Chapter 190: Heavenly Orchid Society (2)

The Gulang County Branch Leader opened his mouth with a complicated expression.

"I'm not doubting your abilities, Young Master, but isn't this a bit dangerous? Even though Gansu Province is practically abandoned by the Central Plains, the Heavenly Orchid Society controls an entire provincial capital."

The moment the Branch Leader questioned his order, fanatics like Baek Cheon and Hyeokryeon Seon-ah were about to have a fit, but Il-mok spoke first.

"We already killed the messenger they sent. So our options are either to launch a surprise attack before this information reaches them or to hunker down here for a siege. And if we end up in a siege, we won't be the ones taking the real damage."

Everyone gathered quickly realized who Il-mok meant by the real victims.

The innocent people living in Gulang County could suffer greatly, just like the couple Il-mok had saved earlier.

"And I'm not planning to fight recklessly. So tell me, what do you know about the Heavenly Orchid Society's combat strength? You must have something, either from your own digging or from the rumor mill, right?”

"The Heavenly Orchid Society’s leader, Maeng Gwak, is known as the Black Ghost Twin Sabers. They say no one’s actually seen him fight for more than ten years, not since the Heavenly Orchid Society took over Lanzhou. But there are rumors he used Force Qi in his last battle a decade ago."

"Force Qi... In Central Plains terms, that means the Supreme Peak Realm, right? Or the Realm of Truth (인해경(認解境))?"

Il-mok asked, recalling conversations with the Heavenly Demon.

It was back when he was getting ready to enter the Hall of the Demonic Way. Back when his Master would beat the crap out of him under the guise of "real combat training," claiming Il-mok got stronger whenever he was in danger.

Il-mok, who seriously thought he might actually die, often asked questions to buy time whenever their sparring sessions ended.

One of those questions was about the classification of martial realms.

—The realms of martial arts...

The Heavenly Demon stroked his beard and briefly explained the martial realms.

Those who had just succeeded in gathering internal energy in their dantian and were just learning martial arts were Third Rate. Those who could use internal energy to perform techniques were Second Rate. Those who had surpassed simply following predetermined movements and could freely manipulate internal energy according to various actions were First Rate.

Those who had gone beyond strengthening their bodies with internal energy and could project qi outward were called the Peak Realm. These are the people who can use things like Sword or Fist Qi.

Among Central Plains martial artists, reaching the Peak Realm is what makes you a ‘real expert.’

Occasionally, there are those who could forcibly squeeze out Sword Qi through superior martial arts regardless of their actual skill and were separately called Upper First Rate.

—Truly foolish and ignorant. Anyone who learns our Divine Cult's high-level Demonic Arts can succeed in projecting qi within a dozen years at the latest. Hahaha.

Even while explaining, the Heavenly Demon couldn’t resist showing off his pride in the Divine Cult and dissing the people from the Central Plains.

But Il-mok couldn’t argue with the facts.

Not a single graduate from the Hall of the Demonic Way failed to reach what was equivalent to the Peak Realm in Central Plains standards, and all the cultists from the main headquarters who worked in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's combat units or organizations were Peak Realm or higher.

But that wasn’t why he kept his mouth shut.

'With the price of dealing with mental illness and falling into Qi Deviation on a daily basis, that is.’

But he couldn't voice such thoughts for the Heavenly Demon would've chopped his head off if he did.

The Heavenly Demon's explanation continued.

—The Central Plains folks talk about a level called theSupreme Peak Realm after the Peak Realm, but the Supreme Peak Realm is like a mirage. It's just something they added because the gap between Peak Realm and the next realm, Realm of Truth, is too vast. Just like the false realm called the Upper First Rate Realm.

Once you reached the Peak Realm and could project your qi, the possibilities for growth were endless.

Taking the sword as an example, one could go beyond Sword Qi to form Sword Barriers or create Sword Threads.  Instead of just coating your sword with energy, you could shoot your Sword Qi at enemies far away, or control the qi to move with either hard or soft principles.

After mastering all these different ways to use ki and having a ton of breakthroughs, the ultimate stage a swordsman in the Peak Realm could dream of reaching was when their Sword Qi formed into Sword Force.

Thus, the Central Plains people called warriors who could handle Force Qi masters of the Supreme Peak Realm.

—But to freely manipulate Force Qi, one must ultimately enter the Realm of Truth. The Force Qi created at the so-called Supreme Peak level is just a cheap imitation they’re barely managing to force out.

Having already reached an insane level of power himself, the Heavenly Demon obviously looked down on the whole Supreme Peak idea.

—Does that mean the criterion for entering the Realm of Truth is being able to freely manipulateForce Qi?"

—You've got the order backwards. It’s because you have entered the Realm of Truth that you can freely wield Force Qi.

—???

Seeing Il-mok's confused face, the Heavenly Demon added an explanation.

—The criterion for the Realm of Truth is none other than the Overhaul Body Transformation (환골탈태 (換骨奪胎)). Your body changes into the form most suitable for the martial arts and your meridians become connected directly to the world. As a result, you are able to commune with the world. Once that happens, wielding Force Qi freely comes as a matter of course.

He then added, looking extremely proud of himself.

—And this connects back to our Divine Cult. This is because we classify our ‘high-level Demonic Arts’ based on whether or not one can achieve the Overhaul Body Transformation and reach the Realm of Truth upon successfully achieving Transcendence.

—In that case, does that mean I will achieve the Overhaul Body Transformation the moment I achieve Transcendence with the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword?

Oblivious of Il-mok’s newfound realization and despair of what a long and crazy path he had unwillingly just stepped on, the Heavenly Demon just kept on smiling proudly.

—That’s right. Hahaha. So, time to get back to training.

What loving words and terrible killing intent that was.

Cold sweat ran down Il-mok's back when he recalled how that conversation had ended.

Misunderstanding Il-mok's expression, the Gulang County Branch Leader cautiously spoke.

“It seems unlikely that the leader of the Heavenly Orchid Society has entered the Realm of Truth. The number of absolute masters in the Realm of Truth across the Central Plains could be counted on one hand. If he were that skilled, there'd be no reason for him to stay in this frontier."

"Then how many masters are there besides the leader?"

“Their second-in-command, a woman they call the Rakshasi of Gansu, is rumored to be at the absolute top of the Peak Realm. And there are about five or six other Peak Realm masters."

After hearing all the Branch Leader's reports, Il-mok looked over his companions and nodded.

Most of them were crazy, but their skills were reliable.

***

After getting their gear ready, Il-mok and his crew started moving toward Lanzhou.

Gulang County and Lanzhou were relatively close, but this was only close by the standards of the massive landmass called the Central Plains.

After running over three hundred miles without rest using lightness skills, they finally reached Lanzhou after the sun had completely set.

Given how fast they had traveled, they had earned themselves a head start of at least one day.

"Those guys who came to Gulang County are probably planning to stay the night and get treated by the Red Serpent Gang before going home. They won't notice anything wrong at the Heavenly Orchid Society until tomorrow at the very least. So we'll rest now and launch our surprise attack at the beginning of the Hour of Tiger (3-5 AM)."

After giving his orders, Il-mok washed off all the sweat from the long run and got about four hours of sleep.

He woke up near the end of the Hour of the Ox (1–3 AM), and the group ate some rice balls they’d gotten from the inn before heading out.

***

There was a huge estate located just a short distance from Lanzhou's red-light district.

A sign hanging out front read [Heavenly Orchid Society]. The place was so big it made the Red Serpent Gang’s headquarters look like a shack.

Perhaps due to its enormous size, the walls were much higher, and men stood guard with torches lit at regular intervals.

Yet, because they’ve been the undisputed ruler of Lanzhou for over ten years now, their guards are lax and complacent.

"Yaaaaawn."

‘No day off tomorrow… guess I’ll have to go see Aeng-ran tonight.’

The guard was getting lost in some dirty thoughts as he stared at the red-light district next door when his daydream suddenly came to a stop.

"!?"

He suddenly found himself unable to breathe and before he knew it, a thin black thread wrapped around his neck.

Slice.

Before the man could resist, his neck was severed in two by the razor-thin black thread.

Beside the man who'd instantly become a headless corpse, stood a woman who'd approached without anyone noticing hid in the shadows.

A woman in tight black night clothes with a wrathful deity mask covering her face.

Even with a torch right next to her, she remained undetected.

This was Dam Bin, the First Squad Leader of the Hidden Guard Pavilion.

Once she took care of the last target, she put out a torch as a signal.

With no one left alive to see it, a team of masked figures used the new patch of darkness to climb over the wall and into the Heavenly Orchid Society estate.

Once they were safely inside, they split up and spread out in all directions, either moving alone or in teams of three.

‘Easier than I thought.’

Il-mok split off from the others and moved to the center of the estate alone.

Befitting the grand size of the estate, the interior was also filled with numerous pavilions and inner courtyards.

Just as he was about to walk past one of the buildings, he suddenly stopped.

Two guards were posted together in the alley between two pavilions.

Il-mok used stealth techniques to creep up on them.

He stopped a good distance away and unleashed Soul-Cutting Flash with his finger. He'd improvised the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword to create a finger projectile on the spot.

A blast of energy, infused with the essence of his fast-sword style, flew from Il-mok’s finger and hit the guards’ paralysis and mute points.

They went down without a sound. Il-mok walked up, finished them off with a quick swing of his blackened sword, and kept moving.

Right after he passed another building, a particularly splendid building appeared.

Four guard warriors stood around the building, each monitoring the surroundings.

'Jackpot.'

The whole mission had been thrown together at the last minute. While they could locate the estate since the Heavenly Orchid Society was famous enough, there hadn't been time to find out exactly where the leader slept.

That's why they'd spread out widely to search for the leader.

‘I can’t believe they put it right in the middle and basically hung up a giant sign saying ‘THE LEADER SLEEPS HERE’.’

Despite his exasperated feelings, Il-mok pondered as he looked at the leader's chamber.

He felt that secretly taking out the guards one by one would be a bad move.

'If that leader really is a Supreme Peak Realm expert, my stealth skills won’t be enough to fool his senses completely.’

The chances were high that if he jumped one of the guards, the leader would feel the disturbance in the energy flow and wake up.

‘Hit them hard and fast.’

With his mind made up, Il-mok took a deep breath and operated his dantian at full power.

BOOM!!

With a thunderous explosion, Il-mok had already reached right in front of the guard protecting the building's west side.

The guard's eyes widened at the unexpected attack.

He didn't even have time to open his mouth to sound the alarm or put up a guard when Il-mok’s sword cut his body in half.

Slash!

However, Il-mok’s objective had never been a mere guard in the first place.

The Sword Qi erupted from Il-mok's sword went beyond the guard's body and sliced through the building's wall.

CRASH!!

Amid the tremendous explosion and rising dust, Il-mok swung his sword again to push away the dust as he entered the hall.

'Damn hygiene obsession.'

After clearing the dust, the hall's interior came into Il-mok's view.

There is a massive bed inside.

Three women who'd barely covered their naked bodies with silk blankets looked at Il-mok with startled faces.

"You fucking bastard!!"

The man who'd been lying with those women roared and quickly threw himself toward the twin blades beside the bed.

The whole disastrous scene almost made Il-mok squeeze his eyes shut. The voices in his head started going nuts.

'My eyes are going to rot!!'

—Cut off that hideous thing right now!!

The Heavenly Orchid Society leader who'd woken up was completely naked.