King of Twin Blades, Ah Gong.
He is one of the top ten warriors on the side of the Factions of Justice, and his skills have already earned him that name.
He could be compared to the level of the Four Great Warriors. Excluding them, the top ten were the next in line of well known people.
Among them, Ah Gong was someone who was ranked around top five, but he couldn’t believe this.
‘… Just how did this happen?’
The head of the masked man fell to the ground. He was the one who directly competed with him.
He was sure this dead man was skilled. With his level he too could be in the top ten warriors.
It was amazing how the imperial palace could have even one such person with them.
‘Shit…’
Just one hit, and such a masked man had his neck turned to the side. He couldn’t believe what he had seen.
How absurd did it have to be for him to open his mouth in disbelief?
‘… Monster.’
This wasn’t an existence which could be measured in their rankings. If he could kill the man in the mask with one hit, it seems that he also would be unable to handle him.
Drip!
Aware of this, cold sweat dropped down Ah Gong’s back, and he gulped.
“W-who are you, master?”
In the current Murim, monsters of this level were comparable to the Four Great Warriors.
No, there was one.
But it felt unreasonable that he could be here. Realistically, it should be impossible for that kid who defeated two of the Four Great Warriors to be here.
Considering that, maybe this person is…
“Woahh!!!!”
—came the cheers right then. It was the enlisted soldiers and warriors who were in a do or die battle who cheered.
“The enemy leader is dead!”
“Drive out the remnants!”
Their morale rose as the opponent’s leader was defeated too easily, and they gained confidence to be able to do anything with this man on their side.
On the other hand, the enemy troops felt demoralized by the death of their leader.
“W-who is that monster?”
“To kill the vice commander with one hit!”
“This is too much. How can we even continue this mission?”
“How do we kill the True King if our vice commander couldn’t go against that man?”
“We need to retreat.”
The sound of retreat came from everywhere. And it happened too. They gave up with a signal to retreat.
Beep!
The masked people who had lost their leaders were confused by the sound of horns going around and stopped the fight.
There had been around 300 masked people. To be exact though, now there were only 247 left.
They had been trained properly and knew how to deal with many different situations. In this situation though, they had but one choice.
To scatter.
Papapak!
Many used light footwork right then.
‘They shouldn’t run.’
Mumu, who had always judged that it is better to kill than regret it later, tried to stop them, but then someone called him,
“Master Yu!”
It was Hong Na-yeon’s father, Hong Myung-in.
As if he still couldn’t believe all this, he approached Mumu and bowed.
“Master Yu. I don’t know how to repay this debt. Thank you so much for helping us.”
In response, Mumu too bowed his head. And then he tried to catch those who were fleeing.
“You don’t have to go and catch those who are retreating.”
“…”
“If it is to know who sent them, it is quite clear and although they said they were targeting my daughter, it must have been ordered by the ones a lot higher up than them so have mercy.”
At those words, Mumu was puzzled.
The notion was strange to Mumu, to show mercy to those who had previously tried to kill him.
Even his father said that enemies who were seeking the lives of others should be dealt with. But this man wanted to leave them alive.
He seemed to be someone who knew how to be tolerant unlike the things he had heard about the imperial family before.
“Right, Master Yu. As Father said, if we let them live, it might be beneficial to us in the long run,”
Hong Na-yeon told him as she approached, which resulted in him tilting his head.
“The ones behind them need to know that we have dealt with the leaders. Mercy is mercy, but only then will they know that there is a warrior on our side powerful enough that they cannot carelessly do whatever they want.”
At that, the True King smiled as he looked at his daughter who clearly understood his intentions.
The True King judged that letting them go would be a politically better situation for them compared to killing them all.
‘Rather do not be rash.’
Exaggerate the prestige to frighten others.
In this strategy, one should boost the feats achieved by their side as if something unexpected had been successfully done. The fact that the assassins the enemy had sent only had their leaders killed would surely raise questions.
This will lead them into thinking that there might still be a trump card of some sort.
“Hmm.”
Mumu nodded, saying he understood.
Of course, this was because he was asked not to speak, but Mumu’s attitude would be taken as arrogant.
‘… No matter how strong he is, this is the True King who rules Sichuan.’
Ah Gong clicked his tongue. However, the reason why he didn’t speak out was because he knew starting anything with Mumu wouldn’t do anything good.
Rather than that, he was more curious about Mumu’s identity.
So he approached and talked to him.
“Hm. I would like to express my gratitude to you. The people of Murim call me Ah Gong, King of Dual Blades.”
“King of Dual Blades? Ah Gong, the warrior?”
Hong Na-yeon was the one who reacted all surprised as she was someone who was knowledgeable about the various warriors.
At her reaction, Ah Gong scratched his nose with a smile.
“Haha, this is a true honor. It feels amazing to hear that the princess knows about this small man.”
“This man here has a strong relationship with me, so treat him well.”
“Yes, Father.”
Ah Gong turned to Mumu, but Mumu didn’t seem to have a change in expression. No rather, if it was his actual face, people would have felt nice, but with this stern face on—
“Ahem.”
Even though he initiated the introduction, Ah Gong didn’t receive any response back, which made him a bit embarrassed.
Hong Na-yeon knew the reason and felt bad for him, so she hurriedly changed the topic.
“Master Yu. Shouldn’t we inform the escorts of our location?”
At that, Mumu nodded.
Even if it wasn’t so, the True King was attacked, so they ran over, telling them.
‘I will be back, please wait here,’
Mumu told them.
Kwang! Woong!
Everyone’s eyes went wide once again upon seeing him soar into the sky.
He wondered how the two managed to appear here, but now that he saw Mumu charge back into the sky, he felt shocked.
‘Void Movement… this man… is so different.’
Ah Gong looked at Mumu who vanished, realizing this man definitely wasn’t human.
In response, he asked Hong Na-yeon,
“Princess, is that Master Yu really from the academy?”
The True King also agreed with the sentiment.
“Even I cannot believe such a man is just a regular master of the academy.”
It was too much for them to believe. At that level, it felt like even the headmaster of the academy couldn’t hold a candle to him.
Ah Gong then asked,
“By any chance… one of the Four Great Warriors?”
Ah Gong thought that if it was one of them, then this all made sense, and the True King was shocked at the question.
“Aren’t they known to be the highest point of the warriors?”
“Yes, your Highness. I think it has to be them, princess?”
When they both looked at her, Hong Na-yeon felt troubled.
She wanted to keep quiet about Mumu’s identity, but this was escalating in a whole different direction. In the end she thought speaking the truth would be better.
“I was going to stay silent not wanting things to get out of control, but only the two of you can know this. And you have to keep this a secret.”
“Yes, princess.”
“I will do that.”
As they agreed she said,
“Actually, it is because he is wearing a human skin mask, and he is not a master of academy.”
“Then, princess, he is…”
“No, not of the Four Great Warriors.”
“Then?”
Ah Gong frowned.
It wasn’t a master of the academy nor the Four Great Warriors…
“A new student in the academy.”
“Student?”
The True King was shocked at these words, but on the other hand, Ah Gong’s eyes trembled.
“No… Master Yu is the monster who defeated the East River Blade Star and Poison Air of the West…”
“Yes. He is called Mumu.”
‘!!!!’
Mumu landed on the ground.
He felt something odd as he landed on the ground, and he saw something.
Amidst the horror which happened, the bodies of the escorts were scattered all over.
What happened between the time he went to help the True King and came back?
Step
Mumu approached the dead.
Until a little while ago, they seemed like they could safely walk back to the capital, and he could clearly remember them thanking him too.
‘Uncles…’
None of them were alive and he could barely hold back his anger.
Their deaths were shocking to him, but the person he was looking for was his older brother.
Mumu looked around.
‘Not here.’
Among the dead, there was one he couldn’t see, one person not there apart from his brother.
‘Kang Mui!’
Clench!
Mumu’s fists clenched so hard that his veins bulged up.
Dadada!
There was a group of ten riding on horses in the direction to the capital. All of them had yellow masks and looked very suspicious.
Among the masked men, two of them had an extra person riding on their backs.
One was Yu Jin-sung, who was wounded, unconscious, and covered in blood while the other without a single wound was Kang Mui, still with restraints on his wrists and ankles.
“Hehe.”
The yellow masked man carrying Kang Mui smiled.
He was Yong Jeon.
He was a descendant to the Wicked Spear Clan of the Eight Evil Families.
Originally, his purpose was to kidnap Yu Jin-sung alone, but he found Kang Mui.
“Young lord you are so lucky that I managed to discover you.”
“Phew.”
Kang Mui sighed at his words and the man just smiled.
“Don’t worry. Could that person really kill his own brother?”
Kang Mui stayed silent at it and said,
“Do you know what you people just did?”
“The person who caught you has a lot of bravery.”
“Well, you have no idea what I am talking about.”
“I know you are afraid because of him, but stop with these acts. If now, then the blood…”
“You think I am talking about him?”
“What?”
Young Jeon frowned as Kang Mui said,
“Because you are of the Eight Evil Families I will warn you. If you want to live even now, I advise you to put me and that royal inspector down and run away with all your might.”
‘!?’