Well, Take Care (5)
“Ha… haak!”
My breath wouldn’t come. I was gasping for air.
‘This… is…’
Star Shattering.
Those who were born as mortals and had begun to break the shackles of mortality, half-gods.
In the life I lived as General Seo, I never realized it. My body had been that of a puppet, not a living creature.
The first time I met Jang Ik, I was in General Seo’s body. The second time, it was in Yu Hwa’s dream—a single strike that still only carried the energy of Qi Condensation. I could never grasp his power.
But now I understood.
‘How could such an existence…!’
I hadn’t even entered the Sap-pung Territory yet, but the pressure squeezing my heart was suffocating.
The same was true for Goe-gun, who was riding the Wondrous Castle. His face had turned pale as he clutched his chest.
She had blocked the momentum for him, but she was still a millennium in the future from the Star Shattering stage. She couldn’t stop every last bit of it.
Crack…
I gritted my teeth and forced a bitter smile.
‘Kang Min-hee…’
In the end, fate was fate.
Relationships were relationships. Even if Seo Lip had left the strange parasite to communicate as much emotion as possible with her, she still became the Ghost Dao Holy Mother.
Srruk—
Seolip had already slipped out of my body. He turned into a human form, clenched his fist, and faced me.
“Seo Eun-hyun…”
He ground his teeth and stared at me.
“Kang Min-hee is…”
“I know. So what do you plan to do about it?”
…
I looked at Seo Lip with cold eyes.
“You know this energy better than anyone. It’s at the Star Shattering level. Even if we team up with the Wondrous Castle and Goe-gun, we won’t be able to fight it. We’d barely be able to run away.”
“I know that too. But…”
Seo Lip’s eyes were completely filled with confusion.
“Kang Min-hee is there! We have to save Kang Min-hee! Kang Min-hee!”
I stared at the panicked Seo Lip.
The face that looked like Won Rip’s had its head in its hands, biting down hard.
Watching him, I closed my eyes and opened them again.
“Seo Lip.”
“S-Sseo Eun-hyun. Is there really no way? What do we do about Kang Min-hee…? She’s our colleague, right…!”
“Seo Lip.”
“I know you don’t have any feelings for her either. Haa, but still…”
Bang!
I didn’t call his name three times. I calmly punched him right in the face.
The head that reminded me of Won Rip exploded cleanly.
I calmed my mind and drew my sword with cold eyes.
“Why, why the Invisible Sword…?”
“The Invisible Sword… Now that you mention it, you still think of it that way.”
But for the past five hundred years, my Invisible Sword had evolved into something else.
I lifted the sword filled with starlight and looked at Seo Lip.
“From now on, I’ll show you what I’ve understood over the past five hundred years.”
“Ah, no, Seo Eun-hyun. What’s with that right now…?”
Boom!
I swung the sword without mercy toward Seo Lip.
* * *
‘What the hell is this crazy bastard doing!’
I hurriedly activated my Ghost King transformation, recalled my Clear Scale Armor, and used the Space-Stopping Technique to flee far from Seo Eun-hyun as fast as I could.
‘Why is he acting like this? Did he get infected by Seo Hyul and finally snap?’
Why suddenly swing a sword with no explanation?
Even though I felt a strange déjà vu from Seo Eun-hyun’s attitude, I ran away. I had to survive.
But from far away, I felt his ‘gaze.’
Dangerous.
Boom!
At the last moment, Seo Eun-hyun crossed hundreds of li in the blink of an eye without any Space-Stopping Technique and pressed the Invisible Sword to my neck.
‘D-Dodge…!’
I felt overwhelming terror and tried to dodge, but I knew it was impossible.
‘D-Dodge impossible…!’
No matter where I went, it seemed I’d be hit.
Actually, right now the Invisible Sword looked perfectly obedient in Seo Eun-hyun’s hand. But the essence of the Invisible Sword was true freedom.
It would change trajectory freely no matter if I dodged or not, and strike me.
The feeling was completely different from the speed of Kim Young-hoon’s strike or Tae Yeol-jeon’s precise hit!
That was the true meaning hidden in the Invisible Sword!
‘If dodging isn’t possible…’
The only way was to block it.
I moved the recalled Clear Scale Armor and quickly wrapped my entire body.
The power of the Clear Scale Armor that neutralized every kind of physical force!
But Seo Eun-hyun’s Invisible Sword pierced through it as easily as if he were teasing me and cut straight through my body.
“Kheuk!”
I coughed up blood and tried desperately to use Manpower or law techniques to escape his hand.
But it was all useless.
The puppet circuit knew the circuits perfectly, so it was useless against Seo Eun-hyun.
The Ghost Dao Gongfa shrank back before him, whose death energy was stronger than mine.
The Yin Soul Ghost Curse was useless too.
The standard combat methods the sages used against the Heart Tribe were also useless. Seo Eun-hyun had obtained the four pillars of the Earth Tribe because of Seo Hyul.
In short, Seo Eun-hyun was the absolute worst counter to me.
Kugugugugu!
The Sap-pung Territory vibrated once.
Sand dust rose.
I was beaten and cut to pieces while unable to use any hand techniques in the sandstorm.
How many blows had I taken?
Suddenly, I felt Seo Eun-hyun’s inner voice.
[Why aren’t you using your martial arts?]
Kwaduk!
Sixteen of the eighteen heads that had been reduced to dust by the Invisible Sword. I spat out ghost energy and glared at him.
[Are you joking?! How can I win against you with martial arts!]
No, his extreme techniques would further restrict my movement range.
Hearing that, Seo Eun-hyun looked at me with even more settled eyes.
Why?
I had no way to look directly into Seo Eun-hyun’s eyes.
And the next moment.
‘Eh?’
I saw Seo Eun-hyun’s Total Colorless Glass Sword ‘disappear.’
‘What? The sword…’
No.
The sword hadn’t disappeared.
The hair on my entire body stood on end.
That was it.
Seo Hyul’s reaction when he said ‘that’s why it’s invisible.’
I barely used Space-Stopping Technique and moved back just in time to dodge the attack.
That last one was really dangerous.
[That attack just now…]
I looked at Seo Eun-hyun with fearful eyes and asked.
[It was completely within the realm of the Heart Sword. Completely stepping into the Heart Sword realm. Is that the true front line…?!]
Seo Eun-hyun stared at me for a moment with an expressionless face, then stopped attacking and gave a faint smile.
“How did you notice that I used that attack?”
“What?”
“As I said, this attack is completely within the Heart Sword realm. No matter how high the sages fly, they can’t easily approach it unless they’ve mastered a consciousness technique. Even with the Ghost Dao Gongfa, it’s only a bit closer, but ultimately it’s done at the level of inner energy.”
He stroked the Total Colorless Glass Sword and continued.
“Especially my enlightenment is focused on the Invisible and freedom, so it’s even harder for the opponent to perceive. It’s been like that since the Invisible Sword era, but since reaching this realm, I’ve completely surpassed others in trajectory.”
“It was, since the Invisible Sword era…”
“Then how did you dodge that one strike just now?”
“How did I dodge…?”
“It was an attack that didn’t appear and wasn’t felt. Yet you dodged it.”
I asked in confusion.
“What do you mean. I didn’t use martial arts, but I knew everything about ‘my’ martial arts.”
The move I used just now was the first stance of the Danak Sword Art: the stance called Sim-san.
It was the stance that dove deep into the opponent’s arms and cut upward. If you carefully observed the unique chasing footwork, you could dodge it.
Hearing that, Seo Eun-hyun smiled faintly.
‘…Ah.’
Suddenly, I realized what the déjà vu from the Seo Eun-hyun who suddenly attacked me was.
“Do you know how I reached this realm?”
“…”
“I observed myself. And I understood. The things I needed were already inside me.”
‘I see.’
He placed a finger on my chest.
“You are Seo Lip, but you are also another possibility of mine. Martial arts are already inside you. You just have to swing.”
‘You’ve become someone like Kim Young-hoon now.’
“Swing it, it’s already inside you.”
Kim Young-hoon’s voice seemed to echo by my ear.
“Your will is also inside you. You just have to swing. Don’t rely on me, Seo Lip. From the moment I separated from you, your life was your own.”
His eyes burned like starlight.
‘I see.’
The Invisible Sword wasn’t invisible.
Rather, I had become even closer to Seo Eun-hyun.
‘Reaching the Heart Sword realm completely… perhaps…’
The Heart Sword realm wasn’t something that simply spread out like inner energy. It might exist inside the heart of existence itself.
“There was a time I forced life on my disciples. It was with a master’s heart, but thinking back now, it might have been right to respect their will even if it meant dying.”
“…”
“That’s why I’ll respect your will too, Seo Lip. Don’t try to find answers from me. Do what your heart tells you. Do you want to save Kang Min-hee, or don’t you?”
I stood in place.
The suffocating pressure still came from the Sap-pung Territory direction.
“…I…”
I clenched my teeth while looking into Seo Eun-hyun’s eyes.
“I want to save Kang Min-hee.”
“You might die if you go to her now.”
Death.
When I heard that word, oddly my knees trembled.
Strange.
Death should have been familiar to me, but it wasn’t.
But even though it was frightening…
“…I still want to go.”
“Why? You might die.”
Why?
Why did I want to go to her?
I tried to come up with countless logical answers, but the unexpected one came out.
“The scenery from the day I saw Kang Min-hee… I can’t remember it.”
“Hm?”
“Kang Min-hee’s domain. You saw it inside my mind too, right? I can’t recall that memory.”
“…”
“If I receive the memory through the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I can know immediately… but I want to hear that answer from Kang Min-hee herself.”
“…”
“…Eh…”
Thinking about it, I had no idea what kind of sophistry this was. It sounded completely nonsensical and foolish for something that involved life and death.
“No, that is… if I hear the answer… won’t it be good for the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram too…?”
Since Seo Eun-hyun and I were the same person, it was possible to read the memories of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.
I rambled and spouted nonsense.
And.
“Is that so.”
Seo Eun-hyun smiled.
A clear smile.
“Then let’s do that.”
He turned around without any hesitation and began walking toward the Sap-pung Territory.
“Contact Goe-gun. He’s recovered his senses, so he’ll be able to help. Let’s use Goe-gun’s help to save any survivors and get them out.”
“…Seo Eun-hyun.”
I asked with a trembling voice.
“Until just now… you weren’t against saving Kang Min-hee?”
He clearly hadn’t been in favor of saving her. It felt like he was coming up with an escape strategy after calmly gauging her Star Shattering power.
Then why the sudden change?
Because of such clumsy, foolish logic?
Seo Eun-hyun had been emotional, but he was at least a person with minimal common sense.
He wouldn’t have been shaken by such foolish logic, so I thought half the possibility was out.
Then why did he suddenly approve like this?
Hearing my words, Seo Eun-hyun turned to me and gave a soft smile.
Unlike Seo Hyul’s, it was a smile that truly felt peaceful.
“I’ll tell you. Follow me.”
“…”
Tat!
After contacting Goe-gun, I followed Seo Eun-hyun.
We both flew through the air using only Light-body Technique—no Space-Stopping Technique.
Of course I used Space-Stopping Technique to close the distance, but oddly he was hard to catch up with.
Even though it looked like he was running purely with Light-body Technique, not the gliding of the Earth Tribe or Space-Stopping Technique or Invisible Sword, I kept looking at his back.
If I used Space-Stopping Technique, I might have been able to catch up, but oddly I didn’t feel like it.
Space-Stopping Technique was within my limit, but I didn’t want to use more than that, and I wanted to chase after Seo Eun-hyun with only Light-body Technique.
But in the end I had to run while staring at his back until the very end.
Kugugugugu—
A while later.
We arrived at the center of the Sap-pung Territory.
Ooooooooo—
Kiyaaaargh!
Hundreds of millions of ghosts howled.
At the center of the ghost horde was a dark sphere. The spot was a temporary base set up in the Sap-pung Territory for a shortcut from the Black Ghost Valley High Realm branch.
In other words, it was where the Seopmyeong Ship was docked.
Kiyaaaargh—
Hii, hiiyaargh!
The ghosts screamed and howled when we approached, but strangely they didn’t run away.
As if they couldn’t leave near that dark sphere.
“Can you feel the Seopmyeong Ship inside?”
“Y-yes.”
With my Ghost Dao Gongfa, the Seopmyeong Ship felt extremely vivid.
And naturally, survivors still ‘alive’ inside it felt very real.
‘The ghosts inside are all incapacitated. We have to at least save the survivors.’
The Ghost Kings were pitiful, but I knew I couldn’t save them.
I instinctively knew. As someone who had mastered the Ghost Dao Gongfa, I felt the power and influence of the sphere in front of me vividly.
I organized the ones I could save and the ones I couldn’t and told Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun nodded.
“I see. Then first we’ll chip the sphere and pull the Seopmyeong Ship out, then pull the survivors inside out.”
“With the power of the sphere, even if we chip it, it’ll regenerate instantly.”
“That’s fine. We’ll just divide the roles.”
Kugugugugu—
The Wondrous Castle arrived as if the words weren’t even out of his mouth.
From inside the castle, Goe-gun’s voice came out.
[Kruh, did you call me to have me deal with that?]
Seo Eun-hyun looked up at the Wondrous Castle and smiled.
“Not at all. We’ll chip it. Please pull the Seopmyeong Ship inside for me, Venerable.”
[Hrm, so you want to save the survivors inside? I’ve been fighting with the Black Ghost Valley bastards for a while… Ghost creatures have a habit of sticking together, so even if we pull out the Seopmyeong Ship, they’ll probably just get dragged back anyway.]
That was indeed true.
Even if we pulled the Seopmyeong Ship out for a moment, it would probably be dragged back in.
We had to rescue all the survivors inside the Seopmyeong Ship in that short time. It was too tight.
“Venerable, you’ve pulled the power device out of the Seopmyeong Ship before, right?”
[Of course.]
“How did you get in then? Did you enter through the proper entrance and rip it out?”
[Of course not. I drilled a hole in the hull and went straight in to the power device.]
“Do that again this time. As soon as you pull the Seopmyeong Ship out, drill a hole, go straight, and pull out the power device. When the power device is removed, the ghost energy of the Seopmyeong Ship will weaken a lot, so it’ll take longer to be dragged back. While we do that, I’ll ask the puppets to pull out the survivors. Don’t worry about the power device; take it yourself.”
I looked at Seo Eun-hyun with a dazed expression.
“Wait, the Seopmyeong Ship power device is in the Black Ghost Valley. Why are you giving it to Goe-gun?”
“Location transfer.”
“…”
“Anyway, can you do that?”
[Huhu. Well, I don’t have much time to think clearly, so if I can save a person in that short time, that’s what I should do.]
Goe-gun accepted readily and shouted.
[Good, it’s been nearly a thousand years since I last fought the Black Ghost Valley! Let’s try it!]
“Prepare yourself, Seo Lip.”
Seo Eun-hyun gripped the Colorless Glass Sword and said with serious eyes.
“Let’s go save Kang Min-hee.”
That was how the Ghost Mother Battle between Goe-gun, me, and Seo Eun-hyun began.