The Red Dragon Martial Emperor - Chapter 174

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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 Martial Emperor Chapter 174

Chapter 174 — The Journey Home (1)

Covered in dust, Yang Chan stared at the marketplace laid bare by the earthquake and found himself speechless.
‘What in the world is this…….’
He’d slept late into the morning before feeling the sudden tremor and rushing outside—had he dawdled a moment longer, he would have been buried alive.
The marketplace was a vision of pure devastation, the kind that nightmares are made of.
“Argh!”
“No, no!”
People staggering about caked in earth dust, people trapped beneath rubble screaming for help, people clawing desperately through the wreckage with bare hands searching for families they couldn’t find…….
If hell existed, it would look exactly like this.
“Someone help! There’s a person trapped here!”
“Please, help us!”
Cries for aid erupted from every corner.
Yang Chan made to rush forward to help, then froze. The village people—they had come to mind.
Thump!
He kicked off the ground and sprinted like a man possessed. The sight of the city reduced to ruin and the massive scar of the landslide only wound his anxiety tighter with each stride.
‘Please…….’
Thud-thud-thud!
After cresting one mountain and crossing a river, Juk Village came into view in the distance.
How much farther had he run? The mountain on the village’s left side was simply gone, as if cleaved away by a blade. A landslide had occurred.
‘No, no!’
His lungs burned as if they might rupture, each breath a knife in his throat, yet Yang Chan drove himself forward with everything he had. And then, reaching the edge of Juk Village, he collapsed to the ground.
Where the village had stood, earth and boulders now lay piled high. The landslide had been catastrophic enough to dam even the waterfall that had been several stories tall, blocking it completely.
Trembling…….
He wanted to rise and run on, but his whole body had gone numb—not a single finger would obey him.
Whoooosh!
Dust swept up by the wind whipped across Yang Chan’s form, painting him the color of earth.
Yang Chan simply hung his head.

* * *

Yi Hwan and his companions had set out on the journey home, now acutely aware that one cannot see even a single step ahead in life.
Who could have anticipated that a natural disaster would derail Zhao Yun’s plans so utterly?
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Yi Hwan traveled by carriage.
He’d procured a carriage to fully recover from his internal injuries. The rest of his remaining silver he’d given to the innkeeper where his party had stayed those past days.
Hearing the man’s story, Yi Hwan learned he’d taken on the inn with borrowed money just five months prior, only for this disaster to strike. With no spare funds, he’d put his son to work as a porter—and the boy had been badly hurt when the earthquake struck and he tried to flee the building.
After learning his tale, Yi Hwan found he couldn’t simply turn away, enemy nation’s people or not.
“Phew…….”
Yi Hwan exhaled slowly and entered into his Inner Method.
The air inside the carriage grew hot as the warmth radiating from his body suffused the space.
So quite a long time passed.
Once Yi Hwan had completed his Qi Circulation and Mental Cultivation, he exhaled deeply and opened his eyes.
A flash of brilliance crossed his pupils before fading away.
Checking his dantian first, he found the lingering aura of his internal injuries had nearly vanished.
Click!
Yi Hwan opened the window.
His eyes met directly with Go-mi’s as she rode her horse alongside the carriage.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine now.”
“That’s a relief. Still, it would be wise to take precautions for a while longer.”
Hwa Ryeong suddenly thrust her face into the window.
“You’ve been conducting Qi Circulation for nearly half a day—your vital essence has cleared remarkably, hasn’t it?”
“Do you wear the same fragrance as the Empress?”
“Pardon? Oh, yes. I have some left from a gift I received before. But why do you ask?”
“It reminded me of that woman. Either keep your distance from now on, or stop wearing it from tomorrow.”
“……I understand.”
Hwa Ryeong pulled the reins, falling back behind the carriage. Go-mi’s brow furrowed slightly as she watched Yi Hwan.
Yi Hwan, who had been observing her, spoke first.
“What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing, sir.”
Darkness was creeping in.
A city lay not far ahead, but Yi Hwan ordered them to pass it by.
Go-mi spoke up.
“You should rest.”
“I’ve recovered fully. It’s fine.”
The journey continued. Before long, darkness began to settle, and soon it had turned pitch black.
Confined in the carriage, Yi Hwan climbed onto the driver’s seat. Ju-tae, who had been sitting there, was naturally displaced to the carriage roof.
“This is such a remote area that I doubt we’ll find shelter from the night mist.”
“Then we keep going.”
“Will that be alright?”
“Must you keep asking?”
“……”
Clop-clop.
The darkness was so complete that the carriage couldn’t maintain its pace. Yi Hwan’s thoughts turned to Zhao Yun.
‘He must be showing quite the face by now.’
What was his frame of mind at this moment?
Despite his depleted finances, he had poured enormous resources into preparing the Martial World Tournament, only to have it come to nothing. On top of that, the recovery from earthquake damage would demand immense manpower and gold.
Having volunteered to become emperor himself, Zhao Yun would bear that responsibility entirely.
‘For a while, I won’t need to concern myself with Zhao Kingdom. So now it’s just a matter of removing the Empress?’
Thinking of the Zhao Kingdom’s people who had suffered from the great earthquake filled him with pity, yet the thought of the Empress made his heart feel remarkably light. Once he returned to Yen Kingdom, the war with her would begin anew.
With Seo Nam Wang, who had been a strategic ally, now thoroughly ensnared, the Empress could no longer scheme using Zhao Kingdom as her instrument.
Thus, for Yi Hwan and Crown Prince Yi So, an opportunity had been created to focus entirely on the Empress.
Whoosh!
The wind grew steadily fiercer.
How much further had they traveled?
There was something assaulting his sense of smell.
“Doesn’t it smell like blood?”
“It does.”
The acrid stench carried on the wind was unmistakably the smell of blood.
Even as they moved, after advancing perhaps fifty paces more, Cheol Mu-ok pulled the reins and stopped the carriage. Several corpses lay in the middle of the road ahead.
“I’ll investigate.”
Ju-tae, sitting on the roof, hurled himself toward the bodies. Go-mi immediately dismounted and leaped after him.
Cheol Mu-ok muttered.
“Given how strong the smell of blood is, they haven’t been dead long.”
Yi Hwan examined his surroundings in silence. Though the forest swayed in the wind, casting an eerie pall, no human presence could be sensed anywhere.
Presently, Ju-tae and Go-mi returned.
“They’re warriors from Manhwa Palace!”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. Their garb and ornamental fittings are unmistakably those of Manhwa Palace warriors.”
The Empress’s warriors found as corpses. Everyone struggled to hide their shock.
‘Someone’s after the Empress.’
The first name that came to Yi Hwan’s mind was Crown Prince Yi So. But he shook his head at once.
‘He pursues righteousness with such rigidity—he’d never do something like this.’
Yi Hwan issued orders to everyone.
“Continue moving while keeping watch on our surroundings.”
“Yes!”
The journey resumed.
Everyone observed the surroundings keenly. After traveling some fifty paces more, another corpse was discovered ahead. This time, Yi Hwan examined the body directly.
“This one doesn’t appear to be from Manhwa Palace.”
Ju-tae, examining a corpse lying a short distance away, spoke thus.
Two bodies in plain garments.
Around them lay three corpses from Manhwa Palace, their heads severed.
Go-mi spoke with a hardened expression.
“They would have brought their strongest warriors, so experts of considerable skill must be at work here.”
Yi Hwan agreed with that assessment. But it troubled him more. Of the Manhwa Palace corpses discovered so far, six lay dead—yet only two bodies of unknown persons had been found.
What was revealed meant the opponent was stronger than the Manhwa Palace’s warriors.
“Retrieve their swords and move on.”
“Yes.”
Collecting the swords was for later examination to confirm identities.
Masters often inscribed their sect affiliations or identifying marks onto their sword paths or sword spirits—though more often than not they didn’t. Still, it was worth taking them just in case.
Yi Hwan surveyed the surroundings. When his gaze landed on a certain point, his eyes sharpened. A carriage stood in the distance ahead.
Swoosh!
Yi Hwan immediately leaped into the air.
Ju-tae and Go-mi rushed after him, launching themselves skyward, while the others moved swiftly in turn.
Moments later, Yi Hwan could make out the carriage’s identity. To his surprise, it was the Empress’s carriage. Scattered about were horses that her warrior escort would have ridden.
Yet nowhere could a single body be found.
‘That woman’s temperament—even going out of her way, she wouldn’t abandon her carriage. If she did, the situation must be quite dire……’
Whiff!
Go-mi descended beside him, her eyes widening in surprise.
“It’s the Empress’s carriage!”
Yi Hwan nodded silently and gazed forward. Had a landslide occurred? Earth and rock were piled high as a mountain, making further passage impossible.
“If they abandoned the carriage and horses, they likely proceeded in that direction.”
Go-mi pointed east.
Because of the landslide, there was only one path toward Yen Kingdom’s Imperial Capital. Just then, Cheol Mu-ok and the others approached with the carriage.
“Release the horses and proceed on foot.”
“Understood.”
As Cheol Mu-ok and Ju-tae separated the horses from the carriage, Hwa Ryeong stepped inside the Empress’s coach.
“The vehicle is still warm, so they can’t have passed through here long ago.”
She let out a soft laugh.
“She must have been in quite a hurry. Imagine a woman who abhors getting dirt on her feet abandoning her carriage entirely.”
“Do you know anything about those who came as the Empress’s guards?”
“Well, naturally those I mentioned before would have accompanied her. And that girl she dotes on would certainly have come as well……”
“Which girl are you talking about?”
“That woman—she has a preference for women. So she has a girl who shares her bed, and all of Manhwa Palace’s female warriors are under that girl’s command.”
“How does her strength compare to yours?”
“A few years back I was stronger, but now that girl surpasses me. Whatever that woman has been feeding her, her inner strength is formidable.”
Just then Cheol Mu-ok and Ju-tae approached.
“We’ve separated all the horses.”
Yi Hwan pointed east.
“Move out.”

* * *

“Contemptible wretches.”
The Empress’s face twisted savagely.
Before her, a guard warrior drove his sword deep into Heuk Po-in’s back, pressing down with his full weight.
Remarkably, the dying Heuk Po-in was smiling as he looked at the Empress. It scraped her nerves raw.
“Did the Crown Prince order this?”
“Mad bitch……”
Twitch.
“Don’t you know that everyone in Yen Kingdom wants to kill you? I am one of them, and even as a vengeful ghost, I will hunt you down!”
Drip-drip!
Blood pooled on the floor, already darkening with death. The life drained rapidly from his eyes as they fixed upon the Empress.
“This is how you leave the world?”
Blood-red light ignited in the Empress’s eyes. Crimson mist erupted from her hand, wrapping around Heuk Po-in’s face.
“You will begin to experience pain no human can endure. Let’s see how long you hold on.”
“Heh-heh-heh. See you in the underworld, you mad bitch.”
“……!”
Crack!
Something burst inside Heuk Po-in’s mouth. His entire body convulsed once, then went limp.
“……He was hiding a poison pill in his mouth!”
Trembling…
The Empress’s hands shook finely.
The Female Warrior standing beside her spoke.
“The number of demon beasts remains unconfirmed. We must leave this place at once, Your Majesty.”
“Wine!”
At the Empress’s command, another Female Warrior quickly offered her a cup. Even in that moment, the Empress poured and drank without hesitation.
Splash!
She hurled the cup away and rose to her feet.
The terrible force radiating from her entire body was unmistakably Demonic Energy.
“These shoes are ruined. How irritating. Truly.”
The Empress glanced down at her dirt-caked shoes with annoyance, then began walking toward the north.
The retinue following in her wake numbered roughly two hundred—half what it had been when they crossed into the Zhao Kingdom.
Not all of the missing half had perished. Some had been separated in the marketplace during the earthquake and lost contact.
“Once we cross that mountain range, we can request cooperation from the Zhao military all the way to the border. So please hold on just a bit longer.”
“I heard you. Now lead the way.”
“Yes.”
Rumble.
Thunder cracked overhead. Rain began to pour down in sheets.
Roar!

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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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