as if he had given up on everything, Jin Sa-mong spoke with difficulty.
"It is not only that. I clearly saw a possibility. So-eun, that child So-eun could.... Ugh!"
As he spoke, Jin Sa-mong was suddenly unable to continue because of a sharp pain gripping his heart.
But to the already enraged Jin Gong-mu, that sight did not appear for what it was.
He cried out in pent-up fury.
"So-eun! You just said So-eun! You turned that graceful, feminine child into that state and it's still not enough for you?! Do you still need that child?! Why?! So you can ruin her like you ruined me?! So you can then run away alone again, is that it?! Because of you! Because of you, my life! My children!"
Jin Gong-mu could shout no more.
It felt as though his chest was completely blocked by the rage surging from his heart.
After gritting his teeth for a moment, seeing that his father remained unable to speak, Jin Gong-mu spat out with bloodshot eyes,
"I will no longer care whether you leave again or not, Father. But! My children are absolutely off-limits! I will not let you ruin them like you ruined me! Absolutely not!"
After shouting that, Jin Gong-mu slammed the door shut and stormed out of the room.
And then, as he strode briskly away, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, strength gone from his steps, and squeezed his eyes shut toward the sky.
If he opened his eyes, he felt tears would surely flow.
Jin Gong-mu knew it well.
That he was neither a good master of the Jin Family Stronghold, nor a good father to his children, nor even a good person.
But still, he thought it didn't matter.
If only he could reach the transcendent peak.
He had always thought that if he could reach the transcendent peak and become a master of the Jin Family Stronghold who could stand with his head held high, then he could finally become a father his children could be proud of, and that he could repay for everything all at once—even for never having shown any interest in how they were growing up.
So he had devoted himself solely to training, paying no attention to clan affairs or family matters.
Whipping himself on, telling himself he was almost there.
That he just had to cross one more mountain to reach his destination.
And yet....
All those years had been in vain.
So utterly.
Futile.