Chapter 394: Will of God (3)

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I no longer considered the Martial Talent Shop to be divine arrangement or will. Based on what I had heard, experienced, and judged, what could ultimately influence the present world was phantoms. For a true god would not manifest their will toward a single individual.

In other words, the Martial Talent Shop was the will of myself, who had been the Heavenly Demon in a previous life. If so, where was my will heading?

With myself possessing the Grade 1 talents of Non-Self and Martial God, what did it intend to have me accomplish?

I soon judged that pondering this was meaningless. Because Zhu Jung-sik was already launching the sword he had crafted toward me.

“Die, you damned brat!”

I first avoided Zhu Jung-sik’s sword as much as possible. Zhu Jung-sik’s destructive power was truly tremendous. The title of Master of the Immortal Realm was not for nothing.

No matter how much they were human, I had to be vigilant. These were people who had already reached the realm where they could ascend to immortality. Whatever lay beyond ascension, at any rate, there was no disagreement that they were people who had reached the pinnacle of humanity.

The sword slashed violently across where I was at a diagonal angle. The speed of the sword was enough to surpass wind and sound.

Therefore, only after the sword slashed, a brief moment later, a roar and strong wind pressure swept through.

Centering around where the sword slashed, the surrounding ten zhang was thoroughly scorched. After deflecting it, I sneered.

“You said Immortals do not harm nature, yet what contradiction is this?”

“It is merely a last resort to eliminate the evil that is you. God distinguishes intentions.”

“You truly believe humans alone are evil in this world. Or perhaps you simply do not wish to admit that you are foolish.”

“You, too, do not know the truth after all. We merely follow our truth.”

Zhu Jung-sik growled. I shook my head.

“It seems you have ultimately revealed your limitations. Our truth, you say. Truth is one. You are merely fanatics believing in a single hypothesis you hope to be true.”

“Shut up!”

Zhu Jung-sik raised his momentum. Clouds gathered in the bright sky, and fragments of the shattered ground soared upward. While it was possible for me to lift a portion of fragments, exerting influence on such a wide scale was impossible.

I admitted it. At least in immortal arts dealing with nature, I could not match them, who were far senior.

The sky flashed. I felt immense killing intent pressing down on me from the sky.

Intuitively, I moved far away from where I originally stood. Along with that, lightning struck the spot where I had been. Lightning energy rippled across the ground like ripples on a lake.

“Then let us say we follow our truth. Then for what purpose are you acting like this?”

Zhu Jung-sik asked. That connected with the thought I had when I first purchased Martial God from the Martial Talent Shop. And I had already obtained that answer.

“I am doing this for myself. I am not pursuing an unknown truth like you all.”

“What a thoroughly secular and base answer.”

“However, it was just revealed. Whether my Grandmaster or you. Every time, you appeared like cultivators pursuing truth while pretending to be noble, yet you were deceitful instead. On the other hand, am I, who am faithful to the voice of my heart, not truthful? Would being secular and truthful not be better than being noble and deceitful?”

“The more I converse with you, the more I feel I am at a disadvantage.”

“The reason you have such thoughts is that you are gradually being persuaded by me. In that regard, no matter what you say, it does not bother me. If you were wise here, you would have accepted my words, but the stubbornness cultivated over a hundred years does not allow it. Because the moment you acknowledge my words, your years become worthless. That is what you fear.”

I was not saying these words to Zhu Jung-sik alone. Through the Six Directions Voice, I was speaking to all the surrounding cultivators.

Though I felt through my skin that Zhu Jung-sik before me, Hyeon-wol, and the other cultivators were enraged, that too was no different from lending strength to my logic.

“I can state proudly here. That I, too, know nothing about the truth. What I know is merely my will. I do not think god possesses the will to designate humans as evil, but that too is merely my hypothesis. Yet at least I recognize that I could be wrong. Unlike you all, who absurdly define humans as evil without any evidence.”

Zhu Jung-sik now held his tongue. Sharp shockwaves now flew even from the other cultivators. No matter how much Zhu Jung-sik said he would handle it alone, it seemed they could not suppress their wrath at my words.

Yet what could be done? That was the true appearance of them who had pretended to be noble. They seemed unable to realize that the more they revealed their true nature, the uglier they became.

And the fact that Zhu Jung-sik fell silent meant that my opportunities to speak increased further.

“You, too, should acknowledge it and repent. You are humans who know nothing about the universe, no different from before you became Immortals. Once you acknowledge that, the world will look different. Right now is perhaps your last chance.”

I spoke as if appealing. Of course, I did not think that would reach them directly. I was simply saying it to rile them up. In truth, they were completely caught in my goading scheme.

“We must carve out your mouth first!”

“Domain Master! Quickly rip out that wicked fellow’s tongue! It is unbearable to listen any longer!”

Outcries began emerging from among the Immortals as well. In my view, it felt as though Immortals were actually weaker to provocation tactics than ordinary martial artists.

Indeed, who would pick a verbal fight with them like I did? Were they not mostly sect masters of a faction or figures of grandmaster standing? Because they were not in a position to bicker with anyone, they appeared even more swayed by such emotional fights.

Zhu Jung-sik, as if unwilling to overlook this any further, floated up into the sky. As he ascended, the sword made of earth and leaves shattered into pieces on the wind.

Even so, the sharpness of a sword was felt. It was truly an Invisible Sword crafted purely through intent.

Of course, though I currently relied on sensation rather than the naked eye, even so, the Invisible Sword was quite tricky. Because it seemed that its length, range, and the like could be adjusted to some degree.

Slash!

In fact, though I thought I had perfectly avoided the Invisible Sword, my shoulder was shallowly cut. As my blood surged into the sky and fell to the ground, cheers erupted among the Immortals.

‘Childish.’

Driven into a corner in the end, they were revealing human emotions without filter.

It was revealed that they had not transcended emotions, but had merely buried them.

A few people realized this themselves, feeling ashamed of expressing emotion and holding their tongues, but that was limited only to those of high cultivation.

Zhu Jung-sik continued to pressure me while extending and contracting the length of the Invisible Sword. Even amidst that, lightning struck intermittently aiming for me.

The cultivation of an Immortal was precisely like this. However, I thought: Though nature certainly troubled people with floods and droughts, I did not think those were deeds with intention.

Rather, was borrowing and utilizing nature according to one’s intention not closer to evil? Through martial arts with one who had reached the extreme among Immortals, I was reading the world.

These people were merely eager to kill me, but I sought to see the truth. The curiosity toward truth was something engraved into human instinct.

‘More, more.’

I continuously tried to draw out Zhu Jung-sik’s limits. The more narrowly I avoided Zhu Jung-sik’s attacks, the more new immortal arts Zhu Jung-sik brought forth.

Immortal arts were truly inexhaustible and limitless, unlike martial arts. Thinking about it, even with the internal energy contained in a human’s small dantian one could split boulders, so if one could directly utilize the qi flowing in such vast nature, destructive power capable of splitting the world seemed fully achievable.

Right there, I felt a fragment of the will that had descended to me from a previous life. The more I learned what I did not know, the broader the realm of imagination became, the deeper the pleasure grew.

Though one could not say this was life itself, I became able to assert that it was part of life.

Zhu Jung-sik continuously used nature to attack me. Meanwhile, I closely examined the changes in nature.

Nature was currently not moving naturally. In that case, backlash was bound to arrive. Zhu Jung-sik seemed unaware as he was engrossed in attacking me, but nature clearly seemed to sense its own abnormality.

Here, I wished to see divine will. What punishment would be inflicted upon one who abused nature to this extent?

According to my thoughts, Immortals were not part of nature. They were beings excluded from nature.

They believed they had already reached the realm of Heavenly Evasion as humans, but that was not so. It was time to pay the price for that mistaken belief.

Slowly, the dark clouds in the sky began to disperse, and lightning ceased to fall. Drawing upon the power of nature also seemed to have met its limit in the end.

Zhu Jung-sik soon wore a flustered expression. While the Invisible Sword was crafted through his own will, raining down lightning was borrowing the power of nature. Zhu Jung-sik noticed that nature no longer lent him power, and the other Immortals noticed as well.

They were probably experiencing such a limit for the first time. Because Immortals had never fought among themselves under the Penglai Covenant, and even after the covenant was dissolved, they did not fight out of fear.

“Can you not feel it slowly by now?”

I spoke in a low voice. Zhu Jung-sik’s face flushed red.

“You have not become part of nature. Transcending the allotted lifespan was already defying heaven from the start, so how could you think you could enter the realm of conforming to heaven? That is utterly baseless arrogance.”

“What would a mere thing like you know!”

Zhu Jung-sik shouted. However, he too must be feeling it. Nature was no longer lending him power.

To be precise, it had not lent power until now either. Nature was fundamentally generous and immeasurable, so it had simply paid no mind.

However, if humans still failed to observe boundaries and continuously tried to exploit and damage it, nature too would take some action.

“I, I am……!”

Zhu Jung-sik yelled.

I wanted to hear the words that followed. Because I was curious about what Zhu Jung-sik defined himself as. However, that definition was not permitted.

In an instant, the world grew dark. It was pitch black beyond what the naked eye could see, and sensorially, one could not feel anything present either. No sound was heard, no smell arose, and there was not even tactile sensation felt through the skin. It felt as though I alone floated in an empty world.

And with a single blink of the eyes, the world had returned brightly.

Nothing had changed. Only Zhu Jung-sik alone had vanished. Leaving neither blood, bone, nor scream, Zhu Jung-sik had disappeared.

The Immortals who had cheered seeing my blood just moments ago all seemed to have experienced the same darkness as I did.

And all of them, like me, witnessed Zhu Jung-sik’s disappearance.

This was, precisely, the will of god.