Reincarnation Sword God

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00446 Dark Heaven Village ————————————————————————=

Woo woo woo

Woo woo woo

Moments later, the scene changed.

“Uh?”

It transformed into the interior of the Imperial Palace.

“Hahhh!!”

Boom!

Kieeek!!

Lightning fell in hundreds of streaks, and Jin So-cheong’s afterimage, transformed into the Thunder Spirit, scattered like an illusion. He landed with a scream.

And before Jin So-cheong lay the massive corpse of a tentacle monster. The surroundings were devastated as if a storm had swept through, with a destruction radius of one hundred and fifty yards, resembling the impact of a meteorite strike. Also, lava bubbled up in various places.

‘Was this right after the fierce battle?’

It seemed like a terrifying fight had just occurred.

As I was speculating about the situation, Jin So-cheong was catching his breath. His whole body was covered in wounds, his arm bone was broken, and blood was dripping from his mouth. No matter how you looked at it, Jin So-cheong had sustained serious injuries.

“Gasp… gasp… I… brought down the bishop…”

Tears streamed down his face.

“Older brother… older brother… I’m sorry…”

True to his words, lying in a corner of the devastation was the corpse of the Extreme Tiger, who had come with Jin So-cheong. He had died fighting the bishop.

Kuwakwang!

Far away in Luoyang, it seemed relentless clashes were erupting, with storms and dark clouds swirling and the heat rising. Also, the transformed figure of the Master of the White Lotus Sect briefly flashed by. Jin So-cheong staggered, gritting his teeth.

“When the Master of the White Lotus… is holding out… I must… kill the archbishop…”

It appeared that while the Master of the White Lotus was separately drawing attention, Jin So-cheong planned to take down the archbishop—his enemy’s leader. Gathering his strength for a moment, Jin So-cheong charged toward the Imperial Palace with overwhelming speed that even surpassed the Soul Removal Technique.

Kiyiiiiing!

Kweeek!!

Upon entering the Imperial Palace, countless demon beasts and tentacle monsters, alongside fiends of nightmarish appearances he’d never seen before, lunged at Jin So-cheong. However, despite his injuries, Jin So-cheong summoned a spear of intent into the air and commanded the Decisive Enlightenment technique.

“You evil bastards!”

Thunder God Lineage!

Decisive Enlightenment!

Thunderclap!

Jin So-cheong’s Thunderclap surpassed any limits I had envisioned.

The entire space seemed to fill with Thunder Spirit energy, and instantaneously, eight replicas of Jin So-cheong, indistinguishable from the real thing, emerged. As those replicas vanished, thousands of piercing strikes rained down, obliterating hundreds of demon beasts in an instant.

Kwah-kwah-kwah!

‘Did he mix a few Enlightenment techniques into the Thunderclap?!’

With a momentary insight, I grasped Jin So-cheong’s technique. By utilizing Thunderclap to maximize his physical abilities, he had seamlessly layered in at least four to five martial arts insights. Yet, the transformations and amplifications were so subtle that they were nearly undetectable. It seemed the future Jin So-cheong had undoubtedly reached the Absolute Realm, becoming an equal or greater master than the Master of the White Lotus Sect.

I had misunderstood.

Jin So-cheong could have reached the Absolute Realm regardless of whether I bestowed upon him the Seven Great Techniques, hiding most of his abilities and becoming one of the Ten Great Masters of the World in my first life.

I involuntarily let out a low groan but thought this made more sense. No matter how much Lee Kwang and the Azure Dragon Martial Arts School suppressed his talents, they had reached a level of genius incomprehensible to even other geniuses.

Jin So-cheong single-handedly slaughtered thousands of demon beasts, cutting a path forward. Then a talisman flew toward him.

Papap!

Jin So-cheong easily dodged the talisman, but when he finally discerned his adversaries, his expression soured.

“Just as I thought, all of them are from the Nine Lotus Sect…”

It was bizarre. This description came as Zhuque Zhuge Yulong and Zhuge Bu appeared, all of them with vacant expressions and tentacles sprouting all over their bodies. They seemed stripped of human-ness, forcibly implanted with tentacles transforming them into ‘something’ other than human.

Moreover, from all directions, figures dressed as Golden Eagle Guards burst forth, exploding their bodies and transforming into monsters.

Kuuuuuuuh!!

Engaging in fierce battles with the monsters, Jin So-cheong was gradually becoming depleted. His body was bleeding more profusely, and the shock intensified. Yet Jin So-cheong refused to give in and began refining his techniques more intricately, fighting through the bloodbath.

“Hahhh!!”

Boom!

Finally, Jin So-cheong pierced through the neck of the transformed Zhuge Yulong. Although the moment he severed the neck, tentacles shot up from the cut area at tremendous speeds, thousands of spear strikes rained down, turning it into a cloud of blood mist. Zhuge Bu could not escape the fate of being slaughtered by Jin So-cheong either.

It was astonishing. Even in a state of transformation and lacking reason, their combat power was not significantly diminished!

Jin So-cheong fought off the enemies and plunged into the chamber of the Imperial Palace throne.

In the center of the throne room stood a boy with white hair, arms crossed, who looked over at Jin So-cheong with a grin.

“Impressive. Your combat power is truly unbelievable for a mere human.”

“You! Stop the human sacrifice this instant and retreat from the land of humans!!”

Jin So-cheong unleashed a monstrous killing intent and roared like a lion, but the white-haired boy showed no signs of concern. Instead, he regarded Jin So-cheong as if judging him.

“This is the peak of the special powers of Qi and intent that only humans can wield…”

Seeing the white-haired boy’s face, which I recognized, I was taken aback.

‘That… that kid is the Divine Portrait!’

Jin So-cheong, perhaps sensing that the Divine Portrait would not heed his words, gritted his teeth and assumed a combat posture while shouting.

“Archbishop!! I won’t forgive you!”

Is that kid the archbishop of the Nine Lotus Sect?

What on earth has happened to the future?

Intrigued by the current confrontation, the white-haired boy casually said,

“Don’t get worked up, Jin So-cheong. I have one proposal for you.”

Jin So-cheong couldn’t recklessly charge at the white-haired boy. It was clear that the strength of the boy known as the archbishop was far too strong for Jin So-cheong to confront directly. The archbishop boy grinned broadly as he continued speaking.

“My master is fond of you. If you swear to devote your body and heart to the Evil God now and join the Nine Lotus Sect, you will enjoy the glory of immortality beyond the era of the Dharma. I promise you immense powers beyond what you can compare to now.”

“Bullshit.”

Jin So-cheong’s eyes blazed with fire.

“You creatures are nothing but monsters! I, Jin So-cheong, will never give in.”

“Puhahaha. Very well. That sounds exciting.”

The archbishop mocked Jin So-cheong, laughing at him.

“However, even the Master of the Twelve Joules, who possessed the Zhuque and the Divine Artifact, fell to us, so what can you possibly do, fighting alone with just a spear?”

“With everything!”

At that moment—

Jin So-cheong raised his spear and cast ‘something.’ The archbishop seemed to be activating his own powers in response.

‘This is…!!’

I realized what was happening.

‘So that’s how it is.’

The archbishop’s power had paused time! It was an overwhelming force that one could hardly imagine coming from a mortal. I now understood the incomprehensible scene I had witnessed when facing the Divine Portrait in the past.

That white-haired archbishop once used that ability against Xiang Yu when I received his blessing in my past life. And he had used the time-stopping ability to launch a surprise attack against the sect leader! Because of this, both Xiang Yu and the sect leader likely found it an interesting ability yet felt deeply threatened.

But oddly enough, it seemed that Jin So-cheong possessed a sixth sense in the Absolute Realm, and he had entered that instant of paused time. Thus, even when the archbishop launched an attack in a moment when the world’s time had seemingly stopped, he was able to react. As the archbishop’s attack came, Jin So-cheong immediately countered, and the archbishop’s arm was severed almost simultaneously.

Puff!

The archbishop’s entire body was ripped apart into countless fragments. Jin So-cheong successfully executed his ultimate technique to eliminate him.

“Hah… hah…”

This time, Jin So-cheong could barely move a finger, bleeding profusely and just gasping for air. However, mockingly to him, the torn pieces of the archbishop began to gather with blood, creeping together.

Sssss…

“……”

A glimmer of resignation crossed Jin So-cheong’s face.

As if it were meaningless, it swiftly regenerated.

It took less than half a moment for the archbishop, who had been shattered into countless pieces, to return to his original form.

Once he regained his human appearance, the archbishop mocked Jin So-cheong.

“Hahaha… marvelous. I was frightened indeed.”

“You…”

“As you can see, I am an immortal, receiving power directly from the Constellation through the Evil God. If you wanted to eliminate me, you should have brought the strongest sorcerer of the human world. At least, you should have brought the Seven Luminaries for it to be worth discussing.”

The archbishop chuckled.

“Hehe. Even Cheon Woo-jin, the divine being, fears us and is forced to hide in the Celestial Realm.”

Jin So-cheong gritted his teeth.

“…monster.”

“What a great honor. As a surrogate lifeform of the Divine Portrait, it’s the highest praise.”

“Why did you betray the master who raised you?”

In response to Jin So-cheong’s question, the white-haired boy, the archbishop, chuckled.

“Haha! The power of the Constellation that resides within me belongs to the Evil God, so that being is my true parent. Zhuge Yulong overlooked that fact. My companions and I had no idea we could become apostles of the Evil God.”

The archbishop sneered coldly.

“Humans are infinitely trivial compared to the [Former Rulers]. I merely punished the creator who did not know their place.”

“What now… am I… supposed to do?”

He shrugged.

“Nothing much. I plan to rule the world through the Nine Lotus Sect, herding and managing you humans.”

“……”

“There’s no need to worry about it being destroyed. Since I’ll have to use you all for human sacrifices, I’ll make sure to keep the numbers adequate. If you simply do as you’re told, you can live comfortably like well-fed pigs, haha. But I might impose a ban on bipedalism or make newborns mandatory for sacrifice.”

Of course, that was hardly a good thing.

The archbishop’s eyes narrowed to a crescent moon as he smiled.

“You humans have provided the excuse yourselves, so the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors cannot interfere with us. Isn’t that a magnificent Law of Cause and Effect? Absolutely brilliant. Just like this, I will make sure to utilize humans until the end of the Dharma era, creating a splendid future, so watch closely, Jin So-cheong.”

There was no response.

The archbishop shrugged.

“Already dead?”

Outside Jin So-cheong’s dimmed vision, a rattling sound could be heard. The archbishop soon walked outside in a bored tone.

“I must finish off the Master of the White Lotus this time.”

Crunch, crunch.

Eventually, Jin So-cheong’s body was tossed into the midst of the monsters, becoming prey for the tentacles, and the sound echoed in my ears.

Fwooosh.

My vision returned. I heard Zhuge Sa’s voice beside me.

“Hey. What did you see?”

I couldn’t find the words.

After briefly opening my mouth, I said,

“I’ve come to gain confidence that what I am doing is right.”

Such a hopeless future.

Furthermore, I realized anew that martial arts alone would not suffice.

Zhuge Sa seemed to catch on to my meaning and chuckled.

“In the end, those guys and that guy will all be destroyed and become monster fodder, huh? Humans will end up like that no matter what.”

“……”

After a moment of thought, I replied.

“Zhuge Yulong and Zhuge Bu said that using this to foresee the future is futile. But the future I just witnessed provided enough new information to help reality. Something’s off.”

“It’s not strange. Because the moment you decided to change the future using that, the future changed yet again.”

Zhuge Sa responded casually.

“Also, what you thought was information could potentially be distorted by the Law of Cause and Effect.”

“Distorted due to the Law of Cause and Effect?”

“Think carefully. What you just saw was a virtual reality. The scenes you thought of as new information were likely possibilities that could be inferred from the information you had obtained until now. Were all those truly entirely new information?”

I recalled the future I had just seen. After pondering for a while, I responded.

“Not really.”

Upon reflection, it was within the range of the information I had already obtained. The existence of the ‘Archbishop’ was somewhat surprising, but even that was within the realm of what could be imagined regarding the Nine Lotus Sect.

“Right. The future sight of the White Feather Fan was merely a reconstruction of the likelihood based on your memories displayed in a virtual reality. Relying too heavily on it could lead to dire consequences. That’s why Zhuge Yulong and Zhuge Bu did not depend on future sight.”

“Hmm…”

That might be the case. I collected my thoughts and then said,

“Zhuge Sa. From now on, I will use this method.”

Future sight is one thing; what needs to be done now is separate.

Only by taking action can this hopeless future change—that alone made the significance of future sight sufficient!

I told Zhuge Sa the strategy I had in mind. Zhuge Sa listened calmly and then said,

“Good. There are a few tweaks needed, but that’s fine.”

“Is it okay?”

“I will help.”

Zhuge Sa grinned.

“Let’s give it a try.”