Chương 807: Chapter 803: A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation

16th cycle.

If he splits his complete body into three aspects and clings to the Enders, then should an existence equal to or greater than Hong Fan Gu Ju attack him in the meantime, he would be completely defenseless.

Creator Gods who create worlds.

Or great divinities at the level of Creator Gods who possess Divine Arts.

If they are beings of a rank beneath that, they can be dealt with even if Hong Fan is split into three aspects, but if an attack at the level of Divine Arts comes in, it is dangerous.

Of course, even so, Hong Fan Gu Ju is confident that he can respond, and he has made various arrangements so that, should such a situation arise, he can immediately launch a counterattack or buy time to return to his complete body.

The most representative among them is the Future King's Three Heavenly Treasures.

Through those, he has prepared so that, when he becomes incomplete, they can use, in his stead, the Future King's three Great Mantras—Radiance, Immortal Cultivation, and Splitting Heaven—allowing him to block divinities that attack from outside.

The Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World wields the mantra of Immortal Cultivation.

The Heavenly Void Furnace wields the mantra of Radiance.

The First Light wields the mantra of Splitting Heaven.

Through the Three Heavenly Treasures, he made arrangements so that, if an external existence assaults the Gestation World, they can buy him time.

These three mantras, from the time when Hong Fan first created them, are mantras he created and evolved with the assumption that, should the existences called the Three Daos be personified gods that oppose him, they will be used to confront it.

The power that, resisting connection, becomes complete in solitude, and at the end reaches the formula of Primordial Chaos in order to confront the unreasonable and imprecise Miracle.

Immortal Cultivation.

The power that endlessly turns the timeline backward and creates it anew, twisting and reversing existing history so that, with the darkness of Heuk Sa, it can devour and subdue the light of explosions.

Radiance.

The power that, in direct opposition to attraction force whose nature is to condense, splits and separates all things, so that, with the light of a will resolved to die, it can tear apart the darkness of the heavens.

Splitting Heaven.

Just as the Three Absolutes combine to become the Creator God's will and authority of omnipotence, The combination of the mantras of Immortal Cultivation, Radiance, and Splitting Heaven—each meant to oppose the Three Absolutes of Miracle, History, and Fate—is in itself a means of resisting omnipotence.

With these three mantras, he can resist a Creator God, and when combined, they can become equal to the ultimate technique [Hope].

Therefore, even if the faces of Hong Fan Gu Ju are split so that he cannot properly use his power, as long as his arrangements of the three Great Mantras simply activate...

That then is a defensive system that can neutralize at least one strike from great divinities of otherworlds and Creator Gods, and thereby open a gap in which he can return to his complete body.

They also serve as help that allows him to clean up even when the aspects of Hong Fan Gu Ju occasionally make mistakes while dealing with Enders.

For example, to clean up the matter of the Ender named Seo Eun-hyun having taken Hong Fan Gu Ju's body and to take back the Radiance Mantra, he could guide him into the Heavenly Void Furnace and very easily re-exchange the Radiance Mantra and Seo Eun-hyun's Absolute Fragment.

Regaining the Radiance Mantra itself is not difficult as long as he regains his reason, but it is something that takes a bit of time.

Therefore, by shoving Seo Eun-hyun into the Heavenly Void Furnace and finding the chance to immediately take back the Radiance Mantra, Hong Fan Gu Ju thought he passed the critical juncture.

'When my authority was stolen by Seo Eun-hyun and my memory and reason flew away for a moment, it was quite dangerous.'

If, in that state, a great divinity of another world or an external Creator God came to attack, it would have been unknown whether the Radiance Mantra among the three Great Mantras would have activated properly or not.

Even if all three Great Mantras safely activate, they can only cancel out about one strike.

From the second strike on, unless the main body directly handles them, they can be grasped by the opponent, and the opponent can find an opening and invade Mount Sumeru.

And if, in that state, Hong Fan, who lost his memory and reason, was captured or attacked by an existence of another world, quite a troublesome incident would have occurred.

It is hard even to imagine what kinds of variables might have run wild.

Even if he was kidnapped or received a fatal wound, he could in the end come back again or, after he recovers, take revenge, but he would have wasted an enormous amount of time, and in the meantime, Miracle could have created variables.

Yang Hwe might have noticed that something is wrong with him, quickly went to the Audience Chamber, advanced to Life Supreme Deity, and then ran away to some other distant otherworld.

Even her simply running away is not the worst scenario.

If she first resurrected the Salt Sea Supreme Deity using the power of life and then ran away, when Hong Fan Gu Ju finished all his recovery, he might have ended up having to face Salt Sea, who would have become the true Owner of Miracles.

That span of time up to the 15th cycle, when his self was briefly stolen by Seo Eun-hyun, was a moment that could have brought about countless worst results.

By incredible good fortune, no major problem arose until Hong Fan Gu Ju regained his reason and self.

It must have been because the place the Gestation World where Mount Sumeru resides is infamous among otherworldly existences as a Devil Lair that things have been alright so far.

And...

Since he has passed the critical juncture, it will surely be all right from here on as well.

So he thought.

*

'Ah...'

Apex of Life-Saving Arts, Formless.

The moment he takes a direct hit from it, Hong Fan keenly realizes what a miracle truly is.

'O Miracle. I really... hate you.'

Tsuaaaaaaah!

Green light bores deep into Hong Fan's chest and, through the power of Life-Saving, begins to split his heart apart.

Present.

"In the name of Life, I command."

Bong Hwa puts her hand into the Heavenly Void Furnace.

I, at that sight, even briefly forget about getting my comrades back, and look at that figure.

"Live."

Kuuuuung!

Life blazes up.

Countless powers and histories and the principles of explosions are applied, but...

In the end, the result is but one.

They come back to life.

"Death is fixed, so it is but a temporary revival."

Kuung!

It is pure white.

"I know."

Given the situation, their tone sounds stiff and even a bit urgent.

However, the two of them look quite close.

Cheok, cheok!

I know that pure white existence standing ahead.

They do not show their face.

They only show their back that seems to be made of a Salt Mountain.

The two existences block the space between me and the Future King and stand firm before me like immovable Guardian Kings, protecting me.

They both know that they cannot be any match before the Future King, but...

I can feel their will to let me advance even at the cost of their lives.

I want to run forward right now.

I want to run, see that person's face, and offer a bow.

To meet in true body...

For this is the first and also the last time.

That person is the one who half-seized Miracle and succeeded in becoming the Heavenly Venerable of Miracles.

Therefore, unless a new Owner of Miracles is born, they do not die even if they are killed.

But that means...

If I advance, that person now shall really, truly...

Be eternally annihilated.

If not now, then I really, truly can never see him again.

What should I do?

"..."

Squeeze...

I clench my fist tightly.

Then I turn my gaze away from them and look at Kim Yeon, who meets my eyes.

She smiles.

The next moment, she becomes a single sword and flies toward me.

Wiiiiing!

Jjeoong!

She, along with my other comrades, fly toward me and lodge themselves in me as single swords.

I feel Silver Basket's gaze.

Eyes that seem unable to understand me.

No, I can feel that they do not understand not just me, but all of us.

'I see.'

For them, it is something incomprehensible.

Why we, who are already all at the level of transcendents, with this level of power, are simply sacrificing ourselves?

Why we do not just choose battles we can win?

Why we must stake everything here and now?

They seem unable to understand that.

Perhaps it is because they are, by birth, an undying and a transcendent.

Born with a rank that lets them see even an existence like the Swallowing Heaven Supreme Deity as a mortal being, they cannot understand existences like us.

I am not the strange one.

In truth, every mortal lives like this.

They simply live their whole lives giving everything with all their strength.

Then, when they collapse, they pass everything on to the next person.

In that way, endlessly continuing inheritance after inheritance is the essence of life.

It is a sorrow and a blessing that only mortal beings can understand.

This is the will of mortality.

The martial heart of Kim Young-hoon.

The resolve of Jeon Myeong-hoon.

The protective heart of Kang Min-hee.

The determination of Oh Hyun-seok.

The loving heart of Kim Yeon.

It is a light that only those who know that mortality and mortality link together and are passed on can know.

I turn my gaze away from Silver Basket and look up at the sky.

"The Formless Poison... is deep, so very deep."

Formless Poison.

It is the poison Hong Fan has always used whenever he tried to help me until now.

That's right.

He interpreted the Apex of Life-Saving Arts, Formless, that I breathed into him during the 16th cycle as poison...

And it is the power with which he, by any means, tried to return that grace to me to expel it.

"It is difficult to obtain a human body, and it is difficult still to realize the Dao..."

As I watch the green light continuously spread from within his body, I slowly put into my lips again the teaching I received from him.

"Following the human heart, one seeks the root of the Dao..."

My whole body begins to shine.

"If this body cannot achieve transcendence in this life...

"When shall I wait again to transcend this existence?"

Dudududu— At the same time, the pressure surging toward me begins to grow even stronger.

It is Hong Fan pressing down on me as he watches the advancement ritual I am trying to carry out.

As if he cannot possibly allow me to reach it.

However, I do not care about such acts of Hong Fan.

I only, while recalling my sincere gratitude toward him, simply convey what he must know.

"Heavens Above. That is not poison. I know that from the sixteenth cycle onward, you have continually expelled it and have struggled to return it to me... but that is not something I have forcibly shoved into you. It is merely something that has always been inside you.

"Just as the existence called the Heavens is absolute in this world and thus cannot be denied, what is called the heart likewise is not something you can deny just because you wish to deny it.

"It is simply... nothing more than awakening what has been within you."

And, the moment I speak those words, The green light in Hong Fan's chest activates to the extreme, and Silver Basket begins to react in some way.

Hong Fan presses me, who is stirring his heart, even more, but that power is blocked by Salt Sea and Bong Hwa.

And in the next moment, when I see him about to strike Hope down upon us, Kugugugugu!

The opportunity arrives.

Perhaps, as Silver Basket watched me, he gained something.

:: Will you stop the birth of the Owner of Miracles, or... will you stop the materials for the [Absolute of Hope] you are trying to create from scattering to pieces!!!:: They use their Divine Art and blows the souls of countless Enders out beyond Mount Sumeru in an instant.

To innumerable otherworlds, to their homelands...

The Enders return.

Of course, there are also some who are wicked enough or twisted in thought enough to be somewhat worrying, but it is not something I can do anything about right now.

One way or another, by awakening countless Enders again and sending them back to their home worlds...

Silver Basket gives us a chance.

Wo-woong!

The Future King grabs hold of Silver Basket and briefly turns his gaze outside the Audience Chamber.

In the meantime, I reach out my hand toward Oh Hye-seo.

She seems to hesitate.

A hesitation over whether she is truly allowed to join us as a comrade.

She...

Harbors such agonies.

But in the next moment, I clench my fist tightly and pull her toward me.

Because no matter what she thinks...

No matter what wrongs she has committed against us.

'We have received her apology.'

Before entering the Audience Chamber, she already gave us her apology.

And also at the time of the Great Mountain Battle, she sincerely apologized to me.

Though I have not completely forgiven her.

She will just have to continue paying for her sins from now on.

Together with us!

She alone, as the price for revealing her fate to the Future King, is seized by an attraction force stronger than anyone else's.

However, Oh Hye-seo looks at the hand I hold out and puts her agonies in order.

She takes one step.

Toward our side.

One step. Two steps. And when at last she takes the third step...

Master stretches out his hand.

The light of Salt Mountain covers her in pure white.

Is she perhaps hearing some sort of will conveyed from Master?

She seems to hear something within that pure white light, and then tears start to fall from her eyes.

Immediately, Bong Hwa stretches out her hand and covers her in golden flames.

The light of Salt Mountain and the light of Life refine her and, for a moment, sever the Future King's attraction force that holds her.

In that moment, she once again becomes a sword and embeds herself in my body.

Thus, at the moment when all six Enders become one with my body.

Kuguguguung!

My eyes meet Hong Fan's.

I see what Silver Basket is doing, and with the insight of a Supreme Deity I realize what it means.

I also realize that Hong Fan is momentarily restrained by his Divine Art right now, and I understand as well that he will return once more.

Kuuung!

He, who in an instant destroys Obsidian's home and draws in Obsidian's spirit, now lastly heads toward the place Vast Cold has returned to.

Earth.

Our...

Home.

He looks at me.

And, as he looks at us, he raises the Emptiness Sword toward Earth.

The fragment of desire is still within him, and in the current situation, a normal advancement is impossible.

But in this very moment when all the Enders have entered into me and become completely linked in heart with me.

I finally realize what Master has given to Oh Hye-seo.

Its name is shame.

It is the pain that allows you to look back at yourself...

And the driving force that allows you to move forward afterward.

It is what Gwak Am once lost, and the salt that the existence called Salt Sea uses when healing.

And, ironically, it is a pain that can hold both Salt Sea's and Vast Cold's answers.

—Pain cannot be denied. But...

Oh Hye-seo, who has awakened shame, looks back at herself.

And all the comrades together feel her shame with her... and reach out their hands so that she can move forward.

—You can perhaps deny the cause of the pain. So go forward. At times, also look back, and do not completely deny what has only been painful. The world is surely pain... but because of pain, there are also things you can hold dear.

16th cycle.

Pain.

Hong Fan Gu Ju endures the pain of seeing his own history itself, no different from his own soul and flesh, melt away before his eyes, and looks at the human who transmits to him everything he has accumulated.

Only an attack on the level of a Creator God or a great divinity can affect Hong Fan, who has been split into three faces and become incomplete.

Conversely, an attack of that level can strongly enough affect the incomplete Future King.

Up until now, he has thought that such existences exist only outside.

Tsuaaaaatt!

He has thought that the only ones who can make such an attack are external existences he cannot grasp.

'You... Seo Eun-hyun. What in the world are you?'

Without the slightest hesitation, he exhausts all the history and memories he has accumulated over a long and longer time inside the Heavenly Void Furnace.

That process is bound to be painful.

However, he is enduring the pain.

Even though he barely escaped the Heavenly Void Furnace and found his main body, he does not use it for himself, but is sacrificing all of it and pouring all of it toward Hong Fan.

Countless green lights surge into Hong Fan's chest.

The being who has lived for trillions of years inside the Heavenly Void Furnace, watching Hong Fan's story and honing his heart solely to comfort Hong Fan...

Sacrifices all his memories and history and lands a single strike to Hong Fan.

And that, clearly, with regard only to the existence called Hong Fan...

Is no different from a great divinity level blow.

He has thought that he can defend against and respond to anything from the outside as much as he pleases.

But the dagger stabbing from within is something even the Future King could not foresee, and he lets out a scream.

That is...

The scream of an existence that has not grown by accepting pain, but only continued to accumulate it.

"Just why...!? Why...!?"

The effect of Apex of Life-Saving Arts, Formless, is simple.

It is to comfort.

Through a single clear strand of heart, it consoles the heart of the existence called Hong Fan and makes him look back on the countless pasts he has ignored until now.

—I am thankful.

Reasons as trivial as, for letting me breathe, for letting me live, for letting me meet people.

However, when one really examines them, reasons that surely align with principle.

It makes him recall again those grateful memories that even Hong Fan has lived on forgetting.

Making Hong Fan chew over again that 'life is pain, but it is not only pain' is precisely the essence of Formless.

"Why...!? Why do you only now try to save me? Why did you not save me right then, on the spot...!?"

This is a move that lets a person go on living.

Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun, who, not even an instant after returning from the Heavenly Void Furnace, once again loses all memories of the Heavenly Void Furnace and, for a brief moment, falls into a dazed state.

What is before his eyes is nothing but a shell.

He does have the memories of the 500 years in which he lived together with Hong Fan in the 16th cycle, remembering only the matters outside the Heavenly Void Furnace, but he is not that existence who truly tried to believe in Hong Fan Gu Ju and comfort him.

Splurt— From Hong Fan's seven orifices, something like black liquid pours out.

Chiiii— The spacetime itself that the liquid touches rots away.

In the distant past.

It is similar to what Seo Eun-hyun shed when he lost Buk Hyang-hwa, but it is a much more essential and overwhelming pain.

However, that is a kind of dead blood.

Blood that starts to come out as he is 'healed' by Formless.

Yes, he is being healed for the first time.

But...

If a person is made up of wounds all over his body to the point that he has already become the wound itself...

Is healing that one's wounds saving him, or is it killing him?

A child who never once disinfected the wounds, washing them clean and letting them heal after getting hurt, but instead only piled them up without using the pain as fertilizer for growth.

That is the existence called Hong Fan.

Chiiii— Splurt!

Unable to control himself, Hong Fan spews black stuff from his entire body and grits his teeth.

—A child who, in his entire life, never once got to act spoiled.

He looks at the green figure that came into his heart essence and smiles warmly.

A human shape formed by countless clusters of light like fireflies.

It is Seo Eun-hyun, who is melting away inside Hong Fan's heart essence, healing and comforting Hong Fan's heart.

—I only want to awaken your heart, even just a little.

He spreads out like countless green fireflies inside Hong Fan's heart essence that is like a bottomless abyss, brightening that heart essence.

The fireflies gradually start to become stars in the black sky.

—I want to let you know as well of the blessing I received from her.

Tsuaaaaatt!

The Seo Eun-hyun before his eyes gradually melts away and loses his human shape.

—I want to tell you that what is called salvation is not far away...

"You...!"

Hong Fan's will cuts him off and shouts, glaring at Seo Eun-hyun, who is melting away inside his heart essence.

This is a light that activates through sacrifice, specialized in comforting Hong Fan.

It is a divine technique that can, only with regard to the 'heart' possessed by the incomplete aspect of Hong Fan, exert an influence on the level of a strike from a great divinity.

For that reason, he is unable to fully gather back his mind and emotions that are shaken by Formless...

Since being enthroned as the Future King, for the first time in his life he lays bare his desperate and violent emotions and howls.

"As the representative of Miracle... you say you will save me...!? Is that the will of Miracle!? If I had chosen you, would you have saved me!?"

It is laughable, and unjust, and infuriating.

"All this time you made me live in such pain and misfortune, and yet you plan to save me like a joke!? O Miracle! O God of Connections!"

Seeing the will of Seo Eun-hyun scattering inside his heart essence and looking at him, Hong Fan screams like a madman.

To his eyes, the being before him is the incarnation of Miracle that the power of Miracle sent to comfort him.

As much as he had come in contact with the fate of Salt Sea, the Heavenly Venerable of Miracle who has seized as much as half of the Absolute of Miracle, he can only inevitably think that way.

He thinks that the Absolute of Miracle inflicted pain on him for his entire life to make him into a ruler who will control miracles, make him grow within pain, then have him obtain something called salvation within miracles, in order to make him into an Emperor with a normal personality.

"So it is true that my unhappiness is because of you! Answer me! O God of Connections!"

And then, Seo Eun-hyun answers.

Tsuaaaat— His human-shaped body melts away entirely, and only the form of the greatest light of the one who tries to save him, the symbolic object that remains most memorable from the life of the human called Seo Eun-hyun, rises up before Hong Fan's eyes and answers.

It is a jade-colored norigae.

The green light, even as it becomes a little dimmed into a jade hue within the darkness, ceaselessly comforts him...

It speaks of the truth he can least bring himself to accept.

—No. It is not something like Miracle.

The jade-colored norigae draws near toward Hong Fan's will inside the heart essence.

—I am not comforting you or saving you under the name of such a great law.

Hong Fan glares and quickly summons back the aspects he has spread across Mount Sumeru.

Hyeon Mu, his heart, returns.

The stories that are his history return.

Though they do not return to his main body, all things that symbolize his heart and identity return to him.

However, even though he gathers back all that consciousness and obtains a mind that has become complete...

He can do nothing about the blessing of green light that has entered his heart essence.

—I am only trying to help you in the name of your friend, Seo Eun-hyun.

He can tell.

Rather, because he has become even closer to a complete whole...

In those words and that heart, he cannot find anything like the intervention of Miracle.

Seo Eun-hyun simply, because he truly regards the Hong Fan in front of him as a friend, is only trying, with a truly pure heart, to comfort Hong Fan, his connection.

That pure and clear formless blessing...

That is poison.

It is a terrible formless poison that the existence called Hong Fan absolutely cannot expel, and that soaks ever more into his heart the more he tries to recognize it.

Present.

The heart of shame that Salt Sea gave Oh Hye-seo gouges her heart.

However, the hearts of all of us that come to her afterward wash her heart once more, and make her look back on her whole life and come to repentant enlightenment.

Is it temporary, or is it something permanent?

By Salt Sea, all of Oh Hye-seo's 'possibilities' soar up to the limit.

Artificial Computation Device, Agate.

Immortal Art, Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens.

Fate, Truth Manipulation.

By looking back on her life through Salt Sea's shame and, within our hearts, searching for the path along which to move forward, she flings open new possibilities with everything she can do.

—Go, disciple. Go, grand disciple.

Cheering for me and Oh Hye-seo, Salt Sea, without ever taking his gaze off the Future King, protects me to the end from the Future King's attraction force.

And then, it is completed.

Oh Hye-seo, whose possibilities are, for a short time, maximized by Salt Sea and us, at last brings about a miracle that no one else has ever achieved.

Temporary Absolute Fragment.

Crystal Glass.

My entire life compresses.

This is...

The chance at atonement that Oh Hye-seo, disciple of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and the connection of my archenemies, gives to me.

Something that symbolizes all those I have 'stood against'.

It is that very history in which, as I confronted enemies who are like flames, the existence called me melted down and was able to become crystal and glass.

This is another me.

The moment I realize that, the light that is bursting out from my body is rises to its peak.

Paaaaat!

The mantra of Wuji whispers once again.

[Immortal Cultivation is repentant enlightenment. [Like tiny grains of salt gathering to form the sea. [Build mountains through repentant enlightenment. [Building a mountain of salt is perhaps the fastest way to reach the heavens. [Each to one another holding hands. [With everyone at the sea, drink salt. [And with the wind, soar. [Like combining all intents turns them colorless. [Embrace all connections and become impermanence.] A mantra to split the Absolute. Splitting Heaven. The mantra that reverses that, inverts it, and once again gathers everything together. [For that is how one reaches the stars.] Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra. It is the first step that the Salt Sea Supreme Deity created to gather all the Enders together and advance to a True Emperor. Tsuaaaaat! In that instant, I become Miracle. Within the radiance where countless clusters of light join together, I rise in rank into an even more mythic existence.' Gather.' In the advancement ritual of the Life Supreme Deity, the most important thing is [to be the oldest]. For that reason, Bong Hwa completed the advancement ritual by tracing reincarnation and reaching the very first. In the advancement ritual of the Fate Supreme Deity, the most important thing is [to be furthest ahead]. In Hong Fan's case, it was not in just one or two things that he was furthest ahead, so he could easily seize Fate. To begin with, the most representative among those is the story of chapter 10. It would be when he massacred everyone on Mount Sumeru. Then, lastly, In the advancement ritual of the Owner of Miracles, what would be the most important?' To be together.' To receive support from the greatest number of people, and to be together with the greatest number of people. That... Is the single most important factor in the advancement ritual. The Wuji spirits whom Gwak Am killed endlessly. Those who received salvation from me all support me. The Enders comrades who are mixing with me inside me support me. All the beings who have read the countless scriptures and stories that I have spread across Mount Sumeru to convey my life support me. Back when I fought the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, all the spirits, who I had given enlightenment during the time acceleration as they headed to the Underworld, support me. I feel that countless existences believe in me. And at the apex are the Future King and First King, who are looking at me. They are the two True Emperors. I feel it. Naturally, Bong Hwa supports my advancement. I even feel that Hong Fan Gu Ju, too, looks at me and acknowledges my rising to this position. He looks at me. Or perhaps he is seeing my Absolute that is becoming one with me. At any rate, he looks this way." Yes. In truth, I also... have wanted to meet you." A voice that seems to tremble faintly rings out." O God of Connections." He looks at me and asks with eyes in which uncountable emotions dwell." Answer. Where in the world does the true answer lie, why is it that I have been unable to reach happiness, and upon whom should I have relied upon?" I look at Hong Fan. And I realize the will of the Absolute of Miracle that is inside me. The Absolute of Miracle... Wants to save Hong Fan. Because the true answer is always... Those that are the closest. With my mind half merged with the Absolute of Miracle, I speak out aloud together the will inside the Absolute of Miracle and what I have realized." You should have taken only yourself as the lamp of truth, and lived relying on that truth." Piercing through all the contradictions and stories that Hong Fan holds... I utter the one phrase most suitable to save him. He looks at me and refutes me, but now that I am one with Miracle, I can see. All the logic and contradictions he harbors in his heart..." I have become the Heavens, have not avoided any responsibility, and have become your place of rest."" If so, then why do you deceive yourself with the words sacrifice and hope, and shift the final responsibility onto the person you have loved?" The final contradiction of the story Hong Fan Gu Ju has dreamed of. The truth that, in the end, his hope is nothing more than dumping entirely onto the soon-to-be-omnipotent Yang Hwe the responsibility and inquiry into salvation that he himself has abandoned." Enough. I am now tired of this. When there is a blade, what reason is there to take turns speaking?" In the end, he throws the fragment of Obsidian toward me. In this fragment, his prophecy resides." Since you originate from me, your life is indebted to me. I shall break you head-on in your highest state and return your entire life to my possession, and thus fulfill the Regressor's Tale of Cultivation." A prophecy that he designates as the price by handing over the Absolute Fragment of Desire. That absolute power is normally something that even a fellow True Emperor cannot escape from. Tuaaaaaaat! And I at last obtain every fragment of the Absolute in full and seize Miracle. The imperfect fragment, Crystal Glass, becomes my discarded shell and peels away. Deeeeng— The sound of a brahma bell rings out. And before that sacred wave... I take into my eyes, for the last time, one person who supports me. That face that looks back at me for the last time. —Cherish yourself. My master. Under the wave of Miracle, he becomes salt and collapses. With this... It is truly the end. He is now completely gone. If he is to be brought back to life again, it must be done by the Omnipotent One...' Thank you for everything until now.' Truly, for becoming my connection... Thank you. Master. My master thus meets his true final end. Now all of his lingering thoughts are gone. Unless I literally become omnipotent, I will never be able to meet him again. But I, setting aside my aching chest, begin the elevation.' Do not be captured.' Look back on yourself, but move forward. The shame he gave to Oh Hye-seo has now melted into Oh Hye-seo and has also entered into my own chest, He has pushed me forward. If I let myself become captured... I will just become like Hong Fan Gu Ju. Thus, leaving behind my master who is completely annihilated, I at last ascend the throne. My old shell completely falls away and becomes a crystal throne. Just as the storage scroll and Vestige of the Fate Supreme Deity, when he ascended the throne, became a Supreme Deity, Everything that holds my power transforms into something equivalent to a Governing Immortal. The Sword Extreme Heavenly Sword transforms into the Sword Extreme Imperial Sword (劍極帝劍), becoming the [Sword Extreme Heavenly Venerable] that divine descents the Absolute of Miracle. The Origin Essence of Myriad Stars, from which I have been drawing power until now, Instead begins to draw power from me and swells to become just as immense as the Origin Essence of Radiance. From now on, both I and the Underworld will be able to seat many Immortal Lords upon our Origin Essences, like the Radiance Ten Heavenly Lords. Thus, amid countless authorities and halos of light... I become the Owner of the Crystal Throne. Now, within the Audience Chamber, In this strange space at the boundary between this Gestation World and other Heaven and Earths, three thrones arise, facing one another. A dark throne formed of attraction force. A throne of flames formed of explosions. A flawlessly clear crystal throne made of the faith of countless connections. Countless names become wisdom and brush past me, and the world tries to bestow upon me a name that suits me. Perhaps this is the will of the previous Creator God. —King of the Instant (一瞬王). —The Sole King (唯一王). —Grace-Manifesting King (恩現王)... [Editor: 恩現 (Grace-Manifesting) are the Hanja for the 'Eun-hyun' of his name (瑞恩現/Seo Eun-hyun).] Countless names that symbolize the present itself pour down upon me. Since what lies between the first and the future is the present, it is natural that the world chooses such names. However, as I answer Hong Fan, I drive those names away. I am not going to accept those names." No. My life is mine, but it is also not mine alone." My life...... is made up of countless connections. It is only because the hearts and lights of those connections brought about a miracle that I barely reached this place. Hwooong— I raise the Sword Extreme Imperial Sword." So I cannot give all of it to you alone." If I must give a part of my life to Hong Fan... The portion of life I must give is already decided. The life in which only my connection with him remains. Jjeooooooong!!! Standing above countless spacetimes and causalities. I tear out my own past. Incomparable pain follows. In the past, I would have treated pain as nothing, but now I instead accept the pain. For pain is also something necessary. And from that past spacetime, I can also feel a welcome gaze. It is the figure of Ji Hwa, the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord of the past. She is now soon to wander endlessly through my history within the Radiance Mantra. As one who knows the future, I find myself hoping that she in the past will not suffer too much. At the same time, I hope that one day she overcomes that pain, realizes once more the preciousness of connection, becomes our friend, and forms a connection with us." Just wait a little." If you do, you will surely grow beyond the pain and be able to form good connections. After finishing my words, I tear out the entirety of the sixteenth cycle's past and throw it to Hong Fan. Only now can I know the causality of everything. Such as just why I lost all the memories of the sixteenth cycle... For the moment I become a True Emperor, the boundaries between the past, future, and present vanish. Originally, if things proceeded like this, I ought not to remember my past, but now it is different. Heavenly Venerable of Time is alive somewhere outside Mount Sumeru and is serving as the witness. As long as he is alive. As long as he remains as the witness and lets me see the wisdom of memory, even if it is a history I have torn out, I too can continue to peruse it. Because the history and experiences are torn away, I cannot relive the feelings of that time. The divine power of Cutting Principle that I cultivated at that time is all reset, and all the power I cultivated in the sixteenth cycle is also reset. However, the will and enlightenment of that time can be engraved into my memory. At last, I put into my lips the name most suitable for me. Past, present, future. Whether it is the symbol of some transcendent existence does not matter. If it is my fate, I will simply decide it with my own hand. —Crystal King (水晶王). A name I establish by rejecting all the names that the Gestation World gives and instead choosing one that symbolizes myself and my connections. It is different from the other two True Emperors, but precisely because of that, it is a name that has meaning and distinctiveness for all of us. I, like so... Become the Crystal King Ender Supreme Deity. Sixteenth cycle." Why...? Just why...!?" Hong Fan glares at the jade norigae that has come right up before his eyes and mutters." Just why do you go this far for someone else? Because I am your friend? Because I am your connection? In what way are such things, and why are they so important that, despite consuming your own memories and identity that hold the history of the trillions of years you spent in the Heavenly Void Furnace, you dare reach out your head to me?" —... Good question. For a brief moment, an awkward silence is about to circle between them again. However, this time, Seo Eun-hyun does not let that silence continue. —But, is a 'why' really needed?" What?" That is a concept that overturns the entirety of Hong Fan's life. —In helping a close friend, why must there be any reason? You just help. The one who spent his whole life searching for the cause and responsibility of suffering is Hong Fan. However, those words of Seo Eun-hyun are of a nature that Hong Fan simply cannot accept. Just because. The fact that someone before Hong Fan became unhappy is also just because. But the fact that someone is saved is also just because." Then... does that mean that a person's life simply becoming unhappy must also be without any reason." —Truly, has there been nothing but misfortune in your life? The norigae approaches him. Little by little, it draws near to Hong Fan's chest. The closer it comes, the more Hong Fan realizes that he is being awakened. Yes. His mother's cooking was delicious. Before he lost his sight, there was a time when he made friends with the neighborhood children and played with them, all with runny noses. The leg-crippled betrayed him, but without a doubt he became his eyes, and when Hong Fan, having lost his sight, walked around in the rain, he called him under the eaves where he was sitting. Although Yang Hwe died, When he listened to the legend about the blue bird that she said she heard from the young master of the noble household, and the many fun stories, it felt as if such stories were drawn out before his sightless eyes. Her body was warm, and the stirring of life felt within it was wondrous." Then why must all those small happinesses of mine all end in misfortune?" —Truly, was that how it ended? Wo-woong— The norigae comes close to Hong Fan's chest and at last begins to enter his chest. Yes. There may indeed have been chances. After killing the Chief God and creating the First Light, he might have been able to, within Miracle, revive Yang Hwe and live a new life. Not the history repeated by the Radiance Mantra, but at the end of all endings, he might have had the chance to revive Yang Hwe with the hands of a killer, lay bare everything of himself, and, in that incomplete state, give and receive affection and live a new life. Even after finishing the experiments with Heuk Sa Hall, the one who did not revive her is himself." Why must I have been born like this? Why must I be born as a monster whom no one can understand, who brings only pain and misfortune? Why does my misfortune not simply originate from Fuxi and that partner...!? Why must all connections I form be in twisted forms?" —Truly... And, At last, the norigae that has completely entered inside Hong Fan's chest becomes light and explodes.' Ah...' —Even now. Is there no one who understands you...? Even now, do only twisted connections exist? Seo Eun-hyun's smile shines out from within that cluster of light. —For trillions of years, I have believed in you, cheered on your story, watched you, and been together with you. I cannot understand everything, but I can think through many things together with you. The very existence called Seo Eun-hyun... Becomes the sword that smashes all of his logic head-on." I will acknowledge it." And at last, Hong Fan clutches his own chest and mutters within that dark heart essence world like a bottomless abyss." You are... the fatal poison that has seeped into me." Even as he speaks, he himself knows. It is not poison. This is... one of the blessings that has come to the fate of the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju." Fine, I will acknowledge it. But if all of that amounts to nothing more than 'just because'. Could you not also just betray me and just make me suffer?" He is the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju. And at the same time, he is Heuk Sa. He is also the Black Snake who suffered the greatest betrayal from the first proper friend he most wanted to trust." If everything amounts to nothing more than 'just because', could you not also just push me down into the abyss?" He is an existence who can no longer trust anyone. —I will not push you down." Why?" —Just because." " —A connection... is always just because. Why in the world must you attach this and that reason to what is called a connection in order to meet others? If you meet with a reason attached, is that a friend?" Then." Hong Fan exits the heart essence world and looks up at the sky. Before he knows it, the shell of the sixteenth cycle's Seo Eun-hyun is before his eyes. Seo Eun-hyun, who has once again lost his memories of the Heavenly Void Furnace, is coming to his senses. To Seo Eun-hyun's consciousness that has completely melted inside him with only one last strand of awareness remaining, Hong Fan asks." As a friend, I ask of you." The Black Snake who can believe in nothing and must doubt everything grits his teeth, barely rejecting and doubting even the warmth that dwells in his own heart." Prove it. If the existence called you regards me as a connection just because. Whether you can trust me to the end, on the basis of that 'just because'...!" —Tsuaaaaat! His hand touches Seo Eun-hyun, who is just starting to come to his senses. And he uses all his strength in order to return to Seo Eun-hyun the Apex of Live-Saving Arts, Formless, that has entered into his chest. However, that power keeps spreading and multiplying inside Hong Fan's chest and cannot be cut off. Even if he returns the power to Seo Eun-hyun again, just as much of it settles once more in Hong Fan's chest. This is... For him, a curse that can never be severed. It is the curse poison that Seo Eun-hyun gifted to him. It is Formless Poison. He cannot pass on the memories, but as he infuses back into Seo Eun-hyun the heart and the oath that the Seo Eun-hyun inside the Heavenly Void Furnace has conveyed to him... Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun, who has just come to his senses." Hong Fan." Seo Eun-hyun blinks and regains his composure." Are you there?" He smiles faintly and speaks." I dozed off again inside the Heavenly Void Furnace. Has a whole day already passed?"" Ma... ster." Hong Fan looks at Seo Eun-hyun. Formless Poison. He has returned to him that heart which Seo Eun-hyun gave, but there is no change at all. Seo Eun-hyun is still Seo Eun-hyun. Yes... Whether he has the memories of the Heavenly Void Furnace or not. This is the essence of the one called Seo Eun-hyun. Seeing that, Hong Fan opens his mouth." Could you... make one [promise] with me."" A promise...? What is it?"" If there is a next life, and if by chance our connection reaches each other even in the next life... would you be able to keep... the same heart as now, even then?"" The same heart as now..." Seo Eun-hyun sits on a stalagmite in the Heavenly Void Furnace that has a shape good for sitting. Pajik, pajijijik... In this life, Seo Eun-hyun has not completely resolved the lightning transformation. At this point he is, in truth, only someone whose outer appearance is that of a human. Everything inside his body is entirely transformed into lightning. He is nothing but lightning wearing a human shell. The blessing a Supreme Deity bestows upon a mortal being is something that, by coincidentally learning the divine power of Cutting Principle and, stubbornly not cutting all connections, can absolutely not be cut away with strength that has cultivated for not even a thousand years, so it is only natural. If he insists on never completely cutting all connections, then unless he cultivates in units of hundreds of millions of years as inside the Heavenly Void Furnace, it will remain impossible even in the future. Before long, because of the lightning transformation, he will die. Even in the next life, when Hong Fan's receives regression back, that lightning transformation will probably encroach upon Seo Eun-hyun at a not very different speed, and in that way it will envelop Seo Eun-hyun with lightning for about 500 cycles and kill him. However, whether he knows such a future or not... Seo Eun-hyun listens and thinks more deeply about the words Hong Fan has said than he worries about the lightning transformation." What heart are you talking about, exactly?"" For Master..." Hong Fan looks at his master, who has grown old before his eyes. Even though he has already grown quite old in this life to begin with, just now, as Seo Eun-hyun's history inside the Heavenly Void Furnace settles within him, the life force of his flesh withers even more quickly. Because of that... He is old. An old appearance. But it is not only his exterior that is old. He is truly an adult whose depth reaches all the way into his heart." As you live, there are... truly many things you are grateful for." —I am thankful. — I am thankful. — I am thankful... Those countless feelings of gratitude. A gratitude for life to the point that it almost feels like madness." That is right. Because everything I obtained in this life... is, for me, an opportunity that is so very precious and thankful." Seo Eun-hyun laughs heartily. With even his beard grown out in an oddly dignified way, his appearance is like that of a sacred mountain divine spirit in white robes." An opportunity... Are you saying everything is an opportunity... even if there is no next life...?"" Haha yes. Even if there is no next life, and this life is the end."" Even if that attitude is a path that draws closer to death and annihilation... and to pain...?"" Even if the heart I hold now is a path that moves closer to death... all of this is a grateful opportunity.""""Even death itself is a grateful opportunity. Would it be only that? Being granted this body. Being granted this very moment is an opportunity never to come again." At Seo Eun-hyun's next words, Hong Fan flinches." And... being able to receive teachings from you as well is such a grateful opportunity." Since through your maxim I have reminded myself that, by following a person's heart, one seeks the root of the Dao, how grateful an opportunity is this. So... without forgetting and continually recalling the formula I heard from you, I will not give up on the heart you speak of." Hong Fan stares fixedly at Seo Eun-hyun." There is no need even for a promise. If the heart you speak of is to be grateful for life... I will never give it up." A bit of fatigue seeps into Seo Eun-hyun's voice. It is because even the little remaining vitality in his body is being converted into lightning." Even so... please promise me. If there is a next life, then just as you have said..." That being granted a body, being granted this very moment... being granted death itself..." If in this life you receive the opportunity to seek the root of your heart... that you will never abandon that heart." Gratitude toward life. That is the reason why, in the eyes of Hong Fan, the human called Seo Eun-hyun believes in him to the very end. If so, the day when Seo Eun-hyun someday gives up that heart will truly be the opportunity for him to escape from the Formless Poison that Seo Eun-hyun left with him and once again cast away any expectation toward connection. And... If truly the human called Seo Eun-hyun, as something transcendent that surpasses madness, to the very end... If even at the current point in time, where his memories are erased, he still believes in Hong Fan to the very end... Then that will be the opportunity that proves Hong Fan is wrong. It will be the possibility that a parent-like being who scolds him... might come to exist. Whether that will be the being before his eyes... he does not know. Present." Descend into my hand." The entire world we used to live in is drawn into the hand of Hong Fan Gu Ju. Piercing through the sea of chaos inside the Gestation World, the name of that which flies forth is Mount Sumeru." Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World." It is the place that has become the life of us all. And it is the altar that is to become the body of the new Creator God. The boundary Cakravāda of the Gestation World. Now, we, who have become of equal rank, step on that boundary of Cakravāda and face one another. Future King Fate Supreme Deity. Hong Fan Gu Ju. Crystal King Ender Supreme Deity. Seo Eun-hyun. First King Life Supreme Deity. Bong Hwa We, who have become the Owners of Myeong (命/Fate/Life/Command), look at one another and begin to prepare for the final battle. Flash! And the radiance that bursts out from Hong Fan's hand comes crashing down over us. What dwells within it is the Divine Art, A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation. Bong Hwa and I, recalling the method Silver Basket told us to oppose the Future King's Divine Art, look at each other. —The fact that Divine Arts are imitated through the Absolute Fragments means that if you seize the Absolute, you can thereby come nearer to Divine Arts. Thus, if you succeed in the advancement to True Emperor... do this. The only method by which we can oppose that outrageous Divine Art. Tsuaaaaat! My Turning Wheel Mantra and the Reincarnation of the Underworld resonate.' I see. Master...' That Master combined Bong Hwa's Flawlessness and his own Phenomena Extinguishing to create the Wheel may perhaps have been because he foresaw all the way up to here. The Future King is a being who can tear apart and kill even if a Creator God comes. Therefore, at the very least, we have to draw close to that. Bong Hwa faintly smiles and reaches her hand out to me." Let us begin." She draws out all the power she accumulated until now and the Wheel. And she wrings out the light from the Absolute of Life all at once and becomes explosion itself. The Future King's eyes twitch, and, as if he has foreseen what we are doing, he gathers with all his strength the light of the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World. —Divine Art. Over the power of the Divine Art, the strongest ultimate technique of the Emptiness Sword is overlaid. —Hope. Truly, he reveals his full strength and squeezes out all his power. The light of the great Hope, holding the story of this world, leaps out from the very world in which we have lived and charges at us. Bong Hwa's Wheel and my Turning Wheel Mantra overlap. It is possible because both are mantras that share the same root. I become the light of all of the heavens' natural colors. Bong Hwa becomes golden light, and we join together at the forefront of that mantra. If we seek to oppose a being that slaughters even Creator Gods, there is only this one method. Since a Heavenly Venerable is a kind of candidate for a True Emperor, they cannot concurrently hold the power of another Absolute, but we are instead different. I become the Heavenly Venerable of History under Bong Hwa's permission. Bong Hwa becomes the Heavenly Venerable of Miracles under my permission. By lending power to each other, we at the same time merge the two mantras into one and bring them into unity. It is impossible to concurrently hold each other's Absolute, but we can borrow strength from each other. And... By taking a detour, we can also, for a very brief moment, make it so that we do concurrently bear them. What rushes in front of our eyes are light beams that can absolutely not be blocked. Cheok— [I], facing the masses of light in front of me, lift the Sword Extreme Imperial Sword and at last reveal the power I have hidden until the very, very end. The power Senior Brother had grasped. Acknowledging me at the very final moment, the formula he passed on to me. Another component of the Gestation World that Master once grasped and named. [Descend into my hand. Domain of my master, Salt Sea.] Innumerable clusters of chaotic light swarm in from all around and fill the world with chaos. The Origin of Myriad Stars and the spirits of Wuji illuminate that chaos and become a cluster of stars. It is the medium of genesis of the Gestation World. A sacred authority that cannot even be compared to what dwells in the Heavenly Void Furnace becomes a story and blocks the cluster of light clad in Divine Art. The entire World of Gestation shakes. We barely block the Tenfold Consecutive Strikes of Hope and the power of the Divine Art once through the story mixed in chaos and the story of history the Underworld has stored up. However, what just now happened is just a mere fluke! —Divine Art. —Hope. Divine Art and Hope come flying at us once again. And... This time, the Hope is different from just before. —Tenfold Consecutive Strikes. He begins in earnest to wildly fire Hope. And, within the lump of light where Life and the End become one, We, in that brief instant, exchange endless opinions and as a result, decide the main personality who will wield this power. [Since you can draw it out, if we choose Silver Basket's battle method, then in the end it is right that you become the center.] Tsuaaaaaaat! The form of the existence called Seo Eun-hyun reveals itself within the light. Hong Fan's spirit is greatly tangled, and his heart essence continues to shake. [Draw it out and win.] [Understood.] Huarurururuk! A dragon robe of all of the heavens' natural colors heats up endlessly and becomes pure white. On top of the white dragon robe, Bong Hwa's authority engraves itself and becomes golden embroidery. Wiiiiiiing! Behind my back, two powers of Absolute surge. The two circles meet each other and change into a shape like the symbol of infinity. From the center of that infinity symbol, I thrust my sword forward as a power like an active volcano explodes. Tsuaaaat! The power of the Origin Essence of Myriad Stars and the authority of Salt Sea's chaos dwell in the Sword Extreme Imperial Sword, and in my hand a beautiful star cluster whirls as if a Cosmic Great Desolation (宇宙鴻黃) is held. Grasping a sword hand seal with my left hand, I begin to draw power from Hong Fan. [The one who gave me the winged garment was surely you.] Back when I advanced to Heaven Upper Immortal. Recalling that time when I obtained the winged garment through Hong Fan... I restore the power I briefly lost in the middle of my advancement to Ender Supreme Deity. And... I borrow power from him. As the price for drawing power from him, I pay the price by scattering a bit of the Formless Poison, and he in the end accepts it and lends me power. Unlike the power of the Absolutes, the winged garment restores itself in small form behind my head. Before long, the winged garment gradually returns to its original form, and becomes a familiar halo of light. In a state where I even concurrently hold the position of Heavenly Venerable of Fate, my two eyes gleam wide, and I use the opening move that becomes the beginning of my martial arts. Horizontal slash. —Transcending Peaks. At the same time, all things of all phenomena are covered in pure white light, and starlight for the first time pushes the Hopes back for a moment. Two Absolutes. One Heavenly Venerable seat. Concurrent in all, just as Silver Basket has taught, I use all my strength and set my sights on crossing into the position of a half-step Creator God. With the authority of the God of the Gestation World, I nullify the power of the Divine Art for just a very brief time. [Come, Hong Fan.] To please never give up that heart. Seo Eun-hyun strokes his beard at Hong Fan's request. After a while, he laughs." Sure. I promise." He does not ask Hong Fan for any reason. Just because. For just the single reason that he is his own connection, he casually allows the promise." ""Hong Fan, in return... I have a request."" Is it the price of the promise?"" Well... it's not necessarily that. But it doesn't really matter even if you think of it that way."" " Seo Eun-hyun speaks to Hong Fan." You look a bit lighter. Did you perhaps gain some insight?" He looks light. It is only natural. Even though it is still nothing more than a speck... Someone appeared who removed just a very, very little bit of the emptiness piled up in his heart. Only, Hong Fan does not speak of it directly. Instead... he just speaks of it in a slightly roundabout way." Entering Heavens Beyond the Path." The realm of Seo Eun-hyun that Hong Fan, who has reached the extreme of killing, has ignored until now. A direction of Martial Arts that seeks something other than the extremity of killing. Therefore, all this time, while pretending to learn Martial Arts from Seo Eun-hyun and showing his genius for martial skills, a realm he has purposely not reached." I think I have reached it." Only today, After receiving the heart from Seo Eun-hyun... Very faintly, he is able to understand the possibility of it. Seo Eun-hyun only smiles faintly and speaks." Congratulations." And, he simply asks to dance with him." Then, there's no need for words, is there?" Formless energy rises. Around Hong Fan, energies like black fangs rise. Hong Fan smiles faintly and responds to him. In the end, the two men are also martial artists. At the end of countless miracles, I speak toward my friend. The end of the 16th cycle. The memory of when, at that time, Hong Fan said he learned Entering Heavens Beyond the Path after receiving my heart, overlaps with the present reality. [Let us continue the dance we could not finish back then.] —True Martial Arts Emptiness Sword Final Profundity. —Hope. As he in earnest fires Hope in a barrage, he begins to fly through the void to pour everything out toward us. —Fifty Consecutive Strikes. Now, words and explanations truly are no longer needed. Staking everything we have, we simply crash toward each other. I once again take the most basic stance of my sword form and, with all my strength, begin to crash toward Hong Fan. In that mythic great battle where Heaven and Earth are dyed white and the starry sky recreates the whole world, we truly begin to run toward the conclusion of the story.