Chapter 150

In the collapsing clock, Pung Hyeon questioned the incomprehensible reality.

‘Cut down?’

It was impossible.

He was aware that the Emperor’s Sword Form was fatal even to them.

To stop him, Pung Hyeon wrapped his body in the Heavenly Boundary Power they wielded for protection. Yet, even that was breached, and the blade reached his flesh. Such a thing couldn’t happen with just the power of the Emperor’s Sword Form.

The Heavenly Boundary is the combination of the vital energy that allows life to exist and the fundamental energy that constitutes all things.

It is the very source of all energy.

It is a power far beyond the mere creations that distinguish their Innate Life Force from their Acquired Life Force. It is the power that proves they are the true chosen descendants.

Yet, he was cut down.

Why?

‘Was it those eyes? Or that sword?’

The eyes bestowed by the dragon.

The sword forged from the remnants left by beings from another realm.

Both are things that have escaped the touch of the Mother of All Creation.

It’s not impossible to neutralize the Heavenly Boundary Power. But Pung Hyeon had clearly considered them as variables and set up defenses.

The total amount of power was undoubtedly in Pung Hyeon’s favor. Yet, he was cut down. Why?

‘I don’t know.’

Am I going to die then? Like Namgung Jin, to Namgung Woo again?

‘That can’t happen…’

A fierce will to live forcibly pulled Pung Hyeon’s body up.

The spirit rises first, the energy responds, and soon the essence begins to react.

The Heavenly Boundary Power is the source of growth. Even if half the body is severed, as long as there is breath, as long as the spirit still clings strongly to the will to live, it will reconstruct the body accordingly.

“This me… to you mere imitations!!”

It was a bizarre sight.

The spine stretched to connect the severed upper and lower body. Muscle fibers, blood vessels, and nerve tracts wriggled and extended to suture the two bodies into one.

But Namgung Woo had seen even more grotesque things.

Unlike the current phenomenon in the realm of regeneration, it was as if Yi Ja-ryong was rewinding time itself.

Compared to that, Pung Hyeon’s regeneration was painfully slow.

‘Right. I knew I wouldn’t die from just this.’

The Emperor’s Sword Form once again controls the world.

The external energy Pung Hyeon wielded was disrupted by the sword pressure of the Emperor’s Sword Form, and only the Heavenly Boundary Power struggled to repair Pung Hyeon’s body.

The second Emperor’s Sword Form slash cut Pung Hyeon’s body vertically.

A killing sword with no thought of keeping him alive to extract information.

‘If I give even a slight opening, it might be irreversible.’

Those who repair their bodies even at the brink of death.

A momentary gap is a chance for revival.

And Namgung Woo didn’t need to extract information from him. He already had a clue.

Fifty years ago.

There was some relationship between them and Namgung Jin. Most likely hostile. As he traces the past of the Namgung Family for its reconstruction, he will surely find out.

So.

‘I’ll kill him here for sure.’

The blue light shimmering in Namgung Woo’s eyes shone with killing intent on Pung Hyeon.

He knew he was overexerting himself but didn’t stop.

For Namgung Woo, breaking through Pung Hyeon’s defense was impossible without overexertion. His internal organs were already shaken, causing congestion, and a bloody taste spread in his mouth.

The excessive use of internal energy made his dantian feel an emptiness he hadn’t even felt in the battle against the Five Yin Demons. His head throbbed. His overloaded brain protested its limits.

To pierce through the essence of a power he had never seen before, his Azure Tranquility Eyes were overworked, making his temporal and parietal lobes feel like they were melting.

Even in the battle against the Black Ghost Gate Master, he had already exerted his full strength with the Emperor’s Sword Form.

Repeatedly unleashing the Emperor’s Sword Form, which had grown a step further, scraped Namgung Woo’s mental strength to the bottom and carved wounds into his soul.

It’s not just Pung Hyeon who is desperate.

Namgung Woo also staked his life.

To live or die. The crossroads of life and death for the two were never different.

If Pung Hyeon holds on, Namgung Woo will die. If not, Pung Hyeon will die.

Cut, repair, cut, repair, cut, repair.

Blood vessels burst in Namgung Woo’s eyes, and bloody tears flowed.

Flesh fragments scattered from Pung Hyeon’s mutilated body.

At this point, their respective powers like the Three Thousand Divine Techniques and Heavenly Boundary Power no longer mattered. Who will run out of mental strength first? Whose resolve will falter first?

The decisive point lies there.

Thud.

Namgung Woo’s eyes widened. A hand touched his stomach. Despite being cut so many times, Pung Hyeon’s hand finally reached and rested on Namgung Woo’s solar plexus.

“The Emperor’s Sword Form, it didn’t falter, did it?”

Thud-!

With a sound like a large stone thrown into a lake, Namgung Woo’s mouth opened, and blood gushed out.

A scream was heard.

It wasn’t from Namgung Woo. It was from those who, having successfully subdued the transformed demons below a certain level with the Dragon’s Roar, had been keeping an eye on Namgung Woo and let out a cry.

The hand holding the Bonding loosened. The Bonding fell to the ground.

Pung Hyeon faintly smiled. All his limbs were severed, and even if they were reattached, his body was a patchwork mess.

Namgung Woo stepped back.

Squelch, squelch.

The pool of Pung Hyeon’s blood on the ground left footprints.

“We were right.”

“…Since earlier.”

Namgung Woo, barely supporting his body that seemed about to collapse, spoke.

“Just spouting nonsense.”

“Is that how it sounded?”

Lying on his pool of blood, Pung Hyeon looked up at the sky. Though the sky couldn’t be seen in the hidden space within the cliff, it seemed to appear in Pung Hyeon’s eyes.

A sky with a huge hole.

“So, it’s better to leave a proper last word.”

“Last words. Last words, huh? Haha… that’s something humans do. Gods don’t need it.”

“Gods…”

The words of a madman.

It was a statement a delusional patient might make, but Namgung Woo didn’t point it out.

For some reason, Namgung Woo unconsciously accepted that Pung Hyeon’s words might hold some truth.

“I’ll give you a prize. I’ll answer one thing. Consider it instead of last words.”

Pung Hyeon, who used the last bit of Heavenly Boundary Power to counterattack Namgung Woo, was gradually turning to dust from the extremities.

He had only a few minutes left at most.

In his hazy mind, Namgung Woo repeatedly thought and erased many thoughts.

There were many things he wanted to know. Who they were, their purpose, their relationship with the Namgung Family.

But the question that came from Namgung Woo’s mouth was more fundamental.

“What am I?”

Pung Hyeon snorted as if it was ridiculous and asked back.

“You don’t know?”

What a funny guy.

He laughed as if he heard something amusing and then answered.

“You are the last arrangement of that person. The one prophesied, chosen…”

As his neck began to turn to dust, Pung Hyeon stopped answering and muttered.

“Ah, Mother… we…”

Without finishing his words, Pung Hyeon completely disappeared from the world.

At the same time, Namgung Woo’s consciousness was cut off.

§

Namgung Woo was in a darkness where he felt no sensation.

The first thought that came to mind was the speculation that he might be dead.

The final desperate strike Pung Hyeon landed on Namgung Woo, with his Protective Aura Energy half-destroyed, crushed his internal organs into mush.

No matter how tenacious a life force Namgung Woo, a Peerless Master, had, it was an irreparable severe injury.

Gwak Dan also died. Pierced through by the Netherworld Horn, he could no longer suppress the poisoned main blood vessels and breathed his last.

Namgung Woo was the same. He could withstand considerable internal injuries, but with his internal organs completely turned to bloody pulp, there was no way to hold on. Only monsters like Yi Ja-ryong or Pung Hyeon, who had transcended natural laws, could do such a thing.

‘It’s warm.’

It was comfortable.

As those who said death is rest claimed.

Before losing consciousness, the pain that even the Void Spirit Divine Art couldn’t completely remove as his mental strength was exhausted was now gone.

It was like being held in the gentle embrace of a mother.

The thought of wanting to sleep like this crossed his mind, but Namgung Woo somehow lifted his eyelids. He couldn’t see anything, and he didn’t even know if his eyes were still there, but he tried to do so with his thoughts.

Then, warmth spread from his stomach.

Sensation returned. Pain spread, letting him know the shape of his body. Life force sprouted from his ruined stomach.

The Heavenly Boundary Power that had crushed his insides was now, in reverse, purifying his life force and repairing Namgung Woo’s body.

‘Ah…’

The newly formed internal organs were different from before.

Changing bones, replacing the womb—this is the process of transcending the mortal body to become an immortal.

What was happening to Namgung Woo now was no different. It was the process of elevating the internal body, which had not yet transcended the human category, to a higher-dimensional being.

The newly formed stomach would digest things it couldn’t before, turning them into nutrients. The newly formed liver would decompose any poison, ensuring no harm to the body.

The lungs would ensure Namgung Woo never felt short of breath, the heart would beat without stopping under any shock, and the kidneys would purify his blood more purely than anyone else’s.

And the dantian finally learned the realm of infinity.

This was the future of the changes happening inside Namgung Woo’s body that he saw.

When he realized his Azure Tranquility Eyes had returned, a flood of sensory information overwhelmed Namgung Woo’s mind.

Following the sense of pain, smell, hearing, and taste returned, and lifting his eyelids, the light of the world shone on Namgung Woo again.

“Did you sleep well, sir?”

The warm and soft sensation felt behind his head. The two mounds covering half his vision and the familiar, longing face filling the other half…

“Yes. Good morning.”

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