Volume 1 Chapter 3 – Awakening

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In the space without a single speck of light,

In the darkness that made one forget the eternal time,

I obtained rest, and my soul decayed to the deepest place.

The emptiness without front or back, up or down.

In that place, I was inside the stories spun by countless people.

Although they were clearly not those who existed in this space and time, for some reason, I could see and hear their stories.

It was like an illusion spun by a bonfire, and like a mirage on a summer day.

They were all different. Their race, gender, and age were also different. Some lived in too mysterious and unfamiliar cultures, and some others lived in bizarre civilizations that I had never even dared to hear of.

Even so, they had something in common.

Their stories had something in common.

A terrible tragedy.

Without exception, every single one of them was the protagonist of a story like that terrible tragedy.

If I dared to speculate, the thought arose that they might be the chosen ones before me. Of course, there was no way to confirm.

Time was continuing to flow.

From a certain moment, there were no more stories.

If I thought about it quietly, perhaps from the beginning there was no such thing as a voice.

Were they stories I made up because I was tired of boredom, or were they merely illusions created by a mind that had gone mad from that series of terrible tortures?

Like that, a remote time flowed.

It was a time that could well be expressed as a hundred million eons, and could well be expressed as Nayuta.

If time here did not flow, one might be able to say that it was nothing but a moment or an instant.

Then at some point.

Far away, a small light is seen.

From the light, a faint warmth originating from the living was transmitted, and the vitality of the secular world was felt.

I approached it as if possessed. And when that light became close enough, I realized.

That this cold, desolate, and lonely terrible darkness was indeed the deepest place and the essence of my soul.

That although I was advancing toward the light, I was no longer a being belonging there.

That I was newly assembled and configured by a primeval magical object whose origin could not even be known, called the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

And when I realized that, I could know.

That I was now ready.

* * *

He opened his eyes with a refreshed feeling, as if waking up from a sweet afternoon nap.

As if all that time of pain and shock had been a lie.

As if it had been a brief nightmare during sleep, he stood up as if nothing were wrong.

His body was in a comfortable state to the point that the memory of being tortured and losing his limbs was embarrassing.

As if he had woken up after a sufficient sound sleep in that way, he woke up.

“……Was it a dream?”

Of course, he knew very well that there was no way it was so.

A heavy and evil energy coiled complacently in his dantian, as if it were his own.

Since that was definitely the energy of the ‘Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.’

The terrible demonic qi that that thing met in the underground dungeon on that day exhaled was now settled in his dantian.

Although it was allowing him only a very small part of the entire energy at present.

Even so, the pure demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, vividly like a spark dropped on clothes, made him feel clearly that everything was true.

“Hmm……”

His body, which had once been broken to the point of reaching death, was in an all too perfect state for now.

He even felt a sense of incompatibility in his body that moved so naturally.

He raised his fist in front of his eyes and tried to clench and open it.

There were five fingers attached to a hand that was white and pretty, without even a single blemish, let alone a wound or a scar.

“This place is……”

He raised his body.

An elegant bedroom deeply permeated with the smell of ink.

Even though it was a bedroom, the sight of books filling the wall allowed one to guess the master’s temperament.

“……It is my room.”

He felt he could know which book was plugged where, even without looking.

That place was the most comfortable space for him throughout his entire life.

This was his bedroom that he had used since childhood in the main family.

“……He did say he would give me one more opportunity.”

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens clearly said it would give him one more opportunity.

But to return to the past.

He would have been satisfied just to escape from that terrible purgatory.

He had tried to start by escaping from that place.

Although all those precious to him died and vanished, even that was fine.

Even just by not dying without being able to do anything in it, he would have considered that he had obtained a new opportunity.

But to return to the past……!

“……Khehehehe.”

Without him knowing, laughter leaked from his mouth.

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, the thing that called itself the scripture of defying heaven, was a being far more terrifying than imagined.

It showed the authority to turn back time in a way that he could not even guess.

He suddenly became curious about the identity of the magical object called the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, but right now, anything like that did not matter.

He had returned to the past.

He had been granted the best opportunity.

“Kahahahaha……!”

As if reacting to his laughter, the demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens growled and howled.

* * *

He was sitting on the edge of the bed.

He knew that he had returned to the past with hands that clearly looked like nothing but those of a teenager and the appearance of the main family bedroom that remained only in his memory.

But he had to know more accurately the time period he had returned to.

That was a simple matter.

Since clues were already overflowing and sufficient around him.

“Hmm……”

He quickly swept over the books packed in the bedroom.

It seemed as if he were just quickly sweeping over them in a passing glance, but the reality was not so.

In his head, information about every single book that had been in his bedroom accurately remained.

When this book entered his bedroom.

At which point it was organized in what position.

He accurately compared the scenes in his memory with the appearance he was looking at now.

It was a simple task.

He finished the confirmation while inhaling and exhaling a few times.

“……17 years old, February, is it.”

His own youthful voice was unfamiliar.

His eyes deepened.

He looked back on his life, which had been eventful.

And he reassembled it several times.

It was a gaze like an immortal who reads the countless moves that would be ahead at a single glance just by looking into the initial baduk board.

“…….”

What brought him, who had been locked in thoughts for a long time, back to reality was the small noise heard from outside.

“……Has the Eldest Young Master woken up?”

“Well, what does it matter. Won’t he hold onto books again as soon as he gets up anyway?”

“……Dear me. To think that the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, which is called the First Family of the Central Plains, is in such a state……”

“Why else would people call him the Swordless Man. It is truly a pathetic state of affairs.”

“Still, he was a person rumored to be very clever in the past……”

“That too must have been nothing but a mere rumor.”

“Since he was born as the Eldest Young Master of the great Luoyang Sword Family, which is grand enough to be called the Heavenly Family, wouldn’t he just do whatever he wants?”

It was nothing other than the conversation of the servants speaking ill of him.

Listening to such a story, one would normally get angry, but his pupils were extremely indifferent.

Originally, he had not paid attention to the stories of the world and was not gladdened or saddened.

But the current him was in a state where even the edge of his soul was stained by the madness and demonic qi originating from the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

So to speak, the surface of his mind right now was like the calmness of a lake whose depth could not be known.

But in the deep place, he was in a state like harboring a volcano that did not know when it would erupt.

“……Hey there, is no one out there?”

He intentionally made a loud sound to call the servants.

But there was no one who responded to that call.

It was a natural thing.

The place where he stayed was one of the secret places of the Luoyang Sword Family,

And the soundproofing technology applied here was surely the best in the Central Plains.

Even so, he had been able to hear the whispering of the servants outside so vividly.

“Is this also a power originating from the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens……”

Probably it was not only his hearing that was affected.

He took his time.

He repeated experiments and observations.

It did not require a very long time for him to reach a conclusion.

A leap in general physical ability.

Including physical strength, muscular strength, and the five senses, all physical abilities improved.

“……Outstanding.”

He looked into the mirror.

What was there was not the weak and fallen body of before.

A steel-like body that only those who trained to the limit could possess was there.

The body, where even every single fiber of muscle was clearly revealed, was to the point of feeling bizarre.

While appreciating his body for a moment, he soon noticed a new fact.

“Ho……?”

In the mirror, his face, showing a frighteningly twisted expression, was reflected.

Would the appearance of a demon who was soaked in killing intent and whose demonic qi penetrated to the marrow of his bones be like this?

“Dear, dear.”

Looking into the mirror, he tried to change his expression little by little.

“Like this……”

He lowered the corners of his mouth a bit more.

He also tried to smooth the wrinkles on his forehead.

He also tried to look down slightly with his wide-opened eyes.

“……It has become an even more bizarre face.”

Clack, clack, a phlegm-boiling laughter leaked out.

He also had to correct the sound of his laughter.

“Since there is plenty of time……”

He raised his hand and rubbed his face as if kneading it.

First, there was a need to relax the muscles a little.

From the roughly rubbed face, heat rose and a feeling that the muscles of the face became flexible was felt.

And then he looked into the copper mirror again and began practicing expressions.

“Hmm. I must make a more ‘human-like’ expression indeed……”

As he looked into the mirror for quite a while, he found his own state funny, and laughter naturally flowed out.

Giggly-giggle, it was a laughter mixed with a crisp metallic sound.

As he was wrestling with his own face while looking into the mirror in that way, he opened his mouth.

“……Come to think of it.”

In the mirror, there was he, showing an expression that would not be strange even if a child threw a fit if they saw it.

He muttered in a curious voice.

As if seeking an answer even from himself in the mirror.

“What is it, to be human-like?”

What the mirror was reflecting, no matter how bizarre an expression he was showing, was his face that anyone could not help but admit was a peerless handsome young master.

But what he was looking into was different;

The places where his two eyes had been were hollow and twisted with pain, shedding bloody tears,

The place where his nose had been had only two holes remaining, leaking blood and pus,

No healthy spot could be found on the skin of his face,

And in his throat, a tongue of which only the root barely remained was dangling.

That was not the appearance reflected by the mirror.

That was the mental image of himself that he was looking into.

Hurt, twisted, distorted, and polluted……

That was the madness of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens that he harbored.