King Shura

Cho Ryu Hyang, who had been struggling quite a bit in his sleep, found his teacher, and made a surprised face.

He quickly stood up.

Gongson Chun Gi pushed the boy back to bed, then spoke.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. You should lay down a bit more. We still have time before we leave.”

A day before the trip, Gongson Chun Gi came into Cho Ryu Hyang’s room, and watched the boy all night.

He had been thinking all this time.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at his teacher with a tired face.

He could see that his teacher’s eyes held feelings of trust and worry at the same time.

When he saw such humane feelings emanate from his teacher, he was a bit relieved, and surprised at the same time.

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled, and spoke with a slightly tired voice.

“…….I feel like I had a really long dream.”

He was still very confused.

He felt like he went on a really long trip in his dream.

He didn’t know if this was reality, or if the world in his dream was reality.

But he soon began to be able to distinguish which was which.

His senses were coming back.

“Hoh? A dream at a time like this……. Did it have any pretty girls in it?”

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled at his teacher’s playful tone.

“There were no pretty girls. It’s just……”

“Just?”

Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t say anything for a second.

He spread out his hands with a thoughtful face, and muttered quietly.

“My body became exceedingly light……. and I traveled to places. And I think I touched something with these hands.”

Cho Ryu Hyang was already beginning to forget the contents of the dream.

Cho Ryu Hyang blinked a few times with a dumb face, then looked at his teacher.

Gongson Chun Gi looked at his disciple with a little confusion, and asked a question.

“Where did you go?”

Cho Ryu Hyang desperately grasped at his fading dreams, and opened his mouth.

“I looked around everywhere in the world. But even that wasn’t enough, so I went down the see, and even flew up into space.”

He then grabbed something with his hands at the end, but he wasn’t able to remember just what he had grabbed.

‘What was that?’

It seemed really important.

But he just couldn’t remember it.

Gongson Chun Gi spoke, as Cho Ryu Hyang scrunched up his face trying to remember what he had dreamed.

“You dreamt a really adventurous dream, huh. That’s unlike you.”

Adventurous?

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled, and nodded.

“Yes, I think so. I think I might have wanted to explore the world a bit.”

Gongson Chun Gi quietly stared at his disciple, then opened his mouth.

“Weaklings believe that dreams are signs of the future, and fear it. But strong ones believe that dreams are a manifestation of their desires.”

“…….”

“It seems that you have quite a big desire.”

Cho Ryu Hyang made an awkward face.

He felt that his teacher was right.

Gongson Chun Gi lightly tapped on his disciple’s shoulder, and spoke quietly.

“Be careful of that old man with the fan.”

“What?”

What old man?

When Cho Ryu Hyang made a confused face,

Gongson Chun Gi grinned, and opened his mouth.

“You see, I really, really don’t like that guy. Even though he’s just watching for now.”

What was he talking about?

While Cho Ryu Hyang was thinking about his teacher’s words confusedly, his teacher smirked, and changed the topic.

“How much of the Moon Edge Blade Technique did you learn?”

“I passed Ryun.”

“You still have a lot to do, huh.”

When Cho Ryu Hyang nodded with a bitter face, Gongson Chun Gi spoke.

“Try not to use the Shura Environment as much when you go out. That thing likes to go berserk the more you use it. I just came to tell you that.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll be there with you at Sichuan later on. Go buy some good drinks for me meanwhile.”

“I’ll do that.”

Gongson Chun Gi said this, and exited the room with a playful smile.

* * *

“Ouch, my back.”

Gongson Chun Gi exited Cho Ryu Hyang’s room, and sat down on a random rock in the back yard while massaging his waist.

After inheriting the Shura Environment to Cho Ryu Hyang, Gongson Chun Gi had gotten a lot weaker.

“No, it’s not that I actually got weaker.”

Gongson Chun Gi had been strong from the moment he had been born.

He wasn’t talking about his body, or skills. The person of Gongson Chun Gi had been strong from the start.

A sense of perseverance that would not wilt under any circumstances, and the sense of leisure that allowed him to smile at any given situation.

This was a type of strength unrelated to martial arts.

Gongson Chun Gi looked up at the sky, and laughed a little.

Shura Environment.

The way this technique was transferred was to split off a part of it from his body, to implant it to the next heir.

This ‘inheritance’ ceremony was dangerous enough to take away the lives of many former heirs.

‘Well, at least it’s easy to pass on. If you don’t take into account the fact that you age instantly.’

It wasn’t very noticeable due to his youthful personality, but Gongson Chun Gi was able to feel that he had aged quite a bit.

He trembled more than usual when a cold wind passed nowadays.

He could even feel the wind pass through his bones.

But even at a time like this, Gongson Chun Gi smiled.

After all, he had earned as much as he had lost.

‘I might actually be able to get rid of this damn side effect.’

All this time, Gongson Chun Gi worked ceaselessly to get rid of the Shura Environment’s side effect.

Everyone thought that he had shortened the countless verses of the Shura Environment out of laziness, but that wasn’t the case at all.

He did all this with backbreaking work, in order to try and get rid of the side effect.

And when he let Cho Ryu Hyang inherit the Shura Environment, he was able to realize something.

‘I can get rid of the side effect.’

When he thought of this, he could only laugh.

The results of his life’s work was finally coming into his view.

He just needed time to confirm it now.

Gongson Chun Gi was planning on spending the rest of his time trying to get rid of the side effect.

Doing that would benefit both Cho Ryu Hyang and the church.

* * *

’This isn’t…….good.’

Cho Ryu Hyang bit his teeth as he ran.

He made a wrong decision.

He was too greedy.

He had been ensnared by the beast called curiosity.

And the price for being caught by the beast was truly horrifying.

‘It’, who had been quietly watching Cho Ryu Hyang and Un Hui run, began to move slowly.

Cho Ryu Hyang grit his teeth when he saw this.

‘Would it work?’

He couldn’t get Un Hui dragged into this.

Cho Ryu Hyang made a concerned face as he fondled the gems in his pocket.

At that moment, ‘it’ thought.

‘What an interesting child.’

‘It’ was exceedingly happy after his thousand-year old seal got broken.

‘It’ was happy enough to disregard ‘its’ status, and dance around.

What surprised ‘it’ was that a mere human managed to break the seal created by the heavens itself.

But that didn’t really matter to ‘it’.

‘It’ was just thinking of gifting the Nine Lands Medicinal Flower to the boy.

‘Well, I was only going to do that as long as the boy didn’t recognize me, though.’

‘It’ wasn’t going to give the flower away anymore.

‘It’ became interested in the boy.

‘It’ revealed its sharp teeth, and grinned.

That child.

That child was able to see ‘it’ even when ‘it’ hid ‘itself’.

It was kind of confusing at first, but the boy was clearly looking at ‘it’.

The child must’ve had a lot of fortuitous encounters to see ‘it’.

‘It’ tried to just leave everything at that at first.

‘But…….’

Something was strange.

‘It’ could smell something that wasn’t of human origin from that child.

It was strange.

‘He has something in his body? What?’

There was something that even ‘it’ couldn’t recognize, even with its eyes and nose?

And that something was in a human of all things?

‘It’ began to focus.

‘Child, just what are you hiding?’

‘It’ stretched out ‘its’ senses like a spiderweb, and surveyed the child’s body.

When that spiderweb touched the boy, the boy began to twitch.

Sensitive, wasn’t he?

‘It’ just ignored the boy’s reactions, and focused more.

Only then could ‘it’ see.

[Hoh?]

‘It’ widened ‘its’ eyes, and lifted ‘its’ body.

‘It’ then licked its lips greedily.

[A mere human managed to attain a dragon’s pearl?]

Even though the pearl was damaged, it still wasn’t something a human could take.

‘I should take it back.’

When ‘it’ thought this, the boy stepped back like a surprised deer.

[Foolish child.]

The rabbit, who possessed snow-white fur, stood up on its two legs, and began stretching.

It then got into position, and grinned.

[Hehe, this’ll be fun.]

This would be the first fun it had in a thousand years.

It would definitely be fun.

The child kept staring back at it with a fearful gaze as he was carried away by the person who was behind him.

[Running away? That’d be no good. There’s a lot of thing’s I’d like to ask you, boy.]

The rabbit said this as it took a single step. It then disappeared at that spot, then reappeared like a ghost in front of Cho Ryu Hyang.

Pyong~!

Cho Ryu Hyang’s face paled as he saw the rabbit who appeared in front of him with a strange sound.

He couldn’t even see it move.

Cho Ryu Hyang threw out six gems without even thinking.

Clack–

He seemed to have thrown it without thinking, but this was actually a formation.

Conditional Formation.

That had been activated.

[Eh?]

The rabbit disappeared in mid-air.

“R, run faster!”

When Cho Ryu Hyang shouted this, Un Hui put Cho Ryu Hyang at his back, and began to move faster.

Paa–!

With a sound of the air ripping apart, Un Hui traversed several tens of meters in an instant. Only then did Cho Ryu Hyang get relaxed.

He seemed to have escaped immediate danger.

But right at that moment.

Crack–!

Cho Ryu Hyang could see the formation far away get broken to pieces.

His eyes widened.

The formation that was created earlier was made in a hurry, but was still a formidable formation.

It was much, much stronger than the one used against No Jin Nyung……

‘It destroyed the formation in an instant?’

As expected, the being in front of him truly was a monster he couldn’t handle.

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Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes started to show a light of despair.

[What the? So you can even use fields? You really have a talent for surprising your elders.]

The rabbit made an excited face after destroying Cho Ryu Hyang’s formation.

Even when the boy was getting farther away from it, the rabbit seemed very laid back.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked back, and bit his lips.

‘It’s coming.’

He didn’t know what the rabbit was going to do, but he couldn’t even see the rabbit’s movements.

It was the same for this case as well.

Pyong~!

Again, the rabbit appeared with a strange, playful sound. Cho Ryu Hyang grit his teeth.

Right then.

Shuaa–! Kuang–!

Cho Ryu Hyang was able to see a lump of Gang Qi fly by.

Un Hui had begun to slash at the rabbit with his short sword.

His attacks were very sudden, and that much effective.

The monstrous rabbit had been stalled by the sword for a bit.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at Un Hui with eyes filled with admiration.

The rabbit hit the floor, spat out blood, and began to complain.

[Hn, so we even have a harmonious person here? What the hell’s been happening for the last thousand years I wasn’t here?]

Un Hui looked down at the rabbit with a curious gaze.

A rabbit who was looking up at him with a human-like posture.

It was speaking in human tongue, as well.

This was already surprising enough, but what surprised him more was the fact that the rabbit managed to block his ambush.

It managed to block his attacks perfectly.

The rabbit began to stroke its chin with a delighted face.

[It wouldn’t do to fight a harmonious person with bare hands now, would it? I suppose I’ll have to take ‘him’ out]

‘Him’?

Who was ‘him’?

When Cho Ryu Hyang made an anxious face, the rabbit grinned playfully.

[I haven’t taken ‘him’ out since the battle with Sun Wukong, now have I?]

Vun vun vun–

The rabbit’s body suddenly began to resonate with its surroundings.

Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes widened when he saw this.

“Right, this was it.”

The giant red number he could see from the distance.

He was wondering why the number had disappeared. But in reality, the number was too big for him to see up close.

[You should be honored, human.]

Tudududu–!

Un Hui felt an immense amount of energy in the area, and gripped tightly onto his sword.

“So it’s a monster.”

Un Hui silently muttered this to himself.

The rabbit heard this, and shook its head.

[Tch, don’t put this elder down in the same place as those bastards, dumb human.]

Un Hui ignored the rabbit’s words, then made a regretful face.

‘I should’ve finished it off when it was unguarded.’

He was regretful of letting go of such a good chance to finish off the monster.

And now, the monster was beginning to grow in strength.

Just watching the thing get stronger made him feel nervous.

‘I can’t just let it keep getting stronger.’

Un Hui quickly made his move towards the rabbit.

He didn’t know what the rabbit was trying to do, but there was no doubt that it would be dangerous.

There was no need to wait for a dangerous thing to appear.

Un Hui supported Cho Ryu Hyang at his back with one hand, and swung his sword with the other.

[Too late.]

Bang–!

The rabbit blocked Un Hui’s sword with something.

It was a small iron hammer that it was holding with two hands.

Un Hui moved back, and looked at it with squinted eyes.

“…….Mochi Pestle?” [TL: What the rabbit’s using here’s different from the standard mochi pestle in Japan. Here’s a picture.]

Bam, bam–!

The rabbit struck the ground a few times with the pestle, and smiled.

Cho Ryu Hyang whispered to himself when he saw this.

“Could it be, the moon rabbit?”

The rabbit blinked a few times when it heard Cho Ryu Hyang’s words.

It then grinned delightedly.

[Ehehe, what a perceptive child.]

Cho Ryu Hyang frowned as he looked at the rabbit.

Things weren’t really going too well, he thought.

Right then, the rabbit moved.