The Ghost Command King
Ryeong did not leave the area for an entire day, remaining on vigilant watch in case other ghosts emerged. Yet she could not linger indefinitely. If this Ghost Command King was truly ensconced in Hebei, dispatching spirits all the way down here would have taken considerable time. For all she knew, those specters might have been sent well before word of the Fifth Blood King's demise had even spread.
In any case, sitting idle was out of the question when circumstances demanded swift action. With lingering reluctance, Ryeong thoroughly demolished the cult's stronghold to prevent anything sinister from taking root in the ruins. Afterward, the subjugation force gathered the remains of the fallen and returned to Wuhan, where a two-day memorial rite was held to comfort their spirits. Ryeong attended the ceremony, standing motionless until it finally concluded.
She could have saved them. Had she set out alongside the Daoist Masters, many more lives would have been spared. Yet she had prioritized total victory and the preservation of vital strength. She had entered this war accepting that the few must sometimes be sacrificed for the greater whole, but facing the reality of that calculation still weighed heavily upon her heart.
Even so, she did not despair. Such casualties were all but inevitable in the conflicts yet to come. She had withheld the Daoist Masters from the vanguard for a single reason: every one of them was a strategic weapon. Even if ordinary martial artists perished, the realm's foremost masters had to survive.
If others pointed fingers in condemnation, she would bear it without complaint. Even if time were turned back, Ryeong would have made the exact same choice. That was precisely why, moving forward, she had no intention of marching with an army at her back.
The Ghost Command King. One of the Three Demon Lords residing in Hebei, or so the specter had claimed. Ryeong already knew that the high command of the Demon Blood Divine Cult was divided between Blood Kings and Demon Lords. The trouble was that reality deviated from her expectations. The Fifth Blood King was supposed to be the lone executive dispatched to spearhead the invasion of the Central Plains. She had assumed no other leader would step foot here until news of his demise reached the cult's headquarters.
Yet, in truth, someone called the Ghost Command King had already embedded himself in Hebei. Perhaps he had been active in the Central Plains for a very long time.
Ryeong had never paid much attention to the wider jianghu. Struggling to survive day to day left little room to care about who was who. At best, she only knew which factions held sway and which were utter trash, remaining oblivious to the precise disposition of the realm's top masters. Naturally, that left only one practical recourse.
"The Ghost Command King, you say? He is one of the Four Great Evils, just like your master, the Heavenly Killer."
"That bastard is one of the Four Great Evils?"
She had turned to Jin Yeong for answers, and true to form, he was well-versed in the matter. Just as Ryeong was thinking he ought to have joined an intelligence guild instead, a rather chilling detail followed.
"Unofficially, at least, the Ghost Command King is rumored to be the strongest among the Four Great Evils."
"Oh, wonderful. As if grouping four monsters together wasn't enough, people actually bothered to rank who's on top?"
"Have you ever witnessed your master fighting at full strength?"
"Of course I have. In his prime, no one short of a master in the Profound Realm could even hope to stop the Heavenly Killer."
She knew better than anyone—because she was him. Four Great Evils or not, once caught in her crosshairs back then, even an expert at the pinnacle of the Transcendent Realm wouldn't leave behind so much as intact bones. Subconsciously, she had always assumed herself to have been the strongest of the four. Hearing Jin Yeong crown the Ghost Command King instead rubbed her pride the wrong way.
Fortunately, Jin Yeong seemed to mistake her prickliness for filial loyalty to her supposed master. Regardless, he went on to explain that the Ghost Command King had never actually trained in orthodox martial arts. His specialty lay in sorcery and esoteric arts. Bolstered by all manner of sinister occult techniques, his malevolent reputation was entirely distinct from that of ordinary martial artists.
"The Ghost Command King erected a citadel called the World of Chaos Palace and has secluded himself within," Jin Yeong explained.
"The World of Chaos Palace?"
"I've heard that ghosts, monsters, and all manner of demonic apparitions gather there. Rumor has it an elite strike force from the Paeng Clan attempted to breach it, only to be wiped out in less than half a quarter of an hour."
Ryeong revised her assessment of the Ghost Command King. She had yet to reclaim the full prowess of her Heavenly Killer days; her current body simply struggled to match the motions of her former life. A woman's physique differed from a man's. While she could move with extraordinary swiftness, excessive physical strain placed an unbearable load on her muscles. What compensated for the shortcomings in her assassination techniques was the Four Divine Beasts Sword. Without it, her odds of defeating Geuk Pyeong would have been vanishingly slim.
Still, this was an enemy she would have to face eventually. If so, wouldn't it be better to strike him unawares with a surprise assault? As Ryeong's expression twisted into a sly, contemplative grin, Jin Yeong suddenly felt a knot of dread tighten in his stomach.
"My lady... just in case, if you're thinking of trying to take down the Ghost Command King—"
"You truly understand me best. When do we set off?"
"..."
Jin Yeong stared at her in utter disbelief. Did she think the Ghost Command King was some stray mutt off the street? He was one of the Four Great Evils, whose terrifying danger had just been thoroughly detailed. Yet Ryeong hadn't even blinked. To nonchalantly decide to go assassinate him—even if she was the disciple of the Heavenly Killer, this was nothing short of suicidal.
As he had always done, Jin Yeong resolved to stop her. This time, he decided to take a firmer stance.
"My lady, I speak in all earnestness. Even if all the orthodox and unorthodox factions in Hebei combined their forces, victory against the Ghost Command King could not be guaranteed."
"That bastard is one of the Three Demon Lords. A high-ranking expert of the Demon Blood Divine Cult."
"...!"
Jin Yeong's eyes snapped wide. One of the Four Great Evils was an operative of the Demon Blood Divine Cult? Come to think of it, the same had applied to Ryeong's master, the Heavenly Killer. His origins lay within the cult, and it was in his desperate struggle to break free from its clutches that he had been branded one of the Four Great Evils. There was no law stating that another of the four couldn't be affiliated with them as well. In the end, the Demon Blood Divine Cult always operated in the shadows. Had the Ghost Command King been perpetrating evil for the cult under the mantle of the Four Great Evils all along?
Anxiety churned violently in Jin Yeong's gut.
"The Fifth Blood King is dead," Ryeong pressed. "You know as well as I do that the Blood Kings and Demon Lords hold equal rank. What happens when word reaches Hebei? Do you really think the Ghost Command King will just sit quietly in his World of Chaos Palace?"
"..."
Her logic was sound—at least on the surface. Yet contrary to what Jin Yeong imagined, the bonds between the executives of the Demon Blood Divine Cult were anything but affectionate. He was merely projecting the values of the Orthodox sects he had grown up with, where comrades looked out for one another. To the Demon Blood Divine Cult, using an ally as bait was second nature. In truth, whatever the Ghost Command King was plotting inside his palace, the odds of him suddenly marching out into the jianghu over Geuk Pyeong's death were less than thirty percent.
Nevertheless, Ryeong had chosen to oppose his objections, and she had no qualms about spinning a lie to sway his resolve. The result was that Jin Yeong fell into agonized contemplation.
Ryeong delivered her parting ultimatum.
"I'm going to see Patriarch Namgung. Just think about when the Ghost Command King first appeared in the jianghu. Do you really believe his silence all this time has been a mere coincidence?"
Leaving those words behind, Ryeong headed off to meet Namgung Ja-un. They had agreed to speak later, and that appointment had been set for today. In the wake of her departure, Jin Yeong was left wrestling with his thoughts. As someone dedicated to standing against great evil, he could not simply turn a blind eye—yet the harrowing image of himself dying helplessly flashed through his mind.
"Damn it!"
Jin Yeong squeezed his eyes shut in frustration.
"You have arrived."
"I came at your summons, Patriarch."
"Please, sit."
Taking her place before Namgung Ja-un, Ryeong crossed her legs. He offered her a cup of tea, and after she took an effortless sip, the conversation resumed.
"To achieve such immense accomplishments at such a tender age... How wonderful it would have been had you belonged to our main clan."
Scanning Ryeong with his keen gaze, he clicked his tongue in genuine regret. Any martial artist examining Ryeong would be astonished by a constitution that surpassed even the Heavenly Martial Physique. The Celestial Immortal Divine Art had refined her physical essence into that of an immortal; to anyone walking the path of martial arts, hers was a body that would make their eyes widen in disbelief.
"There was so much I wished to say, yet sitting across from you now, the words do not come easily."
"Am I truly that breathtaking?"
"I shall take that as a jest," Namgung Ja-un chuckled softly, the light banter easing the tension between them. Shifting his tone, he grew serious once more. "I recently came into possession of a piece of top-secret intelligence."
"Top-secret, you say?"
"Are you familiar with the Ghost Command King?"
"Ah. I only just learned myself that the bastard is one of the Three Demon Lords of the Demon Blood Divine Cult."
"What?"
Namgung Ja-un flinched in shock. Even for a man who customarily maintained unflappable composure, her words struck like a thunderclap.
Ryeong candidly shared that she had learned this directly from the specters. Godlike swordsmanship, internal qi that directly countered demonic energy, and now the supernatural ability to perceive spirits...
"Looking at you," Namgung Ja-un murmured, "I find myself genuinely wondering if mortals blessed by celestial immortals truly exist."
"Haha, surely not," Ryeong chuckled breezily.
Namgung Ja-un had spoken in jest, yet in truth, she was the sole human walking the earth under the direct blessing of an immortal. The only problem was that, apart from the Celestial Immortal Divine Art itself, she despised virtually everything that came with it.