Chapter 07

“What do you believe Demonic Qi to be?”

The old, fallen immortal, now a wielder of the Scripture that Commands the Dark and Quakes the Heavens, had once asked Yeon So-hyeon.

“Demonic Qi, you ask…” Yeon So-hyeon had stroked his chin in thought. “Truthfully, there is no form of energy that has been so poorly researched. All we truly know is that it is tyrannically powerful, yet so inherently evil that it inevitably corrupts the user’s very soul. Beyond that, almost nothing has been brought to light.”

Perhaps the demon cultists of the Demonic Cult held more information, but even in the Sword Clan of Luoyang, an organization famous for its fanatical collection of all martial knowledge, fundamental data on Demonic Qi was sorely lacking. Even Yeon So-hyeon, who had reached a level bordering on grandmaster in the academic study of martial arts, knew remarkably little on the subject.

The old man had chuckled. “A martial artist wields Qi, and a demonic practitioner wields Demonic Qi. Most think of them as two sides of the same coin, but that is a deeply flawed assumption.”

“Is that so?”

The old man had raised a hand, and a wisp of dark energy coiled around his fingers. “To begin with, this energy does not originate from the world you exist in.”

Yeon So-hyeon’s brow had furrowed. There were, after all, certain fields of study that were fundamentally impossible to research empirically. Ghosts, the underworld, talismans, curses, Taoist magic, immortal arts, the power of Buddhist scripture—all were subjects that were considered to exist only in the realm of human imagination. Some referred to these fields as Mysticism, or Metaphysics.

“Demonic Qi,” the old man had explained, “is an energy that flows in from an outer cosmos, a universe that mortal beings cannot possibly observe. It is a power that erodes, corrodes, and distorts our universe, our reality.”

***

The bonfires that the Black Bone Sect members had lit to prepare for the night battle began to dim. Their flames, which should have been bright, were inexplicably darkening. It was a phenomenon that defied all common sense, and yet, it was happening. Even the torches they held aloft failed to properly illuminate their surroundings. The shadows grew deeper, and the night became a thing of profound, unnatural blackness.

“Uuugh…”

One by one, moans of pain began to escape the lips of the Black Bone Sect thugs, who moments before had been possessed by a courage that bordered on madness. The spell that had held them in its thrall had vanished, and the searing pain from their wounds returned with a vengeance. With it came the fear of death, a primal terror born from the will to live.

Geum-ju’s sorcery had been effortlessly snuffed out by the Demonic Qi emanating from Yeon So-hyeon.

The thugs clutched at their wounds, large and small, and began to stumble backward. A fierce wind whipped through the alleys, as cold as a blizzard, and it felt as if their very bones were freezing solid. But more than the pain, more than the cold, was the terror of the white mask looking down on them from the tower.

“Tch…”

Geum-ju fought to suppress the primal fear rising from the depths of her own soul. She unleashed a powerful wave of her aura and roared, her voice infused with internal energy, “Any man who runs dies! Fight!”

But her voice, intended to rally her troops, had the exact opposite effect.

“R-run!”

“It’s a demon! A demon has appeared!”

The battle lines the Black Bone Sect had formed dissolved as if they had never existed, crumbling like castles made of sand. Terror annihilated reason, and in an instant, it was a full-blown rout. Some threw down their weapons as they fled; others screamed the names of the gods they worshipped. Some were so disoriented they ran not away from the battle, but directly toward the Crescent Moon Pavilion forces they had just been fighting.

“W-what do we do?!” a junior officer from the Crescent Moon Pavilion cried out, his senses returning.

“All units, hold your current positions!” Se-ah commanded.

Even if she hadn’t given the order, most of her agents had already lost the will to fight. Even the elite, battle-hardened warriors of the Crescent Moon Pavilion had no desire to engage the fleeing men.

But Yeon So-hyeon, the wielder of the Scripture that Commands the Dark and Quakes the Heavens, had no intention of letting them go.

“The curtain has risen. The actors are not permitted to exit the stage as they please.”

In his previous raids on their dens, he had allowed a few to escape by the skin of their teeth to cultivate fear within their ranks. There was no longer a need for such theatrics.

[Stop where you are.]

His will flowed into the Demonic Qi, and his voice became a spoken edict, a command that ruthlessly eroded reality itself.

A thug, his face a mess of tears and snot, collapsed in the middle of his flight. He looked down and saw a pale white hand clutching his ankle.

“Uwaaaah…!”

He kicked at the hand with his free foot, shaking it loose, but in the next instant, dozens more hands erupted from the ground and seized his legs.

[Die where you are.]

Before the words had even fully formed, those with the weakest minds collapsed, blood pouring from the five orifices of their faces as their heads slammed into the cobblestones. It was instant death. Those with a stronger will resisted for a moment longer, but one by one, their blood vessels ruptured and their hearts exploded, and they, too, fell. It was an impossible feat for an ordinary human without internal energy to resist a command backed by the Demonic Qi of the Scripture that Commands the Dark and Quakes the Heavens.

The alleyways, once teeming with Black Bone Sect thugs, were now filling with their corpses.

“…Primordial Heavenly Venerable,” the Crescent Moon Pavilion’s field commander whispered, praying to his god. He was a veteran who had spent more than half his life serving on the brutal northern frontier. He had seen his share of bizarre phenomena, suspected to be the work of foreign shamans. He had seen the rice grains in his bowl turn into maggots before his very eyes as he ate in the rain after a bloody battle. He had seen the skin of his soldiers erupt in boils from some unknown disease. But none of the horrific curses he had ever witnessed were as grotesque, as utterly terrifying as the scene unfolding before him now.

“L-look over there!”

Se-ah’s head snapped in the direction her adjutant was pointing.

“The bodies…?!”

Not only her, but everyone who witnessed the sight could not believe their own eyes. From the deepest shadows on the ground, pale white hands were rising up and dragging the corpses of the fallen into the darkness. The bodies sank into the shadows of the alleyways as if into black water. A low, guttural growl seemed to emanate from the shadows as they fed. Some of the shadows even seemed to wail.

Faced with a sight that so utterly twisted the natural order and transcended all common sense, several of the Crescent Moon agents simply collapsed where they stood. Some began to vomit; others broke down in tears.

S-so this is… Se-ah realized with dawning horror why not a single body had ever been found at the sites of the Venerable One of Dark Heavens’s attacks. What in the world…

Her trembling gaze returned to the figure atop the tower.

The white-masked monster threw back its head and unleashed a peal of mad laughter.¹¹

“Pray! Pray to your indifferent heavens! I have come in answer to the calls of the innocent you have tormented and killed!”

His laughter seemed to shake the very foundations of the dark clouds that had gathered overhead. The few remaining survivors of the Black Bone Sect died on the spot, their hearts giving out from the sheer terror of that sound.

Se-ah’s knees buckled, but she somehow managed to stay upright. Before seeing him for herself, she and her key officers had run through countless analyses. He had to be a master, or at least a warrior on the verge of crossing the wall. He must have had a team of highly capable assistants. Some had even argued that the rumors must have been greatly exaggerated.

But all of their predictions, all of their analyses, were useless.

That was a being that existed completely outside the realm of logic.

“…That is the Venerable One of Dark Heavens.”

That was the true form of the ridiculed Grand Young Master of the Sword Clan of Luoyang, Yeon So-hyeon.

***

Geum-ju had no intention of sitting back and waiting for her turn.

“What are you bastards doing standing around?! Attack!”

The Unorthodox Path¹² martial artists she had hired had, until now, not lifted a finger. They had been saved for this very moment.

“All of you, move!”

Dozens of martial artists—both from the Black Bone Sect’s own ranks and those she had hired—unleashed their lightness techniques, their figures appearing on the rooftops. The sight of them swarming across the roofs toward the lone tower was enough to make one’s blood run cold.

“The Black Bone Sect had that many martial artists?!” Se-ah gasped in shock.

“That’s at least twice the number our intelligence indicated,” her field commander said, his own face pale.

It was a force large enough to pose a threat even to a transcendent master. And on their side, they still had the transformed Geum-ju. The Venerable One of Dark Heavens was a bizarre being whose powers were of unknown origin and defied all logic, but the enemy’s combat strength was not to be underestimated.

“We have to help…”

“There is no need, my lady.”

It was Gyu, who had appeared at Se-ah’s side, supported by other agents. Se-ah’s face lit up. “Gyu!”

“I have returned safely,” Gyu said with a faint smile. She was a mess, but her injuries did not seem to be severe.

Se-ah helped her sit down. “What do you mean, there’s no need to help?”

“That thing… no…” Gyu shook her head, correcting herself. “…the Venerable One of Dark Heavens is a true monster.”

“But they have Geum-ju, who has reached the realm of a master…”

“No, my lady. Please, trust me.”

Se-ah was stunned by the look in her bodyguard’s eyes. This was the same Gyu who had stood so defiantly before Geum-ju. The same Gyu who had not shown an ounce of fear in the face of certain death. And yet, what she saw in her eyes now was a deep, undeniable terror.

“He is a being for whom the concept of crossing the wall is meaningless. I can feel it. I have seen many masters in my time.”

Everyone nearby leaned in, listening to her words.

“If I were to face him…” Gyu said with a hollow smile, “…I doubt I would last even a single exchange.”

“What do you mean…?”

Before anyone could ask another question, an immense wave of killing intent erupted from behind them. It exploded from the Venerable One of Dark Heavens, a force so powerful it made all the bloodshed until now feel like child’s play.

“L-look! Over there!”

At someone’s cry, all eyes turned to the tower where the Venerable One of Dark Heavens stood.

And their mouths fell open in collective disbelief.

“……!”

The martial artists who had swarmed up the tower were unleashing a merciless barrage of attacks, but they were the ones being sent flying back. The Venerable One of Dark Heavens’s own attacks were almost invisible. Every time something like a bolt of black lightning flashed, another of the Black Bone Sect’s warriors was blasted from the tower. Limbs and entrails scattered in mid-air. The top of the tower was becoming shrouded in a fine, red mist of blood.

“H-he’s really a monster…” someone whispered.

Gyu shook her head. “Not yet. From what I can see, this is only the beginning.” She added, her voice barely a breath. “He has not even begun to show his true power.”

At her calm declaration, everyone was at a loss for words, their gazes fixed on the tower.

It was a one-sided slaughter.