Even after most of his soul had been restored, Zheng Long remained unresponsive. Yoshika could feel traces of his domain, but the damage to his soul was too extensive for her to fix by herself. Still, as long as he remained alive, there was hope.

“Jianmo, do you know if it’s possible to restore him?”

“Even I’ve never seen a demon return a soul they’ve eaten, so I’m afraid you’re in uncharted waters. That said, souls are pretty resilient—given time, he might even heal on his own, though I doubt he’ll ever be quite the same again.”

Yoshika sighed. She owed it to him to try. Yang Qiu’s actions were her own, but Yoshika still couldn’t help but feel partly responsible for what had happened to Zheng Long.

Han Yu, on the other hand, seemed intent to place the blame entirely on Yoshika. After he and Yu Xiang had woken up, they were understandably upset that Yang Qiu was being spared after yet another incident. She couldn’t blame them—she wasn’t the one out burying her comrade.

“So now what?”

Yoshika glanced back at Long Ruiling and sighed.

“Now we rest. Zheng Long’s camp isn’t the only one that suffered casualties. Is Melati going to be alright?”

The fiend in question buzzed her wings and cocked her head.

“Hm? Melati? Why wouldn’t we be alright?”

Yoshika glanced back at the door, where half of her other body still lay dead, twitching occasionally. Melati followed her gaze and then gasped.

“Oh! That! Just a drone, we’ll be fine. We can make new ones.”

“Um...forgive me for being presumptuous, but I thought that was your only one. How are you going to...”

Melati giggled.

“It’s fine! We always keep some spare eggs just in case. They’ll hatch soon, and there should be enough of the drone left to get a baby or two started.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

Before Mel could respond, Ruiling interrupted.

“You don’t want to know! Mel, don’t tell her. Yoshika, don’t ask. Some things just aren’t meant to be shared.”

That only further piqued her curiosity, but she dropped it—she had other things to worry about. Despite the relative calm after dealing with Yang Qiu, Yoshika’s fight was far from over.

“Yang Qiu, what can you tell me about Yu Meiren?”

The demon grimaced.

“Her? She’s a complete monster—maybe even worse than the demon lord. Longyan is cruel, but indifferent—but she’s just plain sadistic. Don’t get me wrong, both of them cause a lot of suffering, but she goes out of her way. Why?”

“Because I need to kill her.”

That got everyone’s immediate attention. Yue furrowed her brows, casting nervous glances around them.

“Yoshika, is there something you’ve forgotten to tell us? I would have liked to know much sooner if we were being stalked by a powerful xiantian demon.”

“No, that’s not it. After I ascended, I could feel my link to Meili more clearly. The sacred art that healed us all came from her.”

“Huh. I suppose even the freshest xiantian cultivators are a class unto their own. Where did she get the divine essence for that, though?”

Yoshika frowned.

“From Yu Meiren. I’m fighting her as we speak.”

Yang Qiu laughed incredulously.

“What?! I’m not going to pretend to understand how that works, but if that’s true you’re absolutely fucked. You couldn’t even take me in a fight, much less her. If she hasn’t already killed whoever this Meili person is, it’s only because she’s toying with you. She likes to play with her food.”

“That Meili person is me, and I know she was toying with us, but her last attack was definitely meant to be a finishing blow.”

Yue’s eyes widened.

“Are you saying you’re merged with Meili, even across realms?”

“It’s not like we’re in different worlds or anything, but yes. There’s no merged or separate anymore, I’m just me, no matter the distance.”

“Wait, but then Jia and Eui are...”

Yoshika shook her head.

“Still ourselves. I’m too weak to manifest them right now, but I haven’t lost my individual aspects to a single homogenous version of me. Jia and Eui are still themselves—as are Meili and Kaede.”

“I see...wait—Hayakawa?! What does she have to do with this?”

“Yes, hello, that’s me as well. It’s a long story, and hopefully not permanent. I’m not sure what consequences this is going to have going forward, but my primary concern right now is taking down Yu Meiren. Unlike Yang Qiu, I don’t think there’s going to be a peaceful resolution to this one.”

Yang Qiu scoffed.

“Yeah, no shit. Yu Meiren is like the exact opposite of you. She’s the one who invented the whole process that converted me into a demon. She uses her powers to manufacture as much strife as possible while she just sits back and enjoys all the suffering. They must have tortured over a thousand people to death just to get the three that they sent here.”

“And she’s going to do the same thing to my family if I don’t stop her right now.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening. What do you even have against her that you didn’t have against me?”

Yoshika pursed her lips.

“Time. Things move much faster on this side. I pulled Meili’s sacred art in to speed things up, but it’s only been a few moments there. I need to meditate here and gather as much power as I can to send it back across.”

Yue bit her thumbnail.

“Is that even going to work? And what about this side? Are we certain there won’t be any further dangers now that you’ve ascended? Chou doesn’t seem like the generous type.”

“I don’t know, but I have to try. I don’t think anything will threaten us here. This is the sort of trap that digs its barbs deeper the more you struggle against it, but as long as we stay put, I think it will leave us be. Yang Qiu, while I’m meditating Yue is in charge—do whatever she says.”

The demon gave her an exaggerated bow.

“As you command, Mistress.”

“Do you have to do that?”

“Not if you command me otherwise, Mistress.”

Yoshika pinched the bridge of her nose—she didn’t have time to deal with Yang Qiu’s petty rebellions.

“Yue, can I trust you to handle things with Han Yu? I know you don’t exactly get along but...”

“Han Yu is toothless. I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry. Is there anything else you need?”

“Just some space to meditate and time to think—unless you’ve got a demon-slaying super-weapon you’ve been hiding.”

Yue snorted.

“Alas, I do not. Good luck, Yoshika—I’m sure you’ll think of something. You always do.”

Yoshika nodded, sitting down to meditate. She wished she had Yue’s confidence.

As Yoshika meditated, the world of Chou’s realm fell away, and she was forced to confront the seemingly hopeless situation facing Meili and Kaede. At least now she understood why her domain had expanded so suddenly. She’d been practicing against Chou’s realm—strengthening her domain much like exercising a muscle. Compared to the oppressive nature of the mana there, the academy grounds were practically inviting.

No, not practically—they were inviting. The area around Geumji soaked her domain in like a dry sponge dunked in water. Normally, exerting her domain felt like claiming a section of the world and making it hers, but the academy was already hers, and it was welcoming her home. It was everyone else who would have to compete against her claim.

That was why Yu Meiren was so upset. Her technique required her to maintain her hold on the area. Now that Yoshika focused on it, she could sense the web of connections binding the demonic army to Yu Meiren, like a giant spider web with her at the center.

Yoshika had inadvertently stomped through that spider web and torn apart the demon’s threads of control. Looking closer, she could see that the foot soldiers were already breaking—trying to retreat to the safety of the shield or even abandoning the fight altogether. Without Yu Meiren to control them, the demons didn’t have any reason to continue the fight.

It was different for the xiantian demons. Yu Meiren’s grip on them was ironclad, and Yoshika could sense Meiren’s insidious influence twisting their bonds to her own end.

Fan Zhu was the worst of them. Yu Meiren had taken his hatred of the Fox Princess and twisted it around and around the man until it formed a collar—or perhaps a noose—that blinded him to her manipulation. Revenge was all he could see.

The others held similar grudges against Qin or humanity in general, but they didn’t have as much passion as Fan Zhu.

Could she take advantage of that, somehow? Even if she freed them from Yu Meiren’s influence, would it change anything? Certainly not for Fan Zhu—not now that he’d seen Eunae.

Yoshika took her time to ponder the problem while Kaede’s body healed. Heartmender had lived up to its name, but Kaede had suffered the full brunt of Yu Meiren’s attack, and even after regenerating her heart, the damage was extensive.

Time wasn’t on her side—Yu Meiren was already reacting to the subversion of her demonic art, and Yoshika had no doubt that the demoness would be holding nothing back. She could feel a trickle of divine essence flowing through her connection to Chou’s realm, but it wasn’t nearly enough to compete with an opponent that was so much stronger and more experienced than her.

Yoshika refused to panic, though. She had to think. Evaluate the situation calmly, explore her options, and narrow down the possibilities until she found a way forward—no matter how slim.

That’s how Master Ienaga had taught her. The woman who’d killed hundreds of cultivators stronger and more experienced than her. Yu Meiren was an overwhelming foe, but she wasn’t unassailable—the arm Ienaga had taken from her was proof enough of that.

So Yoshika meditated. She followed each and every one of Meiren’s threads, searching for something—anything that would give her an advantage. Any edge, no matter how small.

Some of the broken threads revealed bits and pieces of Yu Meiren’s plan, and the reason for her agitation became even more clear with each revelation. Her influence was more insidious than Yoshika had even realized.

A thread wrapped around Seong Misun, stoking the fire of her resentment and gently pulling her away from helping her sister—broken. Another latched tightly on the old feud between Lin Xiulan and Sun Quan, making it just the tiniest bit easier for him to choose inaction—again, broken.

But the one that truly offended Yoshika, and sealed more firmly than ever that she could not abide the demon Yu Meiren’s continued existence, was the thread between Eunae and the commander of Sun Quan’s forces, Yuan Xing.

Yoshika could see how the events might have played out if not for her domain disrupting Yu Meiren’s plot. With Misun’s intervention delayed, Eunae would be left on the brink of death. Without Sun Quan joining the field, Yuan Xing would ask him for an order, and with Yu Meiren’s gentle push, the order would be given.

With just a few subtle threads, Yu Meiren had nearly orchestrated Seong Eunae’s assassination. An event that would have destroyed the alliance that she’d worked so hard to create, driven a wedge in their coalition forces, and rapidly led to a rout. Their countries would be driven into another age of endless conflict and war.

All for the demon’s sick amusement.

It no longer mattered whether or not there was a thread that Yoshika could take advantage of. Each and every one of Yu Meiren’s connections was anathema to her. They had to go.

Yoshika rose to her feet, and the demon glared at her with contempt.

“I don’t know how you were hiding your ascension, but now that I know your little trick, you have nothing left. Subverting my technique was cute, but you’ve only managed to delay the inevitable. Just for annoying me, I’m going to make sure you see them suffer.”

Yoshika readied Kaede’s blade and took a deep breath—it stung her lungs a bit, as she hadn’t recovered as much as she would have liked.

Yu Meiren was right. She didn’t have the power to face the demon alone. Her only hope was to strike at the source of the demon’s power—to sever the connections that gave her strength and pray that she could survive long enough for help to arrive, or for Dae to get her family out of danger.

She needed the right technique. A strike that went beyond the realm of the physical, allowed her to face an implacable foe, and used only the bare minimum divine essence. Yoshika almost laughed when the answer came to her.

Hadn’t she just been lamenting that she couldn’t use it? But now, with Kaede’s expertise and Yoshika’s memories, it was possible. A technique inspired by the woman that had taught them—the model after which Kaede had molded herself, despite her father’s insistence that she was the enemy.

Replicating a sacred art that she’d only seen a handful of times wasn’t simple. Normally, Yoshika would have even considered it impossible, but Master Ienaga had already taught her the technique. Not directly, but through the movements that she practiced every single day.

Yoshika’s master had trained her to incorporate martial arts into her every action. The way she walked, the way she breathed, and even in her sleep—every act matched perfectly to the flow of her ki. Ienaga had sowed the seed within her all those years ago, and she’d been diligently growing it ever since.

Yoshika had seen Master Ienaga’s signature technique. Felt the weight of it against her soul. It was a simple, yet profound art. An exercise of martial mastery that moved against the flow of an enemy’s essence as perfectly as she matched her own.

Neither Kaede nor Yoshika could have performed the technique on their own, but together?

She launched herself forward, lowering her blade and pushing herself as fast as her movement techniques would allow. One strike—if she could just land one solid blow against Yu Meiren, then perhaps there was hope—if not for her, then for her family, and for her people.

Yu Meiren’s reflexes proved reliable once again, and her body was already fading to smoke by the time Kaede began her swing—it didn’t matter. As the sword passed harmlessly through the demon’s misty form, Yoshika spoke the words—her master’s words—turning her will into reality.

Sacred Art: Soul Severing Strike

Kaede’s sword passed through physical reality to strike at the core of Yu Meiren’s being, neatly severing what remained of her carefully crafted spider web, and destroying every thread of her vile influence.

When the purple mist reformed, Yu Meiren bled.