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

Huaruruk—

The heat is intense.

A dragon robe of wisdom, woven from golden blaze, drapes over her. Upon her head rests no simple ornament, but a golden imperial crown mirroring that of the Future King.

Simultaneously, the Wheel positioned behind her begins to radiate a golden luminescence, spinning in an eternal cycle.

It is clear to me now.

The entity standing at my back is no longer merely the Underworld.

She is the progenitor of every living soul within this Sumeru Three Heavens Great Thousand World.

She is the chronicler of all ages and the Librarian of Omniscience, capable of perceiving any truth she desires.

Kuuuuung!

Suddenly, a segment of her jade throne—constructed from the Vestige of Bong Hwa—vanishes. In its stead, a portion resembling the head of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeon Woon emerges.

The reality of the situation becomes apparent to us all.

Woo-woooong!

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

That specific half of the head portion.

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

'I understand. This is the handiwork of the Future King.'

In a future where she eventually reaches the rank of Life Supreme Deity, he swapped her Vestige with half of his own. By doing so, he fundamentally blocked the chance of any other being ascending to Life Supreme Deity and seizing the Absolute.

Such is the hidden truth of the Emptiness Supreme Deity Myeong Woon, possessor of the Sun and Moon eyes.

Even as he solidified the future where Bong Hwa attained the status of Life Supreme Deity, he sought to remain by her side, even if only as a Vestige. Within the realm known as the Head Realm, he wished 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 a flickering symbol of hope.

Huarururuk—

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

The First King Bong Hwa briefly observes the manifestation of the Future King’s divine power before averting her eyes.

She continues to extend her hand toward Vast Cold, who is collapsing under the weight of continuous explosions.

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

Woo-woong!

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

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

It is a shard of a world.

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

Vast Cold drops to one knee before Bong Hwa, bowing low to present that world fragment to her.

As her hand touches the fragment, it shifts into the likeness of a peach tree branch.

Blossoms erupt instantly along the wood, and a perfectly ripe peach grows heavy on the stem.

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

Hong Fan catches it instinctively and breathes in the aroma.

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

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

"It simply means we are now equals."

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

'It is a concentrated mass of life force... and a reservoir of data containing every memory of the happiest moments Hong Fan and Bong Hwa shared in their previous lives.'

This is no mere collection of facts.

She has literally carved out a segment of history from the Akashic Records where they found joy and handed it over.

That data functions as a personal, miniature Akashic Records belonging solely to Hong Fan.

Crunch—

Hong Fan takes a bite, savoring it.

"It is sweet."

Tsuaaaaat—

By eating, the Fate Supreme Deity internalizes the memories stored within Bong Hwa’s gift, briefly losing himself in the past.

Hwiooooo—

The history manifested as a peach is completely merged into Hong Fan.

"Though the past held misery, surely there were sweet and joyous moments as well, were there not? O Future King. I ask you to remember them and break free from the past. You must look toward what is to come, rather than 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 culture and age by remaining trapped in yesterday. I beg you to move forward, so that new stories and diverse eras may flourish."

"The one who was once held in your arms makes this request."

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

Responding to her plea, Hong Fan asks a question of his own.

"Why do you reject the name Yang Hwe? I donned the shell of a namer and ascended to divinity specifically to obtain that name for you..."

"Why... do you use... a name that signals a crisis? Why choose that horrific name I conceived while watching you burn from afar?"

"First... you surely recall bestowing upon me the [fate that overcomes fate] to sever me from your destiny and push me as a candidate for Life Supreme Deity, do you not?"

Flinch—

I shudder as I learn of Bong Hwa’s fate for the first time.

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

"Are you saying you chose it simply because it represents a painful memory for me? That it is a name born from a heart rebelling against the fate I gave you?"

"I cannot say that influence was entirely absent. However! You must also remember this. Just as you observed me in every past life, I, too, wished to return to you in every one of those lives."

She offers Hong Fan a gentle smile as she continues.

"To transcend fate was the destiny you gave me. At first, I was lost as I followed it, but through endless trials, meeting many people, and facing adversity, I learned much."

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

"Conquering fate is no longer my concern. I have realized that regardless of the 'correct' way to overcome it, we are the ultimate judges. Thus, our interpretation is all that matters."

As I hear her words, my mouth hangs open.

'Ah...'

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

'I see...'

If the day ever comes...

If I ever encounter my daughter again, I feel confident that I can treat her with the care she deserves this time.

Of course...

She is a child I let go with my own hands.

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

So, I only hold onto the hope that she might live again under Bong Hwa's care, and perhaps we might cross paths one day by chance.

"The name Bong Hwa (beacon fire) is how my history chooses to show gratitude to you. Because..."

She smiles warmly at the Future King.

"From the moment I learned that you climbed countless peaks to light beacon fires to cure my sickness—even going so far as to set your own fingers ablaze—I no longer desired any grand or magnificent name."

The third story.

It tells of a man wandering the world to find a cure for his wife who suffers from leprosy.

He hears that if he lights beacon fires simultaneously on a mountain with five peaks, she will be healed, and so he searches tirelessly.

The twisted fairy tale.

In the version Hong Fan envisioned, the man realizes his five fingers represent those five peaks. When he ignites his own fingertips, his wife is cured.

As I suspect, it was likely a story reflecting Hong Fan's desperate hope to grasp happiness with his own hands.

"As our home and you were engulfed in flames, you used the heat of the beacon fire to warn me of the danger. But because I was blind, I could not run fast enough... I could not find my way to you. Because of that, you were consumed by the fire. For me, the name Bong Hwa is the mark of my failure to protect you."

"But it was because you sensed the signal and ran to save me that I chose that name to remember you. The fire was painful... but when you arrived and held me, that moment was truly wonderful."

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

"I remember that too. You said so after returning from your travels. You mentioned seeing many beautiful mountains... and that when I recovered, you wanted us to travel them. You wanted to live in a house on a mountain, listening to me describe the view to you, since you could not see."

She sweeps her arm through the air.

With a single motion of her flaming limb, the shadows in the Audience Chamber vanish and the chaos is purged.

"Knowing you wished to live in the mountains, I joked that you must certainly be an Immortal."

"Looking back, it wasn't the 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 shaped the world into a mountain... I can only be thankful."

As she clears the chaos within the gestation world once more.

Vast forces of attraction pull several Heavenly Domains together into a conical shape.

In other words, the scene unfolding before us takes the form of a mountain.

Why a mountain, of all things?

A mountain is steep and tall; if one resides at the peak, unwanted visitors cannot reach them...

It is a form born from the simple desire for peace.

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

Hong Fan whispers, gazing down at Mount Sumeru.

Bong Hwa looks at him and offers her hand.

"Then, will you fulfill that promise now?"

...

We all witness this moment.

Even those unaware of Hong Fan’s history watch with bated breath.

Everyone present understands instinctively.

At this moment, between these two, everything is decided.

It will determine if the chains of resentment and the burdens of the past will finally be washed away.

Then, a memory flashes through my mind.

It might have been a glimpse into the choice Hong Fan would make in such a moment.

—Stop... please, just stop... Let us confess everything to Bong Hwa and beg for her mercy... How much longer must this continue? How much longer!!?? In this eternal hell, how long must I keep doing this!!??!!?? I am bowing and pleading! Please, let us end this!"

...Over and over... I have endured that torment. You know this. But in the end, the result never changes.

—The story must reach its conclusion.

"...The story must reach its conclusion."

He offers no apology to Bong Hwa.

He does not ask for forgiveness.

Surung—

He simply unsheathes the blade forged from slaughter.

The thick force of attraction summons back the darkness that Bong Hwa had just dispelled.

"If your goal was truly to stop me, you should not have granted me full control over my own history. You should have seized that authority yourself and altered the past."

"As the Owner of History, you possess the power and the right. You should have rewritten my miserable past and completely restructured the experiences that shaped who I am."

"How would that be any different from treating you like a toy, assembling you to suit my whims?"

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

Wooo-wooooong—

The light of emotion fades from Hong Fan's eyes.

Kim Young-hoon, myself, and all who have walked the path of Martial Arts feel it.

Every practitioner of Immortal Arts or mantras sensitive to the heart notices the shift.

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

The exhaustion and turmoil in his heart are mended by his talk with Bong Hwa, and the doubt that had taken root is completely excised.

"As I thought, this world is flawed, is it not?"

He raises a hand immediately.

Immortal Art.

Immortal Cultivation.

Kiiiiiing!

A sigil representing the very framework of the Immortal Cultivation system appears above his palm, radiating a terrifying authority.

Debt Enforcement.

A chorus of screams erupts from everyone who has ever benefited from the Immortal Cultivation system as the Future King begins to strip away their lives and identities in a single motion.

Only the Heavenly Kings, bolstered by the Absolute Fragments they still hold, remain unaffected by the Future King's strike.

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

"Listen, all beings who have ascended here by my grace. Surrender your lives once more by my command and return to your intended roles."

Wuuuuuuu—

The Enders freed by Silver Basket and Bong Myeong are unable to settle the debts for the power granted by the Immortal Cultivation system. Their very existences are seized by Hong Fan Gu Ju.

The souls of countless Enders are pulled into the Future King's palm, compressed back into the birdcages where they originated.

A few Enders resist his pull.

Obsidian, Vast Cold, and those who have touched the level of Heavenly King barely manage to hold on, avoiding the cages for now.

But a moment later, they too buckle, their personalities torn away.

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

The Enders are shards of the Absolute.

Ultimately, the power used to shatter the Absolute, scatter the pieces, and give them souls and identities...

...was the Future King’s Splitting Heaven Mantra.

We are all the Future King's creations.

Tududududuk—

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

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

Kugugugugu!

The Future King motions toward us.

Our very beings are pulled toward him by an overwhelming gravitational force.

Even the entity briefly lost in the chaos is dragged toward his hand.

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 begin to darken.

Their personalities are being harvested by the Future King as they stand paralyzed, screaming in agony.

"Still, this generation's Heavenly Kings, save for one, have reached maturity. This is a first. 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 bind you for a brief moment. If you fight me, it will be tragic, but I will have to shatter you and store the pieces for a time."

Kururururur—

A Gang Extreme manifests above Hong Fan’s hand. History extracted from his own body, along with a spirit he had been preserving, is poured into it.

"Eastern Twin Sal Tree."

Wuuuuuuuu—

As a mournful wail rings out, a distant part of Mount Sumeru is revealed below.

There, a Gandhara is brought into existence.

"Western Zero King."

Aaaaaaaa—

The severed heads of the Hyeon Rangs scattered across the floor each move to a position opposite the Gandhara. The spirits of the Supreme Deities converge to create an entity on the level of a Gandhara.

"Southern Sal Twin Tree."

The Source River held by Kim Yeon is instantly ripped from her grasp, reverting to its true state.

Unlike the other Gandhara, there is no wailing.

It seems this is due to the absence of the personality, Cheon Woon.

However, he likely believes the escaped Cheon Woon can be easily retrieved...