Chapter 332: Apostle. (3)

All life in the world must disappear.

So that a new master can take root in the land?

The World Tree’s words make my head throb.

‘…What kind of fucked-up logic is that….’

If the world I’m in has no master.

The world will eventually produce a new master, and for that master to take root, all life settled on the land must be erased, is what you’re saying.

“Who decided something like that?”

Who the hell is the bastard who came up with such a crazy story and set it in stone?

It was an unbelievable story.

[It is not something someone decided, but the principle of the world itself.]

I let out a sigh of exhaustion at the World Tree’s words.

The principle is like that?

“That sounds like utter bullshit.”

If the principle is indeed like that.

And furthermore, if the world I lived in has no master.

According to the principle, it will produce a new master, and if that happens.

It also means that, according to the principle, all life on the surface will disappear, doesn’t it?

‘You want me to believe that?’

It was truly an unbelievable story.

Not only had I never heard of it before, but it was genuinely nonsensical.

“I’ve never heard of any master. My world was running just fine without one.”

You said life couldn’t be born without a master, but aren’t they being born just fine?

“If your words aren’t a lie, does that mean my world has a master, but I just don’t know it?”

If they are the connection point of life, and the master.

Should I call them something like a god?

Are the gods worshipped in Shaolin or by shamans the same kind of beings?

I can’t know.

It was such nonsensical information that it felt like it would take a long time to understand.

It’s not a story I can easily believe.

[Apostle-nim.]

The World Tree calls me, but it doesn’t easily reach my ears.

[We call worlds that deviate from the principle ‘Cracks’.]

“Cracks.”

[Yes, because cracks have occurred in the originally established framework, the principle is not being applied correctly.]

“…What exactly is that crack….”

Ah.

The moment I tried to speak.

Something flashed through my mind.

Cracks are what prevent the principle from being applied properly, and if there’s something that could be called a crack in my world….

No way.

“…The Demonic Mirror Gate?”

A crack forming in the air, an alien space opening another dimension and spewing out countless demons.

Long ago.

The beginning of the disaster, said to have been opened by the ancestors of Gu Clan.

What if that caused a problem with the principle the world was supposed to have?

‘No way…?’

It couldn’t be.

It shouldn’t be.

The absence of the being called the master, and the reason the principle that should have followed was twisted.

What if that was the influence of the Demonic Mirror Gate?

‘…And what if that incident was precisely the shit my ancestor left behind?’

If the crack the World Tree is talking about now is the result of the Demonic Mirror Gate.

It’s the record of Gu Clan, and one of Gu Clan’s sins.

The price of the sin of opening the Demonic Mirror Gate is now popping up here.

‘No, can it even be called a price for sin?’

If you think about it just a little differently.

A world without a master in the first place would mean that no new life could be born anymore.

If, due to the crack that occurred while opening the Demonic Mirror Gate, the principle was reversed, allowing life to continue being born even without a master, then it wasn’t actually a good deed….

‘No, that’s not right….’

I considered trying to put a positive spin on it, but realized it was impossible and shook my head.

No matter how you look at it.

Opening the Demonic Mirror Gate to the world is impossible to sugarcoat.

Unless perhaps my ancestor intended to break this principle.

If that wasn’t the case.

My ancestor committed a sin, and that sin remains to this day, so there’s no way to sugarcoat it.

What I need to think about now, from the World Tree’s story, is the most fundamental part.

“Fine, let’s just accept the principle and the cracks.”

Even though I don’t understand any of it.

Let’s just move past it for now.

And moving past that, what remains is:

“In the first place, where is the master that should be in our world?”

If every world must have a master, then where on earth is the master that should be in the Central Plains right now?

If we’re looking for the problem, we have to start there.

Because that master is absent, this mess happened, that’s what it means.

[…]

The World Tree remains silent to my question.

Does that mean it doesn’t know either?

Couldn’t there be worlds without a master in the first place?

It’s possible, isn’t it?

[There are no worlds without a master.]

“Be honest, you can read my mind too, right?”

[The world extremely dislikes deviating from its established principles.]

Ignoring my words, the World Tree continues speaking.

[That’s why it tries desperately to return things to how they were.]

“Trying desperately… does that mean it’s trying to establish a new master?”

[Yes, if there is a world and life, there must also be a master.]

“…And for that, all existing life must be erased?”

[That is the principle required for a new master to take root.]

“Bullshit. Seriously.”

What is this principle all about.

Hearing it a few times already makes me sick.

“So, if the principle is twisted and life keeps being born, how will you erase it? Will you rain fire from the sky?”

You say you can only seat a new master by erasing all life, and the method of erasing life by the master’s death is to prevent the conception of life.

You’re saying that’s not happening due to the cracks.

Then what is the world going to do to seat a master?

To my question, the World Tree answers with a somewhat cold voice.

[If the principle is twisted and doesn’t flow in its original direction, it will be made to flow.]

“How?”

[It’s a simple matter; if the continuation of life persists, it can simply be erased artificially.]

“…Erased artificially?”

I frowned at the World Tree’s words.

The phrase ‘erased artificially’ started to prick at me somewhere.

“…That’s….”

[If it doesn’t flow according to the principle due to the cracks, the world will summon a proxy to make it flow.]

A proxy.

A being who can change the principle back to normal, and fix the twisted framework to its original shape.

Unlike the principle, life continues to be born, and if it’s a place where a master cannot be born because of it, it means all life can be artificially erased.

“When exactly does something like that start happening?”

It’s a cruel and unbelievable story about life being massacred.

If the World Tree is right, it’s definitely not a small matter.

‘Were there any records in the past or in my previous life of such a thing happening?’

At least in my memory… I don’t think so.

Does that mean it’s not something that will happen in the future?

As I was thinking that,

[…The world is not a very patient being.]

The World Tree brought up the topic as if echoing my thoughts.

“What does that mean….”

[If a crack occurs and the principle is twisted, it will take action right then and there.]

To correct the principle.

“But.”

Even thinking about it again, such a thing…

[Do you really think such a thing never happened? Apostle-nim.]

“Such a thing…”

To fix the twisted principle. Erasing all life in the Central Plains.

Since that cannot be achieved naturally, a being to carry it out instead.

An incident that occurred coinciding with the outbreak of the Demonic Mirror Gate.

“…That’s fucking bullshit, seriously.”

I spat out a curse without realizing it.

The hope that the goosebumps on my back weren’t real, and the anxiety that arose from confirming it by recalling the overlapping circumstances.

It comes to mind.

What happened as an act of correcting the principle that the World Tree is talking about.

Because the world has no patience, an event that it says must have already happened since the past.

It’s hard to say it didn’t happen, isn’t there one thing, like a lie?

That is none other than.

“…The Blood Demon War.”

The moment I spoke the words, cold sweat trickled down my cheek.

Centuries ago.

It was shortly after the Demonic Mirror Gate opened, an era when the core of the orthodox sects, known as the Martial Alliance today, did not exist, and when they were fighting a difficult battle, gradually finding peace by confronting the Demonic Mirror Gate that appeared in the void and the demons pouring out of it.

In the Central Plains, which were just beginning to settle, as if not wanting peace, an event occurred that brought a storm of blood upon the world.

The first blood calamity, recorded even to this day.

That was the appearance of the Blood Demon.

“…So, the Blood Demon is the proxy?”

The proxy sent by the world to erase all life.

Is it truly the Blood Demon?

Yeon Il-cheon had said something before.

That this world was destined for destruction.

And that the Blood Demon was the disaster for that destruction, though they succeeded in sealing the Blood Demon, the disaster would not end and would reappear, and that I too was a disaster.

[Apostle-nim.]

The moment the World Tree calls me, I kicked off from the root I was sitting on and stood up.

[You have eyes that have realized something.]

“…Why do you call me Apostle?”

[Apostle-nim….]

If the Blood Demon is a disaster in that sense, and if the disaster has not ended.

Naturally, I would have thought the Heavenly Demon was also a disaster.

This is only natural.

In my previous life, it was the Heavenly Demon who caused the blood calamity.

Their immense power and presence were so great they couldn’t be considered human.

If you were to label it a disaster, there would be no being more fitting.

Even if they were eventually killed by the Divine Sword, the Heavenly Demon was a being worthy of being called a disaster.

But.

“What do you want from me?”

If that’s the case, then what am I?

[Apostle-nim.]

“I’m asking what you want from me.”

If the being before my eyes, though said to be from another world, is a master.

And if they tell me these facts, give me something called a holy mark, then what is the reason for calling me an Apostle?

“Are you telling me… are you telling me to become a disaster?”

The Blood Demon was sealed by the power of Yeon Il-cheon and others.

Let’s say that was the end of the first disaster.

Yeon Il-cheon said, ‘This world doesn’t make the same mistake twice.’

‘There must be a reason for my regression.’

‘I am a disaster.’

[It seems you’ve misunderstood something.]

“Misunderstood? No matter how I look at it, it’s not a misunderstanding.”

Don’t give me that crap.

How have I lived my life.

Through a regression like a miracle.

How much have I struggled, trying to live a different life.

Saving those who died for me, I wanted to live a life different from my past life.

But all of that, in the end, was to drag the place I lived towards destruction, if it was something someone predetermined.

“…I…”

Would rather die right here, right now.

[Apostle-nim.]

“Don’t call me Apostle…!”

[There was a child like you in the past as well.]

Just as I was about to scream, clutching my dizzy head, I had to pause at the World Tree’s words.

Because the emotion contained in the words felt particularly warm.

I unintentionally ended up that way.

Why is that?

[There was a child who screamed and vomited blood upon learning the truth.]

“…What kind of out-of-the-blue story is this?”

This isn’t the situation to be listening to stories from the past, although I felt like I wanted to cut it off somehow, separately, the words didn’t easily come out of my mouth.

[How mournfully they cried. The incompetent old tree, knowing it was its child, couldn’t embrace it.]

“A child?”

Does a tree have children too?

I unintentionally came up with a half-baked thought.

[To the master, life is like their child.]

“…”

If life can be born because there is a master rooted in the land, does that mean that life is like a child to the master?

[Do you know this, Apostle-nim?]

“You didn’t tell me, so how would I know.”

[Your world doesn’t lack a master.]

There was a master in the Central Plains?

Then, in a situation where there was no master, the Demonic Mirror Gate opened, so the Blood Demon appeared to correct the principle – is that not what you mean?

“…Then? Did the master go somewhere?”

If so, where did the master of our world go?

[I told you that going against time requires a great deal of power.]

It’s something I said earlier.

[The karma resulting from it is impossible for a single human to bear entirely.]

“Impossible?”

Then what am I?

[Humans cannot contain, support, or even wish for it. Even if a greater being were to bear it instead, they couldn’t withstand the power. Time is such a thing.]

“Why are you suddenly talking about something so random….”

[The master in your world is not absent, but their existence has been erased.]

My eyes widened at the World Tree’s words.

[The master, for defying the flow and reversing the course of a small human, received punishment, lost their qualifications, and their existence was erased. That is why you do not know about the master.]

“…What is that supposed to mean? Like the world’s master somehow granted regression to another human….”

Huh?

As I was speaking, I looked up at the World Tree.

The being that was the master.

The words that they granted regression to one human.

I.

A world where the master disappeared.

In that place, I knew about another regressor besides myself.

How could I not know?

The person who stopped and even sealed the Blood Demon was none other than a regressor, just like me.

Then why is the World Tree suddenly bringing this up?

“You….”

[Apostle-nim. Do you think I bestowed the holy mark upon you to use you as a disaster?]

The World Tree’s voice, just like the first time, was filled with sadness.

[To the master, life is like their child…. How could I possibly do that?]

It sounds like more than sadness, like crying.

Branches with not a single leaf left, and roots spread out as if to block the blowing wind.

Somehow looked sorrowful.

[Do you know this, Apostle-nim?]

The World Tree says to me, voice trembling.

[The master’s holy mark, originally….]

I think I finally understand.

That the World Tree before my eyes was the master of our world.

[cannot be given unless it is to one’s own child.]