Chapter 85: The Final Awakening Phenomenon
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Jeo Gyeom’s head was tangled with all manner of thoughts.
Because the words Cheol Ryu-heun had just uttered were too shocking.
He could accomplish that entire series of internal energy technique operation methods – whether the circulation of release or the condensation of gathering – all within the short time of a single breath?
In other words… It meant that emitting the same level of maximum cultivation consistently wasn’t particularly difficult?
Furthermore, the process of Energy Circulation for Healing Injury that tended to internal damage was also no different?
It was possible for the internal cultivation he possessed in his body, for all the vital energy within, to display such unfathomable essence and profound use in the space of one or two breaths?
It was insane talk.
It was a remark of someone out of their mind.
That was sophistry and nonsense that strayed far from the category of martial knowledge.
But.
He couldn’t just ignore it outright, nor could he rashly disbelieve it.
That was the situation.
Though he didn’t want to believe it, it was making him believe.
Cheol Ryu-heun had already personally demonstrated common-sense-destroying martial prowess as if that absurd talk was real.
The maximum cultivation that had been consistently released toward the end had thoroughly proven that the preposterous theory was absolutely not impossible.
Then came Cheol Ryu-heun’s emotionless voice again.
“I’m performing Circulating energy and regulating breathing even now while walking. Of course, you can’t even feel this flow of energy.”
Jeo Gyeom’s gaze sank deep and dark like the abyss.
Right, now he finally understood.
The true meaning of the boast that his body was no different from a divine weapon…
Earlier, when he first faced Cheol Ryu-heun, the reason he couldn’t detect any intangible aura, as if from a common person who hadn’t learned martial arts, was because of some kind of strange power that body possessed.
Thinking about it calmly, the omens had been bad from that point.
However, he had overlooked it due to pride in his own martial prowess.
Like only realizing it was a swamp after his foot had sunk in.
It was a clear mistake.
One brought about purely by his own misjudgment…
It wasn’t something to blame anyone else for.
His lofty pride had, in the end, acted as complacent arrogance and brought about this disaster.
Cheol Ryu-heun saw through that intention and hit the mark.
“As always, small carelessness invites great calamity.”
In truth, he had prepared for today’s battle thoroughly, keeping in mind every predictable situation based on a thousand years of experience.
Especially.
Research to uncover the strange attributes of his mysterious body had not rested for a single day.
After achieving Bone Replacement and Marrow Cleansing by pouring all the energy of elixirs amounting to nearly two hundred years of cultivation into body remodeling, he had made constant efforts.
With all the pressure points including the three dantians disappearing, making the operation laws related to energy circulation – breath regulation, circulation, healing, and such – freely accomplished without bodily limitations, he had performed Circulating energy and regulating breathing whenever he had time to effectively use that power, making progress knowingly and unknowingly.
The attempts were successful.
In the end, he had completely mastered the internal energy technique operation techniques of releasing and accumulating vital energy and such within a single breath.
Just then, the Thousand Snake Gang that he had deliberately let go had drawn in a big fish.
Jeo Gyeom, called Netherworld Sword Fork.
That existence, who had once faced one of the Five Supreme Martial Experts of Hunan, was an excellent opponent to definitely test the ability.
Indeed.
His main purpose in coming here from the start was a kind of sparring ground solely to see just how effectively the power that ignored the absolute laws accompanying internal cultivation would be displayed during life-and-death bloody battle.
Fortunately, because Jeo Gyeom’s martial prowess level wasn’t weak, and furthermore because the Ghost Skull Divine Armor was added, he had been able to try many things beyond initial expectations and gained new information and conviction about this mysterious body.
STEP, STEP, STEP…
Cheol Ryu-heun gradually closed the distance while continuing to speak.
“When neither of us is doing anything, your martial prowess level and mine are similar. But as time passes, the gap in cultivation widens.”
As he said, in a complete state where neither had consumed any power, he was equal to Jeo Gyeom or slightly below.
Evenly matched, a narrow difference.
However.
Whenever a time gap occurred, whether short or long, that difference in power ultimately reversed as if becoming meaningless.
By the unprecedented body’s ability, the internal energy technique operation method accomplished in a single breath.
When he had met Seop Pyo earlier and said he didn’t yet match his martial prowess level, that was also in such context.
It meant that in a complete bodily state where no power had been expended, he was a step below in terms of total internal cultivation or the momentum of cultivation.
Meanwhile.
Jeo Gyeom’s bluish gaze was repeatedly creating great tremors.
If this were a dream, it was no different from a nightmare he wouldn’t want to dream again.
He couldn’t fathom at all what principle could operate such an absurd ability.
He couldn’t win like this.
Beyond Heaven’s Heaven.
A fellow who made him feel the meaning of those words – a sky beyond the sky – had appeared.
‘I’m like this again…’
A match he didn’t want to remember again flashed through his mind.
Thunder Cloud Sword Duke.
An ultra-first-rate sword path master who had handed him the bitter first defeat of his life, and one of the Five Supreme Martial Experts representing the Hunan region.
He felt as if the wounds he had suffered at his hands were throbbing.
Because of the unexpected powerful enemy Cheol Ryu-heun, who displayed presence as great as Wei Ji-am’s…
CLENCH!
Soon, Jeo Gyeom gripped the Hunming Sword hard, detached his back from the wall, and walked out to face him.
This fight wasn’t over.
Not until he died.
Right, he had to try everything he could.
Suppressing the stinging pain of internal injury, he injected massive vital energy into the Hunming Sword and let his eyes flash with blue energy.
FWAP.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s charge.
Having compressed the gap in one stroke, he swung the Ganjiang Sword down horizontally.
Jeo Gyeom also did not evade and executed an upward slash while squeezing out cultivation to the maximum.
KA-CLAAAANG- KABOOOOM!
A shockwave that shook the space.
Immediately after, the appearances of the two were starkly contrasted.
While Cheol Ryu-heun showed no wavering in his sword-swinging posture, Jeo Gyeom’s figure was teetering as his left knee touched the ground.
KICK!
Desperately straightening his knee and standing up, Jeo Gyeom once again released indigo sword energy forward with all his might.
Nine Origins Sword Forms ultimate technique Nine Springs Soul Shattering Cry.
However, Cheol Ryu-heun had already vanished, and that terrifying sword energy only pierced through air.
KA-CRASH!
Along with a thunderous roar close to an explosion, Jeo Gyeom’s figure lost its center and was bounced far to the side, colliding with the crack-filled ground.
“Kuh…!”
His back struck against it, and his mouth spewed agonized sound and bitter blood.
WHIRRRR.
Cheol Ryu-heun, having leaped high, gripped the Ganjiang Sword in reverse through the air and fell toward Jeo Gyeom.
A crisis moment.
CRASH-!
The sharp Ganjiang Sword missed its target and was driven into the ground.
CRA-CRA-CRA-CRA-CRACK…
The ground screaming from the powerful sword force.
Jeo Gyeom had disregarded shame and rolled his body sideways to evade that offensive.
Having thus sprung up again, he had no time to even catch his breath before facing the opponent’s follow-up sword strike.
CLAAAAAAANG- KABOOOOOOM!
The instant the Ganjiang Sword, laden with white sword energy, struck the surface of the Ghost Skull Divine Armor’s solar plexus area.
“GAHAAK!”
Jeo Gyeom flew far backward as if hit by a heavy cannonball, tumbling several times on the ground.
A scene proving once again the insurmountable gap in power.
CLENCH-
Having raised his body using the Hunming Sword in his hand as a cane, thick shadows cast over his eyes.
‘Damn it…’
Defeat, frustration, and a gradually rising fear.
CRACK, CRA-CRACK-
Cracks again formed on the Ghost Skull Divine Armor’s surface.
At that moment, Cheol Ryu-heun over there spoke while moving his steps.
“It seems your bloodlust toward me has faded?”
Suddenly.
-It’s not over yet! Kill him somehow! Even if you have to burn your entire being!
Seized by the auditory hallucination created by ghost energy, Jeo Gyeom gritted his teeth, his cheeks trembling.
A face driven by desperation.
In reality, though he had no choice but to acknowledge his opponent, the heart that didn’t want to acknowledge was instantly transforming into even greater fighting spirit and bloodlust.
Defeat, frustration, fear… A bloodlust in his chest so enormous it covered all of that merged as one with the divine weapon’s unique ghost energy.
If he was going to die anyway, he would die together with that fellow.
Mutual Destruction.
The final resort meaning returning together to annihilation.
The resolve, that single thought of settling things by dying together with Cheol Ryu-heun, finally made him open the forbidden power he should not have used.
SSSSSSSSS…
Soon, silvery-white aura rose and covered his entire body, and his skin also flushed red.
Indeed.
He had finally unleashed without reserve even the Innate True Energy, the fundamental energy of life.
But then.
KYUU-WOONG… KYUU-WOONG…
The countless iron pieces of the Ghost Skull Divine Armor trembled and played strange sounds never heard before.
Simultaneously.
FLASH!
The ferocious ghost face embossing in the center spewed currents like blue flames and emitted an aura that made goosebumps rise.
It felt like energy so bizarre and eerie it made hair stand on end was wildly sweeping through.
It was as if this rear garden had transformed into the underworld’s Yubu or Yellow Springs – supposedly a subterranean world beyond some boundary and dimension of the mortal world.
Jeo Gyeom, steeped in the Ghost Skull Divine Armor’s unique ghost energy that had shown sudden change, wore a gaze similar to ecstasy.
‘This power is…!’
He could sense it immediately.
That this was the final awakening phenomenon that appeared when the Ghost Skull Divine Armor’s ghost energy fully exploded upon the bloodlust running rampant and breaking through its limit by far.
-Kill him… And crush that sword too! In this world, the only thing of value is the incarnation of ghost energy…
A thin smile settled at the corner of Jeo Gyeom’s mouth.
“Heh, so I never needed the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique from the beginning.”
Before he knew it, reason had completely disappeared, and only the urge to kill was swirling through his mind and chest.
He could only see Cheol Ryu-heun.
Setting aside everything else, if he could just kill him, he would not regret even becoming a cripple.
SURGE-SURGE.
Vitality was rising throughout his body.
It was an ecstatic power indescribable in words.
A corrupt energy that completely ignored the energy attributes of the internal cultivation mental technique he had practiced his whole life.
An unprecedented internal energy technique manifested upon obtaining a wicked depth of realm that transcended even the extreme of bloodlust… Perhaps the martial arts of the demonic path were similar to this.
‘Anyway.’
Jeo Gyeom drew an even clearer smile and concentrated massive cultivation into the sword in his right hand.
WHING- WI-WHING- WI-I-WHING-!
The Hunming Sword howled fiercely, warning of that power.
However, Cheol Ryu-heun did not stop his advancing steps and still threw out an indifferent voice.
“So you’ve awakened all the hidden power of the Ghost Skull Divine Armor.”
At that, Jeo Gyeom moved his two feet slowly as if going out to meet him.
“You felt it too? Then you must be well aware that your death is imminent.”
“No.”
“Kekek. Arrogant bastard… That mouth of yours must be torn apart.”
The moment Jeo Gyeom sneered, Cheol Ryu-heun’s words delivered surprise.
“The Ghost Skull Divine Armor was once ruthlessly destroyed about six hundred years ago.”
“…”
“I also know who later restored it. Well, anyway, what’s important is… That fiendish thing will disappear into the dustbin of history by my hand today. Do you know why?”
“Go ahead and keep babbling.”
“The one who smashed the Ghost Skull Divine Armor in the past was none other than the Evil Emperor. And I am one who has inherited that true teachings.”
“…!”
Great ripples spread in Jeo Gyeom’s pupils upon receiving this unexpected secret history.
‘Inherited the Evil Emperor’s true teachings?’
Suddenly, the Ganjiang Sword burst into a fierce cry no less than the Hunming Sword’s earlier one.
WHING, WI-WHING- WHING- WI-I-WHING-!
For the first time, a thin smile rose at the corner of Cheol Ryu-heun’s mouth.
“Let me show you why the Ghost Skull Divine Armor is a defective product.”
“Bastard!”
The instant Jeo Gyeom thundered and explosively emitted his blatant fighting spirit and bloodlust, eight clones were generated around him.
It was Phantom Technique that the Ghost Skull Divine Armor had naturally created.
A transcendent skill possessing both the essence of confusing vision and the profound use of disrupting energy sense.
Soon, reality and illusion spun and mixed together, approaching.
A scene as if ghosts and yakshas had gathered in a group, rushing in wildly to slaughter their opponent.
Yet Cheol Ryu-heun charged forward like a single ray of light without caring.