Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 315

Stagger!

I felt a wave of dizziness.

A severe headache and dizziness blurred my vision.

The answers to many doubts and questions that I had been wondering about, or had to answer alone, were flowing from the old monster.

The reason my father neglected me in my past life.

I thought it was simply because I wasn’t fit for the bloodline of the Soongmoo Yi family, but that wasn’t it.

If he had given up everything to create a bloodline, but the Choi family’s power wasn’t felt in that bloodline, and I showed a lacking appearance as a martial artist of the Soongmoo Yi family?

If that was why my father was disappointed and neglected me in my past life?

If, unlike my past life, he cared about me and took care of me this life because I showed talent?

If the illusions I had seen, the déjà vu I felt in the uncharted territory of Zone B-1… if all those things were actually derived from that fact?

If, Father…

If the power I have built…

If…

If…

‘Finally…!’

The old monster’s eyes flashed open.

He could clearly see Lee Cheol’s confusion.

He saw the cracks in that steel-like ego and mental strength.

Thump!

The old monster, who had been standing on the black boundary, began to take steps again.

Whoosh!

With each step, the world dyed black shattered.

With each footstep, the black world was bleached by white.

The old monster couldn’t help but laugh.

The old monster’s spirit began to overwrite Lee Cheol’s spirit.

‘My masterpiece!’

Tap!

One step.

Tap-tap!

Another step.

With each step, the black energy lost its power and transformed into white.

The old monster felt the emotion of excitement, which he thought he had abandoned long ago, rising from deep within his gut.

Now, he could pour out his power and bring Lee Cheol down.

‘No. I must endure.’

The old monster endured the rising desire.

Lee Cheol’s spirit must not be forcibly broken. That would create flaws.

How painstakingly had he prepared and waited to obtain the potential of Lee Cheol’s body… a potential more superior than any ‘vessel’ he had ever seen or created.

Lee Cheol had to collapse on his own, not by external pressure.

Only then would the perfect fruit fall into the old monster’s hands.

Through that body, the old monster would forge a divine body.

And thus, he would attain the transcendence he had dreamed of!

“…Child. What is the foundation of your being?”

The old monster spoke again.

The words now being uttered from his mouth would attack Lee Cheol more sharply than any sword.

“Would you say it is struggle? Would you say that even after hearing the truth? You have spoken of struggle as a member of the Soongmoo Yi family. You thought you had lived your whole life struggling, and you thought you were living by your own choices.”

The old monster continued to walk.

The black energy, which had been resisting little by little, had become as weak as ashes, crumbling and scattering.

“Of course, you actually struggled. You lived more fiercely than anyone else, and you gained and accumulated many powers.”

Thud!

The old monster’s footsteps stopped again.

Because there was no more meaning in walking.

His body had already arrived right in front of Lee Cheol.

Lee Cheol did not attack.

As if he had lost his mind, even the intense will he had in his eyes had faded, and he simply lowered his head towards the ground.

The old monster slowly reached out his hand to Lee Cheol.

“But do you really think that was your will and power?”

A smile, more intense than any smile so far, settled on the old monster’s lips.

“Everything that connects to your beginning, the future you will reach, and all the power you possess… all of that was done by someone’s will, and it was planted. How pitiful. The will and goals you have were not your own.”

Whoosh!

At those words.

Finally, all the remaining black color disappeared.

‘Now, it’s over.’

The old monster’s mouth opened wide, and a mad smile spread across his face.

Did Lee Cheol know?

That the words the old monster had been uttering were not just mere sounds, but contained the power of a curse that gnawed at the mind.

That just by being in this space, his mind was being eaten away.

That he had collapsed to this extent just by hearing the secrets of his origin and birth, was his own power.

No, Lee Cheol would not know.

Because that was how he had prepared.

‘Constantly deny. Constantly doubt. Let the doubts and fears that have arisen within you devour you!’

The old monster looked down at Lee Cheol, who was groaning with his head bowed.

How long had he waited for this moment?

The time had finally come to take Lee Cheol’s spirit and seize his body.

The old monster’s hand reached out towards Lee Cheol’s shoulder.

But.

“… !”

Crack!

The old monster felt some resistance at his fingertips.

The old monster’s smile twisted ever so slightly.

‘Even though he has collapsed this much, he is still resisting?’

The old monster widened his eyes and put more strength into his outstretched hand.

Crackle!

The old monster’s hand broke through the resistance and stretched out even more strongly.

Black and white energies intertwined, beginning to resist even more intensely.

The surrounding air distorted from the friction.

Just a few centimeters.

Because of those few centimeters, the old monster’s hand could not touch Lee Cheol’s body.

Lee Cheol’s spirit should have surrendered long ago.

And thus, he should have been able to use Lee Cheol, no, the best masterpiece he had created, as a ‘vessel.’

But he kept resisting.

Throb!

It was then.

The old monster’s eyes caught an anomaly.

Where Lee Cheol was sitting.

Black energy was trying to rise again in the space of only one square meter.

Lee Cheol… was recovering.

‘Even at the very end! He’s still resisting!’

The old monster’s eyes narrowed.

“What do you know? What do you disbelieve!”

The old monster shouted even louder than before, pouring out words like blades at Lee Cheol.

“That abnormally superior magical power you possess! A body as a member of the Soongmoo Yi family that is unprecedentedly strong! And yet, you possess the power of the Choi family!”

Crackle!

The friction between the two energies intensifies.

The end.

Only the final stage remained.

The old monster, to drive the wedge in, shouted in an angry voice.

“Those powers to handle hundreds and thousands of weapons, the magic eyes that brighten your eyes, the talent you had, and all the cause and effect you have accumulated! All of that was planned by your father and my hands, and it was distorted from the beginning!”

Break!

Give up!

The old monster shouted inwardly, wagging his tongue like a devil.

“There was no will of your own in your life. Everything was distorted from the beginning. Child. Your struggle was a fiction. Now, just accept the truth!”

The old monster pushed his hand towards Lee Cheol with a smile distorted by greed.

And.

Thud!

A dull sound, as if objects were colliding, echoed.

Along with that sound, the white and black energies that had been intensely rubbing against each other disappeared as if washed away.

The old monster widened his eyes as if they would tear apart.

“… What, what did you just say?”

The sound that he thought was grabbing his shoulder was not from the old monster’s hand.

It was Lee Cheol.

Lee Cheol’s hand had grabbed the old monster’s wrist, which had been pushed right in front of him.

Lee Cheol’s head, which had been bowed, was slowly being lifted.

* * *

I thought.

From my birth, the paths I have walked, and the future ahead… the fact that all of that was wrong pierced my head like an awl.

I tried to regain my composure, but I couldn’t.

As if poisoned by a toxin that gnawed at my mind, the more I thought about it, the more the confusion and shock grew.

I kept questioning.

I tried to find the loopholes in what the old monster said.

But my confused mind could not find anything.

Those who gave birth to me, what I have built, my purpose… the certainty about everything was fading.

-All of that was planned by your father and my hands, and it was distorted from the beginning!

The old monster’s words were stuck in my mind.

Maybe that was really the case.

The unprecedentedly strong talent for magic.

The body of the Soongmoo Yi family.

The power of the Choi family.

The abilities of the weapons.

The magic eyes.

Everything else… what makes me, the powers I have built.

All of that may have been nothing more than an illusion.

The struggle that I had continued so much, really…

Then, I found a contradiction in those words for the first time.

Clearly, I had talent.

Talent for magic, talent for the body, and many other talents.

The old monster is saying.

That he created that talent.

That because he created that talent, all the power I have is twisted.

But is that really the case?

Me handling the Cheonra [likely a powerful weapon].

That was the ability of the Black Ki [a type of energy] I possessed.

It was done because of the ‘Mujin’ [likely a martial arts concept or technique] that I had absorbed while traveling around the world, plus the ‘Mujin’ that I had learned from the ancestor of the Choi family.

The magic eyes that analyze all phenomena.

In my past life, it was nothing like that.

That was my biggest secret. It was an ability manifested by ‘Regression’ [reincarnation or time travel].

The wondrous power of magic.

The talent for magic itself may have been created.

But the flowering of that talent was purely the result of being passed down from my late second uncle to my aunt, and from my aunt to me.

What about my body?

It was strong as befitting the Soongmoo Yi family.

But it was at a normal level. Not at a special level like Lee Seo-hyun or my second sister.

But I trained myself relentlessly.

I consumed countless elixirs to strengthen my body, and even underwent a metamorphosis with the sacrifice of Chief Choi, and reached this level.

If his words are correct, I should have had these possibilities in my past life as well.

But isn’t that not the case?

I didn’t have these powers in my past life.

I had no Black Ki, no magic eyes, and no excellent body.

A very small crack… the very small inconsistencies felt in the old monster’s words began to connect in my head.

‘Those were not given to me for free. Nor were they by someone’s plan.’

Me.

Not anyone else, but me, had obtained it after a bloody struggle.

I flashed my eyes open.

Thump, thump!

It was from then on.

That the Black Ki, which had been quietly holding its breath, soared from my heart.

Whoosh!

The Black Ki devoured all the headaches in my head that were tingling.

And my head began to clear as if the fog had lifted at dawn.

Why was I doubting myself?

Wasn’t what I should doubt the old monster in front of me, not me?

And only then, I remembered the numerous pieces of evidence that denied the old monster’s words.

-In short, your life changes from time to time depending on how you live. You’re an interesting guy, huh?

-It could be a miracle, or it could be a curse, which is why the Lord couldn’t accept it… Young Master was such an existence.

-The fact that you are the one who changed Father. Who else could change the absolute being of the Soongmoo Yi family, who is called the Sword God?

The ancient goblin who reads the heavens, not anyone else.

‘If my life was really manipulated by someone, would the Mountain God have said that?’

Chief Choi, who knows all the inside stories.

‘If Father really sacrificed my mother to create me, there is no reason not to accept it.’

My first brother, who knows the past of my father.

‘If Father created me, would he be so easily influenced by me and change? The father who tested me and gave me rewards, not much different from my other brothers?’

The stories that those three had told me began to deny all the nonsense that sounded like the devil’s voice.

-All I can tell you is that Miss Yoo-jung loved Young Master very much.

-That is, even at the cost of your own life.

Why had I forgotten these words?

Where did the lies begin, and where did the truth begin?

It’s that bastard.

The old monster had deafened my ears and confused my mind and memories.

“You have tripped over your own words, Apostle of Kabbalah [a mystical Jewish tradition].”

The old monster was startled.

Because Lee Cheol, who had grabbed his wrist, had raised his head.

The old monster was startled the moment he saw those eyes.

Because his spirit, which should have been broken and scattered, was burning intensely.

‘… How?’

He had broken it himself.

The curse, the ghost of doubt that gnaws at himself!

But how is that possible!

“Yes, was that so? You have been telling me all along. That you would not lie. That you would only tell the truth.”

I grabbed the old monster’s wrist and got up.

“That was a lie from the start.”

Where did the lies begin? What was a lie?

There was no need to worry about that.

From the beginning, that word was a lie.

The old monster consumed the truth of this space and the truth of his eyes as a sacrifice to make me believe those words.

“I only told the truth. Where is the lie in my words? Child. You are not so stupid that you cannot discern a lie, are you?”

“Not everything would have been a lie.”

Something would have been true.

That’s why I didn’t feel any sense of incongruity.

“But originally, lies are made by mixing 90% truth and 10% lies.”

Crack!

I grabbed the old monster’s hand.

The old monster’s wrist, withered like an old tree, bent powerlessly.

“Keuk! Let go of this! Are you denying reality? Foolish! Foolish!”

“I’ve just opened my eyes.”

Yes, since when have I been swayed by the words of the enemy?

Regaining my mind, with my eyes open, I regained ‘myself.’

I will find out the truth with my own hands.

I will beat this old monster, the leader of Kabbalah, the apostle and so-called old master, and find out the truth with my own hands.

Whoooooooo!

Black energy began to spread again, centered on me.

The old monster’s eyes begin to distort.

That black energy instantly devoured the white energy.

“Why don’t you try wagging that tongue again.”

Whooooooo!

Those black energies began to create weapons.

Soon, those weapons all aimed their blue blades at the old monster.

Kwaaaaaang!

And a storm of weapons struck the old monster.