[World – Path of Transformation (EP.3)]
Objective – Ascend to the Immortal. Or kill the Immortal.
Reward – ?, Title – Immortal of the Main Temple (Transcendent), Fragment of Transformation (3/3).
[You have cleared World – Path of Transformation (EP.3).]
[A massive amount of experience points gained.]
[LV.145]
[You have obtained the title – Immortal of the Main Temple (Transcendent).]
[When facing those who have learned cultivation, all stats increase by 30%.]
[You have obtained the Fragment of Transformation.]
[Penalties have disappeared…]
…
…
[The Path of Ascension opens.]
─ Just a little longer…
“……”
─ My time…
“So, shouldn’t you have left me alone then?”
Avoiding the strong is also a virtue of survival.
This ‘instinct’ led to death for failing to protect it.
It’s regrettable that I couldn’t achieve my objective, but I can’t help if the choice was poorly made.
[Shivering]
[To Lily]
[Wow]
[Insane]
[World… smashed]
[Laughs hysterically]
[Lily! Lily! Lily! Lily!]
[Wow]
[It’s a bit sad]
[So, is it that True Immortal or not?]
Having poured forth immense power along with the Sacred Transformation, it wouldn’t have been strange for me to collapse right away.
Other techniques may be different, but ‘Sacred Transformation’ is a technique that boasts a nearly cruel risk that devours me.
However, upon breaking the world of Mokmujin, that is, the main body, the episode quest was cleared.
The clearance of the quest means…
“…So that’s how it is.”
It means that both the Holy and power have returned.
The penalties for unauthorized entry into the Main Temple have all disappeared.
Thanks to that, my physical condition has mostly recovered, but the mental fatigue remains, so I guess I’ll need to rest for a day or two.
And I was inspecting the memories of Mokmujin, who had died with only a faint soul remaining.
I cleared the quest, but there are still many truths yet to be revealed.
To summarize…
“There was a True Immortal known as the Unsurpassed True Ruler, who was killed by someone, and the remaining ‘left hand’ is the source of Jangmugye. And Mokmujin…”
“It is the source of the realm. And Mokmujin is…”
─Time…
“The instinct of ‘revenge’ that Muanjin couldn’t achieve. He has been completely obliterated, but perhaps his resentment remains in the body.”
I gently caressed Mokmujin’s small soul with my hand filled with Holy Power.
I was the one who killed him, but having already lost his body and possibly the strength to maintain his rank, he could only murmur, “Time…”
[W-w-w-w-w]
[It really was the True Immortal]
[As expected, it’s Lily]
[Lily defeated the True Immortal?]
[?]
[Does that mean it’s fake in the end?]
[Me too…! Pet me too!!!]
[LOL]
[Wow]
[So it wasn’t even real]
[Why is the name different?]
“As Mokmujin said, if time passes, he might have become real. The main body itself actually got closer to True Immortal.”
Although it couldn’t be brought to the current world, if time passed and he accumulated more power, it might have been possible.
“And the different name… I can guess it’s one of two things.”
[?]
“First, to avoid the gaze of another True Immortal who killed himself. He changed his name.”
From Muan (霧按) to Mokmu (目無).
Of course, the Chinese characters of these two names are completely different.
Originally, the ‘Mu’ in Muan is the ‘mist’ character (霧) which was the source character of the Jangmugye, while ‘An’ is represented by the press (按) character.
There’s no relation to the current Mokmujin at all.
However, Mokmujin changed ‘Mu’ (霧) to mean his empty self, excluding revenge, to ‘Mu’ (無).
Then he changed ‘An’ (按) to mean ‘eye’ filled with resentment (眼), and then switched it once more to ‘Mok’ (目) bearing the same meaning.
“Of course, all of this could be seen as mere wordplay, but the power that names carry is incredible. The True Name of an Upper Being can collapse Lower Beings just by being heard.”
That’s why everyone uses epithets or aliases.
[W-w-w-w]
[That’s fascinating]
[So what about Lily?]
[Is a name equal to power?]
[Ohhh]
[What’s the other reason?]
“The second is… for his own subjectivity.”
As mentioned earlier, the power that names possess is considerable.
The Main Temple is particularly that way, but Mokmujin, just by changing his name, obtained a new power: ‘empty eyes’ instead of his existing one.
However, if he hadn’t changed his name and continued to grow his strength, eventually reclaiming the place of the True Immortal…
Could that existence truly be called ‘Mokmujin’?
“Will it be?”
“I don’t think so.”
“‘Muanjin-gun’ might be possible, but ‘Mokmujin-gun’ is out of the question. Sure, you could say they are the same existence, but subjectivity isn’t determined that way.”
Mokmujin might have subconsciously avoided becoming one with his source.
After all, Muanjin’s soul was completely eradicated, and Mokmujin was born as an independent entity.
Naturally, as Mokmujin is not under control, he has no choice but to make decisions like this.
Sssss…
—Time…
In fact, similar emotions were detected through memory exploration via holiness.
“It seems like multiple complex emotions are intertwined. Perhaps the first, second reason, and all other reasons can all be considered correct.”
—Time…
“Mokmujin… I was going to try to let you live…”
Although there was no formal agreement, this was mentioned during a conversation with Gyeoryu.
“If I catch a sage, I’ll resurrect you with my abilities.”
The body may have perished, but the soul faintly remained, allowing for revival, albeit in an unstable state.
“However.”
[However?]
“Baengnyeong’s affair is a bit bothersome.”
Baekmuhyang’s Unbaek’s mother, and the former Baekmuhyang, Baengnyeong.
Baengnyeong’s inability to reach enlightenment and her eventual desire for Mokmujin’s power wasn’t due to her inadequacies.
“Mokmujin.”
Mokmujin secretly interfered with the Sky to obstruct Baengnyeong’s cultivation.
He manipulated matters so subtly that she remained unaware, and Baengnyeong, with her extraordinary talent, ultimately went mad and took Mokmujin’s hand.
The entirety of Baekmuhyang was manipulated at Mokmujin’s hands.
Before Unbaek’s words, maybe there could have been a chance to save her.
Most ascetics are accustomed to taking from others, and Mokmujin was no different.
With enough constraints, he could seal his powers and live a reformed life.
But Mokmujin was extreme.
He was on a whole different level compared to the archlords he had seen, like Jooam or Jeokho, or even Nok Woo-rim.
Upon reviewing the memories, it turned out he had engaged in malicious interference not just with Baekmuhyang, but with the entire Jangmugye.
If they dug deeper, probably many more ‘karma’ issues would surface.
[Let’s just kill him.]
[Killkillkillhim.]
[Lily just absorb the lifespan and go with the Marriage Device, let’s go!]
[Let’s kill him.]
[Wouldn’t he be useful if saved?]
[Hmm, Lily…]
[He’s a bad guy, though.]
He’s a guy, but…
“Lily, if he’s useless, let’s just toss him aside.”
‘Value, huh…’
What matters to me isn’t the weight of sin, but value.
Killing Mokmujin like this would be easy, but the consequences of his actions won’t just disappear.
But is he even worthy of entering my Space of Despair? Not really.
“Death is too light for Mokmujin right now. Dying in this state wouldn’t bring any feelings or excitement.”
So…
“Let’s do this.”
─Time…
First, I completely separated the name of Jin-gun from Mokmujin.
His main body is already shattered, but there was a faint trace remaining of True Immortal’s rank.
And just now, I isolated that rank, and the soul that remained, Mokmu, could no longer speak.
Now, Mokmu won’t even be able to dream of challenging as a True Immortal.
Additionally, I rewrote Mokmu’s name.
“You were born from the old True Immortal, so this might not be a bad thing.”
“…?”
“Well then.”
‘From Mokmu (目無) to Mokmu (木務).’
Mokmu’s little soul heads downwards.
From now on, Mokmu will pour all his strength into fixing the Jangmugye as a tree, instead of having empty eyes.
“Kya!”
“Is it over now?”
“Is the Main Temple done?”
“The Main Temple took a while.”
“LOL.”
“Let’s go for the Siege War~”
“Uh, it’s all over, but there’s just one more thing to check.”
The episode at the Main Temple has ended, but there’s still one last thing to verify.
I looked up.
The space where Mokmujin’s world crumbled.
Above it stretched endlessly upward, bursting with hundreds and billions of colors.
No, I wasn’t sure if it was even correct to refer to that as ‘up.’
What I knew for sure was that place was still an unknown space that wasn’t allowed for users, and if Mokmujin achieved his goal, it was a space he would have to reach.
“The Path to Ascension opens.”
Upper Realm.
Today, I will uncover the truth of the Upper Realm.
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