Chapter 254: Corpse-Blood Realm

Yang Jeon-gun, the Asura Fiend who fought within the domain of cultivators.

He collected everything—humans, Dharma Treasures, artifacts, minerals, gemstones, monsters. Like a Floating Stronghold, he possessed an estate that could move.

What powered that estate was Yong Seo-hee and a being from another world.

The Archmage Lee Ahn.

An ascended being from the world of magic, not from the Spiritual Realm of cultivators nor the Murim Realm of martial artists.

Lee Ahn had come to the Central Heavens Realm by chance and had been captured by Yang Jeon-gun. With Jang Woo-hyun’s help, he was able to return to the Corpse-Blood Realm.

When Jang Woo-hyun rescued him, Lee Ahn gave him Divine True Steel and an object that could summon him.

The necklace Jang Woo-hyun had just crushed was that object.

From the shattered necklace, red smoke rose and shot upward into the sky.

The smoke climbed rapidly before suddenly scattering, and at the same time a certain power spread outward with the smoke as its center.

Thoom.

An unknown wave swept across everyone’s bodies.

“You bastard… what did you just do?”

The middle-aged man who had been speaking confidently earlier frowned.

He had not been attacked nor injured, yet a sense of unease wrapped around him.

His companions seemed to feel something similar and stiffened as well.

Seo Ryeom and Jin Ha-un also widened their eyes and looked at Jang Woo-hyun.

It was something none of them had expected.

Ignoring the gazes directed at him, Jang Woo-hyun prepared for battle.

More precisely, he prepared to endure.

‘I have to buy time.’

He did not know the exact size of the Corpse-Blood Realm.

But as one of the Middle Realms, it was surely incomparable in scale to the Lower Realm.

Even if Lee Ahn had received the signal, there was no telling when he would arrive.

‘I’ll endure as long as possible.’

In the current situation, defeating the enemies in front of them was impossible.

The only option was to stall and endure.

“Brother?”

“Ha-un, we just need to hold out. Someone is coming to help.”

“Captain… you know someone here?”

The Corpse-Blood Realm had no connection to the Central Heavens Realm.

Seo Ryeom had heard of it before, but he had no detailed knowledge.

The one thing he knew for certain was that the Corpse-Blood Realm had nothing to do with martial artists.

Even though it was a Middle Realm, martial artists did not ascend to the Corpse-Blood Realm.

Cultivators might ascend there, but martial artists did not.

That was why Seo Ryeom found it hard to believe that Jang Woo-hyun—who despised cultivators—had someone he knew here.

“When will they arrive?”

Jin Ha-un, however, trusted Jang Woo-hyun completely and worried about something else.

“I don’t know either. Let’s hold out as long as we can. It shouldn’t take too long.”

Lee Ahn must have had a method.

Otherwise, he would not have given him the necklace.

They had no choice but to trust him and endure.

“So that thing earlier was a signal to someone? Unexpected… to think you have someone to contact here.”

“Brother, let’s cut off their limbs first and think later. If someone comes looking for them, we can just capture that one too.”

The middle-aged man nodded at the large man’s suggestion.

“That’s true. There’s no need to drag things out here. Youngest, you help too.”

The middle-aged man called the fat man.

But there was no response.

“Youngest, our elder brother is calling—”

The axe-wielding giant turned his head toward the fat man and suddenly stopped speaking.

“Ugh…”

The fat man’s body trembled as if he were performing some strange dance, twisting in unnatural ways.

Then suddenly his waist bent backward.

“GRAAAH!”

With a scream, the mouth on his abdomen opened wide.

Crack!

The mouth opened so wide it seemed as though his body would split apart.

Then bones burst out through his flesh.

Crack! Crunch!

Ribs protruded, and his limbs twisted.

Soon the fat man’s body folded and tore apart on its own.

What remained was a ring made of bones and flesh.

The bizarre event happened so suddenly that no one reacted.

No one even thought of attacking or destroying the ring.

Everyone instinctively felt the same thing—

That ring of bones and flesh must not be attacked.

Sssss—

A sinister sound echoed as blue light filled the inside of the ring.

While everyone focused on it, someone stepped forward through the blue light inside the ring.

Step.

At first, only one leg appeared.

Then with the second step, someone emerged through the blue glow.

A man with brown hair and blue eyes.

Though he emitted no visible aura, his mere presence overwhelmed the surroundings.

Everyone who looked at him froze.

An immense presence pressed down in every direction.

The blue eyes scanned the surroundings before stopping on Jang Woo-hyun.

The man’s lips curled upward.

【Hahahahaha!】

His laughter spread in every direction, and his presence grew stronger.

With each echo of laughter, the bodies of the three people who had been targeting Jang Woo-hyun were crushed under pressure.

“Ghk.”

“Urgh!”

They could not move at all.

【Just as I expected.】

The blue-eyed man was Lee Ahn, the Archmage of the Corpse-Blood Realm whom Jang Woo-hyun had rescued.

He strode toward Jang Woo-hyun.

Watching this scene, the others’ mouths fell open.

Now they understood why they had been unable to attack the ring.

Their instinct for survival had restrained them.

The bearded man let out a trembling voice filled with shock.

“How…?”

Lee Ahn was not someone who should be here.

Nor someone they should be able to meet so easily.

A being who should be in the distant heights was greeting their prey.

“Brother, now! Let’s go quickly!”

Unlike the stunned bearded man, the middle-aged man reacted quickly.

There was no time to hesitate here.

Now that that monster had appeared, they had to escape as fast as possible.

The middle-aged man took out a flying apparatus.

The giant and the bearded man also regained their senses and pulled out their own flying apparatuses.

Without hesitation, the three of them flew into the sky.

【Ah. We should finish what needs finishing.】

Lee Ahn turned his head from where he stood in front of Jang Woo-hyun.

Seeing the three fleeing figures, he snapped his fingers.

Snap!

With the sound, the sky around them suddenly darkened.

“No! Don’t!”

“Aaaah!”

“H-Heukgol… Ghost Spirit Lord of the Black Bones…”

A skeletal giant had appeared.

The giant, entirely black in color, stretched out its hand and grasped them.

“Skeleton King…”

“Spare us! We have no intention of fighting!”

“Please spare our lives!”

One resigned.

Another begged.

But it was already too late.

The massive black skeleton chewed and swallowed them.

Though the giant consisted only of bones, strangely no trace of the three people remained once they entered its mouth.

Snap!

Lee Ahn snapped his fingers again.

The enormous black skeleton blurred and vanished.

Lee Ahn then turned back toward Jang Woo-hyun.

“Ah, um… ah.”

He cleared his throat and spoke in slightly awkward language.

“It’s been a while. I told you, didn’t I? I had a feeling you would come here. Heh heh heh.”

The Archmage of the Corpse-Blood Realm from the world of magic.

Lee Ahn had responded to Jang Woo-hyun’s call far faster than expected.

—

“First, let’s deal with the fact that you’re almost dying.”

Lee Ahn reached inside his robe and pulled something out.

“Eat this and wear the bracelet. You’ll feel better.”

In his hand was a white medicinal pill inside a metal box and a bracelet made of black beads.

“After suffering in the Central Heavens Realm, I found a solution. If you use these two things, you’ll be able to endure the world’s rejection for a while.”

The Corpse-Blood Realm rejected the living.

Because the world itself rejected and tried to kill Jang Woo-hyun and Seo Ryeom, they felt pain and could not properly use martial arts.

The opposite was also true.

The Central Heavens Realm rejected beings from the Corpse-Blood Realm like Lee Ahn.

That was why he could not display his true power there and was captured by Yang Jeon-gun.

After returning to the Corpse-Blood Realm thanks to Jang Woo-hyun, Lee Ahn developed his own solution.

And now he handed it over.

“It’s nothing strange, so you don’t need to worry.”

Because he could not completely trust Lee Ahn, Jang Woo-hyun hesitated to take it.

As Jang Woo-hyun considered it, Seo Ryeom stepped forward after sensing the situation between the two.

When he picked up the pill, Jang Woo-hyun tried to stop him.

“Senior Seo. We can’t be certain. Let’s wait a bit—”

“Captain, whether I die like this or that way makes no difference. I’ll eat it first. If something goes wrong, take revenge for me.”

Seo Ryeom cut off Jang Woo-hyun’s words and swallowed the pill immediately.

“Does this thing really work?”

“Of course. After what happened to me in the Central Heavens Realm, I worked very hard to make it. It won’t restore your full power, but it’ll be much better than now.”

Seo Ryeom put on the bracelet made of black beads and closed his eyes.

He focused on the energy he felt inside his body.

“Do you still not trust me?”

At Lee Ahn’s question, Jang Woo-hyun nodded honestly.

Perhaps it was prejudice, but knowing Lee Ahn was a necromancer who raised corpses to fight made it difficult for him to accept what he offered.

“I’m not that kind of person.”

Lee Ahn smiled bitterly at Jang Woo-hyun’s reaction.

“How do you say it… repay kindness with evil?”

“Betraying kindness.”

“Yes, that. Anyway, I’m not someone who forgets a favor.”

“What if you turn us into corpses and use us?”

“Hey, I said I wouldn’t. Though… if I turned you into corpses, you would actually be quite useful.”

Knowing Jang Woo-hyun’s strength, Lee Ahn chuckled.

“But even if that’s true, I’m not that evil. I wouldn’t stab the back of the one who saved me. I’m not a lunatic like those cultivators.”

Even after that, their conversation went nowhere.

Seeing this, Jin Ha-un approached Jang Woo-hyun.

“Brother.”

“What?”

“I don’t think we need to be that wary of him.”

“What are you talking about?”

【He’s a monster.】

The rest was transmitted through telepathy.

【I can’t gauge his strength at all. If he wanted to, he could kill all of us instantly—even without these tricks.】

Jang Woo-hyun could not properly judge Lee Ahn’s strength because his body was not in normal condition.

He could only guess based on what he had seen earlier and what he remembered.

But Jin Ha-un was in perfect condition.

If what he sensed was true, Lee Ahn would have had no need to bother with tricks.

He could simply kill them and use their corpses.

Just as Jang Woo-hyun was thinking—

“Haa!”

Seo Ryeom opened his eyes and exhaled deeply.

“Captain, there doesn’t seem to be a major problem. But my body is still tingling. Is this all it does?”

“You’re a Beastkin, so you probably need one more pill. Beastkin have stronger life force than humans, so the rejection may be stronger. I’ve only used this myself, so I’m not completely certain.”

“Then give me another.”

Seo Ryeom immediately swallowed another pill.

“…Give me one too.”

Seeing that Seo Ryeom was fine, Jang Woo-hyun decided to trust Lee Ahn.

He swallowed a pill and put on the bracelet.

A cold energy flowed from his mouth deep into his body.

Soon afterward—

The energy inside his body spread outward and resonated with the bracelet.

The bracelet vibrated slightly, and he felt a thin barrier form around his body.

Then the pain disappeared.

The sensation of his brain being eaten away vanished.

The interruptions in his Internal Energy vanished.

Even the poisonous air disappeared.

There was still slight discomfort, but the world itself no longer tried to kill him.

Just as Lee Ahn had said, it was not perfect.

But he could now properly use his power.

‘About eighty to ninety percent.’

He could likely use that much of his usual strength.

“Fuuu.”

Exhaling slowly, Jang Woo-hyun met Lee Ahn’s gaze.

At that moment—

Boom.

He witnessed an enormous power.

“….”

Jin Ha-un could not fully grasp that power.

But Jang Woo-hyun could.

Behind Lee Ahn’s blue eyes, he glimpsed the power he possessed.

Inside those eyes was an army filling an entire plain.

The number of soldiers stretching to the horizon was impossible to count.

The most terrifying thing was that the army stood in perfect order without the slightest movement.

Countless troops under perfect control.

And it was impossible to fully comprehend their strength.

The one commanding that monstrous army was Lee Ahn.

‘Skeleton King.’

Before dying, the enemies had called him that.

A power worthy of the word **king**.

And Jang Woo-hyun realized Lee Ahn’s level.

‘Realm of Wish.’

A stage where one twists the Law of Nature and imposes one’s own law upon the world.

An absolute and mystical power beyond martial arts.

Lee Ahn possessed power equivalent to a martial artist of the Realm of Wish.

“…What the hell is this…”

Seo Ryeom, who had regained most of his strength after taking the pill, also sensed Lee Ahn’s power.

He asked in a stunned voice.

“…Captain. That guy isn’t really an enemy… right?”

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