A Fiery Family Feud and the Lingering Shadow of a Hidden Burden
Flames roared across the mansion, hotter than any ordinary fire.
Once a palace of grandeur, it now lay nothing more than a blackened ruin before the fierce crimson flames, its form twisted and crumbling with every passing moment.
“Wow. This place is really run down to the corners. Truly impressive.”
Moyong Ryu, the third son of the Moyong Family, scratched at his slightly wavy forelock and let out a dry chuckle, his mischievous grin leaking through.
—Kwa-kwak, kwa-rurrr…
Inside the raging inferno, the grand estate was collapsing in on itself.
Between the ashes, corpses piled in grotesque heaps.
—Swaaa…
Rain began to fall, soaking the courtyard.
Even as the downpour hammered down on the flames, they showed no sign of dying.
One of the servants nearby stared at the scene in utter disbelief, mouth agape.
“This… must be…”
“Someone must have poured oil on it. How many times have you people done this? If it were us, we wouldn’t have used oil, right?”
Blood-soaked strands of hair clung to Moyong Ryu’s forehead and cheek, dripping steadily.
“Ah…”
The servant hesitated, then set down his pickaxe and pulled a towel from his waist, offering it forward.
“Young Master… here is a towel…”
Moyong Ryu took it and wiped the blood from his hair and face with a calm hand.
The towel quickly turned crimson.
—Clang.
The half-broken steel blade in his grip clattered to the ground.
The servant turned away, staring at the horror before him, unable to speak.
‘This is truly the blood calamity I only heard about in stories… My skin is crawling…’
He glanced sideways at Moyong Ryu.
“Fuck…”
Moyong Ryu gritted his teeth.
From behind, he shouted at the servants frozen in place, tools still raised:
“You bastards! Stop slacking off! Haven’t you finished burying an entire family yet? Do you want to finish the village gossip before you get back to work?!”
“Y-yes! We understand!”
The servants rushed forward at once, loading the bodies onto carts amid the cleanup.
“Fuck…”
Moyong Ryu muttered, chewing on his lip.
“Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit, we’re sorry for calling you out in the middle of your break like this.”
“Please, my lord, even if it’s just in words—”
From behind Moyong Ryu, shadowy figures emerged from the darkness like wraiths, clad in black martial robes embroidered with blood-red patterns.
“If I were still stationed at Cheonsubaekryeonsa for another six years, I wouldn’t have to call you out. I never imagined the family would fall into such chaos… Are any of you injured?”
“We are unharmed. But just now, it looked like someone sliced my shoulder. Are you all right, sir?”
The Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit members wiped blood from their arms-length blades.
“A scratch like that is nothing. Saliva would fix it.”
At that cue, a few scattered voices chimed in from around the unit.
“Your swordsmanship after wiping out the remnants earlier is clearly growing, my lord.”
Calmly, one by one they bowed with proper respect amid the pouring rain.
“It is an honor to meet you again sooner than expected, regardless of the circumstances.”
“Beyond martial prowess, the environment of Cheonsubaekryeonsa is optimized for training. Use the remaining time to focus on your cultivation.”
“We will always repay the kindness of receiving a talent like us from you and allowing us to rise again—”
“Hey, hey, hey.”
Moyong Ryu frowned and waved his hand.
“Ah, those brats. Because they relaxed too much, another mess broke out. Tone down the thanks a bit—your ears will bleed. Oh, right. Chun-bong.”
The towering giant, whose presence cast a full shadow over a 7-foot adult man, bowed with a solemn, cavernous voice.
“Lord… Chun-bong is my name from 17 years ago. His real name is Geukmahwipae, and he—”
“Enough already. How’s your mother’s New Year’s porridge? It’s been a week, right? I suddenly remembered today is her birthday and sent her some through Mal-sook.”
Under the pouring rain, Moyong Ryu continued without an umbrella, voice steady.
“Remember that day at our family reunion? Your mother was from the mountains, so this was her first time eating abalone. She loved it. Especially the abalone.”
“…”
The eyes of the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit members widened.
Moyong Ryu scratched the back of his head.
“When I entered, I couldn’t react as fast as you guys outside. To be honest, I’ve been coordinating with Mal-sook and the three scribes for months, rolling in the mud with the clerks and workers, so of course our speed isn’t the same.”
He pointed to four more members in the group.
“You three, and Dae-chang and Chun-gil. Same here. We’re a little late. Cut us some slack. While I’m here, the contact was messy and my mind was scattered, so our handling is slower than usual.”
“…”
No one answered.
Everyone was quietly smiling.
Since the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit was founded, Moyong Ryu had remained unchanged.
After all these years, he still remembered every subordinate’s childhood name and the family gatherings of each member without exception.
He looked at each one, meeting their eyes.
The rain continued.
Under that rain, Moyong Ryu never once lifted an umbrella.
Not a single member of the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit had brought one to shield him.
Moyong Ryu chuckled.
“Hah. Everyone’s grinning like it’s the best day ever. You people are really enjoying this.”
“It’s been a while, so it feels good, my lord.”
“Good for you? I’m not. Damn it. Being cooped up with just men. Sigh… there…”
Moyong Ryu turned around.
At that moment, the playful glint in his eyes vanished.
“What kind of situation is this…”
He stared at the scene ahead and let out a long breath.
He had fought seven surviving remnant warriors here the moment he arrived.
Those remnants had been buried in the mountains of corpses, now growing cold amid the ashes.
He spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.
“My eldest brother… sits at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, but he’s sold his mind entirely to future power.”
His body was covered in bruises everywhere.
Countless corpses lay before him.
“Does this mean you’ve focused on your martial skill? Who could blame the family bloodline for running wild in greed?”
—Kwa-jik.
The Hwangbo Family Estate
Moyong Ryu stepped on the half-burned wooden gate.
It shattered into splinters beneath his foot.
No mouse survived.
Man, woman, old, young—all dead.
Not a single soul escaped.
The problem was, this hadn’t happened once.
Moyong Ryu squatted down.
“…Believing this was just a high-level protection covenant with the Sichuan Tang Family’s Guardian was too much. This is it.”
A deputy from the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit approached him.
“Perhaps the eldest young master has allied with the other side?”
“…”
Fragments of the servants’ conversation drifted from the site, where they were sorting through the ashes and bodies.
“A few days ago, dark clouds gathered over the Shaanxi direction, and black lightning struck with thunder, they say.”
“You believe that? Kids don’t joke about something like this.”
Moyong Ryu looked at the deputy.
“Shaanxi is in chaos right now. Over five thousand burned to death in the Unwol Jiju district, and rumors of child sacrifices, Blood Cult involvement… everything is ash, so it’s probably just a rumor…”
“It’s not just chaos everywhere.”
Moyong Ryu muttered.
He stood up, dusting off his clothes.
The deputy asked again.
“Lord, what should we do? Before returning to Cheonsubaekryeonsa, please give us your orders.”
Moyong Ryu gazed at the rain-slicked ground, the fire now out, turned to ash.
The servants walked about, extinguishing the last embers.
—Tul-geul, tul-geul.
Carts loaded with corpses rolled toward the side.
—Sump, sump, sump…
They were tying rocks to the bodies and dumping them into the marshland where they would be dissolved with rot-killing medicine.
The sound continued endlessly.
When it finally stopped, nothing remained.
With so many hands at work, the cleanup finished in moments.
This attack had clearly happened on a night of particularly violent thunderstorms.
And the recovery had been carried out under today’s rare downpour.
Gossip would spread, wild speculations would fly, but in the end, it would only become rumor.
“Guess.”
“What?”
Moyong Ryu said, dusting himself off.
“You act so noble and call yourself the orthodox sect’s young master, yet you expand your power without restraint. Right now, in this shit, who else can properly fight you? The second brother? Or one of the other Five Great Families? Those orthodox sect elders? Bullshit. Ah, no. The old fox in the Murim Alliance might be capable. But there he is, an actual fox, so he probably won’t move. Anyway.”
Moyong Ryu shook off the rain from his wet forelock and stood.
“In a dogfight, it’s a dogfight. Let it loose. Start expanding your power. Tell Mal-sook and the three scribes to handle it. This has happened twice already.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And get rid of those slow pigeons. Send over five Blue Hawks that travel a thousand li a day—whatever it’s called, the expensive blue falcons. If the scribes complain about money, tell them I’ll stop drinking for half a year. Then give them money. Never touch their wages. If I say I’m angry, they’ll keep their hands off.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“These bastards… the way you say ‘yes, my lord’ is deafening out here.”
“…”
“I was just joking, my lord.”
Moyong Ryu chuckled.
He had not used any rain shield tool to the very end—including the bamboo umbrella.
The Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit followed suit.
“Hey, can we use this?”
The servants who had been shielding themselves with upside-down bamboo umbrellas flinched nervously at the group’s gaze.
“Are we heading back to Cheonsubaekryeonsa immediately? We will escort you.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit followed Moyong Ryu as he left.
Mud splashed onto the blood-red patterns on their robes, but no one complained.
Moyong Ryu waved dismissively.
“Go ahead. If I’ve got all these dark shadows behind me, my popularity will vanish even more. I won’t even be able to get married.”
“Don’t worry, my lord. Popularity is nonexistent either way.”
Someone in the group shouted.
Moyong Ryu exploded.
“Who the hell is that honest, pure-hearted bastard from just now? Did you turn the wage list pure white?!”
The Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit behind him fell into hellish silence.
Moyong Ryu looked at them blankly, then laughed.
“It’s not that. The reason for this outing is indeed tied to today’s incident, but there’s one more thing I have to check. With you all behind me like this, the other party will feel burdened. I still want to show them my true self as much as possible, so please understand. He’s a bit…”
Moyong Ryu clicked his tongue and gestured vaguely into the air.
“We all have deep wounds in our hearts. That’s why we’re twisted. You understand, right?”
Every member of the Heavenly Death Ghost Martial Unit nodded.
“Then who exactly are you going to see? Since it’s not a woman, no need for elaborate explanation.”
“…”
“Actually, Moyong Ryu-nim seems so approachable, but you’re surprisingly cold and hate most human relationships. We know that better than anyone.”
Moyong Ryu nodded.
“Ah, yeah, you probably don’t know yet. I just got information through a calm, good-looking guy named Jin Muje from the Wudang Sect—not Park Ho of the Wudang, but Jin Muje—and only now am I starting to understand.”
He said.
“There’s someone I have to see. My family. No matter what others say, he is my proud and only blood brother.”
(Moyong Bi Illustration)
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts.