Chapter 373 : The Imperial Escort (1)

Lim Cheong-hwa had started out as a member of the eunuchs' initial group and rose to the apex as the Admiral of the East Spear.

It was all thanks to his teacher.

His teacher had repeatedly taught him that the greatest virtue for a eunuch is to be attentive to everything and anything.

Admiral Lim respected his teacher and had always followed his advice meticulously.

That was how he had ascended to power.

It was the very reason why the current Emperor and the Crown Prince Zhu Taiyoon appreciated him so much.

'He, who the hell is he?'

Whilst on his knees under the intense pressure, he could see that all the people present had familiar faces except for one.

Someone he'd never met was there standing amongst the crowd.

Although the unknown man didn't look that capable, the eerie feeling he was getting from him as he stood there with long hair and a pale face, was overpowering the entire hall.

'Is that really a human?'

"Kuakkk!"

"My-my body!"

Even though the East Spear members tried their hardest, they still couldn't stand.

How strong did the man have to be to make everyone fall to their knees from just releasing his Aura?

Even more surprising, the only people who were kneeling were Zhu Taiyoon and the eunuchs.

The others were standing on their feet just fine.

"Huh... how is this possible?"

Elder Cheong-su, a long-time Elder of the Forces of Justice, who had been fighting with the eunuchs only a moment before, was doubting his eyes...

It wasn't just him, his disciples also weren't being affected by the pressure.

'Is this even possible?'

Such a display wasn't something that anyone could just do, this unknown man was acting as if controlling this massive energy was like breathing air.

Even Elder Cheong-su, who was highly skilled, was shocked by it.

Even if the man managed to make sure that his energy wasn't pressuring the others, he and his disciples should at least feel some kind of energy.

'Impossible.'

'Mon... monster!'

The disciples of the Kongtong clan were sweating.

Shocked, they looked at Elder Cheong-su with a puzzled expression, not knowing what to do.

When the elder didn't provide them with any information or orders, they decided to call out to him.

"Elder?"

"... watch quietly, that person... that person must be as strong as one of the Five Strongest Warriors."

"Five, Five Strongest Warriors!"

The Elder's words made his disciples go speechless.

They'd thought that he was at least a Supreme Master level warrior, but for him to turn out to be as strong as one of the Five Strongest Warriors was unbelievable.

The Five Strongest Warriors of Yulin.

'If that young man is on the same level as the Five Strongest Warriors, then is he on par with North Justice Blade?'

Yulin's North Justice Blade, Yi Mok.

Yi Mok was one of the strongest leaders in Yulin.

At first glance, the unknown man looked the same age as Yi Mok, maybe younger too, but he still gave off a strong aura that rivaled his, maybe even stronger as well.

Woong! Woong!

'We are lucky to have that monster as an ally.'

In response to the Kongtong clan members' thoughts, the Prince, Zhu Taikhan, felt happy about the choice that he'd made.

He'd thought everything to be lost when the East Spear attacked him, but he'd never imagined that those who wanted to kill him would instead end up on their knees.

'Haha!'

At a distance, Crown Prince Zhu Taiyoon could be seen on the floor.

Zhu Taiyoon, abandoning his dignity as a prince, was screaming and whining with his nose stuck to the ground.

Not being able to hide his emotions, Zhu Taikhan smiled.

'Right! That was how I felt when it happened to me as well!'

He felt like he was sharing the same embarrassing moment he'd had to go through at the Demonic Cult.

He felt so happy, that he was barely stopping himself from laughing aloud at any moment.

On the other hand, Zhu Taiyoon's appearance made Admiral Lim go pale.

'How did such a monster get into the Imperial palace?'

The invisible energy was forcefully crushing more than a hundred eunuchs.

Annihilation didn't seem like a nightmarish dream at all, it wouldn't be too strange if everyone was slaughtered.

When that thought crossed his mind, Admiral Lim immediately panicked.

'Kuak! This can't be.'

In the current situation, the safety of Zhu Taiyoon was his top priority.

Even if that meant sacrificing all the eunuchs within the hall.

'We need to escape from here.'

Admiral Lim looked at the group leader, the Super Master level eunuch.

Unlike the others, this eunuch had been trained well, and had managed to endure the pressure from the energy, yet, he was struggling to stop his head from hitting the ground.

[Group leader!]

[Admiral Lim! That- that man is a monster!]

[Calm down. Right now we need to protect the Crown Prince, it doesn't matter if he is a monster or not.]

[Th... that is... true...]

Despite saying that, the eunuch didn't seem to have any confidence.

In the current situation, what could they even do to protect Zhu Taiyoon?

He and Admiral Lim were the only ones whose heads hadn't been crushed into the floor.

[I'll use all my energy to attack him. When I do, the pressure from his energy will decrease for a moment. Use it to break away from his pressure and attack him]

Admiral Lim thought that even if the man before him was able to bring a hundred eunuchs to their knees, he wouldn't be able to do that while dealing with an enemy.

There would be a couple of seconds in-between which the eunuchs would be able to stand again.

Of course, since the man before them was such a monster, the only thing they could gain was a few seconds of time.

[In the meantime, I will escape with the Crown Prince.]

[I-I need to attack?]

The eunuch group leader was shocked.

Admiral Lim was telling him to be a sacrifice so he could escape with the prince.

[But, Admiral!]

[huh! Are you afraid of being a holy sacrifice for the sake of the prince! I will appoint you as the deputy admiral of the East Spear if we can safely escape from here.]

A tempting offer.

Appointing him as the deputy admiral meant that his chances to become the next admiral would grow tremendously.

However, the idea of successfully overcoming the crisis against the man seemed absurd.

'Damn it.'

The eunuch was afraid, but he could think of no other way out of their situation.

He'd always expected to have to make sacrifices in the worst situations, but never had he thought it would come so quickly.

[I... understand.]

[Aim for him after I attack!]

Shwa!

Right after speaking, Admiral Lim collected his energy and jumped into the air.

Admiral Lim, whilst midair, put his hand inside his sleeve and brought out a bunch of needles.

'I need to use this trump card!'

It was a martial art that he had created using the Flower Rain Sky as a reference.

Wave of Energy Needles.

It was a secret technique that would flow in a wave shape whilst forming the internal energy into the shape of needles.

It was a skill that consumed a lot of energy, but it was effective enough to annihilate dozens of warriors at once.

'This will definitely cause enough damage to him!'

No matter how monstrous he looked, it would be difficult to prevent such an attack.

Because the Wave of Energy Needles was a highly advanced technique, it was bound to hit the man.

"Take this!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Admiral Lim's Needles flew in Chun Yeowun's direction.

That wasn't everything.

Whilst the needles from his right hand aimed at Chun Yeowun, the needles in his left hand flew off towards Zhu Taikhan.

Pa! pa! Pa! pa!

'This will be impossible to stop.'

Admiral Lim was using enough energy to suppress over a hundred warriors.

To prevent getting hit, the man would have no choice but to remove the energy he was using to suppress the East Spear.

Even if he succeeded in defending himself, the other needles would certainly reach the prince.

'Admiral Lim has executed this perfectly!'

With this attack, it seemed like the admiral would be able to secure enough time to escape with Zhu Taiyoon.

However, things don't always go as planned.

As soon as he released the secret skill, his attempt to step towards the Crown prince simply became impossible.

Pa! pa! pa! pa!

'!?'

Admiral Lim couldn't believe his eyes.

His more than one hundred needles were aimed at Yeowun, yet he had slightly stretched out his hand and blocked all of them.

"Crazy bastard!"

He was so shocked that he burst out swearing.

As if the needles had been blocked by an invisible wall, they all stopped mid-air.

'H-how can he do that?'

Without removing the energy that continued to pressure the members of the East Spear, he'd stopped the needles that were charging towards him.

It was an impossible task unless he was someone who had an insane amount of experience and precision.

Unknown to him, however, Chun Yeowun had Nano.

[Erosion succeeded. Master's energy has successfully infiltrated the needles and has gained control of them]

Nano's voice rang in his mind.

"This attack doesn't even impress me."

"Yo-you!"

Embarrassed by Yeowun's words, Admiral Lim took out all the remaining needles and attacked him once again, but Yeowun extended his hand and ordered Nano.

'Nano, send these needles back at him.'

[Following Master's command. Activating the panel remote system on the needles. Target: the needles' user.]

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Chun Yeowun's eyes shook rapidly, creating red cross-shaped particles, all aimed at Admiral Lim.

Wheeeing!

The needles, which had stopped mid-air, flipped around.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Um, just returning what's yours"

tew! tew! tew! tew! tew! tew!

As soon as Chun Yeowun finished speaking, the needles aimed at Admiral Lim flew towards him like a storm.

"Th-this!"

He was used to being attacked, but never with his own methods.

More than a hundred needles were flying back towards him at twice the speed he'd shot them out.

In the same way Admiral Lim had done it, the wave approached him.

Phut!

As Chun Yeowun stretched out his hand, the wave devoured the Admiral.

'He-he is doing it better than Admiral Lim himself!!'

Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!

"Kuaaaaak!"

Unfortunately for him, attacking Chun Yeowun was the worst thing he could have done.

Unlike Admiral Lim's attacks which were directed at random parts of the body, Chun Yeowun's attacks were aimed at only one spot.

Which meant that there would be a shower of needles, a marvelous show that could never be stopped.

Thud!

"Ughhh, you monstrous demon!"

Admiral Lim's body was on the floor with many needles pierced into his body.

Maybe because he had used his remaining energy to protect his body, the needles hadn't penetrated entirely but had only shallowly penetrated his body.

Admiral Lim, who was in extreme pain, eyed the eunuch group leader with anger in his eyes.

'Ugh, uh, what the hell is he doing?'

According to the plan, that eunuch was supposed to hit Chun Yeowun from behind.

However, when he looked over, he realized that the eunuch had been blocked by the Guards and was unable to move.

'Wh-what the hell?'

The one who had blocked the eunuch was Yon Namgun.

The eunuch had tried to move right away to attack Chun Yeowun, but Namgun along with the Guards had stopped him.

He'd thought that he could go past the Guards, but that wasn't possible for him.

Wheeeing!

The Guards had a woman called Ran-yeong on their side.

She spread the flames on her sword and pierced the group leader's shoulder.

Chiiiik!

"Kuak..."

With the sword on fire, he didn't actually bleed, but Flame qi was quickly rushing into his body.

He'd wanted to get rid of the monster, but the woman had interfered.

"Don't you dare try to attack my Lord!"

Hu Bong, one of the Guards, held a sword of flame.

Caught by unestimated variables, the eunuch couldn't help but fall back.

'What the hell is that guy doing?'

Admiral Lim was confused.

Around Zhu Taikhan, who was supposed to have no allies, unidentified warriors kept on appearing.

'The other needles?'

Naturally, the needle attack on Zhu Taikhan had been blocked by Ran-yeong, who had created a pillar of flame and turned the needles into ashes.

'Ugh, where did these people come from...'

"Kuak!"

Bang!

When everything seemed to be in vain, Admiral Lim screamed as his head touched the floor.

No matter what he did, it would be pointless.

His ambition to safeguard the prince vanished in an instant.

'It can't be...so easily..... Admiral Lim is down?'

'One of the great masters of the Imperial Palace, for him to be so helpless...'

The eunuchs who were on their knees were stunned by the unexpected results.

No one could have predicted that Lim Cheong-hwa, East Spear's Admiral who was considered to be one of the strongest in the Imperial Palace, would be so miserably defeated.

Step! Step! Step!

Chun Yeowun approached him.

Admiral Lim looked up at him from below and spoke with red eyes.

"You freaking bastard!... Who the hell are you! How dare you stand in front of the Admiral!"

This monster could never be a member of the Guardians.

It just felt very unfair.

Looking down at the admiral with cold eyes, Yeowun opened his mouth.

"I am the guy you tried to frame."

"What? Frame?"

Hearing those ambiguous words, Admiral Lim was utterly puzzled.

He couldn't figure out what he meant.

Until an illogical thought that made totally no sense to him, suddenly crossed his mind.

"W-Wait, are you... the De-Demonic Cult?"

The monstrous man in front of him.

Chun Yeowun, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Mountains, the Lord of the Demonic Cult.

"How, how did this happen..."

"I guess you do realise the sin you committed now. Then you must know your fate too, right?"

Listening to his words, Admiral Lim shouted in anger.

"Wa-wait! I am the admiral... of the Empire. Even if you are from Demonic..."

Slash!

Even before he could complete his words, the sword passed swiftly through his neck.

It was so sudden that the admiral hadn't even realised what had just happened to him.

"So what if you are the Emperor's men?"

"!?"

Thud!

He seemed like he was trying to say something, but his head was already on the ground, cleanly separated from its body.