Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

Zhuge Sa knew that his own combat prowess fell far short of the Zhuge Yuryong standing before him. Of course, he was confident that he surpassed Zhuge Yuryong in sorcery and magic, but even that advantage wasn't as overwhelming as he might have thought. The reason was that Zhuge Yuryong had joined hands with the Eight Guardians at some point and had even formed a contract with the [Ancient Ruler] without hesitation.

Moreover, as one of the Three Great Elders of the Righteous Faction—the Mount Tai Old Man—Zhuge Yuryong was a pinnacle figure in the righteous martial world, boasting exceptional martial arts. His sorcery went without saying. He was a genius who could have become an Earth Immortal and ascended to the Heavenly Realm in his twenties without anyone batting an eye.

Zhuge Sa had never considered anyone's talent or intellect superior to his own, but even he had always regarded Zhuge Yuryong with a sense of unease. His brother was a genius who outshone even his own brilliance.

In other words—a monster who might have achieved mastery as a grandmaster in all three fields: martial arts, sorcery, and magic.

If he fought Zhuge Yuryong head-on, it was clear he wouldn't last three exchanges before dying. Even Baek Woong might not defeat Zhuge Yuryong without Cheon Woo-jin's help. Thus, Zhuge Sa first tried to buy time with words.

“You brought the Earth Luminaries here? I have one of the Seven Luminaries too.”

Hoping to unsettle Zhuge Yuryong, Zhuge Sa told a cunning lie, but Zhuge Yuryong replied without a flicker of expression.

“Good. Then I'll just use the Seven Luminaries.”

“Die.”

Boom.

Ultimate Technique

Entering Clouds Ascending Dragon

It felt like a blue whirlwind was raging. Zhuge Yuryong flew to Zhuge Sa's side with dazzling footwork unfolding like a folding screen and unleashed a palm strike. The speed was so immense that Zhuge Sa, who had only just surpassed the first-class realm in martial arts, could neither dodge nor block it.

Zhuge Sa's eyes widened. It was far faster than he had anticipated.

“Feels different when facing you directly.”

From the start, no one in the righteous martial world had ever doubted Zhuge Yuryong's skills during his time as the Mount Tai Old Man, one of the Three Great Elders. His identity might be fake, but his prowess was real, and half-baked martial arts learned for fun wouldn't work against a top-tier expert in the martial world.

Thud.

As if it were the most natural thing, Zhuge Sa's head shattered into pieces. While he was unrivaled in magic and knowledge, he hadn't devoted much effort to martial arts. It was only natural that he couldn't even last a single exchange.

Zhuge Yuryong, who killed his own brother without the slightest hesitation, stood calmly amid the spraying fountain of blood. Then he muttered.

“Purification spell.”

The blood staining Zhuge Yuryong's body vanished as if washed away. After using sorcery to erase the bloodstains, he said softly.

“Blood curse? Pathetic. Such low-level magic.”

Zhuge Yuryong looked up, gazing at something.

“Using puppets, as always. Are you too scared to face your brother directly, Evil One?”

“Of course I'm scared.”

Step.

Step.

“A brother who smashes his cute little sibling's head without a second thought doesn't deserve respect.”

From the darkness at the back of the cave, Zhuge Sa's figure slowly emerged. Strangely, though he had just been killed by Zhuge Yuryong's palm strike, he had revived instantly! Of course, Zhuge Yuryong, realizing it wasn't true resurrection but a body swap via a puppet, furrowed his brow.

“Soul Shifting Great Law. For it to belong to you... This is the worst.”

Though it was their first direct confrontation, Zhuge Yuryong had mastered knowledge from ancient and modern times, so he knew the lineage and power of the Soul Shifting Great Law well. A legendary evil art that could freely manipulate humans without them even noticing, and in the hands of a master, even possess souls at will! Facing this heinous sorcery passed down to the Heresy Cult Leader, even Zhuge Yuryong had to proceed with caution. Zhuge Sa said slyly.

“Well, you're probably not your real body either, brother.”

“Think what you want.”

Whirr.

As Zhuge Yuryong drew his longsword, sword aura like frost formed instantly along the blade. To manifest sword energy in a single breath without any preparatory movements or shouts meant he was an exceptional peak swordsman. It was a scene that would make any martial artist's heart sink in terror. Pointing his sword tip, Zhuge Yuryong said.

“I wonder whose puppets will run out first—the ones we've prepared. Will it be me, endlessly slicing you, or you, endlessly getting sliced to death?”

“Haha. Do we really have to drag this into a war of attrition?”

“If you have any hidden cards, you'll pull them out soon enough.”

Slash!

This time too, as Zhuge Yuryong charged, the neck of the ‘puppet’ that Zhuge Sa was possessing and controlling was severed in a single exchange. After all, even puppets or proxies were proportional to the user's original capabilities, so with Zhuge Sa's inferior abilities, he could never defeat Zhuge Yuryong. Moreover, Zhuge Yuryong could also freely swap bodies with puppets, putting Zhuge Sa in an endlessly disadvantageous position.

Occasionally, he countered with magic and evil sorcery, but Zhuge Yuryong neutralized Zhuge Sa's resistance each time with corresponding spells. He knew so many spells that he could freely cast at least two hundred advanced superior incantations.

Thud.

Slash.

For a while, the gruesome slaughter continued, filling the not-so-spacious cavern with Zhuge Sa's corpses. Though Zhuge Yuryong appeared overwhelmingly dominant, he never let his guard down and continued the dry slaughter.

Break!

When Zhuge Yuryong uttered the Word of Destruction, three puppets resembling Zhuge Sa tore apart like rags at once. Thinking he had destroyed a fair number of Zhuge Sa's puppets, Zhuge Yuryong said.

“Your mastery of the Soul Shifting Great Law lets you dodge my sealing spells quite well. If you're too afraid to fight me, that's fine too.”

Roar.

The ‘Zhuge Yuryongs’ gathered Zhuge Sa's corpses and burned them in flames. They watched the blazing pile of bodies, waiting for something.

Kiri-ring!!

Suddenly, the ground near the roots pulsed violently, and deep blue spiritual energy oozed out here and there like sticky paint. Unlike ordinary spirit entities, it transmitted a definite medium through space-time with an intense tactile sensation! Zhuge Yuryong tuned his spiritual power's frequency to that energy and located something.

Kiri-ring--

Following the grain of the roots for a long stretch, Zhuge Yuryong found a spot where the deep blue spiritual energy was so thick it was suffocating. He gazed at the massive pile of roots before him with nostalgic eyes for a moment, then spoke.

“I'm certain the World Tree's seed and reincarnation body are inside there. Come at me if you dare, Evil One.”

Zhuge Yuryong didn't underestimate Zhuge Sa at all. Though he had overwhelmingly won the puppet showdown in direct combat, he knew Zhuge Sa was an intellect equal to his own. There was no reason for a mere puppet attrition war without purpose, but unable to read the intent, he countered by using the puppets' materials as fuel for the World Tree. As a result, he located the spot where the World Tree's spiritual energy was most condensed—the place where the seed slept.

A hundred times out of a hundred, he was right.

Now, Zhuge Sa would make his move.

Drip.

Provokingly, he moved one proxy to slice along the roots' grain with his sword, causing sap like fresh blood to seep out and fall to the ground. But even after searching for the seed for a while with no movement from Zhuge Sa, he muttered inwardly disappointed.

“Coward.”

Plop.

“Found it.”

Eventually, as he split the root tendril dense with spiritual energy, something the size of a watermelon spilled out onto the ground. It was too large to call a seed, but it gleamed with deep blue light, asserting its presence.

It's over!

No more schemes mattered now. Zhuge Yuryong smirked inwardly with triumph and reached for the World Tree's seed, intending to leave via teleportation spell. The moment he grasped the seed and tried to activate the teleportation—

…...

The spell wouldn't activate.

“Did he activate the Earth Luminaries?”

For an instant, Zhuge Yuryong was flustered and thought that. Once the Earth Eight Trigrams Node activated, even the caster couldn't use spells, making it the most likely reason his proxy couldn't cast.

But he soon realized that wasn't it.

“......!!”

Zhuge Yuryong's face hardened intensely as one of Zhuge Sa's puppets stealthily stepped out from behind. Grinning, he said.

“Brother. You knew I'd do this, yet you still fell for it.”

“...I didn't expect your sorcery to reach this level.”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? How many years has it been since you last saw me, brother?”

Zhuge Sa swiftly snatched the World Tree's seed from Zhuge Yuryong's hand and clutched it. It seemed utterly reckless. He should have been instantly slaughtered by Zhuge Yuryong's fearsome martial arts. Yet Zhuge Yuryong remained still, holding his position without moving.

No—he wasn't choosing not to move.

He couldn't move.

“No. No matter how much you train, it's impossible for a human to master the Soul Shifting Great Law to this degree. Your magic power transcends common sense.”

“......”

After a moment, Zhuge Yuryong realized something and glared at Zhuge Sa's right eye.

“That eye... It's thanks to that demonic eye!”

Fwoosh!!

Zhuge Sa's right eye wasn't a normal human eye. Dyed in pitch-black darkness, the pupil inside gleamed with eerie crimson light. It also emitted powerful magic power in real time, forming a stark contrast with the crushed, bloodied left eye.

In an appearance that screamed mad demonic sorcerer, Zhuge Sa stroked his right eye and cackled.

“Ah? It's a problem. Feels like the inner black goat is rampaging. Believe me if I said I used up everything I had to get this? Brother. Once this is over, I'll be a cripple for a while.”

“You contracted with the Demon King.”

“Correct.”

Zhuge Sa's black eye emitted a ghostly aura.

“While this ‘eye’ is active, the Soul Shifting Great Law loses the ‘contact’ restriction and can control the opponent's soul with just ‘line of sight.’”

“......”

“Zhuge Yuryong. You've been hit by the Soul Shifting Great Law.”

Zhuge Yuryong gritted his teeth.

That was probably one of the ultimate secret arts of Spiritual Knowledge Demonism!

Easy to say, but that ‘eye’ infused with the Demon King's magic power was something no normal person could acquire. An ordinary demonic sorcerer wouldn't even dream of contracting it, and even if they tried, they'd be enslaved and drained eternally in the Ten Thousand Demons Hall. But Zhuge Sa, at the pinnacle of both demonism and heresy sorcery, had succeeded in the contract!

The Soul Shifting Great Law normally required contact and considerable time to draw out the soul and interfere with it. But that Demon King's eye eliminated that restriction, allowing it via mere line of sight.

Ssssh.

Zhuge Yuryong's puppets' lips twitched as signs of the Soul Shifting Great Law beginning to unravel appeared. As he tried to counter with his fearsome incantation power and spells, Zhuge Sa's face paled momentarily. But soon, Zhuge Sa's demonic eye gleamed as he commanded.

“Kill yourselves.”

Stab.

Moments later, Zhuge Yuryong's proxies thrust swords into their own throats and committed suicide. The Soul Shifting Great Law, enhanced to the extreme by the Demon King's eye, easily overrode their self-preservation instincts. But one remained, standing still without suiciding. Zhuge Yuryong glared at Zhuge Sa.

“Why leave that one?”

“You asking because you don't know? If I kill them all, I'll swap to another immediately, so I need to block your escape. While I'm forcibly controlling it with the Soul Shifting Great Law, that body is your prison.”

“......”

At those words, Zhuge Yuryong sneered coldly.

“That eye is powerful, so it must have a time limit. Did you throw everything away just to win this one spot?”

Zhuge Sa shrugged.

“Is that not allowed?”

“You're an idiot. Torturing me here gains you nothing. Physical pain can be endured with mental resolution. Besides, no matter how powerful the Soul Shifting Great Law, you can't pierce my mental defenses through a proxy. If you could, the Heresy Cult's Demon King would have ruled the world long ago.”

“True.”

“You win once here, and from now on, you can never interfere in my affairs. Your right eye will be ruined, and the left burned by magic power, leaving you blind.”

“...Probably.”

“Is a single victory worth that? I'm asking because I truly don't understand, Evil One.”

Zhuge Yuryong questioned with a cold, piercing gaze. It wasn't mockery; their core values differed so vastly that he couldn't comprehend it.

Zhuge Sa's current strategy was unworthy of a strategist.

It was utterly unfit for a descendant of Zhuge Wu-hou.

It seemed good at a glance, but the priorities were reversed.

Zhuge Yuryong had thought Zhuge Sa would secure reasonable gains and then focus on the big picture like a true strategist, believing he held the advantage in strategic vision. But unexpectedly, Zhuge Sa had forsaken all future sustainability for victory in this minor battlefield. From Zhuge Yuryong's judgment, no amount of benefit from obtaining the World Tree's seed justified that.

Zhuge Sa replied in a cynical tone.

“I'm sick of pretending to be a master by only eyeing the big picture. To the gods, it's all pointless; we're just ants and mortals. What's the point?”

“What? Is that what a strategist says?”

“Normally, I'd think my actions now are idiotic too, brother. But if you had infinite moves to play, what strategy would you devise?”

“......?”

For the first time, Zhuge Yuryong lost his composure, his face twisting in bewilderment. Seeing Zhuge Yuryong's utterly baffled expression, Zhuge Sa giggled.

“No matter trillions or billions of games, laying the foundation stone for the king—that's a strategist's duty.”

Stab!

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Sa plunged a dagger deep into Zhuge Yuryong's heart and twisted it.

“Urk.”

Zhuge Yuryong staggered, but as if accustomed to physical pain, he merely glared without much reaction. Zhuge Sa stepped back, leaving the dagger's hilt embedded in the heart, and said.

“As you said, brother, I'll be out of commission upfront for a while. But quietly stepping aside isn't my style, so you have to come along.”

“What... do you mean.”

“That dagger slowly corrupts the soul over a hundred days. To expel it, you'll have to focus solely on dispelling for at least a decade.”

“......”

Sealed here for ten years.

It was probably an efficient strategy. The Eight Guardians wouldn't easily find him here, and they had no obligation to dispel his curse anyway. The dagger's magic prevented any body-swapping spells.

“Fool.”

Zhuge Yuryong said nothing. He had lost here, but in the grand scheme, he had won by default. If Zhuge Sa went blind and lost all support, it was ideal for Zhuge Yuryong. The absence of a genius strategist who wielded the Soul Shifting Great Law freely vastly widened his room to maneuver. In truth, a mere dagger curse was negligible to Zhuge Yuryong, who used longevity spells aiming for the end times five hundred years hence. Zhuge Sa's actions amounted to suicide overall.

Yet Zhuge Sa looked far too relaxed despite his blunder, which was disconcerting.

What had driven Zhuge Sa to act this way?

Zhuge Yuryong sighed as Zhuge Sa's figure fully vanished into the darkness.

“The Eight Guardians will run unchecked from now on...”