Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Transcendent Rebirth
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Thump.
In accordance with that earnest single-minded focus.
His body began to evolve.
Thump!
From amid the chunks of flesh scattered on the floor, a heart rose up. The parched heart, having dried to the utmost, raced without hesitation toward the confirmed path of evolution.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
With fierce pulsations, the blood splattered throughout the room was drawn in.
As blood filled the heart, the ritual woven by the four archmages over a week activated.
Woooom—!
With each beat, the power of the Dimensional Awl Heart, which connected Jaeyeon's soul and body, began to control the wildly erupting force of the Eternal Sun—a power that had been spewing out in all directions.
It was an effect even the archmages, who had diligently crafted the spell over a week, could never have imagined.
Who could have foreseen it?
If they had predicted that the subject of their surgery, in a soul state, would consume a transcendent-grade elixir, and that the spell forcing the connection between soul and body would instead induce the rampaging qi to explode in reverse, it wouldn't have been remarkable insight—it would have been the early symptoms of delusion.
Thump! Thump—!
The heart beat again, sending out a heavy reverberation like a massive drum being struck.
The Eternal Sun's power, pouring out chaotically, was so overwhelming that even under the control of the Dimensional Awl Heart, it forced phenomena upon the material world.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
The immense qi surging through the heart poured into the dantian. Or rather, it should have poured in... but Jaeyeon currently had no dantian.
And it wasn't just the dantian that was missing.
Right now, he had no dantian, no limbs, not even a head. All that existed was a heart floating in midair!
Yet the dantian was originally a fictional organ that didn't truly exist.
Martial artists spent their lives sensing and utilizing its presence, cherishing it as second only to their own lives, but if you opened their abdomen, nothing would come out. Just the same internal organs as any ordinary person.
But Jaeyeon imagined that fictional organ.
He had longed for it continuously.
Even now, the myriad martial arts, insights, and experiences he relentlessly recalled provided ample data to create it.
The biofactor accepted it all.
Squish! Screeech!
With a deafening roar fit for a massive factory, the flesh intertwined. The blood, now vaporized, recombined and was sucked in, forming an organ the size of an adult man's fist that pulsed like a living thing.
Surpassing mere human, even beyond living being, it was truly unprecedented—a [physical dantian], akin to an aircraft engine or a Gigas's iron heart.
And into that.
Thump—! Boom!
Transcendent inner energy erupted from the Dimensional Awl Heart and began filling it.
Thump! Boom—! Thump—! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The expanding waves made the Room Tower, protected by all manner of defensive spells, creak and groan. Naturally, the other residents fled outside in alarm.
“Argh! What the hell! The building's shaking!?”
“What's going on!? A real transcendent-grade monster!?”
[Alert! Alert! This is a real situation. All citizens, please...]
[Level 20 psychic disaster warning! Level 20 psychic disaster warning! All citizens, please...]
The alarms continued blaring. Not just the holographic billboards, but even the smart pets carried by civilians joined in the chorus, panicking people who had never experienced anything like it.
“No, what kind of crazy talk is this... Evacuate? Where's safer than here...”
“More than that, a Level 20 psychic disaster... That's transcendent-grade, right?”
Instead of evacuating, everyone just stood in place.
It was only natural.
Who among the people of the 34th Earth, where peace near-absolute reigned, would be familiar with emergencies? Some even suspected it was a hidden camera prank, glancing around suspiciously.
Of course, that misunderstanding didn't last long.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Five giants descended into the plaza.
“Whoa! Those are Human-Grade Gigas, right?”
“That model... It's Cheok Jun-kyung!”
“Look at that one. Kim Gu, Kim Gu!”
“Gwak Jae-woo! Whoa! Seeing it in person after only on screens...!”
The Gigas waved off the cheering crowd.
[Emergency situation! Please evacuate!]
[Step back!]
After herding the people away appropriately, they spread out their psychic power.
Vreeee—!
A barrier unfolded, enveloping the high-rise Room Tower on the western side of Gwanghwamun Plaza.
[Everyone hold position! We don't know what's coming!]
“No, what does a sudden Level 20 mean? No report of a transcendent wandering through!”
[Isn't this that variety show thing? Transcendent-grade monster? Whoa! Finally gonna see one fight?]
[Man... You itching to die or what? Even in a Human-Grade Gigas, it can't stand up to a transcendent!]
As the Gigas pilots surrounded the building, someone moved inside the Room Tower.
“What the hell is this! Never imagined a neighbor this much of a disaster!”
“Arf arf! Arf arf! Arf arf arf!”
“Shut it, Ssuthya! Mommy's busy!”
Sword Master-grade combat officer Song Hana moved according to protocol, even amid the qi torrent making her limbs tremble.
She dashed to the entrance of the studio apartment blaring with roars and embedded four seals.
“Ah, not stirring it up more, am I? Too young to die on duty... Whatever, evacuating!”
Flash!
The texture of the air shifted in an instant.
Through the power of the magic tool, she and her designated space shifted to the Shadow World, the flip side of reality.
“Did it work? Looked a bit high-grade for that.”
Fortunately, the reaction she wanted came soon enough.
Thump—! Boom!
“Got it!”
The Gigas pilots outside grasped the situation immediately.
“Already handled? It's only been 1 minute 30 seconds since the incident? Wow, police are quick these days.”
“A combat officer was residing right at the incident site.”
“What's the method? Containment? Sealing?”
“Evac. Sent it to the Shadow World, apparently.”
“And it went along with that? A Level 20?”
“So it's not terrorism or a monster outbreak...”
“Let's head in for now!”
Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!
The five Gigas shifted from reality's Gwanghwamun Plaza to the Shadow World's Gwanghwamun Plaza.
And at that moment.
Thump—! Boom! Thump—! Boom!
The fierce heartbeat shook the space.
Crack! Boom!
The Room Tower began to collapse.
[......]
[......]
[......]
[...Damn. The timing.]
Gwak Jae-woo's pilot, Major General Shin Dong-gyu, let out a hollow laugh.
[Who was that combat officer? Gotta promote her. Nearly a catastrophe...]
Rumble!
The Room Tower finally crumbled completely, revealing a being atop the ruins. Major General Shin Dong-gyu's face hardened, his laugh vanishing.
[All units, battle ready!]
[Activate main armaments!]
[Check spell resistance! I'll take the lead fir—]
[Hold! Everyone freeze!]
At Major General Shin Dong-gyu's shout, the Human-Grade Gigas paused mid-draw of weapons.
[Why, senior? It's a transcendent! We at least need to contain it.]
“When I say freeze, you freeze. Ha, this is ridiculous.”
He muttered with a look of disbelief.
[Maddog... What the hell are you doing here?]
* * *
“Kyaaah—! It's hot!”
Jaeyeon barely regained his senses at the shrill scream. Looking up, he saw a little girl flailing as fire licked her dress.
And above her head.
A massive light incinerating the sky.
Falsehood. Eternal Sun.
The supreme treasure that even divine beings wouldn't dare consume, treating it merely as material for weapons.
“Ah...”
“Save me! I'm dying! I'm gonna die! Ack!”
“Shut up...”
“Hey! What is that? Why do you keep bringing weird crap? Ack! It burns...! Burning up...!”
As Hyperion thrashed, Jaeyeon quietly surveyed his inner world.
The house he had manifested, the go board—all incinerated. Even the elements stored in the Immeasurable Sphere reduced to ash.
Only the magic sword Hyperion remained. And even it wailed like it was dying.
“How much time has passed?”
“Dunno! Hot! Do something about that thing!”
“Time.”
“10 minutes? 15? Ack! Burning! I'm burning up!”
“Get out for now.”
Flash.
Jaeyeon banished Hyperion and assumed a meditative posture in the now-empty inner world.
“Such impatience... Not that I don't get it at all.”
Agony wracked him. A scorching pain as if his entire body were aflame.
But it was fine. Compared to the previous void threatening to dissipate him, the pain was almost welcome.
“As expected... Martial arts were the solution.”
Closing his eyes, he felt the sun's heat not in the sky, but in his gut. The sun floating in the sky was merely an image.
“Need to circulate qi.”
The Eternal Sun invading his body sought to burn his soul and mind.
“Ah... Damn. Should've memorized Sun God Art or Scorching Divine Art...”
But even Jaeyeon, versed in countless martial arts, hadn't touched such techniques.
Attribute-based arts required innate talent, special environments, or elixirs to cultivate—they were notoriously difficult otherwise.
No time to lament the absent. Solve with what he had.
Whoooosh......
Lost to time in the center of his inner world, he endlessly circulated qi.
Orthodox arts, unorthodox, demonic.
Regardless of type, he mobilized every formula to drive the sun's power into his dantian.
“Ah...”
The process went smoothly. Bit by bit, the sun's energy was drawn into the dantian.
The problem was the pain.
“It hurts...”
The scorching pain didn't relent. Jaeyeon's willpower was superhuman, but enduring through will alone wasn't sustainable for endless, unmeasurable time amid ceaseless burning—it drove him mad.
A short wait was fine, but with no end in sight to the circulation.
“Think positive... At least I'm lucky.”
Without this vast inner world from reaching the ninth chakra layer, his soul and mind wouldn't have suffered scorching pain—they'd have simply burned away.
“Plus, mana control at 900 points... Dodged disaster.”
Mana was energy; mana control, the power to wield it. Without transcendent mana control, the qi would have rampaged beyond his willpower.
“Whew...”
Jaeyeon regulated his breathing. On the verge of losing his mind to endless torment, he couldn't quit now.
“Think positive... Positively... Better than being tortured by those arrogant noble scum... If I endure, at least ten cycles of inner energy... Maybe more... With that, sword beams galore... Protective aura to block laser barrages... Earn 100 million, no, a billion, ten billion... Pay-to-win... Buy stocks, patch up... Fill the +9 gear collection... Awaken classes, unlock fame...”
Jaeyeon clung to positive thoughts, anchoring his drifting mind. He recited myriad art formulas, relived brutal life-or-death battles.
Yet simultaneously, he thought.
Of the heat. How nice a cold energy would be.
That yearning activated his chakras.
Boom!
The go board descended.
Flash!
Upper-right point, Paradise of the Ice Queen, lit up.
Crackle!
Chill poured forth. Jaeyeon's pain-twisted face smoothed.
He didn't know it.
But in reality, his flesh—precisely, his blood—now harbored chill.
Up to here, as he wished... But Ardania didn't stop. Once the floodgate opened, other points reacted naturally.
Flash!
Upper-left, Earth Castle lit up.
Heavy energy seeped into the formed skeleton. Bones already tougher than average alloys grew denser, weightier.
Lower-left. Venom Castle lit up.
Toxic energy infused his liver. Like the physical dantian, a bio-organ formed to detoxify and produce myriad poisons.
Lower-right, Flame Castle lit up.
Scorching heat entered the muscles, clashing with the circulating chill, steam rising continuously.
Lower-right, World Tree Castle lit up.
Woody energy became skin, enveloping bone and flesh.
Whoooosh—
Wind energy filled the lungs. Lightning, the nerves. Light, the eyes.
And at some point.
His eyes opened.
Flash!
The dingy Shadow World brightened for an instant, then darkened again.
“Whoa, did you see that eye flash just now?”
“God...”
Hearing the murmurs, Jaeyeon stood dazed. The ground beneath, the surrounding crowds, the flowing wind, their conversations, the displays on their watches—all registered at once.
Without explanation, he knew considerable time had passed.
“Chuseok's over.”
He sighed softly.
“My songpyeon...”
In a way no one could predict or imagine.
The moment of transcendent flesh's birth.