The Crimson Dragon’s Maw and the Eldest Brother’s Mockery
Red lines extended from all directions, covering the surrounding area. Seven behind me. Three ahead. Two on each side. The empty space above and below. But going below meant rushing in to train the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform myself. Above was equally dangerous; even if my intent didn’t point there now, hands of far more powerful individuals could easily reach it. “Then…”
I charged straight at the eldest senior charging toward me from behind. Seven strands of intent aimed at my limbs. The killing intent surging from beyond those strands promised that if necessary, they would break my limbs to trap me inside the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform. “Whoosh!”
The first strike aimed for my shoulder. If it hit, my shoulder would dislocate. I bent my waist slightly, dodged, placed my hand under his arm, and twisted the angle. “Stagger!”
“…!”
He staggered as he felt the power he had aimed at me shift sideways with the turn. The strands of intent shook wildly in the meantime. “Bang!”
I slipped between the shaking strands and broke out of the first layer of the encirclement. “This isn’t over.”
I had broken the encirclement, but there was still a long way to go before I could leave the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform. “The only way to exit the Cultivating Platform in one go…”
I rolled my eyes and looked far toward the cliff. Dropping from the cliff beside the Cultivating Platform would mean they wouldn’t chase me. “Twenty steps to the cliff.”
I can make it! “Tap!”
I hurried my steps and ran toward the cliff. But the elders of Changheon Gaebyeokmun moved with terrifying speed. “Puff!”
In an instant they were right behind me. Their pure physical strength was simply too high; these men needed no footwork or light-body technique. “Stand up!”
“Where are you running to!”
The rhythmic pounding of footsteps came from behind. Six or seven burly giants, eyes bloodshot and chasing without regard to gender. “He’s going toward the cliff! Catch him!”
A bald, muscular senior chased me while shouting. “Crack!”
Two elders reached for my shoulder at the same time. I read their intent and bent my body to dodge. “Boom!”
Red lines shot up from the ground toward my legs. I pushed off the ground while bent and shot forward. A pair of hands sprang up from where I had stood and grabbed at empty air. “Gurgle gurgle gurgle!”
From above, a bald, muscular senior fell like a meteor toward me. “Tap, slap!”
I stepped lightly with footwork and dodged. “Boom!”
The woman who fell landed where I had stood and reached out with her fingers. Her thick fingers scratched the spot where I had been; when there was no reaction, she shot toward where I had dodged. “Whoosh!”
I twisted half a step and dodged, then blasted her away with a light strike before running toward the cliff again. “Now only eight steps to the cliff!”
“A fresh newcomer is running away!”
“Catch him!”
“I can definitely escape!”
I chuckled and stepped with footwork even faster. But then— “Puff puff puff!”
Dozens of red lines erupted from the ground into the air. “Damn it…”
Puff, puff, puff!
And from beneath the ground, several Soun, Samoun disciples emerged. “Where are you running to…!?”
“We can’t let you get away…!”
A total of sixteen elders blocked my path. Thousands of lines of intent filled the space ahead. There was no way forward. But in the world of intent I had entered, I closed my eyes instead. Dozens, hundreds of intent strands blocked my vision. I couldn’t avoid all the attacks. And without Muhyeong Sword or Ganghwan Dao I couldn’t counterattack. Then— “I’ll use them against them.”
“Tap!”
I used my intent to deflect one incoming hand with the Light Strike, then channeled the attack to another elder with the Power Peak of the Void. “Kyeok!”
Boom, boom, boom!
Several fist shadows came at me. I received the leg power rushing toward me and threw it back at the elder chasing from behind, then absorbed the fist coming from the side and redirected it to the elder extending his leg. Reading dozens of intent strands and redirecting hundreds of attacks to other targets, I avoided countless hands and finally broke through the group of elders and juniors. “Boom!”
And I leaped straight down below the cliff. “Finally… I’m out!”
Just as I let out a sigh of relief— “…!”
Gurgle gurgle gurgle!
From the cliff a massive earthen hand burst forth and reached toward me. “Damn it…”
I had forgotten they were actually humans. But the moment of surprise passed. I quickly analyzed the situation, saw the earthen hand reaching for me, twisted my body in the air, and braced myself. And— “Thud!”
The hand was about to touch my foot. “Now!”
I shone my eyes and reversed the hand’s power, leaping even farther with it. “Paaang!”
The summit of the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform vanished instantly from view. The elders of the Cultivating Platform licked their lips as they watched me grow distant. The summit, the Wooden Peak, the Earth Peak, the Metal Peak of the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform passed before my eyes in an instant. And— “…Huh?”
I felt an ominous premonition and turned back. I had leaped even farther by reversing the power of the earthen hand that left the Cultivating Platform, but the direction I was heading… “Fire— Fire Peak’s Cultivating Platform!”
I quickly realized the truth and desperately changed direction, but it was already too late. “Fwoosh!”
A massive flame dragon opened its mouth and swallowed me flying through the air. “Kwoor!”
I was bitten by the flame dragon and fell somewhere, surrounded by scorching heat. “Damn…”
I dodged the tiger and fell into the bear’s den. “Haha, newcomer. Flying through the air and coming to our Fire Peak’s Cultivating Platform? That means you’re here to train the Fire Peak’s Immortal Tower Technique?”
“Hey, wait. Have you tried the newcomer’s spiritual root? If it’s not a Fire Spiritual Root, it’s proper to transfer him to another Cultivating Platform!”
“Haha, I used my flame dragon’s technique right away. This guy definitely has a Fire Spiritual Root!”
Fwoosh!
The flame dragon that had swallowed me turned into a flaming rope and bound me tightly. “Thud, thud, thud, thud!”
Around me, several Fire Peak’s Cultivating Platform elders whose bodies were glowing red surrounded me. “…I think I came in by mistake. Could you please let me out…?”
“Haha. Here, everyone, bring up another log, the newcomer has arrived!”
My words were ignored and I was bound tightly and tied to the pyre. “From now on I’ll tell you the secret to the Fire Peak’s Immortal Tower Technique. Listen carefully.”
“Ah, I know it.”
“Ah, you know it? Good, then. Everyone, roast the newcomer!”
And flames began to rise from the pile of wood beneath me. “Newcomer, if you use the Fire Peak’s Immortal Tower Technique well, there will be no problem. Do your best.”
At the same time I was engulfed in flames. *** “Fwoosh!”
I gritted my teeth as I forced myself to operate the Fire Peak’s Immortal Tower Technique while wrapped in flames. It felt like my whole body was turning to charcoal, but at least I wouldn’t die. “It hurts.”
It hurt unbearably. It felt like I was being smoked by a fire. But inside the flames I could sense something. “Ah… I see…”
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…
From my past life. For a thousand years trapped as “General Seo” I had felt nothing. Pain. I felt pain and realized something. “It hurts. But… to hurt is…”
“To be alive.”
“Yes… I am…”
I am alive! “Flash!”
“Hoo…”
I absorbed the flames according to the secret of the Fire Peak’s Immortal Tower Technique and grinned inside the flickering flames. “I haven’t felt physical pain for too long, so I was being overly cautious.”
The visual effect was also tremendous, so I was startled. But was there anything more painful than this pain? “No, there isn’t.”
I realized there was something more painful than pain while suffering in the flames. Death. Failing to accomplish anything, saving no one, powerless and wretchedly closing my eyes in a state of utter defeat. Wasn’t that more painful? “Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…”
“Chi…”
In the scorching heat I instead regained my cool. “In any case, I can become strong.”
With this kind of training I could gather strength enough not to die powerless anymore. Not to collapse miserably anymore. “What was I doing until now…”
I shouldn’t have been doing this. Even now Kim Yeon was suffering under the mad Goe-gun. The Gold Spirit Thunder Gate and Jeon Myeong-hoon who would be exterminated by a True Immortal in several decades for sure. Oh Hye-seo who might suffer at Seo Huel’s hands. Kang Min-hee who went mad in Black Ghost Valley and would destroy the entire Black Ghost Valley. Changhoza who would die someday and Oh Hyun-seok who would become a wreck afterward. To save everyone. Or at least to understand how things would turn out. “I can’t just sit here pretending to be dumb, Seo Eun-hyun!”
I grinned inside the sizzling flames and faced the elders and juniors watching us with delight. “Eldest seniors, juniors, seniors…!”
It hurt. But for the first time in a long time I felt as if I had thought of something proper inside the pain. “Is that all!? You thought the Fire Peak’s Cultivating Platform was hot so you had some expectations, but this is just lukewarm. Is this a fire or not?”
At my words the veins bulged on the faces of the elders who had started the fire. “I’m going to catch a cold because it’s too cold! Give me more! The juniors are catching colds!”
“Ha, haha…”
At my words the three seniors whose veins bulged on their faces started laughing. “Hahahaha! Okay, this is a real gem! Yes, newcomer! I’ll do as you say! If my cute newcomer catches a cold it would be terrible! You lot, bring some lava over there!”
I laughed while turning into charcoal. Yes, I had only just returned to humanity from the puppet not long ago. I had been overly cautious. I regained my senses today. The time for pretentiousness was over. Become strong! Even more strongly! *** From a certain day onward. Strange tales began to spread through the Five Elements Cultivating Platform of Changheon Gaebyeokmun. “Hey, did you hear the rumor? Early in the morning if you go to the Fire Peak’s Cultivating Platform you’ll see a newcomer tied up since dawn.”
“Ah, really?”
“But listen. What’s scary is that if you eat breakfast and go to the Metal Peak’s Cultivating Platform, a newcomer exactly like the one burned in the morning is being skinned in the Metal Peak’s Cultivating Platform.”
“Oh, a hardworking newcomer?”
“No, the story isn’t over yet. Now it’s lunchtime and I passed through the Earth Peak’s Cultivating Platform on the way. The guy who was in the Metal Peak until morning was trying to enter the deepest pool in the Earth Peak’s Cultivating Platform.”
“Whoa… Training in three Cultivating Platforms…? Is that possible?”
“That’s what I’m saying. But what’s even scarier is that when I was coming up after dinner, a newcomer exactly like that one was receiving wound training in the Wooden Peak’s Cultivating Platform.”
“Whoa…? Must have seen it wrong?”
“How could that be? And this one I don’t know if I saw wrong, but in the middle of the night one of the disciples passing by the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform saw a newcomer exactly like the one I saw emerging from under the ground of the Mountain Leader’s Cultivating Platform…”
“What, could five sets of twins have entered Changheon Gaebyeokmun at the same time?”
“If that were true it would have been a strange enough rumor. But there’s no such rumor. In short…”
“They’re all the same person?”
The two burly men who were talking widened their eyes in surprise. “Whoa, they’re training everything in the Five Elements Cultivating Platform? What kind of rumor is that?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Usually in the Five Elements Immortal Tower Technique only one of the five techniques is mastered and one moves on to the Holy Light Body Technique, but…”
“So the newcomer has a Five Spiritual Root?”
“That’s what they say. Because he has a Five Spiritual Root he wants to master all five techniques of the Five Elements Immortal Tower Technique.”
“…He’s crazy.”
“If he masters all five techniques of the Five Elements Immortal Tower Technique he’ll have enormous internal strength toward the Five Elements themselves… Huh, wait!”
One of the burly men pointed at something. “That’s the newcomer!”
“Oh, that newcomer?”
The two men looked at a man climbing the mountain path from early morning with curious expressions. *** I glanced at the two elders arguing far away and caught my breath, then climbed the Five Elements Peak. It had been about three months since I began serious training in the Five Elements Peak. Nine months since my regression. I was training with the mad training method of the Five Elements Peak, the enormous heaven and earth spiritual energy of the Gwanghan Realm, and the good spiritual veins of Changhan-do where spiritual veins gathered even within the Gwanghan Realm. And now I had reached the peak of Qi Condensation. “I have mastered the Five Elements Entry Path.”
“Hoo…”
As I exhaled, multicolored clouds swirled around me and flowed into my body. After mastering the Five Elements Entry Path I was also carefully training the Five Elements Immortal Tower Technique in the Five Elements Peak. “Crack, crack…”
I clenched and unclenched my fists. Compared to three months ago my body had become dramatically tougher and stronger. In terms of physical strength alone it was comparable to a mid-stage Earth Peak disciple’s body strength with strong energy flowing through his body in the Foundation Establishment realm. “Combining the basic techniques I understood with the Light Strike Afterward Tong, the body of mid-stage Earth Peak level, and up to the realm of Five Qi Consorting with the Origin…”
Even at the current Qi Condensation level I would be able to fight a mid-stage Earth Peak disciple. “No, with the Goe-gun circuit I can neutralize the opponent’s law energy…”
My actual combat power would reach late-stage Foundation Establishment even without the puppets. “Crack, crack…”
I clenched and unclenched my fists while organizing my thoughts. “It’s not enough.”
But I wasn’t particularly satisfied. I was still barely at the level of Foundation Establishment power. Of course my growth speed wasn’t slow. The body of perfect harmony in Five Qi Consorting with the Origin quickly assimilated the body strengthening. The harmony between my reconstructed body and the body technique of the Immortal Tower was excellent. The elders and juniors of Changheon Gaebyeokmun were also amazed at my growth. “But it’s still not enough!”
I clenched my fist even harder and looked up at the Five Elements Peak. “I have to go faster… higher.”
With this I still couldn’t save anyone. I made up my mind and began climbing toward the Five Elements Peak again. “Gurgle gurgle gurgle!”
That day I held my breath in the deepest pool of the Earth Peak and practiced sword techniques while holding the sword in the thickly pressured water. Remember the basics! Engrave them constantly into my body! “Kuku guk!”
The water pressure seemed to crush my whole body. “Not enough.”
While training the Danak Sword Art I constantly analyzed the future Earth Peak techniques in my mind and prepared the Light Strike Afterward Tong practice. “Not enough!”
“Woo woo!”
In that state I also trained the Strange Star-Mind Scroll of Goe-gun. Usually if you train several techniques at once you have a high chance of being sucked into the demon. It was when the heart demon came or the qi and blood exploded. “Whoosh!”
Suddenly blood rushed to my head and my skull throbbed. A murderous impulse to smash everything in front of me welled up. The symptom of entering the demon. But I solved the entering the demon very simply. “Boom!”
I raised my fist and punched my own face. “Kwaang!”
Blood rushed to my head and the exploding qi and blood burst out. The air filling my lungs flew out and rose up. “Kukuruk, kuk…”
The Strange Star-Mind Scroll? The heart demon? Those troublesome things were just minor annoyances that arose when there was free thought. When your life hangs by a thread you can’t think of those stupid things and they naturally fly away. “Kukuruk, kuk…”
I exhaled the air inside the water pressure and sent a structural signal. “Crack!”
Green spiritual energy swam toward me, grabbed my body, and pulled me up above the water. A while later. “Poo hak!”
I took in the air with a sweet taste and regained my senses. “Woo woo!”
One of the elders with a Five Spiritual Root placed his hand on my head and was treating my wound. “Ah, senior. Thank you.”
“Yeah, well… it’s good that you’re working hard, but aren’t you pushing it too hard lately?”
From the mouth of a burly Five Elements Peak elder such words came out because I was training like a madman. “If you try anything too quickly something bad happens. Adjust appropriately.”
It was a surprisingly warm story for someone who threw stones into the water while dangling them from the ankles of Soun and Samoun disciples. I nodded and told him I understood. “Now the treatment is over.”
“Thank you.”
I thanked him and immediately jumped back into the water. Above the surface I saw the expressions of the elders slightly wrinkling their noses. I glanced at their expressions and descended into the deep abyss. “Woo!”
I operated the Five Elements Entry Path and used the spiritual energy to breathe underwater for a moment. “Hoo…”
It seemed funny to breathe underwater, but surprisingly those who had mastered the Water Realm Technique were able to do such things. Since it didn’t help with lung capacity training I had avoided it, but I formed a bond and opened my mouth. “Store Map, open.”
“Woo!”
The scroll tied at my waist rose into the air and unfolded beside me. The scroll-shaped Store Map Technique I had obtained from the previous Lord of the Seo Spirit Gate was one type of the Store Map Technique generally called the Store Map. I took out the jade plaque I had stolen from the previous Lord of the Seo Spirit Gate from the Store Map. The jade plaque was inscribed with the technique secret in the language of the Gwanghan Realm. The name of the technique was the Three Spirit Technique. It created three clones, stored them safely, and when the main body was in danger and all techniques were lost, it was a technique to regain the techniques through the clones. It was a technique that seemed suitable for Nascent Soul and above disciples who often lost their own body. The peculiarity was that the maximum number of clones was three and that beyond that the performance of the clones gradually declined. That was why there seemed to be a problem if you tried to regain the techniques through clones whose performance had fallen. Conversely, it was said that if you made only one clone instead of three or more the power was as strong as the main body. “In short, at the same time as making a clone as an insurance against losing life safety and future techniques, this is a technique that uses the clone for offense too.”
It seemed worth using. And just as I was reading the Three Spirit Technique again— “Wait.”
I looked at the secret of the Three Spirit Technique and used the spiritual energy to write the secret of the Military Horse Prison Shadow Fist Technique into the water. Then I hurriedly compared the two secrets. “Wait, these techniques…”
I read both secrets at the same time and realized something.