The Map Spirit Awakens
Hwancheonjihwan had already read his heart.
"You've held back a lot, for you."
"You picked the perfect place for a killing, too."
"A place where even if a great many people die, no one would find it strange. But first, I'll take the Profound Needle."
"Heh heh."
Hwancheonjihwan let out a sly chuckle.
"If you've got something to say, spit it out."
"Haven't you forgotten something?"
The ring's voice was puffed up with pride, like a man hugging a secret only he knew.
"You mean the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons?"
Hwancheonjihwan's laughter cut off. His face crumpled at once, every scrap of good humor smashed to pieces.
"...Don't tell me you know that, too?"
"How to awaken the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons?"
"Y-yeah."
Hwancheonjihwan prayed it wasn't so. The prayer shattered in an instant.
"I know it."
"What?!"
At the ring's startled cry, Tang Cheonwi gave a short snort of laughter.
In his previous life, Hwancheonjihwan himself had told him the method. He had known the method—yet he had never actually awakened it. In that life the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons had fallen into the hands of the Cheongang Clan.
"You just pour your inner energy into it and recite the final verse of the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons."
"D-damn it! That was my secret! How the hell do you know?!"
Cheonwi only smiled faintly and gave no answer to the outburst.
"If I want to find the Profound Needle without trouble, I'll need to wake the map first."
He poured Tyrant Blood Poison Qi into Hwancheonjihwan, the ring. Then he opened the final page of the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons and read the words written there.
"O Heavenly Soul, forget not your master."
"The weapon is no god, yet it shall turn toward the divine."
It meant that weapon and master become one and ascend to the heavens—the path of Heavenly Martial.
A deep thrum answered.
The Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons shuddered violently and rose into the air. Pages flipped with a rapid rustling. A fierce wind from nowhere whipped through the space.
"Is there anything this Tang Cheonwi bastard doesn't know?!"
The moment Hwancheonjihwan's voice ended, the characters written inside the map transformed. The true form of the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons was revealed. Everything before had been false.
It thrummed once more.
Then the surroundings fell utterly still. The map dropped limply to the floor...
"Ow!"
A scream rang out beside them.
"Aigo! Aigo!"
A white-haired boy with black eyes was rubbing the top of his head. The sight made Hwancheonjihwan's face twist.
"That Bongsin is ruining the dignity of the Three Great Treasures of Wulin."
"So the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons has taken human form?"
"That's right..."
"He looks awfully young."
"Acts young, too."
Still rubbing his head, Bongsin spotted Hwancheonjihwan and lit up.
"Hwancheon-ah!"
He waved both hands and came running.
"You little Bongsin, you haven't changed a bit."
"Hehe, I'm always a scatterbrain. But how long has it been?"
"About two hundred years?"
"Heeek? That long already?"
The Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons was nothing more than a little boy.
"Hey, hey—get off me a little?"
"Whyyy? It's been ages."
"That doesn't mean you have to glue yourself to me."
"Hmph, you're so mean."
Watching Hwancheonjihwan and the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons, someone else came to mind.
Just like me and Jegal Gwang.
Hwancheonjihwan was him. Bongsin was Jegal Gwang. The resemblance was uncanny. Gwang was always like that, too—though he put on a dignified act whenever his twin sister Jegal Rin was around. The relationship between himself and Jegal Gwang overlapped perfectly with the two treasures before him.
"But where's Myeonggyeong?"
"You're the second."
"So he hasn't woken yet... meaning you're going to wake him soon?"
"We've got a long way to go before we wake that one. Wake him wrong and the whole of Wulin will fall into chaos."
"Still... I miss Myeonggyeong..."
Bongsin looked dejected.
"We'll go wake him someday. Lift your shoulders."
"Uuung."
"Aren't you even curious about the human who woke you?"
"I am!"
Bongsin instantly perked up. Eyes sparkling, he looked around until his gaze locked with a certain boy.
"Ah, it's him!"
He trotted over, formed a proper fist-and-palm salute, and chirped,
"Hello! I'm Bongsin!"
Hwancheonjihwan smacked his own forehead.
"Because of that brat the Three Great Treasures have zero dignity left."
On the road to find the Profound Needle, Bongsin—the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons—walked cheerfully in the lead.
"Just follow me, Master!"
"Hey, we have the dignity of the Three Great Treasures. What do you think you're doing taking the front?"
"He's our master, you know. Hwancheon, why have you always been so twisted?"
Bongsin spoke the pure, sunny truth. Hwancheonjihwan, stabbed straight through the heart, clenched his fists and trembled.
"That little shit! Should I just kill him?"
"Again! You can't hit your friends! Hitting little kids is especially low!"
"Auuugh, I swear..."
Hwancheonjihwan only made swatting motions and never actually struck. The sight drew a quiet laugh from Cheonwi.
Natural enemy.
Hwancheonjihwan had wanted a friend who understood his heart. Instead the friend did the exact opposite of what he intended—how frustrating must that be?
"Hwancheon-ah, can you stop talking to me? I'm going to get the path mixed up."
He even scolded him. The one he thought was an ally had been the enemy all along. Hwancheonjihwan could only shake with injustice.
"Hehe, Master, if you keep going straight to the right from here, the Profound Needle will be waiting."
Bongsin was an artifact that knew the resting place of every legendary weapon. Knowing where the Profound Needle slept was child's play for him.
They followed his directions and...
"A cliff."
A sheer drop opened before them.
"Don't worry. This is the Despair Array—part of an illusion formation."
The Despair Array—named for the act of gazing into hopelessness itself.
"Just close your eyes and step inside. Easy."
Bongsin entered the formation first. Tang Cheonwi followed right behind.
Darkness crashed over him. It felt as though his body were being sucked downward into endless freefall.
"You have to endure that feeling."
Easy.
Darkness, the despair of plummeting from a bottomless cliff—he had lived with those emotions every day of his life. Something this mild could not even scratch him.
"Wow, I've never seen anyone walk through the Despair Array without the slightest emotional ripple."
Bongsin's eyes went round. Hwancheonjihwan spoke as if it were nothing.
"Don't be so easily impressed. This bastard is a monster who ignores common sense."
"So he really does have the right to awaken us?"
Bongsin clapped again and again in pure delight. In the meantime Tang Cheonwi had already walked out the far side of the Despair Array with casual ease.
A tiny cave awaited—nothing like the space before. Only a single adult could fit inside.
"Amazing. To claim the Profound Needle you normally have to fall all the way to the bottom of the abyss, but Master just strolled right in and can take it."
A familiar energy brushed against him from within.
Poison qi—highly refined.
He stepped deeper. Against the far wall sat a corpse, leaning as though merely resting. In front of it lay a wooden box. Poison qi radiated from inside.
As he reached for the box, Bongsin's voice came urgently.
"Be careful with this last part. The poison is extremely strong."
He already knew. He knew exactly what kind of poison waited inside—power enough to wipe this place clean off the map.
"This should be interesting."
No matter how fierce the toxin, it was useless before Tyrant Blood Poison Qi. Even the strongest poison in Wulin, Soul Destroying Poison, would fare no better.
He took the wooden box and slowly opened it.
Blue light and white light flashed together. A cold radiance bloomed, and a haze rose with it—then the haze was sucked straight into his nose.
"Huk! That poison is dangerous!"
Bongsin startled, but Hwancheonjihwan was unimpressed.
"Even Soul-Bright Azure Poison won't be able to give this bastard a hard time."
He knew the toxin's true name.
Soul-Bright Azure Poison—the blue poison that illuminates the soul. It was a poison that could call life, yet because the character for "bright" could also be read as the darkness of the underworld, even poison masters feared it.
"Still, Soul-Bright Azure Poison is an extreme toxin that can snatch away ten thousand lives..."
"Just watch. You'll understand how I feel soon enough."
Hwancheonjihwan and Bongsin held their breath and watched Tang Cheonwi.
The poison qi ran wild, racing through every meridian to butcher the invader that had dared enter its domain.
Vicious, but not a poison I can't suppress. For me it will become a rare elixir instead.
Tang Cheonwi intended to convert the Soul-Bright Azure Poison into his own inner energy. With Tyrant Blood Poison Qi, every poison under heaven was practically a miracle pill.
A deep boom rolled inside him.
Tyrant Blood Poison Qi stormed through every blood vessel and meridian. The instant the Great Circulation completed, the Soul-Bright Azure Poison—sensing mortal threat—counterattacked. It tore through solid qi and blood vessels alike, turning them into chaos.
Tyrant Blood Poison Qi erupted in fury. It slammed headlong into the enemy that had invaded its territory.
A thunderous crash. Tang Cheonwi's body staggered. The shock inside had reached the outside.
Tyrant Blood Poison Qi and Soul-Bright Azure Poison were unexpectedly evenly matched.
This is Tyrant Blood Poison Qi after absorbing the Black Deep Abyss, and it still holds out?
He had underestimated Soul-Bright Azure Poison. It was more vicious and powerful than expected—and the smile at the corner of his mouth only grew deeper.
If this goes well, Tyrant Blood Poison Qi might punch straight through to five stars in one go.
Right now it sat at roughly three-and-a-half stars—comparable to the sixth or seventh star of the All-Streams Returning Origin Divine Art. When Tyrant Blood Poison Qi reached five stars, it would equal the tenth star of that art: complete mastery.
No time to waste here. I'll have to gamble.
Reading his thoughts, Hwancheonjihwan shook his head.
"This bastard's gambling with his own body again. I don't even get surprised anymore."
Sure enough, Tang Cheonwi moved the Profound Needle with pure inner energy—Object Control, a subtlety only a handful of Transcendence masters could perform. He displayed it while simultaneously fighting the poison.
"Considering Master's age, isn't that an absurd realm?"
Bongsin asked. Hwancheonjihwan only sighed.
"I told you common sense doesn't apply to him. Keep watching. Something so outrageous you'll get angry is about to happen."
The idea that Tang Cheonwi might die from poison was unthinkable. The poison god would surely descend. And then—
"Huk! Baihui is a death acupoint!"
The Profound Needle drove into the crown of his head. Not only Baihui. The Renzhong point between nose and mouth. Fengfu at the base of the skull. Qihai below the navel. Mingmen at the center of the lower back. All at once he pierced the death acupoints with the hidden weapon that was the Profound Needle.
"In a completely different way, this is amazing. He's gone mad wanting to die."
"Hwancheon, shouldn't you stop him?"
"He wouldn't listen even if I tried. And he's already stabbed them—you can't pull them out now. You know as well as I do that yanking them free would be even more dangerous."
Bongsin fretted helplessly. Hwancheonjihwan could only click his tongue and keep watching Tang Cheonwi.
About one full shichen later...
A brilliant flash.
Green light blazed from Tang Cheonwi's eyes.