Tang Min gripped the Blood Demon’s head firmly and watched.

According to Sohwa, it did not take very long for a host to lose their life.

But she had added that the Blood Demon’s body might be different.

This was a body not infused with a single drop but filled entirely with the Blood Demon’s blood.

It would take time for her blood, which had burrowed in, to transform all of the Blood Demon’s blood.

Something welled up inside Tang Min, yet Heukcheon Amgui’s face only grew more rigid.

That fierce child’s blood could not even have seeped in by more than a few drops, yet, resembling its master, it was diligently tunneling through the Blood Demon’s body and continuing the fight. Even to his eyes, the Blood Demon’s skin was changing.

As if a decisive battle were taking place within each and every vein, the veins that had risen black were turning a dark purple.

A few drops of blood inside that massive body.

The gap was so great that domination seemed impossible, and yet life force began to fade from the Blood Demon’s whole body.

It was a grotesque sight.

The blood vessels that had risen on the Blood Demon’s face bulged up like insects, clumping here and there, then vanished, over and over.

The Blood Demon screamed, then once again heaved up black liquid from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

“Krrrrrrr.”

It seemed the host’s pain would not subside easily.

As if it had received its master’s will, wanting him to feel this pain for a very long time before dying.

Like stitches sewn into his skin one by one, the concealed weapons driven into him had turned his skin into a honeycomb, while inside, the energy he had held for so long was exploding and hacking him to pieces.

Yet the body that had held out, hoping its regenerative power would return, in the end raced toward death.

It was because the blood he had taken pride in had chewed through his entire body and betrayed its master’s will.

“Kkeuaaaaagh!”

His scream rang out one last time, loud and long.

It was not a fitting end for an Absolute.

It was far too futile and agonizing, petty and ugly, like a writhing bug.

Like a general who had seized the world dying from the bite of a tiny poisonous insect no larger than a fingernail—an absurd end.

The thought that his greatest mistake had been failing to kill Tang Sohwa flashed through his mind at the very last moment.

Thud.

The Blood Demon’s head lost strength and dropped downward.

After a few twitches, he stopped moving altogether.

Ssshhhh.

The sound of rain spread into the silence.

Following the scattering droplets, steam rose from the Blood Demon’s body. The energy that had lost its master began to leak out of his body all at once.

The body that had been rimed with frost and steaming grew cleaner and cleaner as time passed and the rain washed over it.

The energy that had spread into the air could no longer be sensed.

“......Is he truly dead? Shouldn’t we confirm it?” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

At some point, the Taeguk Sword Sovereign had approached Heukcheon Amgui’s side and asked cautiously.

Heukcheon Amgui’s gaze was fixed on the Blood Demon’s torn clothing.

Through the large hole, bare flesh could be seen. The blood had all been washed away, but the hole had not closed.

Staring at it, Tang Min gave a brief answer.

“He is dead.”

“No, how can you be so sure of that? Would it not be better to sever the body completely, just in case?”

“If you wish, do so.”

Tang Min let go of the corpse without a shred of regret and turned his body.

Whether others tore the corpse apart and desecrated it, or carried it back to their headquarters to dissect and analyze it, it no longer concerned him.

He walked straight toward one place.

A martial artist in night garb had his hand on Sohwa’s body under a tree. With one hand he supported her broken neck, with the other he pressed the spot where her dantian should be.

Even from a distance, he could feel scorching heat.

The intruder, uncaring whether his identity was revealed, was releasing the distinctive heat of Great Desert blazing yang energy.

Crunch.

Even when Heukcheon Amgui came right up in front of him, the Great Desert man did not retreat.

“Move.”

He did not even answer.

Heukcheon Amgui could faintly guess why a man from the Great Desert was here.

Sohwa had said she would make use of the Northern Sea and the Great Desert, so she must have formed ties with the Great Desert man as well.

But he could not understand why a Great Desert man, and not someone from the Northern Sea, was reacting like this. He had heard that her blood had mingled with someone from the Ice Palace, so if it were someone from the Ice Palace, they might well overreact in this situation—but the Great Desert had no such link to Sohwa.

Even so, the man was reacting more extremely than family would.

The Great Desert man showed no sign of yielding Sohwa’s body to Tang Min.

Watching, Tang Min’s brow furrowed.

Whether the man knew that Sohwa’s body no longer had any blood channels or not, he moved his hands busily, pouring his energy here and there.

With a body like that, Naegayo-sangsul was of course impossible.

Even knowing that, the Great Desert man did not stop.

He simply poured all his strength into warming the cold body.

Swept up in the man’s refusal to accept her death, Tang Min, too, was carried along.

He, too, ended up watching with hope.

Though her limbs were growing ever more rigid and the torn flesh still would not close, he waited.

At that moment, he sensed someone approaching from behind.

“C-Clan Head......”

Unable to bring himself to stop him, the White Tiger Unit Lord swallowed his words and fell silent again.

As soon as he came to his senses, Tang Ji-ha began crawling through the wet grass. He could not even properly grasp the situation. He simply pulled the child who had been in the monster’s arms straight into his own.

Thud.

At that, Sohwa’s broken neck lolled backward. Almost at the same moment, the stranger caught her head, but there was no one here who failed to see that brief movement.

At least, within this place there was no one who could fail to perceive it.

A different kind of silence descended.

Ssshhhh.

The thickening rain tirelessly washed over the stillness.

Tang Sohwa’s body, moved into the Clan Head’s soaked embrace, was soon drenched by the rain as well.

The Clan Head repeated the same act as the stranger.

Tang Ji-ha pressed her nape, her wrists, and the dantian between the torn edges of her robe, pouring inner energy into her.

“Clan Head, you must not.”

The White Tiger Unit Lord, watching, tried to stop him. Tang Min quietly reached out and restrained the Lord.

This was not a time for the Clan Head to be tending to anyone.

He had only just managed to stop the bleeding; he, too, needed to focus on his own recovery. If he overexerted himself, the wounds could reopen and put him in danger. Yet even knowing that, Tang Min left the Clan Head alone.

A cool, clear energy filled the surroundings. But there was no one left in the world who could savor that fragrance.

Withdrawing his hand from her acupoints, Tang Ji-ha brushed back Sohwa’s wet hair.

“Sohwa.”

No answer came to the Clan Head’s call.

He called her name once more, but only the sound of rain replied.

It was a body in which no heartbeat, no breath, no warmth could be felt. No different from a block of wood, yet the Clan Head went on tracing her blood channels, calling her name as if rousing a sleeping child.

The locations of the blood channels he chiefly used were laid bare.

It was as if the Clan Head did not know there were other people around.

As if he did not know it was raining, did not know the night was dark. Even though he could have stepped forward just a little and gotten out of the rain, he kept drawing his dead daughter’s body tightly toward himself.

Pouring out his inner energy without cease, he coughed up blood. The bloodstains soaking his torn martial robe grew darker again.

The Little Clan Head, clasping him from behind, gripped the Clan Head’s hand.

“Hrrrk...... Enough...... Please stop.”

The timid son who had never even been able to meet his eyes now used his whole body to hold the Clan Head back. But Tang Ji-ha did not stop his madness. Energy kept blossoming in all directions.

Then someone sat down facing him. When a wrinkled hand came to rest on his daughter’s neck, the Clan Head’s gaze shifted.

Because the Clan Head would not move away, in the meantime the White Tiger Unit warriors had brought the Divine Physician.

It was a situation that did not require looking, yet the Divine Physician also began a meaningless pulse reading, as if holding on to hope.

After taking his hand away, he bent close to listen for Sohwa’s breath.

The Divine Physician raised his head and met the Clan Head’s eyes.

Without a word, he took Sohwa’s hand from Tang Ji-ha’s grasp.

He brought her hands together and laid them on her belly; when he then drew the body toward himself, the Clan Head pulled her back to him and glared.

“You quack......!”

“Father......”

When Tang Hak, choking up, tried to stop him, the old man’s rage immediately swung toward him instead.

“Be silent. Has your sister died or something?!”

The murderous force in his voice seemed ready to explode at any moment.

“Hrrrhh......”

Tang Hak curled on the ground, sobbing.

The Clan Head raised his voice.

“What do you know! Sohwa does not die. You all know nothing! Nothing at all......!”

Clutching the corpse in his arms, he shouted and then fell silent. The faces of those looking at him were wretched. They said nothing, but in their expressions, pity could be read.

He was not used to pity. There had never been any occasion for him to receive such a gaze. That reaction cut sharply into the Clan Head.

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head; his mind began to clear.

The wall he had built up in denial crumbled feebly.

The Clan Head supported his eldest daughter’s neck and buried his face against her shoulder.

“Sohwa, get up.”

Tang Ji-ha whispered with a quiet sob.

“Get up...... and prove that this father was not wrong.”

It was not that he did not know about death. He had been on the brink of death himself, and he had not infrequently cut others down in order to escape such crises. So he knew what it meant for a body to grow stiff like a block of wood.

“Hrrrhh......”

Unable to lift his head, the Clan Head began to weep.

As the rain slackened, that sound reached those gathered around.

A few expressions among those watching stood out.

Yeon-a, so shocked she could not even blink, and Namgung Jin, standing as if his soul had left him, could not move, far from seeming like the first ones to have returned to the Tang manor. They could only stare, frozen.

When Namgung An tried to approach Tang Ji-ha, the Wudang Sect Leader quietly blocked his way. He only shook his head, but the meaning was clear.

The Wudang warriors quietly handled the Blood Demon’s corpse in the Tang clan’s stead. In that time, the Namgung warriors also began moving the injured Four Tiger Unit warriors.

Namgung Hyun, though the paralysis had worn off quite some time ago, still could not rise from the place where the Clan Head had dropped him.

He, too, could not tear his gaze away from Tang Sohwa.

The sight of the cold, terrifying Clan Head losing his mind, and of Tang Hak collapsed on the ground, entered his eyes. The Tang clan’s uniquely sharp faces, overlaid with sorrow, had turned dark and gloomy.

“Ahhh! This can’t be!”

A girl’s wailing scream rang out.

News that Tang Sohwa had fallen to the Blood Demon must have reached the inner compound; two identical girls came running through the forest. In a physician’s robe, Tang Yehwa, who had not even put on shoes, flung herself onto Tang Sohwa’s corpse.

Unlike Tang Yehwa, who only hugged Tang Sohwa’s waist and sobbed, Tang Yuhwa stood in front of her, covering her mouth with her hand.

“How...... why my sister......”

Her small, trembling voice carried far, but Tang Ji-ha’s answer did not.

The escorts and the Grand Madam arrived late, but no one could bring themselves to scold the twins. Having grasped the situation at a glance, they, too, were at a loss for words.

Watching it all, Namgung Hyun shuddered.

Each time the sound of weeping reached him, his sorrow turned into fear.

It was because he remembered her last words.

The words that he had abetted the Blood Demon and brought about the Tang clan’s annihilation.

Seeing the dazed family around her, he imagined Tang Sohwa’s figure, with everyone in the Tang clan dead and only herself left alive.

He saw hundreds of people filling the clearing in front of the pavilion.

The thought came to him that leaving alone might be better than being left alone among all those corpses.

More than Tang Sohwa’s death, the pain of the past she had endured struck him harder.

“Ahh......”

Namgung Hyun clutched his own head with trembling hands and was about to curl his body up.

“[I know that you are a sorcerer.]”

At the familiar voice, Namgung Hyun slowly lifted his head.

At some point, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s figure had vanished.

Seeing that no one else was disturbed, it seemed he had sent a sound transmission only to Namgung Hyun. At a distance so close that no one else noticed.

A sound transmission laced with killing intent pounded into his eardrums.

“[Among sorcerers, they say there are some who can turn back time.]”

The voice slipped in, mixed with the sound of the wind.

“[I did not know when, but I had guessed that Tang Sohwa had turned back time. Seeing that the Blood Demon and Tang Sohwa both had their attention on you, I suspected you were that sorcerer.]”

Without giving him a chance to reply, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord threatened him.

“[I can make you beg me to kill you. So turn back time. Right now.]”