Reaping What One Sows
Cheonhwa opened his eyes inside the training cave.
Rather than the clear, refreshed feeling of waking from a long sleep, what greeted him was a lingering fatigue. Everything that had just happened felt as though it might have been a dream — yet the Spiritual Nature shining distinctly in his Upper Dantian told him it had been no dream at all.
Have I truly become a Peak Expert?
It still did not feel real. He had always imagined that reaching the Peak would bring some more dramatic transformation. But now that he had actually become a Peak Expert, he felt no particularly striking change. The only thing he could immediately sense was that his spiritual consciousness had expanded under the influence of his Spiritual Nature.
Cheonhwa unwound his meditation posture and rose to his feet. A light check of his physical condition revealed no problems. After the fierce battle he had waged within his mindscape, he had half-expected some kind of backlash — but fortunately, nothing of the sort had occurred.
If my body had been left in the same state it was in inside the mindscape, that would have been disastrous.
Even with the restorative powers he possessed, those injuries had far exceeded any reasonable limit. Had it been real, the consequences might have been truly dire.
Cheonhwa let out a breath of relief, took hold of Okgyeong where it leaned against the wall, and channeled his internal energy into it, attempting the Body-Sword Unity he had executed within his mindscape.
Using his true qi as a medium, he dissolved the boundary between himself and Okgyeong and linked them as one. The wooden blade began to tremble faintly. The sword's cry was not yet clear or resonant, but there was no doubt he had stepped through the threshold of Body-Sword Unity.
Still not as complete as it was in the mindscape, is it?
He was well aware that succeeding at Body-Sword Unity in a single attempt had only been possible because of those extraordinary circumstances. But having succeeded even once, the sensation remained. If he trained from that foundation, he would complete Body-Sword Unity before long.
And there's one more thing I need to test.
Cheonhwa steadied his breathing and focused once more. He layered a sheath of qi over Okgyeong's blade, then drew upon the glimmer of Spiritual Nature seated in his Upper Dantian and poured it into that sheath of energy. The qi-aura flared with a far sharper presence — not as vivid as it had been in the mindscape, but unmistakably Intent Qi Manifestation.
To gauge the power of the sword qi, he gave Okgyeong a light sweep toward the cave wall.
Kak!
The blade of his will bit into the stone with a sharp, cutting sound. A gouge appeared with almost absurd ease on the training cave wall — a surface that ordinarily resisted damage.
"Huh…"
An involuntary sigh of wonder escaped him at the result of his own handiwork.
Is it because of that time on Mount Taebaek, when I used Intent Qi Manifestation through the Ice Crystal? It came more easily than I expected.
Further training was still necessary, but the simple fact that he could use it at all held meaning. One point, however, continued to nag at him. Even if it had been within the mindscape, what he had executed then was clearly a latter-half form of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven — a completely unfamiliar form he had never once practiced. How had he been able to perform it?
The Heavenly White Sun I used was a form I didn't know.
Heavenly White Sun was not merely a matter of employing Intent Qi Manifestation. It was a form that maximized cutting power by packing sword qi as densely as possible through the profound principles of the heavy sword. Yet the moment he had tried to unleash Intent Qi Manifestation, the form's secrets had risen unbidden into his mind, and in a state of absolute concentration he had executed it as if it were second nature.
It was similar when I made contact with the Ice Crystal's Spiritual Nature. My intent answered, and I was able to use sword qi I had never practiced before.
In the process of forming his Spiritual Nature, Cheonhwa had gathered and refined every strand of intent woven into the Zhongnan martial arts he had learned. It was entirely possible that fragments of the latter-half secrets of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven had been mixed into that synthesis. Or perhaps it had simply been a miracle wrought by the Spiritual Nature itself.
For now, I'll continue training.
Part of him wanted nothing more than to end his closed-door cultivation at once, step outside, and announce to everyone that he had become a Peak Expert. But an equal desire burned in him to polish the areas that still fell short. He needed to master the secrets of Layer upon Layer and the Vast Ocean, and he needed to grow accustomed to his expanded spiritual consciousness. He still had more than enough fasting pills remaining.
Cheonhwa chewed a fasting pill to quiet his empty stomach and laid out a training plan. It seemed the news that a new Peak Expert had been born in the Zhongnan Sect would take a little longer yet to reach the outside world.
At the Martial Alliance's temporary outpost in Yunnan Province, martial artists of the righteous path had gathered to hold the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace to account — yet none of their faces looked particularly bright.
"So what became of the envoy we sent with the final ultimatum?"
"Only his head came back — along with a letter."
At that answer, several of the martial artists showed open fury. To kill an envoy sent under the name of the Martial Alliance — such conduct was possible only if one held the entire righteous path in contempt.
"And what did the letter say?"
"The contents were so vulgar that, to summarize the core of it, it amounted to a declaration of war."
A martial artist of the Jegal Family, serving in a military advisory role, produced the letter. Every line was filled with insulting language, its purpose clearly to provoke.
"It seems certain that the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace has not only joined hands with the mysterious force but has also chosen to treat us as enemies."
"In that case, we have no choice but to strike the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace directly."
"We may even have to steel ourselves for the possibility of destroying the entire sect."
At the mention of annihilating the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, a heavy silence settled over the assembly. Had their opponent been an unorthodox or black-path faction, it would have been one thing — but the Beast Palace had originally leaned closer to the righteous path, and it was a great sect that ruled an entire region. The repercussions of such a decision were all too easy to imagine. Even so, they could not simply overlook the atrocities the Beast Palace had committed. The great majority of those gathered here had come precisely to settle that grudge.
A storm of blood is about to break.
Gakhyeon suppressed an inward sigh at the razor-edged atmosphere. He understood their feelings well enough. He himself sat here as a first-generation disciple representing the Zhongnan Sect, and he had personally recovered the remains of Zhongnan disciples who had died in the Beast Palace's assault.
But even allowing for that, the Beast Palace's conduct has been excessively abnormal.
It was as if they were desperate to force a fight. The strong impression was that they were deliberately playing a losing hand. It felt as though they were aiming at something — a trap, or some other design — but without clarity, the uncertainty was maddening.
They talk as if they mean to wage an all-out war, yet they show no real intention of fighting properly.
Gakhyeon reviewed the trail the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had left so far. Those who had attacked the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering had withdrawn the moment the tide turned against them, scattering so thoroughly that pursuit had been nearly impossible.
The greater problem began after we entered Yunnan Province.
The Beast Palace had ridden spiritual beasts in raids against the Martial Alliance, then withdrawn without a shred of lingering attachment once they had sown chaos. They had abandoned frontal combat entirely and concentrated solely on guerrilla warfare. They did not even glance at Peak Experts or Super Experts, targeting only first-class martial artists instead and steadily whittling away the Alliance's forces.
And when they fled, they always fled into prepared formations.
Using formations cunningly concealed throughout the jungle, they distorted the vision of their pursuers, making it difficult even for Peak Experts and Super Experts to give chase. By the time the formations were broken and the pursuit resumed, the enemy had already vanished into the jungle depths. Hidden arrays continued to obstruct passage at every turn. Had the Jegal Family, with their deep knowledge of formations, not been present, advancing into the jungle at all might have proven impossible.
The unfamiliar environment was a problem as well.
The dense jungle growth and the stifling, humid climate inflicted a fatigue far beyond what anyone had imagined. Only because they were trained martial artists had they managed without serious mishap; ordinary people would have collapsed from the heat long ago.
I'd like nothing better than to level every forest in sight — but we can't do that either.
Given the number of Super Experts and Peak Experts gathered here, wiping the jungle away would have been a trivial matter. They refrained because of what would follow once the forest was left desolate.
Forests and mountains like these are usually the foundation of the common people's livelihood.
Destroying that foundation might bring short-term convenience, but it would inevitably earn the bitterness of ordinary folk. An unorthodox sect might ignore such concerns; for the righteous path, it was something that could not be done. Such a stain of infamy could shake the standing and trust of honor-conscious righteous sects. That could not be disregarded.
And the Beast Palace knows this, which is why they attack in this fashion.
It was a tactic that exploited the constraints that came with belonging to the righteous path, as well as the geographical advantage of Yunnan serving as their own front yard. The problem was that the approach did not shatter the enemy force through decisive ambushes — it merely inflicted minor losses and ground on the nerves.
Just what are they after?
There was only one way for Gakhyeon to resolve the question weighing on him: to ask the leadership of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace directly.
"Good. Everything is proceeding according to plan. Continue focusing on guerrilla warfare as you have been — slow their advance and buy as much time as possible. That is the only way we can hold until the reinforcements arrive."
At Beom Rang's command, the messenger bowed and hurried from the chamber. Left alone, Beom Rang leaned back against the throne and sank into thought.
At present, the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace stood under threat from the Martial Alliance — a coalition forged by the great sects of the righteous path. The very future of the Beast Palace hung in the balance. And so Beom Rang had soothed his people by telling them that support forces were on their way and that they need only endure.
Of course, they have no idea that no large-scale reinforcements of that sort actually exist.
Support would come, yes — but nothing on a scale capable of matching the Martial Alliance's strength. Beom Rang had deceived his people because the present situation itself was what he needed.
They told me to hold the Martial Alliance's forces by the ankle and make it difficult for them to withdraw.
To that end, the Heavenly Demon Cult had dispatched a considerable number of formation masters, and the jungle arrays currently giving the Martial Alliance such trouble were the product of their work.
Having even those rare assets — formation specialists — assigned to us made the deception far easier.
That was why the people of the Beast Palace had believed Beom Rang's lies so completely. If the Heavenly Demon Cult had gone so far as to send formation masters, then further support must surely be forthcoming. In a desperate situation, the birth of hope made them cling to it — without realizing that the rope they grasped was not merely rotten, but an illusion entirely.
And if we dig in for a siege as well, we can hold out far longer still.
While the Martial Alliance wasted its time at the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, the Heavenly Demon Cult intended to execute a separate operation.
They said the Martial Alliance is powerful as a collective — but as a collective, it also has its weaknesses.
The Alliance forces currently advancing on the Beast Palace were elite troops drawn from each of the great sects. That meant the fighting strength remaining at those sects was limited. The Heavenly Demon Cult planned to strike into that gap.
Draw their attention by hitting them from behind, then deliver an unexpected blow in the opening — the classic Sound East, Strike West stratagem.
The only difference was that its scale did not cover a single region, but the whole of the Central Plains. Beom Rang congratulated himself once more on having chosen to join hands with the Heavenly Demon Cult, and at the same time pitied the Martial Alliance for dancing so thoroughly in the Cult's palm. Pity or not, he fully intended to carry his assigned role through to the end. Only then could he bring about the collapse of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace exactly as he desired.
So take your time coming, Martial Alliance. These arms of mine are open wide to welcome you — the bringers of the Beast Palace's end!