Chapter 458 - Change (變).
'... Hiss.'
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure it out.
What could the way to return to my original world be?
What was the regret that Dangjemun spoke of?
Was it about the things I had done in my past life? If not....
'Is it about the Demon Sword Empress.'
Feeling the heartbeat of the Demon Sword Empress on my back, I thought.
It's about the choice Dangjemun spoke of.
What on earth was I supposed to choose?
I had vaguely suspected that it would be about the death of the Demon Sword Empress.
Because of the timing, and because I had thought that, in my current situation, that was the only choice available to me.
'Then... does it mean I should stop it, at least?'
I didn't know.
Though it was certain that the Demon Sword Empress's death was one of my regrets.
'Even if I manage to do it in this world... would my regrets truly disappear?'
Something I didn't even know if I could stop.
Moreover, at a point where I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to stop it—so even if I somehow managed to stop it.
What was I supposed to do about the aftermath?
It was an event in another world anyway; stopping it wouldn't make the regrets in my world disappear.
'I don't know.'
No matter how much I thought, nothing came clearly into focus.
"Huu...."
I could feel the Demon Sword Empress's breath. Ignoring my ticklish ear, I picked up my pace a little more.
My back was damp.
The Demon Sword Empress's blood was soaking through it.
Feeling that, I swallowed a groan.
I had managed to stop the bleeding with my internal qi, but it seemed to be a much deeper wound than I had expected.
Right now, rather than such complicated thoughts, I should return to the main force and treat the Demon Sword Empress....
"...!"
Something caught my intuition.
I twisted my body.
Slash-!
A tree behind me was cut through and fell.
I hit the ground in a breakfall and rolled once.
I held the Demon Sword Empress close in my arms, minimizing the impact as much as possible.
Immediately, I raised my internal qi to its limit and simultaneously filled my heart with demonic qi.
In a fleeting instant, I took up a combat stance, then looked straight ahead, cold sweat dripping.
"Impressive."
The owner of the sword strike that had just been unleashed approached.
"I aimed to sever your legs, yet you sensed it."
"... Who are you?"
Wind blew.
With it, the old man's ink-black dao robe fluttered. His presence was hazy.
No, it was hazy, yet incredibly vast.
Crackle--!
Lightning qi pervaded the air.
The lightning qi wrapped around the old man's body resembled that of the Demon Sword Empress, but it felt far more refined than hers.
As I looked at the old man with trembling eyes.
Heheh-
The old man let out a laugh and spoke to me.
"It seems I made a mistake."
"..."
The old man.
Realizing the meaning of the mistake the Heavenly Venerable spoke of, I swallowed dryly.
The strike just now was originally one I should not have been able to sense.
Had there been no unexpected variable, it would have been only natural for my legs to be severed by the old man's sword.
Yet I had dodged.
The reason was simple.
"... The heart demon is truly a tragic thing."
Because before the strike flew, a fierce killing intent had been felt first.
'I'm going insane.'
Looking at the old man, I licked my lips bitterly.
The last Nangong.
One of the Three Venerables of the World, and the supreme of the Nangong Clan.
The Heavenly Venerable (天尊).
An enormous killing intent was erupting from his body.
My fingertips trembled.
It was a sense of intimidation born from the difference in rank.
'This is really dangerous.'
That killing intent was real. The Heavenly Venerable truly intended to kill.
'What am I going to do?'
I furrowed my brows.
Since this was unmistakably the domain of Sichuan, for the Heavenly Venerable to come out like this was a situation where the Heavenly Demon might appear.
He should have known that too.
'Is he ignoring the Heavenly Demon's warning?'
Was this the outbreak of war?
It was not a strange occurrence. In my past life, the Heavenly Venerable had in fact broken the pact and started the war.
The problem was.
That the timing just had to be right now.
'Sss.'
Carefully laying the Demon Sword Empress on the ground, I stood up.
It was such a sudden situation that I couldn't understand it.
"... Why are you doing this all of a sudden?"
Concentrating all my qi senses on the Heavenly Venerable, I asked.
"This is Sichuan... Have you forgotten the Cult Leader's warning—"
Puh-uk.
"...!"
I had tried to break through the situation by mentioning the Heavenly Demon's warning.
Something sharp burrowed into my chest.
I lowered my gaze.
A sword blade was plunged deep into my chest.
"Keurgh-!"
The moment I confirmed the situation, blood surged from my mouth.
Shhk-!
The sword was pulled free, soaking the ground crimson.
My knees buckled helplessly.
"Keo-heuk...."
The internal qi that had been supporting my body vanished, and my vision gradually darkened.
I knew this sensation.
It was death.
Death was approaching.
... So suddenly?
"Heo-eok... heok...."
As my upper body slowly collapsed, the Heavenly Venerable passed by me with slow, measured steps.
His goal seemed to be the Demon Sword Empress.
I reached out my hand.
Even as my eyes were closing, I tried to stop the Heavenly Venerable's feet.
Tap.
I didn't reach.
All that met my hand was the cold sensation of the earthen floor.
The last thing captured in my darkening vision was the Heavenly Venerable reaching his hand toward the Demon Sword Empress's neck.
I couldn't let this happen. I had to stop it somehow. But I couldn't.
I couldn't stop the approaching darkness.
In the end, I had to meet such a sudden death, just like that.
********************
A building burning and collapsing.
Blood that had fully soaked that floor.
The day the Nangong Clan's seed in this world was drying up and withering away.
The Heavenly Venerable remembers that day.
How could he forget?
The grandson called the Patriarch had been reduced to just a body rolling on the floor.
The day the Nangong Clan, which was said to reign over the orthodox sects from the heavens, disappeared overnight.
The Heavenly Venerable could never forget that day.
"... How tragic."
A dry voice flowed from the old man's lips.
"Is it not so?"
The one he wanted to hear the answer from had her eyes closed and her mouth shut.
To the Heavenly Venerable, it was a face he had so wanted to see.
She was the enemy who had annihilated the Nangong Clan that had been his everything, and also the last bloodline remaining in this world.
Furthermore, she was also the reason the Heavenly Venerable lived.
"I wanted to ask."
Just why did you do it.
The Heavenly Venerable wanted to ask her this. How did you burn down the Nangong Clan with your own hands.
Did you hold enough resentment to sever your own father's neck?
What made you into such a monster?
Words he had been so curious about. But now, they were no longer important.
"..."
The Heavenly Venerable's gaze turned to the hilt held in the Demon Sword Empress's hand.
The sword gripped as if she would not let go even while unconscious.
It was the symbol of the Nangong Clan, and an item containing the command of an old ancestor.
One recognized by the Thunder Fang.
That person is the rightful master of Nangong.
They were words left by the Thunder Sky One Sword.
Grind.
The Heavenly Venerable's teeth gnashed.
"... What a laughable saying."
Nothing but the empty words of an old ancestor.
The Heavenly Venerable thought so.
For if not, how could such a thing be possible?
The Heavenly Venerable could not wield the Thunder Fang. Yet he inherited the position of Patriarch.
Because he had been the strongest.
The later-generation Patriarchs were the same.
The grandson called the Sword King could not draw the Thunder Fang, yet he became Patriarch.
Talk about the Thunder Fang was no longer an important part in determining the Patriarch.
And yet.
'Then why do you...'
The great-granddaughter before him could use the Thunder Fang as if it were nothing.
And how could such a person massacre all of her own blood?
It was something the Heavenly Venerable could never understand.
This remained as a terrible regret, tormenting the Heavenly Venerable.
That night.
If he had not listened to the Alliance's words and headed to the Murim Alliance.
Or.
"If only I had killed you when I first saw you."
Then would this not have happened?
The Heavenly Venerable recalls.
The moment this child grasped the retrieved Thunder Fang.
Its true form bursting forth and radiating light.
The Patriarch's desire as he watched it, and the jealousy felt from him.
"..."
Where did it go wrong?
No, it no longer mattered.
The Heavenly Venerable slowly reached his hand toward the Demon Sword Empress.
A thin, white neck was easily grasped.
One must not set foot into the domain of Sichuan.
This was a warning the Heavenly Demon of the past had issued to the Three Venerables.
Thus, the Three Venerables truly did not set foot in Sichuan for several years.
Partly because the martial prowess displayed by the Heavenly Demon had been despair-inducing and terrifying.
But the most important reason was that Muhui had personally told them not to go.
That now was not the time.
That there would certainly be an opportunity.
The Heavenly Venerable, who had followed no one's orders, had ludicrously listened to those words and truly not gone to Sichuan.
He knew.
That he had secretly wished to be given a justification.
For himself, who had abandoned fighting out of fear of the Heavenly Demon, he had needed a reason not to fight the Heavenly Demon.
Truly despicable.
It was even too shameful to bear the Nangong surname.
So perhaps it was fortunate.
Because now, except for himself and the child before his eyes, the Nangong had all disappeared.
"... Tsk, tsk...."
The Heavenly Venerable laughed bitterly.
In the end, this was all he amounted to.
The very embodiment of contradiction. While his entire family burned and revenge brimmed over.
A petty coward who held his steps out of fear of the Heavenly Demon.
A man tangled up in conceit, arrogance, and an inferiority complex.
That was him.
The inner demon deepened gradually.
The Heavenly Venerable wanted to end it now.
With the vengeance that had barely kept him alive as the end. Now, finally ending it....
"...."
The Heavenly Venerable, who had been about to break the Demon Sword Empress's neck, stopped his hand at a sudden sense of alienation.
"... Something's...."
Something was strange.
He had been hesitating out of fear of the Heavenly Demon's power just moments ago, so why had he entered Sichuan?
Furthermore....
'... Why now....'
Rather than the clan's revenge.
Where had the old man's desire to die on the land of the Nangong Clan after all the wars ended gone?
That should have been the case, so why was he holding the Demon Sword Empress's neck here?
Due to this subtle sense of alienation, the Heavenly Venerable momentarily felt his mind grow numb.
Why? How on earth had this happened?
The Heavenly Venerable tried to recall why he had come here.
He didn't know. The Heavenly Venerable had an illusion as if something was burned black in his head.
The only thing clear within that haze was.
'—I permit it.'
Nothing but the sensation that someone had given permission.
The moment he recalled that, the Heavenly Venerable's eyes grew clear, and strength re-entered his hand.
Just as he was about to carry out his revenge again, as if entranced.
Thud, thud.
"...!"
Feeling something, the Heavenly Venerable whipped his head around.
But there was nothing behind him.
An illusion? Just as he thought so.
"Huh?"
The Heavenly Venerable immediately realized it was not an illusion.
The reason was precisely that there should not have been 'nothing' there.
There should have clearly been a corpse lying there.
He had stabbed its heart with his own hand, so it should definitely have been there.
Nothing at all remained in the direction the Heavenly Venerable was looking.
Not even spilled blood.
Not even traces of having fallen.
Nothing at all.
The moment the Heavenly Venerable confirmed that absurd situation and tried to assess it.
Rumble.
A vibration was felt.
The direction was to the left. The Heavenly Venerable turned his head.
"...!!"
From the place where an inexplicable vibration was felt.
Shock filled the Heavenly Venerable's face as he looked there.
Something was there.
By its posture, the figure standing blankly seemed to be clearly looking at the Heavenly Venerable.
The reason he couldn't be certain about the gaze was none other.
Roar....
Blue flames wrapping around its body were burning the figure entirely.