It is over.
Wol Ryeong's first thought is that.
What stands before her eyes is the Owner of Heavenly Punishment.
The being who governs the Heavenly Tribulations that descend upon every cultivation realm in this world.
The God of Thunder Resonance Valley.
They are an existence a mortal being like her cannot withstand.
'From the very start...'
She cannot understand.
'Why, in a ritual that summons the spirit of lightning, did the Owner of Heavenly Punishment...descend...?'
And the God of Heavenly Punishment answers.
[I thought maybe a transformation in fate is occurring, so I descended to take a look. Quite interesting, I must say...]
"...!?"
'I was read!?'
[The brain of a mortal being that moves by electrical signals...for Lightning Immortals, it is not difficult to read.]
"...What do you intend to do with us...?"
[Before I deal with you, I'll handle another urgent matter first.]
The God of Heavenly Punishment seems to smile, then rises from their seat and looks around at the forty-eight Nascent Soul Elders who are encircling their descent body.
[You expected the Heavenly Lightning Banner to come and waited to snatch it, but since I personally descended, it seems I gave you quite the surprise.]
"...Release her. She is not one to be imprisoned in your embrace and be humiliated."
[Seize her with your own hands. Have I not said it all along? Only that is a fate that has meaning... Until that fate comes to pass, she is mine.]
"It seems you got excited by the generational shift of the Eight Immortals and came as your main personality. As expected, you are hasty, young Red Pearl. If we suppress you here, your main body will become defenseless."
[How laughable. Are you saying you intend to block me right now with that cultivation?]
"We are the ones who were taught the principle of Indra's Net by Them. We know the world far more deeply than you..."
The Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord begins to form hand seals, and the other Nascent Soul stage Elders around them also form hand seals.
"By no means does our full strength fall behind you, O Evil God!"
Kwarururung!
Starting from the Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord, ropes of lightning extend from them and link to the other Elders.
Then their ropes of lightning entangle and interweave, forming a great net that embraces the cavern.
Wo-wooong-
Wol Ryeong cannot even grasp the context of the conversation they exchange, nor does she know what they are unfolding.
However, her instincts realize that that net, on a metaphysical level, is suppressing that Lightning God's descent body with some transcendent power.
"O Evil God who devoured the Lord, today this place becomes your grave. Regret for felling the Lord and not sweeping us away!"
It has no effect on Wol Ryeong, a mortal being, but clearly something on a transcendent plane is pressing down on that descent body.
However, the Lightning God does not seem fazed at all.
[Foolish. Do you not know this place is the Middle Realm overseen by my friend? If I merely contact my friend, she will crush you together with this entire Middle Realm.]
"That is on the assumption you can get a message to your friend."
[Hoh, I see. So you have set it so that no connection reaches outside. Excellent.]
"That is right, now you..."
[But still foolish. Even after living together for several months, have you still failed to notice that [He] is personally present?]
"What...?"
[Even if a crisis should come that I die to the likes of you, as long as [He] is here, I will borrow [His] power and revive.]
"What...? You say that Devil God is personally present in Thunder Resonance Valley!?"
"It is a lie. Merely a ruse to agitate us. If truly that wicked Mountain Divine Spirit is personally present in this place, there is no way we would fail to sense it!"
[Ahaha, how arrogant. Do you think [He] would take a form that you could find with your power? And...]
Kwachik, kwachijijijik!
From the spirit of lightning, an immense thunderstorm erupts.
"Kughk, block it!"
"W-Wait, this power, what in the world...?"
[I am not a Supreme Deity, but a Heavenly Venerable.]
Kwaaaang!
Wol Ryeong's head explodes the moment she hears the Lightning God's words.
Her soul throws all its strength into compressing and sealing away the dreadful information that has entered her mind so that it does not affect her.
'S-Supreme Deity? Heavenly Venerable!?'
In her mind, the afterimage of a [Black Sky] is naturally reflected.
Upon that [Black Sky]—
[Ten] Seats are shining brightly.
[Not only do I occupy a position among the Heavenly Seats, but I have also seized the Divinity of Anger and united with the Seat...]
Kurung, Kurururung!
The Lightning God's descent body runs madly amok, beginning to push away the net of lightning of the Nascent Soul Elders.
[Though the depth of my enlightenment may not reach your former owner, in sheer power...I surpass even them...!]
Kwarururung!
"Kuuuuugh!"
"Th-This cannot be!"
"How can that wretch...that bug-like bastard draw out the power of Heavenly Punishment more strongly than the Lord!!?"
Even as the Nascent Soul Elders cry out with tears of blood, the Lightning God only chuckles and releases more power.
[You cannot defeat me. Acknowledge it now. I am your Lord.]
"I cannot acknowledge it... You are nothing but a phantom that flickers briefly like Yang Su-jin and then disappears. We do not serve a phantom as Lord!!!"
[I am curious what you would think if you knew how your Lord thought of that phantom...]
Kururung!
The Lightning God stretches one hand to the sky, then makes a grasping motion.
At the same time, the net unfolded by the Nascent Soul Elders ripples even more.
[Can you even attack like this? If you had come in your main bodies and unfolded it, perhaps...but with mere clones, it is laughable.]
Chijijijik—
Regenerating her burst head and barely digesting the immense knowledge, Wol Ryeong listens to those words and looks toward the forty-eight Nascent Soul Elders.
"Clones...?"
Then, the Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord sneers and shouts.
"...Even so, we succeeded in suppressing most of your descent body's power. If it comes to this...we must even borrow the hateful power of the Eight Immortals, must we not?"
[Hooh?]
"Wol Ryeong!! I have known you are a disciple of the Radiance Spirit Sect!"
At the Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord's words, Wol Ryeong flinches in surprise.
"We too are spies who hid our realms and infiltrated Thunder Resonance Valley to eradicate this Evil God. Let us combine our strength and exterminate that Lightning God together! We have deployed a formation that seals away most of the power of the Evil God's descent body, so now they can no longer exert their true might! They can only face you with mere brute combat!"
"...If you too are clones...does that mean you are high beings directly connected to that Evil God?"
"...Let us say it is so."
"Could it be...you are at least Quasi-Immortals of the Entering Nirvana stage?"
At those words, Seo Gyeong briefly looks up at the sky and mutters, "So this is what it feels like," and the Lightning God turns their back on Wol Ryeong and shudders.
And the Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord along with the forty-eight Nascent Soul Elders make the same absurd expression as when Mu Geom and Bi Hwa scratched their bellies.
"...Uh...well...let us say that is so."
But in the end, the Jade Pivot Forty-Eight Lightning Heavenly Great Immortals under the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity agree with that statement with strange expressions, fearing that if they speak of their true bodies, Wol Ryeong will die.
'Supreme Deity... Heavenly Venerable...'
Wol Ryeong recalls the Black Sky and the Ten Seats beneath that sky she just glimpsed through the Lightning God's wisdom.
'When one becomes a True Immortal from a Quasi-Immortal, does one become inscribed upon a Heavenly Seat and receive the title of Supreme Deity or Heavenly Venerable?'
Even in the Radiance Spirit Sect, information about True Immortals is considered to be poison and not passed down, so Wol Ryeong has never been taught anything about the realms or the society of True Immortals.
Thus, she only thinks that the Lightning God before her is a True Immortal, and that those Nascent Soul Elders are merely Entering Nirvanas disguised as Nascent Soul stage cultivators.
[I am going crazy... Well, since she is merely a mortal being who knows nothing about the True Immortality, she has no choice but to think so.]
The Lightning God, as if something is amusing, reads Wol Ryeong's thoughts and chuckles heartily, and Wol Ryeong glares at them at that sight.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped reading my thoughts."
Of course, she does not expect such a request to work.
Her opponent is a True Immortal.
Her proposal is nothing but the chirping of a chick.
'Stop thinking.'
She stops all thought and moves only by the memories engraved in her body.
'Sword...'
She tries to summon a radiance sword.
After all, her specialty has always been the sword.
But she cannot.
'Damn...'
She still recalls the terrifying vision that that girl with a ponytail showed her.
The fear she engraved into Wol Ryeong binds her hands.
She, even now...
She still cannot grasp a sword.
In the end she summons something other than a radiance sword.
The light of the Radiance Spirit Sword Formula gathers in her hand and condenses a radiance halberd.
She thrusts the halberd toward the Lightning God before her and mutters.
"Disciple of the Radiance Spirit Sect, Wol Ryeong. I request a Life-and-Death Duel with the God of Heavenly Punishment."
[Haha, a Life-and-Death Duel. Life and death hold no meaning for us... But I understand what you mean, so I accept.]
Cheok—
With one hand behind their back, the Lightning God casually beckons Wol Ryeong with his other hand.
Immediately, Wol Ryeong and the Lightning God clash.
Kwaaang!
'Fast!'
Her opponent moves at lightning speed by default.
Their baseline is lightning speed, and at times they even show movements reaching light speed.
'Fast. But not to the extent I can't respond to.'
The barrier unfolded by the forty-eight Elders seems to suppress their authority.
'I can match their speed. The only thing left is...'
She gradually unites her mind with the halberd and unleashes a fierce offensive.
'...attack power!'
Cheukang, cheukang!
Because of light-speed movement, the Lightning God's kicks and movements become massive slashes each time they unfold.
She meets those strikes with her halberd, splitting them apart as she charges toward them.
Shiiing—
She swings the halberd and cleaves the Lightning God's body in two.
Kwajichik—
But of course,
They simply reattach their split body as though nothing has happened.
'The opponent is lightning itself.'
They are no different from a spirit of lightning.
Therefore she must find an answer that tears apart the very phenomenon called lightning itself.
Wo-wooong—
Something begins to settle in her radiance halberd.
It is an Immortal Art.
Rain, Sunlight, Heat, Cold, Wind, Time.
It is the basic Immortal Art and formula of the Integration stage.
The power of the Immortal Art Various Omens gathers into her radiance halberd and begins to suppress the transcendent phenomenon.
[So you at least know the basics.]
Calling a divine skill that the overwhelming majority at the Integration stage cannot even attempt basic, the Lightning God releases the hand behind their back and unleashes a fierce assault at her with both hands.
Knife hand.
Palm strike.
Straight punch.
Cloth grabbing.
Outer leg tripping.
Countless fighting techniques unfold from their hands, and Wol Ryeong, parrying and diverting their innumerable techniques, can tell.
'It's not perfect.'
This Lightning God before her is not used to bare-handed fighting.
They have simply lived overwhelmingly more years than she has, encountered martial flows of this and that, and more or less picked up martial techniques.
Compared to opponents she faced like Yu Jin and Jin Wol-ryeong...
In the realm of Marital Arts, the Lightning God appears to have far more openings.
But at the same time, as she senses their habits, their unconscious actions, the flow of movement she feels from them, she comes to realize one thing.
'Damn it...'
They are not used to bare-handed martial arts.
But there is a weapon they are accustomed to wielding.
And the reason they do not draw that weapon now to fight her is...
Simply because she at present cannot inflict any real damage upon the Lightning God's decent body.
Though, by wrapping Immortal Arts around her radiance halberd, she is able to suppress the phenomenon of lightning, even with such clumsy martial techniques, they can easily evade or deflect her attacks.
Wol Ryeong has yet to draw out even a fraction of the opponent's strength.
'More, more...!'
She experiences a flashback.
Not a flashback born from the threat of death, but one she herself forcibly evokes.
Wol Ryeong recalls everything she has experienced throughout the entire span of her life and begins to seek the breakthrough to escape this situation.
And in a single instant, she finally finds it.
[Is this all? Can you not do any better?]
"...I shall make it...a little more entertaining."
Tsuaaaat!
She focuses all her consciousness into the radiance halberd.
Her soul is sucked into the weapon.
At the same time, powerful spatial waves ripple out around her.
"Integrated Dao Domain."
Since reaching the Integration stage, it is the domain she accumulated through endless contemplation and repentant enlightenment.
"Bright Sword Spear Star Rain World (光明劍戟星雨世界)."
Her domain, where countless weapons in the form of starlight rain down endlessly from the black sky, cover the whole region in an instant.
[Filling the Heavens Sword Rain...?]
For a moment, the Lightning God flinches in surprise and shudders, but then they smirk.
[So it is nothing but a degraded version. Laughable. With something like this...]
"With something like this, of course, I do not dare reach a god."
And then, the Lightning God's smile has no choice but to vanish.
Tsuaaaaat!
The rain of weapons that fills all of Heaven and Earth.
That world of light-rain begins to compress.
Kwajik, kwajijijijik!
She compresses the Integrated Dao Domain.
She recalls the duel between Hon Jin and Seo Gyeong, and she begins to refine Hon Jin's ultimate techniques that she saw then into her own.
Kwchigigik!
The compressed domain is honed into a blade.
At the same time, the blade of the honed Integrated Dao Domain is directly compressed and overlaid onto the blade of the radiance halberd Wol Ryeong holds.
[...Jin's technique, is it? To copy it after seeing it once...so this is the next Eight Immortal.]
Before the Lightning God can even finish their muttering, Wol Ryeong swings the halberd with all her strength straight at their body.
'Cut!'
It is not as perfect as what Hon Jin displayed, but it is still an ultimate technique that slices through the dimension itself and can directly strike even the divine body of a transcendent being!
That single strike, manifested by Wol Ryeong's hand, thrusts toward the Lightning God.
Heaven and Earth seem to darken for an instant.
All the light of Heaven and Earth is—for a moment—absorbed into Wol Ryeong's radiance halberd.
In that fleeting instant—
Chwaaaaak!
Wol Ryeong's radiance halberd cuts a massive scar into the Lightning God's chest.
"Huu...hu..."
Chijijijik...
[...Astounding. To pierce through the defense of this one and wound this one's descent body.]
Despite having just imitated Hon Jin's technique and consumed an overwhelming amount of stamina and mental strength, she cannot help but sweat coldly.
'How in the world did that man, with such an aged body, use this technique...? And even after using it...that being still...'
It is because, aside from the appearance of the scar, the Lightning God remains unscathed.
[Do not despair too much. This one's strength has indeed been consumed, and so the time I can remain in the Saha World is greatly shortened... If you strike with a few more of such attacks, you may truly be able to end this one's descent body.]
Shiver!
Wol Ryeong trembles at the despair that surges up from the depths of her heart.
Cheok—
The Lightning God takes a stance.
It is not the stance of bare-handed combat they have shown until now.
It is...
The stance of holding a weapon.
"Spear...?"
And at that moment when Wol Ryeong realizes the weapon their stance is grasping—
Kwachijijijik!
[Now that I have even created a weapon...the time I remain in the Saha World will be further shortened.]
The electric current drawn out from the Lightning God's body forms a spear of thunder and lightning.
And the instant she sees the being before her eyes grasp the spear, she feels an illusion as if space itself is sucked into that being.
The next moment.
Kwaaaang!
"...???"
Wol Ryeong, without even realizing what has struck her, is hurled straight into the corner of the cavern.
[Astonishing. Since you made me draw a spear, I thrust with the intent to kill...]
Only then does Wol Ryeong realize that she barely survived because she instinctively defended through her halberd.
'Dangerous.'
The Lightning God before taking up the spear and the Lightning God after taking up the spear are completely different beings.
'I must stop—'
Kwaaang!
Before her thought even ends, the end of the Lightning God's spear shaft smashes into Wol Ryeong's face.
Wol Ryeong's head crashes straight into the cavern and is shaken violently, and in that instant the spear is swung again, smashing Wol Ryeong's forehead, abdomen, and legs with the end of the spear shaft.
[Will you make this a little more entertaining for me?]
With only a few thrusts, the Lightning God drives Wol Ryeong to her limits, and now the spear tip points straight at her.
Hwoooong—
[...!]
Wol Ryeong's radiance halberd swings toward the Lightning God, and in the next instant, her body having regenerated, she throws her whole body at them.
[Good. Let us dance.]
Halberd and spear clash.
The two long weapons collide, seizing control of space, striking while subduing both time and space.
'It must not spread wide.'
Wol Ryeong's mind and soul focus entirely on her weapon and the Lightning God's spear.
'Pour every authority and ability of the Integration stage into this single martial strike.'
Integrated Dao Domain, Various Omens, Five Elements Axis, Celestial Energy Guidance, perception of planes, the circulating power of all the blood vessels of her whole body!
Along with the Sacred Light True Force she received as a reward from Baek Jin, all of her power condenses into a narrow range and surpasses the extreme.
Gradually, time slows, and she feels as though she is stepping with the Lightning God into a transcendent realm.
'This is...'
Before her eyes, there is a flower.
It is a paper flower.
But in the next moment, she knows she herself cannot reach that flower.
'Ahhh...'
Her fate.
The fate of light, the one that grants her heaven-bestowed talent, forbids her from reaching that domain.
'Ahhhhhh!'
The fate that forbids the envoy of Heaven (天) from entering the domains of Earth (地) and Heart (心).
Within the darkened Darkness World where all of Heaven and Earth are black, she clenches her teeth, feeling herself shackled by that fate.
And at that very moment, the Lightning God takes the stance of [thrusting].
[Receive this.]
If the Lightning God before holding the spear and after holding it are different—
Then the Lightning God in a proper thrusting stance is different again from the Lightning God that came before.
A single thrust.
The endless persistence contained within that spear of lightning.
The strike of the piercing spear, tempered by refinement reaching Eighty Quadrillion.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path
Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear.
"...Ah."
Wol Ryeong realizes her lower body is gone.
She is pierced.
She does not even recall what happened.
The Lightning God took the thrusting stance, and that is the end.
Through her radiance halberd, her Integrated Dao Domain, all her attraction force and cultivation...
A single thrust pierced a hole through Wol Ryeong.
Chijijijik—
The regenerative power of the Integration stage restores her body, but Wol Ryeong only feels emptiness.
If she is healed like this, she will not die, but there is no way the Lightning God before her will allow that.
It is Wol Ryeong's defeat.
From all around, the silent exclamations of the forty-eight Nascent Souls Elders can be heard.
'Even against a being who is spending most of their strength on the Nascent Soul Elders...I cannot win. This is the gap between me and a True Immortal...'
Even with death before her eyes, she feels strangely calm.
If the opponent is at this level, dying is not something to regret.
'That being is a God. A being no different from the heavens itself.'
She is dying by the hand of the heavens.
If it is to be killed by the heavens, she can accept it.
She instinctively feels that she herself, her fate, comes from the heavens.
'If I am one who came from the heavens...then it is fine to die by the heavens...'
It's been a life she lived earnestly in her own way.
'Now...let's rest.'
Wol Ryeong closes her eyes as she looks at the Lightning God walking toward her.
She decides to accept death.
Just then, a certain figure appears before her eyes and blocks the Lightning God.
"...Eh?"
Wol Ryeong's eyes open wide.
[Hoh?]
"...Gyeong...ah...?"
It is Seo Gyeong.
With a child's body, he has summoned the radiance sword and blocks the approach of the Lightning God, and with those small shoulders like a great mountain, he stands between the two.
"No... Move. Move, Seo Gyeong. You...will die."
It is fine for her to die.
But for some reason, the sight of Seo Gyeong standing before her...makes her speak with an unknown trembling and pain.
"Seo Gyeong...! Move...!"
But Seo Gyeong pays no heed to her words and raises his sword.
"...Owner of Heavenly Punishment. I am sorry, but you cannot kill Ryeong. Step back."
At that arrogant declaration, Wol Ryeong for some reason feels tears welling.
"Don't do it... Don't do it, stupid! You will die! The opponent is the God of Heavenly Punishment!! The heavens itself!!!"
The Lightning God also seems to find the sight amusing and asks.
[Why go that far?]
At those words, Seo Gyeong only speaks calmly.
"You're not asking because you don't know, are you?"
[Hmm?]
Seo Gyeong smiles faintly toward the Lightning God before him and speaks.
"Because we're friends."
"...!"
Wol Ryeong trembles at that calm single remark.
Tears come out.
The Lightning God seems to chuckle at something and trade banter with Seo Gyeong, but she does not hear it.
Something wells up inside her chest, tears cloud her vision, and her consciousness domain is shaken by emotion.
Friends.
Can one stake one's life for such a small relationship?
Can one stand unflinchingly even with a transcendent before one's eyes?
'Seo Gyeong...you...'
Even though he must know he cannot win against the being before him.
Even though he must know the opponent is no different from the heavens.
Seo Gyeong is trying to confront the opponent with all her strength.
Just...
For no other reason than that Wol Ryeong is his friend.
At Seo Gyeong's one remark, Wol Ryeong receives the feeling that the 'foolishness' of others she could not understand becomes understandable.
The cry of the Colorless Faction cultivator Tae Ryeok.
And the struggles of countless low-level cultivators she has until now called foolish.
All of that...
She feels she can now understand, even if only a little.
It is not that they rise under the heavens thinking they can oppose fate.
It is that, for the sake of what is precious, they can do nothing but that.
She understands Seo Gyeong's words as well.
'You said free will does not exist...'
Once one has something precious at one's back.
There is no other choice to be made.
Only to protect what is precious, even under the heavens, one must never stop struggling.
It is when she gains that realization.
Tsaaat—
Seo Gyeong, who is clashing with the Lightning God before her eyes, vanishes, and another being appears.
It is a familiar being.
Countless glass sword mountains appear before her eyes.
Once again a familiar voice rings through her mind.
: : Do you desire power? : :
And...
This time, she cannot refuse as she did before.
"...I desire it."
: : Then... : :
However, she knows.
"But...I do not need your strength."
Every person has something precious to them.
Whatever fate one receives from the heavens, if it is to protect that precious thing, one must struggle in whatever way they can.
A person has no free will.
The absolute that the heavens bestows, the absolute one is endowed with by being born from the Earth...
And the thing precious to oneself that becomes an absolute guide a person's life in only one direction.
However, within those absolutes...
If Heaven and Earth and what is precious ceaselessly struggle with one another and intertwine...
Then perhaps one can make at least a faint choice.
Perhaps that may barely be called 'freedom'.
It is feeble and like a speck of dust...
But all change originally begins from such a speck.
"I will strive... I will practice repentant enlightenment... I will contemplate my own strength, and I will advance."
Before the Devil God before her eyes, she rises while crying out in repentant enlightenment.
"As long as I repentantly enlighten myself, I have no need of your help. Begone!!"
Tsuaaaaaa—
With those words, the afterimage before her collapses and disappears like the foam of waves.
Stagger, stagger...
Resisting the temptation of the evil Devil God, Wol Ryeong fully regenerates her body and looks at Seo Gyeong, who is crossing exchanges with the Lightning God.
"You've risen."
Seo Gyeong and the Lightning God glance at Wol Ryeong and start to match exchanges again.
The moment she rises, the flow of battle instantly begins to tilt toward the Lightning God.
But Wol Ryeong does not bother with such miscellaneous things.
Cheok—
'Can I reach it.'
Before her eyes is a paper flower.
To reach that paper flower, she knows she must twist her entire body and hurl herself forward with a determination that surpasses even her own fate.
Her focus is fixed only upon that paper flower.
'...I will reach it.'
And she begins to run toward the paper flower.
Before her, there is the boy who stands before a transcendent, calling her a friend.
She did not know before, but now she understands. That boy has already become a being too precious to Wol Ryeong as well.
To protect what is precious, she decides to surpass her own limits.
'I will reach it!'
Tsuaaaaaaatt!
Grasping her halberd and rushing toward the Lightning God, she sees the illusion of the paper flower drawing near.
[Interesting. Step aside.]
Tuuung—
The Lightning God kicks Seo Gyeong away with their foot and once again takes the stance of thrusting.
The time of bitter training reaching eight quadrillion seems faintly visible behind the Lightning God, and Wol Ryeong's eyes, nearly reaching the paper flower, gleam with light.
A mortal being trying to surpass her limits, and a divinity who has already surpassed them.
The halberd and spear of the two beings collide.
All sound vanishes from Heaven and Earth.
"..."
[Excellent.]
Wol Ryeong looks straight ahead.
Her halberd is broken.
On the Lightning God's cheek is nothing more than a slight scratch, no wounds at all.
'...I did not reach it.'
She knows she has failed to reach the paper flower.
[Truly a heaven-bestowed talent. A talent that even reminds me of myself in my mortal being days...]
The praise of a God.
Within it, she closes her eyes.
[But in this world, there are realms that cannot be reached with talent alone. The place you seek to step, the place I have stepped, is precisely that.]
"..."
[Even so, your battle was splendid. Though I am confined within the barrier of the Jade Pivot Lightning Immortals...since you have weakened my strength to this degree...this Owner of Heavenly Punishment...acknowledges you. Now, then...]
Surung—
The Lightning God raises their spear.
[This is the end.]
And then, from above the pierced hole of the cavern.
From the distant sky, a colossal trident made of red coral falls down.
Kugwaaaang!!
Only then does Wol Ryeong open her eyes.
"...Even if I only bought time, that is enough."
The reason she has been trying until now to erase her thoughts against the Owner of Heavenly Punishment, who continually reads them.
It is because, from the very beginning...
The Thunder Resonance Valley subjugation operation does not end with just this.
From the very start, Thunder Resonance Valley gathered all the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy of the entire Earth Tribe territory.
There is no way only the True Dragon Alliance Lord Gyu Ryeon would come.
And then...
Jjeoeoong!
At the spot where the trident pierces.
There, a red-skinned man of the Blood Shark Race descends from the sky.
"...Blood Shark Race Integration Demon King, Gyo Yeom."
Chwarararara—
Glaring at the Lightning God, whose power has fallen down to the level of the Qi Refining stage from fighting Wol Ryeong, the True Dragon Alliance Vice Lord Gyo Yeom lifts the trident.
"By the subjugation order of the Alliance Lord, I have come to subjugate the head of Thunder Resonance Valley, the Lightning Sword High Person."