Dan Woosung's conclusion regarding Lee Jin-Eon's memories was this:
'You would've been happier being born in a poor household.'
Lee Jin-Eon had known the taste of money since he was young. When he got beaten up in the neighborhood, he used money to settle it. When things went wrong with women, he brought money to the pleasure houses. His life had become cowardly because of money. At the base of it all was also his lack of a ruthless nature.
Dan Woosung despised one type of person more than any other: those who lived kindly without a plan — and Lee Jin-Eon was exactly that kind of person.
His nature was good.
But so what?
How helpful is it to live kindly without a plan when it comes to surviving in life?
Lee Jin-Eon had become even weaker because of money.
Because he mistook the power of money for his own strength, people began to look down on him.
The pressure of being the heir, the emotional battles with his siblings, the shifting feelings of his younger brothers as they grew, the increasingly cold eyes of his father, and even the way the family retainers looked at him — all of it tormented Lee Jin-Eon.
But still, he had plenty of money.
Whenever things got hard, he turned to alcohol, cycled through women, and boasted about his wealth in front of his friends. Lee Jin-Eon even knew that his friends only sought him out because of his money. But within a life that had already fallen apart, he didn't have the courage to let go of even those friends. Tagging along with freeloaders looking for booze or food, drifting in and out of this pleasure house and that one — this was Lee Jin-Eon's everyday life.
In short, it was a total mess of a life.
The major incident that had occurred was when Lee Jin-Eon, having neglected his health, collapsed while coughing up blood, and was sent to a safe house for recuperation on his father's orders.
As these memories overlapped with the faces of surrounding figures seen in portraits, Dan Woosung fully grasped the situation, as though he had absorbed all of Lee Jin-Eon's memories.
If Lee Jin-Eon was such a wreck, then it meant this kind of exile wasn't something worth caring about. Dan Woosung decided, with peace of mind, that he would recover his martial arts here and return when the time was right.
Having fully absorbed the memories, Dan Woosung abruptly stood up, grabbed Gongsun Myung by the scruff of the neck, and dragged him out of the room. Even so, he still intended to bury this conscienceless physician's body properly.
***
All the servants had gathered in the main hall.
Two hours earlier, when Dan Woosung had come out dragging the physician's corpse, one of the servants had fainted in shock.
After the First Young Master killed the physician and summoned everyone, they all held their breath, wondering what on earth had happened.
Dan Woosung spoke to the gathered servants.
"Everyone."
"Yes, Young Master."
"Physician Gongsun was killed by me. That man's prescriptions only worsened my health. Things like Dragon and Phoenix Soup were no different from poison. As you all know, I merely adjusted my diet and abstained from soups and acupuncture, and my body is already recovering. That means the physician valued money over his duty. That's why he died. Even if I had spared him, he would've gone somewhere else and used his medicine to kill people just like he did to me."
The servants had nothing to say. Honestly, this wasn't something the Young Master even needed to explain to them.
Dan Woosung reassured the servants.
"If the main house questions this matter, I'll handle it. No matter what happens, none of you will suffer any consequences."
Only then did the servants respond.
"Thank you, Young Master..."
"Thank you for your concern."
Dan Woosung nodded in reply.
"And clean out the physician's quarters. You all can use that space. If any letters exchanged with someone from the main house turn up, bring them to me."
Dan Woosung's tone was utterly composed, and even as they answered, the servants felt a chill of fear creeping over them.
Once the servants quietly retreated...
Dan Woosung began to consider the order in which he should imprint the martial arts techniques onto his new body.
This wasn't training — it was imprinting.
Some techniques couldn't be used right away due to insufficient internal energy. Others required speed that his body couldn't yet manifest. So he intended to identify what suited Lee Jin-Eon's body best, and aim for maximum efficiency.
After some deliberation, Dan Woosung decided to focus only up to the first four stages of the White Lightning Tenfold Technique, and during the process of reaching the Fourth Stage, he would imprint Awakened Footwork, Awakened Body Technique, and Shifting Lightness Technique. Speed and instantaneous movement were matters of life and death, making them the highest priority.
The reason for focusing first on the White Lightning Tenfold Technique was simple.
It could emit thunder energy, inflicting pain on opponents.
At that moment, a peculiar thought struck Dan Woosung.
It was as if he was calmly revisiting the martial arts he had once learned. When he was the Fist King, he had never looked back at the early martial arts he learned — but now, for the sake of survival, he was reviewing them step by step.
Rising from his seat, Dan Woosung headed once again toward Jinhua Mountain.
Dan Woosung had neither hoped for nor expected a different life. Both Lee Jin-Eon's body and Dan Woosung's heart required only one thing — cultivation.
***
As Dan Woosung trained without missing a single day, moving back and forth between the safe house and Jinhua Mountain, the seasons had already changed four times…
One day, a young martial artist with a sword at his waist stepped into the safe house and asked a passing servant,
"Where is the First Young Master?"
The servant, startled by the voice of an outsider after so long, replied,
"Ah, he should be at the training hall right now."
The man, wearing the uniform of the Eunha Merchant Group's guard division, made the servant breathe a sigh of relief.
The man tilted his head.
"Training hall? There's a training hall in the safe house?"
"Yes. He's been using the annex in the rear garden as a training hall. That way..."
The servant pointed down a small path to the right of the main building.
As the martial artist from the main house walked toward the training hall, the servant hurried off as if to inform the others.
The unfamiliar man was a young martial artist from the Eunha Merchant Group's guard division, visiting with a letter for the First Young Master.
The annex door was wide open.
When Mok In-Seop entered, he saw a man sitting with his back turned, upper body exposed, in the middle of a floor cleared of all furniture.
His whole body glistened with sweat.
The bare back revealed tightly packed, small muscles.
Mok In-Seop thought there was no way this man could be the First Young Master, but still cautiously asked,
"Master Jin-Eon? I am Mok In-Seop from the guard division."
Dan Woosung threw on the shirt that lay on the floor and said,
"Come up."
At the word "come up," Mok In-Seop looked down. The wooden floor was slightly raised above the ground. As he was about to step up, Dan Woosung spoke again.
"Take off your shoes."
"Ah, yes."
After removing his shoes, Mok In-Seop stepped onto the creaking wooden floor.
Dan Woosung continued to regulate his breathing.
Eventually, Mok In-Seop approached and, after bowing his head once, looked up at the First Young Master's face.
"It's been a while, sir."
When Dan Woosung gestured toward the floor as if telling him to sit, Mok In-Seop handed over the letter from his breast pocket and sat down.
Dan Woosung read the letter, while Mok In-Seop looked at Dan Woosung's upper body with wide eyes. Between the open folds of his unbuttoned shirt, clearly defined abs and muscles that looked as though they'd been sculpted by a blade were visible. On top of that, his body was deeply tanned as if it had been baked in the sun.
'What the…? Was the First Young Master's body always like this?'
It felt like he was facing a master of external martial arts, and there was no trace of a sickly person on his face. White steam was rising from the crown of his head, and signs of intense training could be seen all over his clothing.
The pale steam rising from his crown was a characteristic trait that appeared when training the White Lightning Tenfold Technique, which handled the energy of extreme yang.
After reading the letter, Dan Woosung asked Mok In-Seop,
"There's no explanation about why he collapsed."
The letter only briefly stated that Lee Jin-Eon's father was bedridden. However, it did not contain any directive for the First Young Master to return home. It was just a letter meant to inform.
Mok In-Seop sensed disappointment in Dan Woosung's expression. He had at least expected some concern for his father to appear on his face, but the atmosphere was cold to the extreme.
Mok In-Seop spoke.
"The tribute we pay to the Ouyang Family under the name of 'protection fee' has gone up again. Before this happened, we had signed a new contract with Iron Defense, which recently became famous in Uiseong, and were preparing to ship goods to the Western Regions. But using that as a pretext, the Smiling Immortal Sect, which has settled in Uiseong, contacted us belatedly and imposed a tax on transporting weapons. Though they call it a tax, it's clearly an absurd and coercive demand. Honestly, the Iron Defense merchants must have known, and since they kept quiet, it seems both sides conned us."
Dan Woosung asked,
"What did the Ouyang Family, who's collecting this protection fee, do?"
"At first, they maintained that they would support us with force if any problem arose at the main house of the Eunha Merchant Group, just as the contract stipulated… But they also made it clear they wouldn't involve themselves in the merchant group's contracts or any miscellaneous matters. There's no breach of contract, and morally, we're the only ones left fuming."
"So, that's why he collapsed?"
Mok In-Seop replied with a reluctant expression.
"There's more. Amidst all this, the personal guards of the Second and Third Young Masters got into a fight, which escalated into a sword fight. The Young Masters got involved, and the Second Young Master was injured. Though the incident passed without major consequence… The fact that the two Young Masters were fighting during such external turmoil seems to have caused His Lordship to faint temporarily. According to the physician, it's a common case of mental disorder."
To be honest, Mok In-Seop couldn't understand why he was explaining all these matters from the main house to the once-worthless First Young Master in such detail. In the past, he would've just tossed the letter, said a few words, and left.
However, the mood of the First Young Master as he asked about the situation had changed — and so, naturally, Mok In-Seop found himself speaking at length.
In part, he also intended to carefully observe the Young Master as he spoke.
After thinking for a moment, Dan Woosung replied.
"The demands from the Smiling Immortal Sect — they can simply be rejected."
"Pardon?"
"If the Smiling Immortal Sect gets angry and sends a few experts, the Ouyang Family will handle it."
"The problem is the contract with Iron Defense."
"There's no reason to keep selling goods that are already tainted with such noise. It's not like it's our only line of business. Pay the penalty and cut ties. More than anything, I find the Ouyang Family more suspicious."
"In what way?"
Dan Woosung didn't speak immediately, since his suspicions weren't yet confirmed.
"I'll let you know after I look into it more. But still, with Father in that state, for the two younger brothers to be fighting… even drawing swords — that cannot be left unpunished. If brothers start crossing blades, who knows where the sparks will fly next."
"Yes, exactly. It's serious."
Mok In-Seop nodded emphatically. The First Young Master was saying all the right things — it was hard to believe.
Dan Woosung looked at Mok In-Seop and said in a calm tone,
"I will return soon."
The high-quality ginseng and lesser-grade elixirs in the safe house had all run out, and it was time to rely on the merchant group's resources. From both Lee Jin-Eon's and Dan Woosung's perspective, the fall of the Eunha Merchant Group was not desirable.
Mok In-Seop stared into Dan Woosung's eyes, then realized his own rudeness and slightly lowered his head.