Disciple of The Three Kings [EN]: Chapter 4

Thwack!

The zombie orc’s head exploded.

Thwack!

The head of the zombie orc chieftain, who was charging from beside it, also exploded in a similar fashion.

Thwack! Thud!

For the first time, a sound other than the sound of heads exploding echoed.

“Zombie troll.”

The troll was a mid-tier monster famous for its regeneration abilities.

Even lower-tier trolls could regenerate minor cuts and wounds in an instant, and mid-tier trolls could quickly seal holes in their bellies.

What about higher-tier trolls?

‘They can regenerate even if their limbs are severed.’

That’s why trolls were known to be tricky monsters, and among mid-tier monsters, they were the ones to avoid.

But such a troll had become a zombie.

A creature that combined the troll’s regeneration with the zombie’s regeneration was considered a mid-tier undead.

They were hard to kill unless their heads were split open in one go, and their necks were so thick that even decent damage dealers couldn’t easily cut through them.

However, the reason they were still considered mid-tier undead was because their weakness was too obvious.

‘Fire, and divine power.’

If you could use those two things, the zombie troll’s regeneration wouldn’t be a big problem.

Of course, Rowoon had no intention of using fire or divine power.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The zombie troll was charging towards Rowoon with its massive body.

Tap!

Rowoon leaped up, pushing off the ground with a light movement.

Crash!

The zombie troll’s large fist slammed into the spot where Rowoon had just been, creating a loud explosion.

Too late, the creature, not feeling the impact, tried to find Rowoon again, but it was too late.

Tap.

Light landing.

Rowoon landed on the zombie troll’s shoulder, and his hand was already touching the zombie troll’s head.

‘Blood Demon Absorption.’

He could feel the creature’s thick blood flowing through his palm.

Krrraaah!

The zombie troll struggled desperately to shake Rowoon off, writhing in pain as its blood was being sucked, but it was no use.

Even as the troll thrashed wildly, Rowoon didn’t lose his balance, moving around and keeping his hand on the creature’s head.

In the end, the result was obvious.

Thud!

The zombie troll collapsed.

Rowoon landed on the ground without a single scratch.

“Hah.”

A sense of fullness washed over his body.

“Have I already reached it?”

A puddle of blood was forming beneath Rowoon’s feet.

The troll’s blood, which Rowoon hadn’t absorbed, was flowing out through the soles of his feet.

The meaning of this phenomenon was simple.

‘The end of red blood.’

It meant he had to move on to the next stage.

And that was the first goal Rowoon wanted to achieve in the Abyss.

“Rebirth.”

***

The Blood Demon Divine Art was originally very fast to master.

As my master, the Martial King, said.

‘There was a farmer who accidentally learned the Blood Demon Divine Art, and in less than three years after learning it, a storm of blood swept through the Jianghu [a term referring to the martial arts world].’

A demonic art among demonic arts that even an ordinary person with no talent could reach the peak of mastery in just three years.

Of course, the farmer’s end was not good.

‘Boom!’

Those without talent could never reach the second stage of the Blood Demon Divine Art.

The accumulated blood and internal energy would eventually break free of control and explode the owner’s body.

That was the Blood Demon Divine Art.

But even so, such rapid progress was abnormal.

It had probably been two weeks since he entered the Abyss.

The fact that he was already facing the next stage must have a reason.

‘Monster blood.’

The fact that he could devour the abundant monster blood at the corpse disposal site.

‘A realm already surpassed.’

The fact that Rowoon had already experienced the end of the Blood Demon Divine Art.

‘Talent.’

Talent that could not be compared to a farmer who accidentally obtained the Blood Demon Divine Art.

His masters had told him before.

When he asked why he was chosen as a vessel of chaos.

‘Huh? Isn’t it obvious?’

His masters’ answer was simple.

‘It’s because you are a vessel of a king.’

A vessel of a king, a being capable of becoming the ruler of that world.

That talent was immeasurable, and he was a genius among geniuses who could quickly learn anything.

He couldn’t believe it.

Of course, it wasn’t that his talent was poor, as he had reached the ranker level and was on the verge of becoming a high ranker.

But to become a king, someone everyone would look up to?

‘That’s because you were already chosen before your awakening.’

‘It’s not often that a vessel of a king is special from birth.’

‘It’s just that you’ve been unlucky since you were born.’

If that talent had bloomed, he would have been more than capable of becoming the king of the world.

For that reason, his progress in the Blood Demon Divine Art was unbelievably fast.

In just two weeks, he had reached the end of red blood.

Now, he was ready to move on to the next stage.

Trickle.

Rowoon gathered the corpses scattered around and piled them up into a mountain.

He also dug into the ground, creating a place where the blood flowing from the corpses’ wounds could gather.

‘I’ve cleared all the undead around here.’

Moreover, he had set up dozens of traps using iron blood beads.

Now, there was only one thing left to do.

Thud.

He sat cross-legged in the puddle of blood that reached up to his shins.

“Damn it.”

He cursed before he even started.

‘If I do this rebirth about three times, it’ll be usable.’

Three times?

“To think I’d be doing this again.”

But there was no other way.

He had to become stronger.

Not just for revenge, but for something even more fundamental.

‘Survival.’

To survive in this insane world, power was essential.

With power, he could live, take revenge, and find his masters.

So…

“Let’s endure.”

Rowoon closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

The internal energy that now filled his blood core was moving according to Rowoon’s will.

‘Reverse Blood Flow.’

He reversed the flow of blood and internal energy gathered in his blood core back into his blood vessels.

“Kuh!”

It was an act that defied the laws of nature, and even more so, as he forced more into his blood vessels already filled with blood, his blood vessels naturally began to burst.

What he was about to do was the dream of all martial artists, rebirth.

‘Reforming the bones and shedding the skin.’

Being reborn into a body more suitable for a martial artist.

Originally, it wasn’t supposed to be done this way.

You had to accumulate enough internal energy for rebirth, train your body to its limits.

And when a great enlightenment came.

Boom!

You would be reborn like a serpent becoming a dragon.

But Shin Yeoul’s martial arts were different.

‘Enlightenment? I don’t need it.’

Just break it, destroy it, and create it anew.

An abnormal rebirth naturally came with side effects.

For example.

“Kuh-huh!”

You had to feel the pain of every blood vessel bursting and every bone breaking every moment.

Sizzle!

As his blood vessels burst, the monster blood in the puddle was being absorbed as much as Rowoon was bleeding.

When his blood vessels were in a mess and his insides were filled with blood.

‘Damn it!’

Rowoon gritted his teeth and moved on to the next stage.

Crack!

“……!”

As blood seeped into his bones, they shattered to the point where it was not enough to describe them as fragmented.

Crack, crack, crack!

It was happening simultaneously in every bone in his body.

‘I can’t lose my mind.’

If he lost his mind, the lost blood would devour his organs and lead him to death.

Crack! Crack! Sizzle!

Now, steam began to rise from Rowoon’s entire body.

The toxins and impurities that had accumulated in his life were being released, unable to withstand the internal energy and blood energy of the Blood Demon Divine Art.

This was just the beginning.

The time Rowoon had to endure was at least more than a full day.

***

“Haa. Haa.”

In the hundred years of training under his masters, he thought he had experienced all kinds of pain.

Especially since the Sword King’s training included being stabbed, sliced, and broken by all sorts of weapons, he thought he would have a high tolerance for pain.

But it was as he expected.

“This is… the worst.”

There was nothing more painful than having your whole body shattered and having to repair it while maintaining your sanity.

But in the end, Rowoon did it.

Whoosh!

When Rowoon released his internal energy, all the dirty, tangled black grime and snake-like sheddings flew away.

Rowoon, who revealed himself from within, had changed a lot.

Rowoon, who had returned to the body of a slave instead of his strong body.

Even while getting stronger by absorbing monster blood with the Blood Demon Divine Art, his body was the same as when he was a slave.

A body so thin that his ribs were clearly visible, hair that was dry and patchy from not eating properly.

His back was also bent from being hunched over for dismantling every day, and his whole body was covered with spots caused by long-term exposure to corpse poison.

But the worst of all was the mark on his chest.

So-called.

‘Slave Seal.’

A magical seal that proved that the worker at the corpse disposal site was a slave, and a vicious curse that would shatter the body if they left the corpse disposal site.

It could never be erased without the caster’s permission, and you had to be twice as strong as the caster to avoid the slave seal.

Of course, Rowoon had countless ways to erase it.

Continue to increase his mastery of the Blood Demon Divine Art to become stronger than the caster and break it by force.

‘The Magic of the Demon King Master.’

Or he could nullify the magic seal itself with the essence of magic he learned from the Demon King Master.

But there was a problem.

‘The caster of the slave seal is that guy.’

He didn’t know how long he would have to spend in this corpse disposal site to become twice as strong as that guy.

Also, the Demon King’s magic was close to impossible.

‘The use of magic is from when you can control darkness.’

But to control darkness, you had to reach at least a certain level of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

That’s why the fastest way.

‘Changing the body.’

Rebirth was the easiest way to get rid of the slave seal.

Now that he had succeeded in rebirth, Rowoon’s appearance had changed a lot.

Clench.

Although it wasn’t a body full of muscles because it was so dry, his body had become quite decent as nutrients spread throughout his body.

‘The size of my blood core has doubled.’

The amount of internal energy he could hold had doubled.

Most of all.

Sizzle!

The slave seal that had been drawn on his chest had disappeared.

As it was a special rebirth of the Blood Demon Divine Art, the slave seal had been broken as the components of his entire body changed.

“Now, the Hwasan Guild and that guy’s bondage are broken.”

That guy would now think that he was completely dead.

And…

“Is it as I thought.”

Rowoon said, touching his long hair.

Hair that had a subtle red glow like port wine.

It was inevitable as the base of the rebirth was the Blood Demon Energy of the Blood Demon Divine Art.

‘My eyes are probably red too.’

Well, it wasn’t a big deal.

What was important now was that he had undergone rebirth and moved on to the next stage of the Blood Demon Divine Art.

And that meant he could go further.

The second thing Rowoon had to obtain in the Abyss.

At the end of this Abyss…

“Shall we go find it?”

If he could just get that…

Smirk.

The second stage of the Blood Demon Divine Art would also reach its peak.