The Red Dragon Martial Emperor - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Red Dragon Undefeated — Episode 11

Chapter 11 — What Cha Jung-gyeong Brought

In the darkness, several fireflies appeared. Peculiarly, the ones radiating Blood Light flew straight toward those who had been watching Yi Hwan’s Barracks.
Yet no one noticed what was happening.
Crack-crack!
“Heck!”
“Ugh!”
Five men collapsed with a single cry, their breath cut short. Only then did their comrades realize their allies were dead, and they jolted upright in horror.
But what they saw were blood-red fireflies hurtling toward them.
Crack-crack-crack!
The fireflies pierced through their hearts with perfect precision, and four men fell without even a scream.
……!
Dae Ju, the sole survivor, widened his eyes and backed away. He had seen a figure emerge from the darkness.
It was Yi Hwan.
“Too much still, it seems.”
Yi Hwan muttered something incomprehensible while looking down at his body, and his gaze locked with Dae Ju’s across the darkness.
“Do you want to live?”
……!
“Then you must want to die.”
“I, I want to live!”
Thunk!
His sword drove into the ground.
Dae Ju then dropped to his knees.
His heart was hammering in his chest. The method those subordinates were killed by—he had never heard of it, never seen it.
What was even more shocking was that the one who had deployed it was Yi Hwan, whom he had dismissed just moments before.
“Follow me.”
Yi Hwan strode toward the forest outside the Military Camp.
Dae Ju followed without even thinking of escape, like a monkey before a python. What was absurd was that there were no sentries watching nearby, so no one witnessed either of them.
“If you’re going to wear a disguise, at least do it properly. Besides, why did the Black Tiger Platoon come looking for me?”
Yi Hwan had seen through them at a glance—they were Black Tiger Platoon. He remembered clearly the ornaments on the sword sheaths he had seen on the Battlefield.
“We came to capture Cha Jung-gyeong.”
“How did you know he was here?”
“We caught a sentry standing guard earlier and extracted the information.”
“Impressive. You made it this far without being detected. But what makes Cha Jung-gyeong so important that you came all the way down here?”
Dae Ju hesitated before answering. But soon he spoke.
“Our superiors ordered us to find Cha Jung-gyeong at any cost. We simply followed orders—we don’t know the circumstances.”
Swoosh.
Yi Hwan raised his sword and placed it against Dae Ju’s shoulder.
“Should I start by cutting off an arm?”
“I, I really don’t know! Only… only I heard that Cha Jung-gyeong stole something important and fled!”
Yi Hwan’s eyes flickered with intensity.
‘He stole something important? But why did he hide that from me?’
Yi Hwan’s brow furrowed slightly as he pictured Cha Jung-gyeong, then collected his thoughts and fixed Dae Ju with a gaze that had grown cold as stone.
Did Dae Ju read the meaning in those eyes?
“Please, spare me!”
Thump!
Dae Ju’s forehead struck the earth.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. If I let you live, word will spread to Josana, and that would be troublesome indeed.”
Two spheres of Blood Light rose above Dae Ju’s head.
“Consider it bad luck.”
Crack-crack!
Two gaping holes appeared in Dae Ju’s skull. Death was instant.
Drip.
Yi Hwan raised his hand to touch his nose. Blood was pouring from it.
‘Just this much and a nosebleed….’

* * *

The next morning, the area around Yi Hwan’s barracks was in an uproar.
Nine enemy corpses had been discovered—but when it was revealed that they were not their own soldiers but Josana’s Black Tiger Platoon, the commotion only swelled.
A breach in the Military Camp’s perimeter was no small matter. For this reason, Hwang Ho summoned the commanders responsible for the watch and issued a stern rebuke.
Meanwhile, Yi Hwan sat at ease in his quarters, sipping tea.
Clink.
“Who do you think killed the Black Tiger Platoon?” Song Hoe asked, setting down his cup.
Song Hoe set down his cup and spoke.
“How should I know?”
“It’s rather strange. Even if I had been in deep sleep, I felt not the slightest disturbance while nine men were slaughtered. Did the general perhaps feel nothing either?”
“I was in meditation, like I said.”
Yi Hwan lied without hesitation.
Just then, Song Cheon-mu and Cha Jung-gyeong entered.
Though they had been freed from menial tasks once the warriors were reinforced, they still had their work.
Yi Hwan fixed his gaze on Cha Jung-gyeong.
“You two, head out. You stay here.”
“Me?”
When Yi Hwan nodded silently, Cha Jung-gyeong tilted his head and took a seat.
Song Hoe and Song Cheon-mu left the room.
“I heard you stole something from Josana’s Military Camp.”
“……!”
Cha Jung-gyeong’s eyes widened—a reaction that was all but an admission.
“Then those corpses outside…….”
“If you don’t want to end up the same way, you’d better tell me the truth.”
“Ugh…….”
Cha Jung-gyeong suddenly exhaled a deep sigh, then pulled something from inside his robe and held it out.
It was a small Scroll Tube.
“Open it.”
Cha Jung-gyeong withdrew the paper inside the Scroll Tube and unfolded it.
A map. And across it were scattered several red dots alongside characters so tiny they were barely legible.
“The truth is… the pay was so terrible that I was considering desertion.”
Cha Jung-gyeong had succeeded in ambushing Yi Hwan in his splendid armor and had expected a great reward. By the magnificence of that uniform, he was surely a person of importance.
But Josana offered no reward and simply let the matter drop. Indeed, he was even scolded for failing to finish the job properly.
Angered by this treatment, Cha Jung-gyeong resolved to desert, and while fleeing with something of value from the general’s barracks, he had discovered this map.
“A Treasure Map, perhaps?”
“I thought it might be and brought it along. And given that they sent a pursuit squad to capture me, doesn’t that suggest it’s quite likely to be one?”
Yi Hwan tucked the paper into his robe and fixed his gaze on Cha Jung-gyeong.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I thought you wouldn’t be interested…….”
“What?”
“I didn’t think you’d care about treasure. After helping you find the wanderer, I planned to slowly make my way to the marked location.”
…….
It was somewhat absurd, but hearing him out, it made a certain sense. Yi Hwan crossed his arms and studied Cha Jung-gyeong.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
“I’m thinking about what to do with you.”
“I don’t want to die like this. If I’m to die, I want to die with honor.”
“Is desertion an honorable thing to do?”
“If I obtained the treasure and returned home, wouldn’t that be worth trading for honor? Besides, I never had any loyalty to Josana to begin with. I only enlisted to make money anyway.”
Yi Hwan flicked his finger. A gust of Earth Wind struck Cha Jung-gyeong’s brow.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
“More men may come looking for you, you know. They’ll say they’re searching for you.”
“They might.”
“And naturally, I’ll be drawn into this troublesome affair.”
“……So you really will kill me?”
“Until I find the wanderer, you won’t be able to die even if you wanted to.”
“Really? Then what’s there to worry about?”
Yi Hwan watched Cha Jung-gyeong’s face brighten suddenly, then added one more thing.
“Hmm…… I do need to take some precaution, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.”
“Shall I lend you a hand?”
Snap!
“Ugh!”
“From now on, I’ll look into a way to handle this. Keep it secret that I killed the Black Tiger Platoon.”
“Don’t worry, sir. Even if I told anyone, they wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
Snap!
“Hack!”
That was when it happened.
Song Hoe pushed open the door and stepped inside.
“General Jung Cheon requests an audience with you.”

* * *

Yi Hwan and Jung Cheon sat facing each other.
He had come to investigate the death of the Black Tiger Platoon. In the adjacent room, Song Hoe and the others were being questioned by other officers.
Yi Hwan lied with ease.
Jung Cheon seemed to accept it without suspicion.
Even if Yi Hwan had been hiding his true strength, Jung Cheon believed he couldn’t possibly have killed all nine members of the Black Tiger Platoon alone.
It was a different matter entirely from killing several of them in the chaos of a battlefield where multiple forces clashed together.
“Please understand—this investigation is merely formal in nature.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“Then I shall take my leave.”
“I’m troubled by this matter. Please uncover the truth as quickly as you can.”
“I will do my best.”
After Jung Cheon and the other officers left, the three men approached Yi Hwan.
“Commander.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We need to obtain a Human Skin Face Mask. Do you think it’s possible?”
“To obtain a Human Skin Face Mask, we’d need to make contact with someone from the martial world. Under current circumstances, that’s difficult. And even if we do make contact, the price would be astronomical.”
“Don’t worry about the money. Just move on it as quickly as you can.”
“Understood.”
Yi Hwan entered the room. As always, he drew cloth over the window before sitting in meditation.
He narrowed his brow, recalling the events of the previous night.
‘Using Inner Qi at the sixth-stage level certainly strains the Dantian.’
Yet he’d been able to subdue them easily because they’d let their guard down. Had he faced them head-on, he wouldn’t have overcome them so readily.
‘The bigger problem is that I haven’t fully adapted to this body yet.’
The Yi Hwan of old—the absolute ruler of Dae Ya Fortress in his prime—had never experienced exhaustion of Inner Qi.
He had always poured out his Inner Strength freely with every sword stroke, and his body had never suffered injury as a result.
But this current body was not yet strong enough to withstand such a style of combat. A single misstep could easily result in serious harm.
Therefore, until his Inner Qi accumulated sufficiently, he needed to learn a method of fighting suited to this body’s current state.
Yi Hwan closed his eyes and fell into thought.
Had half a moment passed?
Yi Hwan opened his eyes.
‘That’s right. In times like these, the simplest approach is always the best.’

* * *

“I need to assess your martial abilities. Bring your sword and meet me in the back courtyard.”
“Pardon?”
Song Cheon-mu’s face showed bewilderment at Yi Hwan’s sudden command.
“I told you before—once I’ve assessed your skill level, I’d give you a chance. So stop standing there like a fool and come on.”
Yi Hwan went out to the back courtyard first. Shortly after, Song Cheon-mu and Song Hoe emerged.
Song Hoe handed a sword to Yi Hwan.
Cha Jung-gyeong, who had come out to the back courtyard later, watched the two men with curious eyes.
“Think of me as your enemy and attack.”
“How could I possibly do such a thing, sir?”
“You have my permission. Now begin.”
Song Cheon-mu hesitated for a moment, then drew his sword and planted his feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
“Then I shall commence, sir.”
Clang-clang-clang!
Clang!
Steel struck steel, and sparks erupted. Song Hoe and Cha Jung-gyeong couldn’t hide their astonishment.
Song Cheon-mu’s sword form bordered on the Quick Sword style, yet it carried a destructive force rarely seen in such techniques—enough to inspire awe in any observer.
What struck them more was how effortlessly Yi Hwan parried every single attack.
‘So the general was this formidable….’
‘The boy has some skill, I’ll grant him that.’
Song Hoe and Cha Jung-gyeong’s gazes remained fixed on their respective opponents.
Clang-clang-clang!
Dozens of exchanges passed in an instant.
After a few more rounds of attack and defense, Song Cheon-mu stepped back with ragged breathing.
“Huff… huff… huff.”
Yi Hwan’s expression was peculiar.
It was a face that seemed both unsatisfied and yet content.
Yi Hwan handed his sword to Song Hoe.
“I’m going to meet General Hwang. Don’t wait for me—go ahead and eat.”

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