Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 861: Side Story - Conclusion.
It is right after Kim Hae-sol's group leaves the island.
Countless ghosts and strands of hair come down from the sky above Ghost Island.
Kugugugugugugu!
A monster wears a mask on its face, its entire body wrapped in bandages, one hand transformed into a sword.
Ji Hwa takes off the mask, retrieves the split bodies she split off, and brushes back her hair.
As her transformed body returns to its original state, her body and clothing return.
Leaning against the communication tower, she looks up at the being coming down from the sky and waves her hand.
"What rinse do you use? Your hair is nice."
Shururururuk...
Something in the form of a gigantic eight-chi ghost is coming down upside down from the sky.
Its hair gathers into one spot in front of her, then changes into Kang Min-hee's appearance.
"Are you making a joke, Sword Spear...?"
Kang Min-hee speaks with a sigh.
"Haah, I read the celestial energy that a disaster was going to strike this island, so I wondered what it was...so it was you. What are you doing here?"
"While paying off some debt...I am investigating the power of the otherworld."
Ji Hwa speaks as she works her mouth and gathers the otherworldly energy she has been inhaling into her mouth.
"It has a power that suppresses the energy generated inside my body. Of course, it is only sloppy energy that isn't guided by my will or Immortal Arts, but it is still a rather annoying energy."
Ptoo—
When she spits the energy she gathers in her mouth into her hand, a faint gray light gathers into her palm.
It is the otherworldly energy she gathered.
"A power regarding the authority of life that activates human desire and vitality, and changes them into monsters..."
Jiiiiiing—
As she focuses her consciousness on the gray energy, the gray energy condenses and refines even more, then changes into a faint red energy.
"This is the authority of a blood descendant of some great divinity that governs life force in an otherworld. You look like you came prepared quite a bit...but even if it is you, it will be hard to suppress a descendant bearing the divinity of an otherworld god. Especially with a split body that only has mortal being-level power, not even the main body."
"Hmm..."
At those words, Kang Min-hee looks around and seems to realize something.
"I see, this whole island..."
"Yeah. It is itself a lump of the authority of life and darkness."
Ji Hwa speaks with her arms crossed.
"I already killed all the ones who were bewitched by this thing. Even those guys who called themselves high-ranking spectators or whatever, I wiped out every one of the ones that were bewitched, so don't worry."
"...You killed all those people...?"
Kang Min-hee rubs her head as if her head hurts at Ji Hwa's words, but Ji Hwa just shrugs her shoulders.
"If you have complaints, you can just revive them, can't you? Anyway, I've already purified them all with my sword, so if you bring them back to life, they will be able to get free of their bewitchment by this thing."
"Gngh... Instead of purifying by killing them, you could have purified them by injecting your 'wisdom'. Didn't you just kill them because your hands itched?"
"Ehe..."
Ji Hwa scratches her head as if embarrassed and plays dumb.
Kang Min-hee sighs as she looks at her.
"Haa...fine. Anyway, then you are going to help, right? I'm planning to move the Management Bureau headquarters to this island, so I would like you to subdue it alive."
"Of course. You protect the souls of the humans a bit, and block its escape routes."
"Okay. Thanks."
After giving Ji Hwa a brief greeting, she flies outside the island with the artifacts she brought.
After a while, Ji Hwa slices the communications tower cleanly off with one hand, then gathers the human souls that are beneath it.
"Return...to thee..."
The owner of the island.
The one who was first bewitched by this Ghost Island thus returns to thee to Ji Hwa.
She transforms the body of the island owner who returns to thee, makes it into a Flesh Sword, and grips it in her hand.
Immediately after, she swings the Flesh Sword toward the island just like that.
Jjeojeojeong!
The next moment,
The whole island shakes, and the island begins to surge upward.
Tuduudududu!
A living island that moves around from place to place.
A monster that kidnaps people, makes them fall into desire, tempts them with things like eternal life and authority, and makes them gradually change into otherworld monsters.
Under the sea, pretending to be an island, acting...
The bloodline of an otherworldly god!
Ji Hwa lets out an exclamation at the power of darkness boiling up from under the sea.
"This should scratch the itch."
Of course, compared to her main body, it is a monster that is unimaginably weak, but...
Having left Mount Sumeru and rolled around for a long time, her standards are much lower, so just carving up an existence like this is enjoyable.
Chwaaaaa—
A pillar of water shoots up.
Inside the surging water pillar, it begins to reveal its identity.
Chiiiiii—
A being that is mixed with the aura of Earth and emits a faint grayish energy.
However, its true essence is a monster that carries a blood-red light of life.
Inside the grayish energy, the monster's true body that drips bright-red energy has a face where dozens and hundreds of tentacles are wriggling,
Its body is that of a toad.
Whisperwhisperwhisper...
Similar to how True Immortals inject 'wisdom' into lower lifeforms by their very existence,
This lifeform too is whispering wicked knowledge into the surrounding space and injecting knowledge about life.
It is wicked knowledge about life and vitality.
It is the authority of darkness that originates from some secret existence of an otherworld.
"Hooh, I see. This is not fully matured...but a juvenile that is not fully grown."
Ji Hwa's eyes gleam as she avoids the being's swinging foreleg.
"Even though it is not even fully grown, it has this much size and strength... It is like a Kun."
A race that received the Immortal Beast True Blood of the Immortal Beast Azure Peng grows by the waterside under the name Kun during the larval stage, then gains wings and often evolves into a Peng.
However, some Kun just remain in fish form all the way to the end and grow in the form of Kun, and in that case they boast an enormous size.
Even at the point of an immature body that is not fully grown, it is common for its body length to already be dozens, hundreds of li, so the dreadfulness of that size is easy enough to imagine.
And, in Ji Hwa's view, this tentacle-toad monster that is the size of a small island even though it is not fully grown also seems to be a race comparable to a Kun.
"It seems your progenitor is, at the very least, a being comparable to Azure Peng?"
Kuooooo!
The tentacle-toad monster wriggles the tentacles around its mouth and begins to wield a bizarre authority.
From the nearby sea, enormous chunks of flesh begin to grow, then begin to surge toward Ji Hwa.
Shwikagak!
However, Ji Hwa roughly swings the Flesh Sword and roughly slices up all the lumps of flesh, then climbs onto the tentacle-toad's waist and drives the Flesh Sword straight down.
Tukwang!
The toad whose waist is smashed by Ji Hwa drops straight down into the deep sea, but it does not die in the end.
'Hoh?'
Ji Hwa notices that this toad is protecting itself with a faint red light.
[Is this your owner's authority?]
Kwadududuk!
However, even that shatters to pieces when Ji Hwa draws out a speck of her main body's power and presses down.
In the end, the tentacle-toad plunges into the bottom of the deep sea, vomits blood, and wails sorrowfully.
[Even otherworldly beings comparable to gods watch my mood and hold back. What do you believe in to show hostility in front of me?]
Dudududui—
As Ji Hwa gradually begins to reveal the rank of her main body, the tentacle-toad fails to endure that [wisdom] and madness and begins to go insane.
She lightly pins it under her foot and begins to find out its origin.
As an Immortal Treasure of an Immortal Beast King, she has authority that can retroactively trace history in her own way, so with that power, she traces this monster's history.
And after a while,
After back tracing the tentacle-toad's history, Ji Hwa half-closes her eyes and strokes her chin.
[I see. Your master is being jointly attacked by otherworldly existences, and in the midst of that it scattered a few blood descendants like you throughout the otherworld, is it? And...]
Ji Hwa looks beyond the sky, toward the distant otherworld, with a chilling gaze.
[Heuk Sa. It seems that guy is plotting something interesting.]
Of course, it is not particularly related to Mount Sumeru, nor is it related to Earth.
It is just that Heuk Sa, who flew off to take the Origin Essence of Omnipotence, is plotting things in an otherworld in order to seize the Origin Essence of Omnipotence, and this tentacle-toad just purely happened to fall to Earth by chance.
Ji Hwa also does not really try to care, but the master of this tentacle-toad.
The owner of life and vitality who ascended as a divinity with Heuk Sa's help is a being born within a phenomena she knows well, so she cannot help but pay attention.
"Radiance Mantra... After taking the Origin Essence of light, are you stealing and using the power of Radiance Mantra through that, Heuk Sa?"
The owner of the tentacle-toad.
That divinity of red life force is a divinity that was born within a twist of spacetime that Heuk Sa made by twisting spacetime with the power of the Radiance Mantra.
However, what she cares about is not that.
"It is not a simple twist of spacetime. Your owner's spacetime is drawing Taiji. If so..."
Countless calculations and logics unfold in her head, and after a while she derives a single conclusion.
"It means there has to be some other divinity that is a pair with your master..."
Then, Ji Hwa's gaze turns from the otherworld where the god of life and vitality is, and aims toward the Mount Sumeru side.
"I see. That Gate God or whatever that made those annoying things like New Fates is the divinity that is a pair with your master."
Life and spacetime.
Two pairs of symmetrical divinities were born in a distant otherworld under Heuk Sa's influence.
"Hmmm..."
Ji Hwa grips the tentacle-toad's soul and sinks into thought for a moment.
'Heuk Sa. That guy is...someone Seo Eun-hyun said not to kill, so I left him alone, but what is it doing in the otherworld...?'
The Future King's leftover.
A bug that is no different from literal scraps, unable to properly inherit the Future King's talent and authority, personality and memories.
That is Heuk Sa.
Yet it seems the little it inherited is only the sinister craftiness of scheming, as it seems to be struggling in the otherworld to seize the Origin Essence of Omnipotence.
And Ji Hwa found that bothersome and once asked Seo Eun-hyun if she cannot just catch and kill it, and Seo Eun-hyun only said, 'Not only is it hard to catch and kill, but if a greater divinity like you steps in for no reason, enormous chaos can arise in the otherworld, so just leave it be,' so she decided to just let it be.
If she steps in, even she herself thinks she is an existence that would kill Heuk Sa even if it means exterminating the lifeforms of the otherworld, needlessly building resentment with the divinities of the otherworld or piling up karma.
But when she sees Heuk Sa stealing the power of the Radiance Mantra from the far otherworld, creating a divinity that rivals at least Azure Peng, and plotting something, she feels a bit irritated.
'These bug-like bastards dare to fling open the gate of Mount Sumeru and create chaos, huh?'
She left Radiance Hall, but she still has the pride left as a divinity who protected Mount Sumeru.
'Heuk Sa, no matter what you are thinking, I will make it so you cannot do as you wish. I cannot just kill you because of my husband's advice, but...'
Tududuudu—
She reveals her main body, and while gripping the tentacle-toad's soul, she extends her true body beyond the universe where Earth exists.
Countless otherworlds and other Heaven and Earths are visible.
And when she uses the tentacle-toad's soul she holds in her hand as a medium, she sees the distant universe of an otherworld.
There, she sees divinities clashing under Heuk Sa's schemes.
All of them seem to be trying to obtain the Origin Essence of Omnipotence that Heuk Sa is chasing.
Their levels of power all seem similar, and among them she sees the red divinity that governs life and vitality, the tentacle-toad's owner, obtaining the Origin Essence of Omnipotence and moving toward Heuk Sa.
'Heuk Sa...I see. Because the Future King prophesied that you would not be able to obtain the Origin Essence, are you borrowing another divinity's hand to possess Omnipotence?
She grins and begins to draw up her power.
: : I can't just let that happen. : :
Wo-woong—
Using the tentacle-toad's soul as a medium, she prepares an Immortal Art that targets the outer gods fighting near the alternate world located in a space beyond immeasurable eternal kalpas.
The authority as the Sword Extreme Heavenly Venerable gathers over her hand.
: : My owner. As the Immortal Treasure of the Crystal King, I beseech. : :
Not as a friend or comrade, but with the relationship of an Immortal Treasure and its Lord, she begins to draw authority from Seo Eun-hyun.
Endless starlight settles over her hand.
An authority that can create and annihilate hundreds of millions of superclusters in a single strike writhes over that hand, and begins to be forged into the shape of a sword.
: : Please let me punish the one who brings chaos to this world through schemes. : :
Deeeng—
Before long, above her hand, a starlight sword that seems to contain a universe and a starry heaven within it appears together with the sound of a brahma bell.
: : Sword-Guided Star Rain. : :
Hwoong!
Immediately after,
Toward the red divinity that is trying to take the Origin Essence of Omnipotence to Heuk Sa, she throws the sword of authority using the tentacle-toad's soul and the Radiance Mantra that Heuk Sa is stealing and using as medium.
***
A distant otherworld.
Outer space outside the world!
In that outer world where Vairambha Wind blows without end, countless divinities are pouring a total assault toward a red divinity that holds something within its arms and is heading toward a black snake-shaped divinity.
But the attacks heading toward the red divinity fail to properly hit due to the bizarre curvature of spacetime and the power coming from the sharp, bristling two-colored thornbush crown that the divinity holds.
: : How pathetic, Hermes. Do you think that because you go through them, you can have the crown of thrones? : :
And from behind the red divinity, the voice of someone who wears a thornbush cloak and holds a black great scythe rings throughout outer space.
The black snake that is in the place the red divinity heads toward.
The Heuk Sa called by the name 'Hermes' hisses and laughs.
: : The crown of thorns was originally mine. It is something that was in my hand from the beginning, Thornbush Witch. Even if you received a fate, it is not something you can dare to discuss. : :
Heuk Sa hisses and begins to stretch out his attraction force toward the red divinity that comes toward him.
His gaze is fixed on the crown of thorns where the black and golden lines the red divinity holds are twisted together in jagged points.
: : I will cut off your vain greed. Everyone, hear me. Stop the attacks and lend your hands to mine. Pour down misfortune.: :
Cheolkeong—
The being called the Thornbush Witch raises the great scythe and begins to chant a spell.
At her spell, the divinities that pour a total attack onto the red divinity all at once begin to add strength to her spell.
: : Foolish. The crown of thorns has already come into my hand. Whatever revelation you received, this is mine! It cannot be blocked by any misfortune. : :
Heuk Sa begins to laugh.
: : Come to me... O Omnipotence...! : :
The next moment,
Shiver!
Including the Heuk Sa, the countless otherworld divinities gathered there feel a chilling authority and pull away from the red divinity.
Immediately after, suddenly leaping over immeasurable space, a gigantic sword that shines with starlight appears and directly strikes down the red divinity that holds what is called the crown of thorns.
Kwagwagwang!
In an instant, the red divinity lets go of the crown of thorns, shatters to pieces, and lets out a desperate scream.
Heuk Sa opens his eyes wide at the strange event and screams.
It is an attack of a divinity that he knows well.
: : [Silver Snake]...why are you suddenly...? And that starlight...could it be the Crystal King...!? Is that so? Has the Crystal King decided to kill me...!? : :
The black snake's eyes, as it speaks the name Crystal King, fill with fear.
: : This cannot be... For now, I have to avoid the Crystal King's gaze and run. : :
Heuk Sa, terrified of the starlight sword that suddenly appeared and, with a single strike, made the red divinity half-dead, flies toward the crown of thorns that the red divinity has let go of.
The crown of thorns seems to be led towards somewhere.
And finally, the crown of thorns enters a certain world that it is drawn to, and following the crown of thorns, the divinity called the Thornbush Witch is the first to enter that world.
: : Catch it. You must not give the crown of thorns to the witch! : :
The otherworld gods who, until just now, attacked the red divinity together with the Thornbush Witch all begin to enter that world together with Heuk Sa with eyes soaked in greed, and begin to pour attacks toward the Thornbush Witch.
The red divinity, which gained an enormous misfortune from the spells of the otherworld divinities and the Thornbush Witch, also forces its body to rise even while half-dead from the sword that suddenly appeared, and follows after the divinities.
But when the other otherworldly divinities see the red divinity following, they unleash another total assault on the red divinity as if to eliminate a competitor, grind it underfoot, and then fly off again to find the crown of thorns.
Heuk Sa glances back at the red divinity that can be said to be on his side.
Perhaps because the misfortune is still not exhausted, even after suffering a total attack from the otherworld divinities, the red divinity is attacked once again by the indigenous gods of the world the crown of thorns has come to, and its condition worsens further from a state that is already dying.
'In searching for the Origin Essence of Omnipotence, it would simply be a hindrance in that state.'
Heuk Sa leaves a short remark, then abandons the red divinity and begins to fly to find the sacred object called the crown the thrones, the Origin Essence of Omnipotence.
: : The debt between you and me is now treated as nonexistent. Rest. : :
In his eyes, only the obsession aimed at the Origin Essence of Omnipotence remains.
: ： Wait for me...Thornbush Witch. [Silver Snake]. Crystal King...! When I obtain the Origin Essence of Omnipotence...I will surely accomplish the karma of creation that the Future King could not achieve...! Someday, I will return this grudge and resentment to all of you...! : :
The leftover of the Future King, who has not inherited even what the Future King truly wanted.
That black snake, picking up and using the name Hermes in the otherworld, does not even notice Ji Hwa's gaze that pitiably observes him from a far, distant world, and he blindly begins to rummage through the otherworld's universe in search of the Origin Essence of Omnipotence.
***
"..."
Woo-woong—
Ji Hwa compresses her main body and takes a Transformation form as a human, controls the divinity's blood descendant that completely severed its connection with the red divinity, and comes before Kang Min-hee.
"You even revealed your main body. What in the world did you do?"
"...It's just that this guy's origin is an interesting god, so I tried to probe it."
"You look kind of gloomy."
At Kang Min-hee's question, Ji Hwa gives a bitter smile and shrugs.
"It's fine. I just saw something personally bitter, that's all."
Kang Min-hee does not ask further, and she begins to move the Management Bureau onto the upper part of the red divinity's blood descendant, the monster that mimicked an island and kidnapped people under the name Ghost Island.
Ji Hwa watches that and bitterly looks up at the sky.
"You have truly...fallen so disgracefully."
No matter how much he is a leftover, she thought there would at least be a little dignity left as an Imperial King of Mount Sumeru.
But the Heuk Sa she saw is, truly, a completely separate person.
It is such ugliness that it does not even seem like that of the one she feared the most, so she feels all the irritation she felt toward Heuk Sa fly away, leaving only pity.
"Is this how the Judges felt when they saw Yu Hao Te become Blood Yin? I once mocked them to my heart's content...but seeing something similar, it is nothing but pitiful..."
In the first place, leftovers often appear with the ugly parts of the heart, so in a way it is a natural result.
"Enough. Now let's not pay attention to it anymore..."
She returns home.
Before she knows it, it is late at night.
Seo Eun-hyun's split body sleeps soundly in a childlike form, and she goes to the veranda balcony, clicks her tongue, and looks up at the sky.
She thought there would be something troublesome in Heuk Sa's plot.
She had a worry that if that thing one day obtained the Origin Essence of Omnipotence in its hand, it would become a troublesome enemy.
But seeing Heuk Sa that ugly, she realizes she has nothing in particular to worry about, and at the same time a deep boredom and an inexplicable loneliness dominate her heart.
'Why am I like this, really...?'
On Earth, there is everything she wants.
But perhaps...it might be that there are only things that are too frail.
Because there are no existences of equal standing, no matter what she does it is boring and tiresome.
'Ah is that so?'
For some reason, she feels like she can understand the Future King.
Because he could do everything, he could not find value in anything.
Because even the value he managed to find could not become salvation, he was a king who wanted a greater salvation and wanted to create a god.
While she is on Earth, she feels like she is coming to understand a somewhat dangerous emptiness.
It is then.
"As expected, you're bored, right?"
On the balcony where starlight shines, she realizes that at some moment even she could not perceive, someone has been standing beside her.
With trembling eyes, she looks to the side.
"Seo Eun-hyun...?"
It is Seo Eun-hyun.
However, she cannot treat him like she does when she teases Seo Eun-hyun's usual childlike split body.
The heavy sense of existence she feels from this Seo Eun-hyun.
The waves of authority whose end she cannot know.
The one beside her now is the main body.
Not the human clone Seo Eun-hyun, but the Crystal King Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun.
Sseuk—
Seo Eun-hyun wraps Ji Hwa in one arm.
Usually, Seo Eun-hyun's split body is in Ji Hwa's arms, but now, with the main body coming in person, Ji Hwa naturally sinks into his embrace and blushes.
Not the cute appearance she teases as usual, but the appearance of a transcendent being that is dependable.
In that embrace, she faces the dangerous enlightenment blooming in her heart and lets out a small, amused smile.
The Future King had no savior.
Because he was the strongest.
But she has a savior.
So, it is not going to become like that for her.
"What is it? Did you come because I borrowed your authority?"
"As long as you do not do anything strange with my power, I don't care. More than that, I came to take you with me."
At Seo Eun-hyun's words, Ji Hwa looks up at him with a puzzled face.
It is a different sensation because she always looks down at Seo Eun-hyun's split body, but she does not dislike it.
"I need your help."
"...So you came to make me do work?"
"I also came because I wanted to see you with my main body after a long time."
"Hmph...you speak well."
Even as she speaks, Ji Hwa clings tightly to Seo Eun-hyun's embrace.
"...Fine. Since you said something commendable, I will help you. What is it?"
"Ban Ta seems to be trying to pull off something troublesome. If I step in personally, I can solve it, but...the First King told me not to put my hands on things like this myself, so...I want you to help."
"Who is Ban Ta again...?"
Ji Hwa searches through her memories, and she remembers that there was a unique Sacred Master who stayed in the Sacred Vessel stage for quite a long time.
'Ah right. When we subdued the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity and brought along the Star Shattering stage descendants, was it the brat who grumbled at me?'
She is someone with a broad heart, so she didn't even care back then, but it seems he has become quite a troublesome existence now.
'Still, he seemed to have quite a bit of talent...so by now he should have escaped being a mortal being and reached Immortal Lord level, right? If Seo Eun-hyun says it's troublesome, he might have become a Supreme Deity. How far has that little Sacred Vessel stage reached...?'
"Yeah, I roughly remember now. By the way, what are the others doing?"
"If we want to stop Ban Ta without damage, we have to subdue him in a short time, but right now Ban Ta has become a bit troublesome through the Purple Gold Realm, so...at the Immortal Lord level, short-term subjugation is almost impossible. The only ones who can subdue him in a short fight are me, the First King, Young-hoon Hyung-nim, or you, so I need your help."
"Hoh...fine. Then in return, what will you do for—"
And Ji Hwa, who is about to boldly name her price to Seo Eun-hyun, flinches the moment she sees Seo Eun-hyun's eyes and blushes.
'Ugh...as expected, he really is too different from his split body.'
Even she, a Heavenly Venerable, cannot know the end of that power and that rank.
At the faint oppression that this mass of rank breathes out, she feels her heart tremble, and she forces her reddened face to cool down.
"I'll help you for free this time, specially."
"Thank you."
Ji Hwa breathes out a single thread of breath, makes a split body that will be together with Seo Eun-hyun's split body on Earth, and then, held in Seo Eun-hyun's arms, she begins to return together to Mount Sumeru.
"Goodbye, Earth."
Like that, Ji Hwa bids farewell to the Earth as it grows distant, and embraced by starlight, she returns to Mount Sumeru.
Thus, the story on Earth concludes.
Author's Note:
Hello, readers.
Due to personal circumstances...it seems I must take a break from A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation side story for a somewhat long time. Therefore, since it has turned out like this, I will switch A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation into a temporarily completed state.
I convey my deep thanks to the readers who love A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation, and I hope we meet again someday.
Thank you.
Translator Notes:
And that's the end...for now. Thank you everyone for these past 2 years and thank you to everyone who supported me throughout this time. To be honest, if it wasn't for the donators and premium readers, I wouldn't have been nearly as consistent in the later hundreds of the story.
Special shoutout to Ryuu who invited me to WeTried, Heaning the Dev, Resnut the Wise, Z0Rel the Editor, and last but not least, BlueMangoAde, who translated all the Q&As, did quality and accuracy check behind the scenes, and was pretty much the second greatest contributor to the translation of A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation.
Until Tremendous continues the side story or there's another story I pick up, I guess this is it.
Farewell, Daoist Readers.