Chapter 381: Self-Immolation (2)

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I looked toward the interior of Shaolin Temple. Shaolin’s young monks were clenching their fists, trembling. Their momentum seemed as if they wanted to beat those commoners to death right this instant.

However, knowing that doing so would render the Abbot’s sacrifice useless, they merely stayed still.

The sight of a human being burning alive was enough to leave even me, who had seen plenty of corpses, utterly stunned. Naturally, the commoners, lacking such experience, could not help but be even more dazed than I was.

“…Uh.”

I felt the madness that had infuriated the crowd of commoners subsiding. Although I had never met the Shaolin Abbot before, he was truly a wise man.

Had it not been for the self-immolation, Shaolin would have become a battlefield. Self-immolation had effectively been the only choice to save Shaolin.

No matter how numerous Shaolin’s martial artists were, the armed militia numbered well over a thousand. Even if they deliberately chose only to destroy the buildings, Shaolin Temple would be reduced to ruins.

“What difference does it make if one person dies! Those bald monks in there are all accomplices! Let us burn them all!”

Right then, someone shouted. I tried to locate the source of that voice, but I could not find it immediately. Yet, that voice, whose speaker could not be pinpointed, possessed a bizarre magical power that stirred people’s hearts into a boil.

The madness of the people, which was about to be extinguished, was boiling up low once more. That was clearly an abnormal and unnatural change. Someone was bewitching their minds with sinister sorcery.

The problem was that the bewitching voice did not incite only the commoners. That voice also entered the ears of Shaolin’s monks, and accordingly, an amplitude of surging emotions was felt among Shaolin’s monks as well.

Had their minds been in a state of tranquil clarity like a clear mirror and still water as usual, they might have resisted a little. But right now, the amplitude of their emotions was already massive. On top of that, with the bewitching voice inciting the crowd, the atmosphere turned menacing in an instant.

“R-Right. Only one monk burned. Did we not originally come to burn down all of Shaolin? Shaolin is no longer a temple for the commoners. It is merely a dog of the imperial palace. That has not changed!”

“That’s right!”

The incited commoners began to raise their voices one by one. Naturally, blue veins also began to bulge on the foreheads of the monks listening on the opposite side.

They were clearly enraged by the senselessness of describing the noble offering of self-immolation as merely a monk burning up.

As individuals who cultivated the Buddhist martial arts, the monks possessed more patience than ordinary commoners. But even so, they too were human. When provoked to such an extent, there was simply no way they would not erupt.

“Those rascal bastards!”

One of the monks burst out in fury. I knew I could not immediately stop them from fighting. A fire had already been ignited between them.

What I was looking for was the person doing the inciting. Surely they had not left the area yet. But seeing that they slipped out of my line of sight right now, it was clear they were someone quite capable.

The Shaolin Abbot’s choice had been correct. In my view, it was the only choice capable of ending things peacefully.

If he had a single miscalculation, it would be failing to predict that someone behind the scenes would incite the crowd.

And I was certain. This was, in any case, the handiwork of someone who had reached the realm of immortals.

If they were human, there was no way they would think of inciting people like that even after witnessing such a sacrifice. That was likely why they had not been caught in my eyes either.

‘Where are you?’

I kept looking around my surroundings. Even amid that, the situation continued to escalate.

Shaolin Temple’s monks collected the blackened remains of the Abbot while looking at the commoners with eyes full of hatred.

Even if I released my momentum here to forcibly halt the fight and disperse them, they would clash again someday. That was because I could not stay here continuously. I was bound for Beijing. Therefore, I had to eliminate the root cause.

“Set fire to Shaolin!”

As it turned out, the militia seemed to have already poured oil near Shaolin Temple. Once they lit the sparks, Shaolin Temple’s walls and Mount Song began to blaze.

Shaolin’s monks gritted their teeth. To them, the Abbot’s dying wish still remained like a creed. They had burned their resolve to protect Shaolin, so were they going to let it all become meaningless?

It was right then. Just before the clash, a group of martial artists began ascending from beneath Mount Song. Judging by the level of their lightness arts, every single one of them was at least a peak-level master.

“…Why is that person here too?”

Looking at the person at the very front, I muttered without realizing it.

Su Je-heon, the Vice Palace Lord of the Palace of Heavenly Worship and former Martial Alliance Leader, was rushing up. From the moment they began climbing, they made no effort to conceal their killing intent.

“B-Behind us!”

The militia were startled. Su Je-heon landed right in the dead center of the militia force.

“In the name of the Palace of Heavenly Worship, I execute the scoundrels who oppress martial artists!”

Su Je-heon shouted. Though the startled militia rushed at him wielding sickles and pickaxes, Su Je-heon was on an entirely different plane from ordinary martial artists. From the moment they entered Su Je-heon’s domain, the militiamen were as good as dead.

Immediately, sword wind arose. The arms, legs, and necks of the commoners were severed into pieces and thrown upward into the air. Though Shaolin Temple had still hesitated to lay hands on them because they were commoners after all, Su Je-heon seemed to possess not the slightest hesitation.

“Aaaaargh!”

“The Ink Sword Hero, it’s the Ink Sword Hero!”

Recognizing Su Je-heon’s ink-stained Ink Sword, people began to scream. No matter how much they held the advantage in numbers, overpowering one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven was an impossible feat.

“Everyone scatter!”

The commoners dispersed in an instant. Even so, Su Je-heon and the masters of the Palace of Heavenly Worship relentlessly pursued them and lopped off their heads. In truth, given their skill level, simply subduing them would have been more than sufficient. Yet they were deliberately killing them. They were violating the unwritten law of the martial world.

In an instant, the front of Shaolin Temple turned into a living hell. Confronted with the martial artists of the Palace of Heavenly Worship who appeared so suddenly, Shaolin’s monks could not find an answer on what to do. However, at the very least, they showed no intention of stopping the Palace of Heavenly Worship. In a way, it was like achieving a goal without lifting a finger.

Here, what should I do?

Before setting out, the New Justice Association had indeed issued orders to protect the commoners. But could these people truly be regarded as innocent commoners? Where, then, did the boundary of a commoner truly lie?

Even with cognitive abilities surpassing the human sphere, it remained an enigma. Rather, as my cognitive abilities expanded, I came to realize how much I did not know. How intricately the world was intertwined. And just how small an existence I was.

Ordinarily, I would have had to actively help the commoners, but for this instance alone, I could not make a judgment. No, I made the judgment to withhold.

It was not yet known whether this was the judgment of the imperial palace or Su Je-heon’s personal judgment. And the same was true for whether this was an isolated incident or something continuously transpiring across the Central Plains. I wanted to ascertain that before making a move.

In the end, I chose to conceal my traces using immortal arts. Then, I decided to track Su Je-heon’s side for a while.

“…Thank you, Alliance Leader. You have driven off the wicked scoundrels persecuting Shaolin Temple.”

Fist Exalt Gakwon stepped forward and clasped his hands in greeting to Su Je-heon as the representative. Seeing that he still addressed him as Alliance Leader, it was a title of respect. However, Su Je-heon responded chillingly.

“There is no need for gratitude. Did Shaolin not betray the Palace of Heavenly Worship?”

Gakwon’s face flushed red. In truth, it was accurate. Declaring the sealing of the sect gates in such a critical situation effectively meant severing ties.

“…For us, it was an unavoidable choice. That is why we received retribution like this…”

“Retribution? Do you truly think so?”

Su Je-heon said, gazing at the blackened remains of Shaolin Temple’s Abbot behind him.

“The Abbot did not sacrifice himself. He fled. He likely could not bear having the honor of Shaolin Temple forsaken during his own generation.”

At Su Je-heon’s words, Gakwon’s eyes widened in fury.

“I believe it is uncalled for to insult the deceased who sacrificed his own body.”

“Did I not say so? Gak-hyeon merely fled. He was a coward. You were all merely swayed naively by such a public performance.”

Su Je-heon spoke scathingly. Had I been one of those Shaolin monks, I felt I could never hold back my anger. And Shaolin’s monks were no exception.

“Alliance Leader, your remarks cross the line!”

Gakwon leaked fighting spirit. Naturally, every monk in Shaolin stepped forth. Shaolin’s famed One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation was deployed, and at its center stood Su Je-heon. By now, the pressure would have been enough to suffocate an ordinary person. Of course, Su Je-heon did not bat an eyelid.

“The One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation, is it…?”

Su Je-heon chuckled.

“What majesty could a One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation possibly hold when Shaolin’s spirit has vanished? It is not the least bit threatening.”

Su Je-heon provoked them to the end. Fire ignited in Gakwon’s eyes. As a martial artist, if one endured this degree of insult and stayed still, one was no longer a person of the martial world.

“Strike!”

Su Je-heon immediately began to face the one hundred and eight monks all on his own. The peak-level masters he brought along did not even move.

Su Je-heon’s movements flowing with elegance could easily be considered to have reached the ultimate pinnacle of mortals.

But separate from that, I was curious. If he was going to pick a fight with Shaolin to such an extent, why had he come here in the end? I could not fathom Su Je-heon’s thoughts. That was because the imperial palace had no reason whatsoever to order an attack on Shaolin.

“Keugh!”

Su Je-heon gained the upper hand even against the One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation. Somehow, he seemed to have grown even stronger than when I last saw him.

Once one reached that level of realm, the depth of understanding regarding oneself and the world directly shaped the depth of one’s martial arts. And that was enlightenment.

Su Je-heon’s movements were unmistakably those of one who had awakened to something, one who had attained the Dao.

In the past, I thought Su Je-heon possessed twisted values, but if one pushed it to such depth, it could no longer be called twisted. Now, even I could understand Su Je-heon. That, too, was one way a person lived. That was because I had realized that there was no life superior to another, nor any life inferior.

“You are relics of the past. You do not suit the new martial world at all.”

Su Je-heon spoke coldly. And he cleaved open the chest of Gakwon, who stood at the center of the One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation. Even for the Fist Exalt, one of the Eight Exalts, blocking Su Je-heon’s sword was impossible.

“Keu… ghh.”

Gakwon collapsed and died without even being able to leave any last words. The Gakwon I had seen was a martial artist who was pure regarding martial arts. He was not someone who would particularly commit wrongdoing against anyone.

But when had the martial world ever been a place that clearly distinguished right from wrong and killed only those who did wrong? The martial world was a place where differing lives clashed and the weaker side perished.

As Gakwon, who held the center, collapsed, the One Hundred and Eight Arhat Formation began to rapidly crumble. Here as well, Su Je-heon began killing every single Shaolin monk he could subdue. It was truly a one-sided slaughter.

I could not understand it in the slightest. But even so, I could not intervene. Because this was their battle.

“…Crazy bastard.”

The single monk left remaining barely managed to spit a curse at Su Je-heon before drawing his last breath. Looking around at the corpses, Su Je-heon nodded in apparent satisfaction and issued an order to the masters of the Palace of Heavenly Worship waiting behind him.

“Gather all the novice monks remaining in Shaolin into one place.”

“By your command!”

Was he planning to kill even the children? That, at least, had to be stopped. But as the novice monks of Shaolin Temple gathered with frightened expressions, Su Je-heon surprisingly squatted down and wore a benevolent face.

“From now on, you are the pillars of Shaolin. Take good care of the duty of propagating the Buddhist teachings.”

Were those words meant to come from someone who had just slaughtered their Martial Uncles and Grandmasters? Su Je-heon was truly a madman.

“If you wish to take revenge, come whenever you like. However, there will never be a day when I die at your hands. Do not waste your lives on something futile. Life is a precious thing given only once.”

Su Je-heon patted the head of the novice monk who appeared comparatively older and walked out of Shaolin.

Truly, I now had no choice but to follow Su Je-heon. Right now, this man was a walking disaster.