BSA Ch 30

The spy Deng Li had reported that rumors that Lee Hwa had been killed by her own blood relatives had been running rampant in the enemy country for seven years. It seemed Lee Hwanmae had led his younger brothers and killed his father. Could Yoo Nanoh perhaps be one of those younger brothers? From the very first moment he saw Lee Hwanmae, Yoo Nanoh, and Hopi in the interrogation room, Gwanchang had thought they looked alike. Their eye shapes and other facial features bore a striking resemblance to one another. Although their vibes were entirely different, Lee Hwanmae, Yoo Nanoh, and Hopi were faces undeniably derived from the exact same motif.

Here, Gwanchang harbored a doubt. According to the spy Deng Li’s report, the government of the ‘Country of God (神)’ had thoroughly denied the death of the former Lee Hwa for seven years. What was the reason the eldest son, Lee Hwanmae, had not ascended the throne for a long time and had acted only as Lee Hwa’s proxy? Was it because the officials of the former Lee Hwa did not recognize Lee Hwanmae as king? What was the reason Lee Hwanmae and Yoo Nanoh had different family names? Deng Li’s report even stated that Lee Hwanmae and Yoo Nanoh had separate families of their own.

He is a fellow with many secrets.

Gwanchang chewed over the words Lee Hwanmae had tossed out, one by one.

‘You are lucky. You will not die. Because you met me. Because I appeared before you. The moment I ambushed your unit with the thought of keeping you alive, your fate changed to survive and cooperate with God.’

‘This is why names are important. Just like my name.’

‘I suddenly remember how very useful I found this ability when I killed that bastard with the last name Lee in the past.’

‘Heh, anyway, people are truly different on the outside and the inside. Who would’ve thought peeking and eavesdropping could be so different?’

“Haha…”

Gwanchang let out a hollow laugh. Looking back now, Lee Hwanmae was a bastard who was a master at mocking people. He had diligently dropped clues with the meaning, ‘It’s me, it’s me. Actually, I am Lee Hwa. Don’t you know?’ Since it was difficult to pass himself off as the ‘Messenger of God’ even thousands of miles away from home, he seemed to have made up his mind to spill the beans right at the start.

Lee Hwanmae must have been extremely pissed off by Wang Hui’s betrayal. Having selected someone new to rule the snakes this time, not only did he personally step up, eavesdrop, and gauge his partner’s obedience, but he even decided to cross all the way over to the Western Continent and work together with his partner. Judging that Wang Hui’s betrayal stemmed from the fact that they were far apart from each other, his second partner was to work together up close to preemptively block betrayal—that was what he had decided to do.

His conception was ingenious, as expected. Lee Hwanmae is a king. When he led his younger brothers and assassinated his birth father, he might have met with resistance from the officials, but the present him was an official king proudly recognized by the officials for his crisis-management abilities and duly enthroned. The plum trees spraying dizzying fragrances toward the barracks proved it.

The spy Deng Li had reported to Gwanchang that every time a Lee Hwa ascended the throne, she determined her own symbolic tree. The symbolic tree representing the former Lee Hwa was the plum tree. Since plum trees naturally had to be planted wherever Lee Hwa’s elite troops resided, Gwanchang had been baffled the moment he saw the plum trees scattering petals all over the barracks. Those plum trees must be the symbolic tree determined by the current Lee Hwa, Lee Hwanmae. Lee Hwanmae had been enthroned as king in strict secrecy. He was the 37th Lee Hwa.

For such a king to leave the country, stay overseas, and resolve to establish a ruler in the Western Continent—Gwanchang was merely astonished. In the long run, it was a wise judgment. If he suffered for just a few years and established a decent fellow in the Western Continent, couldn’t he run the country without worrying about invasions at least until Lee Hwanmae himself died?

He’s a formidable fellow. Quite impressive for a young age.

So what if he is?

Gwanchang snorted. Just as Lee Hwanmae had said. Just as peeking and eavesdropping are different, viewing from afar and viewing up close are also bound to be different. The Lee Hwa seen from afar and the Lee Hwanmae seen up close were completely different. Lee Hwa could be respected, but Lee Hwanmae could not. Have you ever seen an adult who respects an infant? Lee Hwanmae was far too childish to be respected.

Gwanchang knew. What Lee Hwanmae, who eavesdropped on people’s minds and glimpsed the future, did not know, he knew. Thanks to that damn ability, Lee Hwanmae would live a lonely life for all his days. Judging by Lee Hwanmae’s words, he had desperately rescued his younger brothers from the hands of his biological father with his own hands, yet it seemed he carried a deep grudge that he had received only curses and disbelief in return. It was truly a tragedy. He eavesdrops and glimpses, yet he is no better than a blind and deaf man. What an irony this was.

Could it be that his younger brothers truly hated and cursed you, Lee Hwanmae?

Discovering the weaknesses of a perfectionist is always a source of joy. To savor this joy, Gwanchang enjoyed insight. To rage about having received disbelief and curses meant, conversely, that he desired trust and love. However, Lee Hwanmae would never attain trust and love for the rest of his life. Without ever seeing the dazzling turquoise, he would truly conclude that only the dust clinging to the leaves was real and get hurt. No matter how much the people around him genuinely trusted and loved him, Lee Hwanmae would remain lonely. He would rage and feel lonely, complaining that even though he loved the people around him so much, he was not rewarded at all.

As long as he eavesdrops and glimpses. I guarantee it!

Gwanchang let out a sneer and headed toward his post.

I’ll just call you plum blossom.

The shock of his perfect ideal type collapsing seemed to have been quite large. There was no doubt that Lee Hwanmae was Lee Hwa, but a petty, low-minded impulse that he simply didn’t want to acknowledge took precedence. An old man who looked cool enough to want to take as a mentor was actually a pretty-boy gigolo who unashamedly hyped himself up as the ‘great divinity’ and put on airs—he kind of hated that.

You are simply a plum blossom. Lee Hwanmae in his infancy of Lee Hwa.

He thought he might call her Lee Hwa when she grew up into an adult, but would you really be able to become an adult, Lee Hwanmae? I guarantee you won’t. As long as you eavesdrop and glimpse.

Gwanchang muttered with a smile.

“See you in a year, Flower of Slaughter.”

That day, Mukso finally set out on the grandiose peninsula liberation(?). Prior to the advance, the King of Murder Mukso ordered the feathered snakes to kill all males under the age of sixty in the East (東) Peninsula, and also mercilessly slaughter females under the age of forty-five to wipe out Dangun’s seed.

The feathered snakes advanced with all their might. The sound of drums and horse hooves shook the sky. The dust storm kicked up by the advance of the million-strong army blanketed the sky in pitch black. The horizon writhed with feathered snakes. The ground shook thud-thud-thud as if a dragon were struggling within the strata, and the sky was riddled with red flags. Shouting battle cries, the feathered snakes rushed toward the land of Lee Hwa, the cruel god who drank human blood at every meal.

Mukso, riding a red horse, raced at the vanguard. Right behind him, twenty-seven sons born from five primary wives and nine concubines raced on black horses. Behind the princes, the feathered snakes advanced, covering the ground in pitch black. The wind tore at the skin. The dust storm blanketed the sky.

Mukso raised his sword high into the sky. Following right behind him, the twenty-seven sons simultaneously raised their swords, and the feathered snakes beat the ground with their flags and shouted war cries. It felt as though the gates of hell had swung open. It was a moment when the destruction of the ‘Country of God (神)’ and the ‘Country of Yun (侖)’, which had long ruled the East (東) Peninsula, was imminent. Destruction went no further than being imminent.

Ten minutes into the advance, the red horse of the King of Murder Mukso suddenly stumbled, executed a clean 180-degree spin, and crashed to the ground. Gwanchang, who had been following Mukso from a distance since the start of the advance, swallowed his breath.

It succeeded, plum blossom!

Immediately after, Mukhui’s horse trampled and passed over the old body of the King of Murder indiscriminately. The snakes running behind Mukhui also trampled and passed over the king one after another. Because the advance speed was extremely fast, had a halt order been issued, tens of thousands of people would have collided in a chain reaction and died. Only after several thousand people had trampled and passed over the king’s old body did the snakes barely manage to halt their advance.

By that time, it was utterly impossible to find even a trace of the physical form of the King of Murder, who had made the Western Continent tremble in fear for a long time. After a thorough search lasting a full week, the snakes gathered the king’s remains—even if it were just a few bone fragments—and hastily retreated. Mukhui, the son who had trampled the king, was forced by his brothers to commit suicide and met his end. Throughout the retreat, the snakes whispered among themselves that the King of Murder had died after being struck by Lee Hwa’s curse rituals.

The snakes withdrew all their troops, leaving behind only formal garrison units at the border line. In front of the border garrison, who despaired that it was now only a matter of time before they were reduced to Lee Hwa’s sacrificial food, the screen of terror simply repeated re-runs, third runs, fifth runs, and sixth runs, while fortunately abruptly stopping the screening of new releases.