Chapter 35 - Episode 6. God of Despair (4)
Chapter 35: Episode 6. God of Despair (4)
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Cheongheo could not understand this situation.
He was the Divine Doctor of Despair, the finest physician in 《Chaos》.
As the rumor mongers said, he was also one of the few Abyss powerhouses in all of 《Chaos》.
That was not all.
He had an extraordinary past.
He had cleared a Master’s Tower in World 12764 and advanced into the Great Realm.
Almost no one in the Great Realm was unfamiliar with World 12764.
Its world name was the Central Plains.
A world commonly known as the martial world.
Even in the Great Realm, the reputation of the martial world was such that people would instinctively give way upon hearing someone was “from the martial world.” It was the place that had produced Huh Yu of Steel, Lord of the fifth zone, and given birth to those called the “Legendary Generation.” Cheongheo was one of those rare members of the Legendary Generation.
“It looks like this fight is already over, old man.”
Jaehwan spoke as if he were tired of this.
Cheongheo was already in a terrible state. His dignified black robe had become rags, and the broad-brimmed hat on his head had split cleanly in half. More than twenty spare blades from the training ground had broken after colliding with Dokbul. This was the result even though Jaehwan had not drawn Dokbul from its sheath.
“I haven’t used my killing technique yet, brat!”
“...”
“If I use it, you will definitely die! I have only held back because I was worried about that!”
He had been saying that for a while now.
He had started going on about it when he used his ten consecutive Ordinary Slashes or whatever it was.
“You cannot beat me, old man.”
“You will not know until we try.”
“You are weaker than me.”
Weaker?
Cheongheo wiped his nose and snorted. Silver powder scattered from beneath his nose.
“What nerve. How old are you?”
“Probably around sixty.”
“How old do you think I am?”
“...I do not know. About two hundred?”
Jaehwan answered as if throwing out a random guess. Cheongheo grinned smugly.
“Wrong.”
“How old are you?”
“A thousand years old!”
Even Jaehwan was a little surprised this time. He had never imagined the old man was that old. Jaehwan wondered what he himself would look like at a thousand years old.
“Do you understand the difference between us now?”
“...”
“No matter how many Stabs you made over a mere sixty years, you cannot defeat someone like me, who has practiced Slashes for a thousand years.”
“I only practiced Stabs for around forty years.”
“Anyway!”
Cheongheo spoke as if throwing a tantrum.
“You can never beat me!”
Jaehwan asked doubtfully, “Did you really practice Slashes for a thousand years?”
“That is right!”
“It looks more like ten years to me.”
Cheongheo exploded at those words.
In the Tower of Nightmares, in the Great Realm, and here in Chaos and the Abyss... He had repeated one single Slash, again and again.
Of course, it would have been a lie to say he practiced diligently every day for a thousand years. He played around and lazed about sometimes. Still, he had worked hard for the most part.
A Slash swung in perfect form once every second.
Cheongheo repeated that Slash for eight hours every day.
Then, around a hundred years in.
Cheongheo finally reached one billion Slashes.
The energy of Awakening filled his entire body.
He had never forgotten that moment when he cast away the power of adaptation and entered an entirely new realm.
He had not practiced quite as diligently after reaching one billion, but even so, he must have surpassed five billion by now.
Five billion Slashes.
The miracle created by those Slashes was gathering within Cheongheo’s sword.
Jaehwan seemed to sense something and changed his stance. A tremendous technique, completely unlike anything before it, was about to unfold.
Cheongheo shouted through gritted teeth.
“Let us see if you can still talk like that after taking this!”
A sharp force that threatened every sense in Jaehwan’s body.
Jaehwan narrowed his eyes at the immense spiritual power.
Strong.
Then Cheongheo’s sword moved.
The sword strike was graceful and swift, yet carried overwhelming force. A tremendous energy, enough to blow away this entire training ground, came rushing in.
The two swords collided, and a gale swept through the area. The warriors fled in alarm as a heavy tremor shook the entire annex palace.
Jaehwan had been pushed back more than seven steps by the collision. His right arm, which had met Cheongheo’s sword, tingled slightly.
Cheongheo, on the other hand, had only retreated around three steps and stood firm in the center of the training ground.
“Bwahahahaha! See? Did I not tell you that you could not do it?”
“...”
“You are quite something for a brat. To be honest, I was worried you might die.”
Cheongheo seemed rather shocked that Jaehwan had not suffered any serious injury.
Yet Jaehwan was even more surprised.
He had no choice but to admit that this old man was quite strong.
What Jaehwan had used just now was Normal Stab.
Even after using Normal Stab, he had been pushed back this far.
Jaehwan asked, “What was the name of that technique? It was fairly strong.”
“Extraordinary Slash.”
Cheongheo put a hand on his waist and emphasized “extraordinary” in particular. He already acted as though he had won the fight.
“Your technique was not bad either. What is it called?”
“Normal Stab.”
Cheongheo’s eyebrows twitched sharply.
“Normal? What an arrogant name. Giving it a name like that makes it sound as though there is an even stronger technique.”
“There is.”
Cheongheo laughed heartily, pretending he had not heard.
“I will generously rename your technique for you, brat. From now on, that technique will be called ‘Extraordinary Stab.’ So in the future...”
“I said there is.”
Cheongheo narrowed his eyes.
“What do you keep saying there is?”
“A stronger technique.”
Jaehwan adjusted his grip on his sword.
It was a technique he had never used even once in Chaos.
Silence fell without warning.
Cheongheo instinctively sharpened his senses at the killing intent he felt before him. The movement of the wind gathering from somewhere was anything but ordinary.
“What is this...?”
They said one only saw as much as one knew.
Cheongheo knew that power well.
The Hall Masters of the Ten Halls of Chaos?
No.
The Four Great Fortress Lords of Chaos?
Not them either.
It was a power that reminded him of a Deadman.
That was not strange. Deadmans and Awakened Ones both existed outside this world’s rules, so the powers they used had certain similarities.
The issue was not the kind of power.
It was its strength.
Cheongheo remembered his youth, when he had set out for the entrance to the Abyss for the first time in a long while. The journey he had taken in search of the Fruit.
The day he had eventually encountered the King of Chaos in the Palace of the Dead, at the center of Chaos.
The Sole King of Chaos.
A catastrophe that destroyed everything.
Of course, the man before him could not compare to that King.
Even so, Cheongheo could not help remembering the fear he had felt when facing the King of Chaos as he looked at Jaehwan.
Could he cut something like that?
Cheongheo’s body trembled.
How could a human cut something like that?
Unable to overcome his fear, Cheongheo finally spoke.
“W-Wait! Wait a moment!”
The scene after that horrifying technique unfolded appeared vividly in his mind. A hellscape where everything had been destroyed. The shadow of a king standing in the center of it.
“Wait!”
If he used that technique, this annex palace would be blown away. No, not just the annex palace. More than half the Inner Fortress would be wiped out. Perhaps even that would not be enough...
“You cannot use that!”
Jaehwan did not take his hand from the sword hilt.
Cheongheo finally ran over and clung to him, stopping him.
“I-I lost, you bastard!”
Only then did Jaehwan relax his stance.
Cheongheo could only gasp for breath.
“Huff, huff. What the hell are you...?”
He could not understand it. He wanted to believe what he had just seen was an illusion. That someone who had only practiced Stabs for forty years had created a Stab like that?
Cheongheo could not believe it.
“I do not accept it.”
“What?”
“You deceived me.”
Jaehwan looked at Cheongheo in confusion.
“You told me you were sixty years old.”
“That is right. I lived for sixty years.”
“And you said you practiced Stabs for forty years.”
“I practiced Stabs for forty years.”
Cheongheo shouted with his eyes wide open.
“Bullshit! You must be at least two thousand years old!”
“You know that is not true, old man.”
Cheongheo ground his teeth.
It was true. There was no way Cheongheo would not know of a strong person who had lived for two thousand years.
“How many times could you have performed Stabs in only forty years to create something like...?”
Thinking it was a question, Jaehwan readily answered.
“Around ten billion times.”
“Do not talk nonsense!”
It was a number that made no mathematical sense. Even if he did not eat or sleep and performed a Stab once every second, forty years was only enough time to barely reach one billion.
But ten billion times?
“How did you make ten billion Stabs in forty years?”
“You just have to work hard.”
“Bullshit! That is bullshit!”
Cheongheo hurriedly began calculating the numbers in his head.
“Th-This...”
It had been a long time since he had used his head, and the calculations did not come easily.
In the end, Cheongheo called over one of the warriors who had been blankly watching them and made the warrior calculate it.
“I have finished calculating!”
“Good. Tell me.”
“To perform ten billion Stabs in forty years, assuming you do not eat or sleep, you would need to make around 7.9 Stabs per second.”
The warrior answered with an expression that showed no idea why they had been made to do this.
Cheongheo asked, “So even seven Stabs per second would be impossible?”
“Yes, it would be impossible.”
“Do you think a human could perform eight Stabs per second and live like that for forty years?”
“It would be impossible. Setting aside the fact that they would lose their mind, it is physically impossible as well.”
Cheongheo looked at Jaehwan with a triumphant expression.
“See? They said it makes no sense!”
Jaehwan finally opened his mouth.
“Old man.”
“What!”
“You can make eight Slashes in a second, right?”
“Of course I can!”
“Then you can do it too.”
“That is not the point! Continuing to do that is...!”
“You just have to do it.”
“You cannot!”
The warrior watched the two argue with an expression that showed they could not tell which one was being unreasonable.
“Old man, I can make not just eight, but a hundred Stabs per second.”
“That is not what I am...”
“I could do a thousand too.”
“...What nonsense are you suddenly talking about? How can you make a thousand Stabs in a second?”
“Why do you think you have to use a sword to make a Stab?”
The moment he heard that, something close to realization flickered in Cheongheo’s eyes as he looked at Jaehwan.
That realization soon changed into deep disbelief.
“Wait, surely...”
There had been a certain presence Cheongheo had felt ever since he first saw Jaehwan. A sharp, thorn-like force spreading in every direction.
Until now, Cheongheo had believed that force simply reflected Jaehwan’s disposition.
Looking closer, it appeared like tens of thousands of extremely dense, delicate thorns.
As if possessed, Cheongheo reached out and touched the sharp, pointed force rising from Jaehwan’s entire body.
Silver blood flowed out.
Only then did Cheongheo realize.
It was neither presence nor aura.
It was Stab.
A Stab that had gone beyond the shape of a mental image and taken on physical form. A man who had finally become Stab itself through countless Stabs.
“This cannot be, brat, you...”
A terrifying hostility toward this world.
Jaehwan’s ten billion Stabs were the product of that hatred.
Even now, every second, this man was repeating countless Stabs toward this world again and again.
Jaehwan spoke.
“I told you. Ten billion times.”
Dizziness suddenly washed over Cheongheo, and he fell to his knees.
He could not believe it. How could someone who did something like this possibly be sane?
No, now that he thought about it, this bastard...
Having spent too much mental energy in a single day, Cheongheo suddenly felt as though he understood everything and promptly lost consciousness.
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