Tududududu!
An indescribably chilling surge of energy faces us.
The Head Realm splits.
And what faces us is a strange attraction force that lies between the Head Realm.
'That is...'
That attraction force connects to the Vast Cold Realm, and it is something far too familiar to us.
'Ascension Gate!'
It is the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin made.
And the moment I see it, I understand what it means.
Tiring—
'It is not simply...a gate that leads to the Vast Cold Realm...!?'
Guguguguguuk!
As I am sucked into the fissure, I come to understand something.
My comrades also seem to realize something, as they all at once stretch their hands toward the attraction force of that Ascension Gate.
For mortals beings at or below the Heavenly Being stage, the Ascension Gate is a gigantic concept like a 'gate' or a 'path,' but for us who reach the rank of Governing Immortal, it feels like a faint 'thread'.
And the meaning of that thread is not simply to ascend to the Vast Cold Realm.
"The thread of a labyrinth..."
Kang Min-hee mutters as she winds that attraction force around her hand.
It is Yang Su-jin's consideration so that juniors who enter the Audience Chamber can flee back inside Mount Sumeru.
If one fears defeating the Future King, it is Yang Su-jin's will to let one come back down to Mount Sumeru and live a little longer.
We, excluding Underworld, all tie to our wrists the red thread, the attraction force of the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin left behind.
Rather than fleeing from the Future King, it is more so we feel the heart of our predecessor.
Tsuaaaaat!
Thus, together with my comrades, I set foot toward the world that I expect to be the Audience Chamber.
Western Heavenly Venerable, Netherworld Queen Mother Bong Hwa.
Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun.
Golden Speed Heavenly King Kim Young-hoon.
Red Pearl Cycling Heavenly King Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King Kang Min-hee.
Silver Nameless Heavenly King Oh Hyun-seok.
Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King Kim Yeon.
Agate Auspicious Heavenly King Oh Hye-seo.
A grand host of Governing Immortals totaling eight!
They enter the Audience Chamber.
And the first to sense an anomaly is Bong Hwa.
Woooooo—
: : ...I see. So it is you, Gatekeeper. : :
Tudududu!!
The Gatekeeper of the Audience Chamber.
The Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon stares at Bong Hwa with the eyes of Sun and Moon.
: : Step aside. There are eight Governing Immortals. I do not wish to bicker with the likes of you... : :
The vessel of the Origin Essence of Life that contains the Akashic Records.
She glares at the Emptiness Supreme Deity and clenches one hand.
But then,
: : .... : :
With a chilly gaze, Bong Hwa looks around.
Before she knows it, she has entered a strange space.
It is a strange world from which Mount Sumeru is overlooked at a glance.
And toward the [above] of that peculiar world, she feels a sacred sanctuary where an overwhelming presence is felt.
The gateway that leads to the Audience Chamber.
A space of Primordial Origin from which all of Heaven and Earth is overlooked.
If she just proceeds forward, she will reach the Audience Chamber.
Yes, if she just walks, she will so very easily reach it.
The other Enders are not in sight.
Perhaps, by the Emptiness Supreme Deity, they are undergoing a [trial] of facing the Gatekeeper.
At this vaguely unpleasant, biased trial, Bong Hwa decides not to enter the Audience Chamber right away and instead to wait for the other Enders to pass their trials.
In any case, these Enders are the golden generation.
There is the unfathomable variable named Seo Eun-hyun that cannot be guessed or understood, but even setting that aside, it is a never-before-seen, absurd lineup of power the likes of which has never existed.
They cannot possibly fail a mere trial, so it is enough to wait a little.
Just when she thinks so,
Flutter—
Suddenly, Bong Hwa sees a strip of paper fly past her side.
It is a part of a book.
Though its title cannot be seen, clearly...
It is a story about a protagonist who suffers from their connections and ascends.
Flutter, flutter, flutter...
And taking that as the lead, countless sheets of paper start to fly around her.
Those sheets differ in depiction, but all depict a story about a single existence.
That appearance is much like the Celestial Lord Incense Burning that Seo Eun-hyun left behind before going to the Outer Sea, but it exudes a far more sacred feeling.
From Mount Sumeru, innumerable sheets fly and begin to soar toward the Audience Chamber.
Seeing this, the eyes of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld Bong Hwa widen.
Gradually, the chilling energy that all beings of Mount Sumeru, including her, feel begins to subside.
As if beings of lower rank do not even have the qualification to dare to perceive that existence...
Seeing this, Bong Hwa, leaving behind the Enders undergoing the trial, grits her teeth and advances toward the Audience Chamber.
As if the truth of the history in the Audience Chamber, torn away in the Audience Chamber, comes to mind.
Woooooo—
A dark starry heaven.
It looks like a night sky lit by starlight, yet the starlight is too weak, and the darkness is too strong.
That dark world is like a labyrinth.
However, there is one existence who gropes through that labyrinth and tries to reach its edge.
It is the blond man, Kim Young-hoon.
Cheok!
At last, Kim Young-hoon reaches the edge of the labyrinth.
All Heaven and Earth are darkness, and what is felt is something like a door seen before his eyes.
That gigantic door, which looks much more like a human door than the Head Realm Gate they passed through, gives a feeling of being powerfully in contact with Kim Young-hoon's essence.
Woooooo—
The strange wailing felt from somewhere.
"...I see, so you are the Emptiness Supreme Deity."
Kim Young-hoon, within that wail, receives the strange feeling he felt whenever he saw the Head Realm and recognizes its identity.
"Is this...the trial you impose on us?"
Kim Young-hoon suddenly feels the urge to cut this gate down.
"Well then...I should at least give it a try."
Hwoong—
The moment Kim Young-hoon takes his stance.
A golden flash of a fleeting instant bores into the door.
Jjeoeoong!
A golden wave spreads through all Heaven and Earth, and the dark world brightens for a moment.
At the same time, the form of the door within that darkness appears even more distinctly.
That gate is as if the universe is compressed into the form of a gate.
Innumerable starlights swirl within the door, and countless constellations within the door emit sacred light and form strange shapes.
However, that is all.
"...Hmm..."
Kim Young-hoon's single strike only leaves a scratch on the door.
He fails to cut the door down.
"Well, if I spend some time, I can probably cut it down..."
But the moment he cut, he understood.
This is not made to be 'cut'.
It is a door meant to be reached, looking back upon oneself, and testing one's own enlightenment.
Kim Young-hoon stands before the door and speaks while putting forth his Dao.
"Enlightenment... I have obtained it."
Wo-woong—
Kim Young-hoon's voice strikes the door and returns as an echo.
And that echo reaches him as a completely different question.
—What is your enlightenment?
"My enlightenment is..."
Kim Young-hoon closes his eyes and slowly recalls his entire life.
Meeting his wife and loving her.
Seeing his children and devoting his whole life to them.
Becoming a department director.
Getting caught in a landslide while going on a company workshop.
Falling to Ascension Path, remaining with Seo Eun-hyun, and ranging across the martial world...
And in that process, by Seo Eun-hyun's regression, repeating more than a few times, gradually improving, and all those things that lead him to this very place engrave themselves in his mind.
Carrying his enlightenment, Kim Young-hoon slowly brings his hand to the door.
"I realize how much this life...is filled with things one can rejoice in, how much I can trust people, and how far I can climb."
His eyes blaze with gold.
At the same time, his hand also burns with gold.
"A single life is a fleeting spring dream. However, precisely because of this, the life within the fleeting instant is joy beyond compare."
Tststststststs...!
The gold spreading out from Kim Young-hoon's hand grows stronger and begins to push the door hard.
"Life is joy."
Voicing the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Kim Young-hoon begins to push the door wide open.
A space of darkness.
Jeon Myeong-hoon looks at the door before his eyes.
It is a strange door, as if it models the universe.
And seeing the countless constellations engraved on the door, he tilts his head.
'I feel like I've seen these constellations somewhere before...'
However, he cannot tell what they are.
'Well, it probably isn't that important.'
Jeon Myeong-hoon pulls for red lightning.
Kwarururung!
Within the red lightning, he prepares a single strike filled with his sincerity.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear!
The strongest ultimate technique of a Governing Immortal unfolds from his hand as a spear of mortality.
The red spear directly strikes the door as-is, and the ultimate technique that contains all of Jeon Myeong-hoon shatters outright.
"Mm..."
He realizes.
This door is not a door meant to receive attacks.
'Is it to test oneself?'
He quietly brings his hand to the door.
Wo-woong—
The sounds born from Jeon Myeong-hoon's movements return as echoes.
Carrying the question of some existence.
—What enlightenment have you obtained?
Jeon Myeong-hoon closes his eyes.
He was born into an affluent family and lived his whole life without lack.
There was a time when he entered his family's company, sat there idly, killed time, and tried to pick up women.
He also met a guy he didn't like.
It was a guy named Seo Eun-hyun.
He tried to bully him and drive him out. He even made a plan to disgrace him at the workshop.
Then he met a landslide and fell into a strange world.
There, he stepped onto the path of Immortal Cultivation, came to love, and gradually grew as a human being.
And he lost all of it and ended up shouting only anger.
But vengeance did not come to pass, and he only repeated dying miserably in the wilderness...
However, by Seo Eun-hyun, he repeated, and repeated...
And gradually, by riding along with the regression, he came to receive salvation.
He did not save everyone, but he saved some.
He, who had only gone on dying without crossing a certain realm, did not die, advanced forward, reached Great Net Immortal, and faced the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity.
Thus, having completed all revenge and become a Heavenly King, he has come to this place.
"I was angry. Therefore I accepted others' anger. Thus...I accepted becoming the ring of anger itself."
Anger is, after all, for circulation.
As long as the world cycles, the existence that is him is needed as well.
Life is a cycle.
Therefore, the anger that becomes the driving force of that cycle is life itself.
"Life is anger."
Putting forward the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Jeon Myeong-hoon thrusts forward his reddened hand with force.
Red light brightens the darkness and pushes the door open.
In the darkness.
Kang Min-hee looks at the door before her eyes and comes to understand something.
"This is..."
She has spent ages under the Underworld, doing nothing but drawing taenghwa.
No one can recognize better than her diagrams that symbolize something.
"Immortal Cultivation system...?"
The strange constellations floating and shining within that door, as if someone crammed a Heavenly Domain within, are a schematization of the Immortal Cultivation system.
She realizes that this great door is, more than she expected, a high-ranking existence.
'I see...'
And she realizes, without even bothering to attack, that she cannot break through and pass.
'For the Immortal Cultivation system...is not something like a mere law.'
It is the path she has learned, and also another self of hers.
Her own self.
There is nothing in the world as strong as that.
If she is to break this door, she must be prepared to break herself.
Knock, knock.
She knocks on the door.
Its echo spreads and returns as a question.
—What is your enlightenment?
Kang Min-hee looks back on her life.
Since childhood, a ghost clung to her.
Because of the ghost, she could not become close with anyone, and only upon becoming an adult did she become close with Seo Eun-hyun.
She liked Seo Eun-hyun.
Although their relationship became uncomfortable, still, all his actions brought warmth to a corner of her heart.
Originally, after coming back from the workshop, she planned to state her intent to resign.
For Seo Eun-hyun.
So that he no longer feels uncomfortable with her.
In any case, Jeon Myeong-hoon was hitting on her in a filthy way, so the reason for resignation was sufficient.
But a landslide occurred, and she was dragged to Black Ghost Valley.
Receiving the teachings of Heo Gwak and the sages of Black Ghost Valley, she gained control of herself and gradually drew near to death.
She awakened as the Ghost Guiding Holy Mother, and was subjugated by Jang Ik.
However, in the life that repeated because of Seo Eun-hyun, she at last received salvation.
"It was always...a life of only being protected."
She wanted to protect as well.
But she could not protect.
Not only Seo Eun-hyun, but even his daughter...
Tststststs...
From within Kang Min-hee's heart, something begins to bloom.
It is the aggregation of her hearts that has been suppressed under her Absolute.
That which does not let sorrow flow only as sorrow.
It is the soul.
As she looks back on her own life, her eyes blaze blue.
Kang Min-hee's blue hair becomes even clearer.
"One protects one another, and is also protected by each other, and at times fails to protect. Therefore..."
Tsuaaaat!
Her hand bursts into blue flame.
"Life is sorrow."
That hand shining blue begins to push the door.
"But at the same time...as long as what I must protect is by my side, it is not only sorrow."
Jjeoooooong!
With Kang Min-hee's shout, the door shines ever more vigorously and begins to show her the way.
Trial space.
Oh Hyun-seok throws a straight punch.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust...
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter...
Kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang...
"Huuuk, huuuk..."
He wipes his sweat and rubs his fist that feels numb.
"...Strange. I reached the Governing Immortal rank, yet how is it that only faint marks remain against me...?"
Oh Hyun-seok is already, in himself, a law.
Therefore, no matter what law is before his eyes, if it is struck by him, there must be at least some change.
For it is a collision of laws.
"Just what in the world is this made of...?"
Kuwoong!
Oh Hyun-seok, a little vexed, places his fist against the door and glares at it.
But suddenly, he realizes something.
"...This is..."
The door that is like a transparent universe.
Inside that door, something reflects.
It is Oh Hyun-seok himself.
For some reason, he feels a bit embarrassed.
"...Damn. Was I hitting myself...?"
Oh Hyun-seok knows what he should do.
Wo-woong—
His own voice becomes an echo and returns as a question.
—What could be your enlightenment, that you knock upon the door?
"...My enlightenment..."
Oh Hyun-seok recalls his daughter who wanted to follow him.
At the same time, he recalls his child on Earth that was lost to a miscarriage.
Countless memories flash through his mind.
"Not being ashamed before myself. That being the path to truly live with a smile. That is my enlightenment. Because this world is one where those who wish not to be ashamed keep on living, tussling with one another..."
He shouts boisterously.
"Life is pleasure!"
Tsuaaaaat!
His fist blazes silver and begins to push the door.
But at the same time, his soul resounds and blazes even more.
"However...at the same time it is much more than that!"
It cannot be expressed.
For that is the teaching he gained upon meeting the being called Cheong Min.
If one is a man, it has always been that you prove yourself with nothing but your own two fists!
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter.
Zero Wing.
Nameless One Fist, thrust!
Recalling the words of Azure Tiger Saint, Oh Hyun-seok heartedly puts power into his fist and forcefully shoves the door open.
Inside Mount Sumeru.
In every Heavenly Domain there, all those of the Heart Tribe feel a strange sensation.
"What is this...?"
"M-My senses...are cut in half...?"
"No, I don't think that's it...but what on earth is this!?"
The Heart Tribe fall into great confusion.
The reason is simple.
Clang!
The Interdimensional Void closes.
The Plane of Soul does not operate.
Seo Eun-hyun's Heart Dao Blooming and Kim Young-hoon's system support the Heart Tribe, but as they lose the functions they enjoyed through the Plane of Soul, they all at once speak of their discomfort.
And, the source of the Interdimensional Void's closing,
In the Good Sight Heavenly Domain, Interdimensional Void,
There, a human-shaped something with a ponytail wears a gloomy smile.
Rather than smiling, it seems to be forcing a smile while crying.
"O Fate. I hate you."
Northern Heavenly Venerable, True Martial Great Emperor Hyeon Mu.
Heavenly Venerable of Void.
That existence looks up at the sky with empty eyes and lets out an utterance.
"I want to die."
At the same time, Hyeon Mu's body begins to scatter.
Inside the Interdimensional Void, Hyeon Mu's Gandhara [Three Great Ultimates formed of Black Snakes] disassembles and begins to fly off somewhere.
A dark trial space.
Kim Yeon slowly raises her hand there.
Woo-woooong!
A light pink flame rises on Kim Yeon's hand and begins to push open the door.
"Life is love."
She knows about this trial.
The moment she tried to challenge the Audience Chamber, the lingering thought of Vast Cold whispered to her.
Woooong—
Kim Yeon's soul rings.
"However, at the same time...it is the countless possibilities that advance from inside that love..."
The door opens.
Kim Yeon, as Vast Cold's memories surge like a tide, senses that the soul of the previous Tridacna, the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord, is not far away.
—Come, child. Make up for my mistake, and seize them by the ankle...
Kim Yeon's eyes blaze light pink, and, hearing that one line from the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord, steels her resolve and proceeds beyond the door.
A dark space.
There, Oh Hye-seo looks at the door before her eyes and strokes the surface of the door.
Somehow it even feels a bit rough.
From that feeling she senses the scales of her lover, Seo Hweol.
"...Seo Hweol..."
What Seo Hweol taught her was her heart.
Hatred.
But at the same time, Seo Hweol did not teach only hatred.
Seo Hweol undeniably taught love as well.
Hatred is not merely anger scorched and left clinging.
When love breaks, and what remains cling and fester darkness, that is precisely hatred.
Hatred is an emotion directly connected to love.
"Life is hatred..."
Tststststs...
Oh Hye-seo's hand stains dark red, like Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens, and gradually pushes the door away.
"However, at the same time..."
Oh Hye-seo's soul rings.
And at some moment, light pink energy also begins to flow out from that hand.
Kkigigigigik—
Simultaneously, the door that begins to open screeches and stops.
"Love is not absent either..."
Is it only love?
There are other things as well. She just cannot define them yet.
They surely exist.
Oh Hye-seo does not bother to open the door all the way.
She does not bother to prove herself further.
She simply wedges herself through the slightly opened crack, turns into a black shadow, and squeezes through the gap.
A temporary afterlife created by the Underworld Ten Great Kings.
There lies the mantra of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, which serenely rotates and governs the reincarnation of spirits.
[White Wheel].
Among the Underworld Ten Great Kings managing it, the Chief Judge, Yama True Lord Yan Luo, judges the spirits and senses something strange.
: : Hm...? : :
At Yan Luo's reaction, the other Underworld Ten Great Kings also begin to look back at the place where the Wheel is located.
A strange energy is being felt.
: : What...? : :
Yan Luo reaches out a hand to normalize the flow of the Wheel.
But then it happens.
Kkik, kkigigigigigik...!
Kigigigigigik...!
Kugung!
As if something suddenly catches with a clunk, the Wheel of Reincarnation stops in place.
: : What...!? : :
Startled, Yama goes to the wheel, and the other Ten Great Kings also gather one after another around the wheel.
: : Some...some spirit is reversing! : :
: : This is...a phenomenon that occasionally occurs when an existence of True Immortality revives... : :
: : But what kind of existence revives by reversing the Wheel itself!? : :
: : Just what kind of existence is it...that they reverse the Wheel of the Imperial Venerable with nothing but their spirit...!? : :
: : This is no time for that. Everyone, gather strength. Whatever the case, it is a profane existence. By the authority of us kings, we shall reincarnate it again! : :
: : O dead one, abandon the thought of revival and follow the natural order! : :
At that moment,
A radiant light bursts out from the Wheel.
At the same time, the Wheel begins to reverse madly.
That appearance is as if...
Time is rewinding.
Before my eyes.
A gigantic door is visible.
That door is a beautiful door with constellations floating as if symbolizing the Immortal Cultivation system.
However, at the same time...
'So this is it.'
I recognize that this is the source of the disgust I felt whenever I looked at the Head Realm.
Rather than simply the gaze of the Future King, it is this door that is even more closely tied to the source of that disgust.
'Because something like this exists inside the Head Realm, I suppose that is why I felt so much disgust.'
I calmly try pushing the door.
The door does not budge.
"Open."
Even when I let out a single word laden with prophecy, the door only shudders and does not move.
Rather, my voice becomes an echo and merely returns as a strange question.
—Have you attained enlightenment?
"Yes. I attained the highest enlightenment."
—What is that enlightenment.
"...Having lived life, it turns out that countless beings have things they desire."
I put strength into my hand.
"This world is filled with countless hopes."
My soul begins to resound.
"Life is desire."
I speak aloud the single phrase that I suppose is my fate, which I once glimpsed through Indra's Net in the far past.
Nothing happens.
I glare at the door and shout.
"...What, was this the answer you wanted!?"
Woo-woong!
I lift my hand.
"Don't make me laugh."
I am a sword.
My hand is a blade.
There is nothing anywhere in this Heaven and Earth that can block this body...
Kkwaaaang!
At my single strike, the door dents.
"If it is not the answer you want, you will not open the door, huh? Were you not asking me for an interpretation of life?"
—Is it not that you have not truly realized it?
At the question flowing from the door, I strike the door once again.
Kwagwagwang!
The door dents even more.
Two strikes.
With just that, the door greatly twists and crumples and its form collapses.
"Then I ask you this. Rather than not having truly realized it, is it not that the correct answer is already fixed?"
Kwaaaang!!!
The third strike.
The door that takes the shape of the whole universe gradually crumples and begins to shatter.
"Is it not that someone blindly set a chosen correct answer and forced it upon us by their own standard alone? Have they not denied everything else as incorrect if it is not that answer!?"
Kkwaaaang!
Not only the door, but cracks begin to spread through the entire dark space in which the door is set.
I look back on my life.
There stands Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens, transformed from the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections.
I grew up in an ordinary family, went to an ordinary school, entered an ordinary military unit, and became an ordinary adult.
Then I entered an ordinary company somewhere between a small to medium-sized business, and...
I fell into an unordinary world.
In that world I met countless teachers.
"Then I ask you!! What is life!?"
—Life is desi—
"Wrong!!"
Kwaaaang!!!
Creeeeeeeak!
The entire space begins to collapse, and now the door almost loses its shape, leaving only the sense that it used to be a door.
—Was what I gave you also a curse?
Perhaps everything began from that.
However, it is something I was already enjoying even before that.
In this life, nothing at all is a given.
"Life is a miracle!"
Because it never returns.
Because a person's present is absolutely not a given, this life is more precious and thankful than anything.
Therefore...
Surely this world is a miracle itself.
Kwaaaaaaaang!!
My knife hand thus smashes even the last remaining form of the door and brings down the entire trial space.
The entirety of the space called the trial space presses on me and begins to pin me so I can never go forward.
—O defective product, be nailed to this place.
"Even though life is a miracle, is it truly the will of the heavens to not acknowledge it?"
I shout toward the will I presume to be the master of this space.
"Then, O Heavens!"
Urururung!
If space presses me, I cut space itself.
If time strangles me, I break time itself.
Kiriririk...
The technique I completed recently by seizing the time that belongs to me through the Seed Plot of Disjunction.
Woo-woooong!
Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens settles in my hand.
Naturally fusing with the Impermanence Sword, Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens becomes a blade stronger than anything.
With the light of Flower Soul Filling the Heavens, I cross generations.
With the power of Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens, I fix the coordinates, and I then run beyond spacetime.
That is Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens.
Thereupon, I add to it the enlightenment regarding time and regression by the understanding of the Radiance Mantra, and add even the understanding I gained by devouring the Northern Dipper Seven Heavenly Lords.
I even internalize the method of seizing the whole universe with Great Mountain Pressing Down, and with the profundity of the Severing Heaven Sword Form I completed with the seven steps...
Tsuaaat!
The sword imbued with the Deer of Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens becomes a Mountain Lord like the will of Obsidian.
Severing Heaven Sword Form (斷天劍形).
Final Form.
"Heavens, match yourself to me!!!"
Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens (瑞魂滿天).
My sword, which transcends time and space to arrive, smashes through all of spacetime, shatters the darkness of the trail, and opens a path forward.
Before my eyes, a [Baby] appears.