Returning Immortal

Chapter 35

The evil ghost's transformation did not end there.

Bulge, bulge.

The evil ghost's side swelled up loudly, then the flesh tore and two arms shot out.

In each hand was an iron mace and a long spear.

"You brat! Now, give up your life."

The evil ghost, which had shouted loudly with its spiritual sense, flew down from the air and threw a spear at Gwi Seongjin.

Thud!

Although he had blocked it with his shield, the evil ghost did not stop its attack.

Clinging to the hesitating Gwi Seongjin, this time it struck the shield with its iron mace.

Rip!

When the shield split in two, the evil ghost fiercely attacked Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit with its long claws.

Although his primordial spirit was wounded by the sharp claws, Gwi Seongjin did not retreat.

He bravely swung his sword with a life-and-death resolve.

Clang! Clang!

Gwi Seongjin, who had attempted a counterattack by creating dozens of swords with his legal power, created a sharply honed axe and threw it at the evil ghost.

But his legal power was weak, so he could not pierce the black mist that was draped over the evil ghost's body.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, the evil ghost's arm stretched out, and it shot dozens of claws at Gwi Seongjin.

Gwi Seongjin had no way to respond to the surprise attack that was deployed.

Gwi Seongjin, who was retreating, made a series of dots in the air with the sword in his hand.

It was the sword technique Ilgeom had performed while slaughtering the human-faced bats in the Phantom Beast Forest.

Clang, clang, clang.

The claws he couldn't block were defended by strengthening his legal power like a shield, like the single-horned red-scaled snake.

Gwi Seongjin, who had barely blocked the evil ghost's attack like that, kicked the stone platform and flew into the sky.

It was because when the surprise attack failed, the evil ghost had spewed out a powerful fist wind like a whirlwind.

Gwi Seongjin, who had dodged the whirlwind by twisting his body, used his legal power to generate sharp thorns from his body.

And when he bent his waist and fired, hundreds of thorns rained down on the evil ghost like rain.

This was the secret art the Three-Eyed Toad had performed.

The Three-Eyed Toad had once annihilated dozens of Blood Flies with this single attack.

Ugh!

The evil ghost, whose primordial spirit was wounded by the bizarre attack, let out a roar of anger at Gwi Seongjin.

Although their cultivation realms were different and it had thought it could easily subdue him, for some reason, it was being pushed back.

The enraged evil ghost trusted the mist that enveloped its body and charged at Gwi Seongjin.

Clang! Clang!

And swinging its four arms, it cornered Gwi Seongjin.

The moment the evil ghost was about to deliver the final attack to Gwi Seongjin.

This time, Gwi Seongjin's two hands stretched out like a clothesline.

And flicking his fingers, he shot the blades made of legal power at the evil ghost.

He had imitated the technique the evil ghost had used and returned it to him.

The evil ghost, which had dodged up to the sky in surprise, looked at Gwi Seongjin with a look of disbelief.

It had thought only his consciousness was high, but his talent in handling legal power could not be ignored.

Thinking that the fight should not be prolonged, the evil ghost made the worst decision.

It had decided to perform a forbidden spell that was difficult to even demonstrate with its current cultivation realm.

Kkakakakaka!

The evil ghost, which had made a cruel, vicious smile on its lips, raised one hand to its chest.

And in the air, it slowly touched its thumb and middle finger.

Thwack!

The sound of the fingers touching was not very loud.

But its aftermath was by no means small.

When the fingers touched, a single streak of transparent killing light came out from the evil ghost's head and passed through Gwi Seongjin's spirit platform like the morning sunlight.

Immediately after.

Feeling the extreme pain of his soul being pierced by a sword, Gwi Seongjin lost consciousness.

The evil ghost, which had forcibly performed the Soul Killing Art, was also not in a normal state.

The Soul Killing Art was a spell that consumed a great deal of consciousness.

The evil ghost, whose mind had momentarily become confused, also began to have its vision blur.

As its consciousness wavered, the evil ghost's consciousness space also shrank.

The fortress cracked, and some stone gates fell off.

Even so, the evil ghost did not stop its attack.

Despite its consciousness flickering, it opened its large mouth wide and pushed its hideous teeth at Gwi Seongjin.

At that very moment.

A strange thing happened in the head of the fainted Gwi Seongjin.

Swish!

An auspicious light flowed from deep within Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit and brightly illuminated the spirit platform with a lotus-shaped radiance.

Although it had only sparkled for a moment and then disappeared, the effect of the auspicious light's appearance was immense.

Even though it had only been exposed to the auspicious light for a moment, the pond of consciousness under the stone platform undulated like a wave, and the crystal threads inside flew up in a large group.

And after entering the primordial spirit's mouth, they woke him up.

On the other hand, the evil ghost's soul had hardened like a stone, and it could not move its limbs as it wished.

Gasp!

The evil ghost, whose body had hardened from being exposed to the lotus-shaped radiance, let out a scream with a fearful look.

Although it struggled with its limbs to escape the crisis, it couldn't even move a finger.

In contrast, Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit was full of vitality.

The headache had disappeared as if washed away, and his confused mind had become clear in an instant, as if it had never been like that.

"S-save me!"

The evil ghost begged Gwi Seongjin with a voice full of fear.

But Gwi Seongjin did not forgive the evil ghost.

Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit, which had recognized that the evil ghost could not move, opened its mouth wide and bit and tore the evil ghost mercilessly.

A situation where if he slowed down the attack, he could give the evil ghost a chance to counterattack.

Crunch!

The primordial spirit, which had expanded its consciousness and instantly grown its body large, bit off half of the evil ghost's head.

Ugh!

Although the evil ghost screamed, Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit did not show even a slight gap.

Crunch! Crunch!

Gulp! Gulp!

The primordial spirit, which was biting and tearing the evil ghost, opened its mouth wide and this time swallowed the bastard whole.

Even though Gwi Seongjin had completely swallowed the evil ghost, the fortress outside did not collapse.

Although some of the walls had collapsed, it still maintained its form.

But as time passed and the evil ghost's primordial spirit was refined by Gwi Seongjin... the fortress suddenly collapsed.

The moment the auspicious light brightly illuminated Gwi Seongjin's spirit platform...

Woooooong.

The Thunder Cloud Sword faintly let out a sword cry, but even Gwi Seongjin did not know this.

* * *

When his primordial spirit woke up, Gwi Seongjin's eyes also flashed open.

Although it was something that had happened in his spirit platform, Gwi Seongjin knew everything that had happened in there.

Except for the fact that a strange auspicious light had flowed from his primordial spirit.

Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit, which had lost consciousness from being hit by the evil ghost's Soul Killing Art, had discovered that the evil ghost could not move as soon as it had woken up from its faint.

Although he didn't know the reason, it was clearly a golden opportunity.

Gwi Seongjin's primordial spirit had immediately attacked the evil ghost... and in the end, had succeeded in swallowing its primordial spirit.

There was a reason why he had bitten and swallowed the evil ghost.

It was because that was the only way to extinguish the soul body that had invaded his spirit platform.

Gwi Seongjin, who had eaten the evil ghost like that, absorbed the divine qi remaining in the primordial spirit to cultivate his legal power, and spat out all the remaining energy, gathering it in the air of the spirit platform like a cloud.

It was because if he refined the entire evil ghost, his own spirit body could be contaminated.

But that didn't mean the achievements Gwi Seongjin had gained by killing the evil ghost were small.

While refining the evil ghost, Gwi Seongjin was able to scan through the memories it had kept.

And he extracted the useful knowledge and divine arts separately.

Among the divine arts the evil ghost possessed, the most interesting were the secret art of hiding one's realm and the Soul Swallowing Art.

These were both secret arts that used ghost qi and were innate divine arts.

The second most interesting were the two divine arts the evil ghost had obtained by eating the demonic creature's remnant soul.

The first divine art, the Soul Capturing Art, could be learned and used even with Gwi Seongjin's current realm.

However, there was the disadvantage that to perform this divine art, one had to make eye contact with the opponent.

There was also the risk of suffering a backlash if it was performed on someone with a higher consciousness than oneself.

Still, thinking it would be necessary, Gwi Seongjin had learned the Soul Capturing Art for now.

The second divine art the evil ghost had obtained from the remnant soul was the Soul Killing Art, and this divine art was a secret art that attacked the opponent's soul by putting killing intent into one's consciousness.

This spell could not be learned right now.

It was because one had to accumulate killing intent for a long time, condense it hard, and then refine it with ghost qi.

After that, there was even a process of assimilating it with one's consciousness.

Above all, there were not a few restrictions on using this spell.

There was a limit to the number of times it could be used, and if a person with a low consciousness realm forcibly performed the spell, they could suffer from qi deviation.

Still, he had no thought of giving up.

Gwi Seongjin, who had perfectly memorized the cultivation method, slowly stood up from his seat.

And after looking at the place that had been full of the corpses and white bones of demonic beasts a few days ago, he suddenly opened his two eyes wide and made a look of disbelief.

His spiritual sense, which had been limited to twenty zhang, had increased to a whopping sixty zhang.

The reason was clear.

It was because of the legal power that had increased from eating the evil ghost's primordial spirit.

It wasn't just the legal power that had increased.

Although he didn't know the reason, his consciousness had also greatly increased.

Consciousness was an ability absolutely necessary for deploying legal power and spirit energy.

If one's consciousness was raised, one could see the essence of the object observed with spiritual sense a little more clearly.

Was it because of that?

Gwi Seongjin, who was examining the surroundings with his spiritual sense, could be sure that the barrier that had been installed nearby had completely disappeared.

As the evil ghost was extinguished, the barrier had also disappeared.

Gwi Seongjin, who had confirmed that there was no more danger by examining the surroundings with his spiritual sense, looked back at his group.

As if their essence had been sucked by the evil ghost, they were all lying on the ground in a exhausted state.

Looking at the fallen ones, Gwi Seongjin contemplated for a moment.

If he just put his mind to it, he could kill them all and monopolize the treasures in his bosom.

But he couldn't dare to try, and this was for the same reason as before.

He had no confidence in escaping the absolute forbidden zone alone, and Baek Gayoung was still in the Luminous Cult.

Moreover, for revenge, it was more advantageous for him to remain in the Luminous Cult in many ways.

It was because he had not yet even grasped their true nature.

And since the evil ghost had been eliminated, it was only a matter of time before they woke up.

Ugh.

When Ne Jinja's groan was heard, Gwi Seongjin showed a look of surprise.

It was because Ne Jinja had come to his senses faster than the Raging Fire Divine Lord.

Come to think of it, even when he was possessed by the evil ghost and entered the stone gate, Ne Jinja had been located at the very back.

This was proof that his consciousness was higher than others.

Or he had learned a strange heart art...

When Ne Jinja showed signs of waking up, Gwi Seongjin also lay down on the ground, pretending to be unconscious.

It was because it was annoying to explain to the group the reason why he was awake.

Rustle.

Even after opening his eyes, Ne Jinja did not stand up right away.

After slowly retracing his memory of why he was lying here, he carefully stood up with a flustered face.

As time passed, the Raging Fire Divine Lord and the Grand Prince also woke up from their faint.

They also showed a similar reaction to Ne Jinja at first.

They looked at the sky for a long time with a dazed face.

When he had come to his senses a little, Ne Jinja approached Gwi Seongjin and shook him awake.

And he asked the Raging Fire Divine Lord, who was next to him.

"Divine Lord! What happened to the evil ghost?"

"I don't know either. I remember being possessed by that bastard and losing consciousness... but when I woke up, I was in this state."

"It's not hiding nearby, is it?"

"I can't be sure. Since the evil ghost is a yin spirit, it might appear again at night..."

"That could be."

Ne Jinja, whose face had turned pale from being tormented by the evil ghost, agreed with an anxious voice.

Thinking about the evil ghost, he wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

The Grand Prince was also afraid of the evil ghost.

"Vice Director! Have you seen that evil ghost before?"

"No. If I had known there was such a hideous demonic creature, I would have brought a few masters of the extreme demonic realm or higher when I came here."

"As I see it, it seems it would be difficult to defeat the evil ghost unless one is at the late stage of the extreme demonic realm. By the way, how long were we unconscious here?"

"I don't know..."

At the Grand Prince's question, the two's words trailed off.

It was because they also didn't know for sure.