Chương 655: Heaven's Key (3)

'If I pass through Void Speed...'

Is it theoretically possible to go back to the past?

Hearing those words, I can't help but recall something.

The connection between Hyeon Mu and Hong Fan.

Radiance Mantra.

Void Speed, which theoretically makes reversing time possible...

Countless facts and hypotheses tangle and twist in my mind...

Somehow, I feel like I'm approaching one of the principles behind the Radiance Mantra.

'To seize the Radiance Mantra, do I also need to reach Void Speed, or something equivalent to it?'

The Radiance Mantra belongs to Heuk Sa.

And Hyeon Mu, who appears to be related to Heuk Sa, possesses enlightenment that theoretically allows the reversal of time.

'But if time can only be reversed in theory because the Absolutes of Fate and History do not permit it...'

What happens if even one of those two Absolutes 'does' permit it?

I think I can understand why I felt the Radiance Mantra seemed partially subordinated to the Future King.

'Perhaps... the Radiance Mantra, which allows time reversal only in theory, is subordinated because it received 'permission' from the Future King...?'

Many hypotheses come and go in my head, but honestly, I don't think I can confirm any of them as truth.

'Why did Sal Tree tell me this? Was it just to explain Void Speed, or was it because he began to perceive regression due to being of Heavenly Venerable rank, and wanted to inform me a bit? I don't know...'

Falling into confusion, I decide to set aside that concern for now and begin listening to the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable's explanation on the realm formula for Great Net Immortal.

"The realm formula for Great Net Immortal realm is simple. It's Heavenly Spirits (天罡) and Earthly Fiends (地煞)."

The Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable begins to explain the realm of Great Net Immortal.

"Of course, generally speaking, there is no need to cultivate both. Heaven Immortals cultivate through the way of Heavenly Spirit. Earth Immortals cultivate through the way of Earthly Fiend. And even after becoming an Immortal Lord, continuing this Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend cultivation is helpful for the Supreme Deity advancement, so it's good to continue steadily. You should already know up to this point from accessing the Akashic Records, correct?"

"Yes."

"Then there is no need for detailed explanations... What really matters is to let you know what the realm itself is aiming for. Listen carefully. The goal of the Great Net Immortal's realm formula is for you to reach the Origin Essence yourself."

Woong!

A round sphere appears above the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable's hand.

It seems he intends to explain with a simple illusion.

"Roughly speaking, let's call this an Origin Essence."

He covers the top of the round sphere with a transparent membrane.

"This Origin Essence has uniqueness. To preserve its uniqueness, it resides in another dimension. And the wisdom that flows out from this Origin Essence in another dimension is precisely the Immortal Dao we walk."

Woo-woong!

From the sphere wrapped in a round membrane, something like rays of light begins to flow out like water and fall downward.

Going against that current, things that resemble fish or snakes begin to rise from below.

Among them, a few powerful ones eventually reach the front of the membrane surrounding the Origin Essence.

"Let's say the Origin Essence is a wish-fulfilling jewel (cintamani). And these are the mere tiny creatures trying to become dragons. If these things correspond to Great Net Immortal, then once they have almost reached the Origin Essence, what must they do next?"

"..."

I stare at the tiny creatures for a moment before speaking.

"They have to grow their bodies... and become imoogi at the very least."

These creatures that resemble snakes, loaches, or carps look far too small to swallow the wish-fulfilling jewel.

"Yes. That is it. If we assume that those who have successfully cultivated up to the early stage of Great Net Immortal are at the level of these spirit beasts, then after starting their Great Net Immortal cultivation, they must properly enlarge their weight class and hearts to become imoogi aiming to bite the wish-fulfilling jewel."

Among the wriggling tiny creatures beneath the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable's hand, one snake grows larger and transforms into the form of an imoogi as it approaches the wish-fulfilling jewel.

Finally, the imoogi that touches the transparent membrane containing the wish-fulfilling jewel directly smashes the membrane with its body.

Then, entering the membrane, the imoogi finally bites down on the wish-fulfilling jewel— In other words, it succeeds in grasping the Origin Essence.

"In the end, just like that... If one becomes an imoogi, pierces through the 'gate' leading to the domain of the Origin Essence, and overlays one's own domain onto the Origin Source to directly draw the power of the Origin Essence—that is precisely the realm of Immortal Lord. And when the imoogi that bites the wish-fulfilling jewel completely swallows and seizes it, that is the moment it becomes a dragon. In other words, a Supreme Deity."

Pasasasak— Speaking such, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable erases the illusions with a wave of his hand.

"In short, the true meaning of the Great Net Immortal realm formula is to prove and grow the 'rank' of oneself in order to reach the Origin Essence. And even after becoming an Immortal Lord by reaching the Origin Essence, one must continue cultivating this realm formula to elevate their rank further in order to fully seize the Origin Essence."

"So that is the true purpose pursued by the Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend realm formula."

"That is right."

The Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable continues to explain the cultivation method for Great Net Immortal in detail.

The cultivation method for the realm of Great Net Immortal is as follows: The Great Net Immortal realm formula is for raising one's own 'rank'.

Then how is that rank elevated?

The method is simple.

The more one secures their own self from the world, the higher the rank rises.

In other words, it means merging the versions of 'oneself' from various spacetimes into the present version of 'oneself'.

Heaven Immortals mainly merge with their future selves from different spacetimes.

Earth Immortals mainly merge with their past selves from different spacetimes.

Heaven Immortals use fate prophecy to prophesize a certain moment or scene in the future. If that moment or scene is one that judges the world based on their interpretation of the Immortal Dao and Origin Essence that they push forward, then once that scene of prophecy clearly comes to pass, the self who made the prophecy in the past and the self in the moment of its fulfillment overlap.

Earth Immortals, on the other hand, 'excavate' a version of their past self that matches their interpretation of the Immortal Dao and Origin Essence through history revision or history induction.

Once the scene excavated from the past starts to influence reality in any way, the past self overlaps with the present self.

To put it simply...

Whether Heaven Immortal or Earth Immortal, each must prophesize or excavate achievements made—or to be made—by their future or past selves, or through prophecy or excavation, raise those achievements to 'great feats'.

Then, they overlap the selves from the time of those 'great feats' with their present selves.

In truth, this isn't all that different from the prophecy and history revision they've been doing all along.

The only difference is that the concept of 'merging oneself' becomes important, though it isn't a major issue.

"And as you probably already know, the formulas for Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend differ in quantity."

At the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable's words, I nod.

Indeed.

The Heavenly Spirit formula used by Heaven Immortals is called the 'Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits', and they require merging with at least 'thirty-six' versions of one's future self.

The Earthly Fiend formula used by Earth Immortals is called the 'Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends', and they require merging with at least 'seventy-two' versions of one's past self.

Of course, these numbers are only the 'minimum'.

The formula for Great Net Immortal can be cultivated infinitely, so it is possible to endlessly prophesize and excavate future and past selves and overlap them.

The more one overlaps oneself in this way, the higher one's Great Net Immortal rank rises, and the greater the possibility of approaching the Origin Essence becomes.

Because of this, unlike other realms, the early, mid, late, and Grand Perfection stages in Great Net Immortal have slightly different meanings.

Not yet having cultivated Heavenly Spirit or Earthly Fiend marks the early stage.

Regardless of how much one has cultivated the formula, simply engaging in the formula marks the mid stage.

Regardless of how much one has cultivated the formula, if one has pierced through the 'gate' leading to the origin of the Immortal Dao, that marks the late stage.

And since the formula can be cultivated endlessly even after that, there is no such thing as Grand Perfection—only the advancement to Immortal Lord exists.

"Alright, did you more or less understand the explanation?"

"Yes, it was a great help. Thank you."

I express my gratitude to the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, grab the dazed Golden Shaking Bird who has finally returned to life, and pay him respect.

"So the reason why even those who have reached Great Net Immortal are not satisfied and continue to fight endlessly is because of this formula."

"One could say so."

In the end, the formula of Great Net Immortal is about accumulating great feats.

Whether one accumulates great feats and creates 'history,' or prophesizes the very 'fate' of accumulating them.

In that way, one constantly challenges new feats and seizes the selves when those feats are accomplished to reach the Origin Essence.

In doing so, one [completes the self (自我; ego)]!

That is the Great Net Immortal formula.

'Although even small feats can raise one's rank, for the rank to rise significantly, it must be a great feat... So for True Immortals who reach Great Net Immortal to move forward, they have no choice but to devise grand schemes and conspiracies, and earnestly create major incidents in Mount Sumeru.'

This must be the reason why large and small conflicts endlessly erupt in Mount Sumeru.

It could be seen as an evil method in a way, and because of that, one could thinks of the Heavenly Venerables as the root of all evil.

But why is it...

Rather than seeing this method as wholly evil...

'... The Heavenly Venerables, they look as though they are screaming.'

The Three Heavenly Venerables appear to be desperately obsessed with 'completing the self'.

For some reason I cannot explain...

I get the feeling the Heavenly Venerables are thrashing about.

'At this realm, even if one raises their realm, it doesn't result in a side effect of being physically consumed by the Heavenly Venerables.'

But instead, as we constantly struggle to achieve great feats, whenever we excavate or accomplish great feats and establish the self, it is said that the very 'joy of establishing the self' is continuously sucked by the Heavenly Venerables.

As if the very foundation that makes up their own selves is unstable.

'In any case, if raising one's rank through establishing the self is the cultivation method of Great Net Immortal...'

I realize that the rank I already possess is unexpectedly high.

'Ah, I see.'

As I gaze at the realm formula for Great Net Immortal, I come to understand a few things I hadn't grasped until now.

When I brought Buk Hyang-hwa's norigae from the 10th cycle to her in the 12th cycle, and the norigae resonated and fused into one.

And when the Colorless Glass Swords overlapped across cycles and rose in rank each time.

'Those, too, could be seen as part of the Great Net Immortal cultivation.'

That's right.

After regressing more than a thousand times, creating branches in parallel dimensions and transferring into them...

I find that, unknowingly, I've overlapped with more than a thousand selves, and my rank has risen to an overwhelming degree.

If the minimum requirement for Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend is a total of 108 times, then just by overlapping through parallel dimensions, I have already cultivated Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend 1, 005 times.

'No, come to think of it, this isn't even Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend. Since it's not becoming one with past or future selves, but with the me of parallel dimensions... I guess this should be called an entirely different third method.'

As I consider these various thoughts, I realize that I'm already at the mid stage of Great Net Immortal.

I also come to understand the reason why, since the past life, the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld continued to pass down the taenghwa containing the cultivation of the Enders through me into the next cycles.

'I see. Through me, the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld has been making the Enders undergo Great Net Immortal cultivation.'

That's why the rank they held rose higher with each cycle.

'Of course, it still seems to be lacking.'

It seems I must continue to cultivate both Heavenly Spirit and Earthly Fiend through fate and history.

Because, I still haven't even caught sight of the Origin Essence— That is, I haven't even glimpsed something like the 'door' that directly leads to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.

"Now then, before this fellow becomes bothersome, be on your way. I sincerely hope... you keep your promise."

The consciousness of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, who has revealed all I wished to know, begins to leave the body of White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus.

I bow once more to the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, then kick off the dimension.

Tukwang!

The world seems to flatten for a moment, then in an instant, I return to a familiar world.

It is the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain.

"Uh, ummm... This place is...?"

Golden Shaking Bird begins to awaken in my grasp, and I gaze at her while revealing my true body.

"U-Umm...? H-Hiyaaagh! G-Great Ne...!? No, I-Immortal Lord...?"

The moment Golden Shaking Bird sees my true form, she recoils in fear and begins to tremble uncontrollably. I look at her for a moment, then extend my hand into the void.

Kkududeduduk!

Attraction force twists as Ham Jin, Yu Hwi, Yeo Hwi, and others who are to be the main personalities of my Immortal Treasures in this cycle appear instantly above my hand.

I absorb them into my body, then speak to Golden Shaking Bird.

"Change into the main soul of the Great Desolate Path."

Previously, I had gone through the bother of guiding her to the place where Jeon Myeong-hoon's spirit is, convincing her, and then transforming her into the main soul of the Great Desolate Path—but now, it is different.

"Th-The Great Desolate Path is my master's Immortal Treasure... I c-cannot simply hand it over to the likes of..."

"I can crush both the Great Desolate Path and the Lightning Sacred Sea right now. Is that what you want?"

"H-Hiieeek..."

As I exude a terrifying presence and threaten her, Golden Shaking Bird shrinks back in fear, trembling violently. Looking down at her, I continue.

"I will take you to where your master's traces remain, so stop saying useless words and become the main spirit of the Great Desolate Path. If not, I will kill you..."

In the end, with a few threats powered by the momentum of Heaven-Earth Great Net, I subdue Golden Shaking Bird and instantly make her the main soul of the Great Desolate Path.

Kwarururung!

Afterward, I enter the Great Desolate Path and head toward the Bearing Tree Heavenly Domain, thinking about my plans from now on.

'First, let's immediately gather my comrades of this cycle.'

After that, I must prepare with them to head out to the Outer Sea where the disgrace of the Heavenly Venerables lies.

The Salt Sea Returning Dew Jade is an Immortal Art that lets one locate coordinates even in the Outer Sea, but because its activation conditions are quite strict, I absolutely need the help of my comrades.

And so, once again, I ride the Great Desolate Path and begin crossing the Heavenly Domains in search of my comrades.

=== Author's Note: You may understand the Great Net Immortal cultivation method as being similar to the enhancement of the Colorless Glass Sword and norigae, or perhaps the cycle reinforcement of Seo Eun-hyun's Immortal Treasures.

To use another work as an analogy, it's similar to the concept of the 'Super Dragon' that appears in the original piece of a certain red dragon-themed fantasy series.

Alternatively, you could understand it as something like Jobu Tupaki from the recent Academy Award-winning 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'.

The idea is that an ordinary dragon, in order to become a multidimensional transcendent entity like a Super Dragon (of course, that setting doesn't actually exist in that work, but it's just a metaphor), continually overlaps with versions of itself from the future, the past, or—as in the case of Seo Eun-hyun who appeared this time—parallel dimensions.

Among those, the minimum number of overlaps required is 36 for a Heaven Immortal, and 72 for an Earth Immortal.