The Road to Seo, the Road for Seo (5)
But… could it really be that the Ghost Dao Holy Mother… is her?
I approached her with a trembling voice.
At that moment—
A large pair of eyes suddenly appeared in the place I had approached and stared straight at me.
Intuitively, I knew those belonged to Kang Min-hee.
It was then.
Whoosh—!
Suddenly the narrow path I was standing on widened dramatically.
And a familiar voice rang out.
“What is the meaning of this place?”
“Hah…!?”
When I snapped out of it, the surroundings were filled with a golden sunset glow on clouds.
“This place….”
I instinctively sensed I had slipped into my own voice, so I quickly checked.
Hearing the presence behind me, I turned around to find Kang Min-hee sitting on the clouds.
“Her domain…?”
Only then did I understand why Kang Min-hee, who had been on the side path toward the Ghost Realm, now stood right in front of me on the path toward the Gwanghan Realm.
I finally grasped why every path I took kept leading me toward the Gwanghan Realm.
Kang Min-hee had, in just three hundred years, reached the Integration Grand Completion stage and forcefully twisted space.
And in the unique domain of an Integration Grand Completion cultivator, the clothes she wore were not the familiar black robes of Black Ghost Valley, but the suit she had worn back on Earth.
I hurriedly touched my face in front of her, who had displayed Earth’s modern conveniences right in front of me.
“Eh… what….”
“I remembered everything. As I expected, my ex-girlfriend, who locked my memories away, turned into something like a woman and went full stalker mode. It’s really pitiful, Seo Eun-hyun.”
“Ah, no. That was my intention… no, more importantly, Seo Lip isn’t really a woman, but….”
Before I could finish, she pulled an electronic cigarette from her pocket and took a puff.
“It was a joke. After remembering, it was gross, but I didn’t get that angry.”
“……”
“Ah, it’s true that it’s pitiful. With her circumstances, she’s incredibly perverted and creepy.”
I broke out in cold sweat.
The karma that had clung to me from staying by her side in her body had finally returned.
“Ah… I don’t remember that old feeling at all….”
After one puff, she waved her hand.
At the same moment, all the Earth’s modern conveniences she had been enjoying dissolved into illusions and scattered, turning the clouds into countless scattered particles.
Her clothes also transformed back into the black robes of Black Ghost Valley.
I looked around Kang Min-hee’s domain.
I didn’t know what to say, so I simply praised the scenery.
“……It’s beautiful here….”
“Hmm….”
But my words made Kang Min-hee glare at me with narrowed eyes.
“You don’t remember this scene at all?”
“Eh, uh?”
“Even if my little romance is a bit in the fact that the place I’m standing on is clouds, the rest of the scenery is the same one we saw together. That’s too much.”
“Ah, no….”
‘Damn it. The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram is on the main body…!’
I gritted my teeth and broke out in cold sweat inside.
Seeing my frantic state, Kang Min-hee burst out laughing.
“You have a sense of humor. It feels like all the melancholy has vanished.”
“You, really….”
We exchanged some meaningless small talk for a while.
And when the atmosphere finally relaxed, I cautiously asked,
“……Why did you suddenly not return from the side path?”
“Um, after learning that my ex-boyfriend had turned into some bizarre body that’s neither man nor woman and was secretly stalking me within the sect.”
“……”
“It was a joke. Well, there was a 0.1 percent chance it was true, but the rest…”
Kang Min-hee walked over to me and stroked the nearby clouds.
As she did, a lively noise suddenly came from somewhere.
It was the laughter of children.
“To comfort them.”
“……!”
Only then did I realize these clouds weren’t ordinary clouds.
They weren’t clouds.
Every single speck that looked like a cloud was a ghost!
“……I’ve never died, so I don’t know much. But among the things I’ve always heard while communicating with ghosts…”
“……”
“‘They’re sad.’ These kids are always sad. About the life they lost, about death, about everything they couldn’t do…”
Kang Min-hee squatted down and stroked the ghosts with her hand.
“There’s nothing to do on the side path. So I read books I brought from the Gwanghan Realm, or I cultivate the Ghost Dao techniques. The Ghost Dao techniques are funny to say, but they’re actually listening to these kids’ stories. The more I listen to their stories, the more my law power fills up…”
She continued.
“How many stories have I heard?”
“……How many?”
“I don’t even know! Really… it’s countless. I kept listening and listening, and then… at some point I thought…”
Kang Min-hee smiled faintly.
“I’d like to exert strength for these kids. I’d like to see what I can do for them. If… it’s possible, I’d like to find out what the best thing I can do for them is.”
I instinctively remembered Kang Min-hee’s interview scene from back then.
Yes, I had clearly seen her bold side and known she was a strong person.
“I also struggled as a child. So… I want to do something for these kids who died struggling. If we obtained this power for a reason, isn’t it a sign from heaven to exert strength for someone?”
As expected, she was still strong.
Only the truly strong can exert strength for the weak.
“……So, that’s why you didn’t come back?”
“Heh heh, you even talk like my ex-boyfriend. Very much so.”
“No….”
“The reason I didn’t return to Black Ghost Valley…”
Kang Min-hee grinned fiercely and answered.
“I decided to leave Black Ghost Valley.”
“What…?”
I asked in surprise.
Kang Min-hee answered boldly with a grin.
“I confirmed that my ex-boyfriend was inside, and more importantly, don’t you know that Black Ghost Valley is kind only to its own sect members?”
“That’s true, but….”
“And they’re not that harsh to rival sects or enemies.”
Her eyes sank.
“The port that steadies the Seopmyeong Ship always fills the Ghost Water made by refining countless wandering souls. You’ve seen it, right? And when a Black Ghost Valley disciple dies, they revive them or turn them into wandering ghosts to keep training. If a Nascent Soul cultivator dies, they become a Ghost King and are offered in the Grand Mausoleum. But… if they get an enemy’s soul, they either refine it into a Law Treasure, absorb it to turn into law power, or refine it into a True Soul and erase the will to control it.”
That was it.
They may have treated us well, but Black Ghost Valley’s essence was a demonic path.
Even just looking at the case of the Purgatory Body Refining Technique showed it was a demonic technique that consumed wandering souls and converted them into law power. As for the Tastes of the World’s Soul-Consuming Technique, there was no need to say anything.
At the very least, with minimal courtesy, a portion of the soul could be sent to the Underworld, but that was all.
The wandering souls caught in Black Ghost Valley were tormented to the end and only found rest when they became useless.
“I’m leaving Black Ghost Valley. After leaving here, I’m going to release and comfort all the wandering souls trapped there and send them on their way. That’s the goal I thought about while listening to these kids’ stories.”
“……”
“You’ll keep my secret, right, my ex-boyfriend?”
Kang Min-hee asked with a grin.
I nodded with a heavy face.
She had been in closed-door cultivation.
All by herself in Black Ghost Valley.
If she angered the five great sects of humanity, the consequences would be enormous, so she had raised her realm to leave.
“……You. Up to what realm do you plan to reach?”
“For now my goal is Integration Grand Completion. The Star Shattering realm is too high a wall; I don’t see how to reach it, so I’m aiming for something realistic.”
‘I see…’
The things she said about my ex-boyfriend were half-joke.
But her true intention to release the wandering souls from the demonic sect Black Ghost Valley was real.
Only then did I realize the real reason she had become the Ghost Dao Holy Mother.
‘Even in my past life, you kept… you kept…’
She had continued to save the wandering souls while preserving her strong appearance.
And because the pain of the wandering souls poured into her already cracked mind, she had eventually exploded and gone berserk.
“Anyway. After my realm rises… I’ll send all the ghosts and wandering souls I see in front of me on their way. That’s my goal.”
“……”
There was something she hadn’t told me.
But with the faint impressions I caught, I couldn’t ask her what she was hiding.
I simply looked at her with a firm expression.
“……If you accept this many ghosts like this, won’t there be a problem with your mind?”
“Well… I don’t want to admit it, but that thing you implanted in me worked great. My mind became clear. I think you don’t have to worry anymore.”
That was exactly it.
Originally I had intended to use the Ocean of Righteousness and Mountain of Grace to heal any possible mental problems for her.
But with my eyes, I saw no mental problems in her.
I couldn’t use the Invisible Sword, but the Heavenly Tribulation’s view was still vivid.
Her inner world had not a single speck of problem and was even clearer and healthier.
‘Thanks to the Soul-Sealing Awl…’
At least for now, she didn’t seem worried about awakening as the Ghost Dao Holy Mother.
I smiled faintly.
“That’s good.”
Thanks to her, I had come all the way to the cold Sap-pung Territory and created another side path, leaving the healthy Black Ghost Valley branch behind.
But I felt no regret.
Just seeing that Kang Min-hee was healthy gave this journey value.
“……Then I’ll go. I just… came to check that you’re healthy.”
“Heh heh, you didn’t come because you missed me, right?”
“Think whatever you want.”
“I really think whatever I want.”
“Yes.”
I turned around and threw the Strange Parasite made from part of my soul toward her.
“It’s a piece of my soul. If you think a problem might arise, contact me immediately.”
Through the Strange Parasite’s alcohol, Kang Min-hee could use the Ocean of Righteousness and Mountain of Grace even from a distance if she had a problem.
It was a fragment I had left behind in preparation for when she awakened as the Ghost Dao Holy Mother.
Kang Min-hee threw the fragment of my soul into the nearest cloud without a second thought and turned her back.
“Yes. Go. I won’t see you off. As I said, keep the secret.”
“Yes.”
I walked in the opposite direction from her and eventually left her domain.
‘Here….’
I had somehow come out onto the side path.
And the massive body of Kang Min-hee that had been beside me had vanished again.
She had distorted space and disappeared somewhere else.
After walking around for a long time, I finally found the path that connected to the side path where we had first arrived at Kang Min-hee’s domain.
After waiting there for several days, I saw Huk-wak and Huk-ryeong hurriedly coming toward us.
[Elder Seo! Is Elder Gang there?]
[…No. I went near the entrance to the Gwanghan Realm, but I couldn’t find any traces.]
[As expected… Actually, near the entrance to the Ghost Realm, we found traces of Elder Gang throwing herself out of the side path!]
Hearing their words, I asked in surprise.
[Then… what happens…?]
[If it’s not a powerful Integration cultivator specialized in spatial transmission… they’ll fall straight into the Underworld Heaven or, even if they escape the outer edges of the Ghost Realm, they’ll fall into the Void Space and become hopeless lost souls. Even if they become hopeless lost souls, they can come back, but it won’t happen for tens of thousands of years. In the worst case, they’ll fall into the Underworld Heaven and be trapped… or become hopeless lost souls.]
[……!!!]
I stood frozen in shock.
[……For now, let’s return to the Gwanghan Realm. I’ll consult the Elder Council about using the Seopmyeong Ship to approach near the Underworld Heaven. If she fell into the Underworld Heaven, we have to make a rescue plan. We can’t just let the holder of the Wandering Soul Resonance Sword, which appeared for the first time in tens of thousands of years, be lost!!!]
Huk-ryeong bit his teeth and turned back with me toward the path we had come.
We came out of the side path.
I stepped into the Gwanghan Realm, released the Ghost King transformation, and looked back at the side path.
‘Hold on, Kang Min-hee.’
Kim Young-hoon returned home.
Jeon Myeong-hoon and Kim Yeon sought revenge.
Kang Min-hee sought salvation.
Oh Hyun-seok sought peace.
Oh Hye-seo… well, she’d live well on her own.
In the end, everyone had their own goal.
I had intended to support Kang Min-hee’s goal as long as she didn’t fall.
I walked toward the door of the side path.
I exited the ghost palace of the Seopmyeong Ship that had a door.
It was then.
Jiing—
‘Even though you suffered so much from fate, you’re still going like this.’
‘You should have come out after making sure Kang Min-hee’s mind was even more stable.’
I suddenly felt a voice echoing inside my mind, which had been closed for so long in the past.
“……?”
I stood still and listened intently, but the voice didn’t come again.
It was probably an auditory hallucination created by my lingering attachment to Kang Min-hee.
She… must still have a bit of lingering attachment I didn’t even know.
* * *
In the domain of clouds dyed with sunset light.
Inside it, Kang Min-hee picked up the fragment of Seo Eun-hyun’s soul and held it tightly while smoking.
“……Hey. That’s a lie.”
She had kept something from Seo Eun-hyun.
Her story about her shadow.
And the hatred toward herself for confusing the shadow with Seo Eun-hyun…
It was a lie that her influence on Seo Eun-hyun was only 0.1 percent.
Along with that hatred…
She had decided to never confuse herself with the shadow again.
And to never confuse him with a ghost-like thing again, she had resolved to send all the wandering souls to the Underworld.
“If you had just said you missed me… maybe… none of this would have been necessary.”
Clench…
She released the Strange Parasite of Seo Eun-hyun she had been holding.
The faint binding technique she had set the moment she held the Strange Parasite was released.
The Strange Parasite could not hear her words.
Kang Min-hee simply spat one word toward the Strange Parasite.
“……You bastard.”
The two of them might have been missing each other.
But perhaps they had parted in order to protect each other.
For each other.
Toward each other.
The meeting of the two who had run in different directions because of it had been off track.
Now all that remained was for the two to leap toward the goals each had set.
After the two parted like that…
One hundred years had passed.
* * *
“……The Pocket Dimension of Jeungryong Jinin has opened.”
Through the Wealth Virtue Ritual Book, I had succeeded in stacking one axis.
Uwoong!
I felt my lifespan expand by another ten thousand years.
Kuurung…
I looked at the sky, feeling the heavenly calamity that had passed me by.
With one axis stacked on the Five Yin, I had reached the middle stage of the Four Pillars.
‘After entering the Pocket Dimension of Jeungryong Jinin and helping the Black Lin Underworld, I’ll receive the repairs from the Black Lin Underworld Gate.’
And based on the repairs I received, I would create a small Wondrous Castle for Kim Yeon.
‘The reason Seo Hyoel feared Goe-gun was because if he became a puppet of the Wondrous Castle, he would definitely die.’
Within the remaining five hundred years, reaching the Integration Grand Completion stage was more than enough for me.
If Kang Min-hee overcame her crisis as well, she would reach Integration Grand Completion, so I would join forces with her, capture Seo Hyoel who had seized the main body, and remodel him.
After that, I would use the small Wondrous Castle to gradually replace Seo Hyoel’s soul with an artificial soul and kill him.
No matter who Seo Hyoel was, he would have to die.
That was the Seo Hyoel extermination plan I had set.