Chapter 327
The ghost in front of me was enormous—ten zhang tall, roughly thirty meters.
As I stepped toward it, jagged eyes suddenly sprang up along its body, glowing with a piercing blue light.
I felt my body stiffen the moment I met those eyes.
*Hwaaaack…*
My limbs locked solid. I couldn’t move an inch.
The entire Great Desert Dead Sea Formation I had cultivated for years, along with every strand of my Ghost Dao techniques, froze inside me, sealing off all motion.
It was as if the ghost had stolen control of my qi itself.
But this wasn’t the same as last time, when I had faced those eyes and been dragged into its domain to meet Kang Min-hee.
I gritted my teeth and roared.
*Kang Min-hee! Kang Min-hee!*
The ghost ignored me completely.
It simply stared at me with those unchanged, sapphire eyes.
I clenched my jaw even tighter.
*Crackle-crackle—*
The ghost qi surged forward, sealing the path I had just walked.
Now the space held only the two of us—me and Kang Min-hee.
Yet I slowly realized my own body was moving on its own, trying to dissolve into the void.
*No… no!*
I couldn’t move.
The ghost qi was forcibly dragging me.
*Kang Min-hee! Snap out of it! I’m here! I’m—*
Suddenly, as I was speaking, I froze.
* * *
The Kang Min-hee I knew was actually me—a clone of Seo Eun-hyun.
So perhaps she was facing not me, but Seo Eun-hyun himself.
I was Seol.
Not Seo Eun-hyun.
*I…*
I had no idea what right I even had to call her. I fell silent for a moment.
*…Damn it.*
I ground my teeth.
Then.
*Crack—*
Forcing every last circuit of the Ghost Army and my will to the limit.
Harder. Harder!
*Crack-crack-crack!*
I tore one arm free and ripped out one of the heads fused to my shoulder.
*Boom—*
*“Gwaaaaaack!”*
It hurt.
But Seo Eun-hyun wouldn’t even blink.
I stacked the severed head into a Gangwhan and hurled it into the air.
Then I ripped out another.
*Boom—*
*“Kyaaaah!”*
It burned.
But Seo Eun-hyun wouldn’t flinch.
*Crack—*
*“Kyaaaah!”*
After pulling out several heads, my Ghost King form had finally loosened. My voice returned to its original human tone.
But at the same time, the ghost qi inside my body was rapidly draining away.
I was pulling out the performance of my entire Ghost Dao technique and condensing it into Gangwhans in the air.
*Crackle—*
I yanked out the final head.
And returned completely to human flesh.
Yet even in this weakened state, I could only manage around Heavenly Person stage.
Because I had temporarily pulled out other techniques like the Six Extreme Thunder God as well, I was far weaker than before.
*“Kuhk… cough…”*
I panted, trying to eject Seo Eun-hyun’s death from my body.
It felt like my heart would explode any second.
The crushing pressure of Void Shattering-level Kang Min-hee alone was enough to kill me.
But!
*“…I am… Seol…!”*
Right now.
I had become complete as myself.
And I was no longer affected by ghost qi!
I gathered every last ounce of strength and reached toward Kang Min-hee.
*Crackle—*
My body felt like it would shatter.
But it was fine.
*“I’m… reaching her.”*
With every step I took, my body broke apart.
The endless darkness that wrapped around Kang Min-hee slowly tore apart under the power I poured into my palm.
The price was everything I had.
But I kept going.
*“I’m… reaching her.”*
Looking back, the moment I was born was the exact instant I had failed to pass Kang Min-hee’s words to Seo Eun-hyun.
*I* had come into this world because of her.
Even if her heart had belonged to someone else.
Even if I had been nothing more than a stand-in.
Even if the feeling she originally intended to give had not been mine.
Her heart had reached me, and I had been born.
Therefore.
Kang Min-hee.
I will return to you… what is mine.
*Crackle—*
Even the flesh of the Original Mother began to rot from the death qi flooding the space.
*“Kang Min-hee…”*
You were right.
It had nothing to do with Seo Eun-hyun’s memories.
The short moments we had spent together.
When she brushed my hair.
When I thought I was killing her.
All those fleeting instants.
They were truly precious.
*Plod, plod…*
As I approached, the ten-zhang figure I had seen earlier felt like an illusion.
Inside the body made of ghost qi, I sensed *her*.
I didn’t care that my flesh was freezing solid. I stepped into the central figure of the ghost and walked toward her one careful step at a time.
*“Ah…”*
I couldn’t hold on.
I felt it.
Even if the Original Mother—Won Rip—had resurrected seventy times after his peak, he never could have entered.
My body was turning to ash.
Perhaps, like Jeon Myeong-hoon who was loved by lightning, Kang Min-hee was loved by every ghost and specter in the world.
I might be a ghost born from Seo Eun-hyun’s delusions.
*Crackle—*
My entire body scattered with death qi.
*“No…”*
Even if I died, I had wanted to reach her.
Then.
*Boom!*
A warm hand grabbed my shoulder from behind.
“You idiot. Why are you discarding the body of a ghost king and going about in this frail flesh?”
It was Seo Eun-hyun.
He had already thrown out the Seopmyeong Ship, saved every last person from Black Ghost Valley, torn open the sealed space, and reached here.
*“Warm…”*
Why?
The moment Seo Eun-hyun grabbed my shoulder, the body frozen solid by ghost qi began to melt.
*“Is that it?”*
I caught a glimpse of a flame burning inside Seo Eun-hyun.
It was the fire that burned his own soul.
“Burning others with karmic fire doesn’t hurt them, but it does warm things a little.”
He chuckled and explained that it was the effect of karmic fire.
He had been injured too, judging by the blood still dripping from him.
*The pain of karmic fire… I couldn’t even imagine it.*
How could he stand so calmly?
He held my shoulder and smiled.
“Go on ahead, Seol.”
*“…Isn’t it better if you go? Maybe…”*
“Kang Min-hee needs me?”
*“…?”*
“It’s possible.”
Seo Eun-hyun slowly nodded.
But then his next words made my fists tighten.
“But it seems Kang Min-hee needs you.”
*“What the…”*
“Have you forgotten I’m a cunning little spy? Don’t even think of deceiving these eyes. Look straight ahead. If you have something you want to say, say it yourself!”
Seo Eun-hyun’s shout snapped me back to reality.
*“…Fine.”*
I looked forward.
From behind me, Seo Eun-hyun’s voice rang out.
*“Raise the Gangwhan.”*
*Woo-woong!*
A Gangwhan formed above my palm.
I couldn’t use Wol-do-ip-cheon, but Deungbongjogeuk was still possible.
*“Divide the Gangwhan into nine.”*
*“What does that mean…”*
“Do as I say!”
I obediently split the Gangwhan.
*“Revolve the Gangwhan.”*
I could guess what he was planning.
Maybe he was trying to let me enter the Heavenly Person stage.
But it was ironic.
*I hadn’t been able to enter the Heavenly Person stage for hundreds of years.*
*“…The path of the sword you walked is not mine.”*
When I still carried Seo Eun-hyun’s identity, I had thought I could use the Invisible Sword with his memories.
But now that I knew I was Seol, I understood clearly.
This was not my experience.
Nor my enlightenment.
Therefore, I could not use the Invisible Sword.
No matter how much I tried to infuse the comprehension of the sword into the flow of the Gangwhan, it was impossible.
Yet Seo Eun-hyun’s next words shattered my imagination.
*“For the past five hundred years, what have you done?”*
*“What?”*
*“I asked what you did over five hundred years.”*
*“…You weren’t just peeking with your soul?”*
*“Answer me.”*
*“…I cultivated the Great Desert Dead Sea Formation, the Black Blood Furnace, and the Six Extreme Thunder God.”*
*“Then you must know which one you liked most.”*
*“…?”*
*“When you fought Tae Yeol-jeon, you were connected to me, weren’t you? Have you forgotten which technique she entered the Heavenly Person stage with!”*
That was right.
Tae Yeol-jeon had received the comprehension of her own unsullied technique and sublimated it into the Heavenly Person stage.
But could I?
With the technique I had cultivated?
Could I really…
*…
*…
*“Seo Eun-hyun, that’s not it, is it?”*
*“What?”*
I turned to Seo Eun-hyun and laughed.
It was so irritating—exactly like Kim Young-hoon.
I could have just said it.
*“You really are an annoying guy. If you just told me, I would have been healed.”*
*“The meaning only makes sense if you figure it out yourself.”*
Seo Eun-hyun smiled at my grin.
A fellow who had watched me from beyond the soul for five hundred years.
A genius of the martial world.
The owner of my talent.
If he was crazy, he wouldn’t suddenly force awakening on me.
That meant…
*“I already told you it’s inside you. Strike with it.”*
*“Thinking about it… that’s just Young-hoon-hyung’s imitation.”*
It was already inside me.
The moment I realized it, I trusted myself and advanced.
*“Ah…”*
This was *me*.
I had thrown away every performance of the Ghost Dao techniques, discarded death, trusted the path I had cultivated, and become whole as myself.
My own realization.
Gangwhans revolved at my fingertips.
The Gangwhan drew a circle.
Inside that circle, I saw my own Triple Taiji.
The Great Desert Dead Sea Formation, the Black Blood Furnace, the Six Extreme Thunder God I had trained.
*Wol-do-ip-cheon.*
Flowers began to bloom at my fingertips.
*“Fall from the difficult branch.”*
It was neither Baekran Chukseongmun nor the Black Blood Furnace.
Something black bloomed from my hand.
The comprehension of martial arts from Seo Eun-hyun’s memories.
I had refined a forbidden technique, melted a curse, and created my own Heavenly Person stage.
The form it once held—Baekran Chukseongmun—gradually changed and became a flower of a different shape.
A black-and-white lily.
It seemed like a single black-and-white lily bloomed, then quivered and spread in all directions.
Black lily petals covered my surroundings.
*Plod.*
I could take another step.
A technique that absorbed the pain of the mixed soul and qi realms, fell to the ground, turned into pure qi, and scattered.
I dispersed the sorrow and pain filling this darkness through the Falling Flowers Difficult Branch.
And from behind me, I felt Seo Eun-hyun smiling.
*“Let’s go.”*
He had stood not behind me, but beside me.
*“Magnificent.”*
Seo Eun-hyun drew a light sword from the air.
*“I said I refined the Invisible Sword. Do you hear the name now?”*
*Woo-woo-woo-woong—*
I heard it.
The echo of the Invisible Sword rang in my ears, which had just entered the new Heavenly Person stage.
*“It seems you like imitations too, just like your master.”*
*“Imitation? The name was a gift from her!”*
I burst into laughter at Seo Eun-hyun’s words.
*Chara-rara-lak!*
The black lily petals gathered and formed a Flower Sword in front of me.
We took the exact same posture we had used when we first entered the concrete, each holding a Flower Sword and the Invisible Sword.
*“Wait. That sword of Seo Eun-hyun’s isn’t the Invisible Sword right now.”*
I took the name the Invisible Sword had directly given me and placed it in my mouth.
*“The All-Heaven Sword is the final form of the Colorless Glass Sword.”*
*“The Colorless Glass Sword was made to house the Invisible Sword, so attaching the name to its form wouldn’t be strange, right?”*
*“Like Young-hoon-hyung, create a cool name.”*
After exchanging some trivial words, we naturally took our stance.
Seo Eun-hyun’s intent roared, and his verse name engraved itself in my mind.
*Danak Sword Art.*
*Third Stance.*
*After the mountain is deep, the way is found.*
*—I will pierce through it. Strike in!*
*After the mountain is deep, the way is found.*
A faint forest scent spread like mist.
I felt as though I had entered a deep mountain.
Through Seo Eun-hyun’s consciousness, I understood this new stance of the Danak Sword Art.
For a moment, Seo Eun-hyun’s All-Heaven Sword became completely transparent.
He had leaped to an even higher soul realm.
The foundation of a sword was downward cutting.
Raising the sword and slashing down.
Using precise muscle movement to lift high and strike downward, accelerating with gravity’s aid to cut the opponent.
It looked simple, yet it possessed terrifying power.
And I felt it.
Seo Eun-hyun’s All-Heaven Sword was leaping to an even higher realm.
The sword moved.
From a high realm, in a downward slashing posture, the blade fell.
From high position to low position.
From high realm to low realm.
With every inch the sword descended, acceleration increased, and the performances of Heaven and Earth added to the blade.
Finally, his sword reached the realm of pure matter.
*Shuk!*
The final moment was too fast for the eyes to track.
It was a single instant, yet it felt as though his slashing had surpassed the speed of light.
And when his downward slash ended.
*Jja-aak!*
I saw the darkness of Void Shattering-level Kang Min-hee split apart like a valley.
A path toward Kang Min-hee had opened.
*Tap!*
I ran toward her without hesitation, holding the Flower Sword.
I focused my mind while gripping the sword formed from gathered black lily petals.
I saw the body of Kang Min-hee, her entire form pitch black, crouching.
*After entering the deep mountain and finding the way, before the flowers fall, spring is counted.*
*Fall from the difficult branch.*
*Application Technique.*
*Before the flowers fall, spring is counted.*
*Boom!*
The Flower Sword made of black-and-white lily petals pierced Kang Min-hee’s body.
At the same time, the Flower Sword shone and began to reverse.
The white lily petals pushed away the darkness that wrapped her.
The Fall from the difficult branch, which normally absorbed pain and turned it into qi to scatter it, had been reversed.
*Before the flowers fall, spring is counted* transferred my power to the opponent, conveying emotion.
It resembled the ultimate of Wansuigungmurok—Path Within Path is Infinite—but it was several stages higher!
Toward the immense sorrow that covered Kang Min-hee’s body, I burned everything.
My techniques.
My life.
My soul!
*Crackle-crackle-crackle!*
It felt like a pillar of light was entering Kang Min-hee.
*“I’m… reaching her.”*
*“I’m… reaching her.”*
*Kugugugug—*
I felt an immense repulsive force from Kang Min-hee.
As if to tell me not to approach.
It was the strength of space itself.
It felt like it would tear me apart.
But I couldn’t stop.
*“Please… please…”*
Just for a moment—reach her!
Seo Eun-hyun came up behind me and pushed my back.
We both stabbed the light into her.
And the light exploded.
* * *
*Shwaaa—*
Rain was falling.
I looked around at the ruined Sap-pung Territory.
Nothing remained.
Everything had been torn apart by Kang Min-hee’s power and turned into a desert like the Sato Territory.
The place had originally only had valleys and mountain peaks, but now there was truly nothing left.
*“…Satisfied, Seol?”*
I sat cross-legged and looked at the Seol lying beside me.
No, the word *lying* wasn’t accurate.
Seol’s body had been turned into bloody meat and scattered somewhere. Only his head remained, clinging to the realm with the Original Mother’s stubborn vitality.
Seol’s attack, which burned everything, had succeeded.
I closed my eyes and recalled the moment just now.
My All-Heaven Sword had overlapped with Seol’s Fall from the difficult branch and produced a tremendous penetration power in an instant.
We had barely managed to insert Seol’s *Before the flowers fall, spring is counted* inside her.
Seol’s emotions had been transmitted.
But she had still reached Void Shattering.
Kang Min-hee was already the Ghost Dao Holy Mother.
Kang Min-hee opened her eyes.
Blue tears streamed down from the eyes burning with ghost fire.
*Kang Min-hee.*
No, the arm of the Ghost Dao Holy Mother slapped us away.
That was the end.
The overwhelming difference in power had broken even the will to do anything.
We fell apart, and the Ghost Dao Holy Mother flew away screaming in a terrifying ghost valley sound.
*“Kang Min-hee…”*
Yet I knew.
Seol’s emotions had definitely been transmitted.
And in that brief moment, she had regained consciousness.
*“Seo Eun-hyun…”*
Kang Min-hee called my name while looking at me, then lost her mind again and flew away.
*“…Are you all right?”*
She had called my name in her last moment.
*Seol* did not exist in her mind.
Kang Min-hee had always thought of Seol only as Seo Eun-hyun’s clone.
In a way, Seol’s expectations had been betrayed.
But Seol was smiling.
*“…I- I’m… fine…”*
*“…What do you mean ‘fine’?”*
*Huk!*
My chest suddenly tightened, and I tried to breathe. Blood mixed with internal organs spilled from my mouth.
My hard flesh had been thoroughly shattered.
The death qi was seeping into every part of my body. The fact that resurrection was impossible still lingered.
Seol was probably the same.
*“Even though we barely reached the Four Pillars stage, we die without a chance to revive.”*
I forced a bitter smile and panted.
*“Are you really all right, Seol…?”*
*“…Se…o…Eun…hyun…”*
Seol, whose body had been crushed to pulp, continued speaking with the remaining consciousness, vibrating the天地 energy.
*“I… am… really… fine…”*
*“…What do you mean ‘fine’…”*
*Chi-chi-chi—*
The ghost qi left behind by the Ghost Dao Holy Mother slowly invaded my body.
It was the power of Void Shattering.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t resist.
The passage of the soul realm required for revival had been twisted by the force, blocking our resurrection.
But I struggled with all my strength not to collapse before Seol’s eyes and listened to his final words.
I would regress.
And Seol would not.
The moment I died, I instinctively felt it from the depths of my soul.
This guy was no longer me.
A kind of vassal born from me.
Yet he was still not me.
Because of that, this guy would not regress.
Because of that, I had a reason to listen to his final words.
Seol spoke with a cheerful expression.
*“My… feelings… were delivered… completely… I’m… fine…”*
*“…Even if you don’t get repaid?”*
*“…Yes.”*
He laughed.
*“I did my best. And since I reached her and delivered the message… what I wanted to achieve is complete.”*
*“…?”*
*“Rather… you…”*
Seol looked at me.
He looked like he would cry.
Yes, Seol was pitying me.
*“I… will be buried here. But you… will keep living, right?”*
*“…?”*
*I see.*
You feel it too.
That you will not regress…
We exchanged slow words at the end of life.
* * *
Talking was hard.
It was too painful.
But strangely, I felt light.
Death was right in front of me.
Not just the death I had felt inside Seo Eun-hyun’s memories.
Nor the death I had felt with the Ghost Dao techniques or the shortcut death.
This was *real* death.
And in front of *real* death, I understood.
I would not regress.
My life ended here.
Only then could I resolve several things.
Why I had become more reserved with my body than before.
Why I had felt my life more precious than before.
And… the *real* reason Seo Eun-hyun helped me come to Kang Min-hee.
Everything was because we both had vaguely felt that I would not regress.
*“Seo Eun-hyun…”*
*“…?”*
*“The reason you helped me… besides helping me separate from you by my own will… was there another…?”*
He nodded heavily.
His voice trembled slightly.
Seo Eun-hyun, who had always looked like a giant in this life, now looked painfully small in front of death.
*“…You are me.”*
It was the opposite of what he had always said.
From the mouth that had always distinguished us as Seo Eun-hyun and Seol, an amusing truth spilled out.
*“You are one of my other possibilities. The possibility that I loved Kang Min-hee. The possibility that I learned forbidden techniques. I…”*
*“Dormant possibility?”*
*“…?”*
*“Haa… haa…”*
I laughed.
I felt light.
At the same time, I pitied him.
I would die on this land.
I would enter dormancy.
But the connections I made on this land would not vanish beyond time.
I would be buried on this land.
Whether I rotted into a handful of fertilizer or became soil, I would remain on this land.
The connections I made would remember me.
Kang Min-hee might not know me, but the fact that I delivered my heart to her would not change this history.
Kim Yeon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Goe-gun, Changhoja…
The Integration Grand Completion geniuses, the people of Black Ghost Valley, the ones we met in this loop, and even Seo Hyul, who I annoyed but still…
They would not forget me, and I would be buried here as a handful of soil while remembering those who remember me.
Even if regression erased this time, I would be erased together with them.
Whether time remained after regression or not.
I was with them now.
But what about Seo Eun-hyun?
He would die and regress.
Even if his flesh became soil, his soul would regress and repeat life forever.
Even if his flesh remained here, his soul would go to another time and could never recall the connections that remembered him.
Only the records stored in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram would quietly comfort him.
I was the possibility Seo Eun-hyun had always wanted most.
Buried on this land, in this world, in this time.
I cried.
I sobbed like a child, laughed with the joy of fulfilling one of my greatest wishes, and pitied Seo Eun-hyun.
*“I… will stay here. But you… will go, right?”*
*“…Yes.”*
What could I say to him?
I felt my consciousness fading and left my final words to Seo Eun-hyun.
*“…Live well. And…”*
I cried and laughed, enjoying this life that was a fleeting dream, and was buried quietly in this land.
*“Farewell, Seo Eun-hyun.”*
*“Farewell, me.”*
That was my final death.
* * *
Seo Eun-hyun closed his eyes and looked at Seol’s peaceful face.
It was the beautiful face left by the Won Rip he hated.
The face he had always despised so much that he would smash it whenever he felt like it.
Yet in this moment, Seo Eun-hyun found Seol’s face so beautiful.
*“I should… bury him…”*
*Thud—*
But Seo Eun-hyun could endure no longer and collapsed where he stood.
Seo Eun-hyun in white robes and Seol’s corpse covered in black flesh fragments lay facing each other under the raindrops.
*Woo-woo-woong—*
Perhaps the will left by Seol.
From every direction, the Gangwhans Seol had left behind entered Seo Eun-hyun’s body.
Gangwhans containing the power of the Ghost Dao techniques.
Of course, they were bundles of death qi, so they didn’t help with his wounds.
But the power settled inside him and harmonized the Triple Taiji.
Seo Eun-hyun closed his eyes.
On the earth where two Four Pillar cultivators had died, their souls harmonized without even being able to revive.
At some point the rain stopped, and on that land two trees grew—apple trees and willow trees.
Someone approached the two trees, and wind blew from somewhere.
The willow flowers clung firmly to the branches and didn’t scatter, but the apple flowers scattered and flew far away.
The branches were only shaken by the wind; the white willows didn’t scatter, as if waving goodbye.
*“Farewell.”*
That was Seo Eun-hyun’s nineteenth regression.
===
Author’s note: I’m sorry about the three consecutive chapters during the Christmas season you’ve been waiting for. It turned out to be quite plain, so please forgive me. But once I finished writing this episode, I thought it was the right place to end. If I started the next chapter today, it would only make things more awkward, so I decided to stop here with three consecutive chapters. I’ll try to deliver more than this time for the New Year holiday.
And now, let’s talk about the story itself. Seol is a character who directly shows Seo Eun-hyun’s other possibility and his purpose. It’s another kind of “finding the original heart,” meant to help readers clearly recall Seo Eun-hyun’s purpose.
Seol is a separate yet another protagonist, another Seo Eun-hyun. Different on the surface, but both fear regression and are terrified of connections disappearing into emptiness.
And in a way, Seol is Seo Eun-hyun’s form that has achieved what he always wanted most.
Being buried. Being remembered in history. The connection that does not vanish into emptiness. It is a more concrete goal than simply ending regression or suicide.
The eighteen-loop story ends here with an immense number of plot threads and many stories. Thank you for reading this somewhat complicated and somewhat impolite story. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
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