Ignoring whether the strategist was shocked or not, Jeok Wigang continued questioning Ye Yahyeon.
“What was that bastard called in White Horse Heaven?”
“The Death-Mandate Divine Demon.”
When Ye Yahyeon even stated his title precisely, the strategist—no, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon—opened his eyes wide.
“Y-you are... who? Who are you... that you know... about me?”
“Didn’t you hear? He said this one is from White Horse Heaven too.”
At Jeok Wigang’s words, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon stared hard at Ye Yahyeon, then muttered something.
Then the Death-Mandate Divine Demon’s eyes turned red.
He looked at Ye Yahyeon with those red eyes, then stammered in a startled voice.
“P-Poison-Mandate Divine Demon?”
At the Death-Mandate Divine Demon’s words, Ye Yahyeon nodded.
“Yeah. It’s been a while.”
“H-how are you? You... were not missing?”
“There were circumstances.”
“White Horse Heaven... received the final report... and then lost contact... so they believe you all died. That is why... we came.”
“I see. Judging by the way you said ‘we,’ it seems more than one or two came out.”
“I cannot... tell you that. I also... do not know exactly... who came out....”
“Well, we didn’t know who had come out at first either. We just ended up running into each other by chance.”
“I heard.... They called you... the Four Divine Demons... in the Central Plains?”
“Yeah.”
“That too... was reported. After you... disappeared, there was an order... that even if we met... other comrades from White Horse Heaven... we were absolutely not to gather together. And one more thing... anyone who knows... our identity must not... be left alive. Is that man... someone precious to you...?”
When he asked while pointing at Jeok Wigang, Ye Yahyeon gave a faint laugh.
“I didn’t know it myself, but it seems he is very precious to me.”
“Is that so...? Then it must be difficult... for you to kill him yourself.... I will... help you.”
The instant he finished speaking, he stretched his hand toward Jeok Wigang.
RATATAT—
Two sheets of paper flew in quickly.
Thud.
The moment they stuck to Jeok Wigang’s body, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon shouted,
“Explode!”
KWA-KWA-KWAAANG—!
The paper attached to his body exploded, and enormous flames surged up into the sky like a geyser.
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon smiled coldly and said,
“I... handled him for you.”
Ye Yahyeon gave a faint laugh.
“Seeing you smile... even though someone precious to you... just died before your eyes... perhaps you could have handled him yourself? It seems I... wasted my strength for nothing.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s just that a human like him won’t die from something on that level.”
“What?”
At Ye Yahyeon’s words, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon turned his gaze toward the place where Jeok Wigang had been.
The surroundings had been wrecked by the fierce explosion.
As the thick smoke slowly cleared, Jeok Wigang appeared perfectly unharmed above the hollowed-out ground.
At the sight, both the Death-Mandate Divine Demon and Ye Yahyeon could not hide their shock.
“What? Did you not... already know? You just said... he was a human... who would not die... from that level.”
“That’s true. It’s just strange....”
Ye Yahyeon looked at Jeok Wigang and asked,
“Did you put up a barrier in that brief moment?”
“Yeah. I had put it up in advance.”
Put it up?
Could it be?
“You also... use sorcery?”
“Sorcery, huh.... It’s similar enough. More importantly, can’t you talk a little faster? You’re so slow it’s killing me.”
“Eek!”
At being told to speak faster, his face flushed red, and he began glaring at Jeok Wigang as if he would kill him.
Ye Yahyeon quietly mentioned,
“He hates being told he speaks slowly most of all.”
“Oh, really? If he’s slow, he’s slow. How did someone that slow even learn sorcery?”
“He is a bastard who rose into White Horse Heaven’s rankings with that sorcery.”
“Really? Is White Horse Heaven that impressive?”
“I was ranked sixty-second in White Horse Heaven.”
“What about him?”
“He should be around ninetieth.”
At Ye Yahyeon’s words, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon flared up.
“Eighty-third!”
“Oh! That was fast just now. Good. Speak that fast. But aren’t ninetieth and eighty-third basically the same?”
“You... damned bastard! I will tear... you apart!”
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon stuck a talisman to the ground, then formed hand seals with his fingers.
“Summon it! Demon, emerge!”
The ground began to turn black around the talisman, and soon a certain shape slowly began to form.
The completed shape was covered in black scales that gleamed as though wrapped in iron armor, and its burning-red eyes glared fiercely at Jeok Wigang.
Its bulk was so great that one had to look up to see its head, and its forelegs looked as solid as massive black pillars.
From its large, sharp claws rose a cutting edge that seemed capable of slicing through anything.
Its tail resembled a long whip, and hard-looking spikes bristled at the end.
Grrrrrr—
Its low growl made anyone who heard it freeze in extreme fear.
“A monster... from the demon realm, the Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast. Let us see... if you can keep running... that mouth of yours... after facing this!”
GROOOOAR—
The Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast let out a tremendous roar and began charging toward Jeok Wigang.
At that moment—
WHUMP—
Along with the heavy sound of meat being struck, the massive Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast’s upper body vanished without a trace.
Half of the Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast slowly tilted over.
THUD—
It collapsed as if crumbling down, then soon turned to ash and scattered in the wind.
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon’s eyes widened as if they would tear open, and his mouth would not close.
“A body... equal to Diamond Invulnerability... and a demonic beast from the demon realm... that absorbs inner qi... in a single blow?”
He could not believe it even after seeing it with his own eyes.
“You don’t seem as bad as I expected, and it looks like there are plenty of ways to use you.”
“What?”
“You become my little brother too.”
“What... are you saying? Do you know... how old I am?”
Jeok Wigang looked at Ye Yahyeon.
“Does age matter? You said the stronger one is the older brother.”
At Jeok Wigang’s question, Ye Yahyeon answered with a smile.
“Of course. The strong one is the elder brother. White Horse Heaven is the same.”
“You heard him.”
“Do you think I would acknowledge you as my elder brother?”
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon took out several talismans, threw them, and formed hand seals again.
Then several monsters unlike anything seen in the human world appeared and charged at Jeok Wigang.
WHUMP-WHUMP— WHUMP—
Watching the monsters vanish as soon as they were summoned, the Death-Mandate Divine Demon somehow even felt hollow.
How would he have to kill that bastard?
Among the monsters he could summon, there was one that was the strongest.
The problem was that if he summoned it, even he could not handle it, so he hesitated and looked at Ye Yahyeon.
Right.
Together with the Poison-Mandate Divine Demon, they could somehow suppress it.
Thinking that, he took out a blue talisman.
He threw the talisman, formed hand seals again, and recited the spell.
“Three-Headed Blood-Thunder Darkness! Hellhound, manifest!”
From the talisman floating in the air, a blue space rippled, and soon a massive monster wrapped head to toe in black flames revealed itself.
The three-headed monster was—
WHUMP—
The monster vanished before its detailed form could even finish taking shape.
“Th-this cannot be.... The T-three-Headed Hellhound... vanished....”
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon no longer saw Jeok Wigang as human.
Ye Yahyeon wore an expression that said he had expected this.
As I thought, even if all of White Horse Heaven attacked him together, it would not work.
This time, he understood it for certain.
Honestly, even the Death-Mandate Divine Demon alone would cause the Central Plains enormous trouble if someone had to face him.
The Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast that had appeared first was essentially a natural enemy to martial-world people.
It was a monster that absorbed inner-qi attacks and grew even stronger.
One had to annihilate the Soul-Devouring Demonic Beast in a single blow with an attack powerful enough that it could not endure.
As for the final Three-Headed Hellhound, even Ye Yahyeon could not guarantee whether he would win or lose against it.
But he had not been worried.
Because he knew Jeok Wigang would handle it easily.
Still, he had handled it so easily that even Ye Yahyeon was a little surprised.
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon was muttering in a daze.
“How...? Am I... dreaming right now?”
Before the Death-Mandate Divine Demon, who was denying reality, Jeok Wigang had approached at some point.
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon was so dazed that even when Jeok Wigang came near, he could not come to his senses.
Jeok Wigang waved his hand back and forth in front of his eyes, but he did not move a muscle.
“I’ll have to snap him out of it.”
SLAP—
A flash went off before his eyes, and a heavy pain rose up. Only then did the Death-Mandate Divine Demon come back to himself.
He looked at Jeok Wigang.
“Will you be my little brother? Or will you get beaten?”
“I would... sooner die... than serve... someone like you... as my elder brother!”
At the Death-Mandate Divine Demon’s shout, Ye Yahyeon shook his head and turned his back.
He knew far too well what would happen from now on, and watching it would probably bring back memories of the past.
WHUMP—
The sound of a leather drum being struck rang out.
“It’s started.”
Knowing all too well what that sound meant, Ye Yahyeon covered his ears and closed his eyes.
*****
“Brother!”
The being clinging to Jeok Wigang’s trouser leg, shedding tears and snot while desperately calling him Brother, was none other than the Death-Mandate Divine Demon.
“You said you would rather die than serve me as your elder brother.”
“Th-that was merely empty bluster because I wanted to protect my pride!”
Even his slow speech had been corrected.
That was because one of the reasons he had been beaten was that Jeok Wigang disliked how slowly he spoke.
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon spoke quickly with desperate effort.
“See? If you try, you can speak quickly. Right?”
“That is correct! This is all thanks to my great Brother!”
He was even rubbing his palms together, doing his very best to put Jeok Wigang in a good mood.
“If we include this one too, does that mean it’s no longer the Four Divine Demons but the Five Divine Demons?”
“At this rate, it’ll become the Hundred Divine Demons.”
At Ye Yahyeon’s words, Jeok Wigang shook his head.
“That won’t happen. There’s already one who died by my hand.”
Died by his hand?
For an instant, both the Death-Mandate Divine Demon and Ye Yahyeon felt a chill.
“That one was completely beyond rehabilitation. I just killed him. He wasn’t even human, anyway.”
“Ah....”
“Now, tell me about White Horse Heaven.”
The Death-Mandate Divine Demon and Ye Yahyeon looked at each other, then opened their mouths.
“The truth is, we do not know much either. Those below the top thirty in the rankings are almost organized like isolated cells.”
“That is correct. When orders come down from above, we simply carry them out. If we defy an order, we are removed from White Horse Heaven’s rankings, so everyone completes missions however they can in order to maintain or raise their rank.”
“So you do not know exactly what White Horse Heaven is?”
“Yes.”
There was no lie in their answers.
“Hmm. Then do you know how many came to the Central Plains?”
“We do not know that either. As I said earlier, it is structured like isolated cells, so each person receives missions individually.”
“What was your mission?”
“I was ordered to go to the Central Plains and drive a wedge between the martial world and the authorities. At first, I tried to target the imperial palace, but then the Emperor died and everything fell into chaos. So as a secondary plan, I targeted the military governor’s office.”
“Are there monsters in White Horse Heaven too?”
“Yes. It is a place where bastards from all over are mixed together, so there are all kinds of strange creatures.”
“All over?”
“Yes. They say that when the Heaven Lord who first created White Horse Heaven made a mistake and opened several dimensional gates, the ones who entered then were swept in. Perhaps because of that, all sorts of strangely shaped beings are gathered there.”
“Opened dimensional gates?”
“That is what I heard. I do not know whether such a thing is truly possible.”
He could open dimensional gates.
Jeok Wigang was tremendously curious.
“Then to return to White Horse Heaven, that Heaven Lord has to open a dimensional gate for you.”
“That is correct.”
“When does he open it?”
“Well? There is no set time for that.”