The Assault (1)
The sword qi Cheon Woo-jin unleashed was different from Song Jun-hak's.
Where Song Jun-hak had formed a dozen or more strands of sword qi at once, Cheon Woo-jin could produce only a single one.
And yet that single strand was anything but shabby or meager.
The sword qi Cheon Woo-jin created was enormous.
It was large enough to cleave a massive body like Guijiang's clean in two with a single stroke.
And it possessed a solidity that matched its size.
If Guijiang had tried to parry Cheon Woo-jin's sword qi with his great blade, the weapon would have shattered on the spot.
That was because the heart sword Cheon Woo-jin had forged within his own being was every bit as vast and unbreakable as the qi it produced.
Endless sessions of forging his heart sword in that boundless black space had produced this result.
Even Cheon Woo-jin hadn't expected to be able to generate sword qi of such scale and resilience.
Could it be thanks to the Body of the Dark True Abyss?
This was a question that even his knowledge couldn't easily resolve.
The game had never offered concrete descriptions of what happened when one practiced cultivation methods or spells.
Back then, you simply met the conditions, clicked a few times, and gained a new power.
I'll have to work these things out through trial and error on my own.
Cheon Woo-jin possessed game knowledge, but it alone could not solve everything.
The parts the game system had glossed over were things he would have to explore and answer for himself.
Working through these small tasks one by one would all be part of that process.
* * *
Even after subduing Guijiang, Cheon Woo-jin kept coming and going from Seo Seol-ryeong's shop, carrying out one task after another.
There had been assassination missions as well, though he never managed to acquire another worthwhile cultivation manual like the Taiyi Mysterious Subtle Sword Art.
Then again, even if he had obtained a new manual, he would have struggled to find time to study it.
He was devoting himself entirely to researching and training the Taiyi Mysterious Subtle Sword Art.
At first, all he could do was launch sword qi in a straight line, but as the training went on, he learned to control it as freely as he wielded his Sword-Controlling Talismans.
He even managed to combine it with the Black Shadow Technique, extending sword qi up out of the shadow at his feet.
The Black Shadow Technique was already the perfect spell for striking at an opponent's blind spots, and fused with the Taiyi Mysterious Subtle Sword Art, its lethality was maximized.
With his combat power improved like this, there was no longer any need to use the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye on missions.
Being able to forgo the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye meant he could eliminate targets even in front of other people's eyes.
That made completing missions all the easier.
“It seems I underestimated you.”
Seo Seol-ryeong said it flatly as Cheon Woo-jin returned from a mission he had cleared in a single day.
“I never imagined you'd be this capable.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
As he said it, Cheon Woo-jin looked at her lips.
The corners of her mouth were raised slightly higher than usual.
In the game she had been portrayed as a woman whose expression was impossible to read, but facing her face to face like this, there were always subtle shifts in her features.
Thanks to that, even with both her eyes covered, he could roughly tell what she was feeling.
At this point, I'd say her intimacy level has climbed quite high.
In the game, NPCs had intimacy values.
Even shopkeepers would knock prices down for you once your intimacy with them rose high enough.
Seo Seol-ryeong was the same way — at first she only handed out trivially easy missions.
But as you piled up results and raised her intimacy, she began entrusting you with the real work.
It would be no different here.
“I suppose it's about time we moved on to the next stage.”
“The next stage?”
“To be honest, everything I've introduced to you so far has been low-priority busywork.”
Just as Cheon Woo-jin had predicted, Seo Seol-ryeong began to lay it out.
“All of it was work that 'anyone could do.'”
“And that's about to change?”
“From now on, I'll be introducing you to work that 'no one else can do.'”
Seo Seol-ryeong said in a calm voice.
“Are you familiar with a sect called the Lone Sword Sect?”
“A Dark Gate faction?”
Where the Orthodox sects were authoritarian and obsessed with prestige and ceremony, the Dark Gate factions pursued the law of the strong devouring the weak and encouraged subordinates to usurp their superiors.
Compared to classic wuxia, the Orthodox sects were the righteous clans and the Dark Gate the demonic ones.
The Moonlit Thirteen League, one of the three great sects, stood as the foremost representative of that Dark Gate world.
“I know it as a place famous for its sword cultivators.”
“Jin Ling-geom — Dan Mok-ryeong, a Foundation Establishment cultivator of that Lone Sword Sect, has entered Ghost Head City with his subordinates.”
Dan Mok-ryeong.
The most renowned of all the Lone Sword Sect's Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Even in the Yeongro Suseonjeon game, he was a formidable figure you would cross paths with from time to time.
“About a week ago, Dan Mok-ryeong discovered a small secret realm on the 2nd layer of Ghost Head City.”
“A small secret realm……”
“You already know this, but spatial fissures exist throughout Ghost Head City. Within them unfold secret realms created by the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace.”
Secret realms served as dungeons in xianxia fiction.
Entry required satisfying certain conditions, and they often contained cultivation resources that were difficult to obtain elsewhere.
For that reason, disputes over secret realms were commonplace in the cultivation world.
“Dan Mok-ryeong has declared that he will use the realm as the Lone Sword Sect's training ground going forward. By custom, priority belongs to whoever discovers a realm first, so that declaration alone isn't a problem, but……”
“Then what is the problem?”
“The truth is, it wasn't the Lone Sword Sect who discovered the realm first.”
Seo Seol-ryeong explained in a cold voice.
“The only son of a merchant guild operating in Ghost Head City stumbled upon it while scouting land to open a new shop.”
“Don't tell me……”
“The Lone Sword Sect massacred the guild's only son and seized the realm for themselves.”
Utterly devoid of even the basest conscience — exactly what one would expect of the Dark Gate.
“That guild has no power to stand against the Lone Sword Sect. But what it does have is money.”
“……”
“They'll pay any sum you ask — kill Dan Mok-ryeong and all his followers to the last man. That is the guild's wish.”
Having said this, Seo Seol-ryeong added carefully.
“That said, to the loose cultivators of Ghost Head City, the Lone Sword Sect is not a group to touch lightly. They're infamous even among the Dark Gate for their cruelty, and retaliation is a very real fear. And the man in question is none other than Jin Ling-geom, Dan Mok-ryeong.”
“I see what you're getting at.”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded.
“A job nobody wants, so it's finally made its way around to me.”
“That is one aspect of it, yes.”
Seo Seol-ryeong acknowledged it with perfect composure.
“We currently have eight capable cultivators secured, including Foundation Establishment fighters.”
“So if I accept, nine of us will go after the Lone Sword Sect.”
“By my assessment, nine attackers should have more than enough strength.”
With that, Seo Seol-ryeong passed along several additional pieces of information.
Cheon Woo-jin chewed over each detail, weighing whether this was truly a job worth undertaking.
There was no denying it would be difficult.
Compared to this, everything he had done so far felt like tutorial material.
But this was no place to back out.
Walking only the easy, simple paths would never get Cheon Woo-jin what he wanted.
If he intended to keep surviving in this world, he had to climb as high as possible, as fast as possible.
If a shortcut appeared before his eyes, he had to scale it even if it was a sheer cliff face.
Besides, if it's Dan Mok-ryeong…… he should have the item I want.
His mind made up, Cheon Woo-jin spoke again.
“When is the date?”
“Ten days from now.”
“Ten days.”
Cheon Woo-jin ran the numbers in his head.
“That's a bit tight.”
“Tight?”
“There's something I need to take care of.”
Seo Seol-ryeong faltered.
It was rare for Cheon Woo-jin to say such a thing.
“If it looks like you can't make it, I'll find someone else in your place.”
“There's no need for that.”
Cheon Woo-jin shook his head.
“I'll manage to make it work.”
“I'm glad to hear it, but……”
“Then I'll be going for now.”
“Yes. Do hurry and settle your urgent business.”
“Speaking of which……”
Cheon Woo-jin held out his hand, and Seo Seol-ryeong tilted her head.
“What is it?”
“I haven't received today's pay yet.”
“……”
Seo Seol-ryeong was silent for a moment.
Then she drew spirit stones from her sleeve and said:
“I merely forgot for a moment.”
Her pale face seemed to have reddened just a little.
* * *
Cheon Woo-jin ate a meal of spirit rice at the market and returned to the eastern district.
He reinforced his security by affixing talismans over the entrance, then plunged his hand into his storage pouch.
“Now, then……”
Crash!
A heap of small stones scattered across the floor.
Spirit stones — ten thousand of them — gathered painstakingly from the mission rewards Seo Seol-ryeong had paid out all this time.
Cheon Woo-jin stretched out his spiritual power and moved the stones.
He dispersed them across the floor of the eastern district here and there, forming a single formation.
A formation for entering the Great Perfection stage of Qi Condensation.
“Shall we begin?”
Cheon Woo-jin sat down cross-legged.
Then he focused his consciousness on his dantian.
He had been absorbing spiritual qi from all manner of places lately.
He had drawn it directly from cultivators like Song Jun-hak, obtained and consumed elixirs from their storage pouches, and eaten spirit rice faithfully at every meal.
As a result, the spiritual qi required to attempt Great Perfection of Qi Condensation was already in hand.
First, Cheon Woo-jin opened his dantian and slowly released his spiritual qi.
But the qi did not scatter in all directions.
The spirit stones arranged around him formed a boundary that trapped the qi in place.
When he had discharged every last wisp of qi, a profound emptiness washed over him.
A dizziness came too, as though his consciousness itself might slip away.
But Cheon Woo-jin gritted his teeth and endured.
He knew he had to overcome exactly this.
Holding out as his mind threatened to fade, the spirit meridians throughout his body gradually found their stability.
He even felt a sense of liberation, as if standing in some vast open plain.
Having reached that state, Cheon Woo-jin regulated his breathing and extended his awareness in every direction.
Then, all at once, he recalled the spiritual qi trapped within the spirit stones' boundary.
“……!”
The qi flooded into his body in an instant.
It was a considerable volume, yet it weighed on him not at all.
Cheon Woo-jin's body at this moment was an enormous vessel.
A wide sea that devoured and embraced all things.
No amount of spiritual qi was too much to take in at once.
Receiving a mass of energy like this in a single gulp accelerated the awakening of the flesh.
It was no different from imparting a new enlightenment to every last cell of the human body.
Cheon Woo-jin circulated the qi he had taken in at once throughout his whole body.
With every full cycle of the spiritual qi, he could feel each and every constituent element of his body stepping into a new realm.
From this moment on, I……
The twelve regular meridians of the limbs.
The eight extraordinary meridians, including the conception and governing vessels.
The collateral channels linking the meridians together.
Every channel through which spiritual qi flowed was being sublimated to a level an order higher.
And then not only the meridians but the five viscera and six bowels, the skin, hair, flesh, sinew, and bone — all of it brimmed over with spiritual qi.
Cheon Woo-jin was becoming, in the truest sense, a being who could wield spiritual qi with his entire body.
Great Perfection of Qi Condensation.
The summit of every Qi Condensation cultivator.
A being who held the qualification to challenge Foundation Establishment.
From the whole body of Cheon Woo-jin, now arrived at Great Perfection of Qi Condensation, a wave of power erupted outward — like a black dragon surging up from the deep.
* * *
“This newcomer who's supposed to join us — can we trust him?”
The outskirts of Ghost Head City's 2nd layer.
Jang Ryang, a Foundation Establishment cultivator who had been chewing absently on a sweet stick of licorice root, turned around at his junior's voice.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“The rookie that woman just recommended.”
His junior, Won Pil-so, said it while stroking his beard.
“Word is he only just entered Ghost Head City, and nobody knows anything about him. Leaves me uneasy, I'll admit.”
“Hmmm……”
Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so were loose cultivators operating in the lower layers of Ghost Head City.
Until a decade ago, both had belonged to the Namhwa Sect, a perfectly respectable Orthodox sect.
But when the Namhwa Sect drew the wrath of the Taiyi Easy Separation Sect and was annihilated, the two became loose cultivators with no banner to serve.
Fleeing the Taiyi Easy Separation Sect's pursuit, they had settled in Ghost Head City, and now they performed every rough and filthy job imaginable while dreaming of the day they might rebuild their sect.
Today, the two of them were effectively slated to serve as commanders.
They would lead the remaining loose cultivators and spearhead the raid on the Lone Sword Sect.
“The Lone Sword Sect's Dan Mok-ryeong is a dangerous opponent. His followers will be no pushovers either. Would an untested rookie really be any help?”
“They say he's the one who took down a Great Perfection Qi Condensation cultivator.”
Jang Ryang said, recalling what he'd heard from Seo Seol-ryeong.
“So the man himself must be Great Perfection too. He'll be a real asset, no doubt about it.”
“Did that woman say so herself, with her own mouth? That he's Great Perfection?”
“She didn't put it that definitively, but……”
“For all we know he could be early or mid stage.”
“Hm……”
Faced with his junior's relentless skepticism, Jang Ryang scratched his head.
“She judged him useful and recommended him anyway. That woman's eye for people is dead reliable, you know that.”
“An eye for people, from someone who wears an eye covering every day of her life……”
Won Pil-so grumbled.
“If he drags us down, I won't let it slide.”
“That goes without saying.”
This operation was a night raid.
They had to strike the temporary quarters where Dan Mok-ryeong and his followers were staying in the dead of night.
Which meant not a single one of them could afford to slip up.
“Speaking of which, where in the world……”
Jang Ryang looked around.
The cultivators slated for the raid were standing by nearby.
But counting both him and Won Pil-so, there were only eight.
“Why isn't he here yet?”
The hour of the assault was nearly upon them, and the final man had yet to show.