Snow Mountain (2)
"I'll go on ahead!"
The one who took the vanguard was Hoyeon Rin.
Part of it was surely because her master, Oh Hwi-seong of Cheonryong Pavilion, was trapped inside the encirclement.
She drew a single treasured sword and leapt down from the flying vessel.
BOOM! The moment she landed in the snowfield, a shockwave erupted and hurled the remaining trackers of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace off their feet.
Twisting her body mid-motion, Hoyeon Rin rained white sword qi in every direction.
The Ice Palace trackers scrambled to counterattack, but sixteen talismans came spilling from her sleeve and wove a bluish barrier that shielded her from all sides.
The Palace's spells broke against that barrier, yet the sword qi Hoyeon Rin launched passed through it without the slightest resistance and struck her enemies down.
Blocking the opponent's attacks while letting her own pass freely.
It was a deceptively difficult technique — but in skilled hands, it became a devastating weapon.
"Watch out!"
Wi Ju-seon, gripping the flying vessel's controls, raised her voice.
The next instant, the vessel tilted as though plummeting out of the sky.
Then, at a height just barely above the ground, she swung it into a wide sweep.
The Ice Palace trackers caught in its path were struck by the vessel and crushed outright.
At last the vessel ground to a halt with a thunderous roar, and Wi Ju-seon, one foot propped on its railing, began unleashing curse spells in all directions.
Each time a clump of curse-matter like blackened smoke burst across the battlefield, pained screams rose from one place after another.
"Let's break through."
"Agreed."
Cheon Woo-jin and Seo Seol-ryeong moved as well.
Seo Seol-ryeong took the lead first, raising both hands.
Dozens of blades of ice formed in the air, dancing in splendid arcs as they crashed into the enemy lines.
Into that confusion of whirling ice blades, Cheon Woo-jin leapt.
The trackers hurried to spread their attacks against him, but his spell was faster.
Black lightning crashed down upon the positions he had marked mid-leap — the very heart of the enemy formation.
The Ice Palace side had been struggling to rebuild their formation, and this made it impossible.
Their coordination shattered completely, and they devolved into a disordered rabble.
Landing right in their midst, Cheon Woo-jin planted a hand against the ground and sent shadows spreading in every direction.
Jets of black shadow tore across the white snowfield, sprouting dagger-like spikes that skewered his enemies — and bloomed into thorns within their very bodies.
As agonized screams echoed across the field, one Core Formation tracker charged at Cheon Woo-jin with the desperation of a man resolved to drag his enemy down to death with him.
He came sprinting with spiritual energy erupting from his entire body as if he would settle for mutual destruction — but an ice spike flying from behind Cheon Woo-jin pierced him between the eyes.
"......"
Seo Seol-ryeong walked over with an unperturbed expression and came to stand at his side.
Cheon Woo-jin gave a small nod, and the two of them advanced together — driving lightning qi into the fallen Core Formation cultivator's abdomen to make certain his Golden Core was utterly destroyed.
It was at that very moment that Hoyeon Rin's urgent cry rang out.
"Look out...!"
CRASH!
From the snow-covered mountain, a giant suddenly rose to its feet.
It was not, of course, a truly living giant.
It was a snow giant, a construct of spellcraft raised by the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace.
The snow giant came stalking forward, a massive fist raised overhead.
Hoyeon Rin hurriedly flung out sword qi, but it left nothing more than faint scratches on the creature's snow-packed hide.
"Damn it...!"
Wi Ju-seon halted her curse spells.
Curses could strike directly at a human soul, but against a thing like that they had no effect at all.
"Rise!"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
At Wi Ju-seon's command, the corpses clambered upright.
Her intent was to turn the Palace's own dead into jiangshi and stall the snow giant in a war of attrition.
But the creature was simply too enormous.
The jiangshi swarmed its legs, yet they could not halt its advance.
And just before the giant could bring both its colossal fists down in a single crushing blow—
Shhhk.
A colossal blade of ice sheared the snow giant's upper body cleanly from its lower half.
The hand gripping the hilt of that great ice sword was Seo Seol-ryeong's right hand.
Everyone held their breath at the sight of her conjuring a titanic blade and cleaving the snow giant in two with a single stroke.
The giant collapsed without managing another movement, and beneath the mass of its enormous snow-covered bulk, several more Ice Palace trackers were crushed to death.
"Impressive."
Cheon Woo-jin murmured it briefly.
Seo Seol-ryeong answered coldly.
"Flattery is unnecessary."
"I said it because I genuinely find it impressive."
Truly a True Human of Core Formation Great Circle.
It was worlds apart from the crude ice-attribute spells the Ice Palace disciples had been throwing around.
"There's quite a lot worth studying in it, too."
"......"
Since reaching the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, Cheon Woo-jin's sense for understanding other people's spellcraft had sharpened far beyond what it once was.
He was no longer simply watching with his eyes and grasping the general impression — he could now comprehend the actual structure underlying a spell's construction.
And yet Seo Seol-ryeong's spellcraft was difficult to see through.
Its structure seemed far more heavily safeguarded than any of the techniques he had encountered from other cultivators so far.
But even merely confirming that structure was a great gain for him.
It gave him a hint as to how one might construct a spell that was difficult to break.
"A path is finally opening up."
The falling snow giant had buried several Ice Palace trackers alive.
Thanks to that, the way into the ruins now stood open.
"Let's go, Seo Seol-ryeong."
"Yes, let's."
Cheon Woo-jin moved with her, vaulting over the mound of snow the giant had left behind and heading into the ruins —
— only to come face to face with an enormous stone giant almost immediately.
He moved to attack on instinct, but from behind him came Hoyeon Rin's urgent shout.
"Those are under the Pavilion Master's control! Don't touch them!"
Cheon Woo-jin immediately canceled his spell.
Come to think of it, he had heard something along those lines from her earlier.
"You said he'd seized control of the guardian stone statues, was it?"
"That's right. He originally planned to march them out of here and use them as a fighting force to retake the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner. It seems he ended up deploying them to defend against the Ice Palace's assault instead..."
Hoyeon Rin stepped forward and sent a signal to the stone giants.
The statues, which had looked ready to attack at any moment, froze in place.
"The Pavilion Master is controlling all of these at once? What a remarkable talent."
Wi Ju-seon, catching up behind them, tilted her head back and marveled.
"For now, I'll hold the perimeter by raising the corpses as jiangshi. You three settle the matter of the banner in the meantime."
"Understood."
"We leave it to you, Sect Master Wi."
With the perimeter entrusted to Wi Ju-seon, Cheon Woo-jin and Seo Seol-ryeong followed Hoyeon Rin's guidance into the depths of the ruins.
This was a place he had entered even in the game Yeongro Suseonjeon.
The overall architectural style was familiar. It was unmistakably a facility built by the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace.
"There is a structure here designed to concentrate the water spirit qi into a single point," Seo Seol-ryeong said in an even voice. "However, some portions have been damaged. The repairs may take longer than expected."
"You can even tell that?"
"Yes."
Time was not something he welcomed.
He could hardly hand over the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner to Oh Hwi-seong and simply walk away.
"Pavilion Master...!"
At that moment, Hoyeon Rin broke into a run.
"You're safe!"
"I am. As you can see."
Oh Hwi-seong stood before a square altar.
He swept a hand back through his five-colored, shimmering hair and smiled.
"Events conspired against me from every direction, and I found myself in rather a tight spot... but it seems fortune has finally turned my way."
Saying this, Oh Hwi-seong looked at Cheon Woo-jin and Seo Seol-ryeong.
"For the two of you to arrive here together at this point, I take it you produced results. Am I right?"
Cheon Woo-jin gave no answer, only glanced at Seo Seol-ryeong.
She drew the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner from her Universe in the Sleeve and displayed it.
"Ohh...!"
Oh Hwi-seong broke into a wide smile of admiration.
"I chose well, entrusting this to Cultivator Cheon! No wonder your reputation climbs higher with every passing day!"
Had Oh Hwi-seong never asked for Cheon Woo-jin's help, the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner would by now have fallen into the hands of one of the three great powers.
Once one of them carried it back to their stronghold, retaking it through Oh Hwi-seong's own strength would have become impossible.
From his standpoint, then, entrusting the matter to Cheon Woo-jin had been a masterstroke.
"And it seems Cultivator Seo lent her cooperation as well. My sincere thanks. Was joining Cultivator Cheon on the 6th Layer your plan all along?"
"Well, about that..."
Seo Seol-ryeong trailed off evasively.
She could hardly admit, in front of Oh Hwi-seong, that she had originally intended to claim the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner for herself.
"Pavilion Master Oh, do you intend to destroy the banner here?"
"That is the plan."
Oh Hwi-seong nodded.
"Now that it's been revealed that the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner holds power that dangerous, it must be erased from this world as quickly as possible. It is a bitter loss for Cheonryong Pavilion, but there's no help for it."
Destroying objects of such overwhelming power outright was the standing policy of the Dragon clan faction.
Even Oh Hwi-seong, born of one of the Dragon clan's great houses, had to abide by it.
"But it can't be done just yet. The preparations aren't finished."
Saying this, Oh Hwi-seong turned his gaze to the square altar.
Intricate patterns were inscribed across it, flickering in a deep, ink-black light.
"Much as one preheats the cookware before preparing a meal, the principle of Concealment must be at least partially actualized in advance... but the output of the water spirit qi supplied through the spirit meridians is unstable, so it's taking a long time. I've been doing what I can to steady the flow, but it's no easy matter."
"Then I shall assist as well."
"You, Cultivator Seo? That would be a tremendous help."
Oh Hwi-seong's face brightened at her offer.
Watching him, Cheon Woo-jin nodded as well.
"It seems the plan is more or less settled. Then I'll hand over the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner."
"Mm. My thanks."
Receiving the banner, Oh Hwi-seong smiled.
"With this, your commission is fulfilled, Cultivator Cheon. You've worked hard."
"Save the pleasantries for when it's all over. I'll be staying here until the banner is destroyed."
"You'll remain with us?"
"Getting out of here alone would be no simple matter."
Even if Cheon Woo-jin tried to leave on his own, the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace and the others would hardly let him slip away unscathed.
There was Na Chwi-ryang, for one — a brute who had memorized his scent.
First the banner had to be destroyed; only then could he wait for Oh Hwi-seong to flex his political muscle and smooth over the aftermath.
"And since Seo Seol-ryeong is staying to help as well, I'll wait here."
"Hm. I see."
Oh Hwi-seong smiled.
"I take it the two of you have promised to return together. A fine thing to see."
"It's nothing of the sort."
Leaving the aftermath to Oh Hwi-seong and Seo Seol-ryeong, Cheon Woo-jin headed back outside.
Until the destruction of the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner was complete, he had to defend these ruins alongside Wi Ju-seon.
Perhaps I'll practice conjuring cold from water spirit qi while I'm at it.
Walking the ruin's corridor, Cheon Woo-jin recalled the ice sword Seo Seol-ryeong had manifested earlier.
How would one need to work the spell to unleash ice-attribute spellcraft of that magnitude?
Was there no way around it — would he simply have to train a dedicated ice-attribute construction method after all?
I can roughly feel my way toward it, but...
If her spellcraft had been ordinary, he could have imitated it in rough outline at the very least.
Cheon Woo-jin had cultivated an eye for grasping the spiritual structure of spells, and by reconstructing that structure he could reproduce and mimic them.
The curse technique Jongri Un had unleashed with his Ghost Soul Banner had been mimicked the same way.
But Seo Seol-ryeong's spellcraft had eluded even his discernment, making a faithful reproduction impossible.
If only I had a little more to work with.
Lost in that thought, Cheon Woo-jin stepped back outside.
"Sect Master Wi, how is the situat—"
CRASH...!
An enormous boulder came rolling toward him.
It was the head of one of the stone giants that had guarded the entrance earlier.
"C-Cheon Woo-jin..."
Wi Ju-seon was sitting slumped on the frozen ground.
Beyond her, he could see the jiangshi she had raised earlier, all of them sealed inside translucent ice.
The flying vessel they had all ridden here on had been cleaved cleanly in two and lay half-buried in the snow.
"The Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace..."
Trackers in white robes had encircled the ruins.
They were few in number, but every one of them was on an entirely different level from the cultivators subdued earlier.
Above their heads hovered a single mysterious silver spirit beast, and seated askew upon its back was a man.
He had the youthful face of a man in his late teens — skin pale as porcelain, lips vividly red.
From his narrowly lidded eyes flowed a gaze that seemed to sneer at all the world.
Baek Shin-yeong, Palace Lord of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace.
A man who had reached Core Formation Great Circle through the unfilial act of murdering his own father — a figure whose talents mirrored Cheon Woo-jin's own.
His gloomy, shadowed gaze turned toward Cheon Woo-jin.