Chapter 214: Star-Shattering True Monarch
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Translated by Frog in the Well
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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He came to possess strength and speed equal to the Lord of the Divine Wood.
Although it was a highly positive sign, the price was painful.
‘I cannot hold out for long.’
One minute at the longest.
As the Blood Wings entered the second circulation, his body began to collapse in real time.
Even though he had become a Soul Formation cultivator, the physical load that occurred when unleashing the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration remained the same.
No, rather, it became even more severe as the underlying magic power increased explosively.
It felt like lava was flowing instead of blood.
Enduring the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that boiled with the momentum to melt his meridians,
he swung his sword while walking through the split moments of time.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sparks flew up every time the sword and fist made contact and parted.
The number of clashes during the time of a single breath was at least hundreds of times; they exchanged so many offenses and defenses that the sky was instantly filled with bright red sparks, yet there was no effective hit.
The Lord of the Divine Wood, who had seemed slightly surprised, regained his composure in an instant.
He countered every single fast sword strike, which was difficult for even Jin So-myeong himself to perceive, without retreating even a single step.
How many battles had he fought during a span of time reaching two hundred thousand years? The Lord of the Divine Wood was a master of combat who had reached the peak even in close combat.
Suddenly.
At the chilling sensation that made his spine go cold, he instinctively turned his head, and
Kaboom!
something that brushed past his cheek by a hair’s breadth set off a shockwave.
A beat late, he realized that a fist flying in at an invisible speed had brushed past his earlobe.
‘He became even faster.’
The strength contained in the fist was so powerful that, even though it merely struck the empty air, his cheek was stinging from the aftermath alone.
It was to the extent that various spells flying from the surroundings were caught in the shockwave and turned to dust.
“···Haha!”
It was a spine-chilling sight, yet for some reason, he laughed.
He could not even remember how long it had been since he had exerted himself like this; though he was dying moment by moment as the price of spreading his Blood Wings, it was strangely enjoyable.
Whoosh…!
The moment he deflected the fist trying to pierce his solar plexus with his sword.
Rotating his entire body like a spinning top, the Lord of the Divine Wood struck down at his temple with his elbow.
Tilting his head back to dodge, he thrust his sword back at the same time.
Clang!
He tried to slice the left chest, the heart, but the sword was bounced back after digging barely an inch into the skin.
The power contained in the sword was insufficient to even pierce the bare skin…
Although it was an absurd result, there was no time to even frown, as it was overwhelming just to respond to the continuous barrage of strikes.
Dodging, thrusting, and dodging again…
Choices deciding life and death by a paper-thin margin continued endlessly.
Within a split second that felt like eternity,
as moments where it would not be strange for him to die at any time continued, his senses were heightened to the point that he could feel even a single peach fuzz.
Should he say the entire world had become clear?
His concentration, which had sharpened to the limit, proceeded into an unknown realm.
His movements also changed.
His steps became light as a feather, and the sword swung by flicking his wrist contained power capable of easily cleaving even Mount Tai.
Although he felt himself growing stronger in real time…
‘It is not enough.’
The second circulation alone was insufficient.
To kill the Lord of the Divine Wood, who was strong enough to be called flawless in combat, a more overwhelming power was required.
“···”
The method to fill the lacking power was simple.
The Blood Wings grew exponentially stronger as the circulations continued; entering the third circulation, they would possess an energy dozens of times stronger than now.
However, he did not know what the result would be.
He had no confidence in whether his physical body could endure the third circulation now.
The future seen with the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye?
His entire body exploded, leading to death; besides that, only various miserable deaths lay in wait. With his current ability, he could not endure the third circulation.
“Heh.”
But what did that matter? If he stopped now, he would die anyway.
Using a split second of hesitation as a stepping stone, he took one more step.
He guided the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration, which was running wild with the momentum to tear apart his meridians, to his heart,
and the moment the Blood Wings entered the third circulation,
Beeeep…!
his vision distorted along with a ringing in his ears.
He ignored the horrific pain that prevented him from even letting out a groan; the thrilling power he felt for the first time in his life took priority.
Would it be like this if one contained a volcano on the verge of explosion inside one’s body…?
Since it was such a colossal power, it was hard to endure even with his concentration heightened by battle.
Gathering his spirit that felt like it would collapse, he controlled the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration running wild to explode his body and guided it to the meridians.
It was his intention to control it somehow, but unfortunately, it was useless.
Sssss…
Everything touched by the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that went through the third circulation perished.
Feeling that his meridians were not just snapping strand by strand but literally turning to ash, he grit his teeth.
He poured out his saved Supreme Great Ability indiscriminately.
With the supreme divine ability that could be called a fragment of omnipotence, he forcibly restored his physical body that was heading toward death moment by moment.
He swung his sword amidst the vastness that made his head go white.
Clang!
A faint metallic sound; he felt a weak repelling force through the blade, but he did not know what he cut.
Simply with the mind to kill the opponent before he died,
he continuously unleashed sword strikes toward the opponent who appeared blurry in his distorted vision.
Crack!
The shoulder bone hit by the fist shattered, but he ignored it.
Realizing through the pain that the opponent was still perfectly fine, he immersed himself only in gathering the energy amplified by the Blood Wings into the tip of the sword.
If he could not win, there was only death.
Just as he was squeezing his physical body that had reached its limit amidst mad obsession,
Crack!
a sound of something breaking inside him was heard, and his vision cleared up.
His physical body, which had been in a state infinitely close to Rank 5, took one more step under the extreme situation, crossing the wall.
Simultaneously with his physical body reaching the Soul Formation stage class,
intense vitality surged from all over his dying body; the physical body that had reached the brink of collapse in the aftermath of spreading the Blood Wings regenerated in an instant.
The vision distorted like a haze also became clear, but…
‘Ah.’
As his physical body reached Rank 5, the side effect of rapidly growing stronger arrived.
For a truly fleeting instant, the balance between his mind and body, which could not keep up with the growth, collapsed.
The minute gap generated by that.
A thread-like gap that would not have been a problem at all normally; the fist that flew in, piercing through it, was on the verge of puncturing his heart.
The moment he perceived it, it was already too late, unable to block or avoid it.
In a split second without even the leeway to judge…
He unleashed the Yin-Yang Great Hand Seal with all his might, ignoring it and striking back since it was obvious he could not avoid it.
Crack!
A sound like a large drum bursting echoed.
Following the excruciating pain of his heart crumbling and the floating sensation of his entire body soaring, a tremendous impact was felt on his back.
Amidst the vast pain, he realized he had plunged to the ground and was buried deep in the earth; there was no need to even mention that all the bones in his body were shattered…
‘Groan.’
As soon as his thoughts, which had been cut off for a split second, connected, he poured out his last remaining Supreme Great Ability to revive his heart first.
Thump! Thump!
He had no time to feel relieved by the heart that regenerated and began to throb in an instant.
Not just his heart, but his entire body was a mess.
Although it regenerated rapidly as befitting a body that had achieved the Undying Body, the opponent did not give him even that brief moment.
Crackle!
The surrounding soil, wriggling as if alive, began to tighten.
Under the pressure of the entire earth crushing down, the bones that were just about to recover crumbled again.
‘Already?’
He had unleashed the Yin-Yang Great Hand Seal even while bearing the risk of his heart bursting because he feared a follow-up attack would fly in like this, yet had the opponent already dealt with it?
Crack!
Reflexively wrapping himself in the Blood Armor, it shattered without enduring even for a brief moment.
His mind grew hazy under the absurd pressure.
Under the sense of crisis that he would truly die at this rate, he controlled the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration, which had barely regained stability as his body reached Rank 5, and…
the Blood Wings entered the fourth circulation.
And.
Simply by making contact with the energy leaking from his pores, the earth tightening around him evaporated entirely.
Just how mighty of an energy was it for such a phenomenon to occur?
He could not believe it, even though he did it himself.
‘This…’
By the way, he did not know his current body condition.
Perhaps because he had crossed the line by far, there was not even pain.
Of course, it was certain that he was at least not fine; it felt as if death, which had drawn distinctly closer, was licking his nape.
Forcing his pupils to move, which did not turn well as if they were rusted.
He met the gaze of the Lord of the Divine Wood, who was still standing in the same spot and looking down.
Even before gathering his hazy mind, he kicked the ground, and
the distance between the two vanished.
At the absurd speed, vastly faster than the Lightning Escape Art cast with the Red Lightning, the Lord of the Divine Wood’s eyes widened.
“···!”
Sincere admiration dwelled in his slowly dilating pupils.
He tried to do something while spreading both hands, but in the eyes of Jin So-myeong who had entered the fourth circulation, it was terribly slow.
It felt like the unit of time itself had changed.
He thrust his sword within the world flowing slowly to the point of frustrating.
He contained the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration, which had already far exceeded the perceivable realm, entirely at the tip of the sword.
Compressing and compressing again the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that originally should have poured out in a cone shape, he converged it into a single point smaller than a speck of dust.
Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration Pierce.
A mighty power, enough to completely alter the terrain, was condensed into a tiny point.
The brilliant light formed at the tip of the sword advanced, piercing through all obstacles.
‘This is my best.’
It was the final strike delivered by squeezing out all his power from head to toe.
An instant.
For some reason, the Lord of the Divine Wood, wearing a faint smile, spread both hands left and right, and
a single pure white wall as thin as paper blocked the way.
Although it looked fragile enough to be punctured with just a light poke of a finger, it could absolutely not be disregarded.
‘A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens?’
This was because he realized the identity of the divine ability deployed by the Lord of the Divine Wood.
Indeed…
His ominous premonition was correct.
The Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration that touched A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens stopped dead, then turned its direction, exactly to the opposite way.
Thump!
Watching the Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration returning intact with a light noise, it was absurd.
It was a strike launched by squeezing out all his strength, yet he returned that?
‘What on earth.’
Did A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens possess such an ability too? He could not even grasp how he did it.
There was nothing he could do before the approaching death.
Literally, he had already poured out his full strength, without even the capability to budge a finger.
Like a revolving lantern.
Ten thousand thoughts flashed through his head for a brief instant, and he suddenly realized that there was still a move left.
First, he retrieved the power he had distributed to his clones.
Even though it was a faint power that did not amount to even ten percent combined, it was better than nothing, serving at least as a driving force to continue his thoughts.
In a situation with no answer, he fiercely pondered a way to survive, or rather, a way to win…
‘Found it.’
Although the Supreme Great Ability was already depleted while reviving his shattered heart, this divine ability had a way to transcend limits.
None other than burning his lifespan.
Since he thought of the method, there was no hesitation, throwing away trivial worries such as how much lifespan was needed.
He even forgot the fact that it was a moment when his life was in danger.
Solely one single thing.
he burned his life only with his obsession toward victory, and
suddenly.
the teachings of the Star-Shattering True Monarch that he had seen in the distant past came to mind.
[Since you filled the world with A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens, next is…]
Perhaps burning his lifespan was the condition.
The sword manual engraved on his soul: the Light-Moon Silent-Life Sword responded.
Thirty million characters of Dharma text mixed and recombined, and then a single sentence was added.
The second divine ability following A Single Flash Lightens the Heavens.
[Burning the Dao established by oneself to cross the boundary, this is called the Burning Moon Crossing the Realm.]
At this very moment.
He instinctively felt that he had reached a realm that no one in the Human Realm had ever reached.
Crossing the boundary was exactly as the expression described.
The unknown realm beyond the Soul Formation stage; although it was a mere instant, he became infinitely close to that place.
The Light-Accumulating Destructive Vibration, which had felt like sentencing him to death, was no longer threatening.
He simply swung down his sword, and
everything across the trajectory was divided in two.
There was neither the roar of mountains collapsing nor the aftermath devastating the surroundings; only a quiet silence continued.
“Huh.”
Within the momentary silence.
Looking at the pure white line that had sliced through his chest, the Lord of the Divine Wood twitched his lips and then soon paused.
Like a person who did not know what to say, he stared intently at Jin So-myeong’s face before finally opening his mouth.
“I was right.”
“···.”
“It existed. The sword of humanity existed.”
Just before death, countless emotions indeed flashed through the eyes of the Star-Shattering True Monarch as he mumbled blankly.
The one who wandered for two hundred thousand years searching for the sword of humanity.
Achieving his goal at the end of vast years, just what was his state of mind now? He could not even guess what emotion was contained in the faintly trembling voice.
“···What is your name?”
Was Star-Shattering True Monarch not ultimately just a title after all?
Setting aside the rightness and wrongness of his actions, it could not be denied that he was a person who had strived for a single goal for two hundred thousand years.
At least, he wanted to remember his name.
“My name? I have already forgotten it. Since it is not something important.”
With that brief word as the end, looking up at the sky, the Star-Shattering True Monarch scattered into a handful of ash.
In his last moment, a smile was definitely formed at the corners of his mouth.
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