There was a black snake.

A black snake that kept most of its body hidden beneath the still water.

Soyak realized that this place was her inner world.

The black qilin was still beside her.

Here, at least, she was free regardless of the state of her body.

The black snake’s eyes were the same as ever.

Black as a starless night.

And at the center of them, red pupils gleamed like burning light.

Soyak quietly looked up at the fate she had been born with.

Then she murmured softly.

“...It’s all over.”

That was exactly what it was.

She had used up every last thread of her Innate True Qi.

Everything she could.

By now, her life was probably hanging by a thread as well.

【You are rather pessimistic.】

A will that struck directly against mind and soul.

There was no choice but to describe it as a “voice,” but it was not something heard with the ears.

Soyak slowly nodded at the giant snake’s words.

His voice was far gentler than it had been last time.

“I wouldn’t call it pessimism. No matter how absolute a master Grand Master Jeonggang may be, even at mid Transformation Realm... he can’t refill Innate True Qi once it’s run dry.”

If that were possible, the rumor would already have spread across the world.

To restore Innate True Qi?

Every martial artist in the jianghu would probably covet that secret art.

Innate True Qi was the root of life itself, the force that could let a person burst through their own limits in a single instant.

People did not use it because the price was at minimum to become crippled and at worst to die in agony...

But if it could be restored—

If consumed Innate True Qi could somehow be recovered, no matter the pain—

Then every martial artist in the Nine Provinces would crave that method.

Because Innate True Qi would stop being life itself and become nothing more than a “trump card” that could be taken back whenever one wished.

【Yes. Ordinarily, that would be true.】

He was gentle.

The immense, overwhelming pressure from the first time they met was gone.

Only a single enormous snake remained, quietly watching her.

Had he changed?

Or had she?

Soyak slowly reached out and stroked the black qilin.

Then she looked up into those pupils that shone like red stars.

“...Are you still the same?”

【Do you understand?】

“No. I don’t. But somehow, right now...”

It felt strange.

She had definitely exhausted all of her internal energy.

Even her Innate True Qi.

Then why hadn’t this place collapsed?

A martial artist’s mindscape, or inner world.

A landscape painted by one’s own heart.

It could not literally be called the inside of the dantian, but...

This “mindscape” belonged only to masters who possessed internal energy.

The manifestation of internal energy grounded in the mindscape.

That was what people called moving according to one’s will.

So if this mindscape still remained this vivid and distinct...

“...There’s something I want to ask.”

【Ask.】

“Why am I not dead yet?”

The black snake let out a long hiss.

A low, resonant sound.

Instinctively, Soyak realized it was laughter.

But she still did not know why he was laughing.

“...Why are you laughing?”

【Because it is true that you spent the entirety of your life force.】

The black snake lowered its body.

Then it began circling Soyak and the black qilin wrapped around her.

Like a python preparing to crush its prey to death.

The black qilin growled uneasily on instinct.

But this time Soyak stopped it.

She pressed a small hand between its horns and warned it in a low voice.

“Shh. He isn’t trying to hurt us.”

It was instinct.

If he had wanted to harm her, he could have killed her long ago.

If he had merely rampaged inside this place, her mindscape would already have shattered.

Or if he had bitten her to death the moment she entered here...

She would never have been able to resist.

But he had not done that.

Even though he could have.

【Your instincts are sharp. Or perhaps you simply think quickly.】

“I’ll take that as praise.”

【It is praise.】

Only after the black snake had completely encircled Soyak with its long body did it raise its head again.

Now his full body, which had been hidden beneath the surface, was laid bare.

Scales that shone black with iridescent color.

And even the sharp tail gleaming with a slick sheen.

【I will answer your question. Do you remember my name?】

Soyak remembered what she had experienced that day.

Her shoulders flinched at once.

Just trying to recall the name sent something cold and dreadful down her spine.

Her mind had felt as if it were breaking, being crushed to pulp, her hands trembling uncontrollably...

【You remember. Do not think of it.】

“...Ah.”

Soyak collapsed where she stood.

Then she hurried to bury that name deep inside herself again.

Forgetting it completely was impossible.

The moment she had heard it, it had been branded into her mind so deeply that even if she never spoke it aloud, she could not escape it...

She had understood in the depths of her soul that it was the name of that kind of being.

Barely able to breathe, she leaned her forehead against the black qilin’s neck.

But Soyak did not know.

Ordinarily, a person could not even hear that name at all...

And if one did hear it, one went mad on the spot and could never remember it afterward.

【I am such a being. And you are one chosen by such a being.】

A possession that not even death could steal away.

Only then did Soyak understand.

It was impossible to free herself completely from fate and karmic burden.

So instead, she had to overlap them with her own wish and fuse them together...

She had to turn them into a life’s great vow.

Because she could not run from it, she had to make that very thing the goal of her life.

Those who were dragged along by fate and karmic burden with nothing more than shallow wishes became no more than puppet-like blood demons...

Only those who succeeded in turning it into a life’s vow became true Heavenly Killing Stars, those who overturned the world.

【You have awakened me three times.】

The black snake whispered.

*****

How many months?

How many months could Cheon Soyak endure?

Jeonggang gazed down at the small, fragile child in his arms.

It was impossible.

“...It’s over, Jeonggang. There’s no way to bring her back.”

The Medicine Sage lowered his head.

Even he had no method for this.

“...It isn’t that there is no method.”

“You mean to do that? Come now, Jeonggang. Your body won’t be whole after this either.”

“It doesn’t matter. Stand guard for me.”

Jeonggang gave the order to Namgung Byeok.

Namgung Byeok obeyed at once.

It would not have been strange for him to object, but strangely enough, he had no complaint at all.

He had seen with his own eyes the brilliant talent that child possessed.

“...I’ll stand guard, but what exactly are you planning to do?”

“Life must be repaid with life.”

“Don’t tell me...”

Namgung Byeok glanced at the Medicine Sage.

The Medicine Sage nodded.

Only then did Namgung Byeok understand what they were trying to do.

And it was madness.

“...Surely you cannot be thinking something so absurd as transferring your Innate True Qi into another body?”

By all common sense, that was impossible.

If one person’s life could be taken and given to another—

then this jianghu would probably be hundreds of times crueler and more barren than it already was.

Fortunately, that could not be done.

And because it could not be done, the miserable, sordid situation in which humans treated other humans as bags of Innate True Qi had never come to pass.

“Namgung Byeok.”

“Yes, elder Medicine Sage.”

“Can you keep silent about what you see today?”

Good heavens.

Namgung Byeok rubbed a dry hand over his face and swept back his hair.

So they meant to pour the Mount Hua Sword Emperor’s life into that little girl’s body in his place?

His Innate True Qi?

It made him dizzy.

He acknowledged Cheon Soyak’s talent.

But she was still no more than a sprout, a seedling that had not yet bloomed.

Compared to that, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor was an absolute master in the active prime of mid Transformation Realm.

...Putting everything else aside—

was she really worth that?

If one spoke of the Reverse Heaven Society’s greatest military strength, it was not him, but Mount Hua Sword Emperor Jeonggang.

Did Soyak truly possess enough worth to receive the power and internal energy he had spent his entire life accumulating?

“...Mount Hua Sword Emperor.”

“Speak quickly. We do not have time.”

“I know this may sound like something worthy of condemnation, but... must you truly do this?”

Namgung Byeok, the Sky-Burning Sword Tiger.

A master at the opening stage of the Transformation Realm.

A genius who had reached that level at only fifty-one.

Even within the Reverse Heaven Society, those who had reached the Transformation Realm were rare.

Once a person rose that far, he came to understand just how desperate the Reverse Heaven Society’s struggle truly was.

Those people were always deployed to the very front lines...

and were always held in reserve as weapons for the decisive battle should the worst come.

“What are you trying to say?”

“You already know. You know what role those who have reached the Transformation Realm play in the Reverse Heaven Society. And if it is someone like the Mount Hua Sword Emperor...”

There was symbolic meaning too.

In practical terms, among the righteous martial world, aside from the Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak, he was second to none.

Even among those at the same mid Transformation Realm, no one surpassed the maturity of his mastery.

The vast internal energy he had amassed over sixty years of life.

His immeasurable enlightenment.

And beyond counting, his experience and seniority.

The Mount Hua Sword Emperor was, by his very existence alone, a man who let the people of the Reverse Heaven Society dream of a future.

A dream that one day he would defeat the Sword Sovereign.

Of course, Zhuge Yeon, Eunsong, Namgung Byeok, and even the Mount Hua Sword Emperor himself all knew that was impossible.

But what could they do when so many within the Reverse Heaven Society chose to believe it anyway?

And...

how could anyone condemn them for holding on to that hope?

“They too have reached the time when they must know.”

“You mean they must know that you cannot defeat the Sword Sovereign? But not like this.”

“Then how should they learn it? After I am killed by the Sword Sovereign, with every hope shattered?”

Grand Master Jeonggang’s rebuke cut like a blade.

Chapter 116

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