Chapter 602 – Intoxicated by the Starry Night (4)

The demon realm also has things similar to inns. The only difference is that the smell of iron and blood replaces the scent of food.

A circular plaza called ‘Saha’ in the old Yuan Dynasty language exists. A place that some southerners also call a great house. It was a marketplace where anything could be exchanged.

Grudge Blood Valley’s Saha was the same.

Those sitting at stalls, shops with five or six chairs, numerous presences flying about with lightness skills, and many jianghu people engaging in negotiations while bursting with energy waves. There were easily hundreds of them.

“The price is small – isn’t there anything else?”

“Something else? How about my axe work?”

“I’m looking for someone proficient in the Third Technique among the Ten Imperial Techniques. Teach me in secret. If you bestow knowledge upon me, I’ll give you a handful of meat.”

Bang! Crack!

Not wine, but fragments of human flesh and blade pieces scattered. Occasionally, something’s sinews torn like blue thread would shoot up mixed with reddish bodily fluid.

Those sinews might be human.

Or there was a high possibility they were meat scraps from bears or wild boars found very rarely, or perhaps hunting prey generously scattered by masters who had visited the Gates, telling anyone to eat.

It was another world.

The term demon realm was also correct. The crucible of clans operated according to the law of survival of the fittest.

The old Jurchen tribes completely defeated by the Fighting God. The Manchus who were similarly Jurchen but completely submitted to the Southern Emperor and even changed their clan names.

And those who fled from the south, bandits who learned the old Yuan Dynasty’s mounted divine arts, and nomads possessing divine eye techniques.

“For the greatest jianghu!”

Some drunkard shouted from a stall that could seat about three people.

Though it was quite a booming drunk shout that should have drawn attention, none of the jianghu people in the Saha plaza looked back at him.

Each was only negotiating for sword-earning work or basic martial arts. Some were simply discussing the political situation of Grudge Blood Valley’s jianghu, which was too vast to be called merely a canyon.

“There was a rumor that the Wind King obtained Heaven Steel Light Armor… does anyone know what happened?”

“The atmosphere at Vast Wind Curtain has been unusual. It seemed like victory reports had already been sounded.”

“Did you see the proclamation? It looks like they’re going to properly clash with the Crimson Family. They’re gathering wanderers… saying they’ll feed them well.”

“They’ll just throw some tongue meat and be done with it. Stop it – if you get involved once, you’ll lose even the chance to enter Bright Wind Spirit. You can’t give up such meat.”

“Mentioning Bright Wind Spirit here? Are you insane?”

The voices of powerful crowds scraped the dirt ground like whirlwinds. Constant thumping sounds shaking the earth. Endlessly blooming energy waves.

Everyone knew everyone, and all were indifferent to all. Because they were only interested in their own safety.

It was then.

Rustle.

The curtain that had been hanging between the only open wall section swayed faintly.

It was the only entrance in the massive circular plaza, where beads strung on large nets served as doors.

It was a structure where stealthily entering was difficult. Crossing walls with lightness skills would immediately be caught by the energy perception of those present.

A very closed local jianghu. Even though it was vast in area and open to everyone.

“……”

Silence spread with a sticky feeling. The energy waves that the Saha’s jianghu people had been bursting out of their mouths like showing off strength had long since subsided.

Three people all wearing black winter cloaks with their hoods pulled down low.

A bloody smell slowly spread from them as they entered pushing aside the curtain. It was a temperament that seemed to slowly lick the atmosphere densely.

“Why is the Crimson Blood King Family in the Saha…?”

The drunkard who had earlier spoken of the ‘greatest jianghu’ whispered while holding his breath.

Crimson Family. Otherwise known as Crimson Blood King Family.

It was a great order.

At least in this vast valley it was so. Even powerful Yao tribe jianghu people held their breath in their vicinity.

Grudge Blood Valley, with large mountains on both sides and a canyon as large as a great city formed in the center.

The Saha was located at the center of Grudge Blood Valley, and the Crimson Blood King Family had established their base on the left side among the mountains on both sides as a Northern King family.

A force looking down at the valley from the highest western position.

Literally one of the two great peaks.

“……”

The three people in all black walked toward the center of the Saha. Only the presence of black robe edges rustling against the dirt ground was clear.

The crowd remained quiet even until they sat at a simple tavern.

The exact center of the plaza surrounded by earthen walls on all sides with only the ceiling open.

One table with four chairs.

A large old woman was the owner of the small tavern, indifferently wiping empty cups with a very dirty cloth while squeaking.

“Here to drink?”

The proprietress asked.

One of the three people nodded. The one who had been in the lead since entering through the curtain.

A woman’s voice flowed from inside the hood pulled down low over her pale nose bridge.

“One cup is sufficient.”

A low yet bewitching voice. The nearby shadows rippled finely like silk clothes.

If Dream Demon Body clans bewitch people from dreams with their upper energy centers, blood demons are beings who bring their lips to opponents’ necks with enchanting gestures and a few words.

Those of good bloodlines are especially more formidable.

The crowd stirred.

“Fresh Dark Princess…?”

“Crazy.”

“Red Dawn has come down personally.”

Some tightly closed their eyes or struck their own heads hard. It was to avoid approaching and being absorbed.

Fresh Dark Princess Red Dawn.

The Blood King’s crown princess. An existence certain to ascend to the Northern King position in the future. Naturally, she was of legitimate bloodline in the Crimson Blood King Family.

“Here it is.”

The Yao tribe old woman set down a wine cup on the table with a thud.

Rustle.

Red Dawn’s hood came off by itself.

Ruby-like bright red pupils were revealed, along with black hair cut dramatically short at her nape.

A red-faced short-haired princess.

Her bright red lips were seriously closed.

At the same time, those who had been escorting her also pushed back their winter cloak hoods themselves. It was a temperament strict about etiquette and protocol.

“Do you really intend to drink?”

The proprietress asked once more. The attention of the crowds filling the Saha plaza also focused quietly but heavily.

Holding a wine cup at the center of Grudge Blood Valley.

It was a symbolic act. Because it meant occupation.

The act of saying they would make the center of Grudge Blood Valley, where even faint earth energy remained, completely their own territory. It was also declaring war on ‘Vast Wind Curtain,’ the other great peak of Grudge Blood Valley.

A full-scale war between Northern King and Northern King might unfold in the future.

Red Dawn’s white fingers lightly grasped the cup.

“Then.”

She slowly moved her lips.

“How long did you think I would watch this bullshit? The Crimson Blood King Family and Vast Wind Curtain checking each other, and through those gaps, bugs like you picking up earth energy…”

The feeling of rough behavior mixed with smooth voice flowing out like blood. But no one could criticize her conduct.

The demon realm jianghu was originally like that. Strength was righteousness.

“The Southern Emperor has completely raised an army. First, more than ten thousand martial army forces will follow him. Northern King forces from Bright Wind Spirit will be added to that one after another.”

Red Dawn continued speaking leisurely.

“The current northern greatest has no reins called the Fighting God. If you don’t want to be conscripted unnecessarily, you’ll have to come under our family’s command and lie down flat.”

It was a voice that seemed to have blood squelching. The crowd remained silent to avoid falling into the swamp she had created with just a few words.

The Crimson Blood King Family’s successor.

The next Northern King.

From the beginning, these were stories difficult to bring up without accurately assessing the demon realm’s political situation. Words only possible for someone at the level of a Northern King family’s legitimate heir.

That’s when it happened.

“If we go up to the Crimson Blood King Family’s mansion, will you receive us? Can we get at least mixed blood meat instead of grass?!”

Some large drunkard shouted madly from one corner.

Whoooooosh!

He came flying across the void with hazy blood-colored mist and was caught in Red Dawn’s grip.

A technique that mastered Void Seizing Object as a divine art technique. It was an absurdly tyrannical absorption technique.

She immediately snapped the drunkard’s neck.

“Now is the age of wanderers.”

Snap.

His head was twisted grotesquely. The corpse’s legs sprawled on the ground like sparse vines, and as soon as Red Dawn raised her wine cup again, the drunkard’s head was buried in the dirt.

But all the jianghu people in the hall maintained their positions. The Crimson Blood King Family was a Northern King family, literally a Northern King’s family.

The order they dominated was very oppressive and also clear.

“Along with the declaration of war, I conscript you all to our main family.”

Red Dawn brought up the main point. No one seemed able to snatch the wine cup from her hand.

“Soon, a world comes where both bugs and mixed blood become precious. These are the words spoken by the noble Blood King…”

Suddenly Red Dawn’s words stopped.

“……”

Her head slowly rose. Up to above the Saha that was wide open to the sky without a roof.

Suddenly.

Thunder sounds spread faintly. Along with dull vibrations.

The presence of some massive resonance crossing the sky before being swallowed by clouds.

If even the slightest energy perception was formed within the body, it was something anyone would immediately react to.

“What…?”

“Something has come.”

“A meteor?”

Hundreds of people in the crowd stood up here and there. It was originally a gathering of only masters.

The Crimson Blood King Family’s prestige was literally like a royal palace, but the jianghu people who came and went to the Saha were most sensitive to their own safety.

Red Dawn paid no attention to them. She had been the first to kick off the ground and leap up from the beginning.

Whoosh!

She pulled her body up into the air.

Her jet-black robe hem fluttered violently like a bat’s wingbeat. It was an instant until she escaped the Saha and rose to distant heights.

At the same time, from Red Dawn’s left side – that is, from the western mountain among the ridges surrounding the canyon – massive sounds began bursting out.

Rumbling sounds that seemed to constantly strike the eardrums.

Kugugugugugugung—!

The massive mountain was splitting vertically.

Along with the pavilion complex on the mountain peak made of unusually wide roofs.

The Crimson Blood King Family’s estate. Originally a palace filled with dim shadows, at this moment roughly rising dust clouds had swallowed everything.

Completely.

It split left and right along with the mountain.

“The main family…!”

“What!”

The expressionlessness broke on the pale faces of the guard warriors who had leaped up with her.

But unlike their gazes that had lost their destination, Fresh Dark Princess Red Dawn’s sight was consistently fixed on one place.

The very bottom of the dreamlike long cutting line.

Where the thunder sounds had stopped.

At this moment, two people stood at the bottom of the newly created cliff. Those who filled the narrow space with suffocating presence.

They were clearly visible even as small human shadows.

One person was the most famous figure in Grudge Blood Valley.

The Blood King.

The head of the Crimson Blood King Family.

The only Northern King of blood demon origin.

He was so dignified that there was no one to compare with in the vicinity, and was an absolute master who could oppose even Northern King Vast Wind Curtain Lord.

Privately, because he existed as Red Dawn’s father, she could hold a wine cup at the center of the Saha.

He was the most noble.

One who acted as a god in territory reaching half of Grudge Blood Valley. A peerless master of blood arts who gave his heart to no one.

Thump.

Suddenly he knelt on one knee.

A handsome man with bright red pupils and white hair flowing long down his back.

In Red Dawn’s memory, he was an existence whose hair was always arranged like silk. At least it wasn’t hair soaked with sweat like now.

His eyes that had always been languid had also lost some leisure.

On the other hand, the man facing the Blood King was just standing blankly. Judging by the smooth nape occasionally visible, he might be a youth.

His rough hair flowed down to his back like waves, and blue-green smoke was slowly dispersing from his grip.

His appearance was intact.

Starting with clothing without a speck of dust as if he wore solid protective energy all over his body. Even though it was shabby common clothes, it was clean.

“…!”

From then on, a terrifying fact suddenly rushed at Red Dawn.

She couldn’t know anything.

The type of martial arts, identity, purpose, and even the face completely invisible because it was only a back view at this moment.

The only certain thing was the scene of him suddenly appearing and making the Northern King kneel.

Red Dawn unconsciously dropped her cup in midair.