Chapter 888

It all began and ended in the blink of an eye.

Whoosh!

A streak of light came hurtling in faster than the sound of it tearing through the air. And then…

KABOOM!

A deafening blast. A tremendous shock wave shoved my whole body backward.

“Hngh!”

Crack. I swallowed a breath and dug my feet in. The ground flipped up beneath them.

The gale whipped up by the impact sent pond water surging high into the air and swept through the rare flowers and plants covering the grounds.

Whooosh.

Anyone watching might have been overwhelmed for a moment and gasped in awe.

Countless petals swirling on the wind really were a spectacular sight.

But even the most carefree, clueless person would have groaned instead if they’d seen what had caused it.

Just like I was doing now.

“This is…”

My voice trailed off as I stared at it.

Amid the rain of pond water and petals, it stood embedded deep in the ground, radiating a chilling sharpness. I knew that weapon’s shape well.

“A crescent blade?”

The words slipped out before I could stop them. Then a low, resonant voice pierced my ear.

“Calling it just a crescent blade is a bit of an insult.”

I turned toward the voice. There was the face I’d half expected—and had very much hoped not to see here.

Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

I calmly addressed the man people called the Blood Envoy in fear.

“Then what is it?”

“Golden Dragon. That’s its name. It’s been my trusted weapon for over thirty years.”

“Golden Dragon, Goldie—doesn’t really matter to me either way. Still, I’m surprised.”

“Surprised by what?”

“Nothing. It just seems like if it’s your trusted weapon, Blood Dragon would suit it better than Golden Dragon.”

Baek Yeon had been approaching without hesitation, but at my pointed question, he stopped.

“Seems you’ve heard a few things about me.”

“Plenty. Sounds like Goldie had quite a feast about ten years ago. You killed a lot of people with it.”

“It’s Golden Dragon, not Goldie. And it was necessary.”

“Sure. I’m sure it was necessary.”

I glanced between So Gyo and Baek Yeon, speaking sarcastically.

“For reasons the rest of us haven’t been told.”

“Perhaps. I won’t bother defending myself, but even if only half of what you know or suspect is true, shouldn’t you be more careful about what you say and do?”

“Careful about what I say and do?”

I let out a hollow laugh.

“In a fucked-up situation like this, I’d cuss out the Emperor himself—or his grandpa. Don’t you think?”

I forced up the corners of my mouth, but I couldn’t do anything about the tightness in my chest.

I’d already been preparing to face So Gyo alone, ready to fight to the death. And now Baek Yeon had shown up, too.

I didn’t expect him to get here this fast. Was killing me already part of the plan?

Even calling this the worst possible situation didn’t do it justice. Heavy-hearted, I stepped forward and gripped the crescent blade a few paces away.

Shing.

It slid free, cutting through solid ground as easily as a knife through tofu. The blade gleamed silver, so clear it was almost transparent.

It felt strange in my hand because it belonged to someone else. Yet the sharpness was familiar, and the anger that had briefly settled in me surged back up.

“Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. Guess the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard gets a hell of a weapon. I’m borrowing Goldie.”

Baek Yeon stroked his chin beard.

“That’s a troubling offer.”

Why?

“Because you’ll try to cut her and me down with it.”

“Then you shouldn’t have thrown it over.”

“I was in a hurry. What else could I do?”

Baek Yeon shrugged.

“It has a deeper meaning to me, too. The late Emperor personally bestowed it on me the day I was appointed Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”

“Then all the more reason I don’t care. The late Emperor would rather I used it anyway. If I said I was going to beat the traitorous bastards with it, he’d jump out of that pond and throw me Silverie, too.”

“……!”

“And this isn’t an offer. I’m telling you.”

At that moment, I saw it.

I saw Baek Yeon’s thick eyebrows twitch, if only for a moment.

A brief silence fell. Then he spoke, his voice low and subdued.

“Must you really make such a fuss?”

“Will it end with just a fuss?”

I quietly went over the plan I’d revised while we talked.

If I fight them here, I’ll die for nothing. I need to draw as many eyes here as I can.

What would happen if I had to fight two masters who were both above me?

I didn’t need to think hard about it. I’d lose. No question.

I do have One Annihilation as a last resort, but I can’t even be sure that would work.

One Annihilation wasn’t invincible, and my body was already at its limit.

Even with the recovery I got from Level Ups, I’d ended up like this. What would happen now, without the System?

It really would be my last move.

The problem was, even if I burned my life away to use it, I might not take a single person with me. It could turn into a suicide mission that got me killed after missing my target.

That’s a little too far over the line.

I had no interest in becoming some dumbass who missed, exhausted himself, and died—or an SSS-rank suicide Hunter.

Now that things had come to this, I had no choice but to turn it into an all-out battle.

They had their own plans, and so did the anti-Emperor faction led by Ma Sanbao. But none of that mattered to me now.

No—the truth was, I didn’t have the luxury of thinking about their plans with those two monsters in front of me.

Since we’re here, I’ll pull every damn stunt I can.

Luckily, I had allies inside the imperial palace.

I didn’t know the details, but there were Murim assassins Ma Sanbao had brought in. And above all, the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, was there.

Not to mention the people already plotting against the Emperor.

We had a decent chance of winning that fight.

Now that I’d worked it out, there was no point hesitating. I angled the crescent blade in my hand, ready to get out of here at once.

Whooom.

They said a weapon that spent a long time with one owner could take on a soul of its own. As the blade trembled, seeming to reject its unfamiliar wielder and unfamiliar qi, I remembered something Jang Taebo had once said. The former Guild Leader of the Ironcraft Guild was now a retainer of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

But…

Settle down.

Fwoosh.

Its brief resistance vanished as blue-white flames flared up, and I launched myself forward with all my strength.

Or I would have.

Just as the flames of Flamefire Path were about to burst from my feet, So Gyo spoke.

“You’d better stop before you regret it.”

“What?”

“Prince Shangshan. Zhu Bao.”

“……!”

Just five syllables, but they were enough to stop me in my tracks.

In all the confusion, I’d overlooked one thing.

Right.

They still had that child.

As long as Prince Shangshan was in Qianqing Palace, the Emperor held his life in his hands.

Qianqing Palace was a demon-slaying battleground. Just from what I’d seen with my own eyes, there were no fewer than four Supreme Peak masters there, including the Emperor.

It wouldn’t matter if it were me or the Fire King. Even if the Martial God himself returned, he couldn’t do anything about the blade at the young prince’s throat.

“Choose which path to take. And think about what awaits you at the end of it.”

Her tone was calm. The air around us was cold, and I had to force my voice through clenched teeth.

“What the hell are you trying to get out of this?”

“You don’t need to know. What matters is that you’ll survive here today.”

Survive? Me?

The lackeys of Dark Heaven would just let me go, now that they had leverage over me?

I could only blink at her unexpected words. Then So Gyo added,

“And I hope you do.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“……Why?”

“Because there’s still a reason to keep you alive. That’s my mission, too.”

My eyes widened before I knew it.

I’d heard something like that only a few months ago.

From none other than the Southern Heaven Demon Empress.

That was why I couldn’t help seeing the Southern Heaven Demon Empress as she’d been then, overlaid with the So Gyo standing before me now.

The Southern Heaven Demon Empress had held back from killing me as much as she could, even right up until she was about to turn into a monster. Just like So Gyo is now.

If so, the meaning could only be one thing.

Just like the Southern Heaven Demon Empress, So Gyo—or rather, the Lord of Heaven—still wanted me.

Not my cold corpse, my soul already gone.

Me.

Jin Taekyung, the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon.

Why?

None of it made any sense. I’d thwarted Dark Heaven’s plans at every turn, even cutting off two of their limbs in the process: the Western Heaven Demon Lord and the Southern Heaven Demon Empress.

The Lord of Heaven had begun a war with the Murim of the Central Plains. As far as he was concerned, I was one of the obstacles he ought to chew to pieces.

So why?

A memory flashed through my mind.

The underground prison beneath the Sichuan Tang Clan. The whispers of that deep darkness I’d briefly encountered when it borrowed the body of the Western Heaven Demon Lord, who had unmistakably died.

How interesting. How very interesting.

And the eerie laughter that had seeped through that darkness.

We’ll meet again.

“……!”

Had it started then?

Had those words been the beginning?

Crack.

Without my noticing, I’d clenched my fist so tight it had gone white, the veins standing out across it. Every hair on my body stood on end as I tried to steady myself. So Gyo watched me calmly.

“So, what’s your answer?”

I closed my eyes, forgetting for a moment that I had an enemy right in front of me.

Then, the next instant—

Swish.

I reversed my grip on the crescent blade and hurled it like a beam of light.

Whoosh! Kaboom!

The blade tore through the air. A thunderous boom followed.

Baek Yeon recovered his weapon from where it had buried itself deep in the ground one step ahead of him and clicked his tongue.

“You have quite a dramatic way of returning it.”

If this had happened just fifteen minutes ago, I’d have fired back with a sarcastic quip. But not now.

I gritted my teeth and spoke to the two of them.

“Don’t… touch Prince Shangshan.”

“Rest assured. Nothing like what you’re worried about will happen.”

I had no way of knowing whether that answer was true or false.

All I could do was look for another way.

Still, I learned one thing. As long as the Lord of Heaven’s orders stand, they can’t move against me lightly.

Suppressing the killing intent I felt toward So Gyo and Baek Yeon, I started walking. To borrow a saying from Murim, from this moment on, fifteen minutes would feel like three autumns.

The grand banquet would soon be held in the imperial palace.

That celebration would become the battlefield where our fates were decided.

The Hongmen Banquet¹. So who’s Xiang Yu, and who’s Liu Bang?

I turned and walked away without hesitation. Before I’d completely disappeared from their sight, with my back to them, So Gyo’s voice suddenly reached me.

“Why did you give up fighting, Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung? Do you want Prince Shangshan to become Emperor, too?”

A laugh escaped me.

The question hardly deserved an answer.

Still, I kept walking without turning around.

“Yeah. Since we’re going this far, of course I want him to become Emperor. But that’s not the only reason.”

“Then what is?”

“He’s a kid.”

I kept going, with no idea where I was headed, and muttered,

“He’s still a kid, you crazy bastards.”