Chapter 10
Chapter 10.
Secret Realm.
Golden Ring Immortal Paradise.
The laws of the Secret Realm.
The rules governing its existence.
I pieced together what I’d inferred from the cultivators’ words and came to a firm conclusion.
The place where I was born.
This was Golden Ring Immortal Paradise.
The laws here prohibited beings of the Third Realm or higher from entering.
Then this Secret Realm itself was at least Third Realm.
In other words, no Nascent Soul cultivators or anyone above them could exist here.
‘In the world of xianxia, there are old monsters who forcibly suppress their realms to enter, but even then, I can handle them.’
Even if such beings existed, they wouldn’t be free to move about under the Silver Veil Desert’s ward.
In that case, it was best to eliminate them before they fully broke through the ward. The ward meant nothing to me, but to them, it was no different from poison.
I had a good chance of winning.
“Who would’ve thought I’d end up doing something HumansSuck would like.”
I slipped a talisman between my fingers and recited its incantation.
I crossed the Silver Veil Desert, closing the distance until they were within reach. As I tossed the talisman, I drew my saber and sent the cultivators’ heads flying.
*
A few minutes before Gyo Ran launched her surprise attack.
There was someone who could guide others through the ward known as the Silver Veil Desert in Golden Ring Immortal Paradise.
Her name was Seo Geum.
And her twin younger sister was Seo Hyeon.
Seo Geum and Seo Hyeon.
They were twin sisters born on the same day, at the same hour, and were members of the Rat Yao clan.
The Seo family had been masters of Ghost-Gate Evasion (鬼門遁甲) for generations, and their bloodline, known as Heavenly Blood, was famous for finding paths through wards and formations.
But perhaps because of their bloodline, their clan had never been powerful.
It was the fate of a guide.
Though they knew the way, it was always a path meant to guide someone else; the Seo family had never been able to walk a path of their own.
Rat (鼠).
In other words, it was the innate limitation of being a rat.
That was one of the reasons the Seo twins had sought out Golden Ring Immortal Paradise.
For cultivation, and for their clan.
They thought that if they found a path into Golden Ring Immortal Paradise and obtained a fortuitous opportunity, they might avert the Seo family’s decline.
“Big Sis! Can we really do this?”
“We can. We’re together, aren’t we?”
Thus, Seo Geum and Seo Hyeon sought out the Secret Realm, which only opened on the day of an eclipse, when the timing aligned and the Golden Ring rose.
Even within the vast Secret Realm, divination had revealed that a fortuitous opportunity lay at its easternmost edge.
After enduring every manner of hardship, they found this place.
They were overjoyed when they finally found it, but that joy lasted only a moment.
The Seo family had always been unlucky.
They ran into a group of human cultivators.
No, these were people who had secretly followed the path they’d found.
Once again, the Seo family had ended up guiding the way.
The twins, Second Realm yao, fought desperately, but it was hopeless to resist a group with two Core Formation cultivators.
So they were captured, and just before they were killed,
it was discovered that the Seo bloodline carried Heavenly Blood, and they were forced to lead the way through the Silver Veil Desert’s ward.
Thud!
Seo Geum, kicked in the back, fell forward.
Before her, the sinister Silver Veil Desert rippled, fluttering so close it seemed about to brush her face. Seo Geum’s knees trembled, and she wet herself.
“Hahaha! Look at this thing. A mere yao beast is so scared of the ward she’s pissed herself!”
“Even a lowly beast knows to fear the ward. A Second Realm yao beast like her would have her soul obliterated the moment she touched it, and wouldn’t even enter the cycle of reincarnation.”
“Big Sis!!”
“You! Stay still. If your sister dies after they drain her blood, you’ll be next. We only kept you alive because you might be useful.”
Seo Geum nodded, her face deathly pale.
Suppressing her cold anger at last, she said:
“I’ll do it.”
“Big Sis...”
As the Seo family’s eldest daughter, Seo Geum was a Yao Immortal who bore the clan’s responsibilities and burdens.
She was different from the much freer Seo Hyeon.
Seo Geum loved Seo Hyeon’s freedom.
So she endured.
Once again, she squeezed out her vital blood and found a fleeting path through the Silver Veil Desert.
To an onlooker, it even looked as if she were clearing away the ward.
But in truth, she was only finding a tiny gap and widening it. Even that was astonishing, of course—an achievement for a Second Realm Yao Immortal.
It would have been impossible without the mysterious bloodline of the yao.
But Seo Geum looked terrible at a glance.
As time passed, her skin grew whiter and whiter, and her lips began to turn purple. The skin beneath her eyes darkened as if she were near death, and Seo Geum had long since realized her fate.
‘They won’t let us live. They’ll kill my little sister, too.’
She had no hope of surviving.
She had lost too much vital blood.
But her younger sister was different.
If she could create an opening, her sister alone might find her own path out of this ward-covered place.
She waited for the right moment.
The center of the ward.
To reach a gap in the ward, blocked off on every side.
“Seo Hyeon!!”
And that moment was now.
Suddenly, Seo Geum shouted as if squeezing out the last of her strength.
At Seo Geum’s sudden outburst, as she scattered yao qi as if staking her life, the sect elders who had brought their disciples stepped forward.
“That yao bitch is up to something!”
In that fleeting opening,
Seo Geum conveyed her true feelings to her sister with her eyes.
At least you must survive.
Survive, escape this place, and keep the family line alive.
Sometimes, twins can understand each other’s true feelings without a word.
“Big Sis...!”
It’s all right.
There’s no way they can escape this ward-covered Silver Veil Desert anyway.
With every path blocked and nowhere to go, they’d hold out until the gradually shifting ward of the Silver Veil Desert wore them down and killed them.
She had come all this way for this very purpose. She had never intended to die opening a path for them.
There was just one thing weighing on her mind.
Her twin younger sister, Seo Hyeon.
‘In the cultivation world, twins are a symbol of ill fortune. My beloved little sister. Since your big sister is going first, may the light of your cultivation path shine brightly.’
While Seo Geum disrupted the ward, Seo Hyeon held back her tears and squeezed out her own vital blood to open a path.
‘So don’t look so sad. Right now, I’ve never felt more at ease.’
Now that death was right before her,
she was freer than she had ever been.
There were no family responsibilities, no burden of being an older sister, nothing.
She was simply reveling in the freedom of existence.
‘Really... It was too brief.’
As Seo Geum gave a hollow laugh, a Core Formation cultivator’s sword came flying toward her.
Seo Geum slowly closed her eyes.
At least she’d saved her sister.
‘This is...’
A good life as a yao.
“...?”
But then, something unexpected happened.
The life that should have ended did not.
The Core Formation cultivator’s sword should have sliced through her neck, but nothing happened.
When she cautiously opened her eyes in confusion,
“Huh?”
A fountain of blood was spraying before her eyes.
The Core Formation cultivator’s head had been severed.
Along with violet lightning, Seo Geum saw the figure of a young girl.
A young girl with pale skin and silver hair tied behind her. But the pair of horns sprouting from her forehead and her purple eyes revealed that she was a Yao Immortal.
‘A Yao Immortal who can decapitate a Core Formation cultivator in one slash...’
She couldn’t be an ordinary being.
And she had clearly appeared from within the ward.
From within the ward of the Silver Veil Desert, which rippled in every direction.
The meaning was obvious.
The master of this ward.
Or else a being who guarded the place within it.
“Ha, haha. Hahahaha...!”
Along with fear, Seo Geum felt a rush of satisfaction.
She was going to die anyway.
If there was anything she regretted, it was dying without seeing them die, but now she was getting to witness it.
And the being was so beautiful, too. She couldn’t have asked for more. There wasn’t a single regret left in her heart.
Seo Geum bowed low before her and spoke.
“Please punish me as you see fit for daring to trespass upon your forbidden domain.”
At the same time as she bowed,
Sshhk.
Gyo Ran glanced around, shook the blood from her saber, and tossed the talisman she held between her fingers.
“A Chain Lightning Talisman...? Damn! Everyone, dodge!!”
Then, the moment the Chain Lightning Talisman emitted an eerie yao aura in midair,
Crackle-crackle-crackle—!!
Successive streaks of violet lightning shot in every direction, tearing apart the Foundation Establishment disciples gathered there one after another.
“How can this be... A mere Second Realm talisman has that kind of power? What in the world is a Chain Lightning Talisman?”
“I, too, have only heard of it in ancient books. It’s a lost spirit talisman that requires special, highly purified thunder qi to create, so no one makes them anymore. And yet, something like that is in the hands of a Yao General...”
Eight Qi Refining disciples and two Foundation Establishment disciples were slaughtered in an instant.
“Even if it’s a lightning talisman, it shouldn’t have that kind of power. How...!”
Suddenly, the elder’s eyes widened.
A nameless insect had fallen where the talisman manifested.
The insect, crawling around as if it had lost its wings, unmistakably carried the energy of thunder.
‘Could it be a Talisman-Wing Insect?’
If so, that explained its power.
In any case, all that remained were one Core Formation elder and two Foundation Establishment disciples.
He had to act.
“E-Elder...”
“What should we do...?”
After an elder and several fellow disciples were slaughtered in an instant, fear filled the Foundation Establishment disciples’ eyes.
“Get a grip. We were caught by surprise. It’s only a Yao General. If we respond calmly, there’s no reason we can’t beat her.”
“But in a place like this... we can’t even fight properly, can we?”
“.....”
The Foundation Establishment disciple was right.
They were trapped inside the ward, where they couldn’t move recklessly.
And yet she moved in and out of it as if it were her home.
Hadn’t she appeared out of nowhere, cut off the Core Formation elder’s head, and slaughtered the Qi Refining disciples with a single talisman?
The situation was truly desperate.
On top of that, she immediately disappeared back into the ward.
They couldn’t tell where she was or where she would appear next. They were mice trapped in a jar.
‘Judging by her speed and yao energy, she must be a dual cultivator of body and magic. And to make matters worse, her cultivation and primary technique both involve thunder qi, renowned for its power...’
Moreover, it was violet thunder qi, unlike anything he had ever seen. Even the brief glimpse he’d gotten showed that it held extraordinary yao energy.
Even the Core Formation elder felt the spark of fear kindle into a blazing fire in his heart.
It was then.
“Aaaah!!”
One of the Foundation Establishment disciples screamed.
“What is it?!”
The Yao General was nowhere to be seen.
“I-I think the ward got him!”
With his life in danger, he had let his guard down against the ward.
He’d touched the Silver Veil Desert’s ward as it fluttered in the wind.
It was his right arm.
But that alone made the veins all over his body bulge, and as his vitality was sucked away, his entire right arm began to rot.
“Cut off his arm!”
When the elder formed a hand seal, a sword made of spiritual energy appeared and swiftly severed the disciple’s right arm. But the true essence he had already lost couldn’t be restored; he gasped for breath, his eyes rolling back as he hovered between life and death.
“Hahaha, hahahaha!! Serves you right, humans!”
It was Seo Geum.
Seeing her dying and still speaking with such glee made the Core Formation elder’s face flush with anger.
“You wretched...!”
Just as he flared up,
Shhk.
With a chilling sound, another Foundation Establishment disciple collapsed. Only a blade had darted out of the ward, severing the disciple’s neck.
The Core Formation elder closed the eyes of his disciple, whose body lay there with his eyes still open.
“May your next life be better.”
Crunch!
He personally ended the suffering of the disciple who had lost an arm and was gasping his last.
“Fine, my cultivation ends here. I am Pi Seok-do, an elder of the Ghost Gate Sect! Unknown Yao General, what is your name?! I hope you’re not such a coward that you can’t even tell me your name!!”
The Core Formation elder, Pi Seok-do, took a small tower from his robe.
It was his personal Dharma Treasure, the Four-Lotus Pagoda.
The pagoda spun in his hand, gradually growing larger.
Four lotus blossoms supported the pagoda as it slowly grew enormous. Then, when he opened his mouth and spat out vital blood, its aura grew even more powerful.
In an instant, it even distorted space within the ward of the Silver Veil Desert, releasing an extraordinary power.
“Ugh!”
Before long, a subtle pressure spread over the area. It grew stronger and pressed down on his whole body. Seo Geum couldn’t withstand it and was forced to the ground, feeling as if every bone in her body would break.
“Come out and face me! You Yao General who won’t even reveal your name! If you want to hide like a rat in that ward for the rest of your life, then stay there! Even if you don’t have the face to show your parents and master, that filthy...”
Just then,
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
Along with a thunderous roar,
Crack!
A small flash of light grazed past him.
“Huh?”
Crash!
The ward of the Silver Veil Desert shattered.
The elder’s vision blurred amid the Four-Lotus Pagoda breaking apart and falling to pieces.
As his vision dropped helplessly,
he saw a girl holding a saber wrapped in violet lightning.
Beautiful shards of glass fell through the air.
Scattered sunlight glittered.
For an instant, his eyes met the mysterious gaze of the Yao Immortal, like a dream.
Her lips parted ever so slightly.
“Gyo Ran.”
The name of the girl who had shattered even the ward of the Silver Veil Desert was Gyo Ran (蛟瀾).
Golden Ring Immortal Paradise (金環仙鄕).
She was the master of the forbidden ground in the east.