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Chapter 676: Time That Has Passed Cannot Return. But...
I grasp the situation.
'Radiance Mantra...ended up activating at full power.'
My wish to return to a time before Oh Hye-seo awakens her fate has caused a massive butterfly effect.
'First...I need to gather information.'
Carefully avoiding looking up at the sky, I begin to speak to Jeon Myeong-hoon and the other comrades.
"First of all, everyone. There's something I need to say."
It happens then.It is at that moment.
☯
Slaaap!
"Deputy Seo, you son of a bitch!"
"..."
I realize that the situation just now has been nullified.
And I quickly analyze the situation to figure out what's going on.
'I see. The fact that [fate is already fixed, so it's meaningless] means...'
Any actions that deviate from fate are not permitted.
'It really is...meaningless.'
Time that has passed can never return.
This is the first law that anyone dealing with history must know.
Once a timeline is observed by the Future King, it becomes history that absolutely cannot be reversed.
Though I have returned to the past, this regression is nothing more than a complete recollection of memories, no different from glancing over the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections.
'Any attempt to rewrite the past is stopped and nullified by the Head Realm.'
Still, I am satisfied even with just this.
'With this amount of time...yes. It's not bad. With this much, I should be able to grasp the enlightenment needed to block Great Mountain Supreme Deity's strike.'
Good.
If it's come to this, then rather...
Let's enjoy it.
Resolving so, I hide the entirety of [myself up to now] deep inside the 'human Seo Eun-hyun', leaving behind only the memories of 'Seo Eun-hyun from the Earth era', and bury myself within Seo Eun-hyun.
Thus, the story unfolds exactly the same.
Shi Ho emerges and tears our limbs apart, the two-headed snake comes and drains our blood, and the trio at the Heavenly Being stage appears and heals us.
And I, seeing Azure Tiger Saint while watching the three, suddenly feel a surge of emotion I can't suppress.
It is at that moment.
"Huaaaaaagh! Wh-What is thisaaaaaah!"
"Kuaaaaagh! S-Save me! Hggkuaaaaagh!"
"Kuuughh!"
From the bodies of Jin Byeok-ho and Heo Gwak, swords of glass erupt and protrude uncontrollably, and their bodies transform into Glass True Fire, returning to me.
Azure Tiger Saint holds out the longest, but even he seems about to return to thee.
However, just around that time, the Head Realm fortunately initiates normalization.
☯
'...Huuu.'
Just the fragment of emotion I felt seeing Azure Tiger Saint caused a fragment of power to leak, nearly leading to their total return and annihilation.
'For once, this restriction is actually welcome.'
I calm my startled heart, realizing I nearly killed my old master by making him return to me, and continue observing the story.
Some time later, I encounter another familiar face.
"Hoho..."
'Hoho...'
It's Seo Hweol.
He takes Oh Hye-seo in his arms and carries her away.
At the end, the Mad Lord, Kim Yeon's guide, appears.
'Mad Lord...'
Remembering his painful past, I bitterly smile to myself.
The Mad Lord takes Kim Yeon and casts me into Yanguo.
It is at that moment.
Only then do I notice something strange.
'Hm? This is...?'
Only then do I realize that Kim Young-hoon is 'not visible'.
It's strange.
I haven't seen Kim Young-hoon anywhere up until now, and yet I've been treating him all this time as if he's a 'real, present existence'.
'What in the world is going on?'
However, before I can even feel the strangeness, 'Seo Eun-hyun', who has been stripped of all memories except those from Earth, speaks as if Kim Young-hoon is right beside him and continues the story.
: : Wait. I'm sorry about this. : :
Saying such, I fail to suppress the strangeness and reveal my presence, sweeping over all the living beings in the Head Realm with my consciousness at once.
Feeling even my extremely weakened presence, all living being faint on the spot, foaming at the mouth.
Microorganisms and weak insects die instantly.
Even after going that far, I still cannot find Kim Young-hoon anywhere in the Head Realm.
'I see... This must be how a future leap achieved through True Attainment appears.'
The past can no longer change.
But Kim Young-hoon has vanished into the future, and thus until that future is reached, no matter how many regressions occur, he does not exist in any timeline.
Yet because the past cannot be changed, everyone in this world, 'myself' included, continues to behave as if Kim Young-hoon exists.
And it is at that moment.
I discover one more strange truth.
'Wait...why does this flow feel...'
'I' go with Kim Young-hoon to an herb shop to earn money, buy a manor, and have Kim Young-hoon join the Demon Slaying Sect of Seokyung City's Four Stars Three Demons.
Then I follow Kim Young-hoon, working as a strategist for the Wulin Alliance, amass wealth, and grow old.
'Th-This is...'
The first cycle.
These are events from my first regression.
'What is this? It's not the zeroth cycle...but why am I acting as I did in the first?'
It's strange.
If I had returned simply to the first regression point, I should be following the behavior of the twelfth cycle.
Next, I should be enveloping myself in the Formless Sword and ascending.
After that, I would spend over ten thousand years to become a True Immortal, reach the Outer Sea, and challenge the Great Mountain Supreme Deity. Such would be the normal flow of time...
'...No way...if this is how it is...'
With a pounding heart, I slowly look back on my past life.
And finally, at the end of the first cycle.
I die at around the age of eighty.
And then...
Kiriririk!
I return to Ascension Path once more.
This time, it doesn't feel like the vivid regression triggered by death at the hands of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, but more like rewinding a video or flipping a storybook backward.
Regardless, I understand through this.
'...If the point I've returned to is the first cycle, and I continue to look back through the second, third, and on until I reach the 1005th cycle to meet the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, and if dying 1009 times is all included in this [1010th regression]...'
I instantly realize how much time I've gained.
'A-A hundred million years...? Hahaha...'
: : Ahahahahahaha! : :
I have, in effect, been given the chance to reflect on the entirety of my life spanning a hundred million years.
"Hoho...huh? Wh-What is th—"
Pukwak!
As I laugh, the Seo Hweol from the third cycle who tries to take Oh Hye-seo explodes and died, and by the principle of my existence, Glass True Fire spreads through Indra's Net and sets abalze Seo Hweol's main body along with all versions of him in this cycle.
"Kkuuuuaaaaaaaaagh!!"
Seo Hweol screams in genuine agony as he begins to suffer.
Soon after, a Taiji covers the world, and the world is restored to normal again, but I cannot suppress the surging sense of relief and continue to laugh.
'Huhahahaha! Excellent. Until I reorganize the enlightenment of Martial Pinnacle...I've gained a hundred million years. Moreover with this much time, I can even think about the secrets in the Salt Sea...and I can dig deeper into the secrets of the world I didn't notice before.'
Delighted by this unexpected gain, I begin to look back on the lives I've lived.
Thus, the 1010th regression, the reviewing of past lives through the Radiance Mantra, truly begins.
"Huu...how irritating. Those Makli Clan bastards."
I burst apart and kill the entire Makli Clan, who in the third cycle tries to kill the third cycle Young-hoon Hyung-nim, with a press of my pinky finger.
☯
Eventually, the Taiji once again blankets the world, rendering everything as if it never happened, but I continue exploring the past while feeling a refreshing clarity I have never felt before.
'Still, it's a bit regrettable. If only I weren't swept away by the power of the Head Realm...could I truly rewrite the past?'
They say time that has passed cannot return, yet while I look back on it, such thoughts sometimes occur to me.
Especially in the sixth cycle, in the past where I meet Cheongmun Ryeong again, those thoughts become even more prominent.
"...Master. This book of folktales seems to have a slightly different number of stories compared to when I saw it before. Do you know anything about that?"
I ask Cheongmun Ryeong this question as I look at the book of folktales, which includes stories like 'the young man who melted ice with his bare body to serve fish to his mother'.
My master.
Yellow Snake Cheongmun Ryeong strokes his goatee and shouts.
"You fool! Is now the time to be worrying about some storybook? Even just searching for ways to overcome your Heavenly Rejection Phenomenon is already making my head throb! If you don't go and dig through the archive right now, I'll thrash you with a six-sided club!"
I flinch as I recall the six-sided club of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity, but soon smile warmly and say,
"Please don't be like that. Just tell me once, Master. Your disciple is curious."
"Hmph, you impudent brat. You don't even understand your master's heart..."
Cheongmun Ryeong grumbles, but still opens the folktale book with me and furrows his brows.
"Stories with the theme of 'sincerity moves the heavens' number around seven in total... Sometimes, a few more are added depending on the region, and there are places with as many as thirteen, but these seven tales never change.
"'The story of the boy who catches a carp in winter for his mother.'
"'The story of a blind man praying to the heavens and regaining his sight.'
"'The story of a husband who lights a fire on the tip of his finger to cure his wife's fatal illness.'
"'The story of a poor old man who becomes wealthy after obtaining a goblin's hat.'
"'The story of a child driven from home by the schemes of a fox sister, who meets the Dragon King and learns how to appease her, then returns and reconciles with her.'
"'The story of an old man at the end of his lifespan who performs a thousand rites toward the heavens to extend his life.'
"'The story of a child born without fortune who goes to ask the Jade Emperor why he has no fortune.'
"These seven stories are found in every region, and their original forms hardly change."
"Haha, is that so?"
"Hm, but hold on...the story of the old man performing rites to the heavens to extend his lifespan... Let's find a book about that. There might be a way to block your Heavenly Rejection Phenomenon..."
While telling the stories, Cheongmun Ryeong seems to recall something and begins rummaging through the archive.
Wo-woong!
The world begins to be engulfed once more by the Taiji.
It must be because I brought up something that wasn't truly a story from the past.
"There's something I'm curious about, Master."
Before the Taiji fully nullifies the world, I ask Cheongmun Ryeong a question.
"What is it? Something about the folktales? Admittedly, those stories have become so ridiculously widespread that even cultivators sometimes study them. For example, 'the genders of the folk tale protagonists are always consistent' or something like that... Well, there's plenty to say about that. In some regions, if the main character in the first story is a girl, all the protagonists in the following stories are women or old ladies. If the first one's a boy, then the rest are all men or old men... No, more importantly, you rascal, aren't you supposed to be looking for the documents I told you to find...?"
"Master, if fate truly exists, and no matter what we do we cannot overcome it...then what would you do?"
At my question, Cheongmun Ryeong scrunches his face as if wondering why I'm asking such pointless nonsense.
"You're speaking nonsense. Even if fate does exist, does fate live my life for me?"
"..."
"If I just sit around doing nothing and stupidly scratch my belly, does fate advance my life on its own for me? Don't make me laugh! Even if fate has determined my life, we are the ones who live it! As long as my heart is still beating...how I live that life and how I accept fate is entirely my own domain."
"..."
"That is why...even if fate has fixed my future, I will live to the best of my ability within it.
"If I cannot overcome the mountain of fate, I will have a son or disciple and make them dig through that mountain. If they cannot, then their children will. As long as I create the foundation to pass down the will from generation to generation...then one day, that mountain will be thrown into the sea. Some may laugh and call me the Foolish Old Man, but what of it! Fate does not determine us. It is those who live life who determine fate!"
"..."
For some reason, my chest swells with emotion at Cheongmun Ryeong's words.
I take out the [Wheel] and slow the nullification process of the Head Realm as much as possible, then ask.
"...What if that son or disciple inherits the will in a twisted way? What if they misunderstand the will to move the mountain, and instead use tyranny and oppression to force it upon those around them, passing down the will in a clearly evil way... What then?"
"Hmmm..."
At my words, Cheongmun Ryeong seems to ponder for a moment, then speaks without hesitation.
"If that happens, it means the master taught them wrong. If you raise someone by beating them too much when they're young, then all they learn is violence. That's probably why they turned out that way."
"..."
"But...if the master embraces them with the right amount of discipline, advice, and love, and they still grow into someone who distorts and transmits the will like that...then perhaps that's no longer their own will."
"It's not their own will?"
"In this case, it's fate. Fate endlessly lashes at the successor and twists the will into something distorted. Accumulating and accumulating the bridle of karmic retribution and resentment and gratitude...until the person can no longer control even themselves... Yes. Just like a wheel rolling down a slope is unable to control its own body to stop, the world refuses to let them be and drives them into the abyss. There's no other way to put it."
"...Then...in that case, hasn't the person ultimately lost to fate?"
"Well...that would only be the case if there's no one else in the world except for that Foolish Old Man and his disciple, or his son. But the world has far more kinds of people and beings than that."
Cheongmun Ryeong gives a small chuckle as he speaks.
"If one's successor turns strange, then one can ask someone else for help, or they can find a new successor. Maybe a close friend of the Foolish Old Man might one day correct that successor. If there's only one person in the world, they might never be able to defy fate... But if there are as many people under the heavens as stars in the sky...if those connections are as vast and diverse as clouds...then even the heavens can be surpassed and flown beyond; don't you think so?"
"..."
"If one day you meet someone who's like a wheel rolling down the slope, then help them. Surely, deep inside, they themselves know they've gone wrong and want to stop...but even if they want to stop, they probably can't on their own. They are surely hoping someone will stop them."
"..."
"That is why, if you too want to overcome fate, then always give and receive the ties between people, and be generous and help others. For only that is the way to surpass the heavens, and only that is the way to overcome Heavenly Rejection, Seo Eun-hyun (瑞恩現)."
'...!'
Paaaatt!
At the very moment the world is nullified again by the Head Realm, I open my eyes wide.
The one who called out to me in the final moment is surely...
'Master...?'
It is the personality of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity, dwelling within Cheongmun Ryeong.
That's the only way I can feel it.
Perhaps it is the influence of the [Wheel].
I don't know the exact cause, but the result is left imprinted in my heart.
'Master...'
I close my eyes and let the stories of the past continue to flow.
I tried to reach enlightenment of Marital Pinnacle through slow, repentant enlightenment.
But Cheongmun Ryeong.
No...
With just a single line of words from the Salt Sea Supreme Deity, the enlightenment of Martial Pinnacle—
The enlightenment of connection—feels as though it is becoming one with me.
'Thank you.'
Only now do I begin to truly understand what it means to embrace connection in my heart, and I begin to move forward, stepping steadily on the enlightenments of the past.
Time that has passed cannot return.
But...
Time that has passed can still be looked back upon.
As I look back upon time, I steadily step on the footholds leading to the ultimate of the heart.