Chapter 363 ·Epilogue – Lee Tae-seong
Chapter 363: Epilogue – Lee Tae-seong
It was an unbearably long and relentless dream.
A life of repetition.
An endless succession of battles.
It had repeated thousands of times, yet nothing ever changed.
'I'm tired of this.'
When would it end?
No... was there even an end?
'I want to rest.'
He wanted to end this long, endless dream and finally fall into a peaceful sleep.
With the resolve to end everything, he closed his eyes.
Whether his body was torn apart or his neck broken within the dream no longer mattered.
Dozens more lives repeated themselves.
As he completely let go, everything gradually began to fade away.
His very existence slowly disappeared.
Just when it seemed everything was finally about to end, his body suddenly caught on something.
It felt as though someone had grabbed the back of his neck and was pulling him upward.
In circumstances completely unlike anything before, Lee Tae-seong opened his eyes.
A familiar man stood before him.
“Jang Woo-hyun?”
Even Lee Tae-seong, who could glimpse the future, had never been able to completely comprehend him.
Yet now, he was standing right in front of him.
“How are you her—”
“I'm not Jang Woo-hyun. I simply ended up looking like this while using his power.”
“What? What are you talking abou... Huh?”
Lee Tae-seong's eyes widened as he noticed a tiny creature flying beside Jang Woo-hyun.
“Tamrin?”
A small dragon no larger than a forearm, covered in Metallic Scales.
Tamrin floated through the air exactly as he had when they first met in the Lower Realm.
“...What happened?”
“I'm not Jang Woo-hyun. I'm a personality created by the Laws of the World so that I could have this conversation.”
The being Jang Woo-hyun had called the Natural Order began explaining the situation to Lee Tae-seong.
“Jang Woo-hyun defeated the Great Luo Emperor Who Destroys Heaven. Then, after everything was over, he gave up all the power and talent he had accumulated in order to restore balance.”
The more the explanation continued, the wider Lee Tae-seong's eyes became.
The path Jang Woo-hyun had chosen was something he had never anticipated.
When the explanation finally ended—
Lee Tae-seong questioned his own existence.
“Putting Jang Woo-hyun aside... I'm already dead.”
“You died, but you left something behind.”
Lee Tae-seong had sacrificed himself, shattering his memories and power into fragments before scattering them throughout the world.
Jang Woo-hyun had obtained one of those fragments, allowing him to recall his previous life and mistakenly believe he was a transmigrator.
“What you left behind remained inside Jang Woo-hyun. The current you is... a fragment of a soul. Something like that. The same goes for Tamrin.”
The power and talent extracted from Jang Woo-hyun by the Natural Order contained soul fragments carrying the memories of both Lee Tae-seong and Tamrin.
“So... you've resurrected me?”
“Not quite. Think of it as the step before resurrection.”
“Why are you doing this for me?”
“After extracting Jang Woo-hyun's power, I realized something. There are no longer any True Immortals or Martial Gods in the Upper Realm. Which means there is no one left to stop the Outer Gods crossing over from beyond.”
The Natural Order had used Jang Woo-hyun's power to stop the Outer Gods.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Just listen. I'm explaining why I brought you out. After using Jang Woo-hyun's power, I ended up being influenced by it as well.”
Having been assimilated by Jang Woo-hyun's memories and thoughts, the Natural Order found itself worrying about Lee Tae-seong.
'When you think about it... he only suffered before dying.'
Lee Tae-seong had suddenly been dragged from Earth into another world.
He witnessed the deaths of people who were no different from family.
From that day onward, he had lived solely for revenge.
But throughout the endless cycle of repeated lives, even that desire for revenge gradually faded.
Eventually, he did nothing but fight cultivators like a machine.
'Should I really let him disappear like this?'
While thinking that, the Natural Order discovered the soul fragment containing Lee Tae-seong's memories within Jang Woo-hyun's power.
“And that's how the two of you are here now.”
The Natural Order pointed toward Lee Tae-seong and Tamrin.
“You've worked hard. I'll reincarnate you.”
“You want me to start over from the beginning?”
“Why? You don't like that? Then how about being reborn with your memories intact? I'll send this little fellow along with you.”
The tiny dragon floating beside the Natural Order spun around in the air before settling atop Lee Tae-seong's head.
“Reincarnation...”
He had already lived more than two thousand lives.
His memories had grown hazy.
He had become tired of living itself.
Yet, for a brief moment—
He wanted to truly live.
Just once.
Tap. Tap.
Perhaps Tamrin had read his thoughts.
Perched atop his head, the little dragon lightly smacked his forehead with its tail.
It no longer possessed the strength to speak or directly convey its thoughts.
Yet Lee Tae-seong somehow understood exactly what it meant.
'Should I try living... just one more time?'
Not for revenge.
But for himself.
Having made up his mind, he spoke.
“Can you send me to the world I want?”
“That much is possible.”
The being wearing Jang Woo-hyun's appearance was both Heaven and the Laws of the World.
Sending a single soul down to a Lower Realm for reincarnation was no difficult task.
“Where do you want to go?”
The master and fellow disciples he had met in that world had long since passed away.
They belonged to a life that had already ended.
He wanted something new.
“Can I go back to Earth?”
“Uh... that won't be possible.”
“You said anything was possible.”
“Earth no longer exists. It was destroyed ten thousand years after you crossed dimensions.”
It was shocking news.
Yet after everything he had experienced, he simply accepted it.
“Really? Then send me somewhere with advanced science.”
He wanted to live in a comfortable world instead of another underdeveloped one.
Surely there would be more things to do and enjoy there.
“It'd be nice if martial arts also existed there. There's probably no world where both science and martial arts developed together, right?”
“Normally, no. As civilization advances, the Heavenly Gate closes.”
Once the Heavenly Gate closed, the world's natural energy disappeared.
Without it, people could no longer use supernatural powers such as martial arts or magic.
“Let's see... maybe there's somewhere similar.”
The Natural Order closed its eyes briefly.
“Oh! There is. A Twisted World.”
Among the worlds where the Great Luo Emperor Who Destroys Heaven had forcibly opened the Heavenly Gate, there was one without any Ascenders or Lesser Ascenders.
Although the Natural Order had later closed the Heavenly Gate, that world still possessed an abundance of natural energy.
As a result, both martial arts and science had developed together.
“A Twisted World?”
“I'll send you there now. Ah, things might be a little difficult. With the power I have now, I can't even choose where you'll be born.”
“What? Wait! That's completely irrespon—”
Before he could finish speaking—
Lee Tae-seong lost consciousness.
Within his fading awareness, Lee Tae-seong realized he was trapped somewhere.
Yet there was nothing he could do.
His thoughts would not flow naturally.
Nor could he move his body.
It felt like sinking to the bottom of a deep lake.
Days.
Months.
Perhaps even years.
He had no idea how long he remained like that.
Then—
At some point, it felt as though his body was rising from the bottom of the lake toward the surface.
At the same time, everything around him brightened.
“...Tae-seong! Lee Tae-seong!”
Hearing someone call his name, he slowly opened his eyes.
The blurry world gradually came into focus.
The first thing he saw was a man looking down at him.
He had short hair.
A mechanical arm.
And a prosthetic eye.
Although the face was unfamiliar, Lee Tae-seong recognized him immediately.
“...Tamrin?”
“Yeah, it's me. Feeling a little better?”
Lee Tae-seong closed and opened his eyes several times because of the headache and dizziness.
He had awakened, but his body still did not feel normal.
“Where am I?”
“A new world. And you've just opened your eyes. You could say you were just born. It took me five years to find you. Of all things, you had to be born as a cloned human.”
“What? A cloned what?”
Hearing the unfamiliar term, Lee Tae-seong frowned.
Something already felt strange.
As he tried to sit up, Tamrin stopped him.
“Wait. You shouldn't move yet. Jack, administer it.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Another man's voice rang out.
A needle pierced Lee Tae-seong's left shoulder.
A refreshing sensation spread throughout his body.
The headache and dizziness disappeared.
Only then could he finally move properly.
Splash!
Lee Tae-seong rose from a glass tube filled with an unknown liquid.
The first thing he did was examine his body.
He possessed no Internal Energy.
Yet his physical body was in perfect condition.
It was as though it had been flawlessly engineered.
Unknown cables extended from his back.
Machines surrounded him on every side.
Turning around, he saw a man with a mohawk operating a small mechanical device, while a pink-haired woman sat behind the wheel.
Rattle. Rattle.
Feeling the vibrations beneath his feet, Lee Tae-seong realized where they were.
“Don't tell me... we're inside a vehicle?”
“Jack, open it.”
Tamrin nodded.
The man called Jack pressed a button.
The ceiling and walls slowly unfolded with mechanical sounds.
“What in the world is this place...”
As the roof and walls disappeared, the surrounding scenery entered his view.
A vast wasteland stretched endlessly in every direction.
Scattered rocks.
Withered plants.
Dry earth devoid of even the slightest trace of moisture.
They were driving across it in a truck.
“A world where science, martial arts, magic, and every kind of supernatural ability coexist.”
In the direction Tamrin pointed—
A city packed with skyscrapers soaring into the heavens stood in the distance.
“I woke up fifteen years ago. I've spent the last five years searching for you. I finally found you a few days ago and brought you here. That's why we're in this situation.”
Boom! Boom!
At the same moment Tamrin finished speaking, explosions erupted nearby.
Between the city and the truck—
A massive bombardment was taking place.
“Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky is about to end.”
Jack's words made Lee Tae-seong raise an eyebrow.
“Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky? Don't tell me... that's it?”
It was completely different from the martial art he remembered.
The Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky before his eyes consisted of hundreds of drones carrying out an aerial bombardment.
“That's the Tang Corporation's Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky. I helped them once before, so I earned usage rights.”
“The Tang... Corporation?”
Standing there wearing nothing but a pair of underwear, Lee Tae-seong found the words coming out of everyone's mouths difficult to comprehend.
“Boss! The second firewall has been breached! If the third one falls, they'll connect to the Internal Energy Cloud!”
“Upload Tae-seong's memories.”
“What? He only just woke up! It's too dangerous! Even if he's a perfectly engineered cloned human, his brain will melt!”
“Don't worry. That amount of information isn't nearly enough.”
“He just came out of the growth pod—”
“Oh, just do it! Do you have a better idea? Once the Tang Corporation's bombardment ends, we're finished! Just do it! If he dies, then he dies! Either way, he's dead!”
The pink-haired woman exploded in frustration.
“N-Noona... but...”
“Should I just flip the truck over? We all die together?”
Faced with her threat, Jack made a pitiful face as he began operating the machine before him.
“I take no responsibility! Here it goes!”
Click!
The moment Jack pressed the button—
“Urgh!”
Lee Tae-seong felt as though his brain had caught fire.
At the same time, basic knowledge of this world and the method of using his body became engraved into his mind.
Knowledge had just been forcibly uploaded into his brain.
Ordinarily, doing something like this without preparation would melt a person's brain from the sheer volume of information.
But Lee Tae-seong was different.
Compared to the countless years he had lived—
This amount of information was insignificant.
“Level One Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky.”
That was the true identity of the drone bombardment before his eyes.
As he organized the newly acquired knowledge, he understood what Tamrin had prepared.
“The third firewall has been breached! Connected to the Cloud!”
Even Jack's technical terms now made rough sense.
The Internal Energy Cloud.
Also known as the Cloud Dantian.
A type of wireless Internal Energy Transfer Technique proudly developed by the SD (Sky Demon) Group.
Once connected to the Internal Energy Cloud, an enormous amount of Internal Energy would be downloaded in an instant.
It allowed one to wield power far beyond one's actual cultivation realm.
Martial arts fused with science completely shattered everything Lee Tae-seong thought he knew.
“It's coming!”
Rumble!
As soon as Jack shouted, thunder roared.
A powerful shockwave and violent wind swept toward them from the bombardment site.
“Jack, activate the connected External Dantian.”
“That's impossible! We should just run—”
“Once they've connected to the Cloud, we can't escape.”
Boom! Boom!!
As though responding to Tamrin's words, the drones flying in the distance began exploding one after another.
“Hurry!”
“He doesn't have a Dual Dantian! He hasn't undergone Wudang's Yin-Yang Taiji Blood Meridian Technique either! He won't survive!”
“Your name was Jack, wasn't it?”
As drones continued exploding, Lee Tae-seong turned his head.
The moment their eyes met—
Jack instinctively flinched.
The presence radiating from Lee Tae-seong was impossible to believe belonged to someone who had only just awakened as a cloned human.
“Don't worry. Activate it. I can handle it.”
“Y-Yes.”
Overwhelmed by his gaze, Jack nodded and immediately began the preparations.
“Tae-seong. The External Dantian is about to channel the powers of the Extreme Yang Art and the Extreme Yin Art simultaneously. You can control them, right?”
“Without a problem.”
No one needed to explain how desperate the situation was.
Every drone in the distance had already fallen.
An existence radiating overwhelming power was rapidly approaching.
At the same time, those hiding nearby also began releasing their auras and moving.
“Activation complete. Beginning transfer.”
Jack pressed the keyboard on the small computer once more.
An immense amount of energy surged from the External Dantian connected to Lee Tae-seong.
On the right—
Heat capable of burning everything.
On the left—
Cold capable of freezing every ocean in the world.
Half his body felt as though it were burning alive.
The other half felt frozen solid, ready to shatter.
Lee Tae-seong calmly guided the sudden influx of energy.
He had already completely mastered how to control his body when the knowledge was uploaded.
The body he had obtained in this life was so extraordinary that it could practically be called a Heavenly Martial Physique.
Despite never cultivating martial arts, his body naturally maintained its peak condition.
It smoothly circulated the incoming energy.
And Lee Tae-seong possessed a martial art capable of utilizing two opposing energies.
Black and White Radiant Demonic True Energy.
A technique that fused opposing energies together to unleash even greater power.
The two energies merged into one inside Lee Tae-seong's body, producing a tremendous explosion.
Boom!
The explosion surged through his meridians before erupting outward.
At the very same moment—
A middle-aged martial artist who had rapidly closed the distance swung a saber formed entirely from Saber Aura.
Judging by the energy he emitted, he had downloaded his power from the Internal Energy Cloud.
The Saber Aura exceeded ten meters in length.
It resembled the blade of a giant.
Facing the incoming attack, Lee Tae-seong extended both hands.
The two energies switched sides.
Extreme Yin Energy gathered in his right hand.
Extreme Yang Energy gathered in his left.
KWAAAAAANG!!
The opposing energies exploded once again between his palms, engulfing everything in brilliant light.
The gigantic Saber Aura—
And the martial artist behind it—
Were erased without a trace.
When the explosion subsided—
Whoosh!
Everything within sight had been set ablaze.
Towering pillars of ice rose throughout the sea of flames.
With a single attack—
Lee Tae-seong annihilated every pursuer chasing them.
[Autonomous driving activated.]
The pink-haired woman switched the truck to autopilot before stepping away from the driver's seat.
“Wow... this big brother is insane.”
Her eyes reflected the blazing wasteland stretching endlessly before them.
“My name's Chloe. Now I finally understand why Brother Rin said he wasn't the leader. At this level, you're obviously the leader.”
Chloe walked over and introduced herself.
“Lee Tae-seong.”
“Big Boss, I'm here too. My name's Jack.”
Even Jack, who had been grumbling the whole time, approached respectfully and bowed.
“It's over. If we stay hidden like this, they won't find us. Let's lie low for a while and observe the situation. Congratulations on coming back to life, Tae-seong.”
Finally, Tamrin walked over and patted Lee Tae-seong on the shoulder.
“This world also has plenty of lunatics who treat people like tools. Let's cause some chaos here too.”
Lee Tae-seong nodded with a smile.
Together with Tamrin, Chloe, and Jack—
He began a new life in a world where science and martial arts existed side by side.
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