The Battle of the Realms
If the battles of those at the Fissure Opening realm and above felt like cosmic wars, then the conflicts of those at the Star Plate realm and higher were no longer mere combat—they approached the very definition of war. [strong]__Each individual had become as vast as an entire world, rendering their clashes anything but ordinary. /__strong
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Kiiing—
A True Immortal unleashed a universe-shaking cosmic ray that blazed down upon Samokdo for sixty full years.
Another True Immortal converted the very attributes of the surrounding heaven-and-earth qi into pure poison.
The changing formulas of poison potency and composition seemed to shift on the scale of mere seconds, yet the process continued without pause across those sixty years.
Countless others rained eternal morning light upon the sky above Samokdo, preventing escape.
They obliterated every single starbeam falling upon my Samokdo spirits, ensuring that the Samokdo Heavenly Clans could never surpass the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment.
Countless curses pierced through Clear Scale Armor and Up-hwa.
For decades they had hammered against this realm without cease.
Yet no major catastrophe had befallen us.
The unblockable morning light was countered when Kim Yeon wove a vast curtain across the entire world.
The poison was consumed by Hong Beom, the curses by me, and the cosmic rays absorbed by Oh Hyun-seok.
True Immortals, just as they once did in the Myeonggwi Realm, reached into Samokdo’s interior and tried to create their own disciples to control them.
Even those who had grasped a portion of heavenly authority declared that they were bestowing heavenly karma in place of the cultivators.
Each time a Foundation Establishment cultivator ascended to Star Plate, they shot down a heavenly karma onto Samokdo.
It was not real heavenly karma, of course, so the problem was easily blocked.
But the protective barriers of Clear Scale Armor and Up-hwa began to tremble more and more violently.
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They had spoken the truth.
Up to now, there had been no major issue.
I had repeatedly pulled the Buhae Realm into Samokdo over intervals of ten years, causing its scale to expand dramatically.
Yet fate itself was the real problem.
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The Star of Fate appeared in the space near Samokdo, glowing with malevolent light and showing me a distant future.
The more time passed, the more the future scene of Samokdo developing cracks pulled it closer.
Fate itself was drawing us in.
At the Star Plate level and beyond, one’s perception of time changed dramatically.
The eyes of those at the Gaeyeol realm, who could simply gaze into the past, now allowed them to connect directly with the beings of the past.
By communicating with the entities of the past, they could draw upon their power.
They gained something almost as strong as Oh Hye-seo’s authority, simply through vision alone.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the Heavenly Clans no longer merely saw future possibilities.
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They could read the countless future possibilities scattered across the floor like grains of sand.
And they could gradually draw nearer to the desired possibility among them.
The ability to approach one’s own desired future—this was the vision of a Star Plate Heavenly Clan.
That was why the success rate for Gaeyeol promotions among those at the Star Plate realm and above was an astonishing four in ten.
Unless one possessed no will, was kidnapped and enslaved like Yeo-hui, or was “tied to the world” like the Saintesses of the Central Continent, the vast majority of Star Plate Saintesses could easily advance to True Immortal.
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But…
I could feel the history and future I perceived through the eyes of the Heavenly Clan and Dogeon twisting.
Space-time bent under invisible force, fixing only one scene of future I could approach.
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The only scene I could approach was the one predicted by the True Immortals!
Even that was not the end.
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The True Immortals had already begun overlapping their territories once more and weaving new symbols inside those overlapped regions.
They were preparing the next prophecy.
Perhaps around forty years from now, when a century had passed since the previous one, the next would be announced.
If they continued, prophecies of my defeat would pile upon one another until I finally shattered under the True Immortals.
The Saintesses of the Central Continent might hold their own against all True Immortals of the Heavenly Path, but I was only a Saintess of the Buhae Realm.
My own power in one-on-one combat could suppress a single True Immortal.
Recently, even Yeo-hui had been captured and collared, allowing me to summon her full strength alongside two additional Gaeyeol True Immortals.
Adding my colleagues—Gang Min-hee, Kim Young-hoon, and Jeon Myeong-hoon—brought our total power to three Gaeyeol True Immortals.
But…
That was all.
Just the Gaeyeol ones alone from the Ilwol Cheonyeok numbered well over a hundred.
I could never defeat them all.
Moreover, the four Central Continent Saintesses were practically four True Immortals.
What had kept me alive until now was nothing but the power of Clear Scale Armor and Up-hwa, the blade that judges sins.
Up-hwa was an absurdly powerful entity that even Gaeyeol True Immortals struggled to endure.
Soon, once those prophecies were completed, I would meet the same fate.
The only way to nullify the prophecies was one method.
“Just like when I ascended the void shattering.”
Just like when I shattered the star formed from the powers of dozens of Gaeyeol True Immortals with my Accumulating Dust to Form a Mountain!
“But that is impossible.”
The reason I could still resist these countless enemies was because it was a siege war.
If they advanced to attack the star they protected, I would be doomed.
“…Then what should I do…?”
Of course, one could use the method Taesansangje had shown to defy fate.
Create a Samokdo-like model, declare it as Samokdo under the authority of a Saintess, then open a gap inside it—and it would be solved in an instant.
But the Gaeyeol ones were not fools.
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This method had to remain hidden until the very end.
It was the one that could only be revealed in the final moments of the Apocalypse.
“Therefore, this one must stay hidden.”
If revealed too soon, they might devise a counter.
“Then the only way to turn the situation around is one.”
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The reply came from Kim Yeon’s voice transmission.
I nodded, then lifted my head toward the oncoming fate.
“I will not avoid it. Behold, heavens!”
This time I would show them how I overcome fate.
Thus, the three hundred forty years passed in the blink of an eye.
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During the four hundred years, the True Immortals issued three more prophecies.
All of them were ones that would arrive one hundred or two hundred years in the future, so the only prophecy I had to confront right now was the one that Samokdo would develop cracks on this very day!
And their prophecy had finally come true.
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Kiiiing!
I felt the fate of Samokdo being pulled entirely into the [scene] the True Immortals had chosen.
At the same moment, one of the cracks that had formed in Samokdo after four hundred years of integration exploded.
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Kwaaang!
My concentration shattered from the internal tremor.
At the same time, a storm “accidentally” raged across Samokdo,
and “accidentally” the storm pulled heaven-and-earth qi into the breach in the formation.
The explosion from the crack and the excessive qi injection into the formation’s flaw resonated perfectly with the same frequency “by accident,” shaking the flaw wide open.
And in that instant!
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Kwaaang!
“Accidentally,” one of the True Immortals’ attacks struck the trembling flaw.
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Chwaak!
And at last, a gap had opened in the Clear Scale Armor and Up-hwa barrier.
Fate had been realized.
The eyes of the True Immortals turned bloodshot.
Baek-woon laughed coldly and shouted while drawing upon the power of the Gwanghan Realm.
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The Saintesses began pouring attacks toward the gap in Up-hwa in unison.
At the same time…
I snapped my fingers.
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And…
The puppets Kim Yeon had crafted over four hundred years began to move in unison.
Kkak-kkak-kkak-kkak…
When I fought Won Rip, Song Jin had told me that the way to confront fate was history.
Goe-gun had told me that the way to defeat fate was to leap into “another future” with a stronger power.
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“Leap!!”
The leap of fate that began with the advice of Goe-gun and Song Jin.
Twenty-eight artificial stars formed the [sky] and unleashed powerful attraction.
At the same time, puppets moved everywhere, mimicking the appearance of Samokdo spirits.
The artificial souls of the puppets converged toward the Wondrous Castle floating in the center of the artificial stars.
At the same time…
Goe-gun’s final act.
The final device of the Wondrous Castle.
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Yeon-ui Yeon activated.
The artificial souls released attraction.
And through attraction, they twisted fate, and through fate, they twisted history and space-time once more!
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Kiiing!
The entire Samokdo was now covered by the [past space-time] caused by Yeon-ui Yeon!
The puppets had recreated the history of Samokdo over four hundred years.
The place we were in now was not [the Samokdo that had developed cracks according to the True Immortals’ prophecy after four hundred years].
It was [the Samokdo that had not developed cracks during those four hundred years]!
The True Immortals who had sought to burrow into the gap of Samokdo were repelled by the covered space-time or burned by Up-hwa and screamed in madness before their consciousnesses were sealed away and they fell into sleep.
And I, on the other side of the covered Samokdo where Yeon-ui Yeon had activated, repaired the gap in the [real Samokdo].
At last, the covered space-time vanished and the real Samokdo was revealed.
The True Immortals had no choice but to go mad.
Their prophecy had become completely useless.
I smiled faintly and said,
“Keep prophesying as many times as you like. I will catch every single one of them.”
I myself would undoubtedly fall.
But I had companions, the wisdom and experience accumulated over four hundred thousand years, and countless techniques.
What I had accumulated was not so weak that it could not survive even ten thousand years of time.
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I smiled viciously and sent a signal to Kim Yeon.
The next instant, Kim Yeon once again activated Yeon-ui Yeon.
At the same time, I drew upon Oh Hye-seo’s authority and summoned the power of the past under the authority of a Saintess.
The scene Kim Yeon had just shown me was the [past Samokdo], and if Goe-gun’s planned Yeon-ui Yeon had been [his happiest moment in the past], then the moment I would summon was something else.
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“I will show you how many beings I have entangled with until now.”
The next instant.
Yeon-ui Yeon, Oh Hye-seo’s authority, the Dogeon’s vision as a Saintess, and the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram merged completely, and my [memory scene] was realized for a mere instant.
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Kwaaajijijijik!
It was the day of the extinction of the Geum-sin Cheon-rae Gate.
The day the sky “opened” and the [Owner of the Heavenly Punishment]’s eyes looked down upon the Gwanghan Realm.
At the same time as the Owner of the Heavenly Punishment’s gaze, the Gaeyeol True Immortals vomited screams of agony.
“Receive this.”
It was the gaze of an Imperial Immortal!
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I, who had only been Nascent Soul back then, received it…
Then how can you not receive it?
There was no concern of Jeong-ryeo or the Owner of the Heavenly Punishment connecting with me.
Jeong-ryeo, who had ignored me and spoken only to Geum-jin-jo even in the Thunder Star Sea, had no reason to seek me out this lifetime.
Moreover, this operation had already been confirmed in advance with the Heavenly Clan’s vision, so there was no problem at all!
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Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!
The wails of the True Immortals rose loudly, led by Baek-woon.
And lightning erupted from their bodies, and they all received the lightning curse that I shared!
The next instant, the entire sky was dyed in lightning.
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The thunder roared across the heavens!
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