At dawn, Geom Muyang stood at the entrance of Great Heaven Mountain where they had agreed to meet, his face etched with anxiety.
His heart trembled, keeping him from a proper night’s sleep.
Hunting with his father.
He remembered when Geom Mugeuk went hunting with their father in the past.
He had been curious then.
What did they talk about on the mountain?
Back then, it was a time when he resented his younger brother, so he had worried about what sort of slander he might have whispered to their father.
Now, he was going on that same hunt.
Just then, Geom Muyang’s eyes gradually widened.
He was looking in astonishment at Geom Mugeuk walking toward him.
To be precise, it was because of the bundle on Geom Mugeuk’s back.
“Are you moving out?”
He was truly shouldering a mountain of luggage on his back.
“You don’t know, brother. This is all necessary.”
He had tied and stacked luggage upon a large leather pouch, then stacked more on top of that.
Dangling from it were utensils, gourds, a dagger for dressing animals, and even an axe.
Since there were three people, the luggage had grown even larger.
In comparison, Geom Muyang was carrying only a single, small leather pouch.
Even that was not half full.
He had wondered what he should bring, but there didn't seem to be much to pack.
“Don’t mind me, just think of me as a porter!”
“Let’s split the load.”
“It’s fine. You have to assist Father.”
He had said this when the two of them met, but as soon as Geom Woojin appeared, he started to whine.
“Aigoo, it’s so heavy. When your younger brother is carrying so much, you’d think his older brother would offer to share the load.”
Of course, it didn’t work on Geom Woojin.
The first son had surely offered to share.
He was only playing this prank because the offer had been made; he could now see through Geom Mugeuk’s antics to that extent.
“Muyang, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Geom Woojin, tending only to his eldest son, took the lead and started climbing the mountain.
“Please give me the leather pouch.”
“It’s fine.”
Today, his father had also come with a small leather pouch.
The first time they went hunting, he had come empty-handed.
What could he have brought?
Geom Woojin stood at the head, Geom Muyang two or three steps behind, and Geom Mugeuk at the very back.
Geom Mugeuk intentionally walked at a distance behind them.
So that his father and brother could talk comfortably.
His father and brother silently climbed the mountain path, occasionally exchanging conversation.
He could have listened if he tried, but he didn’t.
Instead, he listened to the chirping of the mountain birds, the sound of water flowing along the valley, and the sound of the wind.
He listened to the sounds of insects and rustling leaves.
The path turned from dirt to stone, and at times, it became a path of jewels under the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
How long had they walked like that?
“Shh.”
At their father’s signal, everyone held their breath.
Pointing in one direction with his finger, his father asked his brother.
“Do you see it?”
Geom Muyang opened his eyes wide and scanned ahead, but he saw nothing.
“Close your eyes and feel.”
“Yes.”
Geom Mugeuk knew.
He was trying to teach his brother the energy emission that he himself had been taught on a previous hunt.
“Release just one stream of energy. Slowly, without breaking it. Slowly, as if a silkworm is spinning its thread.”
All masters handle energy and sense their surroundings with it.
But they don’t think of drawing it out like a thread to a distance of ten, or even twenty zhang.
It was impossible without knowing the core formula of loading one’s energy onto the wind.
Just like him, his brother must be having a new experience now.
“It broke. Focus and try again!”
“Yes!”
Geom Muyang faithfully followed his father’s instructions.
When was the last time he had spoken with his father about martial arts at such a close distance? It had been a truly long time.
“You must send out the energy with the feeling of slowly unwinding a spool of thread.”
It had been a difficult and tense occasion, but it was not as uncomfortable as he had thought.
His father, when teaching martial arts, had a different feel from when he sat on the Grand Advisor's seat.
‘Did Father always talk this much?’
He was the kind of father who seemed like he would say, ‘Figure it out yourself!’ and turn away, but he was meticulous when it came to teaching martial arts.
‘My brother must have felt this way with Father too.’
Perhaps he suggested this hunt to share this feeling with him as well.
That the time spent with their father was not as uncomfortable as one might think.
“Now, load your energy onto the wind.”
At first, it would be a single thread, but later, dozens of threads of energy would spread out in all directions like a spider’s web.
Geom Mugeuk had already reached that level of mastery.
“Again!”
Unlike himself, who had managed it with ease, his brother was not having an easy time.
Still, he had to realize it for himself.
Especially when it came to handling energy, it was only effective when each person understood and accepted it in their own way.
His father waited for his brother without becoming impatient.
Yes, this was probably normal.
He had just learned too quickly.
Geom Mugeuk sat on a rock and silently watched his father instructing his brother.
Watching the scene, his heart swelled with emotion for some reason, and he turned his head away.
Did his father sense that moment of intense emotion?
As Geom Mugeuk gazed at the distant mountains layered against the sky, he felt his father’s eyes on him.
Geom Mugeuk slowly looked back at his father.
Their gazes met and intertwined in the air.
In his father’s eyes was a look that said, ‘You did well setting this up.’
“Teaching my brother after teaching me must be frustrating, right?”
At the irksome comment, Geom Woojin strode over to Geom Mugeuk.
“There’s always someone specific who frustrates me.”
His father, who had come right up to him, asked coldly.
“Do you have nothing to say to me?”
With a look that said, ‘I know everything, so I’m asking,’ Geom Mugeuk flinched and averted his gaze.
“You knew?”
“Of course!”
Geom Mugeuk could tell.
He had realized that he had passed on the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art to his brother.
“You weren’t supposed to know, were you?”
If his brother had activated the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art, it would be a different story, but so far, there had been no reason for it to activate.
It was the kind of art that one could never detect just by looking.
‘Ah! You knew because you achieved Twelve-Star Great Mastery!’
Geom Mugeuk shouted.
“My brother forced me to teach him. He said he would kill me if I didn’t!”
“...”
“Ah, if he had been that reckless, he would have asked me to teach him the Nine Calamities Demon Art.”
Since the fault was his, Geom Mugeuk knelt and begged.
“Father, please forgive me just this once! Brother, come here and beg too!”
“Why are you dragging your brother into this?”
And just like that, letting his brother off the hook.
“The situation was urgent. It was a situation where a powerful enemy using Soul-Devouring Art could have threatened my brother."
"My brother already has a bad personality, but imagine if he was also hit by Soul-Devouring Art. Phew, I wouldn’t have been able to watch with my eyes open.”
Geom Muyang, who should have reacted with disbelief, quietly walked over and knelt beside Geom Mugeuk.
He thought that it might be helpful in this situation to stay quiet rather than stepping forward unnecessarily.
It would have been different if it were any other matter, but this was about the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art.
He couldn’t leave it all to his younger brother.
“I am sorry.”
Geom Woojin asked Geom Muyang.
“Did you know it was the Heavenly Demon Body-Protecting Art when you learned it?”
“I did not.”
Geom Woojin wore an expression as if he had expected as much, but Geom Muyang defended his brother.
“My brother did it for my sake.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at his brother with gratitude, but then quickly bowed his head at his father’s sharp gaze and shouted.
“Please forgive us! Please just this once!”
Looking down at his two sons, Geom Woojin said softly.
“Not for nothing.”
Meaning he would forgive them, but not without a price.
Geom Mugeuk lifted his head with a start and said.
“Fine, I will do whatever you command. I’ll accept anything except for the Unification of the Martial World!”
Next to him, Geom Muyang lifted his head and said.
“I will accept even the Unification of the Martial World.”
Geom Mugeuk turned to him and said.
“Joking at a time like this? Brother, you’ve really changed a lot.”
“It’s not a joke.”
Yes, he knew it wasn’t a joke.
If their father wished it, his brother was the kind of person who would gladly stand at the forefront of the great righteous and demonic war.
Was it because of his brother’s answer? Or was it because of the task he would assign later?
His father turned away with an unreadable smile.
“Resume your training.”
“Yes!”
Geom Muyang rose from his spot and returned to his original position.
The energy emission training continued.
Again and again.
How much time passed like that?
Finally, Geom Muyang was able to emit his energy and find an animal hiding far away.
“It seems to be a wild boar.”
Geom Woojin nodded his head with a satisfied expression.
Geom Mugeuk handed his brother the bow and arrows that were hanging from his leather pouch.
“Father must be getting hungry.”
“Brother, just start the campfire.”
He said he would take care of the rest, and he really did.
Geom Mugeuk’s hands as he butchered the wild boar were better than any hunter or chef.
After dressing it with incredible speed and skill, he took the most delicious parts and skewered them on wooden sticks.
Then he took out the necessary seasonings for cooking from his leather pouch.
He sprinkled salt and added layers of his secret seasoning blend to enhance the flavor.
The meat began to cook, releasing a delicious aroma.
Watching him, Geom Muyang was inwardly surprised.
They had camped in the woods a few times on their way back to the sect, but he hadn’t known his brother was this skilled.
It was a kind of dexterity completely separate from being good at martial arts.
After starting with grilling the meat, he began to unpack his luggage in earnest.
First, he unwrapped a separately packed bundle.
Swish.
A tiger skin was spread out for their father.
It was large enough for him to sit or even lie down on.
“Father, please sit here comfortably.”
Geom Woojin sat on it.
“As expected! It suits you well! You look magnificent!”
When Geom Woojin extended his hand, the wild boar over the campfire turned on its own.
“Of course. Right now, not burning the meat is more important than looking magnificent!”
Geom Mugeuk unpacked the next item.
“This is for you and me, brother.”
He laid out two pelts from ordinary beasts, clearly distinct from their father’s.
He placed his brother’s spot a little closer to their father.
“Here, I prepared this as well this time.”
A small, foldable wooden table emerged from the leather pouch.
He placed it in front of their father.
Next, he took out clean chopsticks and utensils from the leather pouch and set them before his father.
Geom Woojin, seeming to find grilling the meat amusing, used his power to move it through the air, turning it so it wouldn’t burn.
When the meat was cooked to a perfect golden-brown, Geom Mugeuk cut the softest and most delicious parts and brought them to his father.
“Please eat, Father.”
He then cut meat for his brother’s and his own utensils as well.
“How is the taste?”
“It’s fine.”
His father’s ‘fine’ was praise equivalent to ‘outstanding.’
His brother proved it.
With wide eyes, his brother’s expression said it all.
This is delicious.
Geom Mugeuk smiled and said.
“It’s meat caught by the First Young Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, butchered by the successor, and grilled by the Cult Master himself! How could it not be delicious? If you said it tasted bad, our family would be annihilated!”
At those words, Geom Muyang laughed.
When he had been so nervous he couldn’t sleep, he never would have imagined that today’s hunt would have such a good atmosphere.
It was enjoyable.
And the meat, eaten like this by a campfire in the mountains, had a different kind of taste.
“I’ll make it even more delicious!”
Geom Mugeuk rummaged through his leather pouch again.
Geom Muyang was watching to see what would come out next.
“You can’t have meat without wine.”
This time, it was wine.
It was their father’s favorite.
He had diligently prepared clean cups and even some snacks to go with it.
Just then, Geom Woojin extended his hand.
His own leather pouch, which had been set aside, flew through the air into his hand.
What on earth was he about to take out?
As the brothers watched with curiosity.
“I also brought a bottle of wine.”
What his father took out was also wine.
Geom Mugeuk felt puzzled.
He must have known he would bring some this time, just as he had last time.
“What kind of wine is it?”
Then, words he could never have imagined flowed from his father’s lips.
“It’s a wine I brewed myself when Yang-i was born.”
“!”
Geom Mugeuk and Geom Muyang were startled.
Especially Geom Muyang, who was shocked by the words that the wine was brewed in the year he was born.
In that moment, one phrase from his father filled his mind.
Yang-i.
When was the last time his father had called him Yang-i? It was a name he had heard only when he was very young, and today was the first time since.
That wasn’t all.
‘A wine you brewed yourself?’
A surge of emotion swept through Geom Muyang’s heart.
And not just any wine, but one to commemorate his birth?
And he had brought that wine today.
“Cult Master.”
Geom Muyang’s voice trembled.
It was the first time Geom Mugeuk had ever seen his brother tremble like this.
His father lifted the wine bottle and said.
“Today, I came as a father.”
“!”
“Come here and receive a cup of my wine.”
“... Yes, Father.”
Geom Muyang approached his father and respectfully received the wine.
“You come too.”
Geom Mugeuk also went and received the wine.
His brother was trembling so much that he couldn’t even make a single joke.
Geom Muyang respectfully filled his father’s cup, and the three of them drank the wine.
“The taste is absolutely fantastic!”
Geom Mugeuk exclaimed in admiration.
It wasn’t an empty compliment; it was truly delicious.
“This wine is a friend to you, brother. A friend.”
Passing the bottle back and forth, the three of them finished the wine.
They drank it all freely, without holding back.
To Geom Muyang, it was the most delicious wine he had ever had in his life.
He felt that he would likely never drink such a delicious wine again until the day he died.
“When will we drink the wine brewed in the year I was born? Should we drink it on our next hunt?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s excited question, Geom Woojin flinched.
“You brewed one for me too, of course, right? No matter how much you favor your eldest son, your second son is still your child. Right?”
At his father’s ambiguous expression, Geom Mugeuk asked with a look of ‘surely not.’
“Don’t tell me you didn’t brew it yourself and had Uncle Hwi do it? ‘Hwi, go brew a bottle of wine. He’s still my son, so we should commemorate it.’”
Seeing his father still smiling strangely, Geom Mugeuk’s voice grew louder.
“Surely you didn’t forget even that, did you? That’s why you’re smiling so awkwardly, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s not true! Tell me you at least bought one and claimed you brewed it!”
And so, the first day of the hunt was passing.