The Seventh Profound Meridian
Han Buri muttered the names under his breath, his face a blank mask.
"Yeop Pung? The Black Frost Sword?"
If the Military Supply Bureau had resolved to swallow Cheonun Sect whole, the Black Frost Sword would soon rest in their grasp. He knew perfectly well they had not the slightest reason to return it.
Their true purpose in challenging Yeop Pung to a duel was transparent. They meant to spill his blood and hold him up as a lesson for every young disciple of Cheonun—to show them, in no uncertain terms, the fate of anyone who dared play the clever fool before the Military Supply Bureau.
"Have you anything more to say?"
Naeng Chu glanced sideways at Han Buri as he spoke.
"The exhibition match is a critical event ordered by the Governor himself. There must not be the slightest error. Sect Master Han—no, Headmaster Han—do not disappoint His Excellency!"
"Understood!"
Han Buri had no choice but to bow his head. Naeng Chu's repeated emphasis was surely to ensure Yeop Pung could not escape. They called it an exhibition match, but for Yeop Pung it was as good as a death sentence.
"Let's go!"
Naeng Chu swept his arm in a grand gesture and led his men out of Wangcheon Hall. They headed straight for Sa Cheonseong's lodgings on Mangun Peak.
Arriving at the door, Naeng Chu flung it open without so much as a knock.
The room was steeped in darkness. A figure lay face-down on the bed, hair a wild tangle. Sensing the intrusion, Sa Cheonseong spat a single icy word.
"Get out."
"Sa Cheonseong..."
Looking at him, Naeng Chu felt as though his chest were being torn open. Is this truly the same genius youth who once held all of Fengsang Commandery in his grip?
Sa Cheonseong hadn't shaved in days. His beard was unkempt, his hair a matted snarl. He looked like a man who had lost everything. How had the genius Naeng Chu had personally raised fallen this far?
But he could not blame Sa Cheonseong. Anyone who had suffered such humiliation would want to die. If blame was to be laid, it belonged to that bastard Yeop Pung, the architect of every last scheme. Every tragedy in Sa Cheonseong's life had begun the day he crossed paths with Yeop Pung on Taibai Peak.
This time, the Governor meant to give Sa Cheonseong a chance to cast off the shadow festering in his heart and stand again. And Naeng Chu had come today to place in his hands a guarantee so absolute that nothing could go wrong.
"Commander!"
The moment Sa Cheonseong saw Naeng Chu, he scrambled off the bed and dropped to his knees.
"Look at the state of you!"
"Commander..."
Sa Cheonseong could not lift his head for shame.
Naeng Chu let out a deep sigh.
"Enough. Get up! Losing yourself to bloodlust like that—did you look like some animal? Is that how you felt every time you took a life? Take this!"
Naeng Chu slammed his palm down on the table with a heavy thud. A flash of crimson light split the gloom, and a dark-red long spear blazed into being, radiating a dazzling, blood-soaked brilliance. It writhed like a scarlet python straining to break free.
Sa Cheonseong's eyes flew wide.
"This is—!"
He recognized the spear, and his entire body trembled.
"That's right. This is this general's own weapon, a supreme-grade Profound Weapon—the Blood Phoenix! Cheonseong, the Governor has given his orders. In half a month, Cheonun Sect will be renamed Cheonwoon Martial Academy and must surrender all its assets to the Military Supply Bureau. At the renaming ceremony, you will use this Blood Phoenix to tear out Yeop Pung's heart!"
"Your Excellency!"
Frenzied hatred and killing intent blazed in Sa Cheonseong's eyes. He slammed his forehead into the floor with a heavy thud and cried out.
"Cheonseong will repay the Governor's and the Commander's grace without fail!"
"That's as it should be."
Naeng Chu nodded in satisfaction. Then he paused, withdrew a silk box from his spatial ring, and set it carefully on the table.
"This match concerns the dignity and glory of our Cheonbong Army. Not the slightest mistake will be tolerated. Take this Gwangjeondan as a precaution. You know what to do with it, I trust?"
Drastically enhances strength in a single burst—at a terrible, irreversible cost.
Sa Cheonseong's face went rigid. He knew exactly what the Gwangjeondan was—the astonishing power it granted, and the horrific side effects that came with it.
But now that I possess a supreme-grade Profound Weapon, do I really need to swallow this terrifying pill just to deal with a single Yeop Pung?
"Don't worry. Cheonseong will tear Yeop Pung to pieces!"
"Good!"
Naeng Chu nodded, satisfied.
"Then get up and make yourself presentable. The next half-month will be somewhat chaotic for Cheonun Sect. You will crush anyone who dares raise a banner of rebellion!"
"Understood!"
The old arrogant, icy expression returned to Sa Cheonseong's face. No—something far more savage and cruel than before now hung over his features.
That was simply how people were. Once a certain line in the heart was crossed, every moral standard came crashing down. For the next half-month, his rage and hatred would pour down upon Cheonun Sect without mercy.
The summit of Nagun Peak.
Maeng Chang-haeng walked slowly toward the mysterious pavilion at its center.
"Senior Brother, Lee Mujin is finally making his move."
The wooden door creaked open. The astonishing wave of Profound Qi that erupted in that instant sent Maeng Chang-haeng's long hair streaming behind him. Even he—a powerhouse who almost never so much as flinched—found himself taking an involuntary half-step back.
What in the world is hidden behind that wooden door...? For the Profound Qi to be this powerful...
Lee Sujol stepped out, his expression carved in stone. Maeng Chang-haeng pressed on at once.
"In half a month, on the fifteenth of the ninth month, Cheonun Sect must change its name to Cheonwoon Martial Academy and surrender all its assets. And Lee Mujin intends to hold an exhibition match between Sa Cheonseong and Yeop Pung."
"Oh?"
Lee Sujol's face had not so much as twitched at the first part. At the last, his eyebrows rose.
"He wants to amuse himself with a killing game."
"Naeng Chu has already gone to see Sa Cheonseong. They've likely finished their preparations. If Sa Cheonseong has also obtained a supreme-grade Profound Weapon, Yeop Pung will have a hard fight ahead of him."
Who would have guessed? Even while secluded on Nagun Peak, Maeng Chang-haeng and Lee Sujol saw every move within Cheonun Sect as if it were laid out on their palms. Not a single action of Naeng Chu's escaped their surveillance.
Lee Sujol pressed his lips tight, then spoke of something deeper.
"The match is a secondary concern. The real problem will come after. Yeop Pung will face a pressure far greater than his own life or death..."
Maeng Chang-haeng fell silent. Worry clouded his face. After a long moment, he spoke slowly.
"Senior Brother, Yeop Pung is still just a child. Isn't this too harsh...?"
Lee Sujol, too, was silent for a long while. At last he let out a deep sigh.
"If Yeop Pung cannot endure it, I will explain everything to him myself and see him leave unharmed."
"Senior Brother..."
Lee Sujol raised a hand, cutting him off.
"Aigoo..."
Maeng Chang-haeng let out a long sigh and gazed toward the distant hut where Yeop Pung was. Specks of starlight glittered within. It was the phenomenon that appeared whenever Yeop Pung cultivated the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture.
Lee Sujol stroked his beard and said to Maeng Chang-haeng,
"Yeop Pung has likely neglected his cultivation lately, preoccupied with the Cheonbong Army. The match against Sa Cheonseong is too close to call. For the next half-month, I want you to guide him well..."
Maeng Chang-haeng swallowed the turmoil in his heart and spoke.
"Heh heh, neglected? How neglected could he be? The brat's only sixteen, and they say he's already condensed over two hundred stars. He's far beyond what we were at his age. And who knows how many more cards he's still hiding? Still, a bit of polishing wouldn't hurt!"
The two old men walked slowly toward Yeop Pung's hut. Faint starlight leaked from within.
Then they saw it, and both men stopped dead in their tracks. Lee Sujol's whole body shuddered—and he ripped several strands from his own beard.
"Damn it!"
This brat!
The two old men turned around without a word and walked away.
Guide him? Guide what?
What guidance could they possibly offer a monster whose cultivation speed defied all common sense?
He'll figure it out himself!
Yeop Pung had no idea he had once again wounded the two old men's pride. In truth, he had just returned from a half-month of time travel and was pouring every ounce of himself into the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture.
On this latest journey, he had spent a full fifteen days doing absolutely nothing but quietly cultivating in the herb garden of Cheonun's back mountains a hundred years past, together with Heukgu and the others. Yeom Woon-hwan had been there too, of course.
When he had gone back this time, a corner of his heart had ached at the sight of the young girl. He knew that before long, this lovely child would face a crisis that would nearly cost her her life. An inexplicable, almost unreal feeling washed over him—something he could not put into words.
But he was certain of one thing. To throw himself into that unpredictable vortex of fate—the Tianyun Blood Night—he had to become stronger.
So he set his doubts aside and devoted himself entirely to cultivation. He asked Yeom Woon-hwan for guidance on the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture, and fortunately the adorable girl held nothing back.
To Yeom Woon-hwan, the foremost genius of Cheonun a hundred years ago, the constellation diagrams of the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture were no secret at all. She had already memorized every last one. Thanks to her, Yeop Pung was spared the awkward fate of staring blankly at a wall on Nagun Peak.
Because of that, he had made another leap in the past half-month of training. He had grasped more than four-fifths of the complete star charts, and the number of stars he condensed during qi circulation had approached four hundred. Moreover, with the Saint Spirit Physique opened, Profound Qi flowed through him without obstruction, and his circulation speed had reached its peak. In a mere half-month, he had opened a third of his fifth Profound Meridian.
Even more astonishing was that, in the blink of an eye of real time, he had accomplished the equivalent of half a month of grueling cultivation.
Fortunately, Lee Sujol could only see the progress of Yeop Pung's Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture. Had he witnessed the fifth Profound Meridian opening in an instant inside Yeop Pung's body, he might well have yanked out a few more strands of his beard.
Yeop Pung had just swallowed a Nakryeong Root. As the elixir's effects combined with the advanced Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture, the Profound Qi in his body surged like a raging river into his fifth Profound Meridian.
Radiant gold Profound Qi roared through his meridians like a flooding river, pouring into the fifth Profound Meridian without pause or mercy.
The fifth Profound Meridian—the Origin Meridian—was the most vital of the six meridians of the Profound Realm. It pierced through the heart, stretched to the neck, and connected to the final meridian, the Spirit Meridian. It was the gathering place of the other four meridians, the grandest and most robust of them all.
Once the Origin Meridian was opened, the heart burned like a roaring flame, Profound Qi boiled, and physical strength reached eight thousand catties.
Right now, the Origin Meridian in Yeop Pung's body had already connected to his heart, and slender meridian threads were reinforcing every blood vessel like silk. At the same time, the newly formed meridian was stretching upward from the atria, preparing to continue its ascent.
And then, all at once, Yeop Pung's eyes flew open.
Huh? What's going on? Why is the meridian stretching up from the atria splitting into two branches?
One was heading upward toward the location of the sixth Profound Meridian. The other... unbelievably, was branching back toward the front of his chest.
What in the world is this?
Yeop Pung had read at least several dozen Profound Dao manuals on Cheonun's qi-circulation training. Never once had he heard of a second branch forming during Origin Meridian cultivation.