Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 145

The Three Kings’ Disciple (146)

145

A few hours earlier.

Lee Ro-woon and Baek Cheong had arrived at the midpoint where they were to meet the Jongnam delegation.

“Kuh. Good.”

Baek Cheong took a swig of beer.

The place they were in was a tavern decorated in Eun’s style.

“Weren’t the Eun’s warriors supposed to like bamboo leaf wine or something?”

At Lee Ro-woon’s question, Baek Cheong slammed her beer glass down as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’

“That’s just for the posers who pretend to be something they’re not.”

Baek Cheong looked at the cool beer with a moderate amount of foam.

“How many warriors are crazy about beer?”

She took another swig.

“I was sad that there wasn’t this beer in Wudang.”

“That’s because it’s a Taoist sect, so they just restrain from drinking.”

“Exactly. They’re like those stuffy, mule-headed Taoist priests.”

Lee Ro-woon made a dumbfounded expression at those words.

“Isn’t Jongnam the same?”

Although Wudang was a sect that represented Taoism, Jongnam also revered the Tao.

“We’re not stuffy. It’s because Wudang is stuffy that they’re in that state. Jongnam is still flexible….”

A bitter smile spread across Baek Cheong’s lips.

“Not everything is broken.”

That’s how the Tao is.

“There’s nothing more foolish than thinking only one thing is right. Such beliefs are easily broken.”

Baek Cheong took another swig of beer.

“If that breaks….”

The values and beliefs built up over a lifetime.

If the day comes when that breaks in an instant.

“Everything will be ruined.”

It would become like Wudang.

In the lost path, they would do anything to find what they thought was right.

It wasn’t just Wudang.

“The current Eun… the whole thing is like that.”

In the stories passed down, Eun was not like that.

But the state of Eun that Baek Cheong saw was all like Wudang.

Trapped in their own world, they had survived only with evil and poison, and everyone had changed.

As a price for prioritizing survival, they had lost the values they had protected themselves.

Now, there was no longer an Eun that valued righteousness and cooperation.

“So….”

Baek Cheong looked at Lee Ro-woon and said.

“I’m going to bet on you.”

“……?”

“Now, I don’t even know what you are.”

At first, she just thought he was a Heavenly Demon [a powerful demonic entity].

Although the orthodox sects rejected the idea of a demon.

‘Eun is already no different from a demonic cult.’

Baek Cheong, who felt that the boundary between orthodox and demonic was ambiguous, thought that the existence of a Heavenly Demon would become the center of the demonic world and embrace all the demons of the world.

As a result, a huge demon would be born.

‘If there is an opposing point, Eun can regain its past appearance.’

She thought that through the opposing point, the orthodox sects could pursue righteousness and cooperation again.

However, what Baek Cheong felt while spending time with Lee Ro-woon was that the boundary between orthodox and demonic was more meaningless than she thought.

And.

“You….”

She felt that Lee Ro-woon’s existence itself was a huge something that could not be expressed by the word Heavenly Demon.

Also, she felt that his existence was the great secret hidden in Eun itself.

“I don’t know!”

Baek Cheong, her face flushed red as if she was drunk, shouted loudly.

“I don’t think you’re justice! But if you can change Eun!”

Eyes were drawn to them.

“I can give you everything I have!”

It was like a confession.

“Damn it. What’s with the lovey-dovey stuff?”

“Ugh. Disgusting world.”

“I guess you have to be good-looking.”

The people in the tavern poured out various reactions towards Baek Cheong and Lee Ro-woon.

“So….”

Baek Cheong mumbled, burying her face on the table.

“I believe in you… you bastard….”

“You can’t hold your liquor at all.”

Lee Ro-woon used his chopsticks to lift the strands of Baek Cheong’s hair that were in her noodles.

At that moment, the atmosphere began to change.

The people who had been reacting to Baek Cheong and Lee Ro-woon with envy and annoyance.

“…….”

With stiff faces, they began to leave the tavern one by one.

Before they knew it, all the people in the tavern had disappeared without a trace.

“Haa.”

A long sigh escaped from Baek Cheong’s mouth, which had been buried in the table.

“It’s a pain in the ass.”

She said, lifting her face.

Her face, which had been flushed red with drunkenness a moment ago, had returned to its usual state as if nothing had happened.

She had expelled all the alcohol poisoning with her inner energy.

“It’s been a while since I got drunk.”

A drop of water flowed from her index finger and fell into the beer glass with a ‘ttok’ sound.

“Do you really have to go this far?”

It wasn’t a word directed at Lee Ro-woon.

A shadow was standing at the entrance of the tavern.

“I have to.”

It was a word directed at Woo Jang-sook.

This was the present.

Lee Ro-woon curled up the corners of his mouth and said in a cold voice.

“Jongnam sent a gift.”

* * *

Chuh chuh chuh!

It was a similar situation to before.

Just like at the Cheonha Inn.

“Nothing has changed.”

The warriors surrounded the tavern inside and out.

They were the members of Jongnam’s Woo Cheon-ha unit.

“I finally see you again, you bastard.”

Woo Jang-sook, the leader of the Woo Cheon-ha unit, couldn’t hide his excited face as he looked at Lee Ro-woon.

“I was going to follow you a long time ago, but….”

A face mixed with anger and enthusiasm, a complex emotion.

“My master stopped me and I endured it.”

After the commotion at the Cheonha Inn, he had been ordered to stay in confinement by the Jongnam sect leader and had returned to Jongnam.

But just yesterday.

“But now, your master who protected you is no longer here.”

The Jongnam sect leader, Hyun Ri-young, had left Jongnam.

Woo Jang-sook did not miss that opportunity and led his troops to the place where the Jongnam envoy was supposed to arrive.

“I can never accept it.”

Woo Jang-sook had no intention of hesitating any longer and had already drawn his sword.

“You’re stronger than me?”

Hyun Ri-young’s words.

-You must know how to assess your opponent.

That clearly meant that Lee Ro-woon was a much higher level expert than Woo Jang-sook.

But where?

Sseuk.

Woo Jang-sook looked at Lee Ro-woon with a hint of doubt, but his aura was definitely not higher than his own.

Experts can hide themselves, but they cannot deceive his eyes, which were close to the extreme of the profound realm.

Moreover!

“Do you have anything to say?”

He also had a trump card.

Clang.

The Dragon Scale Armor hidden inside his uniform.

It was said to be made of dragon scales, and it was a divine weapon of the gold grade.

A divine weapon he had received as a gift through the Golden Gate.

He also had a forbidden power.

There was a possibility that Lee Ro-woon was stronger than he thought.

“I’ve set up the Heavenly Net.”

He had also set up a Heavenly Net [a formation designed to trap an opponent] for hunting, thinking that Lee Ro-woon might break through the encirclement and escape.

“To catch you….”

Sseuk.

“The elders also helped.”

“The elders, you say?”

Only then did Baek Cheong, who had been listening silently, speak with a distorted face.

“Yes. It’s all because of you, Cheong-ah.”

Woo Jang-sook said, looking at Baek Cheong.

“You’re running wild, so the elders can’t help but look at you with disapproval. Have you forgotten that you are a priestess?”

“…….”

“If you’re a priestess, you should wait quietly and restrain yourself. Why are you making such a fuss?”

Woo Jang-sook blamed everything on Baek Cheong.

“That guy is going to die because of you.”

“Huh.”

Baek Cheong let out a sigh as if she was dumbfounded.

“To think I thought of that….”

The words that came out of Baek Cheong’s mouth.

“As my junior brother all this time.”

Her face, which had been distorted, was now like the cold North Sea, showing no emotion.

“Damn it. I shouldn’t have insulted Wudang.”

“What?”

“So the elders came too? I don’t even have to look to know who they’re siding with.”

Those who sided with Woo Jang-sook.

Woo Jang-sook, Hyun Ri-young’s disciple, had a high chance of becoming the Jongnam sect leader someday, and there were already elders who were taking care of him and protecting him.

“I thought we were disciples of the same Jongnam, but there’s no need for that.”

“Cheong-ah. I can’t listen to you any longer, no matter who you are….”

“Shut up, you moron.”

To Baek Cheong, there were three types of people.

Warriors, and ordinary people.

And the last.

“You moron.”

Moron.

It didn’t mean a person with a physical disability.

It was her word for those who were healthy in body and mind, but had deviated from the path and abandoned their human form.

“I was listening quietly because it was a gift.”

At that time, Lee Ro-woon also opened his mouth.

“Anything else to say?”

A nonchalant and languid voice.

At that, Woo Jang-sook’s face contorted.

* * *

Two hundred members of the Woo Cheon-ha unit surrounded the tavern.

The elders and the thousand-strong military force they possessed were mobilized for the Heavenly Net.

The number may be small compared to the entire Jongnam, but when it comes to Jongnam’s military power….

“A gift, you say.”

It was an enormous force that accounted for a quarter of the total.

“Yes. It’s a gift for your end, so enjoy it.”

Goo-ooo-ooo.

The rising aura, Jongnam’s inner energy, filled the tavern and the surrounding air.

It was too much power to gather just to catch one person.

It was too much to say it was just because of that one guy.

There was a bigger reason.

“I will catch you and go to Wudang.”

During his confinement, Woo Jang-sook’s heart was boiling with blood.

How long would he have to live being swayed by others?

“I will bring Wudang to its knees and raise the spirit of Jongnam.”

He would achieve merit.

“And….”

Sseuk.

“I will become the sect leader.”

He would become the sect leader of Jongnam.

The time had come.

The hidden ones would move.

If he wanted to keep pace with them, he had to have the same qualifications.

Woong.

The sword he drew emitted a clear sword aura.

“You are my first sacrifice, and….”

He said, looking at Lee Ro-woon, and then looked at Baek Cheong.

“The priestess will have to serve me.”

Baek Cheong was so shocked that she had lost her words and was gaping.

“Baek Cheong.”

Lee Ro-woon said.

“If you have any requests, tell me.”

At Lee Ro-woon’s words, Baek Cheong’s expression returned.

“Do whatever you want.”

Baek Cheong’s voice.

“That will be the most cruel.”

At that, a smile spread across Lee Ro-woon’s lips.

Sseuk.

Lee Ro-woon finally got up from his seat.

“It’s perfect timing.”

The insights he had gained from Wudang were not just about splitting chaos.

-Are you talking about the Tai Chi?

The big reason he wanted to have Wudang.

It was because they were one of the best at handling nature in Eun.

It had been a short time, but there had been achievements.

Moreover, his body itself had received a great stimulus as he swallowed the chaotic Heavenly Demon.

“It’ll be a bit much right now, but….”

Woo Jang-sook stood facing Lee Ro-woon as he moved forward.

The sword aura that had risen from his sword was burning more fiercely than ever, as if he was ready to cut and burn everything in front of him.

“It’ll be okay for once.”

“No way… are you going to do that?”

Baek Cheong, shocked, stepped back.

“No.”

Drawing out chaos?

There was no need to use such a finishing move against them.

Woo-woong.

The pattern on his chest, the King’s Ring, began to rotate rapidly.

Lee Ro-woon, who had reached the first stage of the King’s Ring, the Gold King stage.

And this time in Wudang.

“I’ll end it in one move without any pain!”

Goo-ooo-ooo!

Woo Jang-sook’s sword aura grew an inch longer and emitted an even greater aura.

The members of the Woo Cheon-ha unit also all raised their swords and emitted sword auras.

Woo Jang-sook’s one move, and the Woo Cheon-ha unit would rush in.

If Lee Ro-woon escaped, the members of the unit outside the tavern would rush in.

Even if he managed to escape through the gaps, the thousand-strong Jongnam would trample his entire body.

“I welcome the decision of the Jongnam sect leader.”

Lee Ro-woon said that, and.

“Light the way for me to become the sect leader!”

Woo Jang-sook’s blade reached out towards Lee Ro-woon.

Woo Jang-sook.

“……!”

He had such a dream.

Right in front of Lee Ro-woon’s neck.

Woo Jang-sook’s sword aura stopped.

“My body….”

His body wouldn’t move.

Behind Lee Ro-woon, green leaves were swaying.

“Wood King.”

Only then could he see it.

The wooden chopsticks in Lee Ro-woon’s hand.