Tududududu!
An indescribably chilling surge of energy faces us.
The Head Realm splits.
And what faces us is a strange attraction force that lies between the Head Realm.
'That is...'
That attraction force connects to the Vast Cold Realm, and it is something far too familiar to us.
'Ascension Gate!'
It is the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin made.
And the moment I see it, I understand what it means.
Tiring-
'It is not simply...a gate that leads to the Vast Cold Realm...!?'
Guguguguguuk!
As I am sucked into the fissure, I come to understand something.
My comrades also seem to realize something, as they all at once stretch their hands toward the attraction force of that Ascension Gate.
For mortals beings at or below the Heavenly Being stage, the Ascension Gate is a gigantic concept like a 'gate' or a 'path,' but for us who reach the rank of Governing Immortal, it feels like a faint 'thread'.
And the meaning of that thread is not simply to ascend to the Vast Cold Realm.
"The thread of a labyrinth..."
Kang Min-hee mutters as she winds that attraction force around her hand.
It is Yang Su-jin's consideration so that juniors who enter the Audience Chamber can flee back inside Mount Sumeru.
If one fears defeating the Future King, it is Yang Su-jin's will to let one come back down to Mount Sumeru and live a little longer.
We, excluding Underworld, all tie to our wrists the red thread, the attraction force of the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin left behind.
Rather than fleeing from the Future King, it is more so we feel the heart of our predecessor.
Tsuaaaaat!
Thus, together with my comrades, I set foot toward the world that I expect to be the Audience Chamber.
Western Heavenly Venerable, Netherworld Queen Mother Bong Hwa.
Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun.
Golden Speed Heavenly King Kim Young-hoon.
Red Pearl Cycling Heavenly King Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King Kang Min-hee.
Silver Nameless Heavenly King Oh Hyun-seok.
Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King Kim Yeon.
Agate Auspicious Heavenly King Oh Hye-seo.
A grand host of Governing Immortals totaling eight!
They enter the Audience Chamber.
And the first to sense an anomaly is Bong Hwa.
Woooooo-
::...I see. So it is you, Gatekeeper. : :
Tudududu!!
The Gatekeeper of the Audience Chamber.
The Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon stares at Bong Hwa with the eyes of Sun and Moon.
:: Step aside. There are eight Governing Immortals. I do not wish to bicker with the likes of you...::
The vessel of the Origin Essence of Life that contains the Akashic Records.
She glares at the Emptiness Supreme Deity and clenches one hand.
But then,
With a chilly gaze, Bong Hwa looks around.
Before she knows it, she has entered a strange space.
It is a strange world from which Mount Sumeru is overlooked at a glance.
And toward the [above] of that peculiar world, she feels a sacred sanctuary where an overwhelming presence is felt.
The gateway that leads to the Audience Chamber.
A space of Primordial Origin from which all of Heaven and Earth is overlooked.
If she just proceeds forward, she will reach the Audience Chamber.
Yes, if she just walks, she will so very easily reach it.
The other Enders are not in sight.
Perhaps, by the Emptiness Supreme Deity, they are undergoing a [trial] of facing the Gatekeeper.
At this vaguely unpleasant, biased trial, Bong Hwa decides not to enter the Audience Chamber right away and instead to wait for the other Enders to pass their trials.
In any case, these Enders are the golden generation.
There is the unfathomable variable named Seo Eun-hyun that cannot be guessed or understood, but even setting that aside, it is a never-before-seen, absurd lineup of power the likes of which has never existed.
They cannot possibly fail a mere trial, so it is enough to wait a little.
Just when she thinks so,
Flutter-
Suddenly, Bong Hwa sees a strip of paper fly past her side.
It is a part of a book.
Though its title cannot be seen, clearly...
It is a story about a protagonist who suffers from their connections and ascends.
Flutter, flutter, flutter...
And taking that as the lead, countless sheets of paper start to fly around her.
Those sheets differ in depiction, but all depict a story about a single existence.
That appearance is much like the Celestial Lord Incense Burning that Seo Eun-hyun left behind before going to the Outer Sea, but it exudes a far more sacred feeling.
From Mount Sumeru, innumerable sheets fly and begin to soar toward the Audience Chamber.
Seeing this, the eyes of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld Bong Hwa widen.
Gradually, the chilling energy that all beings of Mount Sumeru, including her, feel begins to subside.
As if beings of lower rank do not even have the qualification to dare to perceive that existence...
Seeing this, Bong Hwa, leaving behind the Enders undergoing the trial, grits her teeth and advances toward the Audience Chamber.
As if the truth of the history in the Audience Chamber, torn away in the Audience Chamber, comes to mind.
Woooooo-
A dark starry heaven.
It looks like a night sky lit by starlight, yet the starlight is too powerless, and the darkness is too strong.
That dark world is like a labyrinth.
However, there is one existence who gropes through that labyrinth and tries to reach its edge.
It is the blond man, Kim Young-hoon.
Cheok!
At last, Kim Young-hoon reaches the edge of the labyrinth.
All Heaven and Earth are darkness, and what is felt is something like a door seen before his eyes.
That gigantic door, which looks much more like a human door than the Head Realm Gate they passed through, gives a feeling of being powerfully in contact with Kim Young-hoon's essence.
Woooooo-
The strange wailing felt from somewhere.
"...I see, so you are the Emptiness Supreme Deity."
Kim Young-hoon, within that wail, receives the strange feeling he felt whenever he saw the Head Realm and
recognizes its identity.
"Is this...the trial you impose on us?"
Kim Young-hoon suddenly feels the urge to cut this gate down.
"Well then...I should at least give it a try."
Hwoong-
The moment Kim Young-hoon takes his stance.
A golden flash of a fleeting instant bores into the door.
Jjeoeoong!
A golden wave spreads through all Heaven and Earth, and the dark world brightens for a moment.
At the same time, the form of the door within that darkness appears even more distinctly.
That gate is as if the universe is compressed into the form of a gate.
Innumerable starlights swirl within the door, and countless constellations within the door emit sacred light and form
strange shapes.
However, that is all.
"...Hmm..."
Kim Young-hoon's single strike only leaves a scratch on the door.
He fails to cut the door down.
"Well, if I spend some time, I can probably cut it down..."
But the moment he cut, he understood.
This is not made to be 'cut'.
It is a door meant to be reached, looking back upon oneself, and testing one's own enlightenment.
Kim Young-hoon stands before the door and speaks while putting forth his Dao.
"Enlightenment... I have obtained it."
Wo-woong-
Kim Young-hoon's voice strikes the door and returns as an echo.
And that echo reaches him as a completely diverse question.
-What is your enlightenment?
"My enlightenment is..."
Kim Young-hoon closes his eyes and slowly recalls his entire life.
Meeting his wife and loving her.
Seeing his children and devoting his whole life to them.
Becoming a department director.
Getting caught in a landslide while going on a company workshop.
Falling to Ascension Path, remaining with Seo Eun-hyun, and ranging across the martial world...
And in that process, by Seo Eun-hyun's regression, repeating more than a few times, gradually improving, and all those things that lead him to this very place engrave themselves in his mind.
Carrying his enlightenment, Kim Young-hoon slowly brings his hand to the door.
"I realize how much this life...is filled with things one can rejoice in, how much I can trust people, and how far I can
climb."
His eyes blaze with gold.
At the same time, his hand also burns with gold.
"A single life is a fleeting spring dream. However, precisely because of this, the life within the fleeting instant is joy
beyond compare."
Tststststststs...!
The gold spreading out from Kim Young-hoon's hand grows stronger and begins to push the door hard.
"Life is joy."
Voicing the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Kim Young-hoon begins to push the door wide open.
A space of darkness.
Jeon Myeong-hoon looks at the door before his eyes.
It is a strange door, as if it models the universe.
And seeing the countless constellations engraved on the door, he tilts his head.
'I feel like I've seen these constellations somewhere before...'
However, he cannot tell what they are.
'Well, it probably isn't that important.'
Jeon Myeong-hoon pulls for red lightning.
Kwarururung!
Within the red lightning, he prepares a single strike filled with his sincerity.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear!
The strongest ultimate technique of a Governing Immortal unfolds from his hand as a spear of mortality.
The red spear directly strikes the door as-is, and the ultimate technique that contains all of Jeon Myeong-hoon
shatters outright.
"Mm..."
He realizes.
This door is not a door meant to receive attacks.
'Is it to test oneself?'
He quietly brings his hand to the door.
Wo-woong-
The sounds born from Jeon Myeong-hoon's movements return as echoes.
Carrying the question of some existence.
-What enlightenment have you obtained?
Jeon Myeong-hoon closes his eyes.
He was born into an affluent family and lived his whole life without lack.
There was a time when he entered his family's company, sat there idly, killed time, and tried to pick up women.
He also met a guy he didn't like.
It was a guy named Seo Eun-hyun.
He tried to bully him and drive him out. He even made a plan to disgrace him at the workshop.
Then he met a landslide and fell into a strange world.
There, he stepped onto the path of Immortal Cultivation, came to love, and gradually grew as a human being.
And he lost all of it and ended up shouting only anger.
But vengeance did not come to pass, and he only repeated dying miserably in the wilderness...
However, by Seo Eun-hyun, he repeated, and repeated...
And gradually, by riding along with the regression, he came to receive salvation.
He did not save everyone, but he saved some.
He, who had only gone on dying without crossing a certain realm, did not die, advanced forward, reached Great
Net Immortal, and faced the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity.
Thus, having completed all revenge and become a Heavenly King, he has come to this place.
"I was angry. Therefore I accepted others' anger. Thus...I accepted becoming the ring of anger itself."
Anger is, after all, for circulation.
As long as the world cycles, the existence that is him is needed as well.
Life is a cycle.
Therefore, the anger that becomes the driving force of that cycle is life itself.
"Life is anger."
Putting forward the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Jeon Myeong-hoon thrusts forward his
reddened hand with force.
Red light brightens the darkness and pushes the door open.
In the darkness.
Kang Min-hee looks at the door before her eyes and comes to understand something.
"This is..."
She has spent ages under the Underworld, doing nothing but drawing taenghwa.
No one can recognize better than her diagrams that symbolize something.
"Immortal Cultivation system...?"
The strange constellations floating and shining within that door, as if someone crammed a Heavenly Domain within,
are a schematization of the Immortal Cultivation system.
She realizes that this great door is, more than she expected, a high-ranking existence.
'I see...'
And she realizes, without even bothering to attack, that she cannot break through and pass.
'For the Immortal Cultivation system...is not something like a mere law.'
It is the path she has learned, and also another self of hers.
Her own self.
There is nothing in the world as strong as that.
If she is to break this door, she must be prepared to break herself.
Knock, knock.
She knocks on the door.
Its echo spreads and returns as a question.
-What is your enlightenment?
Kang Min-hee looks back on her life.
Since childhood, a ghost clung to her.
Because of the ghost, she could not become close with anyone, and only upon becoming an adult did she become
close with Seo Eun-hyun.
She liked Seo Eun-hyun.
Although their relationship became uncomfortable, still, all his actions brought warmth to a corner of her heart.
Originally, after coming back from the workshop, she planned to state her intent to resign.
For Seo Eun-hyun.
So that he no longer feels uncomfortable with her.
In any case, Jeon Myeong-hoon was hitting on her in a filthy way, so the reason for resignation was sufficient.
But a landslide occurred, and she was dragged to Black Ghost Valley.
Receiving the teachings of Heo Gwak and the sages of Black Ghost Valley, she gained control of herself and
gradually drew near to death.
She awakened as the Ghost Guiding Holy Mother, and was subjugated by Jang Ik.
However, in the life that repeated because of Seo Eun-hyun, she at last received salvation.
"It was always...a life of only being protected."
She wanted to protect as well.
But she could not protect.
Not only Seo Eun-hyun, but even his daughter...
Tststststs...
From within Kang Min-hee's heart, something begins to bloom.
It is the aggregation of her hearts that has been suppressed under her Absolute.
That which does not let sorrow flow only as sorrow.
It is the soul.
As she looks back on her own life, her eyes blaze blue.
Kang Min-hee's blue hair becomes even clearer.
"One protects one another, and is also protected by each other, and at times fails to protect. Therefore..."
Tsuaaaat!
Her hand bursts into blue flame.
"Life is sorrow."
That hand shining blue begins to push the door.
"But at the same time...as long as what I must protect is by my side, it is not only sorrow."
Jjeoooooong!
With Kang Min-hee's shout, the door shines ever more vigorously and begins to show her the way.
Trial space.
Oh Hyun-seok throws a straight punch.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust...
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter...
Kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang...
"Huuuk, huuuk..."
He wipes his sweat and rubs his fist that feels numb.
"...Strange. I reached the Governing Immortal rank, yet how is it that only faint marks remain against me...?"
Oh Hyun-seok is already, in himself, a law.
Therefore, no matter what law is before his eyes, if it is struck by him, there must be at least some change.
For it is a collision of laws.
"Just what in the world is this made of...?"
Kuwoong!
Oh Hyun-seok, a little vexed, places his fist against the door and glares at it.
But suddenly, he realizes something.
"...This is..."
The door that is like a transparent universe.
Inside that door, something reflects.
It is Oh Hyun-seok himself.
For some reason, he feels a bit embarrassed.
"...Damn. Was I hitting myself...?"
Oh Hyun-seok knows what he should do.
Wo-woong-
His own voice becomes an echo and returns as a question.
-What could be your enlightenment, that you knock upon the door?
"...My enlightenment..."
Oh Hyun-seok recalls his daughter who wanted to follow him.
At the same time, he recalls his child on Earth that was lost to a miscarriage.
Countless memories flash through his mind.
"Not being ashamed before myself. That being the path to truly live with a smile. That is my enlightenment. Because this world is one where those who wish not to be ashamed keep on living, tussling with one another..."
He shouts boisterously.
"Life is pleasure!"
Tsuaaaaat!
His fist blazes silver and begins to push the door.
But at the same time, his soul resounds and blazes even more.
"However...at the same time it is much more than that!"
It cannot be expressed.
For that is the teaching he gained upon meeting the being called Cheong Min.
If one is a man, it has always been that you prove yourself with nothing but your own two fists!
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter.
Zero Wing.
Nameless One Fist, thrust!
Recalling the words of Azure Tiger Saint, Oh Hyun-seok heartedly puts power into his fist and forcefully shoves the door open.
Inside Mount Sumeru.
In every Heavenly Domain there, all those of the Heart Tribe feel a strange sensation.
"What is this...?"
"M-My senses...are cut in half...?"
"No, I don't think that's it...but what on earth is this!?"
The Heart Tribe fall into great confusion.
The reason is simple.
Clang!
The Interdimensional Void closes.
The Plane of Soul does not operate.
Seo Eun-hyun's Heart Dao Blooming and Kim Young-hoon's system support the Heart Tribe, but as they lose the functions they enjoyed through the Plane of Soul, they all at once speak of their discomfort.
And, the source of the Interdimensional Void's closing,
In the Good Sight Heavenly Domain, Interdimensional Void,
There, a human-shaped something with a ponytail wears a gloomy smile.
Rather than smiling, it seems to be forcing a smile while crying.
"O Fate. I hate you."
Northern Heavenly Venerable, True Martial Great Emperor Hyeon Mu.
Heavenly Venerable of Void.
That existence looks up at the sky with empty eyes and lets out an utterance.
"I want to die."
At the same time, Hyeon Mu's body begins to scatter.
Inside the Interdimensional Void, Hyeon Mu's Gandhara [Three Great Ultimates formed of Black Snakes] disassembles and begins to fly off somewhere.
A dark trial space.
Kim Yeon slowly raises her hand there.
Woo-woooong!
A light pink flame rises on Kim Yeon's hand and begins to push open the door.
"Life is love."
She knows about this trial.
The moment she tried to challenge the Audience Chamber, the lingering thought of Vast Cold whispered to her.
Woooong-
Kim Yeon's soul rings.
"However, at the same time...it is the countless possibilities that advance from inside that love..."
The door opens.
Kim Yeon, as Vast Cold's memories surge like a tide, senses that the soul of the previous Tridacna, the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord, is not far away.
-Come, child. Make up for my mistake, and seize them by the ankle...
Kim Yeon's eyes blaze light pink, and, hearing that one line from the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord, steels her resolve and proceeds beyond the door.
A dark space.
There, Oh Hye-seo looks at the door before her eyes and strokes the surface of the door.
Somehow it even feels a bit rough.
From that feeling she senses the scales of her lover, Seo Hweol.
"...Seo Hweol..."
What Seo Hweol taught her was her heart.
Hatred.
But at the same time, Seo Hweol did not teach only hatred.
Seo Hweol undeniably taught love as well.
Hatred is not merely anger scorched and left clinging.
When love breaks, and what remains cling and fester darkness, that is precisely hatred.
Hatred is an emotion directly connected to love.
"Life is hatred..."
Tststststs...
Oh Hye-seo's hand stains dark red, like Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens, and gradually pushes the door away.
"However, at the same time..."
Oh Hye-seo's soul rings.
And at some moment, light pink energy also begins to flow out from that hand.
Kkigigigigik-
Simultaneously, the door that begins to open screeches and stops.
"Love is not absent either..."
Is it only love?
There are other things as well. She just cannot define them yet.
They surely exist.
Oh Hye-seo does not bother to open the door all the way.
She does not bother to prove herself further.
She simply wedges herself through the slightly opened crack, turns into a black shadow, and squeezes through the
gap.
A temporary afterlife created by the Underworld Ten Great Kings.
There lies the mantra of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, which serenely rotates and governs the reincarnation of spirits.
[White Wheel].
Among the Underworld Ten Great Kings managing it, the Chief Judge, Yama True Lord Yan Luo, judges the spirits
and senses something strange.
:: Hm...? ::
At Yan Luo's reaction, the other Underworld Ten Great Kings also begin to look back at the place where the Wheel
is located.
A strange energy is being felt.
:: What...? ::
Yan Luo reaches out a hand to normalize the flow of the Wheel.
But then it happens.
Kkik, kkigigigigigik...!
Kigigigigigik...!
Kugung!
As if something suddenly catches with a clunk, the Wheel of Reincarnation stops in place.
:: What...!? ::
Startled, Yama goes to the wheel, and the other Ten Great Kings also gather one after another around the wheel.
:: Some...some spirit is reversing! ::
:: This is...a phenomenon that occasionally occurs when an existence of True Immortality revives...::
:: But what kind of existence revives by reversing the Wheel itself!? ::
:: Just what kind of existence is it...that they reverse the Wheel of the Imperial Venerable with nothing but their
spirit...!? ::
:: This is no time for that. Everyone, gather strength. Whatever the case, it is a profane existence. By the authority
of us kings, we shall reincarnate it again! ::
:: O dead one, abandon the thought of revival and follow the natural order! ::
At that moment,
A radiant light bursts out from the Wheel.
At the same time, the Wheel begins to reverse madly.
That appearance is as if...
Time is rewinding.
Before my eyes.
A gigantic door is visible.
That door is a beautiful door with constellations floating as if symbolizing the Immortal Cultivation system.
However, at the same time...
'So this is it.'
I recognize that this is the source of the disgust I felt whenever I looked at the Head Realm.
Rather than simply the gaze of the Future King, it is this door that is even more closely tied to the source of that
disgust.
'Because something like this exists inside the Head Realm, I suppose that is why I felt so much disgust.'
I calmly try pushing the door.
The door does not budge.
"Open."
Even when I let out a single word laden with prophecy, the door only shudders and does not move.
Rather, my voice becomes an echo and merely returns as a strange question.
-Have you attained enlightenment?
"Yes. I attained the highest enlightenment."
-What is that enlightenment.
"...Having lived life, it turns out that countless beings have things they desire."
I put strength into my hand.
"This world is filled with countless hopes."
My soul begins to resound.
"Life is desire."
I speak aloud the single phrase that I suppose is my fate, which I once glimpsed through Indra's Net in the far past.
Nothing happens.
I glare at the door and shout.
"...What, was this the answer you wanted!?"
Woo-woong!
I lift my hand.
"Don't make me laugh."
I am a sword.
My hand is a blade.
There is nothing anywhere in this Heaven and Earth that can block this body...
Kkwaaaang!
At my single strike, the door dents.
"If it is not the answer you want, you will not open the door, huh? Were you not asking me for an interpretation of
life?"
-Is it not that you have not truly realized it?
At the question flowing from the door, I strike the door once again.
Kwagwagwang!
The door dents even more.
Two strikes.
With just that, the door greatly twists and crumples and its form collapses.
"Then I ask you this. Rather than not having truly realized it, is it not that the correct answer is already fixed?"
Kwaaaang!!!
The third strike.
The door that takes the shape of the whole universe gradually crumples and begins to shatter.
"Is it not that someone blindly set a chosen correct answer and forced it upon us by their own standard alone?
Have they not denied everything else as incorrect if it is not that answer!?"
Kkwaaaang!
Not only the door, but cracks begin to spread through the entire dark space in which the door is set.
I look back on my life.
There stands Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens, transformed from the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections.
I grew up in an ordinary family, went to an ordinary school, entered an ordinary military unit, and became an
ordinary adult.
Then I entered an ordinary company somewhere between a small to medium-sized business, and...
I fell into an unordinary world.
In that world I met countless teachers.
"Then I ask you!! What is life!?"
-Life is desi-
"Wrong!!"
Kwaaaang!!!
Creeeeeeeak!
The entire space begins to collapse, and now the door almost loses its shape, leaving only the sense that it used to
be a door.
-Was what I gave you also a curse?
Perhaps everything began from that.
However, it is something I was already enjoying even before that.
In this life, nothing at all is a given.
"Life is a miracle!"
Because it never returns.
Because a person's present is absolutely not a given, this life is more precious and thankful than anything.
Therefore...
Surely this world is a miracle itself.
Kwaaaaaaaang!!
My knife hand thus smashes even the last remaining form of the door and brings down the entire trial space.
The entirety of the space called the trial space presses on me and begins to pin me so I can never go forward.
-O defective product, be nailed to this place.
"Even though life is a miracle, is it truly the will of the heavens to not acknowledge it?"
I shout toward the will I presume to be the master of this space.
"Then, O Heavens!"
Urururung!
If space presses me, I cut space itself.
If time strangles me, I break time itself.
Kiriririk...
The technique I completed recently by seizing the time that belongs to me through the Seed Plot of Disjunction.
Woo-woooong!
Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens settles in my hand.
Naturally fusing with the Impermanence Sword, Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens becomes a blade stronger than
anything.
With the light of Flower Soul Filling the Heavens, I cross generations.
With the power of Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens, I fix the coordinates, and I then run beyond spacetime.
That is Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens.
Thereupon, I add to it the enlightenment regarding time and regression by the understanding of the Radiance Mantra, and add even the understanding I gained by devouring the Northern Dipper Seven Heavenly Lords.
I even internalize the method of seizing the whole universe with Great Mountain Pressing Down, and with the
profundity of the Severing Heaven Sword Form I completed with the seven steps...
Tsuaaat!
The sword imbued with the Deer of Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens becomes a Mountain Lord like the will of
Obsidian.
Severing Heaven Sword Form ().
Final Form.
"Heavens, match yourself to me!!!"
Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens ().
My sword, which transcends time and space to arrive, smashes through all of spacetime, shatters the darkness of
the trail, and opens a path forward.
Before my eyes, a [Baby] appears.
-x-X-x-
Kugugugugu!
With the move of Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, I directly transcend spacetime.
I see countless timelines, and along those timelines that are like blood vessels, I see the figure of a baby who has not yet stirred in the womb.
The starting point of creation, the outskirts of the Akashic Records, which only Gwak Am using Annihilation Advancement Wu or Kim Young-hoon with the Golden Great Thousand World barely managed to reach.
Now...I can reach it by will alone.
'I see it.'
Countless cycles.
Countless timelines faintly shimmer before my eyes.
'I can...go back...'
I feel nostalgia for the distant cycles.
And, over there in the distance, there is also something that looks like [16th cycle].
I slowly begin to view what concerns the 16th cycle.
At the same time, in one of those faraway worlds, I see someone familiar.
It is Oh Hye-seo.
'So that's how it is...'
It is Oh Hye-seo of the past.
It is that time when, struck by Gwak Am's Annihilation Advancement Wu, she was flung all the way here and, transcending time and space, tried to bring Azure Tiger Saint.
She succeeded in safely connecting to the previous spacetime.
At that moment, I realize something.
'She can't...get back...can she...?'
Indeed.
It was because Gwak Am used Annihilation Advancement Wu that Oh Hye-seo reached that place.
Without something on the level of Annihilation Advancement Mu, she could not return.
'...My plan back then was quite reckless and left to luck alone, huh?'
Then, how on earth did she come back?
I suddenly see her converse with the will of Cheong Min inside Azure Tiger Saint.
And at some moment.
'Ah...'
"Sorry... I'm...sorry...Seo Eun-hyun."
Seeing her shout with sincerity, my body moves before I know it.
That is a prayer toward me.
"I'm sorry...!!!"
I very gently breathe my Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens into the Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens of the past.
She does not recognize me, who has become Star Genesis Supreme Deity, but it does not matter.
I look where she is headed.
I feel my eyes meet the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am, who is fighting me in the past.
So it is.
He...
From the very moment he saw the [White Deer]!
He knew he would be defeated.
'I see...'
From the start, saying he was the original owner of the deer was merely empty talk.
No, more precisely, it was only a part of the method to desecrate fate.
He saw a being who seized the Origin Essence of the Mountain and sent a deer across spacetime, but no matter how he looked, that being was not himself...
Thus, to block the fate of his defeat, he thrashed about.
The one who struggled until the very end within fate was him.
With Oh Hye-seo's heartfelt apology, even the small dregs of grudge that remain despite hanging her upside down and beating her severely completely melt away, and...
I hold in my chest the will of Gwak Am, who did not give up to the end despite having confirmed fate.
His character was vile, but in that will he is someone from whom I have something to learn.
And at the same time...
As I leap into the original spacetime, I cannot help but feel a strange foreboding.
'If [up to here] is all fate...'
Can we truly escape fate...?
Because this foreboding does not erase even when I try to shake it off, I simply accept it.
However, even while feeling ominous, even while fearing fate, I step forward.
'I have already walked this far.'
Even if I am afraid and afraid again, there is a time when I must step forward,
Burning the handful of courage that remains, I begin to advance toward that future.
Tsuaaaaaat...!
As the original timeline returns again, the Audience Chamber begins to appear in the far distance.
Tstststststs...
What appears along with the Audience Chamber are my comrades who arrived slightly faster than me in front of the Audience Chamber.
And...
It is the Underworld, who, having half stepped into the Audience Chamber, is staring blankly at something.
Kugugugugugu!
: : ...! : :
I see [three] immense things like great rivers flowing into the Audience Chamber.
Flutterflutterflutterflutter—
The most eye-catching river is the sheets of paper spewing out across all of Mount Sumeru.
Seeing that, I launch a pre-emptive strike toward the Future King who is beyond the Audience Chamber.
If I know the opponent is hard to defeat, seizing the initiative with the first move is the best plan!
The move of Great Mountain Pressing Down bursts from my sword, and, having noticed my intention, Kang Min-hee and Kim Yeon each unfold the mantra and Immortal Art of Fallen Flowers and Liberation Peach Garden Village.
Two otherworlds cover the entirety of the Audience Chamber, and by the laws we create, the being inside the Audience Chamber begins to [shrink].
Kudududuk...
I enter the Audience Chamber together with the Underworld.
Dudududududu!
What is visible inside the Audience Chamber is the sight of some being whose initiative was stolen, endlessly [growing smaller].
Kurururung!
We too have some of our authorities restricted and our rank pressed down a bit, but the being before our eyes truly appears to grow smaller without end or limit.
However...
'What is that...?'
Though it is certain they have shrunk to an immense degree, they still appear as large as the Underworld's Gandhara or my main body.
'This place is...'
I quickly look around.
Grasping the surrounding environment is the cornerstone for victory.
And I cannot help but freeze.
To the point I even stop perusing the 16th cycle and must stare around this place for a moment.
'This place is...'
Now I remember.
I, we...
Here.
Made a contract with [That].
Right after suffering the landslide.
And just before falling into Ascension Path.
Our 'start' was here.
"Did we...come from the Audience Chamber...?"
The surroundings are a vast starry sky.
Innumerable clusters of light sparkle, and what is visible ahead are the symbol of a great [Black Snake Biting Its Tail], and next to that symbol, a small birdcage made of iron bars of all colors.
And beneath that symbol and the birdcage, on both sides of the jade throne, two faint shapes of circles waver as if about to scatter.
The moment I gaze straight at them, wisdom seeps in, and I can know what they are.
The Absolute of Fate, Totality (全部).
The Absolute of History, Omniscience (全知).
And finally...
The Absolute of Miracle, Sincerity (全心).
'I see.'
Understanding the true name of the Third Absolute that I have not known until now, I cannot help but fall into a certain reflection.
At the same time, I realize that quite a lot of clues have been telling me the name of the Third Absolute.
—To utter Shattering Heaven is only possible if there is an absurd miracle.
—Such a thing is absurd, but if it is not a miracle, there is no escaping its gaze.
—Therefore this Seat, relying only upon the possibility of a miracle, leaves here a warning for later generations.
Yang Su-jin's miracle did not simply speak of an absurd probability.
—Enders bring about miracles.
It was a clue that was even more intuitive than expected.
'From the very beginning, we are beings that split off from the Miracle... I see. My answer...'
...is not wrong.
But with no time to fall into reflection, the black existence sitting upon the jade throne begins to move.
"Ah..."
Kugugugugugugu!
I feel nothing at all.
As if the terrifying aura that blanketed the world a moment ago is a lie, it is a presence like emptiness.
But that, instead, is even more frightening and horrifying.
For the fact I do not feel any energy at all...
As though a being with a low rank cannot even sense their presence.
Upper dantian, middle dantian, lower dantian.
A being with holes pierced through the three dantian begins to awaken, and their three dantians begin to fill.
Flutterflutterflutter...
Seeing that, I start to recall the explanation of [someone] that I heard in the 16th cycle.
—Stories are originally cruel. But reality can be even more cruel... By any chance, have you ever looked up the Original Text (原典)?
—You have not, you say? Haw haw...
—Then I shall tell you. The original text I know...goes like this.
Chapter 1.
The story of a boy who brings a carp in winter for his mother.
—They say the boy did not save his mother. When he got the carp and returned home, his mother was already dead, whether frozen to death in the cold winter or starved to death, no one knows.
Chapter 2.
The story of a blind man who prays to the heavens again and again and regains his sight.
—The boy who lost his mother, even in that situation, was hungry and ate the carp. He then fell ill and his eyes rotted away. Though he prayed to the heavens, the heavens did not answer.
—So he tried to live by joining forces with his leg-crippled friend, but the leg-crippled friend betrayed the eye-crippled boy, stole the mother's keepsakes, and, caught trying to sell them to a merchant, was killed by the eye-crippled boy.
—In the end, not receiving an answer from the heavens, the eye-crippled learned, by his own talent, the way to feel the flow of Heaven and Earth and to sense people's hostility, coming to know the world.
Chapter 3.
The story of a husband who, when his wife falls ill with a fatal disease, lights fire on the tip of his finger to cure her illness.
—The eye-crippled also became an adult. Wandering from village to village holding the blade with which he had killed his friend, he met a woman driven out for having leprosy, had his heart...stolen...was loved...and...married...
—Wanting to cure the leprosy...he roamed all the mountains and rivers...sought a way to cure leprosy, heard that if one lights fire beacons (烽火/Bong Hwa) on five mountain peaks the disease would be cured, searched and searched for the mountain peaks but could not find them, and returned home.
—But the moment he returned home, the house where the wife with leprosy lived was burned by thieves, and even as he burned his own hands, he failed to save his wife and went mad.
Chapter 4.
The story of a poor old man who gets a goblin cap and becomes rich.
—Thus he went mad, and at the same time gained the enlightenment of being forgotten by the world. In a state unseen by anyone, he went around killing.
—People, monsters, spirits, and goblins...
—Whatever stood before him, all of them...
Chapter 5.
The story of a child who, driven from his hometown by schemes of a fox sister, met the Dragon King, heard the method to appease the fox sister, returned, and reconciled with the fox sister.
—The man who began to grow old met a fox.
—When the fox disguised herself as his wife and appeared before him, he thought, for the first time, that a miracle descended and rejoiced.
—Though he himself knew it was not real, even so he soothed his madness by believing it to be real.
—To the point that even if the fox set him up as her henchman and destroyed a nation, a continent, a star, he followed...
—There was no problem until the sacred Dragon King told him the truth. Even when the Dragon King told him the truth, if only the fox, suspicious of the eye-crippled, had not dug up the wife's grave and threatened him...
—It could have been a good ending. The eye-crippled split the fox apart into pieces and tore the body to shreds.
Chapter 6.
The story of an old man at the end of his lifespan who offers rituals to the heavens a thousand times and extends his lifespan.
—Before long, the old man's lifespan also ran out, and he offered a ritual to the heavens. He linked countless stars to stars, and with it he drew a formation and performed a ritual.
—It was not a ritual to extend lifespan.
—Just a ritual begging, and begging...
—For his next life to stop making him miserable.
—The ritual did not come true.
—Why would the lofty heavens have any interest in such a mere bug?
—The eye-crippled only wasted his time for nothing, and ended up croaking like such.
—This...is the original text of the story.
The stories of the fairy tale books I have seen on Mount Sumeru, which are everywhere in this world, flow to the lower dantian of the Future King.
They flow into the place that symbolizes History and Qi.
Inside the fairy tale books, the protagonists of the illustrated sheets all come out with their eyes rolling and meet my gaze.
Only now can I understand.
From the moment I 'read' about the protagonists of those stories in the archives of the Cheongmun Clan while following Master...
I, from then on, could never avoid his gaze.
Kugugugugu!!!
A black something surges skyward and forms a river.
It is something that resembles a snake.
Only after a while do I finally realize that it is the Gandhara of the Heavenly Venerable of Void.
[A Black Three Great Ultimates Formed of Countless Snakes].
Those innumerable snakes that are the symbols of emptiness all at once get sucked into his chest.
The Northern Heavenly Venerable, True Martial Great Emperor Hyeon Mu.
The being that is emptiness itself begins to fill the Future King's chest.
It begins to fill the place where the Heart, the Soul should be.
The last thing I see is Radiance.
"...Huh?"
Toward Mount Sumeru.
From there, the authority of the Radiance Mantra which I am sure I threw into the Cycle of Reincarnation and smashed to pieces, as if reversing time, turns the Wheel backward, creates a great river of light, and flies here.
The great river of radiance evokes a giant snake made of light.
I quickly dig up the grave of Hong Fan that I have kept buried inside my body.
In the tomb of Hong Fan, there is no corpse at all.
As if it has never existed from the beginning.
That river of light, even when we block it, passes through as if all our resistance is nothing, and towards the upper dantian of the Future King.
It settles in the place that symbolises Fate, and begins to fill his face.
Soon...
The being whose three dantian are all filled raises his head.
His History is the distorted Original Text of stories that exist everywhere.
His Heart is the Emptiness that cannot be found in anything.
His Fate is the Radiance of the Black Snake that always watches us.
Shiver, shiver, shiver!
I do not feel any energy or momentum at all.
What dwells in those eyes is not any dignity or authority, but endless self-loathing and emptiness.
Yet even so, from that gaze alone, I feel my knees go weak and I begin to want to give up everything.
Wooooooo—
Among the stars that fill the firmament of this strange space, a few fall and begin to whisper something.
I realize that the identity of those stars is very familiar.
They are the countless Hyeon Rangs across the generations.
With only their heads floating, the Hyeon Rangs move only their mouths and begin to fill this entire space with [wisdom].
Most Supreme who Opens the World, Wielder of Talismans, Ruler of Calendrics, Truth Embracing Dao Embodying Future Radiance Nine Firmaments Time Governing Myriad Daos Non-Action All-Illuminating Great Hall Vast Heaven Golden Gate Fate Great Heavenly Venerable Black Martial High Supreme Deity (太上開天執符御歷含眞體道未來光明九穹歷御萬道無爲通明大殿昊天金闕運命大天尊玄武高上帝).
Past that long string of epithets, comes the familiar names by which he is called in short.
Future King.
Fate Supreme Deity.
Hong Fan Gu Ju (洪範九疇/Great Plan Nine Categories)
Whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper...
The wisdoms tell his true name.
At the same time, his will arises from everywhere and begins to inject a certain enlightenment.
—In this world, only I am noble.
The three realms are in suffering, so I shall rightly make them peaceful.
That is precisely the wisdom that explains the significance of existence of the Future King and the will he holds.
And breaking the silence of that wisdom that feels like eternity.
He opens his mouth.
"You have worked hard."
Contrary to what befits a being called the Future King, a mere ordinary physical voice.
"Here is your ending."
Woooooong—
Still the wisdoms resound, and the will of that being presses us down as if pronouncing a sentence upon us.
—The head of the world is me.
—The most outstanding being in the world is me.
—The most advanced being in the world is me.
—This place is the last.
—There is no more mercy.
—Here is your end.
"Do not fall into despair. Though the world is surely suffering..."
Stretching out his palm, the Splitting Heaven Mantra flies in all too naturally.
"There exists a value that surpasses suffering."
Before the light of that mantra that collapses the Absolute, I feel the faces of the 16th cycle flash past before my eyes.
"For life is hope."
The endlessly empty God of Light and Hope, trampling our hope without mercy, covers all Heaven and Earth with light.
Booooong!
Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.
Annihilation Advancement Mu.
From my hand, the ultimate technique my senior brother used bursts forth.
The original and the imitation collide and cancel out with a dazzling flash.
I, at the very end of a truly long road, call out my long-standing nemesis and closest friend and step forward.
"Truly...truly..."
He, without a word and without even rising, lifts his hand.
Ururung!
A change arises within Mount Sumeru.
The Four Gandhara that cover Mount Sumeru.
Among them, the entire Interdimensional Void suddenly gets plucked out of Mountain Sumeru, compresses, and is held in his hand.
"Entering Heavens Beyond the Path. Void Sword. I believe that it is what it was named."
It is endless nothingness.
At the same time, it is the extreme of the killing art that destroys everything and slaughters everything.
"Entering Heavens. A good name. But I call it True Martial Arts."
That jade voice crosses spacetime in an instant.
I finally understand the true meaning of True Martial Arts.
True Martial Arts is the Future King's martial arts system.
More precisely, only the martial arts that reach the end of that system and receive recognition from the Owner of Fate are bestowed the name True Martial Arts.
Only now can I know the causality of how we at some moment felt we reached the realm called True Martial Arts.
It is not that we ascend to a realm called True Martial Arts.
[In this moment] we were recognized by the Future King and heard his jade voice, and his jade voice went past and engraved recognition upon the martial arts of Kim Young-hoon and me.
One being among the Enders across generations used their authority and did a similar deed, but he executed that miracle with nothing but smoothly uttered spoken word.
That is the true nature of the realm of True Martial Arts that we at some moment reached.
"As promised, since you remember the true name, I shall return the Void Sword."
The name of the Void Sword returns to me, and his True Martial Arts emits true light and reveals its true name and form.
True Martial Arts.
Emptiness Sword.
The Interdimensional Void, the Plane of Soul itself, becomes a monster that lives and moves in his hand and bares its teeth at me.
—Emptiness Sword.
—Seventh Move.
—Final Profundity.
It is said a beast exerts all its strength even to catch a small creature.
Unfolding a killing art with full force from the beginning, and deploying a decisive move I cannot even guess...
He begins to reach out his hand.
—Hope (希望).
"I have wanted to meet..."
Sensing the death that engulfs me before I can even perceive anything, I smile brightly.
My greatest enemy.
"O Heavens."
My greatest friend.
Thus, from within death, I begin the recollection of the cycle I have forgotten.
The recollection of the 16th cycle together with Hong Fan, the main personality of the Future King.
-x-X-x-
Seo Eun-hyun's 15th life.
He collapses on the spot.
Pachijijijik...
At Seo Eun-hyun's side, Yu Hwa of the Half-Human, Half-Spider Race breaks Seo Hweol's magic artifact that contains the soul of her disciple Baek Nyeong, causing Baek Nyeong to attain Buddhahood.
Yu Hwa looks at Seo Eun-hyun.
"...Are you satisfied?"
A revenge play aimed at Seo Hweol.
The curtain of that long revenge play, in which the' sound 'hoho' still seems to ring by the ears, finally comes to a close.
"I am satisfied."
"That is a relief..."
Yu Hwa looks at Seo Eun-hyun and smiles bitterly.
Though her eyes are closed, she looks at him with the heart eye (心眼), not taking her eyes off him to hold in her heart Seo Eun-hyun, who melts away under the curse laid by the True Immortal of Heavenly Punishment...
"One thing..."
And, as he dies with a body where pale mist and lightning roil...
Seo Eun-hyun opens his mouth.
He speaks to Yu Hwa as he scatters into lightning.
"The Heaven-Collapsing Esteemed One...breathed something into Gyu Baek. Gyu Baek passed her heart to me and now it is inside me... I think I should pass it to you as well, so I will..."
Gyu Baek.
The 'remnant' of Gyu Ryeon of the Yellow Dragon Race, who was used by the Sea Dragon King Seo Hweol and died.
Seo Eun-hyun, holding in his heart the heart that Gyu Baek left behind and Jang Ik's teachings in her memories, begins to deliver them to Yu Hwa.
For it is not merely an enlightenment left only to Gyu Baek, but also an enlightenment left to Seo Eun-hyun and to Yu Hwa, a junior of the Heart Tribe.
―Some cultivators say the amount of air in the lungs is the heart, and since the lungs correspond to metal, the heart is metallic. But if we follow your cultivators' logic...since the metal of the Five Elements corresponds to the Qian of the Eight Trigrams...
"'Isn't the heart from the heavens? Your heart lives touching the heavens, and just as you cannot deny the heavens, you cannot deny the heart. So even if someone denies your heart, it never truly disappears'."
Where does the heart come from?
If Heaven is fate and Earth is life, then perhaps the Heart comes between fate and life, accompanying fate.
After conveying Jang Ik's enlightenment to Yu Hwa, Seo Eun-hyun finally scatters into fragments of lightning and disappears into the void.
This is Seo Eun-hyun's sixteenth return.
It seems like I see a snake.
The moment I feel that, I open my eyes and look around.
Seo Hweol stands before me with that familiar 'hoho' smiling face, and Jin Byuk-ho, Azure Tiger Saint, White Bone Ghost Devil, and others look at me.
'What was that just now?'
It seems I saw something in the midst of regressing.
I can't recall it well.
Only, a vision like a snake hissing seemed to pass by briefly.
'Ah, well...'
But I soon can tell the reason.
Because just seeing Seo Hweol's face in front of me brings it to mind.
'Because the one I rolled around with in the 15th cycle was this snake bastard, I must have seen such a fleeting thing for a moment.'
I take one step back from Seo Hweol and ask.
"Are you asking which faction I will choose?"
"That is so. I certainly feel the energy of the Nascent Soul stage within your body... For a mere cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage to ascend following us, is that not truly something to be astonished by? At your level, you will be welcomed wherever you go."
"Hm..."
In the life before last, during the Azure Heaven Creation Sect cycle, I reached the Nascent Soul stage.
And in the last life, I also reached the Nascent Soul stage by the cultivation method of the Demon Race, reaching the early Heaven and Earth Dual Cultivation Nascent Soul stage.
'Sly, old bastard.'
Though there is no actual Nascent Soul remaining, only a remnant, Seo Hweol nevertheless in an instant realizes it through the remnant of the Demon Race's cultivation method.
"...Yes, that is right. Though this one was originally a cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage, while urgently ascending I received shock and both my cultivation of the Nascent Soul and Golden Core scattered."
"Hmhm, even so you are excellent. It is surprising that Nascent Soul followed after ascension, and yet you are alive after scattering your Nascent Soul... It is clear that heavenly fate follows you. I would like to bring you into the Sea Dragon Race...do you perhaps have thoughts on it?"
Seo Hweol gently reaches his hand out toward me, and Gyu Ryeon, who waits in the back, furrows her brows.
[Hng, just a single Human Race Nascent Soul... Why are you wasting time on such a thing?]
"Haha, senior. Please wait just a little..."
Seo Hweol trades a few words with Gyu Ryeon, and I look at Gyu Ryeon.
'Senior Gyu Ryeon...'
In the last life, Gyu Ryeon, who was miserably murdered by Seo Hweol, and Gyu Ryeon's spirit.
Gyu Baek's end comes to mind.
Thinking of that makes my chest ache.
I want to follow Seo Hweol into the True Dragon Alliance right this instant and free Gyu Ryeon from Seo Hweol's clutches.
'But...I must not.'
That must not be.
In any case, the Gyu Ryeon who formed a connection with me in the last life and this Gyu Ryeon are different people.
Moreover...
Throb...
'...As expected...'
The curse followed.
Even beyond regression, I am being transformed into lightning.
Whether Jin Byuk-ho senses something or not, his eyes gradually fill with shock.
"W-Wait...you..."
At this rate, it looks like I will be noticed by Jin Byuk-ho or the Mad Lord and be kidnapped any moment, so I decide in a hurry.
"I...am sorry. A Demon Race force like the True Dragon Alliance is, after all, a burden to me as a member of the Human Race..."
I look at the other humans who ascended together with Jin Byuk-ho, Azure Tiger Saint, and White Bone Ghost Devil.
'That does not mean I can choose Jin Byuk-ho.'
Right now, I am in a situation where I am melting under the Owner of Heavenly Punishment.
If I stick close to the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, I do not know what ill effect I might have on the Heavenly Lightning Banner.
'I am sorry. If it's possible, I will choose the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect in the next life.'
Right now, choosing the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect is a bad move.
'In this case, since not choosing will mean getting kidnapped by the Mad Lord…'
My choice is but one.
I choose the Righteous and Devil Alliance.
Among them, I walk toward the place where there is a woman whose features look familiar from somewhere.
"You may not know about me, but I have a history with the Makli Clan."
"Ho..."
Makli Cheon-sa, a cultivator at the half-step Heavenly Being stage from a collateral branch of the Makli Clan.
When I destroyed and left the Makli Clan, she was someone I once saw in the archives while rummaging through the remnants of the Makli Clan.
As a child she suffered abuse from parents of a collateral branch of the Makli Clan, escaped, and as a person of the Mountains and Rivers, she wandered through the Head Realm, reached the half-step Heavenly Being stage, then entered the Devilish Immortal Alliance and took part in the Ascension Alliance.
After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, she is said to have massacred her own parents and blood relatives with her own hands, so she is also someone who will not be greatly enraged even if it is exposed that I destroyed the Makli Clan.
'At the same time, since she has not abandoned the Makli surname, she at least pays minimal attention...so I can try to sell the name of the Makli Clan to beg some recognition.'
"I know you do not like the Makli Clan...but if you would take me in for the sake of old ties..."
'Of course, if even this is not accepted there is nothing I can do, but since I have revealed my will to make my base in the Devilish Immortal Alliance, many devilish sects belonging to the Devilish Immortal Alliance will reach out to me...'
"Well, fine, I accept you."
"...?"
I make the offer expecting in large part to be refused, but being accepted as a disciple more easily than I expect, I look up at her feeling a bit dumbfounded.
"In the nameof this Makli Cheon-sa of the Devilish Immortal Alliance, here...what was your name?"
"S-Seo Eun-hyun."
"I proclaim that Cultivator Seo is now a member of the Devilish Immortal Alliance!"
At her words, the Mad Lord, Seo Hweol, Azure Tiger Saint, and the like turn their interest away from me, White Bone Ghost Devil looks at me with eyes that see a young chicken he can eat anytime, and...
Jin Byuk-ho thumps his chest as if frustrated.
After a while, the Mad Lord kidnaps a cultivator of the Flying Immortal Platform, and Seo Hweol and the other cultivators keep their heads down while blocking the fallout from the Mad Lord.
I glance at Makli Cheon-sa, who has become my new master, and think.
'Just what is she thinking?'
Whatever method Makli Cheon-sa has cultivated, I cannot see her intent.
Only, though I cannot see her intent, I can see heart essence, which makes it all the more bizarre.
Because her heart essence is a bizarre land of gray hills stretching on, I furrow my brow, finding it hard to guess her inner thoughts.
'Well, still, she is better than Seo Hweol.'
Why do I, despite my disgust toward Yuan Li, enter the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance?
The reason is simple.
'The Devilish Path bastards, especially the Human Race Devilish Path bastards, are trash.'
Through Yuan Li, and through the devilish cultivators during the Devil Realm invasion...
I came to know it very well.
They are no different from vermin that all ought to be slaughtered.
Since most of them are villains whose deaths do not matter, I joined with the thought that when I later transform into lightning and draw the gaze of the Owner of Heavenly Punishment, it is fine if that damage falls on them.
'But this one, I do not know.'
She does not seem such a villain, yet she does not seem such a good person either.
She is too kind to be a cultivator of the Devilish Immortal Alliance, and she has a heart essence a little too wicked to be a normal cultivator.
'Well, it does not matter.'
If I am reluctant to kill, I can just leave her alone and wander anyway.
'The Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance is far looser than the Head Realm Three Great Immortal Sects, or under Seo Hweol and the Mad Lord.'
Soon, we move to the Human Race territory.
After receiving identity plaques at Temporal Fate Island, the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance is assigned a residence on a Sky Island called Red Moon Island.
Thus, I head to Red Moon Island together with the Makli Cheon-sa, my new master.
"Now, this is what you are to do starting today."
"Pardon?"
A month after the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance settled on Red Moon Island and Makli Cheon-sa settled in a place where a suitable spiritual vein flows.
After she arranged her cave residence, she dragged me over and spoke.
Her cave residence is filled with countless demon beasts and demon insects, and she hands me a storage scroll and speaks.
"From today you will feed my demon insects and demon beasts, and you will take care of them."
"...Master, I apologize, but I..."
I am still before accumulating cultivation, so I possess a body at a level no different from a mortal.
If I begin cultivation through the Colorless Glass Sword, it is possible to reach the Nascent Soul stage within two months, but for now I simply look like a mortal on the outside.
Taking care of powerful demon insects at my level could be dangerous.
Of course, because my body is of Treading Heavens, it is not truly dangerous, but at least outwardly...
"Hmph, let us be honest with each other."
Makli Cheon-sa snorts and speaks.
Wo-woong—
Makli Cheon-sa's eyes turn dark blue, and the clear light of the character Im (壬) shines forth.
"I awakened a spirit eye divine power postnatally. Long ago I water-tortured a descendant of an ethnic minority race with sea water, and perhaps because of that race's traits, I came to possess a powerful spirit eye."
"...?"
I do not understand at all how one claims to gain a spirit eye by water-torturing a person, but I let it pass.
'It seems she doesn't want to tell me how she obtained the spirit eye.'
It also seems she blocks my sight that sees intent with that spirit eye divine power.
"Through these eyes I named the Great Sea Eyes (大海眼)...I can see many things. I know well that you conceal battle power of the Nascent Soul stage, that you have hidden your natal dharma treasure, and that you condense within it a power hard even to imagine."
"..."
As a member of the Heart Tribe, my battle power is such that no one notices until I directly reveal my strength.
Seeing that spirit eye divine power pierce through Treading Heavens at a glance, I flinch and shiver.
'Just what kind of spirit eye can see through the power of Treading Heavens...?'
"I am a devilish cultivator, but I have no interest in body-seizing or in turning you into a pill or a puppet. In any case, another's talent is surely to be inferior to my own, so what is the point of stealing another's things? At a glance, your body's spiritual roots are also mixed, which does not look pleasing to me."
"..."
Unexpectedly, she seems to be a massive lump of pride.
Judging from how she saw through the Five Elements spiritual root, her perception also seems to be good.
"I am curious about that...strange formless sword-like power that can display Nascent Soul stage strength even without a Nascent Soul, but I get the feeling it would be dangerous if I try to probe it by force. In any case, it is probably a secret art of yours, so there is no way you would tell me obediently."
"..."
"There is no need to call me Master. Though I am at the half-step Heavenly Being stage, a person like you will catch up soon enough, so let us just call each other fellow cultivators as equals, Cultivator Seo."
"...Understood, Cultivator Makli."
"Good, then let us make a deal from an equal position. You tried to enter under my tutelage because you have a reason to enter the Devil-Immortal Sect Alliance, right?"
"That is correct."
"I will continue to vouch for your identity. In exchange, you will stay in my cave residence until you recover your Nascent Soul and look after my demon beasts and demon insects."
She points at her demon beasts and demon insects.
"I am born of the Makli Clan's blood, but there are things I dislike about the Makli Clan, and the Makli Clan's Yin Path methods do not fit my nature at all, so I mainly learned the methods of other sects. And unlike the main house of the Makli Clan, whose main income is pill-making, I actually enjoy raising demon beasts and demon insects, so I have been raising these fellows."
I look at the demonic creatures she raises and let out a silent exclamation.
In her cave residence there are not only many Core Formation stage demon insects, but even one or two demonic creatures at the Transformation stage bound into human form.
'Are they Nascent Soul stage demon beast...?'
To have perfectly trained and restrained even demonic creatures of the same stage, she seems to be a fairly high-level Beast Taming cultivator.
Among the Transformation Stage demonic creatures, she approaches a woman who seems to be a cat family demonic creature and scratches her neck.
The cat demon beast purrs and lifts her neck, and then at some moment suddenly her eyes roll white, she grabs Makli Cheon-sa's arm and bites until blood comes out.
Though she is a Transformation stage demon beast, she acts similar to an ordinary cat. I do not know well about beat taming, but the appearance of a demonic creature acting like an ordinary animal seems to show excellent taming skills.
She looks down at her own hand from which blood flows in streams and speaks.
"To take care of these kids, a cultivator of the same realm is needed, but I cannot trust most of them, so I always had to take care of them myself. Half-baked Core Formation fellows get eaten by my demon beasts, and Nascent Soul stage cultivators dislike getting their time eaten up by work like this, and they are expensive to employ. Of course, there were sometimes suspicious Heavenly Being stage cultivators who said they would look after demon beasts for no compensation, but..."
A vein bulges for a moment on Makli Cheon-sa's forehead.
Judging by her quickening pulse, it feels like anger.
"...Well, the endings were not very good. At least I learned that anyone at the Heavenly Being stage or above is a madman drunk on madness. In any case, I learned I must not ask a Heavenly Being stage cultivator to do this even if I have the chance.
"Thanks to this, I have to personally manage the binding seals for the demon beasts one by one. Even when I am near reaching the Heavenly Being stage, I cannot focus on advancing to it because I have to keep in mind the binding seals, so I had to be satisfied at the half-step Heavenly Being stage."
She tosses something to me with a flick.
It is a blue jade slip, bearing writing about the feed demonic creatures eat and the methods to control, tend, and grow them.
And inside, a faint seed of spiritual energy is contained.
"It is a record that organizes Beast Taming, and binding seals that can control demon beasts. While you look at it, just look after these fellows until you regain your true strength. In the meantime, I will challenge the Heavenly Being stage advancement."
"...Is it all right to entrust a secret to me so carelessly? And what if I abuse the cultivator's binding seals and do harm?"
"Hah, what secret manual? It is nothing more than a record that organizes what beast taming cultivators like me all know. And I have prepared for whatever harm you might try, so there is no need to worry about that kind of thing."
"Is there no worry that I will use the binding seals to control the demon beasts, or turn them into pills and eat them, or the like?"
"Heh, do you worry about pills just because you are from the Makli Clan? If you want to make pills, try making them. With high probability you will become their snack."
She points at her demon beasts, and perhaps having received her signal, the demon beasts all at once start glaring at me.
If I regain my realm, I am confident I can handle all of them except for Makli Cheon-sa, but since my cultivation realm is low right now, I can only give an awkward smile.
"And I also have no worry about the leakage of secret teachings. By any chance have you learned beast taming methods, or do you even have a pet demon beast you are raising? To my eyes, you may have learned demon beast methods, but you would not have learned beast taming methods."
I am about to answer that I do not even have a pet demon beast, when I suddenly remember and take out the little one I have kept in my body.
It is the baby centipede that has followed me since Ascension Path.
"Uh...I have recently begun to raise one centipede..."
Makli Cheon-sa looks once at the baby centipede and bursts into laughter.
"Pffft... Ah, sorry. I did not mean to ridicule. In any case, if it is a pet that is not even at Qi Refining...there is no worry about leakage even if I teach you beast taming secrets. Whether this or that, I am relieved. I will guarantee your identity, and you, in my stead for a short while, will take care of my demon insects. How about it, Cultivator Seo."
After thinking for a moment upon hearing Makli Cheon-sa's words, I nod.
"Very well."
A deal like this is actually better with a devilish cultivator.
Thus, from that day, I live in Makli Cheon-sa's cave residence and begin the work of tending her demon beasts and demon insects.
And...
I decide to give to the baby centipede that follows me the name I gave in the previous cycle.
'This guy's talent...is heaven bestowed.'
The first month of the 16th cycle.
In Makli Cheon-sa's cave residence, hoping the baby centipede grows quickly, I give him a name.
"Hong Fan. Let's get along."
His name is one that was designated by the heavens.
And I gained enlightenment about the heavens in the previous cycle.
―Isn't the heart from the heavens? Your heart lives touching the heavens, and just as you cannot deny the heavens, you cannot deny the heart. So even if someone denies your heart, it never truly disappears.
For at least Hong Fan, I decide to think of him as the connection and heart bestowed by the heavens, and because I decide to accept it gratefully in my arms...
I attach again to the fellow that name bestowed from the heavens.
'If the heart is also eternal like the heavens, may the connection that is you, granted by the heavens, also be eternal...'
Present.
I begin recollection and walk beyond the light of Hope scattered by my connection.
'I cannot block it.'
I also cannot evade it.
No countering ultimate technique is prepared.
Then there is only one countermeasure I can take now.
'If I cannot evade it...I will make it avoidable...!'
Kiriririk...!
I bring the sword down.
Spacetime twists.
At the same time, the light halos of the [Emptiness Sword Final Profundity] that exist in countless trajectories and directions, and in all places of the past, present, and future, come into my sight.
By normal means, one inevitably gets hit and can only die.
'So, I must twist causality.'
Spacetime twists by me, and even causality begins to twist together.
—Severing Heaven Sword Form Final Sword Will.
—Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens Applied Ultimate Technique.
Kiriririk...!
The Turning Wheel Mantra rotates and that power dwells in the sword.
The Underworld also lends a hand, and the White Wheel emerges and begins to twist causality together with me.
The transcendent skill Heavenly Escape and the enlightenment of Filling the Heavens Governing View imbues in Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, and I barely twist the causality of Hope.
—Heaven of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception (非想非非想天).
Impermanence touches the principle of Non-Perception and overturns causality.
With Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, spacetime turns over; with Filling the Heavens Governing View, the light of Hope loses its target for a fleeting instant; and the power of Heavenly Escape sends Hope for a moment into the domain of purity to wander.
Even then, because it is impossible to nullify Hope completely, I attempt one more thing.
Kiriririk...!
Even without a direct hit, just the aftershock of Hope tears away the entire spacetime where we stand.
Radiance blankets Heaven, Earth, and the Heavens Above.
And beyond that light, I open my eyes.
"Wh-What is..."
My comrades begin to panic.
The Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju.
His True Martial Arts, Emptiness Sword Final Profundity, Hope.
Everyone except the Underworld and me was torn apart entirely by only the aftershock of the light of Hope.
They were annihilated by only the aftershock of a single strike.
My comrades definitely died.
Yet why are they standing here?
It is simple.
"...The first day of the 2014th cycle."
Kim Young-hoon, perhaps realizing what has happened, looks around with cold sweat.
Severing Heaven Sword Form, Final Form.
Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens!
"I already placed time within my sword circle and suppressed it. However many times we get hit, I will just turn it back to before the hit."
Through Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, I made the spacetime just before we were swept up and killed by the aftershock of Hope flow and leap across.
No matter how strong the ultimate technique, as long as we do not take the impact head-on, we can avoid instant death.
"It is an attack that transcends a thing like spacetime. However you turn back time, you will not come out unscathed."
The Owner of the Heavens looks at us for a moment with an expressionless face, and I smile bitterly inside.
He is right.
Even though I evaded by turning back time, I still could not fully evade and only managed to let it flow past.
On top of that, I did not completely let it flow past.
Even though I joined forces with Underworld to barely twist the causality of Hope and change its direction, and crossed time to avoid the aftershock...
Hope still has not ended.
'It pursues. Even if not now...someday, it will come again!'
In the end, without even feeling the true power of Hope, I only wasted sword strokes on merely deferring time.
"An interesting move indeed. Severing Heaven Sword Form."
Having thought of something, he leans his back on the jade throne and speaks.
His gaze somehow makes it feel like he recognized in an instant what I did with Severing Heaven Sword Form, so my chest feels tight.
"Good. I grant you qualification."
However it may be, whether I used a trick or something else...
Perhaps he acknowledges me for being intact even after receiving the first move.
He speaks toward me.
"Speak. You may resent me, you may persuade me, you may bow and beg, or you may simply confess everything with an open heart. Or you may ask questions about what you are curious about. I will listen to anything."
That is leisure.
Leisure as an absolute strong one, and mercy.
"Since this is your end, as your parent I will hear everything and remember you."
At those words, Oh Hyun-seok steps forward.
"...No, there is no need for that."
Clenching his fist with a hardened face, he speaks.
"We...have come to collide with you. All seven of us, each becoming a Governing Immortal...!"
Kugugugugu!
Preparing Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter, Oh Hyun-seok shouts.
"Who, on whose authority, judges our end...!? O Owner of Fate, including Seo Eun-hyun, six Heavenly Kings and the Imperial Venerable have descended! We will not lose to y—"
Fate.
Truth Manipulation.
Splat...
Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Kim Yeon.
And the eyes of me and the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld all turn to an egg that suddenly falls and shatters beside us.
"An egg...?"
As if not understanding, Jeon Myeong-hoon stares at the suddenly fallen egg.
And Kim Young-hoon, as if he senses something amiss, looks at me and asks.
"Seo Eun-hyun...! Wait, originally, originally were we...[six]?"
"..."
I smile bitterly and look at the red lump of flesh held in the Fate Supreme Deity's grasp.
It is Oh Hye-seo.
"...What you feel is right. We...were originally [seven]."
Oh Hyun-seok, struck by Oh Hye-seo's authority Truth Manipulation, became an egg.
And in that desolate truth, only the low voice of Hong Fan Gu Ju quietly echoes.
"You call one who proclaimed their fate a Governing Immortal? From the moment it was spoken aloud, it was nothing but an Immortal Treasure."
The lump of flesh gripped in his hand writhes pitifully, toying with the very existence of the being called Oh Hyun-seok.
"Do you still not realize why I call myself your parent? O sons and daughters. Recall the [contract] from when you first met me."
Oh Hye-seo's Truth Manipulation always carries a trace of hatred and resentment, or a hint of mischief.
But in those eyes that look down on everything beneath the heavens, twisting Oh Hye-seo at will and manipulating all of phenomena at whim...
There is no emotion, no warmth contained.
"My net seems large and loose, yet it lets nothing slip through (天網恢恢疎而不失). What I grant you is but a story. Everything else lies in my hand. I have no interest in anything."
Tststststststs...
Together with the 16th cycle, memories return.
After we died from being struck by the landslide but before falling into Ascension Path.
The things that happened in between.
The first day we met Hong Fan in the Audience Chamber.
"Speak. If there is anything you are curious about here, ask without reserve, find the answer, and attain enlightenment. For this is your end."
Chwarararak...!
Oh Hyun-seok, who became an egg, fell, and shattered, returns, and only then do my comrades other than me and the Underworld realize what has happened to them, and the light in their eyes begins to fade.
He casually tosses Oh Hye-seo, whom he has yanked over in an instant, gripped in his hand, and made into a lump of flesh.
Oh Hye-seo comes to her senses and begins to restore her body, and the light in her eyes has also vanished.
Oh Hyun-seok lets out a hollow laugh and groans.
"...How...how do we win, Silver Basket...!? Is there even the possibility...of 4 pun...? Are you saying that 'that' can be defined in a unit called 4 pun...???"
In his wail, we all fall silent.
"Did you not say...we can bring about a miracle...? O Silver Basket... That if we recite, if we desire, there clearly is a possibility it will be fulfilled... Just...just...!"
Bududuk—
Collapsed, Oh Hyun-seok pounds the space below with his fist and wails.
"Against that, just what hope are we supposed to have...!!??"