TRDS 10

 Chapter 10

Return of the Sword 

That night, the moment He Jung-man heard Chief Steward Lim Ho-pil’s report in his study, he unconsciously asked again.

“Did Cheon really say that?”

“Yes, Head of the Family.”

“Hmm. The number one in Hangzhou…”

He Jung-man rested his chin on his left hand and tapped the desk with the fingertips of his right.

It was a habit he had whenever he was deep in thought.

‘So that was why. That’s why he suddenly said he wanted to overhaul the family’s martial arts.’

At first, he had thought it was simply an excuse to avoid the subject of marriage.

He never imagined that Heoncheon had already been making plans on such a grand scale back then.

As both a father and the head of the He Family, He Jung-man could not help but feel ashamed.

‘He’s far better than I am.’

Of course, He Jung-man had also done his best for the future of the He Family in his own way.

Even though it nearly cost him his life, his attempt to improve the incomplete Cheongheo Heart Method had been part of that effort.

‘Fortunately, thanks to Cheon, the problem with the cultivation method has been solved…’

But if the He Family was going to become the number one family in Hangzhou, there were still many obstacles left to overcome.

The most urgent problem among them was money.

‘Sigh. I never realized the family’s finances had become this bad.’

At present, the He Family’s main sources of income were the crops from the farmland handed down through the generations and the profits from a few small shops.

They had originally owned several inns and pleasure houses as well, but those had been sold off long ago.

It had all been because of He Jung-man’s treatment.

‘It’s all my fault.’

To keep him alive somehow, they had summoned every renowned physician in the surrounding area.

They had even spent precious medicinal herbs as if they were ordinary water.

Thanks to that, the family had managed to survive until Heoncheon returned.

But there was no denying that it had also severely damaged the He Family’s finances.

Overcome by guilt, He Jung-man could barely bring himself to raise his head.

‘If only I hadn’t tried to tamper with the cultivation method, things would never have gotten this bad…’

There was no use regretting it now.

Regret would not change the current situation.

For the time being, rather than recklessly expanding the He Family’s influence, their first priority had to be securing and increasing a stable source of income.

Until then, the title of being the number one in Hangzhou was nothing more than a foolish dream.

“Chief Steward, is there any way we can regain ownership of the inns and pleasure houses we sold?”

“It is possible, but I cannot guarantee that the current owners will willingly agree to negotiate with us. It is also uncertain whether they would sell them back to us at the same prices we originally received.”

“Hmm. So, in the end, it’s still money.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

The income from the He Family’s farmland and small shops was nowhere near enough to buy back the inns and pleasure houses.

Nor could they simply borrow money indiscriminately from neighboring businesses.

Faced with such a frustrating situation, He Jung-man let out a deep sigh.

“Sigh. If only a fortune would fall from the sky…”

“Can this be called getting hit by a fortune?”

Heoncheon muttered as he stared at the piles of promissory notes, gold, and silver covering the table.

At his feet lay a large safe that had been split cleanly in two.

It was immediately obvious where the money and treasures had come from.

‘That Jeon Baek-gwang bastard. Now that I think about it, he was practically a gold goblin.’

Surprisingly, the safe had originally belonged to Jeon Baek-gwang, the former leader of the Golden Tiger Gang, who had now been reduced to an idiot.

More precisely, it was the safe where he had hidden his secret stash.

Heoncheon had happened to find it while destroying the Golden Tiger Gang and had taken it for himself.

He had originally planned to check its contents that very day, but after that, he became so focused on creating the Cheongheo Wuae Technique that he completely forgot about it.

Now that he finally had some free time, he had opened the safe and was checking its contents.

‘He really scraped together every last bit.’

For a villain who had run both illegal gambling dens and loan-sharking businesses, the amount of hidden money he had accumulated was considerable.

‘There must be at least several thousand nyang of silver here.’

One nyang of silver was roughly worth 100,000 won when converted into Korean currency.

So several thousand nyang would be worth at least several hundred million won.

Yet Heoncheon remained completely calm even after seeing such a huge fortune.

‘Still less than my company’s average sales.’

Heoncheon’s company had been a fairly solid small-to-medium-sized business.

Since he had been its owner, it would have been stranger for him to be shocked by this amount of money.

Of course, that was only by Korean standards.

By the standards of the Central Plains, this was an enormous fortune.

‘Still, something feels strange. Even if gambling and loan-sharking are profitable, could they really have earned this much?’

There was no way Jeon Baek-gwang could have accumulated this much money simply by exploiting the common people of Hangzhou.

But that was not the only strange thing.

Heoncheon’s gaze shifted toward three books sitting by themselves among the piles of promissory notes and gold and silver.

The title of the first book was Empty-Handed Soul-Stealing Hand.

The second was Shadowless Steps.

And the final one was Profound Heaven Fist Manual.

All three were martial arts manuals.

But the only one that caught Heoncheon’s attention was the last.

‘I never expected to see that man’s manual here.’

The Heavenly Fist Dragon, Nam Cheol-ak.

He was a member of the Heaven’s End Sect, a one-person lineage sect, and one of the great masters who had fought during the Righteous-Demonic War.

If he had still been alive, he would have easily reached the Transcendent Realm.

The Heavenly Fist Dragon possessed a martial talent rarely seen in the world.

Unfortunately, during the war, he became caught in a mutual death battle with five Blood Demon Cult Blood Death Envoys and met a tragic end.

As a result, his signature martial art, the Profound Heaven Fist, also disappeared from the martial world.

Many people had mourned the loss at the time.

‘And yet, his manual survived like this.’

A manual containing the signature martial art of the Heavenly Fist Dragon was a treasure beyond any price.

There would be countless people who would refuse to sell it even if they were offered a fortune.

‘This is quite a dilemma.’

The manual itself was undoubtedly genuine.

There was no way a master like Heoncheon could fail to distinguish an authentic manual from a fake.

That was why he was reluctant to simply sell it.

But at the same time, learning it himself would be difficult.

The Profound Heaven Fist Manual contained only the forms and principles of the Profound Heaven Fist.

There was not a single detailed explanation of how to circulate internal energy.

‘In other words, I’d need to find a separate cultivation method to learn this properly.’

In short, it was a beautiful shell with nothing inside.

‘Well, if the cultivation method had been included, this manual probably wouldn’t have ended up in Jeon Baek-gwang’s hands in the first place.’

That explanation made sense.

Even so, one question that had bothered him from the beginning still remained unanswered.

‘How did Jeon Baek-gwang get his hands on this?’

Of course, if he really wanted to, there were plenty of ways to acquire a martial arts manual.

Several names immediately came to Heoncheon’s mind.

The most likely possibilities were the Black Market and the underground auction house beneath the Golden Flower Pavilion.

‘Those two places can get you almost anything, except things that don’t exist. But realistically, there’s no way Jeon Baek-gwang could have entered either one.’

Neither place was open to just anyone.

If every random nobody could freely enter them, the Black Market and Golden Flower Pavilion could never have earned their infamous reputations.

With Jeon Baek-gwang’s status and level of martial arts, he would never have been allowed inside, no matter how many times he died and came back to life.

‘Then…’

Another possibility suddenly crossed Heoncheon’s mind.

‘Could someone have left it with him temporarily?’

Like stolen goods, perhaps.

Jeon Baek-gwang had also been running a loan-sharking business.

It would have been easy enough to secretly trade or dispose of stolen goods through such a business.

‘That certainly makes more sense.’

And the moment he considered the manuals to be stolen goods, the other two manuals—ones he had not even paid attention to until now—suddenly began to bother him.

‘Could it really be a coincidence that these were in Jeon Baek-gwang’s safe along with the Profound Heaven Fist Manual?’

There was no way.

He had a strong feeling that the person who had entrusted the Profound Heaven Fist Manual to Jeon Baek-gwang had something to do with the other two manuals as well.

And no thief in the world would be happy to discover that the stolen goods he had stolen had been stolen from him.

There was a very good chance that whoever had left them there had secretly tampered with them in some way that only they knew about.

‘Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?’

Just as Heoncheon decided he should dispose of the safe and manuals as quickly as possible, every lamp in the room suddenly went out.

There was not even a breath of wind.

Darkness descended in an instant.

At the same time, a small figure appeared like a ghost from the ceiling and silently dropped straight toward Heoncheon’s head.

As she fell, her left hand trembled and suddenly split into multiple images, all of them simultaneously targeting Heoncheon’s stun acupoints.

But—

Swoosh—

Before the figure’s hand could even touch his body, Heoncheon’s form warped like a reflection rippling across the surface of water.

Then it scattered into nothingness.

The figure was momentarily caught off guard by the unexpected development.

That was when a voice suddenly came from behind her.

“Enough. Don’t move.”

Heoncheon had neither stood up nor taken a step.

Yet somehow, he was already standing directly behind her.

‘Form-Shifting and Position-Exchange!’

The moment she realized what technique Heoncheon had used, the figure hurriedly raised both hands above her head and turned around.

“W-Wait! I didn’t come here to fight you!”

‘Huh? A woman’s voice?’

Her build was smaller and more slender than that of an ordinary man, so Heoncheon had suspected as much.

And indeed, the figure was a woman.

Judging solely from her voice, she did not seem very old, either.

At most, she sounded like she was in her early to mid-twenties.

But Heoncheon had no intention of going easy on her or lowering his guard simply because she was a young woman.

Until the moment she revealed herself, he had not detected her presence at all.

Considering Heoncheon’s level, that should have been impossible.

It was proof that the concealment technique she had mastered was an extraordinary martial art.

‘Twenty years ago, there was only one thief capable of mastering concealment techniques to this level…’

He did not know what had become of that person over the past twenty years, but he decided he had nothing to lose by asking.

“You. What is your relationship with the Shadowless Divine Thief?”

“……!”

The figure flinched at Heoncheon’s question.

She had never expected the name Shadowless Divine Thief to come out of his mouth.

Seeing her reaction, Heoncheon became certain that his guess had been correct.

‘So this is the successor of the Shadowless Divine Thief. The world really does change after twenty years.’

He was curious about her exact identity.

Fortunately, he could simply ask her directly.

“Are you his disciple? Or one of his descendants?”

“……”

“Why did you suddenly become so quiet? You were talking just fine a moment ago. Did you forget how to speak already?”

“……”

“If that’s not it, then…”

Heoncheon’s expression turned cold.

At the same time, his right hand gripped the hilt of the long sword hanging from his waist.

“Are you saying my question isn’t even worth answering?”

Under Heoncheon’s pressure, the figure bit her lip beneath her mask.

There was no point in keeping silent any longer.

If he was going to pressure her this much, all she would accomplish by refusing to answer was make him angrier.

In the end, she let out a quiet sigh and finally opened the lips she had kept tightly shut like a clam.

“……Sigh. Yes. Your guess is correct. I’m the Shadowless Divine Thief’s disciple—or, more precisely, his granddaughter.”

‘I knew it.’

After all, someone with skills at this level would never pass them down to just anyone.

The figure, the granddaughter of the Shadowless Divine Thief, continued.