Chapter 562

Chapter 562

And at the same time.

Craaack!

All the remaining teeth shattered to pieces. Baek Li-jung's face contorted in pain. The half-broken dagger Jin Ja-gang had raised was clamped in Baek Li-jung's mouth.

The Zoroastrian Cult's sacred artifact Persian Ancient Sword, harder than anything else in the world!

"Kyaaaa!"

Baek Li-jung screamed in pain and tried to grab his face and flee. However, needle-like sword energies stabbed wildly into him and his body shrank. Then his feet sank deeply as if stuck in muddy ground, and Sediment Energy held Baek Li-jung firmly.

Baek Li-jung's eyes contorted. He knew what was coming next.

Wind Thunder Energy. Dozens of sword energies. Sharp blade-like wind swept through Baek Li-jung's body. Strands of hair were cut off and countless wounds appeared all over his body.

And finally, Fixed Sword Energy.

Sword King Namgung Rak's ultimate technique Absolute Slow Sword fully unfolded from Jin Ja-gang's hands.

Self-Reverting!

The power of nature's energy trying to restore to its original state.

Baek Li-jung was swept up and lifted by the energy emitted from Persian Ancient Sword.

Swooosh! Countless sword energies slashed through Baek Li-jung's body. The internal energy that had been strongly resisting from within continued to crumble like peeling onion layers. Since it wasn't internal energy Baek Li-jung originally possessed, it broke off like branches that failed to graft properly.

Baek Li-jung fell and rolled backward without even managing a breakfall.

Groan. Grr.

Supporting himself on the ground with trembling arms and lifting his head to glare at Jin Ja-gang, half his face showed the human appearance of pain with eyes squinted tightly, and half showed beast eyes rolled up with pupils shrunk like dots.

Baek Li-jung's internal energy was so vast that even Absolute Slow Sword with the power of Self-Reverting couldn't completely restore his true nature. It meant Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit clung to him that severely, and in other words, it also meant he had accumulated internal energy by devouring others to that degree.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Baek Li-jung without disappointment or anger.

He rubbed Persian Ancient Sword lengthily in the blood flowing from his own belly, then raised it again. And he unfolded Absolute Slow Sword once more.

Shooting Sword Energy pierced through Baek Li-jung's entire body like awls.

"Kyaaaaaak!"

Human emotional screams mixed with Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit's voice. Baek Li-jung writhed his body. Then Sediment Energy and Wind Thunder Energy swept through Baek Li-jung. The outer shell of internal energy, thinner than before, repeatedly peeled away until at some point his skin began to be sliced.

Wind Thunder Energy had the nature of splitting distorted space into hundreds of paths with wind-like sword energy. The thinly sliced skin glistened like scales. Blood leaked out like thread, and Baek Li-jung appeared wrapped in thousands of red threads.

Baek Li-jung's pupils gradually grew larger.

Kyaaaaaaaa!

A ghostly wail rang out.

The final Fixed Sword Energy struck Baek Li-jung's entire body. Fixed Sword Energy was a powerful force that restored space split by Wind Thunder Energy all at once.

Kwang!

Baek Li-jung's body shook greatly and was thrown back.

Thud thud thud.

He rolled and rolled several times before falling face down, unable to easily raise his body and only twitching. Wounds covered his entire body and the flowing blood was tremendous. Every time he tried to rise and fell forward, splashing sounds came out.

Baek Li-jung raised his head with a face covered in blood.

Jin Ja-gang walked toward him.

With a completely normal gait.

Then he squatted down in front of Baek Li-jung and looked down at him.

Baek Li-jung needed time to recognize reality for a moment. However, just from Jin Ja-gang's posture looking down from above, he could immediately grasp the situation. Baek Li-jung rolled his eyes up in anger. His pride was hurt by the humiliating position. However, he couldn't maintain a composed expression due to the terrible pain permeating his entire body.

"Grrk, grk."

Unable to roll on the ground out of pride, he only barely endured by letting out groans. It was tremendous pain. He thought it would hurt less if his entire body's flesh were carved out instead.

Jin Ja-gang looked down at Baek Li-jung and said.

"It must hurt."

That's not even mocking!

Baek Li-jung unconsciously clenched his teeth. But all his teeth were shattered, so broken teeth embedded in his gums. His body hurt so much that sounds kept leaking out.

"Grrk, grk. Grk."

It was as if he'd fallen into a swamp full of needles, and every time he moved his body, needles dug into every pore of his body. Baek Li-jung was in so much pain he almost lost consciousness. No, he seemed to have lost consciousness very briefly, but his head dropped and he woke up from pain.

"Now you have no internal energy to protect you. Do you know what that means?"

Only then did Baek Li-jung realize.

Asura Blood.

The blood poison Jin Ja-gang was emitting had seeped into all his wounds through Persian Ancient Sword. The seeped Asura Blood was gradually eating away at Baek Li-jung's flesh.

Though his body had become able to withstand Asura Blood, without internal energy he couldn't suppress it.

Even one festering wound with pus leaking out was unbearably painful, but with thousands of wounds created, the pain was indescribable.

Even Crimson Extinction Flowers didn't bloom. Blood and pus flowed from his entire body, making Crimson Extinction Flowers disappear as soon as they formed. Each wound dug to the bone.

"Grrrk. Grrk!"

Baek Li-jung twisted his body. Even desperately enduring was useless.

This was Asura Blood! The pain of one poisoned by Asura Blood!

Like a thick hundred-year-old chestnut tree having its sap slowly sucked by a swarm of aphids and withering and rotting away, Baek Li-jung was dying that way too.

"Does this lord seem like he'll die like this!"

He forcibly spat out words, but with all his teeth crushed, his pronunciation was slurred.

Baek Li-jung squeezed out his last strength and raised his arm. He grabbed Jin Ja-gang's neck. But that was all. He had no more strength to do anything else.

"Grrk! Grk!"

To Baek Li-jung unable to continue his next words overcome by pain, Jin Ja-gang coldly replied.

"So what?"

Baek Li-jung shouted like pouring out a curse with blood dripping and a voice full of phlegm.

"You filthy demon bastard. You restored my sanity to the very end to enjoy my suffering! You must admit it. Your mind is as rotten as mine, fallen into the abyss! You'll never return to normal again!"

Though the slurred pronunciation was hard to understand, he understood the content. Nevertheless, Jin Ja-gang wasn't shaken in the slightest. He removed Baek Li-jung's fingers one by one from his neck and said.

"Do you think it was difficult for me to kill you? I forgot something."

Forgot something?

What?

Jin Ja-gang didn't answer. Now the one getting impatient was the dying Baek Li-jung.

"Greetings."

Greetings?

"Thanks."

Jin Ja-gang's hand drew a circle.

A circle that seemed crooked yet possessed perfection.

That circle covered Baek Li-jung.

......

Suddenly, he recalled meeting Jin Ja-gang ten years ago.

The trial of the Hundred Flower Valley and Extreme Poison Sect incident that he presided over.

After ruling in favor of Hundred Flower Valley's wrongdoing, Jin Ja-gang spoke to Baek Li-jung with composure uncharacteristic of a child.

"Just now, I realized how foolish it is to sit still and hope for others' help. Thank you for the enlightenment. I'll definitely come visit to give my thanks."

At that time, extreme anger filled Jin Ja-gang's eyes.

Baek Li-jung noticed that anger and answered that he'd wait, knowing it obviously couldn't happen.

But Jin Ja-gang went to find and kill both Gwak Oh, the traitor of Hundred Flower Valley who was there at the time, and Seo Gil-pung, who had been the appeal inspector of the Murim Alliance's Yunnan branch. At that young age, he even massacred the Extreme Poison Sect.

When he heard that story, he should have acted directly.

Now he understood why Mang Ryo was so obsessed. If he could have seen today's future in the past, Baek Li-jung would have killed Jin Ja-gang with a single stroke together with Mang Ryo.

Because he didn't do that...

Jin Ja-gang grew this much to threaten him, and finally even brought him to death.

The thirst, the hunger...

The position of the world's greatest that he obtained by becoming Alliance Leader. The sound of cheers. He dreamed of all that his entire life, and finally obtained it...

Baek Li-jung looked at the Great Training Grounds arena with blurry eyes.

Everything he had dreamed of and achieved for decades was all flowing as a handful of poison water.

Nothing remained.

Everything returned to nothing as when he first started.

Emptiness settled in deeply.

Like the saying zuisheng mengsi, living as if drunk and dying as if dreaming, he had achieved nothing. If he melted and died like this, would anyone even erect a tombstone for him?

If this was how it would end, why did he annihilate his in-laws' family, join hands with the Poison Sect, and betray Taoist Haewol who was like a master to him...

He finally missed those whose faces left not a speck of affection. No one would remain to remember him.

Bloody tears formed in Baek Li-jung's eyes.

At some moment, Baek Li-jung entered the enlightenment of gradual realization. Gradual enlightenment led Baek Li-jung's mind to an even higher realm and made his body tremble. Pain became distant and felt like someone else's.

Soon he too would start from nothing and return to nothing.

The life he had dreamed like a butterfly dream was merely form. It was emptiness. Form is emptiness, and the emotions felt from it are void, so ultimately the world consists of oneness of nothingness without distinction between you and me. Though it was nothingness, it wasn't void.

The world was oneness connected by void and nothingness, so why had he lived distinguishing you and me so desperately? Why had he lived such a painful life...

Man and ox both both forgotten. Everything was merely emptiness...

Baek Li-jung's eyes became pure and simultaneously true mystical energy began to flow.

His mind cleared and thoughts became lucid. Baek Li-jung's thinking found the truth of all things shining in an extremely distant place.

Baek Li-jung was elated with joy. His body became light.

Crack crack. Bones throughout his body moved on their own and made sounds.

Bone transformation!

The true realm of demon transcendence he had struggled so desperately to reach!

This time he was truly entering the state that could be called divine-demon unity.

Would he reach the supreme realm in this final moment!

Pain vanished like a lie and vitality began to surge through his entire body.

The Baihui point at the crown of his head opened.

Incomparably clear and clean natural energy began to rush into Baek Li-jung's Baihui point, unlike the internal energy filled by Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit’s appetite.

Ooooooh!

I am...

I am... being reborn!

Baek Li-jung shed tears of joy.

At that moment.

Splash!

Baek Li-jung's head was shoved into a pool of blood.

Confused for a moment, Baek Li-jung writhed at the terrible pain returning to his entire body.

"Grrk... Kyak! Kyaaaaaaak!"

It hurt. It hurt terribly.

But what was more regrettable than that was the enlightenment just now. The supreme realm was right there, within reach!

Baek Li-jung spat out blood from his mouth and shook his head wildly. Mystical energy disappeared from his eyes and blood began filling them instead. Bone transformation also stopped and joints were returning to normal.

"No... No!"

If only a little, just a little more!

Baek Li-jung glared at Jin Ja-gang with resentment in his bloodshot eyes.

Jin Ja-gang was staring at Baek Li-jung. From the beginning until now. As if he knew what had happened to Baek Li-jung.

Then he said.

"Who told you to become detached?"

A small sneer was contained at Jin Ja-gang's lips.

"You saw well. That is exactly what I'm looking at right now."

At Jin Ja-gang's words, Baek Li-jung was struck with shock as if hit hard on the head.

Jin Ja-gang was already looking down at him from this realm!

Baek Li-jung felt like going crazy with regret. His life was a dream, but what just happened was not a dream.

Return to Origin.

The ultimate Daoist realm he had tasted very briefly.

That dream.

Jin Ja-gang had shattered that desperate dream.

Baek Li-jung's face contorted. What he couldn't obtain with his entire life, he could have finally obtained now!

Finally!

"You, you bastard...! You bastaaaard! Aaaaaaah!"

Baek Li-jung screamed. Having momentarily entered Return to Void and tasted indescribable pleasure, being in the abyss now was even more painful.

Jin Ja-gang strongly grabbed Baek Li-jung's hair, swelling and falling out from pus. He pulled Baek Li-jung's face stained with pain and regret close to his own face.

Then he said.

"Thank you."