Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Egg of the Divine Beast
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I've definitely been in a situation like this before.
The day they all screamed for someone to save them.
In my hazy consciousness, there was a man who saved me without asking for anything in return.
A man who rescued me from demons and gave me a new life.
After that day, Han Min-oh changed.
He looked back at the life he'd ignored, working harder and giving it his all.
He no longer cowered before his damned fate.
He stopped feeling inferior to his older brother, Han Shin, and his father's indifference no longer bothered him.
"You..."
Han Min-oh forced his glued-shut mouth open.
Blood boiled in his throat like phlegm, but he ignored it.
The owner of that voice was undoubtedly that man.
A passerby.
The man who had saved him three times already!
"Why... do you keep saving me?"
He asked for nothing in return.
Han Min-oh had never received help like this in his life.
People approached him slyly because he was the second son of Han Yeon Group, but once they realized he was an empty shell, they turned away.
They pointed fingers and ignored him constantly.
This was the first time someone had reached out first.
Not to mention three times.
...Why?
When he was kidnapped, there was no time to realize it.
Yet the man hadn't minded at all.
He'd even advised him that he'd die if he went outside.
Meaning he didn't expect any reward for his good deed.
"What do you... want from me?"
But Han Min-oh couldn't believe in selfless good deeds or salvation without cost.
The first time might have been coincidence.
But twice, three times? There had to be an ulterior motive.
Nothing in the world was free.
That's what he'd learned.
"Yes."
The man—Park Chan-woo—finally spoke for the first time.
He admitted he wanted something.
......As expected.
If it weren't for him, his thread of life would have snapped long ago.
Three saves—he'd even give his life if asked.
"Take it all......"
But he couldn't finish.
He'd clung desperately to his fading mind, but he'd reached his limit.
Han Min-oh's head drooped.
He passed out completely.
Watching him, Park Chan-woo thought.
'I'll take it. Your life.'
Park Chan-woo kept watching Han Min-oh closely.
To judge if the guy was a hypocrite, if he was worth saving.
And whether Han Min-oh truly carried the "Egg of the Divine Beast" was crucial too.
'He's different from Han Shin.'
Han Min-oh's actions.
His personality, speech, instinctive reactions—he observed them all and reached a conclusion.
Han Min-oh was different from Han Shin.
So different it was hard to believe they shared blood.
Han Shin wouldn't have run to a group of civilians begging for pure help.
He'd have procured supplies they needed and bargained.
And when the Incarnations chased, Han Shin would have ditched the group without hesitation.
The result was obvious.
At least 500 casualties.
But Han Min-oh hadn't.
'Self-sacrificial spirit.'
Something Han Shin lacked.
If that selfish, self-centered, calculating bastard talked about self-sacrifice, Park Chan-woo would burst out laughing.
So he saved him.
He judged him worth saving.
At least Han Min-oh seemed headed down a different path from Han Shin.
He could never become an Incarnation.
Park Chan-woo placed his hand on the unconscious Han Min-oh's chest.
Bzzz—
A wave pulsed through his fingertips instantly.
But the wave emanating from within was incredibly unstable.
'This wave... it's not ordinary.'
Completely different from the mana wave he'd felt before.
The scale, intensity, even the form.
A type of wave he'd never sensed before.
'The Creators judged Han Min-oh wasn't a Divine Beast contractor.'
That's why they'd let all Incarnations hunt him.
With the Creators' approval, no doubt.
Han Min-oh showed none of the signs a Divine Beast contractor should.
Even staring death in the face, he'd just swung his sword ordinarily.
So they tried to kill him.
Deemed worthless, they likely even canceled the "Mass Sniper Abyss" prep.
But the Creators overlooked something.
'He's incubating an egg.'
The wave growing stronger bit by bit confirmed his guess.
Han Min-oh wasn't a Divine Beast contractor—he was a nest.
A vessel to incubate the egg.
And that egg.
'It's hatching right now.'
......The egg cracked.
An ominous wave leaked from the shattered shell.
That wave was rapidly overwhelming Han Min-oh's mana wave.
Once fully hatched, it'd devour his life and emerge into the world.
That wasn't all.
'The wave of the egg's Divine Beast parent is mixed in too.'
Two types of new waves he sensed.
Devouring Han Min-oh's life with immense force.
A being so vast—could a mere human body withstand it?
'...What to do.'
Park Chan-woo pondered.
He knew little of Divine Beast ecology.
They lived in rifts, the gaps of the Abyss, emerging occasionally as disasters, making study impossible.
Info on Divine Beasts was extremely limited.
But if he did nothing, Han Min-oh was definitely dead.
'To save him, remove the egg.'
Even then, no guarantee he'd survive.
But he couldn't just watch.
He'd decided to save him once—he'd see it through.
Park Chan-woo traced the mana wave's thread to its source.
In Aheta's treasure vault, he'd amplified wave intensity, but pinpointing the origin was harder.
Honestly, he'd never tried.
'...Similar to corruption.'
It resembled mental corruption somewhat.
Park Chan-woo had near-experience with it—from Dimensional Being Baek-kyung Charpham.
He understood mana wave essence a bit more.
So...
'I can do it.'
Not just finding the source.
That alone wouldn't remove the egg.
He clashed his own wave against Han Min-oh's.
Colliding, seeping in bit by bit, blending together.
But tampering with waves was extremely dangerous.
One mistake, and the Abyss's poison could reduce Park Chan-woo to dust.
Yet... he got it.
Why the God of Offerings called reading mana waves an "Archmage's aptitude."
'Mana waves aren't just shields protecting existence from Abyss poison.'
Mana waves are existence itself.
The power that protects and enables existence.
Not something humanity gained upon awakening—it was always there.
Common to all things.
Without a 'mana wave,' things merge.
Becoming one, essence unrecognizable.
In a word.
'The form of the soul.'
If unique mana is life's form.
Mana waves are the soul's form.
Reading waves meant understanding souls.
And that understanding was the Archmage's aptitude.
The origin of all existence.
Questing the essence!
Only then could one be called an Archmage.
Sizzle!
His fingertips burned.
Every cell in his body swelled madly.
His heart pounded at his fingertips.
His body instinctively sensed the danger.
What he did was taboo itself.
'Breaking taboo. The path a mage should pursue.'
Mixing his soul with another's.
Even if successful, unknown repercussions—a perilous challenge.
Yet Park Chan-woo smiled.
Without daring the reckless, the impossible, he'd stagnate forever.
His talents reduced to kindling.
It seeped in. Waves blending seamlessly.
Park Chan-woo opened his eyes in another "world."
Han Min-oh's world.
His memories appeared. His mind, soul felt.
The entirety of Han Min-oh touched his fingertips.
Dangerous.
One more step, and he wouldn't distinguish himself from Han Min-oh.
Possibly becoming neither—something entirely new.
So he stepped back one foot, surveying surroundings.
He didn't want full unity with Han Min-oh—he wanted to destroy the egg.
That was the only way to save him.
'There it is.'
...One step back, and he saw it.
The Divine Beast's egg.
Already half-hatched.
Revealing itself bit by bit.
Soon to fully hatch at this rate.
To destroy it, he'd need to assimilate with the egg too.
In other words.
'Share waves with two existences at once.'
He'd need to raise assimilation higher.
Risky, but no other way came to mind.
Park Chan-woo amplified his wave stronger.
That instant.
Only then did Park Chan-woo detect another "existence" besides the egg.
So vast, one step back hadn't revealed it.
The egg's layer and incubator.
Its owner.
'Destroyer Signus?'
The Divine Beast that laid the egg in Han Min-oh's body was Destroyer Signus?
Park Chan-woo shuddered.
He'd never seen it, but Signus's tales were legendary even in the Abyss.
The destroyer of all Creator Abysses.
A top-tier Divine Beast even Lords feared.