The Halfway to Immortality
Behind my back, the Triple Taiji swirled in a silent vortex.
And between the Triple Taiji and the Wheel of Fortune, I felt a resonance that was not of the heavens but of two wills pulling against each other.
'This... is...'
They were being drawn together, irresistibly.
To be certain, I overlapped the Wheel of Fortune with the Triple Taiji.
That instant.
PA-SAK!
The Wheel of Fortune shattered.
It had never been fragile against external pressure, but against the internal pressure of my own exploding power, it was… fragile.
'These two seem to overlap perfectly… but to make them truly overlap, I’ll need to raise the Wheel of Fortune’s completeness and deepen my understanding of the Sword Dao even further.'
It felt like something immense was possible, yet right now it remained unusable.
Of course, it did not matter.
PUDUDUDUK!
I was already the volcano that had erupted within me.
A Quasi-Sage of the Fissure Opening realm, traveling ten thousand light-years, hurled himself at me.
And without hesitation, he opened his mouth and spat a reverse-matter bullet straight into my face.
SWAAAARRRR!
I do not know the principle, but it seems to be a secret art that turns even sub-particle water-attribute techniques into reverse matter.
Slowly, I gripped the Colorless Glass Sword.
Before the Triple Taiji, the being before me had looked impossible to handle… but now it was different.
'This is enough.'
Reverse matter touched with the world’s material, converted it into qi, and began eroding the surroundings alongside light.
It was as if the primordial chaos of creation had been unrolled before my eyes.
The entire world was bathed in light.
And I pressed the sword’s tip to the void and slashed downward without pause.
Wansuigungmurok.
Josuwolmurok.
Josuwolmu-gyeong.
Josuwolmu-gyeol.
Wolsu-wolmurok.
Woldo-wolmurok.
Woldoipcheonmu…!
After that, within the realm of Woldoipcheon, my own Wansuigungmurok and Kim Young-hoon’s Wansuigungmurok melted into one.
This world-ending divine art now bears the name Woldoipcheonmu.
Originally it was simply the Wansuigungmurok that severed the will and the knowledge, erasing the opponent from their perception.
That Wansuigungmurok had evolved, evolved, and evolved again for four hundred thousand years in my hands.
Now it could hide even others, and once hidden, it could maintain itself for up to five hundred years.
Therefore, it was time to give it a new name.
[Woldo Bicheon (Transcending the Path to Hide in Heaven).]
SUK-AK!
It would hide even in the sky beyond the Dao.
The sword’s edge scorched the void.
In the next instant.
PA-AAT!
The reverse-matter explosion before my eyes vanished like a mirage between the Quasi-Sage and me.
[What…?! What kind of secret art…]
The Quasi-Sage was momentarily stunned.
JI-EE-EEING!
A terrifying shockwave was transmitted to the soul.
I quickly activated the first form of Sanmyeonggokung and let out a sword cry to neutralize the shockwave, protecting myself and Kang Min-hee behind me.
But the Quasi-Sage, unable to adapt to the soul-level shockwave, screamed and howled in madness.
Through Woldo Bicheon, the explosion had been lifted entirely to the soul realm.
The explosion had occurred at the soul level, but it was no longer a material blast—it had become a shockwave that struck the mind.
Not just severing the will to hide in perception, but severing the very phenomenon of the opponent’s attack itself and sending it to the soul realm, erasing it before my eyes.
No… not merely erasing it, but shifting the phenomenon itself into a battlefield advantageous to me!
That was the secret of the Wansuigungmurok that had transcended transcendence again and again.
Woldo Bicheon.
'If it had been Kim Young-hoon, he would have created Woldo Bicheon in perhaps only six thousand years.'
Not four hundred thousand years, of course.
[You…]
I was assessing the power of Woldo Bicheon.
The Quasi-Sage was glaring at me with fury in his voice.
[The Triple Taiji behind you… that is the proof that you have fully mastered the heart of heaven and earth…]
I gave a bitter smile.
Just moments ago, the Quasi-Sage’s gaze had shifted from the one that had been hunting me with reverse matter.
Now he finally seemed to have regained his senses.
Glaring at me, he muttered.
[I apologize. I was too careless.]
I showed a trace of relief.
[Then perhaps we can make peace between us…]
[But peace is impossible. A debt of gratitude has already been created. How could I, such an existence, erase that debt and comfortably ascend to True Immortal? ]
[……]
[I do not apologize for underestimating you. I will crush you with my full power.]
KUGUGUGUGU!
Until just now.
The Quasi-Sage’s form had changed from the large, foolish pigeon-like shape to something else.
'That bird-like form from before was merely a convenient movement shape… but this is the real Quasi-Sage’s combat form?'
CHWAK, CHWALARARAK!
The Quasi-Sage’s body transformed.
From avian form to beast-human.
Yet the size remained the same, so one arm could still cover a star.
Even as a beast-human, it was only the outline that was human-like; the whole thing was nothing of the sort.
The Quasi-Sage’s face became something like a goblin made of black liquid and dark-blue ice crystals.
His arms had become wings, yet every feather was black liquid, and in one hand ten or more fingers twisted madly.
Everywhere on his body were eyeballs carved like those of the Guryeomyeokcheon-ro. Dozens of them.
His legs were hidden behind the curtain of a black waterfall.
The waterfall looked like a skirt, and the further down it went, the more it blended with the darkness of the universe, until the lower half of his body was as if fused with the Star Realm itself.
CHI-EE-EE-EH-
I, the Quasi-Sage began to chant.
[Speedy revolving planet, come to this place.]
CHI-CHI-CHI-KIT!
Space twisted.
At the same time, a star appeared on one of the Quasi-Sage’s arms.
WIIING!
And the summoned star began to spin.
But the spin was not ordinary.
At first it seemed like a normal planet’s rotation, but gradually it sped up, exceeding sixty rotations per second.
And it did not stop there; the rotational speed grew even faster.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Let the planet summon a storm.]
GUGUGUGUGU!
A cosmic gale struck the space around the star system.
Not the mild gale from before.
A truly terrifying cosmic wind swept me away and hurled me toward that distant star system.
CHI-CHI-JI-JING!
Space twisted again, and the Quasi-Sage leaped after me.
Holding a spinning star in his hand, he continued.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Listen, all the stars of the Nine Realms.]
UUUUUUNG!
Every star in sight of where I stood began to buzz and answer his words.
I felt the stars of the celestial veins resonate and a powerful, burning anger.
[Create a howl that will not let the enemy before me escape. Entwine the stars with starlight and lose their path.]
I could feel it.
The celestial veins wove together and the distance of hundreds of light-years was completely sealed.
A barrier had been formed so that neither I nor the Quasi-Sage could escape the place where our fates intertwined.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Path of starlight. Do not pass the heavenly attraction to my enemy. Vibration of the stars. Do not pass the resonance of the earth to my enemy.]
CHEOL-K!
The laws inside the barrier changed.
At the same time, the world before my eyes turned pitch black.
'Has he sealed the heavenly race’s vision and the earthly race’s vision?'
The two races’ vision became pitch black.
The constellations were forbidden from reading my future and past.
It seemed he could not touch even the demonic race’s vision, but my cognitive organs felt… infinitesimally divided.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Planet of Tribulation, twist the True Immortal’s curse and seize the Five Elements.]
KUG-GUG-GUG-GUG!
It did not end there.
The star in his hand spun even faster, and the Five Elements around us changed.
'Amazing…'
The Five Elements unified into one, and all attributes became water-attribute.
Inside the barrier, only the laws were reversed, but that alone was a terrifying miracle.
The nearby star went dark, its physical laws ignored, and it became an ice lump.
All nearby planets were covered in water or in the grip of an ice age.
[Well then, shall we begin?]
The Quasi-Sage looked at me.
It seemed he was ready to fight.
I looked up at him.
And, drawing a fate seal, I released one of the two forms of Paryeo-dohae-seong that I had never shown him.
Paryeo-dohae-seong
Mansang Inyeondo
My body became the lamp, and my glass evolution became the candle.
And around the flame that was like a candle, the diagram of all phenomena drew itself.
To the Quasi-Sage’s eyes it must have looked like a vague cloud of white mist.
Even if the Heavenly Race’s vision was gone, the power was not.
Therefore… the Triple Taiji was still intact.
HWA-REU-REU-REU-RUK!
I nurtured the glass evolution, and nurtured it again.
After that, with the Triple Taiji on my back, I began to fly toward the Quasi-Sage with the white mist cloud.
* * *
Two cosmic existences began to collide.
The Fissure-Opening Quasi-Sage held a star of revolving heaven and roared.
[Planet, listen. Twist the water of the Five Elements into the power of darkness and reverse it.]
KUGUGUGUGU!
The star system filled with water qi began to explode into reverse matter.
But the Quasi-Sage’s incantation did not end there.
Of course he had expected the thing before him would not eat it.
[The planet obeys the command. Whisper the curse with a thousand mouths. Manifest the power of the True Immortal throughout the universe and make it echo.]
An orbit formed around the planet.
It was an orbit of attraction and rotation.
The orbit gradually grew larger and soon enveloped the nearby star system in an instant, reaching the end of the barrier the Quasi-Sage had spread.
Then, whispers began to sound from the orbit.
Reversal of attraction.
Gravity concentration.
Five Elements collapse.
Reverse-matter waterfall.
Supernova explosion summoning.
Space water route.
Water’s rage.
Winter knight.
Frozen earth spider.
Extreme low-temperature world.
The time called the instant by living beings.
Inside it, thousands of secret arts and incantations activated.
Each one a world-ending divine art that would destroy a world and civilization in an instant!
Attraction reversed.
In that state, gravity concentrated to my left and a terrifying repulsive force formed.
The Five Elements collapsed and my body shook.
A waterfall of reverse matter was created.
The supernova that had just exploded was summoned and blocked my path.
A water route connecting space to space formed, and through it the water of a distant super-giant planet’s ocean flowed in.
The waters, obeying the owner’s command, all erupted in rage and clung to me.
In the meantime, the black liquid formed from the Quasi-Sage’s body condensed and created a rider spewing endless cold qi.
The rider the size of a planet charged with a spear while I stood there. The moment the rider and I collided, a terrifying light bullet erupted and exploded.
And after the explosion, the entire surrounding space was dyed in extreme low temperature and could not move due to physical laws.
Yet I was moving.
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
[The True Immortal grants a small calamity. You will never reach the True Immortal.]
Space overlapped between the Quasi-Sage and me. It looked like a short distance, but in reality an immense ‘distance’ was granted to me.
Yet I was approaching.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Call the True Immortal’s might in the cosmic gale.]
DEU-DEU-DEU-DEU!
The cosmic gale blew and space twisted.
And between the twisted space, two beings of Star Plate level descended.
[The celestial treasure Chilhasen, come to the True Immortal’s hand. The celestial treasure Jikgyopa, respond to the True Immortal’s call.]
A brand-new pitch-black sea sprayed sharp killing intent.
A massive fan made of that black sea was grasped in the Quasi-Sage’s hand.
An eerie plaque with a red dragon drawn on it, made of some flesh and twitching, rose above the Quasi-Sage’s head.
But the Quasi-Sage’s celestial treasures struggled as if they did not want to obey his will.
The Quasi-Sage shouted and wrapped his attraction around the two celestial treasures.
[Do not resist! I, the Quasi-Sage command! Temporarily strip the will of the celestial treasures! ]
KWARU-RU-RU-RUNG!
It sounded like thunder, and the two celestial treasures fell silent.
But the Quasi-Sage himself seemed drained of energy, controlling his ancestors, and his arms shook.
The Quasi-Sage swung Chilhasen.
WHOOOOOO!
The cosmic gale began to blow madly.
And more than that.
From the cosmic gale, hundreds of secret-art slashes of Shu-jun came pouring toward me.
Yet in the center of the white mist, the flame like a sword changed and poured out and repelled every slash.
KWAK-WAK-WAK!
Every time a slash passed, a terrifying cosmic gale shook the nearby nebula.
From the Jikgyopa, the red dragon’s roar seemed to rise, and the black liquid that had covered me turned red and became a red tide that began to melt me.
And.
KWAAANG!
The glass-colored flame exploded, and from inside the red tide a glass lamp-candle shot out and pierced the space’s distortion and reached the Quasi-Sage.
Finally.
KWACHI-JI-JIK!
I reached the hem of the Quasi-Sage’s skirt.
SWII-EE-EH-!
And I began to wrap myself around the Quasi-Sage.
According to my movement path, the white mist of the Mansang Inyeondo left a trail and began to wrap around the Quasi-Sage’s body gradually.
It looked like a white-mist dragon with its head made of candle was wrapping around a giant.
CHWALARARAK!
From the Quasi-Sage’s body, ten thousand dark hands shot out and pushed the dragon away.
Yet the dragon did not fall off his body and kept wrapping and crawling upward.
Once he was completely wrapped around the Quasi-Sage, he became ambiguous in how to attack with celestial treasures.
Instead of being flustered, the Quasi-Sage raised the spinning star he had summoned a little higher.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. The river of black water, become a river whip and come to this hand.]
CHWALARARAK!
The water qi that had gathered in the star system coalesced into a massive black-water river.
The river instantly entered the Quasi-Sage’s hand and became a black whip.
[I, the Quasi-Sage command. Grant the crime of the planet to my enemy.]
CHWAK!
The giant swung the black whip toward the spinning star.
The star called the planet was wildly shaken by the black river’s whip.
Then my body was shaken as if struck by the whip.
The Quasi-Sage began to beat the planet.
KWACHI-JI-JIK!
The body of the star began to be torn away.
At the same time, the glass lamp-candle of the dragon’s head part.
My main body began to be torn away gradually.
The curse of the Quasi-Sage.
CHWAK! CHWAK!
Yet when he continued to beat the star.
CHWALARARARAK!
The star began to turn black gradually.
The head part of the dragon.
From the place like a candle, a black flame like a dark candle burst out.
[Have you reversed the curse? You terrifying one, what kind of pain did you suffer for your True Man’s curse to be reversed by mere size…?!]
Gradually my main body.
As the head part of the dragon crawled up to the giant’s head part, the Quasi-Sage began to grow impatient little by little.
Reverse matter did not work.
Even if thousands of secret arts were fired at once, everything was ignored and he approached.
Attacks using celestial treasures were repelled and he approached.
The curse pushed with the size he possessed and reverse-penetrated.
'A monster…! I thought Gwang-han was this much in the past! If left alone, he will surely become a vicious species like a Golden Immortal and take revenge on us cruelly.'
The Quasi-Sage’s two eyes burned dangerously.
A firm resolution to handle me at this place no matter what formed on his face.
JJEO-EOK!
The dragon whose head was the candle.
The monster called the Candle Dragon opened his mouth.
In the center of that mouth, I, who spat glass evolution, with the Triple Taiji on my back, faced the eyes of the Fissure-Opening True Immortal.
KII-EEING!
The Quasi-Sage felt goosebumps all over his body.
It was not just climbing on his body.
Not simply climbing up, but hiding his body endlessly inside that lamp-candle and dancing a sword dance to reach here.
My two eyes that had drawn my entire body into the realm of the True Immortal through the sword dance burned white.
The Quasi-Sage felt the crisis of his whole body ring a bell.
'It’s dangerous. If that strikes directly, even a True Immortal would receive a fatal wound…! Then I must block it…'
Danak Sword Art
Form Thirty-Third Cut.
Sumi!
Yet.
There was something he had not anticipated.
That all forms of the Danak Sword Art could freely link with any form!
At the end of the Sumi Sword Dance that borrowed the power of Ilwol Cheonyeok, I took the posture of the next form.
The essence of the thrust at the limit!
The power of death that followed the end!
Danak Sword Art
Form Thirty-Fourth Cut.
Gonryun!
The linking technique of Sumi-gonryun unfolded right in front of the Quasi-Sage’s nose.
In an instant, the Quasi-Sage tried to cut the white mist that bound him and flee, or shrink his body.
But he could not flee.
As if thousands, hundreds of millions, billions of people were grabbing every part of his body and not allowing any deformation or escape.
He could not flee.
Bound and sealed, he could not dodge.
Then what remained…
'Blocking!'
A terrifying power was felt from the goblin-like head of the Quasi-Sage.
In that short instant, even I felt my Achilles tendons ache.
At the same time, the entire body of the Quasi-Sage that had been grasped by me seemed to reverse.
The Quasi-Sage’s giant body was simultaneously reverse-materialized!
His technique of temporarily exploding his cultivation and reverse-materializing his entire body to proceed with mutual annihilation.
Since he had reverse-materialized his own body, the way he had done like before, I could not arbitrarily lift it to the soul realm and nullify it.
The reverse matter of three stars’ worth exploded, and in that explosion a thorn-like black line pierced the center of the explosion.
A small star system that had not yet given birth to intelligent beings was buried in light and disappeared.
* * *
CHI-EE-EE-EH-
I looked back while circling the smoke rising from my body.
Behind us.
The entire star system we had been fighting until just now.
No, an area much wider than that was completely wrapped in light.
'I almost died.'
I clicked my tongue.
If the linking technique of Sumi-gonryun had been even a little late, I would have died right there.
Precisely, I would have dropped my Star Shattering cultivation and revived, but…
Dropping to Star Shattering level in front of the Quasi-Sage was the same as dying.
I sat on a suitable asteroid in the asteroid zone the size of a planet and cooled my body.
Thanks to the perfect strike of the Sumi-gonryun linking technique, I had penetrated the center of the Quasi-Sage’s body and received no shock except a slight warming.
'What happened…'
I had not thought I would kill the Quasi-Sage with that one blow.
The life of a Fissure-Opening True Immortal was unimaginably vast.
When I thought that.
UUK, UUD-DDEUK!
Space seemed to collapse, and someone appeared.
CHI-EE-EE-EH-
The Quasi-Sage who spewed smoke from his entire body.
His goblin-like face, wings transformed into arms, and waterfall-like skirt remained, but the size was similar to mine, a normal human size.
That existence glared at me.
[What kind of secret art did you use? You cannot use your cultivation…!]
I smiled faintly without a word.
The power of Sumi-gonryun had hit.
Because of the pure power of death, a hole the size of a point had been made in the Quasi-Sage’s soul leading to the pure death realm.
Because of the world’s natural restoration power, if the hole were filled, the cultivation would naturally return.
But right now, no matter what he did, he could not use his cultivation.
[Speak. What must I do to return your cultivation?]
[……]
[You will not speak? Then…]
But the Quasi-Sage glared at me and extended one hand toward me.
[With a flesh-piercing battle, I can only suppress you…!]
I tensed and raised the Triple Taiji again.
'The physical ability of a Fissure-Opening True Immortal. Is that enough…'
In the next instant.
PA-AAT!
The Quasi-Sage’s body reached right in front of me as if folding space.
His cultivation was gone, but he seemed able to handle a little attraction, so he instantly closed the distance with the technique of standing still and thrust out his fist.
KWAK-WAK-WAK-KWANG!
And the asteroid the size of a planet was shattered on the spot.
'This is… the Fissure Opening…!'
A plain 'punch' without any cultivation, qi, attraction, or form had the level to shatter a planet.
If Star Shattering Venerables had to use some form or ‘technique’ or ‘power’ to shatter a planet, the power of the Quasi-Sage realm was truly unbelievable!
WII-EEING!
I faced the Quasi-Sage who could no longer use his cultivation, supplied with volcanic qi from the Triple Taiji behind my back.
In the next instant, we collided again.
JJEO-E-E-E-EUNG!
He kicked an asteroid fragment and flew toward me with his hand outstretched.
I activated the Glare Star Body and extended the sword fused with my hand to deflect his fist, then drove my knee into his solar plexus.
JJEO-E-ENG!
An asteroid behind the Quasi-Sage was shattered by the shockwave of the knee strike.
Yet he changed his posture without a care, twisted his body, and slipped out of my arms.
PA-AAT!
I took a step back and struck a cross shape, then reached toward the horn of the goblin-like face.
KWAK!
I caught him so he could not escape and began swinging his body wildly.
KWAA-AANG!
I slammed the Quasi-Sage’s body onto the asteroid ground and continued striking until the asteroid shattered.
BU-WOONG!
TAK!
The Quasi-Sage’s two arms grabbed my arms and, with exquisite force reversal, slipped away.
It seemed he had not eaten the age of tens of thousands of years through his anus.
Showing a battle-worn appearance, the Quasi-Sage grabbed my left arm with his left arm and thrust his right fist toward my solar plexus.
KWAA-ANG!
The asteroid behind my back shattered.
Yet I did not show pain and tried a charge toward the Quasi-Sage.
The Quasi-Sage accepted the charge as if to try it.
KWAA-AANG!
The shockwave that burst between us shook the space itself and shattered several nearby asteroids.
PA-AAT!
And our collision began properly.
It was a flesh-piercing battle, but the Fissure-Opening True Immortal was strong.
Even though I controlled and drove him with thousands of orbits using the formless All-Heaven Sword, he pushed with the size of his flesh and struck me.
I pulled the power of the Triple Taiji and relentlessly drove the Quasi-Sage who could not use his cultivation.
Cut, slash, hit, grab again and swing!
How many times had I driven him, and driven him again?
Finally.
PA-SAK!
My fist stabbed the Quasi-Sage’s face.
The part where my fist touched was cut away cleanly and his face part shattered.
The goblin-like face shattered and the face of the flaming-body form appeared.
A woman with a gloomy expression glared at me with her mouth pursed.
I laughed maniacally and poured a mad attack toward her face.
Gradually the advantage came into my grasp.
Gradually her combat form shattered and the body of the normal flaming-body form appeared.
And finally!
At the same time as the form of Danak struck, her body pierced through three asteroids and was shot out beyond the asteroid zone.
PA-SAK!
And her combat form was completely shattered.
PU-KWAK!
I pierced the asteroid zone and followed her, grabbed her hair, flew to the nearby planet, and slammed her face straight onto the planet.
KWAK-WAK-WAK-KWANG!
The surface of the planet filled with poisonous clouds was wildly shaken.
I entered the outermost core part of the planet and finally stomped on the flaming-body head of the Fissure-Opening True Immortal who had exhausted all his power.
KII-EEING-
The power of the Triple Taiji was also a little dim.
The Triple Taiji that had been amplifying nearly infinitely had become dim, meaning the consumed power was beyond imagination.
There had been an enormous consumption.
[I…]
In the end, I had brought down the True Immortal.
'I won.'
I had defeated the Fissure-Opening True Immortal in battle.
And I had captured the hostage of the being thought to have directly contracted a fate seal with Hyeol-eum.
This was my power right now.
Tak, tak, tak, tak…
And clapping sounds came from behind my back.
[…!]
I was startled by the sound that suddenly came from behind my back and looked back.
There, a man in a purple-gold long robe with pitch-black long hair clapped his hands.
He had purple eyes and licked his lips.
[Impressive. You have only just become a Star Plate level, yet you have already defeated a Quasi-Sage. You truly deserve the title of Halfway to the Immortal Realm.]
I lifted the Quasi-Sage’s head by the hair who had used up all his power and asked.
[Who are you? You are…]
At my words, the man in the purple-gold long robe approached me.
[Purple Gold Realm Sage. Ban-ta!]
KWAA-AK!
He extended his hand and shook mine with a smile.
It seemed like the greeting of the Purple Gold Realm.
[Congratulations on reaching Star Plate level. You were a Venerable until recently, right? If you are a splendid being worthy of the title of Halfway to the Immortal Realm… you have the qualifications to visit the Purple Gold Realm Sage’s Palace.]
KWAA-AK!
He grabbed my wrist and, for some reason, exerted strong power.
[Will you accept my invitation?]