Chapter 298 – Shaolin Temple (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Yes. That footprint is the trace left from that time.”

At the words of Gongjeon Grandmaster, the Sutra Hall Master, a strange light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

He did not know exactly what the One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation was, but from the name alone he could understand that it was a formation formed by one hundred and eight people.

And yet a combined formation unfolded by one hundred and eight men had been broken by a single stamping step?

It was quite an interesting story.

At that moment, Blue Spirit’s voice rang in his head.

-…That is impossible.

-What?

-The One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation is no simple formation. It is the One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation, called the most perfect of all combined battle formations.

-And?

-What do you mean, and? It would already be astonishing for a single peerless master to break it, but to go beyond that and do it with just a single stamping step means…

She could not finish what she was saying.

The masters who formed the Arhat Formation were first-rate to Peak-realm experts.

A battle formation doubles in power merely by being formed.

So if even that enormous multiplied force of one hundred and eight men could be broken with one stamping step, it meant the man’s realm was beyond imagination.

-That truly was the Sovereign Descent Step.

The Sovereign Descent Step.

There is a saying that with a single step, or a single stride, one can dominate all things.

If that was really possible in one step, then the title suited it perfectly.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un walked over to the footprint and asked,

“If it was enough to carve even a monument to awaken vigilance in Shaolin, then the owner of this footprint must have been an outsider rather than someone of Shaolin, yes?”

“Amitabha. That is correct.”

The monks of Shaolin called this footprint a humiliation.

Yet they had left it here so that, setting down their pride as the orthodox source of Central Plains martial learning, they could reflect on themselves and remain vigilant.

‘A single stamping step…’

Then, full of curiosity, Mok Gyeong-un held the sole of his own foot over the footprint and asked,

“Does the old reverend know who this person was?”

“…I do know, but it has been forbidden by tacit agreement, so I ask your understanding that I cannot reveal it.”

“Understood.”

At Gongjeon Grandmaster’s words, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly.

Somehow, he could understand why.

Even Blue Spirit had been unable to hide her admiration at such a tremendous formation being broken by a mere stamping step, so no matter how much they left it here for the sake of vigilance, it would be difficult to reveal such a thing casually.

“Then let us go on.”

“Yes, ah. May I at least ask whether the one who left this was someone like one of the Six Heavens?”

“…It happened a very long time ago. Several hundred years in the past. So there is no need for you to be troubled by such questions, patron.”

“My apologies. I have always been weak against curiosity.”

-Tak!

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un matched the sole of his foot against the footprint.

It was an action done without much thought.

In truth, perhaps there were often people who did this, for Gongjeon Grandmaster, the Sutra Hall Master, merely smiled lightly as though accustomed to it.

But it was right then.

-Flinch!

The moment his sole touched it, Mok Gyeong-un’s field of vision blackened.

As his entire vision turned black and nothing could be seen with the naked eye, Mok Gyeong-un instinctively realized that a mindscape had unfolded.

‘What is this?’

At the sudden bizarre phenomenon, Mok Gyeong-un furrowed his brow.

Then, though he had not intended it, the demonic power of the Three Eyes rose of its own accord, and with it a strange sight unfolded before him.

It was this very place.

It felt somewhat different, but one hundred and eight martial monks with staves had formed a battle formation and were surrounding someone.

That someone wore an evil-ghost mask, and what stood out was his blood-red hair.

‘Blood-red hair?’

It looked strangely familiar.

The moment he saw that hair, Liuqianhu So Ye-rin came to mind.

Then one old monk shouted toward the martial monks surrounding the man.

[Go and bring an incense stick that burns for one gak.]

[Yes, Abbot Great Master.]

A few martial monks joined their palms and were about to run off.

[There is no need for that.]

With those words, the unidentified figure in the evil-ghost mask lightly stamped his foot while standing with his hands clasped behind his back.

-Kung!

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

In that instant, all one hundred and eight Arhat monks who had been aiming their staves at him rolled their eyes back and collapsed to the ground.

‘!!!!!!!!!!’

It was a truly astonishing sight.

Everyone seemed shocked, and silence instantly swallowed the place.

But unlike them, within Mok Gyeong-un’s right eye he could see countless repeated flows of energy spreading in all directions.

‘This is?’

This was no ordinary energy, but Innate True Qi, and as it created repeated currents it produced an extraordinary suggestion.

This flow of energy resembled the suggestion shown by Dam Baek-ha of the Six Blood Saints, but had reached a far higher level than that.

Without the verse to control this flow, it would be impossible even to imitate it.

-Flinch!

At that moment, the thirty scattered words of the Eight Forms of Mind-Breaking began to assemble in his mind.

The verse of the Eight Forms of Mind-Breaking, which had long stagnated, was taking shape as a single form.

‘Form that adds thorns to the mind, immeasurable distance, form that drives away all, no war and no nourishment, no severing of vain delusion, form that adds thorns to the mind… the Form of Suppression.’

When the verse settled into place, it remained in his mind as a complete form.

An odd light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes as he gained yet another form of the Eight Forms of Mind-Breaking at a moment he had never expected.

‘Ah…’

If he had not seen this scene in the mindscape, he would never have recalled this verse of the Eight Forms of Mind-Breaking.

That was because it was the sort of verse whose shape was almost impossible to grasp at all.

At that moment, voices rang in Mok Gyeong-un’s ears.

-All living beings?

“Patron?”

They were the voices of Blue Spirit and Gongjeon Grandmaster, the Sutra Hall Master.

The instant he recognized their voices, the sight before his eyes vanished, and he emerged from the mindscape.

When he returned to reality, Mok Gyeong-un let out a small exclamation.

“Ah…”

-All living beings, what is wrong?

“Patron, are you all right?”

At their questions, Mok Gyeong-un lightly waved his hand as if to say he was fine.

But contrary to that gesture, the demonic power of the Three Eyes was still open in his right eye, so in his vision a faint grain of Innate True Qi remained at the center of the footprint.

‘Was it because of this?’

It was that grain that had become a verse and led Mok Gyeong-un into the mindscape.

Because his mindscape was far deeper than that of others, Mok Gyeong-un was able to read the will left behind in the verse.

And by coincidence, because the energy still faintly remained centered around the footprint, he had been able to fall into the mindscape.

‘Who was he?’

The man with blood-red hair and an evil-ghost mask.

That man must surely have been the one Gongjeon Grandmaster meant when he spoke of the one who left this footprint.

But Gongjeon Grandmaster had said this had happened several hundred years ago, so if the lingering energy still remained to this day, it was impossible to even estimate just how extraordinary that man had been.

‘…So it seems they did not say in vain that the old martial world stood above the current martial world.’

Clicking his tongue, Mok Gyeong-un at last removed his foot from the footprint.

Then he pointed toward the cave and said,

“I am fine, so let us go.”

“Amitabha. Very well.”

Gongjeon Grandmaster, who had been worried because Mok Gyeong-un had looked dazed and unsteady, joined his palms and resumed guiding him.

* * *

At the same time, in the plaza of Arhat Hall.

There, Seop Chun, Mong Mu-yak, Ja Geum-jeong, Mara Hyeon, and the Sacred Fire Leader waited with somewhat anxious expressions.

Originally, they too had intended to follow Mok Gyeong-un to the Demon-Subduing Cave.

But because the Demon-Subduing Hall Master had dissuaded them, they had no choice but to remain here.

[There is not only one monster inside the Demon-Subduing Cave. If many people besides the demon-subduing monks trained in Dharma techniques enter, it may provoke them. So please wait a while, patrons.]

Having sent only Mok Gyeong-un, they could not help but worry.

If Mok Gyeong-un successfully managed to control that monster, then they would leave Shaolin. But if not, things would become even more tangled.

In truth, if they had simply given up that monstrous bird, they could have left safely, so there was no denying that it felt as though things had become unnecessarily complicated.

Even so, they found it hard to complain about it.

That was because seeing Mok Gyeong-un refuse to abandon even a mere anomaly had deepened their trust in him.

‘For now, we can only trust our lord.’

All they could do was hope he would succeed.

Ja Geum-jeong, the Broken-vow monk, looked displeasedly toward someone.

It was Daedeok Grandmaster, the head of the Discipline Hall.

He always placed discipline first, and among Shaolin’s senior monks he was particularly obstinate.

He had never once bent his will.

‘Damned bald monk.’

It felt as though that man always blocked his path, and it made him irrationally irritated.

Then their eyes met, and perhaps because he now stood as an apostate, Ja Geum-jeong stared back at him openly.

‘Tsk tsk.’

Seeing Ja Geum-jeong’s attitude, Daedeok Grandmaster clicked his tongue inwardly.

He might once have been one of the temple’s former disciples, but now that he glared in such a murderous way, it seemed all the more right that he had been expelled long ago.

If Gongjeon Grandmaster had not kept protecting him over that so-called Supreme Great Ability, he would have seized him at once, destroyed even his dantian, and stripped him of his martial arts.

‘Hm.’

In any case, such an opportunity was rare.

They had left him alone only because he was said to have learned the Supreme Great Ability that no one in Shaolin had restored.

But now he had come to Shaolin of his own accord, so perhaps they should use this chance to make him confess the verse of the Supreme Great Ability, even if they had to invent some pretext.

If that arrogant patron who had learned occult arts were to fail in controlling the monster, then there would be more than enough opportunity.

Since he had willingly gone to such trouble merely to protect a lowly monster, a little provocation would likely make him provide the justification to suppress him himself.

It was as he was arranging those calculations in his mind.

At that moment, a monk from the Discipline Hall entered the Arhat Hall.

“Amitabha. Great Master.”

“What is it?”

The monk leaned in and whispered something quietly into Daedeok Grandmaster’s ear.

Having heard it, Daedeok Grandmaster glanced quietly toward Mok Gyeong-un’s party and the demon beast Qinyuan waiting in the middle of the plaza.

“Hoh. So that is how it is.”

A faint smile rose at the corner of Daedeok Grandmaster’s mouth.

* * *

As they passed the entrance to several cave pavilions built in a half-built style, Gongjeon Grandmaster, the Sutra Hall Master, said while in front of the Forbidden Regret Cave,

“To speak honestly, I was surprised, patron.”

“…”

“Though I am a monk who cultivates the Buddhist path, as a martial artist I have never seen anyone as young as you who has studied so deeply.”

At that praise, wholly without selfish intent, Mok Gyeong-un immediately expressed his thanks.

“You overpraise me.”

“If it is not too rude, may I ask your age, patron?”

“Seventeen… no, as of yesterday, eighteen.”

He had completely forgotten, but come to think of it, yesterday had been his birthday.

He did not know whether it was truly the day he had been born, but it was the day his grandfather had always celebrated for him.

“Pardon?”

At that, Gongjeon Grandmaster asked back in puzzlement.

‘!?’

Mok Gyeong-un instantly thought, ah.

As they had been heading toward the Demon-Subduing Cave, he had spent the entire time devising countermeasures in case he failed to make the anomaly into a shikigami or failed to control it.

So he had answered his age without thinking, but right now he was wearing a human skin mask.

The face of the human skin mask was that of a man around the middle of his twenties, so a reply like that was bound to seem strange.

Fortunately,

“Hehehe. Amitabha. My apologies. It seems this humble monk’s cultivation of the Buddhist path is still lacking. This too must be one kind of prejudice. Your study is simply so deep that I had assumed you were older than that.”

“Ah… yes.”

Rather than dwelling on the mismatch between face and age, he focused on something else.

Because one who had reached such a realm before even reaching young adulthood was so astonishing, Gongjeon Grandmaster kept letting out exclamations of admiration.

“Hoh. How excellent. Truly excellent.”

He genuinely regarded Mok Gyeong-un’s martial talent as extraordinary.

And so, just before they arrived at the Demon-Subduing Cave, he asked,

“As a monk who has left the world, it is improper for me to concern myself with worldly matters, but because I feel your fame will only grow greater in time, I wish at least to hear your name. Would you allow this humble monk to know it?”

At that question, Mok Gyeong-un thought for a moment.

His real name was naturally something he had hidden from the start, and as he had only recently escaped the imperial capital Kaifeng, even if Gongjeon Grandmaster seemed friendly toward him, it still felt awkward to reveal the name he used within the Heaven and Earth Society.

So he was about to casually give some false name, when he suddenly remembered something.

[I thought of calling you Zheng, but that does not suit you either.]

At that, Mok Gyeong-un let out a small laugh and said,

“Heavenly Demon… I am Heavenly Demon.”