Chapter 260
Chiwoo stared at Park Chan-woo in silence.
Not because he was thinking anything in particular.
He was simply staring blankly, his mind completely empty.
Because nothing, from beginning to end, was normal.
‘He… summoned a Reaper?’
The Reaper that had emerged from Park Chan-woo’s shadow.
The moment it appeared, it blocked Taebaek’s attack with a powerful curse.
But Reapers were beings that maintained the balance and laws of the Abyss.
They were far removed from creatures that could be summoned like someone’s summoned beast.
Then was it something merely resembling a Reaper?
‘It’s the most primal curse there is, one that draws everything in, drags it down, and brings corruption.’
The curse the Reaper used was no ordinary thing either.
No, anyone who saw it could not help but shudder.
Any powerful being who had reached that level would instantly understand just how horrifying that curse truly was.
It was a primal, fundamental curse that could erode even immortality and indestructibility.
But—
Even that Reaper’s curse failed to sever Taebaek.
Taebaek’s spiritual soul and physical soul had already transcended perception.
They were so vast and immense that they could be called a world in themselves.
Which meant that unless it was a curse capable of erasing a world itself, Taebaek could not be killed.
In other words—
‘…The scale is different.’
The Reaper’s curse annihilated a single being, a single existence.
Taebaek, having become a multitude and a world beyond any single being, stood as the absolute opposite of the Reaper.
……It was utterly incomprehensible.
In the past, Chiwoo had once severed Taebaek’s arm.
He had not been able to kill him, but he had succeeded in a surprise attack and dealt him a critical wound.
The Taebaek of that time had still clearly been an ordinary living being.
An absurdly powerful one, yes, but still a single individual.
And yet now, five thousand years later, the presence of Taebaek, who had swallowed the black sun in reverse…
‘Can that even still be called a living being?’
An overwhelming pressure.
It felt as if the entire mountain was trembling.
As if he were moving the energy of the entire Mountain of Practitioners.
People commonly used terms like peak and transcendent peak to describe levels of mastery, but Taebaek had already gone beyond a level that could be divided by such standards.
‘Five thousand years ago, Taebaek was already at the level of Manifestation Realm Ultimate Mastery.’
The end of non-action, beyond the transcendent peak.
Among the Arahan, the stage no one had reached was precisely Manifestation Realm Ultimate Mastery.
It was an expression meaning one had reached the ultimate, beyond both initial entry and full maturity.
At best, Chiwoo’s current level was only Manifestation Realm Full Maturity.
He had not yet reached Ultimate Mastery.
He was an assassin, not a true swordsman.
Measured by an assassin’s standard, he might be able to kill someone who had reached the ultimate through assassination, but anything beyond that was impossible.
‘The Life-Death Realm, spoken of only as legend, attainable only in death. A level no mere Arahan can reach…’
Could Taebaek possibly have reached the Life-Death Realm?
From that point on, one was regarded as a god and could no longer be seen as a mere living being.
A being of awe.
An existence feared and revered by all.
Naturally, it was the level all Arahan sought.
They said that upon reaching the Life-Death Realm, one was no longer bound by energy, and that with a single thought, one could kill an enemy hundreds of miles away.
And if one reached Life-Death Realm Ultimate Mastery, one could stand shoulder to shoulder with most Demon Gods.
‘Not even that.’
But Chiwoo shook his head inwardly.
Even if one reached the Life-Death Realm, one could not become a world.
One could not freely wield all the vital energy of an entire mountain.
Which meant—
‘Have you reached the Nature Realm, Taebaek…!’
It meant he had already stepped into an unimaginable realm.
The transcendent domain of becoming the world itself and freely controlling the energy of all things.
A monster that surpassed even Demon Gods.
And this was his strength before even hatching.
How powerful would he become after hatching and completing his evolution?
‘We can’t win.’
There was no way to assassinate and kill someone who had become the world itself.
Chiwoo lost the will to fight.
‘At the very least, I have to protect the Successor…’
If someone had to die, then he alone would be enough.
Park Chan-woo could not die here.
He possessed an Honor so noble that even the Immortals coveted it.
A swordsman with limitless potential, who could be taught one thing and understand ten, a hundred, and who had even grasped [Swordless] on his own.
And beyond that—
‘He will one day undoubtedly rise to the position of a supreme being.’
Park Chan-woo was the only variable who might possibly reach Taebaek.
Because every power he wielded was equally mysterious.
Starting with [Dimensional Interloper Charpham], then that ominous beast, and even the Reaper.
One after another, Park Chan-woo wielded beings that defied all definition.
Perhaps even that was because of the potential Park Chan-woo possessed.
He had to be protected.
No matter what, even if it meant abandoning everything else.
At the very least, Park Chan-woo—
But then.
“……!!!”
Chiwoo’s pupils trembled.
It was as if time itself had stopped.
From a certain point onward—
Because Park Chan-woo’s presence had completely changed.
His aura, his bearing, even his gaze and posture.
Soon, he slowly raised his head.
“……”
He looked toward the black sun.
He said nothing.
And yet the weight of it was immense.
It felt impossible to even approach him.
What was certain was that the moment his presence changed, the surrounding energies slipped free from Taebaek’s control.
Then he took his stance and drew back a clenched fist.
And threw a single straight punch.
That was all.
He merely extended his fist.
In an instant—
BOOM!
WHOOOOOOOOOSH!
CRACKLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!
The air exploded, and all the mana in the area ignited at once.
A gale erupted, and in the blink of an eye, a long-range strike swallowed the black sun whole.
KWA-BOOOOOOOM!
…The black sun exploded and was erased.
From the aftermath, an enormous shockwave spread out, and heaven and earth shook once more.
KOO-RUNG!
KOO-RU-RU-RUNG!
The ground split into hundreds, thousands of cracks, and an earthquake broke out.
But calling it shocking was not enough.
‘…The world.’
The world had been torn apart.
More precisely, the boundary dividing the world had collapsed.
Passing through a [Warp] meant moving through divided boundaries.
Even within the same Mountain of Practitioners, one could not see beyond those separated boundaries.
But—
……Now what lay beyond them was visible.
As space tore open, the mountain’s upper layers in the far distance came into view.
There was even a massive hole piercing straight through the upper levels of the Mountain of Practitioners.
He had not only exploded and erased the black sun, but shattered the mountain beyond the boundary as well.
An act that defied all common sense.
Chiwoo hurriedly tried to draw up his Internal Energy.
‘Ah…!’
But it would not rise.
All of his Internal Energy had frozen solid.
As the world tore apart, all the surrounding energies had either ignited and vanished or escaped through the torn gaps.
All Chiwoo could do was barely keep his footing on the shaking ground.
‘H-how…’
That single punch Park Chan-woo had just shown.
It was a transcendent fist technique on a completely different dimension from anything Park Chan-woo had ever shown before.
An attack that transcended even the boundaries of the world itself.
It was a fist technique that should not even exist in this world.
A level no one could ever reach even after spending an entire lifetime wielding the fist.
Chiwoo had never seen anyone reach such a realm through fist technique alone.
The [One-Step Divine Fist] Taebaek had displayed?
Forget it.
What Park Chan-woo had just shown was beyond even that.
…To the point that Chiwoo had to wonder if this was truly the Successor, if this was truly Park Chan-woo.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOOOOOSH!
Then, at that very moment—
Beyond the torn boundary, countless swords revealed themselves.
They were not physical swords, but swords made of energy.
In an instant, an uncountable number of swords poured down like rain.
Each and every one of them was worthy of being called a divine sword.
Infinite swords pouring down until the target was annihilated.
However—
SWISH!
He merely grasped a single sword.
That very sword which had let out the cry of the ferocious beast.
GROOOOOOOOOOWL!
At once, the ominous beast’s roar rang out again.
A massive shadow surged forth and wrapped around Park Chan-woo’s entire body once more, but—
Without even sparing it a glance, he calmly raised one hand toward the sky.
The beast’s permission?
To him, such a thing meant nothing at all.
It was not even necessary.
He simply swung the sword once, lightly.
At the same moment—
ZZZ-ZECT!
……The world stopped once more.
This time, it truly seemed to have stopped.
Because the endless swords pouring down like a storm all froze in midair at once.
In the next instant—
ZZZ-ZE-ZECT!
All of the swords were cut in two.
Then vanished as if they had never existed at all.
With just a single swing, he had precisely severed all of those endless swords.
And that was not all.
“The Immortal Realm…?”
Han Mir muttered under her breath.
Because the boundary of the world had been cut apart once more, and now beyond the Mountain of Practitioners, even the Immortal Realm had been revealed.
Even she could not make sense of what was happening.
A man who had suddenly intruded into this hidden place was destroying the mountain itself.
And beyond that, he had forcibly connected even the Immortal Realm, shaking the mountain’s very foundation.
With just a single punch and a single swing of the sword.
There was no way she could have seen wrong.
Han Mir had once entered the Immortal Realm in the past.
‘The place where I first opened my eyes was right there, the Immortal Realm.’
She had originally opened her eyes in the Immortal Realm.
The Immortals and Taoists had found her strange.
Because of the Gem of Wisdom she possessed.
But once the gem faded to a grayish hue and became unusable, they soon sent her back down to the Mountain of Practitioners.
After that, Han Mir changed everything about herself to hide.
She could not hide the fact that she was a Pandarian, but she disguised herself as a man.
After she descended from the Immortal Realm, the Mir Sect took her in and gave her the name Han Mir.
Of course, she had never ascended to the Immortal Realm again.
……And yet now—
The Land of Peach Blossoms was right before her eyes.
Beyond the hazy mist lay the most beautiful scenery in the world.
The place she had longed to ascend to again, but never could.
“How insolent.”
“To force open the gate to the Immortal Realm without our permission?”
But countless Taoists blocked the path ahead.
Behind them floated Immortals riding clouds.
Divine beings incomparable to mere Arahan.
Existences before whom all should kneel in reverence, and yet—
“……”
The one who had caused all of this remained expressionless.
Maintaining that same silent attitude.
Looking at them with abyssal eyes.
Then he moved one foot forward.
Just one step.
KOO-RU-RU-RU-RU-RU-RU-RU-RU-RU-RUNG!
The world shook.
From that one step alone.
The Immortal Realm drew near, right before their eyes.
He had forcibly folded space itself.
He had forced all things to come before him.
At the same time, the expressions of the Immortals wavered as well.
“Thi-this is…!”
“Impossible!”
“Could it be—”
Originally, footwork was a way of moving.
A means of advancing more effectively.
But the footwork before them now was entirely different.
Instead of him approaching them, he folded space itself and made them approach him.
In the entire Abyss, there was only one person who used such a heaven-defying footwork technique.
“[Heavenly Demon’s Throne-Summoning Footwork]…!!!”