Almighty God of War - Chapter 40

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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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040

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh-!

Along with the sensation of the air behind him screaming as it was torn apart, a golden flash blazed across his vision like fire.

Afterimages like living lightning struck simultaneously from his front, back, left, and right.

[Be careful. The opponent’s movement is so fast it exceeds the capture limits of my sensors. Trajectory prediction is meaningless.]

Before Akasha’s warning that struck his mind could even finish, the golden flash had already penetrated to just below his chin.

[I will accelerate cognitive ability to enhance dynamic vision.]

In the sensation of time stretching like taffy, Guyang Cheongang’s dynamic vision exceeded human limits.

Within the dizzying golden afterimages, he began to see the real trajectory, thin as a thread.

His body reacted first.

Swish-

He deployed Flash Step and barely dodged the attack aimed at piercing his throat.

At the same time, his hand extended toward midair caught the opponent’s arm like a bird of prey.

It was the Dragon Subduing Golden Binding Technique.

But what his hand grasped was only empty wind.

Swoosh-

The opponent slipped away at a speed far exceeding his expectations, instead leaving sharp claw marks on his arm and back.

Slash-

Though pain like tearing flesh brushed past him, Guyang Cheongang realized something in that moment.

‘The wounds… are shallow. There’s no killing intent?’

The attacks were sharp enough to cut flesh, but they contained no murderous intent to end his life.

The movements seemed to warn ‘This is my territory, so leave immediately.’

The golden flashes that had been chaotically embroidering the space began to subside and soon condensed into a single form.

On the rock across from Guyang Cheongang sat a small, cute-looking golden monkey, glaring at him.

‘A monkey… This incredible presence and speed came from just that small creature?’

Akasha’s voice, filled with surprise, echoed in his mind.

[Doctor, this monkey matches 100% with the characteristics of the legendary spirit beast Golden Divine Ape mentioned in just one line in the Spirit Beasts section of the Life and Death Medical Classic. According to records, the possibility of its existence was less than 0.01%.]

The Golden Divine Ape looked extremely angry.

When all its attacks were blocked, it stepped back, pointed at the sword marks on the wall, put its hands on its hips, then pointed at Guyang Cheongang and started shouting.

Screech! Squawk squawk- Squawk squawk squawk-!

Strangely, Guyang Cheongang could easily understand what the creature’s cries and gestures meant.

The Golden Divine Ape was angry at him for ‘eating the spirit herbs without permission and approaching the sacred wall.’

Guyang Cheongang realized the creature was the owner of this place and tried to apologize, but it was too late.

The Golden Divine Ape, misinterpreting his silence as ignoring it, resumed its attack.

Whiiiish-

The creature kicked off the ground and leaped up, pressing Guyang Cheongang with an unpredictable trajectory.

Guyang Cheongang had no choice but to deploy Flash Step to avoid the Golden Divine Ape’s attacks.

The creature’s movements were so fast that he couldn’t even grasp how to attack it.

‘This won’t work. I need to completely understand its movements. Akasha, what’s the duration if I activate maximum combat mode using internal energy to the limit?’

[With your current fifteen years of internal energy, the maximum maintenance time is 3 minutes and 30 seconds.]

‘Activate it.’

[From now on, I will focus all computational ability on combat support.]

With Akasha’s response, Guyang Cheongang’s world changed.

His dynamic vision was amplified to the extreme, and tens of thousands of data points flowed through his mind.

Time flowed like an arrow as Guyang Cheongang and the Golden Divine Ape’s offense and defense crossed in split seconds.

‘Akasha, analyze its attack patterns. There must be repeated movements or weaknesses in those movements.’

[Analyzing… Pattern recognition complete. The target has a 92% tendency to use its right foot as an axis when attacking. It repeats the same trajectory Triple Strike every 0.7 seconds. And after the final attack, there’s a minute 0.1-second delay before transitioning to the next movement.]

‘0.1 seconds… That’ll be close.’

Guyang Cheongang’s eyes became intense.

He no longer chased the golden afterimages.

Instead, he focused all his attention on the final target point of the next attack that Akasha had calculated.

Once again, the golden flash rushed toward his front.

Shriiiiiek-

At that very moment, Guyang Cheongang’s dynamic vision was pulled to its absolute limit.

The golden flash that would appear as merely a dazzling afterimage of light to others.

But now he could see not only the Golden Divine Ape’s trajectory but also the sharp claws cutting through the air and even the subtle shift in center of gravity of the right foot gathering strength for the next movement.

In his mind’s eye, the point where Akasha predicted the ‘0.1-second delay’ would occur appeared as a red dot.

Instead of avoiding the opponent’s attack, he actually took half a step forward toward that red dot and concentrated his mind.

And targeting that split second when the opponent twisted its body in midair to prepare for the next movement, he deployed the Dragon Subduing Golden Binding Technique like lightning.

Whiiiish-

But this time it wasn’t to catch the opponent.

His Golden Binding Technique was a massive net that blocked all escape routes the Golden King could move through in an instant.

Screech!

The Golden King, flustered by the fact that all its movements had been read, made a strange sound and hesitated briefly in midair.

Guyang Cheongang was confident he had caught the Golden Divine Ape.

It was perfect suppression combining Akasha’s calculations with his own dynamic vision.

But soon he had to realize what a huge mistake he had made.

The Golden Divine Ape, as if mocking all those calculations, avoided the qi net he had created with a bizarre Divine Movement Technique that seemed to ignore the laws of physics.

And still having energy to spare, it attacked his chest with its claws.

[Doctor, only 2 minutes remain for maximum combat mode. Internal energy consumption is exceeding expectations.]

Guyang Cheongang’s mind went momentarily blank.

He reflexively deployed Flash Step to try to avoid the Golden Divine Ape’s lethal attack, but the creature’s movement was too fast for perfect evasion.

Riiiip-!

With a sharp sound of tearing air, Guyang Cheongang’s chest was torn lengthwise.

A small jade statue from within his clothes fell to the floor.

Thud!

At that moment, the golden flash that had been raging like mad disappeared as if by magic, and the Golden Divine Ape stopped firmly in place.

The creature’s claws had reached just one inch from Guyang Cheongang’s chin.

The Golden Divine Ape’s fiercely burning red eyes wavered, then took on a sad light as they turned toward the Budai Monk Jade Statue on the floor.

The creature approached the jade statue carefully, as if handling a fragile treasure, stroking it with its small hands while making a sorrowful crying sound.

“Kiiing…”

In the creature’s tear-filled eyes was both longing and resentment like a child who had lost its parents.

Guyang Cheongang sensed there was some deep story behind all this situation and slowly approached the creature.

The Golden Divine Ape held the jade statue to its chest and looked at him with eyes full of wariness.

Guyang Cheongang bowed respectfully and said.

“Elder Ape, I committed a breach of etiquette due to urgent circumstances. Please understand with a generous heart. If I had known Elder Ape was the owner of this place, I would naturally have asked permission first.”

A gentle light appeared in the Golden Divine Ape’s red eyes that had been full of wariness.

It was clear that its anger and vigilance had softened.

Just then,

“Mmm…”

The gazes of the two beings—precisely one person and one spirit beast—turned simultaneously toward the source of the sound.

Heo Choryeong, who had been laid on the rock by the pond, was slowly regaining consciousness with a quiet moan.

She clutched her throbbing head and struggled to sit up.

As her blurry vision gradually regained focus, what entered her eyes was a strange and mystical scene she had never seen before.

“Where is… this place…?”

Red moss emitting a subtle light, milky white mushrooms, and the brilliant stalactites on the cave ceiling.

Her last memory was jumping into the stone wall door with Guyang Cheongang, who had blocked the Masked Man’s overwhelming palm force, and then everything went dark.

‘…How did we survive? What about that Masked Man?’

Her eyes trembled with confusion and anxiety.

‘Where is Gang-je…?’

She frantically looked around, and her eyes met with Guyang Cheongang’s, who was watching her from beneath a stone wall about ten zhang away.

“Gang-je…!”

The moment she confirmed his presence, all the anxiety weighing on her disappeared like a lie, and relief washed over her.

He was safe.

If so, then wherever this place was, it meant they were safe for now.

Without her realizing it, Guyang Cheongang had already become someone who gave her absolute trust and stability.

“Elder Sister, are you conscious? It’s alright. We’re safe now.”

Only after hearing his calm voice did Heo Choryeong finally feel completely at ease.

And her gaze naturally turned to the small creature sitting at Guyang Cheongang’s feet, looking at her with round red eyes as if finding her fascinating.

A cute monkey about the size of a forearm, its entire body covered in golden fur.

“Oh my…!”

Heo Choryeong put aside all curiosity about the crisis she had just faced or where this place was, and instinctively approached the creature.

Then, as if finding it incredibly adorable, she embraced the Golden Divine Ape and rubbed her cheek against it.

The Golden Divine Ape was startled at first, but soon closed its eyes as if feeling stability for the first time in a long while in her warm embrace.

And with its small fern-like hands, it patted her cheek a couple of times and smiled with satisfaction.

Guyang Cheongang was dumbfounded, but thought it fortunate that the creature’s heart had softened.

The Golden Divine Ape, having come down from Heo Choryeong’s embrace, touched the hem of her clothes wistfully for a moment before letting go and sitting face to face with Guyang Cheongang.

Where such depth could be contained in that small body, the creature’s ruby-clear red eyes were filled with a clear and serious light.

The Golden Divine Ape wiped away the dust on the ground with its small hands and began writing something with its index finger.

Stroke by stroke.

What it wrote with those trembling hands was surprisingly two clear Chinese characters.

Golden King .

“…!”

Seeing the characters, Guyang Cheongang and Heo Choryeong realized it was the Golden Divine Ape’s name and were shocked to the point of being utterly astounded.

Good heavens, a beast that could write!

This was an unprecedented event that would make all under heaven faint with shock, something never heard of in any strange tales of Gangho.

Golden King, as if unable to write anymore, began telling his story through gestures and movements.

It was a sad and long, wordless epic.

Long ago, Golden King’s master had come to this place, carved marks on the wall with a sword, commanded him to guard this place, and promised to return soon.

Golden King’s final gestures made the hearts of watching Guyang Cheongang and Heo Choryeong ache.

The creature mimicked sitting endlessly toward the cave entrance, waiting.

Lowering his head, then raising it again, then dropping his head once more.

But even after long years passed, his master did not return.

Golden King finally swept his two arms widely across the empty plaza and tapped his small chest while shaking his head.

This was an expression of desperate loneliness, saying that this place was a space where even the flow of time was unknowable, so he himself didn’t know how long ago it was or how long he had waited alone.

After finishing his story, Golden King’s large red eyes were already brimming with tears.

“Ah…”

A pitiful sigh flowed from Heo Choryeong’s lips.

She embraced Golden King tightly in her arms again.

This time it wasn’t just because he was cute.

It was out of deep compassion for this small creature who had guarded this place alone for an immeasurable length of time, waiting for a master who would never return.

Guyang Cheongang silently thought about the sword marks on the wall, Golden King, and the creature’s master of unknown identity who never returned, falling into contemplation for a moment.

In this underground cave shrouded in silence, secrets and stories far greater than imagination lay dormant.

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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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