So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?
Chapter 444 : Awe (6)Even a casual glance was enough to tell that the nomadic warriors halting their advance a short distance away numbered easily in the tens of thousands.
The sea of warriors suddenly parted, making way for a single man to step forward.
Even from this far away, the horse he sat on was noticeably larger than the ones the warriors around him rode.
He came a few steps closer toward the fortress, then bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"I am Kuchar, Khan of the Great Merkit!"
His voice rang out like thunder across the plains despite the distance between them.
Noting the man's rather impressive internal energy, Il-mok simply turned his head and asked, "What's he saying?"
Standing beside him, Ohalak answered in a tense voice.
"H-he says he's the Khan of the Merkit, known as the Mierqi to the Han. His name appears to be Kuchar."
As Ohalak finished translating, Kuchar followed up with another roar.
"If you hand over double the grain you promised right now, I will personally turn a blind eye to your transgressions this time!"
Il-mok listened to Ohalak's real-time translation, then snorted and shouted back.
"If you turn around and leave quietly right now, I'll let you keep your lives!"
Il-mok had shouted in the Central Plains tongue, so Khan Kuchar scowled in confusion until a warrior stepped up from behind to whisper the translation into his ear.
A moment later, Kuchar's laughter erupted across the steppe.
"Kahahaha! You must be out of your minds! To think you'd try to face our Great Merkit when you're already fighting the Imperial Family!"
Seeing that the Divine Cult had zero intention of negotiating, Kuchar drew his scimitar and leveled it at the fortress. "Tear down that fortress and take everything worth taking! We're going home with enough plunder to last the winter!"
"RAAAAAH!!"
The moment the order left his lips, the warriors at the head of the Mierqi tribe line surged forward in unison.
"Hyah!!"
Il-mok watched the enemy come charging on horseback and let out a chuckle. "Well, it's certainly been a while since I was treated to a sight like this."
Rumors of Il-mok's World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm had long spread far and wide through the Central Plains, meaning the government forces knew better than to blindly swarm him like a horde of ignorant locusts.
‘Well, if they don't know any better, it's my job to educate them.'
He would teach them the lesson that as long as he was there, no barbarian would ever set foot past this fortress.
Il-mok circulated all three energies seated in his Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantians simultaneously.
Vwooom.
A powerful wave of Qi radiated outward from him, and twin spheres of two distinct colors condensed in each of his hands.
He then brought his palms together, and the two orbs intertwined before merging into a single massive sphere of energy that took on the shape of the Taiji.
His efforts had not been in vain.
The Taiji orb formed faster than it ever had before, and he could barely feel any rebound force pushing back against him.
While Il-mok prepared the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm, the soldiers along the fortress walls had their shields and bows raised and ready for the battle about to begin.
James who had been standing with the command group was no different.
He'd been staring out at the staggering number of enemies with his face tight with tension when a creeping sensation ran across his skin and made him glance sideways.
‘A ball?’
In Il-mok's hands, a semi-transparent orb larger than a human head had formed.
Upon closer inspection, he could see the orb was divided into red and blue, with grey swirling along the boundary between them.
For some reason, James couldn't tear his eyes away from it.
Then Il-mok thrust both hands forward, and the orb drifted through the air toward the advancing enemy forces.
Whether it was because his realm had deepened, the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm flew further than it ever had before without detonating prematurely.
And the moment it reached the heart of the enemy formation, it finally cracked.
A piercing noise like thousands of birds taking flight all at once tore through the air, heralding the destruction to come.
And then the world was swallowed in light.
BOOM!!
The shockwave hit a beat after the flash, and James, who had jerked his head away from the blinding light, had to clap both hands over his ears.
A high-pitched ringing lingered in his ears for a while.
When his vision finally cleared and he turned back to look at where the orb had detonated, he went very still.
"..."
Where there had once been flat plains, a gargantuan crater was now carved into the earth.
The center of the crater, which should have been filled with the nomads' warriors, held nothing more than just ashes. In stark contrast, the outer rim of the crater was a macabre display of gore and hell on earth.
James stared at that horrific display of destruction and swallowed hard.
A terrifying sphere that erased every living thing in its vicinity.
Just what in God's name was he supposed to call something like that?
With his brain practically short-circuiting, James unconsciously blurted out the most creative name he could muster right now.
"H-Heavenly Demon Death Ball?" James muttered out loud, but no one reprimanded him.
Most of the people around him were equally vacant-eyed.
And it wasn't just the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's soldiers.
The blinding flash and the ear-splitting shockwave sent most of the horses the Merkit warriors were riding into a panicked frenzy, and even warriors who hadn't been directly caught in the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm were now crashing into each other and descending into chaos.
"What are you waiting for? Fire the arrows!!"
Prompted by Jong-ri Chu's belated screaming, the defenders finally snapped out of their daze, unleashing a merciless rain of arrows down onto the chaotic mass of barbarian.
***
The sound of a horn echoed from the rear of the Mierqi tribe, and before long, the nomadic warriors began to fall back.
However, the number of those who made it back alive was not very large.
The blood-soaked earth in front of the northern border fortress was now thoroughly blanketed in the scattered corpses of nomadic warriors and their steeds.
And all of this had happened in a mere fifteen minutes.
This devastating loss was precisely why Kuchar had decided to retreat.
They had taken massive losses in an absurdly short amount of time, and pressing the siege any further would only pile on more casualties.
"YEEEEAAAAAH!!"
Cheers of victory erupted from the fortress walls, and the slogan of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult rang out in wave after wave.
Far away, Kuchar gritted his teeth as those shouts and chants drifted over to him.
He couldn't just pack up and leave like this.
Going home without a single victory after losing thousands of warriors would put his position in serious jeopardy. If he lost the authority that came with being the Khan of a great tribe, the various tribes he had subjugated by force would inevitably join hands and rise against him.
But attacking that fortress again was out of the question. It would just be a repeat of the same massacre.
Even the Khan himself couldn't say with any certainty that he'd survive another one of those explosions.
At that moment, the Merkit's generals and the leaders of the various tribes under their banner approached him.
No one stepped forward to speak, but their gazes were silently asking what they should do now.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kuchar gave his answer. "Split the warriors into several units. The border they're defending is wide, and no foot soldier can match the speed of a horse."
Kuchar decided to abandon a frontal assault and fell back on the bread-and-butter tactics of the steppe warriors. He planned to abuse their superior cavalry mobility to bleed and harass the enemy across multiple fronts at once.
'Whatever we do... we absolutely have to avoid that monster.’
Just recalling the devastation of that blast in his mind sent a cold bead of sweat rolling down the Khan’s neck.
Even if his pride wouldn't allow him to admit it out loud, Kuchar was afraid of Il-mok's World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm.
***
While the Mierqi and the nomadic tribes under their banner split into multiple units and spread out to probe the border at various points, word also reached the Forbidden City in Beijing.
"Hehehehe. Now I no longer need to worry about the northern border at all. Someone, go and send an imperial decree to the Northern Military Commander this instant, order him to crush those treacherous rebels!" The Supreme Eunuch issued the command with a satisfied expression.
But two days later, his face was crumpled into a hideous scowl.
—The northern barbarians know absolutely nothing of loyalty or honor. Placing any faith in their treaties is nothing more than a suicidal gamble. They may be attacking the rebels today, but they will surely attack our borders the moment we direct our cavalry at the rebels.
It was because a missive bearing these very words had flown in.
And the one who sent that missive was none other than the Northern Military Commander.
"Impudence! Not only does he dare defy an imperial decree, but this crude man has the gall to lecture the Son of Heaven?!"
The Supreme Eunuch had issued the decree, but the seal was stamped on it in the Emperor's name. Defying it was tantamount to defying the Emperor himself, and that was an undeniable act of treason.
"Fine, have it your way! When this war is over, I'll personally take your head as well, Northern Military Commander."
The Supreme Eunuch assumed that the Northern Military Commander had finally decided to show his true colors.
The problem was that he couldn't move against the Northern Military Commander at this time.
With the Central Plains already engulfed in war, he simply didn't have the hands to spare for a move against the Northern Military Command on top of everything else.
The Southern Military Command had been completely crushed by the rebels.
A portion of the Demonic Cult's forces that had been clashing with the Central Military Command near Shaanxi had marched north to hold back the Merkit, but a significant number of the Demonic Cult's troops stationed in Sichuan had joined up with those in Shaanxi, so the overall situation hadn't shifted much.
On top of all that, the hastily deployed Eastern Military Command was now just beginning to engage a rebel faction that had risen up in Guangdong.
The Guangdong rebels were nowhere near the threat the Demonic Cult posed, so there was little doubt the Eastern Army would deal with them, but the problem was that casualties were mounting far beyond what had been anticipated.
Right then, a eunuch came hurrying toward the Supreme Eunuch's hall with urgent steps.
"U-urgent report!! Wh-while the Eastern Military Command was away, m-martial artists in Zhejiang and Jiangsu have risen in rebellion!!"
The unexpected news made the Supreme Eunuch almost die in anger.
The moment the government forces had vacated those regions, these damn wandering rabble had begun running completely amok.
The one small consolation was that neither Zhejiang nor Jiangsu housed any of the truly major factions such as the Nine Great Sects and One Gang or the Seven Great Families. The remaining government forces in those areas should be able to suppress them one way or another. The only lingering headache was that it would be difficult to conscript new soldiers from those regions for a good while.
Plagued on all sides by mounting problems, the Supreme Eunuch soon set his expression into one of firm resolve and issued an order.
"Summon the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Now."
The eunuch who had delivered the report took off in a hurry.
Before long, the Commander of the Embroidered Guard arrived in rapid strides.
"I greet the Supreme Eunuch."
Yeo Hwi offered a bow, which the Supreme Eunuch dismissed with a brief wave of his hand before speaking. "I will be away for a time. I expect you to guard the Son of Heaven with your life, no matter what it takes."
Caught completely off guard, Yeo Hwi asked cautiously, "Do you intend to deal with the rebels yourself?"
The Supreme Eunuch gave a single nod.
Despite possessing a martial realm that bordered on invincible in the current age, the reason he had stubbornly refused to march to the frontlines until now was quite simple.
He had been afraid that while he was away, the Emperor might be replaced.
The Supreme Eunuch had entered the palace as a eunuch during the reign of Emperor Yuanli, where he had clawed his way up by accumulating endless military merits and honing his martial might.
But following Emperor Yuanli’s passing, the Supreme Eunuch was plunged into an era of despair.
For decades after Emperor Yuanli passed, he was forced to watch a parade of incompetent fools ascend the throne.
After drowning in that nightmare for decades, when Emperor Tianxing had come to power and restored authority to him, the Supreme Eunuch had made a vow.
No matter what it took, he would see the wishes of Emperor Yuanli and Emperor Tianxing fulfilled before he died.
That was why, on the day Emperor Tianxing passed, he had moved decisively and placed the current emperor on the throne. He never wanted to feel that despair again.
And that feeling had not changed even now, with the current emperor already enthroned.
"The Northern Military Commander has defied an imperial decree, so keep a close watch on the Northern Military Command's movements. You must protect the Son of Heaven and the Imperial Seal with your life."
Only after warning his most trustworthy subordinate several times did he take his heavy steps.
As he walked, the Supreme Eunuch turned his head and looked back toward where the Emperor resided.
"Please keep your person safe until the martial artists are wiped out."
With those words, the Supreme Eunuch walked out of the Forbidden City.
That day marked the day when the old serpent of the Forbidden City finally crawled out of his den.
***
TL Note: I know some of you might be confused as to why I switched back and forth between Merkit and Mierqi, but that’s just how the author wrote. In the early days, he literally wrote Merkit in Hangul from the first time the tribe were introduced, but from chapter 433 onward, he uses both Merkit and Mierqi interchangeably.
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