Chapter 185: Trap

The black silhouette slowly opened its mouth.

【── Both ── of you.】

He couldn’t quite understand what it meant. Its will had not been conveyed properly.

“Why did you bring me here?”

Jang Woo-hyun frowned and asked as the buzzing sound continued to echo.

The black silhouette did not answer and instead narrowed the distance.

The moment he thought it moved its hand, a black hand appeared before Jang Woo-hyun, and unknown scenes began to unfold in his mind.

It was the death of countless people.

Not just hundreds—perhaps thousands.

Some were stabbed by swords or pierced by arrows. Others were beaten to death with clubs, struck by lightning, or buried under landslides. Some perished from terrible plagues, while others were swept away by tsunamis.

Among these countless deaths, regardless of gender or age, Jang Woo-hyun felt something.

‘This isn’t coincidence.’

Whether by illness, natural disaster, or the hand of men, all these deaths were wrought by some will—by malice.

And there was one more thing. In the faint scenes, Jang Woo-hyun realized there was something common among the dead.

They all possessed extraordinary talent. Just like himself or Kim Min-soo.

At last, Jang Woo-hyun understood what the black silhouette had said earlier.

“…You bastard…”

The silver radiance around it obscured its face, but Jang Woo-hyun could sense it was smiling.

“You insane bastard… how many have you killed?!”

The words it had spoken earlier.

– Only two remain.

It had meant Kim Min-soo and himself.

Jinsen had already slaughtered everyone across countless lower realms who resembled Jang Woo-hyun or Kim Min-soo.

Nausea rose in Jang Woo-hyun’s throat. Even though he was beyond human now, he gagged as if to vomit. Staggering from the dizziness of what he had just witnessed, he forced himself upright.

‘They’re all dead.’

Were all those people from Earth? That, he could not be sure of.

But one thing was clear: like him and Kim Min-soo, they possessed special talents. The dead undoubtedly shared some connection with him.

‘So of course he killed them all.’

Upon realizing Jinsen’s deeds, rage filled Jang Woo-hyun. His mind was consumed with only one thought: he had to kill Jinsen.

Unlike his usual calmness, he was losing composure. His hands trembled with excitement.

He glared at the black silhouette and gripped his sword.

The attack wouldn’t land, not here—it seemed impossible to fight in this place. Besides, if attacking him were possible, Jinsen would have killed him already.

Still, Jang Woo-hyun swung his sword, knowing it would not strike. It was all he could do.

The black blade slashed through empty air.

The black silhouette had vanished and was once again seated upon the shattered throne.

Jang Woo-hyun raised his sword and glared at it.

He tried to rush forward, locking eyes with the figure.

But in an instant, he was back in the Central Heavens Realm.

Before his eyes stood Yeogongbaek, smirking mockingly.

No—more precisely, it was Jinsen wearing Yeogongbaek’s shell. The Samcheon Gwang-eun Bohwa Cheonjon.

At the revolting sight, Jang Woo-hyun swung Mukya at once.

“…?”

But Yeogongbaek’s neck was not severed.

At the last moment, Jang Woo-hyun had stopped his blade.

‘What is this?’

The fact that it did not even attempt to dodge struck him as odd.

Suppressing his rage, Jang Woo-hyun split his will and accelerated his thoughts. In that fleeting moment, countless considerations ran through his mind.

‘Strange.’

He had been far too agitated—almost as if someone had intended it.

And then, a sense of déjà vu struck him.

‘What is his goal?’

Jinsen, inhabiting Yeogongbaek’s body, did not attempt to evade. He was waiting for the strike.

‘He can’t actually do anything right now.’

For some reason, Jinsen had only sent his will. Though he was a higher being, and that alone was enough to make Jang Woo-hyun feel as though he had died, it was still something that could be resisted.

‘Why didn’t he send down his power? Is there a problem?’

If Jinsen had exerted his true power from the start, he could have crushed Jang Woo-hyun instantly.

Yet he had chosen a troublesome method. This time, there was no giant silver hand.

All Jinsen had done was draw Jang Woo-hyun’s consciousness elsewhere to reveal a truth.

‘It wasn’t to explain things.’

That had never made sense—summoning someone’s mind just to give explanations was absurd.

‘Then this must be a kind of mental attack.’

That was more convincing. Jang Woo-hyun had nearly lost his mind at the sight Jinsen had shown him, falling into rage.

‘He’s waiting for me to attack in anger… was that it?’

Now he understood why it had felt familiar.

Waiting for his attack—it was the same as Heo Gwak of the Jinma Palace in the Lower Realm.

Heo Gwak had acted as if he knew of the realm beyond Absolute, waiting for Jang Woo-hyun to approach. And when Jang Woo-hyun did, Heo Gwak sacrificed himself to trigger his sorcery.

Though he had blocked it with the Wind-Passing Great Sage’s Brand, the sorcery itself had been startling.

This situation was similar.

Jinsen had shown him a truth, provoking his fury. And when Jang Woo-hyun attacked, it did not dodge—as though it had been waiting.

‘How meticulous.’

The Jinsen he perceived was not complete.

It did not know everything, nor was everything possible for it.

‘If it were, it would’ve killed me in an instant.’

On the contrary, from his past encounters, it had even seemed petty.

Jinsen had made several attempts.

First, it had tried to crush him with overwhelming will. Then, it had drawn him to an unknown space to shake his mind. And now, it waited for Jang Woo-hyun’s enraged attack.

‘Two mental attacks, and this is the last?’

Jang Woo-hyun lowered Mukya and met Yeogongbaek’s eyes.

Thud! Splurt!

The moment he met Jinsen’s will behind Yeogongbaek’s gaze, his body was torn apart once more.

Even as his mind reeled in crushing pain, Jang Woo-hyun refused to yield, watching closely. He sensed something happening within Jinsen’s sight—inside Yeogongbaek’s body.

“You…”

Yeogongbaek’s smirk faltered under his suspicious glare.

“So… this is the trick you were plotting?”

Now he understood. Yeogongbaek had never borrowed Jinsen’s power.

Samcheon Gwang-eun Bohwa Cheonjon. From the very beginning, it had never regarded Yeogongbaek as a human being.

‘It must have thought of him as a tool.’

Watching the force gathering within, he grasped how things stood. Right now, Yeogongbaek was a bomb.

If the enraged Jang Woo-hyun cut Yeogongbaek’s neck, believing it was over, the power gathered inside would explode.

‘No different from a human.’

Jinsen simply possessed a stronger power. To call it a god was an overstatement.

Even the method it used now was proof.

Two mental attacks, followed by an exploding bomb when he let his guard down.

Petty, but effective. It was less like the way of a great being of the Upper Realm, more like a carefully laid scheme.

But Jang Woo-hyun had already realized it.

“Monkey! This thing’s going to blow!”

He called upon the Wind-Passing Great Sage and moved the Dragon King’s Scale floating nearby.

Using the Dragon Scale Wall, he formed a sphere around Yeogongbaek.

The smirk that had crept onto Yeogongbaek’s lips faded, and his brow furrowed.

Silver light began seeping out of his body.

At once, the Wind-Passing Great Sage formed a whirlwind around Yeogongbaek, while Mak Ya-wol wove a massive net over it.

And as Jang Woo-hyun raised Mukya to form a sword barrier—

The swelling silver light erupted.

Like a star exploding, the entire world was dyed silver, sweeping the three of them away.

The void was fractured like shattered glass, revealing within it the black emptiness between dimensions.

Thanks to the World’s Restorative Force, the broken space was slowly healing. And there, three figures remained.

At the front, struck directly by the explosion, Jang Woo-hyun had his side torn open and one leg missing.

‘Any later, and it would’ve been critical.’

He had sensed it beforehand and devoted all his strength to defense—yet he was still left in this state.

Had he been careless, thinking it was over as last time, the situation would have been far worse.

“What the hell just happened?”

The Wind-Passing Great Sage approached and asked.

“He didn’t lend power.”

“Then what?”

“He’d been preparing from the start to blow him up.”

“What?”

To Jinsen, humans were mere tools. Whether they followed him or not.

‘Or perhaps he truly thought of them as insects he could kill without thought.’

That was the mindset of those who ascended to the Upper Realm and claimed divine power.

Jang Woo-hyun spread his qi perception wide, scanning the surroundings. The bastard might try another trick.

“Monkey, do you sense anything?”

“It’s all gone, isn’t it?”

The Monkey Monster, wounded almost as badly as Jang Woo-hyun, glanced around. To him, everything seemed finished.

“Last time it was like this too, and then it attacked.”

“Last time?”

“Yeah, after the fight ended, it struck again at the very end.”

Jang Woo-hyun explained the battle with the Silver Hand from before. Hearing it, the Wind-Passing Great Sage furrowed his brow.

“Ah… disgusting.”

Knowing his temperament, Jang Woo-hyun chuckled. From his perspective, Jinsen’s way of fighting would be incomprehensible.

“Let’s head back.”

After carefully scanning once more, Jang Woo-hyun spoke, and the Wind-Passing Great Sage and Mak Ya-wol followed him back toward the Floating Stronghold where they had begun.

They had fought for so long, they had been blasted far away.

The three set off toward the Floating Stronghold of Bi Ik-ryeon.

“Ah… disgusting.”

After saying this, the Wind-Passing Great Sage soon had another thought.

‘Would he really go that far?’

The opponent was Jinsen.

Those who had ascended to the Upper Realm and become gods.

Even if the Wind-Passing Great Sage moved in his true body from the Demonic Spirit Realm, they were not foes easily faced.

Yet he fought like this? It made no sense.

If Jinsen truly were a godlike being, he could have crushed them with sheer force.

‘It’s true he can’t send full power down, but still… too strange.’

No matter how exceptional Jang Woo-hyun was, there was no need for such elaborate traps.

If anything, he could have sent a projection or avatar later, or simply crushed him once he ascended.

‘That would be normal.’

The Wind-Passing Great Sage knew better than anyone how outstanding Jang Woo-hyun was. He also knew how unusual a human he was. That was why he had branded him twice and traveled with him.

The piercing strikes that blanketed the world in light, the vast mandala patterns that rained destruction—even the Wind-Passing Great Sage had been left gaping in shock.

Yet to Jinsen, Jang Woo-hyun was still an insect.

In their eyes, only when a martial artist stepped into the Realm Beyond the Unknown would they acknowledge him as human. However outstanding Jang Woo-hyun was, to Jinsen he was not yet a person.

‘And yet he detonated the power he sent down?’

Far too strange. If he could send that much, he should have made an avatar instead. That would have been more rational. But Jinsen had not.

Almost as though he did not wish to fight Jang Woo-hyun.

‘Could it be…?’

Watching the serious expression of Jang Woo-hyun as he surveyed the surroundings, the Wind-Passing Great Sage thought of something.

Then he laughed softly, shaking his head.

“Why the hell are you laughing at me?”

“Hehe, nothing. Just thinking about something.”

It had been his own thought, yet the Wind-Passing Great Sage found it absurd.

‘No, it can’t be.’

No matter how exceptional Jang Woo-hyun was, the thought he had just had was utterly ridiculous.

‘That Jinsen fears a human of the Central Heavens Realm?’

It was truly a foolish idea.

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