The First Day of the 21st Loop
The familiar roar of time.
The familiar seats.
The familiar scenery swept past before my eyes.
And in the next instant.
“Eh?”
Paaat!
I regressed.
“...What?”
Kugugugugu!
The Seopmyeong Ship was shattered, and I had just grabbed the Chunryeonhoe at that exact moment.
That meant...
“What the...”
An entire inch earlier!
I felt my pupils shaking wildly.
The regression point had fixed again.
Kugugugugu!
Kang Min-hee was still about to leap toward me after completely swallowing the Seopmyeong Ship on the other side.
“Why? Why the hell...”
I felt as if my head would burst from the absurdity and strangeness of the situation.
Why had the regression fixed this time?
It was too strange and inexplicable.
“What exactly... is the condition?”
Was returning to the Water Realm not the condition?
“More importantly, I had never fixed in the Void Space before.”
In the Star Realm's non-lineage or inside the City.
It had fixed inside beings that could be called worlds.
But this regression fixing was unbearably bizarre and bewildering.
“Uuk...”
“What is this?”
I felt an eerie sensation as if something was scanning my entire body, and I looked around, but all I saw was Kang Min-hee and the distant Seopmyeong Ship heading away.
Lost in confusion and bewilderment, I somehow straightened my stomach and concentrated my mind.
“There is much to think about, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
I grabbed the Chongcheon-geom.
Tsuchutsutsut!
The hazy mist of the Thirty-First Form of Danak Sword Art rose from the sword.
I concentrated all my consciousness on the sword and unleashed the one strike I had just gained at the new realm.
The misty cloud spewed light.
The cloud pushed Kang Min-hee away so gently yet so powerfully.
Seo Hyoel pulled her from the opposite side, and as I pushed, her body began to gradually cross into the Star Realm.
“As expected, Mr. Seo Dohui. I believed it!”
Seo Hyoel smiled faintly from the other side and helped me up.
And I, smiling faintly from his opposite side, released the Chunryeonhoe in my hand.
In my past life, I had not noticed the malice between this spirit and body, but this time it was different.
I would not stimulate the fragment of Hyeol-eum inside me.
Uuuung!
The Chunryeonhoe flew straight toward Kang Min-hee and naturally pierced into her embrace.
“...Seo Dohui?”
“If you try anything in the Star Realm with Kang Min-hee, the [split soul] dwelling in the Chunryeonhoe will devour you.”
“...”
Kang Min-hee would now reach the Star Realm full of Seo Hyoel and separate from us.
What would happen to her under Seo Hyoel's influence, I did not know.
So I would place the fragment of Hyeol-eum, which she disliked, inside her embrace.
I had no worry that the fragment of Hyeol-eum would invade Kang Min-hee.
In the previous loop, the Chief Judge of the Underworld had appeared from inside her embrace!
As long as that being was connected to Kang Min-hee, the fragment of Hyeol-eum would simply sleep quietly without doing any mischief in her embrace!
“...”
I felt Seo Hyoel watching me quietly without saying a word across the transmission.
It was Seo Hyoel who calmly led me to eat the Chunryeonhoe containing the fragment of Hyeol-eum, claiming to be holding hands.
If I had not awakened, dispelled the demons in my mind, and expelled the fragment of Hyeol-eum, I might have become Hyeol-eum's puppet instead of regressing by now.
I had clearly been backhanded, but I did not feel bad at all.
Because I had gained awakening from it, and more importantly, I had expelled the fragment of Hyeol-eum and could now guess about the relationship between Hyeol-eum and Seo Hyoel.
Hyeol-eum recognized Seo Hyoel as an ally.
But Seo Hyoel disliked Hyeol-eum enormously and seemed to even fear him.
“Is it not so, Seo Hyoel? You are one of the branches born from Hyeol-eum.”
Seo Hyoel realized he was one of the branches extending from Hyeol-eum.
Thanks to contact with the fragment of Hyeol-eum, some knowledge had flowed in, and he could now understand the mural he had seen at the Dragon Palace back then.
Hyeol-eum had used the Purple Soul Filling the Heavens to give birth to Hyeon-mu, and the Purple Soul Filling the Heavens of that Hyeon-mu had given birth to Zia-mu, and through that Zia-mu, countless Sea Dragon tribes had spread.
Therefore, the Sea Dragon tribe was ultimately the branches extending from Hyeol-eum, the [branches of Hyeol-eum].
And among those [branches of Hyeol-eum], the one that twisted and was born was Seo Hyoel himself.
Like me and Seo Lip, he was a split being with a self-awareness.
Since a split being had a high probability of being absorbed back if the main body wished, Seo Hyoel's dislike and fear of the Hyeol-eum Realm and Hyeol-eum was likely because he feared being absorbed against his will.
At my words, Seo Hyoel faced me silently from the Star Realm side.
He no longer let out that unpleasant hissing laugh.
The sight of Seo Hyoel, now a star beyond the scenery of the Star Realm, and all the residents of that star looking at me expressionlessly in unison was quite eerie.
But I felt no unpleasantness at all.
“Can you offer any excuse for what you were trying to do by placing the fragment of Hyeol-eum inside me?”
At my words, the Seos Hyoel reached toward me silently with their hands.
Kuk!
From the hands of the Seos Hyoel, a single eye appeared.
They had clearly planned to brainwash me.
“You said you wouldn't betray before the alliance was broken. You are full of nothing but lies.”
At my words, Seo Hyoel answered.
“This time it was not a lie. It was a vow against my true nature.”
“Then...”
“If I had never been an ally even once, how could you call it betrayal, Seo Dohui?”
“Hahaha... Seo Hyoel...”
I lifted the Chongcheon-geom.
Whiiii!
Having pushed away Kang Min-hee, I was now flying toward the direction my companions had gone.
I would soon return to the inside of the Star Realm and fall into the Heart Tribe territory.
Since I had just reached the new realm, the attack of the One Step Before the Throne I could use right now was only about three strokes.
Even that, because I had used the Thirty-First Form to push away Kang Min-hee, was only one stroke left.
And one stroke would be enough.
“No, it's not even enough.”
Zuuuung!
“It's excessive!”
From the Star Realm, those guys combined with Oh Hye-seo and gained control of the stars' power.
The guy who had thrown Kang Min-hee completely into the Star Realm was now binding me.
At the same time, the pupils of the hands reaching toward me flared red.
And I had the sword contained in this heart.
What was the ultimate of Sword Thread?
Even if I asked a hundred martial artists or sword geniuses like Kim Young-hoon and Hong Su-ryeong who had mastered Sword Thread, the answer would be the same.
The Way of the Heart Sword!
The realm where the sword of the heart moves!
That was the highest realm any martial artist or sword cultivator could imagine when training a sword.
Whether the martial artist or the sword cultivator, there was no distinction in simply imagining the ultimate realm, and sword cultivators spent their entire lives devoted to the sword in pursuit of that realm.
I had stepped one foot closer to the Heart Sword by gaining the Invisible Sword at Woldoipcheon, and a little closer by gaining the Chongcheon-geom.
But even reaching the One Step Before the Throne, the path to the Heart Sword seemed extremely distant.
But the moment I reached the realm called the One Step Before the Throne, I finally understood.
“The Heart Sword truly stands right before me.”
The peak of the seemingly endless high mountain began to appear.
Sword cultivators who follow the path of the Heart Sword must all present their own answer to reach the Heart Sword.
And my answer was this.
What is the Heart Sword?
A sword that cuts with the heart alone is called the Heart Sword.
Is there anything in this world that can be cut with the heart alone!
It was simple.
Cutting with the heart alone was sufficient.
The will [to cut] whispered by the Invisible Sword and the Chongcheon-geom became completely one with me.
I channeled the will [to cut] into Seo Hyoel from the heart's level.
Chwaak!
Beyond the scenery of the Star Realm.
One of the countless eyes of the Seos Hyoel returned to the peak.
Hyeol-eum's Takhonmancheon had been cut out.
But it was not the end.
Chwaak, chwaak, chwaak!
Starting with the first cut Seo Hyoel, the Heart Sword began to spread like Hyeol-eum's Takhonmancheon was contagious.
The one strike of the One Step Before the Throne was a kind of heart speech, transmitting one's own heart to the opponent.
Condensing one's heart and affecting the opponent was the one strike of the One Step Before the Throne.
And once one became familiar with transmitting the heart, they could unleash strikes from the realm of the One Step Before the Throne.
Then, what kind of attack could be made from the realm beyond the One Step Before the Throne where one could unleash the heart?
“Try to run, Seo Hyoel.”
People change every moment by exchanging hearts with one another.
Because of that, the me of one second ago and the me of one second later could not possibly be the same.
“You won't be able to run easily.”
And the Heart Sword I had shown was based on the fact that 'when people meet, they change,' inscribing the Heart Sword in the heart of the opponent and constantly cutting their heart with that sword qi.
There was only one way to escape this Heart Sword.
“Calm the change generated by meeting me.”
To summarize in one line easily,
After being hit by this Heart Sword, 'if you recall me,' it would definitely cut your heart with the sword qi.
To escape the Heart Sword, you would have to completely forget the me who shot the Heart Sword and maintain the pure heart of emptiness.
Of course, the difficulty was the level of 'when told not to think of an elephant, you cannot help but think of an elephant,' so even the Heart Tribe, who had spent their entire lives practicing the heart, would find it difficult.
This was my answer to reaching 'true Heart Sword Way.'
The peak of the heart where the mountain range became rougher the more you recalled it.
The Thirty-Second Form of Danak Sword Art.
The Sub-Heart Sword.
Lingyu Wolgam.
“If you look into the abyss, you will become like the abyss.”
The Heart Sword I created by recalling Seo Hyoel was, ironically, extremely similar to Seo Hyoel's Takhonmancheon.
“...!!!”
Kugugugugu!
The Takhonmancheon of hundreds of millions of Seos Hyoel began to be cut out in one go.
Hyeol-eum's brainwashing method was clearly dangerous.
It could brainwash even me.
But what if I cut out the will itself before shooting the brainwashing method!
The Heart Sword I sent was cutting the Seos Hyoel who recalled me.
Like the gaze or name of True Immortals that 'shock upon recognition,' or similarly, the more Seo Hyoel recalled me, the deeper the Heart Sword dug into his Takhonmancheon.
Gradually, the scenery of the Star Realm faded.
I smiled as I fell through the dimensional curtain of the Star Realm, the last being Kang Min-hee who had fallen into the Star Realm and Seo Hyoel suffering in pain from the Heart Sword.
Twung-
I felt that Seo Hyoel had escaped my Sub-Heart Sword by some method.
But I did not worry.
Surely, the style of Sub-Heart Sword Lingyu Wolgam would be an unforgivable fatal blow to him.
“Pray that you do not meet me again, Seo Hyoel.”
Because I had the confidence that using Sub-Heart Sword and Purple Soul Filling the Heavens would reveal his main body.
Chwaak!
Having entered the dimensional curtain of the Star Realm following the traces of the Seopmyeong Ship my companions had passed through, I fell into the 'Heart Tribe territory' below and let out a desolate smile.
A regression point fixed too suddenly.
A regression law I could never understand, but I was deeply grateful in my heart.
Because I had come closer to the people I wanted to protect.
“Next time, I will save Kang Min-hee.”
There would be no more roughness.
For three hundred years, I would absolutely reach the Star Shattering stage and definitely save her!
Koolak!
Blood mixed with phlegm came out from my cough.
Having pushed out a rather reckless strike not long after reaching the realm, strength had left my entire body.
But despite having no strength to even twitch a finger, a faint smile graced my face.
“I have finally reached it...”
Jang Ik had finally reached the realm called the One Step Before the Throne.
The Woldoipcheon Martial Art created by Kim Young-hoon was itself a gujeol singing the hope of martial arts.
The gujeol of the Woldoipcheon Martial Art was a gujeol proving that life is happiness and the joy of training martial arts.
During the innocent years I had trained martial arts, I felt the most exhilarating joy,
and with the most sincere empathy for the gujeol of the Woldoipcheon Martial Art.
So I fell toward the Heart Tribe territory.