“You…”
The moment the Grand Sorceress saw a smile spread across Jin Taekyung’s face, which had been turning deathly pale, she instinctively realized how foolish a mistake she’d made.
Shit.
It was an irreparable blunder.
She had loosened the binding spell without thinking because his Kill me if you can had been so unmistakably sincere.
And Jin Taekyung had immediately seen her true intentions in that split-second mistake.
“What? Can’t do it, you crazy bitch?”
“…!”
The Grand Sorceress bit her lip. He’d hit the mark.
A hunting dog could only tear out its target’s throat when its master gave permission. She didn’t yet have that authority, and her earlier bluster about the natural order had been exposed.
Of course, even so—
Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
The Grand Sorceress thought to herself, then poured her strength back into the Magic that had briefly faltered.
Crack!
The thick, sturdy vines squeezed Jin Taekyung’s neck even tighter, as if they’d never loosened at all.
The gulf in strength between them, so stark in that moment, could not be bridged. Unlike him, with barely a trace of internal energy left, a tremendous force still lay coiled deep within the Grand Sorceress’s body.
And that wasn’t all.
With Jin Taekyung held hostage, even the Fire King and the Bow Saint couldn’t risk a reckless move.
All she had to do now was make the young brat submit.
The Grand Sorceress was certain of it—until she saw the smile on his face, brighter than ever.
…He’s smiling?
She couldn’t understand what it meant. Or rather, she knew instinctively, but her mind refused to accept it.
There was only one thing Jin Taekyung could still do in his helpless state. And surely there wasn’t a lunatic anywhere in the world who would choose suicide.
But—
Crunch!
There was.
That lunatic was right here, before her eyes.
Splatter! Splash!
In that instant, the Grand Sorceress’s eyes opened wide without her meaning to.
Everything was red.
Through the blood sliding down her white veil, she saw Jin Taekyung trembling all over and coughing up blood.
“Th-This…”
A stunned gasp escaped her lips.
There was no doubt. He’d severed his own heart meridian.
Even a massive old tree, one that wouldn’t easily fall to a lumberjack’s axe, couldn’t withstand a colony of ants boring through its bark and into its core.
For a Murim martial artist, severing the heart meridian meant death. Agonizing, but swift.
Why would he go this far?
Frozen for an instant, the Grand Sorceress stared at Jin Taekyung in utter shock.
She’d told him only half the truth. It was nowhere near enough to make him certain of anything—just enough to give him a vague suspicion.
Yet how many people under heaven would throw away their lives without hesitation because they suspected their mere existence threatened someone?
None. Surely none.
The strongest desire humans had was the desire to live. Even someone who made such a choice would need time to doubt, to steel themselves, before carrying it out.
But Jin Taekyung had done it without the slightest hesitation or fear.
Even smiling brightly as he did.
His eyes were already dimming, yet there was no wavering in them. He was certain he’d chosen the right path.
And as she looked at him, the Grand Sorceress finally understood her gravest mistake.
The Chosen One.
Letting him read her intentions earlier was nothing compared to this. She should have understood what those five characters meant. She should have guessed why her great master had searched so long for the young man before her, why he’d ordered his loyal servants to watch his every move.
Jin Taekyung was that kind of person.
He could curse and still know humanity and justice. He could spit and still pursue the chivalrous path. He might walk along the edge of the road, but he would never stray from the right one.
A chivalrous hero who led the way before everyone—and a lunatic beyond anyone’s imagination.
That was why he was the Chosen One.
Crack!
The Grand Sorceress clenched her teeth.
There was no more time to hesitate, no choice left to make.
Her master had already waited far too long. If Jin Taekyung died here today, he would have to wait again, with no end in sight.
I have to save him. Whatever it takes!
As time seemed to slow, the Grand Sorceress reached out, more desperate and frantic than ever.
Swoooooosh!
Immense power surged around her slender frame.
Driven not by the will to kill, but by the will to keep him alive, the energy surrounding her heart pulsed fiercely. The energy dormant in the air answered it, then burst into light and swallowed everything around them.
Flash! Fwoom!
The swelling radiance swept over the hill.
No—it spread until it covered the entire hill.
Its dazzling brilliance bleached the eyes of the Bow Saint and Jeok Cheongang as they raced toward them, having realized something had happened to Jin Taekyung, who was being held hostage. It forced the eyes shut of the fiend, still writhing like an insect as he clung to life.
Even the Grand Sorceress herself, who had summoned that radiance.
What happened?
Her vision lost in the glare, she bit her lip.
When a pile of rocks collapses, it kicks up dust. But when a great mountain crumbles, it causes an earthquake.
A Supreme Peak master who had severed his own heart meridian had suffered an injury not even a Great Firmament Immortal could heal.
She’d unleashed the greatest healing power she could, but there was nothing she could guarantee. And the radiance that had erupted more fiercely than ever showed no sign of fading.
No—at that moment, it seemed to flash even brighter.
Like a blade shining all the more beneath the sun.
“…!”
Just as the Grand Sorceress’s eyes widened when she realized something—
Shwaaak!
A chillingly low, razor-sharp whistle tore through the air. A silver-white spearhead, more than worthy of the name White Flame, ripped through space.
From beyond the dazzling light came someone’s quiet voice.
“Got you.”
Thud!
My stomach’s churning.
My head’s spinning, and my vision is blurry.
Maybe that’s why I still can’t tell whether this is a dream or reality.
If it’s neither…
Hell? No, heaven?
Everything around me is so white I can barely open my eyes. Unless some enterprising Yama1 has installed ridiculously powerful LED bulbs throughout hell to improve conditions for its prisoners, this has to be heaven.
But—
Ding. Ding. Diiiing!
Clear chimes ring in my ears like an echo returning from far away. They tell me enough.
This is reality. I’m alive.
I’ve won again at this insane gambling table, where I put up the money I got for selling my life.
System
Status Effect: Terrible Internal Injury has been removed!
Status Effect: Severe Bleeding has been removed!
Status Effect: Exhaustion has been removed!
Status Effect: Ruptured Organs has been removed!
Status Effect: Fracture has been removed…
.
.
.
A powerful healing force takes root in your body!
You’ve earned the somehow-you-managed-it achievement: Go Ahead, Gut Me!
Translucent holographic windows appear one after another in midair.
Along with them, my blurry vision cleared as if it had never been blurred. My breathing steadied, and my senses sharpened, letting me feel and take in everything within ten or so jang2.
Light. Air. Wind. Even formless things, like the thick stench of blood.
And the living beings breathing amid it all, with the same vitality as me.
Now it was time to collect my winnings from the other side of the bet.
Come.
I whisper the command inwardly and put my will behind it.
I send it toward a cold blade with no life of its own, though it has extinguished countless lives. Toward my beloved weapon, lying alone on the ground far from my hand.
Shwaaak!
It all happens almost at once, and I murmur,
“Got you.”
At that moment—
Thud!
With the sound of bone and flesh bursting, the thick vines binding my entire body loosen.
Now.
I don’t even need to draw on my internal energy. I pour into my limbs a strength beyond anything the word superhuman can describe, and let it loose.
Crack!
The vines split, then burst apart. They snap into pieces under that monstrous force, and I’m free.
I reach out toward White Flame as it shoots toward me like a streak of light.
Tap.
That cool touch is more familiar than anything.
But the blood spattered across the silver-white spearhead is still warm, and the scream that erupts nearby is agonized.
“Aaaah!”
On a battlefield where I can’t see, what could give me a better bearing than a scream?
Following the sharp cry through the lingering radiance, I take one long step.
Bang!
Compressed air explodes beneath my driving foot. The layers of light before me break apart, and the three jang2 between us vanish in an instant.
And then…
Shaaak!
At the end of the spear’s downward-slashing arc, there was someone who owed me my stake. I could feel exactly where she was, even without seeing her.
Right then—
Swish. Slice!
Dark red blood sprays with a cold cutting sound.
But there’s already no one in the spot where she screamed a moment ago.
Fast.
No. Fast doesn’t begin to describe it.
Any Murim martial artist who saw that movement would call it Shifting Form and Position, a technique only a Supreme Peak master could use.
But no matter what anyone else in this world thought, I was the one exception.
Blink…!
A Magic spell that made you disappear in an instant, like the literal blink of an eye—a short-range teleport.
In a Grand Mage’s hands, it works even faster than Shifting Form and Position. It’s an incredible way to evade an attack—but that’s all it is.
Three steps from my left. Five jang.2
I know Blink’s limits better than anyone under heaven.
Crack.
And I’m a superhuman with the strength and senses to catch up with it, despite its limited range.
Boom!
One step.
I cross that distance in an instant and smile brightly at the Grand Mage, frozen with her eyes wide.
“See you again?”
Shing!
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