825——————==

True Martial Home

Ki-ki-ki –

After a while, alongside Yun Sa, we passed through a swirling space and arrived at a place that felt like it was burrowing beneath the ground, where strange sounds echoed all around us. Moments later, an artificial voice was heard from somewhere.

[Chaos Infection Control Device Level 1 Activated. Scanning the subject’s body.]

“Who are you!”

I shouted in surprise, but Yun Sa replied calmly.

“It’s just a machine. We need to prevent the invasion of chaos here, so there’s a defense mechanism in place.”

“A machine, huh?”

“The Master refers to it as artificial intelligence…”

Ta-dah!

Wiying!

As soon as we got closer, the passages around us sealed off, and a blue ball of light came flying toward me. I thought about dodging with the Three Steps Technique, but somehow it didn’t feel like an attack. So I stood still, and the ball of light passed right through me as if nothing happened, and the sealed area opened again with a swishing sound.

[Scan complete. Confirmed not to be the Chaos Entity or infected. Possessing a large amount of chaos, potential danger exists. Please be cautious in actions and words.]

“……?”

Hearing the machine’s words, I realized that the blue light I had just passed by was some sort of scanning tech for chaos in my body. But I still didn’t get it.

‘Infected by chaos…?’

Is chaos like a disease or plague now?

I glanced at Yun Sa and asked, “Being infected by chaos and just having it are different things, right?”

“Of course. Because you possess Spirit Power, you have the potential to grow into a master of chaos, but those who are eroded by magic or sorcery fall under its control. The difference is significant.”

“Hm.”

I let out a short sigh. If that’s the case, this facility doesn’t automatically regard beings who hold chaos as enemies. It had another implication, but I lacked the grounds to think it through right now. As I pondered while running, the mechanical voice echoed again.

[Chaos Infection Control Device Level 2 Activated. Confirmed not to belong to the Human Alliance. Confirmed not to be a non-intelligent life form within the Solar System. Confirmed not to belong to the Seo Eun-ha Tribe Alliance. Please input quantum codes to prove your affiliation.]

“……?”

[If you do not comply, you will be regarded as an extraterrestrial threat to humanity and repelled by the chaos spectrum device.]

What the heck is that?

Human Alliance?

“Leave it to me.”

Yun Sa next to me stopped my movement and stretched his arm high above. Mysterious numbers carved into his forearm floated in the air, swirling like a spiral and forming a sphere. As the sphere emerged, a moment later, the mechanical voice rang out again.

[Welcome, Ha Eun-cheon. You have the highest command and authority of the Ark. Please forgive our rudeness.]

[All control mechanisms are now open.]

Looking at Yun Sa with suspicion, he spoke to me telepathically.

[That AI recognizes others through quantum encryption. So it borrowed my master’s key.]

[Got it.]

For now, all I needed was to reach the [Old Continent].

‘If it’s a sealed place, I can’t come here by jumping… but even coming here has benefits for me.’

Pah-ah!!

Moments later, Yun Sa and I were teleported somewhere.

The place we appeared in was completely empty, with round, pale dishes floating all around the ground. Each dish was about the size of this room and was moving very slowly in midair.

Yun Sa, who landed on one of the dishes, spoke.

“To the Multiverse Observation Chamber.”

[Please wait a moment.]

Wiying!

The dish slowly rose into the air and sped through the void toward some destination. As I looked closely, I noticed an unbelievably massive wall ahead, where thousands of lights were flickering. Each light was actually a room, simply emanating light.

‘Could this be… a gigantic city?’

The wall was unimaginably tall and massive. It was so big that I thought it was as large as the holes in celestial bodies I had seen at Dark Heaven Village. I couldn’t believe that such a gigantic city existed somewhere in the world.

The dish arrived in front of a room by the cliff. Following Yun Sa, I got off the dish and stood before the door, and he reached out, placing his hand on a certain panel, and a sound echoed from the panel.

[Fingerprint recognized. Iris check. User ‘Yun Sa’ confirmed. Have a nice day.]

Wiying!

The door opened. And upon seeing the interior landscape, I felt an otherworldly sensation.

‘This is completely different from the ruins of chaos… No, it has no relation whatsoever.’

The ruins of chaos were shrouded in a gloomy and sinister madness, radiating powerful sorcery. They often had spiral staircases that served as symbols or were inscribed with ancient malevolence. But here, there was not a whiff of chaos, nor did I feel any supernatural power, as it resembled an empty, white space.

It seemed I couldn’t use either Spirit Power or sorcery. It felt like all powers related to chaos were bound!

However, I could still use martial arts.

Descending a small staircase, Yun Sa turned to me and said, “Reborn one. Soon, the Master will arrive here. He will explain everything, so wait.”

“What’s the reason for bringing me here?”

“Because this is the most important place in the [Old Continent].”

This place?

‘The Multiverse Observation Chamber…’

I had no idea what a multiverse was. I thought I had learned all sorts of knowledge from Mangnyang and Zhuge Sa and read enough books, but this was truly my first time hearing such talk. Anyhow, if this place was the vital secret here, then it was worth coming!

But just sitting around waiting for the Master seemed a bit off.

I had to dig up some information.

I stared at Yun Sa intently and asked, “You… are you perhaps a spirit?”

Yun Sa didn’t respond. But I kept talking.

“Zhuge Sa speculated that your true identity might be a spirit born from the Sacred Altar Tree. A powerful sorcerer beyond human limits, with the special ability to reincarnate, and having the nature to uniquely protect the Sacred Altar Tree, which suggests you’re not human but a spirit entity.”

“……”

No human artificially possesses the ability to reincarnate. Yong Junil was merely a product of coincidence, and the cycle of reincarnation had been broken in this world. Considering that, Zhuge Sa speculated that those capable of reincarnation and possessing the sorcery skills of a Sorcerer-level being like Cheon Woo-jin must be spirit entities rather than humans.

“That’s why Zhuge Sa deliberately chose to trigger the core of the Sacred Altar Tree during the Great War of the Divine City. Even powerful beings like you would have to die if the very essence of life, the Sacred Altar Tree, perished. Because of that, the likes of you made no moves and were forced to retreat.”

“Strange feeling.”

Yun Sa replied with a cold expression.

“I’ve never experienced such things, yet you talk of my death in past tense.”

“Are you admitting it?”

“If you believe that, then there’s no need to confirm it with me any further. After all, since you hold our weakness in your hands, what importance does that identity hold, Reborn One?”

“Why does the spirit of the World Tree follow a human like Ha Eun-cheon?”

“…Because that person allowed us to be born.”

“What?!”

Could it be that…

Yun Sa looked at me and said, “Reborn one. Don’t harbor too much hatred toward the Master. That person has endured quite the past…”

“What’s that past exactly? I need to know that to decide whether to empathize or not.”

“The Master has arrived.”

Pah-babat…

Blue lines flickered. Dozens of them started overlapping in space, forming a shape, and a literal line popped out right from nothingness. This line became so simple that it defied understanding in the dimension of reality! The line gradually gained a three-dimensional texture and began to blend back into the space. Suddenly, the line multiplied into hundreds and thousands, forming a human shape.

That didn’t seem like Spatial Transmission Technique at all!

Wiying!

“Hey! Were you waiting?”

“……”

When I saw the appearance of the Master of the Twelve Joules, I couldn’t help but lose it.

“Another disguise!!”

That’s right.

That guy was wearing a disguise again!

I vented my frustration, and the Master of the Twelve Joules scratched his head.

“Sorry about that. Anyway, let’s finish talking.”

“Did you shake off the Asura?”

“No. They’ll be charging in soon. I managed to throw them off for the moment, but they’ll probably track us down.”

“What… now?”

“There’s no time, so let me cut straight to the chase.”

The Master of the Twelve Joules strode deeper into the room and made a gesture as if pressing something in the air. Then, a light button in the void beeped, and an expansive universe began to unfold in front of us.

The Master of the Twelve Joules looked at the blue planet shining in front.

“This is the Earth where we live. And expanding it…”

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, the universe before us broadened. The planet Earth shrank as the planets belonging to the Seven Luminaries began to appear, and as it widened, the sun came into view as well.

“It turns into a stellar system, and beyond that, there are nebulae…”

WHOOSH!!

“Beyond nebulae, there are star clusters, and those clusters come together to form galaxies… When you pass the galaxy, that’s where darkness lies. At the end of darkness, it’s said the Absolute Throne of Chaos is located.”

Pah!

After showing an incredibly vast universe, the Master of the Twelve Joules turned to me.

“Of course, since you learned the Demon Path from Zhuge Sa, you must have this basic knowledge, right?”

I nodded.

Learning the Demon Path didn’t merely mean learning magic; it meant acquiring the knowledge gained by magic-wielding beings traveling through the universe. Those who wielded magic generally roamed between planets. If you didn’t know about star clusters or galaxies, you couldn’t claim to have studied the Demon Path.

The Master of the Twelve Joules opened his mouth.

“Was it the 24th death? In your memories, the Yan Emperor Shennong suggested to you that you could escape destruction by leaving Earth for another planet.”

“Indeed.”

“That’s a viable method. I nearly attempted it myself. The problem was that humanity realized the existence of ‘destruction’ too late…”

The Master of the Twelve Joules spoke with a hint of sorrow.

“Baek Woong. But you see, the appearance of this universe you’re observing in this observation room isn’t the current state of this universe.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It’s fake… or rather, it’s the ancient appearance. This is merely a record from our side. It’s just the record left in the [Old Continent]. The actual form of this universe has not yet been observed.”

“……?”

“Baek Woong… how much do you know about this [Old Continent]?”

I recalled and replied, “The [Old Continent] refers to the ancient continent that existed before the current world, before the large-scale tectonic shifts occurred. The civilizations of that time are said to have been far superior and stronger than ours now.”

“And?”

“That civilization was lost overnight, and that happened a whole ten thousand years ago…”

“I see. Then, what do you see this as, a continent?”

“Hmm…”

I tilted my head.

Is this a continent?

When entering from the passage, it looked like nothing more than an enormous cliff. There were thousands upon thousands of ‘rooms’ in that cliff, but could this really be called a continent? Sure, if I climbed up to the top of the cliff, there might be a vast plain, but I had never seen a continent that was so dramatically elevated.

As I hesitated to respond, the Master of the Twelve Joules spoke out.

“Don’t worry. I’m not deceiving you. This is undoubtedly the [Old Continent].”

“I thought the [Old Continent] was submerged and lost due to the [Old Ruler]; did that [Old Ruler] bring disaster upon this place?”

“It’s a bit of a complex story; let’s just say this place is ‘overlaid.’”

“Pardon?”

“Look at the height of this cliff. Typically, Demon Sorcerers believe the [Old Continent] lies buried somewhere in the ocean, but is there any such location in Earth’s oceans?”

“…It doesn’t seem so.”

It doesn’t seem possible. Just looking at that cliff, it had to be at least over a hundred li tall. Considering that the deepest parts of the oceans on Earth reach roughly twenty li, there couldn’t be that massive and high a continent submerged in the sea.

“Even if Demon Sorcerers search the ocean for the legend of Atlantis, it would be in vain. Because the [Old Continent] is land that submerged due to the Ruler’s whim, but at the same time, it’s the place where ‘we’ crossed over from the multiverse and layered quantum dimensions. Since this is a place that the [Old Ruler] could never find, we sealed this location to make it a layered space. Externally, we maintained dynamic equilibrium.”

Continuing, the Master of the Twelve Joules spoke.

“To be specific, we layered the Ark over the [Old Continent] and attempted terraforming. The results were successful, and I was able to proceed with my plan…”

“…….”

“You look like you don’t understand. To be honest, I’ve said too much.”

“I can’t understand the incomprehensible. But I need to understand this.”

I glared at him and demanded, “What is your identity? Why are you trying to save humanity?”

“Come on, who else could care about saving humanity more than humans themselves?”

“Stop dodging. A mere human can’t wield such power.”

“I’m not dodging. I truly am human.”

The Master of the Twelve Joules fell silent for a moment before responding, “I’m just… a human from the future.”