The Heavens, Oh Heavens (2)
Day had broken after night.
And I beheld something strange.
Whoosh—
The stone platform that I had once created in my imagination for the imagined Kim Young-hoon, which I had split in half, floated up into the void.
“Eh…?”
And a faint figure slowly began to appear once more.
The figure I had split in two.
That figure remained half-divided, with its right and left sides each grasping the upper and lower parts of its own torso.
And shortly after, new bodies began to grow from the opposite sides of the split figures.
Twitch… twitch—
As the new bodies fully matured, the reality of the two figures became clear once again.
Once more, it was Kim Young-hoon.
Now two Kim Young-hoons each gripped their weapons and aimed at me.
Both Kim Young-hoons looked at me with transparent eyes and asked.
Enough of these pointless thoughts. Let us spar.
“Hoo, hahaha…”
Saliva dripped from my mouth.
My eyes felt bloodshot, but I laughed loudly and grabbed the stone platform, staggering to my feet.
“Hahaha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
I rushed at the two Kim Young-hoons.
Whether they were mad or not, what did it matter.
Yes, let’s just play and think later.
***
It took another six months before I finally beheaded the two Kim Young-hoons.
I roamed every corner of Deungsunhyang, fighting the two Kim Young-hoons.
And finally, I raised the Danak Sword Art to its absolute peak and succeeded in beheading both Kim Young-hoons at the same time.
Before me lay the corpses of the two half-beheaded Kim Young-hoons.
Even though they were split in two, they smiled faintly.
Their expressions were almost eerie.
“…I split you, yet you hold no grudge?”
Still split in half, the two Kim Young-hoons shook their heads.
Instead, they seemed happy that my martial power had risen.
And from the bodies of the two split Kim Young-hoons, new bodies began to sprout once more.
Twitch… twitch…
Now that there had been two, the Kim Young-hoons had become four.
Four Kim Young-hoons, each gripping weapons, surrounded me.
The battle would now be even harder.
“Good! Let us fight!”
***
Months passed once again.
Whenever I returned, I performed the Heavenly Ceremony toward the sky, and whenever the ceremony failed, I smashed the altar together with the six proliferating Kim Young-hoons.
“Why! Why! Why!”
I screamed toward the sky while smashing the altar along with the Kim Young-hoons.
“Why don’t you grant me permission… Heavens…!”
Why me, still… still…!
If my faith was not enough at this point, what exactly did you want from me!
Kaboom!
The sixth Kim Young-hoon wielded his weapon and shattered the final piece of the altar.
After thanking Kim-hyeong, I sighed and sat down in place.
“…Kim-hyeong.”
I spoke to the Kim Young-hoons.
“I know. I have gone mad right now. But on one hand I am insane, and on the other I am still rational.”
The repeated failures, the loneliness of being unable to converse, and the depression caused by repeated regression had created these phantoms before my eyes.
I gazed upon my own feelings and formed a hypothesis about the Kim Young-hoons in front of me.
“…You are the Kim Young-hoons I remember from my past lives?”
At those words, the six Kim Young-hoons nodded.
Excluding the first Kim Young-hoon from the life before regression.
And excluding this cycle’s Kim Young-hoon, they were the six Kim Young-hoons I had met over six regressions.
The Kim Young-hoons I remembered and yearned for.
The phantoms before me were undoubtedly them.
“…You forcibly dragged out my delusions. I only wish to apologize for summoning my deceased arbitrarily.”
They grinned and said it made no difference since they were my delusions anyway.
I chuckled and gripped my sword.
“…It is only right that I thank you for playing with me.”
Flash
When I blinked, their figures vanished and six stone platforms floated in the void.
When I blinked again, they became six Kim Young-hoons once more.
***
Seven years had passed.
“Heavens… grant me strength.”
Heavens, grant me permission…
Croooosh—
Once again I bit my lip while looking at the dark clouds blocking my path.
“Still… still…”
Still.
Even now I had not been granted permission by the heavens.
It was different from the time when I was progressing from first rate to peak.
Then there had been an indescribable huge wall blocking me.
But I had clearly felt that something existed beyond that wall and had devoted my entire life to smashing it.
Yet now it was not a huge wall.
It felt as though I had been thrown into the endless void of space with nothing but my bare body.
Wall or not, there was nothing.
The next realm was invisible.
There was no guarantee when the heavens would grant me permission, and I was simply forced to cling to their cold, ruthless mercy.
Could I reach the next realm…?
“…I have to try.”
Crack… crack…
I grabbed the altar with fingers infused with qi.
Marks of my fingers remained imprinted on the stone altar created with the Juju-wonbeop technique.
“Still… I have to try.”
Even if the heavens ignore me.
Even if I am nothing but a struggling bug.
I must hold on until I reach a point where I can endure.
Yes, not today, but tomorrow.
Not tomorrow, but the day after.
Until the day it accepts me.
I will continue trying…!
“Heavens… I am waiting!”
Kaboom!
I stomped my foot.
The altar buckled.
From the sides, the six Kim Young-hoons who had been assisting me with their weapons smashed the altar with me.
“We will definitely reach it!”
***
Crack!
At some point.
I had beheaded the six Kim Young-hoons.
The heavens had not granted me permission, yet I kept swinging my blade.
Even that was nothing but my delusion.
Was the Kim Young-hoon before my eyes the real one?
No.
If he had been real, he would have fired a single strike and ended me.
I was only fighting the Kim Young-hoons supported by my imagination.
But…
Now I had beheaded even the Kim Young-hoons of this cycle that I had missed.
Now who did I have to fight?
Who did I have to spar with to vent this misery?
It was then.
Twitch… twitch…
The six phantoms of Kim Young-hoon that I had beheaded twitched.
And from their body fragments, something began to grow.
It was the chief of the Royal Shadow Guard of the Makri Imperial Court.
And its members.
“Huh?”
The Shadow Guard had sprouted from Kim Young-hoon’s corpses, and the six Kim Young-hoons had twitched and grown once more.
Now the Shadow Guard had joined the six Kim Young-hoons.
“Heh, not bad.”
The more experts who joined in unison, the better.
I felt saliva dripping from my lips and shouted.
“Come at me! All of you! Alright, I will make weapons for you!”
I made a pact and created stone weapons for the Shadow Guard members and the Kim Young-hoons, infused them with qi, and tossed them.
They received my weapons and rushed at me one after another.
Every time I fought, a sharp thrill echoed in my mind as I felt the misery and despair from the failed ceremonies dissipated.
“Hahaha ha ha ha ha!”
It is fun!
So much fun!
I am happy!!!
My will was inexplicably a dark blue light, yet I shouted without caring.
“It is good!!!”
***
Two years passed.
Thirty-two years since the first regression.
Twenty-two years since the start of the Chilseongje.
On that day too, I drooled from my lips while receiving the combined attacks of several peak experts from the Shadow Guard and the Kim Young-hoon group as we flew through Deungsunhyang using Void Step.
“Um…?”
Suddenly, while receiving the chief of the Shadow Guard’s extreme attack, I felt something foreign below me.
“Th-that…”
I widened my eyes and gestured to the person I had been playing with to come down.
It was a stone building.
Traces of civilization!
I rushed toward the stone building in haste.
“This place is…”
No signs of life inside the stone building.
At most, spiritual herbs, poisonous herbs blooming in Deungsunhyang, and some low-level demonic beasts had appeared to me.
However, those creatures, startled by the Shadow Guard and the peak experts of Dae Munpa following me, widened their eyes and fled.
“Um, but that is strange. Since I am mad, they should only be visible to me… Why are they running?”
While thinking, I realized that countless weapons were floating in the void following me, which was an extremely terrifying sight.
“Well, it is fine… Anyway, what is this building…”
The building looked like one used thousands of years ago.
There was nothing inside.
“It was not made for habitation.”
Yet the space was too narrow for that.
This was not really a building, but rather…
“It feels like a shrine.”
I saw an altar-like place where a memorial tablet or similar might be placed and became certain.
On the top of the altar, there was a large square hole where something had once been placed.
“A memorial tablet or a stone monument…”
Wait, a stone monument?
I stepped out of the building and looked at it hurriedly.
Because I had been inspecting it too quickly, I had not noticed, but this building was not simply abandoned for being old.
Scattered around were stones that looked like remains of stone buildings, and the bottom part of the stone building had been torn away.
And the terrain around the stone building.
It looked as though…
“A person with very strong power had pulled this stone building from its original place and thrown it here…?”
The terrain around the stone building was deeply sunken in one direction.
A scar as though it had been thrown and left a mark on the ground.
I looked in the direction the mark pointed.
It was the direction of the Ascension Gate.
“The hole in the altar inside the stone building… Its size matches that of the stone monument that was floating above the Ascension Gate…?”
Perhaps this stone building had originally been built at the site of the Ascension Gate.
And one of the Cheonin qi cultivators had pulled it here and thrown it.
“Is there some secret hidden here…?”
While searching around the stone building, I found something pleasant.
“This is…”
A stone fragment engraved with oracle bone script.
Since it was too ancient, I could not identify it properly, but according to what I knew, it probably meant thunder.
I searched the area around the stone fragment engraved with the character for thunder, but there was nothing visible.
“This is rather curious. Is there some secret hidden in Deungsunhyang?”
What was the meaning of the oracle bone script meaning thunder?
Was it related to the thunderclouds around the Ascension Gate?
“Hmm… It is curious.”
While forming various hypotheses, my mind cleared, and the countless figures around me became transparent.
Only countless stone weapons floated in the void.
“For now, let me see if there are more similar things…”
I wandered through every corner of Deungsunhyang in search of similar stone buildings.
Deungsunhyang itself was as vast as combining five entire kingdoms of Yeon.
It was roughly the size of South Korea.
I roamed the enormous Deungsunhyang.
At the center of Deungsunhyang was the Ascension Gate, and this Deungsunhyang was a circular land floating in the void centered around the Ascension Gate.
However, despite searching every corner of Deungsunhyang, I could not find any more similar stone buildings.
“Hmm, without any clues it is hard to investigate…”
I sighed and headed back to the vicinity of the Ascension Gate after a long time.
Due to the passage of time, the Ascension Gate was closed, but the spatial cracks and thunderclouds around it remained.
However, I saw something I had not paid attention to before.
The remains of a stone building near the Ascension Gate.
Stones that looked like the same material as the stone building were laid out in abundance in that area.
It was probably the foundation of the stone building.
“Hmm…”
I examined the stones that seemed to be the foundation of the stone building for a while and then returned to the location of the stone building.
The direction the stone building had been thrown was north based on the Ascension Gate.
Suddenly I realized that the size of the stone building did not match the size of the foundation part near the Ascension Gate.
“The foundation part is almost ten times larger.”
That meant the stone building had originally been much larger.
Then why was only this stone building left here.
I thought the remaining stones had weathered and crumbled, but I could not see many such remains nearby.
Then…
“A larger stone building existed, and the cultivator who threw this building tore it apart and threw it here. Only this part fell here, and the rest…”
Further north.
It had fallen outside Deungsunhyang.
I ran toward the northern end of Deungsunhyang and looked down at the Dabcheon Desert below.
“Tsk, it is all sand.”
But perhaps it had been buried in the sand.
Stones were quite hard and did not chip easily, so I would have to dig under the sand in the area later.
Or, since I had learned the Earth Digging Technique, I could dig underground.
“Anyway, I will investigate later.”
I made that conclusion and looked at the sky.
I had not paid attention to the sudden doubts and curiosity, but now I had to perform the ceremony again.
“Until when…”
But suddenly.
A desire to throw everything away surged.
“Until when… must I do this…”
Perhaps I was doing something very foolish.
In fact, the heavens had no intention of granting me permission no matter what I did.
Was I just wasting my sweat?
Was I just doing stupid things while staying in Deungsunhyang?
I…
“…Master.”
I gritted my teeth.
Kaboom!
When I stomped my foot, dirt shot up and I created an altar.
“It is said that if there is faith, there will be a response… Disciple will give everything.”
Still.
I could not give up yet.
Even if I gave up, I would only give up after dedicating this life to the challenge.
Because there were too many people who had pushed me in all the countless lives…
Countless figures surrounded me.
Some held weapons, some did not.
Kim Young-hoon, subordinates from the time of leading the Gwanghan Martial Alliance, subordinates from the time of the Shinma Jeon, the Shadow Guard…
And my disciples,
And Master.
Only now could I understand.
I was not mad.
I had simply called them out due to an overwhelming desire from my heart.
And the countless people in my memory had only been projected in front of me according to my will for a moment.
“I will not give up.”
I looked at all of them.
At Kim Young-hoon.
At my disciples.
At Master.
That was what I said.
“Even for the sake of not forgetting your help…!”
I gathered the offerings, decorated the altar, and prepared for the ceremony that night.
***
Heavens.
Heavens.
Grant me strength.
Grant me permission.
I shouted while looking at the sky filled with dark clouds.
But the heavens remained silent.
Without any answer, they simply watched me in silence.
It was a failure once more.
But I did not give up.
“Heavens… grant me strength…”
“Heavens… grant me permission…”
I prayed earnestly, performing the ceremony again and again.
The heavens did not look at me, but I no longer looked at the heavens either.
Instead, every time I performed the ceremony, I looked at the countless figures standing around me.
The countless connections that had pushed me, the connections I had pushed, the connections that had supported me.
Even if we could no longer meet, the ones who would always be with me in my heart.
“Heavens…”
I will not give up.
Because I am not alone.
From some point onward, when the ceremony ended I no longer smashed the altar in anger.
Instead, I focused on gathering stones again and stacking the altar higher and more solidly.
My altar gradually rose.
One day it would reach the heavens.
And as time passed, the figures surrounding me became clearer.
The higher the tower, the more solid.
The six Kim Young-hoons I had sparred with, the Shadow Guard, several peak experts.
And my disciples.
Over five hundred disciples, the Shadow Guard, Kim Young-hoon, elders and protectors from various Dae Munpa.
The death squads that had fought with me in the Jin Clan.
All of them came out holding weapons and sparred with me.
At first it was difficult, but after several years I had become able to fight the entire group equally.
But as my skill grew, the number of figures participating in my sparring gradually increased.
Most were wulin people holding weapons, but
Even the small bandits, pirates, and demonic wulin people I had captured, and even the first-rate experts I had sparred with gradually expanded the range, and the number reached nearly two thousand.
Thirty-fifth year of regression.
Twenty-fifth year since the start of the Chilseongje.
How many times had I failed the ceremony?
“I don’t even remember.”
But I felt that I would not break.
I was not alone.
“With so many people together, how can I be alone…!”
“Heavens, look.”
Humans cannot reach the heavens alone.
But every human is originally not complete alone.
Within countless connections and relationships.
Only inside that “us” does a human come into being and live.
“Heavens, you are not looking at me.”
I was not composed of only me.
That is why the heavens cannot ignore “us”.
I had now climbed to a gigantic altar as tall as four floors.
Thousands of weapons floated in the void below the altar in formation.
When I blinked, all the weapons were held by countless figures.
And in addition to those figures, thousands of more figures not holding weapons looked at me.
Someone might say I am a madman who has gone insane and plays with imaginary beings.
From that perspective, I was indeed mad.
But from the perspective that humans yearn for humans, is it really madness?
Every human is born, grows, and dies within humans.
Humans are inevitably drawn to other humans.
Humans yearn for humans.
Humans yearn for life.
Is it madness for humans to yearn for a higher place for him?
“Heavens, I can no longer give up.”
I murmured while gazing at the countless figures.
I knew that too.
They were illusions created by my loneliness, longing, and yearning.
But if I could sever the cycle of regression and the shackles of fate.
I could find all those illusions and find my life again.
And for that.
I had to climb up!
As I climbed the altar, I shouted toward the heavens.
“Heavens, look! I will not give up! I cannot give up!”
Then grant me strength!
Then grant me permission!
The ceremony had begun.