Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 83

Clang!

Lee Shin-woo was thrown back by the sparks.

‘Heal.’

A bright light gathered in his hand, healing the small wounds he had sustained.

“A martial artist should only focus on one thing. Even mastering one martial art is a lifelong endeavor.”

The Red Masked Devil twirled his dagger as he approached Lee Shin-woo.

“Also…”

Swish.

His body disappeared like a shadow.

“With half-baked martial arts, you can’t face a master.”

The Red Masked Devil, Cheong-hyeon, appeared behind Lee Shin-woo.

Clang!

But Lee Shin-woo’s barrier blocked Cheong-hyeon’s attack again.

‘Inferno.’

Crimson flames erupted beneath Cheong-hyeon’s feet.

Trapped within the distorted flames, Cheong-hyeon spoke.

“It’s useless.”

Useless.

‘I know.’

He knew that this much wouldn’t be enough to catch the Red Masked Devil.

Lee Shin-woo’s abilities shone brightest not when he was alone.

But when he was with numerous players.

However, he couldn’t draw on the power of the other righteous soldiers fighting the dark assassins right now.

So.

‘Go!’

He kept sending signals to Lee Ro-woon and the others, who were hiding somewhere in Arein.

Their role was to draw Cheong-hyeon’s attention.

In the meantime, they had to achieve their goal.

‘Why aren’t they moving?’

There was no sign of Lee Ro-woon and the others moving.

Fwoosh.

Before he knew it, the flames of Inferno had died down under Cheong-hyeon’s internal energy.

Crack!

With another stab of the dagger, Lee Shin-woo’s barrier finally shattered.

“I never imagined the Azure Devil would be this weak.”

The Red Masked Devil’s disappointed face drew closer to Lee Shin-woo.

“Was I expecting too much?”

The moment his wrist moved, something flew and crushed Cheong-hyeon, sending him tumbling.

“……!”

Lee Ro-woon.

He stood there, stepping on Cheong-hyeon’s back.

“Good work.”

Lee Shin-woo’s role was over.

To draw attention and confront him.

In the meantime, he saw some of the martial artists from Arein slip away, and he let them go.

‘The Azure Army’s attack.’

That’s how the report would go to the Assembly.

That was it.

That was all Lee Ro-woon wanted.

“It’s an opportunity to get rid of trash, I can’t miss it.”

The moment he put more weight on the foot stepping on Cheong-hyeon’s back.

Crack!

A chilling sound echoed from Cheong-hyeon’s back.

***

“Ugh!”

Cheong-hyeon groaned.

It was a sight that was hard to imagine for the infamous Dark Flower Clan leader, the Red Masked Devil.

He was groaning, with someone stepping on his back.

‘My body…’

His body wasn’t listening to him.

The hot sensation from his back and the dampness seeping in were taking away his control over his body.

“It’s real.”

Cheong-hyeon could only hear the voice, without seeing the face.

“You’ve learned something from the Demonic Cult.”

“……!”

“Dark Soul Separation Technique.”

At that moment, Cheong-hyeon was glad that his face was buried in the ground.

Otherwise, he thought the other person would have seen his face distorted with panic and shock.

“Who… are you?”

It wasn’t Lee Shin-woo.

Even if the Azure Army Commander Lee Shin-woo had great intelligence, this wasn’t information he could know.

He could find out that something was hidden in the Assembly.

‘Dark Soul Separation Technique.’

But he couldn’t know the true nature of the martial art Cheong-hyeon had learned.

“I am the master of what you have learned. Why?”

Crack!

“Kuaaaak! No, that’s impossible!”

The master of the Dark Soul Separation Technique?

“Are you… a remnant?”

At the word ‘remnant,’ Lee Ro-woon’s eyes curved like a crescent moon.

“It seems there are remnants of the Demonic Cult left. It seems they weren’t completely absorbed.”

“You…!”

“I even got some good information.”

Just as Cheong-hyeon was about to shout something at the other person.

He suddenly felt something was off.

“…….”

Arein, which had been noisy with battle, was too quiet.

“Whew. Dark assassins are always troublesome.”

A playful voice.

Cheong-hyeon instinctively knew it was the voice of the assassin who had thrown the throwing knives at the start of the battle.

“The cleanup is complete.”

Followed by the voices of a woman and a man.

‘Could it be that the Dark Flower Clan members and the Assembly’s martial artists…?’

They lost?

Cheong-hyeon’s face twisted in disbelief.

Thud!

Soon, his body was flipped over by a rough kick.

What he saw was the face of a young man.

His head turned as if falling.

Twitch.

He saw the Dark Flower Clan members and dark assassins twitching, lying down like him.

Behind them, there were about twenty assassins hiding in the shadows.

“Who… are you…”

“If I was going to tell you, I wouldn’t have called Lee Shin-woo.”

Lee Ro-woon’s foot was placed on Cheong-hyeon’s chest.

“Kill him.”

Cheong-hyeon said, biting his lip.

Defeat.

That was the undeniable truth.

Smirk.

Lee Ro-woon smiled as he looked at Cheong-hyeon.

“Do you believe in the Dark Soul Separation Technique?”

“…….”

Dark Soul Separation Technique.

What Lee Ro-woon had learned from Shin Yeo-wool was the Demonic Divine Art, the Blood Demon Divine Art, and a few body techniques.

He had never learned the numerous martial arts and techniques passed down in the Demonic Cult or the Blood Demon Cult.

However, it wasn’t like he knew nothing about them.

For nearly a hundred years, his masters had hardly ever talked about them.

Instead, they told him about the knowledge and information they had.

‘There is something called the Dark Soul Separation Technique.’

They needed something to talk about too.

“It divides the soul by imbuing it in shadows…”

As Lee Ro-woon opened his mouth, Cheong-hyeon’s face was more shocked than ever before.

“And places it in another’s soul.”

Just like his master used to say.

“The one who receives the divided shadow can use some of the original owner’s power, and when he dies, the divided soul returns to the original owner.”

Cheong-hyeon, this man, was the Red Masked Devil, but not the Red Masked Devil.

Cheong-hyeon, who seemed lacking for a leader-level figure.

The real Red Masked Devil was surely somewhere, controlling his shadows.

“If I kill you, the real Red Masked Devil will know what you saw.”

But not dealing with the Red Masked Devil’s shadow wouldn’t solve the problem either.

The real Red Masked Devil would retrieve the information contained in the Red Masked Devil’s shadow after a certain amount of time.

“Heh. Hehehe. Knowing won’t change anything.”

Cheong-hyeon’s face, which had been distorted with shock, returned to its original state.

The battle was lost.

But the war would be won.

The moment Cheong-hyeon thought that and tried to commit suicide.

“Who says so?”

Lee Ro-woon’s hand touched Cheong-hyeon’s forehead.

“That nothing will change.”

It seemed Cheong-hyeon didn’t remember.

‘I am the master of what you have learned.’

It was a mistake to think of that statement as just some remnant of the Demonic Cult.

Lee Ro-woon was not a remnant of the Demonic Cult.

He was the master.

Whoosh!

The sacred fire blazed.

“Kuh, krrrk!”

It would burn away the real Cheong-hyeon’s shadow that was dwelling in this man.

* * *

The cleanup of Arein was complete.

“He really was a Vice Commander…”

Kang Eun-ha said, looking at Lee Yong-jin with a renewed sense of surprise.

It was true that he seemed somewhat clumsy and unreliable.

But when he showed his true killing intent, Lee Yong-jin changed completely.

He took one life with each throwing knife, and he single-handedly defeated five dark assassins at once.

If it hadn’t been for him, the battle could have lasted quite a while.

“Thanks to you, I learned something good.”

Lee Shin-woo said, fixing his broken glasses.

‘Red Masked Devil, Dark Soul Separation Technique.’

Given the Azure Army’s frequent clashes with the Dark Flower Clan, they had learned one of the Red Masked Devil’s hidden secrets.

It was something that even Lee Shin-woo couldn’t know, unlike what Cheong-hyeon thought.

“Then let’s call it a draw.”

Lee Shin-woo’s help and new information.

An exchange of two things.

“Not bad. It means the Red Masked Devil has been weakened.”

Lee Shin-woo nodded and gathered the Azure Army.

‘They’re quite something.’

Everyone thought the same thing as they watched the Azure Army and Lee Shin-woo, though they didn’t say it out loud.

Their opponents were the Red Masked Devil’s shadow and the Dark Flower Clan members, even if they weren’t the real ones.

And the Assembly’s martial artists.

The players, who were said to be no match for martial artists, fought them on equal terms.

That alone showed the Azure Army’s strength.

“I’ll give you some extra time as a service.”

Lee Shin-woo left those words behind and exited Arein with the Azure Army.

Now, all that was left was to find the gate of the Hao Clan and enter the main base.

“It’s here.”

Kim Eun-tae unlocked several security devices and led them to a hidden space in the club’s basement.

“I don’t know if I should call it amazing or reckless.”

To think that there was a gate in Arein, where so many people, even martial artists, frequented.

Most of the hidden forces kept the entrances to their main bases tightly hidden and forbade access to outsiders, but the Black City had hidden the entrance to their main base in a place that anyone could access.

“It could be wise. Who would think that the entrance to the main base is hidden here?”

Lee Yong-jin said.

Lee Ro-woon followed Kim Eun-tae to the door.

The door of the Hao Clan looked like a bathroom door.

“I’ll open it.”

What was needed to open the door was a key.

Kim Eun-tae said that when one became a branch manager, they received a copy of the key.

What he took out was a gold coin.

It emitted a bright light and gradually changed its shape.

Eventually, it transformed into a golden trinket.

Kim Eun-tae brought it to the door without hesitation.

“……….”

The door didn’t change.

“It seems like there’s a problem?”

As Kang Eun-ha said, it seemed like there was a problem.

Kim Eun-tae, who was flustered and even sweating, kept bringing the trinket to the door, but the door that should have opened didn’t open.

“It seems the key’s authority has been changed.”

That was a possibility.

The key that Kim Eun-tae had was, after all, a copy.

It meant that there was another object that held the full power of the key.

With that, it was possible to nullify the power of the copy at any time.

“That can’t be…”

Even so, there was a reason why Kim Eun-tae had confidently brought them here.

“The original is held by the Clan Lord, not the Black City King.”

In the end, it meant that the Clan Lord had changed the key’s authority.

Kim Eun-tae had judged that even if there was chaos in the Black City, the Clan Lord wouldn’t go over to the Assembly.

“Oh no…”

Without the key, there weren’t many ways to open the door.

Even if there were, it would take a long time.

-Support has arrived from the Assembly. We’re buying time.

Lee Shin-woo’s message.

There wasn’t much time.

“For now, let’s retreat and find another way…”

When Kang Eun-ha started to speak.

“Move aside.”

Lee Ro-woon approached the entrance of the Hao Clan.

Lee Ro-woon had felt things since he returned.

The Blood King Castle of the Blood Cult, Armo of Bondeno, and even the Docheon Clan.

And lastly.

‘The Demonic Tomb.’

What he realized when he reached the Demonic Tomb.

The nature of the divided and fragmented world.

“Give it to me.”

When Lee Ro-woon reached out his hand, Kim Eun-tae handed over the trinket that acted as a key without a word.

Lee Ro-woon closed his eyes while holding the trinket in his hand.

‘Divided world. Its commonality.’

Perhaps, Ainhardt and Gehenna were the same.

The reason for the destruction and division of all these worlds.

‘Chaos.’

And that chaos was within Lee Ro-woon.

[Accessing the authority of the world.]

A message was heard.

[You have the qualifications of an administrator.]

As expected.

[Would you like to open the door?]

Lee Ro-woon opened his eyes.

His eyes were completely black, without any whites.

-Open it.

Lee Ro-woon said in a voice that humans couldn’t hear.