The Duke's Son :Re-Chapter 269

Fear...

It was a feeling Jae-Hyeok had buried during his days alone in his manor, but now it welled from his heart once more.

The loud sound of his own skull shattering still lingered in his mind.

Had Theodore been even 0.1 seconds later in killing Zhang Soso, he would’ve died. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he had crossed to the underworld and returned.

Rumble.

Listening to the roar of thunder overhead, Jae-Hyeok blinked in confusion. He glimpsed the tree-thick lightning bolts roving in the clouds and instinctively shrank back.

I... I am still alive?

Was this the scenery of hell?

Jae-Hyeok was stunned, but then the cries of familiar voices brought him to his senses.

“Protect him!”

“Protect Kang Jae-Hyeok!”

“No one will pass!”

Da-Hee...

With her big eyes and dancing eyebrows, Da-Hee was a short girl with expressions as clear as water. However, that cute, naive exterior masked a decisive sharpness. She was the runner-up freshman at Lion’s Castle for a reason—and having trained alongside both Kang Jae-Hyeok and Kang Hyeon-Ah, her determination could be felt like an unsheathed sword.

She was protecting the rear.

“I won’t let you touch him!”

Hae-Rin...

For as long as Jae-Hyeok had known her, Hae-Rin had always been a girl of few words—but words exchanged were not always a fair measure of closeness. Jae-Hyeok could feel her readiness to live and die by his side.

“We will protect you too!”

Lee Jin-Seong, Du Bae-Su, and Cheon Hye-Ji...

In the end, as many as a hundred students stood firm before the players of Black Dragon. It wasn’t just his classmates—Da-Hee’s friends and the entire Shooting Club also stood together.

The fear in their eyes was evident.

But so was their determination.

“By the way, where’s Do-Jin?”

“I don’t know where that jerk is...”

“He’s technically the vice manager. How can he be missing at a time like this?”

A few strange sentences popped up here and there, but regardless, Jae-Hyeok’s heart steadied as he listened to the voices of his friends. Moreover—

“Protect Young Master Kang!”

“Work with the students! Don’t let anything happen to them!”

His allies—the Shinra family, Guardian, and even Jaegyeong Pharmaceuticals—stood with him.

“Jae-Hyeok! Focus!” Kang Hyeon-Ah shouted.

Sister.

Jae-Hyeok inhaled deeply.

His fear receded.

In its place came anger.

How can I be so pathetic... Here everyone is, risking their lives for my sake; even if my head were shattered a hundred times, how could I let that cow me?

Those who’d died by Jae-Hyeok’s sword were in the dozens. He’d long known the path to revenge traded lives for every step. He’d known this, and yet after tasting the receiving end, fear had briefly shaken his heart.

But no more.

“Master! Are you going to disappoint me?”

Theodore’s resentful voice rang in his mind.

The Death Knight was on the verge of being shattered after withstanding dozens of the Qilin’s attacks. It had sworn allegiance and became Jae-Hyeok’s knight, so it could sense his fluctuating emotions.

Jae-Hyeok’s brows lowered sharply, and he uttered one word in response.

“Never.”

Waving his hand, Jae-Hyeok summoned ten Thundercloud Pills and tossed them into his mouth.

As if outraged by Jae-Hyeok’s spirit, the thunder grew even more deafening.

It’s coming.

Through the net of gold lightning, he could see a particularly thick lightning bolt flickering amid the clouds.

The speed at which it moved was beyond the naked eye; however, Jae-Hyeok could vaguely track its movement.

This was thanks to the significant boost in his already high Insight stat had received upon killing Zhang Soso and reaching level 150.

Level 150... 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Those level 150 and beyond were known as transcendents for a reason. It truly was the point where one stepped beyond the human realm.

All of his stats had increased by 20%, and the cooldown of his Skills had been reduced by as much as 10%.

At the same time, this was also why thunder tribulation was dubbed divine punishment. It was as if a god were punishing those who reached too far beyond their mortal vessels.

So what if it’s a god?

Weren’t there plenty of gods?

Through Iyarugt and the Firebird’s Essence, Jae-Hyeok himself had an indirect relationship with two gods.

“Bloom.”

Iyarugt especially...

Jae-Hyeok could still sense the aura of the unknown god who’d created Iyarugt. Though it was ancient and faint, even the faintest wisp was like touching the cosmos.

Compared to the unknown god behind Iyarugt, no, even compared to the Bow God, I doubt this gatekeeping god is anything special.

Jae-Hyeok steadied his mind, raised his scabbard overhead, and half-drew Iyragut. Just then, the lightning bolt that had been gathering its strength finally struck.

The world turned white.

Cries of horror and screams erupted throughout the stadium—among them were Cheon Hye-Ji and her friends.

Nevertheless, Jae-Hyeok didn’t waver.

His focus was stone in that moment.

High-stance draw—Slumbering Dragon.

Jae-Hyeok tilted his half-drawn sword and perfectly met the lightning bolt with Iyarugt’s edge.

The remnants of the lightning energy scattered off Iyarugt and spread through the sky like flying snakes.

“Ughhhhh!”

The scattering energy swept past the Black Dragon players who were perched on balconies and angling spells at Jae-Hyeok. Some froze in place, and others fell over, but they all foamed at the mouth.

Just as Jae-Hyeok was settling his energies, the group of Black Dragon players on the ground broke through and cast a bevy of water spells, dousing Jae-Hyeok and the area around him in water.

The power of the second thunderbolt amplified as it spread along the moisture in the air, becoming visibly more formidable.

Before Jae-Hyeok could react, the second lightning bolt tore from the clouds. Jae-Hyeok’s eyes snapped to the sky, and he met the lightning with his Slumbering Dragon high stance—but this time, rather than deflect, most of the lightning energy traveled through Jae-Hyeok’s water-soaked scabbard before disappearing into his body.

“Cough!”

Jae-Hyeok coughed up blood and staggered.

But the tribulation gave no recourse. He’d barely steadied himself by the time the third lightning bolt had finished condensing.

However, just then, a chill wind swept through the area.

The puddles at Jae-Hyeok’s feet and the moisture on his skin instantly froze.

Absolute Zero...

Jae-Hyeok glanced appreciatively at Seol Su-Ah in the distance.

Compared to his own friends, there was some distance between him and this close friend of his father’s. Nevertheless, it, too, was precious.

Father.

His father’s good karma was watching over him.

The third lightning bolt fell then.

Still in high stance, Jae-Hyeok’s knuckles whitened around Iyarugt’s hilt.

High-stance draw—Peak Sword.

Jae-Hyeok swung his arm like a whip, and Iyarugt left its scabbard at such speed that its afterimages blended, creating the fleeting image of a red crescent moon.

This third branch of lightning was even thicker than the first two, yet its dense energies scattered like smoke before that red moon.

The Black Dragon players who launched water spells at Jae-Hyeok were swept up in the lightning energy and crumpled to the ground.

From the third, to the fourth, to the fifth lightning bolt—Jae-Hyeok repeatedly shunted the scattered resulting lightning energy toward random groups of Black Dragon players.

“That... that monster...”

Qilin stared blankly at the scene for a moment before his expression distorted like a demon.

Anyone with eyes could tell Jae-Hyeok’s thundertribulation was unordinarily perilous. The lightning bolts flickering in the clouds were so thick that survival seemed like an impossibility.

Or so Qilin had thought.

His prediction had rarely been wrong over the course of his long life.

But for the second time this day, he’d misjudged.

Jae-Hyeok had not only received five lightning bolts, but he’d even had the leisure to direct the scattering lightning energy toward the Black Dragon’s players.

“How... How can something like this even be possible?”

A large amount of mana swept around the roaring Qilin.

He couldn’t let Jae-Hyeok continue.

The moment Jae-Hyeok finished transcending would be the moment all of Black Dragon’s players would be whipped out—and that included him.

All of China would be in danger.

“You...! I’ll definitely kill you!”

Bang!

Qilin shot toward Jae-Hyeok like a spear.

If it were anyone else, charging into Jae-Hyeok’s tribulation would’ve been a death warrant. However, he, Qilin, was level 200. No matter how strong Jae-Hyeok’s tribulation was, it couldn’t compare to his own.

“You can only blame your father! That talent is a curse! Today, I’ll eradicate you and restore order to Asia.”

Qilin’s words reflected the sentiment of all of Black Dragon’s players, who inwardly cheered for Qilin’s success.

Boom!

Qilin cycled his mana at screaming speeds, enhancing his body to the peak. Lightning energy was thick in the air, but his movement stuttered only briefly. Soon, the speed of palms created after-images as they neared Jae-Hyeok’s face.

At the same time, Jae-Hyeok had his eyes on the sky.

[Traces of Thunder Tribulation has absorbed the remnants of tribulation lightning.]

[Traces of Thunder Tribulation has absorbed...]

[Traces of Thunder Tribulation...]

[Traces of Thunder Tribulation has absorbed a massive amount of thunder energy in succession and evolved into Thunder Vessel.]

Only when Qilin came within arm’s reach did Jae-hyeok’s gaze shift slightly, looking to his slim white guantlet.

“Interesting. Let’s see what you can do.”

[You have released Thunder Vessel’s thunder tribulation.]

In the human imagination, the sky was the realm of the gods; with thunder and lightning as their divine tools, they smited the earth and punished mortals.

Yet at the moment, the earth seemed to rise up in fury, for a lightning bolt no less blinding rose up to meet the god’s wrath.

Lightning crashed with lightning, and everything faded to white.

Just before the searing light consumed him, Qilin’s charcoal lips cracked open.

“Thunder... god...”

The Thunder Emperor also went by the nickname Thunder God, but as hostile parties, no one in China would flatter the Thunder Emperor by using that name.

Yet now, Qilin, a man who stood at the peak of China, had, of his own accord, actually christened a foreign boy as the Thunder God.

The words had come from his heart in the moment—a moment that happened to have been caught live on air.

“Right now, we... We are witnessing a scene that will go down in the history of Korea!”

The Korean broadcasters shouted into their microphones. With rolled sleeves and ties hanging loose on their necks, the Korean news crews were frenetic.

Meanwhile, Jae-Hyeok squinted up at the clouds, where multiple thick lightning bolts were condensing in tandem.

“I’ve reached the last phase of the tribulation.”

Soon, a new National Treasure would be born in Korea.