Chapter 941: A Strange Bitch, A Strange Guy, A Strange Guy (26)

In an instant, Qing moved a beat faster.

Qing’s brain was at its absolute peak right now.

It wasn’t like she was stupid to begin with—she just never bothered to use that good head of hers. Even so, when she fought, she brought that intelligence out in full. She never let her brain sit completely idle.

So with her intelligence at its apex, she immediately found the answer to what she had to do—what she must do—right now.

Qing’s right hand moved, and her index and middle fingers slid straight into both eye sockets—SLICK!

“AAAAAAAGH!!!!!”

At the same time, Qing hopped back in a clean retreat.

She braced her left arm on the ground and snapped her head up, glaring at the Sword Demon with an aggressively smug, triumphant expression.

If she had to fight the Sword Demon in her current state?

If she let go of the Heart-Eating Demon King to grab the Sword Demon, the Heart-Eating Demon King—freed from the internal-power restriction—would go berserk.

She had torn off one of the Heart-Eating Demon King’s forearms, yes.

But his specialty was palm-wind techniques. Even with one arm, he could still fire qi shots just fine.

And the Sword Demon would fight dirty, using his disciples to take the numbers advantage—making everything even worse.

Then... stop him from firing qi shots.

Well? Now what are you going to do—

That was the moment.

The Sword Demon abandoned his saber, grabbed a fistful of the Heart-Eating Demon King’s flabby meat, and hoisted him up—

Then he turned and bolted.

“Huh?”

Not a flicker of hesitation. A razor-clean escape.

Qing had expected that, true to his nature as a man who cared only about himself, the Sword Demon would ignore the Heart-Eating Demon King completely and just charge in.

So her reaction was inevitably half a beat late.

“You bastard!! Where do you think you’re running?!”

Along with Kim Heojung’s roar, a violently spinning chunk of ice dropped toward the fleeing Sword Demon.

It came down with the momentum of a falling star!

The Sword Demon’s response was simple.

He hurled the Heart-Eating Demon King with all his strength.

The rotating, charging Kim Heojung collided with the massive body flying at him—

BANG!

The impact twisted Kim Heojung’s trajectory—BANG!—and he slammed into the wrong patch of ground, blowing it apart.

The Heart-Eating Demon King, who took the hit head-on, was launched far away.

Something sprayed in all directions—because the Heart-Eating Demon King’s huge body, spinning through the air, was vomiting blood from severe internal damage.

Then a human shadow sprang up.

The Sword Demon—who had thrown him in the first place—caught him again and snatched him up like baggage.

As if to say: my safety first, rescue second.

“Hey! Sword Demon, you piece of shit! Where the hell are you running?! Get your ass back here! What, are you scared?! Are you scared of me?!”

*****

The Sword Demon’s body trembled.

Heavenly Flower Sword was an Essence-Siphoning Demon Practitioner?

Then had she been hiding her identity this whole time, lurking beside him, coveting his primal essence while waiting for the right moment?

Thank god Gongryang Sayoon had been at her side the whole time, and his disciple had been following along, keeping her face in view—if not, he would’ve been drained dry long ago and tossed aside as a shriveled corpse.

The thought made his chest drop out.

No wonder she’d been yapping and acting tough while handing over divine arts one after another. A martial artist would rather die than give up their martial arts—yet she’d tossed them out like nothing.

Because that must’ve been her mindset: Even if I hand them over, I’ll just kill him later anyway.

What a truly wicked woman.

Under that sweet, smiling face—under that gentle voice—there must have been nothing but a vile, predatory intent to suck the essence out of others.

The Sword Demon believed Qing had been an Essence-Siphoning Demon Practitioner from the beginning.

That everything she’d shown him so far had been an act.

That she’d been waiting for her timing.

It made his scalp go cold.

After all, it had been only two days since Qing escaped at Changbai Mountain.

There was no way she could have stumbled onto the secret manual for the Essence-Siphoning Demon Art in that time—and even if she’d been blessed by absurd luck and somehow found it, there was no way she could master it in just two days.

So to the Sword Demon, the conclusion was rational.

Heavenly Flower Sword’s true identity was an Essence-Siphoning Demon Witch!

No wonder her attainment was impossibly high for her apparent age—how many people had been drained to death under that horrific demon witch’s brutal milking?

The Sword Demon’s misunderstanding wasn’t because he was stupid.

Who in the world would ever imagine that someone could learn and use martial arts the way Qing did—rolling her eyes back, foaming at the mouth, making gagging noises and letting out half-inhuman moans?

Brain-engraving training was, to a normal person, something you couldn’t even conceive of.

So the Sword Demon ran.

He was terrified of her vicious schemes, and there was no reason to face the worst demonic art of demonic arts—the Essence-Siphoning Demon Art.

Sure, someone might mock him for becoming a master of the Transcendent Realm and still fleeing like a coward from a single witch.

But consider this:

If a snail or a grasshopper gets into your home, you don’t really care.

Because no matter what a snail or grasshopper does, it can’t hurt you.

Now what about a mosquito or a flea?

Mosquitoes and fleas suck your blood and make you itch, so you kill them whenever you see them.

But no matter how hard they try, they still can’t actually kill you—so you might hate them and kill them, but you don’t fear them. You don’t avoid them.

But what if a venomous snake—or a poisonous spider—something truly dangerous gets into your home?

Then you either call someone to deal with it, or you threaten it from a distance, block its path, and drive it outside.

Because it can kill you.

Is there any reason to risk getting bitten by insisting you’ll handle it yourself?

That’s just the stupid bravado of a fool.

A wise person doesn’t bother.

The Sword Demon had hardened his mind with that logic.

“Hhk—AAAGH! My eyes! I can’t see!!”

“Shut up! That witch will chase us!”

“Hii—no, no... huff...”

At that, the Heart-Eating Demon King went pale with shock and clamped his mouth shut.

His forearm had been torn off, his pride had been cut down, and both eyes had burst—there was no way that pain was anything less than hell.

And yet he still started shaking—trembling like a leaf, shivering uncontrollably.

The Sword Demon clicked his tongue.

Not raging at the name of an enemy, but trembling in fear and forcibly sealing his own mouth?

His spirit wasn’t just defeated—it had been eaten alive. If the fear carved into his heart was this deep, then from now on he wouldn’t even be able to look the Heavenly Flower Sword in the face.

If the leader of a single combat unit had a phobia of the Blood Cult’s enemy, then for the future of the cult—

For a moment, the Sword Demon wore a bitter smile.

Of course... with both eyes burst, he wouldn’t be able to look anyone in the face, Heavenly Flower Sword or otherwise.

His life as a martial artist was already over. His position as a unit commander would be over too.

So was there any need to harm him further—leaving room for some possible misunderstanding later?

No.

There was no need.

And so, the two Blood Cult unit commanders fled through the northern forest in silence.

*****

Meanwhile, Qing didn’t bother chasing the fleeing Blood Cult demonic masters.

Her lower abdomen had gotten stuffed full, but her internal injuries—and the damage to her arm—hadn’t healed.

Her right arm could move, but putting real force into it was too much.

And her pelvis had a crack, so every time her foot hit the ground, stabbing agony surged up.

If she forced herself to pursue, she might be able to push it to an end—

But more importantly, there was something that had to come first.

Right. I have to go pick up the princess...

It wasn’t like Qing felt some sacred obligation toward her.

But the fake Yeonsul—still officially a princess because the wedding hadn’t happened yet—getting ambushed and harmed on barbarian land?

Even Qing, who didn’t care about the world’s political situation and was basically I don’t know the Central Plains incarnate, understood she couldn’t just brush that off.

It might be the kind of problem that starts a war.

And thinking that way, even the Blood Cult’s ambush became transparent in its purpose, didn’t it?

Enough that a unit commander would personally come out.

“Miss, are you all right? The blood—”

“Not my blood. More importantly, the princess—ah, I mean, uh... north. It’s north!”

The marriage-alliance procession had been heading northeast along the road when it was attacked, and Qing had lured the enemy away to the rear. That meant she’d moved southwest, then jumped into the left-side woods, then after the clash she’d headed south to put as much distance as possible—

“Do you mean... the princess?”

“I was escorting the princess’s marriage-alliance procession, and the Blood Cult attacked, so I lured the enemy far away—”

“Ah, didn’t it become a huge mess? On my way back to my unit—khm, no. I mean, on my way to deal with those wicked bastards, I tricked the Sword Demon and was infiltrating the Blood Cult’s den—truly. No matter how much those Central Plains bastards deserve to die, how could I ever associate with a group like the Blood Cult that harms innocent lives? That is not the way of a noble man, nor the way of a scholar. I was always going to deceive them, learn their base, and wipe them all out—”

A deep crease carved into Qing’s brow.

This bastard’s shamelessness is really something.

Anyway, Kim Heojung—who had been holding hands with the Sword Demon and heading to the Blood Cult to snatch women—suddenly heard Sixfold Voice Resonance booming out with a massive roar.

So he rushed to the source, and found Qing facing off against the Heart-Eating Demon King.

...Mm. If I hadn’t lured the Heart-Eating Demon King away, they might’ve actually been wiped out 그대로—

No. This isn’t the time.

“Mm, Young Hero? Since you’re helping anyway, I’d appreciate it if you helped a little more. I think I need to get back to the procession fast. My pelvis has a crack, so it’s hard to run—can you give me a ride?”

She wasn’t asking to be carried on his back.

She wasn’t asking to be held.

He wasn’t even pulling a cart or wagon, and yet she looked at a person and asked for a ride—something that could easily be rude.

But to Qing, it wasn’t a strange expression at all.

A person was a kind of mount, after all. Qing had ridden Stand Number One and Stand Number Two with dedication.

And to Kim Heojung, it wasn’t strange either. The words he’d used earlier when he tried to run away with Qing had literally been, Hurry and get on.

It wasn’t exactly piggybacking—more like placing her on the ice-mountain stuck to his back—but still.

So Qing rode Kim Heojung north.

*****

While riding Kim Heojung north, they once again went BOOM—launching into the air—then THUD, landing on all fours.

A nearby figure startled, raising a knife-hand to guard against the bizarre four-legged beast that had just dropped out of the sky.

But only for a moment.

They sprinted over, then threw themselves forward—WHUMP—slamming onto the ground.

Their entire front half pressed to the earth.

It was a full prostration.

“Oh—oh! Heavens-and-Earth Spirits! Oh, my...! To return unharmed—truly, truly, thank goodness!! Please forgive this lowly wretch—this lowly wretch—for daring to fail to remain at your side!!”

An eunuch’s wailing sobs echoed—HEEHK, HEEHK.

His suffering hadn’t been small.

Because the real princess had vanished while drawing the enemy away, in order to protect the fake princess.

And the farther he chased the traces, the more he found nothing but a ruin of shattered forest, collapsed into misery.

If only I’d revealed Your Highness’s true identity earlier and brought the Eight Banners...

Regret gnawed at him.

But then—

Your Highness descended with a bold shout, riding a divine beast—the Black Warrior, the legendary sacred creature.

As if declaring: the will of the heavens is here, with the Son of Heaven’s blood.

“Kyaaa! Blood—blood!! We must summon an Imperial Physician! Miss, please wait just a moment—I have to bring an Imperial Physician right now—ah, where—miss, are you all right? How—what do we do?!”

“It’s fine. Not my blood.”

At Qing’s calm answer, the eunuch clutched his chest and let out a huge breath of relief.

And then he finally noticed the divine beast’s condition.

...Huh?

Why is the divine beast so ugly?

It had facial features that almost looked human—yet it was absolutely not the shape of a human. And that head, full of flesh-colored skin, with that pathetic hair—

What is this? A divine beast?

That was when Qing’s voice cut through the eunuch’s doubt.

“Where’s the procession? Is Your Highness safe?”

“Ah! This lowly wretch chased after miss immediately. The Eight Banners captain evacuated the elite guards, so it should be fine, yes? And that Inspector Myeon’s skills are quite excellent too—”

“Mm. We should hurry back first. They might still be fighting.”

And so, the group gained one more member.

A butcher of the world, drenched head to toe in blood, riding the ugliest man alive—the human divine beast—

And now, joining them, an old eunuch with makeup painted on like a woman.

Anyone who saw them would call it a bizarre party and suspect them.

But the Jurchen Eight Banners didn’t.

Instead, they brightened with open relief—making it even more bizarre to anyone who didn’t know the situation.

“Madam Seomun! You’re safe!”

Eight Banners captain Pori came charging out from the crowd.

Qing let out a deep breath of relief.

Ah. So the princess is safe.

Because if something had happened to the princess, Pori—the escort captain—couldn’t possibly be greeting her with that kind of happy face.

...Yeah. That has to be it. Right?