Mount Jakryang (3)
Sect Master Lee Seon-gyeong of Geumsijong had been defeated.
For Geumsijong, it was a devastating shock.
"The— the Sect Master has fallen?"
"Then what are we supposed to do……"
The Geumsijong disciples, who had been brimming with confidence only moments before, shrank back in an instant.
If things went on like this, whatever advantage they held against Mandokyuksamun on the ground would become meaningless. The moment Gi Shin-ryeo descended, that advantage would be overturned in the blink of an eye.
From Geumsijong's standpoint, this is a bitterly painful defeat.
Their disciples surely hadn't expected Lee Seon-gyeong to win outright against Gi Shin-ryeo. But losing this quickly left them in an impossible position.
Even if Lee Seon-gyeong couldn't bring Gi Shin-ryeo down, simply holding out for a long time would have put Geumsijong in a favorable position. Once they had completely neutralized Mandokyuksamun's cultivators on the ground, they could have said, 'It looks like we've won — let's end it here,' and Gi Shin-ryeo would have had no choice but to halt the battle. Then Geumsijong could have negotiated an end to the war on advantageous terms, and this decisive clash would have effectively concluded as their victory.
Gwak Gyeong-in and the others had hoped for exactly that outcome. But Lee Seon-gyeong's defeat had come too fast, and now such an ending was out of reach. At worst, they might be forced into an unconditional surrender to Mandokyuksamun.
"Cheon Do-u, did you by any chance bring herbs that clear heat and neutralize poison?"
"A poison potent enough to reduce a Core Formation Great Circle cultivator to this state. Ordinary herbs wouldn't do so much as scratch it."
Cheon Woo-jin answered Jang Ryang's question while examining Lee Seon-gyeong's condition.
If the poison were something curable with the medicine Cheon Woo-jin carried, Lee Seon-gyeong would have been able to neutralize it himself. But right now, Lee Seon-gyeong lay senseless, drifting on the edge between life and death. A poison capable of reducing a Core Formation Great Circle cultivator to that state simply could not be treated here.
"Move the Sect Master somewhere else, now!"
Gwak Gyeong-in gave the order to the other disciples, his voice trembling.
Watching this, Gi Shin-ryeo burst out laughing in the sky above.
"Yes, carry him to your main medicine hall and nurse him with the utmost care. With Geumsijong's power, you will never cure that poison — so from now until the day his lifespan runs out, you'll all be tending to his sickbed."
"Gi Shin-ryeo……!"
One of the Geumsijong cultivators hurled an offensive spell at Gi Shin-ryeo in a surge of fury. But the attack couldn't so much as ruffle a single hair on his head before scattering into the empty air.
"Admirable courage, I'll give you that."
"……!"
Everyone froze with dread. The cultivator who had just attacked was himself at mid-stage Core Formation. Yet against Gi Shin-ryeo, his strike had accomplished nothing at all. This was the majesty of a being who had grown to the very limit of the Core Formation realm.
"Hm. Now that I think of it."
Gi Shin-ryeo's gaze, which had been sweeping across the ground, turned toward one spot.
"You're the ones who've been burning down our cultivation fields, one after another, lately, aren't you."
"……!"
Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so, standing beside Cheon Woo-jin, trembled. But Cheon Woo-jin kept his expression ice-calm and stared straight back at Gi Shin-ryeo. At that, Gi Shin-ryeo curled his lips into a sly grin.
"So you're the one who wields that black lightning qi."
Having recognized Cheon Woo-jin, Gi Shin-ryeo continued in a leisurely voice.
"Black lightning qi… You must have trained in one of the Five Thunder Arts. And yet you don't seem to use blue lightning, red lightning, yellow lightning, or white lightning either — so I'd wager you have a single water-attribute spiritual root."
"……"
"And considering you wield that much power with merely a Foundation Establishment body, you must possess some special aptitude. Good magical equipment alone could never account for that kind of strength."
Gi Shin-ryeo's analysis was precise. As Sect Master of Mandokyuksamun, he had weathered countless storms and trials, and the discerning eye he had cultivated through all of it was on full display.
"Well then, let's do it this way."
Gazing down at Cheon Woo-jin from the sky, Gi Shin-ryeo stroked his chin.
"You. Come over to this side."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean I'll spare your life."
Gi Shin-ryeo spoke, smiling with narrowed eyes.
"Join Mandokyuksamun. I'll grant you the seat of a direct-inheritance disciple immediately."
A murmur rippled through the surroundings. The sudden offer of a direct-inheritance discipleship left everyone taken aback.
"I've killed plenty of your direct-inheritance disciples. And now you'd take me in as one?"
"That's precisely why I'm making you one."
Gi Shin-ryeo answered Cheon Woo-jin's question slowly.
"Your actions emptied those seats. So you'll fill the vacancies yourself."
"You don't seem to have any intention of avenging your own disciples at all."
"Avenge them?"
Gi Shin-ryeo laughed, his shoulders shaking.
"They died without even fulfilling their duties. I can't imagine why I should avenge men like that."
"……"
"Of course, if you refuse to join Mandokyuksamun, I'll cut you down without mercy. But that wouldn't be for my dead disciples' sake — it would be to teach the world what happens to those who interfere with Mandokyuksamun's business."
Jang Ryang and Won Pil-so shuddered. They had burned the cultivation fields of Mandokyuksamun together with Cheon Woo-jin, so Gi Shin-ryeo would surely seek to execute them as well. Cheon Woo-jin, meanwhile, remained as composed as ever. Staring directly at Gi Shin-ryeo, he spoke in a voice devoid of warmth.
"I live as a loose cultivator. I have no intention of joining a sect at this point."
"Don't talk nonsense. Do you really believe a loose cultivator's status could ever carry you to Core Formation?"
Gi Shin-ryeo gave a derisive snort.
"You walk the path of cultivation, so you must have ambitions of your own. Drop the pointless stubbornness and come over here quietly."
"From the very beginning—"
"Hm. Actually, hold on."
At that moment, Gi Shin-ryeo tilted his head to one side.
"Stalling for time will get you nowhere, of course."
Almost in the same breath as that murmur — every Geumsijong cultivator on the ground shot skyward at once. While Cheon Woo-jin had been trading words with Gi Shin-ryeo, they had been preparing a combined formation. The energy linking them together as they soared in unison blazed like golden feathers.
The combined formation of Geumsijong blazes to life — the king of birds descends upon the serpent.
The Golden-Winged Bird, Geumsijo, was another name for Garuda, the king of all birds. Garuda symbolized the righteous and mighty warrior, and in myth stood eternally opposed to venomous serpents and dragons. The Golden-Winged Bird Dragon-Breaking Chain Art was a combined formation that embodied the concept of the Golden-Winged Bird vanquishing evil itself.
"Kuk kuk……"
And yet Gi Shin-ryeo was laughing, utterly at ease.
"That combined formation, which embodies the Golden-Winged Bird that slays the poison dragon — against a poison-arts master like me, it's actually effective. I'd call it your only viable countermeasure."
Even as the king of birds soared toward him with massive golden wings beating, Gi Shin-ryeo remained leisurely.
"But… with your vice sect master, who should have led the formation, and so many of your other experts assassinated before the war even began, it can't unleash its true power."
"……!"
Gwak Gyeong-in, who stood at the head of the Golden-Winged Bird formation, went wide-eyed.
"Don't tell me……!"
It was true. Before the war had properly begun, Mandokyuksamun's assassination of Geumsijong's experts hadn't merely been about degrading their combat strength. They had laid the groundwork in advance to ensure that, at some decisive turning point, Geumsijong would be unable to turn the tide with the Golden-Winged Bird Dragon-Breaking Chain Art.
"Had you deployed this formation alongside your sect master himself, you might actually have had a fighting chance!"
With a cunning laugh, Gi Shin-ryeo swept his arm through the air. In the very next instant, a colossal surge of fire-poison energy erupted and dyed the heavens crimson.
A flame that spares nothing — burning away every protection of the flesh before driving its deadly venom into the ruin.
This was no ordinary fire-attribute spell. The flames it birthed were certainly fiercer than most pyromantic arts — but they had not been conjured to burn the enemy to death with sheer heat. They were wicked flames, made to incinerate everything that shielded the body before ruthlessly injecting a lethal poison into what remained.
"……!"
The golden wings of the Golden-Winged Bird blazed red. The bodies of the Geumsijong cultivators who formed the combined formation were engulfed in flame, and soon after, an angry rash broke out across their skin. The reddened flesh swelled and swelled, until at last the skin split open and pus came seeping out. It was a horrifying poison art — one that laid bare Gi Shin-ryeo's cruel nature without a shred of restraint.
"Ghhhh……!"
Gwak Gyeong-in, who occupied the head of the Golden-Winged Bird, stretched out his hand in a desperate attempt to strike back. Bloodshot eyes blazing, he tried to unleash an attack — but the raging flames blocked him at every turn, and his will came to nothing. In the end, the golden energy that had formed the Golden-Winged Bird Dragon-Breaking Chain Art burned away to nothing, and every one of Geumsijong's cultivators came plummeting back down to the ground.
"Hmm… I used a little too much power there."
Gi Shin-ryeo, victorious, muttered to himself. He undoubtedly possessed power that overwhelmed any other cultivator — but he had still not stepped beyond Core Formation. The spiritual energy he held was not so vastly different from that of Geumsijong's Core Formation cultivators. That was why, after blocking a grand technique like the Golden-Winged Bird Dragon-Breaking Chain Art, little of his energy remained; unleashing a spell of that magnitude inevitably consumed enormous quantities of it.
And yet Gi Shin-ryeo remained at ease — because he no longer had a single rival left. Lee Seon-gyeong, his peer, had already been subdued, and the Golden-Winged Bird formation had been shattered. All that remained were the stragglers still stuck in Foundation Establishment.
"Hm……?"
Only then did Gi Shin-ryeo notice. While he had been breaking the Golden-Winged Bird Dragon-Breaking Chain Art, certain figures had quietly slipped away from the ground.
"Where do you think you're running……!"
As Gi Shin-ryeo's roar echoed behind him, Cheon Woo-jin drew his own spiritual energy up even higher. He had already swallowed a recovery pill to restore what he'd spent, and having absorbed spirit energy from the corpses scattered around him, he had managed to replenish nearly all of his reserves while Geumsijong deployed the Golden-Winged Bird formation.
Lightning qi sheathes the body whole, hurling the cultivator across vast distances in a single streak of thunder.
KRAKOOM!
Lightning qi wrapped itself around Cheon Woo-jin's entire body. Unlike thunder-stepping — which spread qi beneath the feet for brief bursts of speed — this was a flight art that cloaked the whole body in lightning and tore across great distances at high speed. The high-mobility spell pioneered by the Thunder Spirit True Person, the greatest lightning cultivator of legend, was being reproduced through Cheon Woo-jin's body.
"You……!"
Cheon Woo-jin could feel Gi Shin-ryeo pursuing him. Apparently, the man wasn't sparing so much as a glance for Jang Ryang or Won Pil-so, who had fled in other directions. But Gi Shin-ryeo could not close the gap. Part of it was the sheer amount of spiritual energy he had burned through, and part of it was simply how fast the lightning-attribute movement art Cheon Woo-jin deployed truly was.
Lightning is, after all, the fastest of all the elements.
KRAKAKOOM!
He tore through the air at extreme velocity, trailing rolling thunder in his wake. But this was no bid to escape Mount Jakryang. He was heading straight for its very heart.
From the beginning, Cheon Woo-jin had never had the slightest thought of fleeing. Running from this place would earn him nothing at all.
"……"
KUKUKUUNG!
Sensing Gi Shin-ryeo continuing his relentless pursuit, Cheon Woo-jin recalled the words he had heard just moments ago. Earlier, Gi Shin-ryeo had judged him a water spiritual root because he wielded only black lightning. That much had been an accurate observation. As a living creature, Cheon Woo-jin did contain the energies of all Five Elements within him — but the only one he could actually convert into usable spiritual energy was water. That was why, among the Five Thunder Arts, black lightning — the water attribute — was the only one he could employ.
But…
Gi Shin-ryeo's remark had sparked a new inspiration in Cheon Woo-jin's mind. To give that inspiration concrete form, he plunged deep into his spiritual domain — boring into his own inner self, focusing intently on visualizing an image that had never existed before. Lightning qi roared deafeningly around his entire body, and from behind him, the terrifying pressure of Gi Shin-ryeo's pursuit bore down on his back.
Cheon Woo-jin paid none of it any mind. Even in this desperate, do-or-die moment, his thoughts were cool and clear, devoted solely to one thing: the method by which he would defeat his enemy.