Chương 842: Side Story - Mythical Relic (7)

"Hiiiiiik!"

Ahn Geum resonates with the wandering souls inside her body and runs away to avoid Seo Li like mad.

And after she opens some distance from Seo Li, she finally notices something strange.

'If I think about it for a moment, that examiner Ghost King... the amount of the power it has isn't that big.'

No matter how generously you rate it, it's only around the mid Four-Axis stage.

On average, it is a Ghost King at the early Four-Axis stage level.

'Why do I, a Grand Perfection of the Integration stage, have any reason to run from merely something like an early Four-Axis stage? It's just that the death it carries is thick, so the wandering souls inside my body got frightened for a moment.'

After thinking it over, she realizes her odds of winning are quite high.

'It's just that I got startled for a moment and panicked because of a compatibility issue. If I just don't get scared, I can definitely win against something like that!'

After making a quick decision, she firmly steadies the wandering souls inside her body and flies back toward Seo Li.

"Hah, I got scared for no reason. Wait there, you Ghost King bastard!"

And then, when Ahn Geum faces Seo Li again.

"... Kkiyaaaaah! It's a big ghost!!"

Ahn Geum again feels her mind turn blank, and in an irresistible fear, she runs away once more.

And only after she opens distance from Seo Li again does she realize it.

'Ah, this isn't just a difference in compatibility.'

Even if there is a compatibility difference, it is far too big.

Regardless of the oppression of realms, the aura of death wrapped around that crazy Ghost King is at the level of someone who has faced a God of the Underworld and came back alive.

'A cultivator who learned the Ghost Path Method... especially a cultivator like me, whose body underwent ghostification and became half-human, half-ghost, absolutely cannot resist that.'

For now, there is nothing she can do against that monster.

'First... I need to go out for a bit and think. There's nothing I can do. A good dharma treasure, or... right. I need to bring in the Nether Crossing Ship and deal with it!'

Ahn Geum decides to suppress that Ghost King through dharma treasures or external divine objects and tries to go out of this space.

Then Ahn Geum recognizes that something is wrong.

"... Huh?"

She can't get out.

"H-Hey, wait a second... hey! Hey! How do I get out of here!!??"

Ahn Geum screams wildly into the space in the darkness.

She tries to read the celestial energy, or to grasp the space with her consciousness, but it doesn't read well.

Instead, only a pale illusion brushes past before her eyes.

—Only now do I understand Master's intent.

—The reason they tried to taxidermize us... is because if we cannot even surpass their touch, we can never reach the heavens. Rather, it would be better to be taxidermized by Master's hand and live happily for countless years before going on.

—I too will inherit their intent and establish my will in this space.

—To the later student who seeks to receive the inheritance. The more of a junior you are who learned the Ghost Path Method, the more useful it is to discover this space, so overcome the memories and recollections inside my memory, which are an extreme counter to the Ghost Path Method.

—If you cannot even do that, then, just like Master's intent, being taxidermized in this space forever would rather be better than facing the heavens...

"... If I can't beat that, I have to be trapped here forever?"

As Ahn Geum stares blankly and feels the will of that illusion, the illusion soon vanishes, and her face twists violently as she screams.

"Kuaaaaagh! Great Forest Heavenly Lord! Flower Plant Heavenly Lord! Great Sun Heavenly Lord! Torch Candle Heavenly Lord! Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord! Great Sea Heavenly Lord! Rain Dew Heavenly Lord! Wol Woon! Maek Jin, please save me!!"

But in whatever structure this space has, it seems that neither the wisdom nor the will of any True Immortal can reach it.

Ahn Geum falls into despair, gets trapped in the darkness, and wails endlessly.

Makli Hyun-ah comes to understand what the Jegyo Dharma Assembly that his Senior Brother, Hyeon Rang, headed toward is.

'Ah, so the dharma assembly held by the Jegal Order is called the Jegyo Dharma Assembly.'

He realizes it when he sees his Senior Brother Hyeon Rang sitting near the shrine of the Jegal Order and asking questions about the benefits that come from joining the Jegal Order.

'Man... I was just going to pray at the shrine and go back. If I get caught by Senior Brother, it seems like it will be troublesome...'

While Makli Hyun-ah is thinking it over, he suddenly feels some strange 'calling' near the shrine of the Jegal Order.

'What is this calling?'

Why is it?

That call feels like something Makli Hyun-ah can answer if he wants to.

Makli Hyun-ah first makes thorough preparations so that even if he answers that call, he can be ready, and then he answers the call.

Tsaaaaatt!

At that moment, Makli Hyun-ah realizes he has entered a strange pure-white space.

"Where is this!?"

"Rihyunjok! You succeeded in entering your deep-layer world, congratulations!"

"Ah... you are...! Jegal Mikhail!"

Makli Hyun-ah is startled as he looks at Jegal Mikhail, who sits on a golden throne at the front of the white space, wearing a black robe.

"Where have you been all this time!? No, more importantly... as expected, you didn't die back then?"

At Makli Hyun-ah's words, Jegal Mikhail makes a sorrowful expression.

"Rihyunjok, you now went beyond the Heavenly Being stage to the Four-Axis stage... no, is it the Ascending Metamorphosis stage? Anyway, since you have reached that realm, you will know what state I'm in."

"... Huh? What is that supposed to mean?"

"In this space, your consciousness isn't restricted, so sense me. Then you can understand what I'm saying."

"Pardon? Uh..."

Makli Hyun-ah senses Jegal Mikhail with his consciousness, and only then notices something is strange.

"Are you... Jegal Mikhail? Or are you..."

"That's right. Rather than Jegal Mikhail... I may be nothing more than the information body he left behind."

Jegal Mikhail speaks with a complicated expression.

"My ability is... to leave an imprint on some target. And that target acts according to the imprint I engraved. To be precise, the 'real' Jegal Mikhail left an imprint on you right before he died. He engraved his own personality as an imprint, and then died. If that's the case... the me here isn't the real Jegal Mikhail, but only the personality of Jegal Mikhail that remains in your heart essence. In other words, I'm only a split personality that arose in you, and not the real Jegal Mikhail."

"..."

"But listen. If I thought of myself as just one of your split personalities, I would have melted into you. However... inside your heart essence world, I pondered and contemplated for hundreds of years, and I researched my authority. As a result, I learned an interesting fact. Maybe... all of us who fell from Earth into this world aren't existing souls, but beings whose personalities were draped over the authority of some being."

"..."

"My ability. And your Extreme Ghost Path Body. Your older sister's Wind-Painting Sword Sea Impermanence Body, and your fiancée Ahn Geum's Ghost-Face Killing Heaven Body, all of them... I found the possibility that [some being] split up the authorities they possess, and then attached our existing personalities onto those authorities. Yeah... we aren't the real beings, but are nothing more than fragments of some being's authority that inherited the memories of the real us.

Even the most lowly wraith is better than us. They have a soul at least, but we have no soul. We are merely authority fragments."

"..."

"For that reason, I endured without disappearing inside you... but Rihyunjok. Now it's getting hard to endure. The fact that I'm not the real me... the fact that not even a soul exists in me... what should I do? No... what should we do?"

Jegal Mikhail looks at Makli Hyun-ah with pained eyes, and Makli Hyun-ah, with a grave face, slowly opens his mouth.

"... What are you even saying? Please explain it so I can understand."

"... Haahh..."

Jegal Mikhail lets out an even deeper sigh, and Makli Hyun-ah has to rack his brain because he can't understand what nonsense he is talking about.

Jegal Mikhail, who stares blankly with a drained face for quite a while at Makli Hyun-ah's attitude, takes a deep breath and starts speaking again.

"So... I will start by explaining what 'personality' is. Since my ability is related to personality... what is personality?"

"What is it?"

"... Personality, you see... is a kind of manual that composes and defines an existence. It's like an instruction manual that introduces a product."

Jegal Mikhail's explanation begins.

In the darkness.

After trembling in fear and despair for a long time, Ahn Geum can finally collect herself.

"Haah... so in the end, I have to bring down that crazy Ghost King with my own strength. If so, then I have no choice but to do it."

Accepting the situation, she starts to devise a countermeasure.

"First, what is that bastard? It has powerful death. Then is that an Underworld Reaper, or something that came from the Underworld? No. That's not it... If it is, there's no way it would only be at the Four-Axis stage. What kind of soul is that, exactly? No, in the first place... can something like a soul even exist inside this other space?"

After thinking for a long time, she decides to go and investigate the Ghost King a few more times in order to know her opponent.

[Have you come again? Don't run away and fight...] [It's a big ghost!!] Once.

[I don't want to die!] [Who wants to die? Come here!] Twice.

[Hiyaaaaagh! Hiiiiyahaaaagh!] [... Now you can't even speak. What are you even trying to do with a mind like that!?] Three times.

[Kkiyaaaaagh!] [...] Four times.

[It's a big ghostttt!!] [... Now you have come back to the beginning. Fight properly!] Five times...

... And so, after several such painful observations.

Ahn Geum is able to roughly infer the general nature of that Ghost King.

With a headache that comes as a recoil from witnessing immense [death], she presses and massages her throbbing head and thinks.

"It's not a soul... The being that made this space projected the history of some being that exists within their memories."

Ahn Geum knows from the advice of Heaven Immortals that Immortals of the Earth pathway can project history and the like.

She still doesn't know exactly what Earth pathway means, but anyway, the owner of this space projected history.

However, she notices something strange.

'If it's projecting history, it has to do only what it did within that history. In other words, no matter how many times I approached, the reaction should have only came out repetitively. But that guy is strange.'

The result of her approaching and investigating several times.

Each time, that Ghost King's attitude changed to fit the situation.

"... It's not a simple projection of history. That is rather..."

Ahn Geum grasps the true nature of that Ghost King, and her eyes gleam.

"Personality. The personality itself of a figure from the past that exists in the space owner's memories was projected."

Only then does Ahn Geum grasp a clue for dealing with that Ghost King.

"If the opponent is a personality rather than a soul, it's a bit easier to deal with. If it's a soul, I have to attack the spirit itself... but if I aim only at a pure personality... curses work better."

She realizes what she needs to use to deal with that Ghost King.

"Wandering souls or the Ghost Path Method obviously won't work. But... what about a curse?"

If it's a state of only being a pure personality, it means the opponent is not holding the essence called a soul, but is in the state of an information body called a personality.

If it is an information body, then if she puts the information of pain and resentment poison into a curse, which is an information-transmitting medium similar to an information body, and succeeds in contaminating the opponent's information, she can collapse the opponent.

"If I throw a curse filled with pain at a level that crazy monster can't handle, I can win!"

Borrowing the power of the Ghost-Face Killing Heaven Body, Ahn Geum starts squeezing out countless curses, and her eyes shine with hope.

The world inside Makli Hyun-ah's heart essence world.

"For that reason, personality is, in the end, an information body. We are nothing more than an arrangement of information."

Even after hearing Jegal Mikhail's explanation, Makli Hyun-ah still doesn't understand it well.

"What are you talking about? Then in the end, am I not me?"

"Wrong. I'm saying we don't have souls."

"Isn't a soul an information body?"

"If I were on Earth, I would think that too. But a soul is not an information body. I can say it for sure because after coming to this world, I learned that there exists a clear essence called a 'soul'."

"No, then what exactly is a soul?"

"That..."

Jegal Mikhail grows a little timid and scratches his head.

"I don't know exactly either. But there's one thing I can be sure of. We have no souls, and are in a state where there is only authority and personality. In other words... maybe, no, with a high probability! Our 'true originals' are on Earth, and we who are here are nothing more than fakes!"

"..."

And Makli Hyun-ah still can't understand what he is saying.

"... So what are you saying, exactly?"

"Kuaaaaagh!"

Jegal Mikhail becomes furious.

Inside the alternate space.

Ahn Geum's curse hits the Ghost King called Seo Li.

Kwajijijijik!

A red lightning flash flickers, and countless pains and resentment poison stab into the Ghost King, but the Ghost King only chuckles.

[Spicy! What a good snack. But your understanding of curses is not actually deep. You do not even know what a real curse is! Now, I will tell you. A real curse is what you call something like this!!!] Kkwagwagwang!

When the Ghost King stomps its foot, strange, horribly formed flowers bloom around the Ghost King and change into a flower garden that fills a radius of a thousand li.

Ahn Geum panics and runs.

But the next moment, when the Ghost King reaches out its hand, the flowers in the flower field scatter all at once, change into tens of billions of petals, and gather in the Ghost King's grasp in a shape like a sword.

[A real curse is something you can understand only when you dig into the root of personality... take it.] Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.

Fallen Flowers Cannot Return to Branches.

A gigantic flower sword falls down onto Ahn Geum.

Ahn Geum tries to dodge, but the curse that makes up that sword persistently tracks Ahn Geum and clings to her, and Ahn Geum screams and loses her reason.

Only the instinct made of fear toward Seo Li screams 'It's a big ghost!' and tears her away from Seo Li.

After a while, Ahn Geum comes to her senses, and she lets out a groan at the curse poison contained within that dreadful curse.

"Aaagh... aaaaagh..."

If not for the Ghost-Face Killing Heaven Body, a talent specialized in curses, the Ghost Path, and the Devilish Path, even someone at the Integration stage would have gone mad long ago from this pain.

"Heok, heheok!"

And amidst the pain, Ahn Geum is able to gain an enlightenment about curses.

"Pain... creates personality... is that it?"

The world is pain.

That is why, through the pain that exists in the world, information takes on form, becomes concrete, and forms a complex system.

Within that complex system, personality is formed.

In other words, pain is the raw material that forms personality.

"Does that mean what is called the self is pain itself...?"

She embodies the enlightenment about personality and pain contained in Seo Li's curse, and sinks into thought.

Makli Hyun-ah's heart essence world.

"... So... the residents in this world are all... not people who truly exist, but something called... personalities?"

"That's right!"

"And Mr. Jegal Mikhail received faith from those personalities and cultivated the Vertical-Horizontal Family Method?"

"That's right! So what is personality?"

"Uh... I don't know."

"... Just get out."

Jegal Mikhail, unable to bear Makli Hyun-ah's frustration, kicks Makli Hyun-ah out of the pure white space, and Makli Hyun-ah returns again to Tae Yeol-jeon's body and scratches his head.

"... What are you even saying, seriously?"

And then he suddenly runs into Hyeon Rang, who comes out from the Jegyo Dharma Assembly.

"No, Junior Sister! What brings you here? Hahahaha! For Junior Sister to come out after washing, that is something that shakes Heaven and Earth!"

"Hem hem."

"By the way, what brings you out?"

Seeing Hyeon Rang approach him warmly, Makli Hyun-ah still doesn't understand.

Jegal Mikhail says that all the residents inside this heart essence world also have no souls and are only personalities, informational bodies.

Makli Hyun-ah doesn't understand.

By Jegal Mikhail's logic, it means all of them are not living beings.

They are alive.

And that is the same for Makli Hyun-ah, for Jegal Mikhail, for Lee Seo-ah, and for Ahn Geum.

'Just what does it even mean that there's no soul?'

"Senior Brother. I have something I'm curious about."

Makli Hyun-ah vents to Hyeon Rang about personality.

"What is the difference between personality and soul?"

On the way to Grand Nirvana Temple, Hyeon Rang shows a slightly surprised expression at Makli Hyun-ah's question.

"To think Junior Sister still has the intelligence to ask such a high-level question!"

"..."

"Haha, it's a joke. Anyway, the difference between personality and soul, is it...? From our Buddhist Family Method's perspective, we don't really bother to distinguish them. They are both the same. If you have a personality, you also have spirit, and if you have a spirit, you also have a personality."

"Um... then what about someone who says they are different?"

"Well... maybe they are looking at it from a slightly different dimension."

"Someone I know says the soul is the essence, and personality is the instruction manual attached to the essence. Then aren't the two different?"

"Hm..."

Hyeon Rang ponders about something at his words, then gives an answer.

"Personality is something you can call a [name]."

Makli Hyun-ah feels as if something pierces straight through his head at those words.

"Personality is a status, and a name that defines existence. But if there is no name and no status, does that being become something that does not exist?"

"... So you mean the essence still exists?"

"Something like that."

"Then... if there is an existence that has only a name but no essence, what happens? If that existence's name and status disappear, does that existence disappear?"

"Hahahaha, Junior Sister Tae Yeol-jeon. Up to now, Junior Sister has been forgotten by everyone and has been living like a wreck, just scratching your belly in your room. No one remembers Junior Sister, and even I sometimes forget Junior Sister, so then is Junior Sister Disciple a being that does not exist?"

"No, what is that supposed to mean...? Why would I not exist!?"

"That is how it is. Junior Sister is here. Even if Junior Sister is an existence that is only a name, even if everyone forgets Junior Sister, Junior Sister is here. Even if it is an existence that is only a name, if that name-only existence has life and death, and a heart... then the essence already exists in and of itself."

Makli Hyun-ah sinks into deep thought.

And even in that moment, Makli Hyun-ah's messy nature brings up a stray thought.

'By the way, in Tae Yeol-jeon's memories, Senior Brother Hyeon Rang is reliable... but was he a being that carries such a profound aura, to this degree?'

Makli Hyun-ah looks up at Hyeon Rang.

Strangely enough, Hyeon Rang looks mystical and sacred today.

Hyeon Rang pats Makli Hyun-ah's shoulder and speaks.

"Think well on the contemplation of a [name]. As your Senior Brother, I am very satisfied as it seems Junior Sister is finally coming to your senses about cultivation!"

Inside the alternate space, Ahn Geum organizes the curses she trades with Seo Li while facing him, and the enlightenments she gained from Seo Li.

Kung, kung, kung!

From far away, Seo Li walks toward Ahn Geum, and through the enlightenment Ahn Geum gained while dealing with Seo Li over the past few days, she is able to stabilize the wandering souls and her own personality.

By doing so, Ahn Geum forcibly suppresses her fear of death to some extent, and she meets Seo Li's eyes.

[Looks like you digest the contemplation I gave you last time. Teaching you has quite the flavor!] [...] [Today, let us happily share contemplations again. Huhahahahaha!] Kwarururung!

A flower sword made of cursed petals is held in Seo Li's hand.

'Damn it.'

Ahn Geum realizes she cannot block that cursed sword, and the next moment, she is directly struck by the flower sword and shatters into pieces.

Ahn Geum's soul shatters into pieces and scatters everywhere, and Seo Li speaks toward the scattered souls.

[If the soul splits and becomes split souls, then among those split souls, who is the real one? If a new personality is born among those split souls, is it a different being, or the same being? If you say it is a different being, then is existence divided by whether or not there is personality?] Kurururur!

Ahn Geum's split souls flee from Seo Li by instinct, and Seo Li cackles and throws a contemplation at Ahn Geum's fleeing souls.

[Then in this place, I, whose personality is summoned by her history projection, am I a stranger to me from the distant past, or the same person?] Seven days and nights pass.

Several cultivators including Jo Yeon and Ha-eun are waiting in front of the shrine of the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order.

Then, Ahn Geum walks out from inside the shrine.

Ha-eun notices from her gaze that she attained some kind of enlightenment.

'Something is different. That is... an enlightenment with depth.'

His hand itches because he wants to clash his own enlightenment with Ahn Geum's, but Ha-eun endures his instinct and speaks to Ahn Geum.

"... We have identified the location of the Overseer Factory. The Human Race Grand Alliance legion is also ready. Has the True Immortal said they will help?"

Ahn Geum looks at Ha-eun with blank eyes and smiles faintly.

"... Yes. Let us depart. The True Immortal will help us by using Immortal Arts."

The Mad Lord's legion, inside the Overseer Factory.

Makli Hyun-ah, who is in a tank inside it, suddenly comes to consciousness and opens his eyes.

However, the research puppet does not pay much attention, and tries to administer more sleeping medicine.

That's when it happens.

From the highest-ranked general puppets to a few among the marquis puppets who are permitted 'personality,' they look at Makli Hyun-ah's eyes and shout.

"Wait! Something is strange! Cut the circuit connected to that one!"

But the order of the marquis puppets does not get delivered right away, and Makli Hyun-ah is one step faster.

Bubble, bubble...

From inside the tank, Makli Hyun-ah, with his eyes half-open, slowly opens his mouth.

"... [Names]... now I finally understand. Mister Jegal Mikhail... you are wrong..."

Through the contemplation Hyeon Rang gave him, Makli Hyun-ah gained a powerful enlightenment about [names], and now sees a scene as if the whole world is made of [names].

The law power of his Naming Family Method resonates, and shows Makli Hyun-ah a sight in which this tank and the entire Overseer Factory seem to be made of names.

Then, suddenly, Makli Hyun-ah realizes that at the center of this Overseer Factory made of countless names, there is a certain other name.

From inside the tank, while connected to the puppets' circuits, Makli Hyun-ah quietly calls that hidden [name].

"... Authority. [General Seo]."

The moment that name is spoken from Makli Hyun-ah's mouth, Makli Hyun-ah's consciousness starts to spread across the entire Overseer Factory.

And Makli Hyun-ah comes to know something.

'This is...!'

It is someone's will.

—I leave my arrangement for later generations. This will help you.

—Please accept this arrangement, and survive.

—If we cannot reach the heavens, then someday, you must achieve it...

Tsuaaaaaaat!

As countless names and authorities pour into Makli Hyun-ah's mind, Makli Hyun-ah receives that someone's will and heart, and feels tears flowing.

He does not know whose will it is.

But what is certain is that the one who left behind the authority of the name [General Seo] was clearly facing some great evil, and in preparation for failure, left arrangements for later generations.

Perhaps they were a being who resisted the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos that Makli Hyun-ah is wary of.

'I will carry on your will and... I will definitely survive!'

Makli Hyun-ah opens his eyes wide, and resolves to uphold the will left behind by a hero of the mythic age.

'And I will definitely... surpass the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos you tried to surpass, save my older sister from the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos, and safely return home!'

Kugugugugugu!

The entire Overseer Factory falls into great chaos as it undergoes the phenomenon of all its authority being seized by an unknown being.

And at the center of it all, Makli Hyun-ah inherits the will of a mythical relic that has been passed onto him, and begins to steel his heart.