The Calamity of Hubei
"Aaargh! Spare me—save meeee!"
"Urgh!"
"No, please! I don't want to die like this! Not like this!"
Amidst the carnage of slaughter and agony, Jin Yeong thrust his sword forward, his eyes bloodshot. His gaze swept over the twisted, lifeless faces of his fallen allies. The brutal reality of war was far more harrowing than anything he had ever imagined.
Ryeong had told him to focus entirely on staying alive. Yet in the thick of this living nightmare, keeping a grip on his sanity felt nearly impossible. Just as his breath hitched, a heavy hand clamped down onto his trembling shoulder.
"Get a hold of yourself, Priest! Do you have a death wish or something?!"
"Master Gwi...?"
"Our lord is putting her life on the line against the enemy commander! Our duty is to guard her back! Do you think you can do that looking like a frightened rabbit?!"
It was Gwi Hu-jin, the leader of the Blade Ghost Gang. Pieces of severed flesh still clung to the notched edge of his saber, proof of the countless cultists he had already cut down. His thunderous roar snapped Jin Yeong back to his senses.
He's right. If I stand here spacing out, I'll die having accomplished nothing.
Ryeong was fighting out in the vanguard. To secure victory, she had engaged the opposing commander single-handedly, holding the enemy's attention to rally the morale of their troops. Jin Yeong refused to let her sacrifices be in vain.
A resolve as unyielding as iron flared in his eyes. With that determination, the internal energy surging through his meridians began to swell violently. Forged in the bloody crucible of life and death, Jin Yeong was finally making the leap into the Transcendent Realm.
Gwi Hu-jin's eyes widened with surprise. To safely step into the Transcendent Realm, two paths typically existed: one was to assume the lotus position and quietly regulate one's raging qi, while the other—
"Vent your energy! If you stand still, your meridians won't handle the surge and your body will rupture!"
"Understood! I'll take the lead!"
Steel forged his spirit. Jin Yeong planted his foot forward, stomping the earth with a resounding tremor that instantly drew the eyes of the surrounding cultists.
The sudden emergence of a Transcendent master might not unilaterally flip the entire tide of the battlefield, but an opponent of that caliber was a chilling threat to ordinary zealots.
"Kill that whelp first!"
"He is the future of the Orthodox Sects! Protect him at all costs!"
"Throw your bodies on the line if you must! Shield the young priest!"
Those desperate to protect clashed violently with those eager to slaughter. As the two forces collided, a ferocious pocket of warfare erupted around Jin Yeong.
"Haaaaah!"
Jin Yeong unleashed the torrential emotions building in his chest without restraint. An intoxicating surge coursed through his flesh, a sensation he had never experienced in his life. Whether it was pure battle frenzy or the numbing of his mortal fears, he could not say. But one truth rang crystal clear.
I am alive!
Amid the chaotic slaughter, he felt the vivid pulse of life. That heightened awareness carried his feet across the crimson mud.
"Quite noisy, aren't you?"
Boom!
Jin Yeong's charge was brought to a screeching halt. An expert of the Extreme Demonic Realm, fresh from wiping out a subjugation squad in another sector, had descended onto their front.
The only blessing was that Jin Yeong's qi had stabilized the moment he completed his breakthrough. Had this monster appeared even a second earlier, the qi deviation would have shattered his inner organs.
Even so, their situation remained dire. Even if Jin Yeong had crossed the threshold of transcendence, and even with the seasoned Transcendent master Gwi Hu-jin by his side, an expert of the Extreme Demonic Realm belonged to an entirely different dimension. The sickening stench of blood and malice rolling off the man made Jin Yeong's brow furrow in disgust.
Should I take the Dokcheon Pill?
This was his only chance. Ryeong had warned him that forcefully raising one's realm through alchemical pills cost more than it gave. But Jin Yeong had already reached the Transcendent Realm on his own. Drawing upon the pill's potent medicinal strength now wouldn't ruin his foundation.
Yet time granted him no leeway to deliberate. The Blood Shadow Squadron Leader, drenched in demonic aura, lunged directly at him.
Claaang!
"On your feet!"
"Thank you!"
As Jin Yeong lost his footing, Gwi Hu-jin slipped between them, barely parrying the Squadron Leader's crushing blow. But the difference in power proved too steep; Gwi Hu-jin was knocked skidding back, and the demon's blade flashed once more toward Jin Yeong.
"Cough!"
Unable to withstand the suffocating pressure, Jin Yeong coughed up a mouthful of blood. There was no time to steady his breath. His foe was already winding up the next lethal strike. Jin Yeong's eyes ignited.
Cl-cl-cl-clang!
"What the—?!"
The Squadron Leader's eyes widened to the size of saucers at the astonishing display of defense. A fledgling who had literally just set foot into the Transcendent Realm was deflecting his furious sword strikes with impeccable precision.
Worse, the boy shifted into a counterattack posture in the very same breath. From behind, Gwi Hu-jin kicked off the earth, channeling his deadliest secret technique.
Pressured from both sides, the Squadron Leader stomped the ground and vaulted high into the air. Jin Yeong's decisive counter cleaved only empty space, while Gwi Hu-jin hastily twisted his torso to loose a wave of saber qi skyward.
Shatter!
Because it was an improvised shift, the saber qi lacked full momentum. With a mere flick of his fingers, the Squadron Leader shattered the incoming blade light. Yet an instant later, his eyes narrowed at a sharp, searing pain in his flank.
"When did—?!"
A slender throwing dagger was buried deep into his ribs. He had no memory of seeing any projectile launched.
It was Jin Yeong's handiwork. His airtight defensive prowess, as well as his ability to weave hidden daggers seamlessly into the rhythm of swordplay, had all been forged through brutal sparring sessions under Ryeong's personal tutelage. When he was merely at the first-rate peak, his movements were too sluggish to pull off such tricks against true experts. But now that he possessed transcendent speed and perception, the assassin's arts had blossomed alongside his orthodox cultivation. In the craft of the shadow blade, he had become a master in his own right.
"You're no ordinary brat, are you?"
"..."
Jin Yeong leveled his blade in silence. He had no illusions that cheap parlor tricks could grant him an easy victory against an Extreme Demon, nor was this monster someone who would crumble to simple ploys.
"If you are allowed to grow, you'll become a threat to the Divine Cult. I'll make sure to pluck your head off first."
"I won't make it easy for you."
Ruuuuumble!
Some distance away from the main melee, two titanic, diametrically opposed energies collided in an endless chain of catastrophic detonations.
"Hahaha! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine finding such a young monster in the Central Plains!"
His entire physique practically dyed in obsidian malice, Geuk Pyeong erupted with ecstatic laughter. The clash against Ryeong seemed to thrill every fiber of his being. Ryeong, on the other hand, was pushing her reserves to their absolute limits, expending immense quantities of internal energy in a desperate bid to expose a fatal weakness.
Wuuung.
Even the boundless stream supplied by the Red Cloud Divine Sword on her wrist could barely keep up with the rate of consumption. Yet she refused to let her blade go dry. No matter the cost, Ryeong was determined to bury Geuk Pyeong right here.
"You've grown remarkably quiet, girl!"
Geuk Pyeong threw a devastating punch. It was a crushing blow cloaked in concentrated demonic qi, where even a grazing brush could prove fatal. Although Ryeong's Celestial Immortal Divine Art was the natural bane of demonic corruption, allowing a single hit would open the floodgates for a second and third.
Immediately, she raised the first stance of the Black Tortoise Overlord Sword, erecting an impenetrable bulwark of sword qi. In that exact fraction of a second, Geuk Pyeong blurred through the blind spot, closing the distance to slip behind her back.
His target was the nexus of her flaming wings, aiming to cripple her aerial mobility in one fell swoop. But Ryeong turned his intent against him. Rather than defending, she flared her Vermilion Bird fire qi to its zenith, reshaping the wings into an expansive, blazing net.
"Damn it!"
Realizing it was a trap, Geuk Pyeong arched his back backward with inhuman flexibility. The infernal net missed his face by a hair's breadth, singing strands of his hair as it passed. Slamming his right palm against the earth to redirect his momentum, he launched himself aggressively toward Ryeong once more.
Waiting for that exact countercharge, Ryeong concentrated the White Tiger's wood qi into the tip of her blade, surging forward to meet his charge head-on.
"Haaaaah!"
Second Stance: Clashing Dual Fangs
The colossal, spectral fangs of an ancient divine tiger materialized in the air, creating a spectacle akin to two apex predators tearing into each other at full tilt.
This time, Ryeong held the upper hand. In terms of pure piercing momentum, no technique rivaled the White Tiger True Sword. Coupled with her sacred immortal qi, which burned away his demonic arts upon contact, Geuk Pyeong had no choice but to stagger backward.
Ryeong did not miss the opening. She stomped her foot into the earth, pressing the offensive.
Craaack!
Faint hairline fractures spiderwebbed across Geuk Pyeong's demonic armor. Prolonged combat was finally grinding down its durability.
I have to overwhelm him right now!
Spreading her fiery wings wide, Ryeong vaulted high into the sky. Geuk Pyeong grimaced, knowing full well that those cursed wings of fire were the most infuriating aspect of dealing with her. Her aerial superiority removed any limitation on her attack angles, and any taxing movement that would normally strain a mortal's sinews was easily compensated for by the wings' propulsion. The longer the battle dragged on, the more the scales tipped in her favor.
In the end... am I forced to gamble with this?
Drip.
Crimson essence began seeping through the cracks in his fractured armor. Recognizing that this was an intentional transformation, Ryeong ascended even higher, ensuring she had ample distance to react to any sudden ambush.
Within moments, the dark carapace shifted into a deep crimson hue. It was closer to the color of coagulated blood than true darkness—a mantle that could only be described as blood armor.
Just as the thought crossed her mind—
Fwiiiip!
A blast of condensed fist force lanced directly toward her face. She deflected it smoothly without overextending, but in that fleeting instant, she lost sight of him.
"Got you."
"What?!"
KABOOOOM!!
Losing track of him cost her dearly. Geuk Pyeong had leaped into the stratosphere in a fraction of a heartbeat, driving his fist straight into the joint of her fiery wing.
"Ugh!"
The fiery wing scattered into embers. With demonic qi obstructing the flow of her Celestial Immortal Divine Art, rekindling the wings would take precious time.
Ryeong plummeted helplessly toward the earth. Watching her struggle to regain balance in midair, Geuk Pyeong sneered in mockery.
"Now that your wings are clipped, you'll be far easier to butcher."
"Is that so?"
"...?"
As she fell, the corner of Ryeong's mouth curved upward into a cold, mocking smirk. Geuk Pyeong, convinced his surprise assault had been an absolute triumph, closed the distance to deliver the finishing blow.
"This is called a setup, you idiot."
Sw-sw-sw-sw-shing!!
Every single throwing dagger she had secretly suspended in the surrounding airspace converged upon Geuk Pyeong from every direction at once.