Chapter 97. A Trade
ED: Chrysanthemum

Nothing is free in this world.

If you want to gain something, you lose something as a result.

This was the same for Pian Mu.

In order to gain back half the power he had in the past, Pian Mu had to spend quite a lot.

Before meeting Cho Ryu Hyang, which was about a day ago, he had made a trade with someone.

“Oh? Who’s this? Why did you come here today, maybe…. Pian Mu?”

[Don’t pretend that you haven’t seen me, Jin Jiao. You always look at me, don’t you?]

Maksu was currently talking to a handsome man with a long, blue hair.

That man looked at the tiny rabbit in front of himself and smiled awkwardly.

“Were you able to feel my gaze?”

[Nope.]

“What the? You just guessed?”

[Yeah, you idiot. How would I ever be able to feel you looking at me?]

“You got me.”

The man called Jin Jiao lifted up his two hands with a bitter face.

Even he was surprised that he made a confession like this due to some small talk.

Right then, Maksu crossed his arms and spoke to Jin Jiao with a serious face.

[So are you still doing that useless play with humans?]

“It’s actually pretty fun, you know. It’s fun watching them.”

Jin Jiao played with his hair and grinned.

That grin seemed to contain a twinge of sadness for some reason.

“I’d probably go crazy if I didn’t even have a hobby, you know? Especially with an infinite age like mine… I’m pretty sensitive, you see…….”

[Useless talk.]

“Right, right. Just some mindless jibber-jabber from an old monster. Anyway, why’d you come here?”

[I came to make a trade with you.]

“As expected, it was that, wasn’t it? There’s no way you would come all the way out here otherwise. You hated moving around since a long time back after all.”

[Yeah.]

Jin Jiao. He was one of the few greater monsters left in the human world, and he was someone who valued neutrality and balance.

Maksu looked at the greater monster carefully and opened his mouth.

[Can you undo my curse?]

It would be an impossible feat for others, but for this guy, it might be possible.

The guy must’ve been acc.u.mulating energy for countless years, which probably let him become immensely powerful.

Therefore, Maksu ‘a.s.sumed’ that this guy could undo his curse.

However, Jin Jiao denied Maksu’s a.s.sumption immediately.

“Ei, not even I could do anything about that nonsensical curse. You think of me too highly.”

[So it’s impossible for you as well…….]

This was the curse created by the one and only Daode Tianzun.

There was no way such a curse was going to be undone so easily.

“But…….”

[But?]

Jin Jiao smiled playfully.

“There is a way to undo it at certain times.”

Maksu’s eyes widened.

He had never expected something even close to this being possible.

[How?]

Jin Jiao didn’t answer and shook his head.

He then stretched out one of his hands towards Maksu with a smile.

“You should tell me what you’re going to give me first. You know how I work, don’t you?”

Maksu ground his teeth.

[Of course I do. You never make a deal with anyone unless you get twice the amount you give.]

“Hahaha! I’ll take that as a praise.”

[What do you want from me?]

Jin Jiao’s eyes shone with a golden light at Maksu’s words.

“That sounds like you’d give me anything that I want. Did I understand that wrongly?”

[You did not.]

“Hoh? You’ll regret it though?”

[I regretted it already in the past. Tell me what you want before I change my mind.]

Jin Jiao looked at Maksu with a curious gaze.

“Your current name was Maksu, right? Are you perhaps doing this all for that kid who named you?”

[……Yeah.]

“Just what are you trying to get from the kid?”

Maksu did not respond. He simply looked at Jin Jiao with a complicated gaze.

Jin Jiao looked at Maksu’s eyes, which was a mixture of hurtfulness and a fighting spirit and shook his head.

“Never mind. I asked you something useless. I just want to make a deal and that’s all. I don’t really need to know about what happened to you.”

[What do you want?]

“You should know.”

[Say it yourself.]

“You know that I’ve only wanted one thing since the past. The mark of the beast king, Black Blood. I need that. You aren’t even going to use it, so why not give it to me?”

[……How laughable. You want to become a beast king? Now?]

“Useless question. Let’s not try to dig into our past, shall we? It just becomes stressful.”

Maksu nodded.

[Alright. I’ll give it.]

“Really?”

[Yeah.]

Jin Jiao smiled strangely.

He crouched on the ground, got to Maksu’s eye level, and spoke.

“I’m telling you this now, but I said this can only be done at certain times.”

[……Right.]

Maksu became nervous.

When he made a face of defeat, Jin Jiao grinned as if telling Maksu that he needn’t worry.

“It would be good when it’s the time when the full moon or a red moon rises. The curse should be undone at days like those when our power is the strongest. But you would only be able to use half your power at times like those.”

[That’s good enough.]

Right.

It was good enough.

Normally, Maksu wouldn’t even be able to use half of his power.

This was better than nothing.

After all, even if he had just half of his power, there were no beings in the human world who could beat him.

‘I should do something about my personality.’

Maksu rubbed the back of his head with a bitter face.

As Maksu swore that he would fix his impatience in the near future, Jin Jiao took something out from his pocket.

Maksu became slightly confused when he saw that thing.

[You knew how to make seals?]

“Of course I did. I have a lot of time, you know? You just have to activate this seal to undo it.”

When Maksu nodded, Jin Jiao grabbed onto Maksu’s hands and spoke.

“I’ll take the Black Blood, then.”

[Do what you want.]

Wuun–

Black Blood began to flow from Maksu’s body.

It was the blood of the beast king.

With such a thing as this, it was possible to bring all beings in the world under one’s feet.

It was something that had immense power.

Jin Jiao put away Maksu’s blood inside a jar and smiled.

“The deal is done, then feel free to come by at any time.”

[…….b.a.s.t.a.r.d.]

Maksu lay down on the ground and complained.

He suddenly became tired when a large amount of his power disappeared.

Maksu tiredly stood back up and burned the seal.

[You say my power would come back on the days when my power was the strongest?]

“Yes.”

[Alright. Thanks.]

Maksu stumbled a bit, then managed to straighten up his body.

Then, he immediately teleported himself away.

Jin Jiao looked at Maksu for a moment, then opened his mouth.

“You can come out now, Lord Sun Wukong.”

“I was about to.”

A black-haired man appeared out of nowhere.

The moment he appeared, the man stretched out his hand.

“Give it.”

“Nn……”

When Jin Jiao made a complicated face for a moment, Sun Wukong smiled.

“What? Do you really want to try being a king? I can just give it to you, you know?”

“No, it just doesn’t feel good to give it to you without getting anything back.”

“Don’t be so greedy. I was the one who gave you that seal, you know?”

“Do you even know how hard it is to act like this? Isn’t it too much to work me for free like this?”

“That’s why I bought you some alcohol. To get you more motivated to swindle the rabbit, yeah?”

“Swindle? No, the only thing I did was…….”

Before Jin Jiao spoke any further, Sun Wukong s.n.a.t.c.hed the jar of blood away and spoke.

“Tell me before I change my mind. I can give this thing to you.”

“…….Hn, it was just pa.s.sing words.”

“Isn’t it hard, trying to be not greedy at all like that?”

“It’s not that hard when you get used to it.”

Jin Jiao’s complicated eyes disappeared, and they were replaced with calm eyes.

“But why do you care for Pian Mu that much? You don’t even know him that well.”

“Hmm……. how do I explain? I feel like I relate to the guy? Well, there’s something like that.”

“Is that really all?”

Sun Wukong grinned.

“Well, honestly, it’s because watching him is interesting…… But it’s also because someone asked me to take care of him.”

“Take care of who, Pian Mu?”

“No, I mean the guy that Pian Mu’s with. Cho Ryu Hyang, was it?”

Jin Jiao became extremely surprised and literally jumped out of his seat.

“Who the h.e.l.l asked you to take care of a human? Is he crazy?”

“Yeah, I know. I was surprised too, but that guy who asked me to take care of the boy is kind of hard to refuse.”

“Who was it?”

“Well, you know. That dragon that came up a while ago. Tian Nu, was it?”

Jin Jiao blinked a few times, remembered something and opened his mouth.

“Ah…… That yinglong who became a G.o.dly dragon?”

“Yeah. That guy came to be personally and requested me to do this. As a boss, I can’t ignore my underling’s requests, you know? I should at least pretend to do it.”

Sun Wukong rubbed his cheeks and looked up at the sky with a smile.

“but helping the boy anymore than this would break the laws of heaven, so we should stop here. Right, Tian Nu?”

Jin Jiao made a fed up face when he heard Sun Wukong’s words.

“That kid has quite a background for a human.”

“He’s an interesting child.”

Sun Wukong looked at Pian Mu disappear into the distance and smiled.

“Anyway, that guy really is getting cuter by the moment. Why the h.e.l.l is he trying to go back to his original state anyway? Just look at that pleasantly plump as..”

“…….No comment.”

Jin Jiao looked forward complicatedly.

He had been watching Pian Mu before, but now he was looking at something else.

He was looking at the one Pian Mu was heading to.

He was looking at the human child wearing gla.s.ses.

‘Why did Yinglong feel the need to ask such a thing to Sun Wukong?’

It was an interesting story.

The child who managed to make Sun Wukong himself move.

Jin Jiao became interested in the child.

The Moon Edge Blade Technique worked only when one looked inside of oneself.

It worked when one talked to the inner workings of their body.

This was the core of the Moon Edge Blade Technique.

Cho Ryu Hyang balled up his fists and looked at Pian Mu.

He was not going to do something that he refused to do before.

‘I will attempt to talk to the Shura Environment inside my body.’

It took quite a bit of courage to look at the Shura Environment body.

Because the Shura Environment had the tendency to go out of control, Cho Ryu Hyang tried his best to not even look at it until he had enough power.

‘The combined consciousness of the past popes……’

Cho Ryu Hyang bit his teeth.

He had no idea how powerful that thing was going to be.

He might actually be overtaken by the thing that was the Shura Environment.

‘But I have to do it.’

There was no choice.

There was no way to defeat that monster called Pian Mu otherwise.

Cho Ryu Hyang needed to understand his two techniques perfectly and use them to his advantage.

Cho Ryu Hyang bit his teeth and focused.

Then, Pian Mu, along with his body, slowly started to disappear.

He then sunk deep inside his consciousness.

Pian Mu watched this with a great expectation.

He didn’t know what the kid was trying to do, but he decide to wait.

‘Take out everything that you have.’

Cho Ryu Hyang.

Pian Mu wished to see just what that kid was made of.