Shei conducted her closed-door cultivation at the Tianping Palace. The results were unimpressive. Needless to say, it was due to Shei's ordinary talent.
Having repeated regressions, Shei had already learned qigong to some extent. Because her qigong realm was quite high at a young age, the master she met at the Tianping Palace misunderstood her as being overflowing with talent. Shei was able to choose the most outstanding among the five masters and receive his teachings.
But her lack of foundation was soon exposed. Before long, the master refused to be called Shei's master. Instead, he asked her to call him a trainer, and continued guidance that was no different from health gymnastics. Shei didn't show it much, but she was deeply depressed.
One day, while feeling endlessly frustrated because her progress was completely stagnant, an imperial decree fell upon the Seat of Stars.
All stars who have ascended to the Seat of Stars were to participate in the war.
The Seat of Stars was a symbolic place even in the Empire, and closed-door cultivation was customarily highly respected. Nothing should have been able to interfere with Shei's training.
However, an imperial decree stood above custom.
Her plan to just train in this cycle was ruined, but she was hitting a wall anyway. She headed to the battlefield to grasp the situation and gain practical combat experience.
However, the horrific spectacle before her eyes was something even Shei, a regressor, had never experienced.
In the distant landscape where mountain ridges were visible, a blood-red World Tree stood tall, ignoring all sense of distance.
A tree of depravity that rooted itself in human history, drank blood, and grew using corpses as fertilizer. The Demon God Nebida's blood-red World Tree. It continuously expanded its territory and scattered death. Swallowing corpses, blood, and civilization, it bore primordial beasts as its fruit.
The source beasts born there marched forward, letting out agonizing death throes, seeking to devour humans.
They were beasts with not a speck of rationality left, but possessing the power of antiquity, they were still powerful and ferocious. Just colliding with them caused humans to die like toys.
Faced with an unprecedented crisis, humanity rallied. But there were humans on that side too. Beastmen, vampires, witches, and apostles of evil gods, abandoned by civilization, rode the army of sin and killed humans.
The hatred of the abandoned was intense and viscous. That ceaseless malice persistently dug into humanity's weaknesses and divided them. The enemy was not just beasts. Even on the verge of extinction, humans had to suspect each other.
In the brief moment she took her eyes off, Shei's world stood at the crossroads of ruin.
"How on earth did it come to this...?!"
Shei had developed some discernment from repeating regressions. Even to her eyes, the war situation looked desperate.
Even the Empire, the strongest and pinnacle of the continent, was helplessly pushed back by the tide of incoming enemies. At this rate, the front lines would be pushed back to the sea, and humans could become food for the sea fiends.
Therefore, the Empire organized a suicide squad.
The Seat of Stars. Survivors from other nations. Gathering all of humanity's remaining strength, they decided to bring down that cursed tree.
Shei also volunteered for the suicide squad and was accepted. Now, humanity was in no position to be picky. The Empire scattered its hoarded secret manuals and spirit pills like water, and Shei learned how to explode her latent potential to become stronger in a short time. It was like a dark art that gnawed away at her own potential, but in that moment, even dark arts that would have been condemned in times of peace were a necessary evil they couldn't afford to refuse.
A single concentrated drop of humanity. Shei, who luckily got mixed into it, encountered a fortuitous encounter. No, there was nothing left there but fortuitous encounters.
"...Dense, for someone so sensitive."
Maiden Palace Master. Sword Empress Spica.
Even while the world was ending, her body had not a single wound. Her pure white and transparent skin shone beautifully amidst the apocalypse.
However, that did not mean the Sword Empress avoided fighting.
At humanity's dead end, the number of people the Maiden Palace Master saved was beyond counting. After the Sword Saint died, the Sword Empress was the strongest human in name and reality. Let alone defeat, she won every battle without ever taking a single wound.
The Sword Empress's Tianpan Realm guarantees victory. No one has ever defeated the Sword Empress one-on-one. Ordinary people find it hard to know her true worth, but those who face the Sword Empress feel a terrifying absurdity.
That true worth was only revealed now that the Sword Empress had survived. People lamented the fact that she had no disciples, however.
"Survival instinct precedes the desire to improve. You cannot surpass your limits with qigong. If it's not a struggle to avoid death... you won't accomplish anything."
But for some reason, the Sword Empress showed interest in Shei, who was close to failing out of the Tianping Palace.
The Sword Empress, with her hands hanging down, motioned with her chin to Shei. It meant to come at her with everything. Realizing this was a fortuitous encounter, Shei did not hold back and challenged the Sword Empress.
And when she came to her senses, she was lying on the ground.
She couldn't even figure out what had happened. The Sword Empress's hands and feet flashed, and Shei was perfectly subdued. In that momentary flash, Shei was subdued without being able to do anything.
However.
"Tianpan Realm. You'll never achieve great success with it... but it suits you."
The Sword Empress looked at Shei as if sad, as if regretful, and turned away.
"...If only we had met earlier."
Those words, left behind like a lingering regret, remained deeply etched in Shei's heart. The Sword Empress must have thought this was the end, but for Shei, it heralded a new beginning.
Perhaps next time, she could receive the Sword Empress's guidance. All the floundering she had done in this cycle must have been for this very moment. Right when hope was blooming in Shei's heart.
"Shei. You can see the future."
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At first, she couldn't understand. Because what Shei did was regression, going back to the past, not seeing the future.
However, 'she' spoke as if she could see right through even Shei's thoughts.
"Did you not understand my words? If you return to the past while keeping this present, it is the same as the precognition of seeing the future. This world right now is the future in your precognition."
"Uh, how did you...?"
"I'm not reading your mind. I simply deduced it."
Wearing a hat pulled down low, and clenching a magic herb pipe in her mouth. She looks thin and nervous, but all creation is shimmering in her eyes.
Saintess of Karma. Ciel.
Even after the Empire turned its back on the Holy Court, Ciel was still active on the front lines. Possessing the power to read karma, she reads and adjusts the flow of the world. If the Sword Empress is the goddess of battle, Ciel is the goddess of war. Even if they are pushed back or defeated, they will not be destroyed. As long as Ciel is there, humanity will only reach death after exhausting all its strength.
After the Sword Empress, even Ciel. Why do opportunities only come right before extinction? Shei faced Ciel in a panic.
"Because you were in closed-door cultivation at the Seat of Stars, it was difficult to detect the entanglement of karma. Fortunately, since humanity is on the verge of extinction, we could greatly narrow down the candidates."
"Fortunate... you say...?"
"Yes. It's fortunate. If we drop this ruined world into your vast precognition, it means we get a next chance."
Until now, Shei hadn't told anyone about her regression. No one believed her, and even if they did, they couldn't understand.
However, Ciel, who could see through karma, stood in the same realm as Shei from the very beginning.
"You sent a letter containing future information to Gunguk's resistance, then headed straight to Manguk. After obtaining the old Manguk's spirit pills and treasures in the dungeon there, you went to the Empire and bought a betting ticket. After winning at 81-to-1 odds, you used all that money to enter the Tianping Palace. Is there any difference?"
"Literally. But that's ordinary."
"Yes. Fulfilling the dream of making a fortune overnight and using it to enter the Tianping Palace. Awakening hidden talent there and becoming a member of the Seat of Stars. Even a fool could imagine this story of turning one's life around. That's why I was late in finding you. I didn't expect that while seeing the future, your ambition would be so small."
Spitting out words that might be criticism or admiration, Ciel placed a hand on Shei's shoulder and said.
"If there is a next time, seek out the Holy Court."
"What?"
"You must come directly to the Holy Court. Go to the Other Star's Confessional, say you saw the King of Sins in your dream. Tell them about the blood-red World Tree towering over the continent and the end of the world flowing from it. Then we will find you."
There wasn't much time left. The time for the suicide squad to depart was approaching. When the fateful hour arrived, armies across the Empire would march, risking their lives for the last remaining hope. Just to buy even a single second for the suicide squad.
The time left for humanity was only a few hours.
However, that did not apply to Shei.
"This world is inside your vast precognition. A saintess cannot see through another saintess's precognition. As long as you are here, we are powerless. However, because of that, you are our only hope."
Because even the last concentrated drop left after 90% of humanity evaporated could be used as nourishment for the next time.
The bugle for marching sounded. The suicide squad stood up with resolute faces, holding their respective weapons. Someone in the crowd raised a flag vigorously, and they continued their determined resolve, swallowing their cheers.
If they lose, they die.
No, humanity disappears.
They must fight. Retreat is unacceptable, and there is no reason to. Since they are already dead, they don't need to fear death. What they must fear is failure. The end of humanity's fate.
The suicide squad marched toward death and sin. Ciel, who planned this final operation, muttered while harboring a different sorrow from theirs.
"But to reach the future without the blessing of the First Saintess... Is this also karma?"
The Sword Empress. And the Holy Court. Fortuitous encounters met at the very edge of the cycle.
This was a huge turning point for Shei. Even while facing the apocalypse, Shei honestly rejoiced. If she received the teachings of an absolute master like the Sword Empress, if she gained the backing of the Holy Court, what could Shei not accomplish?
Finally, Shei would gain the strength and freedom to survive against this harsh world.
She didn't fear death. She had experienced it anyway. She wasn't worried about extinction either. She just had to regress.
Firmly resolved, Shei marched with the suicide squad toward the Tree of Depravity.
However.
The despair was great enough to completely overshadow hope.
The Sword Empress died. The first wound on her body became her last. A sharp sickle was pulled out along with the Sword Empress's heart. The white and beautiful Sword Empress fell, dyed in blood.
The qigong practitioners of the Seat of Stars were annihilated. The sickle that could even cleave the Sword Empress's Tianpan Realm reaped people like bundles of straw. Severed arms and legs rolled everywhere.
The Holy Sword Division, the Magic Corps, the Paladins, and the regular soldiers. They all died like insects before the King of Sins. Nothing could withstand even a single clash.
"There is neither heaven nor hell in this world."
That was not human. A sin and a calamity wearing a human's form.
Viscous malice flows out. All kinds of demon gods run amok with the sole purpose of 'killing humans'. Lightning, wind, earth, gravity... The truths that make up the world are reassembled in a way that excludes only humans.
Blood and sparks gush out. Screams and thunder echo. Remaining burnt flesh rises with black smoke. Death by electrocution, death by burning, death by bleeding, death by falling, death by crushing, death by explosion. All kinds of death are displayed on the battlefield in the form of corpses.
In the midst of it all, the King of Sins walked, using death as his footsteps.
Humans are killed by demon gods. Heroes of humanity who learned qigong, accumulated experience, and possessed outstanding knowledge and character are simply swallowed by intense malice and disappear. Goodwill cannot defeat malice. Because malice dyes even goodwill pitch black.
"If you do not deny your sins, I will judge you as the King of Sins. For that is your wish."
What on earth is 'that'? It is a strength that Shei could never reach even if she went through countless regressions her whole life. In the first place, a fight doesn't even exist with 'that'.
Absolutely impossible to win. The moment it appeared, humanity was already as good as finished. Despair dominates Shei's heart.
Even so, Shei was already moving at that time.
The treasure left by the Master of the Heavenly Holy Sword Division, Tianying. Shei grabbed it. Tianying lent its power to the last hope at humanity's final moment.
It's not fighting because she can win. She doesn't even know what it is, or how to oppose it.
But what Shei could do was only resist. Even if it was futile.
Shei swung Tianying with all her might, and.
Then she opened her eyes in a small room in Gunguk.
Until then, Shei was a commoner. She was merely an individual who wanted to take revenge on Gunguk, which created her unhappy past, and survive better.
But after seeing the King of Sins, Shei became a hero.
To take revenge on Gunguk, to survive better.
First of all, the world had to be intact.