Chapter 404 - Guest from the North (4)
Chapter 404 : Guest from the North (4)
Dragon Turtle.
A divine animal and one of the five Spirit Beasts.
The five Spirit Beasts which are Imoogi, Flame Qilin, Dragon Turtle, Great Bird (Garuda) and Pung Baekho (White Tiger).
As the name suggests, it is a dragon spirit, with the head of a dragon and body of a tortoise.
As the time passes, with most spirit beasts, their bodies grow and begin to generate stronger spiritual power, and the dragon spirits display their strength in the number of their heads.
Dragon spirits are often worshipped as the Gods by the merchants who create dragon amulets and pray for safe arrival and departure of their goods.
According to the ancient texts, in the days of the give Five Emperor, a six headed dragon spirit had appeared and taken away the lives of half the people of Zhongyun.
At that time, there was a legend that the three of the Five Emperors, Suiren, and Fuxi and Shennong led their people and killed the spirit beast for the sake of peace in their world.
“Dragons are real dangerous creatures. It isn’t something that warriors can take on.”
As Hong Palwoo said his opinion, even Moyong Kang, insisted that the request for help should be refused.
The way he spoke, with his eyes trembling, and a serious look.
The people of Moyong clan, who came from the fallen Yan dynasty, knew the power of the dragon very well.
“In the past, even the Yan Dynasty met with a three headed dragon. Do you have any idea what happened?”
Because of that one three headed dragon, five cities were annihilated, and thousands of people died.
With the help of numerous military forces and Wulin, finally the dragon was killed.
Therefore, Moyong Kang was more familiar with the legends and tales of the dragons than the others, as he himself had witnessed the destruction those beasts brought.
“They are not called creatures of disasters for nothing. Even if that isn’t true, I see no need for us to overdo and help them when we know that our Yulin clan’s power has been greatly reduced.”
Moyong Kang spoke out.
On the other hand, Shaolin temple’s head, Gakyeon, the 2nd leader of the Forces of Justice had a different opinion.
“Amitabha. The words of Leader Moyong are understandable, but if we ignore the plea from the North Sea Ice Palace, they won’t just suffer great damages, but might go extinct. We signed an agreement with them and promised to help each other when there was something that couldn’t be handled.”
“Even if that is the case…”
Before he could finish, the 14th leader of Forces of Justice, Jeokyang intervened.
Among the clans, who worshipped martial arts, he was known to be a moderate figure.
“Leader Moyong. Even I think that the saint’s words are correct in this matter. If our Yulin represents Justice and aims for justice, don’t you think that we should be the first to move?”
“Kum!”
As soon as he mentioned the representation of Yulin, Moyong Kang couldn’t refute it.
However, Hong Palwoo, had something to say.
“As the leader said, justice is our spirit. Upholding justice is supposed to be our thing but, the Forces of Evil in the west and the Blade God Six Martial clan in the east are doing well, while the Demonic Cult’s powers are getting stronger with each day. Who will keep justice alive if something happens during this mission?”
“If we can help them out in a way that doesn’t hurt out…”
“No. Didn’t he just say how dangerous the three headed dragon was, it destroyed five cities. So, I am guessing you can understand how dangerous the four headed dragon can be, right? Rather, we should be thankful that it is in the North and not in Jianghu…”
“Amitabha! Leader Hong, your words are excessive!”
It was one of the most intensive meetings they ever had.
Neither side wanted to back down, and both had reasonable arguments.
It was turning into a meeting, where the Great Leader would have to take a side.
‘The opinions of both sides are valid as they are looking for the well-being of Forces of Justice. But there is one thing which worries me.’
The danger they would get themselves into was not being considered.
If it really was a dragon spirit, which had been sealed for ages, and released recently, they should have given them more in depth information.
When the leaders were arguing about the dragon spirit, Yi Mok was concerned about the details.
‘Hmm?’
However, there was someone else who was paying attention to the same part as Yi Mok.
It was his second son, Kang Soah.
He was someone who exuded a completely different feel from Yeon Buso, this kid was full of typical Forces of Justice spirit.
The eyes which looked like they could see through anyone, made people feel threatened.
‘He is talented enough.’
Yi Mok tightly blinked his eyes.
The first kid, Yeon Buso, was given back to the Forces of Justice a month ago.
[Monster… that one is a monster. Ughhh!]
When Yeon Buso arrived, even though his arm was cut off, he didn’t stop training.
However, just as any powerful man who got his pride crushed in utter defeat, his broken heart and spirit showed no signs of recovery.
‘Because he chose to hide in the dark, I didn’t try to use him…’
Kang Soah was the most ambitious of the three children he raised.
The scary thing was, despite being ambitious, he knew how to wait for the right moment before revealing himself.
It was a driving force which could make him develop infinitely, but Great Leader Yi Mok never took him seriously.
[Evil forces need to be annihilated.]
Kang Soah had been making the same claim for the past ten years.
Great leader Yi Mok knew what his character was from that moment.
The fear that, if this kid took the power of Yulin into his hands, the entire Yulin would get stained in blood.
[Isn’t Kang Soah’s talent comparable to Yeon Buso?]
[Isn’t it better to leave the possibility of a new successor open for now?]
There was a reason why Yi Mok placed Kang Soah away from the position.
Since Yeon Buso turned broke, he tried very hard to accept the opinion that it would give Kang Soah a chance.
So, as a test, he recently had him attend various meetings.
Maybe this dragon would end up giving him an opportunity to wake up to reality?
Kang Soah, who had been in thought, got up and looked at the other leaders before saying.
“Great Leader. And various other leaders here, is it alright for me to ask a favor?”
The eyes of everyone, who had been arguing for a while, turned to Kang Soah.
‘Huh?’
Even Yi Mok was puzzled.
He didn’t expect the kid to give his opinion in such an important meeting, which he was attending for the first time.
It was the same with the others, who were looking at him.
“Amitabha. A favor? Leader Kang?”
It was the Gakyeon of Shaolin temple.
Kang Soah, was the leader of Black Shadow force, one of the four major forces of the Forces of Justice, along with the North Justice Blade of Yeon Buso.
At the question of Gakyeon, Kang Soah politely pointed to the door of the room and said.
“I have a question for the envoy from the North Sea Ice Palace. May I summon him inside the room for a moment?”
Moyong Kang narrowed his eyes and asked.
“But this matter hasn’t been decided yet.”
It implied that he, who was a kid, didn’t have the right to express his opinion.
Nevertheless, Kang Soah answered not showing any intention of backing down.
“This is an important issue that will determine whether or not we should head to the North.”
“Something that can decide against or not?”
“Hm…”
Everyone seemed a little shocked with Kang Soah’s words.
Dan Juseong, who was waiting in the other room, entered the room with an anxious expression.
Eyes filled with anticipation, hoping that they had come to a favourable decision.
Contrary to his expectations, Kang Soah touched the booklet and asked.
“I would like to ask this question to the envoy from the North. According to the contents of this booklet, it is said that you tried to search the underground path by breaking down the ice to find the lost treasure of the North Sea. This means that you didn’t know that the dragon was alive, right?”
Dan Juseong was disappointed with it.
They had been busy for one straight hour, but it looked like the decision hadn’t been made yet.
However, he didn’t express his regret, and answered.
“… Hundreds of years had passed since the dragon spirit was frozen in ice and sealed away. From the palace’s thoughts, they assumed that the monster was long dead.”
“Is that so? Hmm, that doesn’t matter.”
Dan Juseong,’s eyes turned cold.
He didn’t like that Kang Soah was interrogating him.
Not caring, Kang Soah continued to speak.
“However, in this booklet, it was written that this happened because of the power of the bomb you got from Jianghu.”
At those words, Dang Juseong’s expression hardened.
After hesitating a moment, he briefly answered.
“… that is right.”
“You wrote something about the bomb you got from Jianghu, can you tell me in detail about where you got it?”
“How is that important?”
Kang Soah answered the question of Dan Juseong, who was flustered.
“If the power of that bomb is strong enough to destroy the place where the dragon spirit has been sealed, the explosive power is unusual.”
“… true.”
“It was mentioned that the bomb was from Jianghu, the central plains.”
“…”
“But, the bomb with that power shouldn’t even be made, and it isn’t supposed to be released to others at all. It’s something that even the Yulin, who have a close relationship with the Imperial family, don’t touch.”
“Ah!”
At Kang Soah’s words, all the leaders exclaimed.
They were so focused on the matter of the dragon which was a disaster that they overlooked what Kang Soah was talking about.
“I heard that during the war which took place in Jin castle, a large number of bombs were planted underground.”
Kang Soah speculated that the bombs were from the Blade God Six Martial clan.
Which was why he asked this question.
The answer about what North Sea Ice Palace had to do with the clan, would make the leaders decide on helping them.
It seemed like something was being hidden from them.
Everyone was now focused on Dan Juseong.
Perplexed, he pondered for a while and then answered after taking a deep breath.
“Phew, this is a matter of internal affairs in the palace, so it was only supposed to be revealed later. I’ll be honest. The bomb was obtained from a monstrous group in the central plains. They came to the palace and presented it.”
“Monstrous group?”
“Neither the officials nor the palace people know who they are.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“We only heard that it was a clan from the Jianghu, who had great connection with three elders of our palace.”
“And even they don’t know?”
“They said that they couldn’t reveal the identity, until the situation was an emergency, we are unaware.”
The leaders were confused.
Even if that was the case, if those three elders had such a relationship, it meant that they had a high status which no one could counter.
“Are saying that those elders aren’t revealing it? That is tough for us to understand.”
At Kang Soah’s words, Dan Juseong answered with a trembling voice.
“What could we hear from the people who aren’t in the world any longer?”
“Sorry?”
“The king and the three elders died as they were imprisoned in the ice along with that dragon including the group.”
‘!?’
Everyone was shocked at the bitter truth which was revealed.
Since the seal that was on the booklet belonged to the deputy king, they assumed that something was wrong with the palace, but they never guessed that this would have happened.
In a bitter voice, Yi Mok apologized.
“We are very sorry to hear that. We will mourn for him.”
“Thank you for your words, but our King’s death wasn’t an accident.”
Gasp!
Dan Juseong took something out of his sleeve and placed it on the table.
It was well folded paper.
Moyong Kang, who was the closest, opened the paper which had a cloth attached to it and showed it to the others.
“T-this is?”
“The only thing that survived from the wounded bodies.”
The moment they saw it, everyone knew.
The marks on the cloth.
‘Blade God Six Martial Clan!’
The marks left on that cloth were the same as the Blade God Six Martial clan’s sword.
As they fought them in the Jin Castle, they were able to clearly recognize them.
Kang Soah’s insight proved to be right.