Chapter 283 : Explosion of Talent
Chapter 283: Explosion of Talent
The tiger beastkin who had been lying there with his eyes closed opened them and looked at Maeng Ye-ju. Wi Maeng-rip grasped her hand back.
“Junior Sister…….”
“Are you feeling any better?”
“There’s no way I could be.”
Wi Maeng-rip forced a smile to reassure the worried Maeng Ye-ju.
After taking a few deep breaths, he tightened his grip on her hand and spoke each word clearly.
“Junior Sister, now there’s only you left. The other senior brothers and sisters can’t properly respond either. Master is injured as well. Someone has to step forward and take command.”
The condition of the Beast King Sect was terrible. When Hae Ryang first stepped onto the front lines, it seemed as though they would sweep through the enemy like a storm and slaughter them all, but aside from the Twin-Winged Lotus, they could not easily eliminate the other sects.
Then suddenly, the Sovereign Clan attacked the Beast King Sect, preventing them from concentrating their forces completely. Hae Ryang and the elders of the previous generation had no choice but to face the Sovereign Clan.
Because of the sudden battle, the former Sect Leader Hae Ryang was injured, and some of the elders had even died.
Still, one fortunate thing was that Hae Ryang and the elders managed to repel the Sovereign Clan’s attack.
The Beast King Sect only needed to deal with small and medium-sized sects such as the Flying Shadow Silver Sword Division and the Eternal Gate of Pangu, but even that was not easy.
Not long ago, the Beast King Baek Kang was injured by assassins and forced to withdraw from the battlefield. Furthermore, the Beast King Sect continued suffering defeat after defeat in the war that followed.
“Junior Sister… no, Ye-ju. You are the Beast King Sect’s Young Sect Leader.”
“That has not been decided yet.”
Despite the pain, Wi Maeng-rip smiled.
Even though she had already grown far stronger than him, Maeng Ye-ju stubbornly refused the position of Young Sect Leader.
“You’ve grown stronger. Both your martial arts and your heart. If I had known this would happen, I should have stopped looking down on humans and experienced more things while associating with them.”
“Senior Brother…….”
“As you know, Junior Sister, the situation is bad.”
Beastkin possessed the advantages of both humans and beasts.
They were born with physical abilities and senses far surpassing humans, while also possessing high intelligence.
However, where there were strengths, there were weaknesses as well.
Beastkin often acted according to instinct, and because they possessed beastly traits, once their leader was defeated, they rapidly lost their strength.
Right now, the legendary former Sect Leader of the Beast King Sect had been injured, while the current Sect Leader had collapsed after being ambushed by assassins.
Even though elders remained, they lacked a central figure to rally around, leaving the sect in complete disarray. They needed someone to unite the beastkin.
Wi Maeng-rip believed that person was Maeng Ye-ju. It was finally time to acknowledge it.
Having made up his mind, Wi Maeng-rip painfully raised himself up.
“Senior Brother, you mustn’t move. Your foundation was injured, and your condition is terrible. Please just lie down.”
Despite Maeng Ye-ju’s attempt to stop him, Wi Maeng-rip slowly rose from the bed and knelt with his one remaining leg.
“The Great Disciple of the Beast King Sect, Wi Maeng-rip, greets the Young Sect Leader!”
At his thunderous shout, the clinic filled with wounded martial artists became noisy. Before long, injured beastkin began rising one after another, kneeling or bowing their heads.
“We greet the Young Sect Leader!”
“We greet the Young Sect Leader!”
“Young Sect Leader!”
Even while trembling from the pain of their injuries, Wi Maeng-rip raised his head.
“Young Sect Leader, you must lead the sect. Right now, the sect needs a central pillar.”
At his words, Maeng Ye-ju clenched her fist tightly.
He was right. The disciples of the Beast King Sect were currently lost and confused.
Looking at the hesitant Maeng Ye-ju, Wi Maeng-rip smiled weakly.
“Junior Sister, take this.”
Wi Maeng-rip handed over a small wooden plaque about the size of a palm.
The wood had become smooth from age, covered in scratches everywhere.
On one side, the character for Great (大) was deeply engraved, while countless beasts were carved in relief on the other.
It was the plaque symbolizing the Great Disciple of the Beast King Sect. Handing this over meant Wi Maeng-rip acknowledged Maeng Ye-ju.
Unable to reject his feelings, Maeng Ye-ju accepted the plaque.
“……I’ll take it for now because the situation is urgent. But I’ll return it soon.”
Wi Maeng-rip smiled once more at her words before lowering his head deeply.
Perhaps, beyond martial arts, his junior sister’s very nature was far greater than his own.
Having received the plaque, Maeng Ye-ju stopped at the doorway before leaving.
Closing her eyes, she thought about what she could do.
‘What should I do?’
The first person who came to mind was Jang Woo-hyun, who had led the Immortal-Slaying Division.
Whenever a powerful enemy appeared, Jang Woo-hyun always stood in front alone. He moved ahead of everyone else.
‘But I’m not Woo-hyun.’
She and Jang Woo-hyun were different.
And the Beast King Sect was not the Immortal-Slaying Division.
Maeng Ye-ju had her own way.
‘I’ll do what I can do.’
Thinking that, she opened her eyes and stepped outside.
Looking around, she saw beastkin with minor injuries everywhere. Every single one of them had dead eyes and slumped shoulders.
After observing them, Maeng Ye-ju clenched her fists tightly and drew in a deep breath.
She held her breath for a moment before exhaling and shouting loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“I, Maeng Ye-ju, disciple of the Beast King Baek Kang of the Beast King Sect, shall assume the position of Young Sect Leader of the Beast King Sect from this moment onward!”
Maeng Ye-ju had reached the Infinite Realm while accompanying the Immortal-Slaying Division. A fierce aura like that of a savage beast spread far into the distance.
“Spread the word to everyone! And if anyone has complaints, they are welcome to challenge me at any time! I’ll teach them who stands above whom!”
The surrounding beastkin were first startled by her aura before lowering their heads and quickly moving to spread the news. Before long, strength filled their bodies once again, and life returned to their eyes.
“Kang Yong!”
“Yes, Young Sect Leader! Please issue your command.”
A gigantic wolf beastkin lowered his head and loudly addressed her as Young Sect Leader.
Kang Yong also understood the situation facing the Beast King Sect and intended to support Maeng Ye-ju.
“Contact the Great Elder. Pull back all battlefronts and reorganize. From this moment onward, I will lead the Beast King Sect.”
“Yes!”
The wolf beastkin Kang Yong grinned savagely and bowed even deeper.
The leader of the beasts had returned.
Amid the sect’s crisis, the next generation was growing and stepping forward as heroes.
---
‘What are martial arts to me?’
No matter how deeply he thought about it alone, the only answer that came to mind was methods for beating people to death.
Martial arts were simply something he wanted to learn, something he realized through moving his body.
He had never deeply thought about martial arts themselves.
For Jang Woo-hyun, martial arts had always been about moving his body rather than thinking.
‘Martial arts to me…….’
It was something he wanted to learn, and a power that allowed him to protect both himself and his comrades. It was also something that supported him in carrying out his convictions.
Yet no matter how much he thought, no answer appeared.
Several more days passed.
Though it was an inner world, it had been constructed like an actual world, complete with day and night. He did not know how much time differed from reality, but Jang Woo-hyun had spent a very long time here.
Since he had already moved his body enough, he spent most of the time thinking. After all, moving his body here was merely training within the mental world, not actual physical training.
And now, no matter how much he trained, Jang Woo-hyun’s body would no longer change. Long ago, he had already transcended humanity and reconstructed his body with the Five Elements Qi. There was no way his physical strength or body would grow stronger anymore.
After pondering for several more days, Jang Woo-hyun began recalling the path he had walked.
-It’s like reviewing the martial arts you’ve learned. Usually, the people who come here are those whose growth has stopped or who are blocked by some wall. They retrace the path they walked and search for something.
As Gun Yu-hye had said, Jang Woo-hyun entered the Beginning and End Cave because he had reached a dead end.
So he began retracing things one by one.
‘The first person I met was Hall Master Yang.’
Yang Hyo-myung of the White Tiger Martial Hall.
He was the first person Jang Woo-hyun recalled.
‘Come to think of it, the last person I met was also Hall Master Yang.’
Before ascending.
When he wandered aimlessly after losing his goal and met Yang Hyo-myung again, Yang Hyo-myung had been someone shining brightly.
In contrast, Jang Woo-hyun had lost his own light back then.
Through Yang Hyo-myung, he had seen his former self.
‘It feels like I remembered it back then.’
Why he wanted to learn martial arts in the first place.
‘To me, martial arts were…….’
A dream.
On the day he first met Yang Hyo-myung at the White Tiger Martial Hall, he had said those exact words.
-It was a dream.
-I wanted to learn martial arts for a very long time. It wasn’t because I wanted to become a hero or a grandmaster. At my age, it would be ridiculous to dream of such things. I simply wanted to try learning martial arts once. And only now have I been able to fulfill that dream.
It was a dream.
When he said he wanted to learn martial arts at such a late age, everyone tried to stop him. But Jang Woo-hyun still sought out the White Tiger Martial Hall because he wanted to learn martial arts at least once.
Then he discovered his talent and continued learning martial arts.
He ascended and reached this place.
-Do not think of it too difficultly.
Lü Dongbin had told him not to think too difficultly about changing the laws of the world.
Perhaps he had also been thinking too difficultly about what martial arts were.
Lü Dongbin had spoken of mages who called magic miracles, and he himself had called his martial arts will.
Then what about himself?
‘To me, martial arts were a dream.’
There was no need to think too hard about it.
A dream he wished to achieve. A dream he wished to reach.
Even his desire to protect everyone had been a dream.
‘Right. To me, martial arts were a dream.’
Kuuung!
At Jang Woo-hyun’s thoughts, the world trembled.
He had reached a conclusion.
There was no need to complicate it. To him, martial arts were a dream.
Martial arts were not merely about moving the body to attack enemies or drawing forth overwhelming power.
For Jang Woo-hyun, martial arts had always been the very thing he dreamed of.
Still seated, he exhaled and slowly inhaled again.
Though he had not even activated the Reclining Immortal Breathing Technique, all the surrounding energy was sucked inward. Everything moved according to Jang Woo-hyun’s breathing.
Before he knew it, Lü Dongbin stood before the cross-legged Jang Woo-hyun.
“Yes. What are martial arts?”
After staring at Jang Woo-hyun for a while, Lü Dongbin spoke. His voice overflowed with profound mystery.
“They were a dream.”
It sounded like a foolish answer, but Lü Dongbin neither mocked nor dismissed it. Instead, he asked seriously,
“A dream?”
“Yes. I wanted to learn martial arts from long ago. I did not possess ambitions of becoming the strongest under heaven or conquering the martial world. I simply wanted to learn martial arts, and so I took my first step.”
“A dream…… Dreams may be nothing more than empty illusions.”
“To me, dreams are goals that can be reached.”
“Dreams may merely be illusions.”
“Even if my eyes are covered, the path I wish to walk does not change.”
“Perhaps they are called dreams precisely because they cannot be reached.”
“I have worked desperately to fulfill my dreams. And I will continue doing so.”
At Jang Woo-hyun’s answer, a smile gradually spread across Lü Dongbin’s face.
“Can something as intangible as a dream truly be called martial arts?”
“Because it is a dream, it can become anything and do anything. To me, martial arts are like a dream that makes everything possible.”
Martial arts had changed his life.
They allowed him to ascend while following the traces of Kim Min-soo.
They allowed him to protect his comrades.
They allowed him to stand against those overwhelming Upper Realm beings who possessed godlike power.
To Jang Woo-hyun, martial arts were a dream.
At first, the dream had simply been learning martial arts.
But now, it had become a dream capable of making everything possible.
If magic was miracles to mages, and martial arts were will to Lü Dongbin, then martial arts were dreams to Jang Woo-hyun.
Dreams that allowed him to achieve anything.
Lü Dongbin’s smile deepened further.
“Yes. At last, you can finally use that sword.”
His gaze turned inward toward Jang Woo-hyun.
Jang Woo-hyun also knew what he was looking at.
The sword that had helped him yet could not be called forth.
Raising his right hand, he spoke its name for the very first time.
“Baekmu.”
The moment he called its name, a white sword appeared in Jang Woo-hyun’s right hand.
The Myriad Transformation Sword, Baekmu.
A sword connected to his soul, capable of becoming anything.
Only now did he understand why the Baekmu he had created with his own power took this form.
Because he believed anything was possible, Baekmu had become this way.
The moment he grasped Baekmu’s hilt, a pouty emotion was transmitted to him.
It complained about why he had only now called for it.
Only now had Jang Woo-hyun gained the qualifications necessary to wield Baekmu.
Lü Dongbin had been right.
If he had truly reached the Realm of Wish, he should have been able to use Baekmu long ago. But because he had failed to properly ascend, he could not call it forth.
And then—
Shrrrk.
The space before his eyes transformed.
A gigantic sword rose from a lake, while trees made entirely of blades burst through the forest. Instead of flowers blooming across the ground, there was grass made of arrowheads, while spears sprouted in place of shrubs.
Where cliffs once stood, mountains made entirely of countless blades emerged.
Every visible part of the world became filled with blades.
The Sword Forest of Dosan.
Jang Woo-hyun’s microcosm, something he had already seen many times.
And that was not the end.
Like branches swaying in the wind, countless blades moved independently and executed martial arts.
Sword Forest of Dosan, Hundred Martial Arts Thousand Swords.
The hundred and thousand did not merely represent the numbers themselves—they also symbolized countless abundance.
Jang Woo-hyun’s microcosm was a place capable of displaying countless things.
‘Everything is one.’
Because martial arts were a dream, everything could be achieved.
Because it was a dream capable of achieving everything, he created a sword that could become anything and gained a microcosm capable of displaying any martial art.
Reading the world’s flow and will before engraving one’s intent into it? As Lü Dongbin said, that explanation was only half correct.
He himself was simply the world.
He and the world were not separate.
The microcosm became a new world, and he unfolded that world anew.
Though it bore the name martial arts, it was an entirely different power.
Through martial arts, one understood oneself and completed and manifested the inner world.
-To ascend to the Realm of Wish, you must establish yourself properly.
-And establishing yourself means understanding yourself.
Now he understood why Lü Dongbin said such things.
If one could not properly define oneself, then one must never ascend to the Realm of Wish.
If one could influence the world, then the world could also influence them.
Without proper preparation, one could lose oneself to the flow of the world and be absorbed into the world itself.
‘I am Jang Woo-hyun.’
He recognized himself completely and exerted influence upon the new world.
As the microcosm formed, omnipotence surged throughout his body. It felt as though anything was possible. He looked down upon the world beneath him.
It was a sensation he had experienced once before.
It resembled when he first entered the Absolute Realm.
Just as when he reached the highest realm possible in the Lower Realm, he was now enveloped by omnipotence in the Middle Realm.
Having properly learned martial arts for the very first time, Jang Woo-hyun instantly broke through the Realm of Wish and stepped into the realm of immortality.