OGMR 09

Chapter 9 

Who Is the Winner? (4)

“Hmm. This should more or less wrap things up.”

Gwan Hwi gazed at his money pouch with a hint of regret.

After spending money here and there to restore the family and prepare his business ventures, half of the wealth he had obtained from the Soul Medicine Hall had already disappeared.

Of course, it was money that needed to be spent, but seeing his once-bulging money pouch grow thinner somehow made his heart ache.

“Well, I can always make more money.”

Over the past year, Gwan Hwi had racked his brain countless times, searching for various ways to make money.

And after all that deliberation, he had already established a goal for himself.

“This is where it really begins. I need to keep my head straight.”

The plan Gwan Hwi had set for himself would by no means be easy, nor would its course be calm and slow.

Because he wanted to revive the Gwan Clan Manor within his own generation, he intended to move forward at a reckless pace.

‘It’s do or die.’

Moving forward without a safety net meant he might have to face bitter failure, but Gwan Hwi was not afraid of failure.

No matter how bad things became, could anything possibly be worse than nearly dying after being betrayed by the Black Path scoundrels?

He had already hit rock bottom.

There was nothing left for him to fear.

There was nowhere lower to fall.

“First, money. But when the hell are these guys coming…?”

Just as Gwan Hwi tilted his head in confusion—

“Is anyone there?”

Someone knocked on the old gate of the Gwan Clan Manor.

“…?”

Gwan Hwi tilted his head.

The Gwan Clan Manor was located in such a remote and unsuitable place for habitation that, at most, it received perhaps one visitor a year.

‘Who could it be?’

Gwan Hwi grasped the silver crescent-bladed guandao planted in the training ground.

Since he had no idea what might happen, he had no intention of lowering his guard.

“Who is it?”

“I have come from the Yanmen Zhang Clan.”

“…?”

The Yanmen Zhang Clan?

‘The Yanmen Zhang Clan? Aren’t they those guys from Yanmen City who go around making a fuss about righteousness and whatnot?’

Naturally, Gwan Hwi did not have a particularly favorable impression of other clans.

People who claimed to uphold righteousness with their words but only cared about lining their own pockets were hardly likable.

Creak—

The closed gate of the Gwan Clan Manor opened, and Gwan Hwi came face-to-face with a huge man.

However, Gwan Hwi himself was quite heavily built, so he had no need to crane his neck to look up at him.

“I am Jang Ryu, the second son of the Yanmen Zhang Clan. Are you perhaps the master of this small household?”

“It’s the Gwan Clan Manor, not a small household.”

When a clan was large enough, it was called a sega, or great family.

When it was smaller, it was referred to as a gajang—a clan manor.

And when a family was so insignificant that it could barely be called a clan at all, people would sometimes mockingly refer to it as a soga, or “small household.”

In other words, the man named Jang Ryu was deliberately belittling the Gwan Clan Manor.

“Hmm. It doesn’t seem to be that large.”

“…”

As Jang Ryu arrogantly raised his chin and surveyed the manor, a vein bulged on Gwan Hwi’s forehead.

‘Why the hell is this bastard picking a fight all of a sudden?’

“So, what brings you here?”

At Gwan Hwi’s sudden blunt remark, Jang Ryu’s expression instantly turned cold.

“…”

“Ah. My mistake.”

Gwan Hwi scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

He had accidentally spoken his thoughts aloud instead of the words he had intended to say.

To be honest, though, he was not particularly embarrassed.

---

The Yanmen Zhang Clan

Located about half a day on horseback from Yuncheng, this clan was, as its name suggested, a family of considerable renown in Yanmen.

It was descended from Zhang Liao, the famous general known in ancient times for his dignity and wisdom.

But just as stagnant water eventually rots when it fails to flow—

The Yanmen Zhang Clan had now become nothing more than a despicable family that had joined hands with the Black Path and exploited the common people for their own benefit.

Jang Ryu, the second son of the Yanmen Zhang Clan and the family’s most celebrated prodigy, was no different.

He was a martial artist with an unbearably strong pride and an obsession with wealth and power.

Outside Yanmen, he was famous as the Shadowless Saber.

Within the clan, however, he was a man people avoided as if he were a plague.

‘What an insolent brat…’

The corner of Jang Ryu’s mouth twisted sharply.

‘A mere member of a clan that is practically on the verge of collapse.’

His handsome, chiseled face became distorted.

How dare some nobody from a trash clan that could not even reach the heels of the Yanmen Zhang Clan insult him?

It was both rude and ignorant.

‘There are too many people watching. I’ll let you live.’

If the members of his household who had accompanied him had not been present, Jang Ryu would have drawn his sword on the spot and severed the boy’s head.

That would have been the price for failing to understand his place.

“…Go and bring your clan head.”

“I’m the clan head.”

“…?!”

Jang Ryu’s eyes widened in shock.

He was so surprised that he momentarily forgot Gwan Hwi had just spoken to him informally.

“Y-you’re the clan head?”

His startled voice cracked.

And understandably so.

Normally, the head of a clan had to be old enough to bear the responsibility of such a position.

At the very least, one had to reach the age of fifty—the age when one was said to understand Heaven’s mandate—to possess enough dignity to serve as a clan head.

‘He doesn’t even look thirty.’

And yet this brat, who had not even reached thirty—the age of Ipnip, when one is said to establish oneself—was the clan head?

“Hah!”

A sneer naturally appeared on Jang Ryu’s lips.

A clan with someone who looked incapable of even taking care of himself serving as its head.

Now he finally understood why there was a half-collapsed manor sitting in such a remote location.

‘Like clan head, like clan.’

To Jang Ryu’s eyes, the Gwan Clan Manor was obviously a family that would be annihilated within six months at most.

Having lived his entire life as a member of the greatest clan in Yanmen, he could see it as clearly as day.

“A clan head… Well, that works out nicely.”

Jang Ryu asked with a faint sneer.

“I heard a rumor that you were the one who killed Gwang Sa-heun, the master of the Soul Medicine Hall, along with all of his followers. Is that true?”

If the other party was the head of a clan, Jang Ryu should have addressed him respectfully.

But he did not.

No—he did not want to.

As far as he was concerned, the head of a third-rate clan that was about to perish did not deserve to be treated as a clan head.

“Yeah. I did it. Why?”

At Gwan Hwi’s casual speech, Jang Ryu glared at him.

“What are you staring at? I’ll gouge your eyes out.”

Gwan Hwi’s eyes flashed as he raised two fingers.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

There was no reason for Gwan Hwi to show courtesy to some bastard who had thrown etiquette out the window and kept speaking to him informally.

After crossing the threshold between life and death once, he had become even less inclined to tolerate such things.

Thanks to the Soul Medicine Hall, he had learned that living while constantly holding himself back was meaningless if he ended up dead anyway.

“…You killed all of them?”

“Yeah.”

“Impossible. You, of all people, killed Gwang Sa-heun, the Soul-Poison Saber?”

“Are your ears clogged? Want me to give you an ear pick? Do the people of the Yanmen Zhang Clan not clean their ears very often?”

“…”

A vein bulged on Jang Ryu’s forehead.

Feeling the eyes of his retainers upon him, he barely managed to suppress his anger before asking again.

Naturally, because he was furious, his voice was as sharp as a finely honed throwing knife.

“How did you fight him? Did you ambush him from behind?”

“I fought him fairly and won.”

“At your level?”

“Why? You can’t do it?”

“…”

Jang Ryu’s face turned red with rage after attempting to provoke Gwan Hwi only to be provoked in return.

“You bastard… I’ll deal with you later.”

Leaving behind words more suited to some evil villain of the demonic or unorthodox path, Jang Ryu stormed away from the grounds of the Gwan Clan Manor.

“Talk about anticlimactic.”

Gwan Hwi snorted as he watched Jang Ryu’s retreating back.

Come to think of it, he had never asked why the man had come here in the first place.

Jang Ryu had failed to obtain the answer he wanted, while Gwan Hwi had failed to learn the reason for his visit.

Truly, they had both managed to accomplish nothing.

—You would have done better to endure it.

General Guan’s advice echoed inside his head.

He was right.

If Gwan Hwi had held back and spoken properly, he might have learned why the Yanmen Zhang Clan was interested in the Soul Medicine Hall.

But—

“If you keep holding things in, you’ll get sick.”

Gwan Hwi no longer wanted to live that way.

“I’ve endured enough all this time.”

Gwan Hwi no longer wanted to live a life of suffering in silence and endless patience.

He was sick of it.

Perhaps that was why his thoughts occasionally slipped out of his mouth without him realizing it.

—…You remind me of myself when I was young. They say blood cannot lie.

“Indeed. We really are of the same blood, General.”

Gwan Hwi slapped his palms together with a sharp sound.

—…

A sigh from Guan Yu echoed inside his head.

---

Under the bright sunlight of daytime—

The members of the Gwan Clan Manor gathered in front of the training ground.

It was extremely rare for all of them to gather in one place.

Most of the household members were scattered about, working here and there to pay off the clan’s debts.

“Wait. But why did you tell us not to go to work today?”

“If we can’t pay today’s tribute, we’ll have to work twice as much tomorrow…”

The household members who had been prevented from going to work anxiously shuffled their feet.

They were fighting desperately to keep the clan from collapsing, so naturally they were worried.

“You’re all here.”

Gwan Hwi approached the training ground and looked at the nine household members gathered there—a remarkably small number for a clan.

“Clan Head, why have you stopped everyone from working and called us here?”

Gwan Nam-cheon, who served as the chief steward of the Gwan Clan Manor, frowned in displeasure.

It was simply because he hated wasting time on things he considered meaningless.

“Hmm. I have an important announcement to make, so please bear with me, Chief Steward.”

“An important announcement?”

“What announcement could there possibly be in our situation?”

The household members tilted their heads in confusion.

After all, the only “important announcement” they could imagine coming from the Gwan Clan Manor was something along the lines of:

‘We have finally gone bankrupt!’

“There are no more debts left in our clan.”

“…?”

“What?!”

“W-what are you talking about?!”

The household members blinked in disbelief, as though questioning their own ears.

Gwan Hwi spoke once more.

“What I mean is…”

He pushed forward a cart he had prepared beforehand and pulled away the dusty cloth covering it.

“We’re free now! That’s what I mean!”

“Gasp?!”

“W-what is all this?!”

The household members’ eyes widened until they looked as though they might split apart at the sight of the mountains of silver and copper coins.

“C-Clan Head?!”

Nam Gwan-cheon’s jaw trembled violently as he asked,

“W-where did all this money come from?!”

“I annihilated the Soul Medicine Hall. I used their money to pay Lord Ji what we owed him, and this much was left over. We also received further investment.”

“…?!”

“Y-you did?!”

A flood of information suddenly crashed over them.

And it was all good news—waves of fortune crashing down one after another.

The household members could barely process it.

“You haven’t heard the rumors yet?”

“N-no, we haven’t.”

“Oh dear. Then let me explain it again.”

Gwan Hwi briefly summarized everything that had happened.

“Is… is that really true?!”

“D-did all of that actually happen?!”

The news of the Soul Medicine Hall’s destruction had already spread throughout Yuncheng City, yet none of the household members knew about it.

They were all so busy earning money that they had remained completely cut off from the news of the outside world.

“W-wow!”

“We’re free!”

“We’re rich! We’re rich now!”

The household members, who had been frozen for a moment by the unbelievable reality, began cheering and dancing with joy.

For the first time in their lives, they were looking at a mountain of silver coins.

Their hearts felt as though they could soar.

“C-Clan Head… You annihilated the Soul Medicine Hall? That vicious hall master?!”

Gwan Nam-cheon simply could not believe it.

Who was the master of the Soul Medicine Hall?

Wasn’t he one of only two first-rate martial artists in Yuncheng City?

And yet Gwang Sa-heun had been killed by their clan head, who until recently had possessed nothing more than mediocre martial arts?!

How?

Exactly how had he done it?

Gwan Nam-cheon looked at Gwan Hwi with a gaze filled with questions.

Then Gwan Hwi spoke words that shocked him even more.

“I recovered the martial arts of our ancestors.”

“…?!”

At those unbelievable words, the household members began to stir.

“D-did I hear that correctly?”

“You heard me correctly. I recovered the martial arts of Guan Yu, Lord Yunchang—the greatest martial artist of all time and ancestor of the Gwan Clan Manor.”

“…!!”

The shock was enough to make their minds go blank.

Silent screams seemed to echo throughout the training ground.

Some stammered as though their tongues had stopped working, while others even lost the strength in their legs and collapsed onto the ground.

---

The annihilation of the Soul Medicine Hall.

The defeat and death of the Soul-Poison Saber, Gwang Sa-heun.

The repayment of the debts that had been dragging the clan toward ruin.

The patronage of Lord Ji, the greatest merchant in Yuncheng.

And now, the recovery of Guan Yunchang’s martial arts.

One of these pieces of news alone would have been difficult to process.

Yet they had all come crashing down at once.

It was an unprecedented string of good fortune.

No—it was good fortune piled upon good fortune upon good fortune.

On a day like this, people were supposed to hold a feast and finally release all the emotions they had kept buried in their hearts for so long.

That day, the household members gathered together.

“Everyone, you’ve all worked incredibly hard!”

“Good days will finally come to our clan!”

“Absolutely! Our Clan Head will lead us there!”

It had been so long since their last feast that some could not even remember when it had been.

That day, some finally could not hold back their tears.

Others burst into laughter and could not stop their uproarious laughter.

Amid tears and laughter—

They looked back together upon the years they had shared.

“Clan Head. You… you’ve truly worked hard all this time.”

Chief Steward Gwan Nam-cheon poured liquor into Gwan Hwi’s cup.

He was a man who rarely showed his emotions.

But today was different.

His face was flushed with alcohol, and the smile spreading across his lips showed no sign of fading.

“You’ve worked hard too, Chief Steward.”

“Clan Head… No. Gwan Hwi. Truly… thank you.”

Gwan Nam-cheon clasped Gwan Hwi’s hand with his scarred hands.

“You… you really did save the clan in the end.”

Gwan Nam-cheon was his one and only uncle.

Yet until now, Nam-cheon had never once spoken to Gwan Hwi as an equal, much less informally.

He understood that the younger the clan head was, the more important it was for those closest to him to maintain proper hierarchy.

“Your father, up in Heaven… he must be happy too.”

“…”

Gwan Hwi silently listened to him.

But he could not hide the slight trembling of his fingertips.

“Do you remember? When Wudang heard about your talent and wanted to take you in as a disciple.”

“Yes. You chased them away by throwing salt at them.”

“Haha. That’s right. Back then, I wanted you to throw everything away and live freely.”

“I know. After I threw salt at those Taoist bastards, you didn’t speak to me for about a month.”

“Haha. Yes, I did. But in the end, I was wrong, and you were right.”

A gaze filled with deep trust settled upon Gwan Hwi.

“When one’s sincerity reaches Heaven, Heaven responds. The heavens must have understood your heart and decided to help you.”

Swish—

Gwan Nam-cheon rose to his feet and took two steps backward.

“To us, you are not merely our Clan Head.”

To the members of the Gwan Clan Manor, Gwan Hwi was not simply their clan head.

To them, he was the boy who had faced his responsibilities even when he could have run away.

The young man whose frail knees had collapsed countless times beneath the weight of responsibility, yet who always rose again and tried to hold the clan together.

A young giant who had become clan head at the age of twelve and fought to protect his family in this harsh world.

Thud—

“To the one who persuaded Heaven itself, I swear that from this day forward, I shall pledge my life in loyalty to you.”

Gwan Nam-cheon dropped to one knee and bowed his head as he made his oath.

Following him, the other household members also knelt with solemn expressions and lowered their heads in an oath of loyalty.

They were not following him simply because they were members of his household.

Nor was this merely loyalty offered to a clan head.

Just as generals of old had voluntarily bowed their heads after being moved by Liu Xuande’s virtue—

They were pledging their wholehearted loyalty to Gwan Hwi himself.

“Hmm… Thank you. No—thank you all.”

At this moment, they were not speaking as members of a hierarchy, but as one person to another.

So Gwan Hwi also addressed the elders of his clan respectfully.

“The clouds that have covered our clan for so long are finally parting, and sunlight is beginning to shine upon us.”

Embarrassed, Gwan Hwi scratched the bridge of his nose before taking out two books of martial arts manuals he had carefully kept inside his robes.

He placed them where everyone could see.

The Dragon Soaring Morning Technique.

And the Heavenly Extremity Cloud-Annihilating Saber.

They were the martial arts and cultivation method of Guan Yunchang, the great general whose name had resounded throughout history centuries ago.

“Well, then. From now on, let’s learn proper martial arts too.”

“…!”

“…!!”

The eyes of the household members widened at the sight of their ancestor’s martial arts.

The Gwan Clan Manor had endured harsh winters for decades.

And after all those breaths that had refused to die out even beneath the biting cold wind—

At last, spring was beginning to take its first steps toward them.

That completes Chapter 009 in full, including the dialogue, scene transitions, and martial-arts terminology.