Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: The Snake's Head (1)
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“Haaaah.”
Taking a deep breath.
I focus my mind on the left side of my chest.
Thump, thump.
The rhythmic beat of my heart echoes in my ears.
I imagine a black sky.
A sky where the moonlight has vanished, where not even starlight remains.
A sky blanketed by dark, ink-black clouds.
Thud, thud.
The faint thumping of my heart grows louder, like the beat of a drum.
As if hypnotized, my consciousness gradually drifts up between the dark clouds.
‘So it's still there.’
A pure white light, hiding its body like a turtle amidst the dense, dark clouds.
It was the mana from the Stigma I had absorbed from Damian not long ago.
Vwoooom!
As I reached for the light, which shone loftily like a star in the night sky, a fierce rejection seared my fingertips.
The Stigma's mana, resisting violently as if refusing to submit, was as stubborn as its former master.
‘Tsk.’
Oh-jin scowled and pulled his hand away from the brilliantly burning light.
Much like the Dragon Vein's mana, it was a power he couldn't handle at his current level.
‘If I could just absorb that mana, I feel like I could reach 9-Star in no time.’
But was it because my Black Heaven was still at a low level, or was it because this mana, a spitting image of Damian's personality, was special?
Damian's mana rejected him like a hedgehog with its quills raised.
‘Even so.’
Oh-jin drew up the vast amounts of Stigma mana dormant within his Black Heaven and circulated it throughout his body.
The Stigma's mana flowed haughtily through his mana circuits, which were now incomparably wider than before.
Like a rock being eroded by a river, a minuscule part of the crouched white light dissolved into the mana.
The mana, originating from his heart, circulated once through his circuits before returning.
An act similar to what's often called a "single heavenly cycle" in martial arts novels.
With each cycle, he could absorb a tiny bit of Damian's mana.
With enough time, he could eventually melt all of Damian's mana into his Black Heaven.
‘The problem is that time.’
The amount he could absorb at once was so small that he couldn't just focus on this one thing.
“Fwooo.”
He slowly exhaled the deep breath he had taken and opened his eyes.
The interior of a spacious personal training room, the size of three basketball courts combined, came into view.
Having finished the now-routine cycle, Oh-jin lightly stretched, tensing his muscles.
‘The Stigma of Libra.’
A faintly glowing light took shape.
The illusion it formed was Cheon Do-yoon.
The King of Owls, who had once driven him to the brink of death.
“The timer… I'll set it for 10 minutes, no, 15.”
Oh-jin took out his smartphone and set the timer.
‘Now then.’
He steadied his breath and cleared his mind of stray thoughts.
Gazing intently at the illusion of Cheon Do-yoon, he spoke a ‘lie’.
“What's in front of me is not an illusion.”
It's not some mere illusion.
It is real, it exists.
It is my ‘enemy’.
“It's the real Cheon Do-yoon.”
As if hypnotizing himself.
Again and again.
He repeated the lie.
And then.
“Hoholhol. It has been a while.”
The illusion made of light—no, Cheon Do-yoon—let out a bizarre laugh and stroked his beard.
“Thinking back on it now, it truly is a shame.”
Cheon Do-yoon's lips curled into a foul smirk.
“If only you hadn't been there—”
Hundreds of black feathers materialized around him.
“That child's eyes would be in this old man's hands.”
“Shut your fucking mouth, you bastard.”
His head grew hot as rage surged through him.
The image of Ha-eun, caught in Cheon Do-yoon's grasp and crying pitifully, flashed in his mind.
Back then, he had been helplessly defeated.
Fzzt! Crackle!
Blue lightning coiled around his legs.
Oh-jin charged forward at a terrifying speed, like a loosed arrow.
“Hoholhol.”
Th-th-th-th-th!
The black feathers floating around Cheon Do-yoon took aim at Oh-jin.
Wreathed in blue lightning, he jumped into the air acrobatically.
His jet-black spear struck down on the crown of Cheon Do-yoon's head like a thunderbolt.
“That won't be enough to handle this old man.”
Kaaang!
A black wing formed from Cheon Do-yoon's shoulder blade and parried the spear.
A dizzying shock traveled up his arm.
Having lost his grip on the spear, Oh-jin was thrown backward.
The black wing flapped grandly, unleashing a shower of black feathers at the recoiling Oh-jin.
Pfft.
The skin grazed by the black feathers turned red and inflamed, the flesh beneath becoming necrotic.
“We'll see about that.”
Oh-jin twisted his lips into a smirk and reached for his spear, which had been knocked away and was rolling on the floor.
Fzzt!
A tendril of blue lightning connected to the spear, causing it to float up.
“I think I'm more than a match for you now.”
“Keoheok!”
Puk!
The spear that had been sent flying shot forward, piercing through Cheon Do-yoon's back.
Red blood poured out.
His wrinkled mouth agape, Cheon Do-yoon fell to one knee.
“Tsk, tsk. That old geezer is all talk.”
“Shhhhiiiik!”
As Cheon Do-yoon fell, a young man with a nervous expression and a monster covered in black armor appeared.
Sosuke, the 7th Executor of the Black Star Organization, and a Living Armor.
The two of them pressed Oh-jin from both sides, as if they had been coordinating for a long time.
“Huu, huu.”
His breathing was somewhat ragged.
But before he could catch his breath, dark blue flames and a mass of water flew at him from both sides.
Pzzt! Pzzzzzt!
A rapid exchange of blows, too fast for the eye to follow, ensued, and wounds began to accumulate on Oh-jin's body.
“Shhhk, shhk, shhhk.”
“Keoheok… Keok. Keuleok!”
In the end, it was the Living Armor and Sosuke who collapsed to the floor.
Oh-jin exhaled a breath that had reached the tip of his chin and turned around.
“To those stained by darkness.”
There stood Damian, glaring at Oh-jin with wide-open eyes.
The sword raised high above his head emitted a brilliant light.
“Let there be light.”
Kwagagagagaga!
A massive wave of light rushed toward him like a tsunami.
Just before Damian's sword could split him in two from the crown of his head down.
Diri-ring.
The alarm he had set on his smartphone went off.
With the clear sound of a bell, the ‘lie’ he had told himself shattered.
The sword swung by Damian's illusion passed right through his body.
“Huaah!”
Oh-jin let out a ragged breath and looked down at Damian's sword, which had passed through him.
‘I guess taking on Damian is still too much.’
Keung.
Swallowing a groan, he examined the wounds on his body.
Despite it being a battle against illusions with no physical force, his body was covered in wounds where the flesh had turned necrotic.
“The wounds seem to be getting worse.”
When he first started this image training by lying to himself, the wounds weren't this severe. Maybe it was because the illusions had become more visually realistic since he gained the ability to create them.
The wounds appearing on his body became more like real injuries.
‘Well, I was genuinely pissed off at Cheon Do-yoon earlier.’
Of course, in a corner of his mind, the thought that this was all just an illusion for image training still lingered.
If he kept training like this, he felt he might eventually be able to deceive himself completely.
“Still, that might be taking it a bit too far.”
Oh-jin chuckled and placed a hand on a necrotic patch of flesh.
‘The Stigma of Hippocampus.’
As he was healing his body with Water Affinity and reviewing the battle against the illusions.
Beep, be-beep, bee-bee-beep.
The sound of a keypad was followed by the training room door opening.
“Are you still training, Mr. Oh-jin?”
“Oh-jin, what the hell? How did you make such a mess training by yourself?”
The ones who opened the door and entered were Isabella and Ha-eun.
Oh-jin turned to Ha-eun, who was soaked in sweat just like him, and asked.
“You were training too, Nunna?”
“Don't even ask. I sparred with this little witch Isabella for a bit and thought I was gonna die.”
Ha-eun shook her head, a fed-up look on her face.
Isabella wrapped her arms around Ha-eun's, smiling sweetly.
“Oh my, Unni. How could you call your cute little sister a witch? That's so mean.”
“Hey! Stop acting so innocent, you! A minute ago, you were attacking me like you were trying to eat me alive!”
“Heehee. It was all for your own good, Unni.”
Isabella covered her mouth and let out a small laugh.
She said it was for Ha-eun's sake, but one of her goals was probably to vent the jealousy she had unknowingly built up toward her.
“Anyway, what brings you two here?”
“We came to have lunch with you. Is now a good time?”
“Oh, great. I just finished a set and was about to take a break.”
“That's a relief.”
Isabella beamed and brought over a lunchbox.
“I made it this morning.”
“Ugh, I'm starving to death. Let's eat, Oh-jin.”
“Yeah.”
The three of them sat together in a small circle in the spacious training room and ate lunch.
Eating lunch together like this in the training room had become a rather familiar part of their routine lately.
Vzzzt.
Just then.
His smartphone, set to vibrate, buzzed.
He thought it was just another spam text and was about to ignore it and continue eating, but…
Vzzzt. Vzzzt.
“Looks like you're getting a call.”
“Just a sec.”
Oh-jin picked up his smartphone.
The name on the screen was ‘Elder Cheon Sang-gil’.
It was a call from Dubhe, with whom he hadn't been in contact at all recently.
“Who is it, Mr. Oh-jin?”
“It's Elder Cheon Sang-gil.”
“Huh? Is that Gramps?”
Ha-eun, who had been devouring her food, looked up with wide eyes.
Oh-jin nodded and put the call on speaker.
-Keke. It's been a while.
Cheon Sang-gil's voice echoed through the spacious training room.
“Ah, yes. Have you been well, Elder?”
-This old man has had a rough time chasing the snake's tail.
The deep fatigue in his voice conveyed just how much he had struggled.
“Did you have any success?”
-That's actually why I'm calling you.
Cheon Sang-gil continued.
-You went to Sokcho before, didn't you? During that monster incident.
“Ah, yes. I did.”
Oh-jin dredged up the memory from over half a year ago.
The incident where abnormally spawned monsters attacked Sokcho.
The monsters fleeing in the same direction as if being lured, and the black energy situated in the city center.
“Did something happen there? I'm sure Nunna burned all of that black energy away back then.”
Oh-jin asked, glancing at Ha-eun.
-What was burned away back then was just a tiny fraction. Deeper within… another darkness was slumbering.
“Another darkness…?”
-A Demonic Realm.
Oh-jin's expression hardened at the ominous-sounding word.
-There was a rift leading to a Demonic Realm.
“No way…”
Oh-jin's face became stiff.
Why would a rift to the Demonic Realm, which was said to exist only at the North Pole, suddenly appear in Korea?
-And there, I found it.
Cheon Sang-gil continued in a low, somber voice.
-The snake's tail.