“So get up!”
Kang Seok shouted and urged Lee Sungmin to stand up. Lee Sungmin forced himself up and grit his teeth.
There was no damage to his body due to the intense regeneration, but due to the mental strength and focus required to maintain the techniques he had used up until now, he had incredible amounts of fatigue and his body didn’t move the way he wanted.
His legs trembled and his arms throbbed with pain. Kang Seok frowned at Lee Sungmin, who could not stand up properly.
“What the hell?”
It’s not that Lee Sungmin had grown bored with the fight. Kang Seok noticed something and came closer to Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin struggled to lift his spear up somehow, staring at Kang Seok, but even the spear, which usually felt light, was too heavy to lift at this moment.
Kang Seok frowned as he stared at the trembling tip of Lee Sungmin’s spear.
“You can’t even hold yourself up. Even if I were to stab you right now, you’d just regenerate it like a zombie…….”
“……huh……uh…….”
Lee Sungmin felt dizzy. He felt his vision grow hazy and grabbed his spear in a terrible stance reflexively. He was desperate to live, and Kang Seok could only scratch his head as he looked at the frightened Lee Sungmin.
“This is it, I won, I guess…”
Kang Seok spoke reluctantly, as he had mentioned just how weird it was for him.
He was excited to have even more fun, but in the end, the fight didn’t end the way he wanted.
Kang Seok approached Lee Sungmin a bit further, just to examine his condition more clearly.
“No wonder, in that exchange, when the lightning erupted out at the end, I noticed something with you that almost seemed as if you drained yourself out.”
“Huuuu… huu…….” (T/N : sfx for panting or trying to gather his rough breathing)
“I don’t think you’ve been hurt because of the fight with me. It’s a very… unpleasant ending.”
It simply was too unfortunate. What if Kang Seok and Lee Sungmin were able to fight more? He was sure Lee Sungmin had other techniques, but he knew Lee Sungmin was in no way capable enough to fight right now.
The winner of this fight was Kang Seok. He was standing on both feet, and Lee Sungmin couldn’t even hold his body up properly. That should be the end of the fight, no matter how one looked at it.
“In the last hundred years. You’re the first one to make me bleed like this.”
Kang Seok muttered.
“You’re the first one among those I have challenged with the spear to push me this far and even make me bleed. None of the others before you were able to do that. Although I’m supposed to kill you in a battle like this, it doesn’t feel right to do so.”
“……what do you mean……?”
“I won’t kill you.”
Kang Seok, the Spear King, who was gazing up into the sky, muttered as he turned to face Lee Sungmin.
“As for what Beyond the Heavens wants me to do, I get to as I please. Musin ordered me to do that in the first place. But An Zun was a loyal follower of Musin, and it might not be the same next time. Stay vigilant.”
“Aren’t you going to kill me then?”
“I’ll put it behind us. It was fun fighting with you. Although your endurance is weak, we can work on that for the next time.”
Kang Seok then furrowed his eyebrows as he continued to speak.
“What I thought I was going to fight was another warrior of the spear like myself, named the Ghost Spear. I did not expect to fight a monster like this.”
King Chang gazed into Lee Sungmin’s eyes. What he was looking at was not only Lee Sungmin, but rather a vicious time bomb that might go crazy at any moment. Kang Seok chewed his lips and pondered.
He thought it would be rather fun to fight such a being.
Kang Seok immediately dismissed the idea, since Lee Sungmin would surely die, and there was no telling what would happen with that monster if it slayed him as well.
“Your physical condition looks terrible, and as much as I like you as a fellow spearman, I can’t tend to your injuries for you since we are enemies. I’ll have to take my leave here, but I look forward to the next time we meet.”
Kang Seok left the words and kicked the ground. Quickly, he disappeared into the darkness and left.
Lee Sungmin didn’t relax until Kang Seok had completely left. Once he did, Lee Sungmin fell back down and collapsed. Chewing on his bottom lip, he gripped his head from the throbbing headache.
[Hold on tight.]
Heoju warned Lee Sungmin as he was currently monitoring the seething darkness and monstrosity within the back of Lee Sungmin’s consciousness.
He had used too much foreign power in this fight and had relied on the power source deep within his dantian from the monster within him. Although this meant he would receive more energy in a fight, afterwards he was susceptible to losing his consciousness like before.
This immense power was the power of a greedy beast that would take the body of Lee Seong-min if abused.
“You really don’t look good at all.”
There was a grumbling voice that could be heard suddenly. Lee Sungmin raised his head up as he recognized the voice and sighed in relief.
Crackle~
An electric current erupted out of thin air, and through the dark lightning, Sima Ryunju emerged. He frowned as he watched Lee Sungmin behind the eyes of his mask.
“Or is it because you never looked good in the first place?”
“……master.”
“Don’t talk right now.”
Sima Ryunju cut off Lee Sungmin and approached him.
The right hand of Sima Ryunju, which was clasped in his left hand behind his back, suddenly shot forward.
Pabababak!
Sima Ryunju’s index finger hit all of the clogged blood vessels and meridians that were strained within Lee Singmin’s body, as well as hitting his pressure point to make him immobile.
After making sure Lee Sungmin would not move, Sima Ryunju laid Lee Sungmin’s body down and searched through his robes to pull out his ghost mask for him.
“I’m sure I warned you plenty of times about how dangerous the World of Illusions is. It’s not something you can currently do with your level of power right now.”
“…… I knew it was dangerous. It’s just…. He was too strong of an opponent.”
“I’ll admit that it’s a fantastic feat that you’ve been able to endure this long against someone like the Spear King, and were even able to injure him to a certain extent. But, it’s as you said. He isn’t your opponent right now.”
Sima Ryunju placed the ghost mask on Lee Sungmin’s face and allowed Lee Sungmin to start circulating his other energies within his body to renew the balance inside his body by restricting the foreign powers.
Sima Ryunju’s hands were dyed in a black light as he finished assessing Lee Sungmin’s condition.
Kwooong!
When Sima Ryunju both hands pressed Lee Sungmin’s chest, Lee Sungmin’s body, which had been stiff with muscles pains and internal circuitry overload, trembled.
“The techniques I gave you are compatible with all the types of energy within your body, but that also means if you overdo it, you’ll still experience terrible consequences, like your dantian overheating or possibly even having it destroyed or… even worse.”
Sima Ryunju knew that Lee Sungmin had a huge amount of internal energy within his body from various types of forces, like the Dragon Heart, his own internal energy and the borrowed power of the Great Yokai Heoju. That was why he worked especially hard on creating techniques suitable for him through the Spear Demon martial arts.
Originally, the World of Illusions was not supposed to be a spear technique, but Sima Ryunju found that a technique like that would suit Lee Sungmin’s repertoire of techniques, hence why he created it for him with much effort.
“You’re the one who could’ve done this level of damage to your body. …… It’s way too much for a normal person to withstand. If things went wrong and the battle went longer, or you overworked yourself even harder, you would have become a true monster already by now.”
“…… Were you watching?”
“Hadras is not far from here, and you were causing a ruckus just outside the city outskirts that was nothing short of one thinking a war was erupting out here. I have eyes on you brat, of course I’m going to notice something that loud.”
“If you were watching, why didn’t you help me?”
“You’re such a shameless bastard. It’s not even my fight, so why should this old man come forward? If you’re a disciple of I, the Demonic Emperor, you have to overcome this type of threat and fight it on your own.”
“What would you do if I were dead?”
“Then I would have killed Kang Seok without a doubt. Don’t worry, this old man isn’t that heartless.”
“You would seriously let me die just so you could act out of revenge?”
“If you were crying out for help, I might have stepped up to help. That would have been quite interesting to watch.”
Said Sima Ryunju with a grin.
Lee Sungmin sighed deeply at the words. His headache was gradually subsiding thanks to the mask that suppressed his dantian and borrowed powers, as well as Sima Ryunju unclogging his blood vessels and meridians.
“……An Zun was killed.”
“I know, there was a large ruckus there too. Couldn’t you have fought more quietly?”
“An Zun was a Transcendent as well. Is it really so easy to fight ‘quietly’ against such a person?”
“I could have done at least that if I were in your place.”
“I’m not you, master.”
“Yes, your incompetent, I understand, so quit blabbering.”
Sima Ryunju grumbled as he raised himself up, and jabbed Lee Sungmin’s pressure points to allow him to move again.
“For the time being, try to refrain from pulling out power from your dantian…. And make sure to wear a mask at all times. Once you’ve had such a close call like this, you’ll have to be more careful than ever.”
“I see.”
Lee Sungmin lifted himself up and nodded his head as he sat right back down. He suddenly remembered something and spoke to Sima Ryunju.
“I met Geom-Song, the Heavenly Sword of the Wudang.”
“Oh? It seems you were able to make it out alive.”
“……he didn’t seem to have any intentions to kill me. I didn’t fight back, as you told me to do.”
Lee Sungmin trembled as he remembered the sword from the incarnation of Geom-Seong. Sima Ryunju listened and then smiled.
“I guess he hasn’t just sat around doing nothing for the past hundred years or so.”
“Why didn’t he decide to kill me?”
“How can this old man know what he’s thinking? But if he didn’t kill you, then there’s likely no reason in his mind to kill you. Just because he’s been in seclusion for the past one-hundred years, does not mean he has eyes and ears in other places.”
Sima Ryunju spoke as he turned back around.
“There’s a visitor for you back at the headquarters.”
“……a visitor?”
“That Silent Flare, Baek Sogo.”
Lee Sungmin’s eyes opened wide at the words of Sima Ryunju.
Lee Sungmin felt confused. Baek Sogo finally had reappeared? And she was waiting for him in the Sama Order of all places?
“You know from experience, but she went back to the Mountain of Mush it seems, and trained hard the past few years. She’s very hardworking, from what I can tell, and she’s broken into the Realm of Transcendence…. And besides her martial arts, she has other kinds of powers as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“Denir made her, his apostle.”
Sima Runju spoke as he clicked his tongue.
“I don’t know why Denir chose her as an apostle. Gods may not have much power in the mortal world, but that doesn’t mean their power is something to scoff at either. Their powers are something humans cannot dare to imitate.”
“…… Where exactly is she right now?”
“She said she wanted to meet you, and I offered her a room to stay in until you came back. Not only that, but the Red Tower Master you brought back with you is chatting with her fairly often. Ah! Don’t worry, I didn’t do any kind of harm to her.”
“You are way too kind to women.”
“If you say any nonsense again, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Can’t you even be honest? I wasn’t even sure if you liked grown-up women, since you liked the fairies so much.….”
Lee Sungmin’s words did not even finish until the end. Sima Ryunju immediately followed through on his threat.
Bam!
Lee Sungmin’s body flew in the air with a dull sound. Lee Sungmin groaned in pain as he grabbed his ass.
“Do you think this master of yours really cares so much about some women? I only took care of them because they had ties to my stupid disciple.”
“Thank you…….”
“This old man merely decided to help them because my generosity has no bounds…huhuhu! You are quite lucky I was walking around taking a night stroll tonight.”
“……thank you for your help.”
“You speak too insincerely.”
Sima Ryunju spoke grumpily and straightened out his posture.
“Let’s go back.”
“Yes.”
Lee Sungmin followed in the footsteps of Sima Ryunju, rubbing his burning ass with his hands.