The Subjugation Campaign (1)
Cheon Woo-jin decided to remain at the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect's branch hall until the day of the operation.
There was a possibility that the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect would come after him again, after all.
Secluding himself deep within the Eastern District was one option, but he could just as easily be ambushed in transit.
Besides, he needed to hold detailed coordination talks with the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect before the operation anyway, so he simply settled on staying at the branch hall.
They even provided me with a training chamber, at that.
The Shengjue Yiyuan Sect had granted Cheon Woo-jin a private room.
It wasn't as secure as the Eastern District, but the room sat at the very heart of the sect's branch hall, so there was no real need to worry about an ambush.
There was, however, one thing that rubbed him the wrong way.
I feel like I'm being watched, constantly.
No one was physically peeking into the training chamber.
And yet something — some method he couldn't quite pin down — seemed to be monitoring the interior at all times.
Is Tae Sa-ryang observing me?
Tae Sa-ryang, core disciple of the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect.
A man at the late Core Formation Realm — such a cultivator could certainly observe Cheon Woo-jin's condition even from outside the training chamber.
It doesn't seem like he's simply checking on my status, either.
Tae Sa-ryang would occasionally summon Cheon Woo-jin for conversation.
The stated purpose was to discuss the operation, but Cheon Woo-jin kept getting the distinct impression that Tae Sa-ryang was studying him, picking him apart.
Each time that happened, Cheon Woo-jin would take a glance at Tae Sa-ryang's status window.
Taotie's Greed.
Greedy as the beast Taotie itself.
A man carrying a destiny of extreme, devouring avarice.
The longer Cheon Woo-jin spent in Tae Sa-ryang's company, the stronger grew his conviction that this partnership would not last long.
The day of the operation arrived.
Cheon Woo-jin set out for Heiyu Valley alongside the inner disciples of the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect.
Heiyu Valley lay on the third layer, which meant only cultivators at Peak Qi Condensation or above could enter it.
Ninety percent of the inner disciples mobilized this time were at Peak Qi Condensation, and the remaining ten percent at Foundation Establishment.
"Hey, loose cultivator."
One Foundation Establishment cultivator called out to Cheon Woo-jin.
It was a man named Jin Su-hak, the most celebrated rising star among the inner disciples assembled for this operation.
They had crossed paths several times before, but this was the first time they'd exchanged words directly.
And from the very first exchange, the man's manner left much to be desired.
"Don't act on your own initiative. You move as we instruct."
"……"
It was an attitude that plainly treated Cheon Woo-jin as an inferior.
In fairness, Cheon Woo-jin was still merely at Peak Qi Condensation, while Jin Su-hak stood at late Foundation Establishment.
Strictly speaking, Jin Su-hak did rank above him.
But Cheon Woo-jin had no intention whatsoever of bowing his head to the man.
"There's no reason for me to move as you instruct."
"You—!"
Jin Su-hak's eyes blazed.
Spiritual power surged up from his body as if he might cut Cheon Woo-jin down on the spot.
"Jin Do-u, that's enough."
"Didn't Elder Tae Sa-ryang say this loose cultivator's role is important in this operation?"
It was only thanks to the others around them stepping in that things didn't escalate — had they been alone, Jin Su-hak would surely have attacked.
"A loose cultivator at mere Qi Condensation, and yet you have no fear. If not for Elder Tae Sa-ryang, you'd be dead where you stand."
"……"
Cheon Woo-jin didn't bother responding. He simply turned his head away.
For a moment, he found himself thinking it was a blessing he'd never joined a sect — that he'd chosen the life of a loose cultivator instead.
If he had entered a sect the proper way, he'd have spent every single day stewing in frustration beneath authoritarian seniors exactly like this one.
The only reason I could experience sect life from the bottom up, step by step, was because it was a game… actually living it would have been insufferable.
His military service days suddenly flickered through his mind.
And this was a xianxia world — a sect member would have to endure it for at least several hundred years.
Imagining hundreds of years of barracks life sent a chill down his spine.
"Honestly, I can't stand that bastard either. So let's all pull together and make sure he has no opening to interfere — we take down the demonic cultivators swiftly and be done with it."
"Hehe, sound reasoning, Do-u."
The real reason Cheon Woo-jin had drifted off into idle thoughts was that the grumbling around him simply would not stop.
Endless nattering from men with no grasp of reality — it was nothing short of noise pollution.
Watching the inner disciples display such worldly ignorance, Cheon Woo-jin could finally understand why Tae Sa-ryang had reached out to bring him in.
Most of these disciples had never once risked their lives in battle — not against demonic cultivators, not against any other cultivator at all.
Truthfully, this was a common sight in the great orthodox sects.
Unlike the Dark Sects or the demonic factions, the orthodox path offered precious few chances to see real combat.
Combine that with the smug pride of belonging to a venerable orthodox lineage, and arrogance divorced from reality was the inevitable result.
Tae Sa-ryang's manner is arrogant too, though.
Even so, Tae Sa-ryang was not a man ignorant of the world.
Nearly three hundred years of cultivation had carried him to the Core Formation Realm — unlike his naïve juniors, he had surely accumulated a wide range of experiences.
At times, Cheon Woo-jin could even sense a certain cold ruthlessness born of that experience.
Tae Sa-ryang would not so much as twitch an eyebrow, Cheon Woo-jin suspected, even if his own juniors were slaughtered en masse in this operation.
"There it is — Heiyu Valley!"
Someone cried out.
In the far distance, a forbidding expanse of rugged terrain came into view.
Ghost Head City was, as its name suggested, an enormous fortress — yet its outermost edges rarely featured any city walls at all.
The northern reaches of the third layer, for instance, dissolved into a harsh mountain range.
Not that anyone could cross those mountains — every route was sealed shut.
Heiyu Valley was a black valley nestled within that mountainous belt.
It was known as the place where the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace — the power that had built Ghost Head City itself — once carried out its vile grand rituals upon human corpses.
Perhaps because of that, the corruption here cut far deeper into the organs than anywhere else on the third layer.
The closer they drew, the harder it became to breathe.
"Everyone, circulate your qi through breathing practice! Carelessness will see the poison seep into your organs and drop you where you stand!"
The inner disciples hurriedly channeled their spiritual energy, neutralizing the toxic invasion of their organs.
Cheon Woo-jin was already running the circulation of the Taiyin-Xuanmiao Sword Art.
"To think they draw power from air this poisonous… demonic cultivators, through and through."
"You said it. This is plainly a different beast from the miasma we've felt anywhere else."
"This is true deathly qi. There must be thousands of human corpses buried beneath this ground."
Amid the uneasy atmosphere, the subjugation force advanced on Heiyu Valley — only to grind to a halt at its threshold, unable to enter.
Cheon Woo-jin had stepped forward and held back the Shengjue Yiyuan Sect's inner disciples.
"We go no further."
"What did you say?"
"There's a powerful formation."
Cheon Woo-jin stretched his spiritual power out like threads, probing the ground ahead as he spoke.
"The Mad World Yin Spirit Sect appears to have laid a barrier in advance, so their ritual won't be disturbed."
"What nonsense. I can't sense a thing—"
Jin Su-hak scowled and shoved forward as if to push past him.
But at that moment, a voice sounded from behind.
"He's right."
"…!"
It was Tae Sa-ryang, the core disciple.
Hands clasped behind his back, he came forward and frowned at the terrain ahead.
"A Golden Lock Formation. Enter carelessly, and you won't get anywhere near Heiyu Valley — you'll wander those grounds forever, never escaping."
"Ah…"
That was the Core Formation Realm for you.
Unlike Jin Su-hak, who had sensed nothing at all, Tae Sa-ryang had immediately detected the formation's presence.
More than that, he had seen through its very type — something even Cheon Woo-jin hadn't identified.
The most accomplished cultivator here was, without question, Tae Sa-ryang.
"B-but Elder Tae Sa-ryang, surely a demonic formation like this could be shattered in a single stroke by one of your caliber?"
Jin Su-hak spoke while carefully watching Tae Sa-ryang's expression.
"With the power of a Core Formation cultivator such as yourself, certainly—"
"Fool."
Tae Sa-ryang frowned down at his fawning junior.
"Do you intend to announce to the demonic sects that a Core Formation cultivator has arrived?"
"Ah…!"
"Something on this level, you inner disciples will handle with your own strength."
Tae Sa-ryang wasn't being difficult for the sake of it.
In the cultivation world, it was common sense that "whatever the inferiors can resolve themselves must be left to the inferiors."
So Tae Sa-ryang stepped back, and Jin Su-hak and the other Foundation Establishment cultivators put their heads together to work out a way through the formation.
But no matter how long they deliberated, they produced nothing of use.
"Hold on a moment."
"Stay out of this, loose cultivator."
When Cheon Woo-jin, unable to watch any longer, finally spoke, Jin Su-hak snapped at him.
"A loose cultivator who never received proper instruction has no place joining this discussion."
"…"
Cheon Woo-jin let out a quiet sigh.
Then, leaving Jin Su-hak to fume, he stepped forward.
It was true that Cheon Woo-jin had never received the orthodox sects' systematic education.
He could not join a debate on analyzing the Golden Lock Formation and composing a dispelling formula.
But when you want to open a lock, you don't necessarily need to understand its inner workings.
Smash the lock to pieces, and the door opens just the same.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!"
Whish.
Cheon Woo-jin flicked his sleeve.
Six Flying Spirits unfolded and soared into the air.
They weren't moving autonomously, though.
Threads of spiritual power, drawn out gossamer-thin, connected him to each Flying Spirit in turn, transmitting his will directly.
Cheon Woo-jin drove the six Flying Spirits into the 'gaps' in the spiritual structure that constituted the Golden Lock Formation.
He had already spread his spiritual power forward like a spider's web, mapping exactly where to bore in.
Sparks flew at once — naturally enough, given that he was forcing objects into spaces that had no room for them.
Even so, these were supreme-grade artifacts forged from the outer skeleton of a Core Formation demon beast.
Short of a direct attack from Core Formation power or above, they would never break.
Forcing the Flying Spirits in hard, he located the point where the spiritual power sustaining the formation was densest.
Cheon Woo-jin hurled the Flying Spirits at that point without hesitation.
"Reckless mongrel of a dabbler! What in the world are you—"
Seeing the sparks flare up ahead, Jin Su-hak lunged to shove Cheon Woo-jin back.
But at that very instant, a thunderous roar erupted from the front.
"Ugh…!"
"Gahh…!"
KOO-KOO-KUNG!
It was a spiritual concussion that shook a cultivator down to the depths of the soul.
Some of the Qi Condensation cultivators lost their footing entirely and crumpled to the ground.
"You — what did you do—"
"It's done."
"What?"
Leaving Jin Su-hak clutching his head, Cheon Woo-jin walked forward.
He set foot on ground where, moments ago, the Golden Lock Formation had stood — and felt nothing at all.
"No…"
"The Golden Lock Formation is dispelled?"
"That easily?"
The inner disciples, who had been trying to comprehend the formation itself from the ground up, spoke in dumbfounded voices.
Even Jin Su-hak could not hide his bewilderment.
"Clever."
The only satisfied voice belonged to Tae Sa-ryang, who had been watching from the rear.
"Wedge a sharp pick into the seams of a lock and pry it apart, and there's no need to prepare a key at all. Well done."
"…!"
At Tae Sa-ryang's explanation, the inner disciples swallowed hard.
After all, they had spent this entire time trying to map the lock's internal structure and forge their own key.
"Of course, the simplest method of all would be to swing a heavy hammer and smash it in a single blow."
"…"
With my ability, that method would work too.
It was an arrogant remark, in its own way.
"We push into Heiyu Valley now. Everyone, advance."
"Y-yes, sir…!"
A hundred inner disciples surged forward, jostling to be first.
Amid them, Jin Su-hak shot Cheon Woo-jin a brief glare — the look of a man warning him not to get cocky.
Cheon Woo-jin, of course, paid it no mind whatsoever.
The deepest reaches of Heiyu Valley.
From the valley floor, where the ritual was in full swing, a man of unsettling appearance lifted his head.
"Sect Leader, is something the matter—"
"The Golden Lock Formation has been breached."
"What?"
As his subordinate's eyes went wide, the man stroked his chin.
"Something solid was wedged into the gaps of the formation. A small-scale artifact… Flying Spirits, by the feel of it."
"Flying Spirits… then—"
"Kwak Bo and his men were beaten by Flying Spirits as well, if you recall."
Not long ago, the man had ordered Kwak Bo to lure a certain loose cultivator into the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect.
He had also given instructions that if that proved impossible, the loose cultivator was to be killed on the spot.
But Kwak Bo had vanished without a trace, and his subordinates had been found as corpses.
Every circumstance pointed to only one conclusion — it had been that loose cultivator's doing.
"The same vermin who trampled our plans in the Yin Soul Secret Realm has come to us."
Jeok Ya-wol, leader of the Mad World Yin Spirit Sect.
Sensing Cheon Woo-jin's approach, the demonic cultivator of late Core Formation curled his lips into a sinister smile.