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Here is the translation:

This is Hwasan.

At those words, my thoughts momentarily froze.

‘What does that mean?’

What on earth is this supposed to be? How could this place possibly be Hwasan?

I looked around, but all I could see was a black world.

It had always been that way, and it was the same now.

Splash-!

With each movement of my feet, the ink on the ground rippled.

An empty world where nothing could be felt.

How can this possibly be Hwasan?

“Your explanation is insufficient.”

I asked the elder with an expression of confusion.

“I have seen Hwasan before. How can this be Hwasan?”

Could it be a metaphorical expression?

That might be possible.

After all, this isn’t even the real world. I thought as I looked at the elder.

But as I looked into the elder’s eyes, I had to squint.

It didn’t seem to be a metaphorical expression after all.

[This is Hwasan. The flowers are wilted, and the sky has collapsed, but this is indeed Hwasan.]

“Is this really the case…?”

[Yes.]

“I don’t understand.”

What I don’t understand is that you couldn’t stop the Blood Demon.

That’s where the problem lies.

“You couldn’t seal the Blood Demon?”

Setting aside the space, you couldn’t stop the Blood Demon?

How could this be?

“…Are you saying you came from another world?”

[I don’t know.]

The elder smiled bitterly at my words.

[That may be the case. At least this place isn’t one I’m familiar with.]

“…Huh?”

That elder is not the Shin Noya I know.

Is this the reason I felt so certain?

Such thoughts flashed through my mind.

‘Another world…?’

I was faced with an unexpected truth.

Another world.

While the elder is indeed Shin Cheol, if he’s not the Shin Cheol of this world…?

As overlapping thoughts collided in my mind, lines began to tangle.

‘Is that even possible?’

If that’s true, how could it work?

Another world might allow for that.

Haven’t I already experienced that?

‘…Countless worlds split until they reach the desired outcome.’

It’s a hopeless thought, but it’s something I’ve known all along.

Despite knowing that, I was still struggling, and if the elder in front of me is from another world.

That is, if he is Shin Cheol from the world that couldn’t block the Blood Demon.

“How on earth are you here?”

How could he have come to this place?

That was the question I had to keep in mind.

It shouldn’t be possible.

After all, the idea of there being two Shin Noyas is absurd.

With that question in mind, the elder said.

[I briefly dreamed of hope.]

A calm yet aged voice continued.

[I thought perhaps a miracle might have occurred, so I nurtured that dream, but it was no different from delusion.]

“What’s that…?”

[I asked why I was here.]

“Yes.”

[I don’t know. The last thing I saw was this place, and that was the end of the world.]

A blackened world.

The ink covering the ground and the shapeless, unrecognizable sights.

Is this truly the end of the world the elder witnessed?

[All I could do was wait. To see the world gradually come to its end. I hoped for that for a long time.]

“…Here?”

[Yes, though no plum blossoms bloom anymore, this is where I belonged, Hwasan.]

The end.

The conclusion of the world that failed to stop the Blood Demon.

Is this the grotesque and horrific scene?

‘I see nothing.’

It was a space where nothing could be felt.

The splashing ink was merely unpleasant, and the endless darkness carried an unnameable stillness.

Void.

There was truly nothing here.

Except for the massive stone where the elder sat.

[Just as I awaited the end.]

I focused my ears on the continuing words.

[I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them again. That was all. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself here.]

“If this is the case…”

[Though it was unfamiliar, for some reason I knew. It was the Cave of Seongseo.]

“…”

The elder, who had been watching the slowly collapsing world, suddenly moved to the Cave of Seongseo?

That’s a bizarre statement.

Why would that happen all of a sudden?

A somewhat absurd remark only deepened my confusion.

[I couldn’t believe it. It was an impossible situation.]

It seems the elder felt the same way.

Anyone would find it hard to believe.

But.

[Still, I had to believe.]

Rather than seeing it as strange, the elder recognized the situation with hope.

“Why is that…? It would be odd to see it that way, wouldn’t it?”

The world met its end because it couldn’t stop the Blood Demon.

If he was watching that entire process until the end, it would be entirely natural to feel odd about the sudden change.

Why did he rather try to believe it?

As I asked, I realized I already knew the answer.

[I thought of it as a miracle.]

Isn’t that what I also know?

Although it seemed unbelievable and absurd, if it’s a miracle, I want to believe.

That’s what it means to be human.

[Even if it’s impossible, perhaps God took pity and granted me a chance. That’s what I believed.]

At the end of the world, a fleeting miracle occurred.

So.

[Even if the end came, miracles appeared, and the Central Plains survived. My soul remained on this land because I still had work to do, and thus I was given this chance.]

“…”

I clenched my fist at that familiar emotion.

[That notion clouded my eyes. How foolish. For the world’s Shin Cheol to think that way. Hehe.]

His expression wasn’t so different from mine.

The only thing different was the belief he carried.

If that statement is true, then it must certainly be so. Just as I was thinking that.

[I’d rather wish for time to go back instead of this… but that’s impossible… so this too…]

“…Wait a moment.”

I hurriedly cut off the elder’s words as I listened.

The elder showed a puzzled reaction to my attitude, but I had to stop.

There was something strange in what the elder just said.

‘…There can’t be a regression.’

There’s no way time can be reversed.

Such words from the elder struck me as unsettling.

This is a fundamental statement.

Reversing time.

That is indeed something that would sound absurd to anyone else.

But.

‘Is he that confident?’

The elder had to be a bit different.

Because.

“Can I ask just one thing?”

[Sure.]

“Do you… know the secret of Yeon Ilcheon?”

[Hmm?]

He must know that Yeon Ilcheon is a regressor.

If he has someone by his side who has already turned back time, it wouldn’t make sense for him to have such a strong reaction about regressions.

Of course, it could also be that it’s absurd, so he reacted that way.

But I felt strangely bothered by that.

So I mentioned Yeon Ilcheon and asked.

[What do you mean? Secret?]

“…”

The elder’s reaction sent a chill down my spine.

‘Oh crap. This….’

The elder doesn’t seem to know that Yeon Ilcheon regressed.

Or maybe he’s pretending not to know.

But if the elder truly doesn’t know about Yeon Ilcheon’s regression?

‘Furthermore…’

What if he’s saying that there’s no regression at all?

In that case…

‘The reason the elder couldn’t stop the Blood Demon…’

If it’s because it was before Yeon Ilcheon regressed.

“…”

My hand trembled as I wiped my face.

My breath was gradually becoming shallow.

I tried to calm myself somehow, but that wasn’t easy either.

[Hey, what’s wrong?]

“…Just a moment, just a moment.”

My head was throbbing.

Ignoring the persistent headache, I tried to organize my thoughts.

‘…The world where Yeon Ilcheon couldn’t regress.’

It was said that the world creates and destroys countless times until it reaches the desired outcome.

And it seemed like it was something that happened in the past while blocking the Blood Demon.

‘…Did that something remain?’

If the worldview before Yeon Ilcheon regressed also remained, doesn’t that mean a world that couldn’t stop the Blood Demon?

That means.

‘The fact that it regressed could mean that he didn’t merely turn back time…’

Is it correct to see it as having moved to another world instead?

So if that’s right…

‘Then, what about the world I originally belonged to?’

The world where the Divine Sword shielded against the Heavenly Demon and maintained peace?

What happens to that one?

‘It was said that it repeatedly creates and destroys until it reaches the desired outcome.’

If I am in another world like this, what happened to the other one?

So what happened to the Divine Sword?

Cold sweat began to flow.

I gripped my chest tightly.

‘…Then, what was the Divine Sword I met?’

The Divine Sword I met through Wi Seol-Ah’s body.

I had absorbed her soul with the Demonic Absorption Technique as I didn’t want to let her go.

At that time, my mother told me to do so.

And I wanted to meet my mother to learn about the absorbed Divine Sword.

‘This cannot end up like this.’

If I met the Divine Sword after escaping from the world that could have achieved peace, then what on earth happened to that world?

[Hey, are you alright?]

“…No, yes… I’m okay.”

With the changes in the world, did the world I was originally in disappear?

So, did all the countless beings that originally existed fade away as well?

Honestly, I didn’t care about that.

Whether hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands died, it didn’t matter to me.

What mattered was only one thing.

‘The Divine Sword.’

The possibility that she, whom I tried to watch over at all costs, has ultimately met her end.

She was more important to me than tens of thousands of people.

[What does the secret of Yeon Ilcheon mean?]

“…It’s nothing. I was just trying to feel you out. Don’t mind it.”

[…Hmm?]

The elder showed signs of deep mistrust, but I had no choice.

Another question arose from the previous conversation.

‘If this elder were in the world where Yeon Ilcheon couldn’t regress…’

Let’s say that world remained and ultimately met its end.

But.

‘How did the elder remain here?’

The reason the elder stayed at the Cave of Seongseo.

How long, and since when has he been there?

That’s a problem.

‘There has been no record of it found in my previous life.’

Of course, there were no records of the Hwasan Sword God’s Biwaegun found in my past life.

I also hadn’t heard of Yeongpung inheriting that will.

There’s also the assumption that Hwasan discovered it but chose not to speak on it.

But hearing this, I thought it was a difference caused by the things I set in motion.

However, now it was a bit different.

‘Is it really just a difference that I created?’

The fact that there are two Shin Noyas.

That in the current timeline, the Biwaegun has that soul being present.

Can all of that be seen as differences I made?

What’s important here is not that.

What’s important is.

‘Who called this elder here, ‘and’ why?’

The possibility that the elder appeared in this world due to some miraculous event?

There’s no way that could happen.

I knew.

‘There are no miracles in this world.’

The regression I had once cherished.

All that was now happening couldn’t simply be dismissed as a miracle.

I recall the words that Yeon Ilcheon once said.

-Do you really think your regression is a miracle?

“…”

At that time, I dismissed it as nonsense, but I was gradually beginning to understand.

This damn world truly has no such thing as miracles.

Everything occurs through someone’s hands and intentions.

And as I recall and question that,

‘This elder is not a mere coincidence.’

This is someone’s intention.

But who could it be?

And what is their intention?

‘Who the hell is creating this messed-up situation?’

I grit my teeth and frowned.

‘I don’t know.’

Nothing comes to mind.

So what should I do?

Fortunately, the answer was clear.

‘I need to meet someone who might know.’

That was the simplest and most straightforward answer.

Someone who might have a clue about this situation.

I’ll seek them out and ask.

Thus, two individuals came to mind.

One was Nangong Ming, who was hiding with Woo Hyeok in the Knifewind God’s chamber.

He had told me to come to the Divine Stronghold, so he might have some information about this situation, making him somewhat appropriate for the current predicament.

The problem is whether I could actually find him or not, so he wasn’t the most optimal choice.

So the second one…

‘On the contrary, they might provide more accuracy…’

If I seek them out, there are ways to do so.

Someone who seems to know more accurately about this and is

directly related to this matter.

That would be none other than.

‘…Blood Demon.’

The being referred to as calamity.

Somehow, it seems to me that to unravel this mystery… I would need to meet him directly.

 

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