The ground rumbled once more.

"Hall Master, these tremors..."

U Yuhee answered Irang.

"Senior Hae Il and Sugyeom are clashing with the Jeong Empire's main force near the Mist Forest right now."

"Already?"

"Yes. They set out the moment the enemy crossed the border."

The Mist Forest lay hundreds of li from the main mountain. Just what sort of battle could make a mountain range hundreds of li away shake?

Even as Yise reeled at that unfathomable disparity in power, unease began creeping over him.

War.

It was a word that did not readily feel real. Passages describing its horrors, which he had encountered only in histories and other writings, came to mind, overlaid with the losses he had suffered himself.

"We do our part. All we have to do is follow Sugyeom's last orders. Nothing changes. Asan and White Tiger Hall are buying time on the front lines. We defend the key facilities in the meantime."

Hall Master U Yuhee remained calm, as though accustomed to this. At her gesture, Irang stepped forward to deliver the briefing in her stead.

"Yellow Dragon Hall, Vermilion Bird Hall, and Soaring Serpent Hall will defend the main mountain and its surroundings. We are going to defend Daejeong Mine. We've received word that an enemy detachment has broken away to target it."

Daejeong Mine produced more spirit stones than any other mine in Daemudo. It was their source of sustenance, their lifeline.

They did not know how many attackers to expect, but it was an enormous responsibility for barely thirty-odd Foundation Establishment Cultivators and a single Core Formation Cultivator.

As Yise listened tensely to his senior's explanation, another message talisman flew in.

U Yuhee read the message and bit her lip hard. Irang immediately approached her.

"What is it, Hall Master?"

"The Iron Sun Thunder Sect is on the move."

"... What? Now?"

The Iron Sun Thunder Sect. The demonic-path sect that had infiltrated Daemudo and ceaselessly harassed and obstructed its Cultivators.

Daemudo had finally located their main force and driven them into the western wilderness. Now they were taking advantage of the chaos to act.

"Where?"

"Tabaro. The eastern coast."

U Yuhee clutched her head as though it ached. The precarious balance of forces had tipped in an instant.

"Do you have any idea what their target might be?"

There was only one place connected to Daemudo on Tabaro's eastern coast.

Daemudo's greatest ally. Mongryeon and the Dokkaebi.

"Gwisu Temple."

The name made Yise flinch. U Yuhee's eyes met his from behind her half mask.

Yise immediately turned to Gwak Chan beside him.

"Why Gwisu Temple...?"

"It has the densest concentration of extreme-yin Demonic Energy in the Three Kingdoms of the Peninsula. There's no better place for demonic practitioners to cultivate. Besides, no Cultivator has set foot in the Ulta Mountains for centuries. Spiritual materials are lying everywhere. It's a natural storehouse of resources. A demonic-path sect couldn't ask for a better base—if they can take it. But the timing is suspicious. If they've appeared in the eastern sea at this precise moment... we can only assume they coordinated with the Jeong Empire beforehand."

His deduction bordered on certainty. The Jeong Empire would benefit by further reducing Daemudo's already inadequate forces, while the Iron Sun Thunder Sect would gain a naturally blessed land of yin.

"Bihyeong Rang, the Tyrant of Ten Thousand Demons. This is his doing. He orchestrated this."

U Yuhee spat out each syllable as though the name alone made her shudder with loathing.

A demonic practitioner who incited human greed and plunged the world into chaos.

From the moment Yise heard that Gwisu Temple would be attacked, his eyes began trembling wildly. His presence burned hot, as though he might dash off at any instant.

But with tremendous self-restraint, he held himself back and asked the Hall Master,

"Will... reinforcements be sent to Gwisu Temple?"

His voice came out even, but beneath his robes his hands were clenched so tightly that the blood had nearly drained from them.

Most of the Dokkaebi's fighting strength belonged to the Spirit Turtle Corps. Following Daemudo's orders, its members were scattered across the regions hunting demonic practitioners.

Even if they could all assemble at once to fight, they could not face the Iron Sun Thunder Sect alone. As their ally, Daemudo had to send support.

And yet.

"..."

A faint sigh escaped from behind the mask.

U Yuhee could not answer. No matter how she calculated it, there were no forces she could spare for them.

Even Sugyeom, who should have been directing the response, had gone after Hae Il. Hae Il must have flown into a rage at the attack and rushed out, with Sugyeom following to support him for fear that he might meet a violent end fighting alone.

A message would be sent to them, of course, but in the thick of battle, neither would have the time to issue detailed instructions on the wider war.

Ultimately, the outcome of this war would be decided on the battlefield where Hae Il, the Lord of Daemudo, fought.

As U Yuhee's silence lengthened, Yise understood that it meant no. Without hesitation, he spoke.

"Then I'll go alone."

"Yise!"

Gwak Chan turned to him in alarm, but U Yuhee stopped him.

"Let him go."

"Hall Master, but—"

"You have my permission. Go. Just be careful."

"Thank you."

The words had barely left his lips before he brought out his flying boat and took to the air, forgetting Daemudo's regulations entirely.

The boat bearing the image of a white bird shot east through the dawn sky above the main mountain.

* * *

The White Luan Boat surged forward.

Below the boat slicing through the air, battles were raging here and there. The scattered Dokkaebi were hurrying home, fighting the Iron Sun Thunder Sect's demonic practitioners they encountered along the way.

Dokkaebi corpses lay strewn about. Some had been beheaded. Others had lost their limbs.

Every Dokkaebi in the Spirit Turtle Corps was at Foundation Establishment or above. For casualties to appear so soon...

It would have been impossible unless the enemy had laid ambushes along their routes beforehand.

Lightning occasionally came flying at Yise as he flew straight ahead, but he evaded every strike, steering the boat precisely with the divine sense he had honed over the past four years.

Without slowing or changing course, he flew directly toward his destination.

The barrier's curtain of light, once easily twice an adult's height, hung in tatters in the air.

'The barrier's broken...'

It was a divine relic's barrier, impossible for anyone who had not learned the Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art to find, let alone enter.

A terrible, ominous thought struck Yise: had the gu parasite in his head been intended to unravel this barrier?

He plunged the White Luan Boat through a tear.

Beyond the barrier lay a scene of horrific slaughter.

The brutal sight stole his breath.

The Iron Sun Thunder Sect's demonic practitioners were massacring the Dokkaebi. Dark red blood pooled like mud on the earthen ground. Fresh blood splashed across it as screams rose.

An inner demon gripped Yise, rage threatening to burst his brain. He immediately cut off the head of the first demonic practitioner he saw.

His black hand axe blazed with light.

Demonic beasts charged, streams of blood shot toward him, and lightning struck, but Yise darted through it all.

One practitioner's head rolled onto the dirt. Another had both knees severed clean through. As the man collapsed without his knees, Dokkaebi Flame of the Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art gushed onto his shoulder.

Black flames consumed his entire body.

In moments, the practitioners rampaging through Gwisu Temple's central main hall had fallen as cold corpses.

Beyond them, he saw familiar faces.

All dead.

Once again, he had failed to protect them.

A deep blade wound marked the cook's chest. She still clutched a kitchen knife, its tip stained with blood.

Elder Dok Saenggu, Brother Yeonggyeong, Teacher Gongchu. All the family who had shown him affection and smiled at him.

They were cold corpses now.

"Die!"

Yise cleaved a charging demonic practitioner lengthwise.

CRACK!

The two halves fell to either side.

At that moment, Yise encountered an enormous Demonic Energy—an immense evil more powerful, more malicious, and more horrifying than any he had ever sensed.

He looked up. Someone hovered in the air a short distance from Gwisu Temple.

"...?"

Yise could not believe his eyes. An all-too-familiar face was there.

"... Master Wisaeng?"

How strange. He recognized that face, yet it did not seem like someone he knew.

He had known him for well over a decade. The man who had always sat in the same place, looking just the same, to welcome him.

Who had taken him in when he was abandoned and found him adoptive parents.

Who had taught him letters and knowledge.

Who had opened his study to a boy hungry for learning.

Who had stood in his way when he lost his family.

Who had tended the graves of the family who had left him so suddenly.

Wisaeng.

The man whom ordinary people respected as Aegul County's Clog-Shod Scholar now stared down at Yise from the sky, radiating tremendous Demonic Energy.

"Master, why are you there—"

Denying reality, Yise forced out the question. Instead of answering, the man merely flicked his hand.

Demonic practitioners sprang out of nowhere and charged him all at once.

The Needle-Firing Armor flashed, turning every attacker into a hedgehog.

At that moment, the corners of Wisaeng's lips slowly rose. That kindly smile he had so rarely shown Yise.

The smile he had thought kindly, yet now found chilling, spread across the man's face as if painted there.

An exchange flashed through his mind like an alarm bell.

["Has the matter of the gu parasite taken from my head been resolved?"]

["We confirmed that it was the work of Bihyeong Rang, the Tyrant of Ten Thousand Demons and leader of the Iron Sun Thunder Sect. It appears to have been a gu parasite meant to investigate something and relay information, but we do not know the details. His mastery of venomous insects could well be the greatest on the entire continent."]

Until now, Yise had never sensed spiritual energy, Demonic Energy, or even impure energy from Wisaeng.

But that had not been because he was an ordinary man. On reflection, it was strange. No matter how thoroughly he avoided impure things, an ordinary man should still have possessed impure energy.

It was not that he had no internal reserves. Yise had simply been unable to sense them because the gap between their realms was so vast.

Even now, the energy pouring from him was too powerful for Yise to fathom, yet neither spiritual meridians nor a Dharma-Transformed Dantian could be seen.

At least Core Formation. Judging by the breadth of his divine sense, he had reached Great Perfection.

There was only one person that powerful in the Iron Sun Thunder Sect.

Bihyeong Rang, the Tyrant of Ten Thousand Demons.

Yise realized that this was Wisaeng's true identity.

Only then did all the pieces begin to fall into place.

Taking him in, supporting him—it had all been an illusion, a lie.

He was the one who had planted the gu parasite in Yise's head. He had obtained what he needed through Yise, then used him as poison to strike at his master and ultimately swallow Gwisu Temple whole.

"Wisaeng!!"

Ignoring the demonic practitioners charging him, Yise cried out in a voice that was almost a scream.

"WISAAAEENG!!"

His unrestrained energy made the Ulta Mountains ring with his roar.

The spiritual energy and Demonic Energy carried by his voice erupted together, lifting every pebble on the nearby ground into the air. Three charging practitioners were caught in the blast and slammed bodily into the dirt.

Yise gripped his hand axe and immediately mounted the White Luan Boat, without even thinking to gauge the difference in their Rank.

He could never forgive this.

But then a warm, comforting energy pressed Yise down.

"Bihyeong Rang, Tyrant of Ten Thousand Demons."

It was Mongryeon.

"So it was you who put that filthy insect inside my beloved disciple's head."

She was covered in the enemy's blood, as though she had already fought a fierce battle.

"You came, my disciple."

Yise could not bring himself to answer. The sight of the cold bodies would not leave his eyes. He bitterly lamented arriving too late.

Seeing his expression, Mongryeon deliberately smiled and stroked his head.

"Smile. What did I tell you?"

"... It is the custom of the Dokkaebi to smile for the dead."