Well Done
I stared at Seo Hyul.
Seo Hyul still wore a faint smile.
Chiiing—
The debate inside my mind was drawing to a close.
“I’m the one who must bear the responsibility.”
“The second-grade threat has finally taken over me.”
“Then the ‘me’ that faces the second-grade threat will be the one to sacrifice.”
“Good. The decision is made.”
“We’ll retrieve the Axe.”
Boouuung!
At that very moment, the Axes of Su, Bu, Gangnyeong, and Yu Ho-deok tore free from my body and vanished somewhere beyond the boundary.
I could have seized them, but I sensed the danger of doing so. Instead, I left the Axes behind and continued watching the “Seos” before me.
Perok, perok, perok…!
In an instant, the three Seos dissolved completely into salt.
“So that was your method of avoiding the influence of the True Immortals.”
Seo Hyul had not melted even after hearing the word “Imperial Immortal.”
He had been pretending to be fine in front of me while dumping his influence onto Seo Lip the way I had nearly slipped into tormenting Taeyeoljeon.
Once I had fully absorbed Seo Hyul, the debate among the Seos fell silent.
Yet I already understood.
By turning those three Seos into salt, the rest would no longer be saltified.
Still, more than a dozen Seos remained before me.
All of them were at least Cheonin level.
The Seo who had taken over the body of Hongrin Oreungmun was slightly better, but still only Sachuk stage.
Sreuk—
I moved the body I had reclaimed.
Uddeuk—
As I brushed the face, it returned to its original shape and the hair turned jet black.
Uuuung!
When I unfolded the garment technique, the light-blue jangpo became a white dao robe.
“Now… it’s almost steady.”
A body brimming with stability.
The flesh given to me by Seo Hyul at Sachuk stage.
And the Mansang Inyeondo settled within.
This was my body.
Kukuguguk—
I tested the movements of the Sachuk flesh Seo Hyul had left me.
Every motion carried gravity.
Uuuung—
‘He left something behind.’
Inside the dantian, before Seo Hyul had been fully absorbed, I had sensed something his will left in me.
Yet there was no malice in it, only the feeling that he had no choice but to leave something.
I slowly interpreted the dantian and drew the Colorless Glass Sword.
‘This familiar, heavy sensation…’
It was unmistakably the Colorless Glass Sword.
“Good.”
I swept my hand over the Colorless Glass Sword.
The sword vibrated as though alive.
Chuchuchuchuch—
The invisible sword of all colors was planted within the Colorless Glass Sword.
Uuuung!
The familiar Triple Taiji returned behind my head.
Yet while the Tai Chi for the Human Dao and Earth Dao formed normally, the Tai Chi for the Heavenly Dao spun separately at the outer edge.
It seemed the realms had not yet aligned.
Of course, it did not matter.
“Killing one of you is no problem at all. Seo Hyul.”
The remaining ten Seos only smiled faintly.
“Heh heh, I hope you remember that achieving Sachuk was thanks to my technique, Seo Doo.”
Udeuk, ddeudeudeuk!
My body began to lose control once more.
But I activated the circuit beneath it.
Geeeiing—
The circuit brightened and began to hum.
Uddeuk, uudeudeuduk!
I ignored Seo Hyul’s control and began moving my body.
“You really are beyond my power…”
Seo Lip stood beside me.
He nodded, then transformed into a body with eighteen heads.
The ghost body.
In the case of the Black Ghost Valley’s ghost body, it was not a physical body like a zombie or monster but one that wore the realm of qi.
In other words, Seo Lip’s ghost transformation allowed possession of others.
Sreuk—
Seo Lip possessed my body.
At the same time, his power harmonized the Heavenly, Earthly, and Mind paths.
Kukuguguguk—
The Triple Taiji that had been out of sync finally aligned, and an active-volcano power erupted through my entire body.
The power that should have only reached early Integration had now reached mid and late Integration.
Kuguguguk!
Still, when it came to Integration, the difference between stages inside the realm did not reach the Grand Completion.
But…
“Even this is enough to reach Heon-won, isn’t it.”
Kukuguguguk—
I took one step.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, I swung the Colorless Glass Sword containing the Invisible Sword at Seo Hyul.
Kuaaang—
“Oh…”
Yet, astonishingly, Seo Hyul did not fall into torment.
“Heh heh, Seo Doo. Wouldn’t it be pleasant to spend a little time conversing?”
“I don’t want to.”
I refused firmly and raised the sword again.
At that moment.
I felt an indescribable malice in Seo Hyul’s eyes and stepped back.
“Hmm…”
Seo Hyul smiled faintly and reached out to the other “Seos” around him.
“If your power is like that, I’ll need special countermeasures.”
Revealing a reptilian gaze, he extended his arm in the body of a Hongrin Oreungmun disciple.
“Originally I hesitated to use it because it would stimulate the karma fire, but now that things have come to this, what can I do.”
Uuuuung!
Crimson qi swirled around his two hands.
Scarlet blood-magic began to boil from his palms.
“Blood Sacrifice Formula. Blood Yin Return to the Village.”
At the same moment, the ten “Seos” who had been around him were pulled toward the “Seo” who had borrowed the Hongrin Oreungmun Cheonin-level Grand Completion disciple’s body and began to be absorbed into his two hands, turning into a handful of flesh.
Kkudeuk, kkudeudeuduk!
Kkudeuk!
The body began to mutate.
A fog of blood enveloped it.
‘Wonrip?’
I felt something similar to Wonrip in that blood fog and blood-sacrifice art.
A moment later, the blood fog cleared and the Seo had changed into a black-jangpo-wearing figure.
His face was exactly like Seo Hyul’s, but his hair was black and both hands that had absorbed the other Seos sprouted more than ten eyeballs.
An extremely grotesque appearance.
Yet I could sense danger at the same time.
Kuguguguguk!
Integration-stage qi power emanated from him.
“In one shijin, I’m no different from an Integration-level sorcerer.”
“Did you burn the lives and souls of the other Cheonin sorcerers?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s savage of you to do it even though it’s not yours to begin with.”
“Heh heh, in a fight…”
“I get it. Keep quiet.”
Booung—
I no longer listened to Seo Hyul and stepped in front of him, raising the Colorless Glass Sword once more.
‘The malice I felt just now is gone.’
The reason I had not turned him into torment earlier was simply because he had tampered with the Earth Dao technique I had given him at Sachuk stage.
But now even that tampering had been shattered before my power, so it no longer mattered.
I could now exert my full strength.
Kuaaang!
The entire Jeungryong Jinin’s Pocket Dimension shook with one blow.
Kuguguguguk—
Seo Hyul pierced the bottom of the Bongyang layer and fell downward, then impaled himself on the bottom of the Suryu layer.
“Hah…”
I looked at the bottom of the pierced Bongyang layer and the Dogeo layer, then jumped downward to finish him off completely.
“Die.”
Seo Hyul did not even react; his upper body was crushed by my foot and exploded.
Kwaaang!
An earthquake shook the entire Suryu layer.
The burning Suryu layer instantly became a vacuum from the wind pressure caused by the blow that had just struck Seo Hyul, and the flames inside the Suryu layer went out at once.
Water began to spout and rivers rose from every corner of the Suryu layer.
I pressed the vacuumed Seo Hyul further.
——————————!
No sound rang out.
Only the space itself vibrated and the entire Jeungryong Jinin’s Pocket Dimension shook.
A while later, when air returned, I grabbed the head of Seo Hyul and slammed it into the ground, then began running.
Twodu du du du du—
The Earth Dao flesh Seo Hyul had given me raced across dozens of li of Suryu layer.
I ran around wildly, intending to break his body completely.
“Integration level, truly impressive. So what now?”
I was not afraid even if Heon-won came himself.
Seo Hyul was no longer something to fear.
Though it would be hard to kill hundreds of millions of “Seos” by killing just this one, I could still stop this fellow’s schemes.
His upper body had already been torn away, and soon he would be scattered as charred meat.
At that moment.
Flicker!
The Seo whose upper body was being torn away extended an arm full of eyeballs toward me.
The eye on the arm.
The pupil shrank tightly and met my eyes.
‘This…!’
This was it.
‘This was exactly what I had felt as malice earlier!’
Chiiiing—
“Kueuk…!”
I stopped in place at the same time and focused my mind to the limit.
Impressive.
‘The very personality of “Seo” was pouring into me and trying to brainwash me.’
It was on a completely different level from the way Seo Hyul had slowly brainwashed me.
“Kuuuueeeuk—”
I clenched my teeth and stood frozen, clutching my head.
Concentrate on the mindscape!
‘Mindscape!’
“Heh heh, truly fearsome, Seo Doo.”
Twirl, twirl…
He regenerated his upper body and stood up.
At the same time, it looked as if he was preparing to attack me with a Blood Yin technique.
But while Seo Lip was still possessing inside me, he moved my body and shouted.
“Clear Scale Armor!”
Chrororork!
Tears from the clear Haetae fell and covered my body.
Chiiii—
When Haetae’s tears struck the Suryu layer, the flames burning across the entire Suryu layer went out in one go, and water gushed forth from every spot in the Suryu layer with powerful rivers rising.
Kwaaang!
Seo Hyul’s technique struck directly on Haetae’s tears and Clear Scale Armor, but the Clear Scale Armor neutralized all its power and protected me.
“You…”
I barely held onto my consciousness that was slipping and glared at Seo Hyul.
“That…”
One of the eyes on the arm Seo Hyul had extended toward me closed.
Although Seo Hyul had not explained it in detail, I understood instinctively.
The Blood Yin technique that sacrificed others.
Seo Hyul had sacrificed one of the “Seos” he had absorbed through the technique to cast the brainwashing on me.
‘Can sacrificing one’s own personality allow the brainwashing to exert far stronger power on the opponent?’
Yet I could not understand.
“Why?”
“What do you mean, Seo Doo?”
“When I went inside you… I felt hundreds of millions of ‘you’s.’”
“…”
“If you had only sacrificed a hundred or so of those hundreds of millions of ‘you’s to cover me, I would have had no choice but to be brainwashed by you. No, perhaps even one of the Integration sorcerers in the Gwanghan Realm could brainwash me instantly. Sacrificing tens of thousands of personalities would be more than enough, wouldn’t it? Yet why didn’t you?”
Seo Hyul’s reply was a calm smile.
I felt, for the first time, as though Seo Hyul was showing his true self.
“…Those ‘resources’… are not for people like you to use. The target I truly wanted to cover was something else.”
“…So that was your goal?”
“Heh heh, how about it?”
If the real goal of Goe-gun was to bring back the most beautiful era and die, then Seo Hyul’s real goal was to brainwash “someone.”
“That just now was not a lie, right?”
“I have always only spoken the truth.”
“Confusing.”
I laughed while barely shaking off Seo Hyul’s influence.
Seo Hyul also laughed and spoke.
“Well, what Seo Doo wants to hear is that it was not a lie.”
“Oh…”
“Think of it as paying flesh to obtain bone.”
At the same time, Seo Hyul extended both arms toward me.
“…”
“Come now. Shall we experiment once more by burning all of my power to brainwash Seo Doo?”
“T-this is…!”
My body would not move.
‘So that’s how it is. You really did sacrifice your personality.’
This was a brainwashing planted by burning his own personality.
I had certainly escaped the brainwashing.
But I had become defenseless to escape the mental waves he had scattered, and in that gap Seo Lip had wrapped my body in Clear Scale Armor to protect me.
Seo Hyul had pretended to be offering information while using another personality like he had done just now to brainwash the Clear Scale Armor.
The Clear Scale Armor wrapped around my body.
[Heh heh… indeed… the tears of the… predecessor…]
Because it was Haetae’s tears, Seo Hyul’s personality was melting inside the Clear Scale Armor, but it was enough to tie me down for a moment.
My body would not move.
If I continued like this, I would have no choice but to receive his brainwashing wave again.
The moment of absolute desperation.
Seo Lip smiled.
[No need to worry, Seo Eun-hyun.]
‘What?’
[It’s well known that a dagger is hidden all the way to the very end, isn’t it.]
Uddeuk—
Seo Hyul’s body also stiffened like mine.
And from behind Seo Hyul, an old man in black robes stepped out while puffing a pipe.
“As you ordered, I have been trailing from behind and hiding at the entrance, Master.”
Seo Lip shouted with the language of commands while still possessing inside me.
[Well done, Hong Beom. Use the poison you brought!]
“Yes, Master.”
Hong Beom spat the poison powder from his sleeve.
The poison powder flowed into Seo Hyul and my body and began to scatter his power.
‘Ah, I see.’
Hong Beom had made it in the previous Earth Dao realm: Mountain Spirit Poison.
“Its effect will not last long. At best… about one shijin.”
I smiled brightly.
“That is more than enough.”
Kwaddeudeuk!
I sensed that the will of Seo Hyul within the Clear Scale Armor had completely melted away.
I moved the Clear Scale Armor away, then approached the Seo Hyul who had hardened in place from Hong Beom’s poison.
Kwaak!
Grasping Seo Hyul’s shoulder with my brutal hand, I brought my lips to his ear and asked.
“How does it feel to have your shoulder grabbed from behind, Seo Hyul?”
“…”
He was still smiling.
“Now it’s my turn. Shall we spend a good time together for one shijin?”
Pprudeudeuk!
My hand completely crushed his shoulder.
“Hong Beom, cover your ears.”
“Yes.”
From now on, an interesting interrogation time begins.
“Seo Hyul, do you know the existence named Gangnyeongjaju, Cheokseopanjanggwa Goryeokjin-gun Haenyeong?”
Puk!
And blood shot up like a fountain from Seo Hyul’s seven apertures.