Chapter 455 : Cornered Against the Wall (3)
Chapter 455: Cornered Against the Wall (3)
Carried by his internal energy, Il-mok’s voice reached Wi Jin-hak just as he was pressing forward.
A look of surprise broke across Wi Jin-hak’s face when he spotted Il-mok.
"Il-mok!!"
He hadn't expected Il-mok to be within this battlefield, so Wi Jin-hak completely forgot his status as Cult Leader and reflexively called him by his name.
While Wi Jin-hak and those around him came to a startled halt, Il-mok and his companions were already sprinting their way through the mass of troops. With the sounds of slaughter and zealous chanting still echoing off the walls of the Forbidden City, Il-mok finally dragged himself to a stop right in front of Wi Jin-hak.
And Wi Jin-hak wasn't alone.
Surrounding him was a veritable who's who of the Divine Cult’s higher-ups. The Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, Seo Wan-pyeong, and Jin Hayeon were all gathered there. There were also the patriarchs like Zhuge Mun, the Beggar King, and Hwangbo Ak.
In addition to them, Cheongmok of the Qingcheng Sect had wrapped up matters in Sichuan and rejoined the main army.
With his initial surprise settling, Wi Jin-hak asked, "Why has the Left Guardian come all the way out here?"
Il-mok answered in a rush, "Cult Leader! This whole place is a massive trap! We need to fall back immediately! The Eastern Depot has been smuggling enormous quantities of gunpowder into the Forbidden City over a long period of time, and it's hidden somewhere inside!"
But even after hearing his explanation, everyone gathered here reacted with all sorts of expressions, and none of them were quite what Il-mok had expected.
While they were surprised, their reactions were incredibly far from the shock and terror Il-mok had expected.
Wi Jin-hak, whose eyes had gone wide for just a moment, burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Did you all see that? Even while resting far from the front lines, our Left Guardian still managed to anticipate what was happening on this very battlefield. Truly remarkable, isn't he? Hahahaha."
"Remarkable indeed."
"I'll never get used to it. It is simply fascinating no matter how many times I see it."
They were in the middle of a battlefield and standing right on top of a trap the enemy had set, yet the mood was somehow still warm and cheerful.
'What is this? Am I on some kind of hidden camera prank show?'
Whether it was his body not being fully healed yet or just the sheer absurdity of the situation, Il-mok felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.
While Il-mok was questioning his reality, Wi Jin-hak was practically glowing with pride as he continued to brag about his youngest brother.
"And it's not just his wisdom! Look at the Left Guardian’s devotion to our Divine Cult! Bandages still hold his body together, yet he marched straight to the battlefield just to warn us!”
"Watching the bond between you and the Left Guardian reminded me of the legendary brotherhood between Liu Bei and his brothers, Cult Leader. Hahahaha."
Il-mok endured the stream of compliments that made him try so hard not to cringe before shaking his head clear and pulling himself together.
"Everyone, this is not a situation where you should be laughing. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of Thunder Bombs right beneath our feet right now!”
"Don't worry. We already know."
The answer was so unexpected that his brain completely short-circuited for a moment.
"...Pardon?"
Finding his youngest brother's rare lost expression incredibly endearing, Wi Jin-hak chuckled and looked toward someone.
Following his gaze, Il-mok found himself staring at Zhuge Mun.
Zhuge Mun stepped forward to explain. "Left Guardian, that intelligence report you recalled was naturally delivered to me as well. And don’t tell me you actually forgot that it was my clan who utilized the same scheme back in Mount Longzhong?”
Il-mok caught on to something and let out a quiet sound of realization.
"Ah..."
The Zhuge Family was certainly not stupid enough to fall victim to the very same trap they had once used themselves.
"So why did you press forward all the way here knowing full well there was a trap waiting?"
Zhuge Mun answered, "Trap or not, we couldn't exactly let the Supreme Eunuch grab the Emperor and the Imperial Seal and make a run for it. We had to at least drive them to the corner where they couldn't trigger the trap from, didn't we?"
Looking at it now, they were not being lured into a trap at all. Rather, they were the ones herding the enemy into their own trap. If the Divine Cult had shown any hesitation, the enemy might have realized their trap was compromised and fled, which would have severely complicated matters.
"We had already been working out a rough estimate of how large the trap they prepared actually is. I took the average amount of gunpowder produced annually in the Central Plains, subtracting the approximate amounts distributed to the Five Military Commands each year, and cross-referencing that against the Thunder Bombs and fire cannons used in battle so far."
Zhuge Mun continued his explanation as if it were nothing remarkable. "By combining the information gathered by the Dark Shadow Pavilion and the Beggars’ Gang, the intelligence provided by those with backgrounds in the imperial military, and what we learned from laying our own traps at the Zhuge Family estate, we were able to work out a fairly reasonable estimate."
"So, you're absolutely certain that where we're standing right now is perfectly safe?"
Zhuge Mun nodded at Il-mok's question and pointed in the direction they had been advancing. "After comparing it against the amount of gunpowder used in our own estate's traps, it's most likely that their trap is concentrated right over there. In the Inner Palace of the Forbidden City."
"But what if there are traps on this Outer Palace side too?"
"That's unlikely. The Inner Palace may technically be just one part of the Forbidden City, but it's large enough to call a small city in its own right. They simply don't have the firepower to rig both."
Zhuge Mun snapped his fan open with a flourish and added, "Of course, I never rule out anomalies, which is why we've been pushing this siege with so much care. We had a rough grasp on the amount of gunpowder and the scale of the trap, but there was always the chance something had been prepared elsewhere."
From what Il-mok had heard, their advance had been nothing short of a steamroll. But from Zhuge Mun's perspective, it had apparently been a meticulous operation.
"As it stands, they've been falling back little by little to draw us in, and we've already confirmed that the Supreme Eunuch himself fled into the Inner Palace just a short while ago. So it can be concluded that the trap is located in the Inner Palace."
After hearing the entire explanation, a deep wave of exhaustion settled over Il-mok's shoulders. The reason he had driven that carriage like a madman to get here had simply ceased to exist.
He let out a wry laugh. "Since the conclusion has been formed, why were you still marching straight into the trap?”
Wi Jin-hak was the one who answered this time. "We're not trying to storm the Inner Palace. We're forming a blockade. We have to squeeze them into the narrowest corner so they couldn’t slip away from this war.”
It was ironic.
The trap that was meant to annihilate the Imperial Family’s enemy in one strike turned into a blockade they couldn't escape from.
“Talk about lifting a stone to hit your own foot.”
Zhuge Mun let out an amused chuckle at Il-mok's remark. "It is a mistake commonly made by those who mistakenly believe themselves to be brilliant."
The disdain was unmistakable in that brief chuckle.
"Because things always flowed exactly as he planned thanks to the borrowed authority from the Emperor, he came to the delusion that his own wisdom was superior. In he never actually outsmarted anyone; he just crushed them under the suffocating weight of that borrowed authority and arrogance.”
Wi Jin-hak nodded in agreement. "On top of that, I've heard from those officials that the Supreme Eunuch had a habit of framing and disposing of anyone who dared oppose him. With everyone around him doing nothing but flattering him and not a single soul offering honest counsel, how could anything have gone right for him in the end?"
“What a wise leader you are, Cult Leader. Hahahaha."
Watching Zhuge Mun immediately pivot to spew rainbow farts ironically reminded Il-mok of the very same bureaucrats they’ve been mocking just now.
But anyway, the catastrophic scenario was safely averted.
‘Now then, do we wait until they starve out or...?'
That thought crossed Il-mok's mind, and then a faster solution followed right behind it.
"Chief Strategist Zhuge, since their trap is very similar to the one used by your family in nature, let me ask you a hypothetical question. If a massive explosion went off on the surface of your estate, was there a possibility that the resulting explosion would have triggered the trap and set off a chain reaction?"
Zhuge Mun stroked his chin for a second before answering. "The trap was designed to only trigger through the mechanism itself, since setting it off at random would have meant the deaths of every member of the Zhuge Family's household. That said, if the explosion were powerful enough to breach every wall and protective casing shielding the gunpowder, then yes, it could very well set off a chain reaction."
That was exactly the answer Il-mok was hoping for.
***
By the time the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's forces had finished encircling the Inner Palace and were mopping up the remaining imperial troops in the Outer Palace, Il-mok had undergone the treatment proposed by Seo Jae-pil and was running his Qi circulation.
The fighting had mostly died down, but a warzone was still a warzone, so his maids stood guard over him as he worked on his injuries.
"Huu..."
Il-mok exhaled one last time and rose to his feet.
‘I should be able to manage doing it just once.’
After taking note of his condition, he walked over to Wi Jin-hak.
"Cult Leader, could you pull the siege line back a little?"
"I can order a fallback, but what exactly are you planning, Youngest?"
"I'm not certain it'll work, but if things go well, I might be able to blow those bastards along with their own trap."
Wi Jin-hak readily accepted the proposal.
Shortly after, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's forces encircling the Inner Palace began to withdraw.
As Il-mok took his first steps toward the Inner Palace, Jin Hayeon spoke up beside him. "Left Guardian, there's no need to push yourself."
Jeong Hyeon and Hyeokryeon Seon-ah said nothing, but their eyes said everything.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to overdo it."
After putting their minds at ease, Il-mok advanced a few more steps and channeled the internal energy of all three Dantians at once.
A sphere of a different energy condensed in each hand, and the moment those who recognized it realized what they were seeing, a roar erupted from the crowd.
"OOOHHH!!!"
While tens of thousands of men screamed his name in fanatical worship, Il-mok was frowning as he stared at the Inner Palace.
His body wasn't in good shape, and stinging pain shot through every acupoint in his body the moment he started casting World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm.
‘If this works, fantastic. If it fails, whatever. Not my problem.’
With that carefree attitude, Il-mok pressed his two hands together and shaped the energy into a massive sphere in the form of the Taiji symbol.
He thrust both palms forward, and the orb of energy drifted through the air toward the Inner Palace.
It passed through the already-collapsed gate and floated onward.
'They would have dug tunnels underground to install the mechanisms.'
Il-mok guided the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm as low to the ground as he could manage, then he let go of his control over it.
BZZZZT-CRACKLE!
The three energies of the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm twisted and churned together, and then an earth-shattering explosion erupted.
KABOOM!!!
The floor of the Inner Palace closest to the center of the blast was torn clean away, leaving behind a massive crater.
And in doing so, it completely exposed the immense quantities of gunpowder that had been buried underground in a network Formation to the heat of the explosion.
BOOM!!
A second explosion erupted from directly below where the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm had detonated.
BOOM!
That explosion was only the beginning. Like a trail of dominoes, the buried gunpowder triggered an unstoppable chain reaction that rapidly consumed the entire Inner Palace.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It was a delightfully spectacular light show at the cost of Beijing’s most expensive property in history.
The stone flooring, the majestic imperial pavilions standing above them, and even the impossibly thick fortress walls surrounding the Inner Palace were blown to pieces.
The chain reaction was far more intense than anyone had anticipated, and Wi Jin-hak channeled his internal energy into a roar.
"Pull the soldiers back further!!"
Wi Jin-hak stepped forward and began batting away the debris hurtling toward his troops, and others with formidable martial ability moved up alongside him.
Even as that was happening, the explosions inside the Inner Palace kept going without pause.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood from the backlash, Il-mok leaned heavily against his maids and watched the show.
Jin Hayeon had raised a Qi barrier to block the incoming debris and watched the spectacular display unfolding.
Even with all the memories of the highly advanced modern world he used to live in, Il-mok had to admit he had never seen a fireworks display even half this spectacular.
Eventually, the spectacular chain of detonations that seemed like it would never end finally began to die down.
What had once been a place packed with ornate halls and pavilions that symbolized the power of the Imperial Family now had nothing left standing at all.
And far in the distance, the floor at the heart of the Inner Palace burst open, and several figures shot up from underground into the air.
'...Tsk. So there was a spot that avoided the trap’s blast radius.'
It seemed some kind of shelter had been hidden away somewhere.
But it didn't matter.
'Take care of those ones and it's over.'
With that final thought, Il-mok grabbed the hilt of his Ascension Sword when a hand closed over his.
"You've done enough, Left Guardian. Rest now."
It was Wi Jin-hak who had taken hold of his hand.
Reflected in Wi Jin-hak's eyes was a glimpse of Il-mok himself, and he belatedly registered just how bad he must look.
His skin was so pale to the point it looked like he was a walking corpse, and thick streams of blood were pouring down his chin.
"I know how much you've sacrificed for us and how many incredible achievements you have made thus far. But war isn't something one person fights alone."
Wi Jin-hak said it simply, then ruffled Il-mok's hair once and stepped forward. "Leave the rest to us."
With that, Wi Jin-hak stepped forward and drew the Heavenly Demon Sword.
"THE HEAVENLY DEMON DESCEND!!"
"TEN THOUSAND DEMONS OBEY!!"
And with that, the masters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult charged as one toward the last of the enemy in the distance.