Enshrinement as a God

"Humans are a pathetic race."

He opened his mouth, looking at the woman who was watching the 'real' So Ho, who was turning to ash and scattering with her eyes tightly closed.

Star-Lord.

He, who was called Sheng Wang in the Hermit's Valley, now completely had the appearance of So Ho, the great tycoon of Sichuan, not his past self.

The only difference from the original So Ho was his confident posture and the fact that a bloody killing intent was glistening and flowing from his eyes.

At his words, the woman, who now had the appearance of So Ho's daughter, twitched her alluring lips.

"Father, but in my memory..."

"Daji."

At the rebuke of Sheng Wang, who had now become So Ho, Daji quietly lowered her head.

Before she fell ill, So Ho's daughter also had a beautiful appearance.

But when Daji took on that appearance, a beautiful figure that was worthy of the words 'a beauty that could overthrow a country' was exuding.

Unlike Sheng Wang, Daji had absorbed So Ho's daughter and could recall all her old memories.

Although she had always heard from her father and the subordinates of the Non-Duality Gate that human life was fleeting, Daji could not hide her troubled heart, as if the So Ho and her in her memory were her own.

Even her troubled face was captivating, but the opponent was Sheng Wang. To him, whose heart was overflowing with the flames of anger, a mere leather shell could not give him any emotion.

Anger was contained in the expression of her father, So Ho.

"Have you forgotten why you were born? I don't know what made you have expectations for humans, but they are just our slaves and livestock."

"Yes, father."

As she followed her father and the Non-Duality Gate out of the Hermit's Valley, Daji thought of Agong, who had remained there.

If Agong were to block her, or if her father, Sheng Wang, were to make Daji stay in the Hermit's Valley, avoiding her destiny that he had spoken of.

Even if it were to incur her father's wrath, Daji might have stayed in the Hermit's Valley, following Agong.

But imagination was just imagination.

Daji, who had left the Hermit's Valley in a daze, could not see even a single strand of Agong's hair.

"Lord."

As the whole situation was sorted out, a shadow swayed in the room, and a man wearing a mask appeared politely.

"From now on, my name is So Ho."

"Yes, Lord So Ho."

In order to cultivate greater power in a foreign land, not the original world, it was important to blend into human life.

"The servant who guided Lord So Ho has been quietly eliminated."

"The subordinates who were with me will stay here from today."

"Yes, Lord So Ho."

So Ho looked at Daji once again and slowly moved his feet.

Although it was not something he wanted to do, to have to disguise himself as a human, and a barbaric human of the Central Plains at that, he was a man who could endure small things for a great cause.

And this place was a place full of the heat of blood and war.

The reason he and his subordinates had been instinctively drawn to this place was also because they had felt the heat of war that was boiling from underground like magma.

Although he was a little worried that Daji was showing feelings like compassion for humans, he thought it was because of the memory of the daughter she had absorbed.

Crunch.

For more than ten years, life in the Hermit's Valley had been a disgrace to him.

But now they had escaped this place, avoiding the aura of death that had been spreading in the Hermit's Valley.

He would recover his strength with blood and would drink the great war and hatred and would become strong again.

And he would open a living hell for the humans here and would make them sing with pain.

"After everything is ready, I will return to the Hermit's Valley and tear Hongjun to pieces."

So Ho swore that he would split the heads of the remaining people of the Mountain Peak and the Sea Isle, and even the Non-Duality Gate, and would drink their blood.

* * *

A village in Weishui. The people who had gathered in the shade were enjoying the leisure of midday, chatting about this and that, avoiding the increasingly strong sunlight.

"Hey, have you heard the news?"

The people who had gathered in groups of three and five were chatting, using various interesting topics as their snacks.

And among those stories, the one that was heard most often was the strange young man who had appeared in the house of the scholar Jiang.

Since the grandson of the son of the Jiang family, who had not shown himself for more than twenty years after leaving home, had suddenly appeared, it could not help but become a big topic of conversation in the quiet village.

Moreover, the behavior of the grandson who had appeared was somewhat strange, and it was also a part of what was drawing people's attention.

"They say he came down from living in the mountains... there's also a story that he came down after learning some kind of Taoist magic..."

"Well, this time, they say he's been telling the fortunes of the children, and that it's so accurate."

"Haha... a fortune teller from a renowned scholar family!"

The Jiang family, who had been grateful enough just for the appearance of the son of their second son, whom they had thought was dead, did not make any comments about the grandson who had suddenly appeared.

But the fact that a person who handled miscellaneous studies had come from a scholar family was enough to attract the criticism of the surroundings.

"Is that all? They say he goes out so often that he frequents the lower-class districts and the gisaeng houses..."

"It's a pitiful thing, a pitiful thing."

The villagers clicked their tongues and chattered about the prodigal grandson who had appeared in the Jiang family.

"They say even a tiger comes when you talk about it... shh, there he comes."

Far away, someone was walking leisurely, not caring about the scorching sun.

Although the clothes he was wearing were clearly the long robes that scholars enjoyed wearing, the long and splendid fishing rod and the basket hanging at his waist were as strange as could be.

"Hey, Jiang Ziya! Did you catch a lot of fish?"

Someone, who saw the young man who had roughly tied his messy hair and was walking, whistling, raised his voice and asked.

"I'm on my way to fish now."

The villagers, who saw Jiang Ziya, who was smiling and shaking his empty basket, began to whisper quietly.

The rumor that Jiang Ziya, who went to the Beon-gye Stream to fish every day, was casting a fishing line without a hook was also already widespread in the village.

No matter how much they said it, since he was fishing with a hookless fishing line, as if he were not listening, a story even circulated that he might be a little slow.

"If you catch a big fish, be sure to sell it to me!"

"Yes, mister."

Jiang Ziya, even after hearing the laughter of the men who were laughing at him, smiled without caring and moved his feet.

The young man, who was carrying a splendid fishing rod with runic characters densely written on his shoulder, was Agong, who had come down from the Hermit's Valley.

Agong, who had come down from the Hermit's Valley, had at first tried to find a way to meet his master, the Taoist Lingbao, but as if someone had intentionally blocked his access, the matter did not go easily.

In the end, Agong, who had no other choice, had changed his name as Master Gongsun had said and had gone to his hometown, Zhu Yuan.

Master Gongsun's parents had welcomed Agong, and Agong had been able to shed the traces of his life in the Hermit's Valley for several years and to gradually get used to the outside world.

Although he had hidden his martial arts in case the ones who had escaped from the Hermit's Valley would hear news of him, Agong, who had been using the Eight Trigrams magic that he had learned from Master Gongsun as usual, was already famous in the village as an eccentric.

"Haa..."

Agong, who had gradually gotten used to this life, had diligently collected information through the lower-class districts and the gisaeng houses with the allowance that the Jiang family had given him and the money he had saved up from time to time in the Hermit's Valley.

But he could not find any trace of the Non-Duality Gate that had run away. And it was even more distant to go to the Sichuan Alliance by himself and to meet the Taoist Lingbao.

If he were to go in alone and to say that he was the disciple of the Taoist Lingbao, who would believe him? He would surely be kicked out at the door without even having a chance to see a single finger of the Taoist Lingbao.

Moreover, since the ones who had run away from the Hermit's Valley were listening, he could not carelessly reveal his identity.

'This might be the last chance.'

Thanks to the fact that his Eight Trigrams divination was accurate and he had become close to the leader of the lower-class district here, Agong had been able to obtain a piece of high-class information.

It was the news that someone from the Sichuan Alliance would be heading to the Sichuan Tang Clan through this place this time.

The chaotic situation within the Sichuan Alliance was an open secret.

And the Sichuan Tang Clan had been maintaining a neutral position since the launch of the Sichuan Alliance and had not been lending its strength to the Sichuan Alliance.

If so, the one who was heading to the Tang Clan from the Sichuan Alliance was surely an envoy to change this situation.

'I also have a secret weapon...'

He had not thought that he would use the plaque he had received from the Hermit's Valley like this.

The request that the Butterfly Scholar, who had revealed that he was from the Tang Clan, had made was clearly to give the wooden plaque to the son of the Tang Clan leader, Tang Yizheng, that is, his own nephew.

Since it was unlikely that he, who had gone with the request of a master like the Butterfly Scholar, would be treated coldly, Jiang Ziya had the thought of cooperating with the envoy of the Sichuan Alliance on that pretext.

If things went well, he would be able to meet the Sword Immortal, Taoist Lingbao, with that merit.

"Huh?"

Jiang Ziya, who had been thinking for a long time and was heading to the Beon-gye Stream, saw the villagers who were digging the ground with their shirts off and stopped his steps.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, don't you know by looking? We're digging a well."

As the weather was getting hotter, to make matters worse, one of the wells in the village had dried up.

Since they had already been digging wells in several places, there were traces of them having dug the ground everywhere, but the water they wanted was not coming out.

"It's a big deal. It seems we've missed again this time."

Agong, seeing the men who were sweating profusely and making a loud noise, quietly squatted down and began to draw the characters of the Eight Trigrams on the ground with his hand.

Earth, marsh, water. As Agong carved the three characters, he quietly raised his internal energy, and he could soon feel the earth qi and the water qi flowing through the ground.

The tip of Tonglin trembled slightly and soon caught the flow of the water qi.

Agong, who felt the energy of the water that was flapping like a fish, smiled with satisfaction.

The villagers, ignoring Agong, who looked like he was playing with dirt, began to dig the ground again.

"Stop digging here and try digging over there."

"What do you know to say such a thing? Stop it."

"No matter how much you dig here, all the water veins are cut off, so no water will come out. If you go over there and dig, enough water to last for several years will come out."

"Hahaha!"

It was unlikely that the words of the young master of a scholar family, who had never even dug a well in his life, would be heard as they were.

Although a rumor had circulated that he sometimes did strange things or acted strangely, to think that he was now trying to teach them was something to snort at.

The people looked at each other's faces for a moment and then soon ignored Jiang Ziya's words and began to concentrate on digging the ground again.

Although he had put the rice on the spoon, he could not feed it to them.

Since the choice was theirs, the embarrassed Jiang Ziya shouldered Tonglin and moved his feet towards the river again.

(End of Chapter)