Reincarnation Sword God

Chapter 655: The Dark Heaven Village

“After agreeing to teach me how to travel to the Otherworld, Zhuge Sa summoned a creature through magic. As soon as I saw it, I exclaimed, ‘That thing from last time…'”
“Right. This critter is an Otherworldly Race and a demonic creature that can move hundreds of thousands of times faster than light. Humans can’t withstand riding it, so you’ll need to drink Honey Wine.”
Zhuge Sa continued, “The method to move to the Otherworld is complete once you can summon this thing. There are other shortcuts, but they’re all subpar; this is the most stable, comfortable, and fastest method. Most sorcerers use this technique.”
“Is summoning it really that hard?”
“Not exactly,” he said with a smirk. “It’s not the spell that’s tough; it’s aligning your mental frequencies with this creature that’s truly demanding.”
“Frequencies?”
“This one communicates through wavelengths instead of ‘speech.’ This form of telepathy is incredibly rare across the universe, so most races can’t replicate it. Therefore, to understand the waves and contract with it, a regular human might spend their entire life trying and still fail.”
“……”
Wavelengths, huh?
I looked at the Otherworldly creature before me. It hovered in the air with a soft gurgling noise, sporting wings like a bird, yet with scales resembling a lizard, making its face neither bird-like nor lizard-like. It was just plain bizarre, and I couldn’t sense any wavelengths emanating from it at all.
“I don’t get it. How do I align the wavelengths?”
“Hehe. It’s like trying to teach a cow or a pig to speak human language… logically, it’s impossible. So usually, sorcerers transform your body into that of the creature and practice aligning wavelengths every day.”
“Transformation?”
“Like this.”
Bam!
With a loud noise, Zhuge Sa transformed. His body morphed up to his shoulders into the shape of the Otherworldly creature, and it looked grotesque and hideous. As I was taken aback, he fixed his gaze intently on the summoned creature, which had finally reacted after remaining silent until now.
Gurgle, gurgle…
Zhuge Sa finished transforming and returned to his original form.
“I just had a casual conversation with this guy.”
“What did you talk about?”
“I asked if it was hungry, and it said it wants to eat calf liver.”
“……”
He petted the creature affectionately as if it were cute, shrugging off its oddities.
“Transforming into an Otherworldly Race isn’t hard at all. Just etch the sorcerer’s seal and it’s simple. But there are tens of thousands of different wavelengths, so finding the right one to weave together the creature’s unique ‘speech’ is tricky.”
“So that’s why it’s difficult.”
“I consider myself quite the genius in linguistics, yet I also struggled for nearly a year to master this technique.”
If Zhuge Sa took nearly a year, it might take me twenty or thirty years. Gritting my teeth, I said, “Teach me.”
Bam!
I carved the sorcerer’s seal Zhuge Sa taught me and transformed into the Otherworldly creature.
But something bizarre happened.
[I said I want to eat calf liver. When will you give it to me?]
Huh?
The moment I transformed, I heard the creature’s whining voice as it flapped its wings. Intriguingly, despite its grotesque appearance in human form, it somehow looked cute.
‘Am I going insane?’
Why does the creature seem so cute all of a sudden?
Also, I inexplicably knew it wasn’t male but female.
Without thinking, I tried to communicate without being conscious about emitting wavelengths.
[Nope.]
It felt rudimentary, but I sensed my intent getting across. The Otherworldly creature seemed to understand, flapping its wings and responding.
[You’re such a miserly old man. I want to eat calf liver, heart, or brains instead!]
[What about pigs, instead of calves?]
[I don’t like pigs!]
[Got it, I’ll bring a calf.]
What’s going on?
I was having a surprisingly fluent conversation. I transformed back into human form, flew to the barn, and dragged a calf with me. Then, transforming back to the Otherworldly creature, I presented its liver, heart, and head one after another.
The creature felt delighted beyond measure.
[Wow! You’re giving me my favorite parts!]
[How do we make a contract?]
Nom, nom, nom…
The Otherworldly creature happily chewed on the liver and replied, [I’ll call a friend over!]
Psssh!
Shortly after, another creature identical to the first one was summoned. For some reason, I suddenly sensed this one wasn’t female but male. The summoned male creature flapped its wings excitedly and said,
[Give me a calf’s heart, and I’ll make a contract!]
[Okay, here you go.]
Nom, nom, nom…
The male creature devoured the offering deliciously and suddenly emitted a bright light from its body.
[I made a contract! See you again!]
Psssh!
In a moment, both creatures vanished from this world. As I tilted my head in confusion, Zhuge Sa stood beside me, utterly astonished.
“W-What?! You made the contract right off the bat…? With those difficult beings…”
“Huh?”
He grabbed my collar, looking bewildered.
“Baek Woong, did you know the wavelength and speech of that Otherworldly Race?”
“Of course not. I just heard them when I transformed.”
“So you just spoke without thinking?”
“Yeah. Was that wrong or something?”
After I honestly admitted it, scratching my head, Zhuge Sa looked at me with wide, blank eyes. It was rare for him to look at me like that. After a long silence, he sighed and said, “It seems you truly are meant for the Demon Path. Whether this is a blessing or a curse…”
I felt good and smirked.
“Hehehe, could it be I have some talent?”
“Dude…”
Zhuge Sa looked like he’d heard a ridiculous amount of nonsense for a moment, his face crinkled in disgust. He couldn’t even muster a curse, so I had to keep my mouth shut.
“……”
Zhuge Sa seemed a bit annoyed.
‘Did I mess up again?’
While I squirmed uneasily, Zhuge Sa relaxed his expression.
“… You fool. At this point, your talent transcends mere ability. No other human sorcerer throughout history has learned the language of the Otherworldly Race as quickly as you. Even the Demon King Simon Magus, a disciple of the god of alchemy Hermes and the master of the Western Regions, could not learn it faster than you.”
“You’re saying that’s not talent?”
“Perhaps it is a divine gift. Huh… It may be a blessing that you don’t understand your own worth.”
Zhuge Sa spoke with a hint of madness, his eyes filled with suspicion. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Anyway, I never expected you’d master summoning magic so quickly. Now I’ll teach you how to activate the summoning spell and create Honey Wine.”
“Is that hard?”
“It’s easy. Like I said, aligning wavelengths with those critters is the main difficulty; everything else can be easily followed by an average genius…”
Just as Zhuge Sa said, I learned all his instructions in a single day and fully absorbed them after just a few practice runs. A process I thought would take decades ended in an instant, and I felt a wave of joy.
“Zhuge Sa! If I master the Demon Path, I could become several dozen times stronger than now, right?”
Zhuge Sa shook his head.
“Well…”
“Why the skepticism?”
“Looking at your memories, while you’ve shown immense talent in communicating with the Otherworldly Race, in practicing alchemy and Demon Path techniques, you’ve made progress like an average person. You haven’t mastered any magic or inscription techniques.”
“……”
“Well, this means you have absolute talent for summoning contracts and it solidifies your training method. From now on, you should focus primarily on summoning arts.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
“Your talent is quite skewed. It’s like…”
Zhuge Sa paused mid-sentence, thinking.
“Anyway, just like sorcery, to reach the higher stages of the Demon Path requires a lot of training. Don’t take it lightly; consistent effort is crucial.”
“Got it.”
I spent an additional three days receiving further training from Zhuge Sa. When I felt ready, I asked him, “Zhuge Sa, do you think I can now travel to the Otherworld? How many are out there?”
“I explained earlier that there are two types of Otherworlds.”
“Right.”
Nodding my head, I said, “There are physical and conceptual Otherworlds.”
“Correct. That’s the key.”
Zhuge Sa relaxed, leaning back as he explained.
“Physical Otherworlds refer to places that can be reached through physical means as human civilization’s technology advances; it’s like arriving in another city by cart. Of course, the journey must exceed at least 10 light-years, which is an enormous distance, hence it’s called an Otherworld. Such physical Otherworlds may include clusters of stars, exoplanets, and external galaxies.”
“Hmm… So does that mean the prophet lives in a physical Otherworld?”
“Probably. Their race likely resides millions of light-years from here.”
Zhuge Sa took a sip of water.
“Conceptual Otherworlds, on the other hand, are different. Even if you were to travel onboard a spaceship that could cross dozens of light-years in the blink of an eye, you couldn’t reach a conceptual Otherworld. They’re in entirely different dimensions, so you have to use special methods to get there. Dream Realms and Blood Realms all fall into this category.”
After explaining that, Zhuge Sa snapped his fingers.
“Ninety percent of Otherworldly races live in physical Otherworlds. Put simply, they’re aliens, and we are Earthlings. But the higher-ranked Otherworldly beings reside in conceptual realms, and once you reach the level of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, you won’t even be able to locate them through physical means.”
“I understand.”
“The teleportation technique you learned from the Honey Wine allows access to most physical Otherworlds, but not conceptual ones. Thus, what we’ve gained is effectively the right to explore physical Otherworlds.”
“Meaning we can’t go to conceptual ones.”
Zhuge Sa chuckled.
“There’s no need to be overly disappointed. The count of conceptual Otherworlds is quite small, and their lists are typically documented in standard sorcery books. They’re often hideouts of high-ranking Otherworldly beings or sanctuaries of divine races, but anyway, you have plenty of time, so you can visit them one by one later on.”
“……”
After a moment of deep thought, I said, “The first thing I need to look for is Wu He, the beloved of Xiang Yu. The most suspicious place for her to be would be the Underworld…”
Zhuge Sa replied, “The Underworld is a conceptual Otherworld. It would be cumbersome and dangerous to go there with magic. However, it’s not impossible to physically find a way.”
“What?”
I was taken aback, asking in disbelief, “Are you saying the Underworld actually exists in the material world?”
“Technically, there’s a special passage leading there. I believe Cheon Woo-jin knows a lot about it.”
“Then I should call him.”
A moment later, I summoned both Mangnyang and Cheon Woo-jin and informed them that I had acquired summoning magic. Both of them, for some reason, wore expressions suggesting they expected this. Cheon Woo-jin, hearing our current dilemma, said, “There’s a path called the Dark Road that souls take after dying; when the time for it opens, we can reach the Underworld. The largest passage is located near Luoyang, at Northern Mourning Mountain.”
“That exists? Then let’s head to the Underworld using the passage through Northern Mourning Mountain!”
I shouted excitedly, but Cheon Woo-jin nonchalantly replied, “… And that passage is always filled with Messengers of Death, law enforcers of the underworld, generals, and more. Among them, you’ll find Great Immortal Level beings hanging out. How nice it would be for a mere flesh being like you to stroll on in.”
“……”
“If it were Xiang Yu or Celestial Sage, they could fight their way through the Messengers and enter the Underworld, but doing that is something only empowered weirdos do. To enter properly, you’ll need permission from the Lord of Mount Tai.”
“Lord of Mount Tai?”
“He’s the Great Immortal who governs Mount Tai and oversees human lifespan.”
Upon hearing that, I felt utterly flabbergasted.
“Where can we find such a creature?! If there truly was one, then he should have shown himself at the Offering Ceremony on Mount Tai during every reincarnation without fail!”
“That’s odd to me too. But if I were to guess…”
Cheon Woo-jin’s eyes sharpened.
“The title of Lord of Mount Tai is likely ceremonial; the being possessing that power is likely someone else. It wouldn’t be unusual for the Celestial Realm to intentionally distort the legacy. Especially as sensitive a topic as the Underworld, I imagine the human sorcerers wouldn’t be allowed to roam it freely.”
“Who could that possibly be?”
“There are only two beings in the Celestial Realm that oversee human lifespan, right?”
Upon hearing his words, a thought suddenly struck me. As I fell silent, Cheon Woo-jin continued, “The Overlay Technique Southern Dipper Star Lord and Northern Dipper Star Lord. They are likely the true Lords of Mount Tai and hold the passage to the Underworld.”