Чиний гишгэсэн зүйл / Чиний туулсан зам (9)

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Thud, thud...

From deep within the cave, 'something' walks out.

Gulp

As it emerges, the surrounding curses grow denser.

Eventually, Byeok Mun-seong ascends into the air, rising upwards.

Rumble, rumble...

Darkness.

A dense dome of darkness surrounds ‘it’.Byeok Mun-seong, amidst the darkness, watches thousands of writhing curses and greets the entity.

The two cultivators who have been chatting heedlessly also send their greetings following Byeok Mun-seong.

"Long time no see, Cultivator Seo."

Byeok Mun-seong greeted him again, sizing up his cultivation.

'Qi Building... 4th Constellation.'

Horn, Neck, Root, Room, Heart, Tail, Winnowing Basket.

Ladle, Ox, Girl, Emptiness, Rooftop, Chamber, Wall.

Leg, Bond, Stomach, Hairy head, Net, Beak, Triple Star.

Well, Ghost.

He felt the energies of 23 Spiritual Energy Stars of the 4 Constellations.

Byeok Mun-seong felt the flow of Pure Spiritual Force at the center of the curses and looked at him.

'Just Qi Building 4th Constellation, but the strength of Grand Perfection... Those terrifying curses... Even though I have not been at Core Formation for long... I don’t feel like I can win.'

Typically, curse sorcerers who practice curse methods handle 30-40 curse spells, up to 60 or 70 in some cases.

In exceptional cases, more than 90.

But what about him?

'It looks like thousands at a glance...'

It means he is hundreds of times more skilled than the typical curse sorcerers.

Being hundreds of times more skilled at the Qi Building Grand Perfection stage meant his power is virtually no different from Core Formation.

Byeok Mun-seong continues to speak towards the dark dome of curses.

"As I said, it's time for the old monsterl to wake up..."

[I know.]

A rough voice echoes from the dark center.

The voice is dark, unlike a human's, with an eerie effect that intimidates the listener.

[Hurry up. Lead the way.]

"...Yes, understood."

Then, it happens.

"Wait, aren’t you a bit too commanding, even considering everything?"

One of the cultivators who followed Byeok Mun-seong spoke towards the dark dome.

"We came to visit, yet you talk without showing your face.  Your cultivation seems only to be at Qi Building, so... is it right to be so disrespectful to us, Core Formation cultivators?"

"Miss Gongmyo!"

Byeok Mun-seong, with a pale face, tries to stop the cultivator from the Gongmyo Clan.

But Miss Gongmyo is unrelenting.

"They say you're a madman, wandering the mountainous regions of Byeokra in the dark, watching fan dances, and suddenly screaming and rampaging. I would understand if you were really insane, but since you can talk..."

"Quiet, please!"

Just then.

Kugugugugugu!

From the black dome, a mass of dark curse spells begin pouring towards her.

Swoosh!

The mass of curses transform into a giant black hand, reaching out as if to engulf her.

"Eek!"

The woman from the Gongmyo Clan frowns, forming a seal to deploy a defensive spell.

A blue sphere blocks the black hand.

"What is this madness!? You..."

And, as she is about to express her anger,

The protective shield touched by the Black Hand begins to decay and crumble.

"Wh-what...!?"

"Miss Gongmyo! Use the Holy Concentration Talisman!"

At Byeok Mun-seong's shout, she takes out a talisman.

And at that moment, the Black Hand strikes her.

Boom!

She’s sent flying by the Black Hand, crashing into the opposite hillside.

A cloud of dust billows.

"Wait! You crazy…what are you doing to Gongmyo Unnie!"

"Miss Jin, stay calm, I'll resolve this through conversation!"

"Young Noble Byeok, stay put. Don't underestimate the Jin Clan!"

As she forms her hand seals with a vigorous motion, thousands of fire pellets appear around her, filling all directions.

"Burn that insolent shadow to ashes! Go!"

With a roaring sound, the fire pellets begin to move in unison.

However.

"Rain (雨)."

Shiiiiiiii!

"Collide (衝)."

Chua Jua Jua Jua Jua!

From within the black domain, hundreds of curse spells fly towards her like arrows with incredible speed.

The curse spells explode the fire pellets, causing a massive explosion, and a few pass by her body.

Whist!

A small droplet of blood drops from her cheek.

"How dare you... Just a Qi Building stage...!!"

However, the entity within the black mass clicks its tongue.

"It’s over."

"What nonsense! I haven’t even shown my true power yet! Watch, I’ll show you the magical arts of Jin Clan's Fiery Silk Flame Heat Wave!"

Huaaaaaa!

Around her, flames resembling silky drapes begin to flicker.

The heat from the flaming silks soar infinitely, drying up the moisture in the surrounding terrain.

But the entity within the darkness remains silent.

Instead, with a hand seal, a clay figure rises from below.

Silently...

Then, a curse spell floats in the air.

There is a drop of blood on the curse spell.

"Take this!"

Simultaneously, the Jin Clan cultivator unleashes her spell, while the entity within the black domain flicks their finger, moving the blood-stained curse spell over the clay figure to be absorbed.

And that was it.

Fizz!

"Eh, what?"

[Why hesitate. Go ahead, attack.]

She stands dumbfounded for a moment, then looks at the clay figure.

The curses, transformed and embedded in every corner of the clay figure's body, are situated precisely at the spiritual meridians used for casting spells.

[You can’t do it?]

Silently...

The figure within the black sphere forms another hand seal, and red ink appears on the neck of the clay figure.

In the next moment, she feels a strange sensation and converges a mirror to look at her own neck.

"What…!?"

The same mark, with red ink, appeared on her neck, just like on the clay figure.

[To allow blood to a curse sorcerer, how naive. What do you think will happen if I strike this neck?]

She stands in shock, trembling like a leaf in terror.

The trickle of blood from her cheek flows steadily.

Though it was just a very thin cut, the blood strangely wouldn’t stop.

Swoosh―

Suddenly, the sound of a sword being unsheathed echoes from within the darkness.

Step, step…

And then, the black figure approaches the clay figure.

"N-no! Don’t do that!"

Anticipating her fate, she pleads with a pale face.

Just then.

"That’s enough, Cultivator Seo."

Byeok Mun-seong appears, standing between the clay figure and Seo Eun-hyun.

"It’s not right for allies to fight among themselves, especially when the day to capture the old monster is approaching."

[So be it.]

Snap!

As he speaks, he snaps his finger, and the Jin Clan cultivator sees the curse spells that had penetrated her cheek and body being expelled and returning to the black dome.

The same happens to her friend from the Gongmyo Clan, as black curses emerge from her body.

Only then did they look at the person in front of them.

Being at Qi Building did not mean they are the same.

He just hasn’t reached Core Formation yet.

His power is essentially no different from Core Formation.

‘This is… the decisive weapon to fight against the Nascent Soul old monsterl...’

She closes her mouth and approaches the Gongmyo Clan cultivator.

"Keugh, kughh…"

The woman from the Gongmyo Clan is holding a talisman imbued with the power of blessings in her hand.

The power of blessings seemed to neutralize the curse, preventing her body from decaying instantly from the single strike, but she appears to have sustained some internal injuries

[Then, let’s go.]

Whoosh!

Scattering dark curse spells, Seo Eun-hyun moves from within the curses.

He hides in the darkness and flies away into the sky. Byeok Mun-seong, after glancing at the women for a moment, extends a Purification Talisman and Healing Talisman to them.

"Even though Cultivator Seo has retracted the curses, use the Purification Talisman to draw out the curse's poison once more before healing. His curses are especially toxic, and one can suffer severe aftereffects if they assume it's safe just because the curse is gone."

"Th-thank you, Young Noble Byeok."

"Haaah, and..."

Byeok Mun-seong frowns slightly and warns the two women.

"...since both of you are injured like this, I recommend not participating in the battle against the Nascent Soul old monster."

'It’d be instant death and you’d only serve as a snack for that Nascent Soul devil.'

Byeok Mun-seong swallowed his last words and turned around.

Suddenly, something sparkling catches his eye in the depths of the cave from which Seo Eun-hyun had emerged.

'That is...'

Drawn to the sparkling object, Byeok Mun-seong approaches it.

It’s a glass sculpture.

The delicately crafted glass sculpture depicts a pair of a man and a woman dancing with fans. While the man's face is not clear, the woman's face is crafted so meticulously that one can almost recognize her.

Byeok Mun-seong stares at the glass sculpture, especially at the woman, with an indescribably complex expression.

After a moment of contemplation, he picks up the sculpture, stores it in his storage bag, and leaves the cave to pursue Seo Eun-hyun.

Kugugugugugugu!

Eastern Byeokra.

The land where a city named Cheon-saek City stood 200 years ago.

There, a dark shadow descends.

Step, step...

The shadow steps on the land, now turned into a sandy beach.

[It's been a long time. Everyone.]

Seo Eun-hyun, the shadow, looks around with a bitter voice.

The graves he made, the glass swords.

All of them, buried under the sand over the long years, have lost their original forms.

[In about a month... the time will come. To keep my promise from that day, I will... definitely give it my all.]

After gazing at the sand for a while, he forms a hand seal.

Whoosh!

Curse spells seep from his body, scattering a dark windstorm in all directions.

The massive storm scatters the sand of Cheon-saek City, blowing it around.

Shortly after.

Below the sand.

There, a graveyard with numerous worn glass swords reveals itself.

Some of the 200-year-old buildings are still sporadically standing.

Among the buildings, Seo Eun-hyun walks towards the workshop of Buk Hyang-hwa, still maintaining most of its original structure.

[This place is also about to collapse with no one to maintain it.]

The workshop barely held its shape, on the verge of collapsing.

Perhaps it would crumble with just a slight touch from Seo Eun-hyun.

He looks around.

[...Coming back later to dig through the sand would be absurd.]

He takes out flags and magic artifacts from his possession.

These are the magic artifacts he had bought at the Spirit Path Conference before coming here.

Shick, shick, shick!

Thump, thump, thump!

The flags and magic artifacts fly in all directions, embedding themselves into the ground, preventing the sandstorm from covering the graveyard.

It’s just a formation with the sole purpose to block the sandstorm.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Seo Eun-hyun looks at the set formation and surveys the surroundings.

The glass swords he had made are all broken and crumbled, with not many maintaining their shape.

Out of the thousands he made, only about 5,000 remain in any recognizable form.

Whoosh!

Using sword control, Seo Eun-hyun selects 3,000 intact glass swords.

[...I'm sorry to come to you in this state. I need your strength. Please understand.]

‘It isn't just Buk Hyang-hwa.

The neighbors who blessed us, me and her.

Every life, every connection that lived in this city.

They are all precious to me.

Therefore, this revenge cannot be completed by my hands alone.

It must be done with everyone's strength.’

Seo Eun-hyun pulls the swords embedded in their graves towards him.

The dharma treasure, the Colorless Glass Sword, is a magic artifact treated as a set of 3,000 flying swords.

Seo Eun-hyeon takes out the blueprint left by Buk Hyang-hwa for the Colorless Glass Sword.

The method to make the Colorless Glass Sword is simple.

Make 3,000 flying swords out of glass.

Carve a simple spiritual energy circuit on each glass sword.

However, the circuit on each sword must be slightly different.

The slight variations follow a set of rules established by Buk Hyang-hwa, and it’s enough to just slightly adjust the direction of the circuits according to those rules.

Day and night changes rapidly.

Seo Eun-hyun successfully engraved all the spiritual energy circuits on the 3,000 worn glass swords.

After engraving a single spiritual energy circuit on each of the 3,000 swords, Seo Eun-hyeon added one or two basic incantation scripts that are usually added onto dharma treasures for each, then infused them with spiritual power.

Whoosh!

Thus, the Colorless Glass Sword recognized him as their master.

A truly, maddeningly simple refining process.

The materials are easy to acquire, and the refining method is simple.

'For testing the Formless Sword with it...'

Seo Eun-hyun decides to test its power in front of Yuan Li.

After all, it’s meant to cut his neck.

There is no way she would have made it with insufficient power.

After looking at the completed Colorless Glass Swords, he continues to verify with the blueprint she left behind.

It’s completed without any issues.

Rustle.

Then, Seo Eun-hyun reads the words written at the bottom of the blueprint.

Words he had read numerous times before coming here.

Words she left for him.

―Orabeoni, the Colorless Glass Sword is a set of 3,000 as a dharma treasure.

―It might seem like a lot, but seeing how you handle flying swords, I thought you can definitely manage it.

―Did you know? Originally, the number for the Colorless Glass Sword wasn’t 3,000, but 3,650.

―Did you know that yesterday marked exactly 10 years since you came to Cheon-saek City?

―The Colorless Glass Sword is made to commemorate that.

―A dharma treasure made to commemorate each day you spent here. However, I left the remaining 650 sets incomplete on purpose, hoping we could design and create them together, so I made it operate only with 3,000 sets.

―It’s still incomplete, so I hope we can finish it together in the future. Will you tell me your answer?

Chiik Chiiiik

Black tears drop one by one from Seo Eun-hyun’s face covered in the shadows.

The fallen tears scatter into curse spells, corroding the sand.

Hiss!

The sand beneath Seo Eun-hyun begins to corrode wildly.

The curse spells surrounding him grow denser.

[...I will... carry this... in my heart. I will complete it.]

Seo Eun-hyun looks at Buk Hyang-hwa’s grave.

[I will be back.]

And then, he leaves the grounds of Cheon-saek City with the 3000 set Colorless Glass Sword.

Whoosh!

As he walks through the air after leaving Cheon-saek City, his eyes catch someone.

It’s Byeok Mun-seong, riding on a flying sword dharma treasure.

[What is it?]

"…I was waiting for you. The head of my clan tasked me with escorting you."

[...Sorrow is a deep blue color.]

"Hmm?"

[Your consciousness is also deep blue.]

"…"

[You weren’t waiting for me. You were mourning for her, weren’t you?]

Byeok Mun-seong did not respond, only turning his head away.

[After this war ends.]

Seo Eun-hyun speaks to Byeok Mun-seong.

[Let's go together, and mourn her together.]

"…Let’s go quickly."

[Yes.]

The two men fly towards the center of the Heaven-Treading Desert.

Towards the sealing place of Yuan Li.

[The time has come to witness the long-awaited conclusion.]