Emperor Of Steel [EN]: Chapter 156

6. The End of Guigokja

“Luke de Rakan…!”

Guigokja, clutching his severed arm, gritted his teeth.

Luke smiled at him and said, “Huhu, it seems we meet again. I’ve heard that in the Southern Continent, if your sleeves brush more than three times, it’s not a coincidence but fate. Is our relationship also fate?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“It means that one of us is destined to die. Surely you feel it too. Isn’t that why you’ve been dodging me?”

“Hmph, you think I’m avoiding you out of fear?”

Guigokja glared at Luke, who was pointing his sword at him, his expression furious.

Until now, he had never fought Luke with all his might.

In the past, at the Zhuge Family and at Ungseong, he had only engaged him moderately before retreating.

But where did that confidence that he could kill him at any time come from?

He ground his teeth and said, “This body is not only versed in the arts of the Guigok Sect [a fictional martial arts sect] but also in heretical arts. If I wanted to, turning you into dust would be nothing!”

“Then try it.”

At Luke’s sneer, Guigokja’s eyebrows furrowed into an angry V shape.

“You…!”

There was a reason why Luke had flown all the way here to provoke Guigokja.

It was to buy time for Jo Won-rak and Princess So-hye to evacuate, and to secretly cast a magical barrier to prevent Guigokja from escaping.

He could let others go, but not this one.

There were two reasons for this.

First, Arsen was using the heretical arts that Guigokja seemed to have mastered.

To defeat his mortal enemy, Arsen, he needed to understand the heretical arts well.

And second, Luke was a great sage of the 9th circle of the heavens [a high level of magical power].

As a mage and scholar who studied the principles of the world, he was deeply curious about the heretical arts, which were similar to but different from black magic.

So, he intended to capture Guigokja and make him reveal every detail of the heretical arts.

“If you surrender willingly, I’ll let you live like a bug, clinging to your dirty, paltry life.”

“You, you thunderstruck brat!”

At Luke’s arrogant remark, Guigokja’s face turned crimson with anger.

Guigokja, who had lived for nearly 200 years.

This was the first time in his life that he had been insulted like this.

So, not only did his face turn red, but his body trembled.

“I’ll see if you can still be so arrogant after your skin is peeled off while you’re still alive!”

“Before you peel off my skin, how about you peel off your bluff?”

Luke, who never lost in verbal sparring.

If Guigokja was an eccentric who had lived for 200 years, he was the Black Sage who had once swept through the Rodisia Continent, known as the Demon King.

Guigokja, provoked by his taunts, took out a large bell from his pocket and shook it wildly while chanting a strange spell.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

‘What is he doing?’

It was the moment when Luke, who didn’t understand Guigokja’s actions, tilted his head.

Suddenly, he felt a terrifying killing intent from behind.

Luke reflexively turned his body and swung his sword.

Clang-!

His body was pushed back by the heavy force.

But Luke was startled when he saw the one who had swung the sword at him.

It was Hiroth.

‘What is this…!’

Before Luke could even think, a fire magic flew from behind again and hit his shoulder.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

Luke, grimacing in pain, turned his head.

Arsen’s guardian, Beymon, who was made from his past body, was standing there holding a staff!

Luke couldn’t understand at all.

He had completely absorbed Beymon with black magic, let alone the self-destructed Hiroth.

But how could he be alive and attacking him?

Just as Luke was at a loss, others attacked from the left and right.

‘Shaykan and even Grand Duke Gregory?’

He could understand Shaykan, but Grand Duke Gregory was someone who would never be hostile to him.

Moreover, there was no way that someone who should be protecting Reina in the Holy Empire would be here in the Southern Continent.

“Then this must be an illusion.”

“Hahahaha! It’s not just a simple illusion. These are your inner enemies, and with my sorcery, they can be materialized and launch attacks that are exactly the same as the real thing.”

Guigokja, who had disappeared somewhere, burst into triumphant laughter.

It was an illusion, but it was not fake at all.

If you were hit by the illusion’s attack, you would bleed and die for real.

This technique was also from the ancient heretical arts.

Guigokja was proficient in it because he had sought out and mastered the heretical arts scattered throughout the world.

Moreover, the heretical arts were also being passed down in the Guigok Sect, which he had inherited.

In fact, long ago, the Guigok Sect and the Heretics came from the same root.

If those who sealed dangerous techniques and went into seclusion founded the Guigok Sect, then those who went out into the world and burned with ambition created the Heretics.

This fact was only known to Guigokja, who had inherited the lineage of the Guigok Sect.

However, Guigokja had no intention of following the will of the previous sect leaders who founded the Guigok Sect.

Nor did he have the ambition to create an organization and conquer the continent like the Heretics.

He simply enjoyed causing trouble or interfering in the disputes of foolish humans.

In particular, trampling on those who boasted of their exceptional skills in all sorts of ways gave him a pleasure that could not be compared to anything else.

Luke did nothing but dodge the attacks of the illusions.

“Hahahaha! Why do you keep running away? If you’re a descendant of a hero, you should face me bravely…”

Shwook!

The mouth of Guigokja, who was hiding in the dark and taunting Luke with a triumphant voice, closed.

A sharp, piercing strike had left a deep gash on his cheek.

“Y-you, how…!”

As Guigokja muttered with a bewildered face, Luke, who had appeared in front of him, wore a bitter expression.

“A guy who is good at illusions can’t recognize the illusions created by others.”

Luke, who was caught in Guigokja’s technique.

He didn’t just dodge the attacks of the four people as Guigokja had seen.

After using illusion magic to deceive Guigokja’s eyes, he had found the guy who was hiding somewhere.

“It’s a pretty good trick, but it seems you can’t attack with the illusions. And the illusions can only attack if you’re directly watching them with your eyes, right?”

Luke’s point was not wrong at all.

In fact, until just before Guigokja was attacked, the illusions had only been chasing the illusions that Luke had secretly created.

“I hope that’s not the best trick you’ve got. Otherwise, the fight will end too boringly.”

“Ugh! You…!”

Guigokja’s face twisted hideously like a demon.

But to Luke, who had even defeated the strongest lich, Arsen, he was not a target of fear at all.

His face, confident in his abilities, was full of curiosity and interest.

“Kill him! Kill him!”

At Guigokja’s command, the illusions that had been chasing the illusions turned and rushed at Luke.

Luke, who dodged the sword of the illusion in the form of Hiroth with Blink [a teleportation spell], released divine power against them.

“Holy Nova!”

Luke, who had not awakened his divine power for long, only had a few techniques he could use by applying that power.

But even that achievement was great from the perspective of ordinary priests, and the Holy Nova he had just manifested also boasted considerable power.

The technique itself was simple.

It was just a much stronger version of Holy Light, which emitted a sacred light, by concentrating divine power.

Of course, the amount of divine power consumed at once was enormous, so its power was incomparable to Holy Light.

Whoooosh!

“Ugh!”

As if the sun had appeared, the sky suddenly became as bright as day.

The powerful light and sacred energy melted the four illusions that were close to Luke like snow.

Guigokja muttered with an incredulous face.

“H-how…?”

“Hmph. Divine power has the power to purify evil and wrong things. Even if your trick is of a different system, its origin is evil and wrong, so it has no choice but to disappear.”

“How dare you! Insult me, the messenger of the Supreme God!”

Guigokja, hearing Luke’s explanation, raised his voice in anger.

“This body is the messenger of the Supreme God! That is, I am the one who represents the will of the Supreme God! Whether it is light or darkness, clean or dirty, I am justice, and I am right!”

‘This guy is crazy after all.’

However, apart from the fact that he was crazy, the sorcery that the enraged Guigokja was displaying was unusual.

He took out talismans from his pocket and scattered them wildly, and each time, a red dragon appeared and spewed flames.

“Aaaah! A dragon!”

“R-run away!”

The fire dragon did not only attack Luke but also indiscriminately spewed flames around, regardless of friend or foe.

Jo Won-rak, who had taken Princess So-hye and fled to a building away from the castle gate, turned pale when he saw the fire dragon rushing towards them.

‘Am I going to die here…?’

Fwoooosh!

The flames spewed by the fire dragon flew into the building.

But Jo Won-rak and So-hye were not hurt at all.

A huge steel doll that suddenly appeared, cutting through space, had blocked the flames spewed by the fire dragon.

The steel doll was none other than Luke’s personal Gigant [a large mechanical construct], Avenger.

It had been destroyed in the fight with Arsen, but it had been rebuilt with greatly enhanced defensive power.

Because of that, it could easily withstand even Hellfire-level flames.

Luke, who had hastily summoned Avenger to save the two, glared at Guigokja with a displeased look.

“You coward, dragging others into the fight.”

“Where is there cowardice in war? It’s war to use anything you can! Whether it’s people or zombies!”

Guigokja, who retorted to Luke’s criticism, continued to create fire dragons and set fire to everything around him.

Luke controlled Avenger with marionette magic and eliminated the fire dragons.

However, realizing that one Avenger was not enough, he pulled out a Knight-class Gairus and a Warrior-class Stiletto, which he had kept in the subspace of his bracelet as spares.

Each time the great swords of the three Gigants, imbued with ice magic, flashed, the ferocious fire dragons turned into white smoke and disappeared.

Guigokja wore a dumbfounded expression at Luke’s control skills.

Not only were the powerful fire dragons he had created with sorcery being destroyed, but Luke’s Gigant control was also beyond common sense.

‘No way! I heard that the steel dolls of the North are controlled by people riding inside them?’

If Guigokja had studied Gigants more deeply, he would have known that the original form of Gigants was golems and that the Demon King Seimon controlled those golems with marionette magic.

But he didn’t know much about the magical engineering of the Northern Continent.

In any case, his trump card, the illusion sorcery, and even the fire dragons that could face tens of thousands of troops were being neutralized.

So, he had no choice but to use his last resort.

‘I have to make a move before he eliminates all the fire dragons!’

Guigokja, biting his lip tightly, took out a black bamboo flute from his pocket and began to play it.

Peelili- Peeeee-!

A mournful and eerie music sound echoed all around.

The soldiers nearby staggered, lost consciousness, and began to fall.

“Cover your ears, quickly! You must never listen to it!”

Princess So-hye, who had covered Jo Won-rak’s ears on the roof of the building, shouted loudly.

She warned not only Luke but also the other soldiers.

‘Is it an attack using sound waves?’

Luke had heard that in the Southern Continent, there was a martial art called ‘Sound Art’ that used sound to attack opponents.

So, he thought that Guigokja’s flute sound might be a type of that Sound Art.

However, the Soul Severing Flute, which was considered one of the three great magical artifacts of the Heretics along with the Chaos Bell and the Dream Bell, was not just a Sound Art.

It was an evil tool that could forcibly separate the soul of the listener from the body and summon the spirits of the dead around it.

Currently, the area around Yodong Fortress was filled with the spirits of tens of thousands of people who had died in the aftermath of the battle.

If these forcibly summoned spirits were made to listen to a melody containing a special spell, they could be transformed into terrifying evil spirits that were no different from the demons of the demon realm.

‘Tch, this won’t be able to separate Luke’s soul. Humans with strong energy or strong spirituality have a strong resistance to the Soul Severing Flute….’

Anyway, he was going to give him thousands of evil spirits.

If he was attacked by evil spirits, even he would be in trouble.

Thinking so, Guigokja took a breath to play a melody containing a spell.

At that moment, he suddenly turned pale.

“Ugh! This, this is poison…!”

“Yes, it’s demon realm poison.”

Poison Smog, a demonic ability that Luke had taken from the mid-level demon Naga in the past.

Unable to get close to the sound wave attack of the Soul Severing Flute, Luke secretly spread a fog containing poison around Guigokja.

The Poison Smog, which seeped into his body the moment he inhaled, began to spread fiercely, threatening to melt his internal organs.

“Kuh-uh-uh!”

Guigokja, whose face had turned black, vomited black blood.

He tried to use sorcery to block the poison, but it was useless.

That was how unfamiliar and deadly the demon realm poison was.

“Ugh! Cowardly… a descendant of a hero…!”

“Hmph, you were the one who said there was no cowardice in war. I just returned it to you as you said.”

“Y-you…!”

Guigokja, having failed even his last resort, was frustrated but could not help but admit defeat.

However, he could not be captured here willingly.

So, he decided to run away.

His plan was to run far away first and then neutralize or remove the demon realm poison that had seeped into his body.

‘You! I will definitely repay this humiliation today!’

Guigokja, inwardly grinding his teeth, secretly formed a hand seal to activate the space-shifting sorcery of the Guigok Gate.

Surpassing the transfer techniques of the Pungbaek Gate, it could move him over a hundred *li* [approximately 50 kilometers] at once.

*Crack!*

However, only sparks flew around his body, and the space-shifting sorcery failed to activate.

Thinking he might have made a mistake, he tried again, but the result was the same.

“Heh heh heh! Trying to escape? It won’t work.”

Luke said with a sneer.

As soon as he had arrived, he had secretly cast a magical barrier that interfered with space-shifting, preventing Guigokja from escaping.

Luke, seeing Guigokja’s face contorted with rage, raised his hand.

“Now, let’s make you a prisoner. Holy Bind!”

The moment he snapped his fingers, rings of light imbued with divine energy appeared and bound Guigokja’s body.

‘Kuh-uh! No! I can’t be taken prisoner!’

He knew what would happen if he was captured.

He would be forced to reveal all the sorcery of the Guigok Gate and the Heretic Cult, then be tortured and killed.

He would rather die here than suffer that fate.

With his eyes blazing with anger and madness, Guigokja began to chant a spell he had hidden away for his last resort.

‘Om mani zbahaha sarodaya…….’

It was a self-destruction sorcery of mutual annihilation.

As he chanted, his body swelled up like a bright red balloon.

“Heh heh heh. Though I have lost, I will take you with me to the underworld!”

Guigokja, laughing like a madman, chanted the final spell, and at that moment, his body exploded.

*Kuaaaaaaang-!*

An enormous heat and flame, as if several wagons’ worth of mana bombs had exploded, erupted, threatening to engulf everything around.

“Th-this! Aegis!”

Luke, who had not expected the sly and cunning Guigokja to choose such an extreme option as self-destruction, was taken by surprise.

He hastily deployed dozens of layers of defensive magic around Guigokja’s exploding body.

It was not difficult to protect himself.

However, if he dodged, at least half of Yodong Fortress would be destroyed.

The dozens of layers of defensive magic, deployed with 9th-circle mana, surrounded the flames and heat that were trying to spread in all directions.

*Crack! Crack! Crackle!*

Guigokja’s final sorcery was powerful.

It was enough to break through the dozens of layers of Aegis that Luke had created with all his power.

However, Guigokja’s self-destruction ultimately failed to break through the Aegis and was extinguished within it.

“Whew, that was close.”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, Luke looked at the spot where Guigokja had been.

The ground was only dented, and no trace of him remained.

‘Tch, I should have extracted the Heretic Cult’s sorcery from him…….’

It was regrettable, but there was nothing he could do.

Shaking his head, Luke moved to help the Yemaek soldiers around him.

The death of Guigokja marked the end of the battle of Yodong Fortress.

The Song army, already demoralized by the death of Grand General Gwan Chang, retreated en masse when even Guigokja, whom they had relied on, died in a massive explosion.

“Chase them down!”

“They must pay the price for invading our land!”

The Yemaek generals wanted to chase down the fleeing enemies and annihilate them all.

However, King Biryu shook his head.

“We will not pursue them. First, we will enter Yodong Fortress and rest.”

Even the elite warriors of the Muklin Ghost Cavalry, who had been riding at full speed for two days without rest and then fought in battle, could not ignore their fatigue.

Moreover, the situation of the Yodong Fortress soldiers was not good.

No, it was quite bad.

Due to the continuous incursions of the *Jiangshi* [Chinese hopping vampires] and the Song army’s all-out attack last night, half of the Yodong Fortress garrison had been killed or wounded.

If reinforcements had not arrived in time, they would have been annihilated.

“I am sorry, Your Highness. Please punish me.”

General Do Won-soo Eulji Deok-mun knelt and begged for punishment when he met King Biryu.

“No, Father. General Do Won-soo did his best. However, the enemies used despicable *Jiangshi* to cause chaos within the fortress…….”

Princess Sohye tried to explain in detail why Yodong Fortress was in danger, but King Biryu waved his hand.

“Enough! I have already grasped the situation on my way here. So, there is no need for further explanation.”

Having said that, Biryu turned his gaze back to Eulji Deok-mun, who was still kneeling and begging for punishment.

“General Do Won-soo, your abilities are needed to eliminate the remnants of the fleeing enemy and to advance in large numbers. Your guilt and merits will be judged after the war is over, so focus on military matters for now.”

“Your benevolence is boundless!”

Eulji Deok-mun was moved by the king’s generosity and stepped back.

He and the other generals were very excited after hearing the king’s words.

The king had said they would advance in large numbers.

Daliang, the capital of the Song Empire.

There had been several instances in history where Yemaek had preemptively attacked Song, but they had never targeted the enemy’s capital.

“Father, are you really going to advance on Daliang?”

Biryu nodded at Sohye’s question.

“We must deal with Jo Won-gyun and Hwangbo Gwang. Otherwise, the war will continue.”

If his son-in-law, Jo Won-rak, became emperor, a friendly relationship between the two countries would begin.

Of course, it would be difficult to wash away the grudges quickly, as they had been fighting for a long time.

However, considering the future, he could not miss this opportunity.

“The Song Empire is much larger than our Yemaek. Although they have lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in this battle, they have the potential to mobilize even more if they are pushed. Therefore, we must strike before the enemy can recover their strength.”

“But will the expedition be easy? The road to Daliang is long, and if we send our main forces, the Khitan and Yamatai might take advantage of our empty territory and attack.”

Sohye’s point was valid.

The reason why Yemaek had not invaded Song many times was because of the neighboring countries with the nature of bandits.

Both Khitan and Yamatai had remained neutral in this war.

It was not because they were neutral, but because they intended to take advantage when both Yemaek and Song were exhausted from the war.

“You are right. But we are not going to occupy Song. We are here to enthrone the Third Prince as emperor. And the expeditionary force may not be as large as you think.”

“The expeditionary force will not be large?”

“Yes, and we may not need to worry too much about Yamatai or Khitan.”

What was the king thinking?

Jo Won-rak and Sohye could guess the size of the expeditionary force, but they could not imagine how he would prevent the invasion of neighboring countries.

‘Could it be that he will deal with Khitan and Yamatai first before going to Song?’

‘No, that would take too long.’

Biryu chuckled as he watched his daughter and son-in-law racking their brains.

“For now, go and rest. You must be tired from fighting all night. I will call you again when I need your help.”

At the king’s words, Jo Won-rak and Sohye bowed their heads and stepped back.

After they left, Biryu, left alone, took out something he had been carrying in his pocket.

It was a *Jiangshi* talisman, which Luke had shown him after the *Jiangshi* attack in Ungseong.

According to Luke, this talisman was attached to the *Jiangshi* on the Song Empire’s navy transport ships and was used to control the *Jiangshi*.

“Is it true that evil is destroyed by evil…….”

People in the Southern Continent, with a few exceptions, were extremely reluctant to use the dead.

They thought it was an act that disturbed the rest of the dead.

However, Luke, a person from the Northern Continent, thought differently.

If it could reduce the casualties of the soldiers and lead to a quick end to the war, he thought that *Jiangshi* could be used as much as possible.

They were already created, and undead like zombies and ghouls appeared frequently in the Northern Continent.

“It’s not ideal, but if it can reduce unnecessary sacrifices…….”

King Biryu muttered to himself and stared at the *Jiangshi* talisman for a long time.

While Biryu was giving instructions inside the fortress, Luke was surveying the situation outside the fortress.

“Stand straight!”

“If you don’t want to lose your head, don’t do anything clumsy!”

The Divine Army, or the Blood Band, as they were called, were guarding the prisoners along with the Yemaek army.

The Song Empire army was completely shattered by the charge of the Muklin Ghost Cavalry and the Symphonia Kingdom’s Gigant unit.

As their lines collapsed, most of them fled and scattered.

As a result, there were fewer casualties than expected.

About one in ten.

Still, it was a large army of 600,000, so there were tens of thousands of enemy corpses to be collected.

Since the Yemaek army and the Symphonia expeditionary force alone could not handle it, they decided to use the surrendered prisoners to clean up the battlefield.

“You guys dig the pits!”

“You collect the corpses, and you guys over there organize the captured military supplies.”

The prisoners were surprisingly compliant with the control and instructions.

This was because the Gigants were always patrolling around them.

The prisoners, who had witnessed the terrifying combat power of the Gigants last night, knew very well that even if a hundred or a thousand of them attacked, they would be no match for the Gigants.

Moreover…….

“Is that the king of the Northerners who killed Guigokja?”

“Shhh! Be careful. If you make eye contact, you might die.”

The prisoners, especially those from the martial world, were more afraid of Luke than the Gigants.

It was rumored that he had not only killed Guigokja, who was notorious as a mad sorcerer, but also knew how to use all sorts of strange sorcery.

Above all, the steel giants were moving according to his orders.

With just one word from him, all the prisoners would be crushed into a bloody mess.

“Your Majesty! As you instructed, we have gathered the undead, no, the *Jiangshi*.”

“We have also identified the ones who were managing the *Jiangshi* with Guigokja.”

Sherry and Count Leonard came to Luke and reported.

He looked satisfied and asked.

“I understand gathering the *Jiangshi* that were wandering around out of control, but it wouldn’t have been easy to identify the ones who were managing them?”

When they lost the battle, the sorcerers who were managing the *Jiangshi* quickly changed their clothes and hid among the ordinary soldiers.

It was impossible to distinguish them by their appearance.

“Heh heh heh. Am I not a mixed-blood of the Beastmen? The olfactory ability of the Beastmen is more than 100 times that of humans.”

He had first identified the unique stench of the *Jiangshi*, and then arrested all the prisoners who had even a slight scent of *Jiangshi*.

“Indeed, thanks to you, we can proceed with the work more quickly. Count Leonard, your contribution is great.”

Luke, who had planned to study the Heretic Cult’s sorcery because Guigokja had died, had to change his method.

That was to interrogate and extract information from the men who were in league with Guigokja.

They were much less skilled than Guigokja, but since they were also sorcerers, they would know something about the Heretic Cult’s sorcery.

“Your Majesty, why did you gather these *Jiangshi*?”

Sherry asked curiously.

Even the Yemaek soldiers and the captured Song soldiers were glancing at the place where the *Jiangshi* were gathered with uneasy faces.

The Yemaek soldiers were worried that the *Jiangshi* would go wild again, and the prisoners were deeply concerned that they would be unfairly punished because of the higher-ups who had secretly used the *Jiangshi*.

Desecrating the dead was something that even the Khitan and Yamatai, whom they disparaged as barbarians or bandits, did not do.

Even if they were executed or buried alive for being branded as remnants of the Heretic Cult, they would not be in a position to protest.

Of course, Luke and Biryu had no intention of blaming the innocent prisoners.

“I’m thinking of using them to invade the Song Empire.”

“What? You’re going to use *Jiangshi* in the war?”

Sherry asked in surprise.

“Yes. Why, is there a reason why I can’t?”

“Well, the people here are more…….”

Sherry mentioned the funeral culture of the Southern Continent people that she had heard about since coming here.

Respecting the dead was similar to the Northern Continent.

However, the culture of the Southern Continent, which believed in reincarnation and had ancestor worship and ancestral rites, was more solemn and intense.

“Heh heh. Of course, I know that. But it was Jo Won-gyun’s faction that created the *Jiangshi*.”

Even the low-ranking soldiers of the Song Empire who had been captured now knew that fact.

The Divine Army had deliberately informed them, and there were many Song Empire soldiers who had witnessed the *Jiangshi* in their own camps.

As a result, there were more than a few prisoners who openly expressed their anger at Jo Won-gyun’s faction.

It seemed that the size of the Divine Army could grow even larger.

“Moreover, the ‘homeland’ of the *Jiangshi* is the Song Empire. We are just returning the *Jiangshi* to their homeland according to ancient customs.”

Luke gave emphasis to the word ‘homeland’ with a meaningful smile.

Leonard, who understood what he meant, nodded with a sinister smile.

“Heh heh heh! Indeed, that would be a good justification!”

The reason why ancient sorcerers created *Jiangshi* was to return the corpses of those who died on the battlefield or in foreign lands to their homeland.

They believed that only then would their souls not hold grudges and wander in the afterlife, and they would be happy in the next life.

However, when the *Jiangshi* went to their homeland, they would inevitably pass through fortresses and cities.

The soldiers remaining in the Song Empire’s mainland would have no choice but to make way.

Sherry, who belatedly realized what Luke meant, chuckled and said.

“The advance will end more easily than expected.”

“Well, we shouldn’t forget that Jo Won-gyun’s faction is holding the emperor hostage.”

Luke was not overly optimistic.

Although he was unconscious, the Song emperor was still alive.

If they acted under the guise of the emperor’s orders, they would have to fight unnecessary battles.

And Jo Won-rak himself could hesitate at crucial moments because of the emperor’s safety.

“Moreover, they will be working with Arsen, so they won’t fall so easily.”

“Indeed…… I had forgotten that point.”