Chapter 127: What You Trampled On / The Path You Have Tread (15)
Yuan Li's attack meets Seo Eun-hyun's head-on.
A colorless brilliance and a crimson light collides.
Ting!
A crisp, resounding note echoes throughout the battlefield.
It's clear.
And weak.
A smirk fills Yuan Li's face.
"Putting on such a show of might, but is this all you've got?"
Weak.
Not even the level of cultivator.
Just a mortal swinging a sword with all his might.
Somehow, he managed to block Yuan Li's strike, but it's a close call.
That is it.
Yuan Li wakes up in realization.
'It's not just me who's weakened.'
The small fry opposing him is also significantly drained of strength.
'If I just take care of these bastards, I'll truly be the victor!'
He grins broadly.
"Keep hammering away with that stupid glass sword all you want. I'll shatter it to pieces!"
Blood light streams out as he forms a seal.
Kugugugu!
Blood clouds swirl around him.
Among the blood clouds, blood trees grow, creating a forest of blood.
Not only Seo Eun-hyun but also the Core Formation cultivators trying to help him frown and flee from the bloody forest.
'I won't let them escape.'
One by one, he'll catch them all and grind them to dust.
Yuan Li thinks this as he flies towards the most annoying bug, Seo Eun-hyun.
Trapped in the bloody forest, swinging his sword foolishly, Seo Eun-hyun's figure is clear in Yuan Li's eyes.
"Farewell. You left a deep impression, though."
Kugugugu!
Blood vines sprout from his hands, stabbing towards Seo Eun-hyun.
And Seo Eun-hyun, holding his glass sword, begins to deflect them.
Yuan Li laughs, his mouth splitting wide.
'So weak. He'll fall soon.'
"Didn't you say you'd show me something? I don't want to see you flounder pathetically, just d-"
And then.
Thump!
Seo Eun-hyun's sword strikes the blood vines.
"Huh?"
Something is off.
Normally, humans weaken as they expend energy.
But Yuan Li frowns at the recoil he just felt.
'Stronger than before?'
It wasn't significantly stronger.
But definitely.
Definitely stronger than before.
'Is it just my imagination?'
No, that can't be.
Yuan Li bites his lip hard.
Kwaang!
Seo Eun-hyun's sword again strikes his vines and pushes back his bloody forest.
It wasn't an illusion.
His sword is indeed stronger than before.
'But it's negligible. No need to worry.'
"Just die as you are!"
Kiiing!
Blood Demon Suppressing Sea Light!
Above Yuan Li's hands, an apparition of a Blood Sea forms, plunging down towards Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun doesn't look at the blood descending upon him.
He just closes his eyes and raises his sword.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Secluded Valley!
He dives into the blood pool, twisting his body up through a gap, and slices through it.
Chuararak!
Yuan Li's spell splits in an instant.
Yuan Li's face hardens.
Koong!
Seo Eun-hyun lands back on the ground.
And on the spot he lands, his footprints are deeply imprinted.
Kwaang Kwaang Kwaang!
With every move he makes.
With every posture he adopts.
The depth of his footprints increase.
'The amplification rate of his attacks is increasing?'
Like rolling a snowball.
Each time he slashes through Yuan Li's spell with his sword, his sword grows increasingly fierce.
Yuan Li stops chasing the other cultivators.
'I need to catch this guy first!'
It's dangerous.
His intuition, heightened by reaching Nascent Soul, forewarns of ominous fate.
'I've obtained the Serving Command Seal! I can't lose!'
"Water, Flow!"
Chuaruruk!
Blood water surges, transforming into a river of blood, engulfing Seo Eun-hyun.
And then.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, Bouldered Cliff.
Seo Eun-hyun begins to spin.
It's a sword dance.
His sword dance, as if not allowing even a single gap, wildly swirls around, deflecting every drop of blood, every ripple of the river.
An unbelievable display of martial arts!
And Seo Eun-hyun's sword.
With every slash of Yuan Li's spell, continues to grow stronger.
Slowly but steadily.
The Final Move of Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Foolish Old Man Moves Mountain is a technique as follows:
First, using Endless Mountains Beyond Mountains, it prevents any trace of one's energy from leaking out.
Second, while maintaining that state, it uses the twenty-first move, Heavenly Lake, to absorb all residual flow and power generated from clashes with the opponent.
Third, applying Echoing Valley, it integrates the opponent's power into one's own and unleashes it back.
Fourth, concentrating all those intricate forces into a single point with Mountain Tiger, it forcibly suppresses the backlash.
Fifth, it distributes the burden applied to the body as much as possible using Layered Mountains and Mountain and Valley Transformation, dissipating it into the ground.
It sounds complicated, but in a nutshell, it's a technique that strengthens one's own attacks by drawing in the opponent's power with each clash.
And the price for forcibly drawing in the opponent's power is the user's death.
Therefore, a martial artist using Foolish Old Man Moves Mountain keeps getting stronger as they fight, but eventually explodes and dies due to the inability to suppress the power they've gathered.
Kwaang!
Absorbing Yuan Li's attack with my technique and then countering with that power.
Using the principle of Endless Mountains Beyond Mountains, I don't waste any energy in my counterattack but return it back to my opponent.
Gradually, my attacks grow stronger.
Before long, instead of being overwhelmed by Yuan Li's spells, I am blocking it head-on.
With Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains, each clash with the opponent at the very least strengthens me by a bit.
And I have had thousands of clashes with Yuan Li.
Pukwak Pukwak!
Unable to bear the enormous power surging through my body, my body starts to burst open in various places.
But the beauty of being a cultivator is...
Sururuk…
The regeneration ability is beyond human.
The duration I can maintain Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains differs from when Kim Young-hoon uses it.
Kwaang Kwaang Kwaang!
My footprints deepen further.
And then...
I take a step forward.
Riip!
My cleave tears through Yuan Li's forest, paving a path.
His forest tries to regenerate, but I take another step and swing my sword again.
I am no longer just defensively blocking his techniques in one spot.
I am clearly advancing towards him.
"This, what is this..."
Yuan Li clenches his teeth and draws his dagger dharma treasure.
Kiiyaaaak!
He brings out his blood-colored spear and the ghost king made of blood mist is summoned
Chuarak!
Cutting his own finger to feed the ghost king, it blazes red and grows fiercer.
It charges at me, spear in hand, through the forest I have torn apart.
I close my eyes.
Blood is flowing from my entire body, making it almost impossible to see.
Let's return to the basics of when I first learned martial arts.
I close my eyes and enter the world of intent.
Red and blue lines.
Since awakening the domain of consciousness as a cultivator, I didn't pay much attention to it, relying only on the domain.
The domain of consciousness is ultimately a more advanced version of the flow of intent.
But facing these red and blue threads again, like when I first entered the pinnacle realm, I realize something I haven't before.
'Were these threads always carrying so much?'
The lines emanating from the ghost king glow red.
In terms of emotions, it's either anger or killing intent.
But within that killing intent, there are countless meanings.
From the next move to why such a move is made, what they are thinking at the moment, etc.
Through martial arts, I now transparently see the opponent's heart.
The ghost king in front of me is actually Yuan Li's puppet.
Therefore, the emotions felt from the ghost king are Yuan Li's emotions.
Fear and anger, shame, humiliation, a bit of anticipation.
These are the emotions I sense from Yuan Li.
'What about my own heart?'
Suddenly, while clashing with the ghost king, I become curious about my own emotions, not Yuan Li's.
'Ah, I see.'
My heart is filled with pain.
And the anticipation of death that will come at the end of this pain.
That's all.
I want to die.
'I desire death.'
With each use of the Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains,
It feels like my muscles are tearing apart.
Not metaphorically, but literally, as blood bursts from various parts of my body with each and every movement.
My footprints grow deeper.
Yet, in this immense pain, facing death, I am in absolute tranquility.
'Is this, the end of this life?'
I will die wielding my sword.
As I have in so many lives before.
As death approaches, the flashbacks of previous lives, which visited me several times before, pass before my eyes.
Starting from the very first life, up to the death that happened ten times.
900 years of life.
In that overwhelming life, there was shining love that lasted a mere ten years.
Is the life of a human being so fleeting?
What am I really swinging my sword for?
Whirl!
Suddenly.
Amidst my suffering and swordplay.
Upon deeply searching my heart, I stumble upon an area of emptiness, devoid of anything.
Emptiness (空).
Completely empty.
'Why am I still alive?'
Life is nothing but pain.
Isn't that what I realized through Yin Soul Ghost Incantation?
I just want to quickly end this life and move on to the next.
Just when I am thinking so.
―If life is filled with emptiness, are the times we spent together meaningless too?
A warm hand seems to rest upon my sword-wielding hand.
'Huh…?'
Scenes flash before my eyes.
Days spent with her.
Good moments, regretful moments, painful moments...
And the scenes don't stop there but continue.
Moments of triumph after establishing the Palace of Heavenly Demons with Kim Young-hoon.
Moments of reaching new heights in martial arts.
The moment when Kae-hwa gifted me a paper flower while I was teaching my disciples.
The moment when I died to save my disciples.
The moment I met my master.
The moment I bowed ten times to him and passed.
These aren't flashbacks.
My flashbacks aren't so radiant.
Whenever I'm about to die, only moments of futility flash by.
This is….
'Ah, I see.'
Colorless Glass Sword, Third Form.
All Heavens' real power isn't just about gathering thousands of Colorless Glass Swords to strengthen it.
Emotion (情).
The Colorless Glass Sword is a dharma treasure that heightens human emotions.
I had forgotten that Buk Hyang-hwa, while creating the Colorless Glass Sword, researched the circuits of the Mad Lord using human emotions.
She had designed this dharma treasure to harbor human emotions, mimicking the Mad Lord's puppet.
Just as human consciousness, including the seven emotions, is made up of tens, hundreds, and millions of emotions.
Each circuit of the Colorless Glass Sword overlaps, creating millions of emotions, which then form another consciousness within the sword.
Kiiing!
I infuse the Formless Sword.
The Formless Sword is originally a bundle of my consciousness mixed with Gang Qi.
When the artificial consciousness in the Colorless Glass Sword touches mine, it begins to amplify my consciousness.
The power of the Formless Sword grows.
But this is the same power I felt when I first activated All Heavens.
The power I just discovered in the Colorless Glass Sword doesn't end here.
Flash!
The Colorless Glass Sword begins to shine.
The artificial consciousness in the sword stimulates my emotions.
Accepting my intense emotions, it starts to imbue them to the Formless Sword.
Yes.
The Colorless Glass Sword is transforming my emotions into power.
Kwaang!
The ghost king's spear explodes with a single swing.
The ghost king attached to the spear also explodes and disappears.
Yuan Li panics, continually using spells, even harming himself to summon more sinister blood techniques.
He is eroding his own body to stop me, while I am exploding my entire body to advance towards him.
I'm probably half out of my mind from the pain.
I keep my eyes closed, feeling only the flow of intent as I move forward.
And I observe my heart.
The void realm of Emptiness.
In this empty realm, the Colorless Glass Sword is infusing emotions from my past.
Happy moments, frustrating moments.
Joyful moments, angry moments, sad moments, enjoyable moments, loving moments, hateful moments...
'Was it so?'
I thought this life was futile.
After killing Yuan Li, I thought about dying any moment.
But...
The Colorless Glass Sword, the will she left behind, is telling me.
That this life is not just entirely meaningless.
'But... what am I supposed to do?'
I am going to die.
Even if I know that life is not meaningless,
I will die, exploding my entire body towards a powerful enemy.
'I know. I wanted to live with you. But you were killed by him, and I will also die from fighting him.'
Even if this life is not meaningless!
Even if all of the heavens are filled with a myriad of colors, what am I supposed to do!
How futile is human will before their predetermined fate!
Kwaang!
As my emotions intensify, the Colorless Glass Sword further amplifies the Formless Sword.
The space between Yuan Li and me clears away.
He forms a seal, preparing a more sinister spell.
'Ah, that's...'
I can't block it.
Even if I perish together with that spell.
Even with the power I have accumulated through Foolish Old Man Moves Mountain, it's impossible to block any further.
Isn't there an inherent disparity set from the moment of birth in this world?
Aren't there defined limits for a human being?
It was in this instant.
'...If it was Young-hoon Hyung-nim, he would have never said something like this.'
―Limits?
From within, where I have placed Kim Young-hoon's Inner Core, I feel something warm rising.
It might have just been my imagination.
―Why start thinking of such things when wielding a sword?
From his Inner Core, I feel a warm coziness.
It's like the morning sunshine.
His brilliant golden Surpassing Radiant Saber.
Suddenly, I open my eyes.
Next to me, Kim Young-hoon is wielding the Surpassing Radiant Saber.
It's not real.
Just a hallucination, as I'm half out of my mind due to pain.
But the hallucination...
Speaks exactly what Kim Young-hoon would have said.
―Even if there are limits, what can you do? You still have to live.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship and Severing Vein Saber Method.
Formless Sword and Surpassing Radiant Saber.
Unknowingly, I follow Kim Young-hoon's martial arts, mirroring his movements.
He too is using Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains.
Kung Kung Kung!
As my footprints deepen, so do his.
Our movements overlap.
―Isn't that what living is all about?
―Even if there are those better than you, and others even better than them.
―What else can you do? In this moment, with the task you received, with what you can do, just do to the best of your abilities.
What is this conversation?
It isn't the hallucination speaking.
It's a real conversation.
Something I remember hearing at the company.
―Do you know the reason why martial arts and life are not different?
The hallucination smiles at me and speaks.
―Since you are born into this body, don't think about limits...
Beyond the hallucination, I see the image of Kim Young-hoon and myself before crossing into this world.
―In this moment, with the task you received, with what you can do…
Short memories of Kim Young-hoon,
Overlap with the voice of the hallucination.
―Just, go forward without distractions.
―Just, do your best.
A gentle, yet calloused hand pushes me from behind.
Kim Young-hoon, who leads ahead, pulls me forward.
Yes, let go of distractions.
Even if there are limits called fate from birth.
What can be done about it?
Right here, right now.
Do what can be done to the best of my abilities.
Now that I know life isn't meaningless, I won't think about the limits imposed by fate anymore.
Just wield the sword.
I look at the Colorless Glass Sword in my hand and the Formless Sword overlapping it.
They are my life.
Then...
I look again at the figure unfolding Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains beside me.
It isn't Kim Young-hoon.
It's my face.
The hallucination approaches and overlaps with me.
'Ah, I see.'
All this time...
I have been following Kim Young-hoon's footsteps.
Everything I see before me.
I have been endlessly chasing the footsteps Kim Young-hoon left in the last moments of his life.
But...
What I thought was Kim Young-hoon dancing beside me was myself all along.
And Kim Young-hoon's voice is now coming from behind.
―Look ahead, Seo Eun-hyun!
A frail hand, along with a steadfast one, simultaneously pushes my back.
―Believe in the path you have tread!
Only now...
Only now do I realize why I failed to see the 'next' realm in my past life.
It wasn't about the pain Yuan Li caused.
I was just following Kim Young-hoon.
From Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, our paths have diverged, unbeknownst to me.
It's okay not to be as fast.
My sword doesn't have to be golden.
It doesn't need to split space.
'So...'
I realize I stand at the very end of the path tread by Kim Young-hoon.
'Let's go, to the next.'
Stepping beyond this point, I will be diverging from the path he has walked.
'Young-hoon Hyung-nim, I will step upon the path you have walked.'
But still, let's go forward.
I, moving further from the path tread by Kim Young-hoon, shout from within this realm I step onto.
"Beyond the Path (월도)!"
Sorry, Hyung-nim.
I will name this realm myself.
In honor of the path you tread.
And to mark this place where I took my first step
"Treading Heaven (답천)!"
On behalf of Kim Young-hoon's will, I roar vigorously.
I wield the Colorless Glass Sword.
Whoom!
The Blood Sea that has enveloped the sky splits in half.
Surung Sururung!
Casting aside all stray thoughts about fate, my heart becomes a void.
In this moment, I realize that void isn't just emptiness.
The Formless Sword.
The embodiment of my heart.
Begins to merge with the void.
―Gang Sphere is in fact one.
―Martial arts and I are one entity.
Words left by Kim Young-hoon in the past life.
Now I understand.
Splitting the Gang Sphere according to the logic of Heaven, Earth, and Man, realizing they are all me, I merged the Gang Sphere into the Formless Sword.
But.
Isn't there one Gang Sphere left unmerged?
Inner Core.
I thought I was handling nine Gang Spheres.
But in reality, there is a tenth Gang Sphere left.
The moment I realize the meaning of the Emptiness, my Inner Core that is nestled in the center of my Golden Core melts, becoming an intangible energy, and merges with the Formles Sword in my hand.
Kim Young-hoon's technique of an external Inner Core is one of the paths to this realm.
The Formless Sword, fully connected with the Inner Core within my body, begins from the dantian and pervades my entire being
Yes, throughout the entire body.
In every single muscle fiber.
In every blood vessel, the Formless Sword settles.
I become the Formless Sword itself.
The same must have been true for Kim Young-hoon.
He too, with the Surpassing Radiant Saber rooted throughout his body, must have stepped into the new realm.
The moment I melt the tenth Gang Sphere.
The true ability of the Formless Sword comes into my hands.
A small miracle created by the will to walk a different path from Kim Young-hoon.
Before I know it, I appear right in front of Yuan Li.
Now, with the Formless Sword ingrained in every single blood vessel,
My body no longer explodes due to the effects of Foolish Old Man Moves Mountain.
The durability of my physical body has soared to its very limits.
In this state, I swing my sword at Yuan Li.
Transcending Peaks!
A simple horizontal slash.
Yuan Li deploys a defensive spell.
Had it been Kim Young-hoon's Surpassing Radiant Saber in this realm, it would have sliced through the space itself and cut Yuan Li.
But, I am slightly different.
Shwoong!
The Formless Sword, having reached a new realm, permeates through Yuan Li's shield, only cutting his body behind the shield.
"…Huh?"
Yuan Li, with a dazed expression, looks at his body.
Pukwak!
Clearly, his defensive spell should have blocked it, but he looks on with a lack of understanding of why he was cut without any sign of the shield breaking.
Chururuk!
His body begins to regenerate again.
However.
Whoom!
I slice his body again.
Whoom Whoom Whoom!
It's useless to deploy a shield.
Again and again, as many times as needed.
Without any resistance, permeating all his defenses and attacks.
My Formless Sword incessantly slices his body.
Not just freedom in trajectory but also in the material and immaterial.
When he looks at me with an expression of incomprehension,
I deliver the final blow.
Treading Heaven Beyond the Path (越道踏天), Formless Sword (無形劍).
The Formless Sword permeates all defenses and attacks, aiming directly at his Golden Core, at the Nascent Soul within.