Chapter 1163: Scorched World.

You are more than qualified. You can do it as much as you want, so give it a shot.

I couldn’t just react to those words.

‘……What do you mean?’

I achieved the qualifications?

“Are you implying I achieved mastery?”

Maybe you mean mastering the Gu-yeom-hwa-ryun-gong? I asked if that’s what he meant, but…

“That’s just the starting point. You know that, right?”

Gu Seong-yeol reacted like, ‘What are you even talking about?’

“……I don’t know?”

What am I supposed to know?

I had no clue. I couldn’t figure out what he meant.

‘That I achieved the qualifications.’

‘That my rank is sufficient, so try it?’ ‘Can’t you do it?’ I found Gu Seong-yeol’s resolute attitude downright bizarre.

“I don’t know how to do that kind of thing.”

If I had known, I would have done it long ago.

Especially during those fights that felt like dying. I would’ve done it then.

‘Because it was clearly extraordinary.’

It was a form that naturally inspired awe. Something on a higher plane entirely, definitely not human.

Would calling it ‘Ju-in-hwa’ be kinda lame? Shin Noya might freak if he heard, but it’s the only word that pops into my head right now.

If only I could use something like that.

‘It would become easier.’

I know it’d be a huge help with whatever’s coming my way, but…

‘So, but how the hell do I do that?’

I have no clue.

Why did Gu Seong-yeol insist I could do that? I just stared, unable to comprehend.

“……Hmm?”

Gu Seong-yeol, maybe realizing something was off then, narrowed his eyes.

“Do you truly not know?”

“If I knew, would I be standing here looking like this?”

“…….”

Hwa-reuk-!

‘Damn.’

Did he not like my tone? Gu Seong-yeol suddenly conjured a flame in his palm.

“Ah, it’s not that…”

Just as I was about to try and apologize.

“But the Family Head-nim did say strange things-“

I tried to add a remark, unable to control my temper. This damn mouth of mine is always the issue.

Was it the words I finally uttered that caused the problem?

Pook-!

“……!”

Gu Seong-yeol’s hand suddenly plunged into my chest.

My eyes widened at how nonchalantly his hand just went in.

Why right where my heart is.

‘Crazy.’

Is he trying to kill me? My reaction was slow because I didn’t sense any killing intent.

However.

Dugeun-!

‘What the…’

My heart, clutched in Gu Seong-yeol’s hand, began to react.

There was no pain. Just a warm sensation.

Dugeun. Dugeun.

Dugeun…….

“……”

“What… did you do?”

“Ah, I see.”

Gu Seong-yeol, still clutching my heart, nodded. As if he’d just figured something out.

Hwa-reuk-!

His hand withdrew from my chest. Miraculously, there was no wound.

“A wall had been erected.”

“…A wall?”

I asked, rubbing my chest where the hole had been.

One.

“You are the last.”

“Huh?”

This guy just keeps spewing nonsense.

Gu Seong-yeol looked at me with eyes that had somehow cleared up.

“You. You’re the Gu family’s final legacy. It wasn’t as far off as I thought.”

“What kind of bullshit are you spouting?”

If you’re going to talk, talk straight. You keep spewing random crap, I don’t even know what you’re on about.

“What do you mean, the last?”

“I wondered how you, not even the Family Head yet, managed to gain your rank. Someone else helped you. Who was it?”

“……”

Meomchit.

I froze at Gu Seong-yeol’s conviction. More than one or two things flashed through my mind.

“What’s more, your rank isn’t just a spark. Things from other realms are mixed in. You’ve contained that within your body and are somehow managing not to collapse. What’s holding you up?”

“……”

My body that became a dragon.

The energy obtained from the myriad realms.

My body, already surpassing humanity by leaps and bounds, is enveloped by countless things.

The Ma-do-cheon-heup-gong is what’s keeping it all together.

It seemed Gu Seong-yeol had noticed that.

‘So, did he mistake it?’

A body accumulated with all sorts of things.

And with that, my rank naturally rose. Seeing this, maybe Gu Seong-yeol concluded that I could achieve that Ju-in-hwa too.

Just as I was thinking that.

“The walls created like that are actually hindering your true nature. That’s the wall.”

“……Yes?”

That was unexpected.

‘Those things are actually a hindrance?’

The very things that made me strong so quickly are supposedly a hindrance? I scrunched up my face at that, but…

“To put it plainly, your unchosen regrets are the same. What do you want to become?”

“……”

At his next words, I couldn’t even retort that.

“Where do you want to stay? Or rather. Where are you staying?”

“……What?”

“Whether you’ll contain and endure it all, or empty everything out and leave just one. You need to sort that out to get what you crave.”

Gu Seong-yeol said, extinguishing the flame around his hand.

“Even if you hold a lot, it won’t be completely full. Different shapes leave gaps, making it imperfect. Make your decision quickly. It seems time isn’t exactly abundant.”

I couldn’t answer what I heard.

It was because my recent, endless worries had been hit right on the head.

‘There wasn’t much time left.’

What could this mean?

‘My power? Or…’

‘Could it be my situation?’

Seeing Gu Seong-yeol, who knows nothing, say that, it really seems to be about power, but…

If there’s one question here.

“Why are you teaching me this?”

“……”

Why Gu Seong-yeol would bother telling me this. That’s the only question.

“We’re hardly close enough for you to be giving me lessons, are we?”

I’m a member of the Gu clan. More specifically, I’m the son of Gu Cheol-un, Gu Seong-yeol’s son.

Even if that fact helped, it wasn’t the main reason.

I know, and Gu Seong-yeol surely knows too, that the Gu family isn’t exactly the warmest, fuzzies place.

Even though I can understand Pae-jon’s teachings.

‘I don’t know why this guy did that.’

The reason Gu Seong-yeol showed Ju-in-hwa in front of my father and me.

That was partly to give teachings to my father, but…

‘Because no matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he was trying to teach me.’

That form and the power used.

It was more accurate to say he showed it to me.

That’s why I have the question.

“What do you want from me?”

Because he doesn’t seem like the type to do all this for nothing.

So when I asked him point-blank what he wanted.

“……”

Gu Seong-yeol couldn’t answer.

‘Right.’

It’s correct that he wants something.

‘What is it? Is there something I can do for him?’

As I stared blankly after him.

“I have just one question.”

Gu Seong-yeol asked me something.

“In the place you’re living… what happened to my wife?”

“……”

Hearing that, my eyes widened.

I wondered what he’d ask…

‘He’s asking about my grandmother?’

Then maybe…

“…Did you do all this just to ask this?”

The Ju-in-hwa, checking my condition, giving those pseudo-teachings, all of it.

‘For his wife?’

Was it to find information about his own wife?

‘This is absurd.’

I’ve felt it since last time, but this guy seems kinda weird.

Furthermore.

‘…Am I allowed to say it?’

I heard the question, but I don’t know if I’m supposed to answer it.

Ah, maybe it doesn’t matter? Anyway…

‘The words I shouldn’t say.’

Maybe because I didn’t get permission, it felt like they’d get filtered out automatically anyway.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

So I decided to answer honestly.

“Regarding Madam Jin, I don’t know. I only met her for the first time when I got here.”

“……”

“I’d like to tell you more, but that’s all I know. I haven’t really heard anything from Father… no, the Family Head’s son either.”

I did meet my grandfather, but I’m not sure if that even counts as meeting him.

‘According to what I heard from the ancestor…’

‘Because it means the grandfather at that time wasn’t the grandfather.’

A being crystallized with only the conviction to protect the gate and uphold his duty, devoid of all emotion.

To borrow the ancestor’s words, it should be treated as separate from the entity that existed back then.

‘Therefore, the grandfather is excluded from consideration.’

‘If it’s about my grandmother…’

It was truly the first time I’d ever seen such beings. Both my grandmother and Gu Seon, my aunt.

‘So I don’t know well.’

When I answered so honestly.

“Is that so… I see…”

Gu Seong-yeol’s expression became clear.

Bitterness.

Deep bitterness was etched onto his face.

“In the end, it turned out that way.”

“…Family Head-nim?”

“Thanks for telling me. You can rest now.”

“Huh?”

The brief emotion that had surfaced vanished in an instant.

He turned his back and started walking away. ‘What? Is that it?’

As I stared blankly after him.

“Ah, one more thing.”

Gu Seong-yeol stopped walking and looked back at me.

“For the time being, don’t pay any mind to the underground area. This isn’t a warning, it’s advice.”

“……!”

Hwa-reuk-!

With those words, he vanished like a spark.

“…Damn.”

I couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh.

“He’s really quick-witted, isn’t he…?”

It seemed he knew I had business in the Gu family’s underground.

‘But he said it was advice, not a warning…?’

It was a weird way to phrase ‘don’t go’.

“Tsk.”

‘What should I do?’

‘I was actually thinking of going today.’

If it’s like this, it feels awkward to head there now.

‘…For now.’

I turned my gaze. My eyes landed on a place very far from here, a place known to be implicitly managed by the Gu family.

‘If not underground, then I guess I have to go there.’

If he told me not to go underground, then there’s only one choice.

It was also the place I originally planned to visit after coming to the Gu family, and coincidentally, I now had a mission-a reason-to go.

The front line.

A cursed land swarming with monsters. A place strictly controlled under the banner of the righteous sects.

Inevitably.

“I guess I have to go, huh?”

It seemed like I should go there today.