The Bait is Too Strong
Sa-hyeok shuddered as a chill raced down his spine.
A voice pierced straight into his ears.
Goosebumps crawled from the crown of his head all the way to the tips of his toes.
His heart dropped like a stone when he heard the tone—almost playful, almost mocking.
How…?
His eyes flew wide open. The distance between himself and Sun Wukong was at least two zhang—roughly six meters.
He hadn’t seen the leap. He hadn’t even registered it. And the strike had come from right behind him, not from the front.
Sa-hyeok could not find an answer to the thoughts spinning through his mind.
Devastating pain crashed over him instead, as if the attacker refused to grant him even a moment to think.
A massive hand clamped down on his shoulder from behind.
Long fingers dug in, crushing the joint with terrifying force.
His mouth fell open in shock.
Crack!
A strangled groan tore from his throat.
He twisted, tried to shake it off, tried to throw a punch—but the grip was iron.
Just a shoulder grab, yet he felt completely bound, utterly helpless.
It was no longer a feeling. It was reality.
Sa-hyeok instinctively surged dense internal energy from his dantian, trying to break free.
He poured everything he had into shattering that single hand.
Woodddduk!
“Kuak!”
The final scream burst out with an eerie crack. His shoulder bone collapsed inward like dry wood.
The pure force of a human had turned a human shoulder into powder.
Sa-hyeok stared at the ruined joint in utter disbelief.
It was his right shoulder.
A hopeless light flickered in his eyes.
He was right-handed. This wasn’t a simple dislocation or fracture.
It was crushed to dust.
He understood the meaning without needing to think.
Deep frustration filled his face.
“Life is nothing but a chain of choices,” Sun Wukong murmured, his voice light and philosophical. “Each choice weaves a spiderweb of fate, pulling you toward your destiny.”
“So this is your fate, then?”
“Ugh!”
Sa-hyeok’s face flushed crimson. He had crushed his shoulder and was now lecturing him about fate? The insult was too savage. With bloodshot eyes he lunged forward, roaring.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.
“I only meant to break your shoulder. Looks like dying here is your destiny after all.”
Sun Wukong’s fist punched straight through empty space.
A red vortex erupted from the extended knuckles.
The swirling current devoured everything around it.
The moment Sa-hyeok saw the fist, his martial instinct screamed to life.
Death stood right in front of him.
The stench of countless battles rose in his memory.
Run!
Crushing the shoulder bone had been merciful.
Being hit by that fist meant the flame of life would be snuffed out here and now.
His survival instinct—his very will to live—screamed in madness.
Why…?
Doubt bloomed in his eyes.
The dense internal energy that had once let him chase the peak realm beyond first class.
It was useless now.
The qi that had let him move like lightning even in the worst situations was screaming.
I’m being sucked in!
Sa-hyeok’s face drained of all color. Terror seized him.
He could feel the qi flowing.
The vortex spiraling outward from the fist.
The vacuum created by sucking in all surrounding air.
Even the flow of qi was being dragged into the abyss.
An utterly bizarre sight.
That was his final thought.
Kwaaang!
A deafening boom rang out. Sa-hyeok flew through the air like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The entire area fell into instant silence.
They say that when death is imminent, a person can feel and see many things.
Until the fist actually struck, Sa-hyeok had endured countless emotions for what felt like an eternity.
But the actual time that passed was only an instant.
“Insane…!”
“Master!”
“W-when… how…?”
The faces of the Gwidobang warriors turned rigid.
A mixture of shock and confusion filled their eyes.
They couldn’t understand.
For them, they had been charging forward with full momentum.
Sun Wukong had simply vanished from sight.
And then Sa-hyeok had groaned, followed by an explosion, and he was gone.
Everything had happened too fast to track.
So their minds could not process it, and their bodies could not react.
Everyone stood frozen like statues, staring at the scene with horrified eyes.
Sun Wukong walked over with a smirk, grabbed the steel rod lying in the center, and pulled it free.
“What are you doing? I still have to finish eating before we can start fighting. Come at me all at once.”
“……!”
The warriors’ faces turned deathly pale.
It was unbelievable.
Thinking about it…
That guy never once opened his eyes.
He’s blind.
Sun Wukong kept his eyes gently closed.
Whether sitting, holding the steel rod, or stabbing Sa-hyeok, he never opened them.
When the warriors realized this belatedly, their hearts turned ice-cold.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.
“Time to eat.”
With that brief remark, he swung the steel rod.
The warriors were still elite martial artists, after all.
The instant Sun Wukong swung and the flow of qi shattered, they snapped out of their daze and struck back with their swords.
Kwaang! Kwaang!
Thunderous booms echoed. Every time the steel rod traced its arc, lightning struck.
The heavy force could not be contained; the air exploded outward with deafening cracks.
Despite the monstrous noise, Sun Wukong’s movements were fluid and graceful.
Wherever the rod passed, the air rippled and burned like flames in the heat of the sun.
The traces were clearly visible.
One straight line.
One, two—lines extended endlessly.
They never disappeared. The lines kept stretching.
The warriors dodged them.
They couldn’t repel them. One warrior who had tried to block had been turned into paste and sent flying.
They could only run.
Far away from the lines.
At some point, the warriors realized.
The space to escape was shrinking.
Though the lines looked loose and awkward, they were actually dense, like a spiderweb.
The flickering, burning lines looked like waves surging.
Complicatedly intertwined, stretching far and wide like ocean waves.
When people think of grandeur, they picture thick tree trunks, straight branches, and lush foliage.
The majesty of a tree is always like that.
But beneath the tree, no one sees.
Most never think of it, never imagine it.
Because it is invisible.
The roots spread unnoticed, deep into the earth, in every direction.
Creating dozens, hundreds, thousands of lines that branch and connect like a spiderweb.
Without knowing the end, and since they are connected, it is the same as the cycle of reincarnation.
The Azure Wave Spider Web.
A faint smile curved the corner of Sun Wukong’s mouth.
The surging waves embroidered the empty sky like a spiderweb.
Namgung Jinbaek’s black horse was the sky itself.
There was no escape beneath the sky.
Namgung Muyoung’s clumsy sword had been a loose net.
All traces of the Namgung ancestor Namgung Ryong from the past.
Namgung Ryong’s traces had been a tough net made of blue waves that covered the surroundings before becoming the sky.
All of it was contained in the trajectory.
One net resembling the sky woven from waves.
The Myeol-yo-gong, infused with the mystery of Water Transformation Qi, responded powerfully.
The Azure Wave Spider Web net moved and changed endlessly, like flowing water.
Even if you found a gap, it churned immediately and erased it.
It extended like waves.
In the end, a net as vast as the sky itself—impossible to escape or block.
“Ah… ah…”
One of the Gwidobang warriors spat out a trembling groan.
A gaze followed the rod’s trajectory—fear, awe, or something in between.
The steel rod that had been drawing lines in the air finally stabbed into the ground.
Thud.
The only person standing with both feet on solid ground was Sun Wukong and Namgung Seowol.
“……”
All noise fell silent at once.
Sun Wukong glanced at the spectators watching from outside the inn and muttered quietly.
The devastating silence settled, and his voice cut clearly through the crowd.
“This is the supreme martial art of the Namgung Clan.”
A moment of silence. Then a hot flame rose.
“……!”
“T-that is the secret manual!”
“N-no way, the Heavenly Sword Castle?”
“It can’t be the Heavenly Sword Castle. But those just now were really… enormous…”
The onlookers hiding behind the broken walls whispered frantically.
But no one dared to charge at Sun Wukong.
The strongest here were the Gwidobang warriors, yet they had been defeated without even being able to move.
No matter how greedy they were, they knew the moment to protect their own lives.
Sun Wukong listened to their murmurs and smirked.
Well, it’s not a lie.
It really did come from the Namgung Clan, after all.
Sun Wukong felt with his entire body why brother and sister martial arts were essential, why they were an indispensable element.
It was the most efficient way to guide qi.
It applied the right force to the appropriate elements.
In the old days, just the ones who constantly emitted demonic energy were the best.
That was why Sun Wukong stood alone, why the Seven Great Sages had ruled the world, and why Umawang had been terrifyingly strong.
Making many results with just a little strength is exactly what martial arts is.
As expected, human-like scheming.
Of course, such scheming was unnecessary for Sun Wukong.
No matter how much he schemed, in front of the endless demonic energy like the sea, it was useless.
Except for a few specific ones.
Like the Yi-lang Jinjun from the Heavenly Realm.
Or some of the other Seven Great Sages.
More than anything…
His eyes narrowed.
Umawang.
Brother, if brother pulled some dirty tricks, then I have to scheme some too, don’t I?
Sun Wukong never slacked on learning.
The only path he had taken to learn was traveling thousands of li to find Su-bori Jo-sa.
What did human skill matter?
My master and sa-bu are already humans.
Su-bori Jo-sa was a celestial, a bit different, but originally human.
Tang Sanzang was a Buddha but human.
Sun Wukong didn’t care.
At that moment, Namgung Seowol approached Sun Wukong with an angry voice.
“Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Then why is your expression like that?”
“You’re closing your eyes. How do you know my expression?”
“I can hear it from your voice.”
“Can you hear my expression?”
Sa-wol made a strange face at Sun Wukong’s words.
Sun Wukong shrugged.
Sa-wol stared at him with a sullen face, then suddenly said,
“I ended it before I even drew my sword.”
“Is that a complaint?”
“Yeah.”
“Were you a ghost who died in the previous life because you couldn’t fight?”
Sa-wol looked at the fallen Gwidobang warriors with a grumpy face and said,
“Kill them all?”
“……”
Sun Wukong almost let out a sigh.
In truth, he had shown the grand spectacle of the Azure Wave Spider Web, but all the Gwidobang warriors were still alive.
Sun Wukong had deliberately not killed them. Even Sa-hyeok.
Sun Wukong told Namgung Seowol, who was fiddling with her sword,
“Your hand is too heavy.”
“You attacked us first. Then you have to die.”
Sun Wukong’s mouth was blocked.
For a moment, his mood felt strange.
Was Tang Sanzang feeling like this?
It felt like looking in a mirror.
“Uuuuu……”
The indifferent words of Sa-wol that they had to be killed made the Gwidobang stir.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue and said,
“I am a non-killing Buddha.”
“……!”
“Otherwise, I would have smashed your heads with a single blow with the rod. Would I have made your shoulder bones and leg bones into powder?”
Of course, even that alone would have left you unable to walk on two feet for the rest of your life or hold a sword with two arms.
In fact, they were all still alive.
The warriors barely raised their heads and looked at Sun Wukong.
The face with eyes closed. A benevolent expression.
A delusion that the brilliant light of Buddha shone behind him.
Hope bloomed on the faces of the Gwidobang warriors.
“You won’t kill us. As long as you don’t kill us, right?”
“Hm?”
Something felt off.
Sun Wukong let out a long sigh.
“The most precious thing to a human is their own life. As a Buddha, how could I take it away? So instead of taking something less precious than that, I’ll take it as punishment.”
Sun Wukong gave a long speech.
“Destroy your dantian.”
“W-what!”
“Th-this evil!”
“R-rather kill me!”
“Haha, I like being saved.”
An absurd expression appeared on the faces of the Gwidobang warriors.
This, it’s not that the eyes are not working, right? It’s not that the ears are not hearing?
Sun Wukong’s hand moved like dancing. Before they could even scream, his hand instantly shattered the dantian of the warriors. In the blink of an eye, the dantian was destroyed.
Sun Wukong, who had learned what it meant to destroy a dantian for a warrior, was satisfied with this.
Keeping the non-killing Buddha, giving punishment, how nice.
I am a Buddha. I have compassion.
Sa-wol still had a dissatisfied expression.
Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.
“It would be better for them to spread the rumor. They have to spread the news of what happened today wildly so that people gather more. Not the rumor of the world, but the words of those who actually clashed with the supreme martial art.”
At those words, Sa-wol’s expression also eased a bit.
But not all dissatisfaction disappeared.
“There’s still a backlash left?”
“Backlash?”
“If we keep them alive, the Gwidobang will come rushing over, right?”
“If we kill them, won’t they come?”
Sun Wukong smirked.
“And what is there to worry about them coming?”
Sun Wukong cleared his throat, spread both arms wide, and thrust out his chest.
“Even when all the gods from the Heavenly Realm came, this Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, faced them bravely and fought.”
“……”
Sun Wukong smirked.
“Worrying about backlash is something done by weak fools.”