This is Huashan.
At those words, my thoughts came to a halt for a moment.
‘What is he talking about.’
What on earth did that mean.
How could this place possibly be Huashan.
I looked around, but all I could see was a black world.
It had been like that from the start, and it was the same now.
Splatter-!
Every time I moved my feet, the ink on the floor rippled.
An empty world where nothing could be felt.
How could this place be Huashan?
"Your explanation is lacking."
I asked the old man in a tone indicating I didn't understand.
"It's not like I haven't seen Huashan. How is this place Huashan?"
Could it be a metaphorical expression?
Perhaps.
This wasn't the real world to begin with, was it? Thinking so, I stared at the old man.
Looking into the old man's eyes, I had to narrow my own.
It didn't seem like a metaphorical expression after all.
[This is Huashan. Though the flowers have withered and the sky has collapsed. This place is indeed Huashan.]
"Here...?"
[Yes.]
"I don't understand."
Where I didn't understand was that he failed to stop the Blood Demon.
That was the problem right from the start.
"You failed to seal the Blood Demon?"
Setting the space aside, he failed to stop the Blood Demon?
What was going on?
"...Did you come from another world or something?"
[Well.]
The old man smiled bitterly at my words.
[Perhaps. At the very least, this is not the place I know.]
"...Huh?"
That old man is not the Old Man Shin I know.
Was this the reason I had somehow been so certain of it?
As that thought crossed my mind.
'Another world...?'
I was faced with an unexpected truth.
Another world.
That old man was Shin Cheol, but what if he wasn't the Shin Cheol of this world...?
As thoughts overlapped, the threads in my mind began to tangle.
'Is that even possible?'
If that were true, how could it be possible?
Another world existing was possible.
Hadn't I already experienced it?
'...Countless worlds are divided until the desired conclusion is reached.'
Thinking back on it, it was a despairing thought, but it was a fact I had known for a long time.
Even while knowing that and struggling, the old man in front of me was from another world.
In other words, if he was the Shin Cheol of a world that failed to stop the Blood Demon.
"How on earth are you here?"
How could he have come here?
That had to be my first question.
It was an impossible thing, wasn't it?
From the very fact that there were two Old Man Shins, it didn't make sense.
To such a question, the old man said.
[I dreamed of hope for a moment.]
A calm yet worn voice continued.
[I dreamt an inflated dream, wondering if a miracle might have occurred, but this was no different from a delusion.]
"What is..."
[You asked why I am here.]
"Yes."
[I don't know. The last thing I saw was this place. And that was the end of the world.]
A world painted black.
The floor filled with ink and the unrecognizable scenery.
Was this truly the end of the world the old man had seen?
[All I could do was wait. For the world to slowly reach its end. I watched it for a long time.]
"...From here?"
[Yes, the plum blossoms bloom no more, but even so, the place for me to be was Huashan.]
The end.
The end of a world that failed to stop the Blood Demon.
Was this bizarre and gruesome sight it?
'I can't see anything.'
It was a space where nothing could be felt.
The splashing ink was only unpleasant, and the endless darkness held an unknown stillness.
Nothingness.
There was truly nothing here.
Except for the giant rock the old man was sitting on.
[While I was waiting for the end like that.]
I listened to his following words.
[I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them. That was all. But when I opened my eyes again. I was here.]
"If by 'here'..."
[It was unfamiliar, but for some reason I knew. That place was the cave in Shaanxi.]
"..."
A world slowly crumbling.
The old man watching it had moved to the cave in Shaanxi without realizing it?
It was an incredibly strange thing to say.
Why did it suddenly turn out like that?
At the somewhat absurd words, my doubts only deepened.
[I couldn't believe it. Because it was an impossible situation.]
It seemed the old man felt the same way.
Anyone would have found it unbelievable.
However.
[I still had to believe it.]
The old man perceived the situation, brushing it off as hope rather than strangeness.
"Why...? It would have made sense for you to see it as strange!"
The world met its end because they failed to stop the Blood Demon.
If he had watched the entire process and reached the end, it was only natural to feel something was off at the sudden change.
Why did he instead try to believe it?
Even as I asked, I actually knew the answer.
[I thought it was a miracle.]
Didn't I, who turned back time, also know?
Even if it was unbelievable and nonsensical. If it was a miracle, you wanted to believe it.
That was human.
[Even if it was an unattainable thing. Perhaps the gods took pity and gave me a chance. I believed so.]
At the end, a momentary miracle was bestowed.
So.
[Even if the end came. A miracle appeared, and the Central Plains survived. And I, too, remained on this land as a soul. Because there was still work to be done, they gave me this chance.]
"..."
I clenched my fist at the familiar emotion.
[The delusion that sprang from that thought blinded me. How trifling. To think the great Shin Cheol would have such thoughts. Hahaha.]
His state was no different from mine.
If there was a difference, it would be the conviction he held.
If those words were true. Surely it would be so. The moment I thought that.
[Rather than this, I wished they had turned back time... but there was no way such a thing would happen... rather. Even this...]
"...Wait a moment."
Listening to the old man's words, I hastily cut him off.
The old man showed a questioning reaction to my attitude, but this had to stop.
There was a strange part in what the old man just said.
'...There's no way regression could happen?'
There was no way an event that turned back time could occur.
The old man's words grated on me.
This was an obvious statement.
Going back against the flow of time.
That was indeed an absurd idea to anyone else.
However.
'Should he be so certain about it?'
If it were that old man, it should have been a little different.
Because.
"Let me ask you just one thing."
[Go ahead.]
"Do you... know Yeon Il-cheon's secret?"
[Hm?]
He should have known that Yeon Il-cheon was a regressor.
If he had someone who had already turned back time right next to him, he shouldn't have reacted so firmly about regression.
Of course, since it was an absurd thing, such a reaction was possible.
Strangely, it annoyed me.
So I brought up Yeon Il-cheon and asked.
[What do you mean? A secret?]
"..."
A chill ran down my spine at the old man's reaction.
'Ah, fuck. This...'
That old man didn't seem to know that Yeon Il-cheon had regressed.
No, maybe he knew and was pretending not to.
But what if the old man truly didn't know about Yeon Il-cheon's regression?
'Furthermore.'
It wasn't that he didn't know the fact of Yeon Il-cheon's regression.
What if he said he had never regressed?
And thus.
'The old man's statement that he failed to stop the Blood Demon.'
What if the reason was that it was before Yeon Il-cheon regressed?
"..."
Shiver.
I wiped my face with a trembling hand.
My breathing gradually grew ragged.
I tried to calm it down somehow, but that wasn't easy either.
[Young one. What is wrong?]
"...Just, just a moment."
My head throbbed.
Ignoring the persistent headache, I somehow organized my thoughts.
'...A world where Yeon Il-cheon failed to regress.'
It was said that the world repeats creation and destruction countless times until it reaches its desired conclusion.
And this seemed to have happened in the past when stopping the Blood Demon.
'...So something like this was left behind too.'
The worldview before Yeon Il-cheon regressed.
If that also remained, wouldn't a world that failed to stop the Blood Demon mean exactly that?
Which meant.
'Regression... perhaps wasn't turning back time.'
Would it be more accurate to see it as moving to another world?
And if that were true....
'Then, what about the world I originally came from?'
The world where the Divine Sword stopped the Heavenly Demon and protected the peace?
What happened to it?
'You said it repeats countless times until it reaches the desired conclusion.'
If I came to another world, what would happen to that world?
So what happened to the Divine Sword?
Cold sweat ran down.
Then I clutched my chest.
'...Then, what is the Divine Sword I met?'
The Divine Sword I met riding in Wi Seol-ah's body.
Not wanting to let her go, I absorbed her soul with the Mado Cheonheupgong.
My mother told me to do so then.
And I was trying to meet my mother to know about the absorbed Divine Sword.
'Things shouldn't turn out like this.'
If I escaped from the world that had achieved peace and met the Divine Sword, what did that mean for that world in the first place?
[Young one. Are you alright?]
"...No, yes... I'm fine."
The world shifted, and the original world disappeared.
Did the countless people who originally existed also fade away?
To be honest, I didn't care about that.
Whether hundreds died, or thousands died.
Even if tens of thousands of people died, it didn't matter to me at all.
The only thing that was important was one thing.
'Divine Sword.'
The possibility that the girl I tried to protect even if I had to throw everything away had finally met her end.
One Divine Sword was more important to me than tens of thousands of humans.
[What do you mean by Yeon Il-cheon's secret?]
"...It's nothing. I was just, just testing you. Please don't mind it."
[...Hmm?]
The old man had a reaction of not believing it at all, but it couldn't be helped.
Because the previous conversation gave rise to another question.
'Let's assume the place where the old man was from is the world where Yeon Il-cheon failed to regress.'
Let's assume such a world remained and eventually met its end.
But.
'Then how did that old man remain here?'
The reason why that old man's group remained in the Shaanxi cave.
How much. Also, since when they had been there was unknown.
If so, a problem arises.
'It was never discovered in my past life.'
Naturally, there was no record of Huashan Seongeom's secret cave being discovered in my past life.
I hadn't even heard that Yeongpung inherited that will.
This was assuming Huashan had discovered it but hadn't said anything.
I had heard this and thought it was a difference caused by the things I had done.
But now, it was a little different.
'Was it really simply a difference I made?'
Having two Shin Cheols.
And having that soul in the secret cave at this time.
Could all of that be called differences I made?
The important thing to note here wasn't that.
The important thing was.
'...Who.' 'Why' brought that old man here.
The possibility that the old man appeared in this world as a soul through a truly miraculous event?
Was there any way such a thing could exist?
I knew.
'There are no miracles in this world.'
Even my regression, which I was once thankful for.
And everything happening now, couldn't simply be brushed off as a miracle.
Yeon Il-cheon's words came to mind.
-Does your regression really look like a miracle to you?
"..."
At the time, I dismissed it as bullshit, but as I lived, I gradually came to understand.
That this damn world didn't have such things as miracles.
That everything was carried out by someone's hand and wind.
So I recalled it and doubted.
'That old man is not a simple coincidence.'
This was someone's intention.
Who could it be.
And what was the intention.
'Just what kind of bastard.'
Is creating this fucking situation?
Clench.
I gritted my teeth tightly and frowned.
'I don't know.'
Nothing comes to mind.
Then what should I do?
Fortunately, the answer was set.
'I should meet someone who might know and ask.'
The simplest and most accurate statement.
A human who might know even a little about this situation.
I would find him and ask.
So two people immediately came to mind.
One was Noecheon Ilgeom Namgung Myeong, who would be hiding with Wuhyeok.
He was the one who told me to come find him in Shin Gang, so he might have some information about this situation. He could be considered suitable for the current situation.
The problem was that it was uncertain if I could go find him, so he wasn't the optimal person.
So the second...
'Actually, I feel like this side has a higher accuracy...'
If I wanted to find him, there was a way, sort of.
And he was a guy who would probably know the information more accurately.
A being clearly related to this matter.
That was precisely.
'...The Blood Demon.'
The being called a disaster.
Anyway. To solve this question... It seemed I would have to meet him directly.
******************
A basement filled with a severe cold.
-Umm.
The person sitting there slowly opened their eyes.
As the bright red eyes were revealed, illuminating the surroundings.
Feeling the chill, the figure slowly exhaled.
-Huuuu...
A figure breathing out cold along with the sigh.
His condition was not good at all.
Not only was his left arm torn off, but it was also covered in burn marks.
The ensuing burns were massive enough to cover the left side of his face.
His lower body was entirely burned away, barely leaving only his upper body.
Even in a situation where he should have been dead already, the figure kept his eyes open and smiled faintly.
-I'm getting a feeling.
A welcome sensation.
Saying so, the figure laughed out loud.
The feeling that a welcome guest would visit in a not-too-long time.
With that vivid sensation, the figure whispered.
-I should prepare some tea.
I should prepare some very expensive and good tea.
Spitting those words out, the Blood Demon, Dokgo Jun, closed his eyes again.
Right now, sleepiness was pouring in and he couldn't bear it.