The two of them nodded.
They were men who had always received the Family Head’s orders through someone else and had never actually gone to where he was.
“Yeah? Then go take a nap.”
“W-wait a sec—”
THUD—.
THUMP— THUMP—.
At my fist, the two remaining among the Heaven-Authority Five Guards dropped unconscious on the spot.
I looked around, then started walking toward another intact pavilion.
As I moved, I spoke to the people around me.
“If he isn’t going to come, tell him that. If I keep smashing things, I’ll eventually get to wherever the Family Head is.”
*****
“What? All of the Heaven-Authority Five Guards went down?”
“Y-yes, Family Head!”
“Just how strong a bastard showed up that all five of them got taken out?”
“They say about a tenth of the family estate’s buildings have been destroyed.”
“What?”
“He says he’s going to smash every pavilion until the Family Head appears.”
“That fucking bastard!”
“You must retreat for now, sir.”
“I’m the Family Head and you’re telling me to run? Are you out of your mind?”
“What if you step out there for nothing and get taken out by that monster? That would put the family in even more danger.”
“Even without me, there’s the Young Family Head. There’s the second as well. Those brats will raise the Gu Yang Family again. It’s fortunate the two of them are in the imperial capital. And we have the empress. Even if I’m gone and this place is wiped out, our family won’t collapse.”
“Family Head...”
“Bring me the White-Tiger Divine Sword.”
“Family Head? Don’t tell me—you’re going yourself?”
“I am the head of this family. If I hide, will people follow me? I must not show retreat in front of an enemy. That’s how I set an example for my children.”
“Family Head...”
There was nothing wrong in what he said, so the man couldn’t stop him.
A man who would do anything for the family.
Even if it was something the entire world would point fingers at, if it was for the family, he would push it through without a moment’s hesitation. That was Gu Yanghyeon.
Even now, he was trying to sacrifice himself for the future of the family.
If the Family Head didn’t flee the enemy but met him head-on and died in a glorious last stand, then even if the Gu Yang Family’s grounds disappeared, the Gu Yang Family’s spirit would not collapse.
The Young Family Head was alive, and the second was alive.
“The Young Family Head has grown up and built a household in the imperial capital, and the second has a household there as well. Most of all, the empress, who is the strength of our family, is alive. So even if I die here and this place collapses, the Gu Yang Family will never fall. I will fight the enemy gloriously to the very end.”
Smiling at the corners of his mouth, he took the White-Tiger Divine Sword his subordinate brought him and strode proudly out of the Family Head’s quarters.
*****
When Gu Yanghyeon arrived at the scene, things were worse than he’d expected, and his expression hardened.
In the distance, he could see me silently, wordlessly smashing down pavilions.
“You bastard! Stop! I am the head of the Gu Yang Family you were looking for!”
At his shout, my fist stopped mid-swing.
I turned my head and looked at Gu Yanghyeon.
With a look that said I was waiting for something.
Gu Yanghyeon shouted,
“I will not grovel and submit to you like a coward! All of you in the family, listen! Until my order is given, no one is to step forward!”
He had to show them a glorious fight against the enemy.
He couldn’t just get mixed up with the others and attack.
If he did that, people’s attention wouldn’t focus on him.
He had to show himself fighting alone and refusing to submit if he wanted to pull the family members back together as one.
“Come at me! You evil Jeok bastard of our family’s enemy!”
At the words “evil Jeok,” I went right back to smashing a pavilion.
I threw my fist, and the pavilion in front of me crumbled in an instant like it had been built out of sand.
What the hell is that?
He’d heard I was strong, but not like this.
Even so, he didn’t back down and drew his sword.
“You bastard! Your opponent is me! Stop smashing random pavilions and face me!”
But even at the Family Head’s shout, I quietly kept on smashing Gu Yang Family pavilions.
WHOOOOM—.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE—.
“That fucking bastard!”
Gu Yanghyeon, enraged, poured his inner power into the sword.
He might not have been the head of a martial clan, but Gu Yanghyeon was strong.
He possessed martial skill on par with the master of a mid-sized sect, and the reason he had learned martial arts in the first place was to protect the family.
He had to be strong himself to protect it.
Holding a sword wrapped in a bluish aura, he threw himself toward me.
“Cut it the fuck out, you little shit!”
Gu Yanghyeon swung the White-Tiger Divine Sword with everything he had.
His opponent didn’t even try to dodge.
What the...?
He’s not dodging?
He’s really not going to dodge?
Is it really going to be this easy to slice him?
He was confused, but he didn’t stop his sword.
CLANG—.
“Ghk!”
The sword that struck my body bounced off from the rebound, and the force of it made Gu Yanghyeon stagger hard.
This is impossible.
I glanced at him once, then turned away like nothing had happened and started walking toward another pavilion.
Then I threw my fist again.
WHOOOOSH—.
RUMBLE—.
How the hell are you supposed to catch a man who’s perfectly fine after taking a sword strike loaded with sword energy head-on?
Gripping his sword, he poured inner power into it again and hacked away at me wildly.
CLANG— CLANG— CLANG-CLANG—.
He unleashed every form he could use, at full power, but not a single attack managed to stop me.
“Huff, huff... urgh!”
The one getting hit was just fine, and the one doing the attacking was the one on the verge of dying from exhaustion.
CRACK—.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE—.
Another pavilion collapsed.
THUMP—.
Gu Yanghyeon sat down hard, staring at the collapsing pavilion with a hollow expression.
Could they stop that monster even if they mobilized every last person in the family?
No matter how he tried to think about it, it didn’t seem possible.
The thought that they wouldn’t be able to accomplish any of their goals drained all the strength out of him.
“St...op...”
It was enough to drive a man insane.
If only the enemy had attacked him, he could’ve just fought gloriously and died and that would have been it.
He wasn’t afraid of dying.
If that happened, the people of the family would carry the story of the Gu Yang Family Head’s glorious last stand back to the Young Family Head, the second, and the empress, and he himself would remain as the hero who fought to the end for the Gu Yang Family.
But the opponent simply refused to engage him.
Instead, he was just attacking and attacking until he was exhausted, dry-heaving, looking pathetic.
“Attack me... you fucking bastard.”
That was how it was supposed to go.
But I wouldn’t play along.
His head spun.
Even so, he couldn’t just submit like this.
He had to show them that he would never retreat, even if he collapsed.
“Fine! Smash it all! Smash it! Do you think that means I’ll submit to you?”
He couldn’t let himself get caught by my tactics here.
Pavilions could just be rebuilt later.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE—.
As another pavilion collapsed, I spoke to Gu Yanghyeon.
“Once every pavilion here is gone, next will be Gu Yangcheon and Gu Yangbaek.”
Gu Yangcheon and Gu Yangbaek were his first and second sons.
Those two were the future of the family.
Gu Yanghyeon’s eyes flew wide open.
“You bastard! Behind our Gu Yang Family stands Her Majesty the Empress! ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) You think she’ll let you get away with this? No! She won’t leave the entire martial world alone!”
“I’m not a martial artist, though.”
“What kind of bullshit is that! Look at the pavilions you’ve smashed! You think this is something an ordinary person could do?”
“You used martial arts just now too. That makes you a martial artist, and the Gu Yang Family a martial clan, doesn’t it?”
“I only learned martial arts for self-defense, to protect the family from you martial artists.”
“You learn ‘self-defense’ martial arts and then start throwing sword energy?”
“What does it matter if I use sword energy or not! It’s not like I used it to roam the martial world or hang around with martial artists.”
“I don’t even have inner power. And this isn’t some martial art. It’s just punching.”
“T-that’s impossible! You’re putting out that kind of insane power without any inner power? And taking my sword with your bare body on top of that?”
“Yeah. I’m just kind of sturdy.”
There was no way “just kind of sturdy” covered that.
“And you keep going on about the empress, the empress. If you keep that up, I might have to start with the imperial palace.”
“What? You insane bastard! Don’t you dare talk about Her Majesty the Empress like that!”
“Why? You think I couldn’t go?”
“You think you could do that if you weren’t out of your fucking mind?”
“You think the buildings in the imperial city wouldn’t collapse?”
Gulp.
For a moment, Gu Yanghyeon imagined it.
He imagined a hundred-thousand-strong army flailing helplessly, unable to do anything.
“I’m going to smash everything and bring up the Gu Yang Family by name. Tell everyone all of this happened because of the Gu Yang Family. No, wait. Maybe I’ll say the Gu Yang Family hired me to go after the emperor.”
Grin.
He’s insane.
“First of all, since you told me to smash everything, I’ll do exactly what you said. You definitely said it, right? To smash it all.”
I glanced over the remaining pavilions for a moment, checking something.
Then I grinned and threw my fist.
KABOOOM—!
With a single punch, every remaining pavilion of the Gu Yang Family was obliterated.
Right before I threw that punch, what I’d checked was whether there were still people inside.
I didn’t want to drag innocent people into it and hurt them.
“There used to be a whole lot of houses here, and now there aren’t any.”
Dozens of pavilions vanished in an instant from a single punch.
He has that kind of insane strength and still says he doesn’t know martial arts?
After smashing down every last pavilion, I pulled something out from inside my clothes.
“Let’s see. Gu Yangcheon lives on Munhyeon Ward Street in the imperial city, and Gu Yangbaek lives on Pungwha Ward Street, huh?”
I smiled faintly and looked at Gu Yanghyeon.
“I suddenly have urgent business in the imperial city. Let’s see each other again next time.”
As I waved and started walking off, Gu Yanghyeon snapped back to his senses, sprinted over, and grabbed onto my leg.
What else could that “urgent business in the imperial city” be?
“N-no, you can’t! D-don’t lay a hand on those children!”
“Why not? You didn’t care what means you used as long as it served your goals. I’m just doing the same. Why is it okay for you and not for me?”
“T-that’s...”
“If you don’t like it, be stronger than me.”
Gu Yanghyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
It was something he used to say all the time.
He’d never imagined those words would come back and land on him.
Struggling, he forced his mouth open.
“W-what is it you want? Say it.”
“What I want, huh... Honestly, before I came here, I was planning to erase the Gu Yang Family from the world. But when I thought about it, the people who work here—the retainers and such—aren’t the ones at fault. So I was thinking maybe I’d just wipe out the direct line, you included...”
I looked at Gu Yanghyeon with cold eyes.
He flinched at that gaze and averted his eyes.
“If I erase you, some other bastards will just take your place and do the same shit, won’t they? In that case, it’s better to leave you here and reform you. So I decided to give you one more chance and only smash the buildings. I still have to show you what kind of man I am.”
He’d seen more than enough.
At the words “I’m giving you a chance,” Gu Yanghyeon lowered his head.
“What do we have to do?”
“Do I really have to spell out every little thing for you? Figure it out yourselves.”
“...Understood.”
“Who’s the chief steward here?”
When I asked, the chief steward who’d been standing some distance away came running.
Maybe he thought that since I was giving the family another chance, his life was safe too, because he was coming over with a slightly relieved expression.
In that instant—
THWACK—.
The chief steward’s head flew off.
His body collapsed limply.
Everyone froze for a moment at the shocking sight.
“That one’s beyond rehabilitation.”
The atrocities he’d committed using his position as the Gu Yang Family’s chief steward were hardly fit to be spoken aloud.
Did they know?
That the reason the Gu Yang Family’s notorious reputation had grown even worse was exactly because of the chief steward’s crimes.
They trembled as they stared at the chief steward’s corpse, and when I started slowly walking toward Gu Yanghyeon, his whole body shook.
Was it his turn now?