EP.132 The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Smiling Corpses - 4
An invisible sword ambushed Jiseon. Clang. Five rings scraped the blade in succession, deflecting the sword's path. The Returner utilized Cheonaeng's speed to immediately aim for Jiseon's neck, but—
Instead of blocking or dodging, Jiseon merely tilted her head slightly and thrust a fist in return.
A clash between a blade and a fist. Normally, if they exchanged a move each, the blade should have the advantage, but normal calculations didn't work in a duel that defied common sense. The premise was different from the start.
Jiseon, emitting Qigong with the rings hooked onto the sword's path. It was a repelling Qigong strong enough to push back the wind. With this, Cheonaeng, swung from an unstable posture, would at best only inflict a scratch on her neck.
In return, even if the Returner wrapped herself in protective Qigong, taking that fist head-on meant receiving the shock in its entirety.
She was the one holding the sword, yet she was also the one at a disadvantage.
"Tch!"
The Returner pulled Cheonaeng back instead of going for the neck, slashing Jiseon's arm. A gash formed as it sliced long across the ringless left arm. Blood briefly flashed from the wound.
"Heok!"
However, the wound closed just by Jiseon simply exerting force.
No, rather than closing, it was just instantly compressed by the muscles and Qigong of her entire body. But there wouldn't be much difference.
Jiseon's fist ruthlessly collected the toll for the scratch on her arm. The hardened hand pierced through the Returner. She managed to block it with hastily retrieved Cheonaeng, but Jiseon's fierce punch was hard to block with just one Cheonaeng.
"Keugh...!"
Even after unleashing Cheonaeng's spatial reserves, the shock didn't subside, and the Returner's body floated backward.
Seeing the flying Returner, Jiseon spread her grasp again. If the Returner stepped on the ceiling again without any learning capacity, she intended to crush her this time. If she fell to the ground, she would attack with vibrations.
However, the Returner's judgment was neither the ceiling nor the floor.
Heavenly Sword Technique: Dark Cloud.
From the handle, slowly, Cheonaeng dyed white. The sky is a vast space containing passion and wind. The hot heat intertwines with the free air and reaches the sky.
The clouds majestically roaming the open sky were born that way.
Heavenly Sword Technique: Stepping Cloud.
She scattered the white-dyed sword. The fluttering sword tip, like a butterfly, took shape in the air. It was a white, solid-looking cloud. As if tearing off a piece of cloud and compressing it whole, a pure white mass looking like a brick floated up.
The Returner flipped her body in mid-air and stepped on the Stepping Cloud with both legs. Given its texture, her legs should have sunk right through, but the Stepping Cloud firmly supported the Returner's body as if substituting the earth.
"Haa..."
Stepping on the cloud, she bent her knees.
Qian and Kun flip.
Standing upside down, the Returner curled her body and took a stance. Cheonaeng flashed.
Wrapping the body.
Charging power.
The pure white Stepping Cloud grew darker as it accumulated power. Like an immortal holding an ink-stained brush, sweeping a stroke across the cloud. Pitch black, pitch black, it grew increasingly darker.
Clouds wandering the sky do not always show only their white appearance.
On stormy days, when the sky is enraged. Clouds sometimes wear a wicked expression and spit out roars toward the earth. The white clouds turning pitch black is an omen that the sky is filled with power.
Since she 'made' a foothold to stand on, Jiseon missed the timing to respond. Jiseon hastily unleashed Earth Arts to pull a concrete wall, but—
It was a bit too late.
Heavenly Sword Technique: Thunder Strike.
Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. The world's largest after-drum filled the bottomless abyss.
Lightning is the path connecting heaven and earth. After its power descends, the startled trumpeter announces the march of power with thunder half a beat late. However, by the time the thunder is heard, the heavenly punishment has already delivered its stern judgment upon the sinner.
Therefore, thunder is the after-drum ringing in the sky. The moment it is heard, it is already too late.
The Returner's figure, which had blurred away, appeared behind Jiseon. The remnants of lightning followed.
Bzzt, bzzt. The air heaved to the beat. The path of electrical current leaping into the void faintly showed how she had moved.
Threatening crackling sounds, her hair bristling from the static electricity surrounding her body, the Returner let out a short breath and turned her body.
KWA-GA-GANG!!
Lightning struck between the dark cloud and the Returner. The slash belatedly revealed itself, flashing in the form of lightning. The concrete protecting Jiseon scorched dry and cracked apart with a snap. The crack looked just like lightning.
Swift, ultra-fast sword strike. Simultaneously, an unavoidable blow imbued with a lightning attack.
However.
"How... thrilling...!"
Jiseon sent her energy down to her feet and pulled up the corners of her mouth.
The earth has endured countless lightning strikes since the beginning of time. It couldn't even be described as enduring. For it has even embraced lightning within its body.
It was the strongest attack the Returner could unleash, but it fell short of reaching her heart.
Due to the aftermath of the lightning attack, a stream of blood flowed from Jiseon's mouth, but that was all. One ring shattered, and sword marks were engraved on her arm and shoulder, but that was all.
Deflecting the thunder energy dwelling in the sword, and tightening her muscles with Absorbing Qigong, the wounds closed as if they had never been there.
Yes, like the flesh of the Earth Mother, which heals someday even if split countless times.
"Tch."
The Returner ignored the warning from her stinging wrist and raised Cheonaeng.
The path was already connected. Cheonaeng was here, and the cloud was on the other side, so they only needed to connect again. Lightning flowed along the Returner's body, and the dark cloud floating in the air rumbled ominously.
Just before the lightning-clad steps touched the ground.
"Earth Dragon."
Kun, reaching its extreme, ruled the earth.
As Jiseon raised her hand, dust rose from the concrete. It was impossible. The hard concrete wasn't scraped anywhere, so how could it raise dust?
However, Jiseon (Earth Immortal) can do it.
The concrete forming the ceiling, the slanted Tantalus, swirled on its own. Grrk, crrrk. The concrete colliding and rubbing against each other instantly turned into soil and dust. Jiseon instantly pulled the concrete, which had reverted to its primordial state.
The twisted concrete rose like a coiled snake, and a cloud of soil and dust covered its surroundings.
The authority of the earth that appeared thus looked just like a dragon blooming from the ground. The Earth Dragon, made of dust, instantly swallowed the dark cloud.
The dark cloud, which had clung too close to the ground, vanished just like that.
'Tch. Earth Dragon. Fortunately... it's a bit smaller now.'
Before the return, Jiseon, walking on the ground with Jijan, wrapped a large temple with two Earth Dragons. In that state, she even bit and pulled out the people inside one by one.
Jiseon marching while leading two Earth Dragons was truly an earth snake dreaming of defying heaven. An unstoppable nightmare approaching Seonghwangcheong, demanding punishment.
Compared to that, the current Earth Dragon was only one, and small enough to barely crush one person.
'Of course... whether I can withstand it is a different matter.'
Perhaps, as its size decreased, it could be even more of a headache.
The Earth Dragon wrapped around Jiseon. Sand swirled as if guarding her.
Against that, the Returner swung Cheonaeng. The cloud wrapped in lightning surrounded her. Her hair bristled mercilessly.
"I'm going."
"Come."
A short exchange that was ambiguous to even be called a conversation. But that alone was enough.
The Returner leaped forward and swung her sword. Against her, Jiseon raised both hands.
The Earth Dragon opened its maw.
This was no ordinary Earth Art. The earth flowed like a snake, moving in tandem with Jiseon's fists and kicks. As Jiseon lightly thrust her fist, the concrete dragon surged and crashed down on the Returner.
Against that, the Returner bounced her light body... and rode the Earth Dragon.
It was a feat possible only with a light physique, outstanding movement arts, and Qigong that had reached a state of mastery. As if riding the waves at an angle instead of going against them, she scraped at an angle with Cheonaeng and slid forward.
Jiseon inwardly admired this and thrust her fist.
The sword and the fist collided.
The invisible blade sliced through the air. The sword, whose trajectory couldn't be tracked, slashed the rings, deflected the fists and kicks, and slowly gnawed away at her flesh.
However, Jiseon, wrapped in the Earth Dragon, didn't take the hits as easily as before. Because she wore the Earth Dragon like armor, the attacks didn't reach her at all. When the Returner clicked her tongue—
The Earth Dragon, waiting for an opportunity, opened its maw and lunged out. Its speed was similar to a coiled snake. The moment the coil flinched, the Earth Dragon's head was already shot out.
The Returner barely avoided it with the Heavenly Plate Mirror.
'Seriously, I'm glad I at least have the Heavenly Plate Mirror...!'
Inwardly relieved, the Returner slashed the exposed Earth Dragon's neck. The Earth Dragon, having lost its head, devoted itself to defense until a new head rose again.
A tedious war of attrition that gnawed away at stamina and concentration continued. The decidedly disadvantaged side was the Returner.
'If it were a faster opponent, I'd fight a speed battle using the Heavenly Plate Mirror, but...!'
The opponent was as firm as the earth. The title of Jiseon was not in vain. Moreover, her body, tempered like a rock for decades, felt completely lacking in impact even when slashed, as if only the shell was scraped.
But the Returner would suffer a fatal injury from just one hit. Especially now, in the early stages of the return, she was more fragile than ever.
A hand sweeping widely in a diagonal line. It was an attack that didn't seem like an attack, but even this would be troublesome if it hit. Deflecting it with the blade, the Returner voiced her inward complaints.
'What's the point of training after returning! My body is still the same! Tch, should I use that...?'
"You leaped."
Saying so, Jiseon clenched her fist. The Returner tried to respond, but coincidentally, at that timing, both her feet were slightly off the ground.
'Oh no!'
The distance hadn't even opened up yet, but receiving the attack caused her body to float from the recoil. She had let her guard down.
And Jiseon, who had firmly planted her feet, discovered that fact through the vibrations flowing through the corpses and prepared her attack.
"Spatial Dust."
Crrrash.
From the empty void came the sound of shattering glass. Bizarrely distorted Qigong held the world by its very space.
'Spatial Dust?! She can do that... with her body?!'
In the previous iteration, the secret technique that had distorted the world to deflect flying arrows and bullets and to catch fleeing enemies.
'To think that could be used in a duel against a person!'
It shouldn't have touched her, yet the Returner's body was dragged along.
Qian and Kun reaching their extreme. An enormous Qi gathered in Jiseon's right arm. The intact rings and the broken rings resonated with each other, starting to tremble. The sound of the rings colliding was just like a cicada crying.
It was just an absorbing Qigong reaching out with her whole body. That was all, but the airborne Returner couldn't resist and was dragged in.
She could shake it off if she wanted to, but that would be too late. Already caught in the technique, all the Returner could do was grit her teeth.
Above that, the Earth Dragon, having twisted its body to the limit like a wrung rag, shot out all of its power.
"If it's sturdiness you want."
Jiseon threw a short punch toward the empty air. The Earth Dragon, unleashing its body in an instant, mauled the Returner.
"Kya... hak!"
A sound like lungs being wrung out. The sound of something breaking was heard. The Returner was swept up by the Earth Dragon and slammed far away.
Among the corpses, a figure shaped similarly to a corpse tumbled.
"You will survive."
Jiseon muttered as she wiped the bloodstains on her cheek. As if responding to those words, the Returner let out a pain-filled scream from below.
"Keu, keuuuu...!"
"...You are sturdy. But you're already a wreck. You shouldn't be able to fight anymore."
After finishing her assessment in a single sentence, Jiseon turned to head to the top.
The Returner slowly raised her body.