The Path of the Recluse (3)
Time is short. It must be paid in full. Human effort is the chain, and fate is the bars. Yet in this inverted world from which escape is impossible, first one must reach the peak of the curse. The first step toward the peak is to draw the perfect circle. A flawless circle without a single flaw. From that point onward begins the path of Wujue. This is what is called Wujue. ― From the middle of the complete interpretation of the Flawless True Word * * *
It has been twenty years since I came to Mengyun Star. Kang Min-hee has finally become a saint. “Uuuung!”
She flipped upside down and summoned ghosts to fly wildly through the sky, rejoicing. It was the instinct of the Star Plate promotion ritual. From the moment she could speak by making sounds like “uuuung,” she had always wanted to wander through the world. ‘She must be trying to gather the scattered particles.’
But I had not permitted it. Among the particles already scattered, there were monsters already reaching the Heavenly Person stage, and perhaps the core of the promotion ritual, Kang Min-hee herself, could be killed by the particles. In that case, she would simply die right there at the Star Plate promotion ritual. I had verified the details of the Star Plate promotion ritual here over twenty years, sending my avatar body to cross-check with Baek-woon the Saintess. At first glance, Seo Hyoel’s explanation seemed correct.
‘The particles all want to become monsters wielding power as their own true body… and not just be absorbed by Kang Min-hee, but actually want to kill her.’
For twenty years I had kept Kang Min-hee locked in this mountain valley until she became a saint, following the advice Baek-woon the Saintess gave me through my avatar body. Perhaps it was the influence of the Ghost Dao Sound Painting Foundation Establishment technique I originally held. Or perhaps it was simply a characteristic all those who reached Star Shattering through the Ghost Dao Gongfa possessed.
From childhood she possessed the talent to subdue ghosts through nothing but her gaze and thoughts. However, there had occasionally been incidents where her own mind was nearly eroded by a ghost. Her power to subdue the ghosts was still not complete. I had promised her that once her power matured and became complete upon becoming a saint, she could tour the Mengyun Continent. That was why she was so overjoyed now.
‘First, her body matured and she grew familiar with her power. She no longer had to worry about being devoured by her own ability.’
“Good. I grant permission. From now on you may wander the Mengyun Continent and explore the world. However.”
I signaled to Seo Ran, and Seo Ran walked out before us. “From now on, learn the Dharma of Water from your teacher Seo Ran. Your teacher Seo Ran will become your master, follow you, and teach you the Ghost Dao Gongfa. He will protect you in times of danger when the time comes.”
“Uuuung…”
Kang Min-hee hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Instead, he flew over to Seo Ran as if it were to his liking, grabbed the boy’s horns, and shook them happily. Given that they were both disciples of Black Ghost Valley, there was undoubtedly strong familiarity.
“Well, it’s all good, but why are you flying upside down?”
“…Originally I walked on my head. When I was told to let my hands get dirty, I at least started flying upside down.”
“Umm…”
Seo Ran looked up at Kang Min-hee with a slightly bewildered expression, and I packed her belongings and entrusted them to one of the ghosts she summoned.
“Then go on, Min-hee. I’ll be waiting here.”
“Uuuung!”
Kang Min-hee greeted me with a cheerful expression while still upside down, then headed down the valley.
Seo Ran hurried after her as well and sat in the main hall, watching her figure grow distant.
‘Back then her face was always exhausted or faintly sad. But over the past few years she had always looked bright… it was a sight to behold.’
“…Hong Beom. Are you there?”
Slither— Hong Beom crawled out from behind the main beam like a snake and transformed into a human, standing behind me. Hong Beom, who had already reached the Integration realm, had grown so young he appeared in his mid-to-late fifties.
“Yes, what is your command?”
“How is the interpretation of the Flawless True Word proceeding?”
Over the past twenty years I had entrusted the interpretation of the Flawless True Word to Hong Beom. I thought it might be the key to cutting the curse on Kang Min-hee.
‘Perhaps the reason Kang Min-hee lost her sanity was that she obtained a similar technique from the Underworld.’
To break her curse, it seemed I would have to research the Flawless True Word, and I began interpreting it together with Hong Beom.
However, during the interpretation, Hong Beom showed strange reactions. “Something… a memory. It feels like I’ll remember.”
“A memory? What kind of memory?”
“Somehow… it feels like something from a past life. I don’t quite know what it is.”
“Could it be that your previous life had some connection to the Flawless True Word…”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I felt like I knew a tremendous amount about the Flawless True Word.”
Every time Hong Beom looked at the Flawless True Word, he would clutch his head as if a memory from the past was surfacing, so I had entrusted the entire interpretation to him to help him regain his past life.
After all, at my level I could not fully understand such a similar technique.
‘It would be better to leave it to Hong Beom, who claims he knew it from his past life.’
“Umm… something feels like I’ll remember, but the speed of thought is honestly going to take some time. At this rate, it might take thousands of years.”
“Take it slowly. Your memories might be more important, so be mindful of seeking them.”
“Heh heh, in truth I only remember parts related to the Flawless True Word; other memories do not come back.”
“Hmm, is that so… Understood. Then do as much as you can.”
After encouraging Hong Beom, I told him my schedule. “And now I must begin my cultivation as well. Watch for anything suspicious approaching while you travel this stellar system.”
During that time I had been protecting the entire stellar system with my true body. If Heavenly Lord rank cultivators appeared, I would need to prepare countermeasures.
Of course, the Star Realm also had many massive rock fragments, so I had swept away rock fragments approaching the stellar system with my true body to prevent the sudden destruction of Mengyun Star.
Now that role would be taken over by Hong Beom.
“I will obey.”
Hong Beom immediately rose into the sky and headed toward the edge of the stellar system.
I watched him for a moment, then assumed the lotus position.
“Huuu…”
I took a deep breath and inhaled the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy. My avatar body’s aura rapidly amplified and reached Qi Condensation sixth stage.
‘Back then I struggled so hard to surpass Qi Condensation seventh stage here…’
Uuuung— Now I no longer needed to align with the Stellar Alignment to undergo the Seven-Star Ceremony. I could simply ascend the meridians connected to my true body and draw the power of the stars corresponding to the ceremony’s ritual directly.
My true body was the altar, and the meridians were the ritual. Therefore, the tedious procedure of stacking the altar and performing the ritual could be omitted without consequence.
Flash!
After jumping to Qi Condensation seventh stage in that way, I continued supplying Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy to my avatar body. In an instant my avatar body rose to Foundation Establishment, reaching one, two, three, and four layers.
And at this point, simply pulling Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy from the surroundings was no longer enough for the realm to advance easily.
‘Now it’s about time… to receive it from my true body.’
Kugugugugu!
From the sky it looked like lightning was flashing, and a beam covering the entire surrounding area descended upon the valley.
“Huuu…”
Initial, middle, and late stages of the Thunder Tribulation. Initial, middle, and late stages of the Heavenly Tribulation. Initial, middle, and late stages of the Heavenly Person Tribulation.
Crunch—
My avatar body, having fully absorbed the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy transmitted by my true body, could instantly leap to the Heavenly Person realm.
Ordinary Heavenly Person auras would not succeed at this point. It was because gathering Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy beyond that level in the Star Realm was extremely difficult.
To advance from Heavenly Person to the next stage in the Star Realm, one generally had to gather Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy until their lifespan ended and challenge the Four Pillars promotion.
‘Of course I have no need for that.’
Kurrurlung!
Again, an enormous quantity of Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy poured down from my true body.
I absorbed it with the Gwanghan Heavenly Origin, rising to the Four Pillars realm.
Kugugugu!
The Heavenly Tribulation in the sky rumbled, but as soon as I sent my will, the clouds themselves dispersed.
If it was not an Integration-level Heavenly Tribulation, there was no need to face one at all.
‘Now I have reached the Four Pillars… no, the Earth Axis realm.’
I ascended to the stratosphere of Mengyun Star and looked down upon the Mengyun Continent, beginning my Earth Axis cultivation.
Cheong!
The reason one formed five or six axles in a single breath, or like me stacked all the Earth Axles, was this. Within my true body, among the various auras creating the Invisible Mountain Dao-Haeng Great Formation, the five or six axles and the Five Elements axles resonated with my will and flowed around the Origin within my avatar body.
At the same time, the Five, Six, and Five Elements axles of my true body and avatar body resonated, making the connection between true body and avatar body feel even closer.
‘It is not yet at the level of real axles.’
The aura was still weak, to the point where it could only be called the seed of axles rather than true axles. Over the next few years, filling those axle seeds with aura and will would turn them into real axles.
This was the difference in how axles were stacked from the Four Pillars realm.
Depending on which axles were stacked in the Four Pillars realm, the type of axles one could stack when advancing cultivation in the avatar body at the Star Shattering realm would differ.
Those who stacked axles with the Outer Law axles would have their avatar body made of Outer Law axles even at Star Shattering.
Those who stacked axles through the Ten Zodiac axles like me would stack Ten Zodiac axles even at Star Shattering.
‘I never imagined how important getting the first button right would be.’
In about a hundred years, raising the Four Pillars axle seeds would allow me to rise again to the complete Earth Axis realm.
‘Good… now… I will wait slowly.’
From high above Mengyun Star, I watched Kang Min-hee and Seo Ran traveling the continent and slowly grew the axle seeds large.
About a hundred years passed in that way.
Contact came from my comrades from the Gwanghan Realm. Heon-won had been killed by Yeon Wi. * * *
“…What on earth is going on.”
I created a thought projection and went before her in front of the human clan detention facilities next to Sam-mok-chong and the inner detention inside.
She was not in Yeon-jin’s body, but stared at me with gloomy eyes from within a puppet resembling her own form made by Kim Yeon.
Heon-won was dead. It meant the Human Clan’s Integration stage senior had died, and at the same time it meant the person she had relied on so heavily, who was not Yeon Wi but seemed to be, had died.
And it had been done by her own hand.
She rolled her eyeballs and looked behind me at the guards.
“…I’d like to speak with just the two of you…”
The guards glared at her eyeballs, but I gestured for them to leave, isolated the surrounding space from the Gwanghan Realm, and asked.
“What on earth is going on. No… what did you do that a woman who has lost all her cultivation could… kill Heon-won?”
“I triggered the ancestral curse that runs along Heon-won’s bloodline. As it was, the curse already planted inside his body met with the curse I had placed and amplified, driving his condition to the worst. Using that opening, I lured him into a trap, activated the trap, and killed him. The girl who still lives without knowing the name of the land of Heavenly Calamity and World Calamity followed me down flat.”
“…Why did you kill him?”
“The explanation of ‘how’ I killed him is not yet complete.”
I looked at Yeon Wi’s mind, which was in confusion and panic, and asked with a bitter expression.
“…Alright. Keep going.”
“How could that kind of woman who has lost all her cultivation kill Heon-won? So I told the truth. A truth that the guy could never deny.”
“The truth?”
“…Bloodline. No matter how many tens of thousands of years he pretended to be crazy and not look at the truth, the bloodline cannot be hidden.”
A cruel smile appeared on Yeon Wi’s lips.
“In truth, Yeon-jin is the descendant of Heon-won and my son.”
“…!”
“There is a technique called the Long Child Raging to the Heavens technique. It is a forbidden technique of the Sim Clan, obtained by plundering their fuel when they were contracted to Heon-won. Instead of lengthening the fetal development and pregnancy period from ten months to a hundred years, it turns the born child into a constitution called the Long Heavenly Body. It is an enormous physique that absorbs Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy at over a hundred times the normal rate compared to other clan members. The Sim Clan has nothing else but the name of descendants of the Saintess of Gwanghan, yet they flourished in the Gwanghan Realm because of a forbidden technique like this.”
The smile on her lips grew thicker.
However, it seemed she was not laughing but screaming.
“I wanted my child to rule the Gwanghan Realm. But because Heon-won went mad and I used up all the Heavenly Energy needed to activate the Long Child Raging to the Heavens technique I had infused into the embryo for him, the child born after cutting his cultivation was an ordinary child. I gave the Sim clan name to that child and secretly continued the lineage of descendants… which is what became Yeon-jin now.”
“…”
“In the thousand years before and after that time, Heon-won only had relations with me. Because of that, in his memory he distorted it to say he only had relations with a certain woman named Tian Lan. He forgot that he had relations with me. So… I showed Yeon-jin’s bloodline and confirmed that the real relationship at that time could not be denied.”
The panic in her eyes grew even thicker.
“Are you surprised? That Heon-won, who could not be cured no matter what… finally regained his sanity. Finally he realized something was wrong.”
Ddug, ddugdug…
Something dripped from her eyes.
Although it was the body of a puppet, her consciousness carrying the sentiment of sorrow resonated with the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy around her, causing blue spiritual energy to flow from the corners of her eyes.
“And… he begged me to kill him. His entire life… was just a puppet show. Please let me be free, he said… and flew straight into the law treasure I was holding and smashed his own body to death.”
“…”
“Originally I had only intended to eat his last blow and then die myself, but somehow it turned out he killed himself. I told the Senior Council that I had killed him. Heon-won was tormented by me until the end and killed by me. I did not want to say that the Lord of Bongrae Palace died tragically.”
“…”
She looked up at me with gloomy eyes.
“…However, you may tell the God Lord. Isn’t that right? O God Lord who tramples our hopes, who mocks us.”
She growled with a voice as if her intestines were boiling and glared at me.
“The God Lord probably does not know the miracles performed by the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, but on Shattered Heaven Peak there is actually a technique that can confirm the positions of the disciples of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect and their ‘fate status.’ Even though it was kept secret from the God Lord and hidden until the very end… perhaps you did not know.”
I let out a sigh at her words.
“Where is Myeong-hoon now. And why did you throw Myeong-hoon somewhere and turn him into a ‘fate status of being tormented until his personality collapses’ before imprisoning him for cultivation in the Star Realm as if… that is…?”
Kkuddeudeuk…
Yeon Wi’s fingers scraped the floor of the prison.
“It seems you are eating… and digesting the spiritual medicine… aren’t you…?”
Yeon Wi gritted her teeth and looked up at me.
“What on earth… until when will you mock us… until when…! Tell me. Where has the reincarnation of the clan ancestor, the hope of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, Myeong-hoon gone!!” * * *
Heavenly King Heaven
Inside Gwangmyeong Palace
Beneath the center, [Seat of Light], eight colossal giant beings of light appeared.
: : Did you feel it? : :
: : Indeed. : :
All of them stared at something at the same time with serious expressions.
: : Tai Shan Shangdi La Tian… : :
: : Heavenly King Heaven time. Time of Ji… has been erased. : :
The sudden erasure of Tai Shan Shangdi caused them all to exchange communications in panic.
: : What should we do? : :
: : Immediately unseal the seal of Jichukcheon-yeok and properly observe the inside to confirm the true identity. : :
: : Is there no possibility he will stage a self-comedy? : :
: : Nonsense. Look at the Immortal Registry. : :
: : In the Immortal Registry created by the name’s owner… the light of Tai Shan Shangdi La Tian has disappeared. : :
: : La Tian has died. In this case, the death of the entity known as La Tian is a bright sign. : :
: : No matter what, we must observe the truth. You already know how many prophecies are being consumed in creating new sealing heavens after sealing Jichukcheon-yeok, don’t you? : :
: : The longer we drag it out, the greater the wasted prophecy will become. First, identify the truth. : :
: : Correct. Even if he somehow managed to strip the name granted to him by Xian Kong, he would need time to adapt to the loss of the name’s power. : :
: : Now, even if we open the door of Jichukcheon-yeok, we can prevent him from escaping. However, to be safe we will pull the full power of Gwangmyeong-jeon and prepare. That way, no matter what trick he pulls, we can re-seal him. : :
The colossal beings of light.
The Gwangmyeong Eight Seers.
They shared opinions with each other and finally reached a conclusion.
: : The True Immortals belonging to Gwangmyeong-jeon shall assemble. We will temporarily unseal the seal of Jichukcheon-yeok. : :
They disappeared in an instant from inside Gwangmyeong Palace and arrived near the entrance of some other dimension beyond the Void Space.
At the entrance, a colossal character “Jichuk” (Earth Axis) was written in light, and around that light a chain-like structure that seemed to cover the entire universe covered the entire dimension.
Behind the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers, hundreds of god bodies began to appear one after another.
When the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers all extended their hands forward at once, the written characters on the entrance to Jichukcheon-yeok scattered, and the entrance to Jichukcheon-yeok opened very slightly.
It was a small gap, but the radiance originating from the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers entered the gap and illuminated the entire Jichukcheon-yeok.
And the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers who illuminated the entire heavenly domain shouted urgently in unison.
: : Re-seal! : :
: : Tai Shan Shangdi… : :
The next moment.
The Gwangmyeong Eight Seer fifth seat, Geomgeukcheongun’s manifested avatar body in the heavenly domain exploded as it was.
At the same time, from inside the entrance to Jichukcheon-yeok, a colossal arm appeared.
A colossal arm larger than an ordinary star, looking like a bug compared to the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers’ manifested avatar body.
That arm was a mountain.
It was a colossal mountain range shaped like an arm.
And that mountain range was…
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred million, billion, trillion, hundred trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion.
A mountain range made up of mountains of corpses that died shedding blood and tears reaching the number of grains of sand in the Ganges.
The god of the mountain.
The great god called Tai Shan Shangdi began to exert power against the force of light.
[Aaaaaaaaaa!]
[Kuaaaaaaa!]
[Kuuuuaaaaaaaa!!!]
The corpses embedded in the entire body of Tai Shan Shangdi began to scream in unison.
The sound of that scream shook Jichukcheon-yeok and Heavenly King Heaven.
The Gwangmyeong Eight Seers all looked down at Tai Shan Shangdi and growled.
: : So he deceived us. No, he deceived everyone. : :
: : He has been preparing since forty thousand years ago. : :
: : While all of us were distracted by his ascension, he has humiliated our fate with a substitute. : :
Drrrrrdrd!
The great god who had been freed from the seal raised his power and looked up at the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers.
: : Open the path that leads to the real world. : :
Starting from Geomgeukcheongun who had just recreated his manifested avatar body, the Gwangmyeong Eight Seers did not answer his words.
They only clasped their hands together and slightly lowered their heads toward what was above them.
: : May glory be with the Gwangmyeong Shangdi. : :
And from above them, the [Seat of Light] shone brilliantly.
In Ilwol Cheonyeok, Heon-won had realized the truth in Yeon Wi’s sincerity and rushed to her, choosing death.
The Gwangmyeong Eight Seers of Heavenly King Heaven had thought Tai Shan Shangdi La Tian was dead and torn open the door of Jichukcheon-yeok,
and Tai Shan Shangdi of Jichukcheon-yeok had come out from outside the sealed place after deceiving everyone,
and thus the entire heavenly domain began to shake.