Reincarnation of the Fist King Chapter 5

The King of Fists Announces His Return

Danwoo Seong's conclusion about Lee Jin-eon's memory was as follows.

'You must have been happy to be born into a poor family.'

Lee Jin-eon had known the taste of money since childhood. If he got beaten up in the neighborhood, he'd take the money to settle it. If he had a falling out with a woman, he'd take the money and go to the pub. Money had made his life cowardly. His unyielding personality also played a part in this.

The type of people that Danwoo-seong hated the most were people who lived honestly without any plan, and Lee Jin-eon was one of those people.

He was good by nature.

But what does that mean?

How much help would it be to live life by being good without a plan?

Lee Jin-eon became weaker because of money.

Because he mistook the power of money for his own power, he began to be ignored.

The burden of being the successor, the emotional fights between his brothers, the emotional changes his younger brothers experienced as they grew up, his father's increasingly cold gaze, and the gazes his family members gave him all tormented Lee Jin-eon.

But there was still a lot of money.

Whenever things got tough, he turned to alcohol, had a string of women, and bragged about his wealth to his friends. Lee Jin-eon even knew his friends were only after his money. But once his life was in shambles, he couldn't muster the courage to abandon them. His daily routine consisted of hopping from one pub to another, luring in rascals who were looking for drinks or freebies.

In short, it was a dog-eat-dog life.

The main incident that occurred was that Lee Jin-eon, who had not even taken care of his health, collapsed while coughing up blood, and was sent to An-ga for treatment by his father's order.

As these memories overlapped with the faces of the people around him that he had seen in portraits, Dan Woo-seong began to grasp the entire situation as if he had absorbed all of Lee Jin-eon's memories.

If Lee Jin-eon was this kind of a slacker, then this kind of exile probably didn't bother him at all. Dan Woo-seong decided to relax and recover his martial arts skills, and then return when the time came.

Danwoo Sung, who had completely absorbed the memories, jumped to his feet and dragged Gongsun Myeong out of the room, still clutching him by the scruff of the neck. Still, he was determined to bury this unscrupulous congressman's body in a proper manner.

***

All the servants were gathered in the main hall.

This was because, two hours ago, when Danwoo Seong dragged out the body of the member of the National Assembly, there was a sect that was so startled that it fainted.

When the Grand Duke killed the councilman and called everyone, everyone held their breath, wondering what was going on.

Danwoo Seong spoke to the gathered attendees.

“Guys.”

“Yes, Confucius.”

"I killed Dr. Gongsun. That doctor's prescriptions worsened my health. Things like Yongbongtang were no different from poison. As you know, I simply controlled my drinking and eating, and stopped taking broth and acupuncture, yet my body is recovering like this. This means that Dr. Gongsun valued money over his own duty. That's why he died. Even if I had saved him, he would have gone elsewhere and used his medical skills to kill people, just like he did to me."

The sages had nothing else to say. Frankly, they didn't need such a kind explanation.

Danwoo Sung reassured the Sibis.

"If your family pursues this, I'll take care of it. Whatever happens, I'll make sure you don't come to any harm."

Only then did the servants answer.

“Thank you, Confucius······.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

Danwoo-seong nodded and replied.

“And clean up the residence of the Gongsun Councilor and use it for yourselves. If you find any correspondence or other documents exchanged with anyone from the main family, bring them to me.”

Danwoo Seong's tone was so calm that the servants were overcome with fear even while answering.

As the sages retreated, holding their breath······.

Danwoo Sung pondered the order of martial arts he should imprint on his new body.

It's not training, it's imprinting.

Some might not be immediately deployable due to insufficient internal energy. Others might not be able to properly deploy due to inability to generate speed. Therefore, I planned to find a technique that would suit Lee Jin-eon's body and maximize efficiency.

Danwoo Seong, who had been worrying, decided to focus on only the first four stages of Baekjeon Sipdan Gong, and while reaching the fourth stage, he would imprint on his body the Oryobobeop (Enlightenment of Steps), Oryoshinbeop (Enlightenment of Body), and Jeon-i Gyeonggong (Transition Light Skills). Since speed and momentary movements were directly related to life and death, these were the areas that he had to train first.

There was no other reason to focus on Baekjeonshipdan Gong first.

This is because it can cause pain to the opponent with the thunderous energy that can be emitted with a hundred-shot attack.

Here, Danwoo Sung had a strange thought.

It felt like he was carefully reviewing the martial arts he'd learned, starting from the very beginning. Back when he was a martial arts king, he'd never looked back on the martial arts he'd learned in his early days, but now he was reviewing them for survival.

Dan Woo-seong got up from his seat and headed back to Guhwasan Mountain.

Another life was Danwoo Sung's, a life he had never hoped for or anticipated. Both Jin-eon Lee's body and Danwoo Sung's mind were at a point where training was all they needed.

***

It had already been four seasons since Danwoo Seong had been training at Anga and Guhwasan without missing a single day······.

A young man carrying a sword entered the house and asked a passing servant.

“Where is the Grand Duke?”

Sibi was startled by the voice of an outsider she hadn't seen in a long time and responded.

“Oh, he should be at the training ground by now.”

The man was wearing the uniform of the Galactic Escort Corps, so Sibi was sweeping his chest.

The man tilted his head.

“A martial arts studio? Was there a martial arts studio in An-ga?”

“Yes. They are using the annex of the sponsorship as a training ground. Over there······.”

The shibi pointed to a small road to the right of the main building.

As the unmanned person from the main house walked towards the training ground, the Sibi also moved quickly as if he had to inform his colleagues.

The strange man was a young warrior belonging to the Galactic Upper Guard, and he had come to visit carrying a letter to deliver to the Grand Duke.

The door to the annex was wide open.

As Mok In-seop entered the annex, he saw a man sitting with his back turned, his upper body exposed, on the wooden floor where all miscellaneous items had been cleared away.

My whole body was drenched in sweat.

The bare back was covered with small muscles.

Mok In-seop asked cautiously, even though he thought there was no way this man could be the Grand Duke.

“Master Jin-eon? This is Mok In-seop of the escort unit.”

Danwoo-seong said as he roughly put on the top he had on the floor.

“Come up.”

Mok In-seop looked down at the command to come up. It was a wooden floor slightly raised above the ground. As he was about to step up, Dan Woo-seong spoke again.

“Take off your shoes.”

“Oh, yes.”

Mok In-seop took off his shoes and stepped onto the creaking floor.

Danwoo Seong continued to catch his breath.

In the end, Mok In-seop went to the Grand Duke, bowed his head once, and looked at his face.

“It’s been a while.”

When Dan Woo-seong pointed to the floor with his hand as if telling him to sit down, Mok In-seop took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Dan Woo-seong before sitting down.

Dan Woo-seong read the letter, and Mok In-seop gazed at his torso with astonishment. Through his unbuttoned shirt, he could see his well-defined abs and upper body muscles that looked as if they had been carved with a knife. Furthermore, his body was a bronzed hue, as if he had been deeply tanned by the sun.

"What? The Archduke's body was this good?"

It felt like I was facing a master of external martial arts, and there was no sign of illness on his face. Hot steam rose from his crown, and traces of intense training lingered all over his attire.

The hazy smoke rising from Jeongsu-ri was a characteristic that was revealed when practicing Baekjeonshipdan-gong, which deals with the energy of the extreme yang.

After reading the letter, Dan Woo-seong asked Mok In-seop.

“There is no explanation as to why he collapsed.”

The letter briefly mentioned that Lee Jin-eon's father was ill. However, it didn't request that Grand Duke Lee Jin-eon return to his family home. It was simply a request to be aware.

Mok In-seop sensed disappointment in Dan Woo-seong's expression. He'd expected his concern for his father to be evident in his expression, but the atmosphere was utterly cold.

Mok In-seop said.

"The tribute to the Guyang family, ostensibly under the guise of protection money, has increased again. Before that, we had signed a new contract with the now-famous Iron Defense Company in Uiseong to ship goods to the Western Regions. However, the Laughing Immortal Sect, which had established itself in Uiseong, belatedly contacted us and demanded a tax on the weapons we brought. It's a ridiculous, coercive demand, not a tax. In any case, the Iron Defense company's suppliers must have known about this, but seeing as they kept quiet, it seems these two companies have taken advantage of us."

Danwoo Seong asked.

“What did the Guyangse family do while receiving protection money?”

"They're sticking to their position that, as originally agreed, the Guyang Family will provide military support when problems arise at the Galactic Upper House. The contract initially stipulated they wouldn't interfere with the Upper House's contracts or other miscellaneous matters. There's no problem with the contract itself; morally, we're the only ones who are upset."

“So you collapsed?”

Mok In-seop responded with a trembling expression.

"There's more. While this was happening, the personal guards of the second and third princes got into an altercation, which escalated into a fight involving swords. The princes were also caught up in the fight, and the second prince was injured. The incident somehow ended well, but… It seems the two princes were arguing while external events were unfolding, and they temporarily fainted. The doctor said it was a common fire disease."

To be honest, Mok In-seop couldn't understand why he was narrating his family's story in such detail to the Grand Duke of Gaechaban. In the past, he would have simply dropped the letter, said a few words, and returned to his senses.

However, the atmosphere of the Grand Duke asking the story had changed, so Mok In-seop also naturally began to talk at length.

On the one hand, there was also the intention of speaking deliberately and examining the Grand Duke closely.

Danwoo Seong thought for a moment and then replied.

“It seems like the demands of the Soseonpa can be simply rejected.”

"yes?"

“Even if the angry Soseonpa sends a few high-ranking officials, the Guyangse family will take care of it.”

“The problem is the ironclad contract.”

"There's no reason to keep selling something so faulty. That's not the only business. It would be best to at least pay the penalty and get out of the way. Anyway, I find the Guyang family even more peculiar."

“What is it?”

Danwoo Sung didn't open his mouth right away because he thought it was just a guess.

"I'll look into it and get back to you. Anyway, with Father like that, the two younger brothers are fighting… and they're wielding swords at that. This can't be left alone. If brothers fight each other, there's no telling where the sparks could fly."

“Yes, it is a big deal.”

Mok In-seop nodded vigorously. The Grand Duke spoke so truthfully, he wondered what was going on.

Danwoo Seong looked at Mok Inseop and spoke in a calm tone.

“I will be back soon.”

With the high-quality ginseng and elixirs An Ga had stockpiled depleted, the financial resources of the upper class were in dire need. From both Lee Jin-eon's and Dan Woo-seong's perspectives, they didn't want the Galaxy Upper Class to collapse.

Mok In-seop stared intently into Dan Woo-seong's eyes, then realized his rudeness and lowered his head slightly.

<The King of Fists, Declaring His Return> End

ⓒ Eugene Sung

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