8 Shock

"Mn" Wrapping his arms around his mother's neck, Seojun nodded softly and murmured "Let's go."

"Whatever my little one says" Laughing, Sujin turned and started walking towards the exit of the cave, glancing sideways at the veil over her son's face and easily noticing his anxious expression.

For her to see over something as thin as a veil is totally simple, after all her eyesight is good enough to see an insect hundreds of meters away with no problem at all.

Not for nothing is she the strongest woman in the world, all her senses are at another damn level thanks to her great inner strength.

Reaching the entrance of the cave after a few seconds, Sujin smiled broadly and stared at the dawn sun in the distance "How do you like the view?"

"Beautiful..." Blinking in a daze, Seojun muttered.

Without a doubt the view in front of the cave entrance is much better than the view behind, after all the only thing he can see behind the cave is nothing but a large cliff and giant snow-capped mountains in front of him.

But the view from the entrance...

It is simply marvelous.

To begin with, the first thing you can see are colossal mountains surrounding the whole place as if they were imposing walls protecting the interior, while in the area closest to the cave you could see several structures similar to Asian temples and many more structures as far as your eyes can see.

But even though the whole place is full of structures, the green of nature can be seen almost everywhere, and even gigantic trees can be seen surrounding the even more gigantic mountains.

Seojun doesn't know how big the cult is, let alone how many people are inside, but now seeing all these structures, he knows instantly that at the very least, this place holds hundreds of thousands of people.

Standing at the edge of the cliff, Sujin smiled and commented "What you have under your feet is the entirety of the celestial cult. The temples you see below are for ritual or administrative purposes, what you see beyond is the small town that was created for the believers to stay in."

"What's outside the mountains?"

Raising her eyebrows at being ignored, Sujin turned her gaze to the gigantic mountains and laughed "More cities."

"More cities?" Opening his eyes a little wider, Seojun asked in surprise.

"Yes" Chuckling, Sujin continued "What you see in here is only for our cultists, our sacred area... outside these mountains are the cities that subordinated themselves to our cult and generally most of our cultists come from those cities, if they weren't born in here."

"It's like a kingdom..." Instantly understanding the absurd situation, Seojun sucked in a breath of cold air and whispered in disbelief.

"I'd say it's more like an empire."

"Empire?"

"Something like a cult, but it's all under the hands of decrepit old women" With a face full of disgust, Sujin continued "They always walk around with those poisonous smiles, talk nonstop and are really annoying."

"..."

"All of them under the command of an even more unbearable family" With disdain in her gaze, Sujin continued "The royal family and who are the masters of the empire under the command of the empress"

"You seem to hate the empire"

"We are not on the best of terms, in fact, we had several wars against them in the long history of the cult" Nodding, Sujin continued "As a Heavenly Demon I have visited the empire a few times for diplomatic reasons, I almost caused more than one war"

"You killed them?"

"The odd person" With a lazy face, Sujin continued "Not that they matter."

Shaking his head, Seojun turned his gaze to the path to his left and opened his eyes a little wider, then leaned a little into his mother's arms and looked down. Mother..."

"Yes?"

"You go down this path every day?"

"2 or 3 times a day."

"T-that much!?"

"It's a light hike" Shrugging her shoulders, Sujin looked down at the rocky path and continued "But don't worry, I'll carry you."

"Well..." Staring at the path with increasing dizziness, Seojun closed his eyes and clung even tighter to his mother's neck.

How could he not be afraid?

The damn road is so long that you literally can't see the end because of the thick fog in between. But what you can see is certainly scary.

Pieces of wood placed in a rather dubious way on the edge of the mountain, large gaps between each one, in some areas it seems that you have to jump over rocks and there are even areas where there is no path at all.

While there is a path, it is practically the same as if there were none, even more so when you consider that this mountain is colossally high and right now it can be estimated that they are several kilometers high.

Looking up, Seojun observed the rest of the mountain above the cave he lives in and couldn't help but marvel at all the geology of the place while seriously doubting his knowledge 'How the fuck can I even breathe at such a high altitude?'

"Are you ready?"

"I-I think so."

"Do you prefer the fast descent or the slow one?"

"*Gulp* The less d-dangerous one."

"Mmmmm" Rubbing her chin with an amused gleam in her eyes, Sujin was silent for a few seconds and suddenly laughed, then hugged her son tighter and whispered "It'll only last a few seconds, trust mom"

"N-no, w-wait-wait-!" He watched in slow-mo Watching in slow motion as his mother jumps along with him to the cliff, Seojun's pupils instantly shrunk as his heart seemed to stop, while his mind could only curse over and over again already preparing for his second death.

Feeling a cold and strong wind surrounding his entire body as the sensation of falling raised his adrenaline to the max, Seojun gritted his teeth and tightly closed his eyes as he clung to his mother's neck with all his might.

"Hahaha~" Feeling her son's embrace, Sujin only laughed softly as her long hair shook rapidly as they fell, not the least bit worried about the impending collision against the hard ground.

After an incalculably long time and a long mental torture for Seojun, the wind suddenly stopped and the feeling of falling vanished completely.

"We arrived!"

"..."

"Seojun?"

Slowly opening his eyes while his face is deathly pale, Seojun slowly turned his gaze sideways and gazed dazedly at the giant structures surrounding him, then weakly shook himself in his mother's embrace and lowered towards the ground.

With his legs trembling from sudden weakness, Seojun knelt on the ground and held tightly to the earth beneath his legs, while his mind was still taking in the torture he just experienced.

"A-are you okay?" with a worried face, Sujin quickly approached her son and stammered with obvious nervousness.

But, even though his terrified mother spoke to him and covered his vision, Seojun failed to even process her words, being deeply stunned by the experience that literally almost killed him with a heart attack.

"Breathe deeply!" noticing her son's deathly pale face, Sujin's concern reached its peak and she quickly placed her hand on Seojun's back, then began to slowly transfer energy into his body while doing all the work to disperse it through his meridians.

After a few eternal seconds, Seojun was finally able to calm his breathing and his vision refocused on the outside, successfully overcoming his first panic attack from an extreme experience.

'Fuck...' Sitting on the ground with misty eyes and tears threatening to come out, Seojun inhaled deeply and cursed inside his mind, still feeling his heart beating madly even though a strange, cold energy seemed to caress his brain and calm his thoughts.

"Y-you feel better?" pulling her hand from Seojun's back, Sujin took her small hands and asked anxiously.

"Yes..." Closing his eyes while still breathing deeply, Seojun nodded weakly, not even having the strength to get angry at his mother.

'Shit...' Swallowing saliva with difficulty, Seojun opened his eyes again and stared at the blue sky above him while thinking 'And here I thought I was so brave... I guess everything seems simple until you experience it.'

"Are you sure you're okay? I can take you to the doctor if anything hurts."

Without losing the concern on her face, Sujin gently stroked her son's still pale face and asked.

"I'm fine mom...I just got scared" Smiling faintly, Seojun raised his hand shakily and gently caressed his mother's palm while inside he could only curse 'Going to the doctor? I'm sure if I accept it will end up canceling my departure and I'll most likely be confined in the cave for several more years'.

"Honey..." With a sad face, Sujin gently hugged Seojun and cradled him against her chest, then gently kissed his head and whispered "I'm sorry...I never considered how scared you would feel...I'm a lousy mother."

"*Sigh*" With a sigh, Seojun lifted his gaze and looked at his mother's bitter face, then smiled weakly and gently kissed her cheek "It's okay mom, in a way it was fun... but please in the future let me know before you do it to prepare my heart"

"Are you sure you don't want to come back?" Unable to shake off the worry, Sujin continued "If you want we could come back another day."

Shaking his head while sighing, Seojun broke away from his mother's embrace and stood up, then smiled brightly towards her "I'm fine mom, let's continue our walk!"

"..." Staring at the bright smile behind the thin veil, Sujin shook her head and decided to ignore the deathly pale face behind that smile, then stood up again and took Seojun's hand "Remember my rules, you will not leave my side!"

"Yes mommy!" Having regained his calm after almost dying, Seojun finally had his rationality returned and began to study his surroundings, instantly gaining a new sparkle in his eyes as he took in his surroundings.

"Believers often call this place 'The Thousand Pagodas'" Smiling at the sight of the little boy's excited face, Sujin looked sideways and continued "All you see is the administrative area of the cult."

"It's... amazing" Slowly approaching towards the nearest pagoda, Seojun mumbled in a daze.

Honestly everything he sees totally surprises him right now.

How could it not?

At a glance he managed to recognize the hundreds of structures around him, and it didn't even take his mother to tell him the name to know what it was.

Even he, who hardly knew the outside world in his old world, knew about the existence of something as cultural as Asian pagodas.

Hundreds of pagodas, maybe thousands, and one bigger than the others.

No matter where Seojun looked, his vision would always have majestic pagodas with an amount of detail that pleasantly surprised him.

'This is all made of wood' Standing in front of a brown pagoda, Seojun touched it carefully and raised his gaze as he studied the structure with interest 'Everything was made of wood, even wooden stakes were used to join everything together... how interesting.'

"You know what was the most expensive thing about building all this?"

"The labor?"