Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: The Absolute One Appears
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Sudden silence fell with the arrival of the absolute being. Not only people, but all things held their breath. An inexplicable pressure was constricting the space itself.
—Take your comrades and fall back. Seeing your back will suffice.
It was not telepathy. Rather than ringing in the ears, it was an assertion etched directly into the mind. It was undoubtedly the Radiant Mind Speech, a technique wielded by transcendent masters.
Yuk Jin-yang swiftly hoisted Won-yeong and Yu-baek over his shoulders and retreated from what would become the battlefield.
Suddenly, his grandfather's jade robe fluttered.
Translucent ripples of true energy spread from beneath his feet, while dark qi currents roiled fiercely. True qi poured from his dantian like swirling dark clouds overhead.
An utterly monstrous aura began to dominate the space. The ground trembled, and the clouds scattered. Birds took flight in panic, only for the forest trees to shake violently in their wake.
At last.
Complete stillness descended. Even the sound of insects brushing against the grass blades could not be heard. It felt as though only one person stood sovereign in this space.
Yuk Jin-yang suddenly sensed it.
In this moment, his grandfather's presence was exerting itself upon the mortal world like a law of nature. His acute sensitivity made the realization all the more vivid.
Even the passage of fleeting instants felt slowed. His other senses were gradually dulling as well. It was as if he were sinking into the ocean depths, his breath constricting.
It could hardly be called human qi. It felt like confronting a divine might manifested in the world, oppressing all lesser beings. Meanwhile, the once-overwhelming presence of Gong Son-sul was steadily fading.
Perhaps sensing it himself, Gong Son-sul turned away from his wounded prey, his face tense and rigid.
"Who are you? Truly astonishing. I never dreamed I would encounter someone worth crossing blades with, even across vast ages."
"What use is a ghost learning the name of the living?"
In stark contrast to Gong Son-sul's heightened agitation, his grandfather's demeanor was utterly serene—like instructing a subordinate in need of guidance. Gong Son-sul bristled.
"Show me the bare minimum of respect. I am the Emperor of Cheng."
"That short-lived dynasty that ended in a single generation?"
The Yuk Patriarch replied indifferently.
"Even the loftiest status fades without a solid foundation to back it. What meaning is there in a name long buried in the earth, surviving only as lines of text? All the more so for a dynasty founded by a lowly assassin."
It was a ruthless insult, accompanied by a scornful gaze. With not a shred of respect in the Yuk Patriarch's attitude, Gong Son-sul's expression twisted.
"You bastard."
"Is there any need for further words? How foolish. For one who once dared claim the title of emperor."
"……."
"Begone. Ghost ensnared by vain obsessions."
"That sharp tongue of yours, old man. Very well. Just don't disappoint me. I'll see how long that ragged form of yours holds out."
An extraordinary aura erupted from Gong Son-sul's entire body. His baleful qi surged upward like an ascending dragon.
The moment he took a step, he transformed into a streak of light.
That same footwork that had traversed space in a single stride, bewildering the group, was unfolding once more.
In terms of minimal leg movement, it surpassed the Void Traversal Step, and in sheer speed, it outstripped even the Sky Void Path.
In an instant, Gong Son-sul seized the position behind the Yuk Patriarch. His opening move was once again a palm strike. But the result was different.
Chin.
Gong Son-sul let out a vain breath.
Somehow, his wrist was firmly gripped by the Yuk Patriarch. The force gathered in his palm dissipated before it could even unleash. It was a supremely elegant technique, refined to the utmost, that had deceived even the eyes of a peerless master.
'Ha.'
Yuk Jin-yang unwittingly let out a gasp of admiration.
It was truly astonishing.
To an outsider, it might have seemed like a simple swing of the arm to grab hold. But that sequence of actions concealed an immense convergence of superhuman might.
'He's grasping space itself.'
True qi with tangible form swirled through the space like air currents. It distorted vision to the point of haze. Yet it differed from the hazy phenomena of mist or heat shimmer.
The flow of true qi conjured by his grandfather clearly possessed physical force, interfering with objects themselves. Through that effect, he suppressed the opponent's actions and guided them in the desired direction.
It was a method of true qi control that no one could dare imitate.
"Insane……."
His acutely sharpened hearing caught the curse leaking from afar.
Yuk Jin-yang quickly turned toward the source of the sound. Amid the White Lotus Cultists stood a gaunt man in shock.
Though the Yuk Patriarch's presence made it hard to discern high from low, he stood out among the others in his attire—a silk light robe embroidered with white lotuses.
'The Flawless Elder.'
The reactions of the other White Lotus Cultists were uniformly stricken with shock, bewilderment, and fear. The entire group seemed plunged into panic.
Spurred by a sense of crisis, perhaps, the Flawless Elder drew his sword and spurred on the other cultists.
"Wheel battle! No time to worry about face—charge in all at once!"
Yuk Jin-yang hurriedly circulated his internal energy. It was to preempt any who might dare interfere with his grandfather's actions. But it was an unnecessary precaution, a wasted effort.
His grandfather had already taken the movements of the White Lotus Cultists into account. Sunlight now gleamed upon the single sword gripped in his right hand. Brilliant pure-white radiance scattered like flower petals in the wind.
The sword's name was First Love. A wondrous treasure regarded even as an immortal's relic. His famed blade, renowned throughout the jianghu, inscribed trails of sword light into the void.
Amid the fluttering sleeve, red blood trails bloomed like scattered plum blossoms.
The Flawless Elder was overwhelmed by a shock that rattled his mind. At the same time, he doubted his own eyes.
Dozens of corpses lay strewn before him. All had their heads or upper and lower bodies severed. In the jianghu, where clashes between elites were commonplace, a force worthy of being called an army had been swept away in a single exchange.
They were not a force gathered easily. All were carefully selected core experts of the main sect, mixed with those from other branches.
'We staked our lives on this grand ritual, yet...'
All of it had vanished like a fleeting spring dream.
It was an earth-shattering event, yet one that filled him with fresh astonishment. He had finally grasped firsthand the prowess of the world's supreme master, known only through rumors.
The Flawless Elder realized his sword-gripping hand was trembling. A sense of utter powerlessness had completely overtaken his body.
The being before him no longer seemed human at all. It transcended even divine might. It felt like confronting the grandeur of nature itself.
'Just... where did it all go wrong? The Yuk Patriarch has been in seclusion for ages, rarely emerging. It came straight from the Hao Sect Leader—information that should have been reliable.'
Their eyes met. His body froze rigid. His heart seemed to sink, the sensation akin to a hunter coming face-to-face with a predator up close.
The Flawless Elder hurriedly unleashed successive Thousand-Li Sound Transmissions. He intended to summon every hidden force and carve out an escape route.
—Unit One, launch the ambush now.
But no reply came.
—Unit Two, Unit Three! ...Damn it all, Unit Four!
A belated memory surfaced.
Word from the forces deployed to the northeast had gone unanswered back in Gongdong. Now he knew their fate. They had undoubtedly been swept away by the Yuk Patriarch, who had raced in from Kaifeng.
Like a sapling uprooted by a typhoon. Nothing more.
"Damn it."
The Flawless Elder muttered a short curse. Despair mingled thickly with fear.
As the Yuk Patriarch's attention turned toward him, Gong Son-sul seized the opening to lunge, only to fail against the sword force and be sent flying far away.
Not even an ancient peerless master could stand against him. With the remaining forces, no path to victory came to mind.
No matter how he racked his brain, only one conclusion emerged. The Flawless Elder strained his stiffened jaw and tongue.
"Even if you kill me, it's futile. The grand ritual is already complete."
Swish.
The sound of his robe brushing the grass blades rang out as the great foe arrived before him.
Not even his footwork was visible. It was a divine movement unlike any he had witnessed in his life. Reaching the end through instinct, the Flawless Elder's cry had devolved into pure hysteria.
"The Vacuum Fragrant Home under the care of Lady Musheng Nomo awaits you!"
Instead of the response he anticipated, a silent death brushed past him.
Yuk Jin-yang shuddered.
Just moments ago, he had not once been able to read the sword path that cleaved through the heretics. It was not invisible. He had barely managed to track the speed with his eyes, but he could not comprehend the principles it embodied.
It was a realm he could not yet dare to steal. Just how many insights and brushes with death would it take to reach that domain? Rather than despair, a burning ambition welled up.
His grandfather withdrew his gaze from the corpses of the heretics he had cut down. He turned his head to gaze at the spot where he had sent Gong Son-sul flying moments before.
Thud.
From beyond the thick veil of dust, the man emerged. In contrast to his slow gait, his face was filled with anxiety. His grandfather spoke.
"Did you not feel the gulf in prowess?"
"You, who claimed no more words were needed, certainly talk a lot."
In that instant, Yuk Jin-yang noticed Gong Son-sul's aura had completely transformed.
A pale blue light burned in his hands, curled like beastly claws. It flickered like flame, yet exuded a sinister yin poison qi. Even without striking, one could gauge the technique's power.
It was undoubtedly his signature ultimate technique and life-saving trump card. Even for an assassin-turned-emperor who had slain countless masters, his grandfather apparently warranted it as a decisive threat.
Gong Son-sul planted his true step.
With it, his grandfather swung his sword.
The single horizontal line he drew created a new divide between heaven and earth. It seemed as if the boundaries of the world blurred entirely, only for the surrounding landscape to converge into a black point, crushing it.
Yuk Jin-yang soon realized it. What he had just sensed was pure illusion. Before the dark true qi waves crashing like furious tides, his five senses had been deceived.
Hwaaa…….
The qi roiling as if to devour the world gradually subsided.
The victor was plain to see.
"The White Emperor Soul-Reaping Hand, once said to shake the world. Well witnessed."
His grandfather stood tall, calmly offering his appraisal.
"The gulf of ages runs truly deep……."
Gong Son-sul barely supported his body as he muttered in lament. His state was gruesome. Roughly half his upper body had been blown away.
It was a wound that could have meant instant death even after a single exchange. Yet sheer force of will alone kept his thread of life from snapping.
"Liu Xiu... to think another warrior would surpass me besides that one."
"The Yangtze's rear waves push out the front, and flowers, fading yearly, sprout anew."
"Insolent fool... dares lecture me……."
"No more words to leave?"
"No, it's fine. What lingering regrets for a defeated soul? This vain ghost takes its leave."
With those final words, Gong Son-sul's form crumbled to the ground.