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Chapter 188:
Chapter 188:
Chapter 188:
Chapter 188
Chulapantaka began to crumble like a solid rock facing the storm of time.
Seo Sumin’s blow pierced through his chest.
His body was originally incomplete, and barely holding off the collapse was all he could do.
That balance was broken.
Chulapantaka sensed his end.
This was not a simple death or reincarnation.
Complete annihilation.
That was the fate he would face.
‘I’m going to die.’
He knew it would be like this from the beginning.
Even if he succeeded in this matter, his death was inevitable.
The only regret he had was that he failed to eliminate the seed of evil, even though he intervened personally.
Chulapantaka believed that everything in the world would eventually lead to a right ending.
When he received the grace of his master and ascended to the position of a saint, his faith became firmer like the ground after the rain.
‘Was I wrong after all?’
Evil does not change.
Evil always exists.
The world must always be made of justice.
Chulapantaka was sure that this fact would never change.
His faith changed at this moment.
His body collapsed, and his flesh lost its light.
The dark clouds in the sky cleared, and light poured through the gap.
Chulapantaka, whose body was slowly falling apart, looked at the sun in the sky for the last time.
The moment he saw the sun that always shone brightly without losing its light.
Hot tears flowed down Chulapantaka’s eyes.
“Ah.”
His eyes saw beyond the sun’s light, the figure of the one he admired so much.
-Juribandiya. You don’t have to memorize anything. Just devote yourself to cleaning dirty things with these thousand pieces of cloth.
Why did he remember his master’s words now?
-Juribandiya. Don’t think that these thousand pieces of cloth are dirty. It is more important to get rid of the delusions in your mind.
Why did he suddenly recall the teachings that he thought he had already understood?
Chulapantaka was very foolish.
He couldn’t do anything right, and he couldn’t even memorize a simple song.
He was bullied by his brother because of that, and he had been frustrated more than once or twice.
His master showed him the way.
He cleaned dirty things with cloth, and kept cleaning until the cloth turned black like dirt.
Cleaning the dirt and dust of the world became his mission before he knew it.
I want to do something too.
I can do something even though I’m lacking.
He thought so and wished so.
‘Is that so.’
What he thought was his mission became a shackle that bound him before he knew it.
Chulapantaka realized that he was blinded by a false belief.
He thought he knew everything just because he received some insignificant teachings and understood them a little bit.
‘What a fitting end for me, who was so foolish.’
Chulapantaka recalled the enlightenment he had experienced in the past as he was annihilated.
All things are impermanent (????)
Everything in the world changes eventually.
There is nothing that does not change. Even those who were considered evil also change eventually.
The only thing that did not change, and that he thought would never change, was himself.
‘The only thing that did not change, and that turned black, was me.’
The pure white cloth stained black.
He was a cloth that cleaned all the dirt and dust of the world, and he thought he had to get rid of all the filth in the world.
Ironically, what became dirty in the end was himself.
There is no end to teachings, and even after ascending to the position of a saint, he should have always tried to change himself.
He just had to realize it sooner and act on it sooner.
‘He just had to admit it sooner.’
Why didn’t he know that? Why did he realize it only now?
Chulapantaka closed his eyes.
In the darkened world, only one being came to his mind clearly.
The one who ascended to the starry seat and obtained its power, yet still practiced asceticism in shabby clothes to attain enlightenment.
‘Master.’
Chulapantaka smiled.
He smiled sadly, but happily.
He would be annihilated and could not meet his master, but at the last moment, he could recall his master’s teachings again.
What could be happier than this in the world?
In his fading consciousness, Chulapantaka thought of Yu-hyun and Seo Sumin.
‘I hope you don’t end up like me.’
With regret and gratitude, Chulapantaka detached his last ‘story’.
He was no longer its owner.
So there was no need for it to disappear with him.
He lost all his light and was wrapped in light at last.
He felt a warm touch embracing him in it. It felt like he had returned to where he belonged.
Let’s go.
To the place where our hearts and minds belong.
To my paradise and homeland.
Chulapantaka disappeared from the world like that.
***
“Is it… over?”
Seo Sumin muttered as she watched Chulapantaka vanish with the light.
“It’s really over.”
She had fought and won against that monstrous spirit.
She collapsed on the spot.
Even if she didn’t want to, she was already exhausted and couldn’t stand properly.
Seo Sumin lowered her head slightly.
Her disheveled hair came into her eyes.
Her black hair had turned white.
Pure white, without any traces of worldly dust.
“Ah, haha.”
She let out a hollow laugh as she saw her bleached hair.
At the same time, tears welled up in her eyes.
She didn’t know why.
It was supposed to be a happy occasion, but the tears wouldn’t stop.
“Sumin…”
“Ah.”
She heard a voice from behind her.
Seo Sumin slowly turned her head.
When did he regain consciousness?
Kang Yura was looking at her with wide eyes.
“Yu, Yura. This, this is…”
Seo Sumin stammered, not sure how to explain.
It was obvious that Yura had seen her use her power.
She couldn’t lie about it, and neither could she hide her white hair.
Seo Sumin felt a surge of anxiety.
She had kept her identity as a celestial horse secret from even her family. But now, she had been exposed to her best friend.
Would she be angry that she had been lying all this time? Would she think that she had been deceived?
That was all unfounded.
“Are you okay, Sumin?”
“Are you… not mad?”
“Why would I be mad? You saved me.”
Kang Yura had regained consciousness when Seo Sumin used her power.
She realized then that Seo Sumin had a really amazing power. But the moment she saw her fighting desperately in the light that seemed to shatter the world.
Kang Yura felt a surge of emotion somewhere in her heart.
Even though she hid her power, Seo Sumin was still her friend.
A friend who protected her in danger, who fought for her with all her might.
“And, to be honest, I’ve felt it for a long time. That you’re not ordinary.”
“How, how did you know?”
“Of course I know. You think you’re hiding it, but you’ve been showing off your unbelievable physical abilities since gym class. I thought you were an awakened person or something.”
“Oh…”
Seo Sumin’s face turned red at Yura’s words.
She thought she had hidden it well, but she knew everything.
Kang Yura laughed out loud at Seo Sumin’s reaction.
She probably thought she was fine, but Seo Sumin had always been a bit clumsy.
It was because of the strange gap that resulted from not adapting to reality perfectly.
Of course, other people didn’t notice it.
Only Kang Yura and a few friends who were close to Seo Sumin knew the truth.
“But I was surprised. You were from another world, Sumin.”
“…I’m sorry for hiding it.”
“It’s okay. You must have had a good reason for it. And thanks to you, I’m alive, right?”
“Yeah.”
Seo Sumin nodded and hugged Yura who came closer to her.
Yura stroked Seo Sumin’s back.
Yu-hyun watched the scene with a warm smile.
Kwon Jia came up to his side and tapped his arm.
“You said you were an ordinary student?”
Her eyes demanded the truth about his incredible martial arts skills that he had shown earlier.
At the same time, Kang Hye-rim also came up next to Kwon Jia and gave him a reproachful look.
Yu-hyun was slightly flustered.
‘Did something happen between them while I was gone? They seem closer than before…’
It wasn’t his imagination.
The two who had always been somewhat distant from each other had become friends enough to be called so.
He realized that it wasn’t just him who had changed and smiled softly.
“I was going to explain it to you later.”
“You’d better explain it in detail.”
“That’s right. And the part where you died and came back to life too.”
“I got it, I got it.”
He felt grateful for their nagging, as if he had come back from death.
***
Celine sighed with relief as she watched everything until the end.
She felt her heart sink when Yu-hyun died.
At that moment, she unknowingly jumped up from her seat.
Fortunately, Yu-hyun did not die. To be precise, he revived just before he died.
After that, he faced one crisis after another.
He never expected that Chulapantaka, the supreme being of Sukhavati, would manifest himself in person.
‘And to think, that girl was able to knock him down.’
Celine’s gaze shifted to Seo Su-min, who had turned her hair white.
Judging by Yu-hyun’s reaction, she would probably be the third collector to make a contract with him.
Celine admired Yu-hyun’s eye for finding people with great potential, but she could not relax.
‘Too many people saw the Sukhavati spirit manifest. There will be huge repercussions.’
The message window was already filled with opinions that said it was a good outcome, as well as spirits who were angry at the excessive intervention of Sukhavati.
[The one who resembles the brilliant light protests strongly against Sukhavati.]
[The one who laughs in the darkest place observes Sukhavati closely.]
Especially, the two spirits of Eden and Pandemonium did not bother to hide their discomfort.
This incident could not be passed off as a simple happening.
It was something that could shake the entire mixed world, or even the whole Great War that spread across all worlds.
‘I have… a lot of work to do.’
Celine felt like a huge pile of paperwork was coming at her like a tidal wave.
She had to deal with the audience spirits who would flock to her library after hearing the rumor, the other tellers who would interfere with this situation, and the report she had to submit to the headquarters.
‘But still.’
Let’s celebrate their victory for now.
Celine smiled faintly and looked at Yu-hyun on the screen.
***
“We have to run.”
Shamath flew through space on his molgol.
His molgol was not in a good shape.
His clothes were torn here and there, and he looked like a snake that had lost its nerve.
He muttered that he had to escape to the space train station through his guardian.
Chulapantaka was defeated.
That alone was unbelievable, but there was more trouble.
‘If it gets out that I have some kind of connection with Sukhavati, it’s all over.’
To make matters worse, his guardian’s room was completely destroyed.
At the same time, his library also suffered a great damage.
It was all because of what Chulapantaka did when he descended to the lower world.
‘That damn bastard! Damn it! Why did he do that in my library…!’
If Chulapantaka was in front of him, he would have cursed at him regardless of his status as a spirit.
He used Shamath’s guardian’s room, which belonged to the middle world, as a stepping stone to manifest himself in the lower world.
In other words, he used his library as a kind of bypass.
The upper world where the spirits reside could not intervene properly in the lower world.
The passage to there was too small, and they could only support with small points for now.
If they tried to force their way down, they had to be prepared for their existence to be erased.
The Genesis system would soon notice the anomaly and punish them.
Chulapantaka used a different method.
He used the middle world that connected the upper and lower worlds, namely the space where the tellers resided.
It was not too hard to go from the upper world to somewhere that belonged to the middle world.
All he had to do was get permission from someone like Shamath who had access to his guardian’s room.
Chulapantaka manifested himself directly in the lower world from there. Because of that, Shamath’s guardian’s room was literally shattered.
He unwittingly became a broker for sending a higher being than allowed to the lower world.
The passage that sent such a being to the lower world had to break.
His guardian’s room broke.
Not only that, his personal library also broke miserably.
He lost his basic rights as a teller overnight.
He did not hope for recovery.
He knew it was impossible.
He was ultimately responsible for allowing Chulapantaka’s entry.
But what bothered him most was that Sukhavati failed after doing all that.
‘First of all, I have to hide. I have to hide somewhere far away where no one can see me.’
Shamath knew that if he stayed like this, he would be caught by the surveillance room guys and put on trial inside the company.
So he decided to run away somehow.
He arrived at the space station and someone tapped him on his shoulder.
“Hey. This guy here. Long time no see?”
“Ce, Celestina Director?”
Shamath turned pale when he saw the red-haired beauty looking at him.
He ran into his worst enemy on a tightrope.
The director of the Celestial Ice department, Celestina, smiled at Shamath with a smirk.
“Oh, Shamath Manager. You’ve lost a lot of manners since I last saw you. You were smiling a bit miserably back then. Is it because your director is not here? Or maybe, do you have something to feel guilty about?”
“Th, that’s not it. What are you doing here…”
“I do have something to do here.”
Her arm around his neck tightened.
“You’ve done quite a mess, Pentagram department’s Shamath Manager.”
“I, I… Th, that is…”
“I arrest you for colluding with Sukhavati and sending a spirit to the lower world, violating the lower world inviolability treaty and assisting in the manipulation of the situation.”
It was the announcement of Shamath’s doom.