Invitation to the Chatroom of the Gods - Chapter 131



Only Krnovel

Episode 131 – Crossed Fates (1)

Yang Jong-cheon walked and walked without a destination.

The wound from being hit by Cheongun stung, but Yang Jong-cheon just kept walking.

Then chin!

I tripped over a rock and fell awkwardly to the ground.

My whole body hurt so much it felt like it was going to break, but I didn’t really try to get up.

I didn’t even think about getting up.

Yang Jong-cheon lay down on the floor in the shape of the letter “大” and looked up at the blue sky that filled his field of vision.

What a vast sky.

Why is that?

The sky was so similar to the Cheongun Sword I had seen last time.

“······Shit.”

I couldn’t see it at all.

The level and realm of Cheongun were no longer even visible.

So, the future, level, and realm of oneself standing in the same place as Cheongun.

······I couldn’t even imagine it.

“Why on earth!!!”

It was at that time that Yang Jong-cheon let out all the anger that had built up in his heart.

“What a sight.”

Suddenly, a graceful woman’s voice pierced Yang Jong-cheon’s ears.

Yang Jong-cheon half-raised his body and looked at the place where the voice came from.

And the place I looked at.

There was a woman with a pale expression that was in stark contrast to her elegant beauty.

The woman had a beautiful appearance that would shake the hearts of many men, but her pure white skin, devoid of any trace of blood, did not seem like that of a living person.

The woman walked over lightly and stood before Yang Jong-cheon’s eyes.

The eyes of the woman looking down at Yangjongcheon held no emotion whatsoever.

Yang Jong-cheon turned his gaze away from the woman and said.

“Have you come to laugh at me? If so, laugh as much as you want.”

“I don’t really intend to laugh.”

“Then are you thinking of feeling sympathy?”

“I don’t particularly intend to sympathize.”

“Then are you thinking of apologizing? Do you feel guilty about things getting to this point?”

“Apologies?”

The woman’s head suddenly tilted.

The face of the woman, who showed no emotion, was filled with curiosity based on ‘wonder’.

“Why should superiority be guilty of inferiority?”

At the woman’s words, Yang Jong-cheon’s teeth clenched involuntarily.

However, contrary to his feelings, Yang Jong-cheon did not take any action.

I knew who the woman meant by ‘superior’, and I could also tell for sure who she meant by ‘inferior’.

Yang Jong-cheon said with his eyes tightly shut.

“······Then why did you come to me?”

“Well, there’s no particular reason.”

“There is no reason?”

“If I had to say, it’s similar to the locust I mentioned last time.”

The woman’s words reminded Yang Jong-cheon of the locust and the cicada that had blocked his carriage in the past.

A cicada is a foolish ‘small creature’ that attacks a powerful opponent without knowing the difference between them.

Thus, the eyes of the woman looking down at Yangjongcheon did not contain any particular emotion.

“Why are they doing that…? I guess it’s curiosity for now.”

Looking at small creatures and bugs that I found by chance while walking down the street.

It was nothing more or less than that.

“I am… a tiny creature.”

Yang Jong-cheon could only laugh.

I never once thought of myself as a beast.

That is understandable, as Yang Jong-cheon was born with a special talent for martial arts.

And that he was born with a talent for martial arts.

It meant that he was born with a very special body.

A body born with the yin energy of the moon, a body of extreme yin limbs.

A body born with the sun’s yang energy, a body with extremely yang limbs.

The body that contains the energy of heaven, earth, and man, the three limbs.

A body in which the yin and yang energies are balanced, a yin-yang body.

A body in which the energy of the five elements is in harmony, the Taegeuk body.

Besides these, there were really many different bodies.

These are talents blessed by heaven.

Therefore, we call those who are born with this talent ‘genius’.

These geniuses go far beyond normal expectations.

Inevitably, he stands out in martial arts.

Criminals pioneer unknown areas that people would never think of and lead the times.

Among these geniuses, the outstanding ones are the ones who open the way to a new era, and they are the ones who are respected as pioneers of new sects.

“I was born with the Taegeuk body.”

Yang Jong-cheon was a genius born with a body in which the energy of the five elements was in harmony, the Taegeuk body.

“And it was known that Jang Sam-bong, the shaman’s founder, also had the same talent as me. That’s why I was called the incarnation of Jang Sam-bong among shamans.”

That was also the decisive reason why Yang Jong-cheon was able to become a later index of shamanism.

Furthermore, Yang Jong-cheon was confident that he would become a warrior like Jang Sam-bong.

But today, that confidence has been completely shattered.

The sword of Cheongun that defeated none other than Janggyo Jinin.

At that time, all the entities of the universe poured into my newly opened field of vision.

“I dared······not approach it.”

Yang Jong-cheon could see something there.

The highest god in shamanism and the highest god of Taoism.

The incarnation of the original Heavenly Lord, the Emperor of the Dark Heaven.

I could see and feel his presence in Cheongun.

It made Yang Jong-cheon feel a reality that went beyond emotions such as thrill and awe.

That was the true shaman’s sword.

It was the Taegeuk (太極) that shamans ultimately sought to pursue, and the Way of Heaven that shamans sought to emulate.

Cheongun could be said to be the true incarnation of Jang Sam-bong’s investigation.

I’m not talking about Yang Jong-cheon.

Yang Jong-cheon bowed his head as he sat down.

“I admit that Cheongun was like an incarnation of the original Heavenly Lord······.”

And it was at that moment that a woman’s voice was heard.

“You are the incarnation of Jang Sam-bong.”

“······What does that mean?”

“It means that you have the same talent as Jang Sam-bong. It’s almost as if you were the reincarnation of Jang Sam-bong.”

Then, Yang Jong-cheon’s eyes suddenly started to flutter.

“How do you know that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The time when Jang Sam-bong was alive was hundreds of years ago.”

Yang Jong-cheon raised his eyes and scanned the woman’s face.

The appearance of this truly beautiful woman is that of a woman in her early twenties.

In other words, it was only at the edge of the terms and conditions.

No matter how high you look, she is a woman who looks like she is not over thirty years old.

“But how can you be so sure of Jang Sam-bong’s talent as if you saw it with your own eyes?”

“So does that mean you don’t believe me?”

“It means I can’t believe it.”

“I’ll leave it up to you to believe it or not.”

The woman did not add anything extra to it.

I didn’t feel the need to explain it.

“Even if I explain it to you, you won’t believe it anyway.”

The woman was simply indifferent.

Yang Jong-cheon slowly opened his mouth as he looked at the indifferent woman.

“······So that’s why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is that why you approached me? Because I am like the incarnation of Jang Sam-bong?”

“It was a sense of caution, to be exact.”

“wariness?”

“Jang Sam-bong was superior to anyone else. He was called the best in the world at the time.”

The one who stands at the very top among those who discuss martial arts.

That is why every martial artist dreams of becoming the best in the world, but it is an illusory realm that can never be reached.

There could not have been a true and undisputed strongest person that no one could deny.

However, the woman firmly called Jang Sam-bong ‘the best in the world.’

And now.

“That same superiority has once again come to the world.”

The woman’s eyes looking at Yang Jong-cheon sparkled for a moment.

“We, of course, had no choice but to be interested and wary.”

but······.

“Just because it is the same superiority, it doesn’t mean that the result will also be the same superiority.”

The woman’s eyes, once filled with vigilance, grew cold.

Now, the eyes of the woman looking at Yang Jong-cheon were like those of a mere ‘inanimate object’ or ‘bug’.

And it completely destroyed Yang Jong-cheon’s heart, not to mention trampled it.

“I······ ended up being played into the palm of your hands.”

Yang Jong-cheon muttered in vain, and the woman showed no reaction to him.

And that only made Yang Jong-cheon even more miserable.

“······To you. No, do you even have feelings?”

Confucianism says that humans have four good minds and natures.

First is benevolence, the compassionate heart that feels pity for those in need.

Secondly, there is righteousness, and a sense of shame for unrighteous actions.

Thirdly, courtesy, the humble heart that knows how to yield.

Fourthly, wisdom, the ability to judge right from wrong.

This is the nature that one inevitably possesses as soon as one is born as a human.

It is an innate human emotion that makes even the most brutal murderer hesitate when he sees a newborn baby.

But no trace of human nature could be found in the woman.

Goodness was nowhere to be found, even if you looked hard, and all that existed was indifference, as if emotions had been completely removed.

“Are you even human?”

Yang Jong-cheon didn’t feel like the woman was human at all.

The woman also did not seem to treat Yang Jong-cheon as a human being.

They treated me like a small insect buried in inferiority.

“Have you ever felt this way even once?”

Yang Jong-cheon’s two fists clenched.

“Even at the beginning······ the difference between Cheongwoon and me was clear. I was clearly ahead when it came to starting points.”

That too, by a significant margin.

“But whenever I saw him, for some reason, I didn’t feel like I was ahead at all. I just felt uneasy.”

Whenever he felt anxious, Yang Jong-cheon put in more effort.

In order not to be overtaken, I practiced hard, saving up sleep.

“But no matter how much time you pour in, with that little effort······ have you ever felt like you’re facing a wall that you can never overcome in your entire life?”

It was Yang Jong-cheon’s talent that others looked up to as the genius of the century.

“But have you ever felt that miserable feeling of not having those thoughts?”

However, when standing in front of Cheongun, Yang Jong-cheon was nothing more than an ordinary person.

“It was definitely a starting point where I was way ahead.”

It was a distant distance that could never be caught up to through effort.

“Have you ever felt the feeling of looking at the distance between you and that person that has gradually narrowed?”

Cheongun was following him fiercely, but all Yang Jongcheon could do was just watch quietly.

There was nothing Yang Jong-cheon could do.

“Have you ever suffered from such helplessness?”

Then, in the end, Cheongun overtook Yang Jongcheon.

This time, Yang Jong-cheon had to follow Cheong-un.

“But no matter how much you struggle, no matter how much you throw a tantrum, have you ever felt the futility of never being able to close the gap?”

They also acknowledged a certain degree of gap.

Even though we may not be able to catch up with Cheongun, let’s at least stand in the same position.

Yang Jong-cheon put in so much effort and effort.

“But it was no use. No matter how much I struggled, the gap between us only widened. He wouldn’t even allow me to stand on the same level as him.”

Just one vertex.

At one time, Yang Jong-cheon’s talents, which had conquered the world, were nothing more than those of many geniuses in front of the pinnacle of Cheong-un.

“Have you ever suffered from such a crazy inferiority complex that you feel like your own existence is meaningless, despite your efforts?”

Yang Jong-cheon asked the woman as if he was chewing her.

“no.”

The woman’s answer was innocently monotonous.

However, it has been said that extreme purity is cruelly vicious.

“Because there is no need to understand superiority as inferiority.”

That is evil disguised as purity.

Maybe evil.

It could be seen as such.

“Kekekekekekeke···!!”

Yang Jong-cheon just burst into laughter.

He covered his disheveled hair with one hand and burst into near-mad laughter for a while, like a madman.

The woman stared blankly at Yang Jong-cheon and then opened her mouth.

“But I guess I can be curious.”

The pupils of Yang Jong-cheon’s eyes, seen between his fingers, suddenly distorted.

“Curiosity? What kind of curiosity? Curiosity about why that little thing is wriggling?”

“I am not curious about small things.”

“I’m curious as to why that bug is making such a fuss.”

“I’m not even curious about bugs.”

“Then what the heck is your curiosity!!!”

“You have the same talent as Jang Sam-bong, so much so that you are called the incarnation of Jang Sam-bong.”

Taegeuk limb body.

And the Supreme Ultimate refers to a state where the energy of the five elements is in harmony.

At the same time, it meant the state of being at the center of the opposing paths of Jeong (正) and Ma (魔), which stand at opposite extremes.

A balance that doesn’t lean to either side.

“In other words, it means an ambiguous state.”

“So what do you want me to do? Am I just some mediocre guy who is neither here nor there?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then get out!! I have no curiosity for you guys who are mediocre and inferior!”

“It would have been like that originally, but···.”

The woman continued speaking without blinking an eye.

“I suddenly wondered what would happen if that awkward balance were tilted to one side.”

“······what?”

“The Tai Chi, which is balanced and not biased to either side, contains the power of both extremes.”

This was because when one side became stronger, the other side had to be able to suppress that power.

Only by possessing the power of extremes can one achieve the focus of ‘balance’.

“If we say it the other way around, balance is like ‘suppression.’ So, what would happen if we destroy that balance and make all the extremes lean to one side?”

“Can you handle the extreme power of unbridled force?”

“Yes.”

“···so?”

Yang Jong-cheon continued speaking with a self-mocking smile.

“Does that change my mediocre inferiority? How much power do I have when I am free from those restraints?

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“That’s why I said ‘curiosity’.”

“······.”

“However, there is one thing I can tell you. Jang Sam-bong was called the best in the world at the time due to his restrained power of balance.”

The woman’s emotionless eyes turned to Yang Jong-cheon.

“Would you like to do so?”

And Yang Jong-cheon didn’t give any answer.

The woman did not urge Yang Jong-cheon to speak, and only after some time had passed did Yang Jong-cheon slowly open his mouth.

“······Could it fail?”

“Very likely.”

“Then what happens?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

The woman continued speaking nonchalantly.

“Death.”

And, as expected, there was no particular emotion in the woman’s voice.

“What if I succeed?”

“well······.”

The woman paused for a moment.

And for a while there was no answer as the thought grew longer.

There was silence for a long time, as if he had not even considered the possibility of Yang Jong-cheon succeeding.

It was a really long time ago that I heard a woman’s voice.

“At the moment, the position of the head priest of our school is vacant.”

A small smile suddenly appeared on Yang Jong-cheon’s lips.

“This is······ unexpected.”

“What is surprising?”

“Didn’t you say that you don’t feel sorry or sympathy for things like inferiority?”

“you’re right.”

“But why are you trying to help me?”

“I don’t really intend to help you.”

“Then why are you telling me these things?”

“I think I said it was curiosity.”

“So what kind of curiosity are you talking about?”

“I learned that just because something is superior, it doesn’t mean the result is the same superiority.”

then.

“On the other hand, I was curious about whether inferiority could actually produce superior results.”

Yang Jong-cheon suddenly burst into laughter at the woman’s words.

“Kekekekekekeke…!” Hahahahahahahaha!”

It was a madness that seemed almost madness at first glance.

But the woman didn’t show any particular reaction.

“Would you like to do so?”

The woman simply asked.

“Is there any reason to refuse?”

Yang Jong-cheon simply answered.

* * *

The Taoist said that Yang Jong-cheon had returned.

I ran straight to where Yang Jong-cheon was waiting.

But what I encountered there was not Yang Jong-cheon.

‘Woman······?’

She was also a very rare beauty.

I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I had seen things wrong, but the sight clearly showed that it was a woman.

She was a very pretty woman who would make most men cast a glance at her. Could this woman be Yang Jong-cheon?

‘No way?’

Of course, that couldn’t be the case.

Does it make sense that Yang Jong-cheon, a man, returned as a woman?

Of course, there was a rumor in the world that if you learned the crazy martial arts called Gyuhwabojeon, you could become a woman.

However, this was merely a distorted version of the idea that learning the art of preservation of the sutras would make one impotent.

Well, I heard that if you train in the art of qiuhua preservation, your body will become more delicate and you will become like a woman.

And they say that if you learn to be polar, you will become no different from a woman on the outside, but that doesn’t mean you will become a woman.

It’s more like a sort of ‘neutering’, but the gender isn’t reversed.

······Senior Jong-Ri Kwon said this.

The problem was that Jong-Ri-Kwon wondered how he could know that, but fortunately(?) Jong-Ri-Kwon had not learned the Gyu-Hwa-Bo-Jeon, but his disciple and one of the Eight Immortals, ‘Nam Chae-Hwa’, was the creator of the Gyu-Hwa-Bo-Jeon.

I somehow thought there were various theories about Nam Chae-hwa’s gender, such as whether he was a man, a woman, or a cross-dresser······.

anyway.

Even the gods could not change their gender, which meant that the possibility of Yang Jong-cheon returning as a woman was close to zero.

So, two questions came to my mind about the woman in front of me.

First, what is this woman’s identity?

Secondly······.

‘Is this the right person…?’

For some reason, the woman in front of me didn’t seem like a human being.

Of course, from the looks of it, he was clearly a person.

But why is that?

A face so pale that it looks bloodless.

An expression that shows no emotion.

I couldn’t believe that he was a living person.

Something created to imitate a human being.

It was like looking at a very elaborately crafted ‘doll’.

That’s why I felt creepy whenever I saw the woman. But I didn’t show it at all and asked the woman.

“May I ask who you are? And do you know where Prince Yang is?”

Then the woman’s eyes turned to me.

So, an indifference that seemed to have cut out emotions was directed at me.

Finally, the woman’s small lips opened.

“he is······.”

It was a very clear voice.

If you look only at the beauty contained in her voice, it was elegant and beautiful, something that even Namgung Yerin and Dang So-hyang could not match.

“Now you are with us.”

A voice so dizzying that just hearing it will make your mind wander.

She was capable of being compared to the Nine Heavenly Women.

That’s why.

‘······Not a human.’

That was the moment when I could be certain that this woman was not human.

It wasn’t just because of the woman’s voice.

When the Nine Heavenly Women appeared in person to find me, I could feel an unbearable pressure from her.

Simply put, it is a difference in class.

But a transcendence that cannot be precisely defined.

It could not be felt by other immortals, including Wang Zhongyang.

I only felt this from the immortal Goocheonhyeonnyeo, who was of the level of a saint.

The mysterious and inexplicable feeling and pressure from that time was now flowing out of this woman.

This is······something that humans can never have.

The tension naturally grew tighter. Without realizing it, my right hand went to my waist. I sharpened my sword so that I could pull out the dragon’s tail at any time.

On the other hand, the woman did not show any particular response.

Even though she knew I was reaching out to her, the woman remained defenseless.

If you pull out the dragon’s tail right now, you can decapitate the woman right away.

······But I couldn’t pull it out.

I’m not exactly sure.

Even if he pulled out the dragon’s tail, he had no confidence that he could cut down the woman.

“······Who are you?”

I asked the woman, and her emotionless eyes turned to me.

The woman’s two eyes stared intently at my face. My image was reflected in the woman’s eyes, which contained nothing.

The hand holding the dragon’s tail tightened. I gulped and swallowed my saliva in tension.

“you are······.”

The clear and elegant, alluring voice of a woman gently fell on my ear.

It was a voice that made me feel ecstatic for a moment, but to me, it only made the tension tighten.

“It’s not a star outside the sky.”

Extraordinary?

It was at that very moment that I was tilting my head.

Suddenly.

Suddenly my body froze up.

······I don’t know why.

So there was no basis or certainty.

So, there is a very high probability that it is an illusion.

Still, the alarm bell in my head continued to ring.

So the deadly instinct warns.

‘It’s dangerous.’

······And it’s a different dimension.

“Where is Cheonwiseong now?”

A woman’s question was suddenly heard.

A warning from instinct that rings fiercely in my head.

I swung my dragon fang without delay.