Third-Realm Body Refinement
The instant Jin Somyeong swallowed the Tempering Body Pill, heat erupted from deep in his stomach like an explosion.
"Ngh."
His blood was boiling. Literally. A molten, lava-hot force surged through his veins and spread to every limb, every bone, every meridian.
How long had that burning agony raged from within?
Thump. Thump.
With his heart at the center, his five viscera began to pulse. Like rain falling on paddies cracked dry by a long drought, the organs exhausted by the price of Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust stirred back to life. They drank in the force born from the Tempering Body Pill as though drawing water from a spring of life, absorbing it without end.
And when the blood vitality gathered within him reached its peak—
Rumble!
A vast vortex began to revolve around Jin Somyeong, greedily devouring all the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of ten li.
...It isn't enough.
This was an uninhabited island, not a place with a spirit vein, and the spiritual energy in the air was far from sufficient. Even the energy flowing in from the Mental Secret Realm had its limits.
Instinctively, he understood what he had to do if he wanted to go further.
Clatter!
He poured a mound of mid-grade Spirit Stones out from his subspace, hoping even a mote of help would be enough.
Crack!
By the time the number of mid-grade Spirit Stones crumbling to dust after being drained of spiritual energy had surpassed five thousand, Jin Somyeong's expression brightened.
Creak.
From within his body, from the spine that served as its pillar, came the sound of bones twisting.
Something was about to begin.
His joy lasted only an instant. His ears went deaf, and his vision blurred into a milky haze.
Gah!
His mouth fell open, but not a sound came out. The pain made his hands and feet tremble so violently he wanted to scream.
Crunch!
He clenched his molars hard enough for the sound to ring out, enduring a moment that felt as endless as eternity, and then—
Every muscle and bone in his body was broken down and reassembled at the same time.
Ah.
At some point, all the pain vanished as cleanly as if it had been washed away.
It felt like being born again. A cool, bracing sensation rose along his spine, refreshing him down to the marrow.
An evolution occurring at the level of his very essence.
With every breath, his body advanced toward the ultimate point called the ideal.
Ascension.
Was this what it felt like to crawl out of a narrow well and see the open world for the first time?
That ecstatic moment, one he would not have traded for anything, continued—until a cold voice thick with killing intent cut through it.
"Impudent wretch. A mere human dares attempt a breakthrough here? Don't tell me you didn't know this king was hunting you."
Boom!
Something like an iron pillar smashed into him.
He took the blow head-on before he could dodge and was sent hurtling away. The crude barrier he had set up with formation artifacts proved utterly useless.
Eeeee—
A ringing filled his ears, followed by a heavy, bone-deep ache. It felt as if he had been hit by a dump truck.
Damn it.
If he had only had a little more time, he could have reached Third-Realm Body Refinement.
Regret surged up together with fury.
In a world that swayed around him, Jin Somyeong struggled to his feet and shook his head. Forcing his blurred vision into focus, he confirmed who had attacked him.
Before him stood a gigantic wolf five meters tall. Its mane streamed in the wind like blazing flame. Merely standing there, it pressed down on the earth with tremendous coercion.
A Third-Realm Demon King... the one that came to the eastern abode. So it was a sea-wolf after all.
His uneasy premonition had been right.
The creature had tracked him here from the deep sea a hundred li away.
The Demon King licked its fangs with its thick tongue, then suddenly paused.
"Wait. You look familiar... Oh! You're that swordsman who ran wild on Sky Island without knowing fear! Kahahaha! What a windfall!"
"...You know me?"
"Of course! Do you have any idea how many of our kind you've killed? I was wondering how to lure you outside Sky Island, and you walked out on your own. Stupid fool!"
Jin Somyeong ignored the Demon King as it burst into laughter, making no attempt to hide its delight. Instead, he swept his Divine Sense through his own body and assessed his condition first.
Not good.
The power of the Tempering Body Pill that had been leading him toward the Third Realm had vanished at some point. His flesh, which had been growing stronger through repeated destruction and regeneration, had stopped evolving.
All that remained was spiritual energy recovered by about half—and a body one step from coughing blood.
"But where did Hyeok Cheon-ung vanish to, and why were you in that abode?"
"..."
"Don't say you don't know. The scent of your blood reeked through that whole abode."
After a moment's thought, Jin Somyeong decided to answer. Right now, he needed to buy even the smallest amount of time to recover.
First, he admitted it cleanly.
"I killed him."
"A thing like you killed Hyeok Cheon-ung? You expect me to believe that?"
"Heh... If you're that curious, wait. I'll show you personally how I did it."
"Kahahaha! You're asking me to play the fool and give my enemy time to recover? That's a new sort of begging for your life!"
"If you're afraid, there's nothing I can do about that."
The wolf Demon King twisted up the corner of its mouth and snorted.
"Hmph. Do you think I would be swayed by the words of a despicable human? Enough. I'll kill you first, then search for Hyeok Cheon-ung again."
Jin Somyeong smiled bitterly inwardly. He had provoked the beast openly, but it had not worked.
It seemed he had looked down on it too much just because it was an animal.
Hoo.
He steadied his breath briefly and gripped the hilt of his sword. At that moment, demonic energy condensed in the air, transformed into a spear, and appeared right before his face in the blink of an eye.
Hup!
His body moved faster than judgment. He bent backward at the waist and narrowly avoided the spear point stabbing toward the space between his brows.
The blade skimmed past his forehead by a hair's breadth, sending several strands of hair drifting into the air.
His relief lasted only a breath.
The spear writhed as though alive, then changed into a rope and coiled around his upper body. It connected to the ground and became a shackle, preventing him from leaving his position.
"You're fairly quick. Then try dodging this!"
Rumble!
The sun was blotted out, and the entire deserted island plunged into shadow. An enormous mass of seawater had risen into the sky.
Faced with the overwhelming scale of a spell cast by a true Third-Realm being, even Jin Somyeong—who rarely lost his composure—felt his pupils tremble.
Crack!
Enough seawater to cover the heavens compressed into a single point. It became a bead barely the size of a fist, spreading a pressure that raised gooseflesh over his skin.
Within that impossible sight, the newly formed water bullet began to vibrate violently.
Fweet!
With a sharp tearing sound, it shot toward him.
As it flew in a straight line for his heart, instinct told him the truth.
If it hit him, he would die.
So—
I have to deflect it.
With his life balanced on the edge of a blade, his concentration rose to a level he had never reached before.
In an instant, all sound vanished.
Every drifting speck of dust became clear.
In a world where even the clouds in the sky seemed frozen, Jin Somyeong extended his sword toward the water bullet rushing at him as though untouched by that stillness.
Not head-on.
He adjusted the tip of the blade by a hair. The moment the water bullet touched the angled flat of his sword, he felt its tremendous mass and compressed force.
His intuition had been correct. Taking such a brute-force spell head-on would have sent him straight to the underworld.
Grrrrk!
The once-straight sword bent.
The Five Elements Sword, which had cut down countless enemies, could not withstand the power contained within the water bullet and threatened to snap.
No!
He forced out every scrap of power he had. He urged his empty dantian and gathered even a rat's tail worth of spiritual energy, then forcibly awakened the five viscera that refused to move as though broken.
Just one inch.
The sword he swung with agonizing effort twisted the trajectory of the water bullet.
It skimmed past his shoulder so closely that the skin it never even touched burst open with a wet pop.
Boom!
A gale exploded behind him. The ground struck directly by the deflected water bullet turned to powder, and half the deserted island was blown away.
"Cough..."
Having endured the strike, Jin Somyeong's face turned deathly pale.
He had not even been hit properly, yet the aftermath alone had crushed the bones in his arm.
As he struggled to hold the sword with his limp hand, heat welled up from deep inside his body.
Was it because he had submerged himself halfway in death? In that state of extreme focus, something awakened.
The Tempering Body Pill?
The medicinal power he had thought long gone restored the shattered bones in his arm.
Clench.
Strength returned to the arm that had been hanging limp. His grip, though only faintly, grew stronger as well.
It was thanks to the unique training method of the Five Viscera Hundred Refinements Art, which raised one's realm through repeated destruction and regeneration.
If he used this method...
Just as Jin Somyeong's eyes flashed—
"...Perhaps you truly did kill Hyeok Cheon-ung."
The Demon King's voice, now slightly more serious, delivered his death sentence.
Rumble!
The earth surged upward and became cliffs, blocking every direction and cutting off his escape. At the same time, the single water bullet he had barely survived moments ago multiplied into dozens and came pouring down.
As he watched that despairing sight, Jin Somyeong simply swung his sword.
First, he cut through the rope-shaped spell wrapped around his upper body.
He regained his freedom, but he did not think of running.
I can't dodge them anyway.
The clearer approaching death became, the more sharply his instincts awakened. He swept away every stray thought and focused only on battle.
What was the path to survival? No—if he wanted to win?
I have to move forward.
He took one step. That alone simplified the trajectories of the falling water bullets.
He swung at the first one to arrive.
The Five Elements Sword vibrated as if it would break, but it barely held. The water bullet he deflected collided with another.
Boom!
The shock wave born from the collision of the two spheres swept in every direction. The destructive force was enough to reshape the terrain, and every meridian in his body snapped strand by strand.
"Cough."
Bitter. So this was what a cough mixed with pieces of one's organs tasted like. In the blood he spat, dark-red fragments of flesh were visible.
He had suffered wounds so fatal it would not have been strange if he died on the spot, but there was good news as well.
The dozens of water bullets had collided among themselves and exploded.
Only a few had actually struck Jin Somyeong. Of course, that alone was more than enough to push him to the edge of death.
But in the end, he had survived. That was what mattered.
"Khuhuhu..."
Jin Somyeong laughed as he vomited enough blood to soak the front of his robes.
Because he could feel his ruined body recovering and evolving past its limits.
How could the Demon King fail to notice?
"...I'm sick of this now. Just die."
"You say that as if you were holding back before."
"You'll find out soon enough."
Killing intent surged in the Demon King's eyes. Even though it was a wolf, its expression was so clear he could read it.
Awooooo!
Wind began to blow.
The airflow that started between its claws climbed up its legs and wrapped around its entire body. It looked like an ornate dragon robe worn by a sovereign. Then the wolf's form, standing loftily with the wind around it, vanished.
Boom!
A fierce impact struck Jin Somyeong in the side.
If he had not reflexively lowered his arm to block, his entire upper body, ribs included, would have been crushed.
"Guh-hurk."
Jin Somyeong was sent flying in a miserable state, then staggered back to his feet. Blood poured from the claw marks gouged into his side, but he smiled.
As long as he did not die, it did not matter.
The wound, so severe his organs had nearly been visible, vanished after only a few breaths.
Faced with the threat of death, he could feel his body-refinement realm moving toward a place it had never reached before.
"You really are one tenacious bastard..."
The Demon King spoke in a tone mixed with admiration and irritation, then disappeared again.
It appeared as though teleporting and tried to split open the crown of his head. He barely avoided it, but blood burst from his chest.
Merely being grazed by the wind wrapped around its claws had split his upper body open.
Boom!
The pressure of the wind blasted him away and slammed him into the ground, but he rolled across the earth and dispersed the impact.
How many times had he endured?
Life and death repeated without pause, and the realm called the Third Realm drew so close he felt he could grasp it.
Thump... Thump...!
By the time his faint heartbeat had grown loud as thunder and battered his eardrums, the body that had been screaming that it had reached its limit had fallen quiet.
Blood vitality welled up from every drop of blood at the ends of his limbs, from every single strand of muscle.
The spiritual organs that had been still as if dead—his five viscera—came back to life and began to pulse.
Now he could see.
From beginning to end, every movement of the Demon King as it rode the wind and swung its claws was clear.
Because he had arrived.
At Third-Realm Body Refinement.
Crack!
For the first time since the Demon King had begun fighting in earnest, Jin Somyeong stomped the ground with a true advancing step.
He dodged the claw trying to pierce his face by a hair's breadth and thrust his sword toward the heart laid bare before him.