Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 73

The Three Kings’ Disciple (74)

073

***

“Oh, why are you looking at me like that?”

Baek Cheong, flustered, even stuttered.

“It’s unexpected.”

Ro-woon approached her and said.

Her youthful appearance.

It was not uncommon for masters of the inner world to have a younger appearance than their age due to the smooth control of their bodies.

Moreover, she was a master of the Mystic Realm.

‘Rebirth.’

To reach the realm of the Mystic Realm, one had to go through rebirth, and in that process, many regained their youth, if not to the point of returning to childhood.

But she was not simply like that.

She looked young from the start.

Her small height made her age even more questionable.

“What!”

He scanned her again as she shouted.

Jongnam Divine Maiden.

She was a Heavenly Rank master, one of the top hundred chosen from Eun [a fictional world], and a Hundred Great Master.

Yet, her attire was too mismatched for a Jongnam martial artist.

Dressed in the latest style, she looked like a college student who had just entered university.

“Don’t martial artists usually wear martial attire?”

Looking back at the past, or the martial arts guilds located in Gyeonggi-do, which was part of Eun’s territory.

And even looking at this street now.

The occasional people with unusual appearances.

“Only idiots do that.”

Baek Cheong pouted and said.

“Isn’t it like, ‘I’m a martial artist, so you better watch out’?”

“You’re a martial artist too, aren’t you?”

“I’m not an idiot.”

Baek Cheong said.

“If it’s a new world, you should know how to adapt. It’s one thing to not keep up with the times, but those who think martial attire is like a dragon robe are just idiots, what else can they be?”

Ro-woon’s eyes narrowed again.

“Don’t look at me strangely.”

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“What?”

Baek Cheong’s eyes lit up.

Ro-woon said to her.

“How old are you?”

He didn’t care much about age.

But even for Ro-woon, Baek Cheong’s age was quite curious.

‘Jongnam has to spend about ten years in the training cave.’

What she had said.

Even without that, considering her realm and tone, her age was even more intriguing.

“Oh, why!”

“Because you talk like an old person. Maybe you’re similar to me.”

“Wh, what are you talking about!”

Baek Cheong shouted and approached Ro-woon, saying.

“Twenty-five!”

She said, holding up two fingers on one hand and five fingers on the other.

“Even though I look like this, I’ve eaten enough years!”

***

Ro-woon and Baek Cheong walking down the street.

The reason for meeting her was to talk, but she wanted to walk the streets.

“Hehe.”

Baek Cheong walked, humming as if she was excited.

“I can’t walk around freely in China.”

She said, noticing Ro-woon’s gaze.

“There are too many people who recognize me. They either tremble, avoid me, or whatever, but this feeling of freedom is rare.”

“Freedom?”

Ro-woon said, looking at one side of the street.

A dark alleyway where nothing could be seen.

The presence felt there was clearly the energy of a Hui martial artist.

But they were hiding their sharp aura, as if to say they were not close to Jongnam.

“What about over there?”

And the alleyway on the opposite side.

Energy could be felt there as well.

“Ignore them!”

The Cheongcheonha squad members.

They were probably hiding to protect Baek Cheong.

“What about behind us?”

At Ro-woon’s words, Baek Cheong flinched.

“I, ignore them!”

Judging by her reaction, it seemed she hadn’t noticed either.

The energy felt from behind was truly like that.

‘An assassin, perhaps.’

A skilled individual who could even deceive the senses of a Mystic Realm master.

They were clearly people who had been trained as professional assassins.

Eyes that accurately sensed the range of a Mystic Realm master’s senses and watched from the outside.

Their identities were immediately apparent.

‘Hwasan.’

The faint energy he had felt from Hwasan’s Black Plum was being felt again.

Whoosh.

A blue aura enveloped Baek Cheong and Ro-woon’s bodies like a barrier, then faded away.

“The conversation won’t be heard.”

Qi Barrier.

It was a special Qi Barrier.

Baek Cheong used the power of the Heavenly Treasure to create a Qi Barrier that, unlike the ability of a magical artifact that shows the truth, had the ability to conceal the truth.

Her excited face was back to normal.

“Jongnam’s offer is still valid.”

As the cold Jongnam Divine Maiden, in that form.

“Jongnam requests a temporary alliance with Ro-woon, no, with the Heavenly Demon.”

Not words spoken to survive in the Heavenly Demon Cave.

Sincere.

“What’s the reason?”

Ro-woon asked.

“Are you saying you’ll take over Hui with my power?”

At Ro-woon’s words, Baek Cheong, who had stopped, chuckled.

“With just you?”

She was smiling, but her face was serious.

“The power I saw in you at the Heavenly Demon Tomb, no, the Heavenly Demon Cave, was astonishing. I couldn’t even match you for a second, and…”

Baek Cheong continued.

“You were the one who easily subdued that monster.”

Ro-woon at the Heavenly Demon Tomb was literally beyond the heavens.

A being in an ideal place that could not be reached.

“But that power, you can’t use it now, can you?”

Baek Cheong said.

“It must have been a power that could only be used specifically inside the Heavenly Demon Tomb. You’re definitely strong, but not to that extent.”

“……”

“Then Hui is unavoidable.”

An unknown emotion lingered in Baek Cheong’s eyes.

“There are monsters as powerful as you there.”

Monsters.

“There’s only one reason why Jongnam wants an alliance.”

She said.

“For the evil spirit that has taken root in the Murim [martial arts world] to return to its original place.”

As expected.

What Jongnam wanted was to eradicate the evil spirit of Hui.

“That would also be drawing in the evil spirit that is me, wouldn’t it?”

Ro-woon responded, playing along with her.

“You’re…”

Baek Cheong said.

“A bit different.”

“Different?”

“You’re not a person of Eun.”

“……”

She knew.

That Ro-woon was Ro-woon.

That the Heavenly Demon of this era was not a person of Eun, but a resident of Earth.

“And you’re Ro-woon.”

The Ro-woon she was talking about now.

It was referring to Ro-woon, the guild leader of Dank.

A person who, despite lacking power, was not hated by anyone, a person in the middle.

“Of course, that could bring even greater disaster.”

Baek Cheong said.

“If you take the evil spirit that has taken root in Hui, we don’t know what you’ll do with that power.”

Would the Ro-woon of the past, the guild leader of Dank, be exactly the same as the Ro-woon of now?

He had been treated like that in Hwasan, and his entire life had been destroyed by Hui.

She didn’t know.

“But we can’t just leave the evil spirit alone.”

A narrow-minded righteous sect’s perspective.

That’s what he thought.

“Because the same thing will happen again.”

But the words that followed made Ro-woon’s languid eyes narrow.

“People like you will continue to appear. The current Eun is different from the past. Jongnam has changed too, but not like them.”

Them.

“Hwasan, Beggars’ Sect, Shaolin.”

What came out of her mouth were those who could be said to be the pillars of Eun.

“They are the evil spirit.”

* * *

Hwasan, Beggars’ Sect, Shaolin.

It was no exaggeration to say that they held all of Eun in their hands.

The Nine Great Sects, the Five Great Families.

Of course, the forces of Eun were diverse and held power with different strengths.

But the Murim Association, which controlled them all.

The pillars of that were the Beggars’ Sect, Hwasan, and Shaolin.

‘They are the evil spirit.’

The story that they were all evil spirits.

It was a statement that no one could easily accept.

But since it came from the mouth of the Jongnam Divine Maiden, it had to be believed.

It was then.

Swoosh.

Baek Cheong and Ro-woon’s gazes moved simultaneously.

“Those…”

Baek Cheong frowned.

The crude energy of inner power felt from afar.

They were actively running wild.

Unlike Baek Cheong, who was focused on that, Ro-woon looked elsewhere.

‘Hui.’

They weren’t moving.

‘Hwasan.’

They didn’t even seem to realize that their presence had been discovered.

‘At least…’

The Cheongcheonha squad members.

They were sending some kind of signal to Baek Cheong.

“Don’t move rashly.”

Baek Cheong’s voice.

It wasn’t directed at Ro-woon.

It was for Cheongcheonha, who was waiting for orders.

“You might give them a pretext.”

Having said that, she removed the Qi Barrier and began to move.

Thud! Thwack!

Only then did the sounds of impact ring out.

“You butcher bastard!”

Along with that, curses erupted.

“Where do you think you’re looking, you son of a bitch?”

“A bug should look at the ground like a bug. Don’t you think?”

Even with the loud noise, no one stepped forward.

Rather, people hurried away as if trying to distance themselves from the commotion.

“You should open your eyes nicely like those guys.”

“Ugh, ugh!”

Following that, a groan erupted.

Baek Cheong and the man who had arrived with her were sitting down and being trampled.

Thud! Thwack! Thud!

Relentless kicks.

“It’s thanks to us that you guys can even breathe and live.”

Crunnch.

“If it weren’t for us, you would have died anyway, right?”

Their appearances were not different.

East Asians.

But the attire they wore was different.

“So, if we saved your lives, be grateful and beg. Isn’t it us who are bleeding to protect you from the monsters and the Western demons?”

Ordinary clothes and martial attire.

That difference told the whole story.

“Bugs with no pride or anything. Ptoo!”

This was the reality of the seemingly peaceful world.

Everyday life passing by without problems.

But that everyday life could be shattered at any time.

Many people say.

‘Nothing has changed.’

It’s just that there are people who have to live together.

And they are the ones who help us survive, just like those guys said.

So let’s respect and care for them.

They say it as if they are doing a favor.

Thud!

But this is the reality.

“You’re ruining my mood.”

Martial artists.

They were the rulers.

They said that Hui did not allow harm to be done to ordinary people.

That’s right.

But Hui only intervenes in matters that are considered problematic.

Also, Hui determines the punishment for martial artists.

As long as they don’t cause big problems, if it just ends with being trampled like that.

“We…”

Hui doesn’t care.

“We are not slaves!”

It was the moment when the man who had fallen tried to get up and rush at them.

Smirk.

The martial artist, who had turned his back and stood defenseless, smiled at the sight.

That was what he had been aiming for from the start.

The martial artist had no intention of letting the man live.

But if he had killed him on this street, even if he was a martial artist, he wouldn’t have been able to get away with it easily.

But at this moment.

“Did you dare try to kill me?”

If the man who was being trampled resisted, the story would be different.

The law of self-defense would be established.

Swoosh.

A chilling sound of steel rang out.

Soon, there would be a cutting sound and blood would splatter.

“Well, well, this is quite a sight, isn’t it?”

But what was heard was the voice of a young woman.

“But it was good to see you try to resist. You need that much spirit.”

Baek Cheong, who had disappeared, was standing in front of the man who was being trampled, extending her finger.

Shudder.

The sword blade hanging from the tip of her finger trembled.

“Because of these idiots, I can’t even take a proper walk.”

Baek Cheong said to the martial artists in a cold voice.