[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-childhood-friend-of-the-zenith":3,"chapter-childhood-friend-of-the-zenith-childhood-friend-of-the-zenith-chapter-474":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Childhood Friend of the Zenith",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1240000,1667,"Chapter 473","childhood-friend-of-the-zenith-chapter-474",474,"\u003Cp>There is a woman with no name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though she had been given names a few times, she had never become attached to any of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Names were things that would fade with time. To grow attached to them would only complicate things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With each reset, those names would linger as uncomfortable memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This woman was forced to live over and over. It was her task to repeat life until she reached the desired outcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How many times had it been?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had happened so many times that even she couldn’t recall the number.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first memory she could think of now was from nearly a thousand cycles ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Numbers were meaningless at this point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To simplify, she counted in tens of thousands, though she knew it was many times that. But she decided to think of it as ten thousand lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A vast number of lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And at some point, she had lost sight of the purpose behind all this repetition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had repeated her steps toward what seemed to be the better path, and that had brought her to this point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even so, she strove to remember.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She needed to remember the times she’d had a name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And those fleeting moments when she could smile. They were the only fuel that allowed her to continue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“■■.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The name, once called to her in a brusque yet tender voice, echoed faintly. It was a name she would never hear again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Returning to the beginning erased everything as if it had never happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even precious memories would become figments of her imagination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In her many lives, she had done much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once, she had been the master of the greatest merchant guild in Zhongyuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had become the head of the largest armed convoy in history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had led the Murim Alliance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had been the head of a prestigious martial family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through all these lives, she had done many things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, her end was always the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A collapsing world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or a world that she herself destroyed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the world crumbled, despair always awaited her. No matter how she had lived, the ending was always the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had tried countless actions to change her fate, yet the result was ever the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What meaning was there in such repetition?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was there truly a better way?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why had such a fate been imposed upon her?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were questions that plagued her through eons of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, even these questions became dulled and blurred in the face of endless cycles. But she had never stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pondering it changed nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She simply continued living.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so, the woman—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She came to loathe the one who looked like her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at the same time, she envied her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In her endless cycles, she had lost her memories, but that one could forget and still uphold her convictions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman remembered hundreds of her own past lives, ones where she had tried to uphold her beliefs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were times when she had struggled to save the world, thinking it was her mission, her purpose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How laughable that seems now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such steadfast beliefs inevitably decayed and eroded in the face of countless years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman had experienced this herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, she was left with neither purpose nor belief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those things had long rusted away, and nothing remained of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All she had left were faint memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not too fond of spicy food. It doesn’t taste good.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She remembered that grumbling voice when he complained about her cooking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s cold, isn’t it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that innocent attempt to hold her hand with a clumsy excuse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…I’m going on ahead. I’m sorry.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the resolute voice that had offered his own life to save her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She clung to those memories with all her strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So she continued to live.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With time, she had let go of many things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each time she let something go, it felt as though her heart was being torn apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she had to keep letting go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the only way to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Survive? No.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had never held her life in high regard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If she died, she would simply begin again from the start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The things she cherished weren’t like that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had let go of small things, then even the things that mattered most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The name someone had once called her by.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hand that had held hers with warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The familiar footsteps she had always followed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the days passed and she counted the endless cycles, she had come to realize something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In trying to protect, she had lost the ability to save.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She discarded and discarded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sensation of her heart being torn never dulled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had to let go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not so that “I” might survive, but so that “he” could.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, the world always broke, twisted, and fell apart. All the woman wanted was one thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather than seeking her own oblivion—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She wanted a world without a fixed end, where he could continue living.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Conviction and pride—things dulled by time—meant little to her now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To the nameless woman, that one thing was more important.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so, she gave up on staying by his side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he had an unyielding spirit, he was someone who would easily sacrifice his own life for others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the lives where he lived for himself, he often burned out his life force entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ironically—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the lives where she was absent, he survived the longest. Until the world finally rotted away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After many cycles, she could no longer deny it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For him to live, she could not be there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even knowing this, her unwillingness to let go was nothing but pitiful attachment and selfish desire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wasn’t that true even now?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was unable to relinquish her place beside him, clinging to him still.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She felt a bitter satisfaction in watching her other self be close to him, yet she could not cast off her ugly jealousy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even knowing that she had to abandon everything, she still clung to something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that was why she was so shocked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Someone once told me…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, she had resented him as her mortal enemy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The one who turned back my time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, he had become a cherished friend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And eventually, he had been the one to give her a name and call her his beloved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You, is that right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had cast aside everything she had once held dear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>******************\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The look in Cheonma’s eyes at my question was unmistakably one of shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had never seen her eyes open so wide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her gaze, usually brimming with cold arrogance, was now filled with surprise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It reminded me of the expression that Wi Seol-ah, in her current life, sometimes wore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What am I even thinking?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I quickly shook off the thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a foolish mistake, born from the fact that they looked alike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could that terrifying being possibly be the same as that naive girl?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a mere illusion created by their identical faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even that was a problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I compared the face of Little Sword Star, now collapsed behind me, and Cheonma, except for hair and eye color, they were the same person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could that be?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And simultaneously—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why is this arm reacting?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enmity I sensed in my left arm also troubled me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the sensation I felt in the presence of the Blood Demon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did I feel it here, with Cheonma? And why did I not sense it with Wi Seol-ah?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What were these two to each other?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the very least… it seemed there was some connection between Cheonma and the Blood Demon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which meant that Cheonma and Wi Seol-ah were connected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And therefore, so were the Blood Demon and Wi Seol-ah.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Blood Demon and Wi Seol-ah?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking about it too much would only make things more complicated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To answer it, I’d need to delve into how the Sword Master raised Wi Seol-ah as his granddaughter, and this wasn’t the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“For now…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only thing that mattered was the being standing before me—Cheonma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With her massive presence, nothing else could occupy my mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially since even she seemed, for once, to be taken aback.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…If I strike now, could I win?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That thought flitted through my mind, but I knew it was pointless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had just witnessed how Little Sword Star was utterly defeated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, I hadn’t even seen it properly. It was too fast to catch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn, the path is long.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, I realized anew just how far I was from my goal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even as a Flower of Mastery, I was no match for her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remembering such an obvious truth was deeply unsettling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheonma, who had been frozen at my words, soon composed herself and rested her chin on her hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She seemed lost in thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And after a brief moment—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crack!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She released her grip on the rift.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Creak, crack!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the force holding the rift closed was released, it opened as though its power had been suppressed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whoosh!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt my body being pulled toward it again, just like before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hurriedly tried to gather my energy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So that’s it. In the end, there’s no other answer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheonma murmured to herself as she looked at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This has lost its appeal.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For some reason, her eyes seemed a little duller.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If you step through this door, you’ll return to your original world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared at the opened rift.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this was the way back to my world?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why now, of all times?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made no sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What had I even done here?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And what did this have to do with regret?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed completely unrelated to what Tang Jemoon had told me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pointing to the open door, Cheonma spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now, go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…I still haven’t heard your answer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The words slipped out of my mouth, and Cheonma scoffed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You never asked with the intent of receiving an answer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did you really think I wouldn’t know?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I swallowed hard. I thought I’d been successful, but it seemed she had seen through my intentions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be precise, I wouldn’t have minded hearing her answer, but as she said, that wasn’t my goal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had only been to buy time and distract her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Does this mean…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could this mean she really was the one who’d sent me back?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Why?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The question slipped out before I knew it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For what reason, and how had she done it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why would you…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t know. I am not from your world.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t lie. You kno—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lie?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing my words, her brow furrowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that, an immense pressure surged from her body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You, who knows nothing of me, do not presume to judge. My mood has soured considerably.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her lips twisted in a chilling expression, and the air itself seemed to warp under the pressure she exerted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn’t even breathe under the weight of her aura.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You were never meant for this world. Now, be gone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…I’m not… done yet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You have fulfilled this world’s will. This door is proof of that.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was what Cheonma said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I had done nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No matter what choice you make, the outcome remains the same.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was what Tang Jemoon had told me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that was true, I hadn’t yet achieved anything in this world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps seeing my expression, Cheonma’s cold gaze fixed on me as she spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re under a misconception.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whatever you do here will change nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you afraid of watching the Demon Sword Empress die to save you? Do you want to rescue her?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Or perhaps you fear that one of the insects behind you will suffer?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Cheonma’s words sank in, my whole body froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How…how did she know that?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaving me in shock, Cheonma continued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whatever dreams you hold, there are things that even the one who sent you here doesn’t understand.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“As long as I exist, there is nothing you can change.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What… what are you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could she know such things?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What a foolish question. You already know, don’t you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheonma laughed as she looked at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am Cheonma, and I have no other name. Even if I once did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, Cheonma gently caressed my cheek.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whatever she had done, my body remained immobilized, unable to escape her touch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My arm trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was as if Cheonma’s touch made it writhe with unease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Noticing my arm, Cheonma’s gaze softened as she spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have already forgotten.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With her words, the rift grew rapidly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now, you should do the same.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And with that, the rift swallowed me whole.\u003C\u002Fp>",2119,"2026-06-05T15:09:39.032Z",1,"novelbin.me","04176be379d5bb50afb570d6469655f38d047e93dcc05e48110a3e669fb69ded","childhood-friend-of-the-zenith-chapter-475","childhood-friend-of-the-zenith-chapter-473",974,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fchildhood-friend-of-the-zenith-cover.jpg"]