Chapter 699

Thud! Boom!

The Inner Palace’s stone walls, unable to withstand the violent tremors, crumbled helplessly. The iron gate, dislodged by the impact, slammed into the ground.

A collapse like a small hill giving way.

But Baek Sang, slipping past the debris as if gliding, shot forward.

Whoosh!

Wind scraped across his body. With senses sharpened to a razor’s edge, he caught the acrid stink of blood and the screams echoing from every direction.

He drew a deep breath, feeling the power surging within him.

‘I mustn’t be swept away.’

Behind the Inner Palace, a massive cliff rose like a folding screen.

The Demonic Energy seeping from the fissure—something that could only be called a Gate now—was not something Baek Sang could treat lightly.

No. It was precisely because he was a supreme master that he could stride through the Inner Palace at all.

If one wasn’t walking the path of Demonic Arts, even a respectable master of internal energy would have their qi thrown into chaos and lose composure the moment they stepped into that realm of Demonic Energy.

Just like the man staggering into his path right now.

“L-Lord? Are you the Palace Lord?”

An unforgettable face.

Greed that resembled his father’s, a position inherited without any real ability, and a life spent in luxury.

That was why he had supported Baek Sang more eagerly than anyone.

Yet the man who always wore a slick smile and spoke with flattery now bled from all seven orifices, wailing.

“Please… please save me! I don’t want to die yet…!”

His flailing hand brushed Baek Sang’s pure white collar.

Baek Sang looked down at the collapsing tribal chief and spoke calmly.

“Why should I?”

“P-Palace Lord…?”

“You must have already known. What I am about to do will bring great harm to the Southern Barbarian.”

“We traded fair compensation for each other’s purposes, so don’t feel wronged.”

I will do the same.

With the unspoken words, Finger Wind shot from Baek Sang’s fingertip.

Thwack!

Pierced through the crown of his head, the tribal chief collapsed where he stood.

His eyes, wide with disbelief, seemed to question Baek Sang even in death.

Why. Why.

How can you be so certain, even while hell is unfolding?

And to the dead man’s question, Baek Sang answered in his heart.

‘Because I was prepared from the start.’

Even so, the breath that escaped his lips trembled.

If that man had begged him to save the tribesmen instead of himself, would he have spared him?

No. Perhaps it was mercy for someone with such feeble martial arts to meet a clean death.

Ten thousand.

A full ten thousand.

Warriors and beasts writhed in agony, drenched in blood and swallowed by Demonic Energy.

Their screams clawed at his heart, like knives scraping through his mind.

But Baek Sang didn’t stop.

Swoosh!

Without hesitation, he cut across the vast training ground filled with screams.

The stable where he and Yal Chok used to hide whenever they caused trouble as children, the storeroom they’d snuck into to steal fruit wine—everything flashed past like wind.

Revenge, anger, regret.

With every step, the emotions that had piled up for years churned harder.

If he hadn’t sent his only son to the battlefield.

If he had drawn his sword instead of shaking hands that day the Southern Demon Empress came.

If he had told the whole truth to his only sworn brother, the one who trusted him more than anyone—more than Baek Sang himself.

Or—

‘If only I had taken everything onto myself and killed myself.’

Thud.

At some point, the relentless footsteps stopped.

His eyes, fixed on the tightly closed door, were bloodshot.

And in his mind, the Southern Demon Empress’s voice from the night before echoed.

‘Noon. Tomorrow at noon. Summon all the warriors in the palace to the Inner Palace.’

‘Tomorrow… at noon?’

‘Yes. Your role ends there. We’ll take care of what happens after that…’

‘Promise.’

‘Huh?’

‘Keep your promise. The promise you made to me long ago.’

‘You’re quite audacious, aren’t you? Daring to interrupt an elder while they’re speaking.’

The Southern Demon Empress laughed, and Baek Sang knelt without a heartbeat of hesitation.

Only after watching the new master of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace kowtow for a long time did she grant him the answer he had wanted so desperately.

‘I should reward a polite child. Fine. Return to your office when the grand plan begins.’

‘…My office?’

‘Yes. Right here. The promise I made will be fulfilled then.’

Her laughter scattered in his ears.

Slowly—very slowly—Baek Sang’s lone hand reached for the door, trembling.

The question of ‘How?’ had never mattered.

If the Southern Demon Empress—if Dark Heaven—said so, then it would be so.

After everything they had already shown him, it was only natural.

No matter how many eyes watched the Inner Palace, the promise would be kept.

‘Finally.’

He had come this far.

Closing his eyes tightly, a wave of old memories swallowed his body and mind.

A long endurance.

But even this desolate story had a final chapter.

As if waking from a dream, Baek Sang opened his eyes and shoved the door open.

Creak.

The door swung wide.

A spacious office came into view.

Simple, rustic furniture still holding the warmth of its former owner. A table that had endured the years.

And a large mirror occupying a place that didn’t belong in this room at all.

And—

That was all.

‘There’s nothing. Nothing at all.’

The unbelievable reality dropped on him like a weight of ten thousand pounds.

Baek Sang stared with empty eyes, then let out a hollow laugh.

“Heh. Hehehe. Hehehehe.”

He laughed because he couldn’t cry.

He laughed because he couldn’t not laugh.

The Southern Demon Empress hadn’t kept her promise.

Decades of time, everything he had done in those years—turned to ash and scattered.

In the end, it all ended like this.

“Euhahahahaha!”

Baek Sang burst into laughter as if he’d returned to boyhood.

He clutched his stomach, rolled on the floor, and laughed through tears.

No—he cried.

“Euhaha, euhahaha! Euaaaaaa!”

A scream tore out in place of laughter.

Baek Sang slammed the floor and the walls with a fist that held not a shred of power.

Bang! Bang! Kwaaaang!

It wasn’t just the office that shattered under that roar.

The callused back of his hand split open, and pure white bone flashed through the blood covering his fist.

It hurt.

More than anything had ever hurt.

Thud. Thud thud.

Drops of blood spattered and pooled across the cracked floor like a spider’s web.

Baek Sang staggered upright and walked to the window.

While he felt as if the world had stopped, everything beyond the wide-open window still spun violently.

“Kuaa. Ack!”

“…Please kill…”

Kurk, krrrk!

Humans and beasts writhed in agony, resisting the Demonic Energy devouring their bodies and minds.

And shadows—large and small—raced through the chaos, spewing terrible cries.

A horde of beasts, shaking the earth as they climbed over the collapsed stone walls, surged in.

But their purpose wasn’t slaughter.

It was rescue.

Kuaaaaang!

Moving in perfect order behind the roar of a familiar White Tiger at the forefront, they bit down on arms, legs, and collars—grabbing whoever they could—and ran toward the Outer Palace.

To escape this Demonic Energy.

To drag them toward the light, even one step farther.

Clench.

His fist tightened until blood beaded beneath nails digging into flesh.

Baek Sang lifted his head and stared into the distance.

There, light and darkness churned together without end.

Boom boom boom!

He could feel it—an unimaginable wave of power.

And with every collision, the light weakened, and one figure continued to be driven back.

Kwaang! Drrrduk!

Thrown out with a roar, the figure slammed into the ground like a meteor.

Two pavilions collapsed. The earth shook.

But only for an instant.

Blue flames stepped onto empty air and shot back toward the deep darkness.

No pause. Not even a breath.

As if determined to burn away even death as it approached.

‘Jin Taekyung.’

Why are you doing that? Why?

The question he never voiced hung on his lips.

Then a voice he had heard in a dark corner of the prison not long ago echoed in his ears.

‘How much more blood are you going to shed, Baek Sang?’

Baek Sang stared out the window, blank, and offered a belated answer.

“I don’t know either.”

A secret he had never told anyone.

He had dreamed of revenge after losing his son.

He had seen hope after meeting the Southern Demon Empress.

At some point, he’d realized he had crossed a river of no return—and despaired.

And at the end of the thorn-covered road he had walked, he had found only emptiness.

Thud.

Baek Sang staggered back from the window.

He could no longer bear to watch the hell he had created with his own hands.

He couldn’t bear to watch the young stranger trying to stop that hell with his life.

‘What was all of it for?’

That question would never find an answer.

Baek Sang turned from the window—

And his entire body froze like stone.

Ah…?

Where his gaze stopped, a person covered in blood and dust looked back at him.

A man who had lost everything and become an empty shell.

An old man who had merely suppressed the years with high martial prowess and lived on as a monster.

His reflection filled the large mirror in the corner of the office.

But that wasn’t all Baek Sang saw.

“Hwi…”

A call that would never reach.

He reached out a hand.

No—he was about to reach out—

When the mirror’s smooth surface rippled like water.

Swish.

In that instant, Baek Sang finally understood.

Who had given him this mirror.

Why the Southern Demon Empress had said the promise would be fulfilled here.

‘It wasn’t a lie…’

In his heart, grown cold, embers he thought long dead flared back to life.

And within Baek Sang’s trembling eyes, the mirror—already stained with murky darkness—spat out a black shadow.

Along with a cold sword blade packed with force.

Thwack!

Phat!

***

The Southern Demon Empress stretched out her foot.

A foot smaller than a boy’s palm.

But the moment it struck the side of the blade, a power greater than a giant’s surged through my entire body.

Crack, bang!

– Human!

At the Guardian Spirit’s cry, I—already down—was driven deep into the ground.

My lips parted from the shock that hammered through my back.

Cough.

Red blood slid down the corner of my mouth.

I’d already taken serious internal injuries, and every time I moved, cracked bones creaked and screamed.

‘Monster.’

The Southern Demon Empress was a vile bitch, but also a vile monster.

A monster with martial prowess beyond anyone I’d ever faced—even beyond the Western Heavenly Demon.

But—

‘I have to get up. No matter how many times.’

Not just a few.

Dozens, if that’s what it took.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

If I took even one step back, that would be hell.

Not just for me, but for every living thing in the Southern Barbarian.

And the Central Plains would surely be swallowed by flame.

‘I have to stop it.’

I wiped the blood from my mouth with my sleeve and stood.

And before I could even raise my power again, I realized the situation wasn’t yet bad enough to be called the worst.

Boom boom boom boom!

I turned instinctively.

And I saw it.

“…What the fuck.”

Above the collapsing Inner Palace, darkness hung thick like a shroud.