Chapter 521
The skeptic might have something to say,
but I wasn’t really a fool.
After all, I sometimes suffered a bit of dementia-like symptoms because the memories in Mansang Inyeondo were simply too numerous.
Still, the memories of the truly important moments in my life had never been forgotten.
Of course, I also remembered how I had carelessly spouted off and wiped out the entire Geumsincheonroemun along with Cheonin-do.
At the same time, I remembered that the owner of Heaven’s Punishment had not been caught in my Heavenly Revelation at that time.
No, in reality, it was normal for saints to be unable to predict the movements of Imperials.
Therefore, the reason I had summoned the projection of the owner of Heaven’s Punishment had nothing to do with divination.
It had been the knowledge I had gained in my previous life while becoming the Malmanghwa.
When I had turned into the Malmanghwa of Sarasu Cheonjon,
I had realized that Seo Hyul had become a worm.
Yet afterward, when Sarasu Cheonjon had woken me, I had recovered every single memory I had forgotten across the loops.
…Of course, the sixteenth loop had remained completely unknown.
Anyway, the important thing was that I had recovered all the memories I had forgotten while facing beings far too powerful.
And… among them was the true identity of the being that had possessed Jeon Myeong-hoon’s body in the 998th loop.
Logically speaking, there could only be one being terrifying enough to possess Jeon Myeong-hoon’s body.
The owner of Heaven’s Punishment!
He had clearly been the one who had possessed Jeon Myeong-hoon’s body.
At that time, my brain circuits had been paralyzed by the presence of the owner of Heaven’s Punishment, making it impossible to properly deduce his true identity.
No… perhaps the more accurate expression was that I had simply refused to acknowledge him from the very beginning.
And I clearly remembered the attitude the owner of Heaven’s Punishment had shown me from inside Jeon Myeong-hoon’s body.
It had been genuine benevolence.
The owner of Heaven’s Punishment had already been showing benevolence toward me at that point.
I didn’t know why, but despite the rude things I had done to him, he had never tortured or threatened me.
Thinking back on it now, I could guess he had held quite deep benevolence.
Of course, that alone hadn’t been enough to understand the true benevolence of that being, so I had taken a divination.
A saint’s divination couldn’t possibly know about an Imperial-level existence.
However, if it was a saint, then connection was possible.
I had been connected to the owner of Heaven’s Punishment.
Clad in the power of Myeonsingeobcheon created by the Geumsinja, prepared to take on all calamity if things went wrong.
When fighting true immortals, one had to gamble that much.
And…
Through the divination, I had connected with one strand of the owner of Heaven’s Punishment’s will and received a revelation.
Saints rarely slept easily, but that night I had fallen into a deep sleep in an instant.
In the dream, Jeong-ryeo had appeared, trampling my head with her soft foot, and said, “Once, you will be permitted.”
Even upon waking, the feeling of that soft foot remained vivid, so I immediately began preparing to borrow his power, and the result was this.
Just like the heavenly tribulation of Baek-woon’s main body.
The seven-colored lightning spears resonated and seemed to swallow the entirety of Baek-woon’s body.
It didn’t end there.
Ooooh!
Return… return… return… is…
Receiving the will of the great Heavenly Punishment…
True immortals!
Beings who, each and every one, were insufficient to be called the ruler of the universe!
They were all madly roaring and turning into lightning!
Pa-chi, pa-chi-ji-ji…
I felt my own fingertips gradually turning into lightning.
But the speed was noticeably slower compared to the true immortals, and judging by the range of influence, it would soon shrink and the lightning itself would soon disappear.
It was probably because the benevolence of the owner of Heaven’s Punishment had been activated.
I looked at the beings before my eyes.
The true immortals, who had been convulsing in outer space, had all rapidly entered the sleeping cycle.
It seemed they were aiming to endure the lightning while focused on recovering all their power during the sleeping cycle.
However, the saints such as Baek-woon, Ban-ta, and Hae-rin, whose influence was less than the true immortals, could be seen driving the lightning out of their bodies.
They had also borrowed the power of the middle realm, but saints themselves seemed far less vulnerable to the power of true immortals than the true immortals.
Pachi, pa-chi-ji-ji!
Lightning flickered in my brain.
The stage of thinking of it as an electric signal had long passed, but for some reason I felt exhilarated.
For some inexplicable reason, I wanted to torment the beings before my eyes.
I wanted to scatter malice toward those who were simply about to die!
Come out, Jeon Myeong-hoon. The spiritual pill is scattered across the heavens and earth.
Originally, if the true immortals had turned into that, there would have been no need to torment them further… but for some reason I wanted to crush them even more thoroughly.
And…
The Jeongja who had been waiting for my words, the Seongsa of the Star Shattering Realm, stepped forward.
By now, Jeon Myeong-hoon had already become a mid-stage Jeongja.
And he began to use his power.
The three heads and six eyes of the brain god appeared in outer space and opened their mouths wide.
Along with him, the true immortals who had been trying to resist the lightning in the sleeping cycle were simultaneously dragged into his mouth.
In terms of lightning and tribulation, Jeon Myeong-hoon possessed a dominance comparable to Kang Min-hee’s.
The true immortals, terrified, repeatedly exchanged messages among themselves and began to flee as if trying to escape from nearby.
They were leaping through space and time madly as if trying to escape Jeon Myeong-hoon’s grasp.
But Jeon Myeong-hoon unfolded six arms.
Red Lightning Tribulation…
Indra’s Net!
Red lightning turned into a net and covered the heavens and earth.
The true immortals trying to flee were caught in Indra’s Net while still afflicted with the lightning curse and bound in place.
They raged and poured attacks at Jeon Myeong-hoon, but all of it was blocked by the absolute defense of Cheongrin-gap, the Upfire, and Samokdo.
The true immortals wriggled their bodies and used their countless perfected techniques and personal techniques to finally break free from Jeon Myeong-hoon’s grasp.
But Jeon Myeong-hoon had already consumed a great deal of the flesh of the true immortals who had been turned into lightning by the lightning curse.
His aura had become far more ferocious than before absorbing the true immortals.
He smiled with a satisfied face.
“Speaking of which, something seems to have settled in your head.”
With those words, he reached toward my head.
Lightning-like something escaped from inside my head and was caught in his hand.
Only then did I feel my mind clearing.
“Just now, my mind became abnormal.”
“Thank you, Jeon Myeong-hoon.”
I shook my head vigorously.
I thought I had obtained the owner of Heaven’s Punishment’s benevolence… but the benevolence of true immortals was in itself a calamity.
It had been fortunate that Jeon Myeong-hoon had noticed quickly this time, but if he had noticed even a little later, I might have completely gone mad and suddenly killed my companions with the heavenly tribulation.
“…As expected, borrowing the power of Imperials too often is dangerous.”
Even if the benevolence of Imperials became a calamity for us, the power we had obtained directly from them was fine.
My Myeongbeop Jin-eon had also been obtained from a fragment of Hamhae Sangje, but that was because it was something I had acquired, not something he had granted.
This Yeon-ui Yeon was also of the type that had summoned the memory of having obtained Yeon-ui Yeon from Goe-gun, so it was fine.
But in reality, something else had clearly been acting.
“Perhaps the moment the owner of Heaven’s Punishment’s gaze had been fixed on this place, I and everyone else should have been completely annihilated.”
“Because he held benevolence, my curse ended here… maybe.”
I shook my head while looking down at Samokdo.
Samokdo, which had previously been only slightly larger than one Inzok Cheongdo, had grown quite large compared to four hundred years ago.
Now, though it could not be compared to the middle realm, it seemed large enough to be incomparable within the Inzok territory.
“It will take approximately 4,600 years until the artificial middle realm is completed.”
It had been planned to take about five thousand years for the artificial middle realm.
Once the artificial middle realm was completed, there would be no need to project the existence of dangerous Imperials and true immortals into history like this.
“Until then… I hope you can endure without being tainted by Imperials…”
I looked at the remaining true immortals’ prophecies.
The true immortals had all fled and entered the sleeping cycle, but the prophecies remained.
Even with the remaining saints, it was impossible to make prophecies for me.
No, it was possible, but they would have to use a considerable amount of middle-realm power, so it would be a burden even for them.
Therefore, it was impossible to unleash the type of absolute attacks from before.
Eventually, Baek-woon, who had pulled in the power of Gwanghan-gye and temporarily moved the lightning curse to the “future,” glared at me with eyes that seemed ready to kill me.
“So you have truly made a life-or-death decision with us.”
“When had it not been?”
In response to my question, Baek-woon gritted her teeth and raised one hand, clenching it into a fist in mid-air.
Zi-rit, zi-rit…
I raised my tension.
The true immortals had disappeared, but I felt a sense that the real thing was only beginning now.
“The stars of the Yeobang listen!”
Baek-woon’s eyes blazed.
She pulled in the power of Gwanghan-gye and wove together the light of all the stars in the world to create the veins of the sacred lineage.
It was a summoning array.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu!
A great something began to be summoned in outer space.
Cheo-eo-eo-eok!
The void space opened its mouth and revealed the great something within.
It was the world!
Baek-woon was summoning a portion of the chaotic region of Gwanghan-gye to this place.
It didn’t end there.
It could be seen that Ban-ta, Hae-rin, and the others were also summoning portions of the Jinma-gye, Jagum-gye, and Goryeok-gye using their own authority.
The saints of the middle realm were summoning portions of their own worlds to the battlefield.
That was only natural, as it meant they had decided to extract their true Immortal-level power.
Deu-deu-deu-deu!
Portion of Gwanghan-gye chaotic region.
Portion of Jagum-gye chaotic region.
Portion of Jinma-gye evil.
Portion of Goryeok-gye deep sea.
They descended upon this place and blocked the nearby starlight, facing the Upfire and Cheongrin-gap head-on.
The Upfire blazed but did not burn; it flickered and then reacted no more.
“What calamity or punishment is needed for the world itself?”
Since they were not beings, the Upfire that punished existence was useless to the world.
“This is a bit troublesome…”
Four worlds surrounded Samokdo and completely enveloped it.
In this state, it was impossible to proceed with the artificial middle-realm plan.
Every time I pulled in the Buhae realm, it would be consumed by portions of the middle realm.
I was only helping the saints.
Ku-gu-gu-gu!
The four portions of the middle realm pierced through the Upfire and Cheongrin-gap and began to stick to Samokdo, eroding it.
Although the saints’ intentions could not directly enter the area with the Upfire and Cheongrin-gap, the middle-realm portions that followed their will had entered like a ship in favorable wind, “passing through” the Upfire.
The Upfire and Cheongrin-gap remained in place, but the portions of the middle realm were advancing.
If this continued, Samokdo would be eroded by the four middle realms over thousands of years.
Yet I was not worried.
“The reason you didn’t take it out where the true immortals were was because you thought the middle realm might be eroded by the true immortals.”
“But… did you not think that the middle realm would be eroded by me?”
They ignored my words and continued eroding Samokdo with the middle realm.
“No matter how much of a true-immortal saint you are, no matter how much of a Baeseon Jigyeong you are called, the Seongban-gi is still Seongban-gi.”
“You do not have the unique authority to erode the middle realm!”
In response to Ban-ta’s cold words, I nodded.
“That’s true… it is.”
I couldn’t infiltrate them in reverse.
The Buhae realm was of a lower grade than the middle realm.
Just as water could not climb a waterfall, a lower-ranked world could not erode a higher-ranked world.
Whereas if the relationship between Gwanghan-gye and Jinma-gye was that each was “somewhat” equal, it was different.
But…
“What does that matter?”
That was the story when there was no specialized infiltration technique.
“Come out, Seo Hyul.”
I sent a telepathic message to Seo Hyul without being overheard by Ban-ta.
By my hand, a war weapon for infiltration, bound by a leash of Seo-ran, appeared.
“Swallow the middle realms.”
And Seo Hyul’s Takhon Mancheon began to use power on our side.