< Episode 635 > White (白).
Silence.
In a world scorched black, Uhyeok thought.
Truly, it was silent.
The world that had been filled with noise was, for some reason, silent.
Just a moment ago, it had definitely seemed incredibly loud.
-Kill.
-Accept it.
-Worship.
They were very different from the noise he usually heard.
Unlike the usual jumble of sounds that couldn't be properly distinguished.
This time, sounds too clear pierced his ears.
How much time had passed since he heard the sounds? It felt like countless hours had passed.
Thud-! Thud-thud-!
Even as the sudden sound of the ceiling seeming to collapse and shatter rang out.
-Praise…!
-Revere!
As if trying to brainwash him, they kept speaking to him.
It went on like that for a while. The sounds that had been ringing out loudly for a while.
-Praise….
At some point, a sudden silence descended.
'Hm?'
Feeling this, Uhyeok slowly opened his eyes.
A sudden sense of regret washed over him.
'It wasn't so bad.'
Though the repeating voices had grown a little tiresome, compared to the noise he usually heard, they were no different from a lullaby.
He had thought he could rest a little longer at this rate.
'That the sounds stopped means…'
Could it be that something was about to happen?
With that thought, Uhyeok opened his eyes and raised his upper body.
"Hm?"
And at the situation before his eyes, he tilted his head in confusion.
Night had come to the world.
A pitch-black night dark enough that nothing could be seen.
The floor, of course, and even the sky above, veiled in black….
"Huh?"
Uhyeok looked up and let out a sound.
He definitely saw it.
The white background that had remained slightly, being swept away and disappearing into the blackness.
With that, the world where Uhyeok resided was entirely scorched black.
"Heh heh."
Uhyeok laughed upon seeing that.
"This is the perfect environment for sleeping."
Rather than worry, that was his first thought.
It was a world without a single light.
If he closed his eyes here, he felt he could sleep soundly.
Thinking this, he considered lying back down for a moment when,
"Come to think of it…."
He recalled something strange.
"Why am I here?"
Why would he be in a place like this?
That question only occurred to him just now.
How had he ended up in a place like this?
'Surely… towards the very end….'
He thought he had seen something while following someone.
He didn't really know.
"I suppose it doesn't matter."
Because he felt it didn't matter much.
Using his own arm as a pillow, Uhyeok rolled onto his side.
What did it matter what was what?
'Right now, it's so quiet.'
The silence of the present was more important to him.
He sought sleep in the silence.
Unable to resist this temptation, just as Uhyeok was about to close his eyes.
Tap.
He sensed a presence.
Wondering where such a presence came from out of nowhere, he looked.
Someone was sitting beside Uhyeok.
And at that.
-Krrr… urrr….
Crushing something white and unknown beneath him.
It looked… somewhat like a snake.
He didn't know.
Though to call it a snake, its appearance was somehow subtly different.
And.
The one crushing it was—
'…Who?'
First, it was an appearance he'd never seen before.
Dressed in torn, worn black martial robes, his build didn't look particularly large.
However, Uhyeok, looking up at his face.
"…!"
A chill!
At the feeling washing over him, he found himself sitting up without realizing it.
Goosebumps rose all over his body.
The moment their eyes met, he was enveloped in an inexplicable terror.
'…What killing intent….'
At the killing intent radiating from the man, Uhyeok's body instinctively went on guard.
The man had done nothing. He wasn't even looking at Uhyeok.
Yet merely by looking at him, Uhyeok felt death.
A figure who seemed to have transformed killing intent into human form.
Such was the man.
"…Who are you…?"
Uhyeok asked in a voice full of vigilance.
Swish.
The man's head turned toward Uhyeok.
Seeing his face, Uhyeok flinched and trembled.
'…What?'
He looked familiar.
The man's face resembled someone Uhyeok knew considerably.
Pupils of purple and whites of his eyes scorched black.
Aside from the death felt even beyond his gaze.
Those uniquely slit pupils and features reminded him of a familiar face.
If that friend grew older, he would look exactly like that.
Gulp.
Swallowing dryly in the uncomfortable silence.
Then.
"I'm sorry."
At the sudden apology, Uhyeok made a blank expression.
It was because he hadn't expected a sudden apology.
"…What?"
Uhyeok asked him without hiding his expression.
"Come to think of it, these are words I've never said to you before."
"Hm?"
Does he know me? Uhyeok made a strange expression.
"How do I look?"
This time, the man directed a question at Uhyeok.
"The me you saved—how do I look now?"
"…?"
What was he talking about? He couldn't understand.
Saved? What did that mean?
Just when had he ever saved this man?
"Even as I lived trying to understand, I have never once understood you."
Even though Uhyeok asked, the man seemed to have no intention of answering.
"That it was me you saved by throwing away your precious life. That you did this without a moment's hesitation. I cannot understand you."
Why was that?
Hearing those words, Uhyeok felt a sense of suffocation.
"…Who are you? Just who are you to say such things?"
"Do you regret it?"
It was the same this time too.
The man didn't answer. He merely continued his own words.
"I wish you would regret it."
In a very heavy, and also scorched, voice.
"So I wish you would resent me. You have the right to do so."
"…"
"Then too. And."
The man looked at Uhyeok then turned his head again.
"From now on as well."
"…"
No matter how much he looked, Uhyeok couldn't know.
What the man was saying now, who that man even was—there was nothing he could know.
But.
"…I don't know what you're talking about, but."
Uhyeok somehow ended up speaking to the man.
If asked why,
"If I truly saved you."
He just felt he should say so.
"I must have done so because you seemed worth it."
"…"
Though the man was still not looking at Uhyeok, Uhyeok saw his shoulders tremble slightly at those words.
"I don't know if you're saying this truly knowing me. You asked if I regret it?"
At those words, Uhyeok answered with a sullen expression.
"Well, I probably didn't regret it. I saved someone worth saving. That was enough. I must have thought so."
Speaking with such feeling, thinking that he would have done the same.
And on top of that.
"Your starting premise is wrong."
"Premise?"
"That's right."
"I'm sorry."
The words the man uttered while looking at Uhyeok.
For some reason, Uhyeok didn't like that.
"Thank me."
"…!"
"I think that would be a little more pleasant to hear."
"Ha."
At Uhyeok's words, the man let out a small laugh.
"You really are still a crazy bastard."
"What…?"
At the sudden insult, Uhyeok looked at the man incredulously.
And in doing so, he felt it was quite familiar.
"You damn fool."
"Your tongue is quite harsh for a first meeting. Is everyone who looks like that so—?"
Swish.
At Uhyeok's words, the man rose.
Seeing that, Uhyeok waved his hands with a slightly flustered expression.
"It was a joke. A jo…! I was just trying to crack a joke…!"
He was going to get hit.
Having realized it instinctively, Uhyeok naturally tried to find an angle to flee, but
fortunately, the man didn't seem to be trying to hit Uhyeok.
The man calmly approached Uhyeok and, looking down at him, spoke.
"Now, get up."
"Huh?"
"My hand is starting to hurt."
"…Huh?"
In the moment he was wondering what that meant.
Slap—!
"Kuk!?"
Uhyeok's head turned to the side on its own.
At the stinging pain, Uhyeok covered his own cheek.
He'd been hit. But,
'It wasn't that man who hit me.'
The man was still.
What was going on?
Slap—!
"Kuk!"
He was hit again.
That wasn't the end.
Slap—! Slap—! Slap—!
With sharp sounds, Uhyeok's head turned from side to side.
"Urk—! Stop!"
He shouted, not even knowing at whom.
Even so, the man merely watched Uhyeok and spoke.
"Get up."
Slap—!
"No—! Wai…!"
Slap—! Slap—!
"I said get up."
Slap—!!
"You damn—!!"
Enduring the pain until he could endure no more, Uhyeok finally shouted.
"I'm getting up! I'll get up so stop hitting me!"
He shot up—!
Uhyeok yelled as he sprang up.
"Hah… hah…."
"Oh. You're up."
It wasn't the heavy voice from the conversation just now, but a slightly youthful voice that caused Uhyeok to turn his gaze.
There, Gu Yangcheon was looking at Uhyeok with his hand raised.
"…You… ugh!?"
Uhyeok flinched at the pain he felt.
His cheek hurt like crazy.
And it was incredibly hot at the same time.
"You just wouldn't wake up, so I touched you a bit. As expected, this was the answer."
No way, the pain and sounds he had been feeling until now…
"…Were you really hitting me?"
"You just wouldn't wake up."
At Gu Yangcheon's words, Uhyeok, his cheeks swollen, spoke.
"…You could have just used your internal qi to wake me."
If he wanted to bring him to his senses, he could have just circulated qi to rouse him.
Though it was a somewhat difficult method, at Gu Yangcheon's level, he could have done it lightly and then some.
At those words, Gu Yangcheon smiled awkwardly.
"The thing is, it doesn't work easily on you anymore."
"What do you mean by that again…?"
Just as Uhyeok was about to voice his question, his eyes went wide.
Because he sensed something strange.
He examined his body.
"Huh?"
Then he understood.
That his flesh was somehow different.
'What?'
Aside from his martial robes being inexplicably messed up, his body looked fine on the outside.
But inside, it was completely different.
'…My qi.'
It was truly tremendous qi.
Enormous qi was circulating within Uhyeok's body.
Originally, Uhyeok was also of the Yuseong Generation.
Being one of the Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes, and having been called the greatest rising talent of Wudang, the qi he possessed had never been considered small, but
the current level was on a completely different dimension.
'…It's overflowing.'
It flowed and overflowed again.
To the point where he couldn't even perceive how much there was himself.
Moreover.
"…!"
While grasping his qi, Uhyeok finally noticed the strangest part.
'Why is my qi…!'
The qi that ought to have remained in his lower dantian was at his heart… that is,
it was flowing from the position of his middle dantian.
What was going on?
"Tch."
At that reaction, Gu Yangcheon clicked his tongue.
"And here you are, already tough enough. To think you went and devoured a fortuitous encounter too."
"Fortuitous encounter…?"
"Ah, fuck… I'm so pissed it's such a waste, really…."
Haah.
The repeated sighs sounded extremely heavy.
"…What a waste… really a waste…."
"…What the hell are you talking about. What are you saying is a waste?"
"There just is, you bastard! If only I'd eaten that…."
Cursing, he examined Uhyeok's body this way and that.
"Still, fortunately, it seems to be working properly."
"…?"
"Looking at your condition, you don't seem to know what you obtained…. Is this a problem caused during the transfer?"
"What are you going on about?"
"Forget it. As long as it worked out, it's fine."
Without answering anything, Gu Yangcheon stood up.
Seeing that, Uhyeok asked in surprise.
"Are you hurt…?"
"Hm? Oh."
It was because Gu Yangcheon's body was a mess.
His upper body was deeply bruised, blood flowing.
His body was covered in scrapes and scratches everywhere.
And.
'His breathing is unsteady.'
Gu Yangcheon's breathing was distorted.
It was proof that he was that exhausted.
For that monster-like guy to be exhausted, just what had happened?
"I just got a little scratched."
He answered as if it were no big deal, but it definitely didn't look simple.
At the same time, Uhyeok looked around and figured something else out.
"This place is…."
Though everything had collapsed and been smashed, it was a familiar space. It was definitely where he had come with Yuseon…
Ah.
"Yuseon…! The First Miss?"
"…"
At Uhyeok's question, Gu Yangcheon made an uncomfortable expression.
And spoke to Uhyeok.
"Originally, there was a lot I wanted to ask you, you know?"
"…"
At those words, Uhyeok firmly closed his mouth.
Words that needed to be spoken.
Yes, they had such things. Things Gu Yangcheon wanted to ask Uhyeok.
And a point where Uhyeok had things to ask Gu Yangcheon as well.
"So, be prepared."
"…Prepared?"
"Yeah, prepared."
Gu Yangcheon picked his ear with his pinky finger as if annoyed.
"It looks like it's going to drag on, so let's prepare a three-line summary. Both of us."
"…"
"Long chats are annoying for both of us, right?"
Even though it was a situation that should be serious.
Gu Yangcheon was as nonchalant as always.
A three-line summary in this situation. Truly, he couldn't be anything but a madman.
'This guy is really….'
A being I can never understand no matter how much I see.
At the moment Uhyeok was judging thus.
"Then, I'm going on ahead first, so come slowly."
"What?"
Gu Yangcheon casually turned his back and spoke.
Uhyeok was bewildered by those words.
"You're leaving?"
Suddenly?
Leaving him here?
Seeing Uhyeok filled with confusion, Gu Yangcheon spoke.
"Originally, I planned to take you with me as soon as you woke up."
That's right.
Though the purpose of coming here had changed from the original, the main reason was to take Uhyeok.
However.
"Things got a bit urgent."
Gu Yangcheon wiped the cold sweat flowing down and looked somewhere.
"Damn it, throwing a fit until the very end. Why does nothing ever get resolved easily?"
"…Yangcheon…?"
"At your level now, there shouldn't be any particular problem. Come on your own."
As if there were no time to explain, Gu Yangcheon took a stance.
He bent his knees as if to leap high.
*Fwoosh—!*
In an instant, flames enveloped Gu Yangcheon's body.
He shot out just like that.
And just as he was about to leap with determination.
"Ah."
As if he had forgotten something, Gu Yangcheon looked at Uhyeok.
"Hey."
"Huh?"
"Sorr… hm."
He started to speak but stopped for a moment.
Biting his lip briefly, Gu Yangcheon spoke to Uhyeok again.
"Thank you. For staying alive."
"…?"
Uhyeok tried to ask what he meant, but
*Fwoosh—!!!* *Crash—!*
Gu Yangcheon wrapped himself in flames and smashed through the ceiling.
"…"
Left alone, Uhyeok somehow
had to feel something bitter.
As if he were feeling it.
As if he weren't. That kind of feeling.