Woldoipcheon
Just a fleeting moment, and a golden radiance swept through the rear without allowing anyone to react.
In that same instant, something colorless and formless swung wildly, unleashing a force that no defense could block and carving through the front.
Kwakwakwakgwang!
“Kuaaaak!”
“This crazy, w-what is this!”
“T-they’re not Foundation Establishment experts!”
A single hill in front of me was ripped away roughly, while a peak behind me was sliced clean diagonally.
Danak Sword Art, Yuling!
I grasped empty space and thrust my Invisible Sword Gang in a gentle yet unstoppable arc.
Kugugugug!
The ridge of a mountain range ahead was softly shaved away, targeted at the Foundation Establishment experts. They threw every ounce of strength into dodging the Invisible Sword Gang.
This was far beyond what nine Ganghwans alone could achieve.
The power erupting from my hand was overwhelmingly greater than the sum of those Ganghwans.
The Invisible Sword Gang took on a completely free form. It stretched as long as my will dictated, and every time I executed a style, its shape shifted to perfectly match the current stance.
Because I had melted the Ganghwans into it, simply touching the Invisible Sword Gang let me accelerate my thoughts to whatever extent I desired.
The Ganghwans had vanished, yet the effect of tenfold acceleration remained.
“Senior Seon… I beg your forgiveness. Please calm your rage!”
The leading Foundation Establishment expert, who had been aiming at us with the Dissolving Needle, shouted his apology while his hair whipped wildly from dodging the Invisible Sword Gang.
Yet my true goal had never been to kill every one of these experts. It had only been to frighten them into fleeing. So I swung the Invisible Sword Gang even more mercilessly.
“Hwaaaaargh!”
“The Core Formation senior is furious!”
“R-run!”
Even while wielding the Invisible Sword Gang, I deliberately avoided any casualties.
If these fools ran back to their families and summoned a Core Formation patriarch or elders, it would only cause endless trouble.
Without a single death, the Core Formation experts would be too busy to bother chasing us anyway.
Still, wielding the Invisible Sword Gang like this… do I really need to keep moving my hand?
A sword of complete freedom, completely outside the limits of any style or qi maneuver.
That was the Invisible Sword Gang.
Yet I kept swinging it and continuously executed qi maneuvers.
Even if I didn’t need to move my hand or grasp a qi maneuver, the essence of it all was still the sword.
When held in the hand of a sword inspector, it exerted its greatest power.
Kwakwakwakgwang!
The Danak style unfolded, slicing through the last remaining peak in front of me.
The Foundation Establishment expert who had barely dodged it moments ago fled on his flight artifact, his mind blank with terror.
That feeling…
The realm of Woldoipcheon…
I withdrew the Invisible Sword Gang back into my consciousness and looked toward Kim Young-hoon’s position.
His figure was nowhere to be seen there.
Because Kim Young-hoon’s Woldoipcheon was specialized in speed, all that remained was a fleeting golden flash.
Even accelerating my thoughts while grasping the Invisible Sword Gang only left fleeting afterimages.
Kwakwakwakgwang!
A golden beam of light shattered the last Foundation Establishment expert’s defensive techniques and protective energy in a single strike. The expert vomited blood and soared away.
Because Kim Young-hoon had held back his strength, the expert did not collapse instantly. He pulled out a flight artifact from his storage ring and fled in a panic.
Flash!
Before I could even react properly, Kim Young-hoon had suddenly appeared right beside me.
That was fast.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
“How does it feel, swinging power in this realm?”
I answered by recalling the sensation of wielding the Invisible Sword Gang.
“It is a realm where you must pay even more attention to the basics.”
It was a realm where wield too powerful a force, and you would be devoured by it, easily forgetting your original intent.
It was a realm that transcended boundaries, yet I felt that within that boundaryless power, I needed to impose even stricter limits on myself.
That was why, even though styles and qi maneuvers were unnecessary, I had deliberately swung the Invisible Sword Gang to match the qi maneuvers.
It was something only a martial artist who had practiced for five hundred years could truly understand.
Kim Young-hoon nodded at my words.
“You truly understand. Although you have ascended to a new domain, the foundation of this very domain is still martial arts! Without the foundation of will, you would completely collapse.
Just as you said, it is a realm that demands even greater attention to the feet than any previous stage.”
He clicked his tongue as he spoke.
“Even with such insight into will, you claimed there was no talent? Watching you suppress yourself with that excuse alone made me think you were going mad all this time.”
…
“By the way, did you see anything else besides that?”
I shook my head at his question.
“I was too focused on grasping the feel of the Invisible Sword Gang to spare any attention for anything else.”
“Yeah, there wasn’t even time to concentrate on them in that chaotic battle.”
He looked at me.
“Once you reach Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, you begin to perceive the color of intent. And when you reach Woldoipcheon, that ability deepens further. You can directly read another person’s very thoughts.”
I followed his instructions and concentrated on the flow of intent.
After a while, I saw it—the soul of Kim Young-hoon, the source of the intent’s flow inside his body.
I focused on the flow of intent emanating from that soul itself, and in the next instant, I could see Kim Young-hoon’s true essence.
Golden light!
A vast river of golden radiance flowed.
No, that isn’t a river.
It was only part of something.
Countless rivers of flow intertwined, forming a vast golden object.
It was the Peng Bird.
A Peng Bird made of golden rivers fluttered its wings.
That was the foundation of the martial arts existing in Kim Young-hoon’s unconscious, and at the same time, the true essence of the person named Kim Young-hoon.
“Once you are familiar with reading thoughts, you can approach another person’s thoughts with your own and stimulate or guide their unconscious.
You can send far more profound heart-utterances than through voice transmission or soul conversation. Like this.”
A change occurred in Kim Young-hoon’s intent. The golden Peng Bird faced my gaze.
And in the next moment, I understood intuitively, beyond language, everything Kim Young-hoon was thinking, feeling, and trying to convey to me.
I had learned a few more small things that could be done with Woldoipcheon.
“It seems I’ve learned everything. And it would be good to take a look at your own intent as well.”
“Isn’t my intent the Invisible Sword Gang?”
“Then is mine the Light of Enlightenment? It is the Peng Bird formed from golden waves. Your intent and your realm are clearly connected, yet they are different.
It would be good to explore your own intent while examining yourself.”
I nodded at Kim Young-hoon’s words and closed my eyes to observe my intent.
How long had I been following the flow of my own intent while observing it?
Flash!
In front of my eyes, my intent appeared.
My intent, deep within my unconscious.
Puak!
Puak, puak!
“Ah…”
As soon as I entered my intent world, I felt my lower body pierced like a honeycomb by something sharp.
In reality, my flesh had not been pierced. I had simply mistaken the injury to my consciousness for the pain of the physical body.
But the pain feels so real.
I looked at my intent world while feeling the pain in my lower body.
Is this my intent…?
Thud, thud…
Puak, puak!
I wandered through the intent world. Every time I did, wounds appeared in various places on my arms and legs.
Yet I paid them no mind and continued walking.
The pain was vivid, but it was a familiar pain.
Because it had already seeped into every corner of my heart, I could calmly wander through my intent.
My intent was a mountain.
A vast, terrifyingly immense Mount Tai.
And on that Mount Tai, countless swords and blades had been driven in backward so densely that there was no room to even place a foot.
Interestingly, all those swords and blades were completely colorless and transparent.
Their surfaces were as clear as glass, so if I looked closely, I saw my own reflection perfectly.
The Knife Mountain!
The hell of an infinitely clean and clear knife mountain!
That was my intent world.
After living countless lives, suffering and suffering again.
Always reaching for the heavens, always exchanging my life for that sake, always feeling the pain of walking through the field of blades.
Yet I had striven to uphold the way of humanity.
And the result was this.
An infinitely clean and clear knife mountain hell, where the inside was completely see-through, yet the one walking inside—myself—suffered like a madman.
“So this is me.”
I kept scratching and wounding myself as I climbed toward the peak of the knife mountain.
The peak of that transparent hell never seemed to get closer no matter how far I walked.
I see. So this intent expresses the feelings I usually have about the world…
The pain of being pierced with blades all over my body from every direction.
The hopelessness of never reaching the distant goal no matter how far I walked.
Yet a transparent pride that I never did anything shameful to myself.
“Hahaha…”
I laughed.
And I exited the intent world.
Kim Young-hoon looked at me and asked.
“How was it?”
“I seem to understand the person named me a little better.”
The clear hell I had just seen was the foundation of my Invisible Sword Gang.
The driving force of this heart that wished to escape fate.
That mountain was not only my own intent toward the suffering life I lived, but also the mountain I had personally built with my own hands.
All the lives I had accumulated through pain and effort.
Yes.
That mountain was soon to become my sword.
…Thank you. For teaching me many things.
Kim Young-hoon nodded at my words, then grinned.
“If you’re grateful, come spar with me.”
“Please.”
He drew his saber.
“Let’s fight.”
…
For some reason, it felt like the most fitting request he could have made.
“Do you know how furious I’ve been for the past ten years? Even if I sent heart-utterances to train your unconscious, I didn’t listen to your ridiculous excuses about lacking talent.
I also wasn’t wrong about you not yet catching the feel of Woldoipcheon. I watched you stand there, having prepared every single condition you could reach, acting like an idiot…
Yet you could have reached it immediately if you just understood the things you had accumulated. Instead, you’re barely reaching it.”
He lifted the corner of his mouth and pointed his saber at me.
“You think I chased after you for ten years just because I enjoyed staring at you with bloodshot eyes? I kept doing it because you were just out of reach and I was going mad.”
Whoosh—
Golden light seemed to flow from his eyes.
I felt a strange mix of madness in that light.
“I waited impatiently for ten years. I wonder how much I itched waiting for someone of the same realm.
Come on, Seo Eun-hyun. Let’s fight. Make me happy…!”
Kim Young-hoon’s martial energy burst out, and his momentum surged.
“Hoo…”
I sighed and materialized my consciousness again.
There’s no time to rest.
The moment he taught me about the Woldoipcheon realm and then challenged me to a fight, it seemed there was no room to even catch my breath.
But I welcomed it too.
So I really am no different from an ordinary martial artist…
“Then for now, let’s match my internal energy and consciousness with Kim hyung’s…”
“What nonsense is that?”
Kim Young-hoon straightened his face at my words.
“During the Deungbongjogeuk realm, you used every technique and technique you had and still couldn’t fight me. The same goes this time. You entered this realm ten years after me. You should at least show that much leniency.”
…Isn’t that no longer a pure martial arts duel? If you think back to when you were throwing around a few law techniques at the Qi Condensation level…
“Haha, you’re noisy. Do you think you can’t overcome that?”
I sighed and slowly materialized my consciousness.
Kim Young-hoon began materializing his consciousness at the same time.
“Before we fight, I have one more thing to ask…”
Kugugugug!
Kim Young-hoon had not learned any law techniques.
That was why the size of his consciousness remained exactly as it was during the Five Qi Consorting with the Origin realm. Compared to mine, which covered a three-mile radius, it was only about one-tenth as large.
“Under the assumption of the same realm, what other advantage does Kim hyung have over me besides speed?”
Experience was blocked by time,
output was blocked by the purity of the Core Formation qi,
body size was blocked by the size of consciousness,
and refinement and freedom were already specialized in my Invisible Sword Gang.
Even now, talent was gradually losing its influence in this realm.
The one who pioneered the realm was the one who pioneered it, and I was grateful that he had taught me. But in reality, it was reality.
I looked at him and raised my qi energy throughout my entire body.
“If I use my full power, Kim hyung and I are already no longer in the same realm.”
Feeling the momentum that came purely from the size of consciousness itself, Kim Young-hoon showed an expression of excitement mixed with tension.
…Isn’t overcoming all of that and winning the true martial arts?!”
At his words, I grasped empty space and laughed brightly.
Yes…
As expected, this was Kim Young-hoon.
The next instant, a golden flash and an colorless sword form collided.