Heavenly Demon Cultivation Simulation-Chapter 547: Search Projects

Suuuu,

It was the moment Cheon Miryeo scattered into the starlight.

The light that had filled Seol Hwi’s vision dimmed.

The afterimage before his eyes slowly faded, and the familiar white space revealed its contours again.

“……”

At its center, an old man stood.

Still in the same place, as if he had been there from the beginning.

“It seems you’ve finally put your mind in order.”

His voice was calm like an old dawn, the silence that fills the gap when the world catches its breath.

Not admiration nor comfort, but a tone carrying the deep understanding only someone who’s watched for a long time could have.

“Put my mind in order?”

Seol Hwi asked quietly. His voice still trembled.

It was because the warmth of the moment he had sent Cheon Miryeo away had not yet fully faded.

“Your decision to send her away. At that moment, your last remaining heart must have been emptied as well, no?”

What was contained in those words was not a simple judgment or reproach.

It was a deep, quiet understanding that only someone who has long watched the weight of a heart could possess.

“Return. Now as an Earth Demon, as Seol Hwi. And live as a god.”

The old man slowly turned. His robe fluttered faintly even in the windless space.

“Don’t come here again.”

The words were not an order but more like a heartfelt plea. Thus the old man’s back began to recede.

“……It’s not settled yet.”

He faltered.

The old man’s step froze as if planted to the spot. Even the flutter of his robe ceased.

A long silence passed.

He slowly, very slowly turned his head. The movement was so slow it seemed frozen.

“You made a choice, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You sent her knowing she would die, and yet you still have lingering attachment?”

The old man knew. He knew the final thread of feeling Seol Hwi had left for Cheon Miryeo.

His choice to let her go at that last moment, knowing she would die, was a kind of farewell.

An expression of his final will to live as a god and no longer harbor attachment to Cheon Miryeo.

The old man read it that way.

“Sss—”

Seol Hwi took a deep breath. Cold air filled his lungs. No, strictly speaking, it wasn’t air. There was no air in this place.

Only the act of breathing remained as a conscious thing.

“Her future… was death.”

That single sentence split the silence.

The old man’s eyes narrowed.

“…So now you want to save her?”

“Yes.”

He was resolute. There was no more tremor in Seol Hwi’s voice.

The old man did not answer. A moment of silence passed. His face showed no change, no incredulity, anger, or pity.

“If that was the plan, you shouldn’t have sent her.”

The old man looked up into the void.

Where his gaze fell there was neither distant sky nor walls. Only countless strands of time flowed.

“If that was how you felt, why not keep her close and watch over her? There was no need to send her to the battlefield in the first place.”

There was neither reproach nor pity in his voice, only a statement of logical consequence.

“Above all, you sent her to the battlefield. That was a choice already made. It’s a path of no return.”

Silence.

Seol Hwi’s voice quietly cut through that silence.

“I know there is a way to return.”

In the white space the old man’s gaze trembled briefly.

Then silence rose. It was as if time itself had stopped for a moment.

For the first time a clear emotion surfaced on the old man’s face: vigilance, surprise, and fear.

“…What you’re saying now—”

The old man’s voice changed.

For the first time calm receded into something deeper, something colder.

“Do you even understand what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

Seol Hwi’s eyes sank deep. There was no longer any hesitation in them.

“What you’ve shown is not a memory.”

“……”

“It’s the time you’ve seen. The vantage point that contemplates every moment.”

Seol Hwi knew.

If the old man had merely rummaged through memories, he should not have acted. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He should have stood like a transparent ghost, a contemplator watching the past flow.

But Seol Hwi had moved.

He had embraced Cheon Miryeo, felt her warmth, talked with her, and wiped her tears.

And finally, he had sent her away.

Things an observer in memory cannot do.

This meant only one thing.

What the old man showed was not recollection but an actual slice of time.

And that meant that time itself could be manipulated.

“……”

The old man’s face contorted very slightly.

The face of an emotionless being showed a crack for the first time.

Like a perfect mirror cracking, an imperceptible agitation of someone whose long-hidden secret has been exposed.

“…And?”

The old man opened his mouth.

His voice remained calm, but beneath that calm lay something else.

“I will enter that moment, into the place Cheon Miryeo entered.”

“……”

The old man’s neck moved slowly.

That motion was so slow it took a long time before he raised his head to face Seol Hwi directly.

“Your will is firm.”

As if reading Seol Hwi’s determination, he briefly turned his gaze elsewhere.

“Originally, it’s impossible.”

And then came a warning heavier than thunder.

“I am an observer outside of time, so I cannot intervene. But if it’s you… yes, you might be different.”

A strange change began to appear in the old man’s eyes.

Emotionless eyes.

Yet that gaze carried weight.

For it was the look of one who had watched thousands of worlds and tens of thousands of fates.

“You’ve entered the realm of gods, and you are also the ‘you’ of that time. So you can enter, as you say.”

Each word was etched into the space.

With every word, fate seeped forth.

“But.”

Whoosh.

The old man took a step forward.

No, the distance between him and Seol Hwi suddenly shrank.

The space itself compressed.

“The moment you take a step into that place, no one knows what will become of the you of now.”

The words were quiet but cruel.

Sharp like a blade and cold like ice.

“The you of now, the you who stood as a god, all that you have accumulated to reach this place.”

The old man’s eyes sank deeper.

“It means you could lose all of it. That includes your very existence. In the worst case…”

He reached his hand into the void.

Countless strands of light flowed between his fingers.

They were threads of time.

“You could be extinguished. Your past self. Your present self, both.”

Seol Hwi did not waver.

Rather, his gaze grew even firmer.

Instead of fear, a calm belonging only to someone who had already decided the end shone through.

Like a rock that does not move when waves hit it.

“I am prepared.”

The old man’s throat trembled slightly.

A flicker of form.

It was the first time the god who observed space-time was stirred by something.

“This is madness…”

The old man’s voice sank low.

“Someone who knows the weight of time so well, why leap into it yourself?”

“I never wanted to become a god in the first place.”

Seol Hwi’s words were calm.

Within that calm lay deep sincerity.

“I only wanted a chance. It didn’t have to be fair, but I wanted it to be just.”

“……”

“To gain power.”

“……”

“To endure.”

“……”

“So I would no longer be trampled.”

His gaze drifted away.

All the lives he had lived flashed across his eyes.

The times he was weak.

Moments when he was crushed beneath someone’s foot.

Every moment he clenched his teeth and rose up.

Power piled up through bleeding.

And before he knew it, he had reached the ranks of the gods.

“And so, before I knew it, I stood in this place.”

Seol Hwi lifted his head and looked the old man straight in the eye. Very quietly, in the most human voice.

“So I want to return. Not as someone who stands above others, just as one person.”

“…As a human, not a god?”

“Yes.”

“Even though the possibility of your very existence disappearing is very high?”

“That too is life.”

Seol Hwi did not waver.

In his eyes was not fear but the calm of one who had already decided the end.

“I am prepared.”

Silence.

A long, long silence passed.

In the space where time had stopped, that silence felt like an eternity.

He nodded.

Then the old man broke that silence.

“…You are truly a strange being.”

He let out a sound that was either a sigh or admiration.

For a being without emotion, it was a very human resonance.

“Most would reign as gods in the worlds they created.”

“That’s just his world, not a life, isn’t it?”

“Just a world, not a life…”

At that, the old man’s mouth curved into an expression for the first time.

It was a laugh.

A very faint, barely visible smile.

For a moment, he too was enlightened.

Sublimity.

Heading toward a path where one’s very existence may be erased, why such a feeling should arise.

Even the god who observed space-time felt something, if only in this moment.

“Yes.”

The old man nodded.

“Perhaps this is the image of you I saw through the bars of space-time.”

His gaze turned to a far, distant place.

A place where countless strands of time unfolded.

A place where past, present, and future exist simultaneously.

Among the countless players, one figure had particularly drawn his attention.

A romance visible in a way that bordered on foolishness.

That was what moved the old man.

“Go. I will open the window of memory for you.”

Shuuuu,

The space began to change.

The walls of the white space warped, and something began to be visible beyond them.

Countless strands of light.

Rivers of time.

“However…”

A low, heavy voice full of warning.

“The moment you cross that gate, the ‘after’ for you may cease to exist.”

Wheeeee!

“So somehow, in that life…”

“……”

“Survive.”

Seol Hwi smiled.

It was neither solemnity nor resignation.

It was simply a quiet hope.

“Yes.”

Bang!

And then the light burst.

Kraaaaaaash!

The space where time had stopped shattered to pieces.

All the walls of the white space crumbled, revealing the truth hidden behind them.

Past, present, and future mixed together, forming a massive whirlpool.

Wheeeee!

At its center, Seol Hwi’s form began to scatter.

The old man stood there alone, watching Seol Hwi disappear.

His face remained emotionless.

But deep within his gaze, something flickered faintly.

Was it expectation?

Worry?

Or perhaps…

“……Farewell.”

His voice echoed through the empty space.

“Strange human.”

Shuuuuuu,

And all the light vanished.