Chapter 125 : Chapter 125
Chapter 125. Regeneration
Restoring a body that has vanished within the consciousness world is, surprisingly, a simple task.
One merely has to wish for it.
Wish for one’s body to be reconstructed.
And precisely because it was simple, it was difficult.
He had to accomplish something that allowed not a hair’s breadth of error, relying on nothing but sensation alone.
Yet Dam Jeok-san thought simply.
There was no reason it would fail.
In the end, whether the body could be restored or not depended on how solid one’s confidence was.
And Dam Jeok-san’s trust in himself was exceedingly strong.
After losing his Dantian, everyone said he had become a cripple who could never rise again.
Even then, Dam Jeok-san had believed in himself. That he could do it. That if he did not give up, an opportunity would surely come.
That faith, bordering on blind conviction, reconstructed Dam Jeok-san’s body.
The first things to take shape were the Three Dantians.
From the Upper Dantian at the crown of his head, not yet fully opened, to the Middle and Lower Dantians brimming with vast internal energy.
Even after compressing his Genuine Qi once, he was already approaching the limit of what an Ultra-Peak expert could accumulate.
That was only natural.
He had devoured the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable, who possessed Genuine Qi far beyond his own limits.
Yet there was something strange—
GOOOO—
At the very center of the Upper Dantian, which he had yet to fully control, a radiant cluster of stars flowed like a river.
He could normally sense the state of his Middle and Lower Dantians whenever he circulated qi, but this was the first time he had observed his Upper Dantian in such a manner.
‘That is the martial basket I have inherited…’
At first, it had been based solely on Seo Woo-joo’s experiences, but as Dam Jeok-san fought battle after battle, the starlight had grown ever larger.
‘It is not only the martial principles I have comprehended.’
Even the principles of martial arts he had failed to understand and let slip away due to his shallow realm were layered thickly within that cluster of stars.
Someday, when he reached the Entering Transformation Realm and flung open his Upper Dantian, he would likely be able to claim that starlight as his own.
‘…Though even then, I doubt I will be able to fully understand every principle engraved within it.’
The Entering Transformation Realm no longer existed for Dam Jeok-san as a mere fantasy.
It was not yet something he could reach out and touch, but it was close enough that he could be certain he would arrive there someday.
As such, he had gained a rough understanding of what those at the threshold of the Entering Transformation Realm could and could not do.
The realms attained by the Martial Sovereign and Seo Woo-joo were so lofty that they had to be distinguished as something beyond the Entering Transformation Realm itself.
He could not reach their domain.
But he could glimpse it.
Because the Entering Transformation Realm was the stage at which one began to establish a personal microcosm, the gateway to transcendence.
‘At that stage, one is allowed to steal a glimpse of the stature of absolutes.’
And merely by glimpsing it, one could imitate it—if only slightly.
Just as he had forcibly manifested the Space Sword within his consciousness world this time.
As those thoughts continued, Dam Jeok-san’s body was gradually restored, centered around the Three Dantians.
A skeleton took shape, meridians reattached, muscles and flesh filled in…
Astonishingly, there was not the slightest error in that body.
‘Because the Dantian was restored first.’
Dam Jeok-san immediately began circulating the Genuine Qi stored within his Dantian, following the same routes he used in his usual qi circulation.
Along those routes, the surging Qi traced out and restored his meridians.
Following those meridians, muscles attached once more, and skin formed anew.
There was no error.
Because the Dantian had been restored first.
The routes of breathing exercises and qi circulation were, by nature, as precise as a blade. Any deviation would lead to qi deviation.
How much time passed like that?
Dam Jeok-san’s long hair whipped violently through the air.
Everything had finally returned.
From the deepest internal organs to the finest body hair.
‘This is… rather surprising.’
Dam Jeok-san turned his hands over, palms up and down, as he thought.
‘This is not an experience just anyone can have.’
To begin with, handling an amount of Genuine Qi one could not possibly endure and having one’s body explode was not something just anyone could experience.
No—more precisely, even the Ability of Predation itself was such an absurd miracle. It restored a shattered Dantian and devoured the memories and thoughts of others, turning them into one’s own understanding.
Yet the experience of reconstructing one’s own body was something special, of an entirely different order from those miracles.
‘To think I would be able to see my own bodily structure this nakedly.’
From the Three Dantians that formed the foundation of humanity and the root of martial arts, to the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the Twelve Meridians, and the countless minor vessels throughout the body.
Any martial artist knew of these structures, but to directly feel them being reconstructed was an experience exceedingly few could ever have.
‘Unless one undergoes Body Reformation, it would be impossible.’
In other words, it was a fortuitous encounter.
‘This experience alone will at least double the efficiency of my qi circulation.’
Thinking so, Dam Jeok-san slowly examined his body.
Just as when his Dantian had been formed, his internal energy felt immensely full.
So much so that he wondered whether there even existed another Ultra-Peak expert who could rival his accumulated qi capacity.
Even if his opponent were an Entering Transformation Realm expert, he felt he could calculate a chance of victory in a contest of pure internal energy alone.
And one more thing.
‘I have grasped a thread—albeit a shallow one.’
A clue to the next realm.
A clue to forming a universe within his own body.
‘But I cannot seize it just yet.’
After witnessing Man Su-geuk’s Space Sword, and imitating it through the Path of the Immortal, he had gained a sense of how a microcosm might be formed.
‘I have to gather all the martial arts I have accumulated into one.’
And having gained that sense, he also realized something else.
That it would be anything but easy.
‘I have accumulated far too much.’
Dam Jeok-san had greedily devoured any martial art that could help him grow stronger, without caring about its origin.
Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique and Prajna Heart Technique.
Even these two internal arts alone belonged to completely opposing domains.
And what of Red-White Extreme Smoke Slash, born from applying the clash and rebound between them?
Each was a peerless art capable of restraining even martial artists of a higher realm.
And the higher the level of a peerless art, the more difficult it became to forge a technique that contained its principles.
‘Well, that has its advantages too.’
Just as flowers that bloom after hardship are all the more beautiful, a sword forged with great difficulty would surely be sharp.
That was only common sense.
‘Of course, it might fall before it ever blooms.’
The sword could break before it was fully forged.
He knew that.
But there was no other way.
Dam Jeok-san had already embraced the ocean within his heart.
He simply had to transcend while carrying it.
As he steeled his resolve, his mind settled into a cold stillness, like the frozen snows of the Northern Sea.
PSSS—
At some point, the consciousness world began to crumble slowly from its edges.
The body that had been nothing more than an illusion gained substance, and the world that had been no more than a dream turned into reality.
***
Dam Jeok-san opened his eyes.
At that very moment, the Martial Sovereign instinctively sensed that the consciousness world had collapsed.
If he wished, he could have intervened inside it somehow.
Yet without even trying to grasp the situation, the Martial Sovereign let it be.
Because every trial that occurred within was something Dam Jeok-san could endure.
“You have changed.”
The Martial Sovereign spoke as he looked at his disciple, who had turned his gaze toward him with half-lidded eyes.
His bearing had changed noticeably.
Most striking of all was the sheer amount of Genuine Qi he carried—his accumulated qi capacity.
The very limit an Ultra-Peak expert could reach.
Dam Jeok-san’s accumulated qi could be described as having reached that level.
But that was merely a superficial achievement anyone could notice.
Man Su-geuk was seeing something far deeper and more essential.
“Did you grasp a clue?”
He asked Dam Jeok-san, as if posing a Zen riddle.
“Yes, I did.”
Dam Jeok-san replied just as naturally.
“But I could not seize it.”
“Well seen.”
The Martial Sovereign sounded faintly impressed.
Insight was, by nature, exceedingly vague.
Even one who attained enlightenment could not be certain of it.
Conversely, one who had not attained it might deceive himself into thinking he had.
Thus, despite sensing that Dam Jeok-san’s bearing had grown far more mature, the Martial Sovereign had harbored doubts.
Whether his disciple truly understood what he had realized—and whether he understood the limits of that realization.
To his surprise, Dam Jeok-san fully met those expectations.
If so, then it was time to go a little further.
“Jeok-san, creation is an ability granted solely to gods and immortals, even across the three thousand worlds.”
The Martial Sovereign spoke again.
“That is why it is called Entering Transformation.”
Dam Jeok-san’s brows twitched slightly.
The Entering Transformation Realm.
Also called the Realm of Departing the Mortal and Entering the Divine.
It was a title granted only to those who had reached a level where they could, through martial arts, encroach upon the divine domain.
A dreamlike notion.
That a human born as a mere mortal could threaten the realm of gods simply by swinging a blade and chanting incantations.
Yet such individuals undeniably existed within Murim.
In fact, quite a few.
Even on this battlefield alone, had there not been three?
‘Too many.’
Even without having reached the Entering Transformation Realm himself, Dam Jeok-san could not help but think so.
“That sounds excessively grand.”
And that thought became a question directed at the Martial Sovereign.
“Yes, it is grand.”
“Entering Transformation is, in the end, merely an entrance.”
“Correct. To truly roam the realm of gods and immortals, one must climb yet another distant mountain. But possessing the qualification itself is of great importance.”
Even an untrained ruffian could see the same world as an Ultra-Peak expert.
And if fortune favored him, he could even stab that expert to death with a blade.
In fact, on fierce battlefields, it was not uncommon for generals who had cultivated Ultra-Peak martial arts to meet their end at the hands of ordinary soldiers who had never learned martial arts at all.
But an expert who had reached the Entering Transformation Realm was different.
To kill them required the power of will from the Upper Dantian.
And the realm where one could instinctively wield that power was precisely the Ultra-Peak realm.
Only an Ultra-Peak expert could kill someone who had entered transformation.
“To have such a wide view without having reached that realm… your future is truly worth anticipating.”
Seeing Dam Jeok-san continue to press him with questions, the Martial Sovereign curled his lips into a crooked smile.
To reach the Entering Transformation Realm, one ultimately had to encompass the entirety of the path one had walked.
And in the Martial Sovereign’s eyes, Dam Jeok-san had already walked an astonishingly vast path—one comparable even to that of many Entering Transformation experts.
Which meant that encompassing it would be extraordinarily difficult.
Far more so than for an ordinary Entering Transformation expert.
“I am looking forward to it as well.”
As expected, Dam Jeok-san did not yield a single step in his reply.
Because a difficult path also meant a path that could lead to great completion.
“Kuhahahaha! Such eloquence—you do not disappoint me.”
The Martial Sovereign laughed heartily, clearly pleased.
“I shall grant you a special reward. I will inform the Northern Sword Venerable.”
“…?”
What was he going to tell Un Wol-hyang?
Dam Jeok-san looked at the Martial Sovereign, clearly confused.
“Your refinement has reached a level comparable to those at the very peak of Ultra-Peak.”
“Surely you do not mean…?”
At the absolute peak of Ultra-Peak.
Within the Martial Sovereign Castle, regardless of status, there existed a position that could only be undertaken by those who had reached that level.
Squad Leader.
[Dam Jeok-san of the Monster Repelling Squad is deemed to possess the qualifications of a Squad Leader, and his victorious merit is hereby acknowledged.
By this command, you are to undergo a separate examination and fill the vacant seat of the Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander.
Sealed by Martial Sovereign Man Su-geuk.]
“Return to the North. Go back, and take a seat befitting your martial attainment.”
Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander.
A position once held by Dark Heaven.
With her fall, it had effectively been overseen by the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable.
It was also one of the ten highest-ranking positions within the Martial Sovereign Castle.
Not a role a mere twenty-five-year-old rising star should ever hold.
Which meant that if Dam Jeok-san fulfilled his duties as Northern Wind Sword Corps Commander without issue, he could even push aside the Eldest Young Master Jeok Yeon-jun and be confirmed as the next Castle Lord.
‘Well, it will not be that easy.’
Dam Jeok-san knew, having read the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s memories.
That the Northern Demonic Realm was, quite literally, an Asura hell.
The schemes of Cardinal Wi Cheon-rak of the Yin God Cult were only the beginning.
Not only the Four Fiends of the Outer Path, but countless demonic forces that had never revealed themselves to the mortal world were stirring within it.
All in anticipation of the descent of the Demon Emperor—