Choi Seong-min turned around, straightened the wide sleeves of his Nine Chapters King's robe, and instead of panicking, he threw his head back and burst into laughter:
"My dear niece, if I didn't have someone spread the news that I had faked my death back home..."
How could your suspicious father entrust me with the keys to this place?
He took two steps forward, pointed to the churning pool of blood at his feet, and raised his chin so high it could almost touch someone's nostrils:
"To tell you the truth, the coastal defense deployment map of the seven southern counties of Goryeo, as well as the troop rotation schedule for the Busan granary, were all sent to General Inukami my men!"
"Are you crazy?!"
Kim Seon-a's molars were sore from grinding them, and the veins on the back of her hands were bulging.
I am your own niece!
The Goryeo royal family treated you well, so why did you sell your ancestral heritage to those Wa beasts?!
"You've treated me well?"
Choi Seong-min's face darkened, and she kicked over the candlestick next to her.
"Half of Goryeo's territory was conquered by my Choi family. Why should your Kim family sit on the throne for generations, while I, Choi Seong-min, have to kneel down and be a dog?"
As long as you and that old bastard Kim Tae-heung are dead, I will hand over these five hundred drug-infused human beings, who have been injected with Bloodline Gu eggs, to Inukami, and the entire Goryeo army will have to obey!
When the time comes, the Great Wa will bestow upon me the title of King of Goryeo, which is far better than being a slave to your Kim family!
After he finished speaking, he raised his hands and clapped them twice forcefully.
Click, click!
The eight large iron cages that were originally locked around the cellar popped open at the same time.
Eighty disheveled warriors, dressed in the silver armor of the Goryeo royal guards, rushed out of the iron cage, dragging long swords.
These people had dark red blood vessels crawling across the whites of their eyes, thin black worms wriggling in the veins of their necks, and white foam dripping from their mouths. They surrounded Kim Seon-a and her two companions.
When Kim Seon-a saw the face of the warrior charging at the front, her breath caught in her throat.
" Kim Seok?"
You... you are all Royal Dragon Guard personally trained by my father!
The Dragon Guard commander named Kim Seok couldn't understand her words at all. He let out a low growl like a wild beast, raised his long sword, and thrust it straight at Kim Seon-a's heart without dodging or avoiding it.
Kim Seon-a raised her sword to parry, but seeing the familiar face of the other person who had risked her life with her father for five years, the tip of her sword deflected half an inch in mid-air, only slicing towards the other person's wrist.
Kim Seok felt no pain whatsoever, letting the sword blade slash his wrist, leaving a deep gash that exposed bone. He then used the momentum to flick the sword upwards.
Sizzle!
The sword tip ripped through Kim Seon-a's soaked white silk robe on her left shoulder, leaving a three-inch-long gash on the snowy flesh of her shoulder, which was not protected by the silk inner armor. Blood mixed with well water from her clothes flowed down.
Kim Seon-a let out a muffled groan and staggered back half a step.
A cold, sharp sword light flashed from the side.
Lin Qingdai didn't even blink. With a flick of her wrist, the longsword slashed across Kim Seok's neck.
Gulp
Kim Seok's head rolled to the ground, and blackish-red dead blood gushed from his neck cavity, mixed with several writhing red worms.
"Look carefully!"
Lin Qingdai kicked the headless corpse aside, then shielded Kim Seon-a's left side with her hand, and coldly shouted,
"Their brains have long been eaten away by the Bloodline Gu; now they're just a bunch of dead flesh stuffed with worms!"
If you keep clinging to your ridiculous old feelings, those five hundred Goryeo children in the cage will all turn into insect jars today!
Kim Seon-a- ah glanced down at the red threadworms still wriggling on the ground, then at the child in the cage who was huddled together and crying in fear. Her trembling fingertips suddenly gripped the hilt of her sword.
Just then, Choi Seong-min, seeing that the eighty drug-wielding assassins had failed to capture them immediately, rolled her eyes, turned around, grabbed a torch from the wall, and threw it at the wooden cage full of children.
The bottoms of those wooden cages were already lined with oil-soaked firewood!
He wanted to use the lives of these five hundred children to distract Kim Seon-a from putting out the fire, so that he could take advantage of the chaos to escape through the secret passage in the back mountain and reunite with Inukami Jusaburo!
You dare!
Kim Seon-a's eyes were bulging with tears, and she held back without any further restraint.
She stomped heavily on the edge of the blood pool with her left foot, and all the meridians in her body that Gu Moran had cleared with his Pure Yang True Qi opened up, Peak Second Rank true energy burst forth without reservation.
" Eastern Peak Tiger Spirit Art!"
roar--!
Four enormous, semi-transparent white tiger phantoms leaped from behind her, roaring deafeningly as they rampaged through the narrow underground cavern.
Kim Seon-a thrust her sword forward, and four illusory white tigers pounced towards the twenty-odd medicine-wielding assassins blocking her path, following the sword's energy.
Bang bang bang!
Those twenty-odd drug-wielding assassins, oblivious to pain, were sent flying by the raging White Tiger Gang Qi, their chests caved in, their hearts and the mother worms within them instantly reduced to a bloody pulp. They slid down the stone wall, unable to get up again.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Qingdai leaped into the air, knocking away the torches in mid-air with a single sword strike, and then the tip of her sword sliced open the iron locks on the three wooden cages.
When Choi Seong-min saw the torch being knocked away, he was so frightened that he almost jumped out of his skin. He lifted the hem of the wide robe of the King of Nine Chapters and turned to crawl into the secret passage behind the stone gate that led directly to the back of the mountain.
"Where do you think you're going! Take this from Grandpa's hammer!"
Tuoba Mang, who had been guarding the perimeter, roared and charged forward with his long legs. He swung two heavy iron hammers, each weighing sixty pounds, at the top of the descending stone gate and smashed them down with all his might.
Boom!
The entire half-foot-thick bluestone door, along with the massive stone frame above it, collapsed with a deafening crash when struck by the 120-pound double hammers.
Countless pebbles tumbled down, completely blocking the secret passage leading to the back mountain, so much so that not even a mouse could squeeze out.
Choi Seong-min was hit on the forehead by flying pebbles and fell hard on her backside in front of the pile of rubble.
He was about to get up and beg for mercy when a white figure carrying the scent of fragrance and the stench of blood had already swept up in front of him.
Kim Seon-a held the sword in one hand, her eyes devoid of any warmth. She thrust the White Tiger sword from top to bottom at Choi Seong-min's right shoulder blade, piercing through it in one stroke!
"Ah--!"
Choi Seong-min let out a pig-like scream as the longsword sent her flying three steps backward, her back slamming against a large sandalwood pillar.
clang!
The White Tiger Longsword pierced through his right shoulder, its tip embedding itself three inches deep into the sandalwood pillar, pinning him and his Nine Chapters Royal Robe to the base of the pillar.
Kim Seon-a was panting heavily, her chest heaving violently.
Choi Seong-min, nailed to the pillar, was writhing in pain, but as he looked at Kim Seon-a approaching, he suddenly grinned, his mouth full of blood and foam, and burst into maniacal laughter.
Hahaha... Kim Seon-a!
So what if you nail me to the ground?
It's too late!
It's all night!
Inukami buried three thousand catties of flammable oil in the bell tower. Your Great Yan Gu Moran would have been blown to ashes along with those twenty thousand lowly people by now!
You may save these five hundred little beasts, but you can't save Goryeo, much less your lover!
"Yeah?"
A lazy male voice suddenly came from outside the cellar iron door.