Mad, or Just Stupid?
Yi Yeok and his companions came to a halt deep in the desert.
Thanks to him they had avoided a direct hit, but the shockwave had still caught them, and the state they were in was beyond words.
"Any way you look at it, that was only about Great Daoist Master. And he threw a strike that terrifying?"
Hwan Rang grumbled, a strange awe showing through.
"It's the power of faith," Hwan Mong answered. "If one's Buddha-nature runs deep enough, an ability like that can manifest no matter the realm."
Yi Yeok asked, sounding interested. "So that power wasn't the old baldy's own?"
"Of course not. If he'd truly possessed strength like that, would he have been driven so hard by you and struggled that badly?"
"Fair enough. So the Buddhist sects do have a few arts worth learning."
Hwan Rang's eyes went wide. "Don't tell me you're thinking of taking refuge with the Buddhists?"
"Well, no harm in learning whatever there is to learn."
"Keep that up and you might get yourself converted."
"Convert me?"
Yi Yeok laughed out loud. "There's still time until next spring. No harm in amusing myself a little before then."
Before Hwan Mong could get a word out, he had already turned and broken into a run.
"You lot go on ahead."
"Hey!"
She tried to call him back, but he vanished in a blink. Nothing remained around them but the yellow wind scouring the sand.
"That lunatic...!"
Hwan Do said it like a sigh. "So what do we do now?"
"Should we chase him?"
At Hwan Rang's question, Hwan Mong shook her head and let out a breath. "Let it go. It can't be helped. That one doesn't listen to anyone."
She was quiet a moment, thinking, then spoke again. "He walls his heart off completely. Even the Buddhist sects won't find it easy to get inside."
Hwan Do frowned. "We still have to report this. What are we supposed to do if he actually goes over to them?"
Hwan Mong gave a bitter smile and started walking. "Of course we report it. Come on."
Yi Yeok left the desert with Heukmok in tow.
Heukmok lamented without pause. "Master, no one wins against sheer numbers. An Eastern Daoist blundering around like this with no plan could very well end up dead."
"Since we've come this far, I mean to pick up a few Buddhist arts before we leave. Learning has no end, does it? Life is study. A man can't spend it as a frog at the bottom of a well."
Heukmok sighed. "'Frog in a well' — yes, that's precisely what that saying means..."
"I know that much, of course. What would be more fitting here is to speak of a boat rowing upstream — forcing one's way against the current, in the sense that—"
Yi Yeok arched a brow. "And what's the difference?"
"Th-there's no real difference."
"Let's think this through. First we'll need to find a suitable Buddhist sect, won't we?"
In the end, Heukmok had no choice but to resign himself to the fate of having gained this lunatic for a master. "The Buddhist sects, like the Daoist ones, are divided into low, middle, and high."
"Are they? Then obviously we go high."
Heukmok forced a smile. "High-rank Buddhist sects are every bit that cautious about transmitting their arts. You aren't planning to remain in this region for years, are you, Master? It would be better to go to a middle- or low-rank sect, where the arts pass more easily."
Yi Yeok nodded. "You have a point."
"Not far from here there's a Buddhist sect called Daelim Temple. I've heard they're terribly fond of money."
"Fond of money? You mean if I pay them, I can learn their martial arts?"
"Yes. A suitable bribe ought to do it. Once you're inside, you learn what you need and stroll back out at your leisure."
Yi Yeok's face turned suddenly grave. "Do I have to shave my head, too?"
"Disciples of a Buddhist sect are divided into monastic disciples and lay disciples. If you receive the status of a lay disciple, there's no need to shave."
Yi Yeok nodded, satisfied. "Good. That's a relief."
"But the heart of the dharma can be learned only by monastic disciples who have taken the precepts. They do not transmit it to lay disciples."
"Then I just learn it on the sly."
Heukmok was struck briefly speechless. At last he answered. "If you learn it in secret... well, that is also a method."
"Excellent. Learn some spectacular art and go home, and I'll be able to show off a little, won't I? Like that one from earlier — the giant Buddha palm-slap..."
"It is the Great Sun Tathagata Divine Palm."
"Right. That."
Once more, in the privacy of his heart, Heukmok heaped curses on the fate that had given him this hopeless man for a master.
"To Daelim Temple! We're going to steal the Buddhist sect's ultimate arts!"
Yi Yeok shouted it in triumph.
Heukmok sighed as if he meant to cave the earth in beneath them. He could not tell whether Yi Yeok was mad or stupid — or both at once.
He really ought to start planning his escape. Linger beside a fool like this, and there was no telling when he would be swept up and die alongside him. In the worst case, he would sell Yi Yeok out to the Buddhist sect and save his own skin.
Yi Yeok ran in the direction Heukmok had indicated. After a few hours, boredom beginning to set in, he asked about Daelim Temple.
"Around the time the Buddhist multitude crossed over from the other world, Daelim Temple was said to be the most powerful of all the Buddhist sects. Among Buddhists there was even a saying that every martial art under heaven came out of Daelim. Not even the Great Thousand Buddha Sect could so much as draw near them, or so they say."
"Is that so? Then why didn't they make it into the Three Great high-rank Buddhist sects?"
"They took a devastating blow, and their power shrank badly. It was... what was it called..."
Yi Yeok recalled something he had heard from Hwan Mong not long ago, and murmured it. "Because of Gongyu?"
"Yes — Gongyu!" Heukmok nodded. "How do you know about Gongyu?"
Yi Yeok shrugged. "Is it that frightening?"
"Frightening doesn't cover it. It is terror itself. In the other world where the Buddhists lived, there were some two billion monks. Nearly all of them died, they say."
"Two billion?!" Yi Yeok started in surprise. "There were that many?"
"Yes. By comparison, only a handful of monks crossed into this world."
"And with only that handful, they could hold the balance against the Daoists. Impressive."
"Luck played a part as well. When the Buddhists crossed over, this world was in the midst of the Immortal-Annihilation War."
"The Immortal-Annihilation War?"
"A war among immortals, yaoguai, and humans. The immortals worked the humans like slaves, and the humans, enraged by that reality, joined hands with the yaoguai and rose in war."
It was the first Yi Yeok had ever heard of it, yet it was the sort of thing that might just as easily happen in the present age.
"So by the time the Buddhists arrived, many of this land's mighty were already gone. After that they fought until the blood ran for a thousand years, until it seemed that if things went on, everyone would perish together."
Yi Yeok nodded again. It matched the tale Hwan Mong had told him.
"And so the balance of the present day was struck. But that was a mistake on the part of the Eastern Daoists. Believers in the Buddhist Way multiply at a tremendous pace. In the end, the Buddhist Way will devour this world."
Yi Yeok blinked. "Heukmok. Now that I look at you, you know quite a lot."
"Because I absorbed the memories of an enormous number of resentful souls in Eumgwerim."
Yi Yeok's eyes lit. "Then you must know martial arts, too?"
"If it's the basics, I can teach you. But I don't know any ultimate art that would satisfy you, Master."
"Why not?"
"An ultimate art isn't called that for nothing. The methods of training are kept in absolute secrecy, and seals are laid on them besides. Learning one yourself is possible, but the moment you try to pass it on to someone else, the seal activates and shatters the soul to pieces. And when you die, the memories of the ultimate art are wiped away."
"Well, that figures. So in the end I've no choice but to go and learn it myself."
He was quiet a moment, thinking. "This won't be a wasted trip, will it?"
"It was a very long time ago, granted, but they were once the greatest power among the Buddhist sects. At one point the ultimate arts created at Daelim Temple numbered as many as seventy-two."
"And all of those are still there?"
"Of course not. Most of the seventy-two were scattered to other Buddhist sects or lost entirely, and in the meantime the Great Thousand Buddha Sect rose sharply."
"So right now they're stone broke and finished?"
"Which is all the better. Since they're trying to reclaim their former glory, they won't be too particular about taking new disciples. For someone like you, Master — someone who means only to learn the arts and then scram... I mean, take their leave — it's actually ideal."
Afraid the talk might turn again to brewing him for tea or steeping him for wine, Heukmok hurried on. "I can't say for certain, but a few of the ultimate arts from their prime ought to remain. And among them, one that fits you perfectly."
He looked uneasily at Yi Yeok's thoughtful face.