Demonic Energy
After Sun Wukong left the great assembly, a brief silence settled over the hall.
Namgung Jinbaek broke the quiet and spoke.
“What kind of person are you all, I wonder?”
Just moments ago, the man who had stood in the great assembly was Sun Wukong.
The elders and retainers had been unable to open their mouths easily.
It was hard to put into words. It was the elders’ honest feelings.
The steward spoke in a tone of embarrassment.
“Honestly, I have no idea at all.”
Namgung Jinbaek nodded in agreement.
“It’s difficult to read his heart.”
Sun Wukong deliberately revealed his attitude in a simple way.
He had come to admire the Namgung Clan and would be grateful if they accepted him as a guest.
The truth was that his words had been straightforward.
There was a somewhat arrogant feel to them, but it was not so much a lack of manners as an air that did not cling to rank or status.
The head of the Myeong-i-dang opened his mouth cautiously.
“He is someone whose origin cannot be known. There is no information about where he came from, who his master was, what martial arts he had cultivated, where he had been active, or anything about his past.”
At best, only the events of the past few days had been revealed: a clash with the righteous path in Hubei Province, a clash with Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi, and his suppression on the river after a pursuit.
The events before that had been so mysterious as to be unbelievable. It was as if he had simply dropped from the sky.
“And that’s not all. For someone who defeated Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi, there were far too many awkward points.”
Muhwa interjected.
“From the very first step he took, there is no trace of martial arts anywhere he stands.”
“There is no sense of refinement about him at all.”
“I fully agree with the head of the Myeong-i-dang. May I ask the elders here: is there anyone who can sense the internal energy from Sun Wukong? It is embarrassing to say, but I have felt nothing at all.”
The elders wore embarrassed expressions at the head of the Myeong-i-dang’s words.
“I couldn’t feel it either.”
“Ah, even you couldn’t feel it, brother? I couldn’t either.”
“Hmm? You couldn’t either?”
The elite warriors of the Namgung Clan had gathered in the great assembly. They were all martial artists who had reversed the tide of the righteous path battles.
Since Sun Wukong had entered the great assembly, they had discreetly tested his abilities one by one.
Unfortunately, not a single one of them had been able to discern his internal energy.
It meant that their own strength was inferior to this man whose origin was unknown. They were all embarrassed and found it hard to voice aloud.
Yet when one after another opened their mouths, they suddenly fell silent all at once, as if they had rehearsed it.
“……Everyone, huh?”
Everyone had failed to discern Sun Wukong’s internal energy. Those who had thought they could feel it because they couldn’t were all unable to hide their shock.
“Hah.”
“No way.”
“That can’t be.”
While everyone was in a daze, Namgung Jinbaek’s voice rang out briefly.
“This is troublesome.”
Heads turned toward him, and Namgung Jinbaek smiled awkwardly.
“To be honest, I couldn’t sense even a trace of his internal energy either.”
“……!”
A terrifying silence enveloped the great assembly.
The strongest blade of the current Namgung Clan, Namgung Jinbaek.
The fact that he had been unable to feel it meant……
When one witnesses an unbelievable fact, one sometimes denies it.
The elders were in a flurry.
The head of the Myeong-i-dang swallowed his words.
“If I have to speculate, there are two possibilities. Either he is truly an extraordinary expert beyond comprehension, or he has cultivated a very unusual inner technique that makes it easy to conceal his internal energy.”
The latter conclusion gained strength. No final verdict was reached.
“So, will Lord Namgung accept him as a guest?”
“Hmm. Well……”
Namgung Jinbaek fell into thought for a moment. After some time, he made his decision.
“I will not accept him as a guest.”
This was an unexpected decision. The elders cautiously voiced opposition, but Namgung Jinbaek shook his head.
“Somehow, the feeling doesn’t feel unfamiliar. It’s as if I’ve known him for a long time. That said, with conditions.”
“With conditions……?”
“Unlike the other guests, I would like to ask him to cooperate in a few matters.”
At Namgung Jinbaek’s words, Muhwa nodded as if he understood what was meant.
“It is to request cooperation on matters that the Namgung Clan cannot handle.”
The Namgung Clan was watched from every corner of the martial world.
When swords were drawn, sensitive reactions came in response. Especially since there were not a few enemies who had been sharpening their blades against this side.
“If it is not the Namgung Clan’s doing but the deeds of the guest who has entered, then at least outwardly they would not be able to respond sensitively.”
The Namgung Clan was already small in number. The clan leader alone bore the responsibility for two or three times the work. Everyone was busy. Unresolved matters piled up noticeably.
“If we refuse, we can simply feed him and send him on his way.”
“If we accept, it is clear that he has come to the clan for some purpose…….”
“While handling matters, he will have to reveal his original martial arts, and then his true identity will gradually be exposed.”
Muhwa let out a small sigh. The clan leader was quick-tempered and caused trouble by stirring up great matters every time, but he was sharp enough to be the head of the clan.
The Namgung Clan was a martial family. A top-tier sword family with a small number of members.
When the clan leader decided, it was decided.
That was the Namgung Clan.
***
A whole building had been provided entirely to Sun Wukong. However, the interior was desolate. There were hardly any furnishings. It felt as if it had simply been left in the vast room.
“There are many empty buildings.”
Sun Wukong had spent several days familiarizing himself with his surroundings.
The Namgung Clan was large and vast enough that one needed to take a proper amount of time to explore it.
A first-time visitor with poor sense of direction might easily get lost.
A vast dead forest surrounded the inner courtyard where the direct descendants and retainers stayed.
Beyond the dead forest, to the east, lay the residences of the guests, the Wind-Rich Garden.
Once, the scale of the clan that had crossed the Huai River and become the best in the Central Plains had been unmatched.
Compared to its size, there were few people. In fact, all the people bearing the name Namgung were those Sun Wukong had encountered in the great assembly. Except for those who had gone out into the martial world on special missions.
There were not many servants or maids either. The number was truly small.
“After being thoroughly deceived by spies during the righteous path battles, it’s hard to let just anyone inside.”
Ojeong slipped in quietly.
Sun Wukong’s eyes narrowed.
“You said you were leaving, didn’t you?”
“Thinking about it, the purpose of the great alliance was to find people. Since I’ve already agreed to help, shouldn’t I help until the end?”
At Ojeong’s calm words, Sun Wukong chuckled.
You’re scared, huh.
Outside, there was a high probability that the shadowy organization related to Sa Hyeol-cheol-gwi would approach.
If it was a force even stronger than expected, even the Namgung Clan might not be safe.
He took the broken piece of the sword from his pocket.
Just scrap metal with no use to humans.
The very act of collecting such things was not a simple matter.
Sun Wukong felt instinctively.
“There is clearly a connection between the disappearance of Sanzang’s soul and those who are after this.”
His immediate goals here at the Namgung Clan were two.
To find Sanzang’s reincarnation here.
And to track down the identities of those who were after this.
“They will eventually reveal themselves.”
Sun Wukong’s mind disliked complicated calculations. It was simple logic.
Since they want this, they will try to find it.
Eventually, the ones who become impatient will be the first to reveal themselves. So, while they reveal themselves, he would search diligently.
“But…… ah, this is not easy.”
There were already two.
The first was Muhwa, whom he had encountered initially, and the second was the clan leader of the Namgung Clan.
“Namgung Jinbaek…… I don’t think he’s the one.”
The white-hot burning thread of fate.
His past life and Sun Wukong were related. They were entangled in a strong bond. But somehow, he did not feel like Sanzang.
“It’s an unreasonably strong Sanzang. It doesn’t suit him?”
What surprised Sun Wukong upon entering the Namgung Clan was the latent potential of internal energy that humans possessed.
“There was one great demon among them.”
It was unbelievable.
The demonic energy wriggling in Namgung Jinbaek’s dantian was enough to make Sun Wukong laugh in vain. It had once been as heavy and weighty as a great demon’s demonic energy.
In the past, he would have mistaken it for a great demon who had transformed into a human.
“So humans’ level is that high.”
Sun Wukong discarded the prejudice he had held until now.
In the past, humans were weaklings who could not handle even low-level demons.
Occasionally, Taoist masters with outstanding Daoist power or Buddhist monks with Buddhist power were exceptions, but they were very few.
It was different now.
Not only Namgung Jinbaek, but the elders sitting to his left and right were all strong.
“Yet here, they deceived the eyes of the heavenly realm and took Sanzang’s soul.”
There were no demons in the lower realm now, so it was certain they were human.
Sun Wukong’s irritation surged.
Seeing the level of humans, he realized that this matter was not easy.
If Sanzang had simply lost his soul because he was foolish, there would be a culprit, and the culprit’s ability would be truly extraordinary.
“Ah, if it were Sanzang, he might have lost it himself.”
That crybaby, he was troublesome.
Sun Wukong twirled his hair.
“Well, this Sun Wukong might also have to use his full strength at some point.”
He needed to test his strength. Sun Wukong moved alone to the garden behind the building.
How much of the original power he could handle from the heavenly realm had been sealed.
His physical abilities had not been greatly weakened.
Copper Head and Iron Forehead.
A head like copper and an forehead like iron.
A body of indestructible hardness that could not be scratched by any cold weapons.
Fiery Golden Eyes.
Golden pupils in fiery eyes.
The ability to see the world beyond the ordinary and glimpse the truth at the same time.
“This has weakened a bit.”
It had been a divine eye that could see through everything, but now it was not to that extent.
It only reached a certain extent in seeing through the other’s mind.
If the other party was a person with a steel-like mental barrier, it would be even harder. Sun Wukong clicked his tongue. Still, thanks to these eyes, he could see the thread of fate, which would be the greatest help.
Originally, his physical abilities had not given Sun Wukong much inspiration.
In fact, there was something else important.
“This……”
Since the moment he had come down to the lower realm, he had felt an eerie power.
Even though he had not deliberately focused on it, something that strongly expressed his existence.
It was not unfamiliar.
Or rather, how could it be unfamiliar.
The distant past when he had reached the rank of great demon and could call himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.
Demonic energy.
At the moment of awareness, the monster that had been sleeping for a long time in Sun Wukong’s body began to stir.
Paassss.
Sun Wukong gritted his teeth.
Through tightly clenched teeth, a crimson aura spurted out like white steam.
“Why……”
A single word spat out while grinding his teeth.
The power of the great demon that had disappeared after becoming the Victorious Fighting Buddha through hard work and becoming a complete deity of the heavenly realm.
Demonic energy surged madly like an inexhaustible spring from Sun Wukong’s entire body.
Sun Wukong’s eyes turned bloodshot.
From eyes that had reddened like fire, bloodshot light burst forth.
The breath flowing out through his nose and mouth was filled with eerie red energy.
It was so intense and beast-like that it could not be contained inside at all, and it continued to flow out.
Its barbaric and explosive momentum swept around.
Sun Wukong reined in and organized that power.
The power that had been wildly thrashing followed his owner’s words and slowly calmed. But even so, eerie red energy filled the air around him like a glow.
Sun Wukong muttered. His voice had become thick.
“The power of the heavenly realm is sealed, yet it says that demonic energy has returned upon descending to the lower realm.”
A power he had given up on. The power he had abandoned the moment he became a demon and received a position in the heavenly realm.
Not the great demon Sun Wukong, but Sun Wukong who had become the Buddha of Victorious Fighting.
“Why…… why are you returning this power, Bodhisattva?”
His red eyes looked toward the sky.
Recovering the demonic energy meant becoming a Demon King.
It meant the Great Sage Equal to Heaven of the Seven Great Sages.
It meant the great demon Sun Wukong.
A streak of star flashed across the reddening sunset sky.
As if answering his question.
“That……”
Light appeared in Sun Wukong’s eyes.