Chapter 305: Visitors to Green Forest Alliance
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“Ah…!”
Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang let out exclamations.
True Orthodox martial talents.
Those words resounded deeply in both their hearts.
Along with an exhilarating thrill.
Also.
Only now did they realize something.
KKWAK!
Seol Pan-gyo, having grasped the hidden meaning, clenched his fist tight.
‘So that’s how it was! Sect Master Cheol…’
The ultimate purpose of the test conducted earlier was to assess the cultivation of sword move subtleties that he and Mae Yak-bang had developed through their Discourse on Swords.
From the start, martial prowess was not the criterion.
Only one thing – their mindset.
That’s right.
It was to see the two’s sincere efforts.
Indeed, if the criterion for the personnel selection test had been limited to martial prowess, he and Mae Yak-bang would have been essentially unqualified.
Looking just at the caliber of Namgung Sang-rin, Hae Su-yeon, and Cui Lan who were also selected.
However, Cheol Ryu-heun had set a different criterion and given them an opportunity.
Seol Pan-gyo suddenly recalled Cheol Ryu-heun’s words from before.
-Discourse on Swords is very good cultivation. Especially for you, it’s more important than actual combat. You’ll understand if you try it. What my words mean. Remember. There’s no one better than you, and no one worse than you. If you deeply realize that, you can prepare a stepping stone for growth.
‘Stepping stone for growth meant this opportunity!’
Like Seol Pan-gyo, Mae Yak-bang also showed signs of realizing that part.
The two spoke in unison with moved expressions.
“Thank you! Sect Master Cheol!”
At that, Cheol Ryu-heun replied with his characteristic indifferent expression.
“The results of your Discourse on Swords were better than expected. You both polished the subtleties of your sword moves well. Now, take these.”
Immediately after, two bottles were placed on the desk.
Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang, having approached, each picked up a bottle.
Shaking them lightly, they could hear liquid sloshing inside.
Cheol Ryu-heun again threw out an indifferent voice.
“It’s Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid.”
At that, Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang were surprised.
“Ah!”
“Heavens…!”
Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid was an elixir said to change according to the consumer’s internal power attribute and bestow energy.
Like Great Restoration Pills that displayed great efficacy regardless of internal or external cultivation.
Since ancient times, Blue Stone Flowing Oil was considered the best among liquid types.
Next was Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid, which became widely known when Evil Emperor Yul-Cheon consumed it in the past.
“Drink it right here. Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid’s medicinal effects only activate after more than two double-hours pass after consumption. The real Reconstruction of the Body work starts then.”
“Yes! Understood!”
Having answered in unison, Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang drank the Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid with expressions of mixed emotions.
KKOLGKAK KKOLGKAK.
‘Wow!’
They admired inwardly.
The taste and smell of Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid were incredibly sweet.
To a degree that couldn’t be expressed in words.
When both had emptied their bottles.
TAK.
Cheol Ryu-heun placed something else on the desk.
“This time, the taste will be quite bitter. The smell might be a bit disgusting too.”
The gazes of Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang, drawn by his voice, rested on the desk.
Two pellets.
Pills of appropriate size.
However, one was blue and the other was indigo.
“Sect Master, are these different elixirs?”
When Seol Pan-gyo asked while tilting his head, Cheol Ryu-heun opened his mouth apathetically.
“I made them by combining various things. Customized for both your bodies.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Lots of good things went in. Essence Water Armored Bug, Light Eye Fish Roe, Plain Hawk Inner Core, Vermillion Fox Blood, White Silk Gold, Clear Body Hidden Yarrow and so on… anyway, I threw them all in and condensed them into pills.”
Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang were dumbfounded at those words.
‘Wha! So, so many things into one…?’
‘Then isn’t that overusing them? Will our bodies handle it? Now that I’m about to eat it, it’s scary…’
Regardless, Cheol Ryu-heun said indifferently.
“Chew thoroughly and swallow. They’re special efficacy medicines to support Myriad Inducing Essence Liquid’s effects and maximize the final achievement.”
Seol Pan-gyo was somewhat relieved hearing those words.
Yes, probably it was made with a formulation method only Cheol Ryu-heun knew, so he could erase his anxiety.
Though truthfully, the real problem was what would happen afterward.
Didn’t Cheol Ryu-heun say earlier?
That the process of changing their bodies would be excruciatingly painful to the point of death…
Whether the taste was bitter or the smell was disgusting, in reality, that was nothing.
Indeed, they could endure anything.
Seol Pan-gyo and Mae Yak-bang exchanged glances and swiftly put the pills in their mouths.
But then.
“Uk!”
“Uuup!”
Both their expressions became extremely contorted.
Following that.
KKULLEONG.
Their throats moved greatly.
As if they were about to vomit.
Even their complexions were pale.
Their eyes were crying out in place of their mouths.
UUUK! I feel like dying! How do I swallow this?
While chewing into small pieces to swallow, it felt like qi deviation would come first.
Eventually the two even trembled all over.
It was a struggle to somehow endure the retching.
On top of that, even tears and runny noses…
Cheol Ryu-heun, watching that, scratched the back of his head.
“Was my formulation wrong? Hmm, I didn’t know it would be that awful. This could go badly.”
You’re saying that when we’ve already put it in our mouths and are chewing!
* * *
Mount Apo.
A mountain range in the southern part of the Hubei region and the territory of Green Forest Alliance, the great power of the Unorthodox Jianghu.
Taktap Peak, the highest peak in the mountains, was currently in a state where countless crowds had gathered.
Why?
Because an unexpected group had visited Green Forest Alliance.
Hundreds of alliance members had formed a circle and were closely watching the three people in the center of the plaza surrounded by wooden palisades.
However.
Even though this many people were gathered in one place, not even a small breath could be heard.
There was one reason.
The presence of the three uninvited guests.
One man and two women – among them, the intangible aura possessed by the young man presumed to be in his twenties was truly astonishing.
Cold Plum Sword Bu Do-nam, who was mixed in the crowd, swallowed his dry spit.
‘Terrifying.’
His expression, as he muttered inwardly, was filled with tension.
The reaction of his friend Flying Eagle Sword Dal-tak beside him was the same.
Other people’s expressions were no different either.
Everyone in the hall was intimidated by the young man’s astonishing aura.
At most, was he about twenty-one or twenty-two?
His attire was extremely ordinary.
He had wrapped commonly seen gray clothes around his body.
But even such attire couldn’t hide his innate extraordinary and heroic bearing.
Everyone felt as if their breathing was blocked just looking at him.
Especially the alliance’s leadership – the core masters who managed each mountain stronghold – keenly felt it.
The unfathomable martial realm of the uninvited young man…
It was a truly fearsome presence that overwhelmed all under heaven.
How to describe it?
It was as if he contained an endless sky within his body.
His appearance was also outstanding.
Facial features handsome enough to evoke reverence and rapture.
To simply describe him as beautiful would be insufficient.
The word “perfect” seemed to exist only for him.
With all sides quiet, someone let out a soft voice.
“It’s like… a masterpiece completed by a world-class artisan.”
There were also those quietly nodding in agreement.
However.
Only the sword the young man carried evoked a strange sense of fear.
The decoration on the sword hilt that evoked the face of a chilling demon god.
Those who knew, knew.
That sword was a divine artifact symbolizing high office within Heavenly Demon Cult.
That’s right.
The young man’s identity was none other than Heavenly Demon Cult’s highest-ranking demonic person in name and reality – the current Grand Prelate, Ultimate Heaven Demon Emperor Gun Mu-ak.
He had visited Green Forest Alliance without any prior notice.
The women who accompanied him were naturally Left Attendant of Little-Face Bell Demoness Eun Yi-bi and Right Attendant of Delusional Seductive Demoness Ya Baek-ji.
At that moment.
Gun Mu-ak, his hands clasped behind his back, opened his mouth.
“Not yet?”
Simultaneously, everyone in the hall flinched.
It was instinctive reactions.
The dignity of an absolute hegemon.
With just his voice alone, he evoked an unprecedented demon god that brought all the world to submission.
Suddenly, everyone thought.
White Peak Sword Sect Master Cheol Ryu-heun had faced such a person…
Encountering him in person like this, they immediately understood.
That he was a demonic person difficult to handle unless it was Cheol Ryu-heun.
A Green Forest Alliance member standing to one side carefully received his words.
“He will… come out soon.”
Was his age late twenties, early thirties?
Though his face was darkly tanned, he was a rather handsome man.
His body was also exceptional.
His shoulders were spread wide like mountain peaks, the muscles on his chest were thick as if dozens of cords were woven together, and his two hands looked sturdy enough to pierce through iron plates.
His name was Yeon Geol.
At twenty-nine years old this year, he was the youngest stronghold master who managed Green Tiger Stronghold and a master known by the epithet Crouching Tiger Swordsman.
An expelled disciple from Emei Sect, he was among the upper-tier warriors within Green Forest Alliance.
There were fewer than ten alliance members more outstanding than him in total.
However.
Even such Yeon Geol had intimidated eyes when facing Gun Mu-ak, the current Heavenly Demon Cult Grand Prelate.
‘Huuu… meeting his eyes makes even my flesh tremble. This pressure that I didn’t even experience when fighting Sun Moon Demon Cult…’
The moment Yeon Geol muttered that inwardly.
“Make way.”
Someone’s thick-sounding voice was heard.
Immediately after.
CHEOCHEOCHEOK, CHEOCHEOCHEOCHEOK…
The personnel positioned in front of Gun Mu-ak’s group rapidly parted left and right.
Through the gap, two people walked out with heavy steps.
Of the two, the leading figure had the appearance of a renegade monk.
A massive build resembling a giant bear, frizzy curly hair like black thread bunched together, and a beard grown spiky like a hedgehog.
It was the appearance of the current Green Forest Alliance Leader and one of the Six Polar Stars of Hubei – Green Forest Monk Gung Roe.
The figure following behind him was a man in his fifties.
Green Bear Stronghold Master Woo Sa-hyo, whose Jianghu epithet was Pointed Tower Sword.
An expelled disciple from Conversion Soul Sword Pavilion, an Unorthodox power in the Anhui region, he was the second-ranked warrior within the alliance.
With a bald head and thick sideburns, he boasted a massive build equal to Gung Roe.
Also.
The sword at his waist was also very large and long.
A form that could be called a strange sword.
It was a blade shaped to evoke a pointed tower.
In an instant, Eun Yi-bi and Ya Baek-ji conversed through Sound Transmission.
That referred to Great Demon-Slaying Annihilation Technique, the supreme learning of Gwang-jong who had been one of Shaolin Temple’s Eight Patriarchs.
Ya Baek-ji, wearing a faint smile, sent another Sound Transmission.
At that moment, Gung Roe stopped walking.
The gap with Gun Mu-ak’s group was roughly five or six paces.
In that instant, Green Bear Stronghold Master Pointed Tower Sword Woo Sa-hyo saw an illusion.
‘My…!’
A thick darkness was spreading widely over this land.
Both sky and earth seemed submerged in the darkness of void.
The sun was conspicuously sparkling hanging in the sky, yet this place somehow felt like endless darkness was squirming.
The series of feelings assaulting his chest were like that.
All of that was created by Gun Mu-ak’s formidable presence.
It was his first time.
Encountering a person who bestowed such an optical illusion…
Gung Roe was also inwardly impressed.
‘Impressive.’
Was this the descent of the demon god who presides over the abyss of infinite torment?
They were merely standing face to face, yet it felt like his entire body was sinking deep into the earth.
Gung Roe, having forced away that feeling, asked while sending a heavy gaze.
“I’ve heard about you from Sect Master Cheol. But what brings you here? Perhaps you were curious about this one’s techniques optimized for combating demonic arts?”
Simultaneously with those words, Gun Mu-ak opened his mouth expressionlessly.
“Great Demon-Slaying Annihilation Technique… yes, I am curious.”