Chapter 16 : S Class Gate – Seocheon Flower Garden (5)

Grandmother Samsin must not be killed directly.

That was the conclusion reached by the Abnormal Grade Management Department, which had been analyzing Seocheon Flower Garden for the past several years.
And Bari, having reached the S-rank Gate herself and seen Grandmother Samsin, came to the same conclusion.

‘Weak. She’s weak for an S-rank Gate boss monster.’
Of course, she was the type that required a tricky strategy rather than sheer physical force, but still, she was weak.

Weak enough to be pushed back by Agathe, who was the boss of the A-rank Gate ‘Death’s Blessing’.
Even when Agathe wasn’t using her full power.

The cause was also easily realized.
There was a hint in Grandmother Samsin’s words.

The Supreme Emperor.

Also known as the Jade Emperor.
The Daoist deity who gave Grandmother Samsin the flower seeds and appointed her as a goddess.

That one is the main body.

Therefore, killing Grandmother Samsin might cause the Jade Emperor above her to intervene directly.
Thus, Grandmother Samsin must be eliminated in a different way.

By annihilating ‘Seocheon Flower Garden’ and removing its foundation.
If Samsin is driven out that way, the Jade Emperor will not intervene.

After all, the ‘boss’ of this Gate is Grandmother Samsin.
The Jade Emperor was merely positioned in the background, like the sky or nature.

“Waaaah!”

Acrid smoke billowed from the flames.
The sound of a baby crying, startled by the sudden chaos, was heard.
As a mother, she felt sorry, but there was no time to soothe the child.

[No…! Not the flower garden!]

-Kwaang!

Grandmother Samsin’s shriek echoed upon seeing the burning flower garden.
A fierce shockwave erupted, engulfing the Hunters, but Bari calmly swung her sword, deflecting the stones and dirt heading towards her back.

‘Just a little, just a little longer. Mom will take you home soon.’

Though her origin might be from Seocheon Flower Garden, her home was chosen by herself.

She wanted desperately to turn her head and check on her children’s safety, but Bari stood firm, blocking Grandmother Samsin’s desperate struggles.

Though born out of necessity, she couldn’t lack maternal love.
Why wouldn’t she?
She herself was born amidst tragedy and grew up abused.

She didn’t want to pass down what she had experienced to her children.

[^$#%!^!]

-Crunch.

“Keuk!”

One of the swarming child attendants bit her arm with sharp teeth.
She quickly struck its head off with her sword and flicked the blood off the blade.

Although Agathe, fighting directly at the front, blocked most attacks, it was a ceaseless battle against the flower garden’s attendants swarming from all sides.

Under the continuous battle, Bari and the other Hunters grew increasingly exhausted.
Bari, in particular, was even more tired, having given birth not long ago.

The fortunate thing, perhaps, was that thanks to Saradoryeong, the flowers didn’t cause direct harm.
Even while burning, the flowers didn’t resist and simply turned to ash and vanished.

Their essence was plant; perhaps it was natural.

Still.
An endlessly swarming host remained.

“Everyone. Hold on just a little longer. The flower garden will soon burn completely.”

Though she didn’t know how many would die before it all burned.

Forcibly swallowing those words, Bari let her sword hang loosely from her weary body once more.

And just then, Kim Haeun, the mind-reader, pointed towards the main body of the attendants they were guarding.

“There! That’s the weak point! From the beginning, they were nothing but flowers.”

Looking where Kim Haeun pointed, Bari bit her lip.

“Potato flowers… Huu. Indeed.”

Not all flowers are flamboyant.

‘I wondered why there was a farming area in Seocheon Flower Garden. To think they’d pull such a trick…’

She had momentarily mistaken them for humanoid enemies.
Their true essence was ‘flower’.

Flowers that bloom anytime unless their roots are destroyed, but conversely, wither and die if their roots are pulled.

And.
Once ‘figured out’, they were no longer objects of fear.

That was the kind of work the Hunter Association did.

“Right, let’s burn that side first.”

After that, it was almost anticlimactically easy.
The forces guarding the flower garden couldn’t protect themselves, and the Flower Inspector was holding back Grandmother Samsin alongside Agathe.

[Ahhh… My, children.]

-Fsss.

Grandmother Samsin, slowly turning to ash and disappearing, reached a hand towards the sky for a moment, then went limp and completely vanished.

Seocheon Flower Garden had met its end.

***

The source of Gates is the human subconscious.

Seocheon Flower Garden implies that flowers must bloom.
That is a self-evident fact, strongly rooted in people’s perception.

Therefore…

A flower garden where flowers no longer bloom cannot be Seocheon Flower Garden.

-Rumble!

The sound of space collapsing is heard.
Seocheon Flower Garden began to deviate from its fundamental nature.

The world made of mana crumbled, and holes opened up throughout the world.

Glancing towards Saradoryeong, I saw him finding a path back to the original world amidst the collapsing world, keeping the passage from closing.

I didn’t quite know how he did it.
It was probably possible because Saradoryeong was a Returnee from this world.

Time… Judging by Saradoryeong’s struggling appearance, it seemed there wasn’t much left.

Having deviated from the standard raid method, the current situation was actually more dangerous than when fighting Grandmother Samsin.

My mobility was reduced having expended considerable power using Magic Bullets.

‘Huu. It was tough due to the incompatibility.’

If not for the condition not to kill her, I would have killed her long ago and more.
My ability was naturally suited for killing, if nothing else.

As I leaned on my gun like a cane, catching my breath, I saw Bari with a pale complexion.

“Everyone gather here!”

She was gathering people.
The triplets she bore seemed healthy, thankfully.

Clutching the Honsali Flower, I ran swiftly.
My heart pounded.

Now that the Gate raid was over, the sense of reality I had postponed finally caught up.
The hope that I might be able to save my lover.

Simultaneously, anxiety also arrived.
It was an item from inside Seocheon Flower Garden; would the flower’s efficacy remain if the flower garden collapsed?

That anxiety soon became reality.
Bari, seemingly urgent, thrust another Honsali Flower into my hand and pushed me.

“Agathe. If Seocheon Flower Garden collapses completely, that flower will also disappear. You must use the flower while the President holds on. The user is already determined, so there’s no need to go to the corpse. Use it immediately upon returning.”

-Grit.

‘As expected. The world doesn’t turn that easily.’

But.
Because of that, I felt a sense of reliability instead.
Hope that I could save the deceased Caspar.

I briefly shifted my body halfway into a spiritual form.
It would be a bit troublesome to create a physical body again later, but now was not the time for that.

“We will return slowly through a side path, so I entrust my share to you as well.”

Leaving the bowing Bari behind, I flew off with the two Honsaeng Flowers.

-Fwoooosh!

Flying more desperately than when fighting Grandmother Samsin, my speed was incredibly fast.
I wasn’t fully spiritual to protect the Honsali Flowers, and thanks to that, blood streamed from various parts of my body.

“Please. Please, Caspar. Please.”

I can save Caspar.
With only that thought, I raced forward madly.

Finally, just as I was about to cross the exit leading outside the Gate.

I sensed something far away.
Though imperceptible to the five senses, I looked upwards through my spiritual eyes.

The slowly collapsing Seocheon Flower Garden.
There was something ‘above’ it.

“What…”

Far above the thirty-three heavens stacked layer upon layer… sat an existence more powerful than anything I had ever seen.
*(TL Note: 33 Heavens refers to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven in Buddhist/Hindu cosmology, often associated with Indra/Śakra, but here likely linked to the Jade Emperor in a Daoist context.)*

Shadows stretched long.

From within nature, which I thought was merely background, I felt a single colossal will coalescing.

And I saw.

A huge.

Eye.

“Hyaak!”

A shrill scream escaped my lips.

The moment I saw that eye, knowledge was abruptly hammered into my mind.

The Great Opening of the heaven, The talisman of the true body , The Golden lock of the cloud palace, the Nine Pillars of the ten thousand ways, the Unending mingling great Palace, the Heavenly golden lock of the Jade emperor, the Great Heavenly venerable and Mysterious Pillar of High Knighthood. The Three Realms and the Ten Directions.

(TL Note: This is the extremely long, formal title of the Jade Emperor in Daoism, signifying his supreme authority over the cosmos.)*

The other face of Hwanin, who rules the Three Realms and Ten Directions, the Four Births and Six Paths .
(TL Note: Hwanin (桓因) is the supreme god in the Dangun myth of Korea’s founding; here equated with the Jade Emperor. The terms refer to cosmological divisions.)*

The Jade Emperor saw me.

***

‘The name…!’

My head felt like it would burst from the instantaneous, overly dense injection of knowledge.
I immediately understood what had happened.

Because it was a god dredged up from humanity’s collective unconscious, seeing the god made it possible to retrieve knowledge buried deep in the subconscious.

It opened its mouth.
If Grandmother Samsin was a candle, its words were like the sun.

“Child who received the Heavenly Mandate.
I shall bestow my blessings upon thee. I shall await the time we meet again. ”

It uttered in a majestic, slow, echoing voice.

.
.
.

-Thump!

“Keuk!”

A faint groan escaped.
There was definitely nothing there, but.

It felt like I heard some words, but the memory is faint, I don’t know for sure.

I felt something forcefully embedded in my soul.
I could remove it if I wanted, but I didn’t bother.

I felt it instinctively.
That this would not harm me, but rather help me.
Only then did I remember a phenomenon I had heard about before.

“Blessing…”

Usually, the moment a Gate is subjugated, all of the Gate’s erosion disappears.
Therefore, items from inside the Gate also vanish without special processing.

However.
Occasionally, blessings or spoils, some kind of reward, were said to remain for those who subjugated the Gate.

Perhaps that phenomenon had occurred.

…But I didn’t expect the ‘blessing’ to descend in this manner.
Maybe it was because my own stature was excessively high?
Perhaps I saw something normally unseen.

It didn’t matter anyway.
Even if what the Jade Emperor bestowed upon me was a curse, I would have received it with a bow.

Because the Honsali Flower, which had been fading slightly, now rested vividly in my hand.

***

Sender: Lee Yulha, Hunter Association Temporary Strategy Compilation Department.

Recipient: Lee Yeonah, Hunter Association Post-Processing Management Department.

—

S-rank Gate Seocheon Flower Garden Subjugation Complete.

Casualties: 0, Injured: 1 (Myself. Request prompt hospital discharge)

Anomalous Phenomenon: Reports indicate all Hunters confirmed deceased during the raid have revived.

Additionally, revival confirmed for parents of Special Task Force Chief Bari and partner of A-rank Hunter Agathe via Honsali Flower. Erosion from Seocheon Flower Garden also measured as null.

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P.S.

Unni. Bring something tasty when you visit me in the hospital.