Translator: TranslatingNovice

Editors: Z0Rel, BlueMangoAde

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Chapter 839: Side Story - Mythical Relic (4)

While Makli Hyun-ah is treating Makli Hweol to a whole lot of potatoes dipped in honey,

In one of the areas where the puppet subjugation squad is lying in ambush, Ha-eun half-opens his eyes.

Ha-eun rises from his spot, and while gripping two short spears, sends a voice transmission to Jo Yeon, who stands far away and surveys the surrounding area through a magic artifact.

[Miss. I feel it. The puppets are coming.]

A little while later, starting from Jo Yeon, who hears Ha-eun's voice transmission, a voice transmission rings out toward the entire subjugation squad.

Soon, the subjugation squad can all see something like dark clouds surging in from one direction of Cold Yin Marsh.

Wiiiiiing—

Something like the sound of a bee swarm is heard from within those dark clouds, and as the dark clouds draw closer, the cultivators lying in ambush in Cold Yin Marsh have tension rise on their faces.

Those dark clouds are, one by one, puppets of the Heavenly Being level, and while collecting the yin energy of Cold Yin Marsh, they are advancing in the direction where the squad is.

Each time the swarm of puppets advances, Cold Yin Marsh has even its yin energy sucked away by the puppets, and is steadily becoming a complete wasteland.

And then, the moment the swarm of puppets crosses a certain [boundary] marked in Cold Yin Marsh,

Wiiiiiiiiing!

The Integration stage puppets positioned here and there among the Heavenly Being level puppet swarm simultaneously detect an anomaly and make the puppets stop.

[Halt. Anomaly detected. Estimated to be cultivation divine power of cultivators of the Hundred Families cultivation system. Calculating ambush position...calculation complete.]

Click, click, click!

The Integration stage general puppets instantly pinpoint the positions where the cultivators are lying in ambush, then issue orders toward the countless puppets.

[Requesting reinforcements. Transmitting signal to the Star Shattering stage marquis puppet. Signal reception...impossible. Spirit-wave interference observed. Analysis result: estimated to be cultivators of the Novelist Family Method and Legalist Family Method systems.]

Kiririririk—

While handling countless puppets all at once, the general puppets recognize that they have fallen into an unfavorable situation.

However, the general puppets quickly seek a solution and finish preparing to respond.

[Continuous connection with the factory is cut off. It is estimated that the factory will soon contact the Star Shattering stage marquis puppet and request an investigation. Until the marquis puppet arrives, analyze the Hundred Schools cultivators' attacks as much as possible, and with information collection as the purpose, set the objective to delay for time.]

Having decided to grab the Hundred Schools cultivators by the ankle and hold out as much as possible, the general puppets form ranks and begin to pour attacks onto them.

[All units line up. Project concentrated firepower.]

And the battle begins.

Kwagwagwagwang!

Countless bursts of explosive light erupt, and countless Heavenly Being stage puppets spew beams of light and spew bombardment.

Various mechanical devices they spew out are fired, and they press the cultivators and several martial artists of Heart Dao Blooming, including Ha-eun.

And while a few Heart Dao Blooming martial artists including Ha-eun, and a few Integration stage cultivators, step forward and block the puppets' carpet bombing,

From behind them, the cultivators of the Hundred Schools Methods are protected and begin to display their respective divine power.

The declaration of Cultivator Ga Beop of the Legalist Family Method resounds across the area of Cold Yin Marsh.

[We, the Human Race, have, through an agreement with the ruling race of Cold Yin Marsh, the Leaf Race, previously concluded a pact to protect the natural environment of Cold Yin Marsh. Based on the above pact, I hereby enact Cold Yin Marsh's 'Natural Environment Protection Law'. From the time this statute is proclaimed onward, I hereby announce that any being that harms the natural environment of Cold Yin Marsh, regardless of race, phenomenon, or object, shall be subject to sanctions.]

As the statute is proclaimed, the Legalist Family Method begins to exert power.

[Defendants, the puppets severely damage the natural environment of Cold Yin Marsh, therefore from this time you are referred to the tribunal and the trial begins. Do you have an objection?]

In Cold Yin Marsh, where only the flow of Heaven and Earth spiritual energy exists, the law of the Legalist Family Method is added, and the puppets face the danger of all at once becoming entangled in the law.

At the same time, the puppets seek countermeasures against the Legalist Family Method as much as possible, and they proceed with responses that they have learned and analyzed through their experience until now.

[General puppet, product number 86041. As the representative of the Cold Yin Marsh puppets, I file an objection.]

Through the general puppet's objection, the enforcement of the Legalist Family Method begins to be delayed.

But at the same time, other methods also begin to be displayed.

Flash!

One of the cultivators of the Vertical-Horizontal Family Method begins to appear within a cluster of light.

Kiiiiiiing!

Light runs vertically and horizontally, drawing a cross.

From the center of that cluster of light, the incarnation body of a cultivator who practices the Divine Path Method reveals itself and begins to proclaim.

[Be split apart.]

Continuous Charge (連衝).

In an instant, as the light of the Vertical-Horizontal Family Method cultivator shines on the puppets, the puppets have their connection with the general puppet severed, and each of them begins to split for a moment into an independent self.

The puppets instantly split into countless factions, and the general puppet 86041 that steps forward has its representativeness fade in an instant.

The characteristic of the Naming Family Method is distortion through the manipulation of emptiness and substance, and manipulating the power of names.

The characteristic of the Legalist Family Method is the manipulation of law through the proclamation and manipulation of statutes.

If the characteristic of the Confucian Family Method is oppression, sealing, expulsion, and negation, then the greatest characteristic of the Vertical-Horizontal Family Method is separation and union and gathering and dispersing.

It seeks unity and division with respect to a certain specific force, and within such division and unity it gathers faith to continue cultivation and raise the realm. This can be said to be the greatest characteristic of the Vertical-Horizontal Family Method.

The puppets split in an instant into dozens and hundreds of groups, and a dispute breaks out over who will represent the puppets.

And within such countless separations and unions, the statute of the Legalist Family Method begins to slowly tighten around the puppets' throats.

However, even while splitting, the puppets keep pouring attacks onto the cultivators through settings that are laid in advance.

Amid the puppets' barrage of firepower, the martial artists and the Immortal Family Method cultivators who protect the cultivators of the Hundred Schools Methods grit their teeth.

Ha-eun turns back and shouts.

"Seol Ga! When will it be completed?"

Seol Ga, who learned the Novelist Family Method.

Revived as a wandering soul by Ahn Geum, he has activated the Novelist Family Method with the body of a wandering soul, cast himself as a role within a story, and is collecting information.

Having become a role within a story called 'The Child Who Understands Animal Speech,' Seol Ga made Ahn Geum's wandering souls into animals and made himself the protagonist, and nods as he listens to the information the wandering souls bring back.

After a while, Seol Ga releases the story and informs all the cultivators of the information he has found through voice transmission.

[I have found the part names and serial numbers of the internal mechanical devices in the puppets. Please tell cultivator Makli Hyun-ah!]

And Makli Hyun-ah, who is waiting in the rear, finally realizes that it is his turn to shine.

Chwararak!

Makli Hyun-ah takes out a large book from within his robes.

Right after, he uses the Confucian Family Method to transform his body into a string of characters, then generates within that string the serial numbers Seol Ga sends and records them into the book.

Soon, the book is densely filled with the serial numbers of the mechanical devices.

Afterwards, Makli Hyun-ah sends a message to his demon beasts.

Immediately after, Badger and the Rabbit Seven Heavenly Lords take out flags and wave them from the eight directions of Cold Yin Marsh.

At the same time the arrangement to activate the Confucian formation is set, Makli Hyun-ah's social authority begins to spread over the area.

"Oppression, activate."

Tududududu!

All of Cold Yin Marsh's Heaven and Earth spiritual energy, and the strange powers and chaotic spirits, are pressed down.

In an instant, a lull unfolds between the puppets and the cultivators.

The cultivators have the source of their power, including their spiritual energy, suppressed and cannot do anything, and the puppets all pause for a moment while switching their power source from spiritual energy to electricity.

Click, click!

The puppets all convert their power sources at once.

If this continues, the cultivators of Cold Yin Marsh will remain in a state where their power is suppressed, and it will become a situation where they simply die.

Just then,

The cultivators of Cold Yin Marsh all pull talismans from inside their robes with resolute expressions and activate the talismans.

Flash!

From within those talismans, illusions of themselves with the power they have previously sealed with the Confucian Family Method come out and begin to block the puppets again, and the balance of the battlefield becomes taut once more.

However, if this continues, the cultivators gathered in Cold Yin Marsh will ultimately be annihilated the moment the talismans are completely spent.

But in the next moment,

Makli Hyun-ah's divine power begins to be displayed.

Chwararak!

Makli Hyun-ah rapidly flips through the booklet with the serial numbers written in it, and begins to display the Naming Family Method.

"In the Naming Dao, I seal the gods."

Wiiiiiiing!

Makli Hyun-ah's spirit speech at Ascending Metamorphosis!

That spirit speech activates the Naming Family Method to an extreme, treats the serial numbers written on the pages Makli Hyun-ah gathered as [names], and begins to 'call' them.

Wing, wing, wing, wing!

At Makli Hyun-ah's calling, among the steam engine devices inside the puppets, the devices connected to the serial numbers in Makli Hyun-ah's hand begin to hum and resonate.

Makli Hyun-ah is well aware of his role on the battlefield.

'The device serial numbers found through the Novelist Family Method. Those serial numbers are for the steam engines inside the puppets...and among them, they say they are the serial numbers of the turbine-related products.'

Recalling the plan Jo Yeon set up, he carries out the operation quickly.

'The Naming Family Method can also treat a product's serial number as a name, handle it, and seal it. And that means...'

"...I, Makli Hyun-ah, borrowing the social authority of the Owner of Names, command. All existences that answer the names I have just called shall, without exception, be sealed!"

'If I call the names, I can seal the puppets' turbines in an instant! I may not be able to pull the turbines out completely...but at the very least, I can steal the energy the turbines have!'

Kwaduk, kwadudududududuk!

The pinwheels inside the puppets that run the steam engines all pull out at once and are sealed into the book Makli Hyun-ah holds in his hands.

The Integration stage general puppets succeed in manipulating the circuits inside their bodies to block him, but the rotational force of the pinwheels is stolen away, and the steam engines become unable to operate.

In an instant, the tide of the battlefield changes.

The crude, brutish puppet legion that forces a war of attrition on the Human Race now becomes unable to keep running the moment it consumes its stored electricity, and it comes to a stop.

Now it is the puppet side that is forced into a war of attrition.

Kwagwagwang!

The specialty of the puppets, human-wave tactics and firepower bombardment, is sealed.

At the same time, the statute of the Legalist Family Method begins to gradually bind the puppets, and at last, the puppets receive punishment by the laws.

[This tribunal hereby sentences the puppet army to death!]

Bang, bang, bang!

As the Legalist Family Method cultivator, Ga Beop's punishment is pronounced, the numerous puppets begin to collapse in heaps.

Their power devices are completely destroyed, and the Integration stage general puppets have to spread barriers and use every last bit of their remaining power to block the enforcement of the laws.

And all of this happens about one shichen after the battle has begun.

Kugugugugu!

Even the general puppets that resist the law for a while by spreading a light curtain ultimately have their light curtain dismantled and collapse when their stored electricity runs dry.

Seeing that sight, Ha-eun and Makli Hyun-ah, Ahn Geum, and all the cultivators all shout in unison.

"We won!!"

"Haha, you puppet bastards!"

Patstststs!

Makli Hyun-ah's Confucian Family Method is released, and the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy returns.

Makli Hyun-ah summons back and gathers up the demon beasts he scattered in the Eight Directions, and he clicks his tongue.

"The Hundred Schools cultivation system... When their powers overlap, it has an enormous synergistic effect. They are such incredible systems, but...why is it that in the Purple Gold Realm they cannot spread their influence like that?"

At Makli Hyun-ah's question, Makli Hweol answers.

"Ultimately, it is because of the Heart Tribe. No matter how many Hundred Schools cultivators gather, cover each other's strengths and weaknesses, and stack their might...it does not work well on the Heart Tribe."

"Mm, why is that?"

"Hoho...that is because the Heart Tribe's power lies in resistance. From the beginning, they are ones specialized in smashing existing laws with their own laws. Compared to the solid Immortal Cultivation system that the Immortal Family Method possesses, the Hundred Schools cultivation system has aspects that are a bit weaker, so it cannot help but be weak to the Heart Tribe. You can see the Heart Tribe's greatest characteristic as chaos. No matter what cultivation system you use to establish order, the Heart Tribe's power, close to primordial chaos, becomes difficult to block."

"Heok."

Makli Hyun-ah clicks his tongue and asks.

"Then do people like the Heart Tribe have no incompatibility at all?"

"That is not necessarily so. Their individuality among themselves is so strong that they become each other's incompatibility as well... Above all, the puppets you just faced are incarnations of pure violence and destruction, so if you bring a whole lot of puppets and do human-wave tactics and a firepower battle, even the Heart Tribe can only become exhausted and die."

"Huh, then in the end, aside from external things like puppets, does that mean no other system itself can hold a compatibility advantage over the Heart Tribe?"

"That is not necessarily so. For example, the Buddhist Family Method that explores the original nature of the heart...and the Shaman Family Method that draw on the power of higher beings are on the favorable side against the Heart Tribe."

"Ooooh...!"

Only then does Makli Hyun-ah let out a sigh of relief at the fact that there is a way to stand against those monster wretches called the Heart Tribe, or martial artists.

'That method I gained through strange powers and chaotic spirits in the Makli Clan library back then...the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Star Genesis?'

Recalling that the method belongs to a category of the Shaman Family Method that draws on the power of higher beings, Makli Hyun-ah feels a bit reassured.

"I hope I can learn the Shaman Family Method or the Buddhist Family Methods someday as well."

Makli Hyun-ah recalls the weakness of the Confucian Family Method.

The greatest weakness of the Confucian Family Method is bandits, meaning those called martial artists or the Heart Tribe.

If the Shaman Family Method shows good compatibility against those people...then his weakness can disappear.

'If my weakness disappears, I can live an even safer and more comfortable life!'

Makli Hyun-ah's goal is to inherit Ban Ta's seat, become a Sacred Master, and live in contentment while lounging around and eating without working!

To pacify the Purple Gold Realm, where rebellions break out all the time, he cannot have something like a weakness.

"Hoho...Daoist Makli Hyun-ah will surely be able to do it."

"Thank you for the compliment. By the way...when do we return?"

"Soon the Human Race Grand Alliance will prepare for a large-scale movement. Please do not worry. Ah, I can feel it. This aura of Taiji is clearly..."

It is when Makli Hweol and Makli Hyun-ah are chatting.

Kugugung!

On the battlefield that ended in victory, a single puppet drops down, and Ha-eun's face turns pale with shock.

Immediately after, the puppet thrusts its radiance sword toward Ha-eun.

Kwagwagwang!

The ground trembles.

The entire space shakes, and Ha-eun is flung away and vomits blood.

[A martial artist of Heart Dao Blooming, is it? To survive after taking my single strike, you have nearly reached the Esteemed One level.]

The puppet's strange voice echoes throughout Cold Yin Marsh.

[You cannot go anywhere. I do not permit it!]

Kiriririk!

From inside the puppet, an overwhelming barrier spell erupts and covers the entirety of Cold Yin Marsh.

The space inside Cold Yin Marsh and the space outside are cut off.

[I am the factory's marquis puppet, the Black Marquis. Remember it well. It is the name of the superior puppet that you will soon have to serve after 'evolving'.]

As if a Dragon Race cultivator was remodeled into a living puppet.

The Black Marquis reveals solemn dragon horns and dragon scales, radiates a half-human, half-dragon appearance, and oppresses everyone.

Makli Hyun-ah is terrified at the space being cut off, and Ahn Geum comes to where Makli Hyun-ah is and blocks the oppression pressing on him.

"Wh-What do we do? The space is cut off! The teleportation formation can't activate!"

Makli Hyun-ah stamps his feet and trembles.

However, Ahn Geum looks toward Ha-eun with a calm face.

"...Calm down. We can escape. Even a Star Shattering stage puppet still doesn't know everything about the Hundred Schools yet."

"What do you mean!? I'm saying the space is cut off!"

"Calm down. And look at Ha-eun."

Ahn Geum calms the terrified Makli Hyun-ah and quietly points toward Ha-eun, who has rolled away.

And Ha-eun, who has been knocked away, gets up from the spot while spitting blood.

His chest is caved in and both arms are broken, but Ha-eun is clearly alive!

Makli Hyun-ah feels puzzled.

Makli Hyun-ah knows that the skill of the person called Ha-eun is close to the Star Shattering stage, but what can he even do in that state?

He definitely heard that, before being deployed into the operation, a cultivator of another Hundred Schools system will take responsibility for their return, but Hyun-ah doesn't know the detailed principle because he dozed off a little since the explanation was boring, so he can't help but be terrified.

However, just then,

Ha-eun shouts, letting out a lion's roar with all his strength.

"Substitution!"

Kugugugugu!

The moment Ha-eun's lion's roar bursts out.

The surrounding area starts to turn pure white.

Only then does the marquis puppet notice the strange phenomenon and try to block it, but it is useless.

Kugwagwang!

Where the marquis puppet pours out attacks turns pitch-black, and the cultivators who are there begin to vanish directly into another dimension.

Ahn Geum smiles and explains.

"Yin-Yang Family Method! The biggest characteristic of the Yin-Yang Family Method is substitution, reversal, conversion, and unity. If we substitute the space of this Cold Yin Marsh with the space at the Human Race's base, we can escape well enough."

"H-How is something like that possible? The space is cut off."

"Even if space is cut off, there are things that are not cut off. For example, connection."

"Connection?"

"The Yin-Yang Family Method is based on dual cultivation. That is...it is performed by two or more people. In other words, with one lover positioned at the Human Race's base and the other lover positioned on this battlefield, the plan is to substitute space through connection once the battle ends. Then, no matter how a Star Shattering stage puppet cuts off space, the return will not be affected, and everyone can flee safely. And probably..."

Ahn Geum looks at the martial artist called Ha-eun and speaks.

"The person who is lovers with that Ha-eun is the main party of the Yin-Yang Family Method."

"I see!"

Only then does Makli Hyun-ah realize they can escape safely, and he feels relieved.

"As expected, the Hundred Schools system is amazing! Hahahaha! Hey, Black Marquis! Go eat taffy! Hahahaha, you stupid puppet-like..."

[TL/N: Go eat yeot (엿/korean taffy} has the meaning of 'get lost']

Makli Hyun-ah, in a greatly excited state, flips his middle finger toward the Black Marquis before space is fully substituted into the Human Race Grand Alliance headquarters.

It is that moment,

Clang!

Makli Hyun-ah's shadow instantly turns into black iron chains and coils around Makli Hyun-ah, and the people around Makli Hyun-ah all return to the Human Race's headquarters, but Makli Hyun-ah remains in that spot.

Paaatt!

Soon, the effect of the Yin-Yang Family Method disappears completely, and inside the area, only Makli Hyun-ah and the Black Marquis remain, facing each other.

With quick judgment, Makli Hyun-ah immediately begins to flatter the Black Marquis.

"It was with the meaning that you should eat sweet taffy and live long and in good health! Long live the Black Marquis, long live, long long live!"