Chapter 335: Mother. (2)

If I were to recall memories of Mother.

I don’t remember that much.

-Son.

The slightly high-pitched yet affectionate voice that called me, and.

The soft touch that stroked my rough hair.

Holding my younger sibling in one arm.

The expression of looking at me with a smiling face.

I remember Mother, who felt the wind as if enjoying spring.

Later on.

When I later learned that this was called a memory.

Mother was already gone.

Mother particularly loved the seasons.

She seemed to like spring the most, but.

Even if not, she liked any of the four seasons.

She liked spring, saying that flowers bloomed then.

Even summer, which was tiresome due to the heat, she said had its own charm.

On a summer day when heavy rain poured, she would sit on the porch.

And we would watch the falling rain together.

Autumn, when fallen leaves appear, and.

Facing winter, when snow falls.

The touch that held my hand tightly was so warm, I couldn’t let go.

Yes, Mother loved the four seasons.

She loved this world.

At least, that’s how it seemed to me.

-Son.

Lying on the bed at night.

After putting Gu-ryeong-hwa to sleep, I close my eyes, looking at the ceiling.

-Are you sleepy?

-Mm-hmm…

To the whiny-sounding voice.

Mother stroked my belly and sang a song by my ear.

Perhaps it was the lullaby sung in my sleep.

Feeling comfortable, I would fall into a deep sleep, unaware of the world.

The reason I could recall a piece of memory in this desolate place.

Was ultimately because of Mother’s embrace.

Therefore.

-Son… I’m sorry..

The last touch that stroked my cheek, and.

The last voice that called me while sobbing.

Have remained in my head until now.

Becoming the shackles that bind me.

“…What are you talking about?”

Chewing my tongue as if grinding it, I barely manage to speak.

Why.

Is Mother’s story coming from that World Tree’s mouth?

“Are you saying the thing inside my body is related to Mother?”

I can’t easily calm the rough, surging energy.

Because I never expected a story about Mother to come up here.

‘Mother… is involved in this?’

How could that be?

[Calm yourself, Apostle.]

“You tell me something I can’t calm down from, and then tell me to calm down? What kind of selfish thing is that to say.”

It’s a story I’ve never considered before.

I endlessly pondered the beast contained within my body.

But in the end, all I learned was its name.

I didn’t even think that was much information.

What is that thing?

My prediction was.

At first, I thought it was something attached to the Demonic Absorption Technique.

Isn’t that right? It ate the demonic energy held by magic stones to fill its belly.

And when that thing swallowed demonic energy, the Demonic Absorption Technique would naturally activate.

When it devoured demonic energy, it was purified and entered my internal energy.

That’s why I thought its identity was something belonging to the divine authority bestowed upon me by the Heavenly Demon.

Or so I thought.

As time passed, my thoughts changed.

That thing wasn’t part of the Demonic Absorption Technique.

But rather, I started thinking it might belong to the Blazing Wheel Technique.

If its actions weren’t about eating demonic energy.

But focused on purification.

It was closer to the Blazing Wheel Technique than the Demonic Absorption Technique.

The problem is.

Whatever it is, I can’t figure out why this thing is attached to my body.

Shin No-ya said something.

Within my dantian.

Centered around my internal energy, mixed with demonic energy.

It was a state where my body could explode at any moment without it being strange.

With that demonic energy and internal energy mixed.

It was Shin No-ya who was preventing problems from occurring in my body.

If No-ya wasn’t actually blocking it.

The demonic energy would immediately run wild and cause pain to my body.

Shin No-ya blocked those aspects.

And helped my internal energy and demonic energy coexist in my dantian without clashing.

‘And.’

What I can recall from here.

If it’s internal energy and demonic energy.

It’s the matter of demonic energy.

Fundamentally, becoming a demon involves.

All the internal energy residing in the dantian converting into demonic energy.

The moment demonic energy enters my body.

The Blazing Wheel Technique begins purification and changes it into internal energy.

However, because the speed isn’t that fast.

It’s the same for demonic energy residing within the body.

Looking at it this way.

It means my body already coexists with three kinds of energy.

Although Shin No-ya is blocking the clash of demonic energy.

What about demonic energy?

I think.

Fundamentally, demonic energy is a power that doesn’t have major issues mixing with other energies.

Even the strongest master.

The reason they can be turned into demons by the Heavenly Demon’s power.

Is because demonic energy can coexist with other energies.

‘That’s when you’re a demon.’

This applies only when the Heavenly Demon bestows a sacred fire and turns them into a demon.

The reason I see it that way is.

‘…Demonic energy gnaws away at internal energy and the physical body.’

If someone who isn’t a demon harbors demonic energy in their body.

Their internal energy immediately gets blocked, and their body slowly rots away.

I could know this by recalling the Sword Empress of this life.

And I could know it by recalling those affected by demonic energy in my past life.

Demonic energy is fatal to martial artists.

While it’s true the Heavenly Demon possessed absolute power.

The reason the Demonic Cult could invade the Central Plains so quickly.

Was because the power of demonic energy was that brutal.

Their energy was like energy born to kill martial artists.

Then what about me, carrying such rough energy in my body?

‘I am not a demon.’

I handle demonic energy and live with it inside me, but.

I was ‘not yet’ a demon.

That means.

Normally, the moment demonic energy entered my body.

It’s power that should have caused me to rot and die from the start.

Thinking back to when I consumed magic stones in this life.

It should have been strange right from that time.

The Demonic Absorption Technique is the power to absorb the demonic energy of magic stones.

And the Blazing Wheel Technique can purify such demonic energy and change it into internal energy.

So I thought it was a state where I, not being a demon, could possess demonic energy without issue.

But really.

Was that the correct story?

Just like Shin No-ya did.

To prevent demonic energy from invading my body.

Wasn’t something blocking it?

This is a thought I’ve had recently.

And if there’s a being that can do such a thing, and if it’s within me.

‘It must be that guy who kept grumbling ‘kkeureung kkeureung’ every day.’

For several years, I thought of its existence with reluctance.

Besides consuming food and whining about being hungry every day.

It wasn’t much of a danger.

And when I recall how it sometimes gave me information or tried to help me.

I sometimes thought it might not be entirely an ominous curse.

‘This guy… was related to Mother?’

The World Tree said.

To know about this guy.

You must know about my mother. I frown at those words.

“That’s ridiculous.”

[Why do you think so?]

“This is the first time I’ve seen this guy in this life.”

If such a thing was attached to my body in my past life.

I couldn’t possibly not know.

But if this thing is related to Mother, why am I only finding out now, so late?

I thought the reason for my regression was related to that beastly fellow.

“It wasn’t there in my past life, so why is it related to Mother…”

[Do you really think it wasn’t there in the Apostle’s past life?]

“What do you mean?”

I frowned at the World Tree’s words.

Do you really think this thing wasn’t in my past life?

[Haven’t you ever considered that it was merely dormant?]

The World Tree’s words raise a question.

Because if that were the case, it would be even stranger.

“Even if that were true, it’s still strange.”

A thing that slept soundly throughout my past life.

Suddenly waking up in this life.

Isn’t that even stranger?

“When I met you in my past life, there was no mention of it at all.”

At the time I met the World Tree.

He told me a way to escape this world and disappeared shortly after.

What the fire to burn karma was.

What he desired from me.

He didn’t tell me anything.

“Then…”

[Do you truly see no change occurring in this life?]

“Change?”

[Recall the changes that happened to you.]

The World Tree asks me about changes, but nothing comes to mind.

No, to be precise, there are too many, which is the problem.

If it were just one or two things.

‘What could it be… What is it?’

If that thing truly slept within my body.

The guy who just slept soundly in my past life.

I had to recall a change that would awaken him in this life.

‘…Where could it be.’

I slowly rewind my memories.

The changes that occurred just before that thing woke up.

‘The Mount Hua Sect….’

Back when I discovered the flower of the guys from the Dark Night Palace at the Mount Hua Sect.

I absorbed a large amount of energy by consuming it.

Besides that, I also remember swallowing all the demonic energy wriggling within the Sword Empress’s body.

I wonder if it’s those parts, but.

‘Before that.’

This was when Shin No-ya was with me.

Recalling Shin No-ya’s surprise, asking what on earth I was carrying in my body.

It could be said to be before that.

‘Then what is it?’

Is the issue when I absorbed energy from the cursed object of the Mount Hua Sect?

That time, in a way, was the first fortuitous encounter….

“…Huh?”

As I was recalling my thoughts, suddenly.

I realized that wasn’t truly the first fortuitous encounter.

The first fortuitous encounter I experienced.

‘…The Secret Records of the Geumcheon Family.’

It was strictly the power of that formation I experienced in Sichuan.

The snake that filled the vast room back then.

The bead that snake gave me.

Had infused me with the basic energy to raise my cultivation level.

Moreover, how awkward it was for a while, with strange divine energy mixed into my fire arts.

“…No way.”

If I were to list them one by one, everything could seem like a reason, but.

The fact that it was a fortuitous encounter experienced at the Geumcheon Family.

And furthermore.

The existence before my eyes is the World Tree.

Among the things I encountered there. Although not as massive as the World Tree.

It’s because I recalled there was a beautiful tree filled with white leaves.

Having recalled that far, I.

Explained the situation to the World Tree before me.

“…I went to the Geumcheon Family’s Secret Records.”

[I see.]

“There, I saw a tree with pure white leaves.”

I also mentioned receiving a fortuitous encounter from a giant snake within those records.

[Yes… That child. It seems she gave it to you.]

“It seems you know about the snake that was there.”

[Of course, I do.]

Sadness could be felt in the World Tree’s voice.

[She was a grateful child who protected me, how could I not know her?]

My eyes widen at the World Tree’s words.

Not to mention the tree with pure white leaves I saw there.

The monstrous being in the form of a giant snake within the records.

Seems to have been related to the World Tree before my eyes.

Yet, it clearly said all traces of the World Tree had been erased from the world.

How did that remain?

…No, more importantly now.

“…Because of that, is it true that the thing inside my body awakened?”

I had to ask this first.

Hearing my words, the World Tree twisted its roots and briefly swept down my chest.

[Do you know of resonance?]

Is it for explanation?

[What you swallowed back then… was that child’s dream, and my seed.]

“…Yes?”

[It was something the child cherished for a long time, wanting to ascend high into the sky.]

“Could you explain it a bit more simply?”

[Swallowing my seed means you harbored the owner’s trace within your body, and.]

Ppudeudeuk.

The tips of the branches pointed downwards from my chest.

And poked my dantian.

[Simultaneously with the entry of another owner’s power… resonance occurred, which is why he awakened.]

“…What exactly is this resonance.”

[He is also a master of a world, so he reacted to my power.]

“…!”

At the World Tree’s words, I stroked my dantian where the branches were poking.

That thing that kept grumbling ‘kkeureung kkeureung’.

The master of which world?

Only then do I recall what Blood Demon said to me.

-The Master of the Bottomless Pit…

That’s what Blood Demon said while looking at the growling thing back then.

The Master of the Bottomless Pit.

At the time, I dismissed it as incomprehensible words.

But now, that word ‘master’ clearly remains in my mind.

Bottomless Pit.

Master.

If I listen to the World Tree.

This guy is also a master of a world, just like the World Tree before me.

Is this guy, perhaps, much more incredible than I thought?

“No, why is something like that inside me?”

Not the master of this world.

It’s strange enough for the master of another world to be inside my body.

For such a guy to be related to Mother.

‘Mother.’

It meant my mother wasn’t just an ordinary woman.

Through the demonic mirror gate opened in the air.

Mother’s face, disappearing powerlessly, comes to mind.

The cause of my breakdown in the past, unable to endure.

And the incident that made me certain there was no one trustworthy in the Gu family.

[Apostle.]

Amidst my confusion, the World Tree cautiously calls me.

“…You said you knew about my mother.”

[I don’t know everything. As I said… I am already an erased existence from that world.]

“But you do know something, don’t you?”

I’m getting impatient.

This is something I’ve never properly considered before.

The thought that there might be something else about my mother.

“Please, tell me. About my mother…”

Damn it all.

Everything is connected.

The things I’m experiencing.

It feels damnably connected.

It’s because I’m a child of the Gu family in the first place.

And if the reason others around me become unhappy is also ultimately due to the karma I possess.

I had to hear it.

About the secrets I might have.

As I observed the World Tree with such eyes.

The World Tree paused for a moment, then began to speak to me.

[I was erased from that world, but… I can know a little. For it is the world I once embraced.]

[As I feel it, you have faced a total of two calamities so far.]

“Twice?”

I recall the two calamities the World Tree mentioned.

If the first was the Blood Demon.

What was the second?

Heavenly Demon…?

Is it the Heavenly Demon after all? The only being I could think of as the second calamity was the Heavenly Demon.

If the calamity wasn’t me, as Yeon Il-cheon said.

As I was thinking that in my head.

[You wished to know about your mother, didn’t you?]

The World Tree begins the story about Mother.

Hearing those words, my brow furrows deeply.

…Why now, of all times?

We were just talking about calamities.

And suddenly it changes the topic here?

As I pondered such a question.

[She herself is.]

The World Tree told me.

[The second calamity that fell upon your world.]

Hearing the words the World Tree uttered.

I felt as if the world had stopped.