Chapter 74
Translator: T_Fan
A blue ring on Wei Zongyue’s finger flashed, creating a halo of light one chi (about 33 cm) wide in midair.
Within the rippling space inside it, a massive sea hawk with a gleaming beak spread its wings and burst forth.
SKREEE!
The fierce wingbeats of the late Tier 2 spirit beast sent gravel sweeping in all directions across the rocky slope.
At the same time, Wei Zongyue’s second ring flashed, and a flat-shelled turtle leaped out and clung to his forearm.
Wei Zongyue gave a vicious grin and charged fiercely at Lee Hyun with his arm thrust out before him.
The turtle’s shell gave off spiritual power fluctuations comparable to a supreme-grade magic tool as intense demonic light blazed from it, while behind Lee Hyun, the bird of prey swooped down with its talons extended toward the back of his neck.
At that moment, Lee Hyun’s shoulder tilted about half a handspan to the side.
The instant the hawk’s talons brushed the collar of his robe, the Sinking Moon Sword left its sheath.
SHING.
Spiritual power from throughout his body surged into the blade at once.
Great Unity Heavenly Dipper, Eleventh Form: Overlapping Strikes.
KRAAANG!
The first sword light deeply caved in the sturdy curtain of demonic light.
Almost simultaneously, the second and third sword lights tore through along the exact same trajectory and smashed straight through the turtle’s shell.
CRACK!
The shell shattered into pieces, spraying blood everywhere.
Wei Zongyue recoiled in shock, but with the quick reflexes befitting a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator, he leaned back and retreated. By then, however, Lee Hyun’s blade had already blurred out of his sight.
SHNK.
“AAAAARGH!”
The right foot he was about to plant on the ground was severed, and Wei Zongyue tumbled down over the rocks.
The sea hawk spread its wings and lunged forward, demonic light wrapped around its body as it tried to save its master, but a flash of sword light cleaved through the air.
SLASH!
The hawk plummeted in a spray of blood, landing right in front of the writhing Wei Zongyue.
The startled cultivators on either side launched throwing knives and short spears, but Lee Hyun twisted without lowering his sword, and the Sinking Moon Sword swept out in a low circle.
CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!
The throwing knives shattered and ricocheted away.
Lee Hyun extended his left hand and caught the man who had thrown the spear in the pull of his Earth-Origin Force.
WHOOSH!
The man was helplessly dragged forward. He hurriedly raised his body-protecting spirit light, but a fist formed by the Condensed-Essence Grasping Hand was already right before his eyes.
BOOM!
The man, battered into a bloody mess, went flying and slammed straight into the rock face.
CRUNCH!
The cultivator who had thrown the knives trembled in terror as he tried to pull out a talisman, but,
SHNK!
A sword light grazed his shoulder and severed his arm.
“Eek…!”
The last cultivator blocking the escape route went deathly pale and stumbled backward.
Lee Hyun’s shadow fell directly in front of Wei Zongyue, who was crawling across the dirt while clutching the stump of his severed leg.
Then Lee Hyun’s foot abruptly froze.
THUD!
The Ground-Sense Art caught a vibration in the earth vein.
Goosebumps rose across Lee Hyun’s entire body. Without the slightest hesitation, he shot into the air and pulled the Protective Bell from his storage pouch, flipping it upside down.
HUMM–
The blue-green bell expanded and was just about to envelop his body from below when,
BOOOOM!
The rocky slope exploded from within like a volcano.
Boulders the size of houses blasted in every direction, and an enormous maw surged out through the cloud of dust. Rows of razor-sharp teeth jutted forward and slammed head-on into the Protective Bell.
CRASH!
The Protective Bell shattered instantly.
Lee Hyun slipped through the flying fragments and spun twice in midair. Before he could even steady himself, a massive shadow tore through the stone dust and pursued him.
SWOOSH!
A single beat of its wings pulverized the boulders behind it. Lee Hyun hurriedly swept out his sword and twisted aside, and the talons aimed at his neck struck the sword light in an explosion of sparks.
Golden eyes flashed between its mane.
It had a lion-like head and a sleek body covered in black scales. Two wings sprouted from its back, with long, blade-like feathers extending from their tips, while its mane and tail flowed like waves through the dense mist shrouding its body.
‘A Tier 3 spirit beast!?’
The remnants of an Earth Escape Talisman stuck to the spirit beast’s chest burned scarlet.
Its fully spread wings cast a shadow over the rocky slope.
A thick iron chain was wrapped around the enormous beast’s neck.
CLINK-CLINK.
Lee Hyun’s eyes narrowed.
‘That sound I heard outside the auction house’s private room….’
The iron chain stretched far through the air. At its other end stood a man in a blue robe, and an overwhelming pressure poured from the ring looped around his wrist.
He was a Golden Core cultivator!
Wei Zongyue, still crawling on the ground, coughed up blood and shouted.
“Master! That bastard…!”
‘If he’s his master, then that must be Perfected Xuanzhao.’
Perfected Xuanzhao looked down at his disciple.
His cold gaze passed over the severed leg and the dying spirit beast.
“My disciple. If you intended to trade on my name, should you not have brought me gains worthy of it?”
“I… I’m sorry! It’s just that he… Haigu Island….”
“Haigu Island? I thought you’d only lost a leg. Have you gone blind as well?”
Perfected Xuanzhao’s gaze settled on the Sinking Moon Sword in Lee Hyun’s hand.
The iron chain ripped through the air like a bolt of lightning.
BOOOOM!
The ridge split in two as rocks and earth erupted upward like a waterfall.
Lee Hyun barely threw himself aside before Perfected Xuanzhao twisted his fingertips above him.
Azure seal-script characters swirled through the air, and an enormous seal formed from water-attribute magical power stamped downward.
THUD!
The air seemed to solidify in an instant.
As though crushed beneath the pressure of the deep sea, Lee Hyun’s airborne body plunged straight down.
The very instant his movements were locked in place, the enormous beast below opened its jaws and spewed out sea mist. Dozens of streams of water honed like blades surged upward, threatening to tear his entire body apart.
There was nowhere to retreat.
Lee Hyun twisted the Sinking Moon Sword and slashed upward.
FLASH!
A chilling sword light split the storm-like sea mist. Lee Hyun twisted his body through the opening and savagely cut into the blue seal pressing down from above.
CRACK!
The seal-script characters forming the seal burst apart.
Perfected Xuanzhao’s eyes widened.
‘A Foundation Establishment cultivator broke my Boat-Sinking Seal?’
Yet even in his surprise, he did not hesitate. Three dark-blue bolts of light, each no larger than a droplet of water, shot from his fingertips.
POP! POP! POP!
Violently compressed currents swirled within the bolts as they hurtled toward Lee Hyun’s brow, chest, and shoulder.
The Profound Iron Buckler Lee Hyun hurriedly pulled out screamed under the impact.
SCREEECH! BOOM!
The shield’s surface buckled as its restrictions burned away.
Then the massive iron chain came crashing down, folding the shield in half and smashing it into the rock wall.
Lee Hyun severed his divine-sense connection to the shield without hesitation and used the recoil to tumble through the air.
The enormous beast’s wing sheared away an entire section of the cliff face. Lee Hyun twisted aside to avoid the debris, only for its gaping jaws to rush straight toward his face.
He pulled out the black-iron longspear and thrust it diagonally beneath the beast’s jaw, but the shaft could not withstand its monstrous strength and snapped in two.
CRACK!
Lee Hyun slipped around its side through the opening and swept the Sinking Moon Sword upward in a clean slash.
SHRAK!
Several scales covering its neck fell away as blood welled beneath them, and the enormous beast roared and jerked its head aside.
At that moment, a dark-blue flash shot in from behind Lee Hyun, grazing past his cheek and punching straight through the rock wall.
BOOM!
As fragments of the collapsing rock rained down, Wei Zongyue stared up at the scene in a daze.
‘That monster…. He’s enduring Master’s spirit beast, Black Tide Chain, and techniques one after another?’
Lee Hyun poured all six bronze flying swords from his storage pouch.
“You never run out of trash to pull out.”
Along with Perfected Xuanzhao’s cold voice, the iron chain swept toward Lee Hyun’s ankle.
At the same time, Lee Hyun’s flying swords scattered in every direction, shooting toward the chain and the enormous beast’s eyes. But Perfected Xuanzhao shifted the chain’s trajectory by a handspan, smashing them apart one after another.
Only the final flying sword slipped back inside Lee Hyun’s sleeve.
Space warped overhead once more as the blue seal stamped downward, while bolts condensed from immense water-attribute magical power came hurtling in from both sides.
Instead of resisting the crushing pressure, Lee Hyun threw himself in the same direction.
Straight toward the enormous beast’s massive head.
Dense sea mist gathered inside its gaping maw, leaving the wound on its neck completely exposed.
Lee Hyun’s sword moved with terrifying speed in that instant.
The sword light tore through the wound and burst out behind its ear. As the beast writhed in pain, the demonic light surrounding it shifted to one side.
At that moment, the bronze flying sword shot from Lee Hyun’s hand like a lightning bolt, propelled by the principles of the Divine Finger-Flick Art.
BANG!
THUNK–BOOM!
GRAAAARGH!
The flying sword buried deep in the beast’s right eye could not withstand Lee Hyun’s spiritual power and exploded. As the beast thrashed its head wildly, the sea mist gathered in its mouth erupted in the wrong direction and swallowed the entire mountainside.
Perfected Xuanzhao’s face twisted.
He had to pull on the chain and press a Spirit-Commanding Seal between the spirit beast’s brows, making his fingertips a beat too slow.
Lee Hyun did not miss that brief opening. Without hesitation, he slipped inside Perfected Xuanzhao’s guard.
As the silver-gray sword tip rushed at him, Perfected Xuanzhao moved his fingers.
Protective armor made of scales interlocked in three layers over his chest and blocked the sword.
KRAAANG!
The brilliantly glowing Sinking Moon Sword pressed deeply into the scales.
Veins stood out across Lee Hyun’s arm as the spiritual power throughout his body poured into the sword tip.
Perfected Xuanzhao’s upper body was forced backward.
‘This bastard dares…!’
His iron chain shot forward.
The instant Lee Hyun caught the Black Tide Chain sweeping toward his flank with the Sinking Moon Sword, a blue seal burst from Perfected Xuanzhao’s free hand.
Lee Hyun pulled out the Profound Gate Sword with his left hand and met the incoming seal.
The blade bent beneath the overwhelming magical power. Lee Hyun flooded the Profound Gate Sword with a brutal amount of spiritual power all at once, then let go.
BOOOOM!
The Profound Gate Sword exploded.
The blue seal caught in the blast shook violently, and Lee Hyun used the opening to pull away.
One of the razor-sharp fragments scattering in every direction along with the compressed spiritual power grazed Perfected Xuanzhao’s cheek.
At the same time, the Black Tide Chain caught against the Sinking Moon Sword slid along its edge.
THUD!
The end of the chain slammed into Lee Hyun’s side.
The Qi Sphere Barrier, Spirit Light Shield, and body-protecting spirit light flashed into existence in an instant, and the Black Scale Inner Armor lay beneath his robe, but none of them could fully absorb the heavy impact.
Lee Hyun was hurled away before righting himself, though his side ached slightly.
Perfected Xuanzhao flew into a rage at the fresh blood running down his cheek.
“How dare you!”
Without even wiping away the blood, he brought both hands together.
The scattered sea mist and water-attribute magical power gathered into a massive vortex, and a seal large enough to seemingly swallow the entire mountainside rose into the air.
RRRRUMBLE–
Solid boulders were crushed down into the earth, and the surrounding trees began shattering into pieces all at once.
A massive seal of magical power descended from the sky, the one-eyed spirit beast attacked from the front, and the iron chain swept in from beneath his feet.
Lee Hyun’s gaze hardened as he poured an enormous amount of spiritual power into the Sinking Moon Sword.
HUMM.
The Sinking Moon Sword’s Light-Retracting Restriction responded, and the edges of its sword light blurred like water mist.
His target was not the spirit beast’s neck.
It was the base of its left wing, where the scales had spread apart as it fiercely thrust out its foreleg!
In an instant, Lee Hyun’s hand blurred, and the Sinking Moon Sword traced a sweeping arc.
KRAANG!
The chain shot upward to block the sword light, but it failed to fully catch the blurred trajectory and slid aside.
The backlash traveling through the magic treasure forced Perfected Xuanzhao’s arm backward, and the deflected sword light carved deep into the inside of the spirit beast’s wing.
SPURT!
GRAAAARGH!
With its left wing severed, the enormous beast screamed and plunged toward the cliff.
Perfected Xuanzhao’s iron chain pulled taut as he tried to support the falling spirit beast.
‘Now!’
Great Unity Heavenly Dipper, Thirteenth Form: Returning Flow.
A mysterious radiance surged from Lee Hyun’s blade, and enormous Great Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi swept outward in every direction like a spinning storm!
Perfected Xuanzhao hurriedly pulled back his iron chain.
KRAAAAANG!
The magic treasure and sword qi collided.
Amid the tremendous shock wave, Lee Hyun rode the storm generated by Returning Flow and withdrew in an instant. Evading the blue seal crashing down from above, he shot straight toward the ground.
THUD.
Lee Hyun struck the ground and vanished underground without slowing in the slightest.
Almost simultaneously, the Black Tide Chain smashed into the spot where he had disappeared.
BOOOOM!
The bedrock exploded dozens of zhang (well over 60 m) deep, but the presence Lee Hyun had left within Perfected Xuanzhao’s divine sense had already descended deep into the common soil stratum and vanished without a trace.
Perfected Xuanzhao was startled.
‘His Earth Escape Art is that fast…?’
…
Perfected Xuanzhao silently looked down at the ruined mountainside.
Behind him, the enormous beast that had lost a wing panted painfully. The sword qi embedded in its wound scattered its demon power, preventing the bleeding from stopping.
Perfected Xuanzhao touched the cut on his cheek with his fingertips.
‘What was that bastard?’
His spiritual power fluctuations had clearly been those of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
But there was no conceivable way a Foundation Establishment cultivator could have unleashed sword strikes capable of forcing back his Black Tide Chain, a magic treasure, and severing the wing of a Tier 3 spirit beast.
‘I see. A Golden Core cultivator concealing his realm. What an extraordinarily profound Aura-Concealing Art…. To have mastered it to such a degree. What an utterly sneaky bastard.’
Just then, a voice came from behind him.
“M-Master….”
It was Wei Zongyue.
Supported by a surviving cultivator, he looked up at his master with a deathly pale face.
“Is… is he dead?”
Without answering, Perfected Xuanzhao shifted his gaze to Wei Zongyue’s severed leg.
“Tsk, tsk. You’re broken now…. I’ll need to find a new disciple.”
“…What?”
CLINK-CLINK.
The black chain wrapped around Wei Zongyue’s waist and lifted him into the air, causing the cultivator supporting him to recoil in terror and let go.
“Master? Master, wait…!”
Perfected Xuanzhao lightly stroked the spirit beast’s neck. The enormous beast, bleeding and missing one eye, turned its head toward them with its remaining eye bloodshot red.
The last trace of color drained from Wei Zongyue’s face.
“Master! Wait, I…!”
***
Fifteen days later.
Beneath a remote mountain in northern Xuan Kingdom, Lee Hyun opened his eyes inside a small natural cavern deep underground.
He slowly drew in a breath.
The pain from the bruise on his side had already faded.
Lee Hyun looked down at the items laid out on the ground.
The Black Scale Inner Armor and the Sinking Moon Sword.
Those were all the magic tools he had left.
The Profound Iron Buckler had been smashed apart by the bolts of light and iron chain, while the Protective Bell had shattered as well.
The black-iron longspear had snapped, and he had detonated the Profound Gate Sword himself. He had even lost all six bronze flying swords. Magic tools he had grown accustomed to over many years had been completely wiped out in a single battle.
“Hmm… I did use them for a long time.”
He had used some of the magic tools for so long that he could no longer even remember when he had gotten them.
Lee Hyun picked up the Sinking Moon Sword.
The blade shone with a clear silver-gray light, without so much as a scratch.
When he fed a little spiritual power into it, the restrictions within responded smoothly.
‘This really was a good purchase.’
While his other magic tools had shattered helplessly before a Golden Core cultivator’s magic treasure, only the Sinking Moon Sword had taken a direct strike from that magic treasure and still pierced the spirit beast’s hide.
He had never given the importance of magic tools much serious thought before, but after fighting a truly powerful opponent, he realized that the difference in equipment was enormous.
‘One reliable exceptional supreme-grade magic tool is better than five mediocre ones.’
Lee Hyun stared at his own eyes reflected in the blade for a long while.
The combat strength of a Golden Core cultivator, something he had experienced for the first time, was overwhelming.
In truth, Perfected Xuanzhao was a beast tamer, so he likely was not particularly strong in close combat.
Even so, the relentless combination of techniques and magic treasure attacks he unleashed at close range had left almost no openings.
‘What would have happened if we’d kept fighting?’
Even after such an intense battle, Lee Hyun still had plenty of spiritual power left.
‘I think I actually had more spiritual power in sheer quantity…. But because of the difference in the quality of our spiritual power and our equipment, I couldn’t guarantee victory. No, there wasn’t any reason to fight a life-and-death duel in the first place.’
They had been within the territory of the Nanming Twelve-Sect Alliance. If even one more Golden Core cultivator had appeared, the situation would have become far more dangerous.
There was no need to throw himself into a battle where victory was uncertain. He had plenty of time. He could cultivate slowly, take life easy, and only fight when it was truly necessary.
‘It’s a bit of a shame that I lost most of my high-grade magic tools, but it’s not as though I’m short on spirit stones. If anything, I fought a Golden Core cultivator and came out of it alive, so I gained valuable experience. Now I understand just how powerful Golden Core cultivators are, and how important magic tools and magic treasures can be.’
Lee Hyun sheathed the Sinking Moon Sword.
‘If possible, I should get more exceptional supreme-grade magic tools.’
***
One month later.
At a cultivator market in western Xuan Kingdom.
After passing through streets dyed red by the setting sun, Lee Hyun stopped in the rear courtyard of an old shop on the outskirts of the cultivator market.
Instead of his familiar badger mask, he took out a cicada mask and placed it over his face.
Descending a narrow staircase behind an old warehouse, he found a complex web of underground passages.
When he pressed sections of the stone wall at a dead end in a certain sequence, the wall rotated with a heavy rumble, revealing another staircase leading deeper underground.
After descending for quite some time, he finally arrived in a spacious underground stone chamber.
Three or four cultivators wearing masks of all shapes and designs sat scattered throughout the chamber in silence.
At the center sat a man wearing an eagle-owl mask, radiating an oppressive presence.
He was a Golden Core cultivator!
Sensing Lee Hyun’s presence, the eagle-owl mask slowly raised his head and looked at him.
“Newcomer?”
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