Yuk Yo, with her eyes rolled back, scatters the many dharma treasures she has stolen and swallows elixir pills.
"Heok, heok..."
Kugugugu!
A dark crimson devilish fire tries to engulf Yuk Yo, and she clenches her teeth while avoiding the fire.
'Fortunately, her accuracy is low since she's not in her right mind.'
Although Wi Yun possesses the power of the early Heavenly Being stage, she is merely a puppet moving without a sane mind.
Luckily, this is what's keeping Yuk Yo alive until now, but she senses something strange.
'Would Father really leave someone so mentally unstable right next to the Black Ancient Plaque?'
No matter how much she thinks about it, it's odd.
The Yuk Rin she knows would never do such a thing.'It's strange. No matter how much I think about it, it's strange.'
If the Yuk Rin she knows wouldn't do such a thing, there is only one explanation.
'There's a high chance something happened to Father.'
Perhaps he has entered the initial stages of Qi Deviation.
If not, he might have fractured his mind while trying to possess Yuk Ung's body.
Whatever it is, this is not the behavior of the Yuk Rin she knows.
'Come to think of it, he's been more lenient with me ever since he returned from Penglai Island.'
In the past, if she was caught attempting to run away, she would be punished by having her spiritual power sealed and hanging off the cliff of Governing Dragon Island for half a year.
He had an attitude that didn't care if she died, but this time, he simply locked her in prison for a mere hundred years, which is considerably more lenient.
Of course, an ordinary person would die if they were locked in an underground prison without food for over a hundred years. But even if rotten, she is still a Nascent Soul stage of the Demon Race, so she could survive.
She can tell.
'It started right after returning from Penglai Island. What's the reason? Because he went to Penglai Island? Or because he started cultivating in the Salt Sea Returning Dew Jade in earnest? Or maybe just because the biggest obstacles, the Conqueror King and the devilish cult, were trapped in Penglai Island?'
Kugugugu!
A giant skeletal-shaped dharma form is forming above Wi Yun's head.
'Crazy...what kind of devilish art is that now?'
Yuk Yo breaks out in a cold sweat and raises the magic artifacts she had stolen from Governing Dragon Palace.
It's then,
Woo-woong—
"What? Are you crazy?"
Yuk Yo glares fiercely at Baek Rin, who is buzzing at her waist.
Mumble, mumble, mumble...
Wi Yun gathers the power of her devilish art and recites a dharma formula. Seeing this, Baek Rin buzzes his skull even louder.
"It's not that I don't believe you..."
With anxious eyes, Yuk Yo looks back and forth between Baek Rin and Wi Yun's skeletal dharma form, then squeezes her eyes shut and grabs Baek Rin's skull.
"Fine, I get it!"
Bo-oong!
Wi Yun begins to move the skeletal dharma form.
At the same time, Yuk Yo throws Baek Rin's skull at the dharma form!
Baek Rin's skull strikes the hand of Wi Yun's skeletal dharma form and shatters into dust.
"Ah..."
Yuk Yo stands there, her mouth agape in disbelief.
So very absurdly, Baek Rin has died.
"No..."
Is it because Baek Rin died so abruptly?
She can't even feel sadness at the current situation.
[Kiyaaaaaaaaah!]
Wi Yun's skeletal dharma form screams, engulfed by her devilish fire.
Seemingly trying to attack her, the dark crimson skeletal dharma form gathers devilish fire in both hands and emits ghost fire from its eye sockets.
And just as realization hits Yuk Yo and despair and sorrow registers on her face,
Tsutsutsutsu—
Wi Yun's skeletal dharma form.
The fingertips of its hands start turning pure white.
[Uh...huh?]
Wi Yun looks up at the skeletal dharma form with eyes that have turned pitch black, seemingly confused.
For some reason, the dharma form seems to be gradually defying her command.
[Uhh...gughhh!]
Wi Yun infuses even more devilish energy into the dharma form, but although the dharma form grows larger, the speed at which it turns white does not change.
And then, finally,
Chuaaak!
The skeletal dharma form's form turns completely white,
And the now white skeletal dharma form's body appears to burn with blue.
In an instant.
Flash!
The dharma form shines with a white brilliance, and from within, twenty-eight translucent black spikes are ejected.
Yuk Yo realizes what they are and her eyes widen.
The twenty-eight restrictions that blocked Baek Rin's Heavenly Circle and sealed his spiritual power!
'Those being ejected means...'
Kugugugu!
Moments later, an overwhelming pressure descends upon the chamber.
Yuk Yo and Wi Yun simultaneously fall to their knees, but Yuk Yo's eyes brighten.
Within the white brilliance, bone dust seems to coalesce, giving birth to a person's silhouette.
Tsutsutsu—
As the white light fades, the silhouette inside opens its mouth.
It's a ghost cultivator with a body made entirely of white bones, wearing a long white robe.
[Thirteenth Guardian Ghost King of the Wuji Religious Order, Baek Rin. I have been resurrected to protect Sacred Orchid Princess Yuk Yo.]
"You're...really late."
Baek Rin withdraws the pressure directed at Yuk Yo and points his finger at Wi Yun.
Wi Yun, still seemingly unable to grasp the situation, explodes and dies when Baek Rin points at her with his fingertip.
Baek Rin extends his hand towards where Wi Yun had been.
Shortly after, Wi Yun's bones and a strand of her soul rises to rest on Baek Rin's palm.
"What will you do with that?"
[Refine it to a ghostly creature...]
"Ah, are you going to use it as your dharma treasure?"
[No...I plan to grant her citizenship in the Twilight Domain and let her live a new life.]
Baek Rin chuckles as he speaks.
[I didn't kill her out of hatred. Her body was completely saturated with blood devilish energy, so I had no choice. I also heard that a girl fell and died due to a subordinate's mistake during the early conquest of Governing Dragon Island, and it seems to have been this child. I intend to return her to her parents.]
"Ah...if it's a soul soaked in devilish energy, refining it would make quite the powerful dharma treasure. It's a shame."
Baek Rin looks at Yuk Yo and asks her in response to her comment.
[Didn't Princess say it's nothing but an illusion anyway? Why covet an illusion?]
"That's because it's just an illusion anyway. What does it matter if a non-human in an illusion is refined into a dharma treasure?"
[Please do not say such things.]
At Baek Rin's gaze, Yuk Yo lowers her eyes and speaks.
"...If you swear to follow me, I won't say it again."
Baek Rin looks at Yuk Yo for a moment, then without answering her, silently releases Yuk Yo's restrictions.
Clink, clink, clink!
Three spikes, similar to the ones embedded in Baek Rin's Heavenly Circle, are pulled out from Yuk Yo's body.
Yuk Yo regains her cultivation and immediately flicks her hand to scatter the prohibitions on the Black Ancient Plaque before taking it from the altar.
"It's done! Finally!"
A sense of joy wells up in her eyes.
The name 'Yuk Ung' on the Black Ancient Plaque appears to be shining auspiciously for some reason.
With trembling hands, she picks up the Black Ancient Plaque and places it in her bosom.
Watching this scene, Baek Rin sends a mental speech, asking curiously.
"Why not just put it in the storage scroll? If it's the Governing Dragon Palace Lord, he must have surely placed a tracking spell without us knowing. No, since he possesses Yuk Ung's body, he would be able to detect the name plaque even without a tracking spell."
"No, items like the Black Ancient Plaque or the Black Ancient Paper are quite fragile and easy to crumble. They are, after all, replicas of the 'real Black Ancient Plaque'."
"Hmm...even as a replica, for a material that presides over the contracts of Integration stage cultivators to be this fragile..."
Baek Rin looks at the black plaque with an interested expression and then turns his head.
"Well then. Let's get out of here."
Then, just as she and Baek Rin are about to exit the secret chamber,
Kugugugu!
From above the altar where the Black Ancient Plaque was placed,
A loud noise erupts and a teleportation array appears.
Simultaneously, the attraction force of the entire secret chamber they are in seems to distort, and the chamber itself transforms into the shape of a water droplet, isolated from the surrounding dimension.
Yuk Yo lets out a hollow laugh as if she has realized something.
"Hah...removing the Black Ancient Plaque from the altar causes the nearby area to transform into a 'middle zone'...my father didn't just have someone else guard the Black Ancient Plaque for no reason."
"Hmm..."
Baek Rin attempts to distort the void through attraction force to create an opening in the droplet.
However, beyond the void, only the dark scenery of the Deep Sea is visible.
"It's useless. This middle zone itself has detached from Governing Dragon Island and fallen right into the depths of the Deep Sea...if we leave here, we'll immediately become lost in the sea."
Looking at her. Baek Rin asks.
"Did Princess Yuk Yo not say she could find her way in the Deep Sea?"
Yuk Yo lowers her head, looking embarrassed.
"...That...back then, I lied to shift Jin Ma-yeol's pursuit onto Sir Baek Rin. It's impossible with my Sea Dragon True Blood. Maybe if it were someone on Sir Seo Ran's level..."
Baek Rin nods and says,
"In that case...the only options left are to return the Black Ancient Plaque or..."
Their gazes turn towards the teleportation array above the altar.
"We have no choice but to board that teleportation array and reach the opposite end connected to this middle zone."
"..."
"Princess?"
However, Baek Rin is puzzled to see Yuk Yo's dark expression.
"The place connected to that teleportation array...I have a feeling I know where it leads."
"Where is it?"
"It's probably to Cherry Blossom Dragon Island...but Cherry Blossom Dragon Island is a Deep Sea Island. It's impossible to get out anyway."
"This..."
Yuk Yo, with a gloomy expression, places the Black Ancient Plaque back onto the altar.
Then, the space within the chamber, which had turned droplet-shaped, returns inside Governing Dragon Island.
"There's no other choice. Let's reunite with the Cult Leader and the others first, and then maybe we can try retrieving it again."
After saying this to Yuk Yo, he walks towards the chamber door.
Yuk Yo, looking regretful, can't bring herself to let go of the Black Ancient Plaque.
And as Baek Rin opens the chamber door,
Creeeeak—
Yuk Yo and Baek Rin are met by Yuk Rin's main body outside the chamber door, wearing an expression as fierce as an evil spirit.
Kung!
Baek Rin hastily closes the door, and Yuk Yo, sweating coldly, retrieves the Black Ancient Plaque from the altar again.
Immediately, the chamber they are in reverts to the middle zone settled in the depths of the Deep Sea.
Baek Rin speaks in a low voice.
"That person just now..."
"Yes, that was Father's main body."
What they saw was Yuk Rin's main body.
More precisely, it was Yuk Rin's main body at the mid Integration stage before possessing the physical body of Yuk Ung.
Of course, to Yuk Rin, who has taken over the body of Yuk Ung at the Grand Perfection Integration stage, it is no different from a clone, but even that clone is at the mid Integration stage.
Baek Rin can't possibly contend against it.
Baek Rin lets out a low groan and looks at the teleportation array.
"...In the end, it seems we have no other choice."
"...It seems so."
Shortly after, Baek Rin and Yuk Yo tightly shut their eyes and step onto the teleportation array.
The light from the teleportation array engulfs them, and they disappear from atop the formation.
The Deep Sea Island beneath Governing Dragon Island.
They have gone to Cherry Blossom Dragon Island.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn...!"
In front of the secret chamber.
There, Yuk Rin's clone, with bloodshot eyes, is drawing a formation in front of him with his own blood.
It's a teleportation array.
"No, no! How dare they try to escape? I cannot allow this! Yuk Yo must be in my hands. Yuk Yo must be in my hands. Yuk Yo must be in my hands!!!"
Yuk Rin, who seems mentally unstable for some reason, shouts Yuk Yo's name as he infuses spiritual power into the teleportation array.
Pasaak!
The blood of the teleportation array seems to ignite, and the formation activates.
It's the teleportation array leading to the middle zone where Yuk Yo and Baek Rin had just been.
And just as Yuk Rin, with blood-red eyes, is about to step onto the teleportation array,
"Where do you think you're going, Governing Dragon Palace Lord?"
A man dressed in white, holding emptiness in his hand, asks Yuk Rin from behind with a sly smile.
Yuk Rin grits his teeth and glares at him with eyes congested with blood.
"This devilish cult leader bastard...! Do not interfere with me...! I must regain Yuk Yo, I must regain Yuk Yo!!!"
Yuk Rin has gone mad.
I can only think of it that way.
'Is it because he learned Salt Sea Returning Dew Jade? Or is there some other reason?'
In any case, his heart essence is bizarrely twisted, and his intent, filled with obsession and possessiveness, is being emitted madly.
Evidently, that obsession is directed towards Yuk Yo.
'This is not a typical mental illness. Nor is it a normal Heart Demon.'
I know well because I've experienced mental illness and Qi Deviation myself.
If a mental illness is manifesting in him, it should be an obsession with salt related to the Salt Sea Returning Dew Jade he learned or schizotypal personality disorder due to Purple Soul Filling the Heavens
Previously indifferent, yet suddenly having such possessiveness over a daughter he was willing to kill if disobedient is strange.
'Did some external entity intervene?'
I can't think of it in any other way.
But why Yuk Yo?
That, too, I can't understand.
"What's with that teleportation array? It looks like it's related to a middle zone."
"Sh-Shut up! If you interfere, I'll kill you, devilish cult leader bastard!"
"Foolish, this is just an avatar. How pitiful. To think that the once dignified Dragon King who trapped the entire Wuji Religious Order a hundred years ago has become such a deranged old man."
I click my tongue as I watch Yuk Rin, who has bloodshot eyes, gradually transform into his dragon form.
"And, it seems you're mistaken. The one I found difficult to deal with using my avatar was your main body, not someone like you."
"This bastard. You dare, to me..."
Kuang!
I land a single strike of Seated Detachment, Standing Oblivion directly into his jaws, and as he hesitates, I strike him several more times.
Kwagwagwagwang!
Yuk Rin's body is torn into several pieces and flung outside of Governing Dragon Palace.
'What a pity.'
I click my tongue as I step onto the teleportation array Yuk Rin created and activate it.
Paaatt!
Crossing over the middle zone, I finally reach the other side and frown.
"...Is this also Deep Sea Island?"
Honestly, being stuck on Penglai Island, I am getting a little sick of Deep Sea Islands.
"This must be Cherry Blossom Dragon Island. In any case, that means..."
Jin Ma-yeol will probably soon enter this place.
Initially, Yuk Rin was Kim Young-hoon's responsibility.
Governing Dragon Island was mine.
And Cherry Blossom Dragon Island was meant to be attacked by Jin Ma-yeol's Salt Bones Ship.
It's entirely possible for Jin Ma-yeol's Salt Bones Ship, which can roam the Deep Sea, to enter here.
'Tsk, it would've been nice if the Salt Bones Ship could have descended to Penglai Island as well.'
Unfortunately, the depths into which Penglai Island was plunged is too deep for the Salt Bones Ship to enter recklessly.
Clearing my mind of unnecessary thoughts, I look around and quickly find Yuk Yo.
And alongside her, Baek Rin.
"Baek Rin, Yuk Yo!"
"Ah...Cult Leader."
Baek Rin turns to me and expresses an intent of relief.
However, despite hearing that I have arrived, Yuk Yo just stares blankly somewhere.
"...? Baek Rin, what is Yuk Yo looking at?"
With an avatar, I can't exert consciousness on the level of my main body, so I can't immediately discern what they are looking at.
I approach Yuk Yo and look at what she is observing.
It's a mural.
And when I see the drawing on the mural, my eyes contract sharply.
Because at the bottom of the mural, there are letters written in a very familiar handwriting, in very familiar characters.
—I've thought about it deeply. The reason that being gave such excessive gifts to the maggots. It wasn't to assist such maggots in achieving ascension. It was, without a doubt, to liberate Ancient Force.
The hidden library on the top floor of Serving Command Palace.
The letters are written in exactly the same handwriting as the ones written on the corner of that library.