Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Reunion
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Mu-heun was grateful for the consideration of the Heavenly Fortune Trading Company's leader. The leader had prepared a reception room of a suitable size for Mu-heun and his disciples to converse. The room was cozy, about four meters from side to side.
It was a thoughtful gesture, ensuring the space was intimate enough for their conversation not to feel scattered.
Mu-heun paused for a moment in front of the reception room door.
Suddenly, an unknown worry took hold of him.
‘What should I say when I see them?’
Should I tell them I'm actually their deceased master, the Divine Doctor Baek Jung-hyeok?
No, no, these children are scholars I personally saved from war and taught. There's no good in revealing my situation to them, walking a path paved with mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.
Then, what should I say?
Greetings, senior brothers and sister?
No… calling these children I personally saved and raised 'senior brother' and 'senior sister'? The words feel foreign in my mouth. I raised them all myself—fed them, put them to bed, and washed them...
“Phew…”
Mu-heun let out a sigh and began to calm his mind.
‘Right, let's calm down.’
The most important thing now is what they went through, or what they did, after being dragged to the Tang Clan.
I need to find out if there's anything wrong with their mental state, and what plans they have for the future.
If their psychological problems are severe,
I'll have to treat that as well.
After that, if there are no major issues with the children… it would be best for them not to get involved with me as much as possible.
Although the desire to keep them by my side is overwhelming,
I can't do that.
In this life, I am a key figure in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and I will become even more well-known to the martial artists of the Central Plains. In contrast, these children are just powerless scholars…
The more it becomes known that they are connected to me, the more they could be exploited by cunning martial artists.
Therefore, while I shouldn't get close, I had to meet them at least once.
Of course, I'm also curious about how they've been, but what's important now is the future.
I needed to know. Whether they properly understood their current situation, and if they did, whether they had a plan.
Only then could I know if there was anything I could do to help. And if the children aren't thinking about their own circumstances and safety… I'll have to ask Gam Pa-pa or Pae-seon to assign people to ensure they can live safely.
Also, with their knowledge, they could survive anywhere while receiving huge research funds, so I should also consider arranging a place for them to work.
The path I will walk from now on will be a path of death, stained red with blood. I hoped that at least the children I loved, yes, at least these children, would be happy.
Therefore, without revealing my identity, I need to ask if they have enough financial resources to live on, and if they have the means to protect themselves.
But this would truly be the last time. No matter how much Gam Pa-pa protects them, as long as I don't know what the future holds, getting any closer is not a good idea.
So. For the children's sake, I…
...must let them go.
‘Alright. This is the best way. There is no other path.’
As if having hardened his resolve, Mu-heun opened the reception room door.
The reception room door opened, and Baek Ji-pyeong, Baek Yeon-ho, and Baek So-so, who were sitting inside, immediately stood up upon seeing me. Among them, Baek Ji-pyeong greeted Mu-heun and spoke.
“Greetings. We are the disciples of the greatest Divine Doctor in this world. Are you perhaps our master's final disciple?”
For a moment, Mu-heun felt a sting in his nose and raised his sleeve to wipe it.
He had resolved to maintain his composure, but that resolution, made hundreds of times, melted away like snow in the spring sun the moment he saw his beloved disciples' faces. He didn't know how to hide his reddening eyes.
“Th-that…”
“Huh? A-are you crying…”
Even as his nose stung and his eyes reddened, Mu-heun barely managed to hold back his tears.
Seeing him like this, the disciples silently approached, put their arms around his shoulders, and patted his back, saying.
“You must have had a very hard time.”
“We know. We did too.”
“We also cried a lot after losing our master.”
“How difficult it must have been for you, junior brother, at such a young age.”
“It's alright to cry your heart out.”
In this moment, a scene Mu-heun had never anticipated unfolded.
Mu-heun's disciples offered him comfort,
and Mu-heun received his disciples' comfort.
‘You rascals, that's not it. I'm actually your master…’
However, contrary to his thoughts, tears finally streamed down his cheeks.
“P-please excuse me, I need to use the restroom for a moment.”
The disciples looked at him with pity and told him to go ahead.
Having stepped out for a moment, Mu-heun returned from the restroom, thinking he should now properly ask how the children had been. But as he stood before the reception room door again, he heard his disciples talking.
-Senior brothers, did you see him earlier? He looked like he just passed the age of twenty.
-Yes, I saw. He's not our master, yet he cried just from seeing us, his master's disciples. He's still a child.
-That poor child lost his master, how heartbroken he must be.
-Considering our master's history of taking us in, it's likely he doesn't have parents either.
-Just parents? He probably has no family to look after him, and the world must have been eager to exploit a child like him. That must be why our master took him in.
-Imagine how much he must have relied on our master… I could tell just by looking at his expression earlier.
-Did you see it too, senior brother? The way he tried so hard to hold back his tears. He could have just cried, it was so heartbreaking...
-Besides, he came from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, considered the most dangerous place in the Central Plains. How much worse must it have been?
-Indeed. Even for us, who grew up in the Central Plains, life was arduous and difficult before we met our master. How much more so in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, where vicious demonic practitioners are said to gather.
-Therefore, we must help him. We are all indebted to the same master, and aren't we his senior brothers and sister?
-That's right. Let's ask him if he wants to come with us.
-We can't just stop at asking. From what I saw earlier, he doesn't seem the type to easily accept favors or rely on others.
-Then what should we do?
-We'll have to persuade him. We are the only ones who can share memories of our master with him and soothe the wounds he's suffered. So, shouldn't we convince him to come with us?
-Just like our master did for us in the past?
-Exactly. Our master also lost his family and village to martial artists, so he understood our situation better than anyone. In that respect, we also share the common ground of losing the same master. We should be able to look after him and keep him from going astray.
-Yes. Besides, we are scholars who earn a great deal of money from research grants. We can promise him ample support for whatever he wants to do in the future.
-He might be anxious about retaliation from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult after leaving. We must be able to protect him from that, shouldn't we?
-Should we arrange a place in Hubei Province, where the Martial Alliance is? Or he could stay here, where Gam Pa-pa is. Gam Pa-pa said the new Family Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan will grant any request we make.
-I also have connections with the executives of the Martial Alliance. Not only that, I have ties with the Wudang Sect, the Mount Hua Sect, the Zhuge Family, and the Hebei Peng Clan, so we can go anywhere.
-If not, staying at the Azure Dragon Escort Agency, where we've conducted research for a long time, wouldn't be a bad idea either.
-The Azure Dragon Escort Agency, you mean… Indeed, they have two masters who have reached the pinnacle of their art. It seems they have quite a few supreme masters as well.
-I heard they recently recruited a master of the Transformation Realm who had been living in seclusion, honing their skills.
-Good. In any case, we have more than enough means to take him in, protect him, and support him.
-Then, let's try to persuade him when he returns.
-Let's do that.
Mu-heun stood outside the door, silently listening to his disciples' conversation. And he realized.
Until he first came here and met his disciples, he had thought of them as mere children.
That's why he worried if their minds were alright…
If they had suffered anything at the hands of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
If there were any parts of them that were psychologically unstable.
Also, what their plans for the future were,
and whether they had a place to stay…
He had intended to worry about everything, from such minor details to the major ones.
However, they were, in fact, more worried about him.
They worried about Mu-heun's future and made plans for it. They were no longer powerless children. Though they might lack personal martial strength, they were individuals with the power to accurately assess situations, prepare for them, and plan for the future.
At the same time, they were people with the power to take in, care for, and support those younger and in more unfortunate circumstances than themselves.
They were no longer the fragile children who followed and relied on him. The children had now become scholars who stood tall and proud on their own.
And just as he had, they possessed the heart to give to others. The garden of their hearts seemed wider and warmer than the one he once had.
It became clear.
If it hadn't been a matter related to him, these children were not the type to cooperate with the Sichuan Tang Clan led by Dang Baek-ho, nor were they people who could be dragged away by force.
It was only because it was related to him that they had come to Sichuan, to the Tang Clan, of their own accord, and had prepared countermeasures accordingly.
And now that the full truth about the Tang Clan and his death had been revealed, the children, free once more… had nothing holding them back.
They would simply embrace children in unfortunate situations, just as he had done.
He felt his eyes redden again. His heart swelled, and he couldn't control the surging emotions.
The day he died at the hands of the Golden Fang Poison Claw.
The day he met his death with a grieving heart.
The day his life as the Divine Doctor ended so meaninglessly.
He had regretted.
He had dedicated himself so much to his studies, striving to change the world, only for it to result in such a miserable death. His heart had ached.
To think that what remained after his death was not the Myriad Fragrance Grand Restoration Formation, but a wicked formation that contributed to the cultivation of Poison Blood Demons…
He had felt his sense of self blur from the piercing sorrow and guilt. That was why he learned the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon and came back to life, to set it all right.
However…
Seeing his disciples, he realized.
It seemed what he knew wasn't everything.
Just as he had done, the children—his children—were carrying on his will. His life as the Divine Doctor was being passed on with some meaning after all.
The children probably thought he couldn't hear their conversation, but he heard it. And he found deep solace in it.
‘Hahaha, I came here worried about my disciples' well-being, both body and mind, but instead, I'm the one being comforted by them.’
The Heavenly Demon Master had asked him to carry on his will, even going against the order of the heavens, but his own will as the Divine Doctor had already been passed on to his children.
In the end, he stood blankly outside the door for a long while, calming his heart, before opening the reception room door again with an endlessly bright expression.
Now, he planned to simply converse with the children without any ulterior motive. He would now truly enjoy his reunion with them.
And so, with light steps and an infinitely clear expression, Mu-heun opened the reception room door and went inside.