Kneel
A single sword.>
Yet Seo Eun-hyun felt no disappointment.>
Zut zut zut->
It was only one sword, but the mere act of forming its shape mattered greatly.>
A faint mist rose over the Colorless Glass Sword.>
Seo Eun-hyun restored his Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram to encompass his entire self.>
The vast stem that was Seo Eun-hyun.>
Uwoong->
He sensed the attraction that the humming, whirring power of the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram was guiding him toward.>
It had become far clearer than before.>
Now it would be even easier to find the shards of the Colorless Glass Sword.>
Seo Eun-hyun paused to savor the attraction, then descended onto the planet he had built his tomb on.>
Breathing in spiritual energy, he half-opened his eyes.>
A thousand yuan hovered behind his head, and four pillars rose in all directions around him.>
Kurururung->
As if sensing what he intended, dark clouds gathered from the sky.>
Yes.>
Thirty thousand years of time.>
Now Seo Eun-hyun himself was running out of life.>
Ten thousand years from the Pill and Yu Ho-deok’s axis.>
And another ten thousand years from reaching the Four Pillars realm.>
The axes of Su, Buk, Gang-nyeong, and Yu Ho-deok had already been spent reaching the Four Pillars, so they no longer existed in any meaningful sense.>
Therefore, to continue living and keep searching for the Colorless Glass Sword, he would have to ascend to Integration now.>
Protecting the tomb he had made from crumbling, he shot upward into the sky.>
Unlike the other Heavenly Tribulations, where one could sit comfortably and receive them, Integration Ascension Tribulations demanded that one fly into the heavens and endure them there.>
Jeon Myeong-hoon could transform the tribulation through the power of his Heavenly Lightning Tribulation Sword, but such a thing was impossible for Seo Eun-hyun, who possessed rather ordinary talent.>
‘First, let’s gather all the materials.’>
Seo Eun-hyun directed his will downward toward the dragon vein below.>
Spiritual energy spurted from his hand.>
Kugugugug!>
The dragon vein that had been overflowing from the planet was drawn by his will, and began to be refined in the palm of his hand.>
Seo Eun-hyun operated the internal energy manual he had mastered in his martial arts days—Dragon Vein Qi Technique.>
His body instantly transformed into the same state as a vein-gathering dragon blood, and the powerful aura of the dragon vein swirled like a raging current according to the Dragon Vein Qi Technique.>
With his Dragon Vein Qi Technique connected to the dragon vein, he refined another Original Spirit through the method of the five elements.>
The aura of the Dragon Vein Qi Technique was of the earth attribute, and the Original Spirit he had just refined carried golden light from absorbing that earth attribute.>
Uwoong->
In front of Seo Eun-hyun, an earth-attribute Original Spirit rose.>
Through the lifted dragon vein, he erased the Original Spirit’s ‘personality’ while leaving its ‘attribute’ intact.>
Then.>
Uduk uddeudeuk->
He began to compress the Original Spirit.>
After a while, the Original Spirit had become the seven attributes of the five elements that completely represented the earth attribute.>
Seo Eun-hyun placed the five-element axis he had refined with Dragon Vein Qi Technique onto his palm, then adjusted its attribute to correspond with the eight trigrams.>
The fire of the five elements corresponded to the fire line of the eight trigrams.>
The water of the five elements corresponded to the water line of the eight trigrams.>
The wood of the five elements corresponded to the ‘wind’ and ‘lightning’ of the eight trigrams.>
The metal of the five elements corresponded to the ‘heaven’ and ‘pond’ of the eight trigrams.>
The earth of the five elements corresponded to the ‘land’ and ‘mountain’ of the eight trigrams.>
Gradually, the nature of the five-element axis changed, and the earth axis that had been earth became the earth of Gen—namely, the mountain axis.>
‘Of course, there are many techniques in my mind from the beginning that are related to mountains, so preparing the mountain axis would be better anyway.’>
Of course, if that were the case, he could have simply stacked the mountain axis directly with the Mountain-Cleaving Emperor Art from the start instead of Dragon Vein Qi Technique.>
However, Seo Eun-hyun had too painfully understood that the Mountain-Cleaving Emperor Art was currently linked to the True Immortal realm, so he had created the axis with the Dragon Vein Qi Technique that came from Kim Young-hoon rather than the technique that came from the True Immortal.>
And now, the ascension of Seo Eun-hyun’s Integration had begun.>
Weeee-eing->
The Original Spirit of Seo Eun-hyun escaped through his hundred meridians and formed a lotus position in the void.>
At the same time, the yuan of Gwang-han Heavenly King cast a halo behind the head of the Original Spirit.>
The five-favorite axes of Su, Buk, Gang-nyeong, and Yu Ho-deok formed a domain around the Original Spirit’s navel.>
Originally, one would first bring the distance between the thousand yuan and the local realm close through the process of ‘Heaven and Earth Unification,’ then ‘stick’ them together, and only then evolve that into a small world for Integration Ascension.>
However, Seo Eun-hyun half-opened both his eyes.>
Six shadows pushed out from beneath him.>
After injecting Yu Ho-deok’s axis, his Six Extreme Lightning Tribulation Spirit had vanished.>
No, precisely, Seo Eun-hyun’s Six Extreme Lightning Tribulation Spirit had become the Six Extremes itself.>
Around him, a total of six more axes had appeared.>
Seo Eun-hyun looked down from above the planet of the Star Realm and could finally put to rest one of the questions that had surfaced before.>
That question had been about the outer five-element axis, the orthodox five-element axis, and the plain five-favorite axis, and the five-favorite six-extremes axis that felt the six extremes by returning one’s lifespan after receiving the five-favorite axes.>
The Four Pillars realm.>
No, there were many ways to enter the Earth Axis Period.>
So what, exactly, was the correct method among those ways?>
The five-element axis had been to take one’s own Original Spirit’s attribute as the center and strengthen the central axis with the remaining four five-element axes, while the five-favorite axis had been closer to strengthening the very membrane of the axis rather than strengthening the attribute.>
Which of the two was truly the proper cultivation method for the Earth Axis Period?>
And only today, in this age where one could perform the Integration Ascension ceremony, could he finally know the answer.>
‘…In the beginning, everything had been one.’>
The method of axis cultivation that had originally been one, someone had ‘split’ it.>
Originally, the five-favorite axis had been Su, Buk, Gang-nyeong, Yu Ho-deok, and then one’s own thousand yuan as the corresponding ‘Gojongmyeong’ axis, evolving the axis membrane into Integration.>
With this five-favorite axis method, it was very easy to combine the thousand yuan of Gojongmyeong with the local realm of Su, Buk, Gang-nyeong, and Yu Ho-deok, which greatly reduced the difficulty of Integration Ascension.>
But what if one added the six-extremes axis here?>
The thousand yuan Gojongmyeong and Su, Buk, Gang-nyeong, Yu Ho-deok, and the six extremes.>
First, the numbers did not match.>
The thousand yuan did not require numbers because it was perfect in itself, but where on earth should one attach the six extremes?>
Of course, one could attach it in a reasonable way, and if one possessed the sense to balance it oneself, there would be no problem with Integration Ascension.>
Rather, once at Integration, one would possess the five-favorite six-extremes even more perfectly, gaining advantages in attraction and other things.>
However, the five-favorite six-extremes axis had been very ambiguous as an axis in itself.>
‘In the beginning, I had simply been wrong in my thinking.’>
He had finally realized how to integrate the way of Four Pillars cultivation that had been split.>
‘Thinking from the beginning that I should divide the five-element axis and the five-favorite axis had been the mistake.’>
Uwoooooong!>
The thousand yuan of Gwang-han Heavenly King at the top of Seo Eun-hyun’s Original Spirit’s navel area fell away from his Original Spirit.>
And the remaining four five-favorite axes at the bottom of the Original Spirit’s navel area fell away from his Original Spirit.>
Combining the thousand yuan of Gwang-han with the four remaining faves made five axes.>
Adding the six-extremes axis made six axes.>
A total of eleven ambiguous numbers.>
However, Seo Eun-hyun lifted the mountain axis he had prepared in advance.>
The mountain axis squeezed into the middle of the eleven axes!>
Twelve axes formed.>
Only now was the Earth Axis Period complete.>
The five-element axis, the five-favorite axis, and the six-extremes axis had all been necessary for the Earth Axis Period.>
‘In the beginning, what mattered most when forming the thousand yuan and local realm was [heaven] and [earth]. There was no need for four directions.’>
Seo Eun-hyun completed the local realm as the terrestrial branches.>
Uwoooooong!>
Around Seo Eun-hyun’s Original Spirit, the attraction of the twelve axes connected, and each took its position.>
At that moment, the yin-yang qi inside Seo Eun-hyun’s Original Spirit began to rotate and turn the wheel of day and night.>
And every time day and night changed, the shadow and light of the Original Spirit swept sequentially through the twelve axes.>
Gradually, the rotation of day and night accelerated, and the speed at which the twelve axes were swept by light and shadow also quickened.>
And at some point.>
Paaaaat!>
The twelve axes shone brightly and drew a circle.>
Seo Eun-hyun concentrated his attraction into the center of the circle and prepared for ascension.>
Inside the circle created by the twelve axes, the landscape of Seo Eun-hyun’s axis membrane began to reflect.>
And according to the scene inside the axis membrane, the circle gradually began to take on three dimensions.>
It was a rather different method of ascension from the other Four Pillars cultivators, but he proceeded with the ascension without hesitation.>
Uwoooooong!>
The axis membrane that had been taking on three dimensions suddenly became a complete sphere, and Seo Eun-hyun’s Original Spirit enlarged to match the size of the sphere and placed a sphere into his navel.>
And that form looked as if it were on the planet lying beneath him.>
“This is the local realm.”>
However, Seo Eun-hyun merged the thousand yuan axis with the local realm.>
Then how was he supposed to form the thousand yuan?>
The answer was simple.>
Uwoooooong->
Around the local realm inside Seo Eun-hyun’s Original Spirit, his Original Spirit gradually melted away.>
His Original Spirit was the atmosphere that wrapped around the world of the local realm, at the same time the day and night where yin-yang circulated, a constellation, or… the circulation of the four seasons.>
Seo Eun-hyun made his planet beneath his feet and his Original Spirit gradually resemble each other.>
His attraction formed the attraction of the local realm, concepts of north and south appeared, and east and west appeared through the action of day and night, and finally the concepts of four directions were born inside the sphere.>
The thousand yuan of heaven and the local realm of earth mutually interacted and formed a small world of Heaven and Earth Unification!>
At the same time.>
Kugugugugug!>
Dark clouds began to gather from the sky.>
Seo Eun-hyun had begun his Integration Ascension.>
Kwaeurrrreung!>
At the same time from the sky, a blue ordinary heavenly thunder.>
A golden heavenly thunder that fell during ordinary ascension tribulations.>
And the black-colored heavenly thunder that symbolized the sky.>
These three colors of heavenly thunder fell toward Seo Eun-hyun, two hundred each.>
Kwaddeudeudeudeu!>
And at the same time, the dragon vein of the earth beneath Seo Eun-hyun’s feet began to writhe wildly.>
At the same time, it seemed as if dense fog was gathering around the earth, and lightning shot up from the ground to the sky.>
As expected, the blue lightning that had fallen together with Seo Eun-hyun and the Terminus Ones.>
The golden lightning of ordinary ascension tribulations.>
And the yellow lightning that symbolized the earth rose from the ground to the sky, two hundred each, and struck Seo Eun-hyun.>
But that was not the end.>
From the east of the star, dark clouds began to form, and in addition to the tribulation and golden tribulation, a blue tribulation that symbolized the east fell toward Seo Eun-hyun, two hundred each from the east.>
From the west of the star, dark clouds began to form, and in addition to the tribulation and golden tribulation, a white tribulation that symbolized the west, two hundred from the west, fell toward Seo Eun-hyun.>
From the south, two hundred red tribulations and golden and blue tribulations that symbolized the south.>
From the north, two hundred black tribulations and golden and blue tribulations that symbolized the north fell toward Seo Eun-hyun.>
A total of 3,600 heavenly thunders.>
Integration Ascension Heavenly Tribulations were also called Six Heavenly Thunders, and they were a powerful tribulation that filled the directions of the Six Unifications of Heaven, Earth, Four Directions, and Six Unions.>
Seo Eun-hyun, like before, could not crush them all at once by swallowing them whole as he had done before.>
[Gaaaaah! ]>
But that was not the end.>
The Integration Ascension ceremony was the real thing from now on.>
From the raging Six Heavenly Thunders during Integration Ascension, he had to obtain the aura of heaven, and from the nearby dragon vein, the aura of earth, and engrave a dragon vein inside the small world he had obtained.>
While receiving the Six Heavenly Thunders!>
Such a dragon vein was extremely important because it created the vitality inside the small world and could be called the eight meridians of the world’s own nature.>
Kuguguk!>
Seo Eun-hyun brought the dragon vein into the inside of his small world.>
In the middle of the ‘earth’ domain.>
That is, if we compare it to Earth, he laid the path of the dragon vein near the equator.>
Then he laid the path connecting the south pole and the north pole, the earth axis.>
And after laying the path connecting the equator and the north and south poles, through the Six Heavenly Thunders he engraved a path in the sky this time.>
What was engraved in the sky was the constellation of the Three Primordials and Twenty-Eight Mansions that he had been engraving in the Golden Elixir all along, the movement of the stars, the path of the sun and moon in day and night.>
And after all that, how long could he endure the Six Heavenly Thunders?>
Kwaeurrrung!>
Finally, the long rain of the tribulation stopped, and what remained was Seo Eun-hyun’s body, exhaling smoke from above the planet.>
He slowly half-opened his eyes.>
Seo Eun-hyun could recognize one ‘world’ that had taken root inside his body.>
That world gave him attraction that was on a completely different level from the previous Four Pillars level, and it provided a completely different kind of feeling of omnipotence.>
Although it was a small world, within that world he was like a being of nature itself.>
The domain obtained through the way of Heaven and Earth Unification.>
Seo Eun-hyun focused his spirit, clasped his hands in salute, and stimulated his small world to expand it outside his body.>
“Integration Dao Domain!”>
Paaaaat!>
Instantly, a dimensional membrane burst out over Seo Eun-hyun’s body and continuously inflated his body.>
Seo Eun-hyun closed his eyes in salute at the north pole of his own domain, which was a dry gray desert.>
***>
This place is solely my domain.>
That meant no one could simply look inside it without my permission.>
I used my power within the domain and blocked all ‘light’ inside the domain as if by instinct.>
In an instant, the domain was covered in darkness.>
Thud->
I sat alone in the desert and opened my mouth in the dim world.>
“…Everyone, I have reached the Integration realm.”>
Imagining the others’ reactions while looking at the darkness.>
“Young-hoon hyung, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Hyun-seok hyung, Yeon-ah… Buk Hyang-hwa. Seo Ran, Siho, Hong Beom, Yeon Wi…”>
I called the names of the people I remembered, one by one, all of them.>
My voice echoed in the darkness.>
“…Will you congratulate me…?”>
No answer came.>
In the darkness where no one could peek, I brought my hand to my face.>
Something fell onto the dry sand.>
Yeon Wi had been correct.>
I was wrong.>
This world is only despair.