In the southern desert region of Tibet.

In a place full of sand where the view was blurred by heat haze, a golden-haired woman of unparalleled beauty with nine golden tails was glaring at something with a sweat-soaked face.

Around her, about thirty giant spirit soldiers with pure white forms lacking facial features surrounded her.

Of course, if you counted the spirit soldiers lying on the ground, there would be close to a hundred.

However, except for the thirty, none of the spirit soldiers were in their complete form.

“shit.”

A harsh sound erupted from the mouth of the golden-haired beauty, or rather, the White-Faced King, the Golden Nine-Tailed Fox.

She was genuinely annoyed.

She had been fighting these things for over half a month now, but as soon as she knocked them down, they would return to their original state within half an incense stick’s time, resulting in an endless battle.

Two spirit soldiers rushed towards her simultaneously.

In response, light orbs formed on two of her nine tails, which then transformed into beams of light that pierced through the chests and heads of the two spirit soldiers.

Boom! Boom!

As the two spirit soldiers fell, the others rushed in as if they had been waiting.

Seeing this, the Golden Nine-Tailed Fox spun her body and scattered her tail hairs imbued with demonic power towards the spirit soldiers.

-Papapapapapapak!

As if familiar with her attack, the spirit soldiers in the front line raised shields to block this while charging forward, and the other spirit soldiers behind them rotated their spears to create sharp whirlwinds and attacked her.

‘Tch.’

The Golden Nine-Tailed Fox hurriedly struck the ground with her palm.

The surrounding sand surged like waves, blocking the whirling spears of the spirit soldiers.

Their spears were no ordinary force; when they collided with the wave-like sand, sparks flew everywhere due to the friction.

Eventually, their spears tried to pierce through the sand.

At this, the Golden Nine-Tailed Fox, thinking this wouldn’t do, attempted to manifest her true form.

But then,

-Woooong!

The light that had been coloring her body golden suddenly disappeared, and her demonic power was rapidly depleted.

At this strange phenomenon, she abandoned manifesting her true form and used her nine tails to wrap around the spears thrusting towards her, then slammed them down.

-Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!

The bodies of the spirit soldiers, slammed to the ground multiple times along with their spears, went limp.

However, she couldn’t be happy at all about their state.

‘This is getting ridiculous.’

This was because she could see other spirit soldiers who had been lying down behind them getting up, completely fine.

The problem was their infinite recovery.

She wanted to turn them to dust and completely annihilate them, but whenever she tried to do something that required a lot of demonic power or tried to change into her true form, her demonic power would be rapidly depleted.

The reason for this was due to this unknown thing imprisoning her.

Walls so transparent that even her Demon Eye couldn’t perceive them.

This seemed to be a strange formation created by the general-like figure with a strong build who had appeared before her half a month ago.

He held a huge sword in his right hand and a small pagoda in his left, and as soon as he saw her, he immediately said,

[So you’re the Golden Nine-Tailed Fox.]

‘What?’

She had disguised herself using transformation techniques and was even concealing her demonic power, but this unknown person who recognized her at once made her feel strongly wary, and she tried to subdue him in one breath.

However, not only did he block her attack, but when he raised his hand holding the pagoda, that small thing suddenly grew larger, then disassembled and trapped her like building walls around her.

And at some point, the walls trapping her became transparent, and these giant spirit soldiers appeared.

‘If only my demonic power wasn’t being absorbed, I could return to my true form.’

The problem was that she couldn’t do that.

She had managed to hold out somehow because she had mastered methods to recover her demonic power on her own, besides through terror and fear, but it was a vicious cycle.

The spirit soldiers were endlessly recovering and didn’t tire, while she was gradually becoming exhausted.

She needed to find some way out.

Meanwhile, unseen by her, there were two figures watching this from about thirty jang away.

One was the general-like figure with a strong build who had trapped her here, and the other was someone wrapped in black clothes, their face barely visible.

The general-like figure spoke to the black-clothed being beside him.

“As you can see, she’s no ordinary being.”

“It seems so.”

“She’s been fighting with the giant spirit soldiers for over half a month while trapped in the pagoda, and her spirit still hasn’t died. I was planning to drag her away after depleting her demonic power to some extent, but it looks like it will take more time.”

“Didn’t you intervene directly?”

“Do you think I didn’t?”

As he said this, the general-like figure showed his left arm.

The armor on his left arm was broken, and his clothes were stained with blood, with even a splint applied.

“My arm was broken after just a few exchanges. I didn’t know there was still an Imaemangyang with this level of power left in the mortal world.”

“Even in the world before heroes and immortals departed, she was a being who caused as much uproar as that stone monkey. It couldn’t be easy.”

“Still, she couldn’t be as bad as that stone monkey. That was… haa… the worst.”

The general-like figure clicked his tongue and shook his head as if he didn’t even want to recall it.

To him, the black-clothed being smirked and said:

“Does it still make your teeth chatter?”

“You think only my teeth would chatter? How could I forget the ordeal from back then? Anyway, what’s important isn’t the past. If we don’t retrieve it quickly, an even greater calamity will occur.”

“How could I not know? Keep tracking it and somehow subdue that fox inside. She’ll be very useful.”

***

The Flame Mountain in Xinjiang.

Vast ridges that looked as if they were made of hardened piles of sand stretched out.

This place was called the Flame Mountain because in ancient times, a spark that fell from the sky caused a forest fire that wouldn’t extinguish.

The flames that wouldn’t go out even when it rained were finally consumed by a sudden gale one day.

After that, the Flame Mountain became a bare mountain where not even a blade of grass would grow.

Not far from this Flame Mountain, there exists a place called Mount Cuiyun^[1].

Unlike the Flame Mountain, which was a barren rocky mountain due to the aftermath of the flames, Mount Cuiyun was full of vegetation and animals, and looked as if people could pass through, but in reality, it was rarely visited by humans.

This was due to the strange rumors that there had been Imaemangyang that ate people on Mount Cuiyun since ancient times.

In fact, it was hard to consider these just strange rumors.

This was because countless people who had entered Mount Cuiyun in the past had gone missing.

As a result, Mount Cuiyun became a forbidden mountain where people couldn’t enter, and it grew more gloomy and desolate as days passed.

In the deepest part of this Mount Cuiyun.

Deep within that incredibly dark place, there was a cave.

Near the entrance wall of the cave, it was engraved:

Plaintain Leaf Cave

It seemed to be the name given to the cave, and from the darkness where it seemed there wouldn’t be a single human presence, boisterous sounds suddenly began to be heard.

It was incredibly noisy, as if a feast was taking place, and as one went further inside, a huge cavern appeared, and within it stood a massive structure reminiscent of a fortress.

Thud thud!

And around it, large green monsters that looked like they were guarding it were walking around here and there, carrying huge wooden clubs.

Inside the structure.

Red curtains were hanging here and there, and pillars were supporting the ceiling, revealing a wide hall.

-Kekekekekeke!

-Kwaaaaaaa!

-Crackle!

Surprisingly, inside were grotesque Imaemangyang, numbering over three hundred individuals.

And each one of them had an extraordinary aura, seeming to be Imaemangyang of considerable rank.

Among the Imaemangyang, there were also those in human form, and they were excitedly chattering about something that seemed to please them greatly.

-Kuhahahahaha. Our young master has returned, what a joyous occasion this is.

-Damn, the days of hiding from human eyes are finally over.

-Once our young master breaks Great Strength King’s seal, the era of humans will end, and our world will come again.

-Let’s bring humans and brew wine with their fresh blood, and hold a feast for three days and nights!

-Kekekekeke. That’s a great idea.

Thud

At the sound that strongly shook the floor, the gazes of the noisily chattering Imaemangyang all turned towards the highest seat in the hall.

On the highest seat sat a beautiful noble lady wearing a green skirt and a lavish purple top.

Despite her appearance that captivated attention and her fairy-like adornments, the woman with somewhat fierce eyes had the spirit of a female warrior.

Strangely, the Imaemangyang who had been so excited and noisy were now watching her carefully.

The woman’s voice echoed through the now quiet hall.

-Is this all that have gathered?

At her question, an Imaemangyang in human form with owl-like whiskers and wings, who was below the highest seat’s platform, approached, paid his respects, and said:

-Please forgive us, Iron Fan Immortal.

-Forgive? Ha! It’s laughable that you find this situation amusing.

-When He was ruling the world, thousands and tens of thousands gathered to follow Him, but how pathetic is this?

The atmosphere became not just solemn, but frigid.

The woman called the Iron Fan Immortal was not satisfied with this situation.

Despite announcing that her beloved child had returned and her husband’s revival was not far off, she was rather angry that only this many had gathered.

No matter how much things had changed from the past, where on earth were all those numerous subordinates of His, not gathering?

‘They’ve lost their fear because He was sealed.’

At this point, she thought that when her husband was freed from the seal, he should discipline them.

At that moment, an Imaemangyang in human form with long gray hair and narrow eyes carefully spoke up.

-Iron Fan Immortal. The kindred gathered here are all those in Xinjiang.

-So you’re saying no one outside of Xinjiang responded to my call?

-That’s not it.

-If that’s not it, what are you trying to say?

-I had never left Xinjiang before, so I didn’t know, but I recently visited Qinghai Province and found that our kindred have almost disappeared.

-Our kindred have almost disappeared?

-Yes. So I inquired about it, and it seems there was a great war near the southern part of the Central Plains a year ago. It’s said that many of our kindred were annihilated then.

-…Are you talking about when He briefly awakened?

-It seems so.

-How massive a war could it have been for so many of our kindred to be annihilated in a battle with mere humans?

-I don’t know the details. What’s certain is that He, who had just been freed from the seal, participated in that war, and as you know, the White-Faced King…

-Kwaaaang!

-That damn fox bitch!

With a shrill voice, at just one gesture from her, a large hole appeared in the floor of the hall.

She too knew this from what she had heard from that child.

That fox bitch had turned her husband into a Killing Stone.

She could never forgive this.

-When my Red Child awakens Him and brings Him back, I will personally peel off that fox bitch’s flesh bit by bit and gnaw even her bones.

She was firmly determined for that day.

But it was at that moment.

-Crackle!

The pillars supporting the hall shook, and from above, dust fell along with cracks forming in the ceiling, and stone fragments rained down.

At this, the Imaemangyang looked at her with eyes full of fear.

‘!?’

One of the Iron Fan Immortal’s eyebrows raised.

Although she had expressed great anger, she hadn’t released any demonic power just now.

So what on earth was happening?

At that moment,

-Papapapapapak!

An Imaemangyang in the form of a horned wolf walking on all fours rushed into the hall and hurriedly reported to her.

-Iron Fan Immortal! Right now, an unidentified human has appeared outside the Banana Leaf Cave and is indiscriminately killing our kindred.

-What? Have humans brought an army?

-N-no. There’s only one human.

-One?

What nonsense is this now?

Is he saying that just one human has appeared, entered Mount Cuiyun, and is causing havoc?

Even if the kindred outside were somewhat inferior in rank, they weren’t weak enough to be defeated by a mere human.

Could it be that not an ordinary human, but an ancient immortal has appeared?

No. That can’t be.

The immortals left the world long ago and should no longer be able to intervene in mortal affairs.

It was at that moment.

-Kwaaaang!

With a huge boom from the entrance of the hall, one of the large green monsters flew in and was embedded into the floor.

At this sight, the wolf-formed Imaemangyang muttered with a bewildered expression.

-…Huh? He’s already come this far?

It was too fast, even for being fast.

There were dozens of green monsters guarding just the entrance of the Banana Leaf Cave.

-Thud thud!

Then, they saw someone walking in from the entrance.

It was a beautiful human with an extraordinary aura.

A huge bear-formed Imaemangyang at the entrance, with power reaching that of a demonic beast, roared and charged towards that being.

-Kwoooooor! How dare a mere human enter here so brazenly!

-Kukukukukukung!

But at that very moment.

The being walking forward casually waved his hand to the side as if annoyed.

Then, surprisingly, the charging bear-formed Imaemangyang, as if it had hit something invisible,

-Pang! Kwaaang!

Was flung sideways and smashed into the hall wall.

‘!’

At this sight, silence fell over the hall for a moment.

What is happened just happened?

As they were surprised, the beautiful human who had sent the demonic beast-level Imaemangyang flying with just a wave of his hand spoke in a dry voice.

“Who is Red Boy?”

The beautiful human was none other than the Heavenly Demon.