The cultivation path started with abstinence. Depending on what the cultivation consisted of, cultivators could also avoid sleeping. Cultivating meant giving up the pleasures of eating and resting.
Cultivators had given up on two of the factors that made them human so they could achieve eternal life. Therefore, there was only one way for them to maintain their sanity—they developed an obsession with eternal life.
This was how the personality of a cultivator was formed. They were extremely patient, possessed a ferocity that didn’t suit this patience of theirs, and they were heartless, to the point that they would even abandon their own flesh and blood so they would survive…
A cultivator lost their humanity in many ways. They didn’t change after becoming immortals. Immortals were divided by their realms: true immortal, golden immortal, and great immortal. Most immortals, except for great immortals, still hadn’t attained eternal life. They became more and more brutal so they could survive the Thunder Tribulation, the heavenly punishment for defying the natural order. They survived using all sorts of crazy methods.
The same was true for this golden immortal woman. Her favorite black mountain was proof of that.
Her black mountain was unique and she had personally refined it into a Treasure. It was actually a tangled object of despair. During her time as a cultivator, she slaughtered many of her peers. After she ascended to the upper world, she started going after other immortals…
Each layer of the mountain was made out of the blood and souls extracted from cultivators and immortals until it became the pitch-black mountain it was today. Her treasure represented the peak of demonic arts.
Just as Noe had learned demonic arts and ingested a cultivator’s nascent soul to absorb their spiritual energy and Treasures, the black mountain created by the woman was the result of slaying countless cultivators and immortals.
Naturally, the mountain did a lot of things, not just absorb and reflect skills. It was so resilient that it could even withstand the Thunder Tribulation. Thanks to this, the woman endured many Thunder Tribulations during her true immortal period. She increased her cultivation and eventually reached the realm of golden immortal.
But to witness the black mountain get split in half? She would have never imagined that. Still, that was what happened.
[A Super Galaxy Treasure?]
The woman finally realized what was going on. Grid had the Falling Moon Sword. She used this information to her advantage.
[You can’t swing a Treasure with that much power forever.]
Indeed, the Falling Moon Sword had a cooldown time. Just then, a golden beam of light pierced the center of the black mountain, which had been split in half.
She threw a large sickle and a pestle toward Grid, who was on the other side of the mountain. This was one of the golden immortal woman’s attacks, who closed the distance between her and Grid immediately.
The sickle and pestle were her secret weapons. She only took them out at crucial moments. These were tools used by the lower class mortals. The more powerful a being was, the less accustomed they were to them. She hoped she could catch her opponent off guard.
However, Grid fought back with relative ease. He performed a sword dance to attack and neutralize the sickle and pestle.
[You are familiar with something like this? I thought you were more sophisticated than that.]
‘It’s not that.’
Ahh, Piaro…You’re helping me out again.
Grid was once again grateful to Piaro, who always helped him at any time and in any situation. The weapon in the woman’s hand dispersed into mystical characters and changed its shape, turning into a spear and a knife.
As soon as the transformation was over, the immortal woman attacked him. She intended to slit Grid’s throat with the knife and stab him in the heart with the spear. Even Grid couldn’t avoid such a swift attack.
Instead, the indigo barriers blocked it.
[……?]
The golden immortal woman was a bit confused. Grid’s shields had shattered earlier, and she hadn’t expected them to be up in such a short period of time.
Shields kept cultivators and immortals alive. Based on the cultivators’ lifetime of study and experiences, shields were considered a crucial part in achieving the ideal form of a cultivator. A shield had a complex structure so, once they shattered, it took a long time for them to recover.
However, Grid’s shields were restored in no time. He had an advantage over cultivators because he was a player. The Multiple Weakening Barriers was a skill that had no cooldown time. So what if the shields shattered? He’d just use the skill again, and again, and again. It cost a lot of mana, but Grid wasn’t bound by the concept of mana.
[Watch me break it again.]
The golden immortal’s mindset was the same as Grid’s. Apart from being surprised, she didn’t take the situation that seriously. The spear and knife and released lightning bolts as they clashed with Multiple Weakening Barriers.
The ten layers of protection were once again shattered from within. A series of explosions was about to damage Grid.
Grid drew a circle using his sword. It was the Revolve sword dance. The woman went flying. The explosions that should have dealt a lot of damage to Grid hit her instead.
[A battle of attrition is pointless.]
The golden immortal woman understood that Grid had used a technique that returned attacks back to the assailant.
This had been one of the functions built into the black mountain, so she understood it perfectly.
Thus, she decided to fight properly. She boldly declared, [I will finish you off with my next attack.]
Her weapons once again turned into mystical weapons before scattering like dust in the wind. The two weapons became one and took the shape of a golden bow.
[Blocking this attack is impossible.]
As the woman pulled the bow with all her might, hundreds of additional mystical characters appeared around her. Some characters transformed into arrows while others increased the size of the bow or made the gold shine even more brilliantly.
[You cannot escape.]
As the number of characters imbuing the bow increased, the smile on the woman’s face became wider and wider. She was confident she was going to win. Her eyes were brimming with confidence.
‘Crazy.’
If Grid had been a normal Absolute, he would’ve only focused on the energy of the arrow, which became more powerful as it absorbed more characters. However, Grid was a blacksmith. He saw the bow’s shape and paid close attention to it. Grid understood that the woman wasn’t bluffing when she said that this was an attack that couldn’t be blocked or dodged.
‘There is a hit rate correction effect in that item. The content of the characters must have something to do with it. At this point, she has to be an idiot to not hit me when firing the bow.’
He couldn’t escape even if he used Shunpo. The golden light emitted by the bow was so intense that it was hard to see. No matter where he looked, even if he used Barbatos’ Vision, the landscape was dyed gold.
Grid frowned. “Hanul, for how much longer are you just going to sit there and watch?”
Hanul, who had been supporting Grid by bombarding the woman with light, looked confused.
[What are you implying? I’ve been launching light attacks without pausing. I’m doing my best. It’s just that, in the west, I’m a lot weaker and my attacks aren’t that effective. You… Shouldn’t you be ashamed of your own powerlessness instead of blaming me?]
Hanul gradually revealed his true nature. He mocked Grid with a clear sneer on his face. They were in the West Continent, which was also the Overgeared World. This was the area where Grid was certainly more powerful than anyone else. Grid was having a hard time right now because the golden immortal was stronger than him.
Hanul had a lot of reasons to be happy.
‘This is a chance I will never get again.’
Throughout the battle, Hanul was nervous because he remembered that Grid was his main enemy. Even if he fought against the golden immortal and won, he didn’t know how to deal with Grid afterward.
Hanul couldn’t do anything to the black mountain, yet Grid had cut it down in one go. He realized that Grid was much more powerful than he knew. But now, it seemed that Grid was going to die.
This was the best outcome for Hanul. Today’s death would weaken Grid. The golden immortal had already lost her black mountain. Hanul was sure that if he met her again in the east, he would definitely defeat her.
Yup. Hanul had no reason to do his best right now.
Grid knew exactly what Hanul was thinking. He snorted. “You are worse than Garam.”
This was the biggest insult Grid could use.
“At least Garam wasn’t as cowardly as you.”
[You are praising that failure? Didn’t you kill him with your own hands? Using that name now of all times… You dare compare me to that weakling Garam? Disgusting.]
Hanul’s smirk became wider. The golden light was also becoming brighter. The area was falling apart because of the force the woman concentrated at the end of the bowstring.
The moment she let go of the bowstring, if an arrow fell into the sea, would the seabed shatter? Would it cause a tsunami? Grid imagined waves swallowing the continent. It would be a disaster.
Hanul’s eyes wrinkled as he smiled. He looked at Grid and whispered, [Even if you survive this, you will have to bear the repercussions of part of the Overgeared World collapsing. Then you will become much weaker than you expect.]
Hanul saw a bright future ahead.
However, Grid was no longer frowning.
“I definitely know how to choose the people on my side. If I had joined forces with just about anyone, would I have gathered the colleagues I have today?”
[……?]
Why was he so confident all of a sudden? Hanul was overwhelmed with anxiety.
[How?]
The golden immortal’s confusion was engraved all around them. Her bewilderment was palpable.
Just then, the golden light suddenly disappeared.
As if he’d expected this from the very beginning, Grid promptly reacted. By the time Hanul was about to urgently use Shunpo, Grid had already stabbed him.
[Hngh… What did you do?]
“I’m second only to Braham when it comes to magic.”
Just now, the golden immortal had been preparing a truly powerful blow. The sheer force she had gathered was so great that even she was frozen in place. No matter the reason, this meant she couldn’t move.
After that, it was simple for Grid. Grid gave orders to his clone. The clone followed his master’s will, even if he hadn’t yet fully recovered. He used teleportation to move to the coordinates given by Grid, then used Mass Teleport to move the golden immortal somewhere else, who was pulling the bowstring.
She was currently—
[No…! Don’t tell me?]
—near the Hwan Kingdom.
To be precise, she was at the entrance of the Hwan Kingdom, near the place Grid and Zik had visited in the past.
Hanul could feel parts of the world he had created get destroyed in real time.
“I was wondering where I should drop off this disaster. Then I saw your face, so the answer was simple.”
[You… Gridddddd!!]
Hanul let out a roar of anger, turned to light, and fled. Grid was perplexed. He was preparing for battle. He tried catching up to Hanul using Shunpo, but he soon gave up. It was virtually impossible to chase a target traveling at the speed of light.
‘I can’t catch up to him while the Hwan Kingdom is doing fine.’
Grid smirked. He was looking forward to the future.
At the same time, in the Hwan Kingdom.
Chiyou had been enjoying a leisurely rest. He tilted his head. “What’s with all these absurd things happening recently…?”
Rattle.
He felt a strong wave of power from the ground which made his house collapse.