[Divine Karma and Divinity]
The blood of gods is not red; it is gold.
If I recall the scientific knowledge from my previous life, human blood is red because of hemoglobin or something similar. Then, why does the blood of a god shimmer in gold?
Is it because of the substance that makes that blood appear golden that they are granted immortality and self-healing?
Setting my questions aside, ichor—the blood of gods—shines with a golden luster even more brilliant than the gold within this divine chamber. The sight of that ichor splattered across the golden hall, like a scene from a crime drama, was truly a spectacle. Golden blood, sparkling even more intensely, painting over the resplendent, gold-drenched ancient chamber. As I chuckled at the sight, which felt like a mix of a crime scene and avant-garde art, a groan erupted from the large lump of gold collapsed at my feet.
At a glance, he looked like a grotesque statue, like a half-butchered pig covered in gold leaf. Just as the Goddess of the Crescent Moon had been kneeling before me earlier, fawning and caressing me, this lump of meat was so mangled that no one would ever imagine he was the god whose name they knew.
His identity was none other than the Sun God, Apollo, reduced to a pulp by Antaios's hands.
Apollo was groaning, unable to even steady his body. His noble arms and sturdy legs were twisted at unnatural angles. His noble ribs and spine were broken, piercing through his divine skin and shimmering in gold. Even while every bone in his body was shattered and his organs and muscles were in ruins, this holy divine body was slowly knitting itself back together.
'This is fascinating...'
Even if it were Heracles, if he were beaten to this extent, it would be easier to head down to the underworld, beat up his uncle, and come back up rather than relying on self-regeneration. Watching his bones struggle to find their place and his organs beginning to regenerate, it was clear this showed an abnormality on a different dimension from the regenerative powers Antaios or other demigods displayed.
No matter how good a body's regenerative power is, normal recovery would be new flesh growing where an arm was severed, or a new arm growing back entirely. Unlike the intellect of a sentient being, the body merely functions to maintain life within its own resources. In that operating principle, there is no distinction between normal and abnormal.
Just as a master of the Murim world would use telekinesis and internal energy to set bones and accelerate recovery, a force operating from somewhere was restoring Apollo to a normal state.
Looking at his swollen face from the crushed skull and his hollow, unfocused eyes when I lifted his eyelids, that was definitely not the case.
According to my own investigation, no matter how relatively weak a god he might be, as a member of the Olympus pantheon, Apollo's divine body had durability far exceeding that of a typical hero. Yet, Antaios had turned him into a piece of avant-garde art, so I could tell how excited he must have been.
We left Apollo's divine chamber, reinforced the barrier fivefold, and walked while watching the sun rising beyond the Sea of Tribulation.
At Antaios's dismissive words, I chuckled and nodded.
It seemed that while I was having fun playing with Artemis, Antaios had enjoyed my gift quite a bit, as his loyalty seemed to have increased by about 100 percent compared to yesterday. Yet, seeing the lingering doubt on his face, I spoke first.
Some say that doubt and anxiety are evil things, afflictions that harm one's life. To that, I say: doubt and anxiety are the seeds of history that set everything in motion.
Therefore, I do not consider the act of trying to resolve that doubt and anxiety as disloyalty. Of course, if one crosses the line like Yang Xiu, who mocked Cao Cao with his "chicken rib" remark, they die.
Antaios, eyes wide in surprise at my easygoing reaction, eventually gave a bitter smile and asked comfortably.
Ah, so that was what he was curious about? Well, even if Antaios is a renowned god, he has lived for thousands of years under the name of Olympus. It was natural for him to feel a shred of anxiety, even toward his enemy Apollo.
The example of that was Artemis, who had been whimpering under my hands just moments ago, only to kneel and lick before me. When I delved into her consciousness with Soul-Seizing Technique, the thing I worried about most was the backlash of her divinity. Just as the divinity I received from Hera did, if the divinity meant for the owner's agency rebelled and broke my Soul-Seizing Technique, everything would have gone to hell.
'Of course, if that had happened, I would have abandoned the soul-seizing and switched to training her...'
However, since the original owner's consciousness was blurred and her will weakened, it seemed that her divinity couldn't exert its full power either. Whether it was the Divine Karma of the maiden or the crescent moon, since the owner was weak, it couldn't overcome the seal on her vulva and couldn't offer any resistance while I toyed with her body and mind.
And I had already witnessed such mental operations twice before.
'The Wudang Sect's Two-Mind Divine Art.'
Human consciousness is limited, so one can only focus on one martial art at a time to reach perfection. However, the Two-Mind Divine Art was born from the insane idea that if two consciousnesses coexisted, the achievement of one martial art would be twice as fast, and if two different consciousnesses each mastered different martial arts, one could wield two martial arts simultaneously.
'Actually, the Four Heavenly Kings struggled quite a bit with it.'
The complexity of that mental art is profound, and training it is as bizarre as demonic arts, but if one masters it, they display achievements and divine power twice that of other martial artists. The foundation of the divine power of Wudang Sect Leader Wu Gong-jin, who was revered as the Martial God of his era and pushed two of the Four Heavenly Kings, lay in that Two-Mind Divine Art.
'Yeah, I don't know about anything else, but that divine power was truly incredible.'
The Wudang Twelve Fists and the Taiqing Divine Sword unfolded by the Two-Mind Fist and Two-Mind Sword. The mysterious martial prowess that pushed back two of the Four Heavenly Kings—who had reached the pinnacle of force and sword—as a single individual was something I found very impressive.
And perhaps, the operation of the gods' divinity was not a separate entity playing on its own, but an auxiliary consciousness acting in tandem, like the dual consciousness of the Wudang Sect's art. That was my hypothesis.
However, since such profound martial arts hadn't blossomed in Greece yet, Antaios was struggling to understand, his face twisted in confusion.
The Olympus constellation, forged from the meteorites of the universe on the peaks of Olympus. The gods of Olympus receive infinite divine power through it and are guaranteed immortality. As Antaios said, the powerful divine power of the Twelve Olympians came from that constellation.
The maiden goddess who had been whimpering at my knees just moments ago, only to disappear triumphantly without realizing she was already in my grasp. Hearing that name suddenly made me flinch.
It was strange to see a tough guy who had been laughing boisterously earlier suddenly become so polite. The Four Heavenly Kings' Great General of Force, even he would use all sorts of rough language in private, whether I was the Sect Leader or the Heavenly Demon, calling me 'brother,' 'master,' or even 'you bastard.' I had let him be because I enjoyed that unchanging demeanor.
I wouldn't stop him if he wanted to be formal, but acting heavy when it wasn't his style wasn't fun.
God, he says. I was the sect leader of the Demonic Path, the opposite of a god; what's with 'God' or 'Lord'? If my masters heard that, half would burst into laughter, and the other half would breathe fire, calling it blasphemy.
A title. I had been called by many names over the years: Incarnation, Demon God, Heavenly Demon, Devil, and so on.
However, there was a title that suited the relationship between Antaios and me better than 'God'.
...A sincere 'Master'. It was a title I hadn't heard in a very long time.
At my bitter smile, Antaios seemed to have guessed my next destination; he sighed softly and turned his head.
It was time to beg earnestly to my Goddess, whom I had unintentionally left to live alone for days after reuniting with her for the first time in months.