“You are unlucky to meet me. This must be karma for not accumulating merit on a regular basis.”

A boy with long red hair looked at Hanul with pity as Hanul was trapped in the spatial distortion. The boy was a genius who managed to reach the late great ascension realm in only eight thousand years.

He was a monster who had been in a state of harmony since he was born. His techniques and mystical arts had synergized well with one another regardless of attributes and environment. This allowed him to exert enormous power.

He always overpowered cultivators of a higher realm than him, so the entire cultivation community feared and respected the boy. He felt grateful that people treated him this way. People’s respect and support motivated him.

That’s right. To put it bluntly, the boy was someone who liked being the center of attention. Before he knew it, the boy began working hard to be praised even more. For his own sake, he accumulated merit by respecting his superiors and taking care of his subordinates.

The boy’s perspective was different from that of an ordinary cultivator.

“So, why don’t you usually take care of those around you?” he asked. “If you had been praised like me, you wouldn’t have been in this troublesome situation all alone as you are now.”

“Praised?”

The rampant light trapped in the distorted space took on the shape of a person. It was Hanul, a God of the beginning. He’d taken the form of a human, though he had never been human.

Hanul sneered. “It’s shameful for you to discuss worship with me.”

Hundreds of ripples occurred in the spatial distortion that trapped Hanul. The boy cocked his head. He couldn’t feel any waves of power, but he was surprised to see that his technique was showing signs of collapse.

The distorted space shattered before the boy could understand what was going on. He didn’t have a chance to react.

Fragments of space sparkled like broken glass as Hanul pulled them into his hands instead of letting them scatter in all directions.

“Um...?”

The boy still didn’t understand the phenomenon that was unfolding before his eyes. However, he sensed danger and made a decision.

The chill air around the boy instantly transformed into a barrier of ice. It reflected and absorbed light from all angles, reflecting all kinds of colors on its surface.

Hanul suddenly turned into light and attacked the boy, who had the ice barrier around him.

“Didn’t I say that It was your misfortune to meet me? Even if you turn into light, I know many methods to bind it...”

The sneer on the boy’s face suddenly stiffened. He felt a heavy shock reverberating throughout the barrier. The ice created by the boy couldn’t be melted by any flame and had never been broken, but the intensity of the impact was unusual. He had a bad feeling about this.

Part of the ice wall disappeared without a trace. It wasn’t destroyed. Hanul’s grip devoured it.

A chill went down the boy’s spine.

‘Spatial distortion?’

This was a technique used to summon distorted space. Hanul was using the same secret technique the boy had used on him just moments before.

It was impossible for Hanul to know this technique beforehand. The spatial distortion created by Hanul and the spatial distortion created by the boy were the same in every single way.

‘He stole it?’

The boy finally understood what happened and hurriedly cast a new spatial distortion, which he intended to neutralize the spatial distortion ability that Hanul had taken away.

…….

The moment the distorted spaces collided, all sound disappeared from the world. The spot where the explosion occurred was tinged with jade, resembling the jade light emitted by the Full Moon Fortress.

It was the result of a space rift. The jade light was coming from the deep crack in space created by the explosion. It was a flawed result of an incomplete version of the Full Moon Fortress’ ultimate goal.

“......!”

Hanul and the boy’s eyes widened at the same time. They felt some type of presence beyond the space rift that appeared between them. The boy recognized it immediately.

“It didn’t just connect the dimensions, it connected it to the upper world...!”

The boy’s reaction was strange. The way he smiled while looking nervous seemed to indicate that he was both afraid and happy.

Hanul hurriedly stepped back. The thin and soft hands that emerged from the space rift made a simple gesture.

The shockwave was huge.

A small triangular object floated above the beautiful hand that reached out from the rift, spun around, and quickly transformed into a great mountain.

Everything around them was crushed. Even Hanul, who had turned into light and distanced himself, suffered from internal injuries and coughed up blood. The boy reacted a bit later than Hanul and lost an arm.

They heard the voice of a strange woman.

[You survived? How dare you take a peek at the immortal world?]

Despite the harsh words, the voice was clear and had a mysterious charm that hypnotized the listeners.

The boy was stunned for a moment before hurriedly saluting. “This incompetent junior greets his senior...!”

He was speaking to an immortal. It meant that, after repeated efforts to defy the natural order, this person beyond the rift had managed to achieve eternal life. All cultivators wished to achieve immortality.

The woman on the other side of the space rift took an interest in the boy.

[You... You’ve only lived for around nine thousand years and are almost at the peak of the great ascension realm. You are a rare talent even in the immortal world. You have the potential to aim for ascension within tens of thousands of years, so there is no way you would’ve spied on the immortal world with a devious mind...]

Hanul felt eyes on him. He could tell that the woman on the other side of the space rift had started to examine him.

Hanul snorted. “Bah.” He was a born immortal. He was an absolute ruler from birth. A person who managed to grasp eternal life after petty struggles didn’t impress him in the slightest.

Hanul muttered to himself while thinking of Grid, “I might think differently of you if you became an Only One God like a certain someone...”

This made the boy glare at him.

“How dare you be rude to the senior?”

Hanul found those words absurd. “Should I be polite?” he asked, dumbfounded.

The boy couldn’t bear it and a mirror popped out of his mouth.

When the boy encountered this monster who invaded the Full Moon Fortress and who could turn into light, he was astonished, but he felt both fear and joy. He knew a lot of ways to neutralize light. Even his innate treasure was a mirror.

It was called the Mirror of Life. Everything caught in its reflection would lose its power and would be unable to move, like characters in a painting. Those weaker than the boy would remain unmoving forever, while those who were stronger would only remain stuck for a moment.

“Which one are you?”

It didn’t matter if Hanul would be stuck for an eternity or for a brief second. The boy thought the result would be the same no matter what. He considered that he could kill any enemy even if they remained unmoving for just a mere moment.

Flash!

Some of the light got captured in the mirror, and the corners of the boy's mouth curved as high as they could. Hanul, who lost his light, took the form of an ordinary human being.

Hanul was exposed and couldn’t even lift a finger. He seemed surprised.

The boy was already close to Hanul. He thrust a large spear with strange characters flowing like blood veins toward him, piercing Hanul’s heart.

The boy’s head exploded. He couldn’t handle the devastating power of light that Hanul unexpectedly released. His nascent soul abandoned his body. “What...?” he asked, shocked.

Surprisingly, Hanul hadn’t been affected by the Mirror of Life. He only pretended to lose his light. At least, that’s what the boy thought. If that wasn’t the case, then Hanul’s immediate counterattack would’ve been impossible.

He was mistaken. Hanul had been caught by the Mirror of Life. However, he was a god. Even if his body was destroyed, he had the ability to perform miracles.

Therefore, he recovered faster than the boy thought, and counterattacked in time.

Hanul scoffed. “It’s ridiculous to panic. Could it be that you’ve never seen something like this before?”

From the boy’s point of view, what Hanul was saying sounded like gibberish.

“What do you mean?” the boy asked.

“A being who performs miracles despite having an ordinary human body. Later on, they become a hero, then a legend, and eventually a god.”

He was talking about Grid. Hanul was thinking that, had the boy in front of him ever experienced anyone even remotely similar to Grid, then maybe he wouldn’t have acted so superior. Now, he was defenseless.

“What are you talking about...?”

Anger filled the boy’s eyes. His little dwarf's face scowled fiercely. Even so, Hanul still found him ridiculous.

“I’m saying that you are out of luck. You are just an ordinary person who became confident because you were born in a world where only idiots exist.”

Hanul had lost his yangbans to Grid. The Hwan Kingdom was in decline. Of course he used to hate Grid. The moment he finished integrating the light that originally belonged to Rebecca, he would find Grid and make him pay for his sins.

However, presently, Hanul no longer hated Grid. Looking back, Hanul felt proud watching this particular human’s growth process.

This world was probably small. It was undeniable that this was merely a world created for the entertainment of higher beings from other dimensions. But was this small world low quality just because it was a lower dimension? Hanul could definitely say that this wasn’t the case. Grid had elevated this world to its current level.

There were those who had been crushed by him and those who were saved by him. The people who watched Grid and were affected by him inevitably met each other and created new causes and effects, resulting in them becoming stronger and stronger.

Hanul didn’t like that most of them became Grid’s subordinates, but...

In any case, Hanul felt a strange sense of pride thanks to Grid. It was the pride of being born as an Absolute in such an outstanding world.

Therefore, putting aside his hatred of Grid, he also felt grateful toward him. He wasn’t intimidated by the menacing woman from beyond the space rift.

The woman gave a cold warning. [I am going to take that child as a disciple. If you don’t want to die, leave that nascent soul unharmed and hand him over to me.]

Hanul ignored her. He destroyed the boy’s nascent soul anyway.

“Come here,” Hanul taunted the woman. “If you don’t, I will personally go to this immortal world of yours and kill you.”

[The one who reigns in this lower world doesn’t know whom he is going against.]

Even though the dimensions were connected, it was almost impossible for an existence from a lower world to ascend to an upper one. Both Hanul and the woman knew this.

But because Hanul provoked her, this became a matter of pride.

Beyond the space rift that seemed far away, the woman’s presence drew closer. [I will take your severed head with me as a prize,] she said.

Now the woman didn’t show only her hands, but also her arms, torso, and finally, her face.

Hanul’s complexion changed rapidly.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have messed with her.’

At his current level, he stood no chance. He needed more worship…

Hanul turned into light and left the scene.

However—

“......”

The woman emerged from the space rift and hid her energy. The previously powerful energy that made Hanul wary disappeared without a trace. She did this so her enemy wouldn’t notice she was following him.

The woman read the flow of the heaven and earth origin energy. She figured out Hanul’s escape route and followed after him.