Chapter 697

“What a shame. It’s already too late.”

A languid voice reached my ears. No—not just mine. Everyone here could hear it.

It heralded the arrival of someone fatally alluring, and more dangerous still.

“The Southern Heaven Demon Empress!”

I whipped my head around at the thunderous shout. Above the heads of everyone frozen by her sudden appearance, billowing robes fluttered atop a pavilion that rose high into the sky.

The catlike eyes looking down at us curved into half-moons.

“Oh my. Who could this be?”

The woman’s face was unfamiliar. Her voice and the feeling she gave me were not.

I knew it was her. I forced the words out through clenched teeth.

“It’s me, you fucking bitch.”

Heat churned in my gut as if I’d swallowed lava. My fingers trembled around the spear shaft, and my heart hammered against my ribs.

A tidal wave of emotion raged through me—far more fiercely than when I had faced Baeksang.

But simple hostility and anger were not the only things that had seized me.

She’s strong.

Was she always this strong?

Just meeting her eyes made my heart sink.

Several months had passed since the incident in Hubei Province. The insights I’d gained since then let me glimpse a little more of my opponent’s true nature. The Southern Heaven Demon Empress standing before me was a greater monster than I had imagined.

No one else here could even guess at her realm. Yet my eyes and sharpened senses could trace the power she concealed: the ferocity behind her gently curved eyes, the immense darkness coiled within her slender frame.

“You fucking bitch.”

“Ahaha! Just as I expected. Just as I expected!”

Whatever amused her so much, the Southern Heaven Demon Empress clutched her stomach and laughed despite the insult. Then she smiled at me.

“You’re so refreshingly straightforward. That’s why I like you, Benefactor.”

“What?”

“Have you forgotten already? Who saved me that day, on cold Dongting Lake, with corpses floating in the water?”

“…!”

As if I could forget. I’d thought back on that moment and regretted it countless times.

Was it because I’d saved the Southern Heaven Demon Empress with my own hands?

No. The person I’d saved that day was Honglan.

In Hubei, the Southern Heaven Demon Empress had been nothing more than a beautiful singing courtesan favored by some idiot from the Huang tribe. She had approached me deliberately from the start, and she would have survived even if I hadn’t come.

The one thing I regretted was being too stupid to recognize the culprit standing right in front of me.

My anger at myself for failing to realize I had been toyed with for someone else’s amusement.

And my guilt at failing to prevent an even greater sacrifice.

Rustle.

“Now I can finally greet you properly.”

Honglan—no, the Southern Heaven Demon Empress—lifted her billowing robes and dipped her head.

“This lowly woman, Honglan, greets her Benefactor.”

I thrust out a palm as fast as lightning.

Fwoosh!

Moisture evaporated in an instant. The force of the Flame Divine Palm, carrying terrible heat, reached her in a heartbeat.

But—

Slice!

In even less time, the powerful palm force—one Baeksang himself would have struggled to stop—was split in two like tofu.

Boom!

Beneath the dark clouds that now covered the sky, the two halves flew off course and exploded in midair.

Cries of shock rose around us.

“W-what was that?”

“D-did you see what I just saw? That woman…”

“The Southern Heaven Demon Empress. Someone definitely called her the Southern Heaven Demon Empress.”

Some here knew that title. Others didn’t. It hardly mattered. Soon they would all know who she was—and how much viciousness and terrifying power that monster had kept hidden.

I stared coldly at the edge of the pavilion. Standing there, straightening her disheveled court robes, was a woman far too beautiful to be called a monster.

“Hmm. I went to the trouble of being polite, but I don’t much like the way you answered my greeting. Still, I’ll be generous and let it pass. I do owe you my life. I can’t gouge out my Benefactor’s eyes just yet.”

I could feel the killing intent beneath her innocent tone. If anything, it made me calmer.

“Shut your fucking maw.”

“What rough language. A maw is something a beast has. For example…”

Her voice trailed off as her gaze shifted slightly downward, toward the enormous White Tiger baring its teeth.

“Yes. That word suits that hideous beast perfectly.”

Grrrrr.

The guardian spirit growled low and glared at the Southern Heaven Demon Empress. I could feel its muscles tense as it prepared itself.

“A hideous beast, you say. Then what should a human like you be called?”

Until now, its thoughts had been much like Sound Transmission. This time, its voice reached everyone.

The warriors surrounding the Inner Palace, inside and out, caught their breath. The Southern Heaven Demon Empress widened her eyes, then gave a quiet laugh and looked at me.

“I stand corrected. It’s not merely hideous. It’s an interesting beast, too.”

“I don’t know about that.”

I tightened my grip on the spear. Dozens of movements and forms flashed through my mind—ways to end her life with the fastest, deadliest strike I could deliver.

“You’ll find it even more interesting in a moment. This one’s going to bite through the back of your neck.”

“A beast is still a beast. The same was true of a certain foolish imugi that waited for Heaven’s call.”

“He was not foolish. He was kind. Kind enough to sacrifice his life and the cultivation he had built over hundreds of years.”

The guardian spirit fixed its blue-white eyes on her as though it could see straight through her.

“I know you.”

A faint smile touched her lips.

“That’s hardly welcome news. I have no interest in a beast that reeks like you do.”

“I saw you in the imugi’s memories. A human, endlessly dark and filled with malice.”

“Memories?”

“Everything that makes up the world possesses an essence and traces. And in that sense, you in its memories were…”

“Beautiful, I suppose. Dazzlingly so.”

“Old and hideous. So much so that it was hard to believe you were human.”

“…!”

“That is your essence. You have denied and hated your true form, clinging to life through the long years. You are no different from a Fiend.”

Silence followed the guardian spirit’s words. The people who had been murmuring in shock fell quiet. The countless growling beasts held their breath and lowered themselves to the ground.

And at the center of it all stood one person.

Fwoosh!

The sleeves of her court robes swelled as though they might burst. A terrifying surge of qi pressed down in every direction with the weight of a mountain, freezing every living thing in place.

Crack. Crack.

The wind stopped. The pavilion roof began to collapse under the pressure.

“…Is that so?”

Her smile was gone. Her darkened eyes looked down on the world below.

“Old and hideous. Yes. So that’s what I am.”

She spoke calmly, then turned to stare at me.

“I’ll give you credit for making it this far. If you’d arrived a day earlier—no, even half a day—I couldn’t have guaranteed the outcome myself.”

Her tone had changed. So had the air around her.

Yet I felt calmer. People were most frightening when they kept their true nature hidden. Once they lost the smile and composure they’d held on to until the end, an opening appeared.

Besides…

I still had a card up my sleeve. A move I could make even if the worst happened, as long as I had the strength to use it.

That was why I could speak.

“Hmm. I’m genuinely curious about something.”

Just like this.

“How ugly is your face, really, for someone to say something like that to you?”

“…!”

“Were you a mortar in your past life?”

The next moment—

“I’ll make you regret that.”

Her cold voice broke the brief silence. Dark clouds swallowed the sky.

And then…

Fwoosh!

A mass of pitch-black light poured from the enormous cliff behind the Inner Palace.

That’s…

The sight alone made it hard to breathe.

It was a rift.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

The earth shook. The world shook. With a deafening roar, the enormous cliff that had stood there for hundreds—no, thousands—of years began to split apart.

“Ah. Ahhh…”

Someone groaned in shock at the strange, terrifying sight.

So it has come to this. At long last.

Someone else spat out a despairing mutter in the depths of their heart.

“It’s over. All of it.”

And someone who had been consumed by anger watched what they had brought about with rapture in their eyes.

At last. At last!

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress trembled, already forgetting the anger she had felt moments before.

How could she not? This was the fruit of long years of endurance.

That rift, far larger and more powerful than the one in Hubei Province, was her creation. It marked the moment the omnipotent Lord of Heaven’s will descended upon this land.

Kraaaaaaash!

A blade-sharp gale swept in every direction. Through the widening gap in the cliff, an intensely dark and viscous energy began to crawl out, gnawing away at the world.

Demonic qi that would corrupt life and conquer this land!

—Krrk, krrrk!

—Kyaaaaa!

“Ghk. Guhk!”

“W-what’s happening all of a sudden—krrk!”

The rift had not even opened completely, yet its power was already spreading in every direction.

Look at that surging darkness. At the countless beasts and humans writhing with the whites of their eyes showing, awaiting the change to come.

And soon, the change caused by the rift would begin.

No. That’s not right.

This was not change. It was evolution.

They would be reborn as stronger, more beautiful beings. It was a blessing the omnipotent Lord of Heaven bestowed upon lowly creatures.

A lingering smile spread across the Southern Heaven Demon Empress’s lips. Then her gaze fell on one person.

Jin Taekyung.

A young man stood tall, staring at the unbelievable, overwhelming spectacle unfolding before him.

To the Southern Heaven Demon Empress, he looked absurd—and pitiful. Enough to make her want to rip his throat out in one go.

You… should never have come here.

She was about to launch herself toward Jin Taekyung when—

Fwoosh!

A tremendous radiance burst forth from somewhere and swallowed the darkness.