Leveling with the Gods

Kagagak, Kagagak-.

The hand gripping the staff grew stronger.

The Jade Emperor's eyes, who had flown up into the clouds, narrowed.

"Your ignorant nature remains the same."

Woo-.

The Jade Emperor's staff let out a screech.

At the same time...

Goo-.

The clouds in the sky rumbled, forming various figures.

Countless dragons made of clouds.

Kyaaaaahhh-!

The dragons let out a cry and began to move according to the Jade Emperor's gesture.

And then...

"No."

Twack-!

Son OhGong opened the mouth of a cloud-made dragon and attacked the Jade Emperor.

"This is going to be different."

"..?"

The Jade Emperor realized that the gigantic Ru Yi Bang in front of him had disappeared.

No, it was still in the hands of OhGong, just like the first time.

Boo-boo-.

Tak, tak, tak!

The shrunken Ru Yi began to strike the dragons.

If it had been before, he probably would have just swung the Ru Yi in the air.

Kyaah-!

Thwack!

The heads of the dragons, pushing their teeth forward, were crushed.

"...Indeed."

The staff of the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, was imbued with Arcane Power. The Arcane Power in the staff revitalized the shattered clouds, which had lost their power due to the Ru Yi Bang.

"It lives up to its name."

Jjink-.

OhGong's ability could not be ignored.

He had not been an easy opponent before. Moreover, he had become a Ranker in the shortest period of time, and he had become a High Ranker faster than anyone else.

Although he had been trapped in the Five Elements Mountain, more than a thousand years had passed.

His abilities were probably even more extraordinary than before.

If that was the case...

"Come here."

Goo-.

Countless dragons converged.

The color of the sky turned red, and the world trembled as if a portent of doom had begun.

Then, toward the sky, the Jade Emperor's staff extended.

"Qilin (麒麟)."

Kaaaaaah-.

The clouds took shape.

A giant monster filled the sky, with a dragon's head, a deer's body, and horse's legs.

Looking at the creature that had let out a muffled roar, OhGong smiled with satisfaction.

"I see that you have released it."

But the smile didn't last long.

Son OhGong, realizing that it was slowly descending towards him, looked down.

"Are you trying to destroy the Celestial Realm with your own hands?"

This was the land of the Heavens.

And that ability the Jade Emperor had used was powerful enough to destroy it.

"If it is a necessary sacrifice, it will not be in vain."

"...Really?"

OhGong scratched his head in confusion.

"It's been so long that I must have forgotten. How crafty you are."

Whirr-.

OhGong's Ru Yi spun in his hand.

A figure of a Qilin showing its teeth toward himself.

Son OhGong looked inside the mouth of the Qilin and opened his own mouth.

"I know a guy who is very skilled with weapons."

- "Such a fine weapon, and you use it so lightly. You use it as if you were cutting potatoes."

Asura.

The most skilled Ranker that YuWon and OhGong knew.

He wielded swords, spears, clubs, and other weapons as freely as his own body.

-"All you can do is extend and shorten that staff to its original size."

Since that day, OhGong learned the Art of Asura's Staff.

To win the battle against the Outer Gods.

The OhGong who now fought against the Jade Emperor was that OhGong.

"Once I learned, I understood."

OhGong pointed the tip of the Ru Yi Bang at the Qilin's mouth.

"How little I knew about my weapon."

Depending on how you wield the weapon in your hand, even the same object has different effects.

OhGong had learned this from Asura.

Also...

He had learned it by fighting against YuWon.

"Grow..."

Crack.

The moment OhGong's mouth opened.

Kyaaaaah!

The Qilin began to plummet, roaring through the red sky.

"Ru Yi."

Tuhwaak!

The center of the battlefield, where the fight with the Bull Demon King was in full swing.

Kwaaaaang!

Two high-rankers battled there.

The Bull Demon King and Ne Zha.

Their weapons clashed.

Boom!

"......!"

Ne Zha's eyes trembled.

Sword fragments shattered before his eyes.

Shattered sword fragments scattered rapidly before his eyes.

And at that moment...

Boo-boo-.

Zz-!

The Mixed Iron Rod struck Ne Zha's head once again.

BANG!

Kudzik, kudzik, kudzik, kudzik.

Ne Zha's flying body crashed onto the debris of several buildings. Dizzy from the shock of the blow to his head, he looked at his sword, which had been reduced to a hilt.

"The True Sword..."

An object said to slay all the demons in the world.

It was a symbolic item that had been passed down from generation to generation to the Great Celestial Warriors like him.

But it had broken.

It felt as if the Celestial Realm had lost this battle.

But then...

Boo-boo-.

Boom!

A vibration could be felt in Ne Zha's body, buried under the rubble of the building.

A vibration that was felt through the ground.

While hastily removing the debris with his hands, he could see the Ru Yi Bang connecting the sky and the earth.

"...Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?"

The guy who disappeared somewhere.

Even if that wasn't the case, he could feel the Arcane Power of the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal from a distance, so it seemed strange to him. However, he hadn't paid much attention to it because he was too preoccupied with dealing with the Great Sage, Who Pacifies Heaven right in front of him.

But now...

The Ru Yi Bang of the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, fell in the center of the Celestial Realm.

"Probably the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal is already dealing with our Emperor God."

Ne Zha looked at the sky, which had turned red.

The sky had turned red.

And he also clearly remembered the shape of the Qilin flying in the sky.

The Jade Emperor and the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal, had started to fight.

He had just regained hope seeing the Jade Emperor himself start to move.

However...

"Have they moved the location of the battlefield?"

A strange sense of unease took hold of him.

And then...

Ne Zha realized the source of his anxiety.

Ssshhh-.

The sky gradually turned blue and clear.

The Qilin was no longer visible, nor was the red sky.

Ne Zha's eyes shook.

"...What?"

Ne Zha jumped up, surprised.

Immediately, he ran to the spot where the Ru Yi had fallen.

A huge circular and deep hole in the ground.

Around that pit, the Celestial Soldiers rushed in.

"I-Isn't that our Jade Emperor?"

"Our guild leader?"

"G-Gosh, is this real?"

"I heard he was ranked 10th. Isn't that higher than the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal?"

Grab-.

At the sound of the soldiers' chattering voices, Ne Zha pushed them aside and moved forward.

As if he had heard it before in the conversation, or maybe not.

"......My goodness."

Ne Zha almost froze on the spot for a moment.

At the other end of the Ru Yi Bang, the Jade Emperor lay unconscious. He, who was the God of the Celestial Realm and no different from the Heavens, was brought down to the ground by the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal.

"It's practically over."

Thud.

The Bull Demon King, who had already blended in with the crowd, slung the Mixed Iron Rod he held on his shoulder.

When the soldiers realized that the Bull Demon King was among them, they startled and moved away from him.

"Disperse, it's the Great Sage, Who Pacifies Heaven!"

"S-Surrender obediently..."

"Surrender..."

The soldiers stuttered and pointed their trembling spears at him.

The Bull Demon King looked at those soldiers and soon turned his gaze to Ne Zha.

"We're not interested in anything other than the Jade Emperor. We have nothing more to gain by fighting here."

Jak, jak, jak-.

Behind him, two figures approached.

Turning his head, the Bull Demon King looked at YuWon and Son OhGong, and asked.

"Don't you think so?"

"I don't care."

"To each their own."

OhGong and YuWon agreed.

In the face of the agreement among the three, the soldiers who had invaded the Celestial Realm trembled.

"Is this the end?"

"Is...is it really?"

"I don't think we can win this battle anyway..."

Morale was low, and the reason to continue the battle had faded.

Ne Zha realized what the Bull Demon King was trying to do, and his eyes lit up as he looked at him.

The eyes of the two men met.

At this moment, the Jade Emperor had been defeated, and the Grand General had been captured.

So, the highest decision-maker in this Celestial Realm was Ne Zha.

"It's up to you."

With a wry/sad smile, the Bull Demon King spoke for everyone to hear.

All eyes turned to Ne Zha.

Now it was up to him to decide.

"We..."

Ne Zha closed his eyes for a moment.

'To protect the Heaven, what should I do here?'

His mind continued to race. According to his original personality, he probably would have rushed towards them regardless of fire or death.

But this was the Celestial Realm.

And now there was no possibility of victory.

He had only one choice left.

"We..."

The Fall of the Celestial Realm.

The news spread faster than any other.

And there was one place where information was swifter than any guild or information group.

"The fall of the Celestial Realm..."

A small man, with a face so young that he looked like a child, also known as the Director of the 50th Floor Ranking Management Office, was worried.

"Son OhGong and the Bull Demon King. How do we rank them?"

This was the most challenging task assigned recently to the ranking management offices of each floor.

The fall of the Jade Emperor, a Rank 10 Player.

As a result, it caused a seismic shift in the upper rankings.

It was also inevitable that the rankings of the two high-ranking Players who had destroyed the Celestial Realm, including the Jade Emperor, as well as the God of War and the Grand General, would also fluctuate.

"Shouldn't we raise them both by two levels?"

"I think the Bull Demon King should be a little higher than two levels. Son OhGong has a very high ranking, but the Bull Demon King has a ranking that is too low compared to what he showed this time."

"Still, it was Son OhGong who captured the Jade Emperor, so it's a bit exaggerated to make the Bull Demon King's ranking higher."

A few days passed, but the ranking had not been adjusted yet.

It was a difficult matter.

It was a meeting that brought together the Agency Directors of the Ranking Management Office of each floor and lasted several meetings.

"Hmm..."

And the Director of the 50th Floor looked at the same material over and over again.

And then...

Thump~

He dropped the pen he was holding in his mouth and asked.

"Who is the important one here?"

"Between the two?"

"Who are you referring to?"

The Director clicked his tongue at the others' confused expressions.

"The one whose ranking needs more adjustments."

"That would be the Bull Demon King..."

"That would be Son OhGong..."

The answer was split in two.

They looked at each other as they responded.

It was natural that there would be conflicts as they had different ideas, and that's why the ranking hadn't been adjusted until now.

But...

"Wrong."

Tudududud-.

The Agency Director threw the stack of reports messily onto his desk.

The papers scattered haphazardly.

But there was one report in his hand that he didn't throw.

"This is the one that needs more adjustments. Kim YuWon."

Kim YuWon.

The player who recently caught the attention of Son OhGong's alter ego.

He had just reached the 50th Floor, and together with Son OhGong and the Bull Demon King, he had wreaked havoc in the Celestial Realm.

It was a feat worthy of a rank increase.

But...

"He's not a Ranker Player yet."

"That's what I'm saying."

The agency director smiled, casually releasing words that would keep the other directors awake for days.

"We'll have to make an exception with this guy."