Chapter 260
Chapter 260
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 260
Chapter Title: Fist, Sword, Step
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Chiwoo stared silently at Park Chan-woo.
But he wasn't lost in any particular train of thought.
He was simply spacing out, gazing blankly.
Nothing about the man was remotely normal, from one end to the other.
'He... summoned a Reaper?'
The Reaper that had emerged from Park Chan-woo's shadow.
The moment it appeared, it had blocked Taebaek's attack with a curse of immense power.
However, Reapers were beings that upheld the balance and rules of the Abyss.
They were far removed from mere summonable familiars.
So, was it something that merely resembled a Reaper?
'The most primal curse, one that draws in and drags down to corruption.'
The curse wielded by the Reaper was no ordinary thing either.
No, it was the kind that sent chills down your spine the instant you laid eyes on it.
Any powerhouse who had reached that same realm would recognize at a glance just how terrifying that curse truly was.
For it was the most primal and fundamental curse, one capable of devouring even immortality and undeath.
But.
Even that Reaper's curse failed to cleave through Taebaek.
Taebaek's soul and essence had already transcended mortal cognition.
It was so vast and immense that it could be called a world unto itself.
Unless the curse possessed the power to annihilate an entire world, it could never kill Taebaek.
In short.
'Their levels... are different.'
The Reaper's curse targeted a single entity, obliterating one existence.
Taebaek, however, transcended individuality—he was a multitude, a world. He was the polar opposite of a Reaper.
...It was utterly incomprehensible.
Chiwoo had once severed Taebaek's arm in the past.
He hadn't killed him, but the ambush had succeeded in dealing a fatal wound.
The Taebaek of that time had clearly been an ordinary living being.
Insanely powerful, yes—but still existing as a single entity.
Yet now, five thousand years later, the presence of Taebaek, who had reversed and devoured the Black Sun...
'Can that even be called a living being anymore?'
An aura of sheer terror.
It felt like the entire mountain was trembling.
As if he were manipulating the energy of the entire Mount Cultivator.
People often spoke of peaks like "Supreme" or "Transcendent Supreme," but Taebaek's realm had surpassed such classifications entirely.
'Five thousand years ago, Taebaek was at the pinnacle of the Profound Realm.'
The ultimate pinnacle of inaction, beyond even Transcendent Supreme.
Among Arhats, it was a stage no one else had reached—the "Profound Pinnacle."
The term meant having gone beyond novice and mastery to reach the absolute extreme.
Chiwoo's current realm, at best, was Profound Mastery.
He hadn't yet attained the pinnacle.
He wasn't a true swordsman, after all—he was an assassin.
In terms of assassin prowess, he could kill those at the pinnacle, but anything beyond that was impossible.
'The Life-Death Realm, dismissed as legend, reachable only in death. A stage no mere Arhat can attain...'
Had he actually reached the Life-Death Realm?
From that point on, such a being was deemed a "god," no longer a mere individual lifeform.
Transcendent (In-oe).
A existence both feared and revered by all.
Naturally, it was the ultimate goal for all Arhats.
Those who reached the Life-Death Realm were said to be unbound by energy limits, able to slay foes hundreds of li away with a mere thought.
At its pinnacle, they could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with lesser demon gods.
'Not even that.'
But Chiwoo shook his head inwardly.
Even the Life-Death Realm couldn't transform one into a world.
Nor could it freely wield all the vital energy of a mountain.
Which meant.
'You've reached the Natural Realm, Taebaek...!'
He had already ascended to an unfathomably higher plane.
Becoming a world itself, freely manipulating the energies of all things—a realm beyond the heavens.
A monster that surpassed even demon gods.
And this was without even fully hatching.
How overwhelmingly powerful would it become once it hatched and evolved?
'I can't win.'
It was impossible to assassinate someone who had become the world itself.
Chiwoo lost all will to fight.
'At the very least, I must protect the successor...'
But if he had to die, dying alone would suffice.
Park Chan-woo was someone who absolutely could not die here.
A being of such pure honor that even immortals coveted it.
Teach him one thing, and he'd grasp ten, a hundred— a swordsman of infinite potential who advanced his Swordless Realm on his own.
And that was not all.
'He will surely ascend to the throne of supremacy one day.'
Park Chan-woo was the only variable capable of reaching Taebaek.
The powers he wielded were all utterly mysterious.
From the guardian deity Czarpham, to that ominously fierce beast, and even the Reaper.
None of them could be defined, yet they were all under Park Chan-woo's command.
It was undoubtedly due to the boundless potential Park Chan-woo possessed.
He had to be protected.
No matter what, even if it meant sacrificing everything.
Park Chan-woo, at all costs.
But.
"...!!!"
Chiwoo's pupils trembled.
It was as if time itself had frozen.
Starting from some indefinable moment.
Because Park Chan-woo's presence had completely transformed from before.
His aura, his demeanor—even his gaze and posture.
Finally, he slowly raised his head.
"... ."
And looked at the Black Sun.
No words were spoken.
Yet the weight of it was immense.
As if no one could even approach him.
What was certain was that from the moment his presence shifted, the surrounding energies had slipped from Taebaek's control.
Then, he assumed a stance and clenched his fist experimentally.
And thrust out a straight punch.
That was it.
Just extending his fist.
In that instant.
Boom!
Whooooom!
Krurrrrrrumble!
The air exploded, and all mana ignited in unison.
A gale-force wind arose, and in the blink of an eye, a long-range strike engulfed the Black Sun.
Kwaaaaang!
...The Black Sun detonated.
The shockwave birthed a massive ripple, and heaven and earth began to quake once more.
Kurung!
Kururrung!
The ground splintered into hundreds, thousands of fissures, triggering an earthquake.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
'...The world.'
The world had been torn.
More precisely, the boundary dividing the worlds had collapsed.
Having crossed via warp meant the boundaries were separated.
Even if it was the same "Mount Cultivator," one couldn't see beyond the divided boundaries.
But now.
...The "beyond" was visible.
Space had ripped open, revealing the upper reaches of a distant mountain.
A massive hole gaped in the upper section of Mount Cultivator.
Not content with obliterating the Black Sun, he had shattered the mountain beyond the boundary.
An act beyond all reason.
Chiwoo hurriedly circulated his inner energy.
'Ah...!'
But his qi wouldn't rise.
All his inner energy had frozen solid.
As the world tore, the surrounding energies had either burned away or escaped through the rifts.
All Chiwoo could do was barely maintain his balance on the shaking ground.
'H-how...'
That single punch Park Chan-woo had thrown moments ago.
It was a transcendent fist art on a level utterly divorced from anything he'd shown before.
An attack that pierced even the boundaries of the world!
There was no such fist art in existence.
A height no one could reach in a lifetime of wielding fists.
Chiwoo had never seen anyone attain such a realm through fist arts alone.
Taebaek's One Step Divine Fist?
Hardly.
The fist art Park Chan-woo had unleashed surpassed even that.
...He was beginning to doubt if this was truly his successor, Park Chan-woo.
Whooo!
Whooo!
Whooooom!
It was then.
From beyond the torn boundary, countless "swords" revealed themselves.
Not physical blades, but swords forged of pure energy.
In an instant, innumerable swords rained down like arrows.
Each and every one worthy of being called a divine sword.
An infinite barrage of swords pouring down until the foe was annihilated.
But.
Shing!
He merely drew a single sword.
The very same blade that had roared like a ferocious beast.
Grooooar!
In that moment, the ominously savage beast's roar echoed once more.
A colossal shadow surged up, enveloping Park Chan-woo's entire body again.
Yet he didn't even glance at it, simply thrusting the sword toward the sky.
The beast's permission?
Utterly meaningless to him.
Unnecessary, even.
He simply swung the sword lightly once.
At the same time.
Crack!
...The world halted once more.
This time, it truly felt frozen.
For the infinite swords raining like a downpour had all stopped dead in midair.
In that split second.
Craaaack!
All the swords shattered in two.
And then vanished, as if they had never existed.
He had precisely bisected that infinite sword barrage with a single swing.
And that was not all.
"Heav, enly...?"
Hanmir murmured.
Because the boundaries of the world had been sliced again, now revealing even the Heavenly Realm beyond Mount Cultivator.
She, too, couldn't make sense of the situation.
A man had suddenly burst into this secret sanctuary and was demolishing the mountain.
More than that—he was forcibly tearing into the Heavenly Realm itself, shaking its very foundations.
With just a single punch and one sword swing.
No way she had seen wrong.
Hanmir had once entered the "Heavenly Realm" in the past.
'The place where I opened my eyes was none other than there—the Heavenly Realm.'
She had awakened there from the start.
The immortals and Taoists had marveled at her.
Because of the "Jewel of Wisdom" she possessed.
But since the jewel had turned gray and become unusable, they promptly sent her back down to Mount Cultivator.
Afterward, Hanmir had hidden herself, changing everything she could.
She couldn't conceal that she was a Pandarian, so she disguised herself as a man.
Mirmun, who took her in from the Heavenly Realm, even gave her the name "Hanmir."
Of course, she never ascended to the Heavenly Realm again.
...Or so she thought.
Yet here was the Peach Blossom Paradise, right before her eyes.
Amid hazy mists lay the world's most breathtaking vista.
A place she longed to return to but could never reach.
"Insolent wretch."
"Daring to force open the gates of the Heavenly Realm without our permission?"
Yet countless Taoists blocked the way.
Behind them floated immortals riding clouds.
Divine beings incomparable to mere Arhats.
Entities before whom all should kneel in awe.
"... ."
But the one who had wrought all this remained expressionless.
Silent with unwavering poise.
Gazing at them with eyes like the abyss.
And took a single step forward.
Then.
Kururrrrrrumble!
The world quaked.
With just one footfall.
The Heavenly Realm was suddenly right before them.
He had forcibly folded all space.
Dragged all creation to him.
At the same time, the immortals' eyes wavered.
"Th-this...!"
"Impossible!"
"No way."
Footwork was fundamentally a method of movement.
A means to advance more effectively.
But the footwork before them now was entirely different.
He wasn't approaching them—he was folding space itself, forcing them to him.
Only one being in all the Abyss wielded such heaven-defying footwork.
"Supremacy of the Heavenly Demon...!!!"