The current Lord of Ma Gwang-ik had never experienced fraternal affection.His two older brothers incited the children of Xin Ya-hyun to torment him.


    As long as it didn’t become widely known in the village, tarnishing the Jeong family’s reputation, they had convinced the family head that he would turn a blind eye.


    They weren’t wrong. That’s exactly how it played out.


    Whenever children of his age, untrained in martial arts, secretly picked fights or ostracized him, Jeong Yeon-shin avoided confrontation.


    Even a third-rate martial clan was still part of the murim. He had heard enough rumors—however unrefined—that a true warrior of the jianghu did not use martial arts to bully common folk.


    His mother, too, had been a martial artist. He could not dishonor Jeong Ga-donggong by getting into petty brawls with village kids—not that it did anything to protect her from the demonic sects.


    His brothers sneered. They called him weak. They said he had no backbone, unworthy of being the son of a woman who had died giving birth to him.


    That was a distant memory now. Yet, it was a truth that could never be erased.


    The swings he had been excluded from riding during the Dragon Boat Festival remained in his mind even after he ascended to the Black Rank of Ipwang Fortress.


    Riding atop Jeong Hyeon''s fan, he had come to a realization. Sёarch* The novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    "Even when discarding a single stone, one must seize the initiative. That same ‘initiative’ carries a deeper meaning as well—it is about distinguishing clearly between what is valuable and what is not. Cheonggirin discarded the shell of Namgung So-ga-ju and embraced the identity of a warrior—Namgung Se-jin. In the end, he became a noble swordsman."


    From him, Jeong Yeon-shin learned the art of go, which laid the foundation for his mastery of Geomroe Seomreung-shik.


    By stepping on his Hakikseon, he had cut through the flesh and bones of Gui Baek-shin-geom, the cursed sword that had brought ruin to the Jeong Clan.


    It was a grace he had never received from his own blood relatives.


    While most of the Murim Alliance regarded the Lord of Ma Gwang-ik with disdain, Jeong Hyeon had imparted to him the principles of go and the wisdom of life, despite the fact that Jeong Yeon-shin had killed his sworn friend, Cheonggirin Namgung Se-jin.


    He was a great hero. Just like Namgung Se-jin.


    If he were to name the gallant warriors he had befriended beyond Ipwang Fortress, he would say that a proper older brother would be like Seonryong.


    Naturally, he held him in high regard.


    And so, in this moment, he felt loss.


    The feeling he had when he saw the corpses of the Jeong family’s servants after the clan’s annihilation resurfaced once again. It was not intentional, yet it happened all the same.


    To Jeong Yeon-shin, Seonryong was the embodiment of chivalry, devoid of ulterior motives.


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