Chapter 24: Then, Become My Disciple
When a person focuses on only one path in life, they end up ignoring their surroundings.
In many ways, they become a person who is not normal.
Naturally, they live ignoring trivial matters as well.
As if it was natural, their appearance also becomes shabby.
No, but that guy is not just shabby in appearance, but overall at that level!
Just looking at the grimy water dripping from his beard, it felt like looking at a homeless person living on the street. Even though the interior of Shaolin was a place where many people lived, I wondered if it was really okay to live like that.
‘Ah, if almost no one visits, I suppose it would be possible.’
But if it was such a person, wouldn’t they hate it when someone visits?
“Why did you bring so many tagalongs to annoy me?”
As expected, his voice was filled with annoyance. From his roughly visible expression, he seemed to want to kick our butts and throw us out immediately.
If he did that, I would be grateful, but…
[What the heeeell!!]
[Oh?! Oooooh!!]
Somehow, the reactions of Master Zhang Sanfeng and Master Bodhidharma echoing in my head were quite uncomfortable.
Master Zhang Sanfeng’s reaction was exactly the reaction when I said I was going to Shaolin, and Master Bodhidharma’s reaction was when he was losing his mind with joy.
They were reactions that showed they were extremely interested in that nutcase.
[Oh, damn! I see some potential in that bastard?]
[Hahaha! Hahahahahahaha!]
Master Zhang Sanfeng, please stop expressing annoyance.
Master Bodhidharma, please pull yourself together.
By the way, to think that guy is at that level.
Ascension to Immortality.
A person who could ascend to the heavens.
An existence harboring that potential.
But is it really okay for a person like that to ascend to the heavens?
Just what kind of place was heaven?
“He is a child I met in the secular world, and since he seems to have learned the old laws of Shaolin, which is rare, I have brought him here, Great-Grandmaster.”
“Great-Grandmaster?”
This was what came out of Baek Mu-ho’s mouth.
Startled because the words slipped out unconsciously, he hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand.
It was understandable. It was a massive title, after all.
One’s master’s martial brothers are called Senior Uncle Masters or Junior Uncle Masters. Going up one step from there, they become Great-Uncle Masters. Great-Grandmaster went up yet another step from there.
Even Monk Hye-won’s generation was not low, but it was a title that could only be called by going up three more steps from him.
It meant that guy was an old monster who had surpassed a hundred years of age, at the very least.
Path of black beard remaining at an age past a hundred? It meant he was a proper monster.
It was not for nothing that the masters showed such reactions upon seeing that nutcase.
“It’s fine. Anyway, the source no longer has a place to set foot in Shaolin. Didn’t your disciple fellow end up going that way as well?”
“But to fight against the Unorthodox and Demonic path, quick learning was also necessary.”
“Nonsense! If it is difficult to achieve martial arts at a young age, one can just enter the Martial World when they grow old enough to achieve it. Because they have the idiotic thought of wanting to spread their fame even at a young age, they accumulate vanity.”
Although words that were completely incomprehensible to me were exchanged, at any rate, what was clear was that the old monster nutcase had no interest in this side.
Thank goodness.
[Try to strike up a conversation. Only then can I do something, right?]
However, listening to Master Bodhidharma’s words echoing in my head, it was not thank goodness again.
What am I supposed to do?
Do I have to display my martial arts in front of that person and flatter him?
Do I have to look for something he might be interested in?
Because if there was a common interest, we would at least be able to talk.
As I looked around wondering what there could be, I saw something unique.
Perhaps because there were no onlookers around, he seemed to live openly with the doors wide open, and among them, unlike the items scattered randomly, I saw one thing neatly placed.
It was a bamboo slip. One that would have been used in the very distant past.
[Oho.]
Did he know what that was?
[It is the Heavy Earth Divine Art. The one I used before ascending to the heavens. It was something I left unfinished because I couldn’t complete it properly, but to think it still remains until now.]
That?
“Heavy Earth Divine Art?”
To think that was the manual of the Heavy Earth Divine Art, I felt the weight of time anew.
…Or so I thought.
“…Uh, hmm?”
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew strange. Was it called a sudden chill in the air?
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold.
What is it, why is it like this?
I inspected the faces of the people who suddenly made the atmosphere like this.
At the center of it was that nutcase. And Monk Hye-won was, what should I say, shocked? I wondered if it was okay to express it that way, but at any rate, his eyes widened to the point I worried they might pop out.
“You.”
“Eek?”
What, when did he approach?
I was also a bit surprised this time. I had not detected his presence at all, but the old monster nutcase who was right in front of my nose was grabbing my collar.
Then, just as his presence seemed to fade again.
“What did you say this was?”
When on earth did he go inside the room and back? The bamboo slip that was inside the room was held in the hand of this old monster nutcase.
I had some confidence in my listening force, but I felt absolutely nothing twice.
His coercive attitude was a problem, but it seemed I had drawn his attention as Master Bodhidharma wanted.
However, it seemed I had drawn his attention to a dangerously serious degree. Considering even Monk Hye-won’s reaction over there, it looked extremely grave.
But I had already spoken the words.
“It’s the… Heavy Earth Divine Art.”
“Can you read it?”
“Well…”
I can’t.
Something was indeed written on the surface of the bamboo slip, but it was practically at the level of earthworms crawling.
I merely said it because Master Bodhidharma said it was the Heavy Earth Divine Art.
“Read it.”
With a *clack* sound, the bamboo slip unfurled.
The gaze of the old monster nutcase burned as if he had placed fireballs in his eyes.
But I closed my eyes to avoid taking them in.
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because I am an outsider to Shaolin! I don’t know what that is… but I know at least that reading its contents will cause problems!”
In fact, I knew it better than anyone here, but if I said I read it, it was clear that the problem would grow larger later on.
[Well… anyway, what you learned is mixed with what Sanfeng taught you here, and it is a martial art I refined in heaven in my own way, so it is a bit different from that incomplete one.]
Master Bodhidharma also showed a look of regret, but he did not push blindly.
It was a relief, in a way.
But only in a way.
Now, the problem was how to handle this old monster nutcase whose interest in me was overflowing and exploding, completely contrary to his initial attitude.
“Then, you be my disciple.”
As expected, he is a nutcase.
What is he saying?
Unconsciously looking to the side, I saw Baek Mu-ho shaking his head desperately.
Did he say that if I shave my hair, his head will be cut off?
I was not very attracted to it either.
Serving such an eccentric old monster nutcase as a master was not it.
“If you become my disciple, you can call even the Abbot your martial nephew.”
Oh, that is tempting.
It virtually meant becoming the highest generation in the Martial World. No matter where I went, there would be almost no one who could speak to me carelessly.
If I went to the Wudang Sect, it was at a level where I could talk down to even the sect leader.
It was the completion of a truly messed-up family tree.
Which meant the value of that Heavy Earth Divine Art was that high, allowing me to realize the value of what I learned anew.
But, that is that, and this is this.
“I don’t think it will work!”
“What do you mean it won’t work? Haven’t you heard this saying? If it doesn’t work, make it work.”
I felt suffocated by the scent of an old geezer wafting from him. Even putting aside his bad breath coming from right under my nose.
“Great-Grandmaster, please…”
“Isn’t this what you wanted? Why are you complaining when I’m doing exactly as you wanted?”
Despite Monk Hye-won’s discouragement, the old monster nutcase did not bend his will.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the moment he briefly turned his head, I made a move.
*Fwoosh!*
Pressing the hand grabbing my collar as if flicking it away, I created space and threw off my clothes myself, freeing my grabbed collar.
This is the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin!
‘…Or was it not? Tsk!’
Actually, I tried to twist his joint, but the returning counter-force was immense. It felt like touching the root of a thousand-year-old tree.
It was not a level I could twist. In fact, I even felt that my escape just now was treated as a mere cute trick.
“Wudang Sect?”
“Originally of the Wudang…”
“It doesn’t matter. From today, you are a disciple of Shaolin. I will definitely make you my disciple!”
No, since you are courting me so intensely, I truly don’t know what to do, but if you are to court a man, shouldn’t it at least be someone of Sister Seol-ah’s caliber?
Old folks are not my type!
Ah, of course, I’m not talking about you two, Master Zhang Sanfeng and Master Bodhidharma.
Although there was no leisure to think of other things for a moment, the thoughts that surfaced unconsciously were like that.
Meanwhile, what unfolded before my eyes was something astonishing.
“Crazy…”
The martial arts of Shaolin revealed proudly.
The momentum possessed by a single person seemed capable of pressing down Mount Tai, one of the Five Great Mountains.
But that single person altered their numbers in an instant.
Nine.
Suddenly, nine people popped out in front of my eyes and occupied all directions.
[It is the Nine Grades of Lotus Pedestals.]
Insane.
The presence of a single person was turning the world upside down.
The entire world began to fill up with Shaolin’s martial arts.
The source of Shaolin’s martial arts, which I had never seen, became a wall surrounding me and filled up.
I was at the center of it.
The pressure I received transcended imagination.
All of Shaolin’s martial arts gathered to target me.
That dizziness was of a kind I had never experienced in this life.
Gritting my teeth and barely holding out, I shouted with all my might.
“If you oppress me any further! I will bite my tongue!”
Someone said it before. Biting one’s tongue doesn’t kill a person.
Well, but since there are also people who don’t know that.
“Whew.”
Fortunately, the other side did not seem to know.
The figures of those old monster nutcases letting out a sigh gathered into one, no longer pressuring me.
His appearance with slumped shoulders was like a abandoned puppy.
No, seriously.
“Is there… really no way?”
Since his body was slumped, his gaze looking at me was at an angle looking slightly upward. The eyes that held fireballs until a moment ago instantly grew moist. They were truly the eyes of an abandoned puppy.
How does a person change so rapidly? Did he live alone for too long that he forgot the way of interacting with people?
“Please. I need you.”
If I told him to kneel, he looked as if he would kneel right away.
To that extent, this old man showed desperation.
The pressure by force earlier was actually better; this kind of thing was really not it.
I don’t have a hobby of oppressing elderly people.
Realizing he was that earnest, my heart moved.
[Grant it.]
Master Bodhidharma also intervened as if finding him pitiful.
This made it even harder to pull out.
But even so, I had no intention of becoming that old man’s disciple or shaving my head. Because my life was at stake in this matter.
“Then let’s do this.”
I came up with one method. At any rate, if I just needed to not be an outsider to Shaolin to see the Heavy Earth Divine Art, there seemed to be a way.