Farewell, For Now (Part 2)
A sudden gush erupted from my own Seven Palaces!
Blood spouted like a fountain.
“Damn it…”
It was as I feared. The Heavenly Name had struck me with full force.
My legs trembled violently, agony threatening to drop me at any moment.
Yet I did not fall.
Hong Beom approached and handed me an antidote and a pill for qi recovery.
“Seolip is truly remarkable.”
I had not always been able to peek into Seolip’s thoughts, so I knew only part of his secrets.
Still, I had glimpsed him often enough that his judgment was impressive. He had ordered Hong Beom to activate the standby array during the exact instant I was not watching.
I swallowed the medicine and pill, then looked toward Seohul.
I could not use it while in combat.
And even when not, I could not wield it freely on others.
“It is possible only because I carry Clear Scale Armor formed from Haetae’s tears, which belongs to Hyeol-eum.”
The name of a True Immortal is no convenient tool.
It was poison in the making.
Even if the owner had been utterly eradicated and could never revive.
That I could utter Hyeol-eum’s name at all was thanks to the armor on my body and the pocket dimension beyond it, a small privilege.
Had I said Yu Ho-deok or Yu Su-ryeon instead, it would have ended far worse.
By stepping across the boundary beyond Geopcheon, I had gained the ability to glimpse Seolip’s thoughts and obtain information through him.
At first, seeing that [name] had felt like death.
Fortunately, I had focused my spirit and avoided madness.
I wiped sweat from my brow.
Was it the weight of the True Immortal’s name, or simply the heat of the moment?
Seohul’s face remained smiling, yet his complexion had already turned deathly pale.
“So that is it.”
I obtained the information from the sight.
Seohul could no longer pass his influence to the other “Seohuls” among us.
All the pain and torment I suffered here would be borne solely by his own will.
“That also means the connection to the other Seohuls has been severed.”
“Pfft, you misunderstand.”
Seohul gave a sly smile.
“I was not abandoned. I was left behind.”
“…”
“If sacrificing only me allows me to take control of Seodou, is that not a great gain? Even if I fail, I can give you some interesting information…”
A dull thud!
“Fine. Let us assume you were not abandoned. Yet you must explain exactly what ‘left behind’ means.”
“Pfft, shall I tell you an interesting fact?”
“Speak plainly. What is the purpose for which you were left behind?”
A piercing stab!
“First, Seodou. When I looked inside his Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, what do you suppose I found?”
“If you see the characters ‘so’ or ‘yeom’ in my mouth, I will split your head open.”
“Ah, it is not that. Seodou… does he know that someone exists inside his Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram?”
“Huh?”
A chill ran down my spine.
The surrounding temperature rose steadily, yet a bone-chilling cold licked at the nape of my neck.
“Someone inside his Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram?”
I glared at the man.
“hongbeom.”
I signaled Hong Beom. He stepped forward, seized Seohul’s head, and blew a transparent substance into his mouth.
“I have injected Formless Poison. It will regulate the stimulus this creature receives through the poison.”
“Will it also trigger the suggestion drug effect?”
“More than enough. I am molding his brain directly, so the effect will be at least a hundred times stronger than a normal suggestion drug.”
“A hundred times over the Four Pillars investigator’s standard?”
“It is direct interference with consciousness, so yes.”
Ssssss—
White mist poured from Seohul’s Seven Palaces.
His eyes seemed to lose some of their sharpness.
“Is it true that someone exists inside the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram?”
I activated my consciousness vision to its limit and asked the question.
I could not force a confession, but the suggestion drug would reveal the truth more clearly.
Distinguishing truth from lie would become far easier.
Seohul answered in a slightly dazed voice, still smiling faintly.
“Some [woman] was there.”
A chill crawled up my spine.
“It is not a lie.”
Then what kind of being could invade my Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram so easily?
Almost certainly an existence beyond the mortal realm.
Among the transcendent beings I knew, only one was female.
“Jeong-ryeo!”
The faceless Heavenly Maiden with snow-white hair.
The sacred relic owned by the Lord of Heavenly Punishment.
The Heavenly Thunder Banner stolen from the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect!
“Does that being still watch over me?”
I had clearly left a deep impression on Jeong-ryeo.
“I have left deep impressions in many ways.”
Yet she still watched?
And she had entered my Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram to spy?
My spine was already crawling with gooseflesh.
“…Wait a moment.”
Why was the lightning turned into salt?
“Was this brat lying to me again?”
I felt an inexplicable heat surge.
The air around me had grown steadily hotter since earlier, and I imagined my head was about to burst into flame.
I stabbed the Black Ghost Curse Banner into Seohul once more.
“Every time you lie, I will drive the flag in.”
“It is the truth… but…”
“Speak plainly. What kind of being is that [woman]?”
Seohul wore a meaningful smile.
“What kind of being? Pfft… She is the being I mistook for your [pillar] inside Seodou’s Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.”
A dull thud!
The words sounded true, yet the way he stretched them annoyed me, so I drove the Black Ghost Curse Banner in again.
Seohul did not even blink.
“Your Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram surrounds that [woman] in layer upon layer, protecting her.”
“Huh?”
“How is that even possible?”
He grinned.
“That means that [woman] is a precious being inside your Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram. Correct?”
“I asked what kind of being she is.”
“Pfft, I have already planted myself inside her. Since she is a real existence, it will take a few thousand years for her to slowly devour me.”
“So your meaning is that you have not yet planted yourself, and you are only probing me?”
Thud, thud, thud!
I hardened my consciousness and expression and asked again.
“I will ask once more. What is the identity of that [woman]?”
Kiieeing!
Seohul’s true purpose was clear.
He had been left here to test whether I could be mind-controlled.
He was also trying to confuse me with clever words while judging what was truly important to me.
It was impossible.
Flash!
My spirit was forged like a blade.
At the same time, my one sword slammed into Seohul’s heart and was driven into the very core of his spirit.
A strike at the peak of Complete Purity.
The moment my sword pierced his heart, it sealed his connection to the other Seohuls who used Muddy Soul Filling the Heaven.
“Now he can never pass information to the other Seohuls in front of me.”
Even if he gained knowledge about me, it would be meaningless.
Seohul twitched his eyes as he realized I had done something inside his consciousness.
“Pfft, you are troubling me.”
“So you really want to taste more of the flavor of Hyeol-eum.”
“Gahk!”
A violent gush of blood erupted from Seohul’s Seven Palaces.
Yet he smiled and spoke.
“It seems the life-force of the Advanced Haetae is what you speak of. Pfft…”
“So you say.”
“Speaking of which, I recall something. Do you know the common points between the law arts of the Blood Flame Realm and the Ghost Realm?”
Kwaddeuk!
I summoned a wave of Black Ghost Curse Banners and slammed them into Seohul’s back.
Eunuch excision, sixty thousand times the pain, the pain of hearing the True Immortal’s name—every painful sensation I could stuff into him.
Seohul groaned in obvious torment.
“Stop stalling. You asked what kind of being the [woman] is, did you not?”
“Both the law arts of the Blood Flame Realm and the Ghost Realm are powerful. Their common point is that both ‘borrow power.’ The Ghost Realm’s Ghost Dao techniques borrow power from the [Underworld], while the Blood Flame Realm’s techniques borrow from Hyeol-eum.”
He smiled faintly.
“This brat keeps…”
“Higher-rank law arts mean stronger power borrowing. And my Blood Evil Technique is a magic directly born from Hyeol-eum.”
“…”
I glared at him and prepared a counter-incantation.
His words felt ominous.
“Originally, when I fought Seodou, I intended never to use Blood Flame Realm magic. Because Hyeol-eum is the owner of Karmic Fire, using his power here would cause that fire to rampage wildly.”
He smiled at me.
“You do not know what the Qinglu I wear was sealing?”
“Wha…!”
At the same moment I felt my entire body blaze with heat.
“This… this is…”
Ssssss—
The moment Clear Scale Armor fell, the flames went out, but the temperature of the Sulfuric Layer, which had been boiling with steam, suddenly began to rise.
No.
Thinking back, the temperature in the Sulfuric Layer had been rising gradually “since earlier.”
Kwarrurrurrrr!
I looked upward.
From the Phoenix Yang Layer came a mad eruption of scarlet flames.
“Damn it!”
I seized Seohul’s hair and leaped back toward the Phoenix Yang Layer.
Whirrriririr—
“Giiieeeeek!”
Titanic flames engulfed me.
It was hot!
And…
“Giiiaaaaaaaaak!”
It hurt!
It hurt unbearably!
It was as if the flames of true hell had descended into this world!
“Gi, giiieeee… P, pfft… The flames created to judge sinners after death…”
Seohul barely managed to speak through gritted teeth.
“It seems you have accumulated quite a bit of sin.”
“Giiiaaaaaaaaak!”
“Until the flames burn away and judge all your sins, they will stick to your soul and never be extinguished. They cannot be controlled to your liking, nor will they allow you to burn your soul completely to enter rest.”
Seohul trembled as he spoke.
“Clear Scale Armor can only defend against the flames; it cannot extinguish a flame once it has attached. For that karmic fire is the result of proper judgment. If it were the power of Advanced Haetae who governs the law, helping the fire would help it, but it could never be extinguished…”
“Quiet. Stop pretending not to feel pain…”
I collapsed to the ground, drooling, and somehow rose again.
“Madly painful…”
Yet the pain remained steady even though the surrounding flames were everywhere.
As if it judged only my own sins.
The karmic fire was burning my soul.
The crackling of flames near my ear became a scream that rang out.
That scream was one I had heard before.
The ones I had killed.
Bandits in my martial days, heretical martial artists, the demonic cultivators of the Black Relic Sect, Won Rip…
Inside those screams I looked back upon my own life.
“Surprisingly, the only ones I personally killed or tortured were demonic path beings.”
Yet even they were counted as sins, and the karmic fire scorched me fiercely.
I picked up Clear Scale Armor and gazed toward the Mulgeul Tree.
Because the water at the lakeside was flowing through the armor, an immense source of heat erupted from below the Mulgeul Tree.
“Again… I must seal it with Clear Scale Armor…”
Trembling with pain, I took one step, then another, toward the Mulgeul Tree.
If I failed, the karmic fire might escape and spread across the entire Gwanghan Realm.
That was when the screams changed completely into something alien.
They were no longer screams but howls of despair and agony.
The grudges and accumulated sins of those who had suffered indirect damage from me.
The families of the heretical martial artists I had killed, their servants, the people who worked at the Black Relic Sect…
The sins of those who had been hurt indirectly because of what I had done now swept over me.
And at some point.
A whisper I never wanted to hear again entered my ear.
—It is the first to bow.
“…!”
It was the foolishness and lack of restraint that had once made the entire Cheonin-do bow in reverence.
And the indirect sins of every mortal race that had suffered because of it!
“Giiiaaaaaaaaak!”
I could no longer move. I fell to my knees in agony.
It was heavy.
It was hot.
It was painful!
Seohul only laughed, but he seemed to suffer more than I did. I was not lightly injured either.
We had stopped even glaring at each other and now lay collapsed together, screaming in unison.
It hurt!
It hurt so much!!!
So this was…
“This is the weight of my sins.”
I gritted my teeth.
I did not scream.
I was not merely enduring out of stubbornness.
I had plenty to say about the pain of other sins.
Those people had all deserved to die, or they had harmed the common people and taken their evil deeds as pleasure.
For them, death would have been the kinder fate for the world.
I was not a chivalrous hero. I was not righteous.
I only bestowed goodness upon those who suffered before my eyes or those who suffered because of my allies.
I wondered if I might be a hypocrite.
Yet even so, I had tried, as much as I could, to resolve the evil deeds happening before me, and killing them had been one way of doing so.
But this was different.
This was a sin caused by my own obvious mistake.
This was my sin.
My moral failing, the price I must pay.
It was the trace of my life. How could I possibly deny it?
I silently accepted the price of my sins and endured the pain in silence.
The pain was so great it hazed my mind, yet I accepted it.
Perhaps because it was the power handled by the Chief Judge General of the Underworld.
I felt more tormented by the mere hearing of the True Immortal’s name than by facing the Lord of Heavenly Punishment.
It was the direct power of a True Immortal.
It was strange that I was not tormented.
I sat there, and suddenly—
Thud, thud…
My body moved.
It was Seolip.
“Seolip… are you not in pain?”
“It is strange, Seo Eun-hyun. I… feel no pain.”
“…”
I understood why.
This was my sin, not Seolip’s.
Seolip had committed no great sin.
His appearance was a little bizarre, but apart from that he had never killed even a single bug in his life.
“Anyway, endure for a while longer, Seo Eun-hyun. I am fine, so I will take over the seal.”
Seolip moved my body with Clear Scale Armor toward the Mulgeul Tree.
Thud, thud…
The Mulgeul Tree drew closer.
And Seolip threw Clear Scale Armor toward it.
Swoooosh!
The moment Clear Scale Armor struck below the Mulgeul Tree and filled the cleft, it swelled instantly and became a lake that covered the cleft completely.
Swoooosh—
The power of Chief Judge General Goryeok-eum eased, and the authority of the late Chief Judge General Myeongma Jin-gun faded.
The karmic fire was extinguished, and the surrounding flames gradually died down.
Yet I still suffered.
“…”
“Still… the pain does not fade!”
I understood the reason.
It was a painfully obvious truth.
“The karmic fire clinging to my soul has not yet been extinguished.”
It clung only to burn my own sin.
It would never subside until my sin was completely burned away.
And my sin.
The sin that had vaporized Cheonin-do, where more than a hundred million people lived, was no light sin.
Even if it was indirect, its weight could not be ignored.
Crack…
I rose, enduring the pain.
“Then I shall accept it.”
I felt it.
Until the karmic fire burned my sin, it would follow me through regressions as well.
I would have to endure this pain over several lives before my mind hazed over.
“My life. My history.”
It was the retribution and grudge I must remember.
So it was only right that I remember and engrave it.
“Then I will receive it sweetly.”
In my heart I fully accepted my sin and embraced the pain.
After all, life itself was pain.
What difference did one more pain make?
That was when—
Flash!
My vision blurred, and I sensed some kind of welcome.
“This is…”
The Mulgeul Tree.
It was the same Mulgeul Tree that had stood before me.
Yet the surroundings were different.
The Mulgeul Tree was no longer at the center of the lake but on a hill.
A beautiful garden filled with countless flowers of every color bloomed everywhere.
I was lost in that beautiful sight.
Kugugugugu—
“…”
I saw an enormous shadow behind the Mulgeul Tree.
“U, ugh…”
A great being.
That man was a great being.
“I… I must bow…”
I unconsciously lost myself and nearly been absorbed by the being before me.
But I managed to hold back and avoid bowing, startled.
“Eh…!”
The enormous shadow behind the Mulgeul Tree had shrunk to human size.
“Ah…”
I felt it.
The being before me had shown me mercy.
At the same time I felt from that shadow an overwhelming sense of goodness and nobility.
From his perspective I was no more than a bug, yet he had cut himself down to match me.
That was when—
[You are not a bug.]
The shadow in human form spoke to me.
“Y-yes?”
I asked, startled by the words.
[Anyone who can repent their sins possesses nobility. A being who possesses nobility—whether a Heavenly Venerable or a bug—deserves to be respected.]
“…”
I sensed an unspoken nobility and kindness from the shadow’s words.
“Great one, who are you, and where is this place? Why did you call me here?”
[I did not call you. It was you who entered.]
The shadow spoke.
[This place is a scene from my memory left behind inside the power of my karmic fire. Only those who truly repent their sins after facing the karmic fire may enter here. You entered of your own accord.]
“My karmic fire’s power!?”
I shrank as I heard the words.
Then that being…
“Could the great one perhaps be…”
[My name is Yu Ho-deok.]
Why did it not feel strange even though I knew it was the True Immortal’s real name?
I understood that the being before me had deliberately lowered himself in order to show me mercy and adjust the [level] between us.
[He was once known as the Lord of the Good-and-Evil Seat and the Chief Judge General of the Underworld, Myeongma Jin-gun.]