Chương 785: 16th Cycle's First Day

Seo Eun-hyun's 15th life.

He collapses on the spot.

Pachijijijik...

At Seo Eun-hyun's side, Yu Hwa of the Half-Human, Half-Spider Race breaks Seo Hweol's magic artifact that contains the soul of her disciple Baek Nyeong, causing Baek Nyeong to attain Buddhahood.

Yu Hwa looks at Seo Eun-hyun.

"... Are you satisfied?"

A revenge play aimed at Seo Hweol.

The curtain of that long revenge play, in which the' sound 'hoho' still seems to ring by the ears, finally comes to a close.

"I am satisfied."

"That is a relief..."

Yu Hwa looks at Seo Eun-hyun and smiles bitterly.

Though her eyes are closed, she looks at him with the heart eye (心眼), not taking her eyes off him to hold in her heart Seo Eun-hyun, who melts away under the curse laid by the True Immortal of Heavenly Punishment...

"One thing..."

And, as he dies with a body where pale mist and lightning roil...

Seo Eun-hyun opens his mouth.

He speaks to Yu Hwa as he scatters into lightning.

"The Heaven-Collapsing Esteemed One... breathed something into Gyu Baek. Gyu Baek passed her heart to me and now it is inside me... I think I should pass it to you as well, so I will..."

Gyu Baek.

The 'remnant' of Gyu Ryeon of the Yellow Dragon Race, who was used by the Sea Dragon King Seo Hweol and died.

Seo Eun-hyun, holding in his heart the heart that Gyu Baek left behind and Jang Ik's teachings in her memories, begins to deliver them to Yu Hwa.

For it is not merely an enlightenment left only to Gyu Baek, but also an enlightenment left to Seo Eun-hyun and to Yu Hwa, a junior of the Heart Tribe.

―Some cultivators say the amount of air in the lungs is the heart, and since the lungs correspond to metal, the heart is metallic. But if we follow your cultivators' logic... since the metal of the Five Elements corresponds to the Qian of the Eight Trigrams...

"'Isn't the heart from the heavens? Your heart lives touching the heavens, and just as you cannot deny the heavens, you cannot deny the heart. So even if someone denies your heart, it never truly disappears'."

Where does the heart come from?

If Heaven is fate and Earth is life, then perhaps the Heart comes between fate and life, accompanying fate.

After conveying Jang Ik's enlightenment to Yu Hwa, Seo Eun-hyun finally scatters into fragments of lightning and disappears into the void.

This is Seo Eun-hyun's sixteenth return.

It seems like I see a snake.

The moment I feel that, I open my eyes and look around.

Seo Hweol stands before me with that familiar 'hoho' smiling face, and Jin Byuk-ho, Azure Tiger Saint, White Bone Ghost Devil, and others look at me.

'What was that just now?'

It seems I saw something in the midst of regressing.

I can't recall it well.

Only, a vision like a snake hissing seemed to pass by briefly.

'Ah, well...'

But I soon can tell the reason.

Because just seeing Seo Hweol's face in front of me brings it to mind.

'Because the one I rolled around with in the 15th cycle was this snake bastard, I must have seen such a fleeting thing for a moment.'

I take one step back from Seo Hweol and ask.

"Are you asking which faction I will choose?"

"That is so. I certainly feel the energy of the Nascent Soul stage within your body... For a mere cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage to ascend following us, is that not truly something to be astonished by? At your level, you will be welcomed wherever you go."

"Hm..."

In the life before last, during the Azure Heaven Creation Sect cycle, I reached the Nascent Soul stage.

And in the last life, I also reached the Nascent Soul stage by the cultivation method of the Demon Race, reaching the early Heaven and Earth Dual Cultivation Nascent Soul stage.

'Sly, old bastard.'

Though there is no actual Nascent Soul remaining, only a remnant, Seo Hweol nevertheless in an instant realizes it through the remnant of the Demon Race's cultivation method.

"... Yes, that is right. Though this one was originally a cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage, while urgently ascending I received shock and both my cultivation of the Nascent Soul and Golden Core scattered."

"Hmhm, even so you are excellent. It is surprising that Nascent Soul followed after ascension, and yet you are alive after scattering your Nascent Soul... It is clear that heavenly fate follows you. I would like to bring you into the Sea Dragon Race... do you perhaps have thoughts on it?"

Seo Hweol gently reaches his hand out toward me, and Gyu Ryeon, who waits in the back, furrows her brows.

[Hng, just a single Human Race Nascent Soul... Why are you wasting time on such a thing?]

"Haha, senior. Please wait just a little..."

Seo Hweol trades a few words with Gyu Ryeon, and I look at Gyu Ryeon.

'Senior Gyu Ryeon...'

In the last life, Gyu Ryeon, who was miserably murdered by Seo Hweol, and Gyu Ryeon's spirit.

Gyu Baek's end comes to mind.

Thinking of that makes my chest ache.

I want to follow Seo Hweol into the True Dragon Alliance right this instant and free Gyu Ryeon from Seo Hweol's clutches.

'But... I must not.'

That must not be.

In any case, the Gyu Ryeon who formed a connection with me in the last life and this Gyu Ryeon are different people.

Moreover...

Throb...

'... As expected...'

The curse followed.

Even beyond regression, I am being transformed into lightning.

Whether Jin Byuk-ho senses something or not, his eyes gradually fill with shock.

"W-Wait... you..."

At this rate, it looks like I will be noticed by Jin Byuk-ho or the Mad Lord and be kidnapped any moment, so I decide in a hurry.

"I... am sorry. A Demon Race force like the True Dragon Alliance is, after all, a burden to me as a member of the Human Race..."

I look at the other humans who ascended together with Jin Byuk-ho, Azure Tiger Saint, and White Bone Ghost Devil.

'That does not mean I can choose Jin Byuk-ho.'

Right now, I am in a situation where I am melting under the Owner of Heavenly Punishment.

If I stick close to the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, I do not know what ill effect I might have on the Heavenly Lightning Banner.

'I am sorry. If it's possible, I will choose the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect in the next life.'

Right now, choosing the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect is a bad move.

'In this case, since not choosing will mean getting kidnapped by the Mad Lord…'

My choice is but one.

I choose the Righteous and Devil Alliance.

Among them, I walk toward the place where there is a woman whose features look familiar from somewhere.

"You may not know about me, but I have a history with the Makli Clan."

"Ho..."

Makli Cheon-sa, a cultivator at the half-step Heavenly Being stage from a collateral branch of the Makli Clan.

When I destroyed and left the Makli Clan, she was someone I once saw in the archives while rummaging through the remnants of the Makli Clan.

As a child she suffered abuse from parents of a collateral branch of the Makli Clan, escaped, and as a person of the Mountains and Rivers, she wandered through the Head Realm, reached the half-step Heavenly Being stage, then entered the Devilish Immortal Alliance and took part in the Ascension Alliance.

After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, she is said to have massacred her own parents and blood relatives with her own hands, so she is also someone who will not be greatly enraged even if it is exposed that I destroyed the Makli Clan.

'At the same time, since she has not abandoned the Makli surname, she at least pays minimal attention... so I can try to sell the name of the Makli Clan to beg some recognition.'

"I know you do not like the Makli Clan... but if you would take me in for the sake of old ties..."

'Of course, if even this is not accepted there is nothing I can do, but since I have revealed my will to make my base in the Devilish Immortal Alliance, many devilish sects belonging to the Devilish Immortal Alliance will reach out to me...'

"Well, fine, I accept you."

"...?"

I make the offer expecting in large part to be refused, but being accepted as a disciple more easily than I expect, I look up at her feeling a bit dumbfounded.

"In the nameof this Makli Cheon-sa of the Devilish Immortal Alliance, here... what was your name?"

"S-Seo Eun-hyun."

"I proclaim that Cultivator Seo is now a member of the Devilish Immortal Alliance!"

At her words, the Mad Lord, Seo Hweol, Azure Tiger Saint, and the like turn their interest away from me, White Bone Ghost Devil looks at me with eyes that see a young chicken he can eat anytime, and...

Jin Byuk-ho thumps his chest as if frustrated.

After a while, the Mad Lord kidnaps a cultivator of the Flying Immortal Platform, and Seo Hweol and the other cultivators keep their heads down while blocking the fallout from the Mad Lord.

I glance at Makli Cheon-sa, who has become my new master, and think.

'Just what is she thinking?'

Whatever method Makli Cheon-sa has cultivated, I cannot see her intent.

Only, though I cannot see her intent, I can see heart essence, which makes it all the more bizarre.

Because her heart essence is a bizarre land of gray hills stretching on, I furrow my brow, finding it hard to guess her inner thoughts.

'Well, still, she is better than Seo Hweol.'

Why do I, despite my disgust toward Yuan Li, enter the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance?

The reason is simple.

'The Devilish Path bastards, especially the Human Race Devilish Path bastards, are trash.'

Through Yuan Li, and through the devilish cultivators during the Devil Realm invasion...

I came to know it very well.

They are no different from vermin that all ought to be slaughtered.

Since most of them are villains whose deaths do not matter, I joined with the thought that when I later transform into lightning and draw the gaze of the Owner of Heavenly Punishment, it is fine if that damage falls on them.

'But this one, I do not know.'

She does not seem such a villain, yet she does not seem such a good person either.

She is too kind to be a cultivator of the Devilish Immortal Alliance, and she has a heart essence a little too wicked to be a normal cultivator.

'Well, it does not matter.'

If I am reluctant to kill, I can just leave her alone and wander anyway.

'The Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance is far looser than the Head Realm Three Great Immortal Sects, or under Seo Hweol and the Mad Lord.'

Soon, we move to the Human Race territory.

After receiving identity plaques at Temporal Fate Island, the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance is assigned a residence on a Sky Island called Red Moon Island.

Thus, I head to Red Moon Island together with the Makli Cheon-sa, my new master.

"Now, this is what you are to do starting today."

"Pardon?"

A month after the Devilish Immortal Sect Alliance settled on Red Moon Island and Makli Cheon-sa settled in a place where a suitable spiritual vein flows.

After she arranged her cave residence, she dragged me over and spoke.

Her cave residence is filled with countless demon beasts and demon insects, and she hands me a storage scroll and speaks.

"From today you will feed my demon insects and demon beasts, and you will take care of them."

"... Master, I apologize, but I..."

I am still before accumulating cultivation, so I possess a body at a level no different from a mortal.

If I begin cultivation through the Colorless Glass Sword, it is possible to reach the Nascent Soul stage within two months, but for now I simply look like a mortal on the outside.

Taking care of powerful demon insects at my level could be dangerous.

Of course, because my body is of Treading Heavens, it is not truly dangerous, but at least outwardly...

"Hmph, let us be honest with each other."

Makli Cheon-sa snorts and speaks.

Wo-woong— Makli Cheon-sa's eyes turn dark blue, and the clear light of the character Im (壬) shines forth.

"I awakened a spirit eye divine power postnatally. Long ago I water-tortured a descendant of an ethnic minority race with sea water, and perhaps because of that race's traits, I came to possess a powerful spirit eye."

"...?"

I do not understand at all how one claims to gain a spirit eye by water-torturing a person, but I let it pass.

'It seems she doesn't want to tell me how she obtained the spirit eye.'

It also seems she blocks my sight that sees intent with that spirit eye divine power.

"Through these eyes I named the Great Sea Eyes (大海眼)... I can see many things. I know well that you conceal battle power of the Nascent Soul stage, that you have hidden your natal dharma treasure, and that you condense within it a power hard even to imagine."

"..."

As a member of the Heart Tribe, my battle power is such that no one notices until I directly reveal my strength.

Seeing that spirit eye divine power pierce through Treading Heavens at a glance, I flinch and shiver.

'Just what kind of spirit eye can see through the power of Treading Heavens...?'

"I am a devilish cultivator, but I have no interest in body-seizing or in turning you into a pill or a puppet. In any case, another's talent is surely to be inferior to my own, so what is the point of stealing another's things? At a glance, your body's spiritual roots are also mixed, which does not look pleasing to me."

"..."

Unexpectedly, she seems to be a massive lump of pride.

Judging from how she saw through the Five Elements spiritual root, her perception also seems to be good.

"I am curious about that... strange formless sword-like power that can display Nascent Soul stage strength even without a Nascent Soul, but I get the feeling it would be dangerous if I try to probe it by force. In any case, it is probably a secret art of yours, so there is no way you would tell me obediently."

"..."

"There is no need to call me Master. Though I am at the half-step Heavenly Being stage, a person like you will catch up soon enough, so let us just call each other fellow cultivators as equals, Cultivator Seo."

"... Understood, Cultivator Makli."

"Good, then let us make a deal from an equal position. You tried to enter under my tutelage because you have a reason to enter the Devil-Immortal Sect Alliance, right?"

"That is correct."

"I will continue to vouch for your identity. In exchange, you will stay in my cave residence until you recover your Nascent Soul and look after my demon beasts and demon insects."

She points at her demon beasts and demon insects.

"I am born of the Makli Clan's blood, but there are things I dislike about the Makli Clan, and the Makli Clan's Yin Path methods do not fit my nature at all, so I mainly learned the methods of other sects. And unlike the main house of the Makli Clan, whose main income is pill-making, I actually enjoy raising demon beasts and demon insects, so I have been raising these fellows."

I look at the demonic creatures she raises and let out a silent exclamation.

In her cave residence there are not only many Core Formation stage demon insects, but even one or two demonic creatures at the Transformation stage bound into human form.

'Are they Nascent Soul stage demon beasts...?'

To have perfectly trained and restrained even demonic creatures of the same stage, she seems to be a fairly high-level Beast Taming cultivator.

Among the Transformation Stage demonic creatures, she approaches a woman who seems to be a cat family demonic creature and scratches her neck.

The cat demon beast purrs and lifts her neck, and then at some moment suddenly her eyes roll white, she grabs Makli Cheon-sa's arm and bites until blood comes out.

Though she is a Transformation stage demon beast, she acts similar to an ordinary cat. I do not know much about beast taming, but the appearance of a demonic creature acting like an ordinary animal seems to show excellent taming skills.

She looks down at her own hand from which blood flows in streams and speaks.

"To take care of these kids, a cultivator of the same realm is needed, but I cannot trust most of them, so I always had to take care of them myself. Half-baked Core Formation fellows get eaten by my demon beasts, and Nascent Soul stage cultivators dislike getting their time eaten up by work like this, and they are expensive to employ. Of course, there were sometimes suspicious Heavenly Being stage cultivators who said they would look after demon beasts for no compensation, but..."

A vein bulges for a moment on Makli Cheon-sa's forehead.

Judging by her quickening pulse, it feels like anger.

"... Well, the endings were not very good. At least I learned that anyone at the Heavenly Being stage or above is a madman drunk on madness. In any case, I learned I must not ask a Heavenly Being stage cultivator to do this even if I have the chance.

"Thanks to this, I have to personally manage the binding seals for the demon beasts one by one. Even when I am near reaching the Heavenly Being stage, I cannot focus on advancing to it because I have to keep in mind the binding seals, so I had to be satisfied at the half-step Heavenly Being stage."

She tosses something to me with a flick.

It is a blue jade slip, bearing writing about the feed demonic creatures eat and the methods to control, tend, and grow them.

And inside, a faint seed of spiritual energy is contained.

"It is a record that organizes Beast Taming, and binding seals that can control demon beasts. While you look at it, just look after these fellows until you regain your true strength. In the meantime, I will challenge the Heavenly Being stage advancement."

"... Is it all right to entrust a secret to me so carelessly? And what if I abuse the cultivator's binding seals and do harm?"

"Hah, what secret manual? It is nothing more than a record that organizes what beast taming cultivators like me all know. And I have prepared for whatever harm you might try, so there is no need to worry about that kind of thing."

"Is there no worry that I will use the binding seals to control the demon beasts, or turn them into pills and eat them, or the like?"

"Heh, do you worry about pills just because you are from the Makli Clan? If you want to make pills, try making them. With high probability you will become their snack."

She points at her demon beasts, and perhaps having received her signal, the demon beasts all at once start glaring at me.

If I regain my realm, I am confident I can handle all of them except for Makli Cheon-sa, but since my cultivation realm is low right now, I can only give an awkward smile.

"And I also have no worry about the leakage of secret teachings. By any chance have you learned beast taming methods, or do you even have a pet demon beast you are raising? To my eyes, you may have learned demon beast methods, but you would not have learned beast taming methods."

I am about to answer that I do not even have a pet demon beast, when I suddenly remember and take out the little one I have kept in my body.

It is the baby centipede that has followed me since Ascension Path.

"Uh... I have recently begun to raise one centipede..."

Makli Cheon-sa looks once at the baby centipede and bursts into laughter.

"Pffft... Ah, sorry. I did not mean to ridicule. In any case, if it is a pet that is not even at Qi Refining... there is no worry about leakage even if I teach you beast taming secrets. Whether this or that, I am relieved. I will guarantee your identity, and you, in my stead for a short while, will take care of my demon insects. How about it, Cultivator Seo."

After thinking for a moment upon hearing Makli Cheon-sa's words, I nod.

"Very well."

A deal like this is actually better with a devilish cultivator.

Thus, from that day, I live in Makli Cheon-sa's cave residence and begin the work of tending her demon beasts and demon insects.

And...

I decide to give to the baby centipede that follows me the name I gave in the previous cycle.

'This guy's talent... is heaven bestowed.'

The first month of the 16th cycle.

In Makli Cheon-sa's cave residence, hoping the baby centipede grows quickly, I give him a name.

"Hong Fan. Let's get along."

His name is one that was designated by the heavens.

And I gained enlightenment about the heavens in the previous cycle.

―Isn't the heart from the heavens? Your heart lives touching the heavens, and just as you cannot deny the heavens, you cannot deny the heart. So even if someone denies your heart, it never truly disappears.

For at least Hong Fan, I decide to think of him as the connection and heart bestowed by the heavens, and because I decide to accept it gratefully in my arms...

I attach again to the fellow that name bestowed from the heavens.

'If the heart is also eternal like the heavens, may the connection that is you, granted by the heavens, also be eternal...'

Present.

I begin recollection and walk beyond the light of Hope scattered by my connection.

'I cannot block it.'

I also cannot evade it.

No countering ultimate technique is prepared.

Then there is only one countermeasure I can take now.

'If I cannot evade it... I will make it avoidable...!'

Kiriririk...!

I bring the sword down.

Spacetime twists.

At the same time, the light halos of the [Emptiness Sword Final Profundity] that exist in countless trajectories and directions, and in all places of the past, present, and future, come into my sight.

By normal means, one inevitably gets hit and can only die.

'So, I must twist causality.'

Spacetime twists by me, and even causality begins to twist together.

—Severing Heaven Sword Form Final Sword Will.

—Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens Applied Ultimate Technique.

Kiriririk...!

The Turning Wheel Mantra rotates and that power dwells in the sword.

The Underworld also lends a hand, and the White Wheel emerges and begins to twist causality together with me.

The transcendent skill Heavenly Escape and the enlightenment of Filling the Heavens Governing View imbues in Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, and I barely twist the causality of Hope.

—Heaven of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception (非想非非想天).

Impermanence touches the principle of Non-Perception and overturns causality.

With Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, spacetime turns over; with Filling the Heavens Governing View, the light of Hope loses its target for a fleeting instant; and the power of Heavenly Escape sends Hope for a moment into the domain of purity to wander.

Even then, because it is impossible to nullify Hope completely, I attempt one more thing.

Kiriririk...!

Even without a direct hit, just the aftershock of Hope tears away the entire spacetime where we stand.

Radiance blankets Heaven, Earth, and the Heavens Above.

And beyond that light, I open my eyes.

"Wh-What is..."

My comrades begin to panic.

The Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju.

His True Martial Arts, Emptiness Sword Final Profundity, Hope.

Everyone except the Underworld and me was torn apart entirely by only the aftershock of the light of Hope.

They were annihilated by only the aftershock of a single strike.

My comrades definitely died.

Yet why are they standing here?

It is simple.

"... The first day of the 2014th cycle."

Kim Young-hoon, perhaps realizing what has happened, looks around with cold sweat.

Severing Heaven Sword Form, Final Form.

Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens!

"I already placed time within my sword circle and suppressed it. However many times we get hit, I will just turn it back to before the hit."

Through Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, I made the spacetime just before we were swept up and killed by the aftershock of Hope flow and leap across.

No matter how strong the ultimate technique, as long as we do not take the impact head-on, we can avoid instant death.

"It is an attack that transcends a thing like spacetime. However you turn back time, you will not come out unscathed."

The Owner of the Heavens looks at us for a moment with an expressionless face, and I smile bitterly inside.

He is right.

Even though I evaded by turning back time, I still could not fully evade and only managed to let it flow past.

On top of that, I did not completely let it flow past.

Even though I joined forces with Underworld to barely twist the causality of Hope and change its direction, and crossed time to avoid the aftershock...

Hope still has not ended.

'It pursues. Even if not now... someday, it will come again!'

In the end, without even feeling the true power of Hope, I only wasted sword strokes on merely deferring time.

"An interesting move indeed. Severing Heaven Sword Form."

Having thought of something, he leans his back on the jade throne and speaks.

His gaze somehow makes it feel like he recognized in an instant what I did with Severing Heaven Sword Form, so my chest feels tight.

"Good. I grant you qualification."

However it may be, whether I used a trick or something else...

Perhaps he acknowledges me for being intact even after receiving the first move.

He speaks toward me.

"Speak. You may resent me, you may persuade me, you may bow and beg, or you may simply confess everything with an open heart. Or you may ask questions about what you are curious about. I will listen to anything."

That is leisure.

Leisure as an absolute strong one, and mercy.

"Since this is your end, as your parent I will hear everything and remember you."

At those words, Oh Hyun-seok steps forward.

"... No, there is no need for that."

Clenching his fist with a hardened face, he speaks.

"We... have come to collide with you. All seven of us, each becoming a Governing Immortal...!"

Kugugugugu!

Preparing Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter, Oh Hyun-seok shouts.

"Who, on whose authority, judges our end...!? O Owner of Fate, including Seo Eun-hyun, six Heavenly Kings and the Imperial Venerable have descended! We will not lose to y—" Fate.

Truth Manipulation.

Splat...

Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Kim Yeon.

And the eyes of me and the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld all turn to an egg that suddenly falls and shatters beside us.

"An egg...?"

As if not understanding, Jeon Myeong-hoon stares at the suddenly fallen egg.

And Kim Young-hoon, as if he senses something amiss, looks at me and asks.

"Seo Eun-hyun...! Wait, originally, originally were we... [six]?"

"..."

I smile bitterly and look at the red lump of flesh held in the Fate Supreme Deity's grasp.

It is Oh Hye-seo.

"... What you feel is right. We... were originally [seven]."

Oh Hyun-seok, struck by Oh Hye-seo's authority Truth Manipulation, became an egg.

And in that desolate truth, only the low voice of Hong Fan Gu Ju quietly echoes.

"You call one who proclaimed their fate a Governing Immortal? From the moment it was spoken aloud, it was nothing but an Immortal Treasure."

The lump of flesh gripped in his hand writhes pitifully, toying with the very existence of the being called Oh Hyun-seok.

"Do you still not realize why I call myself your parent? O sons and daughters. Recall the [contract] from when you first met me."

Oh Hye-seo's Truth Manipulation always carries a trace of hatred and resentment, or a hint of mischief.

But in those eyes that look down on everything beneath the heavens, twisting Oh Hye-seo at will and manipulating all of phenomena at whim...

There is no emotion, no warmth contained.

"My net seems large and loose, yet it lets nothing slip through (天網恢恢疎而不失). What I grant you is but a story. Everything else lies in my hand. I have no interest in anything."

Tststststststs...

Together with the 16th cycle, memories return.

After we died from being struck by the landslide but before falling into Ascension Path.

The things that happened in between.

The first day we met Hong Fan in the Audience Chamber.

"Speak. If there is anything you are curious about here, ask without reserve, find the answer, and attain enlightenment. For this is your end."

Chwarararak...!

Oh Hyun-seok, who became an egg, fell, and shattered, returns, and only then do my comrades other than me and the Underworld realize what has happened to them, and the light in their eyes begins to fade.

He casually tosses Oh Hye-seo, whom he has yanked over in an instant, gripped in his hand, and made into a lump of flesh.

Oh Hye-seo comes to her senses and begins to restore her body, and the light in her eyes has also vanished.

Oh Hyun-seok lets out a hollow laugh and groans.

"... How... how do we win, Silver Basket...!? Is there even the possibility... of 4 pun...? Are you saying that 'that' can be defined in a unit called 4 pun...???"

In his wail, we all fall silent.

"Did you not say... we can bring about a miracle...? O Silver Basket... That if we recite, if we desire, there clearly is a possibility it will be fulfilled... Just... just...!"

Bududuk— Collapsed, Oh Hyun-seok pounds the space below with his fist and wails.

"Against that, just what hope are we supposed to have...!!??"