Karmic Retribution
“Bwahahaha! It is finally over!”
Mu Geon threw his head back and roared with laughter as he looked upon Ryeong’s glassy, unfocused eyes. The sorcery he had sprung upon her was the Dream Phantasm Fiend Array.
Whosoever became trapped within this array was forced to confront their deepest, most harrowing terror. Even if the victim realized it was nothing more than an illusion, the sensory agony felt terrifyingly authentic. Worse still, meeting death within the phantasm shattered one’s sanity, reducing the physical body to an empty, soulless marionette.
“So arrogant, yet in the end, you couldn't escape my grasp! Tell me, how does it feel, heh-heh-hahaha?!”
The triumphant smirk refused to leave his lips. To think he had reduced the grand-disciple of that cursed bastard to such a pitiful state! He didn't know whether that man still drew breath, but if they ever crossed paths again, Mu Geon wanted nothing more than to mock him to his heart's content.
“Done laughing?” a voice asked calmly.
“Yes, quite done laugh—wait, what?”
“Then it's time for you to die.”
“Ghk!”
Before Mu Geon could even register the chill of the whisper at his ear, Ryeong’s fingers clamped around his throat like an iron vise.
Infused with celestial qi, her grip flared with blistering, sacred heat. Paralyzing agony seized his entire body, rendering him utterly incapable of mounting an escape.
“H-How... How could you possibly—?!”
“How did I break out? Do I really need to spell it out for you?”
Ryeong gritted her teeth. Even knowing it had been an illusion, the foul aftertaste of the experience left her thoroughly disgusted.
How had she shattered the array? The answer was absurdly simple. The Celestial Immortal Divine Art was a supreme cultivation art forged by the Sovereign of Immortals, a transcendent power far beyond the grasp of ordinary mortals. No matter how insidious an unorthodox formation might be, it lacked the potency to disrupt the celestial qi rooted in her middle dantian. Maligned arts were wicked only by mortal standards; measured against the realm of immortals, they were nothing more than childish pranks. While she had been forced to endure the illusions and the phantom agony they inflicted, sorcery aimed at fracturing her soul could never take hold.
Just as she had done with the Four Ghosts Sealing Array, Ryeong had merely bided her time, waiting for Mu Geon to draw close. The instant his guard dropped, she struck, seizing him by the throat.
“Kehk... You wretched wench...! Do you truly believe you can kill me?!”
“Why wouldn't I? Isn't it about time you settled your karmic debts?”
“What?!”
Mu Geon’s pupils dilated in sheer horror. The sinister evil qi coiled within his flesh was draining away, siphoned off into an inescapable vortex.
“Y-You...! Are you using an Energy Absorption Demonic Art?! How can someone wielding sacred qi possess demonic techniques?!”
“You’ve got it all wrong. This is your karma. The price for murdering innocent lives and stealing away their futures.”
Fwoooosh!
The evil qi that the vengeful spirits had sacrificed themselves to bestow upon her when she first set foot in the World of Chaos Palace acted as a catalyst, ravenously dragging out the dark energy gorging the Ghost Command King's flesh. He struggled frantically to break her hold, but it was futile against the sacred authority of the Celestial Immortal Divine Art. To Mu Geon's mind, the existence of someone who wielded sacred power while effortlessly absorbing its natural antithesis was a contradiction that defied the very laws of heaven and earth.
He had lost count of how many times his mind had been shattered today. Yet one reality was brutally clear: if this continued, every scrap of his evil qi would be drained, leaving him dead.
No... Not like this!
How much suffering had he endured to reach this threshold? He stood on the very precipice of shedding the demonic and attaining transcendence, only to have his power stripped away and be reduced to garbage weaker than a common third-rate pugilist?
He had to survive. By any means necessary, he had to escape this place alive.
“S-Spare me! I will tell you anything you want to know! Please, I beg of you, just spare my life!”
“Hold on. Why on earth would I trust you enough to let you live?”
“H-Heavenly Slaughter! I will tell you about your master's master! So please—!”
“...”
Ryeong eased the flow of absorption. Grasping at the sliver of hope, Mu Geon spoke in a frantic rush.
“The Demon Blood Divine Cult was founded upon the ashes of the Heavenly Demon Cult! You must know that much!”
“'You'?”
“...I-I mean, you must be aware, young lady! When the Demon Blood Divine Cult was formed, the Heavenly Demon scoured the Beyond-the-Border regions and appointed the Three Great Protectors! That man was an expert hailing from the Lesser Thunder Temple!”
Now that was an unexpected revelation. She had never imagined her grandmaster had originated from the Lesser Thunder Temple.
The timeline is completely twisted, though.
Ryeong had met her master during her childhood and inherited his legacy. If this wretch was telling the truth, it meant her grandmaster was currently serving under the banner of the Demon Blood Divine Cult in this era.
“The current Cult Leader took note of his strength, subdued him in a duel, and made him the Right Protector!”
“The Right Protector, is it?”
“B-But before long, he threw the position away and vanished without a trace! His nature never suited the cult in the first place, so I knew he would leave eventually, but...”
“What a relief. At least it means Master isn't a brainless fanatic of the Demon Blood Divine Cult.”
Mu Geon tilted his head in bewilderment. The person he had spoken of was Heavenly Slaughter's master, not this young girl's master. Yet the chilling detachment in her eyes made his blood run cold.
A sudden realization seized him, raising goosebumps across his flesh. Could it be... Could this woman not be Heavenly Slaughter's disciple, but Heavenly Slaughter himself?
“Haha. Looking at your eyes, it seems you've finally figured out who I am.”
“I-Impossible... You're Heavenly Slaughter?! He died over a year ago!”
“Even you survived with a hole through your skull. Is there any law saying I had to stay dead?”
“Haha... Hahahahaha!”
The Ghost Command King burst into wild, hollow laughter. The profound desolation in his voice showed he had already accepted his impending demise. As a final act of mercy, Ryeong offered him a parting word.
“Any last words?”
“So it was not the path of shedding the demonic, but demonic reincarnation after all... To see the ambition of a lifetime vanish before my very eyes... the emptiness is beyond words.”
“What kind of drivel are you babbling now?”
“I suppose my fate was sealed the moment I stormed out of the cult.”
Ryeong watched Mu Geon in silence. His self-mocking mutterings sounded no different from those of a broken man who had forsaken all will to live.
Does he think I tried to break through the wall of the Profound Realm using the same method he did?
Judging by the circumstances, Mu Geon had sought to reach transcendence by plundering the true qi of others. Seeing Heavenly Slaughter standing before him in the body of a young girl, he seemed convinced that his own life's pursuit had been rendered completely meaningless.
Well, my situation is because an immortal meddled in my fate, but if he wants to jump to his own conclusions, all the better for me.
The hollow despair a martial artist felt when the dream they had pursued their entire life crumbled into dust was something no outsider could ever truly understand. Looking at Mu Geon’s hollow gaze, Ryeong recognized that despite the vile sorcery and despicable formations he practiced, at his core, he was still a martial artist.
Without another word, Ryeong drew in every remaining scrap of his evil qi and true qi.
Mu Geon offered no resistance. Stripped of every trace of energy coursing through his meridians, he withered into nothing more than a frail, emaciated husk of an old man.
Thud.
As she released her grip, his body collapsed limply to the flagstones. Listening to his ragged, shallow wheezing, not a spark of will to live remained within his sunken eyes.
Yet Ryeong had no intention of granting him a peaceful departure. Had she wanted him to die comfortably, she would have siphoned his life force as well.
This bastard had earned a far more agonizing end.
“You all lent me your strength, so it's only right I return the favor.”
Gathering the evil qi circulating within her dantian alongside the stolen energy, Ryeong compressed it into a dense, compact sphere. With a thrust of her palm, she drove it directly into Mu Geon’s chest.
“Aaaaaargh!”
The spirits that had merged into sinister energy began to gnaw at Mu Geon’s body from within. His acupoints blackened entirely, and fueled by the unbridled fury of the vengeful dead, his muscles, bones, and flesh were devoured piece by piece.
Though discharging all that energy felt like a slight waste, retaining it would have been nothing short of poison. For a fleeting moment she had wondered if she might form a Taiji balance, but in hindsight, that had been mere wishful thinking. Furthermore, by draining Mu Geon's true qi alongside the evil energy, Ryeong now possessed an internal reserve that surpassed even what she had wielded in her prime as Heavenly Slaughter.
This was more than enough. As the old adage went, excess was as harmful as deficiency. Evil qi was an unnatural power that did not belong to her, and returning it to those who had aided her was only just.
The Ghost Command King’s writhing, tormented form convulsed violently one last time. As the evil qi tore free from his corpse, familiar, luminous faces manifested from the dispersing miasma.
“Thank you, young lady. Thanks to you, we were able to take vengeance upon that wretched scum.”
“We have no words to offer other than our deepest gratitude for not forgetting us.”
“Even from the underworld, we shall watch over your path ahead.”
“May glory grace your future days.”
Their bitter grudges resolved, the spirits ascended toward the heavens. Those who had suffered wrongful deaths at the hands of the Ghost Command King, having finally found retribution, were at last departing this cursed ground.
Whoooosh!
As they took flight into the sky, they carried away the dense yin energy that had blanketed the World of Chaos Palace. Though this land was already desolate beyond recovery, there was no longer any reason for the lair of such a cursed abomination to remain.
The murky air gradually cleared of its foulness, and Ryeong released her celestial qi, purging the remaining vestiges of yin energy throughout the citadel. Before long, the ghostly miasma and deathly chill shrouding the World of Chaos Palace vanished completely.
With that, Ryeong felt the karmic ties binding her to the Ghost Command King sever once and for all.
“Now then, what's left is...”
It was time for the delightful task of looting the spoils of war.
He had holed himself up here alone for so many decades—surely his vault was overflowing with treasure?