The third line, yin: An undeserved disaster.
An ox is tethered by the road. A passerby takes it, a disaster for the people of the village.
The commentary says: The passerby gets the ox; for the villagers, a disaster.
This is a passage from the I Ching, from the Hexagram Wuwang (Undeserved).
Someone tethers their ox by the roadside, a passerby happens upon it and leads it away, but the people from the same village are suspected of being the thieves and bear the blame.
The meaning of the third line of this hexagram is an undeserved disaster.
This was a piece of feng shui knowledge that the Black Princess had learned from the Shenzhou region during her travels around the world.
When one's divination yields the third line of the Wuwang hexagram, the diviner is about to suffer misfortune.
Altrouge had not performed a divination for herself.
However—
She understood that she had just been struck by an undeserved disaster.
---o---
"Your Highness the Princess, have you been well recently?"
Like a ghost, the voice of an Immortal carried through the air, piercingly clear, and arrived at her location.
The source of the voice was a woman dressed in the attire of Shenzhou.
She had gray hair and jade-green eyes, her features like those of an immortal banished to the mortal realm.
A sky full of black and red feathers fluttered around her.
Amidst the swirling plumage, she smiled.
It was a gentle and graceful smile, reminiscent of the hazy mist and rain of a riverside town, yet her gaze held an indescribable sharpness.
Behind her stood the Black Knight, wielding his demonic sword, and the handsome yet perverse White Knight.
However, at this moment, their eyes were no longer clear. They were the same black-red as the feathers in the sky.
Damn it!
What in the world has she done?
The Black Princess, completely unable to comprehend the current situation, looked back at the Immortal who had stolen her subordinates, and gritted her teeth.
The Divine Key of Illusion—Fenghuang Down—was a Divine Key that could be divided.
Even after Li Zihan had taken a part of it, the girl named Fu Hua still retained a portion of Fenghuang Down.
As a Divine Key that dominated the mental domain, this armament was an absolute-kill weapon against any being that possessed a consciousness.
Clearly, being struck by it without any forewarning would be a terrifying affair.
And the Black Princess's two knights had suffered an attack from Fenghuang Down.
The result was obvious: the wills of the Black and White Knights had been suppressed.
They were now nothing more than puppets dancing in the Immortal's hands.
Damn it, is this woman someone the White Wing Lord hired to deal with me?
The White Wing Lord, Trhvmn Ortenrosse, was the first follower of the Crimson Moon of the UO, one of the most ancient Dead Apostles, and ranked seventeenth among the Twenty-seven Ancestors, who were ordered by their threat to humanity.
Originally a magus who transformed into a vampire, he possessed the largest territory among the Twenty-seven Ancestors and was considered a candidate for the title of King of the Dead Apostles.
As the representative of the Twenty-seven Ancestors, he held the greatest nominal authority, which put him in severe conflict with Altrouge, the de facto leader of the Dead Apostles.
And since Altrouge clearly had no intention of abdicating and handing over the crown of the King of the Dead Apostles, her relationship with him was as incompatible as fire and water.
If this woman was one of the White Wing Lord's people, then this was a terrible situation.
The King of the Dead Apostles, who had lost her two most capable generals in the very first exchange, stared at the Immortal who had seized control of her knights, her expression grim.
Altrouge was in very poor condition and could not maintain her current state for long. To ensure victory, she had to end this battle quickly.
If only I had just bitten him back then, that liar who was flattering my charm while thinking of running away, and turned him into my thrall.
If he had honored the contract, she would have long since recovered her strength by drinking the blood of Phantasmal Species.
With her power restored, she could have easily crushed the White Princess, who was greatly weakened by the need to suppress her own vampiric impulse, and become the legitimate successor of the Crimson Moon, the leader of her clan...
How could she have fallen to the point of being hunted, her knights controlled by another?
Recalling the figure of a certain man, the Black Princess, who desperately craved blood, felt her mood grow agitated.
But there was no point in thinking about that now.
The King of the Dead Apostles, who had truly never expected that man to tear up their contract, narrowed her eyes at the distant Immortal.
Battle was now unavoidable.
The most important thing was to defeat this person.
She lightly raised a delicate hand. Her crimson eyes shimmered like a lover's gaze, her alluring lips parted slightly, and her slender palm began to radiate an enchanting, blood-red light!
True Ancestors were creations of nature, their essence close to that of elementals. They were noble and beautiful, not some sort of evil beings. But a fallen True Ancestor was a terrifying demon!
Clearly, this half-breed of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle was closer to a demon.
"Are you a subordinate of the White Wing Lord?"
The girl, who had resembled an unopened flower bud, seemed to break through the barrier of time, blossoming in an instant from a decade ago into a beauty in her prime.
She stared at the distant Immortal, her face, which could only be described as "perfect," filled with an icy killing intent.
Her enemy was strong, but she was not weak.
She had once fought the White Princess—whose power was three times that of Gilgamesh—to a standstill, only losing in the end due to a lack of stamina. Even gravely injured, she was not some weak woman without the strength to even tie up a chicken.
She was—
The King of the Dead Apostles!
"Release my knights, and I can be a little more gentle with you next."
The King of the Dead Apostles, having activated her power, gazed at the distant Immortal, her smile soft and bewitching.
But the killing intent in her tone was overflowing.
In truth, regardless of Fu Hua's answer, she was going to attack.
Her physical condition was extremely poor, not enough to support a prolonged battle.
"Bring it on."
Looking at the King of the Dead Apostles who, fifty thousand years ago, had relied on her extraordinary abilities to use a hypnosis art on her after her wedding, making her fall into a deep sleep while she messed around, a sinister expression never before seen appeared on the Immortal's face.
If I hadn't felt something was wrong with my body and installed a pinhole camera in the wall, I probably would have never known a thing.
Recalling the scene she saw after retrieving the camera, the Immortal's body couldn't help but tremble.
That girl Stargazer at least only had an affair...
This one, holy crap, was messing around while wearing my own wedding dress and bridal gown! And before that, she even fucking hypnotized me and hid me under the bed!
Recalling the actions of a certain King of the Dead Apostles, the Immortal's face grew darker and darker.
True, the Stargazer and Black Princess of fifty thousand years ago might have tormented her precisely because of her current actions. If she could make peace here and now, she might be able to change the past.
But—
Seeing this face still pissed her off so much.
"Although it's a bit unreasonable to seek revenge on the you of this era, a debt, after all, must be repaid by someone."
The Immortal, whose relationship with the King of the Dead Apostles had soured to the extreme, tossed the Black Princess's knights aside and then clenched her fist.
"The debt owed by your future self, you will repay it now!"