Chapter 443: Chapter 443

“Uuuugh…”

Sa Do-hak swallowed a groan and clutched his head. Wondering what he had been thinking about so much, he grabbed his head that felt like it would burst at any moment and swallowed a painful groan.

“Grandpa!”

Dan So-mi, who was watching that sight from the side, shouted in surprise.

Seeing him suddenly act like that after staring blankly at the sky, she hurriedly looked around in alarm.

However, the other people were talking with Gu Mu-ak, so there was no one left, leaving only Dan So-mi and Sa Do-hak completely alone.

The moment she tried to get up from her seat in a flurry to call Dan Woo-hyun.

“Oh, my head…”

Sa Do-hak swallowed a groan and opened his mouth.

Considering he hadn’t said a single word until now, it was something quite surprising, so Dan So-mi quickly grabbed his hand and stared intently at Sa Do-hak.

“What is it? Why are you doing that?”

Perhaps finding Dan So-mi’s sudden action of shoving her face close rather bizarre, Sa Do-hak asked with a strange expression. The moment he spoke again, he could see Dan So-mi’s face gradually brightening up more and more.

“Huh?”

“Thank goodness!”

She tightly embraced him.

Embraced in his arms with incomprehensible words, Dan So-mi burst into tears. Surprised by Dan So-mi’s sudden action, Sa Do-hak didn’t know what to do.

Stealthily raising his head and looking to the side, Mae Hyang, who had approached at some point, opened her mouth.

“Please comfort her. She was the most worried.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t need to know, so please just comfort her.”

“Mmm…”

Sa Do-hak couldn’t understand the meaning of Mae Hyang’s words, but since the embraced Dan So-mi started bursting into tears, he eventually had no choice but to stroke the child’s head and comfort her.

Patting her back awkwardly and looking at Mae Hyang once more, she gave a sweet smile.

“Then I will go prepare the meal, so please take care of So-mi for a while.”

“Huh? Hey!”

There was no hesitation in the sight of Mae Hyang leaving with a swish.

Whatever made her so happy, her footsteps were even lighter.

At that incomprehensible situation, Sa Do-hak let out a sigh.

“By the way, where did that Manor Lord guy go?”

“I’m right here.”

Only then did the sound reach him.

Startled, Sa Do-hak hurriedly turned around.

Standing there since when, several people including Dan Woo-hyun were looking at Sa Do-hak. Some were surprised, and some thought this result was only natural.

Namgung So-hye breathed a sigh of relief and raised her fingers.

“How many of these do you see?”

“Are you crazy?”

Sa Do-hak glared at Namgung So-hye with a dumbfounded gaze.

She wasn’t playing with a drunkard; what was she doing to someone in their right mind?

At that sharp gaze, Namgung So-hye flinched and stealthily pulled her fingers away. Perhaps feeling embarrassed herself, a blush spread across her face.

“Just what in the world happened?”

“You stayed blank like a crazy person. For three days.”

“Who did?”

“You did.”

“…”

At Dan Woo-hyun’s words, Sa Do-hak swallowed a groan with an ‘Mmm’.

It wasn’t anyone else, but Dan Woo-hyun who said it. The fact that he absolutely never lies shook Sa Do-hak’s heart.

He thought quietly.

He tried to picture in his head what had happened.

The last thing he remembered was none other than the moment he lost his memory after being hit by Dan Woo-hyun.

“I don’t have any memories from then on…?”

“Qi deviation must have come over you. It’s a relief that you didn’t fall too deeply. If you had, you would have become a murderous fiend and died somewhere by now.”

Dan Woo-hyun nonchalantly spat out his words.

At the same time, the gazes of everyone around turned towards Dan Woo-hyun.

Those who fall into qi deviation and become murderous fiends exert power beyond what they normally possess.

Even normally, Sa Do-hak possessed overwhelming power compared to the other Five Emperors, so he would have run amok, killing countless people.

Even more so than Murong Hyeok-mun.

However, the words “would have died” ultimately meant that Dan Woo-hyun would have killed Sa Do-hak with his own hands.

He unconsciously broke into a cold sweat.

‘Anyway, he’s merciless when it comes to things like this…’

‘I feel like dying by the Lord’s hand is scarier than falling into qi deviation…’

Jang Sam-tae and Gwon Mu-jin clicked their tongues.

As two people who had never experienced qi deviation even once, they felt it would be more comforting to choose suicide rather than face Dan Woo-hyun.

“Fortunately you snapped out of it. I thought you would fall asleep like that and never wake up again.”

“Aren’t your words different from earlier?”

“Didn’t you say he would be fine?!”

Dan Woo-hyun nonchalantly waved his hand and laughed.

How could one know whether he would be fine or not.

Even if one doesn’t fall deeply into qi deviation at first, they can easily plunge deep into it in an instant. He might be fine for now, but not knowing when he might run amok, Dan Woo-hyun had also been keeping an eye on Sa Do-hak’s condition.

He intended to take action if necessary.

Fortunately, there seemed to be no other abnormalities.

“Is there any loss of internal energy?”

“Ugh… I-I think I’m fine.”

Sa Do-hak broke into a cold sweat.

He got goosebumps at the thought that he might have ended up looking like Murong Hyeok-mun.

Killing people and running amok-if it was out of one’s own will, it might be fine, but if it was unintentionally and subconsciously, and to top it off, if he couldn’t even remember it himself, it was definitely not a matter to laugh about.

“This is all because of you!”

“Is it all my responsibility?”

“Yeah, isn’t it because you hit me and knocked me out that this happened!”

“If I hadn’t done that, you would already be dead.”

“…”

Dan Woo-hyun spoke nonchalantly once again.

If he hadn’t stopped him, he would have already run amok, and if it couldn’t be reversed, granting him peace was the best option.

From start to finish, to Sa Do-hak’s ears, it only sounded like he could kill Sa Do-hak anytime he wanted just by swinging his sword.

Sa Do-hak suddenly stood up from his seat.

“Alright, you bastard! Try and kill me! Try killing me!”

“…? What are you trying to do?”

“Let’s fight! Let’s fight properly!”

“Was the beating you got last time not enough?”

Dan Woo-hyun chuckled, scratching Sa Do-hak’s pride once again.

It felt like the leisure of a strong person, but looking at it from another angle, it was entirely the same as completely ignoring the existence of Sa Do-hak.

It was something no one else in the world could do.

In the end, Sa Do-hak’s anger surged to the top of his head.

“Let’s do this properly! I’ll make sure you can never spout such nonsense again.”

“Interesting…”

Dan Woo-hyun also stood up from his seat.

Normally, he wouldn’t have fallen for such a provocation. However, Dan Woo-hyun accepted it as if he had been waiting for it.

Since it was a somewhat abrupt situation, the one most surprised was Sa Do-hak.

However, he didn’t back down.

If he backed down in a place like this, shouldn’t he lay down the name of Demon Emperor?

“Haha, this should be fun… I wonder if this old man can request a turn next?”

“Me too!”

Namgung Cheon and Jeok Mu-seong interrupted.

Although they desperately realized the gap between them and Dan Woo-hyun, a lot of time had passed since they first met.

They believed they had trained hard in their own ways and had become stronger. They also had a sense of broad-mindedness, wondering how much their swords would work against this being called Dan Woo-hyun.

Their eyes sparkled as they intended to test their limits.

“Hmm…”

Staring blankly at that, Dan Woo-hyun, wondering what came to his mind, turned his gaze towards Mu Cheon-pung and Bi Cheon-woong. As his gaze suddenly returned to them, they subconsciously shrunk their bodies.

Then they saw him smirk.

An unsettling smile.

“This should be fun… All five of you come at me at once. Let’s see just how amazing you supposed Five Emperors are.”

“What kind of crazy?!”

“Heuk!”

At Dan Woo-hyun’s single word, the entire Hunan Dan Family was in an uproar.

* * *

The Five Emperors was not a title given to the heads of each faction. They were the strongest five people even among the martial artists as numerous as grains of sand.

They were existences strong enough that it wouldn’t be strange if they were called the emperors of this Central Plains Murim.

That is why the character for ‘Emperor’ is attached to their aliases.

The power each of them possessed represented each force, or the strength and weakness of a faction varied depending on whether they existed or not.

In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they were regulating the power of the Central Plains Murim with just their own strength.

Those Five Emperors stood in one place.

Tension was visible on each of the faces of the five individuals standing on one side of the training ground.

It couldn’t be seen as a simple spar.

For all the Five Emperors to step forward and fight a single person was unprecedented; it was something that could never happen and shouldn’t happen.

“Hehe, are you really okay with this? All five of us?”

“Hah… No matter how amazing the Manor Lord is, he won’t be perfectly fine facing all the Five Emperors.”

Mu Cheon-pung and Jeok Mu-seong shook their heads side to side, confident in their victory.

In terms of individual martial prowess, Dan Woo-hyun might be considered the absolute best, but if he intended to face all of the Five Emperors alone, no matter who it was, they wouldn’t emerge unscathed.

Jeok Mu-seong clenched his fists, vowing to return the debt he had received from Dan Woo-hyun in the past.

Mu Cheon-pung just found this situation amusing.

From his perspective, Dan Woo-hyun was far too overconfident in his own power. Of course, falling for this kind of provocation made them feel like children too, but he thought it would be fun to crush Dan Woo-hyun’s arrogance just once.

“Don’t worry about me, worry about yourselves.”

Dan Woo-hyun smiled with an unbothered expression.

Confidence could be seen in the smile forming on his lips. No matter what they did, they would never be able to break down his wall.

The two seemed unaware of that.

On the other hand, Namgung Cheon and Sa Do-hak leaked groans while holding their swords.

“It would be embarrassing to lose, wouldn’t it?”

“Haha, isn’t that a given?”

No matter how they thought about it, it was a fight where they had much to lose.

No matter how strong the entire Five Emperors are, they have no chance of winning against the Martial God. Among the people present, only those two knew the fact that he was the Martial God, so they became even more tense and lost their composure.

It would be embarrassing to lose.

Furthermore, there were eyes all around.

Gwon Mu-jin, Ma Jang-gang, Zhuge Yeon, Namgung So-hye and Zhuge Un, and even the recently joined Mu-ho and Jang Sam-tae were surrounding the training ground, their eyes shining.

They wouldn’t be able to see this kind of fight anywhere they went.

The Five Emperors and the Martial God.

It wouldn’t be strange even if it was used as material for storytelling.

The two took a deep breath, ‘Huu-‘.

At that time, Dan Woo-hyun, who had been fondling wooden swords back and forth outside the training ground, brought one in and stood vacantly in front of the five people.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to fight with a wooden sword?”

“That’s right.”

Jeok Mu-seong laughed with a dumbfounded expression.

The Five Emperors, the five people present here, were each holding weapons. They were undoubtedly genuine articles with sharpened edges, capable of taking lives indiscriminately if slashed.

Against such people, a wooden sword?

Dan Woo-hyun’s action irked Jeok Mu-seong and Mu Cheon-pung.

“It will be useless to cry later!”

“That’s right! This Mu Cheon-pung’s fists and kicks can even smash boulders!”

Jeok Mu-seong and Mu Cheon-pung shouted once again.

However, Dan Woo-hyun let it go in one ear and out the other and raised his wooden sword.

“Come with the resolve to kill. Otherwise, you won’t even last a single exchange.”

His single sentence echoed like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

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