Chương 764: Dreams and Growth (4)

Seo Eun-hyun's hair clone.

Among the beings of the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain, the one they call 'devil spirit' takes a stance.

:: -------!!!:: Moonlight Immortal Wol Woon's scream spreads like mad across the entire Heavenly Domain.

Chuaaaaa- Soon, Wol Woon's Immortal Body collapses.

At that sight, the entire cosmic space seems to freeze.

The Entering Nirvanas who were about to support Wol Woon from behind with good momentum stare blankly, their heads going rigid at that absurd situation.

They probably did not die.

Since their prophetic star is in the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, they will resurrect near that star.

But in any case, death is death.

Resurrection also takes time, and they cannot descend again to this spot now.

The Quasi-Immortals assess the situation quickly.

From the beginning, if they could not grasp the situation quickly, they would not have reached this realm.

The sound is not loud.

Countless Entering Nirvanas, all at once, hide their bodies in darkness or light, or in the interstellar wind.

They flee by means of their respective escape techniques.

In an instant, the huge palanquins or carriages the Entering Nirvanas rode in, or things like their own warships, are left hollow and empty inside.

The Entering Nirvanas on the battlefield, except for True Person Eun Geom, all withdraw from the battlefield.

Less than one second passes until all the Entering Nirvanas flee.

The next to grasp the situation, roughly five seconds later, are the Sacred Vessels.

[Everyone, flee!!] Unlike the Entering Nirvanas who fled alone, the Sacred Masters who have many for whom they must take responsibility for.

The Sacred Vessels who exert greater power the more connections they have.

[We cannot win!!! That is already a being at True Immortality!!] The Sacred Masters seize the Star Shattering stage belonging to their own Middle Realms or stellar systems and begin to flee to the Middle Realms, and the other Sacred Vessels also begin to take along a few Esteemed Ones they know and start an escape.

[Escape!!!] The Sacred Vessels who cannot manage to bring Esteemed Ones with them also, mustering their sense of responsibility, start screaming so other Esteemed Ones can flee and then madly run using the ground-shrinking technique or the Flying Escape Technique.

And lastly, the Star Shattering Esteemed Ones at last begin to grasp the situation.

The Esteemed Ones all tremble in fear, moving away from the monster who, in a single strike, instantly killed a True Immortal.

Jin Wol-ryeong, Ham Rak, and others.

Except for five or six madmen who, having set foot in the Heart Dao Blooming system, are already far gone, everyone departs the battlefield.

[Uhahahahaha, is this a war of myth!? This really is the best!] Ham Rak, the half-human, half-ox of the Horned Ox Race, bursts into mad laughter and takes up his battle axe.

Second Step (二步), Before the Throne (御前).

Non-Toppling, Non-Standing (不轉不立).

Neither falling nor standing.

'Please look, Teacher Jang Ik.'

Ham Rak laughs heartily and unfolds the domain he has reached.

Out of respect for Jang Ik, he even renamed this realm Second Step Before the Throne.

This is the current pinnacle of the Heart Tribe.

'I have reached it!'

A manifestation that makes his state neither change nor advance.

That is precisely Ham Rak's Non-Toppling, Non-Standing.

It is Ham Rak's answer to overcome the Star Shattering stage's attraction force transformation.

But finally at the end of a long time, he managed to reach it.

Simply, in a brutish way, by widening the domain in which this manifestation called Non-Toppling, Non-Standing manifests.

For hundreds of thousands of years, stitch by stitch, Ham Rak treated the entire region that his attraction force as a Star Shattering stage reached as 'his own body' and covered that region entirely with the domain of manifestation.

In a way it is a very simple method, but sometimes the simple answer is the correct one.

And as a result, [Haaaaaa!!!] Jjeoooooong!

The world stops.

Inside the Palace of Radiance.

Seo Eun-hyun, who prepares to awaken in his main body, lets out an exclamation in his dream as he looks upon the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain through the eyes and ears of his hair clone.

"Remarkable. Is this not... Cheon Woon's domain?"

The domain of time yields its body to Ham Rak's power.

Even though he is not a disciple of the Source River, Ham Rak forcibly draws in the Source River's power with manifestation alone.

"Time... has stopped."

Seo Eun-hyun looks upon the world Ham Rak has developed and cannot help but be impressed.

To neither fall nor stand, that is Non-Toppling, Non-Standing.

That manifestation, which he thought would only forbid a change in one's state, solved its flaw by widening its range.

And it evolved beyond merely solving its drawback into a power that freezes the state of a plane.

All flows of change stop.

The world freezes.

Non-Toppling, Non-Standing, which until now only stopped one's own state, now reaches the point of stopping all states across a vast range equal to one nebula.

And that means...

It is no different from time having stopped.

"My Impermanence Sword has the worst affinity against it."

Looking at Ham Rak, one of his old connections, Seo Eun-hyun falls into reminiscence.

If, when he and Ham Rak met, Ham Rak and Seo Eun-hyun were in the same realm and clashed only with Martial Arts, what would have happened?

'If I did not use Heaven-Earth Dual Cultivation and the puppet circuit... within the stopped time I'd get beaten miserably. I could resist, but at best we would both perish... Unless I manifest sword strikes that transcend space-time, my win rate is unfavorable.'

The Impermanence Sword, which symbolizes infinite change, and Non-Toppling, Non-Standing, which kills change, have a dreadful hard counter relationship, assuming the same realm.

Of course, conversely, against the Surpassing Radiant Saber, Non-Toppling, Non-Standing is at a disadvantage.

Before Non-Toppling, Non-Standing unfolds, one could cut off the neck, or flee outside Non-Toppling, Non-Standing's space with the Surpassing Radiant Saber and then, from long range, ignore space and attack Ham Rak.

'Now, because I can crush by difference in realm, or copy the same power with Sword God Dance, it is not a threat... A pity. If we had met in the same realm back then, it would have been quite fun...'

Feeling regret that he did not directly cross hands with Ham Rak in the same realm, Seo Eun-hyun looks at his own hair clone within his dream.

Ham Rak is caught in the hair clone's senses.

Ham Rak, who wrapped the entire nebula with Non-Toppling, Non-Standing and stopped time, is himself in a state where he cannot move.

However, within that stopped time, a stratagem Ham Rak prepared in advance activates.

Flash!

Something overlays on Ham Rak's body.

It is Non-Toppling, Non-Standing.

'He blanketed the domain with Not-Toppling, Non-Standing, and then inside that, to himself 'alone', he overlays Non-Toppling, Non-Standing one more time...'

By double-layering Non-Toppling, Non-Standing, Ham Rak begins to open his eyes within the stopped time.

"He freezes the state of the world, and restores only his own state to normal within."

A manifestation of two abilities: stopping time, and moving within the stopped time.

That is precisely the evolved Non-Toppling, Non-Standing.

Wo-woong— Then, having activated Non-Toppling, Non-Standing, Ham Rak, with his battle axe in hand, charges straight at Seo Eun-hyun's hair clone with an excited face.

[Hahahahahaha! Solid! Dangerous! How dangerous!] Chiiiiii— Ham Rak, clinging to the hair clone's outer skin, contorts his face at the pain of Glass True Fire felt from the skin, but he does not stop laughing as he chops down with his battle axe.

Kang, kaang, kaaaang!

Inside the stopped time.

For quite a while he brings the axe down, and at last succeeds in putting a fine crack in one spot of the hair clone's scales, which possess a body hardness at the Entering Nirvana level.

Watching that sight, Seo Eun-hyun cannot help but let out admiration.

"Hoh, half a shichen has passed... and judging by Ham Rak's remaining power... he can stop time for about a day. Excellent."

And a trace of apology enters Seo Eun-hyun's eyes.

"I am sorry, Ham Rak."

Seo Eun-hyun left only a portion of consciousness in the hair clone.

Not even at the level of a split soul, a level of consciousness that can literally be called a stray thought.

A lump of consciousness smaller than even the Heart Demons Seo Eun-hyun distributed to the disciples of the Radiance Spirit Sect.

Therefore, that chunk of consciousness, by any rough estimate, is not going to go easy on Ham Rak.

Uduk, udududuk...

Within the stopped time, Ham Rak, who is attacking the opponent like mad to make gaps in the scales, looks up at the hair clone with an ominous feeling.

"Uh, uh...?"

And from the hair clone, a certain voice begins to sound.

[Immortal... Cultivation... is... repentant enlightenment...] Woo-woooooong— The stopped time.

From between the hair clone's two hands, a faint attraction force begins to arise.

Guk, guguk, gugugugeuk!

The time that had been stopped...

By a powerful attraction force, it begins to be forcibly twisted again.

[Like tiny... grans... of salt...] At the same time, Ham Rak's Non-Toppling, Non-Standing begins to shatter.

[Gathering... to form... a sea...] Kugugugugugu!

The jade of Yin-Yang and Five Elements gathers.

At the same time, the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra the hair clone unfolds begins to contract the entire Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain.

From the Seat Holder of Liberation Bong Myeong, who is inside the cocoon, protests like screams and shouts come, but the hair clone is not even endowed with the intelligence to answer such things, so it simply carries out the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.

Of course, Seo Eun-hyun can answer, but he ignores it since it's bothersome.

A final pronouncement begins to come to the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain.

[Build mountains through repentant enlightenment...]

"Even with the hand of a clone... I can kill you."

Seo Eun-hyun speaks with a slightly apologetic gaze toward an old connection.

"So... survive. On the pride of one taught by Jang Ik."

The universe contracts.

The world gradually begins to brighten and heat up.

"D-Damn it...!"

Jin Wol-ryeong grits her teeth and burns the power of one of her seven horns.

Huarururu— The power of the Immortal Beast Azure Peng turns the space around Jin Wol-ryeong into a spatial labyrinth and from inside helps her not get sucked into the shining sphere of attraction force.

However, that is not what is important.

Kugugugugu!

[Huaaaaaa!!!] [Huaaaaaa!!!] [Huaaaaaa!!!] The Entering Nirvana Quasi-Immortals who have fled begin to be dragged back again.

On top of that, those of the Sacred Vessel stage and Star Shattering stage are naturally dragged back again, and the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain begins to shake.

Seeing that, the powerhouses of the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain cannot help but be seized by mad terror.

The Entering Nirvanas look to the Heavenly Domain's Highest Grand Elder, Dae Jin-uk, and shout.

[Dae Jin-uk! What on earth is happening!?] [I have never heard that it was a monster that can annihilate even an Upper Immortal!] Of course, it makes no sense, by common sense, that a single hair of an existence known as a Great Net Immortal can defeat an Upper Immortal, so Dae Jin-uk bears no responsibility.

[Look! Not only the Upper Immortal, but the Heavenly Domain is collapsing right now!!!] However, once the Entering Nirvanas learn that the Heavenly Domain itself is engulfed by the threat of the End, their reason evaporates in an instant, and they only try to hold Dae Jin-uk responsible.

[We must escape the Heavenly Domain!!!] [Don't speak madness. Maybe if we were at least of True Immortality, but are you saying we, who are merely Entering Nirvanas, can cross the Inner Sea between Heavenly Domains!?] [Are you telling us to swim in that abyss and die!] [We must find the Heavenly Domain teleportation formation of Radiance Hall! Go to the teleportation formation!!] [How are we supposed to break free of this attraction force!!] In an instant, the battlefield turns into utter chaos, drowned in the shouts of the panicked Entering Nirvanas.

Not one speaks with the courage to say they should face that monster.

From the start, the realm of the Entering Nirvana stage is bound to be that way.

Those just before becoming True Immortals, or those who cling in place because they fear becoming True Immortals.

Without a special connection to a True Immortal, or the grace of the Underworld— Or until they meet a fortuitous chance that lets them be safe even in death, those who accumulate eternal years in fear.

They are the Entering Nirvanas.

Unless one is an innate Entering Nirvana who appeared at the birth of a Heavenly Domain, no one can completely shake off the fear of death.

Therefore, the Entering Nirvanas, feeling not the slightest shame at their ugly state, thrash about madly for life.

It is just then.

[What pathetic elders you are.] Wol Ryeong steps forward one step.

Her words resound to everyone.

For a moment, all the Entering Nirvanas cast their gaze upon her, but no one rebuts her, nor cares.

The longer the Entering Nirvana lived without becoming a True Immortal, the more they ignore and dismiss her words.

For life is far more precious than such shame!

[Are you truly going to keep living like that, pitifully thrashing for hundreds of millions of years? If that truly is the life of you elders... then your lives are truly insignificant. All the mighty feats and achievements you have accomplished to climb to that place... what meaning do they have?] [...] No one answers.

Wol Ryeong looks at those ugly figures and sighs.

[... I see. You choose not to think.] [...] [Do as you please. Flee like dead mice and live. If that is your fate... if fleeing and turning your backs for your whole lives is your heaven-ordained fate... I cannot stop you.] [...] [But... what exactly is different in such a life from the lives of the common mortals?] Now she neither calls the Entering Nirvanas to return nor mocks them.

She pities them.

[... Do as you please. Go... and each guard what is precious to you.] Wol Ryeong, pitying them, grips her halberd.

And the Entering Nirvanas, who did not so much as twitch at Wol Ryeong's shouts...

Once they become those who receive pity from a much younger junior, only then can all of them feel shame sprouting in their chests.

But even so, the Entering Nirvanas do not look back.

Wol Ryeong stands alone, in solitude, and together only with Pal Jin and a few other Star Shattering beings, she extends her halberd toward the Devil God's extremity that emits attraction force.

[At least we... shall go.] [Yes.] And then, someone appears behind them.

It is Eun Geom.

[Master...?] [Look. That is the true nature of the Entering Nirvanas. Gaining excessive power and lifespan, they bully those whose realms are weaker than themselves, yet when they meet a strong existence, no persuasion or insult gets through, and all they can flaunt is their skill at running away.] Eun Geom.

The split soul of the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord teaches Wol Ryeong, step by step, the teachings of Radiance Hall.

All Sword Spear Heavenly Lords are always passed down through such teachings.

[What use do you think those have? Such things are useless. Even with strong power, they are bugs who cannot use it in the right place. Unless you capture them, sever their emotions, make them into parts, and use them as tools... they are no different from trash. Wol Ryeong, Pal Jin. Engrave it in your hearts.] Pal Jin nods, but Wol Ryeong cannot easily nod.

[Those are precisely what happens when those without qualification possess power.] [Qualification...] Wol Ryeong bites down hard on her lips at those words.

If so, do they have that qualification?

Who judges that qualification?

Eun Geom looks down at Wol Ryeong, who falls into such worries.

Originally, if the next Sword Spear falls into such worries, it is right to tell them to stop worrying.

When Sword Spear worried like that, the previous Sword Spear also forced the worry to stop.

The Eight Immortals are tools of the system.

Worry is unnecessary.

Because their work is always to obey fate for a greater justice.

However, Sword Spear leaves Wol Ryeong, who worries and agonizes, alone.

And they raise a hand.

Wo-woong— The language of True Immortals, which Wol Ryeong, Pal Jin, and the others cannot even perceive, passes through the True Immortal Realm and reaches the Radiance Eight Immortals in the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain.

:: The remnant of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord shows an unexpectedly strong rampage. The next Sword Spear and the next Pearl Jade candidates are currently undergoing an unnecessary crisis. I request support forces. In the name of the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord, I require the support of my main body or at least thirty Great Immortals at the level of Envoy of the Final Age of Dharma candidates.:: And the answer of the Radiance Eight Immortals, excluding the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord, is 'impossible'.

:: Not only your main body, but also Great Immortals at the level of Envoy of the Final Age of Dharma candidates cannot be permitted for support. To seal the Sword Mountain Devil Lord in the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, not only your main body but also the Great Immortals must not easily go out.:::: Then I demand the support of the Resplendent Treasure Immortals.

:::: The Thirty-Three Heavenly Resplendent Treasure Immortals are Upper Immortals, but they are tasked with one axis of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's seal. It is impossible.:::: The hair clone of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord is currently threatening the lives of the next Sword Spear and the next Pearl Jade candidates and is trying to annihilate the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain with the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.

If the hair clone devours the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain and accumulates power beyond a certain extent... there is even the possibility that the Sword Mountain Devil Lord will abandon their main body and simply resurrect within the hair clone.:::: That possibility is not nonexistent, but with a probability of 99. 9 percent, the Sword Mountain Devil Lord will not be able to move their body into the hair clone. The Torch Candle Heavenly Lord connected to the Akashic Records and prophesized it.

:::: Do not ignore the probability of point one percent.:: The Sword Spear presses the other Eight Immortals as if frustrated, and in the end, the Eight Immortals, excluding the Sword Spear, reluctantly send back an answer.

:: We will send about 100 Law Protecting Immortals of Radiance Hall to the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain. Wait only half a gak (15 min).::::... Understood.:: However, the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord, who seems frustrated with the support of the Radiance Eight Immortals, smiles the moment the communication ends.

'Good test subjects to experiment with your new ultimate moves will descend. Wait for it, Seo Eun-hyun.'

Woo-woooong— Before long, the Entering Nirvana Quasi-Immortals, who are trying to flee and leave the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain, flinch and halt in place.

The distant Heavenly King Heavenly Domain.

From there, gigantic existences begin to target their bodies and begin to overlay onto their bodies.

Upper Immortals of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain begin to descend into the bodies of the Entering Nirvana Quasi-Immortals of the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain.

Gikikikikik— At the same time, the Upper Immortals who begin to descend into place all at once utter prophecies and start to cancel the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra of the hair clone.

:: Not a projection, not a clone, not an Immortal Treasure...:::: For something that is at most a single strand of hair to use the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra is admirable, however...:::: With the power of a single strand of hair, to use that mantra before us is not permitted.:: Kugugugung!

At last, the trembling and contraction of the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain, which seems about to be destroyed, subsides.

:: To annihilate you, receiving the command of the great Eight Immortals, the Law Protecting Immortals of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain have come...!:: Over a hundred Upper Immortals fill the space.

And upon seeing that sight, Seo Eun-hyun's hair clone combines the residual thoughts engraved on the hair and begins to take the most appropriate response to the current situation.

Woo-wooong!

Heaven, Earth, Heart.

The three kinds of power begin to draw for strength from behind the hair clone's head.

They are the Three Powers.

Those Three Powers soon intertwine and tangle, creating the Three Great Ultimates.

The hair clone, having reached the Three Great Ultimates of the Heaven-Earth-Heart Entering Nirvana stage, takes a stance in that state.

There are quite a few things engraved onto the Entering Nirvana stage hair clone, but the combat techniques that its master Seo Eun-hyun directly engraved are three.

The Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.

And the True Martial Arts of the Future King that Seo Eun-hyun has uncovered so far.

A total of two decisive moves.

From the moment Seo Eun-hyun discovered the Future King's ultimate technique, he backtraced history with the authority of the Immortal Beast King and, at last, restored that technique to a certain extent, engraved it on the hair clone, and sent it along.

Tsuaaaaa— A sword of Glass True Fire appears in the hair clone's hand.

Soon, the sword becomes dyed black.

What it just used to split Wol Woon in half in a single strike was the Future King's True Martial Arts, Second Form.

And the Future King's decisive move that Seo Eun-hyun obtained quite some time ago, the First Form, is as follows: Ominous devilish energy inhabits the sword.

The sword of Glass True Fire instantly transforms into a devilish sword.

It is a sword that contains the karma of an existence that killed everything in the world.

True Martial Arts.

First Form.

Zero (零).

Like the form called King (王), it is a move composed of a single character.

That simple move starts to tear the surroundings to shreds.

The numerous Upper Immortals who begin to descend by borrowing the bodies of the Quasi-Immortals start to be wildly ripped apart by the devilish sword the hair clone swings.

The essence of First Form, Zero, is to render.

To tear and rip out is its essence.

But the hair clone does not end it there.

True Martial Arts.

First Form, Applied Technique.

Devil (魔).

The freewheeling devilish sword that backtraces causality starts to grind down the prophetic stars connected to the Upper Immortals being summoned by backtracking the origin of history.

And the Upper Immortals, who are summoned full of confidence, start to scream like mad.

:: Yoooouuuuuu!!!:: The Upper Immortals all at once activate Immortal Arts and fully descend into the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain.

However, the event of the Upper Immortals reaching the hair clone does not occur.

True Martial Arts First Form.

Applied Profundity Nameless (無名).

The claws of principles that surpass causality instantly reach Indra's Net and tear Immortal Arts to shreds at the level of law itself.

Upper Immortals, who in an instant become like ragged rags, begin to burst into screams.

However, that is the end.

They can do nothing.

Centered on the hair clone, the formlessly revolving, storm-like dark devilish sword exposes its unceasing ominous killing karma in full and begins a full-scale massacre.

True Martial Arts First Form.

Linked Profundity The True Martial Arts of the Future King that Seo Eun-hyun once embedded in the Sword God Dance in the past.

The basic, the applied technique, and the applied profundity all surge at once.

Zero Devil (零魔).

Nameless Rendering.

As the hair clone's intent resounds, a black something starts to grind Heaven, Earth, and Heavens Above to pieces.

:: To the Radiance Eight Immortals of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, I speak. Do you hear?:: Entering the body of the True Person Eun Geom and protecting the next Eight Immortals, Sword Spear speaks in a low voice.

:: The Upper Immortals just sent are annihilated. I request additional support.:: One gak since the Radiance Eight Immortals sent the support of Upper Immortals to subjugate the hair clone, The group of Law Protecting Immortals have been annihilated.