Chapter 224: Nation of Mechanical Marvels (3)

“A crazy monkey monster has appeared!”

“It’s the Wind-Passing Great Sage!”

“It’s a monster! A monster has invaded!”

The city was thrown into chaos by the sudden appearance of the Wind-Passing Great Sage.

He hadn’t done anything in particular—he was merely walking down the street—yet all kinds of puppets poured out, and countless Dharma Treasures filled the skies.

“I’m not here to fight!”

Seon Tae-gyeong repeatedly showed the token he had received from Cho-yul to clear up the misunderstanding.

From time to time, Seon Tae-gyeong would also shout loudly, “Great Sage, don’t do it!” fearing the Wind-Passing Great Sage might go on a rampage.

But contrary to his worries, the Wind-Passing Great Sage paid no attention whatsoever to the situation around him. Seon Tae-gyeong didn’t know whether this was due to the agreement he had made with the king of the Nation of Mechanical Marvels or because of the changes he’d undergone while traveling with Jang Woo-hyun.

In any case, what mattered most now was that the Wind-Passing Great Sage was behaving himself.

Despite his indifference, the commotion continued several more times, eventually spreading throughout the entire city.

—The great monster of the Demonic Spirit Realm, the Wind-Passing Great Sage, has appeared in the Nation of Mechanical Marvels by invitation!

Afterward, the chaos subsided, and crowds gathered to catch a glimpse of the Wind-Passing Great Sage. Some fearless individuals even stood near him, holding unidentified Dharma Treasures and smiling as they stared.

As time passed, more people gathered, and the Wind-Passing Great Sage wandered through the city, surrounded by throngs of onlookers.

“You said I need to find something that resonates with me, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Although the Wind-Passing Great Sage had said he was out sightseeing, he was actually looking for something he needed.

‘It’ll be tough like this.’

Jang Woo-hyun would only continue to grow stronger. With his current body, it would become increasingly difficult to keep up.

The Wind-Passing Great Sage wished to be summoned in a stronger form. And to do that, he needed a suitable medium. That was why he had entered the city—to find it.

‘I’ll need a power close to that of a Demon King.’

A Demon King was a monster whose strength in the Central Heavens Martial Realm would be comparable to the Realm of Wish. That level of power was necessary if he was going to travel with Jang Woo-hyun and face new enemies together.

Ideally, he would have come in his true body, but since that wasn’t possible, this was the only option available to him.

“Finding a Dharma Treasure of the highest grade that resonates with me won’t be easy, right?”

“Normally, yes, but since this is the Nation of Mechanical Marvels, you should be able to find one.”

“Good, then let’s hurry and find—”

As he spoke with Seon Tae-gyeong, the Wind-Passing Great Sage suddenly turned his head to the side.

“What is it?”

Seon Tae-gyeong called out to him, but received no response. Following his gaze revealed nothing.

“See? I told you this won’t be enough.”

The Wind-Passing Great Sage let out a laugh to himself.

Rumble!

“Ugh!”

“It’s an earthquake!”

In an instant, the entire city trembled.

Only then did Seon Tae-gyeong feel the massive surge of power that had erupted from afar.

“This is…”

“It’s Jang Woo-hyun.”

“Pardon?”

“That crazy bastard just got stronger again.”

Grinning as if he found the whole thing amusing, the Wind-Passing Great Sage turned his body.

He needed to find a new item soon, so that he could be summoned with greater power. Only then would he be able to stay by Jang Woo-hyun’s side for longer.

When Jang Woo-hyun tried to stabilize the rampaging Five Elements Qi at the Main Division of the Five Elements Cult—

Seo Gyeong-mu had advised him to cultivate it further.

—Make use of the Generating Cycle and Circulation of the Five Elements. It will allow you to amplify your power.

While Seo Gyeong-mu wanted him to strengthen his Five Elements Qi, the moment Jang Woo-hyun heard the word “circulation,” a different idea came to him.

‘Circulating Taeguk.’

The Microcosm of the Taecheong Divine Sovereign, burned into his mind.

At first, he tried to imitate it, but it wasn’t easy.

So he continued to focus on the Generating Cycle and Circulation of the Five Elements.

Fire to Earth, Earth to Metal, Metal to Water, Water to Wood, and Wood back to Fire.

As he cycled through them, his power steadily amplified, and even a small amount of strength grew exponentially.

Though he couldn’t imitate the Circulating Taeguk, by utilizing the Generating Cycle and Circulation of the Five Elements, he was now able to wield power that was incomparable to before.

As a result, something that had previously required the Giant’s Breathing Technique to perform—creating a single Nayuta Sword Mandala—he could now create more than two of.

“Uh…”

In truth, the Three Master Craftsmen hadn’t been fond of Jang Woo-hyun.

Although they had shown a positive reaction to what he had displayed earlier, it was only because their expectations had initially been low. They hadn’t been fully satisfied.

They had merely compromised because he was an acquaintance of Cho-yul and the original owner of Divine True Steel.

Jang Woo-hyun was certainly an exceptional martial artist. But they hadn’t thought he was worthy of being the master of Divine True Steel.

After all, Divine True Steel—often called the Illusory Metal or Metal of the Gods—was used by True Immortals or Martial Gods. Naturally, the standards were bound to be high.

But now, the thoughts of the Three Master Craftsmen had begun to change.

The splendid pattern appearing before their eyes.

Even a single one held tremendous power, yet it had already increased to two.

Though the power hadn’t even exploded, an immense pressure could be felt.

Wooooooong—

While the Three Master Craftsmen were still in shock, a resonating sound echoed from behind them.

At the same time, a translucent barrier rose up in the distance.

It was the activation of the formation to protect the Nation of Mechanical Marvels—a defensive barrier had been deployed.

“It activated without an attack?”

A cry of shock burst from Jo Cheol-san’s mouth.

Ordinarily, the formation was supposed to trigger only when a certain threshold of attack had been met.

“This makes no sense…”

There was only one reason the formation had activated despite no attack being made.

‘Does it mean he could destroy the Nation of Mechanical Marvels?’

If the two patterns were to release their true power, the entire continent might be shattered. That was why the formation had been triggered.

“Where in the world did he bring a monster like that from…”

Jo Cheol-san turned his eyes to Cho-yul, who was just as astonished as he was, and fell silent.

That was not a fabricated expression. Cho-yul truly hadn’t known about the level of power Jang Woo-hyun now displayed.

‘He wasn’t like that before?’

Cho-yul had come to the Nation of Mechanical Marvels with Divine True Steel given to him by Jang Woo-hyun. But it hadn’t been long since he arrived.

Cho-yul was not only an excellent craftsman but also a citizen of the Nation of Mechanical Marvels with a Third Eye. There was no way he could have misjudged a martial artist’s strength.

That meant the strength Jang Woo-hyun was showing now had surpassed even his imagination and common sense.

“……”

Jo Cheol-san was left speechless by the incomprehensible speed of growth. It felt utterly absurd.

He had lived a long life and met countless people—

Martial artists, sorcerers, other races, and even cultivators at times.

But never had he seen someone with growth like this.

For a moment, he even wondered if this wasn’t a human, but rather a being from the Upper Realm descending to the Central Heavens for amusement.

“You can’t use that here! The formation protecting the Nation of Mechanical Marvels has been activated! If you use it wrong here, it might trigger an automatic counterattack!”

At Ju Yeong-rang’s shout, Jang Woo-hyun sent the Mandala pattern to the edge of the continent. The Mandala began to shine and tens of thousands of techniques burst forth.

──────!!

The world tore apart.

The void shattered, and the dimension itself broke down. The shockwave alone darkened the color of the barrier far in the distance. Everyone nearby had to brace their bodies to keep from being blown away.

The sky ripped open, revealing a hole through which black emptiness could be seen. Though the world slowly began to restore itself through World Restoration, none who witnessed it could erase its impact from their minds.

Jo Cheol-san, now unlike earlier, simply stared at Jang Woo-hyun with a blank expression. And the others were no different.

For a while, everyone present stood in stunned silence.

“That didn’t seem like a single martial technique just now. You shouldn’t think of him as an ordinary swordsman.”

The first to speak was Seo Hong-ho. He began muttering to himself.

“I should base it on Ten Thousand Swords Cradle but alter it. Not as a standard sword… maybe just keep the form as a sword?”

His murmuring roused Jo Cheol-san, Ju Yeong-rang, and Cho-yul from their daze.

“That martial art just now was definitely unusual. I can’t even guess how it works.”

Ju Yeong-rang stepped closer to Seo Hong-ho.

“That Ten Thousand Swords Cradle—what kind of Dharma Treasure is it?”

“Ten Thousand Swords Cradle?”

“Yes, I heard you made it for a martial artist who had mastered a sword art similar to Sword Association.”

“Wait a moment, I’ve got a failed prototype.”

Seo Hong-ho retrieved a wooden coffin-like box from his Inner Robe. Ju Yeong-rang took it and inspected it from various angles.

“This was made like an Inner Robe. Inside… is it a structure that automatically creates Dharma Treasures?”

“That’s right.”

“What is it? Let me see too.”

As the two began to talk, Jo Cheol-san also came over to inspect the Dharma Treasure.

“What is this? It’s practically a smithy inside. Why’d you make something like this?”

“Because swords sometimes break frequently, I designed it to automatically create new ones as long as materials are supplied.”

The item they were now looking at was a prototype of the Ten Thousand Swords Cradle made for Dang Myung.

The coffin-shaped Dharma Treasure, like an Inner Robe, had an inner subspace and automatically created swords within it.

“He was an unusual one who handled multiple swords, so I made it this way.”

“How many does he use?”

“Over a thousand. They break quite a bit too.”

“Then this method might be better. So, are you going to make Sword Association’s weapon like this too?”

“That wouldn’t work.”

“I thought so too. With the limited amount of Divine True Steel, you couldn’t produce swords endlessly.”

“But does it have to be a sword?”

“He’s a swordsman—what else would you make?”

“Judging by what we saw earlier, I don’t think it needs to be a sword.”

Jo Cheol-san’s comment left the two silent.

Indeed, the martial technique Jang Woo-hyun had just shown didn’t seem like swordsmanship.

“He’s always used a sword, so what are you talking about?”

Cho-yul joined in on the discussion between the Three Master Craftsmen.

“Woo-hyun’s a swordsman. Of course it has to be a sword.”

“But I don’t think it’ll be possible with just a simple sword. Could a regular sword perform that martial technique from earlier?”

“I think so too. Especially with what he did using Dragon King’s Scale just now.”

The hundreds of flying blade scales weren’t ordinary swords. It looked more like he was using dozens or even hundreds of swords at once.

“Well, it’s our job to figure that out. That’s why we’re here.”

“Yul makes a good point. If the four of us put our heads together, we’ll find a direction.”

With Cho-yul joining in, the four Master Craftsmen began discussing the weapon to be made with Divine True Steel.

“Uh…”

After completing his martial demonstration, Jang Woo-hyun tried to speak.

“Wait a moment, the discussion isn’t over yet.”

They ignored him and continued their conversation.

“I think a spear might be better.”

“Spear again? I said it’s a sword!”

“Just hear me out. Not an ordinary spear—a form that combines a sword and a staff. The shaft would transform. It could change into other weapons or detach. What do you think?”

With an excited voice, Jo Cheol-san shared his idea. The others nodded at certain points and frowned at others.

And so, the four continued talking late into the evening.

Jang Woo-hyun simply stood quietly beside them until the discussion was over.

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