The Connection of Connections
“…I had… it.”
I wiped away the tears.
But no matter how many times I wiped, more kept falling from her eyes.
“Why… now?”
I hadn’t reached Wol-do-ip-cheon,
but I could see the heart itself.
And seeing the heart…
meant I could exchange heart-words.
Through the heart-words, I conveyed my meaning.
Heart-words were often vague, more like conveying the scene itself, which was hard to express in words,
but since they conveyed the meaning itself, I understood immediately.
“Ah… I see. If I had just endured a little longer and trained the Strange Star-Mind Scroll better, I would have seen it sooner. Ahaha…”
Kim Yeon.
Because she missed the past years,
even while smiling,
she kept crying as if pouring out her emotions.
“Such a fool… truly a fool… what did I do…”
I comforted her.
Kim Yeon continued to cry and laugh while talking with me.
“So… you’ve been enduring all this time…”
She continued to receive my heart-words precisely and nodded.
Those who hadn’t reached Wol-do-ip-cheon could only waste their time exchanging heart-words,
but those who had gained this vision could definitely exchange them,
so no one knew we were talking.
“I see. You’ve been enduring, enduring…”
We talked about the long years we hadn’t been together.
She, trapped in utter loneliness and madness among the puppets,
and me, forced to merely watch my fellow disciples go mad over the course of five hundred years.
“Thank you, oppa. For enduring… for me.”
“Ahaha, hiding the heart from Goe-gun? How did you do it?”
“As expected… you are higher than Goe-gun in the heart realm.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper conversation like this… haha, you too?”
“Ah, by the way, if anyone saw us now, they’d think I was just talking to myself.”
She giggled, genuinely happy, and hugged Jang Ik’s body tightly.
“…What does it matter? Those who don’t know the truth don’t need to worry about it.”
Kim Yeon hugged Jang Ik lovingly and continued exchanging words with him.
***
Goe-gun was suddenly watching the daily life of the puppets from the highest floor of the Wondrous Castle.
From below, he saw Kim Yeon hugging Jang Ik, talking to him with a lovely voice.
“…Oh…”
Goe-gun watched with tears of joy.
“Beautiful. Finally, you’ve learned how to see the true heart hidden inside the puppets. Good, well done.”
He said this, then turned to the [her] standing beside him.
“Look, my disciple has finally come close to me infinitely. Now… perhaps after just a few more hundred years, I will be able to complete you…”
He slowly rose from his seat, gently stroking [her] as if tending a glass sculpture.
***
“…Anyway, oppa. If oppa were in that state, [her] would probably be…”
Kim Yeon asked about [her].
“…What? Is it true? [her] isn’t still alive like oppa, is she? Then, was Goe-gun really just muttering nonsense?”
I conveyed the facts I had discovered through heart-words.
“…He went mad. He even tried to make a puppet of a soul. By the way, I didn’t notice that, but how did you find out?”
“Ah, I see. Is there a difference between seeing through puppets and seeing through humans?”
“Anyway, according to what you said… to escape the Wondrous Castle, we need to create an error, and the moment Goe-gun is distracted by making that error…”
After our warm conversation,
we discussed a plan to escape Goe-gun’s grasp.
Clank, clank…
Kim Yeon moved her left hand.
Her left arm had long since been modified into a puppet.
“Inside the Wondrous Castle, Goe-gun is like a god… to create a gap here, even if oppa controls the entire castle, it’s not enough. Either we wait for external support, or I wait for me to raise my realm. But either way, it will take a very long time.”
The Integration-stage puppets among Goe-gun’s puppets had also exploded in numbers.
Moreover, according to Kim Yeon, Goe-gun was gradually learning to create Void Refinement-stage puppets.
If [her] became a Void Refinement-stage puppet, it would be truly impossible to stop.
“Of course, in about a thousand to fifteen hundred years, I might reach at least Integration. Maybe by then, even if [her] is strong, I could give it a try. That Goe-gun seems to be struggling to make Void Refinement-stage puppets now… it will take a long time.”
Kim Yeon shook her head and continued.
“But waiting until then is too difficult, so perhaps getting outside help would be faster. Gang Min-hee… after the hunting team hunts her down, maybe we can hunt us too.”
Gang Min-hee was currently on the verge of transforming into something terrifying.
That’s why Integration-stage cultivators had gathered to hunt her down,
and if they hunted her down, there would be hope for us too.
“…How hopeless. Everyone. The former department head went mad, the vice department head went mad, Min-hee unnie became a mysterious monster, Hyo-seo unnie has no news… we both became mad and modified. What about the deputy department head? Did he die… huh? He’s alive? Hahaha, jokes. He couldn’t even win, right?”
She said this with a laugh at my words.
“In the company, we were all aloof, yet you trust the deputy department head so much? He’s really kind, but since everyone in the company was aloof…”
Kim Yeon brought up company stories.
‘I see.’
I recalled things from the company after a long time.
The memories were too old to think about clearly,
but listening to her, fragments started to surface.
Indeed,
I had been aloof with Kim Young-hoon,
and Kim Yeon and I had originally been normal.
I had been her supervisor, and she had been the new employee who followed me well.
‘Very, after a long time, it’s coming back to me.’
After talking with her after a long time,
memories long buried in my heart seemed to surface.
‘No, if she sees me as a normal subordinate, it would hurt.’
I didn’t know, but she had shown quite a bit of passion and affection.
After a long time,
I reminisced about the memories of when I was a normal human.
The day I first met Kim Yeon.
The day I taught her slowly how to do her job.
The day Kim Yeon delivered documents wrong and I, as her supervisor, took full responsibility and submitted them from scratch.
The day at the company dinner when I drank too much and Kim Yeon clung to me while drunk, crying and vomiting.
There were people I trusted and relied on, people I disliked, people I tormented, and people I liked,
but I couldn’t recall them clearly.
Only the memories related to Kim Yeon surfaced beyond those memories.
We reminisced about company matters for a while and talked about them.
And while talking, I gathered my heart.
No matter how long it took,
‘I must escape. Yeon-ah.’
“Yes. Eun-hyun oppa.”
We looked at each other and shared our resolve.
Five hundred years passed again.
***
KUGUGUGUGU!
The Wondrous Castle soared through the sky.
Almost a thousand years since we arrived in the Gwanghan Realm.
In the meantime, the Wondrous Castle, further modified by Goe-gun, now boasted an insanely fast speed just from its pure flight performance.
KUGUGUGUGU!
And behind the Wondrous Castle, billions of puppets followed.
By now, the Integration-stage puppets numbered over a hundred,
and [her] had reached Void Refinement, according to Goe-gun’s words.
I controlled the puppets of the Wondrous Castle from beside Kim Yeon.
Kim Yeon had now reached the middle stage of Four Pillars.
Her combat power was now essentially like Integration.
Of course, even then, escaping from Goe-gun was still impossible,
but our hearts were quite relaxed.
“…This time, it should be possible? Thinking about the chaos coming…”
‘Definitely.’
At my words, she nodded.
A little later,
KUGUGUGUGU!
Beyond the horizon, a billion-strong race and several hundred Integration-stage cultivators appeared.
Among them were humans and also youkai.
“Ha, who is this? Where are we that this snake brat dares to set foot?”
And,
among the youkai, Seo Hyul had also appeared at the peak of Four Pillars.
“Long time no see. The rumors of my fame across the Gwanghan Realm have spread. Being from the same Water Realm as me…”
“Shut your mouth. Before I tear it open. By the way, this guy has a lot of weird Law Treasures on his body now? What are their effects? I can’t read them like before?”
Kim Yeon was the same, and I looked at Seo Hyul too.
But Seo Hyul, unlike a thousand years ago, could not read his stomach even with Wol-do-ip-cheon vision.
Something like a hazy barrier was blocking the vision.
“Haha, it’s a well-known fact that Gwanghan Realm races fear the Heart Tribe’s vision. That’s why Law Treasures to block those eyes were developed. By the way, Venerable-nim is amazing. When I was in the Water Realm, I didn’t know what the Heart Tribe was, but now I know Venerable-nim had that eye from then…”
“Hmph! If you think the stomach is black, who can read it? Hanging Law Treasures to block it. Hihi, coming to a Gwanghan Realm full of people with the same vision as me must be driving me crazy?”
“Haha, Venerable. Let’s stop the gossip. Have you thought about it?”
“Hmph!”
Goe-gun said with arms crossed on the Wondrous Castle.
“Yes. Good. If what I say is true—that the One-Gate youkai Gathering of Ten Thousand Demons will help me complete the Wondrous Castle later…”
“Haha, thank you very much. I’m really moved. Who knew I’d get to team up with Venerable one day.”
“Hmph! I’m only looking at the performance of [her] who has reached Void Refinement. I’m not really teaming up with you. Shut up and guide me.”
“Haha, understood.”
PAAAAT!
Goe-gun’s Strange Army followed the Wondrous Castle,
and billions of youkai armies gathered by Seo Hyul and hundreds of Integration-stage cultivators of other races.
A massive force of races flew toward one place.
Cluck…
Kim Yeon grabbed my hand and whispered softly.
“…This much, there will definitely be a chance.”
I smiled bitterly inside.
Indeed,
this was the chance for Kim Yeon and me to escape Goe-gun’s grasp.
But…
‘I feel sorry.’
In the end, being able to escape meant assuming we would trample on her and scatter her.
One of the Integration-stage cultivators gathered by Seo Hyul shouted.
“I-I see it!”
KUGUGUGUGU!
Beyond the horizon,
dark clouds rose.
Kiyaaaa!
Kuaaah!
Kiyaaaaaaa!
The cries of hundreds of thousands of ghosts echoed across the land.
Ziiit, ziiit…
The thing that looked like a cloud,
was not a cloud, but each one was a ghost.
The Integration-stage cultivators felt tension in their eyes,
and Goe-gun felt a surge of arrogance.
An immense number of ghost troops.
But the truly terrifying thing was not those ghost troops.
Beyond them,
was an entity with immense presence.
KUUOOOOOO!
[Kiyaaaaaaa!]
“Gu, ghost…”
One Four Pillars cultivator shouted while trembling.
“It’s the Ghost Dao Holy Mother…!”
“The Ghost Dao Holy Mother is visible! Everyone, reorganize your formations!”
“While the Ghost Mother clashes with Goe-gun, set up defenses in the rear!”
KUKUKUKUKU!
The entity at the center of the ghost troop,
its scream made the ground flip upside down and the sky and earth filled with yin energy.
The landscape was as if part of the world had swapped with the underworld.
Kim Yeon looked at the entity with a complicated expression, and I, from inside Jang Ik’s body, looked at her bitterly too.
“Min-hee unnie…”
Gang Min-hee.
The former colleague taken as a disciple of Black Ghost Valley,
five hundred years ago,
had become a monster commanding hundreds of thousands of ghosts while insane and Void Refinement-stage.
[Aaaaaaah…!]
KUGUGUGUGU!
In the center of the darkness,
was Gang Min-hee, transformed into a black ghost body,
hair disheveled,
shiny eyes crying tears of blood,
wrapped in red spirit flames.
Her disheveled hair stretched across the land,
infiltrating every part of the clouds,
and Gang Min-hee’s ghost body had grown as large as a ten-story building.
“Damn it! Avoid the Void Refinement monster!”
“Living people must not hear the Ghost Mother’s scream! Use the Law Technique to block senses!”
Kiiiik!
Kieeeek!
In the scream of Gang Min-hee,
many Integration-stage cultivators among the united forces behind the Wondrous Castle turned into ghosts at once.
Kiiiik!
Kiyaaaa!
The ghosts flew toward Gang Min-hee,
joining the black clouds howling around her.
Of course,
in Goe-gun’s camp, except for Goe-gun and Kim Yeon, there were no living things,
but the puppets were not particularly affected.
The artificial souls vibrated, but since they weren’t real souls,
the effect was minimal.
“Kihi, okay. Don’t forget the promise, you snake brat.”
“Hahaha, if Venerable-nim hunts down the Ghost Mother, the entire race has agreed to forgive Venerable-nim’s past sins. The Ghost Mother has already turned half the Gwanghan Realm into a land of death, but a promise with Venerable-nim?”
And,
Goe-gun Jo Yeon clashed with the Ghost Mother Gang Min-hee.
BOOWOOWOO!
Billions of puppets rose into the air,
colliding with the ghost troop.
And the living cultivators supported Goe-gun with Law Techniques from the rear of the Wondrous Castle.
“…Come back, oppa.”
‘Yes.’
I had already successfully controlled over ninety percent of Jang Ik’s body.
But to avoid suspicion,
I had to act in this battle.
Taat!
I entered the ghost troop surrounding Gang Min-hee through Jang Ik’s body.
UWOOWOONG!
Goe-gun’s will was transmitted through the Wondrous Castle,
and the Wondrous Castle controlled all the puppets.
Following the Wondrous Castle’s orders,
I moved in unison with the other puppets.
UWOOWOONG!
My eyes were filled with spirit light.
Flash!
From my eyes and the other Four Pillars puppets,
rays shot out simultaneously.
ZZZONG, zzzong, zzzong!
The black clouds were punctured by the rays.
Although the number of ghosts was overwhelmingly greater than the puppets,
their quality favored the puppets.
KUGUGUGU!
Kiyaaaa!
Kuaaah!
Of course, since there were also King of Ghosts ghost monsters,
the puppets struggled too,
but overall it looked like an even fight.
And while I fought the ghosts,
the sky and earth began to shake.
[her] and Gang Min-hee were clashing.
Surrounded by white light,
her swinging the window, she pressed Gang Min-hee screaming in the center of the ghosts.
Like light driving away darkness,
with each swing of her window,
the sky and earth tore apart and the black ghosts were pushed back.
I fought the ghosts with Jang Ik’s body,
and every time the clash between [her] and Gang Min-hee came into view,
I analyzed their difference.
‘[her] is currently operating at maximum output.’
Just by itself,
an attack capable of tearing apart a fairly strong Integration cultivator dozens of times hit Gang Min-hee.
But one,
‘Gang Min-hee is just screaming… she hasn’t moved at all…’
That was it.
Gang Min-hee screamed while controlling countless ghosts,
and the billions of ghosts blocked [her]’s attacks,
but right now,
Gang Min-hee with Void Refinement power wasn’t using it.
‘Perhaps…’
I focused my consciousness on their battle with hope.
And,
FLASH!
From behind,
Seo Hyul, the youkai, and the united forces of many races shot light.
It seemed their formation was complete.
KUGUGUGUGU!
They drew in the spiritual veins of the surrounding land.
The spiritual energy of the sky and earth gathered toward the united forces.
And,
PAAAAT!
A white flash tore through the darkness,
and attacked [her] to intercept Gang Min-hee.
In the formation drawn by billions of races and hundreds of Integration-stage cultivators,
attacks of equal power to [her]’s strikes were fired.
KUWOOWOONG!
And,
the billions of ghosts voluntarily blocked the attacks,
so finally Gang Min-hee,
who had never allowed an attack until now,
was hit by the light from the united forces.
[Aaaaaaah!]
Gang Min-hee,
the Ghost Mother screamed.
Finally,
the one screaming while clutching her head raised her hand.
A long ghost claw grew from her hand.
That was it.
FLASH!
The end.
SAAAAAAA—
The noise of the entire united forces died down.
Even Goe-gun,
who had been pressing Gang Min-hee through the Wondrous Castle,
and I, and Kim Yeon,
all closed their mouths.
[her] was torn in half and flew backward.
“No! No!!”
Goe-gun roared madly.
At the same time,
the Ghost Mother began to use her power.
[Aaaaaaah!]
KUGUGUGUGU!
The sky and earth were covered in ghosts.
Around her, who had only had minor ghosts before,
real King of Ghosts of Four Pillars began to appear.
Flash!
The Ghost Mother’s ghost claw flashed,
and half the land was torn into space.
Two hand movements.
With that,
[her] half was torn away,
and half the united forces were destroyed.
“Impossible! Impossible! Impossible…”
Goe-gun clutched his head and went into a frenzy,
and Seo Hyul maintained his smile while issuing commands from behind the united forces.
“All troops, change the formation.”
PAAAAAAT!
The formation behind that supported Goe-gun changed into a fence that trapped Goe-gun and the Ghost Mother.
Seo Hyul smiled kindly at Goe-gun.
“Thank you as always, Venerable. We will have the next opportunity, so please buy us time. Then, for now…”
“I knew you would. You snake brat…”
BOOWOOWOO!
Goe-gun’s puppets caught the half of [her] that was flying away and stuffed it into the Wondrous Castle.
And,
“Wondrous Castle, bombard!”
From the Wondrous Castle,
spiritual energy of equal level to [her] gathered,
and rays were fired toward the fence Seo Hyul and the united forces had set.
KWAJANG!
The formation wasn’t broken instantly,
but it was badly cracked and Seo Hyul’s complexion hardened slightly.
“If [her] has a problem, you can use us as bait? Impossible. The Wondrous Castle, which is literally [her] and my world, is a puppet equivalent to Void Refinement.”
KWAAAANG!
The Wondrous Castle’s second ray hit the formation barrier,
and finally a hole opened in the formation barrier.
“You’ve hit me in the back once or twice, you snake bastard…”
“Haha, it wasn’t enough to make even Venerable-nim suffer this time.”
“Just wait there a little longer, and I’ll modify your body with the body of [her] that was torn off.”
But Seo Hyul lost no composure and said to Goe-gun.
“If you can, please try. Soon the Venerable will send support, and if he overcomes that too, then I’ll show my final card.”
UWOOWOONG!
At that moment,
Seo Hyul and the united forces disappeared with the light of the newly formed transmission formation beyond the formation barrier.
PAAAT!
The transmission formation sent Seo Hyul and everyone at once and then lost its light.
“Huhu, annoying bastard. All Wondrous Castle residents, listen! [her] needs to recover, so retreat!”
Crack, crack!
Goe-gun chewed his fingers madly,
and his eyes sparkled with madness as he gave orders to the puppets.
‘Damn it…’
I gritted my teeth inside.
It ended too quickly.
If it had been the Wondrous Castle itself hit instead of Goe-gun’s [her], we could have escaped,
but since the Wondrous Castle controlling Goe-gun’s puppets was still intact,
escape was still impossible.
I returned to beside Kim Yeon.
“Eh, what do we do? Eun-hyun oppa… if it’s not now, the chance…”
‘Just a little longer.’
It was too dangerous.
Although Goe-gun’s power was greatly weakened,
I knew I could strike his Wondrous Castle hard when Seo Hyul betrayed us,
but I hadn’t expected to retreat without fighting after preserving half the gathered forces.
‘It’s dangerous now…’
“…Yes.”
Kim Yeon bit her lip and followed the Wondrous Castle’s summons,
escaping Gang Min-hee while following the Wondrous Castle.
Kim Yeon looked back and saw Gang Min-hee screaming madly beyond the formation barrier.
She didn’t chase us at all,
too busy swallowing the ghosts of the united forces half that were destroyed by the recent blow.
‘She’s suffering too.’
It wasn’t just us who were suffering.
All the companions who fell in the Gwanghan Realm,
were despairing, frustrated, and in pain.
‘Damn it…’
Everyone was suffering.
But I could do nothing.
I sank into a deep sense of helplessness and crossed the Gwanghan Realm continent with Goe-gun’s remnants.
And at the moment when we were getting as far as possible from Gang Min-hee with the Wondrous Castle.
UWOOWOONG!
“Hm?”
Goe-gun furrowed his brow.
Space cracked in the direction the Wondrous Castle was heading.
And a faint green light emerged from beyond the space crack.
KWOONG!
‘That’ was the size of a millet grain.
A small green figure of the size of an infant was carrying two wooden knives on its back.
‘Four Pillars? Integration?’
It was hard to read the realm of that existence.
But at the appearance of that existence,
Goe-gun stiffened his face and stopped the Wondrous Castle.
The remaining puppet army also stopped in place simultaneously.
“You’re the ‘Venerable’ that snake brat mentioned?”
Goe-gun stroked his beard and asked the small existence.
The small, unimpressive existence wearing a green hood,
folded its small green hands like the hood and said.
The two existences’ gazes intertwined.
[Taking the first step of manifestation. Hm? No? Ah, I see. It was an accidental connection while training consciousness.]
“What are you saying?”
[Well, considering there are many who don’t respect consciousness among humans, reaching that level is quite an achievement. Not knowing what you’ve gained yourself, it’s a shame. Tsk tsk…]
Suddenly, while criticizing Goe-gun and clicking his tongue,
he asked Goe-gun.
[Yeah… is Goe-gun Jo Yeon the one who came from the Water Realm? They said there was great chaos in the Gwanghan Realm because of you and the Ghost Mother…]
“How strange. Why isn’t it looking like an Integration cultivator, but your appearance changed the qi?”
[Hmm, are you pretending not to know? Or are you really not knowing because you can’t get proper information in the Gwanghan Realm?]
Ossik!
I sensed my instincts ringing loudly.
I knew this feeling.
When meeting powerful cultivators,
the crisis of meeting a monster was felt from Four Pillars or Integration cultivators,
but this one was different.
Like the crisis felt when fighting Kim Young-hoon, who was at the peak at the time of Wol-do-ip-cheon,
the tension as if facing a well-tempered blade!
[Little one, the title ‘Venerable’ is…]
SRLING!
The small green hand pulled out one of the wooden knives on its back.
[A title that only those who have reached Void Refinement or above are given.]
“You’re Void Refinement? You look a lot weaker than the Ghost Mother…”
[Hmm, of course. My main body is currently returning to the Gwanghan Realm from a distant dimension. Because Baek-woon was too urgent, she only sent a fragment after cutting off some of her power.]
“Hihihi! The Ghost Mother was hard to make puppets with flesh, but if I catch you, I can make a real Void Refinement puppet!”
[This… as rumored, a truly crazy guy. Tsk tsk… Looking at it, your heart is rotten. How are you still alive in that mental state? Are you enduring by clinging to only one thread of hope?]
He said while looking at Goe-gun.
KUGUGUGUGU!
The Wondrous Castle began gathering power.
“Although [her] was injured, a fragment of Void Refinement level is enough to catch it! Hihihi! The shortage of Void Refinement data can also be supplemented by you!”
[…Hmm. The spiritual energy is indeed at Void Refinement level.]
And,
WOONG!
The small green figure raised the wooden knife.
‘Ah…’
I trembled at the sight.
Kim Yeon and Goe-gun didn’t notice,
but only I could see that posture and feel its beauty.
[But you seem to be mistaken. Merely imitating Void Refinement cultivators isn’t the end. True Void Refinement cultivators are those slowly leaving the mortal realm and becoming gods. And…]
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
The light of all things in the world gathered into that one wooden knife.
The terrifying precision pierced my soul.
[I have only reached Void Refinement or above. I am not a Void Refinement ‘cultivator,’ so even if you accidentally defeat me, you won’t get what you want, little one.]
“What?”
[Receive glory, little one. This Venerable is the highest leader of the Heart Tribe, Jang Ik, the Heaven-Sinking Venerable.]
PAAAT…
The wooden knife fell slowly.
The number of blows was incredibly slow.
But just by looking at it,
I felt as if all the martial arts I had built up until now were collapsing.
[To the Heart Tribe, Integration or Void Refinement level is meaningless. Receive death as glory in this blow.]
The next moment,
the Wondrous Castle split apart.