Chapter 1244

Black poisonous energy was rising like mist between the countless pavilions.

The spirit trees appeared dried and twisted.

In truth, they had been recovering their vitality, yet one after another, they withered and collapsed into ash.

The sacred ground that could be called the heart of the Central Plains' spiritual lands was being engulfed by the shadow of death.

The great army of the Poison Spirit Hall of the True Demon Palace was destroying the Fire Soul Land.

Paaat!

Wherever the blackish-purple poison mist emitted from the Poison Spirit Hall's poison masters passed, the disciples of the Fire Soul Land collapsed, coughing blood.

Their faces turned dark blue in an instant, and black blood flowed from their seven orifices.

"Maintain the formation! Do not leave your positions!"

Even though the surprise attack had been sudden, the disciples of the Fire Soul Land calmly engaged the enemy.

From each formation created by twenty-four disciples, a transparent film of astral energy spread outward and blocked the poison.

Paaat! Paaat!

Every time they extended their hands, pure white patterns spread in all directions, and spirit creatures formed from pure spiritual energy manifested one after another.

Legend held that the progenitor of the Fire Soul Land had received her sorcery directly from an immortal of the heavens.

The Grand Expansion Technique gave physical form to accumulated spiritual energy.

It possessed enough power to overwhelm most martial arts and auxiliary arts in the martial world.

"Hmph, it is still as insignificant as ever."

Tap Mokgeuk, deputy leader of the Poison Spirit Hall of the True Demon Palace, watched the battle from afar with a sneer.

The Grand Expansion Technique of the Fire Soul Land might be formidable, but its source was ultimately spiritual energy.

In other words, it could only be fundamentally opposed to the poison formed within nature.

Sizzle.

Tap Mokgeuk waved his hand.

The poison emitted from his fingertips pierced the aura shield created by the Grand Expansion Technique as though it were paper.

Shaaaa.

The disciples struck by the poison he unleashed trembled violently, then grew limp as though they had no bones.

"How dare you!"

Along with a thunderous shout, a red-clad figure kicked off the air and flew toward him.

It was the Land Lord of the Fire Soul Land, the One-Eyed Immortal.

Her long hair covered one eye. She had disguised herself as a haggard old woman, her skin wrinkled like an ancient tree that had lived a thousand years.

Yet a powerful aura radiated from her body, and the wooden staff in her hand shone white with spiritual energy.

"What a bizarre disguise."

Tap Mokgeuk recognized her disguise at a glance and extended his hand.

Sizzle.

Mighty poison pierced the spiritual energy surrounding the One-Eyed Immortal, and her human-skin mask melted away.

It revealed the face of a middle-aged beauty so bewitching and exquisite that words could not describe it.

"Yes, now I remember."

Tap Mokgeuk laughed heartily and nodded.

"Was it Yang Yeong? Back then, you were fooling around with Bu Zhanyang and lost an eye..."

"You mongrel of a defeated general who fled after failing to withstand even one stroke from my brother certainly talks a great deal."

For an instant, killing intent gleamed in Tap Mokgeuk's pitch-black eyes, but he soon laughed heartily again.

"Hmph. I heard that vaunted Bu Zhanyang worked as a corpse examiner and ultimately ended up in such a state that even his own body could not be recovered intact... How could he possibly compare to the Hall Lord?"

"Enough nonsense!"

The One-Eyed Immortal spread both arms and unleashed the Grand Expansion Technique.

Two dragons appeared on either side of Tap Mokgeuk and instantly coiled around him.

Sizzle.

Yet Tap Mokgeuk soon walked out completely unharmed.

The One-Eyed Immortal's Grand Expansion Technique was formidable, but it was insufficient to stop Tap Mokgeuk's poison.

"The Hall Lord worried for nothing. There was no need to bring the subordinates."

Then something Tap Mokgeuk had not anticipated occurred.

Crrrack. Whirl!

Faint tree roots formed beneath the feet of the poison masters locked in fierce combat with the Fire Soul Land's disciples.

In the blink of an eye, they began constricting their bodies.

Crunch, crrrunch.

The tree roots penetrated the poison masters' poisonous astral energy, which could melt even iron in an instant, then coiled around their bodies and crushed them.

"Did you think poison alone would let you come and go from this land whenever you pleased?"

The One-Eyed Immortal had already suffered from that poison once, thirty years ago, and had nearly lost her life because of it.

Afterward, she never forgot that humiliation. She had continuously studied the True Demon Palace's poison and prepared countermeasures against it.

"Every last one of you will die!"

Boom!

With a forceful shout, the One-Eyed Immortal slammed her wooden staff into the ground.

The earth shook, and the roots of thousands of spirit trees buried deep beneath the Fire Soul Land surged into the sky.

Rumble, rumble.

Enormous tree roots burst from the ground and began coiling around the poison masters.

Each was as thick as the body of a great python, and the blue-green energy emitted from the roots purified the poison.

―'Urgh!'

―'What is this?!'

The poison masters struggled with all their might, but they could not escape.

Crack.

The roots were crushing bodies that seemed as indestructible as the Diamond Indestructible Body.

The steel-like roots of the spirit trees did not melt even under the poison, and the Grand Expansion Technique had saturated their interiors with spiritual energy.

The poison masters could only be crushed helplessly.

"Not bad."

Tap Mokgeuk murmured softly and shook his head.

"But it is far too obvious!"

Whoooomph!

Poison erupted from his entire body like an explosion.

It transcended the poison unique to the True Demon Palace.

It was living poison that thought like a human and changed without cease.

He had begun using the Sentient Poison Spirit, said to have been created by the Poison Spirit Demonic Lord alone.

Zzzap!

The moment the Sentient Poison Spirit touched the roots, they began to rot, and the blue spiritual energy within them turned black in an instant.

"This is..."

The One-Eyed Immortal's face hardened coldly.

The secret arts she had prepared, Spirit Grove Thorn Assault and Monstrous Root Binding, could not be easily broken even if the Poison Spirit Demonic Lord himself came.

'There was a spy.'

However, these methods possessed one fatal weakness.

If the Nether-Concealed Anchoring Locks secretly embedded in the earth veins were destroyed, every technique would become useless.

Tap Mokgeuk acted as though he had known these facts in advance.

He gave the Sentient Poison Spirit physical form.

Then he precisely severed only the Nether-Concealed Anchoring Locks hidden within the earth veins.

"Haaap!"

In the end, the One-Eyed Immortal brought out her final resort.

Blue energy and crimson flames erupted simultaneously from her body.

It was a Grand Expansion Technique that absorbed all the spiritual energy remaining in the Fire Soul Land and created over a thousand divine beasts.

She had unleashed Gathering Spirits into a Thousand Forms.

This method drastically shortened her lifespan, but she did not have the luxury to worry about that now.

Fwoooosh!

At her gesture, the forms of hundreds of divine beasts soared into the sky.

They did not merely possess the appearance of those creatures. They could exert the same power as living divine beasts.

Boooom!

Hundreds of shadows charged like light and began swallowing Tap Mokgeuk.

"A useless struggle."

Fzzt!

Tap Mokgeuk flicked a single finger.

The seemingly living Sentient Poison Spirit began tightly binding the divine beasts.

Crackle.

It then penetrated to the heart of the Grand Expansion Technique and began gnawing away at the life force of the divine beasts created through Gathering Spirits into a Thousand Forms.

Paaat!

Unable to withstand the poison of the Sentient Poison Spirit, the divine beasts ultimately scattered in every direction like powder.

Trickle.

At the same time, the One-Eyed Immortal coughed blood and staggered.

The Gathering Spirits into a Thousand Forms sorcery had failed, and her life force had been exhausted.

Not only had she suffered severe internal injuries, but the black hair at her temples began turning white strand by strand.

"The Hall Lord said I could claim everything in the Fire Soul Land as my own."

Tap Mokgeuk flicked his tongue as he watched the staggering One-Eyed Immortal.

"Your beauty is far too precious to simply kill you."

He cocked his head and spoke.

"Until we locate the revived spirit vein and seal it again, you will serve as my plaything."

He slowly extended his hand with a lecherous grin.

Rumble, rumble.

The ground vibrated, and even the air began to tremble without end.

It was as though the entire world were shaking in time with someone's heartbeat.

Slaaash!

At the same time, a clear sound rang throughout the Fire Soul Land, and the sky split open as though torn apart.

A beautiful, middle-aged woman in blue robes walked out through the gap.

With skin like white jade and a gaze as cold as ice and snow, she was none other than the Palace Master of the Divine Water Palace, Neung Gyeong.

Claang.

With her arrival, the entire area around the Fire Soul Land began to freeze.

It was because of her mighty Crystal Divine Energy.

The moisture in the air crystallized and scattered like snowflakes, while frost settled over the ground.

"Neung Gyeong."

The staggering One-Eyed Immortal stared at the Palace Master in astonishment.

"How did you..."

Neung Gyeong gave a serene smile.

"You saved me, so I must save you as well, shouldn't I?"

Thanks to those who had suddenly attacked the Divine Water Palace, Neung Gyeong had rekindled her will to live and overcome her illness.

Afterward, while investigating the surroundings to learn the attackers' identities, she belatedly sensed that something was strange.

―'Why has not even one person struck by the Crystal Divine Energy been found?'

All hundred or so assassins had supposedly escaped, but they had been struck by Crystal Divine Energy unleashed with her full power, so surely at least one or two should have died nearby.

Even if every one of them had perfectly suppressed their wounds and escaped, the Crystal Divine Energy spread throughout their bodies would have condensed and gradually shattered them.

Therefore, at least one or two fragments of broken flesh should inevitably have been found within several hundred li.

Yet they had left no trace whatsoever, as though they had perfectly expelled the Crystal Divine Energy from their bodies.

―'So that was it.'

After pondering the matter deeply, Neung Gyeong finally realized the entire truth.

There was only one person beneath the heavens capable of perfectly expelling the Crystal Divine Energy she emitted.

It could only have been the grandson of the man she had loved.

―'The absence of any spiritual medicine in the Fire Soul Land was itself an arrangement for my sake.'

A letter had been left at the Divine Water Palace, claiming that spiritual medicine had been placed in the Fire Soul Land.

That letter had merely been Bu Zhanyang's arrangement to provoke her when her body weakened and help her overcome her illness.

―'Even if Yang Yeong coldly cast Dana out, she must have placed something in her hands.'

Her disciple, Gongsun Dana, had said that the One-Eyed Immortal had driven her away mercilessly.

But Yang Yeong, known as the One-Eyed Immortal, was only fierce on the outside. In truth, she possessed a kind heart.

If she truly expelled her disciple, she would at least have placed something beneficial in her hands.

In the end, Neung Gyeong understood the truth behind every step that had allowed her to cast off her illness and rise again.

The man she had loved all her life had arranged it all.

So had the sole descendant he left behind.

―'The Fire Soul Land is in danger.'

Neung Gyeong knew all too well why Bu Zhanyang had pretended to sever the Fire Soul Land's spirit vein.

And if his grandson, Bu Eunseol, had visited that place, the enemies would surely investigate every corner of the Fire Soul Land and discover that the spirit vein was reviving.

―'Now it is my turn to protect it.'

Neung Gyeong had merely been born with a weak body.

Her heart had never been weak.

In case something should happen to the Fire Soul Land, she had ordered her disciples to observe it in secret and continually monitor the situation.

Then, when an anomaly was suddenly detected, she led her disciples and rushed here before anyone else.

"How peculiar."

Tap Mokgeuk tilted his head.

"The Palace Master of the Divine Water Palace came to save the Fire Soul Land..."

Everyone in the martial world knew that the Palace Master of the Divine Water Palace and the Fire Soul Land Lord were rivals in love.

Yet she had come to risk her life protecting the Fire Soul Land?

Paaat!

Neung Gyeong landed beside the One-Eyed Immortal and spoke in a low voice.

"Use the Grand Expansion Formula. I will support you."

When she raised her hand, blue light erupted from her palm.

An essence that compressed the very profound principle of flow, neither water nor ice, surged forth.

She had begun using the Divine Water Palace's secret transmission, which she had never used before, and Crystal Divine Energy that had reached the ultimate realm.

Shaaaa.

As the mighty Crystal Divine Energy spread, the desiccated Fire Soul Land regained its natural color, and a mysterious radiance began spreading from it.

The Palace Master had not attacked Tap Mokgeuk.

Instead, she had ground the ink and unfurled the paper so that the One-Eyed Immortal could paint the picture called the Grand Expansion Formula in deeper colors.

"Haaap!"

The One-Eyed Immortal also extended both hands and unleashed Gathering Spirits into a Thousand Forms once more.

Swiiiish!

When Neung Gyeong and the One-Eyed Immortal joined forces, something unbelievable occurred.

The forms of over a thousand divine beasts took shape without consuming life force.

Moreover, the divine beasts were completely unaffected by the Sentient Poison Spirit.

―'Rrrrroar!'

More than a thousand divine beasts filled the sky above the Fire Soul Land and roared.

The divine beasts had been given form through Crystal Divine Energy and the Grand Expansion Formula.

They stood over ten jang tall, and every one of their scales shone as though alive and breathing.

"Attack!"

At the One-Eyed Immortal's shout, the divine beasts poured down upon Tap Mokgeuk and the poison masters.

Booooom!

The divine beasts descended from the sky like a ceiling collapsing and began sweeping through the great army.

The spiritual energy emitted from their scales annihilated the poison.

Their sharp claws tore through the bodies of the poison masters, said to be even tougher than the Diamond Indestructible Body.

―'Aaaaargh!'

The poison masters scattered with screams.

"Oh?"

As Tap Mokgeuk easily evaded the divine beasts' attacks, an interested gleam appeared in his eyes for the first time.

The True Demon Palace had not entered the martial world for a long time. The Poison Spirit Demonic Lord had also spent many years in seclusion and ceased all activity.

As a result, Tap Mokgeuk had also been forced to live in seclusion.

Then, after all that time, he had finally received a mission to dye the Fire Soul Land in blood.

Yet he had been unable to hide his disappointment with a tedious battle that felt like crushing insects.

Now that the One-Eyed Immortal and the Palace Master of the Divine Water Palace had counterattacked with their hidden trump card, he found himself excited instead.

"Excellent!"

Tap Mokgeuk cried out in delight and slowly floated into the air.

At the same time, black energy surged from his entire body.

Poison that writhed like a living creature formed the shape of an enormous skull in the air.

"I will show you the power I have cultivated all these years!"

Crackle.

The sky split apart, and a long-limbed giant with black skin, exhaling black poisonous smoke from its mouth, came into being.

Tap Mokgeuk had unleashed the Myriad Poisons World-Eroding Man, the secret art of the Poison Spirit Hall that combined Soul Demon Dharma Energy with the Sentient Poison Spirit.

―'Oooooooo!'

The Myriad Poisons World-Eroding Man emitted immense poison, moved its wave-like body, and began voraciously chewing through the divine beasts.

Crunch, crunch.

The divine beasts created through the Grand Expansion Formula began changing shape under the poison.

Every time the Myriad Poisons World-Eroding Man opened its mouth and chewed, scales fell away and flesh melted.

Trickle.

At the same time, Neung Gyeong's face turned pale.

The divine beasts formed from spiritual energy possessed such distinct power and form entirely because they had been created upon the foundation of the Crystal Divine Energy she had spread.

When the Myriad Poisons World-Eroding Man chewed through them, the damage was immediately transferred to her body.

Drip, drip.

The One-Eyed Immortal's condition was no better.

Blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, and her body was hunched low.

The Myriad Poisons World-Eroding Man was continuously absorbing spiritual energy and draining her life force.

At the same time, she was drawing all the emitted Sentient Poison Spirit into her own body to ease even a little of Neung Gyeong's suffering.

"Just go."

The One-Eyed Immortal shouted at Neung Gyeong.

"Stop interfering in the affairs of this land and leave!"

She knew.

Even if not only Neung Gyeong but all the disciples of the Divine Water Palace arrived together before long, they would ultimately be unable to defeat these enemies.

"I refuse."

"Why?"

"Because I have decided to share life and death with you."

The One-Eyed Immortal's eyes trembled.

She had lived in solitude, constantly guarding the Fire Soul Land's spirit vein.

The only person she had ever held in her heart was Bu Zhanyang, whom she met in the martial world.

She loved him all her life and continued longing for him even after he disappeared.

She had remained alone, suppressing her loneliness as she guarded the desolate Fire Soul Land after its spirit vein was severed. She trained a disciple, but formed bonds with no one and passed the years by herself.

Now Neung Gyeong, who could be called her rival in love, said she would share life and death with her. The feeling that arose was strange beyond description.

"My brother ignored the condemnation of countless people and destroyed the spirit vein and spiritual land contaminated by the True Demon's remains... then revived them."

Neung Gyeong's gaze grew infinitely deep.

"You also silently guarded the Fire Soul Land while enduring everything."

"My brother always wanted you and me to be close."

In this desperate, life-or-death situation, the One-Eyed Immortal spoke quietly and revealed her honest feelings to Neung Gyeong for the first time.

"But I hated you. I thought you always worried my brother with that weak body and stole his heart."

"Then we felt the same way."

Neung Gyeong wiped the blood from her lips and spoke with a relieved expression.

"I hated you too. You were far too bewitching and overflowing with charm."

Only with death before them could they finally speak honestly.

The two women revealed their true feelings and cast off the old emotions accumulated over decades.

"If we meet again in the next life,"

Neung Gyeong said with a faint smile.

"let us become good friends then."

"No."

Realizing her intent, the One-Eyed Immortal spoke in a low voice.

"I will do it."

"Please tell that child, the Martial Soul Command Lord, the truth about the spirit vein."

"What?"

"He is exceptionally wise, so he will come here before long."

Neung Gyeong spoke with a faint smile.

"That child is like my brother. If he learns the truth too late... he will try to shoulder everything in silence."

Float.

Neung Gyeong slowly rose into the sky.

"You must tell him everything."

Paaat!

At the same time, energy like a water dragon surged from the ground, and fierce winds swept in every direction.

Craaackle!

Then her skin split apart, and transparent energy began surging through the cracks.

The Fire Soul Land would be destroyed if this continued.

She intended to detonate the Crystal Divine Energy and original true energy within her body and perish together with Tap Mokgeuk.