Chapter 666
Despite the sudden appearance of the Beast Miao King, Baek Sang’s voice remained calm.
“You already know, don’t you, Palace Lord?”
The Beast Miao King gave a bitter smile.
Baek Sang’s words were true. Although many tribe chiefs had turned away, the Beast Miao King was still the master of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
At least within the inner palace, nothing Baek Sang did escaped his notice.
“You stayed quite a while in the dungeon. What did you talk about with that boy for so long?”
Thinking of his conversation with Jin Taekyung, Baek Sang momentarily froze, but his hesitation was brief.
“I told him that in two days at noon, he would be executed in front of everyone.”
“And?”
“I also told him that no one would be able to stop it.”
At the words clearly aimed at him, the Beast Miao King’s gaze deepened.
“Do you truly believe that?”
“Of course.”
“What if I refuse to let it happen?”
“The Palace Lord may stand at the forefront, but the authority to decide great matters of the Southern Barbarians lies solely with the Grand Assembly.”
Baek Sang spoke softly.
“Have you forgotten the oath sworn by our ancestors centuries ago when they gathered under a single banner?”
“It changes nothing. Tomorrow, the final agenda of the Grand Assembly will be the execution of the Han, Jin Taekyung.”
The Beast Miao King stared at Baek Sang with heavy eyes. He, too, knew the balance of power had already tipped.
Yet, if he had truly given up on Jin Taekyung, he would never have come here.
“Is that all?”
“Twenty chiefs, including myself, have already agreed. If the Palace Lord defies the Assembly’s will and chooses another path…”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
Cutting him off, the Beast Miao King sighed deeply.
“You told Jin Taekyung about Hwi, didn’t you?”
A crack formed in Baek Sang’s once-unshaken expression. In the past, and even now, the only thing capable of shaking the iron-faced man was his child, whom he could no longer keep by his side.
And the Beast Miao King knew that better than anyone.
“I didn’t plant anyone in the dungeon. I merely guessed. Seeing you so shaken, unlike your usual self, confirmed it.”
“How…”
“How could I not know? We spent our entire lives together.”
Baek Sang fell silent. The word ‘we’ struck him harder than he expected. Once so natural between them, now it felt painfully distant.
‘That was when we still walked the same path, Palace Lord.’
The Beast Miao King shook his head.
“It’s still the same. We’ve never truly parted.”
“It’s already too late.”
“No, it isn’t. We’re still brothers bound by heart. The past can still be corrected.”
“To me, it’s nothing but a long-forgotten bond.”
“And yet, you’re still trapped by that past.”
“I remember that day too,” said the Beast Miao King. “The day that bright, righteous child disappeared from this land—how could anyone forget?”
Baek Sang clenched his teeth. Just recalling it filled him with unbearable pain.
And yet, deep down, he knew the truth. When the truth behind that day was revealed, there had been one other who was just as angry and just as grief-stricken as he was.
But it had all been in vain.
“We were powerless. The evidence to prove their crimes vanished, and everything was buried under the peace that followed.”
Footprints on a sandy shore are always washed away by the next wave. But Baek Sang remembered. He had carved the faces of those who abandoned his child into his heart and bones.
He had believed they all walked side by side across the vast sands of Central Plains, but in truth, they had merely made him walk ahead because he was from another race.
“I can neither forget nor undo it. So why, Palace Lord, why would you—!”
Baek Sang stopped mid-sentence. He saw the sorrow shadowing the Beast Miao King’s face.
“Do you think I’ve forgotten? Do you think a wretched father who lost his children could ever forget?”
Fifty years ago, among the ten thousand warriors who marched toward Central Plains were the Beast Miao King’s children. They never returned alive.
“I still regret it. If I hadn’t become the Palace Lord, if I hadn’t sent them to the battlefield, if only I had rejected their plea to fight by my side…”
“You’re right, Brother. We were powerless. We raged, we wept, but we could do nothing. We had to return to the Southern Barbarians. After ten years of war, everyone was too exhausted to push away peace and start another conflict.”
The Beast Miao King gave a hollow laugh.
At that time, the Southern Barbarians were only one of many forces beyond the Great Wall, far weaker than Central Plains—or even than a single major sect.
The then-Head of Sect, the peerless ‘Moo Sang Jin-in’, had been revered as a great hero. When he died in the final battle on the Great Snow Mountain, countless martial artists gathered at Mount Zhongnan to mourn.
“I merely chose. Between the dead, the living, revenge, and righteousness.”
And the rest was history.
The Beast Miao King led the survivors back to the Southern Barbarians, where he faced the endless resentment of those who had lost their families.
“My life has been full of regrets. Yet I’ve never once regretted that decision. We united, grew stronger than ever, and gained the power to hold the sinners of the past accountable.”
Baek Sang’s face hardened at the story he had never heard before, though a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes.
“And yet, you will stand on Central Plains’s side again, won’t you?”
Without hesitation, the Beast Miao King replied, “Yes, I will.”
“Why…?”
“Because burning the entire forest just because one tree is diseased is a fool’s act.”
“What must be uprooted is the cause that made that tree rot. If you recklessly burn the forest, the flames will soon reach us next.”
The Beast Miao King spoke with a weary sigh.
“In the past it was the Demon Cult, now it is Dark Heaven. We fought to protect the forest. This land too is part of that forest.”
Though neither Central Plains nor the Southern Barbarians would admit it, the Beast Miao King knew—
Though far apart, they lived within the same forest called ‘the world’.
“And you know it too, Baek Sang.”
The one who understood that truth best was the man standing before him—his sworn brother, looking back at him with trembling eyes.
“I know. No matter what I say, my words will not reach you. You’ll say the Baek Sang of that time died long ago.”
The Beast Miao King’s children had been killed by the Demon Cult. Baek Sang’s only child had been sacrificed by those he once called allies.
Their rage toward Central Plains was different in both depth and nature. Yet the Beast Miao King, who had long watched Baek Sang, already knew.
“If you continue down this path… you’ll regret it. In the past, now, and forever.”
Baek Sang wanted to answer—wanted to say he would not regret it.
For Hwi, the child who meant everything to him, he was willing to do anything.
Even if he was called a vengeful ghost in life, or an evil spirit in death, he would gladly walk this path.
‘Then why… why can’t I say it?’
He had repeated those words thousands of times in his heart over the years. Why now, when there was no turning back, could he not say them aloud?
Why, Baek Sang?
As that unanswered question echoed in his hollow heart, the Beast Miao King’s quiet voice pierced his ear.
“I can step down from the position of Palace Lord.”
The unexpected words made Baek Sang’s pupils tremble.
But the Beast Miao King continued, calm as ever.
“You heard me right. If you wish it, I’ll relinquish the position right now.”
Baek Sang was bewildered. If the position of Palace Lord were vacant, one of the remaining great chiefs would be chosen through the Grand Assembly.
But with Heukung and Yohee gone, the meaning behind the Beast Miao King’s offer was obvious.
“…You mean to appoint me as the next Palace Lord?”
“Yes. Just as you heard.”
“Palace Lord, have you gone mad?”
“Hardly.”
The Beast Palace was run by thirty-two tribe chiefs, but the authority of the title “Palace Lord” could not be ignored.
And yet, for him to make such an absurd proposal now—
“What is the meaning of this?”
Baek Sang stared at the Beast Miao King in disbelief, then suddenly closed his mouth.
He had realized something from the man’s uncharacteristically composed demeanor.
‘No way…’
The thought flashed like lightning through his mind just as the Beast Miao King spoke.
“Half a shichen. That’s all I need. Open the path for them.”
Half a shichen—one hour—and those two words, ‘for them’.
That alone was enough to turn suspicion into certainty.
Baek Sang’s voice rose, boiling with fury.
“Why? For what reason are you doing this?”
The Beast Miao King’s reply came without a trace of hesitation.
“Because they came to help us—just as we once helped them.”
“And I will help you, as I always have.”
‘It’s already too late for that.’
Baek Sang muttered bitterly to himself. He tried to call for his guards waiting outside—
But for some reason, neither his voice nor his body obeyed him.
He slowly closed his eyes.
The voice he should have cast away long ago still echoed faintly in his ears.
—How much more blood must be spilled, Baek Sang?
—
The movement through the darkness was silent and swift.
Swish, swish, swish!
Figures streaked through the air, slicing the wind as leaves trembled.
By the time anyone noticed, it was already too late.
Swish. Thud!
Bodies stiffened and fell. One of the figures caught the fallen torch and whispered,
“Open the dungeon.”
Fwoosh—
The flickering fire illuminated Yal Mok’s face.