Chapter 32: Heavenly Origin Energy
“Seriously... this is your house?”
The moment I stepped through the entrance, I couldn’t hide my amazement.
Aize’s home was a penthouse occupying the top floor of a forty-five-story apartment building beside the Han River.
Calling it an apartment almost seemed wrong.
To me, it looked better than a suite in a five-star hotel.
The apartment was nearly fifty pyeong in size. The living-room floor was covered with some unknown glossy material that looked like plastic, and the kitchen seemed larger than my entire studio apartment.
The place had two levels, giving it an extremely high ceiling.
The living-room windows were over two meters tall and offered a sweeping view of the Han River, almost like the observation deck of a tower.
“Yeeep! This is my home!”
Aize answered cheerfully.
“You... were insanely rich....”
An inexplicable feeling of defeat squeezed my heart like a washing machine wringing out clothes.
“Hehe... I made quite a bit of money while working as an idol, but when I came down from Heaven, I also sold a few pieces of jewelry I had brought with me. And, well... this happened.”
Aize stuck out her tongue cutely while preparing tea and snacks beside me.
Maybe because she had lived as an idol, cute behavior had become completely natural to her.
But it didn’t feel fake.
It looked so natural that it seemed like Aize had always been that way.
I walked over to the living-room window and looked down at the Han River.
It had probably been less than a month since I had been killed by the Asek-gwi, met Yeomra and Arang in the Underworld, and returned to five years before my death.
Yet in that short amount of time, my entire life had changed.
Souls.
Evil spirits.
Underworld Chasa.
Hell....
Things that once seemed completely unrelated to me had become part of my everyday life.
And to be honest, I felt as though I myself was slowly changing.
Sometimes, I sensed something that was not me secretly stirring inside my body.
And occasionally, that mysterious presence clouded my consciousness regardless of my will.
“What are you thinking about?”
Aize came beside me and held out a cup of coffee.
“Hm? Nothing. I was just looking outside.”
I took the coffee from her.
The warm, fragrant scent helped calm my mind.
It suddenly occurred to me that this was the first peaceful moment I had enjoyed in a long time.
Then, without knowing why, I asked,
“Aize... who am I? Am I Taebaek, or am I Hyunwoo?”
Even I wondered why I had suddenly said something like that.
“What do you mean all of a sudden?”
Aize’s eyes widened.
“In the living world, everyone knows me as Kang Hyunwoo. But everyone from the Underworld calls me Taebaek. Honestly, this is the first time I remember meeting you. And from my point of view, it’s the same with you.”
I looked directly at her.
“When you look at me, who do you see? Taebaek? Or Hyunwoo?”
Maybe fighting Violence Demon Gwanhyung together had made me sentimental.
“Of course you’re... um... ah... well... Taebaek.”
After struggling to answer for a while, Aize finally chose Taebaek.
“...Really? Then you must know Taebaek pretty well.”
“Of course. I was with Taebaek a thousand years ago when he fought the Three Evils of the Underworld.”
“Aize... could you tell me about Taebaek?”
I sat down on the living-room floor.
Aize sat beside me.
With the fragrance of coffee filling the room, Aize began telling me about Taebaek.
It was a story about our previous lives.
One thousand years ago.
At the highest point in Heaven stood the Heavenly Altar.
The Heavenly Altar was regarded as the sacred land of the Heavenly Origin, the place where all energies of the world gathered.
Amid the thick clouds drifting like mist, an old man and a woman slowly climbed the stairs.
The old man had long white hair and an equally long white beard.
He had an impressive appearance, and an overwhelming dignity surrounded him, making it difficult for anyone to approach him casually.
He wore a crimson robe embroidered with a Heavenly Dragon and phoenix that seemed ready to leap out and roar at any moment.
On his head rested a crown decorated with long strings of jade beads.
The woman beside him had a kind and gentle face.
She wore a blue feathered robe embroidered with countless pink peach blossoms and a golden floral crown.
The old man was the Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven.
The woman was his queen and first wife, Lady Sunhwa.
The two climbed the stairs toward the Heavenly Altar.
Another old man was already waiting there.
He wore a robe embroidered with the symbol of the Eight Trigrams.
“Palhwang True Immortal Gaseon greets the Jade Emperor and Lady Sunhwa.”
The Daoist bowed respectfully.
“Long time no see, my dear fake immortal.”
The Jade Emperor greeted him.
Lady Sunhwa covered her mouth and laughed.
“Hohoho. Your Majesty, it has been a hundred years since you last met him. You shouldn’t start teasing him immediately.”
Gaseon immediately fired back.
“Your Majesty’s jokes haven’t changed at all in the last hundred years. Considering you haven’t improved in the slightest, perhaps it’s no surprise Heaven is in its current state.”
“Oh? At the rate you’re going, you’ll need another two thousand years before you can ruin Heaven with that ridiculous logic of yours. I suppose I should spend those two thousand years developing some new jokes for you. Hahaha.”
The Immortals of Heaven were not gods.
That meant they possessed finite lifespans.
However, even they had no idea when those lifespans would end.
The Jade Emperor was currently around three thousand years old.
Gaseon was around twenty-five hundred.
They all desperately hoped that before their lifespan ended, their souls would be able to enter the Pure Land where Buddha resided and be reborn as true divine beings.
Palhwang True Immortal Gaseon.
He was an old friend of the Jade Emperor and one of the Five Primordial Immortals, the oldest Immortals in Heaven.
He was also renowned for possessing such vast knowledge that there seemed to be almost nothing he did not know.
Even after ascending to Heaven, Gaseon had spent more than two thousand years doing nothing but cultivating the Immortal Way in his pursuit of the principles of the world and the truth of life.
Strangely, however, he insisted that everything in both the living world and the Underworld was false and illusory.
He even named himself Gaseon, meaning “False Immortal.”
Despite that, he remained one of the highest-ranking Immortals acknowledged by the Jade Emperor himself.
A hundred years earlier, the Jade Emperor had asked Gaseon for a favor.
It concerned the Infinite Dark Cavern, a dark cave discovered in the deepest abyss of Hell.
It was a bizarre space capable of reducing even souls, the source of life itself, to nothingness.
The Jade Emperor believed Buddha in the Pure Land had created it.
He concluded that no one other than the one who ruled over all life and existence, including the Jade Emperor himself, could possibly explain such a place.
To seek Buddha’s will, the Jade Emperor had climbed to the Heavenly Altar and prayed for one hundred days.
But no matter how desperately he prayed, Buddha never answered.
Even the Jade Emperor himself was nothing more than an invisible speck of dust when compared to the principles governing the world.
Filled with disappointment and regret, he eventually ended his prayers.
The only thing left for him to do was prepare some way to prevent the Infinite Dark Cavern from invading Heaven and the Underworld.
“Gaseon, I heard that you found a method....”
That morning, the Jade Emperor had received word from a subordinate that Gaseon had discovered a way to deal with the Infinite Dark Cavern.
That was why he and Lady Sunhwa had climbed to the highest place in Heaven.
“It isn’t a true solution. You could call it a temporary measure.”
“So it isn’t a solution. You aren’t trying to scam me, are you?”
“Hahaha... What could I possibly gain from scamming Your Majesty?”
Gaseon laughed heartily at the Jade Emperor’s joke.
“Even a temporary measure is welcome.”
The Jade Emperor smiled in satisfaction.
“Gaseon’s ability truly is extraordinary. Even if it is only temporary, finding a way to deal with a cavern that not even His Majesty could handle is remarkable.”
Lady Sunhwa smiled gently.
“Then tell us what this temporary measure is.”
“Haha. It has already been prepared. It would be easier to show you than explain it. Please follow me.”
Gaseon guided the Jade Emperor and Lady Sunhwa along a path behind the Heavenly Altar.
A pure-white walkway about fifty meters long stretched between the clouds.
Ten-meter stone pillars stood at regular intervals on both sides.
At the end of the path, they found an altar.
Floating above that altar were two spears surrounded by brilliant white light.
“These are my temporary solution. I have named them the White Spirit Sacred Spears.”
Gaseon pointed toward the two weapons.
“White Spirit Sacred Spears....”
The Jade Emperor carefully examined them.
“That is correct. I created the White Spirit Sacred Spears by gathering the energies of the Eight Desolations. Their shafts and spearheads were forged from Heaven’s Heavenly Tempered Iron, and I gathered my soul power to engrave the Eight Trigrams Mantra into the shafts.”
Heavenly Tempered Iron existed only in Heaven.
It was created after Heaven’s greatest blacksmiths refined the metal for one thousand years.
Because of that, it was known as the strongest and hardest metal in Heaven.
The Eight Trigrams Mantra engraved by Gaseon was an incantation capable of gathering all kinds of energy in the world.
“The bands tied around the shafts are called Heavenly Spirit Bands. They contain sacred exorcising power capable of weakening evil spirits.”
“Oho... A scammer talented enough to ruin Heaven indeed.”
“....”
Gaseon’s long white eyebrows twitched at the Jade Emperor’s words.
Lady Sunhwa tilted her head.
“But for some reason... I can sense the energy of living souls coming from these spears.”
“As expected, my lady has sharp eyes.”
Gaseon, whose mood had soured because of the Jade Emperor, brightened again.
“These two White Spirit Sacred Spears contain a very special power.”
“What kind of power?”
Lady Sunhwa quickly asked before the Jade Emperor could interrupt again.
“My lady, you know Princess Hwayeong, the eldest princess of Hell, correct?”
“Of course. She is like my own daughter.”
The Jade Emperor and Lady Sunhwa had no children.
Because of that, Lady Sunhwa cared for Yeomra’s two daughters almost as if they were her own.
“I asked Princess Hwayeong to infuse these two Sacred Spears with Heavenly Origin Energy.”
“Then... are you saying these spears possess life?”
“That is correct, my lady.”
Lady Sunhwa’s face filled with surprise.
The Jade Emperor looked equally shocked.
King Yeomra, the Jade Emperor’s younger brother and ruler of Hell, had two daughters.
The eldest, Princess Hwayeong, possessed an unusual ability.
She could cause soul power to take root within all things.
It was a power even the Jade Emperor, ruler of Heaven, could not reproduce.
It could almost be considered comparable to the power of Buddha, the lord of all creation.
However, Princess Hwayeong’s power had a limitation.
For some reason, it only worked upon beings or objects that shared an immensely deep karmic bond with her across countless ages.
“Then these spears must share a bond spanning countless ages with Hwayeong.”
“That is correct, my lady.”
The Jade Emperor grinned.
“Seeing this, Gaseon, you truly are a scammer.”
Although he said that, the Jade Emperor was smiling.
If Gaseon could accomplish something this unbelievable, then perhaps the method he had created against the Infinite Dark Cavern truly would be perfect.
Gaseon, however, was becoming irritated after being called a scammer repeatedly.
That made three times already.
“The White Spirit Sacred Spears are now living weapons. Once completed, they should be able to control the Infinite Dark Cavern.”
The Jade Emperor immediately showed great interest.
“How will they control it?”
