Childhood Friend of the Zenith

Slanted, sharp eyes.
A slight build. The force radiating from his red martial robes.

Everything about him—his appearance, his aura—it was identical to the ancestor I once saw.

There was no doubt.
That was him. That was my ancestor.

But...

He wasn’t.
There was heat in his gaze as he stared the other man down, and what he just said confirmed it.

He called him his son.

If he called Gu Seongyeol his son, then I could guess who he was.

That man...
That means he’s my great-grandfather.

Gu Seongyeol’s father, and my great-grandfather.

Which means—he was the former head of the Gu Clan.
And if he was the former head, that also meant—

The current surrogate ruler of Zhongyuan.

He was from the clan tasked with standing in as the master of Zhongyuan.

But why?
Why had someone like that suddenly shown up? What the hell?

Everyone’s coming out of the woodwork now.

It felt like I was getting to meet every nasty bastard from the Gu family.

“…Father,”
Gu Seongyeol said, eyes locked on the former clan head.

At that, my great-grandfather smiled.

It was chilling.
The feeling I got when I looked at him for the first time—
A cold dread.
A blazing heat laced with an inexplicable frost.

And then—

Just now... Gu Seongyeol’s flame...

I saw it disappear in an instant.
It was something I had experienced too.

When I met Grandfather.

Back then, out of nowhere, I came across my grandfather in Zhongyuan.
He did the same thing to me—
He just... took my flames away. As if reclaiming them.

In that moment, the flame I carried felt sealed, unable to rise.

This must be the same.
My great-grandfather had probably done the exact same thing.

“My son,”
he called again, looking at Gu Seongyeol.

“I don’t understand how you’ve forgotten your burden.”

“…”

Gu Seongyeol scowled, glaring fiercely at him. That look could cut steel.

“To leave the Scorching Mark as it is… I can’t comprehend it.”

“…Why have you come all the way here?”