Chapter 137. The Black Flame Dragon Meets the Monster of the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository
“Monk Il-gak, do you not feel wronged? The top position was originally yours, was it not?”
Il-gak did not feel wronged.
Even if his opponent had seized the top position through vile schemes and led the representative delegation with a self-righteous personality to pursue only his own interests, that was the essence of sentient beings who had not attained enlightenment.
A tower built by force would one day collapse, and a rebellion that did not follow natural order would eventually return to righteousness.
But Jin So-un had gone too far.
It would have been enough if he had pursued only his personal interests, yet he had tried to divide people and destroy order through the academic event.
Il-gak had thought he was merely a sentient being unable to control his desires, but he was a madman possessed by a fiend.
He knew this was not a righteous method.
However, if he did not stop this cunning and sly sentient being, even greater chaos would come to the secular world.
The order of the murim would be overturned, and because of that, countless weak people would suffer.
‘That was why I stepped forward, and yet…….’
Jin So-un’s martial arts were as cunning and chaotic as his nature.
They deceived a person’s eyes, deceived the mind, and inflicted wounds.
Il-gak had learned the Thousand-Jin Armor for an unmoving mind and body, yet it felt as though his skin were being scraped away and his bones were bending to the point where those arduous years seemed meaningless.
He was dangerous.
Far too dangerous.
This man was highly likely to become an internal enemy, one even more dangerous than the Black Path.
That was why Il-gak had brought out the Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic, which he had promised not to use.
Even if he had to return to the Main Mountain and face the wall for years, he felt that he had to stop that sentient being.
At that moment, his mind snapped awake at the wicked voice digging into his ear.
“So you stabbed me in the back like this.”
Jin So-un spat out words Il-gak could not understand, then took his stance once again.
‘Does he intend to continue?’
The principle of the Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic was the Sacred Law.
Purging Demons and Destroying Evil was the foundation of the Orthodox Path, but Shaolin’s Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic was water so clear that it regarded even that as an affliction.
A wicked purpose and enlightenment.
Orthodox Path martial arts that looked directly at efficiency extinguished their own light before the fundamental question of the Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic.
PAPAPAPAPAPAPAT!
That should have been the case, and yet…….
The cunning martial scripture that still hid phantoms and substance did not break its own momentum.
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD! PAK! BOOM!
If it had been the martial art of any other sect, it would have already been extinguished and vanished, but the Taeul Sect’s martial art only weakened slightly and did not disappear.
Unlike the first half of the martial duel, Il-gak was standing intact, and Jin So-un looked a little tired.
But even that was astonishing to Il-gak.
‘The Taeul Sect’s martial art…… against the Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic…….’
He shook off the anxious afflictions rising within him.
The principle of the Sacred Law could not be learned unless one pursued the root.
There was no way the cultivation of someone as worldly as Jin So-un could be that deep.
“With this, I will set the order right. Benefactor.”
Il-gak pressed his palms together and prepared the final ultimate form of the Diamond Demon-Subduing Fist.
At this point, it could no longer even be called a martial duel, yet none of the instructors tried to stop him.
All of them must have been suffering from the chaos Jin So-un was causing right now.
Just as Il-gak steeled his heart like that.
“As if I would yield to the absurdity you bastards created.”
“……!”
Jin So-un also began taking a stance Il-gak had never seen before.
He took a horse stance and placed both hands at his waist.
It looked exactly like a child learning a straight punch for the first time.
Was he trying to block the Diamond Demon-Subduing Fist, which would not be lacking even if he faced it with one of the Taeul Sword Emperor’s ultimate forms, with pure inner arts?
As expected, cunning people ultimately tripped over their own schemes in the end.
“Haaap! Amitabha!”
BANG!
When Il-gak pressed his palms together, the sound of air bursting rang out, and a golden light spread in all directions.
Soon, the golden Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic gathered in both of his hands.
Pure enlightenment that abandoned not only greed and desire, but even all things such as justice and hope.
RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE.
The broken marble fragments on the floor trembled, unable to withstand the pressure.
Between Jin So-un and Il-gak, the distance of only ten feet was compressed solidly, as if filled with something invisible.
“Demon-Subduing and World-Governing!”
Il-gak’s two legs shot forward as he unfolded the Immovable Movement Art.
In the distance that narrowed in the blink of an eye, his fist wrapped in golden light was thrust toward Jin So-un’s solar plexus.
At that moment,
Jin So-un opened his closed eyes and thrust out his fist at the same time, meeting Il-gak’s Diamond Demon-Subduing Fist.
CLANG!
———-!
————–!
The air was sucked in between Jin So-un and Il-gak.
At the same time, the golden halo extending from Jin So-un’s fist pushed back Il-gak’s Diamond Demon-Subduing Fist.
The air that had been sucked in was pushed outward in every direction once again.
While the spectators turned their gazes away from the storm of sand dust and stone fragments that began from the training ground,
An impact sound like the heavens collapsing rang out as though tearing through their eardrums.
—————-!
The spectators instinctively covered their ears from the pain of their eardrums being torn and kept their heads lowered for a long while.
KWA-GWA-GWA-GWA-GWANG!
Then came the sound of an explosion spreading out.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
The once-clear training ground was once again filled with hazy sand dust.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone stared at the training ground as though they had lost their minds.
Through the billowing dust, the shadow of one person could be seen.
Above the slowly settling dust, a young man whose hair and martial arts uniform were both black stood perfectly upright.
“Ah…….”
“Wh-What is this……”
Il-gak had already fainted, as if he had taken a great shock, after vomiting a basinful of red blood.
The gazes of the people looking at the scene caught sight of the golden energy wrapped around Jin So-un’s fist.
“……J-Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power?”
Though spring had long since arrived, the air around the training ground had turned cold as if frost had settled over it.
After the exam ended, the atmosphere of the Murim Academy became lighter.
That was because the academy’s rest period would soon arrive.
Of course, it was not only the academy students who felt that way.
Aside from special administrative work, the instructors could also enjoy most of the rest period, and it was also a good opportunity to receive hospitality from the parents of incoming students who wanted them to look after their children well.
However, Buk Won-pyeong’s expression, deep inside the main office of the academy, was not comfortable despite the approaching rest period.
“This is driving me mad.”
Buk Won-pyeong, who had intended to run to the Taeul Sect as soon as the rest period began, had been dragged around diligently by the Murim Alliance without even sleeping at night because of an unexpected incident.
No one would dare order Buk Won-pyeong, whose bright future was guaranteed, to come and go, but the story was different if those people were the ones who decided that guaranteed future.
“You look quite tired.”
Even at my consolation, Buk Won-pyeong’s gaze grew fierce.
“And whose fault is all this?!”
At the expression that seemed to blame me, I shrugged.
“I am merely writing a recommendation letter for you, Academy Head. Why are you acting like that?”
“Ugh…….”
Of course, it was not as though I did not know at all.
The Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power had met the Dharma Tendon-Changing Classic head-on.
It was widely known that the only sects in the martial world that used that energy were the Three Pure Ones Peerless Sword and the Wudang Sect.
Since there was no way the Wudang Sect had taught the Taeul Sect, the only suspicious suspect was Buk Won-pyeong, was he not?
Of course, Buk Won-pyeong had said he had never taught me the energy itself, but from their perspective, how could that be easily believed?
Those bastards had the thought, “Everyone except us is an idiot,” engraved into their hearts and supplying blood throughout their bodies, so if they wanted to ignore the facts before them and turn the blame on me, I could only feel wronged.
“And if you think about it, we will soon be eating from the same pot, so would it not arouse suspicion if you insisted we had no relation?”
“…….”
Buk Won-pyeong thought for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
“Well, that is true as well.”
When I saw Buk Won-pyeong nod, I cheered inwardly.
Truly, could fate unfold this smoothly?
The Three Pure Ones Power was a power that stood shoulder to shoulder with Shaolin’s Golden Nature Power and Wudang’s Taiji Power.
The Three Pure Ones Peerless Sword becoming a person of the Taeul Sect was no different from installing a siege weapon that could sweep away the swarming Demonic Practitioners in one blow.
‘I should try to coax him into setting up his sect right next to the Taeul Sect.’
It was doubtful whether he could establish a proper sect before the Demonic Cult rose to power.
However, when I thought of his divine might in my previous life during the Great Righteous-Demonic War, when he swept away a corpse puppet unit alone, if he gave the Taeul Sect even a small amount of help in a moment of crisis, I could completely relieve my worries about the Taeul Sect.
‘The master-disciple relationship may become a little twisted, but…… he is the Three Pure Ones Peerless Sword under heaven, so they probably will not refuse.’
To begin with, he was not going to learn the Taeul Sect’s martial arts, and it was only a matter of teaching the Taeul Heart Method that the Sect Leader had revealed for the villagers to practice for their health. As long as they overcame the awkwardness, there should not be a major problem.
“I have already sent the carrier letter, so you can bring this directly with you.”
When I handed over the recommendation letter, Buk Won-pyeong thought for a moment and said,
“Are you not going with me? During the first rest period, most people usually return to their sect and hold a banquet, do they not?”
“There are still many things I have to do here.”
“Are you already preparing for the next event?”
“I was just about to tell you about that. What does the Mount Heng Sect say?”
Through Maeng Ju-won, I had heard the insane claim that the Elder Hall wanted to dispatch academy students to Sichuan, so I moved up the Mount Heng Sect event I had pushed back to the very end.
This time, I also removed the participant limit.
It would become at least the minimum means of protecting their tender lives from the Corpse-Mountain Blood Cult they would later encounter in Sichuan.
With this, I had done all the duties I needed to do.
If they tried to blame me even for dying because they did not attend, even King Yama would click his tongue at their shamelessness and throw them into the sulfur hell.
“They rejected it at first, but when they heard your name, they said they would do it.”
“That is good.”
“……?”
“What is it?”
“Are you not pleased? It means your status has risen that much.”
That was true. The martial world was a place where people who staked their lives on their names were as numerous as grains of sand.
“Moreover, because of this incident, the perception of you within the academy has completely changed, and there will no longer be anyone who treats you like they did in the past. So how about relaxing a little and enjoying the present?”
But I had seen too many horrifying sights of countless people dying because of their names.
The moment one thought honor was more important than life, a human being died miserably.
I could not rest for even a moment.
“I can enjoy things after all the work is finished.”
“Does that mean the work is not finished yet?”
“It has not even begun yet.”
The Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
The one and only library of the Murim Academy, named the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository because it was said to contain ten thousand books.
However, unlike its name, over the long years, countless books had been newly brought in, making the name Ten-Thousand-Book Repository meaningless.
In truth, even the people who managed the library did not know how many books were inside the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
‘Exactly thirty-six thousand seven hundred twenty-two books.’
The incident through which I came to know that still made me angry even when I thought of it now.
After making me memorize all the reports of the Mantongbu, the Murim Alliance then made me memorize every book in this Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
They said something like ninety percent of what had made them came from the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
But once the Great Righteous-Demonic War actually began, they never made me spit out the books of this Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
To begin with, it was not a task that could be done alone, and they also thought this work was not that necessary.
In short, they had put me through useless pointless dog drills.
“To think I came back here with my own feet. I must be fairly out of my mind too.”
If there had been a secret manual or a hidden martial arts text among the books I had seen in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository in my previous life, my steps would not have felt this heavy.
However, most of the books in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository were nothing more than lists of useless martial arts theories.
Before graduating, Murim Academy students wrote one thesis based on their own enlightenment and submitted it to this Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
Because they wrote and submitted theses with half-baked ability, those worthless materials piled up in heaps and buried even the truly important materials.
In other words, I had gone through that damned mess memorizing materials that were not even useful as kindling.
“Phew…… But I cannot remain in place forever either.”
Ever since my battle with the Shadow Warrior of the Alliance Leader’s Hall last time, I had constantly felt as though I had been blocked by a wall.
I was receiving instruction from Buk Won-pyeong on how to use the Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power, but the track of the Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power I used and the track of the Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power he used were different, so I was having difficulty learning.
Moreover, I was even feeling thirst for Sword Force, so I had no choice but to come here.
“Since no one should know about him yet anyway.”
When I lifted my head high, I saw the signboard that read Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
As vacation approached, the number of students who usually used the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository had disappeared, so it felt quiet, and the servants were also reorganizing the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository for the rest period.
I roughly looked around the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository, which was like a nightmare from my past, for a moment, then began searching for him.
“He should stand out quickly.”
Sure enough, as I came and went through the library, he quickly entered my sight.
“Hey, hunchback! Organize these.”
“Ah! Yes, yes.”
Rough hair, an old martial arts uniform, a confident attitude as though he had nothing in the world to fear, and a massive build.
When the man, whose appearance seized the eye at once, handed books to an old hunchback, the hunchback nodded repeatedly several times, gathered the books, and moved away.
‘So you were here.’
The hunchback tried to carry away all the books the man had taken out at once, but then fell to the floor.
“I-I am sorry. I will clean it up quickly.”
“How bothersome.”
When the man waved his hand once, the books the hunchback had been picking up were pushed away in a single sweep.
The hunchback flusteredly chased after the books.
“As expected, your personality is not very good.”
At my words, the man furrowed his brow.
“Was that directed at me?”
“No. I was merely talking to myself, so do not mind it.”
The man looked me up and down for a moment, then continued speaking.
“Now that I look at you, you are the academy representative.”
“And you are So Cheon-su of the Heavenly Dipper Sect.”
“You know me?”
“It would be more accurate to say I know the Heavenly Dipper Sect.”
The Heavenly Dipper Sect was a sect that, unusually for an Orthodox Path sect, obsessed over hegemonic martial arts.
Their obsession was so severe that if one entered the sect and could not use Force Qi, one was not even acknowledged as a martial artist.
‘They said the minimum standard for leaving the sect was Force Qi, did they not?’
Their martial arts were also bizarre, and though Force Qi normally could only be expressed after reaching at least the edge of the Peak realm, they could express it as soon as they touched the edge of the First-Rate realm.
Of course, that Force Qi could not be considered normal.
Because they could emit Force Qi quickly for their age, those from the Heavenly Dipper Sect were quite unbearably arrogant.
“Do you have business with me?”
“I did not, but now I do.”
“Hmph. I am curious what that is.”
So Cheon-su smiled while manifesting Hand Force in his palm.
As expected of the chief disciple of the Heavenly Dipper Sect, he looked immature.
‘Then again, until people know its true nature, most bastards would have their knees shaking just by seeing that Force Qi.’
I slowly approached him.
“I did not come here to fight you.”
“Then?”
“I came here to help you.”
“Hm?”
With those words, I extended the White Phoenix Hand, suppressed the hand in which his Hand Force dwelled, then struck his Numbing Acupoint and Sleep Acupoint.
“Y-You c-cowardly……”
“Why go so far as to call it cowardly? I am doing all this to help you. And while it is good to focus on Force Qi, do not neglect your training in other martial arts. Is the Heavenly Dipper Sect’s weakness not that it falls victim to basic methods like this?”
“…….”
I had kindly given him advice, but So Cheon-su’s body had already stiffened, and he had fallen into sleep paralysis.
“Tsk, did he already fall asleep?”
Then I looked around to see whether there were any people nearby.
“To use such a method against children, you really are like someone of the Black Path.”
I activated the Azure Dragon Bracelet and drew out the black qi embedded in his body.
If this had remained in his body, So Cheon-su would have suffered from an inexplicable illness, and his Mental Strength would have declined.
Because he had been struck secretly in a fleeting instant, even So Cheon-su himself had not been able to gauge it.
After seeing that one move of his, I became certain that I had to receive teaching from him.
His realm was one thing, but he had reached the summit with a simple yet profound martial art he had created himself.
If it was him, perhaps he might know how to use Sword Force in a martial art where Sword Force did not exist.
“But how do I persuade him?”
He was someone who had stood at the very summit of the Black Path Murim.
I did not know for what reason he was hiding in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
Moreover, he was famous for his rough temperament, so I had no idea how I could dare persuade him.
