Chapter 229
Chapter 229
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 64
>Chapter Title: Desire (1)
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Mok Kyung-un wrapped his arm around the neck of Paeng Imun, a close aide to Lady Seo, the Imperial Consort.
“Gurk!”
He then tried to twist his neck right then and there.
At that moment, Lady Seo, who had been at a loss in the chaos, screamed in a voice bordering on a shriek.
“Stop!”
Mok Kyung-un, who had been about to snap his neck without hesitation, barely halted at the last second.
“Ahhh... Lord Paeng.”
At that time, Jang So-gam of the Eastern Depot, who had crashed into the wall from Mok Kyung-un’s strike, staggered forward, unable to hide his dazed expression.
He had dramatically prevented Paeng Imun from losing his life, but no one knew better than he what this outburst implied.
‘How could this happen...’
Lady Seo showing weakness first.
This meant they had no choice but to be dragged into the board the bastard wanted.
Sure enough, Lady Seo opened her mouth toward Mok Kyung-un, her eyes brimming with tears.
“This consort... this consort admits defeat. So please, stop.”
‘!!!!!’
Her words caused the warriors to murmur in shock.
For Lady Seo—the mother of the crown prince and one of the four who wielded the real power in this land—to admit defeat to a mere martial artist was unthinkable.
In the end, those with deep loyalty could not just stand by.
“Your Ladyship!”
“You mustn’t!”
“Please take back your words!”
They tried to dissuade the weakened lady.
How could she yield to such a rogue?
They could never accept it.
Some warriors, calling out “Your Ladyship” as if weeping, launched themselves at Mok Kyung-un without orders.
“How dare you threaten Her Ladyship!”
“Die!”
At that instant, two people blocked the path of the charging warriors.
They were Seop Chun, leader of the Heaven and Earth Society’s Third Escort Unit, and Mong Mu-yak, the son of the deputy leader.
-Clang clang clang clang!
“Wh-what?”
“My sword?”
Seop Chun shattered or sent flying the weapons of the three charging warriors in an instant with his qi-infused hand blade.
Mong Mu-yak effortlessly dodged the swords of two others with his superior lightness skill, then struck their acupoints, rendering them immobile.
-Papapak!
No matter how skilled they were, they were only at the first-rate level.
There was no way they could handle these two, who had reached the transcendent realm and were hailed as the pinnacle among the Heaven and Earth Society’s younger generation, bearing the title of the Five Tigers.
Seop Chun raised his voice to the warriors whose weapons he had broken, issuing a stern warning laced with murderous intent.
“If you target my lord again, next time it won’t be your weapons—I’ll take your heads!”
“Damn it!”
Overwhelmed by Seop Chun’s aura, they flinched and unwittingly stepped back.
Thanks to this, the watching warriors realized the truth.
Not only Mok Kyung-un, but every one of the younger experts sent by the Heaven and Earth Society was an overwhelming master they couldn’t match.
‘No. The warriors are losing their will to fight.’
Jang So-gam, who had been circulating his qi to recover his energy, grew anxious.
Even if he and Paeng Imun couldn’t match the bastard, the situation would change once the Paeng family experts and soldiers arrived.
To give up like this...
‘...Wait. What?’
Jang So-gam furrowed his brow and looked toward the outside of the rear garden.
Something felt off.
Paeng Imun had whistled the signal quite a while ago, so why hadn’t reinforcements arrived yet?
It would make sense if they were far, but they were just waiting outside the manor.
Yet it was taking too long.
‘No way?’
Jang So-gam looked toward the Heaven and Earth Society side with trembling eyes.
Meanwhile, as her trembling had somewhat subsided, Lady Seo scolded the warriors.
“All of you, stop! No one move until this consort gives the order!”
Having rebuked them, Lady Seo said to Mok Kyung-un.
“What just happened came from their loyalty. So understand.”
Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly in response.
“I’m not so lacking in understanding.”
-Tight!
Biting her lip hard, she suppressed her surging emotions, her limbs trembling with rage, then spoke again.
“I will grant everything you demanded. So let’s end this here.”
“Y-Your Ladyship! You mustn’t!”
At her words, someone protested in fury.
It was Paeng Imun, his neck still gripped in Mok Kyung-un’s arm.
Even on the brink of death, he couldn’t just watch this unfold.
“Your Ladyship! The Paeng family and Justice Alliance will protect you from this vile Heaven and Earth Society no matter what! You must never yield to their demands...”
-Crunch!
“Gah!”
Before he could finish.
Paeng Imun’s neck snapped backward with a final scream, his body going limp.
Anyone could see his breath had stopped.
‘!!!!!!’
In an instant, the rear garden fell silent.
Everyone had thought that since Lady Seo had admitted defeat and submitted first, no more deaths would occur.
Yet Paeng Imun—her left arm, so to speak—had met such an absurd end.
It was shock incarnate.
‘No?’
‘Why provoke her by killing Lady Seo’s aide?’
Even the Heaven and Earth Society side, who could be considered allies, reacted the same.
It was a bit extreme, but since Lady Seo’s side had submitted first, they thought no more sacrifices were needed.
They couldn’t fathom why he was escalating things further.
At that moment, Lady Seo, stunned speechless by Paeng Imun’s death and opening and closing her mouth, screamed with veins bulging in her neck.
“You bastard, how dare you!”
“It’s not ‘dare’ at all.”
“What?”
-Tight!
In that instant, Lady Seo’s eyes widened madly.
The reason was the sight unfolding before her.
-Grind! Crunch!
The sound of bones crushing and flesh tearing assaulted her ears, while her vision filled with Paeng Imun’s dead head being ripped from his body.
The brutality of the scene erased all the rage that had gripped her.
‘This... this madman...’
-Crunch! Squish!
Mok Kyung-un tossed Paeng Imun’s head, now fully severed from the body, onto the table in front of Lady Seo’s pavilion.
-Thud! Roll roll!
‘!!!!!!!’
“Kyaaaaah!”
The court ladies beside Lady Seo screamed at the horror.
Amid the shrieking, trembling court ladies, Lady Seo staggered as if about to collapse.
Her mind had already shattered at the sight of Paeng Imun’s head rolling on the table.
“Ughhhh.”
“Your Ladyship!”
-Swish!
The eunuch Yu Bong, standing right in front of the pavilion, hurriedly leaped forward to support her as she fell.
With a pained expression, Yu Bong kicked Paeng Imun’s head off the table into the nearby pond.
‘Lord Paeng. Forgive me.’
-Splash!
Paeng Imun’s head sank into the pond like that.
The eyes of all who watched filled with horror alongside shock.
They had been filled with anger when Paeng Imun died, but now fear and intimidation left them bewildered.
‘He’s insane.’
Even though he was already dead, to rip off his head.
The savagery left them speechless.
In the midst of it, Mok Kyung-un licked the blood from the back of his hand, then curled his lips in a sinister grin.
The sight sent chills down everyone’s spines.
His smile while tasting blood was like that of a true demon.
-Step step!
At that time, Mok Kyung-un took a step forward.
His direction was toward Lady Seo’s pavilion.
Lady Seo, her mind growing hazy from the shock, saw this and cried out in revulsion.
“Bl-block him! Block him!”
There were four warriors near the pavilion.
Yet not one moved at Lady Seo’s command.
Already gripped by fear and terror, they couldn’t control their trembling bodies.
But not everyone was like that.
“Don’t touch Her Ladyship!”
-Swish!
Jang So-gam of the Eastern Depot, having somewhat recovered his energy through qi circulation, launched himself to block Mok Kyung-un.
However, Seop Chun intercepted him.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“Out of my way!”
-Papapapak!
The two exchanged about two exchanges’ worth of blows in an instant right there.
Originally, in a proper match, Jang So-gam held the edge in internal energy, but thanks to the injury from Mok Kyung-un, their clash was evenly matched.
‘Damn it. To be held up by this brat.’
Jang So-gam’s impatience caused his movements to falter, preventing him from breaking through.
At that,
-Push!
Lady Seo shoved away the eunuch Yu Bong who was supporting her and shouted.
“Block him! I said block him!”
Pushed forward by her outburst, Yu Bong inwardly panicked.
He had already lost in one exchange against Mok Kyung-un before, and he had seen with his own eyes that even superior experts like Paeng Imun and Jang So-gam couldn’t match him.
So how was he supposed to block him?
‘Damn.’
Yu Bong’s eyes trembled wildly as he looked at the approaching Mok Kyung-un.
Just half a shichen ago, everything had seemed to be going perfectly.
How could it all crumble like this?
-Step step!
Mok Kyung-un came right up to him.
Yu Bong repeated inwardly.
‘I have to block him. I have to block him.’
Even knowing the outcome, since Lady Seo had ordered it, he had to obey.
Yet his limbs wouldn’t listen.
The moment his eyes met Mok Kyung-un’s, intimidation gripped him, and he unwittingly bowed his head.
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un passed him by as if he were nothing.
It was utter humiliation.
Yet Yu Bong felt a momentary relief, followed by wretchedness at his own reaction.
-Step!
Mok Kyung-un stopped about three paces from Lady Seo.
-Tremble tremble!
With Mok Kyung-un finally standing before her, her legs gave out, and she seemed about to collapse.
Up close, her beauty was extraordinary, but it didn’t register.
Only the blood staining Mok Kyung-un’s hands caught her eye.
“Urp.”
Nausea welled up.
Tears threatened to spill, but she barely held them back.
To her, Mok Kyung-un said.
“A full belly dilutes the memories and feelings of hunger.”
“...What are you talking about?”
“Of course, I suppose that could be true. Humans are simpler than they think and forget such memories easily.”
“...”
“So I merely reminded Your Ladyship of those missing emotions through an appropriate example.”
No sooner had he finished than Mok Kyung-un reached out toward her.
“Eek!”
Lady Seo flinched and squeezed her eyes shut without thinking.
Was he going to harm even her?
-Swish!
But Mok Kyung-un gently brushed her disheveled hair aside and spoke in a soft voice.
“Your Ladyship. Do you now know what those missing emotions are?”
“...”
At Mok Kyung-un’s question, she flinched, then cautiously opened her eyes a sliver.
When she did, her vision filled with Mok Kyung-un’s face, brimming with malice.
Seeing it, she couldn’t contain her trembling.
She had felt the emotions in the eyes of countless people gazing at her.
But this was the first time like this.
How could a human be filled with such pure malice?
Just looking at it terrified her.
“Sp-spare me...”
Unable to overcome the fear, a plea finally escaped her lips.
To her, Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly.
“Fear, desperation, earnestness... Good. It seems those deficiencies have now been filled.”
‘!?’
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, she realized.
The death of her aide Paeng Imun, the brutality of ripping off his head.
All of it was to remind her arrogant imperial self of the emotion called fear and etch it in.
‘For... just that reason...’
But realizing it changed nothing.
This imprinted fear wouldn’t easily fade.
To escape this bondage, there were only two ways.
Kill the man who had etched this emotion into her, or die herself.
‘But how could I kill this man?’
In that instant, something flashed in her mind.
[Your Ladyship! The Paeng family and Justice Alliance will protect you from this vile Heaven and Earth Society no matter what!]
It was what Paeng Imun had said before dying.
Right.
Paeng Imun was of the Northern Paeng family and affiliated with the Justice Alliance.
The Justice Alliance, formed by righteous martial artists of the orthodox sects, was known to be at odds with the vile Heaven and Earth Society.
If they learned of Paeng Imun’s death, they would never let it slide.
-Tight!
She gritted her teeth.
Just endure a little longer.
Bear this moment’s fear and humiliation, and surely vengeance...
-Bang!
At that moment, the closed door of the rear garden shattered from some impact and fell forward.
All eyes turned there instantly.
‘Could it be?’
Had the long-awaited Paeng family experts and soldiers finally arrived?
But Jang So-gam of the Eastern Depot, looking toward the garden gate, wore a grim expression.
And for good reason—there was hardly any presence.
If hundreds of soldiers and Paeng family experts had arrived, numerous presences should have been felt, but something was wrong.
Then, someone emerged through the fallen door.
It was none other than,
“Lord Paeng the Younger!”
Paeng Seok-im, Paeng Imun’s younger brother and an expert of the Northern Paeng family.
At his appearance, the warriors brightened, thinking reinforcements had come.
But something was off.
Paeng Seok-im’s clothes were stained red, and in his hand was a sword engraved with a strange, unfamiliar pattern, soaked in blood.
-Drip drip!
Had there been a Heaven and Earth Society ambush outside?
How else could he appear alone like this?
As they puzzled, Paeng Seok-im scanned the surroundings with frenzied eyes, then spotted Lady Seo in the pavilion and curled his lips in a sinister grin.
At this, Jang So-gam shouted.
“Lord Paeng the Younger! What in the world happened outsi—”
“Shut your mouth, you eunuch bastard.”
‘!?’
Jang So-gam’s expression hardened at his shout.
He had just asked what happened outside, only to be cursed at out of nowhere.
As he reeled in confusion, Paeng Seok-im spat an unexpected remark toward Lady Seo in the pavilion.
“Heh heh heh. Your Ladyship. Are you ready to spend tonight in this man’s arms and scream in ecstasy?”
‘!!!!!!’