A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation

From the erosion of killing intent and the influence of backlash, the hand that swung the sword is rotting away.

Killing intent contaminates his soul and the inner spirit veins throughout his body, and the backlash twists the flow of bone, muscle, and life.

That grip where the two combine is already turning necrotic.

No matter how strong Ban Ta’s vitality is, it is an injury he cannot heal in a short time.

”Looks like I have to recuperate for about a thousand years to suppress the killing intent, and then recuperate for a hundred thousand years to drive it all out. Healing my body comes after that... For a while, rebellions are going to be everywhere in the Purple Gold Realm again. I have to do that exhausting political wrangling again.”

Ban Ta shudders in disgust and starts heading back into the Purple Gold Realm, and as he looks at his necrosing grip, he thinks.

”Even just borrowing a projection for a moment left me like this...so how on earth did that guy do it?”

About forty billion years ago.

The Mythic Age.

A time when the Owners of Light, the true masters of the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order, had not yet declined.

A person who, against the forces of light, restored two more ultimate techniques linked to the ominous technique Ban Ta just used, used them personally as they went about, and waged war against the Owners of Light.

Ban Ta naturally cannot help but recall that person from the Mythic Age, looking at his own hand.

”...To rise to a similar level as that person, I am still far away. Even if it is during the sleep period...the ultimate technique that person easily fired off while not even holding a Seat...has given me, one who holds a Seat, a backlash to this extent.”

Feeling the gap between himself and someone from the Mythic Age, Ban Ta returns to Ban Ta Castle.

***

Splurt!

”Heok, a-are you alright...?”

Makli Hyun-ah asks after seeing Ju Soo Ryeon, who said she is lending strength to his master and transmitting something with his body as a medium, suddenly vomit up a mouthful of black blood.

Ju Soo Ryeon slumps down in place, her face a little paler than before.

”...Huh?”

Makli Hyun-ah somehow gets the feeling that Ju Su-ryeon’s aura is reduced.

Up until just now, she clearly seemed like some existence he cannot put into words, but somehow now...she looks like an existence at the Grand Perfection Star Shattering stage.

’Ironically, the aura of the Grand Perfection Star Shattering stage feels stronger than at True Immortality... Is it because at the True Immortal level we simply cannot perceive her?’

”Your realm...seems to have dropped.”

That is not all.

As if even her personality has shifted strangely, Ju Soo Ryeon’s way of speaking, which until now was relaxed, changes into a way of speaking that shows honorific politeness.

”Yes. What I just lent to Teacher Ban Ta...takes quite a bit of strength just to project. They say that if you master the principle and can embody the intent inside it, you can use it sufficiently even at the Upper Immortal level, but...I am only projecting it, after all.”

Ju Soo Ryeon staggers to her feet and speaks to Makli Hyun-ah and Ahn Geum.

”If it is possible, may I stay aboard the Nether Crossing Ship for a while and recuperate? If it is about a hundred thousand years, I seem able to recover my energy again and return to my original realm.”

”Yes, of course it is possible, but...this Nether Crossing Ship is on its way using the Nether Ghost Realm as its coordinates. Might it not be that Lord Immortal has business and is staying in this sea of chaos? Even if you go to the Nether Ghost Realm with us, is that alright...?”

”Hoho...please do not worry.”

Ju Soo Ryeon smiles faintly and starts to explain, and Makli Hyun-ah briefly has the stray thought of, ’Why does this woman also go hoho?’

”A few ten billion years ago, the reason I stopped raising my realm and entered this Outer Sea was because I wanted to escape the fear of the past projection I just lent to Teacher Ban Ta...to the terror of that ominous technique, and the wound in my heart I received in that moment.”

”I do not know the details, but...are you saying you spent tens of billions of years in the chaos to overcome that fear?”

At Makli Hyun-ah’s question, Ju Soo Ryeon’s expression turns bitter.