Chapter 176
Chapter 176
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
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When I woke up, I was inside the training quarters of Jin Rang Valley. I was lying there in fresh clothes, with bandages wrapped around the few wounds I'd sustained in battle. I drew in a breath of clear air, feeling the slightly chilly temperature as I rose from my spot.
'It's early evening...'
How long had I been out?
I remembered unleashing my full-powered sword aura and collapsing from exhaustion, but after that, all I knew was that Geukho hyungnim had carried me here. Judging by the gnawing hunger in my stomach and the languid feeling in my limbs, though, a fair amount of time must have passed.
I scratched the back of my head and sat up halfway on the bed. After gazing at the sunset for a bit, I ran the Small Celestial Circuit to check my internal energy.
No issues with my internal energy. It was completely replenished. As expected, my natural regenerative abilities had restored it, so I was certain the bandaged wounds had fully healed. As I sat there on the bed for a while, a voice called out.
"Hyungnim. You're awake?"
It was a voice like polished jade beads. I startled and looked toward the door, where Sa Gong-rin was walking over, having sensed my awakening. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I replied.
"Yeah, Rin."
"Hehe... Why so formal?"
"Well, because you're—"
In the middle of speaking, something felt off. I could see Sa Gong-rin's expression gradually cooling as soon as the topic of 'age' came up. I quickly wrapped it up.
"...so refined."
Sa Gong-rin smiled brightly and came closer, gently placing her slender jade hand on my forehead.
"Hm, no fever. How are you feeling, hyungnim?"
Seeing Sa Gong-rin's elegant beauty up close—the same beauty I'd once thought peerless—made my heart race. A few years into this reincarnation, my body had fully hit puberty, so my face flushed red. And rightly so; Sa Gong-rin possessed a transcendent allure that outshone every beauty I'd encountered on my journeys.
"I-I'm... fine."
"Master and hyungnim were quite worried about you too."
Clink.
Sa Gong-rin set down a bowl of porridge made from black rice beside the bed. It was piping hot, as if she'd prepared it ahead and kept rewarming it whenever she had time. My stomach was growling just right for it, so I was glad.
"They're all out right now, so eat this and gather your strength to greet them."
"Out?"
"Yes."
I tilted my head and asked.
"Now that you mention it, how much time has passed? And what happened with the battle...?"
"Geukho hyungnim brought you back two days ago. I heard we completely won against the Wind God Style."
"We won? Then Yellow Mountain Sect..."
"Was wiped out."
"......!!"
I gripped the blanket tightly while sitting on the bed. Joy surged through me at the fact that the Thunder God Style had finally achieved total victory in that brutal fight. But with the Nine Great Sects' Yellow Mountain Sect destroyed and all-out war declared against Wind God Style, worry crept in about what would come next.
"Ah, hyungnim! You're up."
"Ung..."
At that moment, Jaehu passed by with Green Forest King Gu Cheol and entered my room. Jaehu looked like a fair-faced pretty boy my age, while Green Forest King Gu Cheol was wrapped head to toe in bandages even more than I had been. They greeted me with clasped hands almost in unison, and I returned the gesture.
Jaehu giggled and said.
"Rin noona gave you a full bath."
Huh?!
I looked at Sa Gong-rin in shock, and she wore a flustered expression. Sa Gong-rin scolded Jaehu.
"Jaehu, why say that now?"
"Just 'cause~"
Come to think of it, not just my outer clothes but even my undergarments had been changed. Did that mean Sa Gong-rin had seen me completely naked? Mortified, my face turned beet red, and Gu Cheol beside us clasped his hands again with his gravelly voice.
"In any case, this Gu Cheol is in awe of Baek Woong hyungnim's divine might. Please take care of me going forward, hyungnim."
"The feeling's mutual."
"Speak casually. I'm the youngest here."
"...Got it."
Green Forest King Gu Cheol had originally been a spy for Wind God Style, a peak expert ruling over Tiger King Stronghold as leader of the Green Forest Eighteen Bandit Dens. But after being recruited by Lee Gwang, he'd become the youngest disciple of Thunder God Style, placing him even lower in seniority than the fresh-faced young Jaehu. Thunder God Style's disciple hierarchy completely ignored age.
I asked Gu Cheol.
"By the way, where did Master and hyungnim go?"
"They're currently heading to Jang Ryeong Valley with the Reverse Heaven Alliance Leader."
"Jang Ryeong Valley...?"
"Yes. They said they had business with the Jang Ryeong Valley Lord. That's all I know."
I was curious about what was going on.
Jang Ryeong Valley!
That was the place where you'd get lavish gold and treasures if you answered three riddles correctly. Rumors also said it harshly punished those who got them wrong. From what I'd heard, Mang Ryang had gone along with the Thunder God Style folks, which was surprising enough to warrant the valley lord's personal involvement.
'Oh, right. The Jang Ryeong Valley Lord is part of Mang Ryang's clan too.'
Mang Ryang himself seemed uncomfortable about it, but the valley lord was apparently from the Astronomy Bureau clan, the Zhuge family. They'd even considered him a last resort during the full retreat from Luoyang. No doubt the Jang Ryeong Valley Lord was no ordinary martial artist.
It was then.
[Your juniors made such a fuss over you; you got off lucky, Baek Woong.]
Miho's spirit voice reached me. I'd been wondering where she'd gone since the curved jade around my neck was missing, but sure enough, she was nearby. I glanced out the window, and her giggling echoed.
[I'm toying with the old Eastern guy in Jin Rang Valley. Come find me after you eat.]
"Ung..."
With no choice, I chatted lightly with my juniors, ate the black rice porridge, and headed toward Jin Rang Valley. Miho must have gone to find Dongbang Mugyeol, confined there. I'd told the others not to follow.
When I reached the secluded thatched hut where Dongbang Mugyeol lived, Miho was cackling in front of the door in the form of a young girl.
"Ahaha. You look starving."
"That obvious?"
"You've gone days without food; porridge won't cut it."
Miho beamed and stroked my face.
"Let's go eat something delicious together in a bit."
"Yeah. But why come here?"
As far as I knew, Dongbang Mugyeol lived in this remote thatched hut in Jin Rang Valley with his internal energy sealed, scraping by like an ordinary village elder. Unless I released the seal, he'd live out his days like that, so no one paid him any mind. I couldn't understand why Miho had come to see him.
Miho said.
"Truth is, while tending to you, I got bored midway and came to Jin Rang Valley. Then I realized there was something you'd overlooked."
"Overlooked?"
"You only formally extracted Dongbang Mugyeol's information; you didn't delve into his deep memories. That always bothered me, so I thoroughly enchanted the old man."
"......!!"
Surprised, I entered the hut. There sat Dongbang Mugyeol on the bed, completely entranced and vacant-eyed. Fortunately, Miho hadn't done anything twisted; he was just sitting there.
"What? So you interrogated him?"
"Exactly. I did everything possible and just waited for you to wake up."
Dongbang Mugyeol showed no reaction even to our voices. Under peak enchantment, memories faded away. I sat on a chair in the hut and replied.
"I don't think the info Dongbang Mugyeol gave back then was false. It worked in reality, and even White Lotus Cult Leader believed it all. He spilled everything to survive, so what other hidden info could there be?"
Miho crossed her arms.
"Less 'information' and more... parts he was concealing. For example, the matter of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors."
"Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors?"
Why bring that up here?
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors referred to the legendary first divine rulers who governed the Central Plains. By convention, all of them—from the Yellow Emperor onward—were treated as gods. They were essential figures in the ancient myths of Daoist and Buddhist sects alike. They were also known for granting the Seven Luminaries to humanity.
Seeing my puzzled look, Miho addressed Dongbang Mugyeol.
"Hey, tell us in detail about your encounter with that suspicious clan when you visited the Yue libraries through contact with the Southern Barbarians."
"Understood..."
Dongbang Mugyeol responded like a puppet and continued.
"I offered the Holy Lotus to Naresuan, the supreme overlord of the Southern Barbarians, and gained permission to access the great library... There, I encountered a suspicious clan and struck an additional deal..."
What was this?
Stunned, I questioned him.
"Suspicious clan? What do you mean?"
Dongbang Mugyeol must have used a few Holy Lotus stalks as bargaining chips, backed by White Lotus Cult Leader. But I'd never heard a word about this suspicious clan, so it threw me off.
"I could speak the languages of the Southern Barbarians and Yue... but lacked the skill to interpret the library's ancient texts... That's when they appeared, offering interpretation in exchange for Holy Lotus, and Naresuan outsourced more to them... With their help, I translated the library texts... and viewed the ruins of the giants as well."
"Giants?"
"The descendants of the Flame Emperor Shennong from the legends of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors... The so-called clan of gigantic gods like Chiyou, Kuafu, Gonggong, and Hengtian... They built mysterious ruins far south of the Southern Yue, leaving their traces there..."
"......!!"
Giants had actually existed!
From the Classic of Mountains and Seas to Central Plains ancient myths, giants appeared commonly, all sharing tragic fates in rebellion against gods or the Heavenly Emperor. But their depicted sizes were so immense that I'd dismissed them as pure myth. To think giants had truly existed in history!
"And? Did you enter the ruins?"
"With the help of that suspicious clan—who called themselves the Zhu Rong Clan—I was able to enter... And inside, I discovered something terrifying..."
"Terrifying...?"
"There... an ancient divine clan slumbered... No... It could only be called a demon... Absolute..."
Dongbang Mugyeol's lips trembled as he continued.
"...Moreover, mysterious怪語 covered the place—text even the Zhu Rong Clan couldn't decipher... That怪語 formed a barrier sealing the divine clan... The Zhu Rong Clan's duty is to guard that barrier for eternity..."
"......"
怪語.
Hearing that, I recalled the bizarre demonic tomes I'd collected. I pulled out the neck guard I'd brought and retrieved the book titled [Records of the Spiral Abyss Citadel] from it. I couldn't show him the Heavenly Dark Secret Book, so I showed him this instead.
"Was the怪語 anything like this?"
"...O, oh... Yes, exactly... The form is slightly different, but the unique feel is the same..."
"Ung."
As expected, the lands of the Southern Yue tribes had ruins tied to异族 too. But why connect that to the traces of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors? A foreboding thought flashed through my mind, but I shook it off. It was all speculation at this point.
"You said the Zhu Rong Clan are descendants of the giants, so they must have been huge."
"No... They appeared ordinary humans... Yet they possessed abilities beyond human ken..."
"What abilities?"
"They... could swap bodies with other beings..."
"......!!"
"It's the authority of their progenitor, the Flame Emperor... Some have used it to live for thousands of years..."
Swap bodies!
If true, as long as the soul endured, they could achieve immortality by changing vessels indefinitely? I could hardly believe it, but under Miho's perfect enchantment, I had no choice. Calming my mind, I asked.
"Why did they crave the Holy Lotus?"
"I'm not sure..."
"How exactly does their body-swapping work? Why weren't you taken over?"
"The ability seems to require the target's consent, not force... They said it was a degraded version of their clan's original power..."
"Hmm."
After a moment's thought, I asked.
"Anything else unusual you saw?"
"A windowless tower... A strange tower made of dark stone..."
"A tower?"
"It seemed to be both their living space and a ruin... Nothing else stands out..."
Zhu Rong Clan!
Windowless tower!
Intuition told me this was a clue to obtaining the Flame Emperor Shennong's Luminaries—Fire曜. I questioned Dongbang Mugyeol further, but the rest was all familiar info. On a whim, feeling mischievous, I asked.
"Hey. What martial art do you practice, and what secrets does it hide?"
"Urgh... Ahh..."
Dongbang Mugyeol writhed in agony, unable to answer easily. Miho, watching from the side, spoke up.
"Things rejected from the deepest unconscious are hard to extract even with enchantment."
"What do you mean?"
"In other words, it's a secret he'd rather die torn apart than reveal. Push further, and he'll go mad or shatter mentally."
"Ung..."
It felt like a missed opportunity. If even peak experts were this resistant under enchantment, extracting martial secrets wasn't easy. A superhuman like Dongbang Mugyeol surely had much to learn from; what a shame.
I said to Miho.
"Miho. What do you think? Connected to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and异族?"
Miho pondered gravely at my question. It was odd for a human like me to care about such matters; Miho, from the heavenly realm, had deeper ties. She was treating this seriously, not as mere amusement.
After deep thought, Miho replied.
"The Queen Mother of the West I served actually has a form shown to humans separate from her true body."
"......?"
"In essence... The heavenly forms are mere projections of human unconscious idols. Heavenly beings are all spiritual entities, so they can freely alter their appearances."
Miho sighed briefly and continued.
"...And after nearly a thousand years serving her, I've yet to see her true form."
"What are you getting at?"
"The gap between 'ancient ones' and newcomers in the heavens is vast. I'm relatively young there, while the Queen Mother existed before the heavens formed. She's never spoken to me of ancient era events."
"Hm."
"Certain secrets even the Great Immortals dread—that much is clear. And they tie to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors."
From Miho's words, I gleaned much.
And reached my own conclusion.
Even the heavens can't be fully trusted.