—Yangcheon.

—This unworthy one, Yangcheon of the Supreme Courtyard of Reverent Rites, pays respects to the Grand Empress Dowager.

—How is your condition?

—Lately, I’ve made a full recovery. I was pondering whether to visit the famed Divine Sword Corps Leader or head straight to the Great Wall. I heard Guangjung Palace's Eo Ung has temporarily entrusted himself to the Divine Sword Corps Leader... However, Your Majesty.

—Speak.

—I had merely wished to say that I am at «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» a loss beneath the gaze of the King of Wind...

—You are displeased that I addressed you so directly?

—How could I dare...

—I shall overlook your insolence. Go to the Demon Realm’s Baekraehyeop. The matter is urgent—you must push your lightness skill to the limit.

—You said it’s urgent?

—Prevent the succession of the Incarnated Divine Sword. It is an agreement endorsed by all of Ming’s court and officials.

—Do you fear the symbolic power of that blade falling entirely into Northern Qi’s hands...?

—I will issue an oral imperial edict later. Transfer the Divine Sword Corps Leader position to Yong Hui-myeong. Emphasize legitimacy over authority. The current Divine Sword Corps is a blade with missing teeth. Until they recover, your mere presence will be enough to exert pressure.

—Forgive my impertinence, but... this is a rather petty act—Oh, the transmission cut. The rotting old tree lives on, too stubborn to die.

***

The Seven Apostates, promised a life nearing immortality.

They had encountered thirty thousand troops near a tributary of the Black Dragon River. At the same time, they made every effort to delay all intel from reaching the Black Sabre Palace.

An overwhelming storm of spears, blades, axes, and surging energy from cannon bursts.

For a brief moment, they had defied a natural disaster.

They were forced to use even their ultimate life-saving techniques—and still, they were nearly swallowed by the tidal wave of the Martial Army's colossal might.

Had the Southern Emperor’s will not spread like a northern blizzard, they truly would have perished.

And now, the Divine Sword Corps' base at Baekraehyeop.

Dozens upon dozens from the Blood King Clan.

Many among them had already long witnessed the Seven Apostates' possessed, frenzied combat. She was indeed the blood daughter of the Blood King. Any doubts about her lineage faded before they could be voiced.

“A blood fiend among blood fiends. That madness, that overwhelming battle instinct, martial might at an absolute peak regardless of age...”

A white-haired, handsome man spoke.

He sat cross-legged like a shadow beside the Apostate’s bed.

His hand repeatedly rose and stopped just before her cheek, again and again, but the Seven Apostate’s dense lashes did not lift even once.

It was after she had confronted thirty thousand elite Martial Army soldiers with staggering power. Her condition could not possibly be normal.

Her snow-white skin was flawlessly smooth as if it embodied a martial artist’s ideal state—but it was only the result of regenerative power.

When the war had just ended, the Seven Apostate had resembled a being of pure blood.

She had stood dazed, her consciousness nearly gone, until the Blood King brought her back.

“Yes... it’s no wonder the Bloodflame Cult Leader Baekrak sought her as an heir. It’s no wonder she was hidden for such a long time.”

The Blood King slowly shook his head. In chaotic times, dazzling talent often tore families apart.

Such was the nature of outer-path martial ways. It was no different from military conscription.

The loss of true-blood vessels.

That was why the warriors of the Blood King Clan were all so emaciated. In the barren northern lands, they neither consumed humans nor sought human blood. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

As nobles obsessed with refinement, they loathed the Bloodflame Cult, and that conviction was maintained even in the Demon Realm.

A woman with black hair and red eyes asked from the side.

“Northern Qi’s right arm was a blood fiend. Do you think they were from the Bloodflame Cult?”

Her features bore a resemblance to the Seven Apostate, though softer. This was Jeok Iseo—heir to the Blood King and elder sister to the Seven Apostate. At this moment, there was a faint ripple of emotion in her otherwise indifferent face.

“Unlikely.”

The Blood King slowly shook his head. The end of his unnaturally smooth white hair shimmered with a glint. The purer the bloodline, the stronger the innate demonic essence.

“There’s a unit within the Ipwang Fortress Divine Sword Corps called the Blood Guard. The royal sects of Ming are pragmatic—they even utilize blood fiends if they’re useful... That’s why they are the greatest under heaven.”

Jeok Iseo nodded. Her attention remained on the blood fiend from the Retreating Ghost Front. Jin Myeong-jo, the Divine Sword Vice-Captain under Northern Qi.

“That half-blooded man... he seemed to possess an unusual spiritual resonance.”

“I felt it clearly. He bears the divine imprint of Baekrak, the Bloodflame Cult Leader, in his upper dantian. In other words, Northern Qi’s right arm killed the cult leader. It’s something we’ll have to speak of eventually—remember this.”

“He killed the cult leader...!”

As Jeok Iseo’s reddish eyes rippled like blood-stained waves, the Blood King’s hand, hovering just above the Apostate’s cheek, was suddenly grasped—silently—by a snow-white hand.

It was the Seven Apostate.

“Trying to die?”

She asked in a cracked voice.

Her eyes were still closed. Her body lay as it was. Even so, her presence evoked chills like a ghost of martial power.

Yet a smile slowly spread across the Blood King’s face.

“If your upper dantian is awakened, you must feel the bonds of Heaven. Sense your father’s pulse. It’s the same as when I first met your mother, when your sister was born, when I first held you as an infant.”

“......”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“After losing you, my heart never beat this way again. Now our royal bloodline is whole once more. Truly, truly—I missed you, my dear child.”

A terrifyingly gentle voice filled the barracks. The obsession of blood fiends with purpose had always defied imagination.

To the Blood King, the wholeness of the family he built was that purpose.

It was why, as a Northern King, he had briefly allied with Jeong Yeon-shin. The sacred wish of the noble Blood King Clan was now fulfilled in a humble tent.

Saaah—

A sudden breeze squirmed like the corner of the Blood King’s lips. It was the pulse of his inner energy, nearly one with the northern natural force.

“I have no parents.”

Suddenly, the Seven Apostate’s voice quieted the smiling breeze. Her speech flowed smoothly.

“The True-Blood Cult Leader is complete in himself. Seeking out blood ties after the fact only reveals one’s flaws. I just need to place one last piece.”

This was not a human speaking. It was as if lips forged from martial power had uttered the words. At that moment, Jeok Iseo’s expression shifted, and the Blood King opened his mouth.

“...Look at your father. Even the Southern and Northern Emperors now sit beneath the shadow of factions. Our main house can support you as you reach completion. I heard the branches of the Bloodflame Cult were annihilated by your hand—there is nothing left, is there?”

“I said I have no parents.”

“Impudent!”

A cry burst out from among the elite warriors guarding the tent.

Immediately, the Seven Apostate’s eyelids lifted just slightly, and even that was enough to cause the turbulent martial energy in the tent to instantly settle.

“......”

He enforced silence through will alone. Just like the Bloodflame Cult’s greatest prodigy of past and present had once focused not on soul absorption, but on tempering the upper dantian.

The Blood King murmured slowly.

“Her martial state is astonishing, but the technique itself is... strange. Now that I think about it, that single eye too...”

At that exact moment, for some reason, the Seven Apostate tightly shut her eyes again—as if nothing had happened—and the power that had been suppressed to the floor exploded in every direction with a thunderous boom.

Grooves like claw marks were left everywhere.

It was then that Jeong Yeon-shin entered the tent alongside Shin So-bin.

The Blood King, who had been gazing at the now-dead-still Seven Apostate with a strange look, slowly turned to Jeong Yeon-shin. The refined curve of his lips, which had carried a gentle smile, subtly hardened.

“Northern Qi.”

“My apologies. I called ahead but received no response...”

“No need.”

Ssh—

The Blood King waved his hand slowly. At the same time, his long white hair shifted faintly, and a ripple of unseen hostility shimmered faintly along its ends.

He was now grasping the hand of the Seven Apostate, who had earlier let go of his.

A father's instinct.

“I know it’s shameless, but I was doing all I could to win back the heart of the daughter I’d lost. I hope you’ll understand if I don’t give your business my full attention.”

Despite his current emotions, the Blood King treated Jeong Yeon-shin with dignity. After the Great Black Sabre War, the nickname “Northern Qi” had started to circulate even among the Northern Kings of the Half-Divine Factions.

Jeong Yeon-shin, too, could not help but remain respectful.

“Is your daughter’s condition stable?”

As his gaze lowered, the Seven Apostate’s body subtly trembled—barely, like the faint hum of a blade being drawn. The furrow between the Blood King’s brows deepened like cracked soil in a drought.

“There’s no point in worrying about the health of one with True-Blood vessels. In any case, my house has already moved greatly in accordance with your will. Have you come with another request?”

“...You’ve come a long way. Don’t you need a new home?”

At Jeong Yeon-shin’s calm question, the Blood King’s lips curled upward slowly.

A smile as enchanting as that of any Bloodflame noble—but carrying a demonic nature far beyond any Bloodflame apostle.

“So it’s true—you clashed with the Southern Emperor as an equal. Your speech resembles his. That desire for power beyond your station—it’s the same.”

“There are many noble houses under the jurisdiction of Bonsung. The Shins, the Yuns, the Hahus, the Yus... All are honorable and skilled in martial arts. They rarely go hungry. They are clans respected far and wide.”

“Why leave out the Mas?”

“It’s difficult to maintain refinement in the barren Demon Realm, as the Blood King Clan has. If you were to come to Yangyang, you’d be welcomed warmly.”

“You want us to become part of the Ipwang Clan?”

The smile that had lingered on the Blood King’s lips twisted with a sinister edge. In that moment, he carried the demeanor of the most perfect martial master in the entire Divine Sword Corps camp.

“You say that to a king of the North? That we should remain as mere clan leaders among wandering knights?”

Jeong Yeon-shin answered quietly.

“In this world, wanderers are worth more than kings.”

The Blood King could not know how much anguish had gone into those words.

Nor could he understand that Jeong Yeon-shin had pressed the key of righteousness into the shackles of the Divine Sword convict he once resented. Only the dead Southern Emperor, the Sword Saint, and the Vice-Captain of the Divine Sword Corps could have truly understood.

It was vivid before Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.

A field of golden reeds rippling in the wind, a towering scarecrow shaped from black mist, and a silent breeze. Even now, the scene was being etched beneath the constellation of blades.

The Blood King shook his head.

“Do you plan to act as the emperor of the North, as your epithet suggests? No one but the Southern Emperor has ever dared to claim my house. That’s because we are already a completed lineage!”

At the word “completed,” Jeong Yeon-shin’s expression shifted.

“So you are her father, after all.”

“Call her a woman, a daughter, or a lady—choose one. I won’t tolerate anything else. All the more so if our house relocates to the southern lands, as you say. Though it may take an eternity for her to call me ‘Father King,’ she is undeniably of my royal lineage...”

“Daddy?”

In a fleeting moment, the voice of a True-Blood scion cracked open the beginning of a new household. It was, quite literally, the sign of sect foundation. The Ipwang Clan, which valued noble bloodlines above all else.

It was around that time that Jeong Yeon-shin turned silently away.

A vast wave of demonic energy was rapidly approaching from the distant sky with the force of thunder. It was unmistakably the signature, taunting martial energy of So Cheonmujuk—she had been waiting for Jeong Yeon-shin to awaken.

At this range, her upper dantian deity could likely even feel Jeong Yeon-shin’s pulse.

—Yeon-shin, my dear brother, if you’re awake, shouldn’t you first speak of our old grudge with this foolish elder?

She descended in an instant.

Rumble!

With a deafening blast of breaking air, the entire tent was torn upward—and through it burst the crimson flash unique to Jin Myeong-jo.

An immediate response, placing himself in protective stance for Jeong Yeon-shin. A moment later, So Cheonmujuk appeared high in the air, stepping lightly through the mist like King Yama.

[Hmm?]

Against the backdrop of the snow-white plain, what met her eyes was a Bloodflame Cult stronger than ever.