abcnovels
Chapter 354
Chapter 354
Chapter 354
All the constellations present were confused, and the goddess of sloth was the first one to snap out of the state of chaos.
Her kingdom had once flourished and she had risen to the top of the rankings in the Abyss; no one had more experience than her.
-Successor, don’t be deceived!How can you believe such absurd words?
“!”
[The ‘Manipulator of Dreams and Desires’ calls for the ‘Goddess of Balance Who Walks Ahead’ to come to her senses!]
The manipulator constellation shouted at the goddess because she couldn’t just stand by and watch. She could’ve just said something like “What constellation would buy into something like that?” but at this moment, there were two constellations who were likely to fall for such trickery.
If one was Choi Yeonseung, the other was the Goddess of Balance Who Walks Ahead.
‘Thinking about the twisted and perverse desires that the Goddess of Balance Who Walks Ahead has for the incarnation of training, she might actually be deceived by this!’
As expected of the manipulator constellation, she assessed the situation calmly and rationally.
[The ‘Goddess of Balance Who Walks Ahead’ realizes this and becomes angry!]
[She is making an appearance!]
“Goddess...?!”
The goddess of balance took action before Choi Yeonseung could stop her.
Given that sending down a clone consumed an enormous amount of power of existence, it was evident how serious this situation was.
But to come forward like this...
‘She’s really angry!’
The goddess of balance had to be livid because of this constellation who claimed to be her child. This absurd claim stained her reputation as a constellation!
-It’s a bit different from that, but I don’t have time to explain it right now. Focus, Successor!
The goddess of sloth cried out urgently to Choi Yeonseung, urging him to stay focused. The opponent was also a constellation, one that had mindlessly abused their power of existence. This made the opponent rather dangerous, for even constellations feared those who only lived in the moment and didn’t care about their future.
Such an adversary would inflict the most amount of damage on a constellation.
Finally, the goddess of balance, whom Choi Yeonseung hadn’t seen in a long time, appeared. Her expression couldn’t be seen clearly because she was blindfolded, but her intense presence attested to her anger.
“Mo...”
-Shut up!
The goddess of balance suddenly vanished and appeared behind the opponent. She had a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. She swung her sword, which was infused with her power of existence, at the angel of martial arts, tearing through space.
“...Why don’t you listen to me?! I’m being serious!”
“...”
[...]
-...
The constellations were astonished. The angel of martial arts overwhelmed the goddess of balance with a single blow! More than that, they had done it with the exact same move!
The angel of martial arts had disappeared and reappeared behind the goddess of balance, and after subduing her, they shouted, “Listen to me! There’s no time!”
The goddess of balance looked like she had completely lost her mind. The attack itself was simple, but it was impressive when taking into consideration that the goddess of balance could see the future.
It was truly unimaginable that someone could get around that power and completely overpower the goddess of balance.
“I also have the power to see the future. Mother, how can you attack me? Stop it! Father doesn’t like when you act rashly like this!”
“...”
[...]
-...Is she dead?
The goddess of balance had already lost her mind once, and it seemed like it happened once again.
‘Now!’
Choi Yeonseung finally made a move. This skill was different from the teleportation of the goddess of balance; it was a much more dazzling and unpredictable move... But to his surprise, the angel of martial arts moved in exactly the same way.
Even the attack itself was the same!
‘Origin of the Celestial Fist?!’
Choi Yeonseung was stunned by the fact that his opponent mimicked his Origin of the Celestial Fist. This wasn’t a matter of strength, but a matter of training. How could someone train and use the Origin of the Celestial Fist like this?
“Isn’t this enough? Father, listen to me! Mother is hopeless right now!”
“I don’t have a child... I think.”
“Of course! I’m from the future!” shouted the angel of martial arts in the voice of a little girl. Despite her childish appearance, she possessed formidable power. She had even managed to restrain the goddess of balance.
Choi Yeonseung decided to compromise.
“Alright, my daughter... Uh, or son...? Maybe you don’t have a gender...? In any case, can you let go of your mother now? She’s actually a good person.”
“Father... I’m your daughter. And you think I’ll fall for this trick? You’ll attack me the second I give her back to you!”
The face of the angel of martial arts was concealed by the blurred mask, but it sort of felt like she was casting Choi Yeonseung a look of pity.
-How can you lose to a young constellation using a ruse...?!
-Then why don’t you try dealing with her, goddess of sloth?
This opponent was tough to deal with. Regardless of whether she really was Choi Yeonseung’s daughter or a mysterious chimera, it was evident that she possessed the abilities of both Choi Yeonseung and the goddess of balance.
At this point, the angel of martial arts was so overpowered that even the strongest constellations in the Abyss would have a hard time fighting her.
From predicting the future to skilfully using martial arts...
“Listen carefully, Father. Mother is too hopeless to listen.”
“...Stop saying she’s hopeless.”
“She won’t come to her senses unless I say this. Anyway, there’s no time, so listen carefully! I came from the future in order to make sure that you win. The whole process might seem confusing, but it’s necessary for victory.”
“...Is there going to be a rebellion in China??”
Choi Yeonseung was momentarily confused. What did this have to do with any victories? Of course, it felt a bit thrilling, but...?
‘Do I hate China that much?’
It seemed like he really had something against China...?
“From now on, you have to keep fighting, Father. You can’t stop. Of course, there are times when the humans of Earth are really annoying and you just want to tie them up and throw them into a corner of the Abyss...”
‘Is she actually my child?!’
Choi Yeonseung got goosebumps. He couldn’t believe that this constellation, whom he had never met before, knew how he truly felt.
“...I know you won’t fall into temptation, Father. Take this! It shall provide guidance some day.”
[The skill ‘????’ has been acquired.]
[????]
[Rank: ?
???????]
“I have to go back to the future now! I’ve consumed all my strength here. Please take care of yourself and of Mother!”
The angel of martial arts threw the goddess of balance at Choi Yeonseung like a sack of potatoes.
“What... What and how...?” Choi Yeonseung murmured in a quivering voice after catching the goddess of balance.
“What do you mean, what and how? Why are you asking me this? Find out yourself!”
“But specifically...”
“Ah! I don’t know! I don’t know!”
With these words, the silhouette of the angel of martial arts became blurry. The cat constellation was taken aback by this absurd scene.
[The ‘Cat of Lava and Magma’ says it is a bit strange to ask your child how she was conceived...]
“Cat! Please take care! Help me!”
[?!]
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know! You know! I’ll check later!”
The cat constellation was startled when it heard its name being called. It had been quiet as a mouse, and yet this angel knew its name.
[The area is reconnected to the rest of the world.]
[The ‘Angel of Martial Arts from the Future’ has disappeared.]
[The world is changing!]
The angel of martial arts didn’t just disappear. As if to use up her remaining power of existence, she had released an enormous amount of it.
“...!”
A nearby city was vanishing as if hundreds of years had passed. The tall buildings were being replaced by unique and marvelous Oriental-style wooden pagodas.
In addition, all cell phones disappeared from people’s hands and a bunch of pigeons appeared in the air. Surprisingly, they were messenger pigeons.
The world changed in an instant.
As he looked around, Choi Yeonseung recalled where he had seen this familiar landscape. Where had the angel of martial arts drawn inspiration from to create this scenery?
‘...Was... Was I the inspiration...?’
Choi Yeonseung had grown up reading martial arts novels, and this scenery was exactly how he had envisioned the world of martial arts to look like.
If the angel of martial arts really was his child, it was possible that this new environment had been taken from his imagination.
‘...I should never tell the Chinese government...’
If the Chinese government found out that a huge area in China had been transformed for Choi Yeonseung’s sake, they would certainly scream out of joy.
Wasn’t it great for their country to accommodate their tourists like that?
[The Monkey King wants to be your household member!]
The household member left behind by the angel of martial arts bowed his head the moment he saw Choi Yeonseung.
‘I guess I’ll have to send him back to the realm first.’
Choi Yeonseung paused as he watched the monster disappear. Come to think of it, Hwang Gyeongryong would probably get scared if he saw a first-generation monster like the Monkey King...
***
“He stopped it!”
As the news of the victory spread, the hunters participating couldn’t help rejoicing. It had been a dangerous raid in which nobody could’ve let their guards down for even a second.
It was surprising that Choi Yeonseung had made short work of the Monkey King, but the intervention of the constellation had been the most shocking part.
The hunters had been worried that something might go wrong or that Choi Yeonseung might go missing, but fortunately, he had returned safely.
“Hey! Why do you look so gloomy? Are you really doing this for money?”
The hunters shouted at the Chinese officials standing by next to them. In response, the Chinese officials silently pointed at the city.
Seeing this, the hunters cleared their throats.
“Umm... Hmm...”
“Cough. Ummm...”
The hunters apologized once, but then they started acting shamelessly.
“Hey, it’s not our fault. We did our best.”
“That’s right. There were no deaths, right?”
They couldn’t have made it this far as hunters if they had enough of a conscience to feel sorry about things like this. If anything, they actually became angry.
“Hunter Choi Yeonseung has risked his life to prevent damage, and yet you’re staring at the sky all dejected and stuff without thanking him... Are you even human?”
“Do the Chinese not know what gratitude is?”
“...It’s not that we’re not grateful. It’s just that the state of the city is...”
“These days, you can’t live an eco-friendly green life even if you have money. This is a great thing! Be grateful!”
The hunters at the scene became angry and pressured the officials to accept the situation. They were afraid that the Chinese government would blame the hunters led by Choi Yeonseung, so they decided to strike first.
However, they were overthinking the whole situation. Given the current circumstances, the Chinese government wouldn’t be able to blame the hunters. There were too many people involved.
They came all the way to another country and participated in an A-grade monster raid despite the chaotic situation. Thus, rebuking the hunters was tantamount to committing suicide in the international scene.
“It doesn’t make sense...” muttered Armas as he scanned his surroundings. It was amazing that they had escaped from the clutches of a constellation, but he still couldn’t believe that Choi Yeonseung had defeated such a powerful monster so easily.
“It’s because of martial arts, which are stronger in this area...”
“Yeah, that’s the case.”
Armas was seriously troubled. He wondered if he should start learning martial arts. He had thought that it was ridiculous for an A-grade hunter to bother with such a weak skill, but his impression had changed after seeing the low-rated hunters using martial arts.
If he learned at least a few martial arts skills, wouldn’t he be able to use them in combination with his magic?
‘It’s not a bad idea. Besides, I heard that Dragon Industry is distributing martial arts books.’
Perhaps due to his compassionate heart as the pioneer of martial arts, Choi Yeonseung was surprisingly willing to reveal a lot of information about martial arts.
During the first generation of raids, nobody was willing to share information about magic, which meant that evolving as a magic user was terribly slow.
On that note, present-day martial artists were blessed.
“Armas, we’re having a meeting.”
“Ah. Of course, I should go.”
One might expect that hunters would collapse after a raid and that they would want to rest right away, but that was rarely the case. The post-raid rewards were so precious that hunters would jump straight into the meetings.
Even if they were on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion, the hunters held on to the end and made sure to get the rewards before collapsing.
“Why is that guy coming?”
“He didn’t participate, right?”
On the way, Armas saw hunters whispering and staring at him, but he ignored them. Critique was temporary, but money was eternal.
Since Armas had participated in the first raid and was part of the offensive, he was entitled to a part of the rewards. Of course, his rewards would be insignificant compared to what Choi Yeonseung would receive. After all, he was the one who had contributed the most in the raid.
Even so, the Monkey King was a ridiculously valuable monster, which meant that even a small part of the rewards would be very profitable.
‘Besides, he’s a unique monster. There might be some cores on top of the rewards...!’
“There’s no Monkey King though? His body is gone.”
“...Don’t lie!” Armas shouted angrily.