* * *

“Kahahaha! We’ve finally reached land!”

Boom.

The ground shook as someone with a large physique jumped off the ship onto the ground.

That person was Toonka.

Some of the martial artists looked at him with looks of disgust.

Herculean Strength to jump over to enemy ships when they got close to create holes on the decks and the way he suppressed the enemies and chucked them into the sea…

His toughness that would not break even if hundreds of enemies charged at him…

Furthermore, his crazy mental fortitude to laugh and charge toward the enemies as if he knew their secrets…

It automatically made them think that Toonka was a crazy bastard.

However, Toonka did not pay any attention to them.

Baaaaang!

Baaaaang!

The sea behind his back was still full of large and small battles.

But that was also none of his business.

“Block them!”

“Just ignore them and push forward! We are almost at Hainan!”

“Protect the alliance members of the Triumvirate! Sink all of the Blood Cult’s ships!”

The Blood Cult’s ships were doing everything to stop the allied forces of the Triumvirate.

In response, the Triumvirate’s allied forces were doing everything they could to get on the island.

Finally, there were also ships that the castle lord of Hainan had sent to help the allied forces.

It was war on top of the water right now.

The ships of the Triumvirate used that opening to reach Hainan.

Toonka was in the front of the group.

“It’s over there.”

A small city where blue lights were pouring out… Toonka’s eyes sparkled as he looked toward that direction. The corners of his lips had curled up so much that they felt as if they would never go back down.

“Noble Warrior Du Kang.”

He heard a calm voice behind him.

However, Toonka ignored him as if that was the normal thing to do.

Boom!

He gently stomped his foot before shooting forward.

“Kahahaha! The battlefield is waiting for me!”

“Du Kang! Go with us too! Ahhahahahahahaha!”

“Pwahaha. I guess the battle has finally started!”

Sima Jung and the other famous fighters of the Unorthodox faction ran behind him as well. The ratio was significantly skewed toward the Green Forest.

Maybe they were getting antsy watching the pirates running wild on the seas but the way they smiled brightly as they ran forward made Zhuge Mi Ryeo, who had called out to Toonka, sigh.

The Heavenly Demon had a comment for Chief Advisor Zhuge Mi Ryeo.

“We are going as well.”

She raised her head to look at the Heavenly Demon, the rest of the Demon Cult, the Orthodox faction, and the Unorthodox faction.

They all looked as if they were excited to fight.

If they had to go to the battlefield anyway…

“Let’s move as quickly as possible. I presume that we know all of our targets?”

There was no response.

The Heavenly Demon simply took a step forward.

The Sovereign Steps of the Heavenly Demon.

The martial arts that was considered the start of a disaster for the Central Plains was displayed by the tip of the Heavenly Demon’s foot.

Boom-!

The martial art that was known for each step making it feel as if the person ruled over the world made his presence slowly rise every time he moved forward.

Dark red internal ki wrapped around his body.

The Demon Cultists following behind him slowly increased the output of their internal kis as well. They all heard the Heavenly Demon’s low voice.

The voice was definitely quiet, but it sounded as loud as thunder.

“It took quite a lot of time to get this far.”

The Heavenly Demon could see the numerous Blood Cultists coming out to the edges of the barrier to stop them.

All of the high ranking members of the Blood Cult, ones who had been gathering from all around the continent, had all gathered here for the new priestess’s first event..

That might explain why there were so many people who looked strong.

“There are a lot of desirable prey.”

However, his gaze was looking in the distance.

He could see a black yong and a large blue aura rising up from the center of the Blood Cult’s area.

Clang.

The Heavenly Demon pulled out his sword.

“Remember this.”

The Demon Cultists all pulled out their weapons as well.

“The Blood Cult will fall before the sun comes up.”

All of the Demon Cultists, the core members who were standing behind the Heavenly Demon, shouted in unison.

“Destroy the Blood Cult!”

Their voices were full of fervor.

The Blood Cult had dared to plant spies in the Demon Cult and tried to take down the sky of the Demon Cult, the Heavenly Demon.

The wrath the Demon Cultists felt toward them was violent.

They finally arrived at the place where they could release all of their wrath.

They were ready to go into that battlefield.

The Heavenly Demon swung his sword.

Splash—!

The blood of the Blood Cultists rushing toward them splashed into the air.

However, the Heavenly Demon did not pay them any attention and just raised his speed.

He was still far from his desired destination.

‘Kim Hae-il.’

He would head to where that punk was at right now.

That would be the center of the battlefield.

The Blood Demon.

The Heavenly Demon wanted to fight her as well as others who were as strong as her.

As he charged through, the Demon Cultists seeped into the bloody battlefield around them.

The Blood Cultists were wearing white masks.

One of the Demon Cultists looking at them shouted as if they were enjoying themselves.

“Let’s dye those masks red!”

The Demon Cultists started running wild with nothing holding them back.

As they did that, there were people who were watching them.

“Ho. I knew that these Demons were crazy.”

Elder Ho Song Yi sighed as he mumbled to himself.

However, a mallet, which was basically a symbol of the Beggars’ Gang, was already in his hand.

The person standing in front of the group started speaking.

This was the Sword Saint, one of the major figures in the Orthodox faction.

“You all figure out how to deal with the small fries.”

He then led the Heavenly Guardians to push forward even faster.

His destination was the same as the Heavenly Demon.

Ooooooooong-

A golden aura was already coming out of the Sword Saint’s body.

The Namgung Clan’s core members who made up the Heavenly Guardians also released sharp auras.

Elder Ho could see a martial artist of the Blood Cult charging toward the Sword Saint.

Although that person was releasing a vicious aura-

Boom!

The golden blade that sliced from top to bottom was unbelievably heavy as it was full of the aura of a Monarch. It truly suited its name of a Monarch.

“Hooo.”

‘So scary, so very scary.’

Elder Ho shook his head before sighing.

Boom!

The ground shook.

Hundreds of jiangshis from the Blood Cult had taken a step forward together toward Elder Ho’s direction.

There were martial artists of the Blood Cult intermixed with the jiangshis.

They did not look very strong but they looked strong enough to pull their weight.

“……They are starting to crawl out one by one.”

He mumbled in a low voice before taking a gourd-shaped bottle out of his pocket.

“You all remember?”

“Yes sir!”

Dozens of martial artists from the Martial Arts Alliance energetically answered his question and held gourd-shaped bottles in their hands.

“Our task is to take care of the small fry and put the jiangshis to sleep. Do not forget our task and do not act rashly!”

The allied forces of the Triumvirate were divided into a front team and a rear team.

The task of the front team was to take on the strong individuals throughout the Blood Cult while the rear team’s mission was to take down the mid and low level martial artists of the Blood Cult and take over different regions of the Blood Cult’s base.

‘And to put the jiangshis to rest.’

They were told that the jiangshis of the Blood Cult were mainly in the southern and northern outlands.

However, a significant number of jiangshis were here as well as this was the main headquarters of the Blood Cult. In fact, there were quite a lot of living jiangshis and True Jiangshis here on Hainan.

Old man Baek had explained how to purify these jiangshis, but the method was not simple.

As a result, Old man Baek had given a different option as well.

That was putting the jiangshis to sleep.

‘Do you really think we can keep hundreds of thousands of jiangshis all awake? Putting them in a semi-conscious state makes it easier to store them.’

Old man Baek had handed them some powder as he said that.

‘The jiangshis will fall asleep if they smell the smoke of this powder being burnt.’

They would be asleep for about four to five hours upon getting one sniff of this smoke.

That was enough.

They were planning on taking care of everything before the sun came up anyway.

“Get started!”

Elder Ho and many others all shouted the same thing.

Crackle-

Someone lit a fire and the powders started burning.

As blue smoke started rising up…

Boom!

The jiangshis stopped moving.

They all started falling to the ground as if they were puppets that had their strings cut off.

“Fuck! Report to the boss! Tell them that the jiangshis have fallen into the unconscious states!”

“How did those bastards know about this-?! Hurry up!”

Chaos started manifesting because of the fallen jiangshis.

Of course, chaos within the Blood Cult was beneficial to Cale’s allies.

“This is the time! Everybody charge!”

“Capture all of the Blood Cult’s people!”

Chhh-

Chief Advisor Zhuge Mi Ryeo watched all of this before opening up her fan.

Her gaze headed far toward the southern part of Hainan.

A signal flare shot up once more.

Piiiiiiiiiiiiii—-!

“…It looks like the Divergent Coalition Leader and Chief Eunuch Wi have met up.”

The Unorthodox faction and the martial artists of Hainan had now met up and were pressuring the Blood Cult from the south.

Zhuge Mi Ryeo looked down at the map.

The allied forces of the Orthodox faction and the Demon Cult were in the north.

The allied forces of Hainan and the Unorthodox faction were in the south.

They were pressuring the Blood Cult from the top and bottom.

“We are going to have even more allies heading over to Hainan so the battle will lean in our favor.”

No matter how strong the Blood Cult was and despite the fact that this was their headquarters…

They had no choice but to lose in numbers to the allied forces of the Triumvirate that had the entire Central Plains on their backs.

“But-”

Zhuge Mi Ryeo looked toward the center of the map at the core region of the Blood Cult.

The deciding factor for all of these battles-

“…Will be determined in the center.”

Now that the formation had been rendered useless, all that was left was to capture the Blood Demon.

Her gaze moved past the map to the distance.

Baaaaaaaaaang-!

She was looking toward a spot where endless explosions were coming from.

* * *

Choi Han slightly relaxed the sword in his hand.

Grind grind.

He kept his gaze forward as the odd sound continued.

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

The Blood Demon’s white hair fluttered from the breeze coming from the night sea.

Grind grind.

The odd sound echoed even louder every time the Blood Demon’s finger moved rhythmically.

The blue aura flowing around her filled the area around her as she did that.

‘…She’s strong.’

It had been a while since Choi Han thought such a thing about an enemy.

The Blood Demon.

She was not using dead mana at all. In fact, the blue aura that she was using was overflowing with life force.

Like the ocean that embraces everything… Like the vitality created by the numerous creatures living inside it…

This cold and chilling aura was full of beautiful life force.

It allowed Choi Han to fight against the Blood Demon without worrying about being poisoned by dead mana, but it made him feel leery.

‘…It’s clean.’

The power that the Blood Demon was using was too pure and clean.

It did not seem like the power of someone who had turned countless people into jiangshis and was trying to take over the Central Plains.

“You guys truly are not martial artists.”

The Blood Demon spoke for the first time.

Her voice was cold but oddly gentle at the same time.

Grind grind.

The blue aura was still fluctuating around her.

The Blood Demon was still calm despite exchanging blows a few times.

“I wondered if Aipotu betrayed us because you guys managed to destroy the formation, but that doesn’t seem to be it.”

The Blood Demon and Choi Han…

The two of them were quite far away from each other with a building in between them. Nonetheless, Choi Han could clearly hear the Blood Demon as if she was speaking right next to him.

“I can see the answer.”

The Blood Demon gently commented.

“You guys must be the ones who saved Xiaolen from the Black Bloods.”

Choi Han quietly observed the Blood Demon without reacting in any way.

However, his inner thoughts were quite complicated.

The Blood Demon had white hair and blue eyes. Her choice of words were oddly confusing.

‘…Did she just say we were the ones who saved Xiaolen?’

The Black Bloods household. Similar to the House of Huayans with Xiaolen, the Blood Cult and their leader, the Blood Demon, were trying to destroy the Central Plains. For such a person to say that they saved Xiaolen did not sound like she was putting it in a positive way.

It led to Choi Han answering her for the first time.

“Yeah. We came to save the Central Plains in the same way.”

The Blood Demon must have heard him despite the distance as she slightly smiled.

As Choi Han slightly scowled in response…

“Something is weird.”

He heard Sui Khan’s voice.

Sui Khan, who looked as if he had been a bit tired, was back to his usual self as he stood next to Choi Han and commented.

“The Blood Demon’s aura is too clean.”

Choi Han couldn’t help but look at Sui Khan, who had the same thought as him.

Choi Han had been quite unsettled about that already.

How could a person who handles jiangshis have such a pure power?

‘…Did she do so with martial arts?’

The Blood Demon was clearly a regular human.

That was the reason Choi Han was slightly amazed by her strength despite her being an enemy.

Although she was the enemy, the Blood Demon’s power was completely clean without the tiniest speck of darkness.

She could only reach such a level of strength while maintaining this clean aura by working her ass off.

As Choi Han was about to admit that he had to credit her for her efforts despite her being the enemy…

“Blood Demon.”

Sui Khan stepped forward.

A regular sword was in his hand.

Slash.

He slashed a portion of the blue aura as he leisurely spoke.

“Creating hundreds of thousands of jiangshis would have resulted in quite a bit of dead mana. Then you would have used that dead mana to create even more jiangshis.”

He nodded his head as if he figured something out.

“Yes, the Blood Cult and you have killed countless number of people.”

Grind grind.

Sui Khan calmly looked at the blue aura that was taking over its surroundings.

“Your clean power, that is not yours. You stole it.”

Choi Han flinched.

Sui Khan made eye contact with the Blood Demon.

“The purest and cleanest aura that a person has. Their life force. You stole it.”

The life force that a person was born with. Unlike the auras that were gathered and developed throughout their lives, that initial life force was extremely likely to be pure and clean.

To find something similar in the Central Plains, it would probably be the Spirit Blood.

“That is how you got strong.”

The life force of hundreds of thousands of people who were turned into jiangshis. This blue aura was the life force she had absorbed from them.

The Blue Bloods household.

Blue blood could be referring to the blood inside the body, however, it was talking about this blue aura, a person’s life force.

They heard a shout down below at that moment.

“Mother!”

“Mother, we are here!”

It was the other two young Blood Demon candidates, Eun and Baek.

They had come with a group of strong individuals to help the Blood Demon.

“Pfft.”

Sui Khan did not hide his sneer at the fact that they called the Blood Demon mother.

“They are calling you mother? Blood Demon, you especially took a lot of life force from children. Isn’t that right?”

The purest life force would have been with the children.

He heard someone gasp at that moment.

“Wow.”

Choi Jung Soo, who had returned, was holding his sword in his hand as he looked at the Blood Demon and commented.

“She’s totally trash, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

Sui Khan agreed with him before looking at something in the distance.

The Heavenly Demon and other martial artists were approaching.

“I guess we only have to handle the Blood Demon.”

His voice was calm.

“I’ll slash her.”

Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo moved right behind Sui Khan and got ready.

“So, the two of you capture the Blood Demon.”

The tip of his regular sword pointed toward the Blood Demon.

He then nonchalantly asked.

“How’s the other side doing?”

As Choi Jung Soo was about to speak…

Baaaaaaaaaang-!

A loud explosion came from Stairway to Heaven.

Choi Jung Soo chuckled at Choi Han and the team leader who looked at him.

“I guess they must have captured the priestess.”

* * *

“Ugh!”

The instant Myung was hit by Raon’s spell and flew back…

Cale spoke to Raon.

“Break it!”

“I got it!”

Baaaaaang—!

The wall to the room with the priestess was destroyed.

Raon was destroying things left and right today.

“I’ll destroy everything!”

Cale listened to Raon’s cheery voice as he walked past the destroyed wall.

He then smiled.

“Found you.”

He finally found the priestess.

—

Translator’s Comments

We finally get to see who it is!

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