Star Instructor, Master Baek

Chapter 195: Echoes From a Previous Life (3)

TL: FoodieMonster007

"You basdard! I'll gill you! Nobodeh intafwere! I'll gill him maselb!" Cho Hyeok roared, rushing back at an alarming speed after being sent flying. His face was stained with blood, and his speech was slurred due to his missing teeth, but nevertheless, he charged at Baek Suryong with a vengeance.

Baek Suryong smirked as he effortlessly dodged the attack. Cho Hyeok's emotions were getting the better of him, clouding his judgment and making every move painfully predictable.

"Come at me when you can at least talk properly," he taunted.

"Aaaaargh! Stahp dahging lie a rat!" Cho Hyeok bellowed, unleashing a flurry of palm strikes that shook the very air. His accuracy was lacking, but the sheer force of his inner qi generated shockwaves strong enough to stagger any ordinary martial artist.

Unfortunately, his opponent was Baek Suryong.

Cho Hyeok's eyes turned bloodshot, teetering on the edge of insanity. The humiliation of being ambushed and losing his teeth to a lowly opponent he had always looked down upon stung him deeply. His pride as nobility screamed that he couldn't let this go, that he had to kill Baek Suryong no matter the cost.

Of course, none of this was real.

This is a dream. A stunningly vivid dream, sure, but a dream all the same.

After several days of experimenting, Baek Suryong discovered that if he took control of his past self and acted differently from his memories, the people in his dream would react in ways that aligned with their personalities.

An idea immediately came to him.

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I can freely engage in life-and-death battles here. Image training is nothing compared to this. Besides, there are plenty of demonic bastards here who deserve to die, and enemies I would love to grind into dust. Could there possibly be a better place to train?

Masters who reached a certain level often did image training, a form of meditation in which they would visualize techniques or imagine fighting a hypothetical opponent. However, this required intense concentration, and its effectiveness was limited. Normally, it was far better to train by physically moving the body.

Here, though, everything was a perfect reflection of reality, from the stimulation of his five senses, to the killing intent of his opponents, to the flow of their qi, and even to the unique aura of each individual. It was as if he had traveled back in time to his previous life.

Baek Suryong's grin widened. "You should feel honored that I've decided to kill you first."

"You wotten inshect!" Cho Hyeok screamed, his qi surging to the point that veins bulged grotesquely across his forearms and hands. He launched a wild attack at Baek Suryong, causing the ground to explode beneath them and shattering the surrounding walls.

"Now that's more like it." Baek Suryong nodded, meeting him head-on.

Soon, their hands and feet became a confusing tangle of motion.

Although the gap between them wasn't huge, Baek Suryong was clearly weaker than Cho Hyeok at this point in time. Cho Hyeok, despite his nasty personality, had enough talent to be called a genius, and with the support of his family, he was on a fast track to success.

On the other hand, Baek Suryong was expelled from the Blood Dragons after injuring his qi center, and he was tossed aside to rot. He barely managed to make a comeback as the best martial arts instructor, but by then, the difference in status between him and Cho Hyeok, who had become the commander of one of the Blood Cult's legions, was insurmountable.

Thus, when their paths crossed again by chance, Cho Hyeok had completely ignored Baek Suryong. A bug that he could crush at any time was of no longer of any interest to him.

"Tsk, how pathetic. You played a big part in crippling me, but after I injured my qi center, you barely gave me a second thought. Until the very end, you never felt a shred of guilt for what you did, didn't you?"

"Aaaaargh! I'll gill you!" Cho Hyeok roared.

Baek Suryong snorted. In the past, Cho Hyeok had been an opponent he couldn't defeat, but now, things had changed. His mind was filled with the countless martial arts manuals he had diligently studied to become a martial arts instructor, as well as the unparalleled techniques his four masters had taught him.

Shaking his head, he remarked, "I couldn't lose to you even if I tried."

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SLAP!

Baek Suryong's hand struck Cho Hyeok's cheek, snapping his head to the side. For a moment, shock filled Cho Hyeok's eyes, but Baek Suryong wasn't done.

SMACK! WHACK! THWACK!

Baek Suryong unleashed a relentless barrage on Cho Hyeok, each punch and kick infused with the essence of the Eighteen Strikes of the Viridian Forest. Under the vicious onslaught, Cho Hyeok's defenses shattered, his body twisting and buckling, crumpling a little more with each blow.

"Argh! Ged losh!" Cho Hyeok screamed, desperately unleashing an ominous wave of palm qi in a last attempt to drive Baek Suryong back.

Baek Suryong took a step back, his eyes flashing with sharp recognition. "Isn't that…? Oh, right. I almost forgot. You've also mastered the Soul Reaping Demonic Art. Now that I think about it, wasn't the one who roughed up my student a punk named Cho Il?"

Baek Suryong searched his memories. The Fist Tyrant Cho Il, also known as the Blood Dragon, was the kid who plotted to seize control of the Golden Dragon Trading Company by crippling Geo Sangwoong using the Soul Reaping Demonic Art, one of the Blood Cult's most brutal torture techniques.

Whether it's his affiliation with the Blood Cult, his last name of Cho, his alias of Fist Tyrant, or his knowledge of the Soul Reaping Demonic Art… everything points to him being a descendant of Cho Hyeok.

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A wicked grin spread across Baek Suryong's lips. "Damn, I can't wait to watch Sangwoong fuck him over at the Heavenly Martial Festival…"

"Hahaha! Die!" Cho Hyeok charged forward ecstatically, believing that with the Soul Reaping Demonic Art, victory was his.

However, Baek Suryong's interest in him had already faded. Activating the Heaven Defying Divine Art, his hair and eyes turned crimson, and a formidable aura burst forth. Giving Cho Hyeok a pitying look, he said coldly, "You disappoint me. If you've nothing better to show me, then let's end this."

Cho Hyeok froze in his tracks, gaping at Baek Suryong with a mixture of shock and horror. "Ugh! W-Wha is thish…? O-Ow can you use da Heaben Defahing Divahn Ahg…? A lowleh bug lie you…?"

Driven more by instinct than reason, Cho Hyeok's legs trembled uncontrollably, until finally he fell to his knees in stunned disbelief. After all, as one of the Blood Dragons who guarded the Blood Demon, he was more sensitive to the energy of the Heaven Defying Divine Art than most, and was accustomed to yielding before it.

Shrugging, Baek Suryong replied nonchalantly, "The family you're so proud of will be destroyed very soon, and your grandson will be crushed by my student. Remember that as you die, okay?"

Cho Hyeok, sensing his fate, screamed in terror, "W-Wait! Sphare me…"

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SPLAT!

Baek Suryong delivered a single, decisive palm strike to Cho Hyeok's head, smashing his skull and ending his life in an instant. However, as he gazed at Cho Hyeok's corpse, the rush of satisfaction he'd expected from revenge was nowhere to be found. This was, in the end, just a dream.

"Well, at least I had some fun killing you."

Cho Hyeok was someone who deserved to die… and there were plenty more like him lurking within this dream.

Baek Suryong smiled evilly. "Training in martial arts, venting my pent-up stress… this dream is turning out to be quite productive."

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Baek Suryong fixed his body's state in his dream to the moment just before he damaged his qi center. After that, he set out to find the masters he had met in his past life, focusing on the leaders of military forces and those who had mastered rare martial arts, and challenged each of them to a fight to the death.

"Heya! Up for a spar?"

"What? This crazy bastard…"

Through these deadly clashes, he sharpened his senses and carefully refined his own techniques. Sometimes, if he felt it would help him improve, he even fought the same opponent more than once.

However, as Baek Suryong became more accustomed to controlling the dream, he suddenly realized something.

If I die even once, I'll wake up from this dream.

No one told him, he just naturally understood this after spending a long time in the dream.

If I leave this dream, can I come back again?

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He might be able to, but he couldn't know for sure without trying. Regardless, from then on, he needed to choose his opponents more carefully. For one, taking on the Blood Demon or any of the elders was a bad idea.

"Although I really want to tear that Demon Strategist bastard apart right now…"

The Blood Cult elders were all at the level of the Ten Supremes, and since he couldn't be sure that he would return to this dream after he died, it wasn't worth the risk. Besides, to confidently overwhelm them, he needed to reach the eighth star of Heaven Defying Divine Art.

"Still, it's a pity to miss out on experiencing the elders' techniques… Wait! Don't most of the elders have disciples who've inherited their martial arts?"

Baek Suryong smirked wryly, recalling the many times the elders' disciples had also bullied him.

"Hey, spoiled brats! You think just because you were born with a silver spoon, never faced hardship, and got to master martial arts in comfort, you're stronger than me? Prove it!"

"How dare you?"

"I'll rip out that mouth of yours!"

"You are courting death!"

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Man, I love these reactions! Such… third-rate villainy! Baek Suryong mused, happily beating them to a pulp.

"Ugh!"

"I-I lost…"

"Stop! Please stop hitting me!"

Needless to say, even if Baek Suryong didn't use the Heaven Defying Divine Art, the elders' disciples were still no match for him.

Just like that, Baek Suryong continued his relentless crusade against the Blood Cult, deepening his understanding of their martial arts while also reflecting on his own. Especially since he had experienced unnaturally rapid growth in the Valley of Evil, he desperately needed combat experience to solidify his foundation.

This is truly a priceless opportunity.

Days passed, blending into each other in his dream of a past life. Absorbed in his training, Baek Suryong soon lost track of time… until suddenly, the scenery that had been indistinguishable from reality began to distort, cracking and crumbling in spots.

"…Looks like I'm going to wake up soon. Should I go pick a fight with the Blood Demon?" Baek Suryong sighed, but quickly shook his head, dismissing the fleeting thought. For now, he had nothing to gain from fighting the Blood Demon, and besides, he had a feeling that bastard wouldn't fight him in his current state.

"I wonder… would something interesting happen if I defeat the Blood Demon here?"

The end of this dream was likely the scene where he failed to escape the Blood Cult and died fighting the Blood Demon in his previous life. However, if he could change that ending and defeat the Blood Demon in that moment, would it make a difference?

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…Maybe I'll recover Baek Suryong's lost memories.

It was just a hunch, but given how he hadn't retrieved any memories yet, there was a good chance something special awaited him at the dream's end.

"Anyway, now's not the time for that."

Baek Suryong manipulated the dream, reshaping his surroundings. A moment later, he was standing in front of the Blood Dragon Captain in the Blood Dragons' exclusive training grounds.

The Blood Dragon Captain asked, "You want to fight me? Why all of a sudden?"

"Please fight me like you mean to kill me," Baek Suryong replied. As he had grown more accustomed to controlling the dream, he discovered that he could simply skip the formalities and jump right into the action.

The Blood Dragon Captain raised a thick eyebrow. "This is ridiculous. Are you being serious right now?"

Baek Suryong glanced at the horizon. The dream landscape was collapsing from afar.

I'm running out of time. What should I say to provoke him the most…? Oh, I know!

Looking straight into the Blood Dragon Captain's eyes, Baek Suryong warned, "If you don't kill me now, I'll kill the Blood Demon in the future."

For a moment, the Blood Dragon Captain blinked in confusion, but he quickly came to his senses and released his aura. "You must have a death wish!" he roared.

WHOOSH!

An overwhelming aura spilled out from the Blood Dragon Captain standing before him, pressing down upon Baek Suryong with such intensity that he struggled to catch his breath.

Yep, looks like I picked the right opponent.