Chapter 701

“My hunting dog. I took great care training him.”

The Southern Heaven Demon Emress’s voice rang out softly. At the same time, the Masked Man took a step forward.

Step.

His stride never faltered as he emerged from the settling cloud of dust.

As the Masked Man’s form gradually came into focus, I muttered like a groan.

“…Fuck. What the hell is that?”

I wasn’t looking for an answer. I already knew.

Regeneration.

That one word explained the bizarre sight unfolding before my eyes.

Crack. Slither.

Shattered bones joined together. Flesh and blood filled the wounds.

Darkness writhed like a living snake across the Masked Man’s body, healing his injuries and pouring new strength into him wherever it passed.

—The power of defying heaven…

Defying heaven.

What I was seeing seemed to run against the will of heaven and the natural order itself.

As the guardian spirit’s lament reached me, the Masked Man finished healing and bent his strangely twisted elbow.

Crunch.

He broke the elbow that had already fused back together, then aligned it and healed it again.

The pain must have been tremendous, yet he didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow. At last, I understood what had felt wrong about him during our fight.

That bastard can’t feel pain.

Even someone with a dulled sense of pain would feel something.

But the Masked Man hadn’t groaned or screamed once. Not when a dagger lodged in his chest or his elbow was crushed. Not even when the terrible heat of the Flame Divine Palm had struck him.

What the hell did they do to him?

Had he gone somewhere for a painkilling shot?

As I stared at the emotionless eyes visible above his mask and swallowed a low groan, someone’s small, snow-white foot stepped onto the damp earth.

Scuff.

From the sky to the ground. The Southern Heaven Demon Empress landed lightly and smiled.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Then again, I suppose you weren’t all that surprised? You saw it once in Henan.”

Grrr.

With a low growl, the guardian spirit raised its enormous, bloodstained body on weary limbs.

Its breathing was much rougher than it had been at the start. If it fought her now, it would lose. No question.

I stepped in front of the guardian spirit and opened my mouth.

“Yeah. The Blood Lord. That crazy bastard was the same.”

“What a shame. If you hadn’t met the Blood Lord, I could’ve seen you scared out of your wits.”

“If I scared that easily, I’d have died ages ago.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re young. You can’t help the bluffing.”

A bluff.

What the Blood Lord had done during the Shaolin Bloodshed had certainly surprised me. It hadn’t scared me out of my wits.

I’d seen and been through too much in the modern world where I was born and raised.

“Think whatever you want.”

Something in my calm reply made the Southern Heaven Demon Empress draw her brows together. She looked me up and down through narrowed eyes, then licked her red lips.

“I can’t tell if you’re simply brave or if you have something no one else knows about… But there’s something strange about you. I’m beginning to see why the Lord of Heaven takes an interest in you.”

“An interest?”

I began circulating my internal energy, slowly enough that she wouldn’t notice.

She was more than enough of a monster to deal with alone. Now I had a drugged-up bastard who might as well have had a painkilling shot to worry about too. I needed to buy time and heal as much of my Internal Injury as I could.

“The Great Snow Fiend, that old man, spouted the same nonsense.”

“Oh? Do you still think it’s nonsense?”

She smiled and took a step toward me. I tightened my grip on my spear.

“I wish it were.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want some deranged old man’s attention, Lord of Heaven or not. Same goes for the crazy bitch standing in front of me.”

Whoosh—pfft!

Pain stung my cheek, and heat spread across it. I’d dodged the Finger Qi by a hair.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress sighed in relief.

“Phew. I nearly killed you. Good dodge. You’re better than I thought.”

Praise from an enemy, at a time like this.

It pissed me off. It also told me two things.

First, even if that monster went all out, I could handle her attacks if I kept the damage as slight as I had just now.

Second, she had more to lose than gain by killing me.

Blood ran down my cheek. Instead of wiping it away, I tightened my grip on the spear.

“The Lord of Heaven must be more interested in me than I thought. Even a crazy bitch like you is worried about killing me.”

“…!”

“I think I’m starting to understand why you only watched me in Hubei Province.”

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress was staggeringly powerful. Of everyone I’d ever encountered, very few could stand against her.

At least on the level of the Ten Kings. Maybe higher.

I could feel the sheer force of her power just standing here.

Apart from Jeok Cheongang, who was an exception even among the Ten Kings, she had to be one of the ten strongest people alive.

And yet she did nothing. She had dozens—hundreds—of chances to make a move in Hubei Province.

The question had stayed with me ever since I learned who she was.

Why had she left me alive?

Was I not worth killing? Was it all just a game to her?

I didn’t know the full story, but I was certain neither answer was right. I was Fire King Jeok Cheongang’s only Disciple and a successor of the Fire Gate Clan.

If she got me into her hands, she could lure in Jeok Cheongang, who would become a major obstacle to Dark Heaven’s future movements, and kill him. Even if that attempt came to nothing, she could still obtain the Fire Gate Clan’s supreme arts.

There were plenty of ways to make a man talk.

Torture. Torture. And endless torture.

But she hadn’t killed me when I was completely taken in by her. She hadn’t abducted me either.

She had merely watched me right before my eyes, then vanished without a trace. Like an observer sent on someone else’s orders.

My dry lips parted.

“Why is the Lord of Heaven so interested in me? Why go this far when there are people far more worth his attention?”

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress’s lips had pressed shut at some point. My question did nothing to open them.

After a brief silence, she gave only a short answer.

“What could an insignificant creature like you know of that omnipotent, exalted one’s will?”

Insignificant.

I studied her tense face, the way her gaze had dropped and how she pressed her teeth lightly against her lip.

A thought flashed through my mind. I spoke it aloud.

“You don’t know, do you?”

“…!”

I saw her eyes waver. A derisive laugh slipped out of me.

“Fucking idiot.”

“…What?”

“I said you’re a fucking idiot. You worthless fucking idiot of an old hag.”

That was enough to light the Southern Heaven Demon Emress’s fuse.

Rooooar!

A storm of qi swept out in every direction. Layer upon layer of pitch-black darkness wrapped around her.

Beside me, the guardian spirit steadied its ragged breathing and sent me a thought.

—If you were going to provoke her, couldn’t you have stalled a little longer?

I regretted it a little myself. But there was no other way.

We had to finish this before the humans and beasts still in the Inner Palace completed their mutation. Which of us fell and which remained standing came after that.

I sent a Sound Transmission to the guardian spirit. It was still grumbling, though it was hardly in fighting shape itself.

—Are you really a guardian spirit? Stop acting like you’re about to keel over and fight with everything you’ve got.

—How dare you insult me. Three hundred years ago, I would never have endured such humiliation from a mere human.

—Sure. That crazy bitch wouldn’t have been born yet, either.

—…Damn it.

Cursing in a manner hardly befitting a guardian spirit, it bristled from head to tail. Its gaze flicked over the two figures approaching us from front and back.

—This has become more difficult.

—Wow. I had absolutely no idea. Good thing you’re a guardian spirit. Thanks for telling me.

—We’ll take one each. The human male or the human female. Choose.

—Then I’ll take the male.

—…

Does this bastard have no conscience?

That seemed to be what its pale blue eyes were asking me. Even in this godforsaken mess, I let out a short laugh and started walking.

Toward the Southern Heaven Demon Empress.

Step.

Maybe it was nerves, but my footstep sounded unusually loud. Her eyes had turned blood red, and a chill ran through me.

“You mean to fight me? You?”

Her voice was cold and eerie. I let out a deep sigh before answering.

“That hurts. We insignificant creatures ought to look out for each other. Don’t you think?”

“…!”

“Choose. Kill me and get your ass kicked by the Lord of Heaven, or die nicely right here.”

Hack—ptoo.

I spat out a mouthful of phlegm mixed with stale blood and raised my spearhead.

When I spoke again, my voice sounded unfamiliar. Cold.

“For the record… I’ll fight until I die.”

Fwoosh—boom!

Flamefire Path.

A single line of flame shot forward, consuming the air in its path.

And at the end of that path stood a monster wrapped in deep darkness.

Whoooosh—boom!

Bang!

An immense shockwave shook the world.

The ground split beneath Jin Taekyung’s descending spearhead, and searing heat burst from the fissure.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress dodged the strike by a hair and thrust out her hand.

Kraaaaaash!

A palm strike carrying unprecedented qi collided with the spearhead slicing through space like a ray of light.

Qi collided with qi. The difference in strength was unmistakable.

Boom!

Compressed air exploded, and one figure was hurled backward.

Delight shone in the Southern Heaven Demon Empress’s eyes.

That wretch is nothing.

Jin Taekyung’s martial power had clearly advanced at an unbelievable pace. He had changed so much that she found herself wondering whether he was truly the same boy she had met in Hubei.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle to their grand plan was no longer the Beast Miao King, but Jin Taekyung.

But…

I’ve grown stronger still.

She could feel power unlike anything she had known boiling through her body.

The denser the demonic qi flowing from the rift grew, the stronger she became.

Even now.

Pop!

One step.

She vanished like a ghost and reappeared in midair.

As she plunged toward him like a meteor, Jin Taekyung opened his eyes wide. He was still buried deep in the ground.

Crunch.

Solid earth crumbled like mud beneath her strike. Jin Taekyung escaped it by a hair and flicked his sleeve.

A dagger flew at her from somewhere, as though he had conjured it from thin air. She avoided it easily and thrust out her hand with lightning speed.

Slash!

Her fingers only grazed him.

But curled like hooks, they tore through his martial uniform and cut into his thigh.

Blood spurted. Jin Taekyung staggered.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress beamed as she brought the edge of her hand down toward him.

Shu-whaack!