Chapter 258 (1/2)

Act 8

Pow—

Split—!

A Ruyi Jingu Bang flying in at his face shattered into bits, and Su-hyeun’s fist accurately slammed into Sun Wukong’s solar plexus.

Pang—!

Sun Wukong’s clone made a small exploding noise and disappeared from the spot. Almost at the same time, a massive shadow loomed over Su-hyeun’s head.

Gu-wu-wung—!

It was yet another Ruyi Jingu Bang—this time, in its gigantic form.

However, the descending pole never touched the ground. Sun Wukong’s clone that enlarged the Ruyi Jingu Bang was really stunned by what happened, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

“Oh?”

Squeeeeze—

Such strength was capable of lifting the pole from below; even if the Ruyi Jingu Bang was a fake, Su-hyeun still managed to raise it up.

Fuu-wuph—!

Whoosh—

Su-hyeun grabbed the Ruyi Jingu Bang with both hands and swung it as hard as he could.

Fwhoooosh—!

The fake Ruyi Jingu Bang and Sun Wukong’s clone were flung into the distant skies. At the same time, the spear Su-hyeun was carrying rapidly flew toward the flying target.

Swhoosh—!

Shatter—

The Ruyi Jingu Bang was shattered once more. Sun Wukong’s clone also disappeared with a hole in its chest.

Su-hyeun let out a lengthy, fatigued breath after defeating Sun Wukong’s fifth clone.

Fuu-wu-wu—

That went on for over half a day.

As for the real Sun Wukong, he was leisurely riding on his Somersault Cloud high up in the sky, just spectating on the battles taking place below.

All the battles had been fought with his clones so far. The total number of clones surrounding Su-hyeun at the moment was 10.

“This really is a cheat.”

To think that every single clone carried Sun Wukong’s treasured magic tool, the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

It seemed that aside from his body, all the items in contact with the said body could be copied at will. Since the pole was fake like the clones, its hardness fell far behind the real thing, but it worked perfectly well as a combat weapon despite its shortcoming.

“You know the basics of fighting, at least. I guess your win against Nezha wasn’t a fluke after all,” Sun Wukong spoke.

The sparring session had already lasted over half a day. Sun Wukong observed Su-hyeun with mystified eyes as the latter continued to fight against his clones.

The first-ever human to be accepted as a sworn brother by himself and the Bull Demon King. He initially thought of Su-hyeun as nothing more than a pretty strong human, but such a guy still went on to defeat Prince Nezha in the end.

“Also, the power he wields…”

At a casual glance, that energy seemed similar to the “Dao energy” Sun Wukong practiced in.

Other than the low concentration and the impurities mixed within, the reserve itself was more than enough. And with Su-hyeun now mastering the breathing technique, those impurities were quickly being filtered out, and that energy was getting far purer now.

“What an interesting guy he is.”

Sun Wukong, who was watching the proceedings while resting his chin on his hand, suddenly got up and lightly leaped off from the Somersault Cloud.

He descended for dozens upon dozens of meters, but his feet didn’t make any noise as he landed on the ground like he merely weighed a feather.

Su-hyeun, who was breathing heavily as he kept on sparring with the clones, stopped and stared at Sun Wukong.

“So? How was it? Fighting without relying on any other energy has been a while for you, right?” the latter asked.

“Well, it hasn’t been that long, but yes.”

Sweat poured out of his body like a torrential rainstorm, but that didn’t mean Su-hyeun felt completely exhausted at the moment.

That was all thanks to the great reserve of the magical energy remaining in his body. Even if he didn’t rely on it, that energy still continued to supply vitality to its master’s physique.

“Nonetheless…I do feel a little different from the past.”

This wouldn’t be the first time he didn’t rely on magical energy and fought with only his bare fists since he became an awakener. Back when his strength stat had experienced a sudden increase, he took a day out to test his new limits and fought like today.

If there was one thing different, then his current opponents were far stronger than that day.

Perhaps that was why sudden thoughts of saying, “I’m tired,” popped in his head often. Despite that, the confidence of knowing that he could still keep going took over his entire body.

“It’s really effective.”

Su-hyeun sat down on the spot and regulated his breathing for a little while.

The sparring session had been taking place for the past few days. Initially, he wondered about the purpose of doing this, but after one day, he definitely sensed overall improvements.

The effect of the breathing technique didn’t simply stop at reducing his consumption of magical energy.

The breathing technique—arguably the beginning and the end of the Sage Art itself—enhanced the purity of Su-hyeun’s magical energy. Simply put, it served the role of extracting impurities from his body.

To deplete his stamina right down to the absolute limits while using the magical energy that filled his body and expel the impurities along with his fatigued breathing—those were the initial goals of this training.

“The magical energy feels far purer than ever before. And also…”

Once some of his stamina returned, Su-hyeun got up and raised his fist.

“Oh, really?” Sun Wukong smirked at Su-hyeun’s attempt to provoke him. “You wanna have a go?”

“Thank you in advance for your guidance.”

“Guidance? You want me to teach you?”

“Yes.”

“You know, you really know how to say all the right things. And very politely, too. Alright, then. Allow me to teach you a few things today.”

Sun Wukong put his dukes up and lightly moved his feet.

His actions were definitely light yet fast.

However, it didn’t feel like he was in a rush or anything.

“Is this what he meant back then by saying I’m in a rush?” Su-hyeun thought.

The Bull Demon King told Su-hyeun to learn to be more patient and relaxed.

At first, he didn’t really get it. But now, he knew—being strong meant you could easily be broken, but being malleable would mean you would bend instead.

Ta-ahk—, paaang—!

Sun Wukong’s fist slammed into empty air, while the other fist landed in his opponent’s palm.

Defending and dodging repeated themselves. It certainly had been a while since Su-hyeun didn’t rely on his weapons and fought bare-handed, but even with that excuse, Sun Wukong was still too strong for him to do anything at the moment.

Pant, pant—

After sparring for about an hour…

Su-hyeun was lying spread-eagled on the ground. He didn’t even have enough energy left to lift a finger.

Despite that, he felt great. Sun Wukong laid down on top of the Somersault Cloud and waited for Su-hyeun to recover.

“I’ll be in your care again.”

After resting for 10 minutes or so, Su-hyeun got up from his spot. Without saying anything, Sun Wukong continued to spar with him. Such a routine repeated itself over the day, and then, another five days went by like that.

“I can see them.”

Su-hyeun began thinking that his spar against Sun Wukong was much more doable now compared to the beginning. Little by very little, he could now see Sun Wukong’s movements.

The punches he found so hard to follow on the first day were now so much clearer for him to see.

“Dodge, then…”

Unhurriedly…

Rustle—

Sun Wukong’s fist brushed past Su-hyeun’s head. That punch came across as much, much slower than all of Sun Wukong’s movements up until now.