The Power of Tae Su
Flash!
The moment we shattered the dimensional veil, we found ourselves back in the familiar realm.
“This is… Geongon City?”
Jeon Myeong-hoon had never set foot in Geongon City until now.
The last time he had visited, he had been sealed inside a pocket dimension called Jeomuldo, hidden within the Geumshin Cheonroemun’s domain on Earth.
He scanned the surroundings with wide eyes as the Geongon City inspectors began soaring toward us.
“Heh heh, this must be the Ascension Platform connected to the Water Realm. The Ascension Gate should have opened a long time ago, yet…”
…and our eyes met.
“U-uh! It’s you!”
They had recognized me—the man once wanted by Bongrae Palace—and their faces stiffened instantly.
At the same time, a massive wave of consciousness swept over me from deep within Geongon City.
‘Heon-won sensed me.’
The Taesan Yeolje Art was powerful, but I remained confident.
“I, Seo Eun-hyun, wish to report to Tae Su Heon-won, the Lord of Geongon City and former master of Bongrae Palace. The wanted list issued by Geumshin Cheonroemun has been fully lifted by the highest elder of Geumshin Cheonroemun himself—Jeon Myeong-hoon.”
Crack!
Space shattered, and a gust of dust and wind erupted from beyond.
A middle-aged man stepped through the swirling dust.
He had a neat beard, wore a gauze cap and topknot, and dressed in a deep-purple long robe.
Wuuuung!
‘That’s… Heon-won!’
I caught a glimpse of the blazing light in his eyes.
It formed a black-and-white Taiji inside his pupils.
‘Just like Yeon-wi said. Heon-won recently acquired a powerful spirit-eye technique…’
I braced myself.
‘What will he do with me…?’
I bowed respectfully to Jeon Myeong-hoon.
He nodded in agreement.
“That’s correct. As Seo Eun-hyun was, the wanted status issued by Geumshin Cheonroemun has been canceled by the current supreme elder, Jeon Myeong-hoon.”
He stared at us for a moment in silence.
I tried to read his intent and failed.
‘Damn it. I thought he was just in his usual state… yet he has wrapped the realm around his body…’
Reading him further yielded nothing.
He simply continued staring, his spirit-eye technique evidently at work.
After a while, he spoke slowly.
“Good. There’s no need to capture you. After all, I am after Geum Wi….”
He turned away, and the space rift he had torn closed.
But then—
“Watch out!”
I shoved Jeon Myeong-hoon, Hong Beom, and Yeon-jin aside as fast as I could.
A colossal palm print slammed into my direction at the same time.
I clenched my teeth, staring at the swirling Taiji.
‘This is…!’
I could feel it.
This strike would kill me unless I used the Triple Taiji.
Kwaaaang!
I concealed the presence of my Invisible Sword and swung the Triple Taiji against the palm print.
Kugugugug!
Heaven and earth qi pressed down on me like a madman.
“Hmph…”
Click, click…
He stepped out again from beyond the rift.
His eyes pierced through the billowing dust cloud.
The gaze burned.
In his eyes I now saw the character 監.
Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt!
I bit my lip and looked to the sky.
I saw a glimpse of the Heavenly Tribulation.
In the near future I fought Heon-won and fell.
“At first it was uncertain, but now it’s clear. You…”
Wuuuung!
The Integration stage Tae Su began to exert his power.
“The Heart Clan.”
“…!”
Kwaaaang!
His palm struck again.
Chwaaak!
I couldn’t even react and was blasted straight through Geongon City and slammed into a mountain range in the Geongon Central Region.
Drrrrrr!
Dragon veins shook, the earth trembled, and volcanoes erupted.
The entire Heaven and earth qi trembled, and Heon-won’s voice swallowed the whole central region.
[I always suspected something was off. The Bongrae Palace protectors who tested your puppets were all driven mad. And now I understand why you were so strong. While following the Heavenly Tribulation with the Heavenly Twin Spirits, you secretly mastered the Heart Clan’s power as well…]
I spat blood and answered with the same archaic command.
[What does mastering the Heart Clan’s power matter?! I am a genuine Heavenly Clan being!]
[If you were just a Heavenly Clan, maybe it wouldn’t matter. But you openly obstructed the Great Injustice of the Mortal Realm Alliance—the subjugation of the Demon Realm. You created puppets that caused madness. You used the Heart Clan’s power. And among the protectors, there were traces of techniques from the Blood Underworld that one of my siblings—Heon-wi—used.]
I clenched my teeth.
‘They discovered the traces of Gigoego I planted. Damn it, if I pulled it out now, there’d barely be any evidence left!’
It had to be because of that ‘eye’.
[With the Heavenly Clan’s power already weakened after the evaporation of Noeryeong-do, I can’t let a Heart Clan spy, a Blood Underworld spy, or someone suspected of being a recent puppet of the notorious Goe-gun go unpunished.]
Wuuuung!
I felt the flow of consciousness in the Heaven and earth qi.
Earlier I couldn’t read it because he had wrapped the realm around his body, but now that he was spreading it, the flow became visible.
I caught his intent and shouted, spitting the words out.
“What’s so funny? You weren’t planning to kill me from the start?”
[Hoh, smart. You’re right.]
Flash!
Before I could react, Heon-won stood right in front of me.
[You and Jeon Myeong-hoon who destroyed Geumshin Cheonroemun once more… you two have no need to live. And you brought the descendant of Geum Wi so proudly, yet you still didn’t kill him? Can that be proven?]
“Wait! We are preserving the lineage of Geumshin Cheonroemun in the lower realm…”
[You killed the people you were living with, buried only part of their bodies underground, and claim the microorganisms living inside them are still alive down there?]
“No, that’s not…”
[You preserved the lineage in the lower realm? Well done. I could just wait another forty thousand years for the lower realm’s Geumshin Cheonroemun to rise.]
Buuung!
Kwaaaak!
The fist covered in the dull light of the Invisibility Sword struck my face.
Flash!
I was suddenly blasted from the eastern edge of Geongon Central Region all the way to the northern edge.
‘Crazy…’
It was only the Invisibility Sword.
Just using it to wrap my body and move—it was insanely fast.
Good thing I could still react better than Kim Young-hoon.
‘No choice. If it’s come to this, I have to fight!’
I burned with determination and recalled the Triple Taiji behind my back.
Paaaaat!
The Heavenly Clan’s Invisibility Sword, the You Clan’s body, the Heart Clan’s acceleration—all merged, and the world seemed to stop.
In that frozen world I prepared to die and drank the Baekhongju.
Buuuung!
The colorless glass sword resonated even more.
[Come, Heon…]
Before I could recover, Heon-won’s palm leaped across space and struck my head again.
Chwaaak!
But this time I dodged his palm and cut through space instead.
—!—
Moving at a speed that left no sound, we exchanged thousands of strikes in the void.
The frequency of his body movement in the Taesan Yeolje Art he had mastered seemed higher than other Heavenly Clan masters, perhaps because it was based on the Heavenly Twin Spirits.
He wielded the Yin-Yang with his left hand and the Five Elements with his right, relentlessly pushing me back while I circulated the Goe-gun circuits and drew the full power of the Heaven and earth heart demon.
Buuung!
Chwaaak!
The impact of his palm and my sword end caused the entire Geongon Central Region—larger than the Water Realm—to melt into a sea of lava.
A strike that would have erased the world multiple times over if it had happened on Earth!
Jeon Myeong-hoon could only protect Yeon-jin and Hong Beom while watching our fight.
But I, who was keeping pace with Heon-won, broke out in cold sweat.
‘He still has reserves left.’
The longer the duel lasted, the easier it became for me to read his consciousness.
He seemed ‘quite surprised.’
The consciousness that facing an Integration-stage master and holding my own was surprising.
Nothing more.
There was no thought of defeat in his mind.
[I heard you reached the Nascent Soul stage. The comprehension you give off is at the Heavenly Person level. Did you advance again?]
[…]
I had no time to answer and kept exchanging strikes with Heon-won.
Every time he punched, the dimension itself in Geongon Central Region warped.
Every time I swung my sword, thousands of space rifts opened.
[To be able to exchange blows with me—an Integration master—at the Heavenly Person stage already… in a million years past, in a million years future. There’s no doubt you are a once-in-a-lifetime genius.]
[…]
[And you defeated even a Nascent Soul genius… it would be better to kill you quickly.]
Chwaak!
Heon-won aimed a kick at me.
From the martial perspective, the strike had openings, but the raw power inside it was so overwhelming I couldn’t counter even knowing it.
‘Damn it!’
I blocked it with all my might.
Kugugugug!
That alone pushed me back from the northern to the southern edge of Geongon Central Region.
Shiiii—
I had clearly raised my arm to block, yet my internal organs felt violently shaken.
I looked at my arm.
Heon-won’s footprints were still imprinted on it.
‘I had used the Iron Blood Body, the Earth Clan’s defense, and all defensive techniques, yet there were still traces…’
The problem was that those were not full power.
[Well played. Now go.]
Kugugugug!
The Heaven and earth qi around me began to move and started crushing me.
‘He’s trying to use that technique!’
I felt chills and escaped the crushing before the Yin-Yang Five Elements could fully bind me.
Wuuuung!
I gritted my teeth, glaring at Heon-won who had leaped through folded space from above.
[Annoying. Won’t you just obey and take it?]
I smiled smugly.
[I know your attack patterns. If you use the Taesan Yeolje technique, anyone will die. But… is that not meaningless if you don’t hit?]
At pure speed, Heon-won was not even close to Kim Young-hoon.
So if I could react to Kim Young-hoon’s speed, I could easily dodge Heon-won’s techniques.
[Correct. If you don’t hit, it has no meaning.]
That was what I thought.
Kugugugugug!
“…Eh?”
I saw the Yin-Yang crushing blanket spread across the entire Geongon Central Region.
[Then try dodging it.]
Wuuuung!
Heon-won enclosed himself inside the crushing blanket.
The Yin-Yang Five Elements enveloped everything.
[Taesan.]
“Insane!!!”
My eyes were bloodshot as I raced toward Geongon City.
‘The entire Geongon Central Region is a realm domain!?’
Gwanghan Realm was incomparably vast compared to the Water Realm.
And Geongon Central Region was even larger than the Water Realm.
Escaping here alone would take a lifetime.
‘I was wrong.’
I shouldn’t have fought Heon-won in the first place.
If I had run like crazy from the start, I could have preserved my life.
Heon-won had said he wouldn’t leave the Geongon Central Region!
I finally reached Geongon City and found Jeon Myeong-hoon protecting Hong Beom and Yeon-jin.
“Jeon Myeong-hoon!!! Hong Beom!!! Yeon-jin!!!”
Kwaaaak!
The instant I arrived, I struck the Ascension Platform and twisted the dimensional barrier.
“Go! Get out of here right now!!!!!!”
And Heon-won’s voice thundered across the heavens and earth.
[Yeolje.]
“Go aaaaah!!!”
Kwaaaak!
I tore a hole in the dimension, shoved Jeon Myeong-hoon, Hong Beom, and Yeon-jin through it, and successfully ejected them outside the Gwanghan Realm.
But I couldn’t dodge Heon-won’s attack by a hair’s breadth.
The world was engulfed in light.
* * *
Where am I?
I suddenly realized I was standing in pitch-black darkness.
No, wait…
This was the void.
‘Ah… so that’s it.’
The entire Geongon Central Region had been blasted away by Heon-won’s attack.
Wuuuung!
I noticed several empty spiritual pools floating around the void.
‘I see. These must be the pure originals of the Ascension Platform…’
One of them was swaying.
It was probably the one I had just ejected the others from.
‘I have to move… but…’
My limbs wouldn’t move.
I had no sense at all.
‘No… wait.’
It wasn’t that I had no sensation in my limbs.
There were no limbs.
I realized the entire body I had cultivated with the Changryeong Seonggwang Ochae Daebop had been crushed flat like dough and was floating through space.
Only my head remained with any shape, and it soon seemed it would stop breathing.
‘The Golden Core… the Nascent Soul… both broken…’
The only saving grace was that the colorless glass sword connected to my soul had been tossed outside the Gwanghan Realm together with Jeon Myeong-hoon and remained intact.
Paaaaat!
Before me, Heon-won appeared.
He sounded genuinely surprised.
[Impressive. You maintained your form even after taking my Taesan Yeolje… what a tremendous feat.]
He raised black-and-white qi in both hands and spoke.
[No Heavenly Person stage has ever left a trace after my Taesan Yeolje. But you survived the strike and kept your life… I pay you my respect.]
Wuuuuwung!
The Yin-Yang Five Elements crushing bound my dying body.
[Go well, you failures who couldn’t protect Geumshin Cheonroemun.]
Paaaaat!
He looked down at me with cold eyes and stretched both hands.
[Taesan.]
‘I couldn’t… protect it?’
Was it true?
Yes it was.
Geum Byeok-ho, Geum So-hae, Jin-hwi, Hong Su-ryeong, Geum Min, Geum Jin-chan…
How many had died?
I couldn’t protect them.
But…
I smiled wryly.
“…I am not ashamed before them.”
The Geumshin Cheonroemun lineage remained, history continued, and extinction was avoided.
Thus I had overcome fate.
“This life… is never…”
Never, never!
“Was meaningless!”
In this life I had done everything I could.
Watching me accept death gracefully, Heon-won’s eyes wavered.
But his actions remained resolute.
[…Yeolje!]
A blinding white light engulfed the world.
That was my eighteenth regression.