Chapter 37 - The Second-Rate Warrior Facing a Legend (2)

["Taiyi Sect? Was there such a sect?"]

["You know the one. The sect that spread lies to get into the 108 Peaks."]

["Ah, the Taiyi Sword Emperor. Wow. I wonder if I can learn a move or two from the descendant of our Taiyi Sword Emperor?"]

["Be careful. There is a legend that no one who stood against the Taiyi Sword Emperor made it out alive."]

The ability to remember everything also affected my dreams.

The memories of the past passed down so vividly even in my dreams made me realize I was dreaming, and on most of those days, I felt rather unpleasant all day.

Still, this time around, I could not blame this memory of mine, because upon realizing in my dream that I had been sucked into the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Extinguishing Array, I was quickly able to come to my senses.

"... Damn it."

Thick fog obscured my vision in every direction.

"S-Save me!"

"Somebody help me!"

"Is anybody there!"

In a place where the boundaries of time and space had vanished, screams of indistinguishable distance rang in my ears.

They were likely the screams of the people who had entered the Soul-Extinguishing Array to find a way through.

Among the various voices I heard, none sounded like they belonged to a group.

Hundreds of people had entered the array, but they were all isolated in different locations.

"Did the twenty thousand paths of the array completely isolate everyone from each other?"

This was the reason why the array masters of the Mount Mao Sect had absolutely refused to enter despite having grasped the array's structure.

I tried to enhance my vision, but my Dantian was completely empty.

"Have I lost my mind, forgetting that I fired the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm?"

It had happened so unexpectedly that even my absolute memory could not be utilized.

"He's a truly terrifying bastard."

Considering that he had quickly overcome the Destruction Form even in my past life, it was understandable, but brushing off the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm was something I couldn't easily believe even after seeing it with my own eyes.

"Even so, to throw me into the Soul-Extinguishing Array... he was an insidious bastard even from a young age."

In that brief moment, he realized the destructive power of the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm and, thinking I would be a hindrance to his plans, shoved me into the Soul-Extinguishing Array.

Although he was an enemy, I had to admit that he had a frighteningly quick and sharp mind.

He used any means and methods necessary for his goals, possessed the martial prowess and influence to push them through, and established a grand cause without lingering on small sacrifices.

Perhaps it was because they were captivated by this powerful image that people followed him.

"Come to think of it, maybe he's even more dangerous than the Demonic Cult."

Until now, I had thought my goal was simply to protect the Taiyi Sect under the influence of the Murim Alliance.

However, even that would be meaningless if the people controlling the Murim Alliance ultimately pushed us into hell.

'Perhaps, I might have to fight Yong So-ah.'

No, the moment to fight him would surely come. Just thinking about how he threw me into the Soul-Extinguishing Array made me feel like my anger wouldn't be satisfied even if I tore off all of his limbs.

But how was I, who had only learned the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique, supposed to face a monster who could brush off even the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm? The anger that had suddenly flared up like a wildfire subsided.

"My life is just as blind as this Soul-Extinguishing Array."

Anyway, the important thing was that I had to get out of the Soul-Extinguishing Array.

If I couldn't escape from here, my 60 years' worth of internal energy would be rendered meaningless, and I wouldn't even get the chance to take revenge on Yong So-ah.

As soon as I sat down and circulated my qi, I felt my internal energy replenishing to some extent.

However, in that brief moment of closing my eyes, the array had taken on a completely different landscape.

The fog in all directions vanished, and now only pitch-black darkness blocked my way.

I could no longer hear the screams of the people either.

Out of a total of two hundred and ten thousand paths, I had only memorized one hundred and eighty thousand.

If I had memorized just a little more, I could have figured out the formation of the paths, but because I had ended up entering the Soul-Extinguishing Array without such preparation, I had to fill in the remaining thirty thousand paths myself.

Furthermore, the problem was that I couldn't determine which path I was starting from.

To grasp the path, I needed to either be able to calculate the array or open my upper Dantian. But I was in a state where I could do neither.

"Looks like there'll be another thing I must hide from my junior brothers."

Since I couldn't immediately come up with a formula to calculate it, there was only one choice left to make.

I sat down in a lotus position again and began to regulate my breathing and internal energy.

Every time I completed a Lesser Heavenly Circulation, the energies of the spiritual elixirs dormant throughout my body began to awaken one by one.

The vigorous energy that burned away the impurities in my fine meridians and struck my acupoints moved from the Zhongji acupoint to the Zhiyang acupoint, passing through the Shendao acupoint as it asked where it needed to go next.

And I began to move my internal qi toward the Baihui acupoint.

Suddenly, I recalled the words I heard when I first learned my mental cultivation method.

["Jin Sowoon, never try to open your upper Dantian. Never."]

Even ordinary martial artists absolutely never touched their upper Dantian unless it was an extreme situation.

Let alone inside the Soul-Extinguishing Array—it was obviously an act of madness to anyone's eyes.

Even the bastards of the Demonic Cult, a group full of the world's biggest lunatics, would surely shake their heads in disbelief if they saw me right now.

'Still, I have to do it.'

It was a crazy act I could attempt only because the Jeongsimdan could prevent qi deviation at least once.

The internal qi that had been slowly waiting began to move once again.

It asked me repeatedly if this was the right place. If entering here was truly right.

I sent forth my intent, drawing up the internal qi all at once.

BOOM!

A tremendous impact sounded in my head, echoing like a thunderbolt.

BOOM!

While my entire body trembled numbly as if all my nerves were burning up, a flood of agony surged in, feeling as if my consciousness would snap.

COUGH!

My insides were turned into a mess by the shock vibrating through all my acupoints, and blood trickled from the corners of my mouth.

BOOM!

While the stifling sensation and agony of every single pore being pierced by needles continued incessantly, a bizarre sensation—I couldn't tell if it was pain or euphoria—was felt in my head.

RUUUSH.

A sound like flowing valley water echoed in my head, and the pain covering my entire body instantly transformed into a cool, refreshing sensation.

The refreshing sensation lingering in my head roamed throughout my entire body, beginning to pierce through blocked acupoints.

In the midst of this, this immense force sucked up all the remaining energies of the spiritual elixirs, bolstering its power even further.

'Stop, stop.'

Feeling good was one thing, but the internal qi began to grow so large that I felt a genuine fear that I might no longer be able to control my internal energy.

The energy, which struck even harder than when it pierced the Baihui acupoint, didn't know how to stop even at my intent; it roamed all over my body, widening paths as it pleased until it halted at a certain point.

'Don't tell me.'

As if displeased by my blocked middle Dantian, the internal energy violently rammed its head against it, trying to break a path through.

HURK!

Because it was forcefully trying to break through a blocked area, my internal organs twisted, and I was coughing up blood incessantly.

At this rate, qi deviation was unavoidable.

'Since I've already broken through the upper Dantian anyway, and I have the Jeongsimdan... it's all or nothing.'

BOOM!

As the flow of the internal energy and the direction of my intent aligned, the entity seemed even more excited as it began to push against the middle Dantian.

BOOM!

With a massive shock that jolted my entire body, the middle Dantian was eventually broken through as well, and the internal energy roamed freely throughout my body without anything left to obstruct it.

Only after the energy, which had spent a long time exploring every nook and cranny, settled into my Dantian was I able to open my eyes.

"Hooo..."

The internal energy I felt in my Dantian was roughly a hundred years' worth.

My upper and middle Dantians had been opened, and there were no blockages in the flow of my internal qi.

In an instant, I had reached the realm of Five Dragons Venerating the Sage.

What I could see with my eyes became sharper, and the sensations entering my five senses allowed me to objectify myself.

Simply put, I had reached the realm where experts could snatch objects flying from their blind spots without even looking.

"Heaven's luck has helped me."

It was a tremendously perilous gamble that I wouldn't have even thought to attempt without the Jeongsimdan.

Thanks to it, I managed to pierce through even my middle Dantian and absorb all the remaining energy of the spiritual elixirs in my body.

As my five senses opened up, I began to feel the flow of the array.

The paths formed according to the changes of the Eight Trigrams, the Twelve Earthly Branches, the Sexagenary Cycle, and the three hundred and sixty-five variations.

Feeling the flow, I compared it with the paths filled in my mind to figure out where I was and where I needed to go.

Before I knew it, the fog all around had turned red again. And I was certain.

"I can go."

I took a step in one direction.

The thick, red fog blocking my way instantly receded, opening a path.

It meant I had chosen the correct path.

Another step.

The red fog changed to yellow fog.

Proof that I had entered another path.

Another step.

Once again, the fog was pushed back with a whoosh, opening the way.

And then, I encountered darkness.

This path was one that the array masters of the Mount Mao Sect had not yet calculated.

Even so, I couldn't turn back or retreat like I would in a cave.

The path would restart, and I would eventually be caught by the same barrier in the end.

"I have to fill in the paths I couldn't complete."

At the same time as sending internal qi to my upper Dantian, I began to record the entire wall of the library in my mind with the paths of the Soul-Extinguishing Array.

After filling the entire endlessly high wall, a spot at the bottom left appeared where the thirty thousand paths needed to go.

A space that could not be filled with calculations in the first place.

I inferred the common rules of the other paths and began to memorize new ones.

It was undeniably an act of pure madness, but with an absurd feeling that it might somehow be possible, I didn't stop my task.

Perhaps it was thanks to breaking through the upper Dantian, but the missing numbers began to fill in along each subtle variation.

One path recorded another, and those two newly formed paths went on to record four more.

Empowered by the energy through the upper Dantian, my brain forcibly generated an overload, and my nose, with its thin mucous membranes, failed to contain the rushing blood, pouring it out in streams.

Right about the time I thought I could fill a small gourd just with my nosebleed.

"It's done."

Once the two hundred and twelve thousand four hundred paths were completed, the darkness before my eyes was no longer an object of fear.

STEP.

Suddenly, the world brightened, and I felt a radiant cluster of light.

As I took another step, the fog began to clear.

With every step I took, the fog thinned, and I started to see the corpses of those who had died around me.

And the moment I felt I had reached the end of the Soul-Extinguishing Array.

A white wall, whose end could not be seen, towered before my eyes.

I stepped on a part of that wall.

FWOOSH.

The white wall faded away, and I stepped back into the pitch-black cave.

"Haa, haa."

Before my eyes, ice hanging like stalactites reflected a blue hue, brightly illuminating the cave.

"Amitabha Holy Water..."

As soon as my tension released, I lost consciousness and collapsed.

* * *

When I regained consciousness, my whole body felt light, as if all my fatigue had vanished.

In addition, my Dantian was about half full with internal energy, which, considering I hadn't been practicing qi circulation, let me know that the natural speed of qi accumulation had become much faster after opening my upper and middle Dantians.

"If anyone saw this, they'd think a bloodbath took place."

My blue martial robes were stained and soaked with the blood I had coughed up and the nosebleeds I had poured out.

"Well, there's no one here to see it anyway."

There was no one inside the cave.

Hundreds of people had walked into the Soul-Extinguishing Array on their own, but it meant I was the only one who had reached this place.

"Haha, so this was true."

The reason the battle for the Amitabha Holy Water became controversial wasn't just because five hundred people were sacrificed, but also because the Amitabha Holy Water was ultimately never found.

Thanks to that, some even claimed it was false information spread by Haomun to bring chaos to Jianghu.

"But I ended up seeing it with my own eyes like this in the end."

The Amitabha Holy Water, stretching down from the ceiling, was emitting light all on its own.

I quickly pulled an awl from my clothes, brought up a specially crafted canteen, and tapped the Amitabha Holy Water.

CRACK.

The Amitabha Holy Water cleanly snapped off and fell into the canteen, and the awl immediately began to freeze with a crackling sound, making me swiftly throw the awl away.

The yin energy of the Amitabha Holy Water was so strong that the palm holding the awl was already frozen solid.

When I drew upon my internal qi, my hand slowly thawed, and water dripped down.

It was truly a bizarre sight that would be hard to witness again in the mortal realm.

"By the way, the place where the Taiyi Sword Emperor is sealed must definitely be here as well."

My original goal had been to find traces of the Taiyi Sword Emperor.

After entering the cave, the series of events that unfolded only fanned my suspicions further.

"The Boundless Indestructible Soul-Extinguishing Array, which can never be broken and will never disappear."

Just what exactly did the world deploy an absolute array spanning thirty zhang to seal away?

["The masters of the sun decided to separate the Dark Heaven and the Ten Thousand Swords from the mortal realm."]

From the beginning, the Soul-Extinguishing Array was not something that could be undone with sheer internal energy.

Deploying an array that separated even the soul from the mortal realm meant that the target's influence was just that tremendous.

["Next to the tray of candles. A hell where heaven and earth meet. At its end, they sealed the Dark Heaven and the Ten Thousand Swords. And so, the world found peace."]

The legend of the Taiyi Sword Emperor was true, and the absolute array known as the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Extinguishing Array had been deployed to seal him away.

"It must definitely be here. The traces of my founding ancestor."

I stepped toward the Soul-Extinguishing Array on the opposite side of the path I had entered.

Now, just like walking down a familiar neighborhood alleyway, I wasn't afraid of the fog and darkness obscuring my surroundings at all.

With every step I took, the fog was pushed far away.

As if guiding my way, I once again faced the white wall through the parted fog.

As I squeezed through a part of the wall and pushed my body inside, a cavern filled entirely with pitch-black darkness appeared.

When I briefly closed my eyes, drew up my internal energy, and enhanced my vision, I saw two figures sitting at opposite ends of a space spanning ten zhang.

One figure was that of an old man with white hair.

The opposite figure was a middle-aged man with black hair and a beard.

Drawn by an unknown attraction, I approached the old man, and I saw densely packed characters written on the floor centering around him.

And at the very top of those characters were eight deeply engraved letters.

Ten Thousand Swords Under Heaven.

Taiyi Sword Emperor.

Something struck my gut and surged up uncontrollably.

It was the times of disgrace the ancestors of the Taiyi Sect had endured for the past five hundred years across my past and present lives, and the feelings of sorrow that had melted into that time.

The strength drained from the backs of my knees, and I fell to my knees.

I immediately prostrated myself and, without even having the time to wipe away my flowing tears, I spoke with a choked sob.

"Jin Sowoon, the eighteenth-generation disciple of the Taiyi Sect, greets you, Great Martial Ancestor."