Chapter 90: Lost Memories

Memories from long ago resurfaced before his eyes.

The days spent living in the mining village. The neighbors who tried to stop him when he said he was leaving to learn martial arts.

He entered the White Tiger Martial Hall to learn martial arts, then began his journey to the Cloud Sword Sect through the introduction of Yang Hyo-myung. The schemes that unfolded there, and the first battle he encountered.

More memories followed.

Meeting Jin Ha-un and Pung-yu on the way to the Demon Extermination Sect. Meeting Hwang An during the entry examination for the Demon Extermination Sect.

The missions and training within the Demon Extermination Sect, the matters involving the Demonic Cult after visiting the Xuanwu Alliance.

The battle with the Asura Sword Sect and defeating the Demonic Cult’s Usawa, Gi Il-gwang.

Obtaining the Dragon King’s Scales at the Sichuan Tang Clan, and the bothersome ambush by the Demonic Cult’s Left Envoy which led him to depart for Xinjiang.

Defeating the Demonic Cult Leader and cultists all at once, eventually becoming disappointed upon meeting the Heaven Beyond Heaven, and then ascending.

All those memories continued rapidly, but then stopped as if caught on something during the silver giant’s attack.

And then his vision blurred, revealing a scene different from before.

A dark space with particles of light drifting around.

Jang Woo-hyun realized he was heading somewhere within that place.

‘What is this?’

He wasn’t moving of his own will. He tried to move his body just in case, but couldn’t move even a fingertip. After several more attempts, Jang Woo-hyun realized this was also a scene from within his memories.

But this memory didn’t exist. It was as if it had vanished. Or like he was experiencing it for the first time.

‘Didn’t I fall straight into the Central Heavens Realm?’

He thought he had defended against the silver giant’s attack, but it must not have been the case.

As that thought continued, his blurry vision slowly shifted.

He saw something coiling around his body.

‘A snake?’

A massive red snake was tightly wrapped around his body, heading somewhere. Strangely, the red snake emitted a soft glow even in the darkness.

It was unlike a normal snake—its surface looked as if it had been carved from red gemstones.

‘Where is it taking me?’

And why was it taking him? There seemed to be a purpose behind it.

If it intended to kill him like the silver giant, there was no need to drag him along like this.

Though it was all darkness and he couldn’t distinguish up from down, Jang Woo-hyun sensed the red snake was descending.

That thought didn’t seem wrong as it grew darker. The number of drifting light particles decreased, and the distant lights faded away.

‘Was I not in my right mind?’

Even as the snake carried him, his past self showed no reaction.

As he continued descending, his vision gradually narrowed, as if his eyes were closing.

‘No! Don’t sleep! Don’t sleep! Jang Woo-hyun! My past self! Don’t sleep! You must not fall asleep!’

If he fell asleep like this, it felt like everything would end. So he shouted inwardly, but nothing changed—it was a memory already passed.

‘Wake up! Snap out of it! If you fall asleep now… wait… how did I get out of here?’

If he had fallen asleep, he wouldn’t have reached the Central Heavens Realm. But Jang Woo-hyun did ascend and awoke in the Central Heavens Realm. That meant, unlike this image of him falling asleep, he definitely escaped from this place.

While Jang Woo-hyun was deep in thought.

Suddenly, a massive hand appeared and gripped the snake’s neck.

Kwaak!

The snake struggled, and the massive hand wrapped in light began to fight the snake. At first, the red snake held onto Jang Woo-hyun while fighting, but as the situation turned against it, it eventually released him and continued its battle against the hand.

As the fight went on, another hand appeared and supported Jang Woo-hyun. Then it slowly pushed him toward the distant, radiant light. As if telling him to go toward the light.

As he was carried away, Jang Woo-hyun’s gaze turned to the massive hand fighting the snake. There, the back of a man who had suddenly appeared came into view.

He slightly turned his head and opened his mouth.

“Remember this!”

‘Huh?!’

Jang Woo-hyun was startled the moment he heard that one phrase. It wasn’t the language of the Central Plains he had been using all this time.

It was now a foreign tongue.

The man spoke to Jang Woo-hyun in Korean.

‘Kim Min-soo!’

If it wasn’t himself, the only one who could speak Korean was the Demonic Divine Fist Kim Min-soo. It was the first time he met him face-to-face.

“When you ascend, find the Storm Archipelago! I’ve left something there!”

As the red snake thrashed and swelled its body, the man who appeared to be Kim Min-soo turned his head forward again.

“And since it might be difficult alone, make trustworthy companions.”

After pausing briefly, Kim Min-soo continued.

“…Survive, no matter what.”

With those final words, the vision went black again.

Blink, blink.

As if waking from a long sleep, Jang Woo-hyun slowly blinked his eyes a few times. What he had just seen were entirely unfamiliar memories.

‘Did Kim Min-soo help me? How?’

The disappearance of memories was already strange, but the sudden appearance of Kim Min-soo was even stranger.

How could he appear at that precise place and time?

‘Or was it someone else?’

Another thought crossed his mind. Perhaps all of this was an illusion, a hallucination.

But the words he had heard were too vivid for that.

—Find the Storm Archipelago! I’ve left something there!

—It might be difficult alone, so make trustworthy companions.

—Survive, no matter what.

The first Korean words he had heard since falling into this world.

They struck with such intensity that every word remained etched in his memory.

‘What did he mean by “survive”? Survive what? Just survive? Or survive the dangers like that silver giant? And the Storm Archipelago? Is it in the Central Heavens Realm? Or in the Lower Realm? No, he clearly said to find it when I ascend. Then it’s unlikely to be in the Lower Realm. And…’

“Awake now?”

His jumbled thoughts were cut off by someone’s voice.

While lying down, Jang Woo-hyun felt something on his chest.

“If you’re awake, get up already. What are you doing?”

A white monkey.

It was the Wind-Passing Great Sage, resurrected in miniature form after being split in half.

‘…And he did say to make companions.’

Still lying down, Jang Woo-hyun looked at the Wind-Passing Great Sage standing proudly on his chest.

‘Companions, huh.’

He wasn’t sure about that. Though they were getting along now, back in the Lower Realm, Jang Woo-hyun had once destroyed a projection of the Wind-Passing Great Sage. Originally, they were enemies.

‘…No way that’ll work.’

And this guy’s true power was absolutely beyond his control. Even the power he had shown when he first appeared was already too much for Jang Woo-hyun to handle.

“What are you thinking about?”

As the Wind-Passing Great Sage approached his head and waved his tiny hand, Jang Woo-hyun grabbed the back of his neck and sat up.

“What was that just now? All those old memories came flooding back.”

“It’s a reflection on your life. It lets you find sealed or forgotten memories. I’m not just good at fighting, I’m fairly talented, you know. So, what did you see?”

“My old memories resurfaced, and then suddenly a passing scene just stopped.”

He explained how he saw a scene he didn’t remember.

A snake that looked like it was made of red gemstone dragged him into the darkness, and then a man appeared to fight the snake and sent him here to save him.

“A red gemstone-like snake?”

“Yeah, its surface looked like ruby… I guess in this world, you’d call it hongboseok (紅寶石)? Something like that. Well, I might be wrong.”

“Hmmm.”

The Wind-Passing Great Sage folded his arms and fell into thought.

“Could be a mineral-type monster from the Demonic Spirit Realm, but I don’t see why something like that would target you. What about the man who appeared? Someone you know? Or did he just appear out of nowhere?”

“Hard to say I know him… he’s just someone from the Lower Realm like me. I’ve never met him before, but I’ve seen traces he left behind. Thanks to him, I’ve learned roughly about ascension.”

“Really? Then I’ve got no idea. But at least I now know why time was misaligned.”

“Huh? How?”

Jang Woo-hyun widened his eyes at the mention of finding the cause.

“That place you described. The dark space with drifting light particles—that’s the reason.”

“And what is that place?”

“It doesn’t have a specific name. Think of it as a rift in space-time. A place where the primal chaos still lingers, unresolved. When you enter there, time can speed up or slow down.”

“What? That’s even possible?”

“And yet you could still fight in what felt like a time-stopped state?”

Moving within the realm of Transcendence appeared utterly implausible to those who had not reached that level. It looked as if one moved through an entirely different timeline.

“That’s a place where the Primal Chaos still lingers. Twisted space-time is nothing out of the ordinary there. It’s a place everyone hesitates to go to. Not just monsters—even those above, even the gods of the Upper Realm avoid that place. It’s peculiar.”

“Primal Chaos? As in, there was no light or darkness at the beginning, and everything started from chaos—that kind of thing?”

“Hmm? You know it well. Have you heard it before?”

Jang Woo-hyun let out a small sigh. It sounded far too similar to a commonly known creation myth.

“I think I’ve heard it somewhere. Anyway, you’re saying my time got twisted in that place?”

“That’s probably it. Until the fellow from your homeland saved you, your time must’ve been distorted while you were in there. That’s why the flow of time you know and my expectations didn’t match.”

“…”

Only now did he understand why his timeline had diverged, even though he had ascended not long after Cheol Geuk-jin went into seclusion.

‘How much time has passed?’

Gwak Yu-chan had said he met Cheol Geuk-jin more than ten years ago. Even if they had met immediately after Jang Woo-hyun’s ascension, it meant at least more than ten years had passed. And if Cheol Geuk-jin had started actively training in Void Step and the realm of Transcendence, several more years could’ve easily been added.

Jang Woo-hyun had learned at an abnormally fast pace, considering Gwak Yu-chan said it usually took about ten years to learn both techniques.

‘If the Sect Leader Cheol learned them in a few years, then it’s about twenty years. But if it was the usual pace, would it be closer to thirty years? No way…’

The thought, ‘Has it been hundreds of years?’ suddenly crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. This wasn’t something he could resolve by himself. He needed to meet Cheol Geuk-jin directly to confirm it.

Since there was no answer regarding the time issue, he set it aside and decided to address another curiosity.

“Why did it try to take me? If it wanted to kill me, it could’ve just done so.”

“How should I know? But hey, what exactly are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You survived an attack from a higher being like that silver giant with unknown identity during ascension, then a red snake took you into a rift in space-time, and someone appeared to save you? Hah, I thought I was the only one who marked you special, but apparently not.”

Jang Woo-hyun wanted to say something, but he didn’t know enough yet. So he just listened.

“Nothing makes sense. Oh? I need to go.”

“You’re leaving? Where to?”

“Time’s up. Let’s meet again later, heh.”

The Wind-Passing Great Sage waved goodbye.

His time was up. He had overextended himself to converse with Jang Woo-hyun. The small projection of the Wind-Passing Great Sage gradually began to fade.

Even as he disappeared, he kept chuckling and watched Jang Woo-hyun.

‘This is going to be fun.’

It had been entertaining already, but he felt it would be even more fun to travel together.

Some unknown beings were tangled in all this. Whether they were from the Central Heavens Realm, another middle realm, or from the Upper Realm, he didn’t know—but they were no ordinary entities.

If he traveled with Jang Woo-hyun, he’d likely meet and battle those beings. Just thinking about it thrilled the Wind-Passing Great Sage.

As his body turned transparent and vanished, his eyes gleamed with desire. He was certain it would be immensely fun with Jang Woo-hyun.

“I’m really going now.”

“Just go.”

Jang Woo-hyun gave a half-hearted wave to the Wind-Passing Great Sage who waved goodbye. Though they had fought together as allies, everything he experienced after meeting that monkey monster had been exhausting.

After the Wind-Passing Great Sage vanished, Jang Woo-hyun glanced over at Maeng Ye-ju. Seeing her still lying there unharmed, he flopped down on his back.

‘The silver giant, sure—but what about the red snake?’

The giant had been mentioned in the monument left behind by Kim Min-soo, but there was no mention of the red snake. Judging from their differing actions, the two were clearly different beings.

The red snake hadn’t tried to kill him outright, but since Kim Min-soo had to save him, it was unlikely that the snake was friendly. Jang Woo-hyun had only ascended to the Central Heavens Realm, and already he had two formidable enemies of unknown identity.

‘Do I really need to find companions?’

His enemies were increasing without cause, while he remained alone. Perhaps Kim Min-soo had foreseen this situation and told him to seek out companions.

‘Companions, huh…’

The first people that came to mind were Hwang An and Jin Ha-un, whom he could no longer see. His memories with them were good ones, even to Jang Woo-hyun.

Near Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province.

Countless people lay dead.

Only two figures stood.

An elderly man, his arm severed and gravely wounded, stared at the man who had faced him.

Though his clothes were torn in several places, he remained relatively unscathed compared to the old man. It was Jin Ha-un, the martial force representing the Blue Star Sect.

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