Chapter 635: I’m the Gumiho

Vyomendra immediately retreated his Soulforce. Riksharaja’s pressure lingered for a moment longer, but it too soon vanished.

"Let me see what this so-called goddess is really capable of," Riksharaja scoffed in his rough accent, a wide smirk spreading across his face. "Ay’ll snap her neck if she comes out to be just all talk."

With that declaration, he moved towards the castle in heavy strides. Rohini gave Vyaghra a playful wink, while Vyaghra glared at the overbearing duo with a sharp look.

Once the key members of the major clans entered the castle, the leaders of the minor clans, mostly at the Greater Spirit Beast or Sacred Beast Realm, followed after them.

They reached the main hall of the castle, which was illuminated by the bright glow stones embedded in the ceiling.

Since it was Mriga’s castle, he had never used a throne to look down upon his people. The hall should have contained various chairs arranged around a large stone table where Mriga used to discuss important matters of the clan with the other elders.

However, both the table and chairs were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, at the front of the opposite wall, a raised stone platform had appeared, one that had never been there before.

Atop the nearly twenty-foot-tall platform stood a majestic throne. Upon it, Gumiho sat cross-legged in a commanding posture. Her star-like pink eyes gazed down at the beasts entering the hall.

Vyomendra and Vyaghra were left shocked, their eyes widening and lips parting. They couldn’t believe this was the same naive and adorable girl from ten years ago.

It was as if her entire demeanor had changed.

Except for them, all the other beasts entering the hall had only one word upon seeing her.

Arrogance!

The hall was soon filled with beasts, with the leaders of each major clan standing at the front.

"Ay heard ya defeated the leader of the Demonic Faction," Riksharaja was the first to speak, his auburn eyes staring straight at Gumiho, defiance clear within them.

"I did," Gumiho replied, resting her face against her fist.

"But Ay also heard another report. It was quite ridiculous," Riksharaja continued, his eyes narrowing. "Ya deliberately let Jae Hyun go when ya could clearly kill him. And ya even healed the dying humans on the battlefield."

"I did," Gumiho’s tone remained even.

A ripple of gasps spread throughout the hall. Why would she let that demonic villain go? And what had made her heal those damn humans who had killed countless beasts?

"A beast showin’ compassion to the humans?" Riksharaja scoffed. "Explain yerself!"

Gumiho shifted slightly in her seat.

"I don’t appreciate your tone, Level Four Sacred Beast, Leader of the Beast Clan, Riksharaja," Gumiho said, her tone turning threatening as her eyes glowed even more brightly.

Those below the Sacred Beast Realm immediately lowered their heads, too intimidated to look her in the eye.

As for Riksharaja, he merely snorted at her warning, crossing his arms over his chest in defiance.

"Ya might be the reincarnation of the goddess from the legends, but ya aren’t her," he said in a voice louder than necessary. "Ya ain’t the one that bestowed us the knowledge to cultivate. We’re the proud beasts that know no king or queen. If ya think yer identity alone is enough to make us submit, yer nothin’ more than a foolish brat."

Once the echo of his loud voice faded, the hall filled with hushed murmurs from the other beasts.

"Lord Riksharaja is right. We are never going to submit to someone we know nothing about," one of them remarked.

"She is the daughter of Battle God Aruma, so she must not be any older than thirty," another added. "Even if she is the true goddess, she is far too young to rule over the beasts."

"Perhaps the whole news about her defeating Jae Hyun isn’t true at all. It might be a scheme of the Deer and Fox Clans to make Gumiho the fake ruler while they rule from the shadows."

Gumiho’s hand lowered from her face.

"You’re correct about one thing, Riksharaja," she said, her voice calm despite the accusations being thrown at her. "I’m not the goddess of the past."

Riksharaja’s smirk faltered, just slightly, caught off guard by the admission.

"Because I’m not a fool," Gumiho continued, rising from her throne. "Unlike her, I won’t stay passive while outside forces threaten my people. I’m not kind enough to tolerate disobedience either."

A pressure descended over the hall the moment she stood, heavy enough that even the Sacred Beasts among them felt the strength leaving their legs. Mriga gritted his teeth to remain upright. Beside him, Ryota’s fox ears pressed flat against his skull, sweat beading along his brow despite the cool air of the hall.

Gumiho took her first step forward.

The world twisted.

One moment, they stood within the stone hall of Mriga’s castle, and the next, the ground was gone entirely. They hung suspended in the open sky above a battlefield scarred by war, craters and broken earth stretching for miles below, the graves of both beast and human alike.

Gumiho floated a few feet above them all, her pink eyes burning like twin stars against the grey sky.

"I’m the absolute ruler," she declared, her voice carrying across the battlefield without needing to be raised. "I will obliterate anyone who challenges my authority."

With her second step, the world beneath them tore open. Lava surged from the broken land in violent geysers, thunder cracked overhead, and dark clouds swallowed what little light remained. For a moment, it looked as though the world itself were ending.

’This power...’ Vyomendra thought, his earlier composure cracking. ’Is this an illusion?’

Riksharaja’s smirk had vanished entirely now, his jaw tight as he watched the land below churn and burn.

Then Gumiho took another step.

"However..."

The destruction stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The lava sank back into the earth, the cracked land smoothed and healed, and the dark clouds parted to reveal a clear sky. Flowers bloomed across the scarred battlefield in an instant, a gentle breeze carrying their scent upward, as if the world had been given a second life.

"I’m no tyrant either. Subordination shall be rewarded."

With one more step, every beast felt it at once, a surge of Soulforce flooding through their bodies. Bottlenecks that had held them back for years, some for centuries, finally began to shift.

Gasps broke out across the crowd. Even the minor clan leaders who had remained silent until now clutched at their chests, feeling power they had chased for lifetimes suddenly within reach.

"I’m someone who can bless you with the true bloodline awakening," Gumiho said.

Then her expression remained unchanged, but her voice dropped, becoming colder.

"However..."

With the next step, the surge reversed violently. The Soulforce that had swelled within them moments ago drained away just as quickly, plunging them far below where it had started. Cries of pain rang out as their humanoid bodies twisted and shrank, fur spreading across their skin, their forms collapsing back into those of ordinary animals.

"I’m also the one who can take back the very knowledge of cultivation the previous Goddess bestowed upon you."

Silence swallowed the battlefield.

Riksharaja stared down at his own hands. They were covered in fur. He had been transformed into a giant bear.

"I’m the World!"

"I’m the Goddess of All Beasts!"

"I’m the Gumiho!"

With her last step, when she reached the same level as the other beasts, they found themselves in the hall again, returned to their demi-human forms.

It didn’t take more than a second for every being in the hall to fall to their knees.

In unison, they declared,

"We pay our respect to the Goddess of All Beasts!"