Chwaaaa-
I feel the power of the Radiance Mantra that has been confining me all this time scattering away.
The Underworld's authority of Cycle of Reincarnation crushes and extinguishes the authority of Regression.
At the same time, the spacetime suppression that the Radiance Mantra presides over.
That is, I feel the law that restricts spacetime movement of [all existences except light] in this world breaking apart.
Now, if anyone only has the capability, they can leap across spacetime and go to the past.
Of course, it is hard for an ordinary existence, and one must be at least at the level of a Supreme Deity of the Earth Tribe pathway.
As long as there is no restriction from the Radiance Mantra, someone like me who is Immortal Beast King, or the Underworld, or the Heavenly Venerable of Time can regress by their own will.
But...
If I do not regress by my own will,
I will never come back to life.
:: Seo Eun-hyun. Since the Radiance Mantra is broken...let us begin the clean-up. ::
The Underworld speaks to me.
I squeeze out my last remaining strength.
:: I, by the authority of the Immortal Beast King, declare... : :
My singe utterance resounds through the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World.
And the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, who carries countless spirits, begins to move their Gandhara.
:: I, in the name of the [oldest Earth Immortal]...::
Kugugugugu!!!
At the Underworld's single utterance, the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World begins to quake and tremble.
Immediately after, Yeong Seung, who has been on standby, appears.
Yeong Seung borrows the power of the Source River that has been subsumed by the Artificial Gandhara, and, temporarily borrowing the power of the Northern Dipper Sealing Immortal Flag from me, creates a gigantic structure centered around himself.
A celestial sphere of starlight in which countless needles and mechanical devices interweave.
From Yeong Seung's body, the will of the Heavenly Venerable of Time settles, and declares an utterance.
:: I, the God Calendrical Methods, by the authority of the Owner of Passing Time, declare... ::
The Immortal Beast King.
The Highest Earth Immortal.
The God of Time.
As the powers and agreements of the three existences overlap, a point in the past falls into our grasp.
As the authorities of three Governing Immortals at the Heavenly Venerable level overlap, the world is rewritten.
By the authorities of the three Imperial Venerables,
History begins to rewind.
Now that the Radiance Mantra has vanished,
The time of the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World is regressed by the three Imperial Venerables.
To commemorate the existences that, influenced by my fight with the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, met a regrettable annihilation.
It is a regression carried out to give back the lives and homelands of mortal beings.
Although existences above Quasi-Immortal are not affected by the regression, and those at the Sacred Vessel stage and the Star Shattering stage would feel a sense of dissonance...
Mortal beings below that will receive, without any side effect, as compensation for being unfairly swept up and killed by the battle of transcendents, the gift of a new life.
Kugugugugu!!!
Watching history rewind,
Wo-woong!!
I, holding the corpses of Hong Fan and the Five Desires Chain in my arms, begin to walk toward the Seat of the Mountain visible before my eyes.
If we recklessly turn back time without countermeasures, in the worst-case scenario, something like the Great Mountain Supreme Deity could be born, so I must seize the Seat.
Although he is annihilated, precisely because he is annihilated, what resurrects could be not the Great Mountain Supreme Deity himself, but a Blood Yin-like monster similar to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Such a birth would be an insult even to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, so I, as the courtesy of a Junior Brother, must seize this Seat.
Countless True Immortals feel time turning back and are taken aback, but even amid that, mountain divine spirits across the world who have been suppressed by the Great Mountain Supreme Deity begin to aim for what I have set before my eyes.
Kugugugugu!!!
Earth Immortals who follow the Immortal Dao of the Mountain yet failed to make a name, hiding in fear of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Heaven Immortals that are mountain divine spirits of Radiance Hall, like Ho Woon, who were prepared as candidates to usurp the Seat of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity in emergencies.
Among them, the mountain divine spirits at the realm of Great Net Immortal all at once attempt advancement to usurp the emptied Mountain Seat.
I look at the sight before my eyes.
The process of seizing the Seat, though it may look ridiculous, looks quite similar to the process of a sperm meeting an egg and fertilizing.
Only the first Great Net Immortal to seat itself on a single Seat becomes the Immortal Lord.
Kugugugugu!
Only, unlike the fertilization of life, even if one becomes an Immortal Lord and grows stronger than others, one continues to be threatened by others.
In my eyes, within the reverse side of the regressing Three Heavens Great Thousand World,
The world inside the Origin Essence of the Mountain, formed by the authority of the Mountain Immortal Dao.
That Immortal Domain is reflected.
The Heaven and Earth Great Immortals who enter the Immortal Domain, including me, number seventeen in total.
Most of them, watching my reaction, set their eyes on the center of the Origin Source of the Mountain.
They covet the origin of the Immortal Dao.
As if communications pass speedily among them, they all at once join hands and begin to oppose me.
From their standpoint, I, who defeated the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, am the greatest obstacle, so they want to get rid of me, an out-of-standard powerhouse, as quickly as possible, and then fight among themselves who look more or less manageable.
'I suppose they think it's worth a try.'
Inside the world of the Origin Essence, inside the Immortal Domain, the laws of the outside hardly apply.
The power of fate and history operates only faintly, and the authorities of other Origin Essences are also halved.
The strongest power within an Origin Essence is only the authority of the Immortal Dao derived from that Origin Essence.
In other words, to seize the Seat, one must fight and win within the interior of this Origin Essence of the Mountain using only the power of the Mountain Immortal Dao and one's understanding of it.
Thus they believe that my power, armed with all sorts of strange mantras, the authority of the Immortal Beast King, and the power of Martial Pinnacle, does not apply strongly.
On top of that, they seem to think I must be tired from facing the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, blocking Splitting Heaven, and even turning back time.
Wo-woong-
'There is one more.'
And, at the center of the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
As I sense the presence felt from the Seat, I understand why those existences try to face me through such a reckless act.
It is the will of Gwak Am.
Gwak Am, the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, left his will in the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
-I do not acknowledge you.
To the end.
That tenacious and stubborn will that, even as he died, never acknowledged me.
That arrogant consciousness that only he is the sole heir to the robe and alms bowl of Salt Mountain.
That is what repels me, who defeated the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, the most strongly.
The one closest to the Origin Essence of the Mountain, yet the most rejected.
Because that is me, unlike other mountain divine spirits, even the power of the Mountain Immortal Dao inside the Immortal Domain within the Origin Essence is partially reduced for me.
However,
Not the slightest bit of a thought of defeat arises within me.
The understanding of the Mountain Immortal Dao that I learned from Ho Woon.
The understanding of repentant enlightenment that I learned from Salt Sea.
The authority of the mountain that I realized while fighting against Gwak Am.
Holding all that understanding in these hands, I begin to shake the entirety of the Mountain Immortal Domain by my
will.
At my will, they all let out silent exclamations.
::...Do you seek to strike me down and sit in that place, O Great Immortals? Are you not afraid of me? Though this Immortal is tired, though the Origin Essence of the Mountain rejects this Immortal, though your numbers are many...do you think you can dare face this Immortal!? ::
I speak while looking around at the sixteen Great Net Immortals who approach me and begin to form a formation.
:: O second disciple of the great Salt Mountain, ::
And the sixteen disciples answer me with a very courteous attitude.
:: All here acknowledge your great achievements. ::
:: Normally, we are existences who cannot even stand before you. ::
:: Though we are Great Net Immortals, before you we are existences who cannot dare put forth our names. ::
:: But precisely so, unless it is here, we cannot stand against an existence like you. ::
They surround me with a serious attitude and speak.
:: We too are those who accepted death and ascended to True Immortality. ::
:: Death is not frightening. ::
:: Only, what is frightening is to miss, without even attempting, the chance of advancement to Governing Immortal
that may not come once in a lifetime even for a True Immortal. : :
:: Only, what is frightening is to squander, against an existence like you, the chance to seize the Seat by burning all our souls.::
:: Only, what is frightening is to waste the chance to climb the Immortal Dao and see its end! ::
I look at them.
:: Only, what is frightening is, having been unable to unfold our will under the Great Mountain Supreme Deity...to
do nothing and let the chance to reach the end of Immortal Cultivation that has finally come slip by. ::
:: If we die, it is merely that our Immortal affinity is lacking! ::
:: Even if we die, there is no shame in dying to an opponent like you. So we do not resent you, O honorable Mountain Divine Spirit Sword Mountain Devil Lord. We humbly ask for your teaching! ::
They are not those who come seeking the greed of advancement to Immortal Lord.
Rather, as ones who stepped onto the Immortal Dao, they are beings who have come seeking a chance to reach its end!
::...I apologize. I did not try to know your true intent, and I harbored a heart that discounts and disdains you. This is an insult to you. ::
I deliver an apology to the mountain divine spirits and begin in earnest to exert the authority of the Mountain Immortal Dao.
If they are True Immortals, except for a few, not a single one of them is ordinary.
To accept death, by whatever path, is something one can do only because one possesses an extraordinary will.
Moreover, these are Great Net Immortals!
They are not existences I dare to look down upon.
:: I pay respect to you...and I too shall go with sincerity! ::
I wring dry my now-empty Immortal Body and true soul.
Chwaaaaa!
The will I have carried through until now materialises as the authority of the Mountain Immortal Dao.
Chwajak, chwajajajajajak!!!
Around me, colorless glass swords begin to sprout.
Starting from that, the swords of glass gradually begin to cover the universe of the Origin Essence of the Mountain, the entire Immortal Domain.
The sixteen Great Immortals also cause mountains of their own to bloom around them.
There are those who bloom Volcanos, those who bloom Mount Wudangs, and those who bloom Mount Emeis.
There are those who bloom the Hundred-Thousand Great Mountains, and there are those who bloom Snow Mountains.
Among them, I look at the one who blooms snow mountains.
That being is a faceless divine spirit of blue light.
It is clearly certain that they are of the Earth Tribe origin, yet that Great Net Immortal is of the Heaven Immortal
lineage...
For some reason, they are so familiar.
'I see.'
It is Ho Woon.
From killing the Naming Supreme Deity with Radiance Hall, waging war against Radiance Hall, and even battling against the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, a long time has passed.
Enough time for the Heaven Immortal Ho Woon to resurrect, resume cultivation again, become a Great Net Immortal, and challenge the Origin Essence.
Though it is not a very long time, but in this life so fierce and full of countless grand events, there must have been many enlightenments and authorities to be gained from them.
Huarurururuk!!!
The flames of the Volcano Mountain Divine spirit melt the Glass Sword Mountain.
The Snow Mountain Divine Spirit Ho Woon scatters snow and covers the Glass Sword Mountain.
There is also a Sand Mountain Divine Spirit, and they cover the Glass Sword Mountain with a desert.
Thus, answering the Glass Sword Mountain with each of their own mountains, they one by one walk toward the
origin of the Seat.
Watching them, I too walk toward the origin of the Seat.
A repelling force pushes me away, but I do not care.
I go against the will of Gwak Am head-on and approach the Seat, and gradually...
I fill the entire Immortal Domain with Glass Sword Mountains.
Across the entire expanse of the Immortal Domain, Glass Sword Mountains sprout.
The sharp energy laid upon those Sword Mountains cuts their Immortal Bodies and transfers to them flames mixed
with
pain.
The Great Immortals, simultaneously while in agony, each summon their mountains and hurl them at me, and they make mountain ranges bloom in the space to bind my body.
Gradually, the Immortal Domain, once the form of a universe, fills with all sorts of miscellaneous mountains, and the four directions of Heaven and Earth-
A spectacle unfolds where the bearings of the Six Harmonies are entirely filled with wondrous and bizarre mountains.
We, eroding the Immortal Domain with our respective mountains, advance forward.
Kwa-ching-
The authorities of some mountain divine spirits fail to bind me and crack apart.
I, whose body itself is the Glass Sword Mountain, push straight onward and head for the origin, trampling the mountains of other mountain divine spirits.
The other mountain divine spirits, pained by the Glass Sword Mountains I create, have their entire bodies lacerated
and stop in place.
Ho Woon's snowfall meets me.
The cold blizzard of the Snow Mountain blocks me.
I, paying no mind to that chill, shove aside the Snow Mountain with my body and move forward.
Ho Woon, their whole body skewered by my Glass Sword Mountain, sighs.
:: Is this the mountain of the one who defeated the Great Mountain Supreme Deity...? It hurts. And it is clean. : :
Kung, kung, kung!
The closer I get to the Origin of the Mountain, the stronger the repelling force becomes, so at some point my steps toward the mountain slow.
Seeing me thus, Ho Woon speaks.
:: O Mountain Divine Spirit closest to Governing Immortal. O honorable Sword Mountain Devil Lord...is the reason your mountain is strong...because you yourself also become wounded? ::
He walks upon the Sword Mountain, looks at my own limbs being lacerated by my own swords, and sighs.
:: It is not a blade that applies only to us, but a painful blade to you yourself as well...O God of Sword Mountain. Thus you are strong...but if even you yourself suffer so, can you truly reach the summit of the mountain? ::
Before I know it, the mountains of the other mountain divine spirits all fall, and the mountain spirits, skewered upon
my Sword Mountain, come to a halt.
There is no great battle.
Only a contest of the Mountain Immortal Dao.
Yet with that contest alone, I skewered all the mountain divine spirits in place and, within the universe of the Origin Essence of the Mountain...
I filled the Immortal Domain entirely with the Glass Sword Mountain.
That is right.
All space is the Glass Sword Mountain.
Even the path to sit upon that Seat...
:: How does a being with a personality choose such pain...? Why...choose such pain...? ::
Pukwak!
I, trampling the Sword Mountain that pierces my own foot, answer calmly.
:: To become...equal with everyone. ::
Even if I sit upon that Seat, in order to not forget the heart of a mortal through this pain...
I lash myself and move my steps.
Seeing me thus, Ho Woon speaks.
:: I truly hope...that you no longer need to suffer. If you prove equality through pain, is such equality truly different
from the Dao of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity...? ::
I contemplate over the topic Ho Woon throws and offer them brief thanks.
:: Thank you for the good contemplation. ::
Kung, kung, kung!
I gradually climb to the summit of the Immortal Domain covered with Glass Sword Mountains.
The repelling force grows stronger.
And the will of Gwak Am contained within that repelling force also becomes distinct.
-Prove it.
The last words Gwak Am left.
-That you can sever the cycle.
Kung!
- Until then...I do not acknowledge you.
Kuuung!!
Soon, at the center of the Origin Essence of the Mountain, the source of all power comes into view.
The grand, pure white mountain of salt that was previously surrounded by the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
The great palace on that mountain's summit!
'...I see.'
I understand what the Salt Mountain on Penglai Island and the great palace at the summit of the Salt Mountain
symbolize.
Kugugugu!!
Now, through my main body, which has become far larger than that Salt Mountain, I reach out my hand toward that
Salt Mountain.
I feel an immense repelling force, but as I am now, I can fully overcome the dead Gwak Am's will.
Kuuuuung!!!
At last, my hand touches the Salt Mountain.
'Dye it.'
Tstststststs...
The salts of the Salt Mountain begin to turn into glass. The glass becomes swords and pierces me.
I begin to completely seize the Seat.
Now, even if regression is completed, the birth of any of Gwak Am's leftovers is blocked at the source.
Only, the problem is me.
After killing the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, I blocked the Splitting Heaven Mantra while in an exhausted state,
began turning back time together with the Heavenly Venerables, and fought sixteen mountain divine spirits and
won.
Accepting life and death is what a True Immortal does, yet even so, it feels like I am about to die.
As I feel all power draining away, I can instinctively tell that if I do not seize the Seat here, I will be devoured by the
Seat.
Do I live, become an Immortal Lord, and challenge the Heavenly King advancement?
Or do I get eaten by the Seat and die.
'Only two choices remain.'
As much as I erode the Seat, the Seat also erodes me.
The lingering thought of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity remaining in the Seat torments me like a Heart Demon.
- Do you truly think you are right.
- Do you truly think you can prove it?
-Do you truly think you are better than me!?
Though Gwak Am is dead, he still seems alive before my eyes.
-You, even though you and I both toyed with a person's life, can you say you are different from me!?
I look at Gwak Am's lingering pondered with clear eyes.
And I look at the product of obsession that Gwak Am, to the very end, left behind with extreme tenacity.
Kkiiiiiiik...
Gwak Am's Seat.
The great palace atop Salt Mountain opens.
And what comes out from inside is someone all too familiar to me.
"...Hello. Seo Gyeong."
Wol Ryeong.
She is my victim whom I toyed with, and my reverse scale, with the fault in the grace and grievance lying plainly
with me.
"You look powerless."
She, from above the palace, looks at me and speaks.
"Do you want to seize the Seat?"
The two enemies Cheong Min spoke of.
Precisely speaking, the second of the assignments I must solve.
That is Wol Ryeong.
Defeating the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, blocking the Splitting Heaven Mantra, losing my friend, turning back
time, driving off the mountain divine spirits, driving off Gwak Am's lingering thoughts...
Now, in a state where both body and heart have become battered to pieces, staking my life and barely, barely
seizing
the Seat...
At last, I can tell that I have become equal to her.
"...No."
Tststststs...
Before Wol Ryeong, I draw forth nonexistent power, manifest the body of a mortal being, draw a glass sword that
sprouts nearby, and speak while holding it.
"Apologizing to you comes first."
"Is it your way to apologize while holding a sword?"
"The way to receive forgiveness is only possible when both are in a state of equality."
I toss the glass sword I hold to her.
Wol Ryeong snatches that sword without hesitation, and I likewise draw and pick up another sword nearby again.
"The strength I have left is but a single mortal body. Only, since this place is the very center of the Mountain Immortal Domain that I have almost seized, even with a mortal body my power is between the Heavenly Being stage and the Earth Axis stage."
She is a powerhouse of True Immortality. Moreover, I don't know what enlightenment she gained while being subjected to repentant enlightenment by the
Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
"Right now, you and I are equal."
Whatever Gwak Am did, she, limited to 'when dealing with me,' is able to display her true skill even within the
Mountain Immortal Domain.
The life remaining to me is now only one.
Having even offered up regression, this death is my end.
Therefore, taking into account that this may truly be my last, I focus my entire mind on her.
"So...unravel the knot with all your strength. Wol Ryeong."
If I die here, I will also accept it.
I at last fully understand and smile at the heart of true mortality that I did not truly understand because I was a
regressor.
-Urung, urururung!!
The Mountain Immortal Domain ripples, and I feel the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld attempt to intervene.
The Underworld Ten Great Kings that I stored inside my body rampage, but I, even taking into account that I will be disadvantaged against Wol Ryeong, forcibly suppress them and block the will of the Underworld. -Retribution is the affair of the Underworld. Did you not think that even apart from Retribution, the living already have so much to do?
Perhaps having diligently watched my battle with Great Mountain through Indra's Net, the Underworld relays their
will to me, letting me hear the thought I previously had.
-Did you not also erase the Radiance Mantra. If you die now, you will truly end here. This Obsidian of this era will
not be born.
The voice of the Underworld, for the first time, trembles ever so faintly.
-If you seize the Origin Essence of the Mountain safely...you will become the only existence who can compare to
the Vast Cold at their prime.
-This is the first era in which all Enders have reached Governing Immortal...the very first. No Heavenly King
across all history. Neither Silver Basket, nor Obsidian, nor Vast Cold. No single one has ever achieved the feat of leading all the other Enders up to Heavenly King. This is a feat possible only because you were there.
The voice bears dignity, yet somehow sounds pleading.
-Your possibility of reaching Heavenly King is also surging. If even you ascend to Heavenly King...all Enders will
have arrived at the conclusion.
-Now is the best set of conditions in all of history to challenge the Future King. If you seize the Origin Essence
and reach Heavenly King, your one strength will equal that of all the other six Heavenly Kings combined. Do you
truly mean to stake your life here?
Indeed.
No matter that I reached the ultimate of Martial Arts, right now I am near a state of emptiness.
I may say I have about the power of the Heavenly Being stage or whatnot, but in truth I am already exhausted to
the state of being in tatters, so I tire, deplete quickly, and soon will become no different from a mortal.
By the judgment of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, who reached the realm called True Martial Arts, I
would presently lose to Wol Ryeong.
And befitting an existence that governs death.
As Wol Ryeong truly tries to kill me, the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld perceives all too well that my death
draws near.
"That is to say, I will die."
-That is so. But this is not something prophesied. There is no absolute power. If only you receive the help of your
comrades or of this Venerable...sufficient possibility also lies with you.
The Underworld continues.
-I am not saying do not dissolve resentment. This is a fight disadvantageous to you. Did you not say that
forgiveness can only be obtained when there is equality?
"When I toyed with that child's life, we were not in an equal state."
-Do you say you will not face the Owner of Fate, the enemy of your master?
"My master said this about the Imperial Venerable, that you are an old hag who does not properly explain important
things."
-...I am not joking.
"I am not joking either."
I speak toward the Underworld.
"The only one who can break the chain of hatred is the victim. The reason I could forgive Gwak Am is because I, as
the victim, surpassed him. Saying that forgiveness is established only when equal is merely the minimum
condition..."
This is also to answer Gwak Am's last will.
"Can I avoid the ring of resentment at my convenience? I do not know whether the Owner of Fate is my master's
enemy. But what is certain is..."
Facing Wol Ryeong, I shout to the Underworld.
"If it is that person, they would not want a disciple who cannot even resolve his own enmity to come to resolve
enmity for them!"
Dudududududu!
Perhaps deciding words do not work, the Underworld begins trying with full force to enter the world of the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
No matter how within the Immortal Domain of an Origin Essence the power of other Daos is halved, that is only up to a certain extent.
An existence on the level of the Underworld can surely exercise terrifying authority within the Origin Essence's
Immortal Domain as
if it were their own home.
But then it happens,
Cheolkeong!!!
From outside, I feel a familiar presence.
Mantra Falling Flowers.
A familiar law seems to be felt outside the Immortal Domain, and it begins to block the Underworld's entry.
It is Kang Min-hee.
Suruk...
And above the palace of Salt Mountain, familiar divine figures begin to reveal themselves.
Beginning with Kang Min-hee, there is Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, and Oh
Hye-seo.
My comrades descend here with merely the incarnations at the level of mortal beings.
"...Kang Min-hee says she had a talk."
Jeon Myeong-hoon speaks curtly.
Kang Min-hee flowed into the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea and had a conversation with Wol Ryeong.
And...
She seems to have shared the conversation from that time with the comrades as well.
"...We...will block for you."
Jeon Myeong-hoon, closing his eyes, speaks with a bitter expression.
They also are in a state exhausted to the utmost, yet I see that outside they begin to mobilize their main bodies to
block the Underworld.
Even though they sense my death, they all surround us and create the arena where I and Wol Ryeong will duel.
Kim Yeon sheds tears.
She seems to want to help me at once, but, perhaps due to something Kang Min-hee said to her, she does not step
forward.
Kang Min-hee sheds tears as well.
However, she only asks Wol Ryeong for something through voice transmission and does not block her.
Dudududududu!
Outside the Immortal Domain, the reaction of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld is such that they seem to
be doing
something violently, as the vibration is felt even here.
It seems the Underworld is directly leading their Gandhara and doing something.
They seem to be shouting something, to be fiercely scolding my comrades including Kang Min-hee.
However, my comrades only squeeze their eyes tightly shut and shed tears, saying nothing.
Calmly blocking the Underworld's procession, they simply observe the duel between me and Wol Ryeong.
"...Thank you."
I express my gratitude toward my friends who respect my will.
"Well then. Let's now begin."
I do not know what conversation Kang Min-hee had with Wol Ryeong.
I also do not know what was passed along to my comrades.
But what is certain is but one.
What I can give her, is my life.
'So this is how it feels.'
Long ago.
I remember the words of a sword cultivator who, before me, resolved to die and shouted.
-Our lives are an instant. The essence of lightning is also an instant. If our lives bloom and wither in an instant,
then is not even this short fleeting instant before imminent destruction also my life? As a practitioner who has
studied the Lightning Path Method for hundreds of years, as a sword cultivator, I!"
-Even if it's just the form of death, I want to entrust it to you, not the heavens!
If it is a life that will perish anyway.
If it is a fate fixed anyway.
I will entrust at least its form to the hands of the one I love.
Only today, with my regression cut off and facing true death, can I truly feel that heart with my chest.
"Since the only thing I can give you is my life, I will entrust the form of my death to you."
That is...
As one who toyed with a person's life.
As one who played with a person's heart.
And...
As one who was truly loved by the person named Wol Ryeong, the greatest decision I can make.
If what I must repay anyway is grace and resentment.
Then at least entrusting its form to the hands of the one who loves me is the natural order.
With those words, Wol Ryeong swings the Colorless Glass Sword toward me.
The last of all enmity.
It is a battle where I must truly stake my entire life, and the greatest obstacle I must face at the end of the path of
Immortal Cultivation.
-x-X-x-
A deep, dark valley of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
There, Wol Ryeong was half-forced to undergo repentant enlightenment and saw and gained countless things.
And she pondered.
If the divine providence of the world is pain, is the only way to escape pain death?
In the end, whatever emotions one has, if all returning to pain as returning to one () is the divine providence of the world, then are all the emotions one has in this world meaningless?
And, to such a Wol Ryeong, someone came.
It was a being that presides over what is called sorrow.
The divinity called the Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King, who governs sorrow, exchanged meaning with her.
And...as a result, the Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King and Wol Ryeong came to a certain conclusion.
Chuaaaaat!
A sword cleaves across the mountain.
Kuedek...
Along the sword's trajectory, a terrifying attraction force arises, and space wildly distorts.
Gigigigik!
The battlefield of Wol Ryeong and Seo Eun-hyun repeatedly widens and narrows, and between those shifts, their fight unfolds.
Kwaaaang!
Seo Eun-hyun is flung away.
From the beginning, he only has power at the Heavenly Being stage, but because he is already mobilizing everything to suppress the Underworld Ten Great Kings within his main body, the full strength he can produce is at best the Qi Refining stage.
Compared to Wol Ryeong, who has reached True Immortality, his level is in effect no different from a mortal's.
However...
Why is it?
Even with such a difference in weight class.
Even though Wol Ryeong is practically no diverse from a small world unto herself.
Seo Eun-hyun stands against Wol Ryeong without being pushed back at all.
A white strike of radiance that splits Heaven and Earth thrusts down from the sky.
The light of Filling the Heavens Sword Rain falls down aimed at only one being.
Jjjeoong!
Each of the colossal greatswords that would, in a single strike, rip a sun apart falls from the firmament.
But Seo Eun-hyun skillfully unfolds void-stepping, evades the greatswords, and then, in a very gentle posture, lifts his sword and swings upward.
Seo Eun-hyun's small sword and Wol Ryeong's greatswords collide, and a grand brahma bell sound rings out.
Jjjeoeoong!
What collapses is Wol Ryeong's sword.
Regulating his breath, Seo Eun-hyun dug into the grain of 'breath' within a True Immortal's strike and broke through the single strike of True Immortality.
That is only the beginning.
Seo Eun-hyun steps on the void and charges toward Wol Ryeong through the spaces between the greatswords.
The swords begin to collapse.
Kugugung!
The fragments of Filling the Heavens Sword Rain that Wol Ryeong unleashes shatter and scatter.
And through the downpour of those sword fragments, Seo Eun-hyun and Wol Ryeong crash into each other.
Haa...!
Wol Ryeong exhales and lets out a kiai.
At the same time, thousands of glass mountains behind Seo Eun-hyun are smashed to pieces and vanish.
He completely let Wol Ryeong's power flow through and transferred it to the glass mountains behind.
Seeing that divine skill by which he can face a True Immortal with a mortal's body, Wol Ryeong takes one step back and begins to perform a sword dance.
Wol Ryeong's sword energy dyes white and bends flexibly.
That sight looks as if dozens of white snakes are aiming at Seo Eun-hyun's neck.
Shiririk-
But something astonishing happens.
Seo Eun-hyun also begins to perform a sword dance.
And what appears is a sword dance perfectly identical to Wol Ryeong's.
In an instant, he reads Wol Ryeong's movement, acquires the martial art, and reaches exactly the same level as Wol Ryeong.
The two face each other like a mirror and unfold exactly the same sword.
And at some moment,
Flash!
At the end of the white sword dance, Wol Ryeong and Seo Eun-hyun face each other, meeting each other's swords from opposite directions in exactly the same way.
Wol Ryeong thinks.
'So he can see through all lower-grade martial arts and learn them in an instant?'
The opponent is a being who reached the apex of the domain called Martial Combat in the Sumeru Three Thousand Great Thousand World.
She is at True Immortality, yet he lets all of her attacks flow past and perfectly copies and follows that offensive.
And...
Seo Eun-hyun's foot movement.
Wol Ryeong instinctively senses that movement of the foot and raises her sword, but the footwork and the sword's direction come in from completely different places.
A sword art that deceives the opponent with footwork.
With that off-beat attack, Wol Ryeong's left arm is cut off.
Jjeong!
A flash of light flickers.
Even if Wol Ryeong took on a human-shaped Transformation form, her essence is a world itself.
And he, with that mortal's body, cut that body of hers.
'I see...he is cutting away only the necessary parts.'
She can tell instinctively.
He compresses to the utmost the puny power that is only at the Qi Refining stage, and through instantaneous acceleration reaching the domain of Indra's Net, he strikes the principle itself.
If he can thereby affect the principles, then even with the body of a mortal being, he can harm the body of an Immortal!
She looks at the opponent before her and understands.
The one before her is the pinnacle of Martial Arts.
The Immortal Beast King of this era.
The myth who toppled the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am head-on!
'Are weight classes meaningless?'
Wo-woong!
With that feeble power at merely the Qi Refining stage, he forms Gang Qi, and compresses that Gang Qi again and again to reach a domain like a string smaller than every particle in this world.
Against sword strikes where each and every strike cuts the principle, it means nothing at all that the authority, the life, and the weight class are greater.
But precisely because of that, Wol Ryeong pours her full strength in even more.
All of her weight class, accumulated to True Immortality, burns.
The enlightenments she gained within the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea burst forth from her hands.
'With a half-baked Martial Art, I cannot seize the initiative.'
What she must do is only maximize her own advantageous points.
Spacetime bends under attraction force, and Wol Ryeong's time accelerates even more.
'Stronger. Faster! Sharper!!'
Tsuaaaaat!!
Burning her realm of True Immortality, Wol Ryeong strengthens her own physical capabilities.
It is a combat method like Gwak Am's, yet she is different.
Tsuaaaaaat!
She strengthens the body with the authority and weight class of a True Immortal.
Beyond that strengthening, she strengthens the instinct embedded deep within the body.
Beyond that instinct, she strengthens the talent that leads her from further within!
Something catches in Wol Ryeong's senses.
It is something that seems close to emptiness ().
At the same time, it is a consciousness that sees the myriad flows.
It is...
What some call Void Perception.
Having obtained Void Perception, Wol Ryeong, through talent, unfolds her sword to reach Seo Eun-hyun.
White sword strikes scatter madly over the top of Salt Mountain.
Wol Ryeong becomes a disaster.
She becomes the fire demon that burns the forest, the tidal wave that covers the earth, and the earthquake that makes Heaven and Earth roar.
At the same time, she is the storm that rips everything up and flings it away, and the waterspout that hurls what is on the ground up into the firmament.
However, Seo Eun-hyun meets and breaks through all those attacks in a form identical to hers, like a mirror.
Wol Ryeong can tell.
'This is still not enough.'
Tsaaaaaat!
Squeezing out all her authority, Wol Ryeong begins to strengthen Void Perception once again.
'More...!'
Wol Ryeong's sword strikes collapse the peak of Salt Mountain and bring down the glass mountains beyond.
But Seo Eun-hyun completely lets that power flow through and takes no damage at all.
'More...!!'
Feigning a kick to pry Seo Eun-hyun off, Wol Ryeong plays with her footwork, then with her right foot, steps on Seo Eun-hyun's left foot to pin him and send a sword strike.
Seo Eun-hyun dodges Wol Ryeong's sword strike by the difference of a few strands of hair, and then, with utter naturalness, slips free by taking off his shoes and socks on the spot.
'More...!!!'
Wol Ryeong's sword curves like a snake and targets Seo Eun-hyun's left ribs.
Seo Eun-hyun's sword seems to draw a circle, then in an instant, spins like a wheel once and flicks that sword
away.
'Please, land...!'
Wol Ryeong pours everything of herself in and does her utmost to hit Seo Eun-hyun.
And at some moment, Wol Ryeong, through Void Perception, touches what lies 'beyond'.
'Ah...'
The source of Wol Ryeong's talent.
Her fate!
The mandate of the being called Wol Ryeong, appointed as the next Sword Spear Heavenly Lord, wholly infuses
into her sword.
'If it's this...!'
She is a being fated as a victor and a god of war.
Wol Ryeong must be the victor.
The fate of victory dwells in her sword.
As what is called fate dwells in the sword, only then does Wol Ryeong barely, just barely manage to enter Seo Eun- hyun's domain.
Kaang!
She twists her waist from lower left to upper right and cuts the opponent diagonally.
Seo Eun-hyun also tries to let her sword slide off in the exact same posture, but Wol Ryeong's sword accelerates for a moment and, off-beat, enters Seo Eun-hyun's distance.
Huuuu...
Seo Eun-hyun regulates his breathing and takes the defensive, and Wol Ryeong presses the offensive even harder.
Kaang, kaang, kaang!!!
With one attack, one hand-span of distance.
Wol Ryeong's sword is gradually drawing that one hand-span closer to Seo Eun-hyun.
Kaaang!!!
Once again the gazes of Wol Ryeong and Seo Eun-hyun collide in midair.
They look into each other's eyes, but cannot read what the other is thinking.
Wol Ryeong simply lacks the realm, and Seo Eun-hyun intentionally does not read her thoughts for the sake of her
dignity.
However...
If it is a duel between martial artists, in the end even without reading thoughts through laws, one has no choice but to infer the other's thinking through the breath, the movement of the muscles, and the tremor of the sword tip.
Though they cannot read each other's thoughts, they can read the faint meanings each holds.
And, upon reading those meanings, the exchange between Wol Ryeong and Seo Gyeong becomes even more
intense.
'You...no.'
Wol Ryeong looks at Seo Eun-hyun.
'I...like you.'
Seo Eun-hyun looks at Wol Ryeong.
Those eyes are full of a wavering that does not know what to do.
But the tip of his sword does not waver.
Sword Heaven Annihilation Advancement.
Chwarararak!
From around Wol Ryeong, white sword energy seems to surge then, having drawn a circle to gain rotational force,
it explodes in all directions.
'But...'
Within that explosion, Seo Eun-hyun's shadow is visible.
Wol Ryeong rushes toward that shadow like a bolt and thrusts her sword.
'Is this feeling real? Did you not intervene in my fate and simply infect me...!?'
Wol Ryeong's sword changes.
It is the sword she had back then, before she earned the name Wol Ryeong, when she was Wol Ah.
The sword holds her moment as a child, when she was innocent.
That sword is clean.
Again, the sword changes.
The sword grows.
A sword that contains herself from when she entered the Radiance Spirit Sect.
That sword contains countless possibilities.
The sword changes.
A sword that contains the time when she met Seo Gyeong.
The sword is engulfed in passion.
The sword changes again.
A sword that contains the time when she went with Seo Gyeong to another Heavenly Domain.
The sword...becomes chaotically distorted.
The sword changes again.
'If this heart is nothing but fake...then in this world, would the only thing that has meaning not be fate...!?!
The sword that contains the time when she came to love Seo Gyeong.
That confused sword is restrained based on that heart and returns to a gentle trajectory.
And, the last of all those trajectories.
Again, the sword changes.
'If in this world there is nothing that has meaning besides fate...'
This is...
This is the sword from when, knowing all truth, she was dragged to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Tsuaaaaat!!!
Wol Ryeong's white sword light becomes dyed black.
The black sword strike that contains pain itself swallows Seo Eun-hyun.
'Isn't something like the cycle of pain...impossible to sever...!?'
To her, fate is a [circle].
Since she was young, she dreamed.
She dreamed of a [Black Snake Biting Its Tail] drawing a circle and covering her life.
And as she entered the path of Immortal Cultivation and accumulated cultivation, she could understand.
The snake that appeared in her dreams is her fate.
No, not only her fate, but all fates in this world are set to draw a circle.
The closer she got to fate, the more she felt it keenly.
And at last, when she was eaten by Corpse Mountain Blood Sea and came to know the truth of the world—
When she came to know that this world is filled with pain...
Wol Ryeong understood.
'Fate is pain...'
Therefore, if life is only fate, pain cannot be severed.
The ring of hatred, resentment, and pain cannot be severed either.
Because, that life is only fate means that pain, hatred, resentment, and even oneself all belong to fate.
Unless one cuts oneself, the ring of fate cannot be severed.
Yes.
Everything in this world is fake.
To become real, there is nothing but for fate to end.
'Therefore...'
Wol Ryeong raises her sword and unleashes an extreme-speed thrust toward Seo Eun-hyun.
Flash!
A flash flickers, and Wol Ryeong's right leg is cut off.
Because principle is cut, even she who has an Immortal Body cannot regenerate.
But even one-legged, she directly thrusts her sword toward Seo Eun-hyun.
'If I want to know whether the heart between you and me was real...'
Kwaching!
Seo Eun-hyun lifts his sword from below and smashes it against the flat of Wol Ryeong's, blade face meeting blade
face.
From that single strike, both Seo Eun-hyun's and Wol Ryeong's swords shatter at the same time.
But she, paying no heed, approaches Seo Eun-hyun and strikes his face with her right arm.
Seo Eun-hyun lets all that force flow away, then he too clenches his fist and drives a punch into Wol Ryeong's face.
Thwak!
Her skull caves in, and an eyeball pops out.
Because he strikes the principle, an enormous pain surges in, yet Wol Ryeong recalls the pain suffered in the
Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, endures the pain, and lashes a kick at Seo Eun-hyun.
Kwaaaang!
Seo Eun-hyun lets the kick flow past, and the mountains behind collapse.
However, this time he appears not to have diverted it completely, as his ribs seem to crack.
'You're tired.'
Wol Ryeong judges Seo Eun-hyun's condition and rushes at him.
A bare-handed fight begins.
Kwaang, kwaang, kwaaaang!!!
At Wol Ryeong's fists, Heaven and Earth hum. Seo Eun-hyun's fists are quiet, yet every time they dig into her body,
Wol Ryeong's body breaks without fail.
To Wol Ryeong, Seo Eun-hyun feels as if he is not a human but like a single sword.
Chwaak!
Wol Ryeong's ribs are cut away by Seo Eun-hyun's knife-hand.
Holes open all over her body.
Since becoming a True Immortal, her authority that seemed infinite starts to dry up.
Seo Eun-hyun is a mortal, and Wol Ryeong becomes a mortal being.
Yet even though their ranks have dropped that far, their exchange of blows does not stop.
However, the match at last reaches its end.
Jjeoeeong!!!
Wol Ryeong flips Seo Eun-hyun over, grabs his neck, and slams him toward the palace gate behind.
Kwaaaang!!!
Completely restrained, Seo Eun-hyun can no longer let anything flow past and coughs blood.
Kugugugu...
"...Now...it is the end."
Wol Ryeong, at last seeing Seo Eun-hyun within her grasp, smiles.
Tsuaaaaat!
Wol Ryeong's face recovers.
She does not recover her legs or arms, but she squeezes out her energy and recovers only her caved-in head.
The reason she bothers to restore her face is extremely simple.
The last departing appearance.
At the very leash, she does not want to go hideously before him.
"Kill me."
Wol Ryeong presses down on Seo Eun-hyun's body.
At the same time, her will turns into a sword and begins to pierce into Seo Eun-hyun's chest.
If it goes on like this, Seo Eun-hyun will die.
Therefore...
Having become like this, even Seo Eun-hyun has no choice but to use it.
"You have never once used a killing move, have you?"
When fighting Wol Ryeong.
No, even when fighting the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, Wol Ryeong knows that Seo Eun-hyun was hiding his
strength.
She knows that, in the end, the Great Mountain Supreme Deity was truly beaten.
Because Seo Eun-hyun truly did not use 'that' technique to the very end.
"That strongest killing art that you used through your hair clone."
Devil Sword.
Zero.
A power created to kill the opponent.
Seo Eun-hyun, to the very end, did not use that power.
Even though he has the skill to copy any martial technique, just as he copied Wol Ryeong's martial arts!
Therefore, she smiles brightly.
"Kill me, Seo Eun-hyun."
Seo Eun-hyun only looks at her and gives a bitter smile.
"Otherwise, you will die."
The Future King's technique has been, by my hand, restored to about the third form.
Even if I face the Future King, the minimum preparation to block about three moves is complete.
And, as Wol Ryeong says, these three forms, in terms of offensive power, are the strongest killing methods that
surpasses mine and Kim Young-hoon's.
If I had used the killing method when fighting Gwak Am, I could have handled him a bit more easily.
Uduk, dududuk...
Wol Ryeong's grip tightens more strongly around my neck.
Her will becomes a sword and approaches my heart.
Paaang!
I strike Wol Ryeong's elbow and release the grip choking my neck.
However, she merely grasps the sword of will that stabs my heart with her own hand and thrusts it in even harder.
Kuuuk...
I feel it.
The tip of her sword stands before the surface of my heart.
If the sword pushes in like this, I will die as I am.
My main body as well will be pushed out of balance with the Origin Essence, be devoured by it, and die.
Yes, right now, the power over my life and death belongs to her.
If I do not kill Wol Ryeong, I will die to Wol Ryeong.
"Kill me, Seo Eun-hyun."
Wol Ryeong calls my true name precisely and speaks again.
I look at her and smile.
"Ryeong-ah."
I cannot even twitch a single finger.
"You win."
I cannot kill her.
Wol Ryeong's pupils tremble.
In that trembling, a heart toward me dwells.
"...Are you...deceiving me?"
Wol Ryeong asks with a sad smile.
That smile looks as if at any moment it can turn into a scream filled with pain.
"You can kill me...Seo Gyeong..."
Her voice starts to shake, and the form of address changes.
"...How far...how far are you trying to deceive me...? Why, as if it isn't enough that you deceived my whole life...?"
Wol Ryeong begins to sob.
"Why are you treating me like you are sparing me...? The killing art...if you use the killing art...you can beat me...! From the start, what even are you...what on earth are you to throw me a chance to forgive and to care about trash like me in that way!!?? Just, as you used to...like Gwak Am, you could just use me and throw me away. Like Gwak
Am, you should have remained the bad guy to the end and waited arrogantly for me to take revenge...!"
Wol Ryeong wails.
"If you had remained the bad guy to the end...and if you had received my sword...my heart would not have been
this tormented...!!! It would not have been this confused! Why...!? Why on earth do you give me the chance for
revenge, and why do you not face me sincerely!? I...I'm nothing but a bug...!"
I slowly caress her cheek.
There had been a time like that.
-Descend, All-Heavens.
There was a time when I killed, with my own hands, the person who loved me, and died together...
"How...can I think of the person who loves me...as a bug? Ryeong-ah..."
If I kill and toy with the one who hates me, that is only the principle of the world.
A simple principle of cause-and-effect retribution.
However, if I toy with the life of the one who loves me, what retribution is that?
"Even if it is a speck of dust, it becomes the foundation stone that forms a mountain...If it is a being who throws
body and heart to love me, I cannot dare to look down on them as a bug or a speck of dust. However I may have
intervened in that life, it is right to devote body and heart to apologize..."
"...I am going to kill you...Seo Gyeong...really...I am going to stab you..."
"If that lets me be forgiven."
"...You...toyed with my life...but you did not make me unhappy..."
Wol Ryeong's tears fall on my cheek.
"I know...that Master is alive...so that is enough...I was originally more attached to her than you anyway..."
I made her undergo the experience of losing Ji Hwa, the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord of this era, before her eyes.
No matter how necessary that was for her.
"And I now know my original fate. You...made me, who would have been unhappy, happier, right...?"
Even if that was something that gave her happiness.
"So...I also...want to make you happy..."
Wol Ryeong cries.
"I want you to just kill me as I am...and after you forget me, seize the Origin Essence of the Mountain and seek an
answer better than the Great Mountain Supreme Deity...!"
Gik, gigigik...
Kuguguk...
Her sword will digs into my heart.
And only then do I come to understand something.,
'This is...'
I see Gwak Am's shadow behind Wol Ryeong.
How can Wol Ryeong use the power of a True Immortal inside the Origin Essence of the Mountain?
The answer lies in something simpler than I thought.
'Corpse Mountain Blood Sea...!'
Gwak Am's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, though scattered, was not actually annihilated.
Severing Heaven Sword Form, the Fifth.
Though they gained freedom by All-Heavens, they still cling to Gwak Am's final will.
-Prove it.
That's right...
Wol Ryeong, too, is still inside the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
'My body and heart are so exhausted...I failed to recognize it.'
I waged war against the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, and I lost Hong Fan including my subordinates and friends.
Because I became wrecked on every side, I lost my ability to judge,
She is not stabbing me purely by her own will.
Gwak Am's lingering thoughts.
And the spirits of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, through her, are thrusting the sword at me.
This is also a question.
-If pain is not the greatest teacher, then what is the greatest teacher?
-If beyond pain exists the greatest truth, can the ring of hatred and pain truly be severed?
Tudududu!!!
The sword pierces the heart.
Wol Ryeong sheds even more tears.
And she begins to endure.
Even though she carries the will of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea on her back, the reason she can endure
without killing me outright.
It is not only the lingering thought of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am and the Corpse Mountain Blood
Sea.
There is also something that I left behind.
The beginning, development, twist, conclusion I imposed upon Wol Ryeong.
For the Enders, the beginning, development, twist, conclusion is that we reach the Audience Chamber,
But Wol Ryeong's beginning, development, twist, conclusion is different.
The conclusion I lay upon her.
The end where that fate heads is, [Becoming the Ender's friend and protecting them.]
In other words, the lingering thought of Great Mountain and the will of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea clash with
the beginning, development, twist, and conclusion I imposed, preventing her from killing me.
But...at the same time, it makes her even more confused and pained.
She must protect me, but at the same time she must kill me and pursue the answer of Gwak Am and the Corpse
Mountain Blood Sea.
"Kill...me...!"
Wol Ryeong shouts.
"Have you forgotten the sacrifices of your subordinates...!?"
That voice even sounds as if she is scolding me.
"Do you not know what your friends have been enduring for...!?"
My heart is gradually crushed.
"Do you not know what kind of time the God of Death, who fights your friends outside while crying out for you, has
been enduring!?"
"I know."
Yet I speak calmly.
"That's why all the more...I must stake my life right here and prove it."
Gwak Am asked me.
Can I sever the chain of hatred?
I answered.
There is something greater than hatred and pain.
"Either way...if I cannot prove it here, there is nothing beyond this."
I would have no face to see Gwak Am and my master.
There would be no possibility at all of winning against the being called the Future King.
"I will not kill you..."
Bududuk...
And then, my heart is completely pierced through.
I rise and begin to approach Wol Ryeong.
"Even if I die...I will no longer kill those who gave me their hearts...!"
Even if my entire story ends here, it does not matter!
Even if everything of the existence called Seo Eun-hyun ends, it does not matter!
"Then..."
With tears falling, Wol Ryeong looks up at me.
"Do you mean...that I, who killed you...should live the rest of my life in hell...?"
She opens her mouth.
"I will forgive you...but instead...live. Kill me...and carry all your grace and resentments on your back...and live...!"
What comes out of her mouth is a scream.
"I want you to be happy. Even if the world is hell...because you...you can surely escape this hell... I, I am just a
meager True Immortal who is nothing compared to you...but you are different...! So...in a world that is pain...I want
you to live...and become happy... The way...the way to do so...I'm just a fool so I don't know...but if it's you...you
will surely find it...! So please...live...! Gyeong-ah...!"
In that wail where a genius calls herself a fool and sobs, I feel my breath grow thin.
I close my eyes.
I feel death.
An extreme ultimatum.
If I live, Wol Ryeong dies, and I, who once more killed the person I love, will live in hell.
If Wol Ryeong lives, I die, and Wol Ryeong will live in the hell where she killed the being she loves.
One of us must die.
Whoever dies, the one left behind must live in hell.
'Gwak Am. This is what you wanted to say, isn't it? That no matter what I choose, it is pain.'
This ring cannot be severed.
Not only the ring, but all those who try to cut the ring are nothing but birds trapped in the cage called 'pain'.
My consciousness scatters.
At the same time, I feel my main body being absorbed into the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
Only then do my comrades begin to show some different reactions.
Their intent and expressions change.
They heard something from Wol Ryeong, but it seems different from what they see.
It is probably different.
Because right now...
I truly think it is fine to die.
'If someone must die, it must be me.'
I separate from Wol Ryeong and gradually collapse.
'Because...only I...!'
I see Wol Ryeong sink into hell.
'Only I...'
With that sight as the last, I finally close my eyes.
It was a long life.
In this life, I have not a single regret.
:: You heartless one...! ::
The Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, the Netherworld Queen Mother Bong Hwa sighs.
Only when she sees the moment Seo Eun-hyun reaches death does she notice his intentions and stops knocking
on the door to enter the Mountain Immortal Domain.
Rather, the ones whose bearing changes are Seo Eun-hyun's comrades.
They look at Kang Min-hee and, as if flustered, they shout.
Kang Min-hee only endures and, to the very end as Wol Ryeong asked, blocks the main bodies of the Enders from
approaching Seo Eun-hyun.
At least Kim Yeon, who learned the Immortal Art of Primordial Origin, seems to notice something, and, shedding
tears, stops in place.
The Underworld looks at them and smiles bitterly.
:: Even if that is a method of certain victory... is it not too great a shock to the hearts of those who love you? : :
She, bitterly...
And with eyes as if looking at a beloved child, gazes at the dead Seo Eun-hyun.
::....will remember you. ::
"Eun-hyun-ah!"
"Hey, Seo Eun-hyun!"
"...Seo Eun-hyun..."
"Eun-hyun-ahhhhh!!!!!"
"Eun-hyun...O...ppa..."
"...Seo Eun-hyun."
Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, and Oh Hye-seo call out to Seo
Eun-hyun.
But Seo Eun-hyun does not revive.
He only lies there as a lone corpse, placed in front of Wol Ryeong, whose left arm and right leg are cut off.
Wol Ryeong closes her eyes.
"...Yeah. I respect your choice. But...I do not forgive you."
She asked him to live even if he must kill her.
Yet to the end. To the very end...
He toyed with her and died.
So, she too decides not to forgive Seo Eun-hyun.
Surung-
Drawing a nearby glass sword and bringing it to her own neck and chest, Wol Ryeong closes her eyes.
"It was good to be with you. Thank you, Seo Eun-hyun. Then...let us meet again."
She loved him her entire life.
Though her whole life was toyed with.
Within the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, she learned the truth.
That the world is made of pain, and that Seo Eun-hyun tried to lead her, even a little, to the right place within pain...
Therefore, when she heard him say he will give his life, and when she saw his resolve to actually give his life,
forgiveness ended.
She truly had no thought of taking his life.
Though she was toyed with again by the Mountain Divine Spirit called the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and was
forced to choose one of two, she liked him enough to think that even if she dies, she wants Seo Eun-hyun to live.
However, he gave her his life, and in the end toyed with her life, and died embracing the entangled grace and
resentment.
A God sacrificed their life for a bug.
And the bug who lost the God has no confidence to live in the world that has become hell.
Wol Ryeong looks at Seo Eun-hyun's corpse...and smiles one last time.
"Farewell. My God."
Puuuk!
With that, it is the end.
No, she thought it was the end.
Kuung!
"... You are..."
Until a silver sword falls between Wol Ryeong and Seo Eun-hyun's corpse.
"...Mas...ter...?"
Wol Ryeong recognizes that very sword at once.
There is no way she does not know it.
For the wave of soul she feels from that sword is perfectly the same as a being she knows.
Woong, wo-woong!!
Her master appears to her in the form of a sword and is ringing out a sword cry.
And...
She suddenly notices that this sword's wave is creating something.
"This is..."
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Mountain Echoes Valley Responds (UAE).
A move that treats the wave of the sword cry like a voice transmission and sends sword energy in the form of a
wave as if sending a voice transmission to the opponent.
And Seo Eun-hyun placed his own voice transmission into Mountain Echoes Valley Responds.
In preparation for when he dies...
The Sword Extreme Heavenly Sword begins to spit out Seo Eun-hyun's last will.
No, she thinks it is his last will.
Wooong, woo-wooooong!!!
The waves grow larger and larger.
And by those waves, something enters Wol Ryeong's eyes.
It is mist.
A pale mist.
It is the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections within Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens.
Wiiiiing!
Within the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections, the entire life of the being named Seo Eun-hyun flashes past.
And within that life, Wol Ryeong can hear someone's voice.
...will...not...
Woo-oooong!!!
The world within the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
The Mountain Immortal Domain is condensing.
As if struck by the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra, centered on Seo Eun-hyun's mist at the summit of Salt
Mountain.
And, feeling the world fill with light and heat amid that strange compression of the universe, Wol Ryeong can hear
that voice clearly.
-I will not put you into hell...I will not fall into hell either.
Tssaaaaa-
It is Seo Eun-hyun, coming out of the mist.
Seeing that which somehow appears translucent, Wol Ryeong can tell what it is.
Seo Eun-hyun approaches.
Heaven and Earth gradually condense, the Immortal Domain narrows and brightens.
From the center of that light, Seo Eun-hyun, who comes to Wol Ryeong, tightly holds Wol Ryeong's two hands.
Before she knows it, the limbs of hers that he has cut off are back.
-Because I am greedy...I will not let go of either.
Kugugugu!!!
Clench...
Strength enters Seo Eun-hyun's hands that hold her.
For some reason, Wol Ryeong feels as if she sees someone next to Seo Eun-hyun.
That one wears white garments similar to Wol Ryeong.
She gives off a feeling that evokes a white magnolia flower.
If Wol Ryeong is a sword, she looks like a swordsmith.
-Ryeong-ah...
Seo Eun-hyun's will comes close to Wol Ryeong.
-If the world is hell...
He kisses her forehead.
-Then is what I just gave you also of hell?
An enlightenment that Seo Eun-hyun received from someone in the past.
Returning that enlightenment to the one who loved him...
Seo Eun-hyun smiles warmly.
-I will not die.
Flutter-
Suddenly, Wol Ryeong sees a slip of paper fly to her side.
It is a part of a book.
She cannot see the title, but certainly...
It is a story about a mountain spirit who resisted fate and went forward.
Flutter, flutter, flutter...
And led by that, countless sheets of paper begin to fly around her.
Those sheets depict different scenes, but all of them draw the story of a single being.
The Celestial Lord Incense Burning that Seo Eun-hyun left behind before going to the Outer Sea.
The story received from Sword Spear and spread by Kang Min-hee begins to fill all of Heaven and Earth.
-Only the form that I exist in changes...I will not truly die. Only the flesh has withered...I absolutely will not die.
Tssaaaaaat!
Seo Eun-hyun's body becomes even whiter.
Gradually he transforms into white and scatters outward.
The Mountain Immortal Domain completely compresses and becomes a single point, and outside that point, Seo
Eun-hyun's voice begins to spread even wider.
This form is truly the form to uphold Master's robe and alms bowl
[By whatever means, make everyone in this world come to repentant enlightenment.]
Only that...is truly the way to guarantee victory.
That is precisely the last will of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity that Great Mountain heard!
Hearing that last will, the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am decided to force everyone to come to repentant enlightenment.
And Seo Eun-hyun decided that even if it requires endless kalpas, he will melt himself down and become the path of repentant enlightenment that is passed down forever to later generations.
He is to become the classics (/core canonical texts).
Thus, continuing on forever to later generations, someday enlightening all beings of all phenomena to repentant enlightenment.
He is to become the Book of Documents (Seo Gyeong) that embraces the Great Plan Nine Categories (Œл).
[TL/N: The Great Plan Nine Categories, or particularly the Hongfan/Great Plan and Gu Ju/Nine Categories is a chapter of the Book of Documents. The name Seo Gyeong uses the same Hangul as the Book of Documents and can mean Book of Documents.]
-A teacher greater than pain...is always...
Tuk-
The scattering forehead of Seo Eun-hyun and Wol Ryeong's forehead touch.
Feeling that warmth, Wol Ryeong at last stops her tears.
-The warmth that a person conveys to a person. That story...
Story.
The warmth contained within it.
A person can change with only that.
Pain is a good teacher, but the best teacher is eternally a story.
A country that used to eat salted human flesh, on hearing the story of a person who transmitted benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, stopped eating people and attempted rule by virtue.
A land where beings once practiced human sacrifice, on hearing the story that transmitted the word of the sole God who saved a people, saw human sacrifice cease.
A great land that was nothing but a place of mere barbarism, on hearing the story that transmitted the saying to benefit mankind widely, became a place where a nation was founded.
The warmth that a person conveys to a person.
The story that contains it.
The history of people always took that as its teacher.
No, it is the same even for what is not a person.
Flapflapflapflapflap...
Wol Ryeong looks at the last page of the endlessly whirling sheets of paper.
There, the end of a mountain divine spirit is written.
That mountain divine spirit throws off the body of a divine spirit and thinks thus.
-Thank you for everything until now.
For letting me live a person's life.
For gifting me this precious life...
For being with me, thank you.
Seeing that, Wol Ryeong feels the Origin Essence of the Mountain that has come to her, compressed to a single point, bestowing limitless strength upon her.
It is Seo Eun-hyun's authority.
All the authority, enlightenment, memories, divine powers, and martial arts he has accumulated until now.
He intends to transmit all of it to all comrades with her as the medium.
With this, it is sufficient to attack the Audience Chamber even without the existence called Seo Eun-hyun.
Yes.
Seo Eun-hyun thus...
Across a long and longer life, doing his utmost in all he can do, presented the best answer and closed his eyes.
Wol Ryeong looks at the Seat of the Mountain held in her hand.
From there, a faint Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra resounds.
[Immortal Cultivation is repentant enlightenment.]
Wol Ryeong smiles at the sight.
As if...
As if all her lingering regrets are resolved.
And...
Inside her.
Within all the Corpse Mountain Blood Seas that exist who have found freedom led by her, a certain voice flows out.
::... Yes. You are...better than me. ::
In Wol Ryeong's eyes, in that distant white space, a faint vision is reflected of someone in a blood robe turning back to glance behind.
Their gaze is directed at the Origin Essence of the Mountain in her hand.
::... You win. ::
They look forward again and disappear somewhere.
Leaving a single remark.
:: Junior Brother. : :
Wooooo-woong!!!
With those words as the end, the Origin Essence of the Mountain held in Wol Ryeong's hand gradually begins to rise upward.
Clang!!!
At last, by Seo Eun-hyun and the Underworld, and by Time, the regression of Mount Sumeru is completed, and at the center of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain of the regressed Mount Sumeru.
There, the Rain Dew Heavenly Lord, left alone, raises a God-Killing Spear in their hand and aims it at Wol Ryeong.
However, Wol Ryeong's body begins to shine.
And starting with it, some shining things begin to draw a spiral and soar from the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain to the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, beginning to surround something that begins to rise.
[Like tiny grains of salt gathering to form the sea.]
Those shining existences, who refuse even the control of the Underworld, shine in all of Heaven's natural colors and are chanting something.
[Build mountains through repentant enlightenment.]
It is the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.
[Building a mountain of salt is perhaps the fastest way to reach the heavens.]
They are the very beings of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea who, until just a moment ago, had shed bloody tears and sung of pain.
[Each to one another holding hands.]
But now.
No one among them, not a single existence, sheds tears of blood or suffers.
[With everyone at the sea, drink salt, and with the wind, soar.]
The Origin Essence of the Mountain leaves Wol Ryeong's hand and gradually begins to fly higher, and, centered on
it, white spirits whose number is almost immeasurable draw a spiral as they ascend, singing without end.
[Like combining all intents turns them colorless.]
A certain someone's hand overlaps beneath Wol Ryeong's hand, and together they raise their arms toward the sky.
She wears a silver dragon robe and, somehow, scatters a sword aura similar to Wol Ryeong's.
Looking down at that woman, the Rain Dew Heavenly Lord lets out a soundless roar.
Beginning with that woman, a blond man braces his hand beneath that hand again.
[Embrace all connections and become impermanence.]
A red-haired man also extends his hand.
A blue-haired woman, a silver-haired man, and a woman with light pink hair as well.
Even a woman with her original hair that carries a faintly tinged red...
All of them brace their hands beneath Wol Ryeong.
By their hands, the Seat that is rising upward toward the Heavenly King Heaven finally leaves the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, and begins to float ever higher and ever farther.
"...Thank you. You were right."
Kim Yeon sends a warm gaze to Wol Ryeong.
"That if he could find the answer...he could obtain another chance through Gwak Am..."
Wol Ryeong shakes her head.
"It is not through Gwak Am."
The souls who were the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea speak the final verse of the mantra.
[For that...]
"You always...get back what you give."
Tssaaaat!
With those words as the end, Wol Ryeong, together with the other spirits, becomes a pure white light and joins the spiral that covers the Origin Essence of the Mountain.
She stands at the top of the spiral, at the very forefront, becoming the brightest soul.
Flash!!!
Someone is born.
By their birth alone, an enormous explosion occurs, and the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World begins
to shake.
By the interpretation of the newly born Owner of the Seat, the essence of what had been the Seat of the Mountain
reverses.
[...is how one reaches the stars.]
What is made by accumulating specks of dust is a Great Mountain.
And what is made by gathering the dust of the universe...is the Star.
The Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World.
The symbol of all mountains begins to transform into the symbol of stars.
The Gan of the Eight Trigrams changes in an instant, its character turning into star ().
[TL/N: The character for Gan of the Eight Trigrams means Mountain.]
With a change so vivid that all cultivators who are practicing Immortal Cultivation notice, countless Milky Ways
begin to pour out from the [Origin Essence of the Star].
Seeing that sight, Oh Hyun-seok's arm begins to move on its own.
The existence that dwells as a lingering thought in Oh Hyun-seok's body fully expends that lingering thought and, through the portion of Seo Eun-hyun's soul they previously received as a gift from Seo Eun-hyun, begins to draw forth a new [Name].
Their essence whispers to put Heaven () into that [Name].
But the moment they see the dance of the Milky Ways unfurling in that sky,
Through self repentant enlightenment, with the pure desire of a namer, with the pure heart that wants to give a name, they manage to reject that essence.
The name of the existence newly rising in that sky is...
:: Star Genesis Supreme Deity (LX) : :
They are the owner of the story that has at last become a star.
-The Star Creating Supreme Deity is arriving!!!
The stars of every Heavenly Domain, which gain personhood by the advent of their master, welcome their lord and unanimously pray for his descent.
-The Star Genesis Supreme Deity is arriving!!!
-The Star Genesis Supreme Deity is arriving!!!
-The Star Genesis Supreme Deity is arriving!!!
Kugugugugugu!!!
Within innumerable seas of stars, as a vast Heavenly Domain is newly born, an existence wearing a dragon robe made of Milky Ways begins to open their eyes.
Seated upon the jade throne of the galaxy, they awaken again and, with a warm smile, sweep their gaze over all of all phenomena.
The last master of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, touched by that existence's gaze, opens their mouth in panic.
:: Let the Radiance Eight Immortals...hear... : :
However, the Radiance Eight Immortals, already all gone, cannot answer.
And the newly born God of Starlight opens their mouth.
:: Let the myriad stars hear. ::
The stars of the nations, to receive their master's decree, answer in a resounding voice.
-By your command!!!