Chapter 234: New World, the Upper Realm
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Translated by Frog in the Well
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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The moment the energy originating from the Rank 6 Boundary-Breaking Talisman permeated the void.
A grey line was drawn vertically, and the sky split open, revealing a highly bizarre scenery.
It was literally an empty space of nothingness.
Even when observing not only with his divine sense but also with the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye, he could not see what was beyond the crack.
“…”
The unknown. The instinctive fear presented by the unfamiliar held back his steps, but his hesitation was brief.
‘Let’s go.’
What was there to fear when he already held his sword in his hand?
Soaring lightly, he entered the void revealed by the Rank 6 Boundary-Breaking Talisman and saw the endless, infinite space stretched out.
There was no front, back, or side.
A place of nothingness connecting world to world. It was a mysterious place where even the concept of space had not yet been born.
At the moment he was grasping the situation through the scenery.
The space between his eyebrows tickled, and he felt as though his solid divine soul was collapsing. It felt as if it was crumbling starting from the weakest part.
‘A dangerous place.’
His mind was collapsing in real time, yet he felt no pain, which was all the more chilling.
He instinctively realized it. If he did not want to end up in a wretched state, he had to escape from this bizarre space as quickly as possible.
While compressing his divine sense to the maximum to resist the power collapsing his mind, he wrapped Blood Armor around his body in preparation for any potential danger.
Then, he followed the energy of the Rank 6 Boundary-Breaking Talisman flying toward somewhere as if guiding the way.
Sharpening his mind that threatened to grow hazy by the moment, he focused.
Just as he was moving forward endlessly to reach the Upper Realm.
‘…!’
Suddenly, he stopped, startled.
Just when had he lost consciousness? He had merely closed and opened his eyes once, yet the surrounding scenery had completely changed.
The surroundings were filled with multi-colored halos of light, which were so gaudy that just looking at them made his head spin.
To think he had arrived in such a chaotic place without even perceiving it; it was like the feeling of waking up after nodding off for a moment.
‘Let’s focus.’
As he gripped the sword in which Limitless resided, his confused mind settled down.
Just as he continued forward, adjusting his disarrayed mind with a short deep breath.
The multi-colored halos of light vanished as if washed away, and the surroundings were dyed in darkness.
At the moment he felt a sudden chill run down his spine and turned his gaze.
Ah.
Ah.
So huge that it could not even be contained in his field of vision,
a giant sphere of astronomical size.
His gaze met the pupil of an unidentified entity.
In an instant.
The intuition that he must display the Moon-Burning Realm-Crossing right now by sacrificing all his lifespan. No, he suppressed the fear with reason.
He felt the cool chill characteristic of metal from the sword he reflexively gripped, and that was of great help.
While suppressing the impulse with cold reason, he revived his damaged senses first.
By infusing dharmic power to support his divine soul, which was shocked upon seeing something incomprehensible, he strained his eyes to make the blurred focus clear.
Thus, he saw.
What the true identity of the thing he had mistaken for a pupil was.
‘…The moon? That thing just now was the moon?’
A round celestial body quietly floating in the darkness.
He blankly stared at the full moon, which hung perfectly still without even a twitch.
Even though he had thought his gaze met with some unidentified entity, was it merely a simple misunderstanding?
While he was standing blankly before the soft moonlight.
‘Wait. Moon-Burning Realm-Crossing?’
Literally interpreting Moon-Burning Realm-Crossing, the second divine ability of the Light-Moon Silent-Life Sword, meant burning the moon to cross the boundary.
Until now, he had considered the moon a word symbolizing the Dao or life, but encountering such a bizarre moon as soon as he ascended to the Upper Realm, he could not help but have many thoughts.
“…”
Jin So-myeong, who stared intently at the quietly floating moon, forced his heavy feet to move.
Although he did not know what the true identity of that moon was, he did not have the leisure to keep observing it.
He hurriedly chased the energy of the Rank 6 Boundary-Breaking Talisman, which had moved so far away that it was almost out of sight.
However, since this place was originally a bizarre space, simply moving forward was not easy.
Just as he was struggling and floundering as if walking through mud to chase it.
The energy of the Rank 6 Boundary-Breaking Talisman that had been circling in place exploded, and the void split open.
At the sunlight pouring into the darkness and the blue sky, his eyes widened.
The moment he saw it, he instinctively knew that place was indeed the Upper Realm.
Although it was a very welcome sight, the hole in the void was unstable, as if it might disappear at any moment.
‘…!’
As expected, he gritted his teeth and kicked off the void toward the crack that was starting to shrink rapidly.
He raised his speed as much as possible with the mindset that he must absolutely not miss it, and
just before the crack closed completely, he was barely able to throw his body beyond the blue sky.
‘Ah!’
His joy of finally arriving in the Upper Realm was brief.
Whoosh!
A wild gale blew from all directions to the point of turning his ears deaf.
Actually, a wind of this level should have been nothing to a Soul Formation cultivator…
‘Huh?’
For the first time in a truly long while, he could not help but be genuinely flustered.
This was because the moment he touched the wind, his dharmic power escaped his control and ran wild.
Even his divine sense hardened rigidly, leaving him unable to do anything.
He had suddenly become powerless, but he did not remain idle.
Even if it might be meaningless, he opened his eyes wide and tried to grasp the surrounding situation.
The sun shining brightly enough to sting his eyes, a forest filled with pure white leaves, a reddish lake…
Countless sceneries passed by in a flash.
The moment he realized he was swept up by turbulence and flying at a tremendous speed.
‘Urgh!’
A gale dozens of times stronger than before struck his flank, and he fell straight to the ground.
Just before his head was crushed on the ground that grew closer at rapid speed,
he realized that his wildly raging dharmic power had calmed down ever so slightly, and immediately reached out his hand.
Kaboom!
He launched the Chaos Sky Shattering Annihilation Palm toward the ground right before collision to generate repulsive force, and using that power, he leaped into the air and landed in a parabolic arc.
“My word.”
Just what kind of state was this as soon as he ascended to the Upper Realm? A hollow laugh escaped him naturally at this absurd experience.
It was a baffling situation, but what he needed to do was clear.
Just as he checked his physical condition and released his restored divine sense to survey the surroundings.
“Senior! Please save us!”
Three men whose clothes were covered in mud and whose hair was disheveled flew urgently toward him while screaming.
It seemed that his falling after being swept by the bizarre wind had drawn the attention of those nearby.
‘All three are in the Nascent Soul stage… and are humans.’
As it meant that the human race still existed in the Upper Realm, it was very welcome news.
Moreover, their words were well understood.
The characters and pronunciations used by the cultivators of the Human Realm contained the laws of heaven and earth, allowing them to communicate well regardless of race or region, and the Upper Realm seemed to be the same.
‘Fortunately.’
Analyzing the various information learned through the surrounding situation, he turned his gaze.
Behind the three fleeing with desperate faces,
his eyes met with an entity that was leisurely chasing them like a cat playing with a mouse.
‘At least it is not human.’
Seeing the two horns growing on both of its temples, bluish skin, fangs protruding from its lips, and yellow eyes, something came to mind.
‘The Asura Race?’
There was various information about the Upper Realm in the jade slip left by the Star-Shattering True Monarch, and the appearance of the opponent matched that content.
At the moment he was carefully inspecting the opponent, who was estimated to be in the mid Soul Formation stage.
“For a human Soul Formation cultivator to crawl all the way here. Since you are the one who violated the treaty, you won’t have anything to say even if you die.”
Watching the Asura speak in a chilly voice, he fell into thought.
Although he could not know why it was angry due to a lack of information, guessing was possible.
‘Violated the treaty…’
Could it be that this place is not a territory of the human race, but one ruled by the Asura Race?
If so, since he had unintentionally trespassed on someone else’s land, it was understandable for it to be angry.
However, the question was, if this place was a land ruled by the Asura Race, what was with the Nascent Soul cultivators hiding behind his back?
He asked the Nascent Soul cultivators who were panting with pale faces, as if they had completely exhausted their dharmic power.
“Am I not supposed to be here?”
“Pardon? Of course…”
Perhaps because it was too unexpected a question, they could not answer properly, but judging roughly by their reaction, it seemed to be the case.
After pondering for a moment, he opened both of his palms toward the Asura.
“I am sorry. If I say it was unintentional, would you believe me?”
“Hmph. I also saw you fall while being swept by the Nine Heavens Gale. You probably got caught up in a teleportation array accident.”
Although he had just ascended, in a way, it was not incorrect to say he got caught up in a transmission accident.
‘They seem to call that bizarre wind the Nine Heavens Gale.’
In any case, he had known the Asura Race to be a race that invaded the human race 200,000 years ago, but they communicated surprisingly well.
“Then…”
“However, that is your business. Do I have to care about that as well?”
Cutting off his words abruptly, the Asura twisted up one corner of its mouth and sneered.
No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem to have any intention of letting him go peacefully, eliciting a hollow laugh from him.
“It would be good for both of us if we end this with good words.”
“Good for both? Ridiculous. An idiot who cannot even grasp the situation, for a mere human of the early Soul Formation stage to hold his head high before me…! Just die!”
The moment the slender Asura became covered in rugged muscles.
Boom!
Its thigh muscles swelled as if about to burst, and a shockwave exploded in the air.
Appearing right in front of him like a flash, the Asura thrusts out its fist.
It was a fairly fast strike, but it was far from enough to reach Jin So-myeong.
A whitish sword light flashed in the air, and
Slice!
the fist, severed at the wrist, spun round and round and fell with a plop.
“…!”
As blue blood droplets poured out like a fountain, the expression that was filled with sneering was instantly dyed with astonishment.
The Asura, gritting its teeth, let out an incomprehensible shriek and swung its severed wrist.
The spilled blood droplets turned into sharp needles and aimed at his vital points.
Tink! Tink! Tink!
While deflecting them all, he assessed the Asura Race, whom he was meeting for the first time.
‘Its skin is as tough as a Rank 5 mineral, and rather than a Spell and Body Dual Cultivator… it is closer to a pure body tempering cultivator.’
He underwent the process of confirming whether the information obtained in the Human Realm was true.
The time passed that way was merely a few seconds.
With just one clash ending, who the stronger party was was clearly distinguished.
In both strength and speed, Jin So-myeong was overwhelming.
Even though it was clearly a clash between the early and mid Soul Formation stages, what was this?
As a result that was nothing short of absurd popped out, everyone doubted their eyes.
The Asura, who was unilaterally pushed back, distorted its face as if unable to accept it, and the Nascent Soul cultivators who were hiding in the back and watching sighed in wide-mouthed gaping.
That too was brief.
“Yo-You must not kill him!”
One of the Nascent Soul cultivators shouted urgently, causing him to furrow his brows.
Since he had finished assessing the Asura and was about to end it slowly, why tell him not to kill it?
“He is a direct descendant of a Rank 6 Void Refining stage Heavenly Monarch! You must absolutely not kill him!”
Rank 6 Void Refining stage. Just as he paused at the unexpected information.
The Asura, whose yellow pupils were dyed with blood color, glared at him as if to kill.
“Arrogant bastards, how dare you! Treating me like a bug running wild relying on a backing!”
Just as it acted as if it would run wild right away, having become thoroughly pissed off.
Squish!
It stabbed its own chest with its fingernails, then pulled out and burst its own heart.
Was it committing suicide because it was too angry?
Although it was an absurd scene, he did not let down his guard. The moment he converted the dharmic power flowing in his body into lightning Qi to display the Lightning Escape Art.
Becoming one with the thunderbolt, a strange scene was visible in the rapidly slowed-down world.
The blood that spilled in all directions as the heart burst defied gravity, floated up, and covered the Asura’s skin.
In the world where even the dust blowing in the wind came to a sudden halt, blood droplets moving leisurely on their own drew a bizarre pattern.
The moment the tattoo that instantly covered its entire body emitted a deep blue light,
Boom!
a fist four to five times faster than before tried to pierce the space between his eyebrows.
An instant when an ordinary person could not even react.
Facing directly the pupils filled only with the murderous intent to kill him, he smirked.
‘The child of a Rank 6…’
Should he spare him because he feared the future trouble?
Staring at the approaching fist, he tilted his head.
Whoosh…!
Avoiding the fist that brushed past his ear by a hair’s breadth, he drew the sword he held from left to right.
And.
everyone on the battlefield came to a halt.
“……”
How many seconds passed in the strange silence?
A line was drawn straight across the neck of the Asura, who was frozen like a stone statue in the posture of thrusting out its fist, and
with the head falling with a plop, a fountain of blood surged.
The child of a Void Refining stage cultivator?
What did he care? Ignoring the consequences, he just cleanly cut off its head.
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