Chapter 395
Chapter 395
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 395
Chapter Title: Blood Shaolin
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“This passage was connected to a mechanism that allows for secret entry into the Scripture Pavilion.”
Dang Cheong's mouth fell open.
The Pagoda Forest was a place that not only Shaolin disciples but also familiar outsiders could enter to some extent.
But to think they built a passage to the Scripture Pavilion in a place like that?
Doesn't that mean anyone who knows about this passage can come and go from the Scripture Pavilion with ease?
“We have to go back.”
Bu Eun-seol said with a grave expression.
“Other places might be different, but the Scripture Pavilion is an absolutely forbidden area where outsiders are not allowed.”
What if they were discovered here?
Even someone like Dang Cheong, with her extensive connections to Shaolin, wouldn't be let off easily… and if things went wrong, it could even escalate into a conflict between Shaolin and the Tang Clan.
“Besides, if this is the Scripture Pavilion, there must be traps and mechanisms.”
“It's fine.”
But Dang Cheong, with a relaxed expression, said something unexpected.
“There are no mechanisms here, anyway.”
“How do you know that?”
For generations, Shaolin has faced countless intrusions from outsiders.
Yet, not once have the scriptures or secret manuals of the Scripture Pavilion been exposed to the outside world.
That must mean not only are there mechanisms inside the Scripture Pavilion, but it is also heavily guarded by manpower.
“If there were any mechanisms, the alarm bells would have been ringing and all hell would have broken loose by now.”
Dang Cheong said, her eyes distant as if recalling an old memory.
“According to Great Monk Gongji, the head of the Tathagata Hall, they installed a special mechanism and formation on the floor of the Scripture Pavilion.”
“A mechanism?”
“Yes. If you don't know the proper way to stand here, an alarm bell rings immediately.”
The reason why Shaolin's scriptures and secret manuals have never been leaked to the outside.
It was because of a special device that would ring an alarm if one didn't know how to stand in the Scripture Pavilion.
“You knew that and still stepped in here?”
Bu Eun-seol was dumbfounded.
If that were true, wouldn't the master of the Scripture Pavilion and Shaolin's warrior monks already be rushing here?
“But I think it was a lie. Look. No alarm is ringing, right?”
Dang Cheong said firmly, looking at the floor and her surroundings.
“And there's no trace of any mechanism, not on the floor or anywhere else.”
She claimed to have an eye that could see through mechanisms and formations.
Yet, since she couldn't find any trace of a mechanism on the floor or anywhere nearby… she could confidently say the head of the Tathagata Hall had lied.
“There is a mechanism.”
Bu Eun-seol said then, his expression heavy.
“Just as you said, there is a mechanism in this floor.”
“A mechanism in the floor? That can't be.”
“To be precise, it's not in the floor, but deep underground.”
Bu Eun-seol said with a serious look.
“I can feel the faint vibrations of a mechanism about a hundred feet below.”
Just as Dang Cheong had said, there was no mechanism on the floor.
But Bu Eun-seol, who had mastered the Void-Piercing Mind's Eye of the Way of the Beast, could feel it beneath his feet.
He could sense the vibrations of the mechanism installed deep underground, about a hundred feet down.
“A hundred feet below?”
Dang Cheong wore an expression of disbelief.
No matter how keen one's senses were, could they really detect vibrations and noise from a hundred feet below?
Besides, even if Shaolin's mechanisms were exceptional, could they really install a secret mechanism a hundred feet underground?
*Zing.*
Just then, Bu Eun-seol's heightened senses sounded an alarm.
He could feel a master of immense skill approaching.
“Someone is coming. Let's go back.”
Bu Eun-seol and Dang Cheong immediately turned and went back toward the passage they came through.
But there was no device to open the door.
“There's no mechanism to open the door.”
Dang Cheong looked despairing.
“It's designed so that even if an intruder gets in, they can't get back out. They didn't build a mechanism to open it from this side.”
Another reason why the books in Shaolin's Scripture Pavilion had never been leaked.
It was because, in addition to the secret mechanism deep underground, they hadn't created a way to open the door to return.
*'There's no time!'*
*Whoom!*
As Bu Eun-seol drew upon his internal energy, an ink-black true qi flowed from his body.
At the same time, the true qi thinned until it was like sheets of paper.
*Creeak.*
That thin true qi began to slowly pry open the massive, unyielding iron door.
*Screeech.*
As he forced it, the sound of metal groaning came from the mechanism holding the heavy iron door in place.
“Lady Dang. You go first.”
“What?”
“If I force it open any more, the door will be destroyed. Then they'll know immediately that an intruder has come.”
*Whoom.*
Releasing his As-You-Will True Art, Bu Eun-seol very carefully widened the gap in the iron door.
But the space was only just wide enough for the slender Dang Cheong to squeeze through.
“If that happens, the temple grounds will be on high alert, and we'll both be discovered. So, hurry and leave.”
“But what about you?”
“I can conceal the fluctuations of my true qi. As long as you're gone, I can hide myself well enough.”
In truth, that was a lie.
What if the approaching Shaolin figure sealed the entrance and ordered the disciples to search the Scripture Pavilion inch by inch?
Even Bu Eun-seol would be discovered immediately.
*'She must not be discovered, no matter what.'*
If Dang Cheong were discovered here?
It would cause trouble between the Tang Clan and Shaolin, and Bu Eun-seol would never be able to face Dang Gon.
“If I use more force, the mechanism will be completely ruined. Hurry!”
“I... I understand. I'm sorry.”
Dang Cheong, as if seeing through Bu Eun-seol's intentions, bit her lip and re-entered the passage.
*Ggrrr.*
Once she was through, Bu Eun-seol very carefully closed the passage door.
Then he moved stealthily and hid behind a bookshelf.
Having reached the state of Returning to the Primordial State, no fluctuations of true qi emanated from Bu Eun-seol's body.
Moreover, by using the Turtle Breathing Technique to slow his heartbeat, even a considerable master would be unable to find him.
But this was an enclosed space. If the Shaolin disciples searched thoroughly, he would be discovered at once.
*'What if I could just turn off the alarm that signaled an intruder's presence? Wouldn't they stop the investigation?'*
*—According to Great Monk Gongji, the head of the Tathagata Hall, they installed a special mechanism and formation on the floor of the Scripture Pavilion.*
Just as Dang Cheong had said, a secret mechanism was installed beneath the floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
In other words, if he could just disable the mechanism, they might not conduct a search.
*—If you don't know the proper way to stand here, a secret alarm bell rings immediately in the Scripture Pavilion master's quarters.*
As Bu Eun-seol recalled Dang Cheong's next words, a flash of insight struck him.
*'The proper way to stand?'*
The head of the Tathagata Hall had clearly said the alarm would ring if one didn't know how to stand in the Scripture Pavilion.
That meant the way to disable the mechanism was related to how one stood.
*Thud, thud.*
As the footsteps grew closer, Bu Eun-seol felt a sense of urgency.
He couldn't hear it, but the alarm must still be ringing. What if they suspected someone was inside?
There would be no escape.
*'The way to stand... the way to stand... the Divine Calculator.'*
Then, an idea suddenly flashed through Bu Eun-seol's mind.
The characters engraved on the coin the fake Divine Calculator had swapped came to mind.
*'So that's what it was.'*
Realizing something, Bu Eun-seol immediately took the Coin of Gratitude from his robes.
Two hundred and fifty (二百五十).
Only then did Bu Eun-seol understand the meaning of the characters engraved on the coin.
*'This was the secret to standing inside the Scripture Pavilion.'*
Astonishingly, the Divine Calculator had predicted that Bu Eun-seol would be found in the Scripture Pavilion and had written this number.
*'There's no time.'*
Bu Eun-seol immediately suppressed his presence and sent his internal energy to his Yongquan acupoint.
At the same time, he used the Thousand-Pound Drop technique to slowly increase the pressure on the floor.
And when the pressure he exerted finally matched about two hundred and fifty catties,
*Click.*
A crisp sound came from the floor.
*Shuffle, shuffle.*
Not long after, the sound of soft footsteps and a presence were felt from the opposite entrance.
*Clank.*
The sound of a door opening was followed by more soft footsteps.
The walking pace was very slow but steady, maintaining a constant rhythm.
From the footsteps alone, one could surmise this was a master whose martial skill was unimaginably high.
*Swoosh.*
The figure that finally entered the Scripture Pavilion was an old monk with exceptionally sharp eyes.
It was none other than the master of the Scripture Pavilion, Gonggong, who was responsible for all of Shaolin's secret manuals and scriptures.
“Hmph.”
Gonggong swept his sharp gaze across the interior of the Scripture Pavilion.
Just as he was about to inspect his surroundings after a long scan,
“Pavilion Master.”
A middle-aged warrior monk walked quickly through the open door, clasped his hands, and spoke.
“The alarm has been disarmed.”
“Hmm?”
“It seems a rat got in again.”
A sophisticated mechanism was laid in the Scripture Pavilion, and the alarm would sound unless one stood with a pressure of exactly two hundred and fifty catties.
Therefore, the alarm would even ring when animals like rats entered the pavilion.
“Is that so.”
Gonggong nodded and picked up the Lankavatara Sutra from the top of the bookshelf to the left.
Then he carefully placed the book back.
That sutra was the device that reset the mechanism inside the Scripture Pavilion to its initial state.
“You may go first.”
But Gonggong, feeling uneasy, gestured lightly to the warrior monk.
“I will look around a bit more before I leave.”
“Understood.”
As the warrior monk left, a sudden silence fell over the Scripture Pavilion.
*Thud, thud.*
Great Monk Gonggong slowly surveyed the interior, which was filled with a deathly silence.
He seemed to be passing the bookshelves nonchalantly, but in reality, he was using the Thousand-Li Earth-Listening Art to meticulously search for any presence inside.
“Strange.”
Gonggong's internal energy and senses were formidable, but he could not detect Bu Eun-seol.
This was because he had long ago surpassed the state of Returning to the Primordial State and reached the realm of Profound Calmness and Silence.
No matter how much one raised their internal energy, they could not find a trace of him.
“Was it this humble monk's mistake?”
Shaking his head, Gonggong soon closed the Scripture Pavilion's door and left.
“Hoo.”
Once Gonggong had left, Bu Eun-seol wore a look of profound shock.
*'Is he a god?'*
The Divine Calculator.
He had anticipated that Bu Eun-seol would be trapped in the Scripture Pavilion and engraved the key to the mechanism on the coin.
That meant he had perfectly predicted everything that had happened so far.
If so, his foresight was beyond human comprehension. It was a truly divine ability.
“Mmm.”
Bu Eun-seol swallowed a groan.
Having never met the Divine Calculator, he couldn't even begin to fathom the extent of his abilities.
But after an incident like this, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe toward him.
*'I'll think about that later.'*
Bu Eun-seol took another deep breath and surveyed his surroundings.
“A simple yet profound mechanism. To think one can walk around by matching the weight.”
But Bu Eun-seol soon had another frightening thought.
The solution to the mechanism of the Scripture Pavilion, which could be called Shaolin's greatest secret.
The Divine Calculator knew it? Did that mean he wasn't just someone with foresight, but...
wasn't it highly likely he was someone from Shaolin?
“Let's keep that as a possibility.”
Shaking his head, Bu Eun-seol found it absurd, yet at the same time, his heart pounded.
If the Divine Calculator's foresight and intellect were this great?
It was because a hope grew within him that he could easily be told the identity of the culprit who killed his grandfather.
“Good.”
Bu Eun-seol looked around, searching for a way out.
Then he realized another fact.
Bu Eun-seol. He had become the first person in the martial world to infiltrate the Scripture Pavilion and not get caught.
*Halt.*
As that thought occurred to him, Bu Eun-seol looked at the books on the shelves.
*Hundred Arts Sword Manual.*
*Divine Art of the Southern Sky's Origin.*
*Finger of the Five Luminous Powers.*
*Yangyeon Jein Sutra...*
Here were not only Shaolin's scriptures and martial arts but also stacks of divine arts and ultimate techniques of the Orthodox Faction, passed down as legends in the martial world.
“So the Scripture Pavilion housed not only Buddhist martial arts, but also those of the Orthodox Faction.”
The Scripture Pavilion was known to house only Buddhist scriptures and Shaolin's own divine arts.
But in reality, it also stored the divine arts of the Orthodox Faction.
“Hmm.”
A low sound escaped Bu Eun-seol's lips as he gazed at the bookshelves.
These manuals all contained secret arts comparable to the Martial Emperor's Thirteen Nocturnes. Simply memorizing them... would provide a great advantage in his martial arts journey.
“No, that's not right.”
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
He hadn't come to the Scripture Pavilion by choice, and the martial arts here were Shaolin's treasured ultimate techniques.
To read them without permission would make him no different from a thief who brazenly steals another's property.
“I should just leave.”
Bu Eun-seol moved away from the bookshelves and looked around.
If anyone had seen this, they would have been utterly astonished.
To turn his back on secret manuals that could make one a peerless master after reading just one, and simply leave?
It was something an ordinary martial artist wouldn't even dare to attempt.
But how could he have known?
That because of this, he had naturally passed the most dangerous test.
“Hmm.”
As he searched for a passage to the outside, a strange thought occurred to Bu Eun-seol.
Was there really a need to install such an elaborate mechanism in the Scripture Pavilion?
No matter how incredible the secret manuals were, was it necessary to dig deep underground and create such a thorough mechanism?
“In that case.”
*Zing.*
Using his Void-Piercing Mind's Eye once more, Bu Eun-seol began to carefully examine the floor.
The structure of the mechanism under the Scripture Pavilion floor was too complex, and its scale was too large for it to be simply for protecting secret manuals.
After investigating for a while, Bu Eun-seol saw several invisible footprints near a corner of the bookshelves.
They weren't footprints from walking, but rather a pattern like a diagram illustrating the steps of a formation.
*Shh. Shhh.*
While maintaining the Thousand-Pound Drop, Bu Eun-seol unconsciously and carefully followed the footprint diagram.
*G-g-g-grumble.*
As he did, a section of the corner wall opened up, revealing a staircase leading down.
“As I thought.”
Bu Eun-seol's prediction was correct.
Another space existed beneath the Scripture Pavilion.
“If it was just to protect the manuals from intruders, a mechanism of this scale wouldn't have been necessary.”
Shaolin, teeming with outstanding warrior monks, was a fortress in itself.
Yet, they had gone to the trouble of digging deep underground to create a mechanism.
It was for the purpose of creating a secret space that no one could predict or access.
*Thud, thud.*
Going down the stairs, he saw a large library.
This place was much larger than the Scripture Pavilion and held even more books.
“Another Scripture Pavilion?”
Approaching a bookshelf, Bu Eun-seol carefully examined the books on it.
*Blade of the Flickering Light.*
*True Art of the Jade Flower Stream.*
*Iron Sand Black Devil Wall.*
*Blood Hand Demonic Spirit...*
To his astonishment, the books densely packed on these shelves were none other than the ultimate demonic arts manuals of the great demons who once dominated the Demonic Path.
“They're keeping such demonic and unorthodox arts in Shaolin?”
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened.
Beneath Shaolin's Scripture Pavilion, another scripture pavilion was installed, filled with manuals of the Demonic Path?
“Could it be that the original copies of the manuals stored by the Martial Alliance are kept here separately?”
Just as the Demonic Sanctum had the Hall of Ten Thousand Demonic Legacies, the Martial Alliance also had a library called the Hall of Enlightened Dao.
However, rumors said that the manuals in the Martial Alliance were copies, and the originals were stored elsewhere.
Could it be that the true Hall of Enlightened Dao was Shaolin's Scripture Pavilion?
“No, that can't be.”
The manuals stored here were too numerous in demonic arts to be called the true collection of the Martial Alliance's Hall of Enlightened Dao.
There was no way the Martial Alliance would store manuals that could turn someone into a great demon just by reading one.
“Besides, this underground space is too large.”
This underground library was not only packed with countless bookshelves, but it also had passages leading to various other places.
That meant it wasn't simply a space for storing books.
“In that case.”
A word he had long forgotten flashed through Bu Eun-seol's mind.
*Thump. Thump.*
Just then, with a low rumbling, a large shadow slowly emerged from one of the passages.
It was a warrior monk with a physique as massive as a mountain. His robes were torn, exposing his shoulders, and his eyes were sewn shut with thread.
He had a terrifying appearance, enough to make even the bravest adult wet themselves in fear.
“Ughhh.”
The massive monk with stitched-up eyes opened his mouth.
A half-severed tongue with a bluish tint was revealed.
It seemed this monk had deliberately cut his own tongue and sewn his eyes shut.
*Whoom.*
Suddenly, a fluctuation of true qi emanated from the massive monk's body.
For a moment, Bu Eun-seol couldn't hide his confusion.
Not only was the fluctuation of true qi as powerful and chaotic as that of dozens of martial artists combined...
but it was also mixed with a sharp, thick killing intent.
*'A Shaolin monk is revealing killing intent...'*
In that moment, a word came to Bu Eun-seol's mind.
The name of a secret organization that would use any means necessary to protect Shaolin.
“Blood Shaolin.”
Bu Eun-seol nodded as if he understood everything.
“So this was the headquarters of Shaolin's secret society, the Blood Shaolin.”
The word that had just flashed through his mind.
It was none other than Shaolin's secret organization, the Blood Shaolin.
“Ughhh.”
As if his hearing was intact, a pure white killing intent billowed up from the monk's entire body after hearing Bu Eun-seol's words.
“Ughh-argh!”
The roaring monk's large palm thrust out toward Bu Eun-seol.
Hundreds of hand shadows then bloomed chaotically in the air, enveloping Bu Eun-seol's entire body.
*'Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm? No.'*
The Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm was an ultimate technique that created dozens of palm images to block an enemy's escape and counterattacks.
But weren't all the hundreds of hand shadows unleashed by the giant monk aiming for fatal vital points?
*BOOM!*
In that instant, a massive explosion echoed through the underground space.
Bu Eun-seol hadn't dodged the monk's palm strike, instead immediately countering with the Seven Forms of the Demonic Fist.
*Tsssss.*
But then, something astonishing happened.
When the palm and fist collided, Bu Eun-seol was pushed back two full steps.
He had never once been pushed back in a clash of internal energy before. To think a single blow had forced him back two steps?