‘Taishang Jiazhu? I thought he seemed out of the ordinary.’
Only then did it make a little sense.
His outstanding martial prowess, and how the gatekeeper warriors accepted him even against the Family Head's orders.
However, there were still unanswered questions.
Why did he become a retired old man in the back room?
Was he driven out of the position of Family Head?
At that moment, the Taishang Jiazhu's face crumpled violently.
It was the most annoyed expression Tianhui had seen from him so far.
“What did you just call me? Taishang Jiazhu? Haven't I told you time and time again never to call me that?”
Startled by the high-pitched voice pouring down incessantly like a waterfall, Nangong Jinjing hastily bowed his head.
“I apologize, Grandfather.”
“It is fine as long as you know.”
Contrary to his words, however, the Taishang Jiazhu's face still showed no signs of relaxing.
As Nangong Jinjing awkwardly raised his head.
“More importantly, what happened to your face?”
The Taishang Jiazhu asked in surprise, having witnessed Nangong Jinjing's battered face.
His handsome appearance was nowhere to be seen, his face mottled with bruises.
“Hahaha. Are you talking about these wounds?”
Nangong Jinjing laughed awkwardly, stroking his still-bruised cheek.
“It is my karma.”
“Karma...?”
“That's right.”
Seeing Nangong Jinjing answer so refreshingly despite his ruined face, the Taishang Jiazhu asked no more about it.
“But you haven't set foot in this place for half a year, so what brings you here again?”
“It's because of a guest of our family...”
Nangong Jinjing stopped mid-sentence, whipped his head around, and smiled at Tianhui.
‘Why is he looking at me?’
Tianhui stared at Nangong Jinjing, who was looking at him out of nowhere.
“No, I came to introduce this place to my friend.”
He blurted out an even more abrupt statement.
‘Friend?’
“What, friend?”
For a moment, Tianhui thought his own thoughts had slipped out of his mouth.
But the one who spoke was someone else.
“A disciple of the Huashan Sect is your friend?”
With slightly surprised eyes, the Taishang Jiazhu pointed at Tianhui with his index finger and asked.
“That is correct.”
“Isn't the relationship between our family and the Nine Sects and One Clan quite strained?”
“Hahaha. What does it matter if the relationship between our family and the Nine Sects and One Clan is bad?”
The smiling Nangong Jinjing gazed at Tianhui.
“He is a friend with whom my heart resonates, completely unrelated to the public's gaze.”
“I am your friend?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Tianhui interjected.
“Ah, were we not?”
“What nonsense.”
He said flatly.
Friend, my foot.
They had only sparred a few times; there was nothing that would make them friends.
However, contrary to Tianhui's thoughts, Nangong Jinjing seemed to truly believe they were friends, as he staggered greatly.
“B-But didn't we sincerely cross swords and open our hearts to each other?”
“Excuse me? When?”
“W-We did that through sparring, didn't we?”
“That was just sparring.”
“No way...”
Taking the blow, Nangong Jinjing slumped to his knees with a vacant expression.
“Then it was all my delusion.”
Muttering, Nangong Jinjing suddenly flashed his eyes and shot up to his feet.
“Then!”
Shouting loudly enough to hurt his ears, Nangong Jinjing strode over.
“How about we become friends starting today?”
What?
While Tianhui was dumbfounded, the Taishang Jiazhu approached with a joyful smile.
“Hohoho. The Second Young Master of our family and a Daoist of the Huashan Sect being close friends—I truly like the sound of that!”
After laughing heartily for a while, the Taishang Jiazhu's eyes sparkled as he asked Nangong Jinjing.
“But will you be alright? If you become friends with a Daoist of the Huashan Sect, you might drift further away from the successor position you so desperately desired...”
Nangong Jinjing shrugged his shoulders.
“I don't know about the past, but now I have absolutely no interest in things like the successor position.”
“You?”
The Taishang Jiazhu's eyes widened roundly.
“Yes.”
“I tried so hard to stop you, yet you made such a fuss to get the successor position, didn't you?”
“I was a frog in a well all this time. Blinded by what was right in front of me, I couldn't see far ahead.”
As the Taishang Jiazhu stared with surprised eyes.
“Are you saying our family is a well?”
“Honestly, compared to the world, isn't it a well?”
As Nangong Jinjing scratched the back of his head, observing the reaction.
“Hahaha!”
The Taishang Jiazhu threw his head back and burst into roaring laughter toward the heavens.
“That's right. You're right! Compared to the world, our family is indeed a well.”
Having finally stopped laughing, he looked at Nangong Jinjing with a much softer expression.
“You have changed a lot.”
“I think so too.”
The natural agreement made the old man's smile deepen even more.
“A very encouraging change.”
“It's all thanks to Little Daoist Tianhui.”
‘Me?’
Tianhui looked at Nangong Jinjing, who suddenly mentioned him.
As their eyes met, he held a smile on his lips.
It was a very refreshing and bright smile that Tianhui had never seen before.
Just then, the Taishang Jiazhu spoke to him.
“Thank you for broadening the horizons of my foolish grandson.”
“I didn't particularly do that.”
“Hohoho. As expected of a Daoist, you're excessively modest.”
No, I really didn't.
However, the Taishang Jiazhu, already firmly mistaken, was looking at him with warm eyes.
“Come to think of it, we haven't exchanged names. I am Nangong Hanshang. I was once called the Leidian Jian (Lightning Sword)...”
As if he realized his mistake after speaking, the Taishang Jiazhu added.
“It's an epithet from so long ago that you probably don't know it.”
“Leidian Jian...?”
However, contrary to what he said, the moment he heard the epithet, a piece of information quickly surfaced in Tianhui's mind.
The man who was the Family Head of the Nangong Family.
And the Lightning Sword.
There was only one person who fit that description.
“You were one of the previous generation's Tianxia Wuda Jianke (Five Great Swordsmen Under Heaven).”
“How did you... I thought you wouldn't know since it's an epithet from before the Jiuzhou Three Hegemonies Era.”
Unable to hide his pride, the Taishang Jiazhu's mouth corners twitched.
No wonder he was strong.
Tianhui understood his martial prowess.
Unlike how lightly he spoke of it, the title of Tianxia Wuda Jianke carried quite a heavy weight.
The Tianxia Wuda Jianke were the ones who dominated the era before the Jiuzhou Three Hegemonies Era.
Rumors had it that their skills were so exceptional that they surpassed the Hegemons of a province and could make their names known throughout the world.
‘Yet, to end up in this state...’
Pity slowly spread across Tianhui's face as he continued to observe the Taishang Jiazhu.
‘The sense of loss must be huge.’
As if reading his thoughts?
The Taishang Jiazhu's expression turned peculiar.
“What is that look in your eyes?”
“What look?”
“As if you're pitying me...”
The Taishang Jiazhu swallowed his words and shook his head from side to side.
‘No way.’
Who in the world would look at him like that?
“No. It's nothing.”
The Taishang Jiazhu shook his head.
“More importantly, can you tell me your name now? Or rather, your Daoist title?”
“Don't you already know?”
“I want to hear it directly.”
The Taishang Jiazhu's eyes sparkled.
Meeting the burdensome gaze of the old man, Tianhui immediately opened his mouth.
“Tianhui.”
“Tianhui. That's a good Daoist title.”
Nodding with a satisfied face, he let out a low voice.
“Do you have anything you desire?”
“Excuse me?”
“Due to circumstances, there are limits to what I can do for you right now, but I will help you with anything.”
‘Something I desire?’
There was no need to ponder.
“Then, please spar with me.”
“A spar?”
Toward the Taishang Jiazhu, who had widened his eyes in surprise, Tianhui added.
“They say the Nangong Family's sword techniques are the best under heaven, so I wanted to see them.”
At the compliment, a bright smile spread across the Taishang Jiazhu's lips.
“Hohoho. Our family's sword techniques are indeed the best.”
A smile also formed on Tianhui's lips.
‘He absolutely loves it when you praise them like this.’
Martial artists naturally felt good when their sect's martial arts were praised.
Especially if it was a noble family, they were even more fanatic about it.
“Alright. Since you've also done something for me.”
The Taishang Jiazhu readily agreed.
‘It was worth the wait.’
As the conversation grew longer, he had agonized several times over whether to just leave in the middle, but fortunately, the wait was not in vain.
‘Martial arts of the Nangong Family demonstrated by a master of that caliber will be on a completely different level, right?’
Tianhui's mouth slowly opened, filled with immense anticipation.
“Can I see it right now?”
“Hohoho. You seem quite confident.”
“Because if you take that away, I'm a corpse.”
The Taishang Jiazhu laughed as he looked at the Daoist with his boyish confidence.
His skills were outstanding, but he was still young.
“Your skills are exceptional, but excessive confidence will be a major weakness in the martial world.”
“That's never happened to me, so I can't relate.”
“Then I will teach you.”
The Taishang Jiazhu reached out his hand to Nangong Jinjing, who was quietly watching from the side.
“Can I borrow your sword?”
“Here it is.”
Nangong Jinjing immediately handed over his sword.
It was absurd for a swordsman to hand over his sword to someone else, but the two were grandfather and grandson.
Soon, the Taishang Jiazhu drew the sword.
Sreung—
Following suit and drawing his sword out of courtesy, Tianhui hastily added.
“Ah! While we're at it, could you tell me what martial art it is before you demonstrate it?”
“Is there a reason for that?”
“I need to know exactly what kind of martial art it is.”
“You have a lot of interest in our family's martial arts.”
“...I suppose I do.”
Tianhui's eyes deepened.
His pupils, completely blackened like an abyss, were fearsomely sharp, but because they disappeared in a fleeting moment, no one saw his gaze.
“Then, starting with the Shandian Shisan Jianlei, one of our family's sword techniques...”
Just as the Taishang Jiazhu was about to raise his sword to demonstrate the technique.
“Ah! If it's that, then it's fine.”
Tianhui cut him off.
“I've seen that person perform it.”
As soon as those words left his mouth, Tianhui immediately swung his sword and said.
“Like this.”
Flash!
A sword gleam grazed past the Taishang Jiazhu's side.
“……!”
The Taishang Jiazhu's eyes snapped open.
The sword gleam just now was the Shandian Shisan Jianlei.
If only the internal energy had been proper, it would have been perfect!
“How did you use the Shandian Shisan Jianlei...”
Tianhui looked at the utterly bewildered Taishang Jiazhu and moved his lips.
“I told you, I saw that person perform it.”
With those words, he pointed at Nangong Jinjing.
He, too, was unable to hide his shock upon seeing Tianhui's Shandian Shisan Jianlei.
“Are you saying you copied it?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Tianhui's confident expression, the Taishang Jiazhu's face subtly stiffened.
“...The Shandian Shisan Jianlei is such an outstanding sword technique that it's difficult to even grasp it after seeing it once or twice. So how...”
‘Ah, that?’
Tianhui chuckled softly.
Martial artists were proud of their martial arts.
Having their martial art copied so quickly could be quite a blow to their pride.
“Certainly, because it's quite a profound sword technique, I couldn't even guess what kind of sword technique it was from seeing it once or twice.”
Seeing the Taishang Jiazhu's stiff expression relax, Tianhui added.
“So I saw it about six times? Around then, I figured it out.”