A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 211 - Lightning Flash (5)
Ziiing—
A chilling, otherworldly vibration resonates through the air.
The moment that sound reaches me, my mind feels as though it is under enough pressure to burst.
'It’s so far away!'
This presence originates from a distant dimension, perhaps even more remote than the Black Dragon.
Every True Immortal-level entity I had encountered previously was merely a clone or a fragment of consciousness tied to a drop of blood.
But despite the vast dimensional distance, the being that has manifested here is undeniably its 'true body'!
'I must not look!'
Haunted by the memory of meeting [Him], I press my face toward the dirt, desperately trying to purge the entity from my thoughts without catching a direct glimpse of the True Immortal.
Even with my eyes averted and my mind stalled, that piercing ziiing sound feels like it is shredding my psyche.
I snap my eyes open as I look toward Jin Byuk-ho.
"…! Krrrgh!"
"…!"
Jin Byuk-ho is transforming into lightning.
This isn't a figure of speech; his physical form is literally becoming bolts of electricity. Starting from his eyes, his entire being is dissolving into lightning and bleeding into the atmosphere.
Even as he unravels, Jin Byuk-ho grips his skull, his teeth gnashing in agony.
"D-don't listen! That... [that thing] is speaking! You must not listen to its words!"
'Words...?'
It appears that Jin Byuk-ho perceives that high-pitched drone as actual 'speech.'
Perhaps these are 'words' only audible to those who have walked the path of lightning, similar to how the Heavenly Lightning Banner can only be seen by masters of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect.
"Stop speaking! No, do not talk to me! Do not look at me! I beg you! Ahhhhh!"
I struggle to forget the 'eye' of the True Immortal I glimpsed, burying my face in the earth and locking my focus onto a single geometric line of the teleportation array.
I need a distraction!
Anything else!
Meanwhile, the Heavenly Lightning Banner, Zhengli, begins its ascent into the sky.
Tsstststst!
The banner reaches a specific height and suddenly erupts with radiance.
Kwagwagwang!
Immediately following the light...
A bolt of golden lightning strikes the earth exactly where the banner had been, right between myself and Jin Byuk-ho.
I sense something being 'released' from the Heavenly Lightning Banner the moment the golden bolt connects.
Simultaneously, brilliant beams of light explode from the banner, and a figure begins to take shape within the glow.
"...?"
It is a small foot.
Sarak...
The hem of a simple garment, woven from pure lightning, brushes against the ground.
The sight of small, porcelain-white bare feet emerging from the robes draws my gaze.
Then, a melodic voice begins to resonate through the surroundings.
[My lord, my master. Have you finally arrived to save me?]
Shiver!
A cold dread washes over me at the sound of that voice.
[O great one, I beg you to take me with you.]
The figure, draped in lightning-silk, drops to its knees.
I cannot see its face, but the voice—accompanied by flowing, snow-white hair—sounds unnervingly divine.
The kneeling being clasps its hands in a prayerful gesture, directing its plea toward the heavens.
[Please grant me return. Let me come back to you. Allow me to offer my devotion once more...]
As 'it' starts to pray, a horrific scene begins to play out.
"Re... return..."
Jin Byuk-ho, who is already crumbling into sparks, mimics the posture. He kneels, clasps his hands, and bows his head low.
"Return... to thee."
He isn't the only one.
I can feel it happening.
Across the entirety of Heavenly Human Island, this same madness is spreading.
"Return... to thee."
"Return... to thee."
"Return... to thee."
From ordinary pedestrians to powerful Cultivators, everyone drops to their knees in prayer, regardless of their rank.
At that moment, their bodies begin to vaporize into electricity at an accelerated pace, rising into the clouds as pure lightning.
It looks as though scattered fragments of light are being pulled back into a greater, more magnificent source.
Then.
———!
The ziiing sound rings out once more.
The white-haired entity speaks again, its voice thick with emotion.
[Ah, I understand. Since this settles the 120,000 years of resentment I held while being used by the Golden Deity’s lineage, I shall obey your command.]
The barefoot being begins to float toward the sky.
Zzzt, zzzt...
'This is death.'
I have to get out of here.
I need to flee.
However...
'If I move, I’ll be pulled into that being!'
I feel as though even the slightest motion will cause me to turn into lightning and be sucked into the heavens. The only reason I remain physical is likely because I was the one who spoke the name 'Zhengli.'
The voice of the ascending spirit, likely the soul of the Heavenly Lightning Banner, thunders across the island.
[I, the Essence of the Great Heavenly Punishment, decree a Heavenly Tribulation in my lord’s name...]
Kugugugugu!
A colossal mass of light begins to pool in the atmosphere.
[The judgment begins now.]
The following instant.
Fwoooosh!
Blinding rays of light saturate Heavenly Human Island, obliterating the headquarters of the Human Race Grand Alliance.
Jeon Myeong-hoon snaps awake.
"Ugh, where am I...?"
He remembered walking down a street before being swallowed by an abrupt darkness.
His memory ends there.
"My private quarters?"
Recognizing his training room, he scans the area.
He notices a woman dressed in golden robes slumbering next to him.
"So-hae...?"
The woman, Jin So-hae, opens her eyes at his voice.
"Oh, junior brother. You’re finally awake?"
"So-hae... what happened?"
"What do you mean, you dummy! Do you have any idea how terrified I was when you suddenly vanished?"
"What?"
"Even if a villain was pulling your strings, how could you just leave me behind without looking back? Huh, huhuk..."
Jin So-hae tries to continue, but she breaks down into sobs, throwing her arms around Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Confused and lost, Jeon Myeong-hoon awkwardly rubs the back of his head.
"I don't remember what occurred... but I would never abandon you, So-hae."
"...Yeah. Good."
"What’s going on?"
"...Come outside. You need to see this."
The two of them step out of the chamber together.
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s jaw drops in disbelief.
The Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect is a smoking ruin, looking as though it had been subjected to a carpet bombing.
"What on earth..."
"A villain from outside, someone after you and the Heavenly Lightning Banner, attacked us. You were under their control for several days, assisting them."
"I did that...?"
"The Sect Leader has gone to hunt down the villain using the Heavenly Lightning Banner. He’ll be back shortly."
"I can't believe it..."
Noticing his distress, Jin So-hae looks at him with a piercing, grave expression.
"...While you were being manipulated, you didn't hesitate to say you’d leave me and the Sect behind."
"...I really said that?"
"Yes. So, I need to ask you something."
She stares directly into his eyes.
"If the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect ever faces a disaster we cannot overcome, will you run away and leave us?"
Jeon Myeong-hoon shuts his eyes, thinking of his life within the Sect.
"...That is impossible."
"Do you promise?"
"I do. I, Jeon Myeong-hoon, will never betray the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect or Jin So-hae, no matter the cost."
He offers his pinky finger to her.
"Is this the custom of your home?"
"Yes."
They link pinkies and seal the vow with their thumbs.
"Why would I ever leave? The person I love most is right here. Anything I said before about running away was just born of frustration."
Jeon Myeong-hoon stands tall, giving her a reassuring smile.
"Do you trust me?"
Reassured, Jin So-hae begins to speak.
Suddenly, the sky is dyed a sickly yellow.
Cherung!
"…!"
A Heavenly Tribulation descends upon the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect.
No—it is far too massive and saturated with pure malice to be a mere tribulation.
Kugugugugung!
The strike originates from above Thunder Spirit Island, a landmass nearly the size of the Head Realm continent.
The projection of an enormous 'eye' appears in the heavens, and a deluge of lightning begins to hammer the entire island.
Kugugugugu!
All noise is extinguished.
Color drains from the world.
Everything is replaced by a void of pure, blinding white.
The members of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, caught in a storm they cannot hope to survive, begin to liquefy along with the very earth, sinking into nothingness.
Everyone is melting away.
Except for Jeon Myeong-hoon.
"No, this can't be happening!"
Jeon Myeong-hoon’s innate talent is so profound that instead of being destroyed, he absorbs the lightning, his body acting as a lightning rod for the divine wrath.
A talent cherished by all electricity: the Heavenly Golden Thunder Body.
But as his Cultivation level skyrockets from the influx of power, he feels no joy—only sheer terror.
Before his very eyes, the woman he loves is being incinerated.
She doesn't even have the time to scream.
"No!"
Jeon Myeong-hoon throws himself over Jin So-hae, trying to shield her from the strikes with his own body.
He desperately conjures spells to ward off the lightning.
But a Heavenly Tribulation of this scale, one that cleaves the world apart, cannot be stopped by a mere mortal.
In his arms, Jin So-hae begins to die.
"No, no, no! Don't go! Stay with me!"
Jeon Myeong-hoon wails, clutching her hand as his mind begins to fracture.
But the woman in his embrace is turning to ash. He is helpless to do anything but scream.
"No! Please..."
Then, he hears her final, whispered words.
"Golden Divine... Heavenly Thunder Sect..."
The woman he loved most.
Jin So-hae, the descendant of Jin Byuk-ho and the Sect's brightest star, trembles as she forces out her last breath.
"Don't leave... please stay..."
With those words, she dissolves into ash and begins to drift away.
Jeon Myeong-hoon reaches out, trying to grab the dust that was once her.
It is useless.
Her form scatters, leaving him to howl in the middle of the devastation.
Amidst the roar of the lightning rain, a voice reaches him.
Whisper, whisper, whisper...
It is the voice of the Heavenly Tribulation itself.
The lightning is speaking to him.
—Repent....
—Return....
—Repent....
Repent for what? Return to whom?
He has no answers.
But through his agony, Jeon Myeong-hoon listens to the static whispers with wide, haunted eyes.
Whisper, whisper, whisper...
Within those whispers, information is being seared into his mind.
"Ah... Ahh..."
He hears the truth of the tribulation.
As he devours the lightning, he learns the reality of the being that destroyed his life: the True Immortal.
"Aaaaaah...!"
Despair takes hold.
He understands now what kind of entity has stolen everything. It is a being that will consume all he has, a target so high that even if he sacrificed his soul, he could never touch it.
He is utterly powerless.
As the lightning feeds him knowledge of the True Immortal, he also feels the weight of that being’s gaze.
Under that malicious stare, Jeon Myeong-hoon loses his sanity.
Caught between fury, hopelessness, and the crushing pressure of a god's attention.
He screams until his mind breaks.
"Aaaaaaah!!!"
Finally, the eternal-feeling storm of the Heavenly Tribulation ceases.
"...Huh?"
Jeon Myeong-hoon opens his eyes, sitting atop a mountain of ash.
"...This is..."
He looks around with dead, empty eyes.
"Ah, I see."
A realization hits him.
"It was a dream. Ha, haha... Thinking I was engaged to the daughter of an Integration stage Grand Cultivator... what a crazy nightmare..."
But then, he feels something in his grip.
"Ah..."
It is a 'hand.'
A blackened, shriveled, and charred hand, burned beyond recognition by lightning.
Jeon Myeong-hoon knows exactly who it belongs to.
"Ah, ahh... Aaaaaah!"
The truth crashes down on him once more. This is no dream.
This is reality.
"Aaaaaah!"
He shudders violently.
Weeping and trembling, he stares at the fried remains of the hand he is holding.
It is Jin So-hae’s hand.
His cherished lover has been wiped from existence, leaving behind only this gruesome fragment in his palm.
"Ah, ahah... Aaaaaack!"
Jeon Myeong-hoon presses the hand to his chest, his eyes turning a deep, bloody red from the strain.
Through the madness and the trauma of the True Immortal’s gaze, something new awakens within him.
"Ah, yes... I understand now..."
One certainty takes root in his mind.
"I finally know what my destiny is..."
With tears of blood masking his face, Jeon Myeong-hoon stands up from the ruins and glares at the heavens.
"...Revenge... I must satisfy this rage. I have to...!"
By consuming the Heavenly Tribulation of a True Immortal, he has surged from the Core Formation stage directly into the Heavenly Being stage.
Jeon Myeong-hoon lets out a dark, twisted laugh.
"Anyone who gets in my way... I can just kill them, right?"
And so, amidst the cinders and death, the Lightning Harbinger, Jeon Myeong-hoon, was born.