The World's Greatest is Dead

The conversation did not take very long.

There was not as much to say as I had expected.

The envoy delegation was already decided anyway, and while Thousand-Mile Divine Eye had told me I did not have to go if I did not want to—

I have to go.

I had to go either way. If not me, there was no one else to send.

And there is what the Heavenly Demon said, too.

He had told me to head to Xinjiang.

Then it was right to finish everything this time.

The problem was—

Is the Demonic Cult really all right?

The problem was what would happen inside it.

Could I really go there?

It looked dangerous as hell. The whole envoy delegation business did, too.

And who exactly was I supposed to take with me? From what I had heard, I was supposed to bring only members of the younger generation.

“Choosing them is work, too....”

The orthodox faction would host the Assembly Hall. In the meantime, they would gather every genius worth calling a genius.

This was something they had to show the Demonic Cult as well, after all. The orthodox faction’s prestige was riding on it.

“Hmm.”

I scratched my head.

What was I supposed to do with this? If they dumped even the recruiting on me....

“What am I supposed to do?”

No ideas came to mind yet.

“Come look at this!”

“Here! Master! Come take a look over here!”

A noisy racket reached my ears. I looked around.

I was currently out in the county town.

My thoughts were already complicated, so why had I come out here?

“Over there—! Let’s go over there!”

The excited Bow Ghost was the reason.

As soon as she arrived in Henan, this woman had been busy running all over the place.

Normally, I would never have come out because it was too much trouble.

Tsk.

But I had a reason.

“...Give me one of those, too.”

“Oh my, thank you, Master!”

I bought one skewer and handed it to her.

Bow Ghost happily started eating it. Watching that, I let out a sigh and said,

“Keep your promise.”

“Of course. Do not worry.”

“You really are going to tell me, right?”

The promise I had made with her was nothing special.

“You are going to give me information about Xinjiang.”

That was all.

I had come out to get information about Xinjiang.

*****

Strictly speaking, I did not need to get it from Bow Ghost.

Who was the one residing inside my Heavenly Demon Divine Sword right now?

The former Heavenly Demon, once called the god of the Demonic Cult.

The soul of the last Heavenly Demon, who had still not appeared in the present, was there.

So there was no need to go out of my way to ask Bow Ghost about Xinjiang.

[This throne does not know anything about the current Xinjiang.]

What he knew was the past.

On top of that, the one currently controlling the Demonic Cult was the Little Heavenly Demon.

That lunatic.

It was safe to say he had no information about the current Xinjiang.

So, now that I was in a position where I had to head to Xinjiang, I first tried to gather information.

—Shall I tell you?

That was when Bow Ghost stepped forward.

At her words, I frowned.

Tell me what?

—Do you know something?

—I do. At least one piece of information you would covet.

—...What is it?

She knew information?

When I asked casually, Bow Ghost grinned and said,

—If something goes out, something must come back in, must it not?

The moment I saw that smile, I realized it.

This woman had been waiting for the right time.

She had waited until we arrived in Henan.

Only then could she get what she wanted.

Once I realized that, I asked seriously.

—What do you want?

—Hmph.

Bow Ghost laughed.

She reacted as though she wanted something grand, but—

“I must eat that, too. And this.”

“...”

The direction she revealed was not grand at all.

She was just busy eating this and that.

She wanted to go into the county town and eat to her heart’s content.

She said something childish like that.

...Now I’m sure.

No matter how I looked at it, there was no doubt.

This woman—

Her mental age dropped along with everything else.

In proportion to her appearance.

It was obvious that her mind had gotten younger, too. Otherwise she would not have ended up like this.

[...Absurd.]

The Heavenly Demon, who especially disliked Bow Ghost, reacted the same way.

He seemed dumbfounded that Bow Ghost had become like that.

“Isn’t this enough?”

She had eaten every kind of skewer there was and inhaled street food on top of it.

Her stomach was clearly thin, so how did that much food fit in there? It was amazing.

And in the middle of that, we had even come to an inn.

Once we arrived, she ordered a pile of food.

I was glad I had brought some money. If I had not, I might have cried.

While she was eating, Bow Ghost looked at me.

“Do you need to eat more?”

“Mm... mmmph.”

“...Finish eating before you talk. It is not urgent.”

“Mmm.”

She swallowed everything in her mouth.

Afterward, Bow Ghost wiped her lips, and the gesture was strangely elegant.

How ridiculous.

What meaning did that have at this point?

“This is fine.”

“...Fine, my ass. You ate like some starving ghost possessed you.”

“So, what was it you asked?”

She lightly ignored me.

That woman had gotten better at ignoring people.

I gave a hollow laugh and said,

“You said you would tell me about Xinjiang.”

“Ah, right.”

“And you said it was something I would covet.”

“That is also right.”

After eating her fill, Bow Ghost looked at me and said,

“You said you wanted to know about Xinjiang?”

“Yes.”

“A promise is a promise, so I must tell you. Truthfully, I do not particularly want to say it, but there is a reason for that as well—”

“Your tongue is getting long. If you lied, I will never buy you anything again.”

“...Do you know about the Eight Demons?”

When I spoke like a warning, Bow Ghost hurriedly brought up the topic.

The Eight Demons?

“I do.”

I had already met them.

And one of them is attached to me.

The Demonic Cult strategist.

Freak Demon, who did not seem to be doing much strategist work right now, was on my side.

In truth, I did not trust him all that much either, but if I had to say, he was on my side.

“So what about the Eight Demons?”

Why was she suddenly talking about them?

“The information you said you would give me is about the Eight Demons?”

“Yes.”

“Hm?”

Information about the Eight Demons?

That was not especially interesting.

I had already looked into them to some extent.

The Eight Demons.

Among the Demonic Cultists under the Heavenly Demon, they were the strongest beings.

Not only did they have a history of clashing with beings beyond heaven in the past, some of them had survived or endured against them.

Sword Demon had been one of them, too, but Sword Demon had been eliminated by Yoo Cheongil after borrowing my body, so he was out of the discussion.

There was Freak Demon, and many other members of the Eight Demons.

I also knew that after some died, eight new ones had been chosen.

But talk of the Eight Demons in this situation?

“Are you sure this is information I would covet?”

“It is. At the very least, you will not hear this just anywhere.”

Bow Ghost spoke while picking up one more piece of food.

“It is about one of the Eight Demons.”

“One of them?”

Who was she talking about?

Since I did not know their identities, I wondered whether I would really covet information about a Demonic Cultist.

“One of the Demonic Cultists is a daughter of the orthodox faction.”

“...What?”

“Is that not surprising?”

What was she talking about?

At what Bow Ghost said with a grin, I froze.

A daughter of the orthodox faction?

A daughter?

“You could not call her part of the younger generation, and she is a somewhat older child, but no one would have expected that side to end up like that.”

“...What are you saying right now? Are you saying someone from the orthodox faction is one of the Eight Demons?”

“Yes. Well, it is not that strange, is it? Not when Sky-Crushing Palace bastards exist.”

“...”

She was right.

It was not strange.

It was just a little startling.

Really?

An existence who had risen all the way to the Eight Demons was someone from the orthodox faction?

“How do you know that? Do you investigate the Demonic Cult or something?”

“It was not an investigation. I happened to learn it in passing. I simply had no need to step in. I have no affection for the Murim Alliance or the orthodox faction itself, you see.”

A being from the outside martial world.

One who hated the Azure Moon Sect and hated Yoo Cheongil.

They said she had participated in the war and become a hero, but the Bow Ghost I saw was certainly distant from that side.

Putting that aside.

Bow Ghost was not the problem right now.

Was someone from the orthodox faction really one of the Eight Demons?

“Who is it?”

“It seems you have become curious.”

Bow Ghost smiled.

It was an ominous smile.

“Then let me order one cup of liquor. I will tell you then.”

“...”

She was really something.

Did she want to drink liquor in that body?

I looked at her in disgust, but Bow Ghost’s reaction did not change.

I could feel her determination to drink no matter what.

I let out a deep sigh and said,

“...Just one cup?”

“Ooooh!”

I called the innhand.

I ordered an appropriate bottle of liquor.

When it came out quickly, Bow Ghost hurriedly poured it.

Glug, glug, glug.

The liquor filled the cup.

Then she drank it in a rush.

“...Ah... good... This is it. This is liquor.”

“...”

Did she like liquor that much?

I had not been especially interested in Bow Ghost’s information, and I had never looked into personal things like that, so I could not know.

“Looks like you like liquor.”

“I do. I am the type who drinks only because I cannot get enough.”

Glug.

It went into her mouth without a moment’s pause.

[Despicable creature.]

The Heavenly Demon muttered at the sight.

[Her drunken behavior is excessive. You had best stop her. That lowborn thing becomes worse when liquor enters her.]

“...”

At the Heavenly Demon’s chilly warning, I suddenly felt afraid.

If even he said that, just how bad was her drunken behavior?

I could not imagine it.

Nor did I want to.

I absolutely hated people with bad drinking habits.

Someone comes to mind.

Long ago, there had been one time when Mo Yong Yeongsun got drunk and caused a scene.

After that incident, Mo Yong Yeongsun never drank again.

That was almost the only time I had ever gotten truly angry with her.

“...Drink moderately. No more than one bottle.”

“Do not worry. I have no intention of drinking more than one bottle.”

[Stop even the one bottle.]

For some reason, the Heavenly Demon sounded urgent.

What did he mean, stop even the one bottle?

Was this woman weak to liquor, too?

If she were a martial artist, I would at least tell her to burn off the alcohol poison.

Right now, Bow Ghost was an empty shell with not even a speck of inner qi.

A weak seed I was not even sure could be called human.

I had no idea what she would become if she got drunk.

Seeing that, I quietly reached out my hand.

“This place is not bad. Let’s eat here.”

I sensed human presence behind me.

The space had not had many people, so the voice sounded especially loud.

I turned back.

“Oh.”

Bow Ghost seemed to have noticed someone as well and reacted.

“How fascinating. They say if you speak of the tiger, it comes.”

“Hm?”

“There they come. The very person we were just talking about.”

“...”

A group appeared.

Four men and three women.

I did not know who was who.

Their ages varied.

Some looked past twenty. Some looked past thirty.

There was even one who looked around forty.

Huh?

Among them, I found one familiar face.

Why was that person here?

She seemed to notice me as well, because her eyes widened.

That’s Sword Queen.

Sword Queen.

One of the beings beyond heaven, who had become younger through rejuvenation.

She looked at me and at Bow Ghost in front of me.

She seemed just as curious about why I was here.

That aside—

...According to Bow Ghost.

Was there one of the Eight Demons inside that group?

Who was it?

I narrowed my eyes and examined them.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!