Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 508

Nangseon Gihwandam – Part 2, Chapter 217

“Cheongmyeong…?”

It’s Cheongmyeong.

His face is aged, damaged, and decaying, so much so that I almost didn’t recognize him.

But the name that sprang to mind the moment I saw him was Cheongmyeong.

There was no other name.

“San! Don’t be fooled! It’s just a trick to ensnare you! Anyone from Wonseon [a high-ranking celestial being] can alter their face a little!”

Lin shouts, warning Cheonbeom, who is confused, not to be deceived.

Okbyeol Cheonwang [Celestial King Okbyeol] looks at Beom with an indescribable gaze and utters a word.

“I said, in the next life, let’s be reborn not as enemies, but as close friends.”

“You…”

Cheonbeom’s eyes widened like lanterns. It’s the moment when doubt turns into certainty.

The Okbyeol Cheonwang with Cheongmyeong’s face is indeed the one Beom knows.

The man who was Cheongmyeong in the Upper Realm and Yoojeong in the Lower Realm.

The man who was the beginning of Cheonbeom’s path of cultivation and had always been a formidable rival in his heart.

There’s no way he wouldn’t remember.

He can’t forget those words.

Isn’t that the saying that only the two of them, who risked their lives in a duel, know?

It’s enough to dispel doubt.

Whirr.

Flames rise in Cheonbeom’s grasp, and a spear is formed.

Clang!!

A sharp metallic sound rings out.

Joo Lin, pushed back while holding Yacheon [her weapon], and Cheonbeom, standing in front of Okbyeol Cheonwang, are starkly contrasted.

“San!! Do you trust the words of that rotting, living corpse more than my words!!”

Of course, one can’t simply believe everything based on those words alone and immediately take sides.

But time is needed to determine the truth.

“I can’t confidently say what is right and wrong yet. So, for now, I have no choice but to stop this fight and judge what is right and wrong.”

Cheonbeom glanced back at Okbyeol Cheonwang.

No, Yoojeong.

“How did you become Okbyeol Cheonwang?”

That’s the first question.

Cheongmyeong and I parted ways tens of thousands of years ago and haven’t seen each other since. But frankly, it doesn’t make sense that he became a Wonseon and took a seat as one of the Sangcheon Haewol [a council of powerful celestial beings] after so much time.

It’s a hard fact to believe.

‘Maybe Okbyeol Cheonwang devoured Cheongmyeong and took his memories.’

That might be the case.

Isn’t that the most plausible hypothesis?

That a guy who was only a Soseon [a lower-ranking celestial being] became a Wonseon and Okbyeol Cheonwang in tens of thousands of years? That’s nonsense.

Okbyeol Cheonwang was a Wonseon Taesa [a high-ranking celestial official] who existed even before Cheonbeom ascended to the Upper Realm.

The cause and effect don’t match.

So, one way or another, I have to hear Okbyeol Cheonwang’s story.

Cheonbeom urged, keeping Lin in check in front and Okbyeol behind.

“Tell me quickly. Otherwise, my spear will have no choice but to aim at you!”

Then, Okbyeol Cheonwang repaired the torn rags again and put them on.

Only after Cheongmyeong’s face was covered did a calm voice emerge.

“You wouldn’t understand. I’m not doing this to ask for understanding.”

“Speak in a way that’s easy to understand. You know my impatience well.”

Then, Okbyeol Cheonwang chuckled and slumped down in his seat.

“It’s just to resolve the resentment that has become my Simma [a demonic influence]. Beom. It’s also because of you, my enemy, friend, and sworn brother.”

“Are you going to keep listening to that nonsense, San! You have to kill him quickly! That guy ascended to the Upper Realm and ambushed me when I was weakened! He’s an enemy who must be killed and eliminated!!”

Lin is extremely agitated and rushes to kill him right away.

But Cheonbeom stops her, so she just stamps her feet.

“You’re digging your own grave, Shinwi. You think you could escape my eyes and ears after just ascending? Do you think a mere Sangseon [a mid-ranking celestial being] can escape the rule of a Wonseon? Nonsense!”

“What?”

Shinwi? What on earth is he talking about? Beom couldn’t understand what he was saying at all.

Beom, who looked at Lin as if seeking an answer, couldn’t help but notice her unintentionally shaking pupils.

“Beom, that woman is not the Lin you know. Ambushed as soon as she ascended? She’s good at saying such things with her seductive mouth. Wasn’t it you who took over her body after she ascended, Ogyeong Gyeju Shinwi [Demon Lord Shinwi of the Ogyeong Realm]!!”

He took over her body as soon as she ascended.

What he’s trying to say is….

“Are you saying Lin’s body was taken over?”

“That’s right, Beom.”

“D, don’t be ridiculous! San! You don’t believe those words, do you? It’s a truly absurd slander and a scheme by that guy to separate you and me! Shinwi died before your eyes. Didn’t you see it too!”

That’s right.

Shinwi definitely died.

He witnessed the annihilation of her soul and saw her energy being sucked into Lin’s Bonmyeong Wonchik [a fundamental principle of existence], Yacheon.

She definitely died. Didn’t he see her disappearing before his eyes?

But how… can Lin be Shinwi?

It’s an extremely confusing situation.

“Shinwi died. I clearly saw her dying before my eyes….”

“Beom, for a Wonseon Taesa, abandoning one’s body and moving to a new one is very easy. It’s just that they don’t bother doing such troublesome things.”

“Are you saying she divided her soul?”

Cheonbeom, thanks to mastering Samse Samsin [a powerful cultivation technique], can do that much with his eyes closed.

But destroying one’s own divided soul is an act of cutting away one’s own training and power accumulated over thousands or tens of thousands of years.

It’s a dangerous thing that could lead to annihilation because one can’t fully block the upcoming Cheonbeom.

Even if she’s Shinwi, why would she do such a dangerous thing herself?

“Yes, Shinwi’s soul disappeared? Take a good look. There’s no way that greedy woman would have destroyed her own intact soul. She must have secretly absorbed it while deceiving your eyes. Isn’t that right? Shinwi!”

In response to Okbyeol Cheonwang’s words, Lin replied in a calmer voice than before.

“Originally, my soul was torn to pieces and barely reincarnated. So, it was natural for me to absorb Shinwi’s soul. You can’t slander me with just that. And if I were Shinwi, why would I do such a thing? Shinwi and San are mortal enemies. There’s no reason to do such a thing.”

Then, Okbyeol Cheonwang sneered as if he had been waiting.

“Shinwi, you detestable woman. There’s no reason? No! You have a very grand and valid reason. You want to crave Beom’s affection so much that you take over another woman’s body!”

“That’s nonsense!! San, are you going to keep listening to those words!”

Beom’s brow furrowed at the series of shocking revelations.

“Okbyeol, you still haven’t answered my question. How do you have Cheongmyeong’s face and know these facts?”

He answered.

“Cheonbeom, I saw you being deceived by that woman and ultimately failing to achieve the Great Dao [the ultimate truth] and meeting a futile death.”

“My death…?”

What a bolt from the blue.

Death, you say.

You saw my futile death.

I couldn’t help but be surprised.

It was an illogical statement.

I’m still here, but you saw me meeting a futile death.

No, you saw it and came back.

“You… you’re not someone who belongs to the same time as us.”

“Yes. I came from the future (未來世) that hasn’t happened yet, and in the Lower Realm, I was Yoojeong, and in the Upper Realm, I was Cheongmyeong.”

And here.

“I am known as Okbyeol Cheonwang.”

A small starlight surrounds him, and soon the surroundings darken, and a new landscape envelops the three of them.

* * *

“Is this a Hwan Gye [illusionary world]?”

Looking around, Lin is nowhere to be seen, and only Okbyeol remains.

He looks at himself blankly with a weary face, as if he has something to say.

Cheonbeom also did not avoid his gaze. Beom could not avoid his gaze, which contained many emotions.

Because it shouldn’t be avoided.

“After sharing the cup of brotherhood with you, I devoted myself solely to cultivation. I didn’t want to be a younger brother who would be a disgrace to my brother.”

That’s why he only cultivated.

He pursued the Dao.

Even though war broke out, he stubbornly secluded himself, and when things were difficult, he cultivated, thinking of Cheonbeom, who had selflessly shared so much with him.

To Cheongmyeong, Cheonbeom was a sworn brother who had drunk from the cup of blood, and a good brother who had readily given him so much.

They were sworn brothers who could not have been born on the same day and time, but vowed to die on the same day and time.

He was the one who extended a warm hand to him, who was born without anything in the Upper Realm where there was no one to lean on and was engaged in theft, along with Hwanmang.

He didn’t want to turn away from that hand, and he also wanted to become a great immortal like his brother, who was revered by everyone.

“But I couldn’t.”

Sitting alone in the changed landscape, Okbyeol Cheonwang leaned against a rock and said in a weak voice.

“I was secluding myself in a remote place to build up my strength, and I met a new teacher whose name I didn’t know, and my cultivation increased greatly.”

The Dao taught by his teacher, who appeared to be an unknown Taoist, was of a different level, and as time passed, he quickly ascended to Hyangseon [a high-ranking celestial being] and reached the end.

But it was too late.

“By the time I jumped into the war, the victory had already tilted, and the two letters Cheonbeom had already disappeared.”

But he searched for Beom, thinking that he could never have died.

Much time has passed.

Much time has flowed as the child who was stealing became a Sangseon, became a Hyangseon, and became a Wonseon.

When Cheongmyeong became a Wonseon Taesa occupying a seat in Sangcheon Haewol.

Only then did he realize.

That Cheonbeom had died.

Also, that he had been manipulated like a puppet by the machinations of a woman, that his mind had been ruined and he had lost his reason.

The one who did that was Ogyeong Gyeju Shinwi, who had shed the shell of Joo Lin, and Cheongmyeong immediately went to her and began to fight, saying he would avenge his brother.

“I guess you couldn’t win.”

At Cheonbeom’s calm question, Okbyeol Cheonwang smiled bitterly.

“I couldn’t win. By that time, several Wonseon Taesas had already died at her hands, and no one could kill Shinwi. So I devised a plan.”

If not now, let’s go to the past.

“I barely snatched your body from the fight with her and used the Sawol Jehang [a powerful artifact] you possessed to send my divided soul to the past. Thanks to that, I ended up in this shape.”

Okbyeol Cheonwang said, showing his rotting flesh and bones in the rags.

“I went further into the past than expected, so I was able to see and learn quite precious things. The things that could be done with Sawol Jehang, the treasure of Daeracheon [a celestial realm], were great.”

But the backlash was something he couldn’t handle, and now it seemed like he was just having a hard time enduring it.

“Do you know how Joo Lin died in the past?”

“…You even know that.”

“Yes, I saw it clearly. You were killed by Geomno Iltaek and Shinwi, and Shinwi didn’t kill Joo Lin. She tormented and humiliated her for a long time. After that, she tore Joo Lin’s soul to pieces. To annihilate it? No, she divided the powerful soul of Joo Lin with a strange technique and forced her to reincarnate. So that her soul could be reincarnated as a mere trivial creature, a flea.”

But there was also something Shinwi didn’t expect.

“I wouldn’t have known she would ascend again. I wouldn’t have known she would do that with a soul that was torn into tiny pieces. But that was another opportunity for Shinwi.”

She took over her body and stole her memories, and in it, she saw someone.

“She saw you.”

It was from then on.

That Ogyeong Gyeju, Shinwi, gave up on herself and took over Lin’s body.