Chapter 187: Soul Formation (2)
===================
Translated by Frog in the Well
Read more at Nineheavens.org
===================
He narrowed his eyes while looking at Mok Sa-heon, who regenerated his severed arm in an instant.
‘How persistent. He isn’t even a cockroach.’
The divine ability to rapidly regenerate any fatal wound by sacrificing the surrounding bugs. It seemed to be a unique trait possessed by the Insect-Armor Race, and it was truly a persistent life force.
He continuously swung his sword, slicing apart flesh and bone.
Just as he was agonizing over how to kill it,
reason began to hover in the eyes of Mok Sa-heon, who had eventually sprouted wings.
Flinching as if hesitating completely disappeared, and the movements became rapidly sophisticated every time they exchanged blows. Even…
Pssssst!
Vibrating his wings, he even blew sharp winds resembling Sword Qi. Beyond simply compressing and throwing spiritual power, he had started using spells.
Although the situation became increasingly worse, there was no fear.
“Good!”
Shouting refreshingly, he concentrated on the single sword. While cutting and deflecting, he stabbed whenever a gap was visible.
The feeling of tightrope walking between life and death. The thrill flowing along his nerves was truly welcome.
Rumble!
The atmosphere was distorted by the shockwaves exchanged amidst the laughter laced with madness. Since mighty powers clashed without rest, the entire space became unstable.
How long did they fight in a state of selflessness?
Suddenly, he realized that the surroundings had become empty.
Before he knew it, the bug eggs piled up like desert sand had all disappeared, and the true floor of the Defeated Sage Dojo was revealed.
Buildings massive enough to reach the sky stretched endlessly beyond the horizon.
To think such a scenery was hidden beneath the sand.
Could it be that each and every one of these buildings was a gate?
It was a beautiful landscape worthy of being described as majestic, but there was no time to appreciate it leisurely. Because he was in the middle of pouring all his mind into the powerful enemy who might be at the Soul Formation stage.
Clang—!
The instant he deflected the dark purple flying dagger that was right before piercing between his brows,
Mok Sa-heon, who put his four arms together in prayer simultaneously, muttered an incomprehensible, bizarre chant, and.
“Ack!”
An intangible shockwave that could not be detected even with Divine Sense bashed his solar plexus. He fell along with the pain of his ribs crushing.
Just as he was holding onto his consciousness, which was about to fade at the impact that felt like being hit by a siege weapon,
Clang!
Something collided with his back while he fell and shattered.
He realized a beat late. That he had crashed into an unnamed building along with the sound of shattering glass.
The building had been blocked by a barrier, but it was meaningless because he had been bounced off and flown at too rapid a speed.
Like a cannonball, he fell while cleanly smashing everything from the barrier to the ceiling of the building.
Jin So-myeong, who rolled over and over on the floor to reduce the impact somehow and stood up abruptly, was startled.
‘The Sword Pass?’
The interior of the building was an appearance that anyone would call a mountain, but tens of thousands of various swords were driven into the floor where grass should be.
Literally a mountain of blades and a forest of swords.
It was an awesome spectacle that made him want to admire it blankly, but there was no time now.
Thump!
Mok Sa-heon, who descended from the sky—no, the unidentified entity that occupied Mok Sa-heon’s body spoke as if looking down.
“Splendid fighting spirit. You are strong enough to make it hard to believe you are still at the Nascent Soul stage.”
“…”
Speaking in a lofty tone, the atmosphere was completely different from Mok Sa-heon.
“Although it is regrettable that you are born of the human race… with that degree of aptitude, it should be sufficient. How about becoming my disciple?”
“You want me to cultivate with difficulty just to end up as a mere bug disciple? I would rather die than that.”
“An absurd remark that can be made because you know nothing. Is not the human race precisely a weak race with a trifling lifespan?”
“How funny. For someone who is ultimately beaten by the human race and trapped in a secret realm.”
Simultaneously with him snorting as if it was not even worth replying to,
Bzzzzz—!
Along with a tinnitus that shook his head, a vast energy pressed down on his shoulders.
He felt an intuition in the pressure that felt like being squeezed between great mountains.
‘It is a Soul Formation-grade spell.’
Was it because reason had awakened as he completely took over Mok Sa-heon’s body?
The class was certainly different from before, when he had blindly compressed spiritual power and thrown it.
All the energy perceivable by his senses boiled, and then tried to crush him to death. A spell of overwhelming scale. It felt as if the entire world was hostile to him.
Rumble!
The instant the earth, which shot up along with an earthquake, turned into a dragon—no, a centipede, and tried to wrap around his entire body,
he detonated the spiritual power inside his heart.
The energy racing along his meridians was amplified exponentially.
‘Ah.’
The moment he spread the Blood Wings. The pressure weighing down on his shoulders was shattered at once.
The feeling of liberation from the binding was thrilling.
The feeling that the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration flowed instead of blood. An immense power surged enough to burst his meridians, which had been trained countlessly.
Crunch!
The centipede attempting to wrap around his entire body was torn to shreds merely by the energy that leaked out due to being uncontrollable.
Amidst the euphoria that made him feel he could do anything, he strived to maintain his reason.
“That divine ability…”
Mok Sa-heon, who paused, frowned his brows as if looking at an incomprehensible sight.
Blood Wings. More precisely, the technique of circulating the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration internally instead of pouring it out.
Starting from the heart at first, passing through the spleen, lungs, and kidneys to reach the liver.
Just finishing the first circulation achieved a neck-and-neck status with the distant aura Mok Sa-heon emitted.
While forcibly controlling the energy of the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that was about to continue the second circulation immediately,
Boom!
Charging roughly to the point that the ground split, he thrust his sword.
It was a fast sword strike so rapid that only a whitish afterimage remained, but the opponent did not stay still either.
The moment the tip of the blade met the dark red bead condensed by Mok Sa-heon,
———!
A shockwave exploded. The Sword Pass collapsed under the aftermath of the clash, but there was no time to feel regret.
The moment the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration transitioned to the second circulation, control was impossible.
Ignoring the pain rising from his meridians and five viscera that felt like they would burst at any moment, he swung his sword.
Clang-clang-clang!
How many times did they clash in the split second when he could not even exhale a single breath?
“Surprising. Did the human race possess such a divine ability?”
Pure admiration dwelled on Mok Sa-heon’s face. A mere Nascent Soul cultivator, though only for a brief moment, had matched a Soul Formation cultivator.
At that time.
Jin So-myeong was pouring all his nerves into controlling the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration.
‘I cannot hold out for long.’
Soon the second circulation would begin, and then it was the end.
If he did not want to burst to death, he had to pour out the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration. The result was one of two: kill the enemy, or self-destruct as his meridians were severed thread by thread.
Even before sorting out his complicated mind,
Clang—!
The blade he instinctively thrust upon discovering a gap was deflected by the carapaces covering the upper body.
‘It’s a sword where A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens condensed, but it won’t cut?’
The moment he saw that. He realized it was still lacking.
He threw the Star-Light Remnant-Shadow Sword—no, Mu-geuk, which he held in his hand. Flying it into the middle of the Sword Pass, he commanded it.
To absorb sharp intent from the mountain covered in swords, the mountain of blades and forest of swords.
Leaving behind Mu-geuk, which answered with a buzzing sound,
he drew any sword driven into the floor. The instant he struck up diagonally with a greatsword that felt heavy,
Clang!
The sword that collided with the bullet fired by the opponent broke in vain.
‘What.’
Jin So-myeong, whose eyes grew wide, hurriedly jerked his head back.
While avoiding the bullet right before it pierced his brow, he drew a new sword and swung it.
‘I almost died.’
He only knew it now, but the swords in the Sword Pass were somewhat strange.
There were swords that were not sharp, or had extremely low durability like glass.
He was curious about what kind of trial it was, but there was no time to ponder.
Swinging the swords as they were caught in his hand, if they broke, he rolled on the ground and continued to fight.
At most a few seconds.
While enduring the split second that felt like eternity, he intuited. That any more was impossible. If he did not want his meridians to burst and die, he had to end it immediately.
And simultaneously,
he also realized that it was not time yet. He had to buy time for Mu-geuk to absorb sharp intent.
In the passing worries, he hardened his resolve.
Let’s hold out somehow. Holding a shabby longsword pulled from the ground, he concentrated.
He saw at the end of concentrating to the point that the world slowed down,
an intangible shockwave originating from the wings vibrating at an immense speed.
Towards it flying across the empty air, he struck down with his sword as if cleaving it in two.
Slash!
As if cutting the wind, the shabby longsword that split the intangible shockwave cracked with a creak.
Would it not work?
Although he had already strengthened the sword with all his might, it was insufficient.
Looking at the sword about to break, suddenly, he realized that there was still something remaining.
Divine Sense, which was no different from eyes and ears.
That which was absolutely necessary to dominate the surroundings, stabilize space, and detect the enemy’s attacks. Divine Sense remained.
The worry was brief.
He retrieved all the Divine Sense he had scattered in all directions and condensed it on the sword blade.
In a state no different from a blind person since he could not examine the surroundings with Divine Sense,
Slash!
he struck down vertically with the sword to slice through the shockwave.
Then a wondrous thing happened. The territory the enemy had dominated with Divine Sense was split along the sword’s trajectory.
‘Now.’
A path was visible.
Following instincts polished by numerous battles, he took a step.
He folded space towards the empty place where each other’s Divine Senses had neutralized.
At the same time as passing through the opponent with teleportation and occupying the back,
he snatched Mu-geuk, which flew in just in time, and spun like a top.
Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration Slash.
He guided the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration, which entered the second circulation, to the tip of the sword.
Right before the blade that struck down like lightning could split the crown,
Mok Sa-heon did not stay still either.
He crossed his four arms, wrapped in an energy so massive that the air distorted, to try to deflect the blade.
But.
The moment it touched the pure white line, all resistance lost meaning.
When the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that underwent the second circulation and A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens combined, nothing could block it.
After a split second of silence,
Mok Sa-heon, whose entire body was split vertically from the crown, admired.
“A mysterious divine ability.”
A pure white line was drawn straight down along his forehead, and a pure white flame flared up centered on the wound.
The divine ability producing the phenomenon of destruction. The Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration exerted its power.
The instant he was completely enveloped in the pure white flames that spread in an instant,
‘Ugh?!’
He parried something flying towards his chest with the flat of the sword.
There was no time to be shocked.
Mok Sa-heon, enveloped in pure white flames, thrust his fingernails as if he had become a beast.
‘To think he holds out even after being hit by the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration?’
Was a Soul Formation cultivator truly a monster? Although he was shocked enough to widen his eyes, his body reacted naturally.
He poured his Supreme Great Ability into the Myriad Flows Restoration divine ability. Rapidly recovering his body ruined as a price for spreading the Blood Wings, he continued the brawl.
Rumble!
Dozens of clashes made in a split second.
He forgot everything. They only unfolded killing moves to kill each other.
Just as he twisted his upper body to dodge the fingernails trying to gouge his heart and sliced it off arm and all,
“Look. Did the physical body not get ruined, unable to withstand even a bit of power? This is the limit of the human race.”
Mok Sa-heon, who had aged drastically before he knew it, muttered as if feeling regret.
Looking at the wrinkly creases and the hair turned pure white, he intuited that the guy’s lifespan was exhausted, and snorted.
“It is not that humans are weak. It must be that you could not control the power properly.”
“Haha. Obsessing over minor power and trying to control it perfectly is a waste. You will also understand my words once you become the Insect-Armor Race.”
The words spat out along with the bizarre laughter were ominous.
At the moment he tightened his vigilance. In a critical instant, Mok Sa-heon, who swelled as large as a house, exploded.
‘Self-detonation?’
By the time he perceived it, it was already too late. He was already caught in the sticky dark-green smoke.
But something was strange. Why was it not painful despite being swept in the explosion?
Rather, it was itchy…
He checked the back of his hands unconsciously and was shocked. Before he knew it, carapaces had sprouted on his both arms, which had been fine.
‘Crazy.’
Was the final self-detonation the last blow trying to infect him into the Insect-Armor Race?
‘He should have gone peacefully.’
There was no leisure to enjoy victory.
Following the back of his hands, all the way to his shoulders. Without even time to resist, he was covered in carapaces in an instant.
An urgent situation.
He dragged up the blood Qi accumulated through the Five Viscera Hundred Tempering Art. Just as he was trying to resist somehow with the energy specialized in poison resistance,
‘This is…?’
The A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens that had been concentrated on the sword moved along his wrist to his body, and when it touched the part covered in carapaces, a wondrous thing happened.
Should he call it purification?
Upon touching the pure white light, the carapaces turned to ashes and fell off. It returned to normal human skin.
Suddenly, the words spoken by the Star-Shattering True Monarch, who had cleaved the imugi in two, came to mind.
‘My Dao has filled the world, so this is called A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens.’
He realized dimly. That A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens was not a secret technique simply for destruction.
A feeling that he seemed to understand something, yet at the same time knew nothing, arose.
In his heart, he wanted to sit cross-legged and meditate, but the situation was urgent.
Rumble!
He retrieved the Myriad Thunders Chaos Sky Scroll and unfolded the Lightning Escape Art to fly with all his power.
He barely escaped from the smoke that raged as he self-detonated, but the danger was not over yet.
Because the smoke expanded with the momentum to fill the Defeated Sage Dojo, he had to widen the distance as quickly as possible. Even if he had A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens, he could not hold out long inside the toxic smoke.
Just as he was rapidly scanning the surroundings to find an exit,
his eyes wide opened.
‘The Body Tempering Pass?’
Thanks to the eggs forming the desert disappearing cleanly, his vision cleared up wide, and among the buildings spread all the way beyond the horizon, a few caught his eye in particular.
Enjoyed the chapter?
If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!
Support on Ko-fi