I’m not a Regressor

Chapter 208: Snake's Head (1)

“Fuu.” He took a deep breath and concentrated mana into his chest.

Thump, thump—

The repeated sound of his beating heart rang in his head.

Ohjin imagined a black sky—a sky covered by black clouds with not even a speck of starlight visible.

Boom, Boom—

Like a drum, the faint sound grew louder.

‘As I expected, it’s still there.’

There was a pure white light hiding between the thick clouds—Damien’s mana he had consumed not too long ago.

Owoong!—

Once he extended his hands out to the star-like shining light, the tips of his fingers started to burn along as it strongly rejected him.

As if it knew how to pick its masters, the mana was being stubborn and refused to follow his will.

‘Tsk.’

Ohjin furrowed his brow and removed his hand from the radiant light.

Just like the mana from the dragon vein, it was a source of power he couldn’t use at his current level.

‘I think I would be able to rise to a 9-Star in no time if I could just absorb that mana.’

However, whether it be because of the Black Heaven not being strong enough or Damien’s mana being too similar to its stubborn owner, the mana rejected him like an angry porcupine.

‘Eh, not that it really matters.’

Ohjin gathered up the immense amount of mana hiding within the Black Heaven and circulated it once around his body.

His mana circuits were incomparably wider than before, and his mana easily passed through.

Similar to the way a river could wear away stone, an extremely small portion of the pure white light fell away.

The mana circled a lap around his body and returned to his heart.

It was similar to what they called a ‘cultivation cycle’ that was often mentioned in martial arts stories.

Albeit only a little, he could absorb Damien’s mana every time he finished a cultivation cycle.

He could eventually absorb all of the mana with enough time.

‘Though time is the problem.’

With the amount of mana that he could integrate in a single go being so small, he couldn’t sit down and focus on doing that all day.

“Fuu.” He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes.

What unfolded before him was his spacious private training room that was the size of three basketball courts end to end.

Having finished a cultivation cycle that had become a part of his daily routine, he stretched and warmed up his muscles.

‘Stigma of Libra.’

The gentle light started to form a shape, and a mirage of Cheon Doyoon appeared.

He was the King of Owls who once nearly killed him in the past.

“Let’s set the timer to ten… no, fifteen minutes.”

Ohjin took out his phone and set a timer.

‘Then…’

He caught his breath and got rid of any unnecessary thoughts.

Looking at the mirage of Cheon Doyoon in front of him, he ‘lied’ to himself.

“What’s in front of me isn’t a mirage.”

He told himself that it wasn’t a mere mirage but a real and alive ‘enemy’.

“It’s the real Cheon Doyoon.”

Brainwashing himself, he repeated the lie to himself hundreds and thousands of times.

Then…

“Holholhol. It’s been a while.”

The mirage made of light… no, Cheon Doyoon, stroked his beard with his signature bizarre laugh.

“Even thinking about it now, it truly is a shame.” Cheon Doyoon grinned slyly. “If only it weren’t for you—”

Hundreds of black feathers started to float around him.

“—that child’s eye would have been mine.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Ohjin started to get heated, and rage boiled up inside him.

The memory of Ha-eun crying desperately in Cheon Doyoon’s hands crossed his mind.

He was powerless against him back then, but now…

Bzzzt!—

Blue lightning wrapped around his legs, and Ohjin sprinted forward at a frightening speed.

“Holholhol.”

Ttutututu!—

The black feathers near Cheon Doyoon shot toward him.

Stepping on blue lightning, he leaped into the air and lanced his pitch-black spear down at the top of Cheon Doyoon’s head like a lightning bolt.

“You cannot face this old man with that mere strength.”

Clang!—

Doyoon created black wings from the joints of his shoulders and fended off the spear.

An intense shock reverberated through the spear and reached Ohjin.

He lost his grip on the spear and was sent flying back, and Doyoon flapped his wings, sending black feathers shooting toward Ohjin.

Slit—

Ohjin’s skin turned red as it was grazed by a feather, and the flesh beneath started to necrotize.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Ohjin smirked and extended his hand to the fallen spear.

Bzzzt!—

A chain of blue lightning shot out, and the spear floated from the ground.

“I think I’m more than strong enough to face you now.”

“Kugh!”

Stab!—

The spear flew forward and pierced through Doyoon’s back, splattering crimson blood everywhere

Doyoon’s wrinkly mouth opened wide as he got down to one knee.

“Tsk, tsk. This old man talks too much.”

“Hisssss!”

Once Doyoon was defeated, a young man who looked nervous and a demonic beast covered in black armor appeared.

It was the ranked 7th Executor, Sosuke, and the Living Armor.

The two of them put pressure on Ohjin from separate angles as if they had fought together for a long time.

“Fuu, fuu.” His breath became a tad bit ragged.

Regardless, they didn’t give him time to catch his breath, and dark-blue fire assaulted him from one direction while bubbles came from the other.

Bzzt! Bzzzzt!—

They exchanged successive attacks faster than the naked could see, and Ohjin’s injuries slowly built up.

“Hiss, h-hiss.”

“Kugh… C-Cough!”

Eventually, Sosuke and the Living Armor collapsed to the ground.

Ohjin gasped for breath as he turned away.

“Divine justice—”

There, Damian gave Ohjin a piercing glare as he raised his sword and it started to give off light.

“—to those tainted by darkness.”

Boom, boom, boom, boom!—

Huge streaks of light shot down like a tidal wave.

The moment his head was about to be split in two by Damien’s sword—

Ring!—

—his ‘lie’ to himself was undone with the clear sound of bells.

The mirage of Damien’s sword passed through his body.

“Fua!”

Ohjin caught his breath and looked down at Damien’s sword which had slipped right through his body.

‘I’m still not ready for Damien.’

* * *

* * *

Groan—

He examined his state.

Despite having fought with mirages that had no physical bodies, there were a ton of injuries that had necrotized on his body.

“Why does it feel like they keep getting worse?”

His injuries weren’t so severe when he first started image training through lying to himself, but it felt like they’d gotten worse after he started to use the mirages.

They were similar to the ones he got in real fights.

‘Well, I guess my anger towards Cheon Doyoon earlier was also real.’

Needless to say, he still kept the thought that they were just mirages for image training deep in his mind, but he felt that he would eventually be able to completely fool himself one day.

“Is my imagination running a bit too wild?” Ohjin smirked and placed his hand on his injuries.

‘Stigma of Hippocampus.’

Beep, beep, b-beep—

While he was healing his body with Water Affinity and reviewing his fight with the mirages, the door to the training room opened.

“Are you still training?”

“Ohjin, how the fuck did you make such a mess training by yourself?”

Isabella and Ha-eun walked through the door.

He looked back at Ha-eun, who was drenched in sweat just like he was, and conversely asked her a question. “Did you also train, Ha-eun?”

“Don’t even bring that up. I thought I was going to die sparring with this bitch for a slight moment.” Ha-eun shook her head like she didn’t even want to think about it.

Isabella put on a friendly smile and pulled Ha-eun’s arm. “Oh my, how could you use that language toward your cute junior? That was harsh.”

“Damn it, don’t act coy! You attacked me like you were going to kill me earlier!”

“Fufu. That was all for your own good.” Isabella covered her mouth and chuckled quietly.

Though she said it was for her own good, one of Isabella’s goals was most likely relieving her secret jealousy that built up over time.

“So what are you doing here?”

“We came to have lunch together. Do you have time?”

“Oh, that sounds good. I happened to plan on getting some rest after finishing one set.”

“That’s a relief.” Isabella smiled and took out a lunchbox. “I prepared it in the morning.”

“Ugh, I feel like I’m going to starve to death. Let’s hurry up and eat, Ohjin.”

“Yeah.”

The three of them sat together in the spacious training room and ate lunch.

Bzzzz—

At that moment, a phone vibrated.

They suspected it was just an advertisement like usual and were going to ignore it and continue eating, however…

Bzzz, bzzz—

“It looks like you got a call.”

“Give me a sec.” Ohjin raised his phone.

‘Elder Cheon Sanggil’ was on the caller ID.

“Who is it?”

“Cheon Sanggil.”

“Oh, it’s from gramps?” Ha-eun stopped her frenzied eating and raised her head with widened eyes.

Ohjin nodded and changed to speaker mode.

-Heh, it's been a while.

Cheon Sanggil’s voice rang throughout the training room.

“Ah, yes. How have you been doing in the meantime?”

-This old man had to go through a lot of trouble catching the snake’s tail.

They could feel how much hardship he’d been through by the fatigue in his voice.

“Was there any success?”

-I called you for that very reason.

Cheon Sanggil continued talking.

-Haven’t you been to Sokcho before? I’m talking about the demonic beast incident that happened back then.

“Ah, yes.”

Ohjin recalled the event that happened around half a year prior.

There’d been a black energy in the middle of the city that made demonic beasts run away in the same direction.

“Did something happen there? I’m certain Ha-eun burnt all the black energy back then,” Ohjin asked as he looked at Ha-eun.

-The energy you burnt back then was merely an extremely small part of it. Another darkness… was hiding deep inside.

“By another darkness…”

-The Demon Realm.

Ohjin’s expression hardened once he heard the ominous words.

-There was a fissure connected to the Demon Realm.

“I see…”

A fissure that led to the Demon Realm that only existed in the Arctic had appeared in Korea out of the blue.

-And I found it there…

Cheon Sanggil continued in a low voice.

-The snake’s tail.