Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Legacy of the Sea Dragon
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Plip.
A droplet fell from above, striking the tip of Wi Seong-cheon's nose.
Only after a few more drops did his eyes snap open.
Before he could grasp his situation, he bolted upright. Then he slapped his own cheek without mercy.
“Ugh!”
A stinging pain radiated from the struck cheek.
Wi Seong-cheon straightened his creaking neck and gently rubbed the sore spot.
“...Looks like I didn’t die.”
How he’d lost consciousness.
That was crystal clear in his memory.
He’d been too immersed—too drunk on it.
Even as he sank deeper into the ocean, the thought of surfacing hadn’t crossed his mind.
No, to be precise, he hadn’t acted on it.
‘I was too drunk on it.’
Wi Seong-cheon grimaced, berating his own reckless actions. But a flicker of puzzlement crossed his mind as well.
Thanks to his training since childhood, Wi Seong-cheon could clearly recognize the line between life and death.
That awareness had been forged through a childhood steeped in the metallic stench of blood—a brutal education in pain.
And that was the foundation of the Heavenly Flower Sect’s martial arts.
His father had always stressed that he must recognize that line at any moment.
It was rough advice, but valuable: as long as you don’t die, you’ll manage somehow.
That lesson was etched deep into Wi Seong-cheon’s body.
Whether battling the Poison Blood Ghost Demon or enduring training that pushed him to the brink, he’d survived because he always knew exactly where that line lay.
‘Even drunk as I was, if death had truly loomed, I would’ve surfaced immediately.’
The fact that he hadn’t meant he hadn’t sensed death at that moment.
Or perhaps...
He’d been drawn in.
“Yeonja?”
Wi Seong-cheon tilted his head, recalling the voice he’d heard before blacking out.
It was a voice he’d never heard before—a hallucination from oxygen deprivation, maybe. But it had been far too vivid.
Where was this place, anyway?
He’d been plummeting endlessly into the ocean depths, yet...
“This isn’t the sea.”
A cave...?
Wi Seong-cheon looked up.
The ceiling emitted a faint blue glow, not from reflection but as if it were glowing on its own.
The light was dimmer than a firefly’s.
It wasn’t just the ceiling. The floor matched it exactly.
Stone...?
Wi Seong-cheon crouched down, running his hand over the floor.
The texture didn’t feel like stone at all.
It was smooth to the touch—unlike its appearance—and far from soft.
Even without channeling qi, his fingers could pierce steel, yet no matter how hard he pressed, it didn’t yield a bit.
‘...What is this?’
Metal? Did metal like this exist, glowing on its own?
He’d heard meteorite iron from the skies or the rare azure silver from the demonic realm glowed similarly, but Wi Seong-cheon had never laid eyes on such treasures.
‘Salty.’
Plip.
He caught a drop from the ceiling and licked it.
Salty. Seawater.
So this mysterious place was underwater?
Peculiar, but upon closer inspection, it was unsettling.
Cracks riddled it, as if it might collapse any second.
“...Wait a minute.”
Wi Seong-cheon’s eyes widened as he stared at the ceiling, then down at the floor.
They looked like cracks at first—precisely interlocked—but they weren’t.
Seawater seeped in between them, only to flow back out.
‘...Scales?’
An absurd thought, but the texture felt no different from a snake’s scales.
Each one was the size of a stone slab and harder than steel, sure.
But why would scales like this be deep in the sea?
[Yeonja.]
Wi Seong-cheon jumped to his feet in alarm. The voice from before his blackout echoed again.
[Come this way.]
It wasn’t heard through his ears. It spoke directly into his mind, like a transmission.
‘No, it’s different. This is... Benevolent Light Mind Speech?’
Not all transmissions were the same.
The Shaolin had something called Benevolent Light Mind Speech, which imprinted not words but pure intent directly into the mind.
Wi Seong-cheon had never experienced it himself, but the clear ‘intent’ ringing in his head evoked it.
And that intent compelled his body to move.
‘Is this what drew me in?’
As he’d sunk endlessly into the sea without thinking to surface, it must have been this pull.
Wi Seong-cheon heightened his senses and stepped forward.
The voice held no malice, and even if it did, he had no idea of his current circumstances.
‘From before I even jumped into the sea.’
The certainty grew stronger with each step.
From the moment he’d stopped rowing the boat and surrendered to the ocean’s massive currents. That’s when he’d been led here.
Was such a thing even possible?
Harboring strong doubts, Wi Seong-cheon quickened his pace.
The interior of these unknown scales twisted and plunged deep.
And at its end.
Wi Seong-cheon froze in shock.
At the path’s terminus loomed a massive skull.
A giant?
He’d heard tales of hulking monsters in the demonic realm.
But no matter how he looked at it, this skull wasn’t human.
A demonic beast, then?
‘Scales.’
Snake.
“...A dragon?”
Before him was the skull of a divine beast—a dragon.
‘It figures.’
‘Or maybe a dragonkin...?’
The beastkin race, said to have been wiped out ages ago.
He couldn’t tell which.
Dragons were legendary from the Divine Demon Great War a millennium ago, when they fought alongside the celestials against the Demon King’s forces. But that was a thousand years past.
Dragonkin hadn’t appeared in the world for centuries either.
So Wi Seong-cheon couldn’t be sure if this enormous skull belonged to a dragon, a dragonkin, or some demonic beast.
But one thing he could confirm easily.
A person.
Not bare bones, but not far off. Skin, withered and shriveled, clung to the frame.
A mummy...
He’d never seen one in person.
“...Did you call me here?”
Wi Seong-cheon addressed it cautiously.
A mummy was a corpse preserved through treatments to halt decay.
He swallowed dryly at the sight of the mummy seated in lotus position, hands in prayer.
Guided and spoken to by someone long dead? Unbelievable.
[How many Heavenly Persons has it been?]
The voice returned.
Chills raced over Wi Seong-cheon’s skin as he shuddered.
He was hearing the voice of someone long dead.
‘A ghost...!’
“...The seventh.”
[The seventh... Still unable to eradicate the demons...]
The mummy let out a long sigh.
[Yeonja, I am Ananna, lord of Potala Palace.]
“...Pardon?”
It felt like a blow to the head.
The distant Northern Ice Palace of the frozen north had fled to the Central Plains to escape rampant demonic beasts, but Potala Palace hadn’t.
When the Demonic Cult seized the lands beyond the Divine River, turning it into the demonic realm, Potala Palace vanished entirely.
That was centuries ago.
Renowned as the Shaolin of the Western Regions, not a single lama escaped to the Central Plains.
[It is the truth.]
Stunned speechless, Wi Seong-cheon heard Ananna reply.
[As you know, Yeonja, Potala Palace was destroyed centuries ago. That beautiful palace fell to the Demonic Cult’s followers and beasts. Every palace disciple perished there. The savage demon horde even devoured infants with smiles on their faces.]
Wi Seong-cheon clamped his mouth shut.
[In that massacre, I sought Buddha but realized there is no Buddha left in this world. Seven Heavenly Persons have come and gone, yet demons still reign. Truly, there are no Buddhas or gods in this realm.]
“...If Potala Palace fell then, why are you here, its lord? And did you bring me to this place?”
[Yeonja, you were led here because you too are part of the chain. I died long ago and cannot know what karma this link will forge, but this is to right the warped heavenly order through human will.]
“...Could you explain it in simpler terms?”
[The will of heaven is wrong.]
Ananna chuckled lowly.
[In a world without Buddhas or gods, how could heaven’s will be just? From the moment the Demon King descended, the world went astray, and heaven abandoned it.]
[Beneath the collapsing palace, I cursed gods and Buddhas and resented heaven.]
Zing!
A fierce intent pierced Wi Seong-cheon’s mind.
He staggered and collapsed to the spot.
Wi Seong-cheon witnessed memories not his own.
Tears of blood streaming as Ananna cursed gods and Buddhas, he struggled not to die.
At last, he barely escaped Potala Palace, crossing the horrific demonic realm to reach the Central Plains.
Ananna no longer believed in Buddhas or gods.
From the moment he fled Potala Palace alone, he was no longer a Dalai Lama.
In that time, Ananna craved only one thing.
Demon extermination.
He was not alone in that craving.
[Yeonja, time is short.]
Ananna spoke in a quiet voice.
Wi Seong-cheon clutched his throbbing head.
The fragmented memories from centuries past were incomplete.
He had died long ago.
What remained in the mummified corpse was Ananna’s intense dying obsession, preserved for centuries because.
[With the aid of my companion, the Sea Dragon, I made my lair in these ocean depths and awaited the chain’s Yeonja for centuries. After enduring that long torment, the end has finally come.]
“...Why... am I... the Yeonja you waited centuries for...?”
[You are not a Heavenly Person. Yet you possess a Heavenly Person’s essence. You were born not of heaven’s will, but of human will.]
Ananna’s voice grew fainter.
Wi Seong-cheon gripped his aching head and glared at him.
The past memories cut off in fragments.
After leaving Potala Palace and reaching the Central Plains, Ananna wandered aimlessly.
He walked the land, crossed rivers, sailed seas, and arrived at a small island.
There he sought death, but before it claimed him.
The Sea Dragon and divine maiden found Ananna.
[You are undoubtedly the chain’s Yeonja.]
Born not of heaven’s will, but human.
Heaven’s will was wrong.
Wi Seong-cheon ground his teeth.
Ananna’s memories faded no more.
Severed abruptly, like a dream forgotten upon waking, they grew dim.
But one thing was clear.
Ananna spoke true.
Time was short.
The ‘tomb’ that had drifted the sea floor for centuries reached its end in guiding Wi Seong-cheon.
Soon, it would fully crumble, hurling him into the endless depths.
Wi Seong-cheon gritted his teeth and rose.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
[I cannot give answers. Seeking them is the Yeonja’s duty.]
“...I can’t die here.”
Wi Seong-cheon strode forward.
Standing before Ananna, he scowled down at the mummy.
[Centuries of karma end at last...]
The mummy’s head creaked to the side.
Its praying hands parted, and a small light bloomed within.
Wi Seong-cheon reached for it, face twisted in reluctance.
“...What if eating this goes wrong?”
[No gratitude for inheriting a once-in-millennia fateful encounter?]
“You’re the one who called me here as this chain’s Yeonja.”
Ananna chuckled at Wi Seong-cheon’s grumbling.
The laughter continued unbroken, but Ananna’s body crumbled to dust.
Not just Ananna. The Sea Dragon’s skull behind him and the scales guarding this tomb.
Needing to exist no longer, they began to collapse.
[Can human will change heaven’s...]
Ananna murmured like a sigh.
“...How should I know.”
Before the surging seawater swallowed him, Wi Seong-cheon seized the ‘light’.
The Dragon Jade flowed into his body.