Beneath the Earth 2
Hwa-seon pressed Shin Gi-woon hard with the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique—the signature martial art of the Mount Hua Sect, and a sword form that had reached considerable heights.
With twenty-six forms in total, it was a troublesome art to face. For Shin Gi-woon, however, it was the exception.
Thanks to the arrogant temperament of Mount Hua martial artists, he had clashed with their blades dozens of times before. He knew their swords well.
He could see the weak points at a glance—which strikes were feints, and which were real.
Because of that, Shin Gi-woon kept the fight even with Hwa-seon. On top of it, he did not feel particularly short on internal energy either.
After consuming the Macheondan, he had deliberately refused to break through to the Transcendent Realm for three years and six months. The moment that vessel, filled to its absolute limit, cast off its ceiling, his internal energy exploded—squared against what it had been before. In pure quantity alone, he could probably stand shoulder to shoulder with most Hwa-gyeong masters.
Whoosh!
His thoughts had run long.
Shin Gi-woon barely slipped past one of Hwa-seon's strikes. He knew better than to let his mind wander mid-fight. Why did he always end up thinking about something else?
Looks like they're almost finished over there.
He glanced back. Sama Yul and Bi So-hyang were staging a massacre. Of course they were. Both of them were Peak experts—geniuses already knocking on the door of the Transcendent Realm. No matter how much blood and effort Cheongung had poured into securing the Gongcheongseogyu, the two women's strength was enough to shatter that investment to pieces.
Originally it would have been Bi So-hyang alone. Cheongung's scheming had brought Sama Yul into the mix, and Shin Gi-woon himself had reached the Transcendent Realm.
Come to think of it, it was because of those Cheongung bastards that Ryu-jin had awakened his upper dantian. Because of Lee Hyeong-seop's attack, he had been saved by the Commander of the Man-byeon-chu-hon-dae. He had met Cheon Yu and been granted the Macheondan. He had even made acquaintance with the Great Law Protector, Ma Jin-cheon, leader of the Cheon-sal-man-ma-dae.
Looked at that way, Cheongung had done nothing but good things for Shin Gi-woon. Even now. Of all places, they had come digging for the Gongcheongseogyu beneath Mount Hua, and a Mount Hua elder had come down because of it—and little by little, Shin Gi-woon was seizing the upper hand.
"Ugh!"
"What's wrong? Things not going the way you planned, so you're about to blow a gasket?"
"Shut your mouth!"
"I'm going to keep running it, though. What are you going to do if I don't shut up? What can a guy whose sword paths I can read like an open book even do?"
"You miserable worm!!"
Shin Gi-woon kept talking even as he caught the blade. High-level fighters were supposed to keep their mouths shut and focus in a fight. Opening your mouth could scatter your breathing, or loosen the pressure in your core and make energy control harder.
But when you were clearly dominating, running your mouth did not matter. Shin Gi-woon could speak at length; Hwa-seon was limited to short answers.
The situation was already turning in Shin Gi-woon's favor.
"They're all dead. You're not getting the Gongcheongseogyu either way."
"I said shut up!!"
Rumble—!!
Hwa-seon drove a stomp into the ground and flinched. Swept up in the enemy's numbers, he had done something he should never have done.
In that instant, Shin Gi-woon stopped every movement as well. A single stomp was bringing the cave down around them.
"You fucking idiot! You couldn't hold it for even a second—you want us all buried alive?!"
"If you hadn't started running your mouth first, none of this would have happened!"
Crash!
A massive boulder slammed down between Shin Gi-woon and Hwa-seon. The two of them were forced apart—Shin Gi-woon deeper into the cave, Hwa-seon toward the exit. Then Hwa-seon did something sudden.
"No choice. Time is on my side. I'll kill you lot first."
"You crazy—!"
"Farewell."
Whoosh—!
Hwa-seon scattered plum blossoms toward the cave ceiling. Shin Gi-woon urgently sprayed cold from the White Fang Spear, but even a divine weapon's frost could not stop a collapsing cave. Hwa-seon's face twisted into something demonic.
"Hahahaha! Go live—and die—within your station. You will never die easy."
"..."
With those final words, Hwa-seon flung himself toward the exit. At the same time, the corner of Shin Gi-woon's mouth curled all the way to his ear.
Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul, of course, were frantic.
"Gi-woon! What do we do now?"
"There's no path. Everything's blocked."
"I'll handle it."
Shin Gi-woon set the White Fang Spear down and settled into a cross-legged seat. Preparations were finished. The reason he had not revealed his demonic energy in this fight was simple: Ryu-jin had something else to do. Her job had been to survey the cave's foundation.
And she had finished that work long ago. The reason Shin Gi-woon had provoked Hwa-seon was a scheme to create chaos.
"Everything's ready."
Ryu-jin's signal. Matching it, Shin Gi-woon poured every scrap of demonic energy into activating the All-Power Realm.
"Open."
Steel pillars erupted from every direction around Shin Gi-woon.
Kra-kra-kra!
Sama Yul and Bi So-hyang startled and scrambled away from him. The rising pillars drove into the cave floor, bracing the places that needed support with just the right weight. Before long, the cave's trembling died away.
A brief word on the All-Power Realm, while we are here.
The All-Power Realm was the ability to command every attribute that existed in this world. In other words, it went beyond the five elemental forces of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth—it could wield powers like lightning and ice as well.
That was possible solely because Ryu-jin resided in his upper dantian. It was neither sorcery nor shamanic art. Across all of history, the All-Power Realm was a power only Shin Gi-woon could use.
"It won't hold forever. We find the Gongcheongseogyu and get out of here fast."
"Can't we just leave through the exit now? I really don't want to be buried alive."
"It's blocked. That Mount Hua elder bastard tore the path apart on his way out. The only space left is right here."
Rumble.
Shin Gi-woon threw a light punch. What had looked like a solid wall crumbled away, revealing another passage beyond.
"Let's go. It leads deeper."
"...Are you sure we should?"
"Stay here and we end up buried. Who knows—there might be another way out from inside."
"I'm for it."
Bi So-hyang was cautious. But when even Sama Yul cast a vote in favor, there was no choice but to go down.
Shin Gi-woon's eyes were still red. She did not understand it fully, but that power holding the cave up had to be placing a considerable burden on him. If their strongest fighter—Shin Gi-woon—collapsed from exhaustion, everything was over. Bi So-hyang took the lead and threw herself down the descending path.
Sama Yul and Shin Gi-woon followed. The way was long. Certainty settled in. At the end of this path, the Gongcheongseogyu would be waiting.
After all, a spiritual elixir was never just an ordinary elixir. Spiritual elixirs formed naturally only in environments that were anything but ordinary—highly specialized ones.
After they had gone some distance down, a faint light greeted the three of them. Their steps quickened of their own accord.
"This is..."
"Whoa. What is all this?"
"It's beautiful."
They had found it. Call them blue amethysts, if you like. Rocks so beautiful they could slap a night-luminous pearl across the face and leave it smarting. The stones glowing with blue light drew gasps without anyone meaning to. It was as if the stars of the sky had come down right before their eyes.
And that was not the end. The rocks wound and twisted, linking into a single path.
Goosebumps rose on all of them. If they followed these stones, what would they find? Their hearts were already pounding.
"Let's go."
Their feet did not lift easily. If Shin Gi-woon had not spoken, Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul would have stood there a long while. There was a strange addiction in the environment itself—a desire to keep looking at this sight. This was clearly no ordinary place.
Shin Gi-woon swallowed dryly. Ore that could entrance even Sama Yul, who never stirred with emotion. The mysteries of nature truly could not be explained by human common sense.
Shin Gi-woon kept walking at the front. The path seemed endless, yet none of them tired. The air itself was of a different quality. Just breathing was enough to make their energy surge upward. They walked on after that—on and on, all of them moving forward without a word.
And then they arrived.
"..."
"Is this really...?"
"It's the Gongcheongseogyu."
A milky liquid. The Gongcheongseogyu, regarded as one of the highest-grade spiritual elixirs in all the martial world.
Shin Gi-woon's party had finally reached it. It was exactly like the legendary thing they had only ever heard of.
They say the rock that holds the Gongcheongseogyu is transparent—that it lost its color under the influence of the energy flowing from the elixir itself.
Because of that, the Gongcheongseogyu was known to look as if it floated in midair. That was accurate.
About five drops, maybe. A milky sphere hovered in the empty air.
The problem was how to consume it.
They wanted to put it in something and take it with them, but they had been stupid enough not to bring any container. Even if they had, it would have shattered in the fighting.
In short, those five drops could not be carried outside.
The Gongcheongseogyu had spent so long underground that the moment it touched outside air, it would vanish at once.
Creating something here that could seal it completely was...
Wait. Hold on.
It was possible.
All those ores they had seen on the way down. If they cut one of those stones and used it to hold the Gongcheongseogyu, they could transport it safely.
First priority was figuring out how large the transparent rock was.
"Everyone, one step back."
At Shin Gi-woon's word, the other two moved with him. They might have been entranced by the Gongcheongseogyu, but it was a spiritual elixir of the ages—every action had to be careful.
We'll take what we can drink here and carry the rest out, I suppose...?
A rough sweep with demonic energy gave him a sense of the size. There was no rock covering the top.
He would have to cut the stone in a clean straight line and seize the rock holding the Gongcheongseogyu without a single tremor.
Once he explained that, zeal lit every eye. This was a chance to actually ingest the Gongcheongseogyu.
"I'll do it."
Shing.
Shin Gi-woon swept the White Fang Spear in a straight line. A hair-thin thread of a cut parted the rock, and in the same instant Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul sprang up, catching the stone that held the Gongcheongseogyu.
They lowered it carefully to the ground.
At last, they had secured the Gongcheongseogyu.