Chapter 179: Chapter 179
Il-gak trembled as he watched Jin So-un step away from Murong Jae-hwa and walk toward him.
‘He truly…… truly broke through that Dead Path and came here. Truly…….’
Il-gak did not know why he felt such emotion, but it was similar to what he had felt in the past when he had gained enlightenment before the Buddha.
“You truly came…….”
At Il-gak’s words, Jin So-un tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“……I truly did not think you would come all the way here.”
“I said I would come, so I came.”
Il-gak’s lips trembled.
“……Is that how it is?”
Jin So-un answered indifferently, as if asking what was so remarkable about that.
“Yes. Is there anything special about it?”
Did this person not know how difficult the words he casually spoke were to carry out, and how extraordinary the actions he treated as natural truly were?
‘Is the vessel itself different?’
Jin So-un pointed at the blood-robed men with his usual Black Dragon Sword and said,
“Academy Student Il-gak, can you continue?”
“…….”
“If you cannot, it is all right to fall back. They seem about ready to withdraw anyway.”
“If Benefactor Jin does it, then naturally, I should do it as well.”
“Haa……. That benefactor, benefactor business again.”
Jin So-un shook his head and moved forward as if it were only natural.
As Il-gak followed behind him, for an instant, he saw Jin So-un’s back radiating a brilliant light.
‘Shakyamuni……?’
When he rubbed his eyes and looked ahead again, Jin So-un had turned his head and was looking at him with a sullen face.
“Are you not going?”
“I-I am going.”
Il-gak somehow felt as though his confused mind had been cleanly opened.
The Academy students who had regained their senses could not properly collect themselves because of the sight before their eyes.
Murong Jae-hwa, who had been ignored as the eldest son of the Murong Clan, one of the Five Great Clans, for following around a mere disciple of the Taeul Sect.
He stood alone with a bow in hand and stopped the blood-robed men.
Every time one arrow after another was fired, those vicious blood-robed men were often gripped with fear and stepped backward, and the Spell Practitioners who had been unfolding wicked witchcraft hid their noisy bells deep inside their robes for fear they might become targets.
When they thought that perhaps they could live thanks to his help.
“That” appeared.
A “Demonic Beast” that should not exist in the world.
A “Jiangshi,” said to make crying children stop crying through oral tales alone.
Rather than wonder or curiosity, despair was greater.
When they saw Il-gak, the current strongest member of the Righteous Path Association, helplessly pushed back by the Jiangshi, they thought their lives ended here.
Then, this time, “he” appeared.
‘Jin So-un?’
The root cause who had smashed the traditional position of the Righteous Path Association, said to be the elite among elites of the Murim Academy.
He, who should have been carrying out the academic schedule at the Murim Academy right now, had appeared here.
No one thought of hope upon seeing him.
Because they did not think Jin So-un could do anything about the current situation, when even they, and even the elders, could do nothing.
Jin So-un’s appearance should have been nothing more than a device that made them feel the fear of death even more desperately.
‘That should have been the case…….’
He swept through and shattered everything.
That bizarre, terrifying Iron Corpse Puppet was swung around like a toy.
The Jiangshi that had been unfolding killing moves indifferently bared its teeth and moved desperately.
It was a shocking sight.
Enough to make even the blood-robed men who had trusted the Jiangshi panic and move.
Enough that the Academy students, who were suffering from the aftereffects of witchcraft that churned their insides and made their heads ring, could not turn their eyes away.
And finally, the Jiangshi’s body was cut apart.
“Heavens…….”
“How could this possibly…….”
“Amitabha.”
Surprises and exclamations emerged here and there.
No matter how good his grades were, no matter how good his skill was, Jin So-un should ultimately have remained someone beneath them.
Yet he had accomplished alone what none of them could.
“Hah…….”
Rather than joy at having survived the crisis of death.
The people could not erase their blank expressions from the shock that the fixed ideas embedded deep inside their minds had been overturned.
“Hey, you idiot!”
Jin So-un shouted at Nam Hwa-seong at the top of his lungs.
“You have to infuse energy moderately! No, why not just shoot a Palm Wind into the Middle Qi Center while you are at it?!”
“F-Fucking hell…… I have internal injuries right now……. C-Cough!”
“Do you think I do not know the Three Origins Sect’s internal qigong has its effects all-in on recovery?!”
“……Th-That is our sect’s secret. How do you……”
“Do it properly! And know that the Demon-Subduing Talisman you tore up and ate will be deducted from yours.”
“You fucking bastard! Why are you deducting this from mine!!”
After cutting down the Iron Corpse Puppet and making the blood-robed men’s unit retreat, Jin So-un was now, as. if. it. were. obvious, helping the Righteous Path Association Academy students.
As if it were originally his work.
He approached one by one those who had cursed him in the past, infused qi into them, and gave them medicine.
There was not the slightest awkwardness in his actions.
Rather, the ones who felt awkward were those receiving his help.
Among them were even those who had desperately obstructed Jin So-un during the Regular Exam in the past.
What about during the Soul-Destroying Formation incident?
Jin So-un had entered that deathly Ultimate Formation himself to clean up the incident they had caused.
That person was now looking after the Academy students as if nothing had happened.
“……Venerable Il-gak.”
An Academy student from a lay-affiliated sect of Shaolin asked Il-gak,
“Do you know the reason that man is acting like that?”
“What do you mean, the reason……?”
“Are that man and we not practically enemies? Then why is he helping us like this? Could he perhaps be intending to use this as an excuse to put the Righteous Path Association in his debt?”
“…….”
Il-gak’s brow furrowed.
His eyes filled with disappointment.
“Is that truly all you can see?”
“……Pardon?”
An expression that showed he did not even know what he had done wrong.
Il-gak let out a long sigh.
“I no longer know what I was trying to do all this time in the name of justice.”
“……Venerable Master, what do you mean by that?”
“Do you know the teachings of the Buddha?”
“O-Of course. I belong to a lay-affiliated sect of Shaolin Temple……”
When the word “Shaolin” emerged, Il-gak’s voice heavily cut him off.
“Then why do you not live according to the Buddha’s teachings!”
“Y-Yes?”
The face of Il-gak, who had always kept a relaxed smile and was called the Merciful Buddha, hardened like a lump of iron.
“What use is all that study, even if you read the Buddhist scriptures ten thousand times and attain enlightenment a thousand times, if you do not put those teachings into practice!”
“V-Venerable Master.”
“Benefactor Jin is a disciple of a Daoist sect, yet he is practicing the Buddha’s life. And yet how can you, while claiming to have received Shaolin’s teachings, think only thoughts like a fiend!”
At Il-gak’s rebuke, the lay-affiliated sect Academy student hurriedly bowed his head.
“I-I apologize. Venerable Master. M-My thoughts were shallow.”
“They say that in a pig’s eyes, only pigs are seen, and in the Buddha’s eyes, only Buddhas are seen.”
Il-gak’s eyes flashed sharply as he looked at the Academy student.
“Please think again about what kind of eyes you are using to see Benefactor Jin.”
“…….”
Il-gak glared at the speechless Academy student, then shifted his gaze to Jin So-un.
And a clear light appeared in his eyes.
“Benefactor Jin is…… a noble person.”
After roughly settling the Academy students, I had climbed up a nearby peak.
“Huff…… huff…… huff…… Wh-Why did you climb up here?”
With even a useless hulking tagalong who could not live up to his size.
“If you were going to suffer that much, why did you follow me?”
Nam Hwa-seong wore an aggrieved expression like a puppy deceived by its owner and shouted.
“Fucking hell…… Then what was I supposed to do awkwardly among the Righteous Path Association people!”
He had followed me for that reason alone?
“Stay with Murong Jae-hwa or something.”
“Do you think I would be comfortable with Murong Jae-hwa?”
“Honestly…… That is why you should have behaved properly.”
“…….”
I shook my head and looked ahead.
In the distance, I could see the Corpse Mountain Blood Cult unit that had retreated.
Having lost the Iron Corpse Puppet, those bastards likely did not know what to do right now.
Since they had lost one of the only three Jiangshi in the Blood Cult, their plans going forward must have been greatly disrupted as well.
“Do not tell me you intend to counterattack?”
“Counterattack, my ass.”
That was nonsense.
Even without the Iron Corpse Puppet, the Blood Cult was still the Blood Cult.
Unless the Murim Alliance’s main force arrived, they were enemies the Academy students poisoned by witchcraft could not face.
Right now, the best move was to take the Academy students and flee backward as quickly as possible.
“Then why did you come all the way here?”
“It would be a shame to just let them leave.”
“What?”
“After coming this far, we should at least land one blow on the bastards who threw the murim into chaos.”
“…….”
Nam Hwa-seong looked at me strangely.
“What?”
“Were you perhaps infected by Corpse Poison while fighting the Jiangshi?”
What exactly did he keep his head around for?
“This is why they say conversation does not work when dealing with an overgrown sparrow.”
“……Is that supposed to be about me?”
Of course, even I had not expected this opportunity to come from the beginning.
To think they sent one of the only three Iron Corpse Puppets along with the advance party.
‘That means the Blood Sea Jade is here.’
The reason the Blood Demon Sect, one of the Nine Sect Masters of the Demonic Cult, fled the Demonic Cult fifty years ago was precisely because the Blood Sea Jade had been completed.
The Blood Sea True Qi that each successive Blood Demon handed down to the next before death.
The Blood Sea True Qi passed down that way over five hundred years had formed a single essence, and that was the Blood Sea Jade.
‘It is also the reason the Blood Cult, which cannot learn the Corpse-Demon Spirit-Descent Art, was able to control the Iron Corpse Puppet.’
The presence of the Iron Corpse Puppet meant the Blood Sea Jade was here.
And I had no intention of missing such a good opportunity.
Despite the serious situation, a laugh leaked out of me without me realizing it.
‘……I did not think I would meet the material for the Red Radiance Sword of the Fifteen Divine Weapons here!’
Originally, the Blood Sea Jade had been nothing more than one of the spoils of war the Murim Alliance obtained after ending the Sichuan Blood Calamity.
The members of the destroyed Corpse Mountain Blood Cult had possessed all kinds of bizarre things: wicked items for various witchcraft and Illusion Formations, and even items created while attempting to manufacture Jiangshi.
The Blood Sea Jade had been treated as one of those as well.
The Murim Alliance, unaware of the true value of the Blood Sea Jade, shoved it into a warehouse and left it there.
Later, after Jang Do-won entered the Alliance, he recognized the true value of the Blood Sea Jade and used that wicked item to create the Divine Weapon, the Red Radiance Sword.
The Red Radiance Sword was an item so hard to give up that I later even thought, “Do I have to work briefly at Mantongbu someday just to secure the Blood Sea Jade?”
‘Qi Energy Amplification…… Qi Energy Amplification…….’
My head began turning rapidly.
In any case, someone among those people must have the Blood Sea Jade right now.
And before the Murim Alliance completely subjugated the Blood Cult, I had to quickly sneak away with the Blood Sea Jade.
“Let us go down.”
“……Huh?”
“Why? Do you want to stay here?”
“Fucking hell…… If I knew we were going down this quickly…….”
Why did that bastard always grumble after volunteering to do something no one asked him to do?
After descending from the peak, I approached the Academy students.
I had to quickly reorganize them and send them back to the Academy.
First, they had to leave quickly so I could deal with the aftermath comfortably.
Send them ahead first and secure the Blood Sea Jade.
Then send the Blood Sea Jade to Jang Do-won and make the Divine Weapon Red Radiance Sword…….
I was envisioning such a brilliant future, but Nam Hwa-seong poked me with his elbow.
“Jin So-un…… Does something not feel strange?”
Only then did I raise my head to look at the Academy students.
“You bastard! Jin So-un!”
Someone shouted angrily from one side.
A middle-aged man, supported by an Academy student, was slowly approaching with trembling steps.
‘Daoist Master Myeonghyeon.’
His face was filled with rage, and he began pointing his finger.
“You dare scheme against Diancang? What are you all doing?! Subdue that bastard at once and drag him before me!”
A man who had been freed from witchcraft late, and whose mind was not even whole, had the nerve to say that the moment he woke up…….
“Haha, well now.”
I slowly brought my hand to the Black Dragon Sword.
It seemed there was another bastard I had to beat down besides the Iron Corpse Puppet.