Chapter 167
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Fame is Fame, After All (4)
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Thud thud thud thud thud!
Loud footsteps echoed from outside the office. Someone kicked the door open and barged in.
It was Guo Cheol-woong's daughter, Guo I-seon. She had rushed in so hastily she hadn't even bothered with proper etiquette.
"What's got you in such a tizzy!"
"Dad, we're in big trouble!"
"Big trouble? What do you mean?"
"My brothers are about to get themselves killed!"
Guo Cheol-woong's head throbbed. He'd personally escorted them to the annex to prevent exactly this kind of mess. But the hot-blooded nephews couldn't hold back for even a moment and had charged in.
'This is driving me mad.'
The root of this disaster lay with his older brother and the elders. They should have warned against getting swept up in rumors. Yet they had dragged things out, fanning the flames in the process.
"I-seon, tell me everything."
"Well..."
"Out with it!"
"Second Brother said he wanted to test his luck."
"He challenged the Fist of Heavenly Fortune?"
"That's what he meant to do, but he got beaten by the Fist of Heavenly Fortune's son. After that, the brothers and the squad leaders started challenging them one after another."
Guo I-seon had been thrashed right from the start and knocked out cold. She couldn't bring herself to say she'd tried to get back up only to be brutally stomped down. After that, it had been too horrific to watch, so she'd bolted to the office.
"Looks like the Fist of Heavenly Fortune's reputation isn't empty after all."
Guo Cheol-woong rose from his seat. The elders hurriedly prepared themselves and followed behind.
And the sight that greeted them left everyone stunned.
"...What in the world?"
The Guo Family Manor's training grounds had turned into a sea of blood. Red blood soaked the floor, and the walls were littered with crumpled martial artists. They weren't dead—at least, they twitched sporadically.
It was so absurd that no words came out.
A little sparring had been expected. Testing the Fist of Heavenly Fortune's skills was inevitable. That's why they'd pre-selected their strongest fighters to stand by.
Even so, no one had anticipated the training grounds becoming a bloodbath, utterly wrecked. This far exceeded expectations.
What were they supposed to do now?
Tremble tremble!
Guo I-jeong, the Guo Family Manor's rising star and Guo Cheol-woong's eldest son, shook like a frostbitten pup before losing consciousness. He struggled desperately to hold on till the end, but it was futile resistance.
"You've arrived."
Amid the chaos stood the ever-cheerful Mujin.
In front of him, Nangong Yeonhwa, Yukchil, and Taejin stood firm. They'd sent all thirty men flying like sacks into the arms of King Yama, yet they looked utterly relaxed. Far from out of breath, they had the vibe of someone who'd just finished a post-meal snack.
"What is the meaning of this outrage!"
"That's an odd thing to say. You came to test me, didn't you? If anything, I should be asking—what exactly did you expect?"
"You think you can get away with this unscathed?"
Treat someone with respect, and they start looking down on you.
Mujin's expression turned icy.
"Keep pushing, and now you see me as some easy mark!"
"You insolent cur, watch your tongue!"
"Enough. Come on in."
Mujin motioned for his group to step forward.
If they'd only called to leech off him like in-laws or family—wife's side, brother's side, brother-in-law's kin... damn it! Strangers whose relations were a tangled mess—there was no profit in entertaining them.
"You bastard! Mocking us with that loose mouth of yours!"
"We'll see just how lucky you really are!"
The enraged elders charged in place of the manor lord. Unlike their disdain for the Fist of Heavenly Fortune, the five unleashed their full power in unison. They'd beaten the Present Music Sword and wreaked havoc on the training grounds—this had to be avenged. As representatives of the Guo Family Manor, they couldn't suffer humiliation. They had to subdue him in one go and restore the family's dignity.
Whoosh!
Bam bam bam bam boom!
The elders, charging at full force, were flung back just as they came. The five streaks of light they drew scarred the walls as they tumbled away.
Gurgle gurgle!
The elders' conditions were dire, consciousness faded. Foam bubbled from their mouths, and identical fist marks marred their faces. Precisely the same spot. The fist imprints on their right cheeks had shattered their nasal bones and teeth into fragments. They'd be eating on the left side for life.
Gasp!
Guo Cheol-woong couldn't close his mouth. Up until the elders charged, he'd thought they'd at least gauge the Fist of Heavenly Fortune's power.
Far from it!
No chance to even see the punch. In a flash of light, the elders were down, out cold on the ground.
Swish!
Hurk!
Guo Cheol-woong couldn't collect his wits. In the blink of an eye, Mujin was right in front of him. He'd missed it again. No clue how he'd closed the distance—his sword domain was rendered useless. His swordplay completely toyed with. It was unprecedented; no thoughts came to mind.
"Your sword shakes heaven and earth, huh? Snap out of it."
"...Ah!"
As if that would help.
Mujin's fists carried no personal grudge. Before Guo Cheol-woong could even brace, they hammered his gut, solar plexus, and face.
Bam bam boom!
Guuuh!
Unable to even scream, Guo Cheol-woong took three blows in gasping succession and floated into the air, about to fly off.
Smack!
Where do you think you're going?
Mujin allowed no escape. Of course, it wasn't voluntary on Guo Cheol-woong's part, but still. Mujin grabbed his hair with his left hand and kept pounding his gut with his right.
Bam, bam.
Keurk!
Deflating sounds rang out in sequence. Milk from infancy seemed to leak from his mouth and rear.
He was alive only because Mujin hadn't gone all out. If he'd meant to kill, one strike would've ended it. But education was essential to fulfill duties of trust and sincerity.
People need to trust each other—do petty things, and you'll suffer humiliating consequences. A heartwarming lesson. Whether the Guo Family Manor lasted or not, it should become their eternal motto. From the looks of it, though, it wouldn't last long.
Splat!
Like a freshly gutted squid left to dry under the blazing sun, Guo Cheol-woong slumped limply to the ground. Blood pooled around his head like a flood, but he wasn't dead.
Crack!
In the instant of the catastrophe, Guo Cheol-woong and Guo I-seon's jaws dropped slack. Fury needed some leeway to brew. No one had guts bulging out enough to charge after witnessing that.
Clap clap!
Mujin dusted off his hands and turned.
Flinch!
Guo Cheol-woong and his daughter, standing dazed, felt dizzying terror as Mujin approached. The silence made even swallowing sound like thunder.
"See? Easy, right?"
"...?"
"People just won't listen to words. What, you don't get it either?"
"...Enough. We yield completely!"
"I get it too! Hero Kang!"
Those who want to live shall live; those who seek death shall die.
Reversals didn't work on Mujin. Kill those who must die, spare those who must live—a simple, clear-cut man. The father and daughter showed their human side, desperate to survive.
"Good work."
"Yes."
Mujin led his group out of the training grounds back to the annex. On the way, he told a maidservant to bring liquor and snacks.
Whoosh!
Left alone, the father and daughter pair.
Only then did Guo Cheol-woong and Guo I-seon exhale in relief. It was an unbelievable outcome. No one would believe the truth even if told straight. That monster was the Fist of Heavenly Fortune with boundless luck? Luck my foot—he was a freak. On second thought, they probably could've subdued him without poison or assassination.
"Why the hell did that rumor even start?"
"Keep quiet. Talking will only hurt you."
The reality of the Fist of Heavenly Fortune contradicted the rumors. If even half—no, a fraction of his true power leaked out, it'd expose the nonsense. But the rumors were already set in stone.
'Can't figure it out at all.'
Unable to grasp his intentions, the pair vowed silence. No one would believe them anyway. They had no desire to make an enemy of Mujin, who could single-handedly destroy the family.
Haaa!
That was one thing.
But when the hell were they cleaning this up?! To keep it quiet, the two had no choice but to handle it themselves.
That day's events became a closely guarded secret within the Guo Family Manor. A gag order went out—no one breathed a word.
Thanks to the father and daughter's labor, the manor lord and elders were quietly buried away. But unless one had eyes like a haetae, the estimate was clear from their attitudes alone.
They just couldn't voice it. Speaking up would only get them ostracized and shame the family. Devaluing their own reputation like that—only Mujin could pull it off.
Three days passed.
Time was needed to clean up and mentally prepare. It was hard to accept and understand the truth in a single day. To put it crudely, a bunch of punks not worth a fistful had collectively lost their minds and gone wild.
The sons, squad leaders, and rank-and-file were somewhat better off. The manor lord and elders took longer to recover body and soul. Facing each other brought back memories of the training grounds, tormenting them.
"Brother, we need to make a decision."
"You saying you didn't get hit! You're secretly thrilled, aren't you?"
"You know that's not true! What would I gain from being happy?"
"No, you knew. And you still pushed me off the cliff!"
"Think what you want!"
Was it seeing Guo Cheol-woong's true colors, stripped of his usual sternness? When cornered, people ramble nonsense as a baseline. But he was the head of the family.
Did Guo Cheol-woong not know?
He knew better than anyone he was being unreasonable. Yet recalling that day made him want to crawl into a rat hole. If only he'd unleashed the family's signature techniques, his mind might be at ease.
He'd been beaten like a dog.
'Turning a man into a rag and still having a conscience!'
The culprit who'd brought disaster to the main house was living it up in the annex with delicacies, fine liquor—a total feast. Like men hell-bent on uprooting another's family pillar, indulging in idle pleasures.
The more Guo Cheol-woong heard from the annex maids about their antics, the more his blood boiled backward. He might lose control of his blood flow at this rate.
"Brother, should we tell them to go?"
Startle!
At Guo Cheol-woong's words, the manor lord and elders jumped. They'd been lost in their heads but snapped back. It galled and grieved them, but they couldn't afford to send them away.
If they left now, the So Family Manor might swallow the Guo Family whole. With the Hebei Peng Family eyeing Jiangxi Province, it was practically a done deal.
The Hebei Peng Family wasn't advancing openly but had allied with the existing So Family Manor for legitimacy.
"You can't say 'go' but just waste time? We need to salvage something. Getting beaten like dogs and gaining nothing is admitting we're fools!"
Ahem!
Guo Cheol-woong's words were crude and vulgar, but the manor lord and elders couldn't retort. They couldn't deny squandering time in a daze.
"Besides, it's not free anymore."
"What?"
"We need to negotiate."
"After all this, you want payment?"
"You're the ones who poked the sleeping bear! Why blow it up this big?"
Even under Guo Cheol-woong's heated scolding, Guo Cheol-woong stayed mum. Having shot himself in the foot, he had no words even with ten mouths. Retorting would just prove his pettiness.
"You're right. I'm sorry."
"The manor lord bears no fault. We failed to see it clearly."
Despite the manor lord and elders' apologies, Guo Cheol-woong's heart remained bitter.
'I've gained some leverage here.'
He was dancing in the palm of Mujin's hand. Now he could wield real influence in the Guo Family Manor, but whether it was a good thing remained questionable.