Chapter 686

Jin Taekyung fell into a sleep so deep it was almost unconsciousness. At nearly the same moment, Muyaho, who had been racing like the wind, stopped in his tracks.

THUMP.

Leaning against a shattered boulder, Jin’s head drooped.

Yohi caught her breath. Heugung had climbed down from Muyaho’s back a step ahead of her and was checking Jin’s pulse. He let out a sigh.

“Whew. Fortunately, he’s still alive.”

It was good news, but Yohi’s face did not brighten.

“Still?”

Only then did Heugung realize how his words had sounded.

“I misspoke in my haste. He’s not at death’s door. I don’t think you need to worry too much.”

“Not at death’s door? Looking like that?”

Yohi had every reason to doubt him.

Jin Taekyung was drenched in blood from head to toe. His clothes were torn and slashed all over, and the unidentified armor covering his upper body was shattered at the chest, as though something had pierced it.

It was hard to believe he was alive at all.

Yet Heugung was telling the truth.

“I’ve examined him. His injuries aren’t as serious as we might think. But these wounds… I can hardly believe what I’m seeing.”

Although their internal energy had been sealed for the time being, both of them were martial artists who had reached the Peak realm.

The two Great Chieftains could not reconcile the wounds they saw with Jin’s condition, but they breathed a sigh of relief when they realized his life was not in immediate danger.

That relief had barely settled when they noticed someone lodged in the massive boulder Jin was leaning against.

Yohi stifled a cry.

The unidentified old man was frozen there with his eyes wide open. He was already dead. Blood still flowed from his throat, pierced by a snow-white spearhead.

THUD. DRIP, DRIP.

Yohi stared at the old man, every bit as blood-soaked as Jin, and murmured, “That’s him.”

“Who?”

“The one who spoke to Black Hand as if that old man were his subordinate.”

“Ah.”

“And if I’m right…”

Yohi swept her gaze across the area. It stopped on the corpse of the Black Hand Fist Demon.

He had slaughtered the warriors of the Western Yao Estate with the prowess of a fiend. Now he lay dead with a gaping hole in his chest.

This is impossible.

Yohi’s eyebrows trembled. She had begun to suspect it when she found the unidentified old man, but what had happened here went far beyond anything she had imagined.

She was not alone.

“How did he…”

Heugung swallowed the rest. It made no sense, but the scene before them was real.

The surroundings had been devastated by a force unlike anything they had seen. Two old men lay dead. One young man slept alone.

The conclusion was plain.

Jin Taekyung had fought and won—against two Supreme Peak masters who had devoted several times as many years to martial arts as he had been alive.

“…Blazing Flame Divine Dragon.”

The sobriquet slipped from Yohi’s red lips like a groan. Awe filled her eyes as she looked at Jin.

Whether it should have been possible no longer mattered. He had made it possible, willingly risking his life to save them, though they were only southern tribespeople to him.

Now it was their turn to act for him.

It may already be too late. But I have to act now.

Some of Nanman’s venomous beasts shed their skins at certain times. They molted.

A new body did not come easily. Succeed, and the creature emerged more beautiful and stronger. Fail, and it slowly died in its old, ailing body.

Yohi chose the first path.

If I wait any longer, it’ll all be over. I have to tell everyone what happened.

They had to expose Baeksang’s conspiracy and stop Dark Heaven. Her own wrongdoing would come to light along with it, but she had made up her mind. She would bear the full cost of the path she had chosen.

I never should have done it.

Looking back, she felt nothing but regret.

Baeksang had laid a broad, beautiful road of silk before her. Yohi had walked it all the way here, turning a blind eye to everything happening around her.

But when she reached the end and happened to look down, she saw that her feet had long since become covered in blood.

Not her own. The blood of other Nanman people.

Now she wanted to wipe it away. If she could not, she would cut off her feet.

One person, more than any other, had brought her to that decision.

Jin Taekyung.

A stranger from a foreign land. Yet he had fought for Nanman more than anyone—just as the former Sect Leader of the Fire Gate Clan had done centuries ago, before he passed into legend.

I may be a Great Chieftain, but I can’t be worse than a Han Chinese person.

If a bitch like me can even call herself a Great Chieftain…

Yohi swallowed the self-mocking words and immediately sprang into action.

RRRIP.

Without a moment’s hesitation, her slender white hands tore at her ornate gown. She removed her gold and silver jewelry as well, baring her arms and legs. Heugung’s eyes widened.

“Yohi.”

“There’s no time to talk. We need to move now.”

Heugung studied her in silence for a moment, then nodded.

“You’re right. More enemies could arrive at any time.”

“Considering how quiet it’s been around us until now, it’s safe to assume there aren’t any others. No, they probably decided Dark Heaven didn’t need to send more support after arranging for two Supreme Peak masters to come here.”

“Probably. They knew about the tracking scent you carried. They must have meant to use us as bait to draw in Palace Lord Yayul. He would be Dark Heaven’s greatest obstacle right now.”

But Jin Taekyung, not the Beast Miao King, had taken the bait. The hunters had become the hunted.

No one, not even Dark Heaven, could have predicted that.

The longer they talked, though, the heavier Yohi’s heart grew.

“What if Jin Taekyung didn’t come in the Palace Lord’s place? What if the Palace Lord couldn’t come?”

“That…”

“My tribespeople were massacred. The Western Yao Estate. Nothing like this has ever happened before. The Inner Palace must be in an uproar by now.”

“Then shouldn’t we go to the Inner Palace as quickly as possible?”

Yohi shook her head. She had shut her eyes and ears for the sake of her ambitions, but she was no fool.

Dark Heaven had won over Baeksang, the Beast Miao King’s sworn younger brother, then waited decades for the right moment.

She remembered what the unidentified old man now buried in the boulder had said.

“If you act rashly when the grand plan is so close, I will not forgive you.”

The grand plan.

Yohi sensed indescribable danger and anxiety in those two words. She also realized that their abduction had been a carefully calculated act.

The Western Yao Estate, massacred. The Inner Palace, surely in chaos. Baeksang, with a base of support equal to—or greater than—the Palace Lord’s.

And Dark Heaven had planned it all.

The answer was not hard to find.

“Yohi?”

Heugung’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She bit her lip.

If the thought that just crossed my mind is correct…

The Inner Palace would be a demon-slaying battleground now, full of fiends and sinister schemes.

“We shouldn’t go to the Inner Palace. We have to go west.”

“West? Do you mean…”

“Yes. Boshan.”

The tribes lived throughout Nanman, but each had a home base. Several thousand Yao people had settled in Boshan alone.

“Baeksang and Dark Heaven will have taken control of the Inner Palace by now. If the tribal chieftains and the Tribal Grand Council have made their decision, even the Palace Lord may be powerless to stop them.”

“Hmm.”

“Believe me. If we head to the Inner Palace now, we’ll be eliminated before we even manage to enter it.”

Heugung looked at her, his eyes grave.

“And if we go to Boshan?”

“I’m the Great Chieftain of the Yao people. Do I need to say more?”

“How many warriors can you muster?”

“A thousand, if I gather everyone I can. Nowhere near enough to face Baeksang with Dark Heaven behind him. But will his people still follow him once they know what’s happened?”

“Public support will waver. His warriors will desert him.”

“I’ll send messenger pigeons and messengers to every tribe and village. Seven days at most. Within that time, all of Nanman will know about Baeksang’s atrocities.”

Heugung let out a quiet exclamation as Yohi continued speaking without hesitation.

“You’re clever indeed. More so than the woman I thought I knew.”

For a moment, Yohi forgot their situation and gave a short laugh.

“That sounds strange coming from you. You’ve become a completely different person.”

“I had no choice. To escape Baeksang’s notice, I first had to hide who I was.”

Heugung answered calmly and held something out to her: a round pill wrapped in yellow paper.

“Take it.”

“What is it?”

“An antidote the Black Hand Fist Demon was carrying. I found it when I searched him a little while ago. With our internal energy sealed, Baeksang’s warriors will hunt us down before we reach Boshan.”

He was right. No matter how skilled a warrior might be, without training in external arts they could not shake off a pursuit party. Yohi’s martial prowess was not especially great to begin with.

RUSTLE.

She took the pill without protest, chewed it, and swallowed. The bitter taste made her wince, but it was a hundred times better than dying without even putting up a fight.

“How long will it take to reach Boshan?”

“We’re in Ailao Mountain, so… three or four days should be enough. First we have to get out of the Poisonblood Grounds.”

On the way in, they had seen venomous beasts unlike any they knew and a swamp of deadly poison. They knew where they were.

“Jin should be awake by then.”

“Yes. If he wakes, he’ll be worth an army.”

Heugung slung Jin over his back. Muyaho, who had been pissing on the dead Black Hand Fist Demon’s face, ran over and offered his back.

“Grrr.”

Heugung gazed at the White Tiger’s blue-white eyes.

“Don’t you find him strange?”

“What?”

“This one the Young Palace Lord keeps. Whenever I saw him in the Inner Palace, he bared his teeth at me. But with Jin Taekyung here, he’s gentle as a lamb.”

“He must have taken a liking to Jin. They say spiritual creatures know what sort of person they’re dealing with.”

Yohi answered without thinking. Then something struck her as odd.

Heugung gave a quiet laugh.

“Yes. I think you’re right.”

CRUNCH! THUD.

Blood sprayed, and the enormous silver body tipped sideways.

As Yohi stared blankly at the sight, Heugung’s voice reached her ears.

“Didn’t I tell you? I had to hide myself first.”