The Birth of Regret (8)
**CHAPTER TITLE: The Shadow of the Empire and the Bloodline's Fall**
Commander Kwak Il-guk twitched his eyebrows.
“Do you know me?”
“I know you, of course. I am Seo Eun-hyun, the inexorable warrior. Please treat me with respect.”
I bowed deeply and respectfully. He looked visibly startled.
“This is strange. I don’t know anyone like you. Not in the martial world, and certainly not in the Intelligence Bureau.”
“Hahaha, of course not. In this life, I’ve never once shown myself in the martial world.”
His eyes narrowed with suspicion at my words.
At the same time, a red line shot toward my throat.
But with my purple resolve, I read every single move and shattered his fist entirely, countering with a will-synthesis strike.
He threw everything into our clash. I called out to the disciples behind me.
“Look. This is the real power of the Shadow Guard. Is there even one among you who could stand in one-on-one combat with me?”
“…Indeed.”
A tense silence fell over the disciples’ faces.
They had already heard me compare them endlessly to the Shadow Guard during every exercise, so the name was burned deep into their minds.
In front of us, the commander kept losing ground in our clash, sweat pouring down his face. I held my sword casually and continued speaking.
“If every single Shadow Guard fighter faced you one-on-one, you would be wiped out. All of them have reached the peak of the peak realm and master the qi threads with complete freedom. Even those who can’t handle qi threads are more dangerous because they rely on poison or far more sinister arts. As for the Imperial Guard, they’re all on the same level as the Shadow Guard. The only difference is that the Imperial Guard was trained to protect the emperor while the Shadow Guard was trained to kill those who would assassinate him.”
I pointed at the Imperial Guard standing like iron walls beneath the pagoda.
“You will face the Imperial Guard. Each one is stronger than you, but with the Moon Flowing Illusion and your saber arts pushing through, you can break through. Besides, the martial skills you’ve learned are defensive, so you’ll be safer.”
“All of you, go and tear through the Imperial Guard, kill the emperor, and claim your will!”
“YES!!!!!”
The disciples answered in unison, voices ringing with ferocious determination.
I looked at the commander locked in our clash, the entire Shadow Guard hidden in the pagoda’s shadows, and said,
“I’ll handle the Shadow Guard myself.”
The disciples leaped over me and charged toward the pagoda.
The Imperial Guard formed a tight formation and began weaving protective spells from the center where the emperor stood.
I kept firing will-synthesis attacks at the entire Shadow Guard.
“…Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. And… a late-stage Three Flowers Gathering master…”
The commander struggled to speak.
“Impressive. You even knew it was late-stage. So you’ve entered the realm of caution?”
He stood right on the border between peak peak and peak late.
Probably a faint glimpse of the third color.
“A genius like you, who reached such a realm at your age… why side with the rebels?! The Yeon Kingdom is enjoying a golden age right now…!”
He gripped the situation tightly, sweat dripping.
I let out a cold laugh.
“A golden age… For the average commoner who lives a quiet life, yes, there is nothing better. But you should already know this… The Makri clan of the Yeon Kingdom rules the imperial house, and their sword cultivators are scheming in the shadows and carrying out all sorts of dirty deeds…”
“…I know that. But you formed an alliance with the former imperial house’s Jin clan. They’re the same, right? They’re sword cultivators too, and they look at us insects…”
“I see them as nothing but tools.”
I acknowledged it calmly.
“You’re right, Commander. No one understands that fact as painfully as I do.”
The thoughts I had heard from him in my past life.
I now understood him completely.
The Jin clan wasn’t much different either.
Only…
“I consider a tool far better than a livestock that can be slaughtered at any moment.”
The Makri clan should not sit on the imperial throne any longer.
The lesser of two evils.
Nothing more.
“Of course, our views won’t converge. Come at me.”
I left a small opening in our will-synthesis clash.
The Shadow Guard, realizing it was a trap, gritted their teeth and charged.
“Don’t underestimate the Shadow Guard’s strength!”
His will crashed toward me, and at the same moment a Shadow Guard member with a straight sword struck at my ankle.
A member behind me covered me with a double-fist strike.
They were clearly formidable opponents.
I remembered facing them in the past and slaughtering even late-stage Three Flowers Gathering masters.
Normally such a realm would be manageable for the Shadow Guard.
But I had reached the late stage of Three Flowers Gathering.
Whoosh!
I had already mastered the Moon Flowing Illusion.
I sliced through their perceptions in an instant and slipped out of their formation.
Clang.
In the chaos I slowly sheathed my sword.
No matter how I met them, they were the comrades of my past life.
Though the people before me now were completely different.
Still, it was hard for me to kill them emotionally.
‘I won’t kill you.’
In an instant my sword pierced their vital points.
I scattered the deadly poison and subdued them all, then stepped before the commander and swung my blade down.
“Kugh…”
Boom!
Our wills clashed and qi exploded.
The moment I saw the Shadow Guard fall, despair filled the commander’s eyes.
“You have no emotions. I only wish to fulfill my duty.”
Clang, clang!
I pressed him while gripping my sheathed sword and said calmly.
“So I won’t kill you.”
“Kuh… Uwaaaaa!”
His will surged even faster.
I faced his will directly and slowly matched every move.
We exchanged will like a mirror image—except for the weapons and subtle martial arts!
He realized I was toying with him and his face flushed red.
But then.
His will changed.
The will that had failed to follow my trajectory began to intertwine with mine.
It merged.
His eyes, already burning with hatred, gradually filled with confusion.
It was guiding me.
Ting!
Our blades met.
At the same time, righteous light entered his eyes.
He had entered the third color.
“This is…”
He murmured in a dazed state, completely forgetting the battle.
Kwaaakwaakwa!
An enormous shockwave and explosion spread out.
His will-synthesis shattered under the vast qi.
Finally my sheathed sword dug straight into his will-synthesis and slammed into his throat.
“Kuhk!”
My single strike, finely controlled, dropped him where he stood unconscious.
‘Since he reached the third color, when he wakes he’ll enter Three Flowers Gathering.’
Because time had passed, he wasn’t my same person.
But it was the greatest courtesy I could give to the master who had once taken me in.
I left the unconscious commander and gazed at the epicenter of the explosion.
A whirlwind!
A massive tornado lifted an entire palace into the air and ground it to rubble.
From the pagoda, the Imperial Guard shouted in panic.
“The Crown Prince’s location! Kuuugh!”
‘That spot must be the Dragon Sanctum. The emperor fled here and the prince was there too. Did Makri Jeong use his son as bait? No…’
I frowned.
‘That tornado’s power isn’t Makri Hyeon’s spell.’
At the center of the tornado, a dark figure appeared.
An overwhelming presence.
I immediately knew the size of the consciousness domain of the person in the exact center.
‘It’s the Founding Emperor of the Yeon Kingdom. The sword cultivator who reached Foundation Establishment…’
Makri Hwang-shin!
And someone was moving around the edge of the tornado.
Kim Young-hoon.
‘That’s…’
Kim Young-hoon gripped something in one hand.
With heightened awareness, I saw it was someone’s spiritual core.
‘It has to be Crown Prince Makri Hyeon’s spiritual core.’
Makri Jeong had hidden with the Shadow Guard, the Imperial Guard, and Makri clan members inside the nearby palace.
I had thought he used his son as bait.
But it had been a misunderstanding.
‘He didn’t bring his son to the Dragon Sanctum as bait. He actually placed the strongest possible guard there.’
Yet the scene was like this.
From the beginning, the comprehension Kim Young-hoon had reached in the Moon Flowing Illusion was the martial art that specialized in escape and ambush, born from the Moon Palace Illusion.
Makri Hwang-shin would only have known Kim Young-hoon was approaching when he was about to steal the spiritual core.
Kuo-oooo!
Countless wind balls and storms flew at Kim Young-hoon from the tornado.
One wind ball completely destroyed a floor of the palace.
The power of a monstrous Foundation Establishment sword cultivator!
But…
Kwang! Kwang, kwang!
Nine Gang Rings rose behind Kim Young-hoon and slammed into the sword cultivator.
Boom!
Accompanied by a deafening explosion, the Gang Ring pierced part of the tornado and brought down the entire palace.
The sky above the two fighters was collapsing.
“Kuhk, what the hell! That monster! The Jin clan, you filthy bastards! You broke the pact and secretly brought in a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator!”
The Makri sword cultivators exploded in rage and formed a blood oath.
The Jin clan sword cultivators only sneered and gave no reply.
But the emperor Makri Jeong, weaving spells at the center of the pagoda, burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha! What are you all worried about? Our ancestor has achieved a breakthrough in his recent training and reached the rank of Well! The Core Formation stage is right in front of us, yet you think a single unknown sword cultivator can beat us?!”
The Jin clan sword cultivators’ faces darkened.
“He already reached that stage!”
“Foundation Establishment Grand Completion…”
“Whether he can hold out or not.”
But unlike the others, I calmly ascended the pagoda.
‘Forget the Moon Flowing Illusion. When Kim Young-hoon created it, he had already killed a late-stage Foundation Establishment sword cultivator and cut off one hand of a Core Formation cultivator.’
There was no way he would lose.
Inside the pagoda, space-distorting spells had been applied, making the interior dozens of times larger than it appeared from outside.
At the center, the emperor was forming blood oaths and casting spells behind the Imperial Guards, who were desperately blocking the disciples’ formation.
But the gap in saber arts was overwhelming, and the disciples were using the Moon Flowing Illusion!
They could never win!
“I’ll end this quickly.”
I pulled out my Sword Gang and was about to enter the formation when—
Kwaaakwaakwa!
Another explosion rang out and the entire roof of the pagoda was torn off.
‘What now?’
I panicked at the sudden emergency.
Swoosh!
A spray of blood flew from the sky and fell.
The Imperial Guard and disciples had no idea what was happening, but the sword cultivators and I were frozen in shock.
The spiritual core inside the blood spray!
An overwhelming consciousness domain!
It was the Foundation Establishment sword cultivator who had been fighting Kim Young-hoon moments ago.
The spiritual core of his primordial spirit!
In such a short time, Kim Young-hoon had killed the Foundation Establishment Grand Completion Makri Hwang-shin!
The spiritual core embedded in the blood spray shot toward Makri Jeong, who was staring blankly.
Alarm appeared on the emperor’s face.
“Ancestor… No, please! Ancestor! S-save me!”
“…!”
“Uwaaaaa! Ancestor! Please, please!”
Thud!
Makri Jeong screamed in terror, but the blood spray ignored him and fell onto his face.
“Kuaaaaaah!”
His wails echoed for a while.
Then—
“…!”
I shouted with all my strength.
“Everyone! Retreat!”
Fortunately the disciples instinctively retreated.
But the Imperial Guard, who had been protecting Makri Jeong, could not escape the monstrous power that had possessed the emperor.
Swoosh!
“Kraaaah!”
“Kuaaa…”
The life force and essence blood of the Imperial Guard were sucked into the body of Makri Jeong… no, into the body of Makri Hwang-shin who had taken over his form.
Who-ooooong—
A vast consciousness filled the entire pagoda.
‘Danger!’
Makri Hwang-shin reached out.
His hand pointed at me, the strongest person present.
It was then.
A flash exploded from outside the pagoda.
Kwaaaang!
Makri Hwang-shin, who had been gathering power to strike me, urgently reached out and unfolded a defensive spell.
A gale blew up, the defensive spell he had cast shattered like glass, and half the pagoda with its space spell tore away.
I saw Kim Young-hoon slowly approaching.
“Hyung Kim…!”
My face turned pale.
Kim Young-hoon was bleeding from every part of his body, his waist flesh torn into chunks.
Cough, cough!
It seemed his organs were also injured, and every step he took he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
‘Kim Young-hoon did not kill Makri Hwang-shin without taking damage!’
Makri Hwang-shin had also taken a heavy toll on him even as his body dissolved.
“Kuhk! Ugh…”
Then Kim Young-hoon, trying to gather another Gang Ring, lost consciousness and collapsed where he stood, his wounds too severe.
‘This is the worst!’
“Hmm…”
I shivered.
Makri Hwang-shin, breathing heavily, said,
“Fortunately your power barely held out. A monster. You almost died.”
Thud, thud!
He kicked the corpses of the Imperial Guards lying around him and clicked his tongue.
“Filthy descendants of trash. To have to steal the body of such a worthless offspring. On top of that, his cultivation dropped to only Qi Condensation 4th layer… Hmph…”
He looked up at the sky.
At the same moment, the Makri sword cultivators who had been fighting the Jin sword cultivators suddenly looked panicked and started flying away on their flying techniques.
“You filthy bastards! The family elders are watching and you run away so arrogantly! After this battle ends, I’ll melt every last drop of your blood!”
Swoosh swoosh!
The consciousness of the monstrous Foundation Establishment Grand Completion sword cultivator soared into the sky.
Makri Hwang-shin’s consciousness took the shape of a hand and reached out toward the fleeing Qi Condensation 1st layer sword cultivators.
When he formed the blood oath, a faint light appeared in the hand of consciousness and physical power was born, pulling the low-level cultivators closer.
“P-please save me!”
“P-please! I-I am an ancestor’s collateral…”
“I have never had a descendant of trash who is nothing but an insect.”
He reached out toward the Qi Condensation 1st layer sword cultivators and their life force, essence blood, and spells were all sucked into Makri Hwang-shin.
Gulp—
He swallowed the descendants turned into blood water.
His power leaped from the Foundation Establishment Grand Completion to the very end of Qi Condensation 5th layer.
Qi Condensation 5th layer power.
But the one wielding it was a sword cultivator who had reached the extreme of Foundation Establishment!
Hiss, hiss…
Normally he could have rushed forward and severed their necks in one strike, but I sensed my instincts screaming in panic.
‘It’s not just Qi Condensation 5th layer. If it combines with the spirit pattern of a sword cultivator who reached the extreme of Foundation Establishment…’
He looked me in the eye.
The feeling of bugs crawling all over my body.
Makri Hwang-shin smiled wickedly.
“Even as an insect, your eyes are good. Are you gauging my true power? Tell me honestly. The power I can exert right now is…”
Kuuugugugu!
A windstorm began to rage around Makri Hwang-shin.
The wind was nothing like Makri Hyeon’s.
“Qi Condensation 13th layer.”
I clenched my teeth.
“Disciples! All of you, listen!”
I had to stall for time.
“Feed Kim Young-hoon every recovery pill you brought! Do everything you can to make him regain consciousness!”
I grabbed my saber.
“I’ll create time!”
Danak Sword Art.
The 23rd Stance.
‘Somehow… I’ll hold on!’
Mountain Beyond Mountain is Endless!