Chapter 214: Chapter 214
“Hmm?”
The white-haired old man, who was in the middle of tending to his vegetable garden, stopped hoeing and raised his head.
His thin, squinting eyes stared into the empty air.
The sun floating high in the sky and the drifting pieces of clouds.
The squinting eyes of the old man, who was quietly watching the sky of the sunny weather, slowly opened.
Eerie four-white eyes revealed themselves.
Inside the white sclera, very pitch-black pupils, which looked as if dots had been painted with a brush, pierced through the empty air as if glaring at it.
Ssssh…
And at that moment, subtle anger dominated the space.
By the time the orchids and grasses growing around the not yet completed vegetable garden bowed their heads as if frightened by his anger.
Rumble…
The ground resonated low.
It was a land that had not had even a small change over the past few years. However, that land was ringing with a low sound, spewing out vibrations.
“…”
The white eyebrows of the old man, who felt the vibration transmitted to the soles of his feet, wriggled once.
It was not something ordinary.
It was a sound notifying that someone had entered the Small Heaven and Earth Origin Array.
“I told them not to enter as they please.”
The old man’s tightly closed lips opened, and a very low voice flowed out.
The old man, who spat out a heavy voice unlike his benevolent-looking outward appearance, lightly thrust the hoe in his hand into the ground.
Afterwards, as he straightened his bent waist.
Thud!
The surrounding air sank heavily.
Coercion swallowed the space.
It wasn’t that he had drawn up internal energy, nor had he emitted his aura.
The demeanor of an absolute being who had reached the absolute realm flowed out naturally.
An overwhelming atmosphere that made one naturally bend their waist and yield just by looking at it.
Even a fairly outstanding martial artist would not be able to make eye contact if they stood before him.
Just like that, the old man tending the vegetable garden disappeared, and the absolute being known as the Supreme Lord appeared.
The Supreme Lord glared intently at the empty air before flashing his eye light.
“…Is it an uninvited guest?”
The low-pitched voice secretly harbored a strange sense of anticipation for some reason.
At the same time,
Ssh…
The anger that had been wrapping the surroundings disappeared as if washed away.
Interest filled the four-white eyes of the Supreme Lord, who erased his anger at a formidable speed.
‘This is the first time since laying out the array.’
This place was a forbidden land.
To be exact, after he settled down here, he had blocked anyone from coming in.
And decades had passed since then.
Those who had visited this forbidden land during that time could be counted on one hand.
The current Patriarch, Zhuge Sin, and Zhuge Myeong, who was no different from being determined as the Young Patriarch.
And only his old friends.
Adding them all up, it was merely around five, and he knew all of their energies.
But the person who came in right now…
“…is an energy I am feeling for the first time.”
A smile was cast on his mouth.
Finding the Small Heaven and Earth Origin Array was a task as difficult as plucking a star from the sky.
That was understandable, as this array was his own array created directly by combining dozens of arrays passed down in the Zhuge Clan into one.
Even Zhuge Sin would have been confused about the location if he hadn’t informed him first.
However, the uninvited guest right now had come to this place with his own power.
No, not just coming here, he even boldly jumped into the Small Heaven and Earth Origin Array without hesitation.
Entering this place itself would be proof that he had exceptional knowledge of arrays or that his skills were outstanding enough to read the retrograde energy created by the Small Heaven and Earth Origin Array, but he was too unrestrained.
“Is it recklessness, or confidence?”
The Supreme Lord half-opened his eyes.
Beneath the half-closed eyes, his sunken pitch-black pupils still stared at the empty air.
“I am truly curious about who it is.”
* * *
“What kind of crazy bastard made this?”
Cheon-hwi, who had entered the array as if having nothing to hide, revealed an expression of absurdity.
He could understand the scenery changing the moment he entered the array.
Originally, an array containing illusions was bound to change the scenery and cause hallucinations.
However, this thing seen right now was hard to understand.
Could this even be called a scenery?
Day and night, sun and moon, mountains and seas.
They were together.
The sun was up on the left, the moon was up on the right, and from the massive mountains, the sea flowed and connected to the horizon.
And it was even continuously moving and circulating.
“It’s a complete mess.”
Cheon-hwi shook his head side to side.
The world was completely jumbled up.
But the more serious point was that it wasn’t just the scenery.
The energies of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements were felt from all directions, but they were continuously changing their places individually.
A situation difficult to call circulation.
It was a unique method that was hard to clearly define as anything else either.
Looking around, Cheon-hwi unknowingly let out a hollow laugh while looking at the water, soil, and clouds flowing arrogantly beneath his feet.
“But for what purpose on earth did he make this kind of array?”
There was a limit to being distracting.
This was simply rejecting all the providence, circulation, and natural order of the world.
“It’s not like he’s trying to become a Heavenly Demon.”
Cheon-hwi, who was muttering in disbelief, momentarily thought it was plausible even after saying it himself.
The Heavenly Demon was an existence of defying the heavens.
It was the absolute god standing proudly above it, rejecting the providence of the world.
And since this array had achieved defying the heavens right now, it could be said to be somewhat similar at first glance.
Of course, even though that was only in this space.
“But this guy called Supreme Lord who is here is also unique. To intentionally install such a bizarre array. Is he trying to mess with the guys who come in here?”
Cheon-hwi quickly scanned his surroundings.
The more he looked, the funnier the array was.
There wasn’t particularly any dangerous energy or Gate of Death inside the messy scenery.
There were only occasionally Gates of Life that made one continuously wander the paths, and even those were mostly things that did not pose a threat to one’s life.
It was obvious that even if someone mistakenly entered this array, they wouldn’t die and would just escape from the array if they fainted after wandering continuously.
“It’s a method that doesn’t match his moniker.”
The intention could not be clearly known.
However, through this array, he could only tell that the person called Supreme Lord was reluctant to have others enter here along with killing.
“I’ll know once I meet him in person.”
Cheon-hwi, who muttered insignificantly, immediately spread his senses.
A thick plum blossom scent sprayed from his entire body and slowly spread little by little to every part of this world whose true nature could not be deciphered.
Soon, Cheon-hwi discovered Gates of Life surpassing dozens and nearing hundreds.
“There’s too many?”
Sensing them, Cheon-hwi frowned.
Excluding one among these, they were all doors leading back outside.
It was too many to check one by one.
“I was trying to find the Gate of Life to meet him quietly if possible, but at this rate, it’ll become morning while looking for it.”
Cheon-hwi immediately drew his sword.
The White Lotus Sword that revealed its appearance emitted a peculiar light while reflecting the sunlight and moonlight.
“He’s really being a nuisance.”
Cheon-hwi lifted his sword while grumbling.
The sword tip held straight aligned with the end of Cheon-hwi’s eyes and spewed out red light.
Soon, the red light was drawn.
There was no sound of cutting the wind.
It just felt like the trajectory of the red light was drawn long, and then they increased one by one.
In an instant, the jumbled scenery was dragged along the trajectory and fluctuated greatly.
Trajectories were engraved across the scenery.
It was so fast that the trajectories swung to the point of being hard to follow with the eyes continued to increase at an even faster speed.
Just one sword strike.
However, hundreds of variations were mixed into that one sword strike, exhibiting tremendous power.
A truly astonishing fast sword, and an altering sword.
The trajectories, which before he knew it had densely filled the array like a spider web, eventually forced even the moving scenery to stop.
It was probably because the trajectories were too fast.
Cheon-hwi, who was in the middle of swinging his sword in the stopped time like that, abruptly halted his movements.
Right at that moment.
Crack!
The space in the empty air distorted, and eventually, the surrounding scenery shattered and broke apart.
Clang!
Then eventually, a sound like a bronze mirror shattering resonated, and the night sky revealed itself through the broken scenery.
Faint moonlight and countless stars.
Coming outside, not in the illusions of the array, Cheon-hwi slowly examined his surroundings.
“The inside is surprisingly simple.”
When he muttered while looking at the land with nothing except a vegetable garden and a thatched cottage.
“Even so, I decorated it as much as I could. I suppose I should tend to the vegetable garden a bit more.”
A low voice was heard.
An old man was sitting on the edge of the thatched cottage.
The old man, who had his white hair neatly tied up, was holding an old-looking teacup with both hands and looking at Cheon-hwi.
‘Oh, look at this?’
Cheon-hwi’s eye light flashed for a moment.
Even though he was looking straight at the old man in front of his eyes, he couldn’t feel anything.
Neither aura nor presence.
At first glance, he looked like a mere old man tending a small vegetable garden.
However, Cheon-hwi knew.
No, he instinctively felt it.
That the old man in front of his eyes right now was by no means an ordinary person.
And as if proving that, a sharp radiance could briefly be seen in the old man’s squinting eyes.
At that time, the old man smiled gently.
“But you made a grand mess.”
The old man said while looking at the ruined vegetable garden.
It wasn’t just the vegetable garden.
The Small Heaven and Earth Origin Array was now completely smashed to the point it looked hard to restore.
“Ho ho, it was a good array for tending the vegetable garden, but I guess I can’t even do that anymore.”
The old man, the Supreme Lord, set down his teacup.
Along with a clattering sound, his slightly bent waist slowly straightened out.
“Who are you?”
The Supreme Lord opened his thin eyes and asked.
At that, Cheon-hwi answered with a nonchalant attitude.
“Cheon-hwi.”
Astonishment arose in the Supreme Lord’s eyes.
It was because he hadn’t expected him to answer so coolly despite being an uninvited guest.
At that time, Cheon-hwi opened his mouth again.
“You are the Supreme Lord, right?”
“Ho ho, did you come in knowing me?”
“I wanted to see it once with my own eyes. Those people called the Eight Martial Gods, that is.”
For a moment, the Supreme Lord burst into laughter.
“A young child is overflowing with spirit.”
The Supreme Lord’s lips tore wide.
Thinner and narrower than the crescent moon floating in the night sky above his head right now.
Eventually, his mouth opened.
“That’s right. I am the Supreme Lord, Zhuge Gocheon.”
In an instant, the air became heavy.
It wasn’t just the air.
Even the crescent moon and stars floating in the night sky lost their light to his coercion.
Everything became increasingly blurry.
Except for just one person, the Supreme Lord Zhuge Gocheon.
Eventually, he was the only one in the whole world.
Aloof and imposing.
Seeing the Supreme Lord who showed off the demeanor of an absolute being in an instant, Cheon-hwi grinned.
That smile was different from usual.
Filled with fighting spirit…
It was like the smile he used to make when crossing life and death in his past life.
‘So the Eight Martial Gods are at this level? It’s enough to make a fuss over.’
The coercion exuded by the current Supreme Lord was not something he intentionally aimed for.
It was something that naturally flowed out from those who had surpassed the Heavenly Martial Realm and reached the Martial God Realm.
At that time, the Supreme Lord opened his mouth.
“How is it, seeing me in person?”
“Indeed, it is worthy of being called a Martial God.”
Cheon-hwi said in an excited voice.
“Your martial realm has already reached the sky, so it suits the word Martial God.”
The Supreme Lord stared intently at Cheon-hwi.
At the same time, his eerie four-white eyes were revealed between his eyelids and moved.
The Supreme Lord, who had been examining Cheon-hwi for a while, patted the seat next to him.
“It seems the story will be long, so don’t stand there, and come here. I also prepared tea separately.”
“Is there no alcohol instead of tea?”
“Alcohol?”
The old man who asked back let out a laugh.
The sight of someone wearing Taoist robes and looking for alcohol was just like seeing his old friend.
“You were a cow nose too, I see.”
The old man who spoke while recalling his friend stood up and lightly patted his waist.
“If so, wait a moment. There should be some fruit wine I brewed in the past.”
Cheon-hwi’s entire body became hot as he watched the old man enter the room.
It was because his fighting spirit was boiling.
“He’s strong, extremely.”
Stimulation came to his recently boring life.
In his past life, he had pursued only martial arts, and thanks to that, he was called Absolute Heavenly Demon and stood tall as the best in the world.
However, it was that much of a lonely life.
Because he placed the world under his feet, there was no one to stand side by side with or compete together.
At the summit, there was only himself.
That was why when he obtained a new life like this, he was secretly anticipating it.
Thinking, ‘Since a long time of three hundred years has passed, wouldn’t there be another peerless expert?’
But that anticipation cooled down quickly.
That was understandable, as among the experts he met in Jianghu, there was no one worthy of being called a peerless expert.
Even though the White Snake God and the Zhongnan Sword Saint were distinctly outstanding among them.
They also couldn’t satisfy him.
But the old man in front right now…
The Supreme Lord was different.
Surpassing the Heavenly Martial Realm, he was challenging the realm of Heaven Beyond Heaven, the Martial God Realm.
He was a figure who would satisfy his thirst.
In an instant, the brilliantly radiant smile formed on Cheon-hwi’s mouth hung to his ears.
“This is the Jianghu I wanted.”
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