Chapter 724
Someone left, and someone remained.
However, Beast Miao King, watching the departing figures heading down a distant road, knew. Before the lingering emotions of this farewell could fade, they would reunite. And the place of that meeting—the battlefield where they would fight back-to-back—would be the same.
“In the end, we’re heading to the Central Plains once more.”
At the voice that cut into his thoughts, Beast Miao King nodded slightly.
“Indeed. It has come to this in the end.”
“Much blood will flow.”
“Do you think this father’s decision was wrong?”
“No.”
Yal Mok replied calmly.
“If Father—no, if the Palace Lord—hadn’t intended to go to the Central Plains, I would have left with them on my own.”
….
Yal Mok’s gaze remained fixed on the backs moving farther and farther away.
Strangers from a foreign land. Yet it was because of those strangers that they had been able to protect their homeland.
“Now it’s our turn to help them.”
There had been a time when he, too, was hostile to the Central Plains and rejected the Han people.
But it was different now. The Young Palace Lord of the still-immature Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had learned humanity and righteousness from a stranger, and he would never forget the conversation he’d shared with him.
‘What if the pasture catches fire?’
‘I have to put it out right away.’
‘Why?’
‘If I don’t put it out, the fire will spread everywhere.’
‘Good. I have the answer.’
…
‘Don’t overthink the reason we came. We’re just trying to put out the fire because it started. Like the Southern Barbarians of this land who left their hometown for the Central Plains decades ago.’
At first, he didn’t believe it. He couldn’t.
As far as Yal Mok knew, the Han People were a vile race who betrayed trust and drove countless Southern Barbarians to their deaths.
There was no way they’d cross a distance of over ten thousand miles to help without any compensation.
Surely… there had been a time when he thought so.
‘But now I know. What you meant.’
The pasture called Heaven was already on fire, and the massive Fire Demon called Dark Heaven would devour everything.
Where you were born and raised, what kind of clothes you wore, what you looked like—none of it mattered anymore.
Like the Southern Barbarians who had finally become one, everyone had to work together to put out the fire.
“I will fight with my life on the line. For everyone who lives in this land. And for them.”
At the sight of Yal Mok showing such unwavering resolve, Beast Miao King wore a faint smile.
‘When did he grow up so much?’
Like the Southern Barbarians who had finally become one, his only son had also taken another step forward.
But why? At this moment, Beast Miao King’s heart felt as empty as an empty jar.
‘You incompetent fool.’
Swallowing the bitter murmur, Beast Miao King tilted the gourd he had taken from his robes.
The fragrant aroma of wine.
The fruit wine seeped into the ground along with the fading rain, into the soil of the homeland where some sworn brothers had been born and raised.
“The wine smells good. Don’t you think so?”
Those around him looked puzzled at Beast Miao King’s muttering, since he didn’t put a single drop to his lips, but he only smiled with refreshing ease.
This was enough.
Someday, they would meet again and share a drink.
‘Yes. Someday, definitely.’
Beast Miao King raised his head and looked to the sky.
Over the heads of countless Southern Barbarians, the gradually stopping rain and the blue Heaven spread wide.
No, perhaps it was the gaze of an invisible absolute being.
“Beat the war drums.”
A low voice broke the suffocating silence. Drawing a deep breath, Beast Miao King raised his Internal Energy and roared.
“The gods want it!”
Along with the Azure Dragon’s Roar that shook the surroundings, a pure-white White Tiger—watching from somewhere atop a high hill—let out a thunderous roar.
Kuaaaaaang!
Clang-clang-clang!
Waaaaaaa!
Thousands—no, tens of thousands—of beasts and humans stomped their feet and shouted. Sunlight gleamed off countless blades that filled the world in every direction.
It was the prelude to a great war.
With sad eyes and a solemn air, Hyuk Mu-jin slowly parted his lips under everyone’s gaze.
“I just wanted to save people.”
“Stop it.”
“It wasn’t done to get something in return. I couldn’t ask for someone’s sacrifice again. So I was going to leave.”
“I said stop it.”
“Hey, why are you doing this? I never get tired of doing this a few times. Honestly, everyone admits it, right?”
Taesan, tearing into a wild boar’s hind leg atop a bear sprinting without pause, nodded vigorously.
“Taesan acknowledges it!”
“See? He admits it too. I just wanted to save people—”
I cut Hyuk Mu-jin off.
“Mu-jin.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to be castrated?”
The grin plastered across Hyuk Mu-jin’s face vanished.
“No.”
“Or is your life boring?”
“That can’t be. I’m already worried my life is too intense right now.”
“Then should I make it peaceful?”
“You don’t mean you’re going to kill me, do you?”
“What if I do?”
“Wow, look over there. The scenery is really nice.”
“Okay. Let’s go quietly.”
“……Yes.”
But unlike Hyuk Mu-jin, who shut his mouth at once, Taesan asked for an encore with a regretful expression.
“Captain! Taesan wants to hear more!”
I called the person in charge of discipline.
“It seems like it’s time to shut Old Man Nam’s mouth.”
“Oh, finally!”
Nam Ho, cheering like he’d just won his independence, pulled a muzzle from his robes as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
A bizarre yet oddly familiar contraption of black, hard iron and leather straps.
“Wait. Where did you get that?”
“I got it from a Southern Barbarian trainer. He said they mainly use it when taming wild bears.”
“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong?”
“Well, it’s not that there’s a problem.”
I didn’t know why, but I felt uneasy. Like I should start calling him by the product number TAESAN-317 instead of Taesan…
After hesitating for a moment, I couldn’t shake the discomfort and sighed.
“Don’t put that on him. No. Just throw it away.”
“No! Why!”
Why? Because I think my eyes will get dirty.
I snatched the muzzle from Nam Ho, who was practically wailing, and hurled it far away. Jeok Cheon-Gang, who had been watching, spoke with a sullen face.
“What the hell happened in the Southern Barbarians?”
For a moment I didn’t understand, and I asked back.
“Yes?”
“I’m asking what happened that everyone isn’t in their right minds.”
“It’s true that a lot happened in the Southern Barbarians, but everyone is the same as before.”
“What!”
“Surprisingly, it’s true.”
“You bastard! Don’t talk nonsense. How can you say not a single person died when the situation is such a mess!”
‘I know, right. Shit.’
Looking back on everything that happened in the Southern Barbarians, I was starting to seriously suspect there really had been a blessing from Great Mother Earth.
‘I’ve been through countless life-or-death moments, but it’s a miracle I’m heading back in one piece.’
Of course, I was the only one who ran into those crises again and again, and everyone else who’d suffered minor and major injuries had fully recovered thanks to the Holy Rain.
‘And I somehow stopped Dark Heaven’s scheme.’
There were plenty of sacrifices in the process, but it was more than half a success just to stop Southern Demon Empress—our top priority from the beginning.
‘On top of that, the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace officially joined the alliance.’
In truth, that had been inevitable the moment we stopped Southern Demon Empress.
Even without Great Mother Earth’s brand effect, the result likely wouldn’t have changed much.
When embers are only half-stamped out, they burn even fiercer, and anger unites those who were scattered.
All I did was give them another focal point.
A monotheistic god who could erase even the tribal boundaries passed down for hundreds of years. A focal point that let them be reborn as a more united, more powerful force.
‘And thanks to that, the power of the Martial Arts Alliance has grown stronger too.’
This time, I could say it for sure. The Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had become a true ally.
As Beast Miao King promised before we left, they’d dispatch even more troops than they did during the Great War of Justice and Evil, and they’d do everything they could to stop Dark Heaven.
But why?
‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’
Even after achieving such enormous results, one corner of my heart was still clogged with discomfort.
And maybe the reason was the questions that remained unanswered.
‘The New Martial Arts Alliance is being born, and all the Central Plains is gathering around the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families. But Dark Heaven’s full power still hasn’t been revealed.’
The first intervention in Shanxi Province. Everything that followed since the Shaolin Bloodshed.
None of it was trivial, but it was only a fragment of the whole that was Dark Heaven.
‘The time for testing the waters should’ve already passed.’
What is the intention of those bastards—no, of the Heavenly Lord?
And why is the Heavenly Lord…
“Why are you so interested in me?”
The mumble slipped out before I could stop it, and everyone’s eyes turned to me. Before I could correct myself, Hyuk Mu-jin snapped his head up like a meerkat.
“Huh, Captain. Did someone confess to you? Oh my god. A Southern Barbarian?”
I wanted to gouge out Hyuk Mu-jin’s eyes—shining like stars.
I forced the impulse down and answered.
“It’s not like that, you crazy bastard.”
“Crazy. Then a Han?”
“How many times do I have to say it’s not— Ah. Come to think of it, it must be a Han.”
“Wow. When was it? Who confessed?”
“The Heavenly Lord.”
“Wow. A girl with an unusual name from the start. She sounds like some noble lady from a good family—”
Hyuk Mu-jin, making a fuss, abruptly shut his mouth. He blinked, thought for a moment, then continued.
“Who?”
“The Heavenly Lord.”
“The Heavenly Lord I know? The one everyone knows?”
“Who else would it be besides her?”
Hyuk Mu-jin, suddenly silent, muttered under his breath.
“Shit, that good family was in Xinjiang…”
If you crossed Qinghai, where the Kunlun Sect was located, you reached Xinjiang—and Xinjiang had been Demonic Path territory for a thousand years.
Once everyone realized the one interested in me was a lady from Dark Heaven’s house, they exchanged looks for a moment, then questions poured out all at once.
“No, why the Heavenly Lord?”
Nam Ho cut in over Hyuk Mu-jin’s question.
“It’s obvious. Isn’t it because she keeps interfering every time?”
“That’s true, but it’s not like the Captain is one of the Three Stars or the Ten Kings. He’s just a piece of trash who got famous.”
“Come to think of it, that’s not wrong either.”
“Taesan can eat trash too.”
“I knew you’d do this, you son of a bitch, so I brought another muzzle. Come here and open your mouth.”
“No, why are you all talking like that? Our Captain is trash! Song Guard, you bastard—Young Hero! Say something!”
“Young Lady Joo. I’m sorry, but I think I have to leave at this point. Even if I somehow made it to the Southern Barbarians, it’s a bit much for the Heavenly Lord to be interested in him.”
“Taesan! That’s not meat, so don’t bite it! Old Man Nam! Put that muzzle down right now!”
‘Shit. This is a mess.’
And at that moment, as I stared blankly at the total chaos unfolding before my eyes, a low telepathic transmission pierced my ear.
– Let’s talk.