The Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation – Episode 500: The Insects
“Who was it, after all.”>
I stared at the old man holding the basket of flowers beside me, unable to understand how he had suddenly appeared. The entire world was wrapped in darkness. Seo Ran, who had been in front of me, was already crumbling away into the void. It was not just him. The crimson flower blooming from my chest began to pulverize me as well. The crimson flower was devouring me. I was being eroded by what I had come to call the End Flower. And then…>
In the moment I merged with the End Flower, I finally understood. The beings who had transcended the limits and boundaries of True Immortality. The plans of the Imperial Immortals!>
I felt the world itself collapsing. But this was not the kind of annihilation that had occurred moments earlier. When the universe’s gravitational force reached its peak and everything contracted, leaving the entire cosmos filled with light and heat—that was the ordinary End of Days. Yet the End brought about by the End Flower was nothing but pitch-black darkness! It was not the normal apocalypse. It was simply the act of covering the world with the concept of death itself!>
“Ah… everything… is over…”>
I understood. Every part of my body had been absorbed by the End Flower and its roots. I myself had become annihilation. I understood the plan the being before me had set in motion. And the plan of those who had walked with me. Kiiiing! Everything in the Water Realm had vanished. Even the Dabcheon Desert, the West, the East, the North—all of it. What remained was pure black darkness… and far away, the Sun and Moon floating in the sky!>
“Is that… the true appearance of the Sun and Moon of the Water Realm?”>
Just as I had seen in the Sea Dragon Palace Observatory records. The Sun and Moon of the Water Realm had been fixed in place. When the Water Realm world was intact, it had only created the illusion of day and night according to the flow of yin and yang energy. The Sun and Moon of the Water Realm had simply hovered in one spot, looking down upon the entire realm from slightly south. “Ah… so that’s it.”>
Only then did I remember Seo Hyul’s third brain wave having pierced the sky at the southern edge of the Water Realm and “escaping.” The place Seo Hyul had gone to… had been the brow between the brows. And the old man holding the basket of flowers beside me let out a small gasp. “Amazing. I thought a bug’s struggle would work… but it did. Heh heh heh heh!”>
Bug’s struggle. Seo Hyul who had slipped out from between the brows. And the strange feeling that his mind had been clear at the very last moment. The spell that had made minds clear—hanging in the Sea Dragon Palace…>
“Ah… so that’s how it was.”>
I finally understood what Seo Hyul’s true purpose had been. It was not the Water Realm’s third brain wave. The Water Realm was not a being Seo Hyul could brain-wave. Looking at the Sun and Moon ahead, I became even more certain. When Seo Hyul had seized the entire Sun and Moon Heaven, what he had wanted to gain by mocking the world as a whole was only one thing: to awaken the Water Realm. I recalled the whiteout phenomenon the world had undergone moments earlier. I had thought it was merely the aftermath of the apocalypse. But no. The power of annihilation obtained through the End Flower was whispering to me. That phenomenon had not been an apocalypse “of any kind.” It had simply been… the process of the Water Realm “awakening.”>
If the Water Realm were a living being, it had been in a state of merely existing, exerting no influence. Most people called this “dreaming.” Seo Hyul had temporarily cleared the Water Realm’s mind so that the core entities of the Five Central Realms could desperately reach the being they were trying to reach. And… when a dreamer wakes from sleep, the beings within the dream ultimately disappear. The landscape that had turned white until just moments ago. And the fact that I had been able to completely “absorb” the Turbid Dragon Clan once I reached the Star Plate realm. And finally… the facts Seo Hyul had claimed in the old records of Jeon Myeong-hun. Only the single-mindedness of the Terminating One could preserve our dignity. Yes, perhaps…>
When my mind drifted into such thoughts, the old man holding the basket of flowers opened his eyes wide. He was looking beyond the darkness, at the brow between the brows of the Sun and Moon. “The bug… has faced it…”>
“Seo Hyul… doing something with the awakened Water Realm…”>
He was facing something absolute now, wasn’t he. Then what was it that he was seeing right now. And I saw brilliant light rays from the southern edge of the world. Thud. That was the end. * * * “Hmm?” I felt an odd sensation. It was bright. The sky was blue, and the land was green. The distant scent of the sea drifted over. “…Good… it feels good…”>
Although my body had been annihilated by the End Flower, I could still feel sensations. For some reason I felt drowsy and wanted to sleep. “But something is strange…” I wondered why I had suddenly found myself here. “I had jumped into the Thunder Star Sea to save Jeon Myeong-hun… and then entered the Water Realm… and Seo Ran and Seo Hyul…”>
And then I suddenly thought it odd. “Who was Seo Hyul?” Zhiiit. For some reason the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram churned wildly. I briefly recalled the “Seo Hyul” that had just surfaced and finally understood. “Seo Hyul is… a type of blue worm. Why did I come looking for something like that?” It was strange. The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram was churning madly. But I could not understand. Somehow the “blue worm” would not leave my mind. The blue worm. A medicinal herb collectively called “Seo Hyul.” The low-grade, unsightly worm that Qi Condensation physicians would occasionally crush and add to pills. No, no, no… this was my hallucination. “Seo Hyul” was simply the nickname I had given one of the blue worms. “Why did I give something like a worm such a nickname…” I could not recall. Originally, the origin of the name “Seo Hyul” itself was forgotten. Whatever logic had been used to attach it was a mystery. What was clear was that “Seo Hyul” was an [absent] word. “Right now… it is time to think about the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram that is desperately struggling, this basket-holding old man, and myself who have become the End Flower.”>
And then I noticed the old man holding the basket of flowers beside me was trembling. He was staring at the sky with a chill. “Huh? What…?”>
That was when he roared. [Recall!] Ziiing! His shout echoed inside my mind. Together with him I felt a shocking impact as if I had been struck on the back of the head, and something terrifying rose in my mind. The Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram stabilized. And… I remembered everything I had forgotten! The name of the True Immortal [Bongmyeong] I had met at the lowest depths of Bongmyeong-ju! The name of Yu Ho-deok that the Black Dragon Jinblood had revealed during that moment! And… during the 19th cycle, the entire time [I had been riding on the shoulders of the old man holding the basket of flowers]! Everything about the Sarasu Heavenly Venerable surfaced! And… Ziiing! Kwarrrrung! I finally understood who Seo Hyul was. “Ah… aaaaah…”>
An unimaginable pain stirred in my brain. It was the feeling of having learned something I was [not meant to know]. I trembled in fear! Just now! Right at that moment! In the world, the being called Seo Hyul had disappeared! Cut out from history and altered so that he became merely the nickname “blue worm”! If Sarasu Heavenly Venerable had not told me, I would never have known this terrifying truth. Seo Hyul… had been cut out the moment he learned something he was [not meant to know]. In a single instant that no one noticed! Sarasu Heavenly Venerable spoke. “Even after exhausting all the power stored in the End Flower for a hundred million years… the door does not open. These Audience Chambers… they simply pushed their way in with their own power—Hamhae, Gwanghan… what on earth are you…”>
It sounded like a sigh. But I was struggling with the pain of maintaining memories of the [erased existence], so I could barely grasp the meaning of the words. Kugugugugu! And while I could not come to my senses…>
Sarasu Heavenly Venerable lifted me, who had become the End Flower. “I knew I could not do anything with my own power alone. And… I know what you say about light being sinister.”>
He turned his head to the right from where he had been looking south and spoke to someone. And I felt I knew who that someone was. “That existence is far too meticulous. Perhaps all our actions are already contained in his prophecy. But… this time it will be different. Because we are not trying to defy heaven this time.”>
Sarasu Heavenly Venerable was speaking across dimensions and time with the being sealed inside Jeon Myeong-hun. “Taesan’s prophecy has already brought you here. Cooperate with us as well. The chaos has already begun.”>
Kwirung, kururung! With every word he spoke, the ominous energy flowing from my body as the End Flower dyed the surroundings. It was as if I were about to bring about the annihilation of the world once more. “The Gwangmyeong Eight Spears cannot come here. Even the Thunder Star Sea is out of the question… because the role of the End Flower is not simply knocking on the doors of the Audience Chambers!”>
* * *>
In the Heavenly King Heaven—well, in what had been the Heavenly King Heaven—eight colossal beings of light were shaking with despair as they watched the Heavenly King Heaven collapse. : : Heavenly Venerables! : : Where were they all from? !!!>
The eight colossi simultaneously glared toward the Sun and Moon Heaven that had been reborn after the apocalypse beyond the Heavenly King Heaven. The single strike of Sarasu Heavenly Venerable, activated from there, had covered the Water Realm in annihilation and laid a “path” straight toward the [being connected to the End Flower] using the coordinates of that annihilation. The Gwangmyeong Eight Spears, who had been preparing to stop Taesan Sangje in the Heavenly King Heaven, all trembled in fury. [Seo Eun-hyun who had become the End Flower]>
And the being connected to him. The mountain lord who had been watching the end of the hunt for the Emperors finally began to exert his power. * * *>
At the eastern edge of the Water Realm, somewhere with small holes in the dimensional veils caused by the activation of the End Flower, someone had entered. “Kuuuk…”>
It was Hong Beom, who had lowered his realm to Integration level to enter. When Hong Beom stepped on the land at the eastern edge, his senses that had been lowered to the Integration level could not adapt. Or perhaps his ability to travel distant boundaries could not adapt. He clutched his head and staggered for a moment. In the midst of this, Hong Beom stepped on a blue worm that had just crawled out from underground and crushed it. “Uum…”>
Hong Beom came to his senses and lifted his foot that had stepped on the blue worm. The blue worm was already crushed and dead. Seeing that sight, Hong Beom knelt down apologetically for a moment. “Ah… I’m sorry, little worm. It was not my intention… I should have just stayed buried in the ground. Why did you stick your head out of the hole? Poor thing…”>
Hong Beom gently placed the blue worm back in the dirt and piled up a little mound. “If there is a next life, I hope you do not stick your head out of the hole then. You can be crushed and die. If you must stick it out… quickly return inside again. So that no one will step on you…”>
Hong Beom briefly prayed for the blue worm’s reincarnation, then returned to the distant place after restoring his balance. He looked toward the location where the unimaginable power of annihilation was blowing. Thud. Hong Beom used the technique of fixing his position with a resolute expression toward the power of annihilation. * * *>
“The path has already been laid.”>
Kugugugugu! Again the Water Realm was annihilated. At the same time I perceived that the gravitational force from Sarasu Heavenly Venerable had changed dramatically. The axis of space and time changed under the Heavenly Venerable’s gravity. I felt the time and space of every place in the world being wildly distorted. At the same time I saw an indistinct shape of spiritual ascent shining beyond the sky. With the power of Sarasu Heavenly Venerable’s authority, spiritual ascent activated something. “Come! To the Western Land, to Taishan, to Liberation!”>
At the same time, beyond the distorted time, the “path” connected to the End Flower was revealed. Beyond the annihilating Water Realm, beings [someone] began to appear. “Ah… so that’s how it was…”>
The shape of the old man holding the basket of flowers gradually distorted and twisted. To my sense it had been only seconds, but perhaps because of the distortion of space and time by Sarasu Heavenly Venerable and spiritual ascent. The beings revealed beyond that crack had already lived for thousands, tens of thousands of years. Countless Death Gods appeared, and from the dark and deep place, the [most ancient being] descended. A monstrous being that had accumulated power and authority through countless Mountains of Corpses and Seas of Blood—the [being connected to me] Taesan Sangje appeared. And behind him, although his form was indistinct, [a familiar being from somewhere] appeared. From the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears of the old man who had just been holding me, flowers of every color bloomed. He began to transform into a colossal monster of a flower field. : : The snake is coming. : :>
The voice of an ancient being sounded. I felt my entire soul being crushed by their existence. Because of their existence and mass, reality itself was distorted merely by their presence. Sarasu Heavenly Venerable placed me back in that spot. It was as if my role ended with calling these great beings to that place. The great beings who had been summoned no longer paid me any mind. Of them, the master of Taishan seemed to glance at me, but it seemed unimportant now. He turned his gaze away. However, even with that single glance I received a powerful backlash and was blown all the way to the distant back. In an instant I crossed the Water Realm and flew into the newly born Star Realm to see their backs. At the very front, the monster of the flower field spoke. : : The time has finally come to open the gates. In order to obtain time… : :>
With those words, the great beings began to exert their power. The entire newly born Sun and Moon Heaven, and even beyond the Sun and Moon Heaven, vibrated with their unimaginable authority. Wiiing! For some reason, the [most ancient being] turned to glance at me slightly. In the darkness where it was difficult to discern substance, the [most ancient being] did something to me. I immediately understood what he had done to me. He had forbidden death! “I see.”>
I did not know about the others, but that being clearly recognized my regression. And the world twisted under their authority, and blinding light illuminated the entire cosmos. And that was the end. Hwiiing! I had become nothing but a single flower petal, unable to die in the endless space of the universe. * * *>
The first year was survivable. However… after one year, three years, ten years had passed. I could do nothing while in the state of a flower petal. Complete powerlessness! Yet I gradually began to feel the return of my authority. At the outer edge of the Underworld, the authority of my Star Plate True Immortal was returning. If I simply connected to the outer edge of the Underworld after finding all my authority as a single flower petal, I could obtain power. But… I could not find a way to obtain power. * * *>
One hundred years had passed. As a mere mortal I decided to perform the Star Plate upgrade ceremony by splitting my mind. After all, the technique could be activated with will alone. I chanted the Flawless True Word while thinking of myself as “inverted” in the state of a flower petal and split my mind. * * *>
Ten thousand years had passed. In perceived time it felt like ten million. Perhaps because I had already performed the Star Plate upgrade ceremony as a Heavenly race. The Star Plate upgrade ceremony for mortals was ninety-nine percent complete. Even though it was inside a tiny flower petal, I created races and worlds with my thoughts inside, developed civilization, and eventually all things merged into me and became whole once more. If I recovered my body and performed the Star Plate upgrade ceremony in a simplified form, I could now become the Dual Sun of Heaven and Earth. My ability to handle techniques had developed, but finding my body and authority was still far away. Because the Underworld had forbidden my death, I could not even enter its outer edge. To break through this, I would need to either shatter the prohibition with power strong enough to break the Heavenly Lord’s prohibition or find something that ignored the prohibition. * * *>
Ten thousand years had passed. I floated through the cosmos, occasionally being eaten by True Star Shattering Venerables and excreted as waste while traveling the world. Since I could not die, I had no particular worry. I tried anything and everything to find a way to connect to the Underworld. At first I tried with techniques, but all the techniques I could use were consumed by the Heavenly Lord’s prohibition. With only techniques I could never find my own power. After realizing that, I searched for other methods. I clung to True Star Shattering Venerables and used my techniques to parasitize and then dominate the Venerable to try. I tried creating puppets or mechanical devices with parasitism. I activated every ritual and technique I knew. As a final resort I offered sacrifices to Geomgeuk Cheonjun. However, Geomgeuk Cheonjun did not respond at all. I also tried to find my companions, but after the distortion of space and time by Sarasu Heavenly Venerable and spiritual ascent, I could no longer connect from the Star Realm to the Central Realms. Trying to brain-wave through space and time without law power, qi, or gravitational force was too far away. Guiding the True Venerables was the same. Because space and time had problems, brain-wave with their power was also too difficult. After I learned that it was difficult to even meet my companions, intense suicidal impulses arose. But there was no particular way to die. Since using techniques was not completely free, I mostly spent my time in the powerless state of a flower petal, pondering how to escape this condition. * * *>
Hundreds of thousands of years had passed again. At that time my age was three hundred thousand years old. And it was then that I finally found the method. It was my death energy. Although it was said to forbid my death, the power of death accumulated in my soul remained as is. I searched for a way to handle this death energy in order to find my own power in this world where everything had vanished. First, if I could compress my death energy with the Dharma-Destroying True Word to the peak of gravitational force and then explode it, I could temporarily dispel the death energy. Therefore, I began to search for a way to handle death energy through the Dharma-Destroying True Word. Time continued endlessly. And when I reached exactly three hundred and twenty thousand years old…>
After endlessly imagining, worrying, doubting, and reestablishing a way to handle death energy, I realized I had gone mad. From a certain point, circles appeared before my eyes. The circles were the ones drawn by Hyeon-gwi. Previously I had feared these circles too much, and the fear of Hyeon-gwi who shattered them without hesitation and the void beyond was terrifyingly horrifying, so I had not dared to grasp a sword. However…>
I suddenly felt something odd. At that time it had been an extremely terrifying dance by Hyeon-gwi. But for some reason, now her dance did not seem that terrifying. I wondered why I had feared such things. I began to ponder the reason. * * *>
I reached three hundred and thirty thousand years old. My sense of time was beginning to slip. I had slipped before, but it felt as if I had transcended the time when I had worn the mask of a human. Now time passing no longer felt vaguely distant. Precisely, time was no longer frightening. Or rather… I was no longer frightened of anything else. Perhaps because of the forced face-wall practice for tens of thousands of years. I felt as though I had opened my eyes to “something.” I could not clearly see what that “something” was. But… when I saw the awakening of illusory perception, I only thought it might be related to the dance of Hyeon-gwi. I endlessly contemplated the dance of Hyeon-gwi and contemplated it again. * * *>
How much time had passed… Yes. Soon I would reach four hundred thousand years old. About two hundred thousand years had passed. Blink—>
I “blinked” my “eyes.” When I came to my senses, I was already inside “my body.” And… in front of me was a familiar being. I understood that the being had temporarily granted me a body. “You came to find me, Hyeon-gwi.” It was the girl in black robes—Hyeon-gwi. She stood upside down in the cosmic space with an expressionless and empty face, facing me. “How did you find me?” “Because you seem to have completed something interesting, I came to give you the chance to unfold it.” “It is still embarrassing to show yet.” “Show it now. It is almost complete, and what remains is only polishing. Naming and using it now would not be embarrassing, so I would like to test it once.” “Heh heh…”>
For some reason I found myself smiling. “Even you at the peak of non-duality… were you not eventually a mortal race?” “I came because it seemed like the best rehearsal before confronting the Underworld.” “The [most ancient being]… has gone toward the Water Realm. Do you think he will return?” I had learned everything about the End Flower of Sarasu Heavenly Venerable and the plans of the Heavenly Venerables and Imperial Immortals. I had also learned what kind of mad act Taesan Sangje had committed. Everything about what war they fought and what they planned had been understood. Therefore, in the end, without the Underworld her “rehearsal” would have no meaning. However, with my words Hyeon-gwi only mocked me. “Do not worry. The Underworld always returns.” “Huh?” “You know nothing. When the time comes, listen to me directly.” Srruk…>
Darkness gathered in Hyeon-gwi’s hand and formed a sword. I briefly looked at her in silence and summoned the Colorless Glass Sword. My current body was not my original body, but a temporary vessel created by Hyeon-gwi. And communication with my original body existing at the outer edge of the Underworld was still not possible. However, it seemed she had granted me the ability to bring out at least a sword of power equal to what I could wield. I briefly stared at the sword, and as she said, I prepared the single sword I had sought for tens of hundreds of thousands of years. “Can you now grasp the sword?” “Yes.” Uuuuuung! She simply drew a circle with her own sword. Just like the last time she had shown, it was not a dance drawing the circle but simply an act of drawing a rough circle in empty space. However, I felt as though I would be overwhelmed by her martial prowess emanating from that action. However…>
That was all. I smiled faintly and raised the sword. Hyeon-gwi smiled wryly and lowered her sword. “…It has become usable. Come, unfold it. What is the answer you have sought for tens of hundreds of thousands of years?”>
Chak! I took a stance. This was the single sword strike. But it was the one that transcended everything I had accumulated until now. The simplest movement called “thrust” by countless swordsmen. The Colorless Glass Sword and the All-Heaven Sword unified. And the form of the two swords united as one became a line. The tip of the sword became a point. I would thrust with this point. Hyeon-gwi smiled with a gloomy expression. I could not interpret what that expression meant. Eyes containing “welcome,” “pity,” “sympathy,” “joy,” “happiness,” “sadness,” “pain.” “Through tens of thousands of years of loneliness and powerlessness you have come to understand that place.”>
Srruk… the sword of darkness began to merge with her arm. It was not a simple sword. It was merely an assembly of martial arts in the shape of a sword! She looked at me as though she pitied me sincerely. “I congratulate you on having glimpsed the realm of true despair. Come, challenge me.”>
The next moment my sword was also dyed with darkness. No, all of my being was instantly dyed with darkness. I became death the next moment. I thought such a thought. If I could compress and explode death energy with the Dharma-Destroying True Word, could I not use it? While thinking about that, I suddenly recalled Hyeon-gwi’s martial arts. And while thinking about the circle of Hyeon-gwi and the use of death energy…>
I felt my mind reach some realm. It was… death. The other side of the complete annihilation that the Heavenly Lord of the Underworld had sealed with the name “reincarnation.” The realm of perfect eternal extinction. I witnessed the true death there. The void of the Heavenly Venerable of Emptiness also only imitated the true death and made a path easy for living beings to approach that true death. It was not true emptiness. What was true emptiness? What was true death? Death was pure. The primordial state when there was nothing. The absolute truth that applied equally to everything! Death was rest, and at the same time peace and great purity. However… after two hundred thousand years of face-wall practice, I had only slightly glimpsed that truth. I could not reach there. But… I knew. Only by reaching that “pure” could I shatter the Heavenly Lord’s prohibition and obtain death again. Then how should I reach there. In order to reach the realm of that purity, I compressed everything. All my lives. All deaths. All hearts. All history and future! A single thrust. With that I contained everything, the realm of purity. “True death” to reach it, the realm of the Underworld, the realm of the Origin River, the realm of the East Heaven Flower Garden, the realm of the Void Space. Into all of them I make “holes”!>
I surrounded my body with my death energy condensed to the point of liquefaction. What was the substance of this death energy? I had sought it for a long time and finally understood. This death energy was the trace of endless resistance against destiny amid my countless histories. The trace of endlessly struggling against gravity while resisting the destiny called death remained as death energy. Countless moments of defeat by gravity. Their residue became my shackles. The traces of defeat became my death energy and tried to cover me once more with the destiny of death, forcing defeat. However…>
This time I did not resist that death’s gravity. Instead I accepted it. I felt the death energy driving me toward death. Of course I did not die because of the Heavenly Lord’s prohibition, but the pain like death covered me. The one thousand moments of death flashed before my eyes like a strobe light. All those agonies rushed over at once! “Take it.”>
Hyeon-gwi’s single sword thrust downward toward me. I did not resist the power of death. Instead I yielded and added my will to the power of death. All my gravitational force and heart concentrated together with the seal of the Dharma-Destroying True Word and added to the power of death. Paaaat! In that state, I thrust! My body instantly transcended life. The Origin River, the East Heaven Flower Garden, the Void Space, the Underworld and other dimensions appeared before my eyes. And… I was beyond them. True death. Toward the realm of “purity” I thrust my sword. Hyeon-gwi in front of me no longer entered my eyes. I simply… thrust toward the extreme of martial arts. Danak Sword Art, the thirty-fourth move. Yielding to the power of my death, compressing all my strength and thrusting, a single thrust! Kunlun! I witnessed the complete realm of purity. Although it was only through a tiny hole smaller than a tiny point, I witnessed that purity. Pasasak! The next moment my sword broke, and my body was greatly cut. My first move shattered against Hyeon-gwi’s first sword. Pisssit! However, Hyeon-gwi smiled. A small hole had been pierced in her right hand. “Clumsy.”>
She commented. I simply smiled silently. After tens of hundreds of thousands of years, I could finally grasp a sword again. That alone was enough. “But it was worth watching.”>
After finishing the short comment, she simply burst her own heart and died right there. “I see…”>
I understood her suicidal manner, which had been too easy. It was not suicide. It was simply after discarding the flesh, moving toward the other side of death, approaching the realm of purity infinitely and then moving elsewhere. For her death was not something to fear but merely one part of her own martial arts. When I thought that she had only managed to create a single hole to witness the realm of purity with her full strength, the gap between us was despairing. However, I smiled. Pasasak… the Heavenly Lord’s prohibition did not stop me, who had transcended the realm of death in an instant. I recovered all my authority. At the same time… I felt my body and soul falling into that deep realm of the Underworld while exhausting all my will. “Ah… I have returned.” I feel it. For some reason at the deepest place of the Underworld, the scent of the [most ancient being] is felt. But after the single strike with Hyeon-gwi a moment ago, I had no resistance power. For some reason the [most ancient being] did not particularly draw me in. It was simply that I was entering the realm of the Underworld and falling. Hyeon-gwi did not seem to help particularly. “How… am I being suppressed?”>
Long and many things had happened. I closed my eyes and fell, so deeply, so deeply. Beyond the realm of the Underworld. At the place where the Sun and Moon Heaven was, for some reason small holes were being torn everywhere like by a worm, and three Central Realms that looked crushed had newly appeared, and beyond that… the Water Realm seemed slightly larger for some reason. While preparing for the annihilation of eternity, I fell powerlessly like a bug into the deepest place. That was my nine hundred and ninety-ninth regression.