Chapter 238: The Emperor (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 238: The Emperor (1)
While pondering the Namgung Lineage, Seo-jun watched Namgung Su-ah sleep soundly.
Her chest rose and fell in a gentle rhythm. A faint flush colored her cheeks, and tiny teardrops clung to the corners of her eyes. Her lips were curled upward ever so slightly—a detail easily missed at a passing glance.
True to her restless sleeping habits, her limbs occasionally kicked at the blankets, producing soft rustling sounds.
The reason for her current state was much easier to decipher than his musings on the Namgung Lineage.
She must be having a good dream.
Relieved it wasn't a nightmare, Seo-jun sat quietly, watching her sleep for a long while.
"Ah..."
Su-ah’s eyes suddenly snapped open. Her azure irises, rarely ever so wide, trembled with emotion.
Sitting up with her hair disheveled, she murmured blankly, "I had a dream..."
Tears began to stream down her face.
"No, it wasn't a dream!"
As she suddenly broke into a radiant smile, Seo-jun couldn't help but mirror her with a warm smile of his own.
"What happened?"
Su-ah’s subsequent explanation was nothing short of startling. Her father—his father-in-law—had apparently thrashed Yama, the King of the Underworld, and ascended to the Celestial Realm with her mother.
It was an absurd story, yet the thought, 'Does that even make sense?' didn't cross his mind for a single second.
Honestly, if it was his father-in-law, Seo-jun fully believed the man was capable of pulverizing Yama or anyone else who got in his way.
But what was that about his mother-in-law? He could have sworn he heard something about Yama slamming her onto the ground.
Was the King of the Underworld just looking for a way to commit suicide?
Perhaps Yama’s immortal life had simply grown too tedious. Disrespecting his mother-in-law right in front of his father-in-law... Honestly, even the Heavenly Demon wouldn't dare pull a stunt like that.
Of course, Seo-jun understood the reality of the situation. The reason his father-in-law could defeat Yama so easily was likely because he had only faced an Avatar.
An Avatar was just an Avatar. While he didn't know how much of Yama's true power it contained, there was undoubtedly a massive gap between it and the original being.
Since the living supposedly couldn't exert their full power within the Underworld anyway, Yama wouldn't have felt the need to bestow much strength upon a mere Avatar.
As Seo-jun quietly processed this, Su-ah leaned in close.
"You already suspected this, didn't you?"
"Huh? Oh, I wouldn't say I suspected it. I just thought a situation like this might occur."
When a person dies, their soul heads to the Underworld. That soul is a human's Shin—their Spirit.
If the Profound Realm was, as Seo-jun theorized, the state where one's Essence and Qi were fully incorporated into the Spirit to transform into a complete god...
He had often wondered why Namgung Jin-cheon had remained in the Transcendent Realm for so long. He'd even considered the possibility that the man might achieve the status of a Half-God within the Underworld.
"The Underworld is a place where people... well, not people, but souls live, right?"
And what if Namgung Jin-cheon appeared in such a place having already achieved the Profound Realm?
It wouldn't be strange at all if the power dynamics of the Underworld were upended in an instant.
"Well, I definitely didn't expect him to beat up Yama and head straight to the Celestial Realm, though."
According to Su-ah, her father had achieved Ascension while practically skipping over the Profound Realm entirely.
Questions remained—such as what a martial artist in the Profound Realm needed to do to ascend, and whether the difficulty of Ascension was the same in the Underworld as it was in the Mortal Realm—but no one could deny that it was an extraordinary feat.
"But..."
Su-ah fidgeted, her fingers intertwining restlessly. Her excitement was palpable.
"Isn't it a bit strange that a martial artist in the Profound Realm can use their full power even in the Underworld?"
"That's probably not it."
"Huh?"
"I mentioned it before. The Profound Realm is likely a state where Essence and Qi are completely integrated into the Spirit."
Generally speaking, one could equate the 'Spirit' with the 'Soul' without much issue.
And what did that mean?
"From the Profound Realm onward, you're likely freed from the constraints of the physical body. Getting your head cut off wouldn't mean death."
"Then...?"
"You'd have to destroy the Spirit itself."
The complete annihilation of the Spirit. That would be the only true death for someone in the Profound Realm.
"If the Spirit is annihilated, there's no soul left to go to the Underworld. You'd just cease to exist entirely, wouldn't you?"
"Th-then, this really wasn't a dream...?"
Su-ah exhaled sharply through her nose and gripped Seo-jun’s sleeve tight. Her eyes sparkled with ecstasy.
Seo-jun let out a soft laugh and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"You're the one who said it wasn't a dream, so why are you asking me?"
"B-but... honestly, it's just so surreal."
Su-ah’s conviction that the vision she had witnessed wasn't a dream had been purely instinctive.
However, the more she tried to put it into words, the more that conviction wavered.
To anyone else, she would just sound like a grieving daughter spouting nonsense out of the shock of losing her father.
"I believe you. Because it's you."
"Mmm..."
"Besides, it's not that strange of an occurrence."
If Namgung Jin-cheon had become a god, then perhaps...
"You've inherited the Divine Blood as well."
If Divine Blood wasn't merely something passed down physically, but a resonance that dwells within the entire lineage of one who has become a god...
Then even a child born before Namgung Jin-cheon achieved godhood might still awaken that Divine Blood.
"Divine Blood...? Ah...!"
Su-ah’s eyes went wide. Seo-jun nodded.
"That's actually why I was planning to ask Chun-bong about it later."
He didn't know if it was possible, but in Chun-bong's case, if the conditions were right, she might be able to communicate with the Sword God in the Celestial Realm.
"That old man might know what's going on in the Underworld."
"Ah..."
Su-ah’s eyes, rounded in surprise, shone like stars. She let out a slightly strange giggle—"Ehehe"—and threw herself onto the bed, clinging tightly to Seo-jun’s neck.
Thud!
The lovers lay with their heads resting on the same pillow, gazing into each other's eyes.
Su-ah’s lips twitched before she pulled Seo-jun’s head into a tight embrace against her chest.
"Hehe... I love you."
He couldn't quite grasp the sudden shift. For some reason, Su-ah’s mood had just skyrocketed past its limits.
She hugged his head tight, then pulled back to press her forehead against his. Meeting his gaze with another strange little giggle, she pressed her lips against his.
Well, as long as she's happy.
After squirming around for a while and exploring Seo-jun's body here and there, Su-ah naturally drifted back to sleep, still holding him tight.
Seo-jun watched her face for a moment as she let out soft, rhythmic breaths right in front of him, then finally closed his own eyes.
Even with his eyes shut, the image of Su-ah looking as overjoyed as a child lingered in his mind.
I'm glad, Father-in-law.
The man hadn't met a grim end; he had found his partner and ascended to the heavens.
Seo-jun felt as if a heavy weight that had been pressing down on his heart had finally been lifted.
A faint smile played on his lips.
For the first time in a long while, he fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
* * *
"A powerful and good morning!"
After waking up and being pummeled by Chun-bong for teasing Su-ah, Seo-jun stretched, feeling completely refreshed.
"Hwaaaah..."
Chun-bong hung limp from his side. It was the direct result of him relentlessly kissing her soft cheeks.
It wasn't as if Seo-jun had drained Chun-bong's life force with some forbidden 'Geum Chun-bong Cheek-Kissing Martial Art.'
She was simply exhausted from flailing around while pretending to resist him.
"The weather is perfect."
Seo-jun looked up at the sky and smiled contentedly.
"...Perfect, my foot. It's cloudy."
Chun-bong grumbled from where she was tucked under his arm. At that, Seo-jun used his free hand to casually wave at the sky.
Whoosh! In an instant, the heavy clouds were swept far away, and the sky cleared to a brilliant blue.
"The weather is perfect."
"...That is seriously ridiculous."
"A kiss for Chun-bu-i! Mwah!"
"Eek! W-wait...!"
Chun-bong’s soft cheeks smelled faintly of baby formula. Did anyone else truly understand the sheer happiness of pressing one's lips against those velvety cheeks and kissing them repeatedly?
With an exhausted, limp Chun-bong still tucked securely under his arm, Seo-jun kicked off the ground.
Leaping onto the highest rooftop, he looked down at the Namgung Clan estate, which exuded an indescribable charm.
"The Namgung Lineage."
"Hmm?"
Namgung Su-ah, who had followed him up onto the roof, looked at Chun-bong with evident envy.
Seo-jun’s gaze momentarily drifted to Su-ah’s ample chest. Those were certainly comparable to Chun-bong’s cheeks.
Wouldn't it feel amazing to bury his face in them and kiss them repeatedly, just like he did with Chun-bong?
Not something I should be doing outdoors.
Quickly abandoning the distracting thought, Seo-jun reached out and pointed toward the Namgung Clan estate below.
"It's a new martial art. More accurately, it's a single lineage."
It wasn't anything unnecessarily grand. It was simply the natural evolution of his previous thoughts.
A unified curriculum that started from the Azure Lightning Heart Method or the Thirteen Lightning Sword Forms and connected them all into one cohesive system.
A single, defining path for a martial artist, and a unified martial lineage shared by the entire Namgung family.
"You mean you're going to synthesize all the martial arts you've created so far?"
"Something like that. But everyone has a different aptitude for martial arts, right?"
"Right."
"That's why it's a tree."
"Huh?"
"Every person lives their own unique life. It's like roots spreading out in all directions."
"The Namgung Clan can be seen as the sturdy trunk that brings all those roots together."
"People who have lived entirely different lives come together under the Namgung name to walk the same overarching path."
"But different people can't walk the exact same path perfectly. Everyone has their own way of doing things."
Countless paths branching out from a single trunk form the branches of the tree. From there, they sprout leaves, bloom flowers, and bear fruit.
"But no one looks at those branches and calls them all different trees, right?"
Even if they walked different paths, they were all branches originating from a single tree.
And that tree was Namgung.
The Namgung Lineage embodied exactly that kind of tree.
"What I can do is prepare the foundation, allowing the gathered roots to extend upward and grow into branches."
It wouldn't be impossible to create a specific martial art for every single one of their unique paths, but that was a monumental task meant to be achieved gradually over time.
"For now, I'll be satisfied with this."
From his high vantage point, he could see countless people moving busily within the Namgung Clan.
In Seo-jun’s eyes, he could clearly see it—the stems extending from each and every one of them, weaving together to form the shape of a giant, ethereal tree looming over the Namgung Clan.
"Shall we go find the Green Forest people first?"
Seo-jun smiled brightly.