The Phantom Flower in the Blood Lotus
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BOOM!
The outer wall of Bongmyeong Castle exploded outward.
The moment I stepped outside, the arid air of the desert and the sandstorm rushed to meet me.
Yet compared to the stench of blood lingering inside the castle, it felt almost refreshing.
SPLASH!
Blood mist gushed through the golden seal hole I had just shattered in the outer wall of the castle.
The center of the blood mist.
From there, Won Rip emerged.
“How audacious. Do you truly believe you can flee before me?!”
PARA!
Blood veiled Won Rip. He began channeling his blood art.
But I grabbed the Formless Sword and accelerated my consciousness.
As I reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, the size of my foundational consciousness had grown even larger, and the accelerated consciousness moved far faster than before.
SWISH!
I kicked off into the void and raced forward like a madman.
Speed far exceeding that of even a regular Core Formation disciple!
Yet, though enveloped in blood, Won Rip approached with sluggish grace.
‘A monster of a Nascent Soul cultivator!’
Grinding my teeth, I squeezed every ounce of power from my body and charged even faster through the void.
***
Won Rip furrowed his brow.
‘Even at mid-Nascent Soul, I still couldn’t catch up with a mere blood art? This brat’s cultivation feels like at best mid-Foundation Establishment, maybe two layers at most.’
Of course, his actual ability was Core Formation, and he had mastered a profound technique far beyond that of ordinary Core Formation disciples.
Even if I gave him the benefit of the doubt, he was only Core Formation.
‘Then how the hell is a Core Formation brat chasing me this closely?’
And he wasn’t using any special blood art—just kicking off the air at blinding speed that was invisible to the eye.
‘If he can’t use blood art, he definitely isn’t a normal golden pill Core Formation cultivator. But if this brat has actually formed a golden pill and reached Core Formation…’
Won Rip’s hidden eyes narrowed further.
‘He’s going to be a pain in the ass. And he’s planted two blood banners… his willpower is already beyond control. With the Five Elements Blood Banner, I’d need at least three or four layers to keep him in check.’
“Hah hah… Even the knee-bending sect leaders and clan chiefs and monarchs would beg me to spare them if I planted just one Five Elements Blood Banner in their heads. But with two planted and he’s still so lively. I can’t wait to refine that soul and see what I can make of it. I’ll definitely make him my disciple…”
Won Rip licked his lips, forming a legal seal.
***
CREEEAK!
A chilling surge of spiritual energy rippled from behind me.
The blood mist swallowed the desert behind us.
It was like a blood-colored sandstorm blanketing the sands.
‘I have to hide! No, I must hide!’
But where?
Not even the Wansuigungmurok could hide me.
‘Why did the Wansuigungmurok fail?’
I pondered the essence of the problem.
The Wansuigungmurok was a martial art that sliced through the consciousness domain and slipped into the gaps to flee.
Yet it had still been detected.
‘Wait. That Nascent Soul cultivator was targeting me with a legal art that doesn’t even touch my consciousness domain.’
And that legal art could barely be noticed by the Five Elements perception and the colors of the consciousness intent.
‘When you reach Nascent Soul, do you gain something that lets you exit the consciousness domain? But even if the domain is left behind, the Five Elements perception and colors remain.’
I thought hard.
And with my blood drying, I drew the conclusion.
‘Then this time, I’ll use the Wansuigungmurok to cut through something else as well.’
I gripped the Formless Sword and focused my consciousness.
I saw it.
Won Rip’s consciousness domain.
And the yin-yang flow of heaven and earth energy.
And the colors of the consciousness intent.
WHOOSH—
The sword that had only sliced the consciousness domain widened its reach.
It cut through heaven and earth energy, and even the colors of the consciousness intent.
And then.
It slipped into the gap!
PARA!
Surpassing the limit of the Wansuigungmurok!
The martial art that had been unleashed with full power, exceeding the Wansuigungmurok.
And the moment I slipped into that gap.
Stall.
Won Rip stood in place, scanning his surroundings.
‘Got him!’
There was no immediate realization like before.
‘It works!’
If I cut through heaven and earth energy and the colors of the consciousness intent, it seemed even the Nascent Soul cultivator’s eyes could be deceived.
“Oh ho, what is this? You have many tricks up your sleeve.”
But I sensed that my fate carried an ominous sign.
‘This…!’
BOOOOOOM!
The blood mist that had been rising and blanketing the desert behind Won Rip spread out in all directions.
The Wansuigungmurok created a blind spot by slicing gaps and hiding inside, but it was not a spatial movement technique.
I looked at Won Rip with disgust as he formed a legal seal in the center of the blood mist.
“You’ve hidden yourself well. Then, run from this explosion.”
PARA!
The blood mist swelled with blood and erupted.
***
Once the power of the blood legal art subsided, Won Rip looked around.
The diameter had flown straight, carving a massive crater in the middle of the desert.
And Seo Eun-hyun was nowhere to be seen.
Won Rip bared his teeth behind his translucent mask and smiled.
“I want it even more now. You ran away by hiding it…?”
His gaze fell on a translucent spatial rift.
***
“Guaaah…!”
What… what had I done?
The upper dan burned.
Even though strong energy flowed through my entire body, forcibly igniting the upper dan with strong energy to erupt talent was madness.
Why hadn’t the Jin clan used that excellent legal art for enhancing talent on themselves instead of on the criminals?
Tamping with the upper dan had always meant an extreme risk.
I felt the upper dan burning and was floating somewhere.
SWISH!
PARA!
Something pierced my body.
My whole body felt like a mess, but it didn’t matter.
I was going to die whether I was caught or not.
‘What… what had I done?’
Whether I died one way or another.
With death in mind, I had done ‘something’.
It was hazy.
‘Ah, right.’
Eun-hyun hyung had helped me.
At the moment the blood mist exploded.
Eun-hyun hyung appeared and danced a saber dance beside me, and footprints he had left were visible in front of me.
I stepped on those footprints, swinging my saber alongside Kim Young-hoon and briefly entering some strange space before emerging.
‘Eh, eh?’
And as soon as I realized that, my head spun frantically trying to remember how I had done it.
‘If I can just grasp this thread…’
Yes, if I just grasped this thread, maybe.
When I burned the upper dan with strong energy and tried to recall ‘that’.
“Eh?”
In front of my eyes.
Bongmyeong Castle began to appear.
‘I had clearly been running in the opposite direction of Bongmyeong Castle the whole time.’
Before I could calm my mind.
Blood light flashed behind me.
“Wha…”
BOOM!
The blood banner struck me.
I defended with the Formless Sword, but I was still hit by the blood banner and flew straight back toward Bongmyeong Castle.
Exactly back to the hole I had come through.
“Kuek! Gah…”
I was about to vomit blood and check the situation.
Won Rip had already appeared in front of me, raising a translucent blood flag.
SWOOSH!
“Kuaaaaa!”
The blood banner pierced my upper dan, forcibly suppressing the effects erupting from the dan.
The effects that had burned with strong energy returned to normal.
“Kuek, gwaaah!”
But I writhed in even greater pain, clutching my head.
“Impressive. What trickery did you use just now? How could a Core Formation brat imitate a Nascent Soul cultivator’s spatial teleportation?”
It felt like something was touching me…!
Grinding my teeth, I gripped the Formless Sword even tighter.
And the color of the Formless Sword began to glow golden, transforming like a spiritual light.
‘The path Eun-hyun hyung had pursued, the one he had sought…’
And.
BOOM!
“Kuaaaaa!”
Another flag was driven into the upper dan.
Understanding scattered in pain.
The Formless Sword scattered.
Won Rip had a tired expression.
“The Five Elements Blood Banner was originally created as a legal art to restrain the consciousness of a Heavenly Person cultivator and escape. Even a Heavenly Person cultivator would be unable to think straight if stabbed directly. How did a mere Foundation Establishment brat surpass the willpower of a Heavenly Person cultivator…?”
Grinding my teeth, I spat out rough breaths.
I could vividly feel the five legal arts stabbing into my soul, pressing down on my soul.
But the thing that hurt me more than his legal arts was another.
‘I had lost my understanding!’
Again!
Even though it was under external pressure, it was unbearably infuriating and saddening.
“Why… why did I return to Bongmyeong Castle again?”
“Hmm, you didn’t do a random spatial teleport?”
“…”
“Opening a spatial rift where you can’t know where you’ll fall and jumping in thoughtlessly is a foolish act… If a Heavenly Person cultivator doesn’t at least roughly set coordinates, they’re dragged into the spatial currents and torn apart. That’s what you did.
An act that can only return you to this world with absurd odds. But you gambled in front of me, who possesses the Bongmyeongin.”
“…”
Won Rip chuckled, pulling a blue-green jade model of Bongmyeong Castle from his bosom.
“Do you know that there is an attraction force in fate? Fate does not pull existence.
And the Bongmyeongin has two functions. The first is to grant the possessor heavenly luck. The possessor of the Bongmyeongin obtains strong fate and, as the possessor desires, is drawn nearby by the attraction force of fate. That is why you could not escape me.”
“Hah, hah hah.”
What kind of crazy object is this?
“Is this… something that should exist in this world…?”
“An object that ‘must’ exist. In fact, the first function of the Bongmyeongin is a function added by the creator while also making the second function.”
Won Rip looked at the Bongmyeongin with greedy eyes and said.
“The Bongmyeongin was originally created to bestow blessings. Before Yang Su-jin the Geumsinja created the Ascension Gate in the distant past, how did cultivators ascend?”
WHOOSH!
As he stroked the Bongmyeongin, it spewed rainbow light.
“In the era before the Ascension Gate, they just memorized the coordinates of the upper realm that were passed down and threw their bodies into spatial rifts and ascended like Heavenly Person cultivators in their later stages committing suicide.
This Bongmyeongin bestowed blessings on such people, granting the attraction force of fate connected to the upper realm to cultivators and narrowing the distance to the upper realm.”
“!?”
“While bestowing the blessing that grants the attraction force of the upper realm, an additional function that strengthens the possessor’s attraction force of fate and grants heavenly luck was born. This Bongmyeongin is that.”
I briefly opened my mouth at the absurd explanation.
‘A mere object grants the function of bestowing fate?’
Suddenly, Yang Su-jin’s afterimage appeared.
He had said he bestowed the attraction force of fate that attracts the Terminus Ones on the Shattered Heaven Peak.
Even as an afterimage!
If that were the case, perhaps certain existences that reached a certain realm were ascending to become divine beings that manipulate the attraction force of fate.
Shiver!
‘When a cultivator reaches the end and becomes a True Immortal, what kind of existence do they become?’
But before I could even have the thought.
The rainbow light spewing from the Bongmyeongin flowed into me and Won Rip.
“Hoo hoo, the blessing is overflowing. This Heavenly Person cultivator probably didn’t receive the blessing of the Bongmyeongin and ascended like that…!?”
He looked satisfied at the Bongmyeongin.
“…”
They didn’t receive the blessing that narrows the distance to the upper realm?
That was when I was puzzled.
He grabbed my tail and dragged me into the Xumuyeon.
“Then, shall we go to lengthen your lifespan…”
I was dragged miserably, forcing a self-deprecating smile.
I had thought life was like a flower.
But the Living Flower was originally a flower cut while still alive.
Perhaps it was something that was only cut for someone.
‘…Still.’
I gritted my teeth.
‘Even if I am only cut…’
CRACK, CRACK…
‘As long as I can…’
My body moved.
‘I will plant my roots and look at the sky…’
Just as all trees and flowers plant their roots in the earth and sprout toward the sky.
I too, as long as the history I have rooted myself in exists,
I will never let this heart be broken so easily…!
CRACK!
“Wha…”
BOOM!
I swung the Formless Sword with all my might.
At the same time, I formed a legal seal.
“Shadow Soul Ghost Curse!”
Multiple curse words extended toward Won Rip.
“Tsk, troublesome brat!”
PARA!
Won Rip spat out his breath and vanished, but I held a smile and gripped the Formless Sword again, charging at him.
***
Won Rip looked at the glowing Seo Eun-hyun in front of him and furrowed his brow.
Four of the Five Elements Blood Banners had already been planted.
If I planted a fifth and completed the law of the Five Elements Blood Banner, the pain inflicted on that weird fellow would be dozens of times worse.
But the disadvantage of the Five Elements Blood Banner was that if five were planted and the law was used to embed the opponent’s soul, when the opponent dissolved the golden seal of the Five Elements Blood Banner, the law of the Five Elements Blood Banner would transfer to the opponent.
Originally, the law of the Five Elements Blood Banner was passed down by having the inheritor embed five blood banners weakened to 1/100 into the inheritor’s body.
When the inheritor successfully accepted five weakened blood banners to 1/100, dissolved them, and made them their own, the transfer of the law of the Five Elements Blood Banner was completed.
‘Even if that brat planted five of the Five Elements Blood Banner and endured the pain without being controlled, what then…?’
Suddenly, Won Rip realized he was having absurd delusions.
‘No, that’s nonsense. Even if he could endure four, he couldn’t endure five. He’s just an exception because that weird brat’s spirit exceeded expectations.’
Won Rip thought so and moved toward Seo Eun-hyun, holding the fifth blood banner.
‘I have to open his brain to see what technique he’s using and what kind of mental structure he has.’
BOOM!
Won Rip, who had repelled Seo Eun-hyun’s Formless Sword, planted the fifth Five Elements Blood Banner.
PARA!
Inside Seo Eun-hyun’s soul, five blood flags harmonized according to the principles of the Five Elements, amplifying the effects of constricting the spirit and causing pain by dozens of times or more.
“Aaaaaah—!”
Finally, Seo Eun-hyun, who had been clutching his head, collapsed foaming at the mouth in that spot.
“Hoo… As expected, if it’s a human, or rather a living being, they can’t endure this pain.”
Won Rip smiled, realizing that the strange Core Formation brat’s soul had entered his control.
“Well, then I’ll dissect him later when I get back to the castle, and the Longevity Fruit or…”
And that was when Won Rip turned his back.
Shiver!
‘Wha…?’
He hurriedly looked back. Behind his translucent black mask, a look of shock flashed.
Stumble, stumble…
Seo Eun-hyun stood up, saliva dripping from his mouth, eyes half-open, resisting his control.
And began forming something.
“This madman…”
Won Rip lost his composure.
‘He endured that? A legal art that works when stabbed directly into a Heavenly Person cultivator! I tested it on the Hydra King and even received his approval…!’
“You… you brat…!”
He abandoned the idea of controlling the brat in front of him and dragging him around.
The Five Elements Blood Banner was the best spiritual seal legal art he knew.
If that didn’t work, no seal would work anymore!
“This won’t do. It’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to abandon researching abilities. It’s better to just synthesize the corpse into my blood and observe the reaction…”
Risky.
Since he had left the Five Elements Blood Banner in the spirit, if I kept him alive, he would eventually dissolve the Five Elements Blood Banner and turn it into his own legal art and attack me.
“Die!”
And Seo Eun-hyun’s legal seal was completed.
“Yin, Soul, Ghost, Curse.”
SWOOSH!
Seo Eun-hyun exploded.
The Blood Wood Daoist Won Rip’s signature technique, Blood Wood, struck him directly, and as Seo Eun-hyun exploded, his blood turned into a single Blood Wood tree that rooted in place.
In the spot where he had been, a red tree stood.
On the tree, a Living Flower bloomed with one flower of Seo Eun-hyun’s legal power and life force.
“A monster…”
Won Rip swept down his mask and clicked his tongue at Seo Eun-hyun’s formidable mental power.
“It’s fortunate that a fellow like that was cut at the root before he could live and grow longer. Now there’s no need to worry. The Longevity Fruit or…”
And that was when he turned his head to the Longevity Fruit tree.
“…”
He gritted his teeth.
The Longevity Fruits embedded in the Xumuyeon.
Countless fruits that he had burned by exchanging the life forces of countless people, all covered in black curse words and rotted.
‘The last legal art… this brat!’
He turned around with a reddened face.
‘I was supposed to send his soul to the Yellow Springs gently… how dare he do such a thing…!!’
And Won Rip’s expression changed.
“Eh…?”
He took a step back.
“Wha, what… Clearly, no, wait. Who are you…?”
BOOM!
The next moment.
Won Rip exploded as is, and a Living Flower bloomed in the spot where he had been.
That was Seo Eun-hyun’s tenth regression.