Chapter 216: Master Jang
"Everyone, get back! Master Jang is acting strange!"
A massive pillar of fire shot up around Jang Woo-hyun, burning part of the forest.
The place where Jang Woo-hyun currently stood was an artificially created space within the Five Elents Cult, designed for its martial artists to train in Five Elents Qi.
The forest, densely filled with trees, was a place for training in Wood Qi among the Five Elents.
Jang Woo-hyun had mastered all five elental energies, so he had thought that any location would be beneficial to him—but that assumption was completely wrong.
Before he even moved the Five Elents Qi in his Middle Dantian, one energy suddenly surged due to the Five Elents Generating Cycle.
Now, due to the principle of Wood generating Fire, the energy of wood strengthened the fire energy, and a pillar of fire suddenly erupted from Jang Woo-hyun’s body. That fire pillar was now burning the forest.
“This won’t do. Let’s try another place.”
Following Seo Gyeong-mu’s suggestion, they moved the training site. But there wasn’t much change.
“Get away!”
“Master Jang is acting strange again!”
“Everyone, back off!”
Even after changing locations, the problems continued.
In a place with strong Fire Qi, the Earth Qi would suddenly grow stronger, causing the cave to collapse. In a cave rich in tal Qi, Water Qi would surge and freeze everything around.
The energies Jang Woo-hyun tried to stabilize only grew more violent, endangering not only the other martial artists training but their very safety.
‘This is beyond just being a nuisance.’
What Jang Woo-hyun was doing could no longer be called training—it was on the level of attacking his surroundings.
The Wind-Passing Great Sage, who often visited to check on Jang Woo-hyun’s condition during recovery, laughed so hard he clutched his belly and disappeared upon witnessing the scene.
“Jang Woo-hyun’s destroying everything! Hahahaha!”
As the sa situation repeated, even Seo Gyeong-mu was flustered. Though he, too, could manipulate all five elental energies, he had never experienced sothing like this.
“It seems we must calm the energies first.”
Realizing his judgnt had been wrong, Seo Gyeong-mu led Jang Woo-hyun to another place.
Located in a corner of the Five Elents Cult’s Main Division, the small building was surrounded by intricate formations.
“This is where one cos when they can’t control their power. The formation here absorbs and disperses Five Elents Qi. It used to serve as a prison. Inside, you can’t use your full strength. Judging by how wild your energies are, this might actually help you more.”
After hearing the explanation, Jang Woo-hyun took a seat inside the training chamber, which had been converted from a prison. Not long after, the thunderous energy bursting from his body vanished.
As more ti passed, the flas disappeared, and the water veil around his right hand also faded.
The rampaging Five Elents Qi had finally cald.
Observing him from the side, Seo Gyeong-mu offered his own hypothesis.
“You said the Five Elents Qi reconstructed your body when you ascended, correct?”
“Yes, that’s what it felt like.”
“Seems like that balance was broken when you fought Ha Do-gwang. It’s not precise, but that’s my guess.”
Though Seo Gyeong-mu couldn’t say for sure, Jang Woo-hyun believed his assessnt was right.
“In that case, let’s try strengthening the Five Elents.”
“Strengthening?”
Seo Gyeong-mu nodded with a smile, clearly happy to be helping Jang Woo-hyun.
He pulled out a small wooden box from his Inner Robe. Inside were five small spiritual pills.
“These are elixirs imbued with the five elental energies. Normally, one would only take one or two at most, but I want you to take them all at once and try controlling the energy.”
“Won’t the energies go wild again?”
“I’ll teach you how to control them from now on.”
Since Seo Gyeong-mu had no disciples of his own, he eagerly began explaining the next steps to Jang Woo-hyun.
“It’s about continuously rotating the five energies using the principle of the Five Elents Generating Cycle to draw out power.”
Having already encountered martial artists in the Lower Realm who used the Five Elents Generating Cycle to wield power greater than their own, Jang Woo-hyun understood well how that principle amplified power.
Listening to Seo Gyeong-mu’s explanation, Jang Woo-hyun began attempting to regulate the energies within him.
* * *
Seo Gyeong-mu hoped this would be an opportunity for Jang Woo-hyun to master Five Elents Qi. However, in the middle of his training, Jang Woo-hyun had a different thought.
‘This feels familiar.’
Sensing the rotation of the five energies in his Middle Dantian, Jang Woo-hyun recalled sothing.
‘Could this work?’
The five rotating energies amplified each other according to the Five Elents Generating Cycle.
Jang Woo-hyun wasn’t sure of its utility as a sorcery technique, but he saw sothing within it—and attempted to put it into action.
Fire, Earth, tal, Water, Wood. The Five Elents Qi rotating and enhancing one another.
Jang Woo-hyun tried to split the five energies in two.
Yin and Yang. He attempted to mimic sothing he’d seen before using two opposing energies.
‘Was it sothing like this?’
But it didn’t go well. Even for Jang Woo-hyun, splitting the five distinct energies into two categories wasn’t easy.
After several attempts, Jang Woo-hyun decided to try a different thod.
‘After the Five Elents… it was the Four Seasons, right?’
He recalled the microcosmic cycle of Taiji shown by Taecheong Divine Sovereign Jang Sam-bong.
The intense vision of that microcosm had been burned into his mind, unforgettable.
He divided the five energies.
‘Wood becos spring.’
Fire beca sumr.
‘tal is autumn.’
Water beca winter.
Earth naturally connected the other four as the land and the wall between them.
It wasn’t complete, and only took place within Jang Woo-hyun’s ntal world, but he had entered the realm beyond the Five Elents and into the Four Seasons without difficulty.
‘Next ca Heaven, Earth, and Sea.’
Heaven, Earth, and Sea.
Three realms surrounding the Four Seasons.
‘How do I approach this part?’
Suddenly, the difficulty spiked. Unlike earlier, a wall appeared before him.
The energies had transford from the Five Elents into the Four Seasons.
While pondering how to proceed, Jang Woo-hyun decided to combine the Four Seasons. He intended to think further once they had beco one again.
But in that mont—within the rged Five Elents energy, a residual spark of thunderous energy erupted.
‘Huh?’
Caught off guard, Jang Woo-hyun felt the energy in his Middle Dantian explode, strengthening the lightning energy.
KWAAAAANG!
Sothing that should’ve only happened in his ntal world burst forth into reality due to Jang Woo-hyun.
“Urgh!”
With Jang Woo-hyun’s groan, the Main Division of the Five Elents Cult shook as if struck by an earthquake. At the sa ti, a colossal bolt of lightning shot up from the ground into the sky.
The Five Elents Cult’s Main Division was imdiately thrown into ergency mode.
Considering the fear they held toward Ha Do-gwang, the mont they saw the lightning energy, chaos erupted.
Everyone nearby, from ordinary mbers to martial artists of the Annihilation Squad, rushed toward Jang Woo-hyun. In an instant, over a hundred people had gathered.
Those who arrived carefully surveyed the surroundings.
The shattered training chamber. A person buried under a pile of stone.
Everyone ca to realize that this commotion had been caused by Jang Woo-hyun.
“Captain, what are you doing right now?”
At Seo Ryeom’s question, the disheveled Jang Woo-hyun rose to his feet.
“…I was training and made a mistake.”
“What kind of training were you doing…?”
Seo Ryeom glanced around the scorched surroundings. Thankfully, it was in a remote corner of the Five Elents Cult’s Main Division, otherwise, soone could have been hurt. That’s how powerful the earlier explosion was.
“I apologize.”
When Jang Woo-hyun bowed his head and apologized, the gathered people began to disperse.
So were still running toward the scene, but those returning told them it was nothing serious and sent them back.
Most of the martial artists were already familiar with Jang Woo-hyun’s previous incidents during training, so they accepted the explanation without much question and returned to their original positions.
While everyone else turned back—
Only one person urgently ran up to Jang Woo-hyun.
Flying through the air, Vermilion Bird Pavilion Lord Woo Il-do landed in front of Jang Woo-hyun.
“Master Jang, I have urgent news to report.”
“To ?”
“Yes. Chief Lee has contacted us. The ssage was: ‘Master Jang, I’m in danger. Please save . Urgent. The woman from the Divine Dragon Clan we t last ti is being kidnapped.’”
“……”
The story was so unexpected that Jang Woo-hyun's reaction was delayed for a beat. Repeating the ssage to himself, he looked for Cho-su.
Just then, Cho-su was already approaching, seemingly having heard the earlier explosion.
“Cho-su-nim!”
“Huh? What?”
Hearing himself called urgently, Cho-su sensed sothing was wrong.
“We need to move as fast as possible.”
“You can’t just say that out of nowhere. Start from the beginning—”
“Cho-su-nim!”
“All right! Where do we need to go?”
When Jang Woo-hyun looked at Woo Il-do, he explained the location to Cho-su.
“The outskirts of the Five Elents Cult’s territory? That’s too far. Even using Geonmok to travel, it would take three days. Even for Roaring Thunder Fortress, it would be a day or two… Wait, wait a minute. Got it. Let think.”
As they spoke, Cho-su saw the expression on Jang Woo-hyun’s face and realized the situation was more serious than expected. He began trying to find a way.
“Let’s go. If we use the power of the Spirit Treasure Tower along with Geonmok, we might be able to make it.”
From the beginning, Roaring Thunder Fortress couldn’t use spatial movent over long distances. However, the place Jang Woo-hyun wanted to reach was quite far from the Main Division. It was not an easy distance to cover, but Cho-su found a solution.
“Annihilation Squad! Move out!”
Understanding the situation, Seo Ryeom shouted loudly enough to shake the Main Division of the Five Elents Cult. Upon hearing the command, the martial artists of the Annihilation Squad returned to Roaring Thunder Fortress.
Without discussion or planning, the Annihilation Squad moved swiftly once again.
* * *
Lee Ga-hang and Sa Jong-cheon didn’t move easily. Facing each other, they let ti pass while maintaining a tense standoff.
From Lee Ga-hang’s perspective, directly engaging Sa Jong-cheon was burdenso, and since they needed to buy ti, she didn’t initiate a fight.
Sa Jong-cheon, on the other hand, hesitated to act rashly because the Five Elents Cult had more people on their side. Individually, his side might have been stronger, but this was their territory—he couldn’t ignore their numbers.
Neither side could be certain of victory, so neither launched an attack. Both were waiting for soone.
‘I must be crazy.’
Though Lee Ga-hang appeared calm, she was full of regret inside.
Honestly, letting them go would’ve been the right choice. Sa Jong-cheon was the subordinate of Yong Jeok-sim, one of the Eight Dragon Swords of the Divine Dragon Clan. They were famously always together.
In other words, the unseen Yong Jeok-sim was likely not far away.
‘If that guy arrives first, it’s all over.’
With her skills, Lee Ga-hang couldn’t take on Yong Jeok-sim. He was at least on the level of the Five Elents Envoy or Wu Hobup to be a match for.
“You really aren’t letting us go? If you recognized , you’d know whose subordinate I am, wouldn’t you?”
Lee Ga-hang feigned indifference as she stared at Sa Jong-cheon.
“If he arrives, you’ll all be annihilated. So rather than wasting strength, wouldn’t it be better to let go now?”
“That’s not my concern. We’ve got things to do on this side too. Wait.”
Lee Ga-hang had only one hope—Jang Woo-hyun.
It was likely too far for him to reach in ti. That was the logical conclusion. But for so reason, she believed Jang Woo-hyun would find a way.
‘I just have to do what I can.’
“You’re making a mistake you’ll regret.”
“Regret, huh.”
Feigning composure, Lee Ga-hang could only pray for Jang Woo-hyun to arrive quickly.
‘It’s because of Master Jang. So please co quickly. Hurry.’
Though she had tried to avoid him, it seed they were fatefully intertwined. She couldn’t ignore seeing soone related to him in danger.
‘Please co quickly. Before I die, please…’
While both sides remained in stalemate, wasting ti—
Lee Ga-hang was the first to react.
She lifted her head slightly.
A white cloud in the distance—
A dragon flew through it.
It was a dragon with black scales, but it gave off a sacred, not sinister, impression.
Seeing the approaching dragon, Lee Ga-hang fell into despair. The enemy’s reinforcents had arrived first.
The dragon quickly flew in a circle around the sky, then descended to the ground.
In an instant, a burst of light exploded, and standing there was a man with small horns on his head and blue eyes.
Ice-Blood Dragon Immortal Yong Jeok-sim.
He looked down on them all with deep blue eyes. In normal circumstances, his smug deanor would have drawn scorn—but this ti, Lee Ga-hang couldn’t react.
She simply clenched her fists to hide her trembling.
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