Volume 1 Chapter 2 – Prologue

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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‘…What happened to my younger sisters?’

Having been fully able to predict their tragic end, the Scholar asked in a self-mocking tone.

[Your eldest younger sister, in order to shine the family’s name even a little bit again, went around punishing demon heads, only to meet a demon of the previous generation and have her limbs torn apart to death. Your second younger sister, after losing her twin sister in that way, lost her mind and wandered the streets, only to freeze to death on a day when it was raining harshly.]

‘Is that so…’

It was so.

It must have naturally been so.

The family was daily torn into several pieces, and it was a situation no different from annihilation, so there was no way those children would be safe.

[But fortunately, your youngest younger sister is alive.]

The Scholar brightened up.

‘Is that true?! You mean Nani is alive? Where is that child now?’

[Your youngest sister became addicted to narcotics. It must have been to escape from reality. To earn the money needed for that, she is living as a prostitute in a brothel in Luoyang.]

The voice gently soothed him.

[Still, it is good that she is alive. It is good. I am glad that I can finally deliver good news as well.]

“Khehehe…”

The Scholar burst into a laugh as if coughing up blood.

No, he wailed as if laughing.

Every time his body shook, the chains tightly bound to his shoulder blades screamed gloomily.

The chains, thick enough to match the thickness of a grown man’s forearm, bore a dark obsidian hue.

It was definitely a metal called ink-iron, which was incomparably hard.

After shedding blood-mixed tears for a while, the Scholar made an excuse to the voice.

‘I… I could not help it.’

That was the path they chose, and the result.

‘I decided early on to cut off all ties with the world.’

[I already know that. Your decision. And the processes that led to that decision.]

The Scholar fell into reminiscence for a moment.

He recalled the memories that had been submerged in deep darkness.

Though they were old memories now, they were as vivid to him as if they had happened yesterday.

[The human world is indeed dirty and ugly. The one who made such a world is indeed man himself. Ending the age of mythology, achieving civilization, and opening the age of history was a giant corruption of humans.]

‘…I wanted to be Lao Tzu.’

[You probably wanted to remain as a figure who just passed by like him. Although he founded the great philosophy of Daoism, he left no trace of himself properly, and eventually vanished by ascending as an immortal.]

‘I just wanted to live without action and without desire. I did not want to involve myself in the secular world.’

[So did you not live as a swordless man? Even though you were the eldest son of the sword family, you did not hold a sword, and lived making it a pleasure to read books while confined in a room. Did your wife not understand that as well?]

‘…Come to think of it, what about my wife? What happened to Un-jeong?’

His wife, Murong Un-jeong, and he did not truly share their hearts.

However, she did not treat him carelessly either.

Even though she suffered damage due to a matrilocal son-in-law who had no usefulness at all, she had shown him much consideration so that he could live comfortably.

Although they were merely a couple in name only, not even sharing a bed, she was one of the few people for whom he felt great gratitude in his heart.

[She eventually lost in the political struggle. Her faction was entirely ousted.]

‘…Did she lose her life?’

[It happened not long ago. While serving the Terror King in bed, she bit off his yang member and tore it to pieces. Even at the execution ground, she laughed heartily. She was indeed a grand lady. If she had been born in a chaotic era, she would have surely become a grand ruler.]

The voice burst into hearty laughter.

‘…Although she lived without a single speck of shame under the sky, the heavens eventually did not help her.’

The voice sneered.

[Nonsense. What she needed was not the heavens, but you. The one who abandoned her was you.]

‘…I once divined my own fate.’

The Scholar raised his sightless eyes and looked at the sky.

‘I was born with a destiny ruled by the Heavenly Killing Star. If I involved myself in worldly affairs, many people would have shed blood because of me.’

At that, the voice replied.

[Do you still not know? That destiny of yours has already been realized.]

‘…Such a?!’

The Scholar suddenly realized.

All those he cherished were hurt, tortured, and killed.

He tried to do nothing for them, but because he tried to do nothing, everyone fell into the abyss.

‘…Eventually, I, who am nothing but a mortal existence, failed to escape the solemn shackle of destiny.’

If there was a very small, trivial difference, it was only that he did not directly stain his own hands with blood.

[Do you know now?]

The Scholar bowed his head.

‘…Then, after this, I can only leave everything to the will of heaven.’

[How foolish!]

It was a thunderous roar, larger than any he had ever heard, as if his eardrums would rip off.

[Do you still not know?]

Unlike the atmosphere until now, the voice was clearly agitated and angry.

[The heavens and the earth are not benevolent, so they do not look after the mortal humans!]

The voice reprimanded the Scholar without hesitation.

[If so, humans should at least help humans. Yet they say the sage is not benevolent! They say even the sage is not kind, and looking at you, is it not the perfect fit?]

The Scholar stood up against the voice.

‘But they also said that the net of heaven is vast, but it misses nothing. Even if I do not step forward, those who commit evil deeds will surely be judged according to the law of cause and effect.’

[Cause and effect, did you say cause and effect?!]

The voice, repeating the word cause and effect, burst into wild laughter.

At the loud laughter that seemed to split his head, the Scholar forgot his pain and blocked his ears with the arms that had lost fingers and wrists.

The ink-iron chains vibrating at the laughter rang resoundingly even to the marrow of his bones.

[Since you speak of cause and effect, let me show you an old tale.]

The front of the Scholar brightened.

Suddenly, a strange landscape unfolded vastly.

Although he had lost his eyes, he could see everything that the voice was showing.

In ancient times, in the age of mythology, there were those who lost everything to humans.

Even in that era, humans were brutal and selfish.

Eventually, the few who turned their eyes away from the terrible human world repeated their cultivation while devoting themselves only to themselves.

They believed early on that there would be cause and effect transcending time and space, and they believed that someday there would be a grand order that would make those who committed evil deeds pay the price.

One day, they who attained enlightenment became immortals.

And they came to realize the truth of the world.

Cause and effect,

The absolute order they believed in,

Was merely an illusion.

Those whose lives ended merely returned to a handful of dirt.

Their souls and spirits merely returned to nature.

Neither the afterlife, nor hell, nor judgment that no one could avoid, existed.

The evil ones did evil deeds, lived while eating well and dressing well, and died.

There were cases where they died unable to live out their natural lifespans because of their evil deeds.

But that was only a part of the story.

No matter how one looked at it, the majority of the good people lived in extreme pain and died before fully filling their natural lifespans.

Those who squeezed even their blood and pus lived and died enjoying blessings and happiness as much as their share.

It was terribly irrational.

There was no heaven to correct the tilted scale.

There is no grand cause and effect.

* * *

[Do you know now.]

The voice asked once more.

[Have you seen the truth.]

The Scholar did not answer.

The truth he faced was too cold and callous.

A thing called heavenly punishment, a thing called judgment, was merely a ‘fiction’ made by those who lived without a single speck of hope.

Salvation did not exist for them.

It did not happen that all the evil ones, each and every one of them, paid the price for what they had committed.

In the end, if the only thing that could save humans was humans,

The only thing that could punish humans was also humans.

‘High, then…!’

The voice asked him.

[Do you want to have power? Do you want to have the power to judge them? Do you want to make them pay the true price?]

‘Yes.’

[Do you want to get an opportunity? Do you want to get an opportunity to change everything again? Do you want to save everyone?]

‘Yes.’

[Even if your soul ends up having no place to go and suffers eternally in return?]

‘Yes!’

A strange cry flowed out of the Scholar’s throat along with blood.

‘I shall have power! I shall get that opportunity!’

As he writhed wildly, the ink-iron chains clattered and screamed.

A strange cry burst out of his throat.

‘I shall make those who are swayed by mere desires pay the price! I shall bring down a hammer to those who make others’ pain their pleasure!’

The strange cry the Scholar was shouting showed no sign of stopping and only grew louder.

‘By mobilizing all abilities given to me, I shall dominate their destiny!’

And in proportion to that, the presence of the voice that was heard also grew larger and larger.

[You have finally realized! You have finally become able to face your own appearance! If so, look at me!]

The voice grew loud enough to shake even the Scholar’s soul.

Even while feeling his soul shake like a leaf in a typhoon, the Scholar stared straight into the pitch darkness with the eyes that only had holes left.

[I—we, can give you power. We can give you an opportunity.]

‘It’ was in the deepest darkness.

It was looking at him from the remote bottom of the deepest darkness that could only be expressed as an abyss.

It was a book.

It was a scripture.

One who held a grudge against humans made the cover with his own skin,

One who held a grudge against heaven wrote the content with his own blood,

One who held a grudge against the earth wove it together with his own tendons; it was such a scripture.

[Although the goal that you and we pursue is different, the path is the same, so if you contract with us, we will give you a new opportunity!]

‘I shall contract!’

[You will never be able to walk honorably in the light again, and you will never be able to raise that face and look at the sky again. Even so, will you contract with me!]

The Scholar did not think of another answer from the beginning.

‘Yes. I shall entrust my soul to you.’

The voice—the scripture, burst into loud laughter as if satisfied with his answer.

[Chosen one. The name of this scripture is the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, and it is a scripture of defying heaven that will burn and eat all darkness of the Mortal Realm on behalf of the unfeeling and lazy heaven!]

Darkness shot up from the scripture.

The Scholar’s soul was encroached by that darkness in an instant.

While his consciousness was fading away, the wild laughter of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens shook his ears.

[From now on, you shall breathe in the darkness, strike down the sword of condemnation in the darkness, and become the Dark Venerable who punishes all karma of the world!]

* * *

On the next day, the guards found that the Scholar had died while shedding blood from his entire body.

However, strangely, that corpse was said to be light enough that one could not believe it belonged to a human.

As if,

As if something of importance had slipped out…

Chapter 01.

The Dark Venerable, Opening of the Curtain

It is better to be violent if there’s violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence.

“When violence exists in our hearts, it is rather better to be violent than to wear the mask of non-violence to cover our helplessness.”

-Mahatma Gandhi [Mahatma Gandhi, 1869.10.2-1948.1.30.]