Chapter 260
260th Chapter: Brotherhood
Thousand Small Heaven World.
The moment Hyulma’s incantation echoed.
Beeeeeep!
A tinnitus rang in my ears. Floating in the air with my legs crossed, translucent arms erupted from Hyulma’s back—one thousand in total.
Thousand Hands.
From those thousand hands, a thousand different Mind’s Martial Arts blossomed. All energies and martial arts harmoniously blended into one thousand ultimates.
A force more overwhelming and sinister than the ultimate All Flows Return to One began to awaken.
Chirrrp!
The world of Heavenly Martial Formation shook.
The sky began to crack.
This is absurd. Absolutely absurd.
Like witnessing a nuclear explosion, overwhelming energy began to writhe from Hyulma’s body.
[We must evade quickly. We need to release the formation.]
I urgently conveyed through thought.
All Flows Return to One.
I thought that was the essence of Hyulma’s profound martial arts.
The ultimate of the ultimate.
If the ultimate distilled all martial enlightenment into a single point, what else could be the essence of martial arts if not that?
But it wasn’t so.
That nonsensical Mind’s Martial Art. Thousand Small Heaven World. It had been shaking the world since Hyulma unleashed the incantation.
If that martial art completes, this formation will undoubtedly shatter. Heavenly Martial Formation is a perfect convergence of our eight masters’ minds, creating a grand universe.
If that formation forcibly breaks, it would naturally lead to a backlash upon our minds. And that meant…
Our defeat.
Everyone resonated with my words. We had to release the formation. If we did not, greater harm might come. Just then…
[I have lived for three thousand years.]
Hyulma’s words resonated through the world.
Hyulma’s blood-red gaze ignited.
[I will liberate a thousand years of life within it.]
Stars began to appear behind Hyulma. Clouds encompassing those stars began to rise. A nebula. The Reverse Heaven Nebula erupted with light behind Hyulma.
Bam!
[I shall show you the joys and sorrows of a thousand years of life.]
A thousand All Flows Return to One blossomed. A thousand ultimates gathered. A thousand Mind’s Worlds surfaced like a thousand stars.
Each star was a world. That world poured down toward us.
[Thousand Small Heaven World]
A voice chanted.
The world poured. Stars and a thousand Mind’s Worlds poured down. Beeeeeep!
Tinnitus rang. Everything Hyulma had amassed came crashing down. My vision blurred. From my eyes, nose, and ears,
an unbearable, horrifying mental trauma seized my head, my mind. My mind, a small universe, was under attack from Hyulma. A thousand minds.
Hyulma’s Thousand Small Heaven World was like a virus overtaking a mind’s world. My mind’s world began to malfunction like a computer under ransomware attack. It felt like a cyberpunk nightmare, as if my whole body had been hacked and turned into a zombie computer.
Beeeeeep!
My body screamed. Along with that, the world crumbled. The formation collapsed. The moment Heavenly Martial Formation broke.
“Cough!”
A scream escaped my mouth. Beyond the crumbling sky, I saw the blood-red sky of the original world.
And there was Hyulma. His gaze, imbued with the cosmos, met mine.
With Hyulma’s smirk lingering in my mind, I fell backward and collapsed.
My consciousness blurred, but I desperately clung to my sense of awareness.
I couldn’t collapse here.
I couldn’t back down here.
Why did I even go through reincarnation if I was going to die here?
I had to achieve the color spectrum. I had to enjoy Three Storey Tea House’s Wine Pond and Meat Forest. I had to use my Everest-like great skill.
Stood tall.
The duality of my mind stood firm. From the Ten Years Polished One Sword established within my heart, overwhelming Yang energy surged forth. Within my mind’s world, the towering pine trees of a grown man thickly flourished. Combined with the overwhelming Yang energy of a grown man, the energy of Reverse Heaven that clung to my mind drove out the virus of the Thousand Great Heaven World like a vaccine.
My will strengthened. My mind responded.
I operated my inner power. The Yin-Yang energy stirred. I enacted Primordial Unity Energy Technique to perform Yin-Yang Reversal. As heat filled my lower dantian and my head chilled, vitality and energy surged throughout my body.
Purest Life Force.
The goal of Gongdong Sect Martial Arts. The ultimate sought by Gongdong Sect. The Gongdong Sect obtains ultimate life through Reverse Taijitu and Yin-Yang Reversal. When achieving the maximum of Gongdong Sect Martial Arts, recovery strength becomes abnormally powerful.
And now having reached Hyeongyeong, I could, for a time, wield regenerative abilities rivaling a fantasy troll.
“Cough!”
Blood splattered from my mouth. Staggering, I used my sword as a staff to rise from my position.
“Hoh?”
A sneer arose from Hyulma. I spit out blood-tainted saliva. I drove away the virus of Thousand Small Heaven World. My mind’s world was not hacked.
My legs trembled slightly.
I looked around. Cheonma, Sinseung, Cheonranggaek, Geumhu, Jeoksawol, and Sosumahu were all unconscious. They lay there with blood frothing from their mouths—a far cry from the mastery expected from Hyeongyeong.
I was on the edge.
If it hadn’t been for my second life experience, if it hadn’t been for the Reverse Heaven energy, if it hadn’t been for the Gongdong Sect Martial Arts exceptional regeneration…
I would have ended up like my comrades.
I bit my lip as I looked at my fallen companions.
We had prepared together, sharing our profound arts and understandings in order to face Hyulma. Our brief period together had fostered a bond akin to understanding each other deeply.
Yet they had collapsed.
Sinseung, Cheonma, Cheonranggaek.
And even Geumhu, Jeoksawol, and Sosumahu, who had given their hearts to me.
All had fallen.
Because of that Hyulma.
As a grown man, I had to repay the wounds of my comrades and the women appropriately.
Of course, there was no chance of winning. Even the ultimate weapon, Heavenly Martial Formation, was effortlessly crushed by Hyulma. Using a nonsensical Mind’s Martial Art that hacked into the opponent’s mind’s world like a cyberpunk hacker.
What kind of realm is Hyeongyeong? It’s a state achieved through dedicating one’s life to the understanding that completes a small universe. A mind’s world realized by a master of Hyeongyeong does not easily allow others to intrude. That’s why spiritual arts like Spirit Possession Technique do not affect a Hyeongyeong master.
But Hyulma, being a master of the Boundary of Life and Death, broke through the mental firewall of the completed mind’s world.
I had managed to endure once, but it was impossible to withstand twice.
But what does it matter?
“Hyulma.”
I raised my sword. My legs shook. Hyulma’s gaze turned toward me. Under the red-hued Reverse Heaven, his dark hair fluttered in the wind. Hovering over the now death-saturated Baekdusan and the rotting, stinking surface of Heavenly Pool, Hyulma laughed.
“This boy also sounds like a small grown man. Today, I shall show you the sword of a grown man.”
“You’re still whining about being a small grown man.”
Hyulma looked at me after hearing my words.
He raised his hand. The energies of the heavens responded to his gesture. The sky rumbled and the earth quaked. The world resonated with him.
“To endure my Thousand Small Heaven World, quite impressive. I shall genuinely commend you. For giving me surprise, I shall permit the first strike. Struggle to your heart’s content.”
Hyulma chuckled. The starlight consuming half of his body sparkled.
I clenched my teeth. The Ten Years Polished One Sword appeared before me. As overwhelming Yang energy surged, it towered like Mount Everest.
[Disciple]
A familiar voice echoed in my ear. I turned my head.
There she was.
Saje.
Geomseong Yujinhwi.
She smiled at me with the beauty of the Most Beautiful in the World. The moment I saw her smile, my tense heart eased.
She took my trembling empty hand.
“I’m here.”
Saje said to me.
“It’s okay.”
She spoke. With a motherly smile filled with affection.
Hearing her words, my pounding heart gradually calmed. Hyulma, watching us, said,
“A touching bond between siblings. Primordial Sword Technique… Is this what his descendants are like? Quite tenacious.”
Hyulma’s entire body was enveloped in the cosmos.
“The excitement has died down. I shall deal with all of you right here.”
From behind Hyulma, the Thousand Hands emerged. A thousand grasping hands held a thousand stars.
[Disciple, do you remember the Primordial Unity Success Formulation?]
Saje said to me.
[I remember.]
It was the formulation Saje developed by blending the Heavenly Martial Formation that Hyulma had shattered on Baekdusan with Gongdong Sect Martial Arts.
[Using that formulation, we will implement the Primordial Void Technique to deal with Hyulma.]
Upon hearing Saje’s words, I bit my lip.
Primordial Void Technique.
I shared the technique with Saje.
If my genius Saje realized the hidden essence of the Primordial Sword Technique, she might even ascend to Boundary of Life and Death before me.
In the end, it didn’t turn out that way. But Saje understood the formulation of Primordial Void Technique.
Even though Saje had not reached Boundary of Life and Death, she figured out how to implement parts of the Primordial Void Technique through the Primordial Unity Success Formulation.
Hand in hand, we unfolded the Primordial Unity Success Formulation.
Vwooooooosh!
We simultaneously raised our Primordial Unity Energy Technique’s power. The Yin energy of Saje and my Yang energy resonated, vibrating the air.
The image of Reverse Taijitu was drawn on the ground. As the Yin and Yang reversed, our yin and yang energies reached overwhelming power.
Kaboom!
The energy infused with Reverse Taijitu pierced through the crimson sky.
[Void of Extremes]
Saje’s Mind’s Martial Art was unfurled. An empty wasteland filled with gray spread beside us.
Holding Saje’s hand, I manifested my own Mind’s Martial Art.
[Ten Years Polished One Sword]
A sword filled with extreme yang energy surged up alongside a grove of sturdy pine trees.
“I will remove you pesky little pests.”
Hyulma’s voice echoed. The trees and mountains trembled. The thousand stars within the Thousand Hands poured down ominously.
[Thousand Small Heaven World]
Again, Hyulma’s Mind’s Martial Art unfurled. When a thousand worlds of mind poured down upon us…
Saje initiated Ihap Sin-gong.
I simultaneously unfolded Ihap Sin-gong.
Together, we recited the essence of the Primordial Void Technique. The overture of yin-yang’s transformation resonated with the etched Reverse Taijitu on the ground.
KAPOW!
The world trembled.
Water and earth surged into the heavens, while clouds fell to the ground. Heaven and earth became intertwined. A scene that defied the laws of physics unfolded.
Primordial Void Technique.
The ultimate art left behind by the Primordial Sword Technique. The pinnacle of Ihap Sin-gong. Its remnants destabilized the universe imperfectly.
The flows of energy and power twisted. The starlight from a thousand Thousand Small Heaven World flickered irregularly.
With our eyes closed and harmonizing our Ihap Sin-gong, Saje and I controlled the Primordial Void Technique while manipulating the flow of energies and powers of this realm. The starlight of the Thousand Small Heaven World was akin to our mind’s worlds.
Controlling it was difficult. My head felt like it would burst. My lower dantian was heated.
[It’s okay. Disciple. You can do this.]
Nevertheless, it was possible with Saje.
We completely seized the control of the Thousand Small Heaven World. I gazed straight at Hyulma and launched the Thousand Small Heaven World back at him. Just when the thousand starlights rained down toward Hyulma…
“How unpleasant.”
Hyulma chuckled.
“The Primordial Void Technique. Haha, hehehe, ahahahahahah!!”
He raised his hand. The cosmos rose to form a sphere above his palm.
Hyulma’s flickering blood light surged toward us. He spoke.
“From that day by Payang Lake, three hundred years have passed. Do you think I have not prepared for your arts in these three hundred years?”
Hyulma declared. The cosmos in his hand trembled. Noise spread forth. He continued.
“Rejoice in glory. I shall show the insect-like Gongdong Sect a technique of a higher level.”
As his words ended and the starlight from Thousand Small Heaven World reached right before him, he chanted.
[Two Thousand Middle Heaven World]
With that, the Milky Way crashed down from the sky.