Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village
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After leaving the village where Cheon Woo-jin had been, Mang-ryang and I first headed into Luoyang together. In my previous life, I had parted ways with him to build up my own martial arts, but this time, since that wasn't the goal itself, I wanted to discuss our future direction with him first.
The inn was bustling in the early evening.
"Let's see... This is something I didn't hear during the ritual, so you're saying you already received the blessing of the Great Void Heavenly Venerable in your previous life? And it was a great fortune blessing at that?"
I nodded.
"That's right. It was enough for me to survive the chaos and master the secret arts I desired."
"Hmm... And this time, it's turned into the Queen Mother of the West's blessing of immortality."
Mang-ryang, who had been crunching on frog legs, fell deep into thought. Then, pouring himself a drink, he said,
"Something feels off."
"What's off?"
"If what you're saying is true, it means your reincarnation doesn't even apply to the gods. Sure, with divine power, they might sense something amiss, but neither the Great Void Heavenly Venerable nor the Queen Mother knows you've turned back time."
"I see..."
Mang-ryang slammed his fist on the table.
"'I see' my ass. This has huge implications."
"What kind of implications?"
"......"
Mang-ryang downed his drink in one gulp. Then he poured me one.
"Have a drink first."
"I look like a kid on the outside. You sure that's okay?"
"Who cares? You can circulate your inner energy to burn off the alcohol anyway."
"Fair enough."
I accepted the drink from Mang-ryang and took a sip. The aroma was fragrant and pleasant. It was bamboo liquor, with a sharp, spicy tang lingering on my tongue. I wasn't one to dislike alcohol, so I savored it for a while before Mang-ryang spoke up.
"Think about it. The Great Void Heavenly Venerable is among the top-tier gods in Taoism, and the Queen Mother of the West is a powerful being who oversees all female immortals. Beings of that caliber can bestow immense graces after consuming the fruit of the demon tree. But if even they don't know about your reincarnation, what does that mean?"
"......?"
Mang-ryang tore into a chicken leg and chewed thoughtfully before saying,
"It means the one who created the Heavenly Dark Secret Book—or infused it with the power of reincarnation—is a great existence with power surpassing at least the Great Void Heavenly Venerable or the Queen Mother."
"Urgh...!!"
I let out a groan, having never considered that point.
'The being that made the Heavenly Dark Secret Book?'
I'd barely given it any thought until now. I'd just seen it as a mysterious book that turned back time. But after learning of the Seven Luminaries and encountering the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and Taoist gods, its meaning had changed. The Heavenly Dark Secret Book must have been made by someone, and that creator's stature was undoubtedly beyond human imagination.
Mang-ryang muttered,
"You might be tangled up in more trouble than you think."
"That's something I always consider."
"Not in that sense, but... hmm. Another chicken here."
Mang-ryang had already finished one whole chicken. He ordered more snacks and continued.
"How much do you understand about Taoist divinities?"
"I picked up the basics while learning the Eight Trigrams Formation."
"Most of those treated as gods in Taoism aren't true gods but immortals elevated in status. To a Daoist cultivator, immortals and gods aren't that different. You can tell from how they separately designate semi-immortals."
"Hmm."
"But... assuming the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dark Secret Book, it might not fit that framework. If it's a being higher than them, it can only be a true divinity worshipped in other religions."
I asked in confusion,
"Don't Taoists treat the Supreme Old Lord and Shakyamuni as equals? I thought the distinction between Daoist and Buddhist hierarchies was generally clear."
"Heh, that's just a distortion that happened when Indian Buddhism merged with Central Plains folk beliefs and got absorbed. The god-buddhas worshipped in actual Indian Buddhism are very different from what we imagine."
Mang-ryang started on a chicken wing this time. He must have been starving.
"No, I misspoke. Contrary to the story that India is Buddhism's birthplace, India doesn't believe in Buddhism much. It's the land worshipping the world's most complex polytheism, and Shakyamuni is just one among the eight million divinities they revere."
"What? I've never heard that before."
"Do you know much about Buddhism?"
"Honestly, no."
"The Brahma Heaven, Narayana Heaven, and Great Freedom Heaven that Buddhism calls by those names aren't just gods of the great heavenly realms. Brahma is the creator of the world, Narayana its preserver, and Great Freedom its destroyer at the end of ages. They're supreme divinities in themselves, but when Central Plains Buddhism syncretized with Taoism, they were demoted to lesser gods."
I found the story intriguing.
'Demoted gods?'
It was something I hadn't even imagined. As I listened quietly to Mang-ryang, he picked up a duck leg from the side and said,
"But even so, the power of Brahma, Narayana, and Great Freedom hasn't diminished at all. They're beings whose essence isn't tied to their external status. The creator of the Heavenly Dark Secret Book could be something like that."
"Like what exactly?"
Mang-ryang chewed on the duck leg and said,
"Divinities that need no faith, no human cognition, complete and self-existent in their purity! Nothing less could surpass the Great Void Heavenly Venerable or the Queen Mother."
"......?"
I tilted my head.
"What does that mean?"
"Sigh... The 'me' from your previous life should have made you read some religious texts. You're the human closest to the realm of gods in the Central Plains right now, yet so ignorant."
Gulp, gulp.
Sighing, Mang-ryang chugged straight from the bottle and explained. He'd nearly devoured the entire chicken by now.
"Think about it. Why are divinities like the Great Void Heavenly Venerable or the Queen Mother so powerful?"
"Uh... high positions?"
Mang-ryang shook his head while holding a chicken leg.
"No. Because countless humans worship them, recognize them, and revere them! A god's power is heavily influenced by faith. Sure, as beings ascended from immortal status, they retain some power without it, but faith creates vast differences in strength—that's the truth."
"Gods are that dependent on human belief?"
"Yes. Whether Taoist gods or Buddhist ones, they're ultimately created by humans. Their divine powers are deeply tied to humanity."
Mang-ryang slowly finished the last chicken leg. I glanced at the table—it was mostly cleaned out. With no choice, I ordered a bowl of chicken porridge. As I did, Mang-ryang said,
"Gods or immortals fundamentally sustain their reverence through human faith. In other words, forgotten divinities gradually lose power and eventually vanish. But there are beings that deviate greatly from that law—divinities that have existed since the creation of heaven and earth, independent of human faith or cognition."
Urp.
Mang-ryang let out a burp, probably from eating so much. I was midway through my chicken porridge, but I couldn't help being shocked by his appetite. It seemed performing the ritual left him ravenously hungry. As I thought about feeding him properly next time, Mang-ryang continued.
"Those existences are extremely secretive, unknown to the populace. Even if known, they're packaged as secret gods, with only a handful aware of their true nature."
"Didn't you say divinities and immortals draw power from human belief? Why is that?"
"Because humans who learn of them go mad from sheer terror at their presence!"
"......!!"
"And they don't need human faith. They possess immense power to upheave heaven and earth on their own. They're not benevolent toward humans either— they treat us like insects."
Mang-ryang spat out the words.
"My master, Monk Mang-ryang, actually maintains barriers to keep those existences from interfering in this world. That's why his power, far greater than that of great immortals, keeps him bound to the mortal realm."
"Keeps them from interfering...?"
"My master bears the karma of a guardian. Thus, no Taoist divinity except the Supreme Old Lord can command or coerce him."
Suddenly, I recalled my exchange with Monk Mang-ryang.
[The sorcerer you faced isn't of this world. An otherworldly intruder that wandered in by chance. Merely encountering its spells or knowledge corrupts and degenerates ordinary beings, leading them to worship despair. My role is to prevent such wanderers from reaching this world, but this time luck wasn't on our side.]
[Wait, 'for the time being'? There's more of them?]
[Probably.]
Everything Monk Mang-ryang said was true. He usually erected barriers to keep evil gods and their worshippers from entering this world. But somehow, the sorcerer had breached it, likely due to the shadowy force called the Subduing Demon Hall.
After organizing my thoughts, I muttered,
"Hard to believe. Such beings exist?"
"Better not to know. Learning about them brings no gain, just madness. But your Heavenly Dark Secret Book can only be explained as their creation."
"Urgh..."
"My master called them the 'Ancient Overlords'."
Ancient Overlords.
My mind finally started to clear. In other words, a malevolent, powerful god that views humans as insects might have created the Dark Heaven Secret Book. But one thing still puzzled me.
'Why did the sorcerer flee upon seeing the Heavenly Dark Secret Book?'
It didn't seem to have any special power to repel sorcerers. Mang-ryang said it was just a book with no unique spell effects. So the sorcerer must have realized something from its 'contents' and fled this world. I'd never figured out why.
I resolved inwardly.
'Alright. When I fight the Subduing Demon Hall this time, I'll capture that newly summoned otherworldly being alive. Last time I had no chance, but I must uncover what the Heavenly Dark Secret Book really is.'
As I was lost in thought, Mang-ryang spoke. He'd finished eating.
"Anyway, dwelling on that won't help... What are your plans from here?"
"Right. We should discuss the future."
I took a sip of bamboo liquor and said,
"I want to search for the treasures of the Seven Luminaries."
"The Seven Luminaries' treasures?"
"Yes. I've received the Queen Mother of the West's blessing of immortality anyway, haven't I? That means I now have plenty of time to track down the Seven Luminaries' whereabouts somewhere in this world. I plan to locate them first, then gather them across reincarnations."
That was my plan.
I hadn't received the great fortune blessing from the Great Void Heavenly Venerable, but I got immortality instead. It seemed meaningless since I died easily anyway, but put differently, it gave me time to hunt for those treasures. If I was set on living long without dying, scouring for them made sense.
Mang-ryang showed rare admiration.
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that! That's a solid plan."
"Haha, thanks."
"But how? The Seven Luminaries' treasures are legends from the Silver and Zhou dynasties—tracking their paths is nearly impossible. Finding the Sun Treasure or traces of the Earth Treasure in the Phoenix Fragment was pure luck. Even searching ancient texts would be incredibly tough."
"......"
I was at a loss for words. True, with no clues or traces, how could I find treasures hidden somewhere in the world? I hadn't even heard of Balhae before learning about the Earth Treasure's Eight Trigrams Sword there. Hell, I didn't even know Balhae was a country.
Mang-ryang grinned.
"Here's my thought. I'll take the black-and-white lotus root from you and master martial arts and spells with the demon tree's power. Meanwhile, you head from Liaodong to the peninsula lands."
"The peninsula?"
"From what I know, there's a nation called Goryeo there now. And a separate Eastern martial world unique to it. Go search for something called Haein there."
"Haein?"
"Yes. I suspect it might be one of the Seven Luminaries' treasures. My master often mentioned that the Eastern Haein originated from India."
It was unexpected. I was deeply grateful that Mang-ryang had pointed out my path. But then a realization hit me, and I said,
"Wait, won't the Imperial Guards gather the Seven Luminaries within five or six years and hatch their plot? What about that?"
"What about it? Just leave them be."
"......?"
"Think. If gathering the Seven Luminaries gave the Imperial Guards world-domination power in just five years, why send assassins? They saw me, the Anti-Heaven Alliance Leader, as a threat to their future plans. That means even by then, they hadn't fully amassed that power."
"Hmm..."
"If I truly thought we couldn't oppose the Subduing Demon Hall, I wouldn't have contacted you. Why choose mutual destruction? They must have had some counter, that's why they reached out."
I felt a pang of guilt inside. As I stayed silent, Mang-ryang said firmly,
"The key is for you to uncover as many Seven Luminaries' traces as possible! Worst case, die, reincarnate, and try again. That's how you'll fight from now on."
I ventured cautiously,
"What if I infiltrate the Imperial Guards, figure out how they're gathering them, and sabotage it?"
Mang-ryang was startled.
"What reckless idea is that? They're summoning otherworldly beings to overthrow the world. Going in without backing or treasures is suicidal. You need at least one Luminary's power first."
"Right."
"If you're not afraid to die, it could work, but... as you said, with the Queen Mother's blessing, shouldn't we make the most of it this time?"
"Got it. I'll do that."
A few days later, I handed Mang-ryang the black-and-white lotus root, Phoenix Fragment, and demon tree fruit. He said he'd maximize his abilities with them and meet me in Liaodong. Then he gave me an odd look.
"But you don't know what the demon tree's power is?"
"No."
"Hmm... I'll figure it out and teach you. It's our biggest weapon right now—wasted if we don't know its use."
"It didn't seem great as a combat tool, so I ignored it."
"There must be something hidden. It's a treasure from the divine era..."
I decided to trust Mang-ryang with it. Then I set off for the eastern peninsula for the first time in my life. Not knowing where, but to find this Haein, I embarked on an aimless journey. My first destination became Shandong, where routes to Eastern Goryeo were said to exist.
Clop clop.
Riding my horse, I realized I was passing through terrain I'd never seen. I'd bought a map, but the Central Plains was too vast to trust it easily. I figured this would become experience later.
'Phew, Shandong...'
What kind of country was Goryeo?
Filled with fresh excitement, I spurred my horse.
"Hold up, young hero! Hear me out."
My buoyant mood shattered right after some weirdo blocked the road. He had bulging eyes, beggar rags, and looked utterly deranged. As I stared silently from horseback, he said,
"Young hero, do you have a master?"
"No..."
"Then you're from the White Lotus Cult?"
"Not that either..."
The freak grinned.
"Heh heh, you seem like a White Lotus Cultist—take this!"
"Huh?!"
And the fight began.