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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Chapter 55
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“What were you thinking when you killed the beasts?”
Seolhwa asked, her sword held upright.
“You knew why those monkeys turned into beasts, didn’t you?”
“…You told me.”
“How did you feel? As you killed those beasts?”
Cheongun couldn’t answer.
Only the tingling sensation of cleaving through the beasts resonated in his fingertips.
“Among those beasts, there must have been monkeys who watched their own children’s brains being devoured right before their eyes.”
The sound of bells, signaling freshness to humans, was for the mother monkey watching it happen, the sound of her child’s last moments.
When the jingling of the bells finally ceased, what must have been in that mother monkey’s heart?
“It must have been the same for you, Father, when you lost me.”
When the child’s cries were swallowed by the raging current.
What emotions must have gripped him as he, with every sense on edge, listened to his falling child’s cries?
“Isn’t that what it means to be powerless? Grief and resentment are, in the end, merely proof of weakness.”
One grieves because they are weak; one resents because they are weak.
If they had the power, they would retaliate and seek revenge, but lacking that power, they can only nurture their grief and accumulate resentment.
Most of the Hyeolgyo members in his previous life were like that.
Even when wronged and humiliated, they lacked the strength to confront the injustice, lacked the opportunity to find release from their resentment, and so they were always filled with rage.
That rage (忿) became blood (血), staining the world crimson and creating yet more injustice and animosity.
It was a cycle. A cycle that no one could break, only growing tougher and more unyielding.
“…Seolhwa…”
In Cheongun’s gaze, Seolhwa looked lonely. The loneliness of a child standing alone was so profound it made his chest ache.
It was then that Cheongun reached out to Seolhwa. Seolhwa’s figure moved swiftly.
“…!”
*Clang—!*
Namgung Cheongun instinctively raised his sword, blocking the blade that surged towards him.
It was a strike aimed precisely at his neck.
A blow that, had he not blocked it, would surely have severed his head in a single stroke.
“Seol…”
*Clank!*
“Hwa…!”
Cheongun gasped.
*Clang! Clank! Clang—!*
The child’s sword didn’t stop, continuously aiming for Cheongun’s vital points. Cheongun retreated, blocking the child’s attacks.
As he parried the sword, Cheongun felt his throat tighten.
The child’s sword was imbued with deep sorrow.
A terrible grief and resentment emanated from the sword she wielded.
It was as if she were blaming him, demanding to know why he had lost her, why he hadn't held onto her, why he hadn't protected her…
As if spitting out that resentment.
*Clang—!*
“Ugh…”
The child unleashed her sword.
Sparks flew from their clashing blades, and within those sparks, Cheongun saw a single person.
*Clank!*
It was a single lotus petal falling—
It was pure white snow crying out for its father—
*Clang—!*
It was himself, kneeling at the edge of a precipice, writhing in misery.
“Father.”
Seolhwa’s sword was impossibly heavy for a thirteen-year-old child.
“I wish for you to become the family head.”
As heavy as the child’s desire.
“And if possible, a family head with power.”
It was a heavy, heavy sword.
Cheongun gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on his sword.
*Clang—!*
He met the child’s strike with force.
If Seolhwa poured out her resentment, Cheongun spat out his grief.
“Just being with you is enough for me. Seolhwa, your being alive by my side is already happiness. Is that not enough? Must you truly struggle so desperately to climb to such a dangerous position?”
*Clatter, clatter, clatter…*
Swords interlocked, desires intertwined.
“With such an ambiguous attitude, you can accomplish nothing.”
Is that not enough?
*Of course not.*
In his previous life, the head of the Namgung was Namgung Cheongsan.
Namgung Cheongsan was not strong enough to lead the Namgung. Though he too did his best, it was insufficient.
While the Namgung, which Cheongsan failed to protect, crumbled, Cheongun wandered the *jianghu* in search of his daughter.
And he died by his daughter’s hand.
How futile that death had been.
“What must I accomplish? Will something be achieved if I become the family head? For what reason must I covet that position?”
“What if it could prevent futile deaths?”
What if it could prevent the deaths of Namgung members who fell in vain? What if it could save your life, which was thrown away so meaninglessly?
“I never want to feel the misery of losing my family while protecting something else again. If I become the family head, I’ll have to protect everyone. But I only need to protect you. If I can protect only you, my daughter, then everything else…!”
The child swung her sword. Clouds receded, and energy surged.
Like a swallow soaring through the blue sky, the child’s sword, and the crimson energy flowing from her, swirled through the heavens.
The Namgung’s sword art.
Changgungbiyeongeom.
First Form: Cheongongyeonmu.
Watching the elegant sword strikes pour down as if dancing in the sky, Cheongun planted his feet firmly, pouring strength into his lower body.
*CRAAASH—!*
He met the child’s sword with all his might. He met the child’s desire.
*Whoooosh—*
Crimson energy and azure energy clashed, threatening to shatter the peak.
“I need it.”
From within that fierce momentum, Seolhwa’s cold voice sliced through Cheongun’s grief.
“I need power. I need a family. I need a fence to protect me.”
Some might call his life foolish, having dedicated himself to finding a daughter whose fate was unknown.
They might call the end of his life pathetic, ultimately dying by his daughter’s hand.
They might say he sacrificed something great for something small.
But Seolhwa didn’t think that way.
What parent, what lowly creature, could remain still upon hearing their child’s skull being eaten away, dying?
Who could prioritize anything else while hearing their own child’s cries, falling and calling out to them?
“Take power into your hands. Seize strength. Rule the Namgung. With that…”
Even a mere creature accumulates resentment (怨).
How could a human remain still?
“Protect me.”
However, in this life, she would not let his devotion be in vain.
She would not let his life, dedicated solely to his child, end in a futile death.
Having severed the past and cut away resentment (怨), all that remained was to move forward.
If the existence of his daughter was what moved him.
“Become the family head. Father.”
She would make him reach the peak for her sake.
Sword separated from sword.
Seolhwa stepped a few paces back from Cheongun. The energies of both individuals subsided, and silence settled.
Cheongun pressed a hand to his forehead, letting out a long sigh.
His face was already streaked with ceaseless tears.
“Ha…”
It wasn’t easy to understand the daughter who had returned after eight years.
What exactly was she planning to do? What was she thinking?
It felt as if a hundred-year-old imugi resided within that small body.
Yet.
“Very well.”
If that was his daughter’s wish. If that was the way to protect her.
He would gladly do it.
“I will try.”
He would do it with all his life. For that was the very reason he lived.
And it was then that Cheongun raised his resolute gaze.
“…?”
Something caught his eye.
It was the ground, revealed through the clouds that had briefly scattered during the sudden battle with Seolhwa.
The place where the clouds, which wouldn’t have dispersed had they not exchanged blows, had now cleared. The exposed ground was shimmering.
“Wait… just a moment! Seolhwa!”
Cheongun hastily sheathed his sword and knelt down towards the ground, which the clouds were slowly beginning to obscure again.
Cheongun fumbled for something in the gathering clouds.
After wandering through the clouds for a long while, his hand suddenly stopped.
*Clatter.*
Beneath the dense clouds, the sound of something moving could be heard.
Cheongun looked at Seolhwa with an expression of profound emotion.
“It’s a formation.”
“…”
“It was a formation, Seolhwa!”
Soon, the clouds that had filled the peak slowly dispersed, revealing the ground.
Namgung Cheongun’s eyes widened even further.
The ground forming the peak was no ordinary land.
The peak, composed of minerals that absorbed and reflected light, shone brilliantly in seven colors as the clouds parted, receiving the full sunlight.
‘A rainbow…!’
It was the Celestial Palace.
The colors filling the peak were those of a rainbow.
And where the clouds had receded, at the end of the rainbow, a tortoise-shaped object, the size of a human palm, stood firmly in place.
It was a spot that could never have been discovered had the clouds not vanished.
“The, the Cheongung…gwidu…!”
Cheongun’s face was stained with unparalleled astonishment.
The Cheongunggwidu, which had only existed in legends, was real, and he had truly found it.
A bright smile spread across his face as he looked back at Seolhwa.
That smile, sparkling with tears beneath the pouring sunlight, was somehow a refreshing one.
“You really found it, Seolhwa.”
Seolhwa’s lips curved into a faint smile.
“You found it, Father.”
