Chapter 413: North Sea Ice Palace (3)

Everyone onboard the ship thought that the situation had been resolved amicably.

Although the commander suffered the humiliation of cutting his hand off, it was far better than confronting the Lord of the Demonic Cult, Chun Yeowun.

But,

Clash! Roll!

Everyone was shocked to see Commander Kang Soah’s head rolling on the floor.

Who would have imagined that he would meet his end like that?

Even though Kang Soah is the second son of Yi Mok, the head of the Forces of Justice, with whom they had an alliance, there wasn’t an ounce of hesitation.

“Kang Soah!”

“Commander!”

Everyone on the ship cried out.

Their cries held both shock and resentment at the death of their commander and the leader of the Black Shadow force.

Jegal Sohi, the strategist of Yulin, shouted at Chun Yeowun with red eyes.

“Lo, Lord Chun! Isn’t this too much!?”

“Too much?”

“Commander Kang said he was guilty and cut off his own hand. Besides, apart from that, isn’t your cult and the Forces of Justice allies, isn’t this excessive action on your part?”

Jegal Sohi wouldn’t have acted like that if it was some other day.

However, when her fiancée Yeon Buso had returned half-dead, and now that she witnessed the death of Kang Soah, it ended up triggering her anger.

Pat!

At that time, Hwang Bo-neung, who had fallen through the ship because of the dent, came up.

Looking at the bloodstains on his face and mouth, it seemed like he barely had the energy to come back up, as he had a hard time stopping the energy which had invaded his flesh.

“H-how could you do this!”

Hwang Bo-neung was shocked to see Kang Soah’s severed head lying on the ground.

He never thought that Chun Yeowun would kill him.

Thud!

“How dare you kill our leader!”

“I cannot forgive you!”

The members of the Black Shadow force, who had been staring at the head of Kang Soah in despair, couldn’t hold back their anger anymore and ran ahead with their weapons in hand.

The situation had taken a turn for the worse, and there was no point in holding back with Kang Soah dead.

Shhh!

Two warriors of the Black Shadow force simultaneously ran for Chun Yeowun.

The tactic of their strife, which was out of anger, wasn’t common.

“I will kill you!”

However, they couldn’t even reach Chun Yeowun.

Slas!

“No?”

At some point, an unidentified monster with a mask that held a unique pattern appeared in a black robe and blocked their attack.

As if blocking them wasn’t enough, he threw them to the other side of the ship.

Thud!

“Ouch!”

“Ack!”

Plop!

After being hit in their chests for the second time, the two of them got thrown out of the ship and fell into the cold lake.

Moyong Kang of the Moyong family yelled with a stiff face.

“The Dark King!”

The man in the unidentified mask was Marakim, the Great Guardian of the Demonic Cult.

Of course, there was no way that Marakim would let Chun Yeowun go anywhere alone.

“Haa… Haa…”

Harsh breathing sounds came from behind the mask.

Although he was a Supreme Master, he seemed pretty tired as it wasn’t an easy task to cross the vast lake.

[Haaa… Lord.]

“Hmp. Hmp.”

Chun Yeowun coughed at the soft telepathy message from Marakim.

He felt bad.

He left a message saying that he would come back once he resolved something and then left them behind.

The others had no choice but to stay still as it was impossible for them to follow Chun Yeowun.

Even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to follow Chun Yeowun’s speed.

‘Did he also run on this wide lake? Haha… the current Demonic Cult is full of bloody monsters.’

Everyone was shocked.

The eyes of everyone on the ship filled with tension. Even the infamous Dark King appeared as if Chun Yeowun wasn’t hard enough for them to deal with. They couldn’t see a favorable solution.

While everyone was hesitating, Chun Yeowun opened his mouth and pointed to the head of Kang Soah.

“I am making this clear. This incident happened because of this person. But, if you think that losing your colleague is so unfair, come at me.”

It was a calm voice filled with arrogance.

And that was enough for them to understand.

Chun Yeowun was strong enough to annihilate everyone on the ship.

Moyong Kang clenched his fists hard enough that they were bleeding and spoke.

“Lord Chun! Do you think that the alliance between the Forces of Justice and the Demonic Cult isn’t important? When forming an alliance, your sense of right and wrong needs to be left behind!”

It wasn’t Chun Yeowun who responded to that.

Marakim, who calmed his breath to some extent, spoke as he pulled out his sword from his waist.

Srrrng!

“I think that is something that our cult is supposed to ask. Did you really value the alliance, when asking the barbarians to attack us?”

“Th-that…”

It was like being stabbed in the throat.

He forgot it in his moment of anger, but the culprit was none other than Kang Soah.

They could have stopped it, but they stood aside and neglected the issue.

‘The Demon God and the Dark King…’

The pressure from the tip of Marakim’s sword made them feel even more nervous.

If things went any further, the result would be everyone aboard dying.

‘Ah… from the beginning, they weren’t blindly hurting us.’

Jegal Sohi, who failed to control her anger until a moment ago, sighed.

They had to accept what was done.

To put it bluntly, it was the only solution to rectifying the mistakes done if they supported the Demonic Cult’s words.

‘Is this what a person without power feels like?’

Up until now, the Yulin had the leading position in Wulin.

Not just in the Imperial family, but the entire Wulin respected them.

Although they had constant battles with the Demonic Cult, they were never pushed back. However, with the new Lord of the Demonic Cult, their position took a complete change.

‘Is there no one who can stop Lord Chun? Ahh…’

It was upsetting, but that was the reality.

Perhaps the enemy they really needed to worry about wasn’t the Blade God Six Martial clan but the Demonic Cult.

[Leader Moyong…]

‘Jegal…’

Moyong Kang closed his eyes when he saw Jegal Sohi shake her head.

After Kang Soah, who had been appointed as the commander, died, all authority directly went to Moyong Kang, who had the highest position.

Whoops!

Moyong Kang killed the resentment inside him and spoke.

“… this contingent has no intention of confronting Lord Chun. And… you have been paid. Please, for the sake of our alliance, I hope this ends here.”

Everyone waited for Chun Yeowun’s answer with tense faces.

As Moyong Kang said, Chun Yeowun had to be the one to end this fight, and luckily he nodded with affirmation.

“Phew.”

Although it was humiliating, they were all relieved.

The presence of Chun Yeowun, who is the Demon God, made them all turn nervous.

‘Is that a relief?’

Chun Yeowun laughed as he looked at the response of the Yulin’s contingents.

Right now, they were all thinking that the situation had been solved with the sacrifice of Kang Soah. However, they didn’t know that the Great Hung clan was going to chase them to death.

‘I don’t have to tell them.’

It was something they had to face.

Without Kang Soah, the contingent would have to deal with the wrath of Asara, the War Chief who lost both his arms.

[Let’s go. Great Guardian.]

‘!?’

Marakim’s pupils shook as he heard Chun Yeowun’s message.

The direction he was headed wasn’t towards the Six Swords, who were on a ship behind them.

[Now that we have come this far, it’s better to go to the island first.]

[… yes!]

It was obvious, but Marakim reluctantly replied as he just barely managed to catch his breath, but the thought of crossing the lake once again seemed hard to him.

Shh!

First, Chun Yeowun left, and then Marakim too disappeared from the ship.

Shortly after leaving the ship, the people of Yulin looked at them and waited until they completely disappeared.

While everyone was doing that, someone lifted Kang Soah’s head with both hands.

He closed the eyes of Kang Soah, which were open, and silently opened his mouth.

The man had a smirk on his face, which no one noticed.

‘My leader. Your noble sacrifice for the heavens will be remembered forever.’

A shocking truth had been revealed.

The hidden identity of Kang Soah, the second son of the Forces of Justice’s Great Leader Yi Mok, and leader of the Black Shadow force, was one of the leaders of the Forces of Great Heaven.

As he was silent, Jegal Sohi brought in the flag of the Black Shadow force and helped them retrieve the body.

“Lieutenant Mak. It must be difficult, but the mission isn’t over yet, so please lead the Black Shadow force on behalf of leader Kang.”

“… I understand.”

A middle-aged man with droopy eyes and half-white hair accepted the role; he was Mak Wijong, the lieutenant of the Black Shadow force.

Above the watchtower on the southwest pier of the island, Dan Jucheon, the deputy king of the palace, stared intently at the other side of the lake and suddenly spoke to Seol Young-gwi.

“Elder Seol. I guess we will have to go down right away.”

“Why so sudden?”

At those words, Dan Jucheon pointed his finger.

Seol Young-gwi looked at where he pointed and saw something he hadn’t seen before.

It was on the side which could be seen from the pier.

And as if they were running on flat ground, someone was approaching the island.

“Is-is he really doing that?”

Seol Young-gwi couldn’t contain his shock.

When he heard Dan Jucheon speak about that, he couldn’t believe it, but now that he saw it with his own eyes, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

“What?”

However, they had never seen any person who performed such an arduous feat.

A bit behind, but there was another person who was keeping a stable pace.

“Ugh, not just one person… Who the hell are those people?”

Dan Jucheon, one of the best among the warriors of the North, saw two people do something he could barely achieve.

“I think we should go meet them.”

“Understood!”

Their exact identity was unknown, but they had to meet them to know.

It was clear that they had come from the Demonic Cult.

When they hurried down and arrived at the wharf, around a hundred people were waiting in advance, all from the North Sea Ice Palace.

“You have come? Deputy King of the palace!”

They were all soldiers of the palace, the Snow Sword Troops, one of the five battle troops of the North Sea Ice Palace.

The Snow Sword Troops leader, Baek Gojung, was about to report to the deputy king that the ship of Yulin hadn’t arrived yet when the surroundings became noisy.

“There, look over there!”

“Oh my gosh! They are running on the lake!”

“Wa-wait! Did they come all the way here like that?”

‘What kind of nonsense are you talking about! Even if you are exhausted, your eyes should be working fine!’

The Leader of the Snow Sword Troops, Baek Gojung, looked towards the lake while mumbling.

And he finally said.

“Th-that is?”

Shockingly, two people were approaching them by running on the lake.

It was unbelievable.

They were crossing the lake, which was usually crossed by ships, on foot.

“That’s not possible.”

Everyone was shocked, and the two people who were running on the lake stepped onto the dockside and approached them.

Woong!

The docks turned noisy.

Who were the two people who arrived earlier than the Forces of Justice of Yulin?

The first one Dan Jucheon looked at was the man in the mask.

‘A mask with a unique pattern.’

He heard about it from somewhere.

When he went to Jianghu to research the most famous people who could be a threat to the North Sea Ice Palace.

There was one who was mentioned.

“The Dark King?”

There was only one person in the Demonic Cult who would wear a mask.

The man was known to rule death on the battlefield.

Marakim, the Great Guardian of the Demonic Cult.

‘Is he really the Dark King? Does that mean that the Demonic Cult really sent a contingent?’

He guessed that it was the Demonic Cult based on the black flag and the red characters written on it but seeing Marakim. His guess turned into a correct answer.

This meant that prince Baekhyun really succeeded in requesting their support.

‘Wait!… The Great Guardian only moved beside the Lord of the Demonic Cult, then that means?’

The young man standing next to him.

The Lord of the Demonic Cult is supposed to be Chun Yujong, a man in his fifties, but the person next to Marakim seemed too young.

The young man moved a little closer and greeted him.

“Chun Yeowun, the Lord of the Sky Demon Order.”

‘Wah!’

All the people that heard him couldn’t hide their shock.

Unlike others, the people of the North Sea knew nothing about them.

Woong! Woong!

‘Aren’t we hearing something wrong?’

‘The Lord of the Demonic Cult?’

‘The De-demonic Cult, has come here?’

The dock turned even more chaotic.

Of course, though shocked, Dan Jucheon tried to hide his expression.

He tried to protect his dignity as the person representing the North Sea Ice Palace, yet he couldn’t stop his trembling eyes.

‘Unbelievable…’

The prediction he made on the watchtower.

It turned out half wrong and half right.

It wasn’t Chun Yujong, the Lord of the Demonic Cult, that Dan Jucheon knew who had come to the North Sea Ice Palace.

“Uh, why, why is the Lord of Sky Demon Order here?”

Seol Young-gwi was surprised and stuttered until Chun Yeowun smiled at him and spoke.

“We have received a request to dispatch warriors from the prince of your palace.”