Chapter 53 : Chapter 53
Chapter 053. That Which Is Buried in the Sandy Soil (3)
Of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, the most difficult to train is undoubtedly Spirit, the domain of the Upper Dantian.
Qi can be controlled through breathing exercises and circulation, and Essence can be refined through a disciplined life and training, but Spirit is something whose origin is directly connected to the mind.
Therefore, to open the Spirit of the Upper Dantian, one must forge their mind as clearly and sharply as a single sword.
That is a skill originally possible only for masters who have reached an absolute realm.
However, perhaps because Dam Jeok-san was influenced by Seo Woo-joo, his Upper Dantian began to open even though the form of his mental image was not sharp like a sword.
That is likely the cause of this current situation.
The ability of Predation resonated with the Upper Dantian, causing him to have a kind of precognitive dream.
‘A precognitive dream, huh.’
It is fortunate that he found out even in this way.
The entity buried in the sandy soil possessed power capable of becoming a calamity for the human world.
To the extent that playing tricks on Namgung Yeon and planting spies in the Righteous Heaven Alliance looked ridiculous.
Explaining this to the Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander and Un Wol-hyang would be a task in itself, but...
Still, it is better than being hit without knowing anything.
As Dam Jeok-san slowly opened his eyes while thinking so, he saw the Squad Leader's office of the Monster Repelling Squad.
On one wall were maps recording the battle situation and terrain of the North.
And on another wall, various armors and weapons were visible.
All were old, rusty, and stained with blood.
According to the former Squad Leader Baek Ri-gwan, he had collected the mementos of his subordinates to mourn their deaths.
— If it makes you uncomfortable, I will remove them.
— No, leave them. That thick smell of blood they harbor is precisely what I must not forget.
Dam Jeok-san waved his hand to stop Baek Ri-gwan.
Not only as the Squad Leader of the Monster Repelling Squad but also as a disciple of the Martial Sovereign, what he must absolutely never forget is the sacrifice of the martial artists fighting with their lives on the line at the forefront.
Baek Ri-gwan withdrew with a faint smile as if he knew Dam Jeok-san would say that. Along with words to find him anytime if needed.
Dam Jeok-san liked the fact that Baek Ri-gwan was quite a capable adjutant.
Thanks to him organizing various matters, Dam Jeok-san was able to enter the Squad Leader's office relatively easily.
Although he hasn't completely taken control of the Monster Repelling Squad yet, if he receives help from Baek Ri-gwan and Peng Cho-seol, who could be called the fixtures of the place, it wouldn't be that difficult.
‘I just need to put the Black Panther Spear and Gyeong-won in suitable positions.’
No, wait.
There was one more problem remaining.
— I also want to join the Monster Repelling Squad as a guest member!
Namgung Yeon, the Young Family Head of the Namgung Clan, who was strangely enthusiastic.
The fact that she is joining is quite encouraging. Namgung Yeon is the Young Family Head of the Namgung Clan, which exerts powerful influence on the Righteous Heaven Alliance, and at the same time, a peak swordsman.
It was an opportunity to equip not only martial power but also political influence.
However, bringing in the successor of one of the Five Great Families as a guest member is a matter that probably requires separate approval from the Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander.
Well, since she is someone he has to go meet soon anyway, he can resolve it all at once.
Thinking up to that point, Dam Jeok-san recalled the Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander.
Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander Dark Heaven.
Whether the person with the alias Dark Heaven is a sorcerer or a martial artist. How old she is. What kind of weapon she uses. She is a figure about whom nothing is known at all.
— Dark Heaven is the Guardian of the North in the truest sense.
The only thing he remembers is a short sentence he heard from the Martial Sovereign.
However, it was clear she was not someone to be taken lightly. Nor would she hold goodwill toward him unconditionally like the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable.
However, even if not for the various secondary issues, he had a premonition that he must meet her.
This is the action of the Spirit of the Upper Dantian continuing from the precognitive dream.
Dam Jeok-san felt an unknown tension and rose from his seat.
Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander. It was time to go meet his new superior.
* * *
"You can look forward to it."
The Northern Heaven Sword Venerable Un Wol-hyang, a beauty with raven-black hair like the night sky, said while gracefully swirling her teacup.
"...Look forward to it, you say."
At those words, the person sitting opposite her wore a bitter smile.
"Over the years, the only young person who met my expectations was at most Man Su-geuk. Sword Venerable, even you were no exception."
Man Su-geuk is the current Martial Sovereign. He is not a name to be mentioned while talking about young people.
Especially since the person speaking right now was a young girl whose short stature reached at most Un Wol-hyang's chest.
Since she was wearing a jet-black sedge hat with a fluttering veil pressed low, one couldn't guess exactly, but judging by her voice, she wouldn't be more than fifteen or sixteen at most.
However.
"I understand why the Corps Commander says that. You must have waited for a long time beyond my reckoning. But my martial nephew is different, really."
Un Wol-hyang was responding seriously to the girl's words. As if she had the qualification to mention the Martial Sovereign Man Su-geuk.
"Ahaha, I'm not looking forward to it at all, but yes. Since you say so, I will try to look forward to it."
The girl laughed languidly and said. Although her expression couldn't be seen because it was hidden by the undulating veil, she must surely be making a cynical face.
However, the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable didn't care.
Because she knew from the beginning that the girl would react like that.
‘Well, you just have to confirm it yourself.’
When the girl, Dark Heaven, saw someone showing prominence in the North, she would personally give them a trial to weigh their potential.
Both Man Su-geuk in his youth and Un Wol-hyang had experienced it.
‘The rewards are also quite definite.’
Un Wol-hyang swallowed her tea and looked at the Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander, Dark Heaven. Even though no wind was blowing, her pure white hair fluttered beyond the veil.
"Oho, he is coming."
Dark Heaven said in a voice that was faint but clearly tinged with interest.
"It is about time."
Un Wol-hyang smiled softly and said.
"..."
But as Dam Jeok-san got closer.
An unknown sharpness began to settle on Dark Heaven's face, which had been smiling ambiguously.
To the extent that the aura could be felt vividly even beyond the veil.
‘Hmm, this is...’
No, no. Dark Heaven lightly shook her head.
Something even Man Su-geuk ultimately failed to achieve. Having hope won't be too late even after going through the trial.
VROOOOM!
When Dam Jeok-san approached within a stone's throw, she suddenly took out a jet-black folding fan from her bosom.
As she lightly fluttered the Black Fan, a terrifyingly massive energy rippled along the fan like wind.
Energy too heterogeneous to be called internal energy, yet too pure to be called demonic energy.
That power, which seemed like the condensed spiritual energy of heaven and earth itself—
"Coagulate."
As if drawn by the girl's delicate voice, it began to form a shape.
"Karma Mirror, Open!"
The moment her voice stopped, a giant mirror materialized from qi swallowed Dam Jeok-san.
* * *
"Hmm?"
Dam Jeok-san, who was heading to the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable's office, felt an untimely fluctuation of qi.
It is not at a level where he can ignore it thinking someone is having a duel somewhere.
To feel a presence this intense, it would have to be at the level of the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable wielding her sword with all her might.
Furthermore.
"This is not martial arts."
However, it is also somewhat ambiguous to call it sorcery. It seems a bit closer to martial arts, but that too is a human skill.
Something a bit closer to the origin than that.
Would the energy of immortal arts used by spiritual creatures and phantom beasts, which were said to exist quite a bit before monsters appeared, be like that?
Yet strangely, very strangely.
The instinct of the Predator was sounding an alarm.
‘But it doesn't mean there is a monster.’
Of that, he could be certain.
Dam Jeok-san tilted his head and continued forward with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Un Wol-hyang's presence can be felt in the venue. If she is there, it means at least it's not a trap.
‘Well, just because it's not a trap doesn't mean it's safe.’
As seen in the Monster Repelling Squad Leader's office, the North is a place where one must always live with death as a companion.
Even if it is a trial or training, it is often as dangerous as actual combat.
Considering there is a system where one can openly win a position through a life-and-death duel, it was natural.
Dam Jeok-san slowly opened the door with all his nerves on edge.
SWISH―!
However, rendering his caution meaningless, intense ominousness assaulted Dam Jeok-san.
Simultaneously as he drew his sword, a giant mirror approached as if to swallow Dam Jeok-san.
This is no longer an unprecedented energy, but a completed spell.
But he still couldn't grasp its identity.
Apart from being a powerful spell, it felt fundamentally different from the skills of human sorcerers.
It is not the method of the Yin God Cult or other trash that handle demonic energy either.
‘As expected...’
With a vague certainty, he instinctively opened the Predator's Eye.
A dizzyingly tangled flow, a spell so dense that almost no gaps were visible.
But it's not completely devoid of them. There definitely existed a loophole he could dig into.
Why, when it's a spell without elements to stimulate the ability of Predation?
Dam Jeok-san pushed that question to the corner of his mind.
He swung his sword without a shred of hesitation. A strange conviction that he just needed to cut that spot guided Dam Jeok-san.
A sword strike unleashed with full power without thinking about what comes next.
A slash that would normally have cut through the empty air in vain.
SLASH―!
His sword strike left a crack on the mirror.
Although that merely delayed the completion of the spell by a tiny bit.
"Surprising."
It was enough for a voice mixed with admiration to flow from Dark Heaven's mouth.
Beyond the cracked mirror, a girl was visible.
She was looking at Dam Jeok-san with her sedge hat taken off before he knew it.
A girl who looks only about fifteen now.
White hair that has turned completely white,
Eerie blood-red eyes like those of an Imoogi,
A beauty that would easily be called a kingdom-toppling beauty if she grew up like that.
But the Predator's Eye saw the essence contained beyond that.
Her energy was too similar to the colossal entity he saw in his lucid dream, that is, the monster buried in the sandy soil of the North.
Like two sides of a coin.
Or like light and shadow.
What on earth is it?
Before Dam Jeok-san could find the answer to that question.
The mirror, that is, the Karma Mirror, sucked him in.
* * *
"To cut the Karma Mirror."
No one, that is, not even Man Su-geuk of the past, tried to break her spell in this way.
Because Man Su-geuk was also merely at the beginning of the Ultra-Peak stage when he faced this trial in the first place.
Unless one has reached the Entering Transformation Realm, one lacks the ‘status’ to cut the Karma Mirror summoned directly by Dark Heaven.
That is a fact that doesn't change no matter how shining a talent Dam Jeok-san possesses.
‘Status’ is originally something built up with karma.
If the karma Dam Jeok-san possesses is vast enough to transcend his own realm, this could be explained.
‘They said he recovered his dantian.’
That is an impossible feat for a human of that age.
Is it a variable created by that? As Dark Heaven tilted her head, her white hair fluttered like a shade.
"I told you, didn't I?"
Un Wol-hyang, who was watching that scene, opened her mouth with a triumphant look.
"I will watch a bit more. Since he has been sucked into the Karma Mirror."
Dark Heaven's red eyes answering so sank darkly.
She had no intention of alternating between joy and grief.
The Karma Mirror is a mirror that reflects karma and an illusion art that sculpts another self.
The higher and vaster that karma is, the more powerful the self inside the Karma Mirror inevitably becomes.
In other words, the stronger the opponent, the more difficult the trial of the Karma Mirror becomes.
Of course, if he had accumulated karma that Dark Heaven could not handle, the Karma Mirror would shatter into pieces, but...
Humans who possess the status to truly realize that in the current world are extremely rare.
It is a task burdensome even for the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable Un Wol-hyang, who is watching the current situation with interest.
‘It would require someone at the level of the Eight Sovereigns of Murim.’
The probability of Dam Jeok-san shattering the Karma Mirror is nonexistent.
Thinking so, Dark Heaven fixed her gaze toward the Karma Mirror.
Right after that.
CRASH!
With the noise of something shattering, fragments of the Karma Mirror scattered in all directions.
"Eh...?"
For the first time, a voice fitting her appearance flowed from Dark Heaven's mouth.