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Chapter 834: Side Story - Being Ban Ta's Disciple (3)
Kwagwagwang!
After Makli Hyun-ah pours out attacks on Ahn Geum with all the strength he has, he brings out the most powerful divine power of the Confucian Family Method that he can activate.
"[Self-Expulsion]! [Self-Expulsion]!"
Makli Hyun-ah's power tries to expel his own self from the space, but just as Makli Hyun-ah is about to be flung out into another space, in an instant he gets caught again by Ahn Geum.
"Do you think you can run away that easily when the gap in realm between you and me is only that big? Come here obediently."
Makli Hyun-ah feels his head go blank-white.
More than anything else.
Even now, the parts that melted still have not regenerated.
Just as Ban Ta said, it seems the side effects of the fire-grilled sea cucumber last a long time.
Showing this smooth, bare body is more embarrassing than dying.
"Keeeeek! You won't let go of this!? Come out, Badger! Come out, Rabbit Seven Heavenly Lords!!"
Makli Hyun-ah tries to take out his demon beasts from his beast scroll.
But when Ahn Geum clenches her fist tight, space warps, and his beast scroll breaks on the spot.
"Pathetic flailing! Stop throwing a tantrum and come here!"
In the end, Makli Hyun-ah ends up having his body examined all over by Ahn Geum.
***
The next morning,
Makli Hyun-ah wakes up feeling Ahn Geum, inside his blanket, staring at him with an expressionless face.
"Ah."
He buries his face in both hands as he recalls what happened over the past day.
"I'm tainted..."
"Tainted? We only did something beneficial for each other."
Ahn Geum strokes Makli Hyun-ah's head, then gets up from the bed and rummages around as she puts on her clothes.
"As I ran several examinations on your body, I found out that the constitution you have called the Extreme Ghost Path Body seems to be beyond what I imagined."
Dressed in black palace robes, she ties her hair up, fixes it with a hairpin, then takes out a long pipe from her storage scroll and holds it in her mouth.
"What's inside you is an abyss that the word 'microcosm' fits better. If I only consider the size of the 'vessel' inside you...it's wider than my Integrated Dao Domain, and I'm at the Grand Perfection Integration stage. Rather...the domain inside you is at the level of size that suits the Star Shattering stage...no, a Decaying Corpse Realm. It might be even bigger than that. And the more you raise your realm in the future, the more it will grow along with you. I don't know how far it will grow, but it will probably grow without difficulty up to the Sacred Vessel stage and the Entering Nirvana stage."
"...I don't want to know. No, in the first place, this is something Master could have told me"
"You're sulking, you."
"..."
"Anyway...the space inside you is so huge that I couldn't examine all of it in a single day. But I managed to find something quite interesting:"
Ahn Geum calls out a wandering soul, has it light the long pipe with will-o'-the-wisp and continues.
"You are, right now, chosen by at least two True Immortals."
"I know."
"And inside you, two or more True Immortals are constantly struggling for power to drive each other out, so it is no different from a battlefield."
"...Huh?"
"Within that battlefield, the exchanges between the two True Immortals form a great cycle. And that cycle swirls inside you like light and darkness, and it's in the middle of creating a single world."
"Wait, what are you talking about!?"
Makli Hyun-ah hurriedly puts on his clothes and argues back at Ahn Geum's absurd words.
"If a war like that is happening, there's no way I wouldn't notice, right? If a war like that is happening, in the first place, my body would have burst open, right? And if a war like that is happening, why are there no symptoms at all?"
"Firstly, your realm isn't high enough to notice a great battle at the True Immortal level, and your understanding of Immortal Arts is lacking. Secondly, it seems you yourself don't know your body well, but as I say again, the scale of the space inside you is at the level of a fairly large Decaying Corpse Realm. Inside that, if True Immortals fight playfully with something like split souls rather than their main body, your body will absolutely not burst. And lastly, why there are no symptoms is..."
Ahn Geum points at Makli Hyun-ah and asks one thing.
"Because the time when two True Immortals entered your body overlaps with the time when you ascended to the Purple Gold Realm."
"What...?"
"One is a True Immortal of unknown identity, but one is a True Immortal that belongs to the faction of light, and regarding that True Immortal, I heard a certain amount through a revelation from the True Immortal that supports me. You, while you ascended to the Purple Gold Realm, did you connect with some True Immortal that corresponds to the wood attribute?"
"...Yes."
"Then the True Immortal that is contending in power against the light True Immortal is, with a high probability, the True Immortal that clung to you since Penglai Star."
Makli Hyun-ah nods and confesses honestly.
"...Yeah. A split soul of some True Immortal like a chain entered me. And while I ascended to the Purple Gold Realm, I also came into contact with that being that is some light True Immortal or whatever."
"As I thought. Right, the reason you can't feel any symptoms or even any omens is because the time when the two True Immortals filled up inside you is exactly when you entered the Purple Gold Realm. In the Purple Gold Realm, because of Sacred Master Ban Ta's will, the aura of True Immortals is suppressed to the extreme."
"Ah...! So it is thanks to Master."
"Something like that. Since they are split souls, not even main bodies, they are suppressed even more strongly under the will of the Sacred Master, which is why you couldn't even notice."
Ahn Geum slowly draws in smoke from her long pipe and continues speaking.
"Anyway, for that reason...I still can't find my older brother's traces inside you."
"What are you trying to say?"
"From now on, I need to stick to you and periodically examine your body until I uncover the identities of the 'four Earthlings living in this world' to the very end. Knowing whether my older brother is alive or dead is important."
"Your older brother...was he such a precious person to you?"
"No, not really. If my older brother dies, I can go back to Earth and inherit all the inheritance. Originally, I couldn't even get allowance, let alone an inheritance distribution, from Dad."
'Is she crazy?'
"...Don't look at me like that. My dad listened to my mom and bought more than five hundred Bitcoin in its early days."
"...Your mother is...impressive."
"She is. She's a remarkably accurate shaman. Though at some point she suddenly lost her divine ability and only mental illness remained, so she lived locked up in a psychiatric ward."
Ahn Geum lets out a long sigh together with smoke and continues.
"Recently...I mean, before I fell here, her mind came back more or less. But honestly, she still didn't get discharged from the psychiatric ward. Well, every time I go to visit, she kept telling me things like, 'A great fate is waiting,' or 'Lord Star who drove out Lord Heavens will call you,' or 'The leader of the group you belong to is a great being, serve them well'...she only kept saying weird things... She is better than before, but her mind still wavers. In the first place, at that point, the only group I belonged to was the game guild, so...it's a funny thing to say."
"..."
"Anyway, Dad divorced a long time ago, and my older brother is a wreck who had no interest in anything except games and cooking curry. So I have to inherit Dad's inheritance so I can take care of Mom. That's why I said that. Don't misunderstand it in a weird way."
"I, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood for a moment."
Makli Hyun-ah clears his throat at his misunderstanding and apologizes to her.
"Whatever. Anyway, for one reason or another...I'm going to investigate for sure whether my older brother is alive or dead through your body. So from now on, I'm going to follow you around."
"...Wait, in the first place, you're someone who tried to kidnap me! Do you think my Master will tolerate someone like you?"
"Hmm...you're right. What do I do?"
Ahn Geum, who thinks for a moment at Makli Hyun-ah's words, suddenly makes a shocking confession to Makli Hyun-ah.
"Then let's get married. If we're spouses, Sacred Master Ban Ta won't care about the previous kidnapping attempt."
"What kind of crazy talk is that!?"
"Crazy talk? Sacred Master Ban Ta is famous for sincerely blessing them when his subordinates or people under him get married. No matter what the past is like, no matter what the affiliated group is like, he blesses them."
"That's not what I mean! Can you marry that easily? Marriage is a matter where you have to build trust between each other much more carefully and prudently, and think and think again!"
"Eyy, what a pain..."
Ahn Geum clicks her tongue like it's annoying.
"Then not marriage, how about just an engagement? An engagement is a stage people do well even without love, because of family circumstances, or each person's circumstances. And breaking it off is easy, too."
"Engagement..."
Makli Hyun-ah ends up thinking a little at those words.
He also knows engagements well.
His older sister Lee Seo-ah also had an engagement going back and forth with a man from a mid-sized company called SJD Company, and until just before he fell into this world, she said she started playing games because she worried a lot about that.
'Certainly...since there are a lot of engagements in the family, if it's just an engagement, it's a bit lighter than marriage. But...'
Makli Hyun-ah glares at Ahn Geum and speaks.
"Why should I get engaged to you? You call it an engagement, but you're purely asking me to defend you. And that's after you suddenly kidnapped me, broke in, and did all sorts of things under the pretext of examining me!"
"Em..."
Ahn Geum blinks her eyes at Makli Hyun-ah's eyes.
It is a look as if she didn't expect to hear such words from Makli Hyun-ah, so Makli Hyun-ah feels even more like he's about to burst inside.
"First, I apologize for examining your body as I please. But please understand that is, in its own way, a desperate attempt to find my older brother."
"Fine, since it is an act to find family, I'll grant you that! But how do you explain kidnapping me?"
"Um...it wasn't a kidnapping, it was a rescue."
"Rescue?"
"In the first place, aren't we on the same side?"
At her words, Makli Hyun-ah feels genuinely dumbfounded.
"We're on the same side? How did that even happen?"
"No...you must have heard it from the True Immortal while you ascended. Light is the correct side. Weren't you also thinking of affiliating yourself with the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order? The Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order is the religious order ruled by True Immortals of Light, so in order to respond to the 'evil god' that the True Immortals of Light are wary of, I think you would naturally come into the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order."
"..."
Makli Hyun-ah lets out a silent sight at Ahn Geum's words.
What she says is right.
'Certainly...I don't know what kind of being the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos is, and if the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order is the power of the True Immortals of Light, it is right to stay close to that side...'
When Ahn Geum sees Makli Hyun-ah's troubled expression, she speaks as if she remembers something.
"Ah, right. Come to think of it, your older sister Lee Seo-ah is in the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order...shouldn't you save her? The One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order is a subordinate force of a being presumed to be an evil god."
"Hm...!"
At those words, Makli Hyun-ah urgently speaks to Ahn Geum.
"About the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order...do you know something? And how is my older sister? Does she seem brainwashed? Is she doing well?"
"Hm...I can tell you. But telling you up to that point is compensation for forcing myself on you last night, and that's it. If I help you save your older sister who is sunk into the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order and bring her out to the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order...then I need a price too."
At Ahn Geum's words, Makli Hyun-ah bites down on his lip.
"You...can help me bring my older sister back?"
"Of course. Soon, with the sponsorship of the True Immortals the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order serves, I am confident I can enter the Star Shattering stage within ten thousand years at the latest. If that happens, I can sufficiently subdue your older sister, who is only at the Grand Perfection Four-Axis stage, and attempt to undo the brainwashing of the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order. And I can take her in under the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order."
"...Do we really have to take her in under the Immeasurable Life Buddha Religious Order? Can't we make her become Master's disciple like me?"
Ahn Geum makes a blank expression for a moment, then awkwardly smiles.
"Well...if your older sister wants that, then do that. Anyway, you agree that at the very least, we have to pull her out of the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order, right?"
"...I agree. Help me. The One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order is too suspicious...I can't tell what evil god it has behind it...I asked Master a few times, but he didn't answer, saying my realm is still low."
"Good. Then I'll tell you Lee Seo-ah's whereabouts and recent situation, and I'll help you save her from the One Qi of the Primordial Chaos Religious Order. In return, you acknowledge me as your fiancée, and from now on, let me examine your body and help reveal whether the 'fourth Earthling' inside you is alive or dead."
Ahn Geum, for the sake of her older brother's life and death.
Makli Hyun-ah, for the sake of his older sister's safety.
Like so, the two of them enter a contractual engagement inside Ban Ta Castle.
***
Three days later,
Ban Ta Castle.
"...So, as for you two getting engaged, I can accept that. If you like each other, I can't stop you. I also won't mention your background and your past."
Ban Ta, with veins standing out on his forehead, glares at his disciple and his disciple's fiancée, Ahn Geum, who have come before him to inform him of their engagement right after he just put down a rebellion.
"But now I need to spend time with my disciple, and you tell me to watch over my disciple's cultivation every other day! All sorts of incidents keep breaking out all over the Purple Gold Realm, so I barely have time to watch my disciple's cultivation as it is, and I had to make do whenever I found a gap...and you're telling me to split in half even the little time I have left for my disciple!?"
Ban Ta, with his eyes half gone wild, snaps and yells at Ahn Geum.
"Don't be ridiculous! I can't accept it! What if that makes my disciple's advancement take longer!!?? Ab!! So!! Lute!! Ly!! Not!! I cannot let you take away my time with my disciple!"
Under Ban Ta's momentum as he shouts with eyes rolling and the whites showing, Makli Hyun-ah shrinks back tightly, and Ahn Geum, sweating cold, speaks.
"But regardless of if you are the Sacred Master, you cannot block time between fiancés. No matter how important cultivation is, there also has to be time between each other. To put it bluntly, what if you come while Hyun-ah and I are spending the night together?"
"What's wrong with that!? Whether my disciple takes a shits, eats, or has sex, a master's duty is to advance his disciple as soon as possible! What is there to be ashamed of!?"
Ban Ta trembles his hands and flies into a rage.
"If my disciple, my disciple, my disciple misses the auspicious timing and fails to advance, are you going to take responsibility! Are you going to take responsibility, I'm asking you!? Do you know how many parasite trash have piled up in Ban Ta Castle, rolling around, because they gave up on advancing and use the excuse that they missed their auspicious timing!"
It seems his anger has clear examples behind it.
Ahn Geum makes a slightly dumbfounded look, but soon changes her expression and retorts.
"Well, I understand your will to make Hyun-ah cultivate even in the middle of having relations. But if it's only Hyun-ah, it wouldn't matter, but are you saying you will look at my body too? This wouldn't become a problem only between Hyun-ah and you, Sacred Master. This will become a problem of me, Hyun-ah, and the Sacred Master, three of us. Please respect us!"
"Uuuuuuuuk... Ugeugeugeugeuk!"
At the fact that he can't watch over his disciple's cultivation as soon as possible, Ban Ta's eyes flip completely and he starts foaming at the mouth.
'Endure it, endure! I can't truly get angry at an Integration stage child! But what if Hyun-ah misses his auspicious timing and, like those parasite bastards, misses the timing to advance, and then only stays in place at one realm until he dies!? What if that good disciple who is kind and reveres his master becomes a parasite who only rolls around Ban Ta Castle like the parasite bastards of Ban Ta Castle!?'
Through the examples up until now, Ban Ta trembles all over as he sinks into worry, anxiety, and fear.
"If you have nothing more to say, we will be going now. Thank you for blessing our engagement. Going forward, I will understand that Hyun-ah and I will spend the night together and will only send him to you on alternating days. Then..."
"Gal!"
With his eyes flipped over, Ban Ta cuts off Ahn Geum, and as he completely explodes, he changes the form of his Transformation form.
"Fine, if shame is the problem, then I will change. How is it, like this? If it's like this, no matter what kind of relationship you two have, you won't be ashamed even if I am beside you, right? You two play happily as you like and have your relationship! I, in my own way, will keep making my disciple cultivate whenever there's a gap!"
Makli Hyun-ah and Ahn Geum stare at Ban Ta with blank eyes.
Ban Ta has already changed his Transformation form into the appearance of a beautiful woman wearing purple clothes.