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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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-Kugugung-!
With a loud roar ringing in his ears and being pulled by a strong suction force, Seong-joon, who had crossed time and space, slowly opened his eyes.
‘While moving through space, did they separate my soul from my body and then reverse time?’
His strong body, vast internal energy.
Everything he had achieved as a god of pestilence was gone.
He felt a little sad.
If he had even a little bit of his power left, his life would have been much easier.
But there was no need to dwell on it.
‘I wouldn’t have been able to return to Earth so comfortably.’
If they had tried to send his body back to the past, not just his soul through time and space, it would have been a completely different matter.
If that were possible, the three gods would not have offered peace in the first place.
If he could simply go back to the past and freely rewrite history and myths, he would have eliminated Lee Seong-joon before he became a god of pestilence.
‘I’ll have to build it up again from scratch…’
His head throbbed as if it would break, and an indescribable feeling of helplessness weighed down his entire body.
It was a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time.
After rising to the position of the Blood Demon. -No, ever since he had surpassed the peak of martial arts, he had distanced himself from fatigue.
Lee Seong-joon hurriedly assumed a cross-legged position and checked his body’s condition.
“It’s the worst.”
Not only were his blood vessels clogged with waste, but even his muscles, which could be considered the foundation of external power, were in poor shape.
Nothing was good, but there was something even worse.
“What the hell happened?”
When he hurriedly turned his head and looked around, he saw an abandoned building and a devastated park with withered trees and weeds.
“This is, at least it’s not a safe zone. Phew…”
Seong-joon let out a short, uncomfortable sigh.
The scene before him was not the peaceful park one might imagine.
The park’s equipment and nearby buildings were destroyed beyond recognition, and green grass and trees were nowhere to be seen.
Although he was a little surprised, there was no need to be flustered.
The modern world had changed.
In 2038, dungeons called Gates opened on Earth, and countless Awakeners were born.
And by 2048, cultural exchanges were made with elves, beastmen, and even orcs and goblins who showed a friendly attitude.
By 2055, people who had disappeared in 2038, when the gates first opened, returned as returnees.
All of this happened in 2059, before Lee Seong-joon was even born.
While growing up, Lee Seong-joon had heard many stories of returnees who had suddenly returned to Earth.
And among them were stories of returnees who had fallen into the gate, not the city center, upon their return.
“Did I also fall into a gate…?”
He couldn’t be sure.
This scenery was unfamiliar, but it was not entirely absent from his memory.
To be precise, it was a landscape he could not forget.
It was similar to the place where he was forcibly transported to the continent after running away from home.
With a furrowed brow, Lee Seong-joon tried to remain calm and organize his thoughts.
‘Whether this is really Earth or not, I’ll know once I start moving.’
Since they had staked their own sources of power, the probability that the gods had lied was extremely low.
However, it could have been a trap set with their lives on the line.
He couldn’t be sure of anything.
With cold eyes, Lee Seong-joon calmly assessed the situation.
‘As the gods said, all the power I had is gone.’
Instead, he had returned to a place that was presumed to be the park before he was forcibly transported to the Celestial Continent.
Although nothing was to his liking, fortunately, the only thing he had lost was the power he had as a god of pestilence.
The memories and experiences contained in his soul remained.
Because of this, he was able to remain calm even in this somewhat confusing situation.
‘There’s no need to jump to conclusions.’
In times like this, it was important to disregard any hypotheses that came to mind and only believe what he saw with his own eyes.
Lee Seong-joon looked around and slowly scanned the terrain.
His gaze and movements were full of caution.
Collecting accurate information through direct observation and experience was important, but the top priorities were ‘safety’ and ‘survival’.
‘The good thing is that I don’t feel any special presence nearby…’
However, he couldn’t let his guard down.
Having lost all his power, he couldn’t trust his senses.
Even when he had just regained consciousness, a roar had echoed in his ears.
The buildings nearby could have been abandoned and deteriorated like the park, but there could have been interference from a third party.
If there was a third party involved, and that being was not friendly towards him?
If he had the power of a god of pestilence, it would have been a different story, but in his current weakened state, he could die.
Of course, he had no intention of dying in vain in a place like this.
If this was not Earth, he had revenge to take on the three gods who had deceived him, and he still wanted to live a happy life with his family.
Lee Seong-joon still had many things he wanted to do.
‘Just in case, I need to recover at least a little bit of my strength.’
Having assessed the situation and decided on the action to take, Lee Seong-joon hurriedly moved.
Fortunately, apart from his body feeling heavy and tired, his legs were moving as he intended.
Thud-
Lee Seong-joon looked around and hid in a place that looked like a makeshift shelter formed by the collapsed remains of a building that was presumed to be a convenience store in the past.
Although it was somewhat unstable, it was made of fairly sturdy debris and blocked the enemy’s view, so it was not bad for temporary use.
This ensured minimal safety.
Now, all that was left was to recover his strength.
‘It won’t be difficult.’
It wasn’t arrogance.
Right now, Lee Seong-joon had decades of knowledge about ‘martial arts’ accumulated in his mind.
Although he couldn’t immediately recover to the level of when he was called a god of pestilence, he was confident that he could at least gain enough strength to protect himself.
‘There’s also a lot of qi flowing around here.’
Perhaps because civilization had collapsed and people no longer lived here, he could feel a considerable amount of qi flowing, comparable to that of the continent in the past.
‘I can use the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique right away.’
The Blood Spirit Demon God Technique, an internal energy cultivation method that draws out the energy of a demon using the power of blood.
It was a divine technique that could only be learned by those who had reached the pinnacle of the Blood Cult and ascended to the position of the Blood Demon, who was called the ruler of all things.
Of course, as great as it was to be called a divine technique, it was not easy to use even if there was a lot of ambient qi, as there was now.
This was because it was too brutal and powerful a force for an ordinary adult male body to handle.
However, it was a different story for him, who had surpassed the Blood Demon and was even called a god of pestilence.
He had mastered all the martial and demonic arts of the continent and gained a vast amount of knowledge.
In fact, Lee Seong-joon had not only mastered the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique but had even advanced it a step further.
Therefore, he could confidently say that he knew the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique better than anyone else.
Even with this poor body, he was confident that he could create a vessel capable of accepting the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique.
With a relaxed smile, Lee Seong-joon immediately moved his body and assumed a cross-legged position.
This was the essential posture when starting internal energy cultivation.
Originally, he wouldn’t have needed such a posture, but with his current poor body, it was out of the question.
Still, thanks to the memories and experiences embedded in his soul, he felt the world change less than 10 minutes after assuming the cross-legged position and concentrating his consciousness.
“Huu…”
As he slowly inhaled, he could feel the ambient energy of the world being drawn in through his nose and mouth.
Because he had closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness, his other senses were providing him with more information than his vision.
Feeling the energy flowing smoothly through his body, Lee Seong-joon carefully opened his mouth and began to recite the formula of the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique.
‘All things are creations made of blood, so the power of blood is the same as the power and will of a god.’
The smoothly flowing energy suddenly began to run wild.
The excessive power that could not be contained in his weak body was trying to escape his control.
The explosive and violent energy that felt as if it would tear his entire body apart was causing him such intense pain that it felt as if his body would burst at any moment.
In the midst of that dizzying sensation, Lee Seong-joon clenched his teeth.
He had to endure.
As the name suggested, it was a martial art that contained a demonic power as brutal as a demon.
Therefore, if he was not in a state where he could properly control the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique, what Lee Seong-joon was doing now would be extremely dangerous.
Not only the inflowing qi, but also the blood in his body was running out of control and rampaging.
If he couldn’t control it, it meant death.
He would face death along with the terrible pain of having his energy go out of control.
‘Huu…!’
Because of this, Lee Seong-joon swallowed his groan and focused on not losing consciousness even in the midst of the dizzying sensation.
The beginning was the most important part of the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique.
It was a martial art created by the first-generation Blood Demon, who called himself the master and ruler of all things.
This strange internal energy cultivation method was like a living being.
If it judged that one was not qualified, the power of the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique would try to dominate and subdue even its owner, making it a truly dangerous internal energy cultivation method.
It became a tyrant that constantly ran wild like a demon.
However, if one could subdue it, the internal energy created by the Blood Spirit Demon God Technique would become the power of a demon that wielded the most brutal force.
Therefore, one could not show even the slightest opening.
One had to dominate and subdue it with an unwavering heart.
The rampaging energy instantly began to circulate endlessly within his body.
The blood flowing through his veins swelled up as if it would burst at any moment, causing a terrible pain that made his whole body burn and even dominated his mind.
This was not a pain that could be endured with such a poor body.
However, it was not as if Lee Seong-joon had started this without knowing this.
He believed in the effort and perseverance he had accumulated.
It was hard and painful right now, but compared to the memories of his past life, which was filled with blood and the struggle to survive, it was not so painful.
Those days were truly like hell.
However, in the end, he had survived.
That’s why he was confident this time too.
‘I can endure it.’
No, he would subdue it.
The stubborn determination that had allowed him to rise from an ordinary young man to the ruler of the Blood Cult, the Blood Demon, and even to be called a god of pestilence, was burning.
With an unwavering mind, not even a slight groan escaped his lips as he endured the hellish pain.
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