Before leaving the Martial Alliance, Namgoong Seolhwa shared her plan for dealing with the Blood Lords with Namgoong Mucheon.

“I plan to appear as the Shadowless Demon God in this engagement. I will take the Southern Wilds Beast Palace; grandfather, please take the North Sea Ice Palace.”

At her earnest request, Namgoong Mucheon nodded.

“So it shall be.”

Did “having a plan” mean they would split their strength and meet the two fronts separately?

“I will lead the Martial Alliance’s force and try to halt the Ice Palace’s southward advance.”

“No.”

Namgoong Seolhwa shook her head.

“The objective of this engagement is not to fight.”

Namgoong Mucheon’s brows lowered.

“Not to fight?”

“Yes.”

She nodded and continued.

“As you know, the Alliance’s fighting strength is diminished. Morale has fallen badly as well because of what happened to the Tang Clan and Kunlun.”

“That is so.”

The power of Ouyang Do, Kunlun, and the Tang Clan had all been struck at once.

The weakening of their strength was a problem, but as Seolhwa said, the distrust and fear spreading across the Alliance were the greatest enemies.

“So clashing head-on right now is dangerous. The Imperial Palace won’t be able to respond properly to an outside incursion either.”

Even if the palace moved under the pretext of invasions from the North Sea and the Southern Wilds, the palace itself had yet to recover from the rebellion’s damage.

“They’re moving precisely because they know that.”

For the Blood Lords, quiet until now, to move all at once meant they knew the palace and the Central Plains martial world were in crisis.

“Even so, you say there’s a way to stop them without fighting?”

At his repeated question, Seolhwa nodded again without hesitation.

“As I understand it, before I was born you met the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, didn’t you?”

“!”

In that instant Namgoong Mucheon’s eyes widened, as though something had just fallen into place.

He searched his memory, then nodded.

“...Yes. I did.”

As proof, among the gifts he had given Seolhwa there was an ornament he had brought back from the North Sea.

“In a previous life, I asked the First Blood Lord to lend strength in your duel.”

Back then as well, Namgoong Mucheon had been like an immovable mountain she could not surpass.

“But I was refused, and the reason given was that you possessed the Palace Lord’s Jade Gui.”

Namgoong Mucheon smiled faintly, surprised anew that Seolhwa knew things even he did not recall.

“Ha, yes. True. I once happened to save the Palace Lord’s grandaunt.”

More precisely, after he bested the Black-Boat and freed those they had taken, one of them turned out to be the Palace Lord’s grandaunt.

She said she had a taste for wandering and had been taken while traveling as far south as the Central Plains’ lower reaches.

By that connection, time later, Namgoong Mucheon received an invitation to the North Sea Ice Palace and there was given the Palace Lord’s Jade Gui.

“It was a token meaning that if I ever needed it, help would be given.”

“In my previous life, the First Blood Lord said that if that Jade Gui were presented, she would have no choice but to withdraw.”

The First Blood Lord was a princess of the North Sea Ice Palace.

The Palace Lord’s daughter who had given Namgoong Mucheon the token.

Though she was a Blood Lord, she only used the Blood Cult as a springboard for the Ice Palace’s southward move; her true identity was an Ice Palace princess.

“As a princess she cannot go against the Palace Lord’s will. If we present the Gui this time as well, the North Sea Ice Palace will pull back.”

Namgoong Mucheon slowly nodded.

Indeed, if the Jade Gui were produced on the Ice Palace’s line of advance, they could be turned back easily.

“I had entirely forgotten I’d received it.”

“I remembered it by chance.”

“Good. Then we can rest somewhat easier about the Ice Palace. But...”

Namgoong Mucheon’s brows lowered again.

“Even so, two fronts remain.”

Setting aside the Blood Lord Tang Hojin, two remained.

Mount Hua and the Southern Wilds Beast Palace.

“Do you have a way to avoid fighting at those two as well?”

Seolhwa shook her head.

“We can’t avoid fighting everywhere. I have something in mind for the Beast Palace, but Mount Hua...”

She recalled Eunwol’s warning.

‘Beware the O Blood Lord. The Blood Demon has intervened. Rumor says the arm he lost in the last battle has been restored.’

Restored, a severed arm—

‘If it’s the Blood Demon, it might be possible.’

Among his Blood Arts were techniques that instantly healed wounds taken in battle.

But those, too, ran counter to the natural order and were known to carry severe side effects.

“We won’t be able to avoid the fight at Mount Hua. No— we must fight. In exchange for turning back the Ice Palace and the Southern Wilds, we have to win there.”

Avoiding battle with the Ice Palace and the Beast Palace meant, conversely, that their strength would suffer no loss.

If, in such a situation, they also let the O Blood Lord, Nomon—who would be striking Mount Hua—go unscathed, they would only be delaying the war and gain almost nothing.

Thus Seolhwa’s plan was this:

“We turn back the Ice Palace and the Beast Palace and, in the battle at Mount Hua, take this chance to remove the O Blood Lord.”

Since the Blood Lords were moving in concert, they would not know the Alliance’s plan.

Seolhwa aimed to preserve the Alliance’s strength and bleed the Blood Cult’s.

“If we bring down the O Blood Lord as well, what remains to the Blood Cult will be the Ice Palace, the Beast Palace, and the Blood Demon.”

“You mean to break them one by one.”

“Yes. If possible, until nothing remains around the Blood Demon.”

That was precisely the method the Blood Cult had used on the Central Plains in the previous life.

Plant infiltrators among the Central Plains forces, topple them one by one, and at last swallow the whole of the Central Plains.

Seolhwa was returning the Blood Demon’s method to the Blood Cult exactly as she had learned it in the former life.

“Our full-scale war with the Blood Cult will be fought then.”

When the Blood Cult’s strength was at its weakest.

When the fewest remained guarding the Blood Demon’s side.

“I understand your intent.”

Namgoong Mucheon nodded, thinking deeply.

“But if I take the north and you take the south, who will face Nomon?”

Nomon’s realm was the Fire Realm — and he had once been called Mount Hua’s foremost sword, a master among masters.

If he also used Blood Arts, in the present martial world the only ones who could meet him were, in truth, Seolhwa and Namgoong Mucheon.

“Elder Ouyang Do has not finished recovering, and the Merciless Dharma Buddha has lost his left arm; he will find it hard to stand against Nomon.”

“So I have called the one who can. If the letter is not delayed, he will face the O Blood Lord.”

“Is he of the Demonic Cult?”

Seolhwa inclined her head slightly.

“He belongs under the Demonic, but he is not the Heavenly Demon’s man. If anything, he is the Blood Demon’s adversary.”

“The Blood Demon’s adversary...”

“When he arrives I’ll introduce him to you as well. It would be good for you to meet him.”

“So be it.”

If Seolhwa said he was trustworthy, there was no room for doubt.

If the message was not delayed as she said, Mount Hua could be entrusted and believed.

“Then let me hear the rest of your plan.”

Namgoong Mucheon gazed at her steadily.

What remained was the Beast Palace, which Seolhwa had said she would handle.

“So — how do you intend to turn back the Southern Wilds Beast Palace?”

****

BWOOOOOO— BWOOO—

THUMP— THUMP— THUMP— THUMP—

A vast horn blast, drumbeats, and shouts charged with tension and excitement rolled through the valley.

Behind the group bearing horns and drums came a splendid, enormous palanquin that would take over a hundred strong men to lift.

Reclining half-lounging upon it sat the Beast Palace Lord, Earl Wolf.

Earl Wolf stroked his fingers as he looked up at the Beast Palace standard snapping high against the sky.

All ten of his fingers were densely inked with complex black patterns.

The advance into the Central Plains.

It was a thing the Beast Palace Lord had long desired.

“The Central Plains.”

What a word filled with conceit.

How were they the center of the world?

“The world moves around our ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Beast Palace.”

A land broad in span, yes, but weaklings with no real substance.

The sort that laid down polished stone slabs and banged on sticks and called that training.

Compared to such people, it was only natural that the Beast Palace’s warriors—who had honed strength daily to survive jungles filled with venoms and every peril—were superior.

“If they are called the Central Plains because the land is large, then we need only seize that land.”

The time had come.

The time to conquer the Central Plains and let the world know the might of the Southern Wilds’ warriors...!

Earl Wolf sprang up, raised a fist, and suddenly shouted.

“■■■■■■!! ■■■■■!”

At once the warriors advancing before him and those following behind all echoed his words and roared.

“■■■■■■!! ■■■■■!”

“■■■■■■!! ■■■■■!”

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP—

BWOOO— BWOOOOOOOO—

The colossal drumbeats and horn blasts shook the valley, and the beasts advancing with them all bellowed at once.

The Southern Wilds’ column, marching on the Central Plains, was swollen with zeal for conquest.

Just then—

“!”

The Beast Palace Lord raised his fist again.

In an instant all sound fell silent, and the column stopped short.

With a razor gaze he glared toward the ridge at the head of the valley.

His slashed-sharp eyes fixed upon the great mass of blackness standing tall atop the ridge.