Chapter 311 : Great Ascension Cultivator (2)
Chapter 311: Great Ascension Cultivator (2)
The very dimension known as the Central Heavens Realm had been shattered. Cracks ran through the void, and holes had been torn open everywhere. Wherever the world itself had broken apart, a black emptiness resembling outer space could be seen.
Four swords that looked as though they had been forged from glass revolved around the cultivator, while the giant cloaked in golden light held an axe wrapped in radiant brilliance.
The moment Jang Woo-hyun saw the two of them, he distinguished friend from foe.
'If it's a cultivator, kill them on sight.'
That was one of the truths he had learned through experience.
The moment Jang Woo-hyun released his killing intent, the expressions of the cultivator and the giant changed in completely opposite ways.
【Did you shamelessly call for reinforcements despite your size?】
"I have nothing to do with this. It's probably the karmic retribution you've earned from running around committing vile acts everywhere. Ah, there is one thing I do know."
The giant grinned broadly as he looked at the cultivator's twisted face.
"You're going to die here today."
The instant he finished speaking, the giant charged straight at the cultivator.
At the same time, Jang Woo-hyun kicked off the empty air.
【Stand back!】
As the cultivator shouted, space expanded.
The world itself stretched outward.
It was a force that acted opposite to Shrinking the Earth.
The cultivator intended to push the approaching Jang Woo-hyun away.
At that moment, the Microcosm moved.
The space surrounding the cultivator and the giant remained the blue skies of the Central Heavens Realm.
But around Jang Woo-hyun, everything had already been covered in blades.
A world made entirely of blades steadily expanded its territory.
The world was dyed silver.
The endlessly stretching space, like kneaded dough, was abruptly severed by the blades of the Sword Forest of Dosan.
【You damned livestock!】
The cultivator roared in fury, but there was nothing he could do.
The giant had already reached him.
"Uahahahaha! So that strange ability doesn't work anymore!"
Kwaaaaaang!
The giant's axe collided with one of the glass swords circling around the cultivator.
A burst of light exploded forth so intense that it created the illusion of a sun rising before their eyes.
An unimaginable wave of heat radiated outward from the two of them.
While being blasted backward by the impact, the cultivator flicked his hand.
One of the swords shot high into the sky.
【Aurora Sword Curtain (極光劍幕)!】
As the cultivator cast his spell, a curtain of multicolored light descended from the heavens.
Despite its breathtaking beauty, the curtain possessed enough power to effortlessly split an entire continent in half.
Jang Woo-hyun never slowed.
He advanced directly toward the curtain of light.
A colossal sword formed beneath his feet, and he infused it with Will-Form Qi before controlling it.
Kwagagagang! Boom!
The instant the gigantic sword collided with the curtain, he summoned Baekmu and thrust it forward.
A pillar of light pierced through the curtain.
Far away, the giant rammed into the barrier with his own body, smashing it apart.
As particles of light scattered through the void from the shattered curtain, another attack from the cultivator followed immediately.
Solar Emperor Cannon (光皇太陽砲).
The two suns floating in the sky suddenly expanded before firing beams of light.
'He's even controlling the suns?'
Even Jang Woo-hyun hadn't expected that attack.
Whether he was controlling the real suns or merely creating an illusion, he couldn't tell, but the power contained within them was anything but insignificant.
Two rays of sunlight.
One targeted the giant.
The other targeted Jang Woo-hyun.
Krrrroooom!
A mountain range of blades surged upward to block the beams.
But—
The mountains shattered.
The blades melted away.
The attack possessed dozens of times the destructive power of the Heavenly Thunder Sect's Immortal-Slaying Heavenly Thunder Cannon.
Both the giant and Jang Woo-hyun, who had been advancing, were helplessly pushed backward.
The cultivator bought himself time as he prepared his next move.
【Let all things freeze.】
Rumble!
The world trembled with the cultivator at its center.
Normally, the Central Heavens Realm experienced little change in weather.
Its skies remained perpetually clear, like eternal autumn.
The seasons changed not with time but according to region.
Yet now, the season itself changed.
Dark storm clouds abruptly covered the once-clear sky as a raging blizzard swept across the land.
Frozen ground appeared beneath them.
Snow-covered mountains and towers of ice erupted in every direction.
This was not the manifestation of one's mental world like an Immortal Realm martial artist opening a Microcosm.
The world itself simply obeyed the cultivator's will.
If he desired winter, winter came.
If he desired summer, summer arrived.
A single wave of his hand summoned waterfalls from empty space, while enormous frozen lakes materialized out of nowhere.
Common sense collapsed.
The world's natural laws had been completely overturned.
At this moment, the Great Ascension Stage cultivator had become the Central Heavens Realm itself.
Kwaaaaaang!
Within the world transformed into an icy hell, the giant swung his axe.
Each swing.
Each step he took.
The world created by the cultivator shattered.
But it was far too insignificant.
Even the giant's body, nearly three zhang tall, was tiny compared to the world the cultivator had created.
The world regenerated faster than it could be destroyed.
【A foolish insect shall slumber here for eternity.】
The blizzard completely filled the space before them.
Within it, a pair of chilling blue eyes opened.
"Uraaaaaah!"
With a deafening roar, a portion of the frozen hell disappeared, leaving behind a golden pathway.
It wasn't merely broken.
That part of the world itself had been erased.
The giant was powerful.
Even Jang Woo-hyun couldn't take his attacks lightly.
But the world the cultivator had created was simply too vast.
No matter how strong he was, opposing an entire world itself seemed impossible.
"..."
Watching the heavens and earth manipulated at will—
Witnessing the cultivator's power as the world itself—
Jang Woo-hyun simply allowed himself to be pushed backward without making a move.
It wasn't because he was afraid.
He had noticed something strange.
'What is it?'
The Great Ascension Stage cultivator's strength truly was overwhelming enough to become the world itself.
Yet in Jang Woo-hyun's eyes—
That very power placed the cultivator at a severe disadvantage.
---
Looking at the cultivator's power now, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the god of this world.
Even Jang Woo-hyun found it difficult to measure it.
However, that power originated from the Central Heavens Realm.
If the cultivator were to enter another world, that divine power would no longer possess such overwhelming might.
Jang Woo-hyun had no means of traveling to another world.
But he could create a world of his own.
Within the Microcosm—
The Great Ascension Stage cultivator would no longer be a god.
The world of blades gradually froze over.
The swords flying through the sky turned into blocks of ice before crashing down.
As the expanding Microcosm was steadily forced backward—
Jang Woo-hyun finally decided to fight.
Kuuuuung!
The world before him collapsed.
Breaking through the storm clouds that covered the sky, countless swords rained down upon the frozen earth.
The swords that struck the ground grew into trees made entirely of blades.
The world colliding against the boundary of the Sword Forest of Dosan shattered.
Gigantic blades smashed apart the towers of ice.
Living swords flew through the air, slicing apart the blizzard.
A mountain range of blades surged upward, tearing apart the snow-covered mountains.
The pure white world gradually became stained with silver.
Jang Woo-hyun's Microcosm was consuming the world.
Even if the cultivator possessed godlike power by becoming one with the world—
That was only possible as long as the world remained intact.
The cultivator's world disappeared.
In its place stood Jang Woo-hyun's Microcosm—
The Sword Forest of Dosan.
Watching the blizzard steadily weaken, Jang Woo-hyun thought,
'Once I open my Microcosm, dealing with a Great Ascension Stage cultivator isn't difficult.'
As though it had been designed that way from the very beginning, merely opening his Microcosm granted him complete superiority in compatibility.
A cultivator who became one with the world.
A new world created to oppose him.
Jang Woo-hyun hadn't met every cultivator who had reached the Great Ascension Stage.
There were undoubtedly those stronger than the one before him.
Others might possess entirely different powers.
But no matter whom he encountered—
He felt he would still hold the advantage.
Nor did he believe he would lose easily.
'Was this why the Sword Heaven Lord was able to protect the Murim Realm alone?'
Protecting was always harder than taking.
Especially when the enemy consisted of cultivators who regarded humans as nothing more than insects.
The Sword Heaven Lord had single-handedly protected the Central Heavens Murim Realm from such monsters.
Perhaps the reason lay in the compatibility between a martial artist's Microcosm and a cultivator's world.
"Uahahahaha! Die! Die, you filthy cultivator!"
As the cultivator's power weakened, the giant advanced, smashing apart everything that stood before him.
Everything crumbled wherever he passed.
No—
Everything was erased.
The silver blades formed by Jang Woo-hyun's Microcosm.
The frozen earth of ice and frost.
It was as though an eraser had simply wiped everything clean.
【How dare a mere insect!】
The cultivator, having returned to his human form, glared at Jang Woo-hyun.
A look of determination appeared in his eyes.
【Then try stopping this!】
His agitated voice echoed through the air.
【Burn and freeze together. Crimson Azure Yin-Yang World (赤靑陰陽界).】
Kiiiiii.
The spreading aura caused Jang Woo-hyun's eyes to narrow.
This was different.
Instead of becoming one with the world—
It felt as though the cultivator was twisting and wringing the world itself.
Heavenly Inferno Prison!
Frozen Ice Hell!
Following the cultivator's shout—
The world split cleanly into two halves, as though paint had been poured across it.
The upper half became entirely crimson.
The lower half became completely azure.
Fwoooosh!
The crimson world suddenly erupted into flames.
The heavens turned scarlet.
Burning meteors fell from the sky.
Gigantic birds of flame soared through the heavens.
The azure world once again became frozen earth.
Even amid the unbearable heat, colossal towers of ice rose into the sky.
Across the white land, mysterious blue beasts charged forward.
"Kraaaaaaah!"
Between fire and ice—
The advancing giant was blown backward.
The crimson and azure energies blocking his path were far stronger than even his power to erase everything.
The silver blades that had begun appearing throughout the battlefield disappeared in an instant.
Every sword and blade floating around Jang Woo-hyun either froze solid or burned away.
His entire Microcosm trembled violently as cracks spread everywhere.
The cultivator hadn't even attacked yet.
Simply recreating the world had unleashed a terrifying wave of power.
'This power is absurd.'
Just as it had within the Blood World—
The world itself sought to kill Jang Woo-hyun.
It wished to freeze him.
Shatter him.
Burn him.
Destroy him completely.
The sheer magnitude of that power was impossible to measure.
Simply witnessing it inspired overwhelming awe.
As Jang Woo-hyun faced a power unlike anything he had ever experienced before, he slowly clenched his fist.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
He would feel every ounce of his opponent's power with his entire body—
And use everything he possessed.
Behind Jang Woo-hyun, a five-colored wheel appeared.
Fire.
Earth.
Metal.
Water.
Wood.
The aura of the Five Elements spread throughout the surroundings.
Then the four seasons manifested above them.
Sky, earth, and sea came into existence.
Finally, Yin and Yang—
Black and white.
Light and darkness—
Began revolving together.
Circulating Taiji.
Jang Woo-hyun opened his second Microcosm.
---
The meteors raining from the sky were swallowed by a colossal tidal wave.
The beasts racing across the frozen earth melted beneath the warmth of summer.
The towering pillars of ice that reached toward the heavens shattered beneath a rain of swords.
The Central Heavens Realm of fire and ice gradually became dyed in silver blades before yielding its place to the aura of the Five Elements.
【How... are you...?】
His body stained crimson and azure, the cultivator stared at Jang Woo-hyun in utter disbelief.
A single person creating two Microcosms—
He had never seen nor heard of such a thing.
'Was there ever a monster like this among the Six Sovereigns?'
No.
Even setting the Six Sovereigns aside—
Creating two completely different Microcosms was impossible.
No martial artist could accomplish such a feat.
The Crimson Azure Yin-Yang World had been created specifically to counter a martial artist's Microcosm, which naturally held an advantage over cultivators.
A martial artist could only possess a single Microcosm.
That was why he had prepared two different worlds to oppose one.
But—
'If this is the case...'
There was no way to deal with it.
He had prepared to counter one world.
Instead, his opponent had produced two.
Though he had lived for thousands of years, never had he been as shaken as he was today.
Everything he considered common sense had collapsed.
Before he realized it, the world of fire and ice had completely vanished.
The space around the cultivator was now filled entirely with blades.
He had been dragged into Jang Woo-hyun's Microcosm.
'This won't do.'
For the first time in his life, the Great Ascension Stage cultivator—
Who had always stood as the predator—
Felt the fear of death.