Lightning Escape Art
After spending the entire day flying through the dense forest, Jin Somyeong frowned.
There’s no trace of people.
It was a jungle in the truest sense of the word. The leaves grew so thickly overhead that light barely filtered through, and even when he lifted his head, he could not see the sky.
The vegetation was strange as well. Vines and insects he had never seen before were everywhere, giving the place an unmistakably foreign air.
Whoosh!
He shot high into the air and looked in every direction. East, west, south, north—wherever he turned, there was nothing but green.
A sea made of plants. An endless ocean of trees stretched on and on, enough to make him sick of the sight.
Is it because the spiritual energy is so thin? I don’t see any demon beasts either.
After a moment’s thought, he chose a direction and flew onward. He traveled nearly half a day more, but...
Nothing changed.
All he could see was dense, overgrown jungle.
Hah. What kind of miserable trouble is this because of that bastard Young Master? Just wait until I get back...
Suddenly, he found himself wondering why Hong Seol had left the man alive. She had cut down even a Third-Realm cultivator in one stroke, so why deliberately spare him?
Surely it wasn’t because I said I’d kill him myself, was it?
If that was the case, then she truly had no flexibility whatsoever.
To begin with, that declaration had merely been a tactic to kill the old man who had mastered tracking arts.
...No.
Now that things had come to this, keeping his word did not sound so bad. The thought of returning after forming his Golden Core and cutting the bastard down in a single stroke was immensely satisfying.
Out of habit, Jin Somyeong reached to stroke his sword, then paused.
His master... no, thinking of Hong Seol brought only a bitter smile to his lips. Come to think of it, she had not even taken the scabbard with her.
Will I be able to meet her again?
If that time came, should he return the scabbard to her, or should he ask for the Boundless Divine Sword back...?
Flying all day had a way of making all sorts of thoughts drift through his head.
Jin Somyeong gave a faint laugh and shook his head—then stopped.
Far in the distance, at the very edge of his vision, he saw a city wall.
Finally!
A structure unmistakably built by human hands had appeared.
He was delighted, but he did not let his guard down. He concealed his presence as much as possible and approached cautiously, only to furrow his brow.
There’s no one here.
The wall was large enough to rival Cheongdan City’s, yet there was not a single person in sight.
It was an abandoned city.
Judging by the weeds, vines, and layers upon layers of dust, no one had set foot here for at least a hundred years.
And yet...
Something felt strange.
Why build such a large city in a place without even a spirit vein?
The more he thought about it, the stranger it became.
The formations had long since broken down, but from the remaining shape of the walls, there was no doubt this had been a city of cultivators.
Jin Somyeong entered the empty city with caution and spent a long time searching through it.
The more he investigated, the more certain he became. This city had truly been abandoned.
...For now, I should leave.
Putting his unease behind him, he flew into the sky.
How far had he traveled? After that, similar cities continued to appear.
No people. Only buildings.
“Ugh.”
Jin Somyeong rubbed his shoulder and finally came to a stop. After several days of flying by using spiritual power, he was exhausted.
He had no way of knowing how much farther he would have to fly before he found people.
This world was far too vast. By Jin Somyeong’s estimation, it was at least several dozen times larger than Earth.
To be lost without a map in a bizarre jungle like this...
This won’t do. I need to learn a proper flight art first.
Jin Somyeong descended to the ground, dug out a cave with Sword Qi, and made a sealed chamber.
His goal was to cultivate Cheonroedochegyeol to the proficient stage and learn the Lightning Escape Art.
Once he learned the Lightning Escape Art, which allowed him to move by riding lightning, he would become several times faster than he was now.
Other cultivators would have been unable to cultivate in a place like this, where there was no spirit vein, but it did not matter to Jin Somyeong.
Thanks to the Mental Pocket Realm, he could cultivate anywhere.
How much farther was it to the proficient stage?
When he checked his status window, he saw he had only about five thousand points left.
He thought about why his proficiency had risen so sharply, and there was only one possible reason. Burning his lifespan to control lightning had caused explosive growth.
Now that he had reached the second layer of Foundation Establishment, his Boundless Great Ability had increased to fifteen hundred beads. At the latest, four months would be enough.
Four months later, somewhere in the jungle.
Kwarrrrrng!
Lightning struck from a clear blue sky.
From within the brilliant yellow bolt that slammed into the earth, Jin Somyeong appeared with an empty scabbard at his waist.
“Whew. I finally learned it.”
As Cheonroedochegyeol reached the proficient stage, he had taken his first step into the Lightning Escape Art.
Now that he could move by riding lightning, hope had finally appeared—hope that he could escape this wretched jungle.
Snap!
When he flicked his finger, lightning descended from the air, and his figure vanished with a whoosh before appearing a hundred meters away.
It was faster than the blink of an eye.
The speed was nearly instantaneous, and he was more than satisfied.
As expected of the Lightning Escape Art, famed for speed.
Its drawbacks were that it was somewhat noisy and consumed a large amount of spiritual power.
Kwarung!
At the same time lightning shot from his fingertips, his figure streaked across the sky like a meteor.
Of course, it was not truly as fast as light. It had to remain within a level he could control with spiritual power and Divine Sense.
Even so, at the Foundation Establishment stage, it was more than enough.
He was four or five times faster than before. At his current speed, he could easily slip through something like the Cheonsi Sect’s encirclement.
As long as we exclude the Third Realm, that is...
A sudden impatience rose within him.
He wanted to break through to the Golden Core stage as soon as possible, chop off that damned Young Master’s head, and be done with it.
But if there was something he desired even more than that, it was meeting Hong Seol again.
He wanted to learn the sword from her. And if possible, he also wanted to help her, since she seemed to be in some difficult situation of her own.
Boom!
Jin Somyeong pushed aside his stray thoughts and focused on the Lightning Escape Art.
He wanted to reach a city with cultivators as quickly as possible.
In truth, he had wondered whether he could simply cultivate alone since he had the Mental Pocket Realm, but that had been a mistake.
First and foremost, it was not safe. Maintaining constant vigilance was far too exhausting.
The cultivation pills he had purchased in Cheongdan City would also run out before long.
If I try to cultivate in a jungle like this, with no spirit vein, I won’t reach Golden Core even in two hundred years.
In any case, now that he had learned the Lightning Escape Art, escaping the jungle should be much easier.
He chose a direction and flew straight ahead.
How many days had he flown over the endless jungle?
“...Salt?”
There was a salty tang in the wind that brushed past his nose.
Jin Somyeong frowned and increased his speed. A suspicion had occurred to him.
Swaaaa...
Along with the faint sound of waves, the briny scent of the sea rushed toward him.
Only after seeing the wide-open expanse of blue waves did he have no choice but to admit it.
It wasn’t a jungle. It was an island.
The forest had been so vast that he had assumed it was a continent, but now that he saw it clearly, it was merely an uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean.
Jin Somyeong stared beyond the horizon and nodded.
Let’s go.
How long had he flown over the eerily silent open sea?
As the same unchanging scenery continued endlessly before him, he even began to worry that he might be flying in circles.
His impatience slowly turned into unease.
Should I turn back even now?
If he had chosen the wrong direction, things would be dire. With bad luck, he might genuinely end up stranded in the middle of the ocean and die.
Just as he was wondering what to do...
Aaaagh!
He was so glad to hear a human voice after so long—even if that voice was a scream.
Out of habit, he first checked his surroundings for danger.
Whoosh!
Then he changed his appearance with Cheonbyeonmanhwagong and approached silently. He infused spiritual power into his eyes and scanned near the horizon.
Two Qi Refining cultivators.
It was not difficult to grasp the situation.
A young man and woman were fleeing desperately from a flock of a dozen or so monstrous birds. Their faces resembled each other, so they seemed to be siblings.
Judging by their battered, wounded state, they would not survive if he left them alone.
No. They were simply on the verge of death.
“Brother!”
At the girl’s youthful scream, the young man blocking the monstrous birds from behind so his younger sister could escape turned deathly pale.
Kiiieek!
Skreee!
The shield in his hands had been shattered by a blade of wind fired by the leader of the monstrous birds.
“Ah...”
“No!”
Just before the claws that followed could pierce the space between his brows...
Kwarrrrrng!!
A deafening roar rang out with a blinding flash.
The siblings flinched, squeezing their eyes shut without meaning to at the intense light.
When they hunched their shoulders and opened their eyes again, everything was already over.
Jin Somyeong had appeared with the lightning and swept the flock of monstrous birds away.
All that remained were demon beasts burned black like charcoal.
“...Urk.”
The girl, who had let out a strange noise, startled sharply.
She nudged her brother, who stood beside her with a vacant expression, as if telling him to get a clue, then bowed her head deeply.
“Senior! Thank you for helping us!”
“Ah... Th-thank you!”
Jin Somyeong gave a faint laugh.
It had been so long since he had heard human voices—and bright, lively children’s voices at that.
Seeing the Qi Refining cultivators greet him respectfully also relieved one of the worries that had been lingering in his heart.
Thankfully, we can communicate.
It was strange that he could understand people in a place that might be who knew how far from Cheongdan City, but it was not pure coincidence.
The writing and pronunciation used by cultivators contained the laws of heaven and earth.
In most cases, they could communicate regardless of race or nation. Even if there were slight differences, they could understand each other the way one understood a dialect.
“Senior. My brother, who’s standing here like an idiot, is Seo Dohyeon, and I’m Seo Jinok.”
“Mm.”
“We may be insignificant right now, but one day, we will repay this kindness! May we ask your honorable name?”
Jin Somyeong had been smiling at the girl’s clear, bright voice, but then he paused.
Yeo Dongbin? Jin Somyeong? Or another alias? For some reason, he did not know how he should answer.
“...There’s no need to repay the kindness later. If you have a map, give me one. I want to go to the largest city nearby.”
“Ah! You want to go to Sky Island. Ahem. Brother, what are you doing standing there like a fool? Hurry and give Senior a map.”
“Huh? R-right. Of course.”
Where had the momentum he had shown while risking his life to protect his sister gone? The awkward young man took a scroll map from his storage pouch.
Since it was not a jade slip, Jin Somyeong could not read it in an instant.
It was somewhat inconvenient, but it was enough to determine his current location.
Coral Island, Blue Mist Island, Beacon Island...
Just as he was identifying the nearby islands, the girl spoke.
“Senior. We happened to be on our way to Sky Island as well. Would you like to travel with us?”
“No. You two are too slow. Traveling together would be inconvenient.”
The girl’s shoulders drooped in disappointment, only for the corners of her mouth to shoot upward at Jin Somyeong’s next words.
“If you need the corpses of the First-Realm demon beasts, take them. They’re meaningless to me now that I’ve already reached Foundation Establishment.”
“Ah! Thank you!”
The siblings’ faces filled with joy they could not hide.
Not only had they escaped mortal danger, but they had also obtained a great harvest.
Three days later.
After arriving at Coral Island by following the map, Jin Somyeong let out a sigh of relief.
According to the girl, he should be able to go to Sky Island from Coral Island.
After disguising his cultivation as the late stage of Qi Refining, Jin Somyeong looked around Coral Island and stroked his chin.
It’s about the level of Jeokyang Market.
His guess was that the island was managed by a Foundation Establishment force. To him, who had already reached Foundation Establishment, it was too small.
Since he wanted to go to a larger city better suited for cultivation, he stopped a passing cultivator and asked.
“Fellow Daoist. I heard Sky Island is the largest city around here. How do I get there?”
He had asked politely, but the answer he received was brusque.
“Sky Island? If you wait here, it’ll be along soon.”
The man’s attitude was as though Jin Somyeong had asked something obvious, but Jin Somyeong had no choice but to ask again.
“Do you mean a transport ship bound for Sky Island will arrive? How much does it cost to board?”
“Hm? What are you talking about, a transport ship? I’m telling you, it’ll come this way soon.”
Something in the conversation had clearly gone off track. It was the sort of misunderstanding that happened when two people did not share the same common sense.
Jin Somyeong frowned and was about to ask again when...
“It’s about time...”
“It’s here!”
At someone’s shout, the horizon darkened. White clouds were pushed aside in a way that was anything but ordinary.
How many minutes passed?
Something massive began to reveal itself.
...An island? An island is flying toward us?
It was so enormous that, at a glance, one might mistake it for a continent. The island known as Sky Island crossed the heavens and approached.
At the staggering sight, every question in Jin Somyeong’s mind vanished.
The words it’ll be along soon had meant exactly that. There had been no room for misunderstanding at all.
Kukukukung!
Before he knew it, the ground had grown dark.
A landmass large enough to blot out the sun had taken its place in the sky, accompanied by drifting clouds.