Sudden Chaos (1)
*CLACK!*
The bony fingers of the skeletal marionette pierced deep into my skull. My soul, lodged in the crown chakra, felt it grasp me tight in its grip. “Kwaaagh…!”
At that same instant, the transmission array activated, and we began to leap through space.
Piiiiit!
A torrent of light surged around us, rushing us toward the human realm. Yet my heart seized with terror. “It’s still chasing us…!”
*CRUNCH!*
The skeletal puppet, still clutching my soul remnant, used the Four Pillars realm to pursue us through space, following the transmission itself!
Woo-woong!
“My soul remnant is being ripped out!”
The problem wasn’t just the head; even if it could regrow after being severed, the puppet’s circuits had already burrowed into my soul remnant. If things continued, my soul remnant would be torn free and only my flesh would be sent back—goodbye to any future life. “No… not even a next life. Perhaps only my soul would be captured by the One-Gate Refiner… either way, the worst outcome!”
“Damn you, Prince Seo… or Crown Prince Seo…”
*KAGH!*
Wrapped in the light of the transmission, I struggled through space while desperately grabbing the two hands of the Four Pillars puppet that still clung to us. “Either way, I can’t stand it…”
*KIIIIING!*
Using my soul remnant, I began to reverse-control the puppet’s circuits. “Shut it down…!”
Woo-woong!
*CRACK!*
Gradually, my strength pushed the puppet’s hands back. The puppet’s body began to be shoved beyond the transmission’s light. But it poured all its power into thrusting its body deeper into the light. “Hwaaaaa!”
And that was the exact moment I roared and shoved it away. *BOOM!*
From behind me came thick hands and thin ones. Two sets of hands seized the puppet. Oh Hyun-seok and Kim Yeon. “Shut up and get lost!”
“Go back to the One-Gate Refiner!”
Oh Hyun-seok used the brute force from his body refinement technique. Kim Yeon connected to the puppet through the Strange Star-Mind Scroll and gradually pushed it back. Each of them helped me in turn. *THUD, THUD, THUD!*
But it wasn’t over. “You call yourselves toys of the One-Gate Refiner, yet my disciples can’t even be taken away…”
Including Cheong Mun-ryeong, the disciples and junior brothers of Changcheon Gaebyeokmun who had been sent through the same transmission light poured their strength into pushing the puppet. Their thick arms shoved it outward. Finally…
*PAAAAANG!*
The puppet’s hands slipped from my skull. I squeezed out my spiritual power. “Cheong-ik!”
*KUGUGUGU!*
Three wings erupted from my back. A blue vortex swirled in my right palm. “Thousand Shatter!”
*KWA-KWAKWAKWAKWANG!*
A vast light blasted the puppet outward. The skeletal marionette of Four Pillars rank finally fell out of the transmission light and vanished into the void.
Piiiiit!
And at last… *FLASH!*
We had returned to the headquarters of the Human Race Alliance—the place where the transmission array of Cheonin-do once stood.
The short yet grueling One-Gate Refiner mission had come to an end.
*Whoosh—*
The night wind blew across the barren ground near the Lake of Bright Spirits. The One-Gate Refiner rose, supported by [Her]. Inside his eyes, madness and rationality flickered in turn. He frowned in arrogance and clutched his head. “…I already knew about the Yeon-ui Yeon…”
“I should have captured him and torn his head apart…”
“No, that’s not necessary…”
“He took my disciple away… so how am I supposed to complete the Yeon-ui Yeon? There was no reason to fill the target at all…”
“Enough! Stop! Be quiet! Kwaaagh! Anyway, if the bastard already knows about the Yeon-ui Yeon…”
The madness in his eyes gradually faded as his own words convinced him. “…Ah. Yes. I can see it again. That moment back then…”
The One-Gate Refiner stared endlessly at the moon floating in the sky and gently touched the hand supporting him. “…Please wait a little longer, everyone… The Yeon-ui Yeon is almost finished. The day when our long, strange, and beautiful connections will all dissolve…”
He smiled with closed eyes while stroking [Her]’s hand. “…I never thought I’d get to see the Bi-yik spear in the hands of such a wretched fellow. It’s been a while since you reminded me of my memories… Thank you.”
Quietly thanking the one who had already fled—Seo Eun-hyun—the One-Gate Refiner sank back into his madness.
* * *
Human Realm, Siun-do.
I escorted Kim Yeon to Siun-do, where we had to prove her identity after a human who had been defeated arrived. Because Kim Yeon was known as “the disciple of the One-Gate Refiner,” she was soon summoned by the alliance headquarters in Cheonin-do for a detailed investigation.
I had thought that once the investigation began, everything would be over. “…Huh? Master, what do you mean?”
Oh Hyun-seok, like me, frowned deeply at what Changhoza had said. Changhoza’s words to us had been unpleasant enough that he himself looked displeased. “…I’m not happy about it either. But what can we do? Honestly, sending her somewhere else is probably better for her.”
That was true. The news that Kim Yeon, “the disciple of the One-Gate Refiner,” had returned to the human race had spread to all the sects. However, the Black Ghost Valley and Geumshin Cheonroemun—sects that had known her talent during the joint operation—were demanding she be handed over to them. “Our people from Changheon Gaebyeokmun accepted the mission and rescued her with our strength, but what exactly did they do to demand Kim Yeon?”
“…Huu, they did promise a substantial reward and explained with many euphemisms. But their true intention is clear.”
Changhoza crumpled the letters from the two sects he found distasteful. “With Oh Hyun-seok, who carries the Heavenly Golden Physique, and Seo Eun-hyun alone who defeated the sect leader—simply having both of them in Changheon Gaebyeokmun is already ridiculous. Now Kim Yeon, who entered the One-Gate Refiner’s service, is coming to us too. It’s unbearable. So they want us to share a little fairly, right?”
“….”
*RUMBLE!*
My irritation at how they treated people like commodities boiled over. “I don’t like it either. But if they send Kim Yeon to one of the two sects without balance, they’ll broadcast Oh Hyun-seok’s talent, Kim Yeon’s talent, and Seo Eun-hyun’s secret of defeating the sect leader alone to the world.”
“…Trivial though it is…”
I continued, biting back my anger. “They must not send her to either sect.”
One sect would be exterminated within a short time. The other would be destroyed when Gang Min-hee went berserk in five hundred years. “Is there any law that prevents us from revealing the Heavenly Golden Physique or the genius of the Ghost Dao Sound Painting Line to them?”
“…Then extinction. With so many Integration stage monsters already crowding the human realm, if word of such treasures spread, the entire human realm would become a battlefield.”
Changhoza sighed. “Well, I don’t like it, but honestly, the main sect doesn’t have many techniques Kim Yeon could learn. Honestly, if we trained her with the Five Elements Long Yuan Scroll, I swear she’d want to escape Changheon Gaebyeokmun within ten days.”
“….”
“Up until now, we could recapture the weak Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators we captured. But trying to cultivate a child with Four Pillars rank consciousness makes escape even harder to catch.”
I let out a groan. Indeed, Kim Yeon had barely escaped the One-Gate Refiner’s threat. With the Hongryeong body, a Spirit Root of Earth and Wood attributes, she probably had a high chance of enduring beatings and being buried alive, and if she did, there was a nine-in-ten chance she would escape in terror. “In the end, even if she can’t survive here, it’s better to send her to the Black Ghost Valley or Geumshin Cheonroemun…”
Sending her to another sect in Changhan-do was also impossible because none of those sects matched the power of the two mentioned sects. Kim Yeon would have the highest growth potential by choosing one of the two. Of course, it felt unpleasant for our people rescued by Changheon Gaebyeokmun to be taken as disciples elsewhere, but the sects had promised rewards and Changhoza said they treated disciples fairly. Still, I could not allow her to go to either sect. “True Immortals will arrive at Geumshin Cheonroemun in about two or three decades…”
No, I wasn’t even sure of that. In my previous life I had only heard it from General Seo while locked away. Kim Yeon herself hadn’t had proper information. Perhaps the Geumshin Cheonroemun would vanish as early as next year. But I could not say that. “At least… as long as I can keep her until before the True Immortal arrives…”
Then the Geumshin Cheonroemun would disappear. The Black Ghost Valley would be too busy investigating the safety of their Seopmyeong ship after the Heavenly Thunder Banner’s disappearance to care about anything else. “…Master, I don’t know if you know this, but Kim Yeon….”
“I know. She said she liked you on the first day of the joint operation.”
“Ah… yes…”
“You clearly want to stay with Kim Yeon?”
“…Yes.”
I at least didn’t want her sent to those two dangerous sects. “Well, but if the two sects get angry…”
“Then…”
I looked at Changhoza and said, “Fifty years. Can you let me have her for fifty years?”
“Fifty years…”
Oh Hyun-seok’s face turned pale beside me. “What? Fifty years? They won’t accept that…”
“Well, I like it. Even if they are the disciples rescued by the great Changheon Gaebyeokmun, they can’t say anything if I keep them another fifty years with a clear conscience.”
“M-Master…?”
Oh Hyun-seok stared wide-eyed at Changhoza’s decision. ‘Even the monks’ sense of time doesn’t understand.’
Changhoza was over a thousand years old. To a monster who had lived over a thousand years, fifty years was not long at all. “Heh… even the monks’ sense of time doesn’t quite understand…”
“Hahaha, you’ll get used to it soon. Anyway, to spend fifty years with that Kim Yeon, there must be some justification.”
Changhoza laughed. “You took two missions—chasing the demons and scouting the One-Gate Refiner—right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“The demons were captured within five years. But the demons were trying to summon a Heavenly Demon of the Void Refinement stage from the Hyeoleumgye, so the alliance decided to hold the Demon Realm responsible for the incident. A Demon Realm monster could have summoned something terrifying from the Hyeoleumgye.”
Changhoza continued. “Right now the Human Race Alliance is using this as an excuse to prepare to invade the Demon Realm. You will serve as the vanguard of the fifty-year invasion force against the True Demon Realm—together with Kim Yeon.”
“The True Demon Realm invasion…?”
And so, me, Oh Hyun-seok, and Kim Yeon entered the vanguard of the Demon Realm invasion army according to Changhoza’s suggestion.
* * *
Demon Realm. Yucheon Domain, the meeting place of the high-ranking demons.
Where a black river flowed. A conference was underway inside Yucheng City beneath the river. “You call it the horned demon clan’s idiot who tried to summon a Hyeoleumgye existence into the human realm of the Gwanghan Domain, correct?!”
“Damn it! How was I supposed to know he was a spy from the Hyeoleumgye Heavenly Demon clan?! What am I supposed to do when those Hyeoleumgye bastards create spies with all sorts of disgusting magic?!”
“It’s your responsibility! Right now those despicable humans are using it as an excuse to declare an invasion of the Demon Realm!”
“Filthy humans! During the Great Demon Extermination War, the other Gwanghan Domain races built many colonies in the Demon Realm, but these bastards couldn’t even do that and are now making demands!”
Inside the meeting hall of Yucheng City, vicious demons dripping with black demonic energy held a tense conference. “Now is not the time to fight among ourselves. During the Great Demon Extermination War, we couldn’t fight because we were supporting the rear and couldn’t build colonies in the Demon Realm… but I heard the humans are a cruel and cunning race, and that they eat geniuses of other races like candy.”
“That’s right. Even if they can speak and are intelligent, because their race is different, they are said to grind up countless other races into medicine.”
“Disgusting creatures!”
“The Demon Realm must unite and stop these disgusting humans. Otherwise, countless demons will be captured by human cultivators and turned into medicine!”
The horned demon clan’s demon lord, who had grown horns all over his body, led the demons to unity with a solemn conference. After the meeting ended, the demons returned to their own domains.
Among them, the demon lord who had represented the horned demon clan clicked his tongue. “Tsk tsk, the current Demon Realm is wrong. They’re not even invading the Gwanghan Domain, yet all of them are trembling at the news that the humans are invading from the Gwanghan Domain’s Heavenly Clan.”
His appearance was roughly human, but horns replaced the eyes and ears that should have sprouted. *Woo-woong!*
The horned demon clan’s demon lord flew toward his domain and unfolded the Jeomuldo. He plunged his hand inside and pulled out something like a red heart, crushing it in mid-air. *Woo-woong!*
Darkness enveloped his surroundings and blocked the outside world. A red chamber appeared before the horned demon clan’s demon lord. “The respected Hallu of the horned demon clan pays respects to the respected Lord of Shattering Bells.”
*Whisper… whisper… whisper…*
Strange whispers seemed to come from beyond the red chamber. The horned demon clan’s demon lord, Hallu, tilted the horns growing from his ears to hear the whispers. The whispers soon interpreted into information and burned into his brain. “God Race… Dragon King… Cooperation… Hyeoleumgye… Descent… Gwanghan Domain… True Immortal… Resurrection… Secret of the True Immortal Realm… Infinite… Glory…”
Hallu chanted what the whispers had told him and bowed toward the red chamber. After a while, the red chamber disappeared. “I will not betray the respected Lord’s expectations!”
*Whoosh…*
The dark curtain covering Hallu lifted, and he looked toward the Gwanghan Domain. “If the respected Lord’s words come true, our horned demon clan will enjoy infinite glory by following the Hyeoleumgye and obtaining the coordinates of the True Immortal Realm. Then we will tear apart this wretched Demon Realm that flatters the Gwanghan Domain under our horned demon clan’s name!”
The horned demon clan’s demon lord, Hallu, smiled while looking at the purple sun rising above the Demon Realm.