The Black Ghost's Unyielding Resolve
I quickly calculated in my head.
First things first: the enemy right in front of me.
‘I’m facing both Heon-wi and Heon-won at the same time.’
Heon-won was sending a video from Geongon City, far away in the human realm, while Heon-wi was unleashing attacks right in front of me.
But I made my decision in the blink of an eye.
Boom!
My consciousness accelerated as I drew the Colorless Glass Sword and swung it straight at the image Heon-won had projected.
Shatter!
Heon-won had no time to react before his projected image was completely destroyed.
Using that opening, the light sphere Heon-wi fired barely grazed my back.
A terrifyingly accurate judgment!
But I quickly checked my instincts.
‘Fortunately, the misfortune has vanished.’
At the Integration stage, simply watching a projection was enough to unleash divine might, so this was essential.
I locked eyes with Heon-wi, whose face was as cold as ice.
“It’s a pity things have come to this… but Father’s orders are absolute, so there’s nothing I can do.”
“I see. I understand.”
“Quietly come with me. No matter how much of a genius you are, the difference between Nascent Soul and Deva cannot be overcome. Especially when facing the Lord.”
“You seem quite confident in your strength.”
I asked, lifting the Colorless Glass Sword.
She responded calmly.
“After that half-hearted strike last time, do you really think you can face me?”
The moment she spoke, she calmly extended her arm and fired her law power… only to suddenly change her stance.
Boom!
She stomped her foot and took on a posture that looked almost like a martial art.
‘A martial technique? No…’
There was no real combat feel to the pose.
It was purely for show.
But even the display itself looked remarkably disciplined.
From the perspective of a martial artist, it was nothing but showy pretentiousness.
Yet from the viewpoint of a cultivator…
‘That motion is a complete formation.’
Crackle, crackle, crackle…
The air itself felt prickly.
It was completely different from the aura Heon-wi had shown before.
Her previous half-hearted momentum had reversed completely, revealing an ice-cold, vicious killing intent.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
“…”
The entire area began to shake violently.
“I shall demonstrate the divine teachings granted only to the Lord of the Bongrae Palace and his direct descendants…”
In the next instant.
I instinctively drew my sword.
The feeling that I must block it flooded my mind and soul.
“Yin-Yang Mountain.”
Red yang energy rushed from the sky, blue yin energy surged from the ground, and they collided into a taiji that spun and merged.
The massive taiji seemed to engulf the entire world before becoming one.
Boom!
Instinctively, I felt it.
‘This is…’
I had already charged my Invisible Sword straight toward Heon-wi, but at the same moment, my sword could not touch her body.
The taiji!
A colossal taiji that covered the world and my body itself had become a prison that bound me.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
An immense pressure emanated from inside the taiji.
“Five Elements Mountain.”
Heon-wi continued in her clear voice, shifting to another stance and forming a complete formation with her entire body.
Dragon Vein!
The massive earth dragon vein flowing between heaven and earth rose up.
Under her will, the rising dragon vein split into the five elements’ energies, circling the taiji prison and weaving a multicolored band around the taiji.
Crackle!
I realized that as the taiji and five elements merged, the binding power around me grew even stronger.
“Yin-Yang Five Elements, Taishan!”
And I quickly figured out the true nature of this prison.
‘A blessing?’
The nature of this prison was a form of blessing.
Even though I couldn’t move from inside it, it also shielded me from external attacks.
‘Why is she blessing me? No, damn it!’
I clenched my teeth as I sensed the attack Heon-wi was about to launch.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The immense pressure was crushing my body, making movement difficult.
Boom!
Heon-wi changed her stance again.
In her hands, black and white light swirled.
One was sacred energy, the other dense demonic energy.
“Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art!”
Slap!
She slammed her hands together, the black and white energies swirling around them.
Then she stepped forward and flung her arms wide, slamming them into the yin-yang five elements prison that held me.
At the same time, I felt the prison surrounding me begin to tear apart.
After the prison had been formed as a ‘blessing,’ the yin-yang five elements were absorbed into my own energy and shattered into seven pieces.
I was buried in the light as my own qi flowed through me and was torn apart.
* * *
Whoosh—
Heon-wi stood before the massive dust cloud that had formed around her, roughly five hundred li across, and calmly brushed off her hands.
“It’s done…”
That should have been enough.
A direct hit from the supreme technique of the Bongrae Palace—Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art—would have killed even a high-level cultivator at the peak of the Deva realm, and even those at the late Deva or Integration stage would have been critically wounded.
‘A bit overkill for a Nascent Soul Integration practitioner, but the genius of the Geumsin Cheonroemun sect probably won’t be outmatched by the rank difference.’
Heon-wi looked at the dust cloud and waited for Seo Eun-hyun’s Nascent Soul to erupt.
With this strike, even a late-stage Deva cultivator’s fragile body would have turned to dust, so capturing his Nascent Soul and delivering it to his father would have ended this ‘sudden mission.’
‘He was rather interesting, but it’s a shame he’s gone.’
She clicked her tongue and waved her hand.
Whoosh—
Following her gesture, a wind blew and the dust cloud five hundred li ahead vanished instantly.
Then she shuddered.
Whoosh—
“…”
A naked man emitting smoke from his entire body stood there, smiling with his teeth bared while holding a glass sword.
The naked man was Seo Eun-hyun.
He grinned and spat a mouthful of blood that had already turned black.
“I heard you were a mid-stage Deva cultivator for three thousand years. In our Geumsin Cheonroemun, we thought you were quite dull.”
Slick…
He wiped the blood from his lips and stared at Heon-wi with bloodshot eyes.
“As a representative of the Geumsin Cheonroemun, I apologize for that. If you had learned such a technique, it probably would have taken more time.”
“…”
“Amazing. You survived this?”
Heon-wi said in genuine admiration.
But that was all.
‘She must have picked up the Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art and trained with it. Still, that’s probably the limit.’
Whoosh-whoosh-whooom!
Once more, heaven and earth energy vibrated as the yin-yang five elements enveloped Seo Eun-hyun in concrete form.
And black and white power began to gather in her hands.
“You’re incredible. Then come, let’s try it again.”
“…Hah.”
The next moment.
Seo Eun-hyun swung his sword.
‘What?!’
He hadn’t even had time to register the sound, the reaction, or anything.
In the end, Heon-wi witnessed the Colorless Glass Sword piercing through her yin-yang five elements prison and slamming straight into her chest.
There was no choice.
Heon-wi turned her accumulated immortal-demon qi into a shield to block Seo Eun-hyun’s attack, and once more the flash engulfed heaven and earth.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
The flash gradually died down, and what was revealed was Seo Eun-hyun pressing down on his Colorless Glass Sword with one hand, while Heon-wi desperately blocked it with both hands.
“Amazing, Lady Heon.”
Seo Eun-hyun looked at her with genuine admiration.
The cultivator who had been shocked by his brute strength looked up at the sky.
‘What…?’
And her heavenly qi, revealed in the sky, was the one that symbolized inevitable defeat.
Seo Eun-hyun continued.
“The technique you learned is also similar to mine…”
* * *
I looked at her and clicked my tongue.
She was holding my sword with her frail arms, blocking it.
How could she block my sword—forged to its absolute limit through the You-soo technique and physical training—only with her own arms?
Simple answer.
Because she too had mastered the You-soo technique.
But at the same time, what she had learned was also a technique of the celestial race.
“The Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art… is a technique that handles the power of all heavenly and earthly races?”
The celestial race mainly trains law power and law arts, while the earthly race focuses on flesh and vital energy.
But the celestial race, in theory, can master all techniques of the heaven, earth, and heart races.
Among them, some cultivators even learn other races’ techniques.
Those that combine the celestial race’s emphasis on law power with the earthly race’s emphasis on physical body are called law-body dual cultivation.
Or when all heavenly-earth techniques are mastered, they are called heaven-earth dual cultivation.
And Heon-wi’s Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art was such a heaven-earth dual cultivation technique.
Crackle-crackle!
‘It makes sense now. She hasn’t reached mid-stage Deva in three thousand years.’
She was not a dull-witted fool.
By talent alone, she should have been average.
Instead, she had reached mid-stage Deva by combining the heaven-earth dual cultivation training of an average talent. That was truly impressive.
The training method of heaven-earth dual cultivation naturally took a long time.
“Insane… impossible…”
How have you been training the heaven-earth dual cultivation for so long…?
And because of that, Heon-wi’s pupils trembled.
“You, who only started the dual cultivation one hundred years ago, have already surpassed me with it…? Impossible…”
“…”
My growth had indeed been absurd on the surface.
She stared at me in a daze, biting her lips tightly.
“Is this… really the talent of a genius?”
“…”
I gave no reply and tightened my grip on the sword.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The ground beneath her feet cracked deeply, and she began to sink into the earth.
Then, in the next instant.
Shuk!
I unleashed a massive surge of power and pulled free from her hands, shattering her head, driving the Colorless Glass Sword into her skull just short of the danjeon, splitting her in half, and retrieved my sword.
Chii-ji-ji-ji…
She slowly began to regenerate, and I said to her.
“A normal mid-stage Deva cultivator… or even a late-stage Deva Integration cultivator would have been split apart by the Lord’s attack without any preparation.”
Her Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art was indeed vicious.
The fact that I had overpowered her with raw strength was because her technique was designed to emit energy through the body as an ‘exit,’
while the Changryeong Seonggwang Ochae Daebop was a technique primarily focused on growing the ‘body’ itself.
Moreover, after evolving it into the You-soo technique and temporarily incorporating the powers of the Immortal and the One-Gate Dharma Refiner into my body, I was able to suppress her.
‘If I hadn’t protected my body with the temporary Protection of Danjeon, Seo Eun-hyun would have turned to dust…’
The power of the celestial and earthly races, the One-Gate Dharma Refiner’s circuit, the Immortal’s power, and the Protection of Danjeon… only with all of that could my body stay intact.
So there was no point in explaining the power of Heon-wi’s attack anymore.
I used the law power of my clothes to regenerate the dust-covered garments and put them on.
“Then I shall take my leave. It’s regrettable that our promise is broken.”
I had considered capturing her as a hostage and storming the Ascension Platform of Geongon City, but I immediately dismissed the thought.
Looking at the intent Heon-won showed when dealing with his son, he did not seem particularly attached to Heon-wi and might even be willing to discard me along with the hostage.
‘I can’t use the Geongon City Ascension Platform.’
I flew into the sky and left the Suryun-do behind, lost in thought.
Even I, with my Integration stage cultivation and the Deva stage cultivators patrolling Geongon City, did not have the guts to storm the city and use the Ascension Platform.
‘And the Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art Heon-wi mastered is ultimately Heon-won’s original technique… If it’s a heaven-earth dual cultivation technique, it should have the power to leap over one or two stages even at the Integration stage.’
From what I knew, Heon-won was a mid-stage Deva cultivator at the start of the Integration realm, but recalling the Taishan Cleaving Emperor Art Heon-wi had shown made me realize his true power far exceeded the early level.
‘Facing him one-on-one, even a late-stage Deva Integration cultivator would be in trouble, but actually challenging a mid-to-late Integration cultivator is impossible.’
I gave up on Geongon City and thought deeply.
‘Then where should I go to descend into the Water Realm?’
The first place that came to mind was the lowest layer of Bongmyeong-ju.
From there I could descend to the lower realm, so it was worth trying.
‘Of course, I’d have to face the dragon race swarming the lowest layer of Bongmyeong-ju, avoid the eyes of Seo Hyul and the abilities of Oh Hye-seo, and then overcome Gyu-ryeon, the Integration stage guardian who leads the way down…’
If the difficulty wasn’t insane, I would have carried it out immediately.
‘Then is there another way…?’
I thought of another possibility.
The Gongryeong-ji in the Demon Realm.
‘Using Gongryeong-ji would allow me to descend to the lower realm…’
But Gongryeong-ji was not a stable Ascension Platform, and there was a high chance I would be caught in a spatial storm and fall somewhere unknown.
‘Where should I go…?’
The seal on Jeong-ryeo had already been partially loosened.
It might not be long before I sensed it and the owner of the heavenly punishment came.
My thoughts were quick.
‘I’ll go to Gongryeong-ji.’
Time was tight, and I couldn’t waste any more time watching Seo Hyul’s suspicious eyes.
Setting up a plan to plant Jeong-ryeo into Seo Hyul’s mouth seemed too risky against him.
‘More importantly, there was something I needed to ask…’
I ground my teeth, remembering how Heon-won had treated Yeon-wi.
‘He definitely said I wouldn’t recognize her…’
I had boasted that, but the moment I saw her I recognized her and raged, which is why everything went wrong.
I would definitely question him about this matter.