"But why on earth did you suck up his internal energy?"
"I told you it wasn't on purpose."
"Not on purpose? Is that something that happens without intent?"
Wei Jeong-han let out a deep sigh.
"I know it's hard to understand, but that's really what happened."
"Hmmmm…"
As Wei Jeong-han looked at him with suspicious eyes, Wei Yan-ho shrugged his shoulders.
"This is all because of Master. Master left his internal core inside my body, and sometimes this core moves without listening to me, so there's nothing I can do about it."
Wei Jeong-han looked at Wei Yan-ho with puzzled eyes, then had no choice but to nod. Whether those words were true or not, he had no ability to judge. However…
'Even if you're going to make excuses, you should at least make believable ones so I can pretend to believe them!'
An internal core, really.
He had never heard of a human being able to create an internal core. If such a thing were possible, prestigious families could have grown exponentially stronger by creating internal cores from their internal energy and passing them on to their descendants before death.
"…Are you saying humans can create internal cores? Not dragons?"
"There are people who can do it."
As Wei Yan-ho spoke nonchalantly, Wei Jeong-han sighed deeply.
"Right, of course."
"It's true."
"Right, I understand."
"I'm telling you it's true!"
"Didn't I say I understand!"
"You have no soul! No soul!"
Wei Jeong-han finally lost his temper.
"You should say something believable if you want me to believe you!"
"You can't trust your own son's words?"
"The fact that my son is the least trustworthy person in the world is what I find lamentable, you brat."
"Wow, seriously. I'm hurt."
"What complete nonsense…"
Wei Jeong-han's head began to get complicated.
"Anyway, if it's true that you completely stole the Green Forest King's internal energy, this is no ordinary matter."
"Th-that word 'stole' sounds a bit harsh. I didn't do it on purpose, and I almost died too."
"Yan-ho."
"Yes."
"Since you've become an adult now, your father will tell you something that others will never tell you. This is a truth of life, so engrave it deep in your bones and always remember it."
"…What are you trying to say?"
"The world is…"
"Yes."
Wei Jeong-han said with his eyes full of sharp light.
"All about results."
"…"
"Whatever intention you had when you caused trouble, whether that intention was good or bad doesn't matter at all. People can't see into your heart, and they can't guess your intentions. Isn't that right for you too?"
"Well, that's true."
"So in the end, only results remain. If you say you tried to do well but things went wrong, people might nod in front of you, but they'll curse you behind your back. Do you know why?"
"I'm not sure."
"If you ruin things with bad intentions, you become a bad person, and if you ruin things with good intentions, you become a stupid person."
"Wow."
Wei Jeong-han said coldly.
"So only results remain. And looking at those results…"
Wei Jeong-han's finger pointed at Wei Yan-ho.
"You caused trouble."
"…I admit it."
Wei Yan-ho let out a deep sigh.
But Wei Jeong-han was sighing even more deeply.
'This is no ordinary matter…'
The fact that relations with Green Forest had worsened due to sucking up the Green Forest King's internal energy was a secondary problem. The more fundamental issue was that Wei Yan-ho had become capable of stealing others' internal energy.
Whether it was Yin-Yang Absorption technique or Soul-Sucking Great Method, the ability to steal others' internal energy had been classified as evil arts since ancient times and received condemnation from the martial world. If things went wrong, the problem could become serious.
'It won't go as far as becoming a public enemy of the martial world, but…'
It wasn't like he had used it against orthodox faction members, and Wei Yan-ho had built up a reputation, so even if this fact spread, there wouldn't be many people who would openly point out the problem. And the reputation that Wei Jeong-han himself had built up until now, along with the Guangdong Wei Family's reputation, would serve as a shield.
'But we need a more reliable shield.'
Reputation is like a sandcastle built on a beach. No matter how majestically you build it up, once the waves start hitting, it disappears in an instant.
Then they needed a reputation built not of sand, but of solid stone.
"Let's hurry."
"Huh?"
"Green Forest chasing us is a problem, but rumors spreading is also a problem. Before the situation gets really bad, we need to make it so they can never pick a fight with us."
"How?"
Wei Jeong-han grinned.
"They can't very well brand a warrior who met and supported the Emperor as belonging to an evil faction. That would be insulting the Emperor."
Wei Yan-ho looked at Wei Jeong-han with admiring eyes.
"Father."
"What?"
"The more time passes, the more you're becoming the leader of an evil faction. The people of the world should know Father's true nature."
"Shut up, you brat! Who do you think I'm doing this for!"
As Wei Jeong-han lost his temper, Gong Mu-jin quietly approached and asked.
"But why are we going in such a hurry? What's all this talk about?"
Wei Jeong-han hesitated slightly, then opened his mouth.
It wasn't something good to let many people know, but it seemed strange to hide it from someone like Gong Mu-jin. Wasn't Gong Mu-jin someone who had followed them out without any hesitation even knowing they were returning home? It wouldn't be honorable to hide the situation from such a person.
"Yan-ho apparently sucked up all of the Green Forest King's internal energy."
Gong Mu-jin's face contorted strangely.
"No wonder he was impossibly strong!"
"Wow…"
Wei Yan-ho said as if he felt wronged.
"Even without any internal energy, I could still beat someone like you, Uncle?"
Gong Mu-jin clutched his chest as if wounded. It was painful enough to hear such words from a young brat, but the even more sorrowful reality was that he couldn't refute it at all.
"Ahem, anyway, then the Green Forest King will be seeing red and chasing after us. It seems we should hurry."
"That's what I think too."
Wei Jeong-han looked back anxiously.
"With that explosive temper, who knows what he'll do… Tsk tsk, it's like poking a hornet's nest."
***
"Capture those bastards immediately!"
"Wait."
"Pardon?"
The Green Forest King said with cold eyes.
"This isn't something to get excited about. If someone could cure my qi deviation, their martial arts level couldn't be low. Rushing in with hastily assembled forces will only increase casualties."
"However…"
The Green Forest King sighed lowly.
"If my body were normal, I could hold them accountable as much as I wanted, but with my internal energy gone, it's impossible for me."
The Green Forest King's face became gloomy.
The status that an absolute master holds in the martial world is tremendous.
Since these are people who pursue strength, it's natural that there would be admiration and respect for the strong, but the reason absolute masters receive treatment in the martial world was more for practical reasons than such nominal ones.
'You can't catch them.'
The reason absolute masters are frightening is that numbers don't work against them. With a decent master, it might be possible to overwhelm them with numbers, drain their stamina, and capture them, but absolute masters can casually deal with those who swarm them, then slip away with their lightness skills, fully recover their stamina, and return. From that point on, there's no way to capture an absolute master no matter what methods you use.
You need at least one master of similar level to be able to oppose them.
Unless it's at the level of millions of imperial troops moving simultaneously, giving no time to rest and no place to escape.
In other words, Green Forest, having lost the absolute master that was the Green Forest King, could no longer oppose Wei Yan-ho.
"Flowers don't bloom for ten days straight, they say."
The Green Forest King muttered bitterly.
Watching the Green Forest King in that state, the Great General swallowed his tears.
"Sob! That treacherous bastard! I thought it was strange that he performed the Cleansing Marrow and Washing Essence technique without even being asked."
"…What did you say?"
The Green Forest King's eyes widened as he asked.
"When that bastard was told to provide treatment, he performed Cleansing Marrow and Washing Essence on the King's body. I was so grateful that he even did such work that I generously added extra treasures…"
The Green Forest King fumbled with his hand, then threw the water bottle that was placed beside the bed at the Great General.
Crash!
The Great General, who got hit by the water bottle without understanding why, looked at the Green Forest King with bewildered eyes. He wasn't someone who would be hurt by a water bottle thrown without internal energy.
"You stupid fool! You should have said that much earlier!"
"Pardon?"
"Check! We need to check first!"
The Green Forest King immediately sat in lotus position on the spot. After closing his eyes for a long time and observing his interior, the Green Forest King opened his eyes and burst into wild laughter.
"Ahahahahahaha! It's real! It's real! You monster-like fellow! How on earth did you do such a thing!"
"…Green Forest King?"
The Green Forest King smiled with deep satisfaction.
"There's no need to chase them."
"Pardon?"
"From now on, Green Forest should treat the Guangdong Wei Family as benefactors. It's uncomfortable to accept the family where Wei Jeong-han belongs as friends, but since we've received something, we should naturally do that much. We're not a treacherous place that only takes advantage and coughs hypocritically like those orthodox faction bastards."
"I don't understand what you're saying at all…"
The Green Forest King chuckled.
"Performing Cleansing Marrow and Washing Essence on a full-grown adult is nearly impossible. Moreover, removing the impurities that have seeped into the blood vessels of someone as old as me is almost impossible. The same goes for opening blocked meridians."
"That's correct."
"But that fellow accomplished it. So my body is now in a state equivalent to having undergone complete transformation. My lifespan has increased, and my body has advanced. I've laid the foundation to become even stronger."
"However, Green Forest King."
The Great General asked with a dazed face.
"What you say makes sense in theory, but didn't the Green Forest King lose your internal energy? Who knows how long it will take to rebuild that internal energy."
"Stupid fellow."
The Green Forest King grinned.
"Losing internal energy becomes a problem when the dantian is damaged and there's no way to refill internal energy. But my dantian is now more vigorous than ever, and we have ways to refill internal energy, don't we?"
"Ah…"
The Green Forest King chuckled.
"The place with the most elixirs in the world is Green Forest. Until now, even if we ate those elixirs, we couldn't fill more internal energy into our hardened dantians, so we just kept them stored. But now my dantian is like a soft child's dantian, so I can fill it with internal energy as much as I pour in."
The Great General, understanding the Green Forest King's words, opened his eyes wide.
"Then isn't this a blessing in disguise?"
"It's not just a blessing in disguise."
The Green Forest King said seriously.
"A master capable of fixing my body couldn't have failed to predict such results. Even if it meant blowing away all internal energy, if he just enlarged the dantian, he must have thought I'd fill it myself. I've received a great favor."
"Ooh!"
"Go and bring the elixirs. All the Three Kings in the main stronghold as well! Starting today, Green Forest will be reborn."
"Glory to the Green Forest King!"
Watching the Great General bow, the Green Forest King smiled broadly.
'Wei Yan-ho…'
He had heard the fellow was young, but not only his abilities but even his scheming was extraordinary.
'A true hero has appeared in the world.'
Serious misunderstandings were accumulating in the Great Stronghold.