Chapter 5
Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Burning the Manual
I'd pored over the Blissful Creation Art manual countless times, but not a single line differed from what I remembered.
'After all that masturbation!'
In the end, everything in it was exactly as it had been etched in my mind...
I should have just burned that beauty trap chapter to ashes.
'No, actually, it's for the best. If I'd kept it like this, it might have turned into a heart demon someday.'
Now, all lingering attachments were gone.
I'd even shaken off every regret from my past life.
If mere masturbation could steady my heart, it would have been a steal.
I took the manual down from the wall and carried it out of the shrine.
Then I pulled out the fire starter the clan had prepared for me in advance.
This was the hassle of having insufficient inner energy.
Normally, I could have simply ignited it with the Samadhi True Fire, but now I had to rely on tools.
I lit the manual with the unfamiliar fire starter.
The one-of-a-kind Blissful Creation Art manual turned to ash and vanished just like that.
Gazing at the tiny flame, I picked up where I'd left off in my thoughts.
'First things first, I'll stay in the righteous faction.'
In my previous life, after being expelled from the clan, I'd joined the evil faction.
Later, even those evil faction scum hunted me down, but until then, I'd been one of them.
All I'd learned in twenty-five years was how to be a courtesan and a bit of the clan martial arts.
To survive, the only thing I could do was swing a sword.
But as someone who'd killed innocent commoners, joining the righteous faction or becoming an escort was out of the question.
Even wandering as a ronin required skills to eat... So, intimately familiar with the inner workings of brothels from my days as the Flowery Playboy, I'd chosen the evil faction.
Even among the evil factions, none of the mid-sized ones with any face would accept a guy like me.
In the end, the sect I joined was one that gathered only the dregs of the dregs at the very bottom of society.
Murderers, arsonists, rapists, and the like.
As the son of a righteous clan, it had been brutally tough at first, but I'd adapted eventually.
'Red Serpent Sect.'
The sect where I'd spent ten years.
It was truly a sewer of a place.
In the end, filthy perverts even started eyeing my good looks, forcing me to disfigure my own handsome face to survive.
By searing it myself with a hot branding iron.
That's how I'd clung to life.
I despised the hypocritical righteous faction scum, but in that regard, the righteous were still better than the evil factions.
At least they knew how to keep up appearances.
'I hate that I have to do the same...'
In my last life, doing whatever I pleased had made me a public enemy of the martial world, so this time, I'd hold back a little.
The tiny flame from the fire starter reduced the entire manual to ash.
I stomped out the last embers with my foot and stood up.
'So, in this life... shall I become one of the righteous faction's rising stars?'
The Mok Family Clan belonged to the righteous faction.
If the third son of this place made a name for himself, he'd be hailed as a rising star without lifting a finger.
That was the way to shine as one of the righteous faction's rising stars.
It held no thrill for someone like me who'd already reached the Ten Strongest Under Heaven, but surprisingly, there were modest benefits.
Namely, gaining the support of the common folk.
The commoners who harbored fantasies about the martial world.
Would they prefer the evil factions that exploited them, or the righteous ones that protected them, even if through hypocrisy?
Obviously, the righteous faction.
And among them, rather than has-been old fogeys retired to the back rooms, they naturally went wild for the young blood actively making waves.
The prime example was the Five Dragons and Five Phoenixes.
Five dragons and five phoenixes.
They bestowed titles like dragon and phoenix on green righteous faction kids barely past their twenties and not yet thirty.
'Pretty grandiose.'
Men were dragons.
Women were phoenixes.
Usually, they prefixed a word capturing the person's trait to "dragon" or "phoenix" for the moniker...
'Hold on. If I become a dragon, would I be the Lecherous Dragon?'
Lecherous Dragon Mok Jimyeong.
Sounds pretty good.
Even better than Lecherous Demon.
The problem was that "lecherous" didn't fit the righteous faction at all.
'Too bad, no Lecherous Dragon for me. Hmm... Ah! Creation Dragon sounds good.'
Thinking about it, the "Creation" from Blissful Creation Art felt quite righteous.
In fact, it was purer than any righteous faction technique.
I wasn't even known in the Shanxi region yet, let alone as one of the Five Dragons and Five Phoenixes, but I had confidence aplenty.
Honestly, at my level, mingling with those rookies would be embarrassing.
'Yeah. Me hanging with those kids would be ridiculous. Hmm... Right, Divine Dragon. Creation Divine Dragon it is.'
Creation Divine Dragon, standing above the Five Dragons and Five Phoenixes.
On this day, the moniker that would one day refer to Mok Jimyeong was born.
I'd spent more time in the shrine than expected, so by the time I returned to the clan, the banquet was winding down.
As I entered the hall late, Mok Jiyeon, the star of the celebration, ran over with a startled expression.
"Big brother! Where have you been? I thought you'd left without even saying goodbye!"
Her overly familiar demeanor still felt unfamiliar,
"As if. How could I leave without seeing off my little Yeon?"
I treated my youngest sister as warmly as I could muster.
She immediately broke into a beaming smile.
"Hehe, big brother is the only one for me!"
Don't say that.
Brother Jicheon will get hurt.
No exaggeration—Mok Jicheon's face, who had been watching us fondly, stiffened slightly.
Well, after he'd stuck by her the whole banquet, seeing her welcome a latecomer who'd been who-knows-where like this would hurt anyone.
"Ahem, Myeong. Where have you been?"
"Ah, brother. I just stepped out to the market."
"The market, at a time like this...!"
Pretty wounded by Yeon's attitude, brother spoke more sternly than usual.
But even he fell silent upon seeing what I held out.
"This is... a tassel, isn't it?"
"Yes. With Yeon leaving soon, I wanted to give her something. I spent a long time picking it out..."
I'd anticipated something like this, so I'd quickly bought it from the market after leaving the shrine.
Truth be told, I hadn't agonized over it—just grabbed something that looked pretty...
'Masturbating took too damn long.'
I needed some excuse.
Hence, this hasty purchase.
But my excuse proved overwhelmingly effective.
"Sorry, I had no idea..."
"Big brother... how could you..."
Brother looked awkward, while Yeon teared up, deeply moved.
Seeing her so thrilled made me feel unnecessarily guilty.
'Should I have gotten something nicer?'
A cheap tassel from the market stall.
Even the prettiest one among them didn't match a single night at a brothel.
Feeling a pang, I made an uncharacteristically flustered excuse.
"Sorry. It's cheap, but it caught this old fox's eye as the prettiest. If you don't like it, I can go exchange it right now..."
Before I could finish offering to swap it, Yeon yelped in alarm.
"No, no! What does the price matter? I love it, big brother!"
With that, she snatched the tassel from my hand in one swift motion.
As if someone might steal it any second.
Soon, Yeon attached the gift to her waist sash and grinned broadly.
"What do you think, big brothers?"
The cheap turquoise tassel adorned her so beautifully that it outshone any jewel.
I'd picked it thinking it would suit her, but it matched even better than expected.
"It's pretty."
"It suits you perfectly."
"Hehe..."
Clearly delighted with the tassel, she kept glancing at her waist and smiling ear to ear.
Then, as if remembering something urgent, her face turned serious.
"Big brothers, this isn't the time for this."
"Huh, why?"
"What's wrong?"
Her response to our questions:
"I have to show off to Eun-i sister and Father!"
Over the moon, Yeon bounced off toward the training grounds where our second sister was.
Staring dumbfounded at her retreating figure, Mok Jicheon spoke up beside me.
"She's all grown up. Even thinking to get her little sister a parting gift like that."
"...Haha, guess I'm just sad not to see her for a while..."
What was there really to miss?
Before regression, we hadn't just been estranged—we'd tried to kill each other.
But seeing her so happy felt strangely good.
'What was it like in my past life?'
I couldn't remember well.
But probably, I hadn't given her anything.
This was just an excuse for skipping the banquet anyway.
No—thinking deeper, this might be the first time I'd ever bought her anything.
The old me only gifted courtesans; I'd never spent a penny on family.
There was a good reason for that, too.
We all got plenty of allowance from the clan anyway.
If we needed something, we bought it ourselves.
What good was a trinket like that anyway?
How much could it even be worth?
That had been my honest sentiment until moments ago.
But I'd been wrong.
"Myeong, you're better than me!"
Hearing Mok Jicheon's praise, I could only smile sheepishly.