Chapter 587: Awakening

Kurama Heihachi braced himself and continued to speak the remaining words.

"When I first reached this conclusion, I only felt it was ridiculous and pathetic."

"What kind of damn Emperor, what eternal lineage, what divine bloodline—they are nothing but brood sows raised by Shinto for the purpose of producing guards to watch over the shrines."

"As for Tachi, and you, and even the countless women who have been sent into the shrines over the past thousand years, it is even more pathetic. You are not visualizing any deity at all, but a devil that wantonly tampers with your will."

"The plan to ambush and kill my Kurama Sect disciples was at your instigation, right? Before reaching those guesses just now, I wanted to kill you every single moment."

"But after I obtained the truth, I became lost, because 'you' as a person do not exist at all. You are just a mask molded by a devil, manipulating the body of a poor girl to commit evil."

"From the beginning, everything was a joke."

Kurama Heihachi coughed up blood and laughed.

"You are just a puppet without any will of your own! To kill you, one must also kill an innocent girl like Tachi!"

"After I understood all of this, I almost collapsed. I threw away my life, yet I didn't even know who I should kill."

"Just when I was on the verge of collapse, that Central Plains woman asked me a question—what do you think revenge is?"

Kurama Heihachi slowly shook his head.

"Is it justice? Then why not report it to the authorities?"

"Is it liberation? Then why keep thinking about it?"

"Is it an explanation for the dead? But there has never been a hell in this world; dead is dead. No matter how you explain it, how can they hear it?"

"In the end, I finally understood that revenge is revenge; there is no logic to speak of. Inflicting pain on the enemy and letting myself feel pleasure—that is what I want to do, even if I have to pay with my life for it."

He slowly stood straight, used his remaining left hand as a blade, and set up a sword move.

"As for the method to kill you without killing the girl imprisoned in your body, Tachi told me."

Swish!

The woman in the priestess's robes suddenly drew her blade!

"And so what?"

"From the beginning, I knew what you wanted to do. You wanted to use the sword move that traitor gave you to awaken me. You knew this was the way that would cause me the most pain... but so what?"

"From start to finish, I could have killed you at any time."

"Even if you risked your life to rush in front of me, you couldn't do anything."

"And—"

The blade swept in front of Kurama Heihachi.

"Let me tell you one more funny thing."

"Your guess is ridiculously wrong."

"And you will never know what you guessed wrong."

The cold blade pressed against Kurama Heihachi's neck. The woman in the priestess's robes curled her lips. No matter how hard Kurama Heihachi tried, he could not bridge the gap in strength between them.

If she hadn't wanted to confirm how much of the truth the other party had guessed, she would have beheaded Kurama Heihachi long ago. Why would she have waited until now?

And now, she finally felt relieved.

Although the other party had deduced a lot, that one most important secret was still hidden well... She could finally feel at ease and cut off the head of this annoying maggot!

The blade cut into the skin.

She didn't even want to cut too quickly, because she wanted to see Kurama Heihachi's reaction when he realized he hadn't approached the truth, that everything he had done was meaningless, and that he had thrown away the Kurama Sect's heritage for nothing.

She focused her attention on her gaze, looking forward to Kurama Heihachi's unwillingness and fear... but just then, her peripheral vision suddenly caught the middle section of the corridor.

Hmm?

Where are the people?

The moment the Hachimangu sword saints surrounded Kurama Heihachi, she had signaled the three sword saints to kill the watching swordsmen to silence them. Their mission was completed well; there was a pile of corpses in the middle of the corridor, but... where had they gone?

After killing the swordsmen present, where did those three sword saints go?

A small area at the edge of her vision blurred.

Like the air distorting above a flame, or the reflection of the moon in water, that small patch of empty air suddenly twisted. ===== CHAPTER 588 =====