A Third-Realm Storage Pouch
The instant the tip of Jin Somyeong’s sword touched the Demon King, an absurd recoil tore his palm open. He forced his grip to hold on to the blade as it tried to fly from his hand.
Crack!
A long fissure split down the center of the sword. Even a blade wreathed in Sword Qi had failed to pierce a single layer of hide.
It would not have been strange for his will to falter at such a sight, but Jin Somyeong’s eyes remained unchanged. Every scrap of his mind was being poured into one goal: victory.
What do I do...?
Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust?
Unfortunately, he could not use it yet. That divine ability detonated the spiritual energy stored in his five viscera, and his organs had only just recovered. They had not accumulated enough spiritual energy.
At least one hour.
That was how long he had to endure before he could use Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust.
All sorts of plans flashed through his mind. Then the Demon King, who had remained still despite being struck, muttered in disbelief.
“...Unbelievable. You truly broke through in the middle of battle? What, are you some kind of Fighting Immortal?”
After a brief silence, the Demon King bared his fangs and growled.
“Fighting Immortal or whatever else, it makes no difference. I just have to kill you.”
Its claws flew in like a surprise attack. Jin Somyeong stared them down and swung his cracked sword.
Claaang!
Each time blade and claw collided, the fissures spread farther. His Sword Qi could not yet match the Demon King’s strength.
The Demon King pressed him without giving him a chance to breathe, sneering as it attacked.
“What a pity. If you had been holding a treasure-grade sword instead of that trash, you might have at least cut my hide.”
Nonsense. A third-realm treasure could not be used in the first place without sufficient spiritual energy.
Even if the Five Elements Sword had been a top-grade second-realm sword, the situation would not have changed. The fundamental problem remained.
My technique is lacking.
As he looked at the claws soaked in blood drawn from his own body, the first thing he did was correct his thinking.
Reaching the third realm in body refinement did not mean he could face a Demon King head-on. At present, he had merely obtained the bare minimum qualification to fight a Golden Core cultivator.
Deflect it.
He loosened his shoulders and focused on the claw tearing through the air toward him. The sword tip he had been thrusting forward shifted ever so slightly.
As though catching a falling petal, he drew the sword back by the faintest margin. He did not resist the flow of force. Instead, he moved along the path of the claw, retreating by only a quarter of a half-step as he swung his blade at an angle.
Ting!
Sparks burst from the instant collision, and a metallic vibration lingered in the air like an afterimage.
“...”
As though sensing something strange, the Demon King hesitated—then charged again.
Boom!
The claws that came crashing down vertically shattered half of what remained of the deserted island.
From that moment on, the battlefield continued to change. They crossed the sea and reached some nameless island.
Clang, clang, clang!
The collisions repeated countless times. Sword and claw struck again and again, filling the air with dazzling sparks.
Then, at some point, the cracking stopped. The sword that had seemed on the verge of snapping still stood straight. The fissures had even stopped spreading.
Jin Somyeong was now perfectly dispersing the Demon King’s power.
Watching him, the third-realm Demon King of the Sea Wolf Tribe did not grow angry. On the contrary, it laughed like a madman.
“Good! Good! How long has it been since I had a fight like this...? If you truly are a Fighting Immortal, then show me more!”
With a roar, the wind coiling around the Demon King’s body grew increasingly violent.
Crunch!
It was as if the creature had wrapped itself in a typhoon. Each swing of its claws sent crescent-shaped slashes scattering in every direction.
Even the new island they had arrived on, in place of the deserted one, became a ruin in the blink of an eye.
Whoooooosh!
Jin Somyeong watched the spiraling wind grind everything around them to pieces, and a strange premonition swept over him.
...I think I can cut it.
Dodging was the right choice, and yet his instincts pointed elsewhere.
In a moment too brief to even be called an instant, he trusted intuition over reason.
He aimed his sword, riddled with cracks and on the verge of breaking. Starting from his heart, he ignited all five viscera.
An hour had not yet passed.
Even if he used Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust now, it would not produce its proper power. Even so, he trusted his instincts and did not hesitate.
In that fleeting instant, the spiritual energy amplified as it circulated through his five viscera mingled with his blood energy. It even drew in every last trace of spiritual energy from his dantian and became one—but it was still lacking.
Compared to the true Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust that could reduce a mountain to powder, this fell far short.
And precisely because of that, he could control it completely, from beginning to end. He guided the power racing through his meridians into the blade.
It mingled with the Sword Qi burning like flame and became a radiant brilliance.
Then he swung.
Ignoring the typhoon bearing down on him, he looked only at the Demon King and drew a single line.
A dazzling white line split the world in two.
The howling wind, the razor-sharp claws, the heart—everything in its path was cleaved apart.
The Demon King’s upper body, shoulder included, was sliced diagonally. It slid away and fell.
Fwit!
At the same time, the headless wolf appeared as if teleporting and brought its claws down.
On the brink of death, it had gathered even the strength it might have used to flee and launched a counterattack.
It was a blow that disregarded even death, so fast that one should not have been able to react. But Jin Somyeong had already prepared for it.
He had seen Hyeok Cheon-ung flee in the form of a demon core despite having only his lower body left.
Slash!
The leg stabbing toward his heart was cut off at the ankle. It could not withstand even the slightest contact with his strangely sharpened Sword Qi.
At the same time, Jin Somyeong slipped inward and stabbed into the Demon King’s abdomen. The moment the sword tip pierced its hide and sank deep—
Crackle!
He squeezed out all of his remaining spiritual energy and poured lightning into it. Starting from the heart, he burned every organ inside.
Even then, he did not stop. He brutally tore open the abdomen and ripped out the demon core.
He put the charred corpse and the demon beast’s inner core into his subspace. Only when they were stored away without any resistance did he finally relax.
“Hoo...”
The truly grueling, long, long battle was over.
The instant the tension left him, his breath caught in his throat. The pain he had forgotten while fighting like a madman surged in like a tidal wave.
The world spun. The ground swayed beneath him as if he had drunk himself senseless.
I’m really going to die at this rate.
Jin Somyeong staggered as if he might collapse, then shook his head. If he lost consciousness now, he had no idea what would become of him.
Dragging his heavy body, he searched the devastated island. Since he had won against a third-realm Demon King with such difficulty, he intended to gather every scrap of material he could.
He could not afford to miss the wolf’s head, either, wherever it had fallen on the island.
Found it. ...Hm?
He was so exhausted that he tried to put it straight into his subspace, but it would not go in.
Instead, an alert appeared.
An absorbable space-attribute spiritual object has been discovered. Would you like to absorb it?
Puzzled, he examined it properly and found a bone necklace hidden among the mane around its neck.
This is a space-attribute spiritual object? Don’t tell me it’s a storage pouch?
He inspected it from various angles with Divine Sense. It was.
It was not an artifact as refined as something made by human hands, but its function was the same as a storage pouch. Even the fact that it had a restriction placed on it, making it impossible to open, was identical.
Huh. From the third realm onward, they’re practically human.
It was fascinating that a demon beast would use a storage pouch. It was hard to imagine ferocious beasts like wolves creating artifacts.
In any case, it was a good thing.
Thanks to this, he had obtained another Golden Core-level storage pouch. He looked forward to seeing what might be inside.
I’ll take it for now.
He tied the bone necklace at his waist and placed the upper body, including the head, into his subspace.
Jin Somyeong was about to leave at once, then stopped.
When he tried to fly using spiritual energy, his dantian tingled painfully.
...I can’t fly like this.
Right now, he felt confident that if a six-year-old child came over and gave him a light shove, he would fall over.
Thud!
He sat cross-legged on the dirt. He shoved a handful of medicinal pills into his mouth and gripped a mid-grade Spirit Stone.
As soon as his spiritual energy recovered, he converted it into blood energy and healed his wounds.
An hour later, Jin Somyeong, having escaped the state where he felt he might die at any moment, rose into the air.
As he flew toward Sky Island, he examined the Five Elements Sword. Something had been bothering him.
The cracks are gone.
The sword that had nearly shattered was now as intact as new. Its surface was so clean it reflected his face like a mirror.
Woooong!
He flicked the blade with his finger, and a clear sword hum rang out. It was not merely whole on the outside.
It feels sturdier than before.
Its sharpness had increased as well. It was now keen enough to be mistaken for a top-grade second-realm sword.
Why did this happen?
Intrigued, he examined it closely and noticed a difference. Compared to before, the sword was minutely smaller.
It felt as though the blade had been compressed under an absurdly powerful pressure.
...Was it because of that final Sword Qi?
He recalled the moment he had cut down the Demon King.
At that time, he had clearly succeeded in completely controlling Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust and mingling it with his Sword Qi.
He had poured into a single sword the firepower capable of annihilating even a mountain.
In the process, the Five Elements Sword, which had been on the verge of breaking, seemed to have melted and been reforged.
Is this what people mean when they say that in the hands of a true master, even an ordinary iron sword becomes a divine blade?
Jin Somyeong was not even a Golden Core cultivator yet, and he had left such traces behind.
He found himself wondering what would happen if a high immortal who walked the heavens used a sword.
After examining the Five Elements Sword this way and that, Jin Somyeong focused on flying again.
Whatever the case, what mattered most right now was returning safely to Sky Island.
Fifteen days later.
Jin Somyeong, who had flown through the sky without sleeping, finally relaxed. Sky Island had begun to appear beyond the horizon.
Whether the opportunity summoned by the Spirit-Searching Talisman had ended with the Demon King, no further incidents occurred.
Whew. I honestly don’t know whether that was a true opportunity or a disaster.
He would find out once he opened the storage pouches he had obtained from them.
Dragging his exhausted body, he was about to enter Sky Island when he faltered.
The closer he drew to the island, the heavier his body became. It felt as though gravity were increasing exponentially.
...A formation?
After thinking for a moment, he realized what was going on.
A third-realm body refiner was, in a sense, half a Golden Core cultivator. Because of that, he had been caught by the Reverse Extreme Suppression Formation protecting Sky Island, and his power was being suppressed.
Just as he was wondering what to do—
Tap.
A chubby Golden Core cultivator descended from the sky. It was In Hu-yeon, whom Jin Somyeong had met during the boarding competition in the past.
“Senior. It has been a long time since—”
He had been greeting him out of genuine relief when a fire arrow carrying intense heat shot toward the space between his brows.
Boom!
Jin Somyeong dodged the fire arrow with the Thunder Evasion Art he unleashed on reflex, then stared in bewilderment.
Why would a Golden Core cultivator of Sky Island, with whom he had been on good terms, suddenly attack him? He could not understand it.
“Senior?”
“Hoho. Demon beast, if you are going to disguise yourself, shouldn’t you at least put some effort into it? Jin Somyeong’s body refinement level is still at the second realm.”
Seeing In Hu-yeon speak with a frosty expression, Jin Somyeong felt the urge to smack his own forehead.
In Hu-yeon had misunderstood his sudden rise in realm as a demon beast’s transformation trick.
“Please wait! I really am Jin Somyeong!”
“...Hm?”
In Hu-yeon, who had been raising his magical power as though he would attack at any moment, paused. Blue light swirled in his eyes.
After observing Jin Somyeong for a long while with an eye technique, he murmured blankly.
“What is this? Why is it actually you?”
Fortunately, the misunderstanding was quickly resolved.
After many twists and turns, Jin Somyeong returned to his cave dwelling and let out a sigh of relief.
There had been a minor incident at the end, but thanks to it, he had gained something.
Jade Essence Bath.
A mysterious bathwater that healed wounds and raised one’s realm. In Hu-yeon had given it to him as an apology.
He had also received a formation token that allowed his strength to remain unrestricted on Sky Island.
It was worth actively participating in the war.
Because he had joined the Red Fire Unit and hunted countless demon beasts, his credibility was high. Procedures that would normally have been troublesome had been mostly omitted.
Oh, right.
He wanted to collapse and rest at once, but there was something he needed to do.
Forcing his eyes away from the bed shimmering temptingly before him, he burned a voice transmission talisman.
He sent Baek Yu-geon the location in the eastern deep sea where Hyeok Cheon-ung had been, and informed him that he had encountered a cultivator there who had been growing Tong-eo grass.
He thought he might be able to obtain some useful information.
Immediately after sending the transmission—
I’ll rest first.
He collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep as if his consciousness had been cut off.
He did not wake once for three whole days. After sleeping deeply and finally rising, the moment he soaked himself in the Jade Essence Bath—
“Uuuurgh.”
A bizarre sound escaped his mouth.
The Jade Essence Bath seeped all the way into his bones, healing his minute wounds. The sensation was impossible to endure silently.
It did more than wash away all his fatigue. Spiritual energy accumulated in his dantian at an absurd speed.
Huh.
The eighth layer of Qi Condensation felt so close it was almost before his eyes. It seemed his realm would rise before long.
...Is it because of that life-or-death battle?
After marveling for a while, Jin Somyeong fully absorbed the Jade Essence Bath and headed to the training room.
Swallowing in anticipation, he took out the two Golden Core-level storage pouches.
It was time to open the treasure chests he had suffered so much to obtain.