Absolute Regression Chapter 257

Episode 257: All humans must die.

“Inspector Seo was cool.”

Ian said as we walked back to my residence. I am taking you to see the residence I moved to after becoming a cult leader.

“You seem like a completely different person than when I first saw you.”

“Because I’ve put in a lot of effort in the meantime.”

Ian is second to none in terms of effort, so I added a word.

“Don’t think like that because you have to work harder. You’re already working harder than you should.”

“No. I won’t do it. I’ll try to overflow with it instead of just overflowing.”

I can imagine what Ian is thinking right now. He may feel like he’s falling behind while everyone else is moving ahead.

“sorry.”

“what?”

“I’m finally visiting my new home today. If it were before, I would have visited you on the first day I moved in.”

He seemed sorry for visiting so late. His already hunched shoulders slumped even further.

“If you put it that way, then I’m the same. I didn’t even invite you when I came to your new house.”

“Your Majesty, you were busy.”

“You were busier than me. Is the room tour more important or is our work more important? The answer is already out there. So you don’t have to feel sorry at all.”

He took her into the house. She was surprised by its much larger scale than before.

“Wow! It’s really big.”

“This body is the head of our sect!”

The passing women politely greeted Ian. Ian smiled and accepted their greetings.

I was even more surprised when she entered my room.

“It’s so different from what I expected.”

A bookshelf lining the wall, a large bed with a pure white bedding, a desk and chair by the window where sunlight streams in. It wasn’t what she had expected.

“Isn’t that your taste, Master?”

“This is my taste.”

“I didn’t know. Please tell me this.”

Before I returned, I had no taste.

I didn’t care if the bed was big or small, if there was a bookshelf or a closet. All I cared about was becoming the successor.

That’s why I stayed away from the successor. Because I didn’t see anything. Because I didn’t see people properly, and because I didn’t care what was in my room.

At the time, I thought I was passionate, but now that I think about it, I think it might have been an escape from passion.

“There are a lot of books.”

She was interested from the bookshelf.

“Now that I’ve become a cult leader, I have to look knowledgeable.”

“This book is really thick.”

“Don’t take it out! It’s for decoration. It’s hard to put it back in.”

“Even if I want to take it out, it won’t come out. It’s a book that requires inner strength to be taken out!”

She looked at another bookshelf.

“Looks like Mr. Doma has a lot of books?”

There was a time when she borrowed books from Hyeolcheondoma and read them.

“Yes. I wrote down all the books there and filled them in the same way. You know a lot about books, old man.”

She took a book out of another shelf and looked at it carefully.

“There is also a book like this.”

The book she was holding was called ‘Escape from the Heavenly Net’.

“Have you read it?”

I nodded and answered.

“I read it.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to escape like this?”

“I didn’t read it to escape. I read it to keep myself from escaping.”

She laughed at what I said.

“Master, spread your net of heaven and earth! You are capable of doing it, but I might be trapped in the net of the Murim Alliance, so please lend me this book.”

“As much as you want.”

“Please lend me this and this too.”

She chose a few books. She used to read mostly poetry collections, but the books she chose now were all books about survival tips for the martial arts world.

“Do you still read books these days?”

“I try to read at least one book before going to bed. I need to gain some indirect experience like this.”

Still, she seems worried that she might become a frog in a well.

“Ian.”

“yes.”

She turned towards me.

“Do you think it’s better to have more worldly experience?”

“Of course. Isn’t it?”

Ian’s eyes widened.

“That’s right. People with a lot of worldly experience are somehow cool and reliable. They have insight, and they can teach and experience new things to those around them. But that also means that they’ve been through all sorts of dirty things to get there. They’ve experienced all sorts of dirty and deadly things, and they’ve seen the very bottom of people. They even come to distrust and hate people. Can such experiences be all good things in a person’s life?”

Before I returned, I went through a lot. Yes, thanks to that, I became stronger and survived.

So? Can I say that my life is better than Ian’s, who has quietly walked the path of being an escort drone? I may have a better chance of surviving if I were thrown somewhere, but that wouldn’t be a better life.

“I’m saying that you don’t have to regret the life you’ve lived quietly, walking along a single path. You don’t have to necessarily have all the miscellaneous wounds and pains that are wrapped up in the name of experience. You can fight without them, and you can win without them. I believe. There will come a time when the life you’ve lived while working hard will protect you more powerfully than any other experience.”

As I reached out, a book of poetry that had been stuck in its holder was pulled out.

The poetry collection that had been floating in the air was handed over to her.

“So read what you want to read.”

I saw her glance at the book twice.

Ian slowly approached me, stared at me and said.

“I guess there really is such a thing as bloodline.”

I stared at her with a serious expression that matched those words. Then, perhaps feeling embarrassed for no reason, Ian avoided my gaze and pretended not to hear anything.

“The bed is really nice and wide. It’s soft, isn’t it?”

“If you’re curious, lie down.”

“I thought you would say, ‘How dare you lie down on the bed of the Little Leader!’”

She threw herself onto the bed.

But her new form floated above the bed.

“You can’t wear the clothes you wore outside! Now I understand why Elder Doma wouldn’t let you lie down.”

I floated her back to her original spot. She sat on the edge of the bed and spoke with a serious face.

“We recently selected five people for the Gwiyeongdae. We looked at their character and skills. As you said, we are aiming for an elite organization rather than a large number.”

“You are doing well.”

“Oh, and I’m leaving tomorrow with Master Cheongmyeon and his men. I’m going to look for people to join the Guiyeongdae. I should have left earlier, but I postponed my departure in order to attend the Hwangcheonju inauguration ceremony. While I’m out, I’ll also meet with Master Ko and Master Pungcheon.”

She is truly stepping into the world of martial arts.

She smiled as she said this, sensing the worry in my gaze.

“Don’t worry, I have nine tails.”

“Come back stronger!”

She stood up and said politely, accepting the offer.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

* * *

I was passionate about martial arts training.

Of all the times before and after my return, this was the time when I practiced martial arts the most diligently.

Knowing that I was in the midst of a martial arts meditation retreat, my father postponed all the events at school.

The art of nine fires and the art of time.

It is also a martial art that you cannot help but practice diligently.

First of all, the more I practiced the Time-Space Transfer Art, the more it seemed like there was a time difference between the outside and inside of the Time-Space Transfer Art.

However, the difference was still so small that it was not yet at the stage where one could actually practice using the Shicheon Secret Technique.

After using the space-time transfer technique and then using the time-heavenly secret technique, I went there again to practice martial arts.

The internal energy is applied three times.

In comparison, the time difference between the outside and inside was not yet significant, so it took more time to recover internal energy.

My heart was in a hurry, but I didn’t rush. It wasn’t a martial art that could be achieved overnight, and consistency is the key to training. I kept repeating it over and over again. Before I knew it, I would have reached the next level.

Next is the Gumihomagong.

As I became familiar with the inner method of the Nine Flower Demonic Cultivation, I began to practice in earnest, starting from the first stage. It was a difficult and profound martial art, but I calmly analyzed the Nine Flower Cultivation and gradually progressed.

Today I plan to demonstrate my first instinct for the first time.

The first method of the Nine-Handed Demonic Cultivation is the method of human destruction.

From the first bite, it’s just annihilation. It means that if you’re a human, you’ll definitely die.

I stared at the wooden doll standing in front of me and calmed my mind. When I thought my body and mind were ready, the black magic sword was pulled out.

Saaaaak.

The doll’s head fell off in an instant. It was a swordsmanship faster than the Changcheon style, a quick swordsmanship of the Bicheon swordsmanship.

So is the first attempt a success? It was a failure.

I approached slowly and examined the wooden doll with its head cut off.

There was a faint trace of a sword on his back. There were no traces on the left or right sides.

The Destruction Style was a style in which, at the moment the sword was unleashed, four sword energies would fly in from the front, back, left, and right of the opponent at the same time.

Think about it.

What if in a flash, four black energies flew in from not just one place, but from four different places at the same time? And they weren’t even targeting the same place. They were flying in from four different directions, each targeting a different place.

The black energy from the front flies toward the neck, the black energy from behind flies toward the back, the black energy from the left flies toward the waist, and the black energy from the right flies toward the legs.

However, the sword energy was still flying properly only from the front, and the sword energy from the other three directions was not flying properly.

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about the knot.

After cleaning up the mess, he unleashed his sword energy towards a new wooden doll.

I looked at the wooden doll again. This time, its back was cut off, but its neck was still there.

I repeated it over and over again, but the first recipe didn’t work out as I wanted. I was missing something.

My father said he wanted to see the interpretation of the Nine-Handed Demonic Cultivation.

How could my Nine Fire Demonic Skill surpass my father’s? I trusted Cheonmujiche, but I wasn’t sure if I could actually use Nine Fire Demonic Skill that surpassed my father’s.

While I was wrapping my head around that and worrying like that, I suddenly realized something.

My desire to learn a stronger magic skill than my father was actually holding me back. Added to that desire was the desire to be recognized by my father, and it was holding me back even more.

This is not my way.

I left the training ground straight away.

* * *

When I entered Cheonmajeon, my father was looking out the window with his luggage on his back.

“Come up here.”

“yes.”

I walked the bloody path, climbed the stairs, and stood next to my father. It always felt good to look at the school scene side by side with my father, but now that I have become a junior leader, we stand side by side.

“We have decided to double the amount of poison produced in Cheon Dok Rim.”

“Why is that your answer?”

When I asked him, pretending not to know, my father looked at me. Knowing that I have been in contact with the Poison King recently, he must have guessed that I had influenced this decision.

My father’s gaze turned out the window again. After a moment of silence, he spoke softly.

“Don’t provoke the Poison King. He is the one who can be the beginning and the end of everything.”

I could see what that meant. It meant that it could start a war, or it could end a war. The unmanned beings couldn’t help but be sensitive to poison. A lifetime of training could end with just one dose of poison.

“I will keep that in mind.”

My father turned to me and asked.

“Why did you come today?”

“I came to see you because I have something to ask of you, father.”

“What favor?”

“Please write the destruction recipe for me.”

My father was startled by the unexpected words.

“You finally became the successor, so why do you want to die?”

“No way.”

I let my heart out.

“I have been given the best robe of the highest quality. I ask that you please use it just enough so that I don’t die.”

“Why?”

“I want to get a feel for it through direct experience.”

Originally, I should have learned more from my father. However, since he wanted to see the interpretation of the Nine-Handed Demonic Cultivation that I had interpreted, he only gave me the bare minimum of interpretation, so it was a request that he could accept.

“good night.”

After my father gave his permission, I stepped back and put some distance between us.

Are you ready? Let’s go. These words were all omitted.

The Heavenly Demon Sword was pulled out straight from my father’s hand.

Shh.

A really short and light breeze.

At that moment, I was shocked.

Four demons attacked from all sides at the same time.

My father’s annihilation ritual wasn’t just four lines of sword energy flying in. It was a sword energy that would freeze your body just by looking at it, with four terrifying illusions of evil spirits appearing in all directions at the same time, swinging their swords.

Kaaaaang! Kaaaaang!

Two of them were blocked, one was shallow, and the other hit me squarely in the body.

Bam! Got it!

When the black energy collided with the self-defense weapon, I was blown away and rolled on the ground.

“Eww!”

It really hurt. I used the best swordsmanship, the best armor, and the best self-defense weapon to block it, but it really hurt so much that I thought my back was going to break.

If my father had controlled his internal energy, I could have died from this move if he had used it to its limit. Even if I hadn’t died, I would have been fatally wounded.

It was the first time I felt the fear of the Nine-Handed Demon.

And what I was wondering at that moment was this.

“If my level of the Nine Fire Demonic Art increases, will these evil spirits also appear in my Destruction Ceremony?”

Father nodded.

“Similar but different demons will come out.”

Similar but different.

What he is saying is that different evil spirits will appear because you will perfect your martial arts by interpreting the Guhwamagong differently.

My heart started pounding. Seeing the Heavenly Demon Spirit was still a long way off, so I wanted to see my little demons at the Inmul Ceremony.

“Is this it?”

“That’s enough.”

I greeted him by rubbing his waist and was about to turn around when I asked my father.

“Did you give those demons names?”

A sneer formed on the corner of my father’s mouth.

“The Poison King likes to name things. I’ve been hanging out with him a lot lately, so I think I’ve been influenced by him too.”

After greeting my father politely, I turned around.

The achievement of my martial arts is not just my own achievement. If a different form of destruction comes out from my father, my father will also receive some inspiration from my Nine Fire Demonic Arts. We will become stronger as we influence each other.

At the end of the bloody road, I told my father.

“When I come back, I will bring four friends.”