Among the Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor’s surname was Gongsun, and his given name was Xuanyuan.
From birth he was numinous, as a child he was quick-witted, as he grew he was diligent and hardworking, and when fully grown he was wise.
In Xuanyuan’s era, the feudal lords invaded and conquered one another.
So Xuanyuan trained an army and subjugated them, and the lords submitted.
Only Chiyou was the most savage in temperament and would not submit.
So Xuanyuan commanded Yinglong and captured and killed Chiyou on the plains of Zhuolu.
Then all the lords followed Xuanyuan and revered him as the Son of Heaven.
This man is the Yellow Emperor.
After the Yellow Emperor subdued all the lords and ascended to the seat of the Son of Heaven, he founded Shang.
The Yellow Emperor ruled the world in peace and prosperity for five hundred years.
People flourished and civilization was brilliant, and countless lords submitted, making it mighty.
But humans were still human and mortal, so the Yellow Emperor and the lords also grew old.
And thus, the Yellow Emperor and the lords prepared ■■■■.
It went against reason, and it drew the anger of the heavenly gods and the kings of the underworld.
In the end, Nüwa of the Three Sovereigns, who created humans in this world, stepped in and tried to reclaim the Yellow Emperor and the lords’ authority.
So the Yellow Emperor and the lords ■■■■ Nüwa.
Nüwa was ■■■, and the ■■■ ■■ humans.
Shang fell at that time, and afterward the sun did not rise for one hundred years, they say.
The Yellow Emperor and the lords vanished, but what became of them was not passed down.
-From the Outer Canon of <New Classic of Marvels>
Yi-gang also knew who the Yellow Emperor was.
‘Emperor’ (皇帝) and ‘Yellow Emperor’ (黃帝) were entirely different words.
The title ‘Emperor’ (皇帝) still used today was a title that arose when the king of Qin called himself Emperor.
The ‘Yellow Emperor’ (黃帝) referred to one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
An ancient god who had been the greatest ruler of the Central Plains.
Yi-gang was horrified that the Evil Cult Leader’s identity was the Yellow Emperor.
Did a god have the ability to see through a human’s mind?
The one calling himself the Yellow Emperor opened his mouth.
“I am the Yellow Emperor, and Qin Shi Huang was also me. Can’t you tell by looking at the terracotta warriors?”
The Evil Cult Leader’s voice was calm, and his expression was quiet.
He was saying the one who unified the continent and proclaimed himself emperor was actually him, yet he said it blandly.
“The newly flourishing humans in the world were swarming, but they only knew how to fight and kill each other. They were barbaric.”
The era before Qin unified the Warring States was the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period.
An age packed with chaos, with countless feudal states rising everywhere.
A superhuman called the First Emperor suddenly appeared and unified the Central Plains.
“So I unified the Central Plains and quelled the chaos.”
If his true identity had been one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, it would be more than possible.
Even the terracotta warriors moving now would be things that Yellow Emperor had arranged.
“And then I slept again and waited thousands of years, and at last I have awakened.”
The ‘cult leader’ the Immortal Divine Sword said he had cut down wasn’t even the real cult leader.
The real Evil Cult Leader had existed here in Nanman as a wall of flesh ever since he acted as the First Emperor.
Yi-gang slowly turned his gaze.
The Sealing Box, stained with blood, lay on the floor.
Somehow, he felt like he knew its material.
It was meteorite iron, the same as Shooting Star Fang.
The Sealing Box made from a single piece of meteorite iron had not opened yet.
Kirick- kiriiik-
But it still made those sounds on its own.
It felt like it might open at any moment.
That box, sealed for thousands of years.
The Azure Forest Sect guarded that box, and the Evil Cult sought to open it.
Yi-gang’s mission was to destroy that box.
But he had heard that the Sealing Box opening was an unavoidable fate.
What kind of nonsense was that?
Wasn’t it too unreasonable to assign him the task of preventing a box that must open from opening?
They said if the box opened, an evil god would revive, and everyone would die.
“An evil god?”
Then the Yellow Emperor spoke as if it were absurd.
“An evil god, I’ve never heard such a thing. I’ve heard ‘Sage King’ instead.”
“You… mean yourself?”
“Yes. Haven’t I revived?”
The Yellow Emperor was pointing to himself.
He was a god as well. He was claiming that the ‘evil god’ who revived when the Sealing Box opened was himself.
“Perspectives on the world differ, so you might call it that. But do you call a storm evil? Do you judge earthquakes and tsunamis as evil?”
He meant it was meaningless to assign good and evil to the order of the world.
It wasn’t the important part.
The most important thing was what came after.
That all humans would vanish from the world.
“That is true. Because I, revived, will do it.”
The Yellow Emperor affirmed it.
“I will clean this world clean again. Do not feel wronged. That is the order of things, and you will not suffer even a little.”
He had his answer.
Yi-gang carefully distributed strength through the muscles of his whole body.
Internal energy slowly, but surely, circulated through the meridians of his whole body.
Confirming that the Sealing Box had not opened yet…
Then the Yellow Emperor placed one foot on the Sealing Box.
“Curious what’s inside?”
“…I am.”
“If the conditions fit, I’ll tell you. It seems you were chosen as my adversary.”
As a regressor who remembered his past life, Yi-gang had received expectations from many that he could stop the Evil Cult.
“That’s not wrong. A reincarnator without the Mark of Oblivion is relatively free from causality, and thus can achieve many great deeds. Long ago, many of the lords were people like you.”
He said something truly unexpected.
“I will take your soul. I will give you a new body and make you my vassal. This is an offer.”
“An offer?”
“Yes. If you accept, you can abandon that filth-like body and be reborn. But if you refuse, you will pay the price.”
It was an offer not worth considering.
Yi-gang had no intention of accepting even a hair’s worth, but he put on an expression as if he found it rather interesting.
While preparing to swing his sword for a surprise attack.
But it seemed the Yellow Emperor could read all of Yi-gang’s thoughts.
“A refusal?”
“Then see the price with your own eyes.”
The Yellow Emperor raised his hand.
It didn’t look like any attack at all, nor like he was about to use sorcery.
It was nothing more than a gesture that snapped his fingers to make a sound.
Snap-
But Yi-gang soon understood what result it caused.
His vision blurred.
A wave produced by the Yellow Emperor’s finger snap shot outward.
Yi-gang felt it from the wave’s point of view.
As if borrowing the sight of a hawk flying at full speed.
It raced backward out through the corridor he had come through.
Wind brushed past, and the surroundings streaked backward like an arrow.
The wave arrived at the scene where Heuk-am and the Heavenly Demon were fighting.
The Heavenly Demon looked this way in shock.
The wave pierced through the Heavenly Demon’s brow and passed on.
The Heavenly Demon dropped.
He was dead.
For some reason, Heuk-am looked down at the Heavenly Demon’s corpse with a sad expression.
Yi-gang somehow felt as if his eyes met Heuk-am’s.
Even so, the wave the Yellow Emperor had discharged did not slow.
It burst outside.
Under pouring red moonlight, people were still fighting.
And the wave pierced through the brow of an Azure Forest disciple and passed on.
The Azure Forest disciple fell without even managing a scream.
Yi-gang let out a mental scream.
‘Stop!’
But the silent killing did not stop.
Yi-gang recognized Yu Su-rin.
She was fighting hard, swinging her Lotus Sword.
In one hand she held a lotus borrowed through Power Borrowing, and that lotus was soaked in blood.
And Yu Su-rin was getting closer and closer.
Yi-gang realized what was happening.
‘Stop it!’
He shouted as if screaming.
But no voice came out, and Yu Su-rin’s brow drew near.
With a sound of breath leaving her, Yu Su-rin fell.
“Su-rin!”
The voice of a father screaming.
Yu Jeong-shin, covered in blood, catching his fallen daughter’s body.
Yi-gang saw the back of that grief-stricken man.
He wanted to scream.
The problem was that the wave gave him no time for that.
What came into view was Ha-jun. His younger brother.
The wave the Yellow Emperor had discharged pierced through the temple of Ha-jun, who was fighting Mang-hon.
‘Ha-jun, Ha-jun!’
There was no way Ha-jun could hear Yi-gang’s cry.
Ha-jun, too, died instantly without exception.
Mang-hon, who had been fighting him, giggled without even knowing why.
Meanwhile, Yi-gang felt as if his soul were being torn apart.
He watched the massacre from that vantage point.
The dying people’s final expressions were far too vivid.
It felt as if he were killing them with his own hands.
The wave slaughtered dozens in an instant.
They collapsed and died without even knowing why.
Yi-gang shouted for it to stop, but it only scattered futilely.
And he came to his senses again.
“Keuk…”
When he opened his eyes, he was kneeling.
The capillaries in his eyes had all burst, so everything looked red.
Tears streamed down. And he had clenched his teeth so hard that pink saliva mixed with blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Yi-gang had seen it.
What happened when the Yellow Emperor snapped his fingers once.
“Ugh…”
It wasn’t only that his vision was red. His head was spinning.
The Yellow Emperor standing before him looked like two, then four.
It felt like his mind had shattered.
The Yellow Emperor neither mocked Yi-gang nor glared at him.
He only spoke calmly.
“Did you see? This is the result of your choice.”
Then he made the offer once more.
“I’ll give you one more chance. Submit to me. I will make you a lord. If you refuse, I will kill the remaining one outside the same way.”
Yi-gang blankly looked into the Yellow Emperor’s eyes.
Silence followed.
“Answer.”
The Yellow Emperor pressed for an answer again.
From those words, Yi-gang was sure.
Was it because the pain was enough to shake his mind?
Right now, the Yellow Emperor couldn’t read Yi-gang’s mind.
Then there was only one choice.
Kneeling, Yi-gang shot forward as if springing off.
He swung Shooting Star Fang forward, the blade he had been gripping for who knew how long.
There was no Sword Aura infused into the blade.
He didn’t use a Supreme Ultimate Technique with flashing lightning either.
What Yi-gang unleashed was only the most lofty sword strike he had obtained.
With Sword Aura, you could cut steel, but you couldn’t cut the mind.
Yi-gang wanted a sword that could cut even the mind.
That was, in other words, a Mind Sword.
Because it could cut what could not be cut, it could finally cut even a heavenly god.
And so, to be able to cut even the revived Yellow Emperor, he refined that Mind Sword…
He cut!
The blade bit in from the Yellow Emperor’s shoulder and severed the collarbone.
It shattered the shoulder blade. It split five ribs guarding the organs.
It cut through the right lung and sliced the liver halfway.
But it stopped there.
With his body half-cut.
The Yellow Emperor looked at Yi-gang as if astonished.
“…Did you see through that it was an illusion?”
No. More accurately, he couldn’t answer.
His body and mind had already reached their limit.
So even hearing that what he had just seen was an illusion the Yellow Emperor manipulated, he couldn’t feel happy.
“No, you didn’t know. Remarkable. It was a sharp sword.”
Just a little more.
If it had been sharper.
If he had more power, he would have cut all the way through.
Amazingly, the Yellow Emperor raised his intact left hand and grabbed Shooting Star Fang.
What was he going to do, grabbing the blade with his bare hand?
Bulging veins rose on the Yellow Emperor’s arm.
“What a waste.”
And something unbelievable happened.
Tik.
Yi-gang looked down at his sword.
A sword made hundreds of years ago by his ancestor, the Immortal Divine Sword.
Shooting Star Fang, a precious sword made of meteorite iron, harder than any sword in the world.
A crack formed in Yi-gang’s sword, which had never broken and never dulled.
Tidik, tik-
Once the crack appeared, hairline fractures spread like a spiderweb in an instant.
Shooting Star Fang shattered as if it exploded.
