Chapter 124 – The Momentary Buddha

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ju-seong and Red Beggar’s victories. Fat Fist also won easily and advanced. But happy things couldn’t last forever.

The first casualty among the Changchun Inn group emerged.

“Lady Bai Li, please don’t be too disheartened.”

Bai Li nodded and smiled.

“I didn’t come to the Ascending Dragon Assembly to climb high from the start. As long as you win the championship, Young Hero, I’ll have no regrets.”

“That won’t be easy, you know.”

“Still, please aim for the championship. I bet the people of Anqing secretly hope you’ll climb as high as possible too, right?”

Ju-seong was being treated as a hero… or at least, sixty percent of Anqing treated him that way. The remaining forty percent was closer to a love-hate relationship.

Those who’d lost money because of Ju-seong, those who loved the orthodox banner and found Ju-seong’s flippant matches revolting…

As a result of the last match, Ju-seong had even earned a new nickname: Crafty Dragon… as in, cunning.

Ju-seong was a new wind.

His matches were endlessly entertaining, and people flocked to them even though it wasn’t yet the later rounds of the Assembly.

Of course, from here on it was the Round of 16, so even more would come.

Plus, the fact that he wasn’t from the Seven Sects and Three Families made him all the more intriguing.

There had been attempts to identify his sect, but no one found out.

Naturally.

To trace the origins of his martial arts, one would need to know the White Lotus Sect’s protective martial arts that had been massacred and vanished decades ago.

Ju-seong grinned and nodded at Bai Li’s encouragement.

“I intend to climb as high as I can in the Assembly. But more importantly, there’s a match that’s drawn closer.”

That was the cricket fight at Azure Sky Tower.

“Now, let me show you a fine spectacle. Everyone, follow.”

Ju-seong led the group to his room and unveiled Geo-geun, whom he’d been raising in the wooden box.

-Chirrrrrp! Chirrrp!

Its voice alone was extraordinary. Several times louder than an ordinary cricket.

Red Beggar stared at it in bewilderment.

“…Elder Brother. Is that a cricket or a rat? It’s so creepy I can’t stand to look.”

“Ugh.”

Bai Li rubbed her arms as if suppressing goosebumps, then excused herself to train.

Fat Fist looked intrigued.

“Young hero, do you know how much money cricket fighting can bring? I don’t know what method you used, but exaggerating a little… if you just did this for the rest of your life, you could amass wealth that’d make tycoons jealous.”

Ju-seong replied indifferently.

“Not interested. What kind of man makes a living from gambling on cricket fights? Once I win this match, I’m done with this fellow.”

Red Beggar looked at Geo-geun with worried eyes.

“Just how big is this thing going to get?”

“Don’t worry. It hasn’t grown for the past three days.”

“If it grows any bigger, I’m reporting you to the magistrate. Seriously. I’ll say there’s an evil sorcerer creating monsters.”

“Hmm… Anyway, we can win, right?”

“You’re asking me that?”

Red Beggar snorted in disbelief.

“We’ll win and then some.”

* * *

-Chirrrk, chirrrp…

The wooden box in Ju-seong’s hands bellowed vigorously. Ju-seong strode confidently through Anqing’s streets.

Following behind, Red Beggar squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his brow.

“Why do I feel like I’ve felt this before…”

Wasn’t this exactly how he felt back in Yunnan, walking around with that snake-chicken thing?

The embarrassment was Red Beggar’s burden.

Red Beggar was definitely a beggar, and the one dressed sharply was Ju-seong. Normally, the well-dressed one would feel embarrassment more easily.

But Ju-seong’s face seemed to be made of iron… he remained calm despite people whispering about him.

A market merchant raised his voice and suddenly asked. He ran an inn of sorts by the roadside, selling dumplings.

“Hey, Mad Dragon! What’s that in your hand?”

“A cricket!”

“What are you carrying a cricket for?”

“I’m taking it to grill and eat. Why? Why are you so interested in other people’s business?”

“Heo, are we strangers? I bet money on every single one of your matches!”

“Yeah? Then give me half the money you won because I won.”

“Hahaha! Nice try. Take some dumplings!”

“Thanks.”

The merchant thrust a whole tray of dumplings at him without a second thought. Ju-seong casually accepted it and offered one to Red Beggar.

“Eat up.”

Red Beggar never turned down food, so he took it.

“By the way, why haven’t you shown it to me lately?”

As he said, Ju-seong hadn’t shown Red Beggar Geo-geun’s growth for about a week.

Ju-seong chose his words slowly before speaking.

“Well… the thing’s gotten a bit violent.”

Crickets weren’t exactly gentle creatures by nature.

If they were, cricket fighting as a sport wouldn’t exist.

They were usually docile, but if their territory was invaded or another one touched them, they’d fight like their lives depended on it.

The more he learned, the more crickets resembled jianghu folk.

“These days, just opening the lid makes it tremble like crazy… If I weren’t the one feeding it, it probably would’ve attacked me by now. This thing is furious right now.”

“Why is it angry?”

“Hmm… Maybe it’s in heat.”

Ju-seong tilted his head curiously and tapped the box.

“I’ll let you fight soon. Just hold on.”

-Chirrrrrrp!

An ominous chirp trailed behind the two men heading to Azure Sky Tower.

* * *

“Good to see you again, Elder.”

Sighing Branch grinned at the two young men who’d appeared right on schedule.

“Heh, so, you really got a cricket? Fighting crickets aren’t something you can just raise in a month.”

That wasn’t wrong.

It took generations of selective breeding, good feeding from the larval stage… a proper cricket.

Ju-seong grinned and replied.

“Elder. I’m not the type to make empty promises. Now then, everyone… open your eyes wide and watch.”

The gathered gamblers watched him with half-expectation, half-skepticism.

-Kkiiik.

When Ju-seong opened the wooden box’s lid, a copper-colored monster revealed itself.

“Good heavens!”

“It’s truly bigger than a decent-sized rat!”

“Shit, is that really a cricket? Not some rare seafood?”

Even Sighing Branch, who had remained composed throughout, looked rather appalled.

“You, how the hell did you… Did you get it from black market merchants? What is this? What did you feed it?”

Ju-seong smiled and shrugged.

“Well, let’s just start the match.”

The arena was a large wooden basin lined with straw.

It was made of sandalwood for class. Though it was still just an insect fighting pit.

Normally, you’d tickle the cricket’s rear with a feathered stick to rile it up, then the angry crickets would grapple with each other.

But today, that procedure was unnecessary.

-Chirrrrrrrp!

“Go, Geo-geun!”

The moment Ju-seong released it, the creature thrashed about like a madman, baring its aggression.

“Now… Dae-woong. You need to come out. You need to fight.”

Sighing Branch tapped the cage with a helpless expression, but Dae-woong showed no desire to leave.

“You big useless bug!”

When Sighing Branch shot a chilling murderous aura at it, only then did Dae-woong finally exit the cage and enter the arena.

Ju-seong expected Geo-geun to rip Dae-woong to shreds, and Sighing Branch was thinking the same.

But what happened wasn’t close to either prediction.

-Chirrrrrp!

-Chirrrrrr…!

Geo-geun trembling violently.

And Dae-woong beneath it, wailing pitifully.

“Hmm… In any case, doesn’t that mean I won?”

When Ju-seong tilted his head and asked…

“Ah. Son of a… damn it.”

Sighing Branch cursed while rubbing his face with his hands. It seemed he couldn’t deny it.

Seeing his somewhat unstable emotional state, Ju-seong tried to comfort him.

“Elder… At least the baby crickets Dae-woong gives birth to will become great fighters, won’t they?”

Sighing Branch grabbed the back of his head and answered.

“Dae-woong is a male.”

“…Pardon?”

He was already yanking at his grayish-white hair. His usual relaxed demeanor had vanished… so this was the true nature of a gambler.

He continued in a forlorn voice.

“Chirping crickets are all males. You didn’t even know that. That I lost to someone like this…”

No matter how unfair, a promise was a promise.

Ju-seong knew it, and Sighing Branch knew it. Both were men of their word, and neither had even considered going back on it.

Sighing Branch was a VIP among VIPs at Azure Sky Tower, so borrowing a separate pavilion was no trouble.

There, Ju-seong explained his situation in detail, relating to his constitution.

Then the transmission of the Celestial Eye formula began.

Sighing Branch looked Ju-seong over as if displeased.

“You know from the start that I only agreed to this ridiculous gamble because you’re my old friend’s disciple.”

“Yes. I know.”

“Haa… I’ll teach you Celestial Eye, but I forbid you from transmitting the formula. I’m only passing it to you.”

“I’ll remember that, Elder.”

“Good… I haven’t personally practiced Celestial Hearing or Celestial Nose Understanding, but they must work on similar principles. So Celestial Eye shouldn’t be difficult for you.”

The name Celestial Eye originally came from one of the six divine powers that Buddha’s disciples attained.

All Three Heavenly Powers were Buddhist techniques, originally practiced by ancient monks of Tianzhu.

If these had been passed down since the days Buddha gave his sermons, they were arts over two thousand years old.

Perhaps that’s why the formulas for the Three Heavenly Powers were all peculiar.

“Now… I’ll recite them, so memorize them well.”

They weren’t just formulas… the peculiar intonation and emphasis with which the formulas were chanted were also part of the technique.

To have deciphered all of that was something only the greatest thief and tomb-raider of his era, the Gentleman of Two Appearances, Gi Sam-bok, could have done.

Ju-seong memorized the Celestial Eye formula and, as he operated it, slowly felt its function taking root.

-Tok, tutok…

A strange sound came from beneath the thin bones beside his nose… as though something was being drilled through.

Then, from behind his eyeballs to the back of his neck, a spine-chilling coolness circled.

As if someone had poked an air hole into the back of his eyeball with a skewer.

His skull began to tingle.

“Euuurgh.”

Ju-seong shuddered and grimaced. Eyes, nose, ears… all were connected.

The moment he began chanting Celestial Eye, the Celestial Hearing and Celestial Nose Understanding already established in his upper dantian reacted.

And then, Ju-seong immediately lost consciousness and sank deep into his mindscape.

* * *

He saw three figures.

They all radiated brilliant golden Buddha light.

Even more bizarrely, when Ju-seong approached to look closer…

“That’s me?”

These manifestations all bore Ju-seong’s appearance.

Suddenly, he had three golden manifestations.

On top of that, they looked like Ju-seong from his childhood days.

A runny-nosed, ragged child. Back when learning a single trick from the older sisters or hearing one more old tale from Old Master Hwang was happiness enough…

One of the manifestations spoke in a young voice.

“You know what Buddha-nature is?”

Ju-seong backed away and replied.

“…Not buying.”

Another manifestation carried on regardless.

“Buddha-nature means perceiving the world through the same senses as the Buddha.”

A third manifestation picked up.

“So think about it. Just by mastering the Three Heavenly Powers, you perceive the world as the Buddha does? That’s absurd. How’s that different from saying you become an immortal right after learning some peerless technique?”

“It makes no sense from the start.”

With three manifestations chattering among themselves, Ju-seong felt dizzy.

“What the hell are you? Where did you come from?”

The first manifestation looked at Ju-seong pityingly.

“We are you, idiot. Think a little. Everything we’re saying is actually enlightenment you’re gaining.”

Judging by the speech, it was indeed himself. Ju-seong scratched the back of his head and asked in a hollow voice.

“…If I still can’t suppress my inborn killing nature even after mastering the Three Heavenly Powers, what am I supposed to do?”

The manifestation grinned crookedly and pressed its palms together, replying.

“Just mastering the Three Heavenly Powers isn’t enough. Did you think mastering three techniques would make you into a Buddha? You shameless bastard.”

Another manifestation clasped its hands together beside.

“Just as the Buddha of old didn’t attain enlightenment without trials, you too will need your own story.”

At last, the third manifestation joined in.

“But now that the Three Heavenly Powers have gathered in one person… ”

The three voices overlapped.

[We can let you feel, even momentarily, what Buddha’s senses are like. You must feel it keenly. It’ll only be a fraction of a moment.]

The three forms merged, and from their pressed-together hands, blinding radiance burst forth.

Ju-seong’s vision filled with white.

“Ah.”

The Momentary Buddha opened his eyes.