Chapter 282
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 282
Chapter Title: Got Stronger
"Phew."
It felt refreshing.
How long had it been since her last bath?
In a fairly bustling village near the border between Hubei and Anhui Provinces.
Since it was a populous area, Gongya Hwiyeon gritted her teeth and booked a room at an inn.
Just as a tree hides in the forest, a person must hide among people.
That way, pursuers wouldn't find her easily.
She couldn't stay long.
But she needed to prepare for the next leg.
"If those monks have investigated me..."
They'd be chasing the woman.
During her journey here, Gongya Hwiyeon had stealthily taken some items.
Supplies for disguising as a man.
Of course, she hadn't just stolen them. She'd left behind money matching their value.
She hadn't bought them openly to avoid leaving traces.
It wasn't uncommon for a woman to buy men's items, but as an outsider...
The Shaolin monks might come around asking questions in the village.
They could pick up a clue.
She couldn't leave any openings.
"Then it's time to switch inns."
Gongya Hwiyeon changed clothes.
She bound her chest tightly with plain cloth.
So tight it was hard to breathe, almost suffocating. Only then did she somewhat resemble a man.
All that remained was her face.
Looking in the bronze mirror.
She molded her face.
Little by little, it changed.
It would have been easier with internal energy.
But being able to alter it without internal energy was impressive enough.
Thousand Transformations Divine Mask.
It truly was a treasure from ancient times.
Thus, she crafted the face of an unremarkable man, the kind seen everywhere and easily forgotten.
She pushed at her jawline, extending it into a throat, then tapped it.
An Adam's apple formed.
Now, she had the complete look of a man.
"Done."
A satisfied murmur escaped her lips.
Gongya Hwiyeon glanced at her luggage.
"It'll heal in a month."
Several small medicine vials in her bag.
She took one out.
And dumped the powder straight into her mouth.
Not swallowing, but inhaling deeply.
"Ah! Ah!"
Making a sound, she opened her mouth and inhaled again.
"Kuhk."
She groaned, clutching her throat.
The center of her throat burned fiercely.
After a moment.
"Is it done?"
A rough, husky voice came from her mouth.
The voice of a broken male tone.
"Damn monks forcing me to scar my vocal cords."
Unable to change her voice with internal energy, Gongya Hwiyeon had intentionally damaged her vocal cords with medicine.
She slipped out the window quietly.
That's why she'd booked a third-floor room.
Even without internal energy, she could escape undetected.
She'd told the inn she'd leave early in the morning.
No one would look for her after she vanished.
Thus, Gongya Hwiyeon checked into a new inn some distance away, posing as a first-time traveler.
After paying, she entered her third-floor room and finally collapsed onto the soft bed for a deep sleep.
Deep into the night.
Shaolin Abbot Hyeon-gwang finally made his decision.
He'd known it would come to this, yet he hesitated because it was such a grave matter.
But there was no other way.
Ha Mu-baek.
No way to deal with that monster.
Yet the bait was too tempting.
Bait that could muzzle the Sa Hyeol Yeon Lord.
He'd brought the Luminous Jade Ledger.
The absolute authority in Shaolin Temple.
This was the time to use it.
"Buddha, all this is for the peace and justice of the jianghu. Eradicate demons and evil, reveal the true dharma. Amitabha."
Murmuring the incantation softly, Hyeon-gwang left the abbot's quarters.
His steps led to the mid-slope of Lesser Room Peak, where Shaolin Temple stood.
A place riddled with bizarre rock cliffs.
Repentance Cave.
Where sinful Shaolin disciples were confined for wall-facing penance.
That's where he headed.
Most cells were empty.
Few disciples committed sins grave enough to end up here.
The deepest cavern in the Repentance Cave.
Sealed tight with an iron door.
"Heh heh heh. Long time no see, senior brother. What brings you?"
A hoarse voice echoed from inside the iron door.
Hyeon-gwang frowned.
Just hearing that voice shook his qi.
'Amitabha.'
Hyeon-gwang circulated his internal energy.
Clank.
He unlocked the heavy padlocks and opened the iron door.
The interior reeked of foul stench.
One monk was there.
A metal circlet glowing faintly red encased his head, and thick iron chains pierced the Mingmen acupoint on his back.
His shoulder Jianjing points were also pierced with thin chains.
Those chains were embedded deep into the cavern walls, binding the monk.
The monk with red eyebrows had crimson glints in his eyes.
"Still the same, junior brother."
At Hyeon-gwang's words, the one called junior brother, the Crimson Eye Monk Hyeon-hwang, grinned.
"Heh heh heh. What would change about me? Thanks to you all making me this way, I just meditate."
A bizarre energy welled up from his body.
'He's gotten stronger.'
The Mingmen point suppressed.
Dantian, heart, and head all sealed.
Yet he was growing stronger.
'Now even I can't suppress him...'
Hyeon-gwang's hand, holding the prayer beads, trembled faintly.
His junior brother, once a scholar-monk of the Sutra Pavilion.
He discovered a demonic art, cultivated it, went mad, and disrupted the world.
Mad Evil Strange Monk.
The moniker that terrorized the land back then.
In the end, their master personally subdued him and brought him back to Shaolin.
The result: imprisonment in this cavern.
Sealed with every restraint, chains pierced through Jianjing and Mingmen.
Yet.
Despite all Shaolin's seals, he lasted less than a year before breaking free.
Each time, he grew stronger.
Finally, a dozen years ago, their master made the call.
With Blood Cult and Demonic Cult ravaging the land, if this junior connected with them, who knew the consequences.
The Sealing Sphere, kept deep in Shaolin.
Legend said Buddha used three to seal world-disrupting demons.
He used them.
One wasn't enough; all three were needed.
Only then could Hyeon-hwang be contained.
Yet.
Even then, he grew stronger bit by bit, now seemingly surpassing Hyeon-gwang's realm.
Hyeon-gwang's current power exceeded their master's when he subdued Hyeon-hwang.
'Is this the right choice?'
For a moment, seeing his junior brother, his resolve wavered.
He hadn't expected such growth.
Still, he had no choice.
At the same time, hope flickered: perhaps this junior could subdue or eliminate Ha Mu-baek.
Contradictory feelings.
Why hadn't they killed him and left him alive?
For a contingency like this.
Even in the fierce past wars, they kept him sealed here.
Releasing him risked him joining Demonic Cult or Blood Cult.
They'd reinforced the seals instead.
'Suppress evil with evil, demons with demons.'
Hyeon-gwang repeated the mantra.
"There's something I need you to do."
Hyeon-gwang said calmly.
"Something you need me to do? Heh heh. After locking me here for decades, now you need me? Think I'll obey meekly?"
"I'll release the Golden Hoop."
Hyeon-gwang's calm words.
Hyeon-hwang's eyes widened.
"Oh? You'll free the one squeezing my heart?"
Hyeon-gwang nodded.
"Can you even do that, senior brother? Even as abbot, Master's decree stands."
He referred to the late abbot, their master Gwang-hae's final order.
"Master's decree is solemn, but..."
Hyeon-gwang produced the Luminous Jade Ledger.
Hyeon-hwang nodded.
The highest authority in Shaolin could override even Master's decree.
"Heh heh. Don't know what it is, but since you're freeing me, how about the ones on my head and dantian too?"
"Mahaprajna Paramita Heart Sutra, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva's Prajna Paramita..."
Instead of answering, Hyeon-gwang chanted the Heart Sutra.
At the murmur, Hyeon-hwang paled instantly.
"St-stop..."
But Hyeon-gwang didn't stop.
It started as Heart Sutra, but soon shifted.
Not sutra, but incantation.
"Tightening Hoop Curse, Golden Hoop Curse, Binding Hoop Curse..."
"Kraaah!!!!!"
Hyeon-hwang screamed and collapsed.
One hand on his head, one on his heart, convulsing.
Eyes rolled back, he bellowed in ragged breaths.
"Kieeeak! Urk! Kuaak!!!"
Soon thrashing his whole body.
Hyeon-gwang continued the incantation impassively.
"Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Golden Hoop, Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Golden Hoop..."
"S-senior brother! Kurk! Please, please stop! St-stop! Kaaaaak!"
Only after more time did Hyeon-gwang close his mouth.
"Kuhk. Hek hek. Aak. Hak hak."
Hyeon-hwang kept screaming, gasping harshly.
"Th-this..."
He tried to speak but only stared at Hyeon-gwang's mouth.
Eyes full of fear it might resume.
"Tightening Hoop Curse, Golden Hoop Curse, Binding Hoop Curse. Freeing even one would ease the pain a bit?"
Not wrong.
Head, heart, dantian.
All three tightening, ready to burst—the pain beyond words.
If one released?
"Fuck."
Hyeon-hwang spat a curse.
It was the same.
No difference.
Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Binding Hoop.
Each alone worse than death.
All three sealed him.
Losing one left two.
Pain from three or two—same hell.
"Fine. Three or two."
Hyeon-hwang closed his eyes.
Dismissive.
Hyeon-gwang gazed steadily.
Soon, his mouth opened again.
Heart Sutra verse flowed.
Then.
"Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop..."
Incantation resumed.
Hyeon-hwang's eyes rolled back in hellish agony again.
Moment later.
"How's that, junior brother?"
Hyeon-gwang asked calmly.
"Hek. Hek. Hek. If I ever break free from this dogshit seal... First thing, Hyeon-gwang! I'll tear you to shreds..."
Hyeon-hwang's eyes blazed with rage and killing intent.
At that, the incantation flowed from Hyeon-gwang once more.
"Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Golden Hoop, Tightening Hoop, Golden Hoop, Golden Hoop..."
"Kaaaaaaaak!!! I-I'm sorry!! Senior brother!! This foolish junior went mad for a moment!!! Please forgive me!! Kaaaaak!"
Clank! Clank!
His thrashing made the binding chains rattle loudly.
But Hyeon-gwang didn't stop.
Only after more time did the chant cease.
"Hek hek hek."
Hyeon-hwang gasped harshly.
Drenched in sweat.
Body trembling from lingering pain.
"How is it now?"
Hyeon-gwang asked again.
"Cl-clearly... three hurt more..."
He'd thought two or three the same.
No.
Deliberately, only two incantations to activate two.
Then all three.
Hell upon inescapable hell.
Unimaginable difference.
"Plus, you might get to see the outside world briefly."
Hyeon-hwang's eyes lit up.
"You should've led with that, senior brother."
Over twenty years confined here.
How suffocating.
The outside world.
"No funny ideas."
"Heh heh heh. Heh heh."
Hyeon-hwang just chuckled.
"So, what do you need me to do?"
"There's a girl. Connected to the Sa Hyeol Yeon Lord."
"Kill her?"
"Capture her. Without harming a hair."
Hyeon-gwang's eyes sharpened.
"She's hiding her martial arts somehow."
"Figuring that out's nothing. Essence can't be hidden. Heh heh heh."
Hyeon-hwang grinned, baring teeth—his aura chilling.
"No mischief. If rumors spread..."
"Then?"
"I'll chant until I die."
A threat that chilled the soul.
Endure that pain until senior brother died.
Location didn't matter.
Just him chanting triggered it instantly.
Worthy of its fame as Buddha's ancient treasure.
"Understood. I know how cursed these bindings are."
"Mad Evil Strange Monk. That rumor can't spread."
Mad Evil Strange Monk.
The title Hyeon-hwang earned escaping Shaolin to wreak havoc.
Ha Mu-baek, heading east, didn't look pleased.
"Those damn monks. They're no joke."
On Mount Mulberry Orchid, they'd seemed to head elsewhere.
Now, signs showed they'd corrected course and were pursuing properly.
Ha Mu-baek spread his qi sense wide.
He detected the Shaolin monks' qi senses.
They advanced methodically.
Gongya Hwiyeon's qi was undetectable.
With the Seven Colors Chaos Ring, it was expected.
There were ways to find her presence, but unconventional—hard from afar.
Meaning Ha Mu-baek didn't know her location now either.
"Hm?"
His brow twitched as he extended his sense.
He couldn't feel her presence, but sensed something else.
"No way? Nah."
The place with that trace.
She couldn't be there.
The Shaolin monks were approaching it.
Ha Mu-baek kicked off the ground.