Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

Xiang Yu's words made me realize that the flow was smoothly turning in my favor. I had a hunch that today was one of those days where anything I did would work out. With one right choice after another, it felt like fate itself was backing me up. Gaining a bit of confidence, I said to Xiang Yu,

"Can you lend me the power of your constellation? As your subordinate, I'd like to wield that strength."

The power of a constellation!

It was a tremendous celestial force that even immortals revered, something close to the authority of the [Ancient Rulers]. If I could obtain that power, my reincarnation process would be greatly accelerated.

"......"

This time, Xiang Yu's eyebrows twitched as if he'd heard something unexpected. He muttered,

"There's no reason I couldn't, but what price are you offering me in return?"

Yes!

"This isn't my business, but are you really sure about this?"

"Pardon?"

"Well..."

The Great Sage started to say something but then closed his mouth.

"Never mind."

"......?"

It was a vaguely unsettling reaction. It was probably because his favor toward me had dipped slightly, and he now harbored a bit of suspicion, stopping short of giving me an answer. But the fact that he'd tried to warn me meant something, so I decided to think more carefully.

What's wrong? What's the issue?

Was there a problem with borrowing the constellation power that Xiang Yu possessed?

As I pondered deeply, Xiang Yu spoke.

"No matter what tribute you're thinking of, honestly, it holds little value to this king. At this point, there's nothing more for me to achieve here, no meaning left..."

"How could you say that?"

"It's the truth. There's nothing more I desire."

Xiang Yu's face looked utterly bored. He seemed to genuinely feel disgust toward the world. Even with that immense power, he appeared to have given up on interfering with it.

"However, if you grant me one request, I'll greatly ease the conditions. I'll even personally connect you to a terminal worthy of inheriting the constellation's power."

"What request? I'll make it happen, no matter what."

There was no reason to be picky about methods if I could gain the constellation's power. As I looked at Xiang Yu with excitement, he slowly opened his mouth.

"Find the soul of Ji and bring her to me."

"...Pardon?"

"This king does not repeat himself."

I couldn't help but be momentarily flustered by Xiang Yu's words. Because as far as I knew, there was only one person named Ji that Xiang Yu could mean.

Yu Ji!

Also called the Beauty Yu, she was recorded in the legends of the Chu-Han Contention as Xiang Yu's one and only lover and concubine. She was so famous that the idiom "surrounded on all four sides" originated from her story—I couldn't not know her. She had been renowned as the most beautiful woman in the world at the time, and I recalled rumors that she was from the Western Regions.

But how?

It's been over a thousand years since she died! Even if she reincarnated, it would've happened long ago... And how on earth am I supposed to bring her spirit all the way back to Xiang Yu's palace in Guseon Mountain in the heavens without getting caught?

Even coming here cautiously with the Great Sage's help had been quite difficult. Bringing Yu Ji's spirit without detection was undoubtedly an enormous task. No, was it even possible to find a soul from a thousand years ago in the first place?

I was flustered but nodded cautiously for now and said,

"I'll... do whatever it takes. But there are no leads at all. Is there anything that could help..."

"I thought you had a straightforward personality, but apparently not."

"......"

Xiang Yu took a sip of his drink after chiding me and continued,

"The power of my Heavenly魁 Star protects her. Follow that, and you'll find her."

"......"

Xiang Yu glanced at me.

"There's something I want to ask."

"Yes."

"Why do you want to kill Nüwa?"

In an instant, everyone's attention focused on me. The Great Sage's eyes sparkled with interest in my answer, so it was clear this wasn't a question I could dodge. After much hesitation—considering I might face endless questions from the Great Sage later—I opened my mouth.

"I... believe she's manipulating the heavens from the shadows."

"Hoh. What makes you think that? It's true that the Queen Mother of the West holds great power in the heavens, but I've heard she isn't Going to the Jade Emperor or the Three Pure Ones. And even if Nüwa is using the Queen Mother to pull strings from behind, is that reason enough to want her dead? It has nothing to do with humans, does it?"

"......"

I sighed and answered,

"If the only ones harmed by her deceiving the heavens were the heavenly immortals, I wouldn't care. But if she's simply watching as she dooms humanity to destruction without taking any responsibility in the future, is that truly right?"

"Hmm."

"I have no power myself, but I believe it's wrong, so I want to defeat her. Because I think she's deliberately eliminating any chance for humanity to survive."

Xiang Yu let out a scornful chuckle.

"You can't even beat lowly heavenly soldiers right now, yet your ambitions are grand."

"Ugh..."

"Fine. This king won't pry further. You may go."

I asked cautiously,

"If I wish to meet you through a tribute ritual, would you respond?"

Xiang Yu's expression soured slightly.

"You probably already know, but tribute rituals are official ceremonies. All conversations and movements are reported to the higher heavenly beings. That's why I rarely respond to summons from tribute rituals."

"Ah..."

It seemed my previous summoning of Xiang Yu had been sheer luck. And now I knew that attempting unscheduled specific summons in the future would have uncertain success rates.

"If you mention Yu Ji's matter in a tribute ritual, I'll beat you to death."

"Ah... Understood."

"Return to Guseon Mountain. If you succeed in the mission, your reward will be certain."

After the conversation ended, I left Xiang Yu's palace with the Great Sage. Before exiting Guseon Mountain, the Great Sage said to me,

"Hey. Sit down there."

It had come after all. I sat on a rock, tense.

The Great Sage scratched the hair near his ear and was silent for a while before speaking.

"You seem to know a bit about the 'Apocalypse'... So your ultimate goal is to stop it? And you think the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors have no intention of stopping it?"

"......!!"

"Hey, relax. I'm not planning to kill you here."

He meant it reassuringly, but I couldn't help stiffening. And I could intuitively sense that the Great Sage was far smarter than he let on. He'd deduced my goal just from a few words exchanged with Xiang Yu. Calming myself, I nodded.

"Yes. Ever since I learned that truth, I've been working to stop the Apocalypse."

"Hah, as expected. Your interest in the Seven Desires must be for that reason too. Human power has limits, so you plan to free the Seven Desires to gain strength beyond humanity, right?"

" Well, yes."

"I get the picture..."

The Great Sage crossed his arms, deep in thought, then said,

"I'll say this clearly: I quite like you, Baek Woong, and think of you like a little brother... But if you try to gather the Seven Desires, I'll kill you. Or at least seal you away somewhere."

His tone was resolute. He had a playful personality, but when it came to his duties, he was neither ambiguous nor compromising. Having long known this trait, I nodded, and the Great Sage continued,

"But still. It's rare for a human to get this close to the world's truths. I'd suspected the Queen Mother of the West myself, but Nüwa? That hadn't crossed my mind. Your words make it pretty plausible, though."

"......"

"So, how about aiming for ascension to immortality?"

"Ascension?"

Surprised by the sudden suggestion, I asked back, and the Great Sage grinned.

"You're right—human power has limits. Better to become an immortal, raise your soul's level by a tier, and boost your strength. If you aim to become an immortal, I'll help you without holding back."

"But you and Lord Xiang Yu don't seem to have changed much in power before or after becoming immortals..."

"Well, true, but in my case, being appointed a heavenly immortal gave me a few extra abilities. Not bad at all. I'm certain you'd at least double your current strength if you became one."

The Great Sage slapped my back.

"Think it over. Got it?"

"Yes."

"If you're tempted, contact me through Heoyu on my Ruyi Jingu Bang."

The Great Sage would help me become an immortal—

The new proposal sparked interest. Come to think of it, would my reincarnation ability still work if I became an immortal? And if it did, could I reincarnate while retaining an immortal's full power?

It's worth testing.

As I fiddled with the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the Great Sage added,

"Oh, and."

As if suddenly remembering, he said,

"Gucheon Fairy seems pretty pissed at you. Leave that to me. I'll explain the situation, so she won't bother you for a while."

"......"

"Alright, time to take you back down to earth. Staying in the heavens too long could have side effects on you."

Flash!

Before long, I rode the somersault cloud back to the heavenly back gate and exited the heavens through it. On the ground, I bowed deeply to the Great Sage.

"Thank you."

"Heh, no problem. If that Three Zhang Dharma Master tries anything again, contact me. I'll smash him."

"Understood."

After parting with the Great Sage, I headed straight to the southern continent. There, I showed my comrades everything that happened in the negotiations with him via the Silver Phoenix Seal. Once the memory sharing ended, Mangyangang said,

"Baek Woong, impressive. To think you'd attempt to meet Xiang Yu is that situation..."

He sighed.

"I might think of that option, but I wouldn't have the guts to choose it. Remarkable intuition and courage."

"Haha."

As I laughed happily, Zhuge Segi said,

"Things keep piling up that make challenging Dark Heaven Village a shame. I was planning to just barge in roughly and get some clues, but our lord keeps bringing back all this stuff."

"Not a bad thing, right?"

"True enough."

Zhuge Segi continued,

"Now that it's come to this, prioritizing Xiang Yu's request seems important. Use the Universal Seal right now to search for Yu Ji's soul."

"Got it."

Hum—

I activated the Universal Seal and searched for Yu Ji's soul through its spirit. The Universal Seal's spirit glowed and announced,

[Search results for Yu Ji's soul: 0 matches.]

"Again? Tch... Nothing in this world, huh?"

I couldn't help grumbling. The Universal Seal was great, but it could only search for things in this world. When I reported the results to the strategists, Mangyangang pondered and said,

"Baek Woong. Activate the Universal Seal again."

"Hm?"

"How about searching with the aura of the Heavenly魁 Star?"

I did as Mangyangang suggested. Unexpectedly, the Universal Seal's spirit said,

[Search results for Heavenly魁 Star aura: 129 matches total.]

"Whoa! That many?"

[Would you like to view the results?]

"Show me."

Flash!

Moments later, a massive map unfolded before my eyes, as if displaying the entire world. It seemed to show all the world's oceans and continents. And here and there on the map, hundreds of traces blinked in red light. I selected and tapped the largest-looking one, and the Universal Seal zoomed in on that area.

Hum

An ancient ruined castle site in a silent wasteland appeared. I examined the location carefully, but nothing noteworthy stood out. Just in case, I said,

"Does searching for the aura show places where it lingered?"

[Yes. It traces and displays where the strong constellation aura lingered, and also searches for current possessors.]

"Possessors... Show me humans with the Heavenly魁 Star power!"

[14 matches total.]

Flash flash!

14 different windows popped up. Each one showed diverse humans—men, women, old, young, Eastern, Western—without discrimination. But strangely, none seemed like remarkable ability users; they looked like ordinary people. Puzzled, I muttered,

"They really have constellation power? They don't look strong."

[The possessed Heavenly魁 Star aura amounts are all extremely minute.]

"So you need a certain level or higher to show remarkable power?"

[Yes.]

Humans with constellation aura weren't rare, but those with enough for superhuman feats seemed scarce. At this level, there wasn't a single person in the world who could claim to be born with the Heavenly魁 Star.

I closed the Universal Seal and reported the results to Mangyangang. He then said,

"That ancient castle is probably the site that served as the backdrop for the 'surrounded on all four sides.'"

"The castle where Xiang Yu was besieged by Liu Bang's massive army?"

"Yes. Yu Ji's traces are strongest there, and it's the only such ruin in the Central Plains. Go there first and try the Heavenly Scripture's divinations."

He said gravely,

"If that doesn't work, we'll have to resort to the last method."

The last method—

That was probably descending directly into the underworld.

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