Chapter 342: Imperial Order (6)

King Zhu Taikhan was dumbfounded. He had made a decoy and hid between guards, but this demon-like Lord knew that he was the King after all. Then did he play along even when he knew that Taikhan was hiding between the guards? Taikhan became speechless when Yon Namgun walked forward to protect Taikhan with a tense look.

“I know there is the pact of nonaggression, but do you think it can be justified to injure an official of the Imperial Palace and threaten his highness?”

He seemed much more careful with his tone now. But it didn’t make him any more comfortable with these cultists. Submeng then scoffed as he said, “Hah. Mister Commander. It’s not us, but you people who started this.”

“B-but…”

As Submeng said, it was the decoy to the King who started all this in the beginning. The Demonic Cult had its highest officials come out of the castle walls to greet them, paying the utmost respect to the Imperial Palace. But it was the palace who urged the cultists to kneel.

‘He is correct, but I can’t just say yes to their power or else the authority of our Imperial Palace will fall.’

The commander glanced toward the soldiers and the Imperial Guards. They seemed all tense and fearful of the Demonic Cult warriors.

‘This is not right.’

Even if they were at the Demonic Cult, they were still the Imperial Army. The authority of the King, a son of the Great Ming Empire’s Emperor, was not to be undermined. Yon Namgun had to stop that from happening at least.

“Hmph. That was Yuking’s doing, not our king. And even if what Yuking did made you feel uncomfortable, it doesn’t mean you have the right to harm our official like that,” Yon Namgun said.

Yeowun scoffed. He then asked Zhu Taikhan who was behind Yon Namgun, “Let me ask you, your highness. Our cult executes those who impersonate the Lord. How does the Imperial Palace take care of an imposter trying to be a king?”

‘?!’

Zhu Taikhan frowned but he couldn’t say anything. Yeowun easily countered the words that Yon Namgun had said to him. If it wasn’t for the cult, the Imperial Palace would’ve also punished them heavily by killing the impersonator and their family.

“Let me tell you this: if it wasn’t for the pact of nonaggression, that man would not be alive now.”

Chun Yeowun, who became the Lord, never knelt to anyone, even if it was in the presence of the Emperor of the Great Ming Empire.

‘This man isn’t just only powerful.’

Yon Namgun was shocked by Yeowun’s monstrous power at first, but now that he saw it, Yeowun was also very intelligent. Yon Namgun had to return to basic reasonings.

“Ugh, okay. Whatever the case, what you are doing is disrespecting the Royal family. Get away from our King right now!”

And with that, Yon Namgun aimed his sword at Yeowun. That’s when someone charged toward him quickly and struck his sword. Yon Namgun focused 80% of his energy into it, but the attack had much more power in comparison.

‘How can the power be that strong?!’

He once thought that no one would stand a chance against him unless he was up against the top five strongest warriors of Yulin. He even dueled and tied against the elder of the Fire Mountain clan once.

‘Who is this masked man?!’

The man who attacked as soon as he aimed the sword was Great Guardian Marakhim. With Yon Namgun’s right arm thrown upward, he raised his left foot to kick up Marakim’s neck. But Marakim easily dodged the attack by tilting his head back and struck his finger into the blood point on the leg.

“Argh!”

Yon Namgun screamed as sword qi penetrated through his thighs. He then tried to regain balance by pulling his leg back, but Marakim kicked his right leg that held him up. Yon Namgun was then thrown off to the ground. He dropped the sword he had been holding at the time, and Marakim reached out toward it. The sword then moved into Marakim’s hand.

“Ugh!”

Marakim aimed his sword at Yon Namgun’s neck and warned, “Don’t you dare aim the sword at our Lord.”

“Ugh…!”

Yon Namgun became wordless with the cold sword upon his neck. His pride that he earned after becoming a superior master warrior had shattered. The masked man was more of a warrior than he could ever be in terms of power.

‘Commander is down!’

Yon Namgun was one of the top warriors within the Imperial Guards. With the only one who can protect to be fallen, Zhu Taikhan became shocked. All other guards were too afraid of Yeowun and his guardians.

‘He will now threaten me too!’

The only thing Zhu Taikhan now had was his mouth. He wasn’t going to win against these cultists anyway. After a slight moment of thinking, Zhu Taikhan spoke.

“How dare you threaten me and show violence toward the Imperial Army?! Are you not afraid of the million soldiers of the Great Ming Empire?!”

Zhu Taikhan chose the most simple way. For a prince who had grown up within the palace, it was not possible to imagine he had to bow down to someone who wasn’t from the Royal family.

“You are quite bold.”

Yeowun spoke surprisingly. He thought this show of power was enough to make Zhu Taikhan succumb. But Zhu Taikhan didn’t back off. He thought there was no way a martial artist, no matter how strong he was, would stand a chance against millions of arrows.

Of course, a real battle against millions of warriors was not something that they could fight against.

“If you harm me in any way, the Demonic Cult will be wiped off the map!”

Zhu Taikhan spoke strongly. He had to use the best weapon he had to threaten his enemies. He figured the Demonic Cult would not be afraid of the giant Imperial Army coming at them. But it was strange.

‘What? What’s with that look?’