Beneath the Earth 4
“Where have you been?”
“Sect Leader? What brings you here?”
Having returned to Mount Hua, Hwa-seon stopped dead in front of the main gate. Hwa-jin stood there with an unaccountably dark expression on his face.
Have I been found out? His heart was hammering, but his face remained fixed in a smile.
Hwa-jin frowned as he looked at him. They had grown up together as senior and junior martial brothers. When had the crack first appeared between them?
From the very beginning, perhaps. Once trust was lost, a fracture had opened in his heart. What had Hwa-seon’s true purpose been all along?
“I asked where you went, Elder Hwa-seon.”
“Ah… There was a child I was worried about, so I followed for a while and then came back. Fortunately, he was doing well.”
“…Is that truly so?”
“If I have done something wrong—”
“You have thrown away even the last chance I gave you.”
Hwa-seon’s smile slowly faded. Behind Hwa-jin, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen who had been dispatched on the mission stepped into view. He had proven his own lie with his own mouth.
Caught. A hollow laugh escaped him. He had never expected to be snared like this. There was still so much left to extract from Mount Hua.
“Well now. This is a disaster.”
“I will ask once more, Elder Hwa-seon. Where have you been?”
A low rumble rolled through the air.
From the enraged Hwa-jin, a purple-haze radiance bloomed. The Purple Haze Divine Art—said to be passed down only to the sect leader of Mount Hua.
There was no killing intent in it, yet the words were already a declaration of war. Hwa-seon sighed and shook his head. Remaining here any longer had become impossible.
“I grew rather fond of the place after staying so long… What a pity.”
“I asked what you were doing, you traitor!!”
“Junior brother. Don’t get so angry. You might ascend from sheer rage.”
“As the sect leader of Mount Hua, I hereby decree: from this moment, Elder Hwa-seon is stripped of his elder’s seat and expelled from this sect!”
“You really are making this troublesome. So. What exactly can you do about it?”
Hwa-seon had already decided to leave. No matter that Hwa-jin was a master of the Transformation Realm—he was still nothing more than an old man who had not fought a real battle in years.
Hwa-seon, by contrast, had tempered himself through countless life-and-death struggles for Cheongung’s sake. If it came down to a pursuit by light-body technique, he was confident he could escape.
“Do you think you can catch a traitor?”
“Once the Martial Alliance brands you a public enemy, you will never live in peace. Survive in a prison cell if you must, traitor.”
“The Martial Alliance… Yes. The Martial Alliance is fine.”
Hwa-seon did not know how thoroughly rotten the current Martial Alliance had become, nor who truly occupied its key posts.
What could a mere sect leader who only ever fretted over Mount Hua possibly understand? The tide had already turned. Hwa-seon intended to ride that tide. If leaning on it could let him reach the Transformation Realm itself—
What was there left to fear?
“Try and catch me, then. See how easy it is.”
“Pursue him!!”
Hwa-seon launched his light-body technique first and raced down the mountain. More than a dozen Plum Blossom Swordsmen thundered after him.
Hwa-jin, however, did not move. More precisely, he could not move. The moment he left Mount Hua, the ghost would come for him.
That ghost knew no mercy. If they met again, Hwa-jin would not even manage a proper struggle before his limbs were torn apart and death claimed him.
Mount Hua was already in chaos from the appearance of a traitor. He could not compound that chaos with the death of its sect leader. Rationalizing it that way, he turned and walked back to his office.
The tremors rising from beneath the earth had ceased. What exactly had happened down there? He already knew how terrifying that unknown existence was.
Please… let this incident not bring Mount Hua to ruin. With that desperate prayer, Hwa-jin let out a long, heavy sigh.
Shin Gi-woon, deep in energy circulation, was drenched in cold sweat. Opening the Conception and Governing Vessels was proving far harder than expected.
He had boldly declared he would reach the Extreme Demon realm; stopping here was never an option. Because of the blockage, he still could not even store the energy of the Sky-Clearing Stone Oil in his dantian.
He must not store it. His vessel had already expanded to its absolute limit over three years and six months. Pouring any more in would make it burst.
In other words, he had too much energy and his body could no longer keep up. That was precisely why opening the Conception and Governing Vessels was so desperately needed.
It would enlarge the vessel and make it far more durable. Of course, it was no easy task.
Part of the difficulty came from the absence of demonic qi. Whether reaching Peak or Transcendent, Shin Gi-woon had always achieved his great breakthroughs with demonic qi’s help.
The problem was that ever since he realized the demonic qi possessed a will of its own, he had found it somehow distasteful. The same went for the poison qi he had absorbed. What if he used it wrong and caused catastrophic damage to his body?
Thanks to Ryu-jin he could properly wield demonic qi within the All-Power Realm, yet he never mixed it into the Battle Demon Heavenly Spear.
During energy circulation that was even more true. Since the demonic qi had a self, it would surely force its way out the moment it decided it was needed.
Yet it was not coming out. That only made him more curious about its intentions.
Ryu-jin. Ready? We’re going in with the mindset that failure means death.
[…I really don’t care what happens to you, you know?]
He casually ignored Ryu-jin’s warning. This was the last chance. He had loosened the newly obtained energy too freely, and abnormal symptoms were already beginning to appear in his meridians. He would pour every ounce of strength into smashing through the Gate of Life and Death.
Here we go!
A roaring surge of power.
Shin Gi-woon gathered every scrap of energy into the Huiyin point. Then, precisely vertical from there—the single meridian that connected to the Baihui point of the upper dantian.
He began to shatter the Conception and Governing Vessels.
“Hup!”
His teeth clenched of their own accord. Because the meridians had gone unused, the accumulated turbid qi was on another level entirely. He had thought he had cleared most of it through repeated attempts, yet it still remained like a mountain.
If he could not completely pierce that turbid qi, he could never break the Gate of Life and Death.
Boom after boom!
Shin Gi-woon’s energy slammed against the Gate of Life and Death and could rise no farther. His face grew redder and redder.
He was hammering with everything he had, yet the hardness was beyond words.
Fuck!
[Hey. Use nicer language.]
Why is this so damn hard? Are you even helping?
[You think I’d be lounging around peacefully right now?]
No pleasant words came out. Even in his previous life the Gate of Life and Death had never been this solid. He had simply opened the Conception and Governing Vessels when the time was right.
Now it felt like punching tempered steel with bare fists. Why was it so unyielding?
Was it because his internal energy was still so young? Shin Gi-woon had not even trained for a full decade.
Did that mean the Extreme Demon realm was still too early? Anger flared for no clear reason.
Did they think he had all the time in the world? He had none. Even now Cheongung could be hatching schemes somewhere, and he would never rest easy until he had slaughtered every last Martial Alliance bastard who had killed the Ghost Spear under the absurd charge of “eating dumplings.”
Until then, even if someone told him to rest, he would not rest. Even if this body of his was smashed to pieces, he would drive a spear through that bastard Cheol Hwi-hyun’s throat.
Without fail!!
Crack!
The moment Shin Gi-woon steeled his resolve, a hair-thin crack appeared in the Gate of Life and Death. He did not miss the opening.
He poured every bit of energy into striking that crack. Before he realized it he was no longer punching steel—he was unfolding the Battle Demon Heavenly Spear together with the White Fang Spear.
The tiny crack swelled, spawning more cracks, widening. And at last—
A thunderous roar!!
The Gate of Life and Death shattered. The Baihui of the upper dantian and the Huiyin of the lower dantian resonated as one. He did not miss the moment.
Pull!!
[Urgh!]
At Shin Gi-woon’s signal, Ryu-jin strained with all her might to drag the turbid qi of the Conception and Governing Vessels upward.
From below, Shin Gi-woon violently pushed his energy. Then the body that had been circulating energy began to shine with brilliant light.
Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul, who had been watching his energy circulation with anxious eyes, brightened at once.
“Marrow cleansing!”
“He did it!”
Transparent golden cracks spread across Shin Gi-woon’s entire body—proof that the marrow cleansing was proceeding successfully.
Crack. Crack.
The two women stared, entranced. It was a new world. Every sinew and bone was being rearranged into the pure, primordial form of a human free of even a single speck of turbid qi.
Shin Gi-woon was transforming into that form. The sight was so beautiful that even the stench barely registered.
The foulness that had accumulated in the Conception and Governing Vessels was far worse than ordinary stench, yet because of the special environment they felt none of it.
The radiant light that had filled the cave gathered into a single point for a moment.
“Hoooo…”
Shin Gi-woon exhaled a long breath and drew every last thread of energy into his lower dantian.
He had reached the Extreme Demon realm.
“Extreme Demon?! This is the first time anyone my age has reached the Extreme Demon realm!!”
“Incredible. I never really thought you’d make it all the way to Extreme Demon.”
“Haha, I never even imagined it would turn out like this either. But… got anything I can wear?”
Even while receiving their praise, Shin Gi-woon looked a little awkward. His upper garments had completely vanished.
For some reason the lower half remained intact. The problem was the stench.
Once the beauty of the marrow cleansing faded, Bi So-hyang and Sama Yul both pinched their noses with rotten expressions.
“Hey. Extreme Demon is Extreme Demon, but can’t you do something about the smell?”
“Nothing I can do about this one.”
“So how are we supposed to get out?”
At Sama Yul’s pointed remark, Bi So-hyang’s brow furrowed. Shin Gi-woon, however, simply smirked.
No path? Then he would just make one.
“Everyone step back. You packed the Sky-Clearing Stone Oil, right?”
“Huh? What are you planning?”
“Don’t tell me…?”
“Huuup!”
Shin Gi-woon invoked the Battle Demon Divine Art. Having reached Extreme Demon, he had attained complete mastery. In other words, he was ready to unleash the ultimate principle that contained the entirety of the Battle Demon Heavenly Spear.
Drawing a deep breath, he gripped the White Fang Spear. The target was set. He would open a path in a single strike.
Battle Demon Heavenly Spear — Ultimate Principle.
Ghost Star Void Severance
A cataclysmic explosion!!