Chapter 34
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Calculation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A colossal wave of qi unfurled in the cramped space, shoving only So-hyang away while barely touching the documents or furnishings.
The direction she was pushed toward was where the window sat—surely an invitation to relocate for the fight.
So-hyang didn't refuse.
With a deafening boom, her body rocketed away like a cannonball fired from a warship.
"Hahaha! You're one hot-blooded lady!"
Even without resisting, she plummeted from the office on the seventh floor to the open ground outside in an instant.
The gap between a warrior nearing the Absolute Realm and one who had truly attained it was as vast as the heavens.
Not just the sheer volume of internal energy or the skill in controlling it—their very physiques had perfectly transcended mortal limits.
And from the direction of the office, a spear forged of Gang Qi hurtled forth.
Its size resembled a standard javelin, but the power packed within was immense. Its speed, too.
So-hyang met the comet-like spear slicing through the air with the edge of her hand, deflecting it aside.
This wasn't mere spirit qi; she infused it with her intent as well, for the Gang Qi was no trifling foe.
The deflected spear slammed into the earth, erupting in an explosion from its overwhelming physical force.
"Whew, my hand's tingling."
The density of the Gang Qi was incomparable to what she'd faced before.
Unlike Lee Se-min, who merely released tangible force, this was stably materialized, with compressed internal energy on another level entirely.
The Alliance Leader had been right. She could now feel just how weak Lee Se-min had been, even among those in the Absolute Realm.
There was no respite.
Javelins rained down in succession—dozens of them, like the tasting round was over.
"...Whoa, what is this, a multiple rocket launcher?"
Considering the sheer power they carried—far beyond any mere rockets—they might as well have been salvoes from an aircraft carrier.
This was the presence of the Absolute Realm.
Those who reached the Transcendent Realm were said to shed their mortal shell and ascend to a higher existence.
In the conventional sense, the Absolute Realm transcended humanity as well.
If a Transcendent was akin to a tsunami or massive storm, an Absolute wielded power comparable to the strategic weapons of a past life's legends.
And with such immense might fully governed by human will, their effective combat prowess was even greater.
"Ahaha! This is the best!"
And here was a being who possessed comparable power even with her essence sealed away.
So-hyang began to employ her spirit qi.
But to say she began using spirit qi now—did that mean she hadn't before?
Then what had coated her fingers and palms to parry sword qi and sword beams until this point?
To be precise, those had simply been reinforcements to her skin using spirit qi.
Now, however, she began circulating spirit qi through her body to enhance her physical abilities across the board.
In other words, everything So-hyang had shown thus far was the raw prowess of her unenhanced flesh alone.
"Shall we play for real...!"
The power she would reveal from here on would be on a wholly different plane.
The spirit sword stored in her upper dantian began steadily emanating spirit qi, which coursed through her meridians to infuse her muscles and bones.
A faint white haze shimmered around So-hyang's body, and her figure vanished.
And then.
A gruesome screech rent the air as dozens of Gang Qi spears were simultaneously shredded to bits.
"Now, take my gift in return?"
So-hyang flashed a playful smile and slashed the empty air with her hand blade, brimming with spirit qi.
A projected slash, just like the one she'd unveiled earlier through the Blood Curse.
A single white line, honed by intent, cleaved space itself, bisecting the clan head's office in twain.
An exchange of blows between powers on utterly different dimensions, over in a flash.
So-hyang grinned broadly and continued.
"Clan Head? Ranged firefights are fun and all, but when clashing with martial arts, shouldn't it be about exchanging breaths where we can see each other...?"
So come here. Or I'll come to you.
"...Very well. I'm here."
The clan head honored her request. Without warning—like space itself had contracted—he was suddenly at her rear.
No figure of speech; his movement truly skipped the intermediate steps, not even stirring a speck of dust.
A technique capable of seizing one's back—So-hyang's eyes sparkled with excitement. So this was the legendary—
"—Heavenly Mechanism Bewildering Step?"
A signature footwork of the Zhuge Clan, blending formations into martial footwork.
Originally a technique that analyzed the foe's thoughts and gaze to move as if vanishing, but at the pinnacle, like the clan head's, it could perform the miracle of folding space with each stride.
The clan head fiddled with the hem of his robe—slightly sliced by her slash—and asked in disbelief.
"...I thought fists were your specialty. A swordmaster, then?"
Come to think of it, she'd escaped the Void Formation by slashing space when entering his office.
So-hyang beamed and kindly answered his question.
"Fists are decent enough, but swords are what I handle best."
"And you're facing me barehanded?"
"I just don't feel like drawing yet."
In other words: Show me more skill. Bare hands still seem plenty for now.
A taunt no martial artist could ignore.
Clear fury surfaced on the face of the Zhuge Clan Head, hailed as the incarnation of composure and serenity.
"Fine. Prepare to be beaten to death."
He was done talking now—just as So-hyang had hoped.
The provocation had been a resounding success.
"Dunno. Might not be that easy...?"
His expression crumpled, while hers brimmed with vitality and bloomed into a radiant smile.
-----
Suddenly, the Alliance Leader's words came to mind.
A typical Absolute Realm master could infuse intent into their Gang Qi to manifest their inner image, however faintly.
A feat Lee Se-min, forcibly promoted via unorthodox methods, had never achieved.
A Transcendent's image fully transcended natural laws through the fusion of essence, qi, and spirit, manifesting their inner life and identity as a complete world.
An Absolute's fell short of that.
Where the former perfectly surpassed laws, the latter could merely distort and deviate from them to some degree.
Even the same martial art yielded vastly different results per practitioner—a thousand martial artists meant a thousand unique expressions.
Hence, they were termed Signature Ultimate Techniques.
"Whoa, what's that? A halo? A light disk?"
A single circular array had formed behind the clan head's head.
It was a geometric figure of Gang Qi, and it didn't stop at one—more arose in sequence, overlapping one another.
Combining stereoscopically, they formed the shape of a sphere.
"A Gang Orb? No, doesn't quite fit..."
The art of compressing Gang Qi into spheres, commonly called Sword Gang Compression Orbs.
Yet the internal energy emanating from the clan head's sphere wasn't particularly vast.
What stood out was the peerless precision in controlling internal energy to form a perfect sphere without a single angle.
A small sphere of Gang Qi, eschewing flashy displays of power.
This was the clan head's Signature Ultimate Technique.
"Its name is Gang Brain Formation."
The technique's name, the hallmarks of Zhuge martial arts she'd encountered thus far, the subtle play of internal energy within the sphere.
"...Ah, I get the gist."
So-hyang easily inferred what ability the clan head's ultimate technique held.
"Still, I can't be sure without experiencing it firsthand, right?"
Her leg muscles began compressing with monstrous force, and she took a step, channeling it fully.
No inevitable sonic boom from peak skill resounded, nor did the ground crack in the slightest.
"—Let's put it to the test!"
In an instant, she flanked his rear and unleashed a roundhouse kick loaded with her full leg power.
Not merely enough to crumple steel—it carried power to outright explode it.
Her leg, crushed tight by wind pressure yet fully revealing its elegant contours, arced gracefully toward the clan head's nape.
"...A test."
His figure vanished, reappearing at her side simultaneously.
The Heavenly Mechanism Bewildering Step at its zenith—movement that skipped space itself.
"—That's my role."
A fist wrapped in massively compressed Gang Qi slammed straight into So-hyang's cheek.
"Oh my."
Amid a boom that shook the surroundings, So-hyang's body shot away like a loosed arrow.
Bouncing off the ground repeatedly like a skipped stone across a river, far into the distance.
The clan head clenched and relaxed his fist, grunting in displeasure.
"...Dissipating the impact mid-strike?"
His punch shouldn't have sent her flying that far to begin with—and above all, the tactile feedback felt off.
Like striking a falling leaf. Seeing her casually brush off her clothes and rise only confirmed it.
"Whoa, that stung!"
The clan head's guess was spot on.
The impact that should have cratered her skull had dispersed entirely into the air and earth, leaving virtually no damage.
The only visible trace was a slight reddening where the Gang Qi had grazed her skin.
Even that was hard to distinguish from the flush of excitement.
"Tch."
The clan head clicked his tongue quietly.
At first, he'd assumed her recent ascension left her skills unstable, her power uncontrolled—arrogance driving her intrusion.
But her displayed prowess was far beyond that.
No ultimate technique, not even Gang Qi unleashed—and yet this barehanded display from a swordmaster was chillingly threatening.
Her qi manipulation wasn't exceptional, but her internal energy was extraordinarily pure.
And her physical abilities defied comprehension, even accounting for bone transformation.
Most astonishing of all: overwhelming skill that evaded understanding despite watching it unfold.
"Doesn't mean I'll lose, though."
The clan head murmured meaningfully and drastically altered the structure of the Gang Brain Formation hovering behind his head.
From a flawless sphere without imbalance, it shifted to a cube reminiscent of dice.
Then morphed into even more complex shapes.
Thanks to knowledge from her past life, So-hyang knew what to call such polyhedrons.
"...A regular octahedron?"
Composed more intricately than three-dimensional solids—structured in four dimensions.
The form commonly known as a tesseract.
"Hey, you madwoman. Unleash your ultimate technique."
The intricately interwoven shape refracted the sunlight pouring down, glowing in rainbow hues.
And the Heavenly Mechanism Bewildering Step unfurled.
Even more refined than before, sly enough to briefly evade So-hyang's gaze.
Suddenly, a Gang Qi axe filled his hand.
It traced an unavoidable arc, cleaving toward her neck.
"Or you might actually die."
-----
The Zhuge Clan's martial arts operated straightforwardly, scaled to the practitioner's intellect.
Dull meant weak; brilliant meant strong.
Yet human intelligence had its limits.
No matter their inborn genius bloodline or advancements via the Profound Origin Ultimate Art.
Not even bone transformation reshaping the brain or expanding the soul could change that.
Computing beyond the transcendent with an ape's bare brain was possible only for the art's creator.
The ancestors' intellect remained an enigma no one had unraveled.
Even a titmouse chasing a stork's stride tears its legs. The actual gap was far wider.
Thus, the current clan head, Zhuge Hun, humbly acknowledged his limits.
Matching the ancestors with a flesh-and-blood brain was impossible.
So he created.
An art that performed calculations via the workings of qi.
It began inspired by the abacus, evolving ever closer to perfection.
A collective of Gang Formations linked to the upper dantian.
Escaping the planar to three-dimensional forms, further subdivided into higher dimensions.
Gang Brain Formation.
The pinnacle of formations, an advanced mechanism wrought of Gang Qi.
It learned on its own, evolved, enabling computations beyond human capability—the potential for transcendence.
Should it surpass its limits at the end—
It could truly be called the God of Mechanisms.