Chapter 81: Reaching the Realm
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 81: Reaching the Realm
The Transcendent Realm.
To reach this stage, also known as the Absolute Realm, one required enlightenment gained through countless hours of training and meditation.
Only when a mind disciplined through enlightenment, a body capable of fully containing that spirit, and internal energy honed to its absolute limit moved in perfect harmony could the foundation for the Transcendent Realm finally be laid.
So, assuming the foundation was ready, what was needed to actually touch the Transcendent Realm?
What was required atop that completed foundation was a purpose to pursue.
Only by imbuing one's martial arts with a goal could a direction finally be established.
Some pursued a body that no one could destroy, while others sought a sword that could cut anyone if they so willed it.
Some chased explosive speeds that the eye could not follow, and others sought a state where they could poison anyone at a whim.
Just as there were diverse types of martial arts in the world, the purposes they pursued were equally varied, and every practitioner sought something different.
By imbuing a purpose into the perfected physical vessel of the Super-Peak Realm, individuality was forged. Ultimately, through this individuality, one could approach the completion of the values they pursued.
Therefore, if one could not grant their martial arts a purpose, they could never reach the Transcendent Realm.
Sun-woo fell into thought.
He asked himself what he needed right now.
What did he need to kill that monster beyond those sturdy legs?
At first, he thought of the Heart Sword the Sword Emperor had shown him.
But he quickly dismissed the idea.
Even the Sword Emperor, who stood at the pinnacle of the Transcendent Realm, could only barely mimic the Heart Sword. How could he possibly follow suit?
Then, what about Sword Kinesis?
That, too, was different from what he sought.
What Sun-woo needed right now was the destructive power to shatter those legs that even his Sword Astral couldn't break.
Even if he could swing his sword freely from a distance, it was meaningless if he couldn't pierce through.
Destructive power.
He would focus solely on destructive power.
Sword Astral alone was not enough.
He had to compress and re-compress this Sword Astral, increasing its density.
So that he could crush even those legs.
Wuuuuuuuuuung.
A cluster of white light began to swirl around the sword Sun-woo held upright.
And Sun-woo could feel it.
With his remaining internal energy, he could only do this once.
He would have only one shot.
Because of this, Sun-woo did not rush in. He waited cautiously for her to approach.
Before long, she folded her legs again and lunged at him.
Now was the time.
Sun-woo leveled the tip of his sword.
He intended to pour everything into this one strike.
The white light swirling around him gathered at the tip of his blade, forming a massive mass of Astral Qi.
But a large mass of Astral Qi was not what Sun-woo sought.
‘I have to compress it.’
To push destructive power to its limit, he had to compress that massive Astral Qi.
Sun-woo mobilized every nerve, pushing his concentration to the extreme.
He began to compress and re-compress the boastfully large mass of Astral Qi.
‘More... more... MORE!!!’
Wuuuuuuung.
Perhaps Sun-woo’s efforts were successful.
The Astral Qi gathered at the tip of the sword merged into a jagged sphere, which soon smoothed out into a perfect orb.
It was a Sword Ring.
A technique that only swordsmen who had reached the Absolute Realm could create was now unfolding from Sun-woo’s hand.
The meaning of this was simple.
He had entered the Transcendent Realm.
Sun-woo thrust the formed Sword Ring straight toward the incoming legs of the Human-Faced Spider.
Cr-crack.
Sizzle.
Cackle!
As her legs touched the Sword Ring, they began to crumble, and cracks spread rapidly across them.
They clearly could not withstand the pressure of the Sword Ring.
The Sword Ring continued to bore through the legs until it completely shattered them.
The ultimate weapon and armor that had protected her were gone.
Without hesitation, Sun-woo drove the Sword Ring directly into her body.
Pshk!
Boom!
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
The Human-Faced Spider, with the Sword Ring embedded in her body, began to scream so loudly it felt like the Godok Hall would collapse.
Sun-woo tightened his grip on his sword.
He had to end it this time.
*
The Human-Faced Spider had scoffed when she saw Sun-woo leveling his sword at her.
Even though he must have suffered a fatal internal injury from her previous strike, that human had stood up again and bared his claws.
It was amusing.
Even if he was just an enemy, he was quite persistent.
The grudge she held for the death of her other half began to fade.
She thought that perhaps it was only natural to be killed by someone this strong.
It was the way of the world for the weak to be preyed upon by the strong.
He was no longer prey.
He was a magnificent predator capable of rivaling her.
Since taking human form, her once-monochromatic emotions began to take on various colors.
Fear was black.
Rage was red.
Sadness was blue.
And right now, it was yellow.
It meant she was beyond joyful.
The Human-Faced Spider raised her legs once more.
She overlapped four of her legs and aimed them at Sun-woo.
This time, she intended to pierce his heart for good.
Boom!
She kicked off the ground, using the recoil to close the distance to Sun-woo instantly.
Arriving right in front of him, she thrust her overlapped legs straight at his heart.
Vooooom!
Bang!
Along with the sound of the legs swinging, a deafening sonic boom echoed through the air.
‘It’s over.’
The Human-Faced Spider was certain of her victory.
That was when it happened.
Crackle.
A strange sound reached her ears.
Confused, the Human-Faced Spider looked toward the source of the sound.
It was coming from her bunched-up legs.
Those legs were touching the tip of Sun-woo’s sword.
But something was wrong.
As soon as her four legs touched the tip of his sword, they began to shatter.
She was bewildered.
What on earth was happening?
She looked closely at the tip of Sun-woo’s sword.
A white, spherical cluster of light was shimmering there.
She panicked.
"What in the...?"
Sensing danger, she tried to pull her legs back quickly.
Cr-cr-crack.
Snap.
Thud, thud.
But before she could withdraw them, the legs touching the sword tip were destroyed at an incredible speed.
"No... NOOOOOO!!!!"
Sensing a crisis, she screamed in desperation, but it was already too late.
Crunch.
Pshk.
The sphere, having destroyed all her legs, slammed directly into her body.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!"
She shrieked at the top of her lungs from a level of pain she had never imagined.
Her screams echoed throughout the interior of the Godok Hall.
*
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
The Human-Faced Spider screamed again and again.
It hurt too much.
And she couldn't understand it.
She couldn't understand why she had been struck by that man's claws.
The round bead the man had created was small and looked utterly pathetic.
Yet that sphere had crushed all her legs and reached her main body.
Even just before it hit her, she hadn't been too worried.
She could always regrow her legs, and she could just regenerate her wounds.
But it didn't take long for her to realize how wrong she was.
That small bead was not something to be underestimated.
As soon as that pathetic-looking bead touched her body, it began to ruthlessly tear her raw flesh to shreds.
And once it reached her insides, it began to rip her internal organs apart as well.
It hurt. It hurt so much.
The pain was so maddening that tears flowed involuntarily, and her screams wouldn't stop.
"Agh! Aaaaaagh!"
She screamed and screamed.
There was nothing she could do.
She could only pray for this moment of agony to stop.
.
.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
Eventually, the bead that had been tearing through her insides grew smaller and smaller until it vanished.
She felt a sense of relief that she no longer had to suffer the pain.
Thump.
Perhaps because of that relief, the strength left her legs, and she collapsed backward.
She didn't have the strength to lift a single finger.
‘I don’t want to die.’
Though she had lived for hundreds of years, she still wanted to live.
Her survival instinct flared up, but there was no way.
It was a foregone conclusion that her exhausted self would be killed by the predator before her.
She closed her eyes.
Hoping that he would kill her in one blow, without pain.
.
.
.
.
.
But no matter how long she waited, the follow-up blow never came.
It was the moment she opened her eyes in confusion.
Thud.
She saw the man collapse to the ground.
She stared at him with bewildered eyes.
The man lay there, not moving an inch.
She rejoiced.
Surely, that man had also collapsed from exhaustion.
This was her chance.
She had to recover her body as quickly as possible before he could get up.
She began to draw power from her inner core to boost her regeneration.
*
The Sword Ring Sun-woo unleashed had not only destroyed all of the Human-Faced Spider's legs but had also bored into her main body.
The Human-Faced Spider shrieked in pain, the sound piercing Sun-woo’s ears.
But Sun-woo didn't care and only drove the sword in deeper.
The vortex of Astral Qi inside the small sphere must have been tearing her raw flesh and internal organs to pieces.
How much time had passed?
The Sword Ring that had been ravaging her insides gradually faded and then disappeared.
His internal energy had been completely depleted.
As the Sword Ring vanished, her desperate wailing also ceased.
When her screams stopped, Sun-woo grew tense.
There wasn't even a handful of internal energy left in his dantian.
If she survived this attack and regenerated, he would be as good as dead.
That was when it happened.
Thump.
Her body fell backward.
Sun-woo rejoiced.
It seemed that even with her monstrous regeneration, recovering from the Sword Ring was too much for her.
All his tension evaporated.
Now, all he had to do was drive his sword into her head to finish it.
But then...
Stagger.
Perhaps because the tension had snapped, his body began to sway.
Sun-woo panicked.
If he didn't finish this now, he didn't know when that monster might stand up again.
Thud.
But his body refused to listen and he slumped to the ground.
No matter how hard he tried to force himself up, it was no use.
His body, already drained of all strength, would not obey.
‘I’m fucked.’
Sun-woo felt things going south.
He quickly began to circulate the Yin-Yang Harmony Divine Art.
He had to recover his body before that monster could regenerate hers.
Wuuuuuuung.
Fortunately, perhaps because he had reached the Transcendent Realm, the flow of qi felt much smoother than usual.
‘Hurry!!!!’
As if answering Sun-woo’s will, the Yin-Yang Harmony Qi began to circulate rapidly through his acupoints.
*
How much time had passed?
Flash.
Sun-woo, having recovered some of his stamina and internal energy through meditation, opened his eyes.
Feeling his strength returning to some extent, Sun-woo grabbed the sword lying beside him.
He stood up immediately.
There was no time to waste.
Step, step.
He walked slowly toward her and leveled his sword.
Fortunately, she didn't seem fully recovered yet.
Her chest, which had been struck directly by the Sword Ring, was clearly visible.
Sun-woo raised his sword.
He intended to pierce her through in one go.
"...Save me."
That was when the Human-Faced Spider's voice reached him.
It was a faint voice, so pitiful it would make any listener feel for her.
"Fuck off."
Of course, it didn't work on Sun-woo.
Why on earth would he spare a monster that had tried to kill him?
He didn't even know how many times he had almost died because of her.
Grit.
Sun-woo involuntarily ground his teeth.
‘Shameless bitch.’
"What... is 'fuck'?"
"Ask that in hell."
Sun-woo swung his sword down.
Thwack.
But she turned her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the blade.
"Save me, I don't want to die!"
She began to cry piteously.
The sight of a peerless beauty weeping was enough to make anyone feel wretched for her.
Except for Sun-woo, of course.
"Why the hell would I spare someone who aimed for my life?" Sun-woo asked, sounding incredulous.
"But I still want to live..."
"You've lived for hundreds of years. Just go without regrets."
"I've lived for hundreds of years, but I want to live more!"
She continued, her tears scattering.
Her desire for survival was beyond imagination.
She had molted three times.
Her spiritual nature had grown immensely powerful.
If she trained for a few hundred more years like this, she might even reach the realm of a Yokai Immortal.
That was why she didn't want to die.
She began to plead, tears streaming down her face.
"I'll do anything, please just let me live. Please."
"Fuck off, you damn bug. Humans don't do favors without a price. So just die quietly."
Sun-woo raised his sword again.
This time, he intended to stab her through the throat.
No matter how much she turned her head, she would be dead for sure.