The City Lord is Fucked
He was fucked. Properly fucked, by the looks of it.
Normally, masters of the Johwa (Creation) Realm never left traces of themselves. Even that fat pig of a dictator just north of my old homeland, South Korea, traveled with a private toilet built into his vehicle just to hide his health status. When knowing a master's physical condition could sway the fate of an entire race, both the Johwa Realm masters themselves and their subordinates kept their mouths shut. It was common sense. Just think about it: what if a rogue Johwa Realm cultivator with a grudge against a certain race raided their territory the moment their own Johwa Realm ancestor stepped out? More than half of that race's future would be uprooted in a single day. In fact, there was a famous legend about a Johwa Realm master who returned home only to find his entire clan's territory reduced to ashes, driving him into a mad rampage. For such a transcendent being to break their silence and act so boldly... meant they had absolute certainty. Certainty that they could slaughter the major factions of the Night Goblins without any fear of consequences.
"What do we do now?" I asked, keeping a close eye on Kang Baek-jin's reaction. If he looked like he had no answers, I was going to bolt immediately. The power of the Johwa Realm, as Ryeo-ah had casually described it, sounded like something straight out of a ridiculous fairy tale. Even if we couldn't detect him right now, he might have already spotted us with his transcendent perception.
"Judging by how the dust has settled and everything is still, he must have swept through here at least two days ago..." Kang Baek-jin murmured, calmly scanning our surroundings before closing his eyes.
Even though it was a two-day-old trail, the overwhelming pressure still lingered thick in the air. The sight of the massive sinkhole—where the alliance headquarters and every living soul inside had been cleanly scooped out in a perfect square—left everyone speechless. This wasn't an enemy we could defeat with clever schemes or by pooling our strength. If we had to use our brains, we should be thinking about how to run, not how to fight. It was much better for our health.
Kang Baek-jin stared blankly down at the crater that used to be the alliance headquarters and muttered, "If that human Johwa Realm senior acted on a whim or had a specific purpose, the heads of the three major factions might still be alive. Though I don't know if you can call being kept barely breathing in the clutches of an old monster 'alive.'"
"What about Yagwi City?" I asked.
"At the Johwa Realm, one can easily invade the minds and souls of captives to extract their memories. The faction leaders must have suspected the City Lord wasn't in his right mind and had been quietly gathering information. By now, that old monster has likely confirmed it. He knows for a fact that the City Lord is incapacitated."
Because the alliance headquarters had been hastily built for the war, it was located far from Yagwi City. But there was no telling how short that distance was to a Johwa Realm cultivator. For all we knew, he might already be at the gates of Yagwi City, trading blows with the dying City Lord.
Ryeo-ah diagnosed the situation like an experienced physician. Deceased. The brilliant doctor named Ryeo-ah had just pronounced the Night Goblins dead.
Leaving Kang Baek-jin to his thoughts, I calmly assessed my options.
Can I escape right now? Do I have the strength to survive on the run?
More than enough. Now that I had reached the Igeuk Realm, the world was no longer a harsh, unforgiving wilderness. If anything, it would greet my power with a polite smile. As long as I didn't run into a rogue Johwa Realm master and kept a low profile, almost nothing in this world could kill me. Even if I encountered another Samgeuk master, we would likely exchange polite nods and go our separate ways. Once people reached the Samgeuk Realm, they rarely risked their lives over trivial matters.
What about my women?
They would follow me. They might have some attachment to Yagwi City, but none of them would die for it. They were all highly capable, and with me leading them, our group alone could easily overwhelm any mid-sized sect.
The only issue was Sehyeon. Given her protective nature over her cultists, she would probably abandon me if I left them behind to rot in Yagwi City. We had spent plenty of time rolling around in bed, building up a deep physical and emotional bond, and I was confident I had never neglected her. But a seed of doubt still lingered. What if she insisted on going back to Yagwi City to save her people?
And then there was one more face that came to mind.
My mother.
Though we weren't blood-related, she had treated me far better than my biological father ever did. She was weak, so a powerhouse of the Johwa Realm wouldn't actively seek her out to kill her, but she could easily be erased from the world by the mere aftershocks of their battle. With her naturally fragile constitution, she wouldn't survive long on her own.
I racked my brain, but despite all my agonizing, my cynical mind and heart were both screaming at me to just run.
Why did it feel like the stronger I got, the more I realized how powerless I truly was? The more I clawed and shoved power down my throat, the thirstier I became. Was I just insatiable? Or was this a primal instinct engraved into the soul of every living creature—the desperate urge to become something greater?
There was a strange weight to the words Ryeo-ah occasionally tossed out. As my cultivation rose, the true nature of that weight was slowly becoming clearer, but unfortunately, that wasn't the advice I needed right now.
Well, if you're happy, I'm happy.
Yeah, yeah, whatever. My head hurts, so can you just get to the point?
And what if that old Johwa Realm monster pops out and says peekaboo when we get there?
How do you know?
I figured as much, but your power and memories must have returned quite a bit, huh? I don't even know when or how you did it.
"But that is hardly important right now," Ryeo-ah laughed softly.
I had expected this ever since I heard Ryeo-ah was the one who reduced the City Lord to a dying wreck. Even if she was just a fragment of her former self, she was far too vast an existence for me to comprehend. A fleeting suspicion crossed my mind that she might have intentionally guided me to reach the peak of my mental strength last, but for now, I kept that doubt buried deep.
Just then, Kang Baek-jin seemed to have made his decision. He turned to face me.
"I am the Patriarch," he said.
"Who doesn't know that?"
"The moment a Patriarch abandons his clan, it is over. Therefore, I must return to Yagwi City."
"Do you have a plan?"
"I do."
I thought he wouldn't have one, but look at him go.
"There is an ancient teleportation array managed by Yagwi City. While we cannot take every single member of the clan, there is an array that can transport us across the continent to Oryong Island."
Hmm. So there was something on Oryong Island?
Unaware that Ryeo-ah and I had already made up our minds, Kang Baek-jin spoke to me in a cautious tone.
"That teleportation array is guarded by two masters at the peak of the Samgeuk Realm—the City Lord's personal confidants. I cannot face them alone, so I ask for your assistance. In return, I will give you anything you desire."
If a sexy female patriarch had just said those words, it would have been perfect. Lamenting the fact that he was just a hairy middle-aged man, I opened my mouth to respond.
"P-Please, Senior, spare me..."
On a quiet plain where there shouldn't have been a single hill, a mountain had suddenly appeared. It was an unnatural mountain of earth, its sedimentary layers and tree roots completely exposed as if a massive square chunk of land had been cleanly sliced out of the ground.
At the very peak of this bizarre mound lay the shattered ruins of massive buildings, oozing spiritual energy and blood. Seated in meditation amidst the wreckage was a single figure.
"Argh! Aaaargh!"
The old man looked exactly like a Daoist immortal. He had long, flowing white hair that was neatly kept, a cascading beard that reached down to his navel, and simple, elegant robes adorned only with a single painted crane. Though his features were entirely human, one couldn't help but feel a deep sense of reverence and awe just by looking at his benevolent face.
Yet, his actions were anything but dignified.
"Aaaargh!"
Dokkaebi were planted all around him. Buried up to their necks like seeds in the soil around the collapsed buildings, only their heads poked out of the ground. Some of them had already had their skulls cleanly sliced open, as if by a master surgeon's scalpel.
The brains and spinal fluid that should have filled those skulls were, of course, entirely missing. The pitch-black emptiness inside their desiccated heads proved that their deaths had been far more gruesome than a simple extraction.
Thud.
With that, another hollow, eyeless head slumped forward, its contents completely scooped out.
"You miserable piece of shit!" screamed a red-faced Dokkaebi buried in the dirt.
Perhaps his bravado came from the trail of headless corpses stretching out behind the old man. Knowing there was no chance of survival, even the proudest warriors lost their minds to pure spite, regardless of race or cultivation realm.
"If the City Lord finds out about this, he will tear you, your family, and your entire sect apart from mouth to crotch and turn you into dried jerky! He will rip open your old belly, pull out your intestines, and eat them spoon by spoon!"
The old man's expression remained perfectly serene. He listened to the horrific threats as if he were reading a passage from a children's book. Rather than showing contempt, he simply smiled like a reader amused by a highly unrealistic work of fiction.
And then...
With a neatly manicured, blunt fingernail, he casually sliced across the red Dokkaebi's skull. From just above the ear, he drew a perfectly straight line, as if opening a tin can.
"Aaaargh!"
The old man grabbed the Dokkaebi's horn.
Thud. Another hollowed-out head slumped forward.
Finally, the old man turned his gaze toward the last two heads planted in the dirt, which had been spared like delicacies saved for the end of a meal.
"Pah."
"..."
"...I have lived long enough to have few regrets, but you are quite unfortunate, Wave Gate Master."
"Fuck. Just when my life was finally starting to look up."
A massive palm descended over the two heads planted like radishes. Even if their bodies had been fully intact, the sheer, inescapable pressure made it clear that evasion was utterly impossible.
The two faction leaders looked at each other, sighed, and closed their eyes.
"Patriarch Kang. Right now, the City Lord..."
"Give me a moment. Not yet."
"The City Lord has summoned you, Patriarch Kang."
"Now?"
"Yes. Right this instant."
Three masters of the Samgeuk Realm—the City Lord's personal guardians—stood right before the gates of the Kang Family estate.
Perhaps it was because the alliance stronghold had been wiped out along with several Samgeuk elders, but even Kang Baek-jin felt the heavy pressure of these three guardians. Under normal circumstances, he would have adopted the haughty attitude of a major faction leader, but now...
"This is a matter of grave importance to the Kang Family. While the City Lord is indeed great, he promised never to interfere excessively in the internal affairs of the three major factions. I trust in his honor."
But the three guardians had clearly come with a purpose.
"I have made myself clear, Patriarch. The City Lord has summoned you. His will is the will of the entire Night Goblin race."
"If you dare to defy his will..."
"...we will have no choice but to deem you a rebel against the City Lord."
Motherfucker. What the hell is the City Lord doing?
We were currently locked in a tense standoff with the three guardians right in front of the teleportation array. Even at this very moment, that old human monster, whose location remained unknown, might be drawing closer to Yagwi City.
"Ha-yoon."
"Yeah? Did you get your people?"
"I know you went out of your way to grant my unreasonable request. Both I and my cultists are deeply grateful."
Having rolled around in bed with me so many times, Sehyeon's attitude and tone had softened considerably. Behind her, a large crowd of Heavenly Demon Cultists stood lined up like refugees. This was the deal I had negotiated with Kang Baek-jin beforehand. Knowing that I had pushed hard for her sake, she held my hand tightly, looking anxious.
"So, um... once this war and calamity pass, the other women and I... well, we were hoping we could discuss marriage, or perhaps having a child..."
It was right at that moment. Some tactless motherfucker decided to interrupt this crucial conversation.
My sensory perception, honed to the peak of the Samgeuk Realm, detected a massive presence prowling outside the city walls like a tiger.
Man, that old bastard sure is impatient.