The Curtain Falls (2)
“Hmm….”
Seo Hyoel stared at Gyubaek with an utterly expressionless face, as if he were merely observing her.
“It’s real… Lord Jeon-hyeong sounded almost the same at the end, you know. You’re no different.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Seo Hyoel stepped closer to Gyubaek.
“Really? Do you truly want to see my sincerity?”
“Of course I do.”
“…You’ll regret it.”
With a blank, hollow expression, Seo Hyoel snapped his fingers.
Ttak!
The moment his finger flicked, the message that had been pinning me down turned toward Seo Hyoel.
In short, Seo Hyoel now regarded the bond with the owner of the Heavenly Thunder Banner as far more urgent than the Gwanghan Covenant.
Zip! Crackle!
Watching my entire body transform into lightning in an instant, I captured the final scene between Seo Hyoel and Gyubaek in my eyes.
Whoooom!
Around Seo Hyoel.
Four axes rose into the air in all directions.
Longevity, Wealth, Prosperity, and Good Fortune—Yu Ho-deok.
The four axes formed four towers around him.
‘Eh?’
It reminded me of the four protective towers that once shielded Won Rip. I frowned.
Kugugugug!
Just as the four towers had protected Won Rip by opening a barrier, Seo Hyoel’s axes connected and wove a shroud.
“The Curse of the Murky Soul-Piercing Eye.”
Whoooom!
Above Seo Hyoel and Gyubaek, blood-red eyes rose and formed a ceiling over the four axes.
The moment the ceiling completed, Seo Hyoel’s shroud swallowed both of them in an instant.
Whoooom—
At the same time, I felt something deeply foul, disgusting, and indescribably nauseating from deep inside the shroud.
‘That’s….’
It was as if he were recreating Seo Hyoel’s mindscape right there.
Kim Yeon’s figure remained peaceful, still reaching out from within, and the Gwanghan Covenant was functioning perfectly.
Yet I could not shake the uneasy feeling.
In a way, it was one of Seo Hyoel’s trump cards.
One of the few cards he had drawn only after wiping the smile from his face. What would happen next?
Whoooom—
Then I felt a strange sensation from the Mansang Inyeondo.
‘Why? Is there more?’
While observing the Mansang Inyeondo, I realized something.
‘That’s…!’
The Curse of the Murky Soul-Piercing Eye that Seo Hyoel was using.
I realized it was remarkably similar to the Mansang Inyeondo for some reason.
‘Of course….’
The faint, hazy thing Oh Hye-seo had seen when she read me was almost certainly the Mansang Inyeondo.
The only thing she could have described as “hazy” when looking at me.
If that was the case, the reason she had tried to shake my Mansang Inyeondo was probably to test whether Seo Hyoel, who had acquired a similar technique, could be taken down.
‘The fact that Oh Hye-seo could not fully read me using the Mansang Inyeondo means… Seo Hyoel could not read me completely either.’
Zip. Crackle.
I steeled my body as it fully transformed into lightning.
Whooooom!
The power sealed in the True Blood of the Black Dragon pulled me, who was trying to return to the owner of the Heavenly Thunder Banner, from the opposite side.
Zip. Crackle.
Only now, on the brink of death, did I understand.
The power of the True Blood of the Black Dragon was no blessing or overwhelming strength.
It was a calamity.
Gulping, gulping…
The Black Dragon’s power was trying to swallow me whole.
It was not being kind by stopping me from transforming into lightning and returning.
It was simply pulling me back because it did not want to lose its prey.
If I had not been facing the owner of the Heavenly Thunder Banner with my entire body turning into thunder in that moment, I would have been slowly devoured by the Black Dragon’s True Blood.
But somehow I balanced my body between the pull from the two sides—the power of beings at the Integration stage.
Dud. Crunch.
My body, turning into lightning, took the form of a half-human, half-dragon and spewed Black Thunder.
‘If I lose even a little balance, the Black Dragon’s power or the lightning power will swallow me whole.’
Twitch. Twitch…
I took out Baek-hongju from Jeomuldo and drank it.
The Colorless Glass Swords synchronized immediately.
‘Black Dragon’s power….’
Twitch. Twitch…
While looking through the Mansang Inyeondo, I discovered something wriggling and twitching inside—Taum’s power, the power of the Great Yin.
Gulp…
Cold sweat poured down.
I could feel it.
Even if I was not being struck by the curse that turned my entire body into thunder, the Black Dragon’s True Blood would carry on to the next life!
Because the Black Dragon’s power that had been eroding my history had been felt far too clearly through the Mansang Inyeondo.
‘More dangerous than thunder.’
I decided.
The last moments of my life were here. In the absolute final instant, I must purify my entire body with the owner of the Heavenly Thunder Banner’s power and shake off the Black Dragon’s power.
As a regressor who had stacked a long history, the Black Dragon’s power was an even greater calamity.
Whooo—
While balancing between lightning and Black Dragon’s power, I grabbed one of the three thousand Colorless Glass Swords that had appeared around me.
The Colorless Glass Swords had been tempered in the Golden Elixir for nearly a hundred years, so each one had become as sturdy and sharp as the iron swords sold at a neighborhood forge.
“Colorless Glass Sword, combine.”
Whoooom!
Three thousand Colorless Glass Swords overlapped in groups of ten.
Three hundred swords rose from cheap levels to decently good iron-sword quality.
They overlapped again in tens.
Thirty swords reached the peak of the supreme refinement technique, becoming top-tier iron swords.
They overlapped once more.
Three swords became as firm and sharp as famous swords.
And the final three overlapped.
Ssssst!
When the three famous swords combined, a single treasure sword was born.
The final stage of the Colorless Glass Sword—Total Heaven.
When law power was infused into the treasure sword-level Colorless Glass Sword, three thousand circuits activated and the power began to amplify thanks to the Mansang Inyeondo.
‘The power is sufficient.’
All that remained was to assist Gyubaek and watch Seo Hyoel’s final moments.
I reinforced the Colorless Glass Sword once more by overlaying the Invisible Sword.
Chzzzing!
The Colorless Glass Sword swung and shook Seo Hyoel’s shroud.
However, not a single crack appeared.
‘Keep going.’
Again and again!
Kwoom. Kkung. Kkung!
Using the Five Secrets of the Heavenly Warrior, I gradually amplified the destructive power.
My mixed power of Heaven, Earth, and Heart gradually rose and reached the level of the Four Pillars.
Chzzzing!
Chzzzing!
Chzzzing!
With each collision, the resonance grew louder.
And at some point, Yu Hwa, who had once been struck by the glass bird’s light that Oh Hye-seo had spat, revived.
She did not ask about the situation.
Instead, watching me pummel Seo Hyoel’s shroud, she began playing without a word.
Kurrung!
Heavenly Thunder.
The sound that was like a Thunder Tribulation echoed around her and struck Seo Hyoel’s shroud several times.
My and Yu Hwa’s strikes struck the shroud again and again.
Yet Seo Hyoel’s shroud shook but showed no sign of cracking.
Kim Yeon’s figure, whether it lacked consciousness or simply resided in the Gwanghan Covenant, let me check through it whether Gyubaek and Seo Hyoel were still alive while I continuously hammered the shroud.
How long had this been going on?
Kugugugugug!
From far away, a familiar fortress flew in.
It had not been a spatial jump, but a proper strike that smashed the entrance to the top floor of Bongmyeong-ju.
The Wondrous Castle of Goe-gun had finally arrived here.
‘What will Goe-gun do when he sees us?’
He might have immediately captured me to use as puppet material and taken Seo Hyoel separately.
But unexpectedly, the Wondrous Castle did not attack me right away.
Instead, a solemn old man’s voice came from inside.
“It’s Seo Hyoel’s four-axes shroud. He stacked the axes with something other than the five elements. It’s not an ordinary Four Pillars; it’s sturdy enough to be called the unique domain of an Integration-stage sword master. Moreover, with reinforcement from something pulling from inside, the shroud’s rigidity is no different from the peak of the Integration stage.”
Hearing Goe-gun’s voice, I flinched.
‘That voice….’
Goe-gun was sane.
For some reason, Goe-gun was clearly clear-minded.
“Jo Yeon Senior. Please lend us your strength to capture Seo Hyoel.”
“That would be good. Still, I came to see my disciple.”
Kiiiiiing…
The door of the Wondrous Castle opened, and Goe-gun appeared with [her] on his back.
Goe-gun looked at Kim Yeon’s figure and his eyebrows twitched.
“Hmm, it’s not the original. Only the consciousness entity is here. And… are you interfering with laws through the consciousness? What exactly are you doing?”
Goe-gun clicked his tongue and said.
“Why did you bring In-yeon’s original body here?”
“If Master Jo Yeon arrives, I was afraid he would take In-yeon again, so I hid the original body.”
“Hahaha, good. Excellent judgment.”
Goe-gun laughed heartily and nodded.
“Well… aside from that. In-yeon seems to be interfering with laws and managing something with his consciousness… No, should I say he’s carrying out something? What are you doing right now? Explain the situation.”
I gave Goe-gun a brief explanation about Gyubaek and Seo Hyoel, the Gwanghan Covenant, and Kim Yeon.
“I see… Gyuryeon, was it? Haha, she might have become like me if she had lived.”
After hearing the story of Gyuryeon and Gyubaek, Goe-gun gave a short appraisal of Gyuryeon.
“…?”
When I looked at him with a puzzled face, Goe-gun muttered venomously.
“The reason [she] became like this… was because Seo Hyoel created the board. I lost my lover to him as well. Hah… No matter what, today might be the perfect day for revenge. Seo Hyoel who fell because of those who loved him….”
Goe-gun raised his hand with a sinister smile.
Whooooom—
Twenty-seven Integration-stage puppets.
And the Wondrous Castle itself and [her].
Twenty-nine Integration-stage puppets all aimed their barrels at Seo Hyoel’s shroud at once.
“Fire.”
When Goe-gun lowered his hand, beams of light that could burn heaven and earth fell onto Seo Hyoel’s shroud.
Peak-level Integration defense?
It was useless before the simultaneous fire of over thirty Integration-stage puppets.
Seo Hyoel’s shroud instantly turned into rags.
Of course, as Goe-gun had analyzed, even after becoming rags, the shroud had no holes.
But Goe-gun calmly raised and lowered his hand again.
“Second strike.”
Chzzzeeeeng!
A huge hole was dug in the floor of the entire Bongmyeong-ju except where Seo Hyoel’s shroud was.
“Third strike.”
Flash!
The floor of the fourth floor of Bongmyeong-ju collapsed, creating a hole between the third and fourth floors.
And finally.
A large hole was pierced in Seo Hyoel’s shroud.
Goe-gun said with a backload on his back.
“I’ve made the hole. Now you handle pulling Seo Hyoel out.”
At first glance it looked like I had assigned the mission to me and Yu Hwa, but I realized Goe-gun had given us a chance for revenge and thanked him.
“Thank you for the opportunity.”
“Shut up and go! Right now the Strange Star-Mind Scroll is in resonance, so my mind is clear, but I don’t know when I’ll go mad again—there’s no time!”
“…Yes.”
We entered the shroud.
Whoooom!
From outside it had looked like a small shroud, but inside it opened into an enormously vast space.
‘When you reach Four Pillars and stack three or more axes… you obtain the space that becomes the foundation of the unique domain gained at the Integration stage.’
And inside that space, sword masters would become enormously powerful and could do things that had been impossible before.
Whoong—
From far away, the aura of the Gwanghan Covenant pulled me.
I could feel the aura of the Gwanghan Covenant—the witnesses of Seo Hyoel and Gyubaek.
The inside of the shroud was a dark space vibrating with a foul stench.
Outside we had thought a large hole had been pierced in the shroud, but as we swam through the dark area, the hole we had entered was already shrinking behind us.
‘It’s cold….’
I felt the atmosphere of this space was strangely similar to Seo Hyoel’s own mindscape.
Cold. Filthy. Sticky. Nauseating. Dark.
Just being in this place contaminated the mind.
If Won Rip’s mindscape was like a pile of shit that had devoured countless people, Seo Hyoel’s was like the site of a nuclear power plant explosion.
If I stayed here long, I might be stained by Seo Hyoel’s darkness and go mad.
Flash!
Far away, a faint golden light appeared.
“Gyubaek…!”
That was Gyubaek.
Gyubaek stood in the center of the darkness, spitting golden beams from her chest.
“Gyubaek, are you alright?”
I cried out while flying toward her with Yu Hwa.
Yet Gyubaek gave no answer.
I read her mindscape and let out a groan.
She was in a significant state of shock.
What had she seen in that darkness?
“Gyubaek…?”
And then.
Thud. Thud. Thud…
From the darkness, Seo Hyoel walked out.
Seo Hyoel, walking with an expressionless face, opened his mouth and looked at me.
“You called Goe-gun, Seo Do-u. But there’s no problem. Even if Goe-gun comes, I can escape sufficiently.”
“…What did you do to Gyubaek?”
“I only gave her what she wanted. When she said she wanted to see my sincerity, I showed her the sincerity I had stored away.”
“…”
It seemed the technique similar to the Mansang Inyeondo that Seo Hyoel had learned stored emotions rather than memories.
“Well. How is it, Gyubaek? Even so, would you rather I kiss you?”
With an expressionless face, Seo Hyoel stepped closer to Gyubaek.
Flinch!
Gyubaek, startled by Seo Hyoel’s action, took a step back.
Seo Hyoel said with an empty face.
“…Emotions are truly interesting. You said you would accept my sincerity according to your emotions, but after confirming the emotions, you’re even scared.”
He looked at Gyubaek and commanded.
“That’s all your sincerity. Gyubaek. The witnesses of the Gwanghan Covenant have gathered, so if the caster desires, I can undo it. Release the Gwanghan Covenant, Gyubaek. I know that even without giving you my sincerity, you can undo it when you release it.”
“Ah, ah…”
Gyubaek tried to tie something with a trembling hand.
At that sight, I shouted urgently.
“No, ‘Gyuryeon’ Senior!!!”
“…!”
At those words, Gyubaek looked at me with a startled face.
“I… I…”
“I know how disgusting Seo Hyoel’s insides are and how rotten they are. So I understand how great a shock you must have received from ‘Gyuryeon’ Senior.”
If I had proposed knowing it was Won Rip instead of Buk Hyang-hwa, I would have vomited just from imagining it.
Her mind would probably have been like that too.
“But! ‘Gyuryeon’ Senior didn’t want revenge on Seo Hyoel!”
“…I’m not Gyuryeon.”
The greatly weakened Gyubaek took a step back from Seo Hyoel and said.
What had she seen from Seo Hyoel?
It was not simply his mindscape.
It was something far deeper.
Without a doubt, she had seen something even more disgusting than what I had seen.
“How pitiful. Seo Do-u. Emotions are like this. You can fall in love with someone and then completely lose interest when you see another side of them. That is emotion. The amount of air inside the lungs. That alone is enough. That is all there is to emotion.”
“Are you still trying to argue that the lungs correspond to gold and emotion to metal?”
I looked at Gyubaek, spitting words coldly at Seo Hyoel.
I did not know what she had seen, so I could not understand Gyubaek.
But I could understand Gyuryeon.
“Clearly, you are not Gyuryeon Senior. Because you are an independent entity. But the will of Gyuryeon Senior created you by giving you a form. You are not just a scrap; you are one of the countless aspects that Gyuryeon Senior possessed!”
That was why she was clearly Gyuryeon as well.
“I have one question.”
“It’s irrelevant.”
Seo Hyoel reached out his finger toward me.
The entire space warped and massive gravity pressed me down.
At that moment, Yu Hwa blocked me.
“Stop, Baeknyeong.”
And the gravity in space weakened, and green light twisted in the darkness.
From Seo Hyoel’s side, the figure of Baeknyeong appeared.
“…Master….”
While protecting me and Gyubaek from Seo Hyoel, Yu Hwa began talking with Baeknyeong.
Master and disciple began conversing with each other.
I watched the two for a moment and looked at Gyubaek’s eyes.
“Gyuryeon Senior wanted to return what she received from Seo Hyoel. That’s why on the day you were born from Gyuryeon, you said ‘I will kill Seo Hyoel’?”
“…That’s right. But….”
Gyubaek’s mouth trembled as she hesitated.
Watching her, I nodded.
“It became too difficult to kill Seo Hyoel?”
“…Sorry. The moment I confirmed the young one’s sincerity… I no longer had the confidence to take his sincerity…”
“I understand.”
I nodded.
“Then can you entrust it to me?”
“What…?”
“Can you entrust to me your emotion toward Seo Hyoel?”
“…Can you… do it?”
“I’ll try.”
“…Alright.”
Gyubaek slowly approached me and hugged me.
I hugged Gyubaek tightly.
Gyubaek tied something.
Tssss…
The golden chains that had been spouting from her chest weakened.
She had undone the Gwanghan Covenant herself.
She had not foolishly thrown away the opportunity to take revenge on Seo Hyoel and tie him down.
I felt her heart embedded in mine.
“Hmm? This is strange. It’s ending too emptily.”
Eventually Gyubaek’s body grew cold.
Having lived for Integration-stage King by forcibly circulating qi without a heart, Gyubaek died that way.
I was still holding on between Black Dragon and thunder, but I would be swallowed whole soon.
Yu Hwa could never face Seo Hyoel alone inside this space.
Then what should I do?
Before death.
I would squeeze out my final power and strike Seo Hyoel.
Swaaaa—
The Colorless Glass Sword that had reached Total Heaven glowed with a rainbow hue, and the hazy Mansang Inyeondo unfolded from inside Seo Hyoel’s darkness.
Tzzzzzzt!
I closed my eyes while contemplating my flesh transforming into thunder.
Using Uihye Eunsan every day for Kim Yeon, I had constantly pondered the flesh transforming into thunder and the martial arts.
And while looking at the flesh scattering into lightning, I had pondered what thunder was and gained enlightenment about thunder.
‘From now on….’
“It is a return….”
You cannot summon the Integration stage with just the words “return.”
Perhaps you can receive a “glance.”
Seo Hyoel had probably blocked me out of fear of receiving a glance.
But to me, something more terrifying than the glance of the Integration stage existed.
That was why, while accepting the glance of the Integration stage, I strongly recalled the “eyes” I had seen then and transformed my entire body into thunder even faster.
Pachizigizizizik!
Manifestation Stage Three.
When you reach the stage beyond the Moon To Answer Heaven, the attributes of attack change to become like Heavenly Tribulation.
Then.
If I use the Moon To Answer Heaven while my entire body is already transforming into Heavenly Tribulation, is that the same as the realm of the “next stage”?
The correct answer is.
Chijijijijizizizik!
‘More than ninety percent similar!’
The lightning and the formless sword of the Answer Heaven that wrapped my entire body naturally merged, and the color of the lightning changed to colorless.
Kurrung, Kururung!
The essence of lightning is an instant.
Our lives are also an instant.
That is why the beyond of the Moon To Answer Heaven, which maximizes life, takes a form similar to Heavenly Tribulation.
The more accurate answer would be if I had actually reached the next stage, but.
“No problem.”
I smiled wickedly and pointed the Colorless Glass Sword at Seo Hyoel.
“From now on.”
Right now, even this much is enough.
Kurrung—
“How many Heavenly Tribulations will be added to you?”