Declaration of War

Ryeong remained silent for a long time. Amid the gruesome aftermath of one-sided butchery, Jin Yeong could not begin to fathom the storm of emotions churning beneath her calm exterior.

Without warning, she extended her right hand into the shadows. With the sharp, sickening crunch of snapping wood, a figure was violently dragged out of hiding into the open.

"Gahk!"

"Did your master order this? Telling you to watch who showed up first?"

As Ryeong released her unfiltered, suffocating killing intent, the cultist thrashing in her iron grip began to shudder violently. Jin Yeong fared no better.

Is this... Lady Ryeong's true presence...?!

His throat went bone-dry. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to flee this slaughterhouse at once, yet the crushing aura of pure malice rooted him to the spot like lead. The bloodlust she had displayed until now had merely been held back. Feeling faint, Jin Yeong watched her next move with bated breath.

"If you're hoping for an easy death, you'd best erase the thought. Let's see just how much you can endure."

"How dare an infidel like you—"

Thud!

Ryeong slammed the cultist's skull straight into the earth. The impact rattled his brain with a violent concussion, instantly knocking him cold. She had measured her force with surgical precision, leaving him barely clinging to life.

"Jin Yeong. Head back to the council hall and report that the Fire Tiger Sword Sect has been wiped out."

"And what will you do, Young Lady?"

"I'm hunting them down."

Boom!

Ryeong kicked off the earth and shot westward with breathtaking lightness skill, leaving a crater in her wake. She moved with such blinding speed that Jin Yeong's eyes couldn't even register her silhouette.

In that fleeting instant before departing, she had already struck the cultist's paralysis, mute, and slumber acupoints. It meant the wretch would not be stirring anytime soon. Shaking off the chill running down his spine, Jin Yeong collected himself and sprinted toward the council hall.

Meanwhile, at the foot of a mountain far from the ruins of the Fire Tiger Sword Sect, a company of figures drenched in fresh gore was marching through the shadows.

"Pick up the pace! By now, the Murim dogs will have caught wind of our movements."

"Loyalty!"

Under the command of a single man, nearly a hundred cultists moved in eerie cohesion. Their garments were soaked through with indelible stains of scarlet—unmistakable proof that they were the very butchers who had executed the massacre.

On the direct orders of the Five Blood Kings, they had annihilated the Fire Tiger Sword Sect. The loss of the Blood Red Squad and the Blood King's right-hand man had been repaid in full with the extinction of an entire sect.

The Blood King was not one to mobilize troops over personal whims. Having been dispatched from the sacred headquarters to spearhead the conquest of the Central Plains, every move he made had always served the greater agenda of the cult. Yet this time, he had ordered the slaughter of the Fire Tiger Sword Sect without a shred of strategic foresight. Carrying out such a reckless gamble despite knowing its risks proved just how profoundly enraged he truly was.

It was a reckless move. The risk right now is far too high... Once we return, I must speak with him—

Suddenly, the commander froze.

The leader of the Blood Wolf Squad, who had just resolved to offer his loyal counsel, halted dead in his tracks. Following his lead, the subordinate wolves stopped behind him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as one. They merely obeyed his motion, completely blind to the threat that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had paralyzed their commander.

"Draw your blades—now!"

Just as the squad members drew their swords at their commander's roar—

KABOOM!

A fiery bombardment rained down from the heavens. Thirty percent of the squad was obliterated where they stood, unable even to raise a guard. The Blood Wolf Squad Leader shuddered at the sudden devastation. Amidst the indiscriminate, wide-area bombardment, he sensed an unshakeable, suffocating aura of murderous intent.

Before long, a woman descended from the sky, wings of blazing fire fluttering behind her back. Gi Uhyeon, leader of the Blood Wolf Squad, felt his lips twitch.

It's her.

She was the woman who had brought down the leader of the Blood Red Squad and severed the right arm of the Five Blood Kings. The moment he laid eyes on her, instinct warned him: this woman was a monster on par with the Blood Kings of their holy cult. The God of Slaughter coiled inside her soul was far beyond anything he could ever hope to face alone.

Gi Uhyeon made his decision without hesitation.

"Blood Wolf Squad! Scatter and report to the Blood King that an expert at the peak of the Transformation Realm has appeared!"

"Oh, look at you. You actually think you're getting away?"

"Scatter in all directions and deliver the message! Move!"

"Where do you think you're going?!"

Ryeong flicked her wrists, hurling throwing daggers toward the fleeing squad members. But as Gi Uhyeon unleashed a burst of internal energy, several of the daggers lost momentum and clattered uselessly to the ground.

He, too, was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an expert of the Transformation Realm.

Just how many high-level bastards is the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Demon Blood Divine Cult hiding?

For a mere squad leader to possess such cultivation was absurd. First the Blood Red Squad, and now this Blood Wolf commander. She wanted to believe they were rare exceptions, but reality was rarely so kind. It was safer to assume the cult possessed a terrifying reserve of masters.

For now, she had to deal with this so-called squad leader.

"So you're the wretched bitch who keeps ruining our plans."

"You've got one thing wrong, though. I'm only at the entry stage of the Transformation Realm."

"What?"

"Keep getting on my nerves, and I might just blow past it and get absurdly stronger on the spot. Got that?"

Ryeong flared her fiery wings to their zenith. As the crimson blaze expanded, the surrounding trees caught fire and burst into roaring pillars of flame. Gi Uhyeon's pupils trembled at the sheer absurdity before him.

A woman wielding such monstrous internal energy was only at the entry stage of the Transformation Realm? Bullshit. She had to be at the absolute pinnacle of it. Any other explanation defied reason. Furthermore, threatening that she could grow stronger whenever she pleased made it sound as though she were holding back on purpose.

Yet Ryeong wasn't lying. She possessed the Thousand Poison Pill. Consuming it would flood her dantian with explosive power, thrusting her straight into the mature stages of the Transformation Realm in an instant. But she refrained because she refused to rely on elixirs. A realm attained purely through pills was like erecting a palace without pillars. Rather than watching it collapse down the road, it was better to climb step by step.

When she had forcibly broken through to the Transcendent Realm using the Purple Dawn Divine Pill during the Mount Zhongnan raid, it had taken immense effort to stabilize and refine her energy. Now that war with the Demon Blood Divine Cult was heating up, she had no intention of leaning on the Thousand Poison Pill for a shortcut.

Regardless, the enemy perceived her as a peak Transformation master. It simply meant the martial arts she wielded operated on a completely different plane of existence.

"If I kill you, that Blood King bastard will be furious, won't he?"

"Even if I die, I will carve an indelible scar into your flesh—"

Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!

The moment Gi Uhyeon took a step forward, daggers rained in from every direction, burying themselves deep into his flesh. Because every single blade was coated in Vermilion Bird Killing Intent, the protective astral qi enveloping him shattered like glass. Infused with pure flame property, the Vermilion Bird Killing Intent could not be repelled by standard astral qi.

"Urgh!"

Turned into a pincushion in the blink of an eye, Gi Uhyeon stumbled backward. He couldn't even fathom when she had laid such a trap.

The scheme had been simple. Ryeong had set the surrounding woods ablaze with her fiery wings specifically to dull his sense of smell. Amid the acrid, choking smoke, he would fail to detect the heat gathered on the concealed daggers. Behind the veil of her fiery wings, she had manipulated the flying daggers through Telekinesis, releasing them in an ambush the moment he moved. Draw the enemy's attention in front while setting up the lethal blow behind—a rudimentary assassin's trick. Yet executed by Ryeong's master-class finesse, Gi Uhyeon had fallen into it completely helpless.

"I've only gone all out in this body once."

"What are you babbling about...?"

"Once, back on Mount Zhongnan. To survive, I had to put everything on the line."

Clashing against a Transcendent Realm master while only at the First-rate Realm had been no simple task. Back then, she had struggled desperately like a condemned soul on the verge of execution. Since that day, she had never fought with her full might. Not when facing the Saint of Martial Intent, nor when clashing with the cult's experts a few days ago. They were opponents she could bring down without showing her true cards, so there had been no need to exert herself.

However.

"And today, I'm going all out again. Not to fight you, but to use you as a messenger."

"What... do you mean?"

"Since they've given us a declaration of war, it's only right that I return the favor. With your dying body, you will deliver our declaration of war to that Blood King."

Ryeong recalled the conversation she had shared with Ho Jihwan over drinks after annihilating the Peerless Association's forces.

Ho Jihwan had been sincere. Though flushed with alcohol, his words had held no deception. Ryeong had seen right through it. At first, she had brushed it off as drunken banter, but as the conversation went on, she realized he had meant every single word.

So she had decided to open her heart to him. She had come to believe that Ho Jihwan was a man she could truly entrust her back to.

And now, that man was dead.

Not only him, but every last disciple of his sect had been butchered like cattle. All just to serve as a cheap declaration of war.

"Screaming that you want to die won't do you any good. With your shattered mind, you're going to shove this right down that Blood King's throat."

Ryeong's eyes gleamed with an ominous, blood-chilling light. And in that moment, Gi Uhyeon realized that he had crossed the wrong person—someone he never should have provoked.

"I'll show you just what kind of agony true punishment is."

Dagger in hand, Ryeong advanced toward Gi Uhyeon with measured, deliberate steps. It was the stride of the Grim Reaper itself.