Chapter 384: One Who Stands Against Ten Thousand (5)

“Grand Heavenly Lord.”

There was no tangible proof, yet I was certain that the figure before me was the Grand Heavenly Lord.

Because the demonic energy resonating from within me was revealing the truth.

Crack! Crunch!

The moment I uttered those words, something formless began to squirm.

And that formless thing soon took the shape of a person and appeared before my eyes.

I frowned slightly at the sight.

“Not going to show your face?”

“…….”

“I heard from Jin Yeomyung that you’d been captured by the Heavenly Illusion Clan. Yet here you are, roaming freely through the Cult.”

“…….”

“I guess I’ll have to crush those Heavenly Illusion bastards.”

Despite my continued provocations, the Grand Heavenly Lord remained silent.

Right now, the Grand Heavenly Lord had only taken on a human-like form—there were no seven orifices that any proper human would be born with.

But not long after—

Crack! Snap!

Sounds of twisting and breaking echoed, and the figure presumed to be the Grand Heavenly Lord fully transformed into the appearance of a human.

That figure—a white-haired woman—felt oddly familiar.

Her eyes narrowed.

I didn’t recognize her face, but the clothes she wore felt familiar.

It was the ancient priestess attire of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult, preserved now only in old records.

“I heard about you from Jin Yeomyung and my father.”

“…….”

“They said the last priestess of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult was the root of all that has continued to this day.”

“…….”

“That the final priestess, abandoned by the Heavenly Demon Founder, cursed her fate and cast off her gender, choosing to be reborn as a man…”

“Don’t twist the truth when you already know it, little girl.”

Only then did a voice flow from her lips.

Surprisingly, it was a soft, flexible voice, completely unlike the gloom she projected.

I let out a short laugh.

“So it takes this much needling to get a reaction?”

“…Hoo.”

After staring at me for a moment, the Grand Heavenly Lord let out a low sigh.

“I distinctly remember you being far less sharp-tongued back in the day…”

“Birds of a feather, darkness rubbing off. I’ve got plenty of words to toss around.”

“What a lamentable thing.”

I quietly observed for an opening.

Even though the Left and Right Guardians should be guarding the exterior, this person had managed to sneak all the way in.

“So what now? With Father gone, were you just waiting for the chance to devour me?”

“Who knows…”

The Grand Heavenly Lord gave a vague reply.

“It might still be a bit too early for that.”

“Too early?”

Was I too early, or was the Grand Heavenly Lord too early?

I provoked a little more.

“They say you’ve been powerless ever since Father beat you down. Looks like it’s true. You’ve grown so weak you can’t even handle me.”

“…Cheon Taejong truly was a remarkable figure. But he’s no longer of this world.”

The Grand Heavenly Lord acknowledged it without resistance.

“And it’s true that I’ve grown weaker… Ever since I split my soul… my sense of self has grown fainter, and my existence is dissolving into the flow of the Great Stream…”

I didn’t really get all that ‘flow of the Great Stream’ nonsense.

But a cold sneer formed at the corner of my lips.

“Whatever that is, good for you.”

Flash!

My sword slashed at the Grand Heavenly Lord’s neck like a bolt of lightning.

It was an attack I was confident none could react to unless they were Jin Yeomyung himself, here in these Ten Thousand Mountains.

However—

The Grand Heavenly Lord’s neck, which had seemed to be severed, returned to its original state.

“That insolent hand of yours is the spitting image of your father.”

“…….”

“It’s useless. Reaching the early stage of the Transcendent Demon Realm isn’t enough to harm this spirit body.”

The Grand Heavenly Lord sneered at me.

“If you wish to harm me, you’ll need more than sword intent—you’ll need the power to reach into the fundamental laws of this world.”

Fundamental laws.

At the very least, one would need to be in the latter half of the Transcendent Demon Realm to grasp even a fragment of that.

Currently, throughout all of the Central Plains, only two people had reached that level.

Dao Zun Jin Ryeong and Second Heavenly Lord Old Han.

Unless it was one of those two, no one could deliver a meaningful blow to him.

At least, that was what the Grand Heavenly Lord believed.

“Really? Then how about this?”

Suddenly, a completely different, distinctly black energy appeared along the blade of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword.

The Sword Intent refined through Resonance.

And even one step beyond that…

Transcendent Technique

Underworld Net Sword (明羅劍)

“…Hmm?”

The Grand Heavenly Lord opened his eyes wide upon sensing the danger of the Underworld Net Sword.

“…How could you, at that level?”

“Beats me. I wonder why.”

Even before the words had finished leaving my mouth—

Kwa-gwagwang!

The steel-clad entrance to the training chamber was mercilessly torn apart by the Underworld Net Sword.

Naturally, my strike triggered an intense reaction from the Guardian Lions stationed outside.

The Underworld Net Sword’s destructive power was far too excessive to be considered a mere training technique.

“Cult Leader!”

“Cult Leader, are you unharmed?!”

The Left and Right Guardians, who had been guarding the entrance, appeared in a rush.

“You two…”

I looked at the two hastily kneeling figures with a dull expression and said:

“You’re docked.”

“…?”

“…!!”

The sudden declaration of punishment from the Cult Leader twisted Jo Jin-sang’s expression.

Wang Cheongeol, the Left Guardian, wasn’t particularly obsessed with wealth, so he didn’t care much, but Jo Jin-sang, who had run the Thousand Day Pass for over a decade and was sensitive to every single silver coin, felt like the heavens were collapsing.

“He’s gone.”

I realized that the presence of the Grand Heavenly Lord had vanished without a trace.

Jo Jin-sang cautiously asked,

“Was there… an intruder?”

“There was.”

“…!!”

‘It was only for a brief moment, but that person left behind the intent of why they had come.’

He was waiting for the fruit called ‘Cheon Yura’ to fully ripen.

This visit was simply to check how close to ripening that fruit had come.

What was absurd was that the level I had currently reached still didn’t meet the standards he expected.

‘The latter half of the Transcendent Demon Realm. Is he waiting for me to reach that stage? How amusing.’

I looked in the direction the Grand Heavenly Lord had vanished and laughed fiercely.

‘There was definitely a medium binding him. The moment the Underworld Net Sword struck, I clearly felt damage being transmitted to the “someone” connected to him.’

I sensed that the Grand Heavenly Lord was somehow tethered to someone else.

Yes, just like that young wolf Jin Yeomyung had once shown me…

“…!”

My eyes sharpened as the realization struck.

“So that’s how you were hiding?”

“…Cult Leader?”

The two Guardians looked up at me with puzzled expressions.

“It seems… there’s now a reason to bring the Heavenly Illusion Clan back into the fold.”

“…!!”

The shocking declaration from the Cult Leader made the Left and Right Guardians’ eyes widen.

The reinstatement of the expelled Heavenly Illusion Clan.

Even as Cult Leader, it wasn’t a decision to make alone.

“Jo Jin-sang.”

“Yes, Cult Leader.”

“Where is Jin Yeomyung right now?”

Jo Jin-sang hesitated briefly, then opened his mouth with a slightly strained tone.

“He is currently engaged in battle near the Cheon Clan’s territory.”

There was no need to say “with whom.”

Reports were coming in every quarter of an hour, but no matter how you looked at it, it was like throwing an egg at a rock.

“He’s alone, right?”

“That is… correct.”

“I told him not to carry the burden all by himself. He really doesn’t listen to a word, does he?”

“……”

The two Guardians had no reply.

They couldn’t blindly agree—after all, she was smiling in satisfaction.

Then, she asked again.

“What is the status of the Guardian Hall’s forces?”

“Except for the Great Guardian and a few others who left to handle the ‘offering’ brought by the Grand Duke, all are on standby.”

“Good.”

She stepped out from the entrance of the training chamber and began leading the way.

“Let’s go to the Cheon Clan.”

Her eyes curved in a fine arc.

“Shouldn’t I at least bring a snack for my husband who’s working so hard?”

Then her eyes lit up fiercely.

“Of course, the ingredients for that snack will be the blood of those Cheon Clan bastards.”

***

Boom!

From afar, chained maces and linked swords flew at my limbs.

Dodging them, I was then met with a dense volley of arrows filling the sky.

‘This is more troublesome than expected.’

The Cheon Clan was, without a doubt, the Cheon Clan.

They clearly understood how to face a single martial master, and they executed it with precision.

‘They’re not giving me any room to use Resonance Qi again.’

Even gathering a little energy, they would rush at me, disregarding any cost.

That aggressive charge had only worsened the Cheon Clan’s casualties, but thanks to that, my Resonance Qi was completely suppressed.

‘If I link it with the Asura Spirit, it might work… but if I show it a second time, they’ll likely conserve their forces and retreat.’

The biggest problem was that the elite of the Cheon Clan kept a deliberate distance from me.

A clear intent to minimize damage, even if they were hit by the Resonance Qi again.

‘It’s hard to pick off those far away, and the ones close by are worthless in terms of actual combat power.’

Without a doubt, the Cheon Clan bastards were stalling for time.

Until the severely injured masters at the Extreme Demon Realm who rushed in too early had a chance to recover.

‘Hmph, maybe it’s time to withdraw.’

In this half-day alone, I had cut down nearly two thousand enemies.

The problem was, even more were pouring in from everywhere to support the Cheon Clan—more than I had cut down.

The number had clearly surpassed ten thousand.

‘I still have plenty of internal energy and stamina left, but…’

If other masters at the Extreme Demon Realm joined while I was distracted, I could be overwhelmed even in a direct clash.

With Jin Gun-ak and the Saber Demon nearby, securing a retreat route should be possible.

‘Still, even if I retreat…’

I stared directly at the Cheon Clan elders glaring at me from atop the outer wall far away.

‘Especially Fourth Elder. You—I will kill you before I leave.’

The one who would pose the greatest obstacle to Cheon Jumyeong’s rise as Clan Leader of the Cheon Clan.

“It’s… it’s the Asura Spirit!”

As crimson smoke erupted from my entire body in an instant, the martial artists recognized it and shouted in shock.

“Change our response strategy!”

“Deploy the Sea of Ten Thousand Blood Explosions Formation!”

“No matter who he is, no one can overcome sheer mass!”

All around, formations began converting internal energy into pressure.

The martial artists attacking me were soon pounded to the ground, their bodies a mess of blood.

It was the backlash from the formation’s sudden activation.

Crack! Crunch!

As hundreds of skilled martial artists simultaneously engaged in a force struggle, even I found it difficult to move freely.

‘Damn, this is a disaster…’

Was this how Sun Wukong felt when trapped under the Five Elements Mountain?

And then—

Papapapat!

In an instant, the heads of dozens of martial artists forming the Sea of Ten Thousand Blood Explosions Formation went flying through the air.

‘……!’

And that wasn’t all.

Suddenly, I saw familiar Guardian Hall martial artists rampaging across various parts of the enemy camp.

That could only mean one thing…

“You work nonstop without eating—no wonder you’ve got no energy.”

Before I realized it, she approached me, holding someone’s severed head.

“…!”

“Were you trying to make this lady a villain who starves her own husband?”

I rolled my shoulder, now noticeably lighter, and let out a chuckle.

“Of course not.”

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