Red Lotus (1)
Red Lotus (1)
Dust stirred up from the impact of landing; one landed right in front of me, while the other stopped at a distance.
"Jeokryeon!!! Explain what on earth is going on here!!!"
This ear-shattering roar—I could never forget it.
The old man in front of my eyes was the very bastard who had nearly killed me with just his voice alone.
"It seems there was a brief commotion."
And then, there was our master. Wherever she had been, her complexion looked bright and radiant.
Meaning her pale skin had gotten even paler.
"Not just one, but you killed two of my disciples! Just because the Palace Master spoils you, do you think you've become somebody?!"
"Yun Changak got what he deserved. Elder Gong-nim, you agreed to that back then, so are you bringing that up again?"
"Are you insulting me with your cunning words? When you clearly know that isn't what I'm talking about?!"
The old man called Elder Gong glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
His Divine Sense tried to crush me like a bug.
"Are you vulgarly resorting to force without even hearing out the situation?"
Jeokryeon flicked her sleeve, repelling the Divine Sense that bore down with the weight of a thousand catties.
"You wench, how can a mere Foundation Establishment block my Divine Sense? Did you somehow ascend to the Golden Core in the meantime? No, the Palace Master would have forbidden that?"
Perhaps having never expected her to block his Divine Sense, the old man scowled and muttered under his breath.
More importantly, Jeokryeon was only at Foundation Establishment? I thought she was at least at Core Formation.
"Elder-nim, please stop here. Or will you continue? There is not much time left until the Great Plan. Please be generous once more."
Jeokryeon drew a blood-colored sword from her sleeve and murmured coldly.
Perhaps because his pride was completely wounded, the old man's face, which had been trying to carefully assess the situation, contorted into a violent flush.
"You ruined my face twice—a whole two times—and yet you act this arrogant just relying on the Palace Master's backing?! What's needed for the Great Plan is your body, not your ungrateful personality!"
As if his patience had run out, the old man's momentum turned fierce.
The air noticeably heated up. His sheer presence triggered minor natural phenomena.
Qi Gathering stage, said to construct the body of a cultivator.
Foundation Establishment stage, the realm where one can freely wield the spiritual energy of the perfected body.
And above that, the realm recognized as a true, complete cultivator.
Core Formation or Golden Core.
The title of respect attached to those who ascended from insignificance to true cultivators: Superior Being.
Elder Gong was a Superior Being who had attained the Golden Core.
A high-level cultivator whom a mere Foundation Establishment practitioner—devoid of any title of honor—could do nothing against.
"Even now, beat that fellow to death with your own hands, get on your knees, and offer an apology. If you do that, considering our past relations and the Palace Master's face, I will turn a blind eye one last time."
".........."
The ultimatum was delivered. Jeokryeon turned back to look at me with a heavily stiffened expression.
I met her eyes with a nonchalant face.
'You truly do make things difficult for me. If you had just stayed in the cave dwelling until everything was finished, you would have naturally regained your freedom.'
Jeokryeon's reproach echoed in my head.
It wasn't voice transmission. It was mind speech, transmitted through the subordination of our master-servant relationship.
I focused my Divine Sense on the token inside my robes and retorted.
'Because I felt like I was going to wither away waiting any longer for someone who left without a word.'
'There is no time to joke around. Gong Muyeon, as pathetic as that old monster might seem, a rotten elder is still an elder of the Blood Lotus Palace. Even I cannot handle him recklessly.'
'For someone saying that, didn't you off one of his disciples?'
'That was because Yun Changak, that idiot, acted all cocky and proposed that I become his Dao companion without knowing his place, so he died.'
Mine was similar. Someone named Gong Yeom or Gong-whatever suddenly showed up, acted like a lord, wouldn't listen to a word I said, and charged at me, so I killed him.
'...Be that as it may, Yun Changak was just one of Gong Muyeon's dime-a-dozen disciples, but Gong Yeom is his child. Whether he showed him affection or not is unknown, but if he concedes even on his child, his standing within the Blood Lotus Palace will be endangered, so he cannot back down.'
Jeokryeon let out a sigh.
'The best judgment would be to kill you right here. That way it ends cleanly with no loose ends.'
'Then do it. Dying by your hands once is practically an honor.'
'..........'
She fell silent. The ripples fallen upon her quiet eyes increased in frequency as time passed.
'Though, it wouldn't be any fun.'
'...Fun?'
'Just looking at him, that elder doesn't seem to be better than you in any way.'
Listening to the general flow of their conversation, Jeokryeon's standing seemed high enough that the elder had to offer her choices.
At the very least, he couldn't kill her as he pleased. Then wouldn't it be fine to ram right into him?
'What kind of nonsense is that? How could it be possible to overcome a major realm boundary and win? Furthermore, the difference between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core is even greater than that between a mortal and Qi Gathering.'
'So you can't win?'
'...It's not a matter of that.'
"Jeokryeon, what are you doing? How much time must I give you before you intend to move? I cannot wait any longer. I shall count to five. If you stay still until then, I will severely punish you. One."
As Elder Gong began to count two, Jeokryeon bit her lower lip hard.
I spoke to her as she agonized.
'It's not my place to talk as the guy who caused trouble, but fun is my top priority.'
'......What?'
'I don't pick choices that aren't fun.'
"Four."
"Hey, shut up for a sec. We're discussing."
"......?"
I cut Elder Gong off; Jeokryeon was shocked for a moment, then smiled as if she finally understood.
"You are absurd."
"That's how I've survived. If I had acted normal, I would've been killed by you already."
"That's true."
I had no way of knowing what Jeokryeon's circumstances were, or what kind of life she had lived.
I just couldn't bear to watch someone who was always so confident looking so shrunken and intimidated.
"You can kill me later if you want. Anytime."
"I can do that whenever I want."
Kuung!
"You bastards!!! How dare you! How dare you!!!"
Elder Gong completely exploded.
The tips of his white hair blazed like fire, and his eyes completely lost sanity.
Jeokryeon, whom I thought would get angry or scold me, looked up at Elder Gong and pointed her sword at him.
"Please grant me a lesson, Elder-nim."
"Die!"
Jeokryeon shoved me back inside the cave dwelling, and Elder Gong charged toward her.
The battle of cultivators I was witnessing for the very first time was about to unveil its curtains—
—What on earth is that?
Gong Muyeon was the Third Elder of the Blood Lotus Palace and a Core Formation Superior Being.
Although he had run up against the wall of lifespan after failing to achieve Nascent Soul for several hundred years, his experience didn't just vanish into thin air.
A sly, highly experienced old monster, the embodiment of a ruthless Blood Lotus Palace elder who used any means necessary.
He was confident. Confident that he could harshly overwhelm that arrogant sacrifice acting high and mighty under the Palace Master's protection.
'What is this?'
However, with a single exchange against Jeokryeon's sword, he felt a shock as if common sense itself were shattering.
'Why is this even a fight?'
The difference between Core Formation and Foundation Establishment could not be described as a mere single stage.
How could Foundation Establishment, which barely lays a foundation while refining spiritual energy into spiritual power depending on cultivation techniques, ever be equal to Core Formation, which walks the path of a seasoned cultivator advancing toward the next level?
This fight was not a sparring session; it was a life-or-death duel.
Of course, having no intention of ruining the Great Work of the Blood Lotus Palace, Gong Muyeon had intended to moderately crush Jeokryeon's limbs.
Kkang!
"Perhaps it's because you've gotten old. Your strength is lacking. How about considering retirement soon?"
"Just because I played around with you a few times...!"
He hadn't been playing around. Gong Muyeon was completely serious.
He had drawn upon his own Natal Technique, clashing with Jeokryeon by blending spell arts and body techniques.
Dozens of firebirds flew from his fingertips, while mountain-shaking bombardments poured forth from his toes.
He disrupted her mind with Divine Sense, chanted spells with his mouth, and deployed simple formations.
Every single move roamed the battlefield carrying deliberate intent, and Gong Muyeon was a fighter who knew how to utilize them to the fullest.
Yet all of it was broken and breached whenever the sword held in Jeokryeon's hand swung.
She smashed through every single move head-on, as if she possessed complete insight into Gong Muyeon's weaknesses.
'Unbelievable!'
Jeokryeon was unmistakably at Foundation Establishment.
Although she couldn't raise her realm due to the Palace Master's command, that didn't mean she possessed Core Formation-level power either.
An error had occurred in Gong Muyeon's knowledge of her.
She was not a simple, obedient sacrifice.
'Even if she carries that person's bloodline, how could there be such a vast discrepancy?'
It was a more fundamental issue. A secret that even he, an elder, did not know.
Only then did Gong Muyeon recall that the Palace Master and Jeokryeon had spent a great deal of time together recently.
'......How far along is the progress of the Great Plan?'
Gong Muyeon observed Jeokryeon while narrowly dodging the sword approaching the tip of his neck.
Her intelligent eyes had withered into emptiness, and her curved mouth was firmly shut in a cold line.
Jeokryeon's heroic spirit had vanished without a trace, leaving behind nothing but the intent to kill her enemy.
'Palace Master, you bastard!'
Gong Muyeon realized he had been played.
This entire game was clearly the Palace Master's trickery.
'Me?! Me, who devoted his life to the Blood Lotus Palace?!'
Seogeok!
"......!"
His vision narrowed with rage, and his attack ended up swinging at empty air.
Jeokryeon dispassionately sliced her sword down, severing Gong Muyeon's arm.
As a Core Formation practitioner, losing an arm wasn't that big a loss, but recognizing that he was merely a pawn on the board, he no longer held anything back.
"Disappear, all of you!"
Summoning a massive orb of blood above his head, Gong Muyeon launched it toward Jeokryeon.
"That is far enough."
From the mouth of Jeokryeon, who had sheathed her sword, flowed not the voice of a woman, but that of a man—