The Predecessor of Gwang-han (2)
The start was my voice, the one that announced the opening of war.
“Listen, all the stars of the kingdoms.”
DRUUUUD!
The power veins of the entire universe began to twist violently under my command.
At the same time, a powerful wave of power erupted from me, and the starlight began to be reconfigured.
The actual star constellations themselves would not move, but the phantom images of the constellations were projected and rearranged according to my will across the entire universe, just like the projections of the True Immortals.
The phantoms of thirty-six stars were arranged around me.
All of it was aligned in six rows toward the upper side of the Heavenly Fang in the six directions of the Six Harmonies, and another six rows toward the lower side of the earthly regions.
And toward the four directions—east, west, south, and north—six phantoms of stars each were arranged.
The distance between each of these stars was one hundred light-years, forming a spherical power vein field with a radius of approximately seven hundred light-years around me.
Merely the size of this power vein field was enough to swallow the tail of an entire galaxy.
“I hereby declare that this place shall become my sword field, the Sword Barrier of this present Immortal, and shall be named and become a vast battlefield.”
This was one of the basic techniques taught by the True Immortals of the Fissure Opening realm, transmitted to me through Yeo-hui. It was a technique called the Opening of the Barrier.
The effect of the technique was to make the inside of the power vein field resonate with one’s own inner star barrier.
CHIING!
A boundary between heaven and earth began to form inside the power vein field.
At the same time, gravity appeared on the ground, and the four directions centered around me.
On the earth, colorless glass swords sprouted and filled the entire sky.
The area inside the colorless sword field became a world in which six stars were lined up at the bottom, six at the top, and six each in the east, west, south, and north.
And the phantoms of the stars that formed the foundation of those stars were what was implementing the colorless sword field.
HWAARUURUUK!
When I shot out the celestial power and supplied the power veins to the stars I had just projected, the phantoms of the stars that served as the axis of the power vein field became even more real, and the colorless sword field began to reveal itself with greater solidity.
The countless actions were accomplished in the blink of an eye, and I instantly shifted the battlefield to a position advantageous to me and looked around at the Seven Stars Chief Judges and the True Immortals of the Fissure Opening realm.
DRUUUUD!
Simply from the gaze I directed at them, they flinched and gradually retreated a little.
I felt it.
Right now, I was absolute power itself.
I didn’t need to use the declarations of the True Immortals.
A mere imperial edict that anyone could use as a cultivator would be enough.
“Enter.”
:: …By the name of the Seven Stars Chief Judges, I command. The Seonbo Chilseong Chasinbeon shall descend here…! ::
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Seven beams of light shot across the sky above us, and in an instant seven spheres of light were summoned here.
CHEEOEEONG!
It was a flag.
On each side of the flag, it seemed that a single star was sealed, but the momentum the seven flags emitted when linked together was considerable.
On one side of each flag was written the character “Seven Stars Borrowed God,” and on the opposite side, “Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal.”
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!
Between the seven flags, I momentarily glimpsed an aura that felt like chains.
I felt it.
If I were struck by those seven flags, my power would be sealed in exactly that chain-like thing.
WOOWOOONG!
The Chilseong Chasinbeon was not even a general Seongban stage technique; it appeared to be activated by separating the souls of the seven Seven Stars Chief Judges themselves.
It lacked the convenience of a Seongban stage, but I could not know how perfectly it would connect with the body after such a technique was used.
However, even with those terrifying techniques appearing.
Even as the Seven Stars Chief Judges discarded their human forms and gradually transformed into beings like the [stars] of the universe to press down on me,
Even as forty-eight True Immortals surrounded me and snarled,
I felt no desire to lose.
Rather, what I saw right now was… the aura of the Chilseong Chasinbeon they held.
It was the [power of the seven stars] emanating from them.
Yes. The Seven Stars.
That was…
A power I found extremely familiar.
“…So you were the ones.”
I gritted my teeth and lifted the corner of my mouth.
I really…
Wanted to see them.
If they existed as real beings, I wanted to face them at least once.
The Seven Stars Chief Judges were…
Truly beings with a deep karmic connection to me.
“You… were the divine spirits who governed the Qi Condensation Seven Stars Ceremony…?”
In truth, I didn’t even need to ask.
The [wisdom] being transmitted to me from the Chilseong Chasinbeon they summoned answered that question by itself.
The Seven Stars Chief Judges were divine beings who governed the ritual of the Seven Stars of Qi Condensation.
That was it.
The twenty-eight stars from my time when I had cried out to the heavens countless times, the Seven Stars of Qi Condensation.
The power that governed those twenty-eight stars was precisely the Seven Stars Chief Judges.
“Charge at them. Truly… I wanted to spar with you…!”
And then the Seven Stars Chief Judges began to use their power.
WIIIIING!
Their prophecies were engraved onto the world by sheer will, and stars began to form.
One, the colorless sword field was already unfolded.
WOOUNG!
When I swung the form of the Fissure Opening, countless beams of light traced a trajectory that shot sideways, then entered the glass swords like they were reflected in a mirror, and exploded the stars.
The Seven Stars Chief Judges began to move.
WIIIIING!
They transformed into forms similar to the stars themselves, began to fly around me, and summoned their own disciples.
The forty-eight True Immortals entered the battle.
They followed the tails of the Seven Stars Chief Judges, circling around me.
And at a certain moment.
A certain formation was laid out centered on the rotations of the Seven Stars Chief Judges, and that formation “covered” the domain of my colorless sword field.
It seemed to be the star barrier of one of the True Immortals.
The entire heaven and earth were covered in burning trees.
At the same time, a certain [will] flowed from the Seven Stars Chief Judges.
Seven Stars Borrowed God.
KUUGUGUGU!
The sides of the seven flags seemed to tremble, and starlight spurted from the flags and pierced into my body like spears.
KWANG!
However, it was laughable.
The starlight shattered under my body’s amplification of the power it carried.
Musanggeom
Cheon Sae Mu Sang
The ultimate of the Paryeo Dohae-seong, the Musanggeom.
Naturally, the nine forms of the Paryeo Dohae-seong could also be unfolded in the form of Musanggeom.
KWARURURUNG!
In an instant I swelled my body, and slammed my fist straight down onto the “covered” reality.
No great sound was heard.
Rather, the entire reality seemed to shatter like a glass cage in a single moment, and from the spot where my fist struck, billions of true strikes shot out.
According to that strike, the formless domain covered by the True Immortals was once again revealed as my sword barrier.
Musanggeom
Geomhae Mu Sang
CHWARARAK!
The colorless glass sword transformed into jade, responded to the Musanggeom, and began to dance.
Beneath my feet, a mandala symbolizing Geomhae Mu Sang was drawn, and countless trajectories began to spread out around me.
PING, PING, PING, PINGPING!
The trajectories like light beams were absorbed into the countless glass swords dotting the sword barrier.
At the same time, the glass swords that held the trajectories began to reflect them in all directions as if reflecting light.
Using the effect of cause and effect that was the nature of Musanggeom, I made the trajectories be exchanged between the swords from inside my sword barrier.
CHWARARAK!
The phenomenon of trajectories reflecting, refracting, and passing through other swords and continuing to scatter continued endlessly.
In an instant, the entire sword barrier was filled with the trajectories of swords according to my will.
FLASH!
The entire heaven and earth were filled with the trajectories of swords.
I looked around at the Seven Stars Chief Judges in peace within these trajectories.
And then, Geomgeukcheongun used his power.
KUURURURU!
Geomgeukcheongun’s body seemed to rotate, and it transformed into a black hole of the universe.
CHAJAJAJAK!
All the trajectories I had emitted were sucked into the inside of Geomgeukcheongun and began to be devoured, and it felt that way.
Geomgeukcheongun rapidly swallowed my trajectories.
And I smiled faintly.
“What I emitted was not merely a law technique like that.”
Immediately after, Geomgeukcheongun’s body exploded.
KWAGWAKWAKWANG!
Of course, the principle of the Danak Sword Art, Kunlun, was contained within these trajectories.
The trajectories containing the principle of Kunlun instantly engraved the principle of purity inside Geomgeukcheongun’s body, and Geomgeukcheongun, who had become a black hole of the universe, could not withstand the principle of purity engraved within him and began to collapse.
KUURURURU!
Geomgeukcheongun’s body seemed to boil, and he seemed to be trying to stabilize by rapidly changing his form.
At the same time, Pa-gun Cheon-gun and Mugo-cheon-gun rushed from behind me, pressing me down with gravity, and began to pour attacks using the True Immortals.
However, I ignored all of it and charged straight at Geomgeukcheongun, extending a single sword.
From that, countless trajectories began to pour onto Geomgeukcheongun once more.
He tried to evade them, to devour them, to let them pass through… but there was no way.
“I told you. It’s not like a technique that simply shoots rays from a distance like that!”
Some people occasionally have misconceptions.
When you reach the realm of the Sword That Cuts and the Sword That Embeds, isn’t it slaughter by simply nodding at the enemy from a distance without moving your hands and feet?
But I say with certainty that is wrong.
How can one become lazy the higher one ascends in the realm?
A true sword that embeds means that the action has become synchronized with the speed of the mind.
CHWARARARAK!
Each trajectory that pierced Geomgeukcheongun faintly revealed my form upon closer inspection.
Yes.
It was not merely a technique of shooting trajectories.
When I separated the mental clones like in the Strongest Variant case, I moved through the separated mental clones at the speed of the mind and swung the sword “directly” at the enemy before my eyes.
The form of the light sword was me moving at the speed of light and completing the predetermined form of motion and moving the sword.
The form of the true sword was separating the mental clone at a speed faster than light, using the separated mental clone to directly hold the sword of the mind and moving forward to cut.
That was all.
Those who reached the realm did not become lazy.
Rather, they moved faster and more clearly.
That was why one could never eat or let slip through attacks that were merely distant techniques.
The fate of a swordsman was ultimately close combat.
Everything I saw now was no different from me directly holding the sword and swinging it.
Simply… the number of mental clones was astronomically large.
KIIIIING!
The trajectories of light, my clones, Musanggeom began to draw countless trajectories.
And in an instant.
FLASH!
Light exploded.
Inside the cradle of light formed by the light sword and the true sword, Geomgeukcheongun’s projection completely collapsed.
That was the moment.
CLANG!
One of the Chilseong Chasinbeon flags that Geomgeukcheongun held flew straight to my body.
At the same time, the characters written on the Chilseong Chasinbeon shone.
Seven Stars Borrowed God
Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal
At the same time, the form of the Chilseong Chasinbeon changed while glowing with starlight.
It was a flag in the form of a banner.
At the same time, wisdom was input into my mind, and I understood the name of that technique.
Bukdu Bongseongi, the Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal Flag.
KWAAAK!
At the same time, a heavy shackle felt as if it had been placed on my body, and the Chilseong Chasinbeon that had become the Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal Flag was driven into my body.
“This… is sealing!”
I understood what Geomgeukcheongun had done.
“Was he placing a condition on the prophecy?”
The prophecy in which a condition was placed: if he died, this Chilseong Chasinbeon would fly and pierce me in its changed form.
I heard from Yeo-hui that prophecies with conditions placed this way were far stronger in karmic connection.
Even more so if the condition was the life of Geomgeukcheongun’s own projection!
But…
In the end, I had finished Geomgeukcheongun.
KWAAAANG!
After I completely crushed Geomgeukcheongun’s projection, I reached toward the projection of Tanrang Cheon-gun that was charging at me.
Musanggeom
Gwimyeon Yu Cheon Sang
In an instant the atmosphere of the entire colorless sword field changed.
From everywhere, ragged giants made of my corpses coalesced, and the power of death covered the entire heaven and earth.
Tanrang Cheon-gun’s body became a gigantic blue giant star.
KWARURURURU!
The entire blue giant star became enormous enough to cover the entire colorless sword field and pressed down on me.
At the same time, Tanrang Cheon-gun’s Chilseong Chasinbeon pressed me down while condensing starlight.
CHWARURURUK!
However, I began to scatter the power of death.
“Stop!!!!”
“Block the return of Gwang-han!!!”
The True Immortals of the Fissure Opening realm spun around me and wove countless curses, techniques, law techniques, and formations.
My body grew heavy, and bad luck stuck to me according to the prophecies.
However, for only an instant.
WIIIIING!
The heaven, earth, heart, and trajectory behind me rotated and amplified my power, and I fired the blue giant star toward me while adding the power of death to the amplified power.
CHWARURURUK!
The liquefied death energy covered the blue giant star.
Along with that, the temperature of the blue giant star began to drop.
Blue, cyan, white, golden, orange, sunset red, crimson…
The giant star, whose temperature had gradually dropped, was soon completely devoured by the power of death and vanished.
“GRAAAAAAAHHHH!”
Countless True Immortals of the Fissure Opening realm pressed down on my body while running wildly.
“HUUUUUUAAAHHH!!!”
“Run!!!!”
“Gwang-han!!! It’s not that Gwang-han Cheon-gun has returned!!!!”
The projections of Nok-jun Cheon-gun and Yeomjeong Cheon-gun merely looked at me with complicated expressions and muttered.
:: We must uproot the sprouts… ::
:: Are we not enough… We should never have to experience the humiliation of fifty thousand years ago again… ::
In the next instant.
“Chaeje!”
The power of Tae-san Chae-je burst out, and the colorless sword field.
All beings inside a radius of seven hundred light-years were divided into seven ranks in the realm of spiritual law and vanished.
And two sealing flags flew toward me.
BANG, KWANG!
CLANG!
A total of six sealing flags were driven into my body, and six chains pressed me down.
CHIING—
I looked around the surroundings where the light had dimmed.
The only thing left was Pa-gun Cheon-gun.
However, I could not read the victory in Pa-gun Cheon-gun.
:: …Because the size of the power is too large, even though sealing has been performed, it takes time for complete sealing… To the point where even we who control time cannot intervene… ::
[…Haha…]
I understood at the same time what they had been doing until now.
The Seven Stars Chief Judges, subordinates of the Heavenly Venerable of Time, had been continuously using specific techniques on me.
He was the technique of time acceleration.
The fact that they had created stars in an instant was probably related to this as well.
Although the sealing power of the Bukdu Bongseongi itself was outstanding, because the power I had already amplified was so enormous, the sealing itself consumed an enormous amount of time.
However, I possessed an amplification of power large enough that I would not be sealed even in accelerated time.
No, I would be sealed… but it seemed that it would still take time.
:: How unfair. If I had just a little more time, it would have been a fight worth having… ::
After speaking, Pa-gun Cheon-gun, still holding his Chilseong Chasinbeon, shone his eyes.
:: By the name of the Seven Stars Chief Judges, I prophesy… ::
And I extended my palm straight.
My palm extended as a lump of [power].
It contained the power of Musanggeom and grew enormously as it advanced, as if it would swallow the entire heaven and earth.
The prophecy Pa-gun Cheon-gun had been about to swallow was shattered, and my palm directly swallowed Pa-gun Cheon-gun and collapsed a corner of the universe.
KWARURURUNG!
It was like the strike of Geomgeukcheongun’s sword or Hyeol-eum’s sincere strike.
KUURURURU!
:: …We will remember you… ::
The projection of Pa-gun Cheon-gun who had finished speaking was crushed under my palm strike in that way.
After Pa-gun Cheon-gun vanished, the prophecy of the Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal Flag, which had been activated as a condition of his destruction, hit me, and the seven techniques of the Seven Stars Chief Judges were driven into my body and began to crush me.
KUUUDUDUDUK!
The pressure beyond imagination tried to seal my power.
However…
This power, like a solar wind that leaped over even the erupting volcano from heaven, earth, heart, and trajectory, was not easily sealed.
If there was time, it would be sealed purely, but…
I did not think I needed to, and tried to break the sealing with the remaining power I still had.
KWANG!
When I used power once, a terrifying ripple spread across the entire universe.
Along with that, the countless True Immortals of the Fissure Opening realm who were still there completely fled.
They must have thought there was no longer any chance of victory against me.
I ignored them and poured even more power into my body.
That was when it happened.
KUURURURUNG!
Startled!
I jumped a distance of light-years, and felt someone approaching me.
Familiar aura.
Familiar gloom, malice…
It was the one in a purple robe and the one in a jet-black robe.
[…Hyeol-eum.]
I looked at him, opened my mouth with a complicated expression.
“Thank you for helping me…”
And Hyeol-eum opened his mouth.
“From now on.”
He cut off my words and began to spew out ominous eyes.
“Prove it in front of me.”
KUUGUGUGU!
The one in the purple robe somehow absorbed into Hyeol-eum with a happy face, and Hyeol-eum began to gradually reveal his true body while scattering dense killing intent toward me.
:: Are you truly the history of the Sect Master? If so, you will live. If not, you will be extinguished by my hand and your soul will be refined into a technique. ::
KUGUGUGUGU!
I swallowed my spit while looking at that figure.
The Seven Stars Chief Judges were the greatest remaining challenge for me.
No.
In the 999th cycle, the final challenge was Hyeol-eum, who demanded proof from me.
:: Prove that you have the qualification to bear the wheel! ::
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