The Heavenly Thunder Banner's Secret
The weather was terrible.
Thick clouds had gathered in every direction, blocking the view of the sky.
I peered through the gaps in the clouds and read the heavenly qi, sensing that many pursuers had attached themselves to my trail.
‘This is annoying.’
But there was nothing more to it.
Integration-stage Taejus weren’t chasing me at all.
Even if only Nascent Soul Great Adepts were involved, they were no match for me.
I could evade them easily, whether they were early-stage Four Pillars cultivators or even if I sent my full power and they were only mid-stage Four Pillars.
The real problem now was something else.
‘Looks like it’s just ahead…’
I frowned, staring at the entrance to the Demon Realm that I could just barely see up ahead.
The war with the Demon Realm was about to begin.
My regression had caused minor butterfly effects, so the timing of the war had shifted slightly from my previous life, but the war itself had clearly happened.
And right now, the human race had already pierced the Demon Realm’s entrance and begun occupying it.
I looked at the two Four Pillars Inspectors guarding the entrance.
By Bongrae Palace Master Heon-won’s order, I had been wanted across the entire human race.
If I passed through here, I would definitely be stopped by those two.
But I still had to push through them.
‘Yeon-wi is beyond this point…’
The time had come to contact Yeon-jin and show him to Heon-won.
At that moment, Yeon-jin and Yeon-wi were right before entering the Demon Realm, and the Demon Realm invasion had started the moment Heon-won realized who she was.
The human race’s alliance had later requested Heon-won’s capture, but it seemed Yeon-jin had already vanished from the Demon Realm.
‘First, I’ll head into the Demon Realm and use the resonance we share to find her location.’
After Yeon-jin crossed into the Demon Realm, the dimensional distance had prevented the resonance from functioning, but if I went there too, I could identify her location through it.
‘The issue is pushing past those two to cross into the Demon Realm…’
In truth, two Four Pillars cultivators were nothing.
If I handled one with General Seo and one with myself, we could manage it easily.
The real problem was that my power would be exposed.
‘If it becomes known that I possess the strength of at least two mid-stage Four Pillars, the bounty would skyrocket. And in a world where even Heavenly Person Inspectors were occasionally chasing me, the chance of Four Pillars Inspectors swarming after me would skyrocket…’
Of course, once my power from the disturbances at the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect and the battle against Heon-wi spread, Four Pillars Inspectors would eventually come.
But that would be ‘eventually,’ and I had to avoid the irritating situation of them already swarming me right now.
‘The information that Yeon-wi has gone to the Demon Realm has already reached Bongrae Palace through the human alliance, and Bongrae Palace shares intel with the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, so they’ll come looking for me too.’
If I didn’t hurry, they would start chasing me from both places.
‘How do I cross these two and the Demon Realm entrance?’
The Two Star Concealment Technique wouldn’t work because the two Four Pillars Inspectors had linked their axes and created a qi-axis barrier like a dimensional veil.
Even the simple Two Star Concealment Technique couldn’t slip inside.
‘What now?’
This was when I was pondering.
[Master, are you planning to surpass these Four Pillars Inspectors?]
“Ah, Hong-beom.”
I heard Hong-beom’s voice speaking from inside my Dao Yuan.
“Yeah, is there any way?”
[Hmph… It seems Master intends to cross that barrier without revealing himself… Correct?]
“Yes.”
[Then I can assist you.]
“Whoa? How?”
Swoosh!
Hong-beom emerged from the Dao Yuan, a pocket dimension that stored biological specimens.
“I learned from Lord Hong’s previous human body experiment logs… The qi-axis barrier of Four Pillars Inspectors is heavily influenced by their consciousness domain.”
“Hmm, that makes sense.”
“And according to Lord Hong’s experiment records… the brain exerts the greatest influence on a human’s consciousness domain. Specifically, the frontal lobe at the front of the brain.”
“…I see, that’s right…”
“If it’s the poison I mixed, it could cause severe damage to the frontal lobe in an instant. For Four Pillars Inspectors, it would be a poison that they could recover from after just a few breaths, but if they have no tolerance, one exposure guarantees penetration.”
“Hmm…”
I stroked my chin and thought.
“Then the dilution process is crucial.”
“Indeed. The opponents are Four Pillars Elders. If they notice the dilution and block the poison entirely during the process, we’re done.”
“Good. Then I’ll do the dilution.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Yes. First…”
I discussed the poison dilution plan with Hong-beom, and after some time, I put it into action.
Splash!
“Hello, senior inspectors.”
I boldly placed my face directly in front of the Four Pillars Inspectors.
“Are you heading to the Demon Realm? The human alliance gave you a passage permit… Wait, aren’t you the one wanted by Bongrae Palace?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I smiled brightly as I declared it openly.
The first step of the plan.
First, openly reveal my face to draw their attention.
‘Second.’
I mixed Hong-beom’s poison into the Baekran Chukseongmun’s blessing text, hid it under Two Star Concealment, and sprinkled it on the Inspectors whose attention was focused on me.
“What the— What did you do to us?!”
The Four Pillars Inspectors had been focused on me, but as soon as they detected my Two Star Concealment technique wrapped inside their own barrier, they immediately realized it and became alert.
‘Third.’
But even after they noticed my Baekran Chukseongmun, they couldn’t simply expel it.
Fundamentally, the vast majority of living beings accept what benefits them and reject what harms them.
This was a basic instinct of life.
Therefore, the vast majority of life reacted sensitively to ‘curses’ and tried to block them, but anything in the form of a ‘blessing’ was naturally accepted on the instinctual level without resistance.
Like how when Heon-wi used Taesan Yeolje Art against me and her yin-yang five elements binding technique took the form of a blessing, it was hard for me to resist.
Rather, it was like the proverb that you can’t spit at a smiling face.
A blessing was one of the hardest techniques to shake off.
“This is… a blessing…?”
“The power is growing… Ack!”
And that was the most terrifying poison of all.
Through that gap, Hong-beom’s poison began to flow into the two of them.
As Hong-beom had said, even Four Pillars Inspectors with extreme vitality could detoxify it in just a few breaths.
But that was enough.
Uwoong!
A shock hit both of their frontal lobes, shaking their consciousness domains.
Soon, the qi-axis barriers the two Four Pillars Inspectors had combined and raised began to shake.
In an instant.
It was a truly fleeting moment that even an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator couldn’t have captured, but it was enough.
Boom!
I accelerated my thoughts to the extreme, using both the non-dust technique and the fish glide technique as I rushed through the barrier gap.
While the two Four Pillars Inspectors were still stunned, I passed through that fleeting moment and successfully crossed the dimensional gate.
‘It worked!’
I had broken through a Four Pillars level barrier using only Nascent Soul power, without relying on my strength.
At best, with Heavenly Person level power, I had succeeded in surpassing them.
My power exposure had been greatly reduced, and the chance of Four Pillars Inspectors swarming after me had dropped sharply.
“It’s done…”
I smiled contentedly and looked back at the dimensional gate behind me.
I could see the Inspectors’ intent to chase through it, but before they crossed, I used Two Star Concealment to erase my presence and left the human-occupied zone of the Demon Realm.
“Well done, Hong-beom.”
I smiled, satisfied with the collaboration.
I had evaded the two Four Pillars, but they would recognize that as a ‘shallow trick’ rather than my true strength, and my power wouldn’t be exposed immediately.
“I am pleased to be able to help Master in any way.”
“Haha, you’ve always been there to help me.”
I praised Hong-beom, took out the resonance device, and prepared to meet Yeon-wi again.
* * *
Demon Realm.
Oum-gok, the Dirty Yin Valley.
It was a swampy place where impure demonic qi gathered, and thanks to that, the Demon Realm had become a dumping ground for all the dirty races.
Because of that, the Demon Realm and the invaders who had crossed from other dimensions had all left the Oum-gok alone.
In short, Oum-gok was an invisible garbage dump in the Demon Realm.
Paah!
I used the non-dust technique to arrive above the Oum-gok and looked around.
How long had I waited above the Oum-gok? A signal came from far away.
It was Yeon-wi’s signal.
Paah!
I immediately followed her signal with the non-dust technique.
After a while.
Among the countless valleys in the Oum-gok, a valley with thick yin qi that blended into the scenery.
I arrived above it and discovered a hidden gap inside the valley, then entered through it.
As I passed through the gap, the surrounding environment began to change dramatically.
It was a formation.
Chrrrroong!
The moment I stepped on it, the formation that seemed to transform endlessly simply opened a path right in front of me.
I walked along the path and soon reached a Peach Garden that was completely different from the foul-smelling Oum-gok just moments earlier, filled with refreshing and pure spiritual qi.
“You have arrived.”
I saw a pavilion in the garden.
Inside it, Yeon-wi, in the form of Yeon-jin’s body, was meditating in lotus position and waiting for me.
Yeon-wi trembled when she saw me and then noticed the Heavenly Thunder Banner I was holding.
“This crazy… Why is the Heavenly Thunder Banner’s seal missing one layer?!”
“I don’t know exactly, but it seems the Heavenly Thunder Banner somehow unsealed itself.”
Yeon-wi’s face twisted into a scowl.
She muttered softly.
“Is something like back then four hundred thousand years ago about to happen again…”
“…? What do you mean?”
“…I don’t know. More importantly, originally only Yeon-jin and my position mattered… Now that the Heavenly Thunder Banner has come to this, it can’t be helped. Originally I was just going to abandon you and enter the deepest part of the Demon Realm to live in peace… But I won’t leave you alone.”
“Eh…?”
Swoosh—
The moment she waved her hand, I felt an entire formation guarding the Peach Garden dissolve.
I realized what trick she had been scheming and opened my mouth in disbelief.
The formation she had just dismantled was a sealing formation.
In other words, she had originally summoned me here, sealed me, and then fled with Yeon-jin’s body.
“What… Even though you were already talking big about beating the Taeju, this is too much… Are you joking with me?”
“I’m sorry. But since the result is that you agreed to cooperate with me, it worked out, didn’t it?”
I looked at her casual demeanor and furrowed my brow.
“You’re truly casual… And anyway, I trusted your big talk about beating the Taeju and sent Yeon-jin through it. In the end, did he not get caught in the Taeju’s eyes?”
That was right.
No matter how naive I was, I wasn’t stupid enough to show Yeon-jin, who had eaten Heon-won’s beloved, right in front of him.
It was because Yeon-wi had boasted that she would hide deep inside Yeon-jin’s soul and that as long as it was only through an image, the Taeju would never notice.
Yeon-wi, who knew more about the Integration-stage Taeju Heon-won than I did, had believed her boast and arranged a meeting between Yeon-jin and Heon-won through an image.
But the result was this.
Yeon-wi clicked her tongue and said.
“I’m sorry. But I swear on my Nascent Soul that I didn’t deceive you about Heon-won. I never imagined that bastard would gain such a technique. I didn’t expect that he would open his spiritual eye that I hadn’t seen in hundreds of years…”
“Spiritual eye?”
I pressed my throbbing head and said.
“You never expected him to acquire such a divine technique?”
“Yes. The last time we faced each other was at the human alliance conference five hundred years ago. I myself participated with the qualification of a mid-stage Integration Taeju, and at that time there was clearly no such technique in him.”
“How do you know? Did you check?”
“Yes. When we met five hundred years ago, the bastard tried to rip out my limbs, so I gouged out his eyes. At that time, there was nothing special in the eyeballs.”
“…”
“Five hundred years later, he acquired an absurd spiritual eye technique that immediately recognized me hiding inside Yeon-jin’s soul a thousand miles away through projection. Do you think that’s normal? Of course, I thought it was beyond common sense and it was fine.”
I felt a headache coming on regarding their relationship.
“If your relationship with him is that bad, how have you not been killed by him until now? And isn’t there a chance he would leave Geongon City to personally chase you?”
“Hehe, that will never happen. I can promise you that.”
Yeon-wi smiled with a wicked grin.
“Four hundred thousand years ago, when I fought Heon-won, I weakened my followers and cursed him. I completely twisted and entangled the Taiji qi inside his body with my Taiji Thunder God, driving him to the brink of death. Thanks to that, I successfully pulled a mid-stage Integration cultivator down to Four Pillars level. And the reason the bastard is the Geongon City Lord is that only the special qi of Geongon City can solve his problem, so he sits on the throne of Geongon City Lord. Until I recover all the fatal wounds from back then and restore the twisted Taiji power, the bastard will never leave the Geongon City region.”
“…That’s fortunate.”
Fortunately, there was no chance that the Integration-stage Taeju Heon-won would personally chase Yeon-wi.
I sighed.
“Anyway, things have twisted, so I can’t return to the Water Realm through the Ascension Platform as originally planned. Originally I had planned to receive help from Heon-wi, but that didn’t work out either.”
“Hmm, so I need to find the Gongryeong-ji in the Demon Realm…”
“I know the location of the Gongryeong-ji.”
“Oh?”
Yeon-wi showed a bright smile at my words.
“Then it’s perfect. We can go directly to the Gongryeong-ji and descend to the Water Realm. As long as it’s not just some place that’s too close to the Taeju’s home…”
“Fortunately, we can find it, but… there’s a problem.”
“What’s the problem?”
“There’s no Heavenly Person cultivator.”
Hearing my words, Yeon-wi asked in confusion.
“Then why don’t you reach the Heavenly Person realm? If there’s not enough spiritual energy between heaven and earth, isn’t it enough to hide secretly in the nearby human-occupied zone and breakthrough to the Heavenly Person realm?”
“…I have something to say about that…”
I sighed and said.
“I believe all conditions for reaching the Heavenly Person realm have been met. I fully understood the enlightenment of the Heavenly Person realm from the elders of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, and I have also trained the ‘mind’ I must keep during the breakthrough to the Heavenly Person realm.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I can’t reach the Heavenly Person realm.”
Yeon-wi looked at me with a puzzled expression, as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.
“In other words… even though I have all the conditions to reach the Heavenly Person realm, I cannot breakthrough to it.”
I had digested all the enlightenment connecting the small universe inside my body with the nature outside.
I had also received the secret art for breakthrough, and I had thoroughly painted the spiritual eye that protected my mind from the raging currents of the great nature.
But the moment I tried to challenge the Heavenly Person realm, there was no reaction at all.
No matter how much I drew in heavenly and earthly qi, it would not mix between inside my body and outside.
It was not like the Chilseongje when heaven was interfering, and I simply could not breakthrough to the Heavenly Person realm.
Even if I drew in heavenly and earthly qi to connect the small universe with nature, it would not respond.
“Do you happen to know about cases like this?”
I asked Yeon-wi just in case she knew something about such situations.
And after seeming to think about something, Yeon-wi trembled slightly and looked at me.
“…I have some guesses. I’ve heard about it in ancient stories too…”
“…!”
I hurriedly listened to her words.
If I could only reach the Heavenly Person realm right now, it would be the most reliable solution.
However, what followed from her was beyond my imagination.
“You… are already at the Heavenly Person realm. It’s also a Heavenly Person Great Adept.”
“…What?”