Chapter 21: Shaolin Martial Arts

The edge of his cassock fluttered as if it had met the wind. It seemed to show how much fierce strength was inherent in his two hands, where internal energy was concentrated.

Internal energy.

Even without immediately clashing hands, a martial power that made one feel its weight was felt.

The stimulating presence scratching past my skin was telling me that the opponent was a different existence from the splayed-out Beom-gak over there.

As the distance narrowed, Master Zhang Sanfeng’s voice was heard amidst the presence touching my skin.

[If you take that head-on, you’ll be pooping blood.]

“Can the person who pushed my back say words that dampen my morale even before we clash?”

[Getting hit also has its own things to learn from.]

“Yeah, right!”

The word ‘bullying’ flashed through my mind for a moment, but even so, nothing changed.

The opponent approached without stopping.

‘Rather, Wudang Fist would be…’

Thinking wisely, instead of clashing strength against strength here, Wudang Fist, which could flexibly redirect force, seemed like it would be more useful.

However!

‘Since it seems like the masters have something they want.’

If there was some teaching I did not know even in this clash?

‘Here I go.’

Even if it was dangerous, it was right to follow.

Although my capabilities have been increasing rapidly recently, I am still hungry for growth.

*Boom!*

If I must do it, I will not clash half-heartedly!

My body kicking off the ground leaped once again.

The extended fist collided with the palm of the middle-aged monk, which spat out a golden light in an instant.

[It is a proper Great Strength Vajra Palm. This remains the same.]

[There are martial arts that cannot be changed, after all.]

“Hup!”

The shock transmitted through my fist spread throughout my entire body. It felt as if my body was contracting and my lungs were shrinking. A painful sensation that choked my breath rose up.

It felt like running with all my might and slamming naked against a castle wall.

Just exchanging blows dealt a shock to my body.

However.

‘Shit!’

Ironically, my body kept moving.

As if it had been modified so that I could move even in the worst situations, or in situations where it would normally be natural to be unable to move.

Although a shock that felt like my limbs were shrinking assaulted me, my body did not stop. Without collapsing or crouching, it ran straight ahead.

The fist that clashed with the opponent’s hand in the first collision bounced back as if flying because it could not bear all the force, but unlike the pushed arm, my lower body charged forward.

The knee, rising like an awl, shot out like an arrow aiming for his solar plexus!

The startled opponent’s eyes widened. He did not seem to expect that I would cling so tenaciously.

This worked.

*Thud!*

…Or so I thought, but it was reversed in an instant.

The opponent’s hand that deflected my fist. The moment the hand that had executed the Great Strength Vajra Palm retracted and folded the arm, his elbow dropped down like a guillotine, striking down on the knee that aimed for his solar plexus.

The moment he blocked the knee attack aiming for the solar plexus like that.

*Bam!*

“Kh!”

At the same time he blocked my knee, his shoulder, which moved forward, rammed into my body.

If the frontal collision with the Great Strength Vajra Palm earlier was like ramming myself against a castle wall, this was like a castle wall running and colliding into me.

What that meant was…

It meant I almost lost consciousness.

Amidst the shock that made my mind faint, I felt my body flying as if rammed by a bull. I also felt that I was rolling on the ground.

What I did not know was the direction. I could not tell where up and down were. I could not discern which direction to get up in.

Everything felt blurry.

Only one thing remained clear.

“Argh… Whew! That was close.”

The sensation of the hand. The sensation remaining in my hand.

“If only it had bounced back a little less…”

The moment the opponent rammed me with his shoulder, the fist I swung instinctively aimed for his head.

Although it bounced back faster and stronger than expected, preventing a clean hit, the trace of a narrow scrape remained on the middle-aged monk’s face.

“…It would have been quite satisfying.”

The place where my fist scraped past, I could see the edge of his cheek turning red.

“You aren’t satisfied with this, right?”

Master Bodhidharma had said.

To guide him.

To throw a punch.

Since that was closer to a scratch rather than a solid punch, it did not count.

[Of course it doesn’t count.]

And Master Bodhidharma put a stamp of confirmation.

As expected, he said it was not enough.

Somehow it felt like the last chance had flown away. Will I be able to land a fist on that guy?

[I do not make you do what you cannot do.]

Master Bodhidharma said that I could do it.

Then that meant I could. It was just that I had not accomplished it yet.

“Fuuu!”

As I regulated my breathing, a refreshing breath that stirred my stomach felt as if water had been poured onto heated iron. As the excitement cooled and the heat subsided, I felt like I was regaining my senses.

Along with that refreshing feeling, Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words flowed in.

[How is it?]

“What is?”

[Clashing with an opponent whom you feel you cannot defeat no matter what you do.]

Was it because I was originally under the shadow of two giant masters? I knew the opponent was strong, but I could not feel fear from that.

However, as Master Zhang Sanfeng said, it was clear that person was strong.

Leaving aside that guy Baek Mu-ho, who had a insidious side, the fights I considered practical combat in their own way were the battle with the new escorts and the ones who raided the escort convoy.

Against the new escorts, it was an overwhelming victory. Because our skills were different.

Among those who raided the escort convoy, there was indeed someone I could not handle, but from the moment I established the foundation of the Heavy Earth Divine Art, I overwhelmed them instead.

However, this opponent seemed difficult even if I forcibly raised that Heavy Earth Divine Art.

An opponent against whom even what I considered my trump card did not seem like it would work.

[Then, how should you fight an opponent stronger than you?]

If it was such a task, then the first stage of the Heavy Earth Divine Art was indeed a shortcut. It merely pulled myself up to be stronger, but there was no method to fight an opponent stronger than myself.

How should I fight an opponent stronger than myself?

What would work?

What kind of attack should I make?

How should I block?

[Ponder.]

Master Bodhidharma said.

That he did not make me do what I could not do.

Master Zhang Sanfeng said.

To ponder.

[A hawk’s eye discovers prey a thousand li away. A rabbit finds a way to live with its ears. A tiger tears its prey with its forepaws. Everything has something exceptional of its own. No matter how small something is, it has a strength, and when those strengths gather, they become a weapon. What is your strength?]

Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words tried to draw something out.

Every time the words fell, a *Thud! Thud!* sound echoed throughout my body to the extent that it hurt my ears. The sound resounded as if my entire body had become a drum.

The spreading sound broke down boundaries.

“Fuuuu.”

The lengthening breath. Along with that breath that was becoming clear.

[What are you?]

Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words became color, became form, melted into my blood, and spun through my entire body.

***

Hye-won did not understand the current situation very well.

Upon hearing Seo Yun-geon’s request to bestow a lesson of Shaolin on a young youth, he had sent his disciple, Beom-gak. Thinking it would be good to establish a connection if it was a child cared for by a figure of Seo Yun-geon’s caliber, he had matched them up to get along as peers of similar age.

When he went to see how the situation was going, he ended up seeing his disciple spinning as if performing acrobatics in the air.

Because he was beaten up.

He moved with the thought of protecting his disciple first, but absurdly, the fellow who had beaten down his disciple dashed toward Hye-won as well.

Considering the age difference, there was no way he could be an opponent.

Although it was said that among the riffraff of the secular world, there were cases where a young rising star overcame the gap and won, that was only possible when it was at a certain level.

He was a body that had received the best martial arts and teachings from the best sect in the Martial World. Between that young youth and Hye-won, there existed a gap that could not be crossed by a clumsy exchange of moves.

As a result of clashing hands like that.

‘I see why Beom-gak lost.’

The shoulder and thigh, the elbow and knee, the hand and foot unified, and the mind and intent, intent and energy, energy and physical strength unified.

The upper and lower parts dynamically interlocked, achieving rapid changes.

Shaolin’s martial arts.

Though full of old moves and lacking a refined appearance, it was faithful to the essence.

It was overflowing, making it seem as if he was looking at a textbook.

If it was to this extent, it was not a level for Beom-gak to teach. Hye-won should have stepped forward from the beginning.

Although the excessively textbook-like movement could be a disadvantage, a flashing wit was hidden between those textbook-like movements.

That result also remained on Hye-won’s cheek.

It was the trace remaining as a result of clashing hands once.

The reason his face flushed red was not merely due to the remnant of the fist that scraped past his cheek.

From that martial art, Hye-won read the essence of the power the opponent displayed.

‘An orthodox martial art…’

The orthodox method is scary.

It forced a frontal confrontation. It dragged the opponent into one’s own domain.

What followed that was only a battle of pure skill.

A skill crafted in a balanced manner without weaknesses rarely had loopholes, and if there were no loopholes, it did not collapse easily.

Such a side was visible in that youth who had beaten down his disciple.

‘Shaolin… itself. Just whom did he learn it from…’

Shaolin’s training method turned the one who practiced martial arts into a single weapon. Not to mention fists and feet, even a single finger was made into a divine weapon that could tear iron.

Based on that, the martial art of Shaolin was more adept than anyone else at the method of pulling the opponent down into their own domain.

Neutralizing the opponent’s strengths, it drove them into a battle of pure skill.

Fighting solely within Shaolin’s domain!

The martial arts of the youth, who would not have been registered in Shaolin, expressed an appearance closer to the essence of Shaolin than anyone else.

‘However, the opponent is not good.’

Hye-won was different from Beom-gak. He was not a young rising star relying on clumsy finesse, but a Shaolin disciple who had undergone proper Shaolin training.

His skill was not to be called the best among his peers, but he was not lagging behind either.

Maybe in about ten years.

If they used the same thing as a weapon, it was natural that the superior one would win.

Even if it gave him bitter results, it would be good to hand him defeat here.

The unpleasantness he had felt when first seeing his disciple get hit had long since vanished. Now, he was only admiring the skill of the rising star who had learned Shaolin’s martial arts, while looking forward to the distant future.

Bearing that mind, Hye-won’s hand was dyed with golden light.

If it was the Shaolin Three Absolute Hands executed in earnest, he would be able to subdue that youth within a range that would not injure him severely.

With that mind, the moment he extended his hand toward the youth who was charging at him again.

“What…!”

He felt that the youth had changed.

A different scent came from the body of the youth, whom he had thought to be the martial arts of Shaolin itself.

Strong yet soft.

As if pulling him in.

The moment he felt his hand, which was drawn and sucked in by it, empty-handedly slicing through the air.

…!

A chilling sensation ran through his entire body.

As if his head was being pierced through in its entirety.

His instinct screamed.

Dangerous!

At the chill flowing down to his spine, his instinct rose up.

From Hye-won’s body, which triggered the martial power of his entire body in an instant, a force capable of shattering even a boulder the size of a tile-roofed house gushed out.

Not the Shaolin Three Absolute Hands for subduing, but a lethal move to crush the opponent. A single blow of the Arhat Divine Fist burst out.

*Boom!*

He had done it.

The moment he was about to think it was a mistake after unconsciously using his hands because he could not overcome his instinct, a strong counter-force burst from Hye-won’s fist.

“It’s been a while, and you’ve changed a lot, Hye-won. Isn’t this too harsh against a kid?”

A single sword that intervened between Hye-won and the youth neutralized the fiercely extended fist force.

Upon identifying the opponent, astonishment settled on Hye-won’s face.

“Baek… Jin-seong?”

The eccentric who had rejected an offer that would have allowed him to aim for the position of the Mount Hua Sect’s chief disciple, saying he had found someone he loved, and went down the mountain. A thread of an old relationship that had long been talked about among the disciples of the Nine Sects of the same generation as Hye-won was standing there like a lie.

***

“A pity. I thought he would break out of his shell at least a little.”

Watching Yeon Cheong-un bounce back, unable to withstand the power emitted by the Shaolin monk Hye-won in the scene viewed through the Meridian Mirror, Zhang Sanfeng showed a look of regret.

“If only he had taken one more step…”

One step.

It was a word commonly said by all martial artists. There was a multitude of those who collapsed because they could not take that one step in their entire life, which seemed within reach, yet remained out of reach.

Thus, it was like a symbol of love and hate to martial artists.

“Even just reaching that point is a commendable thing.”

Bodhidharma said calmly.

“What’s this, has your head already cooled down?”

“Stop teasing.”

Zhang Sanfeng put a playful tone in response to Bodhidharma’s calmed voice.

As if recalling his own appearance from a moment ago, Bodhidharma shook his head upon hearing those words.

However, the gaze he made after finishing shaking his head carried a strange heat that had not been there before.

“Still, seeing that makes me curious. Just like you.”

“Because it is a part that we can no longer know.”

It meant there was an unknown domain even for the two legends who had become immortals.

An unknown domain that even those who would have achieved everything as martial artists came to possess.

“How strong can a human become while possessing a physical body?”

To them, who were no longer existences of mortal frames, the martial arts of those with physical bodies could not help but be a domain of ideals.

There also existed parts that could not be achieved because they were immortals.

“Manifesting the master’s ideal is the duty of a disciple.”

Zhang Sanfeng laughed as he assessed his disciple from a standard that was not easily satisfied even with his high eye level, wondering just how far he was looking.