Possessing Nothing

Possessing Nothing

Chapter 285 – The Black Dragon (3)

Translated by : betterdays

Proofread and Edited by : Hogu

* * *

Lee Sungmin was lost in thought.

He had once heard from Qian Zun about why Wijihoyeon was so desperately needed for Beyond the Heavens.

But now he had heard an in-depth explanation from Jehu.

Interfering with the laws of the world by using Wijihoeyon. But…… it was still very vague when he heard ‘laws of the world’.

Their purpose was still to exterminate all the non-humans from this world, by interfering with these laws.

It takes a lot of power to interfere with the laws of the world, Lee Sungmin thought.

Although Qian Zun had not mentioned anything about how this was to prevent the end, and Jehu was the same, Lee Sungmin felt there was an explanation due in terms of how this goal related to preventing the ‘End’.

Because of the implied goal of Beyond the Heavens and the fact they could not talk about the ‘End’ without being interfered with by the Apostles of the End, Lee Sungmin and Sima Ryunju both drew their own conclusions.

‘There is a link between eradicating all the non-humans of this world and preventing the ending of the apocalypse.’

It would make sense in a distorted fashion.

Lee Sungmin bit his lower lip.

It was understandable. He was also human but not human simultaneously. He knew well about the monstrous entity within his mental world that was concealing itself deep inside. It was an extremely cruel and ominous existence.

If the extermination of the non-humans in Eria was linked to preventing the end, then Lee Sungmin’s death was inevitable.

Sima Ryunju also understood the implied meaning behind Beyond the Heavens’ purpose and how it linked to the end. He didn’t pursue it any further, and instead, asked another question.

“What is the Divine Maiden?”

“That’s…… I don’t know. She’s a mystery, and I’ve never even met her in person. I’ve only heard the orders from Musin…… I don’t even know where the Divine Maiden is.”

“Then there’s nothing more to hear.”

Jehu quickly shut up when Sima Ryunju spoke the blunt words.

He considered his situation was miserable, but he didn’t show much of it.

Even if Jehu was over a hundred years old and was confident in his martial arts, it was futile.

He may have learned martial arts from the Martial God, Musin, but he had only been practicing for one hundred years.

One hundred years of martial arts compared to three hundred was just silly. There was no way his martial arts could compare to Sima Ryunju’s.

‘It’s a shame…….’

If the dragons were only still here, Jehu would have never gotten mixed up in this mess.

Jehu consoled himself by thinking so. As he did this, he kept his gaze on Lee Sungmin.

More specifically, Jehu stared and trembled as he glanced at the armor and spear that Lee Sungmin used.

Armor made from the scales of his father, who he had never seen before. He had thought he would be able to meet his father someday… but not like this.

There was also a mixture of hatred in the complex emotions that boiled inside Jehu’s mind.

Despite receiving the harsh glare, Lee Sungmin had no choice but to think about what Jehu said earlier.

The reason why Wijihoyeon was the target of Beyond the Heavens. There were still many gaps of information that he had yet to figure out.

Why did Wijihoyeon climb the Hugal Mountains? Maybe, no, definitely. Lee Sungmin was sure that Wijihoyeon has gone to the Maryeong Pavilion where Yana had obtained her powers from the Devil that resided there.

‘Why did you go there?’

Before he had separated from Wijihoyeon in the Forest of Fairies. She talked about a dream she had been having.

A place full of fog. And Wijihoyeon didn’t know where it was, but it’s still a vague statement to Lee Sungmin when she said she had a feeling that she knew where she needed to go.

It felt like someone had intended for her to go there. It just made no sense otherwise.

‘But then who the hell wanted her to go there?!’

“Where are the Hugal Mountains located?”

“…… South…… I heard it’s a week away from the City of Endless Night.”

Sima Ryunju caressed his chin in response to Lee Sungmin’s question as he thought about it and then continued to speak.

“It’s a long way from here to the South. Even if we go South now, I don’t imagine that the Minor Heavenly Demon is still there.”

“It was only a few months ago that Musin met her in the Hugal Mountains.”

“Then there’s no way she’ll ever be there. How much do the two of you even know about the Maryeong Pavilion?”

Sima Ryunju directed his question towards both Jehu and Lee Sungmin.

Jehu couldn’t even answer since he had never been or heard of the Hugal Mountains until it was mentioned in the conversation he had with Musin a few months back. But that wasn’t the case for Lee Sungmin.

“There’s a Devil in the Hugal Mountains.”

“A Devil?”

“It’s a place where you can communicate with a Devil… They don’t have any restraints on their power inside of that place, but it’s not the case anywhere else.”

Lee Sungmin told Sima Ryunju what he heard from Yana. Sima Ryunju, who was lost in thought for a while, nodded his head.

“I’ve also heard about the old Gumiho, Yana. I heard it was a creature with powerful power…… is the Devil at the Maryeong Pavilion really so powerful that it can even give a demon fox all nine of its tails?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“As you said, it seems that the Minor Heavenly Demon went to the Hugal Mountains to meet the Devil of the Maryeong Pavilion. I don’t know why or how, but…… maybe Musin died there.”

“What?”

At the end of Sima Ryunju’s guess, Jehu shouted in surprise.

“Musin might be dead?”

“There’s a reason why he couldn’t contact you despite your efforts to contact him. I think there’s a good chance he’s dead.”

“Such…… no… Musin had reached the pinnacle of strength possible for a human being. He was a Martial God! There is no way that he died to the Devil in the Maryeong Pavilion.”

“The old man has never met things like a Devil or a Demon. But I know they’re god-like beings in a real sense, unlike the gods that exist in this world. No matter how powerful one may be, human beings are just human beings after all.”

Sima Ryunju knew it well since he was at the apex of strength possible for human beings. He was nothing in front of Devils or Gods that were able to exert their powers in full.

It wasn’t that their strength wasn’t enough, it was simply that their levels were entirely different.

“First of all, we’ll start by going North.”

“Are we going to go see the Vampire Queen?”

“We don’t plan on changing the schedule. The south is suspicious when talking about the Hugal Mountains, but it takes too long to get there. And even if we go there, I don’t think we’ll be able to go and just meet the Devil of Maryeong pavilion just because we want to.”

Sima Ryunju murmured as he glanced at Jehu.

“This old man will not violate the agreement between us. I said I’d protect you. I’m not sure if Musin is still alive, but if he is, and he tries to come after you, I will uphold my promise.”

“……alright…”

“However.”

Before Jehu finished speaking, Sima Ryunju quickly cut him off.

“I didn’t say that I wouldn’t kill you.”

“Crazy….. you’re going to kill me after everything I just told you?”

“Don’t rush to your own death so quickly.”

When Jehu tried to raise his body in anger, Sima Ryunju raised his hand up and restrained his behavior swiftly.

Sima Ryunju didn’t actually draw out his internal energy, but the action itself of raising his hand was enough to scare Jehu into sitting back down quickly.

“It could be your death at any moment so don’t rush yourself.”

“…… Damn it! Explain it so it’s easy to understand. What more do you want from me?”

“I’m not asking for anything from you. As long as you don’t do anything or take actions that would warrant your death, then this old man won’t kill you.”

“I don’t know what you expect me to even do.”

“First of all, don’t hold your grudges against my disciple.”

The words shook the shoulders of Jehu. He suppressed the antsy feeling that was crawling around in his heart.

However, there was nothing he could do despite it feeling incredibly unfair. Yet in the end, Jehu couldn’t stand it any further and protested.

“You don’t know, but your disciple and I…… have a terrible relationship with each other. He ate the heart of my father, who was a true Dragon, and made armor out of my father’s remains.”

“You think it’s solely armor? He also made a spear out of the remains.”

“Cr…”

When Sima Ryunju replied so flippantly, the hairs on the back of Jehu’s neck stood up.

Lee Sungmin protested in an annoyed voice as Sima Ryunju was clearly giving provocations left and right.

“Let’s clear up the misunderstanding first. I didn’t kill your father.”

“He doesn’t even have the ability to do that.”

Sima Ryunju added as if to tease his incompetent disciple. Lee Sungmin merely ignored the words though.

“I took a very rare chance to even receive those remains and I just used them unknowingly to fit my needs of survival.”

“Even so, isn’t it inevitable that I would feel upset?”

“Yes, it’s inevitable, but I couldn’t help it either. You were a part of Beyond the Heavens, so you should know just how much your organization continuously tried to kill me. I only used these out of necessity to not die.”

“First, it was you who turned Beyond the Heavens into your enemy.”

“Why do you talk like you’re still in Beyond the Heavens when you’ve clearly already betrayed them?”

When Lee Sungmin refuted, the face of Jehu was distorted. He didn’t do it because he wanted to betray Musin, but due to the circumstances, he couldn’t say anything back and his cheeks turned red from anger and embarrassment.

“It must be a long way to the North from here.”

Scarlett, who was listening to the story bouncing back and forth between Lee Sungmin and Jehu, opened her mouth. She took a large book out of her subspace pocket and placed it on her lap.

“Are you going to keep arguing when we get there?”

“Yes, why don’t we all get along? In any case, you’re going to be accompanying us to the North.”

“……Kkkk…”

At the end of Sima Ryunju’s words, Jehu closed his eyes tightly. He calmed down his agitated feelings.

His feelings started to rationalize as he realized that there was no need to be so angry. His father was someone that he had never met or seen, let alone heard from.

There was no reason to be angry about his father’s death now that he was here.

“Let’s get along well from now on.”

It was Jehu who calmed down while Lee Sungmin spoke, but Jehu still felt anger at Lee Sungmin’s words. Of course, he didn’t dare express any more anger due to the presence of Sima Ryunju.

Scarlett sighed as she opened the book while feeling the colliding tension in the air. Reading the book she muttered to herself under her breath.

“I shouldn’t have followed you.”

Although she felt bitter and regretful, she knew it was better to be here rather than staying in the Sama Order alone.

* * *

Brrrrroooooo-

The mountain shook like a landslide. To be exact, it was the sound of a whole mountain peak collapsing.

The collapsed peak became a large rocky mountain, and with a flash of light, the rocky mountain exploded again. The big, heavy rocks became thin sand and scattered everywhere.

The appearance of Musin was disastrous. His hair was a mess and his clothes… were not even clothes, they were rags.

The cheeks were sunken, shaded under the eyes, and his eyes were bulging red with blood.

He strode out of the rubble from the once rocky mountain, breathing heavily. It was no longer a mountain, but a large pile of sand.

“Wow…”

Musin pressed down on his throbbing temples. How long had it been since he was conscious? He couldn’t figure out the sense of time.

The Devil, which had imprisoned him, was neither magical nor of human nature. It was a barrier that was made to imprison Transcendental beings like Gods and Spiritual Entities.

The time axis within the barrier was not on the same plane as mortal standards so Musin could not tell how long it had been. He recalled what the Devil had told him.

As the Devil had spoken, Musin was a human who could not possibly be judged by mortal standards.

Although he was a human that had reached the very apex of his limits, he still took quite a bit of time to escape the barrier.

The boundaries that entangled his six senses were not a threat to him, but rather the power of the barrier itself was nonsensical.

‘I didn’t expect this to happen……!’

Musin suppressed his pounding headache by grinding his teeth.

He underestimated the power of the Devil. No, he overestimated his own worth by the words of the Divine Maiden.

He had believed in his own power too much since he thought there was no way a self-proclaimed Devil could be more powerful than him and the Divine Maiden’s prophecies.

“I was arrogant.”

Musin beat himself up and immediately shot his body upwards into the clouds. The dust and sand in his rags and disheveled hair was evened out with a simple jump that propelled him into the air hundreds of meters above the surface.

Musin sighed as he looked down and sighed.

‘But there have been results.’

He had taken his chances and was able to survive the encounter.

When he meant chances, Musin had gone in despite the Divine Maiden deliberately not being able to help him with any prophecies.

But thanks to going in alone and unprepared, he was able to learn a lot.

‘The Devil can’t kill me.’

He was insulted and called an ant. Despite saying so, the Devil deliberately trapped him instead of killing him.

Even if he was an ant, he had his role to play as the King of Ants, he thought.

‘The Devil was waiting for the Minor Heavenly Demon to appear there.’

Fate had changed and the end had already begun. The Devil and the Minor Heavenly Demon had officially met.

The purpose and aim of the Devil from the Maryeong Pavilion was unknown, but what was certain was that Musin truly needed to capture the Minor Heavenly Demon at all costs now.

To prevent non-human beings from staying alive was the best and final way to prevent the apocalypse.

“As a human being, it is hard to resist the power of the Devil.’

The biggest achievement would have been to be able to resist the power of the Devil. Musin sadly, had been overpowered in the blink of an eye and didn’t even realize what had happened to him until he was in the barrier.

It took a tremendous amount of energy just to break through the barrier that encapsulated him. So, how long had it been? Musin looked up at the starry night sky.

“It’s been months.”

He thought he was stuck in the barrier for a few days at most. He truly did not expect this to happen. Feeling discouraged, Musin called out his ‘broker’.

When Erebrisa’s assigned broker, who is in charge of Musin, appeared, he immediately requested for all and any rumors that had been circulated in the past few months that he was trapped for.

It didn’t take too long for the broker to pull together all the information Musin requested and place it in front of him.

He was once wary of this suspicious and secretive guild that was able to seemingly defy all common sense. But a long time had passed, and Musin’s suspicions had long subsided.

It was a magic system of checks and balances that the Dragons had left behind before they ascended to a different plane of existence. Erebrisa’s job was to discover all the ‘variables’ and assist them.

“……well.”

Fortunately, there was no great event related to the ending of the world while Musin had been trapped in the barrier the past few months.

In addition to the Minor Heavenly Demon, it was the Vampire Queen, Geniella, that Musin was most wary of when it was related to the topic of the ‘end’. Regardless, she was still hiding in the North luckily.

‘But…… where is she?’

The whereabouts of the Minor Heavenly Demon had no traces from what Erebrisa could pull together. Musin had no clue as to where she was!

Musin felt nervous at this discovery, but realized that there was no way Erebrisa would be able to gather information on the Minor Heavenly Demon as long as the Devil was interfering with him.

Now that it had come to this, Musin had no other choice but to rely on the Divine Spirit. The Divine Spirit was something that was more or less the complete opposite of the Devil and its witchcraft.

‘……… The Demonic Emperor, Sima Ryunju, moved?’

When he heard about the story of the Murim Alliance, however and Sima Ryunju, Musin’s faced contorted in rage. Cron had been smashed apart and all orders had dispersed as the Murim Alliance was defeated and crushed to the ground.

Jehu was inevitably overpowered and pulverized by Sima Ryunju.

The establishment of Jehu as the Lord of the Murim Alliance was a chess piece that was needed for them to use to combat with large force against the inevitable end that was coming. But… that force was crushed by one man.

“Sima Ryunju… Lee Sungmin…. That fucking bitch…”

Musin was enraged and fuming at what the bastard, Sima Ryunju, had done to foil his plans.

Jehu was completely humiliated and the public knew of it. Not only that, but Jehu was kidnapped.

Musin swallowed his anger down as he thought about it. The Apocalypse of the End was something that was bound to have variables. This was just one of them.

“I don’t know what else that bastard is up to..…but if you assist, let alone help the ending come closer, I’ll fucking kill you.”

But before indulging in his rage any further, Musin turned his head and looked towards the North.

The end had already begun.

The Vampire Queen was the most imminent threat right now and wild card. She needed to be managed and brought under control as soon as possible.

Chapter 285 – Fin