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chapter 101
Yeongmyeong Stone Monkey gazed quietly at Lee Hyun with transparent eyes.
It was tyranny — permitting no choice except his own command.
Oppression — demanding recognition of himself as Hyun’s new master.
For one who had lived his whole life as the right arm of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, such a demand was unpleasant.
Yet, at the same time, it was a sight he had seen before.
“Yes… this is exactly the same as when the King first awoke from the stone.”
Another Son Oh-gong stood right before his eyes.
An Apostle is a god’s first disciple.
It is also a fragment of the god, sharing both spirit and flesh.
That similarity alone might be the clearest proof that Lee Hyun was closest to becoming Son Oh-gong’s Apostle.
「……」
The Stone Monkey tilted his head back and looked at the tower’s ceiling.
But his gaze reached far beyond this place, into the heavens, and even past the dungeon ceiling to the true sky beyond.
「The heavenly currents… have shifted.」
He lowered his gaze back to Hyun.
「He ordered me to choose you, did he not? Very well. If it is the King’s will that you were sent here, then there must be meaning in it.」
Thud!
The Stone Monkey struck the floor hard with his staff.
「Very well. Let us begin the first trial.」
A blue ripple spread wide from the point his staff struck.
Hyun clenched his fists.
Whoosh!
The air inside the trial ground subtly changed.
As though to suppress the heat radiating from the ogre’s rage, a chilling frost descended.
[The first trial begins.]
「The trial you will face… is touch.」
Rumble—!
With the sound of the ground splitting, the platform beneath the Stone Monkey rose slightly.
At the same time—
Whssshhh! Swishhh!!
Each time his staff twisted slightly to the side, sharp gales of blade-wind slashed forth.
「……!」
[Combat Sense (S) warns you of danger!]
Hyun hastily twisted his body aside.
The spot where he had just stood was slashed through by the blade-wind.
The floor cracked with enough force to gouge out several finger joints’ worth of depth.
“Fast!”
The problem wasn’t just speed. The blade-winds came not one or two at a time, but in a storm — countless waves of sword energy pouring down on him like heavy rain.
Shraaaak—!
Hyun could only barely retreat using nothing but combat sense and scattered perception.
「From here on, you must evade the sword energy I unleash and reach me.」
「……!」
「It will not be easy. With all senses intact, these attacks could be easily avoided or broken. But here, you will have to painstakingly pay attention just to barely detect them.」
Whoosh!
Hyun twisted away from a gust rising from the ground. A sliver of hair was sliced away.
“Half a beat slower, and my head would’ve been cut off.”
The Stone Monkey clearly had no intention of holding back.
「But as the system explained, this place is modeled after the Five Elements Mountain, where the King was once imprisoned.」
Boom!
「The five elements of the mountain are the five senses. Here, all senses are closed off. To escape, you must awaken one sense with each level you ascend.」
Hyun intercepted a blade of sword energy with a streak of lightning, deflecting it to the side.
Clang!!
It was the first time he had blocked one directly, and the force rivaled the overwhelming strength of Seolhon.
Sure enough, these beings were yokai — their might unlike humans.
「And each sense you awaken will not be the same as before. It will be a new sense, broadening your vision. The tower exists to teach you a new way of perceiving the world.」
Slash!
Two sword auras crossed and swept across his torso. Hyun knocked the center upward, but fragments still cut deep into his right shoulder. Blood burst forth.
「The completed vision will match how we — and the King himself — perceive this world.」
Hyun seared the wound with lightning, then activated the Ruyi Jingu Bang’s rapid recovery while reinforcing his Thunder Veil.
「You must complete this vision. Know that it is also how yokai perceive the world — different from humans.」
Hyun thought to himself.
Every trial must have an answer sheet.
「That is why I judged this trial nearly impossible for you to clear.」
And that “answer sheet” must be deeply related to the intent he had just grasped using Ginkgoa.
“The way yokai see the world…”
Hyun realized he had to shatter every preconception he had.
“The Stone Monkey said this insight was something only to be grasped upon leaving the tower.”
His Thunder Veil thickened.
The more it did, the more information poured into his combat sense. Ordinarily, such a flood of data would make his head split in agony.
Vrrrrr!
But Ginkgoa spun violently, filtering and organizing the flood of information, sorting out only what was necessary.
“If I invert the logic… then using this insight might make climbing the levels easier. If I project this intent… onto touch?”
He began sketching a mental map from the filtered data.
He built it as though observing the stage with new eyes.
He got a rough outline, but tracking a battlefield that changed in real time wasn’t so simple.
“I need more detail. Touch… How do I read finer information through touch?”
But touch wasn’t easy to apply.
Touch was sensation felt only by the skin.
Yet if he tried to feel sword energy directly with skin, his limbs would be severed instantly.
How was he supposed to sense that?
Did yokai have a way to feel touch without direct contact?
“Wait… the direction these sword auras fly from… Why does it feel familiar? Could it be…?”
Swooshhh! Slashhh!
Three more blade-winds cut toward him.
If his senses were fully open, he could’ve seen and heard them. For now, he could only barely pick up faint vibrations carried through the air.
“Wait… vibration?”
Hyun’s eyes widened.
Resonance of the air. Waves.
If he could sense that—!
He retreated again, avoiding another slash.
Then—
Crackle!!
He summoned his lightning to its maximum.
「If you think to strike me with lightning, it is a useless effort—hm?」
The Stone Monkey tilted his head.
Lightning tendrils suddenly flowed across the floor.
At the same time, broken chain fragments scattered across the ground rose into the air under magnetic pull, linking together.
「Re-forging the chains you just broke?」
The chains weren’t long. Binding them to himself again would seem like sealing his own movements.
But then the Stone Monkey realized Hyun’s intent.
As sword energy slashed along the wall toward his flank—
Hyun stepped a beat early and dodged with ease.
“He’s using the chains as sensory lines!”
It was ingenious.
He had extended the chains bound to his limbs, turning them into feelers.
Hyun inwardly exulted.
Through the chains, he felt changes in air temperature, vibrations, the tremors of the chains, even shards of broken ice scattering.
[You have discovered a hidden piece.]
[You have mastered a new application of touch.]
[You gain strong resistance against sensory paralysis. You can now detect subtle enemy movements.]
[Combat Sense (S) has risen to S+.]
And then—
Swish! Slash!
The sword auras weren’t random. They all followed specific patterns.
Hyun began to move, weaving through the gaps of those patterns.
[Activating trust of the Ogre.]
His body burst forward in flashes of blue-white lightning.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Stone Monkey’s sword auras grew faster in response—
Bang! Bang! Baaang!!
But Hyun either evaded or shattered most with his axe.
It was so smooth that it was hard to believe all other senses were sealed.
Hyun’s movements themselves began forming patterns. The restraints and chains no longer hindered him.
Slashhh!
Before long, Hyun reached right before the Stone Monkey.
Boom!
Axe descended diagonally, staff vertically, and they collided.
The first clash.
Both staggered back briefly.
Then—
Whsssh!
Almost as if in unison, they both thrust empty hands forward.
Clatter!
As their exchanges dragged on, the Stone Monkey’s face stiffened.
Clack!
Hyun twisted sharply, driving in deep.
His left hand brushed the staff.
And in that instant—
Booooom!!
The restraints and chains binding him all shattered. The chill and frost smothering the chamber broke apart as well.
[Dungeon Core discovered.]
[Stage mission forcibly interrupted.]
Hyun had poured his mana into the staff, disabling its function.
Because the staff itself was the dungeon core of the first floor.
「…Hah.」
The Stone Monkey chuckled despite himself.
「How did you know?」
It was a question laced with doubt.
From discovering how to apply touch, to breaking the sword aura patterns—he had solved everything far faster than expected.
Moreover—
「And how did you know of Tujeon-ryu?」
Hyun even knew of the martial art Son Oh-gong had devised in his later years.
Indeed.
The pattern of sword aura the Stone Monkey had unleashed was Tujeon-ryu.
Though not imbued with divine power to reach true authority, it still reflected its form. It was not something easily read.
Tujeon-ryu was as bizarre and unpredictable as Son Oh-gong himself.
Yet Hyun had overcome Tujeon-ryu… with Tujeon-ryu.
He had applied one of its countless categories — footwork.
「I once had the chance to observe its form.」
「I know you had glimpsed Tujeon-ryu before. But a mere impression could not have let you replicate it so clearly.」
That was what puzzled the Stone Monkey most.
Hyun’s movements carried a clear trace of Tujeon-ryu’s influence. Yet influence alone could not explain it — he had executed it.
But Tujeon-ryu was not something any mortal could endure.
It was martial truth beyond martial arts, transcending authority.
One without the vessel could only shatter upon gaining it.
Hyun was human, not yokai — it should’ve been even harder for him.
「I used intent.」
「Intent…?」
At those unexpected words, the Stone Monkey’s eyes widened.
「Yes. Isn’t intent the most crucial sense to a yokai? The tower’s purpose must be to fully awaken this intent.」
「……!」
Hyun pressed on, striking the heart.
「So I inverted it. If intent is the foundation of sense, then isn’t Tujeon-ryu built upon it as its very skeleton?」
「……」
「So I focused my intent into each step, each sensation as I moved. Once I did, the forms unraveled easily.」
Hyun smiled faintly.
「I believe the final intent of the tower’s keepers was to guide us to master Tujeon-ryu. Was I wrong?」
「…And why do you think so?」
「Because all of the Great Sage’s deeds are Tujeon-ryu.」
Hyun grinned.
The Stone Monkey could not help but laugh in return.
「Indeed. You are correct.」
[You have earned the recognition of Yeongmyeong Stone Monkey, Gatekeeper of the First Floor.]
[You have cleared the first trial.]
[The gate to the second floor opens.]
Rumble—
The entire floor shook as something opened wide behind them.
「Tujeon-ryu is the very embodiment of the King’s karma, forged from all his deeds. It was what he sought to complete, even forsaking the seat of Buddha.」
「……」
「Thus, as Apostles tasked with his resurrection, we concluded you must master Tujeon-ryu.」
Hyun thought the Stone Monkey’s smile was as transparent as glass.
「But if we revealed that from the start, it wouldn’t have been a proper trial. I never expected you to strike the very core so precisely.」
Intent.
The yokai’s sense, their vision.
And at its end — the completion of Tujeon-ryu.
The Tower of the Five Elements contained all the requirements of Son Oh-gong’s Apostle.
With each level ascended, they would unfold one by one.
“I can gain Tujeon-ryu…”
That alone was already a monumental achievement for Hyun.
「To discern even the examiner’s true intent… Now I see why the King sent you here.」
Satisfied, the Stone Monkey tapped his staff against the ground.
「You pass. I believe you will become an excellent Apostle.」
「Thank you. Then, if you’ll excuse me.」
Hyun bowed slightly and walked past him.
As he crossed the first floor, the Stone Monkey’s gaze flicked up toward the ceiling.
「The heavens remain in disarray, and yet such a child has come to us… Is it tied to the contradiction of a human awakening yokai senses?」
The Stone Monkey whispered with a faint smile.
「Was it because the heavens shifted that he came, or did the heavens shift because he came? I cannot tell.」
No one else could have understood those words — save for him, who was once also the Astronomer of Flower-Fruit Mountain.
