Chapter 612

Davey instinctively sensed the existence of the Princess of the Abyss. He gracefully pointed Red Ribbon's tip at the woman with wild navy hair who had appeared before them.

"Your Majesty!! Your Majesty!!" the startled men of the Righteous Order Unit shouted at the boy wearing the dragon robe—their own emperor.

"Cough... Cough..." Hoarse coughs and agonizing moans erupted from the boy, who had been as silent as a corpse, and the members of the Righteous Order Unit moved as one, dashing toward the woman without hesitation.

Thud!!!

However, before they could even get close to her, they were flung back.

Woosh!! Wham! Wham!!

The men fell to the ground, their impact softened by the air cushion that Davey had swiftly deployed.

"Pro... protect His Majesty..."

"How could they breach the inner palace?!"

"Move," Davey coldly snapped at them as he took a step forward.

The navy-haired crazy woman uncaringly pushed aside the emperor and raised her hands as if in mock surrender. "Oh, I've failed."

She stuck her tongue out as if she was licking something invisible while obnoxiously making a slurping sound. She then took a step back. "Can't be helped, I'll retreat for now."

"Quite good at concealing your presence, aren't you?"

"Didn't think you'd be able to find me," she sneered at Davey with a husky voice.

The woman exuded power that was more overwhelming than any other Abyssal beings he had encountered so far. She seemed like an ordinary wicked woman on the outside, but her aura was certainly different. She was capable of erasing this world on her own.

This was a Princess of the Abyss—an existence formed by the aggregation of hundreds of millions of negative thoughts. There were supposed to be two, but the other one was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, you won this time, and I'll back off for now. I'm not really interested in what Oedon does; I just came to take the traitor woman with me," the woman said, before creating a corrupted swamp at her feet, which then began to slowly suck her into its depths.

"Who says you can leave?" Davey instinctively unleashed the Power of Taboo and swung his sword.

Slash!!!

Her arm got cut off, but the severed limb vanished.

"You... You really are strong. I thought it was weird when they said you killed Sleesia... You're a dangerous variable indeed."

Leaving those words behind, she then completely disappeared.

Fortunately, she did not know that if Davey met Sleesia again in his current state, he would be doomed.

* * *

Wol Gon, the Emperor of Hwan, appeared to be a young boy, aged around eleven.

"Sob... sob..."

He had been moved to a smaller palace nearby in place of the destroyed imperial palace, but he had not regained consciousness yet.

"Davey, she aimed for the emperor..."

"It's probably to keep me in check and to interfere with my plans."

'What is the Abyss doing here? It doesn't seem right to say they were just targeting Isildi. Previously, they targeted Illyna, and now they seem to be playing some trick here.' Davey had already foiled half of their plots, but still, the most important issue remained unresolved.

"imperial physician! Speak up! Is His Majesty... Is His Majesty unharmed?"

"The wounds are severe. If it goes on like this..."

Wol Gon was riddled with odd-looking wounds, which were probably caused by the power of corruption stemming from that crazy-looking woman. Davey stepped forward, placing his hand on the physician's shoulder.

"Huh?"

"Step aside," he said calmly. He then immediately placed his hand on Wol Gon's body.

"Outsiders must not touch the emperor!"

"If you don't want to see the emperor die, be quiet," Davey coldly responded, before proceeding to examine the signs of the corrupt power that was corroding and necrotizing Wol Gon's skin.

'Can I remove it with the Power of Taboo?'

The Taboo's Karma allowed Davey to remove his body and power from the rules of this world. It was possible to enhance himself or increase his power, but infusing it into someone else's body to remove a corrosive power like this was not that easy.. Of course, if it was truly necessary, he could do it, but if he made a mistake, it could cost the emperor's life. And frankly speaking, Davey had yet to master the Power of Taboo. Hercules had told him before that there was no need to learn more about it, so Davey had never delved deep into it.

After giving the matter plenty of thought, he slowly shook his head. There was a way to save the emperor and kill only the corruption without using the Power of Taboo—surgery. It seemed to be their only option left.

"I'm going to start surgery. I'll tell you what I need."

It was risky due to the proximity to vital areas, but it seemed feasible to excise only the corrupted parts.

The imperial physician shouted angrily, "Who is this... Who dares to touch His Majesty's imperial body so recklessly?!"

"I need these items for surgery," Davey repeated curtly, intending to leave no room for further argument. And when he gave the physician a stern look, the man flinched. "Bring me a small knife and the Body-Locking Poison of the Sacheon Dang Family."

Fear spread on the physician's face when he heard Davey's demand. "You... You intend to use a blade on His Majesty's imperial body?!"

"Precisely. To cut open the abdomen."

"Madness!"

"All this time, your esteemed Central Plains' etiquette has always frustrated me."

The physician cried out in horror, "To cut open the belly of a living person!! And His Majesty at that!"

The Heavenly Central Plains and even the Joseon Dynasty found it terrifying to bring a blade to the king's body. Yet, these were the same people who would cleanly cut off a soldier's rotting limb in wartime. And of course, the surgery method of cutting open a living person's stomach might still be a concept too advanced for medicine in this era. All the more so considering that self-healing through qi and alchemic pills prevailed in the Heavenly Central Plains.

Jo Soon, who had been quietly observing, finally spoke up to ask, "Can you save His Majesty?"

"If we do nothing, he dies. The corruption is spreading within his body, and there's not much time left."

"imperial Physician, go get the Body-Locking Poison..."

"I have it with me."

Shh...

A man whose face was covered by a white cloth appeared out of nowhere.

"You are?"

"I am Bae Hwan, the leader of the Assassin Unit. I apologize for being late."

"This matter won't be easily forgotten."

"...I have the Body-Locking Poison with me. But this is a deadly poison used to kill..." With these words, the assassin offered a small ceramic bottle to Davey, who accepted it without much thanks.

Davey immediately opened the cap, smelled it, then let a drop of the poison fall on the tip of his index finger, which he then licked to have a taste.

"Hey, w-what are you—" yelled the imperial physician and Bae Hwan, in shock.

However, Davey shook his head as if it was nothing. "This should work."

The Body-Locking Poison had similar properties to anesthetics used for numbness. In its purest form, it was paralytic poison. But if it was tweaked a little through a bit of stimulation... Davey heated and cooled the poison rapidly to induce drastic changes in its temperature Once done, he tasted it again, finding that it was perfect now. Deeming the poison ready to use, he poured it into Emperor Wol Gon's mouth.

"No! How dare he give Body-Locking Poison to His Majesty?!" The flustered soldiers tried to get close to Davey, clearly intending to interfere. But Jo Soon was quick to step in and block them.

"Knife," Davey demanded a moment later with his hand stretched out behind him, and Jo Soon quietly handed him a small dagger.

"This is all we have now. Didn't you say that we don't have time?"

"It doesn't matter," Davey dismissed the concern tersely and immediately tore the dragon robe here and there using the dagger he was given.

Placing his hand on the horribly scarred abdomen, he pressed a few spots. When he sensed the flesh stiffening a bit, he activated a surge of blade energy and sliced open the stomach.

"Ugh?!"

"... Uwaahh... Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

The spectators did not know what to do, so they turned their gazes away. Some got too emotional and even shed tears. It seemed they were witnessing the sovereign being subjected to atrocities. Of course, Davey paid no attention to them. In a surgery that required focus on the patient, there was no time to be distracted.

"This energy is bothersome..."

Unlike the powers of other Princesses of the Abyss, the direct destructive power of corruption was particularly troublesome.

'I must kill her here,' Davey thought. 'She must not be allowed to live.'

As blood flowed from the incision, Davey used a cloth dampened with holy water from his Plane Pocket to clean it off and then looked at the blackened flesh.

"Phew..." After a brief moment of silence, Davey extended his hand.

Some parts of the liver, a kidney, a portion of the intestines and the abdominal flesh—these were the parts needed to be excised. Naturally, any slight mistake could lead to severe complications and, if unlucky, could lead to death even after a successful surgery.

'Don't falter. I am Davey O'Rowane, a disciple of Hypocria, Goddess of Medicine.' With eyes that burned with confidence and determination, Davey began to perform the surgery without hesitation.

With limited materials, he directly manipulated the flesh through devil magic. He cut off a damaged portion of the intestines and attached the healthy sections together, then healed it using necromancy. With no holy power, this was his only option. After all, necromancy involved a magical study of the human body, and dark magic was the study of the human mind and necrotic mana. So despite the circumstances that were totally unsuitable for surgery, it was doable. After cutting and reattaching the intestines and removing a kidney, he cut off a part of the liver and used other tissues to patch it up.

"By...By heavens... Is this really the work of human hands?" The imperial physician, who had tried to stop Davey, was left unable to hide his shock after witnessing the surgery.

Once the internal problems were resolved, Davey gazed at the flesh that had been protected by the Curse of Versha against the corruption, before proceeding to patiently gather the corruption energy. He then made another small cut on the abdomen and used his qi to guide it out.

After partially extracting the energy, he cut off the remaining corrupted flesh without hesitation. A bottle of holy water was then poured on the wound. Once finished, Davey cleaned his hands and pushed a small pill he had gotten from his Plane Pocket into Emperor Wol Gon's mouth.

"What's that?"

"It's a supreme pill I made when I was bored. It's got a bunch of uses, but the important thing here is that it massively speeds up recovery," Davey explained as he pushed the pill down the emperor's throat.

The cut tissues regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye. If only Davey could use holy magic... Unfortunately, with the decrease of influence from Goddess Freyja, the transcendental holy magic had consumed most of his holy power in one go. With the same amount of holy power he had in the past, he could have done so much more. Now it was impossible.

As the influence of the gods weakened, so did the efficiency of the holy power. As soon as the necessary tissues regenerated, Davey pressed on some acupuncture points to prevent the effects of the pill from spreading through the blood vessels.

Then, he quickly stitched the cuts in the abdomen, which would surely leave rough scars. But it did not matter.

'If he's alive, that's enough.'

'Three, Davey began counting in his head, 'two, one...'

He clapped his hands lightly, and Emperor Wol Gon, who had been lying there unmoving since the beginning, let out a groan.

"Ugh?!"

That was the precise control of surgery, to the second. Davey turned to address the imperial physician, who now looked at him not just with shock but also with awe. "What are you standing there for? Aren't you going to prepare a meal?"

"Wh...what?"

"I used the supreme pill to make flesh regenerate. Where do you think the energy to do that came from?"

The pill forced the body to regenerate faster, but it did not provide the energy needed.

The imperial physician jolted in shock, seemingly understanding Davey's point. He then yelled at a nearby eunuch. "Tell the kitchen staff! Prepare food to serve His Majesty!!"

Amid the sound of their shouts and claps, Davey directed his attention back to Emperor Wol Gon, who had just opened his eyes and was surveying his surroundings. He then asked him, "How does it feel to come back from the dead?"

In the emperor's perspective, Davey might have been the perpetrator who killed the crown prince in the past. But now...

"He...He's truly divine!!" Amid the swelling murmurs of awe around him, the imperial physician's exclamation echoed loud and clear.