Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 156 - Forced (1)
Chapter 156 – Forced (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang, the Society Leader’s first disciple, withdrew his sword astral energy, then frowned and said,
“Youngest Junior Sister?”
“!?”
Youngest Junior Sister?
A strange light entered the eyes of Mok Gyeong-un, who had been breathing roughly.
He had just looked at Blue Spirit and called her Youngest Junior Sister.
Among the Society Leader’s disciples, if one spoke of the youngest, that referred to the Third Disciple Wi So-yeon.
Ah…
‘Come to think of it, Wi So-yeon greatly resembled Blue Spirit in appearance.’
Their appearances were so similar that it would not have been strange even if one had called them sisters.
If there was any difference, it lay in the unique atmosphere each gave off.
If Blue Spirit felt arrogant, cold, and full of oppressive force, then Wi So-yeon was bright and had a somewhat livelier atmosphere.
However, such fine distinctions could only be clearly known if one saw the two often or took an interest in them.
That seemed to be why Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang reacted like this.
‘Youngest Junior Sister?’
‘At his words, Blue Spirit too understood that Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang had mistaken her for that sentient girl called Wi So-yeon.’
At this point her thinking began moving in a different direction.
Originally, she had revealed her true body while taking some risk in order to save Mok Gyeong-un from danger.
It was still daylight, so life-generating energy overflowed everywhere, and although she had risen in rank to an Indigo Spirit, she could not fully display her complete strength.
For example, she had unfolded only a small-scale Blood Boundary of the Domain of Ghost Intent, just enough to keep the fangshi within the inner castle from noticing easily, but it had immediately unraveled because of the life-generating energy.
She could draw out more force, widen its range, and forcibly maintain it, but that was considerably dangerous.
A high-rank fangshi might notice at once.
However, a new method had appeared.
‘It may be possible.’
‘Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang was still confusing her with that sentient girl Wi So-yeon.’
No matter how much Na Yul-ryang was the sort who pushed ahead as he wished, it would be difficult for him to do so in front of his own junior disciple.
It would not be long, but it was an opportunity.
-I shall deal with this one, so flee to the old man who uses poison. Sentient being.
-She spoke so that only Mok Gyeong-un could hear.
Now, while that fellow still had not noticed, was the only chance to escape.
It was at that very moment.
“Perhaps because Master is ill, it has been a long time, Youngest Junior Sister.”
“As expected, Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang still thought Blue Spirit was his junior disciple Wi So-yeon.”
Since he said it had been a long time, that made it even better.
At the very least, he would not notice immediately.
‘There is no need to mix in conversation.’
‘If she did that, the deception would quickly be exposed.’
So Blue Spirit swung the long smoking pipe at Na Yul-ryang as though it were a sword.
Pat!
-At that, Na Yul-ryang lightly avoided it by leaning his head back, then stepped backward several paces with his footwork to widen the distance.
“What is the meaning of this, Junior Sister?”
“-…”
What meaning could there be.
Blue Spirit curled one corner of her mouth into a smirk, then unfolded sword moves at Na Yul-ryang with the smoking pipe.
It had been a very long time since, after becoming a resentful spirit, she had faced someone with swordsmanship.
No, had it been nearly a hundred years?
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!
At the sword forms Blue Spirit unfolded, Na Yul-ryang immediately used his footwork and avoided the trajectories of the sword moves.
As expected of a master of the realm of transformation who had crossed the wall, his movements were no ordinary matter.
But then Blue Spirit’s sword moves generated a transformed move.
-Pa-pat!
At the transformed move coming from a wholly unexpected place, Na Yul-ryang, who had one hand clasped behind his back, immediately raised sword energy and blocked the smoking pipe.
Cha-ka-ka-ka-ka!
-When the sword energy and the smoking pipe created from spirit power collided, Na Yul-ryang furrowed his brow.
Then he said,
“Your sword skill has improved much compared to before.”
-······.
-Without a word, Blue Spirit unfolded yet another sword move with the smoking pipe.
Then her smoking pipe coiled around Na Yul-ryang’s sword energy like a serpent and bent upward.
!?
Na Yul-ryang immediately moved half a step backward and avoided it.
At the same time, with the hand in which he had raised sword energy, he thrust toward Blue Spirit’s chest.
But Blue Spirit lightly evaded it and instead struck the sword energy aside.
-Paaang!
‘She did that?’
-Pak!
Na Yul-ryang’s expression grew serious.
And for good reason, because the Youngest Junior Sister he knew was someone whose internal power was tremendous because of her special constitution, but whose handling of forms he had considered still lacking.
Yet right now she was using sword moves like a master who had amassed considerable real combat experience.
Since Master’s illness, there had been no instruction and therefore no sparring, but even so, for her skill to have improved so much…
-Shoook!
-In the instant he was wondering, the smoking pipe, imbued with sharp sword energy, thrust toward the space between Na Yul-ryang’s brows.
-Pat!
Na Yul-ryang threw his body back and avoided it.
Then, as he widened the distance from her while she kept trying to attack, he said with a mocking smile,
“As your senior brother, it moves me deeply that your sword skill has advanced by leaps and bounds to this extent.”
“-…”
“Stop now. I have seen that your sword has improved greatly.”
“-…”
“Do you dislike even exchanging words with me?”
“-…”
-It was not that she disliked it, but that she could not.
If she did, she might be exposed through her voice or manner of speaking.
Yet Na Yul-ryang, at Blue Spirit’s attitude, did not seem displeased, and instead shook his head.
“Are you angry because this senior brother was about to kill the one you were aiming at?”
“-…”
-Pat!
-No sooner had Na Yul-ryang finished speaking than she sent her figure flying again.
Though she was dealing with him in human form in order to buy Mok Gyeong-un time to flee, facing someone close to her own martial level from when she had still been alive after so long stirred her excitement within.
Though a long time had passed since she had died and become a resentful spirit, it seemed her competitive spirit as a martial artist still remained.
-Cha-cha-cha-cha-shak!
-Her smoking pipe, imbued with sharp sword energy, targeted Na Yul-ryang’s vital points.
Then Na Yul-ryang immediately,
“You truly do not know what moderation is. If so, then there is no help for it.”
-Whoooosh!
-Went beyond sword energy and raised sword astral energy, blocking Blue Spirit’s sword moves.
-Chae-chae-chae-chae-chaeng!
-As the sword energy she had created from spirit power at the level of an Indigo Spirit collided with sword astral energy, a peculiar phenomenon occurred.
Every time the forces collided, white flashes erupted and the sound of rending air spread outward.
It was a completely different phenomenon from when astral qi clashed against astral qi.
‘What is this?’
‘Suspicion settled in Na Yul-ryang’s eyes.’
How could Wi So-yeon block sword astral energy that he was releasing with seventy percent of his force?
And with mere sword energy at that.
And from these white flashes arising whenever sword energy and sword astral energy collided, to this strange sensation being transmitted to him, something was off.
‘Different.’
‘It was difficult to tell what this was.’
-Chae-chae-chae-chae-chaeng!
-Meanwhile, Blue Spirit, fiercely exchanging sword moves with Na Yul-ryang, also could not hide her astonishment.
‘He is no ordinary fellow.’
‘Blue Spirit clicked her tongue inwardly.’
Though she was following the Society Leader’s Heaven sword forms rather than her original sword style, and though her spirit power was somewhat limited because it was broad daylight, Na Yul-ryang’s skill was truly tremendous.
Once, a hundred years ago, together with that accursed bastard, she had been called one of the greatest masters of the sword.
Yet Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang was keeping up with even that level of hers.
If ten years pass, no one may be able to defeat this sentient fellow with the sword.
‘He possessed heaven-given martial talent so great that she could not help but acknowledge it.’
It seemed the present Society Leader had truly taken an extraordinary disciple.
She grew concerned.
Would Mok Gyeong-un be able to catch up to a monster like this in a short time?
If he was a master of the realm of transformation, the risk was great, but perhaps it would be better to dispose of this fellow with her own hands right now.
Thus, unlike before, she was about to unfold the Moon sword forms in order to properly display her power, when,
“I did not expect you would force me to use even this.”
‘What?’
It was at that moment.
-Srrrk!
Na Yul-ryang’s right pupil, which had been gray-white, was dyed silver.
‘His eye?’
‘What in the world was this phenomenon?’
As she was thinking that, Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang suddenly leapt backward to widen the distance and said,
“You…what exactly are you?”
“-…”
-There was a reason Na Yul-ryang reacted that way.
He possessed one special ability.
Long ago, it had arisen when the blood of a strange being that was not human had fallen into his right eye.
If he concentrated true qi into his right pupil, he could see the weak parts of others and the flow of their energy.
Every use brought such pain that he could not maintain it for long, but through it he had come to overpower with ease even masters who stood a level above him.
Na Yul-ryang called this opened eye of his the Penetrating Eye.
However,
‘What is this?’
‘Looking at Blue Spirit, Na Yul-ryang could not understand.’
Whereas even martial artists who had trained martial arts mostly possessed bright and warm energy, she possessed no energy at all.
No, she did possess something, but it resembled that damp, chilly force that briefly rose when someone was killed.
She was so strange that one doubted whether she was truly a living human.
So, harboring suspicion, Na Yul-ryang said,
“You…are you really Wi So-yeon…”
-Flinch!
‘!?’
At that moment Na Yul-ryang stopped speaking and turned his head.
It was toward the direction where Mok Gyeong-un was.
‘!?’
Because of that, Blue Spirit too naturally turned her head, and there she discovered Mok Gyeong-un still lying on the ground.
Why had he not fled?
Had she not barely created an opportunity?
-Sentient being! I clearly said…hm?
At that moment Blue Spirit furrowed her brow.
And for good reason, because through her Ghost Eyes she could see Mok Gyeong-un’s death aura condensing and undergoing change.
Blue Spirit’s lips parted slightly.
‘Ha!’
‘This change occurring within Mok Gyeong-un’s body.’
Unlike the normal flow of circulating qi, death aura was moving through reversed acupoints, condensing and then spreading through his whole body.
This passed through the essence of the lower dantian, then gathered in the region of his chest and spread again, and in the middle dantian of qi, death aura was moving yin through the reversed acupoints.
‘Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown…’
What Mok Gyeong-un was now carrying out was none other than the phenomenon of Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown.
But it differed from ordinary Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown.
Originally, Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown was also called Three Yang Gathered at the Crown, in which the yang within yin, the yang within yang, and the yang within yin and yang all face inward origin and return to the heavenly palace.
But Mok Gyeong-un was the opposite because of his reversed acupoints.
‘Three Yin Gathered at the Crown!’
This was the yin within yang, the yin within yin, and the yin within yin and yang.
In other words, the three yins were heading toward the inward origin, and the heavenly palace was returning in reverse.
‘…You sentient being?’
It was not yet time for Mok Gyeong-un to gain enlightenment.
He had not even reached the very limit of the peak realm, so he had not yet completely understood qi.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un, like this, was now carrying out by himself Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown in order to cross the wall, no, Three Yin Gathered at the Crown.
In other words, it was not enlightenment, but a forcible smashing through of the wall.
How in the world?
‘How in the world?’
-Pat!
-Na Yul-ryang’s figure shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
‘I have to kill him.’
Up until now, Na Yul-ryang had remained entirely at ease.
But through the Penetrating Eye, he felt wariness for the first time at the strange transformation visible in Mok Gyeong-un.
A bizarre force, not normal energy but the sort of uncanny force one would only briefly see from the dead, was coursing backward through Mok Gyeong-un’s whole body and trying to create the yin Three Flowers.
Did such a thing make any sense?
Instinctively, he judged that he had to stop this strange phenomenon.