Enshrinement as a God

After Lingbao left, Agong furiously swept and wiped the spot where he had sat, as if it were stained with something dirty.

He was a cranky man he never wanted to get involved with again.

Agong was already struggling to suppress his anxiety day by day.

Lingbao's arrogant behavior had added fuel to the fire of Agong's feelings.

Agong needed something to vent this frustration.

"That's right!"

A memory flashed through Agong's mind like lightning.

He remembered the old man Tongtian, who said he fished regularly once a week.

Old man Tongtian had clearly told him to come and find him if he wanted to fish.

The location of the lake where he fished was not far from the tavern, so there was no risk of getting lost in the fog.

Agong got permission from Cook Li and packed some snacks.

As he was about to leave the tavern, Agong's gaze suddenly fell on a bronze mirror hanging in a corner of the tavern.

It was the only mirror hanging in the tavern.

"What's wrong with my face?"

Agong remembered Lingbao's words telling him to look in the mirror and approached it.

But contrary to Agong's imagination, his reflection in the mirror looked quite haggard.

"Huh?"

The area under his eyes was as black as if it had been painted with ink, and his face was also rough, making him look pitiful, as if he hadn't slept or eaten for days.

'Have I been suffering from a lot of stress?'

It was strange.

Even though he had eaten and slept better than he thought, Agong's face looked like that of a sick person.

'Was that why?'

For a moment, it seemed he had found a reason for Lingbao's behavior, but Agong dismissed it as a ridiculous thought.

Agong left the tavern with an unsettled expression.

In any case, as he left the tavern alone to find the lake, memories of gathering medicinal herbs in the mountains came flooding back.

As soon as he left the tavern, Agong made his way through the noticeably thicker fog.

After walking for a while, Agong found a lake that was not very large but clear.

"Whoa!"

He had forgotten for a moment while living in the Hermit's Valley, but the Hermit's Valley was strictly on the mid-slope of the Kunlun Mountains.

But it was truly surprising that there was such a lake in the middle of the mountain.

Although it was a small lake, Agong had never seen a lake before.

Looking at the lake, his uneasy feeling flew away in one go, and he felt as if his chest had been cleared.

Splash.

As Agong dipped his hand in the lake, he spotted someone in the distance.

Although it was a bit far, Agong, whose eyesight had improved recently, was able to identify the figure at once.

It was the old man Tongtian he was looking for.

"He really looks like an immortal like that."

The sight of Tongtian fishing with his fishing rod cast out blended with the surrounding fog.

The picturesque scene exuded an atmosphere that was incomparable to the Taoist who called himself an immortal.

If there was a great master, would he look like that?

Seeing Tongtian's dignified appearance, Agong couldn't bring himself to speak carelessly even as he approached him.

"If you're here, why don't you come closer?"

"Ah!"

Agong, who couldn't bring himself to go right next to him, hesitated, but Tongtian already knew he was there.

"I brought this in case you were hungry."

"I was just getting a little hungry, so this is great."

Agong took out the snacks he had received from Cook Li.

Tongtian gladly accepted the white rice balls.

"How long have you been here?"

"Well... I arrived here when the sun rose, so it's been a while."

When Agong glanced at Tongtian's net bag, he still didn't see a single fish.

He had felt it when they first met, but he thought that the old man had no talent for fishing.

"You've been out since morning, but you haven't caught a single one?"

"Hahaha..."

Tongtian laughed awkwardly, as if he had nothing to say.

He had called him to teach him how to fish, but he was only showing him an empty net bag, so the situation was quite embarrassing.

Seeing Agong who couldn't hide his suspicious gaze, Tongtian pointed to a nearby tree branch with his hand.

"Go and break that branch. If you want to fish, you need a fishing rod, don't you?"

Agong looked at Tongtian's beautifully stretched fishing rod and then turned to the branch he had pointed to.

No matter how much he racked his small brain, he couldn't see a fine fishing rod coming out of such a shabby branch.

"Can you make a proper fishing rod with a branch like that?"

"Can you even bring it?"

Agong looked up at Tongtian as if it were absurd and then strode towards the branch he had pointed to.

Just by looking at it, it was a shabby branch that was crooked and shorter than his own arm.

Agong, as if to show off, tried to break the branch with force.

"Ugh..."

The branch, which he had thought would break in one go, was as hard as a log.

Flustered, Agong put more force into it, but the branch bent like a bow and did not easily give way.

"Uuuuuugh..."

The sound of wind escaped from between his mouth and teeth.

He had wondered where Cook Li got such firewood, and it was clear that these trees were the ones piled up in the tavern's kitchen.

Crack!

Still, it seemed his consistent martial arts training had paid off, as he was not embarrassed by being unable to break the branch.

Agong's face turned beet red as if it would burst, and he struggled to stand up, using the branch as a cane.

He had exerted so much force that he couldn't support himself without using the branch as a cane.

"Hoho..."

Tongtian had actually thought that Agong would not be able to break the branch.

This Golden Ironwood, which only grew in the Hermit's Valley, was as strong as steel, repelling axes, and even a very thin branch could not be easily broken by human hands.

But he was inwardly surprised when Agong managed to break the branch and bring it.

For a boy of that age to break a branch of that size, he must have at least a solid foundation in internal energy studies.

But since a child who didn't seem to have particularly learned martial arts had done it, he had no choice but to admit that his eyes were wrong.

'I must be getting old.'

"Here you go."

When Agong handed over the branch he had obtained with all his might, Tongtian smiled and took out a long thread from his pocket.

It was a thread as thin as a silk thread and shining with a silver light.

When he stretched it out, the thin thread sparkled in the lake light even in the fog.

"Wait a moment. I'll thread it for you."

Tongtian held the thread and poked it into the end of the branch.

Then, the thread that Tongtian held stiffened and shot out through the end of the branch.

'Huh?'

Agong rubbed his eyes, seeing Tongtian so naturally pierce the branch with the thread and tie the end.

Although it wasn't as thick as the trees in the tavern's kitchen, it was a tree that even an axe couldn't penetrate at first.

To see him sew and tie such a tree with a thread without a needle, as if he were sewing clothes, it was natural to doubt what he had just seen.

"Now, just throw this."

When Tongtian handed him the fishing rod with only a dangling thread, Agong looked at Tongtian with a dumbfounded expression.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I think I know why you can't catch any fish, sir."

"Is that so?"

"Where in the world is there a person who fishes without even putting on bait?"

When fishing, even if you don't use dough bait, you should at least attach a bug or a worm. If you just throw a line into the water and hope to catch a fish, what's the difference from hoping for a miracle?

"You seem to know a thing or two about fishing. Seeing as you're teaching me."

"It's not that, it's common sense. Common sense that even I, who have never fished before, know."

Agong was truly dumbfounded.

This wasn't him learning to fish, it was at a level where he had to teach.

Had he been fishing without bait all this time?

Looking at the situation, it seemed he had never used bait while fishing until now.

"Is that so?"

Tongtian smiled and grabbed his fishing rod.

"Then there's no way a fish will be caught on my fishing rod now."

"Now? There's no way it will be caught in the past or in the future."

"Then shall we make a bet?"

"A bet?"

"If I win, you will come and find me with snacks like this every week."

"What if I win?"

"I will grant you whatever you wish."

"Come on, how would you know what I want, sir?"

"Whatever you want, as long as it's not the world, I have the power to do that much."

It was a boastful statement, but to Agong, it sounded like an old man's bluff.

He thought he might be a martial artist since he was staying in the Hermit's Valley, but if he were such a great master, he didn't think he would be spending his time fishing in a place like this.

"A man's word is his bond."

"Alright, you can use whatever bait you want."

Tongtian reeled in his fishing rod.

It seemed he was going to cast his fishing rod at the same time as Agong for the fairness of the bet.

Agong, thinking he was being unnecessarily fair, looked around for something to use as bait.

"This should be enough..."

Looking at the surrounding soil and stones, it wasn't too difficult to find a bug that could be used as bait.

What was difficult was attaching the bait to the fishing line.

"What kind of fishing line cuts the bait in half as soon as you attach it?"

The fishing line was so sharp that when he wrapped the bugs he was going to use as bait, their bodies immediately split in two.

Agong, being careful not to cut his hand, barely managed to attach the bait to the fishing line.

"Let's start."

"Alright."

Tongtian, as if it were fun, cast the line of his fishing rod far away with Agong.

It was good that they had cast their fishing rods, but there was no sign of either of them catching a fish.

"I'm telling you in advance, you'll never catch anything like that."

"Is that so? Then what is it that's caught on my fishing rod now, if not a fish?"

"Huh?"

As Tongtian said, a gentle ripple was forming around the thread connected to Tongtian's fishing rod.

"Heave-ho."

When Tongtian lightly lifted the hand holding the fishing rod, a fish the size of a forearm jumped out of the water.

The fish that jumped out of the water naturally went into the net bag that Tongtian had placed.

"A, a fish."

The fish was so big that even though it was in the net bag, its head and tail were sticking out.

Agong, seeing the fish being caught right next to him, was so amazed and amused that he looked back and forth between the fish and Tongtian.

There was definitely only a thread attached to Tongtian's fishing rod.

Hadn't he even checked it with his own two eyes before he cast it?

"This can't be..."

"It can be caught even without bait, can't it?"

"No way."

Tongtian, leaving Agong who was blinking his eyes as if he couldn't believe it, cast the line of his fishing rod far away again.

"Now, another one is caught."

"What did you say?"

This time too, when Tongtian lifted his fishing rod, a fish as big as the one he had just caught jumped into the air with the line in its mouth.

Tongtian, who had caught two fish in one go, looked at Agong with a pleased expression.

"This means I won the bet, right?"

"How did you do that?"

"Should a fisherman teach his fishing skills?"

Tongtian released the two fish in the net bag back into the lake.

Agong couldn't understand why he was releasing what he had caught with such effort, but he thought that if he had such a divine skill, he could catch fish again anytime.

'So that's why there were no fish in his net bag, because he let them go like that!'

Agong thought that since it was the Hermit's Valley, there were many strange people and masters, and it was clear that Tongtian was a master of fishing.

Perhaps Tongtian, embarrassed by his amazing fishing skills, was living in hiding in the Hermit's Valley.

"Don't forget your promise."

"Of course. But really, how did you do it?"

"You just need to apply the Heavenly Demon Hand a little."

"If I learn just that, I won't go hungry anywhere!"

"Hahaha."

Tongtian burst out laughing.

The number one divine art of the ten thousand demonic paths.

Tongtian couldn't help but laugh when he was impressed that he wouldn't go hungry with the Heavenly Demon Hand of the Manifest Demon True Art.

(End of Chapter)