Enshrinement as a God

"When on earth did this..."

Jiang Ziya was confused.

The ominous energy that was spread out above his head now was not the image of the God-Sealing Plan that he had thought of.

Above all, what made Jiang Ziya's hair stand on end was the fact that if he were to die in a situation where enough souls had not yet gathered on the God-Sealing Platform, he himself might be drawn into the God-Sealing Platform.

Although he had never seriously thought about the afterlife until now, the thought of his soul being dragged to an unknown place after he died was chilling enough just to imagine.

"How did you know I was here?"

Shen Gongbao, instead of answering, tapped his forehead.

Foresight... the mysterious power of Shen Gongbao, which was called foresight or insight.

Moreover, Shen Gongbao had a white tiger called the Black Spot Tiger, which he rode.

The huge white tiger, which rode on trees and clouds, did not get tired even after running for three days and three nights. Moreover, since its speed was like the wind, it could travel a thousand li in one go.

Although he was now cleverly hiding his large appearance, it was clear that he was watching Shen Gongbao from a distance.

"That's a very convenient power. Then what is the reason you came to find me?"

"I came to tell you that it's not too late yet."

"Not too late?"

"How about you take your hands off the Tang Clan's affairs and to go back now?"

Shen Gongbao seemed to know the whole situation.

"Go back? To the Hermit's Valley?"

Jiang Ziya had thought about what to do after he had solved the problem of Sheng Wang's group as he had been ordered by Hongjun.

But going back to the Hermit's Valley was out of the question.

How could he be pleased to be trapped there again at a young age and to live a life like a recluse?

"If you don't like that, you can hide yourself for a while. If Hongjun finds out that his plan has gone wrong, he will have no choice but to give up or to step forward himself..."

"You keep telling me not to follow Old Master Hongjun's words... but I honestly don't know if I'm that important to his plan. I don't feel that way."

"Hmm... actually, neither do I, junior brother."

Why did Hongjun choose the young Agong?

Even if it weren't for Agong, there was himself, who had been mentioned as a strong candidate in the Mountain Peak, and there were many other options besides that.

But Hongjun had broken everyone's expectations and had chosen Agong, who had the worst condition of not knowing anything.

'Perhaps that is the difference between me, Hongjun, and him.'

Shen Gongbao knew that his upper dantian was partially open.

Perhaps because of this influence, a mysterious phenomenon like foresight had occurred, and he had been able to boast of an outstanding achievement to the extent that he was called a rare talent in the world.

To read the heavenly qi with the power of the upper dantian was like scooping up seawater with a gourd and looking inside it.

On the other hand, since Hongjun, unlike Shen Gongbao, was like a fish that swam freely in it, it was possible for him to see ten years, a hundred years ahead and to arrange for the future.

But Shen Gongbao could never admit that Old Ancestor Hongjun was following the will of heaven.

In Shen Gongbao's eyes, he was a person who was going against the heavenly qi, and a demon lord who was planning a great massacre, mocking humans.

"If you see it that way, senior brother, it seems that whatever I do will not have a big impact."

At Jiang Ziya's words, which seemed a little hurt, Shen Gongbao shook his head.

"No matter what I think, the truth does not change. In that sense, aren't you already acting according to Hongjun's arrangement?"

"What do you mean by that?"

Jiang Ziya could not agree with Shen Gongbao's words.

Although he had been thinking and investigating for several days and had happened to accompany Xi Xichang to the Sichuan Tang Clan, it could not be a more absurd thing.

"The very act of meeting the being inside there is already his arrangement."

The place that Shen Gongbao had pointed to, saying 'in there', was the forbidden zone of the Tang Clan.

And it was clear that the being inside was referring to the hiding Nezha.

Although it was surprising how he knew of Nezha's existence, the words that even his meeting with Nezha was Old Ancestor Hongjun's arrangement were even more surprising and hard to believe.

"Please explain in detail."

"The being inside that you are helping now is not a person. It is a corpse demon that Hongjun has created with the help of the Non-Duality Gate. In other words, a jiangshi."

"Hahaha!"

Jiang Ziya burst out laughing at the absurd words.

A jiangshi to a perfectly living child. Moreover, it was a child whose pulse Jiang Ziya had even checked.

Jiang Ziya, who was fed up with the nonsense of Shen Gongbao, whom he had met after a long time, stuck out his tongue.

"I don't know how you came up with such an absurd idea, but please go back now."

"The Sichuan Tang Clan has been dreaming of the birth of a poisonous man for hundreds of years, but they have never been able to achieve it. Do you know why?"

"Is this a quiz now?"

"Because it is an impossible thing. How can a human with an absurd body where life and death coexist be alive with a life in it? It is an act that contradicts nature."

"It seems that you won't say strange things if you see Nezha inside, senior brother."

"Nezha... the thing you are talking about took its place in the womb, receiving the flesh and blood of Tang Yizheng and his wife, Yin, here more than ten years ago. But at that time, since it had no soul and had already met its death, its appearance was no more than a lump of flesh."

"Stop..."

Jiang Ziya did not want to hear Shen Gongbao's words anymore.

As he continued to listen, he felt a nausea rising from within, and his chest felt tight.

"Hongjun approached them and put a spirit bead into the lump of flesh in the womb, so it is a thing where the magic of Hongjun and the magic of the Non-Duality Gate have met. After that, since Yin gave birth to a child that could not be born, that is what you call Nezha."

"Stop it!"

Jiang Ziya's angry voice echoed loudly.

In the surroundings of the excited Jiang Ziya, only a silence where not even a breeze could be felt was flowing.

It seemed that Shen Gongbao had spread a much larger barrier than the one he had spread to explain the God-Sealing Platform in the past.

"A jiangshi, a thing... what on earth do you see that child as?"

Jiang Ziya's anger was aroused by Shen Gongbao's attitude of not even treating Nezha, who was suffering after having his life taken away by his father, as a living being.

Jiang Ziya was now furious with Tang Yizheng, Shen Gongbao, and Old Ancestor Hongjun, as well as all those who were carrying out and helping the plan called the God-Sealing Plan.

"Junior brother, it is a good thing to be angry out of compassion. But it is said to revere ghosts and gods and to keep them at a distance."

"Stop with that nonsense!"

The exploded Jiang Ziya swung Tonglin.

If he didn't do this, it seemed that Shen Gongbao would not stop this nonsense.

Shen Gongbao lightly avoided the Tonglin that Jiang Ziya had swung.

"Nezha is a tool you need to realize the God-Sealing Plan. Since Hongjun has been preparing for a long time, and since you have met him, half of the arrangement has been achieved. No, seeing you react like this, it seems that more than half, not just half, has been achieved."

"Are you really going to continue?"

Shen Gongbao shook his head.

This was because it seemed that Jiang Ziya would not accept it, no matter how much he explained.

"Junior brother, if you can't understand my words, check Nezha's pulse again. Since he is not alive, he will not have a dantian, and if he does not have a dantian, of course, he cannot learn martial arts. But if he is forcibly learning the martial arts of the Tang Clan, there will be side effects that are difficult to handle with ordinary martial arts."

Even though he tried not to listen to Shen Gongbao's words, they flowed into Jiang Ziya's heart like poison.

Come to think of it, when he had first checked Nezha's pulse, there was something in Nezha's chest that felt like magic.

Moreover, hadn't Nezha also said that... the thing in his chest had been touched by an unknown master called Old Master Hong?

Although Nezha had not been able to learn the martial arts of the Tang Clan until now, he had been able to lay the foundation of martial arts only after he had learned the Heaven and Earth Fist of the Butterfly Scholar.

The Heaven and Earth Fist was a martial art that was based on the Crouching Frog Art, which contained qi in the skin, not in the breath of the dantian.

Now that he had heard Shen Gongbao's words, Jiang Ziya was confused as to whether Nezha had even been accumulating internal energy in his dantian.

Before he had met Shen Gongbao, he had been full of the thought of meeting Nezha and to escape from the forbidden zone.

But now, he seemed to have lost his way as to what he should do.

"Then what on earth is Nezha? Is there a ghost that wanders around in broad daylight in the world?"

"I don't know the essential thing. Perhaps, as you expect, there might be something that can be called a soul... in the Non-Duality Gate, it was called a golem, and since Old Master Lu said that it would become a flying yaksha in the future, it depends on what you call it."

"So what on earth... am I supposed to do?"

"Didn't I already say it? Take your hands off the Tang Clan and to go back."

"I can't do that, even if it's just out of spite."

Although he was creeped out by Old Ancestor Hongjun's arrangement that abandoned humanity, apart from that feeling, it was also difficult to imagine abandoning Nezha and going back now.

No matter what Shen Gongbao said, the Nezha that Jiang Ziya had experienced for a few days was just a pitiful and unfortunate child, nothing more, nothing less.

Shen Gongbao, realizing that his last persuasion had not worked, let out a short sigh.

"Ha!"

In the end, even if he were to step forward, he could not break Hongjun's arrangement.

Even if he explained everything, Jiang Ziya still could not escape Hongjun's arrangement, and he would not be able to do so in the future.

Now, there were not many means he could choose.

'Heavenly qi... does he really represent the will of heaven?'

Shen Gongbao shook off the evil thoughts that he had had for a short time.

If even he were to become weak-minded, the world would be swept by a bloody wind again, as Old Ancestor Hongjun had planned, and countless souls would be violated, and the discipline of the martial world would be scattered.

"I understand your will, junior brother... then I will be on my way."

"Are you going back to the Hermit's Valley?"

"No. I am going to the Black Contemplation Fortress."

Jiang Ziya was surprised at the unexpected destination.

Although he had heard that the Black Contemplation Fortress was holding a coronation ceremony, Shen Gongbao had not moved to a place that was not related to the God-Sealing Plan until now.

"Why the Black Contemplation Fortress..."

"Junior brother, don't worry about it now. Since there is something I have to do before it's too late."

Now that Shen Gongbao was leaving, Jiang Ziya felt a sense of regret.

In any case, he was a person who had come a long way to see him from the Hermit's Valley.

Moreover, since they were nominally senior and junior brothers, he also felt that he had been too harsh.

"It seems that we won't be able to see each other for a while. Before I leave, I will give you a little help, junior brother."

"Help?"

Clap!

As Shen Gongbao clapped his hands, the stuffy air thinned, and a cool breeze blew.

It was clear that the barrier that he had spread around had disappeared.

"Weren't you worried that the old Taoist and his party would rush in here?"

"W-well, that's true, but..."

"If you must go inside, you should leave this place within half a quarter of an hour."

Shen Gongbao, who had said that, lightly rolled his feet. Then his body soared into the sky in an instant.

He flew so high that Jiang Ziya even thought that Shen Gongbao had wings.

"Half a quarter of an hour..."

Since Shen Gongbao had said half a quarter of an hour, it was clear that something would happen after that.

Jiang Ziya, while worrying about whether he should tell Nezha this unbelievable story that he had heard, hurriedly ran into the forbidden zone.

(End of Chapter)