Almighty God of War - Chapter 152

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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152

 

That evening, Guyang Cheongang called for Jang Cheol-un, Mong Ji-hye, and Jin Yu-han.

 

“From now on, we’ll be mining gold. Follow me.”

 

Without any other explanation, he strode into the waterfall that was shining with golden light.

 

The three followed behind him without hesitation.

 

Inside the small cave created by the waterfall.

 

Guyang Cheongang placed his bare hands on the floor.

 

“From now on, I’ll open the path.”

 

There was no difficulty at all in digging through the ground.

 

When Guyang Cheongang drew up the Pure Yang Energy of the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art, the solid bedrock beneath his feet melted away silently like candle wax.

 

Then Pure Yin Energy hardened the melted earth and stone back into uniform sizes suitable for transport.

 

Guyang Cheongang passed the waste rock he had created to Jang Cheol-un and the others following behind, and they carried it outside.

 

He continued forward like this, creating a spiral path down into the earth.

 

The three people following behind could only silently watch this miraculous scene with eyes filled with awe.

 

It was when they had dug down about seven zhang.

 

From the cave walls, a breathtakingly enchanting light began to seep out.

 

A golden vein that had been trapped in darkness for tens of thousands of years.

 

It was shining on its own, emitting even a mysterious and sacred aura, as if the primordial light that had flowed along the earth’s veins had solidified just as it was.

 

Guyang Cheongang, who had been standing and gazing at that magnificent scene for a moment, slowly brought his hand to the gold vein.

 

‘Akasha, I’m going to separate only the pure gold from this rock. Tell me the exact melting point of gold, and adjust the temperature of my internal energy to match it in real time.’

 

[Understood, Doctor. The melting point of gold is 1,064 degrees Celsius. I will now fix the output temperature of your Pure Yang Energy to the melting point.]

 

From where Guyang Cheongang’s palm touched, the rock maintained its form while only the essence of gold within flowed out softly.

 

Trickle, trickle, trickle-

 

Guyang Cheongang wrapped the flowing liquid gold with Pure Yin Energy to solidify it, then used sword energy to cut it into gold ingots weighing one geun each.

 

That night, Jang Cheol-un, Mong Ji-hye, and Jin Yu-han carried gold ingots and waste rock outside tirelessly throughout the night.

 

The next morning, when the light of dawn illuminated the campsite.

 

The Jagang Corps warriors, who had no idea what had happened during the night, were stunned by the scene spread before their eyes.

 

A pile of golden ingots stacked like a small mountain in front of the campsite.

 

Jang Cheol-un shouted toward the warriors standing in a daze.

 

“Fill the wooden boxes you each carried with one hundred geun of gold ingots!”

 

Five days passed like this.

 

On the seventh day since leaving the harbor, the backs of the two hundred and fifty Jagang Corps warriors leaving the waterfall each carried wooden boxes containing one hundred geun of gold.

 

A total amount of twenty-five thousand geun.

 

Converted to gold coins of this era, it was four hundred thousand nyang, or six million nyang in silver coins.

 

This was an enormous amount that would require six full years of mining even during the peak period of that mine that Guyang Cheongang knew from his previous life.

 

The Jagang Corps warriors who returned to the port town silently boarded their ships while supporting the wounded.

 

Hwa Seungryong and Wang Eok stood on the wharf, silently watching the strange behavior of the Jagang Corps warriors boarding the ships.

 

Wang Eok was the first to speak.

 

“Corps Leader, doesn’t something seem strange?”

 

“You felt it too?”

 

Hwa Seungryong frowned while crossing his arms.

 

Though they had only been away for a few days, the Jagang Corps warriors’ gait was strangely heavy.

 

With each step they took, the dirt floor of the wharf was dug abnormally deep.

 

Moreover, their eyes held a mixture of inexplicable extreme fatigue and strange excitement.

 

Wang Eok spoke in a whisper.

 

“Those wooden boxes… what could be inside them to make them so heavy? It’s as if they’re filled with metal.”

 

“If it were simple metal, their expressions wouldn’t be like that.”

 

Hwa Seungryong sighed.

 

He too found the Jagang Corps suspicious, but he had no intention of investigating Guyang Cheongang or the warriors.

 

Something beyond intuition stopped him.

 

‘There’s definitely something… Instructor Jang has obtained something we don’t know about.’

 

Another sigh escaped him.

 

Hwa Seungryong had neither the ability nor the heart left to interrogate Guyang Cheongang.

 

* * *

 

That night, in the room designated as temporary quarters.

 

Guyang Cheongang had just finished a full hour of Energy Circulation and Breath Control, gathering his internal energy into his dantian.

 

The fatigue from over ten days of travel disappeared as if washed away, and his mind became clear like a calm lake.

 

It was when he slowly opened his eyes.

 

Unusually, Akasha was the first to break the silence and speak to him.

 

[Doctor, may I ask you a question?]

 

‘Yes. What is it?’

 

[To what extent do you intend to intervene in the history of this era?]

 

Guyang Cheongang’s brow furrowed slightly.

 

‘Why are you asking that?’

 

[Because of the discovery of the gold ore mine. The fact that your past life memories match the underground resource distribution of this world means you can cause dramatic changes in this era according to your will. Since the possibility of unpredictable future variables increasing exponentially is high, I need to reconfirm your ultimate goal, which will be the standard for all my judgments.]

 

“Hmm…”

 

A bitter smile appeared on Guyang Cheongang’s lips.

 

‘My goal has never changed from the beginning. Only to the extent of securing my family’s safety. Plus living as an idle good-for-nothing.’

 

He paused for a moment, then continued while gazing into the darkness.

 

‘Of course… I’ll have to walk a precarious tightrope to maintain that line. But I won’t cross it. Anything beyond that would be overstepping my authority. The history of this land belongs to the people of this place. I, who came from another world, have no right to arbitrarily twist it.’

 

[That is a logical contradiction. Due to your existence, the fates of countless people have already changed.]

 

‘I know.’

 

Guyang Cheongang acknowledged it calmly.

 

‘The number of those who died by my hand already exceeds several thousand. They might still be alive and breathing now if it weren’t for me. But that too was part of the process of maintaining the line I set. I have no intention of avoiding responsibility for that. But that’s as far as it goes.’

 

He smiled, but it was mixed with deep fatigue.

 

‘Don’t forget this either, Akasha. We didn’t cross over to this world to become gods. So you must help me not to cross the line I’ve set.’

 

[Understood, Doctor. I will set your will as the highest priority command.]

 

The next day, a fleet of over twenty ships from the Four Seas Trading Company arrived at the harbor, loaded with support forces and massive supplies to rebuild the island.

 

Guyang Cheongang, who was watching the unloading work, spoke to Hwa Seungryong standing beside him.

 

“We will depart tomorrow morning.”

 

Hwa Seungryong silently nodded.

 

He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

 

“Instructor Jang, if there’s ever anything the Four Seas Trading Company can do to help you in the future, please call on us anytime. I will help you with my life on the line. Also, we will definitely keep our agreement with Dongryeong Salt Field, staking our Four Seas Trading Company’s honor on it. And…”

 

Hwa Seungryong looked directly into Guyang Cheongang’s eyes as he continued.

 

“…our company head has sent word that he would like to meet you directly.”

 

It was an official invitation sent by the master of the massive force called the Four Seas Trading Company.

 

Guyang Cheongang fell into thought for a moment.

 

“I’m grateful for the company head’s goodwill. However, there are mountains of old matters piled up at Dongryeong Salt Field that need to be handled. It’s difficult to leave my post right now.”

 

He continued in a calm tone.

 

“After settling the urgent matters first, I’ll contact Branch Manager Do Namjong in Iljo to arrange an appointment.”

 

At those words, Hwa Seungryong bowed his head without objection.

 

“I will convey your words exactly as spoken to our company head.”

 

The next morning, at dawn.

 

Five ships carrying Guyang Cheongang, the Jagang Corps, and the captured Gang Pil quietly departed from Dongban Island.

 

Neither Hwa Seungryong nor anyone from the Four Seas Trading Company could even imagine that twenty-five thousand geun of gold was loaded on those ships.

 

* * *

 

Inside the cabin of the command ship, a deep silence flowed.

 

Through the meridians of Guyang Cheongang, who sat in lotus position, flowed a mysterious energy he had named ‘Taiji Mixed Origin Qi’ – a perfect harmony of pure yang and pure yin energy from the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art, flowing majestically like the great Yangtze River.

 

With each circulation, his internal energy harmonizing pure yang and pure yin grew noticeably stronger, and inversely, the extreme yin energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians gradually lost its power.

 

When the thirty-sixth circulation ended and his Taiji Mixed Origin Qi returned to his dantian.

 

Akasha’s voice resonated in his mind.

 

[Doctor, the purity of the Taiji Mixed Origin Qi has increased by 0.8% from before, and as a result, the resistance of the extreme yin energy blocking the seventh major acupoint of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians has decreased by 12%.]

 

A faint smile crossed Guyang Cheongang’s lips.

 

‘I can feel it too.’

 

[If you maintain your current state and begin the next circulation, the probability of breaking through the major acupoint is calculated at 93.4%.]

 

‘Yes. This time I can definitely break through.’

 

Through Akasha’s analysis, he confirmed that his intuition was not wrong.

 

Without delay, he entered the thirty-seventh circulation, and the Taiji Mixed Origin Qi flowed toward the seventh major acupoint of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.

 

There was no violent collision like before.

 

The Taiji Mixed Origin Qi no longer defined the extreme yin energy as an enemy to be destroyed.

 

With a much more fundamental power, it decomposed the essence of the extreme yin energy, purified the evil qi within it, then filtered out and absorbed only the pure yin energy.

 

At that very moment, a tremendous change occurred in Guyang Cheongang’s dantian!

 

The inner core, which had been only walnut-sized until now, began to expand rapidly, using the absorbed pure yin energy as nourishment.

 

Soon growing to the size of a peach as large as an adult’s fist, the inner core emitted energy incomparably more refined and dense than before.

 

The change in his inner core shook his entire body.

 

All his pores opened wide, and he directly absorbed the external heaven and earth energy through his entire skin rather than his nose.

 

His body itself became one giant furnace, beginning to refine the energy wandering through the world and make it his own.

 

The first thing to react was his outer skin.

 

The human skin mask bearing Jang Woomyeong’s face and his hair could no longer withstand his energy and crumbled like dust.

 

Then, foul-smelling black energy burst forth from all his pores.

 

It was the turbid qi that had been sleeping deep within his flesh and the residue left by the major acupoints of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians that had dissolved until now.

 

And like a snake shedding its skin, his entire skin peeled off.

 

But that was not the end.

 

As soon as new skin sprouted, it shed again.

 

Only after casting off his old flesh nine times did skin as clear and transparent as a newborn baby’s finally emerge.

 

Crack crack crack-!

 

Finally, all the joints in his body began screaming as they rearranged themselves.

 

Into a stronger, more perfect form.

 

It was true bone and marrow cleansing.

 

His entire meridian system and even the finest vessels opened up completely without a single blockage.

 

His body became as light as a feather, weightless, and his mind became as clear as a freshly polished mirror, making all the principles of the world feel as clear as if he could grasp them in his hands.

 

At that very moment, a brilliant lotus of red, blue, and white colors bloomed in the air above his crown, and his body rose about three feet into midair.

 

Samhwa Chwijeong and Bugong Sammae Jiggyeong.

 

It was clear evidence that Guyang Cheongang’s martial arts had reached the intermediate level of the Transformation Realm.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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