Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

Great Sage Equaling Heaven Mi-hu Wang stood there with a sullen expression, his as-you-will staff tucked into the sash at his waist, glaring at us.

Though no hostility emanated from him outwardly, Jin So-cheong's face was tense as he kept a sharp eye on Mi-hu Wang.

Jin So-cheong spoke.

"Great Sage, there must be a reason you concealed yourself to come all this way. Time is short, so rather than explaining, why not join forces to slay this demonic beast?"

It was the sort of line the strategist Mang-ryang might have uttered. Jin So-cheong wasn't one to make proposals lightly.

Yet he had taken the initiative because, in this chamber, he alone could stand up to Mi-hu Wang's intimidating presence and speak properly.

At Jin So-cheong's proposal, Great Sage Mi-hu Wang twitched his eyebrows for a moment.

"Fine, whatever. Better to just do my part."

Mi-hu Wang suddenly drew his as-you-will staff and made it grow enormously.

The staff, originally the size of a candle, transformed in an instant into a palace pillar. Mi-hu Wang plunged it into the ground and chanted a spell.

"Grow!"

Boom crash

It happened in a flash.

The staff expanded even further, shattering the floor as it burrowed downward. The colossal demonic tree shuddered, its trunk pierced through the crown, thrashing wildly.

Rumble

Screeeech

Was this the death cry of the underworld?

The uppermost layer of the branch we stood on twisted and heaved like an earthquake, scarlet blood spraying everywhere.

Yet heedless of the demonic tree's agony, the as-you-will staff mercilessly grew, drilling deeper.

Pop pop bang

Spin, spin, spin!

The staff pierced clean through to the roots, paused briefly, then swelled enormously.

The expansion was so swift that we were all flung into the air.

"Whoa."

Boom

Blood and wood fragments rained endlessly across Ganghwa Island's sky.

The demonic tree, vast enough to blanket the heavens, was utterly destroyed by a single blow from the as-you-will staff!

Its destructive power was beyond anything achievable by martial arts. While hovering with sky-treading steps, we stared in stunned disbelief.

'The power of the as-you-will staff...!'

Its stretch-and-shrink ability defied the laws of the mortal world, as if designed solely to fell giant monsters from the start.

The demonic tree had towered at least ten li from roots to crown, yet the staff had obliterated it. Even Yi Cheong-un's maximum Heaven Spirit Pill-enhanced strike had only severed thirty percent of the trunk. Truly staggering power.

Jin So-cheong sent me a transmission.

[We can't hover forever. Let's all descend together nearby.]

[Got it.]

After a quick glance, we began dropping toward the ground as one.

The height was immense, the fall velocity tremendous, but everyone gathered here was a peerless master.

Calmly gauging the landing spot and timing with our dynamic vision, we swiftly dispersed the impact with ethereal severing arts and water-floating techniques, channeling the force into the earth.

Thud!

We landed with a thunderous boom, unscathed to a person.

Geuk-ho wiped sweat from his brow and said.

"Ugh... First time in my life falling from such heights."

Flash

Then Yi Cheong-un streaked toward us like lightning.

Confirming we were all safe, he said.

"What happened? The demonic tree just exploded..."

"The Great Sage killed it with his as-you-will staff."

"...A monster. In one hit."

Yi Cheong-un watched the drifting blood clouds overhead with a look of dismay, then continued.

"If our foe is the Great Sage, we can't face him ourselves. Baek Woong, you must secure Yeo Dong-bin's aid."

"There's no guarantee even Yeo Dong-bin can defeat him..."

"But we have to try."

"......"

I knew what Yi Cheong-un meant.

We couldn't beat the Great Sage, but to prevent him from massacring us at will, we needed at least some deterrent.

Yi Cheong-un alone couldn't provide it, so he meant combining forces with Yeo Dong-bin.

But I felt troubled.

'Yeo Dong-bin... Are you really refusing to help?'

No response, no matter how I called.

The soul-link was connected, but he wasn't receiving my pleas.

When Yeo Dong-bin said he'd "watch," it meant he'd abandon all expectations and aid, merely observing me!

Gritting my teeth, I finally said.

"Yeo Dong-bin is rejecting me right now."

"What?"

"He's not listening to me--"

It was then.

Rumble rumble rumble

A massive ink-black mist began swirling, devouring the blood clouds.

An immense demonic energy pulsed, shaping itself like a living human form.

The form sprouted "hands," scattering spore-like clouds in all directions.

['Mind' has arrived.]

I'd averted the worst, but enemies remained. Despair darkened my vision.

Rustle rustle

'And that...'

With foresight vision, I discerned the spore clouds contained "words" infused with will from an [Ancient Overlord].

Just like the ones the baleful spirit scattered in Luoyang before.

I knew any ordinary human perceiving those "words" would plunge into madness, so I urgently warned everyone.

"Those are the Ancient Overlord's words! They corrupt the mind--steel your wills!"

Their eyes sharpened.

They bolstered their minds with will power, bracing against the descending spore clouds.

Soon Geuk-ho and the Sword Demon grimaced distortedly.

Jin So-cheong fared better, but his face had hardened like stone, showing he'd taken a hit.

The Sword Demon spat blood and said.

"Urk... Heart demons... What the hell..."

He'd just stepped into the Absolute Realm's threshold, yet suffered heart demons instantly!

The mental assault surpassed even the sonic waves from the Brain Prison toad long ago.

An ordinary person would go permanently insane and die just standing here.

"Prolonged exposure will drive us mad. We must hurry to the sorcerers and regroup."

"Let's go."

Tata tat

We raced to where the sorcerers had arrayed themselves earlier--near Wol-yo's ruins, around Master Seo-eun's abode.

Amid the shattered debris, we found them maintaining a blue defensive barrier.

Spotting Mang-ryang, I shouted.

"Mang-ryang!"

"Baek Woong. Get inside quickly..."

Entering the five-chi wide barrier, the persistent mind-warping madness lifted, and everyone's faces eased.

Mang-ryang said to me.

"Baek Woong, interpret what those [words] mean."

I activated foresight vision, deciphering the [words] emitted by the dark entity in the sky.

[Where is my body]

The words seeped with furious rage!

Feeling it propagate its will just like an [Ancient Overlord], I gritted my teeth and said.

"It seems that thing is the 'Moon [Ancient Overlord]' sealed by the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns."

"Hmm... As expected."

Mang-ryang nodded as if grasping the situation instantly.

"Baek Woong, the entity called Izanagi no Mikoto, sealed as Wol-yo's guardian, was the Overlord's flesh body. That black mist in the sky is its mind. Before mind and body could fuse, the as-you-will staff brought massive destruction, so the Great Sage destroyed the body first."

"Right."

"Then this [mind]'s true name is... Hmm..."

Mang-ryang let out a groan of disbelief at his own deduction.

"Izanagi? Or Izanagi no Mikoto... The divine origin that once ruled Dong-yeong in ancient times, creator of the Three Noble Children, great gods of Dong-yeong... Also the [Ancient Overlord] defeated by the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns, sealed for millennia with body and mind separated. That must be it."

"......"

Silence fell over us.

Mang-ryang's guess rang true, and if so, a monstrous foe had appeared out of nowhere.

[Ancient Overlord!]

Even its sealed body's power evoked a Demon King--perhaps inevitable.

Downgraded to guardian and weakened to the utmost, it still menaced heaven and earth. No other being matched that stature save an [Ancient Overlord].

'Its original power as Izanagi must far surpass the Sea God...'

Evident from the power displayed so far.

Emitting will as spores marked it as a higher-dimensional existence incomparable to mortals.

Clenching my fist, I said.

"...But the Great Sage destroyed its body. We might have a chance now."

"Hmm..."

Mang-ryang pondered, then said.

"Baek Woong, we must approach this cautiously. We've already secured our goal, Wol-yo. Unsure if we should risk more."

"You're saying run?"

Mang-ryang's gaze turned to the blackened sky.

"Sealed for millennia, half a being with only mind left--yet that's an [Ancient Overlord] up there. Never faced this before, but it seems utterly beyond challenging. Better flee while its attention's on the Great Sage."

"......"

Mang-ryang had a point.

To confirm, I used oracle speech on the Zhuge strategist, briefly explaining.

His voice came through.

[Mang-ryang's right, but I recommend you hold and observe longer.]

[Why?]

[The Great Sage concealing himself to pursue you is suspicious. He'll chase if you flee anyway--better confront him there.]

[...I see.]

Hearing the Zhuge strategist crystallized my next move.

As I sorted my thoughts, it happened.

Flash flash

A massive cloud rose sky-high, bearing the gigantic Great Sage atop it.

"Gigantic" deliberately: his body had swollen to a five-chi tall giant, seemingly via transformation art.

Riding the cloud, Great Sage bellowed thunderously.

[I burst your body, you fool!!]

His lion's roar crackled even here.

I gaped at the sight.

'He knows it's a past [Ancient Overlord]?'

This Great Sage could provocatively taunt even world-ruling deities of old.

Moments later, Izanagi scattered [words].

['I'll make another']

Hummm

The black mist vanished clean, sucked into the pitch-black midnight sky's pure white full moon.

Geuk-ho muttered dazedly at the sight.

"The moon's absorbing the mist?"

"No."

Mang-ryang's face hardened like lead as he said.

"The mist is heading to the moon."

Rumble rumble rumble

When the black mist fully vanished from the sky, suddenly earth and sea quaked, pallid blue energy leaking everywhere.

Shockingly, the white full moon overhead rapidly swelled, abruptly ten times larger!

Still expanding, we couldn't fathom it.

Then Cheon U-jin muttered in disbelief, his voice laced with madness.

"Pahaha... Heh heh... Futile... Fighting a god, haha..."

"Cheon U-jin, do you know what's happening?"

"The moon orbits this world's periphery. It growing means it's drawn closer to our realm, heh heh..."

Cheon U-jin stared vacantly skyward, battle-will shattered.

He'd felt the baleful spirit's power firsthand, succumbing to mental derangement.

But his words were clear enough.

I muttered in disbelief.

"Even an [Ancient Overlord]... Pulling down the heavenly moon with mind-power alone?!"

Splash splash

Ocean waves roared from all directions.

Deep inland on Ganghwa Island, far from shores, waves now crashed fiercely.

The land submerged in an instant.

Mang-ryang said.

"Tides vary sea level and waves via gravitational pull, but this is extreme. Far higher than high tide..."

"No way..."

"Every land under the moon's sway must be the same."

Mang-ryang spoke gloomily.

"By now, countless cities in Jungwon, Goryeo, Dong-yeong face floods. Coasts are seas; at least tens of thousands swept away."

Cataclysm.

Knowing yet unable to stop it unfolding before us filled me with dismay.

We'd prevented the worst--mind body fusion--yet Izanagi wrought world-scale disaster with mind-power alone!

Thud

The Great Sage, atop his cloud, silently surveyed the earthly carnage, then extended his as-you-will staff skyward, elongating it to bridge heaven and earth like a colossal iron pagoda.

He shouted.

[You dare call me a fool. Taste this...]

Great Sage reached both hands skyward.

[Come here!]

For an instant, a black dot marred the white moon.

It lingered briefly, then vanished--as dark mist rematerialized over Ganghwa Island.

Izanagi's mind forcibly dragged earthward.

Rumble rumble...

[This body is Heaven's strongest! Can't flee my as-you-will staff from world's end!]

Great Sage laughed heartily, suddenly swinging the staff.

Splat!

[Ooooo...]

The heaven-splitting staff smashed Izanagi dead-on.

Mist or not, it reeled as if struck solidly.

The as-you-will staff apparently struck ethereal bodies directly.

[Haha, you poser!]

Emboldened, Great Sage shouted jauntily.

Pop pop bang

Suddenly, Great Sage's clones filled half the sky.

Each human-sized, yet numbering tens of thousands.

Tens of thousands of Great Sages Mi-hu Wangs swung staffs, cast spells, fired beams from hands, enlarged bodies, or exploded with will.

Hundreds of clones simultaneously magnifying staffs and shredding the mist was terrifying.

Boom boom boom

Boom rumble boom

Explosions resounded, sky ablaze with flashes.

"Unbelievable."

Facing that clone art's master head-on was suicide.

Each of those tens of thousands wielded immense power!

Incredibly lifelike, they employed diverse tactics, attacking and evading freely.

I watched dazedly.

Soon flashes ceased; black mist gone.

Great Sage held a single black soul atop his palm.

Relentless pummeling had overwhelmed even the [Ancient Overlord]'s soul.

Squelch

Great Sage clenched his fist, obliterating Izanagi, and shouted.

[Fighting straight would be a hassle, but wasting power on tricks got you this! Hahaha.]

Unbelievable.

"...Monster."

I muttered unwittingly.

Half a being, mind alone--yet Great Sage Mi-hu Wang had soloed a near-freed [Ancient Overlord].

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