Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Revealed
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“I’ll have a brief chat with this friend and return. For the next hour, ensure no one approaches Cloud Forest.”
With those words, Hong Gak Seonsa set off.
An attitude that brooked no questions whatsoever.
Baek Un couldn’t utter a single word in the face of that cold and stern demeanor.
Beom Won was no different.
While Neung So-hwa and Jin Choyoung held their breath in silence, Jeok Muryong followed the old monk with calm, measured steps.
“Jin Choyoung.”
“Y-Yes?”
Jin Choyoung responded in a fluster to Jeok Muryong’s call.
Surprised and puzzled that he had called her instead of Neung So-hwa.
A bundle containing jerky flew toward her face.
“Ah.”
“Hold onto that for me.”
“...”
“Don’t even think about sneaking a single crumb.”
With that firm warning, Jeok Muryong walked away.
Everyone stared blankly at his retreating figure for quite some time.
Neung So-hwa finally spoke up, as if snapping out of a long dream.
“What in the world is going on, Monk Baek Un, Monk Beom Won!”
“W-We don’t really...”
“Even I, who knows nothing of martial arts, could tell. That old monk’s reaction just now was...”
“The reaction one has when challenged to a spar... no, a duel to the death.”
Jin Choyoung finished her sentence.
Baek Un swallowed his urge to agree wholeheartedly and barely managed a rebuttal.
“Grand Monk Hong Gak oversees one of the Ten Precepts: the Killing Precept. There’s no way such a man would engage in a duel to the death that harms another’s life.”
“But he’s definitely preparing for a spar, isn’t he?”
“Th-That’s...”
“What on earth is happening here? Please explain it in a way we can understand.”
Baek Un wondered if that was even possible.
They themselves were just as bewildered.
He couldn’t lie, either.
That would violate one of the Ten Precepts as well.
In the end, Baek Un decided to answer honestly once more.
“We’re just as dumbfounded and can’t explain it properly. Our apologies.”
“...I understand. Then, could you help me with one thing instead?”
“What would that be? If it’s within this monk’s power, I’ll assist however I can.”
Put another way, if it wasn’t something he could help with, he wouldn’t.
This was especially true for anything involving Jeok Muryong—it was beyond their control now.
Neung So-hwa was well aware of that nuance.
“I’d like you to prepare some tea.”
“Tea... you say?”
“Yes. Every kind of tea stored here at Shaolin Temple.”
Baek Un’s eyes widened.
“Lady Neung, surely you don’t mean...?”
“Hero Jeok said he doesn’t know the name of the tea or any specific characteristics. All he remembers is the aroma.”
Neung So-hwa smiled faintly.
“So, we’ll have to try them one by one.”
“Lady Neung, but Hero Jeok has gone...”
“To have an important conversation with Monk Hong Gak, right? He’ll be back soon.”
An important conversation.
Not even a child would believe that.
Hong Gak Seonsa would surely try to subdue Jeok Muryong in some way.
One could tell just from his choice of Cloud Forest—the vastest, most secluded spot on Shaolin grounds where few people ventured.
‘In that case, Hero Jeok has only one fate awaiting him.’
He wouldn’t be killed.
Hong Gak Seonsa, overseer of the Killing Precept against taking life, wouldn’t commit such an act.
But the reverse meant he could do anything short of killing.
As a monk before a martial artist, Hong Gak Seonsa wouldn’t resort to cruelty, but it was clear Jeok Muryong wouldn’t return unscathed.
If he was lucky, he’d merely have his dantian crippled and be expelled.
If not...?
‘He’d end up locked away in a place like the Repentance Cave for life.’
Either way, Jeok Muryong’s future looked bleak.
Even if he possessed skill enough to instill fear in her, Hong Gak Seonsa was on an entirely different level.
‘And yet Lady Neung believes Hero Jeok will return?’
Naive? Foolish?
Baek Un’s thoughts halted abruptly as realization struck.
‘No, that’s not it!’
Neung So-hwa was neither foolish nor naive.
Though on the run, she had become Young Palace Lord at a young age.
She couldn’t be dismissed as merely innocent.
For her to say such a thing meant...?
‘She believes in him?’
In whom?
Jeok Muryong, of course!
What had been a faint suspicion solidified into certainty for Baek Un.
And Baek Un wasn’t one to keep such convictions bottled up inside.
“Allow me to ask frankly. Do you believe Hero Jeok will return safely, Lady Neung?”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation in Neung So-hwa’s answer.
“That’s what I believe, Monk.”
“This should be far enough.”
Half a gak since entering Cloud Forest.
They had walked in silence, but their strides were leagues beyond ordinary men’s.
They must have delved dozens of li deep into the woods by now.
At Jeok Muryong’s words, Hong Gak Seonsa turned around readily.
“It seems you already know what awaits you.”
“Hm. Yeah, more or less.”
“Then tell me, what is it?”
“I’ll stretch a bit here and head back for some tea.”
“Ha! Hahaha!”
Hong Gak Seonsa burst into hearty laughter.
As Jeok Muryong regarded him indifferently, the monk’s laughter cut off abruptly, his face hardening.
“Shaolin’s history spans over a hundred years, with countless monks living and passing through these halls. Dharma names often overlap, and some choose to inherit the names of virtuous predecessors.”
“And?”
“But Gongmun is the exception.”
Hong Gak Seonsa’s eyes blazed.
“Long ago, there was a monk who bore that name. He commanded the respect of all—a true grand master, far superior to a wretch like me.”
“Hm. Yeah, something like that.”
“What?”
“The monks back then seemed to cower before that old man.”
“...You insolent whelp. Trying to mock people with your glib tongue?”
“Mock? Insolent? What nonsense is that?”
“Grand Master Gongmun lived in ancient times, hundreds of years ago!”
“...Yeah, figures.”
“What?”
“This seat was around back then too.”
Jeok Muryong’s lips twisted subtly.
A mix of faint cynicism and bitterness.
Hong Gak Seonsa nearly believed him for a moment.
‘Absurd!’
The old monk shook his head to clear the stray thought.
‘Man lives at most a century or so. That is the natural order. Deviating from it is the way of heretics! It cannot be tolerated.’
Hong Gak Seonsa repeated inwardly.
The next instant, a subtle glint flashed in the monk’s eyes.
‘But what did this brat say? This seat? He referred to himself as ‘this seat’?’
This seat.
Hong Gak Seonsa, with nearly eighty years under his belt, knew well.
Those who called themselves that fell into one of two categories.
Foolish, arrogant youths too green to know their limits...
‘Or utterly madmen!’
Whirr!
The hem of the old monk’s robes whipped up like a whirlwind.
Fallen leaves swirled in a vortex, soaring into the sky following his motion.
Three zhang away, Hong Gak Seonsa assumed his stance, fist aimed at Jeok Muryong.
“What in heaven’s name are you?”
“Didn’t I say? Jeok Muryong.”
“Not your name—your true identity!”
Hong Gak Seonsa’s voice boomed, shaking the forest.
“The dharma name Gongmun has been forbidden. It was Grand Master Gongmun himself, former abbot of Shaolin, who decreed it! Thus, no Shaolin monk named Gongmun could have served you tea!”
“I see. But why did that old man forbid his own name?”
“It was his atonement. For failing to stop the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s atrocities... and the reign of the Heavenly Demon!”
“So that’s it.”
A wistful light entered Jeok Muryong’s eyes.
“A stubbornly principled old man, after all.”
“You brat!”
Bloodshot veins bulged in Hong Gak Seonsa’s eyes.
“Who are you to slander an ancient worthy from centuries past? Reveal your identity!”
“You’ve already heard it.”
“I said not your name...!”
Hong Gak Seonsa’s words caught in his throat.
Finally, it dawned on him.
“N-No way?”
“‘No way’ has killed many a man.”
Jeok Muryong spoke calmly.
“This seat is the Heavenly Demon. The Heavenly Demon, Jeok Muryong.”
One who transcends the pinnacle of demons, reaching even the heavens, shaking the world with a single step, freezing it with a mere glance.
Such a being called himself the demon that touches the sky: the Heavenly Demon.
To those walking the righteous path, he was the supreme lord of the demonic way—utterly intolerable.
Yet even that Heavenly Demon was now fading into legend.
If someone claimed the title today, the unorthodox would tear them apart before the righteous sects could act.
For it was a perilously dangerous notion and existence to all under heaven.
The last to claim the title had died half a century ago.
A truly wretched end.
No one dared usurp the name after such a tragic death.
That was the warning the martial world left for posterity.
An absolute threat: do not claim it lightly.
‘And yet!’
This young man claimed the Heavenly Demon’s name without fear.
Jeok Muryong showed no hesitation.
“Didn’t that old man mention this seat’s name?”
“What...?”
“You knew enough to ban his dharma name, knew of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s invasion back then... but not the Heavenly Demon’s name itself?”
“A-Are you claiming to be that Heavenly Demon?”
“That’s exactly it.”
Hong Gak Seonsa was speechless.
Jeok Muryong shrugged.
“Well, even if so, I’ve quit that gig anyway.”
“What?”
“I’ve given up being the Heavenly Demon. I’m just here for tea. No need to be scared...”
No need?
Hong Gak Seonsa’s blood boiled in that instant.
At Jeok Muryong’s attitude, clearly pitying the weak.
And at himself, nearly relieved upon hearing it!
‘The Heavenly Demon is the ultimate demon! Against one who has reached the demonic pinnacle, a Shaolin monk has but one course!’
Annihilation!
This youth might have merely stumbled upon tales of the Heavenly Demon and Gongmun, spinning a convincing lie.
Even if so, it was a matter for fists to settle.
And if, by some miracle, Jeok Muryong spoke the truth...?
‘Even breaking the Killing Precept, I must end it here!’
The time it took Hong Gak Seonsa to resolve himself was a mere instant.
The next moment, the old monk’s form shot toward Jeok Muryong like lightning.
BOOM!