These words finally made Peacock King frown.
"At least one would have to be a Bodhisattva to have this level of power."
He asked in a deep voice,
Can you persevere?
菩萨
As mentioned before, this term originates from ancient Sanskrit. It signifies seeking enlightenment above and liberating all sentient beings below; hence, one is called a Bodhisattva.
In layman's terms, a Bodhisattva is a powerful being who, in the last great war, converted the old gods, changed the world, and defined the rules of a new era.
Only such a powerful individual could break through the current social constraints and redefine the new rules of the world.
The Peacock King was very powerful. His question was filled with majesty and strength. But Karen's eyes remained unwavering: "Even if it costs me my life, I will do it. And I will do it even better than those Bodhisattvas!"
That's quite a bold statement.
However, such a bold statement alone was not enough to convince the Peacock King.
“You are my only daughter, who would let you die?” he said coldly. “As long as I am the strongest fighting god, even a Bodhisattva will not kill you, at most he will capture you to force me to back down.”
Then he pointed to Hayden beside him.
"But what about your boyfriend?"
These words almost made Hayden spit out the tea he had just drunk.
Karen was also stunned, but not for the same reason.
Sure enough, the Peacock King continued in a deep voice, "Whatever trouble you cause, he'll be the one to die. This time, your boyfriend almost went berserk and lost control because of excessive use of witchcraft. If you want to fight against the world in the future, you'll have dozens, even hundreds, of such opportunities—do you really want him to die?"
"Huh? Of course not—" Karen jumped up from her chair. "I mean—Hayden isn't my boyfriend!"
She shouted so loudly that two seconds later, Karen herself could hear the echo of her words.
Peacock King and Hela exchanged a helpless glance.
Then Hela stood up and announced, "Silly girl, as long as you two are sexually attracted to each other, there is no such thing as pure friendship between a man and a woman. And according to my investigation, neither of you are homosexual."
This mother and daughter were so fierce that Hayden had to lower his head to hold back the things that were about to burst out.
"What—you and Dad didn't start dating right after you met, did you!?"
"I confessed my feelings to your dad as soon as I met him."
Hela calmly replied,
"But that's not the point. I think that after Mr. Hayden invoked your power with that spell in front of the gods, and you came back in armor to save him, we've long since moved beyond the stage of 'He's not my boyfriend, really not.' It's nothing, I'm just a mortal too, my family background is only slightly better than Mr. Hayden's. I was still in public high school when I first met your dad."
Karen had probably never heard her parents tell stories before, and she was completely dumbfounded—was her mother a lead actress in some teen drama?!
"Alright, let's get down to business."
In the end, it was Peacock King who couldn't stand it anymore.
"Let's assume he's not your boyfriend—but ultimately, if you're going to continue doing things amidst the impending turmoil and economic storm, this young man is very likely to die. You know what I mean?"
“I died once when I was dating your father,” Hela continued. “Then he used the life essence of the Old Gods to resurrect me, but I can only live like this forever.”
She pointed to her half-black, half-white hair and the lingering aura of death emanating from her.
"If the same thing happens, what will you do when you're not even a god anymore? Do you understand what I mean?"
Karen certainly understood.
However, when she opened her mouth, she couldn't utter a single word; she was speechless and felt extremely frustrated.
So now that things have come to this, Hayden feels he should say something too.
Although this is Karen's family matter, since he himself has been dragged into it and mistaken by Karen's divine parents as her boyfriend, he should no longer remain silent.
At times like these, as long as you're still friends, you can't just stand by and watch Karen suffer because of you.
Moreover, Hayden wasn't entirely unmoved.
“My own parents died eleven years ago because they couldn’t afford medicine during that major pandemic. Since then, I’ve been dedicated to developing affordable healthcare technologies that everyone can afford. Maybe it will attract other big companies in the future? I’ve been prepared for that for a long time.”
So he spoke.
Both gods immediately focused their gaze on Hayden, putting him under immense pressure—the oppressive force of a god's gaze was almost physical. But there were some things he still had to say.
Sometimes, people need a bit of madness.
"What Karen is doing now is, to some extent, our shared dream. I would die for this dream. She doesn't need to bear the psychological burden of it."
Hayden said this with a very calm expression and tone.
"It's like soldiers on the battlefield; they shouldn't let worrying about their comrades' lives delay the victory. We are comrades fighting for the same dream, and we shouldn't be preoccupied with whether it would be safer for us not to fight. If everyone thought like that, no one in the world would fight."
His tone wasn't feigned.
Hayden wasn't just admiring Karen for the first time, nor was he just prepared to face divine attacks. Did he waste the entire past year?
Although Hayden had always maintained a sense of pride in remaining untainted in this corrupt world, he admired Karen's courage in wanting to improve it even more. Otherwise, he wouldn't have continued to help her with these things, even risking his life to fight a high-ranking demon tonight.
Working desperately? It's not like we just started working desperately today!
So Hayden was very calm and composed. He didn't need to panic at all when he said that.
On the contrary, when Karen heard Hayden say that, her whole face turned red, and steam even started coming out of her pointed ears.
Peacock King and Hela exchanged another glance.
Then Hela finally couldn't help but turn around and complain, "My dear daughter, I think at this stage we should start discussing what your kids will be like. Wow, thinking about it is really scary..."
Peacock King raised his hand to his forehead and sighed, "Hela, let's not get off topic."
He turned around, stared at Hayden for a while, and then asked, "Do you know? With your current level, if you were to truly oppose a god, some gods might just glare at you and you'd be dead."
At least the Peacock King can certainly do this.
Hayden understood this, and nodded. He had always faced incredibly powerful beings as a mortal, and in a way, he was used to it.
"Alright. Since you're willing to risk your life, I won't say any more."
So the Peacock King nodded, and then—he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
No sooner said than done, before Karen and Hayden could react, seven or eight celestial maidens in green robes leaped out from behind Hayden and grabbed him.
“Take him into the furnace to strengthen him; any amount of Soma Dew Philosopher Silver will do.”
Then Hela gave instructions to the celestial maidens.
"Don't stop me. Let it out only when it's fully strengthened and invigorated, so it doesn't die all the time."
"Wait, what kind of enhancement!?"
Stunned Hayden cried out in alarm, but the celestial maidens, who feared their mistress most, dared not delay and dragged him away.
And Angela? She sat far away, completely at ease, seemingly without any worry.
Karen jumped up from her chair again, but Hela came over and held her down.
"You too. Since you dare to say such things, don't keep eating rice from home."
Her mother said coldly,
“That wretched animal you used to keep at home, it ate so much feed every month, it made rice expensive. We’re taking it with us this time.”
What a monstrous creature!
In fact, even Hayden knew about this bastard in theory.
When Karen was twelve, she went hunting with her parents and caught a dragon, bringing its egg home as a trophy. Karen later hatched the egg. Of course, when she was a teenager, she couldn't run away from home with a pet the size of a small house, so she left the baby dragon at home.
Why does Hela want Kallen to take the dragon away quickly?
If she were a simple-minded daughter, she might think her mother had turned against her, but Karen isn't stupid. She immediately realized that although her father could kill dragons like chickens, a dragon's fighting power was still quite useful. Besides, Karen had raised this dragon since it was a cub, so bringing it back to New Jersey would only increase the cost of food, and it would be put to use immediately.
So Karen stood there for a moment, and although she had never liked this mother, she still lowered her head and thanked Hela.
"Actually, I've never understood why you guys always want to save the world and save humanity."
Hela was too lazy to act anymore, she just pouted.
“I care about you because you are my daughter. I take care of that young man because he will likely be my son-in-law in the future. I really don’t understand why you would spend so much time and effort caring about outsiders.”
These words were so blunt that they sent a chill down Karen's spine.
Because that's the true nature of her seemingly kind and gentle mother.
Hela, the goddess of the underworld at Wotan Corporation, only considers those she is interested in as human. Hela does not intentionally harm those who are unrelated to her, nor does she find pleasure in seeing others suffer.
She simply doesn't care about anyone else.
She doesn't care, so she's even less concerned about the lives or misfortunes of others, no matter what she does. She shows no sympathy, no hesitation, and certainly no tears for anyone. Towards those she loves—her daughter and her future husband (at least that's what Hela believes)—she's willing to spend lavishly, investing heavily in upgrading Hayden to +9 or even +10; but at the same time, after making business decisions that could bankrupt, drive, or leave thousands homeless, Hela can still nonchalantly go home, take a shower, and happily eat with her husband and daughter.
Is this considered evil?
Karen herself couldn't explain the answer to this question, so she always felt her mother was terrifying. What's even more terrifying is that such people, even such deities, are incredibly numerous throughout the world.
This is the world today. This is the "common sense" of modern society, especially for capitalists and those in power.
Therefore, Karen could never accept such a world.
She was determined to change this world, no matter what.
102: Strength
In this era, force can be bought with money.
In literature, there is no first place; in martial arts, there is no second. Judging solely by martial arts skills, whether unarmed or with weapons, Peacock King is the strongest within the Mithra Group.
But if we're talking about sheer force—the kind of "all-out force" where all resources can be used to pelt the opponent's face—Mithra Bodhisattva is clearly the world's number one.
However, martial arts are not like bird's nest or shark fin, nor are they gold and silver jewels; they cannot be bought with money, at least not now. Even if the Eight Great Bodhisattvas could use resources to kill the Peacock King (of course, the cost would be so high that no Bodhisattva has actually done so yet), who would truly believe that those Bodhisattvas are the world's number one martial arts masters?
Kung Fu is something you have to hone yourself, punch and kick, bleeding and sweating, day after day, year after year. The title of the best in the world isn't bought with money, it's earned through fists and swords.
Corruption, slaughter, devouring his own kin in their madness, establishing kingdoms, joining the capitalist system… Thousands of years have passed, the world has changed beyond recognition, and the Peacock King has experienced too much, wearing down much of his arrogance and ambition. Having witnessed how mortals transformed into new gods surpassed the old gods and changed the world, the Peacock King no longer desired to change the world himself. Although the power to change the world was only one level below his own, he had already left that race.
...Even so, the Peacock King still harbored an unyielding pride: he was the greatest martial artist in the world. This was the only pride he would never relinquish!
This is actually why new deities at the Bodhisattva level rarely cause trouble for Peacock King. The cost is simply too high, and the benefits are not worthwhile... but we'll discuss that later.
The key point is that this is why Peacock King was heartbroken to see Kallen stop practicing martial arts. He was the undisputed number one martial artist in the world, unmatched in both fist and sword techniques. The number of gods and demons he had slain, who had subdued all evil spirits, could be piled up to form a mountain. And yet, he only had one daughter, who, in her teens, abandoned martial arts to study alchemy and go into business.
In fact, even Peacock King himself no longer thinks Karen is wrong.
Because he knew that Karen's desires were different from his own.
Top-tier martial arts practitioners can enhance their physical bodies with various energies, and through their unparalleled skills, they can cleave the earth with their fists and shatter the sky with their feet—well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration; only a martial god could truly cleave the earth with their fists. But at least a top-tier master could probably deliver a sonic punch.
But this requires dedicated practice for many, many years.
Conversely, how long would it take to strengthen yourself to the point where you could kill such a cultivator? If you have enough money, it could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. If you count sitting in the control room pressing a button, it could take a few minutes.
While both involve converting resources into military power, the efficiency of directly converting money into military power these days is far too high. Even though only rigorous training can lead to the top, the biggest focus for the world is often still on the word "efficiency."
Even the Peacock King himself knew this principle. That's why he was conflicted.
His wife dragged Hayden into the forging furnace to refine him; after a few hours, he could be released. The materials were certainly expensive, but how efficient was that?
Moreover, the things you can do by practicing martial arts and learning other forms of magic are different.
A martial artist of Peacock King's caliber has reached the pinnacle of "wielding a single sword with unparalleled might." Even bodhisattvas would have to expend a massive army and pay a heavy price to kill him. Therefore, no bodhisattva would even attempt to kill him.
In a sense, this is what is called freedom.
The ultimate martial artist, relying on a sword for survival, is able to remain unchanged by the world and attain freedom that belongs only to themselves.
But this freedom is limited and cannot be used to change the world.
The Peacock King is more agile and extremely fast. Within arm's reach, he can defeat an entire nation with a single sword strike. However, whether it's the maximum energy he can utilize, his own productivity, the number of prayers he can respond to simultaneously, or the threads he can control... he cannot compare to those Bodhisattvas.
Therefore, those Bodhisattvas are the true masters of the world, and at the same time, they are the ones who changed the world, transforming it from a feudal society into a capitalist society.
The most skilled martial artist can protect themselves from being changed by the world, but they are not powerful enough to change the world itself. They cannot alter how the world operates.
Since Kallen wants to change the world, rather than simply avoid being changed by it, it's perfectly reasonable for her to choose alchemy over martial arts.
Even the Peacock King himself understood this principle.
Now that Hela has gone to operate the alchemy furnace—after all, he is (their) future son-in-law, and if the enhancement is left to the staff and fails, it would be disastrous—only Peacock King, Kallen, and Angela remain in the restaurant.