Chương 784: Audience (謁見)

Kugugugugu!

With the move of Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens, I directly transcend spacetime.

I see countless timelines, and along those timelines that are like blood vessels, I see the figure of a baby who has not yet stirred in the womb.

The starting point of creation, the outskirts of the Akashic Records, which only Gwak Am using Annihilation Advancement Wu or Kim Young-hoon with the Golden Great Thousand World barely managed to reach.

Now... I can reach it by will alone.

'I see it.'

Countless cycles.

Countless timelines faintly shimmer before my eyes.

'I can... go back...'

I feel nostalgia for the distant cycles.

And, over there in the distance, there is also something that looks like [16th cycle].

I slowly begin to view what concerns the 16th cycle.

At the same time, in one of those faraway worlds, I see someone familiar.

It is Oh Hye-seo.

'So that's how it is...'

It is Oh Hye-seo of the past.

It is that time when, struck by Gwak Am's Annihilation Advancement Wu, she was flung all the way here and, transcending time and space, tried to bring Azure Tiger Saint.

She succeeded in safely connecting to the previous spacetime.

At that moment, I realize something.

'She can't... get back... can she...?'

Indeed.

It was because Gwak Am used Annihilation Advancement Wu that Oh Hye-seo reached that place.

Without something on the level of Annihilation Advancement Mu, she could not return.

'... My plan back then was quite reckless and left to luck alone, huh?'

Then, how on earth did she come back?

I suddenly see her converse with the will of Cheong Min inside Azure Tiger Saint.

And at some moment.

'Ah...'

"Sorry... I'm... sorry... Seo Eun-hyun."

Seeing her shout with sincerity, my body moves before I know it.

That is a prayer toward me.

"I'm sorry...!!!"

I very gently breathe my Auspicious Soul Filling the Heavens into the Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens of the past.

She does not recognize me, who has become Star Genesis Supreme Deity, but it does not matter.

I look where she is headed.

I feel my eyes meet the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am, who is fighting me in the past.

So it is.

He...

From the very moment he saw the [White Deer]!

He knew he would be defeated.

'I see...'

From the start, saying he was the original owner of the deer was merely empty talk.

No, more precisely, it was only a part of the method to desecrate fate.

He saw a being who seized the Origin Essence of the Mountain and sent a deer across spacetime, but no matter how he looked, that being was not himself...

Thus, to block the fate of his defeat, he thrashed about.

The one who struggled until the very end within fate was him.

With Oh Hye-seo's heartfelt apology, even the small dregs of grudge that remain despite hanging her upside down and beating her severely completely melt away, and...

I hold in my chest the will of Gwak Am, who did not give up to the end despite having confirmed fate.

His character was vile, but in that will he is someone from whom I have something to learn.

And at the same time...

As I leap into the original spacetime, I cannot help but feel a strange foreboding.

'If [up to here] is all fate...'

Can we truly escape fate...?

Because this foreboding does not erase even when I try to shake it off, I simply accept it.

However, even while feeling ominous, even while fearing fate, I step forward.

'I have already walked this far.'

Even if I am afraid and afraid again, there is a time when I must step forward, Burning the handful of courage that remains, I begin to advance toward that future.

Tsuaaaaaat...!

As the original timeline returns again, the Audience Chamber begins to appear in the far distance.

Tstststststs...

What appears along with the Audience Chamber are my comrades who arrived slightly faster than me in front of the Audience Chamber.

And...

It is the Underworld, who, having half stepped into the Audience Chamber, is staring blankly at something.

Kugugugugugu!

::...!:: I see [three] immense things like great rivers flowing into the Audience Chamber.

Flutterflutterflutterflutter— The most eye-catching river is the sheets of paper spewing out across all of Mount Sumeru.

Seeing that, I launch a pre-emptive strike toward the Future King who is beyond the Audience Chamber.

If I know the opponent is hard to defeat, seizing the initiative with the first move is the best plan!

The move of Great Mountain Pressing Down bursts from my sword, and, having noticed my intention, Kang Min-hee and Kim Yeon each unfold the mantra and Immortal Art of Fallen Flowers and Liberation Peach Garden Village.

Two otherworlds cover the entirety of the Audience Chamber, and by the laws we create, the being inside the Audience Chamber begins to [shrink].

Kudududuk...

I enter the Audience Chamber together with the Underworld.

Dudududududu!

What is visible inside the Audience Chamber is the sight of some being whose initiative was stolen, endlessly [growing smaller].

Kurururung!

We too have some of our authorities restricted and our rank pressed down a bit, but the being before our eyes truly appears to grow smaller without end or limit.

However...

'What is that...?'

Though it is certain they have shrunk to an immense degree, they still appear as large as the Underworld's Gandhara or my main body.

'This place is...'

I quickly look around.

Grasping the surrounding environment is the cornerstone for victory.

And I cannot help but freeze.

To the point I even stop perusing the 16th cycle and must stare around this place for a moment.

'This place is...'

Now I remember.

I, we...

Here.

Made a contract with [That].

Right after suffering the landslide.

And just before falling into Ascension Path.

Our 'start' was here.

"Did we... come from the Audience Chamber...?"

The surroundings are a vast starry sky.

Innumerable clusters of light sparkle, and what is visible ahead are the symbol of a great [Black Snake Biting Its Tail], and next to that symbol, a small birdcage made of iron bars of all colors.

And beneath that symbol and the birdcage, on both sides of the jade throne, two faint shapes of circles waver as if about to scatter.

The moment I gaze straight at them, wisdom seeps in, and I can know what they are.

The Absolute of Fate, Totality (全部).

The Absolute of History, Omniscience (全知).

And finally...

The Absolute of Miracle, Sincerity (全心).

'I see.'

Understanding the true name of the Third Absolute that I have not known until now, I cannot help but fall into a certain reflection.

At the same time, I realize that quite a lot of clues have been telling me the name of the Third Absolute.

—To utter Shattering Heaven is only possible if there is an absurd miracle.

—Such a thing is absurd, but if it is not a miracle, there is no escaping its gaze.

—Therefore this Seat, relying only upon the possibility of a miracle, leaves here a warning for later generations.

Yang Su-jin's miracle did not simply speak of an absurd probability.

—Enders bring about miracles.

It was a clue that was even more intuitive than expected.

'From the very beginning, we are beings that split off from the Miracle... I see. My answer...'

... is not wrong.

But with no time to fall into reflection, the black existence sitting upon the jade throne begins to move.

"Ah..."

Kugugugugugugu!

I feel nothing at all.

As if the terrifying aura that blanketed the world a moment ago is a lie, it is a presence like emptiness.

But that, instead, is even more frightening and horrifying.

For the fact I do not feel any energy at all...

As though a being with a low rank cannot even sense their presence.

Upper dantian, middle dantian, lower dantian.

A being with holes pierced through the three dantian begins to awaken, and their three dantians begin to fill.

Flutterflutterflutter...

Seeing that, I start to recall the explanation of [someone] that I heard in the 16th cycle.

—Stories are originally cruel. But reality can be even more cruel... By any chance, have you ever looked up the Original Text (原典)?

—You have not, you say? Haw haw...

—Then I shall tell you. The original text I know... goes like this.

Chapter 1.

The story of a boy who brings a carp in winter for his mother.

—They say the boy did not save his mother. When he got the carp and returned home, his mother was already dead, whether frozen to death in the cold winter or starved to death, no one knows.

Chapter 2.

The story of a blind man who prays to the heavens again and again and regains his sight.

—The boy who lost his mother, even in that situation, was hungry and ate the carp. He then fell ill and his eyes rotted away. Though he prayed to the heavens, the heavens did not answer.

—So he tried to live by joining forces with his leg-crippled friend, but the leg-crippled friend betrayed the eye-crippled boy, stole the mother's keepsakes, and, caught trying to sell them to a merchant, was killed by the eye-crippled boy.

—In the end, not receiving an answer from the heavens, the eye-crippled learned, by his own talent, the way to feel the flow of Heaven and Earth and to sense people's hostility, coming to know the world.

Chapter 3.

The story of a husband who, when his wife falls ill with a fatal disease, lights fire on the tip of his finger to cure her illness.

—The eye-crippled also became an adult. Wandering from village to village holding the blade with which he had killed his friend, he met a woman driven out for having leprosy, had his heart... stolen... was loved... and... married...

—Wanting to cure the leprosy... he roamed all the mountains and rivers... sought a way to cure leprosy, heard that if one lights fire beacons (烽火/Bong Hwa) on five mountain peaks the disease would be cured, searched and searched for the mountain peaks but could not find them, and returned home.

—But the moment he returned home, the house where the wife with leprosy lived was burned by thieves, and even as he burned his own hands, he failed to save his wife and went mad.

Chapter 4.

The story of a poor old man who gets a goblin cap and becomes rich.

—Thus he went mad, and at the same time gained the enlightenment of being forgotten by the world. In a state unseen by anyone, he went around killing.

—People, monsters, spirits, and goblins...

—Whatever stood before him, all of them...

Chapter 5.

The story of a child who, driven from his hometown by schemes of a fox sister, met the Dragon King, heard the method to appease the fox sister, returned, and reconciled with the fox sister.

—The man who began to grow old met a fox.

—When the fox disguised herself as his wife and appeared before him, he thought, for the first time, that a miracle descended and rejoiced.

—Though he himself knew it was not real, even so he soothed his madness by believing it to be real.

—To the point that even if the fox set him up as her henchman and destroyed a nation, a continent, a star, he followed...

—There was no problem until the sacred Dragon King told him the truth. Even when the Dragon King told him the truth, if only the fox, suspicious of the eye-crippled, had not dug up the wife's grave and threatened him...

—It could have been a good ending. The eye-crippled split the fox apart into pieces and tore the body to shreds.

Chapter 6.

The story of an old man at the end of his lifespan who offers rituals to the heavens a thousand times and extends his lifespan.

—Before long, the old man's lifespan also ran out, and he offered a ritual to the heavens. He linked countless stars to stars, and with it he drew a formation and performed a ritual.

—It was not a ritual to extend lifespan.

—Just a ritual begging, and begging...

—For his next life to stop making him miserable.

—The ritual did not come true.

—Why would the lofty heavens have any interest in such a mere bug?

—The eye-crippled only wasted his time for nothing, and ended up croaking like such.

—This... is the original text of the story.

The stories of the fairy tale books I have seen on Mount Sumeru, which are everywhere in this world, flow to the lower dantian of the Future King.

They flow into the place that symbolizes History and Qi.

Inside the fairy tale books, the protagonists of the illustrated sheets all come out with their eyes rolling and meet my gaze.

Only now can I understand.

From the moment I 'read' about the protagonists of those stories in the archives of the Cheongmun Clan while following Master...

I, from then on, could never avoid his gaze.

Kugugugugu!!!

A black something surges skyward and forms a river.

It is something that resembles a snake.

Only after a while do I finally realize that it is the Gandhara of the Heavenly Venerable of Void.

[A Black Three Great Ultimates Formed of Countless Snakes].

Those innumerable snakes that are the symbols of emptiness all at once get sucked into his chest.

The Northern Heavenly Venerable, True Martial Great Emperor Hyeon Mu.

The being that is emptiness itself begins to fill the Future King's chest.

It begins to fill the place where the Heart, the Soul should be.

The last thing I see is Radiance.

"... Huh?"

Toward Mount Sumeru.

From there, the authority of the Radiance Mantra which I am sure I threw into the Cycle of Reincarnation and smashed to pieces, as if reversing time, turns the Wheel backward, creates a great river of light, and flies here.

The great river of radiance evokes a giant snake made of light.

I quickly dig up the grave of Hong Fan that I have kept buried inside my body.

In the tomb of Hong Fan, there is no corpse at all.

As if it has never existed from the beginning.

That river of light, even when we block it, passes through as if all our resistance is nothing, and towards the upper dantian of the Future King.

It settles in the place that symbolises Fate, and begins to fill his face.

Soon...

The being whose three dantian are all filled raises his head.

His History is the distorted Original Text of stories that exist everywhere.

His Heart is the Emptiness that cannot be found in anything.

His Fate is the Radiance of the Black Snake that always watches us.

Shiver, shiver, shiver!

I do not feel any energy or momentum at all.

What dwells in those eyes is not any dignity or authority, but endless self-loathing and emptiness.

Yet even so, from that gaze alone, I feel my knees go weak and I begin to want to give up everything.

Wooooooo— Among the stars that fill the firmament of this strange space, a few fall and begin to whisper something.

I realize that the identity of those stars is very familiar.

They are the countless Hyeon Rangs across the generations.

With only their heads floating, the Hyeon Rangs move only their mouths and begin to fill this entire space with [wisdom].

Most Supreme who Opens the World, Wielder of Talismans, Ruler of Calendrics, Truth Embracing Dao Embodying Future Radiance Nine Firmaments Time Governing Myriad Daos Non-Action All-Illuminating Great Hall Vast Heaven Golden Gate Fate Great Heavenly Venerable Black Martial High Supreme Deity (太上開天執符御歷含眞體道未來光明九穹歷御萬道無爲通明大殿昊天金闕運命大天尊玄武高上帝).

Past that long string of epithets, comes the familiar names by which he is called in short.

Future King.

Fate Supreme Deity.

Hong Fan Gu Ju (洪範九疇/Great Plan Nine Categories) Whisperwhisperwhisperwhisper...

The wisdoms tell his true name.

At the same time, his will arises from everywhere and begins to inject a certain enlightenment.

—In this world, only I am noble.

The three realms are in suffering, so I shall rightly make them peaceful.

That is precisely the wisdom that explains the significance of existence of the Future King and the will he holds.

And breaking the silence of that wisdom that feels like eternity.

He opens his mouth.

"You have worked hard."

Contrary to what befits a being called the Future King, a mere ordinary physical voice.

"Here is your ending."

Woooooong— Still the wisdoms resound, and the will of that being presses us down as if pronouncing a sentence upon us.

—The head of the world is me.

—The most outstanding being in the world is me.

—The most advanced being in the world is me.

—This place is the last.

—There is no more mercy.

—Here is your end.

"Do not fall into despair. Though the world is surely suffering..."

Stretching out his palm, the Splitting Heaven Mantra flies in all too naturally.

"There exists a value that surpasses suffering."

Before the light of that mantra that collapses the Absolute, I feel the faces of the 16th cycle flash past before my eyes.

"For life is hope."

The endlessly empty God of Light and Hope, trampling our hope without mercy, covers all Heaven and Earth with light.

Booooong!

Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.

Annihilation Advancement Mu.

From my hand, the ultimate technique my senior brother used bursts forth.

The original and the imitation collide and cancel out with a dazzling flash.

I, at the very end of a truly long road, call out my long-standing nemesis and closest friend and step forward.

"Truly... truly..."

He, without a word and without even rising, lifts his hand.

Ururung!

A change arises within Mount Sumeru.

The Four Gandhara that cover Mount Sumeru.

Among them, the entire Interdimensional Void suddenly gets plucked out of Mountain Sumeru, compresses, and is held in his hand.

"Entering Heavens Beyond the Path. Void Sword. I believe that it is what it was named."

It is endless nothingness.

At the same time, it is the extreme of the killing art that destroys everything and slaughters everything.

"Entering Heavens. A good name. But I call it True Martial Arts."

That jade voice crosses spacetime in an instant.

I finally understand the true meaning of True Martial Arts.

True Martial Arts is the Future King's martial arts system.

More precisely, only the martial arts that reach the end of that system and receive recognition from the Owner of Fate are bestowed the name True Martial Arts.

Only now can I know the causality of how we at some moment felt we reached the realm called True Martial Arts.

It is not that we ascend to a realm called True Martial Arts.

[In this moment] we were recognized by the Future King and heard his jade voice, and his jade voice went past and engraved recognition upon the martial arts of Kim Young-hoon and me.

One being among the Enders across generations used their authority and did a similar deed, but he executed that miracle with nothing but smoothly uttered spoken word.

That is the true nature of the realm of True Martial Arts that we at some moment reached.

"As promised, since you remember the true name, I shall return the Void Sword."

The name of the Void Sword returns to me, and his True Martial Arts emits true light and reveals its true name and form.

True Martial Arts.

Emptiness Sword.

The Interdimensional Void, the Plane of Soul itself, becomes a monster that lives and moves in his hand and bares its teeth at me.

—Emptiness Sword.

—Seventh Move.

—Final Profundity.

It is said a beast exerts all its strength even to catch a small creature.

Unfolding a killing art with full force from the beginning, and deploying a decisive move I cannot even guess...

He begins to reach out his hand.

—Hope (希望).

"I have wanted to meet..."

Sensing the death that engulfs me before I can even perceive anything, I smile brightly.

My greatest enemy.

"O Heavens."

My greatest friend.

Thus, from within death, I begin the recollection of the cycle I have forgotten.

The recollection of the 16th cycle together with Hong Fan, the main personality of the Future King.