Chương 799: Future King (4)

It may have truly been a pure worry about good.

He may have worried that a being who devours Origin Essence and becomes an Emperor who creates a Heavenly Domain may create hell inside it.

Therefore, even if he cuts what he must cut, there was also the feeling that he wanted to associate with the good.

But...

The moment he collided with, ripped apart, and killed an existence who, by anyone's eyes, clearly chose evil to satisfy their own cruelty, plunging living beings into eternal misery and abusing them...

He realized such things were nothing but excuses.

'Ah, I see.'

What Hong Fan came to face...

Was not a soft divinity like the Chief God Fuxi who gained divinity at birth and gained the universe.

It was another legend who, like Hong Fan, rose from the position of a mortal, overcame all manners of adversity, and at last ascended to the Imperial Seat.

That was the first 'worthy rival' Hong Fan ever experienced.

Chief Gods are mighty and terrifying, but lacking a mortal's gaze, they have no venomous will.

Mortal beings who have venomous will lack rank and authority.

To Hong Fan, who, bearing a mortal being's venomous will, faced undying beings and climbed to his seat...

There was not a single proper worthy opponent until now.

But as he sees the newly enthroned Imperial Venerables, he finally realizes.

'I see. I...'

Until now, not a single person.

There was not a single being who stood at a height equal to him.

'Did I want to collide...?'

Though less evil than the first evil Supreme Deity he killed, he kills a Supreme Deity who ruled the world by their own selfishness while ignoring the misery and suffering of mortals.

Afterward, he gradually goes on to kill Supreme Deities who are less and less evil.

Each time he kills one Supreme Deity, he feels an indescribable, inexpressible, boiling emotion.

However, it never quenches.

Feeling thus, he also comes to know why he holds up something like good as his justification.

'Good is the most powerful...'

Like the goodwill that Hwe-ah gave him.

Surely, if he protects gods who keep goodwill, one day there will be a powerful being who can withstand everything he pours out.

He put forth hope and good as his justification in order to guard that being.

'If they possess goodwill, they may... stop me, who has risen by killing.'

From birth, how to kill a person was plain to his eyes.

It was the same after he lost his eyes.

He had no ability to make his starving, weakened mother recover, To heal his sick wife, To give trust to his friend who betrayed him.

But...

In killing, none could match him.

Killing someone.

Perhaps that...

May be his true fate, hidden behind the god of regression that parasitizes him.

From birth, all those around him could die easily at a mere touch.

Only then does Hong Fan...

Come to know what he truly wants.

'I...'

The apex of the killing art he has mastered changes and evolves into countless forms and gradually begins to carry symbolism.

A killing technique that killed the undying Chief God.

If, in the future, those called the Golden Speed Heavenly King and Star Genesis Supreme Deity saw it, they would have considered it to have reached Martial Pinnacle long before, yet because it has not yet been defined, it is a vicious technique that still has not reached the Ultimate of Martial Arts.

'I want... a being that does not die even if I approach.'

He, who is darkness, wants a light so bright that he cannot swallow.

He has been seeking... a light so vivid that even he, a blind man, can clearly feel it.

Apex of Killing Techniques.

Heuk Sa.

Apex of Internal Energy Methods.

Darkness World.

Apex of Movement Techniques.

Black Heaven.

The ultimate meaning of killing that combines all of them.

"This, indeed... is legitimate Martial Arts...!"

If there is meaning in Martial Arts, it is only for eliminating others who cannot become light to me.

It is for killing the other.

The moment he realizes that, and the moment he defines it as so.

He realizes a way for his killing art to reach a realm that one can also call the ultimate of Martial Arts.

Perhaps he wanted ordinary love.

Perhaps he wanted ordinary interaction.

However, this world is full of fragile things that die the moment he touches them.

A world that tears at the lightest touch, like a world of paper—that is the world Hong Fan perceives.

Even those called gods are nothing but slightly larger sandcastles that he can tear and topple with a little effort.

Though they stake their lives, in the end this world has only existences that always seem easy to kill.

In a ragged world where everything collapses at a touch...

To the child who plunges every precious connection into pain and, pretending to be bold, tries to chase hope.

That, for the first time, a proper opponent he can 'truly face' has arisen, Is an indescribable hope.

But...

In the end, the only way the child communicates with the world is through killing.

As a nation risen by the sword perishes by the sword.

A connection begun by killing in the end ends by killing.

A bridle of karma once begun is only tied up with the same karma.

To the child who was born having lost all chances to be loved and kept reaching out to kill everything he dislikes, what he needs may have been an opponent who stands at a position equal or higher.

Yes, perhaps what he needed is a parent who should have scolded him and paid attention to him.

And in this world, there are none but those who cannot surpass even a single child.

Lights that flicker out when he tries to reach them...

They have no meaning to him.

Since hope originally begins from what one cannot reach, he only clings to hope and continues to reach out to other beings.

Present.

Darkness swallows the world and turns everything that exists into nothingness.

The former Obsidian Devil Heavenly King breathes power into the Swallowing Heaven Mantra and devours everything, growing into a twisted tiger-like form and baring their teeth.

Seeing this, Hyeon Mu, who has a hand on the Heavenly Void Furnace, once again shoves one of the Seven Heavenly Lords into the Heavenly Void Furnace and lights the incense flame.

But in the next instant, I, who take the role of breaking the Future King's attack, step forward and thrust out the Turning Wheel Mantra.

The mantra in the form of a vast galaxy shines as it receives the power of the myriad stars and begins to whisper to me the Supreme Deity's power.

In the Immortal Cultivation system, the formula for Supreme Deity is called Primordial Chaos, and the formula for Heavenly Venerable is called Three Flowers.

But this is only what the Immortal Cultivation system defines.

From the level of Supreme Deity and above, one half-steps out of the Immortal Cultivation system, so realm formulas have little meaning beyond explaining the essence.

Three Flowers merely expresses the Three Absolutes as flowers and is nothing more than a metaphor for a Heavenly Venerable who calls forth a handful of their fragrance.

And likewise, Primordial Chaos only symbolizes the essence of the realm called Supreme Deity, and it is ambiguous to say it belongs to the Immortal Cultivation system.

Huuuuup— Therefore, the formula of Primordial Chaos does not require long cultivation like the ones before, and the moment one becomes a Supreme Deity, one naturally masters it.

As if breathing.

Reflecting on the experiences of the 16th cycle within the Heavenly Void Furnace, I perform the Supreme Deity realm formula.

The entirety of Mount Sumeru rumbles according to my breathing.

The entire gestation world that Hong Fan cleaved in half stitches back together and recovers, and the chaos that overflows within moves to the pulsation of my breath.

A Creator God creates the world through chaos, the medium of creation.

And Supreme Deities likewise, upon reaching the realm, have their consciousness transform into a Heavenly Domain and create a universe.

Then what is the difference between a Creator God who creates a world and a Supreme Deity?

Are they not both creators?

The difference between a Supreme Deity and a Creator God is chaos.

A Supreme Deity inhales chaos, the medium of creation, to breathe fate, life, and soul into the countless living spirits and existences within the Heavenly Domain, drawing out countless stories from within.

A Creator God, by their very existence, generates and employs chaos, the material of omnipotence.

When Supreme Deities are enthroned, their names are engraved among the Heavenly Seats.

And the Heavenly Seats are located none other than at the bottom of Mount Sumeru.

At the Outer Sea beyond Mount Sumeru, the Supreme Deity's jade throne is born and comes into being.

Yes.

For a Supreme Deity to breathe Chaos, they need to transcend Mount Sumeru. Therefore, the presence of a Supreme Deity transcends Mount Sumeru and is engraved as a jade throne at the very bottom of Mount Sumeru.

There are many ways to explain this and that, but the law needed right now is but one.

A Supreme Deity can inhale chaos!

Kugugugugu!

The Heavenly Void Furnace slips from Hyeon Mu's hand and starts clattering as it flies toward me.

Hyeon Mu's eyes twitch and she once again exerts attraction force.

The attraction force of fate itself ties down the Heavenly Void Furnace.

But in this world...

There is something as strong as fate.

"Master, your disciple Star Genesis comes to offer bowing rites at your spirit altar."

I shout loudly as I inhale with my whole body the Primordial Chaos world inside the Heavenly Void Furnace.

Woo-wooong— The Heavenly Void Furnace resonates with my voice.

"Master, your disciple Star Genesis comes to offer bowing rites at your spirit altar."

I shout again in a loud voice, lest my master Ryeong perhaps does not hear.

Guuuwoooooong— The Heavenly Void Furnace rumbles again and begins to draw closer to me.

Hyeon Mu's eyes twitch and she grabs the black leg of the furnace, holding the Heavenly Void Furnace back from coming to me.

"Master."

I call him once again.

The spirit altar that the Great Mountain Supreme Deity spoke of.

The world of Penglai Island has the same structure as the Head Realm.

And the place of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity's shrine that Senior Brother built inside it is located at the exact center of the Heaven-Treading Desert, at the very middle of Ascension Forest.

That's right.

Master's flesh was eaten and torn apart by the entire Head Realm.

His soul was ripped to shreds and fell into decline, becoming Cheongmun Ryeong, a frail existence who finds it hard to ever escape the Qi Building stage for his entire life.

If so...

Where is the fate of that high divinity who half-seized the Absolute of Miracle?

'I saw it in the 16th cycle.'

What spoke to me then in the domain of purity was surely his fate.

The fate of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity Ryeong is asleep inside the Heavenly Void Furnace!

"Your disciple Star Genesis comes to offer bowing rites at your spirit altar!"

That is to say...

'As long as Master sleeps inside that Primordial Chaos, if his disciple calls him while breathing in Primordial Chaos in the way of a Supreme Deity... he will respond from inside that Primordial Chaos!'

Hyeon Mu sneers and tightens the hand holding the Heavenly Void Furnace.

Kurururung— Countless Gandhara swirl, coil around Hyeon Mu's hand, and add their strength.

"Do you truly think he will answer? He is dead. What remains is only a shell. Do you dare try to call the dead under the authority of the Owner of Fate?"

Hyeon Mu snorts.

But in the next moment, the smile disappears cleanly from the corner of Hyeon Mu's mouth.

Ggigigigik— Hand!

It is a snow-white hand.

Clench— It is a hand made of Salt Mountain.

The snow-white hand of Salt Mountain slips out of the Heavenly Void Furnace and grabs Hyeon Mu's wrist.

Seeing that, I smile clearly.

"Fragment of the Future King. Do you dare... treat the authority of one who once touched the position of Owner of Miracles as merely dead?"

Enders grow closer to fate as they draw nearer to death, and thus become stronger.

The reason is that what is called a miracle touches the principle of death.

Master passed away.

And, precisely because he passed, he still has not disappeared.

If they imprisoned him alive and let him weather away, he might have vanished, but since the Future King killed him, he will never disappear.

Until a new Owner of Miracles is born!

Cheok!

I offer one bow toward the seal of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity that is dissolved inside the Heavenly Void Furnace.

Pasasasak— The Gandhara that fortify Hyeon Mu's wrist become salt pillars.

I offer a second bow.

Peoseoseok— Hyeon Mu glares at that hand and draws the power of fate, but conversely the other side carries out debt enforcement toward Hyeon Mu.

The authorities of Enders that Hyeon Mu sucked and stole up to now.

Under the name of the Owner of Miracles, the price is absorbed by the other side, and life flows in the arm made of salt.

I offer a third bow.

In the end, Hyeon Mu's wrist itself becomes a salt pillar, and at last the Heavenly Void Furnace separates from under Hyeon Mu's hand.

Peoseoseok— Turning Hyeon Mu's arm into salt powder, the Heavenly Void Furnace flies toward me.

Seizing that opening, the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King joins their palms together and lets out a shout.

Uuuuuuuu— A wailing is heard from within the darkness.

An unknown otherworldly language fills the surroundings like a funeral dirge conducting a funeral.

It is a whisper that resounds within the Swallowing Heaven Mantra.

Clang— At the same time, the Heavenly Void Furnace flies to me, and I notice that ownership of the Heavenly Void Furnace temporarily transfers to me.

Using the power of the dirge, the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King seems to grant me, who came to offer bowing rites at the spirit altar of the dead, temporary full authority while that dirge's song resounds.

'While the dirge resounds, [this moment] is eternal...!'

No one can interfere with the flow inside this funeral dirge.

In that moment, all the Enders who have been in the rear step forward in unison and, with their own spells and arts, pin the Supreme Deities to their places.

At the same time, Underworld, who has been attempting the fusion between her Gandhara and the Absolute of Life until now, splits focus for a moment and raises a hand.

'Only now do you finally do some work!'

As if reading my thought, the Underworld gives me a slight side-eye as if absurd and then starts to lower the raised hand.

Seeing this, the same reactions shown to Vast Cold erupt from the Supreme Deities one after another.

:: The [Oldest One] is using their strength!:::: O Netherworld Queen Mother, this one is not of the Five Cruels!:::: Where is this!? Why am I facing against the [Oldest One]!?:::: They cannot dare be opposed!:::: O Wheel Imperial Venerable of great compassion, mercy!:: These ones whose intelligence is clearly deleted, when faced against the power of the Underworld, have their minds revive again and scream.

"... As expected, leaving a feeble will alive for autonomous adjustment became a poison. Leaving them fully alive, they might have rebelled, but at least they would have shown backbone. Because they were temporarily revived with neither this nor that, only the survival instincts remain and it became a poison. Useless things."

Kiiiiiiing!

Clicking her tongue at the Supreme Deities, Hyeon Mu draws the power of fate directly from the Absolute of Fate.

A monstrous attraction force occurs.

Huuung— The Underworld brings down her hand made composed of her Gandhara.

At that pawlike stroke of a fierce beast, the same thing as with Vast Cold happens again.

It cannot be perceived.

Kwaaaaaaaang!!!

But in an instant, a massive shock shakes the entire Audience Chamber, and the entire Audience Chamber shatters once more.

And...

Over a hundred Supreme Deities, all at once, are outside the Audience Chamber.

They are flung back out to where the otherworlds lie.

Originally, they should have been [deleted] as with Vast Cold, but because Hyeon Mu twisted the Underworld's point of impact with the attraction force she drew directly from the Absolute of Fate, it only ends with them being flung away.

"Radiance Mantra, Time Restoration."

Looking at the Underworld with eyes that seem somehow longing, Hyeon Mu activates the Radiance Mantra.

Ggigigigik— However, the Radiance Mantra does not activate.

The Obsidian Devil Heavenly King's Swallowing Heaven Mantra.

It holds spacetime in place through attraction force.

'I see.'

Until the dirge ends.

No one present here can leap beyond spacetime.

The Underworld begins to focus again on the advancement to Life Supreme Deity, and seizing that gap, the Enders who have been pinning down the Supreme Deities until now begin to launch an all-out offensive toward all of Hyeon Mu's Gandhara.

While the former Enders keep them pinned, Kim Young-hoon raises his saber.

"I can cut the Gandhara. Help me!"

The number of Gandhara Hyeon Mu summoned at once total about 50.

Beyond that, as one who is nothing more than a shard of the Future King, she either perhaps cannot control more, or simply does not summon them.

Kim Young-hoon is saying he can reduce the very number of Gandhara that Hyeon Mu controls and summons.

Jeon Myeong-hoon and Kim Yeon, understanding his words, stand behind Kim Young-hoon.

Whether there is a spell that activates in linkage with Vast Cold, Kim Yeon does not release the hand seal drawing a circle with both palms, and begins to lend strength to Kim Young-hoon.

Jeon Myeong-hoon manipulates Indra's Net and ties between Kim Yeon and Kim Young-hoon a thread of connection.

Kang Min-hee quickly makes Kim Young-hoon's fleshly body into a spirit body, and manipulates the laws to temporarily grant Kim Young-hoon the ability of possession.

Oh Hyun-seok offers his body.

Tsuaaaaat!

Kim Young-hoon, having become a spirit body, descends into Oh Hyun-seok's body through the ability of possession, and starts to manipulate Oh Hyun-seok's body.

Tsuaaaaat— The realm of Nameless One Fist that Oh Hyun-seok reached is manipulated by Kim Young-hoon to burst forth not through the fist but through the foot.

Receiving power from Kim Yeon, Kim Young-hoon moves with Oh Hyun-seok's body, flies toward Hyeon Mu's Gandhara, and in an instant turns into golden light itself and explodes.

Flash— Golden light erupts in a flare and brightly illuminates the entire Audience Chamber.

—Golden Great Thousand World!

Chuaaaaaaaat!

Hyeon Mu, whose heart is shaken and lost Void Speed, even if she uses the technique of Future, cannot defeat Kim Young-hoon backed by everyone's strength, and yields one Gandhara.

Chukwaaaang!

Golden light flashes, and a summoned Gandhara directly collapses.

It is one out of fifty Gandhara, but unlike before, Hyeon Mu does not ostentatiously take out another Gandhara. She only looks at Kim Young-hoon.

"... Beautiful."

Seeing that golden god, Hyeon Mu lets out an exclamation.

"If there had been just one or two more like you in my childhood when the First Light collapsed and the Supreme Deities were born... could I have avoided becoming like this?"

Kim Young-hoon does not answer.

He only draws on Kim Yeon's power, wears Oh Hyun-seok's body as armor, and cuts.

Chuwaaang!

Again, one more Gandhara falls away.

It looks like golden fireworks bursting.

"Could I have found a value other than killing in Martial Arts?"

With gloomy eyes, Hyeon Mu stretches out her hand.

Future King Three Heavenly Treasures.

The second.

A great authority corresponding to the Radiance Supreme Deity's Qian-Kun Ruler.

Kiiiiiing!

The Origin Essence of Radiance that rises above Hyeon Mu's hand shines upon the whole world.

The Radiance Mantra is blocked by the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King's Swallowing Heaven Mantra, but the authority of light itself starts to suck in those who received its grace.

The Supreme Deities who have flown to distant otherworlds are dragged back by force again and scream.

"Come to my hand."

Centered on the Origin Essence of Radiance, numerous Supreme Deities are dragged in, and using them as the medium, one scene of a far [future] is pulled over.

A distant future.

A scene where countless spirits reach Supreme Deity.

"[First Light]."

The Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am.

My senior brother gathered all living beings, used them as Origin Essence, and to obtain the power source to use the Splitting Heaven Mantra, he attempted to barely imitate that vicious radiance.

The Future King's authority pulls [all beings who reach Supreme Deity in the future] into this reality using the Supreme Deities who died by his hand as the medium, and spews out a brilliance centered on radiance.

The fundamental principle is the same as my senior brother's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, but the method is of an overwhelmingly higher dimension.

If my senior brother amplifies authority by using spirits as Origin Essence, Hyeon Mu, awakened as one of the three faces of the Future King, forcibly drags Supreme Deities who exist in the past and future and uses their authority.

—Those who exist in the past are taken as Kun (坤/Earth), and those who will be born in the future are taken as Qian (乾/Heaven), and thus the measure of all things is taken.

—Its name shall be the Ruler that measures Qian-Kun.

Above Hyeon Mu's hand, Supreme Deities merged by the Future King's authority mutter as if entranced and pour out wisdom.

As if literally being pulled from beyond infinite futures, the Supreme Deities that fuse around the Origin Essence of Light keep increasing as time passes.

As Supreme Deities are added, the radiance stretches little by little and changes into a form like a ruler.

"Continue fixing spacetime, Obsidian. The more time continues to pass while its rewinding is blocked, the larger the [First Light] will continue to grow."

Hyeon Mu flies to stand before the First Light and, with gloomy eyes, begins to receive the power of light.

Immediately after, a wave of a familiar authority resounds.

A golden ripple spreads centered on Hyeon Mu who receives the power of light.

When facing me, it was something my senior brother could not properly use because he could not come with the resolve to die.

However, the being before my eyes is one always filled with the thought of wanting to die, so it is something she can use to fire indiscriminately.

Its name is the Splitting Heaven Mantra.

From the [First Light], the principle of Qian-Kun and Yin-Yang descends, then splits into the Five Elements.

'Is it unable to be offset with Annihilation Advancement Mu!?'

Its magnitude of power is greater than the one Hong Fan first shot playfully. I alone may live, but with Obsidian currently sealing regression, unless Obsidian lifts the authority, everyone but me will be annihilated.

It is similar to the Great Mountain Splitting Emperor Technique, which is made by reversing the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra, but the flow is endlessly higher-dimensional.

Yin and Yang split into the Five Elements and then seem to transform into the law of the Ten Heavenly Stems, becoming a power that tears everything apart.

"Split."

With that voice, rays of light of Splitting Heaven fall upon all of us including the Underworld.

16th cycle.

He finally realizes the meaning his Martial Arts holds.

For killing.

That is true Martial Arts.

And the only means by which the being called Hong Fan can interact with others on at least somewhat equal terms.

To a monster who far too easily cuts down those he dislikes and sinks into the swamp of killing, killing becomes a karma that can no longer stop.

The story flows past chapter 9 into chapter 10.

"I..."

Hong Fan raises a blade before countless Supreme Deities.

—True Martial Arts.

—Blade.

He has not yet given it a proper name, but it is a killing martial technique unfolded by the system Hong Fan names True Martial Arts.

[Blade.]

'Perhaps the day I attach a proper name to this blade... that will be the ultimate of killing.'

That is perhaps the ultimate of Martial Arts.

Since killing is Martial Arts, the ultimate of killing is the ultimate of Martial Arts.

Continuing killing by that logic, Hong Fan before long looks at the last of those remaining who resist him in the Mount Sumeru he created.

Those who remain at the end are those whom Hong Fan considers the most righteous.

The good ones he still has not cut...

There are even some whose past lives are those from the Heuk Sa Society.

Of course, beyond the beings of the Heuk Sa Society, many who became Supreme Deities, or existences equivalent to them, stand before Hong Fan to resist him.

"Huuuuup..."

Beyond Mount Sumeru.

He inhales the chaos of the Outer Sea.

After the First Light split.

At the center of the split light, there was an Origin Essence that shined the brightest.

Hong Fan reached out his hand toward that light, grasped it...

And called it Radiance.

Thus, he became the Radiance Supreme Deity.

A dozen or so Supreme Deities.

A number of Governing Immortals similar to those Hong Fan has killed so far stand facing Hong Fan.

:: O Radiance Supreme Deity. We surely thought that you do not cut those who pursue good.:::: But now we see you are no different from a Shura who simply delights in killing regardless of good and evil.:::: O Thee, who linked six Heavenly Domains and set the foundation of Mount Sumeru, who made the First Light. You who refined the Shaman Family cultivation system and created the Immortal Cultivation that let us rise to this place. What in the world has led you to be fallen?::

"Fallen..."

Hong Fan looks up at the sky.

The place where they are is the summit of Mount Sumeru that is in a cone shape.

It is where the Chief God of Brightness whom Hong Fan split in half resided... and now has become Hong Fan's Heavenly Domain after he devoured them.

Because it is the place where he split Brightness (明), he named the world Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain (日月天域).

The sky seen in that world is nothing but the Outer Sea filled with chaos.

Looking into the chaos, Hong Fan smiles bitterly.

"If so, what is normal, and by what standard do you say I have fallen?"

:: That is...::

"Teach me. If I put my hand and caress your cheek, is that normal?"

Hong Fan reaches out his hand.

There is a blade in his hand.

"If I caress you with a blade and you die, is that normal, or is it that I have fallen?"

:: If you kill with the intent to kill, that is clearly unjust. You yourself know best the difference between caressing and swinging a blade, do you not?:: With pitch-black eyes, Hong Fan looks up into the disorderly chaos without any order.

"My precious people all became unhappy and died by my side because of me. Even though I did not hold a blade..."

His blade has always been a sword that cuts connection.

And yet, clearly even before that blade was forged...

His connections have always been cut.

Whether he wishes it or not...

From birth, he has been a blade that cuts connection.

"If so, is this normal, or is it that I have fallen?"

:: If you clearly find the cause and understand it, you will be able to find the answer.::

"Are you saying you do not know now?"

:: You too know the will of the Origin. Because you are the one who made the First Light with your own hands, you surely know better than anyone here. Surely the former Creator of long ages past said to seek truth within each other's stories.::

"Then when can I find the truth?"

:: It does not get found just because one wishes it. But surely... it is something able to be found.::

"Just... when...?"

::...::

"Just when... until when... until when...!?"

Hong Fan shouts.

"Are you telling me to wait endlessly until an answer and truth superior to mine appears! What I guide will bring salvation far faster!"

At some point, the eyes of Hong Fan, who stepped forward under the pretext of pursuing good, became filled with self-righteousness.

No, perhaps from the very beginning, rather than good, the self-righteousness that seeks his own salvation was his very essence.

"If you truly can pursue an answer better than mine... please, show me... How must I act to be saved?"

His voice is full of passion, but in that blade all trembling dies away and it transforms into a perfect tool for killing.

"Please... prove it..."

Everyone around him always dies or goes blind.

Even though everyone dies, he alone always survives.

Unable to die, he survives, and he kills every obstacle he meets.

He always wishes that someone other than himself would live.

That someone better than he survives in his stead, and...

He wishes they would completely deny the life of the being called Hong Fan.

That he is wrong. That there is another way... he wishes they would tell him so.

Some can say Hong Fan went mad within the repeating pain.

But Hong Fan thinks otherwise.

In this universe, there are many beings more unfortunate than he.

For example, there are spirits who, caught by evil Supreme Deities that Hong Fan cut down, suffered unspeakable torture for a long and longer time.

There is one thing that makes them different from Hong Fan.

"Whom am I supposed to rely on...?"

Hong Fan cannot resent anyone to the end.

For the ones he tries to pour his resentment onto, even before he pours it out...

They always die when he touches them.

"No connection can endure the being that is me. When I lay my body down, they collapse like a rotten old tree. Can you... become the great tree on which I can lay my body?"

There is no great tree in his life.

:: Pouring out resentment is not the only way to lay your body down...::

"Then why do even the connections upon which I do not pour resentment all die?"

A blade is a tool meant to cut something off and inflict wounds.

Hong Fan is a blade.

No matter how much he hides the edge, he has never seen anyone by his side who does not get hurt.

"If you have the qualification to become my hope... if you have the confidence to bear everything inside me... I shall acknowledge you."

At the very least, even if they become unhappy by Hong Fan's side, it means they are not people whose legs are rotten or whose legs are held so they cannot run away.

In any case, before the Supreme Deities in front of whom he hopes for an answer, he has taken off a bit of his mask.

He removed the mask for goodwill and revealed part of his true face.

It is the childish whining of a child who has never once been allowed to be spoiled and only kept losing.

"If you do not have the qualification... I shall kill you and behold the ultimate meaning of killing. At the end of that ultimate meaning..."

He feels it.

The ultimate of killing.

If he reaches the ultimate of Martial Arts, he can touch one of the Three Daos.

And...

He already feels that he is endlessly close to having the qualification to seize the Three Daos.

If he accomplishes just one more great feat, he will surely reach the Three Daos.

"I shall guide the world to the answer more quickly."

If good gods cannot become the hope that accepts my resentment...

Then with my own hands, I shall fly to pursue hope.

There are no longer any good Supreme Deities who try to persuade him.

They only lift their weapons, staring coldly at the spoiled child who, seized by the past, cannot take even one step into the future.

Hong Fan holds hope.

All this time, while fighting many evil Supreme Deities, he has at times fought them one-on-one and brought them down, but he has never been surrounded by many Imperial Venerables of Chief God rank.

He can be defeated.

The opponents before his eyes are good Supreme Deities.

They are those who analyzed Hong Fan when he went around killing those who are clearly evil, and who analyzed Hong Fan to protect the countless weak ones from possible threats.

They are those who devoted their lives to goodwill and became Governing Immortals.

If it is them, surely they will defeat Hong Fan.

Because...

Hong Fan too believes that goodwill is strong.

'Now... I want to see the answer.'

If it is them, they will surely stop him.

Throwing a tantrum he has never once done until now...

Yes.

Before those gods of good who block his path, he will be able to die believing they are the answer.

Hong Fan won.

Fighting fiercely, at the end of that war...

He succeeded in killing all the Imperial Venerables.

Rather, during the battle, he gained insight from the collapse of the First Light and the birth of the Supreme Deities and began creating a mantra called Splitting Heaven, thus becoming even stronger.

"... Answer me."

With a weary face, Hong Fan looks at the remains of the fallen Supreme Deities.

Even though he became the Radiance Supreme Deity, his body is that of a mortal being.

Unlike himself, who endured without casting off his Vestige and maintained mortality, they are gigantic corpses, little different from worlds themselves.

He asks those felled,

"What is... life?"

There is no answer.

It is only natural.

"What is... our world?"

There is no answer either.

None of them could accept him.

"Why do I... why do I live?"

The ultimate meaning of killing is right before his eyes.

But because it is right before his eyes, he can tell.

At the end of the ultimate meaning that can be achieved by killing, there is nothing.

Emptiness, where there is nothing at all.

That is the result his blade reached.

"Why... am I... still alive... why only me...?"

The proper Martial Arts he seeks.

Only today can he give the name True Martial Arts.

A tool of slaughter with no meaning.

A hollow blade.

True Martial Arts.

Emptiness Sword.

There is no need for it to be a sword in particular.

If it is a killing weapon, it does not matter whether it is a spear, bow, or cannon.

Only, a sword is the tool that first comes to mind in matters of killing.

It is truly a meaningless name.

In a world where now nothing remains, tearing at his chest...

Only then does the child, who at last comes to repentant enlightenment about himself, laugh in grief.

Only now does he come to know a little more about himself.

About the principle of his own actions...

And about what he desires...

'I did not know why I live.'

To know that, he went around searching for higher beings who could tell him the answer.

The first higher being, his mother, died of cold, hunger, and illness that Hong Fan easily drove away.

The second higher being, his friend, became blinded by wealth that Hong Fan could easily brush aside, abandoned him, and was grounded apart by a few swings of a stick in sorrow.

The third higher being, his wife Yang Hwe, was certainly an existence far too high, and she was one who could have told him the answer.

But she died without ever leaving the yard.

And from then on, he no longer sought an answer.

Instead of seeking an answer, he went around looking for an existence that can accept his pain.

One way or another, he searched for an existence higher than himself.

The fourth higher being was society.

He thought that if he scattered his pain across the whole of society, there would be at least one who accepts it.

No one became his equal even for an instant, and in a secret cave he found fortuitous encounters called the Heavenly Void Furnace, Star Extinguishing True Chapter, and something called the Altar of Wishes. He learned through them and thrashed about to cut off connections in order to escape pain.

The fifth higher being was a transcendent divine spirit.

Hearing the divine spirit say they would lessen his pain by mimicking his dead wife, he poured resentment upon the world to his heart's content and roamed about committing massacres.

But in the end, by the Dragon King, who could not bear to watch the massacre, he realized that it was in truth a monster—nothing but his own Heart Demon empowered by the Star Extinguishing True Chapter.

His Heart Demon made him recall his wife dying before his eyes, and it despoiled his wife's grave.

He cut down the Heart Demon, the Dragon King, and his entire homeland.

No transcendent divine spirit could accept his pain.

The sixth higher being was the world itself.

He poured pain upon the world itself and died.

It might have been good if it ended there.

But the seventh thrust themselves before him.

The seventh higher being was the Lord Heavens who governed the entire world.

In the end, the Lord Heavens also died by his hand, and he realized that they too could not give Hong Fan an answer nor could they take on his pain.

The eighth higher being was the very concept called 'misery'.

He thought he suffered because the very concept of misery existed in this world.

But in the end, by diluting the existence called misery through the Immortal Cultivation system, he came to know that he himself stands above even the concept itself.

The ninth higher being was the Three Daos of Fate, History, and Miracle.

It was the very legacy left by the predecessor Creator God.

If they are the Creator who made the world, he thought they could give him an answer.

For that, he achieved countless feats.

Just as he listened to the stories of countless beings of the past and shouldered their pain...

Just as he granted to the innumerable mortals living now the power to leap over the wall of reality...

He believed that a superior existence should of course be able to shoulder his pain.

"Mother... Hwe-ah..."

The existence that embraced him and the existence that accepted him.

As he recalls the two existences that came closest to an answer in his life...

Hong Fan raises the Emptiness Sword in the darkness.

"Beyond this... there don't seem to be any higher existences..."

At last, he understands.

Now, inside this egg, he is the highest existence.

He thought the gods of good would be able to stop him.

For what he received from Mother and Hwe-ah was goodwill, so he believed goodwill is powerful.

Because he believed so, he first faced the evil Supreme Deities to protect goodwill.

But while facing evil Supreme Deities, as he realized his own essence, arranged his contemplations and enlightenment, realized what he desired, and then confronted them...

Even the gods of good that he trusted could not overcome him.

Neither parent.

Neither friend.

Neither lover.

Neither society.

Neither himself.

Neither this world.

Neither Lord Heavens.

Neither vileness and misery, nor pain itself.

Neither the will of the Creator God who created the world.

And neither the gods with good convictions that he believed in...

"There is... nowhere left to retreat..."

He at last reached the ultimate of killing.

The ultimate of killing is to kill everything.

And that includes even himself.

Slice— The empty Mount Sumeru from which everything has disappeared.

Within it, Hong Fan at last decapitates his own neck.

It is a beheading sentence imposed upon himself.

It is a move cast from the hope that perhaps death might give him salvation, and from a heart of giving up in despair.

And, Hong Fan opens his eyes again.

That is Hong Fan's third return.

Of course, this time he does not return to the very beginning, but only returns to just before he decapitates his neck.

A Supreme Deity does not undergo influence from regression.

Beside Hong Fan, the head of Hong Fan that Hong Fan cut off and decapitated rolls.

"Even though I cut it together with the Radiance Mantra."

Originally, he should not have been able to regress.

But he understands.

"I see. You already chose me."

He at last completely transcended the Mount Sumeru he made himself and reached right before the [answer] he longs for.

Three Absolutes.

Hong Fan completed the great feats at the level of seizing one among those three.

His rank is more exalted than any existence.

Therefore, among the three absolutes, the only one that has something that can be called a consciousness chose Hong Fan and kept him alive.

"I did expect it. That I cannot even die..."

Hong Fan looks at the law of the Absolute that saved him.

Its name is the Absolute of Miracle, Sincerity.

"Why did you choose me...?"

He opens his mouth toward Miracle.

"Why did you give an unreasonable miracle!? Why, when you saved me, did you not save Mother, did you not save Hwe-ah!? Why did you make me be born like this!? Why did you give me a heart like this!? Why did I come to exist like this!? Why!? Why!? Why...!!!???"

Miracle gives no answer.

It only sends a hazy intent toward Hong Fan.

To become one with it.

"... Is that so? You mean you will give me the answer? You mean you will tell me the answer I want...!?"

And, for some reason, even the thing called Miracle...

Does not quite satisfy his heart.

"But... why... even you..."

The reason is simple.

"You don't seem able to accept all of me, do you?"

Hong Fan is one who has already killed everyone once.

The Absolute before his eyes is merely a lump where [all] are clumped together.

"You cannot become my salvation..."

Hong Fan, at what is before his eyes...

Now turns away from the Absolute of Miracle that no longer appears so absolute compared to himself.

"You are merely... a lump of connection that gave me no answer and only took away."

He moves toward the black Absolute.

Its name is the Absolute of Fate, Totality.

"In this world... if only I am the most noble, then I must now take responsibility" He wandered seeking an existence higher than himself, wishing for an existence he could pour out his everything and lean on.

But there is no being higher than himself anywhere.

If, in seeking a higher existence, resenting and seeking for an answer, he killed everyone and at the end became the highest existence— Then that responsibility is now rightly his to bear.

"I will decide the answer."

Shedding the rank of Supreme Deity, he instantly draws in the Absolute of Fate, causes its divine descent, and seizes it with his feats.

The process of becoming a Heavenly Venerable is nothing more than something he brushes past.

He gradually becomes the Fate Supreme Deity, expels outward the Origin Essence of Radiance he has held as the Radiance Supreme Deity, and at last begins to cast off the Vestige he has not shed until now.

All the footprints the Fate Supreme Deity has tread until now become sacred, and receiving his power, they become divine spirits.

The Vestige he sheds, by his will, become a vast jade throne upon which the Fate Supreme Deity lays his body.

The severed head he beheaded receives his power and becomes yet another existence of Supreme Deity rank.

The Origin Essence of Radiance he expelled swells as it changes from lending him power until now to drawing upon the power of Fate.

"And... I shall become the roof of all who are born henceforth... and the great tree."

As he takes control of Totality, he understands.

Why was he born this way?

[Just because.] Why does he suffer like this?

[Just because.] Why do those around him fall together into misfortune?

[By chance.] No one took responsibility for him.

History does not change.

Fate is also fixed to a certain extent, but Miracle is irrational and uncertain, bringing transformation to what is fixed and bringing about what is called coincidence.

Those coincidences piling up and suffering gave the result that is Hong Fan.

The tenth story.

He kills everything in the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World and even kills himself...

And by becoming the very last person remaining in the future up to now.

Only then is he enthroned to the Seat of the Owner of Fate.

"I will become responsible for all the pain that arises henceforth. To all future living beings who will be born in the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World, I command."

He has now escaped from the coincidences and irrationality that made him suffer and entered into Fate, where everything is certain.

In this world, nothing uncertain shall exist any longer.

For everything in this world, there shall exist a clear fate and responsibility.

"When you suffer in the future, look to the heavens. Cry out to the heavens."

Cry out 'Heavens Above' as much as you like.

For I shall become the great tree on which you lay your bodies and the roof over you, the one to receive your last resentment, and the final answer.

For I shall become the final reason you fail to obtain the answer, despair, and surrender.

"I am now your heavens."

He renames himself.

The name that his Mother gave, Gu Ju.

The name that his wife gave, Hong Fan.

The name of a law-canon appearing in an old scripture, and the principle that people of that time clutched like hope.

He is Hong Fan Gu Ju.

That day.

On Mount Sumeru, a god with the name Future King Fate Supreme Deity Hong Fan Gu Ju was enthroned.

The king of attraction force who, chased and driven by the weight of their life, tried to pass off the answer, but in the end was crushed and suffered under the weight of the answer of all existences in this world.

He became a child king.

And the child king, perhaps feeling the gaze of the future, lifts his head from atop the throne, transcends spacetime, and asks me.

"Human who cried out to the heavens. You dared to cry out to me and resent me. Yet do you dare to insist you will not sever the connection with me?"

I cannot help but lower my head under that gaze.

"I ask you this. You who have resented me. Do you have the qualification to maintain the connection with me?"