Chapter 153: Wudangs Awakening
In front of the information Baek Mu-ho had brought, the forces gathered to raid the Defeng Yin Clan.
There was no laughter there.
Only a heavy atmosphere existed.
It did not seem like this mood would disappear, at least not until they tore the Defeng Yin Clan apart.
‘I feel as if I committed a crime.’
He was not at fault.
However, the contents of the information forced him to be solemn.
He willingly complied with that coercion.
He felt dirty after seeing something dirty.
Although the breathing of the Clear Brightness Mind Method naturally rose to control his shaken mind, his stomach felt as if it was turning upside down.
“They are bastards who should be shoved into the deepest part of hell! To think they laid hands on children when there are so many other things to touch…”
It seemed everyone’s thoughts were similar.
They all looked as if they had unpleasant things attached to one side of their hearts.
Getting angry for the sake of others.
To someone, it might look like unnecessary meddling.
I… No, we seemed to be people with more meddling tendencies than expected.
“Let’s go, to smash them.”
He proposed the easiest and most convenient way to rid themselves of this unpleasantness.
No one opposed.
***
In a clan centered on bloodlines, even those who were of the direct line would be pushed to the branch lines as generations passed.
It was an inevitable flow since the degree of relationship pushed back with every passing generation.
Yoon Sang-in was also that type.
A person who was once of the direct line, but fell to the branch line due to the pushed-back relationship.
If one’s talent was outstanding and stood out, one could secure a position within the clan somehow, but Yoon Sang-in’s talent was on the average side.
It was a level where he could barely grasp one thing only if he clung to it to death after learning it.
He thought he would probably end up as just one member of the Defeng Yin Clan without any special opportunity to make a name for himself.
“There was a time like that.”
Yoon Sang-in looked around with somewhat turbid eyes.
However, the destined future was something that could be changed.
The place where the future began to change. Looking at the family shrine honoring the ancestors of the clan, Yoon Sang-in formed a faint smile.
The family shrine where the ancestors of the Defeng Yin Clan were said to have attained enlightenment was located halfway up the mountain, somewhat away from the main house, and was used as a training ground for practicing the clan’s martial arts.
As a place to raise warriors who would become the hands and feet of the direct line blood family, it was filled with young talents accepted from outside.
Geniuses displaying various talents stood out without exception.
The martial arts of the Defeng Yin Clan were basically centered on the martial arts of the Nine Sects.
Although called lay disciple martial arts, the martial principles they contained aimed for high-level martial arts.
Because every single one of them was complex, it was difficult to achieve with ordinary talent.
As they entered full-fledged training, the gap in talent approached even larger.
Jostling with those full of talent who easily grasped the clues that he barely held onto by clinging to death, dark emotions wriggled up.
Around the time when the advantage of having learned the clan’s martial arts in advance before coming here was sufficient to become blurred.
“Pfft!”
Yoon Sang-in tasted the secret of the clan.
This was not a place to raise talents who would become the hands and feet of the clan.
This was a massive slaughterhouse.
It was a place where monsters gathered, lusting after the blood of the children they had gathered under the pretext of raising talents.
The reason it was set up in the mountains rather than the main house was also to easily dispose of the remaining byproducts after finishing the work.
After receiving a special great art through the blood of young talents, Yoon Sang-in quickly felt himself changing.
The clan’s martial arts, which had been only difficult, began to be easily understood.
The things that had been barely within his grasp only after trying to death were obtained much more easily.
The faces of his young peers who were flustered by his rapid growth were still vivid.
As well as their faces when they became prey and were eaten.
“It was good. It was good.”
The nauseating first memory had long disappeared.
Now, he even felt pleasure in snatching away a shining future and making it his own.
It was to the extent that it could be called an addiction.
Naturally, he made efforts to receive the great art even one more time.
He had even gone so far as to capture and bring vagrants who would not be missed even if they disappeared.
Although the turbid blood yielded meager results, it was enough to quench his thirst.
Yoon Sang-in accepted that he had become a monster.
He rationalized everything with the logic of the law of the jungle, that the weak only become prey.
“Ah… I’m hungry…”
Feeling a deep hunger, Yoon Sang-in burned with jealousy toward the direct line of the clan.
He heard that the great art the direct line of the clan received was on a different dimension.
In fact, most of the blood of the talents gathered here was used for the direct line.
What fell to them was nothing but crumbs on the banquet table.
When they gathered children on a large scale under the pretext of raising talents who would take responsibility for the future of the clan, that was precisely the time to prepare for the direct line.
In this generation, as the incident of the successor changing occurred, the number of gathered children was also large.
It was to the level where the seeds of orphans or young beggars in the vicinity had dried up.
It was a part Yoon Sang-in felt regretful about.
“It would be really good if that fellow Yin Si-hoo died too…”
Who knows. Perhaps an opportunity would come to him as well.
Yoon Sang-in harbored an ambition that lit a small spark in his chest.
He also knew that to do so, he had to become stronger.
“Should I eat one more.”
From the main house, an instruction had come down saying that the situation running of late was not good, so they should discard everything and erase all traces.
But no one took those words at face value.
They merely lowered their posture formally, and repeatedly performed the great art while avoiding the gaze of the main house.
The reason the great art of the Defeng Yin Clan had not been detected by the outside for a long time was that there were their own secretive procedures and methods.
Although there was a tendency to go a bit too far in this generation, there was no way it would be exposed.
Because there had been no such precedent until now.
Moreover, it was a relatively peaceful world.
Thanks to the absence of large-scale clashes between the Orthodox and Unorthodox, people were overflowing everywhere.
“Yes, let’s do it.”
Along with his decision, Yoon Sang-in headed toward the main gate.
He had marked a few prey in his own way.
Although there would be people who rebuked him for being rash, in the end, everyone would share and eat it.
Just as they had done several times until now.
At the moment he approached the main gate like that,
Crash!!
Along with the roaring sound of the main gate breaking, the figures of ruffians appeared.
The young man standing at the front glared with an enraged look.
The moment he felt that gaze, everything stopped.
“Nauseating.”
The last sound Yoon Sang-in heard in this world was surely that.
***
The method the Defeng Yin Clan used to gather children was extremely deliberate.
Although there were cases where they bought them with money from families in dire straits, they mainly gathered orphans who would not be searched for even if they disappeared.
If they had not made strange mistakes recently, it would have taken quite some time to catch their tails.
The information gathered like that led to the mountain owned by the Defeng Yin Clan.
“It is here, but…”
Baek Mu-ho hesitated for a moment in front of the main gate of the place, which was the shrine honoring the founder of the Defeng Yin Clan and their training ground.
He scanned the surroundings to see if they had come to the right place.
Although said to be a shrine honoring the founder, it was filled with a neatness that carried a strong feeling of a detached Taoist sect.
However, in his eyes, it was only the outer appearance.
“It’s here.”
The moment he stood before this place, an instinctive repulsion welled up.
It felt like looking at a massive lump of dung. Beyond repulsion, a disgust that made him want to vomit surged.
Although it was necessary to gather evidence for a smooth cleanup, it was clear that disgusting evidence would overflow in this place.
‘Even if no evidence comes out, it does not matter.’
He stepped before the main gate and gathered his power.
The internal energy responded to his moving body. Added to this was the disgust he felt, which loaded into his fist.
Boom!
As the thick main gate shattered, a disgusting lump of dung appeared.
“Nauseating.”
Right now, he felt as if he was smearing dung all over his body with a sober mind.
It was hard to tolerate even that thing opening its mouth.
Crack!
Crushing its head in a single strike, he ran forward.
“…That fellow is running wild today as if there is no tomorrow. He is not of such a character?”
“What is the point of a long tongue when we have come to smash them with certainty? If the Jang kid confirmed that he saw traces of the Blood Cult, that itself is the evidence.”
At the same time as the conversation between Baek Mu-ho and the Divine Monk Elder ended, something massive brushed past his side.
The Divine Monk Elder and Senior Jang Mun-gyeong.
“Follow slowly.”
The two giants moved with determination.
From the direction the two were heading, those who came out after hearing the sound of the main gate breaking let out roaring shouts.
“Where do you think this is, to dare…”
Thud!
The head that was letting out the angry shout disappeared before it could even finish its words.
Thump!
In the silence, the body that had lost its head fell with a loud noise.
“…The Hundred-Step Divine Fist?”
The oldest-looking one among the gathered lumps of dung belatedly recognized the Divine Monk Elder’s martial art, and his face hardened.
“Why… Shaolin?”
“Why do you think we came?”
“…”
“Where are the children? Even though such a commotion broke out, no sign of life can be felt at all?”
“Aha…”
Did they think we came knowing everything?
The lumps of dung revealed their killing intent and surged their internal energy.
“I see you are quite something, but to come here with only that number of heads.”
“Hehehe.”
‘…Has that old man gone mad?’
There must be a secret method that makes one’s liver swell in the disgusting techniques of the Blood Cult.
“Hahaha!”
Whether it was because it was absurd, the Divine Monk Elder also laughed.
In the laughter of the enemies who laughed along, madness was faintly felt.
The disgust he had felt at the Jungshin Merchant Group surged in an instant.
Those lumps of dung also seemed to have something they relied on.
However.
“In my time.”
“Keuk!”
Astonished by the figure of the Divine Monk Elder who instantly appeared right in front and snatched a neck, they faltered and stepped back.
Except for the single old man whose neck was grabbed.
‘Is that the Vajra Immovable Body Method that has reached its peak?’
Watching from behind, he could see a footwork and movement art of open-eyed wonder that disappeared and appeared like a phantom, just as Master Bodhidharma had described.
If it were from the front, it was certain that he would not have even noticed a sign.
“There was a phrase that those who stood against Shaolin would shudder just by hearing.”
“Keuk-keuk!!”
“Even if I am shoved into hell, I will open the killing precepts.”
Crack!
Above the head of the old lump of dung who could not budge with his neck grabbed, the Divine Monk Elder’s opposite hand fell.
Splat!
At the sound of a watermelon cracking, the moment those whose eyes had rolled back rushed at the Divine Monk Elder all at once, the Divine Monk Elder’s form split into nine.
“Nine Grades of Lotus Pedestals!”
Boom boom boom boom boom!!
The lumps of dung rushing from all directions were sent flying as bloody pulps.
Only then did those who felt something was wrong try to flee, but.
Slash! Crack!!
Before even half of them could take two steps, a thunderbolt fell from the sky and split them vertically.
“Seamless Heavenly Robe?”
“To think it is Jang Mun-gyeong… What on earth!”
The momentum of the lumps of dung who were running wild without knowing their place was broken at once.
It was a martial power that revealed the majesty of Shaolin’s peak and the Ten Great Swords of the Realm.
Meanwhile, he headed toward those who were trying to slip away quickly.
“Out of the way!”
Whether because they were trying to flee, the fact that he blocked their front made him look easy, so they confidently raised their voices.
As if to beat him to death in a single strike, they thrust a palm containing a red energy at him.
He also faced them head-on and thrust his fist.
Thud!
The strike containing the divine power of wood penetrated the red energy.
Erasing the arm and shoulder entirely, it tore the heart apart just like that.
Toward him who stood like a wall, the lumps of dung charged one after another.
‘Flawless Heavenly Net.’
The body moving in all directions reached out its hands as if by instinct.
He active-walked without restraint, like a person who had unlocked heavy shackles.
“Keuhak!”
“The Cotton Palm?! Wudang… Keuwak!”
Even a mere brush brought death.
Those who crossed blows with him and passed by vomited blood and collapsed.
***
After sweeping away all the obstructive figures, the Divine Monk Elder and Senior Jang Mun-gyeong approached the building in the center and opened the door.
Since they said it was a shrine honoring the ancestral tablet of the Defeng Yin Clan’s founder, this building would probably be the one playing that role.
“…Amitabha.”
The Divine Monk Elder, who had opened the door of that place, quietly chanted a Buddhist prayer.
The back and shoulders visible from behind trembled.
“…Do not come.”
It was the word of Senior Jang Mun-gyeong, who had stepped forward with the Divine Monk Elder.
It was the first time he learned.
That such words could come out of Senior Jang Mun-gyeong’s mouth.
He was almost afraid of what on earth was visible there to make him speak so.
However, even if he was afraid, he had no intention of avoiding it.
And.
“…”
There was a tragic sight that made him want to burn down everything related to the Defeng Yin Clan.