Chapter 221
**BACKTICK**CHAPTER_TITLE: The Curtain Falls
It was the exact moment I whispered “I am the One of Regret.”
Before anything could react, before my eyes could track it, Seo Hyoel rushed at me at a speed too blinding for the human eye to follow.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Seo Hyoel slammed into me, his foot stomping down hard on my chest.
“Kk… uuuuugh!”
I couldn’t form a single word.
No, what could I even say?
My very will, including the words, seemed suddenly crushed under an invisible weight.
‘What… is this…’
It felt as though Seo Hyoel had isolated me from the entire world in an instant.
Yet I wasn’t panicked.
Instead, I looked at him and let out a cold, mocking laugh.
This was the first time his heart had ever trembled so violently.
His face remained frozen in that eerie smile, but his inner state was a raging storm—something I had never seen before.
Though my speech was sealed, I conveyed my words through exaggerated lip movements so he could clearly read them.
―Even you find the True Immortal terrifying?
“Haha, isn’t it also blasphemous to force the True Immortal, who has been suffering in seclusion in some distant dimension, to come and go in the mundane world?”
‘Seclusion?’
It seemed Seo Hyoel knew something about the owner of the Heavenly Thunder Banner.
‘An entity sealed in a distant dimension that could display such power…’
The more I learned, the clearer it became that True Immortals always transcend the limits I could imagine.
Uuuung!
I checked my body condition.
Even though my chest was already shattered by lightning, Seo Hyoel was still “stepping” on it.
I rolled my eyes and saw the characters “Good” and “Virtue” floating above my lower dantian.
I stared at the character “You” above my upper dantian and smiled wickedly.
―What have you done to me?
“Because of your unnecessary chatter, I had to expend one of my own techniques to seal you.”
‘Sealing…!’
In truth, my entire body was pulsing as the world grew even more distant.
“Because of you I had to expend a fourth technique. To replenish it, I must head to the Blood Yin Realm, which is going to make things quite troublesome.”
‘Troublesome…’
Of course, it sounded like he was just mocking me.
But his inner state was genuinely complicated.
It seemed the very fact that he had to go to the Blood Yin Realm was touching a nerve.
‘Why does Seo Hyoel look reluctant to go there?’
―If you don’t want to go, you could have expended another technique instead.
According to his explanation last time.
Myeonggwi was water.
Jageum was wealth.
Goryeok was prosperity, Jinma was Yu Ho-deok.
Since the Blood Yin Realm was a detached fragment of Jinma, its properties were the same.
And he, who was using Yu Ho-deok’s power to seal me, had to replenish it in the Blood Yin Realm.
That I understood.
But if he truly didn’t want to go, why not just use another technique?
That was when I thought:
“Are you mocking me, or do you truly not know?”
‘What? Did I say something wrong?’
I was bewildered when he spoke again.
“The Jageum Realm is too far for round trips to take less than ten thousand years, so time is wasted… And the Goryeok Realm requires certain conditions to enter, so replenishing the expended technique would be difficult.”
―Then why not go to the Myeonggwi Realm?
When I asked, Seo Hyoel smiled faintly.
And I frowned at the way his inner state rippled.
‘Did I make a mistake?’
As I watched his inner state, I realized I had indeed spoken poorly.
The tension that had been boiling inside him calmed considerably after my answer.
“How strange. You are far too strange.”
He bent low, pressing his face close to mine so I could see his eyes.
“Following my previous words, objects are precious—meaning you can control anything you understand. But what exactly are you? For the past hundred years I have watched your movements through Wonrip’s Blood Body, yet I still cannot discern your true purpose.”
“…”
“What is so precious that you guard with such care? Sometimes it seems you do have something precious, yet other times you seem to hold nothing at all precious—almost as if you would shatter the board itself.”
His sapphire pupils stretched wide as he observed me.
He was trying to understand exactly what kind of being I was.
“You have no purpose, no precious thing, and should be a fallen existence that has lost its power—yet you know nothing of the obvious dangers of the Myeonggwi Realm… If you are merely a fragment left behind by some noble being who received only partial memory transfer, then that would explain it.”
Seo Hyoel narrowed his eyes and smiled.
“Leaving aside Yang Su-jin’s era, there has been no record of any True Immortal declining within the last twelve thousand years. So you are almost certainly a fallen noble who served under Yang Su-jin.”
“…”
“I inferred your situation from the fact that you were about to summon him. If you had faced him with a mortal body, you would have immediately yielded. Yet you have survived since his evaporation. That means he showed you favor. My guess is that you directly brought him the purification of the Great Heavenly Plain so he would come find his master. There is no other deed that would have earned such grace….”
Seo Hyoel’s reasoning continued.
“And the only way to bring the Great Heavenly Plain’s purification would be to have spoken its name aloud, knowing her true name. Knowing that would make the descendants of Yang Su-jin, who bear him an eternal grudge, a certainty. So you are almost certainly one of the True Immortals slain by Yang Su-jin and consumed by hatred.”
“…”
“There are many candidates among those he killed, but few would bear such a vengeful grudge that they would drive their own descendants to such ruin. And if we exclude those who would never lend him their power, the list narrows to the fingers of one hand.”
Seo Hyoel, nearing the truth, asked with a faint smile.
“At this point, revealing your identity isn’t such a bad choice. Don’t you have any idea who I am?”
I searched for words, then laughed coldly.
―Is there any reason I should tell you?
“Eh? Tell me who we are? What are you talking about?”
But Seo Hyoel pulled his face away from me, as if confused.
―We have been watching, suspecting, and preparing to stab each other in the back for decades.
“Ah, that’s…”
Seo Hyoel laughed empty as he read my lip movements.
“It was just a joke.”
“…”
For a moment I felt my head spin.
“Haha, why so? Seo Doo. If you are one of the beings I imagine… you would have gripped the entire universe, crossing dimensions, weaving countless conspiracies and schemes from the units of fate and history. Isn’t that what beings like us do? Why fight over just a few events in this mundane world? To us, this is simply… a game.”
‘A game…?’
His words made my spirit waver.
‘Is everything… just a game?’
It was absurd.
But I suppressed my churning heart and stared at him.
‘Don’t waver.’
Clearly, part of what he said was a lie.
And Seo Hyoel was still feeding me lies, observing me.
‘Don’t let myself be swayed by Seo Hyoel. I must stall.’
Goe-gun would break through the seventh floor of Bongmyeongju—the official entrance to the Mysterious Castle—and arrive any moment now.
If I could keep talking with Seo Hyoel until then, there was hope.
‘Pretend to be swayed by his words, buy time, and pry out more information.’
―If everything is just a game, wouldn’t it be better to go to the Myeonggwi Realm for adventure, even if it is slightly dangerous? You seemed reluctant to go to the Blood Yin Realm.
“Hmph… Do you truly not know anything about the Myeonggwi Realm?”
‘…?’
“As you know, the vast majority of Gaeyeol True People yearn to enter the True Immortal realm through shortcuts… and that is why the Gaeyeol ones are glaringly watching the Myeonggwi Realm. At this stage they are mature enough to be the target of games… so you should have a rough idea why they observe it.”
“…”
‘Does the Myeonggwi Realm have some connection to a shortcut for entering the True Immortal realm?’
This could still be a lie, but the feeling I got was that Seo Hyoel’s words were true.
I had learned that the Myeonggwi Realm was watched by glaring Gaeyeol cultivators.
‘They wouldn’t go in themselves and search; they merely observe. That must be because of some pact with the Black Dragon King….’
Black Dragon King.
Myeonggwi Realm.
Blood Yin Realm.
Gaeyeol.
Star Realm.
Seo Hyoel…
How were all these connected?
How could I gather this information and continue the conversation?
That was when it happened.
“So, let me ask again, Seo Doo.”
Seo Hyoel smiled faintly and looked into my eyes.
“It was only a game between us. Still, aren’t you going to tell me your identity?”
And then.
“Game…?”
Gurgle, gurgle…
The once-fallen Gyubaek.
Her heart pierced, she began to rise slowly from the ground, writhing.
“Oh…”
Seo Hyoel looked at her with interest.
The wound in her chest had already clotted; no blood flowed.
I swallowed hard, knowing how she was moving.
‘She is forcibly circulating qi throughout her body to rise.’
The qi was temporarily taking over the work her heart should have done.
But at this point, Gyubaek was already as good as dead.
Even so, her face was paling in real time.
Since death was imminent, no more actions mattered.
Yet still.
Gyubaek squeezed air from her lungs and spoke in a trembling voice.
“It was… a game? Say it again, Seo Hyoel. Did time with Gyuryeon really mean nothing but a game?”
Her hand trembled as she pressed it against the hole in her chest and glared at Seo Hyoel.
“Gyuryeon… I… I loved you… truly! And I was just a game to you?”
Gyubaek shouted.
“Answer me, Seo Hyoel! Was all of this just a game?!”
And Seo Hyoel clicked his tongue.
“You are not senior Gyu.”
That cold tone made Gyubaek bite her lip.
“You, a mere fragment, somehow learned the Deep Gong Technique and reached here. That is all. You are nothing more than… a fragment of senior Gyu. Not the original. Don’t misunderstand. Gyuryeon is already dead, and what you are doing serves no meaning.”
“I…”
Gyubaek collapsed to her knees, tears streaming.
“Yes, Gyuryeon… she truly… loved you, Seo Hyoel!”
“Hmph, what am I supposed to do? Did the words I once gave senior Gyu not pass to you? Emotions are nothing but the amount of air inside the body…”
“No!”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The Seogyojeongpyo activated again.
Chains flew at Seo Hyoel.
But he waved his hand, and the chains simply bounced off.
Gyubaek unfurled the Dragon-Shaped Flying Tiger Claw and struck the chains at Seo Hyoel again and again, but he flicked them away as if they were nothing.
“How annoying. Hye-seo, would you please move this fragment away?”
“Eh? No way. It’s fun.”
“…”
Oh Hye-seo watched Gyubaek and Seo Hyoel with amusement and sat on Yu-eun’s body, chin resting on her knees.
“What… If Hye-seo is annoying, there is nothing I can do.”
Slap, slap…
Seo Hyoel stepped off my chest.
But because the character “Yu Ho-deok” still floated above my upper dantian, I couldn’t even twitch a finger.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The Seogyojeongpyo chains struck at Seo Hyoel again and again, but he continued flicking them away with that unpleasant smile.
The chains that had once been stuck in my body when I was asleep by Yu Hwa had simply been there during my sleep.
Gyubaek’s heart was completely lost to Seo Hyoel.
Boom!
Seo Hyoel flicked the final chain.
And now he stood right in front of Gyubaek.
“Has your grudge been vented?”
“You…”
Slap!
Seo Hyoel flicked his finger right in front of her.
Blood erupted from Gyubaek’s Seven Apertures, and she collapsed.
He had forcibly shaken the Heavenly and Earthly qi circulating inside her body.
The shock was so great that her body did not explode into pieces.
Seo Hyoel looked down at her for a moment, then grabbed her hair and dragged her toward me.
“A body full of grudges would strengthen my seal if I offered it to the Blood Yin Realm. Come on, Seo Doo. Although it took some time, before you are sealed, shall we continue the conversation you were about to… What are you doing?”
Uddok, uuddok…
No matter what, I could not speak.
But “moving my body” could be forced through sheer willpower.
I focused the Muhyeong Sword’s power in one arm and slowly lifted it.
The character “Yu Ho-deok” pressed down harder, but I ignored it and reached toward Gyubaek.
“Hmph, even as you die, what business does this fragment have left? Ah, perhaps you wanted to consummate before sealing?”
―Shut up.
“How strange. What do you want from a mundane fragment…? Do you have too much affection for a toy?”
―No.
I extended my arm, nerves focused on Gyubaek.
The Muhyeong Sword, reaching the Answer Heaven, pushed aside Yu Ho-deok’s character and slowly approached Gyubaek.
―It was not a game!
Gyubaek could only be met in this life.
If I met her in the next life, she would never be the same as now.
Only because she was born from Gyuryeon’s obsession, resentment, and lingering regret.
If she was not the same Gyuryeon who had perfectly identical emotions and memories, she would never appear as this Gyubaek.
Yet I was not sorry.
After all, every being I could meet in this world existed only in one life, and Gyubaek was no different.
Yes. These were connections that could only be met in this life.
―How can the memories stacked from these unique connections be a game?
I finally succeeded in grasping Gyubaek’s hand.
It was a hand hardened at the fingertips from learning the Dragon-Shaped Flying Tiger Claw.
A hand trained to meet Seo Hyoel. A hand I had trained alongside him.
At the same time, it was a companion’s hand that had accomplished nothing.
“It was not a game.”
Seo Hyoel, who had been watching my lip movements, paused and released Gyubaek’s hair.
She fell powerlessly to the ground.
‘…?’
But I thought his action was strange.
‘What?’
Had I misseen something just now?
Instantly, I felt an extremely thin ray of light in Seo Hyoel’s inner state.
It passed so quickly I wasn’t sure it was real.
‘Must have been a misperception.’
I ignored whatever impossible thing would happen to Seo Hyoel and grasped the fallen Gyubaek’s hand.
Gyubaek had not died yet.
She would die soon, but her hand still trembled faintly.
I felt her emotions through that trembling hand.
Anger and resentment.
Longing and sorrow.
And… love.
Gyuryeon had loved Seo Hyoel.
And Gyubaek, who inherited Gyuryeon’s memories, had inherited the same overwhelming love.
Even though filled with Gyuryeon’s resentment, Gyubaek’s heart still loved Seo Hyoel.
Even if the object of her love was an abominably vile existence, her love itself shone too brightly to fit him.
I gazed at her inner state and stored that light in my own heart.
‘I will remember. Your heart…’
Since this was the only connection I could meet in this life, I would engrave this feeling into my heart.
Thus, the Mansang Inyeondo recorded Gyubaek’s final appearance.
I thought that was her last moment.
Sarak…
“…?”
Before a single pink thread could extend from my hand.
Sarararak…
Somehow, a sweet floral scent spread in all directions.
At the same moment, a thread extended from my body and took root.
The thread split into many branches and spread outward.
The thread that had seemed about to spread everywhere suddenly converged, twisting into one shape.
It was Kim Yeon’s form.
* * *
Uuuuung—
Inside the snake pit dug by Hong Beom.
Deep in its innermost depths lay a human figure.
Kim Yeon, still unable to regain her consciousness.
She had lain there for days with unfocused eyes.
Kim Yeon was dreaming.
The scene from when she had gone on a business trip with the person she loved and seen crabapple blossoms blooming like clouds in an orchard.
And something echoed inside her dream.
―I will remember. Your heart…
It was Seo Eun-hyun’s voice that she had been clinging to.
Beyond it, the “heart” Seo Eun-hyun wanted to remember flowed through the consciousness he had placed on her and reached her.
It was the heart of one who loved a single person.
The heart of Gyuryeon, who had given everything to Seo Hyoel.
Even though the ending was disastrous, the heart of Gyuryeon had shone so brightly that it was transmitted through Seo Eun-hyun to Kim Yeon.
And at the moment the light reached Kim Yeon.
Her Gimyoseongsimjeon combined her talent and her life itself, exploding in enormous power.
As a result, while asleep, Kim Yeon awakened her true abilities through the Gimyoseongsimjeon without realizing it.
* * *
Tzutzutzutchi!
Kim Yeon’s pink form overlapped with the hand holding Gyubaek’s.
The three hands—mine, Gyubaek’s, and Kim Yeon’s—overlapped.
Seo Hyoel stepped back in surprise at the unexpected situation, and Oh Hye-seo waved happily at Kim Yeon.
“Oh my, it’s Yeon!”
And Oh Hye-seo reached out with a joyful face.
“Yeon-ah, you’re in the way. I’ll find you again later and let you be adorable like before, so please go away for a while?”
Tzutzutchi!
Yin and yang swirled around Kim Yeon, making her form flicker.
But it was only for a moment.
The pink form of Kim Yeon lifted her hand over Gyubaek’s pierced chest.
At the same instant, golden light began to erupt from Gyubaek’s empty chest.
Seo Hyoel shouted at Oh Hye-seo.
“Hye-seo! Stop that quickly!”
Uuuung!
Blue light flashed simultaneously, and Seo Hyoel transformed into his true form and tried to fly away.
But the golden light was faster.
The golden light became a thin thread and shot toward Seo Hyoel, connecting naturally to his chest.
I understood what that golden thread meant.
‘That is… the Gwanghan Covenant…!’
At the same moment, Gyubaek’s chest, now filled with golden light, opened her eyes.
She stared at Kim Yeon’s form for a moment, then rose, vomiting blood.
“Aaaah!!!”
And Oh Hye-seo, who had been rapidly reading the threads of the Gwanghan Covenant, suddenly screamed.
Even in Yu-eun’s body, her eyeballs burst as she clutched her head and wept blood.
As if she had seen something she should not have seen.
“Wh-what is it-what is it-what is it…”
Clutching her head in terror, she severed the connection to Yu-eun’s body and vanished somewhere.
Yu-eun’s body collapsed to the ground, eyeballs lost.
And Gyubaek clutched her chest and reached toward the fleeing Seo Hyoel in the distance.
Uuuung!
Her will surged in all directions.
Woldoipcheon.
“Seogyojeongpyo.”
Once more, Gyubaek’s Woldoipcheon activated.
This time chains erupted from her chest.
Not brown chains.
Golden chains chased Seo Hyoel at the speed of a blade of light, connecting to him without a moment’s hesitation.
Charaararak!
The moment they connected, the golden chains shortened rapidly, pulling the fleeing Seo Hyoel back.
Seo Hyoel transformed back into human form in mid-air and landed.
He looked at Gyubaek, then at Kim Yeon again.
“…What are you?”
The face still smiling.
But his voice was colder than ever.
“The only technique that activates when only Gwanghan is present is the Gwanghan Covenant… How can you wield it? Who are you?”
His smile was colder than ever, and Seo Hyoel’s inner state churned more violently than ever.
* * *
Jinryong-maeng headquarters.
East of the Black Dragon King.
Inside, a massive dragon’s body writhed.
The black dragon lifted its head to the sky and opened its mouth in disbelief.
“Gwanghan…? How…?”
* * *
Outside Bongmyeongju.
Mysterious Castle.
In the center of the castle, Goe-gun suddenly clutched his head and fell from her knees.
The Gimyoseongsimjeon resonated strongly with something.
Goe-gun grabbed his chest and wept.
It was not the loud, glowing tears he had been spitting before.
Silent tears flowed from Goe-gun, carrying his true feelings.
“…My disciple is doing something.”
Feeling Kim Yeon’s existence beyond the resonance of the Gimyoseongsimjeon, Goe-gun looked toward Bongmyeongju.
“Something is happening there. I must go. I might witness something like Yeon-ui Yeon, or… even more terrifying…”
Still clutching his chest, Goe-gun did not wipe his tears and unfolded the Gimyoseongsimjeon with a serious expression.
Uuuung!
Goe-gun’s Gimyoseongsimjeon blazed brightly.
“The crude puppet show is over. I must see what my disciple is doing. Looking at this resonance… the true next step for the Gimyoseongsimjeon…”
Buuuung!
After briefly regaining rationality, the Mysterious Castle began operating far more efficiently and rationally.
And the grotesque puppet army that had been bombarding the surroundings with brute force began to organize itself quickly.
* * *
“This kid isn’t important, Seo Hyoel?”
Gyubaek looked at Kim Yeon’s form for a moment, then back at Seo Hyoel.
“Truly a miracle… No, it is a miracle. A miracle happened, and the Gwanghan Covenant activated. Seo Hyoel.”
Gyubaek smiled brightly and pointed at her chest, from which golden light was erupting.
“My heart is already gone, and I am dead now. And the Gwanghan Covenant activated by a miracle means you will die too.”
“…”
“Since you seem to know more than I do, you know this… The Gwanghan Covenant is a technique related to heavenly fate. Swapping bodies or replenishing vitality is useless. Resurrection is impossible. Heaven is declaring our fate ended.”
“…”
“But… as you know, Seo Hyoel, this is not a Gwanghan Covenant formed by mutual agreement. It is only the one Gyuryeon unilaterally placed on you. And since the witness is present here, you have the right to dissolve the Gwanghan Covenant, Seo Hyoel.”
Gyubaek slowly opened both arms toward Seo Hyoel.
“Just as Gyuryeon delivered her heart of love to you and set the Gwanghan Covenant, dissolving it must be done in reverse. Seo Hyoel, the method to dissolve the Gwanghan Covenant is simple.”
After her words, I could not hold back a smile.
“Kiss me sincerely. If you do not return a heart greater than the one Gyuryeon gave you, the Gwanghan Covenant will not dissolve.”
In countless fairy tales where lovers appear, the ending is almost always that a kiss breaks the curse and leads to a century of marriage.
So Seo Hyoel, bound by the curse, had to kiss Gyubaek with sincere love to break it.
“Come on, Seo Hyoel. Show me your heart.”
To Seo Hyoel, who had lost his heart, Gyubaek, who had told him the only way to dissolve the curse was to show sincerity, smiled a cruel and beautiful smile.
And for the first time, the smile vanished from Seo Hyoel’s lips.
The long, long performance was over.
Only Seo Hyoel remained, dragged down to the stage below.