Chapter 328
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19th Loop – Day One
Strange…
Some bizarre sound brushed against my ears.
No, that wasn’t right.
I didn’t have ears.
I… died…
No.
This was strange too.
Whenever I died, I would regress immediately and my body would reform.
So why was there no ear?
Ah…
I woke my consciousness.
Here…
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Strange sound.
Or perhaps it was more like a melody?
Alongside it, I felt my soul drifting somewhere.
And then I realized I was inside a vast river, swimming upstream against its current.
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Aaaa—
Ah… I see.
There were scenes inside the river.
No, precisely, vast amounts of yin and yang.
Taiji spirals intertwined, and inside those spirals, scenes flowed like a river.
I understood.
My regression… is progressing like this.
Right now, I was definitely in the middle of a regression.
It had been while I was consciously rising against time.
But I had never experienced anything like this before.
Why was this happening?
As I pondered, I realized something had changed from before.
Ah… yes. I became a Four Pillars cultivator?
Qi, spirit, and name were one.
Just as the Qi of Heaven and Earth were one, drawing power from the lower realms affected the upper ones.
That was why raising your realm by pulling qi made your consciousness expand and your lifespan change.
And because Seo Hyoel had turned me into a Four Pillars cultivator, my body reached the peak of the Four Pillars stage, and my consciousness inherited the same realm.
Wait… a moment…
I observed my soul calmly.
Something else was felt.
It was…
This is… Seo Lip’s law power?
The realm Seo Lip had reached.
Yes.
He had extracted my death from his body, condensed it, and given it to me.
Seo Lip…
Thank you. I won’t forget.
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Whoooong—
As soon as I recognized him, I could feel my Triple Taiji core inside my soul becoming even more distinct.
I see. The reason I could wake my consciousness this time during regression…
It was probably because I had completely ascended to Four Pillars with the Triple Taiji.
Heavenly Person and Four Pillars were clearly stages of completing the Heavenly-Earth-Mind foundation.
So why were they divided into Lesser Path and Middle Path?
Even though there was a power gap between Four Pillars and Heavenly Person, it wasn’t extreme.
Yet there were still strict boundaries, with completely different systems: Lesser Path cultivators corresponding to the first three stages of the Immortal Realm, and Middle Path cultivators to the last three stages.
I felt like I was about to understand something.
The reason the Lesser and Middle Paths are genuinely divided…
From the Four Pillars stage, there is an overwhelming difference from the previous realms in both strength and lifespan.
The reason was attraction.
Attraction was born in the soul itself, and because it was the first realm resembling fate, it divided into Lesser and Middle Path.
With Heaven’s attraction and my own attraction resonating, I could enjoy even longer lifespan.
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Aaa—
As I rose against time, I tried to resist the force that pulled me backward.
But it was impossible.
Regression could never be interfered with, no matter how hard I struggled.
Damn it. No choice.
I surrendered my body to the force guiding me to the past and waited.
While I was observing my soul…
Hm? What’s this?
I examined my soul and was shocked.
Was my soul and Dharma treasure completely merged?
No, precisely, the Soul-Generating Flower also emitted qi.
And my Colorless Glass Sword had completely merged with the qi the Soul-Generating Flower emitted.
Hah… hah…
If that was the case, I no longer needed to drink the White Rainbow Wine.
Because it had merged with my soul’s qi.
This was the power of the Four Pillars stage.
From the Four Pillars stage, you couldn’t obtain Dharma treasures even if you died, because the Dharma treasure was half-merged with the soul and followed it.
And now my Colorless Glass Sword had merged with my soul’s qi, so it was following my regression even without drinking the White Rainbow Wine.
Maybe the White Rainbow Wine had turned the Dharma treasure into something like the Four Pillars law power linkage of the Four Pillars inspection.
Probably.
From now on, I won’t have to worry about not being able to get the White Rainbow Wine.
But something else was bothering me more than the Colorless Glass Sword.
The Soul-Generating Flower given by Yu Ho-deok… and the Clear Scale Armor is also following my soul.
I had expected the Soul-Generating Flower, because the flower I received was already wrapped around my soul’s realm.
But I hadn’t expected the Clear Scale Armor to be connected to my soul.
Well, actually, this too…
What surprised me most was something else.
The axis of wealth is also following me?
Yes.
Surprisingly, the axis of wealth was also following my soul!
When I thought about it, the fact that the Colorless Glass Sword had completely synced with my soul was proof of the axis’s influence.
And another thought: Seo Hyoel had forcibly taken the control of my body and recovered only his own axis.
At the time, I thought it was because of Seo Hyoel’s terrifying divine ability, but originally, since the axis was already connected to the soul, Seo Hyoel could easily recover the four Rebirth Axes he had accumulated because they were connected to his own soul.
Originally, when I tried to pray to the Lord of Thunder in front of Seo Hyoel in the previous loop, he had to expend his own axis to block it, and then he had to go to the Underworld Judge’s Realm to build it back up.
Seo Hyoel also had to go to the Underworld Judge’s Realm to build up his axis if he expended it, so the Rebirth Axes weren’t something easily obtained, and they were precious things Seo Hyoel treasured.
So why would he casually inject something into my body if I took them?
The axis, once in hand, completely controls the soul…?
Probably.
Maybe the difference between the orthodox Qi Axis and the heretical Qi Axis was that the heretical one was hard to sync with the soul because it took from others.
I learned quite a few interesting facts.
As I was pulled into the past, I watched scenes of time regressing around me.
Because I had to rise five hundred years, the regression took some time.
Suddenly, as I rose against time, I saw what I thought was the [Above] and was startled.
There, there…
The [Heaven]!
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A vast, dark sky filled with darkness!
In the center of that sky, seats of [great beings] shone like stars in the night sky.
As soon as I recognized the ten seats, I felt an overwhelming shock as if my mind would collapse.
Hah… hah… haaah…!
I felt it.
The power of the seats!
I could see the positions of the seats!
Among the lights shining in the darkness, six lights surrounded four lights.
And the four stars in the center wore circular [rings] around their bodies.
They were like planets Jupiter or Saturn with rings around them.
And among the six stars around the four, one also wore the same [ring] as the four.
Total five stars wore [rings], and five stars did not wear [rings].
…?
No, upon closer inspection, something was odd.
But I didn’t know what was odd.
Crack—
Along with the soul-shattering pain, I recognized the qi the ten stars were emitting.
I felt it.
Those stars were what kind of [beings]!
Those stars were the [eyes] that looked down on the land from the sky!!!
[Beings that seemed imprisoned somewhere].
[Beings that felt strangely familiar].
[Beings that felt an endless hunger].
[Beings that felt hazy and dizzy, like a dream].
[Beings that felt a determination as grand as Mount Tai].
[Beings that were too familiar and yet disgusting].
Don’t recognize! Don’t recognize! Don’t recognize! Don’t recognize!
I felt the four stars in the center.
[Beings that seemed to give a hollow feeling as if nothing was felt].
[Beings that seemed to be the owner of the Soul-Generating Flower].
[Beings that seemed to be watching me right now].
[Beings that seemed the oldest].
Ah.
As soon as I felt the last being, I knew an unprecedented fear and chill rose within me.
Aaaa…
I had been feeling something strange since earlier.
I knew what this sensation was.
The feeling I had when Kim Yeon had secretly stalked me while I was leaving work.
The feeling of someone chasing after me.
Now I understood.
They’re coming! They’re coming! They’re coming! They’re coming! They’re coming!
I felt it.
Even after being exposed, there was a will as if they didn’t even want to hide it.
Far away, a dark shadow spread from the [future] time I had passed through and began chasing me.
The oldest being.
The god of death.
The owner of the Underworld.
The Heavenly Lord of the Underworld, Hyeol-eum, was chasing my regression against history.
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Ziiiiiing—
The darkness gathered into a hand as if to cover the world and reached toward me.
Even though it was not an unusual situation where time was reversed, the will of the [great being] that originally would have been impossible to recognize was conveyed across space and time.
Exile, Imprisonment, Imprisonment, Incarceration, Eternity and Eternal Hell, Indefinite Imprisonment.
B, break it!
Forever imprison me in darkness.
I must remain neither dead nor alive at the bottom of the Underworld where light never enters, perfectly sealed for eternity.
Ah, no!
I had thought death was a blessing.
But I could never accept [such a thing]!
I can’t be locked in a place where I can neither die nor live, where no one can ever meet me, trapped at the bottom of the Underworld where no ray of light from eternity and eternal hell enters!
Even in death, I can’t be trapped by [that]!
I clung even more desperately to the force pulling me to the past.
I had faced death, but such a thing could not happen!
If I were trapped in a place where I could never meet anyone again, what difference would that make from regression!?
I could never accept such a thing!
But the hand of darkness chased me with fierce momentum.
No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!
I felt a fear I had never experienced before and frantically tried to think of how to shake it off.
During that moment, my gaze fell on the [Clear Scale Armor] following my regression.
I felt it.
Attraction was spurting from the [Clear Scale Armor].
Yu Ho-deok!!!!!!!!
Wasn’t it said that True Immortals could only give us misfortune?
Perhaps Yu Ho-deok himself had meant to give a blessing, but the tears of Haening, who had once been the Underworld Judge under the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld.
With the attraction spurting from those tears, the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld was chasing me.
I hurriedly cut the connection between the Clear Scale Armor and my soul.
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Tuung—
The Clear Scale Armor disappeared straight to the other side of time.
But even though the attraction disappeared, the hand continued to chase me while reversing time.
Ah, no. Caught. Caught…!
I felt my head freeze with fear.
And suddenly my gaze turned to the Soul-Generating Flower.
Yes! Soul-Generating Flower!
I grabbed the Soul-Generating Flower connected to my soul.
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Tsutsutsut—
Using the Soul-Generating Flower, a pure white light spurted out and an enormous glow burst between me and the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld.
At the same time, from the being who seemed to be the owner of the Soul-Generating Flower among the ten stars floating in the black sky, I felt some will flowing out.
Displeasure, wrath.
But the owner of the Soul-Generating Flower did not chase me like the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld, even though he was enraged.
I vaguely felt that he was hesitating to come to this place because he feared the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld.
Paaaaah—
The light faded, and I saw the darkness of the owner of the Underworld being temporarily blocked.
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Kuguguguk—
But even so, the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld seemed to be trying to reach out to me while piercing the light, but eventually he could not reach out to me, perhaps because he could no longer endure reversing time.
The Heavenly Lord of the Underworld could no longer chase my regression and remained in the future.
And I fell into the starting point of the 19th regression.
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Hah… hah… hah…
A familiar sky.
Surrounding me, Jeon Myeong-hoon and Hong Beom were watching the night sea from the spherical Seopmyeong Ship.
I grabbed my heart and wiped the cold sweat.
The one who chased me just now… wasn’t the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld herself.
At most, she had only extended one arm to me.
And such a being…
Must never die in front of the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld!
If it were the main body of the owner of the Underworld, with or without attraction, he might have simply regressed through history to capture me.
The 19th regression.
How would this life, which had not been smooth in the regression process, turn out?
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