Chapter 1 The Beginning

Rumbling...

The eastern coast of Korea. Dark clouds covered the sky. The heavy rains of the early winter season had washed over the mountains and rivers. As the weather grew colder, the next precipitation from the sky would be snow rather than rain.

Who knows how many corpses and how much blood were concealed in this deep and vast mountain wilderness.

A handsome young man, a young Daoist, sat wearily beneath a tree, a blue scarf on his head, and a tattered sky-blue crane cloak with Qinglian flower and cloud patterns on his body. Around him were signs of battle, but no corpses or blood.

Zhang Jiuqing, the Little Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain, gasped weakly.

It had been two and a half months since Tachibana Muneshige's sudden attack, which resulted in the annihilation of the Longhu Mountain mages. He didn't even know how he had survived. The demons were still searching everywhere in the mountains.

Fortunately, although Tachibana Muneshige possessed the ability to suppress thunder magic, his forte was the Golden Light Charm (Jinguang Zhou). With its powerful defense, he was able to conceal his presence and survive.

But...

Now, Wonsan City had fallen into enemy hands, and the entire eastern coast that had been reclaimed was lost again. The battle lines had collapsed, and a large number of demons and monsters formed from grudges poured into the mountains. If he used thunder magic, he would be discovered by the onmyoji in the nearby strongholds.

"To protect Wonsan City, they dispatched the Bureau of Onmyo! It seems Toyotomi Hideyoshi doesn't hate onmyoji that much!"

"These bastards, they used to come to Longhu Mountain every year to request talismans and seals. In the end, how can mages have no national boundaries? If I could fight my way to the Japanese mainland, if I could ascend to immortality in broad daylight in the future, I would kill all of you off."

The Little Celestial Master carefully considered his escape. In fact, this thinking had almost exhausted his mental strength.

These younian (grudge-formed) monsters were troublesome. They had no physical bodies. When killed, they dissipated like wraiths. That meant he couldn't use the weaker ones, like rabbits, as food.

Consuming dew and qi was just a cultivation method, not a substitute for eating. He hadn't eaten meat in two and a half months. Fortunately, the heavy rain had caused many mushrooms to sprout in the mountains, which had improved his condition a little.

"Thank you, Wu Sangong."

The Little Celestial Master sighed with emotion. Wu Sangong was the god in folk legends who controlled the growth of mushrooms.

Rustle, rustle...

The strange sound came again. The monsters were searching in this area. The search had become stricter recently, and the Little Celestial Master, who was about to escape, was once again surrounded.

He couldn't help but think with annoyance that he should have learned some soul-searching techniques back then. Although they were heretical, they were really useful sometimes.

Soul-searching was generally a specialty of folk magic, not easily obtained, but for Longhu Mountain, apart from the Three Mountains Secret Canon, was there any magic they couldn't obtain?

However, he had heard some news a few times.

It seemed that the imperial court had sent immortals to support them. But the Little Celestial Master was very puzzled. Where did the Ming Dynasty get immortals?

In fact, he was already shocked enough to see fake immortals appearing on the Japanese side. After all, the highest-ranking divine general of the Ming Dynasty, Bixia Yuanjun, was only a quasi-immortal in the pure Yang realm.

So, when he heard that immortals were coming to rescue them, he couldn't help but wonder if his grandfather, Celestial Master Zhang, had broken through?

Grandfather guarded the Forbidden City, father stayed behind at Longhu Mountain, and he was on the Korean battlefield. If Celestial Master Zhang had broken through to the immortal level, then wouldn't his 120,000 incarnations crush them directly?

But thinking about it, those fake immortals also produced many yang spirits, but they seemed to have some concerns and didn't dare to show too many incarnations.

"I've read descriptions of fake immortals in books before. They roughly lack the form and spirit of immortals, but their power has already entered the immortal realm. The form and spirit of mortals cannot bear the power of immortals, and the yang spirit itself is a transformation of the form and spirit. Perhaps they are afraid of their form and spirit constantly decaying, so they don't dare to unleash large armies of yang spirit transformations."

"But... there's more than one fake immortal in Japan. However... if the immortal from our dynasty is preparing to make a move, it seems they are not going to attack Wonsan, but rather Kaesong or Wangjing. At this time, the troops will inevitably be concentrated to the west. When there is an opportunity, escape may not be possible, because the troops are gathered on the periphery. Breaking through towards our own forces would be like walking into a tiger's mouth, but on the contrary, mixing into Wonsan City might allow me to kill a few great Japanese bandits."

"Shimazu Yoshihiro and the others should be in the city. The person on guard is the next head of the Bureau of Onmyo, the current Onmyo Assistant, Sakai Noritomo... that damned thing, I've even met him before. He was so humble back then, and now he's almost the head of the Bureau of Onmyo in his twenties."

"Back then, this guy even shamelessly called himself my senior brother."

The Bureau of Onmyo was a professional mage organization in the Japanese government, divided into Onmyo-do, Tenmon-do, Calendar-do, and Rokoku-do. The leader was the Onmyo Head, and the assistants were called "Assistant" and "Deputy Assistant."

In fact, the Bureau of Onmyo would come to China on a fixed annual basis to request talismans from Longhu Mountain, but this ritual activity was directly terminated after the start of the Korean War.

The Little Celestial Master wasn't confident that he could kill them, so he prepared to rest for two days, prepare more thunder talismans, and focus on launching a surprise attack. Otherwise, if he attacked head-on, there were still several extremely powerful figures among the Japanese pirates who attacked the Ming army in Wonsan City, even without Tachibana Muneshige helping them, it would still put them in a difficult situation.

As he thought, he suddenly seemed to remember something, and his face became extremely ugly.

That's right, Sakai Noritomo was also the nephew of the "Sword Saint" of that school.

Looking up at the sky, night was approaching. The twilight glow appeared in the forest for only a moment.

And at this moment, a swirling, giant cloud suddenly appeared in the sky!

The Little Celestial Master stared blankly into the distance: "What... what is that!"

...

The scabbard wrapped with prayer beads. The treasured sword inside was constantly vibrating. A young, tall Japanese pirate, over 1.8 meters, stood up.

"A sword rattling in its scabbard signifies the approach of a powerful enemy. The Juzumaru Tsunetsugu is the sword of the priest Nichiren of Kamakura period. It is very sensitive to those with murderous intent."

The sword holder's name was Yagyu Munenori, a famous swordsman in Japan, with the title of Sword Saint. He also had another name, Yagyu Tajima-no-kami.

Although only twenty-six years old, he already possessed the strength to look down upon the world. This time, guarding Wonsan City, he had also received the blessing of a divine artifact, the legendary "Daryo Sword," which was said to be able to split mountains with a single strike.

Yagyu Munenori opened his eyes, like torches. He seemed to sense someone approaching Wonsan City!

Not on the left, not on the right, not in front, not inside Wonsan City, not underground or in the water.

In the sky!

He suddenly looked up and saw the giant cloud rapidly descending!

The image of Takemikazuchi suddenly appeared within it!

Takemikazuchi was originally the divine seat held by Tachibana Muneshige, but at this moment, it suddenly appeared above Wonsan City, wielding a giant sword of lightning!

A strike descended! Boom!

This was Tachibana Muneshige's Keiun Issen!

"Sword Saint-sama!"

Lightning and dust stirred up a massive storm. A flash of sword light deflected Takemikazuchi's giant sword towards the heavens! Yagyu Munenori stood in place, the long sword in his hand rotating in a full circle. This was the top force-deflecting swordsmanship of the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu.

However, the powerful force of Takemikazuchi still caused the city to shake violently and destroyed a considerable area!

Yagyu Munenori was quite incredulous. The incredulous part was that Tachibana Muneshige's divine seat was actually attacking its own people?!

Such a huge commotion instantly attracted everyone in the city capable of fighting! Onmyo Assistant Sakai Noritomo, wearing a white haori, instantly twisted and transformed in the air, appearing beside Yagyu Munenori. When he saw Takemikazuchi appearing in the high heavens, his pupils also constricted violently!

But the terrifying events were not over yet!

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! It's... it's the Thirty-Six! They've betrayed us and joined the Ming army to attack us!"

"Nonsense! Kato Kiyomasa and the Thirty-Six all died in Haeju City. This is the battle report we received many days ago. How could it be..."

"The Tsugami! It's the Tsugami Mountain Gods!"

Rumble!

Shimazu Yoshihiro and the other corps commanders, looking out from the high ground in the city, heard the terrified shouts from below, and before their eyes was a scene that they could not believe!

Led by Takemikazuchi and supplemented by the mountain gods on the bodies of the Thirty-Six, a giant god army suddenly appeared outside Wonsan City and launched a fierce attack!