Demonic Qi (2)

A violent tremor pulsed from within the fissure in space-time.

Nothing had crossed over yet. The mere act of the gate opening was enough to make his entire body feel as though it were about to burst apart.

So this is the Upper Realm.

A world apart from this Lower Realm — the place where Daoists who reached the Soul Formation Realm and achieved Approximation were destined to go. A realm saturated with spiritual energy so pure and so dense that the Lower Realm could not even begin to compare.

The Ghostly Spirit Summoning Banner was a Dharma Treasure that opened the gate to this Upper Realm. It was said to borrow the power of that higher world and grant its wielder an immense authority.

Cheon Woo-jin didn't know the specifics of what that entailed.

But Baek Gang-ryeon, apparently, knew exactly.

"Ooooooh……."

Baek Gang-ryeon let out a groan of awe. He was still in the form of the snow leopard, yet he raised his forepaws as though singing a hymn of praise.

"Yes — this is it. This, at last, is the Upper Realm."

The pupils gazing into the fissure were consumed by raw, ravenous desire. A place that should only be reached by attaining the Soul Formation Realm now stood before his very eyes — and at that fact, Baek Gang-ryeon trembled from head to tail with ecstasy.

Wuuuuuuu!

A colossal formation unfolded around Baek Gang-ryeon. The vast reservoir of Water Spirit Qi that had accumulated within the thousand-year snow leopard's body was drawn into the array, and the formation began to spin like a great wheel.

What it produced was gravitational pull. The formation was reaching across the fissure, trying to drag something through from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Upper Realm beyond.

"Ooooh, Heaven-and-Earth Divine Spirits."

Baek ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Gang-ryeon began to chant — words that might have been exclamations of wonder, or might have been an incantation. He followed them with bizarre syllables too strange for Cheon Woo-jin to parse, and with each phrase, the pull radiating from the formation grew stronger.

No — it grew more precise. It seemed to be tuning its frequency, calibrating itself to seize exactly what was desired.

KUAAAAAAA!

At last, with a roar that shook the fabric of space itself, something long emerged through the rift.

A tentacle.

The organ of some cephalopod-like invertebrate spilled through the fissure. And yet this tentacle did not seem to be truly corporeal. It felt less as though the tentacle itself had crossed into this world, and more as though its shadow — its afterimage — had.

Above all, no status window appeared in Cheon Woo-jin's vision. If that thing were truly the tentacle's main body, he would have been able to see it.

Even if it is nothing but a shadow, I cannot afford to relax.

Cheon Woo-jin endured, cycling his spiritual power. Mere insubstantial shadow though it was, it exuded a caliber vaster than anything he had ever faced. Even now, he felt as though he were being crushed under a mountainous weight — the sheer "mass of existence" that the tentacle carried was bearing down on him from far, far away.

"Ooooh, Sovereign Demon of a Hundred Million Seas!"

Baek Gang-ryeon, meanwhile, bowed his head in jubilant worship.

"O Lord of the Northern Darkness who rules the dark seas! O black Demon Sovereign of the Boundless Dark Vastness and the Endless Fathomless Deep, who raises great waves without a breath of wind!"

Was it coincidence, or inevitability? The being Baek Gang-ryeon had summoned was one deeply entwined with Cheon Woo-jin's own fate.

A sea of the Boundless Dark Vastness and the Endless Fathomless Deep…… a sea so wide it has no end, so far it has no limit. That was precisely the meaning of the pitch-black northern sea of the Body of the Dark True Abyss.

And of course, it resonated just as strongly with Baek Shin-yeong's Northern Darkness Divine Body. Perhaps Baek Gang-ryeon had pursued this sea of the Northern Darkness from the very beginning. Perhaps Baek Shin-yeong's birth with the Northern Darkness Divine Body had been no accident at all, but the deliberate handiwork of his father.

"I, your humble servant Baek Gang-ryeon, beseech you! Grant me this opportunity……!"

To think that Baek Gang-ryeon, once so towering and imperious, would grovel so abjectly in prayer. Cheon Woo-jin stared at the man's prostrate, undefended back. His heart ached to drive a blade between those shoulders right then and there.

But he could not. The moment such an intent even formed, Baek Gang-ryeon would suppress him instantly. Against a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator who had transcended the limits of time, surprise attacks held no meaning. Whatever means Cheon Woo-jin attempted, Baek Gang-ryeon's reaction and restraint would always come first.

"Bestow upon me the power of the Upper Realm!"

Cheon Woo-jin had no idea what Baek Gang-ryeon intended to do with that power. But nothing good could come of it for the world. Knowing the man's character — a father who had devoured his own son in pursuit of a higher realm — whatever he unleashed would be something exquisitely cruel and monstrous.

"Ooooooh……!"

Then Baek Gang-ryeon cried out in rapture. From the enormous tentacle, an unidentified blackish vapor began to seep outward, and something flickered within the snow leopard's abdomen — the child-shaped spirit body, Baek Gang-ryeon's Nascent Soul, was glowing.

"I see it now! So this is how one rewrites the laws of the world! With my own vision, I shall remake this world into—— what?!"

That was when the anomaly struck. The thousand-year snow leopard's body, the vessel Baek Gang-ryeon was using, had begun to crumble away bit by bit.

"Cheon Woo-jin!"

Baek Gang-ryeon's voice rose in urgent command.

"Fulfill your role as my assistant! Bring me a human body!"

"A human body?"

"This qi is far more alien than I anticipated! This snow leopard's flesh cannot contain it — the power must be transferred into a human body!"

The moment those words reached his ears, Cheon Woo-jin realized: the opportunity he had been sensing all along had finally arrived.

"Heaven, Earth, and Man! Of the three great categories of existence in this world, only the flesh of the Human race — standing between Heaven and Earth — can receive such alien qi! This snow leopard belongs to the Earth category, and so it cannot accept this power!"

Baek Gang-ryeon could not move from where he stood. The assistant — Cheon Woo-jin — would have to move for him.

"Those two over there are no use either! One is of the Dragon race and the other of the True Human race — both belong to the Heaven category! You must bring the body of the Human race!"

"……"

"Move, now!"

Cheon Woo-jin did as he was told. He walked straight past Oh Hwi-seong and Seo Seol-ryeong, unconscious nearby — Oh Hwi-seong was of the Dragon race, Seo Seol-ryeong of the True Human race, both classified under Heaven. Beyond the ruins lay the fallen bodies of Wi Ju-seon and the Core Formation cultivators of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace as well, but he did not go that far.

Where Cheon Woo-jin's steps stopped was the passage he had passed through earlier. There lay Hoyeon Rin, unconscious. On the faint chance that she might qualify, he checked her pulse — and then, hoisting her limp body onto his back, he returned to the altar.

Baek Gang-ryeon clicked his tongue in irritation.

"Damn it all — Foundation Establishment! Now I must lower my caliber a great deal, must I not?"

"Lower your caliber?"

"To enter a Foundation Establishment body, I must temporarily compress my own existence down to the Foundation Establishment level! Had I my preference, you would have brought me a Core Formation cultivator!"

At those words, Cheon Woo-jin thought of Yu Gi-ryeong, the Foundation Establishment cultivator he had fought in the Dark Soul Abyss. By rights, only Qi Condensation cultivators could enter the Dark Soul Abyss, yet she had lowered her own realm through the Mountain-Retreat Concealment Art to slip inside — and within the abyss, she had restored her Foundation Establishment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠power.

This was much the same. When a Nascent Soul entered a different body, it had to lower its own realm to match that body's condition — and only after taking residence could it gradually reclaim its Nascent Soul might.

"So be it, then!"

The instant Baek Gang-ryeon clicked his tongue, a flurry of arts unfurled across the snow leopard's body. The flesh stiffened, and a pale light seeped out of it — the Nascent Soul, the hallmark of the Nascent Soul Realm.

The white light took the form of a small child, and on closer inspection it bore eyes, a nose, and a mouth. That Baek Gang-ryeon lowered his own realm in order to enter Hoyeon Rin's limp body. The Nascent Soul itself remained intact, but its presence diminished in an instant — the caliber of his soul had fallen to the Foundation Establishment level.

This was the moment. The moment Cheon Woo-jin had been waiting for all along.

"Baek Gang-ryeon. One moment."

Until now, Cheon Woo-jin had watched the man's atrocities without once invoking the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye. Against a Nascent Soul Late Stage existence that had transcended the limits of time, it was highly likely to fail. Within the vanishingly brief interval between the moment Cheon Woo-jin resolved to use the eye and the moment instant death actually took hold, Baek Gang-ryeon could react — and take Cheon Woo-jin's life.

Cheon Woo-jin had already instantly killed Nascent Soul beings like Heukha-ryong and Sama Mun, but every one of them had been Middle Stage or below. If he acquired speed on par with theirs, he could surely kill a Late Stage Nascent Soul as well — but he was not there yet.

And so Cheon Woo-jin had waited for his moment: the instant, in the process of seizing the power of the Upper Realm, when Baek Gang-ryeon would descend into the same flow of time as himself.

That moment was now.

Instant Death.

His name called, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Baek Gang-ryeon's Nascent Soul turned to meet Cheon Woo-jin's gaze — and in that instant, Cheon Woo-jin activated the Instant Killing Heavenly Eye.

Under normal circumstances, the instant-death effect would have taken hold, and Baek Gang-ryeon would have met his end in his Nascent Soul state.

But then, something utterly unforeseen occurred.

A voice sounded — or rather, a voice reverberated inside his head. Could it be because his divine sense had grown upon reaching Late Stage Foundation Establishment? He could hear the murmuring voice of Baek Gang-ryeon's mind, spoken within his Nascent Soul state.

A torrent of frantic monologue poured into Cheon Woo-jin's mind. In real time it lasted only the briefest of moments, yet within that sliver of time Baek Gang-ryeon seemed to have thought an entire lifetime's worth of thoughts.

[I do not want to die……!]

The instant the final words rang out — the Nascent Soul burst apart with a muffled pop.

The pale light scattered into the surrounding air, leaving not the smallest trace behind. The Nascent Soul Realm was a state where one's existence persisted so long as the Nascent Soul remained; once the Nascent Soul died, that was simply the end. Even if the heart still beat, even if every aperture remained whole, the cultivator perished all the same.

And so the old monster Baek Gang-ryeon, Late Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, met his death.

"……"

But Cheon Woo-jin had no leisure to savor the accomplishment.

The gate to the Upper Realm was still open. The transcendent power that Baek Gang-ryeon had sought to claim was still pouring through it, unabated. Somehow — somehow — that gate had to be closed.

And as Cheon Woo-jin turned his gaze toward the fissure in space-time with that thought—

Beyond the colossal tentacle, his eyes met a pair of golden pupils that had been peering down at this world all along.