Chương 661: Dao of Great Mountain

Above a mountain of countless corpses.

He is there.

Perhaps to speak with me, he sits on a rather low peak on the corpse mountain, and the mountain of corpses behind them seems to support him like a throne.

His Transformation form is extremely tall.

He appears to be about six chi plus three or four cun tall (around 190 cm/6'3"), similar in height to Oh Hyun-seok during his mortal days.

'Fighting Ghost Race?'

Looking at him, I get a feeling reminiscent of the Fighting Ghost Race, but the impression passes so quickly that I cannot be sure.

His shoulders are broad, yet his facial features are unexpectedly delicate.

With eyes closed and an expressionless face, he might even look like a woman due to his fair face.

However, his eyes are four-white eyes (四白眼), with unusually small pupils and a fierce gaze.

[TL: Eyes big enough or pupils small enough that whites are visible on all 4 sides.] Moreover, when he makes an expression rather than remaining emotionless, the muscles of his face contort significantly, and now, as he looks down at me with a twisted smile— His fair face turns into a cruel, vicious, and ferocious visage.

His hair is straight and deep navy-blue, and unlike the time when it was wrapped in bandages, it is now neatly groomed, falling past his waist and lightly tied at the end.

In contrast to his hair, however, the clothes he wears are a dark-red robe reminiscent of Yuan Li.

On the blood robe, perhaps meant to symbolize the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, are faint embroideries of wailing specters.

It is a blood robe even more chilling than that of Blood Yin or Yuan Li.

One of his legs is folded in a lotus position, while the other extends downward, stepping on the heads of corpses below, and on one of his knees lies the golden mask I had seen previously.

'... I see.'

That is the face of Gwak Am's Transformation form.

Most likely, his face during his mortal days was the same.

"It's been a while, Senior Brother."

"Show some respect. Before I tear out your tongue."

"The greatest respect I can give you is calling you senior brother. If you want to take my tongue, go ahead. Do you think I won't be able to speak without it?"

"No one is your senior brother. Don't be so displeasing."

"... Is it because I still look inhuman to you?"

"How could that be? Though I don't want to admit it, you are an Ender who gained a soul through your own strength. You are not like the trash I've seen until now."

Gwak Am chuckles, then plucks off the head of one of the nearby corpses and tosses it toward me.

"Eat it. Regardless of what happened, if you've reached the point of connecting with the Origin, then you just understand, correct? This too is a kind of repentant enlightenment. If you dared to say you'd defeat me, then you should also have the attitude to learn and study another's repentant enlightenment as well."

I pick up the corpse's head that falls near my feet.

This person is suffering.

Neither dead nor alive, bound by Gwak Am's principle, they are shedding tears of blood.

Pasasa— But instead of eating it, I immediately compress it with the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra, remove Gwak Am's principle, and release the spirit.

Aaaah...

The soul flies away, shedding tears of gratitude, and I glare at Gwak Am and speak.

"Since we've met, I'll say one thing, Senior Brother. Release the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea immediately. Guarantee their freedom and stop torturing them."

That's when it happens.

Hahahahahahaha— Uhahahahaha!

Kikikikikikikik— Kkukkakkakkak!

Ihahahahaha!

Kkiiyaaahahahaha!

Many of the corpses on the corpse mountain where Gwak Am sits begin to laugh while shedding tears of blood.

Gwak Am also wears an even more twisted smile as if something is amusing, and glares at me.

"You know nothing... and yet you babble on and on after seeing only the surface of pain."

"What...?"

"This is a stepping stone toward true awakening (正覺). We all can gain enlightenment through suffering! So, what right do you have to drive out these ones who practice repentant enlightenment?"

"... Are you saying that was Master's repentant enlightenment? That just because he beat you with a six-sided club to teach you, now you too inflict suffering on everyone under the guise of love? Are you really saying this is the will of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity!?"

"... Who knows."

Gwak Am erases his smile at my question and stares at me.

"I don't know about that. In the end, Master has fallen into slumber. There is no way to know the will of the dead. But one thing is certain."

Tudukuduk...

Gwak Am places his hand on one of the corpses, tears it from the other corpses, and lifts it in one hand as he speaks.

"I have certainly upheld at least Master's last will."

"Master's... last will?"

"Yes. Originally, none can enter beyond the Audience Chamber and return. Even the Golden Divine, who left many things behind in the Head Realm, like the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, only did so before attempting to enter the Audience Chamber. But Master... created a miracle. He went beyond the Audience Chamber and, even after being defeated by the Owner of Fate... managed to pass his will to me."

Then, as I hear the last words of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity spoken from Gwak Am's mouth, my eyes open wide.

"'Make all things of all phenomena undergo repentant enlightenment. If every living being in the Three Heavens Great Thousand World can come to know their own heart, then even fate can surely be overcome. Use every means, and cleanse the hearts of all. If it's you, you can do it. If it's you...'"

"..."

"He spoke thus and disappeared. Toyed with by fate, chewed up by the Head Realm, and condemned to humiliation that eternally repeats—that was his end... Do you understand?"

"... What?"

"Master... believed in me to make everyone undergo repentant enlightenment, even by my own methods."

Gwak Am's face contorts.

I look at him and shout.

"What do you mean by your own methods!? Isn't it how Master said to teach and help steadily... to inspire beings through preaching even if it takes longer, so they come to repentantly enlighten on their own and cleanse their own hearts!? Just what idea did this Corpse Mountain Blood Sea come from!?"

"... Silence. Using whatever means necessary was his will. In any case, the vast majority of the living beings in this Three Heavens Great Thousand World are bugs."

"What...?"

"They don't know their own fate, don't know why they were born, have no interest in the meaning of life, and simply live each day to barely extend their lives... Such animals are the majority. How do you plan to inspire and touch the hearts of those animals in a single day?"

Kwaduduk!

Gwak Am clenches the corpse fragment in his hand tightly.

Blood and pus squeeze out of the corpse, and an overwhelming scream sweeps across the area.

"There is only one way. If they cannot seek repentant enlightenment on their own, then I will do it 'on their behalf'."

"... What are you even talking about...?"

I stand dumbfounded before Gwak Am's madness, my mouth agape.

"Crack open the skulls of these bug-like beings, look back on their lives for them, and connect the entire reflected life to them so they are forced to reflect on their lives and their hearts. Again, and again, and again! If I keep doing so... then everyone in this world will one day attain enlightenment and reach true awakening."

Kikikikikik— Ihihihi— Suffering is the path to enlightenment.

Suffering is enlightenment...

Suffering... suffering...

Many corpses within the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea repeat those words, giggling.

Just as Gwak Am says, these seem to be ones who have undergone forced repentant enlightenment, attained their own realizations, and begun to perceive their own hearts.

"Hovering endlessly close to death, yet unable to die, spending ages akin to eternity and gaining insight into the domain of purity... Pursuing the principle of the domain of purity my Master once sought to challenge, and uncovering the principle of life itself. That is the privilege enjoyed by those of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea."

"..."

"Do you dare strip them of their privilege?"

I am so dumbfounded by that mindset that I cannot continue speaking.

Yes.

Killing plants, insects, beasts, civilians, and low-level cultivators—those unable to attain repentant enlightenment—and connecting them to oneself to perform repentant enlightenment in their stead.

That is the true nature of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, and the true identity of the violent mantra he has accumulated.

Only now do I understand the Underworld's statement that the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea is no mere sacrificial offering.

Each and every one is someone forcibly made to undergo repentant enlightenment by Gwak Am, becoming essentially his disciples.

And that means...

"... Then right now, how is this any different from you using your disciples as offerings whenever needed? You're not going to say that's something you learned from Master, would you?"

"To say they were used as offerings—how unpleasant. I gave them a 'chance'."

"What...?"

"Haven't you done the same all this time?"

Gwak Am throws the corpse in his hand aside with a sneer and points at me.

"I saw what you did in the Bright Cold Realm. You sought the disciples under that guy Jang Ik, then killed all your senior brothers and senior sisters with your own hands, didn't you? They, too, were delighted to get the 'chance' to challenge you."

"..."

"They too, under me, experience the boundary between life and death through countless ages, and yearn earnestly for the chance to reach the true heart—that is, the true death, the domain of purity. To give such people a 'chance' to reach the domain of purity, allowing them to charge toward purity. That is... the way of 'sacrificial offering' you speak of. I ask again. What difference is there between my 'offerings' and your use of your senior brothers and senior sisters as 'offerings'?"

"..."

It's sophistry.

How can one's self-will and a will designed by others possibly be the same?

"Self-will? Are you saying that true self-will exists in this world? In this hell where an Owner of Fate exists?"

"...!"

Seeing from how my thoughts have been read, I realize that Gwak Am has also risen to Araya Consciousness.

Of course, he is the God of Repentant Enlightenment who cleans the heart. It's not strange that his mind has reached such a stage.

"Everyone's life is designed beneath fate anyway. Unless one is a Supreme Deity, one can't even speak casually of self-will. No! Even among Supreme Deities, most are beings with leashes around their necks. Other than me and the Underworld, the rest are nothing but slaves. They are no different from those disgusting slaves who, despite being dragged along their leashes, can't even think of breaking free!"

Why is it?

Gwak Am's words grow more agitated, more enraged.

But for some reason...

I can't help but feel that the object of his anger is not the Supreme Deities or mortals he speaks of, but rather himself.

"In this world, something like self-will has no meaning. Therefore... whether it's self-willed or imposed, if one can know the heart through repentant enlightenment, that alone is a blessing."

"..."

Through those words, I understand.

Gwak Am cannot be persuaded.

He is a true madman.

Gwak Am reads my thoughts again and speaks with a sneer.

"Those who relentlessly push their own beliefs can't help but be madmen."

"Are you saying that repentant enlightenment can only be achieved through the way of a madman? You mean to truly remain as nothing more than a lunatic?"

"... Yeah. Maybe that's how it is. So what? In a mad world, if we don't become madmen, what are we supposed to do? You and I—neither of us knows the answer to that, do we?"

Finishing his words, Gwak Am speaks with a serious expression.

"In the end, we cannot know the answer. That is why I will keep pushing forward with my beliefs, as I always have."

"... Then..."

I look up at Gwak Am and spit out my words.

"All I can offer you is death."

"I've been waiting to hear those words."

In response, Gwak Am grins so wide that his molars show, and he spreads his arms wide.

"Come to me. Try to challenge me. Try to defeat me. Before I destroy Mount Sumeru, climb up here and let's settle this. I am the only disciple of Master. There is no need for a junior brother."

With eyes full of madness, he rises to his feet and shouts.

"Make your way through the chaos of the Salt Sea and reach me—then try to kill me! With the Seat left behind by Master as the stake... let us collide. If you want to defeat me, then use whatever means necessary to soar up... crash into me, and win. Prove that the mountain you have accumulated is bigger, taller, and has deeper valleys than mine. Only that..."

"Is the way of mountain spirits."

"... Yes. That is the way of the Mountain God."

Kugugugugugu!

Within the sanctuary of Origin.

From beyond that far-off place, a massive lump-like something rises.

It is an 'arm' formed of a mountain of corpses and sea of blood numbering in the Ganges's Sands.

That arm descends toward me.

"Come before me and prove it. That your mountain can stand higher than mine! Come now, rise to the Outer Sea. Come... and let us compete."

Kwaurururururung!

I stretch out my arm to resist the arm of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.

The moment that enormous palm presses down on me, I feel my bones shatter throughout my entire body and vomit divine blood.

Roughly three seconds.

That is how long I endure beneath that hand.

Kudududuk!

After three seconds, I am brutally crushed and dying, and along with the words of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwam Am that echoes in my ears, my consciousness begins to blur.

"Justice without power... cannot accomplish anything. So prove it. That your justice has power..."

Somehow, those words sound powerless.

With Gwak Am's strangely bitter face as the last thing I see, I return to reality.

Blink— As I come to my senses, I find myself once again inside the newly recreated Earth Axis Heavenly Domain.

Kugugugugugu!

Throughout the Earth Axis Heavenly Domain— No, the Axle Heavenly Domain—spirits are still flowing toward the Underworld, and my comrades all wear dumbfounded expressions.

Not even a single moment has passed since I met the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am.

Kwaduk!

I reach my hand into the void toward Oh Hye-seo, who looks up at me with a stunned expression.

Kwajijik!

She, who is trapped in the jade of Yin-Yang and Five Elements I created, chuckles and smiles within her dazed expression.

Her emotions transmit vividly to me.

Just moments ago, she had been sharpening her blade of revenge toward me, but now, I feel not even a trace of vengeance from her.

All that remains is a sense of awe and reverence.

"... How... could you become so... strong...?"

Oh Hye-seo's stunned face soon turns to one of self-loathing and despair.

"Why is it... that I can't become that strong...?"

"... It's nothing special."

I speak calmly as I seal her.

"It's just that the depth of life we've lived is different."

Kiiiiing!

The jade of Yin-Yang and Five Elements containing Oh Hye-seo transforms into a small bead and enters my body.

From now on, Oh Hye-seo will remain sealed.

After sealing her, I release my comrades and speak.

"Now, all preparations are complete."

I've done everything I can.

All that remains is...

"Now the only thing left is to succeed. I will leave for the 'outside,' obtain what I desire, and definitely return."

All that remains for us is to leave for the Outer Sea, complete the Underworld's mission, and return.

I turn into my Transformation form and approach my comrades, embracing them as I close my eyes.

"Let's succeed... no matter what. Everyone."

And so, we begin the final stage of preparations to head to the Outer Sea.

=== Author's Note: At last, the first meeting with the final boss of the Great Boundary arc, the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, has taken place. It feels like the prologue of the True Immortal Realm arc has come to an end.