Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Part 24: Extinction
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Yeon So-hyeon had been immersed in meditation in the bedroom just moments ago.
It was a temporary lodging that the Inner Garden's Chief Secretary had meticulously prepared for him.
But now, he stood in an entirely different place.
The weight of time, deeply twisted and sedimented, rotten to the core.
A suffocating sense of space.
It was a sensation that was gradually becoming familiar to Yeon So-hyeon.
The interior of the Extinction Heavenly Scripture.
Or the exterior of the universe.
Yeon So-hyeon took a deep breath.
“…Elder?”
He called out to the fallen immortal.
But the response came in a voice he did not recognize.
“…It is not he who has called you, but this seat. O Fated One.”
The voice did not tremble from tension or fear.
It was because the speaker's body bore such a grievous heavenly punishment that he could not help but stutter.
“…A congenital deformity.”
Yeon So-hyeon easily discerned the nature of his heavenly punishment.
“K-Kh kh kh. Th-That's right. As expected, your medical knowledge is exceptional.”
The hunchback seemed pleased by So-hyeon's reaction, which showed no disturbance at his grotesque appearance.
“You seem to know me, yet I do not know you.”
After several attempts, the hunchback managed to shake his head sufficiently.
“It matters not who or what this seat is. This seat is merely a remnant, already devoured after fulfilling a tragic vow.”
His eyes, hidden beneath sagging folds of flesh, gleamed strangely.
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
“…Then may I simply call you senior?”
“As you wish.”
“What reason brings you to seek me out, senior?”
The hunchback raised an arm so long it dragged on the ground, pointing precisely at Yeon So-hyeon.
“A warning.”
Yeon So-hyeon assumed a posture of attentive listening.
The current hunchback might indeed be nothing more than a remnant, as he claimed.
Yet he possessed an immense presence that Yeon So-hyeon could scarcely fathom.
“Hmm.”
The hunchback fell silent, as if choosing his words carefully.
“…Do you know by what criterion the Extinction Heavenly Scripture selects its fated ones?”
“No.”
He could boast and prattle all he liked, but in the end, all he could offer were guesses based on conjecture.
“As expected, wise.”
The hunchback nodded with great effort.
His neck, abnormally thick and short, was ill-suited for such movement.
Yet he did so deliberately.
“The Extinction Heavenly Scripture chooses its fated ones based on 'talent'.”
Yeon So-hyeon pondered his words for a moment.
Did it refer to talent in martial arts?
Or talent in scholarship?
The world held countless varieties of talent.
He still had no certainty.
“What sort of talent do you mean?”
The hunchbacked man bared his teeth, all crumbled and decayed, in a smile.
Yeon So-hyeon felt a strong sense of déjà vu from that sight.
A smile that was dry, twisted, and repulsively artificial.
It was the smile of those chosen by the ancient demonic entity known as the Extinction Heavenly Scripture.
“That… talent which can bring annihilation to the world.”
At that moment, Yeon So-hyeon's vision was dyed red.
It was the hunchback's memory.
Fierce flames raged wildly.
Flames filling every direction reached out their savage grasp in search of air.
Everything that could burn was consumed by the fire demon.
Even the atmosphere seemed destined to be incinerated entirely, as the flames howled in frenzy without respite.
Vast buildings, gardens, and tens of thousands of corpses had lost even their shapes.
The entire world was ablaze.
In the midst of that scorching hell, 'he' smiled.
The grotesque hunchbacked man was not there.
A colossal giant, nine feet tall, rippling with muscle.
Each time his body crushed the earth, the ground caved in deeply, and the flames parted as if in fear of him.
Strictly speaking, it was not that the flames feared him.
He commanded the flames.
He dominated the fire.
“Are you seeing this?”
An overwhelming force and grandeur beyond imagination assailed Yeon So-hyeon.
“…I see it.”
He spoke to So-hyeon.
“Behold this great catastrophe. And feel the power held by one called a fated one when they reach the end….”
He waved his hand lightly, as if conducting flames.
A massive pillar of fire rose, swallowing a gigantic palace that barely held its form.
“It is a power like a natural disaster.”
Yet his gaze was one of emptiness.
“…But it was not by this power that this seat's world met its end.”
Yeon So-hyeon's eyebrows twitched.
“What do you mean?”
A self-mocking smile curled the giant's lips.
“This power was granted as a result of what lies before your eyes.”
Yeon So-hyeon understood immediately.
“It was not that he destroyed the world with great power, but that he gained great power because he destroyed the world…!”
The Extinction Heavenly Scripture bestowed greater power each time it devoured the wicked.
His power was the recompense for annihilating the entire world.
The giant looked down at his hands.
“…This seat merely sowed embers here and there.”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
“Historically, great fires have always wrought the worst outcomes. The world I live in now has no means to successfully suppress the simultaneous outbreaks of massive blazes everywhere.”
The giant gazed at the burning world with hollow eyes.
“It was simply a matter of wandering the continent long ago, selling my efforts. And so, this seat triumphed in a war that seemed utterly unwinnable.”
One of the burning palaces collapsed with a thunderous roar.
“Those mighty empires, all crumbled to dust.”
“…”
“All their foundations lay in the cities, and once the key cities were engulfed in flames, this seat's vengeance, this seat's grudge, ended all too hollowly.”
Instead, his world ended alongside them.
“The immortals' will to exact just retribution upon the wicked faded into oblivion across eons. The Extinction Heavenly Scripture of today has become an unknown entity whose true nature no one can grasp.”
The fallen immortal had once said something similar.
“The Extinction Heavenly Scripture seeks those with the talent to destroy the world. And this seat's talent was exceptional.”
Crimson flames danced upon his hand.
“This seat's talent for wielding karmic flames led the world to ruin all too easily. I dare say no other fated one devoured by this Avici Hell surpassed this seat in that regard.”
He looked at Yeon So-hyeon.
“Until you appeared….”
“…”
Yeon So-hyeon neither affirmed nor denied the words.
The giant smiled at such a Yeon So-hyeon.
“After you became the new fated one, this seat has continuously observed you. And I became certain.”
Yeon So-hyeon merely gazed silently at the giant.
“You possess the power to destroy the world more swiftly and efficiently than this seat.”
The giant raised a massive finger, pointing at Yeon So-hyeon's head.
“Wiping out that small clan of yours would be child's play for you, would it not?”
There was some inaccuracy in calling the Luoyang Sword Clan—hailed as the foremost family of the Central Plains—a small clan, but the speaker was one who had burned his entire world.
“Yet you have no intention of taking that easy path.”
At last, Yeon So-hyeon spoke.
“…I joined hands with the Extinction Heavenly Scripture to fulfill my responsibilities. Not to annihilate my clan.”
The giant gave a faint smile.
That smile was astonishingly pure.
It was impossible to imagine it belonging to the man who had burned the world in hatred.
Impossible to believe it was the smile of a fated one of the Extinction Heavenly Scripture.
“This seat simply wished to make one little girl happy, and thus became a fated one of the Extinction Heavenly Scripture.”
“…”
He approached and sat before Yeon So-hyeon.
Yet Yeon So-hyeon still had to look up at him.
“But like all fated ones, this seat ended up destroying everything.”
His deep eyes bored into Yeon So-hyeon.
“…Just as the Extinction Heavenly Scripture desired.”
Yeon So-hyeon fell silent.
Today, he had to exercise boundless patience.
Every being he encountered, great or small, bore karma, and the ancient demonic entity called the Extinction Heavenly Scripture shook him without regard for friend or foe.
“But you did not yield to that madness. You were not swayed by that hunger.”
Yeon So-hyeon endured.
He controlled it.
What the Luoyang Sword Clan needed now was the sharp blade known as Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, not the Dark Heaven Sovereign's all-consuming flames.
For the future he envisioned, the Luoyang Sword Clan must remain intact.
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
“…I've simply disliked living as others dictate since childhood.”
The giant laughed with a thunderous roar.
The surrounding flames danced madly.
After laughing heartily for a long while, he looked at Yeon So-hyeon with a smile.
“…Do you think this seat does not know that what sustains you is a promise with those precious to you?”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
“…It seems my fated seniors have no intention of respecting a junior's privacy.”
The giant burst into raucous laughter once more.
Whatever amused him so, he laughed until tears streamed down.
The tears evaporated in an instant.
“…I apologize for that. But I cannot help watching you henceforth.”
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
“There can't be much entertainment in a place like this, so I'll try to understand my senior's peculiar hobby.”
At that moment, raindrops began to fall from the smoke-choked sky.
“…The permitted time is ending.”
Yeon So-hyeon asked the giant, who looked up at the sky.
“So, what was the warning you spoke of at the beginning, senior?”
The giant looked down at him.
“Is not the very end of this seat's existence a grand warning to you?”
“…Indeed.”
In the giant's eyes, Yeon So-hyeon sensed incalculable depths of regret and remorse.
How long had he suffered in this space?
The rain grew heavier.
* * *
Yeon So-hyeon, seated in the lotus position on the bed, opened his eyes.
Through the open window, he could see dawn breaking in the east.
At that moment, a knock sounded at the door, and Jeong-a hurriedly entered the room.
“…I sensed an ill omen and dared to enter without asking permission.”
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
“It's nothing.”
It could not possibly be nothing, yet Jeong-a could only nod.
She alone understood even a fraction of the burden her master bore.
“…The investigation has concluded for now. Thus, word has come that the Inner Garden's lockdown order from the Protectorate Court has been lifted.”
Now it was time to leave the Inner Garden.