Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Purgatory (5)
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The room after Si-heon had left.
Cheondo sat in her seat and lowered her heavy eyelids.
The mistletoe that had sprouted was slowly strangling her neck, like winter frost clinging tightly.
-Clink.
She set down the teacup along with her eyelids.
A bizarre sensation that stole away her life. It hurt, but her body did not shiver.
She had always endured preceding trials with a mind as steadfast and unyielding as a mountain. She trusted her disciple. Cheondo sat in her seat and waited for several hours.
Only silence lingered amid the faint wait between them, and no conversation passed between the two.
Yet, even she, called the Heavenly Demon, was merely one tree.
With each gap of time as death drew near, she unconsciously reminisced about the past.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Heavenly Demon.
A name born with that unlucky fate, receiving everyone's awe but never true respect.
And his disciple. Little Heavenly Demon Cheondo.
The weight contained in that name was always too much for me, who was merely a peach tree sapling.
"Cheondo."
"A Heavenly Demon must always remain cold and pierce through the world."
Father.
No... Master always kept me by his side, sparing no effort to broaden my narrow perspective.
Because of that, I was forced to expand my dantian, and sometimes I had to kill someone.
There were times I wandered on the brink of death.
Those grueling experiences undoubtedly led me to higher realms.
But I hated it so much.
'I hate being the Heavenly Demon.'
I hated the effort.
Blood scared me, and suffering was even worse.
I never wanted to see my sisters' tears again.
But Master ignored our feelings. He simply followed his own will in silence.
Yet the reason I never stopped striving lay elsewhere.
Do-won.
The ideal paradise Master sought.
"I have a dream."
That man would mutter it like a habit.
"Someday, you'll say the same to your own disciple."
I didn't understand what he meant.
"It's okay if you don't know."
Master's hand brushing back my hair. The kind smile on the wrinkled old man's face was what my younger self had once longed for.
He used to grin widely when he plucked peach blossoms to make a ring and offer it to me.
Why had such a father become so cold in pursuit of some dream?
The harsh training was tough, but the nagging question made me train even harder.
To understand what Master desired.
By the time I turned fifteen, I had shed my youthful innocence and become a proper martial artist.
"Cheondo! Look at this, hehe."
"Cheondo, isn't this pretty?"
My sisters were still like girls their age, but I thought that was fine.
Baekdo and Hwangdo trained under Master too, but not as cruelly as I did.
It was enough for only me to carry on the Heavenly Demon's name.
Master wanted me to become the Little Heavenly Demon.
One day, Master asked.
"What do you think the Heavenly Demon is?"
Well. I didn't know.
I had only charged ahead blindly, never giving it a thought.
"Someone who rules the heavens... isn't that right?"
Master just smiled.
"Many think that way. But it's different. 'Heaven' meaning the sky, and 'Demon' meaning devil. The name you inherit can never be good, nor can it rule anything."
"Know the weight of that name."
He sourly tapped his pipe, brushing the bandage around his neck with his callused thumb—the now-declining master.
"Will you not hesitate to become a devil?"
"Are we... devils?"
"If everyone calls us that."
We chase dreams.
Even that beautiful act is branded as the devil's heresy by the Heavenly Demon.
The power that twists the world has such repercussions, so everyone fears him.
Master didn't mind becoming a devil.
"If you have power, even a good person becomes evil."
Master said.
"I hate that world so much."
The people of the world are too savage to call good, and when calling evil, a few catch the eye.
"Fools who flaunt their justice are common these days. It's like revealing the sly snake hidden in their hearts."
Master sitting with me on a rock, sharing stories.
The acrid smell of cigarette smoke brushing my nose back then, the stench that made me cough just being near—now I miss it sometimes.
"Yet good people surely exist. Fools who give their lives for wretched villains live on."
Father said.
"But such people will eventually be weeded out."
The Peach Paradise exists for them.
"For that dream, wouldn't it be right to shatter even the heavens?"
Father's thoughts were too intricately tangled for me to fully grasp.
The Little Heavenly Demon couldn't even comprehend her father's ideas properly.
So inheriting that dream...
Honestly, I didn't think it possible.
But Father understood me, stroking my head with a smile.
"I won't tell you to inherit it. Just—"
"When time passes and I die, look back on it once."
There was no grand meaning in the two lofty characters "Heavenly Demon."
It was merely a nickname others gave.
"Just follow your own dream. Your..."
My Peach Paradise.
Gazing at the full moon like a ripe peach, I repeated those words countless times.
Words I'd heard hundreds of times, but as time passed and I realized, the dream hadn't changed much.
No matter what, I'll achieve the dream.
Father's back had looked so broad, and before I knew it, I respected Master.
But even that person, whom I thought I'd never surpass, ended up dying.
-Roar.
It was the night flames surged below the nine heavens.
Dead brothers and sisters.
Mother impaled on a spear, little uncle sliced by a sword.
Father, who tried to overturn the heavens and became a black sun to console the souls of the good, waged war alone.
The black waves enveloping the home, the moon sinking—that惨 spectacle still won't fade from memory.
It was a desperate struggle, but Master ultimately failed to achieve his dream.
But the matter didn't end there.
His faded dream tumbled down, and the arrows of sin Master bore flew unceasingly toward our clan.
The karma of the peach tree that sought to devour the world effectively ended like that.
The result was, naturally, the clan's abolition.
Most of the Peach Tree Clan were executed, and the clan's heirs were branded with the World Tree's stigma, falling under a curse.
Unable to adapt to the curse, most went mad or died. Only one survived.
Baekdo, Hwangdo, and me.
More accurately, the three who were once became one.
The expression "gathered souls and settled them in the body" fits better.
No, perhaps even the body is different.
What's certain is that only one of the three bodies can manifest at a time. No matter how you interpret it, nothing changes.
That's the Peach Tree's karma.
The surviving me—we—had to become the Heavenly Demon to carry on our master and father's legacy.
But even so, I cannot become the Heavenly Demon.
Not because my talent falls short, or my skills lack.
The Heavenly Demon's power requires three elements to align perfectly.
Talent in martial arts, quantity of demonic power, quality of demonic power.
Baekdo was born with martial talent, Hwangdo had the quantity of demonic power, and I possessed the black demonic quality.
In the end, none of us three could properly wield the Heavenly Demon's power.
'But.'
Failure to become the Heavenly Demon wasn't solely for that reason.
There was actually a bigger reason.
One fact I'd desperately ignored and refused to acknowledge.
'......I was still afraid of the time coming.'
I feared knowing how much blood must fill the chalice to establish the Peach Paradise.
The weight of the name Heavenly Demon is heavy.
Baekdo and Hwangdo's expectations are too much for me as well.
Even Father failed.
Even Father, who ruled the world, was broken.
Pass the power to someone more talented. Let them inherit the dream.
Honestly, I tried to run away like that.
It's so shameful.
However—
-Hum.
"Mas...ter, where are you?"
As a master, looking at you through a master's eyes.
I finally understand the saying that even putting you in my eyes doesn't hurt.
"I'm here. Since you left, I haven't moved a single step."
"Is that so... I'm sorry. But my eyes aren't working well right now."
"Seems like it. Your pupils are pure white. Did you get poisoned?"
Running away is laughable. A master must be upright.
I thought that way.
When I first met him on the mountain, talked, and confirmed his intent. Seeing his bitter smile at the boy who lost his father. His attitude of not giving up even in life-or-death matters. I vowed then.
"You're so careless, getting hit by such poison."
Her even paler face felt over my cold hand.
"Master, my achievements are..."
Despite the hardships, she doesn't blame me at all. How proud I am of such a disciple.
"No need to say it."
Sincerely.
"Just your return makes me happy."
I stroked the head of the disciple in my arms with my lowly hand.
When I lifted my hand from her lowered head, it was covered in bloody water.
I looked at it bitterly.
"You did well. That's how growth happens."
Even if you fail, it's okay.
Even if things go wrong from now on... I had no intention of blaming him.
"......"
Looking at the sleeping Si-heon, Cheondo murmured that.
"Thank you."
For letting me inherit the Heavenly Demon's name.
For giving me the confidence to embrace the heavens.
"Thank you."
In the pure white room, the fresh echo from Cheondo's throat subtly spread.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Lee Si-heon."
A fearful voice rang in my ears.
The nightmare I thought I'd barely escaped returned.
"Think well about whose son you are and behave accordingly."
"Keep your shoulders back."
"Watch carefully."
The pentagonal badge before my eyes. That single character "國" that made me nauseous just looking at it.
The voice of that one man etched into my past slowly strangled my young throat, echoing in my head.
"Never think of placing anyone above you."
Nausea surged, disgust boiled up.
The helplessness I felt then crept back up.
Father.
'Fuck.'
I spat curses and bit my tongue in the dream.
To forcibly wake, I smirked at him as much as possible.
"Father."
"What."
"Is prison life treating you well?"
"......What?"
"Thanks to you, I got called a politician's bastard son and had a hard time."
The rebellion squeezed out. I forcibly escaped that filthy dream.
......
......
......
-Twitch!
My breath caught, cold sweat poured like rain.
My blurry vision improved bit by bit, and a familiar face came into view.
Cheondo's face, hand on my hot forehead.
Her cold palm cooled the heat, feeling good.
"Master?"
"What."
Still expressionless Cheondo's face. Feeling a bit playful, I rubbed my cheek against her stroking hand.
-Smack!
I got a flick on the forehead.
"Ack!"
"You should've gotten up nicely."
Holding my forehead, I sat up, tears welling up.
It hurt for real.
Glancing back with a glare, Cheondo smirked at me.
"Why are you laughing?"
"No, nothing."
Cheondo whipped her head away, rummaging through food, then as if remembering something, spoke with a slight smile.
"Lee Si-heon."
"Yes?"
"I have a dream."
I didn't understand those words.
"What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you later."
Cheondo smirked.
Has this person finally lost it? With such trivial thoughts, I got up from my seat.