Chapter 327 : Baek Ae-ryeong
Seo Yu-gyeom, Seomun Ak, and Moyong Hyeon hurried over.
Naturally, their gazes fell upon the tip of Jin Seong-un’s sword and the woman who shared the same face as Cheon Bi-yeon and the Lust Demon.
“W-what the hell?”
Seomun Ak cried out in alarm as Scarlet Fist Aura wrapped around both fists.
Moyong Hyeon also drew the Northern Star Sword while feeling overwhelming tension and fear.
It had taken the combined assault of countless masters to kill the Lust Demon.
Yet now there were only four of them.
Naturally, the two felt fear and anxiety.
Seo Yu-gyeom, however, observed the woman with his usual calm eyes before speaking.
“She has absolutely no intention of fighting.”
Seo Yu-gyeom was right.
The woman wore a resigned expression, as though she would willingly accept the sword Jin Seong-un pointed at her.
“What do you mean by asking us to kill Cheon Bi-yeon?”
Jin Seong-un asked quietly.
Having already seen enough of what the Nine-Tails truly was through Master Noble Enchantress’s memories, he did not relax his guard for even a moment.
If things turned dangerous, he intended to split her in two with a single strike and flee immediately.
“I mean exactly that. Kill Cheon Bi-yeon, kill Jealousy. No… erase every personality, including me.”
“…….”
Jin Seong-un silently stared at her while still wrapping the Sword Immortal’s Fire Dragon around his blade.
A brief silence followed.
Could they trust this woman?
No—perhaps they should not even listen to her at all.
These women used methods far too bizarre for easy judgment.
At that moment, Seo Yu-gyeom spoke.
“Let’s hear her out. We’re completely in the dark anyway. We already saw a Lust Demon who looked exactly like the fake Moon Command Sect Leader.”
How many more beings like that existed?
If there were more, did they all deserve death like the fake Moon Command Sect Leader and the Lust Demon?
How strong were they?
What were their goals?
They knew virtually nothing, leaving them in an utterly uncertain situation.
After brief contemplation, Jin Seong-un lowered his sword and stepped back.
The woman took a short breath before looking bitterly at Jin Seong-un and the others.
“We were originally one body and one personality. Until Jiang Taigong killed us.”
Jin Seong-un recalled the memories Noble Enchantress had shown him.
The wicked Nine-Tails that had possessed Noble Enchantress’s body.
And Jiang Taigong, who ultimately slew it.
“So the body and personalities split apart?”
At Jin Seong-un’s question, she nodded.
“Yes. With each emotion becoming greatly amplified.”
“How many more beings like you are there?”
After all, every one of them originated from the Nine-Tails.
As Noble Enchantress’s disciple, Jin Seong-un was fully prepared to erase every last one of them.
“Nine. But now only six remain. The fake Moon Command Sect Leader you mentioned… Cheon Bi-yeon… she is the manifestation of Jealousy. She envies everything. Even us.”
“Continue.”
Though they listened to her story, Jin Seong-un and the others did not lower their guard in the slightest.
Especially Seo Yu-gyeom, a former assassin, who deliberately sent a telepathic message to his two idiotic friends.
* We have no idea how much of what this woman says is truth or lies.
* Stop acting so smart.
That was Seomun Ak’s response.
Seo Yu-gyeom barely restrained the urge to point the Heavenly Slaughter Short Saber at Seomun Ak instead.
The woman continued.
“The one you killed was Greed. A being driven by endless hunger no matter how much it consumed. We can all sense each other’s deaths. By now, Cheon Bi-yeon is probably furious with you.”
“Why?”
“Because you stole her share.”
Jin Seong-un nodded dryly.
“Her share… So you all covet one another?”
“Yes. Cheon Bi-yeon seeks to absorb us all and recover her original power. In fact, about a hundred years ago, she devoured Fear.”
“So that’s why she was so strong.”
Jin Seong-un had honestly wondered about that all along.
Compared to Cheon Bi-yeon, the Lust Demon had clearly been weaker.
Cheon Bi-yeon had maintained overwhelming superiority even against numerous Peak Masters.
If it had been her, she would never have been restrained by Abbess Jeonghye or the Sword Empress.
In other words, the fact that she had become that powerful after devouring just one existence was terrifying.
If Cheon Bi-yeon consumed even more of them, she would become irreversibly powerful.
“Yes. That’s why she must be killed as soon as possible. Even excluding Cheon Bi-yeon and myself, there are still five left. Imagine how strong she’ll become once she devours the rest.”
Jin Seong-un stared steadily at the woman.
“If what you’re saying is true……”
“Yes, then I should die too. If you’re confident you can kill Cheon Bi-yeon and the others without me, then do it. I’ll gladly offer my life.”
After saying that, the woman knelt and closed her eyes.
Her demeanor looked sorrowful and lonely, like someone burdened by terrible sins.
Jin Seong-un stared at her before asking,
“Then what are you? If you originated from that wicked creature, then you should be quite evil yourself.”
“Compassion. I… I feel guilt over the atrocities my original self committed. I pity the countless ministers and citizens harmed by the tyranny of King Zhou and myself, as well as Noble Enchantress and her disciples.”
“I can’t imagine a Nine-Tails possessing compassion.”
Jin Seong-un tightened his grip on the sword.
In a dry tone, she continued.
“……It was compassion toward herself. She pitied herself for being compared to Noble Enchantress, and pitied herself for ultimately being killed by Jiang Taigong.”
Her face reddened in shame.
Though it had been the story of the Nine-Tails before the personalities split apart, she was still part of it.
“I spent countless years trying to atone to Noble Enchantress. I even discovered she still exists. In Yichang.”
“…….”
“But I couldn’t approach her. It felt as though invisible iron bars split apart the space itself.”
Jin Seong-un immediately understood what she meant.
That space had once imprisoned beings like the Sword Immortal and the Blood Demon.
A mere fragment of the Nine-Tails could never possibly approach it.
At that moment, Seo Yu-gyeom stepped forward.
“Fine, whatever. So why exactly should we keep you alive right now? If what you’re saying is true, wouldn’t it be better to kill you here before Cheon Bi-yeon gets to you first?”
“Can you even kill me?”
Seo Yu-gyeom flinched slightly at her innocent question.
“Anyway. Why should we join hands with you?”
“We don’t know each other’s locations. We don’t even fully understand each other’s strength. But we can clearly sense each other’s deaths.”
Jin Seong-un nodded.
He had continuously felt someone watching him ever since the Lust Demon died. It seemed this woman had followed them after sensing that death.
“What should we call you?”
“Baek Ae-ryeong. That is my name.”
Ae-ryeong.
Sorrowful Spirit.
The name suited the emotion of compassion perfectly.
Jin Seong-un asked sincerely,
“Do you choose your own names?”
“When we are born into the world, we instinctively realize them. Whether we use those names or not is up to us.”
“So Cheon Bi-yeon was the same?”
Baek Ae-ryeong nodded.
Then Seo Yu-gyeom asked,
“You said there were six left. Fear died to Cheon Bi-yeon, and we killed Greed, the Lust Demon. Then what about another one?”
“Pride. A woman who wished to place the entire world beneath her feet. But she was born in the wrong era……”
“Era?”
“We are not all born at once. We simply appear in the world at different times. The reason I survived while avoiding Cheon Bi-yeon all this time was because I was born before her. And Pride…… was born during the era of the Blood Demon.”
“Ah.”
Seo Yu-gyeom understood immediately.
The Blood Demon, the most infamous demonic master in history.
Virtually every notable master of that era had died by his hand.
To someone who wished to dominate the world, the Blood Demon would have been an existence threatening her very beliefs.
Baek Ae-ryeong continued calmly.
“Pride immediately sought out the Blood Demon and quietly died amidst countless powerful experts.”
Jin Seong-un’s expression darkened slightly.
That very Blood Demon resided within Seong-un Inn.
And judging by his temperament, he probably had no idea he had killed a fragment of the Nine-Tails.
‘Just what kind of existence was he?’
Jin Seong-un suddenly found himself curious about the Blood Demon’s past once more.
He asked Baek Ae-ryeong,
“What about the remaining ones?”
“Excluding Cheon Bi-yeon and myself, there are Deceit, Self-Righteousness, and Sadism. And finally, the last one who has not yet been born into the world. We confirmed that a new existence appears every two hundred and fifty years, and this year’s Great Full Moon is precisely that time.”
Baek Ae-ryeong’s voice was filled with certainty.
Seomun Ak mulled over her words before speaking.
“I don’t know about the others, but Sadism sounds especially……”
Just hearing the name made it sound like a completely insane demonic monster.
And that thing was still alive?
There were only two possibilities.
Either it was so strong nobody could touch it, or it was cunning and sinister enough to hide its crimes completely.
Neither option sounded easy.
“My request is simple. Kill Cheon Bi-yeon and all the others, and finally kill me as well. That will be the only way I can atone.”
Jin Seong-un and Baek Ae-ryeong looked at each other.
Within Baek Ae-ryeong’s eyes there was not the slightest trace of deceit.
Only shame, regret, compassion, and sorrow.
Seo Yu-gyeom spoke.
“Honestly, none of this feels real. It all sounds insane. But we’ve already seen and heard too much to simply dismiss it.”
The existence of the Martial Gods who were Jin Seong-un’s masters.
Even the red-haired man they had personally encountered in dreams.
The fake Moon Command Sect Leader and the Lust Demon.
And now Compassion, Baek Ae-ryeong herself.
“Jin Seong-un. I think everything she said is true. She knew Noble Enchantress was in Yichang. But Cheon Bi-yeon didn’t.”
Cheon Bi-yeon had repeatedly asked Jin Seong-un where Noble Enchantress was.
Meaning Baek Ae-ryeong had intentionally hidden that information from her.
“Still, you decide. I’ll follow your judgment. Even if you decide to kill her here.”
“Can you even kill me?”
When Baek Ae-ryeong innocently asked again, Seo Yu-gyeom’s face twisted violently.
“That’s how serious I am. Stop interrupting while we’re talking amongst ourselves.”
Baek Ae-ryeong looked slightly dejected.
Jin Seong-un silently observed her for a long while before finally reaching a conclusion.
“For now, I’ll believe you. Even if it’s a lie, things can’t get much worse.”
Whether truth or deception, the fact remained that all of them ultimately needed to die.
Jin Seong-un continued.
“Then we’ll have to wait for the final personality.”
“Cheon Bi-yeon is probably thinking the same thing.”
The final tail would be born into the world during this year’s Great Full Moon.
Only about a month remained.
Cheon Bi-yeon was undoubtedly waiting for that moment as well in order to become even stronger.
“So a battle with Cheon Bi-yeon is inevitable. Until then……”
At that moment—
Baek Ae-ryeong’s expression suddenly hardened.
She raised a hand to stop Jin Seong-un from speaking and slowly closed her eyes.
How much time passed like that?
She finally let out a trembling sigh.
Then she opened her eyes and spoke in a despair-filled voice.
“Someone else just died. To Cheon Bi-yeon.”