You’ll definitely like this if you enjoy murim manhwa and father/son relationships
Summary of the Plot So Far
When Mugeuk Geom was a young man, Mugi Hwa went on a killing spree, killing both the lords of murim and the defenseless, including children.
To undo this, Mugeuk spent 40 years searching for the ingredients necessary for a time-travel ritual.
With the ritual complete, Mugeuk starts reliving his youth with some differences to stop Mugi.
He starts with becoming stronger by using his past knowledge and his distant father, Cheonma.
Mugeuk attempts to earn his favor so he can learn a secret martial arts technique but learns there’s more to the demon lord than he’d thought.
In addition to this changing father/son relationship, Mugeuk also begins resolving his regrets with the people he took for granted.
My Thoughts (Contains Minor Spoilers)
TL;DR Great fights, cute father/son bonding, and an interesting emphasis on relationship-building
Setting/Fights
This manhwa seems to be set in a regular murim world.
It’s got qi, martial arts, the factions/sects, and so on.
To be honest, I’m surprised WEBTOON put this on the platform because of how few murim titles there are and Mugeuk ‘s been pretty brutal in some of the fights so far.
The fights, by the way, are amazing.
The art is well-done and detailed which when combined with the choreography of the fights, leave me wanting more.
Though the character moments do some heavy lifting too.
Protagonist
Mugeuk is vicious yet kindhearted.
One of the biggest reasons why he came back was over Mugi slaughtering children during his rampage, after all.
With one exception, he will horribly injure or outright kill anyone who wrongs him or his people.
But at the same time, he appreciates life and the time he has with other people.
Which I do like, for the most part.
He’s living in a different world with different values so I can understand why he’s not opposed to killing as a solution but I don’t 100% support his decision with the cook.
Sure, he was a terrible person but that didn’t merit the death penalty.
Another thing about Mugeuk is his relationship with his family.
Due to the matter of succession, his family is hardly a close one, which probably impacted how he viewed relationships in his first life.
And due to his mental age and experience, he’s less attached to them than before.
However, that seems to be changing where his father is concerned.
While Mugeuk claims he’s trying to get closer to Cheonma for his own benefit, it does feel like the two have gotten slightly closer and may continue to do so over the course of the story.
As Cheonma gives bits and pieces of his past to Mugeuk, he’s been empathizing with him.
Also, while I’m not sure if it was intended, I just find Mugeuk so adorable when he asks to spend time with Cheonma.
Side Characters
Out of all the side characters, two stand out, Cheonma and An.
Cheonma is pretty interesting because of how human he’s being portrayed as.
Instead of a heartless demon lord, we get a stoic man who’s had to make difficult decisions to protect himself and the clan.
Which plays a part in why he isn’t very open with Muguek though it makes their interactions so fun to watch.
Mugeuk acts like a son wanting a relationship with his father and Cheonma is either unfazed or annoyed but still goes along with Mugeuk.
And then there’s An.
An is Mugeuk’s bodyguard and used to be known as a beauty before a side effect of her martial arts ability caused her to gain significant weight.
While I like Mugeuk’s reflection on how he treated her in his first life, I’m curious about how the author intends to handle An.
On the one hand, fatness was written into the story as a curse which can be rather offensive to anyone overweight.
But on the other, her feelings do matter and should weigh in on whether Mugeuk goes through on finding a way to remove the side effect.
I do hope that if she does lose weight, we get some character development out of it.
We could get her POV about how she feels about other people’s treatment of her from before and after the weight loss.
Or in a plot twist, her fat could become muscle and make her bodyguard duties easier.
That’d be interesting.
If you read this far, you should give Absolute Regression a try!
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