Roars and explosions echoed as Choi Yeonseung’s concentrated energy blew up the hydra’s head again.

-Kieeeeek!

He could sense the hydra was alarmed. It telepathically screamed all around it.

-H-How can my poison...?

He attacked instead of answering. This time, three of its heads were blown away. Nevertheless, the hydra regenerated quickly.

-Kuaack! How dare this insignificant creature...!

Even if it regenerated, the pain remained. The hydra seemed to have gone crazy due to Choi Yeonseung’s constant beating. Having reigned as the supreme ruler of this region, its pride and arrogance were beyond imagination.

For this being, Choi Yeonseung was the first powerful enemy it had met! Poison didn’t work on him. He dodged its various Breath-like attacks as if he was reading the future. Each attack contained a huge amount of magic power compressed to the size of a chestnut, giving it unimaginable destructive power.

The hydra didn’t die due to its regenerative ability, but this didn’t change the fact that it was being unilaterally beaten. At this point, it was no better than a sandbag!

Choi Yeonseung quickly circled around the hydra at high speed using Origin of the Celestial Step and mercilessly unleashed a barrage of Origin of the Celestial Fist toward the hydra’s torso, neck, and head. Each brutal attack he executed was filled with concentrated fist energy.

‘The power of existence is incredible. I can see why the constellations reign like kings in the Abyss.’

This was his first serious fight ever since entering the path of becoming a constellation.

Choi Yeonseung deeply admired the power of existence!

All souls had the power of existence, but the only ones who could utilize it were the constellations that had reached the limits of their existence. Choi Yeonseung hadn’t fully mastered the power of existence, but he was keenly aware of its strength.

This power was different from the Abyss’ skills like martial arts and magic! Any attack imbued with the power of existence exerted a completely different strength.

And the hydra wasn’t an exemption from its effects. Even though he struck lightly, seemingly to restrain it, his attack was still so powerful that it still smashed the hydra’s huge body! It was as if it read Choi Yeonseung’s mind as he thought, ‘I’m going to blow away the hydra.’

-I will trample on you!

‘Does it have to tell me everything before attacking?’

Choi Yeonseung was dumbfounded. Since it was born so strong, the hydra was a strong existence that had naturally lived its entire life without rivals. Just trusting in its own strength and stamina and charging wildly had been enough for it so far! Hence, it didn’t know how to fight, especially not strong and experienced opponents like Choi Yeonseung.

‘Thanks to this, I feel at ease.’

The hydra raised its head upright and quickly snapped it—the precursor to a Breath. He had dodged its Breath several times already, but its power was still beyond his imagination.

The hydra unleashed Whirlwind Breath, a mixture of poison and magic power! Its attack immediately broke and melted the Abyss’ sturdy rocks. However, such an attack had been rendered meaningless now that he already knew about it.

Choi Yeonseung predicted the range of the Breath, then used Origin of the Celestial Step to move as if he was teleporting from air to air. With his current speed, not even 7th-circle space magic would be able to catch him!

‘I have to focus even more.’

Predicting the attack wasn’t easy. The range of the Breath was enormous, leaving only a thread-thin safe zone. Choi Yeonseung’s inner self was cold and calm, but his body’s senses were as sensitive as a blade. This battle would be over if he made even just one mistake!

‘Be faster.’

The waves of magic power that covered the ground surged and tore apart the space around them. Choi Yeonseung protected his toes with concentrated energy and ran on the Breath.

‘This isn't the only Breath you'll use!’

It soon unleashed a flying Breath. However, Choi Yeonseung didn’t even need to look at it to read its moves. He disappeared again and reappeared on the other side of the Breath’s trajectory.

-I will kill you!

He felt intense anger from the hydra’s telepathy. Choi Yeonseung dodged the Breath over and over again until he finally realized something strange. The Breath in front of him was moving slowly, almost as if it was in slow motion. Time seemed to have slowed down only in that vicinity!

‘What?’

There was no way the hydra would deliberately control its Breath like this. If it could make its attacks faster, then it would. Why would it slow them down? This happened so many times that Choi Yeonseung even got to deduce he was the reason behind this phenomenon.

‘I manipulated it!’

That was the only reasonable explanation for it. However, Choi Yeonseung’s martial art didn’t have the power to do this. If so, then it had to be the power of existence! The power constellations used were the only valid reason he could come up with.

Choi Yeonseung thought about it. Why did the power of existence cause this phenomenon?

‘Is it because I desperately want it?’

Choi Yeonseung made a strong wish as he slammed energy into the Breath.

-Break it apart!

Just then, a miracle occurred. The energy split the Breath apart and continued onward.

[You have learned how to use the power of existence.]

[The power of existence is the power to change reality. You can now alter reality as you see fit.]

[Through enlightenment, you have learned the skill 'Power of Existence.'.]

[Power of Existence]

[Having reached the limit of your existence, you can now use the power of existence, which lets you manipulate reality as you desire]

“...!!!”

Choi Yeonseung realized exactly what power he had. It was different from magic power or martial arts. It was the power to change reality the way he wanted!

Choi Yeonseung seemed to have understood why the Abyss’ constellations created kingdoms and gathered subordinates now. They used the power of existence to alter their territory and augment their subordinates. The power of existence had no limits. Hence, they could do anything for as long as they had a lot of it!

And since the constellations’ power of existence increased the more souls they had, it was only natural for them to cling to the souls that served them. Earth had billions of souls, making it a golden land for the constellations.

Choi Yeonseung closed his eyes. The new information confused him, but he moved naturally anyway.

‘I should calm down and tackle this one by one.’

The power of existence wasn’t something that could just be used. Rather than just thinking about it, he had to desire it so badly that it would seem as if he was squeezing his soul. He had to have pure concentration and no distractions! Constellations could use high-level magic in their sleep or with their eyes closed, but they still had to concentrate with all their might when they used the power of existence.

Fortunately, Choi Yeonseung was extremely great in this regard. He had been training in the Abyss for over a thousand years. Choi Yeonseung could fall into a trance and focus on one thing if he put his mind to it. Moreover, his body and mind had been tempered like steel.

‘The first thing I have to do now is prevent its regeneration.’

Eternal Regeneration was overpowered even among fraudulent skills. Even the constellations avoided the hydra due to this powerful recovery skill, which gave it vitality so persistent that no attack could defeat it!

Blocking this skill would make the hydra quite easy to deal with. However, using the power of existence didn’t mean he could block the hydra’s skill with a flick of his finger. It was the same for constellations. The power of existence was the ability to change reality with one’s own will. If he tried to use it to change another being, then that being’s soul would naturally resist it.

Using the power of existence against a soul that rejected it was extremely difficult. The greater the size and strength of the soul, the stronger its resistance. In that regard, nothing could be said about a powerful hydra-sized soul.

‘I don’t have the strength to change the hydra itself or everything around me, but I don’t have to do that anyway.’

If he couldn’t use it on his opponent, then he’d just use it on himself. Choi Yeonseung added the power of existence to his concentrated energy, imbuing it with his desire to stop his opponent’s regeneration!

At that moment, Choi Yeonseung’s concentrated energy turned into a poison that burned away all regenerative power. Choi Yeonseung pulled his concentrated energy into an elongated line using the Concentrated Energy Arts’ essence, which could grow freely.

Origin of the Celestial Concentrated Whip! The white concentrated energy stretched out like a whip and flew through the air.

In the blink of an eye, a thick rope of concentrated energy had completely wrapped around the hydra’s neck. Irritated, the hydra struggled. Even though it would recover from such a ridiculous wound immediately, it still couldn’t help but be bothered by the attack. It was going to tear it apart with force!

However, the Origin of the Celestial Concentrated Whip wasn’t something that could be torn off in such a way. The Origin of the Celestial Concentrated Whip’s purest mana crystal slashed through the hydra’s hard scales and muscles like it were cutting tofu. The power of the concentrated energy ignored the hydra’s defenses, which not even Earth’s civilized weapons or magic below 7th-circle could penetrate! It was arguably the sharpest spear in the world!

-Kieeeeek!

The hydra screamed once, then prepared to regenerate. It was painful, but it could just regenerate once more as it did before. However, something unexpected happened. The hydra’s neck, from which its head was cut off, only wriggled. It couldn’t regenerate as quickly as it did before. Its Eternal Regeneration skill had been blocked!

Like a poison, Choi Yeonseung’s strong attack, which contained the power of existence, stopped the regenerative ability contained in the hydra’s neck. This unknown phenomenon stunned the hydra. Choi Yeonseung felt confident. The hydra was just a huge sandbag once its regenerative power had been stopped.

By the time Choi Yeonseung blew one head off, he had already reached the next head.

Origin of the Celestial Kick! His kick blew up the hydra’s jaw and sent its head backward. Choi Yeonseung attacked it again.

‘Focus and hit. Focus and hit.’

This was Choi Yeonseung’s first time using the power of existence. Hence, he had to concentrate whenever he used it. Still, that was enough. As time passed, the hydra’s heads started to disappear one by one.

Frightened, the remaining heads tried to stop Choi Yeonseung somehow, but the hydra couldn’t stop him even when all of its heads were still intact. He teleported using Origin of the Celestial Step, entered the hydra’s blind spot, and delivered a blow imbued with concentrated energy. 

Poison didn’t work on him. The Breath didn’t work either.

-N...No...!

With only two heads left, the hydra finally seemed to feel scared. It felt fear for the first time in its tens of thousands of years of living! Choi Yeonseung remained relentless, having gotten a glimpse at victory. He rushed in and aimed for the hydra’s remaining heads.

‘Origin of the Celestial Fist for one head, and Origin of the Celestial Wheel for the other.’

Origin of the Celestial Wheel—the skill of making and launching round-shaped concentrated energy! It was another technique created through the application of Concentrated Energy Arts. It shot out concentrated energy like a concealed weapon, so its power was certainly immense. However, he had to make sure he properly imbued the power of existence into it. Otherwise, the hydra would be able to regenerate.

Soon, the sound of the hydra’s head being sent flying echoed. The Origin of the Celestial Wheel worked properly. It could no longer regenerate its blown-off head.

[The ‘Overcome Oneself to Become Strong’ skill has increased the power of your existence!]

The moment he succeeded in executing Origin of the Celestial Wheel, a high-level technique, Overcome Oneself to Become Strong was activated. Whenever he lived a life that suited him, it would always activate. 

Choi Yeonseung smiled bitterly. He tried to practice despite being in the middle of a life-threatening fight. However, it couldn’t be helped. That was just who he was.

-This is ridiculous! You’re such an insignificant being!

“Farewell, snake. It was a good fight.”

Choi Yeonseung launched an Origin of the Celestial Fist toward its last, trembling head. The concentrated fist energy pierced the hydra’s head and sent it flying, almost as if it had been erased. The moment all of its heads had been eliminated, the hydra collapsed.

[The ‘Suppress the Strong and Support the Weak’ has increased the power of your existence.]

[You are resonating more and more with the world.]

[You have been covered with enough amount of the hydra's blood. The A+ rank skill ‘Eternal Regeneration’ has been acquired.]