Book 4-1.4

“Will I need to make a decision as well?”

“When the time comes. Of the chosen people, there are some who are helping us and some who are helping the Chaos, but the majority are still torn, so it is a complicated problem. And one day, someone from Chaos will come to look for you. Persuading you in advance will help them at the final moment.”

“So I still have the luxury of making a decision?”

“Yes. However, in this granny’s eyes, I believe you will be someone who makes a smart decision. After all, the rift was created to seal the endless amount of monsters coming out of the Monster’s Desert.”

“Mai-nim told me to prepare myself.”

The old woman nodded her head.

“You will need to. From the beginning, it was impossible for a human to prevent something that a devil has sealed. I’m actually surprised that we managed to last this long in the first place.”

The old woman said that as she started to fall deep in thought.

She pretty much had no contact with Mai. The old woman was not able to leave the Magic Tower, and Mai could not leave his post. After speaking with Yulian, the old woman was thinking that the time of chaos was getting closer little by little.

“The moment Mai cannot last any longer and let’s go, I presume that you will no longer be fighting against humans, but only against monsters. You will also naturally realize that everything needs to progress in the order that they are destined to go.”

“It certainly is amusing and definitely a problem I will have to think about, but right now, I am unable to put any of my thoughts toward it.”

“All you have to do is do as you will. Nobody will bother you.”

If you think about it in one way, it seems to be the most urgent and scariest issue, but if you think about it again, this story was so unbelievable that Yulian decided to not put much thought into it right now.

As he had just stated, right now was not the time to think about it.

“Is my master involved as well?”

Yulian thought about that as he asked, and the old woman answered.

“Your master is one of the people who know, as well as a helper. He followed his mandate of heaven to this world, and even now, he is traveling across the continent for this issue. he is most likely debating between the patriarch of the Chaos as well as myself right now, I presume.”

“Since my master is a wise person, I am sure he will make the right decision; since you said he will return, I will make my decision at that time with him.”

“All you have to do is select the direction you think is right. My wish is to strongly emphasize that we are the ones who are correct, but after living such a long life, I’ve realized that not even one out of ten things really go the way you want it to go.”

“I always enjoy listening to the stories of seniors with deep levels of wisdom.”

“Huehuehue. I am thankful you feel that way.”

The old woman started to laugh in an odd way.

“Anyways, this is a really amazing place.”

As Yulian looked around in awe, the old woman looked around while standing next to Yulian and started to speak.

“It definitely is amazing. It was built on human haughtiness after all. It wasn’t really built with good intentions. You can ask your master later. You don’t seem to be too interested, so you’d probably quickly forget it even if I told you.”

Yulian looked around at the building for a long time before asking a question.

“By the way, where are Aizen and Hwai?”

“Aizen is currently paying the price for his words and Hwai is on a path that she has selected for herself. Even if it is not now, you will meet them again at some point in the future.”

Yulian did not understand what she meant and asked again.

“So you are saying I will not be able to meet them here?”

“Don’t you have to return quickly? It seems to me like you don’t want to listen to my blabbing and want to quickly head back?”

It was true. A month had already passed by, so he was sure that the Red Storm warriors would be worried. It was even possible that they followed Haisha into the dungeon. It would be okay if Haisha was there, but if Haisha was not with them, they might all end up being destroyed by Luff.

“Plus, Aizen’s mind is hectic right now. He is a man with a goal and he knows that he does not have much time.”

“I see.”

Yulian nodded his head before looking toward the old woman as a thought passed through his head.

“Senior, just how am I supposed to go back? I don’t even know where I am.”

“Huehuehue.”

The old woman let out that odd laugh again as she started to speak.

“Originally, I would make you walk back since you followed your own decision here, but I will grant you a special favor. I will return you to the first magic circle that you saw. However, I just hope that you don’t forget what this old lady has said to you.”

“I understand.”

“Then I will send you back right away. I will let Aizen know for you. Plus, the chosen ones are destined to run into each other over and over, so you will meet again. Finally, the decision is something you will need to sincerely think about and decide on your own.”

“Yes.”

“Then have a nice trip. It’s rude to send a guest back empty-handed, so I gave you a small gift. Raise it well.”

“What?”

“You’ll slowly find out later. Then, I hope to see you at the Magic Tower again next time. Return teleport.”

As Yulian blinked while looking at the old woman chanting the spell, Yulian felt his surroundings turning dark.

“What happened?”

Yulian rubbed his eyes but realized that there was nothing wrong with his eyes. His surroundings were actually completely dark. Once he got used to the darkness, he started to see the faint light of the magic circle. He had instantly returned to his original location.

Yulian started to walk while filled with amazement. He was going to quickly meet with Mai and Luff before urgently heading back.

Yulian took the golden turtle out of his chest to light up the area and started to walk toward the other side.

“Yulian?”

As he was walking forward, Yulian heard someone calling for him from far away.

“Is that you, Luff hyung-nim?”

“It really is Yulian.”

Seeing that the voice instantly got closer, Yulian realized that Luff’s martial arts had taken a step to the next level.

“Where were you? I spent a lot of time looking for you.”

Luff, who should have been over 30 years of age now, still looked exactly the same as last time. In fact, he even looked a bit younger than Yulian.

“Good to see you, hyung-nim. I missed you.”

Yulian patted Luff’s back as Luff hugged him and was really happy to see Luff as well.

Luff let go before starting to speak.

“I came over because Mai said someone came in a bit ago and asked me to go find them. It must have been you. Mai must be curious as to who it is right now.”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

Yulian and Luff stood shoulder to shoulder before starting to run. Luff seemed to be taking peeks at Yulian and keeping pace with Yulian.

He could finally start to see the familiar environment. Mai was outside of his room.

“I felt a vibration in the magic circle and knew someone had entered, but I didn’t know it was you. What happened? That magic circle is the entrance from the Eastern Continent.”

Yulian shared all of the things that he had been through. Mai let out sighs every so often as Yulian continued with his story. The majority of the sighs happened when Yulian was talking about Hwai.

For the rest of the stories, Mai was disappointed and amused, just like Yulian. He was missing people as well. There was pretty much nobody who visited this underground dungeon, and even when someone came, it was not very often. Since Luff was not someone Mai could have long conversations with, it frustrated Mai even more and made him miss people so much.

What was why he was happy to see Yulian.

Once Yulian finished his story, Mai started to speak.

“What Master [1] said is correct. Your decision should be based on what you think is right. Although I am taking the Magic Tower’s side right now, honestly speaking, I do not like either side. However, I didn’t want to avoid my destiny so I am doing what I believe is the right thing to do right now.”

“Honestly speaking, I do not have time to worry about that right now.”

“Then don’t worry about it. You just need to go down your own path. If I had to add what I want to it, it would be that you quickly unify the desert. It is starting to get hard to hold this back. If you can become the unified ruler of the desert, it would put me at ease.”

“It is a hard to believe story.”

Mai had a look of understanding at Yulian’s words. At one point, he too had found it hard to believe, and did not care much about it until the moment he lost her.

“But it is the truth. The moment I cannot hold back the seal any longer, the speed of monster regeneration will become much faster. This is not for the desert or for the continent. It is a battle for humanity itself. If your mandate from heaven is for war, I trust that you will magnificently accept your destiny.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m sure your head is already hurting, but just ignore it. All you have to do is do as you want.”

“I understand.”

Once Yulian and Mai’s conversation ended, Luff pulled Yulian toward him.

“Luff must be itching to move since you have come. The majority of my friends have non-human like tendencies, but lately, Luff has been really bad. Be careful.”

“Huhu. I couldn’t handle him in the past. Originally, I had planned on coming to work on my own martial arts. Since my master has left again, I have not been able to train that much.”

“Do as you would like. But won’t your underlyings up there be worried?”

Yulian recalled the Red Storm warriors he had forgotten about at Mai’s question and started to bitterly smile.

“I will stay only about three days. Since there is a warrior who knows where I am, there shouldn’t be any large issues. If they are in a rush, I presume they will fall into this tunnel.”

“Do whatever you want. Luff is calling you over.”

“Let’s go Yulian.”

“Yes.”

As Yulian and Luff started to walk away to train, Mai let out a sigh aftering seeing their figures.

All he could think about was how someone else had become involved in this damned game of power.

But seeing Yulian not pay much attention to it and that Yulian was focused on his determination, Mai decided not to be worried.

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[1] The old woman’s name seems to be Master. Probably because she is the master of the Magic Tower

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