“Are you serious?”
Lee Sungmin looked at Sima Ryunju with his eyes wide in surprise.
Beyond the eyeholes of Sima Ryunju’s playful lion mask, he could see Sima Ryunju’s eyes bent in half-crescents.
Thanks to such a mysterious gaze, Lee Sungmin couldn’t tell whether what Sima Ryunju just said was a joke or not.
Sima Ryunju, The Leader of the Sama Order, The strongest man of the Unorthodox Sects within all of Eria.
He had been treated like a myth and a legend even in Lee Sungmin’s previous life.
Standing at the very top of all the Unorthodox Sects and his own Faction called the Sama Order, Sima Ryunju never directly acted or was visible to the public. Only his deeds and tales of glory were known.
And this very man said he intended to take Lee Sungmin as a disciple!
Lee Sungmin gulped his saliva down while closing his mouth.
“……are you serious?”
“Why would I lie?”
“But…why me?”
Lee Sungmin hesitated in asking his question.
Although Lee Sungmin had entered the Realm of Transcendence, Lee Sungmin knew too well that his talent for learning martial arts was not the best.
It was possible for him to enter the Realm of Transcendence due to the trial of time that he had undergone thanks to the God Denir. And even then, he had suffered endlessly alone within his own mental world for 2,200 years, all alone with nobody to talk to. Not only that, the only reason he was even able to undertake such a trial was due to the hellish training he had undergone on the Mountain of Mush. Every time he wanted to surpass his own talent, he had to undertake hellish training that only someone with his perseverance could handle.
“My talent is not great. Even if I become your student…….”
“I know.”
Sima Ryunju smirked and spoke.
“I know that overcoming your talent comes with your almost inhuman level of perseverance. I also know you have undergone Denir’s Trial of Time which has probably allowed you to enter the Realm of Transcendence.”
“……Yes?”
Lee Sungmin’s eyes suddenly widened as he fully understood what Sima Ryunju just said. How would anybody else know that he had undergone Denir’s Trial of Time?
While Lee Sungmin was embarrassed and confused, Sima Ryunju laughed.
“Well, guess what. This old man saw you fighting An Zun, one of the Six Divinities, while you were only at the threshold in between the Peak Realm and Transcendence. Your true skills and abilities are not something that can be determined by talent or your Realm. What I felt whilst watching you was that your mind and body have overcome their limits and untangled their balance due to Denir’s trial of time and your body mutating. Which means your heart and martial arts are not quite in sync with the other two, am I correct?”
“……That’s right.”
“How many years did you endure in the Trial of Time?”
Sima Ryunju asked. Lee Sungmin hesitated but eventually decided to tell the truth, “I was in there for 2,200 years.”
Sima Ryunju laughed aloud at the answer.
“That’s crazy.”
“……are you also someone who undertook Denir’s Trial?”
“Indeed, it was a long time ago.”
Again, Sima Ryunju turned around. The fairies, who had stepped back from the fierce aura emanated by Sima Ryunju earlier, came back to his shoulders and played around with each other.
“I had taken it when I was still a kid. In Denir’s Trial, I had lasted 600 years. After that point after so many years, I thought I couldn’t do it without losing my sanity, so I came out. But you were in there for 2,200……are you even a human being?”
Even Envirus had only lasted 1,000 years, and Denir said that Envirus had endured the longest time except for Lee Sungmin within his trial of time.
Given that even Sima Ryunju lasted only 600 years, Denir’s trial seemed truly horrid.
“It doesn’t matter even if you were a genius with outstanding qualities, didn’t this old man tell you? Even if you are not the strongest in the world right now, you must believe that you will be and implement the work necessary to get there.”
Sima Ryunju stopped walking.
There was an old cottage not far away. Sima Ryunju, who was looking at the cabin with his back straightened, slowly turned around.
“If you’ve endured 2,200 years, you’re strong enough to persevere through even hell. The problem is your own aspirations, but what do you think? Are you looking to become the best in the world?”
Lee Sungmin hesitated to answer. Even though he had already transcended his human limits and was atop many martial artists in the world, Lee Sungmin had never stayed conscious of that fact alone.
Previously, his ability was trivial and was not even worthy of contending to be in the conversation of trying to become the world’s best. But now, he had the ability to do so, while also understanding just how wide the world truly was.
“What a fool. You lack confidence in yourself. That’s the problem with you that this old man sees most.”
Sima Ryunju smirked.
“Then what about this? If the Minor Heavenly Demon becomes the best in the world, you, who aspire to and aim for the Minor Heavenly Demon…… would you like to jump over her and become the best?”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in the answer. Sima Ryunju did not seem to like Lee Sungmin’s answer completely, but he did not complain.
“So. Are you going to be my disciple or not?”
However, it was not easy to respond to the proposal. Shouldn’t Lee Sungmin have accepted the proposal when he was still in the threshold between the Peak Realm and Transcendence? That way he could still learn many more martial arts. But now that he was in the Realm of Transcendence, what martial arts could possibly benefit him? What more was left to learn really?
“……If I become your disciple…… What could I possibly learn?”
“Hahaha!”
Sima Ryunju burst into laughter at Lee Sungmin’s question. Sima Ryunju, who started to laugh for a bit of time for a long time, finally piped down his laughter.
“I can teach you everything you lack.”
“What am I lacking?”
“Well, we’ll have to find out.”
Sima Ryunju’s answer was so relaxed and nonchalant that it sounded ridiculous. When Lee Sungmin made a face that he was full of irritation, Sima Ryunju smirked and laughed again.
“Just because you’re becoming my disciple doesn’t necessarily mean you’re learning martial arts from me.”
“Do you mean there’s more to it?”
“To be a disciple of this old man, is to be a disciple of Sima Ryunju, the Lord of the Sama Order. Which means you’ll also become the heir to the throne.”
Lee Sungmin’s body flinched.
Yes, Sima Ryunju was not just some simple man that had traversed into the Realm of Mystical Beings.
He was the ideal of every unorthodox practitioner in Eria. He had become what others aspired to become and was the epitome of power. What it meant to Lee Sungmin was that, becoming his disciple would make him the second in command to one or the largest organizations in Eria, as well as become the successor the Sama Order itself.
“Why me…?”
“I like a stubbornly hard worker, better than a genius.”
Answered Sima Ryunju.
“For you to be able to overcome your limits of talent and enter the Realm of Transcendence is already proof of your will. I’m not asking you to answer right now. Take some time, think about it, and decide afterwards. And once you’re ready, don’t come back to me saying you regret your decision.”
“Okay.”
In the past, people who met Lee Sungmin showed unprovoked goodwill because of the protection of the God of Ghosts that Lee Sungmin gained from his return from death.
However, that power hadn’t been completely removed by the Grandmaster of the Shoaling, Bulyoung. The Grandmaster Bulyoung stated that he simply dampened the effects for a little bit.
Was it due to this power, possibly becoming stronger again, be the reason Sima Ryunju had shown good will and saved him from An Zun?
“……Where is Wijihoyeon?”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll have to go see that little girl first.”
Sima Ryunju muttered and raised his hand to point toward the forest.
“The girl lives in the woods. She hasn’t come out of the woods since she was beaten up by this old man. I’m sure the girl knows you’re here already. She’s just not coming out because you’re with this old man.”
Lee Sungmin bowed his head to Sima Ryunju and headed deeper into the forest.
The dense forestry was filled with fairies. There were so many fairies and yet, it was to be said that even fairies were harder to see than elves within Eria. Lee Sungmin looked around at the Fairies glowing around him in astonishment.
“What’s your name?”
“Where are you going?”
The fairies came around Lee Sungmin and chattered.
Lee Sungmin was amazed and found them cute when he saw the fairies for the first time, so at first, he answered them one by one.
However, there was no end to answering their questions once he started. The fairies continued to flock to him, asking questions constantly about what they were curious about.
“Not here.”
“She’s scary.”
At one point, the fairies shook their bodies and flapped their wings and flew away from Lee Sungmin.
‘She.’
Lee Sungmin looked around, recalling what the fairies said as they left.
“Wijihoyeon.”
Lee Sungmin opened his mouth and called her name. He could feel her gaze resting on him.
However, Wijihoyeon did not show up. In fact, Lee Sungmin already knew where Wijihoyeon was.
The expanded senses, from his mutated body and Transcendent cultivation, were showing him that Wijihoyeon was looking at Lee Sungmin from a faraway tree.
Standing on a branch, Wijihoyeon kept her mouth shut. It had been almost a year since they had met.
It was a reunion that she imagined several times, but she couldn’t run to Lee Sungmin like she imagined she would be able to at the moment of the reunion.
‘You’ve become stronger.’
Wijihoyeon looked at Lee Sungmin’s face from far away. It felt mysterious to her.
Wijihoeyon was always stronger than Lee Sungmin, and she was used to such a thing. When they had first met, and even after more than a decade of separation, there was something uncomfortable brewing within her heart. Wijihoyeon could not figure out this feeling despite all of her experience with martial arts and traveling.
It was a long time ago, when they were young.
Wijihoyeon had told Lee Sungmin.
To make her, his goal. She told him to not live and wander around aimlessly by simply thinking whatever he was doing was better than his past.
What about now though?
Wijihoyeon slowly descended from the tree branch. She knew well what he must have been thinking, or maybe not what he was feeling, but at least the confusion he must have felt.
How confused he must have been to see his only friend, who had always been stronger than him, weakened and helpless from a curse.
During this time they had spent apart for the past year, Lee Sungmin had become so strong that it was incomparable to the past. How could Lee Sungmin, who had such abysmal talent, become so strong?
She wondered just how many arduous and horrible conditions had he put himself into, to attain such strength?
‘It seems he truly has become strong.’
Wijihoyeon approached Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin looked at the approaching Wijihoyeon.
‘Maybe I’m even weaker than you now.’
Wijihoyeon laughed while thinking about it.
Even if she hadn’t fought against him yet, Wijhoyeon felt it vaguely. That the state the two of them were in… was unpleasant for her.
Well, rather than unpleasant…… She was a little afraid. Afraid of what he thought of her now, and what would happen now that he had surpassed her as his target.
“Hi.”
It was Wijihoyeon who opened her mouth first. She greeted Lee Sungmin with a warm smile.
Lee Sungmin looked blankly at the approaching Wijihoyeon. It had been a year since he saw her last.
She’d barely changed. Was her hair a little longer? She was completely emaciated when he was cursed, but her body seemed to have regained its previous vitality for the few months they had spent away while he traveled back after killing Qian Zun and had lifted the curse.
“How are you? Are you okay?”
Lee Sungmin asked the first question. Wijihoyeon nodded her head. Wijihoyeon stopped walking.
Lee Sungmin and Wijihoyeon faced each other without much distance between each other.
“Have you heard from Sima Ryunju?”
“Heard what from him?”
“Before you came back. I challenged Sima Ryunju, and I was defeated.”
Saying that, Wijihoyeon was still smiling.
“He’s a great master. I didn’t even last… ten seconds against him.”
She found it funny to say that fact as soon as they met. Wijihoyeon added the embarrassing line and laughed. Her stopped steps moved again, and the distance between each other began to narrow even further.
“I had a hunch when the first second had even passed. That I would lose to him no matter what.”
Wijihoyeon hummed.
“When I received the first blow, I felt another hunch. If Sima Ryunju wanted to kill me, he could have killed me within the first second.”
Despite the defeat, Wijohoyeon’s voice didn’t sound depressed.
“When I got to three seconds. I suffered internal injuries.”
Rather… her voice was mixed with excitement.
“When I got there. Yeah… I got hit on my left arm. It broke immediately on impact. His attacks smashed right through my layer of internal energy wrapped around my body, like it was a paper bag.”
And there was a mix of laughter.
“When I got to the fifth second, I had a thought to at least hang in there for 10 seconds. I didn’t want to be defeated within 10 seconds at least.”
Wijihoyeon’s smile widened even further.
“And after seven seconds I fell to the ground. I just couldn’t stand it. He was a……Sima Ryunju was a monster. I’ve lived in this world and traveled so far within it. If there was possibly a human being who would be called a monster, I thought it would be myself. Do you think that I was arrogant?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, I was.”
Wijihoyeon shook her head.
“I knew that the world was quite wide once I started the fight against Qian Zun, but the fight with Sima Ryunju was actually an opportunity to know how small I really was. In fact, It was also an opportunity for me to learn how stubborn and selfish I was.”
Wijihoyeon stopped walking. She was standing right in front of Lee Sungmin.
“Didn’t Sima Ryunju offer to become his disciple?”
“……he did.”
“Become his disciple.”
Wijihoyeon said.
“The martial arts he has are superior to all the martial arts I have taught you. Now it may be impossible to balance out your heart to match the level of your mind and body, but at the level of Sima Ryunju, you can make up for your lack of mastery over the heart rather than just learning new martial arts.”
“Maybe.”
“Well, it’s not worth worrying about in the first place. Being a disciple of a master like Sima Ryunju is a miraculous opportunity that will never happen again.”
“The most miraculous opportunity I ever got, was meeting you.”
“You’re saying quite some nice things to hear.”
Wijihoyeon burst into laughter at Lee Sungmin’s words and then suddenly stopped to ask him a question.
“I’d like to ask you a favor. Can I?”
“What do you want?”
“Let’s have a spar.”
Wijihoyeon’s smile widened to its limits.
“It’s been 10 years.”