Chapter 153. Trying to Row a Boat On Land (24)

‘The report said that a massive tiger and an expert with a sword attacked those dumbass Blood Wolves. It was probably that bastard.’

“Our horses might get rattled because of the tiger. Dismount here and attack him.”

Nu Jin-Cheol was a very thorough tactician, so he didn’t miss that detail.

The entire battalion dismounted and ran behind him.

“Let’s wreck that arrogant bastard who dares to stand alone before us!”

“OOORAH!!!!”

The strength of the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion was in no way diminished as they dismounted. Not only were the majority of them at least First Class experts, but nearly a hundred of them were Peak experts, while about thirteen, including Nu Jin-Cheol, had even reached the Transcendent stage.

Yet even with this level of strength, the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion was merely ranked fifth among the Cruel Sandstorm Riders, leaving the bandit group’s true strength a mystery to the

gangho.

It was only after they started the charge that Nu Jin-Cheol saw the small child standing in front of Woo-Moon.

‘What the hell? Is that a child?’

“Trample them all!”

Anything that blocked their path was nothing more than an annoying obstacle, even a child.

However, he was quickly forced to change his original assumption completely.

Tap.

“Huh?”

One of the Transcendent class experts of the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion swung a great axe at the child blocking his path, only to be surprised when the child dodged the axe and grabbed both of his shoulders with his tiny hands.

‘W-what the hell?’

“AGH!!!”

Just like a normal child would catch a dragonfly and tear off its wings, the child giggled as he tore the bandit with the great axe in half.

Covered in internal organs, the child haphazardly threw the two halves of the corpse to either side.

SQUELCH!

Screams rang out simultaneously as those hit by the two halves of the corpse were crushed to death by the impact.

“

Keke

. You know, I wondered why I kept smelling trash in the air lately. That’s the only reason I woke up. You Martial Heaven bastards smell so bad that your stench wouldn’t let me sleep!”

Woo-Moon was already taken aback by the faint aura of a Paragon exuding from the child, and he was even more surprised by the latter’s words.

‘He knows what Martial Heaven is? Moreover, he recognizes that these bastards are from Martial Heaven, too. On top of it all, he also has an incredible grudge against them?’

The words of Jin Yo, whom he had met in the Forbidden City the other day, came to mind—there were people who had fought against Martial Heaven long before Woo-Moon stepped on his own road to vengeance.

‘Could he be one of those who survived?’

The corpses around the child Paragon floated up before shooting forward simultaneously.

“Aah!!!”

“UGH!!!”

The child simply lifted all movable objects around him, coated them in aura, and shot them forward. From a distance, the scene looked much like a naval battle, with one ship firing countless shells at the boats surrounding it.

“We can’t just sit around and watch, Eun-Ah. These bastards are ours!”

ROAR!!

With a roar, Eun-Ah jumped high and fell into the center of the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion.

BOOM!

“AGH!!!!”

The bandits were torn to pieces from the sheer force of Eun-Ah’s landing, sent flying in all directions.

Raising Inkblade into the air, Woo-Moon instantly formed four sword spheres and sent them flying toward where the battalion had the most people.

BOOOOOOM!

As one of the sword spheres exploded, at least sixty or seventy bandits were shredded to bits and scattered around like the feathers from an exploding pillow.

“Oho, not bad!” the child muttered in satisfaction as he looked at Woo-Moon.

The three[1] went out killing members of the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion at a frightening speed, as if they were competing with each other.

Woo-Moon’s sword soared, sending dozens of heads into the air. Meanwhile, under the control of the child, the corpses turned into cannonballs, flying straight into groups of their comrades and blasting them to bits.

It took mere seconds to annihilate the thousand-strong Great Desert Black Demon Battalion.

Placing his hand on the left chest of Great Desert Black Demon Battalion Leader Nu Jin-Cheol, the child smiled eerily.

Crunch!

The sound of his bones cracking and flesh tearing filled the air as Nu Jin-Cheol’s heart was ripped out.

Squelch, pop!

“Kekekeke!!!”

The child laughed uproariously as the heart exploded in his hand.

There were no survivors among the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion. Woo-Moon took one look down at his blood-soaked clothes and circulated his qi.

Woosh!

The blood quickly extruded from his clothes, seemingly on its own, restoring his robes to their original color.

“How fascinating. How old are you?” the child asked as he stopped laughing and walked toward Woo-Moon.

“Twenty-three.”

The child clapped his hands in joy at Woo-Moon's answer.

“Impressive, really, impressive! To think you reached the Paragon stage at such a young age, you’re much faster than me!”

“If you don’t mind, may I ask who you are?”

"Me? Oh, they used to call me the Ageless Demon Emperor.”

The Ageless Demon Emperor.

He was the master of Sha Xiao, the Dealer of Death and Destruction—Woo-Moon’s opponent during the “spar” with the Hegemon Clan. He was said to have gone into hiding a hundred and fifty years back.

Woo-Moon had also heard some stories about the Ageless Demon Emperor from his grandfather.

The Ageless Demon Emperor was one of the few Absolute Masters a hundred and fifty years ago, and although he was technically part of the Evil Faction, he had never murdered an innocent person.

“Have you also fought Martial Heaven before, Ageless Emperor?”

At Woo-Moon's words, flames of hatred and anger rose from the Ageless Demon Emperor's eyes.

“Have I fought them?

Keke

, you could say that. Actually, I fought them for a pretty long time. But in the end, all of my comrades were killed, and I was so severely injured that I was forced to go into seclusion to treat myself for decades. But don’t you think you’re being a little rude in front of an elder? Take your mask off, Song Woo-Moon.”

Woo-Moon was startled by the Ageless Demon Emperor calling his name.

“How did you....”

“You fought a person named San Woo-Gyeol at one point, right? See, that brat was my student in disguise. His title was the Dealer of Death and Destruction Sha Xiao. He said that he was crippled by some kid named Song Woo-Moon who had barely reached twenty and that this Woo-Moon was the strongest person within the younger generation.”

It wasn’t that hard for the Ageless Demon Emperor to guess who Woo-Moon was. Woo-Moon had just told him that he was twenty-three, and his cultivation was impossibly high for his age.

Naturally, Woo-Moon realized that the child in front of him might be after his head—after all, he had crippled Sha Xiao.

As he slowly stepped back and distanced himself, Woo-Moon probed the Ageless Demon Emperor.

“Do you hold a grudge against me?”

The Ageless Demon Emperor grinned.

“A grudge for what? I killed that idiot the moment he told me what was going on. Just because I was away for a while, that bastard started slaughtering innocents left and right. He’s no disciple of mine.”

Woo-Moon breathed a sigh of relief. Then, his eyes lit up.

“Then, I’m glad. Senior Ageless Emperor, please help me. I need your help in fighting Martial Heaven.”

“Does that mean you want me to be your comrade?”

"That's right. Martial Heaven is just too strong.”

The Ageless Demon Emperor's face, lost in thought for a moment, suddenly distorted.

He stepped back and shook his head from side to side.

“No, I don’t want to. I refuse to have any more comrades!”

The Ageless Demon Emperor used his movement technique and ran away.

"Senior!"

Woo-Moon thought about chasing after him but eventually decided against it due to the raw sorrow and pain he had seen in the Ageless Demon Emperor’s eyes. For a moment, he had seemed like a real child.

“So you don’t want to lose another comrade again....”

Woo-Moon thought back to what the Emperor had said earlier: while fighting against Martial Heaven, all of his comrades had been killed, and he was the only one to survive.

Keenly aware of that sorrow due to the loss of his beloved grandfather and Si-Hyeon, Woo-Moon understood how the Ageless Demon Emperor felt.

Most likely, the Ageless Demon Emperor would continue to fight Martial Heaven alone, just like Woo-Moon himself was doing just now.

‘I pray that you stay safe.’

Although it might have been an extremely short meeting, Woo-Moon felt a sort of kinship with the Emperor.

“Then, I guess we should head for the North Sea Ice Palace now.”

After briefly looking at the thousand corpses that he, Eun-Ah, and the Ageless Demon Emperor had left behind, Woo-Moon climbed onto Eun-Ah's back.

“Let’s go to the North Sea Ice Palace.”

Huff!

***

Before heading in this direction, Woo-Moon had gotten information from Princess Mok Yong and the others about the whereabouts of the North Sea Ice Palace—an island in a lake located in the northeast.[2]

As he continued traveling northeast on Eun-Ah, the weather gradually became colder. It was no problem for Woo-Moon and Eun-Ah, but by this point, there were hardly any human settlements around.

At some point, snow started to fall from the sky.

Upon seeing the snow, Eun-Ah roared in good spirits, causing all of the wild animals to tremble and whatever tiger hunters there were in the vicinity to panic.

As he headed further northeast, he couldn’t see any soil any longer; instead, he came up on a snowy field, white drifting across the landscape.

With every step, Eun-Ah left massive pawprints.

At this point, Woo-Moon began to feel a little worried. No matter where he looked, all he could see was snow across the entire expanse of the horizon, leading him to worry he might have gotten lost.

‘Where the hell is the North Sea Ice Palace?’

Fortunately, he suddenly saw a group of people passing by in the distance. With a happy heart, Woo-Moon jumped on Eun-Ah and ran toward them at once.

“E-eeek!! It’s a tiger!!”

“Run!”

It was only at this point that Woo-Moon realized his mistake.

Even people of the

murim

who had cultivated to some degree would be afraid of a massive tiger like Eun-Ah, let alone ordinary people.

“It’s okay, she won’t bite.”

Woo-Moon’s voice, imbued with the qi of the Forbidden Divine Art, rang softly to the terrified people, who had been so scared that they had wet their pants.

The strong and steady power contained in his voice calmed them down.

“I-it’s a person.”

“Is there someone riding that white tiger?”

Seeing Eun-Ah standing still and hearing Woo-Moon’s reassurance, the people heaved a sigh of relief.

“This white tiger is my companion and is named Eun-Ah. Please don’t be afraid. I completely forgot myself and didn’t even consider that you might be afraid. I’m sorry.”

Woo-Moon got off Eun-Ah’s back and bowed, apologizing to the group of about twenty people.

Seeing his apologetic attitude, they let their guard down a little, and one of them called out to him. “What is it that you need from us?”

“Oh, would you happen to know of a place called the North Sea Ice Palace?”

“Yes, we do. As expected, you are from the

murim

, too. Are you trying to go to the North Sea Ice Palace?”

Seeing as they seemed to know what the North Sea Ice Palace was, Woo-Moon nodded.

"That's right. Can you tell me where I can find it?”

As the two spoke, Eun-Ah walked over to the side toward the children who were staring at her.

When she looked at them, she could see the figure of Gun-Ha, the girl with whom she had played so joyfully.

Eun-Ah tried to act friendly by approaching the children and acting all cute, just as she used to do with Gun-Ha in the past.

“A-ahhhh!!!!!!!”

One child eventually couldn't hold it in and started crying loudly. Then, the child's mother, who was nearby, came running with a stick and stabbed at Eun-Ah, screaming.

"Go away! Get away from my son!”

Grrrr.....

Instead of playing with her, the children were scared and started to cry. Coupled with the mother’s scolding, this left Eun-Ah very discouraged. She walked away slowly, her head drooping to the ground. It was a very sad sight... yet a very cute one at the same time.

An unusually confident child approached Eun-Ah and stroked her face with her tiny hands.

“Hehe, it’s okay. There, there, don’t cry.”

Eun-Ah had actually begun to cry as she remembered Gun-Ha and the others, who were now gone and not with her any longer. But she was so touched by the friendly child’s gesture that she immediately cheered up a little and licked her back.

“Kyaha~! Don’t, it tickles!”

Seeing as the child was not afraid of her, Eun-Ah lowered her body as much as possible and stuck out a paw.

“Huh? Do you want me to get on?”

Eun-Ah nodded her head slightly in agreement.

The child smiled brightly, grabbed Eun-Ah's fur, and climbed on top of her.

“Wow!!!! It’s so high!!! Ahahah!!!”

As the child played happily with Eun-Ah, the other children who were crying gradually stopped and ran to Eun-Ah and started to play with her.

1. Says two in the raws, but we can’t forget our dear Eun-Ah. ☜

2. I know, it’s named the North Sea Ice Palace. But it says explicitly lake (??) here. ☜