A Contract That's Not a Contract
Jeong Gwang looked around Xiantong Temple with satisfaction.
There was more to see than he'd expected.
His good mood had even broadened his perspective.
"Junior brother. Put some offering in the donation box."
"Pardon? An offering?"
"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"
It wasn't just wrong—it was terribly wrong.
Jeong Gwang making an offering!
How could such a thing even be possible!
"...Senior brother. Are you serious?"
"Yep."
"...Why all of a sudden...?"
"Temples or us, it's all the same old gruel. Gotta help each other out to get by."
"...Understood."
As Baek Seung-mu reached for his bill of exchange, Jeong Gwang spoke up.
"Just the smallest amount, one bill."
"...Yes."
"How much is that one?"
After hearing Baek Seung-mu's answer, Jeong Gwang revised his instructions slightly.
"Just drop a single silver tael instead. Buddha'd prefer solid silver over scraps of paper any day."
At that moment, Bul Jon—who'd been trailing Jeong Gwang—chimed in.
"No need to put anything in. Your heart alone would gladden him."
"No heart, so I've gotta drop this instead."
"...That's a fair point."
"But why're you following us anyway?"
"Our paths just happen to align by chance."
Jeong Gwang scowled.
"What'd Gong-u say?"
"How did you know?"
"Obvious, isn't it? Here I thought Shaolin wasn't like that."
"...?"
"Loses an argument and runs crying to his elder."
"...Crying?"
"Asked for payback, right? You gonna do it?"
Wrinkles creased around Bul Jon's eyes.
Jeong Gwang was far stranger than he'd anticipated.
"Even called High Dragon in the jianghu, so I won't stoop to that."
Right on cue, Gong-u appeared.
He bowed politely toward Jeong Gwang.
"Amitabha. Greetings, True Jade Dragon."
"Infinite Blessings. Hello."
"I heard on the way. Rest assured, nothing of the sort happened."
Baek Seung-mu and Jao flushed red.
Out of secondhand embarrassment for Jeong Gwang.
But Jeong Gwang was utterly unfazed.
"Good enough then."
"...".
"You two enjoy your time. We'll be off playing on our own."
Jeong Gwang's group resumed walking.
Bul Jon followed, and naturally, his grand-disciple Gong-u did too.
Baek Seung-mu felt... not subtly uncomfortable, but outright queasy.
It wasn't every day one had a member of the Ten Supremes—one of the absolute strongest—tagging along like a stray dog with his disciple in tow.
Finally, unable to bear it, Baek Seung-mu sent a transmission.
-Senior brother. You plan to keep going like this?
-What else?
-...It's just nagging at me.
-Ignore 'em.
-...Pardon?
-Treat 'em like they're not there. They'll peel off on their own.
-...!
Baek Seung-mu's heart sank.
'...Peel off on their own?'
Thank heavens it was a transmission.
If spoken aloud, even Buddha himself might've broken into a sword dance.
'No more questions. Just walk mindlessly.'
But things weren't that simple.
His complexion worsened with every passing moment.
Jao, seasoned as he was, had long since outdone Baek Seung-mu.
He hadn't even considered asking Jeong Gwang—just emptied his mind.
In plainer terms, he'd entered a state of no-thought, no-desire.
A longevity secret he'd grasped after swearing loyalty to Jeong Gwang time and again.
And so the five wandered Xiantong Temple, where deer poked around the grounds.
Spotting them, Jeong Gwang swallowed hard.
Baek Seung-mu, startled, blurted urgently.
"S-Senior brother. No meat-eating in the temple."
Jeong Gwang was the shocked one.
"Junior brother. What do you take me for? You think I'd pull that in a pure sacred ground like Xiantong Temple?"
"It's unthinkable, but with you, senior brother..."
"With me?"
Baek Seung-mu barely swapped out the words on his tongue.
Softening them, at least a bit.
"...Isn't there nothing impossible for you, senior brother?"
"Nah, not everything."
"...".
"Seeing those deer has me hungry, though. We've seen it all—let's head down."
"...Yes, senior brother."
"Before that, wanna ask the monks here something?"
"Pardon? Ask what?"
Jeong Gwang eyed him like it was obvious.
"Where's a good noodle shop nearby with solid meat dishes and booze. Gotta ask locals for the real spots."
* * *
Naturally, Baek Seung-mu couldn't carry out Jeong Gwang's order.
Instead, he asked around the pilgrims and found a decent place. After descending the mountain, they ended up eating at the Five Flavors Noodle House.
Bul Jon and Gong-u, who'd trailed them, had to wait outside—because Five Flavors was an exorbitantly pricey upscale spot.
Gong-u glanced at the silently standing Bul Jon, then pictured Jeong Gwang's face.
'He knows we're following, yet acts like this...'
Blatant disregard.
He'd heard the guy had an unpredictable temperament, but this was beyond expectation.
Over the top enough to make one suspect something was seriously wrong upstairs.
'How does a place like Kunlun produce someone like that?'
Kunlun, stuck in remote Qinghai Province, chronically suffered talent shortages.
They'd take anyone with bare-minimum aptitude, yet were infamous for rigorously vetting character.
Disciples who passed were constantly pondering the Dao, so temperament issues were rare, by common consensus.
'And his grandmaster's the Virtue Saint Un Hu, master Heo Cheong with his spotless rep. So why...?'
All misunderstandings.
When Heo Cheong found the abandoned Jeong Gwang on the mountain, he was a mere infant.
How do you vet an infant's heart?
Plus, Jeong Gwang loathed even the sound of Daoist scriptures, let alone pondering the Dao.
Reincarnated or not, he was still him.
Un Hu and Heo Cheong's boundless love had at least kept him from turning full demonic public enemy.
Oblivious to this, Gong-u simply disliked the situation.
'How long must this go on? I spoke foolishly to grandmaster.'
Gong-u had been stunned in his debate with Jeong Gwang at Yungang Grottoes, lacking the commoners' support.
His Shaolin-honed principles rejected.
'And what stung even deeper...'
Jeong Gwang's logic had shaken his heart, if only a little.
Confused, he'd returned to Mount Wutai and sought his grandmaster Bul Jon's guidance.
The silent listener abruptly declared he'd inspect Jeong Gwang himself.
'Why on earth...?'
Gong-u sank into fresh worry.
Time passed, and Jeong Gwang's group emerged from the noodle house.
Bellies bulging, faces flushed—they'd clearly feasted and drunk their fill.
Gong-u's brow twitched.
'A Daoist drinking booze?'
He sniffed—meat too.
'This guy's no mere wastrel!'
Gong-u recalled the rumors.
Rude, heavy-handed, arrogant to a fault, money-grubbing, yet never crossing righteous lines.
'...Mostly bad press. That righteous bit must be wrong too.'
His thoughts cut short.
Women swarmed Jeong Gwang from nowhere.
"Kyaaah! So handsome!"
"A guy this hot in the world?!"
In a flash, Jeong Gwang unleashed his lightness skill.
Already bounding far off, with Baek Seung-mu and Jao calmly following.
"Granduncle-master. What shall we do?"
Bul Jon replied calmly to Gong-u's question.
"Let's go."
"...Yes, granduncle-master."
The pair trailed Jeong Gwang's group.
Gong-u had no inkling yet.
Of the hellish ordeal about to begin.
Waiting outside upscale noodle houses at mealtimes, clutching empty stomachs.
Nights spent exposed to dew outside gaudy inns.
Chasing Jeong Gwang when women mobbed him.
Days blurred into repetition, thickening Gong-u's suspicions.
'What exactly is grandmaster inspecting? Whatever it is, does it warrant this?'
By initial estimates, it should've wrapped quickly.
But days of this left no end in sight.
'I'm managing, but...'
Gong-u eyed his grandmaster Bul Jon.
His supreme arts kept major issues at bay, but age was age—worry was inevitable.
'The skimpy meals, surely.'
Scraping by on pilgrims' alms had apparently whittled Bul Jon's massive muscles.
'Sleeping rough's the issue too.'
Nights outdoors every time.
Filthy robes and faces—no different from beggars.
'Time to call it quits.'
Logically, yes, but...
'...Grandmaster's doing this. How dare I interfere?'
Monastic discipline forbade it.
'What to do.'
Two thoughts warred in Gong-u's mind.
The battle ended not in victory, but compromise.
'Can't trail forever. At least ask the destination, find a way.'
Gong-u called to Jeong Gwang ahead.
"True Jade Dragon. May this monk ask something?"
Jeong Gwang kept walking as he replied.
"Go ahead."
"Not wandering aimlessly, I assume. What's the destination?"
During the Qingming Festival, the rain falls in a drizzling and unending mist.
The travelers on the road look as if their very souls are about to break in sorrow.
I venture to ask, where might a wine house be found?
The young cowherd points far into the distance toward the distant Apricot Blossom Village.
Jeong Gwang recited in a clear voice.
"Clear bright season, rain falls thick and fast.
Wayfarers on the road long for home, soul-sick.
'Where's the tavern?' they ask.
The cowherd points afar to Apricot Blossom Village."
He blinked at wide-eyed Gong-u.
"You know it, right?"
"...No."
"Huh? Don't know the famous Clear Bright by Du Fu, revered as the Poetry Sage?"
Gong-u's chest surged at Jeong Gwang's mock surprise.
'The nerve! A Daoist this rude?!'
Swallowing rage, Gong-u fingered his prayer beads, sighing.
'Amitabha... Such shallow discipline as a monk... Can't face Buddha.'
But it wasn't Gong-u's fault.
Even Buddha would've snapped.
Calming via beads, Gong-u nearly crushed one at Jeong Gwang's follow-up.
"Can't read, huh."
"...!"
Absurd!
He could read, of course—for sutras.
Just entered Shaolin young, so poetry wasn't his forte.
Monks reciting verse was odd anyway.
"Want me to break it down simple?"
"...".
Gong-u silently recited the Heart Sutra in his mind.
'Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajna Paramita, clearly saw that the five skandhas are all empty, dispelling all suffering. O Sariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form...'
Oblivious, Jeong Gwang continued.
He would've anyway, aware or not.
"The apricot-blossom village means Apricot Flower Village in Fenyang County, Shanxi Province. That's where we're headed."
Gong-u shoved out the Heart Sutra, focusing on Apricot Flower Village.
'What's there worth going for? Must be something extraordinary.'
Easy enough to ask.
"What's there that draws you?"
Thankfully, Jeong Gwang didn't hide it.
"Fenjiu liquor’s famous there. Going to drink some."
Gong-u, exalted as High Dragon among Nine Dragons Eight Phoenixes for his supreme arts, saw himself as monk first, warrior second.
Shaolin ethos demanded it, pouring his time into mental cultivation.
Paired with nurtured faith and innate resolve, he avoided qi deviation—or braining Jeong Gwang.
Still, his tone couldn't stay sweet.
"...Quite the reason."
"Right? Worth it. Join for a round?"
Reciting the full Heart Sutra again, Gong-u barely managed.
"This monk forgoes grain liquor."
"Shame."
Silent till then, Bul Jon interjected.
"I'll keep you company."
"Pardon?"
"G-Grandmaster! Grain liquor?!"
Bul Jon beckoned Gong-u, then told Jeong Gwang.
"Not grain liquor. Tea while we talk."
"Sounds boring already."
"I've got an entertaining tale—no need to worry."
"Really?"
"Of course. Answer my questions in turn."
Jeong Gwang stared at Bul Jon.
Not his looks.
His aura, energy, scent.
'Hmm. Different from other Ten Supremes I've met.'
Not like typical Shaolin monks either.
Reminded him vaguely of his grandmaster Un Hu.
A monk worth his robes, in a word.
'Might as well hear his angle for trailing us.'
Jeong Gwang agreed readily.
"If I can answer, sure."
A contract not quite a contract was struck.
Thus, they set off for Apricot Flower Village.
Jeong Gwang threw a booze bash upon arrival.
Not forgetting to offer Bul Jon politely.
"Go on, have some."
"I'm fine."
"Meat then?"
"That works."
Jeong Gwang's face turned a touch serious.
"Booze aside, you like meat—why hold back?"
"Gave up meat after enlightenment. No liking it now."
"No meat, yet that build? Nonsense."
"Think all your knowledge is truth? World's full of exceptions."
Jeong Gwang sobered.
"Kunlun's full of my aunts. Plenty who 'just drink water and gain weight'—all lies..."
Baek Seung-mu, fidgeting amid Jeong Gwang's cheek, cut in.
"S-Senior brother. Aren't you a Daoist with massive muscles too?"
"I eat meat."
"...Ah."
Baek Seung-mu crumpled from the one-shot.
Jao, mouth sealed and watching, eyed him pitifully.
Still don't get Jeong Gwang?
Bul Jon smiled faintly, then spoke slowly.
"Now for that entertaining tale."
A pure smile, but on his rugged face, it looked like a threat.
Jeong Gwang's eyes gleamed with anticipation.