Absolute Regression-Chapter 313 : What Would You Have Done Without Me
Translator: FenrirTL
Editor/Quality Checker: Saphartlantis
Murim Term Consultant: Kopke
========================
Chapter 313: What Would You Have Done Without Me?
The usual joking demeanor of Jeong Dae was nowhere to be seen. The person standing there now was entirely different. A dignity that no one dared to defy radiated from him.
The response of the Ghost Souls at the tavern was unlike when Geom Mugeuk had appeared. Back then, they’d shown curiosity along with blatant hostility.
But toward the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader, they couldn't even dare such a reaction. They, too, had seen the hellscape beyond the open door—the field littered with the corpses of Ghost Souls.
The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader slowly walked past the Ghost Souls and approached Geom Mugeuk and Hwan Yeo.
Seeing him, Guiseuk, who had been peeking his head out from the kitchen, froze completely. Anyone else could have appeared, but not this one person. This was the one who should never have shown up.
Watching that reaction, Geom Mugeuk had a thought—perhaps these two people knew his master even better than he did.
Once he reached the spot where the two were standing, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader coldly looked at Hwan Yeo and spoke.
"Was it you? The wench who dared touch my disciple?"
Hwan Yeo’s face twitched for a split second. Had she ever been cursed at like this in her life? And if she had, would she have endured it? 1
But she couldn’t even retort, ‘That pathetic girl was your disciple?’
Geom Mugeuk smiled as he looked at the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader.
He hadn’t expected this presence within an illusion technique to feel so reliable.
"Within the illusion, you’re the Heavenly Demon, Cult Leader."
Jeong Dae’s shoulders rose sky-high.
"If it wasn’t me, what were you gonna do after being dragged all the way here?"
"I believed in you, Cult Leader."
As they exchanged banter, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader asked with his eyes—Did you find out what you needed? Geom Mugeuk gave a slight shake of his head.
Then, as if saying I'll get it out myself, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader turned to Hwan Yeo and asked, 2
"Yin-Yang Soul Reversal Art is a long-lost Soul Reaping Art of the Blood Sect. How did you learn it?"
Hwan Yeo remained silent. He might not have known who she was, but she knew him all too well. While training in illusion arts, the name she heard the most wasn't the Heavenly Demon or the Martial Alliance Leader—it was the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader.
"So the great you has become the cult’s dog."
Geom Mugeuk watched to see how Jeong Dae would respond to her provocation.
The way he used to playfully blow up at Gowol's provocations came to mind.
But now, he clearly showed the difference between how he treated a friend and how he dealt with an enemy.
"Isn’t being a dog a hundred times better than a scheming bitch plotting behind people’s backs?"
Just then, a Ghost Soul from behind lunged in a surprise attack.
The moment it tried to bite into the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader’s neck— 3
He swiftly turned and grabbed the creature by the scruff.
"Where’d you learn that rotten trick? Biting from behind—just like your master, huh?"
Jeong Dae slapped the Ghost Soul across the cheek.
It might have looked like a light and playful smack, but within his hand movement was the essence of illusion arts honed to perfection.
The light flickered once in the soulless Ghost Soul’s eyes—then vanished completely.
Thud.
The Ghost Soul collapsed to the floor, now nothing more than a corpse. 4
Other Ghost Souls, standing near the spot where the previous one had died, rushed in again.
The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader dealt with them just as naturally as before. After easily subduing their aggressive charge, he made them smash their faces into each other.
Thunk!
Again, the eyes of the two Ghost Souls glowed briefly before going completely dark. It wasn’t the impact that killed them. It was the illusion energy contained within the Cult Leader’s hands.
Suddenly, all the Ghost Souls rose in unison and let out a ghastly shriek.
Ki-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi.
It was a banshee's wail that shook the hearts of men.
Geom Mugeuk’s body protection energy activated, suppressing the soul-rattling sound.
Jeong Dae shouted,
“Shut up, you bastards!”
His voice thundered like a lion’s roar, echoing powerfully—and with it, the wailing ceased.
The moment the Ghost Souls flinched in fear—
Guiseuk began chanting incantations in a low voice. At once, ghostly energy erupted from the Ghost Souls’ bodies.
Hwan Yeo also stepped back and began chanting her own incantation.
It was as if the Ghost Souls had taken an internal energy-boosting pill—madness began to pour from their eyes. What Guiseuk had done already made them twice as strong, but now it felt like they’d become even twice that again.
Even so, Geom Mugeuk did not interfere. The fastest way to end this fight would’ve been to eliminate those two people. But Hwan Yeo could not be killed—she was the one who needed to dispel the Yin-Yang Soul Reversal Art cast on Cheong Seon through the Great Technique. It was also the final chance to learn something about Hwan Wang.
Reeking of ghostly and murderous energy, the Ghost Souls surrounding them charged in unison. They swung their paired claws at vital points. Emitting suffocating ghostly energy, they struck, slashed, bit, and tore—truly, their entire bodies were weapons. 5
The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader stepped forward to meet them.
With his very actions, he demonstrated how he had broken through that mass of Ghost Souls outside.
He was faster than expected. The assumption that his martial prowess would be weak because of his illusion training was just that—a baseless assumption.
He danced through the Ghost Souls, his light footwork graceful, almost like a dance. He tapped at their foreheads and chests with open palms as if simply brushing them.
It looked light—but it was anything but.
At his touch, the rampaging Ghost Souls dropped like bundles of straw.
From Hwan Yeo and Guiseuk’s bodies, a black aura began to rise. Their chanting accelerated, and the Ghost Souls grew even stronger.
The ghostly energy filling the room became suffocating. The Heavenly Demon Body Protection Technique activated with greater strength, shielding my body. Without it, withstanding this aura wouldn’t have been easy.
Meanwhile, my master continued to confront them, completely unfazed, just as he had been from the start.
He used the Ghost Souls as shields to block incoming attacks, and at times swung them around like dolls. Whether they were struck on the cheek, hit on the back of the head, or punched in the stomach, each blow turned them into corpses.
As the Ghost Souls fell one by one, Hwan Yeo and Guiseuk’s expressions grew increasingly rigid. In the end, they gave up on chanting their incantations. They’d come to the conclusion—these things simply weren’t enough.
Once they stopped, the remaining Ghost Souls fell even faster.
Pow!
The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader delivered a proper blow to the last one. Its body shattered entirely and flew past the two, smashing into the wall.
In an instant, every Ghost Soul inside was reduced to a lifeless heap. Although technically, calling them corpses felt a little off—they had never possessed souls nor life to begin with.
Guiseuk and Hwan Yeo exchanged glances. They hadn’t expected to kill Jeong Dae with Ghost Souls alone, but they hadn’t imagined he’d wipe them all out without so much as a scratch, either.
Geom Mugeuk was genuinely impressed.
“I didn’t know Cult Leader was so quick on his feet.”
“I lost weight thanks to Gowol’s nagging.”
It was like seeing a man you thought was just a painter suddenly reveal himself as an artist, or someone you never knew was a musician play a beautiful tune—the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader’s display of skill was that dazzling.
Just one look at his eyes told the story. Normally, he would’ve been joking nonstop in a situation like this, but now his gaze was calm and sharp. On the battlefield, he let down no guard.
As if the real fight was only beginning, Guiseuk stepped forward.
Jeong Dae calmly met his gaze and spoke to Geom Mugeuk.
“There’s a heavy presence of ghostly energy. Be careful.”
He didn’t underestimate Guiseuk.
Guiseuk strode forward confidently, and the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader stepped up to meet him.
“You’re a disgrace to the martial world beyond the frontier.”
Guiseuk took a jab at the Cult Leader for joining forces with Geom Mugeuk. He thought it was the biggest weakness to exploit, but that only revealed his ignorance of the bond between the two.
Jeong Dae nodded.
“Let’s say I am the utter disgrace of the Wilderness. And what about you? Are you the absolute pride of the martial world beyond the frontier?”
Having earned the trust of Gowol and Geom Mugeuk, he had no anger at being called disgraceful. In the past, he might’ve thrown a tantrum over it.
“If you want to slander someone, shouldn’t you reveal who you are first? So, who are you exactly?”
There was little point in demanding answers from people who worked from the shadows.
Instead of replying, Guiseuk summoned his subordinates from the kitchen.
A group of people in chef’s uniforms poured out in numbers that made one wonder how so many had fit in that space.
Once every Blood Spirit had been absorbed, the enormous black vortex rapidly shrank into its original pinpoint form, then vanished with a soft pop, as if it had never been there at all.
It was as though nothing had ever happened in that space.
In that moment, even Hwan Yeo and Guiseuk—let alone Geom Mugeuk—stood frozen, stunned by the overwhelming illusion.
And then, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader spoke, his voice calm, carrying the authority only a true master of illusion could possess:
“You may have opened this place—but it’s my world now.”
1 : You should have been cursed more often. Maybe it would have improved your nasty personality.
2 : By the way, even though he’s no longer the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader, I decided to leave his title untouched when he’s in serious mode. It makes you feel all the dignity and power he had back then and still possesses.
3 : Lol, they’re really zombies XDXDXD
4 : It’s impressive. Also terrifying.
5 : Reminds me of the Devil Men from Ruler of the Land. Basically berserker zombies, and the bastards are both resilient and extremely persistent. As soon as they smell prey, they go Super Sayan, and I’m not joking, visual sfx and all !!!
6 : Softness. Will Mugeuk use Power to counter, or a greater softness ? For those who don’t remember, I already discussed that concept before in chapter 302, comment 7.
7 : Yeah, that’s one thing that irritates me about the hypocritical orthodox Murim. They scheme and plot nefariously behind each other's back, but as soon as you don’t show ‘proper respect’, they make a ruckus. Why the heck should I show respect to dogs like them who use unfair methods ? They should be glad I kill them quickly and allow their remains to have decent funerals, most of them don’t allow such ‘honorable deaths’.
8 : Stop watching Eldritch Netflix, your brain will rot. Literally.
9 : Yup, that’s our Jeong Dae, always dissing Mugeuk whenever he has the chance ^^
10 : So cooooool *sparkling eyes* That’s why Soul/mind battles are always the greatest, you can have Kaijus fighting with cotton candy and orbital cannons on dinosaurs with no worries. It’s a battle of will, resilience and imagination, and I think I can easily top anyone in that if I transmigrate in a Murim world thanks to all our scientific education and animes. If necessary, I can even use forbidden knowledge to do shared damage for mutual destruction, since I already have resistance which the opponent has not. So hitting him with the triple combo of NTR-Guro-Tentacles is sure to finish him off (don’t look it up. Seriously, don’t. I warned you). I can be quite ruthless if necessary.
* Since I can’t remember if I reposted my list for Mugeuk current progress after the fall of the old Discord server to Hwa Moogi hands (damn, pesky DCMAs), here you go :
- Return to Simplicity (so high level that he look like an ordinary man)
Entranced by its beauty, she reached out her hand.
Splash!
She soon realized that it was the sky reflected in the water.
She dipped her hand into the water, and slowly, her body began to sink.
She thought it was shallow, but it was deep. When she looked down, she couldn’t see the bottom. What could be down in that deep sea?
He was as clear and serene as the sky and as profound and mysterious as the sea.
Baek Cheongyeong swam deeper and deeper into the bottomless abyss.
He wondered what lay at the end of that darkness.
His instincts warned him. It told him that going deeper would be dangerous.
But Baek Cheongyeong couldn't resist his curiosity. He had a hunch that something monumental was hidden deep within that darkness.
The air became stifling, and the growing pressure felt like it would burst his body, yet Baek Cheongyeong continued downward.
Just as he was about to give up, thinking he could endure no longer…
Pop!
It felt as if the world flickered, turning off and on again.
Baek Cheongyeong found himself standing in the middle of a battlefield. Blood flowed like rivers, and corpses lay scattered everywhere. There were human bodies, ghostly bodies, and demonic bodies. No one alive remained. No, there was one.
A man stood with his back turned, looking up at the sky.
Was it Geom Mugeuk?
But the man’s back seemed to bear the weight of all the hardships of the world, the kind only someone who had overcome endless suffering could have. No matter how extraordinary the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Sect was, such a young person could never possess a back that exuded this much history.
(Chapter 299) Partial Intent
