The Shadow of the Origin Soul
A brief eye-lock settled between Seo Hyul and me.
Seo Hyul stared at me for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle.
“Hehe, truly, you are a great aid. It seems even Sir Seo Dong must have descended from above.”
He smiled gently while pointing at the heavens.
“Hmm… ‘above’?”
I shrugged, feigning ignorance. Seo Hyul laughed as if scolding me.
“Hehe. I came here because I already know everything, Dong. Since you’ve arrived in the Sabaje world, it would be wise to accept my help. If you understand Takhon Mancheon, you’ll know that this world revolves around me.”
He extended his hand with a kind smile.
“A supreme law that moves the world exactly as I wish… You know this law yourself. No matter the goal, it is overwhelmingly advantageous to stand with me. Hehe. Tell me, what is your purpose?”
I snorted.
“So, you won’t even try mind control?”
“Hehe. For someone of your level, attempting mind control could prove fatal.”
“Hmm…”
I glared at Seo Hyul with narrowed eyes.
It was there.
After all the battles I had endured with him, I understood it perfectly.
His array was carving itself into my soul.
Soon I would be swallowed by him, just as in past lives.
‘Probably only someone who had been invaded by him once and escaped could sense it.’
“…So, is what you’re carving right now a contact device?”
Seo Hyul flinched slightly, then sneered.
“Indeed, you noticed at once.”
“Don’t joke around. If you truly wish to collaborate, show sincerity.”
I shot him a cold gaze.
He smiled helplessly.
“Hehe, sorry. As you know, I have a playful streak.”
“Who are you?”
“I… am Hyeol-eum.”
“Ho, Hyeol-eum, is it?”
I narrowed my eyes.
‘The one called Hyeol-eum can’t even sense the karma burning in my soul.’
How absurd.
Of course I knew Hyeol-eum had some connection to the scrap of Yu Ho-deok’s soul.
He wielded many of the sorcery originating from him.
Yet I only smirked and asked, “Isn’t it strange that the noble Yu Ho-deok produced someone so playful?”
“Hehe. Perhaps the personality changed after I gained this new name.”
I glared at him while feeling the array still wriggling inside my mind, expanding its domain.
“There is one thing I wish to know, Seo Hyul.”
The moment he mastered my soul, the karma would consume me. Or I could simply wield him.
I asked with no urgency.
“What do you think of Cheon-ra?”
Seo Hyul replied with surprise, “Hm? Whom do you speak of?”
“You claim to be Hyeol-eum yet claim not to know Cheon-ra?”
Seo Hyul laughed brightly. “Hehe, of course I know. But as you know, it is unwise to speak carelessly of such things.”
He pointed at the heavens and hinted at secrets. I felt the absurdity.
‘So he means “I don’t know what you’re talking about, so I can’t say it here”?’
I smiled more wickedly. “Then you know nothing of the events involving the Imperial Immortals forty thousand years ago either.”
“Hehe… Imperial Immortals…”
“Yes, the Imperial Immortals! Those far above the Underworld judges such as the Chief Judge General Myeongma Jin-gun Yu Ho-deok, the Reincarnation Judge General Myeonggwi Jin-gun Yu Su-ryeon, and the Assistant Judge General Goryeok Jin-gun Haening!”
“….”
“The Heavenly Lord of the Underworld who dispatched the judges of the Underworld to Ilwol Cheonyeok, the Heavenly Lord who opposed the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld, Sarasu Cheonjon, and the other great ones who possess seats in that realm!”
“….”
I knew their gazes would draw attention if I spoke of such beings.
But for the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld, Yang Su-jin’s soul had already been encountered at this point.
She would already be watching me.
As for Sarasu Cheonjon… I trusted his generous and limited nature, knowing he feared the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld, so I assumed she would not act against me.
My head felt as if it would burst, but I endured because these were names I had become immune to in past lives.
Yet Seo Hyul only laughed and stayed silent.
“Why, ‘Self-proclaimed Hyeol-eum’ Dong?”
I stepped close and placed a hand on his shoulder with a wicked smile.
“If you are truly Hyeol-eum, do you not miss your old acquaintances?”
“….”
“It would be better to learn a little more about the Imperial Immortals…”
That was when.
Kwaak!
Seo Hyul suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
I was startled, yet at the same time I smiled triumphantly.
‘You decided, did you, Seo Hyul?’
“Very well. You are indeed a true immortal.”
Tzutzutzut…
A solemn light rose in Seo Hyul’s eyes.
“Until now I have only regarded you as a target. Now I must promote you to a danger.”
‘As expected, you’ve decided to mind control me.’
Come on, Seo Hyul!
I’ll mind control you perfectly and burn you in karma!
I set a trap for him and smiled.
It was there.
Through the array he had carved into me, the personalities of Seo Hyul began entering my core.
Jiiing…
I shielded only my inner mind and hid myself deeper.
At the same moment, I could no longer move. Seo Hyul reached into my head.
Jeon Myeong-hoon and Hong Beom tried to intervene, but Seo Hyul stopped them.
Kwaak!
He reached into my head.
The personalities of Takhon Mancheon began entering my body.
Through these personalities, Seo Hyul spoke to me.
“Anyway, if the goal I must surpass is you, I shall test it through you.”
Seo Hyul, gripping my head, began pouring energy into my skull.
The energy entered the hundred acupoints, pierced the center of the brain at the pituitary gland, spun once through the upper dantian, and spurted out through my brow.
‘This is…’
The technique of spiritual awakening.
Derived from the methods of Black Ghost Valley, passed down through centuries of battle with them to the Haeryong clan, and later inherited by the Marise and Jin clans.
It was also linked to talent awakening and was fundamentally the “law that clears the mind” hung in Haeryong Palace.
‘Why cleanse the mind while attempting mind control… Ah, I see.’
Only now did I understand why Seo Hyul had cast this technique.
Wiiing…
This was not cleansing the mind of the one under mind control.
It was a technique that parasitized the opponent’s mind with Takhon Mancheon and cleansed the mind of the “personalities of Seo Hyul” formed inside them.
‘I see….’
Takhon Mancheon was a supreme law that replaced the opponent with himself.
It could also fill multiple personalities—two, three, or even a dozen.
‘If the target is overwhelmingly powerful, filling it with multiple personalities and cleansing and strengthening their minds would allow swallowing the soul in one breath.’
The reason he had cast this technique inside Haeryong Palace was obvious.
It was the groundwork to easily apply Takhon Mancheon to anyone who entered.
And I realized Seo Hyul was genuinely consuming a significant portion of the hundreds of millions of personalities.
‘This, this bastard…!’
Jiiiiiing…
[First-grade danger identified.]
[Mind control begins.]
[400 of the ‘me’ consumed.]
‘This is rather dangerous…!’
Ku gu gu gu guk!
From hundreds of millions, a mere speck.
Only four hundred personalities, yet each followed strict rules and injected themselves into me, sacrificing themselves to transform me into Seo Hyul, while the transformed ‘Seo Hyul’s mind gradually cleared.
Ku gu gu gu…
Although he had not yet broken, I felt my inner mind shaking, and when the injected personalities exceeded a thousand, even the inner world would be lost.
‘No, no.’
At the same time, I sensed that the truly terrifying thing was separate from Takhon Mancheon.
Seo Hyul’s Takhon Mancheon was still incomplete.
‘The real’ Takhon Mancheon would only activate after one final condition, and Seo Hyul had not triggered it.
Ossik!
‘Haha, chills. Damn bastard.’
Seo Hyul, who had carved the array into Jeon Myeong-hoon’s mind, used him to suppress Hong Beom and slowly mind controlled me.
And it was the moment when the ratio of ‘Seo Hyul’ in my soul exceeded seventy percent.
Tadak!
A spark sounded.
I laughed from within my inner mind.
Come, feel this.
Tadak, tadadak!
Hwa rurururur!
“…!”
Seo Hyul shuddered in shock.
My karma clung to him, trying to steal me.
Last time I had simply cut the connection because I was wary, but this time Seo Hyul himself had directly linked Takhon Mancheon with me, intending to mind control me!
Hwa rururuk!
My karma burned only me.
It never attached to anyone.
But Seo Hyul had tried to seize me and turn me into him.
Therefore the karma began attaching directly to his Takhon Mancheon.
“Kuaaaak!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon screamed.
The karma in his mind ignited.
The one who had suppressed Hong Beom was now supported by him, and I laughed while watching Seo Hyul burn brightly in front of me.
Seo Hyul, whose Takhon Mancheon had taken the karma, could not withstand his own horrific karma and detached from me.
“Kuuuuk! H, hehe…!!”
“Still smiling. How disgusting.”
I chuckled and recovered my body, my eyes flashing.
The array of burning Seo Hyul still remained inside my mind.
But Seo Hyul hastily severed the connection of the personalities he had inscribed on my mind and Takhon Mancheon.
Yet I chuckled.
“Taste the cunning of the Heart Tribe.”
Sreung…
It had been an interesting story, but the Heart Tribe’s frontal method and Seo Hyul’s Takhon Mancheon had similarities.
They were alike in that they could inscribe “oneself” into the opponent.
I forged my inner mind and held the clone of my own inner mind containing Seo Hyul’s array in my hand.
Chongcheon-geom.
One strike!
Buung!
Chongcheon-geom slammed into Seo Hyul at a speed he could not even react to and settled inside him.
And I forcibly reconnected the burning array of Seo Hyul and his Takhon Mancheon inside it.
“Kuuuuk!”
Seo Hyul trembled in pain and began reclaiming the four ancestral beads on his body.
Su, Bu, Gangnyeong, Yu Ho-deok’s beads.
It seemed he intended to drop the entire flesh from Takhon Mancheon’s connection.
Yet I laughed again. “No, you cannot.”
I had not allowed it.
Kuguguguk!
I used the bead of Bu inside me to expel repulsive force.
My repulsive force seized Seo Hyul’s repulsive force and sealed it inside his body.
The smile finally vanished from Seo Hyul’s face.
He hastily made a farewell and began fleeing.
Paat!
The thing that had transformed into the Haeryong clan’s main body was desperately trying to escape from me.
When distance increased, the curse of the repulsive force I had placed would lift, he would reclaim his ancestral beads, sever Takhon Mancheon’s connection, and block the spread of karma.
But I smiled coldly. “I told you, Seo Hyul.”
My eyes flashed with light.
Booom!
I became light in an instant.
Seo Hyul fled using the floating technique, but it was useless.
“Huuk… h, hehe…!”
“You cannot escape.”
Kwaak!
I rushed like mad and grabbed his tail.
He tried to cut it off, but I raised the Changryeong Seonggwang Ochae Daebop.
Kuguguguk!
My body burned as a giant of stars.
I grabbed his tail and began swinging it.
Bung, bung, bung, bung!
[Kuuuuk!]
It seemed Seo Hyul was trying magic to escape.
Kwaaang!
I grabbed his tail and smashed him into the ground.
Kuguguguguk!
The earth shook violently, causing earthquakes everywhere.
[Hehe, this attack… it only tickles.]
[Oh? Then if you like it, I’ll tickle you more.]
[Hehe…!]
Seo Hyul opened his mouth and spat a ray of light at me.
Kwa kwa kwa gwang!
The breath of the dragon clan was indeed strong.
I briefly released his body, and Seo Hyul began fleeing again.
Kkuduk, kkuduk, kkudddeuk!
More faces sprouted from his shoulders.
[Be gone!]
Kugugugugwang!
I floated the Triple Taiji and chased him.
In an instant we passed the realms of many races beyond the heavens and earth.
The realm of the Yeongrin clan.
There at last Seo Hyul was caught by me again.
Somehow he had sacrificed the personalities to drive out the karma.
The karma no longer burned inside him.
[Impossible.]
Buung!
Chwaak!
I swung Chongcheon-geom once more and forcibly reconnected the karma to his Takhon Mancheon.
[Kuuuuk!]
Seo Hyul’s eyes were bloodshot.
Worse than his own pain, this was karma truly harming his Takhon Mancheon.
He might truly be frightened.
[It will not be easy…!]
Booom!
Once more he opened his mouth and spat a ray of light.
But I did not yield and answered with a ray of light from my thirty-eight eyes.
Kwa kwa kwa gwang!
The Yeongrin clan’s realm shook from the rays we both emitted.
Yeongrin clan members screamed and fled in all directions.
“Huaaaaa, the monsters are fighting!”
“What kind of race is that?!”
“Damn it, is that a monster hunting and eating the divine dragon clan!? Run, or we’ll be eaten too!”
Visually it might have looked like a nineteen-headed evil star giant hunting the Azure Dragon, but it was nothing to me. I twisted Seo Hyul’s neck and brought his face close to mine.
[Seo Hyul, don’t you want to know about the Imperial Immortals?]
[What about the Cold Lunar Heavenly King Gwang-han or the Golden River Heavenly King?]
[If you wish, I can tell you more about the Underworld judges. Yu Ho-deok, Yu Su-ryeon, Haening…]
[Do you have any questions about the salt pillars in Sugye?]
[There is astronomical data observed in Sugye, interpreted with the comprehension of the All-Heaven Sword’s premonition through the Ten Thousand Heavenly Techniques, and I shall tell you that as well…]
[There is also knowledge I obtained by directly facing heavenly punishment…]
Sok dak sok dak sok dak sok dak sok dak sok dak sok dak…
I gripped his head so he could not flee and whispered endless great knowledge into his nineteen heads.
Seo Hyul had gone mad to escape me, but he could not escape from me, who had inherited the progress of Changhoza.
At the same time I began digging into the depths of his Takhon Mancheon with Chongcheon-geom.
‘Found it.’
I dug into the depths of Takhon Mancheon.
To find the ‘real’ clue that would completely overturn Seo Hyul’s Takhon Mancheon!
And then.
‘This is…’
It was there.
The center of Takhon Mancheon.
Something was there.
In the deepest, darkest place… it felt as if he was hiding it.
That is…
[I see, Seo Hyul.]
I glowed my thirty-eight eyes.
[So… you… have a main body…?]
‘Somewhere’!
‘Somewhere’ in this world!
Seo Hyul’s main body existed!
Or should I say main body?
A ‘centerpoint’ existed where all the personalities of this Takhon Mancheon fought each other!
I instinctively sensed it.
Destroying this centerpoint would scatter his Takhon Mancheon.
And at that moment, Seo Hyul’s expression, which had been maintaining only a smile, completely changed.
Expressionless.
He looked at me with eyes devoid of emotion.
[…Very well. I have lost.]
And.
Kwaddeudeuk!
His body began to change.
A fog of scarlet blood enveloped him.
Seo Hyul transformed from the divine Haeryong form in an instant into the form of a fiend emitting scarlet and pitch-black energy.
Chwaruruk!
Seo Hyul’s body stretched wildly and began wrapping around me like a rope.
[Since Goegun Jo Yeon.]
Kwaddeuk!
Seo Hyul, wrapped around my body, spoke in an emotionless voice.
[No being has ever disrupted my plan so greatly. From now on I shall plot to break you, like Goegun. Be pleased.]
[Haha, do as you wish.]
I laughed while looking into his eyeballs.
[I shall find your main body for you.]
My eyes burning with karmic fire and Seo Hyul’s eyes emitting demonic energy met.
[I shall find the main body and definitely eliminate you!]
How many lives had been ruined because of Seo Hyul’s plan up to now?
Goegun, Gyu-ryeon, Seo Ran…
Even he had tried to use Won Rip, whom he had once created, as a puppet.
And through that Won Rip I… had lost far too much.
[…First-grade danger, Seo Eun-hyun. Thanks to you, my plan has been delayed by thousands of years. The ancestral beads… I shall abandon them.]
Kuguguguguk!
It was clearly dangerous.
The ancestral beads emitted light from inside Seo Hyul’s body.
I drew power from the Triple Taiji and gathered black and white energy in both hands.
Booom!
Seo Hyul exploded all the ancestral beads, and I countered his self-destruction by reducing my own realm and using Taesan Yeolje Art.
The jade of yin-yang-five phases now protected me instead.
‘I have finally caught the clue to eliminate you, Seo Hyul!’
While self-destructing, his will to eliminate me was felt, forcing the self-destruction energy onto me.
Just as in past loops, the will to eliminate the monster for sure had been seen in Seo Hyul facing the monster after confirming it had been dealt with by Jang Ik.
Now I could see the will to eliminate me by any means.
Yes, I had finally become Seo Hyul’s rival.