Seo Ran thinks of her mother's embrace.
Looking back, everything was full of boredom in her childhood. So why did she always stay at home until the end instead of leaving?
There are plenty of reasons, but if she had to choose just one...
It must have been her mother's embrace.
When she was nestled within the warmth of Kim Yeon's embrace...
Regardless of the boredom or anything else, it always felt cozy...
The embrace she recently experienced again...
...was no different.
It was cozy.
And she realizes...the warmth that was 'delivered' through Kim Yeon's 'Entering Heavens Beyond the Path'...
She wants to see that realm once more.
'Let's go.'
She feels that heading toward that realm is, somehow, her very fate.
'To that realm of Mother's...let's go...!'
She will reach it no matter what.
Even if she is without parents, she cannot keep crying while doing drugs.
'With my own feet...let's enter that domain...'
Clang—
It is when such thoughts arise.
Seo Ran suddenly becomes aware that [someone] has appeared before her.
Shiver!
And that being is someone who clearly knows who Seo Ran is.
"Mountain...Spirit...?"
It is the old man she always called 'Sir Mountain Spirit'.
That old man who always appears with black flowers, now holds a flower basket full of black flowers in one hand.
[Why do you insist on walking such a harsh path, Ran-ah? Have I not done everything for you...? When you felt stifled by your parents, I made it so you could be apart from them. When you were weary of repeated fate, I scattered the ancient force of previous *** (終命者/Enders) into this world, spreading a more advanced fate across the world.
[The guns you so enjoyed and saw as an escape from martial arts. The newspapers that entertained you and kept boredom away. The drugs you indulged in with great pleasure!
[All of them are things that could only emerge from a more advanced fate and more advanced civilization...All of them were prepared by me for you.]
"..."
[So why...do you not enjoy these pleasures further...? Why do you insist on chasing after something so empty...? Is there something more you need...?]
"...There is nothing more I need, Sir Mountain Spirit. No...Sir Flower Spirit."
Seo Ran speaks as she reconsiders the old man's identity through her sharpened sense of 'flow'.
"Now I finally understand. Sir Divine Spirit...is not the Mountain Spirit, are you? Now that I think about it, the feeling I sensed from Sword Peak Mountain...and the 'flow' I sense from Sir Divine Spirit...are far too different. From the beginning...you were never the Divine Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain."
[...That is right. I am not something vile like a Mountain Spirit. In fact...the Mountain Spirit of Sword Peak Mountain was someone else.]
"Pardon...? Are you saying there was another Mountain Spirit?"
[Hawhaw, and what reason is there to tell you that? There's no need for you to know. Now, I advise you for the last time. Turn back... Return to the villa and enjoy the delightful drugs. Don't waste time chasing such vain things.]
For a time, Seo Ran and the old man face off.
Then, Seo Ran finally opens her mouth.
"The domain my mother reached...is not something meaningless."
[...It seems there's no point in speaking further.]
The old man who has confirmed the resolve that has settled in Seo Ran's heart.
The Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable nods.
[Then...just like your parents and kin who died first...you too are my enemy. I am this Unruly Realm itself. Therefore, you have now made this entire world your enemy.]
"Is that so?"
[You have now...turned the flow of the era into your enemy.]
Seo Ran nods as she receives the words of Sal Tree.
Then she speaks.
"My mother...faced the flow of the era head-on with her own strength alone. If I can just enter that domain...then the flow of the era or whatever doesn't matter. So, please, do not block my path any longer, and never appear before me again!"
[...]
At Seo Ran's outcry, the lingering thought of Sal Tree fades away.
And as she steps over the spot where the fading remnant once was, she smiles.
"I will reach it, Mother."
No matter what she must do.
Vowing those words, Seo Ran returns to Jeongyeong City, to the Royal Guards.
Seo Ran begins practicing martial arts again, which she has neglected until now.
She also continues refining the 'Shooting Method' that combines martial techniques with marksmanship.
In order to reach that realm without fail,
She hones every part of herself and trains in unifying all her thought (念) into one.
One year passes.
Kang Min-hee remains by her side.
Seo Ran refines herself, and to ensure her training time is firmly guaranteed, she properly pledges loyalty to the current emperor, upholding him as the core of Hyun Kingdom.
Two years pass.
Kang Min-hee begins to record Seo Ran's journey.
Seo Ran rises to become the center of Hyun Kingdom, and as she follows the orders of the emperor, who again seeks to centralize authority, she secures even more training time, and earns the right to consume all manner of elixirs.
Three years pass.
Kang Min-hee starts to follow her everywhere.
At last, Seo Ran somewhat succeeds in laying the foundations for the emperor's centralized rule.
And finally...
Over a decade later.
Kang Min-hee can only be astonished.
Seo Ran...
Surpasses peak master and reaches the realm of Five Energies Converging to the Origin in a single go.
Dududuk, duk!
As Seo Ran finishes her complete transformation, her Dharma protector Kang Min-hee asks.
"Do you feel anything different, Ran-ah?"
"...I'm not sure. The Quaking Heat Body has subsided a bit. But it's still not completely gone yet. Though if I take one step further from here...I think the Quaking Heat Body will completely vanish..."
"One more step..."
Listening to her words, Kang Min-hee understands what is needed.
Gang Sphere!
If she climbs to Ultimate Pinnacle, forms the Gang Sphere, creates the Inner Core, and brings perfect balance to the body...
Only then will her body truly find equilibrium again.
'Really...it is an absurd rate of growth.'
Seo Ran, the direct descendant of two True Immortals...
...is quite literally a genius who surpasses everything.
'At this rate, isn't it only a matter of time before she reaches Ultimate Pinnacle? And when that happens...truly...'
As long as she's properly guaranteed training time by the imperial family, she will truly overcome her Heavenly Penalty and come to know her fate.
'Truly...Seo Eun-hyun. The day your child reaches completion...is not far off.'
The day she fully awakens to her fate.
On that day, her personality will be properly etched into her essence that is her fate,
And at that moment, she will finally gain the treatment of a proper innate Sacred Vessel.
Kang Min-hee, watching Seo Ran who has grown so much before she knew it, can't help but feel proud.
Yes.
If the flow of the era had not tried to cast them out...
...that feeling might have continued.
The emperor of Hyun Kingdom, whom Seo Ran supports and upholds in power, is foolish.
Though Hyun Kingdom is already divided and half-torn by warlords, he failed to grasp his position and tried to restructure the system into a centralized nation.
When the warlords refused to obey in this situation, he attempted to hand over various rights of Hyun Kingdom to Seo Kingdom, asking them to subdue the warlords on his behalf.
In doing so, the people of Hyun Kingdom, who have suffered at the hands of Seo Kingdom for over a decade, rose in rebellion.
Countless warlords, unable to ignore the will of the people, also raised armies and simultaneously declared rebellion against the Hyun Imperial Family.
The Royal Guards collapsed in an instant, and the enraged citizens attempted to tear the emperor to pieces.
In the midst of this chaos, Seo Ran, alongside Kang Min-hee, rescued the emperor to whom she has already sworn loyalty to regardless of what has happened, and displayed her power before countless citizens.
And...
That was the problem.
Not only has she reached the summit of Martial Arts by Unbinding Star standards, she also attained the pinnacle of marksmanship. Her very existence stirred greed and wariness among the warlords.
As a result, the emperor and Seo Ran, who originally planned to flee Jeongyeong City and hide the emperor in a remote region of Hyun Kingdom, ended up in a situation where they are now semi-forced to remain confined within Jeongyeong City once again.
This all unfolded within half a year after Seo Ran rose to Five Energies Converging to the Origin.
"Ran-ah... Right now, the citizens outside the imperial palace are determined to tear the emperor apart. Wouldn't it be better to just hand the emperor over to some fitting warlord...and secure your training time?"
"..."
Kang Min-hee speaks as she looks at Seo Ran standing guard in front of the emperor's chambers.
"I've made a list of the warlords who at least seem likely to last a bit. Take a look and make a decision, Ran-ah. Your growth is too precious to be wasted here. Please...move on to the next realm and completely erase the side effects of your Quaking Heat Body. Wouldn't that be better?"
She speaks while looking at Seo Ran earnestly.
And Seo Ran smiles faintly.
"Hee Unnie. Thank you, truly. Even after all this, you're still by my side..."
"..."
"But...there's no helping it. Since I've decided to follow the emperor, I might as well go all the way."
"What...? What has that foolish emperor ever done for you...?"
"Not much, really. Ah... He did accept my request and blocked the shutdown of your newspaper a few times."
"..."
"Of course, that's not really a huge grace. But you want to ask why I would show such loyalty over such a small grace, right?"
"...Yeah."
"The reason is...it's all the same anyway."
"The same...?"
"Yes."
Seo Ran nods as she recalls that moment from over a decade ago.
The old spirit holding a flower basket.
The moment she saw the true nature of the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable.
Already then, the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable said he is the ruler of this world and that the flow of the era would turn against her.
Which means...
No matter which faction she joins or how she shifts her position, the era will inevitably oppose her.
This too is part of the 'flow'.
She understands clearly that the vast 'flows' running through the world have been commanded by the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable to hate her.
Therefore, whether she abandons the emperor or not, the result is the same.
"If the result is the same anyway...then I'll choose the one with even the slightest good memory."
"Good memory?"
"The fireworks I saw for the first time in Jeongyeong City when I was little. I heard those fireworks first started on the emperor's orders. Since I have a happy memory of watching those fireworks...I'm just moving for the emperor who gave me that memory."
‘Fireworks...’
Kang Min-hee recalls Seo Ran's fifteenth birthday and suddenly feels an ominous sense of foreboding.
And Kang Min-hee's foreboding is not wrong.
The factions of the warlords have surrounded Jeongyeong City with countless firearms.
"...Ran-ah. There really are no options left now. If the emperor doesn't come out...it seems the warlords plan on bombing the entire city. They're probably trying to strike first, worried that the Seo Kingdom might take the emperor's side. The citizens are rioting out there. Of course, if they care about the will of the people, they might not actually fire, but...even the threat alone feels enough to break open the palace gates. Ran-ah, it's not too late even now..."
"...Just a moment, Hee Unnie. The emperor is quietly calling."
Seo Ran leaves Kang Min-hee behind and enters the emperor's room, speaking with him for some time.
And when she returns, what she says leaves Kang Min-hee dumbfounded.
"He says he'll escape with Hee Unnie through the secret passage...and that I should draw the warlords' attention to buy time for him to flee."
"...Ran-ah, let's just kill that bastard."
Kang Min-hee is truly dumbfounded that a mere mortal Emperor dares to use Seo Ran, the child of True Immortals, in such a way.
'If I were in my main body, a human who wouldn't even deserve to lick the foot of a ghost soul that gnaws at the dead skin of my toe...dares tell Ran to be...what? Bait?'
Crack...
Kang Min-hee, seething with sincere rage, spreads ghostly energy gathered through ordinary internal energy methods and starts to head into the Emperor's chambers.
But in the end, Seo Ran blocks Kang Min-hee.
"Hee Unnie. Please listen to the Emperor's words. If we just stay like this...the warlords will fire at least one or two shells into the city as a threat. It may be just for intimidation, but even that will kill or injure many people."
"...You want me to escape with that trash while you become the bait? Rather, let's switch. I'll be the bait, and you take that garbage out through the secret passage."
"...Unnie."
And then, looking into Seo Ran's eyes, Kang Min-hee understands.
"Please grant me this request."
"..."
That she absolutely cannot refuse that look in Seo Ran's eyes.
"...Fine."
Kang Min-hee nods, and Seo Ran smiles faintly as she reads the 'flow'.
Ever since the Sal Tree Heavenly Venerable declared he would oppose her, many years ago...
She has been able to know her ending.
'I see it...'
The vision of countless shells and bullets tearing through her body as she dies.
That is her end.
'Now...I'm going to die soon.'