章 425: Chapter 425
At the Martial God's star, Tuseong.
The Martial God looked down at Ashoka from his position.
[As you said, I allowed participation in this tournament, but… Ashoka. Can I entrust you with finishing the job?]
"Yes. If the hand can be retrieved, I will retrieve it. If not, I will seal it."
[Good. I trust you won't go against the prohibition.]
"This aligns with my purpose as well… I will faithfully carry it out."
The Martial God looked down at him bowing faithfully and recalled the past.
Long ago, the sage of humanity who interfered with him at every turn along with Dongbang Sak.
Because of that guy, he once tried to burn all of Earth and start anew on a different planet.
However, the situation changed when Ashoka, who realized his intention first, proposed "infinite regression".
'Until now, he has been the most helpful to me…'
The fact that the Martial God could gather such immense power in Tuseong and aim for the Administrator position was also largely thanks to the infinite regression Ashoka established.
He was once the worst enemy.
But since he bowed his head and claimed to be the Martial God's disciple, he became more helpful than anyone else.
However.
'We've regressed together countless times, but I still can't figure out his true intentions…'
In the past, the Martial God successfully carried out all his plans.
Although he had to avoid and run away from Dongbang Sak, who possessed transcendent nothingness, and couldn't face him head-on.
He had to seal the World Tree, so his range of action was limited.
Like that, there were minor variables in everything, but overall, it was within the Martial God's grasp.
However, Ashoka.
No.
[…It was Siddhartha. Your old name.]
When Siddhartha interfered with him, all the things he schemed were blocked.
If the power gap between him and himself wasn't overwhelmingly large.
Or perhaps, if Dongbang Sak wasn't bound to the World Tree.
He would have been killed by Siddhartha and Dongbang Sak long ago.
"Siddhartha is a name I forgot long ago."
Ashoka recited that name with an expressionless face.
The Martial God's eyes flashed.
Yes.
That unreadable expression was always a burden to him.
The sage of humanity who toyed with him.
In the end, he became his disciple with all sorts of prohibitions, but.
No matter how much time passed, trust didn't go to him.
Rather, he only worried about when this guy would backstab him.
The red light in the Martial God's eyes deepened further.
[I remember my promise with you. In exchange for postponing humanity's destruction, you infinitely move the shackles of time.]
"You promised to save humanity when you became a transcendent being."
[Yes. I will keep my promise. If I become the permanent Administrator, I will save humanity. I will extinguish all the sacred flames.]
"…Thank you for your words alone."
[So, I trust you won't act rashly. If our contract is twisted, humanity will be annihilated.]
The Martial God made Ashoka affirm it again and again.
The most difficult to control, the Martial God's disciple Ashoka.
It was an action that arose from the underlying distrust towards him.
"I will accept your order."
And in front of such a Martial God, Ashoka knelt down and bowed his head.
With a strange smile on his lips.
* * *
[5 wins and 0 losses in the Beginner's Arena! The triumphant human representative team, at the forefront is Yoon Seah playing the warrior role.]
[Is this year the right time to go to the intermediate race? It is known that evolution bonuses also come from Seong Jihan's tournament.]
[Sovereign Constellation Ashoka ends all matches in 1 second.]
[What is Ashoka's true name? The gods of Indian mythology are all listed.]
These past few days, the topics that received the most attention were the Beginner's Arena and Seong Jihan's tournament.
At first, the Beginner's Arena, which could bring evolution bonuses to humanity, had more attention.
However, as Sovereign Constellation Ashoka showed the feat of ending every match with a flash, people's curiosity about who this person really was grew.
"Ah, it's a shame I couldn't go watch uncle's match today. It had to be scheduled at the same time as the Beginner's Arena."
"You can just finish quickly and come watch."
"But doesn't it end with a flash from the Wheel-Turning Sage King?"
Yoon Seah, who no longer called Ashoka as Ashoka.
"Are you pushing the Wheel-Turning Sage King theory?"
"Yeah. Uncle said it seems related to Buddhism. But Buddha… doesn't seem like he would summon that skull."
"I'm going to ask him straight if he's Buddha."
"Oh, really? Why?"
"Just got a feeling."
"Oh, is it uncle's intuition activating?"
Yoon Seah, who had watched how accurate Seong Jihan's intuition was, opened her eyes wide upon hearing those words.
The person who turns the terrifying skull wheel is Buddha?
[But Jihan. Did you find a way to deal with his skull thing? What if the hand gets taken?]
"Right. Come to think of it, whether it's Buddha or the Wheel-Turning Sage King isn't important. What if uncle gets turned back into a baby?"
Ashoka's time reversal that turned the opponent back to the moment of birth.
They needed to find a way to resist that overwhelming power that had been doing 1-second cuts until now.
"Well, I did some research on countermeasures for that in the training room."
"Oh, uncle prepared everything even while going to commentate."
"Yeah, I can't lose the hand like this, right?"
Although the reason Ashoka appeared in the tournament was to receive Total Annihilation, Seong Jihan didn't fully trust those words and prepared for the worst case.
It would be big trouble if he went into the match without any preparation and got his hand taken away due to time reversal.
'I could resist time reversal through Return of the Light.'
The martial art Annihilation God's Secret – Return of the Light, which still doesn't make sense and has many questions.
However, seeing Ashoka's power, Seong Jihan realized that Return of the Light could be a means to counter it.
Of course.
'This is also an intuition without basis though.'
The 'intuition' that always showed Seong Jihan the way to survive.
That instinct, which he had already relied on many times until now, was telling him that Return of the Light was the key to counter Ashoka's power this time as well.
At that moment.
Zing…
[You will soon be summoned to Space Arena.]
A message window appeared in front of Seong Jihan's eyes.
Was it starting now?
"I'm going. Seah. Continue your winning streak."
"Okay, uncle~ Don't ask directly, but poke at him well~"
In other words, figure out the opponent's identity by talking indirectly.
Flash!
As the message window disappeared, Seong Jihan was summoned to Space Arena.
Inside the vast arena.
On the other side, Ashoka, the winner of the tournament, was quietly gazing at Seong Jihan with calm eyes.
'Even if I talk indirectly to him, he'll probably figure it out anyway.'
Realizing this as soon as he saw his opponent, Seong Jihan.
"Ashoka, let me ask you one thing."
"Go ahead."
"Your true identity… Are you Buddha?"
He just asked straight out.
* * *
-No, this is too direct, lol.
-Is it going with the theory that Ashoka = Buddha?
-Ah, this doesn't seem right…
-I'm telling you, it's a Hindu god.
At Seong Jihan's words, the chat window of humanity reacted explosively.
Ashoka smiled slightly and answered him.
"No, I'm not."
"Really?"
"I have no reason to lie to you."
-Right, why would Buddha be summoning a skull, lol.
-Now let's say the remaining list.
-One vote for Shiva.
-A god seems a bit off? It should be a human.
-Let's go with Rama.
At Ashoka's denial, Seong Jihan narrowed his brows.
Judging by the talk of enlightenment, he was sure it was definitely related to Buddhism…
"Then is it the Hindu side? Or the Wheel-Turning Sage King?"
"None of those. I'm not someone who is worshipped like that. Yes. Rather, I as King Ashoka was probably the most respected."
"But you were definitely active even before Ashoka, right?"
"Do you want to hear the name from back then?"
"Yeah, solve my curiosity a bit. Right now, all 7 billion of humanity are curious about your identity."
"You probably incited that."
Well, that's true.
Ashoka looked at Seong Jihan like that and grinned.
"If you're that curious about the name, I'll tell you."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. It seems you won't use Total Annihilation until your curiosity is resolved."
Then Ashoka opened his mouth.
"Before that, let me ask one thing. Do you know Buddha's name when he was alive?"
"That's…"
Before Seong Jihan could think, one name kept popping up in the chat window.
-It's Sariputta.
-Sariputta, yes.
-But aren't there several Buddhas? Like Amitabha and Maitreya Buddha too.
-Still, the founder of Buddhism is Sariputta, right?
Sariputta.
That was the name of the person who founded Buddhism.
"…It's Sariputta."
Ashoka, who heard that name, smiled deeply.
"Yes. Buddha's real name is Sariputta. It has nothing to do with me, 'Gautama Siddhartha'."
"Gautama Siddhartha… Is that your name?"
"Yes. It's not very famous. Rather, the later name Ashoka became much more well-known."
Swish.
Then Ashoka pointed his finger towards the chat window.
"People don't know that either, right?"
As he said.
-Gautama Siddhartha?
-Who is that? I searched but nothing much comes up.
-There was a reason for using the name Ashoka.
-Right, lol. You have to use a slightly more famous name.
The viewers were reacting as if they were hearing this name for the first time.
"Hmm. Your power is so outstanding that I thought a great name would come out."
At Seong Jihan's words, Ashoka laughed deeply.
"The name Siddhartha disappointed you. Just call me Ashoka."
"Well, I'm not disappointed, but… Alright. I'll call you that."
"Then your curiosity should be resolved now."
Swish.
Ashoka pointed his finger at Seong Jihan's right hand.
"It's your turn to use Total Annihilation on me."
* * *
Near the Golden Tower in Tuseong.
"Dongbang Sak. Why does your expression look so stiff?"
Pythia asked in bewilderment upon seeing Dongbang Sak's face distorted.
"…Not particularly."
"When an old man frowns, only wrinkles are visible. What are you looking at to be like that? Ah. You're watching Ashoka and Seong Jihan fight. I was watching it too."
Swish.
Looking at the screen Dongbang Sak had displayed, Pythia tilted her head.
"I thought a great name was definitely hidden seeing Ashoka's power. But it was more bland than I thought. Right? Gautama Siddhartha. I've never heard that name before."
"…I see."
"I thought he was actually Sariputta."
"As Seong Jihan first mentioned?"
"Yeah. I thought he had to be at least at Buddha's level to use that absurd power."
At Pythia's chatter, Dongbang Sak outwardly acted calm, but.
'The founder of Buddhism, Sariputta…'
Inwardly, he was trying hard to hide his mixed feelings.
'The honor of being the founder who will shine forever in human history went to his disciple, not himself.'
Sariputta, whom Siddhartha called the foremost in wisdom when talking about his disciples.
But he was nothing more than Siddhartha's disciple.
Yet he became the founder of Buddhism.
And the name Gautama Siddhartha disappeared from history without a trace.
'I didn't know that even your name would disappear without a trace like this when you made the vow to not attain enlightenment… I feel bad for you.'
Siddhartha, who blocked all of the snake's plans and made him determined to use the last method.
Even if history couldn't record all his efforts, he thought it would at least engrave the name of such a brilliant person.
However, it's as if that name never existed, and no one remembers him.
Although quite different from reality, his name 'Jiang Ziya' was left in historical records.
'And yet you don't seem to mind at all.'
Despite the honor of being the founder being taken by his disciple and no one knowing his name, Ashoka didn't care about such things at all and was only following Seong Jihan's hand that would use Total Annihilation.
The attitude of doing the job that was given to him, that only he could do.
Seeing that, Dongbang Sak was reminded of the vow to save the world that he exchanged with him.
'…I will also keep my vow.'
Dongbang Sak looked at the sky of Tuseong.
The weapons of the constellations seated like stars were emitting an ominous energy.
Devices where the Martial God stored power while doing infinite regression.
Dongbang Sak's eyes sank deeply.
'This sky… I will surely bring it down with my sword.'
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