Chapter 367: Upheaval (1)
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― Unauthorized Dao power detected. Defense system activated.
The constantly surfacing letters from the Martial Talent Shop threw me into confusion.
I did not know what was happening to me right now, but the expression of the immortal before me was changing by the moment.
“……What is this status? There are very few divine statuses capable of revealing this level of divine might.”
The immortal spoke only words that people could not understand. Looking at the Private Martial Union Leader, Fighting Exalt, and Dark Exalt, they also seemed unaware of why the immortal was flustered. Being mortals like me, they seemed unable to sense it.
However, the immortal’s eyes were definitely pursuing something behind me. Whatever was behind me was clearly visible to him.
“I have dared to commit an insolence. I beg you, please forgive my disrespect.”
The immortal even struck his head to the ground and prostrated himself before me. At the sudden turn of events, everyone was utterly stunned. The immortal who had prostrated vanished the moment we blinked. By all appearances, he had fled in a desperate hurry.
“……It’s dizzying.”
I muttered. The others looked just as dizzy, but I had much more to think about.
I had roughly realized that the Martial Talent Shop was an arrangement beyond the bounds of common sense, but I had not known it possessed this kind of function as well.
It was something I had been half certain of, but now it had truly become clear. The one who had created this Martial Talent Shop was an immortal of the upper realm, and its finding me was no coincidence.
“The situation has become somewhat awkward, hasn’t it?”
Seeing that everyone was at a loss for words and did not know how to act, I stepped forward first.
The one whose eyes were wandering the most was the Private Martial Union Leader. Having believed solely in that immortal to come all the way to the heart of enemy territory, he was left all alone when the immortal suddenly fled.
Naturally, everyone’s eyes focused on the Union Leader. The Union Leader had undoubtedly brought the immortal intending to kill the Fighting Exalt and Dark Exalt, and if possible, even me. But now, his means of killing had vanished, leaving only himself. It could not be a more embarrassing situation.
“What should we do?”
Jang Gwang-yeong asked in a low voice.
“Who knows.”
At the gazes of the Dark Exalt and Fighting Exalt, Yu Il-su flinched. Though the Union Leader was a renowned master himself, there were now three people before him who were even greater masters.
“What would be good to do? Union Leader.”
“…….”
Yu Il-su could not speak. It was probably because asking for mercy was pathetic, while telling them to kill him was terrifying.
“Asking what he has to say seems mean. It would be better for us to simply handle it.”
The Dark Exalt spoke coldly. Ultimately, they were unorthodox figures.
Even orthodox martial artists would kill someone who tried to kill them without hesitation. These men would be even more so.
“Is that so. Is it better for us to decide?”
“Indeed.”
Jang Gwang-yeong seemed to ponder as he stroked his chin with his finger. The Union Leader looked at his mouth with desperate eyes.
“Let us send him back alive.”
And unexpected words came from Jang Gwang-yeong’s mouth. Unlike my surprise, the Dark Exalt remained calm.
“Is that so.”
“Is that really alright?”
I asked. The Private Martial Union Leader was an undeniable enemy. He was so to me from the start, and even more so to the Dark Exalt and Fighting Exalt from now on.
And more terrifying than someone who was an enemy from the beginning was an enemy who was once an ally. Because they knew you that much better.
“We can spare him once. In return, he will die the next time we meet.”
Jang Gwang-yeong spoke as if it were no big deal.
Perhaps I had been misunderstanding unorthodox sects until now. Unorthodox sects were not places inhabited by people who were more hot-tempered, sharp, sensitive, and filthy than orthodox sects. They were merely people who had learned martial arts that were not mainstream.
Jang Gwang-yeong was upholding his own righteousness toward the Union Leader in his own way. Courtesy toward someone who had been together with him until now. That was something that did not distinguish between orthodox and unorthodox.
Even the Dark Exalt, who had intended to kill him, seemed to accept it without much objection to the Fighting Exalt’s opinion.
“……Thank you.”
The Union Leader cupped his hands, bowed his head, and hurriedly left the New Justice Association.
The world where people lived was all the same. I had merely been separating them in my thoughts. Right now, people said that the martial world was unprecedentedly chaotic.
With orthodox and unorthodox mixed together, and even the Imperial Palace entangled, it was natural that it appeared that way. However, if one looked at it simply as people assembling and disbanding regardless of orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic, it was not particularly strange. It was a natural course of events.
Afterward, the Fighting Exalt and Dark Exalt also returned. They said they would settle their remaining forces within the Private Martial Union.
Because the Dark Exalt’s followers, the Assassination Gate, and the Fighting Exalt’s followers, the seventy-two strongholds of the Green Forest within the Private Martial Union, were not small forces.
Even so, they did not promise to cross over to the New Justice Association immediately; it would be troublesome even if they did so right away.
Because even if I understood that unorthodox and orthodox were no different, it might not be so for other orthodox figures.
After the Eight Exalts and the onlookers all departed, I secluded myself in the cultivation room once again.
There was only one reason. It was to look at the Martial Talent Shop. That miracle, duty, or responsibility given to me.
At first, I had accepted it without much contemplation, thinking it was a fortuitous encounter bestowed upon me.
“In the first place, isn’t it a system that fits me far too well?”
The very concept of buying martial arts with money. If another master had received this Martial Talent Shop without having the talent for earning money as I did, they would not have been able to use it as I had.
If so, was the person who gave me this Martial Talent Shop someone who knew me? I had thought that my regression with the Martial Talent Shop was due to the influence of the Divine Demon Pill.
However, taking the Divine Demon Pill was my own choice. If I had not consumed it back then, would I not have regressed?
Many thoughts intersected, but there was not a single one among them that I could prove. How could one prove something that did not exist in the world in the first place? I could only deduce.
The Legitimacy accumulated in the Martial Talent Shop was also plentiful now. It seemed that the more the rumors of me defeating all the Eight Exalts spread, the more Legitimacy rose. Even now, it was continuously rising in real time.
Though without any basis, I gradually sensed it. The fact that all the doubts I possessed would soon be completely resolved. However, pursuing the truth regardless of that intuition was an attitude I had to maintain.
“Isn’t it about time you answered?”
I spoke as I looked up at the black ceiling of the cultivation room.
“If you made arrangements for me to reach this point, you surely know the future me as well, don’t you?”
…….
The black ceiling was, naturally, silent. But I was not speaking to the ceiling. I was speaking to the heavens beyond the ceiling.
Because for an immortal who could easily transcend mortal structures, such things did not matter.
“Why do you remain silent? What do you want from me by going this far? Tell me plainly now.”
The silence of the god continued. Whoever it was, they were truly a stubborn god.
I had not expected an answer anyway. In the end, everything would be revealed. And that end was not far off.
Because the Imperial Palace was wavering due to the flooded regions from the torrential rains, and Prince Xian was secretly sending soldiers toward the Great Desert. The day the world would be overturned was not far away. Then, the veiled truth would also be overturned and revealed.
Eventually, Legitimacy surpassed thirty thousand. Even at this admirable growth, the Martial Talent Shop remained silent, pushing my back toward a pitch-black future.
Yet what could be done? Even if the future lay in darkness, one could not simply refrain from advancing.
“If you don’t want to answer, then don’t.”
I spat out a sullen remark and browsed through the talents.
What I currently possessed were the Celestial Martial Physique and the Heavenly Eye. I had thought I could buy all the talents I wanted with the remaining thirty thousand Legitimacy.
However, that was far from possible. As much as I gained Legitimacy, the prices of talents had also risen. To be precise, they became more expensive each time a talent was purchased. I had known this originally, but merely buying them one by one had caused the prices to skyrocket to insane levels.
[ Transcendence — Grade 2 ]
[ Price: 100,000 Legitimacy ]
At first, it had clearly been around a thousand taels. In terms of a nation, this rate of inflation would mean complete ruin.
Grade 2 — Celestial Martial Physique
Grade 2 — Heavenly Eye
Grade 2 — Divine Footsteps
Grade 2 — Sword God
Grade 3 — Awakening
In any case, I was barely able to exchange for two talents. The newly added talents were Divine Footsteps and Sword God. I purchased the most intuitive talents possible.
Because I thought Transcendence would affect my internal state, like Indomitable or Awakening. Right now, reaching the limits of a human was my first priority.
Yet I knew. That even the limits of a human were insufficient to defeat immortals.
Having merely reached the peak of humanity, those I would have to face in the future were immortals who had transcended humanity.
I wondered if the Martial Talent Shop would protect me then as well, but ultimately, I had to kill them to win.
And that clue was undoubtedly contained in the Grade 1 talents that had not yet been unlocked.
The Martial Talent Shop had demanded money up to Grade 4, secret manuals for Grade 3, and Legitimacy for Grade 2.
Thinking about it now, perhaps Legitimacy was not going to someone as it had until now, but rather stealing away what the Imperial Palace possessed. For two suns could not rise in the same sky, after all.
The substantial rise in Legitimacy seemed to be due to my influence, but also due to public sentiment toward the Imperial Palace wavering right now.
From what I had heard from Zhuge Yan and Gwan Seo-ye, public sentiment was worsening by the day. Since the Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company held onto all the funds without spending them, the economy of the Imperial Palace had no choice but to break down naturally.
Now that even the Private Martial Union would fracture, that would likely serve as the signal flare for an era of upheaval. A world filled with chaos without distinction between the martial world and the Imperial Palace. And that was precisely what I had desired.
I brushed off my clothes and stood up. It was time to leave the cultivation room. I had to prepare for the era of upheaval.
A few days later.
My prediction was proven entirely accurate. The Dark Exalt and Fighting Exalt of the Private Martial Union declared their withdrawal, stating that they would not establish an organization but watch neutrally from the sidelines to protect the current martial world.
And that declaration brought a tremendous reverberation to the martial world. Rather than the influence of the Dark Exalt or Fighting Exalt themselves, the withdrawal of massive factions from the Private Martial Union was the fuse. And whether the phrase ‘protect the martial world’ came out by stumbling upon it or by design, it seemed to have provoked quite a few martial artists.
The most dramatic change was that massive movements were detected within the Palace of Heavenly Worship as well.
As if there had already been much internal noise within the Palace of Heavenly Worship, many martial artists criticized the Imperial Palace for attempting to seize control of the martial world, declaring their separation from the Palace of Heavenly Worship or from their own sects.
Originally, the concept of withdrawal did not exist in sects or noble clans. How could taking away the secret arts of one’s own sect ever be permitted?
That was likely why they had brought forward the concept of separation. They began to claim that they were the true, authentic sect.
The Mount Hua Sect in particular was heavily divided; it was said that the faction of Violet Mist Divine Sword Gu Jinqing and the faction of Mount Hua’s current sect leader split almost evenly down the middle.
With each passing day, the martial world experienced upheaval. Because they split over ideology, countless fights naturally broke out. Close one’s eyes and open them after a night, and some sect had vanished, some clan was exterminated.
And the New Justice Association, upon which everyone focused their attention.
The New Justice Association showed no movement at all in the early stages of this upheaval. The common judgment of the staff, including myself, was to remain still in the beginning since attention and focus would be dispersed.
And when the era of upheaval ripened and the board was sorted out to a certain degree.
Right now, it was time for the New Justice Association to step forward.