Black-violet flames that looked as if they would swallow the world were blazing.

After the black-violet blaze brushed past, the red earth made of Blood Cultists turned to ash in an instant and scattered on the wind.

The Blood Cultists froze in fear at the suddenly arising event.

Then, from someone’s mouth, a terror-stricken scream burst out.

“Huahhh!”

“Uaaah!”

Thereupon, fear spread as if contagious.

Perhaps finding the sound noisy, Zimjo took a few more steps toward the Blood Cultists.

Zimjo, draped in a black-violet veil, began to move with slow, imposing steps, and with each step it took, death blossomed.

Every being it touched withered and vanished under that overwhelming oppression.

They could not even leave behind a scream.

As most of the Blood Cultists who had crowded at the Beast Palace entrance disappeared like that, Zimjo turned its head.

Zimjo’s gaze was fixed on that white sphere So-ryong had desperately summoned.

That mass like a whitish mist, condensed venom born of So-ryong’s Qi Deviation—Zimjo slowly approached that way.

However, those footsteps were not rough like before.

On the contrary, they were elegant, light as if dancing in small steps.

Even as the black-violet flames licked its body, Zimjo’s movements were tranquil like a bird walking upon a still lake.

Only the air around Zimjo’s footprints rippled faintly.

At last, Zimjo halted before the sphere.

Without hesitation, Zimjo slowly extended its beak.

—Swaaaah.

The instant the sharp beak brushed the surface of the sphere, the white energy writhing within seemed to come alive, swirled, and began to be sucked into Zimjo’s mouth.

The venom was seeping into Zimjo’s body.

“Z-Zimjo? Nghk.”

“Huek. Zimjo is helping us!”

At that sight, So-ryong’s wives brightened even amid pain.

Erasing the Blood Demon as well as a wing of the Blood Cult that had crowded the Beast Palace entrance, and erasing the venom that had been created when So-ryong fell into Qi Deviation—

They did not know why Zimjo was taking such action, but it looked as if it were helping So-ryong.

A faint relief seeped into everyone’s chest.

They could not know Zimjo’s deeper intent for why this choice was being made, but at least in this moment it felt like a saving hand.

It was then, when everyone thought “thank goodness.”

At the moment all the venom was drawn toward Zimjo, hope was shattered to pieces in an instant. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

As all the venom was sucked into Zimjo’s body and the white sphere that had wrapped So-ryong slowly grew transparent and vanished as if evaporating, a horrifying catastrophe began.

So-ryong’s body began to scatter slowly—cruelly slowly.

The hem of his clothes crumbled like powder and rose on the wind, and his black hair unraveled like threads and fluttered apart.

Next, his skin began to lift.

As if old paper were burning, thin flakes fell from his arms and shoulders.

The flesh revealed beneath the skin then split again, piece by piece, and scattered.

Without being able to let out even a painful groan, So-ryong’s body was becoming ash and fading in the air.

“S-So-ryong!?”

“So-ryong! Kkyaeuk.”

“So-ryong!?”

“Master!?”

—Tzrrrr. 『Dad!』

[So-ryong! Fall back! Nghhh.]

They had thought Zimjo was helping So-ryong, but it was not so.

The wailing shouts of So-ryong’s wives and the cries of the other spirit creatures filled the entrance of the Beast Palace.

The moment when the bird they had believed to be salvation became, in truth, the final destroyer.

Everyone realized.

They had mistaken Zimjo for helping So-ryong, but Zimjo was merely treating all things equally.

Hope was turning to ash.

The hearts of So-ryong’s wives and spirit creatures, unable to move from pain, were being dyed in eternal darkness.

While all were only watching So-ryong vanish in regret and despair like that—

“I cannot lose a junior like this!”

Wheel Lady Heo Muha hurled her wheel toward Zimjo.

But the moment it touched the violet flame, Heo Muha’s wheel vanished as if evaporating.

“M-my wheel forged of cold iron!”

The venom that melted anything entering within blocked any helping hand.

Must they send him off like this?

So helplessly?

Must they send off the young hero who strove for the martial world, a husband, a younger brother, a son, without being able to do anything?

It was when everyone was seized by despair.

Suddenly, a white light flashed near So-ryong’s upper dantian.

A light that flashed and bloomed and grew in force.

At the light emanating from that energy, Seol, who had sunk down in despair among So-ryong’s wives, sprang to his feet and shouted.

“Right! So-ryong! You’re doing well! Make it yours!”

Even while having lost consciousness, So-ryong was accepting Zimjo’s venom and trying to connect Zimjo.

If he connected Zimjo through Zimjo’s venom, that venom would no longer be able to do harm.

It was the only way So-ryong could live.

Though it had to be before his whole body dwindled away.

***

When I opened my eyes, I had arrived at a wondrous place.

I had clearly been crossing blades with the Blood Cult’s boss, the Blood Demon, and yet I had arrived in a strange space.

“What is this place?”

My voice rang out like an echo and broke the surrounding stillness.

I was standing in the middle of a gigantic forest.

It was completely different from an ordinary Central Plains forest.

Conifers rising endlessly, gathered so densely they seemed to pierce the sky; even sunlight seeped in only faintly—this was a wild forest such as one would see only in a northern frigid zone.

Needle-like leaves rustled in the wind, and the air pricked my nose with a mix of damp earth smell and the biting scent of pine.

It was as if the homeland of the elves from the fantasy novels I enjoyed reading in my previous life had bloomed in reality.

Silvery mist circled °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° at my feet, and birdsong heard from afar felt strange and enchanting, like an exotic melody.

At that sight, I could tell where this was.

It seemed to be a mental landscape.

“It seems to be a mental landscape, doesn’t it?”

But why?

Had I fallen into the mental landscape?

Fragments of memory flitted through my head.

I was certainly fighting the Blood Demon, and at that moment of inspiration to press the Blood Demon by gathering the children’s venom into one great power—

Just then, as venom writhed at my fingertips, the world turned white as if collapsing, and when I opened my eyes, I was here.

I had opened the Five Gates, and the realm of the Beast-Heart Technique had reached its height so that my body could enter and exit the mental landscape at will, so I decided to get out for now.

Since it should be possible by will alone, I gritted my teeth and focused my mind.

Drawing up the energy of the Beast-Heart Technique, as if knocking on the inner door, I shouted for a return to reality.

However, nothing happened.

As if the thread of the mind were tangled and would not unwind, the door stayed firmly shut and did not budge.

“Nngh. What is this? Why won’t I get out?”

Straining was futile.

Sweat ran down my forehead, and my chest tightened stuffily.

If I had flown here in the middle of fighting the Blood Demon, then time was pressing.

If I had not taken down that monster?

If I had not taken down the Blood Demon, then I could not guarantee my wives’ safety, to say nothing of my own body.

I sat down for a moment and steadied my breathing.

While my head tangled into a mess, I made a quick decision.

First I had to explore this space.

I approached a nearby gigantic conifer and unfolded Lizard Gecko Movement.

The energy gathered at my toes climbed the bark and shot up vertically.

In an instant I reached the top and stood upon the roof of the forest.

At the moment my view opened wide, golden light flashed from the very middle of the distant woods.

“W-what is that?”

There, in the heart of the forest, towered a building even more splendid than that grand golden palace I had seen when I went to Ji-ryeon’s family home—that is, the imperial palace.

A roof that glittered like a dragon’s scales, spires that pierced the sky, and mist-like energy billowing around it.

A splendor that even the Emperor of the Central Plains would envy was standing unabashed in the very middle of this northern forest.

Honestly, I had not imagined there would be something like a landmark.

I had only climbed up on the off chance.

“What in the world is this?”

To be honest, I had not thought there would be a landmark.

Still, just in case, I looked—and there it was, rising unabashed: a landmark.

This clearly said it was someone’s mental landscape.

A shock flashed through my head.

“D-don’t tell me!?”

It occurred to me I might have been operating the Beast-Heart Technique in a state of selflessness while fighting the Blood Demon.

“Damn. I-I’m screwed.”

Like this, I could subdue the Blood Demon effectively, but the problem was I could not kill her.

If it were my own mental landscape, that would be another matter, but here I could not kill the Blood Demon.

So all I could do was connect—and then things became very complicated.

They say if you kill a spirit creature you’ve connected, you yourself take a shock, and what if, after connecting, the Blood Demon asked to be taken as a wife like my wives?

If an old granny of several hundred years did that, I would truly be in trouble.

“That would be over the line.”

Shuddering all over, I decided to head for that golden palace for now.

I would have to subdue and connect within the mental landscape first.

I unfolded light footwork and quickly sailed toward the golden palace and, after a short while, could stand at its entrance.

From the entrance on, gold was spread on the floor instead of stone.

I walked the golden path laid instead of paving stones and slowly went inside.

“Wow, being a Blood Demon with a strong ego, I guess the mental landscape really is splendid.”

The mental landscape is originally a mirror that reflects oneself.

Ji-ryeon, though a princess, longed for freedom, so hers was the sea.

Because she longed for freedom like a boundless, horizonless great ocean.

Hwa-eun’s, by contrast, is a flower garden.

There’s a belittling phrase in my previous life calling someone’s head a flower garden, but this is a bit different.

It’s an expression that she has that kind of lofty and proud inner nature.

Gun Hye-rin’s is an oasis in a desert.

The ruined Heavenly Demon Cult probably made a barren environment like a desert, and the oasis is her hope.

But a golden palace in a forest like this?

It seems to be that mindset of being the princess of a kingdom all one’s own.

Following the gold path further in, when I entered the great palace with its doors open—

Inside, draperies dyed purple mixed with black hung and fluttered, and on the far throne a woman was seated.

The moment I slowly walked that way and confirmed her appearance.

I could not help but shudder on the spot.

The instant I saw her, I could know as if my soul had realized.

Who that woman was.

She was the figure of a beautiful woman wearing garments where splendid violet and black were mixed and a golden crown, but it was the shock I felt when I first saw her that seized me.

“Z-Zimjo?”

I had clearly lost consciousness while fighting the Blood Demon, so how could this be Zimjo’s mental landscape?

While I was making a face that said I could not believe it at Zimjo’s sudden appearance, Zimjo curled a fishy smile on the dragon throne and spoke.

“You did a cute thing, you—who will soon disappear.

It would be right to melt you away at once. But since you let this one regain this body after so long, I shall permit you to be my conversational partner for a moment.”

“Huh?”

I was flustered, and at the voice I heard, I was even more flustered.

Because it said I would soon disappear.

“Disappear?”

Then Zimjo said with a bewitching laugh,

“Since you have come inside my venom, you will soon melt and disappear. Those that come near me all disappear thus.”

Roughly hearing the story, I got a sense.

For some reason, after I lost consciousness Zimjo appeared, and it seems I unconsciously unfolded the Beast-Heart Technique.

Well done, unconscious me!

While praising the me inside my unconsciousness inwardly, I quickly stepped up to Zimjo and spoke.

“There are many people waiting, so it will be a problem if I melt and vanish. Please register me.”

“Register? Ah, this? Are you saying you would make me yours? But it is a meaningless thing. You will soon melt and vanish.”

It seemed Zimjo knew what the Beast-Heart Technique was, but did not know that I was even trained in venom arts.

I shouted quickly.

“No, if you register me, I won’t melt.”

“You say you will not melt?”

“Yeah. I practice venom arts, so if you register me, I can keep from melting even inside your venom.”

“Is that true?”

At my words, Zimjo showed curiosity.

I quickly added an explanation.

“Yeah. The venom arts and this Beast-Heart Technique are linked, so I don’t take damage from the venom of spirit creatures I’m connected with. And I can heal injuries. I have friends who can mend the body.”

“In that case, can you recreate that white venom you were exuding?”

I did not know what exactly Zimjo meant, but saying it could be done was the right move for now.

First I had to get out of the crisis.

“Of course!”

Then Zimjo, with a very satisfied expression, proposed,

“In that case, become the father of my child. Then I shall do as you wish.”

“Eh?”

At Zimjo’s proposal, my head went white.

Autor's Note: Since many said they were curious about the next episode, I am uploading this week’s portion all at once.

See you on Sunday.