Chapter 34 - Episode 6. God of Despair (3)
Chapter 34: Episode 6. God of Despair (3)
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Two hours later, Jaehwan was heading toward the Inner Fortress’s annex palace with Cheongheo.
The Shadow Corps woman assigned to attend him said, “You will be staying in this room for the time being. The annex palace attendants will provide you with further guidance.”
“Understood.”
“Also, the northern checkpoint chief and the woman you asked about earlier have begun to recover. The medical officer said the checkpoint chief will need about two weeks, while the woman will need around three months.”
“Thank you.”
“If anything else comes up, please call for me.”
The woman who had introduced herself as Heukhwa vanished into the darkness. Jaehwan looked at Cheongheo.
“You should be on your way too.”
“There is something I want to ask you, brat. Follow me for a moment.”
His voice was strangely petulant.
After considering it for a moment, Jaehwan followed Cheongheo.
Candles burned in the sparse wall niches. Cheongheo was heading underground, beneath the annex palace.
As he walked through the darkness, Jaehwan recalled his conversation with the Inner Fortress’s Chief Internal Administrator.
“Is Gorgon Fortress strong enough to stand against the Twelve Great Lords of the 《Great Realm》?”
“Could one of the Twelve Great Lords be after you?”
“One of them might be.”
Yulhen had deliberated for a long time before answering.
“Only a Lord can stand against a Lord.”
“Then you will suffer losses by hiding me.”
“That does not matter. In fact, this works out well.”
“Why?”
“Because the Lords cannot directly interfere in matters within 《Chaos》.”
His thoughts were interrupted the next moment.
“We’re here.”
Jaehwan frowned at Cheongheo, who had stopped walking.
“What are you planning?”
A massive training hall had been built beneath the annex palace. Weapons lined one wall, while simple dummies stood along the other. It seemed to be where the Inner Fortress’s martial artists trained.
“Brat. As far as I can tell, you are not with the Rupture. Your presence is fierce, but it is not mechanical like theirs.”
Cheongheo continued as he studied Jaehwan’s sharp presence.
“But you do not look like one of the Lords’ underlings either. I cannot sense the aura of any of the twelve zones from you.”
The guards practicing swordsmanship in one corner of the hall spotted Cheongheo and hurriedly cleared out.
“An Awakened One who belongs to neither the Rupture nor the Lords, yet one I do not know...”
Cheongheo waved to the guards as he continued.
“Then there is only one answer.”
He gazed quietly into Jaehwan’s eyes.
“Brat. Did you clear a Master’s Tower?”
Cheongheo read Jaehwan’s expression and grinned.
“I knew it.”
“...Old man, do you know something?”
“I know enough.”
Just as Jaehwan was about to speak, Cheongheo drew his sword.
“Let’s have a match, brat.”
“...”
“Shouldn’t we settle which is stronger, your Stab or my slash?”
Jaehwan drew Dokbul as well.
The truth was, he had been curious too. Since arriving in Chaos, this old man was the first rival worthy of facing him.
After repeating nothing but Stabs for so long, Jaehwan knew instinctively. This old man was like him. Just as Jaehwan had spent his entire life stabbing, this old man had spent his entire life slashing.
Perhaps for far longer than Jaehwan had.
“Come at me, brat. If you beat me, I will answer every question you have.”
Cheongheo chuckled.
“Though that will probably be impossible.”
* * *
The fifth of the twelve zones in the 《Great Realm》, the Steel Zone, was a land where every inch of ground was covered in steel, true to its name.
Quite a few poems left behind by the poets of the 《Great Realm》 described the Steel Zone in amusing ways.
Stone was steel.
Trees were steel.
Grass was steel.
Your heart was steel.
My tears flowed in streams of steel.
From Women of the Steel Zone, by Euphrates
It was a slight exaggeration, but as the verse said, minerals were traded so actively in the Steel Zone that steel could be smelted almost anywhere.
Thanks to that, every famous workshop worth its name in the 《Great Realm》 had settled near the fifth zone. People with nothing better to do said this about the fifth zone.
“The birthplace of all weapons, you could say.”
As renowned workshops gathered there, Dream Demons came and went in great numbers. With Dream Demons constantly passing through, the trade in cultivation towers and weapons soared as well.
It was only natural for the Steel Zone to grow into one of the 《Great Realm》’ major zones.
Yet for some reason, its ruler did not seem to be in a good mood today.
An old man with piercing features spoke.
“Say that again.”
“...”
“What did that bastard, the Lord of Darkness, do?”
The chief secretary kneeling before the old man was trembling.
The old man was the sort of being who inspired that reaction. The master of the fifth zone, known as Unbending Steel.
Was there anyone in the 《Great Realm》 who did not know him?
The monster of the fifth zone who had defeated every top-ranking Adapter and established himself as the strongest of the 《Great Realm》 only eighty years after entering the 《Great Realm》.
Huh Yu, the Lord of Steel.
That was the old man’s name.
Huh Yu clicked his tongue inwardly as he looked at the chief secretary kneeling before him.
“Now, now, stop shaking and explain it again. What is the Lord of Darkness plotting?”
The Lord of Darkness ruled the ninth zone, which lay right beside the fifth zone.
His name was Jerome.
Even before ascending to the rank of Lord, his sinister and cruel nature had often put him at odds with Huh Yu.
It was about time they clashed with the ninth zone.
The ninth zone’s movements had already been unusual over the past few years. It had been taking in Adapters wanted in other zones without restraint, and there were rumors that it had reached out to mid- and low-ranking cultivators it normally would not even glance at, tripling the volume of Product trades.
It was rapidly expanding its military strength.
Logically, there was only one conclusion.
It was preparing for war.
Given the circumstances, its first target would likely be the seventh zone bordering the ninth, or Huh Yu’s fifth zone.
The chief secretary spoke in a trembling voice.
“F-From what we have learned, the Lord of Darkness appears to be contacting 《Chaos》.”
“Chaos? Why Chaos?”
Huh Yu was somewhat surprised by the unexpected news.
Under the 295th Grand Lord Accord, all Lords of the Great Realm had made a secret agreement not to interfere in the affairs of 《Chaos》.
“W-Well, it is a rather complicated matter...”
As if they had prepared materials in advance, Allen summoned 《Little Brother》 and displayed a video on a holographic panel.
Huh Yu, the Lord of Steel, examined the footage closely.
“What is that?”
It was a video Huh Yu knew well. A Non-Adapter killing an Ice Dragon alone. Over the last few weeks, it had been widely circulated under titles like “99th Floor Solo Clear Video.”
A man relentlessly unleashing Stabs at the Ice Dragon.
Huh Yu recalled how the chief secretary had loudly insisted that they had to recruit that man. Since he had left all matters involving Product transactions and Adapter recruitment to the chief secretary, he had probably told them to do as they pleased.
But he had heard it was eventually proven to be a fabricated video.
The clip that had once dominated Little Brother’s best videos became impossible to verify when the cultivator raising the Product disappeared. Even now, Dream Demons from workshops everywhere reportedly spent all day arguing over the petty question of whether it was fake.
“The Product in that video was apparently under contract with the Lord of Darkness of the ninth zone.”
“What?”
Huh Yu studied the Product again.
Wait. Could it be...?
Each time the man attacked the Ice Dragon, a strange presence seeped from his Stab. It was incredibly faint, but it was something Huh Yu knew well.
...An Awakened One in the Tutorial?
The Lord of Steel himself was an Awakened One so exceptional that he could find no worthy opponent in the 《Great Realm》, yet even he had not achieved Awakening during the Tutorial.
Huh Yu urgently asked, “Where is this Product now?”
The chief secretary hesitated before answering.
“I heard he escaped.”
“What do you mean, escaped?”
“There are rumors that he refused to clear the Tutorial, broke through the Tower’s ceiling, then fled to 《Chaos》 through the 《Tree of Illusion》.”
Huh Yu thought he had misheard.
“The cultivator was watching from the hundredth floor. How could he do that?”
“He killed the cultivator.”
“...You are joking, right?”
“I-I can hardly believe it either, but the Lord of Darkness’s side seems to be convinced.”
Huh Yu was speechless.
A Product like that was certainly impossible to measure in value. The Lord of Darkness’s side was probably searching desperately for its whereabouts.
Things were becoming complicated.
“Did the ninth zone bastards have connections in Chaos?”
“There is something else I should report. It seems the Lord of Darkness has been involved in 《Chaos》’s affairs for a long time.”
“For a long time already?”
“Yes. Several of the Ten Halls of Chaos have been in steady contact with the Lord of Darkness’s side.”
Huh Yu’s expression darkened.
...What the hell are you thinking, Darkness?
For a moment, Huh Yu considered whether he should make this matter known to the other Lords. He knew full well that informing them would not necessarily make them leap into action.
Everywhere in the 《Great Realm》 except the east, where the fifth, seventh, and ninth zones stood, had entered a bloody state of war.
Huh Yu could not be certain that any Lord would condemn Darkness of the ninth zone for breaking their secret agreement.
“Who else knows this information?”
“For now, it seems to be circulating only within the ninth zone. But the seventh zone likely has spies planted there as well, so perhaps the seventh zone already...”
If the fifth zone knew, there was no way the seventh zone would not. The seventh zone was the territory of Abraxas, the Immortal Lord.
After pondering briefly, Huh Yu spoke.
“Send an official request to the Dream Demon Guild for permission to use the Narrow Gate.”
The Narrow Gate.
A Treasure that uses feigned death to disguise living beings as the dead. The Five Great Families and Dream Demons could travel through 《Chaos》 alive using the Narrow Gate.
“Are you planning to interfere in Chaos?”
“I am only going to watch. We need to see how this situation develops.”
“...Whom will you send?”
“Ten gold first-rate elite warriors. Send Hye-yeong too.”
The Steel Zone’s warrior ranks were broadly divided into five tiers.
Adamantium, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Each rank also had five detailed grades, from first-rate to fifth-rate.
A gold first-rate warrior was, at minimum, a Fifth Adapter.
Moreover, Hye-yeong, the commander of the gold first-rate warriors, would not be outmatched even by Platinum-ranked warriors based on Combat Power alone.
“Make certain of it. We do not know how things will develop.”
“Y-Yes, understood.”
Watching the chief secretary leave, Huh Yu fell into a brief recollection for the first time in a long while.
Chaos...
A trace of something like longing passed through the eyes of Huh Yu, which had grown dull after becoming an Awakened One.
He had an old friend in Chaos.
A Companion who had once cleared a Master’s Tower with him, then fought back-to-back with him in the Great Realm. In their homeland, he had been called Hua Tuo. In Chaos, he was known as the Divine Doctor of Despair.
“Cheongheo. I wonder if you are doing well.”
Their paths had diverged after Awakening, and they had parted ways because they no longer saw eye to eye. Still, the Lord of Steel thought of Cheongheo from time to time.
His friend had said he would rather remain human than abandon humanity and become a complete Awakened One, and had ultimately met a miserable end while preserving human dignity.
“If only he had not had that goddamn personality, he could have lived a long life.”
Huh Yu smirked as he recalled the adventures of his reckless youth.
“...He must be resting quietly over there.”
* * *
Cheongheo, both eyes bruised black and blue and nearly swollen shut, said, “...Hey. Let’s go again.”
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