Chapter 336: Listen, Mother. (2)
When I try to recall memories of my mother.
I do not remember very much.
—Son.
A slightly high yet tender voice that called to me, and.
A gentle hand that stroked my rough hair.
Holding my younger sibling in one arm.
An expression that looked at me with a smiling face.
I remember my mother, who felt the wind as if enjoying spring.
Much later.
By the time I learned to call this a memory.
Mother had already disappeared.
Mother loved the seasons particularly.
She seemed to like spring the most, but.
Even if that were not the case, she loved whichever season of the four it was.
She rejoiced that flowers bloomed in spring.
Even summer, which grew tiresome with its heat, she said had its own charm.
On summer days when torrential rain fell, she would sit on the wooden porch.
And watch the falling rain together with me.
Autumn, when the leaves bloomed.
Facing winter as snow fell.
Her hands, which held mine tightly as we walked, were so warm I could not let go.
Yes, Mother loved the four seasons.
She loved this world.
At least, that was how it seemed to me.
—Son.
Lying on the bed at night.
After putting Guryeonghwa to sleep. I close my eyes while looking at the ceiling.
—Are you sleepy?
—Mmm…
At my whining voice.
Mother strokes my belly and sings a song by my ear.
The song she sang as I drifted off.
Perhaps because I felt comfort. I would fall into a deep sleep, oblivious to the world.
That I could possess a fragment of memory in this desolate place.
Was ultimately because of Mother's embrace.
That is why.
—Son… I'm sorry…
The last hand that stroked my cheek, and.
The last voice that called to me, sobbing.
Remaining in my head until now.
It had become shackles that bind me.
"…What do you mean by that?"
Biting my tongue as if chewing it. I barely force out the words.
Why.
Does a story of my mother come from the mouth of that World Tree?
"Are you saying the thing inside my body is related to my mother?"
I cannot easily quell the surging, rough energy.
Because I never thought a story about my mother would come from here.
'Mother… is involved in this?'
How can that be?
[Calm yourself, Sado.]
"You tell me a story I cannot calm down from. Then you tell me to calm down—what kind of self-serving words are those."
A story I have never once thought about.
Though I endlessly agonized over the beast contained in my body.
In the end, all I knew was its name.
I thought even that was hardly significant information.
What is that thing?
My speculations.
At first, I thought it was something attached to the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique.
Was it not so, filling its belly by feeding on the demonic qi of demonic stones.
Because when it devoured demonic qi, the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique would activate naturally.
When it devours demonic qi, it is purified and becomes my qi.
That is why I had thought its true nature belonged to the authority the Heavenly Demon bestowed upon me.
But as time passed, my thoughts changed.
It was not attached to the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique.
Rather, I began to think it might belong to the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique.
If its behavior was not eating demonic qi.
But focused on purification.
It was closer to the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique than the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique.
The problem is.
Be that as it may, I do not know why this thing is attached to my body.
Shin-ui said so.
Because dao qi was mixed in, centered around the qi contained in my dantian.
He said I was in a state where it wouldn't be strange if my body exploded at any moment.
With such dao qi and my qi mixed.
It was Shin Noya who prevented problems from occurring in my body.
If Noya actually did not block it.
The dao qi would immediately run rampant and inflict pain on my flesh.
Shin Noya blocked such aspects.
And helped my qi and dao qi to remain in my dantian without clashing.
'And.'
What I can recall here is.
If my qi and dao qi are like that.
The question of what about demonic qi.
Becoming a Demon means.
It means all the qi residing in the dantian converts entirely to demonic qi.
The moment demonic qi enters my body.
The Nine-Flame Wheel Technique begins purification and changes it into my qi.
However, because the speed is not very fast.
It is also the same that demonic qi enters and lingers in my body.
Looking at it this way.
It means three energies already coexist in my body.
Though Shin Noya blocks the clash of dao qi.
Then what about demonic qi?
I think.
Demonic qi is a force that doesn't have much problem mixing with other energies in the first place.
No matter how strong an expert.
The reason even strong experts can be made into Demons by the Heavenly Demon's power is also.
Because demonic qi can coexist with energy.
"That's a story for when one is a Demon."
This applies only when the Heavenly Demon has bestowed sacred fire to make one a Demon.
The reason I see it that way.
"…Demonic qi gnaws away at my qi and flesh."
If one who is not a Demon contains demonic qi in their body.
My qi is blocked as is, and the flesh slowly rots away.
I could know by recalling the Sword Empress of this life.
I could also know by recalling those who suffered from demonic qi in my previous life.
Demonic qi is fatal to martial artists.
It is true that the Heavenly Demon possesses absolute power.
The reason the Demonic Cult could invade the Central Plains so quickly was.
Because the power of demonic qi was that cruel.
Their energy was like an energy born to kill martial artists.
What about me, carrying such rough energy in my body?
"I am not a Demon."
Though I wield demonic qi and live with it inside me.
I was 'still' not a Demon.
Which means.
Originally, the moment demonic qi entered my body.
It is a force that would have me rotting and dying from the very beginning.
If I think of when I consumed demonic stones after entering this life.
It would have been strange from the very beginning then.
The Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique is the power that absorbs the demonic qi of demonic stones.
Since the Nine-Flame Wheel Technique can purify such demonic qi into my qi.
I thought that I, not a Demon, could possess demonic qi in my body without issue.
Truly.
Was that the right of it?
Just as Shin Noya had.
Preventing demonic qi from invading my body.
Was there not something blocking it?
A thought I have had recently.
And if there is a being that can do such a thing, if it is inside me.
"It must be that thing that growled every day."
For several years I thought of its existence with distaste.
Other than wasting food and whining every day about being hungry.
And that it was not much of a danger.
If I recall that in some ways it tried to give me information or help me.
I had thought that perhaps it wasn't something as ominous as a curse, but.
"This thing… was something related to my mother?"
The World Tree spoke.
To know about this thing.
I must know about my mother. I furrow my brow at those words.
"That is a ridiculous story."
[Why do you think so?]
"I saw this thing for the first time in this life."
If such a thing had been attached to my body in my previous life.
There is no way I wouldn't know.
But if this thing is related to my mother. How could I only find out so late?
I had thought the beast was related to the reason I regressed.
"It was something that didn't exist in my previous life, so why would it be with my mother…"
[Truly, do you think it was not present in Sado's previous life?]
"What do you mean by that?"
I furrowed my brow at the World Tree's words.
Asking if I really think this thing wasn't in my previous life?
[Have you never thought that it was merely asleep?]
I have doubts about the World Tree's words.
Because then it is an even stranger matter.
"Even if that is the case. It is a strange thing."
A thing that only slept through the previous life.
That it suddenly awoke after entering the next life.
Is that not even stranger?
"When I met you in my previous life, there was not a single mention of it."
When I met the World Tree then.
It told me the way to escape this world and disappeared not long after.
What the fire that burns karma is.
What it wanted from me.
It didn't tell me anything.
"Then…"
[Do you truly think that after entering this life, there have been no changes?]
"Changes?"
[Recall the changes that have occurred to you.]
The World Tree asks me about changes, but nothing comes to mind immediately.
No, to be exact, there were too many—which was the problem.
There should have been one or two such things.
'What could it be… What is it?'
If it truly had been asleep in my body.
A thing that just slept sprawled out in the previous life.
I had to recall a change great enough to wake it after entering this life.
'…Where.'
I slowly turn my memories back.
A change I experienced right before it woke.
'Mount Hua Sect…'
When I discovered the Black Night Palace bastards' flower at the Mount Hua Sect.
I consumed it and absorbed a great amount of energy.
I also remember devouring all the demonic qi squirming in the Sword Empress's body.
I wondered if it might be those parts, but.
'Before that.'
That was when Shin Noya was with me.
If I recall Shin Noya being surprised and asking what the hell I was carrying in my body.
It could be said to be even before that.
'Then what?'
Was the problem when I absorbed energy from the Mount Hua spirit herb?
That could be seen as the first fortuitous encounter…
"…Huh?"
…
!..
!
While recalling my thoughts, suddenly.
I realized that truly was not the first fortuitous encounter.
The first fortuitous encounter I experienced.
'…The Geumcheon Yeonga's secret chamber.'
Because it was unmistakably the power of that formation I experienced in Sichuan.
The snake that filled the huge room at that time.
The bead that that snake had given me.
It had imbued me with foundational energy that could raise my realm.
Not to mention, for a while a strange divine energy mixed with my fire technique, making me feel so uncomfortable.
"…No way."
If I list them one by one, everything seems like it could be the reason.
The fact that it was a fortuitous encounter at the Geumcheon Yeonga.
And there.
The being before my eyes is the World Tree.
Among the things I encountered there. Though not as enormous as the World Tree.
I recalled that there was a beautiful tree filled with white leaves.
Having recalled up to there.
I explained in words to the World Tree before me.
"…I have been to the Geumcheon Yeonga's secret chamber."
[Is that so.]
"I saw a tree with snow-white leaves there."
I also told it that I had received a fortuitous encounter from a giant snake inside that secret chamber.
[Yes… That child. It seems they gave it to you.]
"It seems you know about the snake that was there."
[I know all too well.]
Sadness was felt in the World Tree's voice.
[A dear child who protected me—how could I not know?]
My eyes widen at the World Tree's words.
Not only the tree with snow-white leaves that I saw there.
But also the demonic beast in the form of a giant snake inside the secret chamber.
Seemed to be related to the World Tree before my eyes.
It had clearly said that all traces of the World Tree had been erased from the world.
How did that remain?
…No, more than that right now.
"…Because of that incident, is it correct that the thing in my body woke up?"
I had to ask this first.
Hearing my words, the World Tree twists its roots and briefly brushes my chest.
[Do you know of resonance?]
Perhaps to explain.
[What you swallowed then. Was that child's dream. And my seed.]
"…What?"
[Wishing to ascend high into the heavens—it was something the child cherished dearly for a long time.]
"Please explain a bit more simply."
[Swallowing my seed means you have contained the traces of its master within your body.]
*Rustle.*
The branch tip moves down from my chest.
And pokes at my dantian.
[As the power of another master entered at the same time. A resonance must have rung out, awakening it.]
"…What in the world is resonance."
[That one is also a master of a world. It reacted to my power.]
"…!"
At the World Tree's words, I caress my dantian where the branch pokes.
That growling thing too.
A master of which world?
Only then do the words the Blood Demon had spoken to me come to mind.
"—The master of the abyss…"
Words the Blood Demon had spoken while looking at the growling thing.
The master of the abyss.
At that time, it was something I passed over lightly because it was words I couldn't understand.
Now, that word 'master' remains distinctly in my head.
The abyss.
Master.
Hearing the World Tree's words.
This thing is also, like the World Tree before me, the master of a world.
Is this thing far greater than I thought?
"No, why is something like that inside me?"
Not the master of this world.
It is already a strange thing that the master of another world is inside my body.
And that such a being is related to my mother.
'Mother.'
It meant my mother was not merely an ordinary woman.
Through the demonic realm gate opened in the empty air.
My mother's face, disappearing helplessly, comes to mind.
It was the cause of my past days breaking down, unable to endure.
The event that made me believe there was no one in the Nine Families worth trusting.
[Sado.]
Amidst the confusion, the World Tree cautiously calls to me.
"…You said you knew about my mother."
[I do not know fully. As I said… I am already an existence erased from that world.]
"But you said you know something."
I grow impatient.
Words I had never properly thought before.
The thought that there might be something more to my mother.
"Please tell me. About my mother…"
Damn it all.
Everything is connected.
The things I go through.
I have a feeling they are damnably connected.
From the beginning, it was because I was a child of the Nine Families.
If the reason those around me become unhappy is also ultimately said to stem from the karma I possess.
I had to hear it.
About the secrets that I hold.
Looking at the World Tree with such eyes.
The World Tree holds a brief silence. Then speaks to me.
[I was erased from that world. But I can know a little. For it is the world I once held.]
[I feel that until now, you all have faced two calamities.]
"Two?"
I recall the two calamities the World Tree spoke of.
If the first is the Blood Demon.
What is the second?
The Heavenly Demon…?
As expected, is it the Heavenly Demon? The only being I could think of worthy of being called the second calamity was the Heavenly Demon.
As Yeonilcheon said, if the calamity is not me.
While recalling thus in my head.
[You said you wished to know about your mother.]
The World Tree begins its story about my mother.
My brow furrows deeply at those words.
…Why now of all times?
We were just talking about calamities.
Are you suddenly changing the subject here?
Just as such doubts came to mind.
[She is precisely.]
The World Tree spoke to me.
[The second calamity that fell upon your world.]
Hearing the words the World Tree uttered.
I was struck by the illusion that the world had come to a halt.