Full Bloom
A thread of rose-pink silk danced beneath the blood-red sky.
Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink…
The puppets of the Strange Castle moved.
Their artificial souls were restoring the past with pinpoint accuracy from two thousand years ago, and that force began to twist space and time.
Grrruuuuugh!
Jo Yeon returned to that moment.
Uwooong!
Goe-gun and Wol-ha-eun had returned to that evening of that day and time.
Jo Yeon and Wol-ha-eun began dancing together, one with a fan, one with a straight blade.
Watching the scene, I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine and opened my mouth.
‘…So that’s it.’
Jo Yeon would likely realize it soon as well.
Zuaaaraaa!
While Jo Yeon danced, a ribbon of his consciousness flowed from the farthest tip of a Strange Castle branch.
The rose-pink consciousness ribbon connected with each of ours.
The instant it touched, I felt every negative thought inside my consciousness vanish.
Zuaaaraaa
The disciples who had lost their consciousness to the amplification of Yin Heavenly Demon and negative forces began to recover as the consciousness ribbon of Goe-gun reached them.
The Yin Heavenly Demons inside them melted away in an instant.
Jo Yeon’s mouth heaven and love heaven spread everywhere.
Golden crabapple trees sent out thousands of rose-pink threads that blanketed Heavenly Lotus Mountain.
Kugugugugu!
Heavenly Lotus Mountain began to tremble, and strange sounds spread from somewhere, echoing across the heavens and earth.
Something sounded like a scream!
And I, operating the Strange Star-Mind Scroll, understood Jo Yeon’s realization.
‘So that was it… This is the pinnacle of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.’
The Strange Star-Mind Scroll fundamentally turned the concrete consciousness domains of the realm-refining ascetics into ribbons just like the criminals’.
By switching the shape of the consciousness domain between ribbon and concrete, one could freely alter the form of the consciousness domain, control puppets, and create artificial consciousness through ‘circuits’ in the law machines to control them—that was the core of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.
And because it shared the ribbon-shaped consciousness with the criminals and could freely transform the color tone of those emotions, it could penetrate an opponent’s consciousness as if it were their own emotion and exchange hearts with them.
Through the completed Strange Star-Mind Scroll, I realized what the true possibility of the Strange Star-Mind Scroll was.
The force that connected human to human.
That was the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.
The rose-pink threads began linking us together thanks to the Strange Star-Mind Scroll.
Me and Goe-gun.
Goe-gun and Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, Siho, Changhoja and others.
And I could understand the force of Jo Yeon’s mouth heaven and love heaven while linked with his heart.
‘The force that materializes the phenomena of the will…!’
A person’s will was nothing more than the color tone of an emotion on its own, but when it descended to the level of qi, it could become a strange phenomenon or power.
When Kim Young-hoon had explained his realization about the Five Qi Consorting with the Origin, he had shown examples like how combining the will of strong qi made qi boil, or how combining the will of affectionate qi amplified qi.
Of course, Kim Young-hoon had not deeply researched the phenomena themselves related to those wills, so he had not obtained any techniques or mouth heavens in connection with them.
However, through the Strange Star-Mind Scroll, Jo Yeon—who had observed human emotions for two thousand years—had acquired the related mouth heavens.
The ability of his mouth heaven and love heaven was to summon the possibility of the phenomena possessed by the will to its very place!
I—or rather, everyone who knew Goe-gun among those present—had seen the rose-pink sea that had risen in Goe-gun’s heart.
It was purely for Wol-ha-eun, a love heaven.
And as that love heaven began to appear as a phenomenon thanks to Jo Yeon’s love heaven.
Kugugugugu!
Infinite!
The greatest and most powerful will began to wield an enormous force.
Ureung, uurulung!
Inside the Yeon-ui Yeon that Jo Yeon was dancing, the thunderclap of the brain wall power rang out.
The Yeon-ui Yeon had unfolded into a perfect form unlike anything seen before.
Outside, Kim Yeon was tuning; inside, Jo Yeon was pulling strength.
The pressure of that space flickered, and the negative power of Hyeol-eum was driven out.
Uwoong, uwoowooong!
Suddenly I felt a will ringing from beyond the sky.
: : Impossible. : :
Kurung!
Kahuk!
I spat blood.
Even just hearing the voice had struck heart and flesh with a force that felt like a heavenly tribulation.
: : It is already over. As long as Gwang-han does not return alive, the Gwanghan Realm is mine. : :
The Yin Heavenly Demons sang.
Darkness flowed like a river, and negative forces gathered from all over the world, monsters being born.
And…
Jo Yeon’s love heaven touched Kim Yeon’s consciousness body.
Paaaaaat!
At the same time, Kim Yeon’s previously pure-white consciousness body began to color.
No, more accurately, because of Jo Yeon.
It felt as though the color inside it was being pulled upward.
Ddddddr!
‘Ah….’
Watching that, I smiled.
Somehow, an immense sense of relief settled inside me.
I had known that scene.
From the end of the fifteenth loop, the phantom body of Kim Yeon that had appeared through Wol-ha-eun’s Gwanghan Covenant had become one with the love heaven and finally revealed its form.
Srurururu-
The light of the Strange Castle that had completely activated the Yeon-ui Yeon with the force of infinity and temporarily driven out the filthy power of Hyeol-eum was fading.
Jo Yeon’s life force was draining.
Bringing back the past required…
Even if one materialized one’s love heaven as ‘infinite force,’ an enormous force was still needed.
Goe-gun had squeezed out all his life force along with his love heaven, so he had finally been able to summon his past.
I briefly looked at the scene of Goe-gun’s past that had risen above the Strange Castle and asked Seo Hyoel.
“Is that the end, Seo Hyoel? If it’s as you said, when Goe-gun activates the Yeon-ui Yeon, the situation should improve.”
I had questioned Seo Hyoel, and through the Takhon Mancheon he replied.
He probably didn’t want to talk directly with Hyeol-eum under the sky of negative power.
[I don’t know that immortal art of Goe-gun well either, but I do know one thing. He has already directly invoked Gwang-han’s power through it. However, rather than that scene he invoked, it’s now becoming a veil that seals that power. In short… when Goe-gun closes his eyes and that scene fades, Gwang-han’s power will naturally bloom.]
Seo Hyoel had warned me.
[And since I was able to realize it, Hyeol-eum surely would have as well. Eight-tenths of Hyeol-eum’s Gwanghan Realm invasion is complete. He will begin attacking the Strange Castle, so prepare yourselves.]
“…Understood.”
Kugugugugu!
The feeling that the entire world was rejecting us had grown stronger.
Sinister forces pushed us away.
From the west came storms, from the north a tidal wave, from the east a heavenly tribulation rain, and from the south magma surged up, rushing toward us.
Kuuuwoong!
The heavens and earth reversed!
The same technique Baek-woon had shown was reversing the heavens and earth, beginning to drop the Strange Castle down to that low sky.
‘Eight-tenths controlled, and already exercising the power of a saintess.’
I looked behind me.
Goe-gun’s life force scattered, his past becoming faint.
The consciousness ribbons of the love heaven created by Jo Yeon gradually faded.
As the love of love heaven Jo Yeon had spat out faded, negative and filthy forces once again began to flood inside the Strange Castle.
Chuk!
I began to form a seal.
Up until now, except against Won Rip, I had never used curses or incantations while forming seals or vows.
The curse was already deeply embedded in my soul, and I had become a curse master who could curse anyone with just a thought.
Even if I wanted to use the curse, most battles would end before I could fully draw out my curse power, so I had rarely used the curse power ‘completely.’
However, today.
I had to draw out every possibility of the curse made from all my accumulated pain and desperation.
Chuk, chuk, chuk, chuk!
An evil curse rose, and a veil of eyeballs began to wriggle around the Strange Castle.
The eyeballs sometimes turned into faces and tried to flee from the veil, but it was impossible.
[Curse of the Nether Realm. Reverse!]
The curse monsters that were already like Yin Heavenly Demons of the Hyeol-eum Realm began to reverse all at once.
Goe-gun’s heart had linked to everyone.
When human hearts linked with humans, we had become one.
Therefore, even though it was the life of one who suffered, for now it was a blessing!
Paaaaaat!
A dazzling pure-white light burst out in millions of flower buds and drove out the filthy power.
It was not the end.
I began using the Wugong-isan.
Hwoong!
Every single form of the Wugong-isan carried blessings, carried path-cutting and realm-comprehending, and began to resist the very world of this negative and filthy Hyeol-eum.
Kuwong!
My sword strike felt like it collided with the very principle of Hyeol-eum.
A form that received the opponent’s power into its own body and grew infinitely stronger.
The flower of blessings grew stronger together with the Wugong-isan, and the light grew brighter.
I danced sword dance and glanced back slightly.
Goe-gun’s life force had grown faint, and Kim Yeon was walking up toward the topmost floor of the Strange Castle that Goe-gun would take as his final resting place, raising her true self.
‘I cannot watch his last moments. Therefore… Goe-gun’s last moments, I entrust them to you. Kim Yeon….’
* * *
Huiiiii-
The Yeon-ui Yeon had ended.
Goe-gun Jo Yeon gazed at Wol-ha-eun before him.
Wol-ha-eun was smiling with a blush.
It was not the body of a stiff puppet.
The body of ‘that woman’ he had shared two thousand years ago.
Goe-gun Jo Yeon looked at the surroundings and smiled.
“Even if it was only once, I wanted to return to this time.”
Susu su su-
Gradually the scenes of the memories he had gazed upon faded, and Jo Yeon returned to reality.
A cold wind was felt.
The sky was bright.
This was not the oath village where he had first become her destined person, but only the Strange Castle.
The warm Wol-ha-eun had disappeared, and what remained was only the stiff [that woman].
Goe-gun briefly gazed at [that woman], then at Kim Yeon who had climbed to the topmost floor of the Strange Castle.
“Have you come?”
“…Yes.”
“There is much we have to talk about between us.”
Jo Yeon looked at Kim Yeon with eyes full of apology and smiled.
“I did many unforgivable things to you. Even so, I acted as your master and entrusted my wish to you. I… am a person who owes you a great debt.”
Kim Yeon tried to speak but bit her lip.
And remained silent.
She seemed determined to hear Jo Yeon out to the end.
“I will not ask you to forgive me. You may resent me as much as you like, and about how I kidnapped you and sometimes tampered with your mind… Even if I had ten mouths, I would have nothing to say. But… even if I am this flawed master, I am still your master.”
He pointed at a certain place inside the landscape of the fading Yeon-ui Yeon.
“As your master, perhaps… the first and last proper gift and teaching I give you.”
On the spot Jo Yeon pointed, a single flower bloomed in the void.
It was a crabapple flower.
It was also the qi flower created by Wol-ha-eun’s Biik-mu inside the Yeon-ui Yeon, and at the same time it was the goal he had never given up on despite two thousand years of madness.
It was Jo Yeon’s wish.
“Take it.”
Kim Yeon walked toward the crabapple flower at the center of the fading Yeon-ui Yeon.
And as she passed Jo Yeon she said.
“I hated you.”
“Is that so?”
“Even now I have some lingering resentment toward you. You kidnapped me and forcibly imprinted the Strange Star-Mind Scroll on my mind and even carved circuits into my body whenever you pleased. But….”
Kim Yeon closed her eyes.
She had also watched Jo Yeon’s past together with Seo Eun-hyun and Seo Hyoel.
At the end of Jo Yeon’s past, the answer she had wanted was finally there.
The first and last Yeon-ui Yeon Jo Yeon had shown.
And his love heaven was clearly the answer she had gazed upon.
Therefore…
“Though I may hate you, I will respect you. Though I may hate you, I will revere you, and I will remember.”
After finishing her words, Kim Yeon passed Jo Yeon and walked into the center of the Yeon-ui Yeon.
Jo Yeon sat down there.
The place where he sat was where the Yeon-ui Yeon had completely dispersed and the Strange Castle had fully returned.
The musician puppets who had been playing music stopped all at once.
As the owner’s life force faded, the entire Strange Castle froze.
Clink…
Jo Yeon drew out his last strength, manipulated [that woman] with the Strange Star-Mind Scroll, and made her sit across from him.
With trembling hands, Jo Yeon took out the Jeomuldo from his bosom.
Seo Eun-hyun had passed on that there was also Wol-ha-eun’s heart inside Goe-gun’s heart.
‘The realization that the act of giving one’s heart to a person ultimately created me… Splendid….’
Countless people had given their hearts to Jo Yeon so that I could exist now.
And among them was clearly… Wol-ha-eun’s heart as well.
Therefore, it was only natural that Wol-ha-eun’s heart dwelt inside Jo Yeon.
‘It was already there together.’
It was far too simple, yet it was a line no one had ever given to Goe-gun in two thousand years.
‘How was I, for two thousand years, doing something so that my heart would become this easy?’
He closed his eyes and took something out of the Jeomuldo.
“Perhaps… if there is a place called hell, I will fall to the very bottom. The hottest and most painful place.”
Jo Yeon knew himself.
He was the great villain who had caught countless living beings for thousands of years and forcibly remade them into puppets.
A madman.
His sins were unforgivable.
Therefore…
I will accept that hell was already predetermined.
From inside his bosom came Baekhongju and two wine cups.
“…Did I… say…?”
He moved his nearly lifeless body with great difficulty and barely spat out words.
Now he was dying.
He would probably be dragged to the bottom of hell, but he had accepted it.
Dying was fine.
What was regrettable was…
“Next time… the two of us… a proper wedding….”
Jjoruruk…
Jo Yeon placed one cup in front of him.
One cup in front of [that woman].
He poured Baekhongju.
After placing the wine bottle down, Jo Yeon lifted the Baekhongju in front of [that woman] and drank it.
“According to the method of the Upper Realm Immortals’… wedding….”
What was regrettable was…
That he had never truly held a wedding with Wol-ha-eun.
That was the only thing.
After gulping down the Baekhongju in front of [that woman], Jo Yeon realized he had no life force left to move even one finger.
He gazed at the face of [that woman] before him through gradually fading vision.
[That woman] could not move because all her power sources had been exhausted while unfolding the Yeon-ui Yeon.
‘What a sinful life. I am prepared to fall to the bottom of hell. But before the heaven-and-earth spirits….’
He drew out his last strength and imprinted [that woman] on his eyes to the end.
‘There is not a single regret in meeting you or loving you….’
Gik-
And.
Giki ki ki!
[That woman]’s hand began to move.
Her body, which was nothing more than a puppet with no power sources left, moved.
It was forcibly moved despite having been torn apart by Yin Heavenly Demon attacks and reduced to a broken puppet that could not even roll properly.
It began to move forcibly.
Jo Yeon opened his mouth.
Tears fell from his eyes.
Kiki ki ki!
The pulleys and gears inside [that woman] turned.
And the puppet, from whom it was impossible to know where it was drawing nonexistent power, finally grabbed the Baekhongju Jo Yeon had given her.
Kiki ki ki-
‘Ah… continue… really…’
Jo Yeon wept.
‘You were really there.’
[That woman], who had always been controlled by someone’s will, moved in an action neither Kim Yeon nor Jo Yeon had inputted.
She brought the wine cup to her own lips and poured the wine into her mouth.
As the last act, the two puppets—the best performance beneath the sun and moon—finally stopped all movement.
The pattern that had sprouted on one side of Goe-gun’s face glowed rose-pink, detached from his face, and became falling petals drifting away.
* * *
Kim Yeon bit her lip.
Her chest ached.
Jo Yeon’s final emotions were passed on to her, connected to him.
Tsu tsu tsu tsu tsut!
She accepted the crabapple flower into her own chest.
And finally she could find the answer to the heart she had always sought.
Love was joy.
Love was resentment.
Love was sadness and joy, and also hatred and desire.
Love was not the meaning that everything was love.
Instead, everything was love.
The happiness Jo Yeon had felt at the end.
Longing. Relief. Liberation. Possessiveness. Attachment.
All of it was love.
“What is cultivation? Someone once asked me that.”
Kim Yeon felt Jo Yeon’s heart and realized she had arrived at a place she had never seen before.
That place was the Peach Blossom Spring.
A beautiful place where rose-pink crabapple flowers bloomed all over the heavens and earth.
There, someone hidden behind a large crabapple tree said.
“Cultivation is simply going forward. It is the act of observing oneself and nurturing oneself.”
Some part of that was agreeable, but my answer was a little different.”
Kim Yeon looked at that existence and felt an indescribable surge of emotion and beauty, along with awe and reverence.
“Cultivation is simply advancing. What is cultivation is that today’s you is better than yesterday’s you. We are all always advancing in some direction. Sometimes toward longing, sometimes toward gratitude, sometimes toward affection, sometimes toward attachment, sometimes toward pity…”
Kim Yeon flinched.
The order of emotions the existence had spoken was exactly the order of emotions Kim Yeon had felt from Seo Eun-hyun.
“It is not that form or essence has changed. It is that you think a little more deeply than yesterday, consider a little more than yesterday, and continue to advance a little more than in the past, ultimately seeking a more perfect form… is that not cultivation? Therefore… do not blame yourself.”
She shed a single tear as if her heart had been pierced.
Even though the heart she had hidden had been revealed, she felt relief rather than shame.
“You have only advanced until now. If you had come to this place with a clear heart rather than being enslaved by lust and desire, it means you have grown since the past, does it not? Just as the heaven-and-earth spirit is one but the way it expresses itself differs…”
Kim Yeon’s heart had not changed since the beginning. It had only expressed itself differently.
At those words, Kim Yeon finally burst into tears.
She had not wanted to lose anyone.
That was why she had wanted to understand love.
Therefore she had always looked at Seo Eun-hyun.
But…
Was this heart not love? She had thought so.
Had she not gained anything?
Had she not been a human who was exactly like Oh Hye-seo?
She had thought so.
But it was not.
Even if the way it was expressed had changed a little, she had always existed without change.
The existence behind the crabapple tree smiled and said.
“Never forget today. I am the Seat Master of the End of Life, Chegeo Gwanghan Cheonwang.”
Kim Yeon suddenly felt a warm, sun-like feeling as if that existence was absolutely supporting her.
“My spirit may be ■■■■■, but my flesh will always support you.”
Kim Yeon felt as if a massive hand was pushing her away.
Yet she felt no rejection, only warmth wrapping around her.
“Be careful of what the true immortals give. They cannot give you anything except misfortune…”
After that last word, Kim Yeon realized she had returned to the topmost floor of the Strange Castle.
‘Crabapple flower…’
She smiled while looking at the drifting rose-pink petals around her.
Upon thinking about it, that flower had truly had much connection with her.
It had been the day she had begun to truly like Seo Eun-hyun, in front of the crabapple tree where petals fell.
Sruk-
Kim Yeon assumed her stance.
It was like Wol-ha-eun’s Biik-mu, like Jo Yeon’s fan dance, or like the Biik-mu Seo Eun-hyun had taught.
Kim Yeon’s feet began to move.
She began to dance a sword dance with a series of consecutive movements.
The Neung-li-ji Shim of the internal energy heart method Seo Eun-hyun had taught began to revolve violently inside her body.
The movements connected, drawing circles.
And at the end of the circle, qi was weakly amplified.
In the end, an internal skill designed ‘theoretically’ to be infinite power.
Of course, Seo Eun-hyun had judged that for that theory to be realized Kim Yeon would need to perform the Biik-mu billions of times, but Kim Yeon had found another way in her own manner.
Paaaaaaa!
From Kim Yeon’s body, thousands, tens of thousands, billions of threads began to spurt.
Those threads connected to the billions of trillions of puppets remaining in the Strange Castle.
And the puppets rose from their places all at once by Kim Yeon’s will.
Paaa!
The puppets began to move their feet.
The puppets moved exactly like Kim Yeon.
As if everyone was dancing together.
Inside the Strange Castle, the trillions of puppets began to dance the Biik dance.
All repeated the same movements and connected.
A circle was drawn.
The circles drawn inside the bodies of the trillions of puppets connected with Kim Yeon and resonated with the circles inside her body.
That resonance gradually grew larger, and finally the entire rose-pink qi of the Strange Castle poured into Kim Yeon.
Finally, Kim Yeon stopped the Biik-mu and controlled the enormous rotation that had settled inside her body into the Gwanghan Cheon-won, stretching her arms toward the sky.
‘I like you.’
To like.
And I will not give any other name.
She would no longer pity Seo Eun-hyun, be grateful to him, or love him.
Because love has no name from the beginning.
Was there not the saying “Not Establishing Characters”?
Just as love cannot be expressed with characters, she would no longer say on her lips that she loved Seo Eun-hyun.
She would simply say the simplest and clearest expression: ‘to like.’
Kim Yeon had realized that love could not have a name, and that her affection had been meaningless. She released the Gwanghan power that had been raging inside her body into the sky.
“Wol-do-ip-cheon.”
Paaaaaat!
The Yeon-ui Yeon reactivated.
Instead of Jo Yeon’s rose-pink heart that had been tied to the old tree during winter to replace the crabapple flowers that had not bloomed, the crabapple flowers of the crabapple tree that had awakened again with spring began to bloom vibrantly above the Strange Castle.
“Man-kai-hwa (Full Bloom)!”
Kim Yeon received Jo Yeon’s heart and unfolded it through Gwang-han, and finally recognized her own heart and smiled without a word.
Author’s Note:
The flower language of the crabapple flower is ordinary and passionate.
And at the same time it is precocious.
The reason Jo Yeon’s family name became the Jo character was set for today.
Internally in the work, this can also be seen as ‘the maturity of early connection’ or a pun on ‘the maturity of immature affection.’
Externally in the work, it can simply be seen as ‘from now on the early connections mature’ or as attaching the flower language of the crabapple flower ‘precocious.’
Both Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon are symbolized by the crabapple flower.
If Seo Eun-hyun is on the side of ordinary and passionate, Kim Yeon is on the side of precocious.
An episode for two with the same flower but different symbolic meanings, and at the same time an episode for Jo Yeon.
The final curtain of the Jo Yeon episode was finally approaching,
and I will be transitioning to a schedule of six days a week instead of seven starting after this episode.
Thank you to everyone who has loved the Regression’s Tale of Cultivation until now. I myself love you, readers.
I love you, readers.