WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 184
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Countless Message Talismans crisscrossed the sky above the main compound.
Between the halls, scraps of paper flew past one another like flocks of birds, making the emergency painfully clear.
The sight felt familiar.
Ise turned away from Azure Dragon Hall.
Standing where he was, he swiftly sent out several Message Talismans.
They instructed the others to gather at the entrance to the main compound instead of meeting him at Azure Dragon Hall.
The last talisman flew over the compound walls and out of the Great Exorcist Order.
No sooner had the talismans scattered than two great cultivators descended from the sky.
Haeil and Kang I-tae.
Ise gave them a quick silent bow, then asked, “You must be busy. Why didn't you send a message?”
“The explanation is long.”
Skipping any greeting, Haeil went straight to the point.
“Bi Hyeongrang is attempting a breakthrough. And he is making a grand spectacle of it at Gwisu Temple.”
“Yes. I felt it.”
Even now, demonic qi was being drawn toward Gwisu Temple.
“But it is happening too quickly. How is this possible? The encirclement wasn't even breached.”
“There is only one way.”
Haeil's voice was calm.
Yet Ise could hear the contempt and disgust within it.
“Kill every sect disciple of Cheoryang Thunder Gate and absorb their demonic qi.”
Ise's brow furrowed.
Cheoryang Thunder Gate was no roadside tavern.
It was a major sect with thousands of disciples.
He had slaughtered thousands of demonic cultivators at once, even the underlings who had served him for over a century, then devoured them all?
Setting aside whether such a thing was possible, why would he do it?
“He is more than capable of that. From the beginning, he has regarded every living thing besides himself as crawling insects.”
Haeil cut through Ise's thoughts as though he had read them.
“The Zheng Empire will act at once as well. Those fools will only think Bi Hyeongrang is advancing into the Nascent Soul Realm a little early. They will strike and withdraw repeatedly to buy us time.”
Ise forced his mind to work, trying to interpret the Order Lord's words.
The Zheng Empire's judgment was perfectly reasonable.
Ordinarily, even if he devoured every disciple and reached the Nascent Soul Realm, what could a man without a faction accomplish alone in the Three Peninsula Kingdoms?
They would take it for an ordinary breakthrough.
Once Bi Hyeongrang reached the Nascent Soul Realm, the Great Exorcist Order would have gone from having a blade at its throat to laying its head on the chopping block.
The Zheng Empire must be envisioning such a rosy future.
“But Bi Hyeongrang never intended to confront us in the first place.”
“What do you mean...?”
“Once one reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, one can tear through space and travel.”
Ise recalled the times Haeil had appeared from thin air.
The divine soul of a Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator could traverse space.
“And after killing thousands of demonic cultivators, an evil spirit worthy of being called a calamity must be forming at Gwisu Temple by now.”
“You mean...”
“Bi Hyeongrang intends to deceive the Zheng Empire, scatter our forces, create an evil spirit to buy time, then disappear. Only the Zheng Empire will be left like a dog chasing chickens.”
Ise was speechless for a moment.
From the beginning, his sect had been nothing but a tool for his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm.
The countless demonic cultivators gathered under his name. Even the followers who had served him for over a century.
Even the rise and fall of the Great Exorcist Order and the Zheng Empire's cultivation world meant nothing to him.
Everything was merely a means to advance his realm.
Once he broke through and vanished without a trace, he would have no reason to care about the situation on the Eastern Continent.
Only the Great Exorcist Order had considered him an enemy that had to be killed.
Once Bi Hyeongrang became a Nascent Soul Realm great demonic cultivator, no one on the continent would be able to stop him wherever he went.
Perhaps his very existence would disappear like a shadow.
Then, wherever he settled, he would begin plotting anew to reach the Spirit Transformation Realm.
Ise understood it in his head.
But why go this far?
If he had planned to flee alone anyway, he could have crossed over when he had been driven into the wilderness decades ago.
Even demonic cultivators did not abandon those who had sworn loyalty to them.
Even demonic sects, infamous for their cruelty in the cultivation world, tried to protect their own disciples somehow.
Ise could neither understand that choice nor wanted to.
But this was not the time to dwell on personal feelings.
“Do not worry about the evil spirit. My younger sister is the best on the continent when it comes to spirit arts.”
Haeil looked directly at Ise.
“I will leave Bi Hyeongrang to you.”
“Yes, Order Lord.”
“The instant he completes his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm, take his life before he can adapt to his new realm.”
“I will.”
Strength entered Ise's voice, but Haeil immediately corrected him.
“No. You do not have to. If it proves impractical, let him go. If Bi Hyeongrang vanishes, join me. We will begin an all-out war with the Zheng Empire.”
It meant the long, tiresome struggle for hegemony over the Eastern Continent would finally end.
Establishing order on the Eastern Continent took priority over Bi Hyeongrang's escape.
Ise did not answer.
Realizing that silence was a refusal, Haeil added quietly, “Remember this. Time is on your side. Fighting on unfavorable ground is a choice only a mediocre commander would make.”
* * *
The order from the leadership was simple and clear.
All Azure Dragon Hall members and Foundation Establishment Realm Shamans were to go to Gwisu Temple.
All remaining forces were to head for the border of the Great Exorcist Order's territory.
Among the Azure Dragon Hall members gathered at the rendezvous point, Seolryeong raised a hand.
“I've been assigned to the Foundation Establishment Realm Shaman group, Hall Master.”
“All right.”
Ise had heard that the Shamans had trained collectively under Haewol, the Hall Master of Vine Serpent Hall, for several years.
The leadership must have foreseen and prepared for this moment.
“Seolryeong, join Hall Master Haewol. The rest of you, follow me.”
“Yes.”
Ise led the Azure Dragon Hall members into the sky.
Behind Ise, who flew as swiftly as the wind, the Azure Dragon Hall members gritted their teeth and followed.
When they reached the skies near Gwisu Temple shortly afterward, they saw the disorderly Great Exorcist Order disciples below.
The Vine Serpent Hall Shamans who had sealed off the area outside Gwisu Temple's warding barrier were building an enormous altar several dozen li in diameter.
Flags and formation stones formed a circle along the ridges of the mountain range, with Gwisu Temple at its center.
Inside it was hell.
Thousands of vengeful resentments had been released at once into land already counted among the Extreme Yin Demon Grounds.
Struggling and screaming, the resentments tangled together one by one, transforming into an evil spirit as its body grew.
Its shape resembled the War-Scourge Anomaly.
Hundreds of faces clung to a single body, each screaming differently.
But its demonic qi had long surpassed the Foundation Establishment Realm.
A Core Formation Realm evil spirit, one that was still growing larger on vengeful resentment with every passing moment.
Even a Foundation Establishment Realm evil spirit could erase an entire metropolis or fortress city.
If they left that thing alone, the whole Three Peninsula Kingdoms would surely be devoured by evil spirits.
“Hall Master Ise, you're here?”
Haewol, directing the Shamans at the center of the altar, raised a hand.
Urgency showed on Haewol's stiff face.
“Look up there.”
The sky over the center of Gwisu Temple had split apart.
Countless demons poured from within.
Bi Hyeongrang was a lightning spell cultivator, a blood spell cultivator, an evil-spirit practitioner, and a demon beast tamer.
The most dangerous of his treasure artifacts was a demon storage artifact called the Grand Burial Ghost Prison.
It gaped open like a maw and disgorged demons like the Bottomless Abyss.
Ise nodded and turned to his hall members.
“Azure Dragon Hall, prepare for battle.”
When Shin Hyeon acknowledged the command, the formation took shape.
Drawing Yeowol, Ise added, “There will be no reinforcements. You must stop all of them yourselves.”
Gulp.
Eunbo looked utterly unable to understand why this had happened the moment they arrived on the Eastern Continent, but no one could explain it.
There were only seven of them.
The number of demons was far too great for seven Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators to handle.
“You must stop them.”
Yet the urgency of the situation left them no time even to fear.
Demons began pouring from the black fissure.
Qi Condensation Realm and Foundation Establishment Realm demons surged out like a waterfall through opened floodgates.
There were too many to count.
Every member of Azure Dragon Hall steeled their resolve like soldiers making a last stand.
Ise stepped away from them and walked forward.
The first wave of demons charged with their maws open.
Yeowol swung once.
Primordial qi spread out like the ribs of a fan, turning the leading demons into bloody pulp.
Ise walked against the current, trampling through the pools of blood, flesh, and lingering demonic qi.
Evil spirits screamed in the sky.
Demons rushed across the ground.
Lightning crashed down from above.
Utter chaos.
Yet even amid a scene like the cries of hell itself, his stride remained unhurried.
The blind demons that charged him without end could not even properly swing a limb before bursting apart with every step Ise took.
The flow of demons split apart, and even those that had rampaged without reason recoiled in terror.
Evil spirits that found prey howled and targeted his soul, but the power of the Dark Heaven Secret Realm merged with his Golden Core drove them back at once.
At some point, neither demons nor evil spirits charged him any longer.
The flow had ended.
Ise walked on without looking back.
Step. Step.
As though he were taking a stroll.
All the way to the central main hall of Gwisu Temple, to the leader's chamber where his master should have sat.
The chamber's ceiling had been completely blown away, revealing the sky overhead. Bi Hyeongrang sat in the seat of honor.
Heavenly tribulation fell relentlessly upon his head.
The entire sky was pressed beneath a black vortex, and bolts of lightning as thick as pillars repeatedly struck down upon the seat at its center.
Whenever a bolt fell, debris from the main hall flew up before scattering as ash.
It was heaven's punishment, forbidding anyone even to approach.
Yet within that immeasurable lightning qi, Bi Hyeongrang remained calm.
He looked less like he was being struck by lightning than accepting it.
Ise stopped at the threshold and looked at him.
He had the appearance of a scholar whose age was impossible to judge.
A flawless face, a neatly fastened scholar's robe.
Even amid the flashes of lightning, he looked delicate, without a trace of a great demonic cultivator's dignity, as though the scent of ink lingered around him.
He looked exactly as Ise remembered.
At last, he had reached this place and faced his enemy.
An intruder had approached while he underwent the heavenly tribulation. It should have been a crisis, yet his expression was calm, as though he had foreseen everything.
“You came.”
Rather than answer, Ise poured the three medicinal pellets he had prepared into his mouth.
Bi Hyeongrang smiled faintly as Ise raised his momentum.
“I thought you would come crawling in with the dokkaebi clan about ten years ago... Yet you still defy my expectations to the very end, young Ise.”
“Don't call my name like we're close. It makes me want to tear that mouth apart.”
“I gave you that name. It would be a shame if I could not call you by it.”
“...”
“I never expected the Great Exorcist Order, which had moved in the palm of my hand all this time, to force this choice upon me... Is it because of you?”
Ise's gaze did not waver from him.
Bi Hyeongrang chuckled and raised a hand.
“Sit. It will be a tedious wait. Let us at least talk.”
Lightning still fell upon his crown.
It was hardly a fitting sight above the head of someone inviting another to chat.
“Did you deliberately drag things out because of the spirit artifact in your hand?”
Ise still did not answer.
He merely quietly judged the lightning's intensity.
There were two choices.
Attack him during the heavenly tribulation, interfere with the tribulation-crossing ritual, and keep him at the Core Formation Realm.
Or wait for the vulnerable period immediately after he entered the Nascent Soul Realm, then kill him.
Which was the correct choice?
Which would certainly cut off his breath?
“Let us do this. Answer my questions, and I will answer what you wish to know. You must have many questions.”
Ise chose the latter.
For some reason, the heavenly tribulation had no effect on him at all.
But every strike would be fatal to Ise.
That was Bi Hyeongrang's battlefield, and Ise's killing ground.
“Yes.”
Bi Hyeongrang nodded with interest. Ise immediately asked, “Why did you let me live until now? If you had wanted, you could have killed me somehow.”
“Because you must not die in the Lower Realm.”
“Explain further.”
“Well. It would be better if you did not hear it.”
He changed the subject. Ise's brow twitched.
“Why did you not bring the dokkaebi clan? Did they run away with their tails between their legs?”
“I alone am enough.”
“Oh. Is that what you believe?”
“Are you an entity manifested from the Upper Realm?”
Bi Hyeongrang narrowed his eyes and gave a sinister smile.
Then, rather than answer, he raised his hand.
“Shall we stop here?”
“Truly petty, like a demonic cultivator. You still owe me one question.”
“I will make payment for your answer by sparing your life. The scales of value are roughly even.”
They had exchanged only a few words, yet Bi Hyeongrang's expression changed as though he had already lost interest.
At that moment, the lightning tearing through the sky condensed and was drawn into his palm like water.
The heavenly tribulation stopped.
Ise sensed the change taking place in Bi Hyeongrang's body.
The Golden Core he had been nurturing shattered, and in its place was born a Nascent Soul, a child-shaped soul condensed from primordial qi.
The powerful divine soul of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator hummed as it pressed down on everything around it.
Ise's hand moved reflexively.
The Wind-Gold Submerging Threads he had laid in the air beforehand wrapped around Bi Hyeongrang's entire body in an instant.
His fastest move, unleashed as if it had been waiting.
But the moment the spell arts touched Bi Hyeongrang's body, they vanished without a trace amid flashing lightning qi.
There had been no warning.
In that brief instant, he had deployed a defensive spell art.
...There is no backlash.
When Ise had broken through into the Core Formation Realm, he had been unable even to hold himself upright.
But Bi Hyeongrang showed none of the backlash that should have followed crossing a major realm boundary.
He moved his body and deployed spell arts as if he were accustomed to it.
“It was enjoyable, if only for a moment.”
Bi Hyeongrang spoke as he rose from his seat.
His tone was like a farewell offered to an old friend.
He intended to withdraw without resistance.
Logically, letting him go was the correct choice.
Haeil had sent Ise here because they expected Bi Hyeongrang to suffer backlash immediately after breaking through into the Nascent Soul Realm.
With that premise gone, there was no chance of victory.
Haeil must have calculated as much, and Bi Hyeongrang must have done the same.
If he disappeared now, only the Zheng Empire's cultivation world would be left like a dog chasing chickens.
Neither Bi Hyeongrang nor the Great Exorcist Order would suffer much loss.
It was the point where the reason and judgment of two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators aligned, leaving no room for another variable.
But now.
“Bi Hyeongrang.”
Ise made a choice beyond the reason and judgment of two Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.
“Where do you think you're running?”
And that choice began to act as the variable.
As Bi Hyeongrang tore open space, his wrist burst apart under a Wind Blade that struck before he could react.
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