Chapter 395: Final Realm (1)
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It was a silence unbefitting the vast Forbidden City. For a moment, no one understood what had transpired. Even I spread my sensory perception, unable to tell whether Zhu Jung-sik had surged upward or sunk into the ground.
And realization visited everyone simultaneously. Nature had not shown mercy to one who abused it to such an extent.
I had roughly anticipated it, but the Immortals fell into shock. They had thought themselves to be part of nature, never doubting that they would receive boundless support.
“……Defying heaven.”
From someone’s mouth, such words emerged quietly.
“Defying heaven, it is defying heaven!”
The words ‘defying heaven’ spread like wildfire. I thought they were saying that upon seeing Zhu Jung-sik’s end.
However, that was my mistake. A single person’s life was not sufficient to wash away the stubbornness accumulated across the passage of time.
“That fellow has finally defied heaven!”
The defying of heaven they cried out was directed not at Zhu Jung-sik, but at me.
Rather than Zhu Jung-sik perishing for disobeying heaven’s will, they seemed to view it as me having used some sorcery to kill Zhu Jung-sik.
I looked around. In fact, there were people who had continuously wavered and hesitated at my words.
Yet now, no one was wavering. Everyone looked at me with hatred-filled eyes. The terror of nature devouring an Immortal paralyzed their reason.
Those who had wavered had two choices.
The path of acknowledging that they were ordinary humans, and the path of maintaining their beliefs held until now.
When driven to extreme circumstances, all of them chose their beliefs held until now. Seeing the truth before their eyes yet not a single person acknowledging it was bitter, but it also felt that this was truly human.
“Kill that fellow!”
The shouts to kill me spread like wildfire. Each of them was like dry brushwood parched to the point of crumbling. The flames of wrath devoured one another, growing steadily larger, and the Forbidden City was drowning in the sea of killing intent encroaching upon the surroundings.
With mere killing intent, that massive Forbidden City was collapsing. Pillars cracked and crumbled, and the supporting main ridge collapsed with the sound of a splintering crash.
Their killing intent and wrath reached tangible form, scorching the entire perimeter.
Unexpectedly, I wavered at that moment. Because the words the Heavenly Demon had spoken came to mind: That the foundation of the world was wrath.
I had never heard that love overflowed to the point of influencing the physical world. Things like Injuring Others with Directed Qi ultimately struck a person’s spirit; they did not strike a person’s physical body.
When Injuring Others with Directed Qi reached its peak, it could reach Instant Death by Intent, and the fact that a person killed by Instant Death by Intent had not the slightest physical wound was proof of that.
Therefore, I could not help but think: If love, which I considered the foundation of life, was a weaker emotion than wrath, was the Heavenly Demon’s word not correct after all?
Reaching this point now, I was able to reach an answer: That arguing whether wrath or love took precedence was a question as answerless as debating whether the chicken or the egg came first.
Each person could simply live according to their own conviction. Commoners raising rebellions had the conviction and Dao of commoners, these Immortals had the Dao of Immortals, and martial artists had the Dao of martial artists.
Even so, I wished to realize the truth that pierced through this world. Just as truth lay in the most intimate depth of the universe, within the most intimate depth of the human that was me lay the spirit seeking to explore truth.
The Immortals rushed toward me. Killing me had now become their lifelong mission. My very existence denied them, and for their existence to be acknowledged, they had to kill me.
Their fists, palms, kicks, released force, and swords brimmed with killing intent, charging with me alone as their target.
I surged high into the sky. Because they charged from all directions, the air was the only place to withdraw.
However, Grandmaster Hyeon-wol was already striking down upon me from midair.
I, too, drew an invisible sword and met Hyeon-wol’s sword. Within Hyeon-wol’s sword, a familiar and nostalgic feeling was steeped. It was the Taiji Wisdom Sword of Wudang Sect.
“……Ah.”
Both Hyeon-wol and I let out exclamations facing each other. Just as I saw Wudang in Hyeon-wol’s sword, Hyeon-wol seemed to see Wudang in my sword.
Suddenly, the words Su Je-heon had spoken came to mind: That to know each other’s sincerity, there was no choice but to clash.
“I believe I have received much from Grandmaster. You spoke good words to me, gave me enlightenment, and in the first place, the one who first taught me immortal arts was Grandmaster. When Grandmaster bestowed teachings upon me, I do not believe there was any ulterior intention even at that time.”
“Had I known you were such a seed of evil, I would have cast you out long ago.”
“Do you truly think so? That I am a seed of evil? Grandmaster has also watched me for quite some time, have you not?”
“From my standpoint, that is how it is. You deny me, so how can you expect me to affirm you?”
“The one who tried to kill me first was Grandmaster.”
“Death is not an end. I truly believe that. You, too, simply need to live a new life.”
I shook my head.
“Though my soul may continue, the karmic ties experienced while living this life occur only once. I did not wish to part with my people. Most of the things constituting me stem from others rather than myself, so if I erase all of them from memory, could that be called me?”
“A shortsighted thought. Karmic ties are threads that cannot be tied even if one wishes to tie them, nor severed even if one wishes to sever them.”
Hyeon-wol continued speaking.
“I, too, find brief farewells regrettable. My disciple Cheong-hwa, and friends as well. However, because I know we will meet someday, I can choose to end my life. The present is merely a moment. How can you not see eternity?”
“To me, the present moment is far more important than an eternity that may or may not exist.”
And through the Wisdom Light Mind Voice, I transmitted my life directly to Hyeon-wol. Even my life before regression, which I had not revealed to Peng Chae-hyang or Myeong-gyeong.
Myself before regression and myself after regression. Karmic ties altered by momentary choices and circumstances. Gwan Seo-ye, who was once a close confidante and became a subordinate; Peng Chae-hyang, who was a stranger and became a lover; Myeong-gyeong, who became a Senior Brother; Cheong-hwa, who became a master; Namgung Hwi, who became a younger brother; and my father, with whom severed ties were restored.
The two lives I had lived were the very evidence supporting my opinion right now. I showed them to Hyeon-wol.
Unlike Peng Chae-hyang, because Hyeon-wol was one who had reached the pinnacle of Immortals, he was able to see beyond my previous life.
“……Regression. In the truest sense, defying heaven.”
“I, too, thought so at first.”
I looked into Hyeon-wol’s eyes and spoke. Hyeon-wol’s eyes were trembling.
“However, such a thought occurred to me: Does defying heaven actually not exist in the world? As long as it exists in the world, is it not already beneath the heavens? Defying heaven is an illusion. The Domain Master of the Immortal Realm who vanished just now received retribution because he violated nature, not because he defied heaven, did he not?”
“…….”
“My regression, and everything else besides, is conforming to heaven’s mandate. If regression were defying heaven, all relationships formed after regression would be defying heaven, and I cannot accept that.”
I let out a sigh.
“That Grandmaster and the other Immortals thought that way is also conforming to heaven. It is simply that Grandmaster’s world and my world cannot overlap. It is natural for me to deny you, and natural for you to deny me. If two worlds cannot coexist, one world shattering is also conforming to heaven.”
I whispered into Hyeon-wol’s ear. Hyeon-wol’s wrinkled eyes widened greatly.
Because piercing through Hyeon-wol’s sword, my invisible sword and body had reached Hyeon-wol.
In truth, no matter how many Immortals there were, the outcome of the battle was already decided.
Ultimately, they were competing in martial arts with me, and regarding martial arts, I was a Martial God—a god of martial arts. Once I purchased the talent of Martial God, they could not defeat me through martial arts.
If they were to defeat me, they should have shattered the thoughts and world I held, rather than subjugating me with martial force like this.
Hyeon-wol’s head was severed. Red blood, the proof of a human, surged into the sky, and the small body was slammed to the ground.
“Heaven defier, kill the heaven defier!”
The Immortals pressed me even more fiercely in terror. Because Hyeon-wol was at least my Grandmaster, I showed consideration by letting him know me before death, but there was no reason to do so for the others.
Between Hyeon-wol and me, there were karmic ties, while the remaining Immortals had no ties with me. It meant they were strangers.
All the Immortals of the Central Plains rushed toward me. Not one among them sought to subjugate me with logic and worldviews.
They merely attempted to suppress me with the most primal method of martial force. And as stated, that was a method that no longer worked against me.
Even when their blades touched my skin, I was not cut, and my invisible sword cleaved through them like slicing leaves.
“Aaaagh!”
“A monster, he is a monster!”
Those who did not know me had no choice but to misunderstand me in that way.
To the Immortals, I had now become an incomprehensible existence.
Even so, that did not mean I had become an existence different from them. Like them, I was still a human.
To be precise, it was not that they could not understand, but that they chose not to understand.
Such lack of understanding was not particularly regrettable or hurtful. Because unlike Hyeon-wol, they were strangers. That strangers failed to understand me was nothing to feel hurt about.
This was simply an ordinary martial world. A martial world where quarrels arose in inns over trivial reasons, and where the strong won regardless of right, wrong, and justice. This battle possessed merely that degree of meaning. Though, indeed, all battles were like that, not just this one.
Approaching one by one, I cleaved through the Immortals with the invisible sword. Because they had transcended lifespan rather than life, before death, all of them wore terrified eyes just like other humans.
“…….”
After killing the last remaining Immortal, I descended to the ground.
The surroundings were filled with the corpses of Immortals. The ruins of the collapsed Forbidden City could simply be used as a graveyard for the annihilated Immortals.
I looked up at the sky. The sky was an ambiguous weather, neither clear nor overcast. Should I call it colorless and odorless weather capable of offering no inspiration?
Before long, flies began swarming over the warm blood, and crows circled in the sky while watching the mood of me, the sole survivor.
Because they had cultivated the Dao and lived long, their corpses did not emit fragrance, nor was their blood white.
“……Now.”
Ceasing to gaze at the sky and lowering my head, I looked behind me.
“Now it is the final fight.”
There, the Heavenly Demon of the Blood Cult was smiling.