Shook to his core, Ji-Hyeon simply nods and heads towards his residence.
On the way, multiple people greet him, but he doesn't notice them. He simply walks forward.
Reaching the house, Mei-lan hears him come and then heads to meet him.
Seeing her son, who always carried himself with confidence,e walk with his head down, Mei-lan simply serves him food and bids him good night, refraining from inquiring about the situation.
Lying in his bed, Ji-Hyeon simply laughs. Laughs at his reincarnation, the lineage of his reincarnation, as well as his gifted body.
He laughs at the imperial family for how much they had angered the heavens for such a phenomenon to occur. For Ji-Hyeon, a scholar to have a body suited for martial arts more than a general and not just any general but the one who established murim.
He began to reminisce about his last thought at the moment of his death. He finally understood why the general was successful, but he was not.
While Ji-Hyeon enlightened the masses about the atrocities of the imperial family, the general led the people who knew about it to revolt.
Ji-Hyeon then laughed again, but this time only at himself for how stupid he was to not notice such an elementary concept.
He had not enlightened people; he just made them aware of the issues they already knew but kept buried because of fear. Ji-Hyeon just made them face their fear but the general on the other hand made the masses grab their fear by the neck and kill it for why would they fear the imperial family with him on their side and by the time they understood how much more powerful the imperial family truly was they themselves were much stronger.
He finally understood how morality without strength is not much different than merely dreaming.
How good is a person who doesn't do others harm when they simply can't do so?
'Strength! That is what I always needed! Overwhelming strength! Now, I also have the means to gain it! Finally'
When going through the Tang sect's autobiography of sorts, Ji-Hyeon had begun to understand how much more of a monster the imperial family and the nobles under them were. He began to understand where they "disappeared' to.
Finding out the reason why so many innocents were harmed and abducted including many people he knew, he couldn't help looking for more information, maybe at least the one who was directly responsible for such acts was punished, maybe after the revolt the imperial family stopped using the common people as livestocks just maybe the girl who was like a little sister to him wasn't turned into a pool of blood, a pill or… a monster.
But now what overrode the anger was hope, hope that he could do the same to the people responsible for such gruesome deaths, the same deaths if not worse. If the ones who were responsible for such atrocities were still alive, he could kill them himself.
Remembering the kind smile of the little girl who gave him a portion of her bread when he could see her body dry of flesh, the smile on his face changed into one with resolve and the will to go through hell if need be for the overwhelming power he had to have.
***
Squinting his eyes from the sunlight coming through the window, Ji-Hyeon first smiles, which then gradually fades.
He was glad yesterday was not a dream, and then he understood the path of black and red he now had to walk by his own choice of course.
Walking out of his room, he headed straight to the kitchen as he still had to tell his mother. In the kitchen,n he sees his mother cooking by herself while the maid remains on the sidelines observing. Confused by the scene before, he asks,
"Why are you cooking instead of her?"
She looks to her right an,d seeing Ji-Hyeon's expression change for the better, returns a smile,
"I just wanted to cook for you myself. Why do you like her cooking more?"
Scoffing at his mother, "If you have teased me enough, I have something important to talk to you about."
"Oh, okay, sure, what is it?"
"In private."
"Ah, Mi-sook, could you please go and wait in the living room for a while?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"So what is it?"
Ji-Hyeon then proceeds to break the news. Mei-Lan's face starts to go through an array of emotions, first joy, then hope, and finally sadness. While her son now had the potential to be someone as great and revered as General Kim Jin-shin, if not more, it also meant he was now burdened with the responsibility of the same scale.
After all, with great power comes great responsibility. One could choose not to follow through with their responsibility, but her son, as small as he was, was not such a person, but… she wanted him to be.
With a voice so muffled as if she was pleading to someone to spare her life, "Ji-hyeon, just because you are so talented doesn't mean you have to follow through. You can just start studying and become a scholar and live a mundane life, there is nothing wrong with that, okay? Please… please just… just live a normal life."
Seeing such a sorry state of his dear mother for the first time in his life, he lies to his mother, "Don't worry so much, mother. I will only practice martial arts for self-defense. I will make sure that I make it clear to him today." Finally, he speaks an ounce of truth," I just want to be strong enough to protect what I hold dear."
Breathing a sigh of relief, "Right, right. You are still just a child. You make me forget that sometimes. Why else would you want to train? Okay, but are you sure? Training in martial arts is not easy. I saw some soldiers training yesterday, and it was gruesome. Pin- sorry your father is not forcing you, is he?"
"No, no. He just told me about my body. I was the one who requested to start training."
"Oh, okay then. But after a few days, if you find it hard, tell your father you won't continue, okay?"
"Yes, I understand. Then I will head off."
"All right, be careful, okay."
"Yes, I will."
Outside the room, hearing Ji-Hyeon come out, the maid takes her ear away from the wall and rushes to sit at the far end of the wall. She calms herself down as what she had just heard carried far too much weight for her to carry on nonchalantly.
She bowed to Ji-Hyeon, then continued to help Mei-Lan.
***
Heading out of the residence, Ji-Hyeon turned towards the direction of the training grounds to meet with Baek Seong-jun when he saw Baek Seong-jun walking towards him with a rather unexpected expression.
'Pity? I see he probably feels pity for a poor child who, after just meeting his father, was mercilessly cast aside the very next day due to inadequate talent.'
"Good morning, young master. Let's head on, shall we?"
Nodding his head, Ji-Hyeon replied, "Let's."
Ji-Hyeon then follows Baek Seong-jun to the lord's residence.
He then leads Ji-Hyeon in front of a room with 'the lord's training chamber' written on the right side.
'How is this a secret training chamber?'
Heading inside, he saw a wide space almost as big as the training ground of the soldiers with a plethora of weapons on the far right and training dummies on the far left with targets for bows in the front and a wide area in the middle.
"If I may, sir Baek Seon-jun, why did sir assign you to bring me here when I could have found my way myself?"
"Well, for starters, do you know the true name of this chamber, or did lord bai-tian not tell you?"
Understanding what Baek Seong-jun meant, "Is it the secret training chamber?"
"Yes, as for the reason for why I am here, while everyone knows of this area, very, very few have permission to access it. The reason for that is at every corner there is a pathway to each corner of the estate and one to outside it. This room is meant as the room to escape from in case of an attack on the estate. Since it has weapons and although you can't see it right now, this room also has a formation for training which can be changed to one to confuse the enemy, so it's the perfect place for such a situation."
Surprised by the use of the room, Ji-Hyeon understands how big of a deal it is for him to have access to it.
"The name is quite fitting; it indeed holds quite a few secrets."
Nodding, the previous expression returns to Baek Seong-jun's face, "I was told you are to practice alone here, so I will take my leave. Just follow my regime for now. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me, okay?"
Coming down to one knee with a smile, patting Ji-Hyeon's head, "Work hard talent isn't everything. Don't worry; I will be sure to fulfill what I said."
Baek Seong-jun stands upright and then bows, "Then young master, farewell."
Looking at his back, confused by both his actions and words, Ji-Hyeon wonders what he meant.
'Ah, the stuff about sword techniques. It seems he is not too bad of a man. Well, then I should start now.'