Chapter 56: 14th Floor: Mid-Boss
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 56: 14th Floor: Mid-Boss
‘Damn it…’
This wasn't some ethical dilemma about saving many versus saving one.
‘Even if I choose the Abbot of the Shaolin Temple, can I even heal him?’
The trials of the Tower often presented choices like this, forcing you to gamble in a situation where you couldn't predict a single thing.
The incident had already occurred, and I had to make a choice before it was too late.
In times like these, all you could rely on was experience and intuition.
‘Even if I save these people, they won't be able to stop the final boss, the Blood Demon. The most they can do is buy some time.’
My mind was made up.
High risk, high return.
"Lord, I'm leaving this to you!"
"You... they said you learned martial arts from the west, and you look unscathed... Go! We'll hold them off here for as long as we can!"
The Lord of the Blue Dragon Escort Agency and the other wandering warriors fought desperately.
In the distance, I could see Jang Sam struggling against a single Blood Zombie.
‘Hoo…’
I turned my back on them and ran.
The path was marked by fallen monks, bleeding on the ground. It seemed the Dispersing Qi Poison had spread throughout the entire temple; I could see those who had died while fleeing, unable to even resist.
Following the trail of bodies, I arrived at a building.
[Abbot's Quarters]
The heart of the Shaolin Temple.
The building that appeared was surprisingly plain and not very large.
CRASH!! SPLURT!!!
I followed the sounds of something breaking and flesh being torn apart from within.
By the time I entered, the inside of the building was already splattered with blood.
"Stop!"
A figure, presumably Namgung Myeong-il, was holding a high monk in the air with one hand. In his other hand, he held a sword dripping with blood.
He heard my voice and turned his head.
"Ah, Miss Lee? You're finally here?"
The handsome, gentle image I had seen during the day was gone, replaced by a blood-crazed murderer.
His body had grown one and a half times larger, and his hands had transformed, the fingertips sharpened like the claws of a beast. His blue eyes had turned completely red.
"Just wait a moment. Once I kill the Abbot, you can come with me..."
"What? No!"
As he started walking toward a door blocked by a yellow, barrier-like device, still holding the high monk by the neck, I rushed forward and stabbed him in the back with my spear.
He threw the monk aside and swiftly twisted his body to dodge.
"You... attacked me? Why?"
"..."
‘He's fast.’
He definitely didn't seem this strong when I saw him earlier. It felt like he'd been empowered by some unknown force.
"Fine, it's okay. Even if a limb or two gets cut off, we can just reattach them!"
Whoosh!
With an immense gust of wind, his body was in front of me in an instant.
‘Is he trying to tackle me?’
Instead of bracing, I let my body yield softly to the immense force.
THWACK!
The powerful body slam sent me flying, crashing through the building's wall. I tumbled dozens of meters outside before finally coming to a stop.
My body was tough even without using internal energy, so I wasn't seriously injured.
In fact, this was better. A spear is more advantageous in an open space like this, free of obstacles, than in a cramped room.
"Hehehe... You're as sturdy as I thought."
He slowly walked out through the hole in the wall.
"Are you alone?" I asked, getting up and aiming my spear at him.
"What, trying to fish for information? Hehehe... Fine, I'll tell you. I'm the only one here."
He grinned as if asking if I had any more questions, gesturing for me to continue. It was a gesture that seemed to mock me, as if saying it was useless no matter what I found out.
‘That bastard…’
My blood pressure rose slightly, but I calmly asked my question.
"Where is the Blood Demon?"
"Ahh... He will be here soon. I asked him to give me a chance."
"A chance?"
"He promised. If I make sure to kill the Abbot of the Shaolin Temple this time, he'll grant salvation to the person I desire, just like he did for me."
"Is that... me?"
Is this guy completely insane over a woman?
"Yes, that's right. I did all this for you. For a long, long time... for you, and only to have you, I became this. Hehehe..."
"You psycho..."
There was no need to listen any further. I was worried this might be a diversionary tactic by the Blood Demon, but it seemed to be this guy's solo act.
‘Then he must be the mid-boss.’
"What, are you done with your questions? Then here I come!"
CRACK!
The stones on the ground shattered as he tore through the air toward me.
‘Fast, as expected.’
In the past, I might have struggled to even react.
But now, I had <Buff Stacking>, a reward from the 13th floor.
‘Burn all my divine power.’
[Haste]
[Haste]
[Haste]
[Haste]
[Haste]
[Haste]
In an instant, I stacked Haste six times, raising my agility by 90. The world slowed down.
It felt as if time itself had decelerated.
I could see the confident expression on his face.
His posture, his trajectory, and the time remaining until impact—I could calculate it all with ease.
I placed my spear in the path of his charge.
"Khahahaha!! You can't stop me with that!"
I could see every minute movement of his muscles.
‘Not yet.’
[Strength]
[Strength]
[Strength]
[Strength]
Squeezing out my remaining divine power, I amplified my strength in an instant.
The moment his right ankle turned slightly to the right,
I withdrew my spear and thrust it powerfully to the right.
"Huh?"
The bastard's eyes widened in shock.
The spear and his body grew closer and closer.
He had veered right to dodge the spear,
but as if it knew the future, my spear followed him like a magnet and pierced straight through his heart.
SQUELCH!
It tore through his tough skin, shattered his ribs, and stabbed his heart.
"Keuk!"
I had perfectly destroyed his heart, but he didn't stop.
‘These types of guys usually have regeneration and resurrection.’
I pulled the spear out of his heart—
Stabstabstabstabstabstab!!!
- and rapidly stabbed his entire body.
A flurry of swift thrusts.
Rather than aiming, I instinctively and rapidly struck his vital joints and weak points.
In a single moment, his body was riddled with holes, his limbs severed.
He lost his forward momentum and fell backward.
Just one second.
The mid-boss who had thrown the Shaolin Temple into terror had collapsed so pathetically in a single clash.
"Keuk, cough! H-How..."
‘As I thought, he's still not dead.’
His limbs were cut off, and his torso, heart, lungs, and various organs were all destroyed, yet he was still alive.
I stood beside him and raised my spear to finish him off.
"N-No... Do-hee! Don't! You can never defeat the Blood Demon. The only salvation is to join me! It's not too late!" he pleaded desperately, spitting up blood as he lay on the ground. He probably genuinely believed this was the only way to be saved.
Once you fall for a twisted ideology, you believe you're right no matter what.
It was pathetic and pitiful.
"Farewell..."
"Ah, why... All the obstacles between us are gone now..."
Were the obstacles his own family?
Namgung Myeong-il, a man who went mad for a woman, joined hands with the Blood Demon, and took the lives of his own clan and countless others.
I placed the tip of my spear between his eyebrows.
"N-No!! For you, I've done so much... Aaaaargh!!!"
I slowly pushed the spear in.
It split the skin and pressed against his skull.
"Kuaaargh!! Do-hee!! Nooooo!!"
Ignoring his agonized thrashing, I pushed harder.
Crack... CRACK!!
His skull fractured, and the spear pushed through the cracks, shattering it.
With a wet squelch, his brain was destroyed, and it was over.
"Whew... Everyone, you shouldn't let a woman drive you this crazy."
I found the camera, said my piece, and ran back to the Abbot's quarters.
The red moon still hung in the sky.
The Blood Demon would arrive soon. Before that, I had to do something about the Abbot.
For a moment, I considered going back outside to help the others, but either way, it would all be over if I couldn't heal the Abbot.
I could see that the inner part of the Abbot's quarters was blocked by a strange energy.
"Excuse me? Are you alright?"
I approached the high monk who had survived Namgung Myeong-il's attack and asked.
"Ugh... I'm fine. My neck is a little sore, but other than that, I'm okay. But... everyone else is dead."
He looked around with a bitter expression.
Whether it was intentional or not, the bodies of the high monks were brutally dismembered and scattered about.
"Hoo... May you all be reborn in paradise... Namo Amitabha Buddha."
"Namo Amitabha Buddha..."
I put my hands together in a similar fashion and waited for a moment as he chanted.
He finished as quickly as possible and turned to me with a question.
"It seems you wish to go inside. Are you curious about the Abbot's condition?"
The head of the Shaolin Temple is usually called the Abbot.
His words made me flinch slightly, but I answered honestly. This might be my only chance.
"Yes. I would like to see the Abbot's condition for myself and, if possible, try to treat him."
"Hoh... You think you can do what even Hua Tuo could not? For your information, this barrier is a formation created by the Abbot and us, the Eight Great Guardians, combining our powers. He gave us the authority to dispel the formation in an emergency, but the Abbot has already fallen into Qi Deviation, and I am the only one of the Eight Great Guardians left. Once it is dispelled, it cannot be recreated. You understand what that means."
"......"
‘Is it impossible after all...?’
Breaking through by force was also not an option.
An extraordinary formation was spread across the room where the Abbot was presumed to be.
Worse, there was only one chance to dispel it.
If I failed to heal him, the Abbot, suffering from Qi Deviation, would be left completely exposed to the Blood Cult's attack.
And even if I did get through, could I really do what even Hua Tuo couldn't?
Besides, there was no way they would allow a woman dressed like a harlot like me to enter in the first place...
"Very well, I will permit it."
"As I thought... huh?"
What...?
Did I hear that right?
"Pardon...?"
"On one condition. May I touch your chest once?"
"......Pardon me?"
What is this...
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak.
Was this elite member of the Shaolin Temple's Eight Great Guardians, tasked with protecting the Abbot, actually a lecherous monk dying to sexually harass a woman?!
"Th-That's such a shameless... thing to... B-But... I have no choice. G-Go ahead and touch them! Mm... Yes, this is unavoidable..."
As I blushed and stepped forward, pushing my chest out, he was the one who became flustered.
"W-Wait! I think you're having a strange misunderstanding!"
"What? Weren't you asking me to pay the price with my body?"
"Hah, honestly... My apologies. I skipped over too much. I'll have to explain it once you're inside anyway, so I'll tell you everything now. Please listen without misunderstanding."
‘Ah, so I'm not being forced to have my breasts touched...’
For some reason, I felt a little disappointed, but I kept quiet and listened to him.
"Let's see... I should start with this. The martial art the Abbot is currently practicing is the Virgin Arts."
The Virgin Arts.
A martial art where one becomes a voluntary eunuch, abstaining from sexual intercourse in exchange for gaining immense internal energy.
"Do you happen to know why there are no monks who have mastered the Virgin Arts and reached a high realm?"
"Hmm..."
Come to think of it, I'd never heard of anyone becoming the strongest under heaven by mastering the Virgin Arts, even though it was a method for rapidly accumulating internal energy.
"Is it because they can't overcome their sexual desire midway...?"
"While that is an important reason, that's a story for those who haven't even reached the transcendent level. The more one trains in the Virgin Arts, the less sexual desire one feels. And once you reach the state of mastery, having sexual intercourse doesn't make all your internal energy disappear."
"Then what's the reason?"
"There is a crisis that comes once along the way. The internal energy becomes excessively large for one's realm. Not only that, the extreme Yang energy grows to a point where one can no longer handle it, and it begins to burn the body from within. It's common to fall into Qi Deviation while transitioning from the state of mastery to the profound state, which is where one remains for the longest time."
"Then what do you do? If he fell into Qi Deviation on his own, is there a cure?"
"Actually... there is. It's usually said that the only way is to somehow control the Yang energy on your own and overcome it, but there is a secret method to not only escape Qi Deviation but also to ascend to an even higher realm!"
"And... what is that?"
The monk suddenly averted his gaze, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke.
"Ahem, it is... Yin-Harvesting and Yang-Nourishing..."
"What?"
Yin-Harvesting and Yang-Nourishing? Isn't that something only lecherous villains of the martial world use?
"Don't get the wrong idea... The woman will not die or be harmed by this."
"Really? Then why aren't you using that method? Couldn't this have been solved by just having him sleep with a woman?"
"Performing Yin-Harvesting and Yang-Nourishing with an ordinary woman is useless. There are conditions. We need a woman who possesses perfectly pure Yin energy, and an amount of Yin energy similar to the Abbot's. Now do you see why this is a secret? Even if people knew, they couldn't use it, so no one dared to speak of it. It would have only tarnished the Shaolin Temple's reputation."
"......"
Right, finding a female master with an amount of energy comparable to the vast Yang energy built up by the Virgin Arts would be difficult. And by the time they reached that level, they would be older, likely with a husband, or they might refuse to have sex for the sake of their reputation.
Furthermore, to have perfectly pure Yin energy, one would have to master a Taoist or Buddhist martial art without mixing attributes, which is no easy feat. Most of those places don't even accept female disciples in the first place.
"It is to soothe the extreme Yang energy with extreme Yin energy. And it's not just about soothing it. The suppression of sexual desire and the extreme Yang energy of the Virgin Arts go against the laws of nature. The laws of nature lie in the union of Yin and Yang and the desire for procreation. All living things reproduce; don't you find it strange that the Virgin Arts rejects that? That is why Qi Deviation occurs. And the moment one breaks free from that and follows the laws of Yin-Yang union and nature's instinct for procreation, it is said that one realizes the harmony and principles of nature, leading to a tremendous rise in one's realm."
"Th-That's right. The desire to procreate is a famous law of nature..."
"Of course, if the two are not compatible, there could be negative consequences, which is why we were debating whether to use this method until yesterday... but now there's no one left to debate with."
"So, to summarize... I just need to go in there and perform the act of exchanging... Yang and Yin energy with the Abbot, right?"
"Correct. Once one has reached the state of mastery or higher with the Virgin Arts, having relations with a woman will not cause one's internal energy to disappear, so you can go in and enjoy yourself to your heart's content."
Enjoy myself to my heart's content...
"In that sense, take off your clothes."
"Yes... huh?"
"Did I not just explain the reason for my earlier words? You have a peculiar case where your energy seems to be in both of your breasts, but I cannot determine its extent by sight alone. If you are not a suitable woman, it could be dangerous for both of you."
"So...?"
"What did you hear? Hurry up, strip naked and stick out your chest! We're running out of time! I need to touch those big, bare breasts of yours myself to know for sure!"
‘He really does need to touch them to know, right…?’