Demonic Qi (1)
It was common knowledge that a snow leopard spirit beast called the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard resided in the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace.
The beast was something of a guardian deity to the palace, having served it in quiet devotion for countless years.
Even today, it had appeared with Baek Shin-yeong riding on its back, and now sat waiting in obedient silence.
Yet that very beast opened its mouth.
It called Baek Shin-yeong its son—and voiced its regret.
"I thought you were capable of carving out your own path, but it seems I placed too much faith in you. The fault, I suppose, lies in how I raised you..."
At the sound of that voice, the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace standing on the ground descended into chaos.
"The Thousand-Year Snow Leopard—it talks?"
"And it calls the Palace Lord its son? What does that mean?"
They looked up at the beast with eyes full of terror.
"Don't tell me... the previous Palace Lord?"
The previous Palace Lord.
Baek Shin-yeong's own father—the man said to have died at his son's hand, his every drop of power stripped away.
The mere thought of him sent ripples of unrest through the palace's cultivators.
"Impossible! The previous Palace Lord died! His corpse was cremated!"
"The Thousand-Year Snow Leopard has been in this palace for hundreds of years! The previous Palace Lord died only twenty years ago!"
"And why, in the first place, would the previous Palace Lord ever pose as a spirit beast and feign loyalty to the current Palace Lord? It makes no sense!"
It couldn't be.
They tried desperately to deny it.
But at that very moment—
An intense surge of yin qi erupted from the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard floating in the air.
Swept up in that qi, the cultivators collapsed one after another, blood spraying from their noses and ears.
Every one of them had stopped breathing. The Core Formation cultivators would likely revive thanks to their golden cores, but those at Foundation Establishment were about to meet their deaths as they lay.
"Far too much idle chatter. Quiet, please."
Muttering this, the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard glanced around its surroundings.
Then it turned its gaze toward the single person still standing unharmed.
"Now, how is it that you managed to endure that?"
"..."
Cheon Woo-jin turned around, his mouth sealed shut.
Wi Ju-seon, who had been observing the battle between Cheon Woo-jin and Baek Shin-yeong from the rear, had also collapsed, unconscious.
That said, she was a Core Formation Great Circle expert and well accustomed to handling yin qi, so she at least clung to life.
Still, she would likely remain unconscious for some time.
"Hmm. You took precautions in advance, it seems. Did you see through my identity from the very beginning?"
"..."
He had.
Cheon Woo-jin had noticed the beast's true nature from the moment it appeared with Baek Shin-yeong on its back.
Because a status window had appeared before him, separate and distinct.
A Nascent Soul Late Stage Daoist.
Baek Gang-ryeon, the previous Palace Lord of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace.
That was the true identity of the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard.
"So you were deceiving your own son from the very start, Baek Gang-ryeon."
Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a hard, cold voice.
"You faked your death at Baek Shin-yeong's hands, then let only your Nascent Soul escape and possessed the body of the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard."
"That's right. Precisely so."
The beast—no, Baek Gang-ryeon—wore an expression of deep satisfaction.
"Baek Shin-yeong believed he had killed me completely. He shattered my golden core and devoured every last thread of my power. But... a Nascent Soul cultivator can survive even that."
"..."
"I expelled my Nascent Soul before Baek Shin-yeong could shatter my golden core. Doing so cost me everything I had accumulated over the years—but it allowed me to exist as a disembodied spirit, free of my flesh."
Upon reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, one could transcend the limits of the material world.
Even if the entire physical body, golden core included, were destroyed, so long as the Nascent Soul escaped in time, revival was always possible.
"My Nascent Soul entered the body of the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard. The beast resisted, desperate to keep its body from being stolen, but in the end its soul was destroyed and its flesh passed into my hands."
"And after that, you concealed your identity and watched Baek Shin-yeong."
"I did. I wanted to see just how far that boy could go."
"Was Baek Shin-yeong killing you also part of your plan from the beginning?"
"It was."
Baek Gang-ryeon looked as though he were thoroughly enjoying the conversation.
Having spent decades trapped inside the leopard's body with nothing but stifling silence, he had finally found someone he could actually speak with—how could he not be pleased?
Unlike the cultivators he had silenced moments ago, he treated Cheon Woo-jin as a genuine partner in dialogue.
"I bestowed upon my son ambition, selfishness, and pride. I raised him into a creature who would not hesitate at the sin of slaughtering his own father. Do that, I reasoned, and he would grow splendidly on his own."
"And when that didn't go as planned, you finally revealed yourself today."
"Yes. A hundred years, wasted. The boy was a failure."
Calling his own son a failure, Baek Gang-ryeon narrowed his eyes.
"I still have some three hundred years of life left. Enough for perhaps three more attempts."
"..."
It was a revolting conversation.
As if manipulating his own son Baek Shin-yeong's life like a puppet weren't enough, he now intended to repeat the practice again and again.
"Well... if I obtain the Ghost Summoning Banner here today, I suppose I won't need to."
Baek Gang-ryeon descended from the air to the ground.
Then, moving on all four paws, he strode forward with heavy steps.
"We are entering the ruins. Follow me."
"..."
It was coercive speech that permitted no refusal.
This was no different from Sama Mun, whom he had encountered before.
To those who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, the will of a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator meant nothing at all.
As an absolute power who held the keys to life and death, Baek Gang-ryeon issued his commands to Cheon Woo-jin as though they were the most natural thing in the world.
"..."
Cheon Woo-jin followed behind Baek Gang-ryeon without a word.
Before long, he came face to face with Hoyeon Rin.
"Cultivator Cheon, don't tell me that leopard is—"
Crunch!
Hoyeon Rin was hurled through the air and slammed into a nearby stone pillar.
She left a large smear of blood on the pillar as she crumpled to the floor.
Fortunately, she was not dead.
Baek Gang-ryeon walked straight past the fallen Hoyeon Rin and continued forward, at last arriving at a chamber dominated by a square altar.
"Cultivator Cheon, how goes the fight outsi—"
Oh Hwi-seong, who had been preparing alongside Seo Seol-ryeong, went wide-eyed as he stared at the white snow leopard.
"It's been a long time, Pavilion Master Oh."
"Don't tell me... Old Ancestor Baek Gang-ryeon?"
Oh Hwi-seong asked in a trembling voice.
"You... you were alive all this time?"
"Did you truly believe a man caught off guard by his own son would simply lie down and die like a good little corpse?"
"...!"
Leaving the breathless Oh Hwi-seong where he stood, Baek Gang-ryeon turned his gaze to Seo Seol-ryeong.
"You and I crossed paths now and then over the years. But it's been quite a while since we last spoke properly, hasn't it?"
"Old Ancestor... so you were hiding inside the body of the Thousand-Year Snow Leopard."
Seo Seol-ryeong spoke with a taut voice.
"Were you plotting this from the very beginning? This whole affair as well?"
"I became involved partway through, in this case."
Baek Gang-ryeon spoke in an unhurried voice.
"I first became aware of this affair when Jongri Un appeared on the 6th Layer carrying the Ghost Summoning Banner. But I could not go and retrieve the banner myself, so I set you and Baek Shin-yeong in motion instead."
"...!"
Seo Seol-ryeong and the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace had been the first to act, having sensed that Jongri Un had entrusted the banner to someone else.
Cheon Woo-jin had wondered where such information could have come from—apparently, Baek Gang-ryeon had discerned it through the authority of the Nascent Soul Realm.
"Palace Master Baek... I don't understand."
Oh Hwi-seong swallowed and asked.
"If you intended to remain on the 6th Layer all along without ever ascending to the upper layers of Ghost Head City, why bother faking your death? You could simply have kept the seat of Palace Lord and commanded the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace directly."
"It was for my son's growth."
"You stepped aside so that cultivation resources would be funneled to Baek Shin-yeong? If so, there were far more efficient ways to—"
At that moment, Cheon Woo-jin spoke.
"A pill."
"What?"
"He intended to make a pill out of him."
Cheon Woo-jin turned his gaze toward the square altar at the center of the chamber.
"You meant to raise your own son to his fullest potential, and then compress him into a pill in this ruin."
"...!"
This ruin was a facility where the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace had once rendered its prisoners into pills.
There was no way Baek Gang-ryeon, dwelling in the Snow Mountain Region, could have been ignorant of its existence.
"Pills beneficial to a Nascent Soul Daoist are extraordinarily difficult to obtain. But if one were to render one's own flesh-and-blood child—his very bloodline—into a pill and consume it... the effect would be undeniable."
"Astonishing. That is the correct answer."
Baek Gang-ryeon smiled, baring the leopard's fangs.
"The truth is, I committed an error during my own cultivation. Even if I trained on, my chances of reaching the Soul Formation Realm were slim. So I resolved to raise my son carefully instead. Once he had grown enough, rendering him into a pill would aid me in breaking through the wall."
Baek Shin-yeong was the unfilial son who had killed his own father to climb to a higher realm.
But Baek Gang-ryeon was the father who had deliberately molded his own son into such a being—and then meant to devour him.
Which of the two was the greater villain needed no answer.
"You truly are a man after my own heart. Watching you fight Baek Shin-yeong earlier, your aptitude itself seemed exceptional—and your affinity with ice-attribute cultivation methods should suit you well."
Baek Gang-ryeon said with a laugh.
"Come into the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace. I will seat you in the position of Dharma Protector."
"Old Ancestor."
At that moment, Seo Seol-ryeong interjected.
"Stop this. That man is—"
"Seo Seol-ryeong."
Thud!
Seo Seol-ryeong coughed up blood and lost consciousness.
"Do not interrupt."
"..."
The power to knock even Seo Seol-ryeong out cold with a mere glance.
The strength of Baek Gang-ryeon, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was nothing short of overwhelming.
Oh Hwi-seong, a dragon of the Core Formation Great Circle, stood dripping cold sweat, unable to move a muscle.
"Now then... wait. What was your name again?"
"Cheon Woo-jin."
"Hm. I see."
Hearing Cheon Woo-jin's name, Baek Gang-ryeon nodded.
"Very well, Cheon Woo-jin. From this moment, you are my disciple."
"..."
"So lend me your hand in my work."
With those words, Baek Gang-ryeon turned his gaze back toward the square altar.
"The preparations seem just about finished."
"Ah—!"
Oh Hwi-seong flinched and examined the altar.
All this while, he and Seo Seol-ryeong had been pooling their strength to activate the facility.
And now, at last, those preparations were complete.
"You two intended to use the power of this facility's water-attribute qi to compress and destroy the Ghost Summoning Banner, yes? But redirect that water-attribute qi, and it can serve as the driving force to activate the banner instead."
"...!"
Why had Baek Gang-ryeon simply allowed the Ghost Summoning Banner to be brought into the ruins?
The answer now stood revealed.
Once all the preparations in the ruins were complete, he had intended to seize the fruits of them and activate the banner for himself.
"Then, shall we begin..."
Baek Gang-ryeon approached the altar.
Oh Hwi-seong watched his back with a grim expression.
But at that very moment—
"Oh Hwi-seong."
"Yes?"
Thud.
Oh Hwi-seong, like Seo Seol-ryeong before him, coughed up blood and collapsed.
"You were planning to reveal your dragon form and tear this entire chamber apart. I can't allow that."
"..."
In the end, even Oh Hwi-seong had been subdued.
Before such an overwhelming existence as a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator, whether it was Seo Seol-ryeong or Oh Hwi-seong, resistance itself was simply impossible.
This was not merely a difference in the magnitude of power.
It was a difference in the very speed at which they existed.
The Nascent Soul Realm was a stage of existence that transcended the limits of the material world.
And its substages were divided according to just how far those limits had been surpassed.
The entry stage, Nascent Soul Early, was the stage of overcoming the limits of the body.
One became a Nascent Soul—a spiritual entity—and could escape the confines of flesh.
The next, Nascent Soul Middle, was the stage of overcoming the limits of space.
One could wield arts that manipulated space at will, or forge Dharma Treasures.
And Nascent Soul Late was... the stage of overcoming the limits of time.
One could divide time into infinitesimal slices, and think and act within them.
The reason experts like Oh Hwi-seong and Seo Seol-ryeong had been felled without being able to do anything at all was that they could not overcome this difference.
Still bound to the Core Formation Realm, they could never hope to keep pace with the world in which a Nascent Soul Late Stage being lived.
"Cheon Woo-jin, you will serve as my assistant."
As he gave the order, Baek Gang-ryeon extended his power.
The Ghost Summoning Banner resting atop the altar floated up into the air.
The cloth wrapping its exterior slid away, revealing the form of a banner painted in crimson cinnabar, marked with grotesque patterns.
"I shall summon the power of the Upper Realm into this body of mine, and reach an even higher plane."
Vvvmmm—
Throughout the facility, the condensed water-attribute qi began flowing into the Ghost Summoning Banner.
It was power that should have been used to compress and destroy the banner like the making of a pill—but now it was being injected as the driving force to awaken the banner's function.
Yet Cheon Woo-jin spared the Ghost Summoning Banner not so much as a glance.
His gaze was fixed on Baek Gang-ryeon alone.
Cheon Woo-jin's intuition, sharpened further upon reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment, was quietly telling him to wait for the moment.
There would be only one chance.
Until that chance arrived, he had to hold still.
Otherwise, he would simply die like a dog.
Trusting the gambler's instinct within him and waiting—before his eyes, the Ghost Summoning Banner at last erupted with a vast, engulfing darkness.
And beyond that darkness stretched a brilliant sea of stars.
The instant the gate leading to the Upper Realm swung open.