Chapter 532 - The Curse of the Dragon Blood.
The Blood Demon is a calamity.
And such a being possessed the power to freely command his bound specters.
Even if one infused qi to bind a specter, before a Blood Demon it held no meaning at all.
If it was something the Blood Demon could do, I did not think it particularly strange.
Because he is a calamity.
Since he is an existence beyond humanity, I did not think it too odd for him to possess such power.
The problem lay in the fact that I could do the same.
I possessed a power identical to that of a calamity. That alone gave rise to all manner of thoughts.
"Ha...."
A hollow sigh escaped me.
"The Blood Demon was like that too."
[...Yes.]
Just as I had used Ghost Essence and Thunder Fang, the Blood Demon had done the same.
If so.
"Why are you only telling me this now?"
[...]
"It is information you already knew.... is it not?"
[...That is also true.]
If the Divine Noya had realized this after seeing how Ghost Essence changed upon coming to me, he could have told me long ago.
Yet Noya was only now telling me this.
Then what was the reason?
Moreover, stopping me right when Namgung Myeong was about to speak. There had to be a reason for telling me separately like this.
[That is....]
"Did you not trust me?"
[...!]
"Is that why you did not say anything?"
Though my dull-sounding voice made even me swallow my surprise inwardly,
if Noya had not spoken, I believed that could only be the reason.
Because he did not trust me.
I did not think that was because it would be a problem if I were truly a calamity.
It was solely because...
"Were you afraid I would not overcome it?"
[...]
Fearing that, upon hearing this, I would be swept away by the information and collapse.
It must have been Noya's silence, thinking of a me who could not overcome it.
[...Lad....]
"I understand your intention, Noya."
I wondered why that foul-tempered old man would act so kindly,
but damn it, that only made things harder for me.
"I will not collapse over something like this."
It was something I had been thinking about for a long time.
Quite separate from being sensitive and feeling like shit about it, I was saying I would not collapse over something so trivial.
Too much had happened for me to collapse over this.
I had gained too much to protect. And the road ahead was still long.
I could not simply collapse here.
"...Even if I truly am a calamity. I have no intention of collapsing here."
Even if my body had changed, even if I could do what the Blood Demon had done.
Even if, just as that bastard Yeonga said, I truly am a calamity.
"...I will not collapse."
It was not a statement to Noya, but words I was repeating to myself.
That I could not collapse here.
I had no intention of stopping.
Therefore, while I appreciated Noya's worry, I thought it a meaningless act.
It was better to know.
Only by knowing could I respond.
[The reason I did not tell you was not because I did not trust you.]
With that, Noya belatedly began his explanation.
[To a brat busy with endless matters and mending his body and qi, how could I bring up such a thing?]
The reason was understandable when heard.
Still, if it concerned the Blood Demon, he should have told me. The explanation he was giving now seemed nothing but an excuse to me.
"Then why tell me now?"
[I meant to tell you a bit later, but that damned fool opened his mouth without reading the room, so I had no choice.]
He was saying he had been forced to speak because Namgung Myeong had suddenly brought up the Blood Demon.
That was what Noya was saying.
"Whatever the case, you are saying that even to you, Noya, the connection is undeniable, are you not?"
[...]
To this, Noya did not offer a denial.
It looked that way to me; to Noya, it must have looked even more so.
How could he deny it?
'Is it a problem that arose from absorbing blood qi?'
At first I had thought so, but now I was beginning to think it might not be the case.
When I had devoured so much qi that my vessel was on the verge of shattering,
I had thought these changes occurred because I fought and absorbed the blood qi within my body.
But for that to be the case...
'Father's words weigh on me.'
My father's words weighed on me.
My father, who had thought of my mother upon seeing my changed appearance.
'...Then Mother too.'
At a time when I could not properly define my physical body.
If my mother too had had a similar appearance.
My current form might be seen less as a result of rebuilding my vessel and absorbing the Blood Demon's blood qi,
and more as a change brought about by my mother's bloodline.
'Since Mother was also called a calamity.'
If it were so, then what of Guryeonghwa?
'Does that mean that child could become like this too?'
I thought of my younger sister, who must be rolling around on Mount Hua to her heart's content.
Could Guryeonghwa also take on such an appearance?
I hoped not. And moreover, I thought she would not.
This form was ultimately a problem caused by devouring too much in this life.
Unless one accumulated an extraordinary amount of qi, the vessel would not shatter.
It was a problem born of this mad body devouring multiple types of qi. However, if there was one question.
'I had thought I could devour multiple types of qi thanks to the power of the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique.'
These days, I had often wondered if that had not been the case from the very beginning.
Naturally, I had thought it was the power of the Demonic Heavenly Absorption Technique. What else could come to mind?
However.
What if my body had been capable of such a thing from the start?
I wondered if I had not been wrong in my thinking from the very beginning.
'...I never tried harboring other qi in my previous life.'
What madman would think to harbor a different type of qi?
It was not something one would do unless intent on suicide.
Different heart arts are incompatible with one another; put in one body and they would collide and explode.
It means dying as your body bursts from the backlash of qi.
This was the reason demonic arts were said to possess tremendous capabilities.
Any heart art could seep into the body together.
The authority granted by the Heavenly Demon was also great, and the value of the power called demonic qi was likewise astounding.
That was why those mad for power would join the Demonic Cult.
'If this is not the power of authority.'
If my ability to harbor multiple types of qi
were not due to demonic arts, but my very constitution from the start.
'...'
If it were possible not because of authority, but because I am my mother's child....
'Guryeonghwa might be able to as well.'
That child might be able to do it too.
If that were truly the case, it would be a truly shitty affair.
If it were so, would it not be as if all the processes were telling me something?
'I was meant to be a calamity from the very beginning. Something like that, I suppose.'
There were many ways to confirm this.
Going to Guryeonghwa and implanting a different qi to see if it could be maintained simultaneously within her body.
That would be the fastest way, but...
'How could I do such a dog-like thing.'
If it did not work, Guryeonghwa's body might explode.
I could not do such a thing to that child just to confirm this.
'I'd rather judge myself to be a calamity.'
That would be the better option. As I was thinking so.
-The world does not make the same mistake twice.
Suddenly, the words Yeon Ilcheon had spoken to me flashed through my mind.
At the point when this world's master disappeared, the attempt to act through the Blood Demon had ended in failure.
So first, he had blocked the potential of opposing martial artists, lowering their strength.
In the meantime, he had sent my mother to finish the world's work, but in the end, that too had failed.
That was what I had been thinking.
'But perhaps.'
Perhaps that had not been the case from the very beginning.
If the world was moving toward a single possibility by opening countless other worlds,
perhaps what he desired was different.
If so, what could he be hoping for?
'Does he truly wish for me to become a calamity.'
For now, that seemed the most probable. Setting aside why one would wish to become a calamity.
I was now becoming something other than human. And all the arrows were beginning to point in one direction.
The world wishes for me to become a calamity.
Just as I thought that was the most fitting story.
'Then what is the Heavenly Demon,'
a contradiction arose.
If so, what is the Heavenly Demon?
What is the reason the Heavenly Demon returned me to the past?
And what exactly is she?
Moreover.
'Why has the world not taken away all possibilities?'
According to the information Dang Jemun had given Noya, if he had lowered the limits of martial artists,
why did he not take 'everything' and merely lower them?
No matter how much I thought about it, this was something I could not know.
'What is the intention?'
Countless roads stretch out before me.
Whether by my will or not.
They are immensely numerous roads, and though their ends cannot be seen,
for some reason, I felt that the end of every single one of those roads pointed to a single destination.
'The problem is that the destination is unclear.'
Damn it....
In the end, to know this, the first thing I had to do was set in stone.
'I must meet Mother.'
Meeting my mother, who is said to be somewhere in the Demonic Realm.
Only then did I think I could know. The truth of what I was currently experiencing.
As I barely managed to organize my thoughts,
[Lad.]
"...Yes."
[You will not be a calamity.]
"Ha ha."
At Noya's out-of-nowhere words, I let out a dry laugh.
"After coming this far, do you think I am not a calamity?"
I suspected that even the Divine Noya might know that was not true.
Perhaps he was regretting that the companion he happened to meet turned out to be a calamity.
'Ah, I don't think that's it.'
Given Noya's personality, I thought that probably was not the case, but.
He must be as troubled in the head as I am.
As I thought so and tried to smile,
[Did I not tell you before?]
Noya said.
[You need only believe in yourself.]
"...!"
[Even if, lad, you truly are a calamity. If you yourself do not think so, then you are not.]
"That sounds like you are just ignoring reality."
[So what if I am? I say you are not. Then that is that.]
It was truly a simplistic answer.
No matter what others said, if I said I was not, that was the end of it.
Though it was a statement that let me know how Noya had managed to maintain his convictions and live,
could I do the same?
[You can.]
The answer came not from me, but from Noya, speaking with decisive firmness as if in my stead.
[You can do it.]
Those words felt particularly heavy.
Was it because the faith was heavy? Or was it because of the guilt I felt having glimpsed even a little of Noya's life.
"How can you be so certain. That I can do it."
[Why wouldn't I be? You are that kind of lad.]
"..."
Having another express a confidence I myself could not muster inevitably drew forth many emotions.
Perhaps Noya had known from the very beginning.
The fact that I might be a calamity—perhaps Noya had already known.
'And yet it did not matter to him.'
If I am not, then I am not.
You are one who will think yourself not. Had he judged me so?
If that was the case.
"That's really unfair."
It was words that made it impossible to choose any other option.
For deceiving one who believes in me is the most repulsive thing in the world.
As I spoke with a hollow laugh, Noya replied curtly.
[Then be a calamity if you hate it so much.]
"...What?"
[If you hate it, then do so. What else can you do?]
Noya always veered off lightly right when things were going well.
He had never once kept the weight until the very end.
I knew this was Noya's consideration.
Because I knew it so well, I suppose there was nothing more I could do.
"...For now, I'll try everything. Don't believe in me too much."
[I did not believe in you much to begin with, so worry not. As if I'd believe you when I have no one else to trust.]
This old man...? He always had to say it like that.
"Seriously, it's a good thing you're a ghost...."
[I am the one who should say that. You impudent brat. If we had met in person, you wouldn't have dared open your mouth to me.]
It probably would have been so, but I decided not to care about such facts. So what. We can't meet anyway.
Just in case.
'Even if I really am a calamity. For now, I just have to belly up and endure it. What else can I do?'
I had no intention of being placed in such a shitty situation.
No, it seemed I was already in it, but I was quite confident in running away from a task I didn't want to do.
Moreover, forcing me to do something I hate?
'I've got a nasty temper, so if it comes to that, I'll bite. Keep that in mind.'
I spat those words inwardly, not knowing to whom they were directed.
If someone was listening, it was a telling them to screw off.
My head felt tired.
Perhaps because I had thought so much, both body and mind were reaching their limit.
"...I only cut back on sleep for a few days."
If I had accumulated this much fatigue in a Transformation Realm body, it was quite serious.
Right, first things first, to hell with thoughts, I need to sleep.
I turned over.
Thinking that even at longest an hour of deep sleep would do, I intended to force myself to sleep.
After closing my eyes and losing consciousness,
exactly an hour later, when I opened my eyes.
"Uwaaack! Shit!"
The moment I opened my eyes, I had to cry out at the sight.
Inside the dark room, there was someone else besides me.
I wondered if it was an assassin, and it was.
The one who had come to me was an assassin.
And one of the most famous assassins in the Central Plains at that.
"..."
"...Wh-what are you doing there?"
I asked upon seeing him.
I couldn't not ask.
How could I not?
The assassin in the room was the master of the Dark Night Assassins, called the greatest assassin corps in the Central Plains.
The King of the Night, said to have no one in the Central Plains he could not kill.
The Dark King was kneeling before me.
"...Hm."
To my question, the Dark King tilted his head slightly and spoke.
"I feel somewhat relieved now."
"...?"
It was an incomprehensible statement.