Sword God Reborn

Chapter 192 : Should I call you grandpa?

The Poison Demon was already old during the Righteous-Demonic War.

He was about fifty then, so he must be well over a hundred now.

In fact, it was not that martial artists necessarily lived long.

'That is defying heaven.'

Cheon Mubaeck had felt it while living countless lives.

That people had a set lifespan.

But a martial artist who had reached a sublime realm could forcibly suppress it with his internal energy and extend the lifespan set by heaven.

The Poison Demon had defied heaven.

When his dantian was broken and his internal energy disappeared, he could not endure. His skin dried up and gradually crumbled and tore like powder.

Everything that had been forcibly blocked with internal energy was disappearing.

Cheon Mubaeck was lost in thought as he looked at the scene.

'What did you endure without dying to achieve?'

The process of defying heaven was painful. Cheon Mubaeck knew because he had also experienced it.

But many masters performed the act of defying heaven without hesitation.

Perhaps the reason was simply that they did not want to die. Although it was an emotion that Cheon Mubaeck could not understand.

But a master of that level would hold on because he was sorry for the passing time, because he had something he had not achieved.

For the Poison Demon...

"The Demonic Path world must have been your value."

He did not know the reason.

He was an old man who was born in the Demonic Path, had lived in the Demonic Path, and had harbored the will of the Demonic Path.

There was no reason for Cheon Mubaeck to know, and he did not need to know.

But, the words that the Poison Demon had said did not leave Cheon Mubaeck's mind.

"The sky blocks the Demonic Path world?"

How could that be? To the sky, the Demonic Path, the Orthodox Path, and the Unorthodox Alliance would all look like a play of the masses.

Would the sky particularly hate the Demonic Path?

It was not that he could not understand that emotion.

"Unfortunately, I have blocked it all."

Cheon Mubaeck could not help but let out a hollow laugh. It was truly a coincidence that Cheon Mubaeck had always blocked the decisive moment when a Demonic Path world could have been achieved.

Was there a special reason for that?

'Because the Demonic Path guys were strong. The most.'

That was it.

Then and now, Cheon Mubaeck did not doubt that a sword had to be soaked in blood to grow. To him, a life-and-death battle with the strong was indispensable.

To reach the sword's edge that Cheon Mubaeck was heading for.

'There is always an obstacle to a goal.'

Cheon Mubaeck had thought that the obstacle in this life was the Demonic Path that he had not been able to finish in his previous life. These things, represented by the Blood Demon Valley.

But he thought carefully.

'Are those mere things really my obstacle?'

In every reincarnation, Cheon Mubaeck had cleared all the obstacles.

He had eliminated, trampled, and broken them.

And yet, the reincarnation had repeated.

Cheon Mubaeck had been reborn into countless new lives.

Then were the obstacles just these damn Demonic Path guys?

"...Perhaps,"

Cheon Mubaeck's thoughts stopped there.

He felt a presence.

When he turned his head, Neung-heo was slowly coming out, holding Soyong in his arms.

"Lord..."

Cheon Mubaeck let out a hollow laugh as he saw the confused emotion on Neung-heo's face.

'He heard everything.'

It was a funny thing.

Cheon Mubaeck, who had lived countless reincarnations, had confessed his secret to an acquaintance, although it was extremely rare.

Of course, those were the most trustworthy people.

Whether they believed it or not was not important.

At that time, if Cheon Mubaeck had not said so, the lump in his chest would have come to him as a three-demon.

Perhaps it was the same now.

But the guy who had heard it was not Cheon Yuhwa, nor Cheon Mungyeong.

That Neung-heo.

Cheon Mubaeck laughed because it was so absurd.

"Whether you believe it or not is up to you. Think as you please."

"Somehow, I thought it wasn't just once or twice that you seemed like an old man in a young body."

Neung-heo's reaction was surprisingly calm. But since it was a very Neung-heo-like appearance, Cheon Mubaeck somehow felt at ease.

"Well, I've only lived one life, so I don't know. Just think of it comfortably. Wouldn't it be more comfortable to think that you have countless opportunities, since every martial artist wants the peak of martial arts? Of course, I'm just saying this because I don't know the situation well... well, it's just like that."

Although it was a casual remark, Cheon Mubaeck nodded his head silently.

It was not a very helpful statement.

Because the weight of the life that Cheon Mubaeck had lived was so enormous that the lump would be released with just one such statement.

But that alone was enough.

"You bastard. Did you learn some ink somewhere? You speak quite plausibly."

"Hehehe. So let's just live roughly. Huh?"

At Cheon Mubaeck's blunt words, Neung-heo smiled as if the atmosphere had loosened.

He felt as if his strength had drained away.

The Poison Demon was dead, and the Blood Demon Valley was also dealt with.

The Blood Demon Valley in Zhejiang Province was as good as annihilated. Because the Sword Empress and the Yugeom Emperor would be killing the rest.

Cheon Mubaeck had caught the Poison Demon, and had achieved the goal of annihilating the Blood Demon Valley in Zhejiang Province in one go.

Now what was left was the sacred object. Cheon Mubaeck looked at Soyong, who was in Neung-heo's arms.

"Ah, then should I call you grandpa? Grandpa Cheon Mubaeck?"

At the sound of 'grandpa', goosebumps rose all over his body and he reacted automatically.

It was a truly rare thing.

Cheon Mubaeck had an experience that he had only had a few times in all his reincarnations, where his hand had moved before his thoughts.

Peok!

"You're really asking for a beating..."

He was a great guy in many ways. That's for sure.

* * *

"Grandpa!"

Fortunately, the terrible title had not come from Neung-heo.

It was Soyong.

She was a truly strange child. No matter how the world around her flowed, the child's eyes were innocent.

It was understandable why people who did not know her well would say that she was like a fairy.

"Hehehe. As expected, kids learn quickly. I guess you shouldn't speak carelessly in front of kids. Look at her, she's repeating the joke I made."

Had he grown fond of Soyong while running away?

Neung-heo, who was looking at Soyong, had the expression of a foolish old man who had seen a late-born child.

As if he found her so cute that he could die.

But Cheon Mubaeck did not just find her cute like Neung-heo.

The moment he met her innocent gaze, Cheon Mubaeck felt a strong shock.

'She's not repeating Neung-heo's words.'

Soyong had literally called him grandpa.

The child was not looking at his outward appearance.

She was looking at his inner self.

She was looking straight at the sublime reincarnation of hundreds, thousands of years, not the young Cheon Mubaeck of twenty.

Cheon Mubaeck swallowed a groan.

'Well, it's as if she's holding the power of the Five Sacred Objects in a human body.'

Of course, it was Cheon Mubaeck who had absorbed the immortal energy of the two Five Sacred Objects, the Primordial Root Scripture and the Divine Spirit Talisman.

But immortal energy was a different matter from internal energy.

Internal energy was accumulated in the body. If a person's body was torn or broken, and became powder, it would return to nature.

But immortal energy was imbued in the spirit.

Even if Cheon Mubaeck's body was torn and broken, it would not disappear.

Immortal energy was not accumulated. It was with the spirit.

So it was impossible to use immortal energy to perform a physical act of destroying something like internal energy.

But Cheon Mubaeck had obtained the good fortune of manifesting the immortal energy through his middle dantian, and because of that, he had reached the only realm where he could closely connect his upper and lower dantians.

The immortal energy of the Five Sacred Objects that had been absorbed into Cheon Mubaeck's spirit was only being manifested in a very small part through his middle dantian.

To manifest all of it was impossible for a human body.

It was because he was the great Cheon Mubaeck that the improvisation using his middle dantian had worked.

'But this child, the immortal energy contained in her spirit is flowing out through her eyes.'

Innocent eyes that seemed to suck you in just by looking at them.

If Cheon Mubaeck manifested the immortal energy through his middle dantian, the child did it through her eyes.

He did not know if it was intentional or if it had happened naturally.

Only one thing was certain.

'To the child, it is a curse.'

To see through the truth and the truth that others could not see.

That was not necessarily a good thing.

Because it meant that she had to see the cruel and terrible thoughts and facts that a person could not accept.

Not only would her body collapse from the immortal energy, but the child's soul would also be greatly wounded.

'Jongri Hong must have tried to put this immortal energy into a sacred object through some technique.'

But Cheon Mubaeck shook his head.

The Five Sacred Objects were the Five Sacred Objects from the beginning. They were vessels that were made to contain immortal energy in the first place.

No matter what object he brought, no matter how many miraculous Taoist objects he brought, they could not become a vessel to contain the child's immortal energy.

'Then what about my spirit?'

Cheon Mubaeck looked straight into the child's eyes.

The child tilted her head as if she were confused about something.

'My spirit is strong and tough.'

It was not just that of a superman.

Hundreds, thousands.

Honed and tempered through all the adversities and hardships, evil deeds and good deeds of countless repeated reincarnations.

As tough as steel that would never tear, and as hard as any metal in the world.

'I am the vessel. The only one.'

Cheon Mubaeck's gaze devoured Soyong's innocent eyes.

A whole day passed.

Cheon Mubaeck rummaged through all the knowledge in his head.

He compiled all the experience and knowledge accumulated over countless reincarnations.

The task of transferring the immortal energy imbued in the child's spirit to his own vessel.

A method that was not written in any document, any record, any secret manual.

Cheon Mubaeck's brain spun fiercely. He constantly contemplated and thought, and dug into and dug into countless pieces of knowledge.

He even dug into the memories, truths, and knowledge of the ancient times that had now disappeared and been forgotten.

In the end, Cheon Mubaeck found the answer.

The unity of self and things.

The thing and I, nature and the body, the objective and the subjective, the material and the spiritual, all blend together and become one.

Cheon Mubaeck's spirit and Soyong's spirit meeting as spirits, leaving the body.

It was an abstract concept.

But Cheon Mubaeck knew how to achieve the unity of self and things.

It was meditation and the concentration that reached a state of no-thought.

Although an ordinary person could not even try or think of it, Cheon Mubaeck could.

The upper dantian, which was drawing out all its potential with the Heaven-Shaking Soul Art, made it possible.

But even if one reached the state of the unity of self and things, it was not an easy task to meet as a spirit, crossing the body, with a person who had a high-dimensional mind, not just a mere object.

But Cheon Mubaeck and Soyong had the common point of immortal energy.

The immortal energy, an unprecedented and incomprehensible power, moved more actively and shone when it reached the unity of self and things.

As a result, Cheon Mubaeck could directly see and feel Soyong's spirit.

And even the pure white energy that was imbued in that spirit.

Cheon Mubaeck was not impatient. He just stayed still. At that, Cheon Mubaeck's immortal energy and Soyong's immortal energy became entangled with each other.

How much time had passed?

The immortal energy that had been imbued in Soyong's spirit gradually moved over to Cheon Mubaeck.

Perhaps it was a natural thing.

Because he had seen Cheon Mubaeck's soul, not the child's small soul.

A wider, stronger, and tougher soul.

A strong vessel that had not collapsed even in countless repeated reincarnations.

Cheon Mubaeck just stayed still. He did not particularly guide it.

'If this is the flow and fate.'

Then it was something that would happen naturally.

Cheon Mubaeck was silent and waited.

And the moment the waiting ended.

Flash!

A blue light poured out from Cheon Mubaeck's wide-open eyes.

* * *

He opened his eyes.

When the unity of self and things ended, Soyong fell asleep as she was.

The sickly color that had been on her face had disappeared. It was a face that was sleeping peacefully, smiling.

Cheon Mubaeck turned his head.

Was the dawn breaking? The sky that looked faintly bright.

No, it was a delusion.

The sky was dark. The moon was still up, it was dark, and he could not see an inch in front of him.

It should have been.

But...

"I can see."

"Lord, is it all over now? Why are you meditating for so long, holding hands with each other? I thought you had fallen asleep."

Neung-heo, who had been on guard, rushed over.

He could see.

Although the original Cheon Mubaeck had eyes that could pierce the darkness, he had to enhance his vision with his internal energy.

But now Cheon Mubaeck had pierced the darkness without using even a handful of his internal energy.

He had not just pierced it.

Depending on Cheon Mubaeck's emotions, the light and dark became clear and blurred.

Not only that.

The distance to the opponent, near and far. The perspective became clear in his mind through his eyes. It was a three-dimensional eye, as if a bird flying in the sky were looking down from above.

It was not just a simple perspective, but it was as if the positions of everything in all directions, centered on Cheon Mubaeck, could be seen and felt.

And finally.

'So this is what you were looking at.'

Cheon Mubaeck looked at Soyong's sleeping face.

The green light that appeared beyond her face.

And the intense red light that could be seen beyond Neung-heo's face.

'...Is it the difference between comfort and impatience?'

He could see.

The opponent's emotions.

The psychology that the opponent was harboring.

Cheon Mubaeck, without realizing it, smiled.

"What should I call this?"

The eye that sees day and night, near and far, and space is the heavenly eye, and the eye that sees through the essence is the wisdom eye.

Then what is the eye that has both?

"Should I call it the immortal eye?"

The immortal energy that had come over from Soyong had not formed a band in his middle dantian like the previous Five Sacred Objects. It had just been imbued in Cheon Mubaeck's spirit, and had only revealed itself through his eyes.

That was the immortal eye.

"Why are you talking about such incomprehensible things again?"

Neung-heo said bluntly.

But what appeared on his face next was a green light.

It had changed from impatience to comfort.

"Were you worried, unlike yourself?"

"Worried, you say. Would I have worried about my lord? I was worried about the baby. Fortunately, she seems comfortable, so I'm at ease too."

This was an amazing power.

A fight was psychology. It was not decided by simple martial arts. Even if one's martial arts were lacking, if one could see through the opponent's psychology, one would know the flow of the battle.

Cheon Mubaeck had come to have eyes that others could not see.

Cheon Mubaeck, who was in a good mood, jumped up from his seat.

"Well, let's go out to meet them now."

"Meet them?"

"That old hag, the Sword Empress, is coming with a momentum as if she's going to eat me up."

Cheon Mubaeck smiled.

Now, shall we slowly wrap things up?

(End of Chapter)