Almighty God of War - Chapter 7

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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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007

The separate building provided by Bamboo Forest Manor.

Dong Seola slammed down her teacup with a sharp clack, her face full of dissatisfaction as she spoke.

“Brother, I can’t stand this frustration anymore. Just because of that sickly Guyang Cheongang, Grandfather’s grand plan has been delayed for thirteen years!”

Dong Hajin, who had been sitting across from her calmly savoring his tea, replied without even lifting his eyes.

“Don’t be hasty, Seola. Everything has its proper order. Even Grandfather is waiting, isn’t he?”

“Order? Why should we take the long way around when there’s a faster path?”

Dong Seola continued with a sharp tone, as if she couldn’t understand.

“Tonight, I’ll have the person I brought quietly dispose of Guyang Cheongang, and everything will become simple. Then Guyang Cheongi will naturally become the young master, and uncovering the secret of the ‘Jangbo Path’ that Grandfather so desperately wants will become much easier.”

At her words, Dong Hajin set down his teacup and looked at his sister with eyes that seemed to find her pathetic.

“Foolish talk. If Guyang Cheongang dies on the very night we arrived here, who do you think Guyang Baek will suspect first?”

Dong Seola replied with a sneer.

“So what if he suspects us? Without evidence, what can he do to us, the direct descendants of Golden Tower Manor?”

Dong Hajin clicked his tongue and said.

“No matter how fallen he may be, he’s still the head of the Guyang Family. Carelessly underestimating your opponent could lead to serious trouble.”

“Brother, your evaluation of this Guyang Baek fellow is far too generous.”

Dong Seola’s voice contained blatant contempt for Guyang Baek.

“From what I can see, he just looks like a homeless dog from a house in mourning. Hoho.”

Dong Hajin let out a deep sigh.

He knew well that while Dong Seola was clever, her arrogance sometimes clouded her judgment.

“Don’t act recklessly, Seola. This matter must proceed according to Grandfather’s plan—slowly and surely. I won’t say it twice. Do you understand?”

Dong Hajin warned in a stern tone.

Dong Seola nodded obediently, but her eyes showed she had no intention of listening to her brother’s words.

* * *

Returning to his room, Guyang Cheongang sat in lotus position, lightly trembling as he held the jade statue in his hands.

The cold rising from deep in his chest made it difficult to breathe.

He activated the upgraded Transcendent Heart Formula Plus, guiding the warm energy from the jade statue to his lower abdomen’s qihai acupoint.

As he performed 4-2-6 breathing and circulated the minute amount of qi, his chest that had felt like it was freezing gradually warmed up.

“Whew…”

Having finished his energy circulation and breath control, Guyang Cheongang exhaled deeply and opened his eyes.

‘This body is really… damn troublesome…’

Back on Earth, while he had lived with chronic fatigue due to his research, his body had been quite healthy.

He had consistently gone jogging in the mornings and exercised for about an hour in the research facility’s basement gym during lunch breaks.

Research could be called a battle of stamina, so without managing his body like that, he could have collapsed.

Unlike those days, this boy’s body was so frail that one might worry it would blow away in the wind.

Just walking a few steps made him short of breath, and cold would rise from various parts of his body at random times, making it difficult to accept positively no matter how hard he tried.

Then Akasha’s voice was heard.

[The effect of Transcendent Heart Formula Plus is very good. The intensity of the cold has decreased by 2%.]

‘Is that why? The symptoms seem to be getting gradually weaker. My stamina seems to be improving little by little too.’

[That’s correct. While it’s not a cure, symptom management has definitely become possible. Overall condition has improved by about 7% according to measurements.]

Akasha continued in a bright tone.

[Doctor, I think I’ve figured out the secret contained in the jade statue’s pattern.]

‘Oh!’

Guyang Cheongang exclaimed and smiled brightly.

[I’ll upload the analysis results as a video.]

Along with Akasha’s words, a pure white space like a movie theater screen was created in Guyang Cheongang’s brain.

It was a mental world created by Akasha.

There, a human-sized Laughing Buddha jade statue appeared, and then the patterns on its surface lit up in blue light in sequence, like lights being turned on.

But peculiarly, there were differences in the intensity of the light.

Guyang Cheongang immediately understood the meaning of the lights.

‘Is that the order of pressing the patterns and the difference in force intensity?’

[That’s correct. These patterns are presumed to be a kind of ‘password’ system.]

‘Password?’

[Yes. You need to press each part of the pattern in a specific order and with specific pressure as I showed you, and then the hidden secret will be revealed.]

Guyang Cheongang’s eyes sparkled.

‘So what happens when I input that password?’

[Something will likely be activated or revealed, but we’ll have to actually try it to know exactly what. I can detect that there’s another hidden layer on the surface of the Laughing Buddha, but I couldn’t figure out what’s inside it.]

‘So it’s completely unknown?’

[That’s right. Since it’s technology from this world, there are still limits to my analytical capabilities.]

Guyang Cheongang turned the jade statue this way and that as he spoke.

‘So it looks like a simple sculpture on the outside, but there’s actually something hidden inside?’

[That’s correct.]

‘Could it be related to my illness?’

[Well… since the Ten Thousand Year Warm Jade itself was given because it helps with the Gu-eum Severed Meridians, it might be an extension of that, but we’ll have to open it to know what it is.]

Guyang Cheongang fell into thought.

‘It’s such a secretive password—could Dong Yeonhwa or Dong Hyeondo have known about this?’

[I don’t think they knew. If they had known, they would have told you how to use it from the beginning, but they simply said to ‘always keep it close to your body.’ They probably just think it’s a simple jade statue too.]

Guyang Cheongang gripped the jade statue tightly and said.

‘Anyway, I’m too curious to bear it. I need to input the password right now.’

Akasha stopped him.

[Doctor, I’d like you to be more cautious about inputting it.]

‘Why? Did you detect some danger?’

[Not that, but if it’s a secret hidden this complexly, there might be security measures to prevent it from being carelessly revealed. If you input it wrong, it might self-destruct or lock permanently.]

Guyang Cheongang frowned.

[I think it would be better to re-verify the pattern through multiple simulations and wait until the success probability is over 95%. Right now it’s 83%.]

‘Hmm… but that’s still pretty high?’

[Doctor, if we fail, it might be irreversible, so I think it’s better to be certain.]

Guyang Cheongang looked down at the jade statue with a disappointed expression and said.

‘Then how much longer do I have to wait?’

[I can decode it by noon tomorrow. Maybe even faster. If I analyze even the minute details of the patterns perfectly, I’ll be able to derive the password with over 99% accuracy.]

‘I have no choice. I’ll wait.’

[Thank you.]

When he turned his head toward the window, he could see the darkness outside.

While concentrating on the jade statue, night had already fallen.

Elder Hwang brought dinner.

“Young Master, you should rest early today. You must be very tired from dealing with the guests during the day.”

“Indeed. I’m really tired.”

Guyang Cheongang smiled bitterly to himself.

The physical fatigue was no joke, but the mental fatigue felt several times worse.

After Elder Hwang left, Guyang Cheongang finished his meal and sat at his desk.

[Aren’t you going to rest?]

‘The time given to this body isn’t much. I can’t just laze around because I’m tired.’

Guyang Cheongang opened a book.

The original owner of the body seemed to have had diverse tastes, as the bookshelf contained books covering all sorts of fields: humanities, history, astronomy, fortune-telling, architecture, medicine, botany, and more.

Guyang Cheongang read through the books at an amazing speed.

Rustle rustle rustle rustle—

It seemed like he was just turning pages, but the reality was completely different.

He was completely remembering and even understanding the content.

‘Akasha, thanks to you I feel like I’ve become a super genius.’

[Doctor, you were originally a genius.]

‘Still, not to this extent. Without your information processing ability and analytical functions combined, this kind of result would be impossible.’

[That’s part of it, but the owner of this body also seems to have had extraordinary intelligence. The signal transmission between neurons, synaptic activity, and brain network connectivity are exceptional.]

‘You mean the global connectivity and local efficiency are outstanding?’

[Yes. This body’s brain is optimized so that the neural networks can process information quickly and efficiently. I’m organizing and analyzing the book’s content and delivering it in optimized form, but seeing how the brain accepts it without strain.]

‘A child with precious abilities died.’

[How about thinking of it as living again as the Doctor?]

‘Right, right.’

That’s when it happened.

Guyang Cheongang noticed the yellow candle beside the bookshelf flickering slightly.

For a candle to flicker when there was no wind meant…

[Doctor! Danger!]

Simultaneously with Akasha’s warning, Guyang Cheongang raised his head.

A masked, sturdy man stood before him.

The masked man wrapped in black night clothes with murderous eyes gleaming was like a shadow of death.

In an instant, the candle went out and the room was plunged into complete darkness.

“Who…”

Guyang Cheongang asked, but the masked man gave no reply and extended his wide-open palm straight out.

Whoooosh-

An invisible palm force flew toward Guyang Cheongang’s chest with a faint air-splitting sound.

Akasha’s urgent warning struck his mind.

[Doctor! Danger! High-density energy reaction approaching! Evade immediately!]

Guyang Cheongang wanted to dodge, but his sickly body wouldn’t move as he wished.

Before Akasha’s warning could even finish, the invisible palm force filled with chilling killing intent struck his chest precisely.

Bang!

‘Kugh…!’

A violent shock like being hit by a giant hammer along with excruciating pain pierced through Guyang Cheongang’s entire body.

As his consciousness was being sucked into darkness, he seemed to faintly hear Akasha’s death-rattle-like cry.

[Emergency… protocol… forced… home…]

Losing consciousness just like that, Guyang Cheongang flew like a sheet of paper, hit the wall, then tumbled to the floor along with the bookshelf.

Crash-

Red blood flowed like a spring from his mouth and nose.

Just as the masked man was about to approach to check his life or death.

Bang!

Elder Hwang appeared, kicking down the door.

“Young Master!”

Sparks flew from his eyes seeing Guyang Cheongang collapsed, vomiting blood from his mouth and nose.

“How dare you harm the Young Master!”

Along with his furious roar, terrifying killing intent erupted from his entire body.

His usual old and powerless appearance was nowhere to be seen, as if a sleeping beast had awakened.

“Hmph!”

The masked man snorted and sent another palm force toward Elder Hwang.

But Elder Hwang was not Guyang Cheongang.

Swoooosh-

A red energy filled with terrifying heat erupted from his right hand, instantly neutralizing the masked man’s palm force.

“Huk!”

While the masked man was flustered, Elder Hwang was already unleashing a straight punch.

“I’ve lived holding back for twenty years… but today I cannot hold back!”

Crack!

Elder Hwang’s straight punch flew toward the masked man’s chest.

Bang!

The moment Elder Hwang’s fist strike collided, he used the rebound force to launch his body movement toward the window.

Having achieved his purpose anyway, there was no reason to fight an unexpected opponent.

“You bastard!”

Elder Hwang tried to pursue, but the masked man was already passing through the window and disappearing into the darkness.

Whiiish-

Elder Hwang gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, but gave up the pursuit out of concern for Guyang Cheongang.

“Young Master! Young Master! Come to your senses!”

He held Guyang Cheongang, whose breathing was faint, in his arms.

After a moment, miraculously, he slowly opened his eyes with a low groan.

“Uuugh…”

His unfocused pupils gradually became clearer.

“Elder… Hwang…?”

As if coming from a distant place, Akasha’s very thin and crackling voice flowed into his consciousness.

[System stabilization… nanobot system defense released…]

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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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