Chapter 120: Rising Tension
A corner of the heavens.
Watching Yeon Cheong-un’s struggle from the place where the Meridian Mirror was located, Zhang Sanfeng and Bodhidharma could not open their mouths.
They could not take their eyes off him until Yeon Cheong-un was defeated and collapsed.
“In the end, it turns out like this.”
Bodhidharma murmured in a low voice.
“Although he is a rare fellow, by the time it is someone like us, it is not something we have seen only once or twice.”
Zhang Sanfeng also nodded his head.
The reason why the two did not cheer even after seeing Jang Mun-gyeong, who possessed the potential of an Immortal Root.
That was because they had foreseen the current situation.
He would fight, and he would lose.
He actually fought, and he was completely defeated.
The two legends, who had watched the entire process from beginning to end, were frozen solid like plaster statues.
However, the emotion revealed on their faces was not disappointment.
It was not the appearance of looking negatively at the defeat of the disciple who succeeded their legacy.
“It has been a long time, this kind of feeling too.”
“Indeed.”
“I feel like I’m going to cry. It feels like receiving an unexpected birthday present. One where you can tell how much sincerity was put into it just by looking at it.”
Rather, they were moved.
“He showed everything! Everything!”
The disciple, Yeon Cheong-un, showed everything he could show.
Pulling out everything one possesses.
The words are easy.
However, even in a lifetime, those who achieve this even once are extremely rare.
Although it is said that someone whose life is in peril exerts power beyond their usual level, strictly speaking, this is also not squeezing out all of their original capacity.
Yeon Cheong-un did it.
He squeezed out everything in an extreme situation, and even while his instincts were running wild, he held onto the thread of reason until the end and displayed what he had learned.
Yeon Cheong-un spoke with his entire body.
He shouted with his entire body.
It was a hymn.
It was the trust offered to his masters, and the faith he cried out loud for.
It was everything of the disciple, Yeon Cheong-un.
Just watching it made their hearts ache.
Their chests became so tight just from looking at it, leaving no room for disappointment to slip in.
Until the moment he lost his final consciousness, the disciple was proud.
“We raised him well… our disciple…”
“Hoho…”
“Many in the heavens will envy us.”
“Hahaha!”
Bodhidharma’s laughter in response grew even louder.
While they were satisfied like that, Zhang Sanfeng recalled the colleague who was not in this place.
“Heavenly Demon, how did that man see it?”
***
“…How else would I see it.”
The treasure made by the Heavenly Demon allowed one to view the space where the Meridian Mirror was placed. Naturally, not only the sound coming from the Meridian Mirror but also the sound around it was heard.
Unlike Zhang Sanfeng or Bodhidharma, the Heavenly Demon’s expression was not good.
“He set up the structure in an annoying way. Damn bastard.”
While the Heavy Earth Divine Art was in charge of Yeon Cheong-un’s physical body, the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand set the frame in which force could be built, and the Three Talents Unified Qi Art blended the various powers contained within so they would not clash.
Each had its role, and they fully carried out those roles, but the most central of the powers the disciple had just drawn out was indeed the Three Talents Unified Qi Art.
For the Heavenly Demon, it was a pity. If the fire divine power that hotly heated the disciple Yeon Cheong-un was not his legacy, he would have felt even worse than now.
“If only the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand became the main focus… Tsk!”
However, the Heavenly Demon himself knew it was impossible.
In that case, Yeon Cheong-un could not utilize all the martial arts he had learned.
Just as the Ultimate Extreme Strike and the fire divine power did not harmonize with each other, unless they went through the Three Talents Unified Qi Art, the martial arts Yeon Cheong-un learned would inevitably clash somewhere.
Yeon Cheong-un’s learned things possessed distinct characters to that degree.
“But this is not enough to satisfy me.”
The Heavenly Demon wished the disciple would utilize his power a bit more.
Even now, in terms of utilizing a hundred percent of what he had, one could give him a perfect score, but as a result, the Heavenly Demon’s martial arts ended up merely playing an auxiliary role.
“I want to fill him with my own.”
Solely Venerated.
Say what one will, it was the Heavenly Demon’s fundamental temperament.
One who stands alone.
That struggling fight he just saw clearly touched the Heavenly Demon’s core.
“Hehehe!”
The Heavenly Demon felt an impossible hunger.
His skin felt itchy.
It was a feeling of blood boiling, which could not possibly exist.
An unpleasant yet pleasant sensation.
He felt like cramming something full into his stomach.
“I must think of a way.”
It seemed to be time to give him another power.
The Heavenly Demon fell deep into thought.
Since he had thought he met the necessary parts by sending the Divine Maiden, he had tried not to let him cross the line, but the situation had changed.
***
“You are drooling, old woman.”
It was not only the masters who watched Yeon Cheong-un’s fighting spirit.
Among those who watched this through the treasures scattered by the Heavenly Demon—which were still being scattered—there were also supreme beings of the heavens.
The Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West.
Those two, who had met for some reason not long ago, were also staring blankly.
“Slurp! …Drooling, what absolute nonsense.”
“Actually, it is worse than that. An old woman blushing like a brand-new young girl. Please think of my position watching that.”
“Hmph!”
Perhaps because they were words from the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor, who had the appearance of a boy, they dug in even more like a blade.
The Queen Mother of the West, who cleared her throat and subtly turned her gaze away, rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand like a cat.
The Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor chuckled.
“And she calls herself the number one goddess of the Immortal Realm.”
“…”
At the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor’s words that crossed the line, the Queen Mother of the West’s eyes grew sharp.
“Tsk.”
At the sight of the Queen Mother of the West glaring with angry eyes, the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor also clicked his tongue and shut his mouth.
There was a reason for the two great deities to meet despite their relationship not looking very good.
“I hope you have handled the task you were asked to do well before running your mouth.”
“I have passed the word.”
“As expected, you are an old geezer who is only slick on the outside. You are slow as a turtle.”
“…What are you saying, old woman.”
Perhaps hit in a sore spot, the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor frowned.
“There is no worth in having come~♪ No worth in having come all the way here~♪”
Confident that she had poked him properly, the Queen Mother of the West hummed.
“That guy is in the neighboring neighborhood now, so the jurisdiction is different!”
“Hum, hum~♪”
“In the first place, it was you, old woman, who had a discord with him!”
“Ah~ there is no worth~♪”
As if she had really returned to being a young girl, just as the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor said, the Queen Mother of the West only said what she wanted to say, as if throwing a tantrum.
“Look at this old woman’s attitude?”
Caught up in those childish words and actions, the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor frowned.
It did not sound like a conversation between those who would definitely be counted on one hand if one listed the most supreme beings in the Immortal Realm.
Anyone who saw and heard it would have been dumbfounded.
Asking what kind of conversation between supreme beings this was.
It was then that another voice intervened.
“Kakakakaka!”
The screeching laughter was somehow far from a human’s.
One wondered if it would sound like this if laughter was mixed with the hissing breath produced when a beast exhales.
“He has come.”
Hearing that laughter, the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor adjusted his expression at the appearance of the awaited being.
The void opened, and a being fell down.
“Kakakakaka! Yes, I heard you two were looking for me?”
He laughed while exaggeratingly bending his waist backward, looking as if he would fall backward at any moment because his playfulness was excessive.
The being, who laughed as if performing acrobatics, stood on two feet, but his face was not that of a human.
It was a monkey.
Possessing the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils that could never exist again in the world.
“It is the old woman’s turn.”
Perhaps finding the laughter annoying, the Mysterious Heavenly Supreme Emperor subtly handed the initiative of the conversation over to the Queen Mother of the West.
The Queen Mother of the West also cast aside all trivial words and went straight to the main point.
“I need the Flat Peach.”
“Kakaka! The Flat Peach? It is a mouth-watering sound, but why does the master of the Flat Peach Garden, where the peach blossoms will never fall, request the Flat Peach from this commoner?”
The peach called the Flat Peach was a treasure of the Immortal Realm that guaranteed eternal life even if one ate just one. It was the Queen Mother of the West who governed that Flat Peach.
And the one who had once plucked and eaten every single peach in that Flat Peach Garden was this very being.
To the monkey with Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils who asked in return while smacking his lips as if recalling the taste of the Flat Peach he ate back then, the Queen Mother of the West spoke firmly.
“I am not speaking of the heavenly ones.”
“Then?”
“The one you smuggled to the earth back then. I mean the one from the place where you planted the seed of the Flat Peach that you smuggled to the earth during your days of arrogance.”
“Kakakaka! The earth?”
The monkey with Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils sparkled his eyes, as if he finally understood.
“Since it did not take root in the heavens, even if it bore fruit, it would be unsightly… Ah, I see. By any chance, are you doing this to give it to this fellow?”
The monkey, who was fumbling with something at his waist, pulled out a mirror-shaped treasure and held it out.
A treasure for peeking into the Meridian Mirror made by the Heavenly Demon was also held in that being’s hand.
“Did that thing reach all the way there?”
“Kakaka! Thanks to that Bodhidharma fellow, it has spread quietly. Kakakaka, this fellow…”
The monkey with Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils stared at the treasure made by the Heavenly Demon for a moment and then nodded.
“He is indeed a fellow who is fun to watch. Kakaka! Sure, let us do that. Come to think of it, he is not a completely unrelated connection to me either.”
The monkey with Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils, who said he shared a strand of connection, revealed interest as he looked at Yeon Cheong-un reflected in the mirror.
Like that, one of the giants of heaven took an interest in Yeon Cheong-un.
***
Meanwhile, at that hour.
As if the principle of balance dictated that where there is light, there must be darkness, a man walked in a place where blood and death flowed.
The path the man walked spoke directly of his character.
Submission if not death.
The living kept their heads bowed to the ground without looking up at the sky, and the rest all became blood, forming soggy puddles.
The only one who made eye contact with the man was an old monk in red robes who did not seem to have many days left to live.
“Hup!”
As the old monk, who swallowed a shout with tightly closed lips, swung his hands, a hand as massive as that of a giant stone Buddha appeared right in front of the man’s nose.
“Die!!”
The attack of the old monk, flashing a blinding, giant golden light.
It was a martial art one would have heard of at least once if they had even the slightest interest in the martial studies of Tibet.
Tantric Great Hand Seal.
The unparalleled martial art that was never left out when speaking of Tibetan martial arts shot out with the momentum to crush the man.
Crack!
“T-This makes no sense!!”
However, the man, who tore it apart like a piece of paper, grabbed the old monk’s head and slammed it into the giant stone Buddha behind him.
Kwang! Rumble!
The body of the old monk, whose head burst first, splattered into blood without leaving a single bone fragment.
Cracks appeared in the giant stone Buddha, the size of a hill, which was covered in the old monk’s blood, and it came tumbling down.
The sight of easily crushing one of the strongest experts of Tibet to death looked almost surreal.
“…Kugh!”
The man, who had been like that, frowned late and let out a short groan.
“I thought the causality was sufficient. He was a being with more influence than expected, Grandmaster.”
As if he did not care if anyone heard, the man’s monologue spread quietly.
However, no one bowing their heads nearby understood those words.
The man, who stood alone on the earth without being understood, looked up.
The man, staring at the sky with unpleasant eyes, murmured in a low voice.
“It feels like things keep going awry one by one. I must find out…”