Chapter 802: A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation
Huaruruk—
It blazes.
She wears a dragon robe of wisdom made of golden flames, and atop her hair there is not a hair ornament but a golden imperial crown like that of the Future King.
At the same time, behind her head, the Wheel that has begun to burn with golden light spins without end.
I can tell.
Now, the one behind me is no longer merely the Underworld.
The mother of all life in this Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World.
At the same time, she is the recorder of history and the librarian of Omniscience who can know any truth she wishes.
Kuuuuung!
A part of her jade throne, formed from Bong Hwa's Vestige suddenly seems to vanish, and in that place, a portion of what appears to be the head of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeon Woon sprouts up.
We can all tell what has happened.
Woo-woooong!
A part of the Vestige she cast off as she advanced to Life Supreme Deity.
Half of it’s head portion.
That was forming half of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon.
'I see. This is the Future King.'
In the future where she someday advances to Life Supreme Deity, he transposed her Vestige with half of his own Vestige, so that the very possibility that some existence other than her might advance to Life Supreme Deity and seize the Absolute was sealed off at the source.
That is the truth of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon, who has eyes of Sun and Moon.
As he fixed the future where Bong Hwa becomes Life Supreme Deity, at the same time he wanted, even if only in the form of a Vestige, to be together with her and, in the form called the Head Realm, endlessly repeat the memories of the time when he was a mortal...
The result of Hong Fan Gu Ju's twisted desire and at the same time a symbol of hope; that is precisely the end product that is the existence called the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon.
Huarururuk—
The divinity of Life and History, Information and Explosions.
The First King Bong Hwa gazes for a moment at the outcome of the Future King's divine power and then withdraws her gaze.
She only keeps on reaching out her hand toward Vast Cold, who collapses while endlessly exploding.
"Rise. Even after taking my Peach Garden, are you going to lie there so powerless?"
Woo-woong!
The scent of peach blossoms seems to spread, and Vast Cold, who has been torn apart, comes back to life.
At the same time, Vast Cold takes something out from their embrace.
It is a fragment of some world.
It is the Peach Garden filled with peach petals, where Vast Cold's lingering thought was once met.
Vast Cold quietly kneels in front of Bong Hwa, bows their head, and offers that fragment of a world to her.
When the fragment of the world enters her hand, it changes into a shape like a peach tree branch.
On the branch, peach blossoms bloom in an instant, and a well-ripened peach bears.
Bong Hwa picks that peach and seems to briefly smell its fragrance, then throws it as it is toward Hong Fan.
Hong Fan naturally catches the peach and smells its fragrance.
"All this time. For taking care of me. For allowing me to come all the way to this place, I am grateful. This is my repayment for all the grace of fate you have bestowed upon me until now."
"...If I eat this, does it mean I can no longer receive any debt from you concerning Immortal Cultivation and fate?"
"We simply become equal to each other."
With the insight of a Supreme Deity, I can tell.
'A mass of life force...and a mass of information breathed with all the memories of when Bong Hwa and Hong Fan were the happiest in their past lives."
It is not a mere clump of information.
Quite literally, she has torn out and handed over a part of the past and history from the Akashic Records in which Hong Fan and Bong Hwa were happy.
That information is, in effect, a kind of miniature Akashic Records that belongs solely to Hong Fan.
Crunch—
Hong Fan holds it in his mouth and takes a bite.
"It is sweet."
Tsuaaaaat—
Through the act of eating, the Fate Supreme Deity makes the memories inside the small Akashic Records that Bong Hwa has given his own, and for a brief moment sinks into reminiscence.
Hwiooooo—
The history in the shape of a peach is instantly absorbed into Hong Fan.
"Although there was an unhappy past, surely there were also times that were sweet and happy, were there not? O Future King. Please remember so and escape from the past. What you should look upon is the future, not being seized by the past that has gone by. Please...now let go of the tail you have been biting.
"Do not let the entire era of Mount Sumeru be bound to a single age and culture by being trapped in the past. Please, move forward so that more eras and cultures, new stories, may come to take their place.
"The person who once was in your embrace makes this plea."
"...Why are you not Yang Hwe but Bong Hwa?"
Hong Fan, at Bong Hwa's plea, asks her a question.
"Why do you not use the name Yang Hwe, which I personally went all the way to the divinity wearing the shell of a namer to receive for you...
"Why...do you use...such a name that announces crisis? Why...do you use that terrible name I thought of while watching from afar as you burned?"
"First...in order to separate me from your fate and push me as a candidate for Life Supreme Deity, you surely remember that you bestowed upon me the [fate that overcomes fate], do you not?"
Flinch—
At Bong Hwa's fate, which only now do I come to know of, I flinch.
That...was the fate bestowed upon my child.
"Are you saying it is simply because it is a name I remember badly, that it is a name you created through a rebellious heart against the fate I breathed?"
"That too cannot be said to have no influence. However! You too must remember. Just as you have watched over me in every past life. I too, in every past life, have wanted to return to you."
She looks at Hong Fan with a warm smile and continues speaking.
"To overcome fate is the fate you bestowed upon this one. At first, as I followed that fate, I was confused, but after going through countless incidents, treading through trials and adversity, and meeting many connections, I learned many things.
"And I came to know. You try to push me away from you, but I want to talk with you. And all this time. I have wanted to tell you that I am grateful to you.
"Overcoming fate and such are not my concern. For I have come to know that, regardless of the correct way to overcome fate, in the end it is we ourselves who judge, so it does not matter how we interpret it."
Hearing those words, my lips part.
'Ah...'
What she says is addressed to Hong Fan, but in truth, one of the knots in my own heart...
...is untied.
'I see...'
If someday...
If I meet my daughter again, I now have the confidence that this time, I can treat that child a little more properly.
Of course...
She is a child I sent away with my own hands.
I cannot raise her and piece her back together as if I am breeding and assembling something, and then bring her back to life to go together with me.
So someday...I only harbor the hope that she might live again under Bong Hwa, and there is a day when we meet by chance.
"The name Bong Hwa (beacon fire) is a name with which the history of the existence that is me wishes to express gratitude to you. Because..."
She smiles warmly toward the Future King and speaks.
"From the moment I came to know that, in order to cure my illness, you went to countless mountain peaks to light beacon fires, and in the end, even attached beacon fires to the tips of your five fingers... I no longer needed any other splendid and grand name."
The third story.
It is the story of certain man who wanders all around in order to cure his wife who has leprosy,
And, after hearing that if he lights beacon fires simultaneously on a mountain peak where five peaks hang down, the leprosy will be healed, he searches for countless mountain peaks.
The distorted fairy tale.
In the fairy tale that Hong Fan hoped for, the man realizes that the tips of his five fingers are the five peaks, and when he puts fire to the tips of his fingers, his wife recovers from her illness.
Perhaps, as I suppose.
It is likely a story that contained Hong Fan's hope of making something called happiness touch his own fingertips.
"As the house and you burned, you told me through the heat of beacon fire that danger was coming upon you. But because I could not see with my eyes, I could not run faster...could not run straight to you. Because of that, you burned to death. The name Bong Hwa...for me, is the shame of failing to protect you."
"So it was because you felt the beacon fire and ran to save me, it was the name with which you thought of me. It hurt a little when I burned in the fire...but when you came and held me, at that time it was truly good."
"...Rather than lighting beacon fires on a mountain for you...I wanted to build a house where I can live together with you."
"I remember that as well. You said so when you came back after going around lighting beacon fires. That as you wandered, there seemed to be many beautiful mountains...and that when I got better, you wanted us to travel together, and that you wanted to live in a house built on a mountain listening as I explained the mountain scenery to you, who could not see."
She waves her arm.
As she sweeps that arm which blazes with flames once, all the darkness in the Audience Chamber recedes and the chaos is driven out.
"Seeing that you wanted to live in the mountains, I said that surely you must be an Immortal."
"Looking back, what I needed was not a mountain but a place where only you and I could stay. Because all the world that scorned and betrayed you and me seemed nothing but foul."
"Thus, you deliberately shaped the world in the form of a mountain...I can only be grateful."
As the chaos is once again driven out by her, inside the gestation world.
The flows of countless attraction force embrace several Heavenly Domains and take on the shape of a cone.
In other words, what comes into all of our eyes is a scene formed in the shape of a mountain.
Why, of all forms, does it have to be a mountain?
A mountain is high and steep, so if one lives at its summit, those who are not wanted do not come to visit...
It is simply a form that carries the wish to stay there quietly.
"Because someday...we promised back then to live together on a mountain..."
Hong Fan, looking down at Mount Sumeru, murmurs.
Bong Hwa looks at him and reaches out her hand to him.
"Then, will you now keep that promise?"
"..."
We all look at that scene.
Even those who do not know Hong Fan's past watch between the two while holding their breath.
For everyone who has come to this place knows it instinctively.
Right now, in this place, between those two.
It all hangs whether all bonds of grace and resentment, all bridles of grudge, will be smoothly washed away or not.
And then, a certain scene flashes through my memory.
Perhaps that scene...
Might have been the moment that lets me glimpse what decision Hong Fan will make if such a situation ever comes.
—Stop...please, just stop... Let's tell Bong Hwa everything and beg for forgiveness... How long must we keep doing this? Just how long!!?? In this endless hell without end, how long must I keep doing this!!?? I!!?? Am bowing down like this and begging!? Please, let's stop!"
—...Again and again and again...I've gone over that anguish. You know that. But in the end, the conclusion is always the same."
—The story must be completed.
"...The story must be completed."
He does not beg Bong Hwa for forgiveness.
He does not even apologize.
Surung—
He simply raises the blade piled up by murder.
The sticky attraction force once again calls back the darkness that Bong Hwa has swept away.
"If you truly intend to stop me, you should not have handed over to me full ownership of my own history. You should have taken that ownership yourself and rewritten the past.
"Now that you become the Owner of History, you have both the authority and the qualification to do so. You should have completely revised my unhappy past and entirely readjusted all the history and experiences of the past that formed my personality."
"How is that any different from raising you and assembling you according to my will as a toy?"
"See that. Hwe-ah. As soon as you became Life Supreme Deity, you immediately grasped the essence, didn't you?"
Wooo-wooooong—
Emotion begins to disappear from Hong Fan's eyes.
Starting with me and Kim Young-hoon, those who have practices Martial Arts.
And all those who have cultivated Immortal Arts or mantras sensitive to emotion notice his change.
"To stop me, you must become me. Therefore..."
The agitation and fatigue that have arisen in his heart until now are healed through his conversation with Bong Hwa, and the hesitation that had arisen in that heart is completely taken away.
"As expected, this world is wrong, isn't it?"
Immediately after, he raises one hand.
Immortal Art.
Immortal Cultivation.
Kiiiiiing!
A symbol that schematizes the Immortal Cultivation system itself rises above his hand and begins to unleash its most vicious authority.
Debt Enforcement.
Everyone who has received the grace of the Immortal Cultivation system until now lets out a scream and begins to have their entire personality and life taken away in one sweep by the Future King.
The only ones who remain unscathed under the Future King's attack are the Heavenly Kings who received even more help from the Absolute Fragments and who still possess the Absolute Fragments even now.
Besides them, there is only Bong Hwa, who just now transferred to the Fate Supreme Deity the authority to intervene as a Life Supreme Deity and has all debts canceled.
"Living beings who have climbed to this place under my grace, hear me. Once again, return your lives under my decree and return to the roles you originally ought to have."
Wuuuuuuu—
All Enders who have been liberated by Silver Basket and Bong Myeong fail to repay the debts for the grace they have received from the Immortal Cultivation system, and their entire lives are directly taken away into the hands of Hong Fan Gu Ju.
The spirits of countless Enders return to the Future King's grasp and are refined into the form of the birdcage in which they first appeared.
Of course, there are also a few Enders who endure in his grasp.
Starting with Obsidian and Vast Cold, those who have at least once reached the realm called Heavenly King barely endure in that place and avoid returning to the birdcage.
But in the next moment, they ultimately cannot endure and have their personalities taken away.
"All those whose lives were permitted by Splitting Heaven, bow your existence under this hand."
Enders are fragments of the Absolute.
And in the end, what became the basis for breaking the Absolute into pieces, scattering them to other worlds, forming personalities, and bringing souls into birth...
...is the power of the Future King's Splitting Heaven Mantra.
We are all children of the Future King.
Tududududuk—
Everyone except the current generation of Enders and Bong Hwa has their reason completely sealed by the Future King, and their eyes turn pitch-black.
"Is it because of Liberation? The compression does not work very well. I will need time if I am to stabilise the form again. It does not matter. You all return now as well."
Kugugugugu!
The Future King gestures toward us.
Our very existence begins to be sucked toward him with a powerful attraction force.
And the one being that has been thrown for a short while into chaos is also drawn toward his hand.
It is Silver Basket, who has temporarily exited.
Shiriririk—
He compresses Silver Basket's true body into a birdcage, and after trapping Silver Basket's spirit inside the cage in the same form that Bong Hwa has suffered...
He strengthens the attraction force toward us.
"Kkuugh... Uaaaaaaagh!!!"
The eyes of Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, and Oh Hye-seo all begin to be dyed black.
They too begin to have their personalities taken away by the Future King, and they stand rooted to the spot, screaming.
"Still, the Heavenly Kings of this generation, except for one, have all ripened. This is a first. Since it has come to this anyway, I will challenge the conclusion with this batch.
"One is defective, but for one, I might be able to find a solution.
"Wait for me, Hwe-ah. I will refine them and confine you for just a moment. If you resist, it is sad, but I will have no choice but to break you into pieces and store you for a time."
Kururururur—
A Gang Extreme forms above Hong Fan's hand, and the history torn off from Hong Fan's body, together with one of the spirits that Hong Fan has been storing, is infused into it.
"Eastern Twin Sal Tree."
Wuuuuuuuu—
As the sound of wailing echoes out, one direction of Mount Sumeru is reflected far below.
There, one Gandhara comes into being.
"Western Zero King."
Aaaaaaaa—
The scattered heads of successive Hyeon Rangs lying all over the Audience Chamber each take up a direction opposite the Gandhara, and the spirits of the Supreme Deities all gather at once to form something on the level of a Gandhara.
"Southern Sal Twin Tree."
The Source River that Kim Yeon seized is, in an instant, released from her control and returns again to its original form.
Unlike the other Gandhara, no wailing sound is heard.
It seems to be because the personality, Cheon Woon, is absent.
However, perhaps because he thinks the escaped Cheon Woon can be quickly captured and brought back, he does not particularly pay it any mind and stretches his hand toward the last direction.
"Northern Gang."
Into the last Gang Extreme clone, the energies that Hyeon Mu has stolen all this time from the Absolute of Miracle pours in full, making it reach the same level as the other Gandhara.
All four directions of Mount Sumeru are completely filled.
Before long, the Gandhara each transform into a single gigantic peak around Mount Sumeru.
"Back then, I failed to light the Five Peaks Mountain and save you. But this time, I will definitely reach you."
Huarurururuk!
From the summit of Mount Sumeru and from the tips of the other Gandhara peaks, enormous flames begin to burn.
As the flames catch on the five peaks, a hymn that will bless the advent of the Absolute One resounds.
"A beacon fire is something that is lit when you pray for happiness. It cannot itself become happiness. But you will become the Absolute One and gain a new truth, so you will surely become happiness itself."
At last, all the personalities of the Enders are devoured by the Future King.
The activation of debts through the Immortal Cultivation system and Splitting Heaven.
Because we are all beings that originate solely from him...
No one can resist his authority.
If he had only used it, he could have annihilated us from the very beginning, but with the authority he has not used from the beginning merely for amusement, the Future King subdues the entire Audience Chamber in an instant.
"So...Hwe-ah. You are Yang Hwe."
What thoughts are Bong Hwa having?
Is it perhaps because her perspective is different now that she has become the Life Supreme Deity? Even in that hopeless situation...
Even while being caught in this situation that, no matter where one looks, is nothing but the frenzy of a madman...
She simply smiles gently.
She is now omniscient.
It is as if she is calm because she already knows everything.
Then,
Hong Fan turns his gaze away from the calm Yang Hwe.
And at last...
Though he tried to keep ignoring me to the very end, he looks at me, who still has not been dragged off by Debt Enforcement and shows no sign of being dragged off any further.
"...What in the world are you?"
"...Good question."
"..."
"..."
I, even now, still am not particularly being dragged away by Hong Fan's debt enforcement or anything of the sort.
"Your life clearly originates from me."
"That's true, Hong Fan."
"The Immortal Cultivation system you learned all originates from me, and Primordial Origin and circuits and the like as well, the fact that you have been able to come into contact with them is all because I have permitted it."
"It does seem that way."
"With your own mouth, did you not say that you have received grace from me."
"Right. In the 16th cycle I definitely did."
"Then why...do you not belong to me."
"..."
I feel his emotion.
His heart is calm.
However, there are times when emotion comes out not through the heart but through actions.
He is clearly regarding me as something incomprehensible that he cannot understand.
"I definitely received grace from you. That is something I can't deny. If you carry out the debt, it's not strange at all even if I am sucked in just like that."
"In that case, what trick have you used?"
"I am not using any trick. Only..."
I stroke the spiraling cluster of light that continuously circles around me.
The Wuji Religious Order, starting with Wol Ryeong.
And, not only the Wuji Religious Order, but also the connections of the countless living beings I have left behind in Mount Sumeru.
"It is just that, aside from you, I have received so much from so many existences."
"...What?"
"I am definitely sincerely grateful to you. But...I am also grateful to the Ju family daughter who brought me potatoes."
"Are you saying that what the heavens give and what a mortal gives are the same?"
"Including her, all the connections I met in the 0th cycle also gave me so many things."
Cheok—
Behind me, a white deer appears.
The deer becomes mist, and within the mist the people of the 0th cycle appear.
"The connections I met in the 1st cycle also gave me many things."
Cheok—
The connection of the 1st cycle appear.
"Even the connections up to the 10th cycle as well."
A precious person supports my back from within the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections, and behind me even more people crowd in.
"Even the connections up to the 100th cycle."
Cheok—
"Even the connections up to the 1,000th cycle."
The existences that keep lining up behind my back only grow more numerous.
"All the connections up to now as well."
And...
I still do not particularly intend to stop.
Tsuaaaaat—
The forms of connections within the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections gradually swell.
Just like the First Light, by which Hyeon Mu forcibly dragged in the future Supreme Deities, I likewise endlessly draw the random connections I will meet in the future into the Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections.
They still have neither gender nor faces.
But surely...
They are connections that I will someday come to meet.
"All the connections to come as well. From all the existences just as precious as you...I have received far too much. So...I am not indebted only to you."
Because there are far too many existences to whom I must repay grace, I instead am not dragged along by the debt of the one existence that is the Heavens.
There is no priority among the graces given by connections, and the Heavens is likewise merely one among my connections.
"So. You do not need to repay the Heavens first either."
Shouting loudly, I speak to my close friends who are not only those to whom I am indebted, but who are also indebted 'to me' as well.
"Come!"
Jjeoooooong!
At my voice, the Future King's birdcage and all the Enders whose eyes have turned black all flinch.
"Come!!"
Wooo-woong!
The Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections behind my back exerts debt enforcement.
The Enders who do not have any connection with me quickly have their resonance die down, but the Enders who formed even a single connection with me all start to twitch violently on the spot.
Right there I shout loudly and forcefully.
"Come!!!"
Kwaaaaaaang!
At the same time, among the Enders, the six who formed the strongest connection with me and owe me the most open their eyes.
Kim Young-hoon's eyes return to normal.
Jeon Myeong-hoon comes to his senses.
Kang Min-hee looks at me.
Oh Hyun-seok grins.
Kim Yeon smiles warmly.
Oh Hye-seo lowers her head bitterly, as if embarrassed.
The Future King watches that sight and looks at us with a strange gaze.
Why is it...
I don't know in detail, but I think that he is feeling dispirited.
And, after a brief silence, he raises his hand.
"If you wish, let us have a contest of strength."
Woo-woong!
At the same time, the attraction force coming from the Future King's fingertips grows even stronger and begins to drag in my comrades.
Silver Basket looks out at the battlefield from inside the Future King's birdcage.
"...No matter how many times I see it, I cannot understand it."
From the viewpoint of Silver Basket, a Creator God, the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju is quite the madman.
Silver Basket cannot understand Hong Fan Gu Ju's mental world.
In truth, Silver Basket also cannot really understand Bong Hwa, who has become the First King Life Supreme Deity.
If the Future King is someone they cannot understand because of how bizarre he is, then Bong Hwa is someone who is hard to understand because she is too ordinary.
Even though she is an ordinary existence, they cannot understand how she made that kind of choice in that position.
Being raised by the Future King is unusual, but in their view, the existence called Bong Hwa is not an existence who could normally reach True Emperor.
On one side is someone so bizarre that even Silver Basket cannot understand him.
On the other side is someone who, even though she is so ordinary that Silver Basket has never experienced anyone like her, still reached such a place and cannot be understood.
However, Silver Basket sees an existence they understand even less than those two before.
Kung!
It is Seo Eun-hyun, kneeling in front of the Future King.
Is he trying to surrender to the Future King?
Or is he perhaps trying to beg to have his close friends, the Enders, returned.
Surprisingly, it is neither.
"Thank you, Hong Fan."
In this situation where they cannot read even a chi ahead into the future, Silver Basket looks upon the strange Supreme Deity who causes all their foresight to go astray.
"I am...truly grateful to you."
They continue to look at the Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun looks at Hong Fan Gu Ju and smiles.
"Just as I expressed to you at the very end of the 16th cycle...I really am grateful for each and every trivial thing I received from you."
The Future King looks at such a Seo Eun-hyun.
With eyes that somehow seem a little fed up.
"But...up until now I have only expressed my thanks with words. Therefore, I have decided to kneel sincerely like this in front of you...and convey my thanks."
He begins to use honorific speech.
At that sight, not only the Future King but Silver Basket as well cannot help but be shocked.
"Thank you. Heavens Above. For having given me...so many gifts until now. Everything you have given me. Even the memories in which I suffered...have been like miracles. Thank you...for gifting me life."
Life is gratitude.
That is the only heart and thought that is felt from the existence called Seo Eun-hyun right now.
'What kind of existence...'
Silver Basket cannot understand Hong Fan Gu Ju or Bong Hwa, but...
They keenly realise that Seo Eun-hyun is truly the most incomprehensible madman with clear eyes.
'What kind of existence in this world can offer such gratitude even to the owner of hell...?'
This one is a madman.
Silver Basket feels that keenly and thinks.
'Is it merely a courtesy before he clashes with him in earnest? But to rush in to kill the opponent while giving thanks, is that not a contradiction as well...?'
It is contradictory.
It is just as they think that,
"Therefore. I will not have a contest of strength with you."
The Future King and Silver Basket,
And even Bong Hwa gradually start to fall into panic.
"Please take it. My entire life."
It does not end with words.
Tsuaaaaat!
The body of the Owner of Myriad Stars scatters into countless starlight and sprays out into the void.
The rays of starlight are drawn by attraction force and are naturally absorbed into the body of the Fate Supreme Deity.
They are not mere words.
He is truly, all of a sudden, sacrificing himself.
That is already something that goes beyond madness.
It is not merely at the level of something like madness, but something transcendent beyond madness.
"Since I offer all that I am to you and let you do as you please...Heavens Above. Please let me as well, do what I wish to do."
And...
The Life Supreme Deity Bong Hwa starts to smile brightly.
Even with omniscience, she cannot understand that incomprehensible way of thinking...
Yet there is one repeating history that she knows of.
"So that is how it is. O Future King. Do you know?"
Jjeoeong!
While the Future King is soaked in silence,
Sacrificing himself and offering himself up to the enemy, Seo Eun-hyun raises one hand.
At the same time, the connection between the Future King and Kim Young-hoon is cut for an instant.
As if he has received some will or plan from Seo Eun-hyun, Kim Young-hoon lets out a light chuckle, lifts his saber, and becomes golden light.
Kurururung!
He becomes a world of golden light.
He turns into a mass of light that covers the entire domain of purity and then flies straight toward Seo Eun-hyun's body.
In the next moment, Kim Young-hoon becomes a single sword and drives himself into Seo Eun-hyun.
The sword that has been shining with golden light becomes colorless as it buries itself in Seo Eun-hyun's body.
Kwarurung!
Next is Jeon Myeong-hoon.
When Seo Eun-hyun waves his hand, the attraction force between Jeon Myeong-hoon and the Future King is instantly severed, and after he meets Seo Eun-hyun's eyes and nods, he, by his own will, becomes the same kind of sword as Kim Young-hoon and drives himself into Seo Eun-hyun.
The red sword, still connected to Indra's Net, flies toward Seo Eun-hyun and pierces into him.
Once again, that sword becomes colorless.
Next is Kang Min-hee.
Jjeoooooong!
And then, within that hard-to-understand scene, Bong Hwa steps forward.
Holding a peach-blossom tree branch in one hand, she steps between Seo Eun-hyun and the Future King and continues speaking with a warm smile.
"He is a Mountain Divine Spirit. And...when the Mountain Divine Spirit casts away arrogance and kneels. When the Mountain Divine Spirit becomes humble."
The Future King's eyes twitch.
"They are the strongest."
Flash!
Four colorless swords lodge in Seo Eun-hyun's body.
At the same time, light begins to pour out from all over Seo Eun-hyun's body.
It is a sacred radiance.
Yes, it is the light of True Emperor advancement!
Silver Basket simply cannot understand Seo Eun-hyun's way of thinking with a sober mind.
Only when they judge it by the result alone does it just turn out like that!
The existence that is called Seo Eun-hyun reached the conclusion that, in the end, he cannot win before the Future King without offering up everything.
That is why he simply laid down all arrogance and pride, offered up everything of himself, and sought to advance to become the Owner of Miracles.
"Since he has protected me, I shall also protect him."
Bong Hwa's clear voice rings out through the entire gestation world and becomes a wall of golden flames that blocks the way to Seo Eun-hyun.
"The enthronement of a new Owner of Miracles...you will not be able to stop it."
Wo-woong—
When the Owner of Life waves her hand, the Heavenly Void Furnace that was far away flies into her hand.
She sticks her hand into that Heavenly Void Furnace and takes something out.
"In the name of Life, I command. Live."
As light scatters over the entire world, a being who had died begins to come back to life.
Tstsss—
A being made of pure white salt stands beside the Life Supreme Deity.
From the Head Realm drifting nearby, souls and bodies fly over and combine with them.
The Owner of Life is reviving the Heavenly Venerable of Miracles who has died to Fate.
"Death is fixed, so it is but a temporary revival."
"I know."
The pure white being and the golden being stand in front of the Future King, guarding the front of Seo Eun-hyun like gatekeepers.
Seo Eun-hyun looks at their backs and his hand trembles.
His eyes look as if he wants to run to them right now, bow to them, and shout his thanks.
However, he only sits there in that spot and faces Kim Yeon.
The next moment, Kim Yeon smiles brightly, becomes a pale pink sword, flies to Seo Eun-hyun and pierces into him, and changes to colorless.
Five swords are embedded in Seo Eun-hyun's body.
'Why?'
In Silver Basket's eyes, it is an utterly irrational sacrifice.
Seo Eun-hyun may have no advantage no matter how one looks at it, but how can he offer himself up as a sacrifice to his opponent to seek a chance for advancement?
The Heavenly Kings may have built deep ties, but how can they hand over their very existence to a comrade without hesitation?
How can the one who has reached the position of Owner of History, and the one who could have become the Owner of Miracles, stand there at the front even while knowing they have no chance of victory?
Silver Basket has always bet only on what has a chance to win.
Because as someone who is of Creator God origin, they have no reason to lose everything and roll around in misery just anywhere.
Even though the odds are no more than four pun, they still dived in because this place is the highest peak they can hope for, and they threw themselves in with a heart that is half resignation.
And even now, they continue looking for an opportunity.
The reason they told Bong Hwa and Seo Eun-hyun the way to oppose the Future King's Divine Art if they advance to True Emperor was solely in order to use the gap when the two oppose the Future King even for a moment to seize back their main body and buy time to flee.
As one originating from a Creator God, it is certainly true that they feel sympathy for the Future King, and it is also true that they believe Seo Eun-hyun and the others have the possibility of looking for an opening in the Future King's Divine Art.
However, in the end, their final objective is not something like overthrowing the Future King.
They are, after all, an outsider.
They are an existence whose purpose is, ultimately, to experience countless worlds and then return to their homeland and bring their own world into genesis.
To such a Silver Basket, those who throw their bodies away despite having no possibility at all are people they cannot understand.
They also think Bong Hwa as an ordinary existence, but they cannot understand at all how existence with an ordinary soul and potential can throw herself in like that without hesitation.
'Why not just...keep letting him be eaten by the Future King?'
There is only one method of attacking the Future King that Silver Basket thought of.
The Future King is an existence weak to blessings.
So all one has to do is preserve themselves and send blessings and compassion from a distance.
The Creator Gods felt compassion for the Future King even as they were slaughtered, but that is only because they are true transcendents.
It was possible because the very concept called death does not apply to them.
However, those people are close to transcendents but are not yet transcendents.
They can die.
'Why...when they are not mere mortals and yet have approached so close to transcendents...why do they face him with such an inefficient method...?'
Why, even while sacrificing themselves, do they hand over everything to the opponent?
Silver Basket cannot understand it.
There is an effect.
The starlights of the Star Genesis Supreme Deity, which are absorbed into the Future King's sacred body, spread out inside that body made of darkness like ink dispersing in water.
They turn into a gentle green light and flow down from the Future King's chest like green blood.
The Future King looks at the Life Supreme Deity and the Heavenly Venerable of Miracles, who stand in front of him.
And as Hong Fan sees Seo Eun-hyun beyond them, who is advancing to become the Owner of Miracles...he clutches his own chest, from which the cluster of green light is pouring down.
"The Formless Poison...is deep, so very deep."
Silver Basket understands Seo Eun-hyun has injected some poison into the Future King from within a domain that even Silver Basket themselves has not been able to properly observe.
They also understand that he is acting like so because he has faith in it.
They understand the principle that that poison is made of goodwill and blessings, and that the more the blessings grow, the more cracks it will make in the Future King's heart.
But even so, they cannot understand why they are offering themselves up to the Future King.
Just...
Wouldn't the poison have been triggered enough even if he simply blessed the Future King with words?
Why on earth would they move so hastily, going so far as to sacrifice themselves?
If they have already poisoned the opponent, should they not wait for the poison to spread?
If they simply bless him with words and wait for the poison to spread, then at that time rescue the other Ender comrades and advance to become the Owner of Miracles, would that not be a way that does not sacrifice themselves and does not force Bong Hwa and the Heavenly Venerable of Miracles to make a reckless sacrifice?
And...
Seo Eun-hyun opens his mouth.
"It is difficult to obtain a human body, and it is difficult still to realize the Dao..."
His gaze is directed at the Future King, but Silver Basket also feels as if he is speaking to them.
"Following the human heart, one seeks the root of the Dao..."
Seo Eun-hyun's entire body starts to shine.
"If this body cannot achieve transcendence in this life...
"When shall I wait again to transcend this existence?"
Now.
Not the future, but this very moment.
Silver Basket, who lives for eternity, cannot understand that sight.
But there is one thing they can understand.
If there is a way to defeat the God of Future and Light who governs hope.
It is that one must treasure the present itself regardless of the odds of victory.
The Future King begins to invoke his Divine Art in order to take out in a single blow Seo Eun-hyun, who is beginning his advancement, and Bong Hwa, who is protecting him.
And Seo Eun-hyun, even though it is clear that in the very next moment he will collapse helplessly before that Divine Art, corrects the words spoken by the Heavens in a clear voice.
"Heavens Above. That is not poison. I know that from the 16th cycle onwards, you have continually expelled it and have struggled to return it to me...but that is not something I have forcibly shoved into you. It is merely something that has always been inside you.
"Just as the existence called the Heavens is absolute in this world and thus cannot be denied, what is called the heart likewise is not something you can deny just because you wish to deny it.
"It is simply...nothing more than awakening what has been within you."
'Ah...'
At last, Silver Basket.
They realize that they too, influenced by that madman, have gone insane.
'Even though I possess the root of Awakening, have I been unable to awaken anything?'
Woo-wooooong—
Within the iron bars made by compacting the souls of the Enders, they begin to activate their Divine Art again.
Wooo-woooooong!
Their soul begins to resonate.
They do not fight battles with no chance of victory.
However, even though they know that there is absolutely no chance at all...
Even though they know that if they do this now, they will absolutely not be able to escape, they begin, for the first time in his life, to do something foolish.
Silver Basket, who until now has sat in the cage feigning powerlessness, only watching for a chance to flee while Bong Hwa and Seo Eun-hyun advance to True Emperor and confront the Future King, cries out from within the cage for the first time.
: : Open your eyes. : :
Flash!
The cage begins to shake.
The souls of the Enders begin to rise.
: : Open your ears. : :
Those whose personalities have been taken away by the Future King begin to hear Silver Basket's words.
All the beings whose lives have been entirely mortgaged to the Future King begin to regain their reason.
All those whose minds are awakened by Silver Basket begin to break free from the shape of the cage as they listen to their words.
: : Open your mouths! : :
And all the Enders who have lost their voices by the Future King begin to reclaim their speech.
At the time, when the souls of the Enders were first revived.
At that time, they considered Enders at the level of mere mortal beings useless, so they casually burst them and killed them, and made use only of those Enders at about True Immortality or above.
Even though they possess the root of Awakening, they did not awaken Enders at Great Net Immortal and below.
They thought they were unnecessary.
They thought they had no effect on the odds of victory.
But now,
Infected with madness by the anomaly called Seo Eun-hyun,
Silver Basket begins to awaken even the reason of the spirits of the tiny Enders they have thought unnecessary, and begins to awaken everything they have lost.
: : Enders who have formed your personalities in the otherworlds and forged your connection there before coming here, hear me. All of you, return. I, Silver Basket, Creator God of an Otherworld, shall remain here in your place. As the price for that weight! : :
And with that one declaration, they begin to awaken in countless Enders the path back.
Silver Basket, confined in Mount Sumeru, who has only been looking for a chance to escape while waiting for the day they can return to their homeland, throws away with their own hands the escape opportunity they have desired most, and sends the souls of all Enders back to their homes.
Centered on Silver Basket, innumerable spirits of Enders are liberated.
Because the will of liberation left behind by the Liberation Supreme Deity still remains, the Enders are instantly released from the form of the cage and begin to return outside the Audience Chamber, to their faraway home worlds.
Because the soul of an otherworld's Creator God, Silver Basket, has in effect declared that they will remain in this world in their stead to shoulder their debts, even the power of Immortal Cultivation cannot pull them back.
Since they are sent away under the influence of Divine Arts, they also cannot be brought back simply by turning back time with the Radiance Mantra.
Only if the Future King directly uses attraction force can they be brought back.
Some might be puzzled.
They might ask what sending back the souls of the Enders has to do with defeating the Future King.
But Silver Basket knows.
It was a mistake for the Future King to briefly lock Silver Basket in the cage.
Thanks to that, through the insight of Creator God, they saw the story of the Great Mantra that the Future King is making.
They were able to glimpse at its ending.
: : Choose, O Future King. : :
Silver Basket laughs heartily.
That laughter is a pleasure that surpasses all the emotions they have ever felt while existing in constant boredom as a transcendent.
: : Will you stop the birth of the Owner of Miracles, or...will you stop the materials for the [Absolute of Hope] you are trying to create from scattering to pieces!!?? : :
The Future King's Divine Art makes him supreme so long as he is the one enforcing the story.
And no matter how supreme he is, one hand cannot defeat two hands.
Even if he becomes the strongest, he cannot choose both.
And...
Finally, for the first time, a clear light of emotion enters Hong Fan Gu Ju's eyes, and, filled with rage, he pays no mind to Seo Eun-hyun's advancement and extends attraction force with all his might toward the outside of the Audience Chamber.
As an altar to give birth to a new Creator God, the Future King placed offerings on all four sides of Sumeru to pray for the Creator God.
In the north, an offering that symbolizes the Absolute of Miracle.
In the south, an offering that symbolizes the Absolute of Fate.
In the east, an offering that symbolizes the Absolute of History.
However, in the west, where Bong Hwa originally has been seated, he prepared a somewhat unusual offering.
An offering that symbolizes [Humaneness], the Western Zero King.
And, for the God of Hope, humaneness can only be hope.
Gathering the souls of Enders to make a cage is not some hobby of his to use unusual materials to imprison Bong Hwa like a bird for amusement.
After passing through countless hardships and trials, after going through his own beginning, development, twist, conclusion, he gathered the souls of Enders brainwashed to be similar to himself and made them into a birdcage to imprison the next-generation Creator God.
: : O Future King. Do you want to give birth to an Omnipotent One with your own hands? Not satisfied even with that, do you want to brainwash the Creator God? : :
No longer in the lofty form of an absolute being he has shown until now, the Future King, transformed into the shape of a rampaging tyrant, instantly seizes Silver Basket's soul with a crushing grip.
However, Silver Basket only laughs and continues to pour out the truth they have glimpsed.
: : Your first purpose is to erase miracles, to erase connection. I see. Because one can look back on a miracle. Because one can attain repentant enlightenment over it... But hope can only be looked upon forward. You hope that, forgetting the past named Mount Sumeru and the Future King, the Creator God will create a new world within hope! : :
Ujijijik—
Silver Basket's soul crumples within the powerful attraction force.
The Future King steps out beyond the Audience Chamber and takes his stance.
—Emptiness Sword.
—Fifth Style.
—Applied Technique.
—Great (大).
The Emptiness Sword is thrown.
The applied technique of Upper, like Lord, simply multiplies.
The thrown sword of Emptiness splits in the Void.
It splits and splits again, until it has split enough to blot out the light of entire otherworlds, and then wedges itself into countless places throughout the otherworlds.
Kwagwagwagwang!
Countless otherworlds collapse.
The otherworlds with Creator Gods who already possess an ego crumble into powder under his hand and drift around the gestation world surrounding Mount Sumeru.
Thus, the worlds that remain are worlds without gods with an ego who can actively defend against the attack.
It is not even Hope, yet the worlds simply turn to powder under the Emptiness Sword.
However, even after turning countless worlds to powder in one stroke, the souls of Enders he regains amount to only a single handful.
He still has not recovered the majority of the Enders.
Normally, the Future King would never choose such an action.
For the scattered spirits are something he can always pick up again at any time.
No matter how important the material, in the end it will fall into his hands.
But [now] is different.
Because Bong Hwa has advanced to Life Supreme Deity, and six of the seven Absolute Fragments of Miracle become powers he can control in his hands,
In this very moment of [now], when he laid down the altar, placed the offerings, and lit the beacon fire to confer Bong Hwa as an Omnipotent One, hope is the most important element.
A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation is a story meant to see the ending that Hong Fan Gu Ju desires.
If it is not the ending he has set, it has no meaning at all.
Therefore, now, with the completion of everything right before him,
Hong Fan Gu Ju, who has in the end even turned himself into a component of the story, is pushed in the back by the Divine Art he himself has created and must move not to deal with Seo Eun-hyun, but to pick up the souls of the Enders he has considered trash, so that he can obtain the ending he desires.
"Why is it? Why have you thrown away what you most desired and sacrificed yourself, O Silver Basket? If you had simply waited quietly for my story to be completed, Hwe-ha would later have released you."
Silver Basket laughs with pleasure at Hong Fan Gu Ju's question.
: : Rather than your story that is to come in the future, it seems the stories of those here now are more enjoyable. : :
They are, in the end, an Ender of Pleasure.
Hong Fan Gu Ju turns and looks back.
Countless coincidences upon coincidences cause Seo Eun-hyun to, barely, absorb the six Heavenly Kings that have been born.
Behind Seo Eun-hyun, the shadows of the six Heavenly Kings absorbed into him shimmer faintly.
Even Oh Hye-seo is, for a brief time, freed from his control by Bong Hwa and Salt Sea joining their strength.
Since the Absolute Fragment of Desire is in his own hand, Seo Eun-hyun cannot advance.
Yet there is no such thing as feeling at ease.
Miracle is irrational and uncertain.
He does not know what new variable may arise.
He must quickly stabilize the Divine Art.
In practical terms, now that various means have been blocked by Silver Basket's sacrifice,
He cannot pick up all those countless Enders in a short time, so he must bring only the Enders who will occupy the greatest weight in the Absolute of Hope and stabilize the story.
Silver Basket, Obsidian, Vast Cold.
Among them, Silver Basket is in his own hand, so only Obsidian and Vast Cold are left.
—Emptiness Sword.
—Fifth Move.
—Applied Technique.
—God (神).
The rapidly thrown Emptiness Sword 'permeates' through countless otherworlds and flies toward Obsidian's homeland.
Immediately after, Obsidian's homeland directly shatters under the authority of Hong Fan Gu Ju, and the attraction force of fate pulls Obsidian's soul over.
Next is the soul of the Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King.
The world where the home universe of Seo Eun-hyun and Yang Su-jin lies.
Earth.
—True Martial Arts
Repulsion force maximizes and goes beyond attraction force itself, transforming into a [power] that embodies destruction itself.
The Absolute of Fate dwells in the sword.
A power that can tear Vast Cold to death even if they regain their senses and defend.
—Emptiness Sword.
Hong Fan Gu Ju brings the Emptiness Sword down toward Earth and, without taking his eyes off Seo Eun-hyun, focuses so as not to miss even the slightest change that occurs in him.
And as Hong Fan Gu Ju caves in the world where Earth exists with a single strike, he finally bursts into laughter.
—Fourth Move.
"Haw haw..."
Artificial Computation Device.
Agate
Immortal Art.
Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens
Fate.
Truth Manipulation.
Oh Hye-seo, whom he has considered the lowest bug, the piece of trash who until now has been unable to do anything.
She connects to Seo Eun-hyun's Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens and Canvas of Myriad Forms and Connections, which are linked to her own Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens, and compresses Seo Eun-hyun's Myriad Forms and Connections.
Through the legacy of a predecessor Agate, she calculates and controls infinite variables, converts the compressed Myriad Forms and Connections, and makes them endlessly close to an Absolute fragment.
With Truth Manipulation, she has the world recognize the Absolute fragment, which has become close to the real thing, as a momentary 'real Absolute Fragment' and toys with the world.
Temporary Absolute Fragment.
Crystal Glass (玻瓈).
In this way,
The Absolute Fragment of Seo Eun-hyun that contains the authority of [Ego-Preservation] is, for an instant, duplicated through the rebellion of a bug named Oh Hye-seo and causes a miracle.
—Applied Technique.
Earth collapses in a single blow, and as Hong Fan Gu Ju sees this situation made by countless overlapping coincidences...
—Fate.
He realizes that all of this is an inevitability.
"Are you saying...I should have chosen you? O Miracle."
Even if it is fake, that is clearly an Absolute.
The real one is still in his hand, so it is an imperfection that, as soon as he becomes the Owner of Miracles, will once again fall into ruin.
But even within that imperfection, seeing the Absolute of Miracles that, somehow, by any means, slipped out of his hand and yielded the position of Owner of Miracles to Seo Eun-hyun, who has breathed the deepest poison into him...
As he watches this moment when everything shatters and collapses, he at last becomes honest with his own feelings and starts to laugh.
"Yes. In truth, I also...have wanted to meet you."
His greatest fear.
"O God of Connections."
His greatest joy.
"Answer. Where in the world does the true answer lie, why is it that I have been unable to reach happiness, and upon whom should I have relied upon?"
Within the cluster of all of the heavens' natural colors, the Absolute he has feared the most is seized by the human who has driven the deepest poison into him...
And the answer he has least wanted to hear resounds through the spaces of countless otherworlds and other Heaven and Earths.
"You should have taken only yourself as the lamp of truth, and lived relying on that truth."
He listens to those words and acknowledges them.
For the moment he hears those words, he sees, in every future after those words, himself wanting to pour out his everything toward Seo Eun-hyun.
"I have become the Heavens, have not avoided any responsibility, and have become your place of rest."
"If so, then why do you deceive yourself with the words sacrifice and hope, and shift the final responsibility onto the person you have loved?"
The final contradiction of the story Hong Fan Gu Ju has dreamed of.
The truth that, in the end, his hope is nothing more than dumping entirely onto the soon-to-be-omnipotent Yang Hwe the responsibility and inquiry into salvation that he himself has abandoned.
"Enough. I am now tired of this. When there is a blade, what reason is there to take turns speaking?"
In the end, he cannot resist the impulse that, if it is the God of Connections before his eyes, he can draw forth and clash with his [everything], and he throws at him the true Absolute Fragment that is within himself.
He hurls Seo Eun-hyun's original fate and his essence at him and declares.
"Since you originate from me, your life is indebted to me. I shall break you head-on in your highest state and return your entire life to my possession, and thus fulfill the Regressor's Tale of Cultivation."
It is a prophecy that he designates as the price by handing over the Absolute Fragment of Desire.
That absolute power is normally something that even a fellow True Emperor cannot escape from.
Tsuaaaaaaat!
And at last, as all the Absolute Fragments are obtained, Seo Eun-hyun, who has placed Miracle in his hand and completely seized it, sheds the Vestige and transforms into a new existence.
An advancement that seems even faster than Bong Hwa's.
It is perhaps because of the influence of Silver Basket's Divine Art and his master who has once become a half Owner of Miracles.
And...
It must also be because of the other two True Emperors who support and look forward to his enthronement with all their might.
The Vestige he has been wearing become a jade throne.
As the Absolute Fragment of Crystal Glass falls away again,
It becomes a throne made out of connections.
It is Crystal Glass without a single speck of stain.
It is a crystal throne cleaner than water.
"No. My life is mine, but it is also not mine alone. Thus, I cannot give all of it to you alone."
He becomes the Owner of the Crystal Throne.
As a new Owner of Miracles is enthroned, he makes his name known across all of Mount Sumeru.
"So...what I can give you is only that one life that has left nothing but the connection with you."
The two, who stand atop countless spacetimes and causalities, face each other.
Beyond the starlight crown, the God of Connections, Seo Eun-hyun, who now newly wears a white mianguan, swings the silver Sword Extreme Heavenly Sword he holds in his hand.
Jjeooooooong!!!
Spacetime is torn away.
The whole of history is carved out and erased by the divine power of Cutting Principle.
And as he looks over at the spacetimes of the distant past, Seo Eun-hyun whispers toward the one who peeks at those spacetimes.
"Just wait a little."
Because then, surely, they will meet him and form a good connection.
He tears out an entire timeline of a distant past and hands it over to the Future King.
The God of Hope who wears a black mianguan, Hong Fan Gu Ju, receives Seo Eun-hyun's 16th cycle in its entirety, makes that life belong to himself, and counts the prophecy as having been fulfilled.
Though it is a desecration to fate, but it is because the man before his eyes is a being who has the qualification to desecrate it.
And because the ownership of this life also has value to him.
Above all, because in any case he is going to win this time again.
However, even after that, a price remains, and in the end, just like the peach that Yang Hwe has given him, he has to cancel all the debts of fate he has given to Seo Eun-hyun.
Yet, whereas Yang Hwe's gift calmed his agitation and healed him,
What Seo Eun-hyun gives only further triggers and sinks deeper the Formless Poison that has seeped into Hong Fan Gu Ju's heart.
The pure heart and blessing of a single human who, throughout the entire 16th cycle that Seo Eun-hyun remembers, has believed in Hong Fan Gu Ju and sincerely given thanks.
As he accepts it, the Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju, in order to prepare against the last True Emperor to be enthroned.
The Crystal King (水晶王) Ender Supreme Deity (終命上帝) Seo Eun-hyun (瑞恩現).
In order to clash everything he has against the Owner of Miracles, he begins to take out all of himself.
"Descend into my hand."
Future King Three Heavenly Treasures.
The final divine artifact.
The authority that corresponds to the Radiance Supreme Deity's Thirty-Three Heavenly Resplendent Treasure Pagodas.
Mount Sumeru Thirty-Three Heavens.
Bringing into his hand the inverted cone called the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World, Hong Fan begins to pour all his light, with all his strength, toward the God of Connections who crashes against him.
Between the clashing clusters of light of Star Genesis and Radiance, the last day of the 16th cycle faintly shines through.