I stood quietly with my hands behind my back and looked down at what had once been a god, writhing on the ground.
The sight of its two severed halves twitching was pretty disgusting, but after trampling over hundreds of my own corpses just moments ago, it was still a tolerable sight.
“How dare you...! How dare you...!”
The black serpent, embarrassing to even call a Jiaolong, writhed and poured curses at me.
Blood gushed out in pulses along the serpent’s throbbing body, staining the earth.
I frowned and reached out a hand.
Then, like a thin thread being shot forth, [Sword Aura] burst from my fingertips and flew toward the center of the Yabak Stone Sword.
The internal energy control I had refined to the level of [Void Treading] drew my sword from far away.
After a short while, the Yabak Stone Sword came flying toward me, hanging from that [Sword Aura].
I stared at the faint light spilling from the Yabak Stone Sword, a color so dim yet more beautiful than any other light, and murmured, “A hundred years... It’s been a hundred years.”
It had been a long time.
Now I wanted to rest a little.
“I curse you! A mere human! How dare a mere human kill a god!!!”
...So noisy.
How dare it flap its mouth so carelessly in front of me.
Blue light, mixed with ink-black darkness, spilled from my eyes as I turned toward the Jiaolong.
“Ugly serpent.”
“I am a dragon! A god who rules over Chenyu! I am—!”
I wordlessly raised my sword again.
The [Sword Aura], compressed by telekinetic force to an absurd degree, exploded and scattered its energy in all directions.
Ink-blackness was painted over the pure white [Sword Aura].
And then. I brought it down.
This was a sword for slaughter, a sword that killed the ugly serpent.
“I sentence you.”
Shhk!
With shocking ease, the serpent’s body was split in two again.
“Kraaaaaaah!!!”
“Say it again, ugly serpent.”
Letting the wavering ink-black [Sword Aura] hang from one lowered hand, I walked forward slowly.
“Do you still think you’re a god?”
“Y-you...!”
I brought the sword down again.
“Kraaaaaaah!!!”
The serpent, now cut into four pieces, screamed.
Its scream shook the air and scattered a chilling force in every direction.
Purple... karma?
I glanced sideways.
The Yaksha were flustered, using their own martial arts to push back the purple energy.
Plum blossoms blooming in fire burned away the karma.
A river of endless continuity flowed out, carrying the karma away with it.
The sword of a king bound the karma and suppressed it.
And a thrusting spear pushed it back, pinned it down, and struck through it in counterattack.
And then.
Like a dragon ascending to the heavens.
Energy burst forth at near-instant speed and blew the karma away.
That should be enough... I don’t need to worry anymore.
I smiled and looked back again.
“S-stop... stop...!”
By the logic of the original history, this thing had been cut into five pieces by the [Lord of Vortex].
I quietly raised my sword.
“K...k...KRAAAAAAAAH!!!”
And the moment I lifted my sword.
The serpent opened its maw and spat out an enormous density of purple energy.
In an instant, the purple force covered my entire body.
“Master!!!”
“Gumu-nim?!”
The startled Yaksha and Ganyu tried to rush toward me.
But.
I brought the sword down.
Did it really think karma like that could bind me?
“What the hell are you! What are you, I say!!! You’re not human! There’s no way a thing like you is human!!! Are you the god hidden by the [Lord of Vortex]? So that’s it. So that’s it!!!”
Not human, huh.
Yes. I had carried too many years to be called human.
A full two hundred years.
And yet I still wanted to remain human.
I had lived as a human.
I was living as a human.
And I would live as a human.
“...I am human.”
“No! You cannot be human! How dare some human kill me? Don’t make me laugh!!!”
Hah.
So that was it.
I smiled and said, “Listen carefully, ugly serpent.”
Ink-black [Sword Aura] scattered black light.
A black shadow fell over the pool of purple blood.
“Today, you...”
On the exhale, internal energy.
On the inhale, telekinetic force.
“Will die at the hands of a human.”
“N-no... impossible! I, at the hands of a human...!”
Hah. For a god meant to rule over the people, what a pathetic thing.
I smiled crookedly and brought the sword down.
Splat!
The serpent’s head flew into the sky.
Spinning and spinning.
Scattering droplets of blood in every direction.
The serpent that had once been called a god.
Died as five separate pieces.
I brushed the filthy blood off the tip of my sword and turned around.
Ganyu was there.
...Ah.
I took a step forward.
“Gumu...nim?”
Ganyu looked up at me with anxious eyes.
“Ganyu! Master is in danger right now...!”
I walked toward Ganyu.
And then.
“...?!?!”
I hugged her.
It was the warmth of another person, felt after so long.
“...I missed this.”
How long had it been?
“Huh? Y-yes... yes?! Yes?!”
Ganyu, flustered, drew up even more energy throughout her body and stammered.
I laughed and let go.
“...Master? Is it really you?”
The Yaksha, perhaps because they had once been seized by karma themselves, were still looking at me cautiously, suspicion in their eyes.
If I were them, I’d be suspicious too.
The clear blue glow in my eyes had turned murky blue, and the white [Sword Aura] had become completely ink-black.
“Don’t worry. It’s me.”
“...Can you prove it?”
Thorough as ever.
Well. That was my disciples for you.
I smiled and shook out my arm.
As if flicking off ink.
Dark energy fell away from the sword I had shaken loose.
And only the pure white [Sword Aura], clear as water, remained.
“...Master!!!”
And the moment he saw that pure white [Sword Aura], Yingda came running in tears and threw himself at me.
“Waaah! When you suddenly fell back behind us earlier, I was seriously scared to death!!!”
“...So it was.”
Bonan, after gauging the mood, quietly came over and pressed himself against my side, and Bosacius grinned broadly and thundered over to scoop Yingda, Bonan, and me up in his four arms.
“Gah! Bosacius-hyung.”
“Eek!!!”
Mino laughed and picked up the sleeping Giyeon before stepping back, while Xiao Suo frowned and watched us.
“But, Master.”
“Hm?”
Bonan, still being held, spoke to me.
“If Master lost consciousness, it must have been no ordinary karma. How did you get out?”
Hm... so that’s what he was curious about?
Bonan, who wasn’t usually as forward as Yingda, had been clinging to me for a reason.
At his question, everyone else seemed curious too and looked at me.
Ganyu had also come over without me noticing and was now pressed right against my back.
“Hm... this time, it was a special case, so I lost consciousness.”
“What kind of special case?”
“...All the heart-demons I had been turning away until now... in other words, all the karmas, burst out at once. Those karmas looked like me.”
At my words, Mino and Xiao Suo also turned their heads toward me.
“...How many were there?”
“999.”
Apparently the exact number surprised him, because Bosacius’s grip loosened slightly.
“...How... did you get out?”
“I killed them. All of them.”
For an instant, black light flashed in my eyes.
“To regain my senses, I had to climb. So I killed them all, piled mountains out of those karmas, climbed over them, and got out from there.”
Bosacius let go of me.
...Hm?
Bonan and Yingda slowly backed away from me with pale faces.
“...Master. You don’t seem human anymore.”
“We can’t do that either...”
“...Hm...”
...These brats.
I swung my hand and slapped the Yaksha on the head faster than the eye could see.
“Kgh!”
“Eek?!”
“Ugh.”
“Enough. I’m going to go deal with that thing, so wait here.”
I slung the two halves of the giant serpent’s body over both sides of my waist.
It had been spewing purple karma this whole time. If I just threw it into Chenyu, the [Lord of Vortex] would probably seal it away or something.
I was just about to leap away.
But in my field of vision, while I was treading the void...
“...Lord?”
I saw countless lights flying in from far away.
In the end, I canceled [Void Treading] and dropped back to the ground.
And soon after, I met the [Lord of Vortex], who had come flying in at tremendous speed.
The [Lord of Vortex]’s eyes were first filled with worry and concern, but the moment she saw the Jiaolong’s corpse in my hands, her pupils widened in shock.
And the other Adepti following behind her, after witnessing my appearance, were equally stunned and took their places behind her.
“...Did you do this?”
The [Lord of Vortex] asked, looking at the purple energy still rising.
“...Yes. I did.”
“...Amazing. Truly.”
The [Lord of Vortex] praised me and slowly approached.
Then her hand rose.
Tap.
“Well done. Thank you for protecting the people.”
She patted my shoulder as she spoke.
“And you may be proud. The human skill you built has reached a god.”
I nodded dazedly and looked around.
The Adepti were all looking at me as if they were seeing something that was not human.
...Ah.
Only now did it truly sink in that I had carried out godslaying.
With nothing more than human technique.
With the feeble strength of a human.
With the skill I had built up like that.
I had slain a god.
“Rest for now. I’ll handle that one.”
I sheathed my sword, turned around, and walked back to my disciples and Ganyu.
Ganyu and my disciples welcomed me with smiles.
And I smiled back, looking at the sleeping Giyeon.
A smile had bloomed on Giyeon’s face as she slept deeply.
...Yes. Keep smiling.
I’ll take the blood and flesh onto myself.
Don’t break that smile with your own hands.
I patted Giyeon’s head once and sat down beside her.
“I’m tired.”
When I muttered that, Ganyu sat down beside me in a fluster.
“Are you all right?”
“...Just for a moment.”
My body was barely tired at all.
But the mental exhaustion I had accumulated over a hundred years made my eyes feel unbearably heavy.
“I’m going to close my eyes for a bit.”
“...Huh? Eek?!”
I collapsed to the side and closed my eyes.
“...Master.”
“...Honestly.”
Listening to Bonan and Yingda’s voices, somehow full of complaint, I sank into a deep sleep.
But in this dream...
It felt like a clear blue sky would be spread out before me.
--------
“...What?”
Guizhong gaped in disbelief and asked again.
“Wait. Wait a second. Liu Yun. Say that again?”
“I said that guy Gumu killed the Jiaolong of Chenyu.”
“No. No, say it again.”
“...Gumu killed a god.”
“...Does that even make sense?”
Guizhong said, clutching her head.
“What about the corpse? That thing is basically a mass of karma. If it dies, it’ll scatter all kinds of karma everywhere, won’t it?”
“That was handled by the [Lord of Vortex]. She sealed the corpse Gumu had cut into five pieces, placing the mind in the north, the bones in the southeast, the flesh in the northwest, the soul in the northeast, and the form in the southwest.”
“So she used adeptal arts, I see. Then that’s settled... Wait. Hold on. Five pieces? He didn’t just barely kill it, he cut it into five pieces and killed it?”
“...Yes.”
“Ha...”
Guizhong muttered, holding her throbbing head.
“That human always exceeds expectations. I sent him out to buy time, and he goes and kills a god. Should I be happy that we’ve gained another crucial piece for the Archon War, or should I be sad that I’m starting to doubt more and more whether Gumu is a god or a human?”
Guizhong sighed and lifted her head to look at the sky.
“No good. I’m going to have to study the starry heavens tonight. I’ve taken too much mental damage for this.”
With that decision made, Guizhong looked at Liu Yun.
“Liu Yun. If there’s anything you want to do, do it by today.”
“...Pardon?”
“A great upheaval is going to happen soon.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The goal of the gods surrounding us has always been one thing: to take down Morax and sit on the throne of Liyue.”
Guizhong turned her head toward somewhere in the distance.
The place she looked toward was beyond the Guili Plains.
The sea, where a storm was raging.
“But recently, not only did we succeed in recruiting Huiliya, we also gained the piece called Gumu, who can kill gods. Now we have Morax and Gumu. Those two are our main battle power. What do you think that means?”
Guizhong looked up at the sky.
Though the stars had not yet risen,
the God of Dust was already seeing them beyond that horizon.
“If the gods learn of this, they’ll decide there’s no point dragging things out anymore and launch a full-scale attack. ...A great upheaval.”
Guizhong’s eyes closed.
Inside those closed eyes were stars.
“It’s going to happen.”
And the plans for what came next were already taking shape.
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