⟨16th Cycle⟩
"That is not a good idea."
Hong Fan looks down at Seo Eun-hyun with eyes tinged with fatigue.
The choice of an upward slash is not a good choice for a swordsman.
To cut upward is a technique that does not receive the help of gravity, but rather goes against it toward the opponent.
The stance of an upward slash is not treated as a central focus in many sword schools.
Because there are not just one or two disadvantages.
Starting from the fact that the posture of the human body is not suited to an upward slash, to even the vagueness of its effect.
"When has my choice ever been the best?"
However, Seo Eun-hyun runs toward Hong Fan with a smile.
Mountain Lord Transcending Peaks Step.
With a firm lower body, he charges at Hong Fan like a tiger and heads for his chest.
In Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, there are especially many forms that slash upward.
From the third move Ascending Vein on, up through Deep Mountain and Cliff Edge.
All take on a disadvantageous position and are powers that strike the opponent up from below.
Even though Hong Fan's technique Heaven is likewise based on an upward slash, he infuses into it the power that shoots outward through repulsion force.
It is also a move that focuses more on the repulsion force itself than on the upward slash.
It is not a sword that simply, foolishly goes against gravity like Seo Eun-hyun's.
Even so, Kim Young-hoon, the creator of the Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, deliberately created forms that slash upward.
Why is that?
"...Well, alright. Then now..."
Hong Fan made a promise with Seo Eun-hyun.
And, in a way, this current duel is the price of his promise with Seo Eun-hyun.
In order to pay the price, he prepares a move that he can show to Seo Eun-hyun, a move that, at this point in time, can give him an insight that can help him even a little.
—Future King (未來王).
Accelerating and slashing down.
It is simple and straightforward.
However, its power is just as clear.
If Future King is unfolded at full power, he is confident that even in his current state, with the body of a mortal being, he can pierce a hole in the Head Realm.
In fact, it is a crazy technique that can even punch a hole in the body of a Supreme Deity with a mortal body.
A simple, clear, and strongest downward slash.
From now on, this insight will remain inside Seo Eun-hyun's heart essence and influence the techniques Seo Eun-hyun will create in the future.
Hong Fan briefly looks at the futures in which Seo Eun-hyun overcomes countless opponents through the downward slash.
'This...is the last gift I give you.'
Hong Fan also charges toward Seo Eun-hyun.
In the next moment,
Their upward and downward slashes collide.
Kaaaaaaang!
Since Hong Fan has no particular desire to smash the Colorless Glass Sword that Seo Eun-hyun likes, he reduces the sharp energy and converts the power only into a shockwave.
However, the One Annihilation to the Near Shore imbued with Seo Eun-hyun's Nascent Soul shatters and bursts apart under Hong Fan's downward slash, which has even eliminated the sharp energy.
The Colorless Glass Sword flies far off into the distance, and Hong Fan's sword, by his control, turns entirely into a shockwave, so that instead of cleaving Seo Eun-hyun in two, it only delivers impact across his whole body.
Seo Eun-hyun becomes a bloody lump and collapses on the spot.
Thud—
Hong Fan looks down at that Seo Eun-hyun, then scatters his Gang Qi.
"...Are you satisfied, Master?"
At the end of his life, Seo Eun-hyun, who has clashed his heart's content and confirmed that Hong Fan, to whom he has taught Martial Arts, has followed the same path as himself, smiles gently.
"It is...the best last moment."
"That is fortunate."
"...I will keep the promise...if there is a next life...that is."
Now, hardly any life force remains in Seo Eun-hyun.
Before long, even his remaining form is going to be transformed into lightning and scatter as a single bolt.
Hong Fan uses attraction force to naturally suppress those lightning bolts and preserve Seo Eun-hyun's form.
It is the least courtesy toward Seo Eun-hyun, who has made a promise with him.
Seo Eun-hyun, in an aged appearance, looks at Hong Fan and speaks.
"Hong Fan, are you there?"
Now even his eyes seem dim.
He is in such an exhausted state that he cannot even emit his consciousness domain.
"I am here."
"Why I chose an upward slash at the end. I want to tell you."
"Is there a reason?"
"No, then what, did you think I am a person who just lives however he feels like without thinking? I am also someone who has a reason for his actions."
"..."
Hong Fan squeezes his eyes shut.
Is it because he has experienced warmth?
The emotions that have been almost worn away...
Seem to come back to life, at least in part.
"Is it not because I look tired that you faced me only to a moderate extent?"
"Hehehe, I did not face you moderately. Why would I do such a thing? It is just that...I wanted to tell you, who has just reached Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, the meaning of Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Martial Arts, which is the basis of the name Entering Heavens Beyond the Path."
"Is it not a martial discipline meant for transmission itself?"
Seo Eun-hyun looks up at Hong Fan and continues speaking.
"Transmission, of course, is there. The wish that later generations reach a higher realm through martial discipline...but that is a means, not the goal. Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Martial Arts does not take such a thing as its purpose."
"Then what is it?"
"The purpose of Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Martial Arts is, to accomplish."
"To accomplish?"
"Yes. It is to accomplish one's wish."
"..."
"To achieve what you wish, you must look into your own heart. Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Martial Arts is...a martial discipline to make you look into your own heart and have you reflect on what you yourself want."
Gradually, Seo Eun-hyun's breathing becomes rough.
His life force is now running out.
However, even as he is dying, he does not stop passing words to Hong Fan.
"Because I longed for freedom from fate, I obtained the Formless Sword. The founder of this martial discipline, in order to go beyond cultivators and surpass everything that blocks him and return home, obtained the Surpassing Radiant Saber. And Hong Fan. As I see it, you seem to long for something else."
"...It seems you have seen my fatigue."
"Yes. You want to rest."
"...Are you going to cheer me on to take it easy?"
"No. You just do as you wish. If you want to take it easy, then do so."
"..."
"I, on the day I obtained the meaning of Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Martial Arts and reached Entering Heavens Beyond the Path Formless Sword, once cut Heavenly Lightning and reached the ultimate of all upward slashes."
—Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
—Formless Sword.
The one strike from that time when the Formless Sword cut and split blue lightning and pierced through the clouds of the sky.
Thinking of the Formless Sword that he, at that time, slashed upward toward the heavens, Seo Eun-hyun smiles.
"The essence of slashing upward is to go against gravity. It also means the will to stand up even when the body is heavy. It is also the will to not give up no matter how much suffering and hardship comes rushing in."
Hong Fan finds it awkward to be told the interpretation of Martial Arts.
For him, Martial Arts is nothing but a technique for killing.
"Just as I have come to this realm through countless hardships, I think you too have gone through hardships like mine to rise to this place. For rising to Entering Heavens Beyond the Path has that kind of meaning. Even if you have a previous life and remember that previous life."
"..."
Seo Eun-hyun raises his hand.
His aged hand grabs Hong Fan's hand.
It is still a young and strong hand.
"You have suffered a lot. What hardships you have gone through, with what thoughts you have lived...I cannot know it all. But, because I at least know some part of it...if I dare to speak with that qualification...you have suffered.
"The path you have walked is not a meaningless path. In some way or another, it surely has meaning. So...if a day someday comes when you want to rest. When a day comes when you must rest. Rest with an easy heart. Because everything you have done has meaning."
Hong Fan's hand trembles.
His pupils begin to tremble.
"You really have suffered a lot. I wanted to say that...so I made the upward slash."
[TL/N: In Korean, it literally translates to "You have suffered a lot" but it also has the meaning of "You worked hard".]
Seo Eun-hyun does not see it.
Behind Hong Fan's back, enormous black things are pouring out, rotting the whole area.
Hong Fan's body trembles.
Consolation.
[TL/N: The word used here is 위로, which can mean both comfort/consolation and upward.]
It is not as if he used some immense power like Apex of Life-Saving Arts, Formless.
It is not as if, with some great authority, he called forth the very Origin Essence of Happiness itself and gifted it to him.
It is not as if he twisted the principle of this world and forced upon him the interpretation that spring has come to him.
Just.
Consolation.
At that one word...
Hong Fan feels as if the Apex of Life-Saving Arts, Formless...
As if that deep and beautiful position has nested deep inside his heart so there is no way for it to flow out.
Hong Fan's whole body trembles.
"...Master."
"What is it?"
"If there is a next life, I will follow Master even in the next life."
"...Thank you."
Hong Fan realizes that he can never expel this poison.
No matter how much he foresees the future...
Even if, someday, Seo Eun-hyun betrays him and thereby proves that Seo Eun-hyun's consolation in the Heavenly Void Furnace is wrong,
This poison will remain to some extent and will always become salt that gouges at his heart.
In any of the infinitely many futures, until his Divine Art reaches its conclusion, Hong Fan confirms that this poison will continue to remain in his heart and grits his teeth.
"...So, at that time as well, please teach me Martial Arts."
"Haha, even in the next life...if there is a connection. I surely will."
He has to return it.
If he does not return this Formless poison...
Someday, he will in the end lose the technique of [Hope].
Power that is made by shaving himself away is something he can never use as long as there is someone who consoles him.
Therefore Hong Fan, vowing that he will definitely return this formless teaching to him, for once acknowledges the existence called Seo Eun-hyun.
"...Even at that time, my Entering Heavens Beyond the Path will not change. My heart, even if ages of eternal unchanging time flow by, is never going to change..."
Even if there comes a day when he kills him through his Emptiness Sword.
The Martial Arts system of Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Young-hoon, into which he has entered thanks to the heart and comfort Hong Fan received from him.
He will not fall away from Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
Realizing this, Hong Fan grips his hand and, with all his strength, tries to interpret the Formless as poison, if only to return it to him.
And whether Seo Eun-hyun knows such inner thoughts of Hong Fan or not,
Seo Eun-hyun smiles slightly and asks a question.
"...What name will you give your Entering Heavens Beyond the Path?"
Hong Fan shakes his head.
Only after he reached the Ultimate of Martial Arts did he obtain the Emptiness Sword.
He feels that for the realm of Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, a system that is only the beginning of Martial Arts, there is hardly any point in a name.
"...Mm, I cannot think of a good name, but...does a name even have meaning? I will just call it whatever comes to mind."
Unless it is for an existence that has meaning.
A blade that kills people does not need a proper name.
That is what Hong Fan thinks.
"Hmm, what are you saying? Only by having a name will it make it more satisfying when you use it. If you can't come up with one...how about I name it for you?"
But Seo Eun-hyun shakes his head and speaks.
To feel proud when you display Martial Arts.
Hong Fan has never felt anything like that, but since he knows that Seo Eun-hyun is stubborn in this sort of way, he just lets it be.
"Mm... Do as you wish."
"Alright. Do you have something you strive for? Some meaning you'd like to have in the name?"
"Nothing specific comes to mind but...if we must name it, please include the word sword."
Blade.
In Martial Arts that kill people, there must always be a blade.
That much is the only point on which Hong Fan can compromise.
"Sword?"
"Yes. Since Master's Entering Heavens is the Formless Sword, and since I am receiving it from Master, I'd like it to have 'sword' in it."
It is a completely unrelated reason, but Hong Fan answers like so, hoping that Seo Eun-hyun can go on his way feeling relieved.
"Got it. In that case..."
Seo Eun-hyun looks up at the sky of the Head Realm.
"Let's go with...the sword that cuts through the void (虛空) of nothingness."
Is it coincidence, or inevitability?
It is a clue to the name of the Emptiness Supreme Deity, and at the same time words befitting the Head Realm where the Akashic Records, the collection of all pasts, are sealed.
A sword that cuts the Void.
A name similar to the Emptiness (空虛) Sword, but a completely different name.
Words that also make him recall a remark of a former subordinate of Heuk Sa Hall, telling him not to be captured by the past and to move forward.
"If you don't like it or if you come up with a better name later, feel free to change it. If another name comes to mind, you can use that instead."
Hong Fan chews over that name for a moment.
And then...he smiles.
"No, I quite like it. The Sword of the Void... If I later come up with a name I like more, I will return this name to Master. Of course..."
This will become the proof of the bet.
If Seo Eun-hyun trusts him until the end, he resolves to keep this Void Sword to the very end.
However, if Seo Eun-hyun's promise collapses...then the meaning contained in that will only fade once more.
'How ironic.'
"If I can't think of a better name until the end, I will continue to use this name even in the next life."
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
Void Sword (虛空劍).
That is the name of Hong Fan's new Martial Arts that he receives from Seo Eun-hyun.
"Is that so...? Do as you...wish..."
Seo Eun-hyun begins to close his eyes.
Now his energy is exhausted, and his body is old.
Having just now fought with Hong Fan and drawn out even his last bit of life force, he is now on his way.
Tsuaaaaat!
Light bursts out from behind Hong Fan, and he returns the Radiance Mantra he had retrieved to Seo Eun-hyun, and removes the fate of the Absolute Fragment he had reattached to him.
"Thank you."
Smiling innocently without even knowing what Hong Fan is doing as he says those words, Seo Eun-hyun...
In that way, begins to close his eyes.
Not knowing that his entire life was being toyed with, the sight of him going while smiling so purely and clearly...
...is truly a sight that is hard to behold.
In the end, as he looks at that sight, Hong Fan mutters a few words to him in his final moment.
So low, so low that no one can hear.
Some five hundred years in the time outside the Heavenly Void Furnace.
Roughly fourteen trillion years in the time inside the Heavenly Void Furnace.
At the end of that inconceivable span of time, he finishes this life.
That is Seo Eun-hyun's seventeenth return.
Seo Eun-hyun's timeline shifts, and accordingly, all the Heavenly Venerables and Supreme Deities of Mount Sumeru also shift to another timeline.
Since even the Heavenly Venerable of Time has been moved, this timeline gradually loses the driving force to let time proceed, so time gradually slows, then comes to a complete stop as it closes into a closed loop.
A closed loop that will continue to persist until Time quickly recognizes the other timelines and breathes the power of Origin Essence into those other timelines as well.
In the timeline that is going to come to a stop, Hong Fan takes Seo Eun-hyun's hand, looks at his face, and changes his own body.
Chiiiiii—
Hong Fan, who has borne the imposing appearance of an Imperial King, gradually changes into an aged appearance.
At the same time, the majority of the lightning that is inside Seo Eun-hyun is drawn into Hong Fan.
That sight looks as if he is sucking the years away from Seo Eun-hyun.
At the same time, the three faces separate again, and Hong Fan tears out his own memories, history, and reason itself.
Eventually, by following after Seo Eun-hyun and raising his realm, he will someday regain his memories again...
But for now, he wishes to forget all of his identity and reason, and simply follow Seo Eun-hyun.
And as he gradually changes into the appearance of an old man, he speaks.
"I am jealous. Of that kind of purity."
He wonders that if he too knows nothing like him, if he remembers nothing, could he become like him?
Could he repay that purity?
Could he at least draw a little closer to that attitude that is younger than himself, yet more adult?
Admiring Seo Eun-hyun, Hong Fan temporarily seals away all intellect and memories.
In any case, after having regained his reason once, he has already adjusted the settings of the Radiance Mantra and prepared the prophecies.
He has set it up so that if someone invades the Audience Chamber or the entirety of Mount Sumeru is shaken, he can in an instant regain his memories again.
He simply, with pure curiosity and the desire to become like Seo Eun-hyun, decides to take on an appearance like Seo Eun-hyun's and to try becoming someone who knows nothing, like Seo Eun-hyun.
It is as if he is trying once more to dream a fleeting spring dream.
'At the very end of all endings...'
Will Seo Eun-hyun be able to keep his promise?
Looking forward to that...
Hong Fan plops down to lie beside Seo Eun-hyun.
Right before he loses all reason for the last time.
In the eyes of him, the Future King, one strand of a far-off future is caught.
'Ah...is that so?'
Perhaps, he might be able to reach that future.
Thus, as Hong Fan closes his eyes, together with Seo Eun-hyun, he heads toward a new timeline.
He flies toward Seo Eun-hyun's seventeenth cycle.
That is the end of the entire story of the sixteenth cycle.
Pakang—
The timeline and history of the sixteenth cycle shatter into pieces.
And the shattered history, within the Gestation World full of darkness and chaos, flows to the Crystal King who sits in that far-off place.
At last, back to the present.
Receiving back all of the sixteenth cycle's worldlines that have flown into him, Seo Eun-hyun looks at Hong Fan.
He barely managed to block Transcending Peaks.
But as the price, he exhausted all of his energy.
It is the same even for Bong Hwa.
Because she has been loading her energy onto Seo Eun-hyun, even she, as an innocent party, has had her strength consumed.
Using the authority of the Life Supreme Deity, she tries to summon all the Immortal Beasts within Mount Sumeru and breathe even their life force into him, but it is no use.
Kugugugugu!
The Immortal Beasts have their life force plundered by Bong Hwa and let out groans in the chaos of the Gestation World.
And, having recovered a sliver of energy at the price of their groans, Seo Eun-hyun looks at the Future King Hong Fan, who is drawing everything in before his eyes.
Wooooong—
Woong—
A sacred ringing flows out from the tip of his sword.
—Emptiness Sword Forth Move Applied Profundity.
—Fate.
A technique that maximizes repulsion force, briefly separates the Absolute of Fate from his true body, pushes it into the Emptiness Sword, and attacks the opponent with it.
In a way, its principle is also similar to Seo Eun-hyun's One Annihilation to the Near Shore, which pushes his own Nascent Soul into the sword.
On top of that...
Hong Fan has just returned the entirety of the sixteenth cycle to Seo Eun-hyun.
The Formless Poison, which has only been spreading all this time, for the first time has its momentum checked and flows out of his body.
Just as Seo Eun-hyun sacrificed himself to reclaim the Enders,
By returning to Seo Eun-hyun the worldline and history that have become his own, the Future King for a brief time comes to be free from the influence of the Formless Poison.
In addition, as his prophecy and Divine Art mesh together, at last the Immortal Art that will put the final period on the whole story is activated.
An Immortal Art of self-sacrifice.
An Immortal Art that makes the True Emperor sacrifice himself, pour himself into another Emperor, transfer the ownership of the Absolute, and enthrone the other as a Creator God!
The moment that sword hits Seo Eun-hyun head-on.
The personality of the existence called Seo Eun-hyun will disappear, and Bong Hwa will come out and receive the Origin Essence of Fate.
And with Silver Basket, Obsidian, and Vast Cold, who are in the grasp of the Fate Supreme Deity.
And with a handful of the miscellaneous spirits of Enders, he will grant her the Absolute of Hope and make her into a new Creator God.
Only today will he at last see the end of the story and obtain salvation!
Gugugugugu!
From the very tip of the Emptiness Sword, a radiance surpassing the First Light bursts forth.
This is a story that creates a new Creator Deity.
Woo-woooong!
The very end of the 2,999th cycle.
Seo Eun-hyun, with the 3000th cycle before him, knows.
'I cannot surpass it.'
Wiiiiiiing!
Hong Fan imbues the technique of Great Mountain Pressing Down with the evolved technique of Hope, [Salvation], and strikes down.
Its speed is Nirvana Tranquility.
On top of that, it is a power that has gone through several accelerations.
Even with Seo Eun-hyun's Nirvana Tranquility, he is a bit lacking.
In terms of speed, he cannot follow.
In terms of strength, he also cannot follow.
He is defeated in skill as well.
The curse poison has also considerably drained away.
Moreover, he himself is in a state where his strength has drained away.
To win by force is impossible.
But even so, Seo Eun-hyun takes his stance and, against Hong Fan's downward slash, chooses an upward slash.
Unlike the Future King's strike, which has reached the speed of Nirvana Tranquility, his is a dull sword.
Hong Fan notices.
'Is it that technique again?'
Tsuaaaat—
The technique that blocks Hope and pierces through the Divine Art.
He grasps the principle.
Because it is a technique that resonates with the Formless Poison and is imbued with the heart that consoles him, it resists Hope and the Divine Art.
Cheok—
Once again, behind Seo Eun-hyun, two Mountain Divine Spirits appear.
Salt Sea and Great Mountain.
It is Entering Heaven.
'It is useless.'
The world is not a bright fairy tale.
A miracle will not occur.
For everything Hong Fan has accumulated is greater than a miracle.
Cheok—
Behind Seo Eun-hyun, the countless Enders and Bong Hwas who have entered the Audience Chamber are revealed.
'Has he applied the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections?'
Even so, it is useless.
Sometimes, there are gaps that simply cannot be overcome.
As the sword rises a little sluggishly, it becomes the principle of Treading Heaven.
Cheok—
Behind Seo Eun-hyun...
Countless existences appear.
They are all the connections Seo Eun-hyun has formed up until now.
'Are you saying you will gather all connections and stand against me?'
Even so, it is useless.
The story he has accumulated is even longer, more distant, and more desperate.
The effect of A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation is one.
The Strongest.
As long as he enforces the story, he absolutely cannot be surpassed.
Seo Eun-hyun's sword becomes the principle of Punishing Heaven.
Cheok—
The countless silhouettes behind Seo Eun-hyun reach out their hands toward Seo Eun-hyun and pour light into him.
It is the stories of all the figures Seo Eun-hyun has met.
They materialize.
Using Seo Eun-hyun's Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections as coordinates and Bong Hwa as the flow of life...
They are temporarily taken out from the bridle of history and support Seo Eun-hyun.
—Golden Great Thousand World Transcendence Technique, Surpassing Radiance.
—Romance of the Golden Divine, Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear.
—Falling Flower.
—Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Transcendence Technique, Nameless One Fist.
—Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, Full Blossom.
—Artificial Computation Device, Agate.
All Enders throughout the ages.
—Hoho, Daoist Seo.
—Immortal Art, Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens.
—I don't know what kind of situation this is, but win.
—Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, Heart of Love.
—Win.
—Immortal Art, Fireworks.
All the connections with whom he had been hostile and with whom he had also come to form familiar, deep relationships.
The Ju family, his disciples, Cheongmun Clan, the people of Cheon-saek City, Azure Tiger Saint, Jin Byuk-ho, Heo Gwak, Azure Heaven Creation Sect, Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, Black Ghost Valley, Seo Li, the people of the Vast Cold Realm, the believers of the Nether Ghost Realm, the connections of the Ancient Force Realm, Jang Ik, Yu Hwa, Baek Yeom, Gyu Baek, and the other Heart Tribe.
The Star Shattering stage Esteemed Ones, the Sacred Masters, the Entering Nirvana True Persons, Ham Jin, Yu Hwi, Yeo Hwi, the connections of the Astral Realm, and the True Immortals he met in the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain such as Black Dragon, Yeong Seung, and Golden Shaking Bird.
The Radiance Eight Immortals, the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord Ji Hwa, Radiance Hall Guardian Immortal Ho Woon, Radiance Hall Great Net Immortal Maek Jin, all of the Radiance Hall True Immortals up to and including the Purple Gold Heavenly Lords, Glass Peacock, Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape, White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus, Yu Soo Ryeon, Hae Nyeong, Yu Hao Te, Blood Yin, and the other Immortal Beasts. And besides them, the innumerably many Immortal Beasts he has met.
The forces of the Underworld and the forces of each Supreme Deity.
And, beginning with Time, Sal Tree, and the Underworld, the Governing Immortals such as the Liberation Supreme Deity, the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity, the Naming Supreme Deity, the Swallowing Heaven Supreme Deity, and so on.
The Enders of previous generations who gave him immense help, such as Silver Basket, Obsidian, Vast Cold, Yang Su-jin, and others.
And...
Master and Senior Brother.
Carrying all those connections on his back, Seo Eun-hyun continues raising his sword.
The principle of the sword reaches Escaping Heaven.
Then, Hong Fan can tell.
That it is his victory.
All those stories.
Even if all those connections are added, they still cannot surpass him.
In this world, there definitely are things that simply cannot be done.
'This world is not a fairy tale.'
A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation is absolute.
He has not met even a single opponent on whom he expended this much strength, and he has never once fought while revealing this much strength.
Even so, he can tell.
Even now, he is still inexhaustible.
On the other hand, Seo Eun-hyun, even while drawing forth and using all his connections, still falls far short of him.
'Are you going to try to recall what you received from Buk Hyang-hwa again.'
By now, even that is within his expectations.
But at least right now, logic like saying that the heart is a blessing, or that hearts connecting is a miracle, does not hold.
'Farewell.'
—Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.
The shadow of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity lends its strength together to Seo Eun-hyun.
All the spirits that compose the mantra of Wuji lend their strength together.
The principle of All-Heavens Righteous Understanding dwells in the sword after Escaping Heaven.
—Annihilation Advancement Mu
The principle of Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens dwells in the sword after All-Heavens.
[Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.]
With the power formed by all those connections right before him, Hong Fan looks straight into Seo Eun-hyun's eyes, and at last the two swords collide.
'Is that so? Is this...your story?'
It starts from Entering Heaven, and he enters the heavens.
It reaches Treading Heaven and he treads on the heavens.
It becomes Punishing Heaven, and he defeats the heavens,
It then becomes Escaping Heaven, he frees himself from the heavens,
And only then, he fills the heavens completely.
'It is a good story. This is farewell.'
A story that creates a new heavens.
[Separate Heaven Martial Arts (別天武).]
[Editor: 'Separate' as in 'different' or 'another'.]
Severing Heaven Sword Form.
Transcendent Profundity.
At the same time, it is Seo Eun-hyun's answer that departs from True Martial Arts, the system of the Martial God called the Future King Fate Supreme Deity.
His final enlightenment that starts from Entering Heavens Martial Arts and reaches all the way here.
The Martial Arts of a Separate Heaven.
Tsuaaaat!
Behind Seo Eun-hyun, the last silhouette appears.
Even without looking, he can tell.
It is Buk Hyang-hwa.
But, no matter how much they bless him even with Buk Hyang-hwa joining in,
They cannot stop this story.
—True Martial Arts Emptiness Sword Final Profundity.
That is what he thinks.
Until he sees the last silhouette that appears behind Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun's connections.
Those are...
Connections that include Hong Fan.
—Gu Ju...your name is Gu Ju.
At the end of the 16th cycle.
There was a Three Spirits Art clone that he ascended to the heavens and a clone he scattered as insects and sowed into the earth.
But the last clone stayed together with Hong Fan in preparation for the unforeseen.
And he placed that last clone inside Seo Eun-hyun.
His purest aspect.
The story of the time when he was youngest and not yet unhappy, when he still kept the name his mother gave him.
The story of when he was most incomplete.
'Ah...'
He placed his own incompleteness inside Seo Eun-hyun.
Gu Ju, who comes out from behind Seo Eun-hyun, begins to help Seo Eun-hyun.
—Separate Heaven Martial Arts Void Sword Final Profundity.
—True Salvation.
The final trap that he placed inside the existence called Seo Eun-hyun.
The fragment of the feeling, 'I want to rest,' that Hong Fan felt while being treated by Seo Eun-hyun, and his pure true heart.
Even if Seo Eun-hyun finally brings about a miracle, the trap that would seize his ankle in the end.
That aspect, moved by Seo Eun-hyun...aims its sword toward Hong Fan.
Even now,
He still knows in his head that he can win.
For the world is not so easy that one can overcome it just with connections.
As long as he keeps running endlessly toward his goal by his own will,
A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation is definitely the Strongest.
In this at least, it is an [absolute proposition].
However...
In the final moment,
The moment when the weakest dull sword and the strongest swift sword collide,
Hong Fan, with the two eyes that face Seo Eun-hyun and the true heart of his purest time standing behind him,
Closes them by his own will.
Deeeeeeng!!
The sound of a brahma bell rings through the entire Gestation World.
The Pure-White Emperor's one sword burns the chaotic Heaven and Earth and reverses attraction force.
It snaps the Pitch-Black Emperor's one sword, and cuts apart the Divine Art and everything of the Emperor that lies behind it.
Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.
Separate Heaven Martial Arts.
At first, it does not even reach the lower dantian.
But the Separate Heaven Martial Arts, which grows as it carves a scratch from the perineum up to the pit of the stomach,
At its very end at last splits in half the entirety of the lower, middle, and upper dantians of the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju all together, devours the Absolute of Fate in which the Immortal Art of self-sacrifice is activated, and elevates the existence called Seo Eun-hyun as an existence of Creation.
At last, his own Original Flow.
Seo Eun-hyun, who has reached the answer called Divine Arts, gives a name to the Divine Art.
Divine Art.
⟨Story's End⟩
It is the period that puts the final point on A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation.
—I prophesize. You will not complete three thousand regressions, and I will seize the entire Severing Heaven Sword Form whole from you, and you will be killed by your own Martial Arts.
The 2,999th cycle.
Hong Fan, who meets the prophecy twisted by himself, collapses within the chaotic world and laughs.
'Ah...so it was inevitable.'
Reaching the end of the story and coming to realize that in the end he cannot deceive his own true heart, Hong Fan laughs emptily yet with a sense of release and gazes at the Absolute One being born before his eyes.
The name of the Absolute One is Seo Eun-hyun.
He is the new god who finished the story called A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation.
At the end of everything.
Hong Fan realizes that the God of Connections before his eyes is truly his own Lord, and with laughter in which many emotions are mixed...he begins to cry as he quietly laughs.
-x-X-x-
Chapter 805: Final Regression
Kurururu—
It is an existence filled with chaos.
In the end, Hong Fan failed to create and bestow the Absolute of Hope.
Therefore, though the existence before his eyes should have gained a personality and become the Creator God with the name Yang Hwe,
Seo Eun-hyun, who overcame Hong Fan by his own strength and shook him off, in the end did not create or receive the Absolute of Hope.
Yes.
In the end, the one before his eyes...
...is not Seo Eun-hyun.
That something in which Seo Eun-hyun and Bong Hwa, and the Absolute of Fate, are combined...
Must be called something new, born entirely within omnipotence.
And Hong Fan realizes that that omnipotent existence is reading the history engraved upon them.
They will read the oldest history, and through it they will define themselves.
After some time,
That existence defines themselves.
: : My child. : :
Hong Fan realizes who it is.
"Predecessor..."
The previous Creator God.
The first Creator who created this world.
Yes...
It is the existence that Hong Fan loathes most, the being he considers the source of all evil.
"Why...just why did you arrive at such an answer...? Why...? When you are omniscient and omnipotent, could you not have read such a possibility?"
: : I read it. For that is what it means to be omniscient and omnipotent. : :
They approach beside Hong Fan with a warm voice and take his hand.
A situation reversed from the 16th cycle.
"Then...is everything about me something you have planned...?"
: : No. You know this as well, do you not, my child? : :
The omnipotent one strokes Hong Fan's head.
Before he knows it, Hong Fan no longer has a beard.
As Kim Yeon twists the Immortal Cultivation system and returns Spring to him, he becomes a youth, and even from a youth he continues to grow younger.
Hong Fan...
...is turning into the appearance he fears the most.
He is returning to his childhood.
: : These are things you have chosen by your own will. : :
"My own will...? Everything about me being born like this...are you saying it is all my own will...?"
: : That child called Seo Eun-hyun has already given the answer to your question. : :
It is pure white.
The Creator God is a boiling chaos in human form, a strange mass of omnipotence where black, yellow, and all of the heavens' natural colors merge.
But at the same time...
They have the warmth that Hong Fan most anticipated.
: : You are unable to forgive yourself for being happy, and you have driven yourself all the way here; is it not so? : :
"..."
: : I wanted to make a world where everyone holds one another and everyone recognizes one another's imperfections. : :
"...So that is this Gestation World. So a True Emperor must see the world as a toy, is it?"
: : The world is not a toy. You certainly could have traveled the worlds of other Creator Gods, and you had many opportunities to travel other worlds, not just this one, and share your heart with them, did you not? : :
"..."
: : Child. There is only one reason you were unhappy and are unhappy. It is just...because you are unable to be honest with yourself. : :
Hong Fan sheds tears.
Tsuaaaaat!
The Formless Poison that Seo Eun-hyun breathed into him.
He avoided the poison for a moment with 16th cycle as the price, but in the end the poison erupts.
No, it is not poison.
In truth, he also knows it.
This is...
The heart of a connection who cares for him.
: : Take only yourself as the lamp of truth and live relying only on yourself. You also know the reason why that child called Seo Eun-hyun said this to you, do you not? : :
At last, Hong Fan breaks down and sobs.
"What...are you saying I should have done...? What on earth is it that I should have done, and how...?"
Hong Fan sobs toward the Creator God in front of him.
"I am asking why you made such a world in the first place...!"
: : My child. : :
The omnipotent one seems to smile.
At the same time, they seem to be crying.
: : Saying to take only yourself as the lamp. It means you yourself are the lamp. : :
"So...?"
: : And...it means that everyone other than you also has their own lamp. : :
The omnipotent one gradually comes closer to Hong Fan.
: : We omnipotent ones also think ourselves complete. We think we know all the answers, but even we do not always have the correct answer. For no matter how close it may be to the correct answer, if one does not accept it, for that person it is not the correct answer. Therefore...the true answer always lies in what is exchanged among those who are incomplete. If countless people take themselves as lamps, and if those flames exchange hearts with one another...that is precisely that can truly lead toward the answer. : :
"I cannot accept it...I cannot understand it...! I...!"
: : My child. And I am not here to tell you the answer, to persuade you, and to judge you. : :
"...What...?"
: : I am an existence that has already passed once. An existence that, by my own choice, gave up everything and handed everything over to you. It is just that...because a child like you is crying so sadly, I am merely an existence that has come to give a greeting one last time. : :
The existence that Hong Fan has been calling the previous Creator God.
The omnipotent one.
Or rather...
The World itself comes closer to Hong Fan.
: : My child. Listen well. I am going to go far away. : :
"What...what do you mean...?"
Are they to be split once again into the Three Absolutes and repeat that long world of war, that hell?
Are they saying that everything simply repeats in eternal regression?
: : That is not so. But from now on you may come to need me. Yet at that time, I may not be able to appear again and tell you the answer. No...perhaps it has always been the same up to now. I have never been able to be the answer for you at all times. : :
"..."
: : But remember this. Listen to the lamp of your heart, and rely on the truth that is inside yourself. I have always been inside you. I have split apart and have turned into you yourselves. So whenever you wish to seek an answer from me...listen to your own heart. And try listening to the other hearts that shine upon yourself. : :
He doesn't understand what they mean about leaving, but there is one thing he can tell.
Always...
The answer is in the closest place.
Simply.
If he had moved as his heart leads, everything might have been different.
If, instead of seeking reasons, he had simply accepted, it might have been enough.
If, instead of only seeking misfortune, he had sought happiness, it might have been a little different.
If, instead of blaming himself as a murderer and saying he cannot revive Yang Hwe with his filthy hands and so choosing the Absolute...
If he had just revived Yang Hwe, talked with her, exchanged opinions, and for a long time had exchanged things in a slightly more imperfect state...
It might have been different.
Hong Fan's original sin is that he always seeks a reason in everything.
He realizes what answer the omnipotent one is trying to speak of.
In this world there is no answer.
And there is no need for anyone to be the answer.
As long as they can exchange with each other, and it is something they can mutually accept...
Then whatever it is, because a Creator God dwells within it, that is an answer.
: : I am leaving. But before that, there is something I will pass on to you. As I cannot entrust it to that child named Seo Eun-hyun, I will pass it on with my own hand. : :
The existence of chaos and omnipotence in human form...
They come gradually closer to Hong Fan, who has taken on the form of a young boy.
: : That child named Bong Hwa wants to pass something on to you. If a chance had arisen to do so like this...if she had come to stand in equal positions, and if she had come to know everything, she says she would have done it for you at any time. Close your eyes, young Gu Ju. : :
He closes his eyes.
Hong Fan Gu Ju, for whom everything has crumbled to pieces, feels warmth inside the Gestation World.
He feels a certain warm kiss brush across his lips.
Hong Fan opens his eyes.
Hwiooooo—
Seo Eun-hyun did not transform into the previous Creator God.
Everything is no different from just a moment ago.
With the insight of a True Emperor...
He realizes that what happened just now was nothing more than an illusion.
The predecessor did not revive.
He also did not completely return to being a young boy.
He became a little younger, but his beard still did not completely disappear.
He is merely in the state of being a slightly younger adult.
Nothing happened at all, and it is only that his consciousness flew away for a moment and then came back.
All that is visible is only Seo Eun-hyun, who is in the middle of advancing to become a Creator God.
'I see.'
Whether what happened just now was real or not,
Hong Fan suddenly feels that it is not important.
He himself...
...is going to be judged.
Only that is important.
Uruung, urururung!
However, Seo Eun-hyun is not properly handling the Absolutes of Fate, History, and Miracle.
If things continue like this, he even looks so unstable as if he might explode.
Although he is an existence that is in the process of becoming a Creator God, he is still incomplete.
Always...
A person who appears to be someone who needs to be helped.
That...
...is his Lord.
"Take a deep breath."
Hong Fan opens his mouth and begins to help Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun looks at Hong Fan for a moment and wears an expression of surprise.
But soon he asks a question.
: : What do you mean? : :
"By attempting, without any preparation, to advance to a Creator God in order to ruin my plan, I see that in the end you are going to be unable to control anything and are going to die. If you continue like this, you definitely will not be able to control all the Absolutes, and your personality and Bong Hwa's personality will be ground apart. And inside that, an omnipotent one who is an impersonal god will be born. I also do not want Bong Hwa dying, so I am trying to help you."
: : ...Understood. If it is to help me, then speak. : :
Perhaps because, while controlling the Origin Essence of Omnipotence, he has become somewhat close to omniscience, Seo Eun-hyun makes a request of Hong Fan.
He has probably realized that Hong Fan no longer holds any hostility toward him.
"While taking deep breaths, accept chaos into your body and place the Absolutes in your lower, middle, and upper dantians respectively. Afterward, think of the chaos entering the lower dantian, passing through the middle dantian, and then entering the upper dantian."
Seo Eun-hyun breathes.
The chaos circulates according to Hong Fan's advice.
"Recite the formula. Heaven, Earth, and Man combined are everything. Divide everything into three and make it Heaven, Earth, and Man."
: : Heaven, Earth, and Man combined are... : :
Then, in that moment, Seo Eun-hyun looks at Hong Fan.
He realizes it immediately.
This is a slightly simplified alteration of the formula written on the surface of the Heavenly Void Furnace.
And...
Only now does he recall where he has seen this formula.
: : Heaven-Earth-Heart Method? : :
"...I am the one who created it. Because I once agonized over trying to become a Creator God. The formula to accept all Absolutes, that is precisely the Heaven-Earth-Heart Method."
Heaven-Earth-Heart Method.
The lowest, third-rate internal energy method that the martial artists in the Head Realm Martial Arts world practice.
No, it is something that is even embarrassing to call an internal energy method and is nothing more than something that just slightly sets the foundation of the dantian.
With only that, one can never be said to have cultivated internal energy, and it is only a basic heart method where one simply receives the treatment of an ordinary mortal.
"If even a Creator God has a realm formula, it is probably All (凡). Everywhere and nowhere. We all...may already have had the truth."
As Hong Fan speaks, he also finds himself laughable.
"I...am a fool."
He feels ashamed toward the Creator Gods of the neighboring otherworlds.
With the answer so plainly visible before his eyes, just how far out of his way has he gone?
He only has to seek the answer within himself, so why has he come all the way to this place.
The answer was not far away.
Just...
He simply did not choose it.
If he truly wanted to become incomplete and to give and receive affection, then he could have, by any means, just stepped down from being a True Emperor.
It is something a hundred times easier an answer than making Yang Hwe into a Creator God.
He is an incomplete existence.
However, he did not acknowledge that, and only tried to seek an even more perfect existence, so there was no way he could create such an existence.
Yes.
Not acknowledging himself.
That is Hong Fan's true sin.
Kurururur—
Seo Eun-hyun inhales the three Absolutes.
And then, at some moment.
Seo Eun-hyun becomes an Absolute One.
Hong Fan notices Seo Eun-hyun's face disappearing once more, and that he has become an omnipotent one filled with chaos.
"Now, judge me. My Lord. I have been defeated by you, and I am prepared to accept any conclusion."
The one before his eyes is the omnipotent one.
Although he is not the Bong Hwa he has wished for...
He is nonetheless sufficiently the same kind of existence as the one he has longed for.
And then, Seo Eun-hyun, who has become an Absolute One, looks at such a Hong Fan and raises his hand.
Woo-ooooong!
"...Lord..."
And, Hong Fan begins to open his eyes wide.
Wiiiiiiing!
It is light.
And, it is a sword.
He grabs his own head and brings that sword down.
Kwaaaaaaaang!!!
Heaven and Earth hum as they ring, and the Gestation World wails.
"My Lord...!!!! What are you doing!!??"
Hong Fan panics.
Seo Eun-hyun, with his own hand, tears out the Origin Essence of Omnipotence, in which Omniscience, Sincerity and Totality are combined.
Wiiiiiiing!
The Origin Essence of Omnipotence is held in Seo Eun-hyun's hand, but soon the Omnipotence that is torn away from the Absolute One loses its sacred radiance and changes into a crude appearance.
It looks as if the three Absolutes are coarsely and clumsily woven together.
It is a shape as if circles of black, yellow, and all of the heavens' natural colors are slightly misaligned and entangled.
It even looks like a crown.
And Hong Fan realizes what Seo Eun-hyun is trying to do and screams with all his strength.
"Seo!!! Eun!!! Hyun!!!"
Jjeooooooong!
Seo Eun-hyun's sword strikes that tricolored crown.
It cuts the connection between the Origin Essence of Omnipotence and the Gestation World.
Immediately after, Seo Eun-hyun, without any hesitation, hurls that Origin Essence of Omnipotence out beyond the Gestation World,
He throws it away to some distant otherworld.
"Ah... Aaah... Aaaaaah..."
"This is the judgment I pass down upon you. Hong Fan."
Tsuaaaaaat!
At the same time, from Seo Eun-hyun's body, Bong Hwa and the other Enders leap out.
It is because the fusion is undone.
However, as Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun, he holds a faint expectation.
He definitely threw away the source of a Creator's authority out of the world.
But Seo Eun-hyun clearly...
Still has the power of an omnipotent one remaining.
"Are you merely...casting away the symbol...?"
"No."
At the words that follow Hong Fan laughs, feeling pain as if the blood of his whole body is boiling.
Every time he laughs, things like black blood flow out from his mouth.
"That truly is the origin of omnipotence of this Gestation World. It is indeed the Gestation World's end point. It is the soul of the previous Creator God."
"...Why...? Just why...? To...exact punishment on me...?"
As he looks at Seo Eun-hyun, who answers him with the result he can least accept, Hong Fan realizes that he is shedding tears.
"Why, just why...? That has no meaning at all even if you throw it outside. To the existences of another world, it is just a treasure with a slightly unusual ability. It might let them interfere with parallel dimensions, or give them a bit of an ability like the Heavenly Void Furnace. But that is all! That! Is something! That only by leaving in this world! Could it truly have had meaning omnipotence!!?? Why!!?? Why!!! Why!!?? Why have you blocked all the paths to an answer, so that no one can ever reach the answer for eternity!!?? Why!!??
"Because in this world, the correct answer is that there is no answer."
"..."
"That was a ghost. In the end, all of us, enchanted by its magical power, have been walking that long and longer journey and suffering. We have all been captured by the will of the predecessor, by the ghost of the predecessor."
"..."
"The fact that you too cannot sever your attachment to that is proof. You...have had plenty of chances to become happy. But that thing. It stirred up the desire that maybe you could find a slightly better answer. It has only made you think that if you endure just a bit of pain now, you will be able to find the true answer through the Absolutes, and, while casting this very moment into hell, has made you hope for a future that will never come for eternity."
"Just what in the world...!?"
"That is the conclusion I reached when I, even for a brief moment, stepped into being the omniscient, omnipotent Absolute One."
"..."
"From now on, in this world, no one will become an Absolute One. I will make it so that no being like you can ever appear, so that no one can ever fall into the delusion that they can become complete.
"Yes, in the end, those Absolutes are nothing but things that bring power and authority and wisdom to those who are incomplete and give them the illusion that they are complete."
At Seo Eun-hyun's words, Hong Fan sheds tears.
"We, none of us are complete. And we must not become complete. Because, as incomplete beings, endlessly looking back and moving forward is..."
At Seo Eun-hyun's continuing words, Hong Fan finally feels himself escape from all the obsessions and conflicts that have been tormenting him.
"It is what we call Life."
'Aaah...is that so?'
The dream he just had was not something he simply dreamed.
The foresight of the Future King that remains in him foretold this moment.
What appeared in the dream was not the predecessor.
It was merely...
Even after foreseeing that things will turn out like this, it was only the process of him convincing himself that this, the fact that it turns out like this, is nothing more than the true answer.
No, in truth, it does not matter whether it was a dream, or whether the predecessor really appeared for a moment to comfort him.
Hong Fan.
Acknowledges it.
He decides to simply try accepting the truth.
The moment he accepts it...
Crack—
He understands that at last, the egg that has been confining him has broken open.
He truly accepts that he is an incomplete being.
He accepts the fact that everything he has believed is wrong.
Drip...drip...
Everything he has believed in is wrong. By Seo Eun-hyun, who has proven that, he is wounded once again.
However...
The words that Seo Eun-hyun of the 16th cycle said to him are healing him.
"Even if I am wrong...it is not meaningless. Is that not so...?"
"...Yes. My friend. Your life has not been meaningless. This too, for the other incomplete ones who will live their lives from now on...will become an eternal question for them to ponder."
"Is that so...?"
Hong Fan, with a truly lightened feeling, looks at the chaos of the chaotic Gestation World.
Everything is all wrong.
Even though salvation has always been closest to him, something he could always choose, it is he who did not accept it.
It is he who, with his own hands, refused to acknowledge that he himself is incomplete, and in that state denied every possibility of sharing affection and sharing meaning with other incomplete beings.
He is the greatest wrong answer of this Mount Sumeru.
However...
It is not without meaning.
That alone might be enough.
It is then,
Splurt—
From the black blood that Hong Fan spits out...
Something wriggles.
It is something like a worm.
That thing...
Taking the form of a black snake, it screams toward the lying Hong Fan.
"What insane nonsense are you talking about!? I am wrong? I am not wrong! It is only the world that is wrong! Are saying you will listen to Seo Eun-hyun!? That you will make this world into a world without Absolutes, and make it a world where no matter who becomes unhappy, no one bears responsibility!? That you will turn it once again into a hell ruled by that damned [just because]!?"
Hong Fan looks at that thing in the form of a black snake.
'I see...'
He is dying.
That is leftover that has come out of his dying self...
Because the very existence of the Future King itself is so abnormally large beyond all measure, a leftover has come out even though he has not completely died.
That is the fragment of the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju.
It is one of his dark sides that has split off from the time when he was suffering.
That is his younger self.
"Stop it. A world where there is no absolute being anymore...perhaps this, in truth...might be the world I have wished for."
"Do not talk nonsense!! You, are you really saying you will give up on salvation!?"
"It is not that I have given it up. It is just already..."
Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun, at Bong Hwa, and at the countless living beings inside Mount Sumeru that are becoming separated from them.
"I have been saved long ago."
Why has he been unable to hear it until now?
Now, the Apex of Live-Saving Arts, Formless, that has spread through his whole body is whispering.
Something he could not hear well before...
He feels the countless living beings giving thanks toward the heavens.
He is a being who is resented, but...
At the same time, he is a being who is thanked.
It is only he himself who has kept choosing whether to listen to resentment or to gratitude from those countless beings.
He should simply have taken himself as a lantern.
"Do not speak such ridiculous things! If you are like that, then I will become the Creator God. I will take the source of Omnipotence, return to Mount Sumeru, and become the Omnipotent One. And you will clearly come to know that my words are right!"
"...Fragment that is born from me. You are not me. You are merely something born from my pain...nothing more than a black snake. Do not be seized by my suffering."
"Shut up! That is Omnipotence. That is the answer I have sought. I, at least I, will have it! I cannot forgive lowly vermin from another world having it! O Omnipotence! You are mine!"
Shioooooo—
The worm-like black snake wriggles its body and leaves for a distant otherworld outside the Gestation World.
Hong Fan weakly raises his hand toward that snake.
'For the last time...I should be able to use Hope once more.'
But suddenly, Hong Fan meets eyes with Seo Eun-hyun.
He ends up feeling ashamed of himself.
He, who has resolved everything only through killing, is, in the end, trying to resolve even the filth he has spilled only through the means of killing.
"...If it were you...what would you do?"
"Well...think about it yourself."
"Haha, is that so...?"
Hong Fan laughs.
"If I were you...I would do this."
If it were Seo Eun-hyun, surely...
He would not end it simply with killing.
Looking at Seo Eun-hyun, who has now thrown off the crown of the Creator God, he links him together with that Heuk Sa.
"I...as the first and last Future King of Mount Sumeru, prophesize."
Woo-woooong!
Hong Fan's last prophecy makes not only the Gestation World but also the many nearby otherworlds resound.
"Someday...a being who discovers that source of Omnipotence will come to this Mount Sumeru. They will bring Omnipotence back again before your Crystal Throne here in this Mount Sumeru. Heuk Sa will, to the very end, pursue Omnipotence, but will never reach it. And...someday, the being who discovers that source of Omnipotence will place it upon your head again and acclaim you as God..."
That is Hong Fan's final prophecy.
In his eyes, he grasps a future where the source of Omnipotence falls to a lowly maid in a distant world.
She will walk a distant pilgrim's road and someday bring it back again to Seo Eun-hyun.
"Mount Sumeru will come to no longer need an Omnipotent One."
"Do as you please. This is merely...my last gesture of respect toward you, and a bit of amusement."
"Are we making a bet, then? In that case...I will stake it on that snake that can be called your child. That way, that thing will not be able to return to Mount Sumeru. Mount Sumeru...does not need an absolute being. For incomplete people among themselves. At most only rising up to the level of Heavenly Venerable, will exchange affection and affection with one another...and will keep on discussing the countless answers that suit themselves."
Hong Fan begins to fall asleep with a smile.
"I...will bet that the pilgrim returns and places a crown upon your head, that my prophecy will succeed."
This is different from the prophecies of Heaven Immortals.
A prophecy staked by consuming his own end.
Even if it comes true, he is not going to come back to life.
Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun.
'More than anything...'
He sees it.
Though Seo Eun-hyun rejected the seat of an Omnipotent One, and, by giving an answer different from the predecessor and from himself, threw away Omnipotence, in Hong Fan's eyes it is visible.
He is one who has already completed Divine Art.
He is a being who will not end as an ordinary Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
Even if Hong Fan's prophecy fails and the pilgrim fails, the qualification for Creation will probably someday be born within Seo Eun-hyun.
If Hong Fan's prophecy succeeds, then Seo Eun-hyun will be simply a Creator who received the help of Hong Fan's prophecy.
If the prophecy fails, he will merely be a Creator who builds a world by his own will.
Truly, a final prophecy that is nothing more than a bit of amusement.
But at the same time...
It is also a story whose ending he is so very curious about.
"...You are able to save me, right."
"Yeah. I have thrown away the symbol of the Omnipotent One, but the authority of the Omnipotent One still remains, even if it is metered. If you want...I will save you."
Seo Eun-hyun looks at Hong Fan with serious eyes.
Hong Fan simply smiles and reaches his hand toward Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun comes to his side and takes his hand.
It is just like in the 16th cycle.
However, just as he saw in his dream, the situation is reversed.
"Since this is the price of my sins...even if you bring me back later, for now it is right that I die."
Perhaps he will never be brought back, perhaps he will simply be forgotten.
It does not matter.
If he is annihilated forever, that too is the price of his sins.
More than anything...
He wants to rest.
He turns his gaze to Bong Hwa, who is looking at him.
There is no need for words between the two.
Bong Hwa looks at Hong Fan with a face in which countless emotions are mixed, and the gazes they exchange are enough.
Hong Fan...
Truly feeling that his annihilation is drawing near, closes his eyes.
"...This is farewell."
What he sees last...
...is the God of Connections he least wanted to acknowledge.
And at the same time the God of Connections, whom he cannot help but acknowledge as the greatest existence.
His Lord.
"Farewell, my Lord."
Seo Eun-hyun, opposite to the 16th cycle, is the one who now grasps his hand...
And looking down at his long-time nemesis and friend, Seo Eun-hyun offers his final farewell.
"Farewell, O Heavens."
Thus, the story called A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation truly lowers its curtain.
And...
From the corpse of the dead Hong Fan, an immense green light of intent pours down like a waterfall and covers the entire Gestation World.
That...
...is intent in the amount that Seo Eun-hyun's Formless has swelled in size within Hong Fan's heart.
That consoles and memorializes everything in this world...
It consoles and placates all things in this world...
It is his true heart that Seo Eun-hyun received in transmission from countless connections, and in turn passed on to others.
And, before long, that which overflows through the Gestation World begins heading toward Seo Eun-hyun's Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections.
Toward that which has become a White Deer, the intents of green light begin to all rush in together.
The White Deer transforms into [Green Deer].
"Now then..."
Seo Eun-hyun moves the remaining consumable power of Omnipotence within himself.
The innumerable otherworlds and separate Heaven and Earths that were destroyed and annihilated by Hong Fan Gu Ju begin to be restored by that power.
Though this omnipotent power will soon disappear because the source of Omnipotence is gone, it does not matter.
To him, things like omnipotence.
Things like completeness are already unnecessary.
Chwarararara—
*
My enemy who is completely gone, the root cause of all these events.
I now leave behind the death of my friend Hong Fan.
And as I approach the deer of green light that has absorbed the power of consolation throughout all Heaven and Earth, I consume the power of omnipotence for all the beings who have been sacrificed to Hong Fan Gu Ju...
I begin to perform a requiem for them.
"Console them."
My comrades follow behind me.
"Requiem Filling the Heavens (鎭魂滿天)."
The ultimate will of Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, at its end, becomes a light that consoles everyone.
As the power of omnipotence dwells in the deer of green light, all things in the otherworlds, separate Heaven and Earths, and Mount Sumeru...
...begin to be restored as though time is turning backward.
I look back at my comrades.
"...It's all over now."
They all smile.
"Now...let's go back. To our home."
Tsuaaaaaaatt!
Everything returns to its original state.
At the same time, we move our steps while gazing toward that distant homeland.
At the end of the conclusion of everything, as we follow the green deer that holds the power of omnipotence and heals and restores all things...
We begin to look back on everything of the past.
Yes.
This is our final return.