King Shura

No matter what he did, his arms or legs wouldn’t lift up. It was almost as if he didn’t even have any limbs.

‘I need something different.’

He needed to do something different from what he was trying till now. He had finally realized that trying to move his body by force wasn’t going to work.

Cho Ryu Hyang began thinking. He needed to try something new.

‘What can I do in this state, though?’

He could neither see nor feel. It really was as if his consciousness was floating around in space without a body.

The only thing Cho Ryu Hyang could do at the moment was to ‘think’.

‘Think?’

As soon as Cho Ryu Hyang thought of that word, he felt some kind of a jolt from his body. It seemed that he was nearing some kind of a solution.

‘This is it!’

To be honest, there wasn’t much Cho Ryu Hyang could do at the moment other than to think. But that was enough. The solution to finding out about the ‘world inside the body’ didn’t seem to be as complicated as he thought.

‘What should I think about?’

For now, he thought of the verses within the Moon Edge Blade Technique. Since it was only about thirty characters long, he went through the whole thing in an instant.

Cho Ryu Hyang desperately held onto these verses. He believed that the key to escaping this situation lay in these words.

He recited the verses tens of times in his mind, but he didn’t feel anything special happening. Cho Ryu Hyang began to get anxious again when he was confronted with this.

‘I don’t have much time……..’

Zhuge Liang told him that it would be dangerous to stay in this state for too long.

‘Imprisoned in my own body, was it…….’

It was simple, yet terrifying at the same time. What would it be like to be trapped in one’s own body? It was terrifying to behold.

Cho Ryu Hyang steeled his resolve once more. He needed to avoid wasting too much time.

‘Come to think of it, am I even breathing properly?’

This was honestly what worried him the most. Were his lungs functioning properly in this state? How weak was his breathing at this point?

While Cho Ryu Hyang thought of all these things, something changed in his body.

‘Eh?’

Cho Ryu Hyang could suddenly feel the movement of his lungs in his mind. It expanded and contracted weakly, but it nevertheless kept maintaining a steady rhythm.

He could then begin to see his lungs in front of him. Cho Ryu Hyang immediately paid attention to this strange phenomenon. Then, he began to try visualize his heart instead out of curiosity.

Then, the scene in front of him changed. This time, he could see his heart beating.

‘This is it.’

He didn’t know why, but he could see and feel his organs just by thinking about it.

Seeing this new change made Cho Ryu Hyang happy, but curious at the same time. Just why was this happening?

‘Would this be the world inside the body?’

Even if it wasn’t, it would definitely be related. After a while of thought, some kind of a plan began to formulate within his mind.

Even Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know what the plan actually was going to be like. But he wasn’t disappointed. Instead, he began to focus as hard as possible.

‘Things are going to get important from here.’

He had to try to dig in as far as possible into the small clue he attained.

Cho Ryu Hyang tried looking at all the organs of his body, expecting to find something.

But the ‘world inside the body’ that Cho Ryu Hyang was trying to find was located in none of these organs.

When Cho Ryu Hyang returned to observing his own heart, he felt some kind of understanding slip into his mind.

‘Could it be?’

The blood that flowed out of the heart. Cho Ryu Hyang quietly observed its movements. The blood flowed out of the heart, and spread all around the body through the blood vessels.

It made him think of one thing.

‘Circulation.’

The blood that came from the heart was the same throughout. It would flow throughout the body, constantly getting murky and clear. It circulated through the body without stopping.

’Talking, moving, breathing…….’

Wasn’t all this actually a part of a great circulation as well? He just never realized it all this time.

The things his body did naturally without having him even notice it. When he ’noticed’ these activities, he was able to see the human body in a completely different light.

He would be able to use the greatest amount of power with the least possible amount of energy. This alone was capable of giving him limitless power.

With this, Cho Ryu Hyang was breaking through the first gate of the Moon Edge Blade Technique.

Ryun, the core of the Moon Edge Blade Technique. It was getting completed by Cho Ryu Hyang after a hundred year’s time.

* * *

Gongson Chun Gi sat down on the pagoda at the garden, and just stared at the man made lake in front of him.

In the past, he would come here whenever he was troubled. He would sit here and think about his problem calmly.

He was thinking alone in the pagoda, just like in the past.

‘Who was it?’

There was only one thing that made Gongson Chun Gi so troubled at the moment. It was the old man that existed inside Cho Ryu Hyang’s mind.

They only met once, but Gongson Chun Gi was able to see that his opponent possessed unfathomable power. He had never felt something like that before in his life.

That made him happy. Gongson Chun Gi spoke quietly under his breath with a smile.

“So that secret you were harboring was actually that old man…….”

Cho Ryu Hyang. When he thought of his disciple, Gongson Chun Gi smiled. He could tell that his disciple tried to tell him something for a long time, but was hesitating whenever he tried to talk.

Gongson Chun Gi was curious as to what secret was, but he didn’t dwell on it as he believed his disciple would tell him in the future.

But the secret his disciple held was much bigger than he had expected. Just how was the boy able to get a ridiculous old man like that in his body?

“Hn, just what should I do…….”

Should he directly ask his disciple? Or should he just wait? Gongson Chun Gi organized his thoughts a little, and thought about the old man again.

‘Wait, didn’t that guy say that he saw a trace of Pang Tong within me?’

Gongson Chun Gi’s eyes sparkled. Pang Tong was a name of a very famous individual in the past.

“No, it couldn’t be.”

Pang Tong. The genius strategist in the Romance of The Three Kingdoms. Gongson Chun Gi’s eyes immediately flared up when he thought up to here.

The genius of all geniuses that came up whenever Pang Tong came up. This individual’s name popped up in Gongson Chun Gi’s mind.

‘Crouching Dragon (臥龍), Zhuge Kongming (諸葛孔明).’

The hero who dominated the chaotic era of the past. When he thought of Zhuge Liang’s name, he immediately tried putting that legendary hero together with the old man inside Cho Ryu Hyang.

Surprisingly, the two matched perfectly. Gongson Chun Gi’s mouth curled up into a malevolent grin.

“Right. So……. Crouching Dragon was actually him?”

Gongson Chun Gi was certain that he was right.

“So that was the reason why I lost.”

If that old man was someone like Zhuge Liang, just battling the man in itself was amazing.

“Well, you’d need someone of that caliber to battle the likes of me in the first place.”

Gongson Chun Gi suffered quite a bit after the battle with that old man.

But when he realized that the old man was actually Zhuge Liang, his anger calmed quite a bit. The fact that he fought Zhuge Liang even made Gongson Chun Gi a little proud.

Right then.

Gongson Chun Gi opened his eyes, and turned his head. He smiled.

“Oh? Who’s this?”

Gongson Chun Gi. He stood up and grinned brightly. For once, he began to speak with a tone filled with respect, not playfulness.

This was, of course, restricted only to private places, but the individual in front of Gongson Chun Gi was the only person who he could truly speak to with comfort.

“It’s been awhile, junior brother.”

Gwon Gang Min. He had come to the garden.

“I didn’t know senior brother would actually come here. Is there anything bothering you?”

“Do I have to come to see you only when I have a problem?”

“Well, that’s not the case, but……”

Gongson Chun Gi smiled.

“Didn’t you avoid me quite a bit all this time?”

Gwon Gang Min faked a slightly hurt expression.

“There was no choice, right? The situation called for it…….”

Gwon Gang Min took care of Gongson Chun Gi like a brother since long ago due to their age difference.

The situation took quite a turn, so their relationship became a tad bit strange, but Gongson Chun Gi still thought of Gwon Gang Min as a brother.

“I’ll get some tea.”

When Gongson Chun Gi sent out an order, the people who stayed nearby began to get busy.

Gwon Gang Min, who was observing this quietly, smiled, sat down, and began to complain loudly.

“Oww, moving even a little bit tires me out so much nowadays. It feels like various parts of my body are broken. It’s almost time for me to go, it seems.”

“Well, you did live quite long, I daresay.”

“Your foul mouth still haven’t changed, eh?”

Gwon Gang Min laughed, and shook his head. He then stared at Gongson Chun Gi and spoke.

“I feel like I’m about to die at any moment, but you seem to be getting healthier every day. I even heard you got yourself a disciple.”

“Yes. He’s pretty good.”

A voice filled with pride. Gwon Gang Min’s face turned a little troubled as he observed Gongson Chun Gi’s face.

“He must be as outstanding as you.”

“Well, he’s pretty good.”

Gongson Chun Gi smiled warmly. If it’s like this, it becomes harder for Gwon Gang Min to speak. He hesitated a bit, but he soon made up his mind, and decided to speak.

“Did you meet my disciple in the past?”

“Your disciple?”

Gongson Chun Gi had heard about it, but he never saw his senior brother’s disciple.

“I never got to meet him.”

“Do you want to try meeting him?”

Gongson Chun Gi stared at his senior brother. His senior brother was a person who hated harming others and getting helped by others. It actually seemed like his senior was pressuring himself to say all this.

‘So there’s something going on here.’

Gongson Chun Gi knew that whatever his senior brother wanted to do, it wouldn’t harm him in any way. He smiled as he sent an answer at his senior brother.

“I’ll try meeting him.”

“Thank you.”

Gwon Gang Min let out a sigh of relief in his mind. He managed to do everything he could for his disciple.

‘Now, it’s your job to manage to catch the Pope’s eye.’

It was almost impossible, but there was a chance that Gongson Chun Gi might actually take a liking towards No Jin Nyung, and take the boy in as a disciple.

After all, an expert at the harmonious stage was a precious individual.

But the chance of that happening was frighteningly low. The only reason why he did all this was to simply let go of the weight in his mind.

Gwon Gang Min thought of his disciple who still dreamed of becoming the Pope, and sighed deeply.