All It Takes Is One Thing
The monk, however, lifted a hand with perfect calm and lightly brushed Yi Yeok's arm aside.
Thud!
Yi Yeok went sprawling in the dirt. The monk remained on his feet, face utterly unruffled.
"This humble monk's dharma name is Bo Do. There are others within as well. Should you wish to seek instruction, come find us whenever you please."
Yi Yeok gave no answer. He swung his blade at Bo Do's lower body instead.
Bo Do did not so much as shift, and the blade was flicked away.
Yi Yeok understood then that no attack of his would ever reach the man. The monk's movements might be slower than his own, but his reactions were fast past believing—not a response drawn from sight or hearing, but something nearer to prediction, to foresight. It was the realm of Impermanence at Ease, a height beyond even Unity of Heaven and Man.
"I never should have come here."
Bo Do answered with a smile.
"That is what we call fate."
"Be honest with me. What do you want?"
"To raise you as a disciple of Daelim Temple. You've already paid, haven't you?"
"Tell me what you really want."
"I am telling you."
Yi Yeok was silent a moment, then asked again.
"What do I have to do before you'll let me out?"
"I cannot simply stand by and watch you walk off to die."
"And if I tell you I'm going to my death?"
"That will not do. To see a man dying and pretend not to notice is no act for a disciple of the Buddha."
"Please... just let me die!"
"I cannot. Even if I sent you down the mountain, the moment someone waylaid you I would only bring you back. You are fated to return in any case. Why insist on leaving?"
Yi Yeok clutched his head in both hands and crouched where he stood. He could hardly breathe for the frustration of it. They would not teach him anything worth knowing, would not let him go, and would not kill him either.
"I'm losing my mind! I'm actually going insane!"
"Young friend, settle your heart and study the Buddha's law. One day I will pass the temple's supreme arts to you."
"One day when?"
Bo Do considered, then answered.
"Perhaps in ten years. Perhaps in a hundred. But do not fret. I will teach you before I die."
"Aaaaaaagh!"
Yi Yeok tore around the courtyard like a madman, howling.
"I'm going crazy! I'm really losing it!"
Bo Do laughed.
"For your safety, I have set the Mountain-Guarding Great Formation in motion. Don't think of escaping. Make yourself at home."
The last word had barely left him before he vanished without a trace.
Yi Yeok ran the courtyard for more than an hour. Fallen leaves leapt endlessly from the ground, and still his fury would not cool.
"Heukmok!"
"How do you want to die? I'll take your preferences into account!"
Heukmok kept a healthy distance, voice wobbling on the edge of tears.
"Master, even I had no idea Daelim Temple had fallen into such ruin. However far it had declined, it ought at least to have remained a Buddhist sect of middling standing."
The spirit pressed on with his excuses.
"The memories I possess are from far too long ago. I knew nothing of what happened after. Truly, I could never have imagined this."
Yi Yeok ground his teeth.
"Then how the hell am I supposed to get out?"
"Master, might you not simply accept your fate? In truth, what difference is there between seeking the Dao and seeking the Buddha?"
"Damn it, I was never some Dao-seeking fool to begin with!"
For the first time in his life, Yi Yeok regretted a choice he had made. He never should have come to a place like this. Better to have turned back east with Hwan Mong and the rest!
The courtyard lay choked with fallen leaves, and the leaves that had piled there for ages were rotting back into earth.
Then a great hall caught his eye. Hung upon it was a plaque that, alone in all of Daelim Temple, seemed to have been kept clean.
Mahavira Hall
Yi Yeok stepped inside the Mahavira Hall. A towering golden Buddha gazed down upon him. Any ordinary man would have been crushed beneath that majesty and dropped into a bow.
Yi Yeok strolled up to the statue without a care and scraped at it with his fingers.
"Gilding. Save yourself the trouble."
Bo Do's voice brushed past his ear.
Yi Yeok looked around. The hall was empty.
He left the Mahavira Hall and stepped into another.
Three shelves, each some ten feet high, stood packed with bamboo slips.
"This is it!"
He rushed over and snatched one up.
"The Lotus Sutra? What is this?"
"A Buddhist scripture, Master."
Heukmok's answer earned a raised brow.
"Some kind of secret martial art?"
"Well, it is a scripture holding the wisdom of the sages... Might it not aid in cultivating body and mind?"
As if bored, Yi Yeok flung the Lotus Sutra aside and grabbed another slip.
"The Lanka...vatara Sutra? This one's a scripture too?"
"I expect so."
Yi Yeok bellowed, irritation thick in his voice.
"Is it a martial art?!"
"I should think not."
He let out a frustrated sigh and began tearing through every slip on the shelves.
No matter how he searched, there was no Great Sun Tathagata Divine Palm—there wasn't even a secret art on the order of the Golden Bell Mantle.
"Right. As if they'd leave a supreme art worth a hundred million sitting out like this. Damn it."
Face sour with disappointment, he walked out of the hall.
He entered the inner courtyard. A stone table stood beneath a tree, and two old monks sat across from each other over a game of Go.
Yi Yeok walked up to them.
"Hey. Old men."
Neither monk stirred. He could not even hear them breathe.
Yi Yeok tilted his head, stepped in close, and held a hand beneath one monk's nose. The man did not seem to be breathing at all. He pressed his fingers to the neck for a pulse, and found nothing there either.
"Dead?"
He muttered it with a scowl.
"Dying in the middle of a game of Go. Pathetic way to go. Is there a single thing in this place that isn't pathetic?"
Just then he sensed a presence in the room to the southwest, and he approached with care.
The door hung wide open. An old monk with a long beard held a brush and was writing something.
The room was furnished with plain simplicity. Nothing of note caught the eye.
The old monk did not so much as look at him.
"Come for a look? You may draw closer."
Looking faintly embarrassed, Yi Yeok stepped inside.
"Hey, old man. Let me out of here."
"So you are Yi Yeok. My dharma name is Bo Beop."
Yi Yeok cocked his head. Had he given his name even once since setting foot in Daelim Temple?
"Whatever. If you don't let me out, I'll burn this temple to the ground. I'm a bad man."
Bo Beop's voice stayed as calm as still water.
"And what is a good man? What is a bad one?"
"A man who does good things is good. A man who does bad things is bad. What else is there?"
"Then what is a good deed, and what is an evil one?"
Yi Yeok thought a moment before he answered.
"Whatever people reckon is good, that's a good deed. Whatever they reckon is bad, that's evil."
"Then what of the people who decide which is which?"
"That changes with the moment. Where they live. The station they were born to. Their clan, their race, their sex. Their wealth, their power, their skill."
Bo Beop nodded.
"Not bad. Rough work, but the view is your own."
Yi Yeok leaned against the doorframe.
"So now you'll let me out?"
"Why do you wish to leave this place?"
"Because that's the sort of man I am. I'd rather starve to death outside the cage than feast in safety inside it."
Bo Beop nodded.
"I understand."
He turned slowly toward Yi Yeok, stroking his long beard, and let his gaze travel from the young man's head to his feet.
"Fine bones and sinews. You have the aptitude for cultivation."
Yi Yeok answered with a miserable face.
"I don't have the money for it."
"No matter. If you have only the will to devote yourself to the Buddha's law, I will teach you every martial art without charge."
Yi Yeok's eyes flashed.
"Truly? Devotion, though—how far are we talking?"
"You remember the scriptures you saw in the rear hall? Awaken to all of them, and I will pass the arts to you."
"Impossible."
The answer came thick with disgust.
"Why impossible?"
"I barely studied letters after I turned six. I can't even read the names of those scriptures straight."
"No matter. I will teach you one character at a time."
"Then just kill me!"
"Surrendering already? Human potential runs far deeper than you imagine."
Yi Yeok curled his lip and walked out without a backward glance.
"Should you change your mind, come whenever you wish. The Muscle-Tendon Transformation Classic and the Wrathful Buddha Fist are peerless arts."
Bo Beop's voice rolled after his retreating back.
"Ah—and there is the Buddhist supreme art, A Foot's Distance Across the Horizon. A technique fit to stand beside the Seongdo Immortal Sect's Shrinking Earth to Inches."
Yi Yeok wanted nothing more than to be gone from this wretched place. Yet it was as if an unseen wall barred the way, and he could not get out of Daelim Temple at all.
In the end he drifted back to the inner courtyard and dropped down beside the stone table.
"Yeah. Daelim Temple's finished, all right. Leaving dead men lying around like this..."
In that instant the long-browed old monk drew a great breath.
"I've lost."
"A match ought to be cold."
The other old monk answered with a smile.
Yi Yeok started and looked from one to the other. A moment ago they had been corpses. Now both of them were perfectly alive.
The long-browed monk regarded him.
"My dharma name is Bo U. Learn the Reclining Zen Ease Art, and you may cultivate even in your sleep. What do you say?"
"There's a catch, isn't there."
"Of course."
"Not interested."
Yi Yeok turned his gaze on the other monk.
"And you?"
"I am Bo Hae. I have a little attainment in the Great Sun Tathagata Divine Palm."
Yi Yeok's eyes flashed.
"The catch?"
"Of course there is one."
"Damn it, I don't have that kind of money!"
Bo U and Bo Hae laughed, quiet and unhurried.
"It isn't money."
Yi Yeok's eyes went wide.
"Not money? Then what?"