Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Family Tribunal
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“Ughhh.”
“Cough! Cough!”
The groans of Jeong Tae-seong and his crew echoed down the mountain trail.
It was because Shin Yu-hyun had ultimately sealed their dantians.
One by one, they crawled across the dirt, vomiting blood.
“Yo-you vicious bastard...”
“How can you call yourself human after this!”
“Give me back my dantian!”
Grinding their teeth, they spat curses at Shin Yu-hyun.
But the gaze he turned on them was utterly frigid.
“What a joke. Who was it that tried to pull this on me? You lot, right?”
At Shin Yu-hyun’s icy words, Jeong Tae-seong and his group flinched and clamped their mouths shut.
There was nothing to say in rebuttal.
It was exactly as he’d said.
“You came here to seal my dantian. So you must’ve been prepared to get the same treatment yourselves.”
“N-No, that’s...”
“Or did you lack even that much resolve?”
“Tch.”
Jeong Tae-seong ground his teeth and turned his head aside.
Honestly, they hadn’t given it a second thought.
They’d never imagined losing to Shin Yu-hyun.
“Pathetic trash.”
Shin Yu-hyun glared at Jeong Tae-seong and his crew with cold eyes.
In his previous life, he’d seen trash like them countless times.
Perpetrators who tormented others.
Getia were the prime example.
The Getia obsessively hounded humanity, doling out despair and agony.
Because they wielded power far beyond humans’.
They never once considered the possibility of losing to mere humans.
Just like Jeong Tae-seong’s group hadn’t thought they’d lose to Shin Yu-hyun.
That’s what let them torment others.
Believing themselves untouchable.
So what should he do?
The answer was simple.
Give it right back to them.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Make them taste exactly what they dished out.
Only then would they come to their senses.
At least, that’s how Shin Yu-hyun saw it.
“Now you get it too, don’t you? That you have to take responsibility for your actions.”
Jeong Tae-seong’s group had learned that lesson far too late.
With their dantians sealed, they’d never wield mana again.
For superhumans, it was a fate worse than death.
“Ugh!”
They had no response to Shin Yu-hyun’s words.
They simply lay collapsed on the ground, clutching fistfuls of dirt as tears streamed down their faces.
But Shin Yu-hyun still had unfinished business.
Jeong Tae-seong and his crew had paid for trying to seal his dantian.
Others still needed to pay as well.
“Very well.”
Shin Yu-hyun looked down at them with frigid eyes.
“Who sent you?”
“...!”
Those words made the group jolt and tremble.
“Tell me who sent you to seal my dantian.”
“W-We don’t...”
Boom!
“Argh!”
The ground beside Jeong Tae-seong exploded in an instant.
Shin Yu-hyun had stomped down, unleashing a shockwave.
Jeong Tae-seong screamed as he tumbled across the earth several times over.
“Cough! Cough!”
“You’d better answer if you want to live. I’m not in the best mood right now.”
Shin Yu-hyun gazed down at them coldly.
He already knew who was behind them, of course.
It had to be his second brother, Shin Cheol-jin.
But he needed evidence.
Proof that Shin Cheol-jin had sent them to seal his dantian.
Even for a second brother, this crosses the line badly.
He couldn’t forgive it.
And Shin Cheol-jin—along with everyone else involved—would pay dearly one day.
Just like this lot rolling in the dirt right now.
“Tell me everything about everyone involved in this.”
Sin Yu-hyun spoke coldly to the trembling group.
That night, the clan was in an uproar.
The reason was singular.
The third son had caused a major incident.
Three members of the Vermilion Bird Sword Division had returned in tatters.
Bones twisted, bodies broken beyond repair, dantians sealed shut.
They could never wield mana again.
The Vermilion Bird Hall was in chaos.
Jeong Tae-seong and his crew were promising juniors they’d pinned their hopes on.
And the one who’d done it? Shin Yu-hyun.
“Shin Yu-hyun! You mangy cur!”
In the Clan Leader’s Hall—the clan’s meeting chamber.
Unable to contain his fury, Shin Cheol-jin glared daggers at Shin Yu-hyun and bellowed.
But Shin Yu-hyun, standing alone at the center, remained utterly composed.
And then.
Rumble...
An overwhelming pressure crushed down on the entire chamber.
Sin Cheol-jin’s mouth snapped shut mid-glare.
Clan Leader Shin Sung-il had silenced him with presence alone.
“Shin Yu-hyun. Explain what happened.”
Sin Sung-il spoke, his face expressionless, eyes fixed on his son.
The chamber was packed with the clan leader, executives, and all the relatives.
They wouldn’t normally gather like this.
The clan stayed neutral in the successor struggle, after all.
But there were exceptions.
Murder. Or dantian sealing.
Even if superhumans’ power drove society, the law of Korea still held sway.
That was why Shin Cheol-jin—leader of the Vermilion Bird Sword Division—had summoned the executives and relatives for an emergency tribunal against Shin Yu-hyun within the clan.
“Jeong Tae-seong of the Vermilion Bird Sword Division ambushed me. He said he was going to seal my dantian.”
Sin Yu-hyun answered Shin Sung-il’s question in a calm, even tone.
He’d sent Ka-mang-i straight back to his room in the Black Tortoise Hall the moment they’d returned, on the sly.
No risk of Shin Sung-il noticing.
“Jeong Tae-seong ambushed you?”
“That’s not what we heard.”
The executives murmured at Shin Yu-hyun’s words.
The tribunal’s purpose had been to grill him.
Shin Cheol-jin had lodged a complaint: that Shin Yu-hyun had ambushed his division members and sealed their dantians through cowardly means.
But they’d ambushed him instead?
“Don’t spew nonsense! You sneak-attacked Jeong Tae-seong and sealed his dantian! Quit dodging responsibility!”
Sin Cheol-jin snapped irritably at Shin Yu-hyun’s claim.
The hot-tempered man was already seething inside.
He’d lost talented assets.
His head was so hot with rage he couldn’t see straight.
“Then do you have proof?”
“Proof?”
“Proof that I ambushed Jeong Tae-seong and his group.”
Sin Yu-hyun addressed Shin Cheol-jin with formal respect.
This was a meeting of the clan’s top brass, after all.
The bare minimum courtesy.
Hearing that, Shin Cheol-jin barked through gritted teeth.
“What proof do we need? The fact that you took down Jeong Tae-seong’s group alone is the proof! You couldn’t have beaten them head-on!”
Jeong Tae-seong’s crew were 3-star mid-to-low tier experts.
Shin Yu-hyun was known to be merely 2-star mid.
Taking them down solo would be near impossible.
But Shin Yu-hyun had broken through to 3-star low now.
That’s how he’d subdued them alone.
Shin Cheol-jin had no way of knowing, so suspicion was inevitable.
To him, Shin Yu-hyun said as he pulled out his smartphone.
“I have proof. I recorded my conversation with Jeong Tae-seong’s group.”
Sin Yu-hyun looked at Shin Cheol-jin and curled his lips into a smirk.
During their talk, he’d hit record on his phone.
He played for everyone in the chamber the part where Seo Min-jun and Kim Do-yoon threatened to seal his dantian.
Then, with a composed expression, Shin Yu-hyun scanned his father Shin Sung-il, the relatives, and the executives before speaking.
“To reiterate: Jeong Tae-seong’s group struck first and threatened to seal my dantian. I didn’t.”
“...!”
Shin Cheol-jin’s face twisted into a demonic snarl.
He hadn’t expected Shin Yu-hyun to have evidence.
“Shin Cheol-jin. Any rebuttal?”
“...None.”
After a moment’s silence, Shin Cheol-jin answered with obvious reluctance.
There was no room to argue now.
No proof on this side, solid proof on that one.
Had Shin Yu-hyun lacked evidence, he’d have bulldozed his version through sheer insistence.
“Then you’ll take responsibility?”
“Yes.”
Shin Cheol-jin nodded, teeth grinding.
With evidence out, he had no choice but to accept.
“For failing to manage your Vermilion Bird Sword Division, six months house arrest.”
In the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan, the Clan Leader’s word was law.
Shin Sung-il’s orders were absolute.
“Father!”
“Call me Clan Leader, you disgrace.”
Sin Sung-il frowned at Shin Cheol-jin’s startled outburst before the gathered executives and kin.
It was clear his division members had caused the problem.
A leader bore responsibility for his subordinates’ failings.
Hence the house arrest.
It might seem lenient, but six months meant falling far behind in the successor race.
The other candidates would be out there building influence.
Take Shin Yu-hyun: in six months, he’d be leagues stronger.
And likely with his own faction by then.
As expected, no questions about who sent them.
Shin Yu-hyun smiled coldly to himself.
What if it came out that Shin Cheol-jin had sent Jeong Tae-seong’s group?
He could be booted from successor contention entirely.
But Shin Sung-il glossed right over it without a word.
Shin Yu-hyun didn’t press either.
He’d anticipated as much.
Father knows who it was too.
Not just him.
Everyone here suspected Shin Cheol-jin.
Besides, Shin Yu-hyun had already gotten the truth from Jeong Tae-seong’s group.
Yet he kept silent because it wasn’t proper evidence.
Confessions extracted under threat of death don’t hold up.
Coercion, pressure, torture—none counted as valid proof.
Shin Cheol-jin would cry foul immediately: claim Shin Yu-hyun had tortured his men into false confessions.
“Shin Yu-hyun.”
Having pronounced Shin Cheol-jin’s punishment, Shin Sung-il called his name in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“Why did you seal their dantians? Subduing them would’ve sufficed.”
At that, Shin Yu-hyun looked up to meet his father’s eyes.
An oppressive aura squeezed his entire body.
Dantian sealing was the ultimate punishment for superhumans.
Not something to be done lightly.
Yet Shin Yu-hyun had decided and acted on his own.
He couldn’t evade responsibility now.
But in Shin Sung-il’s gaze, he saw it.
Expectation. Interest.
In that moment, Shin Yu-hyun realized this was a pivotal juncture.
His answer would bring either punishment—or reward.
“The reason is...”