Chapter 101 : Ice Wheel

Chapter 101: Ice Wheel

The Black Threads of the Heavenly Thread pierced through the air and instantly shot into the interior of the Celestial Flame Furnace.

Fwoosh!

The Sacred Flame, which had melted even the Frozen Shackles, continued to blaze steadily, but the Heavenly Thread thrust forward without hesitation.

Eventually, the fiercely blazing fire and the Heavenly Thread met—

Ssssss!

Surprisingly, the Heavenly Thread remained completely intact even within the flames of the Sacred Flame.

The threads neither melted nor suffered the slightest damage.

‘This level of control? It's a piece of cake.’

It was thanks to Sewoon lowering the temperature of the Sacred Flame in advance.

His mastery of controlling the Sacred Flame through the Golden Bridle Movement Technique had reached its peak.

The Heavenly Thread pierced through the fire and finally reached its target.

The molten steel that radiated brilliant silver light—created as the Frozen Shackles melted—was still there.

Half of the molten steel left after forging the Water White Fan.

To Sewoon, it looked like a delicious piece of prey.

‘I got lucky.’

In truth, before the regression, the portion of the Frozen Shackles provided to Sewoon by the Blood Cult was only half.

The other half had been taken by Prayer Demon, one of the Ten Elders of the Blood Cult and the master of Jiangshi, claiming it would be used to create the Ghost Yin Jiangshi.

But this time, before the Blood Cult could even catch wind of the situation, Sewoon had retrieved the Frozen Shackles far ahead of them.

‘Even after giving the Water White Fan to my sister, there’s still plenty left for me.’

Now then, it was time to begin.

As Sewoon clenched both fists, the Heavenly Thread rushed into the molten steel without hesitation.

Chzzzzz!

The thread plunged into the silvery waves.

Fwoooosh!

In an instant, the extreme yin energy contained within the Frozen Shackles surged along the strands of the Heavenly Thread and began pouring into Sewoon.

Crack crackle!

Even amidst the Sacred Flame, frost etched itself upon the Heavenly Thread.

At that moment, for some reason, a flicker of doubt rose in Sewoon’s eyes.

‘……Was the coldness of the Frozen Shackles this intense?’

No matter how he thought about it, the answer was no.

Compared to the time before his regression, the yin energy felt at least twice—no, three times—as potent.

His hands connected to the Heavenly Thread had become so numb from the cold that he could barely feel them.

Even in pain sharp enough to feel like his skin was tearing apart, Sewoon stubbornly absorbed the yin energy and tried to deduce the reason.

The state of the Frozen Shackles had been confirmed in advance—no different from before the regression.

The only variable was Sewoon himself.

Which meant, ultimately—

‘I must’ve gained the qualifications to draw out the true yin energy that had been hidden.’

The powers that had previously chosen to fade away without responding, due to his lack of qualification, were now seeping into his body.

That was the most reasonable assumption Sewoon could make at the moment.

Fsshhhhh!

Vwoom!

The Heavenly Thread resonated. The extreme cold grew even stronger.

Though the intensity of the pain deepened, Sewoon's heart beat with excitement.

Before the regression, the Water White Fan had already possessed enough yin-cold qi to make snow fall for the first and last time in the Great Desert.

And now, he had gained a force even stronger than that.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but look forward to what kind of extraordinary marvels he might accomplish this time.

Ssshh!

Chaaaa!

And finally—

The frost that had coated the Heavenly Thread vanished completely, and its color shifted from pitch black to pure white.

Despite this unusual transformation, the yin energy radiating outward had noticeably diminished—but it wasn’t because the power was gone.

It was proof that all the yin energy had now been absorbed into the Heavenly Thread itself, under Sewoon’s complete and precise control.

Though it looked perfect, Sewoon had no intention of skipping the final check.

‘Now then.’

Even if it meant risking the power he had just obtained, he would push its performance to the absolute limit.

With that resolve, Sewoon unleashed the full extent of his Golden Bridle Movement Technique.

Whoooosh!

Crack-KA-BOOM!

The flames within the Celestial Flame Furnace erupted violently.

He had raised the temperature—previously lowered to prevent damaging the Heavenly Thread—to its absolute maximum.

No, to be exact, it was beyond the maximum.

‘More. More. More.’

Vwoooooooooom!

KRAAAACKLE!

It was utter rampage.

To the point that even the enchantments of the Celestial Flame Furnace couldn’t endure and were on the verge of exploding, Sewoon mercilessly amplified the heat.

Had the yin energy not been properly absorbed, he would have been at risk of losing even his prized Heavenly Thread—but Sewoon’s gaze remained unshaken.

‘Unless it’s in perfect condition, I won’t last against Blood Demon.’

Unless he put his life on the line and gave it his all, he would never be able to stand against that monster.

As Sewoon endured the scorching heat that radiated like the sun from the Celestial Flame Furnace—

Ssshhh!

Chaaaa!

A brilliant radiance burst forth from the Heavenly Thread, releasing yin energy that had surpassed its previous limits.

At the same time, the Sacred Flame of the Celestial Flame Furnace rapidly began returning to its original state.

Amazingly, it was exerting power on par with the Sacred Flame at maximum output.

‘If that’s the case—’

A gleam flickered in Sewoon’s eyes.

It was the moment the Ice Wheel Thread—unleashed through his little finger—had surpassed the might it once held before his regression.

The overwhelming heat and cold that had filled the smithy vanished without a trace, as if replaced by the calm of spring.

It was because the powers of the Sacred Flame and the Ice Wheel Thread had reached perfect equilibrium.

At that moment, as Sewoon withdrew all his strength at once—

Ssshh!

Swish!

As if nothing had happened, silence fell upon the smithy.

“That’ll do.”

Grin.

Only then did a meaningful smile rise on Sewoon’s face.

Even after using the Ice Wheel Thread beyond its limits, there wasn’t the slightest backlash to his meridians or body.

It meant he had succeeded in perfect control.

‘Now, no yin-cold qi can harm me.’

From now on, any cold or yin energy that enveloped him would instead become a spiritual tonic, replenishing and nourishing his qi.

In that brief moment of exaltation at achieving something even his pre-regression self could not—

Sss.

A seemingly trivial and insignificant change occurred within the Celestial Flame Furnace, slipping through that delicate opening.

The molten metal, which had melted from the Frozen Shackles and lost its silver radiance due to Sewoon absorbing all the inner qi, had turned into an ordinary glow.

And within that, silently submerged and thoroughly concealing its presence—

Sss.

A single speck of unidentified energy seeped into the Heavenly Thread, which was returning to its master’s hand.

Righteous-Evil-Demonic.

A colorless energy, belonging to neither righteousness, evil, nor demonic realms—without trait or distinction.

Tap.

Eventually, it traveled along the Heavenly Thread and flowed into Sewoon’s meridians with incredible subtlety and naturalness.

‘Hmm?’

A faint sensation of foreignness, felt in a fleeting instant.

Sewoon immediately began introspection, but a puzzled look soon surfaced on his face.

‘What was that?’

No matter how thoroughly he examined it, no unusual energy or abnormality could be found.

Even after checking again with great care—still, nothing.

Perhaps it had just been a hallucination.

Thinking so, Sewoon moved on to the next step.

But at that time, Sewoon had no idea.

That single speck of energy was the beginning of a miraculous encounter that would bring about massive upheaval.

“Now then—”

Though the creation of a Divine Weapon had consumed massive amounts of energy and mental strength, Sewoon held on tightly to his focus.

With the Thread of Pursuit and the Ice Wheel Thread now completed, two of the five spells engraved on the Heavenly Thread had been awakened.

A pace of growth incomparable to before his regression.

But today, Sewoon had no intention of stopping here.

“Time to release the third spell.”

Following the ring finger and pinky, the third.

He planned to awaken the power of his index finger.

And the material for that already rested in his possession.

–What do you regret the most?

Before his regression, Nameless had asked Sewoon that during a training session.

At the sudden question, Sewoon had replied with a puzzled look.

–Regret?

–You’ve already received eight demonic arts and spells as the price for becoming a Demon Armament Master.

–But out of all of them, I figured there must be at least one where you thought, ‘Damn it! Something else would've been better!’ after you got it.

A bitter expression had surfaced on Sewoon’s face.

He had always thought carefully and made the best choice, but the best choices didn’t always lead to the best outcomes.

For instance, the Poison Demon’s martial arts had lost all value once the Blood Demon achieved Myriad Poison Immunity.

But Sewoon had no choice then, needing that martial art to save his clan, so the one that came to mind first at Nameless’s question was—

–……It’d have to be the Soundwave Lute Demon.

Soundwave Lute Demon.

One of the Ten Elders of the Blood Cult and Grand Demon of the Blood Sound Sect.

Strangely, he used an instrument—a lute—as his main weapon, and was undisputedly the foremost master of Sound Arts across the entire murim.

Sewoon had handed over Blood Tear Lute, a vastly inferior version of the Heavenly Thread, to him.

‘And in return, I received the Illusory Sound Thread of the index finger.’

The Blood Tear Lute had been the fifth of the Ten Great Demon Arms Sewoon had crafted.

Unlike the other Demon Practitioners, whom Sewoon had chosen after long deliberation, selecting the Soundwave Lute Demon had been unavoidable at the time.

‘Surveillance on me and those snooping behind my back had increased explosively.’

By that point, suspicions about Sewoon’s unusual behavior and intentions had started to emerge among the members of the Blood Cult.

Under the pressure that he might be exposed and ruined before even exacting revenge on the Blood Demon, Sewoon had chosen the Soundwave Lute Demon and the Illusory Sound Thread.

The true secret technique of the Soundwave Lute Demon, Soul-Returning Melody of the Pointing Finger, allowed one to face numerous enemies alone—but that wasn’t why Sewoon had chosen it.

It allowed the user to silence their own sound or erase the sound of others, making it perfect for stealth or assassination.

And through sound imbued with inner force, it could mentally disorient and fragment the memory of weaker foes.

However, such features were utterly useless against the Blood Demon.

‘……Since the first thing he transcended was the physical senses.’

But now, the situation was entirely different.

Those snooping and surveilling him would be taken care of cleanly by Nameless, even if Sewoon didn’t intervene personally.

That’s why Sewoon planned to change the power of his now-empty index finger in a completely new direction.

Clatter!

Clang!

At that moment, Sewoon unfurled the Heavenly Thread into the air.

With the power of the Ice Wheel Thread now gone, its color shifted from pure white back to its original pitch black.

Slide.

Then Sewoon pulled an item from his robe.

Ssshh!

A small jewel revealed itself.

Surprisingly, it radiated a flow both as tranquil as a lake and as vast as the ocean.

That jewel was none other than—

‘To newly gain the power to subdue demons.’

The sarira left to him by True Monk Gongsung, as his final gift.