Siu, who had come running through the silence of Demon Spirit Valley, discovered her and lunged toward her in alarm.
When firm arms wrapped around her shoulders and waist, Baekhui stole her disciple's soul with a surprise kiss.
“……!”
Siu's heart pounded as if it would burst. The cool yet sweet sensation that had touched his lips remained like a brand.
He tried desperately to calm his heart that felt as though it would burst, and sat up his master, who lay limp in his arms smiling impishly.
“Your jest is excessive, Master. I thought something truly terrible had happened.”
The voice of Siu, trying his best to remain calm, trembled ever so slightly.
Seemingly satisfied with his reaction, Baekhui brought the tips of her slender fingers to Siu's broad chest.
Then, drawing slow circles, she pouted her lips slightly as if sulking.
“This Master worked up her courage first, yet the only response is a scolding. Is that not too cruel, Siu?”
Puffing her cheeks and acting spoiled, her appearance was none other than that of a woman deeply in love.
The dignity of the First Heavenly Demon, who had once made the world tremble, was nowhere to be found. Only a delicate warmth, craving her husband's attention, remained there.
Finding that side of Baekhui unbearably lovely, Siu ultimately couldn't restrain himself and pulled her snugly into his arms.
“In a place like this, in such a state, I cannot hold you like this, Master. For to me, you are the most precious person in all the world.”
Baekhui's shoulders flinched at Siu's low, sincere voice.
Her cheeks, buried against his chest, flushed red.
Feeling shy, she tightly clutched Siu's clothes and whispered in a voice as small as a mosquito's.
“……I hope it is not too late, Siu.”
To her, who had waited a thousand years, even a single moment of waiting now felt terribly long.
Baekhui, too, wrapped her arms tightly around Siu's waist and burrowed into his embrace.
Resting his chin on the crown of her head, Siu smiled—a bright, spirited smile hidden from his master.
The blue skies and cool river waters he had promised were slowly seeping into this desolate Demon Spirit Valley.
Before the warmth of their brief reunion could fade, the air of Demon Spirit Valley filled once more with the cold killing intent of martial artists.
Siu shouldered the ordinary yet sharp iron sword he had brought from the hut and stood at the crossroads leading to the Demonic Realm.
“Siu, this Master's martial power is not what it once was, but I am still among the top three in this world. However, mark my words. Unless you are truly in a crisis on the verge of death, this Master will absolutely not lift a hand.”
Baekhui's voice carried the solemn weight of the First Heavenly Demon who had once commanded all, rather than her usual allure.
Siu accepted that heaviness gladly, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
“Those are only natural words, Master. There will never be a situation in which you must step in, so you need only watch from my side.”
With that unhesitating answer, the two set out for Jungseon Village, the nearest demonic realm detected by Baekhui's sharp qi sense.
Jungseon Village. Before the Great Upheaval, it had been a place where the laughter of countless hikers and vacationers never ceased.
However, as the spiritual qi of the Jirisan mountain range gathered in one place, and jet-black demonic qi from Baekhui's seal seeped over it, the place had transformed into a land of death where even mountain beasts would not tread.
Sticky demonic qi rose like fog between the ruins of collapsed pensions, and twisted trees stretched out grotesquely like human figures writhing in agony.
This Jungseon Village, closest to Demon Spirit Valley, was the first proving ground and altar of blood where Siu had to prove his strength.
Siu inhaled the pungent stench of death stabbing at his nostrils and gripped the hilt of his iron sword.
The sword he had brought from the hut was a crude weapon without a single ornate fitting, yet in Siu's hand, it exuded a strange weight.
Baekhui, who had been observing the sword intently from the side, opened her mouth in a low voice.
“The craftsmanship of the artisan who forged that sword is quite good. Though low-grade iron was used, so the material itself cannot be called precious, the traces of sincerity poured into every hammer blow are evident. It is extremely well-refined, and its keen qi is also vibrantly sharp.”
She was someone who had seen countless treasured swords and divine weapons over a thousand years.
Praise from such a Baekhui was a surer guarantee than any other evaluation.
As if agreeing with his master's discerning eye, Siu adjusted his grip on the sword and answered.
“It is a sword I bought with money earned from selling several wild ginseng roots I had dug up while wandering the mountains, in earnest preparation for any demonic beasts. I do not know the artisan's name, but I too am fond of this sword's sturdiness.”
Because it was a precious fruit obtained through his own sweat, a quiet pride lingered in Siu's voice.
Siu's jet-black flashing eyes coldly fixed on the presences of strange creatures flickering in the darkness.
The sharply honed iron sword parted the flow of air, humming low.
Just as Baekhui had said, the artisan's honest keen qi dwelling in the blade resonated with Siu's killing intent, as if heralding the blood-soaked spectacle about to begin.
The moment he stepped across the boundary of the Jungseon Village Demonic Realm, Siu was enveloped by a strange sensation.
It felt as if passing through a dimensional portal in a game he had enjoyed as a child—his eardrums felt muffled, and the surrounding space seemed to twist for an instant.
A massive natural grand formation, created by the mixture of spiritual qi and demonic qi, was completely isolating the space inside from the outside.
However, the scenery within, once past the barrier of the formation, was quite different from what Siu had expected.
He had imagined a hell of pitch-black darkness and the reek of blood, but what lay before him was no different from an ordinary mountain forest.
Only a dreamy spiritual qi mist blurred his vision, pressing down heavily upon the entire mountain.
“It is surprisingly intact inside the demonic realm. I truly thought it would be a hellish place.”
As Siu spoke, adjusting his grip on the iron sword in puzzlement, Baekhui—who had been walking silently beside him like a ghost—answered lowly.
“The demonic beasts have captured and devoured all the pitiful mountain beasts that wandered near the entrance, so it only appeared that way from outside. This is the silence before the storm.”
Baekhui's eyes flashed as if piercing through the mist.
The moment she set foot in this place, she had already grasped the positions and presences of all the demonic beasts lurking throughout the entire demonic realm.
But she did not give Siu even a single hint.
From the moment he stepped in here, everything was Siu's responsibility.
Reading the movements of unseen enemies, sensing killing intent, and determining life and death through one's own senses alone—this was true combat training.
Baekhui simply stood with her hands behind her back, watching her disciple's back, his shoulders tense with nervousness, with intrigued eyes.
Siu regulated his breathing and expanded his qi sense to its utmost limit.
Beyond the hazy spiritual qi mist, a chilling sensation brushed past the nape of his neck—that something massive and starving was watching him.
Before long, his qi sense, extended beyond the mist, captured an alien vitality.
The creature did not even seem to breathe. It was the arrogant stillness of a predator, one that regarded every living thing to set foot in this space as nothing but food for its jaws.
When Siu pushed one step deeper through the mist, the creature finally revealed its grotesque true form.
“……!”
It was not something that could simply be called a giant serpent.
Fangs as long as a grown man's legs pierced the dreamy spiritual qi mist, jutting out horrifically.
Each scale was forged as hard as iron armor and emitted black light, and the creature's massive body gave the illusion of a small mountain range undulating.
It was the Great Serpent, a demonic beast mutated after devouring Baekhui's demonic qi.
Its vertically slit golden eyes fixed on Siu.
The moment that cold gaze touched him, goosebumps rose on his nape and spread throughout his body.
It was not fear. It was an instinctive fighting spirit boiling up from deep within his dantian, and the thrill of facing a powerful enemy for the first time in his life.
Zing—
The iron sword in Siu's hand resonated with its master's killing intent, erupting in a low cry.
Though made from low-grade iron, once its owner's firm will took hold, the blade trembled like a living creature, radiating keen qi.
Baekhui's eyes, watching from the side, narrowed.
The creature was like the gatekeeper of the Jungseon Village Demonic Realm.
To Siu, who was still at the stage of building the foundations of his martial arts, it was clearly an overwhelming opponent, but she had no intention of helping him.
Rather, she watched with interest to see how the dark thunder aura rising from her disciple's feet would coalesce at the sharp tip of the iron sword.
Siu gripped the hilt of the iron sword as if he would shatter it.
Demonic qi began to flow explosively through his acupoints, swelling the muscles of his arms, and his pupils were dyed in a darkness deeper than the demonic beast's.
Siu inhaled the cold spiritual qi mist deep into his chest, drawing his breath long and thin.
The demonic qi swirling in his lower dantian surged explosively through his Ren and Du meridians.
The flow of energy sweeping through his eight extraordinary meridians stimulated his channels like molten lead being poured, yet Siu clenched his teeth as if savoring that pain.
Each time the demonic qi circulated through the acupoints across his body, his muscles expanded minutely and condensed firmly.
Thick veins rose on the back of his hand gripping the iron sword, and the blade now trembled as if unable to withstand its owner's will, letting out a resonant hum.
“……Huu.”
Siu lowered his center of gravity and corrected his stance.
The foundations of the Heavenly Demon Moonshadow Step settled at his feet.
At that moment, the Great Serpent, which had maintained an unmoving posture in the mist, slowly raised its head.
In its golden eyes, the human reflected was no longer a threatening existence.
It was simply the finest prey, imbued with fresh, dense demonic qi that it had not tasted in a thousand years.
“Kraaaaaah—!”
A bizarre shriek that rent the air shattered the silence of Jungseon Village.
The hair-raising soundwave shook the entire forest, yet the creature did not charge immediately.
It slowly swept the ground with its tail and began to circle Siu in a semicircle.
Each time its scales touched rock, sparks flew with a grating screech.
It was the cruel amusement unique to predators, as if savoring the sight of prey collapsing in terror.
A strange smile hung on Baekhui's lips as she watched this scene from the side.
The creature was by no means an easy opponent for Siu.
But Baekhui rather liked that fact.
Her red eyes flashed with anticipation at how much more sharply her disciple's talent would be honed in this terror of death.
Siu didn't so much as blink at the creature's shriek.
On the contrary, the closer it drew, the more transparent his senses became.
The trajectory of the Great Serpent's scales, the changes in the air currents created by its rough breath.
Everything was being drawn with anatomical precision in Siu's mind.