Chapter 68. Approach (1)
"I'd like to introduce someone to you."
The Count of Monte Cristo...
Who had visited me after quite some time...
Said exactly that.
"If you're introducing them..."
I asked carefully.
"They'll be useful to me, right?"
The Count nodded with an elegant smile.
"Of course."
"I'm trying to expand your connections."
Connections...
"Fine."
"Might as well benefit from having a sponsor."
"Then I'll take that as your agreement."
After saying that...
The Count snapped his fingers in midair.
"Wait."
A bad feeling suddenly came over me.
I had vaguely assumed...
Like the Constellations Number 36 introduced to me...
That I would first speak to this person through communication.
But back then...
The Count himself had appeared inside my throne without warning.
"Don't tell me..."
"Allow me to introduce..."
The space distorted.
A person appeared inside it.
"...!"
I unconsciously held my breath.
Not because someone had suddenly appeared.
But because the person who emerged...
Was a woman so beautiful she almost seemed unreal.
Long black hair flowed down her back.
She wore luxurious Eastern-style clothing.
An overwhelming sense of grace and elegance surrounded her entire body.
"The A-rank Constellation 'Fairy Who Controls Water.'"
"The most noble fairy of the Heavenly Realm..."
"Born between the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West."
"And..."
"I'll introduce myself."
She interrupted the Count and looked toward me.
"Nice to meet you, Nameless Constellation."
She bowed slightly.
"My Constellation Name is 'Fairy Who Controls Water.'"
"And my True Name..."
"Is Princess Longji."
Princess Longji.
The daughter of the Jade Emperor, supreme god of Taoism...
And the Queen Mother of the West, ruler of all female immortals.
One of the most privileged figures in Investiture of the Gods.
A fairy who used the treasure [Mist and Dew Universe Net] to suppress all flames.
And now...
She was standing in front of me.
The Count left immediately.
Apparently...
His only role had been bringing Princess Longji here.
"Please sit."
"Thank you."
Luckily...
The Count had brought his own chair here before.
So I actually had somewhere for Princess Longji to sit.
If it were Jason or Li Kui, I'd just make them sit on the floor.
While I was thinking that...
Princess Longji spoke first.
"Actually..."
"I asked the King of Avengers to arrange this meeting because there is something I wanted to discuss with the Nameless Constellation."
"Something you want to discuss with me?"
"Yes."
She looked serious.
"Something extremely important that could greatly affect the future of Earth."
That sounded like a huge subject.
Was that why the Count had personally brought her here?
"I'm listening."
"Please continue."
"Very well."
Princess Longji looked at me.
Then slowly opened her mouth.
"What kind of relationship are you planning to create between Kang Yujin and Lee Jukheon?"
"...Excuse me?"
I stared at her.
I had absolutely no idea what she meant.
Princess Longji gave a small cough.
"My apologies."
"That came out wrong."
"Ah."
"Right..."
"What I really wanted to discuss is something else."
She looked at me seriously again.
"What do you think about the relationship between two men who constantly bicker with each other?"
"...What?"
"My apologies."
"That came out wrong too."
Watching her cough again...
I became completely bewildered.
"Um..."
"Do you like Kang Yujin and Lee Jukheon?"
Princess Longji had occasionally sent sponsorships to both Kang Yujin and Lee Jukheon at the same time.
Did she have some personal attachment to them?
"They're promising Contractors."
"I've been watching them with great interest."
"I look forward to what they accomplish in the future."
"Ah."
"Thank you."
Princess Longji smiled.
"You appear to be raising your Contractors very well."
There didn't seem to be any ulterior motive on her face.
"We've drifted away from the main subject."
She continued.
"Let's discuss business first."
"Yes."
"Wouldn't it be better to create more situations where Kang Yujin and Lee Jukheon act alone together?"
"..."
I stared at her.
"What exactly did you come here to discuss?"
She had clearly come to tell me something extremely important.
But it seemed there was another topic she wanted to talk about even more urgently.
"Let me make this clear."
Princess Longji spoke seriously.
"I am only supporting those two men from the position of an observer."
"Right..."
"There are false legends claiming I am a fairy obsessed with romance and desire."
"Those stories are completely untrue."
"I have absolutely no intention of interfering with Kang Yujin or Lee Jukheon personally."
"I hope you don't misunderstand."
"I wasn't misunderstanding anything."
"I only hope that as those two travel together..."
"They form a good relationship as companions."
"Do you understand?"
"Yes..."
"Good."
"Please make sure they can build an even better relationship."
There was a strange pressure in her voice.
After finally finishing...
Princess Longji cleared her throat with a satisfied expression.
"Now..."
"Let's get to the real subject."
"It took quite a while to reach it."
I replied coldly.
Princess Longji completely ignored me.
"Nameless Constellation."
"I came here to request your cooperation."
"Cooperation?"
"Have you ever heard of an existence called Daji?"
"Of course."
The moment she mentioned the name...
I searched through my memories.
"A monster among monsters..."
"One that operated longer than almost any other in the Fantasy Realm."
Daji.
The beautiful woman said to have corrupted King Zhou, the final ruler of China's Shang dynasty...
Leading the country toward destruction.
There are theories that this image was propaganda created by the Zhou dynasty after overthrowing the Shang.
But regardless...
Daji became one of the most famous images of the femme fatale throughout East Asia.
In the classical novel Investiture of the Gods...
Daji appeared as a nine-tailed fox demon.
Originally...
Daji had been an ordinary girl.
But the nine-tailed fox took over her body.
Afterward...
Daji seduced King Zhou and brought about the destruction of the Shang dynasty.
In Investiture of the Gods, Daji was eventually executed.
But in some legends...
She survived and continued acting in other forms.
A representative example was Japan's legend of the White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.
According to that legend...
Daji continued appearing in various countries as wicked women.
Eventually...
She appeared in Japan and seduced powerful rulers before finally being defeated.
The history of Daji in the Fantasy Realm was similar.
The Shang-Zhou revolution happened much like in Investiture of the Gods.
But when Daji tried to escape execution...
She was struck by Jiang Ziya's treasured sword.
Her body split into several pieces that scattered across the world.
Those pieces continued committing evil throughout history.
In the eighth century BC...
She supposedly acted as Bao Si of the Zhou dynasty.
In the fifth century BC...
As Lady Huayang in India.
In twelfth-century Japan...
As Tamamo-no-Mae.
Those were historical facts in the Fantasy Realm.
There were even traces of her remaining active into the modern era.
In fact...
Even in our own world's history...
Many later beauties said to have "brought down nations," like Bao Si or Xi Shi, inherited character traits similar to Daji.
It revealed some of the prejudices ancient East Asian societies held toward women.
Whenever a ruler caused a nation to decline...
Propaganda often blamed it on a beautiful woman who seduced him.
So figures inspired by Daji's image appeared repeatedly throughout history.
In other words...
In the Material Realm...
Daji's image was inherited and projected onto later historical figures.
But in the Fantasy Realm...
Daji herself had split into several bodies and disguised herself as those later women.
Either way...
Daji had been active for an incredibly long time in the Fantasy Realm.
The era of Investiture of the Gods was around the eleventh century BC.
That meant Daji had lived for over three thousand years.
Taotie and Qiongqi were older existences.
But they hadn't remained consistently active for three thousand years the way Daji had.
In that sense...
Daji was truly unique.
"You may already know this..."
Princess Longji spoke slowly.
"Daji was defeated two years ago."
Her avatars appeared across the Material Realm...
And rose up simultaneously in many regions.
The battle against Daji's forces was treated as a Scenario.
Many of East Asia's most representative Contractors participated...
Fighting against Daji's avatars.
"..."
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew.
Daji's avatars operating throughout different regions...
They all suddenly moved at the same time.
When the Fantasy Realm overlapped with our Material Realm...
Daji also crossed into this world.
Then...
Two years ago...
Her avatars rose up across Asia simultaneously.
That created a Scenario where they tried to throw the world into chaos.
I knew Daji's history in such detail because I had researched her during that Scenario.
I had only gathered information under Cheon Sangwoon's orders.
I hadn't contributed anything in actual battle.
"The Contractors succeeded."
Princess Longji continued.
"Every one of Daji's avatars was sealed."
"It was the first time in three thousand years that Daji had been completely sealed."
Just as she said...
Daji had been thoroughly defeated.
Her bodies were placed under strict seals supervised by Constellations.
Cheon Sangwoon had played a major role in the subjugation too.
That was why I remembered it so clearly.
But...
Why was she bringing up a sealed Daji now?
"A problem has occurred."
"What problem?"
"Daji's seal has been broken."
"What?"
"Someone released the seals."
"They freed Daji."
Daji...
Had been released?
"How did that happen?"
"Originally..."
"The seals were managed by our Shanhai Alliance."
"An organization composed of Constellations formerly belonging to the Chan Sect and Jie Sect."
The Chan Sect and Jie Sect had been the two great immortal factions that fought in the Investiture War.
They had once been enemies...
But after both sides were eventually deified, I had heard their relationship was no longer particularly bad.
"However..."
Princess Longji's expression darkened.
"Someone avoided our surveillance and broke the seals."
"And that's not all."
"..."
"We had gathered Daji's avatars together..."
"But sealed each one separately."
"Yet when we investigated..."
"We found traces showing that the avatars had merged into one complete body before escaping."
"A complete body..."
That sounded serious.
During the previous Scenario...
Even Daji's individual avatars had been extremely powerful.
If all those avatars had merged into a complete Daji...
Her strength would be unimaginable.
"Do you know where she went?"
"At present, no."
"We don't know where Daji disappeared to."
Princess Longji paused.
"However..."
"There is a high possibility she is somewhere in the Capital Region of Korea."
"The Capital Region?"
"Yes."
She nodded.
"Because Daji had been sealed in a secret location within the Capital Region."
"..."
At first glance...
That sounded absurd.
Daji was a Chinese demon.
Why would she have been sealed in Korea's Capital Region?
"I see."
But I didn't find it particularly strange.
"Lee Hyeonje..."
"One of the Eight Guardians..."
"He was contracted with the 'Grand Preceptor of the Golden Whip,' wasn't he?"
"Yes."
Princess Longji nodded.
"The S-rank Constellation 'Grand Preceptor of the Golden Whip' currently oversees the Shanhai Alliance's policies on Earth."
The S-rank Constellation "Grand Preceptor of the Golden Whip."
His identity was Wen Zhong...
Grand Preceptor of the Shang dynasty.
In Investiture of the Gods...
He appeared as an antagonist who led the Shang armies and Jie Sect monsters against Jiang Ziya.
He tried to protect the collapsing Shang dynasty...
And stop the Investiture plan.
After death...
He became the Nine Heavens Thunder Lord of Universal Transformation...
The leader of the Thunder Gods.
That was an extremely high divine rank.
His status as a powerful Thunder God likely contributed to him becoming an S-rank Constellation.
So Daji was sealed in the Capital Region because Lee Hyeonje was contracted with Wen Zhong.
Lee Hyeonje was an SS-rank Contractor controlling old northern Seoul.
His strength rivaled Cheon Sangwoon's.
During the battle against Daji's avatar in the Capital Region...
Lee Hyeonje had been the one to deliver the final blow.
"Lee Hyeonje received cooperation from the other Eight Guardians..."
"And sealed Daji in a hidden location within old Seoul."
"So the other Eight Guardians were involved too."
"Yes."
"Among those on Earth..."
"Only the Eight Guardians knew the exact location of Daji's seal."
Princess Longji's voice became serious.
"And even within the Shanhai Alliance..."
"Only a very small number of Constellations knew."
"There is virtually no chance the information leaked from our side."
"Then..."
"Yes."
Princess Longji nodded.
"The Shanhai Alliance suspects that one of the Eight Guardians released Daji for some unknown purpose."
"We are asking for your cooperation in finding the culprit and stopping whatever scheme they are planning."
One of the Eight Guardians...
Had betrayed humanity.
That was what she was saying.
