Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Why are you not properly learning martial arts?”

To his blunt father’s question, Dokgo Jin answered like this.

“I prefer the literary arts to the martial path.”

It was a lie.

He was Dokgo Jin, a genius born with the bloodline of a martial family.

There was no way he would not want to learn the martial arts of the Dokgo Family, which was praised as the greatest under heaven.

Dokgo Gang frowned and asked again.

“Do you mean that?”

“Yes.”

After that day, Dokgo Gang never mentioned martial arts again.

And yet.

After the Great Righteous-Demonic War, Dokgo Gang returned and said,

“I want you to learn martial arts properly.”

“……!”

Dokgo Jin received a fresh shock from Dokgo Gang’s sudden confession of his true feelings.

But at that time, he did not know.

He did not know Dokgo Gang’s desperate state of mind.

A few years later, when Dokgo Gang, who had been the Greatest Sword Under Heaven, fell, Dokgo Jin felt bitter regret for the first time in his life.

‘It was nothing but half-baked youthful folly.’

Dokgo Jin’s mother had once said of him, ‘He is my own child, but I truly cannot tell what is in his heart.’

That was how quiet Dokgo Jin usually was, and how rarely he revealed his emotions.

In contrast, his younger brother, Dokgo Hyeon, was a bright and lovable child.

On top of that, even his martial talent was outstanding.

Looking at such a younger brother, Dokgo Jin thought,

Dokgo Hyeon was the one truly suited to become the Family Head who would embrace the entire martial family.

He had never intended to become the Family Head in the first place.

‘That was why I decided not to learn martial arts deeply.’

It was a way to avoid creating needless conflict within the family.

Had it been a peaceful era, it would not have been a bad choice.

He could have lived quietly, reading books, without needing to compete with his younger brother over the seat of Family Head.

But.

The world did not leave the Dokgo Family alone.

The final day of the Dokgo Family.

Dokgo Jin’s mother, and the mistress of the Dokgo Family, Baek Hye-ran, said,

“The Family Head said this. The ones who made our family like this are the ‘All-Under-Heaven Society.’”

“The All-Under-Heaven Society?”

From Dokgo Jin’s position, it was a name he had heard for the first time.

“There is no time to explain at length. I leave our family’s grudges and debts in your hands.”

“……!”

“I am sorry. Forgive me for placing every burden upon you.”

Dokgo Jin spoke with eyes bloodshot red.

“I will…… take revenge, no matter what.”

Unexpectedly, Baek Hye-ran spoke coldly.

“From the moment you leave this family, become colder than anyone. They are strong, and they hide in the shadows. No amount of caution will be too much. Until you fully grasp who they are, you must never act rashly. Do you understand what I mean?”

“I will…… keep it in mind.”

Dokgo Jin could never forget the gazes the family’s experts had turned toward him that day.

‘If it is Dokgo Jin, we can trust him!’

‘You will surely take our revenge for us.’

‘I will gladly give my life for your escape!’

Even though his younger brother, Dokgo Hyeon, had exceptional martial talent and was actually stronger, they had done everything they could to help Dokgo Jin escape.

Thanks to their desperate sacrifices, in which they threw away their bodies, Dokgo Jin became the last survivor of the Dokgo Family.

Of course, there was a limit to what he could do alone.

At first, he had tried to find collaborators somehow and clear the family of its false accusation.

The Dokgo Family’s reputation had been excellent, so it was worth placing hope in that.

However, there was no one willing to help the Dokgo Family, which had been branded a public enemy on the grounds that it had colluded with the Demonic Cult.

In that hopeless situation, Dokgo Gang’s sworn brother, Red Chivalrous Beggar, reached out a hand.

The exhausted Dokgo Jin thought he was someone he could trust, and he gladly took that hand.

However, it was a trap, and Dokgo Jin was surrounded on Great Snow Mountain.

Before long, he instinctively realized that the only place where he could hide his body was the forbidden ground known as the Forest of the Dead.

It had been known as forbidden ground for hundreds of years, and even now, almost nothing was known about it beyond the fact that no one who entered had ever come out.

‘Not even half a quarter-hour after I entered the Forest of the Dead, I understood why this place was forbidden ground.’

After entering the Forest of the Dead, he headed blindly into its depths to avoid his pursuers.

Before long, Dokgo Jin felt pressure, as if his body were being crushed.

It was as though the forest itself were pressing down on him with a vast darkness.

In truth, a gloomy and sinister energy was burrowing into Dokgo Jin’s body.

If even a little of his inner arts had remained, or if he had been strong, his body would have burst apart and killed him on the spot.

Because Dokgo Jin had exhausted even his physical strength, he was able to survive by accepting the pouring energy directly into his body.

However, if he continued to accept that endlessly pouring energy, the result was obvious.

If he wanted to live, he had to leave the Forest of the Dead as quickly as possible, but Dokgo Jin had no such option.

Instead, he headed even deeper inside, and through heaven-sent fortune, he obtained a fortuitous encounter.

‘To think the “Heavenly Dark Emperor” was asleep in the Forest of the Dead.’

The Heavenly Dark Emperor.

He was a legendary expert who had once dominated the realm several hundred years ago.

Almost nothing was known about his final moments, but astonishingly, he had met his end in the Forest of the Dead.

The Heavenly Dark Emperor’s martial arts were far removed from the orthodox path.

However, there was no room for choice.

Without his martial arts, surviving in the Forest of the Dead itself would have been impossible.

Dokgo Jin, who had already learned orthodox martial arts, faced countless crises while learning that martial art, and at last, he acquired the essence of the Heavenly Dark Emperor’s martial arts.

The most gloomy and sinister martial art in the world, a martial art that could be called the abyss itself.

Nine Nether Dark Heaven Scripture.

Even to Dokgo Jin, who had grown up watching the Dokgo Family’s superior martial arts, the Nine Nether Dark Heaven Scripture was an incomprehensible martial study whose limits could not be known.

The world contained within the Nine Nether Dark Heaven Scripture was so vast and overwhelming that the martial arts he had seen and learned until then felt light by comparison.

It was enough to make him feel terror over whether a human body could dare contain this immense darkness.

After descending Great Snow Mountain, Dokgo Jin instinctively realized that the world had changed quite a bit.

‘How much must the state of the martial world have changed during that time?’

Dokgo Jin, who had stopped for a moment, headed somewhere.

‘The main family was annihilated, but…… it has not disappeared completely.’

***

Golden Toad Banking House.

It was a small banking house on the outskirts of Lanzhou, Gansu Province.

It was not well known, but surprisingly, merchant companies large and small came there to borrow vast sums of money.

Its financial power was considerable compared to its size, so even major merchant companies often used it when they needed large sums.

Its history was deep, but almost no one knew how Golden Toad Banking House possessed such financial power.

Its guard warriors were also quite skilled in martial arts, so many thugs who acted out there for no reason had died without a trace.

After that, no one looked down on Golden Toad Banking House.

The Banking House Master of Golden Toad Banking House, Wi Geum-seong.

Though he had continued to work vigorously even past the age of sixty, from one day onward, he shut himself away and almost never showed himself outside.

Some misunderstood and thought he had already stepped down from the banking house, but Wi Geum-seong was still overseeing all major and minor affairs of Golden Toad Banking House as its Banking House Master.

On a dark night without even moonlight.

After finishing the day’s work, Wi Geum-seong headed to his study.

It was his long-standing habit to record the day’s affairs in his study after finishing work each day.

Wi Geum-seong entered the study through the darkness and lit the lamp with a fire taper.

FLARE!

‘Hm?!’

When the inside brightened, his body stiffened without his realizing it.

He had discovered an unfamiliar figure sitting in the seat where he always sat.

“……!”

Wi Geum-seong was shocked.

That was only natural, for although it was not known to the world, he was an expert who had learned considerable martial arts.

Cases where he failed to sense someone’s presence until he had come this close were extremely rare.

Was that all?

Golden Toad Banking House was protected by numerous guard warriors in twofold and threefold layers.

Yet the fact that there was a stranger here meant that the figure had silently passed through all of that and come to this place.

However, Wi Geum-seong was not so inexperienced that he would reveal such emotions openly.

“…….”

He carefully examined the uninvited guest.

It was a rather handsome young man with a straight nose, a strong jawline, and sharp eyes.

However, Wi Geum-seong focused on something else more than that.

‘He is no ordinary man!’

Even though their eyes were meeting, the young man’s presence was strangely faint.

On top of that, his pitch-black eyes were so deep that Wi Geum-seong almost felt himself being drawn into them without realizing it.

‘Just who is he?’

Before Wi Geum-seong could say anything, the figure spoke first.

“Old Man Wi, it has been a long time.”

“……?”

“Have you already forgotten my face?”

Wi Geum-seong’s gaze stopped as though nailed in midair.

“……!”

He was unfamiliar.

Those pitch-black eyes, which contained not a single point of light, were a strange abyss he had never seen even once in his life.

Yet beyond that unfamiliar fear, features so familiar they seemed carved into his bones overlapped with them.

‘C-could it be……!’

When that instant of doubt transformed into certainty, Wi Geum-seong’s entire body trembled as if seized by convulsions.

The young man was clearly the one he had been desperately searching for.

‘He is alive…… Heaven has not abandoned the Dokgo!’

Filled with surging emotion, Wi Geum-seong immediately prostrated himself before the young man.

“This Wi…… pays his respects to the Family Head!”

The Banking House Master of Golden Toad Banking House, Wi Geum-seong.

Astonishingly, he was an old retainer of the Dokgo Family.

The young man, Dokgo Jin, helped him up.

“To call me the Family Head of a vanished family is too much.”

“What are you saying! Even if you are alone, the Family Head is still the Family Head.”

Dokgo Jin wore a bitter expression.

“Besides, Old Man Wi, you are no longer a retainer either.”

“That cannot be. I have never once thought so.”

Back when Dokgo Gang had been the Family Head, he had removed Wi Geum-seong from his position as a retainer and made him independent.

It had been a courtesy to the Wi Family, which had devoted itself to the Dokgo Family as retainers for several hundred years.

When Wi Geum-seong raised his head, his eyes were brimming with tears.

“I searched for you with all my heart, Family Head.”

“I will say it again. The title ‘Family Head’ is too much.”

“Understood, Young Lord. I will call you this only until the Dokgo Family is rebuilt.”

“…….”

Dokgo Jin could say nothing more.

The two sat facing each other at the table.

“I heard that you had fled to escape the calamity of annihilation, Young Lord. Why did you not seek me out immediately?”

Dokgo Jin shook his head.

“I could not put even you in danger, Old Man Wi.”

“Even so…… I truly searched for you with everything I had all this time. I was worried sick that something might have happened to you, but I believed you were surely alive.”

“…….”

“Where have you been, and what have you been doing all this time?”

Dokgo Jin’s gaze turned cold.

“I struggled to survive. And I built up my strength.”

“Ah…….”

Wi Geum-seong’s expression changed.

“Have you appeared before me like this because you now intend to take revenge?”

“That is right.”

“As expected.”

Wi Geum-seong nodded and continued speaking.

“In that case, you must need information on the culprits.”

“That is right.”

“Someday…… I knew a day like this would come.”

Wi Geum-seong rose from his seat, took down the hanging scroll on the wall, and operated the mechanism hidden behind it.

The wall turned like a revolving door and opened a black mouth.

It was a perfect secret chamber where light did not reach.

“…….”

It was a pitch-black darkness that would have made an ordinary person hesitate, but Dokgo Jin stepped forward without hesitation.

Silently.

The sight of his back as he walked into the darkness without even lighting a candle appeared strange in Wi Geum-seong’s eyes.

It was not the darkness of the secret chamber swallowing Dokgo Jin, but the illusion that Dokgo Jin was entering while ruling over the darkness of the secret chamber.

‘The darkness…… seems familiar to him.’

Feeling a chill in one corner of his chest, Wi Geum-seong hurriedly followed behind him.

Dokgo Jin passed through a short corridor and reached a rectangular hidden room.

The smell of mold and old paper burrowed into his nose.

It was complete pitch darkness without a single ray of light entering, but he slowly looked around as though he could see clearly.

Meanwhile, Wi Geum-seong felt around and lit a lamp.

Then, along with piles of documents, a Complete Map of the Central Plains filling one wall came into view.

The positions of the major sects were meticulously recorded on it, and in particular, four large dots stood out.

“……You were searching for the culprits?”

“Of course, Young Lord. How could I ever forget the Dokgo Family?”

“It must have been dangerous.”

Wi Geum-seong smiled gently.

“That is why I have been investigating this carefully, is it not?”

“…….”

Though countless experts had taken the lead in the annihilation of the Dokgo Family, Wi Geum-seong had also sensed that there was someone behind the matter.

“First, I will tell you the current situation. It is no exaggeration to say that the present martial world belongs to the ‘Four Hegemons of the Central Plains.’”

“The Four Hegemons of the Central Plains?”

“Yes. They are forces that rapidly expanded their power after the main family disappeared.”

Northern Hegemon, Northern Heaven Alliance.

Southern Hegemon, Red Blood Gang.

Eastern Hegemon, Sacred Sword Heaven.

Western Hegemon, Kunlun Demon Palace.

They were the hegemons of the Central Plains, boasting power that surpassed even the existing Nine Sects and Eight Great Martial Families.

“You are saying four such forces appeared?”

“By coincidence, yes.”

“…….”

“After a long investigation…… this humble servant concluded that among them, there is certainly a place connected to the annihilation of the main family.”

It was also a natural inference.

Otherwise, the timing of the Four Hegemons of the Central Plains’ emergence was far too coincidental.

“However, I have not yet discovered which among them is involved. It is also possible that more than one of them is involved.”

Wi Geum-seong lowered his head.

“Please forgive this incompetent servant.”

Dokgo Jin shook his head.

“They are bastards who annihilated the main family while hiding secretly behind the scenes. There is a limit to what can be discovered from the outside.”

“Those words mean…….”

Dokgo Jin’s eyes flashed as he stared at the Complete Map of the Central Plains.

“If it cannot be known from the outside, I must go inside.”

Dokgo Jin looked at Wi Geum-seong and asked,

“Is there a way to approach them naturally?”

Wi Geum-seong, who had been quietly watching Dokgo Jin, opened his mouth.

“There is one method I have thought of.”

“What is it?”

“Sword-Selling Street.”

Wi Geum-seong’s eyes shone.

“It is a place where the Northern Heaven Alliance and the Red Blood Gang screen and procure usable martial artists.”