The Monkey King's Test
Ping Lei’s face twisted into a ridiculous grimace.
“Seon magic?”
“That’s right.”
“But the Great Sage Equal to Heaven is renowned for his martial prowess…”
“Idiot.”
I clicked my tongue.
“What are Sun Wukong’s sacred relics?”
“The Ruyi Jingu Bang and the Somersault Cloud, aren’t they?”
“Only one of those is correct.”
I knew this would happen.
Somersault Cloud.
Thanks to all the movies, animations, and comics, it’s widely known as a “sacred relic,” but in truth it is one of the highest-grade seon techniques.
A skill that lets you ride the clouds and move at speeds even faster than Shrink.
Ping Lei’s mouth fell open.
“The Somersault Cloud is a seon technique?”
“Correct. Sun Wukong is not merely a powerful constellation in terms of brute strength.”
Besides clones and the Somersault Cloud, Sun Wukong has mastered countless other seon techniques.
When it comes to applying seon magic in actual combat, I doubt there’s a single constellation in the entire celestial realm who can surpass him.
Hmph. This one is jumping to the wrong conclusion too. I’m starting to wonder if contracting with him is even worth it.
“No! Great Sage Equal to Heaven! Please forgive this disciple’s ignorance!”
Ping Lei slammed his head against the ground once more.
At this rate he’s going to draw blood.
Still, he seems useful enough. I shall bestow my protection upon him.
A mass of fluffy clouds shaped itself like a hand and gently stroked Ping Lei’s head.
A contract with a constellation from behind the scenes.
It was the kind of contract where the sponsor grants protection to a player and becomes their patron.
Ping Lei kept his head bowed, breathing hard.
A moment later.
With this, the contract is complete.
“I will do everything in my power not to tarnish the name of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.”
Instead of doing your best, do something fun. That’s far more important.
“Pardon?”
You don’t seem like the type to get beaten up everywhere you go, so at least make it entertaining.
Typical Sun Wukong.
That guy’s only interest is having fun.
He’s the one who flipped the entire celestial realm upside down out of boredom and even cured the Jade Emperor’s low blood pressure in the process.
“Guild Master— I mean, Big Bro!”
“What the hell is this ‘Big Bro’ nonsense?”
“From now on, I shall address you as Big Bro.”
Look, it’s nice that you respect me and all…
But in Korean, “big bro” sounds exactly like a curse word, you know?
Ever since the Tower of Babel appeared, every ethnic language has become automatically translated, yet certain pronunciations still stabbed straight into the ear.
Especially curses.
“Call me something else.”
“Since you are the one guiding me, I shall call you Master.”
First it was teacher, now master.
Fine.
“Master” was definitely better than the other option.
“We should form a contract too, shouldn’t we?”
This guy looks more fun, but I suppose I have no choice.
Sun Wukong let out a sigh before his form turned into a hand once again.
The Monkey King of Mount Huaguo wishes to form a Clairvoyance Contract with you.
📍 Effect: You may share vision with the Monkey King of Mount Huaguo according to your will.
📍 Warning: The Monkey King may share your vision without permission. Duration in such cases is 3 hours.
📍 Penalty: Sharing vision without permission will incur penalties.
🎁 Reward: ‘Basic Seon Magic Even a Monkey Can Learn’ item
There were no poisonous clauses.
My privacy was protected as well.
Sun Wukong could forcibly share my vision, but doing so would trigger a penalty.
There would be a cooldown before he could do it again, plus a fee for breaching the contract.
For a contract with a constellation, this was practically generous.
Well? Do you like it?
“It’s excellent.”
Oh, and you’d better read that seon magic book carefully.
Sun Wukong’s grinning face gradually faded away.
The duration of Gjallarhorn has ended.
Terminating conversation with the constellation.
The shattered horn of Gjallarhorn fell to the ground.
A Legend-grade item had been destroyed, yet I felt no regret.
I had already gained everything I wanted from it.
◈ Type: Book
◈ Restriction: One acknowledged by Sun Wukong
◈ Durability: 100/100
A seon magic tome personally written by Sun Wukong after he infused it with his own power.
It contained the fundamentals of seon techniques.
A secret manual created by a constellation at the cost of his own divinity and existence.
It was clearly no ordinary book on seon magic.
What exactly was that monkey planning?
“Ping Lei, can you hear what Sun Wukong is saying?”
“Yes, Master. He says to come to the tower quickly so he can pass on his power.”
“Good. It’ll be faster to learn seon magic directly from him.”
“Understood.”
Ping Lei gave a respectful fist salute.
After finishing the contract with Sun Wukong, we immediately headed down to the training ground.
“So your true goal was that secret manual.”
Nyx smiled with her eyes.
“Did you really think I’d go out of my way to help someone else for free?”
Of course not.
I had used a Legend-grade item just to summon Sun Wukong.
There was no way I would waste Gjallarhorn simply to set up a connection for Ping Lei.
“Hehe, how snake-like and cunning.”
“That almost sounds like an insult.”
I frowned and placed my hand on the book.
The True Ruyi Pearl, perfected after I devoured the essence of the corrupted Imugi.
Seon magic was the perfect power to draw out the True Ruyi Pearl’s full potential.
I opened the book titled Basic Seon Magic Even a Monkey Can Learn.
The pages were completely white.
Even when I flipped to the back, not a single character was written on them.
You must be quite flustered by now, right?
Black letters floated up on the white paper.
“It’s Sun Wukong.”
Kekeke, I thought you’d be a little more surprised. How boring.
The letters on the page responded to my words.
So this was what he meant by “infusing it with his power.”
The Clairvoyance contract only allowed vision sharing; it didn’t permit conversation.
While he could send patron messages, expressing emotion was the limit.
Sun Wukong had exploited a loophole in the contract that said “a book containing seon techniques” and imprinted his own will into it.
“You really pulled off something amusing.”
There is no constellation who understands seon magic better than I do.
So confident.
“So why did you go through all this trouble?”
If I taught you without any conditions, where’s the fun in that?
A portrait of Sun Wukong laughing mischievously filled an entire page.
The contract never specified how I would teach you.
The method is entirely up to me.
“You really do talk a lot. Get to the point.”
Kekeke. If you cannot master the basic seon technique I present within three days, the book will burn to ash.
“I see. So this is your little test.”
I cannot teach my seon techniques to someone boring. That would be a waste of time.
So he consumed his own existence and divinity just to pull off this stunt.
So like him.
The letters that had filled the page vanished, and new phrases containing the essence of seon magic began to appear one by one.
At the very end, it read:
If you pass this test, I will kindly teach you the rest. Maybe.
Seeing how much he loved messing with people, he hadn’t changed at all from before the regression.
“To think he would dare test you. What an insolent fellow.”
“This much is only fair.”
I slowly read through the fundamentals of seon magic that Sun Wukong had left behind.
* * *
Seon magic is a form of sorcery permitted only to those who have grasped the principles of nature and all creation.
To wield seon magic, one must first awaken seon energy. The reason beasts who have gained intelligence train for hundreds of years is to awaken this energy.
I spent three hundred years roaming nature, comprehending its principles. Only after mastering seon energy did I learn seon magic from Subhuti.
You must have realized by now—only those who have awakened seon energy can wield seon magic.
Ah, I was told to keep the part about learning from Subhuti a secret, so keep it to yourself.
After that, the book recorded the insights Sun Wukong had gained while awakening seon energy.
I closed the book.
“Are you not going to read it?”
“It’s just him bragging about how great he is.”
“Hehe, from that expression I can tell you’ve already prepared a solution.”
I answered Nyx’s words with a smile and tightly shut my eyes.
In murim novels, there was an expression called “ascending to immortality in broad daylight.”
It meant a sage who had cultivated the Dao in the mountains would attain enlightenment, become an immortal, and ascend to the heavens.
The martial arts of the Daoist path aimed to transcend the limits of mortality, comprehend the principles of all creation, and become an immortal.
The power that could only be wielded after ascending to immortality was seon energy.
Having only just reached the level of qi manifestation, it should have been impossible for me to awaken such power.
But what could I do?
The power of the True Ruyi Pearl converts internal energy into seon energy.
A portion of internal energy is lost during the conversion process.
The internal energy absorbed into the Ruyi Pearl transformed into a completely different force.
A power I had never handled before the regression.
Seon energy.
If dark mana felt explosive and sticky, seon energy felt as refreshing as an autumn breeze cooling sweaty skin.
This was the true power of the True Ruyi Pearl.
I had never used it before because there had been no need to handle seon energy, but now that I had an excellent “teacher,” there was no reason to hesitate.
I concentrated a portion of seon energy into my hand and opened the book again.
What?! You already awakened seon energy? That’s impossible!
I had to get struck by lightning and jump into a pit of fire just to awaken this power! Huh?! How did you—?!
“Stop complaining and just teach me the technique already.”
When I tapped the book, the letters scrambled in every direction, failing to form proper sentences. They kept appearing and disappearing repeatedly.
Sun Wukong.
He was completely flustered and didn’t know what to do.
“Did you already know how to use it?”
“I told you. There is no essence that is useless.”
“Indeed. How very snake-like of you.”
Nyx let out a short, amused laugh.
A moment later, the book that had been frantically scribbling and erasing like a child’s doodle finally regained its composure.
The test is not over yet. My condition was that you must master the basic seon technique.
Since you can already handle seon energy, I will now teach you the fundamentals.
The foundation of seon magic is the Five Elements. You must be able to handle all five attributes that make up nature.
Each immortal has their own specialty. Even I am not equally proficient in every element.
However, you must at least understand the minimum of each. Otherwise the harmony of the Five Elements will collapse and you will be unable to use any other seon techniques.
The first technique I will teach you is Lightning Swiftness.
Its name is Thunder Body. It is a seon technique that wraps lightning around your body to dramatically increase your reaction speed.
If you can master Thunder Body within three days, I will sincerely teach you the rest.
Lightning is the most difficult element, but… kekekekeke. Do your best.
He emphasized the three-day limit twice.
He had no idea that suggestion would end up tightening the noose around his own neck.
Next came a detailed anatomical diagram of the human body.
It kindly illustrated exactly how to circulate seon energy.
“Oh, so this energy is manifested through the acupoints, just like martial arts.”
“Exactly. That makes it much easier to learn.”
Seon energy moved along the acupoints.
In terms of operation, it was remarkably similar to martial arts.
If magic rearranged mana outside the body to twist the laws of the world, then seon magic treated the user’s own body as a microcosm, altering the laws from within and wielding the power of nature according to one’s will.
Put simply, it was like engraving a magic circle inside your own body.
What was interesting was that although seon energy and internal energy used the same pathways, they did not mix, allowing both to be operated simultaneously.
“It’s pretty difficult.”
I furrowed my brow.
I tried circulating seon energy exactly as shown in the anatomical diagram, but I couldn’t immediately manifest Thunder Body.
So that was why Sun Wukong had been so confident.
At that moment.
Lightning attribute detected.
Thunder God’s Blessing is applied.
The Thunder God’s Blessing I had obtained from devouring the lightning stone reacted with the seon energy circulating through my acupoints.
I hadn’t manifested Thunder Body yet, but I had successfully converted seon energy into lightning.
Thanks to Zeus’s blessing, handling lightning had become much easier.
A short while later.
Only after seeing the system message could I finally smile.