A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 755: Chapter 751: Light and Salt (7)
"Azure Cloud Heart Method..."
Wo-woong—
As she cultivates the basic Qi Building method that creates blue clouds around her with each breath, Wol Ryeong feels fascinated.
"Is this a basic Qi Building method...?"
itis fascinating.
She was born as an innate Core Formation.
From childhood, the formulas of the Qi Refining and Qi Building instinctively embedded into her spirit.
She thinks it is truly fascinating that this realm, which she could reach just by breathing, someone else has to gasp for breath from the very beginning to climb up toward.
“How curious..."
Pachijik...
The blue clouds of the Azure Cloud Heart Method form faint lightning.
“After the Azure Cloud Heart Method comes the Lightning Spirit Single Qi Formula.
It is a method that temporarily turns the whole body into a lightning spirit and provides an enormous affinity with thunder and lightning.
“The method itself...is specialized in summoning what is called the spirit of lightning."
In an instant, her talent sees through the essence of the method.
“A tool... This Thunder Resonance Valley itself is a vast tool and altar to summon the power of the God that is worshiped here."
The very thing called Thunder Resonance Valley is no different from a foothold for the power of the Upper Realm to descend into the Vast Cold Realm.
“Do these people know that?"
As she looks toward the other Qi Building and Core Formation disciples who have come to hear the dharma sermon of the Nascent Soul Elder, Divine Power Wondrous Salvation True Lord Heo of Thunder Resonance Valley, she gazes at Thunder Resonance Valley for a long time.
The doctrines of Thunder Resonance Valley, the customs of Thunder Resonance Valley, the very meaning of existence of Thunder Resonance Valley, are thoroughly analyzed by her and become assimilated into her.
Wol Ryeong rapidly absorbs the knowledge and wisdom of Thunder Resonance Valley. [Look at that, their name is Divine Power Wondrous Salvation True Lord Heo.
[What kind of Nascent Soul stage cultivator has the name True Lord, puhaha!]
Mu Geom and Bi Hwa laugh through voice transmission while wanting to scratch the belly of the Nascent Soul Elder giving the sermon up front, and Wol Ryeong, seeing the world through the completely new perspective of the Qi Building stage she is now experiencing, feels many things.
"Gyeong-ah, why do you think those people do what's called effort?"
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
"They must already know themselves... Even if they work that hard, their limit is the Core Formation stage...or perhaps the Nascent Soul stage. To reach beyond that, they would need a truly enormous fortuitous encounter. But why do they go that far, to the point of almost dying...even crawling before Elders who are at most at the Nascent Soul stage to do so?"
She asks about things she does not understand.
As one born as an innate Core Formation, instinctively feeling the power of fate and unconsciously realizing the structure of this world and her own future, she cannot understand beings at or below the Qi Building stage wriggling and struggling.
No...
To be honest, she cannot even understand Integration stage cultivators like Mu Geom and Bi Hwa, who are at a realm similar to hers.
"Why do people all strive to escape their own birth station?"
"...You're curious why they try to escape their birth station?"
"...Yes. People all have something called fate given to them. And if you look closely at the circumstances you are in and your own potential...even without learning Immortal Cultivation, you can guess your fate. But...why do people not examine their own fate and instead strive to reach beyond it?"
"Hm..."
Seo Gyeong's eyes shine as he hears the question.
"...Well. Perhaps...the very act of struggling is fate itself."
"The very act of struggling is fate?"
Wol Ryeong frowns at that slightly peculiar remark.
Seeing the beings at or below the Qi Building stage struggling, she does think they are foolish, but she has no intention of denying that free will.
She even thinks that, foolish though it may be, the very act of continuing to struggle is beautiful.
However, Seo Gyeong's words feel somehow unpleasant.
It feels as though he is saying free will does not exist.
Free will.
With the feeling that those words are tightly binding her chest, Wol Ryeong asks Seo Gyeong again.
"If even struggling under fate is fate, does that mean freedom does not exist?"
Seo Gyeong stares straight at Wol Ryeong.
"..It doesn't exist. That's what I think."
Wol Ryeong does not understand what Seo Gyeong means and bites her lips hard.
But it is difficult to deny.
For if the heavens hold something called fate, and under that fate all things of all phenomena are decided, then it is true that free will does not exist.
And for some reason, though she does not like Seo Gyeong's answer, she cannot form any logic to deny it.
Life in Thunder Resonance Valley while lowering her realm is an entirely new experience. As soon as Wol Ryeong, Mu Geom, and Bi Hwa entered the valley, they reached the Qi Building stage, and once they became Qi Building cultivators, they often suffered direct humiliation from countless Core Formation disciples.
"Ahaha, so you're that famous next Sword Spear candidate!"
"..2 What is that supposed to..."
"Uhuhu, shut up! As a newcomer, I'm saying you should lick your senior's feet." "W-Wait..."
"Uugkh...wonderful. One of the next Eight Immortals is...my feet...uhuhu...!"
Bi Hwa gets caught by a Grand Perfection Core Formation disciple called Golden Shaking Bird, and every day she is made to wash her soft feet. Mu Geom, with his fluffy tail fur being popular, is frequently seized by female Core Formation disciples.
At least no special harassment falls upon Wol Ryeong, but even she has to run errands on her own feet, so she constantly experiences new things.
"Wol Ryeong. Install a formation here in this part. You can draw these symbols properly, correct?"
"Yes, Elder Ten Thousand Laws."
She is often caught by the Elder Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord and ordered to do errands like installing formations.
Running around on errands here and there, she gradually senses instinctively that some transcendent existence is taking interest in Thunder Resonance Valley on a metaphysical level.
“Gradually...the God is approaching."
itis said Thunder Resonance Valley serves two gods.
One is the God of Thunder and Lightning, whom she does not know well but seems famous among the beings here.
The second is a being she knows well, the Devil God of Sword Mountain.
Yet the Devil God of Sword Mountain is not very well known, and only the group called the Colorless Faction seems to mainly worship that devil god.
'I don't know why...but that being, the Devil God of Sword Mountain. I feel like I will face that being again this time."
She ponders.
“For some reason...I feel like I am standing on top of the plans of transcendent divinities." The question she asked Seo Gyeong not long ago about free will is because of these vast wills pressing on her back recently.
'If transcendent beings are arranging my fate, and I only live according to that fate...then do I truly not have free will?"
—Free will doesn't exist. That's what I think.
For some reason, Seo Gyeong's words, spoken with such certainty, continue to bother her in a corner of her heart.
'If free will doesn't exist...then why must I keep struggling to raise my realm? Can't I just sit still in this place..?'
As time passes, her troubles only deepen.
And amid such doubts about her own free will and within her inner Heart Demon, the time arrives.
Kurururung!
Wol Ryeong, along with about one hundred excellent Qi Building and Core Formation disciples of Thunder Resonance Valley, about sixty excellent Nascent Soul stage Elders, around ten Heavenly Being stage Grand Elders, four Great Grand Elders of the Four-Axis stage, and the Sect Leader, the Lightning Sword High Person at the Integration stage, gather and begin the sacrificial ritual.
Though called excellent disciples, in truth they are those who have deeper faith in the gods worshiped by Thunder Resonance Valley than anyone else in the valley, willing to offer their very lives for the gods.
[Today! On this spot, that lord shall descend! All must greet them]
Wol Ryeong watches the Lightning Sword High Person from afar.
Wearing a red faceless mask, bare-chested with red lower garments, reaching his hands toward the sky, his appearance seems rather grotesque.
“Why is he doing such a thing?"
Why is she, knowing she stands upon the hands of transcendent beings, here to resist their influence?
“Does he do such things by his own free will? If so, am I also doing this by my own free will?"
The Lightning Sword High Person and the four Great Law Protectors of Thunder Resonance Valley activate the formation.
Kurururung!
The Heaven and Earth spiritual energy of the Earth Tribe territory heads toward Thunder Resonance Valley.
Jieoooooong!
The entirety of Thunder Resonance Valley seems to boil, and according to their formation, the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy gathered from the entire Earth Tribe territory rapidly amplifies.
itis the Amplifying Spirits ritual.
Sensing the scale of that enormous power, Wol Ryeong falls into thought.
“Fate...cannot be defeated by strength. Then with what does one prove oneself? To prove one's free will beneath fate...what must one do?"
Kurururung!
The Heaven and Earth spiritual energy amplified by the Amplifying Spirits ritual soon begins to be offered through the Lightning Sword High Person to some existence. Kwarururung!
Wol Ryeong, trembling under the will of the God of Thunder Resonance Valley, the [God of Heavenly Punishment], who sends part of their split soul to the ritual, thinks.
“Is the only way to become an even greater existence? Is becoming a greater existence, and with that great power, guaranteeing only the free will of those beneath oneself, truly the only way?"
Without even thinking that the self-questioning she asks herself is questioning the essence of Radiance Hall, she continually asks herself and undergo repentant enlightenment.
“Is this path I walk the right one?"
She, recalling the countless moments she has seen and experienced during the ten months she lived as a Qi Building disciple, sinks into agony.
More than the thirty years she lived as a proud disciple of Radiance Spirit Sect, the three hundred days she lived as a Qi Building cultivator are throwing her into confusion.
She is changing from the ten months she spent as a Qi Building disciple of Thunder Resonance Valley.
Kurururung—
Soon the will of the transcendent existence fades, and the third ritual begins.
Kwarurung!
The spirit of lightning begins to descend into the Lightning Sword High Person, who wears a red mask.
Urururung!
The Lightning Sword High Person's flesh begins to undergo lightning transformation. Wearing the red mask, he receives the spirit of lightning, dyeing his whole body golden. Red lightning turns golden, and a golden lightning spirit is being summoned to this place. This lightning spirit, after stabilising inside the Lightning Sword High Person, will again move its dwelling into the bodies of the Four Great Law Protectors of Thunder Resonance Valley.
When thus a total of four spirits are summoned, it is said that the divine artifact of the God of Heavenly Punishment, the Heavenly Lightning Banner, will be summoned. [Remember well. There is only one chance. Before that lightning spirit enters the bodies of the Four Great Law Protectors, you must ambush the Four Great Law Protectors and kill them in one strike. I will handle the Lightning Sword High Person. Can you do it?]
The ritual of Spirit Summoning that at last begins in earnest.
Within that ritual, the voice transmission of Geuk Gwang enters her ears, and Wol Ryeong nods.
Soon, the voice of the Slaughtering Heaven Esteemed One Geuk Gwang, who exchanges voice transmissions with Seo Gyeong, Mu Geom, and Bi Hwa, resounds. [When the signal of True Dragon Alliance Lord Gyu Ryeon comes, begin the ambush at once. Now then, all of you, prepare.]
Wol Ryeong closes her eyes and counts inwardly.
The feint operation with Gyu Ryeon, who will attack the main mountain of Thunder Resonance Valley from outside and shake Thunder Resonance Valley, is about to begin. She tries to calm herself by counting numbers, but even though she counts, is not at ease.
The topic of free will is incessantly reproduced in her head and is driving her into a Heart Demon.
“The answer about free will...what is it?"
Finally, she stomps her foot.
Kwagwagwagwang!
At that same moment, Gyu Ryeon's all-out attack begins to pound Thunder Resonance Valley's main mountain.
[000000000h!]
Kugugugung!
By the attack of the Quasi-Star Shattering stage Dragon King Gyu Ryeon, the entire region, including Thunder Resonance Valley, shakes, and the gazes of everyone in Thunder Resonance Valley scatters at the sudden ambush.
And Wol Ryeong, who stomped her foot in that gap, reaches one of the four Great Law Protectors.
Flash!
As she exudes the divine might of the Integration stage she has hidden all this time, she bursts and kills in one strike the Grand Perfection Four-Axis stage Great Law Protector assigned to her.
The Four-Axis stage Law Protector's body bursts apart, and their spirit immediately vanishes from the spot, seeking to use the function of the Four-Axis stage to resurrect. With no time to even be shocked at the instant death of one of the Four-Axis stage cultivators, the other Four-Axis cultivators are likewise ambushed by Seo Gyeong, Mu Geom, and Bi Hwa.
Under the all-out assault of the Integration stage cultivators who hid among the other disciples, they have no choice but to collapse.
The, Esteemed One Geuk Gwang charges at the Lightning Sword High Person.
Lightning Sword High Person is charged by Esteemed One Geukgwang.
"You all disrupt the formation, I will take him!"
Geuk Gwang summons a radiance halberd and rushes at the Lightning Sword High Person, and the Lightning Sword High Person and the Tall Tree Race's Star Shattering Esteemed One, Geuk Gwang, collide.
Jjeoeong, jieooooeoeong!
Light and lightning explode as the two beings clash.
Lightning Sword High Person may only be at the Integration stage, but within him is a direct apostle of the God of Heavenly Punishment.
A spirit of lightning.
Though not yet stabilized, the lightning spirit endlessly presses Geuk Gwang and blows them away toward the sky of the Vast Cold Realm, and Geuk Gwang grits their teeth and stands against the spirit of lightning.
[Condemn the heretic scum who harm the Valley Lord!!!]
[Kill them]
Kugugugugu!
Countless disciples of Thunder Resonance Valley rush at them.
The eyes of the Thunder Resonance Valley disciples are dyed with fanaticism, and seeing them, Mu Geom and Bi Hwa sneer.
Mu Geom and Bi Hwa, who had no choice but to be tormented by them due to the secret operation, have their eyes filled with killing intent. Especially Bi Hwa, who was caught by a disciple named Golden Shaking Bird and, for reasons she cannot understand, treated almost like a plaything, raises her Integrated Dao Domain as if to massacre them all even a moment faster.
itis then,
Kwarururung!
[Al of you, be still.]
The attraction force spreading from Wol Ryeong distorts the surrounding space and forces everyone to collapse to the ground.
Kwaaaang!
All existences at or below the Heavenly Being stage are seized by Wol Ryeong's immense power and are pressed to the ground, and Wol Ryeong's calm words sweep across the entirety of Thunder Resonance Valley.
[1 am the Integration stage Grand Cultivator of the Human Race, Wol Ryeong. Not only I, but also Mu Geom and Bi Hwa are all at the Grand Perfection Integration stage. Seo Gyeong has also just risen to the very beginning of the Integration stage. You have no chance of victory. Therefore...do not resist and stay still. If you do so, I shall not kill you.] "Haah, Junior Sister. You are too soft. These are heretics who serve evil gods. Can we not just kill them all?"
"That's right, Junior Sister. These bastards...have you forgotten what that bitch Golden Shaking Bird did to me for ten months!? Even if you stop me, I have to tear at least that one to death!"
Mu Geom and Bi Hwa, irritated, vent their complaints to Wol Ryeong.
But in that instant, meeting her gaze, Mu Geom and Bi Hwa freeze completely.
Shiver!
"...Do you truly need to do so?"
Wol Ryeong's gaze is now far different from before.
And only then do Mu Geom and Bi Hwa realize what has happened to Wol Ryeong. 'Insane...Q-Quasi Star Shattering stage...!?"
In ten months she reached the Quasi-Star Shattering stage..? Has she become a monster!?'
"...J-Junior Sister...we should do as you say. Haha, sorry. I tried to push through too much with my authority as a senior brother, right?"
“I'm sorry, Junior Sister. I'l just be scratching their bellies. Ahaha..."
Mu Geom and Bi Hwa, seeing Wol Ryeong's gaze, awkwardly lay down Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord and Eastern Brilliance Spiritual Lord, who are kneeling nearby, and begin scratching their bellies.
"...You, do you even know whose bellies you are scratching right now?"
Ten Thousand Law Spiritual Lord and Eastern Brilliance Spiritual Lord only look at the two with dumbfounded faces.
"Of course, you would be dumbfounded. But the truth is, we were not Qi Building disciples, but at the Integration stage, you see?"
"Hahaha, how cute. It's so sudden you still can't grasp the situation, huh. Do you know how funny it was every time we saw you acting lofty about being a Nascent Soul?"
Mu Geom and Bi Hwa, to avoid Wol Ryeong's gaze, treat the two Nascent Soul Elders who find the absurd situation as if they are cute and scratch their bellies, and Wol Ryeong turns her eyes and surveys the surroundings.
Wol Ryeong uses her Integration stage attraction force to make everyone in the area kneel, suppressing them so they cannot perform any spells, divine powers, or actions. However...
Among those gathered here, not a single one yields to her attraction force, and they keep trying to rise without stopping.
"...I believe I said it already. If you resist, I will kill you."
Kugugung!
She releases an even stronger attraction force.
All around