Chapter: 342
Bam bam.
A strange sound echoed in my ears.
Truly a violent sound.
If it were just the sound, that would be fortunate.
But then, I felt my body being compressed as waves of pressure hit me one after another.
Should I say it felt like being squeezed tightly?
Ugh.
As the pressure increased, I felt pain.
I couldn’t even open my mouth and had to internally scream in agony.
How long has it been like this?
I don’t know. Time isn’t something I count anymore.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously.
I had to wallow in regret for quite a while amid the crushing pain.
Going in had made my stomach churn.
It was enough to prompt a bit of motion sickness.
But isn’t the level drastically different now that I’m trying to come out?
Especially when compared to my past life.
Back then, it was a mild form of motion sickness like when I first entered.
How can the sensations in this life feel so different?
If not, is this the price I’m paying for ignoring the warning I heard right before returning?
—Apostle.
After finishing all the stories, the World Tree spoke to me.
—The pain when you return will be great. Be careful.
—I’ve already been through it once. What’s the big deal?
At the World Tree’s warning, I smiled and said so.
Now, I’m regretting that moment.
I’ve never gone through anything like this before…!
This is absurd.
The situation is on a different level compared to then.
Even the time it takes to return feels so long.
While I was lost in thought, I suddenly shook my head inwardly.
Is this all my karma?
Among the things I heard from the World Tree, I had a vague sense of why this was happening.
The world where the World Tree exists.
He said it was a false world.
A magical realm created solely for the punishment of the World Tree’s sins.
This was originally a place that no one could just walk in and out of.
I may not have understood that completely, but…
Anyway.
The reason I had gone there was because I wanted to hear truths that I didn’t know.
There was also the desire to deal with Jang Seon-yeon.
But the most important essence is…
The time difference between there and here.
Because that’s what I needed.
Years in the Demon Realm.
A time difference that translates to just a few days in the present world.
I needed that difference.
What’s more,
Once you step outside, you can never set foot in that magical realm again.
So, once I’ve entered, I had to make the most of it.
Especially…
When I’m currently stuck, floundering against a wall.
More than that…
To be precise,
I needed time to practice.
After finishing my conversation with the World Tree.
And after hearing everything that needed to be said.
What I did was ask a favor from the World Tree.
I said I needed to practice here for a while.
With all the opportunities I’d gathered to elevate my internal energy.
And skills honed from experiences in my past life.
Even my body had been painstakingly rebuilt.
With all three aspects in place, I still found myself stuck, needing to break through this tight blockage for some reason.
This time, I felt an urgent necessity for training.
So, I decided to utilize the magic realm.
To make good use of my time here.
The World Tree, upon hearing my story, didn’t object at all.
I immediately began my practice.
No matter how false this world may be, the five senses felt vivid.
Of course, I felt pain and also hunger.
Almost everything was indistinguishable from reality.
The sensation when reaching out my arms felt the same.
The energy moving within my danjeon.
Even the feeling of controlling heat.
Since everything was the same, if I wanted to train, I could do it to my heart’s content.
All kinds of information swirled around in my head.
As I left behind a time full of frustration.
It felt pretty good to find some leisure and move my body.
A day passed.
Then another.
Before I knew it, a year had also slipped by.
Half a year in, I stopped counting because it became a hassle.
It was the World Tree who informed me.
It had now been more than a year.
I didn’t feel much excitement about it.
The only regret was that, even after a year, I still hadn’t successfully breached the wall.
It was listening time.
I stretched out my arms once more.
If there’s one thing I noted about the differences between the Demon Realm and the real world…
I could tell the physical growth was a bit sluggish.
But that doesn’t matter.
Right now, physical growth isn’t the priority.
While my body was being strengthened, my height wasn’t increasing.
I wondered if there was some difference after all.
Maybe my growth has completely stopped?
That might be true, but…
I figured that probably isn’t the case.
I wasn’t exactly tall in my past life either, but given that I was taller then, that couldn’t be it.
Furthermore, recalling how my growth rate accelerated post-regression.
I imagined, once I do grow, I’d probably be taller than before.
Anyway.
What’s really important is not physical growth.
It’s the stability of the mind, and through that, overcoming the wall.
And time keeps passing.
Now the World Tree no longer told me the time.
Night falls and day follows swiftly.
Is it because I trained near the World Tree?
The monsters didn’t bother me at all.
It’s simply fascinating.
What is the true identity of the monsters residing in this false world?
I pondered that for a moment.
But I decided not to dwell on it.
Right now.
I stretched my legs out once more.
While refining my energy, it was even more crucial to focus on how to breathe.
The compression technique I learned from Shin Noya.
Using him while manipulating my body.
And…
Reducing the mental resistance to the altered methods of use.
With the accumulated tasks behind me momentarily forgotten.
I concentrated solely on moving my body and honing my energy and mental imagery.
As I cleared my mind of cluttering thoughts.
Surprisingly, it felt like my energy was moving more smoothly.
Maybe that’s why.
Honestly, I didn’t expect it to take so long.
I mean the time needed to breach the wall.
In the real world, if I just kept pushing against it for a few more months, I might just break down that wall.
Or maybe I could finally cross over it.
That’s what I thought, anyway.
What a ridiculous thought, a few months?
Continuously training brought some clarity to my reality.
My current level is unmistakably.
A state that’s been augmented through the opportunities from my regression and experiences from previous lives.
If you were to ask if it’s different from other peaks, the answer would be no.
But that means I didn’t solely rely on my own talent to get here.
Plus.
Differently from the explosive bursts of energy I used in the past.
I’ve learned to apply even a tiny bit of my energy faithfully.
In this current situation where I’ve started to incorporate it more delicately and skillfully.
The problem was that those past experiences hardly factored in my achievements anymore.
Thanks to that.
“Huff…”
To reach the desired level.
It took a lot longer than I had thought.
I didn’t even count the days that passed.
Considering the time difference.
When I return to the original world, several days must have passed.
I’ve spent that considerable length of time here, longer than I had anticipated.
One, I finally achieved what I desired.
Now it was time to go back.
And now, I found myself experiencing intense agony.
“Fuck.”
The pain felt as if my entire body might just crumple away.
In the process of transcending dimensions back to the present world.
The reason I felt this torment was none other than this.
Everything I gained there…
When returning to the real world, I couldn’t bring anything with me.
In their previous lives.
The years they spent there became meaningless.
Memories were wiped away.
The reason my body could return with no differences from when I first plunged into the Demon Realm was exactly that.
What I could take back was ultimately.
Only memories.
So what is this pain I’m currently enduring?
It’s a sort of backlash.
Washing away the strength gained through training in the Demon Realm.
I was reverting back to the flesh that existed in the present world.
And it is.
“Damn, this hurts like hell.”
It’s just painful beyond measure.
I could distinctly feel the sensation of being battered all over by some blunt object.
In all this commotion, I couldn’t even scream.
If I made a wrong move now, I felt like I’d easily meet my demise.
I simply endured.
I had to keep enduring it.
Whether it was fire or lightning.
Enduring the agony that felt like my entire body and limbs were being scorched.
It went on for a while.
After enduring that hellish stretch of agony that felt like a dog’s torture….
Crisp.
With the sound of something shattering.
Thud…
I felt like my legs, which had been floating, finally touched the ground.
Then, the wind blew.
It was a wind I hadn’t felt for ages.
Feeling that breeze, I finally let out the words I’d been holding.
“What the hell.”
I unintentionally cursed out loud.
But I couldn’t help it.
“I really almost died…”
I truly came close to death.
It’s drastically different from my past life.
Even the act of breathing seemed risky.
I could’ve easily been torn apart.
Am I seriously losing my mind?
“Let’s see if I ever pull that stunt again.”
Though I resorted to this method out of lack of time.
Had I known I’d end up in such a perilous situation, I might not have chosen this path.
I raised my hand and swept it through my hair.
As I took action, my body felt strangely heavy.
Even just moving my hand felt laborious.
“That can wait.”
I needed to figure this out gradually.
First and foremost, I had to grasp the important details.
Above all.
I needed to find Jang Seon-yeon.
Even if he were burned alive.
That was still a death within the Demon Realm.
Then I asked the World Tree why this aspect was unmanageable.
I was told it was impossible because it was related to the laws.
If that’s the case, it’s highly probable that Jang Seon-yeon also returned alive.
Up to this point, that much was anticipated.
If he returned alive.
That meant I could just kill him again.
There must be plenty of monsters around…
Thinking that, I glanced around.
“But what’s going on here… What is this? Why does it look like this?”
Naturally, I had expected to reappear in the same location I entered the Demon Realm.
Instead of grasslands, what I saw was an unexpected building.
The silver lining is, at least I could tell what kind of building it was.
Even with the passage of time…
Thankfully, I still remembered.
That’s the building of Shinryongwan.
But…
It looks a bit off.
“What a mess has this become?”
How much money was poured into this?
What was once a beautifully constructed building…
Now appeared cracked here and there, looking like it would crumble if you breathed on it wrong.
“No way….”
Watching that, I had to entertain a scary thought.
I had thought only a couple of days had passed.
There’s no way it could’ve deteriorated this much in just a few days.
Is time flowing at the same rate as back there?
Oh, if so, then things are really going south.
All the plans I had prepared while training would come crumbling down.
What this meant was a situation that was completely terrifying.
Tap.
While I frantically tried to think.
I felt a presence nearby.
I turned my head.
“Huh?”
There, not far away, sat a familiar old man, bleeding profusely.
In front of him, a massive old man was tense and staring in my direction.
I scowled, confused about what was unfolding before me.
He flinched at my gaze, startled.
Why do people freak out the moment they see someone’s face?
So annoying.
In the midst of all this, my attention shifted to the bleeding, one-armed old man.
‘…Cheonghae Ilgeom?’
I quickly recognized who he was.
It had just been a while since I last saw him.
What gives?
Why is that old man sitting like that?
My senses came back sharply.
Only then did I catch the scent of blood filling the air.
Moreover.
The killing intent was palpable, thickening around me.
The disgusting aura characteristic of the Safaines was present.
I realized it instantly.
“Looks like something went terribly wrong.”
I wasn’t entirely certain.
Yet, it was evident that something had indeed exploded.
I shot a strange look at the old man in black standing before me.
He certainly didn’t seem like a legitimate figure.
And he didn’t feel normal either.
Was that old man interested in me, as well?
He regarded me with slightly trembling eyes and spoke first.
“…Who are you?”
What should I respond with?
For now, I took a step forward.
I adjusted the energy within my body, reminiscent of that earlier feeling.
That awkward moment when I couldn’t properly breach the wall.
Taking a second step, I unleashed my energy.
It surged from my lower danjeon.
It filled up quickly.
“What does it matter? You don’t look like a client at all.”
“You don’t say much for someone who looks like that, huh?”
The old man remarked, his eyes fixated on me, filled with tension.
Perhaps he didn’t fully grasp the situation.
The time for him to swing his sword has come.
This is the third step.
I directed the energy I had gathered towards the upper level.
Huff.
“…!”
The old man’s demeanor shifted drastically as he sensed something.
“You….”
It must be a sight to behold.
Seeing someone ascend at that very moment, breaching the wall.
With every movement of energy,
There were disturbances, annoying me at various intervals.
But unlike before, it didn’t pose much of a problem.
I calibrated and pierced through.
I had rolled through the Demon Realm for this.
I organized my thoughts.
Constantly aiming to merge with my body.
Blood vessels burst open.
What once was merely a small awl of energy.
Now grew larger and sharper.
It pierced through the wall leading to the upper realm.
Huff!
The quality of the energy flowing within me changed.
The energy I previously felt at my peak seemed trivial.
It became heavier and denser.
Simultaneously, it spread throughout my body.
As the upper chamber opened.
The way I viewed everything shifted.
The sounds I heard altered.
The energy coursing through my body transformed.
I am.
The grave of the warrior.
Beyond the pinnacle dubbed the end.
I have scarcely arrived at the flower realm.
This feeling is quite refreshing.
“Why are you speaking so briefly?”
Of course, there’s no time to revel in this realization.
The moment I arrived, I sensed something was wrong.
First, I needed to act.
“I usually hold no respect for the Safa kids. After all, the righteous blood runs strong in me.”
I smiled.
Was my smile that hideous?
The old man altered his stance.
Just from a mere glance, I could tell.
He was indeed a formidable foe.
Is that so?
Thanks to my energy surging after overcoming the wall, I suddenly felt bolder, the fear dissipated.
“Why is the sky creating such a ruckus?”
It felt like night, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t.
Staring quietly at the sky, I sensed the old man’s movement.
His energy surged dangerously, just as it had before.
Yet, I chose to remain unfazed.
Lowering my gaze, I stared directly into the old man’s eyes.
I shifted my energy gathered in the upper chamber.
It’s not truly night.
The darkened sky doesn’t sit well with me.
Thus,
I resolved to brighten it.
Huff!
As the heat radiated from my body,
The old man recoiled a step back.
That’s not how it should go.
You should have stepped up despite your fear.
I watched him in silence and whispered softly.
“Blood-red sky.”
First and foremost.
I shattered the night.
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