Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 556

Falling Sun.

The sea dyed crimson by its light.

It was a scene reminiscent of a sunset.

Beautiful in its own way, ordinary yet miraculous.

That’s what unfolded before my eyes.

The world turned pure white, and all five senses seemed to shut down.

Pitter-patter.

On the scorched earth, where all moisture had evaporated, Cheonoe Yang-gun spat out blood.

Sizzle, sizzle.

The blood boiled and bubbled, releasing a foul odor.

Cheonoe Yang-gun lay face down for a long time, vomiting blood.

Thud.

Then, he collapsed, breathing heavily.

It was clear he was exhausted, suffering from internal injuries after expending so much Origin Qi [vital energy or life force].

[Haa….]

His faint breath held no lingering attachment to life.

[Why are you still holding on?]

Before Cheonoe Yang-gun, a giant dragon was frozen mid-roar.

[Just rest in peace. No need to stare so intently. You simply lost the fight. Just as you sacrificed your old friend for the greater good, I have done the same.]

A moment later.

Only after witnessing Jiranwi turn to ashes and crumble, scattering in the wind, did Cheonoe Yang-gun finally exhale.

The illusionary realm created by Cheonbeom disappeared, and the original scenery returned.

It was then.

A sword, concealed until the last moment, shot towards Cheonoe Yang-gun’s neck.

[Gasp!]

It was Geomno’s sword.

The same sword that had been embedded in Jiranwi’s neck.

Jiranwi was dead, but Geomno’s sword transformation technique was still active.

Though weaker than before, Cheonoe Yang-gun, utterly drained, couldn’t stop it.

‘I can’t avoid it….’

He foresaw his death.

There was nothing he could do.

The moment he tightly closed his eyes.

Clang!!

“Why are you just standing there! Damn it, that hurts like hell!!”

[Mangak Byeonwang?]

It was Mangak Byeonwang.

With the sword still lodged in his torso, he grimaced and deflected the incoming blade.

“This repays the debt.”

Splash.

Cheonoe Yang-gun watched the sword split in half and fall into the water, a wave of relief washing over him.

He had been careless.

He never imagined the sword in Jiranwi’s body would be used against him.

He hadn’t even considered it.

“Th, thank you.”

“I’m just repaying the debt. Besides, aren’t you the father-in-law of our son-in-law? If I had stood by and watched you die, our son-in-law might have hated me.”

“…That’s not a very welcome reason.”

“I feel the same way, but isn’t this also fate, Cheonoe Yang-gun?”

Taking Mangak Byeonwang’s outstretched hand, they helped each other up.

“That side is already over.”

“Is that so….”

Jeolma Daegun and Nokmyeon Wiwang, who had been fighting Ubaekja, were nearing the end of their battle. Together, they played drums and shook bells, weaving intricate magic circles.

They seemed to be weakening and sealing Ubaekja’s power.

It must have been a difficult fight, as both Jeolma Daegun and Nokmyeon Wiwang were visibly injured.

Nokmyeon Wiwang was missing an arm.

Thud.

Soon, a giant bell materialized, imprisoning Ubaekja, leaving only the sound of cattle bellowing.

The rest was a matter of time.

“So, all that’s left is our son-in-law?”

“That’s right.”

Turning his head slightly, he could sense a mysterious, colored space shrouded in mist.

Cheonbeom and Geomno must be inside.

“Mangak Byeonwang, what do you think?”

“Isn’t it a numbers game? The longer we drag it out, the more disadvantageous it will be for our son-in-law.”

“Why is that?”

At Cheonoe Yang-gun’s question, Mangak Byeonwang gestured to his torso.

The embedded sword seemed to want to become one with his body, clinging to it.

“You and I were both briefly affected by Geomno’s Divine Sword Unification. We may become Geomno’s swords at any moment. The longer this goes on, the more enemies our son-in-law will face, and that will be dangerous.”

That was true.

“It’s pathetic to be old and dragging down a young man.”

“Even so, there’s nothing we can do now.”

They had no choice but to wait quietly.

* * *

Even now, when I close my eyes, the memories of that day are vivid.

Memories I tried hard to forget.

Memories I didn’t want to dwell on.

But once they surfaced, they kept flowing out as if a dam had broken.

“Sinwi, that’s your problem. That dirty temper of yours is eating away at your dignity.”

“Whatever, you ugly thing.”

She had quite a foul mouth.

I was often dumbfounded by her and clashed with her because I didn’t like her.

“Speaking like that will only create more enemies. It’s a very foolish thing to do.”

It may have been childishness.

Or maybe I was already falling for her back then.

“If I were afraid of making enemies, I wouldn’t have been called the Heavenly Maiden of Illumination in the Lower Realm. Do you think I’m the same as you guys who have been in the Upper Realm from the beginning?”

Sinwi nervously smoothed her sticking-out hair with her fingers.

Like her sharp temper, her hair always seemed to defy gravity. It seems that her hair always sticks out because of the divine power she has mastered.

So she always puts strange water on her hair, which is why Yedong always calls her seaweed hair.

“That’s none of my business!”

“Whether you think of me as an enemy or not, I don’t care. Don’t pick a fight for no reason and get lost.”

Her growling appearance was like a cornered beast. Although she was revered as the Heavenly Maiden of Illumination in the Lower Realm, in front of me, she was just a child.

“I like that. Let’s compete with swords.”

“Are you crazy….”

“If we fight, you’ll know right away who’s crazy!”

“Fine.”

I don’t know why.

In those days, whenever I saw her, I would bother her to compete with swords.

Looking back now, I think it was my way of expressing affection.

Ironically, it was a foolish act.

Because no matter how much I competed with Sinwi, I always lost.

“What are you so confident about when you can’t even fight properly? Fight your buddy Yedong or something!”

“He’s no match for me.”

As I wiped the blood from my nose, Sinwi, disgusted, handed me a handkerchief.

I used it to stop the nosebleed and picked up my sword again.

“I know you’re just about the same level. You fought evenly last time and broke one weapon each.”

“It’s not that I’m weak. It’s just that the sword I had was weak.”

In those days, I used to do trivial things.

My teacher noticed me and took me in as a disciple, but he never gave me any teachings.

Most of the disciples except me were like that.

Regarding that, my teacher said that teachings are not given by him, but must be realized on one’s own.

“Tsk, stop bothering me and get lost. If you want to fight me, you should bring San, my master’s first disciple.”

“You’re looking for San too.”

“Of course. He’s strong, has a wide circle of friends, and most of all, he’s handsome.”

“A man’s inner self is more important than his appearance.”

“Ageom, I don’t think you know, but your inner self isn’t that great either.”

She flicked her finger.

Then, snap.

The sword broke.

“What! How did you do that!”

“If you don’t know that, you’ll never be able to beat me. Realize it and come back.”

.

.

.

It’s a distant memory.

And it’s a scenery that has unfolded again.

“Now I know.”

She had a talent for time.

Unlike us, she was born in the Lower Realm and ascended to the Upper Realm after being noticed by the teacher.

She was different from someone like me.

“In those days, you only accelerated the shortcomings in my sword.”

Only a certain part of the time flowed intentionally faster and broke.

It was the result of her greatness and my shortcomings meeting.

That was all.

“So now….”

“What are you talking about… Hey, if you have nothing to do, follow me.”

Sinwi, who had gotten up from her seat, stopped walking suddenly as she headed somewhere.

“Come to think of it, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you so obsessed with swords?”

“When my parents tried to kill me, it was none other than the sword that saved me. My life is indebted to the sword. No, after that day, I killed myself and became a sword.”

That’s all there is to the story.

“You’re a strange guy.”

“Maybe so.”

“What do you want to do with the sword?”

“I want to cut the sky.”

“What are you going to do by cutting it?”

“Because there’s a sky there.”

That’s the same even now.

There’s no reason.

I’ve been like that since I can’t even remember when.

When I look at the sky, my chest feels stuffy.

My whole body tingles as if I can’t stand it unless I cut it.

“Then what about you?”

“I want to stop the sky.”

“What are you going to do by stopping it?”

“I don’t know….”

Sinwi, with a faint look in her eyes, smiled and answered.

It was the first time I had seen her smile, as she didn’t smile often.

“Wouldn’t I be the same as you? Because there’s a sky there.”

“The Great Way?”

The Great Way [a personal philosophy or ambition].

When we hold things that don’t even make sense in our hearts, we call it the Great Way.

In order not to be ridiculed.

In the old days, I thought of the Great Way as such.

In order not to be ridiculed by anyone, the word Great Way was needed.

That’s how I was back then.

“But where are we going?”

“To the teacher.”

“To the teacher? But now….”

“He said it doesn’t matter when I come. So it won’t matter to you either.”

I didn’t know what that meant until much later.

The man sitting still in meditation was Hwangcheon.

He was our teacher. The teacher was a special person who was one but divided into three.

One of those teachers was always sitting in meditation.

“If I say something, stab me with a sword.”

“What?”

Whoosh.

Sinwi’s figure disappeared.

But soon she appeared next to the teacher and was stopped in the air.

Her hair fluttered around her, and strange incantations flowed from her mouth.

I didn’t know it back then, but she had already reached the mysteries of the law of time.

“Now!”

Thud.

Startled, I stretched out my sword right away.

I just stretched out my sword as she told me to, without knowing what was going on.

The result was, of course, a failure.

The teacher didn’t even open his eyes and bounced us off.

I was trembling with fear at daring to point the sword at the teacher, but Sinwi didn’t seem to care.

“Did it fail? Well, I didn’t think it would succeed from the beginning.”

In fact, the teacher didn’t say a word.

After that, Sinwi and I worked together to ambush the teacher.

But the teacher never opened his eyes and was always quiet.

As I did, I came to regard it as an ideal.

It was training for us.

Of course, no matter what we did, we never touched a single hair on him.

The teacher was high above us.

He was in a realm that was too high to be measured.

He was a person who touched the sky.

That’s who he was.

After a few years.

One day.

“This is good enough.”

I carved a comb.

It was a comb that could also be transformed into a sword and used as a weapon if necessary.

It was a clumsy but somewhat flower-patterned masterpiece.

“Sinwi! This….”

I tried to find Sinwi and give it to her.

But there was a guy next to her.

“San? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I have something that suits Sinwi.”

It was a flower that suited her well.

It was a head ornament made by solidifying an unknown flower that shone brightly with a deep green color.

It was beautiful.

So much so that the comb I made looked shabby.

Hiding the comb I made behind my back, I secretly hid it in my arms.

“…….”

Sinwi didn’t have much change in expression, but today was a little different.

For a moment, a slight smile appeared on her lips.

I couldn’t take my eyes off that.

I looked at Sinwi.

I sent her a look to pretend not to know and send him back. I told her to train together as usual.

But she seemed interested.

Looking at San’s face.

After that.

The teacher’s sleeve was torn.

San did what I and she couldn’t do.

I felt empty.

But I thought there was nothing I could do.

He’s that kind of guy.

Maybe it was natural.

But it was okay.

I thought I could do it like San if I was given a little time.

I comforted myself that all I needed was time.

That’s all, I thought, and thought there would be another chance.

But.

Whether the sky was cruel or the teacher was cruel.

I wasn’t given a chance.

After that day.

The land was divided into five, and the teacher ascended to the heavens.

My chance was gone.