Chapter 172: It’s been a while since we got together (1)
A cauldron of emotions swept the world. Not too long ago, the unknown civilization had invaded humanity, and Red Eye had made an appearance. Then, the Leo Saint Stevens had made a confession. People were in a state of shock.
However, at that moment, another piece of breaking news reached the pinnacle of all the shocking incidents. It spread out throughout the world.
“Zodiac Saint! There is a new Zodiac Saint!”
“New Zodiac Saint?”
“The Serpent Bearer has a Zodiac Saint!”
The news surprised everyone.
“Huh? I was wondering why everyone was making a big deal. I already know that. Lee Gun is the Zodiac Saint.”
“That’s right. Zodiac Saint Lee Gun stopped the invasion. We also know that Lee Gun-nim was the one to kill Red Eye...”
“That’s not it!”
“What?”
“Lee Gun isn’t the Zodiac Saint. Chun Yooha and Chun Sungjae are!”
“?!”
People were in a state of shock. Of course, they had heard that the Chun siblings had moved under the Serpent Bearer.
Chun Sungjae was famous, but he was an A-rank disciple, so his story had gotten a bit buried. As for Yooha, she had transferred temples during the invasion, so that story had been spread with a delay. Moreover, Stevens had given the confession right after that, so her story had gotten buried for a bit too.
Naturally, everyone was shocked when it was suddenly revealed that the siblings had become the Zodiac Saints of the Serpent Bearer.
However, something in this news shocked them more. The reporters were in turmoil.
“Chun Yooha and Chun Sungjae? Which one of the two is the Zodiac Saint?”
“What? I said it’s Chun Yooha and Chun Sungjae!”
“I’m not talking about backup! Who’s the Zodiac Saint between the two?”
“Ah-oh! This is frustrating! It’s both of them! Both of them are Zodiac Saints!”
“?!”
“What are you saying? How can there be two Zodiac Saints?”
“That makes no sense.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can contact the observatory! They have already announced it!”
“..!!”
An official organization, the observatory had brought up an issue hard to believe.
[Observatory: “Two stars of the Zodiac Saint have appeared.”]
[Disciple Registry “Planetarium” shows zero rank stars. Zodiac Saint stars have appeared.]
[Their location is the Serpent Bearer.]
[The new Zodiac Saints are Chun Yooha(SS) and Chun Sungjae(SS).]
This news also shocked the twelve Zodiacs Saints. The first to take damage was the one in Canada’s red zone.
After tossing a bomb at a monarch, Yang Wei was escaping from the monster’s den.
[That’s nuts!? How can there be two Zodiac Saints? Has Lee Gun lost his mind?!]
While escaping, he ran across a human stationed at a base camp near the red zone.
As soon as he met him, Yang Wei desperately grabbed the disciple. As if the heavens were trying to help him, this disciple belonged to the Aries temple. Undoubtedly, they were probably looking for him after he went missing.
“Guy! You found me! I’m you Zodiac Saint! I’m the Sheep Saint!”
“Ahhk!!! It’s an SS-rank monster! Run away!”
“Hey! It’s me! Hey!”
Scared out of his mind, the disciple ran away.
Yang Wei picked up the phone the disciple had dropped and accessed news about Lee Gun.
It was the Virgo Saint holy ground in Montmartre, Paris.
* * *
Kevin reached the secret base of the Virgo temple by himself. He wanted to take out treasures from his temple, then kill the people who had controlled him. He wanted to kill the people who tried to kill Lee Gun.
Of course, none of the disciples within the Virgo Saint’s holy ground recognized him as he was in his Demigod state. As many people knew what he looked like, Kevin was using this method to hide his identity.
“What the hell is this? I can sense the energy of the Serpent Bearer from her. She’s a disciple of the Serpent Bearer.”
The disciples who had invaded the town glared at Kevin.
“Oh my! A small temple like the Serpent Bearer’s temple came to steal the Virgo Saint’s holy ground, too.”
“?” Kevin furrowed his brows.
He had no idea why they were mistaking him for a disciple of the Serpent Bearer.
“Get out of the way if you don’t want to die.”
“If I don’t want to die? Hmmph! You’re from a charlatan temple. The Serpent Bearer has two Zodiac Saints? They are bluffing way too much— Ahhk!!!”
Kevin furrowed his brows as he got rid of the Gemini disciples who had come to take his holy ground.
What? The Serpent Bearer has Zodiac Saints? He wondered: ‘Is it the Archer again!’
And Lee Gun had another Saint! Kevin wondered if the other Zodiac Saint was Hailey. He tried to search in anger, and the result was unexpected.
“???”
The content on his phone screen shocked him. For some reason, the Virgo was shocked as well.
* * *
Then there was the Goat Saint, who was being continuously tortured inside Lee Gun’s holy ground.
The daughter of Aesculapius was a Construct Lee Gun had stolen from one of the Libra’s secret bases. The Construct, named Disinfectant, yelled in surprise.
[My god! Our temple has a Zodiac Saint now! In fact, it has two!]
[What? He brought in two servants!!]
The Goat Saint was already dead, so he had to enter into the body of a snail. Moreover, he was dying and reviving as he inhaled the poisonous gas he had made himself. He was also being punished by Lee Gun’s Constructs as he died and regenerated.
The reason was simple. A Zodiac Saint had a soul contract with their Zodiac. That contract came to an end when the Zodiac Saint’s soul perished. Then, the Zodiac just had to find a new Zodiac Saint.
Lee Gun didn’t want to do something that would benefit the Goat Saint’s Zodiac, so he had opted for this method.
‘He’s also making me create drugs that will work against monsters..!’
So what had happened? Lee Gun brought in Zodiac Saints?
‘Shit! If he has a Zodiac Saint now, that means we won’t be able to escape this place..!!’
They were imprisoned on the Serpent Bearer’s holy ground. With the addition of Zodiac Saints, the holy ground would become stronger. It would be strong enough that they would never be able to escape.
This was also true for the Taurus Saint, who had become Red Eye’s food. The news had surprised him.
At this point, only his mind was alive. Yet, he got frightened when he heard the words of the Korean government employees, who were feeding Red Eye.
“Lee Gun has a Zodiac Saint now. Does that mean his Constructs will become stronger?”
“What the hell? This lizard will become stronger?”
“Isn’t that good for us? All the monsters around Korea are gone. I think they are afraid of it.”
“If it gets stronger, it’ll become invincible.”
The Taurus Saint screamed inside Red Eye’s mouth. After he had been fed to Red Eye, Red Eye continued to chew on his body as if his body were gum.historical
As a result, he had lost all his physical abilities and battle abilities. He had become incapable of moving. It was so painful that he almost preferred death.
As a defense-type Zodiac Saint, he was unusually durable. Therefore, his body couldn’t be ripped apart. And so, he was unable to die.
That was why he was losing his mind. If Red Eye’s power got stronger, its jaw strength would increase!
‘Please! No more!’
The Taurus Saint tried to speak, but Red Eye started chewing him. The monster found that a fun activity.
How could the government employees know this? So they looked at Red Eye as if it were acting strange.
“It has been chewing something since before. I don’t think that’s the food we gave it.”
“Just leave it. Lee Gun-nim probably gave it a high-quality chew toy.”
* * *
That was how the news of Lee Gun appointing two Zodiac Saints shocked the Zodiac Saints. Like Hugo, they knew about the Zodiac Saint system better than anyone else.
When the news reached them, the mouths of the Crab Saint, the Pisces Saint, and Stevens fell open.
Stevens thought Yooha becoming the Zodiac Saint was understandable. She had been the ace of the Leo temple. Her becoming the Zodiac Saint made sense.
But what did he just hear? Chun Sungjae?
“That short brat is still wet behind his ears!!! He’s a Zodiac Saint like us?”
Well, it didn’t matter. As much as the Zodiac Saints were shocked, the disciples were shocked too.
Naturally, they had all thought Lee Gun was the Zodiac Saint.
“If there are two Zodiac Saints.. What about Lee Gun-nim? What is he?”
“A normal disciple?”
“Fuck! Are you playing with me?”
“Zodiac?”
“Fuck! Really?”
“Then what is he!”
“Damn it! Zodiac!?”
“That’s what I said!”
“#&*#$*&!”
The whole world was thrown into deep disarray.
* * *
Around that time..
“The Virgo Saint is dead!”
“Steal his holy ground! This is a golden opportunity to grow the power of our temple!”
“The power of the Virgo is gone! This opportunity will never come again!”
Western Europe was full of people trying to rob an empty house.
For a temple to become stronger, one needed disciples, Constructs, holy ground, etc. Among these requirements, the holy ground was a vital component. Why?
“The Zodiac can use 100% of its power inside the holy ground!”
“As the holy ground expands, the temple’s influence expands too!”
Disciples could be easily stolen through missionary work, but this wasn’t the case with the holy ground.
‘It cannot be taken without a large-scale war.’
A true conflict of power had to take place.
The disciples had held back fighting since they knew who was superior or inferior in power. However, this was no longer the case.
‘The Virgo Saint is gone.’
It was all thanks to the Crab Saint. As soon as this news spread, the temples invaded like hyenas. When they invaded the Virgo’s holy ground, they could no longer feel the energy of the Virgo Saint.
“Alright! We don’t have to worry about being bombarded!”
“Let’s dedicate this holy ground to our Zodiac!”
Four temples had trespassed the currently unoccupied house: the Gemini temple, the Cancer temple, the Taurus temple, and the Pisces temple.
Of course, these were the temples that had gotten angry when Stevens gave his confession. They had declared they did nothing wrong, and they had stood on the side of the Libra.
Naturally, all of their disciples moved under the orders of either their Zodiac or their Zodiac Saints.
The holy ground of the Virgo Saint was unimaginably large.
‘If we can consume this place, the power of our temple will become very strong.’
The Zodiacs, who were wary of the Serpent Bearer, had spoken about it. Lee Gun had already blasted the Libra. There was no reason for them to walk on eggshells.
[Each Zodiac is scrambling to get in front of each other. They covet the holy ground.]
[They are wary of the Serpent Bearer, who has two Zodiac Saints.]
[There is no way they will lose against a novice Zodiac. They covet the power of the other holy ground.]
[They want to obtain the other holy ground and show the power of their temple.]
Finally, the holy ground of the king of the West would be destroyed.
Kwahng! Kwahng!
The disciples approached from the ground. Enemy Constructs flew through the sky. The hyena-like temples converged toward the same place.
Defending their holy ground, the Virgo disciples ground their teeth.
‘We’ll be wiped out!’
Even if the Virgo temple was ranked second, there was a limit to what they could do! Their enemies had three members of the Ten stars. Even if the Zodiac Saints weren’t around, the Virgo temple was at a disadvantage in the number of Ten Stars. Moreover, that wasn’t the only problem.
“Shit! The dome has been destroyed! The monsters are coming!”
They wondered what had happened, but they soon realized who was behind it.
‘The Crab Saint!’
A dark-brown fog had appeared near the holy ground. This fog had destroyed the dome.
[The star of the darkness is trying to eat the disciples.]
The Crab Saint was committed to taking over this holy ground. The Zodiacs’ over-aggressiveness right now might be because Lee Gun had made his temple official.
Even if Kevin could recover through Lee Gun’s power, he would have just been brought back from close to death. He might look fine on the outside, but he probably didn’t have enough stamina to defend his holy ground.
That meant this was the prime opportunity to consume the Virgo temple! The Crab Saint savagely revealed his teeth.
The Virgo disciples had clenched their eyes shut. But at that moment..
[Divine Punishment!]
The invading disciples fell and vomited blood. This development took the Virgo disciples aback.
Boom!
Green and black light surged into the air, accompanied by lightning from the sky. Lava surged up from the ground as well.
[Holy ground skill has been activated.]
[Natural Disaster!]
[Typhoon!] [Lightning!]
[You have gained EXP.]
The Cancer Saint flinched when he heard the screams coming from all around. However, that lasted only for a moment. Then, he heard a familiar voice.
“Found you, bitch.”