Chapter 1067

Half a shichen¹.

That was how long Qinghai’s first battle had lasted, from beginning to end.

“So this is where you were.”

The forest was thick with the smell of blood. I sat on the body of an enemy I didn’t recognize, catching my breath, and turned toward the voice.

Squish.

Footsteps strode through blood and mud. A familiar face came into view, clad in armor stained red, its original golden luster gone.

“Shouldn’t that be, ‘So this is where you were, sir’?”

Jeong Hogun, a Thousand Captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, let out a small sigh.

“So this is where you were, sir. Happy now?”

“Not even close. You dropped the ‘sir’ again in your very next sentence.”

“…Give it a rest. We’ve both had a hard time.”

“I was about to. How bad are our losses?”

“Hardly worth calling them losses. Around thirty casualties, and not a single death.”

Jeong Hogun glanced at the heaps of bodies around us and added, “Considering we wiped out more than a thousand enemies, it’s a miracle.”

Three thousand against one thousand.

We’d had the advantage in numbers from the start, but winning without a single death was an absurdly decisive victory. All the more so when it had taken only half a shichen¹.

Still, my answer was matter-of-fact.

“It wasn’t a miracle. It was only natural.”

“I can’t argue with that. The difference in strength was overwhelming.”

Our troops were all handpicked elites, which had helped. But the Supreme Peak masters had made a far greater difference.

Bow Saint. Jeok Cheongang. Perfected Being Hyeoncheon. Me.

And, last of all, the Great Sir—though he hadn’t been much help.

With forces like that, losing would have been harder than winning.

There was only one problem…

“How’s everyone doing?”

“What do they look like?”

Jeong Hogun’s immediate question made me click my tongue.

Honestly, I didn’t need to ask. Everywhere I looked, faces were stiff. Despite the overwhelming victory and the few injuries we’d suffered, our allies were pale, with faint fear in their eyes.

As though they’d seen something terrible they were never meant to see.

Which they had.

The unknown enemy still writhing beneath my ass was a monster by any definition.

Grrk. Grrrk.

A faint, guttural cry leaked from its split throat.

Only then did Jeong Hogun notice it. His brow furrowed.

“It’s still alive?”

“Maybe. If you can call this alive.”

I gazed down at the cursed monster.

Its limbs had been horribly severed, and its body was rotting. It had clearly died days ago, yet it had never crossed the Sanzu River². It remained in this world, struggling stubbornly, unable even to remember who it had been in life.

But the two characters stitched into its torn, ragged clothes still remembered their owner.

“Kunlun…”

I nodded quietly at Jeong Hogun’s low murmur.

That was right.

This monster was a Disciple of the Kunlun Sect.

No—it had been one.

“I heard there were casualties during the retreat from Kunlun Mountain. I suppose this was one of them.”

“Probably.”

“Did you know him?”

I shook my head at Jeong Hogun’s cautious question.

“No. Not at all.”

I’d met Hak Woo—the Kunlun Cloud Dragon, the Kunlun Sect’s greatest young prodigy and a member of the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes—at the Star-Array Grand Banquet. But I didn’t recognize the face of this Daoist who’d become a monster.

Still, I had a rough idea who might have made him this way.

“Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Jeong Hogun’s eyes darkened.

“Cang Gong. It’s astonishingly similar to the dark arts he used.”

Wei Zhong.

The East Depot’s Seal-Holding Eunuch, known as Cang Gong, had harbored two deep secrets.

First, he was the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord, one of the Lord of Heaven’s loyal servants.

Second, he was a descendant of the Maoshan Sect, which the imperial family had wiped out long ago.

But even after Wei Zhong met his end at my hands, the Maoshan Sect’s line hadn’t died out.

“Ma Sanbao. It has to be him.”

The Disciple who’d inherited everything from Wei Zhong.

Like his Master, he’d worn a mask while operating in secret as an East Depot eunuch. We’d never found his body. That could mean only one thing.

“I wondered where he’d gone. Looks like he survived and joined Dark Heaven after all.”

Of course, it might not be Ma Sanbao.

According to Jeok Cheongang, the Corpse Art Wei Zhong had demonstrated had gone far beyond its old limits. That meant it had been improved with the Lord of Heaven’s help.

But even if Dark Heaven had trained others in the Corpse Art, none of them would have reached the level of Ma Sanbao, who’d learned directly from Wei Zhong.

Besides…

Qinghai is an important battlefield for them and for us. They’ll be throwing more into this fight than ever.

Dark Heaven’s army of a hundred thousand had already swallowed half of Qinghai Province.

I had no idea why the Lord of Heaven had intended to lose in Gansu, but this time he was sure to commit everything he had. Even Dark Heaven, with strength far beyond the Demonic Cult of old, wouldn’t simply throw away a hundred thousand troops as fodder.

Ma Sanbao is one of the pieces they need to win. They won’t leave him out.

A thought flashed through my mind, and I swallowed a groan.

If all hundred thousand enemies had been turned into jiangshi, the disaster would be impossible to stop.

And worse…

The Lord of Heaven might appear on the battlefield himself.

I’d never even faced him properly, yet the thought of those two words made my heart sink.

How could I forget?

The Lord of Heaven had appeared only once, and I remembered every moment of it clearly.

Interesting. Very interesting.

The one who’d smiled at Jeok Cheongang and me that day hadn’t been the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

It had been a demon borrowing a human body. The darkness of the abyss itself. An absolute being whom no one seemed capable of opposing.

Until next time.

But after that day, the Lord of Heaven never appeared before me again.

He stayed crouched in the darkness, watching everything.

Even as his loyal servants, including the Western Heaven Demon Lord, met their ends one by one. Even as the plans he’d spent years and considerable effort preparing were dismantled piece by piece.

He never appeared.

But he watched it all, waiting for a moment no one in the world could foresee. A moment only he knew.

And deep down, I sensed that the moment he wanted wasn’t far off. I sensed, too, that it was deeply and unmistakably connected to me.

What is he trying to get through me?

Just as I turned that unanswerable question over in my head—

Whoosh! Thwack!

A sharp whistle cut through the air. Snapping out of my thoughts, I heard a shout from not far away.

“Oh, I got it! I got it!”

“Wow! Sir! Amazing! Taishan is truly impressed!”

“Ahem. Did you see that? When I put my mind to it, something like this is easy.”

I looked over to find the Great Sir holding a bird and looking rather pleased with himself.

Its head was smashed to a pulp. It looked like it had died from being hit by a stone.

Taishan was staring at the Great Sir—or, more precisely, at the bird—and drooling.

“Tasty—no, impressive! Taishan will start a fire, so let’s hurry and roast it!”

A campfire in the middle of enemy territory. It was the kind of bullshit that made everyone else furious, me included. But one lunatic felt differently.

“Young friend, you know how to show proper courtesy. For your trouble, I’ll give you some of my meat. Which part would you like?”

“The legs! Definitely the legs!”

“You’ve eaten your share of chicken, I see. Fine, I’ll give you one.”

“Both! All of them!”

“…Don’t push your luck.”

The Great Sir suddenly sobered up. Taishan drooped his head in disappointment, and that was when Namho, perched on Taishan’s shoulder as comfortably as though it were his usual seat, spoke up.

“You’re all making damn fools of yourselves. That thing stinks like hell, wherever it came from. Eat it? Bullshit.”

His words brought a thought to mind.

Wait. Could it be?

The moment Jeong Hogun examined the bird, my suspicion became certainty.

“It’s rotting. The bones are showing.”

“Which means…”

“Looks like the monsters aren’t only on the ground.”

It had been strange enough for a bird to remain there after strangers invaded its territory.

As everyone caught on and turned to look at him, the Great Sir blinked in confusion.

“Is something wrong? It was staring right at me from a branch, so…”

“It was staring at you?”

He nodded.

“I’m certain. Its eyes were bloodred, too. It made me so uneasy that I threw a stone at it.”

“…A Familiar?”

“Hm? What was that?”

“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

I waved a hand at the Great Sir and stared silently into the air.

Dawn was only now spreading from the east. In its light, I could make out shapes here and there among the branches high overhead.

Monsters hidden in the darkness, brought back to life by its power.

They were already watching us.

My thoughts turned cold as I slowly rose. Then I spoke to the Great Sir, who still looked confused.

“If you see any more birds like that, kill every one of them.”

“Every one?”

“Yes. Every one.”

“That seems a bit much. Aren’t they precious lives, too?”

I considered my answer for a moment.

“They’re harmful birds.”

“Oh. Then I’ll kill them.”

“Please.”

I patted his shoulder and started to leave, but stopped when I remembered something I’d forgotten.

I reached out and murmured, “Infinite Life Buddha.”³

Stab.

The monster stopped moving completely. I left it—the Kunlun Sect Disciple—behind and walked away.

There was no time to spare now.

Eyes were already watching us, and pursuers would soon be on our heels.