Behold the Sunlight-Descends-Be-Dazzled Divine Hundred-Knot Art!
The remains of Heukmok, the Old Wood Fiend, were seized in a colossal hand. A horrific scream tore loose and the wreckage burst, spraying splinters in every direction.
The giant hand did not stop. This time it came for Yi Yeok.
"Damn it."
He raked a blood-soaked hand back through his hair and grimaced.
"I'm a man who settles things with words, when I can get away with it."
Ten Thousand Illusions Phantom Severing Hands
Blue Wave True Art — Ten-fold Wave
Thousands of crescent blades screamed forth as one.
Light flared at his fingertips, and the two arts erupted together. Thousands of crescent blades howled toward the giant hand.
KWA-GWANG!
The air boiled. Space itself seemed to twist. A portion of the giant hand tore away, and the blow faltered for an instant. Yi Yeok did not. If he ate even a single counterstroke, there would be no bones left to gather.
The blood-void dragon manifested and sank its jaws into the colossal hand.
KWOOOOO—!
The Heavenly Dragon Flying Sand appeared and bit a chunk from the giant hand. Beside that hand, even the Heavenly Dragon was little more than an insect.
"Guh—!"
Yi Yeok vomited blood. The power the dragon had swallowed was only a sliver of the whole, and still it was more than his body could bear.
In a blink the giant hand restored itself to its former size, and a towering figure descended from the sky. He was shaped like a monkey, his whole body clad in coarse, thick fur, and in his hand he carried the staff that had shattered Heukmok in a single blow. He studied Yi Yeok with open interest.
"A cur of the Eastern Daoist sects."
Hwan Mong's face went white.
"The Battle Buddha...?"
Hwan Rang swallowed hard.
"So his conversion to the Buddhist path wasn't just a legend."
The Battle Buddha set foot upon the earth. He had not even roused his strength, and yet Buddha-light flooded the ground around him. Anyone whose cultivation fell short would have had their mind seized on the spot. Hwan Mong and the others clustered tight against Yi Yeok. In that place, he alone stood untouched by the light.
"Who are you?"
The Battle Buddha's voice rolled like thunder through the sky.
Yi Yeok bent at the waist with silky courtesy.
"This humble one is a thief out of the East. Earning a living grew harder and harder, so I thought I'd see whether the West might suit me better. It is an honor to stand before someone so magnificent."
"Indeed. I am the Battle Buddha. My fame resounds through the West — and through the East as well, no doubt."
"Oh, is that so? This humble one has never heard the name in his life."
The Battle Buddha's brow twitched.
"Ignorant. Never to have heard of this elder's renown — know your shame."
"Perhaps I should. But the East is not the West. A monkey earning a reputation there is no easy thing. However great he might be... putting a monkey in your mouth at all is something of a joke. It costs a man his face."
The air around them sank, heavy as stone.
"Monkey...?"
"Monkeys are clever beasts, in their way. Still, the East prefers to give its chances to actual human beings. From the look of things, the West will honor even a monkey, so long as he has ability. A fair arrangement. The East ought to learn from it."
The Battle Buddha's face twisted. The staff in his hand rose, slow and deliberate. The air shuddered, and the Buddha-light wreathing him burned hotter still.
"I shall pulp that mouth of yours."
"Wait!"
Yi Yeok threw up a hand and stopped him cold.
"If the Great One wished it, killing a wretch like me would be no different from swatting a mosquito. But what meaning would there be in that?"
The Battle Buddha considered this a moment.
"What is it you wish to say?"
"If I may be so bold, this humble one also made a modest name for himself in the East. One supreme art in particular is rather famous — the Killing-Blow Secret-and-Secret Ever-So-Sneaky Divine Hundred-Knot Art."
"A hideously rustic name."
"It is. But I received it from my master, so what can I do?"
"And this art is so very strong?"
"It is. On the strength of that single art alone, I might have been named to the Immortal Gate. Just when this wretch's life was finally looking up, word got out that I'd slunk about the mortal world as a thief, and they cast me out on the spot. So I came west, looking for a way to eat."
"Such is the nature of those Daoist hypocrites. In our Buddhist way, if a man truly repents, no past is too foul to be laid upon the Buddhist path."
Yi Yeok grinned.
"Exactly. Which is why I wish to propose a contest from which both the Great One and I might profit."
"What sort of contest?"
"Please receive my Hidden-Trump Dark Shadow's Proud-and-Dignified Divine Hundred-Knot Art. Take it head-on and remain unharmed, and your fame will rise even in the East."
He gestured at Hwan Mong and the others, who were watching the exchange with looks of pure disbelief.
"These friends will witness it clearly and carry the truth home. And if you would be so kind as to appraise my art, would that not also be a great help in establishing myself here in the West?"
The Battle Buddha laughed, a booming ha.
"Laughable. A trifling art with a paltry reputation among Eastern idiots — do you imagine it could so much as scratch me?"
"That's precisely it! The Great One raising his fame in the East is as good as settled. This is merely a test of whether I can find a place in the West."
"Very well! Unfold this art of yours once. The Hidden-Trump... no, the Killing-Blow... what did you call it?"
"The Certain-Death Ruthless Trembling-in-Terror Divine Hundred-Knot Art."
"Yes. Certain-Death Ruthless... in any case, if that art of yours startles me even a little, I shall permit your advance into the West. If not, you die where you stand."
Hwan Mong and her companions were beyond words. To think the legendary Battle Buddha was such a halfwit.
"Hey, witnesses. Watch closely, then go back east and spread the Great One's fame. If you don't want to be caught in my Lonely Death's Ruthless Divine Hundred-Knot Art, you'd better fall back three hundred yards or more."
At the same time, a flick of his eyes indicated a spot off to the side, where a drained Buddha statue of Namyak Temple lay half-buried. Hwan Mong's group caught the hint at once, snatched up the statue, and retreated a good distance.
Inside it rested a milky-white sarira no bigger than a bean, and a demon-subduing vajra shining with gold.
"Got it!"
Hwan Rang lit up. Hwan Mong's eyes were full of worry.
"Now we just have to run... he'll be all right, won't he?"
Hwan Do's eyes glinted.
"You don't know how fast that guy is? He's the one who ought to be worrying about us. Be ready to move the moment we can."
Yi Yeok drew a long breath and spoke with leisurely ease.
"Very well, Great One! From this moment, behold my supreme art — the Ghosts-Be-Scared, Bundle-Up-Tight-in-the-Blankets Divine Hundred-Knot Art!"
The Battle Buddha fixed him with a glare, power surging off his body in waves.
"Come."
Yi Yeok moved both hands in strange patterns, as though gathering qi. Light flickered at his fingertips, and a whirlwind rose as if to wrap his whole body.
And so the time it takes to finish a pot of tea crawled past.
The Battle Buddha waited, gripping his staff, growing restless.
"Are you not finished yet!"
"J-just a moment, please. I'm nearly there."
With fingerwork too subtle to catch, Yi Yeok was drawing flashbangs one by one from the Ring of Heaven and Earth.
"Here it comes!"
The Battle Buddha drew himself up, proud and ready to take the art head-on.
PAANG—!
With a sharp crack, dozens of flashbangs — their force amplified by the blood qi he had poured into them — burst all at once. In a glare like the sun itself descending upon the earth, even the Battle Buddha had to shield his eyes and stagger back several steps.
A long while later, when his sight returned, there was no one left before him.