Challenging the False Heavens
For a split second, he even fell into the illusion that this was a judgment from the heavens, and he was a sinner awaiting his sentence. He couldn't help it. How arrogant, how magnificent it was! At least on the surface, this single strike seemed worthy of being compared to one from a Core Formation cultivator.
'But it is nothing more than a convincing shell.' Jekyeong sneered, shaking off the water giant that clung to him tenaciously. The only reason he had wrestled with this annoying nuisance until now was to wait for that arrogant bastard to finish his preparations. He wanted to shatter his opponent's full power head-on, and by doing so, truly force him into submission.
"Come!" A cultivator constantly changes in their endless pursuit of the Dao. That change can be evolution, or it can be degeneration. Everything depends on one's Dao heart.
"Insolent beast!" The massive illusion of the sword descended, threatening to split the world in two. Jekyeong watched it all with unblinking eyes. In a way, that colossal, majestic aura was the manifestation of a Dao heart. The immortal path pursued by that arrogant cultivator, the full power born from his Dao heart. What should he call it? The Emperor's Path? The Heavenly Sword Path?
"No!" Jekyeong roared, opening his maw wide. Yokai Fire enveloped his entire body. The water giant, which had been blown back once only to cling to him again, was swept up in the Yokai Fire and instantly vaporized into a thick mist.
"Your so-called Dao is nothing but a hollow phantom full of bluster, and you are nothing but a ridiculous clown!" The white-haired, white-eyebrowed Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivator controlling the water giant coughed up blood. The destruction of his spell had caused his Dharma Power to backlash. Yet, the distortion on his face was not due to the backflowing energy.
"T-This cannot be!" The moment the water giant collapsed, he felt it. 'That Yokai Fire... it is by no means ordinary.' The water giant he had summoned was a mimicry of a Golden Core Master's Dharma Image. Though it could not compare to a true Dharma Image, it was by no means a weak spell. Had he not borrowed the power of the Water Spirit Bead, a mere Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivator like himself would never have dared to attempt it. Because it was such a demanding spell, its power was absolute. Even a Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivator could not guarantee they could break it.
Yet, the Black Flood Dragon had shattered it. And in a single breath, no less. He had done it using fire, which was fundamentally countered by water under the five elements! 'A Black Flood Dragon... Is he walking the Path of the Fire Dragon?' He coughed up more blood, staring blankly. Enveloped in flames, the Black Flood Dragon was soaring toward the heavenly sword. It looked like a battle between a fire dragon attempting to ascend to heaven and the heavens unleashing a Heavenly Tribulation to strike it down.
The colossal sword was not a physical entity but an illusion, a conglomeration of Dharma Power and intent. Although Jekyeong had mocked it as a hollow phantom, he had to admit it was no ordinary spell. He believed it had half-transcended mere spells, bordering on a Divine Ability. Its destructive power aside, the sheer majesty it projected on the surface was easily comparable to any true Divine Ability.
'I actually hope it is a Divine Ability.' Jekyeong soared upward. Flying in his true form was neither efficient nor familiar, but this time, he braved the waste of Monster Power and surged into the sky. He knew the heavenly sword would come to him even if he just waited, but he could not contain himself. Waiting passively to face it was mere resistance; stepping forward to clash with it was a challenge. He did not want to resist; he wanted to challenge. He wanted to challenge that arrogant heavenly sword and proudly shatter it. Even though he knew it was not a true sword of the heavens, but a hollow phantom dressed up in a convincing guise... his heart boiled as hot as the Yokai Fire he unleashed.
"How utterly arrogant! A mere Gyoryong who is not even a true dragon, possessing nothing but a few faint drops of draconic blood, yet you act as if you have already become a dragon!" The sword moved. The shining blade sliced through the air, carrying a momentum that threatened to cleave both him and the vast Yang-seo-ho in half. In that instant, Jekyeong felt the world rapidly shrink around him. In that narrowed world, nothing existed except him and the heavenly sword.
Boom! A monstrous pressure weighed down on him. This was the pressure of the heavens. Under the gaze of the heavens, one could neither hide nor run.
'You waste your effort.' Amidst the isolation and pressure of feeling like the sole enemy of the world, Jekyeong sneered. The so-called pressure of the heavens tried endlessly to crush him, but he stood tall and endured. Just as he was a phantom mimicking a dragon, this so-called heavenly pressure was nothing but a hollow phantom as well.
"Your mimicry is clumsy!" If his opponent was an emperor standing in the heavens, Jekyeong was the fire dragon laughing at him. Whoosh! Dragons are arrogant. They pride themselves as the pinnacle of all living things under heaven, looking down on the world with supreme haughtiness. The same was true for fire dragons. To them, the path of fire was not an immortal path to be pursued, but merely a power to be commanded. It was an arrogance that would make all fire-path cultivators sigh in despair, but dragons possessed the right to hold it.
Jekyeong felt his Dao heart grow even firmer and clearer. It was similar to how actors in his past life, deeply immersed in their acting, would forget themselves and lose themselves in their roles. However, unlike actors who eventually sought to step out of their immersion once the performance ended, Jekyeong wished to maintain this state for as long as possible.
'An unexpected stroke of luck.' In the face of this convincingly mimicked heavenly pressure, Jekyeong's own mimicry became even more authentic. Under the illusion that he had truly become a fire dragon, his understanding of the path of fire and the existence of fire dragons was constantly renewed. But no feast lasts forever. The single moment that seemed to stretch infinitely eventually passed, and Jekyeong finally collided with the massive illusion of the sword.
Crash! The sword struck first, cleaving down upon him. However, the blade that descended as if to split the world did not cleave his head, but only one of the horns growing upon it. Blood splattered from the severed horn, and Monster Power leaked out. The excruciating pain evoked a sense of humiliation he couldn't comprehend, and that humiliation instantly transformed into rage. The rage whispered to him to burn it all down. Jekyeong did exactly that. The flames enveloping his body erupted in all directions, incinerating the illusion of the sword that had severed his horn and blocked his path.
Clang! Once the illusion was stripped away, nothing remained but a pitifully mundane sword. That toothpick-like toy turned into a piece of scrap metal and plummeted to the ground under a single, mocking breath exhaled by Jekyeong.
"No!" A voice thick with disbelief, rage, and grief echoed through the air, and Jekyeong roared in response. The fiery clouds still hanging heavy in the sky condensed as if sucked toward the source of the voice, forming a massive vortex. But what raged within that vortex was not wind, but crimson flames.
Jekyeong could feel the man who had looked down on him just moments ago finally waking from his dream and thrashing in agony within that magnificent firestorm. He was no longer the heavens, nor an emperor—he was merely a weak, despairing human. His suffering did not last long. The moment the defensive Dharma treasure protecting him lost its light and his Dharma Power ran dry, he was incinerated, leaving not even a handful of ash behind. At that very moment, Jekyeong's spiritual nature became even more vibrant. It was a change brought about by the slight refinement of the spark of the Sacred Fire.
"Hahahahaha!" When the Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivator vanished into the vortex of flames, Jekyeong also woke from his dream. In the dream, he had been an omnipotent fire dragon, but in reality, he was merely an earthworm crawling upon the ground. This immense sense of loss and exhaustion momentarily plunged him into frustration, but the refinement of the Sacred Fire awakened him and pulled him back up. Yes. The dream had ended, but the memories of the dream remained intact. It was a path. Though faint and broken in places, it was still a path upon which he could set his feet.
Through the Spider Thread Curse Method, Myeong-ha was closely observing the battlefield as if looking down at a Go board. While manipulating the Qi Condensation cultivators at his whim, he kept an eye out for any Foundation Establishment cultivators showing openings and carefully monitored the shifting tides of battle. Thus, he immediately noticed the change in Jekyeong, and moreover, was able to view it from a more objective perspective than anyone else.
'What is this?' At first, he was bewildered, and then he let out a dumbfounded chuckle. 'This is incredibly sudden.' It had been an extremely brief clash. Yet, in that short engagement, his serpent friend had slain his opponent. A Foundation Establishment middle-stage cultivator, and not just any random nobody, but Jo Mu-hak himself.
A former prince of Samri Country, one of the powerful nations of Yang-seo-ho, Jo Mu-hak had been crowned crown prince early on but had cast the position aside to pursue the higher realms of the immortal path. He was a renowned figure in Yang-seo-ho. Although his youthful fame had gathered dust during the decades he spent stuck in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, he was still by far the most prominent figure among those who had swarmed into the Heukgyo Water Territory.
'The Emperor's Path? Now I see why he spent decades stuck at a bottleneck.' Even from a distance, Myeong-ha could feel that majestic aura. Those who knew no better would have marveled at that convincing shell, but Myeong-ha, like Jekyeong, could see right through to its hollow interior.
Though it is said there is no superiority among the myriad Daos, those were merely the words of ancient sages. The human race, fond of categorizing and ranking everything, had long established a hierarchy even for the Dao. Of course, since the superiority of a Dao could not be clearly defined and opinions varied among cultivators, such rankings were largely ambiguous. Nevertheless, there were a few supreme Daos that most cultivators agreed upon, and the Emperor's Path was one of them.
It could only be formed by those with the grand ambition to stand at the pinnacle of the world and look down upon all creation. Those who cultivated the Emperor's Path to a high level were, without exception, giants who wielded immense influence over the cultivation world. This was the defining characteristic of the Emperor's Path. One did not become a giant by cultivating the Emperor's Path; rather, only those with the qualities of a giant could cultivate it in the first place.
Myeong-ha had never expected Jo Mu-hak to have cultivated the Emperor's Path. Knowing what he did about the man, it was even more unimaginable. A man who had abandoned his throne to pursue the immortal path, yet harbored the way of an emperor in his heart? From Myeong-ha's perspective, this was utterly absurd.
An emperor is arrogant and greedy. Giving up something to gain another? Such logic did not apply to an emperor. Therefore, if Jo Mu-hak truly wished to walk the Emperor's Path, he should not have abandoned his position as crown prince to wander the cultivation world as a rogue cultivator. Instead, he should have ascended the throne and squeezed every ounce of Samri Country's resources to pour into raising his own cultivation realm. Even if he was cursed as a foolish ruler or a tyrant, that was what he should have done. That was the Emperor's Path as Myeong-ha understood it.
'A compromise that one cannot even convince oneself of is nothing but an escape.' Jo Mu-hak had taken the wrong path. That was why, despite his cultivation reaching the peak of the Foundation Establishment middle stage long ago, he had failed to break through his bottleneck.
'My fellow Daoist Jekyeong is the exact opposite.' Jo Mu-hak's heavenly sword was a hollow shell mired in self-contradiction, but its power was undeniable. It was a force truly worthy of the Foundation Establishment middle stage. Yet, Jekyeong had shattered that powerful strike head-on. Relying on a body so robust that the word "mighty" felt insufficient, he had taken Jo Mu-hak's sword strike directly and swept his opponent away with Yokai Fire.