If you ask what “rank” is, it’s a qi that is truly hard to explain.
Perhaps it’s simply presence, or the worth of the vessel it contains.
If not that, then the enlightenment they’ve piled up.
Explained as a martial artist, you could say those things stack layer upon layer like a tower.
‘…This is different.’
The rank and atmosphere of those called Masters were different—far, far different.
You couldn’t even call them the same humans. Something supreme, and yet great.
A qi that, just by looking, grants both boundless awe and overwhelming despair at once.
Absolutely unreachable.
As if there were yet another sky above the sky.
Beings who shouldn’t even exist, who make it hard to so much as dare look up—who give you crushing helplessness.
That was the qi of Masters as I understand it.
Right.
‘Just like Mother, or that one called Taecheon.’
Divine beings called Masters who oversee a world and are tied to life.
The qi I felt when I saw them—that was exactly it.
‘So how could that be…’
…coming from Grandfather?
Flaaar.
Flames gradually rising. Skin turning…