A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 806 Chapter 802: A Regressor's Tale of Cultivation

Huaruruk—

The flames blaze.

She is draped in a dragon robe of wisdom woven from golden fire. Upon her head, she wears no simple ornament, but a golden imperial crown identical to that of the Future King.

Simultaneously, the Wheel behind her head begins to radiate a golden light, spinning eternally.

I can sense it now.

The being standing behind me is no longer merely the Underworld.

She is the progenitor of all life within this Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World.

She is the recorder of all history, the librarian of Omniscience who possesses the power to uncover any truth she desires.

Kuuuuung!

A portion of her jade throne, constructed from Bong Hwa's Vestige, suddenly vanishes. In its place, a segment of what looks like the head of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon emerges.

The reality of what has occurred is clear to us all.

Woo-woooong!

It is a piece of the Vestige she discarded during her ascension to Life Supreme Deity.

Half of the head area.

That very piece was what constituted half of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon.

'I understand now. This is the work of the Future King.'

In the timeline where she eventually reaches the rank of Life Supreme Deity, he swapped her Vestige with half of his own. By doing so, he ensured that the possibility of any other being ascending to Life Supreme Deity and usurping the Absolute was neutralized at its very origin.

Such is the truth behind the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon, the one who possesses eyes like the Sun and Moon.

While he solidified the future where Bong Hwa becomes the Life Supreme Deity, he also desired to remain with her, even if only as a Vestige. Within the realm known as the Head Realm, he sought to perpetually relive the memories of his time as a mortal...

The existence of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon is the product of Hong Fan Gu Ju's warped longing and, simultaneously, a beacon of hope.

Huarururuk—

The divinity governing Life, History, Information, and Explosions.

The First King Bong Hwa briefly observes the result of the Future King's divine influence before turning her eyes away.

She reaches out her hand toward Vast Cold, who is collapsing amidst continuous explosions.

"Rise. Do you intend to lie there in such a pathetic state, even after claiming my Peach Garden?"

Woo-woong!

The air fills with the fragrance of peach blossoms, and the shattered Vast Cold is restored to life.

At that moment, Vast Cold produces something from within their robes.

It is a shard of a world.

The very Peach Garden, cascading with petals, where the lingering thoughts of Vast Cold once resided.

Vast Cold kneels silently before Bong Hwa, bowing low to offer her that world fragment.

As she takes the fragment into her hand, it transforms into the shape of a peach tree branch.

Peach blossoms erupt instantly along the wood, and a perfectly ripe peach grows from it.

Bong Hwa plucks the fruit, briefly inhaling its scent, before tossing it directly toward Hong Fan.

Hong Fan catches the peach with ease and smells the aroma.

"I am grateful for all this time. For the care you gave me. For enabling me to reach this point. Consider this my repayment for every grace of fate you have granted me until now."

"...Should I consume this, does it signify that I can no longer claim any debt from you regarding fate or Immortal Cultivation?"

"It means we simply stand as equals."

With the perception of a Supreme Deity, I can see the truth.

'A concentrated mass of life force... and a collection of information infused with the memories of the happiest moments Hong Fan and Bong Hwa shared in their previous lives.'

This is no simple data cluster.

She has literally extracted a portion of the past from the Akashic Records—history where Hong Fan and Bong Hwa found joy—and handed it over.

That information serves as a personalized, miniature version of the Akashic Records belonging solely to Hong Fan.

Crunch—

Hong Fan takes a bite, holding the fruit in his mouth.

"It is sweet."

Tsuaaaaat—

By eating, the Fate Supreme Deity internalizes the memories within the small Akashic Records gifted by Bong Hwa, momentarily losing himself in the past.

Hwiooooo—

The history shaped like a peach is instantly integrated into Hong Fan.

"Though there was misery in the past, surely there were moments of sweetness and joy as well, were there not? O Future King. I ask you to remember them and break free from the past. You must look toward the future instead of being held captive by what has already vanished. Please... release the tail you have been biting.

"Do not allow the entire era of Mount Sumeru to be chained to a single age and culture by dwelling on the past. Move forward, so that new stories, cultures, and eras may take their rightful place.

"This is the plea of the one who was once held in your arms."

"...Why are you Bong Hwa and not Yang Hwe?"

Hong Fan responds to Bong Hwa's request with a question of his own.

"Why do you reject the name Yang Hwe? I traveled to the divinity wearing the guise of a namer specifically to obtain it for you...

"Why... do you use... a name that heralds disaster? Why... do you cling to that awful name I conceived while watching you burn from afar?"

"First... you must remember that you gave me the [fate that overcomes fate] to distance me from your own destiny and push me toward becoming a candidate for Life Supreme Deity, did you not?"

Flinch—

I shudder at the revelation of Bong Hwa's fate, which I am only just learning.

That... was the very fate granted to my own child.

"Are you claiming you chose it simply because it is a painful memory for me? That it is a name born of rebellion against the fate I instilled in you?"

"I cannot say that influence was entirely absent. However! You must also recall this. Just as you watched over me in every previous life, I, too, desired to return to you in every one of those lives."

She gazes at Hong Fan with a gentle smile and continues.

"The fate you gave me was to overcome fate. Initially, I was lost as I followed that path, but through endless trials, meeting various people, and facing adversity, I learned much.

"And I realized something. You try to distance yourself from me, but I wish to speak with you. All this time, I have wanted to express my gratitude.

"Overcoming fate is not my concern. I have come to realize that no matter the 'correct' way to surpass destiny, we are the ultimate judges of our own paths, so the interpretation does not matter."

As I hear those words, my mouth hangs open.

'Ah...'

Her words are meant for Hong Fan, but they have unraveled a knot within my own heart.

'I see...'

If the day ever comes...

If I am reunited with my daughter, I feel confident now that I can treat her with the care she deserves.

Of course...

She is a child I sent away by my own choice.

I cannot simply reconstruct her like a project and bring her back to walk beside me.

So for now... I only hold the hope that she might live again under Bong Hwa's care, and that we might meet by chance one day.

"The name Bong Hwa is the way my history expresses its thanks to you. Because..."

She offers the Future King a warm smile.

"From the moment I learned that you climbed countless peaks to light beacon fires to cure my sickness—and even set fire to your own fingertips in the end—I no longer required any grand or majestic name."

The third tale.

It is the legend of a man wandering the world to find a cure for his wife's leprosy.

He searches for a mountain with five peaks, having heard that lighting fires on all of them simultaneously would heal her.

The twisted fable.

In the version Hong Fan desired, the man realizes his five fingers are the five peaks. When he ignites them, his wife is cured.

I suspect this story represented Hong Fan's desperate wish to grasp a fragment of happiness with his own hands.

"As our home and you were consumed by fire, you used the heat of the beacon to warn me of the danger. But because I was blind, I could not run fast enough... I could not reach you in time. You burned to death because of that. To me, the name Bong Hwa is the mark of my shame for failing to protect you."

"It was the name you used to think of me, because you felt the fire and ran to save me. The burning hurt for a moment... but when you arrived and held me, that moment was truly wonderful."

"... Instead of lighting beacon fires on a mountain for you... I wanted to build a home where we could live together."

"I remember that too. You said it when you returned from your travels. You mentioned seeing many beautiful mountains... and said that when I recovered, you wanted us to travel together and live in a house on a mountain, where I could listen to you describe the view I could not see."

She sweeps her arm through the air.

As her flaming limb moves, the darkness within the Audience Chamber is pushed back, and the chaos is expelled.

"Since you wished to live in the mountains, I told you that you must surely be an Immortal."

"Looking back, it wasn't a mountain I needed, but a sanctuary for just the two of us. The world that mocked and betrayed us seemed like nothing but filth."

"So, you intentionally fashioned the world into the shape of a mountain... I can only be thankful."

As she drives out the chaos once more within the gestation world.

Massive gravitational forces pull several Heavenly Domains together, forming a conical shape.

Before our eyes, a landscape resembling a mountain takes form.

Why a mountain, of all things?

A mountain is steep and isolated; living at the peak ensures that unwanted visitors cannot reach you...

It is a form born from the simple wish to exist in peace.

"Because once... we promised to live on a mountain together..."

Hong Fan mumbles as he looks down at Mount Sumeru.

Bong Hwa gazes at him and offers her hand.

"Will you fulfill that promise now?"

...

We all watch the scene unfold.

Even those ignorant of Hong Fan's history hold their breath. Everyone present understands instinctively.

In this moment, between these two beings.

The fate of all grudges, resentment, and bonds of fate hangs in the balance—whether they will be washed away or not.

Then, a memory flashes through my mind.

It was a moment that revealed exactly what Hong Fan would decide if faced with this very situation.

—Stop... please, just stop... Let us confess everything to Bong Hwa and beg for her mercy... How much longer must we do this? How much longer!!?? In this eternal hell, how long must I keep doing this!!??!!?? Am I not bowing and begging enough!? Please, let it end!"

...Over and over... I have endured that torment. You know this. But the result is always the same."

—The story must be finished.

"...The story must be completed."

He does not seek Bong Hwa's forgiveness.

He offers no apology.

Surung—

He merely lifts the blade forged from slaughter.

The viscous gravitational force summons back the darkness Bong Hwa had just cleared away.

"If your goal was truly to stop me, you should not have granted me total control over my own history. You should have kept that power for yourself and rewritten the past.

"As the Owner of History, you have the right and the ability. You should have erased my suffering and completely altered the experiences that shaped who I am."

"How is that any different from treating you like a puppet, assembled according to my whims?"

"Observe, Hwe-ah. You grasped the core of the matter the moment you became the Life Supreme Deity, didn't you?"

Wooo-wooooong—

All emotion drains from Hong Fan's eyes.

Starting with Kim Young-hoon and myself, those who walk the path of Martial Arts.

And everyone who has cultivated mantras or Immortal Arts sensitive to the heart notices the shift.

"To halt my progress, you must become me. Therefore..."

The turmoil and exhaustion in his heart are mended by his talk with Bong Hwa, and his hesitation is purged entirely.

"As I thought, this world is flawed, isn't it?"

Immediately, he raises a hand.

Immortal Art.

Immortal Cultivation.

Kiiiiiing!

A symbol representing the very structure of the Immortal Cultivation system appears above his palm, manifesting its most cruel power.

Debt Enforcement.

Every being who has ever benefited from the Immortal Cultivation system screams as the Future King begins to strip away their lives and personalities in a single motion.

The only ones untouched by the Future King's strike are the Heavenly Kings, who received greater aid from the Absolute Fragments and still hold them.

Beyond them, only Bong Hwa remains safe, having just transferred her authority to the Fate Supreme Deity and cleared all her debts.

"Living souls who have ascended here through my grace, hear me. Yield your lives once more to my command and return to your intended roles."

Wuuuuuuu—

All the Enders who were freed by Silver Basket and Bong Myeong are unable to settle the debts for the grace they took from the Immortal Cultivation system. Their lives are seized directly by Hong Fan Gu Ju.

The spirits of countless Enders are pulled into the Future King's palm, refined back into the birdcage forms they originally inhabited.

A few Enders manage to resist his grip.

Those like Obsidian and Vast Cold, who have touched the realm of Heavenly King, barely hold their ground and avoid being caged.

But a moment later, they too fail to endure, and their personalities are torn away.

"All whose lives were granted by Splitting Heaven, submit your existence to this hand."

Enders are shards of the Absolute.

And ultimately, the foundation for shattering the Absolute, scattering it across worlds, and giving those pieces souls and personalities...

...is the power of the Future King's Splitting Heaven Mantra.

We are all the Future King's children.

Tududududuk—

Everyone except Bong Hwa and the current generation of Enders has their consciousness locked away by the Future King, their eyes turning a void black.

"Is it due to Liberation? The compression is resisting. I will require time to stabilize these forms again. No matter. You all shall return now as well."

Kugugugugu!

The Future King motions toward us.

Our very beings are pulled toward him by an overwhelming attraction.

Even the entity that had briefly escaped into chaos is dragged back toward his palm.

It is Silver Basket, who had temporarily departed.

Shiriririk—

He crushes Silver Basket's true form into a birdcage, trapping the spirit inside just as Bong Hwa had been imprisoned...

He intensifies the pull on us.

"Kkuugh... Uaaaaaaagh!!!"

The eyes of Kim Young-hoon, Jeon Myeong-hoon, Kang Min-hee, Oh Hyun-seok, Kim Yeon, and Oh Hye-seo all start to turn black.

They scream, rooted to the ground, as their personalities begin to be harvested by the Future King.

"Nonetheless, the Heavenly Kings of this era, save for one, have all reached maturity. A first. Since it has come to this, I shall seek the conclusion with this group.

"One is flawed, but for the other, I may find a way.

"Wait for me, Hwe-ah. I will refine them and then confine you briefly. If you fight back, it is unfortunate, but I will have to break you into shards and store you for a while."

Kururururur—

A Gang Extreme manifests over Hong Fan's hand. The history severed from his own body, along with a spirit he had been keeping, is funneled into it.

"Eastern Twin Sal Tree."

Wuuuuuuuu—

As a sound of mourning fills the air, a distant section of Mount Sumeru is revealed below. There, a Gandhara is brought into existence.

"Western Zero King."

Aaaaaaaa—

The severed heads of the successive Hyeon Rangs scattered across the floor each take a position opposite the Gandhara. The spirits of the Supreme Deities coalesce to form an entity equal to a Gandhara.

"Southern Sal Twin Tree."

The Source River that Kim Yeon had claimed is instantly wrenched from her grasp, returning to its true state.

Unlike the other Gandhara, no wailing is heard.

This is likely because the personality, Cheon Woon, is missing.

However, he likely believes the escaped Cheon Woon can be easily hunted down and retrieved,