Seo Ran's father, Seo Eun-hyun, is dead.
Those who know the truth could say, 'It's not death'...
But formally speaking, it is definitely 'death'.
The cause of death isn't clear.
They say it is a heart attack.
At first, Seo Ran thinks they are playing a joke on her.
To be honest, she has known since she was young that her parents are not ordinary people.
And yet, one of the extraordinary parents of hers suddenly died from something like a heart attack, like a joke.
It's absurd.
Seeing Seo Eun-hyun's corpse, Seo Ran thinks he'll wake up if she shakes him a few times.
So she tries shaking him a few times.
Even so, he doesn't get up.
Only then does she begin to accept it.
Seo Eun-hyun, her father, is dead.
'Mm, I see.'
Seo Ran nods, trying to coolly calm herself.
'I'm not that sad.'
"Father...?"
'In fact, I feel relieved. That gaze of Father's I always felt, and the suffocating pressure I couldn't explain...I've escaped it.'
"Father."
'With this...I feel even lighter.'
"Father..."
She turns her back to Seo Eun-hyun and tries to walk away, light-heartedly.
"Father...! Father...Father...! Dad...Daaaaaad..."
And then, Seo Ran collapses on the spot, calling Seo Eun-hyun's without understanding why herself.
"Aaaaaaagh! Aagh, aaaaaaaagh!!"
Clutching at her chest, she falls to the ground, her mouth unable to form words...
And with indecipherable sounds, she keeps calling Seo Eun-hyun.
"Uaaaaaaagh! Uaaaagh! Uaaaaaaaagh!!"
It takes Seo Ran half a year to accept Seo Eun-hyun's death.
For the first six months, following Kim Yeon's advice, she threw herself completely into training in the Seo Style Grand Method, Eun Style Formation Method, Hyun Style Fighting Method, and the Paired Wing Spear like mad.
Because only then could she forget the grief of losing Seo Eun-hyun even a little faster.
Is it because she's always been a natural-born genius? Or is it perhaps because the Seo Style, Eun Style, and Hyun Style martial arts created by Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon are simply that effective?
In just half a year, Seo Ran became a peak master.
But after that, she no longer trained in martial arts.
She deemed that sufficient, and let go of the lump in her heart.
So calmly that she surprised even herself...
Seo Ran broke free from the sorrow of losing Seo Eun-hyun.
Five and a half years have already passed since war broke out between the Seo Kingdom and the Hyun Kingdom, and many things have changed.
Many aspects of Hyun Kingdom are now different.
Seo Ran, being officially recognized as the Hyun Kingdom's strongest peak master and, in both official and unofficial terms, its top marksman, has risen to the top position of the Hyun Kingdom's Royal Guards.
Having risen to the highest position in the Hyun Kingdom with a woman's body, Seo Ran gradually forgot the sorrow of Seo Eun-hyun and began embracing a new life.
The Seo Ran of the past who once found everything boring no longer exists.
Every morning, she reads the newspapers published by Hyun Kingdom's news agencies, absorbing new information.
There is no longer a day when everything feels dull, like when she was young.
Since the day 'newspapers' were introduced, she lived immersed in that stream of new information.
Where once Kang Min-hee filled that role, now it is the newspapers.
Of course, that doesn't mean Kang Min-hee has lost significance in her life.
"Seo Ran! Have you been well? It's another exclusive!"
As history revision occurred by the hand of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, and 'advancements in civilization' that surpass people's imaginations began to appear all over the world...
Many people's jobs and ways of life have changed.
Among them, Kang Min-hee abandoned her now-meaningless position as the sect leader of the Black Sect and chose the profession of journalist.
Using all the assets of the Black Merchant Group under the Black Sect, Kang Min-hee established a newspaper company and fully utilized her abilities to continuously secure exclusive stories.
In particular, it became her specialty to report on the corruption or misconduct of high-ranking officials, or information from dangerous regions around the world.
"Hee Unnie. What is it this time?"
"Look, look. This one's really interesting."
"Hmmm..."
Seo Ran's eyes shine as she reads the articles Kang Min-hee has brought back from her coverage.
The information Kang Min-hee used to bring for her is now replaced by newspapers, but Kang Min-hee continues to maintain their relationship through sensational reports that no other journalist can obtain.
Kang Min-hee, as always, remains as Seo Ran's friend.
"The Hyun Kingdom's rebel forces are planning to attack a Seo Kingdom civilian port...but actually, it's a false flag operation by the Seo Kingdom government to redirect internal dissatisfaction from their citizens onto an external enemy... It is interesting, but isn't the evidence a little too weak? Without proof, it's just another of Unnie's stories."
"Haha, what matters is that you think it's 'interesting'. That alone means it's 'true'."
"Hm...I'm honestly not sure. Even regarding the point that the Seo Kingdom is supposedly developing a ton of new weapons... No matter how advanced their technology is, how can they keep producing such unbelievable breakthroughs in such a short time?"
"That's hard to explain to you...but let's just say that fragments of ancient history are continuously being brought into the Seo Kingdom by some entity."
"..."
Seo Ran lets out a sigh at Kang Min-hee's words.
"Since a long time ago...whether it's my father, or my mother, and sometimes even Unnie...you all say things I don't understand."
"You can understand them. If you just listen well to your mother."
"Even Unnie wants me to keep training in the Paired Wing Spears and martial arts?"
Seo Ran looks at Kang Min-hee and asks, and Kang Min-hee only scratches the back of her head awkwardly.
"...That's your choice, and I can't force you. I'm just saying...if you want to understand the terms we use, then maybe keep doing it."
"..."
"Sorry if I made you feel bad. I'll be going now. Also, because of the article I wrote today, our newspaper might get shut down, so help us out again this time. Please!"
Kang Min-hee avoids Seo Ran's gaze, pats her on the shoulder a few times, and walks away.
Seo Ran stares after her for a moment, then half-heartedly looks at the newspaper Kang Min-hee gave her before turning her gaze to the sky.
'The flow...'
As time passes, unlike Seo Eun-hyun's group, who grow increasingly restricted in their use of Immortal Arts and other authorities, only Seo Ran, his daughter, continues to feel her senses sharpening.
And as those senses become sharper, she comes to understand it even more clearly.
'This world...is trying to take me somewhere.'
Kang Min-hee's attitude, her mother Kim Yeon's attitude, and the attitudes of everyone she has known since childhood are all guiding her toward some destination.
'Is it...fate?'
Fate (運命).
She feels that power trying to do something through her.
And lately, she thinks she is beginning to vaguely understand that purpose.
'Fate is trying to make me...overcome something.'
Making her overcome the sorrow of losing her father, overcome the innate burden of possessing the Quaking Heat Body, and the countless limitations she bears, fate has brought her to where she is now.
But she can sense it.
'Maybe what I ultimately have to surpass...is the very flow that drives me to overcome things.'
While pondering this, she suddenly notices a contradiction.
'But if I think about it...if I overcome the fate I must overcome, then what will I have left to overcome in life?'
A strange contradiction.
She begins to live with that contradiction in her heart, constantly mulling it over.
Day after day continues to repeat.
She fires guns, observes new inventions, reads newspapers to gain fresh information, exchanges a few words with Kang Min-hee, protects her from high-ranking officials who try to shut down her newspaper...
In the evenings, she visits her mother and the old neighbors who live in her childhood home at the foot of Sword Peak Mountain.
She sometimes visits Oh Hyun-seok and Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Different from before, she doesn't go into Sword Peak Mountain as often.
For some reason...
It may be because she feels like something might explode out of her if she does.
Because of that, she no longer sees the 'Mountain Spirit' she used to meet often.
'Well, honestly, who cares.'
Thinking of that bizarre Mountain Spirit, Seo Ran figures that it's probably a relief not to meet it again.
And so...
Unlike before, she steadily keeps up with new information, and she continues repeating her endless daily routine that is monotonous and yet not.
And six months pass.
Jeon Myeong-hoon has died.
Looking at Jeon Myeong-hoon's corpse laid in the coffin, Seo Ran does not speak a word.
She doesn't cry out in resentment as she did when Seo Eun-hyun died.
Instead...she simply mourns him calmly.
"...Ran-ah."
Kim Yeon gently strokes Seo Ran's back as she watches her.
"Jeon Myeong-hoon...left while worrying about you. He said he hoped you wouldn't be hurt too deeply. He said...he is only going to where your father is, so don't be too sad, and just do what you must do"
Do what she must do.
Seo Ran feels a 'flow' even in those words as well.
It must be referring to the realm of 'the strongest under the heavens' that Kim Yeon and Seo Eun-hyun always spoke of.
Even after Jeon Myeong-hoon's funeral ends, Kim Yeon approaches Seo Ran and speaks.
"Maybe now...take up the spear again, and follow your father's and Jeon Myeong-hoon's—"
"Mother! Please just stop!"
Seo Ran yells at Kim Yeon.
"What even is this 'strongest under the heavens,' and what even is a martial arts master!? The era of those kinds of people has already ended a long time ago! Guns are the strongest now! Training in martial arts means nothing anymore, and it's all just old-fashioned nonsense! So please! Just stop! Stop trying to trap my fate with stories of people who are already gone!"
"..."
Kim Yeon seems to hesitate at Seo Ran's words before speaking.
"...I wasn't trying to trap your fate. I'm sorry...But...there's one thing I must say."
"Pardon?"
"Jeon Myeong-hoon and your father...have never once gone anywhere. They are still...watching over you, alongside you. Even if they've shed their physical bodies, they are always loving you."
"..."
"I know what you are thinking. That I never explain anything properly, and that I always speak vaguely like this. But...I have my reasons. We all do. You...must at least reach the minimum standard."
Kim Yeon looks at Seo Ran with unwavering eyes.
"You, more than anyone, need to stop turning away and please—do what you must do!"
Kaaang!
For some reason, Seo Ran sees a vision of an immense, irresistible force crashing at her from Kim Yeon.
Even though she, who specializes in guns, should be overwhelmingly stronger than Kim Yeon...
Why is it?
She feels as if Kim Yeon could crush her completely with martial arts alone.
"...What is this thing I must do? What is it!? Please, just stop already!"
And then...
Seo Ran chooses not to confront Kim Yeon, but to run away instead.
Shouting at Kim Yeon with all her strength, and leaving Kim Yeon's house and heading into Jeongyeong City was the greatest choice she could make.
'Just what...am I supposed to do...?"
She...
Hates fate.
And...
She utterly despises martial arts too, which claim to help her overcome fate only to impose another one.
At least to Seo Ran,
The flow of this world that pushes her, and the martial arts that tries to impose a new oppression on her...
Are one and the same fate.
She hates fate.
And so, in order to overcome fate...
She rejects everything that tries to impose a standard upon her.
And so...
After the funeral of Jeon Myeong-hoon and her fight with Kim Yeon, Seo Ran shuts her heart for a time, spending another year filled with anger.
A year passes.
Oh Hyun-seok has died.
"..."
Kim Yeon gazes at Oh Hyun-seok's corpse.
Her chest aches.
She stares at Oh Hyun-seok with a complicated expression.
Seeing each other again after a long time, Kim Yeon and Seo Ran neither argue nor speak words of reconciliation.
They simply...
Grieve together.
And, as they grieve...
Seo Ran realizes something.
To her senses, which perceive the 'flow,' another kind of foresight enters.
'Ah...I see. Everyone around me, in the end...are set to leave me.'
Everyone is to leave her one by one.
Her father, the neighbor she was close with, the neighbor she relied on...
And...
'Min-hee Unnie too...and Mother as well... Someday...they are going to leave...'
There is no clear proof.
But the 'flow' she feels is so vivid that she cannot deny it.
But in the end, she still cannot bring herself to offer words of reconciliation to her mother first.
After Oh Hyun-seok's death, Seo Ran seeks pleasure.
It is because she feels she can no longer bear the pressure.
She begins using the drugs distributed from the Seo Kingdom, numbing her mind and indulging in pleasure.
Because the truth that every person she once treasured will someday leave her side...
...is unbearably horrifying.
To escape that fear, she begins to drown herself in every kind of drug and pleasure.
And...another year passes.
Kang Min-hee exhales a sigh as she lights a cigarette.
Recently, Seo Ran's condition has been terrible.
Even when Kang Min-hee requests to meet, she is refused every time, and according to rumors, it seems Seo Ran has gotten into drugs.
'...Tch. Seo Ran...'
And she guesses that it must be true.
Ever since Seo Eun-hyun left, Seo Ran has grown increasingly unstable.
And with the people she knows continuing to die one by one, it isn't strange that her heart has gotten ill.
But...
'There's nothing...I can do...'
Kang Min-hee knows the situation outside.
'The fact that it's been over a year and Seo Eun-hyun still hasn't sent a signal means...now, either I or Kim Yeon have to go.'
She clenches her teeth.
She knows it herself.
'I have to go.'
Regardless of this or that, Kim Yeon is Seo Ran's mother.
Even if they've grown distant lately, Kim Yeon, by her very existence, remains Seo Ran's final pillar.
If Seo Ran loses even her mother, she will completely collapse.
'But...'
Kang Min-hee grabs at her own hair.
Kang Min-hee has been listening to the sound of that heartbeat inside Kim Yeon's womb ever since Kim Yeon became pregnant.
It's Kang Min-hee who has been by Seo Ran's side for years as her friend.
Because of that...
Kang Min-hee cannot bring herself to leave Seo Ran behind.
"Seo Ran... Seo Ran... Damn it...!"
It is at that moment, when she is furiously clutching her head.
Creeeeak...
Someone enters her room.
"Huh? Who is it? I said not to come in during my personal maintenance ti—oh, Kim Yeon?"
And Kang Min-hee opens her eyes wide as she sees Kim Yeon enter her personal office inside her newspaper company.
Due to the history revision of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, Unbinding Star has undergone modernization.
Because of that, the clothing styles across the entire continent of Unbinding Star have changed considerably in recent times.
Kang Min-hee raises an eyebrow as she notices Kim Yeon wearing a palace attire completely out of sync with those current trends.
"...Kim Yeon, why are you here?"
Feeling a sense of foreboding, she questions Kim Yeon.
And Kim Yeon silently draws twin spears from her back.
"Min-hee Unnie. This time...I'll go."
"...What?"
Twitch—
Kang Min-hee's eyebrow twitches.
"Say that again. What did you just say?"
"I'll be the one going this time, Unnie. So...please take care of Ran."
"...This crazy bitch...!"
Kang Min-hee shoots up from her seat at Kim Yeon's words and hurls the chair she was sitting on straight at Kim Yeon's head.
-x-X-x-
Chwaak!
The edge of the chair strikes Kim Yeon's forehead, and since she doesn't use any internal energy to protect herself, blood flows from her head.
"What did you just say? Say it again."
However, Kang Min-hee, paying no mind to Kim Yeon's bleeding, rushes at her and grabs her by the collar.
"Say it again!"
Kwaang!
Kang Min-hee slams Kim Yeon into the wall by her collar and yells.
"To Seo Ran...do you not understand what you mean to her? Are you saying this because you don't understand what would happen to that child if you disappear? Even now, with just Jeon Myeong-hoon and Oh Hyun-seok gone, she can't control herself and is wandering around high on drugs, and you can't even stop that, and yet what? You're going? Do you even have any awareness right now of being Seo Ran's mother!?"
"..."
"I know that you like Seo Eun-hyun. I know that heart is unimaginably deep and strong. That's why...I thought someone like me wasn't good enough...and yielded to you. But...what is this? Seo Ran...Seo Ran needs to be protected, Kim Yeon..."
Still holding Kim Yeon by the collar, Kang Min-hee drops her head.
Seeing her like that, Kim Yeon silently lifts the two twin spears she is holding.
Immediately after,
Tukwang!
Kim Yeon strikes Kang Min-hee's stomach with the spear end and flings her toward the opposite wall.
"Keheok! Y-You little...!"
"Get a hold of yourself, Min-hee Unnie."
"What...?"
"Do you think I'm leaving because I want to? Do you even know what kind of resolve it takes for me to be standing here right now?"
"..."
"If someone has to go...then it has to be me. Because I'm...stronger than you, Min-hee Unnie. Whether it's inheriting the legacy of the previous generation or whatever, I'm the one who is using it, and I'm the one who became stronger through it. And Min-hee Unnie...you're the most sensitive among us."
Kang Min-hee doesn't refute her. She just coughs as she slumps down from the opposite wall.
"We were supposed to send a signal if we got the advantage, but even after all these years, there hasn't been a single sign. And it's Seo Eun-hyun of all people! In this situation, when every second counts...it's me who has to go. If it's a situation where my strength is needed...then I'm the one who has to go..."
"...The place that needs your strength...is here too, Kim Yeon..."
Kang Min-hee mutters a bitter remark.
"There's a child here...who might completely fall apart if she doesn't have a mother's love..."
"..."
"I...can't do anything to help. I can only be her friend... I can't be her mother... Yeah. I just happen to be a little smart, but I'm pathetically weak...and the most useless one among us. So...because there's nothing I can do, I'm taking it out on you, aren't I."
She lets her head hang low and collapses to the floor.
"...I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do on my own. So please...stay so Seo Ran doesn't break apart. Out there, she may have others, but here, she's alone..."
Murmrmurmurmurmur—
From the commotion in Kang Min-hee's private room, murmuring voices grow louder outside.
And amidst that noise, Kim Yeon slowly walks toward Kang Min-hee.
"...As expected. Unnie should be the one who stays."
"...What?"
"Even if I go...if there's no signal, you'll come a year later anyway. Isn't that right?"
"..."
"So...I'll say it here and now. I'll go, so you stay here no matter how many years pass. From this place, protect Ran...protect the most precious part of me and him."
"...I...can block attacks from the front. I can take on the hard stuff. I can block the filth with my body, but...I can't do anything about a breaking heart."
"There's no need to do anything. Just...stay by her side."
"What...?"
And only then does Kang Min-hee flinch at the sight of Kim Yeon's stance, holding the twin spears.
"Wait, don't tell me..."
"I'm going to...risk my life to deliver this heart to my daughter before leaving. So...Unnie, please become the witness for it. Just that...is enough."
Finishing her words, Kim Yeon opens the window of Kang Min-hee's private room and jumps out.
Kang Min-hee hurriedly chases after her and jumps out of the building.
She, too, has trained her martial arts to at least the level of a peak expert, so leaping this distance poses no issue.
Before long, Kang Min-hee is able to spot Kim Yeon moving far ahead in the distance.
'You're always ahead...always...'
After some time.
Kim Yeon stops a carriage that is leaving Jeongyeong City and seems to head toward some villa.
"Ran-ah. Are you in there?"
From within, Seo Ran's voice comes out.
"...Mo...ther...?"
A voice trembling as if she's shivering.
Through that physical reaction, Kim Yeon realizes that Seo Ran is quite heavily addicted.
"Come out for a moment."
"...Driver, go! Now!"
"Hyah!"
But instead of responding to Kim Yeon, Seo Ran urges the coachman forward, and he whips the horses, pushing the carriage out of Jeongyeong City.
Watching it go, Kim Yeon lets out a quiet sigh and follows after the carriage.
After a while, when the carriage reaches a place far removed from Jeongyeong City—
Hwoooong—
Kim Yeon swings her spear and tears the roof off the carriage.
The coachman screams, and inside, Seo Ran rises with a distorted face, gripping pistols in both hands.
"Mother...please...just leave me alone."
Hyun Style Fighting Method — Revised.
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
Twin Fangs.
Tang, Taang!
Waves ripple from both barrels, and the bullets, strengthened to the extreme by Seo Ran, fire straight at Kim Yeon.
But in that instant, Kim Yeon moves her spear as if she is dancing, gently batting both bullets away.
Tukwang!
The deflected bullets ricochet and explode on the road on either side of Kim Yeon.
"Unnie, please just make sure the coachman doesn't die."
She gives a brief request to Kang Min-hee, who has just caught up, and then grips her twin spears and takes her stance.
'That is...'
Kang Min-hee recognizes what Kim Yeon is about to use.
Kuguguguk!
It feels as if willpower is distorting reality.
At the same time, Kim Yeon's will bursts outward, and a solemn radiance begins to envelop her.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
When one reaches the summit of Martial Arts (武), the path they've taken inevitably specializes based on how they've wielded and trained their Martial Arts.
The Formless Sword is freedom, the Surpassing Radiant Saber is speed, the Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear is piercing, and the Four Treasures Annihilating Heavens Blade is destruction.
And the summit of Martial Arts Kim Yeon reached is—
If it must be categorized, it is the pinnacle of Internal Energy Cultivation.
"Full Blossom."
Pasasasasa—
At the same time, profusely numerous quince flower petals bloom brilliantly from Kim Yeon and begin to dye the surroundings.
Kang Min-hee's eyes widen.
Quince blossoms bloom from every part of Kim Yeon's body.
Even Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, or the First Stage of Manifestation, has already become difficult to display in this world.
As explained by White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus, the 'Western Heaven Flower Field' is, quite literally, a place where 'only the power granted when life is first designated' can be used.
Up to Five Energies Converging to the Origin can barely, barely be considered the strength permitted to humans...
But from Entering Heavens Beyond the Path onward, it is clearly the realm beyond humans.
Therefore, originally, Kim Yeon should be restricted from using Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
But regardless of that, she is using Entering Heavens Beyond the Path here.
What does that mean?
Kugugugugugu!
'...So this is your resolve.'
A mass of [power] in the form of quince petals stretches to the heavens, forming a pillar of light that connects the sky and the ground.
Because of Kim Yeon alone and her Internal Energy Cultivation, Heaven and Earth shakes.
Seo Ran stares blankly at Kim Yeon, as if the drugs have completely worn off.
Inside the pillar of light, Kim Yeon who reveals a power more formidable than any firearm, more stronger than any weapon that exists in this world, is, quite literally, wonder itself.
[Would you...hold my hand?]
And from inside that pale pink pillar of light, Kim Yeon reaches her hand out toward Seo Ran.
Seo Ran, as if entranced, reaches out her hand to Kim Yeon.
In the very next moment—
Tukwang!
Kim Yeon grabs Seo Ran's hand and kicks off into the sky.
Kicking skyward without end, she holds Seo Ran in her arms and heads somewhere.
Seo Ran's eyes gradually widen.
[Mother...where are we going...? That's where the remnants of the Hyun Kingdom rebels are. The Seo Kingdom is about to launch a new weapon th...]
And before she even finishes speaking—
As if the Seo Kingdom government has detected Kim Yeon racing through the sky, they launch something.
Tukwang!
A massive shell, imbued with the internal energy of over a dozen peak masters, flies toward Kim Yeon.
And as she sees that shell, carrying the power of overwhelming explosion, Kim Yeon calmly grips her twin spears.
[Look, child. If you really hate Martial Arts...it's okay to just think of it as a dance. I...too, first learned it from him as a dance.]
In that moment, Seo Ran feels as if what Kim Yeon holds in her hands are not twin spears, but two fans.
And in the next moment—
Hwoooong!
As Kim Yeon swings her twin spears in the rhythm of her dance, a fan-shaped waterfall of Gang Qi sprays into the sky, blanketing the heavens in soft pink light and shredding the Seo Kingdom's shell.
There is no sound.
The explosive power contained within the shell is utterly devoured by Kim Yeon's overwhelming might, disappearing without a trace. Facing the Seo Kingdom's direction, Kim Yeon hurls a few more Gang Qi bombs and then, without pause, instantly returns with Seo Ran to where they had been.
"Uh, uh..."
[Was it fun?]
Kim Yeon looks at Seo Ran and asks warmly.
Seo Ran responds in a daze.
"...Yes."
[...Good. I'm glad.]
Kim Yeon smiles warmly and embraces Seo Ran.
[...Mom will be leaving soon.]
"H-Huh...?"
[But don't forget, Ran-ah. Just as Mom showed you just now...we are beings who wield power close to divine technique. Just because the body goes doesn't mean we are truly gone. It's the same for your father, Jeon Myeong-hoon, and Oh Hyun-seok... All we ever wanted was for you to reach this realm and open the path to Immortal Ascension.]
"...!"
[We do not die, Ran-ah. Just as the 'power of a human' I showed you a moment ago truly exists...so too does the possibility that the dead can stay together with you, that they can watch over you...]
Squeeeeze...
Kim Yeon hugs Seo Ran even tighter and smiles.
[Even if Mom leaves...there will be someone who loves you just as much as Mom...who will stay by your side.]
"M-Mo...ther..."
[And...through her, I will always be with you.]
A heart that cannot be conveyed with words!
Within Kim Yeon's overwhelming pillar of internal energy, Seo Ran glimpses a new domain and receives Kim Yeon's heart.
[So...be happy. I won't say things like 'go find your fate' or 'live as we wished.' Just be happy, always... I will be watching over you with him. My...beloved daughter.]
Pasasasasa—
Kang Min-hee watches as, within the laws of the world enforced by the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, Kim Yeon forcibly ignores those laws for a brief moment through sheer brute authority, and disappears with her incarnation.
Beyond the incarnation vanishing...
Even if she returns to her main body now, she will be gravely wounded.
And even in that condition, she will surely fight beside Seo Eun-hyun.
Kang Min-hee holds Seo Ran and, looking at the now fully vaporized Kim Yeon, smiles bitterly.
"You always...beat me and go ahead, Yeon-ah."
As Kang Min-hee looks up at Kim Yeon, who has become a mother and is now completely unbeatable...
She lifts the still-dazed Seo Ran up to her feet.
"Get a hold of yourself, Seo Ran. Stand up. Stand, and walk on your own. The 'happiness' your mother spoke of...definitely didn't mean being so hung on drugs to even walk. So...from now on, walk with your own two feet. No matter the path."
Seo Ran opens her mouth as if to say something to Kang Min-hee, then closes it.
And then...
Having shaken off the drug's effects, she now walks properly on her own feet, heading toward Jeongyeong City.
"...Where are you going to go?"
"...Hee Unnie."
Seo Ran looks back briefly at Kang Min-hee.
"I want to go...to that domain my mother showed me."
"...Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, huh...? Haha. Hahahahaha!"
Kang Min-hee laughs.
[Fate that overcomes fate]—that is the essence of Seo Ran.
Until now, that contradiction had been so entangled that she couldn't even find the right path.
But now, at last...
She can see that Seo Ran's fate has finally begun to find its proper path.
-x-X-x-
Seo Ran thinks of her mother's embrace.
Looking back, everything was full of boredom in her childhood. So why did she always stay at home until the end instead of leaving?
There are plenty of reasons, but if she had to choose just one...
It must have been her mother's embrace.
When she was nestled within the warmth of Kim Yeon's embrace...
Regardless of the boredom or anything else, it always felt cozy...
The embrace she recently experienced again...
...was no different.
It was cozy.
And she realizes...the warmth that was 'delivered' through Kim Yeon's 'Entering Heavens Beyond the Path'...
She wants to see that realm once more.
'Let's go.'
She feels that heading toward that realm is, somehow, her very fate.
'To that realm of Mother's...let's go...!'
She will reach it no matter what.
Even if she is without parents, she cannot keep crying while doing drugs.
'With my own feet...let's enter that domain...'
Clang—
It is when such thoughts arise.
Seo Ran suddenly becomes aware that [someone] has appeared before her.
Shiver!
And that being is someone who clearly knows who Seo Ran is.
"Mountain...Spirit...?"
It is the old man she always called 'Sir Mountain Spirit'.
That old man who always appears with black flowers, now holds a flower basket full of black flowers in one hand.
[Why do you insist on walking such a harsh path, Ran-ah? Have I not done everything for you...? When you felt stifled by your parents, I made it so you could be apart from them. When you were weary of repeated fate, I scattered the ancient force of previous *** (終命者/Enders) into this world, spreading a more advanced fate across the world.
[The guns you so enjoyed and saw as an escape from martial arts. The newspapers that entertained you and kept boredom away. The drugs you indulged in with great pleasure!
[All of them are things that could only emerge from a more advanced fate and more advanced civilization...All of them were prepared by me for you.]
"..."
[So why...do you not enjoy these pleasures further...? Why do you insist on chasing after something so empty...? Is there something more you need...?]
"...There is nothing more I need, Sir Mountain Spirit. No...Sir Flower Spirit."
Seo Ran speaks as she reconsiders the old man's identity through her sharpened sense of 'flow'.
"Now I finally understand. Sir Divine Spirit...is not the Mountain Spirit, are you? Now that I think about it, the feeling I sensed from Sword Peak Mountain...and the 'flow' I sense from Sir Divine Spirit...are far too different. From the beginning...you were never the Divine Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain."
[...That is right. I am not something vile like a Mountain Spirit. In fact...the Mountain Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain was someone else.]
"Pardon...? Are you saying there was another Mountain Spirit?"
[Hawhaw, and what reason is there to tell you that? There's no need for you to know. Now, I advise you for the last time. Turn back... Return to the villa and enjoy the delightful drugs. Don't waste time chasing such vain things.]
For a time, Seo Ran and the old man face off.
Then, Seo Ran finally opens her mouth.
"The domain my mother reached...is not something meaningless."
[...It seems there's no point in speaking further.]
The old man who has confirmed the resolve that has settled in Seo Ran's heart.
The Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable nods.
[Then...just like your parents and kin who died first...you too are my enemy. I am this Unruly Realm itself. Therefore, you have now made this entire world your enemy.]
"Is that so?"
[You have now...turned the flow of the era into your enemy.]
Seo Ran nods as she receives the words of Sal Tree.
Then she speaks.
"My mother...faced the flow of the era head-on with her own strength alone. If I can just enter that domain...then the flow of the era or whatever doesn't matter. So, please, do not block my path any longer, and never appear before me again!"
[...]
At Seo Ran's outcry, the lingering thought of Sal Tree fades away.
And as she steps over the spot where the fading remnant once was, she smiles.
"I will reach it, Mother."
No matter what she must do.
Vowing those words, Seo Ran returns to Jeongyeong City, to the Royal Guards.
Seo Ran begins practicing martial arts again, which she has neglected until now.
She also continues refining the 'Shooting Method' that combines martial techniques with marksmanship.
In order to reach that realm without fail,
She hones every part of herself and trains in unifying all her thought (念) into one.
One year passes.
Kang Min-hee remains by her side.
Seo Ran refines herself, and to ensure her training time is firmly guaranteed, she properly pledges loyalty to the current emperor, upholding him as the core of Hyun Kingdom.
Two years pass.
Kang Min-hee begins to record Seo Ran's journey.
Seo Ran rises to become the center of Hyun Kingdom, and as she follows the orders of the emperor, who again seeks to centralize authority, she secures even more training time, and earns the right to consume all manner of elixirs.
Three years pass.
Kang Min-hee starts to follow her everywhere.
At last, Seo Ran somewhat succeeds in laying the foundations for the emperor's centralized rule.
And finally...
Over a decade later.
Kang Min-hee can only be astonished.
Seo Ran...
Surpasses peak master and reaches the realm of Five Energies Converging to the Origin in a single go.
Dududuk, duk!
As Seo Ran finishes her complete transformation, her Dharma protector Kang Min-hee asks.
"Do you feel anything different, Ran-ah?"
"...I'm not sure. The Quaking Heat Body has subsided a bit. But it's still not completely gone yet. Though if I take one step further from here...I think the Quaking Heat Body will completely vanish..."
"One more step..."
Listening to her words, Kang Min-hee understands what is needed.
Gang Sphere!
If she climbs to Ultimate Pinnacle, forms the Gang Sphere, creates the Inner Core, and brings perfect balance to the body...
Only then will her body truly find equilibrium again.
'Really...it is an absurd rate of growth.'
Seo Ran, the direct descendant of two True Immortals...
...is quite literally a genius who surpasses everything.
'At this rate, isn't it only a matter of time before she reaches Ultimate Pinnacle? And when that happens...truly...'
As long as she's properly guaranteed training time by the imperial family, she will truly overcome her Heavenly Penalty and come to know her fate.
'Truly...Seo Eun-hyun. The day your child reaches completion...is not far off.'
The day she fully awakens to her fate.
On that day, her personality will be properly etched into her essence that is her fate,
And at that moment, she will finally gain the treatment of a proper innate Sacred Vessel.
Kang Min-hee, watching Seo Ran who has grown so much before she knew it, can't help but feel proud.
Yes.
If the flow of the era had not tried to cast them out...
...that feeling might have continued.
The emperor of Hyun Kingdom, whom Seo Ran supports and upholds in power, is foolish.
Though Hyun Kingdom is already divided and half-torn by warlords, he failed to grasp his position and tried to restructure the system into a centralized nation.
When the warlords refused to obey in this situation, he attempted to hand over various rights of Hyun Kingdom to Seo Kingdom, asking them to subdue the warlords on his behalf.
In doing so, the people of Hyun Kingdom, who have suffered at the hands of Seo Kingdom for over a decade, rose in rebellion.
Countless warlords, unable to ignore the will of the people, also raised armies and simultaneously declared rebellion against the Hyun Imperial Family.
The Royal Guards collapsed in an instant, and the enraged citizens attempted to tear the emperor to pieces.
In the midst of this chaos, Seo Ran, alongside Kang Min-hee, rescued the emperor to whom she has already sworn loyalty to regardless of what has happened, and displayed her power before countless citizens.
And...
That was the problem.
Not only has she reached the summit of Martial Arts by Unbinding Star standards, she also attained the pinnacle of marksmanship. Her very existence stirred greed and wariness among the warlords.
As a result, the emperor and Seo Ran, who originally planned to flee Jeongyeong City and hide the emperor in a remote region of Hyun Kingdom, ended up in a situation where they are now semi-forced to remain confined within Jeongyeong City once again.
This all unfolded within half a year after Seo Ran rose to Five Energies Converging to the Origin.
"Ran-ah... Right now, the citizens outside the imperial palace are determined to tear the emperor apart. Wouldn't it be better to just hand the emperor over to some fitting warlord...and secure your training time?"
"..."
Kang Min-hee speaks as she looks at Seo Ran standing guard in front of the emperor's chambers.
"I've made a list of the warlords who at least seem likely to last a bit. Take a look and make a decision, Ran-ah. Your growth is too precious to be wasted here. Please...move on to the next realm and completely erase the side effects of your Quaking Heat Body. Wouldn't that be better?"
She speaks while looking at Seo Ran earnestly.
And Seo Ran smiles faintly.
"Hee Unnie. Thank you, truly. Even after all this, you're still by my side..."
"..."
"But...there's no helping it. Since I've decided to follow the emperor, I might as well go all the way."
"What...? What has that foolish emperor ever done for you...?"
"Not much, really. Ah... He did accept my request and blocked the shutdown of your newspaper a few times."
"..."
"Of course, that's not really a huge grace. But you want to ask why I would show such loyalty over such a small grace, right?"
"...Yeah."
"The reason is...it's all the same anyway."
"The same...?"
"Yes."
Seo Ran nods as she recalls that moment from over a decade ago.
The old spirit holding a flower basket.
The moment she saw the true nature of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.
Already then, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable said he is the ruler of this world and that the flow of the era would turn against her.
Which means...
No matter which faction she joins or how she shifts her position, the era will inevitably oppose her.
This too is part of the 'flow'.
She understands clearly that the vast 'flows' running through the world have been commanded by the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable to hate her.
Therefore, whether she abandons the emperor or not, the result is the same.
"If the result is the same anyway...then I'll choose the one with even the slightest good memory."
"Good memory?"
"The fireworks I saw for the first time in Jeongyeong City when I was little. I heard those fireworks first started on the emperor's orders. Since I have a happy memory of watching those fireworks...I'm just moving for the emperor who gave me that memory."
'Fireworks...'
Kang Min-hee recalls Seo Ran's fifteenth birthday and suddenly feels an ominous sense of foreboding.
And Kang Min-hee's foreboding is not wrong.
The factions of the warlords have surrounded Jeongyeong City with countless firearms.
"...Ran-ah. There really are no options left now. If the emperor doesn't come out...it seems the warlords plan on bombing the entire city. They're probably trying to strike first, worried that the Seo Kingdom might take the emperor's side. The citizens are rioting out there. Of course, if they care about the will of the people, they might not actually fire, but...even the threat alone feels enough to break open the palace gates. Ran-ah, it's not too late even now..."
"...Just a moment, Hee Unnie. The emperor is quietly calling."
Seo Ran leaves Kang Min-hee behind and enters the emperor's room, speaking with him for some time.
And when she returns, what she says leaves Kang Min-hee dumbfounded.
"He says he'll escape with Hee Unnie through the secret passage...and that I should draw the warlords' attention to buy time for him to flee."
"...Ran-ah, let's just kill that bastard."
Kang Min-hee is truly dumbfounded that a mere mortal Emperor dares to use Seo Ran, the child of True Immortals, in such a way.
'If I were in my main body, a human who wouldn't even deserve to lick the foot of a ghost soul that gnaws at the dead skin of my toe...dares tell Ran to be...what? Bait?'
Crack...
Kang Min-hee, seething with sincere rage, spreads ghostly energy gathered through ordinary internal energy methods and starts to head into the Emperor's chambers.
But in the end, Seo Ran blocks Kang Min-hee.
"Hee Unnie. Please listen to the Emperor's words. If we just stay like this...the warlords will fire at least one or two shells into the city as a threat. It may be just for intimidation, but even that will kill or injure many people."
"...You want me to escape with that trash while you become the bait? Rather, let's switch. I'll be the bait, and you take that garbage out through the secret passage."
"...Unnie."
And then, looking into Seo Ran's eyes, Kang Min-hee understands.
"Please grant me this request."
"..."
That she absolutely cannot refuse that look in Seo Ran's eyes.
"...Fine."
Kang Min-hee nods, and Seo Ran smiles faintly as she reads the 'flow'.
Ever since the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable declared he would oppose her, many years ago...
She has been able to know her ending.
'I see it...'
The vision of countless shells and bullets tearing through her body as she dies.
That is her end.
'Now...I'm going to die soon.'
-x-X-x-
'The flow' is absolute.
It is something that can never be changed, and to Seo Ran, the end of that flow feels like 'this evening'.
Seo Ran acknowledges this bitterly as she watches Kang Min-hee beat the emperor and shove him into the secret passage.
'...Even so, at least Min-hee Unnie...really stayed by my side until the very end.'
She didn't follow the 'flow' as Seo Ran had predicted. Instead, she stayed by her side.
'Of course, it's not that the flow isn't absolute...I think something between Min-hee Unnie and Mother influenced the flow.'
She thinks maybe her mother had the ability to interfere with the 'flow' itself.
But still...
Even if Kim Yeon did something, in the end, it is Kang Min-hee's own will that led her to stay by Seo Ran's side and follow her through everything.
Watching Kang Min-hee, Seo Ran feels like she understands what Kim Yeon meant now.
That for Seo Ran's sake, she would leave behind someone who would love her more than Kim Yeon herself.
She can feel it too.
Kang Min-hee's affection...
It truly runs deep and even deeper.
'That's why, I won't let Min-hee Unnie get caught up in this.'
She grips in both hands the pistol Min-hee gave her long ago and the pistol Kim Yeon had crafted for her, and she sits down, waiting for the evening.
'It's almost time...for everything to end.'
The evening glow slowly begins to cast its light over the imperial palace, elongating Seo Ran's shadow.
At the edge of that stretched shadow, Seo Ran sees a grotesque worm covered in black flowers all over its body appear.
It is a being she knows well—the worm with an old man's face on its head.
[I shall give you one last chance, Ran-ah. So...please say that you will not enter your mother's domain. If you do so, I shall manifest everything you desire in this world. Whatever future you wish...the ancient force is limitless, and with it, I can twist the world to create whatever reality you want. Ran-ah...please, choose me.]
"Hm... You ask me to choose you, and yet you show up in such a repulsive form?"
[...Repulsive form?]
"...Ah, I see."
And while looking at the worm-like form of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, Seo Ran realizes something.
'That divine spirit didn't intentionally choose that form. It's just...I am seeing his true essence.'
Realizing this, she smiles faintly.
"You said you would give me the future I desire, right?"
[Indeed.]
"Then give me a future where I overcome you."
[...]
"I am...someone with a pretty strong rebellious streak who wants to overcome everyone that stands above me and tries to dictate my life, you see."
Seo Ran extends her hand as she makes that request to Sal Tree.
But this time, Sal Tree does not take her hand.
"Looks like you don't like that. In that case, never mind. Even if I die today..."
Cheok—
Seo Ran stands up, pistols in both hands.
"...I want to take even a single step closer...to Mother and Father."
Rustle rustle—
Glaring at her as she says this, the illusion of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable scatters.
Immediately after, with a strangely unburdened expression, Seo Ran uses lightness skills and ascends the palace wall.
Standing atop the wall, she lets out a lion's roar.
[The last vassal of the current emperor, the strongest power of the Hyun Kingdom, I—Seo Ran—am here!]
Kururung!
Those who hear Seo Ran's shout all turn to look at her.
Then, countless attacks begin to rain down on her.
Countless bullets fly toward her, and she briefly retreats from the palace wall, then starts running toward the outer wall of Jeongyeong City.
Immediately after, she makes a running start to the outer wall before jumping and lightening her body.
Tadat!
'I should've practiced air stepping a bit more. I focused too much on internal energy cultivation, trying to imitate Mother...'
Standing atop the outer wall, she unleashes a lion's roar toward the warlords stationed outside.
[I, Seo Ran, the strongest martial artist of Hyun Kingdom you all so desperately seek, am here! Stop firing on the innocent civilians!]
Seeing her like that, warlords from all directions begin sending out their subordinates.
Numerous peak masters, and even several masters of Three Flowers Gather at the Summit, all begin scaling the outer wall at once, rushing toward her.
Seeing them, Seo Ran prepares to face her end.
And it is at that moment.
Kwaaang!
A massive shell comes flying toward her.
At that moment, a silhouette shrouded in black ghostly energy blocks the space between her and the shell in an instant.
Tukwang!
Immediately after, the black silhouette swings a ghost claw extending from their hand and twists the trajectory of the shell, sending it flying elsewhere.
Kugwagwang!
The shell crashes into the interior of the outer wall, right inside the palace from where she had just emerged, and explodes with a roar.
Seo Ran looks at the one who used the ghost claw.
It's Kang Min-hee.
"I decently educated the emperor and got him out. Then I rushed over, Ran-ah. No matter how I think about it, I just can't leave you alone."
"If someone saw you, they'd think Hee Unnie is my nanny, hoho..."
"Hmph, whatever... You, the reason you obediently followed all the emperor's orders was because of that, wasn't it? Your fate...has run out, hasn't it?"
"..."
At Kang Min-hee's question, Seo Ran slowly nods her head.
"Huuu... If that bastard Sal Tree hadn't eroded you, your natural lifespan would've been much longer... What even is this? Why do you have to die at such a young age...? I just don't get it."
Grumbling, Kang Min-hee blows away the peak masters rushing at them with her ghost claw.
For a while, the two women are wholly absorbed in fending off the subordinates of the warlords.
Kang Min-hee with her ghost claw, and Seo Ran with her twin pistols.
"...Seo Ran."
"You're swinging the ghost claw all wrong. Let me show you how it's done."
"Your mother...Kim Yeon...at the end, told you to be happy. Ran-ah, were you...happy?"
"...Who knows. But anyway..."
Seo Ran moves behind Kang Min-hee, grabs her arm, and swings it in her stead, teaching her how to systematically wield the ghost claw to kill the enemies.
That is a martial art in and of itself.
The evening glow fades.
And Seo Ran, embracing Kang Min-hee from behind, dances while fending off the many peak masters under the waning sunset.
"Seo Ran."
"Yes, Hee Unnie. Just use the ghost claw the way I showed you. I just came up with it, but...it should be pretty useful. Let's call it, hmm...the Ghost Hand Claw Method, maybe?"
"Seo Ran."
"...Yes?"
"Were you happy?"
"..."
Seo Ran looks up at the sky for a moment.
Now, the time of her death is near.
The warlords, realizing that not even peak masters can leave a single scratch on her, let alone capture her, are now preparing to fire all their cannons at once.
"What even is happiness, really?"
"...Well, they say it's doing what you want to do, eating what you want to eat...seeing the people you want to see... Those small things gather together to become happiness."
"...There are people I want to see."
"Who?"
"My mother and father."
At Seo Ran's words, Kang Min-hee pauses for a moment, seemingly in thought, then slowly raises her arm.
'She should be able to withstand this much. After all, she's reached Five Energies Converging to the Origin, and she is the child of Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon. At least this much...'
She will be able to endure.
Her fingertip points beyond the outer wall, toward the Sword Peak Mountain where Seo Ran once lived long ago.
"...Do you know who the Mountain Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain is?"
"Hmm, who is it?"
"Seo Eun-hyun."
"...Pardon?"
"Seo Eun-hyun was the Mountain Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain. And your mother, Kim Yeon...was a powerful divine spirit comparable to him. You are the child of divine spirits, Seo Ran."
Wo-woong!
Is it because her words alone hold a certain level of [wisdom]? Seo Ran stands frozen on the spot, her body trembling with difficulty for a moment.
However...
More than the hardship, Seo Ran seems to feel a sense of lightness.
With just that one sentence, countless questions unravel.
She always thought they were extraordinary beings, but...
To think they were divine spirits!
"...Why didn't you tell me that until now?"
"Until now, your personality was unstable. If I said it recklessly, there was a risk of it collapsing entirely."
"...I see. Well...it's all my fault, then."
Seo Ran lowers her head for a moment, then mutters while looking at Sword Peak Mountain from the outer wall of Jeongyeong City.
"...If Sword Peak Mountain truly was my father's mountain and that's why I always felt so at peace there, Hee Unnie, if I die, please bury my bones in my father's embrace. Hoho...air stepping...I should've at least learned it properly."
The sun is setting.
Darkness slowly blankets all of Jeongyeong City, and in that darkness, Seo Ran looks up at the peak of Sword Peak Mountain.
At that moment, Kang Min-hee snaps her fingers.
Ttak!
Then, one of Kang Min-hee's strands of hair lengthens and becomes a blue thread stretching from the outer wall all the way to the summit of Sword Peak Mountain.
"This is..."
"...It's something similar to what your mother did."
Kang Min-hee turns her gaze away from Seo Ran, who is preparing for her end.
She simply cannot bring herself to look directly at her.
Kugugugugu!
Simultaneously, she draws out her innate authority, even at the cost of her life and a fatal wound to her main body.
[Bridle Creation].
Through her authority that creates laws, a law is added to the strand of hair stretching to the summit of Sword Peak Mountain.
'[As long as Seo Ran does not give up, the thread shall never break].'
Kiiiiiiing!
She neither possesses Entering Heavens Beyond the Path like Kim Yeon, nor holds any inherited legacy of her predecessors, so she cannot wield as powerful an authority as Kim Yeon.
Even at the cost of consuming her incarnation, this limited power is all she can reach.
But she is satisfied.
"I always said I would protect, but I never managed to protect anyone. Because I am weak, I couldn't even protect the person I liked, and I couldn't save those who liked me. So..."
Woo-woong!
Kang Min-hee plucks another strand of hair and mutters as she imbues it with another law.
"At least you, the most precious result of the people I love...I will protect you no matter what. Go, Seo Ran!"
In her eyes, every moment with Seo Ran flashes by.
When Seo Ran was still in Kim Yeon's womb.
When she was just born.
When Seo Ran gradually grew up, became her friend, and spent time together.
When she witnessed Seo Ran's pain from up close.
Following her, all the way to this moment...
Short from the eyes of a transcendent being, but unbearably long from a mortal's perspective.
Kang Min-hee, determined to protect that time at all costs, grinds down her own being and cries out.
"As long as I am using my authority...you will never die, so go!"
"...Yes. Hee Unnie."
Seo Ran looks at Kang Min-hee for a moment, then with a bright smile, steps onto the strand of Kang Min-hee's blue hair, making her way to Sword Peak Mountain.
A black shadow-like world.
There, a worm made of black flowers clicks its tongue while gazing toward somewhere.
[Right. I realized it from the moment she perceived my essence despite its concealment... So it was like that after all.]
In the worm's eyes, a certain space of the Unruly Realm appears.
There, Seo Ran is shown walking toward Sword Peak Mountain by stepping on a thin thread.
However, the worm sees something more.
It is the very 'paper flowers' beginning to bloom inside Seo Ran's chest.
[Dangerous. She must be intercepted.]
At the words carrying the will of the worm, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, countless warlords begin to simultaneously aim their guns and cannons at Seo Ran.
At last, the sky over Jeongyeong City has become night.
The time when she is originally supposed to die is now here, and the fireworks marking her final moment begins.
-x-X-x-
Tututututu!
Countless bullets and shells, imbued with the force of explosion, pour down solely to kill Seo Ran.
The thin strand of hair.
Atop the blue thread, Seo Ran runs while holding pistols.
The 'Hyun Style Fighting Method' she learned from Seo Eun-hyun has evolved through her modifications into the 'Hyun Style Shooting Method'.
Unlike the original method that unfolded through the body, this technique channels internal energy into firearms and shoots it out.
Her unique martial art that is not quite a martial art begins to unfold with full power.
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
Twin Fang.
Ghost Fang.
Heat Fang.
The pistols in both her hands fire simultaneously, colliding with the massive shells.
The bullets infused with ghostly energy strike the shells and detonate them on contact, while the bullets imbued with heat melt the warheads of the shells entirely.
The essence of Qi is explosion.
Therefore, the 'gun', which fires by triggering explosions, might actually be the most optimized weapon for wielding Qi.
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
True Fang (眞牙).
Kwang, kwang kwaaang!
From Seo Ran's pistol erupts the roar of artillery fire, shooting down every shell that might have threatened the civilians below if they had fallen.
'How did you do that, Mother?'
Seo Ran recalls Kim Yeon's Full Blossom.
The endless affection contained within that Full Blossom.
She remembers that feeling vividly and begins to squeeze out every bit of power in her entire body to reach it.
And the more she does, the more shells fly toward her.
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
Dual Circle True Fang (二圓眞牙).
Woo-wooong!
From Seo Ran's hands, a faint explosion seems to occur.
At the same time, two circular ripples spread out from both her hands, and every bullet she fires carries those ripples.
Tat, tadat!
But in the end, a pistol is a pistol.
'Am I out of bullets...?'
Seo Ran realizes she's used up all her rounds and lets out a bitter smile.
'Well...it doesn't matter.'
Woo-wooong!
She points the empty muzzle of her gun at the incoming shells and smiles.
'I can squeeze out more, so this is actually better.'
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
Taiji True Fang (太極眞牙).
Dual Circle True Fang (二圓眞牙).
Linked Technique.
Polar Resonance True Fang (異極共鳴眞牙).
Tududududu!
As if Taiji settles directly into the pistols in Seo Ran's hands, the very force of explosion itself begins to burst forth from her guns.
Moreover, those explosions resonate with each other, growing larger and larger.
Watching Seo Ran like that, Kang Min-hee reveals a faint expression of worry.
'She's firing explosions because she's out of bullets... But doing that will burn through her internal energy like mad, and she'll even have to draw on her innate true energy...'
She is worried about one thing.
Quaking Heat Body!
Though it has greatly subsided after reaching Five Energies Converging to the Origin and undergoing complete transformation, the Quaking Heat Body has not completely disappeared.
And is it that her worry proves right?
Freeze!
At last, Seo Ran, who had been running without pause atop the thin thread, comes to a halt.
Kang Min-hee's eyes glint with dread.
'Seo Ran...'
Seo Ran feels cold sweat trickling down her body.
'It hurts...'
It is painful.
Is it because she's been recklessly unleashing both her internal energy and innate true energy because it's her last day?
Her Heavenly Penalty begins to flare up.
The Quaking Heat Body contracts her muscles and causes her to lose her sense of balance.
'N-No...'
To keep her body from falling as she loses balance, she fires an explosion in the direction she is leaning.
Kwaaang!
The gun barrel overheats, and she staggers.
'Heheok...heok...'
Seo Ran, drenched in cold sweat as if in a rain, looks toward the still halfway-distant path to Sword Peak Mountain.
'It's too far... Can I even make it...?'
To make matters worse, she's starting to lose her sense of balance, and it feels like she'll fall at any moment.
Moreover, this tightrope itself is made by crazily extending and hardening a single strand of Kang Min-hee's hair.
It's only natural that it's hard to maintain balance.
Hwioooooo—
On top of that, the wind begins to blow, violently shaking the rope, and Seo Ran clenches her teeth amidst the fear of falling.
A while later.
Shiver shiver shiver...
Despite trembling all over, Seo Ran begins to move forward.
Her body is in pain, her internal energy is depleted, and she is now even drawing from her innate true energy, but she doesn't care.
Shells and bullets occasionally fly toward her, but she doesn't care about those either.
At first, it is agonizing.
She is tormented by the question of why she has to endure this and the tension of standing atop this tightrope.
But at some point,
She suddenly has a thought.
'Either way...even if I scream from the pain, there's nothing I can do.'
So then, what should she do?
'Accept...it.'
She accepts her Heavenly Penalty, the Quaking Heat Body.
And as she accepts the pain of the Quaking Heat Body, something surfaces in her mind.
It is...
A memory from her childhood.
'Ah...right. I definitely...wanted to become an acrobat.'
She hated Martial Arts.
To her, it felt like just another method of fate forcing her life in a single direction.
Because of that, she wanted to do something unrelated to Martial Arts.
The acrobat of the acting troupe she had watched with her family as a child looked so beautiful in the eyes of her young self.
It wasn't the acrobat's sense of balance that was beautiful.
It was the act of bringing joy to someone else...
That looked beautiful.
'Mother's Full Blossom...yes. It made me warm... Then...what is what I am trying to reach giving to others?'
Step, step.
Seo Ran begins to walk forward, step by step.
Her footwork is no longer that of a martial artist.
Instead, it is the footwork of an acrobat—something she had occasionally practiced as a hobby, something she remembered from watching those performers.
Elegant in some ways.
Precarious in others.
Just like that, she becomes an acrobat walking the tightrope toward Sword Peak Mountain.
'I want...to bring joy.'
Only then does she remember.
The memory of herself, amazed and delighted as she watched the acrobat.
The happiness she felt watching fireworks for the first time...
'I never knew the reason why I was living.'
With every step she takes, she feels something awakening within her.
'Everyone always hoped I would overcome my fate. But...I thought of that very hope as fate itself, feeling burdened by it, and wanted to escape from it.'
Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon thought that Seo Ran overcoming and escaping her Heavenly Penalty, the Quaking Heat Body, would help realize her fate and hence made her learn martial arts.
However, even that very attempt by Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon became a form of fate for her.
That is why she hated learning martial arts.
'Now that I think about it...maybe what I really wanted to learn was not how to kill. but how to laugh together with others...'
Hwiooooooo—
Suddenly, as she comes to her senses, she realizes that she has climbed to quite a height.
Despite standing on the tightrope that she seemed ready to fall from at any moment, she does not fall.
Even though she is in the midst of a Quaking Heat Body seizure and has lost her sense of balance, she remains utterly still, as if she has gained perfect equilibrium.
She feels it with each step she takes.
Her heart gradually empties.
Death is approaching.
'Was my fate the fate of overcoming fate...?'
Seo Ran half-opens her eyes and moves forward.
Strangely, it feels as though she is walking on level ground.
'Honestly, I don't know. Fate, martial arts...I never cared about any of it. I just...'
Recalling the first time she ever saw fireworks, she remembers once more—
That happiness...
The desire to enjoy that moment again with her parents surfaces in her mind.
And at that moment, when all thoughts other than that one become empty...
Hwioooong—
From behind her, a cannon shell flies in, attempting to shoot her down.
Click—
Now even her bullets are all gone, and both her innate true energy and internal energy are nearly depleted.
And yet, for some reason, she points her gun toward the shell.
Then immediately after, she pulls the trigger.
At the same time—
Taaang—
A powerful gunshot rings out from the muzzle, and she suddenly feels as though the world around her brightens.
Kang Min-hee widens her eyes, realizing what Seo Ran has done.
Despite their anxiety, the countless civilians in Jeongyeong City gasp in awe at the beauty.
Countless people cry out in admiration at the sight.
It is...
A firework display, like an explosion of firecrackers.
Kwaang, kwaang, kwaang!
Explosions echo as countless shells are fired toward Seo Ran.
Each time, she simply pulls the trigger with a face full of nostalgia.
And...
Every time she pulls the trigger, all the shells flying toward her transform into firecrackers, filling the sky with the dazzling light of fireworks.
Peong, peobeobeong!
She faintly recalls something her parents once said.
—The era of gunpowder...that your mother and I wove together.
"Entering...Heavens...Beyond the Path..."
As her innate true energy drains, Seo Ran continues to speak with a faint smile.
Without even realizing that what she is unleashing is something entirely different from Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, she creates countless fireworks as she endlessly ascends toward Sword Peak Mountain.
"The Era...of Fireworks."
The shadow world.
There, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable looks at Seo Ran as if it's ridiculous.
[I see... When Kim Yeon unfolded Manifestation, she resonated her own cultivation with his power. So that's when she first entered the door...]
Outer wall of Jeongyeong City.
There, Kang Min-hee watches Seo Ran transform bullets fired from a gun into fireworks, and lets out a laugh of disbelief.
"...So that's an innate Sacred Vessel, huh?"
A power that twists the will of the world through sheer will alone, without cultivating any Immortal Cultivation system.
A power that some call the Primordial Origin Immortal Cultivation system.
That's right...
What Seo Ran is unfolding is an Immortal Art.
Immortal Arts.
As the Era of Fireworks marks Seo Ran's final steps, at last, she reaches the summit of Sword Peak Mountain, walking the thin thread without losing her balance in the slightest.
"I'm...back..."
The grand and majestic spiritual energy of Sword Peak Mountain, felt again after so long, embraces her.
Seo Ran feels as though she is falling asleep in the arms of her father, Seo Eun-hyun, and slowly closes her eyes.
Thanks to the traces of the Immortal Art she unleashed, countless flames of the fireworks fill the sky.
"...So many things...have happened."
And in all those many things, she has leaned much.
Seo Ran smiles as she reflects on the twisted, tangled path that her life had been.
"Even so...I think I understand now..."
What some call their fate, and others call the reason they were born.
Seo Ran finally thinks she understands it.
A fate that overcomes fate.
What does it mean to overcome fate?
It's simple.
Fate cannot be overcome.
Just as Seo Ran ultimately failed to fully break free from her Heavenly Penalty...
Fate is not something to overcome, but perhaps something to be accepted.
Yes...
Accepting fate, but still dreaming of a better tomorrow.
A fate that overcomes fate may mean, in the end, the fate of accepting one's fate yet endlessly struggling toward the dream one wishes for within it.
Since life is but a fleeting spring dream (一場春夢), perhaps it is enough to simply accept its fleeting nature and pursue the beauty within.
Just as the being known as Seo Ran...
...even though she resented all the fates forced upon, accepted them in the end, and now closes her eyes while walking the tightrope and watching the fireworks that she had always dreamed of.
Pasasasasa—
As Seo Ran closes her eyes, an overwhelming number of paper flowers begin to appear from within her.
Those paper flowers are mixed with Seo Ran's soul.
Only after death does her soul come to understand.
Who she is.
Why she has come to live such a fate.
All the causality seems to be laid bare before her eyes.
It was a difficult life...
But without a doubt, it was a fulfilling one.
Seo Ran's soul regains the memories of her past life before she was born as 'Seo Ran'...and scatters boundless blessings upon all who are watching this world.
Flash!
All who witness the light of that blessing flinch in surprise.
In particular, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable reacts with visible shock, and outside the Unruly Realm, Seo Eun-hyun and White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus who have been watching simultaneously let out a sigh.
And...
Kang Min-hee, who loved the existence precious to Seo Eun-hyun, sheds a single stream of tears.
'Mother...Father...'
Seo Ran's soul calls out a little shyly to Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon, and Seo Eun-hyun, upon hearing that voice, sheds a single tear.
: : Yes...our child. : :
Seo Ran's past life.
Her name in that past life was Su In and Hong Yeon.
She was the power of connections formed from the split soul of the Vast Cold Heavenly King...
And the very spirit that united into one during the Seo Hweol battle.
'Thank you...for coming to us as our child.'
The power of connections that merged into one was summoned again through the intermingling of myself and Kim Yeon, taking the form of fate.
That is precisely...the true nature of my child, whom I named 'Seo Ran'.
In the midst of gratitude and regret toward Su In and Hong Yeon, I watch the final moments of my child. At the same time, through the paper flowers blooming from Seo Ran's body, I transmit to Kang Min-hee the true form of the 'Western Heaven Flower Field,' as observed from beyond its boundary.
Kugugugu!
Outside the Nether Crossing Ship.
There, a voice resounds from the countless petals covering the surroundings of the Nether Treading Ship.
: : It is a meaningless act. That one has already been too deeply eroded by the Western Heaven Flower Field. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to use power from within...and likewise, dismantling it is impossible. : :
It is the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.
I smile, recalling the long and weary battle I've fought against the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.
: : True. If it was just Kang Min-hee, perhaps that would be so... : :
I smile as I watch her reach out toward the paper flowers blooming within the Unruly Realm.
: : But...can you not feel it, Sal Tree? : :
: : ...! : :
And at last, after a long and longer time...
Kang Min-hee, who has brilliantly learned the meaning of parting, begins to grow.
Kugugung!
Centered around Kang Min-hee, the principles of the Unruly Realm begin to twist.
In the sorrow of Seo Ran's completed life coming to an end, and the grief of that farewell, she yearns for enlightenment...
And at last, she begins to advance from a True Lord into a new existence.