Chapter 1132

No one there had dared to imagine it.

That the body of someone already dead would move.

Perhaps that was why even the few who saw his fingers twitch failed to realize what it meant.

They put it down to the grieving Master’s touch as he held his Disciple’s body and sobbed, the lingering vibrations of the battlefield—or simply their imagination.

An illusion born of the desperate wish that the young hero who had met such a noble end might come back to life, even now.

The Master, sunk in grief, thought no differently.

Thump.

At first, he thought he’d imagined the sound.

But when a vibration traveled through the Disciple he held so tightly, Jeok Cheongang could only blink in a daze.

How?

It couldn’t be. It was impossible.

Yet contrary to what Jeok Cheongang’s instincts told him, the vibration, once begun, did not stop.

It grew louder and clearer.

Like a war drum beating out the order to charge.

Thump. Thump-thump.

“…!”

In an instant, Jeok Cheongang hurriedly pressed his ear to his Disciple’s chest. His eyes flew wide.

There was no mistaking it. He wasn’t hearing things.

The heart that had stopped was beating again. An extinguished ember had caught fire once more.

And just as Jeok Cheongang shuddered at the impossible truth—

Fwoosh!

A scorching wind surged up around one person’s body.

No—

A tremendous wave of qi, powerful enough to envelop a radius of a dozen or so jang¹.

Rrrrmmm.

The space trembled in tiny shivers, like a living creature.

Everyone still nearby stared, eyes wide.

They watched dark blue heat waver like a mirage around the young man slowly rising at its center.

“Ah, ah…!”

An exclamation thick with emotion escaped Jeok Cheongang’s lips.

Most people were simply overwhelmed by the mysterious sight. But he knew all too well what it meant.

So did the two other giants who had remained to witness it, unlike Sword Saint Mae Jonghak, who had gone to bring the long battle to an end.

“…Am I seeing this right?”

The Slaughter Saint sounded unable to believe it. The Bow Saint answered in a voice that trembled, unlike her usual one.

“I think so. No, I’m sure of it.”

Watching the young man rise out of his Master’s arms, she murmured as if to herself.

“Bone Transformation.”

At that moment—

Ssshh!

The heat that had surged like waves and the dark blue streaks of light gathered with sudden force.

Toward the body, still warm.

To rekindle the faint ember within.

People had feared fire since ancient times.

A campfire burning in the mountains at night could give them strength, but greater heat could bring disaster.

So they saw fire as a force of destruction, overlooking the power to purify hidden behind it.

And now, the heat surrounding one person’s body was unquestionably a purifying flame.

Flicker.

Though trapped in a state of consciousness where he couldn’t tell dream from reality, Jin Taekyung could feel it clearly.

The heat surging from deep within him.

The agony of his whole body burning, and at the same time, the cool relief of his wounds being washed clean.

Kwoooosh!

A wave of fire overflowed in every direction. The terrible heat seemed ready to melt even his already-healed body in an instant.

Yet for some reason, Jin Taekyung felt not a trace of fear.

Of course he didn’t.

He understood it instinctively.

That immense heat wasn’t only sweeping through his body, melting every limb and bone. It was also peeling back a layer to reveal the unknown power hidden within him.

But that wasn’t the only reason Jin Taekyung could calmly accept his transformation.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Beyond his hazy sight and senses, chimes rang out one after another.

They were clearer than ever—the chimes he’d thought he would never hear again. Words swept past his eyes like the wind, tickling his retinas.

New enlightenment and achievements tied to it. Increases in Qi Sense and martial arts…

Unable to bear the weight of the words pouring down without end, Jin Taekyung closed his eyes.

He focused entirely on the landscape of his mind and sank deep beneath the surface.

The next moment, he found himself standing somewhere new.

Where is this?

He had seen it only once, yet it was familiar.

How could he forget?

Far below lay endless land and sea. Clouds filled the sky as far as he could see. It was a beautiful sight.

The peak. It’s the same peak as before.

When he had brought together the Heavenly Power Demon’s demonic qi, the Thunderbolt Saber King’s lightning qi, and his own Scorching Yang Qi, Jin Taekyung had finally conquered this lofty peak.

He had stepped into a new realm: the Summit of Martial Achievement.

But that was all.

He had claimed the peak that touched the clouds, but no matter how far he reached, he couldn’t touch the sky beyond them.

That realm hadn’t been open to him then.

He hadn’t yet earned the right—the enlightenment—to glimpse it, even for a moment.

Yes. That was how it had been.

Until today, when the old man had given him another insight.

Climbing higher was never the only answer.

He had simply taken that answer for granted.

But now he knew.

Raising the peak beneath his feet wasn’t the only way to glimpse the sky beyond these thick clouds.

There’s more than one answer.

Why hadn’t he realized it?

He had always gone beyond anything he’d imagined possible. So why had he set limits on his thinking?

Jin Taekyung suddenly remembered a conversation he’d forgotten.

When he was a novice martial artist, still stuck at Second Rate, he had asked Jin Wikyung how on earth he could reach the First Rate realm. His brother had answered with a single word: faith.

“What does that… mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Believe in yourself.”

“What does believing have to do with advancing realms?”

“Martial arts begin with belief.”

Only then had he understood.

Now he understood.

The person who had believed in Jin Taekyung least wasn’t anyone else. It was Jin Taekyung himself.

Even after he’d far surpassed Jin Wikyung’s martial prowess, even after he’d earned the right—he had always been that way.

But not anymore.

He decided to try believing, just a little.

In the old man’s words: Don’t set limits for yourself.

In the potential he had yet to discover.

If I want to see it, I can.

At the very top of the peak, Jin Taekyung lifted his head as if spellbound.

He looked at the clouds streaming across his path, blocking the view in his mind.

Not with his eyes, but with his heart.

With the Mind’s Eye.

And the next moment—

Fwoosh!

The clouds scattered as if by magic. Light flooded his vision, turning it white, and pain shot through him as though his retinas were burning.

“…!”

Was this what it felt like to be thrown into a vast pit of fire?

Or would dozens, hundreds of bolts of lightning striking down at once hurt like this?

But Jin Taekyung held on to the thread of his fading consciousness with all his might.

Fighting the pain that threatened to turn his mind to mush, he endured the unprecedented heat pouring down with the light.

Even that was enough to make his body and every memory in his head feel as though they were burning away.

Who he was.

Where he was.

Yet he did not forget the one thing that mattered: why he was enduring this terrible pain.

I have to go back. No matter what.

He had left something precious behind.

He had failed to protect what he needed to protect, and there was still something he had to do.

That alone was reason enough to endure.

If he could return, he could bear this agony, each second stretching into ten years.

Even the terrible heat that had seeped deep into his body and flowed through it like lava.

But widening his own limits did not mean every boundary had disappeared.

Kiiiiing.

This was a limit he could not overcome by will. A boundary he truly lacked the qualifications to cross.

And the moment Jin Taekyung realized it—

Ssshhh.

Thick clouds once again hid the light. The immense heat still flowing inside him spread through his body, passing through hundreds of acupoints rather than his Lower or Middle Dantian.

There it was absorbed, melting into him as though it had been part of his body from the start.

As though it were replenishing the natural strength of his body, damaged beyond recovery, and giving him still greater vitality and power.

Ah.

In that instant, Jin Taekyung understood.

His endurance had not been in vain.

The old man’s words—that it was time for each of them to return to their own places—could finally come true.

And his hunch was right.

Ding.

A clear chime rang out beyond the depths of his consciousness, and Jin Taekyung—

No.

I opened my eyes.

This time, I didn’t need anyone’s help.

As the dark blue radiance that had blazed for half a day slowly faded, a suffocating silence fell over everything.

The allies who had finally won this horrific bloodbath, and the fanatics who had survived by sheer luck and been captured—

No one dared speak.

It was as if even the dead were watching the figure slowly descend through the fading heat.

But unlike those frozen in place, forgetting even how to breathe, the old Master reached out with a trembling hand to catch his Disciple.

His body was warm now, like a campfire.

A thought struck Jeok Cheongang.

What if none of this were real?

If it were a spring dream² unfolding in the mind of an old man who had already gone mad, what would he do?

He couldn’t bring himself to speak.

If this truly was a dream, he would rather never wake.

But someone knew what Jeok Cheongang did not.

That all of this was undeniably real.

“I kept my promise.”

Half-raised eyelids. A languid voice.

The Disciple smiled at the Master staring at him in a daze, then added:

“Master.”