King Shura

“Do you know about Zhuge Lian?”

“Zhuge……. Liang?”

“Yeah.”

“If you are talking of Zhuge Liang from the three kingdoms era, there would be no way I wouldn’t know of them.”

Jeon Bak restlessly calculated numbers with his abacus, and replied carelessly as he wrote something in the document he was creating. Gongson Chun Gi said something again as he did this.

“Who’d win if we fight?”

It was an idiotic question. But how could Jeon Bak afford to ignore a question from the Pope?

“Of course you’d win. How could a mere scholar ever hope to win against you? A man like that would turn to dust simply from your yawn.”

Jeon Bak’s words carried a tone that implied that Gongson Chun Gi’s question was a foolish one. He had responded to Gongson Chun Gi without even looking up from his document.

Gongson Chun Gi looked at Jeon Bak with a gaze full of complicated feelings, then sighed.

“Right? That’s what people would normally think, right?”

“Yes.”

How would Zhuge Liang ever hope to be Gongson Chun Gi’s match?

The full power of the Pope wasn’t publicized in the martial world as of yet, but Gongson Chun Gi had already reached the realm of God. He had reached something no one in the church had ever gotten before.

“Shit, should I fight him again?”

“What?”

When Jeon Bak turned his head from surprise at Gongson Chun Gi’s mutter, Gongson Chun Gi quickly looked away.

“No, I’m still not that prepared. I’ll have to ready myself even more.”

“Just what may you be talking about……”

Jeon Bak was curious. He thought that the Pope was saying foolish, strange things ever since the Pope came to visit him.

“Don’t worry about me, and just finish up what you’ve been doing. We really have to expand into Sichuan as fast as we can.”

“Yes Sir.”

When Jeon Bak turned his head back to the document, Gongson Chun Gi began to think. A while back, he had gained some things by observing the Moon Edge Blade Technique.

Like he had told Sunwu Jo Duk, what he had gained was tiny, but even that was a great breakthrough for Gongson Chun Gi.

“I won’t go down that easily next time.”

This was one of the few things Gongson Chun Gi enjoyed doing nowadays. For the first time in his life, this old man called Zhuge Liang had shown him what defeat was like.

Gongson Chun Gi wasn’t about to let the old man go that easily. When he thought this much, Gongson Chun Gi’s face filled with a complicated feeling soon had a prideful smile on it.

* * *

Un Hui looked in forward with a dumb face. He blinked a few times, looked around a bit, and became confused.

‘He disappeared?’

A person in front of him just disappeared. There wasn’t even a single thing in the area that suggested someone was here previously.

Even Un Hui, who was an expert on tracking people, couldn’t find a trace of No Jin Nyung in the entire area. Just how was this possible?

‘Magic?’

Un Hui thought a little, then shook his head. To a Harmonious expert, who naturally possessed strong mental fortitude, things like magic just won’t work.

(TL: Looks like magic in King Shura focuses more on the mind… some other martial arts novels focus on things like Asian necromancy. I dunno, it’s just interesting.)

‘Just what is it, then?’

An entire person disappeared in front of his eyes. Just because of a single stone that was thrown on the ground. Un Hui looked at Cho Ryu Hyang with a curious gaze.

Right then, Cho Ryu Hyang, who was busily drawing something on the ground, suddenly puked out fresh blood and fell down on his hands.

‘This is it.’

The feeling he got after the initial pain. This feeling was something instant, but it felt like he was becoming one with the world.

It was a feeling that made his body’s senses extend outside his body.

‘Compared to the giant being we call the world, I am a very tiny being.’

Because of that fact, when Cho Ryu Hyang became one with the world, his pain would fade away extremely fast. This was what powered the Moon Edge Blade Technique itself.

Cho Ryu Hyang turned his hands into tight little fists. His body was still violently trembling.

He had to endure the pain before he became one with the world, but it was extremely hard to do this.

The Jia (鉀) of the Moon Edge Blade Technique.

He used it, but he still couldn’t endure that previous attack from No Jin Nyung. He almost died.

“Are you alright? Eating this should make you feel a little better.”

When Un Hui handed Cho Ryu Hyang a Mystical Energy Pill, Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t refuse him, and ate it.

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The moment the Mystical Energy Pill was consumed, Cho Ryu Hyang made a surprised expression. The pill just turned to liquid form as soon as it touched the tongue, and slid down the throat to stabilize the entire body.

It didn’t stop there, and gave energy to him. His breathing became easy in and instant, and his wounds stopped bleeding as much.

How could the pill be so effective? This wasn’t a normal pill at all, was it?

Did Un Hui read Cho Ryu Hyang’s thoughts? He smiled and opened his mouth.

“This is a pill created with great care by the master of the medicinal house himself. He told me to give it to you if you were to fall in danger.”

Cho Ryu Hyang understood what just happened thanks to Un Hui’s explanation. If it was Sunwu Jo Duk, the master of the medicinal house, making something like this would easily be within his reach.

That was the only thing Cho Ryu Hyang had thought at the time, but this pill was something much more special than he might’ve thought.

It was something that Sunwu Jo Duk spent an entire year’s worth of time to create. Even with that much time, only ten of them were ever produced.

This was something that made even Gongson Chun Gi, who never really relied on medicines, praise by saying ‘This is pretty darn good’.

Precious Undying Heart Pill (不死謢心丹).

This fancy name was something that Gongson Chun Gi declared to be the official name of this pill.

“Would you move away for a second?”

When Cho Ryu Hyang said this as he wiped away the blood on his mouth, Un Hui moved away from his master in an instant. Everything this young master of his did was every strange.

Just what would his master do this time? He was curious as to how Cho Ryu Hyang made that Harmonious expert disappear, too.

Un Hui was now simply excited about Cho Ryu Hyang’s next move.

‘I don’t have much time.’

There was something Cho Ryu Hyang and Jo Gi Chun created a while back.

The biggest problem a formation had was the process of its creation. It simply took too much time for it to be activated normally.

Jo Gi Chun and Cho Ryu Hyang felt a need to be able to create formations faster, in order to be able to go head-to-head against these martial artists.

They needed something they could protect themselves with. In the world of martial arts, they were powerless as formation masters.

Because of this, the old man and the child crazed about mathematics worked day and night in order to come up with something to protect themselves.

The result was a formation that would activate only on a certain spot that fit certain requirements.

The requirements were usually very particular, and the duration the formation was kept active was very short, but the formation itself could be formed extremely fast.

‘Conditional Formation (規陳法).’

Cho Ryu Hyang made a sorrowful face as he fixed his glasses.

The Conditional formation was the first thing he had ever made with his teacher, Jo Gi Chun. None of them at the time knew that the formation would come to use as soon as this, though.

‘I need to hurry.’

Conditional formations lasted only for a short amount of time. It’s power was pretty weak, too. The formation basically sacrificed power for time.

The formation that No Jin Nyung was currently in was the Five Star (五星: North, South, East, West, Center) Defending formation, which had 5 stones as its core.

‘How long would it take to break this?’

His opponent was a Harmonious expert. Cho Ryu Hyang wasn’t exactly sure of what the limits of the body of an Harmonious expert was.

To be honest, when the formation first activated, Cho Ryu Hyang became very relaxed. Even though Conditional Formations were relatively weak, Cho Ryu Hyang had the vision that he got from Zhuge Liang.

The Faultless view of the World let him see through the true form of the world itself. Thanks to this, Cho Ryu Hyang was able to create a formation many times stronger than the ones created by normal formation masters.

‘But that’s it.’

Right. That was it. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure just how well the formation would work against a harmonious expert.

He could only be able to see how well something would work if he substituted someone else in place of No Jin Nyung. Who should he choose, then? Cho Ryu Hyang scrolled through every one of the experts he had met in the past fervently.

‘Yu Sul Bin.’

Cho Ryu Hyang decided to replace No Jin Nyung with Yu Sul Bin and decided to create the formation based on Yu Sul Bin’s strength.

When Cho Ryu Hyang began to create a formation with Yu Sul Bin in his mind, something violently stirred inside his mind.

Krr–!

Cho Ryu Hyang looked forward with a hateful gaze without realizing it. He had calculated countless formations in order to kill No Jin Nyung in an instant.

Tens and hundreds of formations filled his mind. Pure rage was boiling inside him. Just thinking of Yu Sul Bin made him feel like his blood flow was reversing.

‘Calm down.’

No Jin Nyung was not Yu Sul Bin. He couldn’t kill No Jin Nyung. He just had to create a formation, assuming that No Jin Nyung’s power was equal to Yu Sul Bin’s.

Cho Ryu Hyang calmed himself with great care, and moved. He was already familiar with the environment around him.

The only thing he had left to do was to find an object that would serve as a ‘barrier’. Cho Ryu Hyang carefully observed the square border of the Five Star Defending formation, and ran forward.

‘Eight for now.’

Cho Ryu Hyang, using the formation No Jin Nyung was trapped in as the center, put seven pebbles around the Five Star Defending formation.

The eight pebble that would complete the octagonal formation was in Cho RYu Hyang’s hand.

Cho Ryu Hyang smiled bitterly as he fondled the pebble in his hand. This was a formation he had personally experienced a long time ago.

‘Eight Gates Restraining Formation (八門禁鎖陳).’

The first formation his teacher ever showed him. He was using that formation. Cho Ryu Hyang looked at the sky for a moment, and measured the time.

‘If my prediction is correct…….’

The Five Star Defending formation would last about seven minutes. By that time, No Jin Nyung should have destroyed the formation and escaped.

Then, just how much time did he have left? Cho Ryu Hyang first used the pebbles as reference to draw out the border of the formation.

He was finished. Everything was prepared. Cho Ryu Hyang, exhausted, sat down on the ground.

Un Hui was observing all this carefully from the back. He had realized something as he observed his young master work.

‘So it was a formation.’

He had finally understood what his master was doing. Everything his master did so far so confusing so far, and he finally understood why.

His master was a master of formations. But there was still something Un Hui was confused about. According to his knowledge, formations couldn’t be made that easily.

It needed to fit countless requirements, and needed much preparation. But his master managed to create a formation without any of that.

‘Would something like that actually activate?’

Could a formation be made that easily? He was looking at the whole thing with a curious gaze, then felt something strange.

‘Something’s happening?’

Un Hui was about to make out what was going on.

Crack–!

With a sound of a shell breaking, the empty space above Cho Ryu Hyang’s formation shattered like glass, and No Jin Nyung climbed out from that space.

“Uhahaha! I win!”

The moment No Jin Nyung shouted out tiredly with his entire body sweating profusely, Cho Ryu Hyang threw out a stone with a bitter face. No Jin Nyung stared Cho Ryu Hyang do this at this with wide eyes.

Tok–

The stone fell on the ground.

“You won’t be disappointed this time.”

“Hey, this is chea…….”

Paa–!

Before No Jin Nyung could even finish his sentence, he disappeared.