Heaven and Earth Great Shift: Sixth Stage
Silence hung over the sparring grounds of Shinmagang in the Heavenly Demon Cult.
“It’s been a long time since I last set foot in this place forged of ten-thousand-year cold iron.”
Lee Eulseong, captain of the Cheonrangdae, kicked the floor lightly with the tip of his boot. He yawned widely as he looked ahead.
“So, what business does our lowly Yama King have calling me all the way out here?”
Jeokmaryeong unclenched his fist and spoke.
“You still don’t understand why I summoned you this far?”
“Not a clue.”
“It’s nothing complicated.”
Jeokmaryeong opened his hand.
“You should never have touched my pride.”
“What?”
Gritting his teeth hard enough to grind them, Jeokmaryeong continued.
“Everything according to the ways of the Demon Cult. No need for any more pathetic explanations, I trust.”
“Ha.”
Lee Eulseong let out a hollow laugh, as if the sheer absurdity left him breathless.
“Are you challenging me to a life-and-death duel right now?”
“That’s right. Got a problem with it?”
“A problem? Oh, there’s a problem all right.”
Drawing a sword with a milky-white blade, Lee Eulseong said,
“How dare a king who leads disposable trash like the Surayeomrang Squad—fodder for the front lines—challenge me.”
With a metallic ring, Jeokmaryeong drew his own sword as well.
Then he threw it aside.
It clattered against the floor.
“Huh?”
Lee Eulseong’s brow furrowed.
“What do you think you’re doing? If you’re scared and begging for forgiveness even at this late hour—”
“You lot, wallowing in wine and women until grease coats your bellies, could never imagine it.”
Jeokmaryeong growled.
“After the Orthodox-Demon Great War, aside from our Surayeomrang Squad that constantly runs the front lines of the Demon Cult, has there been a single unit that spilled blood fighting the Orthodox factions? You’ve all rotted. Fat pigs steeped in peace who sold off the Demon Cult’s pride for comfort—nothing more, nothing less.”
“Hahaha!”
Lee Eulseong clapped his hands and roared with laughter.
“Wandering the outside world has finally driven you mad!”
“Well. Whether I’m mad or not, you’ll soon see for yourself.”
Jeokmaryeong curled one corner of his mouth upward.
“You bastards wouldn’t know. What’s happening out there. In a way, I was just like you once.”
He gave a hollow laugh.
“I thought three stages would be enough. That’s why I accepted the Cult Leader’s restriction, I suppose.”
“What?”
The moment the words left his mouth, Jeokmaryeong’s aura shifted.
Fourth Stage
A deep boom rolled out as violet lightning began erupting from his body. With sharp crackling and popping, the restraints still bound to both his arms started to tremble. They twisted and crumpled as if crushed by some vast, formless force. Veins bulged across Jeokmaryeong’s face as he forcibly dragged power upward against the restraints’ resistance. It was the face of a man on the verge of qi deviation.
“I’ve listened to enough of this bullshit!”
Sensing the atmosphere turn dangerous, Lee Eulseong struck first. His figure blurred as he brought his sword down toward Jeokmaryeong’s brow.
A sharp clang rang out as the blade stopped dead.
Lee Eulseong cried out in shock.
“Wh-what!”
“I met someone from the Orthodox side. At first I thought he was nothing but a bug.”
Lee Eulseong poured every ounce of strength into forcing his sword forward. Jeokmaryeong held it. Fabric tore. The steel restraints embedded in the blade came into view. They split. As the restraints shattered piece by piece, Jeokmaryeong’s aura swelled stronger and stronger.
“That guy’s skill was worse than a bug’s, yet he kept charging me to the very end. I tried to stomp him flat. But he kept getting back up. Truly, that fighting spirit was astonishing. Watching him, a long-forgotten sense of humiliation came roaring back to life. At the same time, an emotion buried deep inside me woke up. Do you know what that emotion was?”
With a final crack the restraints exploded into fragments and fell at his feet.
“Rage. Fourth Stage.”
A thunderous boom shook the air. The sword blade was shoved violently backward. Lee Eulseong flinched.
Th-the weight is completely different?
Until moments ago Jeokmaryeong had barely managed to endure Lee Eulseong’s strikes. Now he was slowly straightening his upper body. Jeokmaryeong’s hand shot out like lightning and seized both the sword hilt and Lee Eulseong’s hand in one crushing grip.
“Y-you bastard! What do you think you’re doing!”
Lee Eulseong thrashed and tried to wrench free, but the hand did not budge. With a grinding creak the blade’s direction began to turn.
“Ugh…!”
Veins stood out on Lee Eulseong’s forehead. Jeokmaryeong grinned so wide it looked as if his mouth might tear, and he began raising his qi.
“And do you know what that bastard did? He copied my martial arts. Exactly. Like making a copy.”
“Y-you’re insane?! The Cult Leader clearly placed a restriction forbidding use of Heaven and Earth Great Shift beyond the third stage!”
Ignoring the shout, Jeokmaryeong muttered as black lightning coiled around him.
“On top of that, that bastard always had women who seemed straight out of the idle tales of storytellers standing as his protectors. Yeah, you’re right. I was a defeated dog. Only after those two defeats did I finally understand.”
The air itself began to tremble. Slowly, inexorably, the milky-white blade turned away from Jeokmaryeong and toward its own master.
“‘The outside world is no longer the easy jianghu I once knew.’ That’s it. While we were stuck in a corner of the world, rotting in peace, the outside kept changing.”
Breathing hard, Jeokmaryeong roared,
“Even those beast-like Blood Cult bastards are changing!”
“Jeokmaryeong, you madman!”
The aura shifted again. Explosive qi erupted from Lee Eulseong’s body. He had left the realm of a spar and entered the stage of killing intent in earnest.
Jeokmaryeong laughed.
“Yes. That’s how it has to be if I’m going to claim self-defense.”
“You son of a bitch, the games are over! I’ll kill you!”
Sword qi began to coat the blade. Once more the edge turned toward Jeokmaryeong’s throat.
Jeokmaryeong spoke flatly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“It’s been exhausting living under you, pretending to be a subordinate despite your bug-like skills.”
The violet lightning wreathing Jeokmaryeong’s body deepened into pure black.
“From now on the Cult Leader’s restriction can go straight to hell.”
A deep, resonant hum filled the air. The entire Shinmagang sparring ground shook. Stone dust rained from the ceiling.
Lee Eulseong shouted urgently,
“W-wait! Jeokmaryeong!”
Jeokmaryeong smiled thinly and murmured,
Sixth Stage
With a sharp crack the floor of the Shinmagang sparring stage—built of ten-thousand-year cold iron—caved in. Black lightning and a rolling quake shook everything around them.
“Jeokmaryeong, you finally broke the restriction!”
In a single motion Jeokmaryeong’s grip shattered Lee Eulseong’s wrist.
“Aaaaargh!!”
Lee Eulseong screamed.
“They say men of the Demon Cult always imagine their own end at least once.”
Muttering roughly, Jeokmaryeong shifted his hand.
“Among all those deaths, did you ever imagine being skewered by your own weapon?”
The balance of power collapsed. The milky-white blade fell toward Lee Eulseong as if toppling of its own weight.
“N-no!”
Lee Eulseong let out a short, desperate cry.
Jeokmaryeong answered coldly.
“The captains of the other seven units will follow soon enough. From now on the Demon Cult changes by my hand.”
Jeokmaryeong’s figure blurred. Black flames flared as his knee drove the sword tip upward.
The blade punched clean through Lee Eulseong’s heart. Blood burst from his mouth. He staggered backward.
“Haa…! Haa! You damn butcher bastard. Y-you! How dare you betray the Heavenly Demon Cult…!”
Blood poured in torrents from Lee Eulseong’s chest.
“Butcher? Yeah. I remember. That was the name you all called me when you saw me fighting barehanded without any proper superior martial arts.”
Jeokmaryeong stepped closer.
“How does it feel to lose to a butcher?”
“W-wait. Don’t pull it out. If you pull it out I’ll die!”
Jeokmaryeong took hold of the hilt.
“The Cheonrangdae bastards are pitiful too. Their one and only captain making a face like that with death staring him in the eye.”
Lee Eulseong’s face drained of all color.
“Jeokmaryeong—no, Yama King! How many years have we known each other!”
“Us knowing each other?”
“W-we got along pretty well, didn’t we? Think about it—the f-fun memories….”
Jeokmaryeong answered in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.
“Those were only fun for you.”
He gripped the hilt and yanked the blade free in one motion. Blood sprayed three spans high.
“I-I… I, the captain of the Cheonrangdae of the Heavenly Demon Cult….”
The Shinmagang sparring stage grew soaked in blood. Lee Eulseong slowly toppled backward and lay spread-eagled, staring at the ceiling. His complexion turned deathly pale. He was dying.
“The C… Cult Leader will never forgive you.”
“That Cult Leader bastard will follow soon enough. Start paving the road to the afterlife.”
With a whoosh Jeokmaryeong shook the milky-white longsword clean. He examined the blade for a moment, then tossed it aside with clear disinterest.
Lee Eulseong panted and managed a sneer.
“I never thought you’d be such a fool as to bare your claws this quickly.”
Jeokmaryeong approached the dying man. Blood trickling from his lips, Lee Eulseong muttered,
“The Guardians’ gems.”
Jeokmaryeong stopped.
“If the Cult Leader absorbs every last one of the Guardians’ gems, a mongrel like you will have his heart ripped out while he’s still breathing….”
Lee Eulseong died without even closing his eyes.
“The Guardians’ gems?”
The smile vanished from Jeokmaryeong’s face. His eyes flicked left and right. Even with Lee Eulseong’s corpse cooling right in front of him, he remained motionless for a long moment.
“Could it be…”
Jeokmaryeong covered his mouth.
“Was that true?”
Shock and surprise flashed through his eyes.
“Ahh. Now it finally makes a little sense.”
What settled on his face at last was pure joy.
“Yeah. I thought something didn’t add up. Why those Guardian bastards who hadn’t given a damn about jianghu affairs for decades suddenly started thrashing around.”
In the darkness Jeokmaryeong’s eyes gleamed.
“If my guess is right, jianghu is about to turn into a complete mess.”
He seized Lee Eulseong by the neck and lifted him. The adult man’s body rose as lightly as a wooden puppet.
“In a situation like this I can’t just sit back and let the Cult Leader gobble up every last tonic for himself. Boys.”
“Yes, Lord Yama King. We have completed what you ordered.”
From the darkness the Surayeomrang Squad stepped forward. Red armbands marked their arms.
Jeokmaryeong regarded them with a gloomy gaze.
“I’m sorry for leaving you here—you who are the pride and dignity of the Demon Cult itself.”
“It’s fine.”
They answered dryly, yet almost competing to speak.
“It must have been the Cult Leader’s order. To keep Lord Yama King in check.”
“The restriction to the third stage of Heaven and Earth Great Shift, and the clause forcing us to mix trainee members into every front-line deployment—we all knew from the start those were measures meant to cut off your hands and feet.”
“We’ve been waiting for a chance to deal with those Cheonrangdae bastards someday.”
“Blood Cult-like scum with no pride of the Demon Cult, money-grubbing dogs no better than the Orthodox factions.”
Jeokmaryeong nodded.
“From this moment I’m going outside for a while. I refuse to watch the Cult Leader bastard monopolize every gem. In the meantime, you know what needs to be done, correct?”
“Yes!”
They answered as one. Though nearly a hundred squad members stood gathered, their movements were so perfectly unified it seemed as if only a single person occupied the space; not a single stray presence could be felt.
Shadows of the Surayeomrang Squad flowed over the sprawled corpse of Cheonrangdae Captain Lee Eulseong. Moments later the body melted away without leaving a trace.
Watching the entire process, Jeokmaryeong suddenly muttered to himself,
“That guy… he definitely copied my martial arts exactly, red eyes and all….”