And after waiting and waiting, the Bohyeonjin finally brought in an old man with white hair.
He looked like a frail old man, struggling to move, but his movements were vigorous and his steps heavy.
Well, without light, that’s only natural.
If someone claims to have killed the Tongcheon Lord, they’d either be a delusional liar or a genuine monster who really did slay an enemy. So it’s reasonable to assume they’re cautious enough not to come out all dawdling.
But if they hadn’t sold the name of the Tongcheon Lord, I wonder how long it would actually take to meet someone like this, even if they’re a fake.
There’s no room for choice.
“Hello. Are you the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign?”
“Yeah, you found me, right? You even claim to have killed the Tongcheon Lord.”
With that, the fake Primordial Heavenly Sovereign sat down across from me at the table. He made a face while looking at me.
He vaguely resembled a human, but it was hard to read any emotions from his expression. It was tricky to discern his intentions.
Is he smiling, or is he frowning?
And when he spoke next, I realized it didn’t really matter.
“Did I come here to eat too?”
Aha.
At the very least, he knows the Tongcheon Lord is dead. But I wonder if he knows the details?
“I’ve never eaten a Daegon.”
“Well, if we say that the act of eating means to absorb and practically utilize the power of the target, then I suppose what you do could be considered eating.”
No. Strangely accurate.
The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign glanced over to the tool next to me. There was a single flower. A flower made using a person and a special item.
“Twisting a living body to create what one desires was his specialty.”
Ah, right. That’s how I got caught. Actually, it makes more sense to say I was strong in this area originally, rather than that I killed the Daegon and stole his technique.
The later development involving biotechnology.
I have no idea how it morphs into a technique for grinding the soul to strengthen oneself, nor do I want to know.
“I think it’s a bit odd, though. Would an individual normally think about implanting themselves into a child of their own kind created from a different species?”
The Bohyeonjin next to me seemed confused by what he just heard, while the expression of the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign remained inscrutable.
I feel like I could handle responding to something on a screen, but robots or masks? That’s tough. Or maybe if I remember those biological realms, I could read them.
“They’ve twisted themselves beyond return, becoming such a species. And you mean to say you’re inside the body prepared by the Daegon?”
Once the explanation from the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign ended, the Bohyeonjin’s expression turned to that of confusion. Is it okay to have someone who’s so readable next to him at all?
“Strictly speaking, I will give birth to a body. What my main establishment prepared beforehand was consumed unknowingly by a front company that knew nothing and used it for other purposes, leading me to end up inside Choseol’s body.”
All of this is true.
The reason I kept explaining was that I was trying to find out the target in front of me while conversing, but it wasn’t visible. The Daegon was easy to spot, being a massive chunk of light.
Here, I see nothing like that.
At this point, I question if it’s even possible for something to be as massive as the Daegon’s light. So, is it fortunate…?
“So then, what is the name of the one inside this body?”
Aha. So the reason for this long conversation was to probe into my identity?
If that’s the case, let me explain. It’s rare for someone to travel in and out of a glass bottle. Even if they gain memories, if they lack the intelligence to deduce, they can’t come up with answers.
Just because one reads detective novels doesn’t mean the reader becomes the detective, right?
It’s the same here.
My head’s always lacking, and the plans I can make are mediocre. I aim for small profits without incurring losses instead of biting the bullet for a large gain.
The fact that I don’t lie is precisely because of this.
“I have no name. I don’t need one. So I’ve been using the name of the child I’ve covered up until now.”
There’s no reason to coin a new one. I remember my original name, but no one can speak it.
Or perhaps I have to question whether that’s even my name to begin with.
I clearly know because I store fragments of my memories scattered in points sequentially.
The faded memory is the first. Then there’s darkness. Next is the night sky and the sea. Little lights fallen to the ground. And then moments of memories when I ascended to the glass bottle above.
The man in that faded memory is certain from the beginning.
“Yeah, I see. You weren’t called by the Tongcheon. There’s no way you could call out someone with no name. That means those ill-omened children draped in purple were not summoned by the Tongcheon but were created by you.”
That refers to the harvesting period.
But that one seems a bit strange. While alive, they also have warmth.
“They desired it. If they give me to someone in need, they heal and gain better bodies and smarter minds. Are you saying that’s a bad thing?”
I generally absorb the warmth of the dead. There were a few times when I extracted warmth from a living man, like a general from a special organization from a certain nation.
But if I just release them, I’ll witness horrible scenes, so I wouldn’t release them.
Then the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign chuckled.
“You don’t even grasp what you are, do you? If you did, you wouldn’t say such things.”
That’s a fair point.
I still don’t know what I am. So for now, I’m having this conversation.
And this also shifts towards a direction where they cannot fully grasp my identity, so I’m contemplating ending the conversation.
Because I have no idea how warmth flows and what happens to the light that falls to where I exist.
“Then, does the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign know?”
At my words, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign shook his head.
“I merely explore and deduce the truth. But if I were to name it, I’d call it the Half Taiji.”
Half Taiji?
It doesn’t seem to simply mean half.
Thinking of the Taiji symbol, it’s not the same if flipped, is it? Or does it imply that the Yin energy is rising?
“O Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, does that mean this is a power that annihilates all things in the world?”
The Bohyeonjin asked warily.
Meanwhile, I finally understood something. So that’s why I couldn’t use Qi. The chill was like that.
Having understood this, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign shook his head.
Huh?
He says no?
“Before Yang and Yin, there is being and nonbeing. Before that, there is chaos, which becomes the origin of all things in the universe, and this is what we call the Taiji. Originally, the Taiji was thought to be the primordial chaos with no direction, but now it has even become an ancient law.”
As he spoke, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand.
A hologram appeared in the air.
It was a pitch-black image.
But soon, light sparkled, revealing the world. It showed the universe, then stars and planets, and finally Kunlun Mountain amidst them.
As the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand again, the symbol in the upper left transformed and reversed, showing a world turning back into a single point.
Then, the light collected in the sky before one by one, it began to fade.
Soon, it became completely dark void devoid of light, and that darkness was covered with a white space.
However, it wasn’t just a white space; it seemed to illustrate “nothingness” by drawing a grid pattern.
A black space floating above the white space slowly vanished to a single point until it was completely gone.
Then, as the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand, that symbol in the upper left switched back to the one that appeared when the initial video started.
Soon, a dark space appeared.
But there’s a difference.
Outside the pure white box, a black sphere of exactly the same size emerged with the darkness, while the top began to shine light, and the bottom remained unchanged.
This scene is familiar.
Yeah.
It’s in my memory. I recall looking up at stars beginning to twinkle one by one, realizing I was before a vast ocean.
“That, in itself, is the opposite of the world. It is something that had grown together with the shadow of the Taiji. It’s not annihilation, but the opposite itself has become harmful to us. What you give refers to looting from us.”
The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign pointed at me.
“You are doomed to become an enemy of the world.”
That’s right.
So I nodded.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
But this is insufficient.
It doesn’t fit the context, but I must share what I need to say.
“I’m always cold. Cold without end. Forever, dying doesn’t come, nor does insanity, or rather, have I already gone mad? I must live like this. However, sometimes, a deeply despairing light falls upon me. When the light that resents the world and hates desperately realizes it can change nothing and falls into resignation’s despair.”
I smile.
“Meet me. The light is warm. Just a touch. Just a tiny bit. Yet that alone gives a warm feeling, a small bliss enough to draw my gaze away from the piercing cold. But warmth disappears in an instant.”
How to proceed has already been determined by this point. What’s important is obtaining information. Especially to extract as much information as possible from the illusion before me.
To learn about myself, I need the help of others. I’m not all that clever.
“Life holds light within the body. And you call that light the soul. I encapsulate myself in light, allowing them to do what they wish until the end of their lives. Then, when they die, I reclaim myself enclosed within and take the warmth.”
Clap.
I clapped once to focus. The Bohyeonjin was startled. No, I may have shocked him a bit too much, and that reaction feels a little awkward.
Anyhow.
“So, I don’t take the light. I only need the warmth there. Once I obtain warmth, I no longer need light, so just leave it there. Will you condemn my actions? Why?”
This is a question of what warmth is.
From what I’ve gathered so far, it seems the immortal doesn’t know, but the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s words have great persuasiveness.
So I threw a question, hoping to potentially glean insight about warmth.
The Primordial Heavenly Sovereign opened his mouth.
“What becomes of the soul that has lost the Taiji? It can’t become anything at all and remains stuck in that state, slowly fading until all remnants disappear forever.”
No, if the Taiji is chaos, didn’t the world form afterward, leading to the birth of the soul? Is the Taiji within the soul the warmth? That makes no sense, does it?
Yet I couldn’t ask more.
“Therefore, we must resist you. Now, all the other immortals have evacuated, leaving only you behind. Bohyeon.”
With that, the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign waved his hand, attempting something. Realizing he meant to let the Bohyeonjin escape, I lifted the flower.
“Please take care of Kunlun.” “Bloom.”
The last words overlapped.
