"Let's go. To paradise."
Liu Bei's signal was quiet but firm.
His words were like a signal flare that set the massive wheels of history, which had been at a standstill, turning once again.
The first to move were Liu Bei and Lucifela.
Following them, tens of thousands of Golden Predators moved their feet majestically as if escorting their master, and finally, Liu Zhang's soldiers and the refugees joined the procession, supporting each other.
Their destination was the end of the battlefield.
The giant hole in the castle wall pierced by Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Beyond the crumbled debris, a faint pink glow was leaking out.
Thud.
Liu Bei was the first to cross the boundary.
And the moment the people following him stepped inside the wall one by one.
"Ah..."
A gasp of awe burst out from someone's mouth involuntarily.
It was a completely different world existing just a wall away.
It was different from the canyon that had been filled only with the smell of blood, gray dust, and the fear of death for thousands of years.
The ground beneath their feet was covered with fertile soil instead of black gravel, and a clear stream was flowing with a crisp sound.
Above all, what filled their vision was an endlessly stretching forest of peach trees.
Whoosh...
Whenever the warm spring breeze blew, pink petals fluttered like snowflakes.
The stench of blood that pierced their noses was nowhere to be found, and the sweet scent of peaches seeped deep into their lungs.
The moment they smelled that scent, the terrible tension that lingered on people's faces melted away like snow as if it were a lie.
A natural fortress surrounded by steep cliffs like a folding screen, and a land where undying life flows.
The only paradise in the Demon Realm that was said to exist only in legends,'Dowon,' the Peach Blossom Spring, existed there in reality.
Liu Bei climbed onto a high rock at the entrance of the forest.
He looked down.
The wounded and exhausted people.
The soldiers who were enemies yesterday.
And his army of predators, hideous but reliable.
Countless eyes were directed at only one person, Liu Bei.
His heart swelled.
But at the same time, he felt a heavy responsibility weighing down on his shoulders.
He knew painfully well that this was not the end, but the beginning.
Liu Bei took a deep breath.
He did not borrow magic or the authority of the fragment.
He shouted with only his sincerity contained in his raw voice.
"Raise your heads!"
His voice resonated through the forest.
"We have been running for hundreds of years. Chased by monsters, chased by poverty, chased by the powerful, we came all the way here. We suspected each other and had to abandon even our families to survive."
The refugees sobbed and lowered their heads.
It was their painful past and undeniable reality.
Liu Bei did not turn away from their sorrow.
"But!"
Strength entered Liu Bei's voice.
"As of today, the history of fugitives is over."
Liu Bei pointed to the fertile land spread beneath his feet.
"This is our land that no one can invade. It will be a sanctuary where neither monsters, nor lords, nor any tyrant can harm us."
Liu Bei clenched his fist over the Golden Fragment embedded in his chest.
Hot heat spread from his heart to his entire body.
It was the pain Sun Wukong had warned about, but now, even that pain was sweet.
"I, Liu Bei, swear. Until the day my heart stops, I will protect you. So you too, believe in me and protect this land."
He caught his breath for a moment, then proclaimed the name of the new country that had never existed in the world.
"From today, I will call this place... Shu!"
A moment of silence.
And then.
"Waaaaaaah—!!!"
A bursting roar filled Dowon.
The surviving soldiers raised their spears and cheered, and the refugees hugged each other and danced.
"Grrrr—! Bark!"
Did they read Liu Bei's mind?
The Golden Predators also roared loudly towards the sky, celebrating their master's victory and the beginning of the new nation.
The strange yet magnificent harmony of human shouts and beastly roars merging into one.
It was the moment the name 'Shu' was engraved in the history of the Demon Realm for the first time.
* * *
"Let's go. Before it gets any noisier."
Leaving behind the cheers filling Dowon, Sun Wukong turned his steps without lingering attachment.
Like a spectator leaving his seat after finishing his job, his back looked lighthearted.
"Hey, Saintess. Catch."
Wukong stopped walking and nonchalantly threw something backward.
It was the
"Ah!"
Lucifela hurriedly reached out with both hands and caught the fragments.
Two raw stones emitting brilliant green and purple lights.
They were the crystallization of absolute power that could destroy or save the world.
"How can you throw something this precious so carelessly!"
"To me, they're just rocks. Collecting them is your hobby, isn't it? You take them."
Wukong yawned as if annoyed and walked ahead.
Lucifela shook her head from side to side but held the fragments preciously in her hands.
As if praying, she closed her eyes and brought the fragments to the center of her chest, near her sternum.
Vooom—
With a mysterious resonance, the fragments, which were solid, melted like water droplets.
The fragments turned into light and seeped into Lucifela's pale skin.
Whoosh...
At that moment, a faint reaction occurred in the burnt black wings on her back.
Faint rays of green and purple light stretched out like veins through the gaps of the ashen feathers.
Although they were wings that could not fly, they were slowly regaining their divine light whenever the power of the Scripture was filled.
Lucifela, having finished the sealing, opened her eyes with relief.
But her gaze turned back towards the forest where Liu Bei was.
"...Is it really okay to leave it like this?"
Lucifela asked in a worried voice.
"What?"
"To complete the Scripture, we also need that
"You worry too much."
Wukong snorted.
"It wouldn't be bad to have at least one foolishly kind guy like you. And we already got two, didn't we? Be satisfied with this for today."
"But..."
"Stop nagging and follow me. We have a long way to go."
Wukong's steps stopped abruptly.
He stood still and looked back.
"If you've earned your keep, you should work, Compass. Where to next?"
"Ah..."
Lucifela immediately closed her eyes and focused her mind.
The fragments absorbed into her body became a sort of antenna, starting to search for the energy of other Scriptures hidden somewhere in the Demon Realm.
A moment later.
Lucifela's closed eyes snapped open.
Her pupils trembled violently as if an earthquake had occurred.
"...This is?"
"Why? Did you pick something up?"
"S-Sir Sun Wukong. It's over there. But the energy is..."
Lucifela raised a trembling hand and pointed to a spot.
It was the North, where the cold biting wind was blowing from.
"It's on a different level from before. It feels like... a massive energy as if the entire sky is covered with the power of the Scripture."
"Covering the sky, you say?"
The corners of Wukong's mouth tore long enough to hang on his ears.
Seeing Lucifela's reaction, he gripped Ruyi Jingu Bang as if convinced.
"If it's the guy holding the Northern Sky... there's only one."
His golden eyes burned red like blood.
It wasn't simple curiosity.
It was the killing intent of an apex predator eyeing its prey.
"Cao Cao. That crazy bastard finally found it."
"Cao Cao?"
Lucifela asked back in puzzlement.
"You mean... Cao Cao, the cold-blooded Demon Commander guarding the North? I heard he is certainly a brilliant strategist, but he wasn't an existence with magical power enough to cover the sky like that."
"He was. Until before we came down."
The corners of Wukong's mouth curled up fishily.
He glared at the northern sky with burning red eyes.
"But look at that energy. Is that the energy of a living thing? He must have swallowed a fragment and became the King of the Underworld in the meantime."
"Ah..."
"I'm certain. That ferocious killing intent. What he has isn't just a fragment or two. He definitely swallowed the nastiest and most dangerous one...
"D-Death?"
Lucifela's face turned pale.
The power of destruction that takes away all life.
The fact that it fell into the hands of the cold-blooded Cao Cao in the North meant that the entire Demon Realm would turn into a land of death.
"I saved the biggest and tastiest one for last."
Wukong adjusted his grip on Ruyi Jingu Bang and took the first step toward the snow-covered field where the blizzard was raging.
His eyes flashed with the madness of old times when he tore up the Book of Life and Death.
"Let's go. To see that bastard's face."
* * *
By the clear stream of Dowon.
Liu Bei was holding a child running towards him and smiling brightly.
Warm sunlight and scattering peach blossoms embraced that peaceful scenery as if blessing it.
On the other hand.
The snow-covered field of the North where a rough blizzard was raging.
Lucifela harboring mysterious light within her burnt black wings, and the back of Sun Wukong walking in front of her were disappearing into the pitch-black darkness.
Peace and War.
Life and Death.
As the backs of the two heroes who started walking different paths crossed, the history of the Demon Realm was moving on to a new chapter.