* * *

The blue aura shooting up into the sky and disappearing was truly beautiful.

The Heavenly Demon could hear the old man behind him failing to hide his gasping.

“It looks like an imugi rising up to the heavens.”

It was the Sword Saint.

The Heavenly Demon didn’t look back as he had already known that the old man was there.

He did not want to let this old man see his current gaze.

“…….”

The Blood Demon and Choi Han’s battle…

Honestly speaking, he tried to jump into the battle.

Choi Jung Soo, Choi Han, Lee Soo Hyuk… He wanted to get involved in their battlefield but had not been able to do so.

It was not because of that formidable aura that the Blood Demon had released.

The first time he faced that aura, he almost forgot about his position as the Heavenly Demon and almost knelt down with his head bowed.

However, he managed to resist until he slowly became able to stand up straight despite the aura.

That might have been because the formidable aura had not been directly aiming for the Heavenly Demon, but either way, it was bearable.

On the other hand-

‘Kim Hae-il.’

The moment that his aura had blocked the Blood Demon…. The Heavenly Demon even forgot that he had to fight and blanked out for a bit.

‘That-’

Kim Hae-il had released his aura in front of him before, but…

‘It was incomparable.’

If last time was like a handful of sand, this time he felt like a vast field of sand.

He suddenly had a thought once he realized that.

‘What is his limit?’

Kim Hae-il. This guy did not seem to be using his full strength.

The Heavenly Demon had learned a bit about nature after rising to the Profound Realm.

He could also slightly feel the foundation of Kim Hae-il’s aura.

To be more specific, he could just barely look into it.

‘It’s not there.’

Nature was not present in this guy’s aura.

He could only feel something so vast that he could not see its end.

‘In that case, what is within it?’

The Heavenly Demon had not been able to answer that question at that time.

However, he soon figured it out.

‘Choi Han.’

That guy’s body started releasing an aura similar to the Blood Demon and Kim Hae-il.

It was extremely small compared to the other two, but he was sure that the aura was not internal ki nor the power Choi Han had used until that point.

“Ha.”

Once he felt the smallest bit of that aura, the Heavenly Demon figured it out.

Both Choi Han and Kim Hae-il…

What was inside them was not nature.

‘It’s human.’

What they were releasing was something they had as humans.

That made the Blood Demon seem different.

What the Blood Demon had was a prison created from a countless number of people.

Boom. Boom.

The Heavenly Demon’s heart beat wildly.

He did not want anybody to see his face.

Because-

‘It’s been a while.’

Because he was excited.

He found a different path to get stronger.

From the Unrestrained Realm to the Profound Realm and then the Nature Realm…

The Nature Realm was coined that way because it was said that you become like nature.

However, he realized it after seeing these two people.

He became certain of it the moment he saw Choi Han.

He became certain of his path.

‘There is no need to become nature.’

Humans. ‘You can open a path forward as a human.’

It would be a path just for him, a path different from all others.

‘This is driving me nuts.’

He was so excited.

Today, he found the direction for his future path.

‘Choi Han.

Let’s use him as a reference.’

Kim Hae-il already had nature inside of him, so he was not well-suited with the Heavenly Demon. But Choi Han was similar to the Heavenly Demon.

He had already said in the past that Choi Han’s aura was similar to his.

‘The Nature Realm?

Let’s forget about that realm.

Let’s just stand firm as myself.

That is the right way.’

The Heavenly Demon’s heart was beating wildly and he felt as if he was about to grasp onto something.

He wanted to grab his sword and go practice his sword art in seclusion.

The corners of his lips slowly curled up more.

The middle of the Profound Realm.

The Heavenly Demon, the person who could call himself the strongest of all martial artists in the Central Plains right now, had figured out his path.

‘If one day I can release my own path as an aura as well-’

If he could do that…

‘I want to have some fun.’

Especially with Choi Han.

Looking where the Blood Demon had disappeared… Looking at Choi Han standing there alone filled the Heavenly Demon with a competitive spirit and a desire to defeat him.

It was at that moment.

“Mm.”

The Heavenly Demon flinched.

He looked far toward the distant sea.

He heard urgent footsteps and a dire voice behind him.

“Everybody must gather up!”

It was Chief Advisor Zhuge Mi Ryeo. Wasn’t she supposed to be leading everything from the shore?

The Heavenly Demon’s stiff gaze turned toward her. The Fist King was standing next to the Chief Advisor.

“It seems like something happened with the formation.”

The Heavenly Demon immediately started moving as soon as he heard that.

Zhuge Mi Ryeo and Sima Pyeong were with him as well.

Sima Pyeong spoke once the three of them gathered together.

“Let’s head over to young master Kim-nim first.”

The three representatives of the Triumvirate quickly moved.

Once they moved past, the martial artists and Blood Cultists who had been blankly staring at the Blood Demon and Choi Han’s battle slowly came to their senses.

They realized that the auras suppressing them had all disappeared and were about to breathe in peace when…

Ruuuumble-

They finally heard the rumbling in the sky.

It sounded too scary to be regular thunder.

No, it was a noise that made them feel an instinctual sense of fear.

Rumble-

That noise was slowly getting closer.

They heard a couple people’s voices as they realized that.

“Snap out of it!”

It started with the Beggars’ Gang’s Elder Ho Song Yi, and…

“The Blood Demon is dead, all Blood Cultists put down your weapons!”

“Find the civilians within the Blood Cult’s territories! Gather them all in one spot! Make sure nobody heads toward the shore right now!”

“Can’t you see that over the sea right now?! We need to figure out how many people there are before we can release the ships!”

“Fighting is not the issue right now!”

Experts of the Orthodox faction, Unorthodox faction, and Demon Cult were organizing the area as the Chief Advisor had ordered.

Ruuuumble-

The sky roared once again.

Someone mumbled in a scared voice.

“We hear the thunder so why are there no thunderbolts?”

And…

“Why is it so dark?”

The sky that roared as it approached turned the surrounding area completely dark.

And the people running toward the center of the island from the shore could slowly start to hear it.

Splash.

They could hear the shouting of the sea slowly become rougher.

They slowly started to feel anxious.

They could no longer see the clear stars in the night sky either.

That distant darkness looked as if it would sweep over them soon.

One person who had been observing the darkness…

Cale opened his mouth to speak.

“Explain it to them.”

“Yes, young master-nim.”

He left Ron to handle the approaching martial artists and turned his gaze. Ron’s body that had been floating in the air with flight magic headed down.

“Human, I can’t analyze this!”

Raon frowned while looking into the formation.

“It was definitely a formation earlier but now it is something different! It’s not magic and I can’t figure out what it is!”

Raon looked teary. It could not be helped.

He could observe and learn things he doesn’t know, but…

“Nature is charging at us!”

However, the large forces of nature charging at them right now were difficult for Raon to handle.

This presence that was speeding up was getting larger and concentrated-

“Human, that is enough to reach the island and the land over there too.”

Raon was seriously advising Cale that it would reach Hainan and the inland shore.

“It was not like this to start but it became significantly faster and stronger once the Blood Demon was defeated! It seems to have been waiting for that!”

Cale’s eyes clouded over after hearing that.

‘Now that I think about it, they said that the Blood Demon was the only one who could approach this formation without any issues.’

Basically, it meant that the formation knew the Blood Demon’s aura.

The Dragons of Aipotu had messed with this formation.

“Wow.”

He couldn’t help but gasp in admiration despite the urgent situation.

Although he had never seen the Dragons of Aipotu yet…

‘What scary bastards.’

He thought that their minds were very deep.

However, he did not have time right now for such thoughts.

“Human, I’m sure that the purple aura over there has a Dragon’s aura mixed in it, but I can’t completely identify it.”

“Huuuuuu.”

Cale let out a short sigh.

He couldn’t just stand here and do nothing.

‘Let’s give it a try.’

He pulled out the purple orb from his pocket.

The core of the formation shook intensely.

Cale walked a bit closer to the formation that had flipped.

All ten sides of the formation were releasing purple auras.

Those ten auras connected to create a ten-sided pillar.

Cale extended his hand toward the half-transparent wall created by the purple aura.

‘Maybe it’ll stop if I return the core of the formation.’

Not urgently and without any hesitation…

Cale reached his hand out.

Baaaaang!

“Ugh!”

“Human!”

His body was flung back.

Raon urgently grabbed onto Cale. Cale would have fallen to the ground had he not done that. That was how strong the repelling force had been.

“Human, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

Cale rubbed his numb right arm and observed the formation.

“…It didn’t work at all.”

The formation was rejecting the core.

The core was also rejecting the formation.

They were pushing against each other.

‘This is driving me nuts.

What do I do?’

He heard the Sky Eating Water’s voice.

– Cale, I think the sea will be stronger than the sky. A tsunami will strike the island.

‘I know, I know!

Should I move everyone from the island to the inland?

No, Raon said that the tsunami looks like it will strike the inland coast as well.’

“Haa.”

He couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

‘Are those Dragons of Aipotu crazy?

Why couldn’t they just get rid of the Blood Cult?

This is big enough to be a calamity.

How many people are going to be harmed by this?’

He was annoyed.

‘Fuck.’

His mind was getting complicated when Raon urgently spoke.

“I think Goldie gramps might now!”

‘Ah, right!’

Cale pulled the divine item mirror out of his pocket. He immediately connected to a video call.

He just needed to call crown prince Alberu Crossman and ask for Eruhaben.

A screen appeared on top of the mirror. He should be able to speak to the crown prince soon.

“Kim Hae-il!”

He heard a voice down below.

In the midst of the crumbled building debris… Choi Jung Soo picked up a heavy piece of wall and pulled someone up by the collar.

“Cough!”

It was Old man Baek.

And underneath him…

“Ugh.”

The Blood Demon’s master, the guard who had been protecting the formation, was unconscious and twitching.

“Hae-il-nim.”

Choi Han called out from a bit of a distance away while pulling up Myung by her clothes.

“Raon, come up here with all three of them!”

“I got it, human!”

The three of them came up as Cale ordered.

Of course, Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo, who were holding them up, were with them.

“Make them all wake up.”

“I, I’m already awake!”

Old man Baek urgently flailed his arms and showed that he was fine.

Cale approached him and asked.

“This formation, why it ended up like this. How to fix it. Tell me everything you know.”

Cale was subconsciously releasing the Dominating Aura.

That was how urgent he was right now.

It could not be helped.

‘I can’t stop that by myself!’

The Sky Eating Water said that they said they should calm the sea, but…

How could that be possible?

That was completely different from destroying the walls of Yunnan castle.

He would need to actually stop a natural disaster.

So, the top priority was trying to take care of it with the formation.

‘If we can’t stop it, I at least need to figure out how to make it weaker!’

Old man Baek quickly answered, potentially because of Cale’s vicious gaze.

“I, I don’t know. I never expected such a situation-”

They heard a loud noise at that moment.

Slap!

They turned their heads to see Choi Jung Soo slapping the guard in the face.

He then nonchalantly made a comment.

“I already know that you are awake.”

The guard scowled.

“If you know, then why-”

The guard was about to ask why he was slapped when he saw Cale right in front of him and flinched.

“Do you know anything?”

“… I don’t know either. I wasn’t even allowed to be near it when the formation was created.”

Cale looked behind him.

“Haaaaa.”

Myung was breathing heavily.

“…I don’t know either.”

The moment Cale clenched his eyes shut…

– What is going on?’

He heard Alberu Crossman’s voice.

– Mm?

He heard another voice as well.

Cale immediately opened his eyes.

The divine item that was floating in the air thanks to Raon’s magic… Alberu Crossman was visible on the screen above it. He looked extremely tired as did Eruhaben next to him.

“Eruhaben-nim!”

Cale walked up to the screen.

He then showed the formation.

– What is wrong?

Eruhaben flinched after seeing Cale’s urgent face before looking at the formation and closing his mouth. He soon commented.

– That-

Cale subconsciously urged Eruhaben on after seeing that Eruhaben noticed something.

“Eruhaben-nim, can you tell what that is? What is that? Can you please tell me?”

– Huh? No, an aura flowing like this- mm.

Cale asked once more as Eruhaben hesitated.

“What is it? Please just tell me everything you know!”

Forget coughing blood or fainting, I might just die if I need to stop this tsunami on my own!

But it wasn’t like the others could stop this. He couldn’t make little Raon cough up blood.

– That is a power that shouldn’t be able to exist like that.

“Ah come on, so what is it?!”

Cale was subconsciously speaking disrespectfully.

– What, umm, y, you should know as well?

Eruhaben seemed flustered as he looked at Cale with a bewildered look on his face.

– That is the power used by the World Trees.

But then he added on as if something was weird.

– But why are the auras of Dragons stuck to the power of a World Tree?

The World Tree.

An existence that potentially guarded a world longer than the Dragons.

Cale suddenly recalled an explanation he had heard about this core.

The guard had said the following.

‘That is an item that was pulled off the treasure of a world.’

Cale looked toward the guard.

“Hey, you.”

The guard flinched. Cale didn’t care and asked his question.

“You said that the core is an item that was pulled off the treasure of a world? Do you know what that treasure is?”

“T, that is just what I heard from the Dragons.”

The treasure of a world.

The World Tree.

It was a perfect combination.

And if Dragon auras were mixed in with the power of a World Tree, it was understandable why Raon was experiencing it for the first time and couldn’t figure it out.

Raon had never felt the power of a World Tree.

“Eruhaben-nim, is there a way to get rid of or at least make this aura weaker?”

– Mm.

Cale nervously looked at the contemplating ancient Dragon.

The ancient Dragon responded.

– It should be fine if you seal it? But you would need a strong enough sacrifice to handle the World Tree and the Dragon auras to seal it, and to suddenly find something like that-

Cale’s eyes clouded over.

Raon jumped in at that moment.

“There is such a thing!”

His chubby front paws were holding the slightly cracked young monk statue.

“Goldie gramps! This is the statue that Central Plains, this world, was inside! Shouldn’t this be able to handle it?”

Cale looked at Raon with a sparkling gaze.

Cale gently patted Raon’s head as he commented.

“I had the same thought.”

It was at that moment.

Ruuuumble—-

The roar of the sky was extremely close.

Cale turned his head.

The nearby sea, the sea that only felt dark because it was covered by the rain clouds, was now visible.

A large wall was headed toward them.

It was the tsunami.

This large wall that looked as if it would swallow this island and everything beyond it was pushing toward them.

“…….”

He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back and adding on.

“Eruhaben-nim, will it be fine if Raon seals it?”

– Yeah. It has the auras of Dragons so it should be the easiest for Raon to do it. It is not difficult as long as he knows the principles of a World Tree’s power and has a proper sacrifice. It takes a bit of time, but it should be easy.

Raon, Choi Han, and Choi Jung Soo looked at Cale.

He looked at the three of them that could not say anything, as if they were having the same thoughts, and he calmly spoke to them.

He spoke gently as if it was no big deal.

“We have no choice.”

Yes, they had no choice.

– Cale, let’s try it! We can do it!

He ignored the Sky Eating Water’s voice.

Instead, he tightly clenched the purple orb.

“The method is simple.”

A calm voice came out of Cale’s mouth.

“I will hold the tsunami back as much as possible. Proceed with the seal as I do that.”

And once it was sealed, the sea and the sky should calm down.

The Sky Eating Water spoke excitedly.

– It is really simple!

‘…Fuck!’

Cale moved to a cliff facing the vast sea.

—

Translator’s Comments

Simple my ass!

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