The Eve of the End
‘I’ had become an incredibly tiny being.
No, it was a bit odd to say “had become.”
I had always been small since the very beginning.
Yet it felt strange.
It was as if I had once been a vast existence.
One that could shatter entire worlds and leap between stars.
Possessing powers greater than even the gods themselves.
I couldn’t say why, but that had been me.
It was probably just a hallucination.
After all, I was nothing but a tiny microorganism now.
I performed photosynthesis and absorbed surrounding matter to gain nutrition.
I lived my life that way until I died.
....
I had become a microorganism again.
But this time I was slightly larger.
I could now devour other microorganisms.
Unlike before, I hunted and consumed them as I survived.
Then I was swallowed by an even larger creature and died.
....
When I regained consciousness, I was once more a microorganism.
But this time not just slightly larger.
I existed simultaneously as multiple microorganisms.
In other words, every single microorganism at the eastern edge was me.
And every single one at the western edge was me too.
I had become the collective consciousness of countless microorganisms.
I made them cooperate to obtain food.
This time I was neither eaten nor short-lived like before.
Yet eventually I too reached the end of my lifespan and died.
....
Once again, when I regained consciousness, I sensed that I had grown larger.
I had become a big worm.
I realized I could devour other worms.
At that moment I began moving constantly to avoid being swallowed.
I ate, fled, and fought for survival.
However, I was crushed by a massive rock that fell from the sky and died.
....
When I regained consciousness, I was alive once more.
A small stone lay before me, and beneath it lay a tiny worm crushed to death.
Compared to the “earlier” era, the stone was fingernail-sized.
But to the worms, it had been a massive boulder.
‘What was that “earlier” era anyway? And what was a fingernail?’
I briefly entertained the thought, then quickly stopped myself.
In the natural world, such reflections could lead to death or consumption at any moment.
I had to prepare quickly to survive.
As I moved my body, I sensed that my own domain had expanded once more.
I had become the “worms.”
Just as I had once been the collective consciousness of microorganisms, I was now the collective consciousness of the worms.
I guided my individual worms and took up the fight for survival again.
Eventually I died once more, yet death no longer filled me with fear.
During the microorganism era I had not understood this.
Now I knew.
I was gradually growing.
And death itself was the process of gradual evolution.
Thus death was no longer an object of fear.
It was simply another chance.
Therefore there was nothing I needed to fear.
....
‘I’ continued to grow.
At first a microorganism.
Next a worm.
Then a large worm that devoured worms.
Next a small beast that devoured large worms.
Next a large beast.
Then an even larger beast.
A monster that devoured beasts.
....
And eventually I became the collective consciousness of the monsters.
....
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The entire world burned.
The place where ‘I’ lived was right here.
The ground was mostly clear and transparent.
Of course there were many areas dyed in vivid colors.
However, because sharp, jagged things protruded everywhere, I had to be extremely cautious.
One misstep and my body could be torn apart in an instant.
And the greatest threat was the “wildfires.”
Where the ground was high, it was called a “mountain.”
Occasionally on the peaks of those mountains, flames of the same color as the ground would burst forth and turn the surroundings into a sea of fire.
If those flames touched the body, the pain felt as though the mind was being shredded apart.
Of course they did not actually harm the physical form, so survival was not a problem.
But if I stood in that fire, the suffering was so unbearable I would want to kill myself.
Therefore I had to be careful.
If I touched it, the agony alone might drive me to suicide.
Just as that fire threatened the “mind,” there was something else that threatened the “life.”
Kwarrurrr!
A black river flowed before my eyes.
It was a “river.”
Anyone who touched that black river would slowly die for no reason whatsoever.
Fortunately there was no pain, but it was still far too terrifying.
The only saving grace was that after a while the black river would disperse its black qi and become plain “water.”
The “water” created this way was incredibly precious.
Because it symbolized life itself.
Fortunately I spotted a lake filled with that “water” far in the distance.
‘I’ led the bodies to the lake and supplied water to each one.
That was when.
Ku gu gu gu gu!
The sky turned pitch black.
Curious what was happening, I looked up.
Fireballs were falling from the sky.
And not just one.
I instinctively tried to avoid them, but the fireballs could not be dodged.
They slammed into the distant mountainside instead.
Ku kwa kwa kwa kwa!
At the same moment the entire world shook.
The enormous shockwave swept over us.
Whether beast or human, we all perished.
....
Little by little life began to sprout across the ground again.
And ‘I’ returned as well.
Yet ‘I’ sensed something had changed.
The bodies began to ignore my commands.
These bodies, unlike before, now possessed something.
“U! U! U!”
“Uwaaa! Uwaa!”
Scales covered their bodies and they possessed heads with hair and smooth faces.
My bodies carried fire in their tails and wielded it.
They also combined “fire” and “river” to create strange phenomena.
They fused black rivers with colorless flames to smelt the earth and began creating “tools.”
It was then that I finally understood why the bodies ignored my commands.
They had acquired a “self.”
Now I could only guide their “self,” not directly control them.
But after discovering their “self,” my range gradually expanded and widened.
My consciousness melted into theirs until I became them.
I was both mother and father to someone.
I was both child and parent.
I was their prey and predator at once.
I was their sustenance and tool.
‘They’ gradually gained stronger selves and rationality.
They began to use tools and “writing.”
Why was it that the writing was Korean?
....
What was Korean again?
I seemed to remember it from before, yet it did not feel important.
Anyway, I continued to evolve and struggle alongside them.
Sometimes we even merged.
The more their selves developed, the more intelligence they acquired, the more strongly I melted into them.
Originally my own existence had been so insignificant I could not remember it.
....
Originally my self?
What was that supposed to mean?
It was none of my concern.
It did not seem important.
The important thing was that “they” were me, and I was them.
They always lived in fear.
It was the primitive terror of death.
Yet I was not afraid.
Because I knew death was merely part of the process of being reborn.
I whispered wisdom to them.
The cleverer ones among them accepted my wisdom and sought me out.
There was no need to seek me.
Because I was them.
But when they could not find me, they created symbols and began to worship those symbols as “me.”
Eventually “I” had become their god.
The worshippers prostrated themselves before me and analyzed my wisdom.
For those who sought me, I whispered even more wisdom.
Countless years passed.
They obtained my wisdom and began to act.
And shortly after.
The most clever among them spat fire from their mouths.
The others feared and worshipped them even more, growing in reverence for “me.”
The first to spit fire passed the method to their kin.
The kin recorded, refined, and practiced the method using writing and systems.
Soon they gained the ability to control even greater amounts of fire.
Among those who controlled fire, the clever refined the techniques further and evolved them.
They discovered ever superior methods.
And one day they were struck by lightning falling from the sky.
Kwarrurrung!
Upon being struck, their childhood forms were imprinted in their bodies.
They changed from their previous appearance to something completely new.
Their faces remained the same, but arms and legs grew from bodies that had been only scales and tails.
The scales and tails vanished.
They were overjoyed yet terrified.
Soon they named this form “Transformation.”
Very quickly the transformed ones became their leaders and ruled the entire world.
And at that moment I confirmed the true nature of this world.
The world was round.
And it rotated, creating day and night.
My consciousness had already spread across the entire world.
I sensed that my “something” had connected to my mind.
It was another “me.”
A being like myself.
So there were now six more beings with minds spread across this entire world.
I instinctively knew they were the same as me.
At the same time I sensed that when my mind fully connected with them and expanded, something huge would happen.
I wanted to know what kind of event it would be.
And years passed once more.
‘They.’
The “other versions of myself” who called themselves the Candle Dragon Clan had long since transcended even transformation and reached the highest realm.
They called that realm “Four Pillars.”
And every time I sensed more Candle Dragons performing the Four Pillars, my domain grew larger and larger until I became equivalent to this very star.
And one day.
One Candle Dragon who could no longer cultivate on this star flew into the sky.
He pierced the void and ascended to the world of attraction that called them.
Yes, it was the “Ascension.”
And it was the first Ascension from “me.”
‘.... Ah....’
I finally understood who I truly was.
Tsuzuzuzuzu!
My mind, previously divided into seven stars, had finally connected once more.
At the same time the [Wheel] above me had taken its complete form.
Eight spokes extended from the central axis of the wheel and connected to the rim.
The wheel was finally complete.
At the same moment I finally recalled the memories of the “me” I had forgotten.
Ku gu gu gu gu!
The stars showed strange phenomena.
My surface was writhing as I recovered my self and the stars.
Memories from countless years ago surfaced.
I remembered that after creating the Heavenly Large Star, I had exploded my clone body that had cultivated only to the Integration stage to birth the Clear Sky Large Star.
It had been easier than the initial Lord Ascension Rite.
This time I had simply exploded my clone, not my entire self.
At the Ascension of the Clear Sky Large Star, rings formed around me according to the formula of the Flawless True Word.
At the same time those rings rotated the nebulae and sucked in the surrounding dust clouds with their rotational force.
Only after the Clear Sky Large Star acquired the same mass as the Heavenly Large Star due to the attraction I possessed did it fully complete.
Normally it would have taken far more time to gather the nebulae, but the Flawless True Word minimized that time.
I continued chanting the Flawless True Word and created the next stars as well.
Monstrous Heavenly Large Star.
Station Heavenly Large Star.
Subduing Heavenly Large Star.
The five stars symbolized by U, Je, Mong, Yeok, and Geuk had been completed.
At that moment I briefly regained awareness and told my companions I would walk this “path” ahead.
Next I returned to the state of nothingness and created the Bright Heavenly Large Star and the Reciprocal Heavenly Large Star.
The five stars revolved around the star and finally aligned in a straight line.
The five stars received the power of the star and, connected by star veins, formed a sixth star.
After creating the sixth star, the six stars revolved around the central star and rotated.
Through that rotation the surrounding nebulae were once more drawn in.
By completing the final star through those nebulae, I created the seven stars that corresponded to U, Je, Mong, Yeok, Geuk, Jeong, and Hoi and entered the Star Shattering stage.
That was also with the seven stars forming the Heavenly Double Water stage.
And after entering the Star Shattering stage....
My consciousness had split into countless fragments.
‘So that was it....’
I remembered that the “me” of the beginning had recalled the “previous” me.
It was the me from the microorganism era recalling the me from the Star Shattering era.
My memories continued to climb into the past.
This time it was the memories from the Integration era.
I remembered adventuring with my companions and reaching the Space Shattering.
I also remembered the period when I had wandered the universe for 190,000 years.
My memories went even further back.
The Four Pillars era, or rather the Four Pillars era.
The time when the Taesan Sage destroyed the Wugeuk Sect and killed him.
The time I performed the Goryeok Cultivation in the Goryeok Realm and Myeonggwi Realm....
The Cheonin era.
The time the Golden God Heavenly Thunder Art had collapsed due to heavenly punishment.
The time I had been divided into Seo Lip....
Nascent Soul, Core Formation, Foundation Establishment, Qi Condensation....
My memories climbed all the way back to that tender yet poignant era.
Five Qi Consorting with the Origin, Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Peak Stage, Master Rank, Second Rank, Third Rank....
And the time I had first landed in the Deungsunhyang without knowing anything.
I realized that the phenomenon of memories climbing into the past was not a simple flashback.
Just like at the Nascent Soul Ascension, it was part of the Ascension Rite, climbing up the entire journey of my life like a ferry.
‘Ah... so that was it.’
My consciousness had transformed, following the orbits of the seven stars, into a disc-shaped orbit around the star.
Souls were revolving around the star and drawing circles.
Every time my consciousness rotated inside that circle, memories from one realm or one branch of life returned.
I reviewed the branches of my life and recalled my entire existence.
It was as intricate as the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram.
‘Now.... let me reach before the Deungsunhyang....’
And from this moment onward I reviewed the memories from the first Deungsunhyang until now, deciding to climb back into the Earth era.
That was when.
‘.... Huh.’
I suddenly realized that part of my life [that had not been recorded in the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram] existed.
It was....
The fourteenth loop.
Entering the Creation Heaven Splitting Gate and, around the time I had met the Shattered Spirit Lord in the Demon Realm.
The time I had created the Twenty-Fifth Style of the Danak Sword Art, Uihye Eunsan, and spied on Kim Yeon’s consciousness, when I had glimpsed [something] in her memories.
It had been clearly right before reaching the Deungsunhyang.
‘Ah....’
Finally my consciousness too had reached that time of the past.
Right before reaching the Deungsunhyang.
‘That was....’
Right after we had been swallowed by the landslide.
I faintly remembered that time.
In the darkness inside the mud pile.
At that time, as we were dying....
At one moment we reached a new space as though reborn.
We who had come from the darkness to the place with light all squinted and directly faced [it].
And at that place we....
Had seen the [black snake biting its tail].
The being who had brought us here was the [black snake biting its tail]!!!
:::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: !!!!! ::::
I screamed across the entire universe in agony and pressure that tore at my mind.
‘Don’t think. Don’t think....’
The pressure crushing my mind was even more terrifying and terrifying than the pressure I had felt when facing any Imperial Immortal before.
Until now, the only one who had ever put this level of pressure on me had been the [oldest ancestor] who pursued the regression.
Ki ii ing-
I quickly redirected my mind elsewhere.
Jeon Myeong-hoon who had been driving the wheel right before the landslide.
Jeon Myeong-hoon who had made me work overtime the day before the workshop.
Jeon Myeong-hoon from the day before that who had called me to the smoking room and blasted cigarette smoke into my face for stress relief!
I used my anger toward Jeon Myeong-hoon as a lifeline and quickly escaped the thoughts of that terrifying existence.
‘Thank you, Jeon Myeong-hoon...! For giving me such powerful emotions....’
Internally giving an absurdly grateful thanks to Jeon Myeong-hoon, I continued reviewing my entire life.
Finally I was born from my mother and father.
I quickly escaped the scene from the Nascent Soul era and recalled it.
And finally.
‘.... Ah....’
I briefly left the orbit of the star system and rose to the place where the wheel was turning.
My orbit that spanned the wheel and the star system overlapped.
I sensed my mind merging into a single flow with the wheel.
At the same time the rotation of the orbit began to accelerate.
I removed all the Candle Dragon Clans born on the surfaces of the planets from the surfaces and relocated them to nearby stars.
I knew I could simply absorb them as they were, but I decided to grant them new lives and fates.
The ones who had placed land and buildings on my surface wept bitterly, but I did not care.
And the moment all seven stars reached the apex of their rotation.
Booooom!
I gradually narrowed the rotation orbit of the seven stars.
And it was the moment the stars arrived at the center of the wheel.
Flash!
The rotating stars all exploded simultaneously.
I felt my mind grow hazy.
Just like the Star Shattering Ascension, the Star Plate Ascension boasted enormous difficulty.
Even if the Star Shattering stage Lord had prepared perfectly and chosen the optimal timing, the success rate of Ascension was barely over 10 percent.
However, compared to the Star Shattering Ascension, it was clearly easier.
While the Star Shattering Ascension required exploding “everything,” the Star Plate Ascension left the star flow intact even after compressing and exploding the plate.
‘The Star Plate Ascension... is to divide oneself finely, then reunite all of oneself inside the star flow, and create an orbit for rotation through consciousness during that process.’
And compressing that orbit and exploding it was precisely the Star Plate Ascension Rite.
Ku gu gu gu gu gu gu!
The space-time vibrated, and an enormous nebula was born.
During the Star Shattering Ascension the nebula was gathered into a star.
But during the Star Plate Ascension it was different.
Whoooong!
The nebulae around my created star flow gradually began to rotate.
Soon dust clouds gathered at the center of the nebula and the temperature of the center began to rise.
Pa aat!
And then, the tribulation began to blow.
‘....! Something is wrong.’
Originally the heavenly tribulation of the Star Plate Ascension came from the Four Realms.
The Underworld, the Void Space, the Origin River, the East Heaven Flower Garden.
Four realms sent heavenly tribulation, and the purpose of the Star Plate Ascension heavenly tribulation was to grant the Lord who would become the Star Plate recognition of the four realms.
Just as the Star Shattering Ascension had connected stars and Lords with star tribulation, the Star Plate Ascension heavenly tribulation aimed to connect “existence” and “after death.”
Kwarrurrung!
Star veins wriggled in the Origin River, and a heavenly tribulation that deleted space and time itself pierced me.
A heavenly tribulation made of “fate” like the things piled in my soul from the Underworld pierced me.
A heavenly tribulation that immediately turned my entire body into the fates of the East Heaven Flower Garden and scattered me to death pierced me.
And finally.
From the Void Space a terrifying thing whose nature could not be understood pierced me.
The only certainty was that if I lost consciousness while receiving the heavenly tribulation, I would immediately be pulled into that world and die.
‘Something.... is strange.’
Yet while receiving the heavenly tribulation I felt an odd sensation.
‘It’s too strong!’
Drrrdddd!
The Star Plate Ascension heavenly tribulation was sent once per world by each world, totaling four times per world.
I would receive sixteen heavenly tribulations in total.
However, even after all sixteen had ended, I continued to feel sweat breaking out as I sensed heavenly tribulation striking with power completely different from what I had heard from Baek-woon.
‘The heavenly tribulation has gone mad!’
Normally one could tell how much remained by looking at the sky.
This meant one could see the exact number of heavenly tribulations that had already fallen and how many remained through the heavenly qi.
However....
‘The heavenly tribulation.... is going wild!’
Even reading the heavenly qi showed nothing but the future of “heavenly tribulation continues to fall.”
Until now the heavenly tribulations that had struck in exact numbers had suddenly seemed to lose their minds.
The standard of the heavenly tribulation had disappeared!!
‘Why....’
I gritted my teeth inwardly and continued receiving the heavenly tribulation.
The more violently the heavenly tribulation struck, the stronger the force that pulled me into each world became.
The Underworld.
The force that pulled me from that deep, dark place grew stronger.
‘Ah, no....! If I continue receiving the heavenly tribulation like this, I will really die!’
It was not the power that was the problem.
The nature of the heavenly tribulation itself was the issue.
It kept pulling me toward death!
How many weeks had I endured the Four Realms heavenly tribulation like that?
Pa chi zik!
Only then did the heavenly tribulation finally subside.
‘Huuu....’
Ku gu gu gu gu gu!
And as the nebula rotated, my consciousness settled at its center.
The nebula was the rotating star disc and the sacred rotating and rotating sacred disc!
Just as the Star Shattering stage was the realm of constellations,
the Star Plate stage was the realm of “rotation.”
At the center of rotation was my soul centered on the star flow, and my true body was the “rotating nebula.”
The center of the rotating nebula would gradually rise in temperature and strengthen its power as I practiced the Star Plate cultivation and become a star (constant star) that would shine by itself.
Initially a rotating nebula.
Mid-period: a star.
Late period: a red giant.
At the stage: a white dwarf.
That was the general path of the Star Plate cultivation.
[Huuu....]
I opened my eyes.
From the Star Plate onward, one’s own inner world itself became the world.
The color-less mountain of the Great Dharma Great Star was now the world existing in my mind, and I could pull out everything that existed in this world in the future simply by spending time and make it permanent in the world.
At the same time I recalled the evolution time I had spent until now.
In real time it had not even been 2,000 years.
Yet during that time my consciousness had been split into at least a million pieces, gradually merged again.
And those countless fragments had each been reborn as tiny microorganisms that were almost like souls on the surfaces of my original essences and had undergone countless lives.
Therefore, although the real time had been extremely short, the “felt time” when I created the Candle Dragon Clan through the rotating rotation had been close to 20 million years.
Whoooong!
As I focused my consciousness, the rings of the nebula.
The star disc was compressed.
I created a clone body and inserted the star disc into my body, then opened only one eye.
[It was long....]
It had been an incredibly long time.
A miracle obtained while simultaneously mastering the Flawless True Word and the Dharma-Destroying True Word.
Normally the method of dividing the mind and integrating it under the star flow,
the method of dividing the mind and reincarnating into microorganisms to evolve a single species,
those two star flows had lifted me to the Star Plate stage.
[It was you two.]
Deep in the darkness, the [oldest ancestor] who had been subtly pulling me.
And the mountain stacked with pure white salt.
Those two illusions passed before my eyes.
[I do not know what you desire of me. But I will walk my own path.]
I directed my mind toward the void.
No answer came.
But that was fine.
200,000 years.
After 20,019,000 years of felt time, I had finally reached the Star Plate stage.
[Well then....]
It was time to prepare for the end (终末).
****
Inside the Thunder Star Sea.
In the bedroom of Geum-jin-jo and Jeon Myeong-hoon.
There, Geum-jin-jo clutched her head and trembled as though her mind had gone mad in one corner of the bedroom.
[No no no no no no no no no please please please please please.... who is it dream tell me tell me tell me tell me....]
Pa chic, pa chi ji zik!
Red lightning burst from the body of Jeon Myeong-hoon, whose clothes had been stripped and numerous traces of being stepped on by small feet remained.
Geum-jin-jo seemed to want to leave the bedroom and trembled as she pulled the bedroom door, but red lightning sprang out and repelled her hand.
[B, b, b....]
Geum-jin-jo turned to Jeon Myeong-hoon with a face filled with terror and trembled violently.
[He is reviving... inside his body...! Ah, no. I have to get out. I have to get out. I have to get out...!!!]
However she could not leave.
Unable to leave or approach Jeon Myeong-hoon, Geum-jin-jo could only tremble in terror.
****
At the Heavenly Lotus Mountain of the Gwanghan Realm.
From the center Baek-woon smiled faintly while looking somewhere.
[...You did it. Monster child. By the way....]
However the moment she smiled faintly her serious expression changed as she looked at the black paper in her hand.
[...This is a big problem.]
****
In the Sea King Hall of the Goryeok Realm.
In the Black Palace of the Myeonggwi Realm.
In the Ban-ta Star of the Purple Gold Realm.
In the Blood Demon Sect of the Jinma Realm.
All the Saints or clones of Hyeol-eum in various places held black papers in their hands with serious faces and stared at them.
After a while.
Hae-rin of the Sea King Hall of the Goryeok Realm had a serious expression.
Pa sa sak!
The black paper in his hand.
The Hyeongo Paper crumbled.
He let out a groan and covered his face.
[Aaa...! Has the ferocious demon already devoured even that person...! Now the turn of the [hungry one] comes. Is the entire Sumi Mountain truly about to perish... What are the Heavenly Venerables doing? Where did the sky’s craftsman disappear to, and what is the snake doing! The Gwangmyeong Eight Immortals know only how to show off, truly they did nothing in front of that demon!! Aaa! The world is turning upside down.]
Hae-rin sighed deeply and shed painful tears.
****
The Taesan Sage who had eaten two Emperors and four Heavenly Domains, having first swallowed the name owner of the Sangbi Heavenly Domain and then the Namok Heavenly Domain and Jibyeon Heavenly Domain,
sent his will before the Seon-gyeon Heavenly Domain.
:::: I and the Void ::::
He raised both hands and said.
:::: If you do not offer your head, I will devour you ::::
However no answer came from within.
Taesan Sage quietly showed anger and began to gradually close both hands.
The Seon-gyeon Heavenly Domain began to crumble.
:::: Those cowardly slave bastards keep falling into death over and over ::::
Drrrrrr!
Thus the Taesan Sage who had crushed and devoured the Seon-gyeon Heavenly Domain had eaten five Heavenly Domains and headed toward the Ssang-ji Heavenly Domain while muttering.
:::: While you lie there, this one will eat your hunger and trample the blood of the snake on the ground and reach the Audience Chamber, do not regret it ::::