A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation

Instead, the man appears to be describing his feelings when he first encountered Immortal Arts and the sheer terror it invoked.

It’s then.

Suddenly, as the man is writing the book, he closes his eyes as if recalling the moment he saw Immortal Arts.

At that moment.

―Huh, huh...keuh, keuhgeukgeuk!

The man’s body twists grotesquely, his eyes roll back, and he begins to write something furiously on paper.

No, it’s closer to ’scrawling’.

Wo-woong―

At the same time, the illusion that had been clear until now begins to shake violently.

As if capturing this scene with mere illusions is sacrilegious.

’What is that...?’

As I watch the distorted illusion, the man, with his eyes rolled back, starts to tear and eat the book he was writing.

’What?’

As if he is devouring a delicious meal, he licks his fingers while eating the book, and after a moment.

The man, seemingly regaining his senses, looks around in astonishment.

The illusion stabilized once whatever he had scribbled disappeared.

The surroundings are in a mess due to the man’s rampage.

The man mutters.

―Th-that just now...c-could it be...a revelation? Yes, it must be a revelation. Huhuhuh...if the Lofty Dragon True Person dies, I become his resurrection body? He revives within me?

He seems pale with fear.

―N-no. This entity is not the Lofty Dragon True Person. Then who is it? Who are you? What kind of person are you...? No, no...! This is someone more, more, more. More, more, more immense than the Lofty Dragon True Person or the Fallen Judge...

He clutches his head and suddenly raises his hand to stab his abdomen.

Thud!

Bright red blood spurts out.

And I see something like a ’stone’ fall from his dantian area.

Simultaneously, the illusion centered around the ’stone’ becomes extremely unstable.

―How long! How long will it keep pouring out! Stop, stop coming out! Haaaah!

The man screams in terror and appears to be performing some kind of spell.

Although the illusion is too distorted to discern clearly, I see him using a sealing spell to seal the ’stone.’

After the sealing spell is cast, the illusion returns to normal.

However, the frail man does not.

The man who was once engrossed in writing or deep in thought begins to huddle in the corner of his bed, crafting things like erotic paintings.

It seems as if he’s focusing on the erotic paintings to escape from something.

And after a while.

The man hides jade slips with erotic paintings under the bed and other places in the room before leaving somewhere.

Time passes a little, and all the jade slips except the one under the bed turns to dust.

The man had died.

The illusion spell in the room continues to operate for a long time before eventually turning off.

I pay my respects to the nameless man.

At the same time, I remember his words.

―He revives within me?

If they’re more immense than the Lofty Dragon True Person, then at the very least, that being is a True Immortal.

’So...he meant a True Immortal is reviving within him?’

Cold sweat trickles down my face.

’It’s similar to Cheongmun Ryeong’s symptoms???’

The symptoms of going mad, writing strange things, consuming those writings, and then expelling bizarre stones with eerie power from his body.

They are too closely similar to how Kim Young-hoon described Cheongmun Ryeong.

Moreover, since he was at the Four-Axis stage, it seemed like the stones were spewing out directly instead of being found like in Chengmun Ryeong’s body.

’Then, is some True Immortal resurrecting through Cheongmun Ryeong’s body in the Head Realm?’

”Hugh, heok...”

As soon as I think of such things, I unconsciously revert from my Ghost King form and feel cold sweat running down my back.

’Damn it...’

I do think that I need to save Cheongmun Ryeong.

But, the moment I think a True Immortal is in the process of resurrecting through Cheongmun Ryeong’s body, I can’t bring myself to want to return to the Head Realm.

I sit in the room for a long time, unable to get up.

’Just why am I...so cautious...!?’

Even if it’s just the thought, what’s wrong with deciding to save someone who used to be my master!

Suddenly, I hate myself for being like this and bite my lip.

After taking a deep breath, I stand up.

’...First, I need to find out what that strange stone is.’

I think back to the illusion I had seen earlier and search for the place where he had sealed the strange stone.

It was the ceiling.

’Come to think of it, this ceiling...’

I hadn’t noticed it before, but I now feel an attraction force flowing through the ceiling.

No, it’s more like magnetism.