Chapter 269

Chapter 269

Humans cannot defy yokai.

In ancient times, when they were still being raised as livestock, the vast majority of humans thought so. That they must not rebel against yokai.

Yokai are superior to humans. Physically and mentally so.

When yokai try to kill, you must die. If you don’t resist, one person dies, but if you try to resist, several people will die.

Everyone called human thought of yokai that way. As an irresistible disaster, like typhoons or natural calamities. That our lives are structured that way.

–Haa. Haa.

The man was different.

Because he had something to protect.

-A, a yokai was killed……?

-A human killed a yokai!

At first, he bludgeoned one to death with a stone. The reason was simple. A yokai tried to kill his daughter. Because it tried to make an example of her.

He penetrated the yokai’s blind spot and struck the back of its head while it was off guard, killing it.

He knew instinctively what to do. Where that creature’s weak points were, what he had to do to confront a yokai even with this frail human body—such things naturally came to mind. And.

After bludgeoning the yokai to death, humans began gathering around the man.

For them, yokai were despair and fear itself. They couldn’t help but gather around the man who had shattered that despair and fear.

-O Heaven.

-O Light of Humanity.

The first shattering of despair.

Called Heaven by humans, the man learned that the desperate wishes of humans held a certain power. Something similar yet fundamentally different from yokai’s abilities.

The man named it sorcery. Like the demon arts wielded by yokai, yet possessing proper ritual form. Thus, sorcery.

Time passed.

The man’s sorcery continued accumulating ritual and form. Yokai that seemed so powerful he couldn’t resist when he was just an ordinary human could be caught if he dug traps and lured them in—he gained that conviction. If things continued like this, perhaps even Great Yokai with their own demon realms could be caught.

That’s what he thought.

-O Heaven. Half of them are dead……!

Until he realized that was recklessness.

-Flee.

The Great Yokai he thought he might be able to catch was a far greater barrier than expected. For the man who had just begun inventing the form called sorcery, it was pressure he absolutely couldn’t resist.

The important thing was that yokai wasn’t even that strong among yokai. Truly at the tail end of Great Yokai—a yokai whose name couldn’t even be properly heard.

‘I cannot win.’

While being chased by yokai, another thirty percent of the humans died. The remaining humans were only about thirty to forty percent of those initially gathered.

The man instinctively knew. That the yokai hadn’t failed to chase but chose not to chase.

The humans alive here now were merely seeds left behind so yokai wouldn’t make humanity extinct.

He was afraid.

Every night he suffered nightmares of Great Yokai chasing him. What died in those nightmares wasn’t himself. Wasn’t the humans either. The frail child he tried to protect—his daughter. Yokai laughed while carving up that child’s flesh.

Every night he woke screaming in terror. Even while being chased by yokai, he didn’t fear the yokai. What he truly feared was one thing.

Himself, unable to protect his daughter.

One day when he woke from sleep, feeling a sinister aura, the man suddenly realized.

That he had cast off humanity’s limits.

That the fear he harbored had ultimately made him a yokai.

Nakcheon, who opened and closed his mouth inside the Blood Wind Robe, looked at the Blood Cult Leader with profound eyes. At that gaze, the Blood Cult Leader smiled leisurely.

“If will born innate is strong enough to transcend the world’s principles, one can even change one’s own existence.”

“You were the first and the greatest. Nakcheon. No will was as intense as your fear. That’s also why I created something called the Blood Cult.”

-You mean you created it to imitate me.

“That’s right. How could it not be so? The era’s pioneer who cast off human origins and seized a yokai’s body is alive and moving right before my eyes!”

The Blood Cult Leader, spreading both arms with eyes filled with ecstasy, stared directly at Nakcheon.

“People say humans live their lives, but I disagree. Humans don’t live each moment—they are dying. Because they have a set lifespan.”

“If humanity’s anguish derives from death, then liberation from death itself is the path to liberation from humanity’s anguish. There’s no need to seek salvation in the afterlife. When there’s a way to find salvation in this present world, why would one do such a thing?”

Ascension in Daoism, Nirvana in Buddhism.

Both claim to exist, but are salvations whose existence has never actually been confirmed. Whether accumulating virtue grants peace after death—how could one be certain of that?

“In comparison, the solution of becoming a yokai is extremely intuitive. There’s even proof right before one’s eyes that it’s possible! How could one not be captivated as a human!”

Opening his mouth wide with loud laughter, the Blood Cult Leader extended his hand toward Nakcheon.

“Become the Blood Cult’s symbol. Nakcheon.”

“With just you, the Blood Cult’s momentum will gain even greater force. If there’s proof that humans can be reborn as more superior beings, we can save even more humans. So.”

Become the Blood Cult’s symbol. Not the Heavenly Demon.

Become the Blood Demon.

While watching the Blood Cult Leader speak softly, Nakcheon, who had maintained quiet silence, lowered his gaze. At the appearance of Blood Cult followers melting into handfuls of blood one after another due to the great ritual performed by the Blood Cult Leader and Ilnachar.

-I want to ask something.

“Hm?”

-How did you hear about my past? It’s a secret history no one knows about by this point. Humans of that time didn’t write, so records that detailed couldn’t have remained.

“Ah, that.”

At Nakcheon’s question, the Blood Cult Leader, who smiled broadly, answered.

“It’s a simple story. Thousands of years—a period so immense humans couldn’t endure it, but not for yokai, right? I heard it from a yokai.”

-Is that yokai Heukya?

“Well, naturally…….”

-Vermin. You’ve been played by a yokai.

“……What did you say?”

-I mean you still haven’t escaped your livestock status despite wanting to live as a more superior being. Unlike other humans.

What Heukya said.

Is truth. There’s no lie in that secret history. He became a yokai through fear and cast off human origins. The only proof that humans can become yokai is fact.

Just because one speaks only truth doesn’t mean there’s no intent in that story. Heukya cunningly spoke some truths and didn’t speak some truths, thereby guiding the Blood Cult Leader’s thinking.

-What made me a yokai was fear. Therefore, you cannot become a yokai. Because what moves you is ultimately base desire.

“What do you mean? I too am fearful. That I might not be able to cast off my origins…….”

-I mean fearing your own demise cannot make you a yokai.

Emotions called fear have a threshold.

When surpassing a certain threshold level, humans take their own lives. Because they cannot endure that fear.

However, what about Nakcheon’s case?

What about Nakcheon’s case, who feared he might not be able to protect others?

-For me, death wasn’t liberation from fear but something that further stoked fear. Because if I died, I couldn’t protect my daughter.

“What on earth……!”

-Even amid endless fear, I couldn’t go mad, couldn’t take my life.

Do humans become yokai by receiving fear from hundreds or thousands?

Yokai requires creating limitless fear oneself. Only by fearing and being terrified of oneself from the depths of one’s heart does yokai power that doesn’t reject human flesh accumulate.

-The idle talk was long.

Tuduk.

“What will you do?”

While the Blood Cult Leader cried out almost desperately, Nakcheon, who clenched his fist and formed the black sword again, looked at him.

“Even so, the restriction binding you remains! You cannot leave this place. Because the promise with the daughter you so feared prevents you from killing humans!”

“You cannot kill humans except under extreme circumstances. Isn’t that right?”

-That’s right.

When it was discovered he had become a yokai and he allowed the complete annihilation of all humans while only saving his daughter, when he heard that child’s resentment, Nakcheon made such a promise. That though he had become a yokai, he would protect humans. That he wouldn’t abandon her will.

-But do you know this? I am an extremely selfish person.

“……What?”

-I’m the one who also let all those who followed me die for my daughter’s sake. Even if I promised, I don’t confuse priorities.

He didn’t become a yokai to protect humans. He became a yokai to protect his daughter.

-My daughter no longer exists in this world.

But there are children who resemble his daughter. Those of his bloodline from when he was human, and children who inherited his daughter’s spirit.

-Livestock. You die like a bug.

From above to below.

Nakcheon raised the black sword and swept it toward the Blood Cult Leader. And.

The Blood Cult Leader’s counterattack didn’t follow.

Because the dead cannot counterattack.

War is ultimately something permeated with madness.

Without going mad, one cannot maintain sanity in the chaos of killing and being killed. War and battlefields are about closing off reason and just thrusting swords and spears at each other’s throats, appealing to instinct.

For those fighting on the front lines, even the commander’s shouts and retreat horn trumpets are hard to hear. Because if they don’t concentrate all their nerves on the enemy right before them, their own necks will fly.

That’s precisely why the current situation was strange to call the middle of war.

–Aaaaah.

Because everyone maintained silence and looked upward.

Kadeudeudeudeuk!

Gathering fear and yokai power.

Feeling the tremendous power’s torrent, Heukya clenched and opened her fist while exhaling heated breath, then spread her fingers. Slender, pale fingers that seemed impossible to hold tremendous force.

-It’s truly been a long time since I felt this sensation.

Omnipotence feeling like she could do anything. The sensation she felt in the past when causing havoc at the imperial palace, before receiving combined attacks from humans.

That sensation swirls through her entire body. Tremendous force dwells that could tear apart everyone here. Heaven-shaking, earth-moving power that could drop the sky with one move and overturn the earth with the next.

Heukya was delighted by this.

Because it felt like taking one step closer to her goal.

“Heukya…….”

-There are familiar faces to me.

Heukya, who examined the faces of those crying out her name like lamentations, smiled bewitchingly and moved to Ilnachar’s side. Heukya suddenly appearing beside Ilnachar, cutting across space in an instant.

-Child. You did well.

“Weren’t our goals just aligned?”

-That’s right. Huhu. You show no reaction even though your master died.

“Didn’t the Cult Leader not expect even that reaction from me?”

Heukya, who blocked Ilnachar’s front with a black tail as Ilnachar showed clear signs of exhaustion, raised her gaze upward. The giant blood sphere bursting in the air.

-A welcome face. My rival. Did you come out after killing that lowly creature? Your restriction was that you couldn’t kill humans.

-A disgusting face to see again. Heukya. I should have cut off your head when I first saw you.

Nakcheon, who frowned while looking at Heukya, lowered his black sword that looked like a bottomless abyss where nothing could be seen, and stared directly at Heukya.

-What confidence brought you here? Heukya. Do you think you can reverse the war situation by yourself joining?

-Even in ancient times, you couldn’t overwhelm me. Do you think things have changed now?

-Not an incorrect statement.

Nakcheon and Heukya were both Childeayo.

Though even among Childeayo there were extreme differences in level, Nakcheon and Heukya were counted among the top in strength even within Childeayo. Meaning even if they fought each other, it would be a hair’s difference.

-Did you think something would change by coming here and barely devouring the fear of thousands of humans through the great ritual?

-Nothing will change.

-Knowing that yet coming here, it seems you’re prepared to die.

Watching Nakcheon growl, Heukya smiled broadly and spread her arms. And the answer that followed.

-Martial artists are ultimately barriers protecting humanity. More than half the Central Plains’ masters are gathered here.

-Do you know? Sinseongok is my demon realm, and fear of Sinseongok is fear of me.

People vaguely fear Sinseongok. They tremble in fear that yokai might suddenly appear and ravage villages. However, that never materializes. Because it’s not fear of any specific yokai.

Then what if that were materialized?

What if humanity’s survival was threatened by one yokai?

-By now, it must have been breached.

-What on earth do you…….

A small whisper.

At Heukya’s words, Nakcheon, who frowned, raised his black sword high. And at that moment.

Kwaaaaaaaaaa—!!!

Heukya’s yokai power began explosively increasing visibly.

To an immeasurable degree.