Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 228 - Imperial Noble Consort Seo (4)
Chapter 228 – Imperial Noble Consort Seo (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“I hear you have many political enemies, Your Ladyship.”
“What?”
“Since Your Ladyship clearly wishes to let go of us anyway, it seems your usefulness has run its course, so I was wondering what you would think if we negotiated with those people using Your Ladyship’s life as collateral.”
‘!!!!!!’
For an instant, the rear garden was dyed in silence.
What Mok Gyeong-un had just said was more than enough to plunge not only Imperial Noble Consort Seo but everyone present into shock.
That was equally true of the Heaven and Earth Society’s advance party, who could be considered to be on his side.
Gan Yang, the effective leader of the advance party, stared with wide eyes, unable to contain his bewilderment.
‘What is he trying to do?’
When Mok Gyeong-un said he had something to say to Imperial Noble Consort Seo, Gan Yang had thought he must have some kind of plan.
But he had never imagined that plan would turn out to be a threat beyond anything his own wits could have conceived.
And not against just anyone, but against Imperial Noble Consort Seo, one of the four figures controlling the power of this country and the mother of the Crown Prince.
‘…He is insane.’
A threat had to possess a certain degree of realism.
Only then could it guide the other party into moving as one intended, but if one suddenly blew things up on this scale, the result would likewise become difficult to handle.
How was he planning to clean this up after threatening her like this?
‘Maybe this would have worked before, but provoking Imperial Noble Consort Seo like this now is dangerous.’
She was not merely called a core figure in power.
If she truly made up her mind, she could move the Emperor himself.
And if that happened, an enraged Emperor could mobilize the imperial army or the orthodox sects to pressure the Heaven and Earth Society.
Gan Yang feared the situation might race toward the worst possible outcome.
Sure enough, Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s beautiful brow twisted terribly, as if she had been greatly enraged.
It would have been strange if she had not been angry after being threatened so openly.
At that moment, Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot shouted in fury.
“You insolent cur! Whose safety do you dare speak of in such wild nonsense? Bow your head at once and beg Her Ladyship’s forgiveness, or else I will wipe out you and your whole clan…”
“Junior Supervisor Jang.”
Imperial Noble Consort Seo cut him off.
“Your Ladyship! But…”
“Junior Supervisor Jang!”
When her voice rose, Junior Supervisor Jang immediately fell silent.
‘Oh?’
A strange light appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.
He had assumed she would either struggle to contain her anger or grow confused by such a blunt threat, yet despite being enraged, she did not lose her composure.
It seemed she had not climbed to that position through beauty alone.
After stopping Junior Supervisor Jang, Imperial Noble Consort Seo opened her mouth.
“What is your name?”
To her question, Mok Gyeong-un answered without the slightest concern,
“My name is Mok Gyeong-un.”
“Mok Gyeong-un… Very well, Mok Gyeong-un. You dare threaten this consort in this way and still do not fear what will come after?”
“What will come after?”
“I do not know how great your vaunted martial skill may be, but Junior Supervisor Jang and Assistant Administrator Peng here are formidable experts, and beyond them there are also experts of the Peng Clan of Hebei and hundreds of soldiers outside.”
‘Experts from the Peng Clan of Hebei came as support too?’
At those words, it was Gan Yang who swallowed dryly.
It seemed Imperial Noble Consort Seo had truly resolved to sever all ties with them today.
Judging by how thoroughly she had prepared, that was obvious.
If things went wrong, this place might become their grave tonight.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un answered in a calm voice,
“You prepared quite thoroughly.”
At that response, one of her brows twitched.
“You truly are an arrogant and lawless wretch. I do not know whether your nerve has grown so great it has burst out of your belly, or whether you are simply that confident in your own skill, but this consort too will tell you what is to come.”
“And what would that be?”
“Make sure you keep your word that you will kill everyone.”
“Pardon?”
“If you fail in that, the consequences will no longer end with your head alone.”
“…”
“Not only you, but every blood relative and associate connected to you will be wiped out, and moreover, the Heaven and Earth Society to which you belong will also be held accountable for this matter.”
‘Damn it!’
At Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s words, the faces of Gan Yang and the other members of the Heaven and Earth Society darkened.
He had thought she would at least be shaken by the threat to some extent, yet instead she had coolly counterattacked.
‘Hold the Heaven and Earth Society accountable too?’
If what she said truly came to pass, then if they failed to kill everyone here, they would face the worst possible situation.
Because of that, all of them were deeply worried.
No matter how formidable Mok Gyeong-un’s martial skill was, the forces Imperial Noble Consort Seo had prepared also seemed far from weak.
-Pour.
Watching their reaction, Imperial Noble Consort Seo filled her wine cup and said,
“Does the reality before your eyes reach you now?”
“…”
“So this consort, in her mercy, will grant you one final chance.”
“A chance?”
“Yes. Whether this consort’s wrath reaches the Heaven and Earth Society or not will depend on whether you seize this chance.”
“That is rather interesting.”
“Interesting, is it? Then I will tell you. You dared utter irreverent words that should never be spoken to this consort, so that crime cannot be overlooked. Therefore, first cut out that insolent tongue.”
‘!?’
“And then have him kill himself. If you do that, I will not pursue the matter against his companions, his kin, or the Heaven and Earth Society to which he belongs.”
With those words, Imperial Noble Consort Seo curled up her lips in a sinister smile and drained the cup in one swallow.
-Gulp!
A mere martial-world thug dared threaten her?
Since before he had even begun crawling like a toddler, she had survived in this cruel and cold imperial palace through countless struggles and by eliminating countless political enemies.
Did he think she would be shaken by a threat like that and lose her reason?
If so, he was mistaken.
‘This consort survived even the knife-edge imperial palace where one could lose one’s life at any moment and climbed all the way to this place. If you think you can provoke this consort so clumsily, then I will show you the price you pay for it.’
It was then.
“Heh.”
Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s right brow shot upward.
‘He laughed?’
It was absurd.
She had meant to make him understand just how perilously he was walking a tightrope, yet he was laughing in this situation.
And that laugh was unmistakably closer to mockery.
“You dare…”
“Ah, my apologies. It was just too amusing to see Your Ladyship begging.”
“What? Begging?”
“It is quite fascinating to hear someone who has turned us into enemies so earnestly ask for suicide.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un’s lips split into a grin so wide they seemed about to reach his ears.
At the sight of that face brimming with malice, Imperial Noble Consort Seo felt a chill race down her spine.
She was not the only one to feel that.
‘…This brat is dangerous.’
Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot had thought him no more than an arrogant pup.
But now he instinctively felt a strange and ominous danger coming from Mok Gyeong-un.
So much so that he reached the conviction that simply subduing him would not do, and that they had to kill him by a joint attack no matter what.
Junior Supervisor Jang immediately signaled to Peng Yi-mun beside him with his eyes.
He was telling him to attack at once.
It was right then.
-Srrrk!
Mok Gyeong-un, who had been sitting in his place and sneering, vanished as though scattering apart.
‘What?’
As they lost sight of him right before their eyes, everyone hurriedly looked around.
The same was true even for Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot and Peng Yi-mun, the greatest experts among Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s close attendants.
From the start, they had been on full alert precisely to fight Mok Gyeong-un.
For him to vanish even from the sight of people like them, just how fast was he?
At that moment,
-Start!
Feeling a faint trace of presence and a sense of disharmony from behind him, Junior Supervisor Jang hastily launched a claw technique backward.
‘Sunflower Mysterious Claw, Fifth Form, Dancing Lotus Swift Reach!’
-Pahk!
It was a form that struck with the elbow while simultaneously sending a claw strike toward the enemy’s face behind him.
Yet before he could even finish turning his body,
-Pak!
His elbow was blocked by what felt like a palm, and he could not complete the turn.
So he tried to fling his body forward and widen the distance,
-Thud!
“Urk!”
With a heavy impact smashing into his waist, Junior Supervisor Jang was hurled forward with a final scream and crashed straight into the rear-garden wall.
-Boom! Kurururur!
The impact was so great that the wall shattered and the roof tiles above it came crashing down.
“Junior Supervisor Jang! You bastard!”
Thanks to Junior Supervisor Jang, Peng Yi-mun had grasped Mok Gyeong-un’s position and unleashed a saber form with edge energy gathering in his hand.
It was the fourth form of the Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber, Blade Dissolution Force Piercing.
It was an extremely swift move in which the saber style split into five branches aimed at the crown of the head, the neck, both shoulders, and the chest.
-Chwachwachwachwachak!
At that same moment, Mok Gyeong-un responded with a saber form of his own.
It was Flashing Shadow Swift Blade, the seventh form of the Flying Exchange Ghost Blade Method.
Flashingly Shadow Swift Blade was originally, as its name suggested, a swift-blade technique so fast that the saber style looked like a flashing shadow, but in Mok Gyeong-un’s hands it was entirely different from when the Shadow Sect Master used it.
And the reason was simple.
-Chachachachachang!
Mok Gyeong-un’s knife-hand looked almost motionless, and yet the five branching saber attacks surging toward him were all knocked away at once.
‘Wh-what speed is this…’
Victory or defeat in a swift-blade contest was decided by speed.
But Peng Yi-mun’s saber form could not even be compared to Mok Gyeong-un’s.
This went beyond the difference between walking and running.
As a result, Peng Yi-mun’s right hand was thrown upward, and Mok Gyeong-un immediately slipped into the opening, caught his left arm with a grappling-lock technique and twisted it behind his back, then crushed down on his right shoulder.
-Pak!
“Guhhh!”
-Thump!
Mok Gyeong-un’s five fingers bit into the shoulder he was pressing down, and unable to endure the pain, Peng Yi-mun let out a groan and dropped to one knee.
After being subdued in a single exchange and a single move, Peng Yi-mun understood with certainty.
‘…It is impossible.’
If this monster truly set his mind to unleashing his full power, then not only he and Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, but everyone here together would still be swept aside.
And this monster was supposed to be only the disciple of a sect-master-level executive of the Heaven and Earth Society?
He could not believe it.
With this level of martial skill, he was no mere promising younger talent. In the Heaven and Earth Society, he would be at the level of the Five Kings, and in the righteous martial world, comparable to an elder of one of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang.
Then Mok Gyeong-un spoke toward Imperial Noble Consort Seo.
“Your Ladyship, it seems you placed rather great expectations on these people.”
-Tr-r-r-r!
At Mok Gyeong-un’s provocation, the hand holding Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s wine cup trembled.
Even she, who knew little about martial arts, could tell that Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot and Peng Yi-mun, her own close attendants, were no match for him.
Imperial Noble Consort Seo bit her lip hard and glared at the eunuch Yu Bong.
[Do not worry. He may be stronger than I am, but Administrator Peng should be able to subdue him without difficulty.]
‘Subdue him without difficulty?’
She had not wholly trusted the eunuch’s words.
But since they were merely younger talents sent by the Heaven and Earth Society, she had assumed they would never be able to match a seasoned and renowned expert like Peng Yi-mun.
Yet her expectation had been completely overturned.
‘…Even if reinforcements arrive, can they truly subdue that monster?’
There was a saying that no matter how strong one was, one could not triumph over sheer numbers.
She had believed that as well.
Yet, strangely enough, an ominous feeling gnawed at her.
Whether such a saying would truly apply to an existence with such overwhelming strength.
‘No one can yet say how things will turn out. But…’
After long surviving in the imperial palace while fighting countless political enemies, her instincts had grown far sharper than an ordinary person’s.
That sharpness had given her the deep insight that allowed her to survive and climb this high.
‘If this continues, the losses may become even greater.’
Her instincts were now telling her strongly that she had to stop this at once.
So,
“Enough!”
She shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Then she gestured to the martial artists surrounding the Heaven and Earth Society’s side, signaling them to fall back.
The martial artists, who had been hesitating over what to do, all retreated at once.
Then Imperial Noble Consort Seo spoke in a calm voice.
“You said your name was Mok Gyeong-un?”
“Yes.”
“You are not even twenty, yet your martial skill is truly astonishing.”
-Clap clap clap!
Imperial Noble Consort Seo applauded, then, in a voice gentler than before, continued as if speaking in admiration.
“Even Junior Supervisor Jang and Assistant Administrator Peng are no match for you… It seems this consort’s judgment was poor, and I underestimated you.”
Her plan was simple.
She would acknowledge him and praise him to a certain degree, then naturally bring this inflamed situation to a close.
It was the only way to settle matters without losing face as an Imperial Noble Consort.
If she handled it well here, then regardless of the eventual result, it could all end in an image where she had stepped back and shown magnanimity.
So all she had to do was soothe him just enough…
It was right then.
-Crunch!
“Kyaaaaagh!”
‘!!!!!’
At the horrible sight unfolding before her eyes, Imperial Noble Consort Seo hurriedly turned her head away.
No wonder, because starting from the shoulder he had been pinning, Mok Gyeong-un had torn Peng Yi-mun’s right arm clean off.
‘This madman cannot possibly be in his right mind…’
For an instant, she was so dumbfounded that words failed her.
She had finally decided to yield and bring matters to a close, so what was this supposed to mean?
To the stunned woman, Mok Gyeong-un said with a pleasant smile,
“You cannot just try to smooth this over like that.”
“What?”
“Surely you were not thinking something naive like, If I praise him a little and calm him down, I can settle this?”
“…You truly mean to see this through to the end?”
“I told you clearly. The moment Your Ladyship decided to sever ties with us, your usefulness came to an end.”
“You! You!”
“Come to think of it, I suddenly find myself curious. Will His Highness the young Crown Prince really be able to survive safely once he loses Your Ladyship?”
‘!!!!!!’
At those words, Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck them.
Though she had turned her head away to avoid looking, the smell of blood vibrating in every direction and the sound of blood droplets pattering down were squeezing the breath from her throat.
She had thought they were only pressing her somewhat harshly in order to get what they wanted.
But no.
This man was truly driving her toward a dead end.
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
Once fear swallowed her, even her heart began pounding madly and would not calm down.
As though enjoying her terror, Mok Gyeong-un sneered and said,
“Your Ladyship brought all of this upon yourself.”
“……”
“Then watch them die one by one.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un wrapped an arm around the neck of Peng Yi-mun, who was writhing in agony with his arm torn off.
-Clench!
“Cough, cough!”
Then he moved to twist the man’s neck as it was.
At that instant, Imperial Noble Consort Seo cried out in a voice close to a scream.
“Stoooop!”