전생검신 83권 04화

[What do you mean by “alliances and strategies”?]

“I’ll tell you in a bit. But first….”

Heuk Woong seemed confused by my words, but instead of answering him directly, I turned to Dongfang Sak, who was eagerly munching on a chicken leg.

“Hey, Dongfang Sak. By the way, do you know how to use martial arts?”

In a short amount of time, Dongfang Sak had devoured more than half of the chicken leg the size of my forearm. He paused, looking puzzled.

“What’s martial arts?”

“Like this.”

I focused my qi and dashed towards a nearby tree, striking it right in the center.

CRACK!!

The tree, hit by my Thunder God Fist, split in half, and I turned to Dongfang Sak and said, “It’s a technique where you gather the energy flowing through nature into your body or weapons to fight, not some divine power used by gods.”

Dongfang Sak, still staring blankly, responded, “I’ve seen a few giant race members doing something similar. And one of my friends uses a technique like that, so I learned a bit too.”

I was shocked by his revelation.

“What!! You know martial arts?!”

“I’ve only learned a few techniques. I’m not that good, but I can effectively use them for self-defense… so you call that martial arts?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then why are you surprised when you asked?”

Dongfang Sak looked perplexed, but honestly, I was the one in disbelief.

‘It’s… at least 30,000 years or more since I lived! This is an ancient era where civilizations like the legendary Memphis and Kalpa existed, without even a trace of modern civilization! Even older than Atlantis! And yet…’

Martial arts exist here?!

While feeling both amazed and oddly happy, I quickly said, “Dongfang Sak! Show me the martial arts you’ve learned!!”

“…Do I have to?”

“Is there a reason not to?”

Though he seemed reluctant, Dongfang Sak pondered for a moment before saying, “The guy who taught me doesn’t usually let me show it to others, but since we’ve decided to become companions, I’ll show you as requested.”

“Well, the secret techniques of one clan shouldn’t be shared…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but just watch. I’m not gonna demonstrate it multiple times because that’s a hassle.”

With that said, Dongfang Sak took a martial stance and prepared the techniques. His stance was far more refined than expected, leaving me genuinely impressed.

‘This isn’t some amateur stuff. He definitely learned from a martial arts master.’

When you reach the absolute realm, you can gauge an opponent’s level just from their tiny movements, breaths, and muscle tics. The difference between what I had seen from Dongfang Sak so far and what he was now showing me was like the heavens and the earth. Just then, Dongfang Sak took a deep breath and his eyes began to shine brightly.

“Huff…!!”

WHOAAA!!

In that moment, it felt as if Dongfang Sak’s entire body was swelling up, and his clothes ripped to shreds. The mighty whirlwind of energy he unleashed was simply too much to handle. The force of his qi escalated rapidly, creating a swirling dragon of energy that began to fill the surroundings.

GRRRR!!!

“What the…?!”

What kind of internal energy is this?!

I realized his internal power was already surpassing the realm of peerless masters from where I came. The level he was currently showing was already multiple times beyond peak experts, reaching comparable levels to Dharma Guardians.

And it didn’t stop there.

Kiiing –

Light began to seep from Dongfang Sak’s meridians as if human skin was transforming into a shell, flooding the area with a luminous breath. The flow of this light momentarily surged, amplifying the qi by several times, as if this was just the beginning.

BOOM!

The overwhelming energy flow caused debris to float in the air, and explosions rang out. The dragon he had created multiplied into dozens, and his power was still rising. I was momentarily speechless by the awe-inspiring sight.

‘Could it be that…’

After a moment, it seemed his energy reached its peak. Dongfang Sak let out a roar and charged forward.

“Fist Smash – !!”

BANG!!

CRACK!

When Dongfang Sak struck the mountainside, the immense power he had gathered in his fist caused a massive crater in the ground. A light tremor shook the landscape, causing all flora around to sway. The ground he struck completely collapsed as if a meteor had hit, leaving a distinct mark behind. Dongfang Sak stood back up, scratching his head.

“Uh, is that enough?”

“Hmm, sufficient… huh?”

I blinked in shock, staring at Dongfang Sak.

“Wait, were you a girl?!”

His shredded upper clothing revealed enough to give it away! While not overly large, there was surely nothing about his chest that could be described as masculine, and as I gasped in disbelief, Dongfang Sak responded in a teasing tone, “Well, get me some new clothes, why don’t ya? This is why I didn’t want to use martial arts… Every time I gather my energy, my clothes get ripped apart.”

“…”

I had suspected something odd about his androgynous appearance, but I honestly didn’t think he was a girl. It seemed his voice had confused me as well, allowing me to miss the signs until now.

As I silently created and handed Dongfang Sak some new attire, he began to dress up while continuing, “The martial techniques I know are Fist Smash, Kicking, and Running. I’ve managed to do quite a lot with just those three while traveling the world.”

Fist Smash is clearly a fist technique, Kicking would be a leg technique, and Running is the light body technique.

Pondering Dongfang Sak’s words, I asked, “But how come I couldn’t feel your qi until now? How the heck were you hiding it?”

This was truly strange. I regarded him suspiciously and continued, “…You seem unable to use intent either.”

“Intent?”

“…”

Though Dongfang Sak just demonstrated that outrageous internal power capable of caving in mountains, I could see it was ridiculously weak by my standards.

‘If I unleashed the same level of power, I could comfortably achieve at least ten times its destructive capacity.’

However, all he had done was swing his qi without any modification. It was evident that Dongfang Sak had no clue about martial arts at all, as well as lacking any skills in intent. Amplifying the strength of qi using intent provides unimaginable enhancement, something he seemed completely oblivious to. He likely hadn’t even grasped the concept of intent itself.

However, that was extraordinarily odd. While it’s common for powerful masters to hide their true abilities, they’re all adept at using intent, allowing them to mask their internal power. Concealing immense internal power while lacking understanding of intent essentially rendered it impossible under normal circumstances.

As I found myself in utter confusion, Dongfang Sak then spoke up.

“I see what you mean. You want to know why I hide my power?”

“…I guess that’s one way to put it.”

He looked a bit melancholic as he explained, “There was a time I tried using this power to challenge gods. But while I could defeat weaker ones, the truly strong ones didn’t even budge. Plus, if gods think you might have potential, they’ll do whatever it takes to recruit you, so it made more sense to just hide my strength.”

“…?”

“So, most of the time, my power remains completely concealed. I only tap into it when I want to, drawing from these hidden pathways.”

He split his power into pathways?

What does that even mean?

No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Eventually, I inched closer to Dongfang Sak and asked, “Can I check your pulse at your wrist?”

“Go ahead.”

Swoosh!

I infused qi into Dongfang Sak’s body. As I examined his internal energy while taking his pulse, I was taken aback.

“…?!”

H-Holy cow…

There are… over a hundred dantians?!

‘N-No! Not dantians… He’s intentionally coiling the meridians and blood vessels together, creating something that mimics dantians! But even if he pulls that off, the speed at which qi accumulates is dozens of times slower, and the transmission speed for power would be too slow to matter…?!’

If he were to pull off such a thing, enhancing the meridians heavily and tuning them would make him far stronger in practice by tens of times!

“Hundreds of faux dantians…”

But eventually, I realized I was wasting my breath worrying. Because when I measured the quantity of internal power stored in those hundreds of faux dantians, I quickly realized that each of them held amounts far exceeding any typical absolute realm master.

In other words… Dongfang Sak has… more internal power than a hundred absolute realm masters combined.

“…”

W-Wow… that’s theoretically possible.

I would tend to toss away elixirs or anything that boosts internal power once my training level peaked because after reaching perfection, I couldn’t absorb more than 100 of it. Even a treasure that boosts by a million amounts wouldn’t add anything to my perfected system, so wasting time to gather it was pointless.

But Dongfang Sak was different. He had spent his time foolishly creating these faux dantians and, after their creation, let it build up at a snail’s pace until it became so saturated, it adjusted to such immense consumption requirements. Over countless years, the efficiency of his internal power had likely evolved, enlarging the very vessel for it thousands of times over!

As I came to that realization, I struggled to keep my mouth shut.

“…”

Just when I was lost for words, I finally steeled myself and asked, “Dongfang Sak… just how old are you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve lived a long time though.”

“No… not like that…”

It’s unimaginable. Even creating just ten of those faux dantians would mean investing hundreds of years in cultivation. The time it would take to refine and gather compressed internal power until it exceeded what had been amassed over a peerless master’s lifetime would indeed take many, many times longer.

I could confidently say that Dongfang Sak had likely lived beyond ten thousand years already.

In utter awe, I could only mumble, “Let’s go see Fuxi together for a sec.”

Zap!

I used the dimension door Heuk Woong had made to take Dongfang Sak to Fuxi as I quickly said, “Fuxi, can you check Dongfang Sak’s age?”

Fuxi, who was sitting in a gazebo admiring the scenery, turned to look at me.

“Hmm? Quite sudden, isn’t it?”

“I just have to know. Please…”

“Alright, that’s manageable.”

With a snap, Fuxi unfurled a fan and unleashed divine arts. Mystical characters shone with a white radiance, momentarily wrapping around Dongfang Sak. Fuxi, who had been eyes closed, finally spoke.

“Currently, Dongfang Sak is 78,923 years old by human standards. Does that answer your question?”

“…?!”

W-What did you just say?!

I couldn’t hide my surprise as I exclaimed, “Fuxi!! Can a human live that long?!”

“What do you think it means to send away the registrar of the underworld and their bailiffs? You may not know how things were in your time, but in this era, if a human can resist the call of the underworld, they won’t die. And since Dongfang Sak has repeatedly escaped the calls from the underworld, he could easily live that long.”

“A-Ah, still, what about the lifespan of a living being…”

“Wouldn’t that be extended infinitely by the immense power of qi he possesses? Doesn’t seem too strange to me…”

“…”

When I was left speechless, Heuk Woong mumbled beside me.

[The title Three Thousand Years was quite literal after all.]

“B-But… does that even make sense?!”

I am in disbelief.

Dongfang Sak might really be the first human to live for three thousand years.

As I stood there dumbfounded, Heuk Woong glanced at Dongfang Sak before asking, [Dongfang Sak, what happened to the one who taught you those martial arts?]

“He died long ago.”

[I see. Did he also teach you how to create those faux dantians?]

“No, not at all…”

Dongfang Sak looked nostalgic as he recalled, “He did say I would live for a very long time, so I thought about how to kill time and decided to create them.”

[Interesting… A mindset with no intent to become strong from the start. But that’s precisely what allowed you to cultivate beyond common sense.]

After a brief sigh, Heuk Woong spoke to me.

[Master, do you see it now?]

“…Yeah.”

Even without Heuk Woong saying it, I understood.

Dongfang Sak’s method presented to me a brand new way of strengthening through martial arts.

By investing an outrageous amount of time into creating numerous faux dantians, he fundamentally expanded his internal power capacity by thousands of times!

If I were to reach the same level of internal power as Dongfang Sak’s, I could undoubtedly defeat even the Master of the White Lotus Sect in internal power combat!

‘Can I really do that?’

Dongfang Sak is already nearing 80,000 years old, and I can’t even guess how many thousands of years he has spent training. Compared to him, I have barely lived a thousand years, and my training time falls short. It’s clear that becoming just like Dongfang Sak will be incredibly difficult, no matter how reincarnated I am.

But…

Fists clenched tightly, I smiled broadly.

“Somehow… I feel like I can do it.”

Why am I so happy?

I want to grow stronger through martial arts.

No matter how outlandish the goal seems, I am ready to move mountains like the Foolish Old Man.

Now that I’ve learned something new, I exclaimed joyfully, “Let’s head back to Takrok Village!”

Zap!

I brought Heuk Woong and Dongfang Sak along to Takrok Village. As soon as we arrived, I called out to Subori and the Thief Gang, who had been waiting for us.

“Did you have a good trip?”

“Lord, do you have something to say…?”

“…”

I surveyed the crowd of my companions and quietly said, “Let Yeolsan, Cheongyang, and Sang Ah from outside come in.”

Swipe!

Yeolsan, Cheongyang, and Sang Ah walked into the village hut. Yeolsan sported a slightly embarrassed expression as he said, “I thought you were trying to ditch us!”

“Don’t worry, I had no intention of doing that.”

I gazed around the room and turned my hands to create space manifesting the Trimurti.

[Creating a space undetected!]

Vwoooom!

With this, I assumed even Shennong couldn’t eavesdrop on us, and I finally spoke.

“Now, I will share what we’re going to do moving forward.”

“Please tell us.”

“I thank you all for extending and training the village up to this point. However, soon Shennong will challenge the emperor to rescue the girl, and during that time, a great war among the gods is expected. If this continues, we stand a high chance of getting entangled in that fight!”

Murmurs of shock filled the air…

My words astonished everyone except Heuk Woong and Dongfang Sak. After all, anyone here understood what kind of implications the battle between Shennong and the Emperor would have. Subori seemed a bit flustered as he spoke.

“Doesn’t that mean big trouble? Ultimately, Shennong will likely demand your participation as well. Even if you rejected him once, he certainly won’t allow a second refusal this time!”

“I’m aware. That’s why I’ve been thinking about alliances.”

“Alliance…?! An alliance means the smaller nations banding together against the larger, and the reverse also holds true. But in this situation, which side are you considering as the smaller nation and which as the larger?”

“…”

“No matter how I think about it, in this chaotic reality with the Emperor of Chaos and the Three Sovereigns, there’s no way to determine a clear larger or smaller nation here; their strengths are nearly equal; hence an alliance strategy won’t have any gap to work with.”

Subori voiced his doubts, and I calmly replied.

“I see it differently. There may be two opposing forces in this conflict, but it’s not limited to just those two, right?”

“…?”

Though Subori seemed a bit baffled, surprisingly, the Thief Gang grasped my meaning.

With bright eyes, they chimed in, “…My Lord, you’re considering drawing in other gods, aren’t you?”

“Exactly.”

I grinned and finally revealed my main point.

“The three great gods from Kalpa and Osiris’s Divine Temple currently in Memphis, as well as any other powerful figures we can bring in.”

“How do you plan to draw them in? Those beings typically despise getting involved with others’ affairs…”

“The girl.”

“…!!”

“The immortality power she possesses, and the fact that during this battle, one of the Three Sovereigns or the Three Great Gods will attain immortality; I will make sure to inform every god about its significance. Then everyone will want to get involved, even if none among them could outperform the Three Sovereigns or the Three Great Gods…”

Subori sighed in response, already catching on to my intentions.

“That would mean an alliance has been formed to prevent a full-frontal confrontation with the Three Sovereigns and the Three Great Gods!!”

“Precisely.”

“You have a sharp mind. A thought that I couldn’t come up with right away… But will this be alright?”

“What do you mean by alright?”

“This strategy will surely provoke Fuxi’s backlash. Fuxi is currently one of your greatest supporters, and taking such a drastic approach…”

“I don’t care.”

I firmly declared.

“If it prevents a rampage from the Divine Kings, I’m sure Fuxi would understand!”

Actually, I had no confidence that she would.

But I wanted to find out.

What kind of reaction would Fuxi have if I acted so freely?

“`

 

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