Chapter 636: Gumiho’s Plan

“Your Majesty, the humans have invaded our lands and killed countless of our brothers and sisters over the years,” Simha, the disciple of Mriga and a Level Four Mythic Beast, spoke, his firm voice echoing through the hall.

His head was lowered, one knee touching the floor.

“We have always remained passive, only defending ourselves,” he continued, keeping his tone respectful yet loud enough to reach Gumiho, who sat upon the throne on the high platform. “But now, with your blessings, we can easily crush them. Please order us to march into their lands and slay our enemies for good.”

A few more beasts also stepped forward and knelt beside him.

“Order us to march the Army of Revenge!”

“Order us to march the Army of Revenge!”

“Order us to march the Army of Revenge!”

Except for the leaders of the Bear, Tiger, and Deer Clans, along with Vyaghra and Rohini, all the beasts in the hall knelt, demanding revenge against the humans.

Gumiho didn’t react until their booming voices finally ceased.

“You are Simha, the heir to the Deer Clan?” Gumiho finally spoke, and the moment she did, a suffocating silence fell over the hall.

Simha slightly flinched. “Yes, Your Majesty,” he replied firmly.

“The power of the Deer Clan lies in its protective and peaceful nature,” Gumiho stated in a calm tone. Her pink eyes narrowed at Simha as she continued, “With your aggressive nature, the future of the Deer Clan does not seem bright.”

His face turned pale, sweat trickling onto the floor from his nose and chin.

“Our peaceful nature has only led us to be looked down upon and mocked by others, Your Majesty,” Simha replied, despite the fear gnawing at his heart. “My master and the Leader of the Demonic Faction were only one level apart, yet he was easily defeated by him. If not for your timely arrival…” His grip tightened around his robe. “He would have fallen in battle.” ℯℯ𝑙.

Mriga merely shook his head, releasing a sigh. Defiant as his words were, they were undeniable.

“If I could exchange this power of protection that has made us the weakest in the same realm, I would do it without a second thought!”

“Oh?” Gumiho slightly shifted in her seat.

Mriga stepped forward. He lowered his head, keeping his tone soft and respectful. “Have mercy on my foolish disciple, Your Majesty. His words come from a place of loyalty, misguided as they may be.”

Gumiho’s gaze remained on him for a long moment before shifting past his bowed head toward Simha, still kneeling with his fists trembling against the stone floor.

“Lord Mriga, do you share his thoughts?” Gumiho asked. “Do you also wish for the power to make the other clans fear you instead of mock you?”

He flinched from her strange question.

“I could bestow the ability of assault upon the Deer Clan,” Gumiho continued, her tone even. “No longer would your people be seen as the weakest among the beasts.”

Simha’s head snapped up at that, eyes wide, his lips curling into the beginnings of a hopeful smile. ‘Master will surely accept. Who wouldn’t?’

But Mriga shook his head without a moment of hesitation.

“I decline, Your Majesty.”

The smile on Simha’s face froze, then crumbled entirely. “M-Master?”

Every leader in the hall turned toward Mriga, disbelief plain on their faces. Even Riksharaja’s brow lifted slightly at the refusal.

“Explain your reasoning,” Gumiho said, leaning forward on her throne, genuine curiosity threading through her voice for the first time since she’d sat down.

Mriga straightened, his prayer beads swaying gently at his wrist. “One should never trade away their identity in pursuit of power, Your Majesty. Peace and protection are not simply what my clan does. They are etched into our very souls. To my last breath, I will continue to protect because it is who I am.”

Gumiho blinked slowly, studying the old deer beneath his antlers.

“If only your disciple possessed a single drop of your wisdom,” she murmured.

With a gentle sway of her hand, a handful of plum blossom petals drifted down from the platform, settling softly against Mriga’s skin.

He froze at his position.

Something primal stirred deep within him, as though something long asleep had finally awaken inside him. His breath caught in his throat.

“I have awakened your true bloodline,” Gumiho explained, watching the shock ripple across his face. “For too long, the beasts have gone without their Goddess to guide them, and in that absence, you forgot your own legacy. The Deer Clan was never meant only to produce shields.” Her eyes softened, just slightly. “Your true nature is healing. So long as breath remains in a body, a Deer beast of higher realm can mend it. And the shields you raise will no longer break against those of equal stage. The blessing of a Divine Deer could even revive someone with a severed head or pierced heart, if it was activated at the very moment the injury occurred. “

Mriga’s legs gave out beneath him, and he sank into a deep kowtow, forehead pressed to the cold stone floor.

“This one thanks you for your boundless mercy, Your Majesty.”

Gumiho said nothing further to him. Instead, her gaze drifted across the hall, past Simha’s stunned silence, and settled on the two leaders who had not knelt, who had not called for the Army of Revenge.

“Lord Riksharaja, you have fought the strongest cultivator of the human army for years, the leader of the Righteous Faction, Kharos Solaris,” she stated. “Do you also believe the humans must be annihilated?”

Riksharaja rubbed at his jaw in a thought.

“Ay’ve been fightin’ that man fer years,” he said slowly. “An’ fer some reason, it always feels like he’s holdin’ back. He don’t fight like a man wantin’ war.” He crossed his thick arms. “He’s the only human Ay’ve ever respected.”

Gumiho turned next to Vyomendra.

“You were struck by the Soul Gnawing Gu, the most villainous of techniques,” she said. “What are your thoughts?”

Vyomendra’s jaw tightened. “Bai Chengsheng is a fiend for using such a technique, and any who stoop that low deserve annihilation. But the one who saved me from it… was also human.”

A ripple of gasps spread through the hall at his words.

“I don’t wish for the massacre of an entire race for the crimes of a few,” Vyomendra finished quietly.

“One good human doesn’t erase what the rest have done to us!” Simha snapped, rising back to his feet, several beasts behind him nodding in agreement. “Just because one of them is different doesn’t wipe away their crimes!”

Gumiho’s eyes settled on him again.

“My master, the one who raised me, who shaped me into the Goddess you kneel before now, the only being to whom I myself would bow my head, is also human,” she revealed, her tone carrying the unwavering respect for her master. “Are you disrespecting my master, Simha?”

The hall fell into absolute silence with eyes widened and lips parted.

“I-I dare not, Your Majesty,” Simha blurted, hitting his forehead repeatedly on the floor. He had witnessed first hand what Gumiho was capable of. With just a single sway of her hand, she could turn him into a regular deer.

After a brief pause, Gumiho declared, “I wish to form a peaceful alliance with the humans. An empire where beast and human alike can live without the shadow of war hanging over them.”

—

Jae Hyun entered a dark, windowless room, lit only by a single flickering flame in the far corner. He dropped to his knees the moment he crossed the threshold, forehead nearly touching the stone floor.

From the shadows, a deep voice spoke.

“You had two legions at your command. Your only task was to deal with the weakest among the Sacred Beasts. And yet you return to me having failed, with your arm severed.”

“I was ambushed, My Lord,” Jae Hyun said quickly, his voice trembling. He pressed his forehead harder against the cold floor. “She… she was no ordinary beast. Her Soulforce resonated with the heavens and the earth itself. I have never felt such power.”

“Oh?”

the shadow leaned forward with sudden interest. Two white eyes revealed, slitted like a serpent’s, followed by the pale gleam of horns. “Who was she?”

Jae Hyun swallowed hard. “She called herself the Goddess of All Beasts. Gumiho.”

For a moment, the draconic eyes widened, the vertical slits narrowing to pinpricks of shock. But it lasted only a breath before a wide smile spread slowly beneath the shadows, baring teeth that gleamed even in the dark.