Chapter 79: Chapter 73: Yeomra
Now that he had taken care of the vengeful souls, he had to deal with the corrupted blood essence. He needed to absorb all the corrupted blood essence and seal it in the black and red lotus in his Middle Energy Core. From then on, he could slowly absorb it. It sounded fairly simple, but it was actually very dangerous because to reach the Middle Energy Core, the corrupted blood essence had to circulate inside his meridians.
Just the fact that something other than qi was being circulated in the meridians would cause soul-crushing pain, not to mention a substance that would actively try to corrupt him. But he saw this as an opportunity to make his meridians even more tenacious.
He sat down and imbued Sasin with his Hell Qi. He had obviously done this before, but this time, he reabsorbed the Hell Qi back into his body instead of using it up in an attack. The corrupted blood essence seemed to have found an outlet and rushed into his meridians along with the Hell Qi.
His meridians started bleeding instantly. But it wasn’t as painful as he had imagined. Either his pain tolerance had reached a level where this pain didn’t affect him much, or he had become numb to it. As the corrupted blood essence reached his Lower Energy Core, he felt a subtle suction from the three black and gold lotuses. The corrupted blood essence paused in the Lower Energy Core, and its volume started decreasing slightly. The black and gold lotuses, on the other hand, started glowing. When all three lotuses had lit up, the corrupted blood essence looked much more sinister. It moved to the Middle Energy Core.
Outside, sweat mixed with blood had started pouring out of Zeke’s body. The intricate manipulation of the corrupted blood essence was taking its toll on his soul. Not to mention, it had become much more volatile ever since the lotuses in the Lower Energy Core had lit up. But he still didn’t give up. Using his Hell Qi, he forced all of the corrupted blood essence into a ball and compressed it until it became impossible to do so anymore.
Then he controlled the incredibly volatile ball of condensed corrupted blood essence and placed it onto the black and red lotus. As if sensing something, the lotus closed, trapping the corrupted blood essence inside. The corrupted blood essence tried to escape, but the ’Kamalkaid’ (Lotus Prison) rune suddenly appeared on the closed lotus, calming everything down.
Outside, Zeke opened his eyes and vomited blood. He suddenly became dizzy. He thought, ’It seems that an insane pain tolerance isn’t that good of a thing after all.’ He had to rest for three hours before he was in a condition where he could proceed. He looked at Sasin. It had become completely transparent. He was right. It had been carved from a single piece of crystal. He just didn’t know what type of crystal it was.
But whatever it was, it had some amazing properties. He held it in his hand and started pouring his Hell Qi into it. The transparent weapon started gaining color. It was the color of his Hell Qi: black with hints of red and gold. When he had almost run out of Hell Qi, he materialized a two-bladed swordstaff over Sasin. It was similar to what he had done in the Treasury, but this time, the materialization was fusing with Sasin. Yet something was missing.
At this point, he started merging the soul substances in the scales of the Visualization’s wings. Sasin started glowing. Natural energy started rushing inside Sasin along with the soul substances. When Zeke had poured all of the soul substances inside Sasin, it left his hand and started spinning in the air. The speed of natural energy rushing in increased. As Sasin was spinning, the natural energy seemed to form strands, encasing the weapon in a cocoon.
After the cocoon was done forming, the spinning slowed down until the cocoon was levitating in the air, spinning very slowly. It was honestly very peaceful to look at. It remained that way for three days. Zeke stayed by its side the whole time. The trio alternated in bringing his meals to him. On the third day, the cocoon started glowing slightly. Zeke knew that Sasin was about to awaken, so he quickly materialized the Visualization. This gave his soul a boost in the material world. As soon as the cocoon dissipated, the materialization grabbed Sasin.
Inside the materialization, Zeke sighed in relief. If he hadn’t grabbed Sasin as soon as it had come out of the cocoon, it would have escaped him. It was still struggling in his hand. What he had to do right now was brand Sasin with his soul, hence the materialization. He had thought a lot about the brand that he would create but had settled on a fusion of the Totem, a 108-petalled lotus, and his Aureliarc. It was an incredibly intricate and mesmerizing design.
He exerted his Will on Sasin’s newborn soul, intimidating it into stillness. The gap between the two was so large that the newborn soul had lost all thoughts of resisting. Its thought process was very simple. The soul in front of it was immensely stronger than it, and something about it felt familiar.
The Visualization pointed his finger at Sasin and started drawing using his Will. Usually, this would have been tough, but maybe it was the uniqueness of the Murim World, but it reacted to Will very well. After he had created the soul brand, it sunk into the very core of Sasin’s soul, and Zeke felt a deep connection to it. It was very similar to the bond he had with Yonggi.
Sasin’s soul started growing through its bond with Zeke, but something was still missing. Zeke felt a faint message from Sasin. No, it was no longer Sasin. That is what was missing. Sasin had ceased to exist when the weapon had awakened. He needed to give his weapon an identity.
Zeke looked at the weapon in his hand and said, "Your previous name was Sasin, the Reaper. Your previous owner had no ambition. Why stop at being a reaper? Be the God of Death himself. Awaken now, Yeomra."
As soon as he uttered these words, the weapon—no, Yeomra—started humming and its soul grew even faster. It understood what Yeomra meant and the ambition of the one who had named it so. It bared its metaphorical fangs, thirsty for war and wanton slaughter. Zeke laughed and stroked the blade to calm it down.
He said, "Don’t you worry about slaughter. There will be plenty of that in the future. Just be a little patient. Rivers of blood and corpses will soon flow throughout Murim."
As he was saying this, he had a bloodthirsty smile on his face. The trio, who were cooking nearby, suddenly brandished their weapons. They scanned their surroundings for the source of the immense threat that they had just felt. When they found nothing, Woong suddenly sighed.
He said, "It must be Ryeong going crazy again. His Killing Intent leaks whenever that happens. Honestly, we should have gotten used to it by now. Anyways, don’t let Ryeon know about what happened just now. There is no knowing what he might do."
Bum interjected, "But there is. We all know what will happen. Another hellish training session until we can withstand his Killing Intent."
Woo nodded in agreement. The three of them shook their heads and sighed. This was their life. Every tiny mistake resulted in a hellish training session by Ryeong. What had they done to deserve this? What sins had they committed in their past lives that they were being punished like this?
While they were wondering about this, Bum suddenly said, "Wait. Whose turn is it to bring Ryeong his meal?"
Woo and Woong paused. They looked at Bum like he was an idiot. Bum also realized what he had done. He sighed and said, "I’m an idiot, aren’t I?"
The two nodded. Woong put his hand on Bum’s shoulder and said, "If you had just remained silent, we would have forgotten about his meal. And it’s not like he would starve without one meal. Why do you do this to yourself? I will never understand."
When the food was cooked, Bum packed three portions for Zeke and took it to him with dead eyes. When he returned, he was soaked in sweat. He looked at Woo and Woong and said, "It’s best if you both don’t go anywhere near Ryeong tonight."
Then he ate his food in silence and went to sleep.
(You really traumatized him, didn’t you?)
[It’s not my fault that he was so weak.]
The next day, the Demon Lotus Squad returned to the Cult. They submitted the mission along with the heads of the bandit leader and vice leader. They rested for a few days and then chose to leave for another mission, this time with Yonggi.
Unbeknownst to the rest of Murim, the winds of strife had started blowing with their departure. They became unstoppable, completing mission after mission.
Just like that, 10 years went by.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
’Mission: Become the Heavenly Demon’
’Duration: 35 Years’
’Time left: 18 Years’
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
