Chapter 188: Heavenly Demon Divine Sword (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 188: Heavenly Demon Divine Sword (2)
I was on my way to the haunt of a wild demon known as the Purple Lightning Demon, returning any other wild demons I encountered along the way back to nature.
That day was no different from any other. Contrary to my preconceptions, Tianshan was also a place where people lived. Although their way of thinking was quite different, it wasn't a far cry from the territories of the Righteous Faction.
It was just that human life was a bit cheaper, people occasionally turned into monsters, and you’d run into some weird-looking magical beasts.
If you looked closely at the details, it was quite different—but that’s true whenever you visit a foreign country. Tianshan was… well, it felt exactly like a remote island inhabited by cannibals.
In other words, just a slightly distant foreign land. But, you know, with a bit of extra spice.
That was why Seo-jun found his current situation quite fascinating.
"Aaaaagh...!"
He had just captured a water deer.
"P-please spare me, it is...!"
To be precise, it was a horned water deer-human. Wait, did water deer even have horns?
"And what kind of friend are you?"
Seo-jun tucked his hands under the creature's armpits and hoisted it up.
Despite the small horns on its head, the creature looked no different from a chubby-cheeked toddler.
"I-I'm going to be eaten, it is...!"
The child flailed her short limbs, struggling to break free.
Were both water deer and regular deer herbivores?
He couldn't quite remember. He thought water deer might be omnivores. Regardless, he was pretty sure both ate grass.
Seo-jun pulled a carrot from his robes and brought it to the child's mouth. It was a snack he carried around to feed the occasional magical beast he encountered.
"I-I hate carrots, it is...?"
"Then what do you eat?"
"Bok choy is delicious these days, it is?"
He didn't exactly carry bok choy around. Seo-jun set the child down on the ground and rummaged through his pack.
"How about a peach?"
"I like peaches, it is."
When he handed the peach over, the child grabbed it with both hands and began to munch on it skillfully.
"So, why are you playing in a dangerous place like this?"
"I wasn't playing, it is!"
What was with this kid's way of speaking? Was it some dialect used by water deer-humans? Seo-jun scratched his cheek and asked.
"Then what were you doing?"
"I was running away, it is!"
"From who?"
"I don't know, it is! It was a person spitting out purple lightning, it is!"
"Oh."
If it was purple lightning, there was a high probability it was the Purple Lightning Demon. Talk about luck.
Wait, no.
Seo-jun looked at the child with a suspicious gaze.
"You ran away from him? How? No matter how you look at it, he didn't reach the Super Peak Realm by winning a child's game."
"Nok-yo is naturally good at running away, it is."
"Is your name Nok-yo?"
"That's right, it is."
Nok-yo, who had devoured the peach in an instant, held out both hands.
Seo-jun took out another peach and placed it in her palms.
"So, are you... like a water deer-human?"
"Water deer? What is that, it is? Nok-yo is a deer, it is!"
"Ah, right."
Now that she mentioned it, he remembered that the ones with horns were regular deer.
He thought only stags had horns—but as far as Seo-jun could tell, this child named Nok-yo was unmistakably a girl.
He knew because he had raised Geum Chun-bong in her younger days. There was no way this kid was a boy.
"Are your horns detachable too, by any chance?"
When he tapped Nok-yo's horns, she trembled violently.
"I-if the horns fall off, I die, it is...!"
"You'd die? Just because a horn falls off?"
"Humans die if their heads fall off, it is!"
"Aha."
Put that way, it actually made some sense. As Seo-jun nodded with a serious expression, Nok-yo gently stroked her own horns.
"When I become an adult, I can hide my horns however I want, it is. But Nok-yo isn't an adult yet, so I can't hide them, it is."
So that was how it worked. He didn't know much about deer-humans, but he couldn't really argue when the person involved said so.
"Anyway, you were running away from a person who spits purple lightning?"
"Ah! That's right, it is!"
Nok-yo shoved the half-eaten peach into her mouth.
"I haff to wun away faff, it iff!"
"You have to run away fast?"
Nok-yo nodded vigorously. Seo-jun poked Nok-yo's cheeks, which were puffed out like a chipmunk's because of the peach, a few times before standing up.
"You don't have to. I'm stronger."
"Ooh...?"
Ptooey! Spitting out the peach pit, Nok-yo sprawled out on the dirt.
"Then Nok-yo will rest for a bit, it is."
"What."
"Wake me up when it's over, it is."
Having finished her sentence, Nok-yo fell fast asleep right then and there. Seo-jun looked down at her, utterly dumbfounded.
What is this kid, seriously?
She had the ability to escape from the Purple Lightning Demon and an extraordinary level of sheer audacity. He almost wanted to ask for the secret to her upbringing.
Rumble—!
Just then, accompanied by the crack of thunder, a presence began to rapidly approach.
Seo-jun could guess its identity from the lightning Qi that was already making his skin tingle.
"Well, speak of the devil."
Seo-jun scratched his head and shouted loudly.
"Halt!"
His voice was infused with the power to command demons. For a moment, the Purple Lightning Demon's presence seemed to falter, but then— Boom! —with a massive thunderclap, the figure charged forward.
"You dare imitate the Heavenly Demon...! Who the hell are you!?"
An old man shrouded in purple electricity pulled his right hand back. Crackle! A massive amount of lightning Qi swelled in his palm.
"As for who I am..."
"Talk is useless!"
Rumble────────!!!
In an instant, lightning flashed, and the Purple Lightning Demon materialized right in front of him.
He's the one who asked.
Seo-jun thrust his palm forward to meet the attack. The Purple Lightning Demon's palm and Seo-jun's palm collided.
Thud!
The resulting sound wasn't particularly loud. This was because Seo-jun had layered White River Returning to the Ocean and the Star-Absorbing Great Art to significantly dampen the power of the strike.
I see.
Observing the Purple Lightning Demon up close, Seo-jun quickly grasped the characteristics of the Purple Lightning Demonic Art.
The old man's entire body was tinged with a faint purple hue, and the strange electrical currents swirling around him seemed to act as a constantly maintained Protective Energy Art.
Sticking your hands into human corpses to master it... that was similar to the Black Water Great Demonic Palm, wasn't it?
Since he was already utilizing the Black Water Great Demonic Palm without resorting to such gruesome processes, if he modified this martial art appropriately, it seemed like it would be a highly useful technique for Namgung Su-ah.
"Ugh...! So noisy, it is! Let me sleep, it is!"
Nok-yo, who had been sleeping soundly behind him, suddenly groaned. The Purple Lightning Demon's eyes widened when he spotted her.
"So you were here! Offer up that body immediately!"
The Purple Lightning Demon tried to bypass Seo-jun to get to Nok-yo. However, Seo-jun refused to let go of his hand.
With their palms still touching, Seo-jun curled his fingers to lock the man in a tight grip, yanked his arm inward, and delivered a brutal kick to his abdomen.
"Guh...!"
Boom! The Purple Lightning Demon was sent flying backward, crashing heavily into the dirt.
Seo-jun attempted to strike up a conversation while watching the purple lightning flickering through the dust cloud.
"What do you plan to do with the child?"
"What do I plan to do?!"
Whoosh! A wave of Qi erupted, instantly clearing the dust. The Purple Lightning Demon, his body now glowing a deeper shade of purple, grinned to reveal yellowed teeth.
"A female Deer-Man (Nok-in) holds pure Yin energy while alive, and pure Yang energy dwells in her antlers after death."
The Purple Lightning Demonic Art was a technique of extreme Yang. If no countermeasures were taken, the practitioner's own body would eventually be incinerated by the overflowing Yang energy.
To neutralize that volatile Yang, a woman's Yin energy was required, and the Yin energy of a female Deer-Man was so incredibly pure that its stabilizing effects were peerless.
Furthermore, even if she died after being used, pure Yang energy could still be harvested from her antlers. Thus, to a practitioner of the Purple Lightning Demonic Art, a female Deer-Man was the ultimate spirit herb.
"So, I shall make a proposal. Hand over that girl. Do so, and I'll let you use her about twice."
"Use?"
"I am talking about plucking Yin to supplement Yang. If you harvest the Deer-Man's Yin energy, you'll be able to significantly increase your internal energy. Isn't it a generous offer?"
"You're just a crazy pedo."
"Correct! This Purple Lightning Demon is indeed a man among men who walks the Path of the Overlord!"
Seo-jun silently drew his sword. Seeing this, the Purple Lightning Demon looked puzzled and raised his offer.
"Not to your liking? Then let's make it three times."
"I'll divide your body into three pieces."
Seo-jun charged. The Purple Lightning Demon couldn't hide his bewilderment.
"No, why? It's such a good offer!"
Even in his confusion, the Purple Lightning Demon skillfully executed his martial arts.
Purple Lightning Explosive Destruction.
Rumble—! Purple lightning erupted from the demon's entire body, violently sweeping across the area.
Seo-jun ignored the blast and pressed forward. The lightning tried to feast on his flesh, but it utterly failed to achieve its goal.
Zap!
Instead, the encroaching lightning was forcibly wound around Seo-jun's sword. Most demonic Qi simply could not defy Seo-jun's will.
As he closed the distance, Seo-jun examined the lightning of the Purple Lightning Demonic Art now contained within his blade. Unlike Namgung Su-ah's clear, brilliant lightning, this energy was sticky and murky.
Lightning, huh.
One martial art came to mind. The Firmament Boundless Sword Technique. Namgung Su-ah's version focused more on the lightning that adorned the sky rather than the sky itself.
However, he was reluctant to openly use the Namgung Clan's martial arts here in Tianshan. Above all, the lightning of the Purple Lightning Demonic Art felt fundamentally different from that of the Namgung Clan.
In a world where time seemed to flow slowly, Seo-jun pulled out all the concepts from his mental imagery and spread them before his eyes.
Flash!
The chaotic, jumbled world within his mind was dismantled piece by piece.
First, it has to be the sky after all.
The Overlord's Path of Namgung was more than enough to defy the heavens. There were already precedents for this: the Emperor Sword Form and the Heavenly Demon Ruling Step.
He grasped the conceptual line connecting them and infused it into his blade.
Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.
Crackle! Black lightning coiled around the steel. Seo-jun hung the weight of the heavens on the tip of his sword. Suddenly, the principles of the Three Talents Sword Art—which he had learned during his days in the back alleys—flashed through his mind.
Heaven (天) is the sky. The Mount Tai Pressure Peak derived from it literally means pressing down on the opponent's head with the momentum of Mount Tai. What does that actually mean? It's just a vertical slash.
Along with Chun-bong's voice echoing in his memories, he recalled the primary mental imagery of the Three Talents Heart Method. Heaven, Earth, and Man. Over that foundation, he layered the logic of Essence-Qi-Spirit that had been circling in his head recently.
Earth (地) is Essence (精), Man (人) is Qi (氣), and Heaven (天) is Spirit (神).
He bound the concepts of the Three Talents and Essence-Qi-Spirit into one unified whole and unleashed that enlightenment.
There was no single right answer in martial arts. If one believed it to be so, then it would become reality.
Guided by a momentary flash of inspiration, Seo-jun's sword fell. And with it crashed the heavens that hung upon its tip.
Heavenly Demon Divine Sword, 1st Form: Mount Tai Pressure Peak.
Rumble──────────!!!
The single downward strike cleaved the world apart.
* * *
Seo-jun silently organized the enlightenment that had arrived so suddenly.
Three Talents and Essence-Qi-Spirit. Having previously focused on each of those elements individually, Seo-jun now broadened his perspective.
Achieving a balance of Essence-Qi-Spirit leads to the Super Peak Realm. The expansion of Spirit leads to the Transcendent Realm. Finally, integrating oneself entirely into Spirit leads to the Profound Realm.
Then what about the Three Talents? What lay at the end of achieving the perfect balance of the Three Talents?
It was a vague enlightenment filled with logical leaps, but Seo-jun didn't mind.
He was certain that if he kept contemplating it, he would eventually find the answer.
And that day would be the day the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword was finally perfected.
"Gaaah...!"
The Purple Lightning Demon, whose entire left side had been torn away by the strike, gnashed his teeth in agony. Seo-jun had left him alive on purpose to further grasp the depths of the Purple Lightning Demonic Art he practiced.
As Seo-jun approached the dying demon, Nok-yo—who had been watching the battle while half-nodding off—came scurrying over.
"Mister, you're really strong, even if you're weaker than my mom, it is?"
Roar...! The Purple Lightning Demon began to go berserk as he failed his desperate leap into the Extreme Demon stage, but Seo-jun didn't have the mental capacity to care about the old man right now.
"No, wait. What does your mother do?"
Nok-yo might not have been able to properly gauge his strength, but surely she had seen what just happened, right?
As Seo-jun stared at her in disbelief, Nok-yo just shrugged.
"My mom is a king-sized deer, it is?"
He really had no idea what she was talking about.