Episode 422: Return to the Demonic Sect
Sabikang walked and walked, endlessly.
A space filled with nothing but white.
There were no shadows.
As a result, he had no way of knowing how much time had passed.
Moving alone in a realm completely cut off from time and space was a truly bizarre experience.
A place where even direction was impossible to discern.
For all he knew, he might have been walking in a giant circle.
After wandering through the endless white expanse, Sabikang finally collapsed to the ground, lying flat on his back.
“Damn it. I’m really lost.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He couldn’t afford to waste his emotions by succumbing to the situation.
The moment he allowed himself to feel trapped or anxious, everything would become dangerous.
He knew well that in such a place, the mind would break before the body.
After lying there for a while, emptying his thoughts, Sabikang suddenly sat up and crossed his legs.
Rather than letting time slip away, he decided to fill it with something.
In a space devoid of change, perhaps the best approach was to change himself and wait for the surroundings to follow suit.
Sabikang began to circulate his inner energy.
He was still at the level of supreme mastery.
Having reached the realm of Cheonhae in the outside world, focusing on regaining his strength for the time being didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Of course, there was a specific intention behind this.
According to Murang, the realm of Cheonhae was something beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
If that was the case, then Jeongryugwang would neither have seen nor heard of it.
But what if Sabikang, who had entered Jeongryugwang’s subconscious, reached the realm of Cheonhae and stirred things up?
Perhaps some change might occur in this monotonous subconscious world.
A contradiction of phenomena never consciously realized before!
He thought that maybe a subtle gap could emerge from there.
So Sabikang focused on recovering his strength by practicing his inner energy techniques.
Each time he circulated his energy, it felt as if the sensations throughout his body were awakening.
As time passed, a powerful aura began to emanate from Sabikang’s entire being.
Suddenly, he felt it.
A strange change was occurring in the subconscious world.
A peculiar ripple had formed in this space that seemed like it would remain eternally unchanged.
It was undoubtedly related to the energy emanating from Sabikang’s body.
“There’s still a bit more to go.”
He had adapted considerably, but he hadn’t fully ascended to the realm of Cheonhae yet.
Even so, this was an unfamiliar realm in Jeongryugwang’s conscious world.
“If I manage to reclaim the realm of Cheonhae…”
Surely, Jeongryugwang’s subconscious would be thrown into turmoil.
And that’s when the opportunity would arise.
“Alright, let’s see this through to the end.”
Sabikang continued to hone his inner energy techniques.
Perhaps because he had already reached this level once before, the transformation of his mind and body was progressing faster than ever.
How long had he been channeling his energy like that?
The purple aura surrounding Sabikang swirled and was absorbed into his body.
“It’s done!”
Sabikang’s eyes snapped open.
He leapt to his feet, drawing his sword, Vertas, and swung it.
With a sharp whistle, Vertas sliced through the air.
Guided by Sabikang’s will, Vertas darted around, cutting through the space with dizzying speed.
It was a skill that bordered on the miraculous.
Finally, Sabikang kicked off the ground, caught Vertas, and brought it down vertically.
As Vertas struck the white ground, the world trembled as if an earthquake had erupted.
The tremors continued for a while, and as time passed, the sensation began to change.
“Something’s coming!”
Sabikang turned his head toward the source of the disturbance.
Sure enough, from a distance, a yellow force was swirling toward him like a typhoon.
But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a yellow force—it was a sandstorm.
The sandstorm, with a tremendous roar, took the shape of a human face—Jeongryugwang’s face, displaying a myriad of expressions.
At one moment, it was a face twisted in agony, at another, a face filled with joy, and yet another, a face of despair and suffering, all swirling toward him.
The sandstorm, which had flown in an instant, opened its massive mouth and swallowed Sabikang whole.
When Sabikang regained his senses, he found himself standing on an unknown cliff.
“Is this another part of Jeongryugwang’s abyss?”
Looking down, he saw a deep valley below, teeming with ancient serpents that seemed to have been there for centuries.
As he watched the bizarre scene in a daze, he suddenly sensed a presence and looked up to see a fish leaping up from below.
It was an extraordinary sight to see a fish swimming through the air, but considering this was the subconscious world, it wasn’t all that surprising.
The enormous carp, which had risen threateningly, charged straight at Sabikang.
With a strange cry, the giant carp seemed poised to engulf him.
Sabikang quickly pushed off the ground and retreated, but the carp smashed through the cliff, devouring it.
As the carp gnawed away at the cliff, Sabikang quickly employed his movement techniques to escape.
But the giant carp was much faster than he anticipated.
In an instant, it closed in from behind, opened its jaws wide, and swallowed Sabikang whole.
Enveloped in pitch-black darkness, Sabikang strained his eyes to survey his surroundings.
Fortunately, he could see a faint light in the distance.
Then, suddenly, hands and heads emerged from the walls, flailing as if trying to grab him.
All the faces were Jeongryugwang’s.
Countless Jeongryugwangs protruded from the cave walls, reaching out to seize Sabikang.
Moreover, the cave was gradually narrowing.
Sensing danger instinctively, Sabikang began to run.
Though Jeongryugwang’s hands grabbed at his limbs, he mercilessly cut them down with Vertas each time.
Finally, he burst out of the cave and found himself in a forest where birds chirped.
Under a large tree, a young boy sat humming a tune.
Seeing another person in the subconscious world for the first time, Sabikang felt a surge of relief.
As he approached, the boy sensed his presence and looked up.
Instantly, the boy’s expression twisted into a scowl.
“Who are you, mister?”
At the same time, the boy’s eyes turned completely black.
“Who are you? You shouldn’t be here.”
“Is this Jeongryugwang’s childhood…?”
As Sabikang pondered, furrowing his brow, the boy suddenly shouted.
“Who are you, mister?!”
In a flash, the boy transformed into a snake and coiled around Sabikang.
Not only that, but the surrounding branches turned into snakes, all reaching for Sabikang.
The snake heads were unmistakably Jeongryugwang.
Sabikang swung Vertas, slashing at the snakes that wrapped around him.
But the snakes kept coming, endlessly.
In the end, he employed his movement techniques and sprinted to escape the forest.
How long had he been running?
Suddenly, the forest vanished, and the surroundings transformed into a desert.
Soon after,
The sand on the ground began to rise, forming human shapes.
Dozens of Jeongryugwangs.
They shouted in unison.
“Something that shouldn’t exist is here. Erase it!”
The sand figures of Jeongryugwang charged at Sabikang all at once.
Sabikang swung Vertas again.
As the realm of Cheonhae surged, the sand figures screamed and crumbled helplessly.
“Damn it! How long do I have to keep doing this?”
Even as he swung Vertas in a trance, the sand figures regenerated endlessly.
“Is there really no way out?”
A despairing thought crossed his mind.
But Sabikang quickly shook his head.
Having too many thoughts in a place like this was akin to walking into a pit of despair.
Even if his body were to break, his mind must not falter.
The one saving grace was that after reaching the realm of Cheonhae, his physical adaptability had improved significantly.
Realizing that this was a dream world, he felt he might be able to draw out abilities beyond his true self, just like Murang.
As Sabikang continued to fend off the relentless sand figures, he suddenly leapt into the sky.
Raising both hands, he began casting a spell.
“Meteor Strike!”
A 9th-circle spell!
Impossible to use in reality, but this was the dream world!
Even as he cast the spell, Sabikang was half-doubtful.
Could it really work?
The result was astonishing.
A massive shadow loomed as a gigantic meteor was summoned from the sky, plummeting down.
The spectacle that unfolded before his eyes was too magnificent to witness alone.
The desert was utterly devastated, as if the world itself had crumbled.
Sand shot up into the sky, a massive storm that swept Sabigang away to who knows where.
He had attempted a test of reaching the ninth circle, but hadn’t anticipated the aftermath.
Splash!
After being tossed around for a while, he suddenly found himself submerged in water.
He couldn’t tell if the world was filled with water or if he had simply fallen into it.
Now, fish began to swarm toward him from all directions.
They were fish with human faces, resembling Jeongryugwang.
These were large fish, the size of an adult human, complete with arms and legs.
Sabigang swung his sword, Vertas, tirelessly fending off the attacking fish.
No matter how hard he tried to rise, the surface remained elusive.
His breath was running out.
“Damn it… I can’t die like this!”
Just then, a faint ringing sound brushed past his ears.
Sabigang flinched and looked around.
Despite being surrounded by water, the sound of a bell was unmistakably clear.
He quickly sliced through a fish and swam toward the sound.
Ding… ding…!
The sound grew clearer.
“Is it the bottom?”
Sabigang dove deeper.
The fish with human faces attacked more ferociously.
Each time, Vertas danced, slicing them in two.
Finally reaching the bottom, Sabigang felt around in the dirt.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
For some reason, the bell was ringing from somewhere on the seabed.
This meant there might be a way back to the dream world, not just unconsciousness!
Dingdingdingdingding!
The bell rang faster.
But no matter how he searched, the bottom revealed no secrets.
He knocked, punched, even stabbed with Vertas, but nothing changed.
“Damn… I can’t hold my breath much longer…!”
He had already lasted longer than expected underwater.
Then it happened!
A hand shot up from the ground!
Without hesitation, Sabigang grabbed it.
He didn’t know what it was, but he couldn’t stay underwater any longer.
In an instant,
Whoosh!
The hand pulled him with incredible speed.
Sabigang vanished, as if swallowed by the earth.
Dozens of fish with human faces crashed into the spot where he had just been.