Survival Guide for the Reincarnated

“If Chaotic Heaven Ones were being diverted, then someone must have helped extract them, and when he first received the offer, he would have hesitated. I will make this very simple and easy to understand.”

Unhwi’s finger tapped Yeom Muhyeok’s forehead.

“You are a mudfish.”

“.......”

“You muddy the waters, again and again. You tempt martial artists who are already struggling by making them offers they cannot refuse. Just like the lure of demonic deviation.”

“W-wait......”

“I have seen countless people of your sort. Those small offers, those petty desires—if one merely skims through history books, dozens of examples appear where such things threw an organization into confusion and brought it apart.”

Unhwi’s words were utterly firm.

“You must pay the price for that crime. Until you spit out everything you know. You will live in hell.”

“Wait...... Ah...... Please do not do this. Please...... I truly know nothing......”

“Take him away.”

At Unhwi’s words, the Seolcheon Guard martial artists waiting outside entered and dragged Yeom Muhyeok away.

“No! No! Spare me! Please......!”

It was a pitiful scream, but it soon disappeared.

The door closed.

Only Unhwi and Ma Suhyeok remained in the room.

Ma Suhyeok cupped his fist.

“......Thank you, Hyun Seollin.”

“No. I merely did what was natural.”

Unhwi looked out the window.

Yu Cheong had begun to move.

He did not know the intent. He intended to find out gradually.

Because there was something more urgent now.

“I will go on ahead.”

“......Are you going to the Chaotic Heaven Gate?”

“Yes.”

“......Please be careful. Hyun Seollin.”

Unhwi nodded and left the room.

***

Unhwi headed toward the Chaotic Heaven Gate without a word.

He did not tell Chief Seong, nor Namgung Wonyang, nor Ju Soa.

He came alone.

It was night, and the moon had risen.

The snow had stopped, but the wind was cold.

The clearing where the Chaotic Heaven Gate stood.

He arrived there.

The Seolcheon Guard martial artists were still standing watch.

When they saw Unhwi, they cupped their fists.

“Hyun Seollin.”

Unhwi nodded, lightly encouraged them by saying they were working hard, then walked toward the center of the clearing.

As before, the martial artists grew tense, but they did not stop him.

Beyond the fact that he was a Polar Heir, the things Unhwi had already shown here, and the events that occurred whenever they became entangled with him, were beyond their common sense.

At times like this, whatever happened, staying still was the correct answer.

Standing alone at the center of the clearing, Unhwi felt the energy of the earth and the flow of twisted spiritual energy.

Quietly.

He sent forth his will.

Open.

He waited.

How much time had passed?

The ground began to tremble.

Faintly.

The air grew heavy.

Then black light rose from the ground.

It grew larger and larger, then exploded with a booming crash.

It was difficult to call it the Chaotic Heaven Gate; rather, a simplified Chaotic Heaven Gate had opened.

This time as well, Chaotic Heaven Ones did not pour out.

The watching martial artists swallowed nervously.

Unhwi quietly stepped inside.

It was the same as before.

There was darkness, and after he passed through it, light appeared.

A vast space.

A shabby chair, and the figure seated there.

Zhuge Xian.

Unhwi approached him and slowly came to a stop.

—......You came.

“Yes.”

—That was quick. Quicker than I expected.

“I believe I told you. That it would not take long.”

Zhuge Xian gave a faint laugh.

—Yes, you did. Did you meet him? Baek Docheon.

“I met him.”

—What did you hear?

Unhwi was silent for a moment.

At length, he opened his mouth.

“I heard the same words you heard.”

—......I see.

Zhuge Xian nodded.

—He is still the same. Even after hundreds of years.

Silence.

Zhuge Xian asked again.

—Your manner of speech seems to have changed again. Was it after your conversation with Baek Docheon, or before?

How to speak, how to treat people.

They had already finished discussing that point of reference.

The attitude with which Unhwi now treated Zhuge Xian had clearly changed, and that was—

“It is an action based on the judgment I made in my own way, both before and after my conversation with him.”

—Is that so.

“Yes. And.”

—And?

“For a single person to be made whole, countless experiences must accumulate.”

—I agree.

“Even if the paths each person takes are different, and even if the things they have done are different, to say one has been completed means each had a path they pursued, and followed that path to the end.”

—That is entirely correct.

“So I will ask. You must have felt regret and self-reproach. And to make up for it, or to undo it, you must have devoted your own time, and everything you had. For no less than five hundred years. Am I right?”

Zhuge Xian rested his chin in his hand for a moment.

Then he slowly nodded and said,

—You are.

“Then that is enough.”

At Unhwi’s brief words, Zhuge Xian was instead taken aback.

—......You will not ask more?

“Is there anything to ask?”

—I thought you would ask about the background that led to such a decision, my thoughts, and the inner circumstances that created it.

“I can guess. And there is no particular reason to ask.”

—No reason? Why?

“Because you are standing before me like this now.”

—.......

“You made a decision, and you are carrying it out. For five hundred years, alone and lonely, you have protected that value in this place. Waiting for a time that might never come, you desperately blocked them, agonized, and endured. I think asking even about the inner circumstances from such a person would be discourteous.”

—.......

“When the result is plainly before me, why would I ask?”

—......That sounds as though you respect me.

“If I did not respect you, there would have been no reason to come here again.”

Zhuge Xian’s eyes gleamed.

—I told you that if you killed me, the people precious to you might die, yet you say there would have been no reason to come?

“Yes.”

—.......

“Because I know that was an obvious psychological tactic, there would have been no reason to come.”

Zhuge Xian burst into laughter.

It was laughter of satisfaction, and also laughter born from the joy of liberation.

—Good. Truly good. And you are.

Zhuge Xian’s eyes deepened.

—Very...... different from others.

“Am I?”

—Even during the golden age of the martial world, someone like you was rare. There may have been talents equal to yours, but in the way you think and your ability to steer a situation...... In my memory, there were exactly three.

“That makes me a little curious. Who were they? Those three.”

—Heavenly Demon Won Geukcheon, Venerable Goseung, and Baek Docheon.

Unhwi gave a faint laugh.

“I will take that as praise.”

—It is praise.

Unhwi looked at Zhuge Xian with a subtle expression.

—You are certainly someone who can be compared to those three. Whatever you have done, and whatever you will do from now on, your name will be carved deeply into the martial world, just like theirs.

“You overpraise me.”

—It is not overpraise. You have already uncovered many things. Chaotic Heaven Ones are dead beings, nothing more than specters. The souls of martial artists who died during the Thousand-Year Chaos, specters trapped here when heavenly energy was twisted.

Zhuge Xian stopped speaking for a moment and looked around.

—This place is a gap. Between world and world. A space created by twisted heavenly energy.

“.......”

—And the Chaotic Heaven Gate is a hole connecting this gap to reality. The more heavenly energy twists, the larger that hole grows.

Zhuge Xian pointed at Unhwi with his index finger.

—Beyond uncovering all of this, you even reconstructed the world through the Primordial Spirit of Heaven and Earth. It is like turning back time, but strictly speaking, it is closer to reconstruction. All of this is related to you.

“Is that so.”

—You are the center. Because of you, heavenly energy twisted once more, and that distortion resonated with the existing distortion, shortening the cycle of the Chaotic Heaven Gate.

Silence.

A heavy silence flowed.

Unhwi opened his mouth.

“I did not uncover it all alone. Senior Zhuge and he gave me information, and I merely learned through that. I do not think there is any need to praise me that much.”

—There are countless people under heaven and earth who could be given that much and still fail to consume it.

Zhuge Xian continued to praise Unhwi without end.

This was also a result of their previous conversations, but it was also because of what would happen from now on.

Why.

Why had Unhwi come alone?

Zhuge Xian had been greatly surprised by the fact that Unhwi had come at all.

And yet, even though Unhwi did not have to come, he had come.

Even if it had not been Zhuge Xian, even if Heavenly Demon Won Geukcheon, Venerable Goseung, or anyone else had been here, they would likely have shown the same reaction as Zhuge Xian.

Unhwi asked,

“How much time remains?”

—What are you referring to?

“The time you can keep control.”

Zhuge Xian smiled.

Forlornly.

—......You noticed.

“Yes.”

—Two months at most. If short, perhaps even tomorrow.

“I see.”

—If the Heaven Gate’s spell to imprison heavenly energy is used, that period could be extended, but, well, even then it will not last longer than three years at most. And during those three years, the spellcaster who performs the spell will suffer greatly.

In his previous life, the Chaotic Heaven Gate had disappeared roughly two to three years from now.

Unhwi did not know in detail what had happened in his previous life, but he could infer it from the conversation going back and forth.

The master of Heaven Gate, or Baek Docheon—no, the Heavenly Wayfarer—must have come and extended the time.

Even so, there must have been absolutely no answer, so they had disposed of the Chaotic Heaven Gate.

If so, then what had happened inside it at that time would also have been the same as this.

There was something to consider.

The master of Heaven Gate whom Unhwi knew was someone far removed from “sacrifice.”

He would not even think of using such a spell.

Then who knew this spell to imprison heavenly energy that Zhuge Xian had spoken of?

“Does Baek Docheon know it?”

—If you mean the spell, then yes.

Zhuge Xian wore a strange smile.

—To begin with, Heaven Gate’s spells came from Baek Docheon.

Unhwi’s eyes widened.

This was a fact he had newly learned.

He had continuously praised Baek Docheon as someone beyond a genius, but Heaven Gate’s spells came from him?

No words came out. He was too dumbfounded.

Zhuge Xian slowly rose from the chair.

—And to be honest, I am too exhausted.

“.......”

—It has been five hundred years. I have been trapped here for five hundred years.

Zhuge Xian’s voice sank low.

—At first, I endured. With pride that I had stopped Venerable Goseung, with the mindset of correcting a wrong choice. But as time passed, I realized it. This was something even Baek Docheon had no answer for.

“.......”

—It is true that he opened the Chaotic Heaven Gate. It was part of his work to correct twisted heavenly energy, and the Chaotic Heaven Gate failed. Naturally, because he failed, I also failed.

“You have not failed yet.”

Zhuge Xian looked at Unhwi.

“Twisted heavenly energy—I had never properly seen what kind of influence it has. In my head, I could establish a theory to some extent, but after seeing this Chaotic Heaven Gate, I felt it with certainty.”