Murim Troubleshooter Chapter 108 : Absolute Shrimp

Chapter 108: Absolute Shrimp

A middle-aged man in a blue official robe opened his mouth with a sullen face.

“Just what kind of fellow are you.”

“I’m a guy called Dan Mujin.”

Even when a close aide of the Imperial Family asked in a crooked tone, I answered back without flinching.

That was , Dan Mujin.

“What I’m saying is, why do we keep running into each other in situations like this, you brazen brat.”

An eunuch and the Royal Guards who seed to be on the Crown Prince’s side, and from the Third Princess’s side the Eastern Depot Official and the Clan Head of the Seomok Clan.

The powers of the Imperial Palace had all gathered in one place.

And among them, the fact that I, a re troubleshooter, was brazenly standing was apparently absurd to them.

“Well, that’s just how it turned out.”

Explaining would take too long again, so I tried brushing it off like that.

At that, Cheonsugong raised an eyebrow and furrowed his brow.

When I saw the white Qi wrapping around the hand he was clenching and unclenching, I quickly answered.

“Well, I heard her husband was cheating. I ca to confirm it as part of the request, yes, yes.”

I pointed at the target of the request, the Clan Head of the Seomok Clan.

“…Cheating?! I told you, I’ve never done such a thing!”

The Clan Head of the Seomok Clan jumped up, protesting as if gravely wronged.

“Hmph. Even if you didn’t cheat, you clearly were two-timing.”

Cheonsugong pointed at the Royal Guards who had shown up without being summoned.

The ard Royal Guards and Wang Jinggong, his face ghostly pale from powder, were glaring at us coldly.

“So, you were testing the waters between the Crown Prince and the Third Princess to see where you could profit? Bold of you.”

It seed he had intended to keep a foot in both camps and side with whichever called the higher price.

“Kh-hm.”

At Cheonsugong’s words, he only gave a dry cough and pressed his lips shut, unable to respond.

But then Wang Jinggong, who had dragged the Royal Guards here, scanned us all and suddenly pointed his finger at .

“You, you brat…!”

His expression was as if he had spotted a lifelong enemy on a narrow bridge.

The other Royal Guards also turned their gazes to , curious what was going on.

“You damned brat…! Aren’t you the little runt who constantly interfered with our work back at Eunseong Trading Company’s sericulture chamber!”

The eunuch on the Crown Prince’s side, Wang Jinggong, scread in his characteristic sharp tone, scrunching his pale face.

“To see you here with Cheonsugong! So you were a spy sent by the Third Princess from the very beginning!”

He huffed and puffed as though he’d known it all along, thrashing about furiously.

He had once dreamt of rising to the rank of Grand Eunuch, but that dream had been shattered by that incident, and now he was venting all that pent-up rage at .

On top of that, he had lost the Crown Prince’s trust for failing to handle a re trading company.

“How ridiculous. Princess Peach Blossom has never once sent this ragamuffin anywhere near us.”

Cheonsugong imdiately refuted, defending his liege against needless slander.

He wasn’t wrong—I really had nothing to do with her.

But still, ragamuffin? This man’s word choice had been a bit off since earlier.

“If you’ve got no relation whatsoever, then you won’t intervene when the Royal Guards beat that brat to death here, will you, Cheonsugong?”

Taking advantage of Cheonsugong’s retreat, Wang Jinggong asked with a fishy grin.

The man seed intent on settling the grudge of his downfall right here and now, gloating at the perfect chance.

Srrrng.

Three Royal Guards unsheathed their long imperial swords and slowly closed the distance.

Each one’s aura was extraordinary, and sure enough, sharp blue Sword Qi flared vividly in the darkness.

“Son of a…”

Back then, it had clearly been Princess Peach Blossom who toppled Wang Jinggong at the sericulture chamber.

But since that veiled lady was soone against whom the word “revenge” could not even be uttered, he was taking it out on soone as easy as .

“Excuse , Cheonsugong.”

“What is it, brat.”

The lofty man of the Eastern Depot turned his head at my low call.

With the abnormal stamina and regeneration of the Heaven-Slaying Star, I had sohow managed against two Peak Martial Artists before.

But no matter how I thought about it, against three, I couldn’t confidently guarantee victory.

If that were possible, I’d already have surpassed Peak and beco Super-Peak.

“Would you, by chance, be able to assist ?”

Perhaps sensing so déjà vu in my question, Cheonsugong smirked.

“I could.”

He said that, then stomped the ground and withdrew far back, as though unwilling to get further involved.

“….”

That was literally just telling

he could. Not that he would.

I blinked blankly for a mont at that unexpected twist of an answer, before snapping back to reality at the sight of the Royal Guards closing in.

“Hey, don’t just stand there—help

out!”

Apparently, this man still rembered when I had answered and bolted from the mulberry field.

Eunuchs sure held grudges for a long ti.

“I’ll decide after seeing how you do.”

With that, he clasped his hands behind his back and withdrew, taking Ilhong—whom he had once tried to scout—along with him.

“Son of a…!”

While I was spitting curses, the Royal Guards tightened their encirclent with expressionless faces.

The footwork of the Royal Guards’ combined technique was different from the very first synchronized step.

There were only three of them, yet the pressure was far greater than being surrounded by a hundred diocre martial artists.

Even when I glared with the Heaven-Slaying Eye, I couldn’t find a single gap to escape.

The atmosphere scread that I had no choice but to face this trio’s Coordinated Formation Strike head-on.

“Ohohong, kill him!”

At Wang Jinggong’s vile laughter, the Royal Guards of the Imperial Household—whose reputation I had only heard of—rushed toward .

Ssshhhk—!

Tatadak—!

Sword Qi and crimson arcs flashed madly before my eyes.

I retreated step by step, desperately dodging the storm of sword strikes with my whole body.

Clack!

Each ti Sword Qi and Staff Qi collided, violent shockwaves tore through the alley.

Every single heavy step I took beca a desperate dance to slip past their sharp blades.

Slash!

A blade grazed my side. I had no ti to even grimace before pulling my body away.

Even my ghost-like Whirlwind Steps were useless against the web of blades woven by these bastards.

“Haaah, haaah!”

If I could only counter properly, I might knock them down one by one and turn this around. But whenever one stabbed, the next was already slashing, and if I avoided that, another blade ca crashing down toward my crown.

Their mastery of group combat steadily strangled the range of my movents.

“Damn it, I’ve been sliced up all over again.”

I had a feeling I’d be stabbed the mont I took on this request.

Today, I was getting skewered by blades to my heart’s content.

“Ohohong! How does the taste of steel feel? You shouldn’t have ddled in imperial affairs, flapping your mouth so carelessly.”

And then ca the grating voice of that despicable eunuch, scratching at my nerves from the back.

Sohow, it felt even more hateful than the swordsn stabbing at

from the front.

For the first ti in a while, the Heaven-Slaying Star within

resonated, and killing intent rose thick in my chest.

“Hohoh, at first I was surprised, thinking you were a Peak Martial Artist… but there’s no way a stray mutt from the streets can defeat these Royal Guard elites personally dispatched for this task!”

Even if I had to take a sword deep into my body, the urge to crush that bastard beyond this combined technique was burning strong.

“Captain!”

As the imperial elites pressed harder and harder, Ilhong’s worried voice rang out.

“Stay there, don’t even think about stepping in.”

Thankfully, Cheon Yugang was firmly holding her back. How could a second-rate martial artist possibly interfere in a Peak Martial Artist’s battle?

She’d lose her head ten tis over before she even realized it.

“As they say, one must not reach beyond their station! If you act above your lot, disaster strikes you down! Hohoh!”

Shhhhk—!

Distracted by his scratching voice, another blade tore into my arm.

From left to right, blood poured out in a gush.

“Kh!”

It was a deep wound, the kind that exposed bone. An ordinary man would have lost the use of that arm entirely.

The Royal Guard attacking next clearly aid for the blind spot at the very sa wounded side.

Baaam!

But thanks to this body of mine that could regenerate tendons, I repaid him with a heavy fist strike.

My fist slamd into his face, and with a choked grunt, the Royal Guard staggered back several steps.

“Ugh, you fucking bastard……”

The proud yellow martial uniform had been stained bright red by the blood that ca dripping down and the nosebleed that fell away.

“What the hell are you doing! You couldn’t even chase off that mangy stray! And you still call yourselves the Royal Guards!”

Wang Jinggong, riding high on the title of being the Crown Prince’s retainer, raged arrogantly.

I sucked in a ragged breath and stepped back slowly, trying to buy ti for the severed arm to finish regenerating.

Over the shoulders of the Royal Guards as they reford their formation, I could see Wang Jinggong’s grin.

‘??(殺)’

It felt strange. It had been a long ti since I’d wanted to kill soone like this.

“Yeah, you feel the sa way, don’t you?”

The Heaven-Slaying Star was at death’s door, and a bloody aura was rising around him.

At my mutter, the Royal Guards began to look at

as if I were a lunatic.

“Then help .”

Opportunities like this weren’t common. I didn’t want to die — and I wanted to kill.

Tsutsutsutsu—

Wrapped in the crimson aura that only I could see, I threw my shrimp-body into the crack between the whales.

“Get him!”

When the imperial power players gathered in one place, Dan Mujin and a brat had said the sa thing.

That we were like a shrimp caught between two fighting whales.

They muttered words like ‘When whales fight, the shrimp perish’.

But look — where in this world…

“Kraaa!”

…was there a shrimp that could sweep through three Peak Martial Artists?

Cheonsugong stared at Dan Mujin with a strange expression as Dan Mujin, taking a blade driven into his belly in stride, blasted off the head of one Royal Guard.

The young man stood drenched in blood from head to toe and fought back fiercely.

“Hm, I’d heard he reached peak level.”

Cheonsugong had held back on purpose to see how far the boy had advanced, because so of it had been hard to believe.

But the youth in front of him was performing even more impressively than expected.

“The last ti I saw him he seed a second-rate martial artist, but his growth speed is unbelievable.”

I had only thought of him as a guy with an amazing sense for killing intent.

Now, coupled with unusually strong martial skill — the mont Cheonsugong’s gaze shifted from seeing a thunderbear to seeing sothing else entirely was upon us.

“Iik! What are you doing! Can’t you catch a single bastard like that and you still wobble about!”

Wang Jinggong shouted, leaping about when a Royal Guard fell and the tide of battle beca uncertain.

“Hah, hah. Damn you, I’ll smash your head open.”

I didn’t know what “smash your head open” ant exactly, but he pointed at the fallen Royal Guard, so it seed clear he ant to bash his skull.

With a squeal, Wang Jinggong took a couple of steps back from the blood-splattered man.

The back alley quickly filled with the harsh breaths and thick stench of blood exhaled by the martial artists.

“Hit him! Do it! Cut that bastard’s throat now!”

He tried to egg on the Royal Guards with words, but unlike before they didn’t rush forward so readily.

These were people who rarely wavered, yet they were visibly shaken by the fierce resistance of that mangy dog.

“Damn these eunuch sons of bitches……”

Dan Mujin ground his lips and flared with anger at Wang Jinggong’s sharp, hopping shouts.

Then he glanced back casually.

“Ah, I wasn’t talking to Cheonsugong. You know how I feel, right?”

“…….”

No matter how much he wanted to please, he was just the sort of thunderbear who always managed to cock things up.