Chapter 248. Within Ten Paces, You'll Find A Fragrant Flower (19)
Yu Cho was, honestly speaking, quite the hypocrite.
Since a very young age, he’d always been using his status to bully others, and he had felt it was entirely natural—those below exist to serve those above, and that’s just how the heavens mandated it. Yet now, when he saw someone standing above him, he immediately started complaining about the unfairness of the heavens.
Regardless, the congratulatory delegation from the North Sea Ice Palace continued on. As they arrived at the Baek Family’s estate, the Otherworldly Ice Fairy Ah Hee met her daughter and new son-in-law, and was finally able to relieve her regrets from the past.
Congratulatory delegations arrived from all over for Woo-Moon’s wedding. Various gifts came from the Shaolin Temple, the Wudang Sect, the Mount Hua Sect, the Beggar Gang, and the other major forces of the Nine Sects and One Gang, as well as the Hainan Sword Sect, the North Sea Ice Palace, the Potala Palace, and many others.
Since he was having another wedding not too long after his marriage with Si-Hyeon, he sent letters to each of the sects saying that they didn't need to send gifts. However, he still received various expensive gifts, most of which were just as good as the ones he’d gotten the first time.
Finally, the wedding ceremony began, and Woo-Moon was amazed by the sight of Ma-Ra and Yeo-Seol in their wedding attire. They were so beautiful that anyone who saw them would have their standards of beauty entirely thrown off.
Ma-Ra had taken off her usual flower gown and put on a red wedding gown at Jin-Jin's insistence, and the way she puffed out her cheeks a little awkwardly made her even cuter.
Eventually, the wedding ended, and the night fell.
As Ma-Ra had already cooked the rice with Woo-Moon, the three of them jointly decided that he would spend the night of the wedding with Yeo-Seol.
***
Woo-Moon entered the room and sat down next to Yeo-Seol, who was waiting on the bed. He carefully removed her veil.
"You're beautiful, Yeo-Seol."
Yeo-Seol blushed and lowered her head. Her entire body was shaking, filled with tension and fear of the new experience she was about to face.
Woo-Moon slowly untied Yeo-Seol's clothes and then gently took them off.
"Ah."
The moment her bare skin was exposed and met the cold air, the moment she met Woo-Moon's fierce gaze... Yeo-Seol fell backward.
"Y-Yeo-Seol?"
She had fainted.
It was because she was extremely nervous.
Since it was the first night, Woo-Moon considered waking her up again to do something, but then gave up.
"Welp. Let's just go to sleep. Damn, was she really that scared?"
Woo-Moon changed Yeo-Seol's clothes, laid her down on the bed, and covered her with a blanket.
He lay next to Yeo-Seol and tried to fall asleep, but found himself unable to. Thus, he grabbed Lightflash, hung it from his waist, slipped out through the window, and climbed onto the roof.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Ma-Ra, who was sitting on the roof looking at the moon, threw him the bottle of alcohol she was holding.
Woo-Moon put the bottle to his lips and drank. It was incredibly bitter, but whether it was because he was craving alcohol or some other reason, Woo-Moon continued to drink without stopping.
"Enough."
Ma-Ra quickly went to stop Woo-Moon, afraid that her precious alcohol would run out. However, there already wasn't a single drop left in the bottle.
"Drinking it all, you bad... mmph!"
Woo-Moon’s mouth covered Ma-Ra’s mouth as she spoke.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but then they closed, and her arms wrapped around him.
“Whew, ha! That was really some delicious alcohol. How sweet.”
Ma-Ra blushed at Woo-Moon’s crude words and punched him in the chest.
Woo-Moon grabbed her fist and flipped her onto the roof before lying down with his head on her thigh.
"I can't sleep, Ma-Ra. Let's stay together tonight."
Ma-Ra gently stroked Woo-Moon’s head.
“... Okay.”
***
“Waaaaaaah!”
Yeo-Seol burst into tears.
She was absolutely mortified to hear that the first night she had always looked forward to had been ruined by her fainting.
"It's okay, it's okay. I'm not upset in any way; I fully understand. No worries, we have tonight and tomorrow night, and then many nights after that. Don't cry, Yeo-Seol."
However, Yeo-Seol proceeded to faint a second time, exactly as Woo-Moon touched her for the first time.
Finally, on the third day, she managed to steel her resolve enough to go through the act with Woo-Moon.
While there were powerful enemies, known as Martial Heaven and the Martial Heaven God in their way, and although they would have to fight them to die in the near future, the people of the Song Family were faithful to each and every day and enjoyed their happiness to the fullest.
***
The Martial Heaven God, who had been sitting quietly in seclusion even when Woo-Moon's invasion caused chaos in Martial Heaven, opened his eyes.
"Ageless Demon Emperor, you really were a pesky one. You were a weakling, but I underestimated your hatred."
The Martial Heaven God let out a deep breath and fully focused, finally erasing the traces of the Ageless Demon Emperor that remained in his body.
Those who had reached a high level, like the Martial Heaven God, could be greatly affected by even the slightest changes that occurred in their internal mindscape. Meanwhile, the Ageless Demon Emperor's hatred and resentment toward Martial Heaven were so strong that they were engraved into his very flesh and soul—and the Martial Heaven God consumed them along with the Ageless Demon Emperor’s body.
Hiss!!
Smoke rose from his body, and the flesh on his body quickly withered away, making him look mummified.
"You were a really annoying brat, I have to admit. But now, it’s goodbye for good."
The Martial Heaven God left his quarters. Then he looked around at Martial Heaven, which hadn't yet fully recovered.
"I'm beginning to get interested, Song Woo-Moon. It's about time we met."
***
About half a month had passed since the wedding.
Woo-Moon was out alone in the training hall at night, training. While he was unquestionably the greatest expert of all murim, he still trained harder than anyone else.
'I need to work with my sword directly. Now that I've reached the Zenith realm, this has become even more important.'
Once he surpassed the Absolute realm and became a Paragon, he only focused on visualization training and left aside directly moving and experiencing things with his body. Having already passed the lower stages, he had assumed that visualization training was more helpful. Now, he realized that was a mistake. Even at this level, it was just as important to actually move his body and train physically as it was to train mentally.
Right as he finished training and was about to enter his quarters, he froze.
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, he let out a groan and ran almost as if he was falling forward, before doing a somersault and landing on the ground. In the blink of an eye, he pointed his drawn sword at a spot in the darkness.
“Martial Heaven God!”
The clothes on his back had been split apart, and blood was flowing from an open wound. He had been hit by the hidden attack of the Martial Heaven God.
'If I had been even the slightest bit slow to move, it would’ve been way worse.'
Had that happened, it would have spelled his inevitable defeat, considering he was facing such a formidable opponent.
The Martial Heaven God looked as if he was in his early thirties. He had short hair and wore earrings, which was unusual for a man. He stood incredibly tall, taller than Woo-Moon.
'Is... is he really a person?'
Woo-Moon's instincts screamed at him.
Even though the Martial Heaven God hadn't yet done anything or let out any special aura, Woo-Moon could feel the hair on his entire body stand on end, and he shivered from his very core.
The Martial Heaven God was alien.
He was a being that couldn't exist, a being that shouldn't exist.
Yet that being was standing right before Woo-Moon's eyes.
He wasn't a person, he wasn't even a living organism in the normal sense; he was fundamentally foreign to natural order.
Woo-Moon's instincts warned him of this, sending him endless alarms.
The Martial Heaven God cupped his fist.
"Today, I finally get to meet the Undefeatable Sword Immortal, whose glorious name is renowned throughout the world. Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Eun Jang-Cheon."[1]
Then he smiled.
“Ugh!"
Woo-Moon let out a low groan; he barely blocked the fist that appeared directly in front of him with his forearm while flickering away with Illusive Shift.
'W-what an incredible qi.'
Of course, Woo-Moon also possessed a practically infinite amount of qi and had no need to fear depletion. Yet there was clearly a stark difference between him and his opponent when it came to the maximum amount of qi that could be released in a single instant.
"I heard that you visited the house of an unremarkable martial artist like me and left me a great gift. I feel ashamed that I wasn't able to meet you then because of a problem I had at that time, so I've come here to show my gratitude."
The Martial Heaven God continued to attack as he spouted nonsense, and the two of them flew freely like bees from rooftop to rooftop, across the pavilions of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Suddenly, the Martial Heaven God's hand moved in a circle and trapped Woo-Moon's arm. An invisible energy clung to his arm, and the moment Woo-Moon tried to pull his hand away, startled, the opponent’s fist struck his chest.
“Ugh!”
Woo-Moon stepped back.
"I didn't think it polite to express my full gratitude from the beginning, so I started off lightly. Are my greetings suiting your taste?"
The Martial Heaven God laughed again. It was such a full laugh that his eyes narrowed until they were almost invisible. However, to Woo-Moon, that expression was more terrifying than anything.
Moreover, the fact that the Martial Heaven God could feel such emotions made Woo-Moon angry.
'Damn it!'
"I've seen your close combat skills already, so this time, I would like to see the famed Undefeatable Sword Immortal Song Woo-Moon's aura arts."
Putting some distance between them, the Martial Heaven God opened both palms wide toward the sky. Above each, a round sphere of terrifying aura appeared—one white, the other black.
Then, he brought his hands together in front of his chest, as if he was praying.
Zzzzzzzt!!
The space around the Martial Heaven God distorted and the atmosphere itself warped, sending shockwaves in all directions. The energy level was so high that even a non-cultivator could clearly see it.
Even moonlight and starlight distorted before scattering when they came near the Martial Heaven God, dissipating.
Woo-Moon tightly gripped the one sword he had brought for his training, Lightflash.
His hands were soaked in sweat.
'He's strong... he's insanely strong.'
The black and white beads were forcibly combined by the Martial Heaven God, their colors swirling together. As they mixed together more and more, the power exuding from the Martial Heaven God's palms grew stronger.
Even when the two aura spheres were completely merged, the Martial Heaven God continued to bring his palms closer together. Eventually, the sphere changed into an ovoid that grew longer and flatter, and its power was further and further compressed.
Then, the Martial Heaven God laughed.
"This is Burning the Cosmos. Please enjoy it.”
THWOOM!
The aura of Burning the Cosmos was suddenly freed, and like a spring that had been compressed to the ultimate limit and then abruptly released, it shot toward Woo-Moon at breakneck speed.
'I can't dodge this...'
Although Woo-Moon wanted to avoid it, knowing a full-on confrontation was not to his advantage, the aura shot was too fast, making it impossible for him to dodge.
'There's only one move that can block it.'
Woo-Moon’s sword contained the world, and the entire world became Woo-Moon’s sword.
‘All the Myriad Things in the World!’
BOOM!
A powerful explosion rang out, shaking the entire Heavenly Demon Cult.
Fortunately, the damage from the collision was minimal. Both Woo-Moon and the Martial Heaven God were incredibly skilled at concentrating and controlling their power.
"AGK!"
Woo-Moon flew backward with a scream, and Lightflash shattered into pieces. He pierced through the highest tower of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s compound and finally ended his flight by crashing into a cliff.
"Oh my. Was my gift too much?"
1. The name actually appears in this chapter with no explanation whatsoever. We added this part in order to make the transition smoother. ☜