A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 787 Chapter 783: Ascension (昇天)
Tududududu!
An indescribably chilling surge of energy faces us.
The Head Realm splits.
And what faces us is a strange attraction force that lies between the Head Realm.
'That is...'
That attraction force connects to the Vast Cold Realm, and it is something far too familiar to us.
'Ascension Gate!'
It is the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin made.
And the moment I see it, I understand what it means.
Tiring-
'It is not simply...a gate that leads to the Vast Cold Realm...!?'
Guguguguguuk!
As I am sucked into the fissure, I come to understand something.
My comrades also seem to realize something, as they all at once stretch their hands toward the attraction force of that Ascension Gate.
For mortals beings at or below the Heavenly Being stage, the Ascension Gate is a gigantic concept like a 'gate' or a 'path,' but for us who reach the rank of Governing Immortal, it feels like a faint 'thread'.
And the meaning of that thread is not simply to ascend to the Vast Cold Realm.
"The thread of a labyrinth..."
Kang Min-hee mutters as she winds that attraction force around her hand.
It is Yang Su-jin's consideration so that juniors who enter the Audience Chamber can flee back inside Mount Sumeru.
If one fears defeating the Future King, it is Yang Su-jin's will to let one come back down to Mount Sumeru and live a little longer.
We, excluding Underworld, all tie to our wrists the red thread, the attraction force of the Ascension Gate that Yang Su-jin left behind.
Rather than fleeing from the Future King, it is more so we feel the heart of our predecessor.
Tsuaaaaat!
Thus, together with my comrades, I set foot toward the world that I expect to be the Audience Chamber.
Western Heavenly Venerable, Netherworld Queen Mother Bong Hwa.
Star Genesis Supreme Deity Seo Eun-hyun.
Golden Speed Heavenly King Kim Young-hoon.
Red Pearl Cycling Heavenly King Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King Kang Min-hee.
Silver Nameless Heavenly King Oh Hyun-seok.
Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King Kim Yeon.
Agate Auspicious Heavenly King Oh Hye-seo.
A grand host of Governing Immortals totaling eight!
They enter the Audience Chamber.
And the first to sense an anomaly is Bong Hwa.
Woooooo-
::...I see. So it is you, Gatekeeper. : :
Tudududu!!
The Gatekeeper of the Audience Chamber.
The Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon stares at Bong Hwa with the eyes of Sun and Moon.
:: Step aside. There are eight Governing Immortals. I do not wish to bicker with the likes of you...::
The vessel of the Origin Essence of Life that contains the Akashic Records.
She glares at the Emptiness Supreme Deity and clenches one hand.
But then,
With a chilly gaze, Bong Hwa looks around.
Before she knows it, she has entered a strange space.
It is a strange world from which Mount Sumeru is overlooked at a glance.
And toward the [above] of that peculiar world, she feels a sacred sanctuary where an overwhelming presence is felt.
The gateway that leads to the Audience Chamber.
A space of Primordial Origin from which all of Heaven and Earth is overlooked.
If she just proceeds forward, she will reach the Audience Chamber.
Yes, if she just walks, she will so very easily reach it.
The other Enders are not in sight.
Perhaps, by the Emptiness Supreme Deity, they are undergoing a [trial] of facing the Gatekeeper.
At this vaguely unpleasant, biased trial, Bong Hwa decides not to enter the Audience Chamber right away and instead to wait for the other Enders to pass their trials.
In any case, these Enders are the golden generation.
There is the unfathomable variable named Seo Eun-hyun that cannot be guessed or understood, but even setting that aside, it is a never-before-seen, absurd lineup of power the likes of which has never existed.
They cannot possibly fail a mere trial, so it is enough to wait a little.
Just when she thinks so,
Flutter-
Suddenly, Bong Hwa sees a strip of paper fly past her side.
It is a part of a book.
Though its title cannot be seen, clearly...
It is a story about a protagonist who suffers from their connections and ascends.
Flutter, flutter, flutter...
And taking that as the lead, countless sheets of paper start to fly around her.
Those sheets differ in depiction, but all depict a story about a single existence.
That appearance is much like the Celestial Lord Incense Burning that Seo Eun-hyun left behind before going to the Outer Sea, but it exudes a far more sacred feeling.
From Mount Sumeru, innumerable sheets fly and begin to soar toward the Audience Chamber.
Seeing this, the eyes of the Heavenly Venerable of the Underworld Bong Hwa widen.
Gradually, the chilling energy that all beings of Mount Sumeru, including her, feel begins to subside.
As if beings of lower rank do not even have the qualification to dare to perceive that existence...
Seeing this, Bong Hwa, leaving behind the Enders undergoing the trial, grits her teeth and advances toward the Audience Chamber.
As if the truth of the history in the Audience Chamber, torn away in the Audience Chamber, comes to mind.
Woooooo-
A dark starry heaven.
It looks like a night sky lit by starlight, yet the starlight is too powerless, and the darkness is too strong.
That dark world is like a labyrinth.
However, there is one existence who gropes through that labyrinth and tries to reach its edge.
It is the blond man, Kim Young-hoon.
Cheok!
At last, Kim Young-hoon reaches the edge of the labyrinth.
All Heaven and Earth are darkness, and what is felt is something like a door seen before his eyes.
That gigantic door, which looks much more like a human door than the Head Realm Gate they passed through, gives a feeling of being powerfully in contact with Kim Young-hoon's essence.
Woooooo-
The strange wailing felt from somewhere.
"...I see, so you are the Emptiness Supreme Deity."
Kim Young-hoon, within that wail, receives the strange feeling he felt whenever he saw the Head Realm and
recognizes its identity.
"Is this...the trial you impose on us?"
Kim Young-hoon suddenly feels the urge to cut this gate down.
"Well then...I should at least give it a try."
Hwoong-
The moment Kim Young-hoon takes his stance.
A golden flash of a fleeting instant bores into the door.
Jjeoeoong!
A golden wave spreads through all Heaven and Earth, and the dark world brightens for a moment.
At the same time, the form of the door within that darkness appears even more distinctly.
That gate is as if the universe is compressed into the form of a gate.
Innumerable starlights swirl within the door, and countless constellations within the door emit sacred light and form
strange shapes.
However, that is all.
"...Hmm..."
Kim Young-hoon's single strike only leaves a scratch on the door.
He fails to cut the door down.
"Well, if I spend some time, I can probably cut it down..."
But the moment he cut, he understood.
This is not made to be 'cut'.
It is a door meant to be reached, looking back upon oneself, and testing one's own enlightenment.
Kim Young-hoon stands before the door and speaks while putting forth his Dao.
"Enlightenment... I have obtained it."
Wo-woong-
Kim Young-hoon's voice strikes the door and returns as an echo.
And that echo reaches him as a completely diverse question.
-What is your enlightenment?
"My enlightenment is..."
Kim Young-hoon closes his eyes and slowly recalls his entire life.
Meeting his wife and loving her.
Seeing his children and devoting his whole life to them.
Becoming a department director.
Getting caught in a landslide while going on a company workshop.
Falling to Ascension Path, remaining with Seo Eun-hyun, and ranging across the martial world...
And in that process, by Seo Eun-hyun's regression, repeating more than a few times, gradually improving, and all those things that lead him to this very place engrave themselves in his mind.
Carrying his enlightenment, Kim Young-hoon slowly brings his hand to the door.
"I realize how much this life...is filled with things one can rejoice in, how much I can trust people, and how far I can
climb."
His eyes blaze with gold.
At the same time, his hand also burns with gold.
"A single life is a fleeting spring dream. However, precisely because of this, the life within the fleeting instant is joy
beyond compare."
Tststststststs...!
The gold spreading out from Kim Young-hoon's hand grows stronger and begins to push the door hard.
"Life is joy."
Voicing the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Kim Young-hoon begins to push the door wide open.
A space of darkness.
Jeon Myeong-hoon looks at the door before his eyes.
It is a strange door, as if it models the universe.
And seeing the countless constellations engraved on the door, he tilts his head.
'I feel like I've seen these constellations somewhere before...'
However, he cannot tell what they are.
'Well, it probably isn't that important.'
Jeon Myeong-hoon pulls for red lightning.
Kwarururung!
Within the red lightning, he prepares a single strike filled with his sincerity.
Entering Heavens Beyond the Path.
Eighty Quadrillion Lightning-Tipped Spear!
The strongest ultimate technique of a Governing Immortal unfolds from his hand as a spear of mortality.
The red spear directly strikes the door as-is, and the ultimate technique that contains all of Jeon Myeong-hoon
shatters outright.
"Mm..."
He realizes.
This door is not a door meant to receive attacks.
'Is it to test oneself?'
He quietly brings his hand to the door.
Wo-woong-
The sounds born from Jeon Myeong-hoon's movements return as echoes.
Carrying the question of some existence.
-What enlightenment have you obtained?
Jeon Myeong-hoon closes his eyes.
He was born into an affluent family and lived his whole life without lack.
There was a time when he entered his family's company, sat there idly, killed time, and tried to pick up women.
He also met a guy he didn't like.
It was a guy named Seo Eun-hyun.
He tried to bully him and drive him out. He even made a plan to disgrace him at the workshop.
Then he met a landslide and fell into a strange world.
There, he stepped onto the path of Immortal Cultivation, came to love, and gradually grew as a human being.
And he lost all of it and ended up shouting only anger.
But vengeance did not come to pass, and he only repeated dying miserably in the wilderness...
However, by Seo Eun-hyun, he repeated, and repeated...
And gradually, by riding along with the regression, he came to receive salvation.
He did not save everyone, but he saved some.
He, who had only gone on dying without crossing a certain realm, did not die, advanced forward, reached Great
Net Immortal, and faced the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity.
Thus, having completed all revenge and become a Heavenly King, he has come to this place.
"I was angry. Therefore I accepted others' anger. Thus...I accepted becoming the ring of anger itself."
Anger is, after all, for circulation.
As long as the world cycles, the existence that is him is needed as well.
Life is a cycle.
Therefore, the anger that becomes the driving force of that cycle is life itself.
"Life is anger."
Putting forward the enlightenment that pierces through his whole life, Jeon Myeong-hoon thrusts forward his
reddened hand with force.
Red light brightens the darkness and pushes the door open.
In the darkness.
Kang Min-hee looks at the door before her eyes and comes to understand something.
"This is..."
She has spent ages under the Underworld, doing nothing but drawing taenghwa.
No one can recognize better than her diagrams that symbolize something.
"Immortal Cultivation system...?"
The strange constellations floating and shining within that door, as if someone crammed a Heavenly Domain within,
are a schematization of the Immortal Cultivation system.
She realizes that this great door is, more than she expected, a high-ranking existence.
'I see...'
And she realizes, without even bothering to attack, that she cannot break through and pass.
'For the Immortal Cultivation system...is not something like a mere law.'
It is the path she has learned, and also another self of hers.
Her own self.
There is nothing in the world as strong as that.
If she is to break this door, she must be prepared to break herself.
Knock, knock.
She knocks on the door.
Its echo spreads and returns as a question.
-What is your enlightenment?
Kang Min-hee looks back on her life.
Since childhood, a ghost clung to her.
Because of the ghost, she could not become close with anyone, and only upon becoming an adult did she become
close with Seo Eun-hyun.
She liked Seo Eun-hyun.
Although their relationship became uncomfortable, still, all his actions brought warmth to a corner of her heart.
Originally, after coming back from the workshop, she planned to state her intent to resign.
For Seo Eun-hyun.
So that he no longer feels uncomfortable with her.
In any case, Jeon Myeong-hoon was hitting on her in a filthy way, so the reason for resignation was sufficient.
But a landslide occurred, and she was dragged to Black Ghost Valley.
Receiving the teachings of Heo Gwak and the sages of Black Ghost Valley, she gained control of herself and
gradually drew near to death.
She awakened as the Ghost Guiding Holy Mother, and was subjugated by Jang Ik.
However, in the life that repeated because of Seo Eun-hyun, she at last received salvation.
"It was always...a life of only being protected."
She wanted to protect as well.
But she could not protect.
Not only Seo Eun-hyun, but even his daughter...
Tststststs...
From within Kang Min-hee's heart, something begins to bloom.
It is the aggregation of her hearts that has been suppressed under her Absolute.
That which does not let sorrow flow only as sorrow.
It is the soul.
As she looks back on her own life, her eyes blaze blue.
Kang Min-hee's blue hair becomes even clearer.
"One protects one another, and is also protected by each other, and at times fails to protect. Therefore..."
Tsuaaaat!
Her hand bursts into blue flame.
"Life is sorrow."
That hand shining blue begins to push the door.
"But at the same time...as long as what I must protect is by my side, it is not only sorrow."
Jjeoooooong!
With Kang Min-hee's shout, the door shines ever more vigorously and begins to show her the way.
Trial space.
Oh Hyun-seok throws a straight punch.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust.
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter Nameless One Fist, thrust...
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter...
Kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang, kwaaang...
"Huuuk, huuuk..."
He wipes his sweat and rubs his fist that feels numb.
"...Strange. I reached the Governing Immortal rank, yet how is it that only faint marks remain against me...?"
Oh Hyun-seok is already, in himself, a law.
Therefore, no matter what law is before his eyes, if it is struck by him, there must be at least some change.
For it is a collision of laws.
"Just what in the world is this made of...?"
Kuwoong!
Oh Hyun-seok, a little vexed, places his fist against the door and glares at it.
But suddenly, he realizes something.
"...This is..."
The door that is like a transparent universe.
Inside that door, something reflects.
It is Oh Hyun-seok himself.
For some reason, he feels a bit embarrassed.
"...Damn. Was I hitting myself...?"
Oh Hyun-seok knows what he should do.
Wo-woong-
His own voice becomes an echo and returns as a question.
-What could be your enlightenment, that you knock upon the door?
"...My enlightenment..."
Oh Hyun-seok recalls his daughter who wanted to follow him.
At the same time, he recalls his child on Earth that was lost to a miscarriage.
Countless memories flash through his mind.
"Not being ashamed before myself. That being the path to truly live with a smile. That is my enlightenment. Because this world is one where those who wish not to be ashamed keep on living, tussling with one another..."
He shouts boisterously.
"Life is pleasure!"
Tsuaaaaat!
His fist blazes silver and begins to push the door.
But at the same time, his soul resounds and blazes even more.
"However...at the same time it is much more than that!"
It cannot be expressed.
For that is the teaching he gained upon meeting the being called Cheong Min.
If one is a man, it has always been that you prove yourself with nothing but your own two fists!
Azure Wing Heavenly Shatter.
Zero Wing.
Nameless One Fist, thrust!
Recalling the words of Azure Tiger Saint, Oh Hyun-seok heartedly puts power into his fist and forcefully shoves the door open.
Inside Mount Sumeru.
In every Heavenly Domain there, all those of the Heart Tribe feel a strange sensation.
"What is this...?"
"M-My senses...are cut in half...?"
"No, I don't think that's it...but what on earth is this!?"
The Heart Tribe fall into great confusion.
The reason is simple.
Clang!
The Interdimensional Void closes.
The Plane of Soul does not operate.