Almighty God of War - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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039

Behind the door that Guyang Cheongang and Heo Choryeong leaped through was midair.

“Gang-je!”

“Elder Sister!”

The two bodies fell helplessly into the darkness without a single ray of light.

Splash!

What caught them after falling through a depth impossible to even guess was cold water.

“Ah!”

Heo Choryeong, who received tremendous shock at the moment of collision with the water surface, lost consciousness with a short scream and went limp in Guyang Cheongang’s arms.

But the crisis was not over.

Roooooooar-!

With a thunderous roar like a giant dragon’s cry, the entire pond formed a massive whirlpool and frantically sucked the two people into deeper underground waterways.

The pressure that felt like his whole body would burst and Heo Choryeong’s unconscious struggling grew faint as they were swept away by the fierce current.

Even Guyang Cheongang found it impossible to control his body against the tremendous suction force.

‘Akasha, what’s the situation!’

[Oxygen concentration in your body is rapidly decreasing. I will execute emergency protocol. Beginning electrolysis oxygen generation using water molecules in the blood. Internal energy consumption will be extreme, so you must surface as quickly as possible.]

With Akasha’s help, he solved his own breathing problem, but the unconscious Heo Choryeong was different.

Feeling her body go limp, Guyang Cheongang didn’t hesitate.

Without hesitation, he pressed his lips to hers and desperately blew the oxygen generated in his lungs into her.

This wasn’t a situation to worry about men and women.

Hesitation meant death.

While being swept away by the whirlpool, Guyang Cheongang shared oxygen with her through kisses several times.

How much time had passed?

The water pressure crushing them seemed to weaken, then the whirlpool violently pushed their bodies up to the surface.

Whoosh!

That place was a separate heaven and earth.

A massive underground plaza reaching ten zhang in height and fifty zhang in width.

Guyang Cheongang carefully pulled the unconscious Heo Choryeong, soaking wet, to the water’s edge and laid her on the ground.

Her complexion was pale, and her breathing was so weak it seemed it might stop at any moment.

Without hesitation, Guyang Cheongang reached his hands over her body and began the Acupoint Pursuit Technique to unblock her qi and blood and breathe life into her.

His hands moved along her entire body, pressing the major meridian points.

In the process, he had no choice but to massage her entire body.

Her body, trained in martial arts, was firm without an ounce of excess fat while drawing graceful curves.

His heart wavered momentarily at that alluring sight, but Guyang Cheongang soon shook his head and cast away the distracting thoughts.

‘Get a grip.’

Only after confirming that Heo Choryeong’s breathing had become much more comfortable and her complexion had returned could Guyang Cheongang finally breathe a sigh of relief and properly survey his surroundings.

Brilliant light flowing down from countless stalactites on the ceiling illuminated the entire plaza in a dreamlike way.

But what caught his attention was not the cave’s strange scenery.

It was the self-luminous moss and mushrooms spread endlessly like carpet on the floor.

‘What are these… exactly?’

As if drawn, he crouched down in front of the red moss spread like a rug on the floor.

The moss that had grown along the rock surface like blood vessels was emitting delicate and mysterious red light by itself.

A warm and fragrant energy could be felt from them.

They were not ordinary moss but extraordinary items containing tremendous spiritual energy.

In his mind, the contents of the Life and Death Medical Classic that he had completely memorized after obtaining it from Divine Physician Hwata flashed like lightning.

‘Akasha, compare the medicinal herb encyclopedia data from the Life and Death Medical Classic with the visual information and energy patterns of this moss. This red light, this fragrance… and this flow of energy…’

[Understood, Doctor. Cross-referencing data… I found a matching entity.]

Along with Akasha’s voice, a passage from the medical text clearly came to mind.

It grows only in cave blood vessels where extreme yin energy flows, its light is like blood and its fragrance calms the mind.

Its name was Supreme Blood Moss.

It was a miraculous spirit herb that replenished qi and blood, mended broken bones, and transformed rotten flesh into new.

“Ah…!”

Guyang Cheongang unconsciously let out an exclamation.

The spirit herb that even Divine Physician Hwata had written in the Life and Death Medical Classic as only hearing about in legends but never finding was now spread endlessly beneath his feet.

His gaze turned to the milk-white mushrooms around him in shock and ecstasy.

The strangely shaped mushrooms resembling a dragon’s brain matter were emitting soft milk-white radiance, creating a mysterious atmosphere.

‘Then those are…’

[Yes, Doctor. There’s a 99.7% probability they are Dragon Brain Jade Mushrooms recorded as always growing in the same place as Supreme Blood Moss. They are precious treasures with excellent effects for clearing the mind and improving the purity of internal energy.]

Guyang Cheongang was momentarily speechless.

He could only look around this massive underground plaza with wonder-filled eyes.

This place was a massive treasure vault where legendary spirit medicines grew naturally.

He dragged his tired body and plucked handfuls of Supreme Blood Moss and Dragon Brain Jade Mushrooms to put in his mouth.

The spirit herbs that melted softly in his mouth became waves of pure and powerful life energy spreading throughout his entire body.

He immediately sat down and began circulating the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art, starting to make that energy completely his own.

After opening his eyes a moment later, he was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a dramatic increase in internal energy.

But he could be sufficiently satisfied that his extreme fatigue was completely recovered and the flow of his internal energy had become much smoother.

A smile appeared on his lips as he held the Supreme Blood Moss and Dragon Brain Jade Mushrooms in his hands.

‘With just these, developing top-grade Dragon Nourishing Pills comparable to Great Recovery Pills or Purple Recovery Pills is just a matter of time. And I can expect revolutionary effects in treating Nine Yin Severed Meridians too.’

He gained new inspiration, but escaping this place was the priority now.

Having recovered his strength, Guyang Cheongang stood up.

The first place his gaze turned to was the pond where the massive whirlpool they had been thrown from was still swirling with bizarre sounds.

‘Going back out through there would be impossible.’

Escape through the pond was impossible.

He would have to shake off the tremendous suction force of the whirlpool that sucked in everything, fight against it in reverse, and advance an unknown distance.

Even after that, he would have to climb the vertical drop of hundreds of zhang that they had fallen down, which was impossible with his and Heo Choryeong’s current internal energy.

Then he had to find another exit.

If he couldn’t find another exit, he and Heo Choryeong were destined to grow old and die in this place.

Guyang Cheongang turned his head to look at the two types of spirit medicine filling the plaza.

‘Supreme Blood Moss and Dragon Brain Jade Mushrooms. Thanks to those, we won’t have to worry about starving to death, but we can’t live our entire lives in an underground cave…’

He gritted his teeth.

‘There must be another way to escape.’

Guyang Cheongang didn’t give up hope.

After glancing once at the unconscious and sleeping Heo Choryeong, he began systematically examining this massive underground plaza.

There might be a place to escape, or perhaps other secrets were hidden in this mysterious space.

While examining the plaza, Guyang Cheongang noticed that the northern wall was different from other places, formed like a cliff as if struck down by an axe.

Approaching that place, he discovered strange traces in the center of the wall.

It was a deep crack perfectly drawn vertically, three ja wide and ten ja long.

‘This wasn’t formed naturally. It couldn’t be such a perfect straight line then. So someone made it artificially… Did people live here?’

He approached the wall closely and ran his hand over the surface of the crack.

The glass-smooth surface was definitely not traces carved with a knife or chisel.

He tried to gauge the depth by looking into it, but the darkness had no visible end.

‘Akasha, analyze this trace.’

[Yes, Doctor. Analyzing. This is strange. There are no traces of any tools used on the surface of this groove. The molecular structure of the cut surface looks as if… it was instantaneously vaporized and annihilated by one massive energy.]

‘Vaporized by energy? No way… that’s impossible.’

An unbelievable but only possible hypothesis came to Guyang Cheongang’s mind.

He stepped back in shock without realizing it.

‘If this was made by human hands? If this was a single trace left by a massive sword?’

The crack was not naturally formed.

It was a ‘sword mark’ left by one whose martial arts had reached the realm of gods, who had poured everything of himself into his sword and cut through midair just once.

The moment he realized it was a sword mark, Guyang Cheongang received a tremendous shock as if struck by lightning.

A sword strike that could slice through a ten-zhang-high cliff like tofu.

Guyang Cheongang felt the distant and overwhelming will contained in the perfectly straight sword mark, undiminished even after hundreds of years.

He realized he was now facing traces that belonged not to humans, but to something that might exist only in ancient myths.

The moment he glimpsed a fragment of the infinite ‘intent’ contained within the sword mark, enlightenment flashed through his mind like lightning.

At that very instant, Akasha switched all her processes to silent mode.

Through the countless records and stories of Gangho that Guyang Cheongang had read, she clearly understood how important and sacred the moment of enlightenment was for a martial artist, and that disturbing it was a taboo equivalent to murder.

Right now, her most important role was to help Guyang Cheongang fully embrace this miraculous moment, rather than providing any analysis or advice.

Meanwhile, the three Supreme Arts of the Nine Dragons Ten Thousand Mountains Diagram that had been swirling in Guyang Cheongang’s mind for months came together as one massive picture.

Star Array Great Sword Style.

Explosive Thunder Flame King Hammer.

Nine Palace Maze Step Technique.

The true forms of the three Supreme Arts, of which he had only grasped the outlines of their core principles, swept through his mind like a storm.

After considerable time had passed, the long eyelashes of Guyang Cheongang, who had been sitting motionless like a rock, trembled slightly.

He opened his eyes very slowly, like someone awakening from a long sleep.

His pupils had grown even deeper than before, bearing a profound light as if they contained all the stars in the night sky.

Before the single complete ‘principle’ revealed by one great sword mark, the secrets of the scattered Five Supreme Arts were fully unveiled.

It was a fateful encounter.

But instead of being intoxicated with joy, Guyang Cheongang looked once more at the sword mark carved into the wall.

It was because of regret.

Though he had comprehended the original forms of all Five Supreme Arts, the single sword strike that made it all possible, the fundamental origin of that sword technique, still felt only hazily like mist.

It was a power belonging to the realm of gods, which his current level could not dare to covet.

As if waiting for him to emerge from his contemplation, Akasha’s voice resonated in his mind.

[Are you alright, Doctor? Just now, an enormous amount of information processing activity was detected in your brainwaves.]

‘I’m fine, Akasha. I’ve solved all the remaining secrets of the Nine Dragons Ten Thousand Mountains Diagram. But the last one, that sword mark itself, I still cannot understand.’

[That’s natural. The data contained in this sword mark exhibits quantum-level complexity. The essence of this sword mark is not simple three-dimensional movement, but is estimated to touch upon fundamental laws of time and space, perhaps even beyond.]

Guyang Cheongang’s eyes grew heavy.

[With the martial arts database and computational ability I currently possess, it’s difficult to even predict how much longer it will take to complete the interpretation.]

Akasha’s analysis proved in clear language the vastness he had felt.

It was right at that moment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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