Chapter 95
Translator: penny
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Rogue Cultivator Life (1)
A stronghold is a force created by rogue cultivators among all cultivators.
Unlike organized sects, orders, or clans gathered under specific doctrines, strongholds form when rogue cultivators band together in a certain place for one reason or another. Those whose temperaments align and who possess great power come to dominate the surrounding cultivators, gradually expanding the site until it becomes a full-fledged stronghold.
Rogues, who lack the backing of a sect and struggle to secure stable resources, stay in these sites or strongholds to obtain the cultivation resources and training grounds they need. They might take on missions assigned by the stronghold, and if their skills earn recognition, they can rise to prominence within it, eventually becoming affiliated cultivators.
These places are usually full of vulnerabilities and lax security compared to other forces. But once properly established, they can boast a power even surpassing that of ordinary sects.
Starting a sect requires demonstrating such overwhelming might from the outset that even arrogant cultivators bow their heads and beg for instruction. Do you think that's easy?
That's why, looking at the cultivation world as a whole, forces built on profit like strongholds end up more numerous and resilient.
Of course, a sect that manages to take root endures tenaciously, rarely fading away.
"Halt."
As I approached the stronghold, a gate guard stopped me. I could feel the other guards nearby turning their attention our way. A quiet scan revealed their cultivation bases reached from late Core Formation all the way to Perfection.
People this strong pulling gate duty? This must be a long way from home.
There was no force of this scale or strength near High Heaven Sect.
After gauging their power, I silently displayed the emblem on my robe. Fortunately, they recognized our sect right away.
"High Heaven Sect?"
"Yes."
"You didn't kill one of their cultivators and steal the robe, did you? Or fake the emblem after seeing it?"
"No need to worry."
I responded politely and showed them my identity token as proof. Whether my reputation had spread this far or not, they burst into exclamations of admiration.
"Ha! You're that new Heavenly Prodigy they've been talking about in High Heaven Sect!"
"Indeed! Your face matches the rumors perfectly."
They scrutinized my features, muttering more praises, before waving me through. My ragged state didn't seem to bother them.
Once inside the stronghold, I first rented a room using the spirit stones I had on hand. Since leaving the auction house, I'd been caught up in one fight after another, so all the high-grade spirit stones we'd pooled together had ended up with me.
I had to resolve my current situation with these 220 high-grade spirit stones.
First, I stripped off the clothes I was wearing and changed into a fresh set.
I bought a large hat to conceal my face, along with a green robe. On top of that, I added a black silk veil imbued with the power to block divine sense, covering my features thoroughly.
I even cut my long hair short. Hyang-mae preferred it long, but there was no helping it.
After purchasing an unfamiliar sword and slinging it haphazardly at my waist, I set out in search of an artisan who could erase the divine sense imprinted on artifacts.
Every rogue cultivator carries a dozen or so dubious stolen goods as a matter of course, so finding such a shop wasn't hard.
However, the divine sense I wanted removed belonged to a Nascent Soul cultivator at Perfection, so the price was steep. To escape immediate danger, I boldly handed over 100 spirit stones.
Those 100 stones were enough to buy the treasures Hyang-mae, Pyeong Yu-ran, and I had needed at the auction house. Remembering that one of them—the Dimension-Hiding Sumeru Law Wheel—had proven incredibly useful right away made it an enormous sum.
After cleanly erasing Gong Ga-jin's divine sense, I examined the three treasures with a sense of relief.
The mirror dharma treasure, the stone emitting purple waves, and the Sun-Moon Star Formation Great Harmony Scripture.
I first swept my divine sense over the Sun-Moon Star Formation Great Harmony Scripture to commit its contents to memory.
This was a dual cultivation method—not for advancing one's realm, but for refining spiritual power to utmost purity. It was an exceedingly complex, esoteric, and advanced technique.
Even my spirit power, which has surpassed Core Formation thanks to a flawless Golden Core and subsequent spiritual foundation, struggles to grasp it in one go.
A method like this would surely resolve the issues with my single-origin spiritual power.
Single-origin spiritual power and western spiritual power. If both reached peak purity, it would mean far more than simply allowing me to use the Fusion Art again.
Just as western spiritual power had once melted away impure energies, severing connections and dispelling spells, achieving peak purity in both would grant me absolute superiority in spell confrontations against any foe.
That last character is 'realm' after all. I thought it was 'scripture.' No wonder those old monsters obsessed over it as a path to Soul Transformation.
It was probably named that way because it led to a realm in harmony with the heavens' cycles.
I stowed away the mirror dharma treasure, which I still couldn't use due to the unresolved claim of ownership, and gave the purple stone a cursory glance before deciding to investigate it later.
Afterward, I rented space at a healing hall to tend to my battered body, wrecked by Gyeol Ja-yeon's attack and the reckless overdose of pills.
Now, my situation was pretty decent...
But what about the others?
A few days earlier, just as Yong Yoo had begun fleeing Gong Ga-jin and Gyeol Ja-yeon, Mok Ho-gan had caught up to Do Mun-hyang with terrifying speed.
Mok Ho-gan might be inwardly scorned by Wi Hong-tak as an artificial Heavenly Prodigy, but the flip side was that he possessed the talent to fully digest and master such an absurd volume of heavenly fortunes and earthly treasures.
Even excessive heavenly boons could harm a cultivator at times.
That was why Geum So-ryeo didn't dump every fortuitous encounter on her disciples all at once. Instead, she dispensed them gradually, in portions they could properly assimilate.
In that sense, Mok Ho-gan had absorbed an array of horrific, vicious boons that would poison an ordinary cultivator with even one—and turned them all into his own power to reach his current level.
It wasn't for nothing that Yonghae Jong valued him so highly as a potential sect leader, nor that he could slip past the surveillance of the Soul Transformation expert Wi Hong-tak to wreak havoc outside.
"Hahaha! Found you!"
Do Mun-hyang had grown into an artificial Heavenly Prodigy herself, fattened on every boon Geum So-ryeo could lavish upon her. But against Mok Ho-gan, who had reached mid Nascent Soul, escape was next to impossible.
Unless she had something on the level of Yong Yoo's Concealment Art, perhaps.
"Who the hell is that guy?!"
Do Mun-hyang was utterly bewildered.
The man who hadn't shown himself during any of the three battles over those three treasures had suddenly appeared in pursuit of her.
As Mok Ho-gan formed hand seals to unleash his divine abilities, the air blackened, and countless massive centipedes erupted forth, lunging to engulf her.
"Eek!"
Her face paled at the horrific poison qi and murderous intent spewing from the centipedes. She dodged using every spell and dharma treasure at her disposal.
"Hoh."
Though Do Mun-hyang's combat prowess lagged behind her cultivation talent, it was only in comparison. Moreover, spurred by Yong Yoo, she had diverged from her fated path and begun diligently studying and training in Dao Debates.
By now, she had become a formidable cultivator in her own right.
Mok Ho-gan, who had expected to crush her easily, adopted a more serious expression as he pressed the attack. She countered each time with well-timed spells, escape arts, and dharma treasures, managing to flee.
She had access to the vast array of dharma treasures bestowed by Geum So-ryeo.
All at Core Formation level, but with multiples of similar types, she linked them to amplify power, solving her problems that way. At times, she sacrificed them without hesitation—detonating them or bursting their spiritual reservoirs—to slip away.
I didn't pay her much mind earlier since she held back during the fights with those two Nascent Soul Perfections...
Do Mun-hyang had been lying low, waiting for a critical moment to flip the battlefield in one explosive burst.
If she could deploy her treasures as dazzlingly as she was now—but all at once, rather than piecemeal—she could have sown chaos in Gong Ga-jin and Gyeol Ja-yeon, if only briefly.
It was temporary power premised on sacrificing treasures rather than her own prowess, but the very fact that she could pull it off attested to her exceptional skill.
In truth, she was persistently evading Mok Ho-gan's divine abilities, harassing him in turn, and holding her ground despite her mediocre mobility.
Yet while she gradually weakened from sacrificing treasures, Mok Ho-gan remained unaffected and slowly cornered her.
It had been just over a day since their flashy chase began, filled with dharma treasures and divine powers.
Just as his hand was about to close on her...
A thunderous voice boomed out.
"What do you think you're doing here?!"
The shout alone—a mere shout of exertion—shook the world and made all ambient spiritual energy recoil in submission.
When a mere human vibrated the world with voice alone, without divine sense or spiritual power, scattering a familiar aura... both Mok Ho-gan and Do Mun-hyang were stunned.
"Elder Wi Hong-tak...!"
Soul Transformation, same as Master!
Realizing the newcomer was a Soul Transformation powerhouse connected to her previous Nascent Soul pursuer, Do Mun-hyang's expression filled with despair.
"I clearly ordered you to stay put in the sect and await further instructions. Do you find the Great Elder's command a joke?"
Wi Hong-tak's savage roar, invoking the Great Elder, soured Mok Ho-gan's face.
"No matter how much you cozy up in the sect, remember you're just a Nascent Soul worm! Know your place!!"
Truly enraged at Mok Ho-gan for daring to deceive and flee him, Wi Hong-tak swung his hand. Everything enveloping Mok Ho-gan shattered in an instant.
His black robe, defensive dharma treasures—everything disintegrated and scattered. Even the divine ability he'd reflexively deployed turned to dust. Caught off-guard, Mok Ho-gan spat blood and glared at Wi Hong-tak.
"You...!"
As Mok Ho-gan glared, Wi Hong-tak—already seething with pent-up fury—exploded. He yanked Mok Ho-gan close and seized his throat.
"Since the world began, countless Heavenly Prodigies have been born—more than fingers can count! Know why they've all vanished? Ascension? No! They died overreaching, just like you fools who don't know their place!"
"Kuhk!!"
Wi Hong-tak's ferocious cry hammered Mok Ho-gan's soul. Blood sprayed from Mok Ho-gan's every orifice as he screamed.
"St-stop...!"
"You think I'm like those other elders who coddle you?! Even if I kill you and return, the sect will only mildly punish me—they can't cast me out! They've simply spared you because the backlash isn't worth it! But when you give me every excuse to end you like this, there's no more hesitation!"
"S-sorry... my mistake...!!"
As terror-stricken Mok Ho-gan trembled and begged forgiveness, Wi Hong-tak clenched his fist tighter.
Mok Ho-gan's body shriveled like a pea. Wi Hong-tak stuffed him into his Sumeru-space dharma treasure, then turned his glare on Do Mun-hyang.
"Hik!"
Do Mun-hyang trembled in abject terror. As Wi Hong-tak reached out to eliminate her, his eyes caught the High Heaven Sect emblem on her robe.
At the same time, memories flooded back of that day he massacred the Geum clan bloodline.
The night the beautiful High Heaven Sect main peak was drenched in blood, filled with screams of fear, rage, and fury from all sides.
He had tried to kill a woman not yet fifty, only to fail under assault from the sect's guardian cultivators.
Yes. This Do Mun-hyang looked exactly the right age to be that woman. The age gap couldn't be more than twenty, at most.
"...Be gone."
Confronted with a young disciple from his old sect after so long, Wi Hong-tak abandoned the strike and vanished on the spot. Utterly baffled by her inexplicable escape, Do Mun-hyang scanned her surroundings before fleeing in a panic.
First, to the Ha Seong Jong outbreak site. Yoo-lang will surely head there too!
With no idea where the others had gone, the priority was converging on their shared destination to ensure their paths crossed.
And their next waypoint was the Ha Seong Jong sect, so Do Mun-hyang decided to head there first and wait for Yong Yoo and Pyeong Yu-ran.