Genius Martial Arts Trainer

Emperor Taiping, who had been clever enough to win the civil war among the princes and ascend the throne, quickly grasped the situation.

Emperor Taiping glared at Prince Ying’s legs and spoke.

“Have you been deceiving us all this time? For this very moment?”

At that question, Prince Ying shook his head.

“How could a foolish man such as I possibly deceive Your Majesty? It has not been long since my leg recovered.”

As he said that, Prince Ying looked at Mujin.

“Thanks to the treatment of the Leader of the Zhengmu League, my leg was finally able to recover only recently, Your Majesty.”

Prince Ying’s words were true. It had not even been a full year since his leg had completely healed.

One day, roughly two years after Mujin began treating Prince Ying in place of his wife, Liu Xuehua. While treating Prince Ying as usual, a thought suddenly occurred to Mujin.

What if they placed an emperor friendly toward the martial world on the throne in Emperor Taiping’s place?

Prince Ying, whom he was currently treating.

Thus, Mujin secretly sent Prince Ying a letter.

Mujin had realized that the guard who always accompanied Prince Ying was not Prince Ying’s man, but the emperor’s, so everything proceeded in secret.

And the letter Mujin sent contained the following message.

He could restore Prince Ying’s leg to that of an ordinary person, but if the emperor discovered the truth, he would never allow Prince Ying to live. Even so, was he willing to receive treatment?

In a sense, it was no different from secretly feeding him a drug.

Whispering to a man who had limped for more than ten years since suffering an injury in childhood that there was a way to heal his leg.

Who could possibly resist such temptation?

Even if his life depended on it.

In the end, Prince Ying accepted Mujin’s proposal, and after two years of treatment, he became capable of walking without a limp.

However.

For the past year, Prince Ying had continued acting even though his leg had healed.

Since he had limped for more than ten years, the performance was not particularly difficult. It was so flawless that even the guard who constantly watched him under the pretext of protection was deceived.

And once Prince Ying’s leg had healed, Mujin secretly sent him another letter.

A letter containing another drug.

It asked whether, rather than spending the rest of his life hiding his healed leg, he might instead consider aiming for the imperial throne.

Rebelling against an emperor who had won the civil war and seized absolute power was little different from madness.

However, after experiencing the recovery of his leg, ambition had already begun sprouting within Prince Ying, and he suffered from inner turmoil every single day.

Then the incident in which the emperor used Prince Ying as bait occurred.

That incident became a kind of catalyst.

It made him realize that even if he endured everything and continued hiding, the emperor remained fully prepared to use him as a sacrifice at any moment.

And Prince Ying decided that rather than die that way, he would challenge for the imperial throne.

At Prince Ying’s statement that Mujin had healed his leg, the emperor threw his head back and burst into wild laughter.

“Hahahaha! And so? Did this man heal your leg and promise to make you emperor?”

After shouting mockingly, Emperor Taiping turned his gaze toward the Embroidered Uniform Guards, Eastern Depot agents, and high-ranking officials surrounding them.

“Attend us! Hunt down and kill these traitors at once!”

Even at the emperor’s command, they could not move recklessly.

That was because the emperor was effectively being held hostage by Mujin.

As though he understood their concern, Emperor Taiping shouted again.

“It does not matter even if we die at the hands of these lawless men! Kill them immediately! Especially him! The man who dared make a mockery of the emperor must be put to death without fail! Then place our eldest son upon the throne and have him purge every martial artist!”

The person Emperor Taiping pointed at while shouting words little different from a final testament was Prince Ying.

As long as Prince Ying was killed, the insidious scheme of the Leader of the Zhengmu League would come to nothing.

Even if he himself died, Emperor Taiping intended to make his own child emperor and continue the war against the martial world.

The reactions of the Embroidered Uniform Guards and Eastern Depot agents who understood his intention split broadly into two groups.

Those who hesitated because, no matter what, they could not allow the hostage emperor to die.

“Obey His Majesty the Emperor’s command!”

“Kill him!!”

And those who boldly followed the emperor’s command and charged toward Prince Ying.

Yet for some reason.

Even as several experts rushed toward Prince Ying, Mujin did not move to protect him.

Amid that strange situation, just as the slender sword of the eunuch who reached Prince Ying first was about to pierce him.

SLASH.

Along with the sharp sound of flesh being cut, the neck of the Eastern Depot agent thrusting the slender sword was severed in midair.

And as blood sprayed from the eunuch’s body and stained the air, a monk dressed in dark crimson robes revealed himself.

While everyone was bewildered by the sudden appearance of the unidentified monk.

Mujin, who had already noticed his presence, asked him.

“The task?”

“I killed them all.”

At Mukyeong’s matter-of-fact answer, Mujin nodded with a bitter expression.

Prince Ying’s arrival here had been arranged to occur only after Mukyeong completed his task.

And the fact that Prince Ying had openly revealed his healthy leg before everyone meant that Mukyeong was already beside him.

While everyone wore tense expressions at the incomprehensible exchange between the two.

Mujin turned his head and spoke to the emperor.

“My apologies, but Prince Ying is now the only person capable of inheriting the imperial throne, Your Majesty.”

“!?”

“Every one of Your Majesty’s children is already dead.”

“!!!”

While the emperor and everyone nearby stared in shock, Mujin turned his head and shouted to those around them.

“If you do not believe me, send someone through every palace and confirm it now.”

Because of his calm tone, everyone could tell that his words were true.

Of course, someone hurriedly issued orders and sent people to check, but everyone was already thinking something similar.

Why had that thug continued rampaging and dragging out the time instead of threatening or killing the emperor after taking him hostage?

'......Not only His Majesty the Emperor, but that man himself was bait.'

He had taken the emperor hostage and drawn the attention of everyone in the Forbidden City toward himself, while the monk in dark crimson robes killed every imperial prince.

Naturally, the emperor was among those who arrived at that deduction.

Emperor Taiping, who had never imagined that they had prepared this far, wore a vacant expression for the first time.

It was not because he mourned his dead children.

To the emperor, his children were merely additional political enemies.

If rebellious officials gathered together, they could enthrone one of his children as a new emperor and kill him.

In other words, the emperor’s dazed expression did not come from sorrow over his departed children, but from the course of events unfolding far beyond anything he had anticipated.

And it was Mujin’s voice that awakened the emperor, who had momentarily lost himself.

“It was thanks to Your Majesty. You had already killed every member of the imperial family except Prince Ying, had you not? Moreover, because you did not trust even your own children, you prevented them from ever leaving the Forbidden City and monitored their every action. Thanks to that, carrying out the task was considerably easier.”

“.......”

The words were addressed to the emperor, but at the same time, they were a proclamation to everyone.

A proclamation that only two members of the imperial family remained.

The emperor and Prince Ying.

And since the emperor was being held hostage, the ministers were ultimately left with only one choice.

While the ministers hesitated upon realizing that fact.

“Hehehehe. Khahahahaha.”

Emperor Taiping burst into mad laughter like a man who had lost his mind.

“Do you truly believe everything in this world will proceed according to your wishes? Did you genuinely think they would acknowledge an emperor who usurped the throne by conspiring with thugs? If you kill us, the regional gentry and officials of every province will rise against you!”

Shouting as though pronouncing a curse, the emperor turned his bloodshot eyes toward the ministers surrounding them.

“Attend us! Our safety does not matter! Leave this place at once and issue an imperial decree! Proclaim that whoever subjugates the men who conspired with the thugs calling themselves martial artists and murdered the emperor and imperial princes shall become the owner of the imperial seal, the symbol of the emperor!”

Alongside madness, the emperor’s eyes were filled with venom.

A venomous determination to destroy the men who had obstructed his grand undertaking by any means, even if he himself died.

And just as several of Emperor Taiping’s loyal ministers were about to act upon his command.

“Your Majesty. There is a grave flaw in what you have just said.”

Prince Ying spoke in a quiet yet forceful tone.

“You say that I conspired with thugs such as martial artists? Then are you saying that the Founding Emperor was also a traitor?”

“!?”

No one present had expected those words, and none could hide their surprise.

The Founding Emperor Prince Ying referred to was the first emperor who had driven out the imperial family of the former empire, which had practiced human sacrifice, and established the Chu Empire.

And it was a fact known to everyone that the first emperor had borrowed the strength of martial artists while overthrowing the imperial family of the former Huan Empire.

It was simply that many people disliked the existence of martial artists, so everyone tacitly avoided mentioning it.

“Have you forgotten why the Founding Emperor established our Chu Empire? The cruelty of the former Huan imperial family had reached its peak, and the people throughout the Central Plains spent every day shedding tears of blood. Thus, the Founding Emperor embraced a great purpose, rose against them, and drove out the Huan Empire.”

Snort.

At Prince Ying’s words, Emperor Taiping smiled mockingly despite the tremendous agony surging through him from his horribly broken legs.

“Are you claiming to be the reincarnation of the Founding Emperor?”

“How could I possibly claim such a thing? However, after five years of war, the cries of suffering people now resound throughout the Central Plains every day. And amid all that, Your Majesty intends to begin yet another war, leaving me unable to suppress my grief. This foolish younger brother is merely following the will of the Founding Emperor who established our Chu Empire, and the will of the people.”

“Hehehe. It is truly regrettable that I never realized until now how flexible my younger brother’s tongue could be.”

After briefly regretting that he had not killed Prince Ying beforehand, Emperor Taiping spoke again.

“Enough of your worthless wordplay. Do you believe the people here will be deceived by such trivial sophistry? In the end, you are nothing more than a traitor who joined hands with thugs and raised a rebellion!”

Emperor Taiping shouted as though making a proclamation to the surviving ministers around them.

And as though refuting him, Prince Ying answered in a gentle tone.

“Those martial artists are also people of the Central Plains. Please recall the achievements of the Founding Emperor. And did you say that no one would follow me?”

Prince Ying also knew.

The exchange moments ago had been nothing more than wordplay in a struggle for legitimacy.

“Is there truly no one here who harbors the grand ambition to soothe the people’s hearts, which have grown turbulent after the long war, and bring an age of peace and prosperity to the empire?”

And what supported the struggle for legitimacy was practical benefit.

“So many villains who accumulated wealth by waging war alongside the previous emperor and exploiting the people have now died. Could we not form a new cabinet and Six Ministries together with those who harbor great aspirations?”

When Prince Ying finished speaking.

A strange light appeared in the eyes of the officials, great and small, who had surrounded them while listening to the exchange.

Because of Mujin’s attack, most of the high-ranking officials who had been handling affairs of state in the Hall of Supreme Harmony had lost their lives.

Many of the positions left vacant by their deaths were positions the survivors had dreamed of attaining.