Absolute Regression

“Haa, haa.”

Seo Daeryong’s heavy breaths spread toward the night sky as he lay sprawled on the ground.

The bright full moon was nowhere to be seen, as if it had hidden away. He had started his training before dinner, and now it was well past midnight.

‘I finally did it!’

From a state where he thought he could never swing it even once, he managed to swing it a thousand times again. Swinging this heavy blade two thousand times in a day.

Seo Daeryong couldn’t believe what he had accomplished. Of course, his posture must have collapsed toward the end, but he gritted his teeth and kept swinging.

He thought about getting up and going home, but he couldn’t move an inch. He was overcome with sleep.

Seo Daeryong dreamed.

Geom Mugeuk was surrounded by enemies and in danger. Just as the injured Geom Mugeuk was being rushed by the enemies. (EN : Geom Mugeuk, overwhelmed ? Not any time soon, that gives you time to train)

A blade energy shot out like a lightning bolt, sweeping away the enemies. The enemies caught in the blade energy were torn apart and disappeared.

Soon after, a plum blossom gently descended between the enemies and Geom Mugeuk. Now a master of the blade technique, he wielded a large sword like Blood Heaven Blade Demon.

He looked back at Geom Mugeuk with a faint smile and asked.

“Are you all right, Leader?”

A satisfied smile also appeared on the sleeping Seo Daeryong’s lips.

“Right Arm! You’ve come!”

Filled with emotion, Geom Mugeuk’s words made Seo Daeryong turn to the enemies and speak coolly.

“Since I’m here, rest! Take a good nap!”

Just then, a familiar voice was heard from somewhere.

“Isn’t it time to wake up?”

Seo Daeryong instinctively ignored the voice and turned over. He didn’t want to wake up from such a delightful dream. A dream of becoming a master and wandering the world was his real dream, after all.

Seo Daeryong continued to sleep.

After saving the damsels in distress in his dream, he sailed away with them. He woke up with a pleasant smile, watching the ladies vie for his affection. Among them was his beloved junior, Jo Hyang.

It was the first time he had woken up with such a smile.

He felt so good that he didn’t want to get up… but where was he?

A strange ceiling.

No, it wasn’t completely unfamiliar.

‘No way?’

Seo Daeryong suddenly sat up and screamed.

“Ouch!”

Despite the good dream, his entire body ached as if it had been beaten with a club all night.

Seo Daeryong looked around.

‘Where am I?’

He was in the quarters of Blood Heaven Blade Demon where he had slept after drinking.

‘Oh no! Why am I sleeping here?’

I remembered swinging the blade a thousand times for the second time and then collapsing on the ground.

Fortunately, Blood Heaven Blade Demon wasn’t in the room.

Groaning, I got up and carefully moved.

When I walked to the window, I was startled.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon was swinging his blade in the yard where I had trained yesterday. I almost ran out to greet him but stopped in my tracks.

I was captivated by his bladesmanship.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon swung the blade in the same stance he had taught me yesterday. The way he held the blade and the way he swung it were identical.

At that moment, I understood. The training he had taught me was the same training he had undergone when he first learned martial arts.

‘He didn’t make me suffer for nothing.’

Just then, as if he had eyes on his back, Blood Heaven Blade Demon suddenly spoke while swinging his blade.

“Do you think you can slack off just because the leader isn’t here?”

“Ah! Now that you mention it…”

The sun was high in the sky.

“Ah! I’m late!”

I quickly gathered my clothes and rushed outside.

“I’ll be going now.”

I bowed and turned to leave but turned back again.

“Thank you so much for letting me sleep here again.”

Even if Blood Heaven Blade Demon had given me money or a sword, I wouldn’t have been this touched. Of course, I would have been happy, but the feeling would have been different.

For Blood Heaven Blade Demon, letting someone sleep in his quarters might be more difficult than giving money. This feeling of being valued was incomparable to anything else.

“If something like this happens again, please just throw me into any room. Just don’t kill me. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

Blood Heaven Blade Demon then asked with a surprised expression.

“You’ll come?”

“I have to.”

“I won’t go easy on you just because you’re hurting. It’s two thousand times today as well.”

The thought of swinging the blade two thousand times again made my whole body protest in horror and shiver in fear, but my mouth said, “Yes!” Anyway, my mouth wasn’t tired.

After answering energetically, I dashed out.

“I’m late! I’m late!”

I was so exhausted I felt like I was going to die. The thought of training again today was unbearable, but strangely, I felt good.

I wanted to keep learning from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. Honestly, I wanted to impress him.

* * *

The medicine prepared over several days was finally complete

I placed the concocted medicine into a palm-sized bottle. There were still five days left until the Blood God Festival.

Since the medicine was ready, I decided to check if the secret passage was still functioning properly and scout the throne of the Wind God Cult Leader.

After descending the mountain, I arrived at a wasteland not far from the Heavenly Wind Cult.

The wasteland was a desolate place with a few withered trees, rocks, swarming poisonous insects, snakes, and trash blown in by the wind. It was a place where no one would come even if they stayed there all day.

There was a large rock in that place, and I manipulated the hidden mechanisms on both sides of the rock in succession.

Swish.

The rock opened, revealing a passage. I had been impressed before, but it was still amazing how well-crafted this mechanism was. How could they make a passage that was so inconspicuous?

As I entered the rock, the door closed automatically.

Inside, I manipulated another hidden mechanism, and a door opened from the floor.

I took out a Night Pearl and descended into the underground passage. The passage was wide. It seemed to be made to transport Thunder Bell in case of emergency. Thanks to this, I could use this route to smuggle out the Thunder Bell.

I took out the medicine bottle and applied the ointment to my face and hands.

When this ointment was applied, even martial artists with an excellent sense of smell couldn’t detect my scent.

I walked slowly through the passage.

I stopped some distance away from the secret passage leading to the throne room. In the past, I would have gone closer to observe, but now there was no need. I now had a safe way to inspect.

I closed my eyes and emitted my qi. A strand of qi traveled along the passage. Turning around the corner, the qi continued until it reached the secret passage.

I already imagined how I could use this technique for reconnaissance when my father first taught me this method of emitting thin and long strands of qi.

The qi seeped through a small gap in the passage.

The moment my qi entered the new space.

I felt an immense presence on one side.

‘The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader!’

As expected of a cult leader, his presence was extraordinary. I quickly moved my qi to the opposite side.

The next person I located was a martial artist with a keen sense of smell.

Sure enough, he was near the Thunder Bell.

After confirming the presence of both individuals, my qi dissipated. Since I had experienced this before, there was no need to risk being detected.

Having safely completed my reconnaissance, I returned to the mountain.

I finished my meal with jerky, sat cross-legged, and practiced the Heavenly Demon Body Protection Technique.

For the remaining five days, I would stay holed up in the mountain without moving. If I wandered around and got entangled in some unforeseen incident, it could cause problems.

Avoiding variables was the least respect I could show for my past efforts.

* * *

The day of the Blood God Festival dawned.

Before departing, I looked up at the sky once and prayed for the success of today’s endeavor.

When my father mentioned the two ways to block the Soul Reaping Technique, I had thought to myself that there was an easier method, a hundred times simpler.

Hoping my idea would work and I could safely complete this task, I descended the mountain.

The path to the Heavenly Wind Cult was crowded with people heading to participate in the ceremony.

They came from various groups. There were leaders of large sects that had exchanges with the Heavenly Wind Cult, martial artists from smaller sects looking to make a mark, and merchants hoping to sell goods to the attendees.

On the day of the Blood God Festival, everyone, regardless of status, had to walk to the Heavenly Wind Cult. This was the authority of the Blood God Festival.

I watched them from a distance and then headed to the wasteland with the secret passage.

As I walked, many thoughts crossed my mind.

What if the door didn’t open suddenly? What if the event got canceled suddenly? What if it changed so that the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader himself struck the bell? What if I misunderstood the method to obtain it?

Such anxieties sought to consume my soul.

At times like these, all you can do is trust yourself. Believe that such bad luck won’t occur, and even if it does, believe that you’ll overcome it. The best weapon against anxiety is faith in oneself.

I reached near the room with the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader’s throne through the secret passage and waited for the right moment. Of course, I had already applied the scent-masking ointment to my face, hands, and body.

The timing of my movement was fixed. I was to initiate my plan when the Thunder Bells had been struck thirty-six times.

How long did I wait in the darkness?

I started to faintly hear the sound of the bells. I counted the sounds as I waited.

When the bell was struck thirty-three times, I slowly moved to the lower part of the secret passage.

When the thirty-fifth bell sounded, I quietly opened the secret passage on the floor next to the throne and slipped out.

The master, bound in shackles, was about to strike the bell for the last time. Since the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader allowed no one else into this sacred place, the shackled man was the only one there.

The moment he struck the thirty-sixth and final bell.

I employed the Wind God’s Four Steps. Using the Dark Shadow Step, I silently approached the shackled martial artist. Like a ghost, I closed in on him without a sound and struck his Devil’s Hole and Sleep Pressure Points simultaneously. He fell asleep standing, unaware of what had happened to him.

It happened in an instant, but it was a technique executed with the utmost skill.

After subduing him, I moved to the Blood Buddha standing behind the Thunder Bell.

Now, the time I had was the duration it took for the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader to return here, which was approximately fifteen minutes.

I pressed down hard on the closed eyes of the Blood Buddha, and the eyes snapped open.

The open eyes of the Blood Buddha were terrifying.

When I pressed once more, the eyeballs popped out forward.

Inside the protruding eyeballs was about one-third of a white liquid.

This was the reason I had traveled such a long distance.

The root of the Soul Reaping Technique mastered by Soul Reaper Demon Supreme lay in the demonic arts of the Blood Sect.

The successor of the Blood Sect was this very Heavenly Wind Cult.

Up to this point, my father also knew the facts, but there was one thing he didn’t know.

The Blood Eye Essence.

It was a sacred water secretly passed down only to the cult leaders of the Heavenly Wind Cult.

If this Blood Eye Essence was applied to the eyes, one could see the way to break the demonic arts of the Blood Sect. It allowed the essence of the sorcery to be discerned by the eyes.

I had heard that it was created and passed down since ancient times to prevent internal rebellions within the cult. However, the method of its creation and maintenance was known only to the cult leader and their successor, so outsiders were completely unaware of its existence. The person who had informed me about it was none other than the son of the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader, Neung Baekgun.

When I had come here before, I didn’t have the time to take it as I had to escape with the enormous Thunder Bell.

Now, I was finally at the moment of obtaining the Blood Eye Essence.

I took out the eyeballs of the Blood Buddha. There was a small hole on top of the eyeballs.

Drop!

One drop of the Blood Eye Essence from the right eyeball went into my right eye.

Drop!

One drop of the Blood Eye Essence from the left eyeball went into my left eye.

As soon as the Blood Eye Essence entered my eyes, they felt like they were burning and heating up intensely. Although there was pain, fortunately, my vision wasn’t impaired.

I placed the eyeballs back in their original position, and they retracted inside, and the Blood Buddha closed its eyes again.

There was enough essence left in the eyeballs.

With enough essence remaining in the eyeballs, it would be possible to administer it to the next successor without any issues, and they would never know that two drops of the Blood Eye Essence had disappeared.

I entered the underground passage and, before closing the door completely, sent out two gusts of wind.

Swish.

The shackled martial artist woke up.

He was momentarily bewildered but soon confirmed that nothing was amiss around him and resumed his duties. This was a feat that could only be accomplished by a martial artist of my caliber.

I wondered what his story was, why he was bound like that, but this wasn’t the time to rescue someone whose identity I didn’t even know. He wasn’t someone whose fate was intertwined with mine through my regression.

I quietly exited the secret passage.

I had planned to collect the fortuitous encounters related to the materials for the Great Regression Technique over time, but due to that damn Yasuo, I had acquired the Blood Eye Essence sooner than expected.

Regardless of the reason, there’s always joy when you accomplish something significant. Especially when you gain abilities that you hadn’t possessed before, the joy is indescribable.

It wasn’t just because I could now kill Soul Reaper Demon Supreme. I believed that this new power would somehow aid me in my journey toward Hwa Moogi.

After exiting the secret passage, I could have leisurely enjoyed the Blood God Festival with the confidence of a victor, but I instead ran straight towards the main cult without looking back.

Avoiding variables until the end was imperative.

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