Chapter 118: What You Trampled On / The Path You Have Tread (6)


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    Bang!


    I immediately kick through the hall and rush out.


    Pssht!


    The blue arm that sprung from the book and had been holding me, now enveloped in a faint aura, scatters into the air.


    However, the transformation happening throughout the Sea Dragon Pce does not cease.


    The lingering will of the Sea Dragon King...!


    In terms of power, its far less than the remnant soul of Song Jin, but its still the remnant consciousness of the Sea Dragon King.


    Such an insignificant thing is now spreading throughout the Sea Dragon Pce, awakening the heaven and earth spiritual energy everywhere.


    And then.


    Boom, boom, boom!


    The halls of the Sea Dragon Pce begin to burst open one by one.


    Numerous artifacts and dharma treasures from inside the halls burst forth, shining in the air.


    sh!


    In an instant, everything around is bathed in the light emitted by the countless treasures of the Sea Dragon Pce.


    This is


    Senior, whats happening here!


    Seo Ran, transformed into a dragon, flies towards me.


    I, sweating profusely, watch the unfolding events.


    Daoist Seo


    Yes, Senior.


    Let''s run.


    Kugugugugu!


    The blue water attribute dharma treasures gathered together, absorbing Seo Hweol''s lingering consciousness.


    The lights from the treasures flicker and form a giant blue dragon, resembling Seo Hweol.


    Kwagwagwang!


    The dragon, formed from thebined dharma treasures, begins to rampage.


    This is madness


    Kugugugugu!


    The Sea Dragon Pce is swept away by the dragon''s thrashing.


    The power of the gathered dharma treasures,bined with the remnants of a Heavenly Beings consciousness, is far stronger than Song Jin without his dharma treasures.


    Its power is immensely close to that of a Nascent Soul.


    But the real problem isn''t that.


    Senior! Itsing!


    Fweeing!


    The dragon swings its tail towards us.


    Kwagwagwa!


    A tremendous trail of destruction is left, but the real dangeres afterwards.


    Click!


    From the scales of the dragons tail, one of the small dharma treasures remained even after the tail swung away.


    Damn it!


    sh!


    The treasure wrapped in blue light scatters brilliance


    Kwaang!


    The dharma treasure self-destructed!


    I shield Seo Ran from the st, pushing the explosion away.


    My hands tingle.


    My body''s already in bad shape from using Endless Mountains Beyond Mountains to break the seal...


    Each time I block a self-destructing dharma treasure, my arms tremble more.


    We need to escape, but


    Were surrounded


    We are surrounded by the Dragon Pces seal, and the hole we used to enter is now blocked by the dragon made of dharma treasures, making approach difficult.


    As if this isnt annoying enough, the treasures are self-destructing one by one


    Seeing that we were not visibly harmed, the dragon started to self-destruct more of its dharma treasures.


    Cant we do something about those self-destructing treasures?


    It''s impossible. Besides


    Seo Ran''s face darkened.


    The dragon, as it fights us, is drawing more power from the dharma treasures, turning brighter.


    True to his words, the more the dragon fights us, the more the dharma treasuresprising its body glow with blue light.


    When it bespletely bright, the entire dragon will self-destruct.


    Crunch


    I grit my teeth at the absurd situation.


    "Seo Hweol...!"


    Whether his target is Seo Ran or not.


    In any case, the n to confront Yuan Li here and push forward with using dharma treasures haspletely fallen apart.


    Whoosh!


    The figure of the Blue Dragon continues to brighten.


    At this rate, its uncertain when it will suddenly explode...!


    Just then.


    Boom!


    One side of the seal trembles, and the dark prow of a decayed ship emerges from beyond the formation.


    Its the Nether Crossing Ship.


    "Activate!"


    The teleportation array starts activating, and we barely manage to escape the Blue Dragon''s thrashing, flying up into the Nether Crossing Ship.


    Roar!


    The Blue Dragon roars, and its body bes incandescent.


    That massive body, it''s going to self-destruct!


    At the same time, the teleportation array attempts to begin spatial transfer.


    The Nether Crossing Ship is engulfed in the void and rushes through space, and we escape from the Sea Dragon Pce as it is enveloped in blue light for thest time.


    [...I came because my disciple sent a distress signal... In the end, the dharma treasures in the Sea Dragon Pce all transformed into the shape of the Blue Dragon and self-destructed, is that it?]


    Song Jin presses his temples with his fingers.


    [So, there''s no gain at all....]


    Both Seo Ran and Song Jin look downcast.


    I show them the diary of Jeon Hyang that I managed to save in the chaos.


    "During the chaos, I managed to save this. When the diary was closed, the residual consciousness left by Seo Hweol in the diary activated, causing thatmotion."


    [Hmm, indeed, I can feel Seo Hweol''s consciousness embedded in it. If certain conditions are met, his consciousness activates and delivers predetermined instructions.]


    He is indeed a meticulous man.


    In the case of Seo Ran destroying the Nether Crossing Ship and idently surviving, reaching the Sea Dragon Pce.


    Even then, Seo Hweol made sure Seo Ran would be killed.


    ''Is there a reason why Seo Ran must be killed to this extent?''


    "Then, is there anything else left in this book?"


    I ask Song Jin if there are any traps or backhands left..


    [From my perspective, there doesn''t seem to be anything else.]


    I nod and hand it over to Seo Ran.


    ''For future cycles, it''s better to bring the diary to Song Jin first before casually opening it.''


    Whether it''s Seo Hweol''s consciousness or whatever, what''s the harm in feeding the remaining remnant consciousness to the Nether Crossing Ship?


    "This is the diary of Jeon Hyang, an astronomer of the Sea Dragon Tribe. Take a look, it seems that they left it for you to read, Daoist Seo."


    "Ah, the diary of the elder...!"


    Seo Ran was startled and quickly received the diary. While he was reading the diary, the Nether Crossing Ship already returned to its original ce in the ck Wind Sea.


    ''This must be the extent of our gains this time...''


    With an explosion of that magnitude, not only the other pavilions but also the spiritual elixirs and nts remaining in the Sea Dragon Pce would have turned into dust.


    ''Right, now that I think about it...''


    I asked Song Jin about the structure of the Sea Dragon Pce and the ritualistic formation I had seen.


    "So, do you know anything about the spell formation thats in the Sea Dragon Pce?"


    [Hmm, I''m not sure exactly what formation you''re talking about.]


    Song Jin strokes his chin and tilts his head.


    At his question, Seo Ran, who had been frantically reading the diary, momentarily looks up and forms a hand seal.


    Whoosh!


    In front of us, spiritual energy forms and takes the shape of the spell formation I saw.


    When Seo Ran infuses his power into it, the spell formation activates, and I feel my consciousness clear and awake.


    "This is the formation senior Seo is talking about, Master."


    [Ah, this one! It''s different from the ck Ghost Valley, so I wondered what it was...]


    Song Jin seems to recognize it. Seo Ran focuses back on the diary, and Song Jin observes the spell formation in front of him.


    [A spell that awakens the upper dantian, expressed using the demon races spell formation, that is what this formation is."]


    "Upper dantian... awakening...?"


    ["The Sea Dragon Tribe and the ck Ghost Valley have beenpeting for dominance over the great sea for tens of thousands of years, influencing each other''s spells to some extent. And one of them is..."]


    Whoosh!


    Energy emits from the tips of Song Jins fingers, heading towards his Baihui point.


    [This ''Spell of Awakening'' here.]


    The energy entering the Baihui point seems to rotate inside Song Jins skull, and after a while, it shoots out from his forehead.


    "What is this...?"


    I have seen this spell before.


    Previously, when White Bone Ghost Devil Heo Gwak forced Team Leader Kim''s consciousness to awaken, they used this technique.


    It was also very simr to the technique used by the Jin n to amplify talent by infusing souls into the upper dantian.


    ''I remember, even Kim Hyung used the ignition of the upper dantian, starting from the Baihui and leading the flow of Pure Spiritual Force through the forehead, burning it up...''


    The flow is exactly the same.


    [I don''t know Seo Hweol''s true intentions, but outwardly, he was always a gentle and righteous leader, always wanting the Sea Dragon Tribe to maintain a clear mind. So, using the structure of the Sea Dragon Pce itself to spread the Spell of Awakening wouldn''t be strange.]


    "..."


    Then why did he spread that Awakening Spell'' in the hiddenyers of the Serving Command Pce?


    I also told Song Jin about what Seo Hweol had done.


    Maybe if its him, he might think of something.


    But Song Jin shook his head, indicating he couldn''t recall anything after hearing my words.


    [Strange, why in the Serving Command Pce''s control room...?]


    "Control room?"


    [Yes. The hiddenyer your group entered is the Serving Command Pce''s control room. If you ce the Serving Command Seal on the tform made for it, it allows control over the Serving Command Pce through that seal]


    This is new information.


    ''So, he spread the Spell of Awakening in the control room because...?''


    I can''t even guess his intentions.


    What was his goal...


    While I ponder, Seo Ran, having finished reading the diary of Jeon Hyang, wears a bitter smile on his extremely darkened face.


    Fortunately, no more blue hands sprang out of the diary after the previous incident, suggesting Seo Hweol''s tricks had ended.


    "...I really grew up abandoned by everyone. Except for Elder Jeon Hyang, who finally opened his heart to me..."


    His face is a mix of unmistakable pain.


    That expression resembles...


    ''Was it when hemitted suicide using the space-breaking bead...?''


    "I... don''t know what my purpose in living is anymore."


    I look at him with pained eyes.


    In the past, I would have tried tofort him or consider his feelings to lessen his pain.


    But honestly, I don''t feel much of anything now.


    Only a slight sense of shared misery arose when he showed his painful thoughts.


    ''How did I used tofort others...?''


    I can''t remember how to do anything with a warm heart.


    I can''t recall what my heart used to feel like.


    Maybe, I did it like this.


    But still, knowing that Seo Ran''s suicide would make things even more depressing, I managed to recall enough tofort him.


    "Don''t worry, Daoist Seo. You have... truly formed a master-disciple bond now, haven''t you? There''s still someone who cares about you, find your meaning in that..."


    "...Is that so..."


    My words seem to lift some of the shadows from Seo Ran''s face.


    "Thank you..."


    I receive his thanks and look back at Song Jin with dull eyes.


    In any case, we are back to square one.


    "So... in the end we got nothing, but could you help me using myst favor?"


    [Haaaaah....]


    Song Jin sighs deeply.


    [Alright. I didn''t want to put my disciple in danger, but in 200 years... I''ll make him reach Core Formation and help you. Of course, I''ll help too.]


    "...Thank you."


    Thus, while we didn''t gain much material aid from the Sea Dragon Pce, I obtained a lot of precious information and a firm promise of assistance from Song Jin.


    After receiving his promise, I left the ck Wind Sea.


    And then, 10 years passed.


    In that time, with the Cheongmun n, I collected both the formation artifacts and the Longevity Fruits. Now, the day of the great conference with all the Core Formation cultivators of the continent gathering is approaching.


    Swoosh!


    I fly rapidly across the Northern Grasnds.


    ''It should be around here...''


    Holding the invitation que, I sense the spiritual energy around me.


    And then, after a while.


    Whoosh!


    I sense an area hidden behind a formation in the distance.


    Thump!


    Its a ce covered by an illusion formation, invisible to the eye.


    But when I bring the que near it, the formation shines, opening a path for me.


    I enter through the path through the formation.


    ''This ce is...''


    True to the Northern Grasnds, there are numerous white tents set up inside formation


    These tents, befitting cultivators, are adorned with many spell runes, and I can feel the presence of Core Formation cultivators inside.


    "Ah, you''ve arrived, Cultivator Seo?"


    From a distance, Cheongmun Jung-jin approaches me with a weing expression.


    I nod in response.


    "You''re as you were."


    "..."


    He looks at my expression and his face turns bitter.


    I can''t help it.


    I can''t remember how to smile, and my eyes remain dull.


    I have forgotten how to wear any expression other than this vacant one.


    Just then, another person crosses over the formation.


    An old man in gray robes.


    Its Wolryang.


    He, too, has the same face as 10 years ago, although different from mine.


    A deeply angry expression.


    We make eye contact and nod to each other in simple greetings.


    As we are about to enter thergest tent, designated as the conference hall.


    "Wait, you..."


    Wolryang points at me and speaks.


    His voice seems to tremble.


    "That thing at your waist, why do you have it...?"


    "...?"


    I look at Hyang-hwas remnant at my waist, the jade norigae.


    "It''s the heirloom of my beloved."


    "What...? That''s... my great-grandson used to wear that..."


    "Ah..."


    I suddenly realize, absurdly, the fate of Buk Hyang-hwa.


    Her fated partner was


    Wolryang''s great-grandson.


    Already devoured by Yuan Li before my point of return.


    ***


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