By the time the day had fully sunk and the sun was gone.

When I reached the agreed-upon spot, the Plum Blossom Commander and the assigned people were already waiting.

“You’ve come. Welcome— hm?”

He started to greet me when I appeared, but then his eyes went past me and his brow furrowed.

“...Looks like you brought more people.”

“Ah, yes. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

I gave him an awkward smile as I spoke.

“I thought they might help a little, so I asked. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a heads-up beforehand.”

Originally, it would’ve ended with just me and Teacher.

But I’d brought two more people, and that was the problem.

“Yuyeon.”

The Plum Blossom Commander looked at one of the people who’d followed me—Yuyeon.

“...” 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

She stared back at him with that expression of hers.

“...And the one beside her is...”

The Plum Blossom Commander’s gaze slid to Yuyeon’s side.

A handsome young man.

Do Hyeong cupped his hands in greeting as he addressed him.

“Plum Blossom Commander.”

“...Moon-Azure Qi Sword.”

The Plum Blossom Commander looked back at me at the two people he hadn’t expected. The look in his eyes said it clearly: explain.

“Someone I had a personal favor to ask.”

“Adding people isn’t exactly a good thing.”

“You’re right. But I also needed people I can trust. And among them, Do Hyeong is the colleague I trust most.”

“...Hmmm.”

“I’m asking you.”

“...Fine. If Blue Moon Sect is filling out the ranks, it could even be a good thing. But this one is different, isn’t it?”

He said it while pointing at Yuyeon.

“Ah. Senior Disciple Yuyeon asked me herself.”

“Asked you?”

“She asked that you let her join the investigation team no matter what. She said she wants revenge for the Sect Master.”

“...”

The Plum Blossom Commander’s brow creased as he looked at Yuyeon.

“...Did you really say that?”

She nodded.

“It’s dangerous. And it’s even more dangerous for you, when you’re bound to get emotional. That’s why I excluded you from this group in the first place...”

The Plum Blossom Commander wore a face like he’d sunk into worry.

Then—

“...Do you really want to go that badly?”

He asked her again.

When Yuyeon nodded again—

“Hoo... Fine.”

The Plum Blossom Commander shook his head like he couldn’t win.

“It may turn dangerous. If that happens, you make sure you put your own body first. Otherwise... I won’t have the face to see my senior brother.”

He patted her shoulder while speaking. Then he turned his back and returned to his comrades.

‘Bullshit.’

I let my eyes gleam coldly as I watched him.

Yuyeon saying she’d come along.

I still remembered the expression he’d made for a split second after hearing it.

He’d definitely smiled—slick and hungry.

That bastard.

It looked like he really planned to wipe out everything that had been getting in his way today.

He probably thought every current was flowing in his favor.

That it would all end nicely like this.

That’s what the Plum Blossom Commander was thinking.

And—

‘...It worked out, right?’

The move I’d planned out, knowing exactly that—

I just hoped it landed properly.

That was all I wanted.

*****

“Shaanxi Branch Chief.”

A man knelt on the dirt floor. The Strange Demon, who’d been lazily fanning himself, flicked his eyes over.

The man’s outfit was different. Pitch-black martial robes, and on the hood covering his head, a crimson pattern was stitched in.

There was only one thing that meant.

The main sect.

In other words, he’d come from the source of the DEMON CULT ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) itself—the origin that had established its base somewhere other than Xinjiang.

The Strange Demon narrowed his eyes at him.

No answer. As if he was used to it, the man pulled out two letters from inside his clothes.

“Excuse me.”

Two letters were placed atop the table. The Strange Demon jerked his chin at them.

“What is it?”

At that, the man answered immediately.

“A letter sent from HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE, and...”

At the words HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE, the Strange Demon’s brow twitched downward. And at the same time—

“A letter sent by the little master.”

“...”

At the word little master, the Strange Demon’s expression went cold.

“Hm. The little master?”

“Yes.”

“What business would make him leave behind such precious words?”

He smiled brightly. At that smile, a thin shiver crawled up the man’s spine.

‘...The Strange Demon.’

Before the war, in the days when the DEMON CULT had been rising again—one of the Eight Demonic Ones.

And among them, a figure known as the brain of the DEMON CULT who served the Heavenly Demon, and also as an absolute powerhouse.

‘He told me not to irritate him.’

The man recalled what the little master had said when handing him the letters.

The Strange Demon was exactly what the name implied—an eerie person, someone you couldn’t predict.

If he misspoke, if he scraped at the wrong nerve, who knew what would happen. So he’d been told to cut every unnecessary word.

The strangest bastard in the DEMON CULT—wasn’t it said that, other than the Heavenly Demon, no one could make him listen?

To begin with, the Eight Demonic Ones were closer to the Heavenly Demon’s direct subordinates than to the DEMON CULT’s ordinary demonic disciples.

But even among them, the Strange Demon was exceptional.

Someone who followed only the Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon was his sky, his god, his everything.

He didn’t acknowledge anyone else.

And that included the current little master.

That was why the man couldn’t understand it.

‘...Why would the little master...’

Why show him mercy?

With the DEMON CULT in ruin, he understood that the Eight Demonic Ones were power worth having, but—

The Eight Demonic Ones weren’t just the Strange Demon.

And besides.

Even among the Eight Demonic Ones, the strongest wasn’t the Strange Demon.

‘And yet he’s trying to win over someone who doesn’t even acknowledge him.’

Didn’t acknowledge him. The Strange Demon had said that right to the little master’s face.

Just for that alone, it wouldn’t be enough to cut off his head.

But after hearing those words, the little master had done nothing more than demote him.

A Branch Chief post, to handle what was about to happen in Shaanxi.

It wasn’t a job meant for one of the Eight Demonic Ones, but the little master still gave it to him.

And that was why he was now stuck in Shaanxi, pushing the work forward.

“HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE...”

The Strange Demon moved. The man watched him closely.

SWISH

He opened the letter.

The man frowned inside his mask.

It was the order.

He was checking the letter from HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE first, not the one the little master had sent.

“...Hmmm...”

After scanning the letter, the Strange Demon tilted his head slightly. With features that were too fine for a man, the motion looked strangely alluring.

“...Interesting.”

His lips curled.

The Strange Demon folded the letter back up. A smile could’ve meant something good—

“‘If preparations are complete, carry out the work’...? How arrogant.”

But the aura that followed made the man’s body tremble.

“Doesn’t it piss you off? Hmm?”

“...Pardon?”

The man flinched at the Strange Demon’s words.

He hadn’t expected him to speak to him at all.

“It’s ridiculous. Something with no roots is barking orders. If the Heavenly Demon were still here, those bastards would’ve been on their knees, foreheads in the dirt...”

“...Ah.”

“I still don’t like it. What was our little master thinking, joining hands with trash like that? Does he have a plan, or doesn’t he...”

“...!”

The man jolted. He hadn’t expected to hear the little master described like that from a demonic disciple’s mouth.

Maybe because he looked so shaken, the Strange Demon turned his eyes to him.

“Why? Do I look strange to you too?”

“...N-no. Not at all.”

“Really? Swear it on the little master.”

“...”

“Hahaha.”

The Strange Demon laughed, amused by the fact that the man couldn’t answer.

“Fine. Don’t be scared. It doesn’t really matter anymore.”

“...What...?”

“Now then. What did our little master write?”

His tone turned oddly light as he finally opened the second letter.

“Hm?”

The Strange Demon’s face went blank as he read.

The man’s stomach lurched again at the sight.

‘...What did he see?’

What could he have read to look like that?

As that question skimmed through him—

“...Unbelievable...”

The Strange Demon let out a low sigh.

“This one and that one. They’re all trash. All of them are trash, I’m telling you...”

“...Branch Chief?”

“Why do they keep forgetting their place? If they just knew their place, none of this would happen. Don’t you think so?”

“...What are you saying?”

“No, really. The little master, I mean.”

The Strange Demon smiled brightly.

“He crawled up onto a seat he doesn’t even deserve, and now he keeps reaching for a vessel that’s too full for him... How am I supposed to look on that nicely?”

“...!”

The man’s face shattered.

“Branch Chief... You’re talking about the little master—”

“Right. I insulted the little master. So what?”

“How dare—!”

“How dare?”

STOP

“...!”

The man’s body went rigid. The Strange Demon’s pretty fingertip was resting against his forehead.

“How dare what? What were you going to say?”

“...”

His body trembled uncontrollably. The little master had been insulted—his body reacted on its own.

Protect the little master.

The little master is everything in the DEMON CULT.

Protect him.

The golden seal and command embedded deep inside him tried to move his body.

A golden seal every demonic disciple had.

‘But why?’

That was why the man’s eyes went wide as he stared at the Strange Demon.

A demonic disciple should be loyal to the little master and obey his words.

Sure, someone of Eight Demonic Ones caliber could resist the little master’s orders—

But—

‘Not like that.’

Not so openly. Not with words like that.

So how could the Strange Demon do this?

“Curious?”

“...”

He didn’t answer. No—he couldn’t. His mouth wouldn’t open.

“It’s simple.”

The Strange Demon leaned in close.

“Demonic disciples don’t follow the little master.”

His voice tickled the man’s ear. The sound burrowed straight down into his heart.

“They follow the essence. The origin. The sky.”

A demonic disciple’s sky was only the Heavenly Demon.

“Don’t fool yourself. The reason you follow the little master is because he’s the only substitute left.”

Now that the sky was gone.

Because they had no ceiling.

They’d shoved in something that looked similar and called it enough.

“If you start mistaking fake loyalty for the real thing, that’s a problem. Don’t you think?”

“...Th-then...”

The man asked in a shaking voice.

“...Then you... How...?”

“Me?”

How could he not follow the substitute, the little master?

At that, the Strange Demon smiled like a child.

“Why would I bother following a substitute when I have the real thing?”

“...Wh—”

What did that mean? The man tried to ask—

“I finally found my sky. So.”

SHLUK—!

“...!”

TRICKLE—!

The Strange Demon’s hand slowly sank into the man’s chest.

Blood flowed. The man couldn’t even scream properly.

PAHSSSUK—!

Blood burst, and the man’s heart was ripped out in the Strange Demon’s hand.

“I don’t need some half-baked imitation.”

“...”

FLOP—!

The man’s body collapsed onto the ground.

As blood kept spilling out, the Strange Demon tossed the heart aside like trash and scattered the letters across the floor.

The letters slowly soaked red.

And inside them, it said this:

I confirmed the key’s location.

Eliminate the Sword Saint’s successor and retrieve the key.

“...”

Staring at the letter the little master had sent, the Strange Demon lifted the corner of his mouth.

After ordering every demonic disciple not to touch it—

Now he wanted it retrieved?

“Tch.”

The Strange Demon clicked his tongue.

As expected.

That half-baked bastard wasn’t going to make it.

His stomach churned. If the Heavenly Demon were here, he wouldn’t be spitting out weak garbage like this.

Seeing something so pathetic made his mouth feel dry.

“...Should I go see the real thing instead?”

The Strange Demon sighed, hot with imagination.

He’d wasted too much time because of filth.

“Is it time?”

He’d heard the news.

That the Plum Blossom Commander had stirred things up. That’s what they said, right?

And hearing it, the Strange Demon thought of only one thing.

“My sky is waiting.”

His new lantern.

Was waiting for him.