At about the time Ak Taegyu, Family Head of the Yacha Blood Gate, was fighting Sa Heegwang.

At about the time Sword Ghost was mocking Soyak and was about to lose his head to the Sky-Burning Sword Tiger.

The Demonic Cult’s Left Luminary Guardian paid a visit to the branch estate of the Shandong Ak Family.

“Who... are you?”

The first one to face him was fourteen-year-old Ak Seogyeong.

The youngest daughter of the late Family Head Ak Jugwang.

The younger sister of the young head, Ak Seo-il.

And the niece of the Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae.

“Would the Flame-Saber Lord happen to be here?”

“If you mean the Flame-Saber Lord... my eldest uncle?”

“So you’re Seogyeong. Good. Could you tell him that a guest has come to see him?”

“Yes...”

The young girl rolled her eyes as she looked up at the man holding a fan.

He looked closer to a scholar than a martial artist.

He wore a black robe and held a red lacquered fan.

A red dragon was embroidered across that robe.

It was impossible to tell whether he was good or evil.

A smooth-faced young man.

He was smiling, but his eyes were so narrow that their gaze could not be seen.

Ak Seogyeong silently nodded, then trotted into the courtyard of the branch estate.

Seon Byeok-il, the Left Luminary Guardian, quietly looked around at the surroundings.

It seemed the branch estate had suffered even greater damage than the main house.

Judging by the fact that they still had not managed proper reconstruction.

“Well, the Family Head is dead.”

The symbolism of losing a leader was enormous.

Ak Jugwang, Lightning-Calamity Flame.

The Family Head of the Ak Family branch estate, and a martial artist who had reached the middle stage of Transcendent Apex.

His light had dimmed somewhat because of his younger brother, who had nearly reached the entrance to the Transformation Realm.

Even so, Ak Jugwang’s name too had shaken all of Shandong with its might.

In Shandong, there were probably more people indebted to Ak Jugwang than to the Flame-Saber Lord.

As he stood there quietly making one calculation after another, he felt a presence from far away.

At a time like this, someone visiting a clan was one of two things.

Either an honored guest, or ill fate.

Each step that came toward him carried fierce force.

So they said the man had suffered his son’s death and withdrawn to the countryside.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Great Hero Flame-Saber Lord.”

“Who are you.”

“Please don’t be so wary. I came to make you... an offer.”

Seon Byeok-il slowly opened his narrow eyes.

And the Flame-Saber Lord saw it.

That the whites and blacks of those eyes were reversed.

They were not human eyes.

“...One of the Demonic Cult?”

“One of them? Aren’t there far more elegant ways to address me?”

But instead of answering, the Flame-Saber Lord drew his Flame-Dragon Saber.

Roaring flames settled over the blade.

It was the force of the Flame-Dragon Saber Canon.

“So... you must want to die.”

“But Great Hero Flame-Saber Lord.”

Seon Byeok-il snapped the fan he had opened shut.

Then he narrowed his eyes again.

“It seems you do not want to know who killed your son.”

*****

If the Left Luminary Guardian had come out into the martial world, that meant the Demonic Cult was on the rise.

Otherwise, there was no reason a high-ranking figure of the Demonic Cult, who had crouched hidden for fifty years, would reveal himself.

And on top of that, he had made contact with the former Heaven-Net Platform Lord, the Flame-Saber Lord, and disappeared together with him.

This was more than enough to be called a major incident.

Soyak, Cheonjeong, and Cheongak decided to return to Mount Hua.

Now that the one who had appeared was none other than the Left Luminary Guardian, there was nothing they could do to help.

The left arm that served the Heavenly Demon.

A figure estimated to have been at least at the entrance to the Transformation Realm during the last War of the Righteous and Demonic.

With things having come to this, the goal of Soyak’s Roaming Pillar Journey had changed somewhat.

Now they had to return safely.

And report it to Mount Hua, and to the Alliance.

The fresh scent of grass tickled the tip of her nose.

And a faint shadow fell over her head.

They were retracing the road they had come by.

Soyak stopped for a moment.

Because she saw the enormous plum blossom-shaped sword scar engraved into the ground.

Something she had left behind.

The site of her second killing.

“Why did you stop?”

Cheongak, who had been walking ahead, glanced back at Soyak.

As always, Soyak’s eyes did not make her emotions easy to read.

But...

She seemed a little troubled.

“Soyak.”

Cheonjeong quietly called to her.

“Yes, Head Senior.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“...Just... I was thinking that maybe someday will come when I won’t be able to count how many people I’ve killed.”

For now, she still remembered them all.

Who the first was, who the second was, who the third was.

But someday.

The closer she drew to the fate of a Blood Calamity...

“It will come.”

“Head Senior, no, there’s no need to say that...”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it, Cheongak? That day will definitely come, Soyak.”

Whether Cheongak tried to stop him or not.

Cheonjeong gave voice to the truth.

But warmth was still there in his tone.

Even in his eyes.

“But even then, we will be at your side.”

“...Will you.”

“Yes. And don’t torment yourself too much. Isn’t the martial world a place for those who carry blades in the first place?”

A sword is a tool meant to kill people.

And those who wear a sword are people who have already resolved themselves to kill.

Soyak quietly nodded.

The blood thick on her hands was the fate of everyone in the martial world anyway.

No one could be the exception.

Soyak quietly looked at the plum blossom mark carved deep into the ground.

Maybe because of the blood that had seeped into the earth.

That one place alone looked a little darker than the rest.

*****

The Zhuge Household, Internal Affairs Pavilion.

The office of the Internal Affairs Pavilion Lord.

The eyes of Zhuge Yeon, holding the Sky-Burning Sword Tiger’s letter, were trembling.

“What is it, young lady?”

Jang Yul, who had been standing against the wall, sensed that something was not right.

Zhuge Yeon was the Internal Affairs Pavilion Lord of the Zhuge Household.

She had even once served as commander of the strategist corps during the suppression of Demonic Cult remnants.

She was not someone who would be shaken by ordinary matters.

So if her eyes were trembling...

Then a demonic fiend beyond any ordinary level had appeared.

“So... it says Sword Ghost, disciple of the Sword Demon, showed up.”

“Showed up? Why the past tense?”

“It says he was killed.”

Jang Yul blinked.

The Sura Unit, one of the Demonic Cult’s main armed groups.

As far as he remembered, Sword Demon had been the commander of that Sura Unit, and Sword Ghost had been his disciple.

“It says Sword Ghost appeared as the Sura Unit Commander. And that he was trying to perform the Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture.”

“The conditions for that should be severe.”

“With the heart of the Heavenly Killing Star.”

“Ah.”

Jang Yul nodded.

The Demonic Cult’s evil rites were things where one offered a price and received something commensurate in return.

If so, then who was it that received it and bestowed it?

The Malevolent God they worshiped.

“If it was the heart of the Heavenly Killing Star, then certainly.”

“Yes. He must have been trying to match the sacrifice to the required level.”

“I understand now why the Sky-Burning Sword Tiger killed him.”

The charge laid upon him was the protection of Cheon Soyak.

To dispose of those who held killing intent and malice toward her.

If left alive, he was someone who would someday aim for her heart again.

So of course he killed him.

“Did he want to become Transformation Realm that badly?”

“...To some extent, I understand it.”

He stared at Zhuge Yeon.

Zhuge Yeon gave a bitter smile and, for no reason at all, hid her face behind the letter paper.

Jang Yul did not quietly let that pass.

He deliberately approached and deliberately forced the paper downward.

“Young lady, did you also have greed for martial arts?”

“How could I not? If I could have had it my way, I would’ve wanted to be born with a Heavenly Martial Body.”

“So you were quite envious.”

“...What else can I do, when I have no talent?”

That was true.

Zhuge Yeon had no particular aptitude for martial arts.

On the other hand, the child she kept her eye on... was the Heavenly Killing Star, and a monster.

“She’s already passed beyond the entrance to Transcendent Apex...”

“Pardon?”

“That child has apparently already gone beyond the entrance to Transcendent Apex. And since it’s the Sky-Burning Sword Tiger’s guarantee, it’s probably certain.”

This time it was Jang Yul’s turn to smile bitterly.

Now the realm between him and that little girl had become the same.

And before long, it would probably only be a matter of time before he was the one left behind.

“I told you, didn’t I. That her talent exceeded even mine.”

“Even so, for it to be this fast...”

“Five years, I’d say.”

“Pardon?”

Jang Yul smiled faintly and nodded.

“Five years until she touches the Transformation Realm. That’s how I see it.”

“Is that conclusion also the result of that sharp eye of yours?”

“No. Half of it is closer to a guess.”

“...But the Transformation Realm isn’t some stray dog’s name you can throw around.”

Zhuge Yeon propped up her chin, then handed the letter paper to Jang Yul.

Without a word, Jang Yul burned it away with Samadhi True Flame.

The paper vanished into a single wisp of smoke without leaving even ash behind.

“Would you like to make a wager, young lady?”

“Hah? Fine. What are you putting up?”

“One silver ingot. What do you think?”

It was a rather large sum.

Two nyang of silver was enough for one commoner to live on for a year.

One silver ingot was a great weight of wealth, worth fifty nyang of silver.

“...You’re going to wager half the money you make in a year?”

“Will you take the wager?”

Zhuge Yeon’s eyes widened.

Then she smiled faintly.

There was no reason she couldn’t.

“But in exchange, the winner buys a proper round of drinks.”

“Very well. A wager where I get treated to drinks even if I lose. How merciful.”

The wager was made.

Now all that remained was to wait.

“Anyway, because of this, Cheon Soyak will end her Roaming Pillar Journey and return to Mount Hua.”

“She will.”

“...I should go see Eunsong.”

Jang Yul shrugged.

It meant he did not particularly recommend it.

“Must you really do that? You’ll only hear harsh words again.”

“Even so, I have to go. Eunsong will know it too.”

Zhuge Yeon rose from her seat.

And slipped on her outer robe.

At her waist she fastened a slender sword that was of little real use.

“Cheon Soyak needs the Reverse Heaven Society.”

Chapter 91

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