Chapter 1
Book 1 Chapter 1: Rebirth(1)
Translator: Hwarang
Editor: ardastre
On that day, the day that became both my last and my first, snow began to fall late in the evening.
Watching the snowflakes fall as gently as feathers, Baek Hyo exclaimed, “Alliance Master! It’s the first snow.”
Baek Hyo was the Alliance’s head of security, and also one of my two trusted aides. Despite being in his forties, his character reflected the innocence of a child. He said, “They say that watching the first snowfall would bring forth a good year.” Even though he tried not to show it, his words had a hint of melancholy for the coming year.
Who knew that the greatest bodyguard, who had once stood up to the combined attack of Black Heaven Palace members and the Seven Evil Monsters, could be this sentimental?
“Yes, it is indeed the first snow!”
Even though I tried to make myself look excited, I honestly wasn’t feeling much inside. Nowadays, even the word ‘first snow’ did not make my heartbeat speed up in the slightest. This year I was already seventy years old. And first snow was not enough to melt my calloused heart. Seeing the snow… I could only remember those who died by my hands in the snowy field. The people who lay on the snow, dying the innocent white snow with crimson red.
Swoosh!. The gentle snowfall began to get more violent.
The heavenly seer who predicted that today would be clear will most likely avoid contact with me for a few days. He predicted that the first snowfall would be in four months.
“That rascal Myung He, must be jumping with joy.”
Myung He was Bake Hyo’s child.
“Is he three years old this year?”
Suddenly, Baek Hyo showed a slightly panicked face.
“He is six this year, sir.”
His reply surprised me. It wasn’t because I could not remember Myung He’s age, but because I remembered having the same conversation couple of days ago. Even then I asked whether his son was three. How could I have made such a mistake? Was I so old that I was turning senile?
“I am sorry, he is that big already.”
Rather than looking disappointed, he looked at me with an anxious face and said, “It’s alright, sir. It is said that you feel the time go by watching other’s child grow.”
Now I am certain that Baek Hyo said the same thing the other day.
‘Why am I like this these days?’ My memory is not like before, I am getting more and more forgetful. Also, I have trouble remembering my most recent events. My body is not like how it was before either. I don’t have much energy as before and I am spacing out more often. Just to make sure I circulated my ki throughout my body but discovered that there were no abnormalities. ‘Did I catch some sort of a disease? Should I ask the godly doctor to visit?’
But in the end, I decided to wait it out. If rumors started spreading that there was something wrong with the Alliance Master’s health, then the whole Alliance… No, all of Kang Ho would be in chaos.
“Sir, I will excuse myself for today.”
“Go ahead.”
‘Well, my situation is what it is but I felt sorry for Baek Hyo. How could I have made such a mistake twice, and to someone who is so close to me, and who always takes care of me? I must buy his child a pair of clothes. But… was his child a boy or a girl? Shit, I can’t remember.’ Feeling depressed, I turned my sight toward the window. The intense snowfall was slowly painting the world white, along with my memories.
‘ “…is death knocking at my door step?”
For me, the strongest under the heaven? For me, who has held this position for dozens of years?’
*************
In the afternoon, Chancellor Kal Sa Ryan came to the Master’s Pavillion to give the daily report.
As usual, his report contained various things happening in the alliance, but I wasn’t in the mood for it, so I was staring blankly out the window.
Noticing my mood, he ended the report earlier than usual, “…the rest are in the pile, sir.”
“Great Work.”
“Then, I will excuse myself.”
As he was about to leave, I called him back, “Chancellor Kal.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“What kind of person am I?”
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
“Just speak your mind. How do you see me as a person? Go ahead and give me your evaluation.”
I looked at him with an interested look. I was curious to hear how he would evaluate me, since he was one of my oldest allies, and someone who shared my grand ambition of unifying the Central Plains.
“Why, Sir? How could my evaluation be important, sir?”
He replied looking around, “You are the greatest person in Kang Ho.”
The walls of the master’s pavilion had murals displaying my previous deeds.
My fights, which are recorded in the history book of Kang Ho history book.
At twenty-nine I received the title ‘Strongest Under Heaven’. That year, the Blade King, Axe King, and the Fight King, had all knelt down before me.
Before me, the martial god who ruled everything under the heavens. That was the title that I earned at the end of my twenties.
Seven years later when I was thirty-six, I became the youngest Murim Mengju. It was first time in the history of Murim that such a young person had become the Mengju. Being the first in history filled me with pride.
Drunk with pride and arrogance, I lived my life as Mengju for the last thirty years. I lived an exciting and exhilarating life. Being the Mengju, I lived in the battlefield, defeating the practitioners of the Demonic Alliance and the Evil Sects. In the process, I’d had many close encounters with death, but I had achieved some of the alliance’s long lasting wishes. I destroyed two major powers of the Demonic Alliance, The Thirteen Demon Alliance and the Blood Heaven Sect.
But my fights did not end there. After defeating the foreign enemies, the traitors from inside the alliance showed their true colors. They wanted my position and my title, so they poisoned my food and sent assassins. But these were never successful, and I eliminated all those traitors. I had to kill so that I did not get killed.
Some people in Kang Ho called me Iron Blooded Master, others called me Remorseless Master, since I had killed all the traitors without remorse.
Hence, no one would even dare to cough in front me.
“Sir, you are the symbol of the Alliance and Martial arts. Furthermore, you are Kang Ho itself.”
‘Yes, this is who I am. But, why am I feeling so down today?’.
Kal Sa Ryung added with a worrisome expression, “Sir, is there anything bothering you?”
“No, I am all right.”
Kal Sa Ryung left the pavilion after saying, “Then please take care of yourself, sir.”
In the empty hall, I sunk myself deeply into the chair and started pondering, Kang Ho itself. Hahaha as a person of Kang Ho there is nothing more I desire…
“Khhaaa!!!”
After sitting on the chair I lost my breath. I became worried since I started losing strength and couldn’t control my body own body.
‘Let’s get some rest first…’
I did not know that this would be the last moment of my life. As the Strongest Under the Heaven, I had not expected my death to be like this. I had wanted to die gloriously in battle, surrounded by enemies battling till my last breath!
However, the heaven would not allow that. It seems that my life ends here.
Everything started to become dimmer and dimmer…
***************
Once I opened my eyes, I saw a foreign ceiling.
‘Where am I?’
There was a strong scent of medicine in the room.
‘Is it the doctor’s?’
It seems I must have passed out. I guess I will get an earful from Chancellor Kal for not taking care of myself.
‘What’s this?’
I naturally activated my personal technique, the Heavenly Protection Cultivation Technique. The internal energy from my dantian should have circulated throughout my body to protect me, but. … why was there no reaction?
‘What is this? Why is it that my dantian which should be full of energy, so empty?’
Was it the energy-suppressing poison? Of course not. My cultivating technique could protect me from everything. It was the undisputed number one cultivation technique. There was no way something as puny such as the energy-suppressing poison would work on me. This shitty feeling of having an empty dantian and being unable to do anything was worse than having my bones broken and being cut by a blade.
I slowly moved this awkward body.
‘Where am I?’
This was definitely not the master’s pavilion. The size of this room was relatively small. It did not even come close to a tenth of the size of the pavilion.
At that time I heard a sound from the side. “You’re wake?”
I turned my head towards where the sound came from and saw a middle-aged men and a women. The female approached me and grabbed my hand, asking me , “Are you alright?”
Of course I was not all right. I did not even know what kind of situation I was in.
I asked, “Who are you?” This was the first time hearing my voice.
The female replied, “Did you just ask me who I was?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
The woman’s face gradually turned ugly, while the men in back quickly advised, “Honey, have some self-control!”
But just as his words had ended, the woman slapped me on the back of my head.
Smack!
“What did you just ask? WHO AM, I? Even if you ask for a thousand apologies I might never forgive you! What did you say? Yes, I will tell you. I, who spent the whole night worrying about you, am your mother! You unfilial son! What did you just say?!”
Swoosh!
Her hand was right in front of my face, but the men in from the back of the room held her hand. If not for him, I would have been slapped in the face.
“Wife, please control yourself. He just woke up after being knocked out. His head must still be muddled!”
“Just die! You wicked wretch!”
Had I been in my original life, I would just laugh at them, saying, ‘look at these fools’. However, currently, I was lost within the situation.
Ever since being born, this was the first time that I had been smacked in the back of my head. Aside from all that, what kind of situation was I in? I was really confused.
‘Is this a dream?’
But it felt too real for it to be a dream, And the slap really hurt.
I turned my head to look at the mirror on the wall and I was baffled. The one staring back at me was a youth with a blank expression.
‘This is me? Oh, I guess I must really be dreaming.’
The next second I heard a ringing in my head, and my consciousness started to slip away. The women’s rant started to fade away.
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