Chapter 200

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter 200: Collapse (2)

The giant’s fist crushed everything in its path.

Not just the floor—walls and ceiling alike were obliterated into powder.

The shattered debris rained down, crashing into an unknown room below.

<Deactivating Half-Incarnation Form.>

As the power faded, a wave of extreme fatigue crashed over Kwon Hanul.

Though his complete metamorphosis had enhanced all his bloodlines, using the Half-Incarnation twice in a row was still a severe burden.

<“Healthy Bloodline” has detected rapid physical exhaustion!>

Still, unlike last time, he wasn’t so drained that all his bloodlines went dormant.

Kwon Hanul sat on a piece of rubble and waited quietly for his strength to recover.

“….”

For a while, he just stared blankly at the debris.

Somewhere beneath it all lay the corpse of Bae Cheol-min.

He had no intention of digging it up. This place was as good a grave as any.

“There’s still too much left to do.”

He muttered to himself without realizing it.

He still had to avenge his parents.

He had to take responsibility for the Bae Clan.

There were too many obligations weighing on him.

And so, Kwon Hanul rose to his feet and began moving again.

* * *

Thanks to Bae Cheol-min, the Iron Corps were finally freed—and at first, they were ecstatic.

After all, they were finally living the dream: free from slavery.

Their joy bordered on madness.

And it wasn’t just that they were free.

Now they even had the chance to take revenge on Hyukcheon, the ones who had enslaved them.

“So… where are we supposed to go?”

The problem was—they were lost.

The inside of the Secret Vault was a twisted labyrinth, and detection skills didn’t work, making it impossible to locate the Hyukcheon forces.

“Hey, Park Hyungsik, do something. What good are you if you can’t even find the damn way?”

“Are you deaf? I told you already—my detection skills barely reach anywhere. I can’t sense the path.”

“Then figure something out, you idiot.”

“You keep running your mouth, and I swear—”

As they wandered endlessly through dead ends, tensions began to boil within the Iron Corps.

Two members glared at each other, ready to throw punches at any moment.

Then—

“H-Hey! What the—?!” One of the Iron Corps soldiers shouted in shock.

A wall suddenly split open, and a woman stepped out from within.

Her entire body was wrapped in black cloth, but her pronounced curves—hips and chest alike—made it obvious at a glance that she was a woman.

“A woman…”

“It’s a woman, right?”

Several of the soldiers’ eyes gleamed with lust.

They ogled her without a shred of shame.

“You disgusting bastards. Even here?”

“Snap out of it, you horny mutts. What if she’s the enemy?”

The more rational members quickly drew wary eyes toward her.

No woman showing up here could possibly be ordinary.

The woman said nothing.

She simply raised a finger and pointed at the wall to the left.

Her necklace began to glow—and suddenly, the wall she’d pointed at opened, revealing a hidden passage.

“Huh?”

“W-What the…?”

The Iron Corps soldiers turned back toward her in confusion.

But the woman simply stepped back into the wall she’d come from.

The passage closed behind her, and she vanished.

For a moment, the soldiers stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the wall as if spellbound.

“W-What the hell was that?”

“Beats me… but she did help us, right?”

“Helped? So if we go that way, Hyukcheon must be there?”

Their expressions shifted. The dimwitted looks were gone in an instant.

Now, they stared at the path ahead with the gleam of predators eyeing prey.

“Let’s go. It’s been a while since we’ve had a taste of Hyukcheon blood.”

Following the path, the Iron Corps quickly encountered a unit from Hyukcheon.

“Good. It’s not Kwon Myung-woo.”

“Hey, I see our guys mixed in too.”

It was the joint unit that had been stationed at a Secret Vault junction—half Hyukcheon, half Iron Corps.

“Who was leading that group again? Kwon Junyeol?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“He’s supposed to be second only to Kwon Myung-woo, right?”

The commanding officer was indeed Kwon Junyeol, vice-captain of the Hyukcheon Corps.

Though overshadowed by Myung-woo’s fame, within Hyukcheon, few could rival him outside the direct bloodline.

As the Iron Corps recalled tales of Kwon Junyeol’s strength, their expressions grew grim.

“A head-on fight is suicide. You know that, right?”

“Idiot. No one’s planning on going in head-on.”

“We’re going to do exactly what Bae Cheol-min told us.”

The Iron Corps quietly finalized their plan.

“Take out Kwon Junyeol first.”

“Are you brain-dead? Taking out Junyeol isn’t enough—we need to hit the rest of the Hyukcheon forces too. Just a few of those guys could wipe us out.”

“Right. We kill Kwon Junyeol, cripple the Hyukcheon Corps, and then merge with the Iron Corps members on their side.”

Their strategy meeting was short and to the point.

Then, the Iron Corps soldiers raised their weapons—and turned them on themselves.

“Goddamn it. Never thought I’d see the day I’m stabbing myself.”

“You’ll live. Don’t chicken out.”

“Easy for a freak like you to say.”

They hacked and slashed their own bodies, drenching themselves in blood, and stumbled toward Kwon Junyeol’s unit.

“A-Aaagh!!”

“P-Please help us!!”

Suddenly, the Iron Corps soldiers came pouring out, shocking the Hyukcheon soldiers—including Kwon Junyeol.

“Iron Corps?!”

“What’s going on?!”

The Iron Corps soldiers collapsed in front of them, trembling and shouting: “M-Mei Xiao… she ambushed us!”

“Is that true?!”

Kwon Junyeol grabbed one of them in shock.

The soldier spoke with wide, panicked eyes: “She… she appeared out of nowhere… She killed Captain Gu Eon and came after the rest of us too!”

Blood poured from his wounds as he spoke.

Kwon Junyeol’s expression turned grave.

“But Lord Kwon Myung-woo is there. You’re saying Mei Xiao moved against him anyway?”

The soldier nodded weakly. He was pale from blood loss.

“This isn’t normal. I must return to the captain.”

Junyeol turned to leave—just as the Iron Corps soldier exchanged a glance with the others.

Their eyes, once filled with terror, now gleamed with murderous intent.

They were just about to draw their weapons when—

“Ah!”

A sudden voice rang out.

Both the Hyukcheon and Iron Corps troops turned toward it in surprise.

“Finally found you!”

Kwon Hanul came running toward them, face filled with relief.

* * *

“Lord Kwon Hanul?”

Kwon Junyeol greeted him with surprise.

“What are you doing here alone? What happened to the Dark Shade Unit?”

“Well, about that…”

Kwon Hanul briefly explained everything that had happened. Kwon Junyeol’s expression grew grim once again.

“Aeon has interfered with the Secret Vault. It seems they’ve joined forces with Mei Xiao.”

“No wonder it kept feeling like the space was subtly shifting… But wait—are you saying Bae Cheol-min betrayed us? And Aeon is behind it?”

While the two spoke, the Iron Corps soldiers exchanged uneasy glances.

They were supposed to launch a surprise attack, but the timing was lost.

If they attacked now, the chances of failure were high.

“But isn’t the number of Iron Corps here… a bit too large?”

“Ah… well, about that.”

Kwon Junyeol explained what had just happened.

“Captain Gu Eon was ambushed and killed?”

“Yes. We must report this to the captain immediately.”

Kwon Hanul turned to the Iron Corps with a startled expression.

The Iron Corps burst into exaggerated, wailing sobs.

“That woman cut down our captain with a single strike!”

“I’ve heard tales of the Mei Clan’s Blood Flame Blade, but to think she was that ruthless…”

“Urgh… Captain…”

Kwon Hanul tilted his head slightly, sensing something was off.

“I thought the Iron Corps hated Captain Gu Eon. But maybe I was mistaken?”

The soldiers were immediately at a loss for words.

“Th-That’s…”

“So in truth, you were close enough to him to weep and rage like this?”

“The Mei Clan murdered our captain—how could we not be enraged!”

“Th-That’s right!” shouted a few quick-witted Iron Corps members.

But Kwon Hanul’s face still held doubt.

“You’re saying Mei Xiao injured you during the attack?”

“Yes! If Captain Gu Eon hadn’t shielded us, we all would’ve died then and there!”

“Then why are your wounds all so… inconsistent?”

He began pointing at them one by one.

“That guy’s injury is clearly from a dagger. This one’s from a longsword. And that one over there… looks like it came from an axe.”

At that point, the Iron Corps had nothing left to say.

“…Goddamn it!”

“Why’d that bastard have to show up now and ruin everything!”

“Screw it—kill them all!”

With a roar, the Iron Corps drew their weapons in fury.

A murderous aura surged around them— But Kwon Hanul didn’t move. He didn’t even summon his mana.

He didn’t need to.

The moment the Iron Corps drew their weapons, the Hyukcheon soldiers sprang into action.

They didn’t even use weapons—just bare hands driving straight into vital points.

“Guhk!”

“Kk—!”

The Hyukcheon members tore through their enemies.

Fingers slit throats and crushed hearts.

The Iron Corps fell like lifeless dolls.

All except for one.

“H-HIIEEK!”

The last survivor shrieked, collapsing to the floor.

The Hyukcheon soldiers surrounded him, ensuring he had no escape.

“Tell us everything. What happened. What you were planning. Every last detail.”

The overwhelming killing intent drained the color from the soldier’s face.

They didn’t even need to torture him.

Shaking in terror, the Iron Corps soldier confessed everything.

“…Bae Cheol-min released your binding curse? How?”

“Th-There’s a dagger… in his belongings… If you cut the brand on your neck with it, the restriction breaks…”

One of the Hyukcheon members rummaged through the corpse and found the dagger.

Just as the soldier had described, it radiated an ominous power.

“So they unsealed themselves with this and planned an ambush?”

“These filthy rats really thought they could get away with this…”

The Hyukcheon soldiers glared at him with fury. The Iron Corps soldier flinched in terror.

Their wrath then turned on the remaining Iron Corps soldiers.

“Don’t tell me… You all were in on this?”

“N-No, absolutely not!”

“W-We didn’t know anything!”

The Iron Corps members who had been under Kwon Junyeol’s command were on the verge of madness.

They were about to be executed for a conspiracy they knew nothing about— It was only natural they panicked.

“Bae Cheol-min encountered Aeon inside the Secret Vault. This likely had nothing to do with these men.”

Surprisingly, Kwon Hanul came to their defense.

The Iron Corps let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Of course… if Bae Cheol-min had approached them first, they probably would’ve gone along with it too.”

But those words made them go pale all over again.

“P-Please spare us!”

“W-We’re innocent, we swear!”

They fell to their knees, begging for mercy.

Kwon Hanul turned to Kwon Junyeol.

“But we can’t punish them for a crime they didn’t commit.”

Besides—there were more pressing matters.

“Captain Kwon Junyeol, if the Mei Clan has truly allied with Aeon, we must be on high alert. Please locate and support the Dark Shade Unit immediately.”

“And what will you do, Lord Hanul?” Kwon Junyeol asked.

Kwon Hanul answered without hesitation, “I’m going to find my Great-uncle.”

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]