Afterstory 4 - End.
Hwiiiii—
Time passes.
We, in Earth's dimension, decide to leave our split souls in the bodies that are in the time period we were born into, and return to Mount Sumeru through our true bodies.
The brief happiness on Earth is good too, but in any case, we have a duty to stabilize the whole of Mount Sumeru.
The strength of the split souls is also at least at the level of Vestige Liberation Immortal, so there should be no big problem.
We head once more toward Mount Sumeru, watching the single strands of consciousness we left behind live out their lives well on Earth.
Since we are in a state of constant connection with the split souls left on Earth, in truth we are no different from being the same person, so there should be no major issue such as our personalities splitting apart.
"Let's go, now."
We fly toward Mount Sumeru, passing between the otherworlds where countless Vairambha Winds blow.
My comrades, having now put down the Absolute Fragment, are at the level of Immortal Lords who only seized the Seat.
We have to go to Mount Sumeru, properly advance to Supreme Deity, and stabilize all the laws and systems of Mount Sumeru as quickly as even a single day sooner.
Since there is quite a time difference between Mount Sumeru and Earth, we do not know how the few years we have spent on Earth are applied on Mount Sumeru.
In the distance, Mount Sumeru draws near, and the countless changes happening in Mount Sumeru catches our eyes.
Inside those changes...
Yearned-for connections are visible.
We look around at how our old connections are doing and smile.
"Lady Yeon!"
A boisterous-looking martial artist holds a guandao and shouts loudly in front of a manor.
"Lady Yeon! Come out quickly! You actually do not wish to hold some marriage ceremony with those bastards either, do you!?"
The hearty-faced martial artist whose face is full of pockmarks and scar marks, when no answer at all comes from inside the house...
Snorts out a puff of breath through his nose and lifts the guandao.
"Very well. If that is the lady's choice...I will rush over to you at any time!"
Booong!
The man swings the guandao in a great arc.
With that single strike, the walls of the huge manor and the Extraordinary Pattern formations spread within it shatter to pieces all at once, and the fearsome slashing strike shakes the entire area.
He senses the people inside the manor thrown into a panic, and the man uses their confusion as a gap, enters the manor, and stands before two figures.
"Y-You monstrous bastard! Barbarian bastard, what on earth is this rampage!? Did Yeon not say she rejects you!?"
They are one young woman, and another woman with a plump and gentle impression who seems to be her mother.
"Hmph, that is because you lot are keeping her locked up and don't let her come out. We have a secret signal we made just between the two of us."
"A secret signal!"
"Tapping the floor seven times with the little finger. If she knocks in a particular rhythm...it is the signal that she wants to go out but cannot."
"Th-That makes no sense! You are saying you heard the sound of Yeon, who is in the central inner quarters of the manor, tapping the floor with her little finger from outside the manor?"
"That is what it means to be a martial artist who has reached Blooming. Well, even if I explain it, you will not understand... Let us go, my lady!"
The man heartily laughs, quickly hoists up the frail-looking young woman, and unfolds his movement technique to escape along the path his slashing strike has opened.
Hwiooooo—
In an instant, like a tiger, the man crosses over a whole mountain, then, using lightness skill, leaps up near the clouds and seats the small young woman he has brought on his broad shoulder.
Through his internal energy method, he spreads a curtain of energy so that the wind-like currents cannot topple the young woman, and lets her feel the broad wind of the high sky.
"How is it, my lady? This is the outside wind."
At the man's question, the young woman called Lady Yeon, who has a single light pink pattern appearing on her face, blushes and scribbles something on the man's shoulder.
She cannot see, she cannot speak, and she cannot smell.
Only touch and hearing are everything that is permitted to her.
On top of that, her back is even slightly bent. Born carrying all kinds of heavenly punishments on her body, that is 'Wol Yeon'.
The man grins widely at Wol Yeon's words written on his shoulder.
—It's so refreshing. Warrior Ha Eun.
"Is that so? If that is the case, I will run even faster. To somewhere in that western country where you can make as many dolls as you like...!"
Shioooooo—
With the beloved her seated on his shoulder, the marital artist of Heart Dao Blooming, Ha Eun, laughs as if he is about to fly as he unfolds his movement technique toward that faraway country.
Born with a face full of pockmarks and despised since childhood, having even gained scars and become an object of fear, and with even his name sounding like that of a girl, having spent his whole life as an object of teasing and ridicule, fear and awe, that is Ha Eun.
The only one who came close to such a Ha Eun is Wol Yeon, who cannot see and cannot speak.
'If I think about it, we must have had a connection even in our previous life.'
Ha Eun looks up at her, who is smiling brightly.
'Surely, in our previous life as well, you must have given me many things. So, if in this life too, the Heavens allow it...I will give many things back to you...!'
Hwiooooo—
Thus, Ha Eun soars up together with her toward that faraway country.
The refreshing wind sweeps over them and passes by.
Somewhere in a distant Astral Realm,
There, a woman nags at a man who is sprawled out in the house, lazily holding a cigarette in his mouth.
"Good grief, you man! Just how long are you going to live lying down like that? We're about to run out of rice, so please, just go out and do some work!"
"Now, now, just wait and see. I'm tired because lately I've bene laying the groundwork for the Confucian Family Method, so my wife should understand a little... Once I complete the groundwork of the Confucian Family Method, I can earn as much rice or wealth as we want."
"Oh, that damn Confucian Family Method! Do you not hear our baby crying from hunger!? Just how many years have to pass before that Confucian Family Method is complete!? Me going around on my own two feet to get food is only something I can do for a day or two. Oh really, what nemesis you, what a—"
Whik!
But in the next moment, the man suddenly grabs the hand of the wife who is pouring out her complaints and pulls her into his arms.
The wife, seemingly flustered, moves her lips, then averts her eyes.
"...If...what I said was too harsh..."
"Wife. Do not worry. I will definitely...definitely succeed without forgetting the merits of my first wife who has shared thick and thin with me."
"No... Of course, I do know that you will succeed, but..."
The wife squirms as if trying to get out of the man's arms, but the man does not let her go, and flames burn in his eyes.
"Being with you, the inspiration to lay the groundwork of the method wells up even more. You..."
"W-Wait, in broad daylight...? Fine. Wait for me..."
She slips out of the man's arms for a moment, goes into the room, and does her hair in the style her husband likes.
Using the dye her husband has brought, she makes one side pure white, the other jet black.
She, with her hair dyed half and half, suddenly flinches, then her face reddens.
"...I was just going to nag him a bit, so how did I get swept up by that man's momentum again...? What a foxy husband... No wonder people call him Old Man Nolbu."
In a small backwater village of a small country in the Astral Realm,
There, the man called Old Man Nolbu and the wife called Nolbu's wife, while bickering, continue a married life that lacks nothing others could envy.
A warm wind brushes past them and passes by.
Hwiooooo—
Once again, in a distant Astral Realm.
There, a medicinal ingredient called the blue worm is in wide use.
This blue worm has a blue color, and strangely its surface seems to have the scales of a snake, so the people of the region, when they see the blue worms, sometimes call them an earth dragon with sea-colored scales, a 'sea dragon'.
An aquaculture that specializes in raising such blue worms.
There, a woman stands with a fox at her side, looking at the blue worms with a gloomy face as she feeds them.
"Just when is the karmic sin of the Beast Path going to end...?"
The woman looks at the white-furred fox sleeping sprawled out beside her and sighs.
The white-furred fox, curiously, stays beside the blue worms, and whenever birds or beasts that try to snatch the worms,
Or insects that take the blue worms as food appear, it quickly appears and stomps them to death.
"Hey, Miss Oh! Have this batch of medicinal ingredients gotten a bit plumper?"
"...Yes. I will send them on my own, so please do not talk to me."
The woman surnamed Oh.
Oh Hye-seo, working at raising blue worms on the upper reaches of a star in the Astral Realm, replies with irritation to the merchant who uses the blue worms as medicinal ingredients.
"..."
These blue worms are all beings that share a single soul.
They are a sinner from the distant past who, in forms like insects, is born and killed through endless ages and used as medicinal ingredients, paying back their karmic sins.
And...
For the one who gave a heart to Oh Hye-seo,
"Still...I will wait for that day..."
She manages the worms, and sometimes, after catching and drying them with her own hands, supplies them to merchants...
And she waits and waits again for her lover who will someday pay off all his karmic sin.
And then, suddenly, her eyes tremble.
"Ah..."
In the distant sky,
As the celestial energy changes, she feels great beings return to Mount Sumeru.
"So you've returned..."
The Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
Although he has stepped down from the seat of Owner of Miracles, the representative who represents the absolute power of miracles has finished his business in his homeland and returned to Mount Sumeru.
"You must have a lot to do as well..."
As Oh Hye-seo is absentmindedly looking up at the sky like that, she suddenly flinches and looks at the blue worms.
The blue worms, affected by the celestial energy just now, have all died.
But that is not what is important.
"Uh, uuh...!"
Since the souls of ordinary blue worms is the soul of a sinner, when they die, their souls immediately return to blue worm eggs and reincarnate again as blue worms.
However...
This time, the spirit of the worm that Oh Hye-seo has been looking at does not return to an egg.
Skipping across a vast distance...
It is born as an 'intelligent being'...!
"Ah...!"
Oh Hye-seo reads the change in the celestial energy and sheds tears.
The representative of miracles has returned to Mount Sumeru.
And,
A miracle has occurred.
The sins of the soul she is taking care of are not washed away, and even in its next life it is still a soul that must endlessly alternate between hell and the life of a blue worm to cleanse its sins...
But at times,
Perhaps when it is far too unbearable,
At that one time...
It will be born again as a sentient being who has people that love it, and gain a chance to accumulate good karma.
"Aaah...!"
Oh Hye-seo sheds tears and is about to fly toward the place where that soul is reborn.
Then in the middle of doing so, she suddenly turns to look at the white fox gazing at her pitifully.
After looking at the fox for a while, Oh Hye-seo sighs, tucks the fox under her arm, and flies into the sky.
"...Yeah, let's go together."
Paaat!
In an instant Oh Hye-seo becomes a single streak of light and smiles toward the representative of miracles who has returned to that faraway sky above.
"...Thanks. No...thank you very much."
A clear wind embraces her wish.
Four Great Middle Realms of the Twin Holding Heavenly Domain.
In one part of the Krita realm among them, a grand wedding ceremony is taking place.
"Uhehehe, I am looking forward to tonight."
It is the wedding of Yeo Hwi and Ham Jin.
Yeo Hwi looks at Ham Jin and wipes away the drool dripping from her mouth, and Ham Jin seems to blush a little, then sends a scolding by voice transmission to Yeo Hwi.
But even more terrifying demands from Yeo Hwi telling him to look forward to their first night come back through voice transmission, so he has no choice but to close his mouth.
Yu Hwi is officiating the ceremony, and under countless myriad stars, they hold their wedding while receiving blessings from all the Sacred Masters of the Twin Holding Heavenly Domain.
"Are you watching, Teacher...?"
Ham Jin looks at the countless galaxies floating above them.
After the Interdimensional Void disappeared.
The Middle Realms and the Decaying Corpse Realms were all discharged into the Astral Realm.
Therefore now, even in many Middle Realms, one can see the endless galaxies.
Today, Yeo Hwi, Ham Jin, and Yu Hwi read the clear energy and did their calculations, and even asked the Underworld and other great existences, and thus learn that their lord and master,
The Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity, is returning on this day.
Wishing to be blessed at the very moment their master returns, they hold their wedding on this day...
Ham Jin looks up at the starry sky and closes his eyes.
'Thank you, Teacher.'
Boundless starlight shines down on Ham Jin and Yeo Hwi.
Ham Jin feels as if something like a hand made of starlight briefly strokes his and Yeo Hwi's heads.
As the Immortal Treasures of the Star Genesis Supreme Deity, they rose all the way to the Great Net Realm, but after the Audience Chamber, they were resurrected by the hand of the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King and fell in rank to the level of Vestige Liberation Immortals, but they are undoubtedly True Immortals.
It is surely not a mere illusion.
Perhaps Yeo Hwi feels it too, for she looks up at the river of those countless stars flowing above them with a somewhat solemn expression and speaks.
"Without fail, I will absolutely make Ham Jin happy. Before the Owner of Myriad Stars, I swear this, and this shall be a covenant that will not be broken until the day when all the stars lose their light."
Revived by the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King, they receive the blessing of those countless myriad stars that is their master and lord...
And on that day, under the starry sky, they join as one.
As interstellar winds pass through the Krita Realm, they bury the sounds that come out from the first night of the two beings.
Hwiooooo—
The winds brush past and past again, and at last reach the summit of Mount Sumeru.
They arrive at the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain.
In one place of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, where countless starlight shines,
There,
Stands the first and last Sacred Master of the Purple Gold Realm.
Ban Ta, in a withered, aged state, is lying inside a black hermitage at the center of Ban Ta Castle, breathing in ragged gasps.
"You...parasitic...bastards..."
Ban Ta, who has taken charge as Sacred Master for the long span of ten billion years, pants for breath as he looks at the starlight of that distant sky.
Around Ban Ta, 'uncountably many' Esteemed Ones at the Star Shattering stage bow before him and shed tears.
"How is it...that there was not...a single decent one...among you...not one...? Heh heh heh..."
Has he been enlightened in some way?
Ban Ta bursts into laughter with a strangely relieved expression.
"Yeah...it's been long. Long indeed..."
For a long time,
He, in the end, could not step down from the seat of Sacred Master and has come to breathe his last.
Over his life, he has truly seen many things.
Experiences such as time suddenly being accelerated by transcendents, or time being reversed once again, and so on...
He went through countless events.
But surviving all the way to the end of all those events...
Ban Ta finally closes his eyes as a Sacred Master.
'Well, even so...after me, someone will somehow take care of retrieving the Vestiges of the Purple Gold Heavenly Lord, even if in the Underworld.'
He has no regrets in life.
It is frustrating to die as a Sacred Master with just one more step left to True Immortality...
But aside from that, there is not a single thing in this life he feels ashamed of.
"I...am going now. If, even after my death, not a single one of you parasite bastards manages to ascend to Sacred Master...then be sure to send a request for aid to the Underworld and ask them to give you a way to suppress the Vestige of Purple Gold...or petition them to dispatch a Sacred Master to take charge of the Vestige... Goodbye. You parasite bastards..."
Now,
The tiresome karma of being a Sacred Master is also at its end.
Thus Ban Ta, from all duties and responsibilities,
And even from desire and hope, becomes freed and lightly closes his eyes.
At the age of ten billion years.
That is the age of Ban Ta, the Sacred Master of the Purple Gold Realm and, since Mount Sumeru came into being, the first cultivator at the Sacred Vessel stage to die of old age.
That is Ban Ta's end.
"..."
Or so he thought.
'...?'
Ban Ta looks at what is before his eyes.
A black figure is seated cross-legged right in front of him.
"You are...?"
Ban Ta, still lying in place, asks toward the black figure.
The black figure answers.
"The Purple Gold Heavenly Lord Heuk Am. Before they were killed by the ominous technique of ■■■ (未來王/Future King) ■■■■ (運命上帝/Fate Supreme Deity) ■■■■ (洪範九疇/Hong Fan Gu Ju), I am the prophecy they created, setting extreme conditions, in order to be resurrected under their attraction force."
"I see...heh heh. I sincerely hope you resurrect safely."
"..."
"..."
Ban Ta looks at the prophecy of the Purple Gold Heavenly Lord and offers his blessing, but for a while an awkward silence hangs between the two.
"...Why...are you not resurrecting?"
Ban Ta cannot help but find that point strange and asks, and Heuk Am answers.
"You...why did you not leave the position of Sacred Master?"
"...? What an obvious question... No matter how much support those parasite bastards received, they showed no sign of being able to advance to the Sacred Vessel stage. When I painstakingly raised someone to the Sacred Vessel stage, they ran away more often than not... When I invited another Sacred Vessel to succeed to this position, they either ran away or, risking danger, there was no small number of them who directly advanced to the Entering Nirvana stage, so I had no choice but to take charge as Sacred Master."
"That is not what I am talking about."
The prophecy of Heuk Am looks down at Ban Ta with a dumbfounded gaze.
"Why...did you not use schemes or stratagems? If you used schemes and stratagems to pass the position on to a successor, could you not have handed it over as much as you pleased...? Or you could have taken the family or blood descendants of a Sacred Vessel as hostages and forced the succession on them... If you wanted, succession was always possible. Why did you not, in a sinister way, pass on the seat of Sacred Master through all sorts of plots and stratagems?"
"..."
Ban Ta, at Heuk Am's words, looks up at them and seems to think for a long while.
And then, he finally spits out an answer.
"...You are right."
"..."
"..."
"...There was such a way. Why did I not think of something like that...?"
The prophecy of Heuk Am, for a moment, feels dumbfounded.
"Why...just why...did you...not use Immortal Arts? If you had touched the power of prophecy with Immortal Art, you could even have made your successor come...!"
"...! You are right..."
Ban Ta wears an expression of 'So there was such a method' and his face turned aggrieved, but Heuk Am's prophecy gives off an even more aggrieved air and growls.
"Just why...!? With your strength, you could have grabbed a Sacred Master who refused, forced them to inherit your seat, leave and reach the Entering Nirvana stage and even become a True Immortal! Why on earth could you not become ruthless!? Why did you, merely acting out feigned evil, not aim for True Immortality with evil energy and venomous resolve!?"
"Hm..."
This time, his answer is not "You are right."
And, pondering those words, Ban Ta speaks.
"...Although I ended up taking it on halfway because of a scam, by sending off and ruling over the lives and wills of countless living beings in these hands, there was something I came to know. That is...no matter how much I came to have it by coincidence or by being forced...if them coming to me is fate, is it not right to do my utmost within this fate?
"If, after I leave, no one who will take good care of these parasite bastards takes the initiative and sits in this seat...even if I force someone to take the position, is that not meaningless? I came to have such a thought."
Ban Ta looks up at the sky.
Myriad stars enter his eyes.
"So, if I am to seek a successor...among those who hold affection for this world, I wanted, naturally, to choose one who wishes to uphold the mission of managing this world...and when it becomes clear that they truly like ruling this world...I wanted to hand the world over to such a successor. That is all."
It is a position he gained by coincidence.
However, even if it is a life and fate he happened to obtain by coincidence, within it there were countless beautiful things and things to be grateful for.
Therefore, he'll do his utmost.
That was his mere single thought, nothing more.
"...Just who...who showed you beauty in this world? Just who, in the fate of this Purple Gold Realm filled with malice, showed you goodwill...?"
The prophecy of Heuk Am.
That existence begins to scatter little by little.
"The prophecy for Purple Gold to resurrect is...in the Purple Gold Realm, where war and rebellion and all sorts of chaotic and complicated conflicts arise, a Sacred Master, shuddering in disgust, [repeatedly passes on the seat through malice and leaves the Purple Gold Realm ten times]...
"You...you, from that seat, did not do a single underhanded deed... Without any evil energy or venomous resolve, while merely acting out feigned evil, you did not carry out even a single instance of the prophecy... Now even the power of the prophecy has worn out... Just why is it that you...remained in that seat until now with such kindness and goodwill toward the lives of the Purple Gold Realm..."
Ban Ta ponders the question of Heuk Am's prophecy, which asks him the reason for his kindness and goodwill.
The reason for kindness and goodwill...
Perhaps, he may have grown attached.
This world did annoy him, but there are also things he is grateful for.
However...
If he thinks about the root of that reason, in the end there is only one.
"...You are right..."
Just because.
He, it seems, just likes this Purple Gold Realm.
Malice needs a reason.
For example, maybe the other person is better than oneself, or their face is displeasing, or they have taken everything from oneself, or one's irritation is surging right now and needs something to be taken out on, and so on...
Even for those who seem to have no reason, if you dig into them, the reason definitely exists.
However...
For goodwill, perhaps a reason is not needed.
There is no particular reason why one lives.
There is no particular reason why one is born and lives up to now.
Perhaps there will be no particular reason in the future he will live from now on.
However, even if one is born just because for no particular reason, if one is going to live, then let's do it with one's utmost.
Putting those countless sentences into one phrase, to the prophecy of Heuk Am.
As he lets it be heard toward Heuk Am's will, Ban Ta closes his eyes.
"Just because."
The prophecy of Heuk Am starts to laugh like crazy.
And then, at the end of it all...
They, wearing a self-mocking smile, completely disintegrate.
By Ban Ta's will, Heuk Am's will for resurrection is defeated.
"If you had been in that seat instead of me...perhaps...in front of the ■■■ (未來王/Future King), you might have gave them a scolding..."
Heuk Am, who has lost all hope, pours all their power into the dying Ban Ta as they fade away.
"It is my defeat. From now on...go forward..."
Tsuaaaaatt!
At the end of ten billion years of time,
Ban Ta, feeling life force and the power of fate rising through his entire body, opens his eyes wide.
"Th-This...!"
Ban Ta, who had collapsed, raises his upper body from where he lies, and the Star Shattering stage Esteemed Ones who are Ban Ta's disciples all at once let out cheers.
"The Sacred Master...the Sacred Master...!"
"The Sacred Master has rejuvenated...!!!"
"O Ban Ta, please rule the Purple Gold Realm once more for another ten billion years...!"
With a stupefied expression...
Ban Ta, checking the shouts of the Esteemed Ones who are cheering for him and his own condition, lets out a hollow laugh.
"So I still...can't end it..."
At last, he understands the reason why the Purple Gold Realm is in chaos, and why, from time to time, he felt the impulse to hand over the Sacred Master position.
However...
"So then...the fact that I wanted to pass on the Sacred Master seat is Heuk Am's scheme...but the fact that among you bastards there is not a single one who has properly reached the Sacred Vessel stage is purely just coincidence? Just because?"
Ban Ta laughs as if it is absurd and suddenly shouts.
"You parasite bastards! Will you not go and start cultivating right this instant!?"
Ban Ta, having rejuvenated and been granted time to rule the Purple Gold Realm again for another ten billion years...
Shouts wildly at the Esteemed Ones of the Purple Gold Realm and throws a tantrum.
However...
For some reason, Ban Ta, who now knows all the causes, looks somehow relieved, and even looks happy.
Just because.
As this 'just because' is something that is not bound by fate and not decided by history, perhaps he laughs as...
His connection with the Purple Gold Realm...
His connection with these living beings of the Purple Gold Realm...
He realizes they are precious things woven by pure hearts.
Vowing that within the ten billion years after his regained rejuvenation, he will definitely raise a successor, Ban Ta…
Simply laughs.
Just, laughter comes out.
Ban Ta's laughter, carried on a single strand of wind, echoes all the way to the far edges of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain.
Outside Mount Sumeru.
Audience Chamber.
Above it, there are three gigantic thrones.
The Flame Throne of Explosion.
The Crystal Throne of Clarity.
The Darkness Throne of Attraction Force.
Above the thrones, beings who look small compared to the thrones make their own individual seats above them and sit, looking at one another as they adjust the principles of the world.
Hwioooooo—
The Owner of the Flame Throne, representative of History, the First King Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, Bong Hwa.
The Owner of the Crystal Throne, representative of Miracle, the Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity, Seo Eun-hyun.
The Agent of the Darkness Throne, representative of Fate, the Heavenly Venerable of Time, Cheon Woon.
Among them, the Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun, who has just taken his seat, feels a strand of wind and smiles.
"Why do you smile, Crystal King Star Genesis?"
At those words, the Owner of Myriad Stars, looking at the stars endlessly exchanging light and light below them...
Receiving the wind that blows between those stars, continues to smile.
"Just because."
The way to give thanks for life may not be anything special.
Just smile.
Just laugh a little more often.
A single small strand of laughter may truly be the very best way to express gratitude.
Smiling at the trailing ends of the laughter of countless beings...
The God of Miracles and Connection, looking at everyone, begins to open his mouth.
From now on, there will surely be more reasons to laugh.
If there are not many, may it become many...
Scattering such blessings over the whole world...
They thus begin to create a new story.