SCHK—.

It was incomplete Sword Qi.

It had “expanded” beyond the sword’s body, so it could be called Sword Qi, but—

it hadn’t taken on a clear, solid form.

True Sword Qi was supposed to be able to cleave ten-thousand-year cold iron, Black Iron, even Dark Iron.

But Soyak’s Sword Qi still fell a little short of that.

Still, what did that matter?

The Demonic Cult bastard’s flesh and bone in front of her weren’t Black Iron, Dark Iron, or cold iron.

In an instant, the arm holding the sickle flew through the air.

Blood sprayed in every direction.

But at the same time, the Demonic Cult woman snapped her mouth wide open and tried to tear into Ak Seogyeong’s throat.

Even a human being would usually flinch when they lost a limb…

Yet her motion had not even the slightest hesitation.

But her opponent was the Heavenly Killing Star.

Someone who felt no hesitation or reluctance even when killing a perfectly healthy person.

“Stay still.”

She drew that surging Sword Qi back in, forging it into brilliant Sword Light.

Then she took a step back as she twisted her body—

and chopped down as-is.

SCHK—.

The sound of flesh and bone splitting without distinction.

Not only from the severed shoulder stump, but from the clean cross-section of the neck, hot blood poured out.

Even as the head rolled across the ground, it kept staring at Soyak.

Its mouth worked soundlessly, as if trying to say something.

But without lungs, it couldn’t force air up through the throat.

Naturally, no voice came out.

Even seeing that, Soyak only narrowed her eyes.

Calmly, she asked Ak Jupae,

“How do you kill a head like this?”

“Leave it. It’ll die soon. Demonic Cult scum. Filthy to the end.”

The less soaked in demonic energy—

meaning, the lower the Demonic Cult member—

the more it was like this.

Throw it into fire, or just leave it alone, and it would eventually meet death.

But Ak Jupae was watching Soyak more closely.

That was incomplete, but it was clearly Sword Qi.

Had she already stepped into the threshold of Transcendent Apex?

At fourteen?

“It should’ve died the instant its neck was cut. This is strange.”

Soyak kicked the head straight into the blaze.

Inside the fire, it thrashed in a silent scream…

and then, with its mouth shut tight, it simply cooked and died.

“When you’re eroded by demonic energy, you end up like that. Those Demonic Cult bastards made demonic arts by using that kind of power as their internal energy.”

“Isn’t that insane?”

“Cheongak. You’re in front of Flame-Saber Lord, the senior.”

“But, Head Senior—how could anyone even…?”

Unlike Soyak, who looked indifferent, Cheonjeong and Cheongak seemed deeply shaken.

Cheongak’s reaction was especially intense.

Cheonjeong was trying to rein him in, but his pupils were trembling.

Soyak supported the limp Ak Seogyeong.

Ak Jupae walked up and gathered his niece into his arms.

Then, to Soyak…

he bowed his head.

“…Thank you. Thanks to you, my niece lived.”

He had lost his younger brother and his sister-in-law.

Even Ak Jupae’s own son had been murdered.

Now Ak Seogyeong and Ak Seo-il were among the few direct blood relatives he had left.

His dead brother’s daughter and son.

“She fainted.”

“She wasn’t raised as a martial artist. And she’s only fourteen.”

Tragically, Ak Seogyeong had witnessed the horror with her own eyes.

A head dropping. Blood erupting from the cut face of a neck.

To be honest, even if she had been raised as a martial artist, it wasn’t something a fourteen-year-old girl was meant to endure.

When that thought reached them, everyone glanced at Soyak.

Soyak was fourteen too.

One girl had fainted, while the other had created the slaughter and looked like she felt nothing at all.

It was a jarring difference, even now.

“Are you okay?”

“…I’m fine. Please take care of your niece.”

For a moment, Soyak swallowed down something that surged up inside her.

Ak Jupae had worried about her.

The man who had burned her parents alive—just like that woman had tried to do—was worrying about her.

Back then, she hadn’t even been fourteen.

She had been nine.

Soyak quietly turned her head away.

So no one would see her gritting her teeth.

A thought lifted its head inside her.

Should I not have saved her?

A whisper brushed her ear.

You’re cheap anyway.

But Soyak steadied herself and called the black qilin.

GRRRR…

A low growl of a divine beast—audible to her alone.

The Harmonization Scripture’s power coursed through her Eight Extraordinary Meridians and reached the crown of her head, the Hundred Meetings point.

In that instant, every last scrap of that cold, twisted turbulence inside her faded away.

There really had been a payoff to opening the Governor and Conception Vessels.

“…Haa.”

“Soyak. Are you okay?”

“I-If you think you’re gonna collapse, want me to carry you on my back?”

“I’m fine, Head Senior. And Cheongak—there’s no need for you to do that… ah.”

Cheongak was stubborn.

He simply hoisted Cheon Soyak onto his back and nodded in satisfaction.

“Good. Lean on this senior as much as you want.”

“…Put me down.”

“Eh?”

“Put her down, Cheongak.”

Only after Cheonjeong smacked the back of his head did Cheongak set Soyak down.

He had to rub the back of his skull with both hands.

Soyak stepped forward to Ak Jupae and spoke.

“Flame-Saber Lord.”

“Did you call me?”

He couldn’t even look at her.

He was busy wiping soot from Ak Seogyeong’s face while holding her in his arms.

…So his niece was someone precious enough for this.

Again, something surged inside her—and again, she barely held it back.

She forced it down.

“Now that the branch has been destroyed like this, the main house won’t be safe.”

“That’s right.”

“Please protect the branch young lord and your youngest niece.”

Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae’s brow creased.

This child was…

She was about to say they would go to the main house on their own.

“…You’re going to the main house.”

“Yes. My Roaming Pillar Journey’s destination is there.”

“If you go to the main house now…”

It would be worse than here.

There might be stronger Demonic Cult members.

The Shandong Ak Family was Shandong’s pillar.

No matter how many remnants of the dark faction remained in Shandong…

the Ak Family had ruled this place capably.

More than anything, Ak Jupae himself had once been the head of the Heaven-Net Platform of the Martial Alliance.

Within Shandong, the Ak Family held authority and power on par with the Five Great Clans.

So for someone to smash a Shandong Ak Family branch like this?

Using a spy planted inside in advance?

Worse still—openly declaring themselves Demonic Cult?

There was no rule that said they would only plant spies in the branch and not the main house.

Right now, that place would be the same—

no, it would be more dangerous.

And…

there had to be a reason that halberd was called the Demon-Warding Halberd.

“I have an idea of what the main house may look like right now.”

“…You may have an idea, but I can’t help you.”

It was called the main house and the branch, but they had split a long time ago.

And in truth, the two sides were not on good terms.

You could tell just from the fact that Ak Jupae didn’t use the Ak Family spear arts and instead mastered the Flame-Dragon Saber Canon.

And he had to protect the branch young lord Ak Seo-il and his niece Ak Seogyeong.

“Then please protect them. We’ll go to the main house.”

“…Don’t die.”

Soyak couldn’t answer.

It was horrifying to hear him say something like that to her.

He seemed to have completely forgotten her.

Even though Soyak had never forgotten his son’s eyes.

Soyak couldn’t forget what her father had said.

He bowed his head and begged them to spare his daughter.

Ak Jupae had set his conditions with a bored indifference.

That Soyak had to watch her parents die with her own eyes.

The reason was to make sure she could never dream of toppling heaven again.

Ak Seowon had twisted her wrist and pinned her down.

Forced to kneel, with a strip of white cloth jammed into her mouth.

And she watched.

Her parents burning to death while still alive.

Even after they were charred black corpses, their necks were cut.

To report the beheading to the Martial Alliance, Ak Jupae had put their heads into a chest and taken them away.

The daughter left behind.

The only daughter left behind…

had no choice but to hold her parents’ funeral without their heads.

She knew why he had acted indifferent.

She knew why he had made her watch her parents’ execution.

Because it was discipline—because it was a military order.

That had to be the only reason.

But an evil law was not law.

If it was a law made by a single powerful dictator, all the more so.

That he had forgotten her meant—

he had done it countless times.

That he had lived as an enforcer of evil laws without a second thought.

A clear sin.

An unforgivable criminal.

And now that man was telling her not to die…

That oblivion was an insult she could barely endure.

“I have no intention of dying.”

Soyak chewed the words out with effort, then turned away.

Cheonjeong and Cheongak followed her decision in silence.

They were Mount Hua disciples.

And it was not permitted to run from injustice and oppression right in front of their eyes.

*****

The Shandong Ak Family main house.

The inner quarters where the head and his family lived.

Ak Taegyu, the family head, couldn’t believe what was happening.

“…Why… how… since when…”

His mind was in chaos.

It had started with the servant who brought the water for him to wash his feet.

He had watched that boy for ten full years.

He had taken him in when he was ten, and this year he’d turned twenty.

A diligent, faithful servant—someone Ak Taegyu had even seriously considered freeing from servitude.

And yet…

“I’ve been grateful to you, Family Head.”

“What did you say?”

“Heavenly Demon Reborn. Ten Thousand Demons Bow Down.”

Those words.

That single sentence, like a spell.

And he smiled brightly.

Brighter than anything Ak Taegyu had ever seen from him.

But only for a moment.

Then bloody tears streamed from his eyes.

Black demonic energy poured from his nose and mouth…

and he exploded.

KWA-BOOOOM!!!

He had heard of it.

If you forced your internal power to run in reverse, your qi and blood couldn’t endure it and would burst.

That was why Central Plain martial arts could not be cultivated together with the demonic arts of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

If you circulated forward, your body would burst from demonic energy.

If you circulated in reverse, your body would burst from internal power.

But for him to truly, literally “burst”—

And judging by the fact Ak Taegyu had sensed no warning signs at all…

That was someone using demonic energy as a catalyst to reverse every scrap of vitality in the body.

Right in front of the family head.

And as if that had been the detonator and the signal—

flames began erupting all over the estate, without warning.

It was utter hell on earth.

Chapter 72

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