The Terminally Ill Young Master of the Baek Clan-Chapter 433: The Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King (1)

Yi-gang glanced at his sword.

It was neitherShooting Star Fang nor White Fang, but a common blue steel sword.

It wasn’t an attack delivered with his full strength.

Yet, it was accurate to call it a single stroke from an Absolute Master

The strike, delivered in an instant, was swift and deadly.

If the opponent had been a merely excellent swordsman.

Even with defense through complete unification of mind and body, the blade could have ridden the other’s sword and sliced through their breastbone.

But Yu Su-rin blocked it.

Again, with a seemingly unimpressive practice sword technique.

There was no sign of shortness of breath or surprise on her face.

Rather, she wore a wry smile.

Yi-gang muttered without realizing it.

“…You’ve grown a lot.”

Yu Su-rin widened her eyes and then burst into a laugh.

“Junior Uncle hasn’t changed, huh.”

Though she was similar in age, Yu Su-rin had once definitely felt younger.

But there was no such impression now.

Still in her vibrant twenties, she now carried an air matured by sufficient worldly suffering.

She came up to Yi-gang and pretended to measure their heights.

There was clearly no change in height; Yi-gang was still about a head taller.

“Have I really aged more?”

“Seems so.”

“You’ve become similar to Junior Uncle Dam Hyun…”

Dam Hyun snorted and smiled.

“You’ve gotten quite cheeky in the meantime, Yu Su-rin.”

There was an awkwardness between Dam Hyun and Yu Su-rin.

Yu Su-rin once dreamed of becoming an Honor Flower disciple.

Dam Hyun held the status of the Honor Flower disciple that Yu Su-rin was unable to receive, and that Honor Flower disciple had stabbed Yu Su-rin’s father, Yu Jung-shin.

But in this world now, such past matters didn’t hold importance.

Swoosh.

Someone else appeared beside them.

This time Yi-gang did not immediately swing his sword either.

Because the newcomer was also someone familiar.

“Jun Myung.”

The simple, sometimes foolish junior nibling.

Yi-gang greeted him warmly, but Jun Myung silently performed a fist to palm salute.

Had Jun Myung too become a more serious person with the passage of time?

Even so, he remained particularly taciturn.

Yi-gang’s expression hardened.

Because he spotted a large scar on Jun Myung’s neck.

A white scar ran horizontally across his adam’s apple.

An injury of that extent made it remarkable that he’d survived.

“Junior Jun Myung lost his voice.”

“His throat was cut; it’s lucky he at least survived.”

Yu Su-rin spoke calmly.

Jun Myung smiled and mouthed his meaning.

‘Good to see you, Junior Uncle.’

What could Yi-gang say?

How pitiful. You’ve suffered. I’m sorry.

Such words would scatter into the air like wind.

“…Where is Son Hee-il?”

Yi-gang asked Yu Su-rin about the Great Senior Brother who used to travel with them.

Fortunately Yu Su-rin answered with a smile.

“He’s coming. He has a fragment of the Heavenly Demon’s soul.”

The Heavenly Demon token vibrated faintly.

The last remaining soul fragment, they had heard the third generation disciples were searching for it.

“That’s a relief.”

“The reason we arrived first is because of your private school’s party.”

Yu Su-rin pointed behind her with her right thumb.

“The Inescapable Net is already half completed. We need to break through quickly.”

Who would have thought the kid junior nibling who used to mess around in Azure Forest would have such a reliable face now.

“Follow us.”

Feeling the weight of time, Yi-gang followed Yu Su-rin.

Yu Su-rin and Jun Myung said they had set out from Azure Forest.

When asked how, they said Yu Jung-shin had rushed in while they were cutting down Evil Cult followers on the outskirts of Mount Heng.

“He had said, Go at once! Your Junior Uncles are about to be killed!”.

“That’s very Master-like.”

“So we ran over. As you’ve experienced, the Evil Cult’s Inescapable Net uses ignorant commoners. It’s hard to break out from the inside, but easier to get in from the outside.”

Yu Su-rin said she spotted his location from the signal flare.

How was that possible? The Honor Flower disciples had experienced these Inescapable Nets enough to be sick of them.

“All the Honor Flower disciples outside the Central Plains returned to the forest. I never imagined there were that many Honor Flower disciples.”

Azure Forest, even counting all of the ones in the Central Plains, the number of Honor Flower disciples was very small.

But if you include those outside the Central Plains, that wasn’t the case.

Those who hadn’t formally joined Azure Forest were disciples chosen by the the outland Honor Flower disciples themselves.

Just as Evil Cult had built its base in the outlands, Azure Forest had done the same.

“But half of those Honor Flower disciples died. The Evil Cult spared no means…”

And Azure Forest was eventually besieged by Evil Cult.

It was like a battlefield.

“The Cardinals took action themselves. The one called Heuk-am.”

Heuk-am (Darkness).

The blade of the Evil Cult.

“Thirty first-generation disciples were killed. If the Forest Lord hadn’t intervened, they wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

Yi-gang inwardly understood.

Considering Mang-hon at Potala Palace, the Cardinals of the Evil Cult must be that powerful.

In truth, it was hard to understand how Azure Forest had endured until now.

“Exactly how is communication via the comet a problem?”

“Because of the Heavenly Realm’s intervention.”

Yu Su-rin spoke of the Heavenly Realm as if it were the imperial forces.

“Master’s communication with the scattered Honor Flower disciples through the comet was thanks to the Lord of the Southern Dipper”

The Southern Constellation Army.

He oversees the Southern Dipper Six Stars and is the Heavenly god who governs the living.

“But after the skyway opened, the Lord of the Big Dipper began to intervene. The Lord of the Big Dipper and a third of the Heavenly Realm support Evil Cult’s intentions.”

It was astounding.

“Are you saying the Heavenly Realm sides with the Evil Cult?”

“One third do. Another third want to stop Evil Cult’s moves, and the remaining third adopt an indifferent attitude.”

Azure Forest is, after all, a Taoist Sect.

Being a Taoist Sect means holding respect for the Heavenly Realm and immortals.

A Honor Flower disciple’s psychokinetic power is essentially power borrowed from those immortals.

So there are immortals within the Heavenly Realm who support Evil Cult?

“…I once defeated a Branch Leader of Evil Cult.”

“A Branch Leader? Where?”

“It was a man named Jong Eui-ji in Xi’an. He seemed about to Power Borrowing. I cut him down before that happened.”

“Jong Eui-ji borrows the power of the Wa deity, Susanoo. Well done. If he’d gone beyond Power Borrowing to invoke a descent…”

Yi-gang’s eyes twitched.

It wasn’t only because of the talk of the Wa deity, Susanoo-no-Mikoto. One word struck him sharply.

“Descent?”

“Yes, that sometimes happens.”

“Can a descent really become that easy?”

At Potala Palace, the Dalai Lama and many reincarnates gave their lives and souls to attempt a descent.

Such tremendous cost and ritual were required to attempt the Buddha, Śākyamuni’s descent.

Even accounting for the gulf between Śākyamuni and a Wa deity, how could that be possible?

“After the skyway opened, the karmic burden for that considerably lessened. A descent is no longer impossible.”

“You keep saying skyway, exactly what do you mean?”

Yu Su-rin pointed upward with a finger as she ran.

The sky was still violet.

“Literally. The Heavenly and Nether Realms were clearly separated from our mortal realm. But the Evil Cult tore down that barrier.”

The barrier of the Crouching Dragon Basin.

By sacrificing the seventy thousand souls who died there, the Evil Cult opened the skyway.

“The talented become immortals and can borrow power from such beings, enabling descents or even spirit-invocations. The practitioner who invokes a descent will surely die, but it’s quite possible now.”

Then it was natural that an Evil Cult Branch Leader would be so dangerous.

More dangerous than his own might would be the being he could invoke.

「If I had a body, I could mimic such a thing… what a pity.」

Possession and spirit-invocation were originally things only Yi-gang could do.

But Yi-gang could not imitate a descent.

The Heavenly Demon and Zhang Sanfeng were also bodiless entities.

The Heavenly Demon was mere dead spirit, and Zhang Sanfeng lingered on earth as a spirit, not an immortal.

“That said, one shouldn’t take a descent lightly. It’s undeniably a burden.”

Yi-gang suddenly thought.

“Then… the Honor Flower disciples too.”

“Right. We can also use the means they use.”

He understood how Azure Forest had withstood the Evil Cult’s attacks until now.

They too had borrowed the power of transcendent beings.

“Each Inescapable Net always has at least one Branch Leader level enemy or higher embedded in it. This one will be no different. Even Master said he didn’t know who it was…”

It was Dam Hyun who interjected.

He pointed out something Yi-gang hadn’t noticed.

“Master…?”

The person Yu Su-rin referred to was surely Yu Jung-shin.

But Yu Su-rin was a Taoist Flower disciple…

“Yes, that’s right.”

She slightly opened the black cloak that hid her body.

Four flowers were embroidered on the collar of the clothes beneath.

They were not the red that signified a Taoist Flower disciple.

“You don’t mean to say…”

“I’ve become an Honor Flower disciple too.”

The flowers were a vivid purple.

At that moment, Jun Myung, who had gone ahead, returned.

He signaled something with hand signs.

The meaning was that there were enemies ahead.

“This is a chokepoint we can’t avoid.”

Yu Su-rin murmured quietly.

Azure Forest too seemed to have grown accustomed to the Evil Cult’s Inescapable Netts.

Under Yu Su-rin and Jun Myung’s guidance, the party hadn’t once encountered enemies.

Clack-clack-clack—

Such sounds came from a walnut-sized wooden box in Jun Myung’s hand.

It seemed to be a special tool.

“Senior Brother Son seems to be on the other side as well…”

Ha-jun fell off the top of the tree he’d climbed for reconnaissance.

“There appear to be roughly a dozen ahead.”

It was not a very large number.

It didn’t seem like there were any commoners mixed in like before.

Yu Su-rin muttered in astonishment at that description.

“You can see that from here?”

It’s quite far to where the enemies are.

Besides, it was the predawn before sunrise. It was a distance not visible to the naked eye.

“I can see well.”

Ha-jun tapped the corner of his eye.

The veins around his eyes had already darkened.

Yu Su-rin exclaimed.

“You manipulate demonic energy freely. Were there any other notable features about them? Weapons, charms, that sort of thing?”

She wanted to identify who was orchestrating the Inescapable Nett.

Ha-jun explained.

“He was carrying… something like a stone pagoda.”

“A stone pagoda?”

“That’s the only way I can describe it.”

A person who carries a stone pagoda around.

Yu Su-rin’s face went pale.

“The Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King… a subordinate of Heuk-am who uses the power of the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King. Why would he…”

“Is he strong?”

“Yes.”

Yi-gang silently prepared his sword.

If the fight couldn’t be avoided, they’d have to face it.

Even if their identities were revealed, there was no choice.

Perhaps sensing Yi-gang’s thoughts,

Yu Su-rin raised a hand to stop him.

“I’ll handle it for now.”

She carried a long cylinder on her back.

She opened it and took something in her hand. Its identity was unmistakable.

“…A lotus?”

It wasn’t a well-used sword but a dried lotus, what was she thinking?

“I’ve become able to use psychokinesis too.”

No sooner had she spoken than the dried lotus began to regain life on its own.

The tightly closed bud snapped open, revealing pink inner petals.

Yi-gang thought he could tell whose power Yu Su-rin was borrowing.

The female immortal who wielded a lotus to slay fiends.

It was He Xian Gu, an ally of sword-immortal Yeo Dong-bin and one of the Eight Immortals.

“Junior Uncle, just watch.”

She said that confidently, and the lotus petals rose as if alive.