Chapter 1032: The Divine Tree and the Master.

Hwi-i-i-ing.

The wind blows. A light wind blows coolly, scattering my hair. It created a current in the gently silent water.

At first glance, it felt no different from a gentle breeze, but I knew this wind was artificial.

It was a space blocked by rocks on all sides, yet the wind blew from somewhere.

It was utterly strange, but I had experienced this kind of situation once before.

‘When Ya-wol saw the Sacred Tree.’

Even then, a light, cool wind had blown in a place with no possible source.

That hasn’t changed even now.

Wind is felt where it shouldn’t be blowing. So, I could now understand something I hadn’t known back then.

‘This isn’t the wind caused by the Sacred Tree.’

Something foreign.

Or something impossible.

It was a wind generated by something I couldn’t comprehend, and I was facing its source right before my eyes.

The woman who called herself a spirit.

She called herself the Master’s shrine maiden, claiming she could hear the Master’s words and intentions, and she was a being who originally resided in Ma-ryeong Mountain.

My heart reacted the moment I saw that spirit.

Dugeun!

My heartbeat pounded violently. The energy within me surged uncontrollably.

Did I meet an enemy? No. This is…

‘Facing an existence beyond approach.’

Something sublime I couldn’t even dare to look up at.

Something I couldn’t even describe.

It felt like my instincts were warning me that someone like me shouldn’t dare to judge it.

Feeling that, I looked at the spirit. She was merely looking at me, but…

I could tell her eyes were different than before.

Her eyes were hidden by the veil.

Yet, it felt like I could see something.

As I watched her quietly, I had to recall when I’d felt this way before.

No, I already knew. Didn’t I just say it?

That I’d already felt this way before the Sacred Tree in Ya-wol.

This wind.

This air.

And even that gaze fixed upon me.

As far as I knew, the only being who gave off such a distant yet close feeling was one person.

Therefore, I called out to her.

“Mother…?”

“Oh my.”

The spirit reacted to my words. Her voice was identical to hers, but her tone had changed entirely.

At that moment.

“You found me out?”

Woo-woo-oong–!!

The lake vibrated. The waves, which had been gently rippling in the wind, grew rougher. Though not quite waves, the anxiety emanating from them seemed to meld with my own feelings.

“How did you know?”

The spirit-no, Mother-asked me. Hearing this, I narrowed my eyes and replied.

“……Just because.”

I just knew. My senses, my instincts. My five senses told me the person before me wasn’t the spirit.

If not the spirit, then who could it be? I tilted my head back and looked up at the sky.

‘Full Moon.’

The moon was radiating its presence.

Didn’t Mother say that? Let’s meet on the hill on the night the full moon rises.

And, Mother’s spirit, whom I met in Ya-wol, had also mentioned it.

That it would definitely be the hill in Ma-ryeong Mountain.

The full moon was out now, and I was standing on the hill. I dared to guess that the person before me was Mother, and that was all there was to it.

How Mother came to be in the spirit’s body, and how this situation came to be, I didn’t know.

It felt foolish to question it now.

‘What I do know is this.’

That Mother is someone capable of doing such things.

Since Ya-wol, no.

Perhaps it was a fact I could have known from the moment I entered Man-gye.

“……How did you come this time?”

“‘This time’ implies you’ve already experienced something.”

“Yes. I have. I met Mother at the Sacred Tree in Ya-wol.”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Mother tilted her head at my words. Her white hair swayed slightly as she did.

“What do you think you heard?”

Does the current Mother not know about this? She didn’t seem to remember the conversation she had with Sin-nyeom back then.

So, I briefly relayed the information I had received from Mother at that time.

“Hmm.”

Mother nodded upon hearing this. Especially when I mentioned that she had told me to go to Ma-ryeong Mountain to ask what I couldn’t ask in Ya-wol.

“Oh dear. You passed it on to me… How mean of you.”

She frowned, looking displeased as she looked at herself.

What I’ve felt since arriving here is that Mother’s personality feels strangely different than I expected.

In the past, I remembered Mother as a mature and composed person, but it seems she wasn’t quite like that after all.

Anyway.

“Mother.”

I called out to Mother.

“Yes? My son. What is it?”

Mother answered kindly to my call. Just like when I was young, I loved that voice, and it was the same now.

I’ve lived desperately, shedding the blood of countless people.

Even now, as I desperately struggle to break free from the destiny imposed upon me.

That I remain merely a young son.

feels so foolishly comforting.

But.

“What exactly do you want from me?”

I knew well that this wasn’t the time to wallow in such feelings and find comfort.

Unfortunately, there were mountains of tasks ahead of me that prevented me from remaining a child.

“I don’t understand why you made me come all the way here. Mother, what is it you truly want from me?”

“Hmm……”

Mother pondered upon hearing my question. Whether she was choosing her words or gauging how much she could reveal.

All I felt was doubt.

After a short moment passed.

“Mom wants her son to be happy.”

Mother finally spoke.

“So, if possible, I want to guide you down a path to happiness. But there are only a few paths that can achieve that.”

“……A path to happiness?”

Hearing that, I almost laughed involuntarily.

A path to happiness.

Could such a thing truly exist?

I gave up on that quite a while ago.

Both in my previous life, and in this one.

My life became one where my own happiness wasn’t particularly important, and that remains the same now.

“Could such a thing really exist?”

As I said it dismissively, as if it wasn’t necessary, Mother paused briefly.

Her small shoulders trembled slightly, and the words she was about to utter seemed to collapse before she could speak them.

Seeing that, I clicked my tongue inwardly.

I hadn’t intended to provoke that reaction.

It ended up looking like a childish tantrum.

So, I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“……Mother, I need the Divine Decree.”

It was about the Divine Decree.

There was much I wanted to ask, of course, but the Divine Decree was the most crucial matter.

“The Divine Decree?”

Mother’s reaction changed at those words.

Was she surprised that I suddenly needed the Divine Decree? Just as I was trying to gauge her reaction, wondering if that was the case.

“……How do you know about it?”

“What?”

I had to narrow my eyes at Mother’s words.

What do you mean, ‘how do I know’?

“What are you talking about…?”

I suddenly wondered what she meant.

“Huh?”

This time, it was Mother who seemed taken aback by my words.

“You weren’t speaking because you knew?”

“Knew what?”

“……Ah.”

Mother let out a word of dismay, as if realizing something belatedly.

Her tone suggested something had gone wrong.

Hearing that, I asked, just in case.

“Why? Do I perhaps need the Divine Decree?”

“……”

Mother didn’t answer.

But her reaction was tantamount to an answer.

At this, I shook my head and spoke.

“If that’s the case, then no. I already consumed the Divine Decree. I obtained it through you, Mother.”

In the past, after consuming the Divine Decree, I re-established my twisted soul.

It was said that because of it, the soul destined to become the Master manifested once more.

“So I’m asking… why did I have to consume the Divine Decree? And.”

I asked, recalling the person who administered the Divine Decree to me.

“…Why is the Divine Sword here? Actually, was it even the Divine Sword to begin with…?”

I asked, recalling Ya-rang, who possessed the face and aura of the Divine Sword.

At my words, Mother calmly stared at me.

It wasn’t silence.

As she chose her words, I waited a moment, and this time, Mother spoke as if picking up where she left off.

“Mom wants her son to be happy, didn’t I say that?”

“Yes.”

“It was one of the things you had to do to achieve happiness.”

“Me consuming the Divine Decree?”

That makes it even less understandable.

“…Why? If I consume it…”

They said I had to become the Master.

“Is that the path for me to become happy?”

Becoming the Master and destroying the Central Plains in some manner.

Could that possibly be the path to my happiness?

I couldn’t accept it.

“…The path for me to be happy isn’t like that.”

If becoming a disaster and burning everything to ashes is happiness, what could be more ridiculous?

“I’d rather just kill myself.”

“……”

I felt Mother’s gaze on the words I uttered softly.

I realized my mistake.

Those weren’t words I should have uttered in front of my parents, at least.

But.

“Son.”

Mother said, looking at me.

“You can’t kill yourself, son.”

“What?”

“You won’t be able to. Haven’t you ever found that strange?”

“……”

Hearing that, I widened my eyes.

I rolled up my sleeve and looked at my arm.

Goosebumps had risen on my arm.

Cannot kill oneself.

Something within my perception shattered upon hearing those words.

‘Huh?’

My mind went blank.

Having endured so many terrible experiences.

Getting angry at those harsh events and fate, then resigning myself to them.

And living through it all while desperately repeating the cycle of resentment amidst it all.

‘Come to think of it?’

Why hadn’t I ever tried to take my own life?

Was it simply because I cherished my life, or perhaps…

It felt foreign, rather than just a simple yearning for life.

Could it be?

“……”

Woong-!

I sharpened my hands.

With hands wrapped in Ki, I thrust them straight towards my neck.

Just as the Ki was about to pierce my neck.

U-tuck-!

“……!”

My hand stopped dead.

It wasn’t my own will.

No, it was my will, but something felt off.

Something unknown

was interfering with my death.