Chapter 23
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Leaving the Bamboo Forest (1)
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As Lee Cheonsang stepped into the Pavilion of Judgment, the surrounding scenery transformed into the edge of a desolate cliff.
The weather was gloomy. No rain fell, yet the sun did not rise. The sky, filled with dark clouds, moved at a considerable speed.
Sitting in the desolate pavilion and sipping Fenjiu, Lee Cheonsang's eyes flashed for a moment.
*Flash! Krrrrrumble!*
Pale blue lightning struck from various points in the dark clouds.
*Click.*
Setting down his cup, he looked up at the sky.
How would this merciless sky appear in the eyes of the Divine Cult's absolute ruler?
“A Sirang?”
Lee Cheonsang was not looking at the sky.
He was looking beyond the sky, piercing through this maddeningly realistic illusion to probe the heavens above the Solitary Bamboo Forest, one of the Three Great Sacred Grounds of the Divine Cult.
A look of deep interest crossed Lee Cheonsang's face.
“Has the Lord of the Solitary Bamboo Forest abandoned its domain?”
In the history of the Divine Cult, the times a Sirang has ventured outside its domain could be counted on one hand.
The Sirang was a being that should never have left in the first place. The regulation of spiritual energy by the Sirang was necessary for the Solitary Bamboo Forest to be maintained.
Conversely, despite the few times the Sirang had gone out, the Solitary Bamboo Forest had maintained its existence until now. Therefore, while unexpected, it was not a major problem.
The question was this.
‘Why?’
Lee Cheonsang closed his eyes.
A moment later.
‘I do not know the reason.’
Among the Three Great Sacred Grounds, only the Pavilion of Judgment was under his will.
The same was true for the past Cult Leaders. Had he not reached the level to be called a Heavenly Demon, he would not have been able to even glimpse the situation in the Solitary Bamboo Forest.
Of course, even having reached such a state, knowing what was happening in a place so far away was nonsensical.
The reason he, and the Heavenly Demons before him, could peer into the other two sacred grounds besides the Pavilion of Judgment.
*Thump, thump.*
Lee Cheonsang placed a hand on his chest.
The Mysterious Formation Diagram etched upon his powerfully beating heart altered the formation of the Pavilion of Judgment according to his will.
‘It is mysterious, no matter how many times I see it.’
The formations spread across the Pavilion of Judgment and the other sacred ground were imitations based on the one formed by the Solitary Bamboo Forest. That was why he could only peek through the cracks, not see the whole picture in detail.
With his hand on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, he picked up the liquor bottle again.
*Gurgle.*
The cup slowly filled.
Lee Cheonsang's expression turned indifferent once more.
“The third one, is it.”
The third one.
Officially his third, unofficially his fourth, a disciple who had been full of vigor.
He had taken him in thinking he was a young dragon, only for the boy to become steeped in sordid power, degenerating into a mongrel snake worse than a viper.
But after falling into qi deviation and miraculously surviving, the boy's eyes had changed.
To be more precise…
‘It is as if he has become a different person.’
The same disciple, and yet not the same disciple.
To understand a person, rumors and testimonies are unnecessary. One only needs to look into their eyes.
‘It was a good idea to summon him to the Pavilion of Judgment.’
There was only one reason he had called his third disciple to the Pavilion of Judgment. It was because he had hoped his eyes were wrong.
The third disciple in his youth reminded him of his own past.
The boy was so much like himself as a child. His demeanor, his thoughts, his desires, his way of solving problems—they were all astonishingly similar.
That was also why he had been particularly disappointed by the third disciple's corruption. The corruption of the disciple who most resembled him implied that it could have been one of his own many possible futures. He could not tolerate that.
So he had hoped. Hoped that his eyes were wrong.
And his third disciple had astonishingly granted his humble wish.
To be exact, he had granted only half of it. He was no longer the disappointing disciple he had seen, but neither was he the disciple of the past who resembled him.
‘Death…’
Lee Cheonsang drained his cup.
‘Did you take a trip to the underworld?’
He showed a somewhat servile side and spoke surprisingly affectionate words at times, but in the end, the boy's essence was this.
Death.
An explosive killing intent, as if he could kill anyone in the world if he so wished, was deeply suppressed within his heart.
Eight months had passed since he sent that disciple to the Solitary Bamboo Forest.
The disciple was still alive, and he had not even learned the Demonic Arts he had been taught.
Even the Sirang had left its domain. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence.
‘I wonder if the Sirang saw something in my third disciple.’
*Gurgle.*
The cup was filled once more.
As Lee Cheonsang gazed down at the cup, an unbelievably deep smile graced his face.
A smile of pure joy. But within that smile lurked thick blood, utter destruction, and an unfathomable amount of death.
“I hope this is a good omen.”
The Sirang.
Unlike the monstrous creatures brought to life from the imagination of some ancient being who created the Solitary Bamboo Forest, the Sirang was a true spiritual beast that had repeated the cycle of life and death on its own.
When it shed its old body to return to its youth, it would absorb all the life force from its surroundings. Thanks to this, it earned the stigma of being one of the most notorious monsters under heaven.
But there was another, true reason why the Sirang was branded a monster.
When a Sirang appears, war breaks out in the nation.
The curse of life absorption and the legend that it instigated war were the reasons the Sirang was treated as the worst disaster on earth.
“…I wonder what will happen to our cult.”
***
“Hah! Hah!”
Having reached a point where the entrance to the Solitary Bamboo Forest was visible, Ma Dongpil gasped for breath and looked back.
“Young Master!”
*Swissssh!*
A spray of thick blood painted the air.
*Fw-fw-fw-fwk!*
Even while sprinting forward, Seo Ryang's swordsmanship, which cut down all the flying Ju in the sky, was truly a work of art.
*Crack!*
Shattering a bamboo stalk with a single kick, he snatched the falling tree with his hand.
*C-c-craaaack!!*
With his grip strength alone, the thick bamboo split into dozens of pieces.
Seo Ryang took a large step.
*Kwang!*
With a powerful stomp, the bamboo fragments shot up into the sky.
*Th-th-th-thunk!*
Not a single one of the many bamboo pieces missed, all of them piercing the bodies of the Ju.
Witnessing the Ju shriek and fall to the ground one by one, Ma Dongpil's eyes widened as if they would tear.
‘Incredible projectile technique!’
It was like watching the pinnacle of projectile arts, Plucking Leaves and Scattering Flowers. He couldn't believe his eyes, how Seo Ryang had managed to hit every target without wasting a single piece of bamboo.
That wasn't all.
“Damn it!”
*Crack!*
The head of a Changbu burst into pieces.
It was a Whirlwind Kick, spinning through the air to strike like a whip. It was a kicking technique even a moderately trained commoner could perform, but the timing was perfect and its power was immense.
Seo Ryang took a paper packet of tea leaves from his robes and tore off the end.
*Fweeeee!*
The tea leaves flew to the left like hidden weapons.
Their heavy scent stimulated the sense of smell of the Changbu ahead.
The Changbu hesitated in confusion.
From behind them, the Nokchok and a pack of Seongseong charged in.
*K-k-k-krunch!*
The bodies of a dozen Changbu exploded. They couldn't withstand the kicks of the Nokchok and the weight of the Seongseong pack.
Seo Ryang spat out a curse.
“You sons of bitches! Have you lost your sense of smell?!”
*Thwack!*
He tried to block the Nokchok's movement by throwing a Changbu's corpse at it, but it blew it apart with an astonishing kick of its foreleg.
Seo Ryang was flabbergasted watching the Nokchok calmly commit an atrocity that not even a legendary Heavenly Horse would attempt.
“You cruel bastards! How are you spiritual beasts in any way!”
Ah, right, they're called monstrous creatures.
“You know what? I've chewed, torn, tasted, and savored every single one of you bastards before!”
*Fwoosh!*
In that instant, a Maenggeuk broke through the gap between the Nokchok and charged.
Its fangs, extending below its chin, and its sharp claws looked tough enough to tear through steel plates.
Seo Ryang's eyes wavered.
*I don't think I could eat you even if I caught you.*
*Kaaaaang!*
‘Kugh!’
A single swipe of its forepaw sent him flying back thirty feet.
It felt like every joint in his body was creaking. The muscles in his thighs throbbed as if they would tear, and his vision shook slightly. The web of his hand was torn, and blood seeped out.
Seo Ryang was dumbfounded.
‘How is it so strong?’
If he hadn't instinctively raised his saber to block, that blow would have torn his upper body clean off.
Yet the Maenggeuk's paw, which had been struck by the blade, was only bleeding slightly. Even though it was a hasty block, his saber was imbued with demonic energy, but that was the extent of the wound.
“This giant cat bastard!”
*Fwoom!*
A look of horror appeared on Ma Dongpil's face.
In a situation where he should have been creating distance, the Young Master had leaped into the Maenggeuk's reach. Ma Dongpil, who had been admiring his seemingly endless stamina, was startled by the sudden development.
“Young Master!”
*Rrrrrip!*
Seo Ryang's back, raked by the Maenggeuk's claws, was stained with blood.
Sparks flew from Seo Ryang's eyes. His bones weren't injured; that was enough.
‘Got it!’
*Kwang!*
With a stomp, his left hand struck the Maenggeuk's chest.
*Thwaaaack!*
The Maenggeuk flew backward and collapsed, crashing into a Nokchok.
It was a martial art of monstrous strength. The sight of the giant leopard, which must have weighed at least two hundred catties, flying through the air was truly a spectacle.
But Seo Ryang's own expression soured.
“Th-that crazy bastard!”
*Grrrrrr!*
The Maenggeuk tore through the Nokchok's body and stood up as if nothing was wrong.
Blood streamed from its nose and mouth, a truly gruesome sight. The vicious killing intent in its eyes was reminiscent of the resentment of an only daughter glaring at her father's killer.
Seo Ryang bit his lip.
‘It's fine even after taking a Mountain-Exploding Force strike?’
Mountain-Exploding Force was a type of Internal School's Heavy Hand Technique, a peerless hand art that maximized the principles of Hidden Energy.
Unless one was at a level where they could protect their internal organs with true energy, a single hit was a guaranteed kill—an instant-death technique.
Even a monstrous creature shouldn't have the ability to protect its organs. A Nokchok he had previously hacked to pieces had its heart meridians burst from a single blow of Mountain-Exploding Force, sending it to the underworld.
In that moment, Seo Ryang realized the reason.
‘Damn it, it's because of the spiritual bamboo.’
He hadn't yet converted the spiritual energy from the hastily consumed spiritual bamboo into demonic energy. The unconverted, pure spiritual energy was weakening the output and diluting the concentration of his demonic energy.
‘There's nothing I can do about it right now. I have to find another way.’
The saber doesn't work, and the Internal School's Heavy Hand Technique doesn't work. It obviously wouldn't be knocked out by a simple flick on the forehead.
So then?
“Aaargh! This is fucking bullshit!”
*Booooom!*
Seo Ryang dashed toward Ma Dongpil.
“Dongpil! Run!”
“Y-yes!”
Ma Dongpil took off at a run. Having recovered his breath in that short time, he used a movement technique full of power.
*Rrrrrrumble!*
The earth trembled.
Led by the Maenggeuk, the one remaining Nokchok and dozens of Seongseong charged out. From the distant sky, more Ju flew in.
“Hah, hah!”
Seo Ryang's breathing also grew ragged.
He had unleashed a storm of deadly techniques mixed with all sorts of curses. Though he had been tremendously strengthened by the spiritual energy, it wasn't something he could endure with only eight months of training.
Seeing him running alongside Ma Dongpil in such a state, his stamina and movement techniques could truly be considered among the best of his generation.
Seo Ryang's eyes gleamed.
“We're almost there!”
The entrance to the Solitary Bamboo Forest.
It was an area where the concentration of spiritual energy noticeably weakened. Just one step out of the bamboo forest, and those things would be powerless.
It was then.
*Fwoosh!*
Seo Ryang's eyes wavered.
The bamboo stalks to the left and right near the entrance were withered and dry. Sucked dry of moisture, the brittle bamboo swayed precariously, as if they would snap at any moment.
‘Damn it!’
He placed a hand on Ma Dongpil's back.
A look of confusion appeared in Ma Dongpil's eyes.
‘Young Master?’
Seo Ryang took a short breath.
“Hup!”
*Whoooooosh!*
Ma Dongpil's speed more than doubled. Lacking the internal energy to project a fist wind, Seo Ryang had thrown him directly.
In an instant, Ma Dongpil passed through the entrance.
At the same time, five or six snakes leaped at Seo Ryang from the left and right.
*Fwoooosh!*
Their movement speed was slow, but their hunting speed was three times faster than the Maenggeuk's charge.
“Young Master!”
“It's do or die!!”
A desperate moment, as the fangs of the Biyu were about to sink into Seo Ryang's torso.
*Fwoooosh!*
Seo Ryang's body spun, creating a crimson whirlwind.