Time's Deity
Thud.
Time Venerable!
As soon as I heard those words, a chill raced through my entire body, and my soul trembled violently.
I immediately kowtowed before the Time Venerable.
“Magnificent. You know the rites—”
Right after that.
I slashed the Colorless Glass Sword straight at the Time Venerable’s face.
Shukak!
Kwaakwaakwaak!
The Time Venerable’s body and the entire pavilion were sliced clean apart in an instant.
“…What sorcery is this?”
The Time Venerable asked with a faint, mocking smile.
I smiled weakly as I raised my sword again.
“I thought you intended to bestow a trial upon me, Venerable. Was that not the case?”
I was the Time Venerable.
No, the reason I cut off the vessel body was simple.
Tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz—
My body gradually grew younger.
At the same moment, the Time Venerable’s vessel body began to age slowly.
What did that mean?
The Time Venerable was reversing my fleshly time by some unknown means.
If that had been the only thing, it would not have mattered.
The real problem was that the Time Venerable had also reversed my ‘memories’ along with it.
Without the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I might have completely forgotten that I had spent over ten thousand years suffering in new heavenly realms.
“A trial, you say. I was merely trying to make it easy for you?”
“How could forgetting memories be easy?”
“Seeing how you struggled with the pain of past times, I decided to help you. Don’t you like it?”
Only then did I realize the answer to the question I had been about to ask the Venerable: why had he spent a hundred thousand years wandering me before summoning me?
Memories were precious to me.
For a hundred thousand years had been unbearably long, terrifying, and lonely.
But that, too, had been my life.
Even as a time of suffering, it was because of that suffering that the pain and despair of that day had been softened, allowing me to exist as I am today.
The past time had been hard, but I did not regret it.
I bowed my head to the Venerable.
“Thank you for bestowing enlightenment upon me.”
“Hoo hoo, I’m glad you finally understand.”
I was about to apologize for cutting the Venerable’s body.
But that was when it happened.
Sssshhh—
I sensed my time reversing once more.
My flesh grew younger, memories vanished.
My realm of cultivation fell.
Without the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I would not have even noticed I was losing my memories.
I looked at the Venerable and asked.
“…Does the Venerable intend to punish me for scarring your body?”
“No.”
“…Then why are you doing this?”
“….”
The Time Deity offered no answer.
Instead, he pointed at me, and the speed at which my body grew younger and memories faded accelerated.
My realm began to drop rapidly.
Memories fled.
The memories flowed out of my dantian in an instant, and I felt nearly two hundred thousand years of them being stripped away.
I frowned.
“Venerable, please quell your anger.”
Yet when I spoke, he did not even twitch an eyebrow, and my time reversed faster still.
Finally, I felt memories of my companions being torn from me by the Master of Taesan.
And so I closed my eyes once more and swung the All-Heaven Sword again.
Booowoo!
Kuuwoo!
The pavilion shook, and the Time Venerable’s vessel body was sliced apart once more.
“…Why are you doing this? Please stop testing me.”
But it was the same.
The Time Venerable instantly recovered his body and cast my reversal spell again.
I glared at the Time Venerable and growled.
“No matter who you are, the Venerable—I will never allow you to erase my life…! Stop immediately!”
It scattered.
It dissolved.
My body aged, but my memories, grudges, sorrow, joy, despair, and hope—all the joys and sorrows of life, all the emotions and scenes within them—vanished from my mind!
Without the external Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I would not have even noticed!
I gritted my teeth and said.
“Stop immediately!!!”
Shukak—
I sliced the Time Venerable’s vessel body again.
The opponent before me was terrifying.
He might capture me right now, set one second as nearly eternal, and torture me for infinite time.
Having witnessed the Taesan Deity shatter the universe, I could not even imagine the limits of these beings.
But even so.
The time I had lived as Seo Eun-hyun was far too precious.
No matter how divine the foe, I could never forgive the existence that would reverse my life into non-existence!
With eyes spinning, I swung the Colorless Glass Sword wildly.
Kugugugug!
The pavilion crumbled.
The world cracked.
Yet as time passed, my realm continued to fall.
The only thing that did not fall was the Wulin realm sustained by the comprehension contained in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram!
“Stop immediately!”
The time in the Goryeok Realm.
The memories of the Mugeuk Sect.
The many trials and tribulations that arose when I fell to the Myeonggwi Realm.
The day I entered the Taein Society and became Taein.
The times I had used the power of Salt Mountain while facing Heon-won and Seo Hyel!
They gradually crumbled away.
And the leakage of memories continued all the way to the very beginning of the regression cycle.
‘No, could it be…’
If this continued, would I lose even the memories of the previous regression point?
At that thought.
Pahasat!
“!”
According to the time sequence I was feeling, the memories of before the 19th regression cycle had just begun, and the memories of the 18th cycle should have vanished.
But they did not.
Instead, the memories with Jeon Myeong-hoon, erased in a rough spatial order, began to disappear.
The memories of fighting with Jeon Myeong-hoon in the 17th cycle vanished.
The memory of blocking the Heavenly Tribulation of the Lord of the Heavenly Punishment vanished.
And…
Uuuwoong—
The memory of meeting Yang Su-jin’s afterimage at Shattered Heaven Peak and talking also did not vanish.
As if even the Time Venerable could not touch that particular memory.
My memories and physical realm continued to drop, finally reaching the level of the 1st cycle and early 2nd-level Wulin warrior era.
And finally, the starting point of the 1st cycle.
The events in Deungsunhyang.
The bewilderment at the moment I first opened my eyes there.
And the very last one.
Tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz—
‘Uh… what’s this?’
There was something white and pure in the memories.
I did not know what it was.
And then the Time Venerable’s body suddenly exploded.
Pook!
“!”
No, it was not just his body.
The entire pavilion he had summoned shattered into pieces and returned us to the Jade Seat of the galaxy we had originally been in.
Grgrgrgrgrgr—
But that was not the problem.
Pure white light!
The light boiled everywhere, shaking the entire area that seemed to be the Time Venerable’s realm.
I tried to resist with the Colorless Glass Sword, body and all, but there was nothing I could do.
The pure white memories did not fully dissolve from within.
Instead, the reversal of time continued.
The day I rode a car to the workshop.
The day Jeon Myeong-hoon handed his work over to me.
The events at the company.
University, military service, university freshman year, high school, middle school, elementary school, kindergarten…
And babyhood.
“….”
I had even forgotten how to connect the Colorless Glass Sword with myself.
Ah…
But what exactly was the Colorless Glass Sword?
‘Baba… aba…’
The world was bright.
Good.
A little cold.
I felt hungry.
Mom, Dad.
I wanted to drink milk.
…
Warm.
Soon I would enter the world.
Mom’s love entered through the umbilical cord.
I had to get out of Mom’s belly…
…
Thud—
Thud—
Thud—
Thud—
Thud—
Paaaah!
Jiiiing!
I!
I had connected with the Colorless Glass Sword.
Nothing remained in my memory.
My fleshly memories had regressed to the level before the embryo stage and the sperm-egg level, completely becoming nothing.
Yet I still had the Colorless Glass Sword.
I had momentarily lost hold of the Colorless Glass Sword.
But in this very moment, my entire flesh had vanished, and what remained was only the original-name-bound Colorless Glass Sword that was connected to my soul!
The memories of me contained in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram of the Colorless Glass Sword.
Yes, this was proving me.
The magnificent history contained within my sword proved me!
At this moment, I was the Colorless Glass Sword.
[Seo Eun-hyun!!!]
I had become a sword.
Even if I cut through everything and severed everything, I could not sever myself.
I filled my lifelong will within the Colorless Glass Sword and unleashed the ultimate strike that squeezed out all of Sitting Liberation and Standing Death.
Where the vessel body of the Time Venerable had gone was unknown, and the world, dense with galaxies, was flooded with light everywhere, so I could not tell where was where.
Yet I did not care.
I cut.
The Colorless Glass Sword, the All-Heaven Sword, and my will had become one.
—Cut!
Paaaah!
My life.
History.
The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram that contained all of it spewed out mist, and it formed the Triple Taiji.
Inside the Triple Taiji, I became a single sword and unleashed the One Sword that would cut the entire world.
It was not yet a completed masterpiece, but its completion degree had increased a little.
This one sword, which contained nothing except the name ‘積’ written in haste, divided the entire world.
Accumulated, accumulated, accumulated—my history.
That was why the one sword named with the character for accumulation.
It could never be allowed to disappear!
But, perhaps because it was still lacking, nothing happened.
The space itself seemed scarred, but that was all.
That tiny scar did not seem to affect the Time Venerable at all.
Yet I did not care.
I unfolded my sword technique from beginning to end without hesitation.
I knew I could not impart shock anyway.
So I would simply do everything I could!
And the final sword technique I unfolded.
In that final moment, I felt as if something had caught on the end of the sword.
The next moment.
Tak!
“….”
I had returned to my original state again, uncomfortably so.
The surroundings were the same.
I and the Time Venerable had returned to the pavilion as before.
“…Why are you doing this?”
“A misfortune is suffering.”
He took a sip of a car from somewhere and laughed.
“To give that back to you, I had no choice but to offer it together with suffering.”
“!”
I looked at the end of my sword.
The fragment of the final Colorless Glass Sword had returned to the end of my blade.
The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram was restored.
I exhaled a sigh of relief after twenty thousand years and sat down on the ground.
“…Thank you.”
Honestly, I had never trusted the Time Venerable.
In words he had said he would return the Colorless Glass Sword together with misfortune, but there had clearly been another purpose.
I asked him without hesitation.
“Nevertheless, apart from gratitude, was it truly for the purpose of returning my property?”
“Yes, of course. But there was another purpose.”
“What was it?”
He grinned.
“Can you hear me if I tell you?”
“….”
“Well… I am already a crazy person who can swing a sword even inside my own authority, so I won’t go crazy.”
The Time Venerable nodded and spoke immediately.
“I tried to look directly at the Lord of Light.
His true body was surely somewhere beyond—it must have been. If I can only obtain those coordinates, perhaps I can become like him.”
“…?”
Why had reversing my time and the sudden appearance of the Lord of Light come up now?
But, though it seemed like just a piece of information, I had already noticed that my soul, realm, and body were starting to vaporize into light.
Tak!
The Time Venerable snapped his fingers, and my body returned.
I could not hide my confusion.
‘What? I was not even facing the Imperial Immortal directly, and I only heard a few lines of information?’
Why was my body suddenly about to vaporize?
The Time Venerable smiled bitterly as he drank the car.
“In the end, I could not find it. As expected, he is thorough.”
“….”
I wanted to ask more, but I did not open my mouth.
With just a few lines of information, my body was about to dissolve.
If he gave more details, a curse might follow even beyond regression, just as it had when I looked directly at the Lord of the Heavenly Punishment.
I asked instead.
“What exactly do you want from me?”
It was the question I had most wanted to know.
“Hoo…”
The Time Venerable swirled the car.
And the next moment.
“…!”
His body suddenly began to rot rapidly.
His body wrinkled until it was completely pus-filled, rotting flesh falling off in drops, and his clothes suddenly dried up into rags.
His car turned into stagnant water, and the pavilion we had been in, like the peaceful Hwaeom, became ruins.
It was as if time had rushed and aged him suddenly.
Tuk, tuwok…
His eyes completely rotted, leaving nothing but emptiness in the Time Venerable’s eye sockets.
Horo ro—
The rotting corpse drank stagnant water and said.
“…What I want is meaningless. What you want is more important.”
“…Huh?”
Tuk, tutuk…
His flesh began to fall away.
“We do not have much to give you. At best, a few lines of information? But that alone cannot directly interfere with the story. You would have to remain a Jongyeon your whole life.”
“….”
“Even if I want to give you something, everything we give is corrupted and twisted. But…”
The rotting one laughed.
“If we ourselves undergo immense sacrifice, it is possible to give you a weak gift or two. I am trying to give you a gift.”
“…What kind of gift… are you speaking of?”
Tududuk…
Finally, half of his facial flesh fell away completely.
Now he had a half-skull head.
[…You.]
The corpse laughed.
It seemed his vocal cords were rotting, and his words turned into a prophecy.
And, as I listened to the following words of the Time Venerable, a chill ran down my spine.
[Do you not want to return to that time?]
“…!”
[Right before your precious people all die at the hands of the Master of Taesan.]
Dall, dalldall, dalldalldall—
It trembled.
Was it because the Time Venerable’s authority to reverse time was too scary?
Was he aware of my regression or not?
I could not understand what trick he was trying to pull.
No.
This was anticipation.
At the same time, it was a powerful desire.
I knew the Time Venerable before me was strange.
He might be trying to do something to my regression.
But still.
Dall dall d all d all—
I felt my entire body tremble from the powerful desire.
For a hundred thousand years!
No, for more than that time!
I had spent my entire life missing only them!
Within that loneliness!
In any case, if I could return through my own ability, I would have been before entering the Gwanghan Realm anyway.
If so, all the relationships I had accumulated would become meaningless!
But according to his words…
I would return to the time when the relationships I had accumulated existed!
It was madness.
It was madness.
This was an irresistible temptation.
A poison that I had to bring to my lips anyway.
In the end, I finally spat out my desire.
“…I want to go.”
Tork—
A tear fell on my cheek.
The Time Venerable, whose body had completely begun to fade, laughed.
[…I can send you.]
Tuk, tuk…
At the tip of his chin, droplets gathered and fell.
I trembled all over.
My heart swelled to the point of bursting, and I could not endure it.
[However, I must also obtain a powerful sacrifice for the price of interfering with you.]
“…What, what is it? What do you want!”
[Let us make a contract.]
Swoosh—
He raised his finger.
The flesh on his finger melted away before my eyes, turning into bone.
Even that bone was gradually fading before me.
No, the world itself was fading.
It was strange.
With his authority, we should have been able to converse normally, yet why was this happening?
It almost seemed as if he could not stop the fading happening now.
Time itself seemed to be going berserk.
[Do you know what your life is?]
Every time he opened his mouth, the speed of fading increased.
Time was going wild.
Now even his bones were gradually crumbling.
The pavilion had become ash, and Hwaeom had become a handful of sand.
It seemed the space itself was about to collapse.
And I shook my head in the collapsing world.
“…I do not know.”
Yang Su-jin had said something, but in any case I had never known what my life was, so I had nothing to tell him.
However, as the next words came, my heart, which had been going wild, calmed a little.
[Then let us make the contract. On the day when you come to understand your own life, tell me only that. I will never tell anyone else, only me… If you do, I will sacrifice much of my authority to send you back to that time.]
Srruk—
The vessel body of the Time Venerable completely faded and disappeared, and from the dust pit, a sheet of black paper flew toward me.
The paper, glowing with a somewhat auspicious light, was the Hyeongo Paper.