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Chapter 169:
Chapter 169:
Chapter 169:
Chapter 169
Yu-hyun was quite perplexed by Seo Su-min’s honest words, which were beyond his expectations.
‘Paradise? That place was involved in this incident?’
Yu-hyun was almost certain that the culprit of this situation was almost the 36 Thousand Heaven Realms.
However, Seo Su-min mentioned the Great Sage Army, which was the opposite of them.
The Great Sage Army of Paradise was considered one of the most virtuous places in the mixed world, along with Eden.
They were unlike the beings of the upper world, who sympathized and respected the beings of the lower world, and tried to lead them to the path of salvation.
The doctrine of Paradise was that one could only reach true nirvana by letting go of all pain and delusion.
Such a doctrine elevated the level of existence and made them realize the eternal truth of the future.
‘The Great Sage Army, who act under the name of salvation for the lower world, did such a thing?’
He couldn’t simply dismiss it as a lie, as he didn’t feel any suspicious signs from Seo Su-min.
What if she was mistaken about the wrong information?
Yu-hyun shook his head.
‘I don’t think a former transcendent would make such a simple mistake.’
More than anything, Yu-hyun was wary of the unconditional praise and trust for the Great Sage Army, who were known to be good.
‘Eden is also a very good place. But they are so obsessed with justice that they have no mercy for those they judge as evil.’
Fish can’t live in water that is too clear and clean.
That’s what Eden was like in Yu-hyun’s judgment.
And he thought that Paradise, which was known to be on par with Eden, wouldn’t be much different.
‘But why? Why is she so wary of the Great Sage Army, who are as good as Paradise?’
Yu-hyun couldn’t understand that.
He learned something he didn’t know, but new questions followed one after another.
The answer to all this was too blurry to grasp, like a mirage.
“I see.”
Yu-hyun nodded his head first, as he had no choice but to agree with Seo Su-min’s words.
“Do you believe me?”
“There’s no reason not to. I don’t think you would lie with such a sorrowful expression.”
Yu-hyun muttered bitterly.
Seo Su-min’s feelings for her friend Yura were real.
He didn’t think she had done this while deceiving her family and friends.
Still, just in case, he used [Laplace’s Fragment] to eliminate the slightest possibility.
[Information gathering rate: 45%]
As soon as he saw the increased amount of information, Yu-hyun closed his eyes without realizing it.
It was almost certain that the indicator pointed to the truth of the current situation.
Yu-hyun opened his eyes naturally and took a deep breath.
‘Seo Su-min’s words are true. The Great Sage Army that is targeting her is Paradise. And Paradise is intervening in the lower world and trying to eliminate her.’
He didn’t know why.
He didn’t think she would answer even if he asked her.
The important thing was what to do from here on out.
‘If it’s true that the Great Sage Army is involved, it’s quite dangerous to confront them.’
Yu-hyun had never let go of those who opposed him.
He accepted the fights that came his way and smashed them head-on.
But Paradise was beyond that level.
The Pentagon Department or the Twilight Veil Clan or Korean politicians.
Fighting them was annoying, but he had confidence that he could win if he fought them.
‘But the Great Sage Army is different. They are… no matter how much I fly or crawl, they are unreachable.’
Yu-hyun saw a wall.
He had faced such a wall when he charged at over 100,000 Ottoman troops at the Siege of Constantinople.
When he caused a collapse on a global scale due to Agito’s stake in fate.
When he faced a giant whale that destroyed a huge ship in one blow in the sea.
Yu-hyun had always faced such walls and broke them in the end.
But this wall was too big for him.
‘A suffocating frustration that I haven’t felt much even in my previous life.’
He didn’t expect to feel this after returning to a peaceful era.
No matter how you look at it, this was too much. He wanted to complain about it.
‘Logically speaking, I should back off from this matter. The opponent is the Great Sage Army. And not just any Great Sage Army, but one with considerable authority, power and fame. There are countless first-generation saints belonging to that place, and I can’t even guess how many are below them. On the other hand, our side’s strength is only one former transcendent who has lost his power, a teller who can fight, and two collectors.’
It was a hopeless fight.
You don’t know until you fight, but that doesn’t apply to this situation. There is no fool who touches the hot sun to find out.
‘Just pretend I don’t know anything here and hope this situation passes. That’s what I should do.’
Yu-hyun looked at Seo Su-min.
She was still trembling from the pain.
A slender figure that bowed her head to the ground, not looking like a transcendent.
The world was demanding her death.
Anger.
Yu-hyun’s head hurt as he saw a scene from his previous life.
There was a girl who smiled at him and said she was fine.
She also ended up dying an unwanted death, swept away by the evil of the world.
Was it just a simple illusion that the memory of that time came to my mind now?
Yu-hyun sighed.
‘I can’t do anything.’
If he left, Seo Sumin would die.
Just as he knew from history, as the future was set.
It was reckless to step forward and say that he would save her. If he made a mistake, the fire could swallow him up too.
This was crazy, like running into a wildfire with a barrel of oil in his arms.
‘Yeah. It’s crazy.’
Yu-hyun looked at the scenery that spread out from the middle of the mountain.
The city that appeared between the trees that grew up.
It was the blueprint of the peaceful era he had always wanted.
He wanted to see that sight.
He wanted to protect it.
He thought so.
“First.”
Yu-hyun opened his mouth.
Her blurry eyes captured Yu-hyun’s face. It was a vessel filled with endless despair, a black darkness.
“When you said that, I thought it would be better to run away.”
“…”
“That’s right. The enemy is the Great Sage Army. They are monsters that we mortals can’t do anything about. Just like you can’t reach the stars by reaching out to the sky, humans can’t beat spirits. That’s the way of this world.”
Yu-hyun didn’t like spirits very much, and he didn’t believe in them.
However, apart from hating them, he acknowledged their power.
He had no choice but to acknowledge it.
He would definitely lose if he fought. Not just losing, but being annihilated without leaving any trace.
Considering that, it was much better to run away miserably.
At least, he could keep his life intact.
“I’d rather run away. If I can’t run away, I have to bow my head and beg. This is beyond the level that can be solved by words. You know that too.”
“…”
Seo Sumin did not answer.
She nodded weakly.
She felt the same way about this hopeless feeling.
She also lived in a martial world where power ruled the law.
Power was power and an absolute indicator.
It was the same in this world.
Seo Sumin knew this feeling of not being able to see the way forward.
Endless despair.
The ground collapsing, and being dragged mercilessly into the endless darkness.
She didn’t know how to resist it, and she didn’t resist it.
“I…”
“So, it’s more fun.”
“…What?”
Seo Sumin didn’t understand what she had just heard.
A strong look of enthusiasm filled Yu-hyun’s face, who had been speaking harshly and cruelly until a moment ago.
His eyes without hesitation were burning with a flame that didn’t suit someone who had surrendered from the beginning.
“Just now, you said there’s no answer…”
“That’s if you think rationally.”
“Rationally?”
“You may not know, but I’ve been through a lot to get here.”
Yu-hyun looked into Seo Sumin’s eyes, taking his eyes off the scenery.
“I’ve seen things you can’t even imagine. I’m talking about the end of despair that can be called a handful compared to what you feel.”
Losing precious people, killing even those he wanted to protect with his own hands, trying hard to ignore the resentment of people.
Still, he didn’t want to die and lived on with gritted teeth.
“Even if you were a transcendent in your previous life, I can boast about this one thing. I lived a life that doesn’t fall behind you.”
Yu-hyun felt a lot of failures and fears while coming up to this place.
“Rational judgment is important. Whatever happens, whatever you do, you have to use this head first.”
But Yu-hyun had something he wanted to ask those people.
Is rational thinking always the right answer?
He thought again, and it seemed like a stupid question.
If he had always made rational judgments, would he have been able to come here?
Charging at an Ottoman army of over 100,000 people.
Entrusting his life to one person in a collapsing world.
Fighting for his life against a giant whale as big as an island.
‘If I had only moved with my head, would those things have happened?’
Moving with your head is important, but moving with your head ‘only’ is not right.
Yu-hyun felt it desperately through experience.
Sometimes, you have to do what your heart tells you, even if others think it’s a crazy gamble.
That’s how you change yourself.
And also.
‘How you change the world.’
The existence of the Great Saints is terrifying.
They are so huge and overwhelming that they seem unreachable.
It’s not a fight between humans and ants. It’s a firefly running towards the sun. That’s what Yu-hyun looked like right now.
“There’s still a chance.”
It was an absurd fight, but Yu-hyun saw a possibility in it.
“They are dangerous because they are Saints, but they also have limits to the power they can exert as Saints.”
The Genesis System.
That’s what Yu-hyun believed in.
“No matter how powerful the Great Saints are, it’s difficult for them to directly use their power in the lower world. They would have to be insane to risk all the penalties and do it anyway, but I know they won’t do that.”
“How do you know that…”
“Because they are the Great Saints. A faction doesn’t move based on individual emotions. Even if they have a cause, they have to weigh the pros and cons for their organization.”
If Paradise Land targeted Seo Sumin, who was reincarnated from Nirvana, there must have been a strong opinion from a powerful Saint within the faction.
But that didn’t mean it was the will of the entire Paradise Land.
The more Yu-hyun thought and judged rationally, the more he felt the fog that blinded his eyes clear up.
‘I can see it now.’
What he had to do.
And what he could do.
“The Great Saints may have intervened, but the chances of them getting involved directly are very low. They will try to move indirectly to minimize the penalties.”
[Information gathering rate: 54%]
Laplace’s Fragment reacted.
Yu-hyun’s conviction became reality.
“They might send someone else to do their bidding. It could be a human from the lower world who follows them, or a Teller who has connections with them. They will surely move like that.”
[Information gathering rate: 63%]
“But they won’t entrust everything to them. They must have some insurance in case you resist with your power from your previous life. It would be troublesome for them otherwise.”
[Information gathering rate: 76%]
“They will try to kill you, by any means possible, within the limits of this world. That’s my conclusion.”
The information rate of Laplace’s Fragment, which had been rising steadily, stopped at 80%.
‘Is it still 20% short?’
But compared to when he knew nothing, it was a huge improvement.
He had obtained some rough information on how the enemy would move. With that, Yu-hyun had earned the possibility of finding a way to counter them.
Yu-hyun reached out his hand to Seo Sumin.
“Let’s do this together. We can stop them if we join hands.”
Yu-hyun proposed that to Seo Sumin.
He would help her from this side, so she should lend her strength from that side.
It wasn’t just a ploy to recruit Seo Sumin.
The situation where the Saints were trying to interfere with the lower world was something that Yu-hyun had to stop as well.
“I, I…”
Seo Sumin looked back and forth between Yu-hyun’s hand and face.
She hesitated over something.
She pondered in her trembling heart.
‘I’m sure this is right.’
Seo Sumin knew that Yu-hyun was the only one who knew her situation.
He was the only one who could save her from this crisis.
It was impossible to hide her power and identity any longer.
She had been cornered to this point, and she had to act eventually.
It made sense to take his hand. Her experience as a transcendent told her so.
He can be trusted.
‘I should…take his hand…’
As she was about to make up her mind, everything in front of her eyes blurred.
Everything turned into a watercolor painting touched by water, and soon a new scene was drawn.
She remembered the past in a dreamlike haze.
-Won’t you join me? We can do anything if we work together.
An old and wrinkled hand reached out to her.
Seo Sumin’s eyes followed the hand up.
From the wrist to the arm.
From the arm to the shoulder.
The end of her gaze was the owner of the hand’s face.
“…!”
As soon as she saw an old man smiling kindly at her,
Seo Sumin barely held back a scream.
-What’s wrong?
The old man who offered his hand to Seo Suminwas covered in blood with his body torn apart.
His eyes were black and empty, and tears of blood flowed from them.
-Why did you kill me? Why me? Why? Why? Why did you kill me? Why? Nirvana Lord. Please answer me. Why! Why! Why did you abandon us! Why!
“I, I…”
-We shared the same dream of conquering the Central Plains, didn’t we? Why did you betray us? Why did you throw away the dream of all the disciples! It hurts. Nirvana Lord. We are in so much pain. Please, save us!
The old man in blood shouted.
Behind him, people rose up one by one.
They were all bloody, their hair disheveled, and their faces so horrible that they were hard to look at.
Seo Sumin’s face turned pale.
“Seo Sumin? Seo Sumin?”
Yu-hyun approached Seo Sumin as the atmosphere suddenly changed.
She seemed fine a moment ago, but her attitude changed abruptly.
“Seo Sumin!”
“Ah.”
Seo Sumin came to her senses at Yu-hyun’s shout.
She looked at him briefly and then turned her back and ran away with a pale face.