Mujeong Soma (2)
“I have a condition.”
“There's no need to worry, Master Cheon. I have no intention of demanding anything unreasonable.”
Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a calm voice, standing before Mujeong Soma.
“Are you planning to attack the Grand Yao Bat Ship, Lord Soma?”
“That's right.”
Mujeong Soma nodded.
“I have a personal grudge against the Illusion Wing Immortal. If the Grand Yao Bat Ship is certain to pass near Ghost Head City, I'd like to strike it myself.”
“The Immortal himself might not be aboard.”
“That hardly matters. If I sweep away his Night Rat Corps and sink the Grand Yao Bat Ship, that alone will be blow enough to wound him.”
Having said that, Mujeong Soma added in an icy voice.
“Of course, that assumes the information you've given me is true, Master Cheon.”
“I have no reason to feed you false information.”
Cheon Woo-jin answered, keeping his composure.
“To be honest, today was the first I'd heard that you held a grudge against the Illusion Wing Immortal.”
“Well, fair point. Our meeting today was pure chance in the first place... so I suppose the odds of this being a trap are low.”
“I swear on heaven itself—I have not the slightest intention of luring you into a trap, Lord Soma.”
That was no lie.
He fully intended to use Mujeong Soma for his own gain, but he had no thought of betraying him or leading him into an ambush.
“How do you plan to attack the Grand Yao Bat Ship? By gathering your subordinates?”
“I intend to do it alone.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Don't underestimate me so, Master Cheon.”
Mujeong Soma let out a soft laugh.
“Truthfully, when storming the Grand Yao Bat Ship, rabble would only get in the way. And summoning anyone with real skill on such short notice is difficult... so I'm simply planning to step forward myself.”
“In that case, I believe I can be of help.”
“You, Master Cheon?”
“In exchange, allow me to claim a few of the treasures stored aboard the Grand Yao Bat Ship.”
“...”
A brief silence passed between them.
“Don't tell me you had your eye on the Grand Yao Bat Ship as well?”
“That's precisely why I had the information on hand.”
“Hmm...”
“I hold no grudge against the Illusion Wing Immortal, nor against his Night Rat Corps. My interest lies only in the treasures the ship must have obtained from the Northern Outer Sea.”
The open seas beyond the continent held every manner of rare and wondrous thing.
But they were far more dangerous than the Jinhwang Sea, an inland sea in comparison, and no one could approach them carelessly.
Which was exactly why Cheon Woo-jin meant to borrow Mujeong Soma's strength and plunder the Grand Yao Bat Ship instead.
It was a chance to lay hands on the treasures of the outer seas without ever setting foot there himself.
“If you're going to strike the ship, then let me ride along. That is the condition I ask of you, Lord Soma.”
“...”
Mujeong Soma stared at Cheon Woo-jin for a long moment.
Then he spoke in a flat voice.
“Just what sort of man are you, Master Cheon?”
“What do you mean?”
“Stepping forward to fight alongside someone like me... I have to wonder if you're in your right mind.”
“That seems rather harsh.”
“I mean every word of it, Master Cheon.”
Behind the mask, Mujeong Soma's eyes gleamed.
“Where in this world is there anyone who *wants* to fight beside a demonic cultivator who hides his face behind a mask?”
“You're looking at him.”
Cheon Woo-jin replied in a cool, level voice.
“As I said, I merely wish to join forces temporarily to obtain what I want. It makes no difference to me what kind of man you are, Lord Soma.”
“You're not afraid I'll betray you midway?”
“That's something to guard against at all times—it's not a reason to change how you treat someone based on how they look.”
“...”
Mujeong Soma studied him intently.
“You are a strange one, Master Cheon.”
“I never expected to hear that from a man who goes about with his face hidden behind a bone-white mask.”
“Haha...”
Laughing, Mujeong Soma reached out to the controls.
The White Sandalwood Divine Boat began to slow, bit by bit.
“Very well. Then let us join hands for a time.”
Bringing the boat to a hover in midair, Mujeong Soma turned to Cheon Woo-jin and spoke.
“From this moment on, we are comrades. Let us pool our strength and see each of our purposes through to the end.”
“Understood, Lord Soma.”
“And as I said before—just call me Mujeong Soma, or Soma for short.”
Whoosh.
Mujeong Soma plucked something out of thin air and tossed it to Cheon Woo-jin.
“A gift, in honor of our newfound comradeship.”
It was a white mask.
It was made of the same material as the one Mujeong Soma wore, though it did not bear a smiling face.
It was an impassive, expressionless mask.
“I'm a little worried it might carry some strange curse.”
“Suspecting your comrade already?”
Mujeong Soma shook with laughter, then crossed his arms and continued.
“Then share the details with me, Master Cheon. Let's draw up a plan for storming the Grand Yao Bat Ship.”
The seonseo—the "immortal rat"—of the Illusion Wing Immortal, and the bats of the Grand Yao Bat Ship, were both, in the end, names for the same creature.
In the East, the bat had long been regarded as an auspicious animal, partly because the word for bat was a homophone of the word for fortune.
There was even a legend that a rat which lived long enough grew wings and became a bat, and that eating such an aged bat would make one an immortal, granting eternal life—so there had, in fact, been those who hunted and devoured them.
Which is why the bat emblem came to be seen as a sigil that beckoned fortune and prayed for longevity.
Five days after his meeting with Mujeong Soma.
Cheon Woo-jin stood atop a soaring mountain peak, gazing up at the sky.
Far in the distance, beyond the clouds, he could make out an aerial warship shaped like a great gray box.
Bat emblems were carved across every inch of its hull, marking it unmistakably as the Grand Yao Bat Ship.
“So the Grand Yao Bat Ship really is passing over this place.”
Mujeong Soma beside him nodded in admiration.
“It's plain as day to the naked eye, yet I can't sense a trace of it thanks to its concealment formation. Remarkable.”
“That's precisely what makes it so hard to track.”
The Grand Yao Bat Ship emitted a special qi wave that neutralized reconnaissance and detection arts.
So while its position could not be pinpointed from afar, at this range it could be caught by the naked eye alone.
“Trusting your word and waiting five days was worth it, Master Cheon. Although...”
Mujeong Soma turned his gaze on Cheon Woo-jin.
“You seem to have achieved something over those five days, haven't you?”
“What could anyone accomplish in a mere five days?”
“They say a scholar must be rubbed from his eyes and looked at anew after only three days apart. Five days is ample time.”
Mujeong Soma's observation was accurate.
For those five days, Cheon Woo-jin had secluded himself in the eastern quarter of the Great Emptiness Cave Heaven Mirror.
With all the spoils he had seized from the Hwangryeol Flying Archipelago, he had needed to secure time for cultivation.
The result of training while consuming pills... I was able to reach the Late stage of Core Formation.
Late Core Formation.
That was the stage Cheon Woo-jin had now entered.
Ever since absorbing the Qi Dan of the Black Spirit Blade Emperor, Gwan Hwang, he had already been well past the Middle stage of Core Formation. Challenging the Late stage had therefore been no great feat.
My Golden Core has now grown into a Three-Pattern Golden Dan.
There were many ways to advance through the Core Formation Realm, but Cheon Woo-jin had chosen the method of inscribing Dan Patterns onto his core to grow it.
Until only recently, his had been a One-Pattern Golden Dan bearing a single thread of pattern—but now it had become a Three-Pattern Golden Dan inscribed with three.
At the One-Pattern stage, his core could amplify the spiritual energy drawn from it by roughly ten percent.
But now, as a Three-Pattern Golden Dan, he could amplify his spiritual energy by a full thirty percent.
On top of the core's own inherent improvement, he could now multiply that output by 1.3, maximizing the power of his spells.
When he had first set foot on the Hwangryeol Flying Archipelago, Cheon Woo-jin had been nothing more than an Early Core Formation cultivator without a single Dan Pattern.
Compared to then, he could now wield more than twice the strength.
Once I reach Peak Core Formation and inscribe a Nine-Pattern Golden Dan... I'll be able to exert power that doesn't yield even to an Early Nascent Soul cultivator.
That, of course, applied strictly to the potency of his attacks.
Nascent Soul cultivators were beings who transcended every material limitation, so simply raining down powerful blows would never be enough to bring one down.
The reason Cheon Woo-jin had gained the upper hand against Nascent Soul cultivators at the Imperial Palace was that they had been weakened by the authority of the Guardian Golden Dragon Divine Lord.
Facing a Nascent Soul cultivator in perfect condition head-on remained all but an act of suicide.
Still... this time will be different from everything before.
Cheon Woo-jin slipped a hand into his robe.
With his fingertips, he confirmed the object was still there.
That was precisely the new power he had grasped through his recent cultivation—the means to stand against a Nascent Soul cultivator.
“Master Cheon, then let us begin.”
“Understood.”
As Mujeong Soma raised his hand, the snow-white White Sandalwood Divine Boat materialized out of empty air.
Cheon Woo-jin likewise drew the Ghost Wood Boat from his robe and restored it to its full size.
“I'll take the lead. Follow me.”
Shwung!
The White Sandalwood Divine Boat shot skyward with Mujeong Soma aboard, carving a white streak through the air.
Swaek!
Cheon Woo-jin's Ghost Wood Boat followed it up into the heavens.
Small as mere rowboats beside the colossal Grand Yao Bat Ship, the Ghost Wood Boat and the White Sandalwood Divine Boat were nonetheless among the finest flying Dharma Treasures on the continent.
They climbed at blistering speed, closing in on the Grand Yao Bat Ship.
“Here they come!”
Suddenly, Mujeong Soma raised his voice.
The next instant, the bat emblems across the Grand Yao Bat Ship's hull flared to life, and violet beams of light erupted outward.
Anti-air bombardment, meant to shoot down hostile presences approaching through the sky.
PA-PA-PA-PA-PAT!
Dozens of beams embroidered the heavens in violet as they homed in on the White Sandalwood Divine Boat.
But the boat under Mujeong Soma's control slipped every last attack with movements that seemed divinely inspired.
It was a completely different performance from when it had chased down Cheon Woo-jin's Ghost Wood Boat before.
So he wasn't going all out back then after all!
The barrage concentrated on the lead boat, but some of it also streaked toward Cheon Woo-jin's Ghost Wood Boat.
Taking his cues from Mujeong Soma's piloting, Cheon Woo-jin evaded the attacks as well.
A few beams grazed him, but a protective barrier enveloped the Ghost Wood Boat itself, so as long as nothing landed a direct hit, it posed no real problem.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
They bored straight up through the torrent of violet light.
But the Grand Yao Bat Ship's defenses did not end there.
“The bats are launching!”
Shwung! Shwung! Shwung...
From the vessel's stern, dozens of bat-shaped flying craft burst forth.
They were Flying Rat craft—unmanned flying vessels. In their capacity for autonomous action, they resembled Cheon Woo-jin's own Flying Spirits.
Unlike the straight-flying violet beams, the Flying Rat craft tracked their targets automatically.
Their only means of attack was to simply hurl themselves bodily at the enemy—but if such collisions landed in succession, neither the White Sandalwood Divine Boat nor the Ghost Wood Boat could endure it.
“I'll draw them off!”
At that moment, Mujeong Soma piloted the White Sandalwood Divine Boat straight at the Flying Rat craft.
Then, just before impact, he wheeled hard around, luring the things after him.
Countless Flying Rat craft swarmed at his heels.
At a glance it looked like a desperate, doomed flight—but Mujeong Soma calmly raised one hand.
A sea of snow-white blades unfolded across the sky, swallowing every horizon.
The Flying Rat craft plunged into that countless field of blades and detonated in midair, one after another.
With that, seventy percent of the entire swarm was destroyed.
But the remaining thirty percent was still very much alive, and half of them had fixed their sights on Cheon Woo-jin's Ghost Wood Boat.
“Master Cheon, do you need help?”
“None.”
Cheon Woo-jin wove this way and that through the sky, letting the Flying Rat craft trail after the Ghost Wood Boat.
Then, at just the right moment, he hurled a mass of thunder qi behind him.
A compressed mass of thunder qi left his hand and bloomed into a blinding detonation.
KWA-KWANG!
The Flying Rat craft that had been hounding his tail were caught in the thunderous blast and sent plummeting.
But at almost the same instant.
Two more Flying Rat craft, swooping in from different directions, closed in around the Ghost Wood Boat.
In a heartbeat, he was caught in a pincer attack.
If he struck down one, the other would slam into him in the meantime.
Attacking and evading simultaneously was still beyond him.
“Master Cheon!”
Mujeong Soma's urgent voice rang out from above.
To his eyes, Cheon Woo-jin must have looked hopelessly cornered by the pincer.
But no such thing came to pass.
Two crimson human figures rose suddenly at Cheon Woo-jin's flanks, stretching their arms long to strike the Flying Rat craft.
The two vessels attempting the pincer were skewered by the abruptly extended crimson arms and shot down.
They move properly, indeed.
They were Blood Spirits Cheon Woo-jin had created through the Blood Soul Master Spirit Art.
Until now he had managed to forge blood swords but never blood spirits—yet thanks to the information Soehon Hyeolma had shared, he had finally completed them.
These Blood Spirits were not made from the blood of ordinary humans.
They were crafted from the spirit blood of Daoists who had reached the Middle stage of Nascent Soul.
And so destroying mere Flying Rat craft was well within their capability.
Two powerful puppets that move exactly as I will them. My tactical options just widened considerably.
Depending on how one looked at it, this was the most valuable thing he had gained on the Hwangryeol Flying Archipelago.
The Eight Directions Brand-Slaying Saber and the Ghost Wood Boat were precious in their own right, but neither expanded his tactical breadth the way the Blood Spirits did.
In the game, Soehon Hyeolma had displayed overwhelming power by controlling multiple Blood Spirits at once.
Cheon Woo-jin had no intention of building his fighting style around them the way Soehon Hyeolma had, but in a future crisis, they would prove an immense help.
“Master Cheon, let's breach the hull!”
Mujeong Soma shot down every remaining Flying Rat craft and made for the stern of the Grand Yao Bat Ship.
There lay the launch bay for the Flying Rat craft.
The gate was on the verge of sealing shut, but Mujeong Soma conjured an enormous white blade aura and shattered it.
The White Sandalwood Divine Boat bored into the opening, tracing a white streak.
Cheon Woo-jin followed, pushing the Ghost Wood Boat to greater speed.
KWAAAAAAAH!
The sudden acceleration shook the entire Ghost Wood Boat.
Weathering the tremor, Cheon Woo-jin drove the vessel past its limits.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Smashing the broken gate apart even wider, the Ghost Wood Boat finally tore its way into the Grand Yao Bat Ship's interior.
He could see Mujeong Soma leaping down from the White Sandalwood Divine Boat, which had breached first.
“Let's go, Master Cheon.”
“Indeed.”
Cheon Woo-jin leapt down from the Ghost Wood Boat as well.
Neither the Ghost Wood Boat nor the White Sandalwood Divine Boat had been shot down—both had successfully infiltrated the Grand Yao Bat Ship.
Now was the time to bring it crashing down.