Lord of the Realm
So this time, to bring every ounce of force I possessed to bear, I drew the puppet from my storage pouch.
Yet at that very moment, just as Senior Martial Aunt Jeong had said, the sound of the fox spirit beast began to draw near.
Caw! Caw!!
Thanks to that, even Senior Martial Aunt Jeong’s gaze, which had briefly been fixed on the puppet I had taken out, snapped toward the direction from which the fox’s cries were coming.
“That is no ordinary beast. Judging by the strength I can feel from it, that fellow is surely the great spirit beast that attacked us.”
Before I could answer her, another voice rang out.
“It seems you’ve stumbled upon the place where a lucky attribute spirit pearl was born. But what I feel here is an attribute different from your spiritual root.”
It was the soul of the cultivator named Seop Myeong-gyeol, residing within the puppet, speaking all at once. While I was stealing glances at Senior Martial Aunt Jeong’s expression, her voice continued.
“Surely you didn’t think that I, with no mouth at all, was somehow making sound? This is telepathic communication. I’m sending you my thoughts directly, not actually speaking.”
At that, I tried sending my own message to her.
“Spirit pearl?”
The trouble was that my transmission received not one answer, but two.
“You don’t know what a spirit pearl is? A spirit pearl is, in essence, a heavenly elixir containing the essence of heaven and earth—a very special treasure born when the energy that once roiled through the world gathers in a particular place.”
“What? Don’t tell me you can see the spirit pearl?”
To my surprise, Senior Martial Aunt Jeong had also heard the transmission I had sent to the puppet.
Fortunately, I had something to steer the conversation toward.
“Wouldn’t that make it an entity worthy of being called a spirit beast?”
Its eyes were red as if blood had seeped into them, and its fur was white as fresh snow. Moreover, the creature that now revealed itself before us was enormous—its bulk alone rivaled that of a two-story pavilion.
At a glance, it looked anything but easy to deal with, and Senior Martial Aunt Jeong’s face hardened as she stepped forward.
“I’ll handle it. While I keep that fellow occupied, you watch its underlings and make sure they don’t swarm me.”
Then, from the puppet, a voice rang out so calm it seemed oblivious to the seriousness of our situation.
“It seems the spirit pearl already has an owner. While you are dealing with the fox, you should flee.”
Of course, I could not answer her. Senior Martial Aunt Jeong would hear my transmission.
So she urged me again when I remained silent.
“What are you doing? Run, quickly!”
As though speaking to Senior Martial Aunt Jeong herself, I replied toward the puppet.
“I won’t be running away in fear, so do not worry.”
But at my words, she only sounded more frustrated.
“You said you would take me to the Nine Palaces Tower, and now you’re planning to die here instead?”
Seeing how restless she was despite the presence of a Foundation Establishment cultivator like Senior Martial Aunt Jeong, it seemed that fox spirit beast truly was no ordinary thing.
Caw!! Caw!
Then, after the fox spirit beast—now already right in front of us—barked again, a hazy shockwave blossomed near its head and rolled toward us like a wave.
“Get behind me!”
The moment Senior Martial Aunt Jeong shouted, she swept the flag in her hand in a broad arc, and a green wind blade shot from its tip. I knew better than anyone the weight of the force carried in that wind blade, so I did not look away, waiting to see the result it would produce.
But the instant that heavy strike, so familiar to me, collided with the fox’s shockwave, it shattered with a faint crack and vanished.
Ping!
Then Senior Martial Aunt Jeong’s black flag lashed out again at blinding speed.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whirrrr!!
Green wind blades flew one after another. The first three crumbled away the moment they touched the hazy shockwave, but the next two brought about a completely different result.
Boom! Boom!!
The fox spirit beast’s overwhelming shockwave, which had been surging toward us, turned to mist beneath the successive wind blade attacks and simply dissolved away.
But the fox spirit beast itself suddenly burst forward and filled the space left behind by the vanished shockwave.
Whoooosh!!
I had no idea when it had moved there, but this time the great tail behind its massive body was wreathed in blazing flame as it swept toward us.
This attack covered such a wide area that, even though it was not especially fast, there seemed to be nowhere to evade it in that instant.
So, gritting my teeth, I chose not to trust Senior Martial Aunt Jeong with a talisman in hand and instead trusted my own martial arts as I leaped into the air.
Fortunately, my judgment was not wrong.
Claaang!!
The talisman Senior Martial Aunt Jeong had thrown expanded in size as it tried to block the fox’s tail, but it was soon flung back, unable to withstand the power contained within that tail.
As a result, Senior Martial Aunt Jeong, who had been trying to block the tail again with the black flag in her hand, was sent flying backward at a speed that made a loud boom echo through the air.
In that sudden upheaval, the puppet I had not had time to worry about would surely have been badly damaged as well, but there was no room for me to think about the puppet now.
First, I had to land on the ground after the fox’s burning tail had passed, onto the earth that was still seething and sizzling.
But just as I was about to set foot on that scorched ground, a voice I had not expected came from nearby, though there was nothing there at all.
“It’s an illusion technique! Right now that fellow has eaten a spirit pearl of an attribute different from his own and suffered backlash, so he can’t properly use his power!”
When I turned toward the voice, Seop Myeong-gyeol’s words rang out again from empty air.
“Illusions only work if you believe in them! I’m not falling for his trick because my heavenly vision lets me see through everything!”
The problem was that before I could even fully take in her words, the fox spirit beast opened its mouth wide and unleashed a torrent of blazing flames.
Fwoooooosh!!
With flames surging forth as though they would burn the world to ash, I raised my sword and struck back.
“Pahwang Sword, First Form: Jinhuang! Lift the sword and shake heaven and earth; let the first strike tremble the source of the earth!”
As I swept the blade through the air once and poured the spiritual energy of the Chaos Heaven Secret Law into it, the entire sword was wrapped in a searing yellow aura. Then, the moment I drove the blade into the ground, that yellow aura collided with the earth’s qi and exploded into a powerful yellow shockwave that shot forward.
Ssssss!
When the yellow shockwave collided with the flames, it made a sound like burning firewood being plunged into water and, for an instant, seemed to stop the blaze.
But I soon understood. Just as Senior Martial Aunt Jeong’s successive attacks had halted the fox’s shockwave, this endless flood of fire would ultimately break through my own attack as well.
At that moment, Seop Myeong-gyeol’s voice came again from within the puppet.
“Don’t be deceived by its bluff! This too is all illusion!!”
Could I trust her words?
The yellow shockwave I had unleashed was holding back the flames, but the scorching heat surrounding me was real. The air had already grown so hot that simply breathing had become difficult.
And then, just as the yellow shockwave seemed to be holding on, it finally shattered.
Crack!
Once again the flames surged toward me, and I instinctively tried to unfold my martial arts. Seop Myeong-gyeol might have been telling the truth, but for now I had to avoid a fatal blow.
Yet just as I was about to unleash the final stance of the Pahwang Sword, I suddenly thought of Senior Martial Aunt Jeong, whose presence had become utterly impossible to feel.
Had Senior Martial Aunt Jeong, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, died after failing to block even a single attack from that beast?
Even if her judgment in trying to block the tail had been wrong, if Senior Martial Aunt Jeong were still alive, then she should by now have rejoined the fight no matter what.
But I could sense nothing of her presence anywhere. It was as though only Seop Myeong-gyeol’s voice remained, like a puppet that could be heard but not seen.
At that moment, the sword art I unleashed was no longer the final stance of the Pahwang Sword, which carried immense internal power and released a devastating strike.
“Sa-sahyeol Sword, First Move: Red Blood! Red blood is the first step of the sword. Fresh blood opens the way and contains killing intent!”
The simplest yet most efficient strike: a thrust that condensed sword qi and killing intent into a single point.
Of course, there was no way the first move of the Sa-sahyeol Sword, far inferior in force, could properly withstand the flames that even the powerful Pahwang Sword had failed to stop.
Fwoooooosh!!
The flames touching the tip of my sword did split apart, but even the fire raining down around me radiated heat far beyond what it had before. At this point, breathing had become not merely painful but nearly impossible.
Still, I focused solely on the first move of the Sa-sahyeol Sword—the concentration of killing intent into a single point—and held my breath altogether. Then I tightened my grip on the sword, which had been slowly pushed back by the blaze, and drove it straight into the flames.
The hair that could not endure the intense heat curled and then crumbled to ash, and the searing agony across my body felt as though it would burn me alive from within.
No, it was not merely a feeling. My body was truly being consumed by fire. My skin, sizzling as it cooked, slowly shrank in on itself, inflicting tremendous pain, and my vision began to turn hazy.
Yet I kept my lips sealed tight, swallowing any groan that tried to escape, and did not let my posture collapse. Naturally, my willpower, concentrated to a single point as I gathered killing intent, remained firm as well.
Then the sword I had thrust out began to turn bright red. Before long, its tip slowly melted, becoming dull yellow molten metal that dripped to the ground. It was a scene meant to show that the resistance I had mounted meant nothing at all.
So I forced the corners of my mouth—already dried tight and barely able to move—upward into a smile. No matter how powerful his illusion was, it would never break my unyielding will. That was my way of saying so.
But unlike my unbreakable spirit, once the sword in my hand had completely melted away, my body began to collapse in earnest. My legs, blackened like a piece of fire-charred wood, finally gave way with a dull thud.
I was certain he was casting an illusion, but even knowing that, it was a spell so powerful that I could not easily escape it.
Even so, the sliver of my mind gathered at the tip of my sword remained unbroken. My body, burned beyond recognition, had finally collapsed entirely, and even my hazy vision disappeared altogether, but I was still staring at the beast from within the darkness.
And I did not withdraw the sword of my heart aimed at it, either……
Then, at some point, I truly began to see that sword again. The moment the yellow aura clinging to my flying sword came into view, the hand holding it slowly came into sight as well.
With that, my hearing—so muffled it had felt as though I were underwater—also returned.
And then Seop Myeong-gyeol’s voice came at once.
“Neung So! If even a little of your senses have come back, then quickly tell me to attack that fellow! Right now, even with this worthless body, I can still do damage to him!”
It seemed she had been chattering away the whole time I had heard nothing at all.
But even so, I could not speak easily in reply. The sensations in my body, stiff as a wooden post, had not fully returned yet.
Still, my vision had come back quickly enough that it now widened little by little, and at last I could see not only my own hand but also the world around me.
The wooden puppet still stood in place, and beside it Senior Martial Aunt Jeong was rolling on the ground in agony.
And there, before us, was a presence I had not seen before: a fox spirit beast with red eyes, its body covered in white fur that had fallen out in patches.
Of course, unlike what I had seen earlier, its bulk was no longer as large as a two-story pavilion. It was bigger than an ordinary fox, yes, but even when standing on two legs it was only about as tall as I was.
In other words, the entirety of the creature’s first appearance had been an illusion cast by it. Having once been caught in something similar to an illusion technique—namely Soul-binding Art—I could roughly tell how we had fallen victim to the beast’s trick.
Most likely, the threatening cries we had heard from afar were where it had begun. Just like Jin Myeong’s Soul-binding Art, which had started with a peculiar scent.
And then, just as my recovering vision finally took in all the surrounding scenery, the beast’s crimson eyes met mine. The instant it realized I had broken free of its illusion, it lunged at me without even the slightest hesitation.
The problem was that my body, still stiff and rigid, showed no sign of moving.
So I cried out desperately.
“Seop Myeong-gyeol! Stop it!”