210
"Don't retreat! Hold your positions! They want us to come out!"
Dang O-dok was too busy shooting Finger Wind and suppressing the fire demons to pay attention.
"The moment we leave the Tang estate, they'll fall on us! We must fight inside the mechanical formation!"
The Tang Clan's victory depended on minimizing casualties.
No matter how many of the attackers they killed, if the Tang Clan suffered heavy damage, it would all be meaningless.
So the Tang Clan had to hold their ground. No matter how fiercely the flames raged, time would eventually leave the attackers unable to move.
"We've started a fire this big in Chengdu. Do you think the government will sit still? They'll use every means to put it out!"
The arson was too large-scale to dismiss as a martial world matter under the Inviolability of Government and Martial Arts.
Even if there weren't many households around the Tang estate, if the flames from the Tang Clan spread in all directions, all of Chengdu would burn.
If the attackers' fire engulfed ordinary houses, the authorities would have justification to intervene.
"The Sichuan governor will take action! We just have to keep waiting here!"
"Clan Head, it's dangerous!"
"Hyaaat!"
Dang O-dok shot Finger Wind at the torches flying over the wall. The sparks died down quickly under the Finger Wind, but the embers clung to Dang O-dok's body.
"Tch!"
Dang O-dok brushed off all the embers with a hand coated in Internal Energy.
He could block the flames with his Internal Energy, but the clan warriors began getting hurt by the fire one by one.
Their skin was being scorched, but worse, the Tang Clan's prized weapons were becoming useless one after another, and the warriors' combat strength deteriorated in real time.
"Clan Head, the poison applied to our hidden weapons is beginning to dry!"
"Damn, they used their heads!"
The flames leapt not only onto people but also onto the equipment, blazing fiercely. Dang O-dok ground his teeth and extinguished the fire that had caught on the iron contraptions of the mechanical formation.
But the heat had already begun to dry up some of the poison, and the hidden weapons placed all around had lost their venom, now possessing lethal power no greater than that of mere blades.
It was true that the Tang Clan excelled in hidden weapons, but what truly made them supremely lethal was the poison—above all, the poison applied to the hidden weapons. With the poison rendered useless by the flames, the Tang Clan had no means of response other than throwing blades.
On top of that, the attackers didn't even scale the walls. It was enough to make one think they might end up burning to death where they stood.
"To dare humiliate the Tang Clan like this... I will not forgive it!"
Flare. Flare.
The enemies persistently set fires inside the Tang estate. As if arson were no crime, they tossed flame around like they were holding a festival.
From the attackers' perspective, today would be the monumental day the Tang Clan was destroyed.
"I won't let you! Aaarrgh!!"
Dang O-dok struck down the torches with all his might. No matter how frantically he moved, being only one man, he couldn't cover every area.
But he had his older brother, Dang Sa-rim. In places Dang O-dok couldn't see, he was comforting the Tang Clan people and maintaining their battle lines.
And every last member of the Tang Clan was present. If even one fled, morale would plummet, but the Tang Clan did not abandon family and relatives.
Even if that someone was a Demonic Cult member.
"The Sichuan Tang Clan will not yield to flames of this level!!"
He declared bravely, and the moment he did,
"Clan Head!!"
The flames engulfed Dang O-dok's face.
* * *
"It's about time they came out."
Thunder Demon grew needlessly restless at the Tang Clan engulfed by fire demons.
Not a single Tang Clan warrior had rushed out.
Even though the flames were no ordinary fire, bright enough to illuminate all of Chengdu, the Tang Clan did not budge.
"Are they all just going to burn to death inside? They've always been madmen, then and now."
Who, when faced with flames swallowing their entire home, does not flee? Fire is an instinctive human fear.
Thunder Demon herself could raise fire in her own way, so she knew well how terrifying fire was.
That was why she found it truly tenacious that not a single Tang Clan warrior had jumped out even an hour after the fire started.
"You'd think at least one traitor would show themselves—it wouldn't be strange at all."
No matter how firm their will as clan members, if so much as one person ran out, as humans their resolve would inevitably waver. If just one came out, everything would go smoothly. Thunder Demon looked up at the sky.
"Should I just drop a lightning bolt...."
If she attacked the Tang estate with her True God Technique, then everyone would know for certain that Thunder Demon—that the Demonic Cult—had done it.
'No, that's not permissible.'
Thunder Demon did not want to become the target. She was only to plot behind the scenes and execute; the instigator of the Great Righteous-Demonic War had to be Grand Duke Ju-ji, not Thunder Demon.
'Then I'll be purged.'
Part of it was Thunder Demon's own desire to evade responsibility, but if Grand Duke Ju-ji's name did not spread, Thunder Demon would be killed by the Eldest Prince.
— Why did you become the focal point of the Great Righteous-Demonic War and not me!
The Eldest Prince was exactly the sort to get angry like that. He would rage over not receiving attention, keep it buried in his heart, and later, once he became the Heavenly Demon, he would thrust Thunder Demon out of the Ten Demons and into an elder position.
"I can't let that happen. I'm still a vigorous active member."
Thunder Demon withdrew the electricity crackling in her hand.
"...Hmph."
Just a little more waiting. Once ignited, fire would not go out unless it rained, and by the laws of nature, it would consume the Tang estate.
'How long do they intend to stay put without coming out?'
The moment Thunder Demon's impatience turned into irritation.
Flare.
The movement of the flames changed. The fire demons clinging to the entire wall began blazing at a uniform height.
"Finally!"
Thunder Demon inwardly cheered. The strange movement of the flames was clearly unnatural. What fire in the world blazed fiercely at a uniform height like a clan's outer wall?
Crackle!
"A woman who freely manipulates fire! Since it's not a Tang Clan martial art, people will definitely be curious."
Lightning shot up into the sky. The moment Thunder Demon's signal spread in all directions, the scattered attackers each took out a pouch and threw them inside the estate.
"Oil should make it blaze even better, right? Go ahead, use it to your heart's content. It'll be tough without the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, you know?"
Boom, bang!!
With the oil pouches thrown into the estate, the flames began burning ever more viciously. Thunder Demon leisurely waited, fanning herself against the heat that touched her cheek.
"Flame Demon, are you just going to sit still? You'll have to show it. Your Demonic Arts."
Rrrumble...
"Use the Hellfire Great Law! And reveal it to the whole world! That you are the Flame Demon!!"
The flames fed by the oil began surging toward the sky little by little. At the sight resembling a giant demon screaming, Thunder Demon's hands and feet began to tremble.
"......Huh?"
It was unexpected.
Not a pleasant surprise, but a plainly unexpected one, and Thunder Demon realized the plan had gone wrong somewhere.
Flare, whoosh.
She had expected up to the point where Flame Demon would use her power. The idea had been to let everyone in Chengdu see a woman of the Tang Clan using strange sorcery.
— If someone using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art appeared in the Tang Clan, that alone would be the end for the Tang Clan.
It would be fine if it escalated into a trigger for the Great Righteous-Demonic War, but if the person protected by the Sichuan Tang Clan became known as the Flame Demon, the Tang Clan would be expelled from the Orthodox Faction.
— Welcome to the Demonic Cult, Tang Clan!
The Eldest Prince would welcome the Tang Clan with open arms. A rescue party had been formed and was waiting in Xizang to save the Tang Clan from their difficult situation in Sichuan.
So, Flame Demon had to use her power to save the Sichuan Tang Clan.
She had to control and suppress all the flames with the Hellfire Great Law, handling them with her own power, and use the Heavenly Demon Divine Art while radiating a red glare from her eyes.
Whoosh.
Not flames that felt pure and almost sacred like those, but hellish flames that had burned thousands of people had to blaze!
"...She's using this kind of power without the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?"
The scene before her eyes was very different from the plan.
The wall of fire protecting the Sichuan Tang Clan was burning without even scorching the outer wall. It swallowed the torches thrown by the attackers and filled the air with even more heat.
"...That isn't Demonic Arts!"
From the flames, a divine Immortal Qi could be felt.
* * *
Flare.
A flying spark engulfed his face head-on.
"Aaargh! ...Huh?"
Dang O-dok felt something strange about the flames covering his face. They weren't hot, and there was no pain of his skin searing. Instead, a warmth pervaded and soothed his damaged skin.
"What on earth is this...?"
"It's my power."
"Seo-hee!!"
Dang O-dok was startled when he saw Dang Seo-hee emerge from the Fire Bone Mountain Rain Formation. She, who was usually in heat, came out with a chaste demeanor surpassing anyone else and was exerting her power.
The flames spread around Dang Seo-hee stood firmly like a divine general protecting her and the Sichuan Tang Clan. The fiery giant, twice Dang Seo-hee's size, had its head blazing fiercely like an ox's horns.
"Flame... Emperor?"
"It's only an illusion."
Dang Seo-hee raised her hand high. The fiery giant raised its hand in response, and soon the flames the fire demons had covered across the wall all began to ripple in unison at the giant's touch.
"By the law's command, raise a fortress."
At Dang Seo-hee's words, the flames reshaped into a new wall along the outer wall. The flames layered over the existing wall became another barrier that blocked the torches thrown from outside, protecting the interior of the Sichuan Tang estate.
"Seo-hee, are you alright...?"
"I'm fine. The illness... I've suppressed it."
Dang Seo-hee smiled with difficulty and moved her hand rapidly. At the gesture reminiscent of an ancient Taoist inscribing talismans into the air, not only Dang O-dok but everyone in the Tang Clan recognized the power and will imbued in the flames that now surrounded them.
Just moments ago, the flames had been demons burning the Tang Clan, but now they blazed as guardian spirits protecting the Sichuan Tang Clan.
"A human manipulating fire... Can such a thing be?"
"A... monster?"
Even the Tang Clan warriors revealed a sense of futility. Hearing their murmurs, Dang Seo-hee's expression hardened for a moment. The warriors' gazes toward Dang Seo-hee held awe—respect and fear at the same time.
"Raaaaaah!!"
Dang O-dok unleashed a Lion's Roar.
"Seo-hee has suppressed her illness and revealed her power to protect the Tang Clan, yet who dares to speak such reckless nonsense! Seo-hee is a woman of the Tang Clan! She is our family, our bloodline!!"
At Dang O-dok's shout, the warriors steadied themselves.
"Even if she were a Celestial Maiden wielding divine fire, as long as she was born into the Tang Clan, she is a woman of the Tang Clan!!"
"Celestial Maiden!!!"
The warriors' eyes lit up with a strange glow. At the word Celestial Maiden, not sorcery user or monster, all were struck with astonishment.
"......What?"
Dang Seo-hee, who had suddenly become a Celestial Maiden descended from the heavenly realm, could say nothing.
* * *
Murmur, murmur.
The bystanders began whispering about the strangeness of the flames.
Even a country peasant who knew nothing of martial arts would inevitably find it strange to see flames seemingly protecting the Sichuan Tang Clan like a wall.
— Right now... is that fire protecting the Tang Clan?
"Damn...!"
Thunder Demon realized she had messed up and snapped her fingers. If she delayed any further, the situation might actually flow in a good direction for the Tang Clan.
Without using demonic energy, the woman had manipulated natural flames and created a wall that encompassed the entire Tang estate. Far from carrying any strange demonic energy, the flames overflowed with a pure, sacred aura—they were no longer fire demons.
"Everyone...."
Thunder Demon had to utter words she absolutely did not want to say.
"Attack—!!"
Shing!
The owner of seven swords waiting near Thunder Demon swung his twin swords toward the main gate of the Tang Clan. The thick main gate was instantly split and shattered by the violent Sword Qi, and his blade surged with wild, ferocious energy.
"Go, Geomdam! Avenge your lost family!!"
"Grrrrr...!"
The one called Geomdam, who wielded seven swords, let out a roar and stepped over the threshold of the Tang estate. As Geomdam scattered pitch-black Sword Qi, the attackers cheered and ran after him.
Flare, whoosh.
The wall of fire still protected the Tang Clan, and Thunder Demon subtly turned her head back.
"......It failed, huh."
Swish.
Thunder Demon kicked off and disappeared.
* * *
"Thunder Demon, no, the woman is fleeing."
I climbed onto the pavilion roof and surveyed the encirclement. Lee Si-a clicked her tongue as she watched Thunder Demon kick off and leave.
"What do you want to do?"
"What do you wish for me to do?"
"Whatever Bi-cheon wants."
Lee Si-a fully supported me. No matter what outcome I produced, she seemed ready to respect me and let me do as I pleased.
"It's not like you'd ever bring me harm. So do as you want."
"...Then, for a moment."
On the pavilion roof, I kissed Lee Si-a on the lips.
"Before these lips cool, I'll go violate Thunder Demon."
Forcing himself on a fleeing woman.
That's what a Lust Demon is.