Martial King's Retired Life

“Thanks for all the hard work,” Ming Feizhen expressed brightly.

“It was only a few cronies. It was nothing at all,” responded Zero, stopping his shakes of joy before anyone spotted them. Of course, the statement caught Gongsun Chu’s attention, but Zero glared at him as if it was an offence. “You have something to say?”

Hearing the childish tone, Gongsun Chu just replied, “… No.”

“But it’s time we settled the score between us.” Though he didn’t rise, Zero activated his black energy around him again.

Gongsun Chu still had no idea what he said or did to anger Tianhu until he heard, “I should’ve killed you long ago for kidnapping my master. Why did I spare you when killing you ten times wouldn’t be enough for your blasphemy?”

Finally understanding what was going on, Gongsun Chu scoffed, “What do you expect when you let calamity breed?”

“Calamity? You? You’re not qualified to be an insect. If Master’s safety didn’t take priority, I’d have killed you a hundred times in the underground palace. How long have you lived for? A century? I guess you must be tired of living?”

“Your master was in danger because he’s incompetent. Why are you so worked up when he hasn’t said anything?”

“I see you really are sick of living.” Tianhu fired a black energy arrow straight at Gongsun Chu with enough force to erase every trace of him from existence.

“Zero.”

The arrow suddenly changed its trajectory to the heavens. Once it ascended into the clouds, it produced a web of lightning. In the meantime, Tianhu bowed his head down to Ming Feizhen and kept it down. He didn’t realise he interrupted his master and even made a decision without seeking prior permission. “I apologise for the unbecoming behaviour, Master.”

“Ah, it’s nothing to…”

Tianhu was overjoyed to hear his master was tolerant of lowly scoundrels and willing to pardon him stepping out of line, both things he himself wouldn’t have the tolerance for. In reality, Ming Feizhen just didn’t want Tianhu to kill Gongsun Chu before he could pry out the answers that he sought from Gongsun Chu. It’d be awkward to clarify that now, so he skipped over it.

“Mr. Chu, this is our first time having a proper conversation, isn’t it?’ Ming Feizhen questioned with a smile whilst looking at the scholar on the ground.

Controlling his demeanour as well as ever, Gongsun Chu responded, “Where is the ‘proper’ when I am on the ground?”

Tianhu’s frown interpreted: “You should be grateful my master has kept you alive for so long, you ant. How dare you even think of asking for a seat.”

“Of course. Zero, seat.”

“Yes, Master.” Tianhu hoisted Gongsun Chu up, then shimmied his shoulders whilst whispering, “Sit yourself down, or I’ll rip you up.”

“Zero.”

“This way, Mr. Gongsun.”

Whilst inwardly praising Ming Feizhen for managing to hear his whisper, he led Gongsun Chu to the chair opposite Ming Feizhen, shoved Gongsun Chu in and then returned to Ming Feizhen’s side.

Looking at the scholar who had trouble breathing after the shove, Ming Feizhen conveyed, “Please pardon me.”

Noticing Gongsun Chu didn’t hear Ming Feizhen’s “instruction” – and not wearing the correct expression – Tianhu said, “Old insect I’m warning you: my master is about to speak. Keep that neck clean and get on your knees afterwards…”

“Zero.”

“Apologies, Master. I have overstepped my boundaries.” The usually bored young man looked as if he was just praised.

Having always struggled to fulfil his role as a leader, Ming Feizhen scratched his temple. As a superior, he had a duty to do something about his prodigy of a subordinate who had a foul temper and was prone to violence, but he was worried that telling off his subordinate would cause his subordinate to lose respect amongst his peers and underlings. He didn’t know how to give a lecture whilst sounding cool. Hence, he just adjusted his posture to appear more domineering.

Tianhu – also known as Zero – used to fill Ming Feizhen’s post. Well, strictly speaking, he acted on behalf of the lord who was supposed to exist only in legends. Unless Lord San Shen assigned the “post”, claiming to hold the post was a crime. To Ming Feizhen, Lord San Shen was just a position forced onto him even though that couldn’t have been further from the truth. On the other hand, Tianhu was a fan of the definitions.

Nobody was aware that Zero, who virtually glued himself to Lord San Shen and followed his every step, was once their god. They couldn’t have been expected to know that the blonde man who seldom removed his mask and sported a bright smile was their god. Despite how many generations the legend of Lord San Shen had been told in the Western Regions, very few people actually knew his true appearance. Before Zero was found, even Divine Moon Cult questioned the existence of Lord San Shen.

There was one detail about Lord San Shen’s legend that left no room for doubt: he brought a miracle with his birth. While the miracle in question had been edited (read: embellished to be more “human”) to fit each era by the broadest of standards. To put it another way, in times when faiths were most prone to breaking, Divine Moon Cult needed a “god” to descend and appease their followers. Owing to the standard of miracles being so low, such as surviving natural disasters or healing illnesses, there numerous coincidences during the unstable era.

Given Divine Moon Cult’s long history, it shouldn’t have been surprising that they had attempted to “create god”. In contrast, the leaders’ teachings became stricter and stricter as the cult added rules. Lord San Shen’s faith, or rather, the results of being passed down generation after generation, was basically a disaster.

Without the true abilities of “God”, it was hard to fulfil the expectations of the role. Compared to the miracles that were man-made, Lord San Shen’s death was a problem they had no real solution for. Even if God was walking the dimension of man, his lifespan was the same as human beings. How did they explain his death? Throughout the cult’s history, all of the leaders jumped through plenty of hoops to resolve the issue. The best-case scenario was if Lord San Shen didn’t appear, and Zero just filled the shoes since Zero could punish transgressors without a hitch. Save for the few situations they needed to reinforce their believers’ faith, nobody wanted to take the risk and invest the effort into fooling their believers into believing in a god above themselves. The problem was that none of them could do so as Lord San Shen was bound to appear.

Despite it sometimes being several generations between an appearance, despite the location never being fixed, it was a fact that the god of punishment would descend. And, every time a god was born, he’d bring a miracle along. The miracle he brought along was proof of his status. Aforementioned miracle was the access to a realm that martial artists considered the apex – Divine Realm.

God was born able to access Divine Realm. God would always return to Divine Moon Cult. It was said that God was born able to access Karma Path to see the cycle of life, to see their own previous life and find their identity.

Over twenty years ago, a house glowed golden. There, God descended.