The Ascension and the Fixed Regression
Kugugugugu!
A torrent of sounds and piercing lights sliced through me.
I gritted my teeth and poured every ounce of my **Void Sword** into my entire body.
*My whole body feels like it’s about to shatter…!*
If not for the sheer density of my **Void Sword** from the Space Shattering realm, my body wouldn’t have had enough durability to endure even this much. I wouldn’t have had time to think at all.
*Release the Banner of Heaven!*
I clenched my jaw so hard I felt blood welling up, then drew the **Heavenly Banner** from my inventory.
“**Heavenly Banner, activate!**”
Kugugugugu!
The talisman unleashed an overwhelming surge of power, the Banner’s force completely enveloping my body.
There was spiritual energy even in the spatial passageway.
And that energy thickened around me, forming a dense barrier that kept every drop of my own qi from leaking out.
“Kurgh! Hah!”
I spat blood and barely steadied myself.
*This damn thing… what the hell is this situation!*
I was still inside the Ascension Gate’s spatial corridor, being pulled relentlessly upward.
Kiiiiiing!
The blessing of the **Bongmyeongin** propelled me farther and farther into the distance.
The moment I crossed into the Ascension Gate, the blessing turned into an irresistible force, and I realized just how terrifyingly powerful it really was.
Kugugugugu!
*Before long I’ll reach the upper realm… but…*
I clenched my teeth again, staring at the **Heavenly Banner** shaking wildly across my entire body.
*The Banner should’ve burned out long ago. It might collapse before I even reach the upper realm…!*
I clenched harder and recalled the **Bongmyeongin**.
*I was supposed to enter the Ascension Gate and simply use the **Bongmyeongin**’s power to return to that world…*
But I never imagined the strange centrifugal force would actually fling the **Bongmyeongin** itself away.
*No choice… I have to hang on as long as I can!*
Kugugugugu!
I kept my eyes on the Banner, which was about to shatter at any moment, brow furrowed.
*This won’t do. Then…*
I looked at the Blood Clones of Won Rip flying beside me, moving upward together.
I remembered the method I had learned from him.
I formed a contract with the Blood Clone at the same time.
“**Blood Body Skin Reinforcement Art! Open!**”
At that instant, Won Rip’s Blood Clone bloomed wide open.
*Shwaaaaak!*
Every internal organ and muscle inside his body was clearly visible.
And those organs and muscles all turned into blood, creating a hollow space large enough for a single person to enter.
With the contract formed, the Blood Clone shot toward me and wrapped me in its embrace.
The Blood Clone flooded my entire body, then seeped into every part of it.
*Guk-guk!*
It infiltrated my meridians and muscles, instantly amplifying my strength and regeneration to an unimaginable degree. I could even use every martial art he had ever used.
But more importantly…
*Zuuuung!*
The **Heavenly Banner**’s aura that had been sealed inside the Blood Clone merged with my own, dramatically extending the Banner’s duration.
*Paahhh!*
The barrier that had been about to collapse instantly hardened again, and I was finally able to breathe.
*Good. I don’t know when we’ll reach the upper realm, but I can hold on for a while.*
The moment I gained some breathing room, I looked around.
Countless lights and sounds streaked past me.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell what anything was.
*Inside the Ascension Gate… maybe the reason we fell to this world is here…*
I scanned the corridor leading upward.
*Piieeeit!*
Between the countless lights, I occasionally caught glimpses of what looked like entire stars in the cosmos.
Shapes that appeared to be countless space and dimensions flashed by. Suddenly I could vaguely make out the form of the world I had come from below.
*That world…*
It was like…
“…Eh?”
* * *
I saw it. It saw me too. Our eyes met. It was a massive jade…
* * *
“…Kuk…!”
What…?
What was that just now?
*Piieet!*
I realized I was still being pulled toward the upper realm.
The surroundings were still filled with streaking lights and sounds.
And judging by the glimpses of scenery I could see between them, I had clearly risen quite high.
*My consciousness cut out for a moment just now…*
I clutched my throbbing head.
Why had I lost consciousness?
*Was it from the spatial pressure?*
Even with the **Heavenly Banner**, the pressure from beyond had been enormous.
Of course it had been bearable, but there had been moments when the pressure spiked so hard that I might have passed out.
*But right before I lost consciousness, I think I saw something…*
I grabbed my aching temples and forced my consciousness back.
*Damn it. My head’s not working right.*
Fortunately I was still stable.
But the headache kept dragging on.
And then…
Kugugugugu!
The time I had been unconscious must have been long, because the **Heavenly Banner** was already showing signs of collapsing.
*Damn it, what if the Banner breaks?*
The pressure outside was already even heavier than before.
The spatial passageway felt thicker with spiritual energy, but the resistance against the Banner was growing even stronger.
If this continued, I would be crushed the instant the Banner’s power ran out.
*That can’t happen!*
Still being dragged upward, I adjusted my stance.
*Break the pressure!*
I began to dance a sword form toward the crushing weight pressing down on me.
Kim Young-hoon had clearly been practicing **Woo-gong-i-san** by himself back then.
A self-destruction technique that could only be used when an opponent was present.
To say he had unfolded **Woo-gong-i-san** toward the void meant…
*The world itself could become the target of martial arts.*
By cutting through the void itself and exchanging blows with that void, he had completed **Woo-gong-i-san**.
Of course I had no intention of unfolding it.
*But… a stance like Mountain Beyond Mountain is Endless should be enough.*
*Shuung, shung, shuuung!*
I swung my **Void Sword** toward the void.
The beyond-the-Space-Shattering realm experts called it the **Sword Thread**.
I could feel my blade grazing the other side of that realm.
*Boom, boom, boom!*
Beyond the dimensions.
I felt my sword colliding with the very qi that made up the world.
*I’ll cut it.*
I severed the qi and immediately began dancing my sword form toward the overwhelming pressure that was about to swallow me whole.
*Piieet!*
*Jjeo-eok!*
My sword cut through the spatial pressure.
At the same time, the pressure pressing on the **Heavenly Banner** eased.
*Woo-gong-i-san can’t be unfolded. But…*
*Enduring without tiring and pouring out every single stance from beginning to end… that’s still possible!*
Horizontal cuts, downward stabs, upward cuts, thrusts, changes, all combined in one form.
Countless stances erupted almost simultaneously and merged into a single shape.
*Dan-ak!*
*Chwaaaak!*
The pressure above finally split.
*Ppak, ppaddug!*
Even so, countless pressures still bore down on me, and the **Heavenly Banner** was gradually losing its power.
And then, at some point.
*Paahhh!*
*Kwaaang!*
Finally the **Heavenly Banner** ran out of power.
*Faster! Stronger!*
Resisting the pressure that felt like it was squeezing my entire body, I slashed even more violently with my **Void Sword**.
But the pressure kept growing.
*Wuduk, wuddug!*
Even though I kept cutting it away, the residual pressure alone was enough to crush my reinforced body.
Just then.
*Twitch!*
I sensed something moving in the distance beyond the spatial corridor, swimming between the gaps.
*What the hell is that?*
The grotesque creature living in the cracks of space wasn’t paying any attention to me, but its aura was no less than that of a Heavenly Person.
I felt a chill run down my spine and continued cutting through the pressure.
*Wuduk, wuddug!*
Even with the Blood Clone enhancing my durability and regeneration, my whole body felt like it was about to be torn apart by the spatial pressure!
And just as I was about to burst blood from my Seven Apertures…
*Paahhh!*
*Kwaaaang!*
I slammed into something like a wall right in front of me and spat blood.
*Chwaaaak!*
My **Void Sword** naturally cut through the wall, and thanks to the remaining momentum, I finally pierced it and entered the upper realm.
*Paahhh!*
“Kruek! Kurgh, gheuk!”
I spat a mouthful of blood.
And then…
*“This is…”*
I felt the ground beneath me.
The crushing spatial pressure had disappeared.
The spiritual energy density was stable and far more overwhelming than anything I had felt in my previous world.
Hundreds of times more spiritual energy than the Deungsunhyang forest.
Hundreds of times more than a typical region of my previous world.
“Hah… hah…?”
I looked around.
*Here…*
“**The upper realm…?**”
Just as I was about to scan my surroundings.
*Kuwoong!*
*“What the hell is this?!”*
A giant in green armor suddenly appeared before me.
He was not made of flesh and blood like humans or beastmen, but of wood and earth.
The aura rolling off him was…
“Kyuk! Kyueo-eok!”
*I can’t breathe!*
**Four Pillars realm!**
It was an overwhelming aura that far surpassed the Heavenly Person realm.
The moment I tried to seal it within my consciousness, my head felt like it was about to explode.
I hastily abandoned the idea and withdrew my consciousness.
I looked at him, then quickly dropped my gaze to his shadow.
Staring directly into his eyes would make them sting unbearably.
An existence that even a Heavenly Person could not gaze upon directly.
A Four Pillars expert.
*“He has somehow pierced the spatial veil that has grown thin. Moreover, his aura is barely Four Pillars level… suspicious. Has a strange creature from the void space imitated a human to infiltrate?”*
Kugugugugu!
The Four Pillars expert raised his hand.
*“This is…!”*
The same aura I had felt from **Her** hand!
*I’m going to burst!*
My eyes shrank from tension and fear.
I tried to speak, but blood kept pouring from my mouth.
At that moment.
“Wait!”
A familiar voice rang in my ears.
*“Hmm?”*
The Four Pillars expert looked toward a certain direction.
I looked too.
There stood a familiar green-armored giant with arms crossed.
*“Changhoja…!?”*
“I recognize that face. He doesn’t seem to be one of the strange lifeforms from the void space.”
*“Hmmm….”*
*Pushiiii…*
The aura around the Four Pillars expert dissipated.
Only then did I fully look around.
Behind Changhoja were several Heavenly Person experts and some Four Pillars experts radiating similar auras.
Countless giants with even more oppressive auras stood in formation behind them.
And in the far back, Oh Hyun-seok stared at me with wide eyes.
And on both sides of Changhoja…
A middle-aged man in golden robes and a gender-ambiguous being in black robes.
*Zap! Zap-zap!*
The golden-robed middle-aged man was **Geum Byeok-ho**, the Supreme Sect Master of the Geumshin Cheonrae Sect.
Behind him stood numerous Heavenly Person experts and several Four Pillars experts who were spewing lightning, plus a huge number of Geumshin Cheonrae Sect disciples.
And the Black Ghost Valley elder **Baekgol Gwima** in black robes.
Behind him floated two **Seopmyeong Ships**, and eerie ghost sounds echoed all around.
Also…
*“Ho, this is quite the unexpected visit…”*
A young man in blue robes with shining antlers on his forehead.
Seo Hyul looked at me with a gentle smile.
Behind Seo Hyul, several massive Sea Dragons of Heavenly Person rank revealed their true bodies, and dozens more smaller Sea Dragons followed.
On Seo Hyul’s sides stood representatives of the Earth Beast Clan and the Rock Clan, along with their ancestors.
And then…
*“Hehehe, what an interesting development. How did that fellow get here?”*
**Goe-gun.**
He stood a little apart from the other forces, leaning back with his hands behind his head, watching me.
Next to him, Kim Yeon had collapsed, foaming at the mouth, unconscious.
Rather than anything Goe-gun had done, the shock of enduring the spatial pressure while protected by him had probably been too much.
Everyone I had met in the Deungsunhyang forest had gathered here.
And at that moment, the Four Pillars expert in front of me spoke.
*“Explain. Is that fellow someone you know?”*
“Yes. That fellow… is someone I saw before passing through the Ascension Gate in the lower realm. We three checked him thoroughly, so he is definitely human. Not a suspicious creature.”
*“Hmmm, then how did a Four Pillars-level human manage to ascend to the Guanghan Realm on his own?”*
The Four Pillars wood man’s words made Changhoja cough awkwardly.
At that moment.
Seo Hyul stepped forward with an amiable smile.
“Perhaps he possesses some unusual talent as well. Before ascending from the Deungsunhyang, we met several groups of humans and found that each of them had one interesting talent. Since there were no talents, we left them behind and took one talented person from each sect… but it turns out they all had unusual abilities. For them to follow us to ascend on their own… it makes me curious what talent the remaining human has.”
The green-armored wood man asked with curious eyes.
*“Unusual talent? What kind of unusual talents did they have?”*
“Hahaha…”
Seo Hyul grinned widely and even exchanged glances with Goe-gun.
Goe-gun crossed his arms and closed his mouth, still smirking.
“Just unusual talents. Well, no matter how unusual, they can’t compare to the sages and the cultivation methods of the great bloodlines in the Guanghan Realm, right?”
The Heavenly Persons all laughed and nodded.
“Well, they’re a little unusual, but they’re really just ordinary talents.”
“We simply brought back people whose techniques perfectly matched our sects.”
*“Hmmm….”*
And the green wood man’s eyes sparkled.
*“There seems to be something hidden. Speak properly. Just arrived in the Guanghan Realm and you’re already hiding things? How suspicious.”*
Kugugugugu!
The green wood man’s aura covered the entire area.
I found it hard to breathe and had to grasp my chest while lying on the ground.
No, my heart felt like it would stop at any moment, so I had to use my **Void Sword** to force it to beat.
*“What about the Heavenly Person experts…?”*
At that moment.
The Heavenly Person experts who had been slightly suppressed by the green wood man’s aura suddenly lit up.
And Seo Hyul, carrying something on his back, began walking toward us.
*“This guy…?”*
Just then.
“…!?”
My eyes shot wide open.
Kugugugugu!
Seo Hyul’s aura rose.
Hundreds of times denser spiritual energy from the nearby Guanghan Realm began being sucked into him.
*Ku duddug!*
Seo Hyul’s aura steadily pushed the green wood man’s aura back.
With every step he took, his power grew.
“…I shall report to my senior from the Guanghan Realm. Forgive me if I have caused any misunderstanding.”
*“What…?!”*
*Stomp, stomp, stomp…*
Not only Seo Hyul, but Geum Byeok-ho, Baekgol Gwima, and Changhoza gradually approached him as well.
And like Seo Hyul, they began absorbing hundreds of times denser spiritual energy from the Guanghan Realm, their auras growing even more powerful.
“We are not like those who fled to the upper realm simply because they lacked longevity. We had already reached the Integration Grand Completion and obtained the enlightenment leading toward Four Pillars, but we simply lacked resources and couldn’t raise our realm, so we ascended to the upper realm…”
Kugugugugu!
*Ziiit, ziiit…*
Suddenly I felt that it had become difficult to stare directly at Seo Hyul as well.
And the Heavenly Persons felt the same.
*Jjeo-eo-eung!*
The next instant.
Light exploded. Gleams burst from Seo Hyul, Geum Byeok-ho, Baekgol Gwima, and Changhoza, and their auras changed.
At the same time.
*Paahhh!*
The green wood man’s aura was completely neutralized, and I finally felt I could breathe more easily.
“Even if my juniors from the lower realm may not please you, we have worked hard on our own. We only ask that you treat our juniors with a little respect.”
After Seo Hyul finished speaking, I looked at them again— no, at their shadows.
In the blink of an eye, they had absorbed so much spiritual energy that they had become Four Pillars experts.
The green wood man was immediately surrounded by four Four Pillars experts.
*“W-what is this?! How can he reach Four Pillars without receiving a Heavenly Tribulation?!”*
“Hahaha, before ascending I had the Supreme Sect Master of our sect use a sect treasure to distribute the Four Pillars Heavenly Tribulation in advance so that it would be received properly. We didn’t even need to receive it because we were pulled through it already.”
Changhoja laughed heartily and casually patted the green wood man’s shoulder.
Just as they surrounded and pressed the green wood man.
Kugugugugu!
A massive aura moved across the sky, and several more Four Pillars experts began descending.
*“These ascension participants this time… are all special.”*
*“They endured the added spatial pressure and ascended together with their own sects… I thought they were monsters just for that….”*
*“Just arriving they already have talents enough to reach Four Pillars….”*
They looked at Geum Byeok-ho, Baekgol Gwima, Changhoza, and Seo Hyul with admiration.
At the same time.
Kugugugugu!
From the Geumshin Cheonrae Sect, Black Ghost Valley, Changcheon Gaebyeokmun, Earth Beast Clan, Rock Clan, Sea Dragon Clan, and others.
Experts from several forces who had absorbed dense spiritual energy and immediately stabilized their realm appeared.
Kugugugugu!
They too had received help from the Geumshin Cheonrae Sect’s treasures.
None of them had received a Heavenly Tribulation.
Of course, no one had reached Four Pillars in one step like the previous four.
Kugugugugu!
And the Goe-gun who had been silent next to me had somehow managed to pierce through a stable realm, but he had not reached Four Pillars.
He had reached the limit of the Heavenly Person realm, but…
*He probably didn’t receive the Geumshin Cheonrae Sect’s treasure or the Heavenly Tribulation, so he can’t overcome the next Heavenly Tribulation and reach Four Pillars right now.*
While I was still confused by the situation.
*“Anyway, all of you withdraw your auras, juniors. No matter how special your ascension cohort is, there are also Integration Grand Completion seniors in this **Flying Immortal Platform**. Please be careful. Looking at the Black Ghost Valley and Geumshin Cheonrae Sect, you seem to be those who ascended from the First Realm. I will guide each of you to the human territory. And you beastmen…”
Kugugugugu!
Before the experts could finish speaking, thunder roared from afar and dark clouds gathered in the sky.
Soon an existence descended from the clouds.
Kugugugugu!
It was a massive dragon.
A dragon far larger than Seo Hyul himself, possessing the power of a top Four Pillars expert, landed among the Sea Dragon Clan.
*“I am the Grand Elder of the Earth Beast Clan’s True Dragon Alliance, Gyu-ryeon. This time the First Realm ascension participants turned out to be quite something. They reached Four Pillars already? Beastmen, follow me to the beastmen territory.”*
“Hahaha, I have heard great things about you, Senior Gyu-ryeon. Please take care of us.”
Seo Hyul smiled gently and greeted her, and Gyu-ryeon looked at Seo Hyul’s face and snorted, as if embarrassed.
*“Well then, let’s depart quickly. I don’t want to spend long with these people.”*
Gyu-ryeon shot a glance at the green wood man and the Four Pillars human experts, then spoke to the beastmen.
And Seo Hyul smiled at her and continued.
“Ah, wait a moment. There is a matter concerning this junior I need to handle for a while.”
Seo Hyul extended his hand to me with a gentle smile.
“Hahaha, sorry about that. Bursting an ant’s waist in the True Dragon fight… I apologize. I don’t know what unusual talent you have, but you must have suffered a lot reaching here.”
“…Thank you for your concern.”
I did not take Seo Hyul’s hand. Instead I pushed myself up on one leg and bowed.
“Speaking of which, how did you even chase after us?”
Changhoja walked past the green wood man and asked me.
“We had been ahead by a few days, so why did you catch up the moment we ascended?”
*Thinking about it, that’s true.*
Normally I wouldn’t be having this conversation with them.
They had ascended days earlier, and I had started much later, yet we arrived at the same time in the upper realm.
That was a strange coincidence.
At that moment the quiet Goe-gun laughed.
*“Perhaps you have a special connection or fate with the upper realm. With only the **Bongmyeongin**’s blessing, those with stronger destiny will reach the upper realm even faster, won’t they? The upper realm we barely ascended after days of struggling, that fellow might have ascended in half a day with his special fate. Khruh….”*
*Because of the Bongmyeongin…*
It was probably thanks to the **Bongmyeongin**’s blessing that I had ascended in an instant while they struggled for days.
*Patzuzuz…*
Just then.
The ground beneath me suddenly glowed, and its surface was covered by a strange barrier.
*“What is this…?”*
“They call it the **Flying Immortal Platform**. All experts ascending from the lower realm arrive here. Since there are no more to come, the platform will close and we will recover the dimensional veil we pierced through.”
Seo Hyul explained the ground we were standing on.
*Uuuung!*
The moment the **Flying Immortal Platform** turned into a barrier, the surrounding space, which had been flickering, suddenly stabilized.
And then.
Seo Hyul spoke.
“So… what will you do?”
“…?”
He gestured around him with an amiable expression.
“I have already confirmed your colleagues’ talents. You yourself have proven an unusual talent by ascending on your own… Since everyone has already ascended, I will take anyone with talent like yours. I myself find you quite interesting…”
Everyone around me, including Seo Hyul, looked at me with growing interest.
“Choose. We will now disperse according to the guidance of the seniors from the Guanghan Realm. Which force will you go with?”
I first relaxed my entire body.
*Patzuch…*
The **Void Sword** that had been enveloping me vanished into the void.
*For now, good. Let me think.*
And then.
*“This guy…!”*
The green wood man and the other Four Pillars experts floating in the air.
And the dragon elder who had come to represent the True Dragon Alliance.
All of them revealed their killing intent.
*“What…?”*
I was startled.
They looked at my **Void Sword** and shouted.
*“Wait, he’s not a spy of the wood clan who practices the Depth Sword Art?! We already suspected something strange!”*
“Yes…?”
*“Die, you spy! We’ll kill you and extract your soul to find out the details!”*
“Wait….”
And then.
*Fuuk!*
I died without knowing what hit me.
Just like that, the moment I succeeded in ascending, my entire body burst and I died.
That was my thirteenth regression.
* * *
*Flash.*
I opened my eyes.
*“Damn it, I died the moment I ascended… what kind of….”*
I was rubbing my aching head when—
*“…Wait.”*
Something felt off.
“…Eh?”
I looked around.
It was not the familiar forest.
This place…
“Choose. We will now disperse according to the guidance of the seniors from the Guanghan Realm. Which force will you go with?”
“…What?”
I stared at Seo Hyul in front of me, eyes wide as I scanned the surroundings.
This place was above the **Flying Immortal Platform**.
The place where I had just died.
“Wait… wait…”
And the meaning of this fact was clear.
My regression point had been fixed here.
“…Excuse me?”
“…Ah!”
I flinched at Seo Hyul’s question.
And I looked at the wood man’s signal, not scattering my **Void Sword** but hiding my qi as much as possible inside my body while scanning the area.
Now that my regression point was suddenly fixed.
The Geumshin Cheonrae Sect.
The Black Ghost Valley.
The Changcheon Gaebyeokmun.
The True Dragon Alliance the beastmen followed.
And the Righteous and Demonic Path Union, and others…
I had to choose from among them.