Chapter 551 – Demon Realm (6)

Northern King Yelu.

An absolute being who had suddenly manifested on rough land.

An existence that was now beginning to draw the attention of the Northern Kings one by one.

Such a strong person of unknown origins had occupied Yeoktru Castle, then marched on Shame Extreme Castle without any particular context.

The Shame Extreme King heard this news in an unexpected place. Not even from the Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord, but from someone who until recently had been merely one among countless concubines.

If the Ice Palace Lord hadn’t been there, he would have been turned into a flat lump of flesh with a few palm strikes. Like the fragments of corpses scattered around now.

“……”

But Shame Extreme King’s transparent body didn’t move at all. Her face covered with black silk was the same.

The silence of one who had once completely smashed the western Great Wall together with the Fighting God.

In an instant, there was a voice that boldly pierced through the atmosphere where it was difficult to fathom her inner thoughts.

“You didn’t know?”

A question tinged with laughter was offered.

The man who threw those words walked over leisurely from afar, slowly revealing his appearance.

Wrapping the yellowish-brown mist characteristic of the northern wilderness like loose garment edges, and biting ice-like frozen flower petals between his teeth.

The very faint shadows under his eyes stood out.

But the man wasn’t wearing fur clothes like other leaders of the Northern Sea Ice Palace.

Rather, like people of the Western Tibet’s great tents, he bared the muscles of both arms with sleeveless garments. Even though it was the northern winter.

It was the woman beside him who had white fur added to her collar. The actual owner of Ice Palace Lazy Flame Dragon. Someone who had come down from the frosty waterways that even the north considered southern.

“I didn’t kill him. It’s a return courtesy for the gift of friendship you gave.”

The woman spoke indifferently as if she had shown great mercy. While pointing once with a small chin gesture at the youth with faint ice fragments stuck all over his body, Shame Extreme Son-in-law.

“Isn’t it excessive?”

She was the Grand Palace Lord of the Ice Palace.

A person otherwise famous as Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord, but everything about her appearance was strange.

Starting with her black hair that fell to her ankles like a flag.

The same was true of her blue pupils shining like precious jade. She had the same characteristics as Leader Desolate Fortress Wish Fulfilling Spring Leader, famous for ice techniques.

The difference was her facial features.

She had a stronger feeling of western region peoples than ordinary Ming people. The Grand Palace Lord’s facial contours were unusually deep.

In terms of such face and snow-white skin, she was similar to Desolate Fortress Wish Fulfilling Spring Leader’s appearance and bearing.

Nevertheless, she fitted well with Lazy Flame Dragon, giving a strong feeling of temperamental harmony.

The same was true of her gaze at this moment looking at the frozen Shame Extreme Son-in-law as something insignificant.

Lazy Flame Dragon laughed.

“A bit much. Not just anyone can feel the northern sea’s wind. You could have left it to me.”

“My husband should take care of other things.”

Huwook!

A cool wind blew.

In an instant, Lazy Flame Dragon’s head twisted diagonally. Before he knew it, his gaze was forced to look at the Ice Palace Lord’s abdomen.

Void Grasping originating from Cold Ice Energy.

It was epochal power.

“Ah.”

Lazy Flame Dragon let out a low exclamation.

For a brief moment, complex emotions faintly crossed his eyes, but when he raised his head again, they had completely disappeared.

“So.”

He continued speaking leisurely.

“Did you call me to go catch that Northern King Yelu fellow?”

But Shame Extreme King only kept her gaze on the Ice Palace Lord, not Lazy Flame Dragon.

As if he wasn’t worth dealing with. That wasn’t intentional disregard, but the dignity of a Northern King flowing from her transparent body.

“Get up.”

Shame Extreme King said.

A command uttered in what context was unknown.

In an instant, a change occurred in her son-in-law, Shame Extreme Son-in-law’s body. Transparent energy protruded from his entire body and rippled like small waves.

It was Heaven Silk Steel Armor.

Crack!

With the sound of ice breaking, the frost surrounding his body shattered white into pieces. In an instant, cold wind whooshed to Lazy Flame Dragon’s face and disheveled his hair.

He had broken through freezing originating from peerless ice techniques with his own strength.

Soon after, Shame Extreme Son-in-law made a fuss with “Ahyu.”

“I almost froze down to my small meridians, didn’t I? How many acupoints does our body have, and I thought my head would cramp from covering them all with Heaven Silk Steel Armor. I really almost died, you know? Your Majesty, that Ice Palace Lord certainly left just an inch of mercy in her hand.”

“If you had died from that, you wouldn’t have the qualifications of a monarch. The position of son-in-law would have been withdrawn too.”

Shame Extreme King’s response was calm. Before she knew it, she was scooping up nearby blood pools with Void Grasping, then coating her body with blood again.

It was an attitude of prioritizing her own affairs first regardless of what guest had arrived.

“…Fighting God’s martial arts?”

The Ice Palace Lord muttered as if interested. It was closer to a monologue, but Lazy Flame Dragon beside her nodded.

“Heaven Silk something or other.”

No one admired Shame Extreme Son-in-law’s exquisite protective energy operation.

Even if it was a marvel that appeared when divine ultimate arts and genius combined, there was no one present who couldn’t accomplish the same thing with the same amount of accumulated energy.

Shame Extreme King and Shame Extreme Son-in-law.

Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord and her First Husband.

Northern Kings and absolute beings of Northern King caliber had faced each other while bringing monarchs under their command.

Whether their purpose was contact or collision, it was something that would strongly draw the world’s attention.

Now that the Fighting God’s whereabouts were mysterious, every move of the Northern Kings who had escaped his influence was a matter of concern for all under heaven.

Wuuung!

From the moment they fully faced each other, thick earthen winds were moving wildly around them.

Even within that, heat and cold mixed together to cause sporadic explosions with kugugung sounds, while the irregular waves characteristic of Fighting God martial lineage overlapped several times and hazily colored the vicinity.

A scene no different from a demon realm.

At the same time, Lazy Flame Dragon was clearly a being contributing to that anomaly. Enough to make Shame Extreme Son-in-law pat the frost off his shoulders and smile slightly at this moment.

“I misjudged you.”

“What?”

“If you rebuilt Howling Heaven Castle, you’d more than qualify to become its lord. Right, you have the vessel of a monarch. Worthy of containing our land’s fortress.”

“There’s nothing more to contain. Except for mt wife.”

“……”

At Lazy Flame Dragon’s words, both corners of the Ice Palace Grand Palace Lord’s lips sank very faintly. The appearance of her dimples standing out due to her northern snow-white skin.

It was a monster’s smile… Naturally, Shame Extreme Son-in-law couldn’t manage a hollow laugh. Because of the ice techniques he had experienced earlier. That wasn’t human skill.

‘How did he cook and boil the strange power of the frozen lake like that…? That fellow, is that Hwangbo family wastrel also not human?’

That couldn’t be.

Shame Extreme Son-in-law gestured to his king. An urging as a monarch who could discuss the major and minor affairs of the vast land with various Northern Kings. Soon Shame Extreme King slowly opened her mouth.

“I had planned to meet the new Northern King together with powerful comrades and decide his treatment on the spot. Shouldn’t chaos be prevented from increasing while the Fighting God is away from his position? But since he ignored the laws carved into our land for decades and suddenly invaded my territory…”

Splash.

She who had splashed blood on her body once more spoke quietly.

“I must return.”

“Return? After calling us like this?”

Lazy Flame Dragon asked abruptly.

But this time too, it was toward the Ice Palace Lord that Shame Extreme King directed her answer.

“The agreement is valid. According to the will of me, Dragon Sound Sasa King, and the dead Flame Heat Divine King, the old site of Howling Heaven Castle belongs entirely to the Northern Sea Ice Palace. We have nothing to do with how you live on that land, but nevertheless, one thing must be observed.”

“What?”

The Ice Palace Lord, who had been staring only at Lazy Flame Dragon beside her for a long time, asked. Still without turning her head toward Shame Extreme King’s group.

Shame Extreme King didn’t mind.

“Choose a king and select a monarch to proclaim to this land. What names your king and monarch possess, and with what martial arts they claim to be masters of that land.”

“I thought the north had no empty ceremonies… this is worse than the south.”

At Lazy Flame Dragon’s seemingly sarcastic words, Shame Extreme King reacted for the first time. She suddenly laughed loudly.

Similarly, Shame Extreme Son-in-law also burst into laughter to the point of shedding tears. Only after giggling for a while did he give the reason.

“Aren’t you idiots who can’t even possess your own land no matter how strong you become? A place where those with the power of rulers can’t govern anything, the nation of the bright ones! To come up from that pitiful land yet fail to recognize the true paradise of the strong!”

Shame Extreme Son-in-law, who wiped his tears with his knuckles, continued. It was still a voice tinged with laughter.

“In your land, they say you just praise each other as Sword King or Blade King when you seem a little skilled? This place is different. You can ascend to true kingship with individual martial arts. Northern King means the king of the highest direction like that, but you thought we called our own land ‘north.’ Are you the same by any chance? Someone who should now serve your wife as Northern King as lord of Howling Heaven Castle?”

Lazy Flame Dragon.

A person now unrelated to Desolate Fortress.

At least so went the rumors spread in the north.

Because he had become separated from the Lightning Genius martial lineage while taking countless tests in the Northern Sea.

All those trials were equally things that forced submission to the Northern Sea and acquisition of ice techniques.

A kind of mental prohibition. The history of an indigenous sect comparable to a single nation lay there. Even a peerless master would find it difficult to maintain sanity in that process.

Those versed in rumors all thought so, and Lazy Flame Dragon’s conduct didn’t deviate from such common sense.

He had smashed the schemes of the Second Palace Lord and Third Palace Lord who aimed for the Grand Palace Lord’s position within the Ice Palace several times.

That his heart caring for the Grand Palace Lord was sincere had also been amply proven. Through strong people with developed upper dantian insight abilities.

Conversely, the Grand Palace Lord also terribly cherished Lazy Flame Dragon just the same.

Crack—

“Let’s go to Shame Extreme Castle. That Yelu fellow might have come from the same place as my husband.”

The Grand Palace Lord spoke with an expressionless face.

It was after she had frozen Shame Extreme Son-in-law once more without any particular gesture.

In terms of Qi-Controlled Sword Strike, it was skill worthy of being called Mind-Controlled Sword. But this time there was a response from Shame Extreme King. The black silk fluttered slightly.

Thung!

With some roar, ice fragments scattered in all directions.

The cold energy that had nearly penetrated deep into Shame Extreme Son-in-law’s body was all bounced out. Because invisible protective energy had been overlaid on his entire body. It was none other than Shame Extreme King’s Heaven Silk Steel Armor.

Surprise appeared on Lazy Flame Dragon’s face for the first time.

“You can clothe others in true energy armor…?”

Divine ultimate skill befitting one who called herself king.

What would happen if the protective strong energy of a peerless master like Shame Extreme King was overlaid on the vanguard of martial military forces? Shame Extreme King was already a monster known for her entire body becoming transparent due to impossibly dense and mystical internal energy barriers.

In an instant, Lazy Flame Dragon muttered low. Here I’m seeing all kinds of crazy b*st*rds.

“Your Majesty has high martial arts, and the one who’s really crazy seems to be on your side.”

Shame Extreme Son-in-law made a sound with a dumbfounded face, while Shame Extreme King said.

“I permit your companionship.”

It was after each confirmed the other’s martial power. If by any chance a situation arose where immediate execution had to be carried out on the one who killed Flame Heat Divine King, there would be no particular damage only if there were many companions.

Thus the companionship of four beings was achieved.

The destination was Shame Extreme Castle where Northern King Yelu was said to be waging a conquest war.

In the midst of this, the conversation between Lazy Flame Dragon and Shame Extreme Son-in-law seeped into the cold wind.

“Wasn’t there someone else supposed to come? Like Dragon Sound Sasa King.”

“That frozen opium addict has been calling Northern Kings carelessly from earlier. That person is currently pursuing the leader of the southern beggars. That old man said to be the fastest under heaven. He came crossing the Great Wall like a rat, then got properly caught while spying on our land. It’s just a matter of time before he’s captured… but at least not now.”

“What a funny fellow. Not even Shame Extreme King, but that son-in-law fellow dares to discuss the world’s fastest. Shame Extreme Castle must have been quite a wide well.”

“Wide. Very wide. Wasn’t it a place not even visible from the south in the first place? The warriors of Desolate Fortress Dragon-Treading Squad whose heads rolled in my hands would think the same as me… do you agree?”

“Your provocation is quite low-grade. If your birth is base, this young master can understand.”

Voices testing each other in the setting sunset.

The northern sunset was cold, and the extremely disparate group mixed into it and quickly covered a long distance.

And they faced Shame Extreme Castle that had already been conquered.

“……”

Magnificent earthen walls whose ends were difficult to confirm on both sides were half-collapsed… In the acrid smoke, only civilian houses remained intact. In an instant, the Ice Palace Lord, who had closed her eyes once then opened them on that spot, tilted her head slightly to the side.

“It seems he’s already left.”

She said.

Meanwhile, Lazy Flame Dragon was reading through the writing attached to the earthen wall with a strange expression.

[The lord of Yeoktru Castle, the king who stained his bare hands with the hot blood of Flame Heat Divine King, one who unjustly bore countless grudges and infamy from the south.

Though possessing hands counted among the most powerful under heaven, he seeks to pacify this land with martial arts he has not yet named.

Acknowledge me.

I can show what the way of hegemony under heaven is.

There is no falsehood in these words.

I would have no need to seek anyone’s permission to ascend to the throne.

—Northern King Yelu.]

‘The calligraphy is familiar.’

Lazy Flame Dragon muttered inwardly.