Chapter 180: Five Skies (2)
Chapter 180: Five Skies (2)
City of Suzhou, Anhui Province.
Moonlight shone on Suzhou as darkness fell.
Shua—
In the middle of the night was the sound of trickling water.
It was late at night, but someone was dipping their hands in the water.
No, it wasn’t their hand.
Shua—
There was the sound of water once more, and someone slowly started walking across the water.
If someone was on the scene, they might have felt the freshness of summer lingering in the air.
A martial artist would have inhaled the wind, saying that it contained the lightness of life.
What about now?
The only one watching the scene was an old man, who laughed. He set down the bottle in his hand and said, “I’ve thought this before, but you’re a lucky fellow.”
The man walking across the water smiled. “You also have too much luck. It seems this is a drink at the lakeshore.”
The old man was the Buddhist Star. He glanced at the bottle in his hand and said, “Try a sip.”
“Liquor. I don’t know where from, but that seems to be rice wine.”
“Perhaps it’s not alcohol.” The Buddhist Star laughed, raising a hand to scratch at his head. “Let me have my fill. I have been living in Shaolin and pretending to be a virtuous person, eating raw rice and having a hard time.”
That said, he lightly tossed the bottle in his hand.
It arced through the air.
Still, not a single drop of alcohol spilled out.
Indeed, what amazing skill.
The swordsman standing on the water caught the bottle from across the lake.
The man inelegantly poured some of the alcohol into his mouth.
“Sour. It must not have been very expensive.”
“Haha, what money do I have? If you are thirsty, even the smell of it can satisfy you. Namo Amitabha.”
Did he respond to that?
The swordsman continued across the water, striding unlike earlier. He stopped some distance away.
A swordsman appeared in the moonlight.
Sleek and stubborn. Its form did not hide the irresistible and powerful force contained within.
What if they made clay swords and molded them into human form? The Buddhist Star smiled, “Can this be considered drinking together?”
There were still several meters between the swordsman and the shore.
The Buddhist Star shook his fist in mockery, “I can still reach you with the Great Arhat’s Fist. This distance is nothing.”
The swordsman standing on the water grabbed the sword hanging at his waist. “My Galaxy Meteor Sword would be one step faster.”
Unlike the man’s solemn face, the Buddhist Star responded lightly, “You want to fight, asshole?”
“It would be fun.”
“You’re still like this, Sword.”
The other man was the Sword Star.
In Murim, the Semi-Divine Beings were known as the ‘Two Stars One Demon’, or the ‘Twin Stars One Demon’.
Able to split a cliff with his sword, the Sword Star now appeared in Suzhou.
“I read your letter well.”
The Sword Star jumped off the water and sat by the Buddhist Star.
The Buddhist Star nodded stiffly. “I can’t believe they’re acting again…”
The swordsman swiped a finger across his sword.
Seeing this, the Buddhist Star said, “The swordsmen of Paektu and them have been enemies for a long time, right?”
“Irreconcilable enemies.”
That was what the Sword Star said. Enemies that could not exist under the same sky.
“The Cult of the Inverted Sky.”
A long time ago, the founder of the Changbai Sword Sect of Mount Paektu had lost his life to the Inverted Sky. Since then, there had been a large chasm between the Inverted Sky and the Changbai Sword Sect.
“Hmm, I heard there was something a long time ago, but how did it happen…”
The Buddhist Star spoke as if he was frustrated, but the Sword Star cut him off.
“Do not pretend not to understand, the Shaolin also had a relationship with them.”
The Buddhist Star smiled bitterly. “Because they chose the Unorthodox Path. Isn’t it because of the name ‘Inverted Sky’?”
A long time ago…
At the dawn of the Ancient Era, there were five outstanding masters called the ‘Five Skies Beyond the Heavens’ (天外五天).
The Buddhist Sky, who had inherited the dharma of the Buddha.
The Sky Demon, who said that the demons could afford to walk above the Heavens. [1]
The Spear Sky, who aimed to capture all the martial arts of the world in a single spear.
The Sword Sky, who was going to show Heaven in a single sword.
And the Soul Sky, who would reach the Heavens with the force of a human soul.
They regarded each other as competitors, but yet were comrades walking the same path, so they were specially connected.
“That relationship changed once the Soul Sky began to devour others, no longer embracing the soul of a human.”
At that time, it was the Sword Sky who stopped the Soul Sky. But the Soul Sky still had connections with the rest of the Five Skies Beyond the Heavens and sought the Spear Sky for help, sharing his difficulties. However, the Spear Sky had refused the Soul Sky’s requests.
It was because he had never made friends that the Soul Sky began walking upon the Unorthodox Path. He was so angry that he devoured the souls around him to form the perfect, embittered heart. That was the beginning of the Inverted Sky.
“The Sword Sky died trying to stop him, and the other Five Skies Beyond the Heavens joined forces to finally stop the Soul Sky.”
That was a Murim legend forgotten by all.
The Sword Star smiled bitterly, “And yet his descendants appear in this world again…”
“Everyone has forgotten, but it is time for the Five Skies Beyond the Heavens to stop them once again.”
The Sword Star nodded at the Buddhist Star’s words. “Is it a coincidence that the descendants of the Sky Demon are at war with them?”
The Buddhist Star pressed his hands together. “The Heaven’s net casts wide. Though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through…”
He did not forget to add a ‘Namo Amitabha’ at the end.
“The power of the Spear Sky has been broken. But even if that power is gone, there are still the descendants of the Sky Demon. We must work with them to stop the descendants of the Soul Sky.”
The Buddhist Star chuckled and looked up at the night sky. “Do you really think that the bloodline of the Spear Sky are broken?”
The Sword Star was startled. “Does the line of the Spear Sky still continue?”
The Buddhist Star tilted his head and replied, “Well, I don’t know.”
However, as the Buddhist Star stared up at the night sky, it seemed like at least two stars shone brighter, seemingly to overlap.
“There is no one… Even the young children of Murim know the story of the Spear Master Sect’s destruction.”
The Buddhist Star laughed at these brutal words.
“Everything will be revealed with time.”
Staring at those two almost overlapping stars, he muttered to himself, The Heaven’s net casts wide. Though its meshes are coarse, nothing slips through…
***
It was a few days before the battle in Chongqing.
Woon-seong reached for his spear.
He swung.
Cut, stab, block.
He reached out with a hand.
Swing with your fist, stab with your finger, block with a palm.
It was not just his spear and hand.
Woon-seong’s body moved about, like it was being thrown through a storm.
He purposefully did not use the Divine Flame.
The Divine Flame could almost be considered an external power.
Woon-seong was limiting his power to deal with enemies with nothing but martial arts.
And he did not feel a great crisis even without using his Divine Flame.
No, these ordinary people could not dare to even bring Woon-seong to a crisis.
Hmm.
Both hands swept through the enemy without rest, his feet swirling the dust.
Various skills and techniques poured from Woon-seong’s mind and body.
Each time, the number of corpses would dramatically increase.
One enemy would fall to a single technique.
One move, one kill.
He did not need a second attack.
What was even more surprising was that Woon-seong did not repeat the same skill or technique once as he wiped out his enemies.
Even if he technically used the same skill, there would be a subtle difference. For example, there would be a difference in the amount of strength he used, or how he breathed or used his qi.
Hmm.
In the process, Woon-seong split his mind and observed himself.
Not bad. The previous attack was a bit efficient, but the current retreat was quite effective.
Effective attacks would be slightly modified; inefficient ones would be tossed out and changed.
Woon-seong was experimenting with his own martial arts. Or, to be precise, he was using his martial techniques one by one in practice.
Of course, this was not a mindless decision.
This was done with purpose, to achieve that one goal.
One Thousand Absolute Routes.
This goal, barely named and set, was the ultimate pinnacle of Woon-seong’s martial arts.
In order to achieve such a peak, Woon-seong was testing out all of his knowledge in a thousand different battles.
Attack, correct and catch any deviations.
He repeated the process over and over and over, pushing out anything unnecessary.
Repeat, erase, save.
Quadduk-
Kwaarnee-
The Orthodox soldiers collapsed in puddles of blood.
The blood ran thick. Pieces of flesh and bone littered the area, the blood pouring down like rain and forming a river.
He seemed to be building a mountain of corpses. That was how violent Woon-seong was.
Of course, there were people trying to prevent Woon-seong from continuing.
“You wicked Demon!”
“Wicked leader of the Demons, go back to Hell!”
Of course, it was possible for these people to block Woon-seong because on top of not using the Divine Flame, he had been limiting use of internal qi.
They could only block once though.
After that, they could not block Woon-seong’s offensive and were helplessly beaten back.
Woon-seong reached out and smashed another head.
Bang—
Bits of brain and blood splattered in all directions.
Woon-seong then moved his spear to sweep the front.
At that moment!
Kaguang—
A sword swooped in from somewhere, blocking Woon-seong’s spear. A spark crackled and the White Night Spear bounced back.
Although he did not use the Divine Flame, that was still Woon-seong’s spear.
It was a spear much stronger than a bear’s paws.
That a sword has blocked my spear…
Woon-seong stopped and looked towards where the sword had come from.
Four other men stood beside the owner of that sword.
Woon-seong read their qi presences and concluded, “Supreme Masters?”
Five of them.
That was not something Cheon Ah-young or the Eight Bolt Blade King had mentioned in their report.
[1] The position of Cult Leader would be better translated as ‘Sky Demon’, which is Cheonma (天魔), and not the ‘Heavenly Demon’. This is also why it is the Cheon Family, ‘Cheon’ for ‘Sky’. However, I will continue to use ‘Heavenly Demon’.