"Because the heavens no longer look down upon us."
"Ah."
The moment I heard the Illusion Witch's words, something the Heavenly Demon had once said to me suddenly came to mind.
- The heavens no longer watch over us, yet their gifts and shackles remain.
I still don't know exactly what that means. I can only speculate.
It was the heavens—that is, transcendent beings like immortals and Buddhas—who granted me the fortuitous encounter of regression, but they no longer interfere with this land.
That is why someone like me or the Heavenly Demon can enjoy the absurd fortune of regression without any significant price, yet at the same time, we must bear the side effects that regression brings.
I had assumed it meant something like—the seals or the inevitable solitude are not something someone else can remove for you, so you have no choice but to bear them yourself.
Perhaps she meant it in a slightly broader sense.
Just in case, I casually let slip to the Illusion Witch what the Heavenly Demon had told me.
"So the heavens no longer watch over us, yet what they left behind still remains."
"Ah… well, it's not quite that simple either."
Her attitude was still oddly timid, but her answer itself was firm.
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's similar to the reason I said earlier that the Grand Ritual of Divorce can never be completed…"
"You mean it's impossible because it touches the realm of sorcery. But isn't that only because there's no one left who can actually wield it?"
"It's similar, yet a little different. Hmm. How should I put this…"
The Illusion Witch tapped the floor with her index finger as if pondering something, then opened her mouth.
"First of all, what do you think sorcery is?"
"Something to cut down before it cuts you."
"Eek!"
For some reason, the Illusion Witch was trembling, but she soon collected herself and shook her head.
"Th-that's a way to deal with sorcery, not what it is. Even an absolute master of the Harmony Realm can't cut sorcery itself… Ah, no. With those eyes of the White Moon Sword Lord, it might just be possible."
"This is another unexpected point that's bothering me, but the story seems about to veer off track, so let's finish what we were saying first."
"Ah, yes."
The Illusion Witch cleared her throat once and continued her explanation.
"Sorcery is the same as the art of immortality. It's what people learn in order to be reborn as immortals. It is in itself the pursuit of immortality, a journey toward transcendence."
"Hmm. I don't quite understand. Is it like an advanced martial art? The kind that guarantees a certain level of attainment?"
"No. The pursuit of immortality guarantees nothing. Some may gain great enlightenment and reach ascension, while others may waste their entire lives in vain. That's not an exaggeration about the lack of results—it's truly like that."
"Then why learn it at all?"
Even a third-rate martial art offers at least some guarantee. At the very least, it keeps you healthy.
"Instead, you learn Taoist arts, and when you reach the end of cultivation, you become an immortal and enjoy eternal youth and longevity."
"Eternal youth and longevity, you say. That sounds like nothing but empty fantasy."
"That's only because Taoist arts haven't been permitted to you."
A path from the earth to the heavens. The only way for a person to become an immortal. The Illusion Witch claimed that this was Taoist arts.
"Isn't that a bit too grand? From what I've heard, just a few decades ago, several Taoist sects were still practicing Taoist arts."
"Those were all sorcery."
"What?"
It was a statement that would have made any Taoist priest foam at the mouth if they had heard it.
Perhaps noticing my bewildered expression, the Illusion Witch glanced at me and added.
"Well, strictly speaking, they're not sorcery, but… how should I put it, they're the same grade, the same class. In that sense, they're inferior imitations of true Taoist arts. They just insist on calling them Taoist arts because they claim to carry on the orthodox lineage of the Tao."
"But they're not evil, are they?"
"Martial arts have orthodox arts, unorthodox arts, and demonic arts, right? Sorcery is the same."
"When you put it that way, it's easy to understand."
"Most of those lineages have been severed, but martial arts, formations, and sorcery were all created by people desperate to cling to even the fragments."
"Even martial arts? If it was something so important, why did Heaven take away the Taoist arts? Did Heaven do something to earn such resentment?"
"Surely not. As the saying goes, 'Heaven and Earth are not benevolent.' It doesn't mean they're evil—it means they don't judge right and wrong by human standards. They simply flow according to the natural order."
"So it follows the natural order…"
"Yes, that's right. As you're thinking now, Taoist arts are a path built on defying heaven. It's only natural, since immortality lies at the end of it."
My regression is a fortuitous encounter bestowed by the combined power of a great immortal and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, whose identities I don't even know.
…And it is the ultimate defiance of heaven—a reversal of time itself.
If the natural order dictates that time flows in one direction, then something like regression is an utterly unacceptable trick.
If Heaven no longer desires transcendent beings like immortals…
As I organized my thoughts, the Illusion Witch chimed in, gesturing animatedly with her hands.
"What I mean by Heaven no longer watching over this land is that the way for people to connect with the principles of the world has vanished. In other words, the very core of Taoist arts has been stripped away. If you compare it to martial arts, it's like being unable to learn the mental cultivation method."
"Indeed. If that's the case, I can understand this world where Taoist arts are forbidden… Wait. Surely the reason Natural Qi is gradually dwindling isn't—"
"Yes. Martial arts are, after all, just one branch of Taoist arts. There have always been martial artists at the Harmony Realm, but no one will ever reach beyond that again. That's also why I said it was impossible when I heard the story of the Heavenly Demon from the White Moon Sword Lord. No matter how remarkable a martial artist might be, becoming strong to such an unreasonable degree… that simply cannot happen in this era."
"So that's what you meant by saying even what Heaven left behind would not remain intact…"
"Exactly. Something is bound to go wrong somewhere. Just as no matter how diligently one studies Taoist arts and devotes a lifetime to cultivation, one can never reach immortality… martial arts will one day lose their internal energy, and even sorcery will see no more children born with the talent for it. Relics that once held tremendous power will become mere trinkets, and fortuitous encounters that everyone coveted will be reduced to slightly unusual happenings."
And so the world becomes ordinary.
A world where only common folk live. Yet this is not regression. Do I not already know this?
Ordinariness is the first step toward infinity, the most stable state of all.
The moment that thought took root, something caught in my mind.
"Illusion Witch. Your words were a bit difficult, but I understood them all. Now I also know well what it means that the Soul Exchange Grand Ritual is a ritual that cannot succeed. …Then, this ear I brought. What exactly is the Slaughter King?"
"It's simple. It succeeded halfway. No, saying it failed halfway would resonate with you more."
"Explain it in simpler terms."
"The Soul Exchange Grand Ritual is a grand ritual that transplants one's soul into another person's body. In theory, it's like changing clothes—you can live forever by swapping bodies. That's also why I took interest and studied it. At the time, I was still at the Transcendent Peak realm, a period when I worried about lifespan and aging…"
"Enough with the digressions. So what happens if this fails?"
"The soul shatters into pieces and scatters into a million other bodies. After all, the soul is much lighter and more delicate."
"Ah."
The Slaughter King, who had remained strangely silent throughout. Even considering he was an assassin, his emotions were too dull. A reaction as if he didn't properly remember me.
Even the fact that he perfectly reproduced his martial arts, as if he remembered them properly.
All of it connected into one, adding to my conviction.
The Slaughter King would revive again and again, even in a doll-like state, thanks to the incomplete Soul-Separation Grand Ritual.
And the Heavenly Demon knew all of this… and also knew that the Soul-Separation Grand Ritual was bound to fail, that it was not the correct answer.
Of course, he would have known everything — that the sorcery the Illusion Witch spoke of had been forbidden, and the consequences that followed.
Thinking about it that way, I had to interpret the Heavenly Demon's words a little differently.
Until now, I had thought that if the gift the Heavens left behind was regression, then the shackles referred to the seal.
But what if the shackles meant the thing that took away sorcery and blocked the path by which people reached immortality?
So if the closer a technique came to sorcery, the more problems it caused.
Then regression, which was itself an act of defying heaven, would naturally have encountered problems incomparable to mere seals.
For instance… what if regression repeated infinitely?
Once was an opportunity, but infinity would be little different from a curse.
The Heavenly Demon's true purpose. I was beginning to get a rough idea of what happened after my death.
"What if. Just what if."
"Yes?"
"If the heavens have already turned their gaze away, what do you think it would take to make them look down upon us again?"
"As I said before, the heavens, if not the immortals, ultimately follow the natural order of things…"
"But what if it must be done?"
"Hmm. The most effective method would be to trigger a Defying Heaven. The heavens withdrew their gaze because they no longer wished for further defiance, but if an act of defiance occurred that was too great to ignore, they would show interest, if only to take measures against it."
"In an era where sorcery is forbidden, and martial arts and sorcery alike are steadily declining, does an act of defiance that can be achieved even exist?"
"It does, but… it lacks practicality, I'm afraid."
"Even if it lacks practicality, tell me."
"A Karmic Sin of Killing that reaches the heavens. Piling corpses into mountains so high that no one on this earth could survive, swimming in a sea of blood—that would be defiance enough."
Having said that, the Illusion Witch added that life prospering through generations was the natural order.
He continued explaining for a while after that, but honestly, I couldn't take it in properly. My mind was simply too full of what was to come.
Before my regression, I had survived until the Imperial Court collapsed and the Righteous-Unorthodox Alliance was nearly destroyed. Until the point where there was nowhere left to retreat.
Of course, after my death, the Righteous-Unorthodox Alliance would have completely fallen apart.
There might have been survivors, but no one would have dared to stand against the Heavenly Demon anymore.
The Demonic Cult would have celebrated its victory, devising all sorts of schemes to create a world without martial arts.
…And then, I would have been betrayed by the Heavenly Demon—my most steadfast ally.
He would have killed the Demonic Cultists who followed him, killed innocent civilians, and killed the survivors of the Righteous-Unorthodox Alliance who had been reduced to fugitives.
After slaughtering everyone in the Central Plains like that, if the heavens still remained silent, the Heavenly Demon's next move would naturally have led to the Outer Murim.
If he had slaughtered even the Outer Murim? Then Haidong or Dongying. If that still wasn't enough? The Western Regions. And if that still wasn't enough?
Well. The world I knew ended there, so I couldn't say for sure… but if there were other places, he would have headed there.
If not, he would have retraced the path he had walked so far, hunting down those who had hidden somewhere to survive.
Of course, he might have failed along the way. It was true that the Heavenly Demon was an overwhelming powerhouse, but in the Western Regions, there might have been opponents who could give even the Heavenly Demon trouble.
He wouldn't have been able to prepare all sorts of things in advance like he had in the Central Plains and then unleash them all at once.
However, one thing was certain: once the Heavenly Demon believed he had killed enough, he would have taken his own life and regressed for the first time.
Along with the Defying Heaven energy he had accumulated through his Karmic Sin of Killing.
"Let me ask one last thing."
"Pardon?"
"Through Defying Heaven, is it possible to reach a realm beyond Harmony?"
"Theoretically… yes?"
With that, it was confirmed.
Until the day the heavens finally turned their gaze upon him, until the day the heavenly punishment finally descended, the Heavenly Demon would not stop.
And I was the one who had to seriously bring down this madman who sought to defy reason itself and overturn heaven's verdict.
"Heh. Perfect."
I had always known the Heavenly Demon was absurdly strong. It was just that, unable to grasp his purpose, it had felt all the more hopeless…
At least now, I could guess what his purpose was.
That was enough. When you cut something down, you always begin by looking squarely at what you intend to sever.
Hadn't I finally learned what the Heavenly Demon was—what it was I meant to cut down?
Just as that thought tugged the corners of my mouth into a grin—
"Hic… You can kill everyone else, but please, spare just this one…"
"Huh?"
"I-I'm definitely useful! I know a lot, and I can do a lot… And well. I haven't achieved Rejuvenation, but I'm still pretty serviceable, aren't I?"
The Illusion Witch was prostrating herself before me with Oche Tuji, just as she had the first time we met.
"It seems there's a misunderstanding. I didn't mean I was going to use the power of Defying Heaven to aim for the next realm."
"Y-yes… of course. I didn't hear anything. That was just a joke a moment ago. I'll never breathe a word of this to anyone…"
"…"
The Illusion Witch forced an awkward smile with trembling lips and mimed sealing her own mouth shut.
Her pitiful state drew a sigh from me before I could stop it.
"Hah."
"Hic!"
She's going to drive me crazy.