Chapter 1091

Xining, the capital of Qinghai, stood on a vast plateau.

Tributaries of the Yellow River flowed to its east and west, stretching all the way to the Central Plains. Mountains large and small surrounded the city, making for a view beautiful enough to draw gasps from anyone who saw it.

But at that moment, not one of the countless people crowding Xining’s high walls could think the view before them was beautiful.

It wasn’t that they failed to appreciate it. They couldn’t.

A mountain that should have stood tall and still, as it always had, was moving. The sight alone was enough to send a chill down their spines.

Rrrk. Rrrrk.

A tremendous rumble unlike anything they had ever felt.

The whole city shook with it. So did its people, body and soul.

And at the end of all those gazes, filled with undisguised horror, was a pitch-black mountain drawing closer from the distance.

No—an army moving like a single mountain.

Dark Heaven.

At last, they had come.

Fiends from beyond the desert, come to blacken the blue sky and green earth alike.

I couldn’t have been the only one who felt as though the world had suddenly grown dark.

It was dark everywhere.

Clouds hid the sun, and a chill that swallowed its light filled the space it left behind.

And.

At the center of it all, they stood.

Dark Heaven’s vast army of monsters and humans.

“…Benefactor.”

Cheongpung had come up onto the wall at some point. His voice was lower than usual, with a faint tremor in it, but I didn’t answer.

More precisely, I couldn’t.

I was overwhelmed, too, by the sight of the enemy advancing beyond the wall, filling everything in view.

I couldn’t let anyone see that. Not ever.

But even if I could fool the whole world, there was one person I couldn’t fool.

—Are you afraid?

At Jeok Cheongang’s Sound Transmission in my ear, I quietly bit my lip.

Yes. I am.

At this moment, I was terrified enough to shudder.

Their strength was far greater than I’d imagined. And the moment I saw them for what they truly were, the word defeat had come to me by instinct. That frightened me.

Squeeze.

Warmth spread through the fist I’d clenched without realizing it. I curled my fingers tighter to keep the beads of blood from slipping between them, and answered.

—Yes. I’m afraid.

—What are you so afraid of?

—Myself, most of all. I made up my mind. I prepared for this. And I still shrank back. I’m afraid of what might happen because of that.

I wouldn’t claim I wasn’t afraid of dying.

That would deny every desperate struggle I’d made to survive. It would be laughable hypocrisy.

But I feared something far more: the hundreds of thousands of lives behind this wall being lost because I’d made the wrong choice.

Because of me, and no one else.

Jeok Cheongang saw right through me.

—Yes. That’s the difference between you and this old man.

Before I could ask what he meant, his next Sound Transmission reached me.

—Not once in my life have I pursued some grand cause. I simply went where my feet took me, where the wind blew. The deaths of strangers I’d never met didn’t trouble me much.

People saw Jeok Cheongang as the foremost of the Ten Kings, one of the great figures of the orthodox faction. But the truth was different.

He was a free man.

Like the Sect Leaders of the Fire Gate Clan before him, he belonged to none of the orthodox, unorthodox, or demonic factions. He had walked only his own path.

—Perhaps that’s why the title of Great Hero, which stuck to me before I knew it, always felt like clothes that didn’t fit.

—But you deserve to be called one.

—No. That’s wrong.

Jeok Cheongang answered firmly and fixed me with a deep, searching gaze.

—Only someone who fears the pain of others and knows how to shed tears deserves to be called a Great Hero. Someone like you.

—…!

—But remember one thing. If you don’t want to shed tears later, you must first overcome the fear in front of you.

Then Jeok Cheongang added quietly,

—Only then do you become a hero.

A hero. A hero, huh.

I mouthed those two words in my mind. They had always felt so far away. Then I gave a bitter smile.

—I never wanted to be one.

—That doesn’t matter. Wanting to be a hero isn’t what makes you one. You earn the title when the world calls you one.

—Like how they call you a Great Hero, Old Master?

—What?

—You just said it yourself. You never went out of your way to pursue a grand cause. You went where your feet took you, where the wind blew—and before you knew it, people were calling you a Great Hero.

—…!

Jeok Cheongang stared at me, eyes wide. Then he licked his lips.

—You got me with that one.

—Let’s call it even.

—You haven’t lost your knack for running that mouth. Now you’re finally starting to feel like the little hellion I knew.

Jeok Cheongang let out a quiet laugh and gestured with his chin beyond the wall.

—Well? Still afraid?

—Yes.

I answered without hesitation, then added calmly,

—But I won’t look away from that fear.

Everyone carries fear somewhere in their heart.

But only those who admit it and face it head-on can find the strength to stand against it.

Just as I was doing now.

Rumble. Rrrumble!

The rumbling grew stronger by the moment, and the ground shook as if an earthquake had struck.

I felt the powerful vibrations travel up the tall, sturdy wall and through my whole body.

At the same time, I saw him.

At the head of the enemy forces, so numerous I couldn’t begin to count them, one man was grinning as he looked straight at us.

The Blood Lord.

He looked quite different from the last time I’d seen him, but the moment I saw that crooked smile, I knew by instinct.

The thick killing intent and madness about him seemed as though they’d rub off if I touched him. Even the Blood-Sword Demon Lord I’d defeated in Gansu couldn’t compare.

And in the instant we recognized each other, his lips moved.

“Looking up at you is a pain in the neck. Why don’t you come down for a bit and say hello?”

His words rang out through the deafening rumble and clouds of dust. Jeok Cheongang, who had already been staring hard at the Blood Lord, had a reddish gleam in his eyes.

“I was itching for a fight anyway. How kind of him to offer.”

The Bow Saint immediately sensed what was coming and tried to stop him.

“He’s baiting you. It couldn’t be more obvious.”

At her look for support, the Slaughter Saint, who had appeared out of nowhere and taken up a place on the wall, calmly nodded.

“Yeah, it’s crazy.”

Jeok Cheongang furrowed his brow. The Slaughter Saint added,

“Then again, no one here is in their right mind.”

As Jeok Cheongang’s brow smoothed, I delivered my solemn verdict.

“Let’s do it now.”

“Right. It’s not like we’ll die or anything.”

Whoosh!

There wasn’t even time for anyone to stop us.

Reciting the number-one last words of men everywhere, the three of us sprang off the wall together.

Behind us came the sharpest, loudest shout I’d ever heard from the Bow Saint.

“I told you not to go!”

Uh.

Sorry.

The moment he saw three figures hurtling across the distant sky toward him, the Blood Lord muttered without realizing it,

“They’re crazy. They’re actually coming?”

He’d only tossed out a casual remark. After a few words between them, he hadn’t expected them to charge straight at him without a moment’s hesitation.

“What are they, half-mad fighting dogs…?”

The Blood Lord trailed off, more than a little taken aback. By then, the three men had closed to a dozen or so zhang¹, moving like flashes of light. They spoke at once.

“You told us to come down, you son of a bitch.”

“You’re lower than a dog. You goddamned bastard. Burning you alive wouldn’t be enough, you miserable—”

“So you’re the Blood Lord I’ve heard about. I know this is a strange request for a first meeting, but would you mind calmly offering your neck and stepping aside?”

First came Jin Taekyung, whose curses had an oddly satisfying ring to them. Then Jeok Cheongang, hurling every obscenity he knew. And finally the Slaughter Saint, whom the Blood Lord was meeting for the first time.

For a moment, surprise had covered the Blood Lord’s anger. Now he felt it surge back to the surface.

“Are you done talking?”

At the Blood Lord’s low voice, Jin Taekyung hesitated briefly and glanced at the Slaughter Saint.

“Anything else you’d like to say?”

“Probably not. We’ve only just met, so I don’t have much to say.”

The Slaughter Saint had already been remarkably rude for someone meeting him for the first time, but Jin Taekyung merely nodded and answered the Blood Lord.

“This one says he’s done.”

Crack.

The Blood Lord clenched his teeth at that nonchalant response and opened his mouth.

Or tried to.

Before he could, another wave of obscenities swept over him.

“I’ll grind down every last bone in your body. I’ll toss your flesh to the Nanman Beast Palace for feed, then scatter your remains in the Shaolin Temple latrines, and—”

“Ah, this one isn’t done yet. Give him a moment. Honestly, aren’t you a little curious what comes next?”

At that moment, the Blood Lord’s last thread of reason snapped. His vision went white.

“Hah!”

KWA-A-A!

A powerful wave of qi swept out in every direction.

The immense internal energy packed into that single shout made Dark Heaven’s seemingly endless army and the people on the wall a hundred or so zhang¹ away hold their breath.

But the three men closest to him, who felt the full force of it, were the exception.

Whoosh!

A single sharp gust cut through the billowing dust.

At its center, Jin Taekyung had already slashed down with his clear, almost transparent spearhead. He grinned.

Just as the Blood Lord had before they came down from the wall.

“Why are you getting so worked up? I’m just glad to see you after all this time.”

An explosion meant destruction. Destruction, in turn, was bound up with Erasure.

The Blood Lord had gathered his anger and unleashed it all at once. Now he stared at Jin Taekyung with eyes gone cold.

“You’re just the same as before. That damned mouth of yours.”

The smile vanished from Jin Taekyung’s lips.

“This time will be different. Everything else will be.”