Jami-Gongryun
The cult of Jamiseong Hernesh was, surprisingly, a newborn power. It had only been about two hundred years since it first appeared in the world.
Set against the foundational orthodox forces that boasted histories of several millennia—sects like Mount Hua and Wudang—it was little more than an infant.
And yet, in that brief span of time, it had seized major posts within the Demonic Cult.
Where the orthodox side had its great houses and sects—the Beggars’ Guild, Mount Hua, Wudang, and the rest—the Demonic Cult possessed a similar concept: the “schools.” Jamiseong’s abilities had been recognized, and she had claimed the head seat of one of the major schools, the Absorption School. That seat was called “School Master.”
In orthodox terms, it was roughly the rank of a sect leader among the Nine Great Sects.
Such rapid growth had its reasons. Jamiseong had been born with exceptional martial talent—and she was also a being who paired that gift with relentless effort.
She was a researcher by nature. She studied existing martial arts, took them apart, and reassembled them so that tentacles could use them. She optimized human techniques for herself and imitated them. From the data she accumulated, she went on to invent new martial arts of her own.
Imitate. Absorb. Make them her own.
She had longed for humanity, and so she sought to consume everything human.
Along the way she encountered countless techniques—not only those of the Demonic Cult, but of the orthodox and unorthodox factions as well. If it was usable, she used it.
The limitless administrative power of her innumerable fragment-consciousnesses made it possible. She set those fragments to assist every stage of research: collecting martial arts, studying them, analyzing them. It was as if graduate students could be copied at will.
Which meant that every martial art Gongryun knew was already known to Jamiseong.
Jami-Gongryun thrust a palm straight forward.
From this moment on, this body would use martial arts.
The principle of the conch shell’s mind-control was, at its root, a temporary borrowing of another’s brain. It could not create something from nothing; it could only use techniques the body had already learned.
If the borrowed body had studied the Jewanggeomhyeong, for example, that art could be used under control. But if the body belonged to someone who had never learned it, even a fragment-consciousness that knew the form could not force the flesh to perform it.
When she had possessed the cult leader, she had been able to use Jamiheupgong in that state only because the leader already knew it.
A “power-up,” however, was possible—as when the cult leader’s Jamiheupgong had suddenly become terrifyingly strong.
That was because the fragment-consciousness assisted the body in drawing out its full potential. Using the vast store of martial knowledge the fragment possessed, it guided optimal movement and pushed the body’s functions to their limit: near-perfect unconscious coaching.
With Jamiheupgong’s support, the cult leader had been able to use his latent talent to its absolute edge.
In short, the potential of the controlled body was the ceiling of the fragment-consciousness.
So what, then, was Gongryun’s potential?
Jamiseong whispered.
“Child. Shall we try a technique you’re confident in? I’ll help you. So you can use it as perfectly as possible.”
At that, roughly half of Gongryun’s consciousness stirred awake.
Control remained with Jamiseong, while Gongryun’s mind, as if dreaming, unconsciously reproduced the motions it had always performed.
Ocean-wave palm — shockwave propagation at the absolute peak
Gongryun unleashed the Parangjang.
He raised his hand and let internal energy flow from arm to palm.
Shaaaaa…
As the energy moved, a clear sound of waves rose—the sound that rang when Parangjang reached its pinnacle.
Then the shockwave radiated from his hand.
JEOOOONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A perfect shockwave, free of every excess, was released.
It fired straight along the road ahead.
Udeuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The road itself was “pushed back.”
Like a carpet shoved by a kicking foot, the entire surface of the street buckled into waves and slid backward. The damaged stretch ran for tens of meters. It was fortunate that the path of destruction held only empty road—no buildings, no people.
The street tiles tore free of their places and scattered; several cars parked along the way rolled backward like toys; streetlamps of ten-thousand-year cold iron bent in the opposite direction of the shockwave like stalks of ripe rice.
Chaengrang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every window of every building ahead shattered—most of them special anti-blade security glass.
“Kyaaaaaaaaak!!!!”
People startled from sleep screamed. Thinking masters were fighting, they scrambled deeper into their homes.
Parangjang was a short-range close-combat technique.
Its effect fell off with distance.
This overwhelming firepower laughed at that common sense.
Like a tidal wave, it destroyed everything in front of the palm.
What the…? You said Parangjang~~? Isn’t that the Buddha’s Palm~~?
And the Succubus Boss, who had been directly in the path of that Parangjang but had leisurely slipped into a blind spot during the casting window, appraised its power with a look of pure disbelief. Parangjang was not supposed to be a technique like this.
Of course, any martial art grew stronger the more internal energy one poured into it.
But the Boss already knew Gongryun had little internal energy. That meant this power came not from flooding the technique with qi, but purely from the completeness of its execution.
Even the scrap of a star is still part of a star, is that it~~? No, even so, you shouldn’t be able to put out more force than the host body’s limit~~?
A parasite could not exceed the limit of the body it inhabited.
It was only a parasite that possessed the original’s memories and knowledge. Without the original’s vast internal energy, without the powerful tentacles, without that tremendous size and mass—it was a being capable of nothing more than hypnotic parasitism.
That was why she had been underestimating Jamiseong’s fragment-consciousness. Should she start taking this seriously now?
“No need for that~~~”
Tup.
The Succubus Boss reached the blind spot of the Parangjang—right beside Gongryun—and laid a hand on his abdomen.
Gongryun still had not broken from the Parangjang stance. That alone showed the gulf in speed.
The Succubus Boss used her absorption technique.
The mainstay skill of the succubus race.
Shuaaaaaaap!!!
The internal energy in Gongryun’s dantian dwindled rapidly and flowed into the Boss’s body.
It was only a meager handful of qi to begin with. It would be gone in moments.
Drain him dry and he would collapse into qi exhaustion on the spot—effectively the surest form of suppression.
“There’s still a difference in weight class, you know~~”
A body of the Hyeon-gyeong, the Profound Realm, no less.
Even with a fragment-consciousness assisting him, he could not match the Boss.
“All right, Gongryun~~ Get some sleep and when you wake up it’ll all be— Keuhk!!! What!!!???”
In that instant, the Boss, mid-absorption, went deathly pale.
One fact she had not known:
The poison that should never have existed, stationed in Gongryun’s dantian.
The toxic internal energy of the Sangongdok poured into the Boss’s body.
“What is this???!!!!”
She tore her hand away at once.
The Succubus Boss had not known about Gongryun’s toxic qi.
Ordinarily, reading the poison energy inside an opponent’s dantian was something only a seasoned poison-sight master of the Sichuan Tang Clan could do. That was the nature of a poison dantian. If anyone could see one, the Tang Clan could never have worked as spies.
In any case, having absorbed toxic qi she had never imagined, the Succubus Boss took a very slight internal injury. She was a little shaken. She could not even remember the last time absorption itself had wounded her. She had refined the technique until it could take in qi of even the most bizarre natures—she had never expected Sangongdok to come bursting out.
It was not enough to hinder her martial arts. Her own internal energy was so vast that it was like dissolving a handful of poison into a lake.
Even so, she could not absorb any more of that filth.
It felt like downing plutonium in one shot.
“You said you were confident.”
Jamiseong spoke with easy assurance.
From ancient times, the counter to absorption techniques had been poison arts. Absorb poison and you only took internal damage.
And if that poison was the most vicious kind a martial artist could face—
With that, the opponent’s main technique was sealed.
Jamiseong moved straight into the next sequence.
Inside Gongryun’s mind she searched for other usable arts.
Then she sent an arm flying at the Succubus once more.
Organ-piercing claw — bypass external defense, seize the innards
A claw technique that drove sharp nails through the belly.
With Jamiseong’s aid, it could be used without artificial nails.
Tentacles had no nails to begin with. The claw art she had reinterpreted was a technique that used not a nail organ, but the very tip of the finger itself.
Kiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gongryun’s hand-blade, charged with the power of Gwanbokjo, tore through the air with a shriek and shot straight at the Succubus.
She dodged with the barest movement. The outer wall of the building where she had been standing caved inward. That was the Boss’s own building—reinforced with special materials, no less.
…Gwanbokjo is too strong too…? Is that Suseo Magong…? the Boss wondered again.
And immediately the next link in the chain:
Falling Falcon Claw — successive strikes like a raptor diving from open sky
Sseeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sseeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sseeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sseeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!
Sseeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!
With the sound of a falcon plunging through the firmament, successive Nakeungjo strikes were unleashed.
The Succubus Boss deliberately shifted her body toward the road.
To keep the damage off the building. Her young son was inside.
The slashing force of Nakeungjo crashed toward her.
Once more she used footwork and lightness skills to evade. The cuts missed by mere millimeters.
The claw-qi that slipped past scored gouges into the street.
“…”
A certain story suddenly came to the Boss’s mind.
The cliché of a disciple who, having obtained a demonic sword and grown far too strong, lost himself and killed his master.
The master, out of affection for the disciple, had never used full strength—and in the end had allowed a fatal wound.
…Surely not?
The Boss told herself that was absolutely not the case.
Even so, that can’t be it.
Then the Succubus Boss’s figure vanished.
An instant later she reappeared directly behind Gongryun. Footwork refined to its absolute peak.
She lifted her leg. A kicking art—another of her main techniques.
Oneness — a side kick refined to a single absolute form
The side kick smashed into Gongryun’s body.
KWAANG!!!!!!!!!!
A sound like a cannon going off, and Gongryun’s body flew in a long arc.
Kuung!!!
He landed headfirst at a nearby construction site.
She had flung him somewhere she could fight without holding back.
He sprang up at once.
Even now, Gongryun’s protective energy armor functioned perfectly—further strengthened by Jamiseong’s fragment-consciousness.
And when Gongryun’s mind cleared, what he saw was a figure streaking toward him from afar.
Nine tails streaming behind her, the Succubus came diving in with a double side kick.