Kneel Before Me
Something.
I understood.
But.
It didn’t click.
“Ah…”
I turned around.
The entire Gwangum Seongchae was gone.
More precisely, the front half of Gwangum Seongchae.
Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, Buk Hyang-hwa, Seo Ran, Hong Beom, Siho, Yeon-jin.
And the thirteen Guardian Ghost Kings standing beside Baek Rin, along with Yuk Yo.
Twenty-three of them.
Everything else had evaporated.
And right after that—
Kugugugugu!
Cosmic force, I suppose you’d call it.
A colossal power slammed into us.
It had to be the aftershock of the annihilation of Mugeuk Sect.
In the midst of my bewilderment, I somehow managed to draw the others in with the force of my will.
“All of you—hold hands!”
We grabbed each other’s hands so we wouldn’t be scattered by the raging storm.
I was on the left, Jeon Myeong-hoon on the right, and Hong Beom beside him.
The next instant—
Puk!
Jeon Myeong-hoon exploded and died.
“…Huh?”
I had no time to react.
Just like a child crushing a bug underfoot.
Jeon Myeong-hoon offered no resistance.
His entire domain was crushed, and he was gone.
Kwachik!
Next came Yeon-jin.
Yeon-jin became minced meat.
Kwaddeuk!
Next were Yuk Yo and Baek Rin.
The lovers were crushed until they were ground up and fused together.
Waduk, kwaddeuk, wuddeuk, ppaddeudeudeuk—
For a moment, my companions exploded like bugs and died.
A short while later.
The survivors were Kim Young-hoon, Oh Hyun-seok, Buk Hyang-hwa, Hong Beom, and Seo Ran.
“…”
Kim Yeon.
Only Yeon’s head remained.
The fact that she was still alive.
Who would tell me this wasn’t real?
I’d be grateful for a voice saying so.
The storm subsided.
I reached out with trembling hands toward the fleshy lumps before my eyes.
I stroked Yeon’s face.
And then—
I once again looked up at the [Mountain] that had appeared ahead.
“…What is this?”
My voice didn’t come out properly.
It wasn’t the terror of an outlier.
It was too, too, too.
The emotion was surging so violently that my voice simply refused to form.
Right now, the [thing] before my eyes felt no pressure at all.
I understood.
It was a kind of projection sent by an Integration Grand Completion Realm cultivator.
A specially crafted projection made so that he wouldn’t reveal his own pressure, even deliberately.
A shadow.
That was why I felt nothing.
Because it was only a shadow, I could look at the [existence] on the summit of the Mountain.
It was too distant to make out clearly.
But I knew.
That [existence] was the one who had just exploded and killed my companions.
“Ah… Aaa… Aaaaah…!”
I felt it.
That existence was staring straight down at me.
: : You called me here : :
Too distant to reach with my consciousness, I still couldn’t see it.
But I knew.
Right now, that thing was… laughing!
It had taken everything from me—everything!
“Aaaahaaaahaaa!!! Gah! Aaaahk! Ahhk!!”
It was painful!
It was painful!
My chest was suffocating.
When I hit my own chest, something came out.
It was a flower.
The black blood lotus.
Normally I would have had to prepare the material with the Yin Soul Ghost Curse and refine it through special laws, but now, the moment I opened my mouth, it spilled out.
Monstrous flowers like bugs poured from my mouth.
It looked as if flowers were gushing from my eyes, my nose, my ears—every hole in my body.
“Ahh! G, ahh! Ahhh!”
: : Did you use the Dharma-Destroying True Word : :
“Uheoheoheok! Ahok! Ahok!”
: : Don’t teach me properly : :
“Aaaah! Uaaahaaah! Aaaah!”
My eyes rolled back.
I slammed a hole into my abdomen and pulled out the Colorless Glass Sword.
There was no thought of taking it out of my mouth.
I was already insane.
I charged straight at the black mountain right in front of me.
Waddeudeudeuk—
“….”
My vocal cords shattered.
It was a command.
At the same time, the Colorless Glass Sword I was holding shattered.
Shattered into pieces, scattered across the void.
Humiliatingly.
Uuuuuuuuh—
The yin-yang five elements jade around me rose and sealed me in.
At the same time, space began to warp.
“Ah… Aaa… Yeon… Yeon…”
Wagjak!
The remaining Buk Hyang-hwa was swept up by the spatial storm and her entire body crushed.
“Haahaaaahaaa!!!”
Kim Young-hoon tried to resist, but his limbs were ripped out and his neck torn off.
“You bastard! You bastard, you filthy dog…!”
Oh Hyun-seok tried to do something, then was compressed into a slab of meat and died.
Seo Ran was oddly pulled out and absorbed by the black mountain.
And Hong Beom was caught in the spatial storm; his entire body was torn apart.
Even as his flesh was ripped away, he spoke with trembling pupils, as if nothing had happened to him.
“It was an honor to have had you near me. As long as I am remembered by you, I will always watch over my master…”
Kwachik!
That was Hong Beom’s dying words.
Although he looked like an old man, Hong Beom was actually younger than Buk Hyang-hwa.
The young snake that had clung to my feet in Deungsunhyang.
The young snake that sacrificed itself for me when it was modified by Goe-gun.
The young snake that showed its genius talent and grew up proudly when I took it to Seo Hyul.
The Hong Beom who finally reached the human shape and became the executioner.
The subordinate who had always silently served me at my side until now.
No.
My friend.
Was dead.
“------!”
I wailed with my shattered vocal cords.
The voice that shook heaven and earth echoed throughout the world.
: : Dharma-Destroying True Word : :
I saw it.
Something began to gather in front of the mountain.
I thought it was simply the heaven-and-earth energy of the yin-yang five elements.
It was exactly the same flow as the reversed Taesan Yeolje Gong that I had recited.
However, I gradually understood something.
More and more was gathering.
No, beyond that.
The world’s gravitational force was growing stronger.
The words of Jang Ik came to mind in my mind.
When the gravitational force of heaven and earth reaches its peak.
The end comes.
Kugugugugu!
The entire world outside the yin-yang five elements jade I was sealed in gradually grew stronger in gravity.
The energy of the yin-yang five elements gathered in front of the mountain began to draw the gravity of the entire heavenly realm toward its center.
The universe began to contract.
Was that stars? Planetary systems?
Ah, galaxies.
Inside this unreal scene, I watched countless stars, planetary systems, and galaxies converge into a single point and forgot even to cry, staring blankly at it.
The heavenly realm began to narrow.
Gradually the world grew hotter, filled with light and heat.
I watched countless planetary systems being pulled toward the mountain and opened my mouth.
Thighs, Yang Su-jin’s little finger, someone’s hand back, flesh, bones, liver, eyeballs, other organs, skin, tails—
Countless planetary systems entered inside, and galaxies converged.
And—
“…!”
I opened my eyes wide and checked that what I was seeing was real.
The five middle realms—Dark Ghost, Purple Gold, Ancient Power, True Demon, and Guanghan—were all sucked in.
Because I had stacked the symbolic axes on each face, I could tell them apart.
And something far away, dark red, tried to flee but was pulled in without resistance.
It didn’t stop there.
[------!]
[------------------!]
[--!--!--!--!--!--!]
[------!!!!!!!!!!!]
The true people.
Not only the true people who had caused me fatal wounds, but even the true people who had been in a normal sleep state after transforming into planets, all woke up and tried to escape in the opposite direction of gravity.
But not a single true person succeeded in fleeing and was pulled in.
This situation was so unreal that it felt like a dream.
Immediately, the world itself, filled with light and heat, shrank to the size of the sphere that had pulled in all galaxies, middle realms, planetary systems, and true people in front of the mountain.
No, the contraction didn’t end there.
The heavenly realm continued to contract even in that state, and finally became a single point of pure white light.
The existence on the mountain summit looked at that point for a moment as if contemplating something, then threw it somewhere.
I saw the compressed point of light being sucked away somewhere.
I couldn’t confirm because there was nothing left to see.
All I could do was despair.
: : This is not the true appearance of the thing you used : :
The reversed Taesan Yeolje Gong.
No, yes.
The Dharma-Destroying True Word.
The true purpose of this incantation was not simply to gather the energy of the yin-yang five elements and show a reversed cone.
It was an immortal art meant to gather all of heaven and earth, including the yin-yang five elements, and cause the end.
That was the Dharma-Destroying True Word.
: : You die too : :
Puk!
And I, like my companions, instantly became minced meat and exploded.
Original Origin.
Cheon-won Jibang.
Nothing could resist.
They shattered into pieces without leaving a gap.
In my death, I understood.
The existence on the mountain summit had simply kept me alive until the very last moment only to mock me in the most miserable way possible.
It had mocked me until the very last moment.
Feeling the mockery of the existence on the mountain summit, I lost consciousness.
This was my twentieth regression.
* * *
Inside the yin-yang five elements jade where Seo Eun-hyun’s minced body was.
Inside there was a miniature salt mountain and the palace of salt crystals.
It floated into the void.
When the existence on the mountain summit gestured with his hand, it rose to the top of that lofty mountain.
On the summit of the mountain stacked with pain, fear, and oppression.
An existence sitting there reached out to the miniature salt mountain.
The salt mountain rose into his hand.
For a moment he caressed the precious salt mountain there.
However, something occurred to him.
He looked at the salt mountain with eyes filled with a sense of humiliation.
And while doing so, the existence looked somewhere.
The place where the point of the heavenly realm he had thrown was.
Blinking!
Light exploded from there, and eight massive human figures began to walk out.
The existence on the mountain summit looked at them with a lewd smile, then melted and disappeared into the void.
And in the place where he had vanished, only the yin-yang five elements jade containing Seo Eun-hyun’s minced pieces and the fragments of the Colorless Glass Sword remained.
Eight shadows simultaneously released a roar.
: : Ra-cheon!!!!! : :
According to their reaction, the light exploded with great force, and the heavenly realm that had contracted into a single point began to expand again.
The Star Realm.
The universe.
Opened once more.
After the yin-yang five elements jade had entered the inside of the universe.
As the universe began to be created in earnest again, it was released.
From various places in the universe, nascent Gaeyeol-stage geniuses stirred, swam out, and instinctively began creating stars.
The fragments of the Colorless Glass Sword scattered across the entire universe.
Some of Seo Eun-hyun’s pieces fell into one of the stars created by the nascent geniuses.
And the old man holding the flower basket covered Seo Eun-hyun’s pieces with soil and patted them.
Tuk tuk—
“It was fun.”
The old man with the flower basket.
Shorasu Cheonjon, the master of the East Heaven Flower Garden also known as the West Heaven Flower Garden, smiled faintly as if he had finished his task, then turned and left.
After a while he vanished from that heavenly realm.
And a short while after Shorasu Cheonjon disappeared—
Suseusue—
In the place where he had buried Seo Eun-hyun’s piece, flowers began to grow.
The flowers glowed brightly, then spat out pure white light.
And within that light, familiar existences began to revive once more.
Tzuzuzut—
It was Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun, who had been fully revived without a single wound anywhere, looked around blankly for a moment.
“…Ah… Aaa…”
And—
“Aaa… Aaaa… Aaaaaaa!!!”
Kugugugugu!
“Huaaaahaaaahaaa!!!”
Around him, the flowerbed of the curse bloomed.