The Thousand Swords Descend
"A man who has reached the absolute realm of opportunism, I see!"
Maegu reverted to her human form as she shouted at the arrival of Zhuge Hyuk. For her, who had to avoid the leakage of heavenly secrets, the very existence of Zhuge Hyuk was an obstacle that prevented her from exerting her full power. Although the situation was relatively more advantageous for Seong-jin, he could not simply rejoice.
'I can't keep up.'
The three of them had begun to run toward the hill at the same time, but Seong-jin was left far behind in an instant. In terms of momentary agility, Seong-jin was second to none. Because he possessed absolute sensory perception, he could read the situation ahead and move accordingly. However, this was a long-distance run—a test of ordinary physical stamina. In that regard, Seong-jin was inferior to Oh-gwi, the branch leader of the Hao-mun. And in his current state, with his internal injuries flared up from the battle, he might even be inferior to Bang Seo-bang.
Zhuge Hyuk, a master of the Peak Realm, had been prioritized for food supplies under the pretext of preparing for a battle against the Green Forest. Thanks to this, he had preserved his stamina and surged ahead with movement techniques as swift as a gale, followed by Maegu. As a fox spirit, Maegu had to use transformation arts to maintain her human appearance. This meant that while in human form, one of her fundamental arts was constantly occupying her upper dantian. In a state where she could not exert her full power to avoid leaking heavenly secrets, she had to continuously use a portion of her internal energy for the transformation. Ultimately, she could not exert her full strength in human form.
"Stop that woman!"
Blocking her path were the warriors of the Zhuge Clan brought by Zhuge Hyuk. Unlike the Arangdae, they followed Zhuge Hyuk personally and obeyed his order to block the Peak master without complaint.
"Yes, sir!"
"You little whelps!"
Maegu literally tore those Zhuge Clan warriors apart. The giant hands created by her Butterfly Kaleidoscope grabbed the first-rate warriors and ripped them limb from limb. The Zhuge Clan warriors, being first-rate, tried to scatter and avoid the attacks in an instant, but they could not escape the Geumna-su (Golden Capture Hand) of a Peak master.
"...!"
"Not even a scream. Were they slaves who couldn't even become insects?"
The body parts Maegu threw fell in front of Seong-jin's feet. The torn limbs rolled on the ground. But no blood came out. Because they were bodies whose blood had already gone cold.
"Jiangshi."
The Five Great Clans, which lacked personnel compared to the Nine Schools and One Sect because they consisted only of blood relatives, had eyed Jiangshi arts as one of the solutions to their chronic manpower shortage. Using this, they even revived dead blood relatives to work for the revival of the clan; these were the warriors Zhuge Hyuk had brought.
"You revive your own blood relatives as Jiangshi and use them as slaves?"
Originally, Jiangshi arts were created to make soldiers who died on the battlefield walk on their own to be taken back to their hometowns. It meant the art was created for humanitarian purposes. The art, which had once disappeared from this land due to the Investiture Covenant, was reproduced in the most horrific way by the Zhuge Clan, who had studied the secret arts over time.
"This is the worst."
For once, Seong-jin could agree with Maegu's words.
"A demonic sect that eats corpses, and a righteous sect that uses corpses as slaves? A world filled with such things deserves to be destroyed."
Maegu vented her anger as she looked at the Zhuge Clan's Jiangshi. Regardless of the means or methods, the sight of her—a monster—appearing more normal than them in terms of caring for her own kind was ironic. Maegu slaughtered the Jiangshi with all her might, holding onto her own convictions. Meanwhile, Seong-jin was able to pass Maegu and move ahead. The distance to Zhuge Hyuk was still great.
"Hmm. Is the legacy of the Heavenly Demon ultimately more important to you than anything else, Young Master Joo? If you joined forces with these Jiangshi now, you could defeat that evil enemy."
"Did they agree to become Jiangshi and be used?"
"Agreement? A corpse that has died and lost its soul is nothing more than a piece of meat. All the resources of the clan belong to the Clan Leader, and the Clan Leader entrusted those resources to me, the one who could best utilize the meat."
In the martial arts clans, even if one is the eldest son, the position of the next Clan Leader is not guaranteed. Zhuge Hyuk had repeated various schemes to avoid losing that position to his younger brothers born afterward, and reached one conclusion. There was no guarantee that among the many relatives, a younger brother with more talent than him wouldn't be born. If so, to take advantage of his position as the eldest son, he should preemptively seize and use the limited resources. If he used up the limited resources that could not be returned once used, there would be no resources left for them to use, even if a more outstanding competitor appeared.
However, it was impossible to eat things like medicinal herbs first. Receiving the clan's medicinal herbs exclusively was something that happened only after being confirmed as the next Clan Leader. Therefore, Zhuge Hyuk found resources that had no use until then, and thus could be taken and used at will if he only created a use for them. He succeeded in researching Jiangshi arts and doubling the Zhuge Clan's military power.
"The blood relatives of the Zhuge Clan serve the clan as Jiangshi even after death. Thanks to this, I was able to advance to the point closest to the position of Clan Leader, but there is still one step left."
The legacy of the Heavenly Demon was to be that final step for Zhuge Hyuk.
"Do you feel no shame for causing a situation where the bodies of your own blood relatives are being torn apart by a monster?"
"I use useless corpses in useful places. Where is there shame in a rational choice? Shame is something Lin-ah should feel for making an irrational deal for a useless biological mother."
"...?"
"Didn't you know? Lin-ah sold her future to me to stop me from turning her sickly and incompetent mother into a Jiangshi."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Rather than spending a lot of money to treat a sick person who only eats food, it is much more efficient to just let them die and revive them as a Jiangshi."
After Zhuge Hyuk developed the Jiangshi arts, incidents occurred in the Zhuge Clan where people who could have been saved were left to die. Because that was more efficient.
"...Stop desecrating the dead any further."
"Why should I listen to you?"
"Because I don't intend to speak with words."
Hundreds of swords filling the sky shoot toward Zhuge Hyuk.
No matter how fast a movement technique is, it cannot outrun a flying sword. Zhuge Hyuk turned toward Seong-jin and drew out his Shin-geom-hap-il (Unity of Body and Sword).
One with the Sword.
Heaven's net is vast, coarse but never missing.
Threads of energy as thin as silk extended from Zhuge Hyuk's ten fingers. The destructive power of Sword Qi is not limited by its size. However, the cutting power becomes stronger the sharper the Sword Qi is. If one is skilled in handling energy and can hone Sword Qi sharply, one can even split the opponent's Sword Qi in a collision of Sword Qi. Then what about Sword Qi as thin as a thread?
Swoosh!
The flying swords that were flying toward Zhuge Hyuk were split like tofu the moment they touched the net that started from his fingertips. The net of heaven is vast, and though it is coarse, it misses nothing. In the end, the flying swords that Seong-jin sent out could not reach him and were all split apart in the sky.
"A tiger uses its full strength even when catching a single rabbit. I have no intention of being defeated while saving my Shin-geom-hap-il. How about you?"
"Is pulling out sword threads all your ability amounts to?"
"Of course not."
Even if it is impossible to pull out different threads from each of the ten fingers, a first-rate master with sufficient skill can reproduce pulling out sword threads as much as they want. The effect of Heaven's net is vast, coarse but never missing did not stop there.
"The workings of heaven cannot be contained by human eyes."
The sword threads, which were as thin as silk, became even thinner, reaching a point where they were invisible to the eye. The sword threads, which had become so thin that they could no longer be confirmed with the naked eye, did not stop there and became even thinner, reaching a point where they could not even be felt with sensory perception.
The cutting power, which had reached its limit, converged to infinity.
"It is a space where a net that cannot be seen, cannot be felt with sensory perception, and possesses absolute cutting power is spread out. Now, this place is under my control."
Crack!
Seong-jin emitted the lightning of Returning to Truth and swung the sword in his hand. However, even the sword wrapped in lightning was cut into pieces the moment it was caught in the transparent net.
"Indeed, were you called the Lightning Asura, Young Master Joo?"
"...!"
Even on a battlefield where a million-strong army was deployed, if someone with such Shin-geom-hap-il were to mix in, they could not avoid annihilation. It was a Shin-geom-hap-il worthy of a descendant of the Crouching Dragon, who was also capable in military strategy with amazing tactics in the old days. Zhuge Hyuk did not stop at simply releasing sword threads.
"Even if sword threads cannot be seen, they are media through which energy flows. It is also possible to deploy a formation through this."
The arrangement of the invisible sword threads changed, and the effect of the formation was activated. In an instant, a fog that made it impossible to see an inch ahead spread out and covered the area. The fog did not simply block the view, but stimulated sensory perception, echoed sounds, and confused the sense of direction.
-If you don't like it, feel free to break through the formation and come. Of course, that is if you can move even a single step from there. Hahaha!
Zhuge Hyuk's voice rang out from all directions, mocking Seong-jin, but that was his only mistake.
'I cannot read Shin-geom-hap-il, but I can read formations.'
Seong-jin, who had been standing still, began to run again. The mysterious harmony created by the flow of energy, formed naturally or artificially. That is the formation. And Seong-jin, who possessed absolute sensory perception, could realize the profound principles just by feeling them, without needing to memorize or study formations. Seong-jin was the one who possessed the talent as the greatest formation expert in the world and had learned the heavenly knowledge of formations.
Seong-jin instead calculated the effects of the formation in reverse to find out the arrangement of the sword threads spread around him, and stepped on the path of life.
-What...? Do you want to die?
It was the opposite.
"The one who wants to die is you."
Without a moment's hesitation, he followed the path of life as if running on flat ground. Zhuge Hyuk continued to change the arrangement of the sword threads to manipulate the formation, but Seong-jin turned his direction to the gate of life, avoiding the gate of death every time. The formation was acting as Seong-jin's guide.
-How did you... the Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation...?
Zhuge Hyuk's figure appeared before Seong-jin, who had broken through the formation in an instant.
Heavenly Sword Summoning.
The flying swords shot out once again.
"You should have seen that such things don't work, right?"
Intangible sword threads wrapped around Zhuge Hyuk, taking a defensive stance. Seong-jin watched that and began to weave a new incantation. Another Shin-geom-hap-il he had seen. The user of the intangible sword had gathered countless energy swords into one to create a sword energy that shone like a crystal.
'If that is possible, this is also possible.'
Powerful lightning energy generated heat, and the sword bodies of the flying swords turned red-hot. The swords, melted by the heat, gathered into one, taking the shape of a large sword. He added weight and power to the flying sword technique, which by its nature had no choice but to pursue lightness and speed.
"Ten Thousand Swords Arrival."
The giant sword pressed down on Zhuge Hyuk with overwhelming weight. The sword threads with absolute cutting power split the giant sword, but they could not block the pushing force. He pushed the intangible net with mass.
"This is nonsense! How, how is this...!"
Zhuge Hyuk could not finish his sentence and collapsed, crushed by his own Shin-geom-hap-il and Seong-jin's Ten Thousand Swords Arrival. As a master of the Peak Realm, he wouldn't die, but it would be difficult for his limbs to be intact while crushed by such mass after losing consciousness. Although he had crippled a master of the righteous path, the eldest son of the Zhuge Clan and an enforcer of the Martial Alliance's Law Department, Seong-jin turned away without giving him another glance. In fact, in terms of his physical condition, he was in a more serious state.
'My internal injuries are severe.'
Unlike Zhuge Hyuk, who had at most lost a limb or two, Seong-jin was at a level where his life would be in danger without a miraculous medicine right now.
'I used up all the White Lotus I brought out, and if decocting is difficult, I should at least refine medicine, but I have no leeway.'
He had defeated Zhuge Hyuk, but Maegu was still there. She, who had been able to return to her original form without worrying about the Investiture Covenant as Zhuge Hyuk collapsed, was tearing apart the Jiangshi and running toward him. The figure of the Grim Reaper, which had flickered before his eyes his whole life, was clearer than ever. However, a will clearer than that was dominating the area. The place where he had run chasing Zhuge Hyuk. Standing on the hill, a single tree that stood alone among the silver grass caught Seong-jin's eyes. The Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. And beneath it. The moment he faced the Heavenly Demon who had become a living Buddha, Seong-jin was able to glimpse his old memories once again.