Chapter 276 (1/2)
Cruuuch—
Shatter!
The giant golden palm descending on Su-hyeun’s head shattered into many pieces and began falling to the ground.
Bang, thud—!
Each of the shattered pieces was bigger than Su-hyeun’s body, yet he didn’t care whether or not they were falling near where he was standing and simply pulled out another spear.
The Jade Emperor frowned deeply at the pain coming from his hand. Since he controlled this technique through his physical body, there was little he could do about sharing some of the pain when the palm was damaged.
But that wasn’t what the emperor was shocked about.
“He attacked the Gyeol,” he realized.
Su-hyeun’s spear accurately pierced through the palm’s Gyeol.
That Gyeol caused cracks to form on the palm, so in the end, only a small amount of impact was needed to bring about a much bigger result. This wasn’t something someone could pull off without having a good deal of familiarity in seeing and cutting Gyeol down.
Shu-wuwu—
“He even opened his Sage’s Eye, too?”
The Jade Emperor discovered the bluish light gleaming within Su-hyeun’s eyes.
The Sage’s Eye—the eyes of a sage that allowed one to see through the truth of the world.
Since the human didn’t start mastering the Sage Arts a long time ago, it could only mean that he managed to gain enlightenment on both the Sage’s Eye and the Gyeol in the past half a year.
“During the battle half a year ago, never mind the Sage’s Eye, he could barely maintain the basic breathing technique,” he thought.
The Jade Emperor did witness Su-hyeun’s battle with Prince Nezha back then. And that’s when he realized that the human had only started mastering the Sage Art, so the level of shock the emperor felt right now was indescribable.
“He’s too dangerous.”
Only half a year. Even to a human capable of living only for 100 years, that length of time wasn’t all that long.
He needed only half a year to reach this level, so what about 10 years later? Maybe becoming a Taoist god with a mere human’s body wouldn’t be an impossibility anymore.
“It seems that I must get rid of you today.”
CLAP—
Go-ooooh—
The Jade Emperor clapped his hands loudly, and a golden aura suddenly enveloped his surroundings.
[Tathagatha Buddha—Union with God]
“The Jade Emperor’s aura has changed,” Su-hyeun observed.
For the first time, Su-hyeun, as he gripped the spear in his left hand, became wary of the Jade Emperor.
The strange aura coming from the emperor became just a bit clearer. Not only that, but Su-hyeun could also sense danger from the old man.
“It’s as if he’s become a completely different existence.”
The sense of presence the Jade Emperor emitted bore down heavily on Su-hyeun’s entire body. His hand gripped the spear even harder than before from this powerful sensation.
Right after that…
Paaa-aang—!
The Jade Emperor’s illusory punch flew toward Su-hyeun.
**
Drip, driiip—
Kkeuh… Kkeu-uh-euh…
Blood that was leaking out from a torso with all four limbs torn off was forming a deep pool on the ground.
It would only be normal to die from such grievous wounds, yet the Snub-nosed Monkey Spirit King was still clinging on to life. Rather cruelly, the Bull Demon King was torturing him just enough to not let him die.
That’s how deep the Bull Demon King’s understanding of the subject was—how to not kill the Monkey Spirit King but still inflict the maximum amount of pain and let him slowly wither away while regretting everything he did.
“Tsk. He passed out,” the Bull Demon King muttered softly when the Monkey Spirit King no longer screamed. He then shifted his attention away. “I’m sure he’ll wake up if I wait for a little.”
His voice didn’t contain any notable emotions, yet Erlang Shen felt nasty goosebumps breaking out all over his body as he listened to the Bull Demon King from the side.
As the Heavenly World’s general, he thought he had witnessed all sorts of unimaginable things throughout his battle-filled life. He saw countless bloodletting and enough corpses to last a lifetime and then some.
However, never did he feel this much icy chill running down his spine like right now.
“Ah, looks like I must apologize to you. I’ve forgotten that you were with us all this time, Erlang Shen.”
“…Actually, I’d have preferred that you kept forgetting about me.”
The Bull Demon King laughed at that. “You don’t have to be on guard like that. The only one I will kill today is this one over here, after all. By the way…” The Bull Demon King shifted his gaze to the Jade Emperor who had appeared not too long ago to start fighting Su-hyeun and then asked Erlang Shen, “Looks like you aren’t all that interested in that battle over there.”
“…”
Erlang Shen couldn’t bring himself to answer right away.
What the Bull Demon King said just then should be the truth, for someone infinitely close to becoming a Taoist God wouldn’t lie.
Even if Erlang Shen chose to interfere in that battle and help the Jade Emperor out, the Bull Demon King wouldn’t do anything.
Despite knowing that…
“Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven, I don’t think I can do that because I fear you.”
Honestly, he felt this was for the best.
The Bull Demon King seemed to have seen through Erlang Shen’s mind. “What are you thinking?”
“I’ve never been a fan, you see.”
Clank—
The guandao had been ready for quite some time, but in the end, it saw no more action and was placed on the ground by its master, Erlang Shen, who then sat down next to it.
“Of the current state of the Heavenly World.”
“What does the Heavenly World of your ideals resemble, then?”
“Generally speaking, a god is supposed to protect the weak and keep a tight rein on the strong. That’s what I’ve been taught, anyway,” Erlang Shen said but belatedly added something else. “That would herald the advent of a better world, after all.”
“A better world, is it?”
“I do not know if that human is capable of defeating the Jade Emperor. But if such a thing happens, the Heavenly World might experience a transformation. Whether it’ll be a good change or not, we’ll have to see.”
“Sounds like I’ve become your pretext, it seems.”
“Even though that’s the case, I’ll still end up receiving some sort of punishment after this is over. Maybe I’ll have to resign from my position as a general, but that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I have no attachment left, in any case.”
Erlang Shen finished speaking there, and then, while resting his chin on his hand, he quietly looked on at the distant battle between the Jade Emperor and Su-hyeun.
“However, I feel that no matter how strong that human is, I don’t think he can win this fight.”
Goh-oooooh—
The moment he said that, golden air currents suddenly enveloped the Jade Emperor’s surroundings.
“Because the emperor was planning to deal with the Great Sage Heaven’s Equal with his own two hands.”
**
Boom, ka-boom—!
Fwhooooosh—
A gigantic palm smacked Su-hyeun’s body away.
Rumble—!
His body turned into wisps of flames before disappearing from the spot. That just now was a clone made out of the divine Flame.
Su-hyeun flung himself back to dodge that golden hand. As sweat trickled down his face, he observed the massive “Buddha” statue that had materialized behind the Jade Emperor. The golden giant with eight arms and an eyeless round face closely resembled the outer appearance of Gautama Buddha Su-hyeun was familiar with.
“Now that is one bizarre technique,” he muttered inwardly.
Because of the giant’s massive frame, its speed should have been on the slower side, yet the arms were surprisingly agile. And even an idiot would be able to tell the medium responsible for making those arms move.
Pah-ahk!
Whoooosh—
The Jade Emperor’s leisurely moving hand suddenly pressed downward. At the same time, one of the golden giant’s palms began pressing down toward Su-hyeun.
Ka-boooom—!
The impact overturned the ground below.
Dodging the arms weren’t all that difficult. Through the Sage’s Eye, he could determine the opponent’s movements ahead of time, and the movements themselves weren’t too fast either.
[Flame – Land of Fire]
Ruuuuumble—
Flash!
The indigo-hued flames exploded out from Su-hyeun’s hand and instantly spread out everywhere. They then quickly surrounded the Jade Emperor, as well as the massive Buddha statue. Unfortunately, the flames failed to penetrate past the aura protecting the emperor.
“He sure looks after his body rather obsessively, doesn’t he?”
An iron-wall-like defense—that is, four out of eight arms of the statue—were devoted solely to protecting the Jade Emperor’s body. Those four arms protected the Gyeol of the other hands and set up a systematic defense.
Four arms for attacks and four others for defense. On top of this, the illusory punches that flew in toward him every now and then also possessed rather considerable power behind them.
The biggest problem facing Su-hyeun right now, though, was his right shoulder.
It was the shoulder he always used to swing his sword with, yet it hurt like crazy every time he tried to move it even a little bit. It was also the very shoulder that Sun Wukong struck earlier.