Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 949

950. The Way to Untangle a Tangled Thread (10)

‘Who is it?’

The old man sensed something was amiss.

The young man standing against the moonlight had a face that was hard to see. The massive axe beside him showed even the finest details, but strangely, the young man’s face remained obscured.

The next emotion he felt was admiration.

‘Remarkable.’

He had wandered the world with a body that had not been granted death.

Three hundred years felt so short. Yet, he remembered every single person he had met while traveling the world. He had been deprived of even the freedom of forgetting.

However, no one was like this young man.

‘He is ready to move towards the light, yet he is bound to this world.’

The reason was unknown. He didn’t even know if the young man himself was aware of it.

The important thing was that this young man’s cultivation had reached the peak of a mountain.

That peak was not a place that could be reached simply through martial arts achievements. It was a place that could only be reached by someone who had looked into their own self with a clarity that was beyond a clear conviction of oneself, achieved through countless experiences and countless realizations.

No one had reached such a level at that age. Looking back at the history of the Blood Cult, there were a few demon kings who had built a similar level of skill at a young age, but there was definitely no one who had bloomed with enlightenment like this young man.

Even he himself, who was called the greatest genius in the history of the Blood Cult, had not properly honed his mind, body, and ego at that age.

‘Amazing. To encounter a soul that has been so properly honed like this.’

In the moment when admiration was added to admiration.

The old man, who had been observing the young man, was suddenly struck with a shock that seemed to freeze his entire body.

Whoosh!

The brightly shining world seemed to darken in an instant.

The radiant moonlight and the starlight that sparkled like the sun lost their light in an instant. The pale earth sank into a sticky, black darkness, and the flowing air felt heavy and stuffy, as if it had fallen into a quagmire.

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes wavered.

As the old man’s emotions darkened and became venomous, it felt as if the whole world was darkening.

It was a level that was truly unheard of. It wasn’t just an illusion caused by simple momentum, but it was as if he was manipulating not only the light and darkness of nature but also the density and gravity of the air.

The world held its breath just because his emotions had changed.

Even the vicious leader of the Demonic Sound Cult, the Heavenly Cult Red that he had fought recently, and even Moyong Gun, who was called the Sword God in his past life for wielding the ultimate sword force, were not even close to this level.

“…It was you.”

Whoosh.

Light began to return to the world that had been darker than the abyss.

The old man looked at Yeon Ho-Jeong with a rigid face.

“It was you. The one who pulled me, hidden in the shadows of the distant Mount Song, all the way here.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong, who had been looking at the old man with trembling eyes, closed his eyes.

The surprise at his master’s overwhelming power and his heavenly martial prowess was not great. Or rather, he didn’t have the time to care about such things right now.

His master didn’t know him.

Of course, that was inevitable. He had traveled back in time to the past before he had met his master. Since they had never met in the first place, it was natural that his master didn’t know him.

But why did that obvious fact make him feel so uncomfortable?

“I cannot understand it.”

Three hundred years was more than enough time to wear down a person’s emotions to the very bottom.

The old man was very surprised by Yeon Ho-Jeong’s existence, but that surprise was not enough to make him lose his composure. Even though he had witnessed the most incomprehensible moment since the end of the Blood Cult Rebellion, there was no significant change in his expression.

The old man was alive, but at the same time, he was not alive.

He was a vibrant ghost who had not died when he should have and was wandering this world.

“How…”

It was the voice of his master that he remembered, but at the same time, it was a terribly unfamiliar voice.

“How is it that I feel the Yellow Dragon [a powerful spiritual energy] from you?”

Yeon Ho-Jeong did not move.

“How is it that you call me master?”

He wanted to open his eyes, but he was afraid to open them.

He could feel his master’s presence with his whole body, but he didn’t want to see his master’s face looking at him with unfamiliar eyes, so he didn’t open his eyes.

“Just what is your identity?”

At that moment, Yeon Ho-Jeong felt a snippet of conversation flash through his mind.

‘Just… just what is your identity?’

‘What’s important is not my identity.’

‘…?’

‘What’s important is what kind of relationship you and I will build in the future.’

It was the first conversation he had with his master.

When Yeon Ho-Jeong first saw his master, he was shocked as if the sky was turning upside down.

He hadn’t particularly exuded any aura, nor did he look extraordinary like an emperor of a nation, but he had felt an overwhelming dignity that made it hard to breathe.

That master was now asking him. What his identity was.

Yeon Ho-Jeong finally opened his eyes.

After looking at the old man’s face for a long time, Yeon Ho-Jeong slowly bowed.

The old man did not stop the young man who was bowing to him. He felt an atmosphere that made him think that he wouldn’t stop even if he tried to stop him.

Yeon Ho-Jeong, who had bowed once, straightened his back while kneeling.

Looking up at his master, Yeon Ho-Jeong said.

“What’s important is not my identity.”

“…?”

“What’s important is…”

Relationship.

Yeon Ho-Jeong thought of their relationship.

When he was wandering the world after his family was destroyed, and when he was climbing the mountain with a mind and body that had fallen into hell.

It was then that he remembered his master, who had appeared like a revelation from heaven.

“What’s important is…”

And Yeon Ho-Jeong finally realized.

That he shouldn’t have come here.

No, if he thought about the heavenly principles, he had to come, but he realized that this place would be an extremely complicated and sad place for the human Yeon Ho-Jeong.

Yeon Ho-Jeong smiled.

His heart was beating irregularly. His middle dantian [energy center in the body] felt like it was about to explode and collapse.

But he couldn’t show a sad face.

Because his master wouldn’t want that, and at the same time, he knew that he himself wouldn’t be able to send his master off with a sad face.

“This means that the relationship between my master and I is complete.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Yeon Ho-Jeong looked up at the sky without answering.

It was still dark, but a bright light was slowly seeping out again.

“It’s truly ironic. During those five years, I thought of myself before my master. It was only after I went out into the world that I realized that my master’s grace was like the sky, so how could there be another disciple as ungrateful as I am in this world?”

“…?!”

“It seems that my master has given me one more chance to hit this foolish disciple’s head.”

The old man couldn’t understand the young man’s words.

“What on earth…?”

“Looking back, my master didn’t just teach me martial arts.”

“What?”

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes sparkled.

Whether it was because of tears or starlight, at least the two of them didn’t know.

“I was someone who was easily broken. I was hitting rocks without shoes on a cold winter day, so I was trying to die. At that time, my master stopped me.”

“…”

“When I encountered a tiger weighing over five hundred pounds while looking for herbs, if my master hadn’t appeared in time, I would have ended up in the belly of the mountain lord.”

“…”

“When the hatred and resentment that deepened the more I tried to get rid of them projected the images of my enemies like illusions outside my eyes, if you hadn’t stopped me from running towards them, I might have fallen off a cliff and died.”

“Hey.”

“My master saved me countless times.”

“…”

“But more than that, what I remember much more is that you shared your affection with me, who couldn’t even say a word easily, that you showed me hope, and that you prepared me well to go out into the world.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about…”

It was then.

Woo woo woo woo woong!!

The Yellow Dragon, which had been crouching in Yeon Ho-Jeong’s chest, revealed itself with a light that was like an illusion.

The appearance of the Yellow Dragon, which had revealed its entire body from his solar plexus, was truly dazzling. Its body covered in golden scales, its two horns that were much more magnificent than those of a deer, its dragon whiskers that fluttered in the wind, and its five claws that seemed to be able to break anything were so mysterious.

The old man’s eyes wavered.

‘Manifestation of Illusion!’

If the incantation and enlightenment of the Five Colors Hell Art were perfectly matched, the hell beast dwelling within the body could be drawn out. That was called the Manifestation of Illusion.

If a master had an enormous amount of energy and the depth of their upper dantian had surpassed its limits, they could show something similar without having to learn the Five Colors Hell Art.

However, there were only two martial arts in ancient and modern times that could create such a vibrant life force, where the true energy itself gained another ego, rather than being forcibly squeezed out.

Yeon Ho-Jeong reached out his hand.

Then, the Yellow Dragon, which was dyed in a mysterious light, wriggled and approached the old man.

“Look.”

“…?!”

“My master is inside it.”

The old man unknowingly touched the Yellow Dragon.

It was then.

Flash!! Kwa-rurururung!!

A streak of blue lightning struck down from the sky where the clouds had parted.

The lightning, which had appeared in a place where it shouldn’t have, devoured the old man’s body in an instant. The thunder spread in all directions only after the lightning had struck, announcing the majesty of the sky.

‘Gasp!’

The old man’s mouth dropped open.

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s Yellow Dragon, the thoughts of the Martial Emperor dwelling within it, were returning to their original owner, reviving memories that had not existed.

Even if time was reversed, even if the world was turned upside down, the enlightenment that had reached the heavens would not go anywhere.

However, the history that had been flowing forward was cut off, and the cut-off history fell endlessly deep under the coloring of time that filled the empty void, creating an echo.

From the hand of the disciple who had brought a piece of that echoing history, the overlapping memories of the master, who had given him another chance even while giving up the path to ascension, were finally revived.

Numerous scenes, numerous conversations, and numerous memories filled the old man’s head like a river rushing through a canyon.

The old man, with his mouth agape, felt the passage of time and history.

How much time had passed?

The moonlight gradually brightened, gifting a bright night, and the starlight praised the moment of the two masters and disciples’ returned history with their previous splendor.

Srrr.

The brightly shining Yellow Dragon scattered without a sound, and a faint white light slowly flowed out of the old man’s body, who was staring blankly at the sky.

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes wavered.

That light, that strange cluster of light that was similar to powder but emitted a bright light, was the sight of his master’s body crumbling.

The image of his master ascending to immortality in his memories was now unfolding in reality.

“Master!”

“It was long and far, and long it was.”

On the face of the old man looking up at the sky, there was no more confusion.

“That young man who had brought a soul that had fallen to the bottom in the old days, who had looked at me with dead eyes and silently cried out, has been resurrected from hatred after enduring the years of hardship and has blossomed magnificently.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear.

It was the same voice, but it was also a completely different voice.

The stiffness that had been unfamiliar was gone, and that gruff yet affectionate, heavy yet soft voice echoed faintly in Yeon Ho-Jeong’s ears.

“Master.”

The old man, Cheon In-Ryong, nodded.

“I, now see you.”