The Forgotten (Part 3)
I opened my eyes.
Buzz buzz buzz—!
Countless landscapes and scenes flashed past me like a whirlwind.
This was the life I had lived.
These were the illusions I saw as I challenged the realm of the Original Soul again.
Normally, an ordinary cultivator could not face the Original Soul this many times.
Without sufficient enlightenment, no matter how much elixir one consumed, one could not attain the Original Soul itself.
However, through the Formless Sword, I had grasped the metaphysical essence of the realm itself.
And with that certain direction, I could nurture the soul.
With a solid foundation of enlightenment, it did not matter how many times I challenged the Original Soul!
Again and again…!
Crack crack crack!
As long as I could!
I looked back on my previous lives and continuously condensed spirit qi with an obscure art.
Kim Yeon, Changhoja, Oh Hyun-seok, Yeon-jin, Yeon-wi, Wiryungseon, Administrator, Su-in and Hong-yeon, Gyeon Shin, Cheon-un, Goe-gun…
I climbed through my memories and recorded the characters who appeared in those scenes one by one.
At the same time, I questioned the heart demon inside my heart.
“Why do I try to find my memories.”
“Why do I resist the principles of the human alliance?”
“What exactly is the goodness I have chosen?”
“Am I doing the right thing?”
“What have I… lost?”
Countless questions swirled inside me.
And those questions gathered in my chest, fattening the heart demon.
The heart demon opened its mouth.
“Is it correct to be doing this to find your memories?”
“Does resisting the principles mean you are mistaken in your goodness? Is that really principle and goodness?”
“What on earth makes what you do right?”
The heart demon approached me and grabbed my throat.
It was only an illusion.
Yet I truly felt the pain as if my throat were being crushed.
“Why do you try to find what you have lost? Is that really useful?”
I could barely breathe.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Behind my back, thousands of spirit qi manifested in a swarm.
And I looked at them.
My connections from this loop and the previous ones.
“At last….”
I manifested every character from the ‘previous loop’ that had flowed for a thousand years as spirit qi.
Even if they were not people I had personally met and talked to while alive.
Just the ones who had brushed past me in memory, the ones I had briefly met, the ones I had slain in General Seo’s body… countless beings were all turned into spirit qi.
My relationship with them was nothing special.
But in a thousand years, the countless memories had piled up.
The characters in my memories had occupied positions, stealing the places of those from my earlier lives.
“Now, at last, I can go back.”
Facing the heart demon, I said.
“I don’t know what’s important. I don’t know if I’m doing well, if I’m right, or what I want to do… I’ve forgotten it all… But that’s why….”
I looked straight into the heart demon’s eyes and shouted.
“That’s why, first, I must find it! I don’t know anything, I’m like dust! Like an insect, that’s why I must know even more!”
Whether what I do is right, good, or well done.
I know nothing.
I am nothing but a tiny, insignificant speck of dust and insect in the universe.
But that is why I must preserve even the things I already know, so that no memory leaks anymore.
In front of this rough world, to survive a little longer with this tiny body, shouldn’t I cherish the things I have gathered and not let them spill?
Bright!
I exited the illusory space.
This time too, I had not obtained the Original Soul.
But the memories of this life and the previous life that I had painstakingly nurtured and caressed for so long were now firmly imprinted as spirit qi.
At the same time, by creating countless spirit qi, the obscure art of making spirit qi reached its extreme!
“Now, one step closer to great completion.”
The speed of making spirit qi was now almost the same as the speed of recognition.
If I could only recognize, I could instantly make spirit qi and record the memory.
“Then, shall I start again…!”
Whoosh whoosh!
I closed my eyes and challenged the Original Soul once more.
A day.
I replicated most of the memories from the twelfth loop as spirit qi.
Two days.
This time the memories of the eleventh loop.
The eleventh and twelfth loops had been very short, so it did not take long.
Three days.
I reached the memories of the tenth loop.
The tenth loop had been the most intense and emotionally explosive of my lives.
“Ah….”
Hyang-hwa.
The person I loved.
The last fight with that person.
The last whispers we shared.
Those emotions…
All the moments at that time, every single second, I replicated as spirit qi and recorded.
From the moment I avenged Won Rip, every instant from the beginning.
It took an entire day to capture those moments.
The fourth day.
For two hundred years I had clenched my teeth toward Won Rip from Bongmyeong Castle, placed the curse doll in the snake’s nest, and recorded the appearances of the people I had met through the curse doll as spirit qi.
The fifth day.
Finally, on the fifth day, the memories of the ten years with her that had been both long and short.
After recording those memories, I finally succeeded in recording the entire tenth loop.
The sixth day.
The memories from the ninth loop—the two hundred years I had spent alone at Bongmyeong Castle.
The appearances of Seo Ran and Song Jin, and the figure of Kim Young-hoon who had given me hope at that time.
And finally.
The seventh day.
The memories of the eighth loop—the times I had struggled with Kim Young-hoon as we climbed toward Foundation Establishment and aimed for Wol-do-ip-cheon.
Swish swish…
Before long.
Countless, uncountable spirit qi surrounded me, forming a ring.
My traces, the traces of my life.
“If the Inspector comes, I will obtain the Original Soul at that moment.”
If I reached the Original Soul realm, the Wansuigungmurok would unfold in an entirely different dimension.
“Right after the Heavenly Tribulation. Immediately disappear before the Inspector with the Wansuigungmurok, shatter the seal with the Formless Sword, and walk out together with the imprisoned demons…!”
So I waited for the Inspector.
“…”
And on the eighth day.
The Inspector did not come.
“…”
No news at all.
The seal was still functioning perfectly, but that was the end.
The Inspector did not come.
“…Haha…”
I smiled wryly.
“Something must have happened on the way.”
To me, it was Heavenly Luck.
Then what I needed to do now was simple.
“Find the memories! The rest of them!”
Smiling, I continued to operate the art.
Again and again, challenging the Original Soul, I kept replaying the slideshow.
And through the art, I kept carving new spirit qi.
After the thirteenth loop, where I had carved a thousand years of memories.
The speed of the obscure art’s spirit qi replication had skyrocketed, now far surpassing the speed that had taken years.
Thanks to that, as I challenged the Original Soul, I could form spirit qi even faster.
The ninth day.
I sorted the memories of the seventh loop.
From the moment of death by Heavenly Thunder, climbing back up.
The moment I reached Deungbongjogeuk and pierced the Heavenly Thunder phenomenon.
The times I learned the cultivation art while manipulating the seven qi condensations.
The tenth day.
The memories of the sixth loop.
From the moment I died after offering ten bows to my master, climbing back up.
The times my master had protected me with the ancient tree.
The years I had studied beneath him, laying the foundation of cultivation.
One life per day.
The fifth loop.
The memories of protecting my disciples and reaching the peak of Five Qi Consorting with the Origin.
The fourth loop.
The memories of being beheaded as I reached Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.
The third loop.
The memories of devoting my entire life to reaching the pinnacle.
The second loop.
The memories of training to reach the world of cultivators.
The first loop.
The memories of having lived my best, without thinking there would be more regressions…
And the very first…
“Ah…”
Before long.
The number of spirit qi floating behind my back had become so countless that counting them was impossible.
Kim Young-hoon, Buk Hyang-hwa, Kim Yeon, Oh Hyun-seok, Cheongmun Ryeong, Buk Jung-ho, Song Jin, Seo Ran, Changhoja, Cheongmun Jung-jin, Goe-gun, Seo Hyoel, Geum Byeok-ho, Heo Gak, Won Rip, Makri Hwangcheon, Cheon-un, Makri Hyeon, Cheongmun Gyu, Jin Ru-yeoncheon, Yeon-jin, Yeon-wi, Jin Yeo-un, Byeokmunseong, Byeokcheon-gi, Manrim-inrap…
Amid this enormous crowd, I took the final step toward the memories of my very first life.
With each step, countless times reversed.
While looking back on countless lives, I gradually revived the forgotten memories.
“So this… was my life…”
I reversed time.
I stepped toward memories from the distant past.
And there, in the place where I had gone back and back, was my very first memory.
“This is….”
The memory still rushed toward me faster and faster.
But the memory of the first loop had already been recorded as spirit qi by the obscure art and fully recovered.
The obscure art had also reached its extreme, so no matter how fast the memory rushed, I could record it!
“Come!”
And finally.
The first memory crashed down toward me.
* * *
Here…
A cough.
An old man nearing the end of his life was desperately muttering about ‘Earth’ while reaching out to grab the sky with his hand.
The old man’s emotions came through clearly.
I hurriedly replicated the old man as spirit qi.
A young girl entered the room where the old man was.
I knew the girl.
“Mr. Joo’s daughter…”
Buzz buzz!
Once more the scene reversed.
The young man in his prime begging the bandit gang for his life.
The old man who had scavenged herbs and lived wretchedly.
The old man who studied hard, trying to do anything.
The old man who made and sold soap to somehow break through life.
And in his prime.
Seo Eun-hyun when I had first fallen here.
I recalled the memory of the moment I had first fallen in Deungsunhyang.
And I reversed my memories further, digging deeper into earlier ones.
Even earlier…
Before I came to this world…
The memory flowed beyond time, and I finally reached the memory of my hometown.
I had met someone there.
That person had brought us here.
I was sure of that memory.
* * *
Before I came to this world…
I reversed the wave of memory and finally reached the memory of my hometown.
Buzz buzz!
One of the spirit qi strangely disintegrated and vanished, and the spirit qi from the time when I was riding in the SUV filled the gap.
A landslide occurred.
After that, I could not remember clearly whether I had fainted or not.
The memory of Jeon Myeong-hoon who had tormented me…
The many memories with colleagues at work…
The memory of a senior who, while arranging my uniform after I had helped him during military service, suddenly became strict when his belt was not properly tied and hit me…
The memories of applying to various universities, all being rejected, and then retaking the exam to go to a local university…
Elementary school, middle school, high school…
Climbing back through all those memories.
Finally, I reached the memory that had truly been my very first.
I had never come this far before.
Because until now I had always been holding onto a memory I was determined to make spirit qi.
But now that the art had reached its extreme.
I could make spirit qi simply by recognizing, so finally I had reached here.
It was me who had just been born.
I was crying while being held in my mother’s arms.
A baby.
“Ah….”
I had never known why the Original Soul had always been in the form of a baby.
But I now understood.
When a person is born into this world, wailing under the weight of fate.
The purest time when one first begins to interact with others.
The moment when one first forms the connection called ‘in’ or ‘fate’.
The purest origin.
The condensation of pure energy drawn together by resolve took the form of a human being when it touched the purest moment of human life.
Reaching toward the baby.
Toward my very first moment.
I could have become the successor of the Original Soul.
Many successors of the Original Soul had surely done so.
After looking back at their own lives once, they would have reached out to their purest past.
But I did not reach out immediately.
Instead, I looked at the woman holding the baby and the man running over beside her, standing there helpless.
“Mother… Father…”
No.
I called them with an even more intimate word, a more fundamental one, from the depths of my heart.
“Mama… Papa…”
The two were smiling.
In the realm of the Original Soul, why cultivate the Yin-Yang Deities?
Perhaps because the purest moment is born of the union of yin and yang, two existences.
Parents.
“So that’s it…”
Now I finally knew what I had lost.
The memories of Earth.
Not modern people’s ethics or moral concepts.
Something more fundamental than that.
“Memories of being loved…”
The memories of me loving others were not memories of being loved.
Love exchanged between two people was always mutual, with desire.
The first love, Buk Hyang-hwa, and the one who had not forgotten love for a thousand years—both were the same.
Love between two people, no matter what, was desire.
However, in this world there was one absolute love without loss.
“Ah….”
I burst into tears at the threshold before entering the Original Soul.
My crying voice overlapped with the crying voice of the infant just born in front of me.
At the same time, I felt the heart demon inside my heart unravel completely.
Right or wrong, correct or incorrect.
I no longer needed the discrimination of judgment to decide.
From the moment I was born into this world, I had received infinite blessings and infinite grace.
I had received the heart of an infinite someone.
At the moment I received that heart and was born into this world.
A person wants to give their heart to someone.
This is the nature of every being that possesses a heart.
Whether good or evil, right or wrong, what does the word ‘principle’ even mean!
If there is someone in front of me who should be blessed, I should not make them suffer.
At the very least, that is only the minimum duty!
I wiped my tears and preserved their appearances as spirit qi, my very first connection.
And I walked forward.
I named the obscure art I had merged Samryeong-gong and Gunma Yonggang-gwon.
“Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram…”
Bright!
At the center of the Golden Dan, the very first thread of my life.
The form of the baby solidified.
Buzz buzz!
The Heavenly Qi changed, and lifespan was rewritten.
At the same time, dark clouds began to gather in the sky.
Normally, the one who obtains the Original Soul is struck by golden Heavenly Thunder and proclaims that they have obtained the Original Soul across the entire heaven and earth.
However, my Heavenly Thunder had two colors.
In addition to the familiar golden thunder that ordinary Original Soul cultivators receive, there was a familiar azure thunder.
Boom boom boom!
“Come.”
I looked at the sky with a calm expression.
And from the sky, a pillar of light fell.
Crack!
I had obtained the Original Soul.
With this.
“I can break through!”
“Answer Heaven!!!”
My body became a sword, charging straight toward the Heavenly Thunder that was falling.
Lightning split, thunder cracked.
My body did not stop. It pierced straight through the seal of the human alliance that covered the sky and reached the dark clouds that were dropping the Heavenly Thunder.
They split the clouds of the sky in two.
Whoosh!
“At last, I have reached it.”
I smiled as I looked up at the sky of the Demon Realm, which was entirely colored with Heavenly Thunder.
“Now, I am in the Original Soul Realm.”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—
I walked slowly toward the ground, feeling the wind of the Demon Realm.
The Inspector still had not come.
The Formless Sword had evolved under the influence of the Original Soul, so now all I needed to do was create a hole in the seal and let the remaining ones escape.
That was what I had thought.
“…Eh?”
Suddenly my body froze as I saw a grotesque man with a red fox mask approaching me.
In the man’s left hand was a severed head, and the head wore a small band on its forehead with the word [Inspector] written on it.
The expression on the severed head looked as if it had died in great agony.
Looking at the man scattering the terrifying will of extracting the Inspector’s head, I collected my thoughts for a moment and greeted him.
“Long time no see. Jeon Myeong-hoon.”