msmithbooks Chapter 431 : Reaching the Life and Death Realm (1)
Chapter 431 : Reaching the Life and Death Realm (1)
Chapter 431: Reaching the Life and Death Realm (1)
Yong Hwarin looked at Eungjo.
It felt like everything would stop—this meaningless bloodshed—if he could just catch Eungjo.
At Yong Hwarin’s will, the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword slid toward Eungjo.
Eungjo, who was standing atop a boat, shouted as Yong Hwarin approached.
“Fire!”
At that command, the Black-Clad Warriors hiding in the riverside forest emerged and began firing arrows at Yong Hwarin in unison.
This made it clear just how much Eungjo had prepared to capture Yong Hwarin.
But Yong Hwarin was not someone to back down.
“Fine, so you’ll even strip away the last ounce of mercy I had!”
Yong Hwarin deflected the incoming arrows by unleashing Nascent Qi.
However, the moment the arrows touched the Nascent Qi, they began to explode.
Puh-puh-puh-puh-BOOM!
The arrows had been fitted with powder-filled tubes.
He immediately activated Protective Energy to block the flames.
While the Protective Energy held off the flames, it couldn’t completely withstand the destructive force caused by the explosion of dozens of arrows.
The blast from the multiple explosions shook the Qi that had reached the level of the Fourth Jiazi.
To be precise, it wasn’t the Qi that was shaken—but the blood vessels within the human body.
Because of that, the Qi momentarily lost its path and ran amok.
“Guhk!”
In that brief moment, Yong Hwarin couldn’t help but admire the fact that Eungjo had even prepared explosives to catch him.
Splash!
Falling into the water, Yong Hwarin gritted his teeth as he saw the Black-Clad Warriors swarming toward him like hornets.
In the water, neither the Dragon Scale Finger nor Protective Energy could exhibit their full strength.
Having tasted helplessness for the first time in a while, Yong Hwarin thought of a single method to escape the crisis.
‘But this method... it will put me at risk too. Still, there’s no other way.’
Gripping the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword, Yong Hwarin gathered the Qi of the Fourth Jiazi and formed Nascent Qi underwater.
Seeing a blue sword Qi coalescing into vapor around Yong Hwarin’s blade, the Black-Clad Warriors who had swarmed toward him panicked and frantically flailed their limbs to flee.
Even they recognized it for what it was—Nascent Qi.
They knew all too well what would happen if Nascent Qi exploded underwater.
Even without experiencing it firsthand, they understood that if Nascent Qi exploded underwater, no living being would survive.
Believing Yong Hwarin intended to use the Mutual Destruction Technique, the Black-Clad Warriors, who had charged in willing to die, turned to flee.
But Yong Hwarin had no intention of dying with them.
He had deployed the Nascent Qi knowing they would flee upon seeing it.
That said, he didn’t plan to simply dissipate the Nascent Qi either.
Yong Hwarin threw the sword imbued with Nascent Qi deeper into the water using the Sword Flight Technique, then used the corpses as stepping stones to launch himself into the air.
The moment his body broke the surface of the water, Yong Hwarin detonated the Nascent Qi.
BOOM!
The Nascent Qi erupted, sending a massive pillar of water into the sky.
And along with that water column, dark figures were swept upward.
The Black-Clad Warriors, who had been dragged up with the blast, floated on the surface like buoys.
Eungjo’s so-called elite martial artists had all been drowned by the explosion.
But that didn’t mean Yong Hwarin was in a good situation either.
“Fire! Shoot him! Kill him!”
Eungjo screamed frantically as he watched his subordinates rise lifeless to the surface.
Many Black-Clad Warriors still remained on the riverside, launching arrows packed with explosives.
If he stayed out in the open, he would be bombarded again, so he dove back into the water.
He then filled his lungs as much as he could and activated the Dragon Concealment Heavenly Art.
The Dragon Concealment Heavenly Art aligned the energy of all things with the body. His breaths grew long and shallow.
Activating the art underwater, he moved his hands and feet rapidly to escape.
From above the water, Eungjo shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Fire arrows into the water and set off explosions!”
One of his subordinates replied with an awkward expression.
“Small Sect Leader, the thing is... if the explosives enter the water, they fizzle out. It’s no use.”
Eungjo had been so agitated, he’d forgotten even that.
“Ah, right.”
Realizing how unseemly his outburst had been, he pondered how to catch Yong Hwarin.
Then, noticing cliffs flanking both sides of the river, Eungjo smirked.
“I’ll drown you here, you bastard.”
Muttering to himself, he shouted:
“Everyone, fire explosive arrows at the cliffs! Collapse them with the blasts!”
At his command, arrows were fired at the cliffs.
KA-BOOM! THUD! RUMBLE!
The cliffs exploded, and boulders rained down into the river.
Splash! Splash!
House-sized rocks and jagged stones shattered into dozens, hundreds of pieces, forming razor-sharp edges.
As the deadly rocks poured into the river, Yong Hwarin was horrified.
Stones were falling beside him. No matter how high one’s internal strength, taking a direct hit from such massive boulders would be fatal.
‘Damn it!’
He had thought that, having reached the Fourth Jiazi and mastered the Sword Flight Technique, there would be no more troublesome crises.
But as he faced this, Yong Hwarin shed his arrogance.
Splash!
A boulder finally crashed down on Yong Hwarin’s back.
“Guhk!”
A groan burst out as his mouth opened and he swallowed water.
Something sharp pierced his side, drawing blood.
In that single moment, his Qi shook violently.
Even in that situation, Yong Hwarin found himself chuckling.
‘How laughable. Just yesterday, I was full of pride, acting like I was invincible—and now, being struck down so helplessly, I find myself becoming humble. Being submerged and struck by a boulder really teaches you how powerful nature can be. Qi means little underwater, and being hit by a boulder in such a state is far more devastating than being struck by Qi.'
With the flow of Qi disrupted, Yong Hwarin let his body go limp, allowing it to drift with the current.
Shhhk!
Occasionally, arrows fell above his head, but even that felt distant and unremarkable.
BOOM!
As a rock dropped down to crush him, Yong Hwarin let himself go with the current.
Instead of resisting, he pressed his body against a boulder and used the current’s momentum to lessen the impact.
Splash! Splash!
Outside, the explosions continued and rocks kept plunging into the river.
Eungjo continued to push his subordinates to fire explosive arrows.
Breathing grew more labored, and his Qi showed no signs of recovery.
With Qi circulation stalled and boulders the size of houses pressing him down to the riverbed, he was in a true predicament.
For a moment, Yong Hwarin thought he might actually die here today.
‘Then why do I feel so at peace?’
When both body and mind recognized death, a strange transformation began.
Normally, when gripped by fear of death, the body freezes and the mind panics, causing one to lose all chance at survival.
Even martial artists couldn’t completely escape the terror of death.
Yet in this moment, Yong Hwarin felt a strange emotion as his thoughts grew colder and clearer.
As he accepted the futility of all things within himself, the sealed Dragon’s Energy stirred and awakened the Tai Chi Dantian.
The Tai Chi Dantian fused with the Dragon’s Energy and flowed out of his body.
Then, that energy enveloped his body and lifted him toward the surface of the water.
Yong Hwarin was experiencing something extraordinary.
He did nothing, yet the Qi within him was moving on its own to save his life.
And incredibly, what he saw underwater was a dragon.
The Dragon’s Energy, now transparent in the water, took the form of a dragon, almost indistinguishable in its likeness.
It swirled around him, coiling as if playing with Yong Hwarin.
At that moment, he realized he had reached the final realm spoken of in the Tai Chi Profound Heavenly Sutra: the Life and Death Realm.
‘Ah, I think I finally understand. Why did the True Man name the final realm the Life and Death Realm? Now, standing at the doorstep of death, I’m witnessing Qi struggle to keep me alive with its own will. While I lived, I never experienced this. But in the face of death, the Qi gains its own will. Yes... Now I understand why one must attain the Life and Death Realm to reach True Qi.'
In the face of death, the sealed Dragon’s Energy awakened the Tai Chi Dantian and imbued it with will.
It meant that only when the Dragon’s Energy enveloped the Tai Chi Dantian with spiritual power could one truly wield True Qi.
To form Qi Flux (강기), it had to be enveloped in spiritual power—but human spiritual energy alone was not enough.
Nascent Qi or Twisted Qi weren't considered complete forms because they were imperfectly wrapped in human spiritual energy.
Humans could accumulate Qi through their Dantian, but had no way to strengthen their spiritual power.
Only those who had developed their Upper Dantian could elevate their spiritual energy enough to wield such force.
Yet even then, it was not True Qi, but merely the level of Nascent Qi or Twisted Qi.
‘Only by facing death can one glimpse this realm. That’s why the True Man named it the Life and Death Realm.’
He had never understood why such a simple name had been given to the final stage of the Tai Chi Profound Heavenly Sutra, but now, he was beginning to grasp the True Man’s intention.
It was a realm unreachable without standing on death’s doorstep.
A realm one could never attain while alive—that was the Life and Death Realm of the Tai Chi Profound Heavenly Sutra.
‘So even I... only get to witness this realm in the moment of death.’
As that thought crossed his mind, Yong Hwarin’s body rose to the water’s surface.
And then he experienced another strange feeling.
Even as corpses floated beside him, he felt nothing.
After tasting the Life and Death Realm, the life and death of humans felt utterly meaningless.
‘Ah, I’m about to transcend this world and ascend into immortality.’
His attachment to the mundane and to life itself now felt no different than the rising and setting of the sun—or the fall of an autumn leaf.
As such, Yong Hwarin swung his sword at the attackers flying toward him, without a trace of emotion.
Eungjo trembled as he saw the bizarre change in Yong Hwarin.
There was something strange in the energy surrounding him, but he couldn’t comprehend what it was. Yong Hwarin, now seeming as if he had stepped into a realm beyond humanity, was cutting down his subordinates effortlessly.
And now, Yong Hwarin floated above the water without even wielding the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword.
Looking as though he was simply walking on flat land, he resembled a drowned ghost, causing Eungjo to shake his head in disbelief.
And in less than Two Hours, nearly a hundred of his First-rate subordinates were now floating face-down in the water.
Splish, splash!
Watching Yong Hwarin walk across the surface, Eungjo didn’t look back—he simply leapt away.
Seeing this, Yong Hwarin reached out and lifted an iron sword from a corpse’s hand.
He lightly tossed the blade.
Swishhhh!
Despite the gentle throw, the speed was as fast as lightning.
Thwack!
The iron sword pierced straight through Eungjo’s fleeing back.
“Kraaah!”
Eungjo, with the sword embedded in his back, didn’t bother to pull it out and kept running.
‘Luckily, the blade barely missed my heart.’
With all his Qi, Eungjo unleashed his Movement Arts and fled.
He no longer wanted to face the man who could throw a sword that pierced his back from over a hundred jang away.
All he wanted now was to escape this place as fast as possible.