Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: 43rd Floor
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Right now, I’d seen that guy occasionally making a name for himself as Babel’s new Four Heavenly Kings, the “Chaos Ausolion,” but back then, it was all news to Ju Gonghyeok.
- It was bad enough to die once? So that means the beastkin have two monsters at the same time: the Dragon God and the Guardian Divine Beast?
“That’s not quite it.”
Ju Gonghyeok walked the streets, facing the chill night breeze.
Having been driven out by Kisua’s guest expulsion order, he headed toward the residence granted to him.
“The Dragon God and the Guardian Divine Beast can’t coexist.”
The Guardian Divine Beast absorbs the “ancestral spirits” that the tribe’s chieftains must inherit through the shamans.
Only by inheriting the “ancestral spirits” can a chieftain ascend to true Zodiac God status, but the divine beast blocks it.
“On top of that, it’s a huge problem both ‘traditionally’ and ‘legitimately.’”
- What bullshit is this? Did you disguise yourself as a dog and end up with a dog brain too?
As Nathanael snarked and circled above Ju Gonghyeok’s head, the 『Hybrid Geo』 appeared cross-legged.
= Dog God, Tiger God, Dragon God. For a chieftain to inherit a god’s title, they must kill the “hybrid” one-on-one. In my era, it was the final step in ancestral succession.
Ju Gonghyeok twisted Nathanael like a pretzel as he explained.
“In other words, to become a true Dragon God the old way, the Dragon God has to kill the Guardian Divine Beast.”
- Kyaaaaak! Why?!
“Because the hybrid is a descendant of the weakened Guardian Divine Beast.”
- Aha! Got it! Sorry! I won’t mess around anymore! Forgive me just this once!
Ju Gonghyeok released his hand, and Nathanael flapped down onto his head.
“If the Guardian Divine Beast is discovered, it won’t survive.”
The Dragon God will definitely hunt and kill the Guardian Divine Beast.
That’s the path to the realm of the patriarch Dragon God Yahuhon, the Super Dragon God.
And if they subjugate the twelve tribes in the Divine Realm Great War and inherit the shamans’ ancestral spirits on top of that, the Dragon God becomes a monster.
‘The condition for the Guardian Divine Beast’s appearance is trouble arising in the Dragon God’s fate before the 50th floor.’
In the fourth case, Kisua and various chieftains died before the 50th floor, the shamans perished, and the Divine Realm Great War fell into chaos.
The Guardian Divine Beast absorbed the dead chieftains’ “ancestral spirits” and went into hiding.
The Dragon God struggled in its own way, but without the ancestral spirits and failing to catch the Guardian Divine Beast, even it had its limits.
“In the normal flow of history, there’s no room for the Guardian Divine Beast to appear.”
Nathanael, drooping limply, asked weakly.
- But the normal flow of history is already screwed, isn’t it? What are you gonna do?
“Make the Guardian Divine Beast appear.”
Ju Gonghyeok casually glanced at Geo.
“It’s our deal too.”
= A petty lingering attachment, but please.
Geo bowed politely.
Gonghyeok smirked.
Geo’s request didn’t really matter.
Their interests just aligned.
‘Revive the Guardian Divine Beast to weaken the Dragon God, intensify the beastkin infighting. Then turn their cities into seas of fire…’
Even if the Dragon God wins the infighting in the end, it can disrupt the Super Dragon Realm.
If the Guardian Divine Beast wins, there are ways to handle that too.
Creak—
Gonghyeok entered the residence granted to him.
The house hadn’t yet been remodeled in beastkin style and retained its pre-Gisa Association look.
“You’re back, Father.”
Imir was placing a horned ornament on an empty bookshelf.
Sticky blood dripped, and the stench of rotten meat filled the air.
The ornament Imir had placed was the head of a sheepkin with one eye gouged out.
It was the head of Tagon, a relative of the Sheep God Taga and one of the Twelve Villains.
“How was it.”
“Pretty strong. Lost one nail in the fight.”
“Traces.”
“Targeted someone training alone in a dungeon outside the city. No one will know their movements.”
The bookshelf wasn’t just adorned with Tagon’s head—three more heads decorated it.
Only Tagon among them was one of the Twelve Villains.
Ju Gonghyeok scanned the bookshelf and spoke.
“Testing the martial arts I taught you is fine, but be more careful. Especially if they seem strong. If Twelve Villains keep going missing, it’ll raise suspicions.”
“Yes, Father.”
Passing by Imir, Ju Gonghyeok suddenly felt a tug on his hair.
Nathanael shoved her face in front of his.
- Th-that-that! That! Super dangerous! What is it?
“Hobby, I guess.”
- Who the hell has a hobby like that!?
“Or maybe showing off to me.”
- Showing off? He’s insane?”
Nathanael freaked out, but Imir’s psychology wasn’t that complicated.
Ju Gonghyeok told Imir to go outside and practice.
And Imir was showing off his catches to Ju Gonghyeok, displaying his skill.
“It’s no different from a dog or cat bringing a mouse to its owner for praise.”
- You’re not a dog pup, and neither is that kid!
“Imitating a dog pup must’ve turned your brain into one too.”
Ju Gonghyeok was raising Imir.
Giving Imir the avatar “Hero Uno” on the 30th floor wasn’t just to catch Cluesti.
‘The Guardian Divine Beast side is easier than the Dragon God.’
Gonghyeok lit the furnace and tossed the heads on the bookshelf into the flames.
If he didn’t dispose of them in time, the bookshelf would fill with rotting heads.
As the hunted trophies bloomed with meaty smells and vanished, Imir looked disappointed.
* * *
The underground chamber.
Eighteen statues carved with ancestral wolf heads stood in a circle around the altar.
Kisua lit the incense burner on the altar.
A pungent smoke filled the room, stinging the nose.
She placed incense sticks before the ancestral statues and sprinkled water from an aspergillum over her body.
It was the ritual purification bath before the ceremony.
“Ancestors, do not go to the afterlife. Wolf Heads, patriarchs of the wolves, lend your will and spirit to your descendants and carve your fangs in the heavens.”
Once a month, the shamans performed a ritual to stabilize the “ancestral spirits.”
Glowing tattoos rose over Kisua’s wet body.
The tattoos writhed like living things, gathering at her chest.
The jade bead she wore like a necklace glimmered mysteriously.
The jade bead was the divine relic called the Wolf’s Jade, a medium connecting inheritor and ancestor.
Beastkin who inherit spirituality and ancestral spirits through succession open the Upper Dantian, reachable only by a tiny fraction of geniuses.
Those superhumans who open the Upper Dantian awaken brain and soul, able to see what doesn’t exist and reach laws beyond the material world.
“The Wolf Head never passes by injustice. Unyielding before dragon or tiger, unbowed and unbreakable; repaying a cup of cold water with his life, burning his body to ash. All the righteous across mountains and rivers called him a hero of his era.”
She recited a passage from the Twelve Branches Chronicles passed down in her family, the wolf section.
“The Wolf Head lived his life with one eye and one hand; people saw him as strange. His sworn brother the Tiger God said, ‘The empty eye sees a thousand years ahead, the empty hand grasps a thousand years future—the Dragon God, jealous, took them.’ The people were horrified and…”
Snap—
The necklace broke, and the jade bead fell to the floor.
The bead rolled to the door, then strangely climbed the wall.
Drawn by something, it crawled to the ceiling and stopped dead in one corner.
“Haa.”
Kisua let out a deep sigh.
The divine relic, the Wolf’s Jade, had stuck right under the room where “Sunflower” lived.
“Is that where you’re supposed to return to?”
She strained to peel the jade bead from the ceiling.
Click—
Locking the altar chamber, she ascended to the upper floor, only for a furball to charge at her waist.
“Mom! Mom!”
Smack!
“Who calls an unmarried girl ‘mom’? I’m your big sis.”
Sunflower teared up as the heavy iron fist smashed into his crown.
“Unable to call my mother ‘mother’…”
Boom!
Before Sunflower could finish, an airburst rang out.
Kisua’s iron fist had struck empty air.
She glared coldly at Sunflower, who had ducked under the bed.
“Now you’re dodging it too?”
“Sis, I’m not just taking hits anymore.”
Sunflower effortlessly evaded the second strike aimed at his head.
A common sight between beastkin siblings.
If the sister throwing punches weren’t the Dog God Kisua, that is.
‘Her skills are sharpening day by day.’
She gripped the Wolf’s Jade tightly.
The jade bead thrashed toward Sunflower.
Extraordinary birth.
Horn on his head, extraordinary appearance.
She could tell well enough.
‘That child is the Guardian Divine Beast.’
The divine messenger said to appear when beastkin fall into crisis.
She sighed, looking at her father’s spirit tablet.
“Father. Why didn’t you teach me?”
After finishing the duel with the northern tribes and returning home, her father was already on the brink of death.
Her father, looking like he’d breathe his last any moment, handed her a booklet compiling the six forms of the Dog God Style.
“Sua. Sorry it’s only half-complete. Finish the rest yourself.”
“Don’t worry, Father.”
She swallowed her grief and took the booklet.
But what her father passed on wasn’t just the booklet.
A locked heirloom box sealed in the altar.
He had her fetch it.
Unlocking and opening it.
“Father, what is this?”
“Your grandfather and ten Twelve Villains elders risked death to protect it.”
The enshrined heirloom was a pure white egg.
“Sua, uphold the millennium vow.”
That was her father’s last words.
Cryptic, but Kisua had no time to ponder riddles.
The Dog God Style was far from complete, and the clan declined day by day.
For the young chieftain Kisua, solving immediate crises was overwhelming.
Time passed, and after setting up residence in Babel, she prepared her father’s spirit tablet and placed the heirloom box from home before it.
Four months ago.
It happened suddenly.
That day too, Kisua paid respects to her father’s tablet before heading to battle.
As she bowed deeply, a crack! echoed in her ears.
Rising in confusion, Kisua was horrified.
A crack had formed in the precious egg her father left as heirloom.
‘Did I accidentally drop something?’
Startled, Kisua soon realized it wasn’t her fault.
She could see a horn and eye through the crack in the egg.
Crack!
The child fully hatched and immediately prostrated before Kisua.
“You’re my mother! Sunflower greets you for the first time since birth.”
“…….”
A horned child hatched from the egg her father left as heirloom, speaking and bowing right after birth.
Kisua’s mind went into total anarchy.
‘Babies come from eggs?’
‘Looks like dogkin, but why the horn? Bullshit?’
‘Heard early education is trending. Learned to talk in the womb.’
‘But why call me mother?’
Kisua rested her chin, pondering, and addressed the most urgent part first.
“I’m not your mom?”
“You are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You are! You were there when I hatched! Our eyes met!”
“I see.”
Kisua nodded seriously.
“But I’m not your mom.”
“You are!”
“I said no! How could an unmarried virgin be a mom!”
Kisua raised her voice in exasperation, and the child shrank back, starting to sob.
“You are my mom. You are. Sniff, that’s why I imitated you, called you mom…”
As Sunflower wailed, Kisua flinched.
‘This makes it seem like I’m totally in the wrong?’
Afraid the neighbors would hear, she soothed Sunflower.
Beyond fault, it was an issue tied to Kisua’s status.
A baby crying in the house of the dogkin young chieftain, Kisua.
The baby claims(?) Kisua is its mother.
No dogkin wife in the area had been pregnant.
So who’s the baby’s mother?
‘…I’m done for.’
Sunflower stopped crying and looked up at Kisua.
“Mom?”
“Mom’s a bit much, let’s negotiate big sis.”
And so their secret cohabitation as two beastkin began.
Four months passed.
Sunflower clung to her waist, bouncing excitedly.
“Sis! Sis! Teach me Dog God Style!”
“…I told you it requires qualifications.”
Sunflower, who’d been about one year old, had grown to a twelve-year-old boy in four months.
Having spoken at birth, his growth and learning speeds were extraordinary.
He mastered not just dogkin martial arts but even the Dog God Style shown for fun.
‘Maybe he’s already learned all six forms.’
The Dog God Style might just be an excuse—he wants to play with me.
Kisua stroked Sunflower’s head and glanced at her father’s spirit tablet.
‘How much did you know, Father?’
The enshrined father gave no answer.
Kisua quietly told Sunflower.
“You know the day sis does morning purification and offers sacrifices to the ancestors is special.”
“…Yeah.”
She peeled the child off and opened the armory.
Sharpened chain mail and pitch-black armor gleamed inside.
From hands to ankles, she donned the gear piece by piece and stood at the door.
“I’m off.”
“Come back safe.”
Sunflower bowed deeply to see her off.
Today was hunting day.
Three of the Twelve Villains knelt on one knee.
“We greet the shaman.”
Dogkin warriors were lined up before her house.