A Regressor’s Tale of Cultivation Chapter 802 Chapter 798: Future King (3)

I carry the flickering torch candle, tracing the path of the narrative.

Finally, I witness the [First Light] manifest completely within the heights of Mount Sumeru.

"First Light..."

Hong Fan gazes upon the gathered souls of the Chief Gods, those he had hunted and slain.

Through the refinement of souls over countless eons, he perfected the mantra known as Immortal Cultivation. He designated the First Light as the core power source to drive the entire Immortal Cultivation system.

Consequently, through the First Light, the hidden truths of the universe were revealed to him.

'This existence is both a sepulcher and a nursery.'

Within this reality, there are entities known as Creator Gods.

In their respective domains, these beings possess omniscience and omnipotence. they forge innumerable worlds and can manifest as anything within them. They represent the ultimate truth, governing every conclusion and every strand of causality that unfolds.

They inhabit the unique worlds they have fashioned for themselves.

These distinct realms may mirror one another or exist as entirely different realities, influencing each other across the void.

And yet...

For these Creator Gods, the concept of death is nonexistent; it is merely a transition in form.

Because they cannot die, they possess no parents or primordial source from which they spring.

There is an effect, yet no visible cause.

They simply emerge at a certain point, creating worlds and existing within them.

However, while they lack a traditional birth, a foundation for their emergence does exist.

The Cradle of Chaos, the Conception Palace of Omnipotence, the Gestation World of the Creator Gods—it bears many titles, but its nature is certain.

An egg-shaped sanctuary exists, brimming with chaos and the medium of creation. Within this vessel, Creator Gods are born and begin to weave their own realities.

And...

The realms within this chaos, where Hong Fan and the Chief Gods originated, are exactly such a place.

Yet, this gestation world differs from others because it possesses something resembling 'causality'.

'A predecessor Creator God... actually exists.'

Naturally, if one were to trace the lineage of that predecessor, there would be nothingness before them. However, the world in its current state follows this chain of events.

Woo-wooooong—

Standing before the First Light, Hong Fan deciphered the lingering thoughts of the predecessor. He accessed this through the wisdom, history, and intent made available by the First Light.

'Did the predecessor... intend to create a utopia?'

Having observed the realms of other Creator Gods and wandered through endless worlds...

They sought to fashion a different kind of Heaven and Earth.

A unique world where any entity could achieve completion.

A sanctuary where the true meaning of life could be answered.

Usually, a world adopts whatever its Creator God dictates as the truth and the final answer.

It matters little if the Creator God possesses a personality or not. Since the creator is omnipotent, the world accepts whatever answer is established.

But ultimately, that is merely the subjective answer of that specific Creator God.

This predecessor sought a fundamental truth that would remain valid regardless of the world one inhabited.

To achieve this, they chose self-sacrifice.

They dismantled their own form and authority, reverting this world back to its primordial gestation state.

They purified their own soul using a brazier. This vessel had been crafted and offered by a great divinity among their creations—one whose power rivaled their own—upon leaving that world.

The soul was divided into three distinct portions by the three legs of the brazier.

Thus, using their own essence, the Creator God established the Three Daos.

These great Daos were named Fate, History, and Miracle.

Through these Daos, worlds were able to form even during the ancient gestation period, allowing living souls to be born and flourish.

After refining their soul into three parts, they vanished, leaving behind only a single thread of continuity.

By modern understanding, it could be said they left behind a solitary fragment of consciousness.

—Find the answer.

They refused to believe that their own dictates constituted the ultimate answer.

They sought a truth that remained constant across all existence.

To discover it, they believed that absolute beings of equal stature must perpetually collaborate, debate, and struggle against one another, sometimes in conflict and sometimes in harmony.

Something that emerges from the dialogues and narratives shared between equals.

They held that such a truth would be far greater than any answer decreed by a lone absolute being.

—Purify your status, expand your existence, and attain the Three Daos.

The will of that great being issued this command.

Every living thing in this world was meant to grow in power, achieve divinity, become transcendents, and earn the right to challenge the Three Daos.

However, it was forbidden for one to seize all Three Daos and become a Creator God—

To become a truly solitary, omnipotent absolute being was barred.

—Let a single being hold only one Dao, becoming an absolute of Quasi-Creator rank. In this way, the three absolutes will eternally interact and oppose one another... and eventually, through their shared stories, the truth shall be revealed.

The genuine truth that blooms from the interactions of three equal, absolute entities.

That was the vision and the plan of the predecessor Creator God.

An answer of absolute truth that remains valid in any world.

That single strand of the Creator God's consciousness, etched into the souls of every being born thereafter, gained form, power, and authority through the mechanics of the Three Daos, evolving into vast existences.

Beginning with Brightness, the first Chief God, the Chief Gods of Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, and Metal were manifested from that solitary thread of consciousness.

Essentially, the Chief Gods who ruled the cosmos were the direct offspring of the Creator God.

Carrying the weight of the Creator God's intent, they spent their existences striving for higher ranks, attempting to grasp the Three Daos and manifest a Heaven that reflected their own perspectives.

Even afterward, the Creator God's consciousness continued to weave transcendental laws to bring forth more Chief Gods without end.

That would have been the case, were it not for a single anomaly.

"Is that the truth...? The Three Daos...!?"

Hong Fan laughed as he deciphered the predecessor's will within the First Light he had forged.

"If I reach the Three Daos... can I truly find the answer...?"

The answer.

The reason why he was forced to endure misery and pain.

The reason why every being in this world is born to face such a fragile and wretched destiny.

He was desperate to understand.

"It isn't the Chief Gods... but the Three Daos that architect fate, is that it...!?"

What the First Light in his palm was refining was the predecessor Creator God's lone strand of consciousness—their will.

"O Three Daos, if I attain you, are you claiming I can find the answer...!?"

Hong Fan demanded to know the exact chain of causality.

Why did he have to suffer?

Why were those connected to him dragged into his agony?

Why does the concept of suffering even exist in this world?

"If that is the case, I will reach it. I will certainly reach it... and I will be compensated for my torment..."

Why must this world contain both light and shadow...!?

It would have been enough to have only light.

From that day forward, Hong Fan further refined the Immortal Cultivation system to fulfill his will and reach the Three Daos.

He envisioned a world where one isn't born a Chief God or granted divinity by receiving a Seat from such a being...

A system where a mortal, through their own effort, can become powerful, rise in rank, and become a transcendent equal to a Chief God.

"A world... where everyone can reach the light on equal footing..."

He positioned the First Light at the pinnacle of the Immortal Cultivation system. He ensured that any mortal who followed the path—crafted using Fuxi as the foundation—could seize authority.

"Never again..."

He withdrew an object from his robes.

It was a mother-of-pearl hairpin, a memento of his mother.

It was also the same token he had given to Yang Hwe during his first life.

Once, wanting to see Yang Hwe smile, he had given the ornament to a merchant to add a leopard-pattern carving and fresh lacquer.

If he had simply run to Yang Hwe instead of wasting time on that decoration, she might not have died in that first life.

"Never again... shall a world exist where someone of mine... has to die so miserably..."

Her death hadn't been mythic.

It wasn't heroic.

She hadn't perished in the grand machinations of powerful divinities.

With no cure for her leprosy, her body had simply rotted inside her home. Then, while her husband was away, thieves had set the house ablaze...

Because her legs were too decayed to carry her, she couldn't even flee. She died a wretched death, consumed by fire in her own home—that was the Yang Hwe of his first cycle.

Because a Chief God had personally named her, he had assumed she died as part of some divine plot. But in truth, the naming was only meant to trigger the God of Light within Hong Fan.

Yang Hwe had simply died a miserable death.

There was no grand narrative behind it.

It happened 'just because'.

Hong Fan found the piercing truth of that 'just because' to be completely intolerable.

"If she is born again..."

Thus, he resolved to create a world where every individual could become a myth.

"And if she meets me and finds unhappiness once more..."

He had desired to protect her, but he had failed.

Therefore, if there was to be a next life, he couldn't simply promise, 'I will protect you'.

Instead... he would at least grant her the power to protect herself.

"At the very least... so her end isn't so pathetic that she can't even run because her legs have rotted away..."

He wanted the people she cared for to be more than just helpless villagers or common thieves with a bit of martial arts knowledge...

He intended to transform them into divine beings who could wield mythic strength and resist until the very end.

"May it become such a world..."

The first Yang Hwe burned because she was too physically decayed to escape.

The second Yang Hwe burned because the Heuk Sa Society and her village were so weak they became a weight that dragged her down.

As for the Yang Hwe of the third cycle... as Hong Fan now discovered,

Because he had spent so long seeking the Chief God, she had contracted leprosy just as in the original timeline. She was exiled from the village by the noble household's elders. The Young Master who attempted to help her was sent away to a distant land by his family. In that time, she found no food and starved to death.

It wasn't as sudden as the pain of fire, but it was a long, agonizing demise.

"It doesn't matter who they are... Instead of sitting still and weeping to the heavens, I will create a world where anyone can ascend to the heavens by their own strength!"

That resolve echoed through the Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World he was building.

While dreaming of a world where others could become as powerful as himself...

He also harbored another desire.

'There must be restitution.'

It wasn't just for Hong Fan.

All who had suffered deserved repayment.

The legend of the boy who wove six Heavenly Domains together to create Mount Sumeru concludes here.

And the narrative transitions to Chapter 9.

The very start serves as a mechanism to reclaim his lost connections—Yang Hwe, his mother, the Heuk Sa Society, and the others who had endured suffering.

Using the Immortal Art of Light, Radiance, which he developed, he could return to the past whenever he wished. However, he does not choose to rewind time now.

For even if he resets time, history simply repeats itself.

To possess the power to stop history from repeating, one must become equal to History itself—one of the Three Daos.

Until that moment, he has no intention of turning back the clock intentionally.

Instead, utilizing the power of the First Light, he extracts information from the depths of history. Through those records, he painstakingly recovers the hearts that have been merged within Miracle.

They say spilled water cannot be gathered from the sea, but if one traces every single particle and retrieves them, it can be collected once more.

Hong Fan possesses that very capability.

He retrieves the spirits of Yang Hwe and his mother in an instant, yet he does not revive them immediately to settle his debts.

If resurrected incorrectly, they might end up in a fractured state.

Thus, Hong Fan selects the Heuk Sa Society and Yang Hwe’s villagers as his test subjects.

Everyone from the Heuk Sa Society to the common villagers is pulled from Miracle by Hong Fan, using history as their coordinates.

They are precious to him, but they are also those who failed to guard Yang Hwe and became the anchors that prevented her flight.

Using them as subjects is also a form of penance for their weakness.

Though, calling it punishment is an understatement, given how blissful and divine the process is...

Regardless, Hong Fan alters the second cycle's timeline by extracting the spirits of the deceased and restoring them to life.

Chosen by his Immortal Cultivation system, they immediately reach the pinnacle of cultivation upon their revival.

They pledge their loyalty to Hong Fan once more, and he selects ten of the most exceptional individuals to serve as guardians of the Immortal Cultivation system.

Under Hong Fan's command, the Heuk Sa Society is reborn as the Heuk Sa Hall.

Together with them, Hong Fan continues his research into spirit revival by dredging ancient data from history.

He does this not only to ensure his wife's spirit can be returned but to verify if they themselves have been restored correctly...

During this journey, they also learn of Hong Fan’s history.

They discover the timelines that were erased due to his regressions.

Sympathizing with him, they speak with a single voice.

"Honored Seat, your life has truly been marked by misfortune."

"Do not pity me. I find it distasteful."

"Haha, as you wish. But... regardless, we hope the Honored Seat can find release even from those dark memories."

They create a crest for the Heuk Sa Hall in Hong Fan’s honor.

[Black Snake Biting Its Tail]

It isn't just the emblem of the Heuk Sa Hall, which delves into the past.

It is a representation of Hong Fan himself, trapped by the agony of his history.

Naturally, it also symbolizes the Immortal Art of Radiance and its power to traverse time.

In many ways, it is a perfect reflection of the being known as Hong Fan.

"...To be told I am a prisoner of my past is not pleasant. Furthermore... it is quite hideous. I do not care for this symbol..."

Hong Fan expresses his dislike, but he finally relents after hearing the explanation from his subordinates in Heuk Sa Hall.

"We intentionally made it unappealing so that the Honored Seat would dislike it. Please, move beyond these ugly memories quickly. Then... you may change the emblem."

"A symbol designed to be replaced...?"

"Yes. One day, please escape your painful past and replace it with something new. Perhaps... a snake that has let go of its tail, or even a dragon... there are many grand options. Therefore... this crest is... yes."

The members of Heuk Sa Hall smile at Hong Fan.

"Hope. It is a sign of hope. Even though the Honored Seat is currently gripped by past trauma... it carries the hope that you will one day break free from that pain and find salvation."

"Hope..."

Hong Fan smiles at the word.

"Hope for the future, is it..."

A snake that, though currently suffering and trapped, will eventually stop biting its own tail.

"Very well. I wish to see that hope as soon as possible."

Hong Fan carves the concept of hope into his heart.

He reflects on the meaning for himself.

'Hope... indeed. I wish to grant hope to everyone.'

Wasn't this Immortal Cultivation system built on that very principle?

He wants wretched mortals to have the hope of shedding their mortality and aspiring to a better existence.

'I also want to give it to those from the past who perished early and now rest in silence.'

He wants to provide hope.

With that solitary goal, Hong Fan and the Heuk Sa Hall discover that historical information also contains lingering grudges, and they find a way to resolve them.

He offers hope to the living through Immortal Cultivation and soothes the resentment of the dead, bringing hope to those who came before.

Through these deeds, Hong Fan realizes he has ascended to a new level of existence.

From the members of Heuk Sa Hall to those who achieved divinity through his system, and even the forgotten souls who had faded into oblivion.

They all look toward Hong Fan as the bringer of hope, hailing him loudly as the Zero King.

'What remains are the beings of the future...'

The souls yet to be born.

The 'answer' was intended for them.

"...I must attain the Three Daos."

To provide hope for those who are still to come.

For the sake of future hope.

For Yang Hwe, who will one day be brought back by his hand to receive his recompense.