The Secret Realm (1)
The Moonlit Thirteen League.
An organization reigning at the apex of the Dark Gate factions — and one of the Three Great Sects.
The Dark Gate, by its very nature, possessed no systematic hierarchy like the Orthodox sects or demonic schools. That was only natural; the Dark Gate rejected all authority and pursued nothing but raw power.
And yet the Moonlit Thirteen League had managed to subjugate the Dark Gate factions, because it was a united collective of the Thirteen Sovereigns — the supreme masters of the Dark Gate.
The Thirteen Sovereigns wielded power that even the highest-ranked elders of the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect or the Blood World Mara Sect regarded warily, and the mere fact that they were moving was enough to shake the balance of power across the cultivation world.
Gu Yang-gyeol had once been the direct disciple of one of those Sovereigns — the Strange-Faced Scholar. Having received personal instruction in the Six Extremes Yin Spirit True Art that the Strange-Faced Scholar had created, he excelled in arts utilizing Dark Water.
When a dispute broke out a hundred years ago in the Yin-Lewd West Cold Valley, he single-handedly annihilated an entire sect.
The reason a figure of that caliber had appeared here was to negotiate with Dan Mok-ryeong of the Poison Sword Sect.
The Poison Sword Sect had sought to monopolize the small secret realm discovered in the second layer of Ghost Head Castle.
But a monopoly could not simply be claimed by declaration. It had to be recognized by the other sects — above all, by the Moonlit Thirteen League — before it could be enforced.
So Gu Yang-gyeol had come out personally to conduct the negotiations. The Moonlit Thirteen League could not enter Ghost Head Castle directly due to an old pact, but through subordinate forces like the Poison Sword Sect, it could still meddle in the castle's interests.
The arrangement was simple: in exchange for guaranteeing the Poison Sword Sect's monopoly, a portion of the resources harvested from the secret realm would be paid up as tribute.
Originally, Gu Yang-gyeol had planned to resume negotiations once Dan Mok-ryeong finished sweeping away the intruders. But with Dan Mok-ryeong dead, negotiation itself had become impossible.
So he had revealed himself partly to find out who had thrown a wrench into the works.
"So Dan Mok-ryeong suspected you were operating under the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect's command... but that isn't the case, is it?"
Gu Yang-gyeol swept his gaze around and continued.
"You two seem to be former members of the Namhwa Sect — the one the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect annihilated."
"...!"
Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so swallowed hard. Their sect of origin had been seen through at a single glance.
But Gu Yang-gyeol paid them no further attention, turning instead to look at Cheon Woo-jin.
"You, too, are no disciple of the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect. You must have obtained the secret manual of the Taiyi Mystery Sword Art somewhere and trained in it alone."
"......."
As expected of a Core Formation cultivator. His discernment was on an entirely different level from Dan Mok-ryang's, who had mistaken Cheon Woo-jin for a Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect man.
"But that isn't what matters. From the way you operate your spirit power, it's clear that—"
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The ground suddenly exploded, and a violent storm of dust and earth whipped through the air. In the chaos, where nothing could be seen an inch ahead, Jang Ryang's voice rang out.
"Scatter—!"
Their opponent was a Core Formation cultivator. Dan Mok-ryeong, at Foundation Establishment, had been taken down by a combined assault — but against a Core Formation enemy, fleeing was the only sound strategy.
Yet they could not run together. If they did, they would be chased down in moments and captured or slaughtered as a group.
That was why Jang Ryang had screamed for them to scatter. If three men fled in three different directions, at least two would survive. It was a cold, practical calculation.
"Let's meet again alive!"
"Senior brother...!"
Gritting their teeth, Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so bolted in opposite directions. Swift, decisive movements — exactly what one would expect from two men who had weathered a lifetime of calamities.
Cheon Woo-jin, meanwhile, was half a beat slower to move. Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so were Foundation Establishment cultivators; Cheon Woo-jin was still at Qi Condensation. In terms of pure speed, he had no choice but to fall behind.
"Hmm."
Gu Yang-gyeol's viper-like eyes caught the late-moving Cheon Woo-jin. Even if Cheon Woo-jin had moved faster than the other two, those eyes would have found him regardless.
"However high a frog leaps, in the end it only becomes a snake's meal."
Gu Yang-gyeol sneered.
"So it struggles, does it?"
Shwip.
Gu Yang-gyeol rose into the air. Climbing high into the sky, he spotted Cheon Woo-jin fleeing into the distance. He raised a hand toward that retreating figure, and hundreds of black throwing blades materialized out of the empty air.
With a light flick of his fingers, Gu Yang-gyeol sent every one of them hurtling at Cheon Woo-jin.
Hundreds of blades came pouring down like rain. Yet not a single one touched him. As though he had already predicted it, Cheon Woo-jin twisted his body in a wide arc and unfurled a wall of sword qi. A flawless defense.
"Hmm."
Gu Yang-gyeol nodded and struck again. He launched blades made of his own spirit power, then fired shells like cannonballs. He even spread an ice-attribute spell through his spirit power, trying to freeze Cheon Woo-jin's legs.
But Cheon Woo-jin blocked every attack and kept running.
Watching him with those viper's eyes, Gu Yang-gyeol nodded again and again. It was growing more and more interesting.
"I see. So that's what it is."
The corners of Gu Yang-gyeol's mouth curled upward. It was a vicious smile.
In truth, Gu Yang-gyeol had not been attacking in earnest. He had been deliberately regulating his spiritual power to suppress his full force.
His purpose was to analyze Cheon Woo-jin's spirit energy. Every time Cheon Woo-jin responded to an attack, Gu Yang-gyeol dissected it in minute detail, one piece at a time, trying to uncover its essence.
And through that analysis, he had deciphered Cheon Woo-jin's true identity.
"So you're the one who took power from Heukha-ryong of Mount Goeyu."
Heukha-ryong. The dragon of the Nascent Soul Realm that had made its lair in Mount Goeyu in Weijin Country.
Beings who reached the Nascent Soul Realm, like Heukha-ryong, reigned as absolute powerhouses whom virtually no one could touch. Those at the Soul Formation stage above it almost never involved themselves in worldly affairs.
Yet at some point, Heukha-ryong had vanished from sight. There was a chance he was in secluded training somewhere, but even the miasma that had always hung over Mount Goeyu had disappeared.
Worse, there had been the incident in which the warriors of the Won Clan and the inner disciples of the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect who had gone to investigate the mountain were murdered.
When the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect finally conducted a thorough investigation, they found traces showing that Heukha-ryong had bled out in massive quantities and died. But the corpse itself was nowhere to be found.
Who, then, had killed Heukha-ryong? Countless cultivators across the cultivation world burned with curiosity — and not a single clue had surfaced. Until now. Now, Gu Yang-gyeol had found the decisive one.
"Heukha-ryong possessed the Body of the Dark True Abyss. And that fellow over there is channeling his spiritual power with the power of that very same Body of the Dark True Abyss."
The Body of the Dark True Abyss was a trait that no human could acquire innately. Whatever method he had used, there was no doubt he had stolen the trait that had belonged to Heukha-ryong.
"He probably didn't kill Heukha-ryong with his own hands... but if I crush him, I'll learn the full story."
Who stood behind him? It might be a demonic faction like the Blood World Mara Sect. The most wicked bastards in the cultivation world could well have perfected a technique of transplanting a dragon's trait into a human body through repeated human experimentation.
Or it could be the Taiyi Inverse Principle Sect, the leader of the Orthodox alliance. They were claiming to pour their efforts into investigating the murder of their own inner disciples — but that could easily be a smokescreen to deceive the other factions. Given that they were the most hypocritical bastards in the cultivation world, it was entirely plausible.
And of course... it might even be the Moonlit Thirteen League itself standing behind him.
"Either way, once I take that fellow down, something interesting is bound to come to light."
Gu Yang-gyeol intended to capture him and torture him personally. Depending on what information he obtained, he might even keep it to himself without reporting to the League. What mattered to Gu Yang-gyeol, after all, was his own gain.
"If things go well, I might even make that Body of the Dark True Abyss my own."
If he could acquire a special trait like that, challenging the Nascent Soul Realm beyond Core Formation would become possible. And once he reached the Nascent Soul Realm, seizing a seat among the Thirteen Sovereigns if one ever opened up would be no mere dream.
And someday, beyond that... he might even reach the Soul Formation realm and stand among the peerless. Heukha-ryong himself had been challenging Soul Formation by absorbing the natural spiritual energy of Mount Goeyu through his own Body of the Dark True Abyss.
"Yes. And so—"
Gu Yang-gyeol slowly raised his hand. The analysis was complete. Now it was time to actually take the man.
But at that moment, he realized one thing.
"Hm...?"
Cheon Woo-jin was fleeing in a strange direction. Not toward a way out of this place, but deeper — toward a dead end.
Gu Yang-gyeol already knew what lay there.
"What a fool."
He watched Cheon Woo-jin hurl himself toward the spatial fissure. The small secret realm the Poison Sword Sect had discovered — he had fled inside it.
The realm's interior opened into a vast expanse. There would surely be places to hide. But staying hidden indefinitely against a Core Formation cultivator was impossible. And the secret realm had only a single entrance — he had run himself into a blind alley of his own making.
"Walking into the trap to become a rat in a poison jar... what a waste of talent!"
Laughing heartily, Gu Yang-gyeol chased after Cheon Woo-jin. He planned to torture him for information here inside the secret realm, away from prying eyes... and, if possible, to devour Cheon Woo-jin alive.
So this is the secret realm.
Cheon Woo-jin, plunging through the spatial fissure, clicked his tongue at the sight that unfolded before him. It was the exact opposite of the gloomy exterior. Inside the secret realm stretched a breathtaking vista of magnificent crags and sheer cliffs without end.
Silver waterfalls cascaded down between the jagged rocks, and on every branch of the ancient trees rooted into the cliff walls hung luminous beads of dew. Clouds wreathed the highest peak, hiding its summit from view.
A true immortal's paradise in the flesh.
Rare cultivation resources would surely be found at the peak's summit. Of course, countless dangers would be waiting on the road there.
But Cheon Woo-jin was in no position to seek them out now.
"You witless stray-cultivation wretch!"
WOOOONG!
Gu Yang-gyeol, hot on his heels, entered the secret realm.
"Did you think fleeing inside would save you? I've never seen a man so hopelessly stupid...!"
Gu Yang-gyeol's laughter echoed through the realm. In the next instant, a bone-chilling cold burst forth.
It was the true power of the Six Extremes Yin Spirit True Art, unleashed at last — the power he had been holding back until now. And with it, everything inside the secret realm began to freeze.
The ancient trees bearing their dewy beads were sheathed in ice in an instant, and the waterfalls pouring between the rocks hardened into pillars of frost. At this rate, even the clouds wreathing the peaks would freeze solid.
"There you are!"
Gu Yang-gyeol had not merely frozen the realm. He had spread his freezing aura around him and was using it like an extension of his own senses, probing for Cheon Woo-jin's hiding place. The moment he sensed Cheon Woo-jin crouched behind a massive boulder, he leapt in a single bound and drove down an ice spear conjured from his art, shattering the rock outright.
The boulder exploded into fragments, and Cheon Woo-jin — huddled there, enduring the cold — was fully exposed.
Yet Cheon Woo-jin remained composed. Cornered with nowhere left to run, facing a Core Formation cultivator of overwhelming power, he felt no fear whatsoever.
Because all of this had been the plan.
Fleeing into the secret realm. Revealing that he possessed the Body of the Dark True Abyss. Every move had been a deliberate lure, laid out to draw Gu Yang-gyeol in.
It was a dangerous situation, of course. But Cheon Woo-jin had stopped weighing danger. This was the world of the righteous and the virtuous — a world of bloodless, tearless, winner-take-all slaughter. The ultimate gamble, where the final victor claimed everything, including eternal life, and the losers were left with nothing at all.
So when the stakes were this large, you had to bet. And Cheon Woo-jin was the only gambler at this table holding a hand that could not lose.
"There you are!"
Gu Yang-gyeol came hurtling toward him at terrifying speed, his mad laughter ringing out — laughter drunk on the thought of claiming the Body of the Dark True Abyss for himself.
And at last, Cheon Woo-jin raised his head.