Chapter 349
Chapter 349
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 92
>Chapter Title: Rumor (3)
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"Yes. You are the one who will purify this turbid world with sacred flames and lead the foolish mortals down the Demonic Path!"
"........"
Mok Kyung-un's gaze turned utterly impassive at the voice filled with ecstatic fervor.
He had secured her because of all that prophecy nonsense, but she was prattling on about things that held no interest for him whatsoever.
With that, Mok Kyung-un drew a cold line.
"Not particularly interested."
"Pardon?"
Ye Song-a, the granddaughter of the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord, couldn't hide her bewilderment at Mok Kyung-un's words.
As a devout follower of the Blazing Flower Cult, she had unwillingly inherited the power of prophecy, but she firmly believed that everything she had seen through the divine orb was what was to come—and that aiding it was her duty.
'Why is he reacting like this?'
If what she had seen through the orb was true, then the man before her was undoubtedly the one from the prophecy.
So why this cold response?
No, he was treating it like it was someone else's business entirely.
"Ye....."
"Shh."
"Ah?"
"What I'm curious about through you isn't that. It's whether you've truly inherited the power of prophecy."
At Mok Kyung-un's question, Ye Song-a felt a pang of disappointment deep inside.
He was the one she had waited for so long, yet he was so very different from what she had expected.
But her disappointment didn't last long.
Through the divine orb, she had witnessed his disillusionment, pain, sorrow, and rage toward the world.
That was why she thought his cold demeanor was only natural.
Besides,
'Ahura Mazda is a dual-natured being, capable of being the benevolent Spenta while also becoming Ahriman—that is, Angra, the malevolent one.'
He was no absolute good.
He could be good to some, but evil to others.
That was why he was called a dual existence.
"Um....."
"Could you answer my question?"
"........If you're referring to the ability to commune with the divine orb, then yes."
"Commune with the divine orb?"
"Yes. Strictly speaking."
"You said you can only receive revelations with the orb, right?"
"Yes."
"Hmm. I see. So you saw me through that orb?"
"Yes. I saw you. So please, lead me and all us foolish mortals down the path you will forge."
Mok Kyung-un scoffed at her plea.
He had no idea what this revelation was that made them treat him like some kind of savior.
He was far removed from anything like that.
"The path I walk will be stained with nothing but blood."
"If that's the process of purification, then I accept it gladly."
"Purification?"
"The world today is hopelessly corrupt. Due to your absence......"
"Aaah. Enough of that."
Mok Kyung-un waved her off.
He didn't even know what that being inside him truly was.
Yet both the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord and this woman seemed to pin great hopes on it.
But he was nothing like the existence they imagined.
The only thing driving him was revenge, pure and simple.
"Anyway, one question."
"........Command me."
"Do you know anything about the Secret Assembly?"
A glint appeared in Ye Song-a's eyes at the question.
It seemed she knew something about the Secret Assembly too.
Soon, she spoke.
"I don't know when they first joined forces with the Blazing Flower Cult—our cult. But from what Grandmother—no, the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord—told me, they are like shadows to our cult."
"Shadows?"
"Yes. But I understand they are no longer allied with us."
"I heard that from your grandmother already."
"Grandmother? You mean Grandmother?"
Ye Song-a's eyes went wide.
She had believed her grandmother was imprisoned in the imperial palace's Golden Prison.
At her reaction, Mok Kyung-un narrowed his eyes and said,
"As I thought."
"Pardon?"
"I'm questioning whether that revelation can truly be called prophecy."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said. If it's prophecy, shouldn't you have known that the Secret Assembly was manipulating the Blazing Flower Cult at will and even betrayed you?"
"That's......"
"Especially since you couldn't even foresee the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord's release. I have no idea what makes it prophecy or revelation."
"Gr-Grandmother was released?"
At her question, Eight Venom Elder Gu Yang-su pointed a thumb toward the carriage behind them.
"She's in the carriage following behind."
At those words, Ye Song-a's eyes reddened.
It seemed she hadn't even realized her grandmother was so close.
Seeing her like this, Mok Kyung-un increasingly doubted the credibility of this so-called revelation and prophecy.
What use was a power that couldn't even see an inch ahead?
'It's just a symbol.'
He had wondered if there was any value in using her since the prophetic power had transferred to the granddaughter, but she didn't seem much different from the now-powerless Sacred Flame Spirit Lord.
Gazing at her with disappointed eyes, Mok Kyung-un spoke.
"I wanted to know what the Secret Assembly's leader desires or where he is, using that power of revelation. But it looks like that's not possible either."
"You're talking about what the Assembly Leader wants?"
"Yes. But not particularly from you....."
"The Assembly Leader wants your death."
Mok Kyung-un paused at her words, staring into her eyes.
The redness around her eyes had faded, replaced by earnest seriousness.
"My death?........What do you mean?"
"I don't know the exact reason, but if what I saw in the revelation is certain, then the Assembly Leader fears you. That's why he seeks to kill you."
".......I can't understand that. How could someone who's never even seen me fear me?"
At Mok Kyung-un's question, she furrowed her brow.
Then, cautiously, she parted her lips.
"Could it be......that you, the Incarnation, have no memories of him at all?"
"Incarnation?"
"Yes. I believe you are his incarnation. Have you not accepted the one within you?"
"........"
Her words made Mok Kyung-un's expression grow somewhat impassive again.
Noticing this, she ventured carefully,
"I thought you had come forth because you regained the power you had lost."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Ah.......Aah. Not yet, then."
At her sighing response, Mok Kyung-un spoke in a voice laced with sharpness.
"Explain it so I can understand."
"The revelations from the divine orb show fragments of all possible futures. That's why I can't know when they will happen or if they definitely will."
"........So possibilities are just predictions, aren't they?"
"Predictions are mere imagination, but possibilities are one of the many paths that could actually occur."
"One of many paths?"
"Yes. It's a simple principle, yet profoundly complex. We've met today like this, but suppose misfortune struck and I died at the hands of the Tang Clan Head—what then? A reality where you never met me would have branched off."
"A hypothetical."
"You could call it that, but it's a possibility. A reality where I die and you never meet me could unfold somewhere along those branches."
"Hmm."
Even for the clever Mok Kyung-un, fully grasping her words was difficult.
It felt like trying to grasp clouds.
"They say the mortal world, full of countless variables, spawns myriad branching flows from even a single deviation. Those chosen by the orb read the possibilities closest to the current flow among those branches."
"So, in short, you see the highest-probability possibility that may or may not happen."
"Yes."
"And in the possibility you saw, I was that existence?"
".......Yes...."
-Startle!
She couldn't continue.
The moment her eyes met Mok Kyung-un's, her entire body froze, making even breathing difficult.
Why this reaction?
As she struggled to comprehend, Mok Kyung-un said,
"I am me. Don't equate me with that 'him.' And needless to say, I have no intention of quietly accepting whatever 'him' you're talking about."
It was a form of rejection.
Why project that existence onto him when he knew nothing?
Even his grandfather had hidden the truth, viewing him as that being—now it felt like his own true self, his righteousness, was being denied.
"I....never.....meant it....that way......"
"You didn't think of me that way? Are you sure?"
"I....really....did......I........Even if......you......as the....Incar....nation......refuse to....accept....yourself.....you are....hic...."
At her agonized state, Mok Kyung-un suppressed the aura he had been emitting.
With that, her breathing eased, and she gasped roughly before continuing.
"Haa....haa.....I believe without doubt that you are the one to lead us. If you command me to lay down my life here, I will."
Mok Kyung-un snorted at her blind devotion.
She spoke of offering her life for him, but it stirred no emotion in him.
If anything, it made him want to distance himself further.
"Haa.....haa....."
"Anyway, so you don't know why the Assembly Leader fears me."
"Yes."
".......Not helpful at all."
-Grit!
At Mok Kyung-un's words, she bit her lip hard.
It hadn't been long since she realized the revelatory power had transferred to her due to her grandmother—the current Sacred Flame Spirit Lord's—wrong choice.
And because there were those who sought to exploit that power, she had desperately hidden it.
So hearing this from the one she had awaited made her chest tighten with emotion.
"If you desire it, I will commune with the divine orb and receive a revelation for you."
"But you said it's just a possibility anyway."
"Reading the nearest possibilities is the duty of we Sacred Flame Spirit Lords. I will prove directly that I am the person you need."
"Hoo. That's reassuring."
Her body trembled at Mok Kyung-un's sarcastic tone.
'This is something.'
Gu Yang-su, watching silently, scratched his head and smacked his lips.
It looked like she might burst into tears any moment.
The lord he served in his later years seemed utterly ruthless with men and women alike.
With that, he cautiously interjected.
"By the way, your name was Song-a, right?"
"Yes!"
"Where's that divine orb, then? The Tang Clan already packed up all your belongings, but we didn't find anything that looked like an orb."
At his words, she replied,
"I don't have it on me now."
"You don't?"
"No. There were those coveting its power, so I couldn't keep it with me."
She thought of Tang Clan Head Tang In-hae.
Having read his hidden greed, she had decided she couldn't carry the orb.
"Huh, so you hid it somewhere?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"In a cave on a cliff near Joyang in northern Hubei Province."
Gu Yang-su furrowed his brow at her words.
Then, surprised, he said,
"Wait......A cliff near Joyang—that's where Spirit Sword Manor is, isn't it?"
".........Yes."
"Huh."
Curious at Gu Yang-su's reaction, Mok Kyung-un asked,
"You know the place?"
"Of course. Spirit Sword Manor is called the holy land of the sword."
"The holy land of the sword?"
"It's a place every swordsman who wields the blade must visit to seek guidance."