Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 435

Thud.

The former Guishil Guiju [a high-ranking position] of the Night Demon Gate, now looking as though his soul had been sucked out, collapsed powerlessly.

Even though he had become a Jisun [a powerful cultivator] at the edge of the Lower World, Cheonbeom was a Hyangseon [an even more powerful cultivator], considered strong even in the Upper World.

Guishil was paralyzed by the mere pressure of his aura and met his death by the very treasure he had created.

“I can’t just let you go either.”

The two Taoists who had been with Guishil saw him collapse helplessly and tried to flee, but they didn’t get far.

“Kkeuaaaaaack!”

He incinerated them with his Hwasintong [a powerful fire technique], along with the thugs who had oppressed and tried to subdue the disciples of the Baekseon Sect.

The disciples, who had been bound by chains, all knelt and thanked Cheonbeom, and Socheong approached him.

“Those guys were disguised as elders of the Baekseon Sect. If it weren’t for you, Grandpa, I would have been helpless….”

“It must not have been your time to die yet. And you met me like this.”

Cheonbeom reassured Socheong and then suddenly shouted into the air.

“Now, you come out too.”

Socheong flinched involuntarily at his voice, which was filled with displeasure.

And after a moment.

Men who had been hiding themselves with silver magic appeared, and Socheong was shocked to see them.

“Father!”

Guishil was not the only one lying in ambush here.

Cheonwoo, Socheong’s father, was also hiding here.

Socheong tried to run to Cheonwoo with a joyful heart, but soon stopped and looked back and forth between Cheonbeom and her father.

“Father….”

Cheonwoo was overwhelmed, as if he couldn’t believe it, but Cheonbeom was not.

“The fact that you’re here means you knew there were people targeting Socheong. So, you were using your daughter as bait and plotting something big.”

Instead of exchanging joyful greetings, Cheonbeom rebuked him.

Cheonwoo, who had shed his boyishness, was now at the Yeonggeop realm [a stage of cultivation], and signs of aging were beginning to show here and there.

He had grown a beard and looked like a middle-aged man on the outside.

Cheonbeom, on the other hand, looked younger.

“Woo-ya [a term of endearment]. I’ve heard about what happened to your sister. Even after such a thing, you put your own daughter in danger.”

He had suffered the grief of losing his family, yet he used his daughter as bait.

Cheonbeom was rebuking him for that.

Cheonwoo had to make excuses without even enjoying his reunion with his father.

“I had no choice. There were many who were after the Baekseon Sect, and it was difficult to pick out those who had infiltrated as spies. At that time, there were those who were obviously trying to target Cheong-i [Socheong’s nickname], so I thought it was an opportunity to catch them all at once….”

“But their skills were beyond what you could handle. Do you know what would have happened to you and your daughter if I hadn’t been here?”

“That’s….”

They would have died.

And the Baekseon Sect might have fallen into their hands. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have disguised themselves as elders and infiltrated the sect.

They would have gradually infiltrated and killed the Cheon family one by one, disguising it as accidents. If that had happened, the Baekseon Sect would have gradually disintegrated and eventually disappeared into the mists of time, and even its name would not have been mentioned in later years.

“Do you regret it?”

Cheonwoo clenched his fist tightly.

“Yes… I deeply regret it. It’s all because of my inadequacy.”

Cheonwoo, the third-generation leader of the Baekseon Sect, who had grown up and even had a daughter, still looked young in Cheonbeom’s eyes.

Cheonbeom looked at Socheong.

“She’s your daughter, but she’s also my lovely granddaughter. I… I don’t want to see my blood relatives die in vain anymore.”

Cheonwoo’s eyes welled up at Cheonbeom’s bitter words.

The image of his sister flickered before his eyes.

Cheonwoo knelt down on the spot and slammed his forehead against the ground.

“Never! Never again! Will such a thing happen. Not only I, but also Cheong-i, my father’s granddaughter, will never lose her life in vain!”

“Ah, Father!”

Socheong, as well as the disciples, were startled and knelt down, begging for forgiveness as the leader of the Baekseon Sect and her father knelt and bowed their heads.

“Please forgive the sect leader…!”

“Forgive us…!”

“P-Please forgive him, Grandpa… Father wouldn’t have done it with bad intentions.”

Seeing even Socheong like that, he felt as if he had done something terrible.

“Is there anything to forgive or not? I’m just asking my only remaining son, so there’s no need to make a fuss.”

How could Cheonbeom be feeling good?

He had lost Yunmo, a disciple and son-in-law he had painstakingly raised, and he had lost his daughter, who was a troublemaker but still couldn’t be hated.

Moreover, if these coincidences hadn’t happened, he would have almost lost his only remaining son and granddaughter.

It was out of frustration.

It was out of a frustrating feeling that his chest would burst.

It was because he didn’t want to lose them.

It was because he wanted them to live well without dying.

It was a word filled with concern and affection.

“Get up.”

Cheonwoo, who had been banging his head on the ground, slowly rose from his seat at his father’s words.

“Your grief over losing your sister must be greater than mine. You were siblings who had been together since birth….”

Cheonbeom approached Woo and stroked his forehead. He must not have even realized that his forehead was torn from banging his head on the ground.

As Cheonbeom stroked his forehead with golden energy, the torn wound healed and recovered.

“Who told you to mistreat your body? That is also unfilial….”

“I’m sorry. Instead of someone like me, if only my sister were alive….”

“Are you saying in front of your father that you should die now?”

“N-No, that’s not what I mean….”

Cheonbeom looked at Cheonwoo, who was bowing his head.

Perhaps because Cheonyu had died, his face seemed to have changed a little, becoming more mournful.

His face was full of worries.

“My son.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Is life difficult?”

As he put his hands behind his back and looked at the distant mountains, Cheonwoo bit his lip tightly.

What kind of man had so many tears? Perhaps because he had a daughter, he was straining and desperately holding back his tears, which was heartbreaking.

“My path is busy, but even so, I have time to share a drink with my son.”

Cheonbeom pretended not to notice and took out a pavilion from Gongjeonggang [a storage space] and climbed up.

When he climbed up, a fog was created in the pavilion and it could not be seen, but Cheonwoo followed Cheonbeom up as if he was used to it.

Inside the pavilion, he shared a drink with Cheonwoo and shared words that he had not been able to share before.

Cheonwoo was in despair.

His brother-in-law and sister had died, and he had suddenly become the leader of the Baekseon Sect. He said that the heavy responsibility always weighed him down.

“I don’t know how Father made Baekseon, which had nothing, into the best in the world… I’m not confident.”

“I didn’t do anything. It’s all that my disciples and those who were by my side have accomplished. You see your father as too great a man.”

He also encouraged Cheonwoo.

They shared stories that brought laughter because of the empathy that came from having children.

As he did so, he blamed himself for focusing on cultivation rather than family, and he felt sorry for not being able to do anything for them.

‘Come to think of it, this is the first time.’

When he was in the Lower World, he was about to ascend to immortality, so he couldn’t pay attention to his sons and daughters.

This was the first time he had shared a drink and had an open-hearted conversation like this.

That point remained a regret.

He was not a good father.

Cheonbeom had been an orphan since birth.

He didn’t know what a father was.

Because of that, he didn’t know what to do for them. He was also becoming a father for the first time.

As a result, he entrusted the children to others and focused only on his training.

Although all that time was not meaningless, there was still regret in one corner of his heart for not creating many memories.

Cheonbeom got up from his seat only after drinking with Cheonwoo for a full day.

“Are you leaving?”

He looked as if he was sad.

Cheonbeom didn’t want to leave either, but he had already been delayed a lot because of himself.

It was time to go.

“Say hello to your mother for me. And you take that.”

Cheonbeom glanced at the pavilion.

“If life is hard, sit in that pavilion and reminisce about the drinks we shared. If you do, you’ll be able to swallow most things like swallowing a sweet drink.”

If he liked drinking with his father, that is.

“Socheong seems to follow Father a lot. She’ll be quite lonely.”

“She’s an innocent child who hasn’t been tainted by the world of cultivation. That innocence must be like you.”

“I’m just ashamed.”

“As a grandfather, I’ve done what I can for that child too. You don’t have to worry about the Gurong Jeolmaek [a rare medical condition] or whatever it is anymore.”

Cheonwoo was startled and widened his eyes.

“Did Father fix it?”

“It will gradually be fixed. I’ve passed on the Jangchung Jitae [a powerful energy] that I had, so not only will her constitution become stronger, but her bones and flesh will also become stronger.”

With that alone, she won’t be getting beat up wherever she goes.

“How can I thank you….”

“My granddaughter is sick, so of course I have to fix it. Who else would fix it?”

“Thank you, Father.”

“I’m sorry. Or just saying thank you. Don’t go getting beat up and just quietly train in the Baekseon Sect.”

He grumbled like that, but the corners of his lips were hooked on his ears, wondering what was so good.

“Then I’ll go.”

“G-Grandfather!”

As he came outside, Socheong called out to Cheonbeom as if she had been waiting.

“Did you call me?”

“I’m going to train hard and become an immortal. Then I can see you for longer, right?”

That’s right. If possible, that’s what will happen.

But if it were that easy, Choa would have been by his side long ago, and Yunmo and Cheonyu wouldn’t have left so vainly.

Among the many cultivators in the Lower World, only a handful become Jisun and Yeongwon [stages of cultivation], and even among them, only a very small number succeed in ascending to immortality.

Ascension is more difficult than passing through a needle hole, so perhaps this is the last time he will be able to see his son and granddaughter.

He pretends to be fine, but his daughter’s death is deeply engraved in his heart and festering, and thanks to that, the whereabouts of Choa are constantly on his mind.

That is how ruthless cultivation and the heavens are. Socheong does not yet know how much many people desire ascension and how heavy it is.

Because she doesn’t know, she can say such things.

‘When will the day come when she will be able to know the weight contained in that meaning?’

I wondered if my granddaughter would become like my daughter, crushed by that weight.

I thought about it, but then shook my head.

Is there any need to abandon the granddaughter’s desire to be with her grandfather longer?

“Yes, that’s what will happen. Cheong-i, you are the granddaughter of Cheonbeom. There’s nothing you can’t do. If you work hard, you can become a greater immortal than this grandfather.”

Cheonbeom, who hugged his young granddaughter with affection, said his last goodbyes and headed back to Gyewolseon [his residence].

“Cheonwoo, you’re probably doing better than someone like me, who couldn’t even take care of his wife and children properly….”

Happiness depends on what you pursue.

For Cheonbeom, that happiness was more about taking a leap to a higher realm than family.

But.

Today, Cheonbeom regretted it a lot.

He resented his past self, who had not made a single memory with his children, even though it was to develop the Great Dao [the path to enlightenment].

“The heavens I live in have changed, and I can’t undo my regrets. How much further do I have to go from here to find enlightenment?”

The reason I wanted power was to protect those who were precious to me and to find my roots.

After a long time, even that has become blurred and I am losing my way.

“Today, the sky is so… distant.”

Unnecessarily.