Chapter 45
A stone tower, hideously rising through the fog that covered the Hermit's Valley, firmly held its position.
The tower, which looked like an ordinary but huge stone tower from a distance, was a place where even beasts dared not approach, let alone people, because a barrier that turned the sky and the earth upside down would unfold if one approached it even a little out of curiosity.
In front of this strange tower built by Old Ancestor Hongjun and Master Gongsun, a huge white tiger and a man riding on its back were quietly watching it.
"Grrr!"
The white tiger, with the man on its back, tried to get a little closer to the tower, but it soon cried out in a low voice when it saw sparks fly from its claws.
"That's enough. I'll take it from here."
The man on the white tiger's back naturally slid down from the white tiger's back and took out the whip at his waist.
Although this whip looked like an ordinary whip, it was a treasure like no other in the world. Depending on the user, it was a terrifying weapon that could cause lightning and thunder, melt the form of the opponent it struck, and burn their soul.
Even if the tower standing before his eyes and the unknown forces protecting it were great, the man had the power to blow it away in one go.
All he needed was a decision.
"What are you trying to do? Shen Gongbao?"
As he put strength into the hand holding the whip, a calm voice soon stopped his action.
The middle-aged man who had appeared from the fog was a Taoist with a wooden sword at his waist. He opened his narrow, slanted eyes wide and moved his feet towards the young man he had called Shen Gongbao.
The white tiger, who had found him, was startled and hid behind Shen Gongbao, and Shen Gongbao let out a small sigh and put the whip back at his waist.
"Were you guarding this place, Senior Yun?"
"It just happened that way."
Yun Zhongzi.
Although there were many masters in the Mountain Peak Sect, one of the three great forces of the Hermit's Valley, Yun Zhongzi, who stayed in the Jade Pillar Cave, was a master who could be counted on one's fingers even in the Mountain Peak Sect.
Although Shen Gongbao was a person who did not usually interact well with others, Yun Zhongzi was one of the few people he got along with without any formality.
"Were you planning to use that hideous thing here?"
"Even if it's me, I can't destroy this alone, can I?"
'This' that Shen Gongbao was talking about was referring to the huge stone tower that was rising behind him.
After Old Ancestor Hongjun had built it, not only unknown sorcery but also the techniques of the Mountain Peak Sect had been added, so a power that could shake the heavens and the earth was needed to destroy the tower.
"Stop it. If you cause a disturbance when the God-Sealing List to be entered into the tower is almost finished, a great confusion may come."
"Are you talking about the death list that is full of empty spaces?"
"It's a necessary thing."
"It's just scratching an itch. And it's a cowardly act."
In order to activate the God-Sealing Platform, not only strong souls but also strong people had to become the gods of the God-Sealing Platform.
The God-Sealing List was a list of those who were suitable to become gods.
How could a living person become a god?
In the end, it was no different from a well-decorated death list.
Moreover, since the God-Sealing List was mostly aimed at the Non-Duality Gate, it was a huge trap set by Old Ancestor Hongjun and the Mountain Peak Sect.
"Don't even think about using that. If you destroy the God-Sealing Platform with that thing, not only the Sea Isle Sect but also the Non-Duality Gate will expose this matter, and Old Ancestor Hongjun will not stay still."
"Are you worried about that old monster?"
"Since the Old Lord is the only one who can deal with Old Ancestor Hongjun, if Old Ancestor Hongjun tries to harm you, how can the Old Lord stay still?"
The Old Lord was one of the three elders of the Mountain Peak, Shen Gongbao's master, and a person who was no different from his parents.
In the first place, since it was the Old Lord who had brought Shen Gongbao to the Hermit's Valley, even the disobedient Shen Gongbao had no choice but to become a gentle lamb if it was a matter related to the Old Lord.
Old Ancestor Hongjun and the Old Lord.
Opinions were divided even in the Mountain Peak Sect as to who was superior between the two.
One thing that was clear was that if the two were to compete, it was clear that they would both die.
Shen Gongbao, who had received both the grace of a parent and a master from the Old Lord, could not bring himself to let such a thing happen.
Shen Gongbao obediently turned his feet.
"Then I'll have to give a hint to the people of the Non-Duality Gate."
"Hey, but still!"
"This is a justice that must be kept as a person who walks the path of righteousness."
"What is justice? We must not forget that we are fighting for a greater cause than that."
"Then it is even more important to keep justice. How can you achieve a great cause if you can't even keep a small thing?"
"What you are doing is not justice! It's just a prank and a complaint."
"Perhaps it could be both."
"Hey."
Shen Gongbao originally disliked the norms that were bound by the righteous path and righteousness, and the endless training and asceticism were painful.
He wanted to avoid boring things, and he did not like unreasonable things.
In a way, he was a person who suited the Sea Isle Sect more than the Mountain Peak Sect.
And that tendency of his was enough to make him a heretic of the Mountain Peak Sect.
But Shen Gongbao could not take his feet off at Yun Zhongzi's persuasion.
The reason he had not been able to do it quietly in the first place was because he knew how big a ripple his actions would cause.
And that ripple would surely stain the Hermit's Valley with blood and cause great harm even to the Old Lord.
"A great confusion will come. And many righteous people will also lose their lives."
"Is that also a prophecy?"
Shen Gongbao did not answer.
Shen Gongbao sometimes saw a divine prophecy, and it had never once been wrong.
Although his master, the Old Lord, said that such a prophecy of Shen Gongbao was a blessing that stole a glimpse of the workings of heaven, Shen Gongbao did not think so.
This was because there was nothing more frightening and terrible than a prophecy that did not go astray.
The prophecy came regardless of his intention, and it sometimes showed something so terrible that it was hard to bear.
At first, he had tried to change the prophecy, but it was all in vain.
In the end, Shen Gongbao's current personality was also partly due to the powerlessness that came from the fact that he could not change the prophecy.
"Even if it becomes like that, it can't be helped."
"Chaos is also a part of nature... It is human nature to try to fix everything."
"In the end, since our roots are human, isn't it something that can't be helped?"
"It's not fun."
At Yun Zhongzi's dissuasion, Shen Gongbao seemed to have completely given up.
Yun Zhongzi, who had seen him get on the white tiger's back and disappear into the fog, let out a sigh of relief.
If he had known a little later, the Thunder God Whip would have been struck on the God-Sealing Platform, and if so, the tower that had been built with so much effort would have surely collapsed.
As long as he knew that he was guarding this place, it was clear that Shen Gongbao would not be able to think of anything else.
Perhaps...
* * *
"In order to use sorcery, you must start by understanding magic."
The class of Master Gongsun, who was said to be unrivaled in the world in so-called miscellaneous studies, was no different from a wide-open gate of hell to Agong.
At first, he was curious, seeing a flame rise from the air or a divine power arise from a brushstroke, but it did not take long for that curiosity to turn into pain.
"Magic refers to the power that resides in all things in the universe, so this is to realize something from nothing by borrowing the power of Taiji. It is a study that can only be achieved by knowing the foundation that makes up the world."
One fortunate thing was that the principle of sorcery drawing power was similar to that of martial arts.
If martial arts used the energy accumulated in the dantian to display it, sorcery used the energy contained in the outside.
The martial arts of Buddhism or Taoism often used sorcery by practicing internal energy, and the divine art of the Divine Cult was also not entirely unrelated to sorcery.
Master Gongsun taught Agong the knowledge of the five elements sorcery of subduing demons, which was the most basic, and the magic of the western regions that could strengthen the body.
Old Ancestor Hongjun had said that Agong was like a vessel, and that too much was as bad as not enough.
If so, it was enough to train Agong's vessel to be able to withstand the contents.
Master Gongsun knew well that he could not teach Agong a powerful martial art or help him directly like Old Ancestor Hongjun or Agong's other masters.
But although their paths were different, he had never once thought that his knowledge was inferior to theirs.
Moreover, hadn't even the great Old Ancestor Hongjun sought his help when building the God-Sealing Platform?
Master Gongsun, after coming to the Hermit's Valley, had studied a new sorcery that combined the sorcery he knew and the divine magic of the Non-Duality Gate.
The sorcery called 'magic' of the Non-Duality Gate was clearly not suitable for the Central Plains.
Although they might have been able to handle the divine characters called 'runes' that they used without any problem in their world, it was very difficult to control that power in the Central Plains, and sometimes, the effect was not even manifested.
Master Gongsun, comparing their runes to the 'Yi' that he was studying, had made them into the eight characters of 'heaven', 'earth', 'mountain', 'lake', 'water', 'fire', 'wind', and 'thunder', and by combining these characters, he had been able to imbue them with the power of nature.
Master Gongsun called this 'Yi magic' or 'Yi sorcery'.
And he was teaching that very Yi sorcery to Agong.
There was a clear difference in the power of the Yi sorcery used by himself, an ordinary person, and Agong, who had learned martial arts.
If he engraved the characters of 'earth' and 'mountain' on his body and used sorcery, it would make his body hard and firm, so that it would not easily collapse, and if he engraved the characters of 'wind' and 'water', he could have a flexibility and agility like the wind.
The power contained in a single character symbolized nature, so it was also the practitioner's responsibility to withstand it.
Master Gongsun, who had not learned martial arts, did not have the strength to withstand that repulsion.
But Agong, who had learned martial arts, was different.
Unlike Master Gongsun, who could only draw a very small amount of power, Agong could borrow or control a much stronger power, as long as he could withstand it.
The reason why Taoism or Buddhism, which could be said to be the root of sorcery, had practiced internal energy cultivation methods was also because a foundation was needed to use sorcery.
Although he was now exhausted even just borrowing the power of a single character, the power of that one character was not inferior to that of Master Gongsun, who used all eight characters. Moreover, his learning speed was so fast that Master Gongsun was inwardly surprised and proud. It was clear that Agong would become even stronger in the future.
"Look at this!"
As the paper with the character for 'fire' written on it burst into flames and turned to ash, Agong's two eyes were sparkling as if he had blown away all the boredom so far.
Agong, after writing the character for 'earth' on his own body and reciting the sorcery, touched his hardened skin as if it were strange.
"If you use sorcery with your own internal energy, you will get tired and exhausted quickly. In order to use a great power, you must first learn how to draw the external energy."
"Yes."
Agong certainly felt that when the sorcery was activated, a huge amount of internal energy disappeared as if water were pouring out, and his dantian was emptied.
One thing that was clear was that this Yi sorcery that Master Gongsun was teaching was of great help in the method of using the middle dantian that the Butterfly Scholar had taught him.
When he used sorcery, the middle dantian would naturally open, and through that middle dantian, the external energy would flow into Agong.
The reason Agong had been able to manifest the sorcery so quickly, to Master Gongsun's inner surprise, was largely due to the power of the Butterfly Scholar's Crouching Frog Art.
And the fact that he had been able to effectively use the Crouching Frog Art, which he had only used unconsciously a little at a time until now, was no different from a great achievement for Agong.
To use the middle dantian freely.
This was a necessary process to surpass the peak and achieve the state of a supreme master, and Agong had unknowingly paved that path.
(End of Chapter)