The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 198 Scholar Juyul (21) - Sincere Heart Turns Stone to Gold "If one only gives their utmost with a sincere heart, even worthless pebbles on the street will become as precious as gold" *** It was something close to inevitable in a certain sense. The most effective way to stop a master was to face them with another master of equal standing. With Zhang Hualing facing Corpse Demon Flower, Oh Ga-myeong facing Ghost Mountain Strategist, and Drunken Dreamer facing Nine Kill Sword, there was no master other than Juyul to handle Heaven-Breaking Lord Mu Hyeok. No, even if Juyul's side could have freely arranged the matchups, Juyul would have been the one to face Heaven-Breaking Lord. No one other than Juyul could have handled Heaven-Breaking Lord in single combat. To that extent, the aura emanating from Heaven-Breaking Lord was overwhelming. '...Indeed, he's on a different level.' As the leader of an organization he felt tension, but as an individual person he felt admiration as Juyul looked at Heaven-Breaking Lord. The first quality he felt was dominance. The temperament that used one's will to pressure, subjugate, and make surrounding people kneel. Zhang Hualing also possessed a similar temperament, but if her dominance was like flames that burned fiercely and grew in size, Heaven-Breaking Lord's brought to mind ink that sank heavily. Such temperament doesn't arise simply from being born with good qualities and single-mindedly polishing martial arts. It was a weight that could only be gained by crawling up from the bottom and personally weathering all the storms of the world. Sure enough, the first words Heaven-Breaking Lord spoke upon facing Juyul were as follows. "—You, are you some kind of immortal? That appearance, it's not your true body." Having repeatedly created new clones countless times, the Crown Prince's skill had already reached a profound level, so even considerable experts couldn't easily see through it. This was evidence that Heaven-Breaking Lord's martial prowess was at least 6th Rank, and had surpassed the middle tier at that. 'He's of a similar caliber to Master. For now, Master would have the upper hand, but after ten years, the tables would more than turn.' Interpreting Juyul's silence in some way, Heaven-Breaking Lord glared at Juyul with fierce eyes. "Is it pleasant to hide in the mortal world and mimic humans? Those who revere you as their leader, as their master, are simply pitiful. How great would be the betrayal they'd feel if they knew that you alone are not risking your life on this battlefield." "Words that cut to the bone. If only they weren't spoken by someone who came charging into another's front yard with a sword." "The truth of words doesn't change just because a dog speaks them." "Sometimes who speaks is more important than the content of their words." Juyul quietly raised his staff. His left hand gripping the head of the staff forward, his right hand gripping the tail backward, and the shaft against his chest. For Juyul, who rarely took any specific stance, this was unusual, and it also meant he would give his all in facing Heaven-Breaking Lord. "Immortal games have their own rules and laws. Making the story flow even one step toward the 'good' side by my being here is exactly that." "Are you saying you'll decide what's good and what's bad?" "What can a person who lacks even that conviction possibly do!" Heaven-Breaking Lord's words weren't entirely without merit. If there was someone alone far from life-and-death crisis in a mortal battle, it wouldn't be strange to feel betrayal. But would there have been no blood spilled if Juyul hadn't been here? Drunken Dreamer was inherently someone who rebelled more the more he was pressed down, so he would have fiercely resisted Heaven-Breaking Alliance's oppression and been severely injured or killed. Oh Ga-myeong and the Hao Sect had no other choice, so they would have had to submit to Heaven-Breaking Alliance and died while being treated harshly as lowly people. There's no need to explain Zhang Hualing in detail. Because Juyul was there, they could choose a different path. If the end of that path was a cliff, it would be Juyul's karma, but if the end of that path led to a garden, it would be proof that Juyul's actions weren't merely deception and disguise. "—Ha, fine. If one can't even decide for themselves what's right and wrong, how could that be a man? I'll acknowledge that one statement at least." After speaking briefly, Heaven-Breaking Lord grasped the weapon he had carried on his back. A crescent blade with a black shaft and silver blade. The ones typically used by military officers had blades that were excessively large and ornate, closer to decorative items used for ceremonies or boosting troop morale, but Heaven-Breaking Lord's crescent blade was a thing that emphasized only practicality without any particular decoration. When he, already tall with long limbs, took an offensive stance with a polearm in hand, an overwhelming attack range incomparable to ordinary swordsmen pressed down on the surroundings. A domain of blades where one had to prepare for death the moment they entered. However, Juyul stepped into it without the slightest hesitation. Whooooom! The air was torn apart first. Next was the wall. The gray outer wall made by mixing lime, gravel, glutinous rice, and bamboo couldn't withstand the power of the crescent blade Heaven-Breaking Lord wielded and was torn apart like paper. Polearms have great constraints when used indoors. It was conduct that seemed to directly deny such obvious common sense. Like the atmosphere surrounding his body, Heaven-Breaking Lord's martial arts contained the profound principle of terrible heaviness. Therefore, normally it would be orthodox to evade rather than meet it head-on, but another profound principle contained in Heaven-Breaking Lord's techniques, namely pulling force, made this difficult. Even while tearing through the wall, the crescent blade's power didn't diminish, and instead those fragments swirled around the crescent blade and were swept along with it. Juyul intuited. The very edge of 5th rank. The boundary line a clone could reach without special restrictions or limitations. Unless he surpassed that standard, this strike could neither be blocked nor dealt with. Therefore, he willingly surpassed that limit. Like a small storm, countless fragments rotating while enveloping the crescent blade. Not missing the small gap that formed between them, Juyul's staff struck the side of the crescent blade. Claaaang!! The blade's trajectory twisted slightly, and the storm that had been drawing a clean circle momentarily changed into irregular turbulence. Riding one of them, Juyul flew toward Heaven-Breaking Lord in an instant. From above to below. A leg technique like striking down with a hook strongly pounded Heaven-Breaking Lord's left shoulder. Clank. A sensation like having kicked thousands of small scale-shaped iron pieces was transmitted to Juyul's body. General scale armor was known to be inferior in defensive power and practicality compared to lamellar or plate armor, but Heaven-Breaking Lord's armor, made of protective energy and having several layers, was different. Appearing as if he hadn't received even minor damage, he extended his arm to grab Juyul's leg and strike him down. However, just before his hand could reach, using the leg that had struck Heaven-Breaking Lord's shoulder as an axis, Juyul's body half-rotated as it was. This time Juyul's right leg struck down on Heaven-Breaking Lord's right shoulder. Kuuuung! The attack's power itself was lower than the first, but the shockwave that reverberated was much greater. The initial strike aimed at Heaven-Breaking Lord's body had lost its effectiveness before Heaven-Breaking Lord's scale armor protective energy, but this time what Juyul aimed for was beneath Heaven-Breaking Lord's feet. Mountain-Breaking Stomp. The shock transmitted through Heaven-Breaking Lord's body to the ground caused the floor, already weakened by successive fierce battles and Heaven-Breaking Lord's attacks, to collapse. Heaven-Breaking Lord fell down from the third floor, and Juyul used Heaven-Breaking Lord as a foothold to leap upward while shooting energy-based shockwaves in all directions. A weakness in the building that ordinary people couldn't know, known only to Juyul himself who had directly participated in the building's design and a few disciples who could utilize it. When the design prepared to bury Heaven-Breaking Alliance martial artists in an instant if necessary proved effective, the massive structure trembled and completely collapsed. At the sight of Juyul who had leaped out of the window alone, Heaven-Breaking Alliance martial artists widened their eyes and shouted. "Ju, Juyul!! It's the Strange Scholar!!" 'Did I get a title in that short time?' Perhaps it was easier to understand than simply calling by name, or perhaps it was unseemly for the aesthetics of the martial world for a talent capable of facing the Seven Hegemons head-on to have no title at all. Thinking it wasn't particularly a title he liked anyway, Juyul swung his staff in an instant. An energy discharge mixed with wind pressure and internal energy shot down several Heaven-Breaking Alliance martial artists who had been secretly climbing the building's outer wall to ambush his disciples. Some of the students looking down at the ground from the rooftop opened their mouths wide upon seeing Juyul who had escaped outside the building, but unfortunately he had no leisure to respond to them. Roooooar! A fierce wind raged. The debris of the collapsed building soared into the air and rotated round and round around a single point. Heaven-Breaking Lord's Domination Technique - Spinning Attraction Dust Fall Using wind as the shell and the collapsed building's debris as the body. A club as if wielded by a giant fell straight down toward Juyul's head. At that attack which contained strong gravitational force as if it wouldn't tolerate evasion, Juyul's eyes took on an intense gleam. Thunk! Juyul's staff struck three small pieces among the rotating debris. Those pieces moved sideways and collided with other pieces, and the pieces that collided thus entangled with yet other pieces and twisted their trajectories. Like a small pebble causing huge ripples in a lake, though Juyul had clearly only touched a few pieces, the giant club's waist broke and the attack's power sharply decreased. At first glance, an overwhelming result. However, Juyul didn't sneer, and Heaven-Breaking Lord wasn't shocked. With the perspective unique to those who had reached a high realm, they understood all too well what the essence of this fight was. Just now, Heaven-Breaking Lord had lightly wielded an entire building with only his own power. And Juyul's side's current advantage greatly depended on the buildings and defensive systems they had established. This meant that if Heaven-Breaking Lord could move freely, the war situation could be reversed at any time. Juyul's specialty was self-defense techniques for protecting his own body, but if Juyul just ran around cowering, Heaven-Breaking Lord could easily change targets and demolish the buildings. If he were someone like Nine Kill Sword who easily got hot-headed, he might be able to draw attention through provocation, but unfortunately Heaven-Breaking Lord was someone who understood the principles of war. The moment Heaven-Breaking Lord's gaze turned toward the students scattering slingshots and heated sand from the rooftop to the ground, Juyul charged toward Heaven-Breaking Lord without hesitation. Thud thud thud thud! Baihui, between the eyebrows, throat, sternum, chest center, zusanli. Juyul's staff accurately struck various parts that could be called vital points of the human body. However, Heaven-Breaking Lord's protective energy was extremely heavy and thick, not allowing the impact to penetrate inside. Moreover, the closer he got to Heaven-Breaking Lord, the more heavily Juyul's body was pressed down, so his footwork that had been like a gentle breeze became as if shackles were placed on his feet, and his clothes that had been immaculate without a speck of dust also gradually became disheveled. However, Juyul didn't retreat. He didn't increase the distance any further either. Rather, forward, further forward. He persistently repeated striking Heaven-Breaking Lord's protective energy again and again. A brief time that ordinary people would find difficult even to perceive. Not with sound but with will, the two masters conversed. 《Useless effort. The essence your martial arts contains is protection. You're skilled at defending and fleeing, but clumsy at harming others. With that, you cannot pierce my black scale armor.》 《Isn't determining what's long and short something that must be tested?》 《If you really want to settle this, you'll need to bring at least your true body...!!》 As if proving his own words, despite the successive strikes, Heaven-Breaking Lord's protective energy might ripple but didn't weaken. Juyul inwardly smiled bitterly. It wasn't that the Crown Prince's clones had never faced enemies who transcended 6th Rank before. The Librarian had single-handedly subdued a high-ranking demon, the Demon Sword had faced a semi-7th Rank directly, and the Beggar had also subdued a fallen god. (E/N: Technically the Beggar summoned the true body to easily crush the fallen god) However, these were clones that had special restrictions on exerting power on both sides, and thus had high peak performance. In the case of the Beggar, he wasn't even a clone when fighting. In contrast, the output that Juyul, who had no special restrictions on his power, could produce was safely at the very edge of 5th rank. Even now, grinding away the clone's lifespan, the limit was around early to mid-6th Rank. Of course, even that alone, combined with innate intelligence and skill, was enough to easily suppress most 6th Rank opponents, but an adversary like the martial artist before him who possessed both combat experience and the height of realm itself was an exception. He wouldn't lose like this. Having taught his disciples and raised their level, if he just held out against the enemy's strongest warrior, his other disciples might achieve victory and reverse the situation. However, in that case, it was obvious that red lines would be drawn on the report card where he had desperately intervened to ensure there might be injuries but no deaths. Suddenly, Juyul's mouth opened. "If funerals are held among disciples due to a master's lack of virtue, how could this be called the righteous path of a scholar!" He would not deny that this was amusement and leisure. However, where was there a law that said one shouldn't be sincere just because it was leisure? If something becomes the joy of life within stifling daily routine, then in some sense it was a treasure as valuable as one's true life. The momentum surging from Juyul's body increased dramatically in an instant. Even until now he had been drawing out power by consuming the clone's durability, but what he was doing now was karma of an even higher level. *** At the same time, in a certain palace in the Western Regions. "Hey, hey?! If you do that, there'll be a rebound!!" "Hmm, I was trying to restrain myself if possible, but my excitement is rising and I can't hold back! Hahaha!"