A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 774: Chapter 770: Radiance (5)
Wol Ryeong.
The Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord who occupies Pal Jin's body.
The Sword Spear Heavenly Lord.
And everyone present holds some degree of confusion.
'What on earth...are they saying? Pal Jin, and...Master...?'
Wol Ryeong looks at the 'boundary' that differs by only a hair's breadth.
The 'boundary of the paper flower' she can enter if she takes just one more step forward.
The domain the Heart Tribe calls Heart Dao Blooming.
If she takes just one more step...no, if she merely leans her body a little more, she can enter this very close domain of paper flowers.
From the day she first came to know the existence of the Heart Tribe...
Wol Ryeong has wanted to reach the domain called paper flowers.
That domain of paper flowers...cannot possibly be unrelated to Wol Ryeong's fate.
Hearing the words Pal Jin spoke just moments ago, Wol Ryeong trembles.
'The paper flower domain...is the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's...domain...?'
It cannot be.
That beautiful realm of Martial Arts she dreamed of all her life is the domain of the wicked Mountain Divine Spirit who clung around her all her life?
No, even setting that aside...
'Master...tried to push me...into that place...?'
Her master.
Her guide whom she gained after Esteemed One Baek Geom...
Tried to push her into the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's domain.
And True Person Eun Geom's reaction, stiffening and stepping away from Wol Ryeong, is...
'Please say it is not so, Master!'
Proving those words are true.
'Please, tell me... that you are not the minion of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord who killed my former master, Esteemed One Baek Geom...!'
And True Person Eun Geom stretches out her hand.
"Master...?"
With a handful of hope, Wol Ryeong wants Eun Geom to deny Pal Jin's words, who seems to be in an abnormal state for some reason.
"Authority, wartime commander Sword Spear Heavenly Lord. I demand full descent of the over sixty thousand accumulated God-Killing Spears."
Tsuaaaaatt!
And Wol Ryeong's hope shatters to pieces.
For Eun Geom's touch before her eyes strengthens the Immortal Art of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord to the utmost while beginning to summon something.
"Mas...ter..."
Gritting her teeth, Wol Ryeong trembles all over.
Her arm holding the radiance halberd turns toward Een Geom.
"You... You all...killed my master..."
Recalling the day Esteemed One Baek Geom was ruthlessly killed by the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's hair clone, Wol Ryeong takes the stance to unleash the thrust at Eum Geom that was taught by Eun Geom herself.
"All of you! The wicked Mountain Spirit...! Killed my..."
"Ryeong-ah."
And at Eun Geom's voice that follows, Wol Ryeong freezes on the spot.
Why is it?
The voice coming from her mouth now is exactly the same as the voice of the being she remembers.
"I am sorry."
Clank...
True Person Eun Geom begins to remove the iron mask she has never once taken off until now.
The face hidden behind Eun Geom's mask reveals itself.
:: What are you saying...Sword Spear? No, more than that...what are you doing to the next Sword Spear right now...!? ::
With the decision to discard Rain Dew Heavenly Lord made, and with Sword Spear's betrayal right before their eyes, the war clouds of the Second Bright Sword Great War completely die down.
No, perhaps the flames and anger of that warfare are condensing even further.
:: Your name is what the Radiance Supreme Deity bestowed upon you. Although since the day you came to be called Sword Spear, that name lost its meaning...that is the [name] that raised you up to Sword Spear! What on earth are you saying!? Answer me! Sword Spear! ::
The Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord's painful outcry reverberates through the entire Heavenly King Heavenly Domain.
And, seeing such a pained reaction from the Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord...the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord slowly...
...yet surely...treads the void and begins to approach Seo Eun-hyun.
:: I will say it again... My name...is not Yang Ji-hwang. ::
Thus, having at last turned her back on her comrades and come to Seo Eun-hyun's side, the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord grips Seo Eun-hyun's wrist hard.
:: My name is Ji Hwa (). ::
Ji Hwa, after removing the mask covering her face, forcibly pulls Seo Eun-hyun's wrist and sets it on her own shoulder, then declares toward the remaining Radiance Eight Immortals.
:: The one who decided...to become the sword of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord Seo Eun-hyun.::
At that declaration, the Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord, who thinks they have been robbed of the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord whom they believed without doubt to be their lifelong friend, begins to howl madly.
:: Let go of that hand...of that dirty, filthy hand!!! ::
From behind the Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord's back, a gigantic image of pearl jade that evokes the sun rises up. The light of that pearl jade emits a flash that divides Heaven and Earth and flies toward Seo Eun-hyun, and in that instant, red lightning cuts across between them.
Kwarurung!
It is Jeon Myeong-hoon.
:: Give it up. She now...belongs to Seo Eun-hyun. ::
Kwarururung!
Jeon Myeong-hoon raises a single banner.
:: Just as the Heavenly Lightning Banner in the end fell into my hand, was humiliated, and became loyal to me...just
as it became mine in the end...she too shall become the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's and become loyal only for his sake. ::
:: NO!!! ::
:: Face reality. She belongs to the Sword Mountain Devil Lord. ::
:: Do not speak of Sword Spear...like an object!!! ::
Kwarururung!
Jeon Myeong-hoon laughs as he looks at the Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord, who has gone mad with rage.
:: It seems your poison has worked quite well. Seo Eun-hyun, Kim Yeon. : :
::... Yes. ::
The Sword Spear Heavenly Lord, without releasing her fierce grip on Seo Eun-hyun's wrist, who tries to pull his arm away because of the numbness, looks at her 'former' comrades with a bitter gaze.
:: You all...succeeded in learning the heart. In one form or another... : :
Though Vast Cold died, his spiritual successor Seo Eun-hyun germinated the foundation for Vast Cold's curse to sprout the bud of the heart through Heart Dao Blooming.
Although all of the previous generation upon whom the curse was placed perished, the Underworld steadily projected the power of history repetition onto Radiance Hall and has been transplanting the sprouts.
And...Kim Yeon, Vast Cold's authority successor, at last watered those sprouts.
Lastly, with the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord Ji Hwa opening her heart to Seo Eun-hyun for the first time as the trigger, the other Heavenly Lords likewise began to let their hearts grow, like bamboo shoots after the rain.
It is not only the Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord.
Great Forest, Flower Plant, Great Sun, Torch Candle, Great Sea, Rain Dew. All of them, knowingly or not, have become poisoned by the venom that Seo Eun-hyun and Kim Yeon deliberately sowed.
Deeeng-
Kuuuuuuung!!
And at last, from the Source River, a sound like a brahma bell resounds through Heaven and Earth.
Flash!
The sky shines bright.
As if the black cosmos brightens, a phenomenon begins in which the entire universe seems to fill with the light pink afterglow of sunset.
The arbiter between Heavenly Domains, the Great Sun Heavenly Lord, and the administrator of the Inner Sea of Mount Sumeru, the Great Sea Heavenly Lord, flare their eyes red and roar with rage.
:: Northern Dipper! ::
:: Have you betrayed us too!? ::
Beyond that Source River. Yeong Seung and, with tears of blood and looks of agony, the North Dipper Seven Heavenly Lords who control the Source River by Yeong Seung's order come into the sight of the Radiance Eight Immortals.
Those who descended to the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain, by the Immortal Art Vast Cold left behind...came to recognize at last that they are wrong, agreed with Yeong Seung's view, and are throwing themselves in to help the entire Source River be eroded by something else.
And the name of that something else eroding the Source River is the Artificial Gandhara.
Deeeng-
It is the work of Kim Yeon, the holder of the Liberation Law Talent that was created by the Heavenly Craftsman yet surpasses the Heavenly Craftsman.
Kugugugugugu!
Kim Yeon's whole body seems to blaze with light pink flames, and she steps forward.
Unlike when both Kim Yeon and Oh Hye-seo engaged the single Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord, she, receiving the power of the Artificial Gandhara, now looks different.
And at a certain moment,
Hwarurururuk!
Kim Yeon's body, blazing with light pink, rosy flames, begins to grow gigantic.
:: Th-This is...! ::
:: Nonsense... You are saying she...inherited Vast Cold's Seat? You say she reached that Origin Essence!? It cannot
be!::
But whether the Radiance Eight Immortals are aghast or not, Kim Yeon unifies the authority that originates from her own Seat and from her own fate.
Her innate authority.
She could only come to know of it after she directly met the lingering thoughts of Vast Cold.
'So this is my authority.'
Until now, except for the Liberation Law Talent, Kim Yeon has never once ever wielded anything that could be called her own 'authority'.
It is not because Kim Yeon lacks talent as an Ender.
It is because Kim Yeon's authority itself is an authority which cannot be wielded until she completely seizes it.
It is a contradiction.
One must wield an authority and grow accustomed to it to master it, yet this is an authority that she can only wield after mastering it.
But only now, that she completely controls her authority, can she fully accept its meaning.
-My successor. Your authority is...weaker than anyone's, yet is an authority stronger than mine.
The lingering thought of the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord she met in the Peach Blossom Garden marveled at Kim Yeon's authority and spoke such.
-That authority being expressed as a consciousness domain at the Plane of Qi...must be because that authority can be explained only as a broad heart that recognizes others. Remember. Your authority is...solely for others.
'I want you all...to know it too.'
Praying for the Radiance Eight Immortals, Kim Yeon keeps growing vast, goes beyond the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain, and assimilates with the whole of Mount Sumeru.
She loses her form and becomes a single 'will' that drifts across all of Mount Sumeru.
-Yes...that is a power that guides people to heaven.
Authority.
Paradise Guidance (樂圖引導).
What is called heaven, what is called paradise, is not in some far place.
If one believes a place to be paradise, then that place is heaven, is paradise.
Just as Kim Yeon felt she was saved by Seo Eun-hyun and felt his side to be paradise, arriving at the place one
desires, at the side of the person one desires, at the time one desires-that is paradise.
Her authority does not apply to herself, but exists solely to realize others' ideals.
Those who are by her side someday all arrive at the ideal land they 'truly' desire.
Just as the Mad Lord obtained salvation.
Just as Bong Myeong, the source of her Liberation Law Talent, regained his name...
Under the Artificial Gandhara, feeling that the predecessor Radiance Eight Immortals obtained a seed of the heart
due to Vast Cold's curse, and that the current Radiance Eight Immortals are making it sprout, Kim Yeon prays with all her strength.
'Please, may the peace of heart come to them as well...'
Deeeng-
At last, the sound of the brahma bell rings thrice.
And...at last, not only Pearl Jade but the other Radiance Eight Immortals too begin clutching their chests.
The most primal function of the heart is affection.
That power of love settles fully in the Eight Immortals.
That affection will manifest from each of the Eight Immortals in its own form.
For someone as joy, for someone as anger, for someone as sorrow, for someone as pleasure, for someone as the
same love, for someone as hatred, for someone as desire.
They will become confused, but one thing is clear.
Now that they have come to have a heart...
Compared to up to now when they were used as tools, they will draw much nearer to salvation.
And the moment she plants a heart in the Radiance Eight Immortals, Kim Yeon's consciousness becomes light.
The light pink afterglow of sunset spreads over all of Heaven and Earth.
All Heavenly Domains are dyed by her.
Tsuaaaaaaaat!
Kim Yeon feels the lingering thought of a being from the distant past look at her and smile.
-My successor. Please...you must succeed. I pray for you. Please...obtain freedom.
Deeeeng-
Once more, the great sound of a brahma bell resounds.
It is not a sound from the Artificial Gandhara.
At the base of Mount Sumeru.
The Black Sky.
One among the Heavenly Seats begins to be engraved.
Kim Yeon germinated and brought to sprout the seed left by the predecessor, Vast Cold.
And Kim Yeon, having reached the peak of the Immortal Dao of Acceptance at Fate's End, finds the path she must
take.
'I see.'
She feels, however faintly, how Vast Cold was defeated.
And she feels she knows what Vast Cold desires.
For the sake of granting at least Vast Cold's prayer, Kim Yeon suppresses her own potential.
Until now, she received everything from Vast Cold.
From the position of one who always only received, she suppresses herself to repay Vast Cold's grace.
Her name as a Governing Immortal, which should originally be engraved upon the Heavenly Seat, becomes distorted by that self-suppression.
Originally it should rightly be a name bearing her own symbol, but Kim Yeon forcibly maintains the predecessor's name and puts it upon herself.
Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King (1) Kim Yeon.
'This...is the possibility that can save the Vast Cold Heavenly Lord as well.'
In the state where she has become consciousness itself that blankets Mount Sumeru, Kim Yeon senses beyond the
summit of Mount Sumeru and thinks.
Now that she bears the name of Heavenly King, she sees clearly.
Above the summit of Mount Sumeru.
The being in the Audience Chamber...
And the things that being hides...
'I will fulfill...your deepest wish.'
Thus, having become a Heavenly King by preaching heart to the heartless, Kim Yeon falls into sleep to digest the
memories from other timelines that she obtained upon becoming a Heavenly King.
And those who remain begin to be at a complete loss over the 'blessing' she has given.
Great Forest glares at Sword Spear.
Flower Plant glares at Sword Spear.
Great Sun glares at Sword Spear.
Torch Candle glares at Seo Eun-hyun.
Great Sea glares at the Rain Dew Heavenly Lord.
Rain Dew looks at everyone.
:: What...what is this...what is this pain...!? ::
:: What have you done to us!? You accursed breed...why is it so...::
:: I hate you...Sword Spear. If you had not betrayed us...if you had not sold us to that accursed breed...we would
not even have to suffer such pain...::
:: Sword Mountain Devil Lord...it is you! It is you!!! It is you!!! You are that wanderer in the dream!!! ::
Great Forest, Flower Plant, Great Sun, and Torch Candle howl like mad.
Oh Hye-seo sneers.
"Yeah...cry. You cannot escape from it anyway. You cannot even avert your eyes away. Even I, who was born with
it only faintly by nature...could not get out of it..."
:: Rain Dew...get a hold of yourself, Rain Dew...! I am sorry, we doubted you. I am sorry...! ::
:: Ah, no...do not apologize, do not worry. Do not hate. Do not panic. Do not be angry...aaaah, aaaaaah... ::
Rain Dew, whose life was saved when the falsity of the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord was revealed at the moment
they were about to be executed, sobs even more bitterly than when their execution was finalized.
:: So it is in my generation that Radiance Hall perishes!! Aaaaaaah!! O Mountain Divine Spirits! ::
Seeing Great Sea and Rain Dew with panic mixed with rage, Oh Hyun-seok bitterly gives them advice. "Just be honest instead. Doing so is rather the path to be freed from that pain."
:: Shut up!! I do not listen to the likes of you. I hate you! I hate you filthy Ender accursed breed bastards! Among
you I hate you the most, Sword Mountain Devil Lord!! You...you took my Yang Ji-hwang...you took my Gyeong-i
away!! ::
The Pearl Jade Heavenly Lord screams like the mad.
::I...I was with Gyeong-i first! From our mortal being days! Until we became Sword Spear and Pearl Jade, until we
took charge of Yang and Yin of Radiance Hall's martial force, we were always together! You who appeared later, you dare...dare...! You dare defile my friend!! ::
Watching Pearl Jade, who loses their mind with rage and goes mad, Jeon Myeong-hoon shakes the Heavenly Lightning Banner and smiles bitterly.
Kwarurung-
"Vent. Other than venting all that rage and releasing your anger...there is no path to salvation."
:: Yooouuuuu!!! : :
Driven mad by the Mountain Divine Spirit's stratagem, the Eight Immortals stagger to their feet and begin to draw
on the power of the Heavenly King Heavenly Domain.
However, immediately after,
Chwararararak!
From the direction of the Vast Cold Realm of the Earth Boundary Heavenly Domain, summoned rays of light pierce
the sky and appear.
They are sixty thousand-some God-Killing Spears.
Using the Immortal Art of the Vast Cold Hall White Jade Pavilion Beam-Raising Ritual embedded in the Head Realm,
the Sword Spear Heavenly Lord smuggled off all the God-Killing Spears accumulated in the Head Realm.
Kwaching-
And the authorities of those God-Killing Spears so painstakingly smuggled...
Are crushed and turned into powder by Sword Spear's single hand.
Without even a gap to reclaim control over the God-Killing Spears, the Eight Immortals see their efforts of past
days shatter and turn to powder, and once more fly into a rage.
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