The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable answered the Lord of the Dark Palace, who had declared that he would kill everyone Geom Mugeuk knew.
“Doesn’t that include you, too?”
As the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable revealed her aura, the Drunken Demon and the Demon Buddha looked at each other.
The two of them could tell. The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable wanted to fight the Lord of the Dark Palace.
The Demon Buddha slowly walked over and stood before the Lady of Cheonhwaru. It meant that he would protect her, so she could fight to her heart’s content.
The Lady of Cheonhwaru moved to stand beside Gaye.
Gaye silently gazed at the Lady of Cheonhwaru. She could tell. Even here, the Lady of Cheonhwaru was trying to save her. Since the Demon Venerables would protect her anyway, if Gaye stayed close like this, she would survive as a bonus.
‘Why are you trying so hard to keep me alive? I lured you into a trap.’
She must have read the emotions in Gaye’s eyes, yet the Lady of Cheonhwaru only looked worriedly at the Lord of the Dark Palace and the Demon Venerables.
The Drunken Demon and the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable stood side by side.
“Let’s have ourselves one more proper fight.”
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable was grateful to the two Demon Venerables. No matter how diligently she had trained, she was young, and compared to the other Demon Venerables, she was relatively lacking in real combat experience.
Even so, they acknowledged her as a Demon Venerable in her own right. Even when fighting the Lord of the Dark Palace.
She gave a slight bow to the Drunken Demon, and then to the Demon Buddha standing behind her as well. This journey was becoming the catalyst that allowed her to stand tall as a true Demon Venerable.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable slowly exhaled, as if blowing out a breath.
Whooo.
Her breath spread into the darkness.
From that breath came sounds. The sighs of people, screams of rage, cries of sorrow, peals of cackling laughter—the voices of all manner of people were contained within it.
As the silent space filled with the sounds of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, the air around them changed.
The Demon Buddha emitted a bright radiance from his body, illuminating the space of darkness. As the darkness was lost, the stars, too, began to lose their light.
The Drunken Demon released a powerful aura of wine, making the night sky drunk.
As the three Demon Venerables simultaneously released their presences, the atmosphere of that place transformed.
But the Lord of the Dark Palace raised his index finger into the air, as if to say that he was the master of this place.
At that moment, the positions of the stars surrounding them changed.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.
As if, since the positions of the stars had changed, it was only natural that the places where they stood should change as well, all the energy the Demon Venerables had painstakingly altered vanished without a trace. They were standing in a different location.
Just from that one move, they could feel how extraordinary the Lord of the Dark Palace was within this space.
Of course, the Demon Venerables were not the sort to be cowed by that.
“In the earlier fight, Soul-Capturing watched my back, so this time I will take the supporting role.”
When the Drunken Demon yielded the first strike, the Lord of the Dark Palace provoked the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
“He’s putting you in front because he’s afraid of dying.”
That provocation did not work on the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable. On the contrary, it gave her an opening to counterattack.
“Can you really say that, after sacrificing countless subordinates and only now crawling out yourself?”
Her words were direct and rough. She liked the method of openly cursing at her opponent to provoke them.
“You ugly old bastard. It’s time you were punished for failing to age with grace.”
The Lord of the Dark Palace’s eyes sank coldly. Before the Demon Venerables, at least, he had intended to display authority and terror and fight with dignity. But he had forgotten one thing.
“You damned Demon Venerables all take after that bastard.”
“I consider that an honor.”
Flash.
One of the stars floating around them shone, then dropped toward her at a terrifying speed.
Shiiiiik.
It was an astral force with the same power that had forced the Drunken Demon several steps back in the first attack.
Just as the astral force was about to fall upon her.
Shrrrk.
A pattern was drawn in midair and swallowed the incoming force.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable’s Hunyuan Reversal Art, which redirected attacks elsewhere, had been unleashed.
At the same time, a pattern appeared beside the Lord of the Dark Palace, and the astral force burst out from there.
Boom!
The Lord of the Dark Palace thrust out his hand and blocked the attack he himself had launched. Though his body shook from the impact, he did not take a single step. It showed just how profound his inner force was.
Shoooooook!
This time, three stars flew toward her at once.
A pattern formed in midair once more. But though there were three incoming stars, there was only one pattern.
Kwaaang! Boom! Kwaang!
Three explosive sounds rang out in succession.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable redirected one, and the ones who blocked the other two stars were the Drunken Demon and the Demon Buddha. Each released palm force and stopped the other two attacks.
While unleashing the Hunyuan Reversal Art, the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had not shouted to the two Demon Venerables to block the other astral forces. She had trusted that they naturally would, and the Drunken Demon and the Demon Buddha lived up to that trust.
And the Drunken Demon went one step further.
The instant he blocked the astral force, he rushed toward the Lord of the Dark Palace. When it came to charging, no one could match the Drunken Demon.
In a flash, the Drunken Demon was thrusting his dagger at the Lord of the Dark Palace.
Whoosh.
With a single sound of wind, the distance between the two of them instantly widened.
The Lord of the Dark Palace, who had been right before his eyes, was now far away, no more than a speck in the distance.
The Lord of the Dark Palace was freely shrinking and expanding this night-sky space he had unfolded.
The Drunken Demon cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.
“Old sir! If you go too far, you’ll get lost!”
Though the Drunken Demon mocked him, his eyes were cautious. The move that had just been displayed was by no means a shallow trick. He truly seemed to be moving by folding this space.
“We have no chance of winning here. We have to tear our way out.”
Everyone agreed with the Demon Buddha’s words.
But that was by no means an easy task. The wall of darkness was overwhelmingly strong, and even if they could combine their strength and break through it, there was no way the Lord of the Dark Palace would simply stand by and watch.
Whirik.
The Lord of the Dark Palace once again crossed the space and approached to within a dozen or so paces.
“You can only leave by dying.”
At that very moment, the Lord of the Dark Palace felt that something was unnatural about his body.
Before he knew it, red threads were tied around his arms, shoulders, and legs. He looked like a doll being controlled by strings.
The Blood Thread Marionette Art (血絲人形術) unleashed by the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had taken effect.
His arms swung up. One arm went upward, the other downward.
The Lord of the Dark Palace, of all people under heaven, had become a ridiculous sight.
The reason the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had used the Blood Thread Marionette Art was not to insult him, nor because she was confident she could control him for long. With her insufficient inner force, there was no way she could.
The reason she had used it regardless was because she trusted the cleverness of the person fighting alongside her.
Sure enough, the Drunken Demon was already rushing toward him. Having gained great enlightenment in footwork during this outing from the cult, the Drunken Demon showed movement incomparable to before.
The Drunken Demon did not miss this opportunity. This fleeting instant when he could not move his body properly.
Shiiiiik.
The Drunken Demon’s dagger was already flying toward the Lord of the Dark Palace’s heart.
Puak.
Blood scattered through the air.
“Aaah!”
The one who screamed was the Lady of Cheonhwaru, who had been watching the fight.
Everyone froze with startled expressions.
The blood sprayed through the air belonged to the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
The Drunken Demon and the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable were looking at each other.
What the dagger had cut was the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable’s shoulder. Just before the dagger pierced his heart, the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable and the Lord of the Dark Palace had changed places.
The Lord of the Dark Palace stood where the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had been, looking at them and smiling.
He had unleashed one of his signature martial arts, the Dark Heaven Position-Exchange Art (暗天換位功).
If the Drunken Demon had not changed the direction of his dagger at the last moment, it would not have been her shoulder but her heart that was pierced. In that split second, he had seen not fear but exultation in the Lord of the Dark Palace’s eyes, and had instinctively altered its course.
The Drunken Demon’s heart sank. Truly, this was the first time he had ever seen such demonic arts.
If he could use this demonic art freely, how could they possibly kill him?
“Soul-Capturing, are you all right?”
“Yes.”
With an expression that said she truly was fine, the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable nodded to the Drunken Demon and pressed an acupoint on her shoulder to stop the bleeding.
The Drunken Demon turned toward the Lord of the Dark Palace and laughed.
“So that’s where you were? Charging at one of our own because I was drunk! This is why drunkards are no good.”
Watching this, Gaye spoke in a low voice.
“As long as the Greedy Heart Great Annihilation Art continues, that man’s inner force is as good as infinite.”
Everyone heard her words.
“Someone outside has to get everyone aboard this ship to disembark and stop the Greedy Heart Great Annihilation Art. Then, maybe, there will be a chance of winning.”
Now the Lord of the Dark Palace did not even curse her as a traitor. As if this indifference was the greatest punishment he could give her.
Having said what she needed to say, Gaye also stood expressionless.
She was standing here as the enemy of the person she had followed her entire life. Could a person’s fate change like this in a single day? Was it allowed to?
While Gaye was speaking, another martial art had already been unleashed.
It was the martial art of the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable, who had nearly died just moments ago. They were such masters that, in the blink of an eye, martial arts were already unfolding.
Patterns filled the space around the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable and the Lord of the Dark Palace. Around her, around the Lord of the Dark Palace, and between them, they stretched out like a path.
The next moment.
Whoosh.
She stood before a single door.
Heart-Soul Direct Link (心魂直結).
She had unleashed a soul-capturing art that entered directly into the opponent’s mind. To attempt to directly seize the soul of a master like the Lord of the Dark Palace was an exceedingly dangerous undertaking.
But the strongest martial art she possessed was, in the end, the soul-capturing art that controlled another’s mind. If they were to win this fight, she had no choice.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable opened the door and stepped inside.
It was an empty room.
She entered again through the door in that room. The next room was empty as well.
These rooms were places where one could see the memories of the person subjected to the soul-capturing art. Not just any memories, but memories of their happiest moments. Those happiest moments were then used to control the opponent.
Each time she opened a door and entered, she moved backward through time.
The next room was empty as well.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had performed countless soul-capturing arts, but this was the first time she had ever encountered such empty rooms.
Passing from old age through middle age, she opened the door to his youth and entered.
But even the happy memories of his youth were empty.
How could this be?
When she opened the final room, one memory was there.
She saw the Lord of the Dark Palace as a child, together with someone. Looking up at the person beside him, the young Lord of the Dark Palace was smiling brightly. The person had his back turned, so she could not see who he was from where she stood.
In his entire life, this was the one and only pleasant memory in his heart.
Perhaps this had been the first and last time in his life that he had ever smiled so innocently.
Just as the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable was about to approach and confirm the identity of the person standing with his back turned.
The eyes of the young Lord of the Dark Palace, who had been looking up at the man, shifted and looked at her.
“!”
This was the first time a figure in a memory had moved of its own accord like this.
The instant an ominous feeling surged up, the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable quickly ran back the way she had come.
Each time she passed through a room she had already crossed, the door closed by itself.
Tak! Tak!
She instinctively knew that if she were trapped in a room, she would be unable to escape. That would mean qi deviation from the failure of the soul-capturing art.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
They closed, and closed again. She sprinted as fast as she could and, just as she narrowly emerged from the final room—
Her eyes flew open.
Clang.
The patterns connected between the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable and the Lord of the Dark Palace shattered and broke apart.
She swallowed down the blood surging up from within.
The soul-capturing art had failed.
“Who was that person?”
At the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable’s question, the Lord of the Dark Palace’s face twitched. Was it rage at having had the depths of his heart seen? A powerful aura of darkness surged from his body.
Seven of the stars in the night sky began to shine.
Northern Dipper Calamity Annihilation (北斗滅劫).
Those seven stars filled the space as they poured down upon the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
Swaaaaaaaaaak!
It was an attack of power incomparable to those that had flown at her before. It came too wide and too fast, leaving no space to evade.
She raised her protective astral energy to its limit, but it was a situation in which she had to be prepared for internal injuries.
Just then, the Demon Buddha’s voice came from behind her.
“It’s nice and spacious here.”
The Demon Buddha’s fingers were already forming a mudra.
Demonic Palm Annihilation Seal!
A gigantic blood-red Buddha rose in the middle of the night sky. The seven incoming streams of astral force struck the blood Buddha.
Boom! Kwaaang! Kwa-kwang! Kwaaang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwaaang!
The Blood Buddha blocked with his body every blade of qi that flew toward the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
A gigantic palm came crashing down toward the Dark Palace Lord.
Kuwaaaang.
Ordinarily, there would have been no way to evade the Blood Buddha’s palm within that space, but the Dark Palace Lord stretched the space and fled far into the distance.
The Drunken Demon judged that they could not afford to drag this out any longer.
They had to decide the battle before their own inner power was consumed further.
As the distance opened between them, the Drunken Demon drew Blood Tear, the unique weapon he wore at his waist. It was the first time he had drawn Blood Tear since boarding the ship.
“Careful. I’m a mean drunk.”
When he infused his unique inner power into the gourd-shaped Blood Tear, it trembled and emitted a pure white light.
The Drunken Demon’s signature martial art, the Wine God Art.
The final cup, the Wine God’s Utter Intoxication.
The Drunken Demon opened Blood Tear’s stopper and gulped down the liquor inside.
A black, drunken aura began to ripple from the Drunken Demon’s body, and from his two eyes flowed a pure white intoxication.
“Ah, I’m getting drunk!”
The Drunken Demon drew a dagger and swung it through the air, throwing a drunken fit.
“Who dares block my way! Move!”
Watching this, the Dark Palace Lord unleashed a new martial art.
“I’ll make it even more dizzying for you!”
Dark Heaven Revolving Star.
This time, the stars in every direction began to rotate around them. The stars spun as though the heavens themselves had gone mad.
Whiiiiiiiii.
It was so dizzying that the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion and Gaye collapsed where they stood.
The Drunken Demon, who had been about to charge at the Dark Palace Lord, staggered and ran off in another direction. It was not merely dizziness from their surroundings spinning. Currents of darkness that stole away the opponent’s mind were whirling together with it.
“Am I the one who’s drunk? Or is the world drunk? The whole world is spinning!”
Though he spoke with leisure, the Drunken Demon’s heart was urgent. He had to close in on the bastard before the effect of Blood Tear, his strongest move, disappeared.
The Demon Buddha pressed his palms together and steadied his mind, but that did not mean he could pierce through this dizziness and attack the Dark Palace Lord.
As the power of Dark Heaven Revolving Star grew even stronger, the stars spun faster still.
Amid it all, the Dark Palace Lord’s voice rang out thunderously.
“What will kill you is yourselves. Your own arrogance, knowing it was a trap and yet walking into it on your own feet.”
Black energy began to gather in the Dark Palace Lord’s hand.
“I will show the Young Cult Leader your deaths!”
At that moment, when everyone was too dizzy to come to their senses, there was one exception.
The Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable had been pretending to be dizzy, but her eyes were gleaming sharply.
‘You dare make the world spin when I am here?’
The whirlwind pattern was the symbol of the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable.
This dizziness, if anything, made her even stronger. Within this mad, spinning vertigo, she felt tranquility and comfort.
She drew her inner force up to its limit. She even drew in the energy of Dark Heaven Revolving Star and made it her own power. After gathering that power—
Whoosh.
Her Soul-Capturing Art was unleashed.
The target of the Soul-Capturing Art was not the Dark Palace Lord.
The one upon whom she unleashed the Soul-Capturing Art was, astonishingly, the Drunken Demon.
—Do not reject me!