Chapter 1054

“Awaken.”

Nothing more was needed.

The brief whisper roused her mind as it sank beneath the surface of sleep and took hold of her thoughts. Her eyelids, shut tight and motionless until now, opened.

“Ah.”

A short gasp escaped her.

At last conscious again, the Grand Sorceress looked at the pitch-black darkness pressing in from every side and understood.

The gamble she had taken in her final moments, risking her life, had succeeded.

It was also why she was still alive despite the wound that should have killed her.

“Heaven above and earth below, all demons bow in reverence!”

The Grand Sorceress cried out the eight characters of the sacred words engraved upon her soul, then hurriedly prostrated herself before the deep darkness.

First she dropped to both knees, then placed both arms on the ground. Finally, she struck her forehead against the stone hard enough to make it ring.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Blood drops fell onto the cold stone floor as pain throbbed through her forehead, but the Grand Sorceress paid them no mind.

She could prostrate herself like this—and had recovered the arm and leg torn away when she was swept into unstable space—only through the grace of one being.

“This foolish and lowly servant presents herself before the great Lord of Heaven.”

At the reverence in the Grand Sorceress’s voice, the darkness surrounding her rippled slowly.

“Speak. Tell me everything you saw and heard.”

The brief command echoed inside her mind.

But the Grand Sorceress knew better than anyone that her master wasn’t asking who had won the battle.

His attention was fixed on one person alone.

“I sought to carry out the Lord of Heaven’s command, even at the cost of my life.”

Not daring to raise her face, the Grand Sorceress continued.

She told him roughly how many of their allies Jin Taekyung had killed, how many Black Ghosts had fallen in the process, and how the battle had unfolded from beginning to end.

“And so, shameful as it is, I had no choice but to flee in haste. Please, kill me.”

When she had finished, the Grand Sorceress quietly bit her lip.

She had done everything she could, but not all of it had gone perfectly according to plan.

Then, as she waited in fear, his voice sounded in her mind again.

“You did not see the Blood-Sword’s life taken?”

“…No. Nor did I foresee that the two Daoists of the Zhongnan Sect and Sima Gong would betray us again. Even if I had ten mouths, I would have no excuse.”

There was the Black Night King Sima Gong, who had joined forces with the Blood-Sword Demon Lord.

Then there were the Roaring Fury Swordsman Song Il and the Taeeul Merciless Sword Hwangbo Eom, whom Sima Gong had drawn in.

The Blood-Sword Demon Lord, who had recruited the traitors starting with the Black Night King, had known nothing of it. Under the original plan, they should all have been dead by now—killed by Jin Taekyung before the real battle even began.

“But things went wrong somewhere I never expected, even before that.”

“What was it?”

“Kongtong.”

The Kongtong Sect.

They were to be the first supporting players on the stage the Grand Sorceress had prepared.

The Kongtong Sect survivors who had fled Dunhuang were supposed to join their allies in the rear and give a detailed account of everything they had seen and heard.

Dark Heaven’s overwhelming forces. The strange power called Magic.

And, finally, the crucial seed of suspicion that would expose the traitors. That was what the Grand Sorceress had intended to plant.

“So I let word of the traitors reach their ears. Then I let them go, pretending I couldn’t find them.”

She hadn’t failed to catch them.

She had let them go. Deliberately.

It was an audacious claim to make about the Kongtong Sect, one of the Nine Sects and One Gang, but the Grand Sorceress remained certain of it. Had she and the mages under her command joined the pursuit intent on killing, the Kongtong Sect would have been wiped out in Dunhuang.

But she had made no effort to capture and kill them.

Unlike the Blood-Sword Demon Lord, her goal wasn’t victory.

The separate order she had received from the Lord of Heaven concerned only Jin Taekyung’s survival and growth.

That was why some of the Kongtong Sect had been allowed to survive.

When she heard that their survivors, including the Sect Leader, had shaken off the relentless pursuit and escaped the encirclement, the Grand Sorceress had smothered a laugh to keep the Blood-Sword Demon Lord from noticing. She had already been thinking of what would come next.

The survivors would return and reveal the truth. Jin Taekyung would execute the handful of traitors, become a new rallying point for Dark Heaven’s enemies, and lead them to a sweeping victory.

A safe and perfect plan.

But…

“Some of the survivors who knew the truth, including the Kongtong Sect’s Sect Leader, vanished without a trace.”

The darkness rippled sharply.

“Vanished without a trace?”

“Yes. Forgive me, but even with the power of the sorcery you granted this servant, I could not find them. At some point, they disappeared to a place I cannot even guess.”

The first unexpected crack had appeared, but even the Grand Sorceress could not follow their trail.

Time passed. The real battle began. More cracks appeared, one after another.

For some reason, the traitors had chosen the foolish path again, even with the battle turning against them.

Jin Taekyung had severed his own heart meridian and gambled his life.

And the arrival of the Fire King and the Bow Saint had put the Grand Sorceress herself in danger.

“Please punish this lowly servant for failing to carry out your heavenly command.”

She had achieved her immediate objective, but only that.

The Grand Sorceress lowered her head further and waited for her master’s fury to shake heaven and earth.

But contrary to her fears, the mind-voice that echoed from deep within her a moment later, as if resonating, was as emotionless as ever.

“Raise your head.”

The Grand Sorceress obeyed as if entranced. Beyond the closely woven veil over her face, the darkness writhed as though alive.

It was deeper and denser than she had ever seen it in the past several decades.

“Can you see it? Can you feel it?”

The Grand Sorceress didn’t answer.

No—she couldn’t.

Her pupils, which had rolled back until their whites showed at the sight of the darkness, were already turning black.

“I can see it. I can feel it. Everything hidden inside you. Clearly.”

Whoosh.

The darkness that had completely consumed her retinas didn’t stop there. It continued to spread.

Faster. Deeper.

It took hold of its loyal servant’s mind as her slender body trembled and her reason slipped away. It swept through her thoughts and shook her spirit before returning to its master.

As if nothing had happened.

Thump.

“Ah—hah. Hah!”

The moment the darkness left her eyes and their focus returned, the Grand Sorceress collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, gasping for breath.

“L-Lord of Heaven.”

Her voice quivered. Her eyes were full of fear.

She knew instinctively what had happened.

The Lord of Heaven had just looked through every one of her thoughts and memories.

At the same time, an awe so intense it raised goose bumps drove out her fleeting fear and enveloped her whole body.

That power…

Remembering the power that had seeped into her body and seized her soul, the Grand Sorceress shuddered.

She knew it had been only a tiny fragment of his power. That made her wonder and shock all the greater.

Just how far can his power reach?

Even a thousand-year-old tree could never touch the clouds.

But the Lord of Heaven was different.

From the moment she had first met him, he had been the absolute ruler, beyond compare. And day by day, he had grown stronger to a degree that made the very word limit meaningless.

The change astonished even the Grand Sorceress, one of his closest confidants.

And she already had an idea where this unbelievable change had begun.

Jin Taekyung. No—the Chosen One.

She was certain of it.

A little more than two years ago, when bloodshed swept through Shanxi Province and the epithet Hidden Dragon became known throughout the land, her master had begun to change as well.

He started waking more often from deep slumbers that had lasted nearly a year at their shortest and as long as ten years. Each time, the Grand Sorceress could feel that the Lord of Heaven had grown stronger.

Even here, today.

But what could that possibly have to do with—?

It was a natural question.

But the next moment, a thunderous echo shook her mind, turning her thoughts blank.

“It is not your place to question anything.”

“…!”

“Do not forget what your master wants. Do not forget what you must do.”

The Lord of Heaven’s voice seemed to pierce her soul. The Grand Sorceress realized she had momentarily forgotten something.

That the being before her was an absolute ruler, transcending everything.

To serve and worship him as her master, she could permit herself no questions or doubts.

“Please, please kill this irreverent servant!”

The Grand Sorceress cried out as if she were coughing up blood.

Pressed so close to the cold stone floor she seemed ready to become part of it, she reaffirmed her fanatical loyalty and praised her master.

She went on until her voice, once as clear and calm as a silver bell, grew hoarse and cracked.

Until her master finally issued his command to the lowly servant who had dared, even for an instant, to harbor a question.

“That is enough.”

Rustle.

The darkness rippled gently and wrapped around the Grand Sorceress, as though caressing her.

“Nothing of the sort will ever happen. Your master knows that, unlike the Blood-Sword, that foolish hunting dog, your loyalty is steadfast and pure.”

“Lord of Heaven…!”

“Go to the place that awaits you. Join forces there with another of your master’s loyal servants and complete a new mission. The great plan is now truly close to completion.”

Her master’s trust came through more clearly than ever. Overcome, the Grand Sorceress began to weep.

“I will risk my life to fulfill the mission entrusted to me.”

“I believe you. Just as I always have.”

As his quiet voice echoed in her mind, some of the darkness wrapped around the Grand Sorceress sank deep into her body.

No—it seeped into her as if they had always been one.

Whoosh.

The Grand Sorceress shuddered as an unprecedented energy surged from deep within her.

She could sense what the immense new power her master had given her wanted at that very moment—and where it was leading her.

Qinghai.

At that instant—

Whoom!

A brilliant white flash suddenly swelled and burst outward, engulfing her slender body.

Pop.

It all happened in an instant, and ended in an instant.

The Grand Sorceress vanished without a trace. Alone in that pitch-black space, the absolute being murmured quietly.

“Time is passing.”

As the darkness slowly dispersed, an unidentified green light glimmered faintly.