A Lunatic and an Even Bigger Lunatic
Yi Lun trembled, his whole body wracked with pain and fury.
"You dare... you dare raise your hand... against the Vice Clan Head of this family..."
"Family? Vice Clan Head? Pity. I have no idea what either of those means."
"You... you beast, worse than a rabid animal..."
"Take better care of your sons, Uncle. Be sure to remember that in your next life."
A flash of murderous intent gleamed in Yi Yeok's eyes.
Yi Lun felt a chill crawl down his spine at that vicious killing aura.
"Enough!"
The bellowing shout stayed Yi Yeok's hand. Yi Lun cried out as though he'd been saved from drowning.
"B-Brother... no, Clan Head, my lord!"
It was Yi Jo. He was just as shocked and enraged as Yi Lun — so much so that it seemed every hair on his body might stand on end.
"You worthless troublemaker! I only grudgingly accepted you out of respect for your mother and my eldest son, and yet you couldn't let that kindness go unpunished — you had to stir up trouble again!"
An Eun-chae stepped forward. She reasoned that if the Clan Head was this furious, even Yi Yeok would be unable to escape the consequences — there was no time to weigh the risks.
"Clan Head, my lord. I am Eun-chae, daughter of the An family and granddaughter of Jin Seong-ju. I witnessed everything that happened here. Your son—"
"This is a family matter. A young lady should withdraw!"
At Yi Jo's icy tone, An Eun-chae had no choice but to fall back.
Yi Yeok merely stared at Yi Jo with cold eyes. That frigid gaze was enough to freeze a man to the marrow.
Yi Jo drew a deep breath. He could not bring himself to admit that he felt fear toward this disgrace of the clan — this creature whose mere sight twisted his stomach, whom he didn't even want to acknowledge as a son.
He quickly collected himself and began plotting a way to salvage the situation. He wanted nothing more than to beat the boy to death on the spot, but that was truly not an option.
"Kneel at once. Apologize to your uncle, the Vice Clan Head of this family! The elders and I will deliberate on your formal punishment, so confine yourself until then. Now get out of my sight!"
He had been on the verge of handing the position of Clan Head over to Yi Pyeong after their discussions. No matter how grave the offense, he could not kill the boy or harm his body. At least not until Yi Yeok had produced an heir.
"Brother, confinement? That is nowhere near enough — even execution would be too lenient! It's not just me. Do you know what has become of my son? My dear, gentle, sweet Hong?"
Yi Lun wailed.
Yi Jo felt his vision go dark. The situation was even more serious than he had thought.
Yi Yeok simply sneered, twisting the knife in both of them.
"Look at that, Uncle. Even a hedgehog loves its own babies, and to a father, even an idiotic fool of a son looks gentle and sweet. He's my brother, sure, but shouldn't I be taking notes?"
"One more word out of you and I'll tear that mouth apart!"
Yi Jo hurried on, desperate to keep the situation from getting any worse.
"What are you all standing around for! Drag him away! Lock him in a back room!"
"Father."
A new voice rang out. It carried clear and bright through the chaos of shouting and uproar.
It was Yi Pyeong. At some point he had drawn up beside Yi Jo. His movement was so swift that no one else present — not even Yi Yeok — had been able to follow it properly.
Yi Jo's expression softened a little. He trusted his eldest son to handle this situation.
Yi Pyeong turned to Yi Yeok and spoke with a gentle smile.
"Why did you do it?"
"...Didn't like the look of him. Just felt like it, so I picked the fight and raised hell. Is that reason enough for you?"
Yi Pyeong nodded.
"I see."
Yi Lun shrieked in outrage.
"Pyeong, what nonsense are you spouting! Look at my hand! And your cousin nearly died just now!"
Yi Pyeong paid him no more mind than a passing breeze, speaking softly to Yi Yeok instead.
"If you want it, you can do anything."
"Of course. That's already how I live."
"From now on, you'll do so even more. I'll show you myself."
Yi Pyeong turned to face everyone present.
"My brother here, Yi Yeok, is the rightful bloodline of this family and its heir. That is a fact no one can deny. He was away from home for a long time, but I know full well what my second uncle, my third uncle, and the rest of our kin were thinking."
His voice was quiet, yet it reached every ear in the room with perfect clarity.
"After I left for the sect, you hoped my brother — the last of the bloodline — would never return. No, you hoped he would simply die out there. And when he did come back, you schemed to cast him out again by any means necessary. Am I wrong?"
A heavy silence fell over the room. Yi Ryang, Yi Jo's third brother, who stood among the men who had followed Yi Lun, hung his head and broke into a cold sweat.
"Judging by your faces, everything that happened here today occurred because my brother was gravely offended by your ugly conduct."
Though Yi Pyeong's expression remained as mild and gentle as ever, a chilling cold seeped out from beneath it.
"On behalf of the Clan Head, I will now hold Second Uncle accountable for that crime."
"What did you just say? You dare pass judgment on me, the Vice Clan Head? And I am your uncle—!"
"None of that matters."
Yi Pyeong flicked his finger.
BOOM!
An invisible force struck Yi Lun square in the forehead. In an instant, dozens of pages' worth of distance later, he lay sprawled and crumpled on the ground.
Yi Jo was dumbstruck.
"P-Pyeong...! What is the meaning of this...!"
Yi Pyeong continued, still smiling.
"It's for my brother's sake. If Second Uncle tries to block my brother's path, then no matter that he is Vice Clan Head, I will have no choice but to remove him."
Though he didn't show it, Yi Yeok could hardly contain his surprise at this unexpected turn. Even he — seasoned by a rough life, with a practiced eye for reading what lay beneath a man's surface — could not fathom Yi Pyeong's intentions at all.
Was training at a sect what changed a person this much?
No one could bring themselves to speak. Yi Yeok's third uncle, Yi Ryang, could no longer hide his terror and shook from head to toe.
"Ju Taek."
"Yes, Young Duke."
Ju Taek, who had returned at some point, took a combat stance before Yi Pyeong.
"Escort Second Uncle out of the city walls — along with his wife's entire family and all his household."
It was a banishment order. Ju Taek's face hardened, but he soon bowed his head and answered.
"I shall carry out your command."
The color drained from the faces of everyone present — Yi Jo and Yi Ryang included — everyone except Yi Yeok. That man, utterly unmoved by worldly affairs, stripped of every trace of human emotion — was that what the realm of immortals truly looked like?
"Yeok-ah."
Yi Pyeong said gently,
"Do you feel better now? If anything still weighs on your heart, tell me — anything at all. Whatever you desire, I will grant it. And if anyone ever becomes a threat to you, then as your brother, I will erase that existence from the world."
The people around them were gripped by terror. At the same time, some of them dimly grasped Yi Pyeong's intent.
It was a declaration: he would back Yi Yeok as the next Clan Head, and uproot anyone who opposed it.
Yi Yeok understood the declaration too. But questions followed one after another. There had to be some other calculation hidden beneath it all — yet he could not fathom what it was.
So Yi Yeok decided to shake Yi Pyeong's composure and open a crack in it.
"Quite the lovely woman, that one. Do cultivators take consorts too?"
For the first time, Yi Pyeong's eyes wavered.
"...Whom do you mean?"
"You know exactly who. She picked a fight with me, so I beat her black and blue. She'll need at least a month of recovery, I'd say."
Yi Pyeong fell silent for a moment before speaking.
"Truly my brother. You were never an ordinary one."
"Do you honestly believe that?"
Yi Pyeong smiled.
"I believe in you. Soon enough, you will become a genius who shakes the world to its foundations. Because you are my brother."