Chapter 206
Chapter 206
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 58
>Chapter Title: Karma (2)
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“.......You’re saying he was defrocked for indulging too much in alcohol?”
Mok Kyung-un asked in return.
The reason was that it strayed from his expectations.
“It might be hard to believe, but that’s the pretext Shaolin used to defrock him.”
At these words from Mong Mu-yak, interest flickered in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes.
The name of that defrocked monk was Ja Geum-jeong, wasn’t it?
For a monk, he had a rugged appearance that exuded wildness, but even without that, Mok Kyung-un could instinctively tell that this man had a lot of blood on his hands.
Sensitive to blood as he was, Mok Kyung-un knew it on a gut level.
“That’s not the whole story, is it?”
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Seop Chun clicked his tongue and spoke.
“This is troublesome, my lord. That bald donkey is one of the Three Madmen of the Central Plains.”
“Three Madmen?”
“He’s one of the three known as the craziest in the current martial world.”
“Craziest?”
In response to Mok Kyung-un’s question, Mong Mu-yak, the deputy division head directly under the association leader and in charge of intelligence, explained.
“He’s been quiet lately, but there was once a huge uproar because of his incomprehensible antics, with Shaolin even releasing a madman.”
“Madman.......”
“Like other sects, Shaolin severs the lineage or destroys the dantian of martial monks they defrock to reclaim their sect’s martial arts. Yet that guy still possesses the martial arts he learned at Shaolin. That’s why many martial artists protested to Shaolin.”
“Demanding they tie up loose ends?”
Tie up loose ends—those who cause the problem should solve it.
Mong Mu-yak nodded.
“Yes.”
“But he seems to be living freely enough.”
“Indeed. I don’t know why, but Shaolin, the leader of the Nine Great Sects and the center of orthodox martial learning, could surely suppress him—yet they’re just standing by.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
Seop Chun spoke to Mok Kyung-un, who was smiling, in a worried tone.
“My lord. I don’t know why that guy’s here, but getting involved needlessly could be a hassle.”
“Is he that willful?”
“He’s earned the moniker ‘madman’ for his antics, regardless of orthodox or unorthodox sects. And I’ve heard his martial arts follow a completely different path.”
“A different path?”
“Yes. He appears to have only trained external arts, but there’s talk that he’s the only one who’s mastered the Supreme Great Ability, a technique whose lineage was said to have died out at Shaolin hundreds of years ago.”
“.........”
Shaolin possesses countless ultimate arts from its ancestral monks.
Most of the heart methods they hold are called top-tier internal arts in the martial world.
But during the worst catastrophe that split the ancient and current martial worlds, half of them lost their lineages.
At least those like the Great Vehicle Prajna Zen Art, Muscle Tendon Changing Classic, and Marrow Washing True Scripture, whose true versions were hidden in sutras, managed to preserve their lines intact. Other heart methods were somewhat recoverable over time.
However, even at Shaolin, there were two that could never be restored: the Supreme Great Ability and the Dharma Great Zen Art.
They were known to have scant remaining materials and to be extremely difficult to cultivate.
For someone to restore it at a young age meant he possessed genius on the level of a grandmaster.
“My lord. There’s no benefit in getting tangled with him......”
“Why are you all like this?”
At that moment, Woo Hyang, the daughter of the manor lord who had been guiding them, stopped and looked at them curiously.
Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly and said,
“It’s nothing.”
Then, quietly to Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak,
“Just ignore him.”
“Pardon?”
“Whether he’s mastered the Supreme Great Ability or is a madman, didn’t we say we need to cross the river quickly?”
“That’s true, but......”
“Then does it matter who he is?”
With that, Mok Kyung-un crossed the hall as if he couldn’t care less.
Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak exchanged glances, shrugged, made faces as if there was no helping it, and followed behind Mok Kyung-un.
As they passed the hall, Ja Geum-jeong, the Defrocked Horse Fist Adept, who had been swigging from a gourd of liquor under the eaves, waved his hand wildly at some empty spot where no one was.
Seeing this, Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak frowned and clicked their tongues inwardly.
‘As expected of a madman.’
That’s how it looked to them.
However, Woo Hyang, the manor lord’s daughter, who was used to it, called out without a care.
“Great hero.”
“......”
“Great hero, these people are....”
-Swish swish!
At her call, Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong waved his hand holding the gourd as if telling her not to interrupt.
Then he continued his incomprehensible behavior.
He flailed his other hand wildly in the air, looking bizarre to anyone watching.
Yet,
-Hoo. That guy’s eyes are opened.
Agreeing, Mok Kyung-un nodded slightly.
-Indeed.
As they entered the hall, the eerie energy surged even stronger. Perhaps due to this influence, low-level stray spirits without proper form were swarming from all directions.
They seemed to be gathering through the earth veins and falling rain, and though the sorcerer had blocked the energy with talismans, it apparently wasn’t fully sealed.
-Uwoooooh!
-Hwoooooh!
Sobbing sounds echoed from here and there.
This would only intensify.
“Damn it.”
-Pa pa pak!
Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong, with an irritated expression, swatted away the stray spirits trying to enter the building.
Interest sparked in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes at the sight.
-Did you see that?
-That defrocked monk is quite something. A non-sorcerer who.....
-Can touch怨魂 directly.
That was why both Mok Kyung-un and Cheong Ryeong were surprised simultaneously.
Sorcerers could contact怨魂 or apparitions like evil spirits through curse power or its mediums.
But among ordinary people, even if soul power awakened upon death and opened their eyes, almost none could make contact.
-Like you, another such being exists.
-......Who knows.
-What do you mean, who knows?
Mok Kyung-un’s ability to directly contact the dead or apparitions was almost innate.
It was an extremely exceptional case, but this defrocked monk Ja Geum-jeong was making contact in a slightly different way.
-The energy gathered in his hand.
-What about the energy?
Cheong Ryeong inside the wooden puppet couldn’t sense the energy itself.
That’s why she asked Mok Kyung-un, who could discern energy visually.
-The surrounding energy is temporarily converging on it.
-What? Converging surrounding energy?
-Yes.
With the power of the Three Eyes opened in his right eye, Mok Kyung-un could see it clearly.
Whenever Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong swung at the stray spirits, even if temporarily, the surrounding energies gathered to his hand.
These energies were completely different from those refined through internal arts.
They were closer to a natural form.
-High purity, natural energy.
-Ha!.......Amazing. That’s definitely the Supreme Great Ability.
-The Supreme Great Ability?
-Yes.
-The heart art from Shaolin that Seop Chun mentioned had lost its lineage?
-Probably.
-What is the Supreme Great Ability that it can do that?
-Do you think I know?
-.........
-I’ve heard that the Supreme Great Ability is one of the three enlightenments left by Patriarch Dharma, who comprehended even the principles of great nature through the Buddhist path.
-Principles of great nature?
“Those who cultivate internal energy always think about how efficiently they can use it.”
-Indeed.
“And often, they think: how great it would be if we could use the overflowing energies of great nature as our own.”
-Ah.......
Only then did Mok Kyung-un understand what she meant.
The principles of great nature seemed to mean assimilating with the energies of all things.
But being so abstract, it wasn’t a realm achievable merely by recognition or desire.
‘Hmm.’
In any case, if the Supreme Great Ability had such remarkable utility as Cheong Ryeong said, he couldn’t help but be intrigued.
Just then, Seop Chun quietly spoke up.
“My lord......Doesn’t something feel off?”
“What?”
“That defrocked monk is a madman anyway, but the unidentified people lurking around feel suspiciously ominous, like they’re lying in ambush.”
“......You feel it too?”
Mong Mu-yak also frowned in agreement.
In truth, since entering the manor, they’d sensed a strange energy, finding it eerie, and now standing before the main hall, it had grown overwhelmingly strong.
At their reactions, Mok Kyung-un chuckled and said,
“You two certainly have sharp energy senses.”
“Energy sense? What’s that?”
“Even without curse power, you can feel the stray spirits around.”
‘!?’
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak’s expressions hardened.
Was their lord teasing them? But this ominous energy they kept feeling was too unpleasant.
They wanted to leave immediately.
It was right then.
“Hic.”
Woo Hyang, the manor lord’s daughter, clutched her chest and staggered.
One of the escorts supporting her caught her as she nearly fell.
“Miss!”
“Ughhh.”
Her already haggard face turned even paler, her body trembling violently.
Then,
“Damn it all!”
Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong, who had been driving off the stray spirits with his gourd in hand, rushed toward her.
There was a reason for Woo Hyang’s condition.
Three formless stray spirits were clinging to her.
Having long been immersed in the bleak energy of the manor, her weakened mind and body had become a target for the stray spirits.
“You damned things!”
Ja Geum-jeong tried to peel off one of the stray spirits attached to her chest.
The escort holding her shouted,
“What are you doing? Get away!”
“Get away? You worthless punk, mocking someone trying to help. If you don’t move your hand, I’ll punch a hole in your face and send you to Buddha first.”
His speech was not just foul-mouthed but utterly vicious.
Enraged by this, one of the escorts interjected,
“If you touch even a hair on the miss.....”
-Puk!
Before he could finish, the escort collapsed unconscious from Ja Geum-jeong’s punch.
“What will you do then?”
The escort supporting Woo Hyang couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
He’d thought the man was no ordinary brute due to his sturdy build and muscles, but not this strong.
“Hey. If you don’t move now, you’ll be disposing of the miss’s corpse today!”
“D-don’t come closer......”
“You won’t move! Today this monk will break the precept against killing once.....”
“Threatening like that naturally leads to misunderstandings.”
At the sarcastic voice from behind, Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong scowled fiercely and turned his head.
“What? You old pimp. You think I’m itching to grope this wench’s chest?”
Mok Kyung-un raised the corner of his mouth at the raging man.
And said,
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You’re not a madman—you just don’t care about others.”
“What nonsense are you spouting, you......”
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un suddenly thrust out his hand.
Ja Geum-jeong turned, thinking he was attacking, and assumed a stance.
It was that instant.
-Hwooooooh!
With a wailing cry, hazy somethings flashed by and were caught in Mok Kyung-un’s hand.
They were none other than the stray spirits clinging to Woo Hyang.
Mok Kyung-un, who had drawn them in with a grasping form, chuckled,
-Psssh!
and annihilated them with death energy.
Seeing the stray spirits vanish in an instant, Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong opened his mouth in shock.
“You.......what?”
What is this guy’s true nature?
From his energy sense, he’d thought they were martial artists brought by the manor lord’s daughter Woo Hyang.
Indeed, he’d sensed peak-level energy.
But what was that just now?
Not only pulling and grabbing stray spirits with some void grasping divine skill, but annihilating them.
He couldn’t help but be astonished.
Yet,
-Hwooooooh!
-Uwooooooh!
Even more stray spirits began swarming from all directions.
Their numbers were impossible to gauge.
As the stray spirits multiplied exponentially, even those without curse power or opened soul power could sense them.
-Flinch!
“What is this?”
“All around......”
Mong Mu-yak and Seop Chun looked around with baffled expressions.
Nothing was visible, yet the surroundings were infested with some bleak energy.
“Damn it! So many of the bastards. He said the talismans would block the stray ghosts!”
Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong hurriedly assumed a stance.
Surrounding energies began converging on him.
He seemed intent on properly dealing with the stray spirits entering the main hall.
That was when.
“It’ll be a waste of time.”
“Waste of time?”
“Yes. It doesn’t seem like something you can handle one by one.”
“No. Then what, you old pimp? You got some clever solution?”
“Your manner of speech isn’t to my liking.”
“What?”
“Put out the urgent fire first, then we’ll fix that habit.”
No sooner had he said it.
-Pak! Pak! Pak!
Mok Kyung-un formed a simplified mudra with his left hand.
Soldier! Fighter! Split! Array!
It was the mudra of the Nine Characters Activation Method.
In an instant, tremendous curse power filled the surroundings.
-Goooooooh!
Then,
-Paaaaah!
At the corners around the main hall, four massive pillars erupted.
These were created by Mok Kyung-un using curse power and spells.
Only Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong, with his opened soul eyes, could see them visually.
“What’s this?”
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un placed the sword formula slip to his lips and murmured softly.
“Four Peaks Linked Chain Spell.”
-Shwaaaaaah!
In that moment, the four pillars connected, forming a massive barrier.
And that barrier instantly sealed off the main hall building with curse power.
In that state, Mok Kyung-un raised his hand upward, then opened and clenched his palm.
Then,
-Papapapapapapapapapapang!
The countless stray spirits swarming the main hall couldn’t withstand the vast curse power and exploded all at once.
‘!!!!!!’
At this spectacle, Defrocked Horse Fist Adept Ja Geum-jeong was momentarily speechless.
[Chapter 58 Karma (2)] End