Chapter 64: In Search of Dragon King's Scale
While Jang Woo-hyun was contemplating his next move, Pung So-bong and Gwak Yu-chan were interrogating the surviving warriors of the Twin-Winged Lotus.
However, there were only a few survivors, and they didn’t know much. Orders from the higher-ups of Twin-Winged Lotus had been passed down at fixed intervals, so these people merely acted on command.
“There’s nothing they know.”
The ones they had captured didn’t even know why they were kidnapping beastmen, nor did they have any idea where to regroup since no new orders had come through.
Pung So-bong considered using the survivors to track their superiors, but he quickly realized that such a move would only alert Twin-Winged Lotus's leadership that something had gone wrong, and they’d cut off communication immediately. That, too, was impossible.
“There’s no other way. Let’s just get rid of them.”
“P-please spare us!”
The bandits pleaded for mercy in response to Gwak Yu-chan's cold remark, but they had no intention of listening to such pleas. The two entrusted the punishment of the bandits to the enraged beastmen and then waited for Jang Woo-hyun’s decision.
Before long, Jang Woo-hyun, who had made up his mind, approached them.
“I’ll go with you. But before that, there’s something I need to resolve first.”
As he declared his intent, Jang Woo-hyun explained the issue he was currently facing.
“You need to find your weapon?”
“Yes. I lost it when I ascended to this realm.”
“If you lost it during the ascent, then you must not know exactly where it is. How do you plan on finding it?”
“Well…”
Jang Woo-hyun paused for a moment.
Explaining that his weapon had a will of its own seemed a bit ridiculous.
‘Eh, but really, what’s the big deal?’
He quickly changed his mind.
There were beastmen and floating islands in the sky—was a sentient weapon really that strange?
Besides, both Pung So-bong and Gwak Yu-chan had flown in on something when they arrived here.
“You may find it hard to believe, but my weapon has a will of its own and is currently sending out a signal. I don’t know the exact location, but if I follow the signal, I should be able to find it soon.”
“It’s sending a signal?”
“It has a will?”
Contrary to Jang Woo-hyun’s expectations, the two were visibly surprised, their eyes widening.
“Didn’t you get your weapon from the Lower Realm?”
“Yes.”
“And yet it has a will of its own…”
“Is that a problem?”
“It’s not a problem, per se. It’s just not common, so I had to ask. If it has a will, it wouldn't be strange to call it a Dharma Treasure.”
“By Dharma Treasure, do you mean something like a sacred treasure used by immortals?”
“Exactly. Dharma Treasure refers to weapons or artifacts used by immortals. There are many items in the Middle Heaven Realm referred to as Dharma Treasure, but those with a will of their own are rare. And from what you've told me, your weapon can even transmit that will from afar. That’s even rarer.”
Pung So-bong was about to elaborate further, but Gwak Yu-chan, who had been listening from the side, interjected.
“Don’t overthink it. There are occasional cases in the Lower Realm where masters create such things once they've reached a certain level. Let’s just let it go and help him find it.”
“Huh? You’ll come with me?”
“Of course. There’s nothing else to do here anyway. Since we’ve agreed to work together, we’ll help however we can. Can’t just rely on you all the time.”
“There’s no need to go that far.”
“No, no. That Gwak guy is right. Since we’ve agreed to help, we should do whatever we can. We can’t just take without giving back. Do you know how many lives you’ve saved?”
After a brief exchange, Jang Woo-hyun was eventually convinced by Pung So-bong. The three of them then said their goodbyes to the beastmen before setting off.
“Immortal! Thank you!”
“Thank you!”
As children ran up to Jang Woo-hyun to express their gratitude, the other beastmen followed suit and swarmed around to offer their thanks as well.
After a long moment filled with words of appreciation—
Jang Woo-hyun picked up two swords previously used by the bandits and prepared to leave the village.
“Wait a moment.”
Pung So-bong stopped him and extended his hand toward the air.
The scene that followed caused Jang Woo-hyun’s eyes to widen in shock.
‘Huh?’
Pung So-bong’s hand had suddenly disappeared into thin air.
When it reappeared, he was holding a massive sword. Gwak Yu-chan also retrieved a similar item and placed it on the ground.
“Ah, you’re seeing this for the first time, aren’t you? It’s a Storage Artifact.”
“Storage Artifact?”
Although he was familiar with the term immortal warrior, Jang Woo-hyun had never heard of Storage Artifact before.
“Think of it as a kind of huge bag.”
Pung So-bong showed him a bracelet on his arm.
“This is a Storage Artifact. It’s like a big, invisible bag. The reason my hand disappeared just now is because it entered the space inside this Storage Artifact. It’s probably hard to understand since it’s your first time seeing it, but once you get used to it, it’ll make sense.”
Although it was his first time seeing such an item, Jang Woo-hyun, who had the knowledge of Earth, quickly understood what a Storage Artifact was.
“Ah, it’s like a subspace bag.”
“Subspace bag? Hmm… Yeah, I guess that’s a good way to understand it. It stores items in another space, after all.”
Pung So-bong felt that while Jang Woo-hyun seemed a bit clueless, he had a knack for cutting to the core.
“So-bong, we’ll need to take out another flying artifact.”
“Huh? Why?”
When Gwak Yu-chan pointed at Jang Woo-hyun, Pung So-bong immediately understood.
Someone who didn’t even know what a Storage Artifact was definitely wouldn’t have a flying artifact either.
Pung So-bong’s hand disappeared once more into his Storage Artifact, and he pulled out another massive sword, placing it on the ground.
“This is a flying artifact.”
“It’s the thing you used to fly here.”
“That’s right. In the Middle Heaven Realm, we usually travel with artifacts like these. Climb aboard. I’ll control it at first, so just watch and learn. You’ll need to use it yourself sooner or later.”
“Understood.”
Jang Woo-hyun climbed aboard the flying artifact, and the three of them took to the sky, cheered on by the beastmen.
---
“This is serious.”
“Sure is.”
“Is he really this untalented?”
“……”
As they flew in search of Dragon King's Scale, Jang Woo-hyun was learning how to operate the flying artifact.
According to Pung So-bong and Gwak Yu-chan, anyone who had ascended should be able to master it easily. But when Jang Woo-hyun actually tried it, he realized it was anything but easy.
The result? The greatsword-shaped flying artifact carrying Jang Woo-hyun was wobbling weakly as it slowly descended toward the ground.
“So-bong.”
“Yeah?”
“Is the one he’s on defective? Did you give him a broken one?”
“No. It’s actually better than ours.”
“Then why’s it doing that?”
“Hard to say.”
“Can someone really be that uncoordinated? He should’ve already stepped into the realm of transcendence.”
“Exactly.”
While the two continued their conversation, Jang Woo-hyun struggled to control the flying artifact.
No matter what he did, it didn’t move the way he wanted.
Jang Woo-hyun, who could control hundreds of bladed scales simultaneously, was now unable to properly operate even a single flying artifact.
In the end, the unstable flying artifact slowly descended and crashed to the ground.
The two watching from above came down.
“Let’s save this for later. For now, we should focus on finding your weapon.”
“…Yes.”
“Just tell me the direction, and I’ll handle the flight. Which way is it?”
“That way.”
Jang Woo-hyun pointed in a direction, and the flying artifact under Pung So-bong’s control soared into the sky and sped off.
They arrived at a forest filled with trees completely devoid of leaves.
Focusing his senses, Jang Woo-hyun heard the signal from Dragon King's Scale within and told Pung So-bong.
The three flew deeper into the forest on the flying artifact and found a cluster of blades embedded in the thick branch of a massive tree.
“This… is this throwing weapon yours?”
Gwak Yu-chan asked, as the weapon, said to have a will, looked too unimpressive.
“This is just a portion. About five of them.”
As Jang Woo-hyun spoke and stretched out his hand, five blades flew over and attached themselves to the back of his hand.
“Five?”
“My weapon is a sword made from hundreds of these gathered together.”
Gwak Yu-chan showed interest in the unique form of the weapon.
“That’s fascinating. So where are the rest?”
As soon as he said that, as if it understood the words, the blades attached to Jang Woo-hyun’s hand began to tremble and pointed in a direction.
“These fragments are showing the way. Looks like we’ll need to move again.”
“Got it.”
Pung So-bong redirected the flying artifact in the direction indicated by Dragon King's Scale.
* * *
After flying for nearly an entire two hours, Jang Woo-hyun managed to retrieve around fifty blade scales from nine different locations.
During that time, he was amazed at the vastness of the realm known as Middle Heaven.
The speed of the flying artifact far surpassed that of a horse, yet even after flying for a long time at such speed, all he saw were forests, mountains, and fields.
He had thought Jungwon was large, but Middle Heaven couldn’t even be compared—it was vastly greater.
“How big is Middle Heaven?”
Pung So-bong gave a small chuckle in response to the question.
Thanks to a special function of the flying artifact that blocked the intense winds, it wasn’t difficult to converse while flying.
“No idea.”
“Pardon?”
“No one knows the exact size. You must’ve seen those floating islands in the sky from your village, right?”
He had seen them ever since he first woke up.
“Middle Heaven is made up of those floating islands. They’re often called floating continents or floating isles. You get the difference?”
“That refers to their size, doesn’t it?”
“Exactly. The smaller ones are floating isles, the bigger ones floating continents. Even the smaller ones are probably as big as the continent you were from.”
‘Wait… land masses the size of continents floating in the sky?’
The sudden expansion of the world left Jang Woo-hyun speechless. But that wasn’t the end of it.
“There are tens or even hundreds of thousands of floating continents in Middle Heaven, each many times—possibly dozens of times—larger than the land you came from.”
“What?!”
The sheer scale left Jang Woo-hyun momentarily dazed.
Was this something he was expected to believe? Even setting belief aside, was it even physically possible? What kind of planet could support hundreds of millions of floating islands bigger than continents? Was this even a planet?
From a geographical and physical standpoint, it seemed absurd.
“Don’t try to process it with your earthly common sense. Yes, it’s time to erase that common sense entirely. Middle Heaven has living beings whose bodies stretch over a thousand li.”
‘A thousand li? One li is about 400 meters… so that’s…’
Four hundred kilometers.
What he had just heard felt utterly ridiculous. That was a distance longer than the straight line from Seoul to Busan.
At that scale, it would be difficult to even define it as a living organism.
With a pale face, Jang Woo-hyun stared at Pung So-bong, who found it all amusing and burst into hearty laughter.
“Wahaha! Creatures like that live here. Can you even imagine the scale? No one knows where Middle Heaven ends, or how big it truly is. Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? It’s all speculation. There’s no one who truly knows. Even the spiritual practitioners I mentioned before, or beings from other realms, are hard to encounter. Their domains are far removed from the martial artists' world. You’ll see eventually, but in Middle Heaven, without Heavenly Wood trees or spatial movement formations, traveling from one place to another isn’t even easy.”
A massive world.
So massive that he couldn’t begin to grasp it with his previous knowledge.
As Pung So-bong said, he had to completely discard his common sense.
An unimaginably vast world. Lifeforms beyond anything he could have imagined.
Overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the world, Jang Woo-hyun remained silent for a while.
Then, he decided to shift his perspective.
‘Let’s think of it as a mini universe.’
If he considered Middle Heaven as a galaxy, the floating continents and isles as individual planets, and the lifeforms as aliens, it all started to make sense.
‘This is fun.’
Now that he had a framework for understanding the world in his own way, it felt more intriguing than intimidating.
A world so vast it was nearly endless.
Then how many people must live here? How many different races?
And among them, how many would be exceptional?
Martial arts? Cultivation methods? Weapons? How many could there be?
As he pondered these thoughts, Jang Woo-hyun found himself smiling without realizing it.