A Name That Can Never Be Forgotten
Boom!
The sword danced wildly.
No, the Colorless Glass Swords were more like rays of light.
Thousands of beams rained down toward Seo Hyul.
I moved my sword with even greater intensity than I had when I eliminated the fifteen Sachukki Sausa.
“I will kill you here.”
Normally, I would have listened to his words a little longer, used him for some negotiation at least.
But I realized that my mind was beginning to change on its own during our conversation.
Seo Hyul had already brainwashed me.
“This guy… he’s the kind of person you can never associate with.”
Kwaaa!
The aftershock of my sword strike shook the earth.
“I will erase every last speck of you!”
Paaa!
The countless rays that erupted from a single sword strike slammed into Seo Hyul, disintegrating every single cell in his body!
[Se, Seo Dow… why are you…]
To kill a Sachukki Sausa, I had to slice open the Heavenly Core inside him.
[Seo Dow, wait a moment…]
My consciousness grew even sharper.
His Golden Elixir shattered.
His Nascent Soul collapsed.
I could see the round Heavenly Core inside him and the foundation of the Nascent Soul he was accumulating.
Shu shu shu!
Four sword strikes in total.
After four sword strikes, the Heavenly Core was completely dismantled first.
Then I began to tear apart the Nascent Soul inside him.
Blink!
[No, wait, listen to what I’m sa—]
It sounded like he was trying to say something, but I ignored it.
There was no trust to be placed in someone who tried to brainwash me the moment we met.
It was better to completely annihilate him on the spot and leave no aftereffects.
Paaa!
He tried to reveal his Base Shield, but even that was sliced apart by my Colorless Glass Swords.
His Base Shield vanished in an instant, and what remained before my eyes was nothing but a pile of dust.
“Meat… is all dead.”
But Sachukki Sausa resurrect.
They can resurrect from their own body, but many choose to resurrect at a place they designated.
That sight was unsightly.
So how do you kill a Sachukki Sausa who is trying to resurrect?
Simple.
Wuuung!
The Formless Sword rang out.
At the same time, the rank of the Formless Sword rose, and its soul rank began to leap upward.
[Wa, wait…]
“You cannot resurrect.”
The Formless Sword, freely navigating ranks, tasted the soul of Seo Hyul.
—Bent!
The senses of the Formless Sword connected to mine, and I could see it with my own eyes.
The soul path through which Sachukki Sausa pass to resurrect!
Even a normal Sachukki Sausa could not touch the soul path even if they knew the opponent would resurrect.
Even Integration cultivators could not do so unless they were at the late Integration stage.
It was simply because the ranks were too high.
But I was different.
Boooong!
The Formless Sword had already reached the rank where the soul path existed, and I severed the connection between Seo Hyul and that path.
Paa!
[Ah, no…]
“Die, Seo Hyul.”
Paba baba ba ba!
A massive torrent of light struck, and Seo Hyul’s soul was completely disintegrated.
He vanished in a storm of light, the final flicker of his life.
That was the end of Seo Hyul.
“Huu…”
The moment I confirmed that Seo Hyul’s soul had dispersed, I stopped the sword.
Then I looked at him.
Even though the body was reduced to dust by that absurd life force, the face had begun to regenerate.
The regeneration had stopped when the soul dispersed.
The body of Seo Hyul remained—only the face.
And that face was still smiling.
Kindly. As if it had never felt the terror of death.
“….”
I had killed Seo Hyul.
I had sliced open his Heavenly Core so he could not resurrect even if he wanted to.
I had even scattered his soul.
But what was the feeling?
When I looked at the smiling face of the dead Seo Hyul, I could not shake the sense that this guy had truly died.
*It’s unsettling…*
Could this be a clone?
But I shook my head.
“This guy definitely used a Base Shield and had a Heavenly Core inside him.”
If what I killed was a clone, then it meant Seo Hyul’s clone was a Sachukki.
There was no reason for a guy who wasn’t a monster to waste a Sachukki clone in a place like this.
“Moreover, even though it was blurry, the thoughts of this guy… and the intentions he showed when he died… they were real.”
In other words, this was the real Seo Hyul.
“…Did you die?”
Tuck tuck—
I poked the fragments of Seo Hyul’s face.
He did not suddenly come back to life.
Just in case, I picked up the fragment of Seo Hyul’s face, used one of the empty Jeomuldo’s spaces, and sealed the face inside it.
I sealed it out of unease, but if the guy was really dead… I could use the Impersonation Mask, so there was no loss.
“Hmm… anyway, he seems to have truly died.”
There was no need to say he was finished.
The guy had definitely died.
Thinking that way, a refreshing feeling swept through me, and the heavy emotion that had been weighing on my heart vanished.
I had been unconsciously under pressure just from Seo Hyul’s existence.
“From now on, I’ll kill anyone I see and erase them.”
I decided how I would handle Seo Hyul from now on.
Then I sent my will to Hong Beom and Jeon Myeong-hoon to remove their perception barriers.
After entering the Geumcheon, my ability to send will to non-disciples had become much stronger.
Normally, even if a non-disciples received the will, they would not sense it.
But the will itself had become even clearer, making it easier to transmit the meaning.
“So, what happened? The bastard from just now… it looked like the one I saw in Deungsunhyang before?”
“Yeah. He was quite sinister and cunning. I killed him for trying to brainwash me.”
I answered Jeon Myeong-hoon’s question, and Hong Beom laughed heartily at my answer.
“Haha, well done, Master. Those who try to touch you deserve to die.”
“Seo Hyul was definitely that kind of guy.”
For Seo Hyul, no matter how many times I killed him, I felt no guilt.
“Then what will you do from now on, Seo Eun-hyun?”
“Simple. I’ll enter the Human Race Alliance and receive recognition as a Taesu. If I can’t become a Taesu, I’ll aim for recognition at least equal to that.”
“Hmm, will they recognize you? You’ve already been put on a wanted list, and I heard that soul technique of yours is something even the Heavenly Race rejects.”
“Yeah. But… the one who cast the Heavenly Punishment. It’s unlikely that only we saw that person at the time.”
“Really?”
“That day, all Integration Taesu from the Heavenly Race were watching Noeryeong-do.”
I explained the full story.
“So… among the Heavenly Race now, except for a few like Heon-won, they were all watching Noeryeong-do, and because they saw the owner of that Heavenly Punishment, they all suffered fatal damage?”
“Yeah.”
“So, by entering to fill the empty power of the Heavenly Race, they’ll accept you?”
“Exactly.”
“Hmm… well, it’s not bad.”
Jeon Myeong-hoon nodded.
“Then I’ll have to prepare to settle in Gwanghan Realm again once the successors of Geumsincheonroemun succeed.”
“That’s a good thought. Then for now… the Human Race Alliance. Shall we head to Cheonin-do?”
Paaa!
At that moment.
Jiiing!
My body jolted at a ‘signal’ I felt from somewhere.
Flying toward the Human Race Alliance with Jeon Myeong-hoon using Bidunsul, I caught the signal and focused my mind on it.
And soon I knew where the signal was coming from.
‘Yuyou!’
Yuyou had entered inside Gwanghan Realm.
* * *
Woon, uwoong!
I connected with Yuyou’s consciousness.
The Gigoego that I had planted in him activated and began to operate from within his Nascent Soul, linking our sight.
And our senses began to connect one by one.
“Here….”
With Yuyou’s body, I barely opened my eyes and looked around.
“Hmm, impressive. Even after setting up the Ascension Platform, you obtained a successor… but the successor is only at the middle Nascent Soul level?”
“…!”
I hurriedly looked up at the man in black robe who had approached.
He looked down at me as well.
Dense ghost energy emanated from him.
“Looks like a martial arts practitioner who has cultivated demonic techniques? You’ve cultivated a rather good regeneration technique that can withstand dimensional pressure. It’s even better that the frequency of meeting a corpse decreases once you’re past the Nascent Soul stage, so it’s not a bad choice.”
“Where… is this place?”
I knew, but I confirmed it once more through Yuyou’s mouth.
“This place is Gwanghan Realm, the Ascension Platform inside the Black Ghost Valley.”
“The Ghost Realm… is not it?”
“Oh? You targeted the Ghost Realm and succeeded in ascending?”
“For now, yes.”
I nodded.
I thought it would be the Ghost Realm because of the Seopmyeong Ship’s crew pointing the way, but it turned out to be simply inside the Black Ghost Valley…
At that moment.
I felt something was off.
“Wait, Ascension Platform? Inside Black Ghost Valley?”
I looked at the land I had stepped on.
It was exactly the same Ascension Platform as in Geongon City.
And inside the Ascension Platform, I felt the power of Gongryeong-ji.
“Hah, this… did the Black Ghost Valley guys make their own Ascension Platform inside the sect and secretly swallow it even though Gongryeong-ji exists in the main gate? They plan to absorb all the talents coming from the lower realms?”
I looked at the black-robed Sausa in front of me.
“Huh-wak.”
“May I ask why I was brought to Gwanghan Realm after attempting to ascend targeting the Ghost Realm?”
“Simple. Because this Ascension Platform was made with plenty of ghost energy so it closely resembles the Ascension Platform of the Ghost Realm.”
“…!”
“The Ghost Realm is good too, but the Black Ghost Valley in our Gwanghan Realm is not bad either. No, in some ways it’s better than the Ghost Realm. Compared to the main sect of the Black Ghost Valley in the Ghost Realm, it’s slightly different, but here we enjoy the honor of the five great sects of the Human Race and receive very good treatment. We share most techniques with the main sect, though the ones we possess are slightly inferior.”
He smiled slyly.
“With our Black Ghost Valley, we can guarantee the same effects as training in the Ghost Realm. We like talented people like you who ascended alone. Moreover, the treatment for the talents we’ve already accepted is excellent. How about it? Will you not enter the main gate?”
“….”
I awkwardly smiled with Yuyou’s body.
Huh-wak’s will entered my eyes immediately.
Since he hadn’t installed a protective technique like Seo Hyul’s to block the eyes of a disciple, I could roughly guess what his intentions were.
“If I refuse, he’ll kill me.”
Creating an Ascension Platform inside one’s own sect had that meaning from the beginning.
Gongryeong-ji originally should not be owned by a specific group.
But they secretly obtained Gongryeong-ji and made an Ascension Platform.
What if the Sausa who came out of that Ascension Platform did not enter their sect?
Of course.
The only way to silence them was with killing and erasing.
Since the Black Ghost Valley mainly dealt with ghost cultivation techniques, perhaps they planned to kill anyone who refused the offer and refine them into ghosts.
From their perspective, it was excellent disciples.
Or a flood of excellent ghost cultivation materials.
No harm in that.
I pretended to think for a moment and said.
“It is an honor. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to enter the Great Black Ghost Valley.”
Huh-wak smiled brightly with that face that was neither male nor female and patted my back warmly.
“Congratulations on becoming a disciple of the Black Ghost Valley. What is your name?”
After some thought, I answered awkwardly with a faint smile.
“Seo Lip.”