Chapter 145
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 144
Chapter Title: Bingbaek's Request
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The world seemed to freeze solid.
Overwhelming cold.
Every breath he drew in became a razor blade.
The most instinctive act of all felt unbearably uncomfortable. His palms, drenched in sweat in an instant, were now thinly crusted with ice as a bonus.
The patriarch was still smiling.
But his presence had shifted.
A power that seized the entire area in a heartbeat, without any elaborate buildup.
Strength followed where his will led, as natural as the laws of nature.
Irresistible.
As if declaring his unfathomable nature mere empty words, an aura utterly inhuman seeped over it.
Bingbaek.
Before he knew it, the man was staring straight at him from the front.
Jin's face, reflected in those glassy blue eyes, was furrowed in a frown.
Shall we have at it?
Whatever intent lay behind those words, the chill prickling his skin right now was real.
At the very least, it meant they weren't idle talk.
That was enough.
Jin had never known how to avoid a fight in the first place.
Patriarch or not made no difference.
A city stray didn't discriminate when it came to cracking skulls.
Crack.
Jin clenched his fist tight.
Chunks of shattered ice rained down from below his flawlessly curled knuckles.
"You first?"
"I do like how refreshingly straightforward you are. Come at me."
The patriarch nodded lightly.
Hands clasped behind his back like he was out for a stroll.
Standing in the barren empty space, he bleached the surroundings pure white as effortlessly as breathing.
Erasing the world, leaving only himself.
That was his presence.
The next instant.
Jin kicked off the floor.
His left arm shot out in a single motion.
The fist rocketed like a cannon shell toward the patriarch's face.
Thud.
It sank into the opponent's palm as if swallowed whole.
A delayed shockwave erupted with a boom.
Boom!
The expanding concentric waves of force slammed into the walls and dissipated.
Jin yanked his trapped arm back with all his might.
Had he felt the superhuman strength transcending human limits?
The patriarch released his grip without resistance.
Whoosh.
As he retracted his freed arm, his raised leg drew a streak of light.
Like lightning surging upward from the ground.
Clang!
But a fierce rebound force flung his leg away. The patriarch blocked the shin with his forearm, then smoothly closed the distance.
Jin didn't back down either.
Close-quarters brawls were right up his alley.
A feral smile curled his lips as he pressed forward.
Within striking distance where breaths mingled, dozens of exchanges flashed in an instant.
Striking, blocking, deflecting, countering, dodging.
In the midst of the fierce clash, Jin's bangs flipped back.
A palm filled his vision.
Like a massive rampart bearing down.
He reflexively jerked his head back to evade.
Even so, the terrifying mana whipped the air so hard his ears rang.
Craaaack!
With a deafening screech like tearing steel plates, Jin's body skidded back.
The patriarch pursued at a leisurely pace, like a walker on a stroll.
Movements like a mirage.
His left hand still clasped behind his back.
The next moment, Jin unleashed a full-power punch.
────!!
Fist met palm in the empty air.
Thunderous energy cradling lightning clashed with chillingly radiant cold, painting a chaotic picture.
Bang! Baaang!
Compressed air burst repeatedly.
The roar of successive collisions.
A blistering exchange that seemed eternal.
Then, at some point.
BOOM!!
In a thunderous finale, Jin was hurled back hard.
Screeech!
He barely halted by planting his fingertips on the floor.
Frost flowers bloomed white across his slowly lifting face.
"Ptoo."
Jin spat out the pooled blood in his mouth to the side and silently stared at his hand.
Dark bruises branched thickly across it.
Sensation had dulled sometime ago.
His half-frozen face was the same.
Huff, huff.
His ragged breaths scattered as white mist.
"Your depth of insight is impressive. Your skill goes without saying, but the sheer volume of your mana is extraordinary. At this level, you'd have the edge on any sloppy Rank 3."
Sloppy Rank 3, huh.
Never mind the lukewarm iced Americano vibe.
His utterly steady breathing was downright absurd.
"So, is that all you've got?"
The silver-haired beauty asked as such.
Enveloped in bone-chilling winds like a blizzard.
Bingbaek, was it?
A fitting moniker for his solitary, lofty stance.
That was when it happened.
Jin's brow twisted sharply.
Agony flared the moment he stirred his mana.
Like thousands upon thousands of rice-grain blades shredding his insides.
Invisible, but he knew.
Ambing.
The Marjie's secret art had bloomed crystalline flowers within his mana circuits.
Even this was mild, thanks to who Jin was.
Even with his steel-cable circuits, operating mana was a struggle—what would happen to other Rank 2s? Their circuits would have shredded long ago.
A force even the emperor acknowledged as deadly poison.
His trembling fingertips had already turned pitch-black and bloodless.
Jin let out a wry smile.
That guy's on his last legs?
Ever since they crossed blows, the patriarch hadn't once unclasped his left hand from behind his back.
If it was just sealing one hand, that was fortunate.
He hadn't even glimpsed the transcendent form so far.
Like the Sword Saint who cleaved the heavens or the Pilgrim who bound Apophis.
Jin's skill fell far short of drawing that out, so the man merely matched him eye-to-eye.
If brawling was Jin's forte, he'd gladly indulge—a relaxed assurance.
No condescension there.
Just overwhelming confidence curving his lips in a smile.
At this point, curiosity was inevitable.
Just what realm was he in?
The pinnacle of the Purists, guardian of a millennium glory—what did that mean?
So Jin asked outright.
"Mind if I ask your rank, by chance?"
"Hm?"
An unexpected question?
The patriarch tilted his head.
Then his glassy eyes reflected Jin.
Even as his mana circuits froze, Jin's curiosity-overcoming face was deadly serious.
"Haha, ha, hahahaha."
He burst into delighted laughter and spoke.
"Why do you ask?"
"Wanted to gauge it if possible. Though it'd still be vague either way."
"Gauge it. You need a benchmark to gauge anything, don't you? Whether I make a good one."
"Ah, don't worry about that. I've met plenty of patriarch-level powerhouses."
"······?"
The patriarch's head, tilted right, now leaned left.
"Plenty?"
"Yeah. Want me to name them?"
The patriarch nodded silently, and Jin forced his chilled-stiff fingers to flex as he added.
"First, Uncle Sword Saint, then the Pilgrim, Face Collector? Yeah, him too."
Patriarch, Omega-grade psyker, city's legend each.
Bingbaek shook his head at the solid lineup.
"Gale I can buy, but... the other two."
Then he stared at Jin, his gaze screaming, How the hell are you even alive?
Jin shrugged nonchalantly.
As he did.
"I'm treading the fourth world, inadequately though it may be."
"Pardon?"
"You asked my rank. That's the answer."
Ah, fourth.
Inadequately though it may be.
"You mean early Rank 4, perhaps?"
"Tricky question. The divisions you know don't apply there."
The patriarch added softly with a faint smile.
"Anyway... aren't you curious why I wanted to test you?"
"Yeah."
"······?"
"Figure you've got your reasons. Or whatever."
Finishing his casual reply, Jin cracked his neck side to side.
The next instant.
The auric veil around Jin thinned suddenly, replaced by milky white heat.
Undulating haze shoved back the cold.
The patriarch's expression naturally hardened.
"...White Flame?"
But only for a moment.
No, not White Flame.
Bingbaek's eyes narrowed.
He knew White Flame as intimately as Ambing.
Hadn't they clashed countless times in youth?
With that monster who now led Solad.
Then what was this?
This sacred heat.
"So I wasn't seeing things."
Bingbaek's gaze grew grave.
Recalling Jin exploding with aura earlier.
The mana squeezed out at the limit created a momentary gap, and Bingbaek—gifted at destruction—didn't miss it.
Fleeting as it was, he'd felt it clearly.
The massive shadow lurking in the young heir's heart.
The stir of power beyond mere aura.
This clash was to confirm it.
And his hunch proved right.
Roar!
Flames enshrouding Jin as he steadied his stance.
A new blaze forged of hellfire and divinity.
Holy Flame, nothing else could name it, melted the crystalline flowers.
His mana circuits, wounded but intact.
Back to full strength in an instant.
Jin was smiling now.
"Round two."
Flash.
The gap between them vanished.
Blink.
Aimed straight at Bingbaek's exposed back.
Bang──!!
The fist, laden with distorting heat, flew with a sonic boom.
The instant it closed in.
Bingbaek turned leisurely.
A mirage motion, all result no process.
As always, he extended a hand naturally to preempt Jin's attack...
And failed.
"Cough."
Before he could, blood gushed from his mouth, and he collapsed.
"······!"
Startled, Jin hastily withdrew his mana.
His body screamed from the backlash.
Forcing down the nausea with blood, Jin caught the falling patriarch and yelled.
"Help—!"
The old man holding the unconscious patriarch's wrist let out a low sigh.
A brief silence.
Then his time-worn gaze swept over those surrounding him.
"...This isn't good. The frost flowers have bloomed all the way to his heart."
A collective sigh rose, and a staggering woman collapsed by the bedside, clutching the patriarch's face.
"······."
Jin watched the weeping matriarch awkwardly, then listened to the old man's next words.
"I've told him countless times that wielding mana any further defies heaven's will, but it seems that fell on deaf ears again."
Jin's hands clasped neatly below his navel.
It wasn't his fault, but he couldn't help feeling awkward. Especially with the sobbing matriarch right there.
That was when.
"How much time does Father have left?"
Katrina asked, her eyes bloodshot.
The old man, glancing at the matriarch just like Jin, hesitated without a straight answer.
"Tell me honestly."
"He could breathe his last at any moment."
"I see. So that's how it is."
Katrina murmured weakly to herself.
The old man, in his wizened voice, delivered the obvious yet obligatory words of a healer.
"Sealing his mana is the only option now. He's used up his allotted time far too soon."
"Right."
Katrina stood frozen like a statue for a while, then slowly turned.
Jin followed as she left the patriarch's chamber.
The door closed silently.
The matriarch's sobs faded into the distance.
After a few steps, Katrina staggered and leaned against the wall.
She slowly parted her lips.
"Old age is like a dream for our family. Most don't even make it that far before they die."
"······."
"The more talented, the worse it gets. Their bodies can't keep up with rising ranks. The deepening embers become poison to us."
Katrina slid down the wall an inch.
Her eyes lowered slightly.
She continued.
"It's a risk every leader in our line carries. That's why they never waste power unless it's absolutely necessary."
Why the world saw Marjie as especially selfish, perhaps.
Katrina muttered softly, a wry smile eventually forming.
"...Father was different. He rose to patriarch in his youth, but he didn't want to settle there. Always training, training more. Father was undone by none other than himself. What drove him so desperately? I still don't understand."
At some point, Katrina had sunk to the floor.
Her rambling trailed off, and she fell silent.
Should he offer a hand?
Jin pondered briefly, then clicked his tongue.
As he withdrew the arm he'd half-extended.
Swish.
The old man approached with soft footsteps and murmured to Jin.
"The patriarch wishes to see you."
"Me?"
The old man nodded silently at Jin pointing to himself.
Waking up and calling for me instead of his daughter? Not another round, right?
Jin followed uneasily.
Back in the patriarch's chamber.
Bingbaek leaned against the headboard.
The matriarch was gone.
Spotting Jin, he smiled faintly and beckoned.
"This is insane. For real."
Jin sighed and plopped into a chair he'd grabbed on the way.
"You're in no shape for fights. I had no idea it'd be this bad. So... what is it?"
"I have a favor to ask."
The door clicked shut behind him.
The old man had discreetly left.
Now alone, Jin furrowed his brow.
"A favor? Your daughter's already—"
"Inherit Ambing for me."
"···?"
"One blessed by mana... A great talent to embrace all creation. Yes. You can perfect it."
Before Jin could reply, Bingbaek continued steadily.
"A flawless Ambing, without side effects."