Chapter 2
Chapter 2
‘What in the world is this face……?’
Youngho could not understand the situation at all.
The face reflected on the surface of the river was dozens of years younger than when he had fought the Heavenly Demon.
What in the world had happened?
“Did I attain enlightenment about life at the moment of death and undergo rejuvenation, returning to youth?”
No, that could not be.
That was nonsense.
Unless one had encountered an extraordinary fortuitous encounter, there was no way such a supreme and pure state of rejuvenation could happen so easily.
He was certain that he had unleashed his final strike on the Heavenly Demon, drawing out even his Innate True Qi in its entirety.
Of course, that final strike had been blocked far too futilely by a casual wave of the Heavenly Demon’s hand, and then the Heavenly Demon’s fist strike that followed should have smashed his head to pieces.
But now…… his heart was clearly beating, and there was not even the slightest internal injury, not to mention a single scratch.
The fingers that had once been split open to the bone had somehow transformed into hands as fair and delicate as jade.
After checking his entire body, still unable to believe this reality, Youngho repeatedly clenched and unclenched his left fist, which had once been nearly torn off.
“Hey!”
A sharp voice pierced Youngho’s ears as he stood there with a bewildered expression, checking his body.
“Who……?”
“That’s how you talk to your lifesaver? You must either be ill-mannered to the core, or a child from some overly pampered noble house.”
The woman, muttering something like, ‘You never know,’ as if her own family was hardly lacking compared to others, gathered something and spoke.
“So, are you…… okay?”
At those words, Youngho flinched and hurriedly replied.
“I’m fine. No— I am fine.”
Youngho had no idea how things were unfolding at this moment, so he instinctively used polite speech first.
“What’s this? At least you have manners. Anyway, you have to be careful about everything here. This is the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance’s territory, so it might seem like there wouldn’t be any troublemakers, but the world is full of lunatics everywhere.”
“Ah…… yes.”
“You look fine, so I’m leaving. Be careful next time!”
With those words, the woman briskly walked off toward somewhere.
“Huh?”
At that moment, a memory from his childhood suddenly surfaced in Youngho’s mind.
This situation…….
He had experienced it somewhere before.
‘Definitely…….’
As he thought, a bad memory soon came to mind, and Youngho unconsciously frowned.
“I’m sure this was when I almost got killed by those sons of bitches.”
When he was fifteen, Youngho had been preparing to become a formal disciple of the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance.
That day, his body had felt strangely chilled, but ignoring that uneasy sensation, Youngho had been quietly getting ready to head out when the third and fourth disciples of the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance took him and led him somewhere.
At the time, Youngho had been extremely timid and cowardly, and he remembered being dragged along without saying a word.
After walking for quite a while, the place they arrived at was an enormously high cliff.
Although there was a majestic waterfall that looked as if it belonged in the Immortal Realm and beautiful flowers blooming nearby, Youngho could not help but be terrified by the sheer height of the cliff.
Pleased with his frightened appearance, the Third Young Master and the Fourth Young Miss shoved Youngho straight down the cliff.
Well, that was a heavily condensed version of events, but back then, had they not said that to become a disciple of the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance, first came martial strength, and second also martial strength?
He remembered them spouting that kind of bullshit as they dropped him off the cliff.
‘Hang in there.’
‘If you survive, we’ll treat you like a junior brother.’
Thinking back now, it was all complete bullshit.
‘Those bastards were just itching to kill me.’
Lost in those old memories, Youngho’s expression naturally twisted with displeasure.
After falling from the cliff and plunging into the water, he remembered regaining consciousness to find a woman rescuing him, then, as soon as she confirmed he was in decent condition, striding off on her way.
Yes, with that same bold gait, swinging her arms in an exaggerated manner as she moved forward.
Staring blankly at her figure for a moment, Youngho shook his head hard and snapped back to his senses.
“I came back to the past……?”
He had returned to the past. No, was it not that he had returned to the past, but that he had simply dreamed while unconscious? No, that could not be.
The days when he became the senior brothers’ dog just to survive.
The blood- and sweat-soaked martial arts training he had endured day and night to stay alive.
The precious friends he had lost while fighting the Heavenly Demon.
There was no way all those memories and efforts were just a dream.
No, he could not dismiss them as some mere dream.
It was an unbelievable situation.
But no matter how calm a person might be, Youngho was certain that anyone placed in the same position would react the same way.
But what if he really had returned to the past? What if he had come back to the very day he was to become the Lord’s disciple?
There was so much to think about.
There were many things to consider—the Heavenly Demon, the machinations of the Demonic Cult, and more—but…….
“Fuck! Just run first!”
Above all else, he could not be late for his scheduled meeting with the Lord.
No matter how lenient his master might be “for someone of the Unorthodox Faction,” if he failed to arrive at the appointed time, there would undoubtedly be a terrible punishment.
In fact, Youngho had experienced the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance’s punishments several times already.
Honestly, if this were his original body, he could have endured his master’s punishment as nothing more than a way to kill time, but Youngho’s current body was nothing more than that of an ordinary person who had accumulated only a pitiful amount of internal energy.
He had learned a bit of martial arts, but his realm was not that high. No— it was low.
Extremely low.
He missed his former body, which had reached the pinnacle of the State of Transformation.
Even though he had been running for only a short while, his breathing was already beginning to fall apart.
“Huff! Huff!”
Even with his breath rising to his throat, Youngho ran as if his life depended on it. Otherwise, in his current condition, he would never be able to endure the punishment awaiting him.
“Khah!”
The clothes that had barely dried after being soaked in the river were once again drenched with sweat.
When Youngho finally, barely managed to reach the training grounds, he immediately swept his surroundings with a hawk-like gaze.
‘He’s not here!’
His master was not yet in sight.
Fortunately, having arrived before his master, Youngho inwardly cheered.
‘Good!’
At least he had avoided punishment for now. Then next…….
Looking down at his soaked clothes, Youngho began to consider the distance between his quarters and the training grounds.
‘I’d like to change into different clothes if I could…… but I don’t think there’s enough time.’
It seemed he would have no choice but to wait for his master like this.
“Hey!”
As he was catching his breath, a voice came from behind him, and astonishingly, Youngho’s face crumpled reflexively.
A thoroughly unpleasant voice he had not heard in a long time.
The moment he clearly remembered who the owner of that voice was, he turned around while scrunching up his face in every possible way.
“What? Why are you making that kind of face? Do you want to jump off a cliff again?”
In the man’s eyes as he spoke, there lurked a faint but unmistakable killing intent.
Seeing the killing intent pooled in the man’s gaze, Youngho let out a quiet snort.
‘Was this guy really this insignificant?’
Soon-to-be a senior brother, but to Youngho—who knew the future—there was no way he would ever acknowledge him as such. Wearing a smile full of mockery, he spoke.
“Hey, Baekcheong.”
“What?”
“Do you carry your ears around just for decoration? Didn’t you hear what I said?”
At Youngho’s crooked smile, with only one corner of his mouth lifted, Baekcheong let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded.
“This bastard falls off a cliff and loses his mind?”
“The one who lost his mind is you. What were you going to do if I actually died?”
“So what if you did? It’d just be one person inside the Unorthodox Alliance dying. Isn’t that a pretty common thing?”
At those words, Youngho smacked his lips as he looked at the still-young Baekcheong.
“Right, it’s very common. But if you do that to someone who’s about to become the Lord’s disciple, what do you think will happen?”
“At least you won’t get the punishment you’re imagining.”
“No, you’re the one who’ll be punished.”
“Punished?”
Baekcheong clicked his tongue as if the idea were absurd.
At that, Youngho spoke with the same meaningful smile still on his face.
“I suppose so. Since I didn’t die and arrived on time to become a formal disciple……. Probably two hours of Horse Stance?”
“You’re calling that a punishment?”
“No. You wouldn’t suffer from something as trivial as Horse Stance. I, on the other hand, will probably suffer for a while after wrecking my knees.”
“What kind of bullshit is that? Ah, is this my fault for even trying to listen to a mongrel?”
Perhaps because Youngho’s words were so utterly ridiculous, the killing intent in Baekcheong’s eyes grew far thicker than before.
Seeing that, Youngho smiled in satisfaction.
“The marketplace.”
For a moment, Baekcheong failed to understand what he meant. After thinking for a bit, his face suddenly crumpled.
At such an absurd statement, the killing intent that had filled his eyes was long gone. Instead, Baekcheong stared at Youngho as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“……What?”
“The marketplace right in front of the Unorthodox Alliance. You’ll be doing Horse Stance there.”
“You’re full of shit. Completely.”
“If you don’t believe it, that’s your problem.”
As if he had already lost interest, Youngho withdrew his gaze from Baekcheong.
The moment their conversation ended, a terrifying pressure was felt from behind Youngho’s back.
Boom—!!
In an instant, an extremely intense energy, like lightning striking his head, began to scrutinize Youngho’s body.
And the presence behind him would have realized that Youngho had noticed its energy.
‘This should be enough to show that I’m qualified, right?’
With that thought, the formless energy that had been probing his body like an inspection slowly retreated.
“Are you Youngho?”
At the languid yet massively weighty voice, as heavy as Mount Taishan itself, Youngho answered respectfully.
“Yes. I am.”
“Look at me.”
Following those words, he turned around.
Boom!!
‘Heavy.’
The moment he saw him, he felt an overwhelming sense of weight, as if he were carrying Mount Taishan on his shoulders.
As the formless pressure pressed down on him to the point his shoulders ached, Youngho felt his breathing gradually grow rough.
But that pressure suddenly dissipated into the air, as if it had never existed in the first place.
“Interesting.”
In the eyes of the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance as he said that, there was interest and curiosity that were not usually there.
Hearing his master’s words, Baekcheong was startled.
Even if he hadn’t been told “excellent,” remarks like that meant that interest had been sparked in that brat.
And more than anything, the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance’s eyes looked genuinely pleased.
“So this is why martial artists raise disciples. As you know, my name is Cheonung. A very common name. In ordinary times, call me Master. And when I tell you to come, come immediately.”
“I understand.”
“This is meant to celebrate you becoming my disciple, but I don’t want to make it overly grand at the beginning. After all, you haven’t shown me much yet.”
“Yes.”
At Cheonung’s words, Youngho obediently bowed his head and replied.
“Still, don’t feel disappointed. For all that I may look like this, I care quite a bit about my disciples. I won’t stop you from fighting among yourselves with your lives on the line, but aside from that, I’ll protect you as much as I can. And…….”
Cheonung started to say something, then closed his mouth.
Youngho’s current state looked like a drowned rat.
There was no need to ask who had done this to him.
‘So it was Baekcheong and Gakjeong, those bastards.’
Still, this was relatively mild even among the Unorthodox Faction. If this had been the Green Forest, Youngho would have long since been reduced to a puddle of blood.
‘It’s a good thing I taught them the meaning of moderation.’
Otherwise, he might have had to send off such an interesting fellow without ever getting to see him.
Cheonung seemed to ponder something deeply, then opened his mouth.
“Normally, I would pass martial arts on to you, but today doesn’t seem like the right time. Go to your quarters and get some proper rest.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Master.”
“You’re already playing at being an adult, you little brat. And Baekcheong.”
“Yes, Master.”
Cheonung looked at Baekcheong with an expression that said, ‘What should I even do with this fool?’ Then he spoke.
“You and Gakjeong will perform Horse Stance at the entrance of the Unorthodox Alliance for two hours.”
“Pardon? Why……?”
“It’s punishment. If you don’t know what you did wrong, I’ll increase it to three hours. Understand it that way.”
At those words, Baekcheong’s face turned pale, and seeing that, Youngho smiled brightly.
That’s what you get for getting cocky, you bastard!