Chương 849: Chapter 845: Side Story - Perfect Harmony (3)

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"... I have to stop it."

"Don't spout crazy nonsense."

Makli Hyun-ah hardens his expression and says he will stop the explosion, and Ahn Geum also turns serious and grabs Makli Hyun-ah.

"You're nothing but an Ascending Metamorphosis First Tribulation cultivator. You're only around the early Four-Axis stage, so what are you even going to stop that with? The dozens of Star Shattering stage puppets you control? You absolutely can't stop that with those. At the very least, it's something a Sacred Vessel Sacred Master has to step out for. Regardless of whether or not you can come back to life even after you die, I even used a True Immortal summoning right so that you won't die.

If you die pointlessly in this state, it means you only made me waste a summoning right precious as blood."

Ahn Geum speaks with a stiff face, gripping Makli Hyun-ah's shoulder hard.

"Stop talking nonsense and evacuate. You just need to ride the Nether Crossing Ship and go outside the Vast Cold Realm. That kind of thing isn't such an important problem!"

"The Vast Cold Realm is going to become a wasteland."

"Even so, if we can save it, we should save it. Above all..."

Makli Hyun-ah thinks of the perfect Taiji he saw at the end.

Remembering that beautiful harmony that can only be described as love, he speaks with a hardened face.

"I can't let those two's sacrifice be in vain."

"Crazy talk! It isn't even your responsibility, so why and what are you even trying to do?"

"You said there's an alternate space inside my body, right?"

"You..."

"With your alternate space alone, you can't cover that explosion, but if you pull my alternate space out into reality, we can, just barely, cover the explosion with our alternate space."

"You don't even have an Integrated Dao Domain, and you think someone like you can do that?"

"Master says my alternate space is a single world. And I checked it unconsciously... there's a real world inside. It's more than possible."

"...! You..."

As if she realizes something, Ahn Geum grinds her teeth.

"Sacred Master Ban Ta... did he read up to here? Did he send you here so that you can wield your alternate space yourself? He teaches his disciple so harshly."

She realizes that Ban Ta sent Makli Hyun-ah here even while seeing all of this situation in advance.

"... Fine. I'll cooperate. But remember this. If it looks like you can't control that explosion even a little, I'm going to immediately take you and get us out of here!"

"Got it. It doesn't matter, so help me!"

"Damn it!"

Ahn Geum flares with anger, hoists Makli Hyun-ah up, and quickly heads above the spherical-form explosion.

At the center of the explosion, the Taiji still spins round and round and controls the explosion, and Ahn Geum opens the entrance to the alternate space and covers one side of the explosion.

"Now, quickly! Pull out that alternate space of yours!"

"Okay."

With a solemn expression, Makli Hyun-ah closes his eyes.

He feels the enormous space inside himself.

It is so enormous that it is enough to call it a small cosmos in itself.

'Open it.'

Until now, he has thought of this universe only as a vessel that lets him divine descent power by letting the energy of a strong person dwell in it.

But now that he sees it, this small universe can also be opened into reality and can also suck in things of reality.

'It's a shame I only practiced the Confucian Family Method and neglected the Naming Family Method a bit...'

Even if it is a method that can be learned only up to the Core Formation stage, its might does not stop at Core Formation.

Depending on how much he cultivates within his realm, it could make him become strong in a way that fits his realm, or, depending on the cultivation progress, strong enough to even leap beyond his realm.

'So there was a reason Master told me not to gather social authority, but to solidify the basics more diligently. My basics really are terribly flimsy.'

With a slightly self-mocking smile, Makli Hyun-ah engraves a [name] into the void.

They say that when a personality accepts connection and causality, they become an existence itself.

In other words, connection and causality are, in themselves, the soul.

And, according to the contemplation Hyeon Rang threw him and Makli Hyun-ah's thoughts, personality is a [name].

And according to what Ahn Geum showed him just now...

'An Immortal Art is personality. That is, spreading the name out into the world.'

For some reason, his head spins tight, and the enlightenment is digested quickly.

Inside himself, he feels as if two beings, light and chains, are smiling toward him.

Maybe they are the ones granting him talent.

'Mister Jegal Mikhail. You said we are beings without a soul, with only personality, right?'

Makli Hyun-ah's eyes shine.

'I don't think so. I don't think I am simply a copied existence.'

After rising to Ascending Metamorphosis, He can remember all his memories in detail.

From when he was born, to the time he died after being hit by a truck because of Ji Hwa, it is all vivid.

He clearly remembers the very moment he died.

'I accepted death.'

He was, from the start, an existence his family did not need.

Other than being Lee Seo-ah's shadow, he had no meaning at all.

To the point that, if he had not had the will to see Ji Hwa's face after falling for her, he might have died long ago. Makli Hyun-ah is someone whose will to live was faint from the start.

So, he accepted death far too naturally.

That is what he thought.

But the moment he saw Jo Yeon's and Ha-eun's deaths, he realised something was wrong.

'Was my life a life meaningful enough to accept death?'

Before accepting death, shouldn't he have lived with a desperate will to live?

'Isn't death something one can accept only after living their life while doing their best, like those two?'

Makli Hyun-ah recalls his memories on Earth.

Even as an illegitimate child, if he worked hard at something, he might have become someone that could help Lee Seo-ah from within the shadows, rather than being baggage or just a shadow.

'If I did my best within the fate given to me, couldn't I have done something?'

Everything, half-heartedly.

Everything, roughly.

Everything slowly because it is annoying; that was his life.

His life would not change unless there is some big change.

Through Jegal Mikhail's death, he steeled his will to live, Through the deaths of Jo Yeon and Ha-eun, he feels like he only now knows what a proper life is.

Now that he finally knows what life is, he cannot stay like this.

'Let's change!'

The [name] Makli Hyun-ah engraves into the void finally shines.

That name is [Extreme Ghost Path].

"Open. Ghost Path."

As the [name] Makli Hyun-ah calls reveals itself in reality, his soul resonates with the flow of the world.

Tsuaaaat!

At the same time, deep within Makli Hyun-ah's soul, a vast entrance of emptiness gapes open, and it becomes a huge entrance like the one Ahn Geum unfolds.

Tududududu!

Unlike Ahn Geum's, Makli Hyun-ah's entrance pours the explosive force directly into the inside of Makli Hyun-ah's soul, so Makli Hyun-ah flinches in surprise as he feels heat and pain.

"Uugh..."

It's hot.

And it hurts.

"Uuuuuugh..."

And the entrance does not open well, either.

He has to cover the entire sphere of the explosion with the entrance, but Makli Hyun-ah's entrance is still not even half of Ahn Geum's.

'More, more...!'

Makli Hyun-ah draws up more and more of the power held by the [name], and continues to control himself through the name.

'A name is personality. Being able to control my name means being able to control my spirit. There is an alternate world inside my spirit, so if I use that name, I can open the entrance wide enough!'

Pain like his soul is being torn rises up, but Makli Hyun-ah pulls up the power of the name even more with all the strength he has.

It is that moment.

Makli Hyun-ah suddenly feels like he hears Hyeon Rang's voice.

[A name is personality. If personality accepts causality, that is existence. Therefore, if a being with a soul calls a name, the name is wielded as a tool by that being and becomes Immortal Arts.] Suddenly, Makli Hyun-ah feels a warm touch, as if Hyeon Rang is stroking his head.

[An Immortal Art is handled by a being with a soul, and that being's soul... can feel that warmth. If there is warmth inside you... if you breathe that warmth into the name, that will be a proper Immortal Art.]

'What is... warmth?'

Even as he asks the question, Makli Hyun-ah feels like he himself already knows the answer.

Because down below, yin and yang that carry warmth are taking the shape of Taiji and turning.

Love, warmth, benevolence, passion, will.

He cannot express it in words, but... what is certain is something harmonious that has reached perfect symmetry.

[Warmth is... accepting. Accepting connection, accepting causality, accepting fate, accepting death... accepting life. They are all different words, but in truth they are the same. Only a being that knows how to accept can mature.]

'Ah.'

Accept.

Embrace.

Or... acknowledge.

Makli Hyun-ah acknowledges all of himself.

His vanity, fear, laziness, annoyance, desire, stupidity...

And as he accepts all of it, only then does he understand what it is that he lacks.

Kiiiing— Isn't it said that a personality accepting causality is the formation of existence?

Makli Hyun-ah acknowledges and accepts everything about himself.

And, he gives thanks.

At that moment, Only then does Makli Hyun-ah know more clearly than anyone that he 'has a soul'.

'Hey, Mister Jegal. Stop talking nonsense and just get ready to come out of me later.'

Paaaatt!

Gratitude.

The moment that warmth settles into the [name] Makli Hyun-ah has engraved, Makli Hyun-ah's spirit no longer tears apart by force, and it very naturally opens the vast alternate space inside the talent of Extreme Ghost Path.

Chwaaaaaak!

Ahn Geum's alternate space and Makli Hyun-ah's alternate space unfold from both sides, wrapping up the explosion.

However, Makli Hyun-ah lets out an exclamation.

"Ah...!"

He has covered the explosion almost completely, but a very small gap remains!

"Ah, no!"

Through this gap, an enormous explosive force is about to sweep across the entire continent.

To stop that, the Taiji rotating inside has to rotate a bit more strongly and draw in a bit more of the explosive force, but now the Taiji is instead losing strength.

'At this rate...!'

It is then, Paaaatt!

From Makli Hyun-ah's beast scroll, Makli Badger jumps out.

"Uaaagh! Badger! What are you doing!? Get back in right now! It's dangerous!"

"... Isn't it an urgent situation?"

"It is urgent! Because it's dangerous!"

"In this situation, thank you for worrying. I have been grateful for all this time."

Badger, with trembling hands, gently strokes Makli Hyun-ah's head.

Makli Hyun-ah is dumbfounded, but in the next moment, Badger leaps straight out past Makli Hyun-ah and dives toward the gap that Makli Hyun-ah and Ahn Geum cannot block.

"Makli Badgerrrrr!!!"

Makli Hyun-ah screams, and after Badger gives a thumbs up toward Makli Hyun-ah, she begins to explode her potential.

At the same time, Badger, who is at the Grand Perfection Core Formation stage, raises her realm, and a heavenly lightning tribulation falls from the sky and strikes Badger head-on.

Kwarururung!

Badger takes that heavenly lightning, and with the heavenly lightning enters the gap, pierces through the explosive force with the power of heavenly lightning, and enters the very innermost part.

The place where the Yin-Yang Taiji cycles.

She reaches the place where Jo Yeon and Ha-eun are.

In that moment, Makli Hyun-ah watches Badger use the Heavenly Tribulation to go all the way inside, then endure the Heavenly Tribulation and transform.

Badger's Transformation form is a beautiful woman.

She looks up at Makli Hyun-ah gently, then reaches her hand toward Jo Yeon and Ha-eun, who are fused into the form of Taiji.

At that moment, The Taiji of the two people rotates even more fiercely, and the explosive force decreases for a moment, and the barrier of the alternate spaces that Ahn Geum and Makli Hyun-ah have made finally closes.

Immediately after, From inside the barrier the two of them created, an unimaginably powerful Taiji wave bursts out, and the instant Makli Hyun-ah is struck by that wave, he feels his latent potential surge up enormously.

At the same time, the sense of presence of Hyeon Rang, which he has been faintly feeling since just before, becomes even clearer.

Makli Hyun-ah blankly looks up at Hyeon Rang.

Hyeon Rang smiles softly, taps his head a couple of times, and speaks.

[Please call my name.] For some reason, Makli Hyun-ah cannot refuse.

"... Hyeon Rang?"

That moment.

Hyeon Rang's body becomes light and scatters in all four directions, then fires straight into the souls that have been wandering around after being freed from the Overseer Factory, the souls that had been modified into puppets and sealed.

Chwawawak!

Starting from 20, 000 years ago and reaching the present, All the souls of everyone who has been slaughtered and modified by the Mad Lord's puppets during that time instantly gain the bodies of a [human] and revive.

Hyeon Rang's voice resonates in Makli Hyun-ah's ear.

[Someday, please call my name again. Through you, someday... someday, I think I will be able to open my eyes again.] After finishing those words, Hyeon Rang's voice scatters again.

'Just who are...'

At the same time, Makli Hyun-ah forgets the [name] of the owner of the voice that has just helped him.

'That person... who is he? He's someone who is the Senior Brother of a human called Tae Yeol-jeon in the Grand Nirvana Temple of my inner world... but I can't think of his [name].'

Shiririririk!

It is a strange thing.

But he cannot afford complicated thoughts.

All the explosive force flies into Makli Hyun-ah and Ahn Geum's alternate spaces, and Makli Hyun-ah sinks into extreme fatigue and begins to fall, unconscious.

Ahn Geum hastily picks Makli Hyun-ah up in her arms, and soon feels warm energy flowing out from the lives that have revived into human bodies nearby gathering over Makli Hyun-ah.

"This is... the Acceptance at Fate's End Axis?"

The world's energy, the hearts of the people of the Vast Cold Realm who have received grace from them, They create the Axis that is most necessary for cultivators of the Hundred Schools like Makli Hyun-ah.

Ahn Geum first gathers up that lump of energy, then tries to take Makli Hyun-ah in her arms and retreat to a safe place.

However, because of the aftermath of the explosion, a hole is punched through the dimensional veil of the Vast Cold Realm and she is unable to escape that suction force, being sucked into it.

"Kuugh... Since Sacred Master Ban Ta still isn't saving us, does that mean there's no problem even if we go with this suction force?"

After making a quick judgment, she rides the Nether Crossing Ship and flies toward that hole in the dimensional veil.

'Anyway, there's celestial energy in the Vast Cold Realm that Lee Seo-ah will come chasing in the near future, so it's better to take refuge somewhere else;' Like so, she and Makli Hyun-ah leave the Vast Cold Realm and fly into an unknown space.

Only after it swallows the two does the suction force stop, and the dimensional veil is filled in according to the world's restoring force.

In the place where all is resolved, only one woman wearing a pale-pink palace dress remains, stroking the traces of the Taiji engraved into the earth, and quietly says a single line.

"May you attain Buddhahood."

The moment the gigantic Taiji wave is emitted in the Vast Cold Realm by Jo Yeon and Ha-eun.

Ban Ta, who is in the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain's Purple Gold Realm, widens his eyes.

"It has finally come."

Kiiiing!

By Ban Ta, principles of law move, twisting the fate of the being that revives in the Vast Cold Realm and is about to meet his disciple, pulling them to the front of the Purple Gold Realm.

Snap!

When he snaps his finger, the waves of Yin-Yang Taiji move to the front of the Purple Gold Realm, and from the center of that wave, a pure-white bird begins to spread its wings.

"Welcome, Glass Peacock."

Ban Ta smiles at his long-standing enemy, whom he meets again after crossing a distant time.

Crossing a long and longer time.

Glass Peacock has revived.