King Shura

Chapter 80. Expansion into Mainland

Sichuan Castle (四川省).

As the name implied, this was an area where four rivers flowed.

Because of this reason, the area got the name Sichuan, and this was where the kingdom of Shu, created by the famous Liu Bei, started.

Many kingdoms have come and gone after the Shu kingdom, and the times had changed.

In the flow of time, even the city of Sichuan, which was affiliated with the martial world, was about to change.

For the Alliance,

And the Heavenly Demon Church, the city of Sichuan was a very important place, the place that would change the future of the church.

“In order to help transport fifty oxen-carts and thirty horse carriages from the Heavenly Demon Church, the armed escort company dispatched up to two hundred third-class guards, one hundred second-class guards, thirty first-class guards, and two special-class guards. We did not bring any carriers, due to the fact that they may get in the way of the mission.”

The boy who was listening to the report.

He had a loose black uniform on his body.

But his clothes actually had a golden dragon imprinted on it, a sign of an emperor.

The boy, Cho Ryu Hyang, was inside the giant, overbearing six-horse carriage, reading the report while fiddling with his glasses.

“Escort Jeon.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jeon Wi (電位).

He was one of the only two special-class escorts in the Gray Heaven Armed Escort Company, and the administrator of the entire mission. From a while back, he had been looking at Cho Ryu Hyang with an astounded face.

‘Amazing.’

It’s already been ten days since they left the church.

During this time, Cho Ryu Hyang checked reports daily, found out anything that had changed, and always asked others to fix mistakes whenever he found one.

If there was a slight mistake in calculations, he asked his subordinates to fix that as well.

This was very troubling for those who worked under him, but since this meant that Cho Ryu Hyang was an expert when it came to things like this, they did not complain.

This was good.

‘I had heard that the son of the president was quite talented in the past, but…….’

He had known that the phrase ‘a nail in the pocket can only stick out’ (meaning: talented people are destined to be noticed.) was being used in the company to describe Cho Ryu Hyang.

But he had only thought that Cho Ryu Hyang was only a bit talented.

To think he would have become the heir of the church….

Wasn’t this a quite a big event?

This was why Jeon Wi’s face was full of admiration and amazement.

“Our people don’t really need escorts anyway. It would be better to bring all the escorts to the front as scouts instead.”

“Understood.”

Jeon Wi was looking at Cho Ryu Hyang, who was giving him various orders, proudly.

“As you might already know, the people from the church aren’t weak. So please direct all your attention into protecting the goods, not the people, in case we get attacked.”

“Understood.”

Jeon Wi nodded.

He knew.

Although this was only a ‘advance party’, the power of it was truly terrifying…….

‘One of the ten divisions within the Heavenly Demon Church……..’

The Ruling Fire House.

One of the ten great military divisions of the church was making its move.

The fact that one of the ten divisions were moving was surprising already, but the fact that made Jeon Wi even more surprised was the fact that the martial artists of the Ruling Fire House were all ‘women’.

But Jeon Wi was unable to look down on these women.

‘Sunwu Cho Rin, was it?’

She was a woman of unparalleled beauty.

But when Jeon Wi looked at her in the eye, he was assaulted with a feeling that resembled that of a predator looking at its prey.

‘She was definitely a peak expert.’

Her beauty didn’t even come into his eyes.

Even if they were both peak experts, the power difference between them was quite large.

The difference between a fifty year old man like him, and a twenty year old girl, was much too large.

‘As expected of the Heavenly Demon Church.’

Sunwu Cho Rin was an expert who was nearing the Harmonious stage.

And the female experts of the Ruling Fire House were all at least second-rate warriors, if not first-rate.

There were a few in the peak stage as well.

Jeon Wi kept glancing at Sunwu Cho Rin as he talked with Cho Ryu Hyang.

Beauty and power.

She lacked none.

And his first impression of her was imprinted very strongly in his mind.

–Look down, bitch.

This truly gave Jeon Wi a strong first impression of this woman.

After this event, Jeon Wi did not even dare get close to the people from the church.

Cho Ryu Hyang read the report from Jeon Wi, stamped it, and looked out the window.

It was almost winder.

The cold wind outside was already seeping into the carriage.

Cho Ryu Hyang quickly closed the doors, and spoke.

“Let’s go.”

“Understood.”

When the door closed, the carriage began to move.

Soon, it began to run through the mountain path with extreme speed.

They had to move like this for ten more days in order to reach Sichuan.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked outside the window at the rough mountain path for a bit, and realized that he might not be able to go back anymore.

He could only smile bitterly.

Just a while ago, he was studying math at an academy.

He never could imagine that he’d lead a life like this.

But within a period of a single year, too much had changed in his life.

‘When will they attack?’

He trusted Un Hui, who was on top of the carriage, and No Jin Nyung, who was driving the carriage.

They were both Harmonious experts.

Weaklings wouldn’t even be able to dream of attacking them.

But the problem didn’t lay in these weaklings.

The real problem lay with those who lied and mingled amongst them.

How long could Cho Ryu Hyang last against them?

They would definitely attack Cho Ryu Hyang with strange tactics.

‘I’m thinking too much.’

Cho Ryu Hyang realized he was thinking too negatively, and shook his head.

He won’t die.

There were too many things he didn’t accomplish yet.

He couldn’t die just yet.

There were too many things he did not even manage to do yet.

He couldn’t die.

Cho Ryu Hyang clenched his fists.

It didn’t matter what happened to him.

Moving into the mainland just meant that he was getting closer to ‘him’.

‘Yu Sul Bin……..’

The Wudang Sect.

He had never forgotten about the man from that sect.

In the past, he could only suffer from that man’s hands due to his lack of power, but not this time.

He would take care of the anger in his heart with his own strength.

While he was thinking of such things.

Knock knock–

Somebody knocked the door of the moving carriage.

Cho Ryu Hyang had known that someone was approaching from the beginning.

Due to the ‘area’ that was created thanks to the Moon Edge Blade Technique, he was able to notice people who were approaching him from a certain distance.

“Who is it?”

“The young lady wishes to come in.”

He must be talking about Gongson Ahri.

After thinking a bit, Cho Ryu Hyang opened his mouth.

“Does she have a request?”

“Looks like it.”

After thinking some more, Cho Ryu Hyang sighed and opened his mouth.

“Alright. Tell her to come in.”

“I’ll bring her in.”

Cho Ryu Hyang fell in deep thought as Sunwu Cho Rin walked away.

He remembered what his teacher told him when he realized that Gongosn Ahri would follow him in this dangerous trip.

–Do you like an idiotic woman, or a smart one?

Cho Ryu Hyang was confused.

Why would his teacher suddenly talk about a woman at a time like this?

Also, wasn’t he too young to even think about such things?

When he made a confused face for a moment, his teacher grinned and spoke some more.

–So you’re just into pretty girls?

When Cho Ryu Hyang made a complicated face, due to the fact that he did not even know what was going on, Gongson Chun Gi tapped the armrests on his chair and spoke.

–There’s a girl as white as paper. Well, you’ll see that she has quite a lot of perks about her as you spend more time with her, but ‘for now’, the biggest perk she has is the fact that she is a clean sheet of paper. Would you like to try drawing on that piece of paper?

Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know what his teacher was talking about at first.

He only managed to realize what his teacher meant when he heard Gongson Ahri would be accompanying him on the trip.

When he realized this, he blushed without realizing it.

And he began thinking to himself,

“Teacher, aren’t you being too blunt?”

Right.

His teacher was being too blunt.

That made him uncomfortable.

This actually made him turn away from Gongson Ahri more than usual.

He had avoided her for ten days by making up random excuses.

Gognson Ahri probably noticed that something was going on by now.

‘I don’t have time for her.’

No, this wasn’t just for Gongson Ahri. This applied to everyone.

Plus, he was too young to think about such things…….

While Cho Ryu Hyang was thinking about such things.

Somebody knocked on the doors.

Knock knock–

When Cho Ryu Hyang opened the doors of the carriage, the cold wind of winter struck the interior of the carriage like a storm.

Whoo–

The sound of Cho Ryu Hyang’s surroundings suddenly got much louder when he instinctively scrunched up his eyes.

Clack, clack–

Thump, thump–

The sound of the horses running, and the carriages shaking rang clearly in his ears.

Right then, he could see Gongson Ahri, who was smiling brightly while sitting on Sunwu Cho Rin’s horse, came into his eyes.

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Thump–

His eyes then moved onto the golden hair that shone in the bright sunlight.

‘This is…….’

Cho Ryu Hyang stared at Gongson Ahri with a dumb face for a moment.

What was in front of him just seemed too unreal at the moment.

Right then, Gongson Ahri’s mouth opened up to reveal her white teeth, and a clear voice flowed out from it.

“The view from a horse is much better than looking outside from the carriage!”

“……..”

How should he respond?

Cho Ryu Hyang thought a bit, and leaned forward outside the carriage a little bit.

Then, the strong wind lashed out at Cho Ryu Hyang’s body full force.

Dudududu–

Cho Ryu Hyang frowned as he felt the carriage shake beneath his feet.

He felt strange when he looked at Gongson Ahri.

‘I thought she was an angel.’

The thought rose up in his head all of the sudden.

Cho Ryu Hyang became surprised by his own thought, and looked at Gongson Ahri strangely.

* * *

“He should be really confused by now.”

“What?”

“No, I just thought of my disciple for a second. Don’t worry about me.”

Jeon Bak and Sunwu Jo Duk became confused.

They didn’t understand why the Pope was grinning all of the sudden.

But since the Pope did things like this all the time, they quietly went back to checking documents.

They still had plenty of work to do.

Gongson Chun Gi just kept smiling evilly, as if he found something funny.

“My dear disciple, at times like this, you lose as soon as you become aware of her. Would he have noticed by now?”

He didn’t tell Gongson Ahri anything.

But he had purposefully thrown several things to Cho Ryu Hyang to make the boy nervous.

He was wondering what his smart disciple would think about his words, and once the boy realized what he meant, the boy would keep thinking about it without realizing it.

And making his disciple just think about such things would be enough for Gongson Chun Gi.

“Now… what kind of a picture are you planning on drawing, my disciple?”

Gongson Chun Gi worked while laughing to himself for the rest of the day.