Chapter 57: Super Peak Realm (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57: Super Peak Realm (4)
There are things you can only see once you reach the Super Peak Realm.
Though I had merely crossed a single threshold, my entire perspective had shifted.
The first thing I realized was just how shallow my own martial arts truly were. Chun-bong’s sword was as free as the clouds. Namgung Su-ah’s sky was boundless. And Jong-in’s plum blossoms, however crude, pulsed with vitality.
My Yellow Cloud Divine Art, however, was nowhere near as free as Chun-bong’s. My sky lacked the boundless expanse of Namgung Su-ah’s, and my plum blossoms remained as lifeless as folded paper.
So what?
In exchange, I had captured a vast, sweeping array of concepts within my mental imagery.
Heaven and earth, sun and moon, wind and river, plum blossoms and lightning.
They circulated endlessly, weaving together an immature world.
That was the Primordial Unity Divine Art—my martial art.
Fwaaaaah!
A star descended, taking root within the internal energy coating my fist.
That star was my mental imagery—a world I had constructed entirely within myself.
White River Returning to the Ocean.
I twisted my waist and thrust my fist forward.
Astral Qi surged out like a wild, raging river.
"How...!"
Horrified, Jong-in thrust his sword to meet it.
He couldn't comprehend it. To cross into a new realm in such a fleeting moment? Even with all the necessary conditions met, scaling that wall should have taken an immense amount of time.
A single word flashed through his mind.
Talent.
That god-awful, heaven-sent talent!
Jong-in’s eyes turned bloodshot. A torrent of Astral Qi rushed toward him like a tidal wave, but the plum blossoms he bloomed fiercely tore through the surge.
"I swear it! I will use you as a stepping stone to stand above the heavens!"
Jong-in’s robes billowed as plum blossoms poured from his form.
He leaped high, stepping upon the very blossoms he had manifested.
Seo-jun merely smirked at the technique that allowed the man to dance through the air, however limited it might be.
Heavenly Plum Blossom.
Plum blossoms forged of lightning bloomed in the air.
Seo-jun stepped onto them, chasing Jong-in into the sky.
Overwhelming Qi weighed down heavily on his essence, Qi, and spirit. What he gained was not balance, but absolute, solitary dominance.
The star embedded in Seo-jun’s internal energy grew faint. In its place, a sense of pure omnipotence filled him—the absolute certainty that he could achieve anything with Qi alone.
Crackle!
A sword woven from lightning materialized in Seo-jun’s hand.
"A Qi Sword...!?"
Jong-in’s jaw dropped in sheer shock.
Ignoring him, Seo-jun’s gaze turned icy.
I’m bringing you down right now.
Standing upon the lightning plum blossoms, he finally pierced the highest sky.
Firmament Pressure Peak.
The tip of his sword skewered the heavens and violently drove them down into the earth.
Rumble!
Staggering under the crushing pressure, Jong-in plummeted.
Seo-jun immediately dispersed the lightning sword and slapped his palms together.
Clap!
Between his joined hands, Yin and Yang unified, drawing a distorted Taiji.
A single star gleamed at its center before vanishing into the void.
From that point, the Taiji began to rotate in reverse.
He couldn't hold it for long. Even though he had broken through to the Super Peak Realm, his foundation was still insufficient to fully manifest the Taiji.
But for a split second... it would be enough.
Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Art.
The Reverse Taiji, which had been violently converging and annihilating itself, shattered, unleashing its devastating power in a perfectly straight line.
"You bastard...!"
Jong-in violently twisted his body in mid-air, swinging his sword hundreds of times in a heartbeat.
Plum blossoms stacked frantically upon each other, forming a massive wall.
He couldn't die like this. It was too unfair.
He hadn't clawed his way here just to watch some brat casually step over the wall so effortlessly.
"I swear I will...!"
Swaaaaaah—
The Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Art obliterated the wall of plum blossoms and tore cleanly through Jong-in’s shoulder.
"Aaaagh...!"
Jong-in crashed into the earth. Thud! Seo-jun landed lightly amidst the rising cloud of dust.
"O-Oppa...!"
Chun-bong rushed over, her face deathly pale. Seo-jun let out a weary sigh and gently placed his hand on her cheek.
"My heart is about to break, Miss Geum."
The Yang energy radiating from Seo-jun’s hand flowed into her, neutralizing the erratic Yin energy surging within her body.
Once her complexion quickly returned to normal, Seo-jun gave her head a light pat. He offered a slight nod to Namgung Su-ah before shifting his gaze to where Jong-in lay.
"Aaaaaaaah...!!"
His eyes dyed a maddened crimson, Jong-in viciously tore away the mangled remnants of his own shoulder.
He then coated his teeth in Astral Qi, crunched down on the flesh of his severed arm, and swallowed it whole. His lips curled into a grotesque, ear-to-ear grin as he cackled like a madman.
"Hahaha...! To the very end! Even to the very end, the heavens try to block my path!"
He pulled an unknown elixir from his bloodied robes.
There was no time to stop him. Jong-in swallowed the pill instantly. A sinister, foul energy exploded from his body as his internal energy began to swell exponentially.
"That's...!"
Namgung Su-ah’s eyes widened in sheer horror as she recognized it.
"The Four Deaths Black Spirit Pill!"
"What's that?"
"It's a demonic elixir of the Black Lotus Union, made by grinding up live humans! I had my suspicions, but why... how!?"
Namgung Su-ah’s eyes trembled violently.
An elder of the Mount Hua Sect was a spy for the Black Lotus Union? Since when? Had he been corrupted along the way? Or was he a plant from the very beginning?
She glared at Jong-in with unadulterated murderous intent.
Jong-in didn't even notice her glare, too busy reveling in the overwhelming sense of omnipotence coursing through his veins.
"Ah...! Yes! I can see it!"
Crack! Jagged bone sprouted from his torn shoulder. Small, grotesque branches of bone and flesh grew outward, intertwining rapidly to form a twisted replacement for his arm.
He glared at Seo-jun with glistening, crazed eyes.
"A brat like you could never understand. You don't know how miserable it is to be born with no talent! But today, I will shatter those limits and ascend to the heavens!"
Under the sheer pressure of his absurdly bloated internal energy, Jong-in’s body began to levitate.
He looked down at them from above, his manic laughter echoing.
"I will slaughter you all and receive the Great Art of the Black Lotus Union to extend my lifespan! With that extra time and a few more human sacrifices, even I can reach the Transcendent Realm!"
"..."
"And finally, by reaching the Profound Realm, I shall live forever! I will embrace everything I have achieved up until now!"
Jong-in rambled on about his grand plans, which absolutely no one had asked for. It seemed he had suffered a severe mental toll while keeping his dark secrets hidden all these years, but that was none of Seo-jun’s concern.
"The Transcendent Realm? Is it really that hard?" Seo-jun asked casually. "I've only been learning martial arts for a year or two, and reaching the Super Peak Realm was easy enough."
Naturally, he only said it to piss the man off.
Snap.
Jong-in’s manic laughter abruptly died.
His face contorted into a demonic mask of pure rage as he spread his arms wide.
"Fine...! If you want to die that badly, I'll butcher you right now...!"
As he exerted his twisted will, a storm of plum blossoms erupted from his entire body.
The blossoms blotting out the sky gathered and surged like a writhing serpent, weaving together to take the shape of a massive dragon.
The Plum Blossom Dragon looked down upon the insignificant humans from the heavens.
Under its ferocious, suffocating momentum, Chun-bong and Namgung Su-ah froze in place.
He had been overwhelming before, but the current Jong-in had stepped into a realm they couldn't even hope to reach.
Just having the dragon forged of plum blossoms glare down at them was enough to make the vivid, chilling touch of death crawl across their skin.
"Tsk."
However, Seo-jun merely clicked his tongue, looking completely unimpressed.
"You really only ever choose to do the stupidest things."
"Enough of your excessive bluffing! Take this!"
The Plum Blossom Dragon opened its massive maw wide and descended like a falling meteor.
Petals violently scattered along the dragon’s winding, serpentine body.
Yet, standing directly in the path of the colossal beast, the young man casually reached out a single hand.
"Oppa...! Don't do anything crazy, get out of the way...!"
"Young Hero Lee...!"
A soft chuckle escaped him at their desperate, worried voices.
Feeling both grateful and a little apologetic, Seo-jun stepped forward into the storm of plum blossoms and lightly waved his hand.
Swaaaaah—
The deadly plum blossoms instantly began to dance in perfect harmony with his gesture.
It was true that Jong-in’s raw power had surged astronomically after consuming the Four Deaths Black Spirit Pill. But power that one cannot control is worse than having no power at all.
The dragon, haphazardly woven together by brute force, was downright pathetic.
The mental imagery embedded within the internal energy was flimsy, and the will guiding it was shallow and meager.
That was exactly why it scattered so effortlessly with a single wave of his hand.
"I-Impossible...!"
"You were actually better before," Seo-jun noted dryly.
He slowly drew a large circle in the air with both hands.
Deep within his body, his inner core expanded its presence once more, perfectly balancing his essence, Qi, and spirit.
Perhaps because his previously distorted essence, Qi, and spirit had finally realigned, three ethereal flowers bloomed behind his head once again.
Seo-jun fully scattered the Plum Blossom Dragon, seizing control of all those petals and gathering them into a single point.
Following his continuous, flowing circular motions, countless plum blossoms compressed into a dense sphere the size of a human head.
"Now then. Go join your parents, you bastard."
Clap!
He slammed his palms together. Simultaneously, the compressed petals shot out like a torrential downpour, completely engulfing Jong-in.
"This can't be...! This cannot be...!"
Jong-in struggled bitterly until the very end, frantically swinging his sword to deflect the onslaught. But Seo-jun merely looked on with indifference and thrust his hand toward the sky.
Swoooooosh—
The torrential downpour of petals violently surged upward. The man, who had been shredded into nothing more than blood and gore, mixed into the crimson rain and was entirely erased from existence.
Shhhhh—
The bloodstained plum blossoms scattered beautifully across the night sky.
Seo-jun looked up at the morbidly beautiful sight and smirked.
"Happy New Year."
Even though it wasn't actually New Year's.
* * *
After the battle ended, the group quickly relocated.
Now that it was absolutely certain an elder of the Mount Hua Sect had secretly joined hands with the Black Lotus Union, Seo-jun wouldn't be surprised if the Sect Leader of Mount Hua himself suddenly descended to capture them.
"That's not it, you lunatic," Chun-bong scoffed. "If even the Drunken Plum Sword Immortal joined the Black Lotus Union, we might as well just declare ourselves an Evil Sect starting today."
At Chun-bong’s words, Namgung Su-ah offered a troubled, awkward smile.
"Even so, that's a bit..."
"Not you. Just me and him."
"That's also a bit problematic."
Seo-jun chuckled, gently patting the back of Chun-bong as she leaned heavily into his arms.
"You. Stop talking and just go to sleep."
"No."
Having flatly refused, Chun-bong snuggled even deeper into his embrace.
"Good grief."
Seo-jun smiled softly, his thoughts drifting back to the memories he had temporarily pushed aside.
That woman... what was she, really?
The woman he thought he had killed before falling into the Murim. In the fragmented memories he had regained upon reaching the Super Peak Realm, the woman with the crushed head had laughed shrilly.
‘You’ve ripened well! I’ll be looking forward to it.’
Also, on the day his mother had stabbed his father. That woman had clearly looked right at him and said:
‘Found you. The sprout of the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.’