Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

Zhuge Sa decided to teach me how to travel to other worlds and then summoned a creature using magic. The moment I saw it, I said,

"Last time's that..."

"Yeah. This guy's a heterorace and a sorcery creature capable of moving hundreds or thousands of times faster than light. The problem is humans can't endure riding it, so you have to drink honey brew."

Zhuge Sa continued,

"The way to travel to other worlds is basically just summoning this guy. There are other hacks, but they're all inferior. This is the most stable, convenient, and fastest method. Most sorcerers use it."

"Is summoning this guy that hard?"

"It's tough."

He grinned wryly.

"Wavelength?"

"This guy's unique; it communicates via wavelengths instead of 'words.' That wavelength-based telepathy is an extremely rare method across the entire universe, so most races can't even imitate it. To understand the wavelength and contract with it, even an ordinary human couldn't do it in a lifetime of effort."

Mental wavelength?

I stared at the heterorace creature in front of me. It floated quietly in the air, making a gurgling sound. At a glance, it had wings like a bird, but also lizard-like scales, and its face was neither bird nor lizard. It was grotesque through and through, and I couldn't sense any wavelength emanating from it at all.

"I don't get it. How do you match the wavelength?"

"Heh heh. It's like teaching human speech to a cow or a pig... Logically impossible. So usually, you use sorcery's secret arts to transform your body into that creature and practice resonating wavelengths every day."

"Transform?"

"Like this."

Pung!

With a loud pop, Zhuge Sa's body changed. From his shoulders up, it suddenly became identical to the heterorace creature, a grotesque and hideous sight. As I flinched in surprise, the transformed Zhuge Sa stared long at the summoned creature, and the thing, which had shown no reaction until now, seemed to respond somehow.

Kyururuk!

Zhuge Sa ended the transformation and returned to his original form.

"I just had a casual conversation with it."

"What conversation?"

"I asked if it was hungry, and it said it wanted calf's fresh liver."

He stroked the heterorace creature affectionately and shrugged.

"The heterorace transformation spell itself isn't hard. Once you engrave the sorcery brand, it's easy. But there are hundreds of thousands of wavelength types, so pinpointing the right one and weaving it into that race's unique 'speech' is the tricky part."

"So that's the hard part."

"I consider myself a genius in linguistics, but even I took nearly a year of to master it."

If Zhuge Sa took nearly a year, it might take me twenty or thirty. Steel ing my resolve, I said,

"Teach me."

Pung!

I engraved the sorcery brand Zhuge Sa taught me and transformed into the heterorace monster.

But something strange happened.

[You said you want calf's fresh liver. When are you giving it?]

Huh?

The moment I transformed, I heard the heterorace monster flapping its wings and grumbling. And for some reason, what had looked utterly hideous in human form now seemed cute.

'Am I crazy?'

Why does this heterorace look kinda cute?

I also somehow knew it was female, not male.

Just to test, I spoke without consciously emitting a wavelength.

[Coming up.]

It felt crude, but my intent seemed transmitted. The heterorace monster understood and flapped its wings in reply.

[You old guys are such cheapskates. I want fresh liver or heart or calf head.]

[No pig instead of calf?]

[I hate pig.]

[Got it. I'll get a calf.]

What is this?

The conversation flowed amazingly well. In transformed state, I flew to the back, fetched a calf from the barn, reverted to human form, butchered it, then transformed again and offered the fresh liver, heart, and head one by one.

I could feel the heterorace monster's great joy.

[Wow! You picked my favorite parts!]

[How do we contract?]

Crunch crunch.

The heterorace monster munched deliciously on the liver and replied.

[I'll call my friend.]

Fwaaa!

Soon after, another of the same species was summoned beside it. And for some reason, I knew this one was male. The summoned male monster flapped its wings and said,

[Give me calf heart and I'll contract.]

[Here.]

Crunch crunch.

The male monster devoured the offering deliciously, then suddenly glowed.

[Contracted. See you.]

Fwaaa!

Moments later, both heterorace monsters vanished from this world. As I tilted my head, Zhuge Sa beside me shouted in genuine shock.

"Wh-what?! Instant contract...? With those difficult bastards..."

"Huh?"

He grabbed my collar in bewilderment and said,

"Bask Woong. Did you already know that heterorace's speech and wavelength?"

"No way. It just came through after transforming."

"And you just spoke whatever came to mind?"

"Yeah. Something wrong?"

After my honest reply and scratching my head, Zhuge Sa stared at me with blank eyes. It was rare for him to look at me like that. After a long silence, he sighed and said,

"You're definitely suited for the demonic path. Whether that's a blessing or curse..."

Feeling good, I grinned.

"Heh heh, so I have some talent in a field after all?"

"Hey..."

Zhuge Sa wore an expression like he'd heard utter nonsense. It was the face of someone barely holding back curses, so I shut my mouth.

I could feel Zhuge Sa was a bit angry.

'Did I say something wrong again?'

As I fidgeted, Zhuge Sa softened his expression.

"...You idiot. That's beyond talent. No human sorcerer in history learned the heterorace tongue faster than you. Even Demon King Simon Magus, sovereign of Western Gnosticism and disciple of Hermes the alchemist god who deceived divinities, couldn't learn it faster than you."

"Not talent?"

"Might be heavenly aptitude. Ha... Good thing you don't realize what sets you apart."

His eyes, mad yet controlled and hollow, brimmed with suspicion. He pondered deeply, then said,

"Anyway, I didn't expect you'd master summoning instantly. Now I'll teach you how to activate the summoning ritual and brew the honey wine."

"That's hard too?"

"Easy. As I said, matching wavelengths with those things is the bitch; the rest any fool can do..."

Just as Zhuge Sa said, I learned it all in a day and mastered it with a few practices. The decades-long training I'd braced for ended in an instant, filling me with great joy.

"Zhuge Sa! So if I cultivate demonic arts, I can get dozens of times stronger than now, right?"

Zhuge Sa shook his head.

"Well..."

"Why so skeptical?"

"From your memories, you showed insane talent in heterorace communication, but when training alchemy or sorcery secrets with me, your progress was utterly mediocre. Zero aptitude for spells or branding."

"Well, now we know you have absolute talent for heterorace summoning contracts, so your training path is set. Focus on summoning from now on."

"Hmm, yeah."

"Your talents are extremely lopsided. Almost like..."

Zhuge Sa paused mid-sentence, then said,

"Anyway, demonic arts, like spell arts, require vast cultivation to reach high levels. Don't take it lightly—steady acquisition is key."

"Got it."

I trained a few more days with Zhuge Sa. Once I felt ready, I asked,

"Zhuge Sa. I think I can head to other worlds now, but how many are there?"

"I explained there are two kinds of other worlds, right?"

"Yeah."

I nodded and said,

"Physical other worlds and conceptual ones."

"Exactly. That's the key."

Zhuge Sa leaned back comfortably and continued,

"Physical other worlds, simply put, are places human civilization's tech could reach physically if advanced enough. Like arriving in another city by carriage. Of course, the distance is at least 10 light-years, so it's immense—hence 'other world,' includes alien star clusters, exoplanets, external galaxies."

"Hmm... The prophet lives in a physical other world too?"

"Probably. That race is at least millions of light-years away."

Zhuge Sa took a sip of water.

"Conceptual other worlds are different. Even on a ship blinking across hundreds of thousands of light-years, you can't reach them. The dimension itself differs, so only special methods work. Dream Realm or Blood Realm are both conceptual."

Having explained that, Zhuge Sa cracked his knuckles.

"Nine-tenths of heteroraces live in physical other worlds. Simply, they're aliens; we're Earthlings. But higher heteroraces dwell in conceptual ones, and by Three Emperors Five Sovereigns level, physical methods can't even locate them."

"Got it."

"The travel method from your honey brew works for most physical other worlds but not conceptual. So we've gained exploration rights to physical other worlds."

"Can't go to conceptual ones."

Zhuge Sa smirked.

"Not a big loss. Conceptual other worlds are so few, most sorcery tomes list them all. Mostly high heterorace hideouts or divine realms... But you have time to spare, so hunt them down one by one later."

I thought deeply, then said,

"First, I need to find Xiang Yu's concubine Yu Hei. Most suspicious spot is the Netherworld..."

Zhuge Sa replied,

"Netherworld's conceptual. Too cumbersome and risky to go via spells. But there's a physical path."

"What?"

I exclaimed in surprise.

"You saying Netherworld's in the material world?"

"Precisely, there's a special passage leading there. Cheon Woo-jin probably knows best."

"Call him."

Soon after, I summoned Mang Ryang and Cheon Woo-jin, informing them I'd mastered summoning. For some reason, both looked like they'd expected it. After hearing our current issue, Cheon Woo-jin said,

"There's the Dark Path souls of this world take to Netherworld after death. Time it right when it opens, and you can enter. The biggest is Northern Mang Mountain near Luoyang."

"Didn't know... Then let's go via Northern Mang Mountain's Dark Path!"

As I shouted boldly, Cheon Woo-jin grumbled,

"...And that Dark Path is constantly guarded by underworld messengers, judges, generals, etc. Peak immortals are common among them. Great plan for a living soul to stroll in."

"Xiang Yu or Great Sage level could smash through by force, but that's for power freaks with excess. Normally, get Mount Tai Lord's permission to enter."

"Mount Tai Lord?"

"A peak immortal ruling Mount Tai and human lifespans."

His words left me baffled.

"Where's a guy like that?! If he existed, he never showed during past life Mount Tai rites and chaos."

"I find that odd too. But my guess is..."

Cheon Woo-jin's eyes sharpened.

"Mount Tai Lord's a nominal title; the real wielder's separate. Heavenly Realm distorts legends often. Especially sensitive Netherworld—they'd block human sorcerers wandering freely."

"Who is it?"

"Who in Heavenly Realm manages human lifespans? Just two."

Hearing that, it hit me. As I fell silent, Cheon Woo-jin said,

"Fighting Immortals: Southern Dipper Lord and Northern Dipper Lord. They're likely the true Mount Tai Lords, holding Netherworld access."

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