Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2758: The Traitor

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Zhongguo (China), Liaodong Province, Shuntian Prefecture, Shenyang City

”Eighteen years ago, within the walls of this very palace,” Mo Ming began stepping forward half a pace, his voice carrying through the vast hall with calm authority, ”a mother sacrificed herself to bring two beautiful children bearing her likeness into the world and a saber that carried all of her power.”

His words echoed beneath the high ceiling, drawing every ear in the chamber, he continued with the same solemn grandeur, ”That same night, the imperial family kept the saber that held her power for themselves... and abandoned her children. They were exiled to their mother’s homeland as if they were nothing more than inconvenient remnants.”

His gaze swept across the rows of imperial descendants seated on either side of the hall. Silence tightened in the air. After a deliberate pause, Mo Ming raised his voice once more, ”Today, those children stand before you as one... to reclaim the remains of their mother, the woman your customs forced to sacrifice herself so that they might live.”

He turned slightly, gesturing toward Coryn, ”And today, anyone who stands in her way will pay for the crimes of that night... and for trying to stop her now, with their lives.”

”Behold, daughter of the strongest Martial Artist to walk this land, Corey the Second!”

The deputy guard captain was taken aback for a moment. He had not expected Captain Mo to speak on the intruder’s behalf, let alone reveal that the girl standing before them was the daughter of the strongest martial artist the empire had ever known.

For a brief instant, uncertainty flashed across his face. But the hesitation lasted only a heartbeat. His expression hardened as he stepped forward, drawing himself up as if the Emperor’s gaze rested directly upon him.

”How dare you, traitor, raise your voice in the presence of the Emperor?” he shouted, his voice ringing across the hall. ”Surrender now, and you may yet beg for mercy!”

Ignoring the deputy guard captain’s barking, Coryn finally tore her gaze away from the grotesque saber and lifted it toward the Emperor. Their eyes met across the vast hall. And she felt... nothing. No recognition, no warmth, not even a flicker of familiarity. It felt as if she were staring at a complete stranger seated on a distant throne.

On her way here, she had wondered what it might be like to finally meet the man who was supposed to be her father. Reven had filled her head with scenes from the books she liked to read, stories where long-lost families reunited with tears, regret, and trembling voices. But this was nothing like that.

If anything standing here, under the cold gaze of the Emperor, Coryn felt only a strange, deep-seated hatred stirring somewhere within them. She shook her head slightly and muttered under her breath to the twin within their combined body, ”Guess blood relation isn’t all it’s cut out to be.”

Then she took a single, merciless step forward. The moment her foot touched the stone floor, the entire battalion of embroidered guards standing before her collapsed without warning. Their alike cells conjoined all at once, crumbling into fine ash as if their forms had been erased.

Flesh, organs, and bone disintegrated together. In the span of a heartbeat, the living wall blocking her path was reduced to armors and weapons lying on the cold floor. The drifting ash scattered across the hall, carried away by the faint currents of air. The path between her and the stone altar at the center of the hall, where the Dragon Dicing Saber rested, cleared completely.

Seeing this, the other guards immediately reacted. Several rushed forward at once, intending to apprehend her before she could advance any further.

But the moment they crossed into her mental field, they met the same fate as the embroidered guards before them. Their bodies disintegrated into ash mid-charge, scattering across the polished floor before they could even raise their weapons.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Guard captains moved, securing the safety of the Emperor and the seated imperial descendants, along with their noble relatives. Ensuring that none of the royal bloodlines present were caught in whatever power she was unleashing.

Once they confirmed their masters were secure, the remaining captains among the Twelve Imperial Guard Captains stepped forward together. They formed a solid line between Coryn and the stone altar.

In the next instant, their mental fields expanded outward. Coryn’s mental field met theirs head-on. The invisible forces collided violently in the center of the hall, releasing waves of raw mental pressure that rippled through the chamber like a storm, rattling banners, shaking lanterns, and sending wild mental currents surging across the court.

Neither side relented. For a brief moment, the two forces held against each other, Coryn’s mental field pressing against the combined mental fields of the Imperial Guard captains. The invisible clash distorted the air where the two forces met. Then it happened.

The air at the points of contact suddenly exploded. Violent bursts of pressure ripped through the overlapping mental fields, shattering the captains’ defenses apart and throwing their bodies across the stone floor. Several crashed into pillars, others skidded across the polished ground before coming to a halt.

Gasps rippled through the hall. No one present had expected her martial spirit to be this destructive. What they had witnessed earlier in the corridor had seemed controlled, almost surgical. But this...This was something entirely different.

During the chaos, when the hall was still rattling from the violent clash of mental fields, a small distortion suddenly appeared beside the Dragon Dicing Saber. The space beside the stone altar folded inward, forming a narrow opening no larger than a man’s arm.

From within it, a hand reached out. It grasped the saber’s hilt. In the next instant, the weapon vanished as the spatial opening sealed itself shut, leaving the altar empty. Before anyone could react, another opening tore open in the air directly behind Coryn’s back. The Dragon Dicing Saber shot out of the distortion and drove straight through her body, piercing her back and plunging deep into her heart. Then it tore free and plunged into her heart once more, this time remaining buried there.

For a heartbeat, the entire hall fell silent. Then, slowly, every gaze turned toward Captain Mo Ming. The twins included. All of them shared the same expression, confusion.