CH 144

[Captain Gu will lead the troops from here and split up. You will secure the princess.]

[You want us to take a group of 40?]

[Yes.]

[But Captain, I heard that there are just ten people on the other side including a royal inspector at most, and they aren’t even fully fledged escorts.]

It seemed that there was no need to mobilize 120 people at all. Yet now he wanted 40 more to be taken.

At the words of Captain Gu, the vice commander shook his head.

[There was information that the princess has a master from the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy with her.]

[From the academy?]

[Yes. If needed there might be a situation where we have to prepare the formation.]

The 108 flying troops circle—

It was a defense formation created by the Arhat Martial Arts of the Shaolin Sect, and it was in the formation of the Big Dipper constellation.

One hundred and eight first rate warriors who are skilled, and actually they even brought in ten better warriors too.

[I understand.]

And they marched out excitedly.

He thought there would be no need to actually use the formation, so they didn’t think of this variable.

‘D-damn it…’

Captain Gu couldn’t hide his shock. The moment the man next to the princess punched, something ridiculous was achieved.

In an instant, most of the troops were wiped out with only traces of blood remaining around them, and people had been blown away from their horses even before they had gotten into formation.

‘Monster… how can such a monster even exist?’

All the members of the troops are known to have gone through hellish training. Among them, there were even people referred to as geniuses and leaders, but this middle-aged man on the opposing side felt to be beyond common sense.

At this level, it looked like this monster could handle even 100 troops on his own. Maybe he could handle even more skilled warriors as well.

“C-Captain how….”

The masked one next to him was shocked at this, he shouted,

“Spread out and retreat!”

As soon as the words came out, all the people scattered in different directions. They also felt it right away.

If this monster began to come after them, then surviving would be impossible.

Spreading out instead of grouping up together would be how they could increase their chances of survival.

Pat!

Captain Gu, who chose to move, bit his lip.

‘We need to inform the vice commander.’

The mission to secure the princess was a failure. No, it couldn’t even be attempted now.

More than that, the monster next to her was extremely dangerous, and he had to get this information back to his higher ups because they decided to move against the True King.

If not—

Crush!

Captain Gu was surprised by the sound of something exploding and glanced to the side to see his men scattered. But he could only see the body visible with the head having exploded.

‘T-this…’

Crush!

—came the sound once again.

Looking at his men, it seemed like they had their heads blown up and died. This only shocked him further.

There, he saw a monstrous man flicking his finger.

Crush!

The head of another member was blown off. Captain Gu went pale at this.

Who was this monster? He was standing in place and flicked his fingers, yet his men were dying one by one.

Thud! Thud!

His heart pounded insanely as three people had already died.

Now there were just two people left including him.

‘I might die.’

He had trained so much! He had been so loyal to the family! Of course, he thought that he would prove himself, but now he wanted to live instead.

So he shouted,

“We surrender!!!!”

Mumu, who still had the human skin mask on, was ready to flick his fingers once again but stopped in response.

“What do we do?”

“Uh?”

Surprised by Mumu’s flicking technique, Hong Na-yeon looked at the opponent who raised both his hands.

‘Then…’

Keeping this opponent alive will leak information about there being someone strong next to her. Mumu then said something unexpected,

“I think they were sent by someone else.”

“Someone else? What do you mean?”

“They are different from those who attacked us earlier at the cliff and river.”

At that, she asked, wondering,

“How do you know that?”

“I killed the old man named Yang Jung-myung who was behind the attack earlier.”

“What?”

Hong Na-yeon’s eyes widened.

Mumu flew out somewhere and came back in an hour, and no enemies had attacked them after that. She did expect him to have done something…

But he did what now?

‘The Minister of Finance is one of the Emperor’s three vassals!’

Hong Na-yeon felt shocked at how bold Mumu had been acting up until this point. To kill a man who held the most power in the capital—

Mumu felt unfazed, and he told her,

“The old man died, but since these people came again, we need to find out who sent them this time.”

Hong Na-yeon felt a little reassured by his words but scared as well. Other people might not know, but actions against Mumu had consequences.

If they were regarded as an enemy, she knew Mumu would kill them, and for her this solidified the fact that Mumu could never be turned into an enemy.

At the same time—

In a hilly region eight kilometers from there there were around 300 masked people surrounding the bushes.

Chang!

“Do not let them push us back!”

“Protect his highness!”

About 50 soldiers in armor were in a circle on the hill, and they fought constantly to protect one person.

The target was a middle-aged man with a mustache, but he didn’t feel like an ordinary man considering he had a set of armor different to those of the military.

The middle-aged man was Hong Myung-in. He was the True King and the one who ruled the Sichuan Province.

He looked nervous upon seeing the masked men who were targeting him.

‘In the end, is this how it will be?’

They moved in a path which was rarely used and had few people to avoid the eyes of others, but this was also a trap laid for them.

No, in fact, he knew this was a trap but couldn’t help it.

‘Na-yeon…’

The True King had no choice but to take this route because he heard of his daughter coming from the academy.

And there was the danger of his daughter being held hostage, so he couldn’t stay back anymore.

He was a father despite being the king of Sichuan.

The middle-aged man with a rough expression and deep scars around his eyes on the side of the True King said,

“Your Highness. We warned you to not leave Elder Do’s side!”

“I am sorry. Ah-hyung. I ended up putting you in danger.”

At these words, the man clicked his tongue and held his blade tightly.

The man was Ah Gong.

In Murim, he was known as the King of Twin Blades and is one of the top ten warriors. He was someone who never worked for anyone, but he came here now.

“If we survive, make sure to pay me double.”

“I will surely do that.”

‘As expected, break the rules and you lose a lot. Tch.’

Ah Gong clicked his tongue at this. Normally he would never accept a request from officials. But the request was granted because of his friendship with the True King.

‘Most of them seem to be first rate warriors.’

Half the men brought in by the True King were skilled warriors Ah Gong brought along. But even they were outnumbered now.

If there were just them, it wouldn’t have been a problem, as skilled people can take out any number of warriors ,

But the problem was—

‘Those ones.’

There was a man with a mask which looked odd, and he looked to be the one who would be the leader of these men. And next to him, there was another person with a white band around their forehead.

If they had enough time, then he would be confident enough to subdue them, but right now with so many on their side, it didn’t seem possible.

He could feel it in the atmosphere.

That person, that opponent was someone who wasn’t too behind them.

‘I cannot take my eyes off them.’

Thanks to that, he couldn’t leave the True King’s side. It was because it was clear that they were aiming to kill the True King, willing to use any means necessary.

Soon the precious balance will break.

It wasn’t just a feeling, but he knew that the man with the odd mask would pounce the moment he saw an opening.

The man seemed more skilled and more cautious than anyone else, waiting for the right time to pounce onto his prey.

‘King of Twin Blades.’

Even if that man was skilled and in the top ten warriors, he wouldn’t be pushed back by much. One important thing was to mentally pressure the opponent.

The position of protecting someone was a position that he had no choice but to take which would turn him impatient as time went on.

And this man, vice commander Ki Nan-hang, aimed specifically for that.

‘Soon… soon it will come.’

The moment when the defense formation collapses, everything will come to an end.

“Vice commander.”

The guy next to him pointed elsewhere, to the right of the defense circle.

‘It is about time.’

The right side was going to collapse. The warriors were desperately trying to keep it from collapsing, but it felt too difficult to hold on.

Puak!

“Kuak!”

The sword pierced the chest of the enemy, and Ah Gong, who noticed the collapse of the right side, spoke to the king,

“Do not be too far behind us, never fall behind.”

“I get it.”

The words were terrifying.

Chak!

Another one of their warriors fell again.

The masked people continued to push through the opening, and the ones waiting for this moment moved in at the same time.

Pat!

Their goal was simple. It was to take advantage of this mess and take down the King of Twin Blades and the True King.

Having jumped over the broken formation, they aimed for the two targets at once. And they were a step away from killing them.

Swish! Kuak!

As they were about to collide, something fell between them.

As this was an unexpected situation, both sides were shocked.

“Phew.”

As it landed, the person between them stood up.

Swish!

White steam was flowing out of the body from the blackened muscles which made the True King’s eyes widen, especially when he looked at the girl in his arms.

“N-Na-yeon!”

“Father!”

The girl was none other than his only daughter, Hong Na-yeon.

Hearing this, the eyes of Ji Nan-hang trembled.

‘Why is the princess here?’