Here is the English translation of
The group returned to the hideout. As they entered through the back door, Zhang Yong noticed that Mine was carefully avoiding his gaze.
While the others dispersed to rest, Zhang Yong remained standing by the window, looking out at the nearby forest.
'Belial, did you feel that?' Zhang Yong couldn't help but try to confirm his suspicions.
"You mean that echo of heaven and earth? That's not a rare thing," Belial shrugged nonchalantly.
"I think I'm overthinking it," Zhang Yong said sarcastically.
"You think?" Belial said, his eyebrow raised calmly, his tone full of mockery.
But there was one constant in Zhang Yong's relationship with Belial: no matter what happened, he would never trust him.
After a night of rest, Zhang Yong exited his room, reading his journal. 'Hmm, yes, about a week remains until the timing of Lubock's death, and after that.... Mine's matter.' Zhang Yong sighed quietly. There wasn't much left until the end of this world and his return to his previous world.
Then he opened his eyes and said calmly, "Is there something I can help you with, Mine?"
A sound of "Eek!" came from the corner, where Mine appeared. She felt embarrassed for a second before composing herself.
"I wanted... to apologize," she whispered in a low voice, her eyes meeting his cold gaze. "What I said yesterday... I didn't mean it."
Zhang Yong closed the journal slowly, then raised an eyebrow. "No need to apologize."
"I didn't mean to hurt you!" She stepped forward impulsively, her fist clenched tightly around the edge of her coat. "I only said those things because I was angry at Leone, I never meant them."
Zhang Yong sighed and gave a light flick to her forehead. "You're not listening. I said I'm not upset. It's clear Leon was provoking you. I'm not blind, and if I were in the same situation, I would have answered the same way. So let's stop this ridiculous drama because I can't stand it."
Mine's face suddenly flushed red from the flick on her forehead, but her eyes began to gleam with a strange light. "So... you're not angry?"
"No." Zhang Yong turned his back, putting the journal in his pocket. "But if you want to make it up to me, you can help me with something."
"Anything!" Mine rushed forward eagerly, then suddenly stopped, realizing she had been too enthusiastic. "I mean... what is it?"
Zhang Yong slowly turned towards her, his blue eyes carrying a mischievous glint. "Come to my room for the usual dual training tonight."
Mine trembled slightly upon hearing his request.
It's the same as always, right?
Nothing else?
"O-Okay, I'll be there."
Zhang Yong nodded with a faint smile, turned away, and left the place.
As Zhang Yong walked away, Mine felt her heart pound rapidly. She wasn't sure if it was from excitement or fear, perhaps a mixture of both.
Zhang Yong looked at the journal in his hand and smiled as if this were the final moment. "Time to make this journal useful."
After descending to the kitchen, Susanno had already prepared breakfast together with Akame.
After Zhang Yong quickly ate his breakfast, he immediately left towards the nearby forest and took out his bone sword.
He held it in his palm and smiled. "There's still room for improvement."
Then he cut his finger and began drawing symbols on the sword's surface. The symbols might have looked random, but up close, they resembled a miniature formation.
'If I could enchant this weapon, it would be wonderful. The sword would be treated as the formation's eye, saving time.'
Just as Zhang Yong finished, he raised the sword, plunged it into the ground, and infused it with his spiritual energy. Rocky chunks burst forth from all directions around where Zhang Yong stood—a first-grade earth-element defensive formation. Not strong, but sufficient.
Then Zhang Yong pulled the sword from the ground and examined it carefully. 'I can't add a new property without adding an earth attribute, but if I use the Five Elements Replacement to convert earth into metal, that would be more practical.'
Zhang Yong raised the bone sword before his eyes, where the blood-drawn lines began to glow with a faint light. "Convert earth to metal... let's see."
He closed his eyes and began to feel the flow of energy within his body. The five elements circulated in an integrated system inside him.
According to the Five Elements Order, metal nourishes water, water nourishes wood, wood nourishes fire, fire nourishes earth, and finally, earth nourishes metal.
Following this cycle, the Five Elements Replacement technique operated. Its weakness was that this cycle had to be sequential, thus making it predictable what it would transform into. That was its flaw.
He stabbed his sword into the ground and activated the formation. Suddenly, the sword trembled in his hand, and the surrounding rocky chunks rose. Then he performed the Five Elements Replacement, and they began to crack, slowly transforming into solid metal chunks.
"So... it succeeded," he whispered, touching the surface of the new metallic rock, feeling the coldness of the metal under his fingers.
But suddenly, one of the metal parts exploded into small pieces. Zhang Yong jumped back quickly, his eyes widening as he watched the defensive formation begin to collapse.
"Still unstable..."
The fundamental flaw wasn't in Zhang Yong's technique, but in the formation itself. If Zhang Yong hadn't refined that sword from human bones and instead crafted a sword attuned to the natures of the five elements, the result would have been better.
Upgrading the weapon was unimportant to him. After all, when he eventually returned to his world, he would lose his spiritual energy, and with it, his ability to create these kinds of formations without spiritual energy.
In the past, he used formation flags made of materials that preserved spiritual energy, allowing him to use formations solely with his mental energy. Later, he transitioned to using spiritual stones directly. The higher the formation's level, the more he had to expend, requiring rarer materials.
Thanks to his reincarnation paths, he possessed knowledge of seventh-grade formations and could easily rely on his formation path skill to merge them and obtain even more powerful formations.
But again, high-level formations required high-level resources. What good was knowledge if you couldn't apply it?
On the other hand, Zhang Yong had learned to apply two properties in his incantation path, which... was something anyone could do with enough practice.
For example, Liu yan's Great Wind and Lightning talisman was a fusion of a lightning talisman and a wind talisman to increase rapid offensive power. As unremarkable as it might seem, for her age, reaching that level required some talent.
Yes, in terms of talent, Zhang Yong might not be number one, but in terms of knowledge, this was a gap in the Tian Xuan Continent. The talisman path hadn't progressed beyond the sixth grade, and alchemy beyond the fifth grade.
If not for this imbalance, the continent would be much more prosperous, and many talents would have emerged.
...
That evening, as the sun set behind the distant capital mountains, the atmosphere had become eerily quiet. No birds flew, no beasts roamed.
Mine entered Zhang Yong's room cautiously, her eyes searching for any sign of his presence.
The room was excessively tidy, the bed covered with a soft white sheet. 'This... is unexpectedly organized,' she whispered to herself.
Then she looked at the bed and decided to arrange the pillows a bit to make them more comfortable for training. While she lifted a pillow, she heard the sound of something heavy falling to the floor.
"What? What's this?" She bent down to see a small black notebook that had fallen from under the pillow. Its cover was simple, bearing no title or decoration. But she recognized it. It was that notebook Zhang Yong always carried.
'Zhang Yong's journal...'
She looked at the notebook, then around her. 'Should... I read it? No, I can't invade his privacy.... But... it's his fault for leaving it in plain sight!'
Her heart pounded rapidly, but she was still curious. 'Maybe there's something embarrassing...'
She opened the first page, then the second... then stopped. Her eyes widened suddenly, her fingers trembling as she held the notebook.
[Chelsea will die during her fight with Seryu, thus allowing the Empire to get rid of a Night Raid member.]
[Bulat will die from his injuries against the three beasts. No matter what, I must not interfere too much so that he dies.]
[Susanoo and Chelsea will die during the Pollic mission. This is something that must not change.]
[An error occurred. Susanoo survived unexpectedly. This was a miscalculation on my part. I must measure the consequences of this event.]
[Lubock will die soon after he and Tatsumi are kidnapped by the Wild Hunt.]
[I must get rid of the night raid]
...
The pages were filled with detailed dates and events, as if it were a pre-written script. Even more terrifying... there were notes in Zhang Yong's own handwriting.
"The events must not change. They must die."
The notebook fell from her hand. Her heartbeats thundered in her ears like lightning.
All this time... he was planning. He was planning their deaths! He betrayed them!
He's a traitor!
"What... what is this..." Her voice trembled, tears of anger beginning to fill her eyes. "Impossible... How could he... how?!"
At that moment, the door opened quietly.
Zhang Yong stood in the doorway, his blue eyes looking at her coldly. Then he looked at the notebook on the floor and pretended as if everything was happening spontaneously, while in reality, it was all his plan.
"Ah," he said calmly, as if talking about the weather. "You found it."
Mine rushed towards him, her eyes burning with anger. "Is it true?! All this time, you've been a traitor?!"
He didn't deny it. He didn't hesitate. He just nodded. "Yes."
He had already planned for this. The mission was to 'join,' not 'stay.' There was no condition requiring him to complete the world with the team. Exploiting this loophole, he decided to leave the group only.
"Why?!" she screamed, her voice almost choking with pain. "How can you sit with us, laugh with us, while betraying us?!"
"Yes, of course I would betray you," Zhang Yong raised his arm slowly, his blue eyes reflecting no regret. "Because this is simply your fate."
Mine was silent for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Then she exploded: "Our fate?! And who gave you the right to decide our destiny?!"
Zhang Yong's lips moved into a cold smile. "I decided nothing." He stepped closer to her, his shadow covering her trembling body. "No matter what happens, your end must be as decreed."
Mine raised her fist, trembling with rage, her eyes glistening with tears. "What kind of monster are you?! All this time... we were just chess pieces to you?!"
Zhang Yong didn't move. His cold, icy blue eyes stared at her without a shred of remorse. "Death is not the end. Don't worry, I will ensure that not a trace of you remains in this world."
"You're insane!" she screamed, lunging at him with her fist, but she stopped just a few centimeters from his body. "Please... tell me this is a lie... tell me you don't mean what you say, that this is a misunderstanding."
Zhang Yong slowly raised his hand and forcefully pushed her trembling fist mid-air. His blue eyes, resembling Arctic ice, showed no hesitation.
"If it were a lie... I would have invented a story of my own , you're also idiots for accepting me so easily"
The roaring sound of the wind outside the window was the only sound filling the room for long seconds.
Mine stepped back, her eyes wide with shock and pain. Tears streamed down her cheeks like torrents, but she didn't wipe them away.
"You... monster," she whispered in a broken voice, then suddenly turned and rushed towards the door.
Zhang Yong didn't try to stop her. He just stood there, listening to the sound of her rapid footsteps fading down the corridor.
Zhang Yong raised his hand to his hair and ran it through it coldly. "Good. Now I have to leave. It's been a good run."
Zhang Yong had thought about it for a long time. Because of what Zhang Yong had provided to Mine so far, she felt gratitude towards him, which she mistakenly identified as personal feelings.
And after Tatsumi saved her, the attraction that was supposed to make her love him had weakened. Thus, it was uncertain, leaving her torn between feelings of gratitude or fondness towards both Tatsumi and Zhang Yong.
Would she choose the person who helped her become stronger and hurt the feelings of the one she liked? Or would she deny his kindness and choose her personal feelings?
This decision alone made her feelings extremely complex. Therefore, Zhang Yong introduced the harshest human emotion:
Betrayal.
Betrayal was undoubtedly the worst, because it never came from an enemy, but from someone close.
By presenting himself as a traitor, Zhang Yong aimed to sever any kind of feelings towards him
Consequently, all those feelings would be cast towards the other side, towards Tatsumi.
Zhang Yong walked calmly towards the door and closed it, planning to jump out the window.
But suddenly, he heard a knock on the door.
Zhang Yong turned, sighed, and opened the door. "Who is it?"
As soon as he opened the door, Tatsumi stood outside, an unreadable expression on his face. "Zhang Yong."
Zhang Yong sighed and turned away. "I don't want any trouble, so leave imm—"
Pow!
At that moment, a sharp black blade pierced Zhang Yong's heart, going through his back and exiting his chest.
Zhang Yong's pupils shrank to pinpricks as he struggled to look behind him—
"Tatsumi? You!"
Yet Tatsumi's gaze was empty, radiating a fierce killing intent.
Zhang Yong forced his body to move, kicking Tatsumi away as his back slammed against the wall.
Then he ran with all his might to jump out the window, but suddenly a pure white shadow appeared, with two wings of black feathers. It was Run!
His wing extended and pierced through the middle of Zhang Yong's body. Blood gushed like a fountain from the deep wound.
Zhang Yong fell to his knees, his hands pressing against his torn chest, his blue eyes widening in shock.
"What... is happening?" he whispered in a hoarse voice, his mouth filling with blood.
He quickly activated his spiritual energy through his body, but it dissipated in an instant.
He cursed internally, used Death Qi, and pushed himself, breaking through the wall and starting to run down the corridor with difficulty.
Zhang Yong's blood gushed profusely onto the dark corridor floor, his heavy footsteps echoing off the hideout's stone walls. Every movement tore his body further, but he did not stop.