Chapter 96. Maksu’s Identity (1/2)
Chapter 96. Maksu’s Identity
ED: Chrysanthemum
Naming a living being is basically a declaration that one would take responsibility for that being.
As parents become responsible for their children after naming them, every living thing becomes tied to the one that names them.
However, there was one being that simply refused to accept that.
It was a dark, moonlit night.
Cho Ryu Hyang woke up in the middle of that night with a splitting pain in his head.
After standing up and doing several stretches, Cho Ryu Hyang became confused of the strange feeling in his head.
‘What was that?’
He felt that somebody had called him during his sleep.
The call was far too clear for it to be a mere dream.
After thinking for a while, Cho Ryu Hyang put on his glasses and went outside.
Shf-
Cho Ryu Hyang held his glasses in one hand and rubbed his eyes with the other. As he came out to the garden, he soon frowned.
It was too quiet.
He couldn’t feel the presences of No Jin Nyung nor the Mara’s Heavenly Wind Division.
No, that wasn’t all.
He couldn’t even feel any life from the plants around him.
Was it because of his headache?
Or was he just imagining things?
Whatever the reason was, something was off.
Cho Ryu Hyang looked around with a cautious gaze, and a man in white entered his sight.
“Yo, it’s been a while.”
“…….”
The man talked with a friendly tone to Cho Ryu Hyang, and he looked at the man confusedly.
He had never seen the man before.
Even so, there was a strange sense of familiarity about him.
When Cho Ryu Hyang felt two conflicting emotions at once, he became extremely confused.
“You have responsibility over me. That’s why you’re feeling two conflicting feelings at once. Don’t be so confused.”
Cho Ryu Hyang looked at the white-clothed man with a suspicious gaze.
The man almost seemed to be able to read his mind.
“What a clever child. You’re right. I am reading your mind. Here, something like that is indeed possible.”
Boom-!
The man took something out from behind him, and struck it in the ground.
It was something Cho Ryu Hyang had seen before, and at the moment he saw it, he was able to see who the person was.
“……Maksu?”
“Do not call me by that name. My name is Pian Mu. This is my true form, and that is my true name.”
The man in white frowned deeply as he said this.
“You wouldn’t know, but I paid much in order to get back to this form. This is only temporary, but I definitely have to check something from you.”
Cho Ryu Hyang saw the man’s eyes slowly begin to turn of a scarlet color.
“I need to check if you are actually worthy enough to name me.”
Naming something means that one is taking responsibility over that thing.
And to a nonhuman beings like Pian Mu, naming something that someone had to have greater importance than the one been named.
It means that they would acknowledge that the one who named them is above them.
In truth, when Cho Ryu Hyang first called him ‘Maksu’, Pian Mu was able to feel a powerful energy oppress him.
However Pian Mu was unable to accept this.
‘No way.’
The one who would name him needed to have strength.
No, even if that person didn’t have strength, the person should at least be influential enough to affect many.
‘I can’t accept it.’
Pian Mu wanted to confirm if Cho Ryu Hyang was truly a powerful human.
Right then, Cho Ryu Hyang put on his glasses and spoke.
“Is it fine if you break the promise between us? I thought you nonhuman beings treated promises with great importance?”
“Of course we do. That’s why I came to you like this.”
The man in white, who had two names, grinned a toothy grin.
“Right now, I am Pian Mu. The one who made the promise with you was Maksu.”
“How nonsensical.”
Cho Ryu Hyang frowned.
He didn’t know Pian Mu would be like this.
He immediately tried to find some kind of a hole in Pian Mu’s statement.
However.
Bang-!
Pian Mu’s pestle flew right past Cho Ryu Hyang’s face and struck the ground.
“Let’s stop the useless talk. We have to decide who is stronger right now, don’t we? Something like this can’t be decided with words.”
The floor that the pestle struck had cracked as if a bomb had gone off on that spot. Several rocks flew out from the shock, one of which had scratched Cho Ryu Hyang’s cheek.
Cho Ryu Hyang felt something warm flow from his cheek, and when he touched it, his face soon stiffened.
‘Blood?’
Cho Ryu Hyang had been assuming that this place might actually be an illusion.
He thought that this place was something similar to the ‘dream’ that Gongson Chun Gi had shown him before.
But when he actually got injured and felt pain, he began to feel more and more nervous.
He wouldn’t be able to feel pain like this in a mere dream.
Pian Mu, once again, smiled and opened his mouth.
“This is a place that’s between dreams and reality. It’s somewhere inside your head. I forcefully expanded that place in your head and made this place.”
Cho Ryu Hyang’s face stiffened again.
He had no idea what that bastard was about to do.
“I can always kill you in this place. Also, if you die here, you die in real life as well.”
Cho Ryu Hyang shook his hands lightly as he listened.
Then, for some reason, he smiled.
‘There are actually a lot of people who are out to kill me.’
There were people looking to kill him in the church and outside, well… that part didn’t really need any explanation.
But to think that even a nonhuman being would come and try to kill him….. it was almost comical.
It was almost like everyone wanted his life.
‘Come to think of it, how strong is he?’
Pain Mu was extremely powerful just as a rabbit. How strong would it be now?
‘Why am I not afraid?’
The emotion of fear appears when one encounters the unknown.
But Cho Ryu Hyang’s opponent wasn’t something that he didn’t know anything about.
Was it because of that?
Cho Ryu Hyang felt unafraid.
On the contrary, his opponent seemed extremely small.
‘Strange.’
Cho Ryu Hyang became confused.
Why was he not afraid?
Did he go crazy?
That didn’t seem to be the case.
While Cho Ryu Hyang was carefully thinking about his strange mental state, Pian Mu spoke.
“It is possible to do anything you want here. Use all your strength to fight me. If you manage to survive before the red moon sets, I will accept you.”
The red moon?
Cho Ryu Hyang looked up at the sky.