Chapter 65

**Heaven’s Mandate.**

It is a lifespan decreed from the heavens,

It is a command delivered from the heavens,

It is a destiny granted from the heavens.

As mere mortals, we cannot refuse the will of the heavens.

That is fundamentally what Heaven’s Mandate is.

Yu Hwa, the heavenly messenger, possesses the insight to read this mandate. When she focuses her spirit power on a target, she can see the mandate assigned to that individual.

For instance, the rise and fall of fortunes.

Or the imminent approach of death.

“You are destined to die soon.”

Through Yu Hwa’s insight, Carami was draped in darkness. It was the light emitted by those whose deaths are near.

“Is the Master going to die?”

“That can’t be. It seems my grandmother has dementia.”

“Dementia?”

“It’s when one’s mind flickers in and out.”

It was a scene as if a father was explaining things patiently to his child who had just begun to see the world.

Just like a warm moment between a father and daughter.

But this only hastened Carami’s demise.

“If you don’t want to die, immediately sever your ties with the Gumiho.”

If the heavens allow the world to flow according to Heaven’s Mandate, the Gumiho does the opposite. The Gumiho disrupts the mandate.

The moment you become entangled with the Gumiho, the mandates twist, leading the world into chaos.

Yu Hwa’s prophecies are akin to an established future.

Yet, Carami smiled brightly.

“I refuse.”

“There is no refusal. If you reject it, I will take you by force. Just as clouds drift with the wind, I will correct the world to flow according to Heaven’s Mandate. That is the role I have been given.”

Yu Hwa’s imposing presence weighed heavily.

“What will happen if Lin goes to Baeyun Gorge?”

“The world will regain stability.”

“I didn’t ask what would happen to the world. I asked what will happen to Lin.”

“The Gumiho will continue to live as it has until now. That is its Heaven’s Mandate.”

Persecuted by the same Hoyo clan, scavenging potatoes, and endlessly fleeing from youkai.

The Gumiho shoulders all the misfortune, bringing peace to the world.

“Still, I refuse. There is no peace worth obtaining by shifting misfortune onto a single young fox.”

“Despite the death looming nearby, you still cling to your trifling ego. I thought you were wise, but you are a foolish child.”

“I am better than someone who seeks safety through the sacrifice of the weak.”

“The moment you experience the cruelty of the world, you will understand how foolish your stubbornness truly is.”

Yu Hwa moved her hands.

She slowly raised her fingers.

“Please understand my position, where I cannot put the world at risk just to give you enlightenment.”

As Yu Hwa’s fingertips began to move, the clouds that enveloped the surroundings slowly began to change shape.

It was as if they gained life. The clouds converged into the shape of a gigantic hand.

Carami tilted her head back as far as she could, staring at the clouds. The area was so vast it was covered entirely in shadow. The situation felt dire.

“Lin, let’s run.”

The two immediately dashed towards the door they had entered.

However, even after passing through the door, they did not transition to the corridor of the Celestial Pavilion. They were still on the clouds.

“This space is created by my sorcery.”

Yu Hwa’s voice reverberated through the clouds.

Her formidable voice seemed to warn from the heavens.

“This is a place I can control at will, so no matter how hard you try to escape, it will be futile.”

As the cloud’s hand descended, it forcefully pushed the air surrounding them. The strong winds rushed in, pressing down on their bodies.

Lin crouched down, trying her best to curl into a ball, compressing her strength in her legs.

Boom!

She kicked off the ground and soared into the air.

As if a bomb had exploded, the clouds below burst apart.

Flying off at a sharp angle, Lin swung her tiny fists. However, the outcome was far from tiny. As Lin’s fist collided with the giant’s hand, it erupted, scattering clouds like snow.

Yu Hwa narrowed her eyes, gazing intently.

“What remarkable power.”

Even though she was born a Gumiho, she was still a Sammiho. For a three-tailed being, her strength was excessively powerful. If her tails were to increase from here…

She must subdue it here and now.

Yu Hwa closed her eyes.

She brought her hands together as if in prayer.

In that moment, the clouds began to swirl and started countless transformations. Collecting in response to something, the clouds morphed into countless hand shapes.

“Thousand Cloud Manipulation.”

A thousand hands rose, floating in the air.

Like the grasp of the dead trying to pull them into hell, the cloud hands spread their palms and rushed toward them.

“Master!”

Lin began to sprint while cradling Carami as if she were a princess. Her short legs moved without rest.

Though Lin appeared to be just an elementary school student, she had three tails. The latent power within her was on an entirely different dimension compared to when she was a single-tailed fox.

She dashed forward, kicking against the clouds with strength. Behind her, the clouds were swept away like an avalanche.

“Oh no, Master!”

“Indeed.”

To introduce Yu Hwa as Lin’s sorcery teacher, she must pass the trial given to her.

Like a tycoon genre game.

It had to be a trial befitting the top master Yu Hwa.

However, this was not how it was supposed to go. This was unforeseen. As a Sammiho, Lin could not escape on Yu Hwa’s home ground.

Carami delivered a clear answer.

“This is a failure.”

“What do you mean, Master? Doing this will get us caught!”

“We won’t die. Lin will simply have to say goodbye to me and live in Baeyun Gorge. Eating potatoes.”

“I don’t want to!”

While Lin was dodging the cloud hands with Carami in her arms, it only delayed the inevitable. In the end, there was no escape route; there was no way out.

Suddenly.

A hand emerged from the clouds, grabbing Lin’s ankle. Lin fell, and Carami was tossed away, rolling on the clouds.

“Ouch!”

As she kicked upwards to shake off the hand, her upper hands, for just a moment, got overlapped by layers of grasping fingers.

Even kicking and swatting, the endlessly advancing clouds formed a great tomb. Within, Lin was unable to budge.

Finally, when all the hands dispersed, Lin found herself bound by the clouds. She glared up at Yu Hwa, her eyes wide open.

“Yikes! Not Grandma! But a wicked old witch!”

“Go ahead and spill out everything you want to say. I will gladly take such criticism.”

Before sending the Gumiho back to Baeyun Gorge, the tails must be returned to their original state. But before that, the shackles binding the soul must be released…

‘What an extraordinary magic.’

Yu Hwa attempted to break the shackles, but they did not budge. They were entwined so tightly that unless it was the person who placed them, they could not be released.

Yu Hwa shifted her gaze to Carami. With no abilities, Carami could not suppress Lin like this.

“Release it.”

“What if I refuse?”

“If you refuse, then just remain still. I will take care of it myself.”

“What can you possibly do…?”

In that moment, Carami’s focus turned hazy.

This was Yu Hwa’s mental control.

Even calling it sorcery felt embarrassing. Ensnaring people is a basic trait of a fox.

Carami would realize she was being manipulated by a thousand-year-old grandmother and might spit blood, but at least now was not the time.

Yu Hwa entered into Carami’s mental world.

She saw it.

The chain connected to Lin.

If she commanded Carami’s consciousness to let go, it would end.

‘Her magical power is at a pathetic level, yet this is truly fascinating. Where did she learn such skills… hmm?’

There was another chain. It seems she made a contract not with Lin, but with someone else.

To be a slave of such a man.

There must be a sordid story behind it.

It’s quite pitiful.

Perhaps she could release both Lin and this other contract at the same time.

It was just then that Yu Hwa touched the chain.

The moment she did, a massive force surged in!

‘What?’

Consciousness got sucked up along the chain.

Yu Hwa’s consciousness reached another mental realm.

A universe bound by shackles.

Countless pieces of knowledge scattered like the Milky Way.

Enormous death gods like sentinels.

And then.

“How dare you.”

A girl in a maid outfit stood at the center of the universe.

“Do you dare touch the insignia of me and my Master? A mere messenger of the heavens?”

In her current form, Yu Hwa was akin to a form of astral projection; she had no real presence.

However, the girl was clearly glaring at Yu Hwa. An unfathomable hostility was directed at her, so immense that it was difficult to maintain consciousness.

“You… who are you?”

“I am the eternal servant of my Master. How dare you, ignorant of your rank, meddle with my Master’s mind? Even among witches, I cannot tolerate this.”

The witch passes judgment.

“You shall be executed immediately.”

The enormous death god swings a scythe.

Yu Hwa’s body does not move an inch.

At the moment when the word ‘death’ dominated her mind.

Seize!

Yu Hwa discharged all her spirit power and resisted, barely managing to escape.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Panting and stumbling, Yu Hwa’s complexion was ashen, as if she had just crossed the line between life and death.

Though it was but a brief moment, it felt like an eternity to Yu Hwa. Sweat drenched her body from her head to her tail.

“Huh?”

Carami’s mind began to return.

After blinking several times, she regained her focus.

‘What’s this? Something feels extremely disgusting.’

Her mind was hazy, and the image of the grandmother, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath, loomed in front of her. An indescribable feeling of disgustingness surged within her.

If possible, she wanted to take out her brain right now and wash it clean.

Boom!

In the meantime, as the strength of the Thousand Cloud Manipulation waned, Lin instinctively unleashed her spirit power. The cloud hands burst at once and vanished.

“Growwwl.”

In a beastly posture, Lin glared at Yu Hwa as if she would kill her. Around Lin, her crimson spirit power surged like a flame.

Lin charged forward, kicking her hind legs, diving toward Yu Hwa.

“Ugh.”

Not yet fully aware, Yu Hwa collapsed weakly. Lin grasped her arm tightly, her heterochromatic eyes flashing as she bared her fangs.

As if ready to bite into her neck at any moment.

“Please don’t kill her, Lin. She’s going to be your teacher.”

With her arms crossed, Carami looked down at Yu Hwa, who lay on the ground, a relaxed expression on her face.

Unsure of how things had unraveled, it seemed the grandmother had overdone it and was now feeling the repercussions.

For better or worse, it looks like everything has been resolved.

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