Chapter 16. Cho Ryu Hyang’s Hide-and-Seek

‘These little things are playing around, huh.’

The man hidden in the shadows.

Um Seung Do smirked when he listened in on the conversation between the two children.

Cho Ryu Hyang thought that Um Seung Do was sleeping, but that wasn’t it at all. Um Seung Do was a peak expert.

He managed to pick out Cho Ryu Hyang trying to sneak out, and followed the boy.

When he tried to leave quietly, seeing that the boy was just resting outside, he noticed Neng Ha Young approaching from behind. That’s why he was hiding here, looking at the two.

He was looking at the two children trying to look like a pair of adults, since it was quite cute to him. But then, all of a sudden, the two began to talk about the secrets the church had.

King Shura 16

‘Should I teach a lesson to these kids now?’

Um Seung Do thought carefully.

He could do exactly that to Cho Ryu Hyang, but for Neng Ha Young, acting violently towards her was quite dangerous.

Her background was the problem.

Then what should he do?

While Um Seung Do was thinking about such things, the conversation between the two children kept progressing.

“I had something that I was curious about in the martial world for quite a while now.”

“What is it? If this big sis knows it, I’ll tell you all about it.”

Before Cho Ryu Hyang could even open his mouth, Um Seung Do intervened.

[Don’t try anything dangerous like that. The main church isn’t as easy to take on as you might think.]

Cho Ryu Hyang froze when he heard Um Seung Do’s voice.

His face ashened as if he was a little prankster who just got caught by his parents. His back was full of sweat.

‘He was awake?’

He forgot about the fact that he was in the same boat as one of the members in the Heavenly Demon Church.

The organization strong enough to turn the martial world into a sea of blood. It would not be wise to talk about their secrets when on the same boat as them.

After thinking that, Cho Ryu Hyang closed his mouth.

“What is it?”

“…….I almost made a mistake.”

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled bitterly.

When he thought about Um Seung Do listening to them from somewhere, he shivered.

‘He was listening from the start?’

He felt a little annoyed when he felt that he was being watched.

When Neng Ha Young saw Cho Ryu Hyang’s annoyed expression, she quickly responded.

“There’s…… someone here?”

“…….”

Neng Ha Young began to observe her surroundings.

‘There’s nothing nearby.’

Cho Ryu Hyang, who didn’t even know martial arts, noticed something when she didn’t?

Neng Ha Young wrinkled her eyebrows, and extended her senses as far as she could. But trying to find Um Seung Do with her level of skill was near impossible.

“Come out.”

Um Seung Do didn’t have any intention of doing so.

‘You think I’m crazy? Why’d I come out?’

He’d only look bad when he came out after looking at two kids.

Even though he revealed his presence to Cho Ryu Hyang, he wasn’t keen on doing the same thing to Neng Ha Young.

Thinking that, Um Seung Do didn’t reveal his presence.

He concealed it even more.

He brought out his technique to his limit.

‘He’s not even considering revealing himself, huh?’

Cho Ryu Hyang got a little annoyed when Um Seung Do didn’t reveal himself even after a long time.

He was originally going to let it pass, since this whole thing was his fault, after all.

But to think that the man would just stay hidden, when his existence was already exposed. Was he not mocking them? When Cho Ryu Hyang thought that, he felt quite annoyed.

He didn’t want to leave the man be.

He wanted to do something to the man.

‘Is there a way…….’

At this point, this was a matter of pride.

After thinking something for a while, Cho Ryu Hyang caught his breath.

Didn’t he have a secret weapon, something that other people didn’t have?

He didn’t know if it would work in this situation, but it was worth trying.

“You’re looking down on me, aren’t you?”

When Neng Ha Young, who still couldn’t detect Um Seung Do’s presence, bit her lower lip in annoyance, Cho Ryu Hyang came up to her.

“Wait here.”

“Why?”

“Just watch.”

“What are you going to do?”

Cho Ryu Hyang began walking without replying.

He caught his breath.

The Faultless View of The World.

He used that.

Um Seung Do was currently hidden in the darkness, and was smirking at the children.

‘You wouldn’t ever be able to find me.’

It was quite amusing to see two children do this.

Seeing them get angry, and seeing them trying to find him was funny.

But that’s where that all ends.

His stealth technique is on the peak. Even in the Heavenly Demon Church, there aren’t many that can see through his stealth technique.

In front of Um Seung Do, the attempts the children made to look for him just seemed like child’s play.

In short, it was pointless. Um Seung Do thought that he was playing a hide-and-seek game where he definitely couldn’t lose.

But then…….

‘Ah?’

Um Seung Do tilted his head a bit.

That was because Cho Ryu Hyang began to walk right towards him.

‘Probably a coincidence.’

His technique was good enough to let him go unnoticed right in front of others.

But…….

Grab.

“You’re going a little too far.”

“……..”

Um Seung Do stared down at Cho Ryu Hyang with a dumb face.

He didn’t even get cautious when the boy came up right next to him. A competition with a child who didn’t even know martial arts seemed ridiculous, after all.

But this arrogant child came right up to him and grabbed onto him.

How?

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at the man’s face, and then nodded.

He thought that since he, too, mocked the man, they were even.

Right then.

Crack–

Cho Ryu Hyang couldn’t breath anymore.

Um Seung Do grabbed onto Cho Ryu Hyang’s collars, and held the boy up in the air.

Um Sung Do did this so fast, that Cho Ryu Hyang’s top clothing was actually about to be ripped off.

“You……., what are you?”

Right now, Um Seung Do’s face resembled that of a demon’s.

Not only did he have a face of an adult who got angry over a game with a child, he was also using violence.

“Talk, kid. Or you die.”

The polite man that Um Seung Do was before was gone.

A martial artist’s pride. That pride of his was injured, and therefore his animal instinct clawed outside. In his hands, Cho Ryu Hyang was nothing but a helpless child.

While Cho Ryu Hyang was trying to breath.

“You should stop here. He’s going to die.”

Neng Ha Young came up to the man, and glared at him.

She couldn’t think at all before because she was astonished that Cho Ryu Hyang managed to find Um Seung Do. But when Um Seung Do grabbed onto the boy’s collars, Neng Ha Young came back to her senses.

“Don’t interfere, girl. Unless you want to die.”

“I can’t do that.”

When she stomped the ground after finishing her sentence, 4 men appeared right beside her, like a ghost. They were the bodyguards that came with Neng Ha Young.

“Ma’am.”

Um Seung Do ground his teeth.

He then growled like a ferocious beast.

“You think I can’t kill you all?”

Neng Ha Young smiled in front of Um Seung Do’s murderous gaze.

It was a smile that she tried to make as relaxed as possible.

“Can you?”

Um Seung Do smiled.

It was a very unsettling smile, which almost started to show his gums.

Neng Ha Young thought that this was extremely frightening, but she didn’t try to look it.

If she got pushed back here, something bad would happen.

That was the Martial World that Neng Ha Young knew about.

“Of course.”

He’ll kill them.

He was going to kill them all.

His murderous intent reached the peak, after all.

His injured pride made him forget everything else, and made him go berserk.

Neng Ha Young saw this, and just shrugged.

“You’re actually going to kill us.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll feed our bodies to the fish, I assume?”

“The fishes are going to have a rare feast.”

This was the middle of the river. There was nowhere to run, and even if they could, Um Seung Do was confident that he could kill them all. Plus, it was easy to get rid of the corpses.

When Um Seung Do thought all this, Neng Ha Young spoke up.

“You’re assuming that I boarded the boat of the Heavenly Demon Church without any preparation, aren’t you? Do you really look like an idiot to you? You think I didn’t contact the guild when I boarded?”

“…….”

Um Seung Do’s face went stiff.

He forgot about something because of his emotions going out of control.

The girl wasn’t just famous in the Martial World for being the grandchild of one of the three sovereigns.

‘Damn it.’

Her cleverness was already quite famous.

The information that the church’s spies in the guild brought in about the girl was quite amazing.

When he thought about all this, the murderous aura around him weakened considerably.

it was easy to kill the girl now.

But having to deal with the guild after that was troublesome.

There would be an interrogation from the church to find out why Um Seung Do caused this, and he didn’t want that to happen.

“You thought well.”

Neng Ha Young sighed in relief in her mind.

It seemed her threats worked, thankfully.

She glanced at Cho Ryu Hyang, who had fainted not long ago, and spoke.

“You should let go. He doesn’t look like he can talk, anyways.”

Um Seung Do stared at the boy in his hands.

His eyes started to get complicated.

* * *

Cho Ryu Hyang woke up after a quarter of the day passed.

When he opened his eyes, he could see his teacher, who seemed full of worry, with Um Seung Do at the side, who had a stiff face on him.

“Are you awake?”

“…….Yes.”

“You’re not hurt anywhere?”

“Yes, I’m alright.”

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at Um Seung Do as he said this.

The terrifying aura he felt from the man right before he fainted.

‘Martial artist…….’

He forgot that the man was a martial artist.

When he thought back on what had happened, what he did just then was quite foolish.

Just because he got a little annoyed back then, he taunted a martial artist from the Heavenly Demon Church. This did indeed seem quite foolish.

When he thought that much, Cho Ryu Hyang shook his head.

‘No. I became like that only because I was weak.’

It wasn’t that this was all his fault. He was only like this because he was young and weak.

There was nothing wrong about what he did to the other side.

Didn’t the man actually provoke him first?

Not only did he listen in on the conversation between Cho Ryu Hyang and Neng Ha young, he even dared to provoke them by staying in the dark indefinitely.

This was something he wouldn’t have had to gone through, especially if he had strength that equalled the other side’s.

‘I need strength.’

This was the first event in his life that made Cho Ryu Hyang crave power.

“We’ll be at Castle Gansu soon. We’re almost there.”

It seemed that the teacher didn’t know about this yet.

That was good. He didn’t want to make his teacher worry.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at Um Seung Do.

Um Seung Do, too, was looking at the boy at this time. The man had a complicated face.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked away soon after.

He, too, felt a bit complicated at the moment. He didn’t know how to greet the other side.

It was same for Um Seung Do, too.

‘Damn.’

It was better not to kill, when you couldn’t take care of it cleanly.

Um Seung Do knew this well, but he still tried to kill the boy right then.

His emotions were out of control there.

‘But how’d he find out?’

Um Seung Do’s skills were one of the finest in the church.

When the boy found him just like that back there, Um Seung Do went out of control for a moment.

‘This is suspicious. That boy is suspicious.’

Wrinkling the paper in his pocket, he started to think carefully.

The paper in his pocket contained the data on the boy’s physical stats.

He already read it countless times.

But no matter how many times he read it, he couldn’t get the information he wanted.

‘The boy never learned martial arts? That’s a lie.’

He couldn’t believe it.

Even if the boy learned martial arts from a peak expert from the time he was in his mother’s womb, he wouldn’t be able to see through Um Seung Do’s stealth technique.

And then it says that the boy never learned martial arts?

No, there was something in the records.

‘The Six Blade Technique and the Heavenly Power Technique…….’

This was the most basic technique a swordsman or a fighter would learn.

But with just that much skill, the boy managed to detect him.

‘There’s something else other than the data we have on him.’

The boy was definitely hiding something.

But Um Seung Do didn’t know what that was. That’s what bothered him.

It wasn’t the right time to ask, either. He was wondering if the boy would tell him anything, especially with what happened before.

‘He’s really getting on my nerves.’

While Um Seung Do was thinking about all this, Cho Ryu Hyang, too, was thinking about what was to happen in the future.

Then.

They could feel the ship slowing down. Um Seung Do stood up, and spoke.

“We’re here. We’ve arrived at Castle Gansu.”

“Really?”

Cho Ryu Hyang stood up.

He learned that he would need strength to protect himself, for the first time in his life.

‘I’m not going to go through anything like that ever again.’

He’d need strength for that.

Then, what was strength?

How would be get it?

This event caused Cho Ryu Hyang to think carefully about strength.

These things that he would constantly think about would eventually set the base for his title in the future, King Shura.