Chapter 1063: The Divine Tree and the Master.

Inside a white space, flowing ashes were visible. Thick, murky dust swirled above the scorched ground.

“Kul-leok.”

In that situation, I vomited blood. Blood flowed on its own due to a gale that boiled up from within.

It hurts.

It felt like my insides were all churned up and torn apart.

I tried to endure it somehow, but even that wasn’t easy. I tried to clench my trembling hands.

“Where do you think you’re going.”

Ku-ung-!!

“Keok…….”

By the impact felt once again, my body was automatically crushed down.

Udeuk-!

My body made a sound.

I felt like the bones in my back were completely shattering. It wasn’t just my spine; my ribs were broken too. The shattered bones dug into my flesh.

My internal organs were tearing. The blood flowing within them soaked the inside of my body.

“I clearly told you not to move. You seem to be the type who doesn’t understand instructions well.”

“Kkeu-eu…….”

“It’s not just anyone; your ancestor is speaking to you, yet instead of showing gratitude, why are you showing such an insincere attitude?”

What?

Hearing those words, my eyes flashed.

Grateful?

“Shit…….”

Curses just came out naturally.

“You attacked me out of the blue, and you call me insincere? Are you a crazy bastard?”

The guy attacked me without warning the moment he saw me. I tried to block it somehow, but even that wasn’t easy.

Thanks to that, I ended up like this. Grateful?

“Haha.”

Laughter could be heard. At that moment, my vision flipped.

Hu-uk!!

My body felt the wind. Piercing through the pressure, I shot across like an arrow.

My body had been thrown. Realizing this, I exerted strength.

U-deu-deuk-!!

‘Keuk!’

My shattered bones returned, and my body regenerated. My damaged organs were also repaired. I wrapped my recovering body in energy.

However.

Tik!

Flames didn’t come out.

‘Damn it.’

It’s this mess again.

It was the same back then.

I grit my teeth. I immediately gave up on flames and switched to Tua-pa-cheon-mu.

Kki-ri-ri-ri-rik-!!

As if blades were spinning inside my body, the pain intensified.

Feeling this, I contorted my face. The pain felt twice as intense as usual.

It wasn’t usually this bad? The pain was surprisingly intense.

However, I couldn’t stop. Performing Tua-pa-cheon-gong, I unleashed energy into my body.

Tung!!

The battle aura created waves that wrapped around my body.

The energy released from my body slowed my speed.

Furthermore, wrapping energy around my body, I strengthened my physique.

I performed Chang-cheon.

Only then did my speed barely decrease.

Just as I was about to come to a complete stop…

Ku-ung-!!

“Keok!”

An impact rained down on the back of my head.

Being hit by something, my body plummeted to the ground.

My body fell at a much higher speed than when I was flying.

Ku-a-a-!

With a loud crash, my body collided with the ground, and white fragments burst out in all directions. I twisted my embedded body.

Dragging my throbbing body, I tried to quickly lift my upper body, but…

Kwak.

My neck was grabbed and lifted.

“Your way of speaking is quite unpleasant. It seems your education was a bit lacking-“

Without listening to the guy speak, I grabbed his wrist.

I tried to apply force to shatter it right there, but…

“Well now.”

The guy in front of me, in an annoyed tone, brought his other palm to my chest.

And then.

“What is this rude behavior?”

Kwa-reu-reu-reu-reu-reu-reu—!!

“Keu-heok!”

Starting from my chest, flames wrapped around my body.

I screamed. My skin burned. It was painful.

It felt like my body was melting from the flames.

Meanwhile, even while writhing in pain, I tried hard to assess the situation. Rolling my eyes, I looked at the guy.

To think I couldn’t move like this because of the flames-more than the pain itself, I focused on that aspect.

Despite my body having mastered fire arts, immense pain gripped me.

“To interrupt someone while they’re speaking is absurd.”

Kkeu-eu-a-a—!!

Just as I was screaming like that for a while…

Suddenly, the flames on my body disappeared.

Chi-i-i-ik.

The flames vanished in an instant. My body, which had been burning, emitted smoke.

“Kkeu-eu-geuk…….”

While groaning in pain, the arm holding my neck loosened, and I collapsed onto the ground.

“Keok…… Heok.”

My body regenerated instantly. My regenerative power seemed to be maintained, as the burnt flesh filled back in.

It wasn’t slow. Regeneration was fast. Should I call that a small mercy?

Watching my skin regenerate, I gritted my teeth.

It wasn’t just that flames wouldn’t come out; it seemed everything related to the fire arts I had acquired was gone.

That included my resistance. If that weren’t the case, I couldn’t be this pained by flames.

“Tsk tsk…….”

I heard a tongue-clicking sound. It wasn’t the guy who attacked me.

When I looked to the side, Shin Noya was crouching down and looking at me.

“……Aren’t you getting beaten up too badly? You should at least try to resist properly.”

“Noya…….”

With a look of disbelief, I looked at Noya and asked.

“What is this situation right now……?”

What the hell is this mess? I couldn’t understand.

I rolled my eyes and scanned my surroundings. A world turned white. The heavily scorched ground and rising ashes.

Although it wasn’t familiar, I knew where it was.

Of course. I’d already been here once.

This was a space I had come from in the past, from Sichuan.

And.

“What should I do about this?”

The being in front of me was someone I had already seen.

When I lifted my head, I saw the one looking down at me.

Someone who looked exactly like me. More precisely, a being who looked exactly like my past life’s appearance, and I had already seen information about his identity.

I judged what he was.

“……Gu-yeom-hwa-ryun-gong.”

The essence of fire arts contained within my body.

It was the materialization of Gu-yeom-hwa-ryun-gong, and this place was my inner world.

I had judged it to be so back then, but…

“Ancestor…? What does that mean?”

At the guy’s words, I had to frown. Ancestor?

Unable to comprehend, I asked the guy, and he smirked, saying to me:

“It means exactly what it sounds like. I am your ancestor.”

“……Ancestor?”

Ancestor?

I glared at the guy with distorted eyes. An ancestor? Not the essence of Gu-yeom-hwa-ryun-gong, but an ancestor?

Hearing this, I recalled.

Why would such a guy be here? Why would he be in my inner world in that form?

Setting aside those questions, since he called himself an ancestor, there was only one thing I could say looking at him.

“……You damn bastard.”

“……Huh?”

At the clear profanity, the guy flinched. His expression changed too. He looked as if he’d heard wrong, but…

He had heard correctly. I didn’t hold back the rising anger and unleashed it on him.

“If you caused trouble, at least clean it up properly. You son of a bitch…!”

“…….”

As I spoke, filled with resentment, the one who heard himself called ancestor flinched.

That’s right.

That guy is the root of all evil.

He ruined the Gu Clan clan, no, he twisted my life, and his actions were a significant part of that.

If that guy had acted properly, I might not have ended up like this.

And fundamentally, the Central Plains wouldn’t have ended up in that state either.

And yet.

“Suddenly showing up, what? An ancestor? After what you’ve done, how dare you expect to be treated like an ancestor? Are you really a crazy bastard?”

“…….”

“Hey, you son of a bitch- Eup-eup.”

I couldn’t hold back the curses and was about to spew them out, but Shin Noya, perhaps unable to listen any longer, covered my mouth with his hand.

“Eup-eu-beu…… Eup-eup!”

“……Yes, yes. Calm down. Just calm down for now.”

“…….”

While Shin Noya was calming me down like that…

The guy looked at me with somewhat weary eyes.

“You’re right. What you say is correct.”

His pitiful voice reached my ears, but I didn’t pay it any mind.

I stared intently at the guy and tapped Noya’s hand with my own. It meant I understood now, so he could let go.

In response to my reaction, Noya slowly removed his hand.

“Twet-twet.”

Feeling uncomfortable about my mouth being covered, I spat, and then looked at the guy and asked.

“So what is it? Why are you here looking like that?”

“That’s why the great vessel couldn’t handle it. The fact that this world is shattering signifies that.”

“…….”

Pa-seu-seu-seu.

The shattering world means the collapse of my vessel.

My vessel collapsed? I recalled my body being somewhat unstable lately. Could it be because of that?

‘Then what happens?’

My vessel breaking isn’t the first time I’ve experienced it.

The first time it broke, during Madam Dang’s test, when I went to another time.

There, my vessel broke and I became a dragon.

Even now, years later, the fact that the vessel broke again…

‘What happens if it breaks like this again…?’

If a vessel that had already broken breaks once more.

Then what would happen?

As I rolled my eyes with somewhat anxious eyes…

“If things continue like this, your existence will disappear along with the broken vessel.”

The ancestor bastard said.

“Therefore, choose.”

Choose? What?

“If you absorb me, you can restore the vessel.”

“What?”

Absorbing the ancestor means I can live?

It was a bewildering statement.

“What does that mean?”

Suddenly absorbing me? I wondered what he was talking about. Absorbing the ancestor will restore the vessel? At his out-of-the-blue statement, my first thought wasn’t ‘why’.

“Then what happens?”

That the vessel would be restored after absorption felt strangely unsettling. Especially since it was that guy saying it, I found it hard to believe.

Is it really restoration and recovery?… I asked, implying that doubt.

The ancestor brought up even more shocking news to me.

“But. After the absorption is complete…”

The guy said, looking up at the crumbling sky.

“…will have to become a disaster you hate so much.”

“……!”

At the ancestor’s words, my eyes widened.