Almighty God of War - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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105

After pressing Chae Geum’s demon blood points, he immediately kicked open the door to the Crown Prince’s bedchamber and stepped inside.

The room was filled with heavy silence, the thick smell of medicinal herbs, and the shadow of death lingering together.

Guyang Cheongang’s face hardened as he looked at the bed.

The Crown Prince lying there had skin as pale as beeswax, with cold sweat beading on his forehead.

His breathing was so faint it seemed ready to stop at any moment, and his tightly closed eyelids were trembling slightly.

It was a situation where it wouldn’t be strange if his breath stopped at any time.

“Damn it!”

Guyang Cheongang unconsciously cursed and lunged toward the bed.

Every moment was urgent.

The Crown Prince’s pale chest rose and fell slightly, and cold sweat was beading on his forehead.

‘Akasha, how long do you think the Crown Prince can hold on?’

[At minimum 10 minutes. 30 minutes at most is the limit.]

Even time was not on his side.

‘Damn… This time I’m the one caught by a time limit.’

[Unfortunately, that’s correct.]

If he could have treated the Crown Prince leisurely after treating Princess Myeonghwa, he could have minimized variables.

Complete recovery would have been natural.

Guyang Cheongang swallowed his dry saliva.

His hands were also damp with sweat.

He took a deep breath to steady his disturbed mind and carefully placed his hands on the Crown Prince’s chest.

The True Energy of the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art flowing from his palms entered through the Crown Prince’s heart meridian and collided with the foreign object embedded in his heart.

But…

Ting!

Instead of a dull rupturing sound, a faint metallic rebound echoed in his mind.

His True Energy didn’t destroy the foreign object; instead, it bounced back futilely as if hitting an invisible wall.

Guyang Cheongang’s face contorted from the recoil.

It was proven that destroying that foreign object with the Internal Injury Infliction Method was impossible.

Only one method remained.

Surgical operation.

But this wasn’t a perfectly sterile 21st century operating room.

There was no proper scalpel, and the moment he picked up any blade and put it to the body, the risk of infection could take the Crown Prince’s life.

‘Akasha, the only way is sword energy.’

[I agree. However, with Doctor’s current level, the risk is too great.]

‘If I fail, the Crown Prince dies. His life, no… the fate of this empire rests in my hands.’

If he failed, it wouldn’t be only the Crown Prince who died.

In this era, injuring the Crown Prince’s body without permission was high treason.

The perpetrator would naturally face death by dismemberment, and by association, three generations would be killed or enslaved.

Killing the palace maids and eunuchs could at least be excused as being to save the Crown Prince, but if the Crown Prince died during surgery, it was obvious that no excuse would work.

Guyang Cheongang tried to forget the weight of responsibility pressing down on his shoulders.

What he needed now was cold reason and absolute concentration.

There was no time to hesitate.

[Doctor, the Crown Prince’s blood pressure is dropping. You must remove the foreign object immediately!]

Guyang Cheongang closed both eyes and began circulating the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art, gathering the internal energy from his dantian to a single point at the tip of his right index finger.

Before he could take a breath, the density of qi exceeded the critical point.

With this tremendous consumption of internal energy, the yin energy from the five major acupoints he hadn’t yet dissolved began to stir as if it had been waiting.

He felt cold, awl-like pain piercing into his bones throughout his body.

[Doctor, internal energy consumption has exceeded the critical threshold. The yin energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians is activating.]

‘I know it’s dangerous without you telling me.’

His fingertips controlling the sword energy trembled slightly for a moment.

But he couldn’t give up.

If he gave up, the Crown Prince would die.

He refined the energy gathered at his fingertips into the sharpest blade he could imagine.

Whiiing-

The thread-thin sword energy extending five inches from his fingertip made a subtle high-frequency sound, chilling the surrounding air.

All his nerves became sharp as a needle’s point.

From now on, not a single mistake could be tolerated.

‘I must… save him.’

This wasn’t simply about saving the Crown Prince.

It was a counterattack against those who had orchestrated a grand conspiracy, a fight for all those who had trusted him, and a battle staking his own fate.

Guyang Cheongang used the sword energy thread to cut away the Crown Prince’s upper garments, then carefully opened the skin surface.

Scritch-

[Doctor, from now on I will execute the ultra-low temperature hemostasis protocol using the Pure Yin True Energy of the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art. This is similar to the ‘rapid freezing’ principle of modern medicine. Unlike ordinary freezing that destroys blood vessels, Pure Yin True Energy forms ‘amorphous ice’ that minimizes cellular damage and temporarily seals blood vessel walls perfectly. Perfect bloodless surgery is possible.]

The moment the sword energy extending from Guyang Cheongang’s fingertips cut through the Crown Prince’s chest skin, a strange sight unfolded.

Not a single drop of blood spurted from the incised area.

Instead, following right behind where the sword energy blade passed, thread-thin Pure Yin True Energy bloomed white frost and instantly froze and sealed all blood vessels.

Soon the final sternum opened, revealing the Crown Prince’s heart.

It was not a red heart pulsing with the power of life.

It was pale overall without blood, and some parts even had a bluish tinge due to oxygen deficiency.

Moreover, the beating was weakly faint and irregular, as if it might stop at any moment.

It was the tragic sight of a heart that had been drained of life force by an invisible enemy for decades.

And on the surface of that heart’s left atrium, there was the problematic foreign object.

It was pulsing with an ominous purple light like a living creature, greedily sucking the Crown Prince’s life force.

* * *

The roar and screams that echoed from within Jaseon Hall, tearing through the quiet palace night, didn’t last long.

But that brief moment of noise was enough to stop the footsteps of the Imperial Guards on patrol.

“That sound just now… it’s from Jaseon Hall!”

They ran toward the source of the sound, Jaseon Hall, the Crown Prince’s quarters.

What met their eyes upon arrival was a scene from hell.

The front courtyard of the hall reeked with the fishy smell of blood, and corpses still warm with heat were scattered about tragically.

The faces of the Imperial Guard soldiers hardened like stone.

A bloody massacre at the Crown Prince’s quarters.

This was a direct challenge to imperial authority and could be the beginning of a terrible coup.

The patrol leader immediately gave orders to his subordinates.

“Surround this place immediately and report to His Majesty!”

The first to arrive upon hearing the news was Imperial Guard Commander Jang Muyeol.

He was a distant relative of the Empress and had come leading troops under the pretext of protecting the Crown Prince after receiving reports of the incident.

“Surround the hall!”

With his shout, over a hundred Imperial Guards rushed toward Jaseon Hall.

Jang Muyeol’s complexion turned pale as a corpse as he entered the Crown Prince’s bedchamber.

An unbelievable scene was unfolding before him.

The Crown Prince lying with his heart exposed, and an unidentified man soaked in sweat to the point of steaming, with his hands on the Prince’s chest.

“You bastard! How dare you lay hands on His Majesty’s sacred body!”

Jang Muyeol’s eyes blazed with fury.

Misunderstanding that Guyang Cheongang was trying to assassinate the Crown Prince, he immediately shouted to his subordinates.

“Capture that bastard right now!”

The Imperial Guards shouted as they rushed into the bedchamber.

But Guyang Cheongang had no time to respond.

All his nerves were focused on removing the foreign object embedded in the Crown Prince’s heart.

‘Akasha, I’ll focus on the surgery. I’m leaving the external threats to you. Neutralize them. Don’t kill them.’

[Understood, Doctor. I will now take partial control of your body. Securing control of the left-side muscles and neural networks not being used for surgery, forcibly allocating ten percent of your currently operating internal energy to defense protocols, excluding the minimum required for surgery and life support.]

Along with Akasha’s mechanical voice, a strange sight unfolded.

Guyang Cheongang’s right hand performing the surgery showed not a single tremor toward the Crown Prince’s heart, but his left hand began moving on its own like a separate creature.

[Executing automatic defense protocol. Calculating vital points of all approaching threat elements, directing finger wind through the shortest route.]

Guyang Cheongang’s left index and middle fingers gently flicked through the air.

Swish—!

Invisible finger wind cut through the air, precisely striking the demon blood points of the two Imperial Guards who had charged first.

“Kuk!”

The two soldiers silently stiffened like stones and collapsed.

While the Imperial Guards were momentarily stunned by their comrades’ sudden death (or what appeared to be death), Guyang Cheongang’s finger wind continued cutting through the air without rest.

Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish—!

“Kheuk!”

“Kkeuk…”

The soldiers struck by the finger wind fell one after another.

They were all still breathing, but with all their demon blood points struck, they couldn’t move a single finger.

A red stream of blood trickled down Guyang Cheongang’s nose.

This technique of performing surgery with one consciousness while engaging in a life-and-death battle with another was pushing his mind to its limits.

As ten soldiers fell silently, Jang Muyeol’s face hardened with shock.

He could no longer give his subordinates the order to charge.

Instead, gripping his sword tighter, he alternately watched Guyang Cheongang’s fingertips and the Crown Prince’s chest, only looking for an opportunity in the tense standoff.

Before long, Jaseon Hall was surrounded dozens of layers deep by soldiers who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

* * *

The story that flowed out from Jaseon Hall consumed the entire Imperial Palace despite it being late at night.

The footsteps of the Imperial Guards on patrol grew heavy, and the sleepless palace maids and eunuchs only watched each other’s reactions with pale faces.

The bloodshed that occurred in front of the Crown Prince’s bedchamber, and the rumor that the Divine Physician of Life and Death was inside, gave birth to all kinds of speculation.

Unconfirmed stories like ‘an assassin tried to murder the Crown Prince’ and ‘the Divine Physician of Life and Death took the Crown Prince hostage’ floated through the darkness.

The Imperial Palace was filled with anxiety as if it were placed in the center of a massive storm’s eye, ready to explode at any moment.

* * *

In the Emperor’s bedchamber, the air settled cold as ice along with the report about the Jaseon Hall incident.

No expression appeared on Emperor Changseong’s face as he received the Imperial Guards’ report.

But his eyes blazed with cold fury that seemed ready to devour everything.

He immediately saw through to the essence of the situation.

The shadowy forces had finally begun their last desperate struggle to take the Crown Prince’s life, and Guyang Cheongang was now blocking it with his entire being.

“Sang On.”

The Emperor called quietly.

The coldness contained in that voice made the spines of all the eunuchs prostrated before him turn chilly.

“Bring my imperial seal. I will issue a decree immediately.”

The Emperor’s first action was to restore order.

He issued an imperial command, declaring the entire area within one li radius of Jaseon Hall, the Crown Prince’s quarters, as an Imperial Forbidden Zone.

Eunuchs carrying golden tablets stamped with the Emperor’s seal rushed to Jaseon Hall like arrows.

Now, without the Emperor’s permission, no one—not even the Empress or other Imperial Guards—could take a single step inside.

“Commander of the Imperial Guards, listen well.”

With his son’s life at stake, he trusted no one.

The Emperor ordered all Imperial Guard forces surrounding Jaseon Hall to withdraw, and sent one thousand of his elite personal guard, the Imperial Guards who were loyal only to him, to guard Jaseon Hall’s perimeter like an iron wall.

This was the Emperor’s strong declaration of will to completely block all external threats until Guyang Cheongang finished the surgery.

After all measures were completed, the Emperor, left alone, quietly gazed toward Jaseon Hall in the empty hall.

His strategy was clear.

He knew that the outcome of this battle rested solely in Guyang Cheongang’s hands.

The Emperor had begun a massive gamble, using his imperial command to buy Guyang Cheongang time to complete the surgery.

No matter how much the Empress and court ministers tried to shake him politically, Guyang Cheongang would be safe within the absolute defensive barrier of the Imperial Forbidden Zone.

Of course, he knew well that this entire gamble would see its end before tomorrow passed.

The success or failure of the surgery Guyang Cheongang was performing would determine the situation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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