Chapter 128: Shaolin (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 128: Shaolin (1)
The sheer speed of the Primordial Unity Step was something even Seo-jun struggled to control.
KABOOOOM────────!!!
With a deafening explosion, Seo-jun’s figure streaked across the sky like a meteor.
The wind pressure was absurd. He had to circulate both the Tyrannical Power Ghost God Art and the Giant Spirit Divine Art just to support his physical body, which felt as though it might shatter at any moment.
Savoring the sensation of the clouds whipping past him, Seo-jun burst into bright laughter.
"Haha...!"
His heart hammered fiercely against his ribs at the impossible velocity.
Faster. Just a little faster.
As he executed the Primordial Unity Step, he simultaneously refined the martial art in real-time. The more optimized the technique became for his body, the faster he flew, and the more crushing the wind pressure grew.
Then, at a certain moment, a profound sense of certainty washed over him.
'At this level, I can call it finished for now.'
Smiling broadly, he detonated the Qi of the Primordial Unity Sun-Moon Art beneath his feet.
KABOOOOOOOM──────────!!!!
Driven by an uncontrollable burst of speed, the surrounding scenery blurred into mere streaks of color.
But perhaps it was because he hadn't fully mastered the technique yet? His trajectory shifted slightly off course.
By the time Seo-jun realized his mistake, he was mere moments away from slamming face-first into the ground.
"I'm screw—!"
Vrooooom────────
The surrounding Qi reacted violently.
A formation? Why was there a formation all the way out here?
Regardless of his confusion, his body moved on pure instinct. He unraveled the crushing pressure of the array and unleashed his fist techniques, striking away the iron nets flying toward him.
In an instant, the surrounding scenery shifted.
'An illusion?'
This, too, was a type of formation.
Seo-jun twisted his plummeting body and focused for a split second. He grasped the flow of the Qi composing the formation, injected his own internal energy into its core, and violently detonated it.
Thump!
With a muted sound, the illusion shattered. Simultaneously, Seo-jun’s body slammed hard into the earth.
KABOOOOOOOM────────!!
A massive cloud of dust plumed high into the air.
"Cough, cough! Ugh, what the..."
Seo-jun steadied his aching body and waved his hand. With a light gesture, a gust of wind rose and swept the dust away.
What the clearing smoke revealed was a sea of monks.
"Huh?"
"Deploy the 108 Arhat Formation!"
The monks moved in perfect unison, seamlessly falling into a battle array. One hundred and eight Arhats surrounded Seo-jun, and the moment he registered their presence, a massive pressure weighed down heavily on his shoulders.
'The 108 Arhat Formation?'
Seo-jun knew of it. It was the famously impenetrable formation of the Shaolin Sect.
But why were they using it on him?
Before his confusion could deepen, Seo-jun’s sharp gaze pierced through the underlying structure of the 108 Arhat Formation.
It looked just like 108 precisely interlocked gears. He drove his internal energy right between the cogs and violently twisted.
"Urgh...!"
"Gah...!"
Several monks stumbled backward. However, the 108 Arhat Formation did not break. Others immediately stepped up to fill the gaps, maintaining the flawless array.
"Oh."
Seo-jun realized something.
This 108 Arhat Formation was genuinely impressive—it was a complex amalgamation of martial arts, formations, and even sorcery.
He didn't know much about the profound Dao of formations, but he knew enough to understand that it was the study of manipulating surrounding Qi using a central axis. Moreover, he happened to know martial arts and sorcery intimately well.
If he was an expert in two out of the three disciplines, and the last one was simply about manipulating Qi?
By that point, the method to shatter the array was crystal clear to his eyes.
Seo-jun’s eyes glowed with a faint golden light as he saw straight through to the essence of the 108 Arhat Formation.
"Like this?"
Click. A crisp sound, like a key turning in a lock, echoed through the courtyard.
Simultaneously, the central axis of the 108 Arhat Formation violently twisted. The monks' eyes widened in horror.
"Th-this is...!"
"Hold the line...!"
But it was futile.
They desperately tried to maintain the collapsing 108 Arhat Formation, but Seo-jun’s internal energy triggered a devastating chain reaction, tangling all of their metaphorical gears.
"Gah!"
The 108 Arhats all collapsed to their knees in unison. Because they themselves acted as the living axis of the array, they suffered instant internal injuries the moment the formation was forcefully shattered.
Seo-jun stood perfectly fine in the center of the groaning monks, casually looking around.
There was a massive crater where he had crash-landed. Surrounding it were completely shattered buildings.
'I could probably use this Primordial Unity Step as a human missile.'
The courtyard looked as if it had suffered a devastating aerial bombardment.
"Whoa..."
"Enough."
With a single, deeply resonant voice, color suddenly returned to the pale faces of the monks.
Seo-jun’s gaze snapped toward the source of the sound. From within the ruins of a half-destroyed building, an old man who had been sitting in meditation slowly stood up.
"Who are you to cause such a ruckus in the middle of the Shaolin Sect?"
"Shaolin?"
Seo-jun’s eyes darted around frantically.
Indeed, the surrounding architecture (most of which was now reduced to rubble) bore the distinct hallmarks of temple structures. Furthermore, standing just in front of the old man was a very familiar woman, currently staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.
It was her. The bald lady from the Emei Sect.
"Oh..."
Having finally grasped the gravity of his situation, Seo-jun offered a painfully awkward smile.
"Uh... haha. That is... I didn't do it on purpose? You could call it a sort of unfortunate accident..."
He realized it then. He was currently on the verge of being completely and utterly screwed.
Judging by how the old man’s momentum seamlessly unified with the surrounding space, he was definitely an absolute master in the Transcendent Realm.
A Transcendent of Shaolin?
Whoever he was, if a fight broke out here, an endless swarm of baldies would descend upon him and beat him to a pulp. Sparking an international incident of that magnitude was the last thing he wanted.
"This is, well, I was testing out a new lightness skill and couldn't quite handle the speed..."
At Seo-jun’s excuse, the old man’s piercing eyes swept over the surrounding, groaning monks. His gaze seemed to ask, Then why did you reduce these boys to this pathetic state?
He had an excuse for that, too.
"The formation was suddenly deployed against me, so out of pure reflex..."
On second thought, that didn't sound like a very convincing excuse.
He quickly added, "It looked interesting, so I got a little serious, and then... haha... This thing breaks surprisingly easily..."
"Sigh..."
Amitabha... The old man closed his eyes and softly chanted a prayer.
Seo-jun’s eyes darted around for an escape route.
"Abbot!"
Just then, another massive swarm of monks came rushing into the courtyard.
The Abbot?
Seo-jun knew that the position equivalent to the Sect Leader of Shaolin was called the Abbot.
"Oh..."
He really was screwed!
Should he set off one massive blast of Qi and make a run for it? Just as he was seriously debating this tactical retreat, a savior appeared.
"Oh...! Young Hero Lee?"
Seo-jun snapped his head around.
There stood Ji-baek, staring at Seo-jun with wide, utterly bewildered eyes.
"O-Old man!!"
Judging that the sudden appearance of an acquaintance had at least bought him some time to talk, Seo-jun rapidly explained the situation.
He recounted how he had created a lightness skill called the Primordial Unity Step and was merely testing it out when he lost control of his speed and crash-landed here. In the process, he accidentally demolished some buildings. Then, through a series of unfortunate reflexes, he ended up breaking the 108 Arhat Formation, causing the Arhats to suffer some minor internal injuries...
It wasn't much different from the flimsy excuse he had just given the Abbot, but now that his identity was verified, his words carried far more weight.
After fully revealing his identity—that he was the esteemed son-in-law and an elder of the Namgung Clan—Seo-jun scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.
"I am truly sorry about all this. I’ll pay for the broken buildings out of my own pocket."
"Hmm... If there was no ill intent behind your actions, then it is fine."
"No, really. I think I broke quite a lot of stuff."
Moreover, he had inflicted internal injuries on the Arhats.
The Arhats were the core martial force of Shaolin. It wasn't that the Arhats were weak, which was why they had collapsed all at once. If they had simply attacked him in a straightforward brawl, the outcome might have been different. But because they had relied on a formation that he then effortlessly shattered, they suffered a devastating backlash and were defeated far too easily.
It was akin to violently twisting a machine's joints rather than breaking each gear one by one, which exponentially magnified the impact.
If all 108 monks had simply ganged up on him instead, they would have been a much bigger headache to deal with.
It wasn't the Arhats' fault; the blame lay entirely on the flaws within the 108 Arhat Formation.
Normally, formations deployed by martial artists were tactical equalizers used by the weak to overcome the strong. Yet, compared to its legendary reputation, the flaws in this array were glaringly obvious to Seo-jun’s eyes.
When his thoughts reached that point, a brilliant idea occurred to him.
"Uh, I don't mean any offense by this, but I feel really bad for hurting your people... Would you like me to fix the 108 Arhat Formation for you?"
"Fix the 108 Arhat Formation?"
The Abbot frowned deeply and shook his head.
"There is no need for such a thing. We cannot reveal the secrets of the 108 Arhat Formation to an outsider, and regardless, the formation is already near perfection as it is."
Perfection? Yeah, I really don't think so...
Seo-jun had a lot he wanted to say about that, but he wisely held his tongue. He couldn't force his help on them if they were too stubborn to accept it.
Just then, a loud, sharp voice rang out across the courtyard.
"Oppa...!!"
"Huh?"
It was Chun-bong’s voice.
Turning around, he saw several figures sprinting madly toward them. Needless to say, it was the entourage from the Namgung Clan.
Chun-bong, who had been running like a madwoman, leaped high into the air, twisted her body, and landed nimbly beside Seo-jun. She immediately drew her sword and dropped into a guarded stance.
"What’s the situation...? Are we fighting?" she whispered fiercely, her sharp eyes scanning the hostile surroundings.
The groaning Arhats surrounding Seo-jun, the hundreds of other monks filling the area, and the imposing old man visible through the half-destroyed building (which looked like a highly important historical structure to anyone with eyes).
Seo-jun knew exactly what was running through Chun-bong’s head, so he simply reached out and hoisted her up by the scruff of her neck.
"As expected of my Chun-bong! You came to save me...!"
"Wh-what are you doing...!"
Chun-bong quickly realized the truth. This isn't exactly a life-or-death situation, is it?
In that case, there was only one thing left to do.
"You piece of—! I told you not to cause trouble, you walking disaster!"
While suspended in mid-air, she violently twisted her body and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick straight to his face.
"Gah...!"
Seo-jun, caught off guard, fell flat on his back. As she mercilessly proceeded to stomp on him, even more monks came swarming into the area.
It wasn't exactly a mystery why.
The hurried Chun-bong and her group had more or less forced their way straight through Shaolin’s main gates, and consequently, the temple's defensive forces had rapidly mobilized to chase them down.
To put it simply, it wouldn't be a stretch to say the Namgung Clan had just invaded Shaolin.
"Whoa..."
This might actually be the biggest mess I've ever made in my entire life.
Having fully grasped the dire situation from the heavy atmosphere, Seo-jun couldn't help but let out a nervous giggle.
"Are we screwed?"
"Seems like it."
"Then let's use the old men to bail us out."
Pae Jin-gwang and Namgung Hyeok were among the group that had just arrived; surely those two heavyweights could handle the political fallout?
He desperately hoped so.
*
Mu-hye, Cheong-song, and Wol-mang, who had followed the group in the ensuing confusion, simply gave a factual recounting of the events that had occurred outside.
After confirming that their testimony matched exactly what Seo-jun had claimed earlier, the Abbot slowly nodded.
"I understand that it was an unavoidable accident. Furthermore, the internal injuries sustained by the Arhats are not severe. One could even argue that their training was simply lacking, so I shall say no more on that matter. However, I cannot easily overlook the fact that your group forcefully breached Shaolin’s gates."
"Oh, don't be so petty. We were in a rush, what else were we supposed to do? It's not like anyone got hurt."
It was Pae Jin-gwang.
The Abbot frowned.
"Fist King, I have been wondering for a while now, why exactly are you involved in this affair?"
"I’m pretty close with that kid over there."
Pae Jin-gwang pointed a thumb at Seo-jun.
When the Abbot’s stern gaze turned toward him, Seo-jun flashed a bright thumbs-up.
"That’s what he says."
"Hmm... What do you think, Abbess Bo-hyeon?"
The one called Abbess Bo-hyeon was the bald lady from the Emei Sect.
She seemed to be having a bit of trouble following the chaotic situation and was frowning deeply. But when her eyes met Seo-jun’s, her expression instantly grew complicated.
"...Personally, I think it would be best to show leniency. There was no malicious intent behind his actions, and no one was seriously injured, so there is no reason to impose a severe punishment."
Was she taking his side to make up for her past mistake?
By now, she must have realized she had been thoroughly tricked by him last time, yet she was being surprisingly broad-minded. Or perhaps she intended to repay the karmic debt now just so she could guiltlessly crush him later.
Regardless, it was something to be immensely grateful for at the moment.
Seo-jun nodded with satisfaction, but internally, a nagging sense of doubt crept in.
'Didn't they say Shaolin was a sacred ground forbidden to women?'
Was it really okay for Abbess Bo-hyeon, Chun-bong, and Namgung Su-ah to just waltz in here?
Especially Su-ah Noona—her presence probably wasn't great for the celibate monks' mental health...
Looking around, it seemed they weren't in the absolute inner sanctum of the Shaolin Temple but rather on the outskirts, which might explain the leniency.
Well, it wasn't really any of his business anyway.
"However, since the strict rules of Shaolin have been disturbed, we cannot simply let this pass without consequence."
While Seo-jun was busy pondering temple regulations, the conversation continued. Pae Jin-gwang grumbled loudly at the Abbot’s stubborn words.
"Does a monk like you have no mercy? People make mistakes in life."
"If a mistake was made, a fitting punishment must be given so that such a thing does not happen again."
"I don't give a damn about Shaolin’s internal circumstances, but these kids are from the Namgung Clan. Are you sure you want to escalate this? Namgung Jin-cheon is no joke."
"Even Lord Namgung would understand if he heard the full circumstances. And in the first place, I have no intention of imposing an overly severe punishment."
Then, Pae Jin-gwang suddenly let out an exclamation.
"Oho, now that I think about it, that just might work."
He smirked broadly.
"Shaolin is going to participate in this upcoming Yongbong Gathering too, right?"
"Indeed."
"Since the kids are the ones who caused this mess, it’s only right that the kids settle it among themselves, isn't it?"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"A martial artist speaks through their martial arts. How about a spar between the Rising Stars under the age of thirty? If our side wins, you just let this whole incident slide. Consider it a warm-up practice for the Yongbong Gathering."
The Abbot’s expression became peculiar.
"It is a rather ridiculous suggestion... but it is not a bad one."
"Right? It’s not like this is an incident that needs to get blown out of proportion anyway."
Normally, breaking into a sect would be an incredibly serious matter. But when the towering names of Shaolin and the Namgung Clan were involved, the political circumstances changed quite a bit.
The Six Great Clans and the Nine Great Sects and One Clan frequently engaged in cultural exchanges and were on somewhat friendly terms. There was no need to make a massive deal out of this. Settling it with a friendly spar was a face-saving measure that benefited everyone.
Above all, as someone who was reluctantly serving as the Abbot, he really didn't want to spark a major diplomatic incident.
He wanted to just let it slide if he could, but his position demanded some form of consequence...
"Then let it be so. But what if Shaolin wins?"
"That kid over there will handle the compensation."
Pae Jin-gwang pointed squarely at Seo-jun.
Seo-jun tilted his head in thought, then eventually nodded.
In the first place, it was entirely his fault that the Namgung Clan entourage had barged into Shaolin. Pushing the responsibility onto Chun-bong or Namgung Su-ah would just be a complete dick move.
"In these troubled times, I highly doubt Shaolin has an excess of manpower just lying around. If I lose, I’ll solve a few of your temple's problems for you."
The Abbot nodded in agreement.
The free labor of a master capable of single-handedly shattering the 108 Arhat Formation was something Shaolin would welcome with open arms.
"Very well."
The Abbot looked toward the gathered crowd of monks and called out a name.
"Hye-un, you shall step forward."
At his call, a young monk stepped out from the ranks and pressed his palms together in a respectful bow.
"Amitabha... I shall do so."
Pae Jin-gwang smirked wickedly.
"Then for our side, this kid will do it."
Thump. He clamped a heavy hand down onto Seo-jun’s shoulder.
"Huh?"
Seo-jun looked at the old man as if he were a complete madman, before a sudden realization hit him.
"Ah!"
I’m not thirty yet, am I?