Volume 3 Chapter 24 – Annihilation

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Yeon So-hyeon had been lost in meditation in his bedroom until a short while ago.

It was a temporary lodging carefully prepared by the Protocol Secretary of the Inner Courtyard.

However, he was standing in a completely different place now.

The weight of time that was deeply distorted, precipitated, and rotten enough to be completely decayed.

A suffocating sense of space.

It was a sensation that Yeon So-hyeon was gradually getting used to by now.

The inside of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

Or the outside of the universe.

Yeon So-hyeon took a deep breath.

“…Elder?”

He called the fallen immortal.

But the reply that came back was a voice he did not know.

“…The one who c-called you is not him, but th-this seat, O Ch-Chosen One.”

The voice was not trembling with tension or fear.

It was because his body bore a great heavenly punishment to the extent that the owner of the voice had no choice but to stutter.

“…A congenital malformation.”

Yeon So-hyeon grasped his heavenly punishment without much difficulty.

“Heh, heh. Th-that is right. As expected, the medical skills you p-possess are outstanding.”

The hunchback seemed to like So-hyeon’s reaction of being unfazed even after seeing his hideous appearance.

“You seem to know me, but I do not know you.”

After a few attempts, the hunchback succeeded in shaking his head sufficiently.

“Who or w-what this seat is does not matter in the sl-slightest. This seat is already nothing more than a r-remnant that fulfilled its cherished desire and was d-devoured.”

His eyeball, hidden by his drooping hump, gleamed strangely.

Yeon So-hyeon nodded.

“…Then may I simply call you Senior?”

“D-do as you wish.”

“For what reason did Senior seek me?”

The hunchback raised an arm long enough to drag on the ground and pointed precisely at Yeon So-hyeon.

“A warning.”

Yeon So-hyeon prepared to listen to his words attentively.

Although the current hunchback might be nothing more than a remnant, just as he said.

He harbored a colossal presence that the current Yeon So-hyeon dared not even fathom.

“Hmm.”

Closing his mouth, the hunchback seemed to choose his words for a moment.

“…Do you know by wh-what criteria the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens ch-chooses the Chosen One?”

“I do not.”

He could have bragged and talked all he wanted, but in the end, all he could do was speculate based on conjecture.

“As expected, you are w-wise.”

The hunchback nodded with difficulty.

His abnormally thick and short neck was not suitable for the action of moving his head.

Yet he made a point to behave that way.

“The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens ch-chooses the Chosen One based on ‘talent’.”

Yeon So-hyeon repeated his words in his mind for a moment.

Did that refer to talent for martial arts?

Or talent for literature?

There were too many kinds of talent in the world.

There was still nothing he could be certain of.

“What kind of talent does it refer to?”

The hunchback smiled, revealing teeth whose alignment had completely collapsed.

Yeon So-hyeon felt a strong sense of déjà vu from that appearance.

A dry, distorted, and terribly artificial smile.

It was the smile of the Chosen Ones selected by the ancient demon that was the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

“Th-that is the talent to destroy the w-world.”

At the same time, Yeon So-hyeon’s vision was dyed red.

It was the hunchback’s memory.

Flames fluttered fiercely.

The flames filling all directions reached out their savage hands in search of air.

Everything that could burn was burning in the fire demon.

The flames, unable to find a place to go, cried out as if to burn even the entire atmosphere.

The massive buildings, the gardens, and the corpses numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands no longer left even a trace of their shapes.

The entire world was burning.

In the midst of that blazing hell, ‘he’ smiled.

What was there was not the hideous hunchback.

A colossal muscular giant reaching nine cheok.

Every time his body trampled the earth, the ground dented deep, and the flames avoided the spot as if fearing him.

Strictly speaking, it was not that the flames feared him.

He was handling the flames.

He was ruling over the fire.

“Are you watching?”

An overwhelming power and status, hard to even imagine, assailed Yeon So-hyeon.

“…I am watching.”

He said to So-hyeon.

“Behold, this great catastrophe. And feel, the power that the one called the Chosen One possesses when they reach the end…”

He waved his hand lightly as if playing with fire.

A massive pillar of fire rose, swallowing a huge pavilion that had barely maintained its shape as if sucking it in.

“It is a power like a natural disaster.”

However, his gaze was hollow.

“…But it was not because of this power that this seat’s world met its destruction.”

Yeon So-hyeon’s eyebrows twitched.

“What do you mean?”

A self-mocking smile hung on the giant’s lips.

“It means that this power was given by the result unfolded before your eyes.”

Yeon So-hyeon understood immediately.

“It was not that you destroyed the world with strong power, but that you received strong power because you destroyed the world…!”

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens granted greater power every time it devoured evil.

His power was the price of destroying the entire world.

The giant looked down at his own hands.

“…This seat merely planted embers here and there.”

Yeon So-hyeon nodded.

“Historically, large fires have always left the worst results. The world I live in now also has no way to successfully suppress large fires occurring simultaneously in multiple places.”

The giant looked at the burning world with hollow eyes.

“It was merely wandering the continent for a long time, selling legwork. Just like that, this seat won a war that seemed absolutely unwinnable.”

A burning pavilion collapsed with a roaring sound.

“Those colossal empires all collapsed.”

“…”

“Since all the foundations they possessed lay in cities, and the prominent cities were engulfed in flames, this seat’s revenge, the resentment, ended all too hollowly.”

Instead, as the price for it, his world also ended along with it.

“The legacy of the immortals who wanted to make evil people pay a just price has faded in the eons of time. The current Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens has become an unknown existence whose reality no one can grasp.”

The fallen immortal too had said the same thing in the past.

“The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens wants someone with the talent to destroy the world. And this seat’s talent was exceptionally outstanding.”

Crimson flames danced on his hand.

“This seat’s talent for handling the karmic fire led the world to ruin all too easily. I guarantee that no Chosen One devoured by this Avici Hell had talent in this area as outstanding as this seat.”

He looked at Yeon So-hyeon.

“Since you became the new Chosen One, this seat has constantly observed you. And I became certain.”

“…”

Yeon So-hyeon expressed neither affirmation nor denial at those words.

The giant smiled at Yeon So-hyeon.

“You harbor the power to destroy the world more quickly and efficiently than this seat right here.”

The giant raised a huge finger and pointed at Yeon So-hyeon’s head.

“Would it not be too easy for you to annihilate that small family?”

Though there was a contradiction in expressing the Luoyang Sword Family, which was called the number one family in the Central Plains, as a small family, the one saying those words was the one who had burned his entire world.

“Yet you have no intention of walking that easy path.”

Finally, Yeon So-hyeon opened his mouth.

“…I joined hands with the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens to fulfill my responsibility, not to annihilate my family.”

The giant wore a faint smile.

That smile was surprisingly good-natured.

To the extent that it could not possibly be thought of as the smile of a man who had burned the entire world out of hatred.

To the extent that it was unbelievable for the smile of a Chosen One of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

“This seat merely wanted to make a single girl happy, so I became a Chosen One of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.”

“…”

He came and sat in front of Yeon So-hyeon.

However, Yeon So-hyeon still had to look up at him.

“But just like all Chosen Ones did, this seat also ended up destroying everything.”

His deep eyes stared directly at Yeon So-hyeon.

“…Just as the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens wished.”

Yeon So-hyeon was silent.

Today, he had to exercise endless patience.

Every person he saw harbored karma, whether large or small, and the ancient demon that was the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens shook him, regardless of ally or enemy.

“But you did not respond to that madness. You were not shaken by that hunger.”

Yeon So-hyeon endured.

He controlled it.

What the Luoyang Sword Family needed right now was the sharp blade that was the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, not the flame that burned everything that was the Dark Venerable.

For the future he wished for, the Luoyang Sword Family had to remain intact.

Yeon So-hyeon smiled.

“…I merely disliked living as others told me to since I was young.”

The giant laughed with a sound like thunder.

The surrounding flames danced wildly.

After laughing for a long time, he looked at Yeon So-hyeon with a smile.

“…Do you think this seat does not know that a pillar supporting you is the promise with your precious ones?”

Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.

“…It seems the senior Chosen Ones have no intention of respecting their junior’s privacy at all.”

Once again, the giant burst into loud laughter.

The giant laughed so hard that he even shed tears, as if something were that funny.

Although the tears evaporated in an instant.

“…I apologize for that. But since I cannot help but watch you in the future, it cannot be helped.”

Yeon So-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.

“Since there is unlikely to be any particularly interesting spectacle in a place like this, I will try to understand Senior’s nasty hobby.”

Just then, raindrops began to fall from the sky filled with pitch-black smoke.

“…The permitted time is coming to an end.”

Yeon So-hyeon asked the giant looking up at the sky.

“So what was that warning Senior mentioned at the beginning?”

The giant looked down at him.

“Is not the ending of this seat’s existence itself a massive warning to you?”

“…Indeed.”

From the giant’s gaze, Yeon So-hyeon could feel a regret and repentance so deep that it was immeasurable.

For how long had he been suffering in this space?

The raindrops gradually grew stronger.

* * *

Yeon So-hyeon, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, opened his eyes.

Through the open window, he could see the eastern sky dawning.

At that moment, along with the sound of knocking on the door, Jeong-ah hurriedly entered the room.

“…I felt an ominous sign, so I dared to enter without even asking.”

Yeon So-hyeon smiled.

“It is nothing.”

Although there was no way it was nothing, Jeong-ah had no choice but to nod.

The only one who understood even a little of the weight her master bore was herself at present.

“…They said the investigation has been wrapped up. Thus, they informed us that the Guardian Pavilion’s sealing order imposed on the Inner Courtyard has ended.”

It was now time to leave the Inner Courtyard.