The Fallen Immortal's Descent
The moment the thunderous boom of an explosion echoed from the Rebel Cloud Gang’s direction, Namgung Woo kicked off the ground. The shockwave that erupted from his Infinite Step True Stomp froze the chaotic clash between the Rebel Cloud Gang and the Wudang Sect for a split second. The profound principle of Sword Qi Propulsion infused into the Fish-Dragon Ascending to Heaven technique launched his body high into the air.
“That man…!”
Having received a detailed description of Namgung Woo’s appearance from the Black Sword Ghost, the Demon Lord of Halong recognized his identity at a single glance. The instant the Demon Lord of Halong turned his eyes toward Namgung Woo, Go Won-jinin’s Songmun Ancient Sword shot forward like it had been sucked into the opening.
The blade pushed aside the heavy crescent halberd with graceful force. Go Won-jinin was displaying the very essence of the Taiji Sword—the pinnacle of softness.
“Hup!”
The Demon Lord of Halong did not stubbornly try to block with his crescent halberd. Instead, he bent his body low. Using the Iron Bridge technique, he barely avoided the sword. Yet the Taiji Sword refused to let him go so easily.
Shuk!
The Songmun Ancient Sword finally grazed his shoulder. The moment the Demon Lord of Halong’s posture broke, Go Won-jinin did not hesitate. He thrust out his palm. It was the Cotton Palm—one of Wudang’s two great palm techniques, paired with Taiji Fist.
A soft strike that barely made a sound. But its damage was far from light. The internal-energy palm technique that pierced through protective qi finally inflicted internal injuries on the Demon Lord of Halong.
“…Tsk. I took a loss.”
The Demon Lord of Halong drew up a mouthful of stagnant blood and spat it out. This level of internal injury was still bearable. By now, Namgung Woo’s presence had already vanished from his senses.
From the moment Namgung Woo used Sword Qi Propulsion to launch himself into the air until Go Won-jinin struck the Demon Lord of Halong with the Cotton Palm, only three exchanges had passed. In less than ten seconds, Namgung Woo had already flown far into the distance.
Having confirmed that the greatest variable had disappeared, the Demon Lord of Halong finally revealed his true power.
“From now on, I’ll face you properly.”
The Jegal Family’s estate had become a crucible of chaos.
Though it lacked towering castle walls, the Jegal Family estate was a fortress in its own right. Mechanical devices that operated through physical principles formed its mechanisms, while artificial spells based on feng shui created specific formations. This combination of mechanical arrays and spell formations was the Jegal Family’s signature art.
No other mechanical-spell formation in the Central Plains could compare to the one protecting the Jegal estate. Even the Forbidden City fell short by comparison, and even the Sichuan Tang Clan—who had reached the extreme of hidden weapons—could only claim superior quality in their concealed armaments. In overall sophistication of mechanisms, they still lagged behind the Jegal Family.
It was only natural for the descendants of Zhuge Liang, the man who created the Eight Trigrams Formation and invented the wooden ox and flowing horse as well as the repeating crossbow. A fortress among fortresses. The defensive power of the Jegal estate was so renowned that people said one might defeat the Jegal Family, but never conquer them.
Yet that very defense was crumbling now.
Reversing the formation through high-level spells? Extracting internal information to find the correct answer and breach the mechanisms? None of that was happening. There was only mindless, overwhelming destruction.
Walls collapsing. Buildings exploding. The earth shaking. Flames soaring and smoke billowing…
The mechanical arrays that could repel thousands of soldiers, the absolute formations that could trap even supreme experts by dispersing their energy so they could not escape without profound spell knowledge—both were rendered utterly powerless.
Watching the painstakingly built tower of the Jegal Family collapse in an instant, Jegal Chong muttered in despair.
“They’ve truly gone mad. Gunpowder… Did the Great Ming imperial court look that insignificant to them?”
Indeed. The method the Rebel Cloud Gang had chosen to attack the Jegal Family was nothing more than an enormous, crude explosion using vast quantities of gunpowder.
This was why Namgung Woo had been unable to sense the qi wave in advance and respond. It was only natural. When neither martial arts nor spells were used at all, how could one possibly sense the energy?
“To face the Jegal Family of the world, one must at least go this far, wouldn’t you say?”
The voice came from behind Jegal Chong. It was a voice he recognized. He had only heard it once in passing, but with his exceptional memory, Jegal Chong immediately recalled its owner.
“…Heo Rok.”
“I abandoned that name long ago.”
Dongbang Hwa let out a self-mocking laugh upon hearing a name he thought had been forgotten.
“Who told you?”
He shook his head before continuing.
“No. There’s no need to ask. It must have been the Wudang Sect. They must be desperate to eliminate me this time.”
“…I thought you would be at Mount Tianzi.”
“I did not come here to exchange questions and answers with you.”
“If you wish to hear my answer, it would be wise for you to answer as well.”
Dongbang Hwa was a monster. A monster who had lived for over eighty years. Whether due to insufficient enlightenment or some other reason, he had not reached the realm of supreme experts. Yet he was a bizarre existence against whom even a supreme expert could not guarantee victory.
The internal energy he had accumulated over his long life. The knowledge and methods he had broadened by collecting every martial art and spell he could get his hands on. The experience he had built by surviving both the Blood Cult Catastrophe and the Righteous-Demonic Great War.
Yet Jegal Chong showed not the slightest sign of shrinking before such a being. It was the spirit of a man who sat at the head of a great clan.
“Using gunpowder. You must be confident you can handle the consequences. Is it Consort Man?”
“…As expected of the Jegal. You hit the mark immediately.”
Consort Man. The woman who enjoyed the boundless favor of the current Emperor, Seonghwa-je. She was the one who had killed the Emperor’s only legitimate son and still received forgiveness. Even the grave crime of violating Great Ming law by using gunpowder weapons could be rendered innocent in her hands.
Was this explanation a reward for guessing correctly? Or was he simply intoxicated with his own cleverness and wanted to boast?
Dongbang Hwa added more details to Jegal Chong’s answer.
“Everyone wants to live. And not just live—they want to live young. Consort Man’s desperation was stronger than anyone else’s. Drawing her in was no trouble at all.”
When her own child died, Consort Man had dared to vent her anger by killing the Emperor’s son. Having grown old and unable to bear more children, she had committed every kind of atrocity to ensure no other woman could give the Emperor a child. How sweet must the promise of renewed youth have sounded to such a woman?
No matter how close the officials of Wuhan were to the Jegal Family, they could never withstand pressure coming from higher up the chain. The moment they gained the backing of Consort Man, Wuhan became a place the Rebel Cloud Gang could freely enter and exit.
Jegal Chong finally understood the full story behind the preemptive strike in Wuhan that he had failed to anticipate.
“To such… to such a degree of greed. You wish to live so hideously, even by stealing the lives of others! And after all that, you dare call yourself the former leader of Wudang…!”
BOOM!
Before Jegal Chong could finish speaking, Dongbang Hwa’s hand shot out. Sword wind fired from his extended index and middle fingers tore through the air, grazing past Jegal Chong’s side and shattering the wall of a building.
The relaxed, mocking smile on Dongbang Hwa’s face had frozen over like a sheet of ice.
He walked slowly toward Jegal Chong and spoke.
“We do not ask for much. We simply want to live. We merely wish to extend this wretched life even a little longer. Is the desire for survival not the instinct of all living beings? How can following that instinct be considered evil? On the contrary, meekly accepting death is what betrays the duty of those who live. We are simply fighting harder than anyone else. Against this fate.”
A faint, creeping energy began to coil around Dongbang Hwa’s entire body. It looked as if tentacles made of qi were stretching out from him—an eerie sight. Yet, unbelievably, that energy was clearer and purer than anything else.
It resembled the orthodox internal energy Go Won-jinin had displayed, only covered by a layer of sinister, poisonous miasma. The title Fallen Immortal suddenly made perfect, intuitive sense.
“If you still cannot understand us, then I shall take what I want by force.”
Losing one or two limbs would be acceptable. Dongbang Hwa scattered lethal moves with the clear intention of leaving Jegal Chong barely alive.
The ominous blades flying from the sword-finger technique of both hands. It was Dongbang Hwa’s own unique martial art, created by combining several techniques he had learned separately with the Wudang sword methods that pursued using softness to overcome hardness—particularly the especially direct and murderous Life-Severing Sword Technique.
But Jegal Chong was no easy opponent. He too was a Transcendent Realm expert. In an instant, he unfurled the fan he had drawn and unleashed a massive gust of energy.
“The Seven Star Lantern Soul-Binding Technique is a spell impossible for humans to perform!”
While enduring Dongbang Hwa’s fierce assault by using the Heavenly Mechanism Illusory Steps—the secret movement technique of the Jegal Family renowned alongside its spell arts—Jegal Chong shouted urgently.
In contrast, Dongbang Hwa’s voice remained calm as he continued to press the attack.
“It becomes possible with the White Book.”
“The White Book’s spiritual axis has already been twisted! It cannot exert its power for seven full days!”
“That is what you believe. For me, it is possible.”
Clang!
Dongbang Hwa released his sword-finger stance and abruptly spread his palm. The palm strike slammed into Jegal Chong without warning. Even the Heavenly Mechanism Illusory Steps, which used the principles of the Eight Trigrams to confuse the opponent’s sense of direction, could not overcome Dongbang Hwa’s accumulated experience.
Dongbang Hwa’s skill clearly surpassed Jegal Chong’s. The Wudang Sect’s supreme technique, the Cotton Palm—the very same art that had injured the Demon Lord of Halong—now shook Jegal Chong’s internal organs.
“Keuk, huk!”
The Heavenly Mechanism Illusory Steps collapsed. Jegal Chong staggered backward haphazardly, coughing up blood. The fact that he still straightened his instinctively hunched body and assumed at least a basic stance showed how diligently he had trained.
“…The Seven Star Lantern Soul-Binding Technique… must not be performed using the power of a treasure like the White Book… True vitality and spirit are ever-changing… Even if you forcibly bind a god with the White Book, the body will not endure and will collapse….”
“I know.”
A chilling, ghastly aura rose over Dongbang Hwa’s previously cold face.
“That is why I first perform the grand technique on others to confirm the side effects. After several improvements, usable results should emerge.”
“…You truly choose the path of the heretic!”
“From the moment my sword was broken, it was a path I had already resolved to walk.”
There was no place left to retreat. Jegal Chong assessed his own condition. The Cotton Palm was an incredibly powerful technique, but fortunately he had managed to raise his protective gang qi in time and minimized the damage. The internal energy of the Great Heavenly Star Divine Art was still circulating smoothly. He could still fight.
Reading Jegal Chong’s will to continue, Dongbang Hwa clicked his tongue.
“Give it up. It is impossible for you. The mechanical-spell formation has been destroyed, and the Wudang Sect is being held back by the Demon Lord of Halong. The Ability Cloud Squad Leader? I left the Destroying Island Demon to deal with him. Unless a supreme expert appears, this battle cannot be overturned. Surrender now and hand over the White Book and the Seven Star Lantern Soul-Binding Technique. If you do, I will end things here.”
“…There is one.”
“Oh? Then show me. What move do you have left?”
“Move? It is not that kind of thing.”
Jegal Chong gave a faint, triumphant smile. As Dongbang Hwa had said, overcoming a crisis of this magnitude would be difficult without a supreme expert. And while the Jegal Family currently had no supreme expert of their own…
“Our nephew has brought one here.”
As if Jegal Chong’s words were a command, lightning struck.