hotmtlnovel Chapter 459 - Surpassing the Wall (1)
Chapter 459 - Surpassing the Wall (1)
Chapter 459 - Surpassing the Wall (1)
Kim Si-Hun’s world went white. His breathing turned erratic and his head was burning up.
‘Hyung?’
He wanted to call Oh Kang-Woo but his voice was not coming out. His vision was blurring and his legs lost their strength.
‘Why... why, why, why?’
Si-Hun continued to ask himself in his head.
“Thanks... for staying as my little brother.”
Kang-Woo’s words that had saved him swirled around his head. Those words had been what linked the two of them; it was proof of the fact that they were more than sworn brothers.
‘But... why?’
Why was Kang-Woo saying that to Kim Tae-Hyun? It was as if Kang-Woo no longer needed Si-Hun.
‘No, that’s impossible. After all that we’ve been through together.’
They had decimated the Demon Cult and battled Satan, the Four Heavenly Kings, and even the Constellations of Evil together. They had fought frantically across countless battlefields to protect the world from the clutches of evil. So why was someone who had gotten stronger only because he was lucky, taking Si-Hun’s spot as Kang-Woo’s little brother?
Si-Hun gritted his teeth. A blazing emotion welled up from within him.
‘What’s... the difference?’
Si-Hun thought about the difference between him and Tae-Hyun. Why was Kang-Woo paying more attention to Tae-Hyun than Si-Hun?
He did not take long to figure out the answer.
‘Deific Essence.’
That was the only thing that Tae-Hyun had that Si-Hun did not, and what was needed most in these dire times.
‘It’s because of Deific Essence.’
Kang-Woo had sacrificed everything to save the world. He understood how dependable one who possessed Deific Essence was when the world was in crisis.
‘That’s why he accepted Tae-Hyun as his little brother.’
If that were not the case, Kang-Woo would not pay this much attention to Tae-Hyun.
“Haha,” Si-Hun laughed dryly.
The answer that he had come to was disheartening.
‘Hyung-nim had no choice either.’
Kang-Woo had reluctantly been babying Tae-Hyun and answering his childish needs because he needed to do whatever it took to have him as an ally for the sake of the world.
‘Yeah, that has to be it.’
Nothing else would explain Kang-Woo’s behavior. Si-Hun gritted his teeth and walked away from the meeting room where Kang-Woo was sitting.
“Deific Essence,” Si-Hun muttered.
He needed Deific Essence to make Kang-Woo look his way again and to stay as his little brother.
"I'm sorry for giving birth to you."
He heard the cursed words he had long since forgotten, which had shackled his life for years.
“I need... Deific Essence.”
Si-Hun staggered down the hallway.
***
Kang-Woo slowly closed his eyes in the silent meeting room.
‘This should be enough.’
Si-Hun needed a unique form of stimulation to surpass the wall he had reached. He needed something that would reawaken his past trauma.
‘It isn’t only his talent that allowed Si-Hun to power up in moments of danger.’
The trauma that shackled him was what drove his awakening.
‘It might not be anything much for other people, but...’
Si-Hun’s trauma and his desire to be acknowledged by the most precious people in his life were out of the ordinary for most people. However, for Si-Hun, who had been abandoned by his father, harassed by his older brother, and whose life itself had been denied by the most important person in his life, it was more important than anything.
‘He’ll desire salvation once again. He’ll work frantically to be acknowledged once again.’
Kang-Woo remained silent. He sighed and put his hand on his forehead. “... Maybe I should’ve used another way.”
***
“Huff, huff,” Si-Hun panted heavily.
The training room had become a mess. Si-Hun took a staggering step.
“Heavenly Dragon...”
He squeezed out what little remained of his Qi and raised his sword made with blue sword energy. However, the formless sword made with sword energy dissipated into thin air.
“Haaa, haaa,” Si-Hun panted as he watched his sword vanishing. “Kurgh.”
His knees buckled from the exhaustion of pulling out too much Qi.
“No...”
He couldn’t collapse here. He put strength into his buckling knees and forcibly stood back up.
‘It's not enough.’
Si-Hun raised his hands again as he bit his lip. A faint blue light gathered into the shape of a sword.
‘To earn Deific Essence...’
He needed Deific Essence to stay as Kang-Woo’s little brother.
“Fuuu...”
Si-Hun took a deep breath in; a small amount of Qi within nature entered him through his breath.
‘I need to acquire Mind’s Sword before I can earn Deific Essence.’
He had a feeling that it was the final gateway that he needed to pass through to acquire Deific Essence.
‘A sword of the mind, huh?’
It was a common stage in martial arts. Si-Hun had read hundreds of books about its theory that he had borrowed from Tan Wuchen.
“I have no idea.”
However, he couldn’t even begin to grasp what a sword of the mind was. Si-Hun, who had been growing without any barriers thanks to his extraordinary talent, was having a hard time manifesting an extremely vague concept.
“Haaa.”
Si-Hun clenched his hair and turned around. His knees buckled once again.
Si-Hun frowned aggressively.
“Huh? Si-Hun?”
Tae-Hyun entered the training room as Si-Hun was about to move his trembling hands.
Si-Hun glared at Tae-Hyun in silence.
“Mm. It looks like you’re training until quite late.”
“Yes.”
“Haha. That’s the Sword Dragon for you. I should learn a thing or two from you.”
Tae-Hyun smiled brightly at Si-Hun but it carried a tiny amount of ridicule as well.
Si-Hun turned around in silence.
“Anyway, have you seen Kang-Woo hyung?”
Si-Hun tilted his head in wonder, maintaining his frown. “Weren’t you with him today?”
“No. We were planning on meeting, but... he seemed pretty busy.”
Si-Hun remained silent.
‘Did something come up along the way?’
Si-Hun smiled unbeknownst to himself from the fact that Tae-Hyun and Kang-Woo were not able to meet up. Noticing that, Tae-Hyun glared at Si-Hun in anger.
“Come to think of it... I heard from Kang-Woo hyung that the reason why you weren’t able to beat me back then was because of the thing called Deific Essence.”
“...”
“Haha. I also heard that the only Players in Guardians who have Deific Essence are me and Kang-Woo hyung.” Tae-Hyun continued leisurely, “It seems... hyung and I go well with each other, don’t you think?”
“...”
Si-Hun frowned aggressively.