King Shura

Gongson Chun Gi.

Cho Ryu Hyang managed to see how the man destroyed the rabbit.

He also managed to see his master swallowing the rabbit with the giant red eye, then spit it back out.

Cho Ryu Hyang’s lips twitched.

‘…Even something like this was possible?’

He knew his master was strong.

After all, the man had the highest number Cho Ryu Hyang had ever seen.

A person like that defeated Maksu that easily?

It was quite shocking.

But he was still able to accept it.

After all, Maksu was far weaker compared to the time he was in his humanoid form.

He could understand that much.

But there was something else that greatly confused Cho Ryu Hyang.

The existence of Gongson Chun Gi.

That itself was the problem.

‘The number changed.’

Cho Ryu Hyang made a confused face as he readjusted his glasses.

Normally, the number above Gongson Chun Gi’s head is 96.

The number had never changed before.

But…

‘97?’

The number Gongson Chun Gi’s had changed.

Cho Ryu Hyang was honestly surprised.

‘Are these numbers not fixed?’

The strange numbers above the head.

These were numbers that described the limits of a person’s power since birth.

Could something like that be changed?

Cho Ryu Hyang’s head was instantly filled with chaos.

But right then.

[Don’t think of such useless things, child.]

A voice sounded in his head.

Cho Ryu Hyang opened his eyes widely.

It was Zhuge Liang.

For the first time since forever, the man had finally come to speak. Cho Ryu Hyang focused on his words carefully.

He was curious about what Zhuge Liang had been doing up till now, but for now, he was just happy that the man was talking to him again.

[I wasn’t trying to interfere with your life if possible, but…since this is really a peculiar case, I’ll have to explain things to you a bit.]

Cho Ryu Hyang could feel Zhuge Liang looking at Gongson Chun Gi from inside his space.

Zhuge Liang smirked.

[Some oddballs like that occasionally appear. I’ve only seen something like this happen twice in my life… It is only a temporary effect.]

‘It’s temporary?’

[That’s right. It’ll go back to its former number later. Don’t worry too much about that change.]

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

Not all questions were answered, though.

He wanted to know why this happened.

Zhuge Liang answered this immediately.

[Talented people who work much harder than others occasionally show something like this. They overcome the limits that the heavens had set for them and bust right through it. He probably got rid of a problem that he had all his life.]

A problem he had all his life?

Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes shone.

‘So he finally completed his technique.’

[Technique?]

‘Yes, that was his biggest problem.’

His teacher had suffered all this time due to the Shura Environment.

The moment Cho Ryu Hyang listened to Zhuge Liang, he realized that his teacher had overcome the side effect that had existed for a long time purely through strength.

[It is definite that he achieved something; however, I do not know if this is a result of a martial technique.]

‘It’s probably that. It was master’s biggest problem for a long time.’

[Is that so?]

Zhuge Liang looked at Gongson Chun Gi a little strangely.

There was one thing that the dared not tell Cho Ryu Hyang.

Zhuge Liang hid his thoughts in the darkest parts of his mind.

‘In both of the situations I’ve seen in the past, things didn’t end well for the two individuals.’

There were rules that the heavens had set in this world.

It was unknown who came up with these rules, but they were complex and had absolutely no loopholes.

Zhuge Liang had known about what happened to the two people who broke these rules later in life.

‘This is where I stop, kid.’

Zhuge Liang closed his eyes as he watched the child attempt to ask him more questions.

He would not interfere.

He would watch.

And that would be what he would do.

* * *

“I didn’t have this much fun in a long time.”

Gongson Chun Gi said this as he tapped the rabbit below him a few times with his foot.

“Your body’s too hard. It would be quite difficult to kill you.”

It wasn’t like he couldn’t do it, but he didn’t really want to.

Gongson Chun Gi put on his bracelet as he whistled lightly.

He had managed to blast away all the excess energy in his body with this one fight.

How long had it been since he used his power like this?

It was the first time he did this after getting rid of the Shura Environment’s side effect.

He felt great.

It felt like he got rid of the poison that his body had.

Gongson Chun Gi lifted Maksu up by the ears and spoke.

“I knew your body wasn’t in the best of conditions when I saw you in the first place. That just makes me more excited. How strong would you be when you recover? I want to fight you again.”

[……]

Maksu was just catching his breath up till now.

But he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes when he heard this.

He wasn’t speaking, but his eyes clearly seemed to say this.

[Don’t be so arrogant, kid. You’re nothing if I recover.]

Thankfully, Gongson Chun Gi seemed to understand Maksu well.

He grinned widely and put Maksu next to his chest.

“Can you hear my heart beating? I don’t think I was this excited even when I met my first love. Keke, I’ll wait for you to recover very dearly.”

Maksu scrunched up his nose.

In order to crush a man as powerful as this, he had to recover completely.

Honestly, Maksu wasn’t confident of winning even when he goes through complete recovery.

‘Both the master and the disciple makes me look at humans in a different light.’

Humans were greedy but so weak at the same time.

His thoughts hadn’t changed.

But he had to admit that there were exceptions.

As Maksu complained to himself inside, he glasses boy approached from far away.

The boy was looking at Maksu carefully.

‘Don’t look at me like that, kid.’

The boy probably realized by now.

That he was much weaker than the time he was fighting in his dreams.

“May I take him, master?”

“Sure.”

Gongson Chun Gi gave away Maksu without a second thought.

He was done with the rabbit.

But he was curious about one thing, though.

“Did you put this rabbit next to Ahri on purpose?”

“Yes. I thought he’d do nicely as a bodyguard of sorts.”

Bodyguard?

Well, it was a pretty nice idea.

“Does she know? About the rabbit?”

Cho Ryu Hyang shook his head.

“She doesn’t. She just thinks of it as a rabbit. That was the promise I made with him.”

“Promise? Promise…”

Gongson Chun Gi smiled mysteriously and nodded.

“I get it now.”

“Right.”

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled faintly.

As he thought, his master understood everything in an instant, and to be honest, Gongson Chun Gi knew more about Maksu than Cho Ryu Hyang already.

“These types of things treat promises very carefully. They lose their power if they break it, after all.”

“……What?”

Lose power?

He hadn’t heard of this before.

He just thought that they were beings who kept their promises well.

Gongson Chun Gi made a surprised face.

“Mm? You didn’t know?”

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled awkwardly.

He hadn’t known.

To be honest, he should have tried to find out why Maksu was so intent on keeping his promise, but he hadn’t thought of it before.

Gongson Chun Gi messed up Cho Ryu Hyang’s hair as he continued to talk.

“These things don’t make promises because there’s a chance that they’d lose their power. They only make promises when they feel that they can keep it. I felt that you had formed some kind of a connection with it when you told me you made it promise something.”

Connection?

Was that what it was when they made the promise a long time ago?

It didn’t really seem like it.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked down at Maksu awkwardly.

He hadn’t realized the weight of the promise was so heavy on Maksu.

He felt a little sorry for Maksu because of this, so he held Maksu a little more carefully and spoke.

“He clearly became a lot weaker than before.”

“Of course.”

Gongson Chun Gi was able to see just how much power the rabbit had from the start.

The rabbit was supposed to be ten times as strong as it currently was, from what Gongson Chun Gi saw.

‘That’s what makes this so sad.’

Gongson Chun Gi thought for a second before speaking again.

“A long time ago, I met a strange old man in a dream who told me about the heavenly rules in the world.”

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

It was something that Buddhists often spoke of.

“He was an arrogant old man. What was it? Causing something will always lead to results? I suppose he’s right, but that’s not exactly how the world works.”

Was there something else?

Gongson Chun Gi grinned playfully.

“There also needs to be the ‘process’ that needs to be included. The world doesn’t work with causes and effects alone. That is a very dangerous thought.”

Process.

This came very strongly to Cho Ryu Hyang.

“I completed my technique. Well, I did that a long time ago, in fact, I just got rid myself of that side effect.”

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

His master was now complete.

Free from the side effect.

“There should be no one who can ever beat me in the martial world. This is the effect I got.”

“……”

Gongson Chun Gi opened his hands and smiled.

“The process I had to go through before coming here it was extremely difficult.”

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

He could tell how much work Gongson Chun Gi had gone through to get here.

“Disciple.”

“Yes, master.”

“Strength is always right no matter how evil or unjustified it is.”

“……”

“This is the result of the monster called the Martial World. I hope you think of the process of your journey before you complete it.”

Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.

“I shall remember that.”

“Good. That’s my disciple.”

Cho Ryu Hyang blinked.

At this moment, Gongson Chun Gi seemed to become transparent for a second.

‘Am I seeing things wrong?’

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at his glasses carefully in surprise.