Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: The Collapsing Shaolin Temple
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“ Goodness? The abbot of Shaolin, master of martial arts, has quite the foul mouth, doesn’t he?”
Ilji’s words dripped with mockery, making Won-gil’s expression grow even more savage.
On top of that, the screams of countless Shaolin disciples still echoing in real time were violently shaking the immovable mind he had cultivated for decades.
‘…This isn’t the time to worry about my own safety. For the sake of the disciples still left, I must eliminate these witches, no matter what.’
Even if it cost him his life.
A resolute determination settled on Won-gil’s face.
The will to sacrifice his own life to save his disciples shone in his eyes.
Seeing this, Ilji’s face stiffened slightly.
‘This old monk who can’t even become a true one is thrashing about.’
It wouldn’t work on them anyway, but there was always that one-in-a-million chance.
She couldn’t afford to let her guard down and ruin everything.
Thinking she needed to kill him before he tried anything, she extended one hand toward him.
-Shwaaak!
A wooden vine shot out like an arrow from inside her billowing sleeve toward Won-gil.
A ferocious momentum that seemed ready to pierce his body at any moment.
Before it, fragile human flesh appeared as if it would be torn to shreds in an instant.
-Kaang!
“…Tch.”
But the result was entirely different.
The wooden vine Ilji had shot didn’t tear to shreds— it couldn’t even pierce Won-gil’s body.
Diamond Indestructible Divine Skill
The ultimate protective art, which enveloped the user’s body in nine layers, had been unleashed.
Seeing Won-gil’s skin begin to glow faintly, Ilji grinned wickedly as if she hadn’t just clicked her tongue.
“Using your inner energy to suppress the poison? Looks like you’ve given up on survival after all.”
That was right.
Though Won-gil appeared unscathed on the outside, he had been vomiting bowl after bowl of blood because he had been poisoned by the Divine Tree Squad’s insidious trick.
Until now, he had been suppressing the toxin with Shaolin’s pure inner force to prevent it from circulating through his body, but even that had reached its limit.
In the end, he had resolved himself to death and released the suppression.
And the effects were manifesting immediately.
“Cough—!”
Won-gil vomited another bowl of blood.
His faintly glowing skin was gradually turning a bluish-purple.
With the obstruction gone, the vicious poison was rampaging wildly.
‘…I can hold out for maybe just this one incense stick of time. I have to take down those witches within that.’
If Ilji knew Won-gil’s thoughts, she would have found them ridiculous.
Holding out against the poison for even this long was impossible.
The poison she used was that monstrously potent.
Golden Thread Serpent
A small venomous snake found only in the southern wilds, characterized by the golden line coiled around its body.
This snake’s venom was an extraordinarily potent toxin, and separately, it had another dangerous trait.
It was colorless, odorless, and tasteless, making it impossible to detect until it entered the body.
That was why even Won-gil hadn’t noticed anything while drinking his tea as usual, unaware that something else was mixed in the water.
Moreover, the one who had delivered the poison was his youngest disciple, gained in his later years.
“Oh? Still hanging in there?”
At that moment, a new figure appeared in the main hall.
Piercing through the shadows of the flames was a beauty with a languid, decadent air.
In her hand was a thin iron chain, its end connected to a leather strap around the neck of a young monk.
“Hek hek, hek!”
The young monk crawling on all fours like a dog, panting heavily.
Won-gil’s face twisted in horror upon seeing him.
Because that monk was none other than Jin-ga, his youngest disciple who had poisoned him.
“Jin-ga…!”
Seeing his youngest disciple drooling like a dog, stripped of all human dignity, Won-gil ground his teeth and glared at the woman who had dragged him in.
“Hmm? Even if you glare at me like that, reality won’t change.”
The woman met Won-gil’s gaze as if provoking him, kneeling to tickle Jin-ga’s chin.
In response, Jin-ga rubbed his face against her hand, fawning like a pet.
“Kkiing, kkiing.”
“What in the world… what have you done to that child—!”
Won-gil’s roar echoed through the main hall.
The subtle energy of Destroying Evil and Revealing Truth laced in his voice made Ilji and the rest of the Divine Tree Squad furrow their brows.
In particular, the woman who had dragged Jin-ga in like a dog seemed even more displeased, kicking him and stomping on his head.
“Keheok!”
“Abbot, if you keep annoying me, I might just smash your precious youngest disciple’s head right here.”
“You bitch—!”
Won-gil flew into rage again at the woman’s words as she ground her heel into Jin-ga’s head, but he couldn’t dare act recklessly amid his disciple’s pained groans.
‘Even a disciple who betrayed me is still a disciple to him. How laughable.’
The woman sneered inwardly at Won-gil.
Ilji approached her then.
“Eji, how’s the outside?”
“Mostly cleaned up. I caught and killed all the strong ones, so the puppets can handle the rest.”
The “puppets” Eji referred to were the experts whose souls had been dominated by the Divine Tree Squad members, just like the Jin-ga she was dragging.
Currently, inside the Shaolin Temple were the eight members of the Divine Tree Squad and over a hundred dominated experts under their command.
With Eji personally taking out the high-realm monk warriors, the remaining monks had little hope of survival.
“You bitches…!”
Realizing this, Won-gil’s face contorted like a wrathful demon, despair beginning to fill his eyes.
‘The thousand-year Shaolin that endured even the Mongol invasion is collapsing in my generation. I have no face to show the ancestors.’
“Cough—!”
Won-gil vomited blood again.
Perhaps due to his agitated mind, the poison eroding his body rampaged even more fiercely.
Realizing he truly had no time left, he slowly assumed a stance.
His lower body lowered, left hand extended forward holding a green flame, right hand pulled back.
Eji smirked at the sight of him poised to charge.
“Oh? You sure that’s wise? Your precious youngest disciple’s life is in my hands.”
“…I don’t know what you did to make Jin-ga like that, but one thing I do know: that child will make the same choice as me.”
At his declaration of disregarding even his disciple’s life, Eji clicked her tongue inwardly and made one final probe.
“How about this? If you become my puppet instead, I’ll release your disciple. Right here, if you want. Quite the generous offer, no?”
“Silence, you wicked witch!”
“…How boring.”
Eji frowned at the stern shout, her face hardening coldly.
As she tossed aside the iron chain and began slowly approaching Won-gil, Ilji blocked her.
“Leader?”
“No need for you to step in against an old man dying from poison anyway. I’ll handle it.”
Cherishing his subordinate Eji more than himself.
It was a peculiar sight, but the other Divine Tree Squad members paid it no mind.
In truth, Eji was a far more important existence than Ilji or any other Divine Tree Squad member.
“…Hmm. You sure? A cornered rat bites the cat, they say.”
“A dying rat won’t have the strength for that.”
Lightly brushing off Eji’s question, Ilji stepped forward.
The other Divine Tree Squad members followed to support her, leaving Eji alone to shrug and watch.
“…….”
Won-gil tightly pressed his lips as the Divine Tree Squad surrounded him.
Seeing his corpse-like pallor, Ilji smirked and extended her hand again.
“Then, farewell.”
As another wooden vine prepared to shoot from her sleeve after her quiet goodbye,
“Gal—!”
“Kuheok!?”
A majestic Buddhist roar infused with Won-gil Abbot’s lifelong cultivated power erupted from his mouth.
The power rode the shout, spreading in all directions and striking Ilji and the Divine Tree Squad surrounding him.
-Kwaang!
With just a single shout, Ilji and the Divine Tree Squad were helplessly flung back, rolling across the main hall floor.
“Kkieeek—!”
No, that wasn’t all.
Exposed to the Buddhist power and the immense energy of Destroying Evil and Revealing Truth, the Divine Tree Squad struggled to regain their senses as if struck by a lethal poison.
Some were even transforming into wooden monstrosities, like Chilji who had died by Sohwa’s hand.
And Eji, who had been watching from behind, was fully exposed to the energy as well.
“Kahaak!”
Seven Apertures Bleeding.
Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, ears, and mouth in a gruesome sight.
Her face, grinning eerily while gushing red blood, was chilling.
“Kiheek, kihihihi—! Lion’s Roar…! You lecherous bald bastards?”
She had finally protected her martial arts from those motormouths?
Indeed, eliminating these guys first had been the right answer.
If she’d dawdled just a bit longer, she might have gotten done in “again” like before.
‘How long has it been since I bled like this?’
Finding the long-forgotten pain oddly pleasurable, Eji burst into mad laughter.
“Kyahaha—!”
Meanwhile, Won-gil couldn’t hide his astonishment at the transforming Divine Tree Squad members.
“You lot…!?”
The Divine Tree Squad members had become hideous wooden monsters that could no longer be called human.
‘What in the world are these things?’
Wooden vines coiling around their entire bodies.
Incessant eerie cries bursting forth.
The overtly palpable malevolent aura.
It was a truly horrific form that stirred primal human fear.
Even Won-gil, with his years of cultivation, felt his hair stand on end— ordinary folk would have fainted at the sight.
“Eum…!”
Groaning at the wooden monsters, Won-gil soon regained his composure.
It didn’t matter what they were.
What mattered was that they had set the thousand-year Shaolin ablaze and were killing Shaolin disciples.
And that, as evil beings, they were vulnerable to Buddhist power.
“…So that’s why you attacked Shaolin…!”
Because the energy of Destroying Evil was a threat to them, they had struck first to eliminate it.