TRDS 06

 Chapter 6

Return of the Sword 

“Are you really our Cheon?”

A beautiful woman who looked no more than forty, despite being well past sixty, asked with an expression as though she had seen a ghost.

Heoncheon lowered his head while lying flat on the floor.

“Mother, your son has come to greet you. Please forgive this unfilial son.”

“…….”

Heoncheon’s mother, Madam Jo, slowly rose from her seat and approached him.

He thought she might embrace him in an emotional reunion, but—

Smack!

The fiery slap on his back instantly snapped Heoncheon to attention.

“You ungrateful, utterly unfilial brat!”

Smack!

“If you were alive, you should have told us you were alive!”

Smack!

“You should have let us know long ago!”

Smack!

“And you still call yourself a son? A son?!”

She was saying that there was a limit to being heartless. At the very least, he could have sent word about where he was, what he was doing, and how he was living. That way, his family would not have had to worry so much.

Madam Jo poured out her words without pause, delivering one back slap after another like a rapper dominating the stage.

Heoncheon cried out in horror.

“M-Mother! P-Please calm down and listen to me! If you keep hitting me like that, you’re only going to hurt your hand!”

He was not just trying to save face.

Even during the Righteous-Demonic War, it had been difficult to find anyone who could match Heoncheon’s martial prowess. His external cultivation had already reached the level of an iron body back then, so there was no need to explain how tough he was now.

She might as well have been striking an alloy steel plate instead of a human back.

And yet, the fact that she still refused to stop was proof of just how furious she was.

“Mother! R-Right now, you might not feel the pain because of all that adrenaline—!”

Smack!

“Yes! If only my son had sent even a single homing pigeon! I wouldn’t have spent all these years with my heart breaking!”

He was beginning to worry that his mother’s palms would be ruined before she finished venting her anger.

Fortunately, Chief Steward Lim Ho-pil stepped in before that happened.

“My lady, please calm down. I understand how you feel, but no matter what, he has returned safe and sound, hasn’t he? Please let go of your anger now.”

“Huff, huff…….”

Breathing heavily, Madam Jo glared at Heoncheon.

Under that fierce gaze, Heoncheon immediately lowered his eyes.

No matter how powerful a martial artist was, nobody could say a word in front of their parents.

And in Heoncheon’s case, it was even worse because anyone could see that he was clearly in the wrong.

He kept his head lowered like a criminal for quite some time.

Then, Madam Jo, having recovered her strength, raised her hand again.

“Mother!”

Heoncheon hurriedly tried to stop her, but this time, her swollen hand did not strike his back.

Instead, it gently caressed his face.

“I’m sorry, Cheon-ah. I searched for you for so long, but I never managed to find you. I’m truly sorry. Can you forgive this foolish mother of yours, even now?”

“……!”

They say parents become infinitely weak in front of their children.

Heoncheon was unquestionably the one at fault for running away from home, yet Madam Jo apologized first for failing to find the child she had been separated from all those years ago.

Faced with such overwhelming maternal love, Heoncheon could do nothing but hold back his tears.

Once the tense atmosphere had eased somewhat, He Jung-man, who had been silently watching the mother and son, finally spoke.

“So, where have you been all this time?”

Faced with his father’s straightforward question, Heoncheon looked slightly troubled.

“Well, it’s a little difficult to explain right away. Could I tell you about it little by little?”

“Hmm. I understand.”

Heoncheon gave a vague answer instead of explaining properly, but He Jung-man did not press him further.

It was already astonishing enough that Heoncheon had returned as an incredible martial artist. More importantly, the Murim Alliance had officially reported him as having died in battle, yet he had somehow returned alive.

Anyone could guess that his past twenty years must have been anything but ordinary.

He Jung-man thought Heoncheon would tell them when the time was right.

Still, just in case, he added one more thing.

“Cheon-ah, don’t forget that I’m already approaching seventy.”

“Yes. By the way, she’s the one, right?”

Heoncheon pointed toward a girl of about ten who was half-hiding behind He Jung-man while staring at him with bright, curious eyes.

Her delicate oval face and distinct features were the spitting image of Madam Jo.

He immediately knew she was his biological younger sister.

At his question, Madam Jo gave him a reproachful look.

“You’re an adult now. Is that any way to speak?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Mother.”

“It’s fine. Just don’t speak like that again. More importantly, Jinhwa, come over here and say hello. He’s your older brother.”

At Madam Jo’s call, the girl timidly walked forward and bowed awkwardly.

“……Hello. My name is Heo Jinhwa. It’s nice to meet you, Older Brother.”

Her tone sounded more like she was greeting an elder than her own brother, but Heoncheon did not mind.

This was the first time they had ever met, after all, and their actual age difference was closer to that of a father and daughter.

Honestly, if Heoncheon did not look so young for his age, there would have been nothing strange about her calling him an uncle when they first met.

‘So her name is Jinhwa.’

Taken literally, it meant “precious flower.”

Just from her name, it was easy to tell how happy his parents had been at the birth of their daughter, and how dearly they cherished and loved her.

‘They named me Cheon because they wanted me to become a man as great as the heavens. Dad’s naming sense hasn’t changed at all.’

It was direct, yet with just a tiny hint of cheesy sentimentality.

After thinking about it for a moment, Heoncheon smiled and said,

“Nice to meet you, Jinhwa. You must have been pretty surprised when a strange man you’ve never seen before suddenly called himself your older brother, huh? I was surprised too when I saw how pretty my little Jinhwa had grown, so let’s just call it even. Okay?”

“Call it even?”

He Jinhwa tilted her head in confusion.

Seeing that, Heoncheon realized his mistake.

‘Ah, right. That’s Konglish. Oh, this habit of mine.’

He had adapted to life in Korea a little too well.

It had been the same when he talked with Chief Steward Lim yesterday. Every now and then, words and expressions he had picked up in Korea slipped out without him realizing it.

He really needed to fix that habit as soon as possible.

Heoncheon quickly corrected himself.

“Oops, that came out wrong. I just meant that we’re even. You know, neither of us has anything to hold against the other. Jinhwa, don’t go around using expressions like that elsewhere, okay?”

“Yes, Older Brother…….”

He Jinhwa nodded shyly.

Then she fidgeted for a moment before apparently deciding she could not take it anymore. She scampered back behind Madam Jo and quickly hid herself.

Only her face peeked out as she looked at Heoncheon.

When their eyes met, the corners of Heoncheon’s mouth naturally curled upward.

The others watching them were smiling warmly as well.

‘Everyone kept going on about how much they loved their daughter. Now I understand why.’

If it had been a boy acting like that, he might have found it irritating.

But seeing a cute little girl behave that way only made her seem adorable.

And the fact that she shared his blood made it even more endearing.

As a result, even though Heoncheon had never married, he felt as though he had suddenly gained a daughter he had never known he had.

Seeing straight through his feelings, He Jung-man casually remarked,

“She’s pretty, isn’t she? She’ll be even prettier when you have a daughter of your own.”

“……!”

The words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Heoncheon’s head.

He instantly realized what his father was really getting at.

He hurriedly said,

“Father, just so we’re clear, I personally prefer meeting someone naturally, all right? So please don’t secretly arrange some matchmaking meeting behind my back. If you do, I’m packing my things and leaving immediately.”

“……Tch.”

He Jung-man clicked his tongue openly, clearly disappointed.

Madam Jo and Chief Steward Lim Ho-pil, who had been quietly watching, looked equally disappointed.

Only He Jinhwa tilted her head, having no idea what was going on.

‘Phew. So this is the marriage pressure people talk about. If I had let my guard down for even a moment, I would have been in serious trouble.’

Heoncheon was forty-five years old this year.

Just as he had been in Korea, he was unquestionably an old bachelor by Central Plains standards.

Martial artists did sometimes marry late because they devoted themselves to cultivation, but even taking that into consideration, Heoncheon was far too late.

Naturally, it was only to be expected that the people around him would start subtly pressuring him to marry.

But if he did not want to marry, he did not want to marry.

‘Even though I was casually flirting with several women back in Korea, there’s no way I’m going to come here and get forced into marriage!’

Thanks to his martial arts, he had maintained his youthful appearance, so for now, he wanted to enjoy the freedom of being single rather than settling down.

However, if he simply insisted on living alone without doing anything else, there was no way the people around him would look favorably upon it.

He had already thought of something, but he was wondering how to bring it up when—

“By the way, Cheon-ah, what are you planning to do with your life from now on?”

At the perfectly timed question from He Jung-man, Heoncheon answered as though he had been waiting for it.

“Ah, about that. First, I’m planning to overhaul all of our family’s martial arts.”

“All of the family’s martial arts?”

“Is that really true, Young Master?”

Both He Jung-man and Lim Ho-pil brightened at Heoncheon’s words.

If someone as powerful as Heoncheon revised their martial arts, the He Family’s techniques would undoubtedly advance by at least one level, if not more.

There was no need to explain how much that would help a small martial family like the He Family.

“Yes. In particular, I want to start with the Cheongheo Heart Method. Would it be all right if I worked on that first?”

“The Cheongheo Heart Method?”

He Jung-man’s eyes widened.

The Cheongheo Heart Method was the foundation and very root of the He Family.

For that reason, improving the Cheongheo Heart Method had been the He Family’s greatest long-standing wish, one that every head of the family had dreamed of accomplishing.

But He Jung-man had already experienced the danger firsthand.

He had once recklessly attempted to improve the Cheongheo Heart Method himself, only to spend four years in a coma.

He knew better than anyone just how difficult and dangerous it was.

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous?”

At his father’s worried question, Heoncheon chuckled.

“Have you already forgotten? Who was it that healed a father who was practically on the verge of death?”

“Ah, then this father of yours asked an unnecessary question.”

To perform Chugunggwaheol on another person, the first and most essential thing was to understand the flow of the true qi running through that person’s body.

If the flow of true qi was ignored and Chugunggwaheol was performed recklessly, the meridians could become tangled in the wrong way, or the patient’s condition could actually worsen.

That was why Heoncheon had thoroughly studied the Cheongheo Heart Method manual several times before beginning his father’s treatment.

And the fact that he had successfully treated He Jung-man was itself proof that he now fully understood the Cheongheo Heart Method.

“Good. Then go ahead and do whatever you think is best. If you need anything, just tell your father.”

“Yes, Father.”

He Jung-man lightly patted Heoncheon on the shoulder as he answered confidently, then looked at him with a proud and reassured expression.

‘You’ve grown so much.’

He was happy, but as a father, he could not help regretting that he had missed the chance to witness his son growing into the man he had become.

According to the family records, the founder of the He Family had learned the Cheongheo Heart Method from an unknown Daoist of the now-defunct Quanzhen Sect.

That was why the Cheongheo Heart Method belonged to the Daoist school of martial arts.

As it happened, the martial lineage Heoncheon had belonged to also specialized in an internal cultivation method of a similar tradition.

Therefore, he did not need to search for another Daoist internal cultivation method. He only needed to choose an appropriate one from among the techniques he already knew.

That was also why Heoncheon had been so confident when he told his father that the Cheongheo Heart Method could be improved.

‘The Wuae Heart Method should be the most suitable.’

The Wuae Heart Method was one of the cultivation methods passed down through Heoncheon’s martial lineage.

Although it was not quite a secret supreme technique reserved for the sect master or direct disciples, that was only by comparison. In the wider martial world, it was certainly worthy of being called an exceptional technique.

In a sense, he was giving away one of his martial lineage’s techniques to an outsider, but Heoncheon did not care.

He was, after all, the only successor of his martial lineage and its current sect master. Besides, his master had already given him permission in the past to freely use any of the lineage’s techniques except its secret supreme arts.

In any case, the gentle yet profound Wuae Technique matched the slow and stable nature of the Cheongheo Heart Method quite well.

If the two were combined, they would create synergy rather than conflict.

However, no matter how similar two cultivation methods were, combining two different martial arts into one was far from easy.

And it was not enough to simply create a set of cultivation formulas and call it finished.

He had to test whether there were any side effects when true qi was circulated according to the new formulas, determine how much energy would be stored in the dantian during each circulation, and check whether the new method conflicted with the He Family’s existing martial arts, among many other things.

Of course, he could have cut corners if he wanted to.

But when he considered that his father and younger sister would eventually be practicing it themselves, there was no way he could afford to treat the process carelessly.

And so Heoncheon devoted himself entirely to developing the new cultivation method, refusing to compromise on anything.

Except when he had business to attend to or needed to eat, he did not set foot outside his room.

Then, on the twentieth day since he had shut himself away in his room—

At the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep, the end of the arduous journey finally came into sight.