So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?
Chapter 457 : Karma (2)Around the same time the Supreme Eunuch found himself surrounded by a group of martial arts masters—
"Damn it."
The Central Military Commander cursed under his breath as he fought off the martial artists surrounding him.
He had to find an opening to escape.
He refused to die in a miserable place like this.
But no matter where he looked, he was met with an impenetrable wall of hostile forces.
“Glo~ry! Glory! O’ Divine Cult!!”
The fanatics had formed a siege formation and were belting out this bizarre chant as if the war was already won.
And they were singing their hearts out to cheer on the experts who'd stepped inside the encirclement to fight the enemy's leaders. They genuinely believed that their singing would actually provide a morale boost to their leaders.
With the fanatical chanting of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult ringing from every direction, he felt like he was being besieged by walls of demons.
It was unknown whether this actually provided any tangible help to the elite masters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's alliance, but it was certainly working quite well on the Central Military Commander.
That endless hymn was making him more and more anxious by the second.
Just then, a chilling sensation crept up from behind him.
He spun around and swung his saber, only to clash against the left palm of a woman thrusting straight at him.
Clang!!
She had a breathtakingly beautiful face that reminded him of a celestial maiden. And it was a woman the Central Military Commander knew very well.
"You are the Left Guardian's wench."
Immediately after recognizing her, a plot flashed through the Central Military Commander's mind.
‘That's it. If I can take this bitch hostage, I might have a chance to escape.’
She was the shadow who followed the Demonic Cult's Left Guardian everywhere he went. He didn't know the exact nature of their relationship, but a man didn't keep a woman that breathtakingly beautiful by his side at every moment unless they were deeply involved.
"Hah!!"
The Central Military Commander boldly swung his saber at Jin Hayeon.
His saber art was simple and brutal, a signature trait commonly found in military martial arts.
It came flying at her vital points in a relentless barrage.
It was a calculated move to disguise his real goal of taking her hostage.
The more blatantly he went for her vitals, the more she would be forced into a defensive position.
‘That's when I'll make my true move.’
But against all of the commander's expectations, Jin Hayeon weathered his relentless assault without so much as a flicker of expression.
She dodged the strike aimed at her throat with the smallest twist of her upper body. She fought with indifference that couldn’t care less whether a scar was left on her doll-like face or not.
When he brought the saber down to cleave her torso in half, she caught the blade squarely with her bare hands. With the Yin Qi still swirling in her hand, she injected the chilling Yin Qi directly through his saber in an attempt to freeze his internal organs.
For a brief moment, they were locked in a brief contest of internal energy.
A chill shot through the Central Military Commander, and he twisted his upper body aside on instinct.
Swosh!
An arrow shot past with a sharp whistle and grazed his cheekbone. Had his reaction been even slightly slower, that arrow would have pierced his skull.
He'd barely scraped through that one, but the crisis was far from over. In the instant his focus broke from dodging the arrow, Jin Hayeon's Yin Qi surged up through his saber and into his hand.
"Ugh."
Faced with a coldness that threatened to freeze his whole body, the Central Military Commander dragged up whatever internal energy he had left and swung his saber once again at Jin Hayeon.
However, Jin Hayeon easily avoided the strike simply by taking a single step back.
Slash!
Before he knew it, a red-haired woman had somehow slipped behind and swung her claws at him.
The Central Military Commander's armor was shredded apart like wet tissue paper, and a fountain of blood sprayed from his ribs.
Fortunately, it wasn't deep enough for his guts to spill out. The armor had bought him just enough time to avoid a fatal blow.
He wanted to kill the red-haired woman who'd dared cut him, but he never got the chance. The terrifying frost-wielding woman took that brief moment of lapse to rain a barrage of palm strikes down upon him.
"How dare you mere playthings of a worthless bastard stand against me!!"
Clang!
The Central Military Commander spat curse after venomous curse as if drawing strength from them, but his saber arts couldn't easily break through Jin Hayeon's defense.
"The Left Guardian is not an insect like you."
While Jin Hayeon held his attention from the front, the red-haired woman slipped past his defense once again and carved a deep gash into his forearm.
Slash.
"I can tolerate you calling me a plaything. But I will not tolerate you placing the Left Guardian on the same level as the likes of you."
The ruthless four-on-one assault continued for a long time. With every passing second, more and more injuries accumulated across the Central Military Commander's body.
When his movements started to dull under the weight of the piled wounds, Jin Hayeon seized the opening and drove her right hand straight into his chest.
Crunch.
Her fingernails easily pierced his armor and clawed all the way through his ribcage to completely crush his beating heart.
Strangely, when Jin Hayeon ripped her hand out, not a single drop of blood sprayed from his heart.
It had already frozen solid from the Yin Qi.
Thud.
Without sparing a single glance at the Central Military Commander’s corpse, Jin Hayeon turned to survey the battlefield.
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang was in the middle of a fight against the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, while Ouyang Pae was taking on the Vice Commander.
Beyond them, Wi Jin-hak and five other masters had formed a tight encirclement around the Supreme Eunuch to ensure he wouldn’t survive this battle.
Watching Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang's neck-and-neck battle, Jin Hayeon spoke.
"Hyeokryeon Seon-ah, go help your grandfather."
At her instruction, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah answered flatly. "My grandfather enjoys fighting strong opponents. If I step in, it'll only annoy him."
A faint smile almost slipped onto Jin Hayeon's lips.
She could see right through Seon-ah's inner thought.
In the past, Jin Hayeon had struggled with the same insecurities.
‘It's not really about her grandfather's temperament. She just wants to fight the Supreme Eunuch.’
She probably wanted to prove her worth this time, especially since she hadn't been much help in the battle against the Divine Monk.
Just then, a thunderous crash erupted from where the Supreme Eunuch was fighting.
She turned quickly and saw him looking as ragged as the Beggar King himself.
"IL-MOK!! I WILL DRAG YOU TO HELL WITH ME!!!!"
Jin Hayeon frowned and gave the order. "Change of plans. We are executing the Supreme Eunuch.”
***
As Il-mok watched the Supreme Eunuch, he caught sight of his maids charging toward him.
"Hm?"
Curious, he glanced over and found that the Central Military Commander was already lying face-first in the dirt.
Apparently, they had killed the guy while Il-mok was busy chatting with Zhuge Mun.
"Oh no."
The anxiety that he had finally managed to suppress began to slowly creep back into his chest.
Jin Hayeon was fine on her own, but the other three joining that fight was a bit much.
Hyeokryeon Seon-ah and Jeong Hyeon were at a level where a couple more breakthroughs would push them into Transcendence, while Ju Seo-yeon has at the very least managed to break past Extremity.
Viewed through the lens of Central Plains’ martial artists, that would put them at the Supreme Peak Realm, meaning they possessed the skills to proudly call themselves experts.
But against the Supreme Eunuch, they are still nothing.
The gap between a Supreme Peak Realm expert and the Supreme Eunuch is wide enough that even a swarm of them couldn’t hold a candle against the Supreme Eunuch.
‘Guess I'll just have to hope the others keep them safe.’
While Il-mok was thinking that over, Wi Jin-hak stepped in front of the Supreme Eunuch who'd just launched himself straight at Il-mok.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
The Supreme Eunuch has completely lost his mind from fury.
He let a barrage of Force Qi from his flexible sword, which Wi Jin-hak met head-on with his Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
KABOOOM!!
A massive blast rocked the earth, and Wi Jin-hak was shockingly forced to slide two steps backward.
But that was enough for others to step in.
The Beggar King and Taoist Master Cheongmok immediately seized the opening and unleashed their respective ultimate arts.
The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and the Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset Sword unfolded at full capacity.
But with a sweeping arc of his flexible sword, the Supreme Eunuch blasted the two Orthodox masters away.
But that didn’t give him time to breath.
Exploiting the momentary opening, an arrow blitzed through the air and flew directly toward the Supreme Eunuch’s forehead.
Unable to readjust his sword trajectory in time, the Supreme Eunuch demonstrated an astonishing martial feat.
"FUCK OFF!”
He channeled his intent into his roar, and from that roar rose a barrier of Force Qi that functioned like a Force Qi armor.
Ding!
As the arrow lost all momentum and dropped uselessly, Jin Hayeon struck at the barrier.
Crack!
Because it was just an improvised shield, it lacked proper defensive power and cracked immediately.
Like a hyena sensing blood, Hwangbo Ak cloaked his whole body in Force Qi armor and threw a punch that shattered the barrier like glass.
The shield might break easily, but it bought time for the Supreme Eunuch to dodge Hwangbo Ak's follow-up punch.
But unfortunately for him, Wi Jin-hak had rejoined and swung his Heavenly Demon Sword again, and when their swords were locked in an internal energy clash, the rest of the experts unleashed their ultimate arts on him all at once.
The sight of a dizzying array of ultimate arts painting the battlefield was beautiful enough that Il-mok let out a genuine gasp of admiration.
"Whoa."
He'd never noticed it while he was the one fighting, but watching from the sidelines like this made him realize how dazzling martial arts are when you are not on the receiving end.
‘They always say watching a firework and watching a fight are the two most entertaining things in the world.’
Come to think of it, hadn’t he watched the Inner Palace get blown to kingdom come in full appreciation just now?
And now he had front-row seats to a legendary smackdown.
One might think that a whole group ganging up on a single opponent would make for an ugly sight.
‘It’s fucking spectacular. It is common sense that you must gang up on the boss when you raid him.’
Il-mok suddenly felt a sense of regret that this era did not have any cola or popcorn.
The scene reminded him of a certain movie he'd watched in a theater back in his previous life. To be precise, it reminded him of the scene where the united heroes mercilessly gang up on a giant purple villain who could erase half the universe with a single snap of his fingers.
Just then, the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord and Seo Wan-pyeong slipped in through the shadows and swung their swords at the Emperor again.
That was the most scumbag-worthy move that he’d ever seen in his two lives.
‘No wait, they're on our side, so it's a clever move.’
It’s just his Third Brother’s gloomy visage makes one mistake him for a villain when he is actually an ally of justice.
And bad habits sure spread fast.
Realizing they weren't strong enough to fight the Supreme Eunuch directly, his three maids hovering on the outskirts took the hint and began shamelessly circling the Emperor like a pack of vultures.
The three maids didn't even have to risk attacking.
“YOU LOWLY VERMINS!”
Just having the assassins and the maids prowling around the Emperor was more than enough to completely ruin the Supreme Eunuch’s footwork and force him into desperate defensive maneuvers.
Driven mad by his own fury, the Supreme Eunuch shrieked and madly swung his flexible sword in all directions.
"AHHHHH!!"
It’s suffice to say that a madman of his caliber could summon a tidal wave of Force Qi just by going on a rampage.
Seo Wan-pyeong and the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord each stepped in front of Hyeokryeon Seon-ah and Ju Seo-yeon nearby to hold the tide back. Hwangbo Ak weathered it with his Force Qi Armor, while Jin Hayeon, the Beggar King, and Cheongmok each blocked it with their own well-honed techniques.
But amidst the chaotic storm of energy, Il-mok's eyes were entirely fixed on Wi Jin-hak.
More precisely, on the black flame roaring off his sword as if it meant to burn the whole world down.
‘So that's what he was waiting for.’
While the Supreme Eunuch was launching an area of effect attack to drive back every enemy at once, Wi Jin-hak had done the opposite.
He concentrated his will and martial intent until it felt like his brain would melt out of his skull to tear a path straight through the tsunami of Force Qi.
By the time the Supreme Eunuch realized what he had done and was desperately calling back his Qi, it was all too late.
Crunch!
Wi Jin-hak broke through the tidal wave; his Heavenly Demon Sword had already run straight through the Supreme Eunuch's chest.
"Cough..."
Watching the supposedly invincible eunuch violently hack up a lungful of blood, Il-mok subconsciously muttered out loud.
"Is it finally over..."
Hearing the swirling mix of exhaustion and relief in Il-mok's voice, Zhuge Mun just chuckled.
"What are you saying, Left Guardian. This is just the beginning."
Il-mok nodded in understanding.
“It’s the dawn of the new sky.”
Zhuge Mun immediately shook his head. "It seems the lack of combat has given you enough free time to spout sentimental poetry. No, I mean this is the beginning of bureaucratic hell. The Central Plains is a total mess and needs stabilizing, and we still have to hand out rewards based on merit among our accomplished subordinates. On top of that, there's still the northern nomads and the Northern Military Command to deal with, and there is also the matter of what to do with the rebel forces in the south and the east."
Zhuge Mun's mouth kept going on without a break.
"Additionally, while we swept the issue under the rug because of our war with the Han Dynasty, don't forget the intelligence report from the Deputy Master of the Missionary Hall. The Muslims territories to the west have officially been unified under a new imperial banner. The problem of how we will deal with that new empire still remains. Not to mention..."
As he stared blankly at Zhuge Mun's endless yaps, a highly tempting thought crossed Il-mok's mind.
‘If I just cough up some blood and collapse right now, I could probably milk this for at least a month of paid sick leave, right?’
Sigh.
So much for a proper work-life balance.
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