Chapter 79
Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Sect Exchange (5)
The sect's flying dharma mat we were riding was incredibly stable, despite its massive flying carpet shape.
It was spacious enough to comfortably seat hundreds of people, powerful enough to shrug off fierce gales with ease, and astonishingly fast to boot.
Ever since I'd gained the ability to use the Cloud Escape Art, I'd found myself needing flying magic tools or dharma mats less and less.
While flying magic tools and dharma mats were great for conserving spiritual energy while covering long distances quickly, the Cloud Escape Art was highly efficient with spiritual energy too—and even faster than the Wind Escape Art. In fact, it was far more effective to fly hard with the Cloud Escape Art, take a short break to recover spiritual energy, then fly again.
'But that's just because all I'd ever seen were those mediocre little flying dharma mats.'
Was the difference in performance this stark for a truly top-tier flying dharma mat?
'I do have Little Fox, though...'
Come to think of it, weren't flying dharma mats basically like cars? Now that I thought of it that way, I started wanting a really awesome one of my own.
'Maybe I should snag a cool one someday.'
I was lost in such thoughts while chatting with Hyang Mae and Ahan.
Little Fox must have been excited about getting to fight after so long, because it poked its head out from my Spirit Root and flitted around us, letting out happy chirps.
"Little Fox seems really pumped."
Hyang Mae cooed over it cutely and fed it some snacks she'd prepared. Little Fox gobbled them up with delight.
After promising to help with Little Fox's promotion test, I'd spent years holed up in the sect just cultivating without stepping out once. No wonder an outing felt so fun.
Once I wiped out Falling Star Sect and solved my heart demon issue, it was time to seriously tackle Little Fox's promotion test too.
Hyang Mae stroked Little Fox's fur after feeding it, then glanced at me hesitantly.
"...Yoo Lang, aren't you nervous at all?"
"About what?"
"This is my first time fighting another sect."
"It's my first time too. I am nervous, yeah."
The first time I'd fought Mun Yoo, I'd been insanely tense.
Heading out to get the Wood Spirit Lotus Association, only to face off against a bunch of cultivators in the sect ruins—that had terrified me.
Even at the Dao Tournament, I'd been anxious and shaky about whether I could take down Yeom Suk.
It was the same now.
Going to war with another sect and facing Nascent Soul cultivators? The thought of some stray spell blindingly blasting me to death was scary as hell.
Hyang Mae looked surprised at my words.
"You always fight so cool-headed. I figured you never got nervous."
"Nah, I do. I was scared shitless fighting Mun Yoo back then too."
Her expression turned weird at that.
Like she was thinking, What the hell is this guy on about?
"Why the face?"
"Yoo Lang..."
"Yeah?"
"When you came for the Dao Debate with Mun Yoo, you showed up all chill, sipping liquor, then ended it with one Blazing Palm Seal."
"Sure, that's how it turned out. But man, I was terrified. That was my first Dao Debate."
First Dao Debate? Hell, fighting anyone at all had been a first.
That's why once it started, all I could think was blast 'em with a spell no matter what. Better to at least fire off one shot and protect my arms than freeze up and get them lopped off.
...I never imagined that one casual Blazing Palm Seal would defeat the protagonist.
Looking back, that's how my life as a cultivator truly began.
With that one thoughtless Blazing Palm Seal I'd fired off.
"It's always scary as hell and you're shaking until you actually do it... but once you start, somehow it works out."
A cultivator's life was full of anxiety.
I'd read the original novel, but Black and White Immortal Chronicle was told solely from protagonist Mun Yoo's perspective. Side characters barely got a mention.
Geum So-ryeo was the prime example.
'She's a heroine who sticks with him to the end, yet the original never mentions Dragon Dissolving Sect or anything like that.'
There were hints about Geum So-ryeo and Dragon Dissolving Sect.
A single line in the original: word was that Soul Harmony Realm Geum So-ryeo flipped out over some news, stormed off, and erased an entire sect.
And that was just to explain why she wasn't around the sect. Otherwise, it wouldn't have come up at all.
So even knowing the original, I was clueless about Dragon Dissolving Sect—or Falling Star Sect, the one we were heading to crush right now.
Facing an unknown enemy—a whole sect, no less. Of course I was scared.
"That's why we trust in our hard training."
"..."
"You've trained hard too, Hyang Mae. For decades now."
"Yeah."
"So trust that. Trust everything you've learned. Trust the dharma treasures in your hands. I'll trust in Little Fox, you'll trust your tamed spirit beast. Trust your pills, your talismans—whatever you've got. Do your absolute best with all of it."
Then we'd win.
Or at least survive without dying.
No need for grim thoughts. Bad, horrific thoughts only weaken the mind and shake the Dao Heart.
"..."
"You're not used to fighting, right, Hyang Mae?"
She nodded at my question.
Her fight with Ping Yu-ran had probably been one of her first real scraps as a cultivator.
Her overwhelming heavenly luck had gotten her Geum So-ryeo's fortuitous encounter without a hitch, after all.
"Then let's get you used to it step by step. One thing at a time."
I recalled her fight with Ping Yu-ran.
Hyang Mae had leaned hard on her spirit beast back then just to hold out. With their numbers so depleted now, that style wouldn't work anymore.
"Tell me what spells you can use."
Cuddled against me, she listed her spells one by one. I noted the names and effects, then gave simple advice.
"It's tough to master anything perfectly right away. My first fight? All I thought about was spamming Blazing Palm Seals. I got better with experience."
"...How was your second fight?"
I thought back to my second scrap.
Hmm... That was against the Wood Fiends.
"Second one was versus a bunch of Wood Fiends. I just sniped spells from afar. I'd handle it way easier now."
Thinking back on the spells I'd used then was embarrassing. I could've done it differently, cleaner.
With a bit of brains, there were tons of better ways—but I hadn't bothered. My bad.
Something to reflect on.
"Third was my first real cultivator fight."
"The one where you got Little Fox?"
"Yeah. Fought two Core Formation experts at peak and two Foundation Establishment ones."
"..."
Hyang Mae was shocked at the sudden jump in stakes.
"How... how'd you manage?"
I walked her through it step by step.
In hindsight, I should've used the Refined Flying Sword more aggressively. Sneak in with stealth, hit 'em with Three Evils Peach Blossom Chart ambush... might've worked. With three bottles of liquor and full spiritual energy, maybe I could've sniped them all with just that.
Nah, Little Fox would've wrecked me. Anyway, that fight dragged because I ignored my dharma treasures too much, burning through spiritual energy and getting cornered.
I explained how I'd fought, what I'd learned, how I'd improved.
"If it's tough at first, Hyang Mae, just focus on slinging spells from range. When attacking from afar... Up close... Disrupting foes..."
I taught her which spells for which situations.
Like setting auto-hunt patterns: in this scenario, use that spell.
That way, she wouldn't flail cluelessly in a pinch. Using dharma treasures to check enemies would buy thinking time.
Then decide: fight or flee.
With allies around this time, she could team up too.
I'd stick close to her as much as possible. That Ye Ga-seok creep might target women first, so better to stay together unless absolutely necessary.
As we talked, the flying carpet arrived over Famed Abyss Valley.
High Heaven Sect folks waiting in the valley flew up to report to the elders.
"Hm. They moved their entire sect using Flood Dragon corpses?"
"Yes. Not just one or two—six or seven tangled together. They fixed the corpse pile to the cliffs on both sides and used it like octopus legs to haul their whole palace complex."
"Just the palace?"
"Yes. The other elders seem to have burrowed into the valley walls."
"...Even so, hauling a whole sect palace on a corpse pile would've required some seriously massive Flood Dragons."
Geum So-ryeo spoke up at the lead elder's words.
"There was a time I went to the Dragon King of the Western Sea to get a Flood Dragon for Mun-hyang."
"...Ah, uh, yes. And?"
"I subdued the Dragon King, but he said it was too early for such a fortuitous encounter, so he offered his offspring instead. Since the king was a Flood Dragon, so were they."
"I see... Go on."
"He said he'd poisoned and banished them because all they did was mate endlessly instead of cultivating or hunting. Easy enough to detox once they raised their realms—just a way to make them toughen up and come back. That was about 1,200 years ago."
"...So those Flood Dragon corpses Falling Star Sect's using...?"
"Unusually huge ones, dead mid-orgy like snakes... Yeah, very likely."
The lead elder nodded in understanding.
"And their current position?"
"Yes. Right now..."
The disciples were about to continue when...
A chilling premonition rang deep in my mind. Not just me—everyone else reacted too, all snapping their gazes to Famed Abyss Valley.
The sunken darkness of Famed Abyss Valley began to tremble.