Chapter 1
Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Regression as the Third Young Master
Between Hebei and Shaanxi lay the Shanxi region.
In this land, untouched by the Nine Great Sects or Five Great Families, various mid-sized and small righteous clans had taken root instead.
Among them, the Mok Family Clan—where I was born—was quite renowned in the Shanxi region.
It owned over a dozen businesses and employed dozens of servants within the family alone.
The clan head even had the financial leeway to assign a separate annex to each of his four children.
And I, Mok Jimyeong, the Mok Family Clan's third son, had been granted my own annex as well.
That's right. Had been.
Until I was exiled from the clan, this had been my home.
'So why... why am I here right now?'
Hadn't I met my end within Heaven's Net?
Did the Mok Family Clan somehow retrieve my dying body and heal me?
My body felt light, without a single wound.
I couldn't sense any internal energy, yet my limbs and meridians were perfectly intact.
'How could this be...'
I, Mok Jimyeong, the Lecherous Demon.
Was a public enemy of the martial world, with kill orders issued by the Murim Alliance, the Four Black Alliance, and even the Demonic Cult.
Sure, the Mok Family Clan held some sway in Shanxi, but compared to the Central Plains martial world, it was less than a grain of millet.
The difference was so vast that when the clan head's fourth daughter was accepted into the Mount Hua Sect, they threw a grand celebration.
And that was just for one of the Nine Great Sects' minor branches.
Yet they defied the combined will of the Murim Alliance—the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families united—to save me?
Even making enemies of the Four Black Alliance and Demonic Cult in the process?
It made no sense.
Even setting aside my relationship with the clan, this wasn't something the Mok Family Clan could pull off just because they wanted to.
At best, they might have prolonged my life, but I should have been locked away in some underground prison with my limbs and meridians crippled.
Whether it was the Murim Alliance's dungeon, or one belonging to the Four Black Alliance or Demonic Cult, it didn't matter.
'And yet... this is the annex from my childhood.'
Rather than inspecting my body, grasping the situation came first.
That was when I caught sight of my reflection in the bronze mirror.
Smooth skin unbefitting a man, and sharp, defined features.
The face that had once been idolized by courtesans, earning me the title of Flowery Playboy in my youth, stared back at me.
It was the appearance I'd discarded to survive.
Later, after becoming a powerhouse others envied, it was the face I'd longed to reclaim.
'A dream...? Or a life flashing before my eyes?'
But it felt too vivid for a dream, and too prolonged for a deathbed vision.
The sensations throughout my body screamed that this was reality.
So what was this, then?
Lost in bewildered thoughts, I stared intently at the handsome man in the mirror.
Just as I was locked in a staring contest with myself,
The door burst open.
"Big brother! You're awake!"
Mok Jiyeon, the Mok Family Clan's youngest and my fourth sister, rushed into the room.
Unlike when she'd hunted me as a Mount Hua Sect enforcer, she looked incredibly young.
Just like right before I was chased out of the house... no, even younger than that.
"Jiyeon...?"
Catching sight of her youthful face, I unwittingly called her by her childhood nickname.
She beamed in response.
"Yes, big brother! You're already up?"
Her eyes and voice dripped with affection.
I recalled her as a Mount Hua Sect swordswoman, vowing to kill me.
—Filthy spawn of a Lecherous Demon. It's revolting that the same blood flows through us. Today, I'll end you and erase the Mok Family Clan's stain!
The gaze of that far more mature Mok Jiyeon had been filled with pure disgust.
But the girl before me now,
"I was worried you might be sleeping in, so I came to check. As you know, big brother, today is a special day..."
was smiling brightly at me, her eyes sparkling.
'We... used to be this close...'
Faint memories began to surface one by one.
Our harmonious childhood bond.
Then, as I fell into debauchery, the way her gaze gradually turned to pity and disdain.
And finally, her hatred for me as the Lecherous Demon.
Gazing at my baby-faced little sister, long-forgotten memories of the past bubbled up one after another.
"Big brother...? Big brother?"
She called out to me again.
It snapped me out of the reverie, but my jumbled thoughts refused to settle.
I hadn't even remembered it moments ago, but this was undoubtedly a past I'd lived through.
And... it was happening now, in reality.
These vivid sensations couldn't be a dream or life-flashing vision.
It couldn't be some illusion array or spell either.
'Not even the Demonic Cult's Purgatory Demonic Illusion Art could maintain such clarity of mind...'
Therefore,
this was reality.
"Big brother, are you feeling unwell? Your face looks pale..."
Mok Jiyeon leaned in with her cute, dainty face, fretting over me.
But her words fell on deaf ears.
'I've... turned back time?'
Mok Jimyeong, the Lecherous Demon,
had regressed as the Mok Family Clan's third young master.
After sending Mok Jiyeon out briefly, I took stock of the situation.
The first thing I did was meditate and inspect my body.
I'd said earlier I couldn't sense any internal energy, but that wasn't quite right.
I could sense it.
It was just a tiny speck, like a grain of millet.
'Where did my vast ocean of internal energy go...!'
It had bottomed out by the end, but most of the energy I'd wielded—enough to claim the title of World's Greatest—had vanished without a trace.
If my former reserves were a great sea, what remained was barely a ladleful.
I was stunned for a moment, but I quickly pulled myself together.
'No matter. If I've truly returned to the past, trivial things like internal energy don't matter right now.'
Internal energy could be rebuilt endlessly.
As long as I had the Blissful Creation Art.
The supreme martial art that had transformed me from mere Flowery Playboy into the Lecherous Demon.
Its incantations remained perfectly intact in my mind.
I had much more to sort through, but Mok Jiyeon's presence lingering outside the door was distracting.
I got up and opened it.
She stood there with a worried expression, which lit up when she saw me.
"Oh, big brother. Are you okay now?"
"Yeah. Just woke up properly."
"Hehe, that's a relief. I was worried since you have to head to Mount Hua Sect today—I'd have been fretting over you the whole time."
We chatted idly until an important detail caught my ear.
"...Head to Mount Hua Sect?"
Today was that day?
My eyes widened in shock.
"Goodness, big brother! Even on the last day, you're going to tease me like that?"
Thinking I was joking, she puffed out her cheeks and whined.
But of course, I genuinely had no idea.
Decades had passed, and my memories of my fourth sister had faded.
How could I possibly remember?
But...
'Today is the day Jiyeon leaves!'
It was a momentous day for me too.
The day a righteous clan heir like me became the Lecherous Demon.
This was where it all began.
Up until this day in my past life, I had been a pure young man who'd never so much as held a woman's hand outside the family.
But on this auspicious day when my youngest sister joined Mount Hua Sect as a disciple,
the Mok Family Clan held a grand celebration.
Mount Hua Sect, proudly one of the Nine Great Sects, was an object of envy for anyone in Shanxi.
As such, guests from many surrounding clans arrived.
And among them was one close to me...
"Jimyeong, why'd you show up so late?"
That's right. It was this guy.
A round, dopey-looking face.
The second son of the Jeong Family Clan and my old friend... his name was...
What was his name?
"Sorry, but... what was your name again?"
I couldn't for the life of me remember.
We hadn't spoken in decades—remembering his name now would be the weird part.
But he took it as a joke and laughed heartily.
"Puhaha! Mok Jimyeong, you've gotten funnier!"
His cheeky tone from this fresh-faced kid irritated me, yet it also felt strangely familiar and natural. What a bizarre sensation.
As I racked my brain for his name, Mok Jiyeon chimed in from beside me.
"Brother Jimyeong! Young Hero Jeong will feel slighted. He came all this way from afar and waited for you the whole time..."
'Ah, right! Jeong Mutae!'
The memory finally surfaced after some digging.
But I couldn't let on that I'd forgotten, so I played it off with a grin.
"Just haven't seen you in a while."
He nodded agreeably and turned to Mok Jiyeon.
"Yeah. Honestly, I'm more hurt that you're calling me 'Young Hero,' Jiyeon. I told you to just call me Brother Mutae."
She furrowed her brow slightly and replied stiffly.
"Young Hero Jeong. I'm not a child anymore, so please don't use such childish nicknames. It's uncomfortable."
"Haha, really? Guess it's because I've known little Jiyeon since you were tiny—it's stuck in my mouth."
Mok Jiyeon grimaced at his sleazy tone.
For a fleeting moment, I recalled the look she'd once given me.
Then a familiar maid came running toward us.
"Miss, the clan head is calling for you."
"Father is? Got it. Big brother, I'll go see Father first. I hope Young Hero Jeong enjoys the banquet."
He watched her retreating figure with a wistful expression.
I was tempted to smack the back of his head, but there were too many eyes for rash actions.
Only then did he turn to me and suddenly shout.
"Oh, right! Jimyeong, I had something to tell you."
"...What?"
He glanced around furtively, then grew serious.
Lowering his voice, he said,
"You got any plans after the banquet tonight?"
"Not really."
"In that case... how about hitting up a brothel with me tonight?"
The fateful invitation from the man who'd led me from Flowery Playboy to Lecherous Demon.
That devilish proposal...
"Sure!"
I accepted just as readily this time too.