Chapter 330 : Truth and Memories (3)
Chapter 330: Truth and Memories (3)
10th Regression.
Although his talent was lacking, Lee Tae-seong reached the very peak of the Transcendent Realm through countless repeated lives and became the strongest martial artist under heaven.
There was no longer anyone in the Murim who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
After becoming the strongest under heaven, Lee Tae-seong gained confidence and began using the connections and wealth he had accumulated to search for traces of the cultivators.
"Disgusting bastards."
Every time he found one of their traces, he was greeted by scenes of unspeakable horror.
Madmen who treated ordinary people as insects, livestock, or materials for forging magical artifacts. Calling them murderers wasn't enough. The cultivators were monsters wearing human skin.
The longer his pursuit continued, the stronger his fury became, and Lee Tae-seong killed every cultivator he encountered.
Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators were not difficult to kill.
But from the Core Formation Realm onward, every battle became a fight with his life on the line. Lee Tae-seong was the superior fighter, but they wielded bizarre abilities and strange magical artifacts.
'Can they really be called human?'
Even when he used everything he had, fighting them wasn't easy. Sometimes he died in absurd ways and had to begin life all over again.
As each new life repeated, his experience accumulated, and he learned new martial arts.
Within those endless repetitions, Lee Tae-seong shattered his limits.
Relentless effort, indomitable perseverance, endless battles, and hundreds of years allowed even someone with mediocre talent like Lee Tae-seong to reach the supreme realm known as the Absolute Realm.
The Absolute Realm was completely different from the Transcendent Realm. An overwhelming sense of omnipotence filled him, making him feel capable of anything, and the monstrous Core Formation cultivators were no longer difficult opponents.
He even encountered Nascent Soul cultivators, who were stronger than those at the Core Formation Realm, yet he felt no fear. He cleaved apart their spells, shattered their magical artifacts, and killed again and again those cultivators who refused to die even after their bodies had been torn to pieces.
Wrapped in overwhelming power and a feeling of omnipotence, Lee Tae-seong believed he could finally achieve his revenge.
He thought he could exterminate those disgusting cultivators and bring everything to an end.
14th Regression.
He slaughtered nearly a hundred cultivators.
He thought he could finally see the end of his endless cycle of lives.
But that hope collapsed when he encountered another cultivator.
"Ah..."
The blue-eyed man who had killed his master and fellow disciples.
He was a Deity Transformation cultivator standing on the verge of Ascension.
A Deity Transformation cultivator was a living natural disaster.
With a mere wave of his hand, he summoned storms.
Simply by walking, lightning descended and collapsed mountain peaks.
No matter how strong one became, a human could not defy nature itself.
15th Regression.
After facing the overwhelmingly powerful Deity Transformation cultivator, Lee Tae-seong fell into despair.
He gave up everything and wandered aimlessly after losing his purpose.
Then he witnessed another horrifying sight.
The deaths of his master, the Azure Sky Great Hero, and his fellow disciples.
They had been unable to escape their fate.
The Azure Sky Great Hero resisted the cultivator, only to be crushed before Lee Tae-seong's eyes once more until nothing remained but a puddle of blood.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Lee Tae-seong, who had lost his purpose, erupted in rage and fought the cultivators.
But because he had neglected his training during that life, he died a meaningless death.
Several more regressions followed.
Every single time, he died at the hands of the Deity Transformation cultivator.
Around then...
Jang Woo-hyun also began reaching his limit while enduring the endless memories and repeated lives.
'I can't keep enduring this.'
Jang Woo-hyun divided all the memories he had witnessed by splitting his Will.
For someone who could split his Will to control countless swords and even create Projections with ease, dividing memories was a simple task.
After organizing the memories so they could be recalled whenever necessary, he focused on the unfolding scenes once more.
Life after life, Lee Tae-seong continued crashing into the wall called the Deity Transformation Realm.
"This won't work."
He needed another method.
After several days of contemplation, Lee Tae-seong reached for Demonic Arts, something forbidden within the Murim.
The beginning wasn't difficult.
He had already obtained Demonic Arts in an earlier life.
He sacrificed two entire lifetimes solely to master them.
Afterward, he came into contact with the Demonic Path.
The Heavenly Demon Castle.
The Demonic faction of the Murim where Lee Tae-seong lived.
After meeting them in person, he realized they were nowhere near as vicious as the rumors claimed.
By chance, the Demonic Art he had found once belonged to the younger brother of the previous Heavenly Demon Castle Lord.
Having inherited his legacy, Lee Tae-seong became the junior brother of the current Heavenly Demon Castle Lord.
While staying in the Heavenly Demon Castle, Lee Tae-seong came to a realization.
Contrary to the world's opinion, the Heavenly Demon Castle wasn't a gathering of monsters or villains.
That image had been fabricated by someone.
Then, through his senior brother, the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord, he learned the truth about the world.
"There are beings called cultivators manipulating this world from the shadows."
Both the Imperial Court and the Murim were secretly controlled by cultivators.
Most people knew nothing about them, yet the cultivators were the world's true rulers.
Ordinary people were nothing more than livestock raised by them.
This world itself was merely a pen built to raise cattle.
"The Heavenly Demon Castle was originally founded to oppose them."
To fight monsters beyond humanity, they developed countless Demonic Arts and experimented with sinister secret techniques and forbidden arts.
To fight monsters...
They had chosen to become monsters themselves.
Yet even after all those efforts, they still couldn't defeat the cultivators.
As time passed, the Heavenly Demon Castle came to be known throughout the Central Plains as an evil sect of the Demonic Path.
"There's a reason the cultivators haven't wiped us out, even though they're capable of doing so."
Within the world controlled by the cultivators, the Heavenly Demon Castle existed to create tension and crises for both the Murim and the Imperial Court.
They served as villains.
Savage beasts outside the livestock pen, preying upon the cattle.
"Our struggle may ultimately be meaningless."
Although overcoming the overwhelming might of the cultivators seemed impossible, the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord never gave up.
He searched relentlessly for a way to escape their rule.
Lee Tae-seong did the same.
No matter how powerful the cultivators were, he never surrendered.
Only after arriving at the Heavenly Demon Castle did he learn that the Castle Lord had also reached the Absolute Realm.
Once the two joined forces, dealing with cultivators became far easier than before.
Thanks to the exploits of the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord and Lee Tae-seong, those who knew the world's secret and resisted the cultivators began gathering together.
Centered around the Heavenly Demon Castle, the Anti-Heaven Alliance was established.
Everyone refused to give up.
Everyone fought the cultivators.
Yet the ending never changed.
No matter how many lives repeated, they were always annihilated by the Deity Transformation cultivator.
Lee Tae-seong witnessed the death of the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord—his second master and senior brother—countless times.
His mind gradually wore away.
25th Regression.
Believing victory impossible as things stood, Lee Tae-seong searched for another method.
After learning one particular secret manual within the Heavenly Demon Castle, he sought out the Castle Lord and explained his idea.
"That's too dangerous. I understand your concern, Junior Brother, but you don't need to push yourself that far."
'Senior Brother... we have to.'
He had witnessed the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord's death over and over again.
At this rate, this life would end exactly the same.
Lee Tae-seong refused to give up and continued persuading his senior brother.
Eventually, because of his stubbornness, the two worked together to create an entirely new martial art.
"Black-White Radiant Demonic True Qi."
It was utter madness.
A martial art that simultaneously cultivated Orthodox martial arts and Demonic Arts.
Since Orthodox Qi and Demonic Qi exploded together inside the body, it carried a strict time limit, and using it placed tremendous strain upon the user.
Even so, Lee Tae-seong believed there was no other way to defeat a Deity Transformation cultivator.
He completed the martial art despite the immense burden.
Even while walking toward death, he took another step toward revenge.
Lee Tae-seong invaded the city of cultivators located in another dimension known as the Hidden World.
With his new martial art, he confronted the Deity Transformation cultivator.
For the first time...
He killed him.
Then, instead of the cultivator, Lee Tae-seong attempted Ascension.
During his first Ascension...
He failed to withstand the crushing pressure of the universe-like space and was flattened to death.
28th Regression.
Lee Tae-seong perfected the Black-White Radiant Demonic True Qi and completely surpassed the Absolute Realm.
"The Black-White Radiant Demonic True Qi gains power by causing two opposing energies to explode within the body. They don't necessarily have to be Orthodox Qi and Demonic Qi. Yin and Yang, or any other pair of opposing forces, can be used. It has limitless applications."
Even while his regressions continued, Lee Tae-seong never forgot to explain the martial arts he learned or created.
Having completely entered the next realm, he slaughtered every cultivator in sight.
This time, after making thorough preparations, he followed the path the cultivators had prepared and Ascended to the Middle Realm.
Then...
He encountered another wall.
"So... there's no end."
A Deity Transformation cultivator was considered weak in the Middle Realm.
He had devoted hundreds of years to becoming stronger...
Yet he was still weak.
He had expected stronger cultivators to exist in a Xianxia world.
But imagining it and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things.
From then on, his life became mechanical.
As the regressions continued, his emotions faded away.
Only one purpose remained.
"Kill the cultivators."
His desire for revenge had disappeared long ago.
Perhaps his revenge had already ended in the Lower Realm.
Yet Lee Tae-seong never stopped.
He continued fighting and exterminating cultivators.
The stronger he became, the stronger his opponents grew.
Each time he died, he challenged them again.
The regressions continued without end.
Each time, Jang Woo-hyun divided his Will further and stored away more memories.
The passage of time became so long that merely watching it was exhausting.
Lee Tae-seong mastered countless martial arts that existed throughout both the Lower Realm and the Middle Realm.
He continued growing stronger.
His realm continued advancing.
Then...
He created entirely new martial realms himself.
Against the natural disasters known as Deity Transformation cultivators, a new body was required to oppose them and ascend to higher worlds.
He reconstructed his body.
He entered an entirely new sensory domain.
Before cultivators could even react, he moved with unimaginable speed and severed their heads.
Because it transcended humanity, he named it the Transcendent Realm.
Void Refinement cultivators.
Their spells covered the heavens and overturned the earth.
Ordinary martial arts couldn't even reach them.
The attacks simply couldn't connect.
To oppose them, Lee Tae-seong expanded his Will without end.
He split apart typhoons.
Destroyed raging storms.
Tore apart lands shaken by earthquakes.
A Will expanded infinitely.
Knowing neither end nor limit, he named it the Boundless Realm.
"If they refuse to die and escape as souls, then I'll cut everything. Even what cannot be seen."
To kill those who neither died easily nor suffered injury, he created a new power—
Absolute Severance.
A force capable of cutting absolutely everything.
Fusion cultivators.
From that point onward, they could scarcely be considered living beings.
The world itself aided them.
Even Will alone could no longer oppose them.
No matter how many times Absolute Severance struck, it couldn't cut apart the very world that sought to kill him.
"If they manipulate the world itself, then I'll twist the world's laws as well."
He drove his Will into the world's own Will and twisted natural law.
Breaking free from established rules, he shook the world itself.
Thus he defeated Fusion cultivators as well.
That was the birth of the Wish-Fulfillment Realm.
A realm capable of moving even the world itself and bending everything according to one's own will.
Finally...
Great Ascension cultivators.
They had become the world itself.
Even if he attempted to twist natural law, the world no longer responded.
Because the cultivator had become the world.
"If the world rejects me... then I'll create my own."
He opened his Mind World.
His own miniature universe.
And created an entirely new world.
It existed solely for attack—a world containing nothing but pure power.
Even so...
He had undeniably created a new world.
Having stepped into the domain of gods, he named it the Immortal Realm.
Thus, the supreme realm known as the Immortal Realm was born.
Jang Woo-hyun witnessed everything.
'So that's why.'
Only now did he understand why the miniature universe created by a martial artist of the Immortal Realm possessed a natural advantage against Great Ascension cultivators.
'It's not just the Immortal Realm.'
Every single realm had been created while fighting cultivators.
There had been martial artists who Ascended before Lee Tae-seong.
But things had been different back then.
Their method of Ascension was different.
Their numbers had been few.
—Do you really think martial artists from the Martial World have always been comparable to us? You only became comparable relatively recently. I don't know the exact time... perhaps twenty thousand years?
Twenty thousand years ago.
The era Yang Zhenjun had spoken of.
The era when the True Martial God, Lee Tae-seong, had lived.
Everything finally fit together.
Lee Tae-seong's appearance elevated the status of the Martial World in the Middle Realm, and martial artists became far more active.
Lee Tae-seong had ushered in a new age.
The Age of Martial Artists.
To reach that point, he repeated regression not merely hundreds, but thousands of times.
As time passed, the fragments of Will Jang Woo-hyun had separated continued increasing.
Before he realized it, there were already more than a thousand.
'Which regression is this now?'
It had already surpassed two thousand.
The passage of time was so long that it went beyond boredom.
It was enough to drive one's mind into ruin.
Yet Lee Tae-seong continued repeating his lives without losing his sanity.
Or perhaps...
He had already gone mad.
No ordinary human could endure such endless time.
The Lee Tae-seong standing before him now might already have been nothing more than an empty shell without a soul.
Even so...
He never stopped.
He continued fighting.
Continued demonstrating everything he had learned.
2713th Regression.
Neither the regressed Lee Tae-seong...
Nor Jang Woo-hyun, who watched him...
Could remember which regression it truly was anymore.
And that regression...
Became Lee Tae-seong's final life.