Chwaak!
The edge of the chair strikes Kim Yeon's forehead, and since she doesn't use any internal energy to protect herself, blood flows from her head.
"What did you just say? Say it again."
However, Kang Min-hee, paying no mind to Kim Yeon's bleeding, rushes at her and grabs her by the collar.
"Say it again!"
Kwaang!
Kang Min-hee slams Kim Yeon into the wall by her collar and yells.
"To Seo Ran...do you not understand what you mean to her? Are you saying this because you don't understand what would happen to that child if you disappear? Even now, with just Jeon Myeong-hoon and Oh Hyun-seok gone, she can't control herself and is wandering around high on drugs, and you can't even stop that, and yet what? You're going? Do you even have any awareness right now of being Seo Ran's mother!?"
"..."
"I know that you like Seo Eun-hyun. I know that heart is unimaginably deep and strong. That's why...I thought someone like me wasn't good enough...and yielded to you. But...what is this? Seo Ran...Seo Ran needs to be protected, Kim Yeon..."
Still holding Kim Yeon by the collar, Kang Min-hee drops her head.
Seeing her like that, Kim Yeon silently lifts the two twin spears she is holding.
Immediately after,
Tukwang!
Kim Yeon strikes Kang Min-hee's stomach with the spear end and flings her toward the opposite wall.
"Keheok! Y-You little...!"
"Get a hold of yourself, Min-hee Unnie."
"What...?"
"Do you think I'm leaving because I want to? Do you even know what kind of resolve it takes for me to be standing here right now?"
"..."
"If someone has to go...then it has to be me. Because I'm...stronger than you, Min-hee Unnie. Whether it's inheriting the legacy of the previous generation or whatever, I'm the one who is using it, and I'm the one who became stronger through it. And Min-hee Unnie...you're the most sensitive among us."
Kang Min-hee doesn't refute her. She just coughs as she slumps down from the opposite wall.
"We were supposed to send a signal if we got the advantage, but even after all these years, there hasn't been a single sign. And it's Seo Eun-hyun of all people! In this situation, when every second counts...it's me who has to go. If it's a situation where my strength is needed...then I'm the one who has to go..."
"...The place that needs your strength...is here too, Kim Yeon..."
Kang Min-hee mutters a bitter remark.
"There's a child here...who might completely fall apart if she doesn't have a mother's love..."
"..."
"I...can't do anything to help. I can only be her friend... I can't be her mother... Yeah. I just happen to be a little smart, but I'm pathetically weak...and the most useless one among us. So...because there's nothing I can do, I'm taking it out on you, aren't I."
She lets her head hang low and collapses to the floor.
"...I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do on my own. So please...stay so Seo Ran doesn't break apart. Out there, she may have others, but here, she's alone..."
Murmrmurmurmurmur—
From the commotion in Kang Min-hee's private room, murmuring voices grow louder outside.
And amidst that noise, Kim Yeon slowly walks toward Kang Min-hee.
"...As expected. Unnie should be the one who stays."
"...What?"
"Even if I go...if there's no signal, you'll come a year later anyway. Isn't that right?"
"..."
"So...I'll say it here and now. I'll go, so you stay here no matter how many years pass. From this place, protect Ran...protect the most precious part of me and him."
"...I...can block attacks from the front. I can take on the hard stuff. I can block the filth with my body, but...I can't do anything about a breaking heart."
"There's no need to do anything. Just...stay by her side."
"What...?"
And only then does Kang Min-hee flinch at the sight of Kim Yeon's stance, holding the twin spears.
"Wait, don't tell me..."
"I'm going to...risk my life to deliver this heart to my daughter before leaving. So...Unnie, please become the witness for it. Just that...is enough."
Finishing her words, Kim Yeon opens the window of Kang Min-hee's private room and jumps out.
Kang Min-hee hurriedly chases after her and jumps out of the building.
She, too, has trained her martial arts to at least the level of a peak expert, so leaping this distance poses no issue.
Before long, Kang Min-hee is able to spot Kim Yeon moving far ahead in the distance.
'You're always ahead...always...'
After some time.
Kim Yeon stops a carriage that is leaving Jeongyeong City and seems to head toward some villa.
"Ran-ah. Are you in there?"
From within, Seo Ran's voice comes out.
"...Mo...ther...?"
A voice trembling as if she's shivering.
Through that physical reaction, Kim Yeon realizes that Seo Ran is quite heavily addicted.
"Come out for a moment."
"...Driver, go! Now!"
"Hyah!"
But instead of responding to Kim Yeon, Seo Ran urges the coachman forward, and he whips the horses, pushing the carriage out of Jeongyeong City.
Watching it go, Kim Yeon lets out a quiet sigh and follows after the carriage.
After a while, when the carriage reaches a place far removed from Jeongyeong City—
Hwoooong—
Kim Yeon swings her spear and tears the roof off the carriage.
The coachman screams, and inside, Seo Ran rises with a distorted face, gripping pistols in both hands.
"Mother...please...just leave me alone."
Hyun Style Fighting Method — Revised.
Hyun Style Shooting Method.
Twin Fangs.
Tang, Taang!
Waves ripple from both barrels, and the bullets, strengthened to the extreme by Seo Ran, fire straight at Kim Yeon.
But in that instant, Kim Yeon moves her spear as if she is dancing, gently batting both bullets away.
Tukwang!
The deflected bullets ricochet and explode on the road on either side of Kim Yeon.
"Unnie, please just make sure the coachman doesn't die."
She gives a brief request to Kang Min-hee, who has just caught up, and then grips her twin spears and takes her stance.
'That is...'
Kang Min-hee recognizes what Kim Yeon is about to use.
Kuguguguk!
It feels as if willpower is distorting reality.
At the same time, Kim Yeon's will bursts outward, and a solemn radiance begins to envelop her.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
When one reaches the summit of Martial Arts (武), the path they've taken inevitably specializes based on how they've wielded and trained their Martial Arts.
The Formless Sword is freedom, the Surpassing Radiant Saber is speed, the Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear is piercing, and the Four Treasures Annihilating Heavens Blade is destruction.
And the summit of Martial Arts Kim Yeon reached is—
If it must be categorized, it is the pinnacle of Internal Energy Cultivation.
"Full Blossom."
Pasasasasa—
At the same time, profusely numerous quince flower petals bloom brilliantly from Kim Yeon and begin to dye the surroundings.
Kang Min-hee's eyes widen.
Quince blossoms bloom from every part of Kim Yeon's body.
Even Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, or the First Stage of Manifestation, has already become difficult to display in this world.
As explained by White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus, the 'Western Heaven Flower Field' is, quite literally, a place where 'only the power granted when life is first designated' can be used.
Up to Five Energies Converging to the Origin can barely, barely be considered the strength permitted to humans...
But from Entering Heavens Beyond the Path onward, it is clearly the realm beyond humans.
Therefore, originally, Kim Yeon should be restricted from using Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
But regardless of that, she is using Entering Heavens Beyond the Path here.
What does that mean?
Kugugugugugu!
'...So this is your resolve.'
A mass of [power] in the form of quince petals stretches to the heavens, forming a pillar of light that connects the sky and the ground.
Because of Kim Yeon alone and her Internal Energy Cultivation, Heaven and Earth shakes.
Seo Ran stares blankly at Kim Yeon, as if the drugs have completely worn off.
Inside the pillar of light, Kim Yeon who reveals a power more formidable than any firearm, more stronger than any weapon that exists in this world, is, quite literally, wonder itself.
[Would you...hold my hand?]
And from inside that pale pink pillar of light, Kim Yeon reaches her hand out toward Seo Ran.
Seo Ran, as if entranced, reaches out her hand to Kim Yeon.
In the very next moment—
Tukwang!
Kim Yeon grabs Seo Ran's hand and kicks off into the sky.
Kicking skyward without end, she holds Seo Ran in her arms and heads somewhere.
Seo Ran's eyes gradually widen.
[Mother...where are we going...? That's where the remnants of the Hyun Kingdom rebels are. The Seo Kingdom is about to launch a new weapon th...]
And before she even finishes speaking—
As if the Seo Kingdom government has detected Kim Yeon racing through the sky, they launch something.
Tukwang!
A massive shell, imbued with the internal energy of over a dozen peak masters, flies toward Kim Yeon.
And as she sees that shell, carrying the power of overwhelming explosion, Kim Yeon calmly grips her twin spears.
[Look, child. If you really hate Martial Arts...it's okay to just think of it as a dance. I...too, first learned it from him as a dance.]
In that moment, Seo Ran feels as if what Kim Yeon holds in her hands are not twin spears, but two fans.
And in the next moment—
Hwoooong!
As Kim Yeon swings her twin spears in the rhythm of her dance, a fan-shaped waterfall of Gang Qi sprays into the sky, blanketing the heavens in soft pink light and shredding the Seo Kingdom's shell.
There is no sound.
The explosive power contained within the shell is utterly devoured by Kim Yeon's overwhelming might, disappearing without a trace. Facing the Seo Kingdom's direction, Kim Yeon hurls a few more Gang Qi bombs and then, without pause, instantly returns with Seo Ran to where they had been.
"Uh, uh..."
[Was it fun?]
Kim Yeon looks at Seo Ran and asks warmly.
Seo Ran responds in a daze.
"...Yes."
[...Good. I'm glad.]
Kim Yeon smiles warmly and embraces Seo Ran.
[...Mom will be leaving soon.]
"H-Huh...?"
[But don't forget, Ran-ah. Just as Mom showed you just now...we are beings who wield power close to divine technique. Just because the body goes doesn't mean we are truly gone. It's the same for your father, Jeon Myeong-hoon, and Oh Hyun-seok... All we ever wanted was for you to reach this realm and open the path to Immortal Ascension.]
"...!"
[We do not die, Ran-ah. Just as the 'power of a human' I showed you a moment ago truly exists...so too does the possibility that the dead can stay together with you, that they can watch over you...]
Squeeeeze...
Kim Yeon hugs Seo Ran even tighter and smiles.
[Even if Mom leaves...there will be someone who loves you just as much as Mom...who will stay by your side.]
"M-Mo...ther..."
[And...through her, I will always be with you.]
A heart that cannot be conveyed with words!
Within Kim Yeon's overwhelming pillar of internal energy, Seo Ran glimpses a new domain and receives Kim Yeon's heart.
[So...be happy. I won't say things like 'go find your fate' or 'live as we wished.' Just be happy, always... I will be watching over you with him. My...beloved daughter.]
Pasasasasa—
Kang Min-hee watches as, within the laws of the world enforced by the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable, Kim Yeon forcibly ignores those laws for a brief moment through sheer brute authority, and disappears with her incarnation.
Beyond the incarnation vanishing...
Even if she returns to her main body now, she will be gravely wounded.
And even in that condition, she will surely fight beside Seo Eun-hyun.
Kang Min-hee holds Seo Ran and, looking at the now fully vaporized Kim Yeon, smiles bitterly.
"You always...beat me and go ahead, Yeon-ah."
As Kang Min-hee looks up at Kim Yeon, who has become a mother and is now completely unbeatable...
She lifts the still-dazed Seo Ran up to her feet.
"Get a hold of yourself, Seo Ran. Stand up. Stand, and walk on your own. The 'happiness' your mother spoke of...definitely didn't mean being so hung on drugs to even walk. So...from now on, walk with your own two feet. No matter the path."
Seo Ran opens her mouth as if to say something to Kang Min-hee, then closes it.
And then...
Having shaken off the drug's effects, she now walks properly on her own feet, heading toward Jeongyeong City.
"...Where are you going to go?"
"...Hee Unnie."
Seo Ran looks back briefly at Kang Min-hee.
"I want to go...to that domain my mother showed me."
"...Entering Heavens Beyond the Path, huh...? Haha. Hahahahaha!"
Kang Min-hee laughs.
[Fate that overcomes fate]—that is the essence of Seo Ran.
Until now, that contradiction had been so entangled that she couldn't even find the right path.
But now, at last...
She can see that Seo Ran's fate has finally begun to find its proper path.