Chapter 51
"That damn tiger!"
Agong broke out in a cold sweat trying to soothe Daji, who was running wild as soon as she woke up and came to her senses.
Daji was shocked and angry at the fact that there was a beast that did not listen to her commands.
Moreover, her pride was greatly hurt because she, who had a knack for hiding her presence, had been ambushed by Shen Gongbao and had her pressure points subdued.
"Here, here, these are the gifts you asked me for."
To soothe the trembling Daji, Agong showed her the two pipas he had received from Master Gongsun.
"What are these?"
Daji asked in a disappointed tone. Since Daji, like Agong, had seen a pipa for the first time, she did not like the pipa, which looked dark and shabby at first glance, unlike the pretty stones or ornaments she had been expecting.
"They are musical instruments called the xiangpipa and the tangpipa..."
"Musical instruments? I want to hear them!"
Daji had only read about musical instruments in books and had never actually seen them or heard them played.
At best, she had only imagined it by comparing the sound of birds or the sound of flowing water to 'music'.
"Me? I don't know how to play either..."
Agong, in a strange and awkward posture, held the pipa and carefully plucked its strings.
Screech! Screech!
As a noise that made them doubt their ears came from the pipa, Agong and Daji looked at each other without realizing it.
Agong and Daji, who were looking at each other, not knowing what to say, burst out laughing without realizing it.
"Hahahaha!"
Daji burst out laughing at Agong's dumbfounded face, and Agong burst out laughing at Daji's bewildered face.
After laughing like that once, the mood of the two, who had been in a bad mood due to unwanted experiences and encounters, seemed to have eased a little.
"You really don't know how to do anything, do you?"
Daji, holding the xiangpipa, not the tangpipa that Agong was holding, began to pluck the strings in an awkward posture like Agong.
At first, the noise that sounded sharp gradually regained its tone, and a beautiful sound of music that Agong had never heard before in his life began to flow out.
"My goodness..."
Although Agong thought that Daji was teasing him, knowing how to play the pipa, the tone was so beautiful that rather than getting angry, he wished that Daji would play the instrument a little longer.
As the sound of Daji's pipa spread, birds that were rarely seen in the Hermit's Valley gathered and circled above their heads, and even the fish in the lake stuck their heads out and danced.
"What a wonderful performance!"
As Daji, who had finished her performance, put down the pipa with a flushed expression, Agong admired her with all his heart.
"Thank you. Now that I see it, it's a pretty good thing."
Daji also seemed to like Agong's praise and the pipa.
"Why did you ask me to play when you knew how to play the pipa?"
"Since it was the first time I had seen it, I entrusted it to you."
Agong was surprised.
If she wasn't teasing him, this meant that Daji had a tremendous talent.
"Xiang and Tang..."
Daji, remembering the first characters of the pipas, held the two pipas preciously in her arms and smiled brightly.
"Thank you. I think they will be a good gift for my sisters."
Her smile was so beautiful that Agong blinked for a moment.
If a person's smile could be dazzling, he had the illusion that Daji's smile now was just that.
Although he had had a difficult situation with Master Gongsun for a while, Agong felt proud at the sight of the happy Daji.
Would he have felt this way if he had a younger sister?
Agong, feeling that Daji was not just annoying anymore, looked at the happy Daji, who was examining the pipas here and there.
* * *
The next morning dawned.
Agong, who had parted with Daji the day before and had returned to the tavern, arrived at the lake again early in the morning as promised with Tongtian.
Tongtian, who was tilting his fishing rod even in the early morning hours, was looking at Agong, who had appeared next to him, as if he were bewildered.
Agong's appearance was no different from being fully armed.
He had a bundle as big as himself tied to his back, a container full of arrows at his waist, and Tonglin in one hand, and he had come out to meet Tongtian with confidence.
"What is all this?"
"You told me to come prepared."
"Didn't I say that a simple snack would be enough?"
"You also said that it's always good to be thoroughly prepared."
Saying the one word he had told him while training him before, Tongtian, seeing the confident Agong, did not say any more and reeled in his fishing rod and stood up from his seat.
"Alright, let's get moving."
Tongtian moved his feet with Agong.
If he moved alone, he would arrive in less than half a moment, but now he had to match Agong's slow steps, so he had to hurry and move before the sun was in the middle of the sky.
"Master, I have something I'm curious about."
"What is it?"
"You said that the fishing line of my Tonglin... is made of a thread called heavenly silkworm silk, right?"
Heavenly silkworm silk was a thread that could be extracted from a divine beast called the heavenly silkworm. Its strength was like steel, and if internal energy were injected, it was an item that boasted a strength comparable to that of sword qi.
Since it was a treasure like no other in the world, its price was whatever one called it.
"Yes, it's heavenly silkworm silk. Why do you ask?"
"How powerful must something be to be able to cut heavenly silkworm silk with internal energy flowing through it?"
Tongtian, who had been hurrying his steps, stopped his steps.
This was because the question Agong was asking was like an experience.
"Was the heavenly silkworm silk cut?"
"N-no."
Agong, startled, lifted his Tonglin.
Seeing the heavenly silkworm silk neatly wrapped around Tonglin, Tongtian hurried his steps again.
"Heavenly silkworm silk with internal energy injected is comparable in strength to sword qi... but a supreme master who can handle powerful qi could easily cut it."
"A supreme master... are you talking about people like you, master?"
"Like me, you say..."
A martial artist who learns martial arts will step on the stages of qi, silk, and steel.
'Qi' refers to the stage of a master who refines and handles internal energy, 'silk' refers to the stage of materializing such intangible qi and pulling it out like a thread, and 'steel' refers to the ultimate stage that surpasses that.
Generally, a supreme master was a collective term for masters who handled sword qi and sword silk, and those who handled sword steel were called supreme masters.
But how could all supreme masters be the same?
The realm of a supreme master was the realm of a superhuman.
It was very difficult for the common people to judge the difference in their respective heights and achievements.
This was no different from how an ordinary person's eyes could not distinguish which fish swam better when fish were swimming.
"It won't be like me, but if you meet a master who cuts heavenly silkworm silk, he is someone you can't face, so avoid him."
"Yes."
Tongtian's answer was an answer that Shen Gongbao was not an opponent that Agong could compete with.
"Then who is the person called the Old Lord by any chance?"
"The Old Lord? Are you talking about Li Er?"
"I don't know his name well, but I heard there is such a person in the Mountain Peak Sect."
Although Tongtian knew that Agong was asking a question that was not like his usual self, since it was a question that could be asked enough while staying in the Hermit's Valley, he answered without any particular suspicion.
"There are those who are called the three great elders or the three true ones of the Mountain Peak, and he is one of them. The Primordial of Huashan, the Old Lord of Wudang, and Lingbao of Diancang are them. Didn't the Taoist Lingbao even tell you this?"
"Yes."
"In any case, since you have become master and disciple, you have also made an enemy of the Mountain Peak Sect. That old fox is really selfish."
Although Agong was displeased with Shen Gongbao, who had come out of nowhere and was acting as his senior brother, listening to Tongtian's words, it seemed that he had not lied to him.
"Although they are called the Twelve Honored Ones in the world and are judged as supreme masters, the Old Lord and the Primordial of the Hermit's Valley are also masters who are not inferior to them. In the first place, they were staying in the Hermit's Valley before me. There is also a rumor that they are over a hundred years old..."
"Hic..."
Agong was surprised at the words that they were over a hundred years old.
No matter how long martial artists, and especially Taoists, lived, if they were over a hundred years old, they could not be anything but living immortals.
"Even so, there's no need to be so surprised. In any case, they are like living corpses, so they are just preserving their seats."
"Corpses?"
"Qi and body are ultimately in a relationship of mutual complement. As one trains, both qi and body become stronger, but in the end, one reaches the limit of a human, and in the end, the body weakens, and only the qi remains. Do you know what a person with a body that has weakened as much as it can and a qi that has become as strong as it can becomes?"
"W-well..."
"It's Yangshen. The words 'attaining Buddhahood' or 'ascending to immortality' that are commonly used in Taoism or Buddhism are all referring to this Yangshen."
"Then are all of them... in that state?"
"It means they are close to it. If they complete Yangshen, they will become no different from a ghost, and if they fail, they will go to the underworld or wander the nine heavens, so there's no need to even care, is there?"
Agong trembled at the word 'ghost'.
Although Agong had faced the monsters of the Hermit's Valley, it was hard for him to accept the words 'ghost' or 'demon'.
Moreover, hadn't Shen Gongbao called the Non-Duality Gate demons?
"Then do I... have to practice that Yangshen too?"
"The ultimate does not necessarily have only one form."
Tongtian began to slow down his steps as he was gradually reaching his destination.
"The Manifest Demon True Scripture dreams of a completely different state. If you take and take again and reach the extreme state, you will shed your shell and become stronger. This is like the process of a snake shedding its skin and growing."
While talking, Tongtian cut down branches and began to walk into a rougher place.
Agong, while looking at the back of Tongtian, who had entered a somehow ominous-looking space, had no choice but to follow him without a word.
"If you constantly pursue strength and train, in the end, you will achieve the Demon God's Body and obtain a body that is free from the constraints of time and space. You will surpass the realm of a human and complete an unfailing body and endless strength."
As Tongtian finished his story, he stopped his steps in front of a huge jade wall.
Agong, looking at the ominously flashing jade wall in front of him, swallowed his dry saliva.
"Hmph."
Kugugung!
Tongtian extended his palm and lightly pushed the jade wall.
Then, the jade wall, scattering stone dust, was slowly pushed back, revealing a dark space.
"Where is this?"
"The Heavenly Demon Pavilion. It's originally a place in the Divine Cult, but I've made it similar in my own way."
Although he was curious as to why he had made such a dangerous place, Agong did not ask such a question.
This was because he had to follow Tongtian, who was entering it.
Thump!
Fwoosh!
As Tongtian flicked his finger, a flame soon flickered inside, and the torches that were sparsely hung on the wall were lit.
Thanks to the torches and the luminous pearls in the area, the inside was so bright that one could see everything around, even though not a single ray of sunlight came in.
"My goodness..."
The place called the Heavenly Demon Pavilion was a huge cave.
On one side, there were large jars and other things, and on the stone wall, numerous characters and moves were densely drawn. Agong, who was looking around the wall, turning his head, saw the large characters engraved in the center and stepped back without realizing it.
Ten Thousand Demonic Paths.
The Number One Divine Art in the World.
The Heavenly Demon Supreme.
The Manifest Demon True Art.
"Let's see each other again after you have achieved the sixth stage of the Manifest Demon True Art."
"M-master?"
Agong, startled, turned his head, but Tongtian had already disappeared.
The dumbfounded Agong hurriedly ran to the exit of the Heavenly Demon Pavilion, but a firmly closed stone wall was blocking Agong.
Not once, but twice.
"This can't be...!"
Agong, at the fact that he had been tricked and trapped by Tongtian again, screamed as if in despair.
(End of Chapter)