Tsaaaaaa—
Oh Hyun-seok looks out at the plain where a clear wind blows.
Then he looks up at the clear sky.
Around the blue sky, white clouds draw a circle.
"Is this...inside a formation?"
[No. Didn't I tell you? This is the domain of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net. A small-scale Heavenly Domain. If you're a capable Immortal Lord, though it takes some effort, you can create at least one Heavenly Domain.]
Wooong—
Oh Hyun-seok speaks, feeling the distinct presence of the domain.
"I don't feel...any cultivation."
[Because this is a Heavenly Domain meant to seal Immortal Cultivation.]
"Seal Immortal Cultivation...?"
[That is right. Any cultivation accumulated through the path of Immortal Cultivation is powerless here. Only the heart cultivated through the Primordial Origin Immortal Cultivation system holds any effect. It is a modification of the Immortal Art of Penglai that my master originally created.]
Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape turns his gaze away from Oh Hyun-seok and begins to walk across the wide plain, and without realizing it, Oh Hyun-seok begins to follow him.
[More than the material light, the light contained within the system of Immortal Cultivation is far more insidious and dangerous, so this domain was made to hide from that light. Of course, now it has become a place to run away from myself...]
"..."
Oh Hyun-seok silently watches Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape walking ahead for a while, then asks a question.
"...Is Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape..."
[Call me Cheong Min.]
Oh Hyun-seok flinches for a moment at the name that is so familiar to him, then asks again.
"Elder Cheong Min...are you the main body of my master?"
[Your master, huh...? Well. Being imprisoned by Ra Cheon, I do not know who taught you. And the Buddha-Nature I placed in the Head Realm is a kind of prophecy and law. Though there may be those who are born inheriting its power or grit strongly, my Buddha-Nature cannot exist as an individual being... I may have 'influenced' the existence of your master, but I am not the main body of your master.]
Hwiiiiiii—
Feeling the cool wind, Cheong Min climbs a hill dyed green together with Oh Hyun-seok.
[But one thing I do know. You seem to be a disciple who learned very well from your master.]
"...Please do not say that. What could I possibly have learned?"
At Cheong Min's words, Oh Hyun-seok smiles bitterly and shakes his head.
But Cheong Min smiles gently and pats Oh Hyun-seok's shoulder.
[There is nothing better than knowing your own shame. There is no need to be overly modest. You have certainly come through well.]
"..."
Why is it?
With just those few words, Oh Hyun-seok feels the heaviness that had unknowingly built up in his chest melt away in an instant.
[Let me hear your name. For someone like you, I want to remember it. Even if I become one with Ra Cheon again someday, I want him to remember that a person like you existed.]
"...I am...not someone worth remembering."
[It is fine. Neither am I.]
"...I have...lost my name."
He speaks bitterly.
"I was once accepted as a disciple by the Owner of Names, the Naming Supreme Deity Hyeon Rang. But one day, my master completely transformed into an entirely different being and took my name away from me."
[...Is that so, that guy...]
"I heard the two of you were friends."
After sighing for a while, Cheong Min looks at Oh Hyun-seok and speaks.
[...He was not my friend. He was Ra Cheon's friend. But after Ra Cheon separated from me, he said he no longer resonated with Ra Cheon and chose to associate only with me.]
Though he says he was not his friend, Oh Hyun-seok somehow feels a bitter sadness from Cheong Min's shoulders.
[What state is Hyeon Rang in now?]
"...It is said he awakened as the [Western Zero King]."
Oh Hyun-seok answers, recalling the wisdom he learned through Silver Basket, and Cheong Min seems to flinch slightly before letting out a bitter smile again.
[It repeats every time. The same tragedy repeats, again and again...]
"Pardon?"
[I understand now why you came here. You came to save your master, Hyeon Rang, didn't you?]
At Cheong Min's question, Oh Hyun-seok nods.
"Yes. To save Master, I will become a Heavenly King through the Origin Essence of Seven Stars, and after becoming a Heavenly King, I will escape from the belly of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and confront Master...and I will...save him."
[...Do you understand what it means to save that one...?]
"Yes. I understand. To save him...it means...I will have to kill him. Without killing him..."
[Can you kill your master?]
At that question, Oh Hyun-seok lowers his head.
"...I do not know."
[You must know. Whether you kill or not, if you don't set your resolve clearly, you will not be able to do anything.]
"...I do not know..."
Oh Hyun-seok clenches his teeth.
"I don't know what the right answer is...I don't know anything. I've failed since Earth, and I've made nothing but regrettable choices. And yet, making a choice like killing my master with my own hands... How can I possibly make such a choice...?"
[Then are you saying it is fine if someone else kills your master? For example, the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Ra Cheon who will one day try to swallow all of Mount Sumeru...]
"That's...not it. Just, I..."
[You do not know what is right, or what choice will leave you without regret.]
"...Yes."
Oh Hyun-seok answers with shame.
He's come this far thanks to one sentence from Seo Eun-hyun.
But now, when Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape asks, 'Will you kill Hyeon Rang?'...
He realizes he cannot make that decision.
[You are a child who is like chaos. Because every decision has brought regret, a child who will endlessly hesitate over every choice that lies ahead...]
"...Yes. That's the kind of person I am. Please...Senior Demon Ape, please give me the answer."
[No. I did not start speaking to give you an answer.]
"Pardon...?"
[If you do not know anything, then sit here and contemplate. If you know nothing, do nothing. Do nothing, and endlessly anguish until you find the answer. That is all I have to say to you.]
"O-O Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape...?"
Oh Hyun-seok's eyes widen. He thought this being might push his back like Azure Tiger Saint, or give him an answer like Silver Basket, or guide him like Seo Eun-hyun.
The Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape standing before him was the one who had influenced Azure Tiger Saint and could even be considered a kind of fellow peer of Seo Eun-hyun. He never expected such a reply from him.
[Sit. And...practice repentant enlightenment.]
"That is..."
[I will not force you into pain-ridden repentant enlightenment like Ra Cheon. But the answer is surely within you, so I will let you find it yourself.]
"..."
Slightly dumbfounded at those words, Oh Hyun-seok follows Cheong Min's instruction and crosses his legs into a lotus position, sitting down on the spot.
[Whether you should kill your master or save him. Whose power you will borrow. How to push through what lies ahead... All the answers lie within you. Until you find them, do not rise.]
"N-No, wait...Senior Demon Ape—no, Senior Cheong Min!"
Oh Hyun-seok is taken aback and tries to stand up to speak to Cheong Min, but in that moment, he feels his body grow immensely heavy.
'Ugh!'
He cannot move at all in the lotus position.
Some strange pressure is pressing down on him.
Even when he tries to activate the Immortal Arts he learned from Silver Basket, or the techniques he's honed until now like Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter, nothing works.
Inside this domain of Azure Scenery Heavenly Net, it seems as if all cultivation is sealed.
'Damn it...'
Even his physical body, trained up to Great Net Immortal, is sealed off.
It's as if Qi itself is sealed.
His powerful flesh and blood energy are thoroughly suppressed, and so Oh Hyun-seok can only sit there, unable to move, staring at the blue sky and the green field.
"There's no time, Senior! If I stay like this, I'll die from the aftermath of having my name taken by Master! Senior!"
However, Cheong Min, standing beside him, no longer replies. He simply turns his back and walks off somewhere within the formation of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net.
In this current state, where even turning his head is difficult, Oh Hyun-seok bites down on his lip, feeling as though he might faint.
'Damn it... No... If it goes on like this...I won't be able to do anything...'
Countless worries flash through his mind.
But suddenly, another thought arises within him.
Perhaps a terribly cowardly one.
'If I stay stuck here like this, maybe I won't have to kill Master with my own hands. Then...maybe I can leave it in the hands of Seo Eun-hyun or someone else. After all, I'm being held by an irresistible force anyway... Yeah...maybe, in a way...this turned out for the better...'
And so, Oh Hyun-seok begins to sit blankly, staring up at the blue sky of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net.
Turning his back on a problem he might be able to resolve if he just contemplates a bit, and choosing instead only the easy path laid before his eyes, trusting in his own 'grit,' he thus begins to kill time in that place.
A day passes.
Ten days pass.
A hundred days pass.
A year passes.
Oh Hyun-seok sits atop this hill where he can see the vast plain and sky at a glance, continuously thinking.
'I...made the best choice.'
'There's no way I can break through the Immortal Art and domain of Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape Cheong Min with my own strength. That's impossible.'
'Instead, let's gather strength here.'
'How could I kill Master with my own hands? Surely Seo Eun-hyun will take care of it this time again.'
'I've...suffered enough. I already went through hell crossing the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity... Even if I gain the Origin Essence of Seven Stars, won't I have to go through that hell again to return?'
'Even if Silver Basket lent me wisdom...I can't do it. I don't have the confidence to escape from the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.'
'So...let's just hold my breath here.'
He thus steels his resolve to sit in this place for ten years, a hundred years, even a thousand years.
Rationalizing it in any way he can.
As he faces the blue sky within the domain of Azure Scenery Heavenly Net and practices repentant enlightenment, Oh Hyun-seok's consciousness gradually clears, and he begins to feel his strength accumulating.
Of course, no matter how much he gathers, that power cannot be used within the domain of Azure Scenery Heavenly Net, but that doesn't matter.
Oh Hyun-seok simply lives quietly, believing that Seo Eun-hyun will one day make good use of the power he has gathered.
Because no matter how many questions he asks himself, escaping from this situation is impossible anyway.
'Maybe this is actually for the better. Rather than getting captured and tortured by the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, being caught by Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape and peacefully practicing repentant enlightenment until Seo Eun-hyun comes to save me is much more...'
'Is it really okay to live like this?'
Then, as Oh Hyun-seok continues to rationalize while sitting, he frowns at a certain voice.
'Is it really okay to live like this? Of course it's not okay. But what am I supposed to do!? I can't do anything right now...!'
"...Let's have some grit."
Oh Hyun-seok clenches his fists tightly and closes his eyes.
There's nothing he can do anyway, so trying to do something here is meaningless.
So, it's not that living like this is okay, but rather that he has 'no choice' but to live like this.
Oh Hyun-seok tries to move by telling himself that it's okay.
'Is it really okay to live like this?'
However, that voice continues to echo in Oh Hyun-seok's heart.
'Of course it's okay! Because I'm bound with no other choice...'
'Is it really okay to live like this?'
Bududuk...
He grits his teeth.
Blood flows from his gums.
"Just what do you want me to do?"
The doubt that has been lingering in his mind for a while.
Oh Hyun-seok grits his teeth and shouts toward that question.
"I can't do anything, can I! You want me to kill Master!? You want me to tear through the belly of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity!? You want me to break free from the binds of Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape!? Just what am I supposed to do!!?? Even borrowing strength from Silver Basket is not enough! Someone like Seo Eun-hyun has always done everything until now anyway! Won't someone do it again!? So please just..."
'Is it really okay to live like this?'
"Please just leave me alone!"
Oh Hyun-seok knows.
This is his Heart Demon.
And through this Heart Demon, he poignantly feels why the Great Mountain Supreme Deity severed Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape.
"What do you want me to do!?"
Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape says the answer is within Oh Hyun-seok.
But Oh Hyun-seok cannot feel it.
No—perhaps he doesn't want to acknowledge it.
Everything he has called 'grit' until now may in truth be 'cowardice,' and perhaps he simply cannot admit that he is a cowardly, petty, utterly filthy piece of trash.
"What more do you want from me!? Back then, I took Hye-seo to the hospital properly! Whether she liked me or not, it was big brother who was responsible for her! I wasn't her parent!
"Same for my daughter. Back then, I was clearly in a meeting when she contacted me saying, 'My stomach hurts a bit. Can you take me to the hospital?' But it wasn't a meeting I could just leave, and she clearly said, 'It's fine if you're ten minutes late, so take your time'! There wasn't a single problem until then either!
"It's the same even when I was kidnapped in the Head Realm! At the Azure Heaven Creation Sect, Master was beating me senseless every day, so how was I supposed to worry about my other comrades in that state!?
"And..."
Oh Hyun-seok can't continue.
He tries to talk about the other daughter he met in Penglai Island, but the words don't come.
"..."
—You trust Dad, right?
Those were the words he personally said to her when they parted.
Unlike everything he's said up to now,
At least for that child, Oh Hyun-seok had been her guardian, and with his own mouth, he had told her he would be back after just a few nights.
And...
Oh Hyun-seok could have, at least by asking Seo Eun-hyun for help, gone back to Penglai Island, or found an opportunity through Seo Eun-hyun to rescue that child again.
"..."
Oh Hyun-seok finally realizes that, when it comes to the daughter in Penglai Island, he can't make any excuse.
"...She's not...really my child...anyway..."
A pathetic excuse.
Oh Hyun-seok speaks those words and, at last, is able to accept his own wretched self.
'Then, shouldn't I have done whatever it took to save my real child?'
No matter what it took.
Whatever it took, he should have saved them.
But he failed to do so.
And the reason is only one.
Because the human Oh Hyun-seok is a coward who, when faced with the choice of solving a problem by taking a slightly winding path or ignoring it and taking the easy way, always chooses the easy path.
How many years has it been since Cheong Min forced him to sit and undergo repentant enlightenment?
At long last, Oh Hyun-seok manages to face his true self.
"...I'm...sorry..."
He is trash.
He couldn't protect anyone.
No. He 'didn't' protect anyone.
Even though he might have been able to!
And...
Only then does Oh Hyun-seok manage to move his body while seated in a lotus position.
Wuduk, wudududuk!
Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape never lifted the restriction.
It's just that Oh Hyun-seok is pulling forth strength he's never been able to summon until now.
Gathering even his strength from when he was an infant drinking milk, he finally understands he must stand up, even if every bone in his body shatters.
'If it couldn't be done, then I should have made it possible.'
He clenches his teeth, sincerely facing the cowardice he had only ever half-acknowledged until now.
Pukwak!
Oh Hyun-seok's true body tries to reveal itself within the domain of Azure Scenery Heavenly Net, but the laws of Azure Scenery Heavenly Net that restrain Immortal Cultivation suppress him.
The backlash causes Immortal Beast true blood to erupt throughout his entire body.
But he clenches his teeth and puts forth even more strength.
Even though the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net's domain was designed to ignore Immortal Cultivation, Oh Hyun-seok pushes his cultivation to explode with the resolve to be crushed beneath its laws.
Pukwak, pukwak!
Immortal Beast True Blood bursts from all of Oh Hyun-seok's seven orifices.
Tsuaaaaaaaah!
The methods he learned from the Azure Heaven Creation Sect, methods he learned from Gol Maek, the Immortal Arts and wisdom gained from meeting Hyeon Rang, and the Immortal Arts and wisdom he gained from Silver Basket—all erupt at once.
Oh Hyun-seok's bones shatter.
Gol Maek's Bone Armor Treasured Origin Art reinforces the broken bones.
Oh Hyun-seok internal organs are pulverized.
The Immortal Arts learned from Silver Basket replace them.
His blood vessels all rupture, and his muscles tear.
The Azure Spirit Starlight Quintessence Great Method becomes his new muscle.
Oh Hyun-seok's very existence is crushed.
The enlightenment regarding the Immortal Daos of Name and Seven Stars he learned from Hyeon Rang sustain his existence.
Oh Hyun-seok, mobilizing all the teachings he has ever learned from all the connections he has ever formed, rises from his place.
Tsuaaaaaaaah!
The blue energy radiating from his body mixes with the red Immortal Beast True Blood, becoming purple.
Flutter!
Wings begin to sprout from Oh Hyun-seok's back.
[At last...]
And at some point, Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape has appeared behind him, smiling faintly.
[I can see your name now, Oh Hyun-seok.]
Kugugugugugu!
Oh Hyun-seok, enduring the pressure of Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape by squeezing out all of his being, by squeezing out all of his connections, smiles faintly.
He has mobilized all the power he gained from the connections he's formed.
Because the power originating from his relationships has been mobilized, he has finally found the name that symbolizes the relationships himself.
[Have you found the answer?]
"Yes. It was inside me."
[What is the name of that answer?]
"...Honesty."
It is the honesty to face his own cowardice.
[How admirable.]
Cheong Min, smiling brightly, begins to gradually collapse in place.
[Honesty is pleasure. For pleasure comes when problems are resolved, and honesty is the best way to resolve all problems.]
Oh Hyun-seok looks at Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape Cheong Min.
Until now, Cheong Min's face could not be clearly seen, but now, at last, it has become properly visible.
[Now you are smiling, Hyun-seok-ah.]
Oh Hyun-seok, gazing at Cheong Min's face, realizes the smile forming at the corners of his own lips.
"...Thank you. Then, I'll be going now."
[And what will you do, once you leave?]
"...My master..."
Oh Hyun-seok says something to Cheong Min.
Upon hearing Oh Hyun-seok's answer, Cheong Min smiles brightly.
Turning his back to Cheong Min, Oh Hyun-seok flaps his wings.
The single pair of wings gradually multiplies, becoming ten pairs.
With ten pairs of wings spread wide, Oh Hyun-seok stomps down and tears apart the laws of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net with all his strength, escaping its domain.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
At the same time, he feels it.
'Is this it...?'
The Seat in which Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape once sat!
The conscience and Buddha-Nature that the Great Mountain Supreme Deity severed, unable to overcome his own shame and disgrace.
The Origin Essence of the Sea of Nature!
Oh Hyun-seok feels the hidden Origin Essence within the domain of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net, and he senses it flowing into him.
It is permitted to him by the former owner of that Origin Essence, Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape.
Tsuaaaaaaah!
As the world of the Azure Scenery Heavenly Net shatters, he once again sees the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea that blankets the entire world.
And he also realizes that the Owner of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea is watching him.
But Oh Hyun-seok pays it no mind and begins to expand his body, projecting his presence across all directions.
The power of the Origin Essence mixes with Oh Hyun-seok's Absolute.
At the same time, Oh Hyun-seok feels his perception change.
Having lost his [name], he cannot exist as a named being. But having come to know [meaning], he can, albeit only 'temporarily,' reach that realm.
One who invokes the Absolute.
Heavenly Venerable Rank.
The realm of Heavenly King!
Kugugugugugu!
The nameless Heavenly King of Avidyā reveals his colossal form that has become Primordial Chaos itself, and turns to face the Owner of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea who glares at him.
: : Who are you? : :
The Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am asks, and the nameless Heavenly King answers.
: : I am Oh Hyun-seok. : :
That name should not be audible to Gwak Am due to Hyeon Rang, but regardless, he proclaims it loudly for all of Heaven and Earth to hear.
: : A disciple who has come to save his master, and a father who has come to rescue his child. : :
The gaze of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity collides with that of the Giant God of Primordial Chaos, and Oh Hyun-seok, revealing the presence that had long been hidden beneath his cowardice, shouts.
: : Hand over my child, O Owner of Penglai Island. I have come to fulfill the promise I made with her. : :