Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Wandering Knight
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Jamie’s fingers, which had been lying still as a dead rat, twitched.
His half-lidded eyes, still unfocused, blankly stared up at the ceiling.
After blinking a few times, Jamie abruptly sat up.
“Ugh.”
A splitting headache made his face twist involuntarily. Clutching his head and shaking it violently for a while, Jamie looked around at the Black Knights trapped in the crystals.
The corner of Jamie’s mouth twisted upward in a smirk. Soon, he muttered a single phrase.
“Success. Ugh.”
It was a phrase from the Central Plains.
He was Jamie, yet not Jamie—he was So Gun-ak.
So Gun-ak tried to laugh heartily but grabbed his head again as the throbbing pain threatened to shatter it.
“Krahhh!”
After rolling on the ground for a long while, So Gun-ak passed out. He didn’t open his eyes again until fully two days had passed.
“Ugh.”
Shaking his dizzy head as he rose, So Gun-ak sorted through his thoughts. Memories as So Gun-ak and as Jamie were jumbled together in a chaotic mess.
Memories were akin to a person’s very life.
With two sets of memories intermingling, it felt like he’d go mad, but So Gun-ak hadn’t lost his sense of self. Along with that, he now understood why the Four Great Cult Leaders’ great technique had failed.
“One more try, and it’d be perfect for driving someone insane.”
Merging the memories of two entirely different people was an extremely perilous gamble.
It could exceed the limits of what a human brain could handle, turning one into a raving lunatic. And with two lives that had already been far from smooth, the risk was even higher. Jamie’s life had been just as tumultuous, so So Gun-ak shook his head.
“To come this far because of a woman. Insane.”
So Gun-ak hadn’t yet fully made Jamie’s memories his own, but Jamie was no ordinary man.
Through the new knowledge, he could also somewhat grasp why the Black Dragon Corps and he had ended up in such a state.
“White Dragon, huh.”
White Dragon Crokshu. Amid being chased by Go Jin’s pursuit squad, during that blizzard, the massive white beast that had appeared was none other than White Dragon Crokshu.
For some reason, Crokshu and the Black Dragon Corps had swapped places.
‘For now, that’s all I can piece together.’
To figure out exactly what had happened, he needed more clues. But Jamie’s memories offered no further information.
‘In that case… what matters now is…’
So Gun-ak tested his body first.
Whoosh, whoosh.
He threw punches this way and that, then kicked at the air. Picking up a spear from the floor, he thrust it around.
Vwooom, vwoom.
It was spearwork without any internal energy infused, yet the sound of it cutting through the air was menacing.
“A usable body.”
Jamie was famed for his spirit swordsmanship, but his physique was also honed to perfection as a knight. There was even a modest amount of internal energy in his dantian.
“Ten years’ worth of internal energy.”
It was on the level of a third-rate warrior from the cult, but still far superior to that of an ordinary person.
So Gun-ak glanced at his own body, still trapped in the crystal.
“Feels strange.”
Looking down at his original body from within this new one felt utterly bizarre. His soulless original body would gradually die off now, most likely.
So Gun-ak drew the sword from Jamie’s bosom. It was Ryle’s Sword.
Kriik, kreek.
Frozen stiff from the intense cold, the blade made an unpleasant scraping noise as it was pulled free.
Ting!
So Gun-ak flicked the blade with his finger, extended it to inspect the edge, then nodded.
“Fine sword.”
Moreover, it was the sword that had brought Jamie here, so in a way, it had saved him.
If not for this sword, no one would have found Crokshu’s castle even after a hundred years.
“Ryle’s Sword… I’ll complete your final mission in your stead.”
He resolved to fulfill Jamie’s last mission, one he couldn’t regard as that of a stranger.
As recompense for forcibly taking his body, he wanted to uphold the knight’s honor.
“Well then.”
So Gun-ak struck down at the crystal encasing his soulless flesh.
Crack!
“Hmm.”
He’d put considerable force into it, but the crystal didn’t even budge.
Crack, clang!
Even after striking it dozens of times in succession, not a single scratch marred the crystal.
So Gun-ak’s expression darkened.
“Not ice.”
It was a material he’d never seen before in his life. So Gun-ak approached the wall and thrust his sword into it.
Craaaack.
The pristine white wall—whether made of snow or ice—split apart with a sharp crack.
In this ice castle composed entirely of ice and snow, only So Gun-ak and his hundred Black Dragon Corps subordinates were encased in this mysterious substance.
“Would heat melt it?”
So Gun-ak rummaged through his bosom and Jamie’s bag.
A few strips of jerky and some hard bread emerged—barely enough to last twenty days even rationed carefully.
“Can’t gather a jiazi’s worth of internal energy in twenty days.”
Even if he had that much right now, it’d still be too short to master the Blazing Sun Palm. He’d checked the food precisely to see if it’d hold out long enough for cultivation.
But aside from the scant rations, there was another problem.
“Crokshu…”
In Jamie’s memories, Crokshu was an utterly monstrous existence. If discovered by such a being, his current third-rate skills wouldn’t let him survive.
No matter that their worlds had swapped, there was no guarantee the dragon wouldn’t return here.
He had to choose.
Flee for now, raise his cultivation, then return for his subordinates? Or stay, train here, rescue them as quickly as possible, and escape together?
“I’ll leave luck to the heavens and endure as best I can.”
Even if he fled alone and recovered his power before returning, he had no confidence against the dragon. The dragon in Jamie’s memories was unfamiliar, but its overwhelming destructive might seemed beyond even the Cult Leader.
And if the dragon appeared while he was gone, who knew what it might do to his subordinates. So he decided to find a way to rescue them quickly and flee together.
With his path set, So Gun-ak hurriedly searched the castle interior for anything edible.
“Ridiculous. Does a dragon not eat?”
After scouring every storeroom in the ice castle, So Gun-ak let out an exasperated sigh. Nothing edible anywhere—only piles of gold and jewels.
Dragons were said to descend on human villages to plunder treasures, and it seemed Crokshu enjoyed collecting them thus. One side held stacks of books; thanks to Jamie’s memories, he could read some scripts, but others were incomprehensible even to Jamie.
Those must be writings Jamie hadn’t known.
Frustrated, So Gun-ak headed outside the castle.
A sight that drew another sigh greeted him.
Whiiiir.
All he saw was swirling white snowflakes and jagged mountain peaks.
The remotest of the remote, and atop its highest summit sat Crokshu’s castle.
He searched the surroundings just in case, but found nothing edible. Wading through waist-deep snow, he scanned the ground—no blade of grass in sight.
“In the end, twenty days. Or for bare survival, maybe fifty.”
Still uneasy, So Gun-ak had no choice but to return to the ice castle.
He settled in a sunlit spot, donned cold-weather gear, crossed his uncomfortable legs into a meditative posture.
“Gotta give it my all.”
How much internal energy could he accumulate in fifty days?
With the most basic Earth Ingestion Method, exactly fifty days’ worth. With a typical minor sect’s cultivation art, perhaps a year’s.
And if he practiced a fast-attaining demonic art, maybe two or three years’. But demonic arts required sacrifices, impossible to procure here.
Yet So Gun-ak was a man of the Fire Worship Cult. He knew a cultivation art that surpassed demonic arts in speed without needing sacrifices.
The Fire Worship Cult’s finest: the Blazing Sun Divine Art. Legends said a grandmaster’s Blazing Sun Palm could melt even millennia-old cold iron—a supreme yang technique.
The Black Dragon Corps all practiced the Blazing Sun Divine Art, but as the Cult Leader’s disciple, So Gun-ak had learned the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art.
The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art was a divine skill known only to the Cult Leader and his direct disciples.
It incorporated the essences of the Fire Worship Cult’s supreme Blazing Sun Divine Art, the Bright Cult’s Heavenly Demon Asura Gang Qi, the Blood Cult’s Blood Demon Fading Sun Divine Art, and the Secret Cult’s Yin Blood Death Spirit Art—an unparalleled masterpiece.
Born from the long research after the four sects united.
With the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art, So Gun-ak believed he could unleash the Blazing Sun Palm’s immense power without separately mastering the Blazing Sun Divine Art.
‘With the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art, cultivating non-stop for fifty days should yield at least fifteen years’ internal energy.’
Plus, he could absorb some of the ten years’ internal energy already in Jamie’s body.
At minimum twenty years’ worth—enough to manifest sword aura.
Hope glimmered.
To So Gun-ak, the Black Dragon Corps was family. Rescuing them was worth staking his life on.
‘I’ll definitely… save you all.’
Shuuush.
As So Gun-ak breathed slowly, the surrounding air rippled in response.
He lost track of time, immersing himself in cultivation.
2. Wandering Knight
Shing.
So Gun-ak focused his internal energy into the sword in his hand.
The effects of fifty days cultivating the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art began to show. A bluish aura flickered to life along Ryle’s Sword.
‘It worked.’
The hard-won fruit of painstakingly gathering his scant internal energy: he could now manifest sword aura.
Jamie’s original ten years’ internal energy had transformed into the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art’s nature, becoming six years’ worth. Continued cultivation added fourteen more, reaching his minimum goal of twenty years.
Twenty years’ internal energy put him at second-rate expert level. Those who manifested sword aura were typically first-rate, with at least thirty years’ cultivation.
Yet So Gun-ak had achieved sword aura manifestation with a mere twenty.
Swoosh. Clang!
But the moment he swung Ryle’s Sword, cloaked in sword aura, at the crystal, So Gun-ak’s expression darkened again.
“No good after all.”
Even with sword aura, the crystal remained unmarred.
If even a nick had appeared, he could hope to train further and cleave it—but now, he had no method.
‘What about gang qi?’
But manifesting gang qi was still distant.
For So Gun-ak, who fully grasped the Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign Art’s principles, reaching that realm was merely a matter of time. The real issue was elsewhere.
His food had run out, so he couldn’t linger in the ice castle any longer.
Still, So Gun-ak wouldn’t give up.
“Let’s see how it fares against heat.”
He couldn’t yet generate enough heat to melt metal, but he wanted to test the crystal’s reaction.
Tssst.
Concentrating internal energy in his palm drew cold air that beaded into dew. Moments later, the dew evaporated into white steam.
His internal energy was still weak, and his meridians flowed poorly, so properly unleashing the Blazing Sun Palm would take time. Once he reached the proper realm, though, it’d be a blink.
“Hah!”
Boom! Fssshhhh.
With a shout, So Gun-ak slammed his palm into the crystal.