A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 781 Chapter 777: Light
With one sword, one face disappears.
Gwak Am's blood robe.
The Great Mountain Supreme Deity's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea collapses with each and every sword.
Even as his whole body is being shredded by the sword, he extends his offensive toward me.
Even as his skin is sliced, tendons cut, and bones are breaking.
My attack is quiet, unlike what one expects of something that cuts down an existence that reached the apex of all mountain gods.
All flows of power are perfectly controlled, not letting a single drop of power spill, so my sword is utterly tranquil.
My sword that contains the change of impermanence is a silent storm.
Gwak Am's offensive collapses Heaven and Earth with its aftershock alone, but my sword becomes a silent storm that lacerates him.
And within that silent storm, his roar resounds.
"You think you will defeat me!!?? You!!!!!
Kugugugugu!!
With his roar alone, the ground twists and sinks.
"Do you think you cut the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea! No. Never. Never will that happen! Look...your sword is not causing any pain at all, is it!?"
Because it is being cut away so cleanly by a perfect sword strike, Gwak Am laughs, saying he does not feel pain.
"A fight is !!"
Kwaaang!
He steps forward and hurls his upper body at me.
"Pain!!!"
With the tendons of both arms severed, he attempts a headbutt.
The wind pressure from his head thrown back alone feels like it will flay my skin.
And I confront that headbutt head-on.
'My body too is a sword."
As I straighten my will, my intent naturally transforms like a sword, and the Impermanence Sword wraps my whole body.
Kwaaaang!!
With the body of a mortal, I cannot face this mythic flesh.
But people have weapons.
Therefore, if there is a sword, I can sufficiently face him.
My body clad in the power of the Impermanence Sword and Gwak Am's head collide.
The shockwave shakes the entire Head Realm.
Lianshan City shatters with its foundation like porcelain.
The sight of the foundation of the outer city, the city wall, and the inner city breaking into pieces, scattering into the sky, and then falling back down everywhere does not feel like reality.
"Without pain, hatred, or resentment, do you truly think you can defeat me!? Truly!?"
"...There is no reason why I can't."'
I look straight at Gwak Am with clear eyes.
Even though I definitely protected myself with the Impermanence Sword, blood flows from my head and my head hurts.
It feels like there's a crack running through my entire skull.
For a moment, physical force surpassed the Impermanence Sword.
"But...I will not take revenge on you with pain, resentment, and hatred."'
"What...?"
"I dislike you. I dislike you so much that I do not want to become the same kind of existence as you."
I dislike those who give me pain.
I dislike the world that gives pain.
I dislike the heavens that give pain.
But,
Just because I receive pain, do I have to return it with pain?
Do I have to return as much as I receive?
Everyone will shout to do so.
Even the Retribution of the Impermanence Sword is an authority for doing so.
But I quietly reflect myself on the sword.
'...I do not want to do that.'
I ask myself.
'From the beginning...when I made the Impermanence Sword into a sword of Retribution, was it truly for the sake of revenge?'
Was it truly to return as much as I received?
Facing myself, I know it is not so.
'No.'
That's not it.
I...
Rather than returning as much as I received, I wanted to reflect the opponent in this sword.
Not to give and receive pain, I wanted the opponent to look back on themselves.
That wish merely manifested as Retribution.
What I truly thought as I held the sword was to reflect myself in the sword, and to reflect the opponent as well.
"...Retribution is the affair of the Underworld."
It is not the affair of the living.
In this world, besides Retribution, there are already so many things to do.
"I will not take revenge on you. I will not, filled with hatred, fall into the abyss. I will not become covered in resentment and have myself twisted...!"
Tsaaaaaat!
In my eyes, a scene from a far past passes by.
It is a scene where I, filled with resentment, desire for revenge, and hatred, fell into the abyss and received salvation by one person's kiss.
At that moment when the curse whitened and turned into blessing...
If at that moment there was no being who granted me salvation...
I too would have thought exactly like Gwak Am.
'Yes, I...'
From the moment I received salvation from her, perhaps I became unable to truly hate someone.
Even the Mad Lord, even Seo Hweol.
Even though I hated them, the reason I acknowledged them in the end must have been because of that.
The moment when the Wuji Religious Order was annihilated is unspeakably painful, but at Penglai Island when we
met as Senior Brother and Junior Brother...
I knew I could not utterly hate Gwak Am.
'That beauty like hers...perhaps I wished to contain it in the sword.'
It is not the beauty of appearance.
It is the beauty of the heart.
Tsaaaaaaat!
The Impermanence Sword digs through Gwak Am's skin and tears the blood robe.
"You say you dislike me so you will not change to be like me!?"
Gwak Am laughs.
"Do you still not understand!!??"
He laughs and shouts.
"Look around!!"
Around us, the ground is shattered into pieces by the aftershock of his resistance, and at the same time
everywhere is stained bright red with Gwak Am's blood.
"You are already...an excellent avenger!! For revenge you toyed with a person's life, and for revenge you scattered
blood. You...are the same as me!!"
"That is correct."
I readily acknowledge it.
With blood on my blade, how can I say I do not want revenge?
With blood on my blade, how can I speak of good intent?
Therefore,
What is stained onto this sword must not be only blood.
"Therefore...from now on it will change."en
My main body and my movements synchronize.
Unfolding the move of Severing Mountain, I take one more step forward.
'Please help me. Oh Hye-seo. Kang Min-hee.'
Oh Hye-seo, who seized the Seat of Severing Evil, links with the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's Corpse Mountain
Blood Sea.
Kang Min-hee, within the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea of sorrow and grief, makes contact with 'someone'.
The essence of Origin Essence is soul.
Therefore, the greatest force of that authority originally acts upon the soul.
"One step...I will go one step farther than you."
Tsuaaaaaaaat!!
My sword, which possesses a transparent and formless blade, begins to take on color.
Just as the Formless Sword compresses and becomes the All-Heavens Sword.
The storm of the Impermanence Sword gradually begins to gain rays of light.
"It doesn't hurt, right, Senior Brother?"
Gwak Am widens his eyes.
"It's only natural. Because my sword...decided not to give pain."
I harden the resolve in my eyes and speak toward him.
"For pain is indeed a fine teacher, but it is not the best teacher...!"
He recognizes the identity of the light dwelling in my sword.
And he realizes what I am doing.
"You..."
Gwak Am loses his smile.
"You...!"
Transcending Peaks.
Entering Mountain
Ascending Vein
Flowing Ridge.
Joy of Mountains and Peaks
Qi Mountain Heart Heaven
Layered Mountains
Mountain Tiger.
...
Sea of Righteousness and Mountain of Grace
One Annihilation to the Near Shore.
Guiding to the Summit.
Twelve Thousand Peaks...
Mount Sumeru.
Mount Kunlun
Mount Cedarwood.
...
Great Mountain...!!
"Pressing Down!"
"Seo Eun-hyun, you...!!!!!"
With all of it in succession,
Severing Mountain!
Chwaaaaaaa!!
The sword strike creates a storm of countless cut marks.
That storm accumulates and accumulates in layers, and gradually begins to form, quite literally, an impact that
even cuts a Great Mountain.
However, those slashes do not give pain to the opponent.
They simply draw something out from Gwak Am's body.
They add something and grow gradually brighter.
'If one can reflect the heart in this sword.'
Then can I not also contain the heart into it!?
The Corpse Mountain Blood Sea of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am, the innumerable spirits that
constitute that Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, gradually begin to be contained in this sword.
Gwak Am, for the first time with a panicked gaze, shouts toward me.
For the first time, panic settles into his voice.
"What I accumulated...!"
Tsuaaaaa!!
The main body's visage becomes visible.
Even if I overexerted, the reason I created a Heavenly Pillar connected to the main body is precisely this!
I tear open the blood robe, and the main body tears open the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
The souls of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea struck by the Impermanence Sword gradually become contained in
my sword and begin to become a bright light.
That is not all.
Chwaaaak!
From a certain moment as the starting point, the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea gradually begins to whiten centered
on the parts that my Impermanence Sword touches.
Just as my curse became a blessing by Buk Hyang-hwa's comfort.
By using the heart essence of the comfort and salvation I received from her, and with that as the foundation,
infusing the sword with the heart essence of all the gratitude I accumulated toward this word, I erode the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
With the martial arts Kim Young-hoon gave as the foundation,
With the heart essence Hyang-hwa gave as the cornerstone,
Through the sword Kim Yeon made,
Controlling the main body like the Mad Lord,
Infecting the opponent like Seo Hweol,
Aiming for the gap that Jeon Myeong-hoon and Oh Hyun-seok make,
With Oh Hye-seo and Kang Min-hee each agitating the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea with the powers of Severing
Evil and sorrow,
And, through the Severing Heaven Sword Form, Escaping Heaven, I connect to the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea
one by one, and I inject into them the greatest enlightenment that I attained.
"Life..."
Tsuaaaatt!!
The chains wrapped around the main body's right arm resonate.
Led by Hong Fan, the Five Desires Chains all cry out together.
-Show us!! Lord!!
"Life is...!"
The souls of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea regain their freedom.
Kang Min-hee, from the inside of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, stirs up their grief, and Oh Hye-seo, with the
authority of Severing Evil, severs their ill connection.
And the souls, who begin to ascend by gaining enlightenment through my Impermanence Sword, transform into
colors of every kind.
There are those who, even after escaping the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, still cannot cast off dark-red hatred,
those discolored black and filled with desire, those shining with joy, those heated with anger, those wailing with sorrow, those dancing with pleasure, those swelling with love.
All those colors gather and form all of Heaven's natural colors.
All of Heaven's natural colors become one and illuminates the universe with a pure white light.
And, led by the sword will contained in the sword, they add their strength to mine.
-Was what I just gave you also a curse?
Even if a person's life is suffering and hatred,
If the hearts of people could connect and communicate,
Would that not be, perhaps...an endless miracle?
The hearts of the sentient beings of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, who find freedom through the sword will,
connect and communicate with me.
"Life is...a miracle."
Someone once said.
That it is not strange, but wonderfully mysterious.
The people who live in this wonderfully mysterious and beautiful world, and the traces they leave as they live life.
Those marvelous footprints.
As long as the footprints we have left behind remain...
-It is a technique called Heart Field.
-You saw it too, didn't you? The starting point of the next realm that I discovered...
-If it's you, you will surely be able to reach it.
...surely, there is salvation in a person's life.
Long ago.
The light one of my teachers showed dwells in my sword.
-Promise me...one thing.
-One day...when your strength has grown...strong enough...please.....
-Create a world where...the strong...cannot so...easily oppress...the weak...
A single strike that holds artificial souls in the chest, making them a power source containing infinite authority.
I, while placing the true souls who have become free from the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea into the sword, demonstrate that person's technique.
'Teacher Jang Ik, I could not make a world where the strong cannot oppress the weak.'
But...
I have made it at least possible to draw a little closer to it,
'However, I have given those who are oppressed by the strong a chance to become strong.'
I teach true repentant enlightenment to those who were trapped in the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea and forced into
repentant enlightenment, so that in their next lives they may someday attain enlightenment.
And as I engrave enlightenment deep within their souls, I cover the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea with the Mountain
of Grace and Sea of Righteousness.
Fully embodying what Jang Ik showed and making it my own, I take the Severing Heaven Sword Form one step
further.
Severing Heaven Sword Form
Fifth Form.
All-Heavens Righteous Understanding ().
All the innumerable souls bound to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am cling to my Impermanence Sword
all at once, obtaining enlightenment and salvation, and all of them grant me infinite [power] that is no different from
a Seat.
The Severing Mountain Swordsmanship that begins at Transcending Peak, once again reaches Great Mountain
Pressing Down, and the light of Severing Mountain pierces Gwak Am.
Gwak Am's body splits in half, and so does the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body.
Thus, the final move of Great Mountain Pressing Down that cleaves Gwak Am in half directly penetrates Heaven
and Earth, creating a scar in the sky of the Head Realm.
The single sword of the main body that splits the Great Mountain Supreme Deity leaps past Mount Sumeru, then
splits the chaos of the Outer Sea in one stroke.
Beyond the Outer Sea, upon the boundary of Cakravāda, it leaves a much larger and longer sword scar than what
Silver Basket and Great Mountain left behind.
It is the sword of mortality that no prophecy or history revision can stop.
Chiiiii-
Gwak Am, in a state of being split in half, looks at me.
As if using an Immortal Art that postpones death, the scent of plum spreads.
Twitch...
Even though the lungs are torn, perhaps because it is an Immortal Art.
Gwak Am, surpassing Kang Min-hee's law, slowly opens his mouth and lets words out.
Kugugugu!!
The fragments of Lianshan City that had scattered into the sky fall.
Kwaaang!!
Beside us, the Ju family's house and rice fields fall.
It is a potato field full of potato blossoms.
As the potato field falls, the potato flower petals scatter, and because of that impact I do not quite hear his words
properly.
"...If so, Seo Eun-hyun..."
However, even though it does not reach my ears, I can understand.
"...Prove it..."
Gwak Am closes his eye
"That life...is a miracle..."
Kugugugugu!!
"...that you can sever the cycle of retribution..."
As Kang Min-hee's law weakens, Qi gradually returns to the Head Realm, and my connection with the main body
becomes active again.
"Until then.......will not...acknow...ledge...you..."
That is the end.
With that, all of Gwak Am's breath and will scatter.
All the spines in his body are snapped, all the tendons are cut.
Even though he died with even the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea gone, somehow his corpse...
Still stands.
Kugugugugu!!
The fragments that had scattered fall.
I look at Gwak Am.
And I close my eyes.
"...At last...it's over."
The cycle of retribution cannot be cut by the perpetrator.
If one suffers pain at the hands of some existence, only when the victim forgives the perpetrator can the cycle be
severed.
Chwaaaaaa-
Among the spirits that flow and scatter beyond the starry sky...
The friends of the Wuji Religious Order.
I feel their souls and close my eyes.
"It is over...everyone. So..."
Then how should the victim forgive the perpetrator?
What can be summoned true forgiveness at last?
'Only when...one finally becomes equal.'
Whether that is by external force or by one's own power.
Only when one finally becomes equal can the victim become able to forgive the perpetrator.
'Now...everyone has become equal...'
They lost their lives.
My Senior Brother also lost his life.
Because they have become equal in the state of having lost, they...
All those who belong to the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, including them...
Begin to feel the heart that forgives the Great Mountain Supreme Deity Gwak Am.
"Please sleep in peace."
Kugugugugu!!!
I reconnect my main personality and the main body, which had had the connection cut by Great Mountain Pressing
Down.
Tststststss...
The remaining flesh in the Head Realm undergoes qi transformation and ascends.
I remain in the Head