Bab 48: Death, Soul and Scholars
Death was an odd but familiar sensation to Mo Yangling.
Through both of his lifetimes, he had experienced it twice.
Once, he was a respected monk meditating at the top of a mountain peak, and the second, a disgraced young man fleeing for his life while being hunted down by 'hyenas' in the woods.
The first lacked any fear, as the Monk had chosen the way he wanted to go out, and had achieved part of what he had wanted in his life, the biggest frustration that had been nagging at him for many years.
But the second was filled with frustration and fear, the mind of a spoiled young man barely out of his teenage years couldn't be as composed as that of an old man reaching enlightenment.
This time, however, it was different.
The soul of the tranquil monk lived within the body of the young man who feared.
There was a strange mix of uncertainty and confidence within the depths of his mind, but he still went through and did what he felt was best for him.
He defied the Demonic Emperor without hesitation, he refused to kneel or bow his head in subservience to someone or something just because they were stronger than him.
Those were the values that the Monk had instilled into himself, those were the principles he followed.
'To act and move through the world whilst staying true to oneself and one's desires...'
Acting in any other way felt impossible. Those values helped the monk gain a better understanding of the world. It was through them, combined with the wisdom of his elders, that he had gained enlightenment.
And his enlightenment had helped him gain reassurance of his survival as well... After all.
'This body has already died once. If my soul can take control of and puppeteer a corpse, why would I care about my vital organs being ruined?'
Wounds would heal especially when the monk finally decided to allow himself to breathe in some more Origin Energy.
A few hours had passed by then, his body already had flowers growing all over it.
But he could still move, and he was still alive.
'As long as I have a slither of Origin Energy left within me... Then I am still alive, huh?'
The monk had spent all of his energy on that last move, creating an earthquake large enough to blow the gigantic tree away.
But when he was speaking to the beast, still bound in its thorny vines, he had managed to breathe in a minuscule amount of Origin Energy, one so small that the beast couldn't even notice it was missing.
But the monk believed that slither of energy to have been what allowed him to cling to life.
It felt as though his soul was bound to his body regardless of its state. That fact confused the monk even further as to what he was.
Hell, even the Emperor had claimed he wasn't human, so at least that was something...
But, truly, the monk was thankful for his encounter with the Demonic Emperor, at the very least he had learned a lot more about himself through it.
'Then... The only way to kill me would be to injure my soul directly, to completely erase this body, huh?'
Even when awake, the monk did not wake up instantly, his eyes glinting in the sun as he absorbed more and more of the Energy around him, refilling his reserves.
Those reserves were quickly put to use, as the monk allowed his heart, brain and lungs to heal first.
The monk smiled as soon as he could feel his heart start beating again.
'Ah... To be alive again.'
He could once again breathe, and feel the air brush against his skin.
His brain was damaged, and it had ruined all nerve connections to the rest of his body, causing him to be something akin to a limp noodle for the most part.
But now that he was fully healed, he could finally stand up.
'It still took me around an hour to heal my wounds, at least judging by the position of the sun.'
Mo Yangling sighed as he ripped the plants off of his body before finally standing up... Only to realize that his clothes were a bit smaller than before.
'Amitabha, did I grow again? Seems I am getting closer in height to how I was in my previous life... Not sure exactly what that means yet.'
Looking down, his clothes weren't just a size smaller, but they were also tighter around his muscles. His growth was not
The monk sighed as he slowly rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs.
His quads had been pierced through before, and they seemed to have healed perfectly already, with no scar left on them.
The only scar that the monk's body had now was the one that had been given to him by the Demonic General, as he didn't feel the need to show any respect to the Emperor.
At the end of the day, the Deminc General had shown to have a temperament similar to that of the monk.
It didn't stop struggling for one second, despite the monk clearly outclassing it in every way. That was the type of spirit which could be respected.
But it didn't take any willpower to trample an ant, so the Monk didn't find the Emperor's accomplishment of defeating him all that impressive.
'I've been in this world only for a bit more than a year, I have a lot of time to grow and surpass even an Emperor... Still, enough about that. Better go and collect my materials and praying instruments, they shouldn't have flown that far.'
The monk sighed as he got to work. He spent the better part of a day looking for the scattered materials of the Demonic General he had killed.
It didn't take long for him to find the core, as it stood out the most due to the Origin Energy it still exuded.
The makeshift backpack the monk had made for them was already ruined, and some pieces of it were scattered around, but the Monk could still sense them.
And it wasn't that difficult for him to destroy his hole-riddled shirt to make another rinky-dink backpack.
So that was all well and good. But no matter how hard he tried, he could however not find his praying instruments anywhere.
'Amitabha, shame for that staff, it was a gift from the King and I didn't even get to use it yet.'
The beads he didn't quite care for, as they were just crudely crafted beads he had made himself. They needed to be replaced anyway.
Still, the monk was a bit annoyed, but he could do nothing but shake his head and continue looking.
In the first place, he hadn't really gotten the chance to practice his Staff Martial Art Styles, to see the types of effects they had.
If he had used a random move against the Emperor then he may have died a lot sooner, and not even destroyed the Emperor Tree's 'branch'.
At that point, he would've had to play dead for a while longer before making his escape. After all, the beast was more likely to feel him wake up if he was still technically within its body.
At the very least he had managed to find the deer-sized blade that he had picked earlier. His fingers fit perfectly into the makeshift handle he had dug out with his nails.
He didn't have enough cloth to tie it around his back, but he was thankfully able to repurpose some ripped-out vines that the Emperor had left behind.
Removing their thorns was damn near impossible though, so the monks were somewhat stuck with them digging into his skin, which wasn't all that bad.
Getting more used to pain was never a bad thing, especially since he was likely going to get himself into plenty of trouble in the future.
With that completed, the Monk immediately turned and dashed towards the direction he had come from... Towards the Guozhi Kingdom's capital.
Unbeknownst to him, at around the same time, the King and the Mo Family had already declared him missing.
Every human eye in the country was looking for him, a great reward was placed in finding him and finding him soon.
The King had to publically bear the shame of losing the person that they had called a Sage in only a few days, but it couldn't be helped.
It was already widely reported, that Mo Yangling had gone back into the wilds to drink by himself, hence why he had been seen dragging carriages of wine with him.
The scholars of the other kingdoms were still awaiting his return, however. Every one of them had their pride at stake as well, wanting to prove that such a young man could never be a 'Sage'.
They had all spent their lifetimes researching the truth of the world and looking into individual concepts.
Sages were those who had full comprehension of a subject and could impart their knowledge to others, and the old scholars were simply unable to accept that a young man had gained such comprehension.
Regardless, the old men were all elders of many factions, so when banding together their words carried a lot of weight.
And so, the oldest and most influential scholars among them got together and wrote a declaration to the King... A demand letter of sorts.
'If Mo Yangling is to not return within the next 3 days to defend his title and prove his wisdom, then this is to be revoked, effective immediately!'
Their message was quite clear, and because of the various powers backing them, the King also couldn't refuse their demands.
The point they wanted to prove was quite clear...
'No Sage shall be named without the agreement of the wider scholar community!'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone