Chapter 274

Chapter 274

Heukya reads the Heavenly Energy.

That’s not simply because Heukya is an ancient yokai. Even if Heukya is a great yokai among great yokai who has lived for tens of thousands of years, there were quite a few yokai who had lived longer than Heukya.

Even among such great yokai, those who can read Heavenly Energy are rare. Because the yokai species itself focuses on polishing what they have rather than actively learning new things.

Moreover, Heavenly Energy is something you can barely glimpse only after reaching the extreme of sorcery, which humans created.

That’s why most great yokai, who regard humans as nothing but insignificant creatures, didn’t even think to learn sorcery, and Heukya became a rare yokai who reached the extreme of sorcery among yokai. 

That’s why decades ago when Heukya first saw Baek Riyun, when she killed that friend of his, she could intuit.

—Eyes, open your… eyes…! You bastard, open your eyes!

That this young warrior, whose fate’s light didn’t die even before a great yokai’s presence but gradually brightened, would surely become her destined opponent.

—Aaaaaah—!!!

Silence.

Confirming that everyone’s gazes reach her simultaneously with Baek Risan’s scream-like cry, Heukya grasped her slender fingers. Baek Riyun’s appearance, peacefully dead as if merely sleeping without any wounds.

—He couldn’t even withstand this…?

Strange.

Heukya, who unknowingly expressed such an impression, held slight wariness. That’s because a destined opponent is not something that can be killed so easily.

Heavenly Energy is the flow of the world. Therefore, going against Heavenly Energy is no different from pouring out earth-shaking power enough to overturn the world.

Through the many years she lived, Heukya learned this experientially. How tenaciously those bound as destined opponents kill and are killed by each other, how that fate reaches completion.

Not only is killing through another’s intervention not allowed, but killing each other futilely is also not permitted. If you try to kill a destined opponent before they fully grow by looking at Heavenly Energy, the world will try by any means to protect the destined opponent, and the destined opponent survives receiving Heaven’s fortune’s protection. Even if it means dropping lightning from a clear sky or a comet in the middle of an unpredicted day to save the destined opponent—that’s how Heavenly Energy operates.

Certainly that should be so.

‘Yet he died far too easily, didn’t he?’

Even though she had prepared countermeasures to some degree, her destined opponent Baek Riyun died strangely easily. Even considering she aimed for the unstable gap during Talgak, it was a far too strange scene.

—This isn’t the hollow ending I desired…

Segeok—!

Heukya, who had no intention to kill but merely wanted to interfere with Talgak, shook her head with a sour expression, then raised her neck upward at the presence she suddenly felt. And simultaneously, sword energy passed through where Heukya’s jaw had been.

“…I’ll kill you.”

—Hooh.

Was it Baek Risan?

Confirming the sword dripping with white flames stickily flowing down the blade, Heukya let out a small exclamation of admiration. Because what had been so weak just moments ago that there was no need to properly look at it had now changed to something decently worth watching.

—Did you draw up cultivation from rage over your brother’s death?

“Shut up.”

—Humans are truly strange. They sometimes die far too easily, yet depending on the situation, they demonstrate power beyond their capacity.

“I told you to shut up…!”

Boiling up.

Feeling the atmosphere in all directions boil and even blaze, Heukya lightly waved her hand. Tails beginning to occupy space while swaying.

—Enough. I have no need to kill all you humans.

“What did you say…!”

—If I wanted to kill you, I would have killed you long ago. Child. Don’t your eyes see?

“What are you…”

—Look around.

At Heukya’s words, Baek Risan, who finally looked around, turned pale after grasping the situation. The surrounding situation was terribly dreadful.

“Keueueuuk…”

“Damn it, this cursed…”

Songbyeok Jinin and Dokgo Cheon, who had been facing one tail together, are buried in the ground. With their limbs twisted bizarrely.

Daesageom, who had been facing the second tail, is stuck in a rock forcibly raising his sword, and even Ilryun, who had been facing the third and fourth tails together, is gasping for breath. The only one relatively fine is Nakcheon, who had been alone facing three tails.

Everyone was defeated before help could arrive. This should be enough. The countermeasures she had prepared thinking that are destroyed far too quickly. Literally an overwhelming difference in martial power.

—I am not a fool like other yokai. I have no hobby of killing humans just to obtain the small fear they feel when dying. As long as I can handle it without difficulty, you will not meet death.

“…Then why are you here?”

—A foolish question. Originally, there’s only one reason why yokai are in this place, isn’t there?

Looking at Baek Risan standing dazedly, Heukya wore a sticky smile and slowly turned her gaze. Her gaze heading beyond the sand dunes.

—It comes.

Wind rushes in, and the sun hides its form.

For an instant, everyone suspects Heukya’s trickery at the shadow that descended. 

The scene that soon appears overturns everyone’s expectations. That’s because.

Rather than the sun hiding, something enormous was blocking the sun.

—Child. Look. This is your savior that your companions brought.

The oldest divine beast. And an existence more enormous than anything else in the world.

With an indescribably deep sound, Heukya spread both arms while watching Sanggwi reveal its form. The situation she had longed for had arrived.

—Child. Do you know? History repeats itself.

Heukya, who whispered softly, grinned and turned her gaze to look at Nakcheon, who was gritting his teeth and blocking her tail. And the words that follow.

—That Nakcheon over there is an existence that was human and transformed into a yokai. Do you know why that was possible?

—Because there was such history in the past. Child.

The laws of the world are divided into what’s possible and what’s impossible.

Humans cannot overturn heaven and earth. They cannot live beyond several hundred years. They cannot split rocks with bare hands, and cannot leap stepping on empty air.

In ancient times, that was common sense. Humans could never surpass those limits no matter what they did. Because the world didn’t permit it.

—If what was originally impossible is realized in this world even once, the world accepts it as ‘not impossible.’

If you change the impossible to possible even once, you can change the world.

That’s why Heukya could welcome the current situation with open arms. Because.

Divine beasts could now become yokai.

Because that precedent existed.

—Child. Do you remember the small slash-and-burn village in Anhwa County?

That precedent.

“Anhwa County, what do you… wait.”

Frowning then widening her eyes at the familiar place name, Baek Risan clenched her fists and looked directly at Heukya. The scene that suddenly comes to mind.

‘Certainly where I met Choa and Choil…!’

She couldn’t forget it. It wasn’t that long ago, and moreover, hadn’t she experienced life-threatening danger there several times?

Realizing what Heukya’s words meant, Baek Risan looked at Heukya with a pale expression. However, Heukya quietly continued speaking.

—Divine beasts are originally something like a subspecies of yokai. Their essence is similar to yokai, but they took a different method for survival.

—Even humans, whose existence differs from yokai from the start, can become yokai. Then divine beasts can also become yokai. It seems the Blood Cult was trying to experiment with that. They intended to make divine beasts into yokai.

“The experiment… failed though…!”

—Can you call that a failure?

She clearly remembers.

Choa, who had been a divine beast, was raised as a yokai and ultimately transformed into a yokai. If Seohwa hadn’t made a gamble and drawn in yokai power to turn her back into a divine beast, she would surely have continued living as a yokai.

—If you maintain an environment full of yokai power while receiving sufficient fear, divine beasts can also become yokai. That fact has been inscribed in the ‘laws’ from that moment.

Heukya, who grinned, tilted her head slightly to look at Sanggwi’s body covering the world. The low words that follow.

—Look. That divine beast called Sanggwi receives more fear and awe than anything else in this world.

One who walks a thousand li in a single step. One who doesn’t avoid the sun and can give birth to Supreme Yin.

Among those who have properly seen Sanggwi even once, there’s no one who doesn’t fear or revere Sanggwi. If you take that enormous body into your eyes, it wouldn’t be strange to see Sanggwi as heaven’s representative.

—Fear has already been received more than sufficiently. What remains is only yokai power… and conveniently, yokai power is prepared.

“…No way.”

—The Great Seal.

The seal that gathered and concentrated in one place the yokai power of the entire Central Plains.

—Wouldn’t that be sufficient?

From the beginning, destroying this Great Seal wasn’t the goal. The real goal lies beyond that.

Heukya, who smiled brightly, stretched out her hand.

—You humans seem to think the Great Seal being destroyed is the end.

Baek Risan plopped down at the scene slowly unfolding. At the end of her vision, Oyeon shattering to pieces, literally.

—The opposite. Now, now at last.

Now at last it begins.

Heukya, who muttered, grinned while turning her gaze.

Toward the Great Seal that revealed its form.

An angry shout bursts out.

“What did I tell you!”

The warrior who stood up seeing the scene that unfolded turned his face bright red with rage and gritted his teeth. Because the worst situation imaginable had occurred.

“Didn’t I say we should immediately go support them, that helping would be better than staying here like this?”

“That’s right! You blocked us from going!”

“P-please calm down. Seonwoo Sohyeop. Didn’t we all agree…”

“How can I be calm right now! The Central Plains is about to fall into dire straits!”

Ungyeong, who was sweating while trying to stop the warrior continuously spewing anger toward Baek Riseon, let out a sigh looking at Baek Riseon, who was still leisurely. Because it was an incomprehensible situation.

‘How can he be so composed?’

Once the Great Seal breaks, a great calamity will sweep through the Central Plains.

It was Baek Riseon who told them that. It was Baek Riseon who explained what the Great Seal’s purpose was, what would happen if yokai destroyed the Great Seal, and why the Demonic Cult and the entire Central Plains Martial World were trying to protect the Great Seal.

He never doubted that fact. Because everything fit when he understood it according to Baek Riseon’s explanation. Both the fact that the Demonic Cult and Central Plains, who had been like mortal enemies, suddenly formed a united front, and that yokai who should be in the Central Plains had swarmed here—when he thought it was because of that reason, the answer fit.

However, the current situation is incomprehensible. Even if Baek Riseon foresaw all this and knew that intervening wouldn’t change anything, it was still strange. That’s because.

As far as Ungyeong knows, isn’t the one who just died Baek Riseon’s blood brother?

How can he be so composed when his kin has died?

“I’ll go help right now!”

“Ah, yes. It seems the yokai are nearly annihilated, so it should be fine to go help. Since there’s no chance of increasing the enemy’s forces.”

“If you weren’t the benefactor who saved us, I might have cut you down just now…! How can you know so little of chivalry!”

“Righteousness and chivalry are also things that are only possible when you have ability. I simply have no interest in impossible things.”

At Baek Riseon’s nonchalant response while sucking out even the shells of the roasted scorpions, the warriors who frowned stood up in unison and headed down below the sand dunes. And watching that, Ungyeong stamped his feet.

“Baek Ri Sohyeop, aren’t you going…? At this rate, the Central Plains might truly be in danger…!”

“I can’t do anything. Right now, I’m more powerless than Ungyeong Sohyeop.”

“T-that’s right. The corpse, shouldn’t you at least collect the corpse? Y-your younger brother’s corpse remains, doesn’t it?”

“That’s true, but well… Won’t San-ah and Father properly prepare Un-i’s corpse? There’s no need for me to go specifically.”

Is that something to say?

“What are you doing! Ungyeong Sohyeop! Are you going to keep staying with that madman!”

Looking at Baek Riseon responding indifferently, the shocked Ungyeong glanced at Baek Riseon then stepped down below the sand dunes. And Ungyeong carefully spoke up.

“T-thank you for saving my life. I will definitely repay this favor someday…”

“There’s no need to go that far. Please take care of yourself.”

“A-alright. Then.”

Watching Ungyeong disappear far away, Baek Riseon let out a chuckle and shook his head. From others’ perspective, it was certainly conduct that wouldn’t be strange to consider mad.

‘The Heavenly Energy stirs.’

The celestial patterns are showing strange movements.

That’s because the flow of Heavenly Energy has been twisted far too greatly from the original plan. Because Baek Riyun, the existence Heaven designated as Heukya’s destined opponent, died far too easily.

‘Originally, Un-i wasn’t fated to die there.’

According to the flow of Heavenly Energy.

According to Heavenly Energy’s flow, Heukya was fated to destroy the Great Seal here without difficulty and corrupt the divine beast Sanggwi, and Baek Riyun was supposed to achieve Talgak in the meantime and face Heukya. While somehow breaking through the situation after the Great Seal was destroyed while building strength, he was fated to oppose Heukya for a long time.

Right, that was the problem. To oppose for a long time and eventually perish.

Designated as Heukya’s destined opponent, but the situation where he couldn’t reach Heukya.

‘I know.’

Many people are judging now that Heukya’s goal is simply to reduce humans to livestock, but Baek Riseon knows. That’s not Heukya’s true goal.

Heukya’s goal is to completely wipe out the human seed from this world. To achieve that goal, she’s been reading and adjusting Heavenly Energy for over thousands of years. To break the plan she established, ordinary methods wouldn’t be enough.

‘This was the only method.’

The years he brought are merely several decades. The years Heukya has passed through are at least thousands.

Since he lost in the time battle, the method of adjusting Heavenly Energy wouldn’t work. And going against the Heavenly Energy determined under this sky is also impossible. Then what should be done?

It’s simple.

Change the premise itself.

Erase the very situation where Heukya’s destined opponent exists, confuse Heavenly Energy, and create an opening to defy heaven.

“Did they all leave?”

Eueum.

Baek Riseon, who stretched as if his body was stiff even though he hadn’t been sitting long, turned his head left and right. The warriors’ forms disappearing far in his vision.

They’ve all left.

The moment that certainty strikes, Baek Riseon stood up beyond the sand dunes and looked at empty air. 

“So, how does it feel? Un-ah.”

The moment a smile forms on Baek Riseon’s lips.

“The feeling of having died.”

The empty air that should certainly have nothing rippled.

—Definitely, the worst.

As if in human form.