Chapter 224: Chapter 224
Was the Paradise like this?
A golden light wrapped around the training ground, no, the entire world.
“Amitabha.”
When Won-eum and the other martial monks unknowingly brought their hands together and chanted the Buddhist name.
Crack!
An ominous sound echoed out.
At the same time, a long, single streak was drawn across the golden light.
It was an incredibly faint streak.
However, since it was drawn across the golden light wrapping the whole world, everyone could see it.
It was thin, but very clear.
“Could it be…?”
Before the question, which no one knew who asked, could finish, the streak became clear and split the golden light in half.
Slash!
It was a small and low sound.
But the result born from that sound was astonishing.
Paat!
The golden light split in half suddenly burst, and in its place, red blood splattered out.
“……!”
“Did he break the precept against killing?!”
Thinking that Won-ho had caused a disaster, a few tried to kick off the ground.
But they soon confirmed the sight revealed before their eyes and stopped their attempt to run forward.
The red thing was not blood.
It was.
“Flowers…?”
They were very clear, red plum blossoms.
The plum blossoms that bloomed within the Shaolin Temple’s grounds, where only green trees stood, began to scatter.
The martial monks stared at it, having lost their souls.
It was a strange occurrence.
Yet it was incredibly beautiful and dreamlike.
“Could this be the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword Art? Could it be that the young hero is from the Mount Hua Sect…?!”
The moment Won-eum, who looked at the plum blossoms embroidering the sky, parted his lips in surprise.
Thud…
The sound of kneeling was heard.
At that sound, the martial monks, whose gazes were stolen by the plum blossoms blooming fully in the air, urgently turned their heads toward the training ground.
And their mouths gaped wide open.
There, Won-ho and the Eighteen Arhats were kneeling on one knee and breathing roughly.
And in the center of such a training ground, Cheon-hwi stood straight, letting the sword in his hand droop.
Looking perfectly fine, as if nothing had happened.
“How could this be!”
Won-eum doubted his own eyes.
He couldn’t believe it.
The Eighteen Arhats Formation was the pride of Shaolin and an invincible formation.
But to have this kind of result!
Won-eum rubbed his eyes with his hands.
He thought it might be an illusion.
But no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes and closed and opened them, the sight before his eyes did not change.
“For the Eighteen Arhats Formation to fall so vainly…”
Won-eum, who shivered, couldn’t bring himself to spit out his words to the end.
Even though he had clearly witnessed the result with his two eyes just now, his pride toward Shaolin refused to spit out the words that they had lost.
However.
“To eventually dismantle even the Eighteen Arhats Formation, an extraordinary guy is indeed extraordinary.”
Along with the sound of clicking a tongue from the side, the reality Won-eum couldn’t speak of was heard as a real voice.
Heavenly Ear Beggar deliberately spoke so that Won-eum could hear, twitching the corners of his mouth.
‘To think I’d get to personally see that arrogant Shaolin suffer so flatly in my lifetime. Hehehe.’
A chuckle leaked out inwardly.
Shaolin was a place that consistently maintained an incomparably noble attitude no matter what happened.
But for them to be in such a shocked state, it was very amusing.
At that time, Danmok Rin asked.
“Senior martial brother will be alright, right?”
“Puhaha! Isn’t the one you’re worrying about wrong right now?”
At Danmok Rin’s worried words, Heavenly Ear Beggar ultimately couldn’t hold back his laughter.
It was something anyone present here would know.
While Cheon-hwi stood proudly, the Eighteen Arhats were kneeling on one knee.
“The ones to worry about are those guys.”
When Heavenly Ear Beggar pointed at the Eighteen Arhats.
“It’s an evil art!”
Won-ho suddenly shouted.
As if he completely couldn’t believe the current situation, he shouted through gritted teeth with eyes full of disbelief.
“U-Ugh! If it wasn’t an evil art, how could the Eighteen Arhats Formation…”
“Phew, what evil art.”
Cheon-hwi cut off his words.
“Tsk tsk. And if it was an evil art, shouldn’t you overwhelm me even more? Because it’s none other than Shaolin’s Eighteen Arhats Formation.”
Won-ho trembled with an indignant face.
It was an irrefutable statement.
Just as Cheon-hwi said, the Eighteen Arhats Formation was a combined formation for destroying evil and vanquishing demons, and its majesty exhibited even greater power when facing evil arts and demonic arts.
“From what I see, those three are also a problem, but.”
Cheon-hwi, who glanced while pinpointing the immature three like before, flashed his sword up.
“The biggest problem is you.”
As he pointed at Won-ho with his sword tip along with his words, Won-ho, who was pointed out, bit his lower lip hard.
Trickle…
Blood flowed down his lip.
“Grind! I’m the problem?”
“A person directing a combined formation should grasp and fix the problem before anyone else. But since you couldn’t even realize there was a problem at all, what can you achieve.”
Cheon-hwi sharply criticized him.
“Maybe if you were alone, but do you not know that for someone leading subordinates, failing to grasp the group’s problem is a greater sin than anything else?”
His face, which had turned entirely red like a ripe apple, and the precept marks on his head stood out unusually.
His kasaya violently fluttered.
“This bastard…!”
At the same time, the capillaries in his eyes glaring at Cheon-hwi abruptly popped.
Because of that, his pupils holding Cheon-hwi were dyed bright red. Right after, it was when killing intent was about to bloom from him.
“What are you trying to do!”
The Buddhist Lion’s Roar struck him directly.
“Keugh!”
Won-ho clutched his chest with his right hand and violently vomited dark, dull blood.
Perhaps thanks to that.
An old monk appeared in front of Won-ho, whose face had rather become much more peaceful than earlier.
When the old monk, wearing heavily patched yellow monk’s robes and a red kasaya, looked around.
“…….”
Everyone held their breath.
It was because this ordinary-looking old monk was Won-gyeon, the Abbot of Shaolin.
Won-gyeon looked at Won-ho and spoke in a low voice.
“What was that killing intent?”
Won-ho looked directly at Won-gyeon with shaking eyes, then soon bowed his head deeply.
Because he knew his own sin.
“I already knew that your temperament was hasty, but to think you would commit such an act within the temple grounds, I truly did not expect it.”
Won-gyeon spoke in a cold tone.
“Regarding this matter, the Precepts Hall will question your sin separately.”
“But that person provoked me first…”
When Won-ho, terrified by the words Precepts Hall, tried to make excuses, Won-gyeon’s eyebrows shot all the way up.
“You still haven’t come to your senses!”
Won-ho flinched at the reprimand.
Won-gyeon gazed deeply at such Won-ho and let out a low voice.
“Realize what you did wrong through wall-facing meditation for one year.”
“……!”
Flustered by the unexpected words, Won-ho opened his eyes wide.
It wasn’t just him.
The Eighteen Arhats who had been holding their breath nearby were also frightened and hastily spat out words.
“Abbot!”
“It is too excessive of a measure.”
They desperately tried to stop him.
It was only natural, for Won-ho was the Arhat Guild Leader.
Leaving Won-ho, who held such a heavy responsibility, to do wall-facing meditation for a year was a difficult matter even within Shaolin.
“Silence!”
After Won-gyeon burst the Lion’s Roar again to shut their mouths, he opened his lips.
“Do you not know what kind of act you have committed right now? You unfolded the Eighteen Arhats Formation against someone who is neither an Unorthodox Faction member nor a Demonic Path practitioner, and even flared killing intent. So how can you say we should just let it pass?”
As Won-gyeon’s words continued, the heads of Won-ho and the other martial monks dropped lower.
Because it was an incredibly right statement.
“It is the same for you all.”
Won-gyeon’s gaze swept the surroundings.
“Even though such an incident occurred, you all just watched instead of stopping it.”
Shaolin’s martial monks shrank their necks.
Won-eum was no exception.
“How can you be from Shaolin like that…”
Just when Won-gyeon, seeing the discouraged martial monks, was about to let out another shout.
“Is that such a big wrong?”
At the sudden intervening voice filled with bewilderment, everyone’s gaze gathered in one spot.
In the dead center of the training ground, Cheon-hwi, with his sword slung over his shoulder, was looking at Won-gyeon.
“Senior martial brother?”
“What are you trying to cause this time…”
Unlike Danmok Rin, who was surprised as she hadn’t thought even Cheon-hwi would interfere in this situation, Heavenly Ear Beggar found the current situation amusing, grinning and revealing his anticipation.
On the other hand, Won-eum and Shaolin’s martial monks stared at Cheon-hwi with blank eyes.
“Benefactor?”
“Why suddenly…”
Cheon-hwi stroked his chin and spoke.
“Is it something to be criticized so much over just unfolding the Eighteen Arhats Formation a bit. And if he’s a martial artist, he could emit killing intent.”
Won-gyeon looked at him and parted his lips.
“Benefactor, you seem to not know much about Buddhism. In Buddhism, there are the Ten Precepts which must be observed. One of them is the precept against killing, which means not to kill recklessly. Thus I told him to restrain his killing intent.”
“That’s strange.”
Cheon-hwi opened his mouth as if puzzled.
The Mount Hua Sect also told its members to prohibit killing as a Taoist sect, but since it was also a Martial World sect, they tended to overlook killings that occurred in Jianghu as much as possible.
But right now, Shaolin was strictly controlling not just killing, but even killing intent itself.
“To say that, hasn’t Shaolin already killed countless demonic heads?”
“They are different. They are literally the horde of evil demons.”
Won-gyeon narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“If we let them live, harm would have reached the commoners. We simply nipped the bud beforehand to prevent greater damage.”
“In other words, you mean it’s okay to break the precept against killing if it’s the horde of evil demons?”
At Cheon-hwi’s words that seemed to have understood, Won-gyeon answered by softly nodding his head.
“That is right.”
Cheon-hwi let out a snicker.
“Well now, that’s a funny thing to say.”
At the clear sneer, the martial monks who had been watching the two flared up.
“How dare you speak such nonsense…!”
“That guy!”
However, unlike them, Won-gyeon looked at Cheon-hwi with a calm expression and spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“Whether the enemy is the horde of evil demons or whatever, it’s a fact that you ultimately committed killing.”
Cheon-hwi spoke nonchalantly.
“If you’re going to keep making excuses like that, how about handing over the task of facing the horde of evil demons to other sects, and instead leave Jianghu to live as an ordinary temple?”
“Are you denying Shaolin’s history right now?”
Won-gyeon’s voice deepened.
“You’re the ones who denied your history.”
Cheon-hwi half-closed his eyes and spoke.
“Shaolin is the sect with the deepest history in Jianghu, right? You practice martial arts normally for actual combat, but to say you shouldn’t even emit killing intent if the enemy isn’t the horde of evil demons. What kind of nonsense is this. With that, could you even properly use your martial arts in actual combat?”
Cheon-hwi concluded his sentence, then added another word as if he remembered something.
“Could it be that because there hasn’t been a horde of evil demons running rampant recently, you only just got to properly use the Eighteen Arhats Formation this time?”
Seeing Won-ho and the Eighteen Arhats shutting their mouths at those words, Cheon-hwi clicked his tongue with a ‘tsk’.
“No wonder I thought it was strange you didn’t know the blatantly obvious problem of the Eighteen Arhats Formation, but it was a problem from the very beginning. Since you haven’t properly deployed or experienced the Eighteen Arhats Formation all this time, how would you know if there’s a problem.”
Cheon-hwi muttered as if talking to himself, and displayed disappointment all over his face while sheathing the sword resting on his shoulder.
“Here I thought Shaolin was the biggest sect in Jianghu, but it turned out to be a frog in a well.”
“Listening to you, this is too much!”
The moment the Eighteen Arhats were about to rush in, bursting with anger as if they couldn’t bear it any longer.
“Those were good words. Benefactor.”
Won-gyeon smiled softly.
“However, Shaolin has kept the Ten Precepts since the ancient times, and has continued its history like that. How could we change this. Although.”
Won-gyeon looked at Won-ho and spoke.
“I will retract my words about wall-facing meditation.”
“Is that true?”
When Won-ho and the Eighteen Arhats looked at him with surprised eyes, Won-gyeon moved his lips.
“Express your gratitude to the young Taoist.”
“Yes?”
At the sudden words, Cheon-hwi reacted with a puzzled expression.
“Hoho, there is no need to be embarrassed.”
Won-gyeon continued his words with an even deeper smile.
“Did you not intentionally say those words out of concern that my Junior Brother and the Arhat monks might be punished over this matter.”
Cheon-hwi was dumbfounded.
What in the world was he talking about?
He just opened his mouth because it was absurd for a great sect like Shaolin to put on such a show over mere killing intent.
But to hear such words.
Meanwhile, Won-gyeon, seeming to think Cheon-hwi’s reaction was out of embarrassment, smiled beamingly and let out a soft voice.
“Hoho, Mount Hua was harboring a hidden dragon.”
“Tsk, you surprisingly recognized it.”
“How could I not recognize it. Such beautiful plum blossoms that the young Taoist made bloom can only be bloomed in Mount Hua.”
“Well, that is true.”
Cheon-hwi nodded his head.
After all, who was the one who made the plum blossoms bloom.
Meanwhile, Won-gyeon, looking at the confident Cheon-hwi, formed a wrinkled smile.
His neatly grown white beard slowly rose, and through it, a soft voice flowed out again.
“What is the young Taoist’s Taoist title?”
“It’s Cheon-hwi.”
The moment he heard the answer, Won-gyeon burst into laughter.
“Hohoho, I see. The young Taoist was the Plum Blossom Divine Hero who saved Shaanxi.”
“P-Plum Blossom Divine Hero?!”
“That young Taoist?”
Shaolin’s martial monks were shocked.
The name Plum Blossom Divine Hero was an alias currently shaking Jianghu, wasn’t it!
At that time, Won-gyeon spoke softly.
“Would you follow me for a moment?”
“Why?”
Even at Cheon-hwi’s nonchalant words, Won-gyeon rather spoke with an expression that showed he liked him even more.
“I wish to converse with you for a short while.”