Seo Ran’s Family (Part 4)
The glass-sword mountain stood on Samok Island.
For the longest time, this place—once known across the continent as Pyeong-won realm—had been the home of the Buk Clan.
Seo Ran had carved out a cave here on Yuri Samok Mountain and begun his secluded training inside it.
Monster.
Those had been the words of his supposed father, Seo Hyul, the ancestor who had always been like a true parent to him.
Seo Ran had always felt confused.
Seo Hyul had been nothing more than a clone created by some mysterious art.
The original body had been Seo Ran himself.
The clones had even tried to kill him once, intending to reset everything.
He had simply…
Been nothing more than an ordinary half-human, half-dragon.
“Come, drink a little water. If anything happens to this old man, what will you do?”
Siho approached Seo Ran.
Seo Ran looked at him with hollow eyes.
After Seo Eun-hyun had decided to settle into Pyeong-won realm, Seo Eun-hyun and his companions had all left his inner world and begun living on Yuri Samok Mountain.
Kim Young-hoon had spent endless hours debating martial arts with Seo Eun-hyun.
Jeon Myeong-hoon had grown familiar with handling lightning tribulation and was preparing for his Void Refinement advancement.
Kang Min-hee had reunited with her old colleagues and was aiming for the Integration Grand Completion.
In a few hundred years, her Star Plate ascension ceremony would begin.
Oh Hyun-seok had briefly returned to the Gwanghan realm to continue teaching the body-refining art to one of the Integration stage experts.
Especially among them, Kim Yeon had gathered ordinary stars outside Samok Island and was building something enormous.
Hong Beom, Seo Eun-hyun’s most loyal subordinate, had been steadily growing in the Woldoipcheon realm while spreading the name of Seo Eun-hyun throughout all of Samok Island.
But the only one sitting quietly, staring at the wall, was Seo Ran himself.
Even Siho had been helping Hong Beom with his duties, managing Yuri Samok Mountain, cultivating in stolen moments, and looking after Seo Ran.
Yet Seo Ran had glanced at Siho with a complicated look in his eyes before turning back to the wall.
“Leave. I’ll handle it myself.”
“…Young Master…”
Siho had refused to leave, staring at Seo Ran for a long while before finally departing.
Seo Ran sighed.
Ever since he had learned from Seo Hyul that he was the original body, Seo Ran had been able to fully understand the face and name of the woman who had tormented him since the beginning—on Bongrae Island.
The woman’s name was Oh Hye-seo.
Seo Ran had not been imagining Siho’s torment. In truth, Oh Hye-seo tormented him far more than Siho ever could.
Seo Ran glanced at the spot where Siho had left.
There sat the bucket of salted water left for him to drink.
It was a special batch of salt infused with water made by Seo Eun-hyun, then tempered with a Water Realm spell. It was a concentrated lump of Five Elements energy.
From the Heavenly Person stage onward, one did not even need food; the Five Elements alone were enough to sustain them. That was why they preferred this perfectly balanced energy over proper meals.
Seo Ran used the Space Teleportation technique and brought the bucket over.
His own face reflected clearly in the water.
But Seo Ran twisted his expression, grabbed the bucket, and shouted.
“What is it!! Just what is this ‘me’ thing! What kind of life is this!!”
The distorted face inside the bucket trembled with every word.
“…Mom…”
Thinking about it, it made sense.
The day Seo Ran had received his mother’s belongings and read her diary—when he had longed for family.
Song Jin had become his family.
The day Seo Ran had felt bored with cultivation and needed stimulation.
The day Cheongmun Ryeong and Buk Hyang-hwa, his seniors and colleagues, had appeared and given him that stimulation.
The day Cheongmun Ryeong, the senior he had admired, had gone mad and decided to rescue the Blood Oath Expedition.
The day Buk Hyang-hwa, Kim Young-hoon, and every martial artist on the continent had risen with Seo Ran to save Cheongmun Ryeong.
The day Seo Ran had seen Cheongmun Ryeong turned into a salt pillar and thought, “I wish we had found a way to ascend together and save him.”
Buk Hyang-hwa had used the Buk Hyang Fleet to create a way for Seo Ran, Song Jin, Kim Young-hoon, and others to ascend.
The day Seo Ran had wandered the streets and met the sea-dragon woman who felt just as alienated from this world as he did—Yuk Yo.
The day he had thought, “I want to take her as my own.”
Yuk Yo had given him an excuse about gathering sea-dragon spirit energy and hugged him.
After that, Yuk Yo had returned to Bongrae Island, the dream home, and slowly fallen in love with Baek Rin.
Seo Ran had prayed for their unhappiness.
They had become unhappy because of Yuk Rin.
After leaving Bongrae Island and the Goryeok realm, Seo Ran had failed to control his contradictory emotions and wished ill upon Yuk Yo and Baek Rin while still resenting Yuk Rin for tormenting them.
Yuk Rin had gone mad.
It had been the same afterward.
Seo Ran had tried to help Seo Eun-hyun.
So, after Seo Eun-hyun had driven the human race temporarily into the demon realm, Seo Ran had hoped the humans would blend in well with the demons.
The humans had created the Gwanghan Martial Alliance, just as Kim Young-hoon had shown him in the Water realm, and melted into the demon race as one of their own.
Even after that.
Even after that.
Seo Ran had hoped and hoped.
For the day Song Jin would appear and pull him from Seo Hyul’s schemes.
For the day Seo Eun-hyun’s wishes would come true and the world would become peaceful.
Seo Ran had never truly felt the weight of the world’s flow following its own course.
He had simply thought it was a coincidence.
Even when he had heard from Seo Eun-hyun about the dangers of Takhon Mancheon, he had only thought “terrifying.”
It had been strange.
Seo Hyul might have been someone connected to Seo Ran’s very life, yet he had never once considered a counter-method or strategy against Takhon Mancheon.
But…
Only now did he understand.
“That I… am the original body of my grandfather Seo Hyul?”
That he had been the true master of Takhon Mancheon all along.
And if he had been, then all those “coincidences” until now made perfect sense.
Seo Ran dipped his head into the water Siho had brought and drank deeply, the cold liquid soothing his parched throat.
At the same time, he thought.
“Who… am I?”
It was maddening.
He had lived believing he was Seo Ran.
Especially after he had learned that Yu-o, Seo Ran’s “mother,” loved him, he had taken pride in the name “Seo Ran” and in his half-human, half-dragon form.
But!
“I killed the real Seo Ran and was born a monster? My mother wasn’t Yu-o… but a heartless monster named Seo Hyul?”
He could not accept it.
If he accepted it, he would probably break.
But…
If he did not accept it?
That would just be avoidance.
Seo Ran knew this himself.
He could not deceive himself.
“How… should I live…?”
Seo Ran clutched his head and sank into deep thought about his true identity.
Kuguguk!
The entrance to the cave Siho had used was suddenly sealed by Seo Ran’s own will.
* * *
Ten years had passed since Seo Eun-hyun had become a saint.
Outside the cave, countless things had happened.
The saint Seo Eun-hyun had ruled over Samok Island as its god and publicly hung the ancient monster bearing the Ham clan name upside down, beating him until he confessed that Seo Eun-hyun was the master of the world.
And then.
Rumble!
In the very corner of Yuri Samok Mountain, residence of the saint Seo Eun-hyun and his closest followers.
From the sealed cave entrance, someone burst forth.
Seo Ran.
The moment he stepped out, Seo Ran turned his gaze to the peak of Yuri Samok Mountain.
After watching for a while, he nodded at the will that seemed to come from the peak.
“Yes. I understand.”
Whoosh!
At that instant, Seo Ran teleported through space and arrived at the peak of Yuri Samok Mountain—in front of the saint Seo Eun-hyun.
“It’s been a while, Seo Ran.”
“Yes. Thank you for your concern, senior.”
“I heard you have been wall-gazing because of confusion. Has the confusion… eased at all?”
Seo Eun-hyun asked cautiously.
At those words, Seo Ran answered without hesitation.
“It doesn’t seem to have eased at all. I still don’t understand what is what.”
“…Yet you still speak with such composure. You must have found some way to break through that confusion.”
“That’s right. First, I plan to gather people and demons and form a group. Then, while running that group, I will study how to unconsciously use Takhon Mancheon.”
Seo Eun-hyun smiled at Seo Ran’s words and answered.
“Good choice. If you truly master Takhon Mancheon and completely control Seo Hyul… most of your worries will disappear.”
“Yes. Please help me establish the group, Senior. While watching over them… first, I will learn to understand and control Takhon Mancheon.”
This was the path Seo Ran had chosen.
Mastering Takhon Mancheon with his own power!
If the energy he had unconsciously used all this time had been Takhon Mancheon, perhaps with proper training he could consciously wield it.
Seo Eun-hyun smiled faintly and said, “Once a year. I will leave you with Yeon, the master of the Consciousness Technique. Hong Beom will also help you. I will also interrogate Seo Hyul and extract every method I can.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Speaking of which… what kind of group will you found? The Samok Island branch of the Black Ghost Valley?”
“That…”
Seo Ran hesitated briefly, then shook his head.
“That would suit Senior Kang-nim better. I am, after all, a disciple of the Great Black Ghost Valley, but I cannot ignore Senior Kang-nim’s rank this time. I will leave the founding of the Samok Island branch of the Black Ghost Valley to him. As for me… I will reveal even more of myself as a sea-dragon than as a human and take charge of the demon race as their leader.”
“The demon race. Perfect timing.”
“Hm?”
Seo Eun-hyun laughed and floated something over with the Space Teleportation technique.
Whoosh!
Seo Ran watched two “eggs” slowly fly into his arms.
“This…”
Inside Seo Ran’s consciousness, the existences inside the eggs were caught.
They were bizarre creatures with the bodies of snakes and the faces of humans.
“Take care of them from now on.”
“These children…”
“They are the first race born in this world. The ancestors of the Turbid Dragon Tribe.”
After listening to Seo Eun-hyun explain the world’s very first race, Seo Ran’s eyes widened in astonishment.
After some time passed, Seo Ran finally left Yuri Samok Mountain, cradling the two Turbid Dragon eggs.
He had decided to become their parents.