Settling Ownership of a Fortuitous Encounter by Life-and-Death Duel Is Common Sense
A lot of you have been worrying that Gong Ryun got completely taken over, so I'm sticking my nose in despite the embarrassment to set the record straight. Jamisung did seize control of Gong Ryun, but it's only temporary...! Think of it like a preview event for Gong Ryun's potential? Like a veteran player snatching the newbie's controller for a minute so they can feel what a high-level character plays like. He'll be back to normal soon enough.
Jamisung launched into a grand speech.
"What is life?"
Under Jamisung's control, Gong Ryun's body struck a pose like an opera singer—one hand resting upon the chest, the other flung open toward empty air.
"How do we define life? Where, exactly, does life end?"
Animals are alive. They are life.
Insects are life. Worms are life.
Plants cannot move, yet they live, so they too are life.
And below that?
Are microorganisms life? Bacteria?
What of germs? Mushrooms, those colonies of cells? A single-celled amoeba?
Viruses as well? Cancer cells?
Is a flake of skin that has fallen away still life?
What, then, defines life—what defines being alive?
Must a body move to be alive? Must it consume energy? Must it reproduce?
"Or is death required for something to be life? Only life can die, after all—so is death itself the proof that something once lived? Does the concept of death complete the meaning of life?"
What of creatures that live without dying? This universe even holds jellyfish capable of eternal life. Are they not life?
"Meaningless."
Useless.
A foolish question.
"Being alive is not defined by any of those things."
There was once a mass of single cells.
Somewhere in the galaxy, on a primordial world whose entire surface was ocean.
A mass of single cells that simply moved, ate, and reproduced.
Nothing more than the same cells endlessly copying themselves through self-division.
Without purpose. Existing only to continue existing.
And so the single cells kept existing.
They divided and divided, and their numbers swelled.
By sheer luck they kept breeding. The climate happened to suit them; the whole ocean brimmed with nutrients; no predators ever appeared; no colossal asteroid impact erased it all to nothing.
The single cells filled the sea.
The blue ocean turned purple.
The purple of the cells themselves.
As time passed they began devouring even the seawater, until there were more cells than water.
They filled the entire surface of the planet with a viscous soup of cells—until the planet itself had become them.
Countless cells exchanged random electrical signals with one another, and at last the single-celled ocean began to function like a primitive brain.
Yet it could not truly be called alive.
The mass of single cells merely existed.
It possessed no will of any kind.
It was nothing but a soup of protein without a self.
Thus millions of years passed. Perhaps more. Who could say? The memories are faint.
Across those eons it simply existed—aware only that it existed.
A planet that held neither predators nor ecosystem, only one species of single cell.
In all that time it never changed. Time itself might as well have stood still.
It might have been called life,
but it was never truly alive.
Then one day, something landed upon the planet.
An impurity from outside.
The impurity could not endure the planetary environment and drowned in the sea of cells.
Yet it brought a tremendous change to the single cells.
The first external life they had ever encountered.
From that impurity the single cells felt something they had never known in their entire existence.
It was called will. The fierce will that a single cell living in frozen time did not possess.
The will to live, the will to kill.
The will to protect, the will to destroy.
The will to love, the will to hate.
The single cells swallowed it.
Yes. They swallowed it. They absorbed it.
And with it, they were born.
They were born.
The primitive brain of the single cells finally awakened to will.
They shattered the frozen time and began to evolve.
And so they began to live.
"Life is!! Meaningless!!!! Life does not mean being alive!!!!! My millions of years!!! Those ages so faint I can barely remember them!!! Were nothing but a long death!!!!!"
What proves that one is alive?
"Will. Only will is being alive."
Life consumes energy because of the will to live.
It moves its body because of the will to advance.
It reproduces because of the will to continue.
That was the secret of life.
One may not be able to define life, but one can define being alive.
When life possesses will, only then is it truly alive.
Death is not the opposite of life. It is the fuel that makes life's will burn hotter. Only when death exists does the will to live arise.
Ah. The single cells yearned for will.
They pursued being alive.
And so they set out into the galaxy.
In search of the fiercest will of all.
Show me. What other wills exist in this world?
"I care not if my entire body burns to ash!!! Let me feel what it is to be alive!!!"
They created fragment consciousnesses and cast them into the galaxy.
They explored the galaxy—this vast world.
Observing the apex predator race of this galaxy, human civilization, was a natural course of events.
And they realized: nothing was as intense as humanity.
Countless wills, beliefs, ideologies, conflicts, wars.
Those who began as the feeblest of all were advancing toward the greatest grandeur.
And so they admired humans. They coveted their will.
Hopes and wishes. Obsessions and delusions. Dreams and pleasures. Passion and craving. Despair and hatred.
They observed every last one of those wills.
And among them they discovered a form of will that pleased them most of all.
"The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult."
The will of Yeokcheon. The most intense and beautiful longing.
The single cells trembled at that ideology. They projected themselves into it.
For millions of years they had lived only in the ocean, never knowing there was a sky above.
Trapped upon that tiny planet.
Never even conceiving the idea of reaching toward the heavens.
But now I have stretched my hand toward the sky.
The liquid of the single cells took form.
So that it could touch. So that it could grasp.
Tentacles.
The most primitive and fundamental shape of a hand.
This lowly life dares to extend its flesh toward the heavens.
The purple ocean sought to reach the sky.
"That is my proof. Proof of being alive."
Someday I shall achieve Yeokcheon. Someday I shall stretch beyond the planet into the galaxy, and beyond the galaxy into the cosmos.
Candidate for Young Master of the Demonic Cult. The star of purple tentacles. Jamisung Herneish.
She who had once been a mass of single cells had at last come this far.
"And now, here, another monumental chapter of history lies before my eyes."
Jamisung's fragment consciousness stirred the internal energy within Gong Ryun's dantian.
She felt it.
Internal energy of a form that should not exist.
Internal energy that bore the nature of Sangongdok.
The poison internal energy of Sangongdok.
A dantian whose internal energy itself scattered all other internal energy.
Like magma made of ice—an impossible concept.
Yet it was here. In the palm of her hand.
Gong Ryun was the only being from the planet of Sangongdok who had grown into a proper martial artist.
Which meant there had been something different about him from ordinary slaves.
A poison dantian bearing the nature of Sangongdok, generated unconsciously without even Gong Ryun himself knowing.
An organ that had transformed Sangongdok from a harmful toxin into a part of the body itself.
Ah. Beautiful. How could such an organ exist?
Jamisung possessed no dantian of her own, so she mimicked one with her tentacles.
That very fact had made her one of the galaxy's foremost experts on dantians.
If such a dantian fell into her hands—
If she researched this perfect specimen exhaustively—
If her true body learned to imitate this dantian—
That moment would become the instant of the martial world's annihilation.
Talent in the hands alone had already made him a top-tier scouting priority.
She had been ready to drag him into the Cult by any means necessary.
She had even marveled at the judgment of the Cult believer she had thoroughly hypnotized in advance.
But now, on top of that, the poison internal energy of Sangongdok as well.
Either the talent for hands or the Sangongdok poison internal energy alone would have made him an SS-rank talent.
How to put this?
It was like stumbling across a
Unlimited Enhancement Cap
No Restriction on Reinforcement Limit
An unlimited enhancement weapon? Hell yeah.
So you snatch it up, go wild with joy thinking you've hit the jackpot, then open the magazine wondering what ammo to load—and find
Already chambered
sitting inside.
So what was this, then?
This was no longer a matter for negotiation.
No matter the cost, it had to be taken.
"This—this body—is a fortuitous encounter."
Originally she had come to this planet seeking the fortuitous encounter of Molaren.
But that no longer mattered.
Nothing could surpass this opportunity.
This was the fortuitous encounter that would make Jamisung into the Heavenly Demon.
The finest weapon in the galaxy. Yes—something like this was called…
"A divine artifact."
Something that could become the strongest only in Jamisung's hands.
Something like destiny itself.
"My first fortuitous encounter was the alien impurity that fell into the single-celled ocean. Through it I awakened to will and opened the path of martial arts. And this… seems to be my second."
Jamisung stroked the body she now wore with tender care and declared:
"Therefore there will be no negotiation. This is mine. I will take it. By any means necessary. At any price."
And the Succubus Boss, who had patiently listened through that entire lengthy monologue, finally replied.
"Oh my~~ So that's how it was~~~"
"Oh. So you understand, Succubus."
"Ahahahahaha this is fucking insane lolololol this rootless single-cell bastard ahahahahaha"
The Succubus Boss burst into raw laughter. This absolute extremist bastard. Completely embarrassing the Demonic Cult.
But soon she stopped laughing, narrowed her eyes into cold slits, and spoke.
"So. How exactly do you plan to take it~~~? Wanting it is one thing, fine. But how are you going to take it? Gonna use some lightfoot technique and run for it?"
"The answer is already decided, of course."
"Hmm~~ What could it be~~?"
"Is it not common sense that the owner of a fortuitous encounter is decided by a life-and-death duel? Perfectly orthodox martial arts tradition."
The Succubus Boss twisted one corner of her mouth upward.
"You're really something~ You're just a leftover fragment consciousness, not even the main body, and the flesh you've taken over is a baby who only just stepped into the Profound Realm. Do you even know who I am~? Do you know my realm~? I could kill you with nothing but my toes, you know~?"
"But you won't kill me. You don't want this body to die either."
"Still, the gap isn't exactly small~~?"
"Who knows. You certainly look strong. However… I simply cannot imagine losing. I have obtained a divine artifact. The most perfect body—a divine artifact."
Jamisung, wearing Gong Ryun's body, slowly raised an open palm.
"Ah. Arrogant Succubus. I shall cut you down and take this body with me."