The reason why the Man known as the Mercenary King, was in Cron, was simple. Currently, the Murim within Eria was divided between two completely different factions like always. The Unorthodox and the Orthodox.
Ten years ago, the Sama Order was the representative Unorthodox Coalition, working only in their own domain, but that was not the case for the new representatives : The Blood Alliance.
Starting with the recruitment of the Dark Wizards, the Blood Alliance had continued to move aggressively since its establishment.
It was not yet an all-out war with the Murim Alliance, but the provocation and violence of the Blood Alliance was slowly starting to cross the line.
There would be a war in the near future if things continued to progress as they were .
And war was an opportunity for mercenaries to sweep up money and profits from in between the parties involved. For hundreds of years, Eria had been rather peaceful compared to the turbulence that was going on right now.
In the entirety of the wide world of Eria, there had rarely been a proper war recorded in its history. There is only one continent within Eria and the owners of the land did not dispute with each other.
The Lords of each City did not want to invade other cities or antagonize any unnecessary attention. At the very least, the closest things to wars that occurred were fights that the martial artist factions took part in.
The turf wars between small and medium-sized factions were the places mercenaries thrived in and made money. Other than that, it was monster subjugations.
Previously, the Demonic Emperor, who was known as Sima Ryunju, invaded the Murim Alliance’s headquarters, and destroyed the famous 100 man battle formation, which was known for its unrivaled might, and then further kidnapped the Murim Alliance’s leader, the Black Dragon, like some backwater bandit.
It was a disgrace and humiliation that would never happen again in the history of the Murim Alliance, but even while it was unprecedented and the biggest slap in the face one could receive… the Murim Alliance could not do a single thing about it.
This was because the power of the man known as the Demonic Emperor, Sima Ryunju, was too strong to even imagine.
But somehow, the Demonic Emperor was said to have passed away, and the Sama Order consequently collapsed.
An outstanding martial artist known as the Storm Demon suddenly popped out and rallied the unorthodox martial artists to create the Blood Alliance, but the man known as the Storm Demon had never properly shown his true strength.
But at least in the eyes of the Murim Alliance, the Blood Alliance was untested but easier than facing Sima Ryunju and the Sama Order.
Also, the current leader of the Murim Alliance…… No, it also was essential that the current leader of the Murim Alliance, Mugeol-Gae, was very different from the Black Dragon.
The Black Dragon, Jehu, was a puppet of Beyond the Heavens, and did not try to confront the Sama Order head-on.
But Mugeol-Gae was different. He was a person who hated the Unorthodox Martial Artists, and the reason his feelings of uncomfort had turned into pure hatred was because he had been the subject of Sima Ryunju’s humiliation.
“It would probably be hard to get a favorable reception with our identities as they are.”
Passing through the gates of Cron, Lee Sungmin told the other two with him, just what had transpired here before.
“Ten years ago, with my master Sima Ryunju…… We came to Cron, and I saw him devastatingly smashing the Murim Alliance’s pride in the Heavenly Martyrs 100 man formation. I was with him in person as he did this and was there with him when he kidnapped and beat up the former leader of the Murim Alliance.”
After that, the Murim Alliance side tried to prevent the rumors from spreading somehow, but the rumors and news of their defeat eventually spread because there were just so many people who saw it.
“Then shall I go instead of you?”
asked Baek Sogo, tilting her head. Lee Sungmin thought for a while and shook his head.
“No, let’s go together. If I can’t get a favorable response, I can just apply a bit of force.”
“Do you really need to turn the entire Murim Alliance into your enemy?”
“Depending on the situation. Within the past decade the entire organization of Predator had been the ones behind the reorganization of the Unorthodox Sects and establishment of the Blood Alliance. That doesn’t mean the Murim Alliance might be necessarily a clean organization as well.”
But in their case, Lee Sungmin didn’t need to worry about the Murim Alliance presently. He needed to focus on Do Zun and finding out more information on Beyond the Heavens.
Lee Sungmin was going to meet Do Zun first rather than stop by the Murim Alliance.
This decision was a simple one. It was because if Lee Sungmin stormed the Murim Alliance and a commotion broke out and people learned that the Ghost Spear was in Cron… it was likely that Do Zun would immediately flee upon hearing this.
Just in case, Lee Sungmin and Baek Sogo used skin masks to conceal their facial identities. He wanted to lower the amount of variables as much as possible before meeting Do Zun.
Just as Lee Sungmin was about to give Yana a face mask, Yana’s body changed and shook her head as she didn’t need it.
“Is that magic?”
“It is.”
Standing next to Lee Sungmin, Yana had turned into a human woman with jet-black hair. Her nine orange tails that were behind her back originally also disappeared, and her robes disappeared as she changed into a standard hanbok.(A Hanbok is a traditional kind of attire in Korean culture. Just google hanbok and you should be able to find some images of it if you’re curious.)
Baek Sogo asked, glancing at Lee Sungmin’s long hair that was tied tightly back.
“Are you not going to cut your hair?”
“It’s my first time growing it out this long, so I’m just letting it grow. I’ve never felt particularly uncomfortable about it anyways.”
“But I liked it better when it was short.”
Baek Sogo said with a faint smile. At those words, Lee Sungmin stared at Baek Sogo, blinking his eyes in confusion. Then, slowly, he touched his hair that was tied up in a ponytail.
“Then I’ll cut it next time.”
“It’s not even that bad now, I just preferred your shorter hair.”
While having their light conversation, the party headed towards the inn named Eun-ru. This was because Do Zun, the Mercenary King Dmitry, and the Mercenary Corps led by him were borrowing and renting the entire inn.
Lee Sungmin stood in front of the doors to Eun-ru, a luxury inn within the city of Cron. Expanding his senses, he could feel the presence and numbers of the amount of people inside.
The Mercenary Group led by Dmitry had a total number of 300 people, and most of the Mercenaries within the corp were A-Class or S-Class.
It’s not that there weren’t any B-class mercenaries in the corp, but B-Class Mercenaries were treated closer to slaves and dogs than actual members of the corp.
Their Mercenary Corp was strong enough to level an entire medium-sized Martial Arts Sect.
It wasn’t just that the Corp had a large number of skilled people, it was also the fact that Dmitry was a Transcendent Realm Martial Artist and there were very few of those in the entire world.
“There he is.”
While feeling the overall presences and numbers within the inn, Lee Sungmin was wondering if Do Zun was even inside. Lee Sungmin approached Eun-ru’s doors with a smirk.(T/N : small reminder for those who might have forgotten but the 6 Divinities of Beyond the Heavens had their own names like Dmitry and were titled with their own surname of Zun like An Zun, Guan Zun, Do Zun etc except for Wolhu and the Spear King.)
A loud noise could be heard all the way out on the bottom floor. It seemed that the entire Mercenary Corps had been drinking in broad daylight.
Whether their ranks were low or high, the way all mercenaries sought pleasure was not that different from one another. The only differences between them were the prices between what they bought. Cheap wine, liquor and prostitutes for lower rank mercenaries and expensive wines, liquors and prostitutes for higher rank mercenaries.
Lee Sungmin slowly opened the door of Eun-ru. Then, he walked in without any further hesitation.
He could see a spacious garden and large mansions beyond the reception area. The mercenaries in the garden glanced at Lee Sungmin, but soon continued to drink without paying much attention.
He thought there was no need to be wary. Lee Sungmin and Baek Sogo had completely mastered their own internal energy outputs, so their level would not be detectable to any of the mercenaries present.
It was the same with Yana. She could control her strength just as well as they could.
They passed through the garden where the drinking party was taking place without garnering any attention.
Where they headed was towards an annex that was more colorful than the main building that Lee Sungmin stopped after passing by the private suites in the garden.
There were traces of a slightly stronger presence within the annex. Besides that, there looked to be signs of others in the vicinity.
They were presences of stronger people than the mercenaries Lee Sungmin had passed by in the garden; most likely the executives of the Mercenary Corp along with Dimtry.
“That smell.”
Yana grinned and murmured.
“I don’t think we’re going to see such a pleasant sight.”
Lee Sungmin also agreed as he smelled the thick scent of perfume in the air. But he couldn’t delay this much longer.
Without raising a fuss, Lee Sungmin jumped to the top floor of the annex. As he opened the closed window and went inside, His gaze wandered and then locked with another set of eyes that were looking up at him.
Dmitry, who was flirting with two naked women, widened his eyes when he saw Lee Sungmin suddenly appear from the window as an intruder.
“What… Hey!?”
Dmitry jumped to his feet. His large body filled with scarred muscles writhed like a worm.
Baek Sogo coughed and avoided his eyes while looking at the clumsy object that popped out and was dangling. Yana looked at Dmitry with pure contempt.
Dmitry flinched at the gaze and stepped back, covering his groin with one hand, reaching for the towel in the corner.
“WHAT IS THIS?!”
Dmitry roared. The cry caused a commotion throughout the annex and Lee Sungmin heard footsteps of several mercenaries in the vicinity scuffling around coming to their location.
Lee Sungmin raised his foot while staring at Dmitry.
Bang.
As his feet lightly hit the floor, intangible energy erupted in all directions around Lee Sungmin like a vortex.
The force devoured the entire mansion, ignoring all the physical obstacles in its way and every single being froze.
“Dragon Fear..…!”
Yana exclaimed lightly. The power of Dragon Fear was near absolute as it was a power that was truly mythical.
If a martial artist in the Realm of Transcendence could interfere with the very space around him, then the powerful monsters at the equivalent of power, were able to interfere with the mentality of all living beings from the bloodlust they accumulated.
In the case of Lee Sungmin, it was something of both natures as he was a Transcendent realm Martial Artist and an incredibly powerful monster as well. The Dragon’s Heart, previously absorbed into the Black Heart, was able to produce a Dragon Fear that was leagues beyond anything else like before.
It was truly a formidable force to be reckoned with. For everyone present it was something completely unexplainable. They were paralyzed in fear.
The Dragon Fear exuding from Lee Sungmin’s body was something he had perfected his control over ever since his first stay in the Forest of Fairies. But with this power being even stronger, Lee Sungmin could feel its amplified limits.
He could really kill people with just the Dragon Fear from this point on.
It wouldn’t be possible to kill people like Peak Realm Martial Artists or people with extremely strong willpower…. But against some of these mercenaries, it would be easy enough.
He could easily kill the people coming, but he didn’t mean to at first. Lee Sungmin didn’t come to Cron to begin a massacre and start killing indiscriminately.
“Gasp…”!
Dmitry’s expression changed under the immense pressure he was feeling from the Dragon Fear. He hurriedly pulled up his internal energy and resisted Lee Sungmin’s monstrous pressure.
But the women in bed couldn’t even resist. The women who were in bed with Do Zun, lost the light in their eyes and dropped down lifelessly and several of the mercenaries coming up to the annex dropped with foam in their mouths or died on the spot.
“Who the hell…?”
“Just put on your clothes.”
Lee Sungmin cut Do Zun off, taking off his skin mask.
“I’ll be patient for just that amount of time. Nothing more than that.”
Dmitry did not recognize Lee Sungmin’s real face, although Lee Sungmin had taken it off for Do Zun to recognize him.
He glared at Lee Sungmin and slowly began to pick up and put on clothes. As he did this, Do Zun racked his brains as fast as possible.
‘What the hell was this situation? and … What the hell is he?’
However, no matter how much Dmitry thought about it, he had no idea who Lee Sungmin was.
‘Two women in the back…… I’m not so worried about them since they didn’t do anything. The problem is him…….’
Dmitry realized and acknowledged that Lee Sungmin was a better martial artist than him. He was even able to shake Dmitry’s mental fortitude with just his presence. Dmitry was a Transcendent Martial Artist, and only people more powerful than him could possibly do that.
But Dmitry was still confused. Was there even a person who was this powerful in the world? What did he even do to incur this man’s wrath?
“Well… let me hear who you are. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I ask the questions.”
‘Damn it.’ At the icy answer, Dmitry uttered a curse in his mind.
Should he just surrender? There’s no guarantee that the man wouldn’t kill him but Dmitry saw very few options of getting out of this unscathed.
Putting on his clothes and armor, Dmitry hardened his mind. Fortunately, Dmitry thought that Lee Sungmin was off his guard.
Wasn’t that the usual case when you were overwhelmingly powerful compared to your opponent? That was what Dmitry thought Lee Sungmin would be thinking so he paced himself.
Dmitri was the man known as the Mercenary King, and was given the name of Do Zun. One thing to keep in mind, was that mercenaries were hardly individuals to uphold anything like honor.
It was rather good if the opponent was careless in this situation. Even if Dmitry knew that killing Lee Sungmin was impossible even with his guard lowered, that didn’t mean escape was impossible.
Dmitry clenched his teeth. When Dmitri’s preparations were finished in his mind, Lee Sungmin lowered the spear slightly that was resting on his shoulder.
It was no surprise that Dmitry would try to run away. Lee Sungmin had only met Dmitry here for the first time, but he had accurately grasped his character in just these short few interactions. Do Zun saw this and had another thought.
‘A Transcendent Realm Martial Artist with the Spear?…… Shit, I’m only getting unluckier and unluckier today.’
There were two martial artists that wielded the spear that Do Zun had heard of and he recalled the nickname of the man known as the Ghost Spear. But the man in front of him couldn’t be that person… right?
Didn’t the Spear King even acknowledge him?
The fact that the Ghost Spear, which was known to be dead, was actually alive was already a rumor spreading throughout Eria, but Dmitry did not even think that the rumor could be true or that the man known as the Ghost Spear would be the one in front of him.
This was because it was impossible to travel from Germane to Cron in less than a month even if he ran nonstop.
Dmitry, who was slowly dragging his feet, kicked the ground for a moment.
Crack !
Dmitry’s body jumped forward with a tremor that would shake the entire inn. In an instant, Dmitry, who narrowed the distance, brought a club out from his spatial pocket and swung it with both hands.
Lee Sungmin watched Dmitry swing the club with a calm expression.
A clicking sound was heard as the club was swung. A small hidden weapon in the form of a needle was fired from the arm-guard around Do Zun’s wrist at the same time towards Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin twisted his body slightly with a bitter smile. The small needle brushed past Lee Sungmin, unable to even touch him.
After that, Lee Sungmin stretched out his spear toward the club. The club, which could not be fully swung to the end of the intended movement, stopped at an awkward angle.
Dmitry gasped and held his breath and tightened his grip on the club. However, the club that was being blocked by the spear did not budge even an inch.
Unlike Dmitri, who was clenching his grip and pushing down with all of his might…. Lee Sungmin loosely held the spear with only his non-dominant hand.
“Ugh……!”
Dmitry’s face was distorted. Between the club and the spear, a scraping noise could be heard as spatial essence coated around Dmitry’s club.
Dmitry was forced to use his power to manipulate space since he clearly could not get an advantage over Lee Sungmin, but Lee Sungmin did not intend to let that happen.
Lee Sungmin’s right hand that was free, shot out at Dmitry’s chest. Dmitry was frightened, suddenly covered himself with a layer of internal energy, and tried to escape by moving to the right, but it was a meaningless attempt.
When Lee Sungmin’s right hand touched Dmitry’s chest, the light armor and layer of internal energy that was meant to defend his body didn’t break or shatter at all.
But although the outside seemed fine, it was the exact opposite inside of Dmitry’s body. The internal energy seeping from Lee Sungmin’s hand tore Dmitry’s blood vessels apart and the very air itself vibrated with a bang. Dmitry’s nose and ears erupted with blood.
“AGHHHHH!”
It was an overwhelming defeat. Even with them both being in the Realm of Transcendence, there was an overwhelming gap between Lee Sungmin and Dmitry.
Just as Sima Ryunju had completely toyed with the Black Dragon when he captured him, Lee Sungmin was able to deal with Dmitry as if he were dealing with a child.
Dmitry, whose legs were shaking, eventually collapsed. He didn’t even have the time during the fight to activate the rest of the hidden weapons or magical spells within his armor to defend himself.
Using all of them wouldn’t have changed the outcome at all. Lee Sungmin approached the trembling Dmitry and grabbed him by the wrist.
“Tell me about Beyond the Heavens.”
“You… Who the hell are you…….”
“I told you I’d be the one to ask the questions.”
Lee Sungmin pressed down on Dmitry’s wrist as he spoke.
Lee Sungmin’s thumb pressed the middle of Dmitry’s wrist. Dmitry’s body trembled and writhed as if he were electrocuted.
The internal energy that permeated into his blood vessels ran rampant but his body was already in so much pain that Dmitry realized Lee Sungmin wasn’t trying to torture him. It was to send a message : do not try anything or I will really kill you.
Lee Sungmin’s intentions were laid bare. Dmitry could either cooperate or die like a moron. Either way, he would not be able to avoid a painful scenario.
“Oh…… I see. You want to keep this going then?”
“I swear….I’ll tell you the truth.”
Dmitry was quick-witted. He knew well that he was not guaranteed to live in this situation, but it would be better to give this man in front of him what he wanted, and could worry about the consequences later. Wasn’t his life the most important thing?
After that, it was a complete change in attitude. Dmitry answered everything Lee Sungmin asked without trying to weasel his way out or change his words.
For the past 10 years, Musin went back to into closed-door training, and the organizational part of Beyond the Heavens was virtually neglected.
Dmitry was also faithful to his life as a Mercenary King during the past decade, and did not do anything as a member of Beyond the Heavens since he said he had not been contacted for any missions from the Divine Maiden.
“How do you receive the orders from the Divine Maiden?”
“There’s a crystal ball….”
“Give it to me.”
Dmitry, who was certain he could not do anything about his predicament, didn’t wait even one second and opened his spatial pocket to hand over the crystal ball to Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin put the crystal in his subspace pocket. He thought that if anything, he could also take the ball back to a sorcerer to trace the location of the Divine Maiden through it.
“Beyond the Heavens is… the…… I haven’t done anything for the last 10 years for them. In fact, Musin, Wolhu, and I are the only ones who even belong to Beyond the Heavens now…….”
“Wolhu must be dead.”
“What? What do you mean? Wohu went into a closed-door training just like Musin but he went to his place at the Wolgung Palace…….”
Lee Sungmin’s eyebrows twitched at the mention of Wolhu. Wolhu was almost certainly dead from what he remembered but if he wasn’t… it was better to take that into account than being ignorant.
It seemed like he would have to stop by the Wolgung Palace after this.
There was nothing more to hear from Dmitry as Lee Sungmin determined and stood up.
As he stood up, Dmitry gulped his saliva and looked at Lee Sungmin expectedly.
Lee Sungmin flicked his finger while at Dmitry’s pitiful expression of hope.
Thwack! The flick contained a highly concentrated amount of internal energy and penetrated Dmitry’s forehead. Dmitry collapsed and died without being able to so much as scream.
“You didn’t have to kill him, did you?”
“I didn’t have to keep him alive. He may become an enemy someday and a stumbling block down the road so I removed the possibility.”
“But……Lee Sungmin. Even if Beyond the Heavens is becing deceived by a True Transcendent, their goal is the same as you to prevent the Apocalypse…….”
“Only Musin, Wolhu, and the Divine Maiden were acting to prevent the end of the world. This fool didn’t even know what the Apocalypse was. He’s just lived and acted for his own gains. He’s not a righteous person and something very far from it.”
Baek Sogo smiled bitterly at the words, but did not refute Lee Sungmin’s reasoning. Lee Sungmin continued, picking up the spear that he had put down.
“It’s noisy out there. Looks like there’s a good amount of people gathering here soon.”
“Shall we sneak out?”
“We don’t need to do that.”
Lee Sungmin said so and left the room.