Side Story – A Tale of Cultivation After the Ending.
Readers discretion advised: As the side stories are written with the author sealing away reason for a while and venting hidden desires and stray thoughts, they proceed with a tone that differs 180 degrees from the main story. For readers who have read up through the afterstories and want to preserve the lingering emotion, it is recommended to read the side stories only after letting them sit for 'at least a week before reading'.
It is advised that only those who think, "I want to smash the lingering emotion left in my heart!" to charge in and binge-read the side stories. It shall be advised again, but if the side stories are read, the lingering emotion the readers have may be shattered. Since it is, in any case, not a problem even if the side stories are not read, if there truly is the wish to read them, the author will be grateful if it is left to sit for over a week, wait until the lingering emotion has scattered a bit, and then read the side stories.
At the time when he first created what is called Enders, there were truly many errors.
As the Enders came into being, all sorts of miracles occurred all over Mount Sumeru.
It was the backlash from forcibly splitting the Absolute of Miracle.
Errors arose in fate, and disasters occurred all over the world.
It was not just once or twice that Yang Hwe's previous lives were caught up in those disasters and died like bugs.
Miracles are truly difficult to handle.
As they are in truth monsters into which a personality was forcibly breathed into fragments of the Absolute of Miracle, it is natural that they are hard to manipulate with ordinary fate.
Moreover, there was the law left behind by the predecessor Creator God.
The law that [a Tue Emperor cannot interfere in the advancement of another Emperor] applied to these Enders as well.
Granting a personality to the Absolute Fragments caused the law of the Gestation World to recognize them as candidates for True Emperor.
Hong Fan could neither directly bestow fate on them nor manipulate them.
Even the beginning, development, twist, and conclusion of fate he originally laid down in order to refine the Absolute Fragments all bounced off completely.
In the end, Hong Fan acknowledged that there is no method to control them from the inside of this world.
Hence, he turned his gaze to the otherworlds outside Mount Sumeru.
***
He traveled through countless worlds.
Hong Fan met existences that are about as strong as him, and also existences that, depending on conditions, would become even stronger than him.
'If I met them before I became a True Emperor...would I perhaps have come a little closer to salvation?'
However, before he became a True Emperor, he did not even know how to go out to the otherworlds, so it is a meaningless ponderance.
Hong Fan also met the Creator Gods of the otherworlds and even tried killing them.
However, since the Creator Gods are truly undying, no matter how many times he killed them, they revived again.
Other than coming to know that the only way to kill Creator Gods is to make Creator Gods voluntarily give up the rank of Creator God, he gained nothing.
Even if an outside being kills them and kills them again, it has no meaning beyond the effect of knocking them out for a short while.
It was always a loss for Hong Fan to temporarily kill a Creator God.
Even if he could face and kill one or two of them by using the Emptiness Sword without using what is called Divine Art, the curses and grudges they lay are on the troublesome side.
'In a way, did the previous Creator God of Mount Sumeru voluntarily give up their rank of Creator God by splitting their soul into three and transforming their body into the Gestation World?'
He came to know a few new facts about Creator Gods, but they did not really help.
And, as Hong Fan roamed the otherworlds, he realized countless techniques and learned methods for bypassing laws and for deceiving them.
Thus, when he felt the resolve that he could make proper Enders, he returned to Mount Sumeru.
He split Miracle with Splitting Heavens.
Then, he refined the seven fragments of Miracle into the seven emotions and sent them to an otherworld.
The Absolute flaunts immense power and authority in Mount Sumeru, but in otherworlds where the rules themselves are completely different, it cannot produce deviants as strong as in Mount Sumeru.
At best, the extent of the error is only that it produces a few feeble ghosts in a world without ghosts.
In that way, the Absolute Fragments matured in separate worlds whose laws are completely different, and there, they formed personalities that fit that world's laws.
Hong Fan gathered those personalities at the same day and the same hour by fate and brought them back again to Mount Sumeru.
In front of his own throne,
In the Audience Chamber, he made those personalities enter into contracts, telling them that he would let them live a new life, and then he mortgaged the ownership over the entirety of that personality's life, and their names and existence.
Since the Audience Chamber is located on the boundary of the Gestation World, the remains of the predecessor that existed in the Gestation World, such as the rule of 'prohibition of interference in the advancement ritual of a True Emperor,' did not properly take effect there, so it was possible.
And, in order to control those Enders and force the beginning, development, twist, and conclusion upon them, he made them learn the Immortal Cultivation system.
The Immortal Cultivation system was a mantra created by Hong Fan.
Therefore, if an Ender voluntarily made contact with it and sought power, he could bypass the law of 'prohibition of interference in the advancement ritual' and infuse the beginning, development, twist, and conclusion.
Of course, not only Immortal Cultivation; even those called the Heart Tribe, who used the power of the Plane of Soul and borrowed strength from the Interdimensional Void, created by modifying the Martial Arts system Emptiness Sword that Hong Fan had made, could not escape from Hong Fan's hand.
If the Absolute of Miracle endlessly produced variables, he would carry out a perfect plan to definitely seize and imprison those infinite variables.
That was Hong Fan's plan.
Of course, even so, it is precisely Miracle that creates yet more variables within impossible situations.
Even if he could be confident in perfection, Hong Fan knew that it would not be perfect.
'Even if I go this far, what I desire will not be realized right away, and the Enders will once again slip out of my control.'
Therefore, he did not think that this task would end after only once or twice.
Thousands, hundreds of millions...
Only after repeating it over innumerable, immeasurably great numbers of times would he be able to seize the variables of Miracle.
'Repeat.'
He unceasingly tore the Absolute of Miracle and scattered it in otherworlds, made its fragments be born into mortal bodies, and continuously brought them here and guided them to labor with the power he had created.
He made that repeat endlessly.
If he did so, in the end the Enders, the Absolutes of Miracle...
By history repetition and fate.
By the laws of those two Absolutes, would gradually come to belong to him...
"It shall repeat for eternity."
Until the day the Creator who holds all the answers of salvation is born.
Without letting go of hope...
***
Poong—
Inside the dark and dim Darkness World.
From within something like a black soap bubble floating there, a Supreme Deity whose body is made of innumerable clusters of stars emerges.
Tsuaaaaaat!
That existence, who for a while emits starlight, becomes smaller and then transforms their body into the form of a human.
"Were Enders manufactured in this way...?"
A human wearing a white dragon robe.
Seo Eun-hyun comes out from the black soap-bubble-like something, the memories of the Future King, and nods.
The place where he currently is lies inside the Gestation World.
It is the interior of the body of the Future King, left behind after he died, formed from the attraction force of infinite darkness.
Paaaatt!
For an instant, Seo Eun-hyun becomes starlight and seems to fly off somewhere, then just like that, slips out from the Future King's body and flies upward, toward the top of the cone-shaped universe that is settled above him.
The place that someone had called the Audience Chamber.
Flying toward the place where the great Crystal Throne, Flame Throne, and Darkness Throne are, he sits down on the largest Seat that has sprouted on the Crystal Throne and speaks.
"Inside the dead Future King's body, I saw his memories. Thanks to that, I also found out what 'exactly' Mount Sumeru has recently been drawing in from outside."
Sitting on the Crystal Seat, Seo Eun-hyun explains to those sitting on the Darkness Throne and Flame Throne opposite him about the cause of the recent strange phenomenon occurring in Mount Sumeru.
"The recent phenomenon of Mount Sumeru drawing in [something] from [outside] the Gestation World...is because of the production of Enders that had repeated for such an unimaginably long time... It has already become history repetition."
Regarding that, the Heavenly Venerable of Time and the Agent of the Darkness Throne, Cheon Woon, asks.
"You are saying that the law affects even outside the Gestation World?"
"It probably does not reach every world."
And then, the First King Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld, Bong Hwa, opens her mouth and answers.
"The reach of the power of that law of history repetition of Ender production is probably...limited only to the dimension that the Crystal King and the last Enders came from, the Crystal King's home dimension. Since right now the split bodies of the Crystal King and his comrades are also there, it must be because the attraction force between that place and our world has been connected."
Bong Hwa was the genuine Life Supreme Deity.
Drawing on her experience of having ascended as the Owner of the Akashic Records, she recites her knowledge.
"But there is still something that remains unresolved. Clearly, the history repetition of Ender production is a powerful history, but...the subject that creates that history has been severed, and no matter how strong the remaining power of history repetition is, if they are originally as they should be...such a thing is impossible."
Bong Hwa's gaze turns somewhere.
The gaze of a transcendent crosses distant spacetime.
Distant spacetime,
Beyond the chaos that fills the Gestation World.
In one place among those, something like a distortion has arisen.
That distortion is as if...
Between each Heavenly Domain, it is a spatial wave like the inter-Heavenly-Domain transmission formation that Radiance Hall set up in the distant past.
"As for that distortion, there is no knowledge about it even in the Akashic Records, so even I cannot know. That thing is dangerous. It can become a gap through which a great divinity of another world might enter the Gestation World with malice. With you and me as we are now, we can indeed repel them, but in the process many lives can fall into calamity. We must close it quickly before that. Crystal King, did you find a clue in the Future King's memories?"
At Bong Hwa's question, Seo Eun-hyun, sitting on the Crystal Seat, nods.
"Through the Future King's observations of otherworlds, I find a clue. It seems a being that has obtained an artifact related to our world, when they ascend as a great divinity, also exerts some influence on this world. Probably..."
"It seems this happened because you hurled the source of Omnipotence to a distant otherworld."
"..."
"It is probably not something occurring solely from the source of Omnipotence and the ascension of a great divinity of another world...however, with the history repetition of Ender production added on top, various circumstances have meshed together and produced this."
Bong Hwa raises her hand.
A vast life force strokes the dimensional distortion that has formed in the Gestation World.
"Gate...it is a Gate God. In relation to the source of Omnipotence...in a distant dimension, 'one who is the gate, the gatekeeper, and the key' was born. The ascension of that one and the history repetition of Ender production have meshed together in a marvelous coincidence...and a dimensional gate that connects the Crystal King's home dimension and this world has arisen."
With her golden eyes shining, Bong Hwa prophesies with a troubled expression.
"Through the [Gate], those similar to Enders will once again enter Mount Sumeru from Earth for the sake of history repetition. They will not be true Absolute Fragments, but judging from the precedents of history repetition so far, they will cause quite troublesome events. And even if they die, history repetition will continue to occur. Therefore, to block this history repetition, there is only one method."
At Bong Hwa's continued words, the Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun lets out a deep sigh.
"Originally, as long as even one Ender's history is alive, the next generation does not come. Crystal King, as this affair is something that has occurred because you threw the source of Omnipotence outside, you must reap what you sowed. You shall take the Pseudo-Enders who will newly appear...and taxidermize them for a hundred billion years, and thereby sever history repetition. If you do so, that hole born from the overlapping of many coincidences, such as history repetition and the ascension of divinity, will disappear."
Seo Eun-hyun remembers the time when he threw the source of Omnipotence toward a distant otherworld.
Certainly, at that time, when he was merged with Bong Hwa and the other Ender comrades, they also agreed...
But it was indeed Seo Eun-hyun whose personality insisted the most strongly that they should discard the source of Omnipotence.
At the same time, the personality who carried it out was also Seo Eun-hyun.
Therefore, Bong Hwa's words that Seo Eun-hyun should take responsibility are not wrong.
'So now I have to taxidermize Enders with my own hands, huh.'
Of course, it is a joke to some extent.
Bong Hwa merely used a strong word while recalling the old days when she tried to taxidermized Seo Eun-hyun, and in truth it is enough just to raise a True Immortal or Governing Immortal strong enough to endure a hundred billion years.
Or, like Ban Ta, who is still being overworked in Sacred Master affairs and screaming in agony, it would also be fine to nail them down as a Sacred Master of a Middle Realm for a hundred billion years of time and extend their lifespan.
'One way or another...they will not be true Enders...but they will be new ones...'
Feeling a new emotion at the fact that he must abduct the new ones from Earth and raise them to True Immortals—no, at least to the Sacred Vessel stage—Seo Eun-hyun rises from his seat.
"...Understood."
He sends a message to his comrades and his Immortal Treasure Sword Extreme who remain on Earth and are enjoying Earth's civilization.
And he sends a message to Wol Ryeong, the leader of a cluster of stars that is the Wuji Religious Order that traces spirals inside Mount Sumeru while watching over the living beings of Mount Sumeru.
"Then from today...the next Enders—no, not true Enders, but new ones born through history repetition and various coincidences...Neo-Enders. I will bring the Neo-Enders from Earth and have them be taxidermized."
And so, Seo Eun-hyun's Immortal Treasure, the [Silver Snake Biting Its Tail] Ji Hwa, begins to search on Earth for new lives.
All the starlight in the night sky begins to watch over the entire world and to weave fate for the new lives.
At the very end of the story, the Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun finishes his preparations to taxidermize the new lives that come into the world and, on the Crystal Throne, closes his eyes and begins to wait.
For the day when a new story opens!