Prostrating and Kneeling: A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation (4)
My integration domain bore no name.
What meaning would it hold in an empty universe?
Moreover, since my colorless glass sword remained incomplete, the domain itself was far from perfect.
I lingered in darkness for a while before withdrawing the integration domain and stepping back into the outer realm.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
A planet dotted with countless graveyards.
The tombs of everyone I remembered lay completely filled.
After all, of those who had once existed in this heavenly domain, the vast majority had perished.
The sight of those five colossal central boundaries collapsing in an instant, vanishing into light and heat, remained etched in my mind.
Even the true immortals had fled in madness, yet none had escaped the end unleashed by the existence above Mount Tai.
‘I had believed that central boundaries and true immortals were safe even in catastrophe…’
It turned out to be true only for natural disasters.
After the end caused by the existence above Mount Tai, even the central boundaries had vanished, and every single true immortal had been completely extinguished.
Uuuuung—
I traveled from one planet to another, searching for shards of the colorless glass sword, when I spotted a creature worming through the cosmos that resembled a larva stringing together six planets.
I briefly activated the limitless void concealment technique.
It seemed to devour the heavenly qi and nebulae floating in the void, then vomited out a colossal planet moments later.
“...”
It showed no interest in me. Even as I approached without using the concealment technique, it paid me no heed.
Yet the aura of that being sent a chill down my spine, for I could sense its rank.
‘Junsun…’
A fissure-opening true immortal.
I had seen a few before.
Since the birth of this heavenly domain, I had encountered several Junsuns wandering the cosmos, devouring nebulae and creating stars.
Still young compared to me, their actions seemed driven purely by instinct rather than wisdom or reason.
Yet there was something deeply unsettling about them.
‘True immortals create stars.’
It was not just them.
I had also met sage-level and holy-man-level beings while wandering.
Not through rigorous cultivation, but monstrous beings born with the titles of sage or holy man from the moment of their creation.
I realized they were not simply born but granted a command for the stability of the heavenly domain.
Fissure-opening Junsuns create stars.
Star-plate sages travel to stars, tidy the laws, adjust the distance to stars, and reshape orbits to suit living beings.
Void-shattering holy men roam the cosmic space, scattering bizarre heavenly phenomena at will and producing dust clouds that Junsuns and true immortals use to forge stars.
Watching them, I understood that Junsuns, sages, and holy men were all pieces of the fate that sustains the vast ecosystem of the universe.
Especially the sages felt too blatantly granted the command to let life arise in the universe, which made me slightly uncomfortable.
The one saving grace was that as long as I did not approach them first or interfere with their work, they remained indifferent to me as well.
I avoided facing them head-on and sometimes observed them from afar while continuing to search for the shards of the colorless glass sword.
Twenty thousand years passed.
* * *
Considering the age I had accumulated since my regression, today was my fiftieth birthday.
Click—click—
I fitted together the three shards of colorless glass sword found on the previous planet, repairing the sword.
The more I found, the faster the colorless glass sword accelerated.
After twenty thousand years, I had restored one hundred colorless glass swords.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
I activated the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram after joining the shards.
The ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram had also been perfectly restored.
Now even the tombs of the cultivators of the limitless ghost sect that I remembered covered more than half the surface of the planet I inhabited.
I gazed at them with sorrow in my eyes.
My fiftieth birthday.
Had even one of them survived, I would have offered congratulations.
But even without that, I could have felt warmth and shared a conversation.
The history of the new heavenly domain had not yet endured for long, and the only one in this world who possessed reason was still me.
Junsuns, sages, and holy men merely acted on instinct to make the universe more prosperous.
It was cold.
My heart felt so pierced that I thought I would die.
“Ah… aaaa…”
I clutched my chest and let out a sob.
“Aaaaaa…”
The sound that escaped my mouth was hollow and drained.
My chest hurt.
Even plucking out my own testicles had become an acceptable level of pain, yet I, who could withstand any humiliation without blinking, found it impossible to hold back the sob.
It was illness.
And the name of the illness was loneliness.
* * *
Another ten thousand years passed.
I had restored one hundred colorless glass swords.
The restoration speed of the colorless glass sword continued to accelerate with each passing day, and the power of the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram grew steadily stronger.
The ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram unexpectedly hid an extremely powerful power that even I had not known about.
While repairing the colorless glass swords and restoring the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram, I gained a deeper understanding of the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram than before.
‘If I restore the thirty-first sword art, controlling the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram will become far easier.’
I thought this calmly.
Uuuung—
After that, I focused my awareness on the colorless glass swords and continued the restoration, seeking the countless power rings connected to them.
One day,
Boom—boom—boom!
I stood on the sulfur sea of a planet where sulfur bubbled and churned.
Beneath the rocks of the island in the middle, I discovered shards of colorless glass sword and something strange.
“This…?”
I reached out tremblingly, startled.
Clang—
Chills ran down my spine.
For what I had found was a crimson sword.
The blade of the sword bore an inscription that looked auspicious: the calendar of past and present.
Gazing at this sword that looked extremely auspicious, my entire body trembled.
“H-how…?”
It was a trace of civilization.
A rather high-level one at that!
It was not an ordinary sword—it was a divine sword of terrifying power.
‘If that is the case… then there must be a civilization somewhere in this world capable of forging such a sword… or even an existence possessing reason!’
But at that moment.
Uuuuung!
I suddenly sensed that a powerful resonance existed within my low twilight domain.
I did not know exactly how I had been resurrected, but my clothes and low twilight domain had also been restored, and except for the colorless glass sword that was my main law treasure, most other law treasures remained intact.
And so, from the low twilight domain, I pulled out a pure white divine sword made of salt crystals.
The calendar of past and present.
As soon as I saw it, I understood they were a pair.
“Ha…”
I felt momentarily dazed.
If they were a pair, then the sword called the calendar of past and present was a replica of the Sword of the Prophet.
A failed product that had nevertheless endured the end and stood here.
“This… what is this…?”
I could not believe that even the failed product of the Sword of the Prophet had failed to leap over the end.
‘Even if it truly were the Sword of the Prophet, I would believe it.’
Whatever the case, how could any law treasure withstand the end, no matter how precious the salt crystals?
I placed the calendar of past and present inside the low twilight domain in confusion.
* * *
Five thousand years passed.
I had gathered one thousand colorless glass swords.
Uuuuung!
The ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram had now been restored by more than eighty percent, and I realized.
‘From now on, within five hundred years, I will find all the shards of the colorless glass sword.’
The power was no longer merely certain; the shards of the colorless glass sword were now slowly returning to me, drawn by the power.
It would not take that long.
I gazed bitterly into the void.
A regression cycle that had survived longer than any other.
But at the same time, a life of torment and pain that ranked among the worst.
What did age matter if it was ten thousand years or a million?
In the end, humans were beings who swam within bonds.
Without bonds, one could not grow.
For the following tens of thousands of years, in this world filled only with those monstrous Junsuns, sages, and holy men, I would remain unchanged just as I had been at that time.
* * *
Boom—boom—boom!
I finally collected all three thousand colorless glass swords scattered across the entire heavenly domain over tens of thousands of years.
Click—
One of the last shards of the colorless glass sword aligned perfectly with the sword.
However, collecting “all the swords” did not mean “restoring the colorless glass sword completely.”
I let out a sigh.
The tip of the last colorless glass sword’s blade was still missing the tiny shard at its very point.
I rose from the cave where I had found the last shard.
Uuuuung!
Through the power of the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram, I focused my awareness on the very last shard of the colorless glass sword.
And then.
“Hm?”
It was strange.
I felt that the last shard of the colorless glass sword should exist in this world.
It existed somewhere in this heavenly domain.
Yet even with the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram, I could not find it.
It was only one last shard, yet!
I was greatly startled and lifted the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram once more to sense the power.
‘Could it be because the distance was too far?’
But it was strange.
The heavenly domain had been expanding and growing in size in real time, yet the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram had always tracked the shards of the colorless glass sword.
This was an incredibly bizarre occurrence.
I stomped my feet in fury.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
My stomp split the continent of the planet, triggering earthquakes and tsunamis.
The cave I had been in collapsed completely and vanished.
I dodged every rock in the instant before the cave collapsed, escaped, and screamed in anger.
“Where is it!!!”
The ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram, my ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram, must be restored.
Even though it had been restored by more than ninety percent, it was not complete.
My ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram was… Seo Eun-hyun himself.
Losing even a single speck of the ten-thousand-phenomena affinity diagram meant forgetting even a single speck of my bonds.
“I cannot… I must find it… I must find it…!”
I could not forget even a single speck of my bonds!
Not a single speck of memory could slip from my grasp!
“I will definitely put it back in my hand! No matter what I have to do!”
I shouted with bloodshot eyes.
And.
Boom—boom—boom—boom!
From the debris of the collapsed cave, I discovered something.
“That… is…”
It was clearly an artificial colossal disk.
It looked like a shield as well.
Again.
Again, another such object appeared before my eyes.
I stood before the disk with an uneasy expression.
The disk bore no name.
It was simply a plate.
Yet it was unmistakably made by a civilized being.
And in this universe, I was the only one possessing reason, so there was only one possibility.
Someone had thrown it in front of me.
Or else it was a product that had leaped over the end, like the calendar of past and present.
And.
Uuuuung!
I looked at the calendar of past and present screaming madly inside my low twilight domain and realized it was the latter case.