Chapter 132: One Dao Illuminating the Heavens

===================
Translated by Frog in the Well

Read it only at Nineheavens.org
===================

It was dizzying.

By the time Jin So-myeong came to his senses, it was already a different world.

Even in the midst of being disoriented due to a headache, he tried to grasp the situation first, but it was not easy.

‘Possession?’

Currently, he was residing in some man’s body, but he could not move even a single finger at will.

It was not that he had suffered any particular injury or the like, it just felt as though he simply lacked the authority itself to control the body.

The only thing he could do was merely think.

If he added one more thing, it was also possible to see and hear as the owner of the body led.

However…

‘What an incredible body.’

The senses themselves were on a completely different level from Jin So-myeong’s. The range detected by the Divine Sense transcended imagination.

10 km, 20 km, 40 km, 80 km…

His Divine Sense expanded endlessly. Every movement within an absurd distance. He could clearly feel even a single ant crawling around.

However, it was too excessive.

Because the information provided by the transcendent cognitive power was too much, he could not digest even a quarter of it.

His thoughts kept cutting off. He forced his constantly blurring consciousness to hold together.

Although he had barely accepted only a portion of the injected information, his mind felt as if it would explode. He had to do his absolute best just to endure without fainting.

‘At least the Nascent Soul stage… maybe even higher.’

If his expectation was correct, the owner of this body would be a Soul Formation stage cultivator, who was considered a legend.

Even then, he was not an ordinary cultivator. Looking at the sword worn at his waist, he seemed to be a sword cultivator.

‘Good heavens, a Soul Formation stage sword cultivator.’

Just how strong would he be? While imagining it as if possessed, a chilling thought suddenly occurred to him.

‘He hasn’t noticed that I’m residing here, right…?’

Although it was not his intention, if his possession was discovered, he would likely not meet a very good end.

‘No, in the first place, what is the situation now? Where is this?’

The man presumed to be a Soul Formation stage sword cultivator was walking without rest.

Although that was all, the surrounding scenery flowed backward and disappeared in an instant.

Should he say he was walking by folding the earth? It felt like watching the Earth-Shrinking Art, which was said to cover ten thousand li in a single step.

Just then.

From a certain moment after crossing the wasteland, he began to feel countless living creatures in the surroundings.

From caterpillars hiding between leaves to ordinary mortals who were not cultivators, to demonic beasts with sizes as massive as mountains.

There were so many living beings that they could be called billions of living souls, but strangely, the emotion they were feeling was identical as just one.

Namely, fear.

Looking at the giant dragon floating in the sky…no, an imugi that had not yet become a dragon…they were trembling in terror.

Rumble…!

Dark clouds enveloped in lightning rolled in. The river channels that flowed straight overflowed in reverse, and even mountains collapsed from an earthquake powerful enough to make the earth fluctuate.

The debris of the split and shattered mountains defied gravity and floated up. What was more, such mountains were not just one or two, but at least hundreds or thousands.

‘This is insane.’

Literally heaven-shaking and earth-shattering. The entire world was being turned upside down, but what was even more absurd was that the imugi had not yet done anything.

It was simply that the energy it possessed was so immense,

That merely by releasing its energy, it had caused a phenomenon where it would not be strange if the world went to ruin.

‘Is that possible?’

If Jin So-myeong’s spiritual power was compared to a puddle of rainwater, the energy the imugi emitted in a single instant was like the sea.

By what on earth did it manage to employ so much energy?

The scale of handling power itself was on a completely different dimension.

Within this absurd sight.

Perhaps thanks to the transcendent senses of the possessed body, the imugi’s intention was clearly felt.

Sacrificing billions of living souls to refine a cintamani. Thereby ascending to heaven and going to a higher world.

This was precisely the reason why the countless living souls in the vicinity were crying out in terror. Because the moment the imugi established its will, they would all die.

However, not everyone was consumed by fear.

There was exactly one exception.

The Soul Formation stage sword cultivator in whom Jin So-myeong resided. He did not tremble even before the scenery of the world’s destruction.

Rather, he was enraged.

“Why are humans so weak?”

Looking at the crying people who prostrated themselves and prayed, saying the heavens were angry, he pitied them while simultaneously hating it.

-You. Do you dare intend to stop me?

As lightning burst from the dark clouds covering the sky, a thunderous roar echoed. It was the will of the imugi, which emitted eyes glowing red like blood.

The ominous aura became increasingly thicker. It felt as if lightning would pour down at any moment to turn the world to ash.

Yet the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator still did not even reply.

Without giving even a shred of attention to the imugi, he only looked at the humans.

-Star-Shattering True Monarch. If that is your will, I will no longer respect you! Die along with the human race you love so dearly!

*Crash!!*

The dark clouds that covered a radius of hundreds of kilometers rotated in a spiral and then gathered to a single point.

Right above the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator, it became a sphere that was endlessly compressed and harbored red lightning.

Simultaneously, the mountain debris defying gravity and floating in the empty air also gathered toward the sphere. The massive mass of thousands of mountains merged together, clumping again and again, and continued to expand.

The giant meteor created in that way.

Enveloped in blood-red lightning, it began to fall vertically.

‘Ah.’

A spell of tremendous scale that could be called a miracle; just looking at it chilled his liver and gall.

Jin So-myeong had an intuition. If that meteor fell, destruction on a continental scale would occur…

Instantly.

He was ejected from the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator’s body. As the Divine Sense that had provided transcendent cognitive power vanished, a sense of exhaustion washed over him.

Simultaneously,

All pressure disappeared at once. The vivid senses blurred. It felt as though reality was instantly dyed into a dream.

His regret was also brief.

The Soul Formation stage sword cultivator finally turned his gaze. Strangely, he looked not at the imugi, but at Jin So-myeong.

A feeling as if their eyes had met somehow.

“Watch closely.”

As if it was not an illusion, he even spoke to him.

Holding the sword with an incredibly natural movement as if it was meant to be, the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator spoke in a clear voice.

“Since my Dao has filled the world, this is called One Dao Illuminating the Heavens.”

A declaration like reciting a poem, followed by a single swing.

It cut and split everything apart…

Not only the meteor falling toward the ground, but even the imugi that was trying to sacrifice billions of living souls while emitting an overbearing aura…all of it.

Thousand slashes and ten thousand cuts; in a split second of flashing, they were split into thousands and tens of thousands of pieces and lost their power.

“Ah.”

Before he knew it, his voice came out.

By the time Jin So-myeong came to his senses, he had already returned to the cliff engraved with the sword mark.

The heaven and earth were peaceful. As if the event he had just experienced was but a dream…

Just then.

A strange vibration rang out, and then the cliff engraved with the sword mark collapsed completely. As if time that had stood still had finally flowed, it crumbled and turned into dust finer than sand.

Rumble!

Loud roars echoed from all directions. The mountain ranges surrounding the cliff also met a similar end. Losing vitality, they became crumbly dust and fluttered in the weak wind, collapsing completely.

The sword mark he had found by crossing the desert disappeared before his eyes, but he did not feel any regret.

“One Dao Illuminating the Heavens.”

This was because his entire mind had been captivated by the single strike the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator had shown.

Jin So-myeong, who muttered only the four words “One Dao Illuminating the Heavens” for a long time, grabbed his sword.

*Clang!*

A gust of sword wind cut through the empty air, and the cliff remnants that had piled up like dust created a vortex.

“Was it like this…?”

He fell into a state of selflessness like a person possessed by something. Forgetting all distracting thoughts, he only swung the sword.

In order to grasp even a fragment of the sword left behind by the Soul Formation stage sword cultivator who was called the Star-Shattering True Monarch…

***

Half a year later.

Im So-un, the chief disciple of Perfected Red Heaven at the Heavenly Elixir Sect, burned a Voice Transmission Talisman.

How many two-hour periods had he waited?

Only when it was about time for his brow to furrow in anxiety did a man wearing a blue dharma robe appear.

“Why are you so late? I should have told you to wait nearby.”

“I was a bit busy. I had something to prepare.”

“A storage pouch? No, it’s a beast-taming pouch.”

The man in blue gently shook a palm-sized pouch as if showing it off, which was a beast-taming pouch…a storage pouch modified so that spiritual beasts could live inside.

“Khehehe. Look closer.”

The man in blue smirked and chuckled, which was somehow an unpleasant laugh.

Im So-un, who furrowed his brow, inspected what was inside the beast-taming pouch…

The moment he saw the contents, he could not help but be horrified.

“Are you insane?”

As many as thirty people were bound in a haggard state. They were diverse, including men, women, young, and old, and their facial features resembled one another, looking as if they were related by blood.

Im So-un bit his lips.

“Those people, they couldn’t have been kidnapped from the Wu Family, could they?”

“Oh! As expected of my friend. You are very quick-witted.”

“This dog-like demonic cultivator offspring…!”

Once his fluster subsided, anger surged.

Because of the fact that he had kidnapped innocent, uninvolved people? Not at all! Im So-un originally did not care about such things.

It was just…

“What if Wu Yeong-jin notices and guards against us! To think you’d do such a thing!”

“Do not worry. I worked quite delicately, so we won’t be caught for the time being.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Keh. You’re so fearful even though you’re not a little girl. Do you think I’ve only done this once or twice? Just trust me.”

When Im So-un glared with an untrusting gaze, the man in blue let out a sigh.

“I said I’m sure. I’ve set it all up. Going to harvest spiritual herbs, going to participate in an auction in a distant immortal city, and so on. The people around them won’t even know they’ve been kidnapped.”

“Tsk. So what do you plan to use those fellows for? Surely it’s not because you were bored of waiting?”

Although it was an absurd question, the man before his eyes was a demonic monster who had reached the Golden Core stage with an atrocious demonic cultivation method.

If he could raise his realm, he was someone who could sacrifice thousands of humans as living offerings, so Im So-un could not let his guard down.

“Sigh, you have some prejudice against me. It is true that I have learned a demonic cultivation method, but I tend not to engage in useless slaughter.”

“Stop talking nonsense and tell me the reason you kidnapped them.”

“Among demonic secret arts, there is a secret art that condenses and explodes screams squeezed out by pain to shock the divine soul. If it is the scream of someone connected by blood, the effect is several times more powerful.”

“…Are you saying you’ll torture those fellows to gather their screams? To use that secret art on Wu Yeong-jin?”

“Yes. Wu Yeong-jin will be severely injured anyway, so the moment he hears the screams, he won’t be able to keep his senses. At that time, once you, who had infiltrated pretending to be an ally, take action, it will be over.”

Joy replaced the rage on Im So-un’s face.

Honestly, he admired him inwardly. Because hearing it, it was a pretty good method.

“Good. On top of that, let’s use them as hostages. Then Wu Yeong-jin can be easily dealt with.”

“Oh my, holding hostages too? That’s a bit harsh. As someone who is ostensibly a disciple of the Heavenly Elixir Sect, do you have no shame?”

“Humph. Don’t play the gentleman when you would have done it anyway even if I hadn’t said it. More importantly, it’s almost five years now, so what happened to Perfected Wuyang?”

“Hmm… it’s almost certain. Perfected Wuyang is already dead.”

“Almost?”

“Ten to one.”

It meant it was not absolute…

Im So-un and the man in blue, who stared at each other in silence, nodded their heads at the same time.

They had decided to take the risk and target the Beautiful Sky Grass-Leaf Herb.

“Let’s begin.”

“Whew, I don’t like gambling with my life, but it can’t be helped. If we delay any longer, other competitors might intervene…”

The Nascent Condensation Pill, and the Nascent Soul stage.

Im So-un, who was imagining the brilliant future that would unfold before long…that sweeter-than-anything day…licked his lips.

“I will lure them, so you take your brothers and go ahead to…”

***

Meanwhile.

At the southern gate of Vast Wilderness Immortal City, a young man wearing a gray Taoist robe with a sword worn at his waist appeared.

Although he looked quite tired, covered in sand and dust, his eyes alone were brilliant.

Jin So-myeong.

Having crossed the desert, he returned to the city.

Enjoyed the chapter?

If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!

Support on Ko-fi