Dream Flesh Possession and the Salt Mountain's Resolve
I stared blankly at the scenery beyond the surveillance screen.
“This… this is…”
“Uwoong—”
When I extended my hand past the surveillance screen, I felt my consciousness being sucked toward the pocket dimension inside Jeungryong Jinin’s Jeomuldo.
It pulled me toward the altar in the Suryu layer, like the world itself was dragging me in.
“Tch tch tch—”
After a short while, when my eyes opened, I found myself inside Jeungryong Jinin’s Jeomuldo.
I had awakened as a “dream body” atop the altar in the Suryu layer.
“…Ha, hahahaha!”
I let out an unexpected laugh.
Without hesitation, I launched a Void Shattering strike toward the empty air and formed a clone.
“Weeeeeeeng—”
Crack!
No, that was what I had intended.
However, the weird power inside the pocket dimension prevented the clone from forming properly.
It shattered before it could solidify.
“There must be some restriction inherent to this otherworld itself.”
Then there was no choice.
I reached out into the empty air and unleashed a surge of attractive force.
“Uwoong—”
Even that, along with other abilities, failed to activate properly with the dream body.
“My strength is reduced to a mere one ten-thousandth.”
Of course, that was still enough for smoke-rank or pill-enclosing cultivation.
But nothing more.
After a moment of thought, I recalled the unique properties of the dream body and used the force of the Four Pillars to gather spiritual energy from the surroundings.
I condensed it into water and froze it into an ice golem.
Then I overlapped my dream body onto the ice golem’s form.
“Tch tch tch—”
It was possession.
I activated my power while inside the ice golem’s body.
“It’s much easier this way.”
The dream body had been temporarily refined to possess the qualities of a Ghost King.
Fundamentally, it was an incorporeal entity existing only on the fringes of the Ghost Realm.
To exert real power, it was best to possess a being from this realm.
“Kuguk—”
I tested the attractive force using the borrowed body of the ice golem.
“It works! The space is warping!”
Now all I needed was to use this ice golem’s body as coordinates and carve a path of attractive force between the pocket dimension and the Deep Sea of the Goryeok Realm to escape!
Just as I thought that.
“Psa-sak—”
“…”
The golem’s body shattered instantly.
The ice fragments clearly could not endure my power for long.
“This is troublesome.”
I clicked my tongue and tried various methods—making a tree grow with wood-law technique, creating a clay figure with soil-law technique.
But all of them failed.
“Damn it, the main body’s power is too overwhelming. Even a golem can’t handle it and blows apart the moment it tries to spit out attractive force.”
There was only one way.
“I have to make a soldier.”
But there was a problem.
Inside this pocket dimension, there were almost no materials.
Because everything that could serve as material had been burned to ash by the raging flames inside the pocket dimension.
There were only a few stone buildings that didn’t burn easily.
Even with those, the limit of what I could make was around the stage of Nascent Soul or Integration Grand Completion.
“Could an Integration-stage golem really tear through the space between the Goryeok Realm and this pocket dimension and allow us to escape?”
No matter how I thought about it, it was impossible.
Yet while I was still pondering, one thought suddenly surfaced.
“…They won’t come for another hundred years.”
By then, I would have been regressed a full five hundred years.
And at that time, two Four-Pillar inspectors from the Heavenly Tribe and one from the Earth Tribe would enter this pocket dimension.
“The Jangmok Tribe and the Cheonik Tribe, and…”
“Hyeol-eum of the Blood Cult.”
I recalled them and my eyes gleamed.
“I’ll steal their bodies!”
If I possessed one of them, I could properly use attractive force to make this realm my coordinates and pull the Guanghan Realm back into this world.
I thought of the Hyeol-eum from my past life who had died severed in four limbs by Seo Hyul.
“Even if it isn’t Seo Hyul, Hyeol-eum would have died at the hands of the Jangmok and Cheonik Tribes anyway.”
The way he had sought the Cheonlyeon Fruit to cure his wife’s illness had always been deeply moving to me.
“This time, if I can save him, I will.”
I made my decision.
“The exploration team that will come in a hundred years. I will help Hyeol-eum get the Cheonlyeon Fruit he wants, and with his help, I will return to the Guanghan Realm!”
“Kwaak!”
I clenched my fist even with my main body and laughed.
I had thought there was no hope.
But hope had appeared!
“I need to gather the treasures inside the pocket dimension until the exploration team arrives.”
Hyeol-eum probably wouldn’t trust a complete stranger at first.
So to win his help, it would be best to gather the treasures here, offer them to him in a transaction.
After all, a contract can only be made with something one possesses.
“Don’t pick the Cheonlyeon Fruit yet.”
“Ah, thank you for the advice.”
I heard that the Cheonlyeon Fruit is absorbed the moment it touches a dream.
In other words, if I gathered the treasures and then picked it myself, it would simply be sucked into my dream body.
So I nodded and looked around the interior of the pocket dimension.
I was the only one here.
That meant every treasure inside this pocket dimension belonged to me alone!
I smiled as I turned my attention inward.
Hope had appeared.
Within tens of years, I could return to the Guanghan Realm.
With a satisfied heart, I returned and shared the good news with everyone.
***
“Wonderful! So now we just wait?”
“As long as nothing interferes…”
Meeting Hall.
I offered a bitter smile to Yeon Wi and continued.
“However, as I have said before, there is an inauspicious aura surrounding us.”
I looked up at the sky.
Even if Hyeol-eum came to help us, the inauspicious force still clung to me despite us being trapped in the Deep Sea.
It was that aura that had wrapped around Bongrae-do.
When I spoke seriously, Yeon Wi’s face grew solemn.
“…Even in the Goryeok Realm, there is an inauspicious aura… so that wasn’t just a joke?”
“I have always spoken only the truth.”
“Your ancestor seems to need to learn how to trust juniors a little more.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s dry chuckle made Yeon Wi click her tongue and shake her head.
“I only believe what I see with my own eyes. I have never heard of anything like that. Unless someone is a Star Plate cultivator who can shift their consciousness or vision beyond the Central Plains, such things are simply impossible.”
“Heh… Is it really possible for the Geumsin Cheonroemun to be reduced to ashes overnight?”
“…”
Yeon Wi fell silent at Jeon Myeong-hoon’s gloomy words.
“Well… I understand for now. You were marked by some high-ranking being. And because of that inauspicious force, even the Mugeuk Sect and everyone here will remain stuck on Bongrae-do?”
“That’s right.”
Yeon Wi thought for a moment, then spoke.
“Then you leave the Bongrae-do.”
“…”
“What…!”
The meeting hall erupted in commotion at her words.
“Military Commander Yeon Wi! If you leave the Bongrae-do now, you will become a lost soul in the Deep Sea!”
“I know exactly what I’m saying. Once we get coordinates from those Four-Pillar inspectors who will come from that otherworld pocket dimension or whatever it is, Seo Eun-hyun will stay in the Goryeok Realm and we’ll escape first.”
Kim Yeon, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Young-hoon, and even Jeon Myeong-hoon showed fierce expressions.
But Yeon Wi ignored them all and glared at everyone while growling.
“Did I say something wrong? Seo Eun-hyun is the leader and the one responsible for this group. If the leader is the problem and the group is tied down, then the person who should bear responsibility must bear it. Just as I received the name of a sage and personally led the destruction of the Geumsin Cheonroemun in the Central Plains to save even the main sect that existed in the lower realm four thousand years ago, and turned the monster’s stigma on its head!”
“Kwaang!”
Yeon Wi slammed her fist on the table, veins bulging in her eyes.
“If you have taken the title of leader and head of the group, then that is what you must do!”
“Kugugugugu!”
A cold killing intent began to spread through the meeting hall from her words.
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s eyes twitched as he said,
“…Then let’s have me, an Integration-stage cultivator, stay. Seo Eun-hyun who doesn’t even have the Sabre Domain yet.”
Yeon Wi’s eyes rolled back.
“What nonsense is that! Didn’t you hear what Seo Eun-hyun said? He said the inauspicious force is only tied to him alone!”
“Combining my Hyeol-lo Cheol-gop and Seo Eun-hyun’s Meyeon-myeong Geol-cheon, I can use the Sacrifice Technique to take on his inauspicious force. After all… Hyeol-lo Cheol-gop and Meyeon-myeong Geol-cheon are forbidden techniques based on someone else’s sacrifice. It’s not impossible.”
“Stop saying ridiculous things! You are the greatest figure of the current Geumsin Cheonroemun! I and Seo Hyul were banished and are essentially outsiders! But you are also Geum Myeong-hun! If you stay here, what happens to the Geumsin Cheonroemun in the lower realm?!”
But the moment Yeon Wi opened her mouth, she looked around as if startled.
The killing intent grew even stronger.
“Kugugugugu!”
At the center of the Guanghan Realm, the entire Mugeuk War was being violently shaken by the killing intent of everyone gathered here.
Jeon Myeong-hoon spoke quietly.
“…The ancestor’s words were that you, who were born with the Heavenly Thunder Body and are Geum Myeong-hun, should not stay. But Seo Eun-hyun, who is already an outsider, can remain here. Isn’t Seo Eun-hyun… a comrade who has fought alongside the ancestor all this time and shouldered the burden of the Geumsin Cheonroemun’s survival?! Thanks to Seo Eun-hyun’s Mugeuk Sect, we were able to save the disciples of the Ghost Realm’s Geumsin Cheonroemun!”
Yeon Wi’s pupils shook at Jeon Myeong-hoon’s words. But she gritted her teeth and roared at him instead.
“What kind of nonsense is that?! Are you all so obsessed with your master and your sect that you’ve forgotten the core?! This kind of heretical cult is just a means to build up merit and virtue, and you are a disciple of the Great Geumsin Cheonroemun! No, even I and Seo Hyul were expelled but we still had a sense of belonging to the Geumsin Cheonroemun! What small heretical cult is that?! What kind of master-worship is that?!”
“Why don’t you trust Seo Eun-hyun?! Did you forget that he worked together with Senior-nim to save the Geumsin Cheonroemun?! In the end, Seo Eun-hyun was right! Even after coming to the Goryeok Realm, I heard Senior-nim’s stories. While interrogating Yuk Rin with the Haebangbaeja Banner, I heard Senior-nim’s past! Why does Senior-nim not trust human loyalty at all and only betray?! We are the Geumsin Cheonroemun, not the Betrayal Thunder Sect!!!”
Yeon Wi looked momentarily dazed at the heated words.
Her voice was momentarily blocked. She trembled, then bit her lip tightly.
“…Yes! It’s me and Seo Eun-hyun! And I was the one who said the Heavenly Thunder Banner needs to be sealed! It was not Seo Hyul’s claim! Why can’t you trust him? Tell me honestly!”
Yeon Wi’s voice trembled.
After the emotional fight with Jeon Myeong-hoon, the only thing left of her was her teeth as she gnashed them and shouted.
“How do you expect me to trust that guy at all?! You’re the Heavenly Thunder Body! It’s only natural for your cultivation to skyrocket! But what about him?! He ascended from the Deungsunhyang as a criminal’s body after just five hundred years with only ordinary Five Elements Spiritual Root?! Do you really think that’s possible?!”
“Why not?! His talent…”
“That kind of talent is only possible with the Heavenly Thunder Body! Gui-do Umhwa Seon-gyun! It’s a myth. Without such legendary qualities, it simply cannot exist! And he is not a One-Section Body like that Ogah guy, nor an unusual constitution, nor even has the Five Elements seem good! Yet he mastered both the Heaven-Earth Twin Hands and the Deep Soul Technique! And even the Taesan Yeolje Art inherited from Heon-won! In just five hundred years! Even the Black Dragon King Hyeon-jo, who rose through cultivation at a similar pace, did it with the support of the Dragon Clan and countless fate connections. But what about him?! I’ve heard that he resisted the temptation of the unsealed Heavenly Thunder Banner with his own sanity. Does that sound possible? The power of that horrific object is something even mortals cannot endure, yet he fights it off while wielding the power of a transcendencer? Then there is only one case where all of what I said is possible. That is, that he is not human!”
Yeon Wi pointed at me and shouted.
“Even though he is not a Heavenly Thunder Body, he learned the Soul-Brain Law faster than Jeon Myeong-hoon, has a mad talent for the Gui-do Technique even though he is not a Gui-do Umhwa Seon-gyun, has mastered all the Five Elements Techniques and even the Deep Soul Technique of the Sea Dragon Law, and has insight into the Consciousness Law. What kind of Gigeogo technique is that which is similar to what the spies of the Hyeol-eum Realm use?! And he resisted the power of the transcendencer’s Heavenly Thunder Banner with his own sanity?! For that to be possible, he must be a True Immortal who hides his cultivation and wears a human shell while pretending to be human!”
The meeting hall fell silent at Yeon Wi’s words.
She looked at me with gloomy eyes and spoke to Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“Why do you betray me so much? Because I could have been betrayed if I hadn’t betrayed you first! Always! If I can’t tell right now whether that guy is human or a monster, then one day when he reveals himself as the avatar of a transcendencer and slaughters us all, that won’t be strange at all. So isn’t it more reasonable to drop him here and leave?”
“…”
“…Life never turns out the way we want… Never. That’s what this thing called life is. This world… yes. It is a world filled with the Six Extremes. Dreaming or wishing for blessings is already a luxury in itself. We must wish for nothing. We must always prepare for the worst and be ready to survive…”
Although she hurled harsh words at me, ironically, only I felt her words deeply.
The disciples who served me with true loyalty like the Guardian Ghost King all seemed to want to tear Yeon Wi apart right then. And none of my sect’s senior officials gave Yeon Wi a kind glance.
I smiled bitterly and said,
“Then why did you speak all of that in front of me? If I am a True Immortal or higher transcendencer, pulling your main body’s soul and soul to torment you for thousands of years is nothing.”
Yeon Wi flinched but did not answer.
“…Jeon Myeong-hoon. Please send Military Commander Yeon Wi’s consciousness back to the lower realm.”
“Understood.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon immediately approached Yeon Wi, struck her nape to knock her out, and sent her consciousness to the lower realm.
After Yeon Wi woke up from her faint, only Yeon-jin was left, and he merely trembled from the brutal atmosphere around him without fully understanding the situation.
I smiled gently and said,
“Don’t hate her too much. She was only worried about the safety of all of us by her own means…”
Yeon Wi always pretended to be arrogant, but in reality her intentions were kind.
‘She was just… influenced by the dream she saw on the Bongrae-do and her emotions became a little heated.’
Jeon Myeong-hoon and Yeon Wi did not need to be pushed so hard against each other.
But the dream that had been seen on the Bongrae-do was the problem.
“For now, let’s end today’s meeting. With the hope that we can leave the Goryeok Realm in a hundred years, let everyone know that.”
I dismissed the meeting and stood up.
***
Slurp, slurp…
After leaving the meeting hall, I walked toward the salt mountain of Bongrae-do.
The Bongrae-do without the illusion array was desolate.
Inside the illusion, the Bongrae Kingdom had flourished around the salt mountain.
But outside the illusion, only the salt mountain and a few salt towers remained.
“Thud!”
I climbed to the peak of the salt mountain where the Salt Crystal Palace had once stood and sat down, looking out over the upper part of the Bongrae-do.
The inauspicious aura that had wrapped around me had not entered the Bongrae-do at all.
Of course, when we left the outside it would have a terrifying effect, but it simply could not enter here.
‘Inside the Bongrae-do, all contracts and oaths become invalid.’
That was Yuk Rin’s explanation, and also Yuk Yo’s.
Perhaps that inauspicious aura was also in the same category as contracts and oaths.
And it was because of the Bongrae-do that I had told everyone there was a chance to leave even though the inauspicious force was still entangled with me.
The power of the Bongrae-do that blocked the inauspicious aura would also mean that by finding that power we could avoid it and go to the Guanghan Realm.
‘And the source of that power… is most likely this salt mountain.’
Everyone thought the true source of truth was the Salt Crystal Palace.
After all, this salt mountain was just a huge lump of salt.
But the formation of the Bongrae-do was still active.
Even though the Salt Crystal Palace and the salt mountain were separated and the illusion array was broken, a certain power that blocked the outside contracts, oaths, and inauspicious aura remained.
In other words.
‘If I can awaken the power of this salt mountain, the probability that everyone can leave will be high.’
Today the atmosphere was too bad, so I had ended the meeting for now.
When Yeon Wi calmed down later, I would hold another meeting and tell them the news.
“Uuuwoong—”
I sat on the peak of the salt mountain and closed my eyes, operating the Haebangbaeja Banner obtained from Yuk Rin, the Salt Sea Jade obtained from the pocket dimension of Jeungryong Jinin.
And using the Taesan Yeolje Art and its reversed technique.
Why had Yeon Wi, who could have been the avatar of a True Immortal in front of me, been unable to control her emotions and revealed the uncomfortable fact that was because of the dream of the Bongrae-do and Jeon Myeong-hoon.
It was simple.
She said with her mouth that we should not wish for anything in this world, but she herself was wishing for it.
A long time together with me, and in fact she wanted to be human.
“Tch tch tch tch tch—”
White particles began to gather around me and shine.
Every time I operated the Taesan Yeolje Art and its reversed incantation, the entire salt mountain began to glow slightly.
What remained was a hundred years.
Within that time, I would obtain the power of the salt mountain, definitely break through the inauspicious aura, and return to the Guanghan Realm.