Chapter 352: Ascension to Immortality (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 352: Ascension to Immortality (8)
When the first tremor was felt, everyone in Hell instinctively looked up at the ceiling of the realm they stood in.
However, most felt nothing more than an inexplicable sense of dread as the impact drew closer from above; they couldn’t grasp exactly what was happening.
Only the few powerful beings residing in Hell, the Ten Kings—who could be considered high-ranking deities—and those outside Hell capable of sensing fluctuations in power truly understood the situation.
Aside from them, the majority only realized something was terribly wrong when the ceiling of their Hell—the floor of the one above—collapsed, and a torrential flood of light poured in.
Finally, when that light pierced through every layer of Hell and slammed into the tenth and final level, everyone who witnessed it would later testify with one voice:
That the light was laughing.
* * *
Great King Jingwang, who had been knocked unconscious in a corner of Hell overturned by the aftermath of the collapsing boundaries, finally came to his senses.
Enduring a wave of dizziness, he stood up and looked around, soon spotting Great King Chogang staring blankly up at the sky. Chogang was muttering something with a dazed expression.
“Hey, friend, what are you doing? And what was that impact just now?”
“…Earthly Immortal, my ass. Crazy. You’re telling me that was an Earthly Immortal? Those bastards must have defects in their eyes.”
Chogang had always been foul-mouthed, but this was on another level.
What on earth had made him this furious?
“What exactly happened that you’re so—”
“You! You’re the problem too, you bastard! What are we going to do now? You must have felt who was dispatched as part of the Heavenly Army…!”
For a moment, Jingwang wondered what he meant, but then he recalled the energy he had felt just before losing consciousness and fell silent.
He hoped it was an illusion, but the massive hole in the ceiling of Hell and the corresponding hole piercing through the floor told him that what he had felt was no lie.
“Sun Wukong… of all people! Fuck, to think I’d see Sun Wukong in Hell again before I retire…!”
Yes, the protective barrier that had enveloped Hell just before he passed out definitely carried the energy of Sun Wukong.
Of course, since she had come as part of the Heavenly Army this time, she was technically on their side, but to the Ten Kings of Hell, the existence known as Sun Wukong was such a massive trauma that she was practically a seizure trigger.
Right about now, the other Ten Kings must have realized Sun Wukong had visited Hell and were surely foaming at the mouth.
Well, I’m the one who called her, and Chogang is my neighbor so he noticed, but the others didn’t even know the Heavenly Army was coming. They must be losing their minds.
“Now, now, friend. Calm down. You know Sun Wukong has changed a lot since her enlightenment. Surely, while dispatched with the Heavenly Army, she wouldn’t cause a—”
“If it were just Sun Wukong, I wouldn’t be this worked up! You idiot…! You must have seen it before you went down!”
Before he went down…?
As Jingwang tried to recall his memories, a truly bizarre scene flashed through his mind.
“…Huh?”
He remembered Sun Wukong deploying a barrier to mitigate the impact and protect Hell—and the radiance that had slammed her into the very corner of the realm.
He saw the figure of a monster, draped in light overflowing with life force, overwhelming Sun Wukong like a blazing sun.
Even if he wanted to believe it was a hallucination, the vision was too vivid to deny.
“It wasn’t an Earthly Immortal…! The bastard who invaded Hell was a Celestial Immortal…! No, maybe even something beyond that…! A monster who broke the boundaries of Hell by brute force and shoved Sun Wukong into the bottom of the pit has invaded us…!”
“Haha.”
“You’re laughing!? You can laugh right now!? Hell is in total chaos…!”
“It’s a dream.”
“…What?”
“There’s no way this is reality. Of course not. A monster that overwhelms Sun Wukong? Such a thing shouldn’t exist! No way!”
“You crazy bastard! Stop escaping reality! Get a grip already…!”
* * *
“Hmm.”
Sun Wukong, who had been slammed into the very bottom of the 10th Hell, was calmly checking her physical condition.
Normally, that single blow possessed enough power to destroy at least one of the ten Hells.
She had absorbed most of the damage intended for Hell herself, and if she hadn’t distributed the remaining force equally across the nine other Hells, that destruction would have become a reality.
In truth, her body was far sturdier than Hell itself, so there were no major issues with her physical form, but the location where she had landed was a bit problematic.
This was the Hell of Darkness, the very bottom of the 10th Hell governed by Great King Odoyeollyun.
It was a place where one was stripped of sight, hearing, and even touch and pain—a place where one had to spend time in total sensory deprivation within an eternal darkness.
Of course, as someone who had reached the state of enlightenment and mastered the six senses, there was no Hell that could perfectly bind her. However, she couldn’t completely prevent her senses from dulling, so escaping this place was indeed more troublesome than other Hells.
I thought he was a Ghost Immortal because he built his power on life force, but to think he could pack power exceeding the level of a Celestial Immortal into a single strike at such a young age.
It might sound a bit ridiculous coming from someone who hadn’t suffered a single scratch from such an attack, but that boy was undoubtedly a monster.
“I wonder if he’s alright after unleashing such an attack with a living body.”
She had only intended to drive him out, not kill him, so she had absorbed most of the power of his strike, but… how should she put it?
She was more concerned about his mental state and his eyes than the physical impact of the attack.
His mind hadn’t reached enlightenment, yet his body had entered the realm beyond it. He was likely struggling with the dissonance right about now.
* * *
It’s a strange feeling.
— Wake up…!
I swallowed poison and poured in all my Innate True Qi, so I should be in agony, yet…
Instead, my head feels clear—vivid, even.
Except for a tiny bit of discomfort interfering with this sharp sensation, everything feels perfect.
If not for this small irritation, I feel like I’d be even more refreshed.
I feel as though I could cast it aside whenever I wanted.
Letting go wouldn’t be hard, but it feels like there’s a reason I shouldn’t let go of this strange discomfort.
The throbbing centered around my heart feels like it’s trying to tell me something.
This minute discomfort seems to be clinging to me so desperately that I feel a strange pity for that desperation. The moment I slowly opened my eyes—
“Aaaagh…!? Urgh…! Ugh…!? Fuck…!?”
Pain of an unbearable magnitude flooded my entire body.
What was that? How was I okay just a second ago…!
No, wait. I thought I might become a living corpse if I didn’t die, so is this actually a success?
My heart felt like it would explode at any moment, and my internal organs felt crushed. Bloody froth kept rising in my throat. It was a level of pain that could truly drive one mad, but funnily enough, it wasn’t as if I hadn’t had similar experiences before, so I felt like I could endure it somehow.
…It’s a bit ironic to be worried about dying while in the Underworld.
Ah, the fact that I’m having random thoughts must mean I’m feeling a bit better.
— Are… are you back? You’re back, right?
A beat late, Sun Wukong’s worried voice echoed in my head.
No, wait. It felt like she had been calling out to me for a while, but I just hadn’t been able to hear her properly.
I tried to stand up and answer, but it seemed I wasn’t in a state to move yet.
Thanks to the Doctor’s medicine, I hadn’t died and my vessel hadn’t shattered, but I was far from being in “good” condition.
— …I hate to say it, but if my main body hadn’t absorbed the backlash for you, it wouldn’t have ended with just this.
“…Pardon? Sun Wukong. I mean, the real Sun Wukong? What should I call her?”
— I know you mean the main body. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. She took the impact that was meant for you.
“…Why?”
— Her goal was to catch you and deport you, not kill you. Or perhaps she judged that your sins weren’t great enough to warrant death.
“You’re talking like it’s someone else’s business.”
— It’s not entirely wrong. The current main body is practically a different being from me…
…Actually, that was something I had felt as well.
It might sound strange, but the Sun Wukong I knew didn’t have that kind of personality.
She could be serious when needed, but she was also playful, much more energetic, and cool when the situation called for it.
But the “real” Sun Wukong I had just faced wasn’t energetic at all. Aside from the most minute shifts in emotion, she had maintained a constant, expressionless face.
It was like she was a different person.
Sun Wukong had said it from the start.
That she was merely the lingering attachment to martial arts left behind by Sun Wukong.
That Sun Wukong had divided her attachments into three and sealed them within artifacts.
Why did Sun Wukong feel the need to cut away her attachments?
By the time I realized it, I had already asked the question.
“What exactly is enlightenment?”
Sun Wukong remained silent for a moment at my question, but eventually, she spoke.
— Who did you hear that from?
“Just… because. When I first entered Hell, and just now when I used too much power, it felt like something was constantly talking to me in my head.”
— …You’ve already reached that stage?
“That stage” sounded like a very dangerous way to put it.
— How should I explain it? Some call the state of enlightenment the end of realization, while others call it giving up on many things after becoming too exhausted.
— In reality, the process of reaching it is different for everyone, so how one changes after reaching it varies slightly as well.
It was a vague explanation that I didn’t quite grasp, but what Sun Wukong said next somehow made sense.
— However, in the end, it is undoubtedly a process of letting go of what you held in your hands. Letting go is the most basic preparation one must complete to become a god.
A process of letting go.
— How much one lets go, and how precious the things they let go of are, differs for everyone. But in the end, everyone who experiences enlightenment changes. No matter what or how much they let go, no one comes through without letting go of something.
Hadn’t she said that if my vessel broke, I would go mad, go berserk, or face an even more terrible future?
“…Was that ‘terrible future’ enlightenment?”
— Yes. For you, it would be an especially cruel punishment. Though the degree varies, enlightenment is ultimately about escaping obsession. Usually, the stronger the obsession—like yours—the more one has to let go.
Did that mean I might lose the things I hold dear, my obsessions, and my desires?
It was indeed a truly horrific prospect.
— Do you know why the gods—excluding the fools who have become completely indifferent—love and obsess over humans so much, and why they enjoy giving them trials?
“Is it because of a sense of loss?”
— Correct. The light humans show as they overcome trials is something the gods themselves have already lost. Something they have let go of. Thus, they feel nostalgia for it and reach out to claim it.
“I’d honestly rather die than have that happen.”
— That is why you need the Golden Hoop.
The Golden Hoop.
The smallest prison that had held back even the great Sun Wukong.
Before, I couldn’t understand what Sun Wukong intended to do with the Golden Hoop, but now I felt I understood her intention a little.
— The Golden Hoop is a prison, so it may feel like it’s confining you, but at the same time, it will serve as a shield to protect you.
Even the great Sun Wukong couldn’t take off the Golden Hoop until she reached enlightenment.
Conversely, if I hadn’t reached enlightenment yet, the Golden Hoop might be able to maintain me as a human.
— It is an item that will ensure your power does not grow further, allowing you to remain as you are without letting anything go.
“I definitely need to go get that right now. Where did you say it was?”
— I left it with Great King Yama of the 5th Hell.
“…And where are we now?”
— I wonder. After you slammed the main body into the end of Hell, you were bounced back up quite a bit by the recoil. I suspect we’re around the 8th Hell, but I don’t know for sure.
“What are the characteristics of the 8th Hell?”
— The 8th Hell is the Iron Bed Hell, ruled by Great King Pyeongdeung. Sinners spend their time lying on beds covered in nails or are punished by being impaled on iron stakes.
“Ah, then I think this is the 8th Hell.”
— Hmm? Ah, I suppose it is.
Judging by the monster currently looking down at me with an iron stake and a hammer in its hands, this was undoubtedly the 8th Hell.
“…I’m asking just in case, but are you someone I can communicate with?”
“Sin…ner. I… stab.”
“…Wow, seeing as you can speak, I feel like we could have a conversation if we both try a little harder. Are you willing to put in some effort?”
Ignoring my attempt at persuasion, the monster raised the stake and hammer.
Normally, it was a slow movement that wouldn’t be a problem, but unfortunately, I was currently in a state where I couldn’t even put strength into my fingers.
“I stab…!”
I tried to move somehow, but some things just don’t work no matter how hard you try.
I was in agonizing pain, unable to move, and some monster was screaming about stabbing me with an iron stake.
…I’m fucked. This is seriously driving me crazy.