Chapter 213
A strange crackling sound tore through the air.
But the moment I heard it, my consciousness surged violently, as if it were about to explode and burst.
‘Too far!’
It was an existence that felt as distant as a black dragon—perhaps even farther, existing in dimensions beyond even the black dragon.
Yet every True Immortal I had ever met had been nothing but a fragment or a thought lodged in a single drop of blood.
Even if this being truly dwelled in some distant dimension, the one who had appeared before me now was unmistakably its ‘true self’!
‘C-can’t look!’
I remembered the moment I had faced it and forced my gaze away from the True Immortal, burying my face against the ground while desperately trying to erase the thought of that existence from my mind.
Even without directly confronting it, the crackling sound still tore through my skull like a thousand needles.
And when my eyes landed on Geum Byeok-ho in front of me, they widened in shock.
“…!”
Geum Byeok-ho was turning into lightning.
Not a metaphor—this was happening in reality. From his eyes all the way down his body, he was literally unraveling into bolts of lightning, scattering into the air.
Yet even as he disintegrated, Geum Byeok-ho clenched his own head with both hands and bit down hard.
“D-don’t listen! That—that thing is speaking! You must not listen to its words!”
‘Words…?’
The crackling sound must have sounded like some kind of word to Geum Byeok-ho.
After all, only those who had mastered the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect’s inner cultivation could even perceive the Heavenly Thunder Banner. Perhaps the same held true for someone who had mastered the Brain Technique—the words that only they could hear.
“Listen! Ah, no—don’t speak to me! Don’t look at me! Please! Haaahaaaa!”
I poured every ounce of strength into blotting out the True Immortal’s eyes I had just seen and slammed my head into the ground, focusing my consciousness on a single pattern in front of me.
I had to think of anything else—anything!
At the same time, Jeong-ryeo began to rise into the air.
Tssssssst!
The Heavenly Thunder Banner, floating high, suddenly burst with light.
Kwaaaghh!
The next instant.
A golden bolt of lightning struck exactly where the Heavenly Thunder Banner had been—right between Seo Eun-hyun and Geum Byeok-ho.
A strange sensation of “release” came from the Heavenly Thunder Banner that had been struck by the golden lightning.
At the same moment, a beam of light shot out from the Heavenly Thunder Banner, and something appeared within that beam.
“…?”
It was a small foot.
Slap!
The tip of the Heavenly Thunder Banner, now made of lightning, touched the ground.
And inside the banner, a small white bare foot came into view.
At the same time, a gentle voice rang out from every direction.
“Master… my beloved master. Have you finally come to save me?”
Chills raced down my spine.
“Great one… take me with you.”
The being robed in lightning knelt.
Though its face was invisible, the voice of the one with flowing snow-white hair felt otherworldly.
The kneeling figure clasped its hands together as if in prayer and began beseeching the heavens.
“Grant me your will… return me to you… once more I surrender myself to you…”
The instant that prayer began, something terrifying unfolded.
“Will… will…”
Geum Byeok-ho, who had been turning into lightning and scattering, suddenly knelt in the exact same posture, hands clasped, head bowed.
“Will… one.”
It was more than that.
I felt it with my consciousness.
The same thing was happening everywhere in Cheonin-do.
“Will… one.”
“Will… one.”
“Will… one.”
Pedestrians, monks, everyone walking the streets dropped to their knees without regard for class and began to pray.
At the same time, every body that had been turning into lightning grew faster, becoming lightning itself, and rose into the sky.
They seemed to be offering themselves to some even greater being as pure lightning.
That was when it happened.
——!
The crackling sound rang out again.
At the same moment, the being with flowing snow-white hair spoke as if overcome with emotion.
“Ah… I understand. For twelve thousand years, you have allowed me to cleanse the karma that was being siphoned from the descendants of the Golden Divine. I will obey the command.”
At the same time, the bare-footed being began to rise into the sky.
Crackle, crackle…
‘Dangerous.’
I could not stay here.
I had to run.
But…
‘If I run, I’ll be taken by that existence!’
Even the slightest movement here would make me feel as if I were turning into lightning and being pulled up into the sky.
The only thing keeping me sane right now was the fact that I had simply spoken the name of Jeong-ryeo. That alone.
And the being that had risen into the sky.
The voice of the being expected to be Jeong-ryeo of the Heavenly Thunder Banner rang out across all of Cheonin-do.
“I, Jingyeon, the Purifier of the Great Heavenly Battlefield, shall summon the Heavenly Tribulation…”
Kugugugu!
I felt an enormous beam of light gathering from the sky.
“From this moment, I shall begin my judgment.”
The next instant.
Paaaaat!
The beam of light filled the entire sky and shattered the headquarters of the Human Race Alliance into pieces.
* * *
Jeon Myeong-hoon opened his eyes.
“Ugh… where am I…?”
He had been walking the streets when suddenly he was dragged into darkness.
After that, his memories cut off.
“My eastern district?”
But he realized this place was his eastern district training room and looked around.
And he found a woman in golden robes sleeping beside him.
“So-hae…?”
At that moment, the woman in golden robes—Geum So-hae—opened her eyes.
“Ah, brother. You’re awake?”
“So-hae… what happened?”
“What do you mean? You idiot! How could you just leave like that and make me worry so much?”
“What?”
“No matter how much you’re being controlled by that evil enemy, how could you just walk away like that? Haaah… ugh…”
Geum So-hae looked as if she wanted to say something else, but she stopped, burst into tears, and buried her face in Jeon Myeong-hoon’s chest.
Jeon Myeong-hoon didn’t understand the situation but scratched his head awkwardly and said,
“I don’t know what happened, but I can’t just leave you, So-hae.”
“…Yeah. Good.”
“What happened?”
“…First, let’s get out. You’ll understand when you see.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon left the eastern district with Geum So-hae.
Only then did his eyes widen.
The entire Geumshin Cheonroe Sect was in ruins, as if it had been bombed.
“W-what…?”
“An external evil enemy that had been targeting you and the Heavenly Thunder Banner attacked the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect. You were controlled by that evil enemy for several days and cooperated with it.”
“That…”
“Right now, the sect master is taking the Heavenly Thunder Banner to deal with the evil enemy. He’ll be back soon.”
“Such a thing…”
Jeon Myeong-hoon was still dazed when Geum So-hae asked seriously,
“…When you were being controlled by the evil enemy, you said you would leave without hesitation. You and the entire Geumshin Cheonroe Sect.”
“…I said that?”
“Yes. So there’s one thing I want to ask.”
She looked straight into Jeon Myeong-hoon’s eyes with a serious expression.
“If, in the future, something difficult happens to the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect that we cannot handle, will you leave your body behind?”
Upon hearing her words, Jeon Myeong-hoon closed his eyes and recalled the memories from the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect.
“…That can’t be.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise. No matter what happens, I, Jeon Myeong-hoon, will never betray the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect or you, So-hae.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon offered his pinky to So-hae.
“Was it pinky promise like in your hometown?”
“Yes.”
The two tied their pinkies together, made the promise, and stamped it with their thumbs.
“There’s someone I love most right here. Why would I betray her? Last time I said we should run away together, but it was too frustrating, so I just said it once.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon looked at Geum So-hae, straightened his back to show his sincerity, and smiled.
“You believe me?”
Geum So-hae opened her mouth as if reassured by his words.
And the sky turned yellow.
Cjwoooong!
“…!”
The Heavenly Tribulation had fallen upon the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect.
No, it wasn’t just any Heavenly Tribulation.
It was far too massive, far too filled with malice.
Kugugugu!
Above the slightly smaller Noeryeong-do compared to the continent of the Water Realm.
Above it, the shape of some kind of ‘eye’ projected, and lightning rain began to pour down across the entire Noeryeong-do.
Kugugugu!
The sound vanished.
The color vanished.
What remained before my eyes was nothing but a completely white world.
Everyone in the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect, unable to endure the Heavenly Tribulation that far exceeded their limits, melted along with the ground they stood on and fell downward.
Everyone melted away.
Except for Jeon Myeong-hoon.
“Ah, no…!”
Even while being struck by the Heavenly Tribulation, Jeon Myeong-hoon’s talent allowed him to absorb the Heavenly Tribulation itself and slip past its power.
The talent that was loved by every lightning in the world.
That was his Heavenly Golden Lightning Physique.
Yet even while being struck by the Heavenly Tribulation and in the middle of his cultivation jumping wildly, he couldn’t rejoice.
Instead, he fell into panic.
In front of his eyes, his beloved was being fried alive.
Without even a moment to scream!
“No!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon clutched Geum So-hae as if shouting and tried to reduce the area of the Heavenly Tribulation striking her.
He even tried using law techniques to block it.
But the Heavenly Tribulation that covered the entire continent and split the world apart could never be stopped.
Inside his embrace, Geum So-hae was dying.
“No, no, no! Don’t die! Don’t die!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon shouted while half-mad, gripping Geum So-hae’s hand.
But the love he held was turning into ashes, and all he could do was wretchedly wail.
“No! No…”
And then, from inside his arms, he heard his beloved’s final words.
“Golden… Cheonroe Sect…”
The person Jeon Myeong-hoon loved.
Geum So-hae, the great-great-granddaughter of Geum Byeok-ho and one of the most promising talents of the Geumshin Cheonroe Sect, trembled violently as she forced out her final words.
“Don’t… leave… me…”
With that, she gradually began to turn to ash and scatter.
Jeon Myeong-hoon tried to grab Geum So-hae while screaming.
But it was useless.
Her body became powder and scattered away, and Jeon Myeong-hoon grabbed whatever remained and screamed.
And then, inside this rain of lightning, he heard a voice.
Whisper… whisper… whisper…
It was the voice of the Heavenly Tribulation.
The lightning was whispering to him.
“Repent…”
“Surrender…”
“Repent…”
Repent for what? Surrender to whom?
He didn’t know.
But deep in pain and despair, Jeon Myeong-hoon opened his eyes wide while listening to the lightning.
Whisper… whisper… whisper…
Among the whispers of the lightning to him, something was giving him information.
“Ah… aaah…”
He heard the voice of the Heavenly Tribulation.
While absorbing the Heavenly Tribulation, he heard the truth that the Heavenly Tribulation was whispering.
The being that had suddenly taken away his entire life.
The True Immortal.
“Aaaaaah!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon despaired.
He finally understood what kind of being had suddenly taken everything from him.
He had taken everything, but even if he risked everything, he could never reach it.
He was powerless.
Through the lightning, he received information about the True Immortal and at the same time received the gaze of the True Immortal.
Looking at the malicious gaze of the True Immortal, Jeon Myeong-hoon went insane.
In the midst of rage and despair, under the gaze of that great being, pain and suffering.
He lost his mind and roared.
“Haaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
And finally, the time of the Heavenly Tribulation, as long as eternity itself, ended.
“…Eh?”
Jeon Myeong-hoon opened his eyes on the ashes.
“…Here…”
He looked around with dazed eyes.
“Ah, I see.”
Finally, he understood.
“It was a dream. Ha, hahaha… With a proposal from the daughter of a Integration-level grandmaster, a nightmare like this…?”
And then, something appeared in his hand.
“Ah…”
It was a ‘hand’.
Withered and twisted, fried by lightning!
Jeon Myeong-hoon knew what that hand was.
“Ah, aaah… aaaaaah!”
And finally, he realized this was not a dream.
It was reality.
“Uaaaaaah!”
Tremble, tremble, tremble…
He trembled with both hands, staring at the withered and twisted hand that had been fried on his own hand, and cried.
It was Geum So-hae’s hand.
The beloved he had loved, Geum So-hae, had disappeared from this world with only one hand remaining in Jeon Myeong-hoon’s tight grip, turning to ash.
“Ah, aaah… aaaaaah!”
Screaming in pain, Jeon Myeong-hoon clutched his beloved’s hand to his chest and stood his hair on end.
In the madness and pain of having seen the great being, he awakened anew.
“Ah, yeah… I get it…”
He could finally understand one thing.
“My fate… I think I understand what my fate is…”
Weeping blood tears, Jeon Myeong-hoon, who had risen from the ashes, looked up at the sky.
“…Revenge… I will take revenge. This rage… it must be quenched…!”
Having swallowed the Heavenly Tribulation that the True Immortal had unleashed, Jeon Myeong-hoon, who had instantly reached from the Core Formation stage through the Nascent Soul, Heavenly Person, and straight into the Integration realm, smiled chillingly.
“Those who interfere… can all be killed.”
In that way, the Lightning Thunderer Jeon Myeong-hoon was born from the ashes.