A partial success. 

How unexpected. 

Woon-seong had used all of his strength to smash the walls, but that had only been enough to free one of the veins!

The small walls that blocked the rest of said half collapsed one by one. 

The resulting impurities oozed out of his pores, leaving Woon-seong with drops of black sweat on his skin. 

Suddenly, his body turned hot. The black drops of sweat changed color as they hardened, baking against his body like clay. Like a snake shedding its skin, this layer cracked and peeled away from Woon-seong’s body, revealing clear skin and shining hair underneath.

Woon-seong’s body twitched intermittently as the change continued, his body temperature rising and cooling.

For how long did that continue?

There was no one to keep track of time.

Drip.

Drip, drop. 

A few drops of water dripped off the wall and onto the face of the young man, who lay there like a corpse.

Color returned to his whole body in the instant of a heartbeat. 

Woon-seong began to twitch.

“Mmmmm…”

A groan came out. Woon-seong, who had been unconscious for a long time began to wake slowly.

As if trying to wake him up faster, the White Night Spear trembled and hummed. 

At the sound, Woon-seong sat upright. 

“What…did something happen?”

The awakened youth slowly leaned forward and instinctively grabbed for the White Night Spear. With that, the trembling of the spear subsided. 

Despite being unconscious for an unknown period of time, his last memory was quite vivid. 

I was definitely trying to open the ‘Twin Veins of Control’.

Woon-seong shifted his energy, feeling the different sources and following the course they took.

Hmm.

However, there was still a wall blocking one of the veins. 

Half success.

Smiling bitterly, Woon-seong confirmed once more. It did not go as planned, since he wanted to open both at once. 

But he hadn’t been able to, so there was nothing he could do. What a shame.

He shook his head and stored that thought in the back of his mind. Surely, there would be other opportunities. Even at the current rate of growth, his progress was incomparably fast.

This is already much better than my past life.

Furthermore, his goal was to control the Cult of the Heavenly Demon. 

There was still a long way to go. 

Still, Woon-seong was confident he was steadily getting closer to it. 

Woon-seong’s eyes suddenly burned with hatred as the faces of his enemies flashed through his mind. 

Jwa Do-gyul…

That was the name of an enemy that must be torn to pieces. 

“Phew.”

He calmed his boiling fury and slowly exhaled. 

At the same time, Woon-seong looked around slowly. How long had he been unconscious? For one day, a week, or a month? The weather was clearly cooler than before, so it was definitely not a day or two. 

Has the Banquet of the Heavenly Mountain and Divine Flame finished?!

That thought startled him so much he sprang from the ground and broke into a sprint, dashing towards the exit like a mad man. 

Then he stopped moving just as fast, skidding to a stop in shock. 

His body was light, too light. 

Woon-seong looked down at his arms and legs, only to see that the bracers were still there. However, his movements were very natural, as if there were no extra weights attached at all. Not only that, even though he hadn’t eaten for days, his muscles were filled with vigor. 

Then his eye twitched. 

He finally noticed his clothes, which were now black. 

He hadn’t changed for a long time. Also, they smelled like old clothes, a bit rotten. There was the smell from dirt, but also sweat and contamination. 

Wait a minute… No way…

In a hurry, Woon-seong sent another surge of energy through his limbs. Just a moment ago, he had only focused on the opening of the Twin Veins. 

He had indeed missed something. 

He could feel the qi flow all the way down to his fingertips. 

All of his body’s meridians had opened up!

There could only be one explanation.

Body modification!

Every martial artist’s dream, body modification was like a rebirth. A martial artist who climbed to the top could gain a whole new core, propelling them even higher. There was also another part: the renewal of the skeleton and cleansing of the bones. Like a newborn baby, the new body would be energy-pure and free from mortal impurities.

Woon-seong hadn’t even imagined this would happen, but it had. 

Still, his happiness was bittersweet. 

Like how I only opened up half of the veins, it looks like I only achieved body modification halfway too.

Body modification was achieved, but unfortunately, it was not complete either. 

Except, it wasn’t even part of the original plan, more like an extra surprise. 

Since Woon-seong had failed to open both veins of control, but had cleansed his body of impurities, he could consider this a mis-matched success.

He once again assessed his body. Not only had he gotten a little taller, but his muscles had become denser. Thanks to that, he could lift heavier things faster and easier. The reason his body felt so light was that the iron bracers on his arms weren’t heavy enough anymore.

Soon we’ll have to increase the weight.

Progress, no matter how small, was always something to be happy about.

Woon-seong’s mind soon got recalibrated and he headed towards the top of the Valley of Thousand Spirits. Every time he tapped his foot, he would fly forward hundreds of meters. With a small smile on his lips, he leapt up the walls, movement as light as the wind.

Body modification was really an unexpected outcome. Paired with the Heavenward Soul Earthen Body, his heightened senses made up for the unopened vein.

He could feel the wind, the movement of an insect climbing the cliff, the shaking of a blade of grass growing between the crevices. Everything around him was captured clearly, almost as if he were seeing them with his own eyes. 

What was that?

Woon-seong also felt a group of shadows as well. He tilted his head and spread his senses out even farther. There were people at the top of the cliff, around the entrance into the Valley of Thousand Spirits. 

Pinpointing their location, Woon-seong focused his senses on that area. Soon, their movement was clearer to him and he confirmed their number and placement. 

At least one behind the shadows of the trees, one under the rocks, and another one underground.

Woon-seong still had his eyes closed, but he was sure that this was definitely an ambush. He had no idea who they were, but they were obviously waiting for someone to come out of the Valley of the Thousand Spirits.

Are they here after me?

The more he thought about it, the more likely this was. He was the only one left in the Valley of Thousand Spirits. Who else, if not him?

Why?

Why were they targeting him though? There were some Demonic Generals and Great Demons who held grudges against him. Especially among the Great Demons, there were those who did not want him in their ranks. Could one of them have sent assassins? 

He didn’t dwell on his questions for very long. Suddenly, like the new sun rising, his feet landed on the top of the cliff. From his vantage point, he could see the area that stretched around the cliff. 

He could also sense the assassins hiding even clearer. 

“Hey, you all, who sent you?”

Woon-seong’s qi exploded outwards, bursting towards those hidden. A rain of five throwing knives flew like lightning, straight through the heads of some of the assassins. 

Fubuck-

Like the sound of a watermelon erupting, the knives split and burst their heads. The one underground, protected by dirt, was no exception.

But Woon-seong did not relax. Instead, he wielded his spear. 

Did I miss two?

The number of knives thrown was five, three of them hit their targets. That meant there were two left. 

Whee-

Woon-seong disappeared from where he was originally standing. Moments later, he reappeared in front of one assassin.

“Shit!”

Intimidation Qi covered the other’s mind and body for a single second, which was enough for the White Night Spear to crush his chest. With a crack, his ribs were broken and his heart pierced. 

Phew!

Blood spewed out like a fountain, but Woon-seong paid no mind. He focused on the last survivor, who had managed to run quite far already. It was clear that this last one had sensed that the mission would end in a failure and bolted. 

Woon-seong raised his spear. Would it work? His body moved before he could finish his thoughts. His ankles, waist, and shoulders twisted in sequence. As the force was drawn from his waist and into his wrist, the White Night Spear left his hand. 

‘Lightning Stitching Art’, White Night Spear style!

Whoo-hoo!

The air screeched as the spear tore through the air, slamming into and through the body of the last assassin. The man’s legs were torn off and his upper body smashed into the trunk of a tree, skewered by the spear. 

“Cough!”

Woon-seong could have caused an instantaneous death, but he wanted to keep at least one of them alive long enough to answer his questions. No matter how talented you were, you wouldn’t live very long without legs. 

He sighed a little as he looked at the human-tree kebab. Well then, let’s find out who ordered it.

Woon-seong didn’t intend to forgive whoever it was. It wasn’t like him to spare those who bared their fangs at him. His eyes gleamed, horrifying like that of a demon.

But he would not find out who was behind it. 

By the time he approached, the assassin had already killed himself. The other’s face was pale and bleeding from his eyes and ears, his brain had likely melted too. 

Nasty bastards.

The assassin had ingested poison. Even an excellent assassin should have needed some decision-making time, which would have given Woon-seong a few moments. But there was no hesitation. 

“Tch.”

At that moment, the sound of shouting drifted from the peaks farther away.

“Wahhhhhhhh!”

It announced the beginning of the Banquet of the Heavenly Mountain and Divine Flame. 

TN: It will be clarified in the coming chapters, but the assassins are known as the ‘Blood Slaying Five Shadows’. Woon-seong, of course, does not know this.