The Dharma Name Revealed
White mist curled from the cold corpse.
Wukong’s eyes gradually reddened, blazing like blood and burning like lava. The world of Fiery Golden Eyes opened.
Deep within the mind, the world beyond the physical realm stirred. With the body’s life force fading, the hidden soul inside began to twitch.
That was the moment.
Suddenly Wukong glared into the empty void, baring his fangs like a beast. “Disappear.”
The air was filled only with fierce winds, yet Wukong stared as though someone had appeared. The cold, violent gaze was nothing like the playful look from before.
It belonged to a ferocious great demon, filled with the cruelty of a creature ready to bite and swallow its prey. A tiny remnant of the great demon Sun Wukong who had vanished after the journey to the West.
“Will you drag this kind of fellow to hell, or hand him another trial and reincarnate him?”
The soul that had accumulated every kind of evil karma would either descend to hell or wash away its sins in the endless cycle of reincarnation. It might live as a lowly beast, or as a worm, and if there were signs of regeneration, it might even be reborn as a human. All was decided in the judgment of the underworld.
Yet Wukong sneered. “Look at how you reincarnated this vicious demon as a human and revived it. Does this snake demon’s soul look clean to you?”
So it was not to be trusted.
“Convey this to your superior, the King of Hell. Tell him this fellow will be dealt with by me.”
Wukong bared his teeth again.
How much time had passed?
Wukong soon smiled faintly and withdrew his momentum. “Those underworld runners lack guts, they really do.”
In the past, when he had invaded the underworld, there had been runners who dared to challenge him, but these days… tsk, tsk.
Shaking off the pointless thoughts, Wukong extended his hand. His palm suddenly plunged into the world beyond the mind, where physical force could not act. The wriggling snake was caught in his grip.
Wukong glared and shot out. “Even the value to receive endless pain in hell is not enough. As the Great Sage Equal to Heaven in the sky, the Victorious Fighting Buddha who looks upon all things, I decree.”
Wukong’s hand clenched tightly. The snake swelled as if about to burst. A piercing, painful wail spread out as if in agony.
Wukong spoke in a desolate voice, as though declaring in place of the judge of the underworld. “Disappear.”
With a hiss, the snake’s soul vanished like dust. When even the trace in his grip disappeared, the red light in his eyes faded.
Now there was only the cold corpse—an empty shell.
Wukong let out a sigh. A lump rose in his throat. “Ku.”
A mouthful of blood spurted from his mouth. Wukong wiped his lips and frowned. “Ugh, it’s hard to use even a little strength.”
Since descending to the human realm, the power he had used had been at most seeing the world beyond the mind with Fiery Golden Eyes and physical combat. Just now he had used the power of the heavens—to annihilate a soul that had lost its body.
The aftereffects belatedly enveloped his entire body. Extreme pain and chills followed. Wukong’s brows gradually furrowed. It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Only now did he truly feel that he was not the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who feared nothing in the celestial realm, but had fallen to the human realm under restricted power.
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to die.”
If someone from the celestial realm had been present, they would have been shocked. Manifesting in the human realm was already almost impossible, and he had even used a portion of the power restricted by the will of Shakyamuni Buddha. He should have been suffering from pain enough to cause the body to collapse, yet Wukong stood firm, as if nothing had happened.
…Ugh, it really hurts.
“Ugh! Bodhisattva Guanyin, you bastard! What? Just using a little power and giving me this much pain? Damn it!”
Instantly, Wukong’s anger flared and he roared in rage. Only after venting his fury did the anger subside, and only then did he turn his gaze.
Suddenly his face turned pale. “What the…?”
Namgung-jik had thrown a dagger into the water, and blood was spreading. “Eh? That’s not what I thought.”
Wukong scratched his chin. Although he had tasked Ojeong with a dangerous task, it was not reckless. Wukong had calculated everything properly. If his assumptions were correct, at least he would not be caught and could distract their attention—especially in the water.
“Could it be that the one I expected is here?”
Or perhaps the warriors of the Namgung clan were stronger than he had thought. Wukong sighed, clenched his teeth against the pain, and stood up. In truth the pain was so severe that it was hard to take steps, but he endured it as if nothing.
The pain of the body alone could not stop him. Wukong, who had endured the pain of the Golden Tightening Fillet that constricted his mind, could not simply leave you to die.
Just as he was about to leap from the bow, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
The ship carrying the two Namgung warriors from the Namgung clan shattered into pieces from the bottom. Namgung-jik and Namgung-seon, startled, floated and stood precariously on the broken ship fragments.
Below them, Ojeong’s face suddenly surged from the black water surface, his eyes blazing with fury.
* * *
A blood-red tint spread in the dark river water. “I’ve got him!”
Namgung-jik shouted. Namgung-seon immediately jumped in, stabbed the shoulder with a dagger, and pulled up the struggling fellow. His eyes were slanted like a sparrow’s eyes, and his expression looked bad at first glance.
“Underling of Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi?”
Namgung-jik pressed his sword and asked coldly. The sparrow-eyed one, who had swallowed a mouthful of water upon being hit by the dagger, found it hard to regain his senses. When he didn’t answer, Namgung-jik clicked his tongue and swung his sword.
At that moment the floor shook. The already sinking ship that had taken in water suddenly split apart. Namgung-jik and Namgung-seon reacted quickly. They jumped up, quickly scanned the surroundings, and stood on the broken wooden fragments. Even in the rough waves they maintained their center.
It was indeed the movement of someone from the Namgung clan. But Namgung-jik couldn’t boast. In the middle of the broken ship fragments, a person’s head suddenly surged from the water surface, the blazing eyes filled with anger.
“You made my brother like this?”
“Was there one more companion?”
Namgung-jik didn’t panic and swung his sword. His internal energy surged, and sword qi shot out. One sword qi cut through the river water and only stirred the innocent water, not reaching Ojeong. Instantly, tension appeared on Namgung-jik’s face.
No aura…
The Ojeong who hid his body underwater was like a ghost. The aura that should have been felt was not felt. It wasn’t just the fierce winds and rough waves. Namgung-jik instinctively knew that movement underwater was not normal. His temples twitched.
On the opposite side, Namgung-seon standing on the plank said, “Let’s wait, brother. That guy has to show his appearance above the water to breathe.”
The origin of internal energy is breathing. Of course, the way to accumulate internal energy is through breathing. That is, using internal energy itself requires breathing. All internal energy cultivation methods circulating in the martial world. For a warrior, ultimately, they have to show their appearance to breathe. However, their expectations were soon shattered. They hadn’t shown their appearance for quite a long time.
Disappeared?
No. The senses clearly said. Wandering below the water surface, in the water. It felt like a shark waiting for prey in the vast sea.
At that moment.
Namgung-seon on the opposite side jumped up in shock. Suddenly, a sword surged from under the plank and stabbed between the legs. He dodged quickly, but Namgung-jik’s face turned pale.
“Brother!”
Namgung-jik was shocked. The stab was a feint. The real attack was the second one that followed. While floating in the air, he quickly sheathed the sword and extended his arm. “Now!”
Namgung-jik moved like lightning. Ojeong fully revealed his appearance. But Ojeong was faster. Grab! Ojeong grabbed Namgung-seon’s ankle and pulled him back into the water. Namgung-jik belatedly shot out sword qi, but it only grazed the skin. Even that caused the skin to split and blood to spread, but he knew it wasn’t fatal.
“Ugh!”
Namgung-jik let out a groan. The dark river water swallowed Namgung-seon as well. “Seon-ah, Seon-ah!”
No matter how high-level, if water enters the lungs, you die. Namgung-jik shouted madly with bloodshot eyes. How long had it been? Fortunately, the waves roughened from below the water, and Namgung-seon barely showed his upper body and crawled onto the plank.
“Keuk.”
Having swallowed a lot of water, he kept coughing violently. His face was exhausted. “It’s okay?”
“That guy, that guy is weird. His movement underwater is too free.”
…
Namgung-jik’s face darkened. This kind of fight, I’ve heard somewhere. Water rats…
The combat power of water rats is not to be underestimated. There are some warriors who are decent, but the vast majority are weak. Yet martial artists avoid confronting water rats. Precisely, water rats on the water surface. Even a martial master, if they fall into the water and have breathing problems, can’t fully utilize their true strength. Namgung-seon’s current state was exactly that. At least, someone like Namgung-seon could escape from the water.
Water rats fight like this against peak experts. Dozens of them rush at the same time to drown them somehow. Even if one, two, or a few are cut down instantly, they throw their bodies without hesitation. With the sacrifice of a few, the peak experts who fall into the water are soon surrounded by countless nets and dozens of water rats rush in to slash them, and they can’t hold out. Therefore, even experts, when encountering water rats on the river, would obediently pay toll and pass by.
Damn. This isn’t easy.
His eyes twitched with tension. The ship wreckage. If that guy broke all these fragments so that he couldn’t stand on them? There needs to be a ship where two feet can stand. Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi’s ship!
Namgung-jik hurriedly turned his head. Although it was a small ship, it was a ship that could sufficiently avoid the body. On top of it…
Who?
A weird guy with golden hair was standing there, swaying. The guy who met eyes, soon drew a line with his eyes and raised his hand. “Ugh, stop fighting. Judging from your side, you didn’t come to catch this Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi, did you?”
As he said this, he lifted the hanging corpse of Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi. Namgung-jik’s eyes twitched. “Who are you?”
“You also seem to have come with a grudge against this guy. Right? I and that friend over there also have a grudge against this guy. But since you guys are sticking next to this ship, I thought you were just some friends of mine.”
“…You mean the guy in the water over there is your friend?”
“Ah, he’s like my brother.”
Namgung-jik didn’t relax his tension. He quietly killed Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi without making a sound. No matter how much his attention was focused on the Ojeong in the water. To deal with Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi in such a short time? He was an extraordinary existence. It was natural to be on guard. Moreover, the presence of Ojeong still moving underwater was annoying.
Wukong, who was watching, smiled faintly. “It won’t be easy. In the water, there is no one in this world that can rival him, I predict.”
Namgung-jik’s face became complicated. On the water surface, maybe not. But moving incredibly in the water like this, Wukong’s words didn’t sound like boasting. However, he couldn’t easily sheath his sword. While that guy was in the water, he couldn’t relax his guard.
Wukong smiled and shouted, “Stop fighting.”
“Great hero, please stay still. That guy made my brother like this.”
The sparrow-eyed one’s shoulder was completely crushed like a rag. Ojeong was trembling as if he couldn’t fight against the Namgung clan, filled with anger. Wukong chuckled. “Ugh, bandits with principles.”
Wukong waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that shoulder. I’ll take responsibility and return it properly.”
Even a decent doctor wouldn’t be able to fix it easily. Ojeong somehow believed in Wukong’s tone that didn’t waver. But the sparrow-eyed one who treated him like a brother was hurt like this. Ojeong found it hard to suppress the anger rising inside. However, it was only for a moment. Confusion covered the anger.
With Wukong’s voice in his ear, Ojeong’s body trembled as if struck by lightning. “So, stop now. Ojeong.”
Ojeong’s head slowly turned. A look of incomprehension appeared on his face. With a trembling voice, he barely managed to speak. “…How do you know my Dharma name from my past life?”
Confused eyes.
Wukong smiled faintly. “I’ve known since your previous life. Idiot.”
How could I forget the name? Ojeong, Ojeong, my brother who left on the journey to the West with me. Sa Ojeong.
Looking at Ojeong, whose face was confused, no, Sa Ojeong, Wukong chuckled.