Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 369

Shivers ran down Lee San-hoo’s spine; he couldn’t control his trembling.

“Hoo.”

He had anticipated this, or so he thought, and believed he had prepared himself mentally.

But now that it was actually happening, he couldn’t help but feel terrified.

-Resignation letter.

The resignation letter he had given to Dang Hwa-young was likely the cause.

Even though Galaxy was a player guild known for being fair, their essence was that of a martial arts faction.

Moreover, they were the kind known as the ‘Demonic Path’.

As their strategist and advisor, the moment he submitted his resignation…

-I might be eliminated.

He had thought he might be eliminated.

Though it was a short time, he already knew many of Galaxy’s secrets and classified information.

If not that…

‘It could be another faction.’

It could be the work of another faction targeting Galaxy.

Quitting as Galaxy’s advisor was akin to giving up their protection, and as he knew Galaxy’s secrets, he was valuable enough to be targeted.

Whatever it was, he had been preparing, thinking it was dangerous.

“Hoo.”

As he calmed his mind, the trembling subsided a little.

“It’s the end.”

He had prepared.

He had hidden a poison pill he had secretly bought in his mouth, and he had planned to break it and commit suicide if he was tortured.

Also, through a player guild under Galaxy.

-Are you serious?

He had placed a self-imposed restriction on himself.

That was enough.

‘At least I shouldn’t betray them at the end.’

That was his loyalty to Yi Rown, who had shown him kindness, even if it was for a moment.

That’s what Lee San-hoo thought.

‘But where are they taking me?’

With a mask covering his face and his body restrained, he tried to guess where they were taking him, but he couldn’t figure it out.

Woong.

He felt his magic power fluctuate and a strange energy affecting his body.

Murmuring, murmuring.

He could hear people’s voices.

After several hours like that.

Thwack!

Lee San-hoo’s mask was removed.

Whoosh!

His vision went blank for a moment with the bright light.

“If it’s Galaxy, you can kill me without hesitation,” Lee San-hoo said calmly.

“If not, you won’t get a word out of me.”

Lee San-hoo said, forcing his blurry eyes open and sneering.

“Ah….”

A voice was heard.

“……?”

Lee San-hoo felt something was off.

“It is Galaxy, but we don’t intend to kill you?”

The somewhat clumsy voice was familiar to Lee San-hoo.

“Ghostly Soul… Lord Gokju?” [Gokju is a title for a leader or master]

A special secret organization within Galaxy.

They were not treated as a combat unit, but as a special department, and their true nature was…

-Ghostly Soul Valley.

They were said to be a legendary assassin group in the world of the hidden.

Among them, there was the best assassin who controlled the entire Ghostly Soul Valley, and that was…

“Yes. That’s me.”

It was a man named Lee Yong-jin.

A man he had seen twice.

He seemed a bit out of it, but he had heard that he changed when he was on a mission.

If the Ghostly Soul Valley Lord had stepped in, he thought his elimination was a given, but…

“That’s….”

Lee Yong-jin scratched his head and said,

“It was that person’s order.”

There was only one person the Ghostly Soul Valley Lord would refer to as ‘that person’.

“You mean… Blood Demon, Lord Yi Rown?”

“Yes.”

Swoosh.

Lee Yong-jin cut off Lee San-hoo’s restraints in one swift motion and said,

“Explaining and bringing you would be too much of a hassle, so he just told us to kidnap you.”

“…….”

“He said to explain when we arrive at our destination.”

Lee San-hoo’s eyes twitched.

“Well, anyway, we’ve arrived at our destination, so I’m explaining it to you.”

Lee San-hoo was speechless.

Lee Yong-jin smiled at him and said,

“By the way, is this your first time in China?”

* * *

-Explaining and bringing you would be too much of a hassle….

Lee San-hoo forcibly gripped his trembling hands.

Boiling anger.

That was the reason for his kidnapping?

“I almost chewed the poison pill.”

“Oh, you had a poison pill? I thought I smelled something fragrant in your mouth.”

“…….”

Lee Yong-jin chuckled at Lee San-hoo.

“That’s not a poison pill.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a pill, but I don’t know of any poison pills that smell like that.”

“……!”

“Where did you get it?”

Lee San-hoo didn’t answer.

He didn’t want to say that he bought it on the black market, which was rampant among players.

“Did you buy it on the black market?”

“Were you monitoring me?”

“Of course, we were monitoring you. You were the advisor of Galaxy, after all.”

Even though he had submitted his resignation.

“It was just monitoring for your protection.”

“Then….”

“I haven’t received any reports about the black market. I’m just guessing.”

Indeed.

Where else would he get a martial arts item like a poison pill, especially one that an assassin would use?

“Which black market? Polin? Scrub?”

Lee Yong-jin mentioned the names of famous black markets among players.

“Anywhere….”

Chuckling.

Lee Yong-jin was smiling.

“Since the Black King’s influence reaches everywhere, they wouldn’t sell a real poison pill to the advisor, would they?”

“……!”

“The Black King’s hand is in the player black markets too. There are a few places where the Liberation or some players operate, but their black markets wouldn’t be on the routes you’ve taken, Advisor.”

Lee San-hoo’s face turned red.

“Well, you don’t have to be so embarrassed. Advisor, you are….”

Lee Yong-jin said,

“A player, not a martial artist. Moreover, it hasn’t been long since you became an advisor, has it?”

But Lee San-hoo couldn’t take Lee Yong-jin’s words lightly.

He was Galaxy’s advisor.

He had to be smarter than anyone else, and not a single mistake could be tolerated.

Because with one of his instructions, the lives of countless people in Galaxy would be at stake.

“Don’t worry about such trivial things.”

Lee Yong-jin said, looking at Lee San-hoo.

“What the advisor needs to do is handle the big picture, not the small details.”

“I can’t do that.”

This was clearly his mistake.

“A small thing can affect the whole.”

So, he needed to know everything and keep it in his head.

This was….

‘I was being complacent.’

He had tried, but something about the original owner of his body.

And the continuous incidents had made it impossible to properly fill the gaps.

But even that was just an excuse.

At some point.

‘I had given up.’

Lee San-hoo had given up on trying.

“That’s good. I’m glad someone like you is our advisor.”

Lee Yong-jin said.

“And what if you make a few mistakes?”

Lee Yong-jin chuckled.

“If something goes terribly wrong, that person will fix it anyway.”

A perfect trust in Yi Rown.

Lee San-hoo knew how dangerous that was, but…

“I guess so.”

The name was so reassuring to him as well.

How much time had passed as they talked?

It was when his tension, anxiety, and anger were subsiding.

“We’ve arrived.”

It was a scenery that could not be expressed in words.

“Ah.”

It was a city covered in fog.

A peaceful village without tall buildings like Seoul.

Lee San-hoo felt a sense of relief at the sight.

The energy he felt was refreshing.

His head cleared, and it felt like his worries had disappeared.

But at the same time.

Thump!

He felt something constricting his heart.

Stagger.

Lee San-hoo swayed.

“Are you alright?”

Lee Yong-jin supported Lee San-hoo.

‘Why suddenly….’

He felt dizzy, and if he wasn’t a player, he would have thought he was having anemia.

“I’m fine….”

But Lee San-hoo soon completely lost consciousness.

* * *

Lee San-hoo opened his eyes.

His head was throbbing, but at the same time, it was clear.

It was a strange feeling.

“Are you awake?”

Then, a voice was heard.

“Yi Rown…?”

“I thought you’d wake up soon, so I came to see you.”

Lee San-hoo looked around.

A room decorated in the style of the Hidden.

“This is Kunlun.”

This was the very place, Kunlun, considered a mysterious sect among the Nine Great Sects [Nine Great Sects are a common trope in martial arts stories, referring to the most powerful and influential sects].

“Kunlun….”

He never thought he would come to Kunlun in his life.

But if he thought about it, becoming Galaxy’s advisor was also absurd.

No….

Chuckling.

The fact that there was something else in his body was strange in itself.

“It’s the shock caused by getting close to those connected to the fragments of the Soul-White Divine within you.”

Yi Rown told him the reason why Lee San-hoo had lost consciousness.

“I knew it….”

Lee San-hoo hadn’t heard anything from Lee Yong-jin on the way here.

Just that Yi Rown had called him to come.

However, Lee San-hoo vaguely knew that it was to awaken the Soul-White Divine within his body.

-Soul-White Divine.

Yi Rown was looking for it.

Chuckling.

Lee San-hoo smiled bitterly.

Yi Rown slowly leaned back in his chair and said,

“I heard you submitted your resignation.”

It seemed Dang Hwa-young had informed Yi Rown of the situation.

“I’m realizing that I have many shortcomings,” Lee San-hoo said.

“Even if it wasn’t my true intention, it seems like I approached Galaxy with an agenda, and it feels like I’ve only been taking advantage of Galaxy’s kindness.”

Lee San-hoo turned his gaze towards the window.

Buildings built in the style of the Hidden were visible.

“I bought a poison pill.”

Lee San-hoo.

“But they said it wasn’t a real poison pill.”

Towards Lee San-hoo, who was smiling bitterly.

“Bullshit.”

Yi Rown uttered a short curse.

Lee San-hoo was calm.

He was pathetic…

“It’s probably just fear.”

Lee San-hoo quickly turned his head at Yi Rown’s voice.

“What…?”

“You’re afraid of not being you anymore. You’re afraid that everything about you will turn out to be just a fake.”

“…….”

Lee San-hoo’s face hardened.

“If you stay in Galaxy, you’re afraid that what’s inside you will awaken.”

So.

“At least you want to die as you, so you gave up everything, didn’t you?”

Yi Rown’s words.

He wanted to refute it.

But.

Clench.

He couldn’t refute it.

Deep in his heart, something he had been ignoring.

That was it.

“But you’re still afraid of death.”

Yi Rown said.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Yi Rown’s languid eyes were completely looking down on Lee San-hoo.

“When you were kidnapped, you knew it wasn’t Galaxy trying to eliminate you or another faction, didn’t you?”

Lee San-hoo had already been kidnapped once.

He already knew that there were people protecting him.

Also.

-There are no factions trying to mess with Galaxy right now. They have to be very careful.

Other factions couldn’t touch Galaxy’s advisor.

Yi Rown was right.

Galaxy.

“Did you think I would kill you?”

Lee San-hoo also knew that there was no reason for him to kill him.

“Did you really think the poison pill you bought from the player black market was real? Seriously?”

Yi Rown was sneering.

“Even if you had chewed the poison pill, do you think we couldn’t have saved you?”

No.

“Knowing that, were you ignoring it? That’s the most pathetic thing.”

“…….”

Lee San-hoo firmly closed his mouth.

“You….”

Finally, he spoke.

“What do you know?”

A cold voice echoed.

“Do you know what it’s like to have another personality in your head? That the other personality might actually be the original owner of this body. Do you know what it’s like to feel that your existence is just made up and could disappear at any time?”

At that moment.

“……!”

Lee San-hoo felt a chill.

A smile he had never seen before.

A bright smile was on Yi Rown’s lips.

“I know very well.”

A voice that was cut off.

“Better than anyone.”