Number One In Sichuan (8)

After eating all the dumplings Han Cheol-sang had made and returning to his room to rest, Jin-hyeon suddenly looked out the window.

Below the hill, he could see Ziyang’s marketplace.

‘There are a lot of people.’

Before he realized it, the sun had set. Sichuan was like this by nature. Since it was winter, there was especially less daylight.

Even so, Ziyang County was crowded. Countless lanterns filled the streets with light, and the number of people coming and going was more than three times the usual.

Jin-hyeon quietly looked at the marketplace, then closed his eyes again and circulated the Heavenly Wolf True Art.

Wooooong.

The Moonlit Pack-Wolf True Qi wrapped around his entire body felt as if it would lift him into the sky at any moment.

The first stage of the Heavenly Wolf True Art, the Wolf-Call Path, and the second stage, the Cunning Wolf Path, could be described simply as the process of turning the practitioner into a warrior of the Heavenly Wolf.

But from the third stage, the Moonlit Pack-Wolf Path, it was different.

The Moonlit Pack-Wolf Path was a realm where one could handle the power of the Heavenly Wolf True Art to its limit. In other words, one had become a complete warrior of the Heavenly Wolf.

Even against someone in a similar realm, one could push the enemy back with overwhelming output, and this was connected to Moonlit Unsealing. Furthermore, depending on the degree of training, one could freely handle even an endlessly powerful force of presence.

There were aspects that matched the traits commonly associated in Murim with transcendent masters, but because the art’s nature was inherently fierce and aggressive, when the situation was right, it could emit power beyond that, even if only for a moment.

‘Only now do I truly feel the freedom of my body.’

He was satisfied enough, but naturally, Jin-hyeon had no intention of ending things at this level.

Before even the goal of facing the Heavenly Will Alliance, this was his desire as a martial artist.

Jin-hyeon’s Moonlit Pack-Wolf Path and the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s Moonlit Pack-Wolf Path were different. Naturally, the next stage would show an even greater difference.

‘For now, I will aim for the fourth path, the Nightfall Wolf King Path.’

The Nightfall Wolf King Path was a realm that opened everything in the Heavenly Wolf True Art, an extreme realm said to be able to kill a person with presence alone and melt even a massive boulder with a single gesture. It could practically be considered the great completion of the Heavenly Wolf True Art.

Of course, the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader was someone who had looked beyond even that.

The fifth path of the Heavenly Wolf True Art. From the perspective of martial arts, that realm, which could be called the true ultimate, meant a realm that completely departed from the forms and flow of martial arts.

It was a distant realm for the current Jin-hyeon, but because he had already encountered it, he understood the “method” of reaching it itself.

‘Even if I give up on the final sixth path, I should be able to reach the fifth path.’

If the sixth path were a realm of the martial path, Jin-hyeon would not have given up on it either.

But the sixth path had been made incomplete from the start, and it was a realm that could only be incomplete. After all, human realization could not define the realm of immortals.

That mysterious realm, which even the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader had not reached, meant ascension by shedding the flesh. It was not a realm a person should aim for in the first place, and even if he reached it, Jin-hyeon intended to give it up cleanly.

‘A person is only a person when he lives like one.’

After reviewing his martial arts through a brief period of qi circulation and meditation, Jin-hyeon opened his eyes.

The world had grown a little darker. A full hour seemed to have passed.

Even though time had passed, the marketplace’s liveliness had not faded. If anything, it seemed to have grown even more active.

‘A family name…’

His grandfather’s words kept circling in his head.

‘I really am still clumsy.’

More precisely, he had not even thought of giving the clan a name.

The clan he had first intended to make was something as free as the wind. Because wind could go anywhere, he had meant to create it with the idea that everywhere within his sight would be his home.

But now it was different.

‘Freedom is good, but any organization in the world will find it difficult to exist without a name. Regardless of the name the world gives it, I must decide the clan’s identity with my own hands.’

Even martial forms had names. One had to train according to that form and its mnemonics to fully bring out the form’s power and obtain its true intent.

If even martial arts were like that, how much more so for a clan where people gathered and lived?

‘Family name…’

Jin-hyeon closed his eyes.

After surviving death, there was a clear reason why he had not deliberately created even an assumed family name.

He had been an orphan from the beginning. He did not know who his parents were, and he had no siblings.

The first family name he had ever gained was Gyeong, but in the end, he had been betrayed by the one he thought of as a brother, and had even dissolved that clan with his own hands.

In the end, a family name was also a kind of restraint. Whether one liked it or not, a family name carried that implication.

He had not wanted to be bound anywhere. He had wanted to live like a single gust of wind. At the same time, because his longing for a home was great, he had lived with the goal of establishing a clan.

It had not been easy, but sooner than expected, the clan had revealed its shape. Jin-hyeon had been satisfied with that alone.

But.

‘A Patriarch is someone who takes responsibility for the clan members. Just because I create the clan I want does not mean all the clan members can follow me.’

Perhaps there had also been a part of him that did not want to bear that responsibility. The moment he took on responsibility, it would become difficult to enjoy the freedom he had truly wanted.

But now Jin-hyeon knew. There was no freedom without responsibility.

It was a truth he had known with his head but not realized with his heart, and he had come to feel it deeply while creating the clan.

‘I declared as I pleased that I would take responsibility for countless good people. That was because it was my freedom. But…’

How arrogant a thought that had been.

For a relationship of ruler and ruled to be established, the tacit consent of both sides was necessary.

It was the same for the relationship between one who protects and one who is protected. Protecting someone as one pleased, if the person who did not want it refused, was nothing but a nuisance.

Therefore, for a human being to live in this world meant throwing oneself into the simple and absolute principles of consent and refusal.

‘Steward Han, Yeo-wol, Il-gang, and Grandfather have all entered my fence. I said I would make Sichuan my home, but in reality, my fence has not yet grown that wide.’

It was the difference between seeing the world with the heart and reality.

Anyone could be the master of all under heaven. But if the leaders of the Heavenly Will Alliance, who wielded power, did not exercise that role properly, then anyone had to be able to condemn them and drag them down. Because all under heaven was his home.

However, in the narrow sense, his home was not the Heavenly Will Alliance.

Jin-hyeon clearly recognized that difference.

‘I was arrogant and did not understand reality. That was because I had contradictory goals.’

More precisely, they were goals he could hold together, but the one who had turned them into a contradiction was himself.

He could no longer do that.

‘Grandfather was right. I should have clearly made my real clan first, then looked at the world. Only then can I make all under heaven my home as well.’

Farmers and hunters both had homes. Therefore, they could say that all under heaven was their home.

Because Jin-hyeon had wandered between his own home and all under heaven, he had failed to properly recognize reality.

If one called it minor, it was minor, and if one called it major, it was major. Jin-hyeon also recognized that this complacent thinking of his came from Gyeong Se-hwi’s lack and the groundless confidence planted by the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s memories.

Once he recognized it, he felt ashamed.

‘So that was why he said that.’

He recalled the words of his grandfather, Gyeong Hang.

‘A Patriarch must put food in his clan members’ mouths so they do not go hungry. That hunger is not merely a problem of the stomach. You must always strive and act so that their hearts do not go hungry.’

‘At the same time, you must strive to gladly accept even frank advice. In the end, a Patriarch must watch the mouths of the people who make up the clan.’

‘Put food into their mouths. Do not listen carelessly to the words that come from their mouths. There are too many qualities required of a Patriarch to count one by one, but the most important virtue is still the mouths of my people.’

Watch their mouths.

Those words remained strongly in Jin-hyeon’s memory. In a certain sense, they were far clearer than the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s memories.

‘The fact that he reported to me so regularly can be seen in a similar vein.’

Gyeong Hang understood Jin-hyeon’s inner thoughts better than Jin-hyeon had expected.

And Jin-hyeon could also understand Gyeong Hang’s inner thoughts.

‘He must have been frustrated.’

He knew what kind of eyes his one remaining grandson used to look at the world. In his grandfather’s eyes, it must have looked like an impossible and clumsy goal.

Even so, the reason he had not spoken bluntly was probably because, after losing all his blood kin, he did not want to quarrel in his later years with the one grandson he had left.

‘More than out of responsibility as Supreme Patriarch, the reason he reported everything was probably because he hoped I would realize it even one day sooner.’

A Patriarch was someone who received reports.

To receive reports meant that one had an organization.

Having an organization meant having people to manage, and managing people could not be done with friendship and money alone. His grandfather must have wanted him to realize that as soon as possible.

Of course, this clan was fundamentally a martial family, and the Patriarch of a martial family had to be strong, so until now, Gyeong Hang had allowed him to immerse himself in training.

But now, that would not do.

People were gathering as time passed, residences for the smiths were being built, and transactions with outside businesses were beginning actively.

Now, they truly needed a name.

It meant that it was time to reveal the name proudly and announce the clan’s identity to the world, instead of remaining a mysterious young Patriarch who had inherited the true legacy of a legendary expert from the past.

‘Awareness as a Patriarch. I have much to do. Before that, I must properly organize this clan, so the road ahead will not be chaotic.’

Jin-hyeon rose from his seat.

His resolve toward himself had ended, but before properly beginning, he had thought of someone he truly wanted to see.

“Teacher!”

Though it was late at night, Seol Hong-baek rushed over in a fluster to greet Jin-hyeon.

“How long has it been? Have you been well?”

Jin-hyeon bowed his head.

“I should have come to see you long ago. I have no excuse. I apologize.”

“Heh heh, how can you say such a thing? I am the one who should have visited you sooner. I was waiting for an appropriate time because I thought the surroundings might become needlessly chaotic, but if I had known you would come first, I would have gone even this morning.”

The heart that had been somewhat anxious from embarrassment calmed at once.

This was Seol Hong-baek. He was a person who revealed deep affection without selfishness in every word he spoke. Jin-hyeon thought that even if they had not been tied together by the martial arts of Tianshan, they would have formed a good relationship at any time.

“Rather than standing here like this, let us go inside. Come, this way.”

Even though he was not making a fuss, immense joy showed through.

What truly moved Jin-hyeon was Seol Hong-baek’s attitude, which did not show even the slightest sign despite the fact that he must have roughly recognized Jin-hyeon’s martial realm.

He knew this young teacher had become stronger than him, but none of that mattered. He was simply happy to see him after so long.

Seol Hong-baek was that kind of person. That made Jin-hyeon even more sorry. He should have come sooner.

“Ah! Since you have come, I should call So-ha as well. She has been training hard lately and has made quite a lot of progress in a short time.”

“Haha, I would like to see Lady Seol too, but today I came only to receive a cup of wine from you, Patriarch.”

Seol Hong-baek’s eyes shone.

He instinctively understood that Jin-hyeon was standing at a great crossroads in his life.

“Well, the night is deep, so it may be better for all of us to meet So-ha separately another time. Come in quickly. I will have a wine table prepared at once.”