Volume 2 Chapter 14 – Avici Hell

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Geum-ju screamed terribly and sprang up from her place.

The surroundings were filled with darkness, and a cold wind was brushing past, shrieking sharply.

“Huff, puff.”

Drops of cold water were falling on her head one by one.

As she looked up, she saw water droplets falling from a long-grown stalactite.

That place was inside that very cave where she had lost consciousness.

She did not know why she was inside the cave, but it did not matter.

Sitting blankly for a while and looking around her surroundings, her mouth opened.

“……Did I survive this time too?”

If she had to guess, she thought it seemed like the effect of the grand sorcery had remained.

She groped her body.

There was no problem anywhere.

Her fingers were in their places, and her heart was also throbbing, clearly asserting its existence.

And her face, which had been bitten by the guy at the last moment, was also intact.

She let out a sigh of relief.

However, this was not the time to be relieved.

She hurriedly raised her body and went out along the cave.

As she stepped out of the cave, the bright sun welcomed her.

Looking at the sun with a deeply moved expression for a moment, she walked down the forest along a path.

Then, the slums revealed themselves, and after passing through the slums, the back alleys of the Luoyang commercial area appeared.

She had to escape Luoyang as quickly as possible.

Disguising herself as an ordinary housewife, she was able to escape Luoyang safely by joining a merchant caravan.

Once she escaped Luoyang and entered a secluded mountain, she killed all the merchants in the caravan.

And she took only the valuable things among the wealth they possessed.

There seemed to be no problem with making a fresh start.

She headed as far away as possible, leaving Henan Province.

Whenever her travel expenses ran short, she raided merchant caravans or assailed passersby to fill her pockets.

After time passed like that, she reached Yunnan Province.

There, she raided a mountain fortress and was able to become its leader.

Since it was a place where competition was not particularly fierce and the gaze of the government was also distant, yet a place where many tea merchants passed, the earnings were decent.

Soon, she became a female chieftain commanding the region.

Although it was not as luxurious as in Luoyang, nor was her body comfortable, each day was enjoyable in its own way.

“Boss! Boss! The merchant caravan coming this time is quite large!”

“I told you to call me Bandit Chief, not Boss!”

Giving her foolish subordinate a kick, she commanded spiritedly,

“Guys! Prepare to welcome the guests!”

“Yes!”

It was while she was looking pleasantly at the sight of everyone moving busily.

“You look quite joyful.”

She nodded unconsciously.

“Well, in my own way…”

Her body froze.

She could smell a thick odor of sulfur, and felt a freezing chill that did not match Yunnan at all.

“Y-You…?!”

Turning her head, the figure of the white mask entered her sight.

The stinging sun and the chilling white mask were too mismatched.

“One.”

She screamed.

* * *

“Huff! Puff!”

This time too, it was inside that cave that she woke up.

She escaped Luoyang at the fastest speed.

This time she did not kill anyone.

That monster must have tracked her traces.

If so, she simply had to not leave traces.

Hunting beasts and quenching her thirst with valley water, she continued heading east.

She met a horse-riding tribe, and after knocking down their strongmen, she was able to lead their small tribe.

Taking the opportunity, she attacked the surrounding tribes and unified them.

She did not grow too greedy.

For it would be trouble if that came again.

However, in the end, it found her.

“One.”

* * *

This time, she resolved not to commit any killing.

It was based on the judgment that if she changed her mind, the guy would not seek her out.

She entered a temple and became a Buddhist nun.

Nothing was to her liking, but it was also true that a corner of her heart felt light.

And on a night when the moon was brilliantly bright, she met him.

“One.”

* * *

She felt wronged.

This time, as soon as she stepped out of the cave, she took her anger out heavily on the streets of Luoyang.

“One.”

* * *

She tried this way, and lived that way.

Yet however she lived, it found her.

Living virtuously did not make it arrive late, nor did committing evil deeds to her heart’s content make it arrive quickly.

It truly came to find her at any time.

She tried begging, she tried asking for the reason, and she even tried letting go of everything.

But the returning answer was always the same.

“One.”

* * *

She realized.

That she was now trapped forever in a nightmare from which she could not wake.

That only terrible days repeating a cycle of being devoured over and over again would recur.

She did not even know when it would end.

Perhaps, perhaps it would be eternal.

* * *

Although she could never know, she was not the only one trapped in that terrible cycle.

All those devoured by Yeon So-hyeon were in the same cycle.

Through countless ways that only appeared in imagination, through unspeakably terrible punishments.

All wicked people would have to feel the pain that shatters their souls as much as the evil karma they accumulated.

And they were not the only ones there.

Countless wicked people, whom all the chosen ones had devoured until now, were there.

They scream, they shout, and they wail.

Yet they cannot escape.

They cannot even go mad.

Ruining their minds to escape reality was absolutely never permitted.

* * *

A long, long time ago.

Perhaps some ancient time.

Perhaps some place in mythology.

Perhaps in some other world.

Through patience and endurance, there were those who acquired high spirituality and immortality.

They looked with disapproval upon the world’s irrationality, absurdity, and injustice always being ignored.

They resented heaven and earth. Offering themselves as sacrifices, they gave birth to a demonic entity that had never existed in ancient times.

And having been born like that, it constantly grew itself without anyone’s help.

Developed it.

Refined it.

Improved it.

Thus, eons of time passed.

Now, those who knew the substance of it, which had grown boundlessly vast, could not be found.

That was the case even for the chosen ones.

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens did not exist for the chosen one.

It merely existed in the present world through the chosen one.

The chosen ones whose usefulness expired were devoured by the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, just like other wicked people.

Trapped in that microcosm.

A place from which no one can escape.

A place where no being can escape the cycle of pain.

A place where they must only wait for all evil karma to be cleared and annihilated.

Some referred to that place, calling it hell.

* * *

“How is it? Is it to your liking? Personally, I call that closed world the Furnace of Hell.”

The fallen immortal spread his hands toward Yeon So-hyeon.

On his face, fear and madness toward the wondrous entity of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens were revealed together.

“They suffer constantly inside, providing nourishment to the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens. And the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens is growing even now based on that nourishment.”

“I see.”

Yeon So-hyeon’s expression was calm.

The old man, who calmed his excitement, wore a bitter smile toward Yeon So-hyeon.

“You. You are thinking of something else.”

“It is nothing major.”

The old man looked at him with an understanding expression.

“Indeed. Those you could not save are weighing on your mind, aren’t they?”

“……”

Yeon So-hyeon did not make any reply.

His mind recalled the family of the mask maker.

The numerous people hanging in the human flesh factory came to mind.

The innocent people who died in the meantime while he was eliminating the Black Bone Gang came to mind.

The immense heap of corpses he had seen in the underground cavern came to mind.

“You must be thinking that if the Dark Venerable had active roles just a bit more, he might have been able to save them.”

Yeon So-hyeon wore a bitter smile without a word.

“But your judgment was correct. If you had pushed yourself harder to use the power of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens…”

“I would have been eroded by the madness and demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.”

In a way, it was only natural.

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens and the chosen one were not in an inseparable relation.

To the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, the chosen one was merely a consumable.

In the first place, it was absurd to expect that a mere chosen one, who was originally just a human, would have no problems while receiving power from an entity of the outer universe.

“You…”

The old man’s eyes of unknowable depth stared intently at Yeon So-hyeon.

“The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens is showing you their forms.”

Yeon So-hyeon felt something strange in the old man’s words.

“…Was it not originally the case that the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens showed the vengeful spirits?”

The old man let out a hollow laugh.

“No, it is not.”

He waved his hands in denial.

“Those things you see are not the vengeful spirits of the victims.”

“…What do you mean?”

The voice of Yeon So-hyeon, who had already guessed something from the old man’s preceding words, was heavy.

“They are all merely the world’s memories shown by the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens. A human soul is not easily held by the material world.”

It was all merely the artifice of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

To make the chosen one devour the wicked even more and faster.

“…In my case, it was my family.”

The old man’s gaze directed toward the surroundings.

Yeon So-hyeon did not dare to ask what he was seeing and hearing.

For it was definitely something connected to the old man’s heaviest pain.

Shrugging his shoulders, the old man laughed humorously on purpose.

“You are certainly a truly benevolent person, just as I saw. To be able to see vengeful spirits that have no direct relation to yourself.”

The old man chuckled and laughed.

Yeon So-hyeon also wore a bitter smile.

“…The moment I became the chosen one, I thought I had lost all humanity.”

The old man shook his head.

“You have not lost humanity. It is just that your humanity has been distorted by the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.”

And then he added,

“Beware of the depletion of humanity. And also beware of the excess of humanity.”

Yeon So-hyeon nodded.

“If humanity is completely depleted, only the madness of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens will remain, and if humanity is in excess, one will go mad even faster.”

The old man clapped his hands.

“Indeed, you are clever!”

The old man asked Yeon So-hyeon,

“The way you control demonic qi was also highly interesting. I did not even know you would create a way to distinguish yourself from the Dark Venerable like that!”

The old man looked pleased.

What was it that he expected from Yeon So-hyeon?

“The name of that mind art you referred to at first is…?”

“It is the Dual Principles Mind Art.”

Excitingly, the old man shouted,

“Yes! It was a highly excellent application. In martial studies, you are probably several steps superior to me.”

To compare him with an existence that was dare a god/immortal.

“It is merely a minor talent.”

“What useless modesty!”

The old man sat pulling himself close in front of Yeon So-hyeon.

“Then does it not mean you are now able to use both demonic qi and internal energy?!”

At his words, Yeon So-hyeon merely smiled.