Chapter 868

The night Ma Sanbao came to see me, I couldn’t sleep.

It wasn’t just the rain, pouring down as if the heavens had decided to empty themselves, or the lightning crashing all around us.

My last conversation with Ma Sanbao kept replaying in my head. He’d vanished as suddenly as he’d appeared.

I need your help.

When he first said it, I couldn’t bring myself to answer.

This was a plot against the throne. There was no denying it.

If I agreed and things went wrong, no one could say what would happen afterward. With the imperial family involved, they wouldn’t treat it as one man’s wrongdoing.

I wouldn’t pay the price for failure as the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung. I’d pay it as Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. That weighed heavily on me.

What happens if this fails?

You already know, don’t you?

……

Fail, and you’re a traitor. Succeed, and you’re the Son of Heaven. In the latter case, wealth and glory beyond anyone else’s reach await you. In the former, you’ll suffer worse than you would in hell.

I’d fought countless battles and brought down more enemies than I could count.

Some had been weak enough to handle with one finger. Others had frightened me so badly I couldn’t move a finger.

But… this was different.

The Great Nation ruled the world, and the Son of Heaven ruled the Great Nation. To rebel against the Son of Heaven meant fighting the world itself.

Not just me. Everyone around me.

Think carefully. Of course, since you set foot in the imperial palace to protect His Highness Prince Shangshan, it may already be too late.

Are you threatening me?

No. I’m telling you the truth.

Ma Sanbao, the East Depot’s second-in-command. I could still see the cold, piercing look in his eyes and hear the low voice in which he’d spoken.

How many people do you think died in the last coup? Tens of thousands were made to drink poison, died for unknown reasons on the road to exile, were torn limb from limb in the marketplace, or had their heads put on display. And those are only the deaths the world knows about. How many were never brought to light? How many of those people had nothing to do with it, just like you?

……!

“They call it ‘calling a deer a horse.’ In the end, everything depends on the Emperor’s will. Just as a perfectly ordinary deer can become a horse, you can be made a traitor. Remember that.”

History had proven how fickle and suspicious those in power could be.

And the current Son of Heaven was undeniably a tyrant. A usurper who had defied the natural order and climbed to the throne through blood, a ruler who wielded absolute power.

Hearing Ma Sanbao say it, I began to realize what that meant.

Whether I became a traitor might already be out of my hands.

Of course, I won’t deny that I had a hand in their deaths. No—I led the way. I had to survive, whatever it took. I had to stay here and wait for the right moment.

Some had left the imperial palace to serve their young master. Others had remained to welcome him back one day.

Hong Jin was one of the former. Ma Sanbao was one of the latter.

He became the fourth prince’s—no, the new Emperor’s—hunting dog.

He was one of the cruelest of them, sinking his teeth into his targets’ necks without mercy. He survived that brutal purge and rose to become the East Depot’s second-in-command, its Brush-Holding Eunuch.

And Ma Sanbao wasn’t the only one who had survived that way.

The night we all gathered, Cang Gong said that if the East Depot had been a flower blooming in the dark until then, we had to become weeds from that day on.

Flowers were bright and beautiful whether there was light or not.

Weeds weren’t. No one spared a glance for plain, nameless grass. And because of that, it survived longer.

Cang Gong, the East Depot’s head and its Seal-Holding Eunuch, had urged his like-minded comrades to survive as weeds. He kept urging them until the illness brought on by his long years finally laid him low.

Five years ago, after Cang Gong took to his sickbed, I began leading everyone. That was when I started drawing up the pledge.

The pledge.

Clear proof that the traitors had signed their names in their own blood—and perhaps a record of the names of the meritorious officials who would one day enthrone a new Son of Heaven.

Ma Sanbao had mentioned the pledge before he left. Then he’d said something that was bound to keep me awake all night.

Dark Heaven. I know about the people throwing Murim into turmoil. Probably far more about them than you imagine, and in far greater detail.

……!

Even if you leave now, I won’t try to stop you. But if you help us enthrone His Highness Prince Shangshan and put a new order in place… we’ll have to give you a fitting reward.

Ma Sanbao left, Hong Jin returned to the young prince’s side, and I stayed where I was, lost in thought.

Until the first light of dawn reached the window. Until the rain began to let up and day broke in the distance.

And right up to this moment.

“Fuck.”

At my sudden curse, Hyuk Mujin jolted awake from where he’d been nodding off in a corner. He sprang to his feet and fumbled for the sword in his arms, eyes still half shut.

“Are we under attack? An attack? You bastards! Who the hell dares—”

“Mujin.”

“Yes?”

“Go to sleep.”

“Yes.”

Hyuk Mujin flopped back down as if nothing had happened and was asleep again in no time.

The trip to the imperial capital must have been exhausting, but sleeping in that position for four whole shichen¹ was a talent in itself.

Snore.

……

Still, snoring crossed the line.

Whack!

“Ugh! You bastards! No one lays a finger on the Captain!”

“Mujin.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re supposed to be standing guard and you sleep that soundly, they could lay hands on every part of me except one hair.”

“Gasp! Someone’s already laid a hand on you, Captain? No, you don’t have to tell me. It was Hong Jin, wasn’t it? I knew it. The way he’s always looked at you was lecherous…”

“Mujin. You little shit…!”

I groaned from the depths of my soul.

Of all people, this idiot was my right-hand man—or rather, my pinky toe.

Things were serious enough as it was, and with him like this, I’d hit a proper moment of clarity. At this point, I was starting to wonder if Dark Heaven had sent him as an ascension-to-immortality hitman to make sure I left this world early.

No System. No one I can rely on right now, either.

Thinking about it, I’d been pretty lucky until now.

The System had always pointed me toward where I needed to go, even if it did so vaguely through Quests. And whenever I wavered, Jeok Cheongang had been a sturdy pillar I could trust and lean on.

Now I had neither.

Everything that happened from here on would depend on the choice I made.

Fail, and you’re a traitor. Succeed, and you’re the Son of Heaven.

Ma Sanbao’s words echoed in my ears. So did what he’d said at the end.

Dark Heaven. I know about the people throwing Murim into turmoil. Probably far more about them than you imagine, and in far greater detail.

What exactly did he know? How had he learned so much? What connection was there between the information he’d uncovered about Dark Heaven and the Son of Heaven, and how dangerous was it?

I’d wanted to stop Ma Sanbao, who seemed determined to leave, and press him for more answers. But I held back, imagining the Embroidered Uniform Guard receiving a Buster Call² and rushing over the moment I caused a commotion.

Or maybe I’d let him go because I was still trying to grasp the weight of what he’d said afterward.

Reward. A reward…

I turned the word over in my mind.

Ma Sanbao had been clear. If I helped them enthrone Prince Shangshan as the new Son of Heaven, they would give me a fitting reward.

And since he’d mentioned Dark Heaven first, it wasn’t hard to guess what he meant.

The imperial family—the Great Nation—helps the Murim Alliance wipe out Dark Heaven.

People didn’t say the government and Murim must not interfere with each other for nothing. The Great Nation had never involved itself deeply in Murim’s affairs.

No, looking at things now, the reason was obvious.

It never had a reason to.

There was no need to count the forces across the entire world. A million elite troops were stationed near the imperial capital alone, and I’d seen hundreds of Peak masters with my own eyes.

And if you included the forces that hadn’t yet come to light—especially the Supreme Peak masters……

The imperial capital alone is already far stronger than the Murim Alliance.

Of course, most of the Great Nation’s strength was concentrated there.

All the wars, including invasions by foreign peoples, had ended long ago. The emperors of a unified dynasty had no reason to give the City Lords and vassal princes scattered across the land more military power than they needed.

They had simply watched from atop those enormous, solid walls.

Watched the fierce struggle for power inside another enclosure, the one people called Murim, which stood within the Great Nation’s own borders.

Even during the Great Faction War, they had watched.

But if that Great Nation took the Murim Alliance’s side…

The scales of victory would tip in an instant.

Until now, the fight had been between the Central Plains’ Murim and Dark Heaven. If the Great Nation joined in, Dark Heaven would become an external enemy hated by all under heaven.

I still couldn’t gauge Dark Heaven’s full strength. But the weight carried by the words “Great Nation” was immense and undeniable.

There was, of course, one fatal problem.

What if we failed?

High risk. High reward.

Fail, and you’re a traitor. Succeed, and you’re the Son of Heaven.

I felt as though I were standing at the edge of a cliff.

I could gain the Son of Heaven’s wings and soar above the clouds. Or the Son of Heaven could break both my legs and send me tumbling over the edge.

Not just me. Everyone.

Snore.

……

Right. Including this idiot.

“…Mujin. You little shit.”

Hyuk Mujin opened his eyes naturally and spoke.

“I wasn’t asleep.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then why were you snoring so damn loud? The Embroidered Uniform Guard will be up here to haul you away soon. Your snoring woke the Emperor.”

“I’m serious.”

“How are you going to prove it?”

Hyuk Mujin’s eyes darted around before he answered.

“I’ll stake Hong Jin’s balls on it.”

……

This idiot was trying to stake something that didn’t exist.

Before I could think of a reply, a familiar metallic sound came from outside the window.

Clack. Clack.

Orderly movement. A sharp aura.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Hyuk Mujin stared at the golden-armored guards entering the pavilion and asked, wide-eyed,

“Did the Emperor really wake up because of me?”

……

Should I really kill him?

I let out a deep sigh.

“Go bring His Highness Prince Shangshan.”

It looked like the time had come.