Chương 713: Spring Dream (春夢) (4)

Tututututu!

Countless bullets and shells, imbued with the force of explosion, pour down solely to kill Seo Ran.

The thin strand of hair.

Atop the blue thread, Seo Ran runs while holding pistols.

The 'Hyun Style Fighting Method' she learned from Seo Eun-hyun has evolved through her modifications into the 'Hyun Style Shooting Method'.

Unlike the original method that unfolded through the body, this technique channels internal energy into firearms and shoots it out.

Her unique martial art that is not quite a martial art begins to unfold with full power.

Hyun Style Shooting Method.

Twin Fang.

Ghost Fang.

Heat Fang.

The pistols in both her hands fire simultaneously, colliding with the massive shells.

The bullets infused with ghostly energy strike the shells and detonate them on contact, while the bullets imbued with heat melt the warheads of the shells entirely.

The essence of Qi is explosion.

Therefore, the 'gun', which fires by triggering explosions, might actually be the most optimized weapon for wielding Qi.

Hyun Style Shooting Method.

True Fang (眞牙).

Kwang, kwang kwaaang!

From Seo Ran's pistol erupts the roar of artillery fire, shooting down every shell that might have threatened the civilians below if they had fallen.

'How did you do that, Mother?'

Seo Ran recalls Kim Yeon's Full Blossom.

The endless affection contained within that Full Blossom.

She remembers that feeling vividly and begins to squeeze out every bit of power in her entire body to reach it.

And the more she does, the more shells fly toward her.

Hyun Style Shooting Method.

Dual Circle True Fang (二圓眞牙).

Woo-wooong!

From Seo Ran's hands, a faint explosion seems to occur.

At the same time, two circular ripples spread out from both her hands, and every bullet she fires carries those ripples.

Tat, tadat!

But in the end, a pistol is a pistol.

'Am I out of bullets...?'

Seo Ran realizes she's used up all her rounds and lets out a bitter smile.

'Well... it doesn't matter.'

Woo-wooong!

She points the empty muzzle of her gun at the incoming shells and smiles.

'I can squeeze out more, so this is actually better.'

Hyun Style Shooting Method.

Taiji True Fang (太極眞牙).

Dual Circle True Fang (二圓眞牙).

Linked Technique.

Polar Resonance True Fang (異極共鳴眞牙).

Tududududu!

As if Taiji settles directly into the pistols in Seo Ran's hands, the very force of explosion itself begins to burst forth from her guns.

Moreover, those explosions resonate with each other, growing larger and larger.

Watching Seo Ran like that, Kang Min-hee reveals a faint expression of worry.

'She's firing explosions because she's out of bullets... But doing that will burn through her internal energy like mad, and she'll even have to draw on her innate true energy...'

She is worried about one thing.

Quaking Heat Body!

Though it has greatly subsided after reaching Five Energies Converging to the Origin and undergoing complete transformation, the Quaking Heat Body has not completely disappeared.

And is it that her worry proves right?

Freeze!

At last, Seo Ran, who had been running without pause atop the thin thread, comes to a halt.

Kang Min-hee's eyes glint with dread.

'Seo Ran...'

Seo Ran feels cold sweat trickling down her body.

'It hurts...'

It is painful.

Is it because she's been recklessly unleashing both her internal energy and innate true energy because it's her last day?

Her Heavenly Penalty begins to flare up.

The Quaking Heat Body contracts her muscles and causes her to lose her sense of balance.

'N-No...'

To keep her body from falling as she loses balance, she fires an explosion in the direction she is leaning.

Kwaaang!

The gun barrel overheats, and she staggers.

'Heheok... heok...'

Seo Ran, drenched in cold sweat as if in a rain, looks toward the still halfway-distant path to Sword Peak Mountain.

'It's too far... Can I even make it...?'

To make matters worse, she's starting to lose her sense of balance, and it feels like she'll fall at any moment.

Moreover, this tightrope itself is made by crazily extending and hardening a single strand of Kang Min-hee's hair.

It's only natural that it's hard to maintain balance.

Hwioooooo— On top of that, the wind begins to blow, violently shaking the rope, and Seo Ran clenches her teeth amidst the fear of falling.

A while later.

Shiver shiver shiver...

Despite trembling all over, Seo Ran begins to move forward.

Her body is in pain, her internal energy is depleted, and she is now even drawing from her innate true energy, but she doesn't care.

Shells and bullets occasionally fly toward her, but she doesn't care about those either.

At first, it is agonizing.

She is tormented by the question of why she has to endure this and the tension of standing atop this tightrope.

But at some point, She suddenly has a thought.

'Either way... even if I scream from the pain, there's nothing I can do.'

So then, what should she do?

'Accept... it.'

She accepts her Heavenly Penalty, the Quaking Heat Body.

And as she accepts the pain of the Quaking Heat Body, something surfaces in her mind.

It is...

A memory from her childhood.

'Ah... right. I definitely... wanted to become an acrobat.'

She hated Martial Arts.

To her, it felt like just another method of fate forcing her life in a single direction.

Because of that, she wanted to do something unrelated to Martial Arts.

The acrobat of the acting troupe she had watched with her family as a child looked so beautiful in the eyes of her young self.

It wasn't the acrobat's sense of balance that was beautiful.

It was the act of bringing joy to someone else...

That looked beautiful.

'Mother's Full Blossom... yes. It made me warm... Then... what is what I am trying to reach giving to others?'

Step, step.

Seo Ran begins to walk forward, step by step.

Her footwork is no longer that of a martial artist.

Instead, it is the footwork of an acrobat—something she had occasionally practiced as a hobby, something she remembered from watching those performers.

Elegant in some ways.

Precarious in others.

Just like that, she becomes an acrobat walking the tightrope toward Sword Peak Mountain.

'I want... to bring joy.'

Only then does she remember.

The memory of herself, amazed and delighted as she watched the acrobat.

The happiness she felt watching fireworks for the first time...

'I never knew the reason why I was living.'

With every step she takes, she feels something awakening within her.

'Everyone always hoped I would overcome my fate. But... I thought of that very hope as fate itself, feeling burdened by it, and wanted to escape from it.'

Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon thought that Seo Ran overcoming and escaping her Heavenly Penalty, the Quaking Heat Body, would help realize her fate and hence made her learn martial arts.

However, even that very attempt by Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon became a form of fate for her.

That is why she hated learning martial arts.

'Now that I think about it... maybe what I really wanted to learn was not how to kill. but how to laugh together with others...'

Hwiooooooo— Suddenly, as she comes to her senses, she realizes that she has climbed to quite a height.

Despite standing on the tightrope that she seemed ready to fall from at any moment, she does not fall.

Even though she is in the midst of a Quaking Heat Body seizure and has lost her sense of balance, she remains utterly still, as if she has gained perfect equilibrium.

She feels it with each step she takes.

Her heart gradually empties.

Death is approaching.

'Was my fate the fate of overcoming fate...?'

Seo Ran half-opens her eyes and moves forward.

Strangely, it feels as though she is walking on level ground.

'Honestly, I don't know. Fate, martial arts... I never cared about any of it. I just...'

Recalling the first time she ever saw fireworks, she remembers once more— That happiness...

The desire to enjoy that moment again with her parents surfaces in her mind.

And at that moment, when all thoughts other than that one become empty...

Hwioooong— From behind her, a cannon shell flies in, attempting to shoot her down.

Click— Now even her bullets are all gone, and both her innate true energy and internal energy are nearly depleted.

And yet, for some reason, she points her gun toward the shell.

Then immediately after, she pulls the trigger.

At the same time— Taaang— A powerful gunshot rings out from the muzzle, and she suddenly feels as though the world around her brightens.

Kang Min-hee widens her eyes, realizing what Seo Ran has done.

Despite their anxiety, the countless civilians in Jeongyeong City gasp in awe at the beauty.

Countless people cry out in admiration at the sight.

It is...

A firework display, like an explosion of firecrackers.

Kwaang, kwaang, kwaang!

Explosions echo as countless shells are fired toward Seo Ran.

Each time, she simply pulls the trigger with a face full of nostalgia.

And...

Every time she pulls the trigger, all the shells flying toward her transform into firecrackers, filling the sky with the dazzling light of fireworks.

Peong, peobeobeong!

She faintly recalls something her parents once said.

—The era of gunpowder... that your mother and I wove together.

"Entering... Heavens... Beyond the Path..."

As her innate true energy drains, Seo Ran continues to speak with a faint smile.

Without even realizing that what she is unleashing is something entirely different from Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, she creates countless fireworks as she endlessly ascends toward Sword Peak Mountain.

"The Era... of Fireworks."

The shadow world.

There, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable looks at Seo Ran as if it's ridiculous.

[I see... When Kim Yeon unfolded Manifestation, she resonated her own cultivation with his power. So that's when she first entered the door...] Outer wall of Jeongyeong City.

There, Kang Min-hee watches Seo Ran transform bullets fired from a gun into fireworks, and lets out a laugh of disbelief.

"... So that's an innate Sacred Vessel, huh?"

A power that twists the will of the world through sheer will alone, without cultivating any Immortal Cultivation system.

A power that some call the Primordial Origin Immortal Cultivation system.

That's right...

What Seo Ran is unfolding is an Immortal Art.

Immortal Arts.

As the Era of Fireworks marks Seo Ran's final steps, at last, she reaches the summit of Sword Peak Mountain, walking the thin thread without losing her balance in the slightest.

"I'm... back..."

The grand and majestic spiritual energy of Sword Peak Mountain, felt again after so long, embraces her.

Seo Ran feels as though she is falling asleep in the arms of her father, Seo Eun-hyun, and slowly closes her eyes.

Thanks to the traces of the Immortal Art she unleashed, countless flames of the fireworks fill the sky.

"... So many things... have happened."

And in all those many things, she has leaned much.

Seo Ran smiles as she reflects on the twisted, tangled path that her life had been.

"Even so... I think I understand now..."

What some call their fate, and others call the reason they were born.

Seo Ran finally thinks she understands it.

A fate that overcomes fate.

What does it mean to overcome fate?

It's simple.

Fate cannot be overcome.

Just as Seo Ran ultimately failed to fully break free from her Heavenly Penalty...

Fate is not something to overcome, but perhaps something to be accepted.

Yes...

Accepting fate, but still dreaming of a better tomorrow.

A fate that overcomes fate may mean, in the end, the fate of accepting one's fate yet endlessly struggling toward the dream one wishes for within it.

Since life is but a fleeting spring dream (一場春夢), perhaps it is enough to simply accept its fleeting nature and pursue the beauty within.

Just as the being known as Seo Ran...

... even though she resented all the fates forced upon, accepted them in the end, and now closes her eyes while walking the tightrope and watching the fireworks that she had always dreamed of.

Pasasasasa— As Seo Ran closes her eyes, an overwhelming number of paper flowers begin to appear from within her.

Those paper flowers are mixed with Seo Ran's soul.

Only after death does her soul come to understand.

Who she is.

Why she has come to live such a fate.

All the causality seems to be laid bare before her eyes.

It was a difficult life...

But without a doubt, it was a fulfilling one.

Seo Ran's soul regains the memories of her past life before she was born as 'Seo Ran'... and scatters boundless blessings upon all who are watching this world.

Flash!

All who witness the light of that blessing flinch in surprise.

In particular, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable reacts with visible shock, and outside the Unruly Realm, Seo Eun-hyun and White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus who have been watching simultaneously let out a sigh.

And...

Kang Min-hee, who loved the existence precious to Seo Eun-hyun, sheds a single stream of tears.

'Mother... Father...'

Seo Ran's soul calls out a little shyly to Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon, and Seo Eun-hyun, upon hearing that voice, sheds a single tear.

:: Yes... our child.:: Seo Ran's past life.

Her name in that past life was Su In and Hong Yeon.

She was the power of connections formed from the split soul of the Vast Cold Heavenly King...

And the very spirit that united into one during the Seo Hweol battle.

'Thank you... for coming to us as our child.'

The power of connections that merged into one was summoned again through the intermingling of myself and Kim Yeon, taking the form of fate.

That is precisely... the true nature of my child, whom I named 'Seo Ran'.

In the midst of gratitude and regret toward Su In and Hong Yeon, I watch the final moments of my child. At the same time, through the paper flowers blooming from Seo Ran's body, I transmit to Kang Min-hee the true form of the 'Western Heaven Flower Field,' as observed from beyond its boundary.

Kugugugu!

Outside the Nether Crossing Ship.

There, a voice resounds from the countless petals covering the surroundings of the Nether Treading Ship.

:: It is a meaningless act. That one has already been too deeply eroded by the Western Heaven Flower Field. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to use power from within... and likewise, dismantling it is impossible.:: It is the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.

I smile, recalling the long and weary battle I've fought against the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.

:: True. If it was just Kang Min-hee, perhaps that would be so...:: I smile as I watch her reach out toward the paper flowers blooming within the Unruly Realm.

:: But... can you not feel it, Sal Tree?::::...!:: And at last, after a long and longer time...

Kang Min-hee, who has brilliantly learned the meaning of parting, begins to grow.

Kugugung!

Centered around Kang Min-hee, the principles of the Unruly Realm begin to twist.

In the sorrow of Seo Ran's completed life coming to an end, and the grief of that farewell, she yearns for enlightenment...

And at last, she begins to advance from a True Lord into a new existence.