Chapter 905

The torches wavered. Blood dark enough to see even in the gloom burst out on every side.

Clang-clang-clang!

Thrust!

Well-honed blades met in flashes of swordlight. Cries of pain followed.

“Gyaaaagh!”

“Ghk, gah!”

With a dying cry that announced the end, someone nameless met their death, and someone else stepped into the empty space they left behind.

Again and again.

A cycle of death that would not end until one side was wiped out.

The Emperor sat on his throne without so much as a tremor, as though to prove the weight of those two words—Son of Heaven. He watched the Grand Banquet Hall turn into a battlefield.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a sight like this.

He wore a brilliantly embroidered dragon robe now, but little more than a decade ago, he had been a general who crossed battlefields in armor.

The fourth prince of the Great Nation, with neither the prospect nor the desire to inherit the throne.

No one had expected the man who led an army against border warlords and nomads to ascend the throne.

Not even the man himself.

“Strange how things turn out. Truly strange. Wouldn’t you agree?”

At the Emperor’s sudden murmur, Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, replied in a heavy voice. He stood beside the throne like an iron tower.

“This subordinate failed in his duty.”

A full third of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, whose duty was to protect the imperial family, had turned their blades against it. The Imperial Guards responsible for the Outer Palace were raining arrows down without pause.

The Emperor had not been entirely unprepared for the existence of traitors, but Cang Gong’s shadow had fallen far darker than he’d expected.

Across the imperial family. No—across the entire Great Nation.

Shhh-shhh-shh—clang!

Hundreds of arrows fired straight at the Emperor bounced off harmlessly.

The Emperor moved his lips toward the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had blocked the attack by forming a wall with their massive iron shields.

“Advance.”

One short command was enough.

A hundred martial artists, handpicked from among the finest of the Great Nation’s greatest force, launched themselves forward without hesitation.

Away from the Emperor’s side and into the battlefield stained with death and screams.

Whoooosh!

Dozens of yards vanished in an instant.

A hundred spears and swords swung together, flashing as they bore down on the traitors.

Whiiing!

Slice! Thrust!

“Gyaaaagh!”

Screams and blood erupted without pause.

The martial prowess of warriors at the very brink of the Peak realm—overwhelming, and horribly powerful.

But even that could not turn the tide of battle. At its center, true monsters beyond human limits were running wild.

BOOOOM!

Rrrumble!

A tremendous roar and tremor shook the area. Beyond a pillar of fire that surged high into the air, piercing the darkness, a painfully white light blazed.

Shhk!

Space split open.

Everyone who felt that chill, like frost in the depths of winter, shuddered as if on cue. Then, as their vision slowly tilted, they understood.

Ah.

The cold they had just felt was death.

Rrrumble!

Dozens of bodies toppled like rotten old trees. Their blood-soaked armor no longer shone gold, and the gray eyes looking down at them were cold.

“Is that all you have?”

Whump!

A casual palm strike crushed a man’s whole body.

“The Emperor’s hunting dogs. The might of the imperial family.”

Craack!

A light stomp sent the ground rippling for dozens of yards around him.

“I asked if that’s all you have!”

BWOOOM!

The shout, charged with immense internal energy, burst through the compressed air. It shook bodies and minds hardened by grueling training and tore at eardrums.

“Ghk.”

Groans rose all around. The Embroidered Uniform Guards staggered, clutching their bleeding ears, as another white flash hurtled toward them.

No—it was just about to.

Fwoosh.

Somewhere, flames flickered.

In an instant, the air, cold as ice a moment ago, boiled like lava. Fire swallowed even the darkness.

BOOM!

Would a volcano sound like that if it erupted?

The thought flashed through everyone’s mind as the flames poured toward one man alone.

An old man with pale skin.

Cang Gong’s gray eyes filled with terrible heat.

BOOOOM!

Impact. An explosion.

The dreadful shock wave that followed hurled friend and foe alike through the air. Cang Gong was no exception.

Shhhhh. Thud.

Driven back by the immense force, he barely managed to stop himself. He straightened his bent back and fixed his gaze on one man.

“When the situation demands you fight with everything you have, you waste your strength showing off against children. You must’ve eaten your age through your ass.”

Fire King Jeok Cheongang.

As Jeok approached through the heat haze rising around him, Cang Gong’s lips twisted.

“And you’re no different. In the end, didn’t you earn the title of Fire King by killing countless weaklings?”

“Even without balls, you should get your facts straight. The Demonic Cultists I killed weren’t mere weaklings. They were arsonists. Burning them alive wouldn’t have been punishment enough.”

“Then why did you kill the other Demonic Cultists? They had done nothing to you.”

“One day, I woke up to find my ancestral home in flames. How do you think that felt?”

Jeok Cheongang did not wait for an answer.

“Awful. Fucking awful. So I kicked every last one of them in the ass and sent them to the afterlife. That way, even if they were reborn, they’d never set fire to someone else’s home again.”

“In other words, it was personal revenge.”

“That’s right. I didn’t much like what those bastards were doing anyway.”

Jeok Cheongang raised a fist wreathed in rolling flames and added,

“Just like you.”

Swish—BOOM!

Thousands of soldiers filled the Grand Banquet Hall, but not one of them saw how Jeok Cheongang moved—or how Cang Gong evaded that terrifying attack.

A tiny handful of people were the exception. They were more than worthy of being called superhuman.

“If I were in his place, how long could I last?”

The Emperor had watched it all. Baek Yeon answered his question.

“A hundred moves.”

“You don’t hesitate to be cruel. I put no small effort into reaching this realm.”

The Emperor gave a bitter smile. Baek Yeon replied evenly.

“It would be the same for anyone. The only question is how long they could last. The outcome would not change.”

“Even if you went out there, Baek Yeon?”

“As Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I would certainly win. As a lone martial artist, I would lose by a hair.”

“Then which are you now—a martial artist, or the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard?”

“This subordinate has always been the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I obey only Your Majesty’s commands. And…”

Baek Yeon’s voice fell to a murmur.

“The late Emperor’s final order was for me to plan for the future alongside the fourth prince.”

“…!”

The Emperor’s eyes trembled.

How could he forget that day? The voice he had heard for the last time?

More than ten years had passed since then.

Frost had settled early on the head of the young man burdened with more than he could bear. The infant who had once been swaddled in blankets had grown into a boy, now sharing this very moment with him.

“What on earth—”

The boy struggled as though he might shake off the palace attendants holding him and rush onto the battlefield.

“What on earth are you thinking?”

His eyes blazed with confusion and anger as he glared at the Emperor.

“Why? Why won’t you help them? They’re risking their lives for Your Majesty…!”

BOOOOM!

The rest of his words were swallowed by the roar that burst out with the flames.

The next moment, Prince Shangshan saw a familiar face amid another fierce battle across the hall. The man was rising to his feet, using a spear shaft broken in half as a cane.

Shangshan let out a quiet groan.

“Jin Taekyung.”

He could recognize him at a glance, even from far away.

No. How could he fail to recognize him?

It was Jin Taekyung.

The first person to bring life to the young prince’s dull, unchanging days. The only one who had treated him as someone other than a prince.

Prince Shangshan Zhu Bao clearly remembered the day they had first met.

“Could I become like you?”

After much thought, he had asked Jin Taekyung that question. Jin had answered without hesitation.

“Of course. You can.”

Shangshan had meant it. He wanted to be like Jin Taekyung.

Not simply because Jin was a formidable martial artist. A man once dismissed as his family’s unwanted child had defeated powerful enemies and won everyone’s affection. Shangshan found it astonishing—and enviable.

Though he was a royal more honored than anyone in the world, the young prince had always been lonely. In that young martial artist, he had seen something of himself.

A few days ago, Jin had dared to stroke his hair. Shangshan could still feel the warmth of his hand.

“I hope we meet again. Then I can repay the debt I owe you.”

“Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you know? Friends don’t owe each other anything.”

It had been the first time anyone had called him a friend. The first time anyone had stroked his hair as though he were an ordinary child.

That made him want all the more to keep his promise—to repay what he owed Jin Taekyung and return his kindness.

Jin was his one and only friend.

“Please, please save him.”

Shangshan did not know what was happening or what lay behind it. Still, he bowed his head and fell to his knees without hesitation.

Before his only blood relative.

He pleaded with the ruler of the continent, who could move several Supreme Peak masters with a single word.

“I will do anything you ask of me. If you order your younger brother to leave the Great Nation, I will obey. But please, do not refuse the first and last request this brother of yours will ever make.”

“…!”

“Save him. Save Jin Taekyung, Your Majesty!”

As the Emperor watched Shangshan prostrate himself and cry out, an indescribable emotion crossed his face.

Relief. Pride. Perhaps even sorrow. Amid that swirl of feelings was something he could not bring himself to say.

Not ‘Your Majesty’… Wouldn’t you call me ‘older brother’?

His lips parted, but no words came out. Nor did he nod at Shangshan’s plea.

No—he could not.

Everything that happened on this battlefield today had been entrusted to one person more than a decade ago.

No matter how I think about it, I can’t understand why you’re doing nothing, even in a situation like this.

So Gyo answered the Emperor’s quiet Sound Transmission in her ear.

I’m not standing by. I’m watching.

Her gaze remained fixed on Jin Taekyung, unwavering as it had been from the start.

Until he shows his true self.