Chapter 295
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 295
Chapter Title: Damn Golden Hoop
Hyun Hwang suppressed his presence the moment he entered Mt. Soseung.
Once inside the Shaolin Temple grounds, everything fell under the senses of his senior brother Hyun Gwang, who treated all as potential enemies.
Unless he hid his presence, even Hyun Hwang himself couldn't evade that senior brother's detection.
That senior brother bastard was strong.
Truly strong.
Yet even confined to the Repentance Cave, Hyun Hwang had kept growing stronger.
The power he possessed was like that.
Continuously growing despite the restrictions and seals binding him.
Now, with his current strength, he felt he might actually be able to beat that senior brother bastard.
However.
'Sneaky bastard.'
The Hyun Gwang that Hyun Hwang knew was an utterly cunning man.
The kind who seemed better suited to the unorthodox sects than the leader of the righteous martial world, Shaolin.
Which was why he couldn't confidently predict victory over Hyun Gwang.
If not for the restrictions and seals, he would've grown even stronger, and a bastard like that senior brother would've been nothing.
Hyun Hwang's hand rose to his head.
A cold metallic touch met his fingertips.
A metal ring glowing faintly red.
'Damn golden hoop.'
It was the only one of the three sealing rings binding his movements that he could touch directly.
The golden hoop gripping his heart (Golden hoop) and the prohibiting hoop squeezing his dantian (Forbidden hoop) were embedded deep inside his body.
Untouchable.
That senior brother bastard had promised to release the one around his heart.
What good would that do?
The real agony came from the one throttling his dantian.
His master had tried countless times to shatter his dantian with it.
'The primordial abyss wouldn't allow it. Ugh.'
The pain from back then resurfaced.
Only the prohibiting hoop seemed capable of contracting enough to burst something.
He'd never even tried it on his head or heart.
Hyun Hwang soon reached the Shaolin walls and leaped over them lightly.
Then he began moving cautiously.
Confirming the Sutra Pavilion's location, he slipped past the disciples' watchful eyes, moving swiftly.
'Fourth floor. Northeast shelf, rack thirteen, fourth slot from the top.'
A lot of time had passed.
Would it still be there?
Or had it been moved by the pavilion's caretakers?
No way to know.
Hyun Hwang bet it was still there.
From his experience.
The books in the Sutra Pavilion rarely changed spots.
Shadows draped the building.
Hiding in a dark corner, Hyun Hwang's eyes emitted a faint red glow.
His eyes, which pierced to the essence, scanned the Sutra Pavilion.
Shaolin Temple's Sutra Pavilion (Scripture Hall).
Originally a hall storing 5,480 volumes of the Great Buddhist Canon in twelve massive cases.
That was its origin.
The Great Canon was still safely kept on the first floor.
But the upper floors overflowed with countless martial arts manuals and secret texts.
One of Shaolin's three forbidden grounds, off-limits without permission.
The security was ironclad.
Shaolin's elite, the Thirty-Six Golden Arhats and Nahans, guarded it in shifts.
'Twelve of them?'
Hyun Hwang counted twelve in his sight.
All concentrated around the entrances and first floor.
The sensible placement.
Breaking through Shaolin's grounds to infiltrate the upper floors?
Impossible.
Unless you were the world's greatest lightweight kung fu master.
But even that wouldn't work.
The Sutra Pavilion had no windows big enough for a person.
Just small vents here and there.
Hyun Hwang pondered the sight.
What made him hesitate so was, naturally, Hyun Gwang.
If that guy chanted the incantation, Hyun Hwang would be neutralized in an instant.
'Where's the senior brother bastard?'
Hyun Hwang expanded his senses widely.
Not just Hyun Gwang could blanket the entire Shaolin grounds—Hyun Hwang could too.
'Abbot's quarters.'
He was in his usual spot.
Right in the temple's center.
Any commotion here, and he'd show up fast.
Recognize it was him, and he'd chant the spell immediately.
If he was going to make noise, he had to move fast before Hyun Gwang identified him.
There was still over a day until Hyun Gwang's deadline, so he wouldn't expect Hyun Hwang here yet.
Gauging the Golden Arhats' skills guarding the place.
It was possible.
But.
'If it's not where I remember, I'm screwed.'
He'd get caught.
Infiltrate quietly and search?
Then location wouldn't matter.
However.
The doors were locked tight.
The keys split between two Golden Arhats.
Both had to turn them simultaneously to open.
The underground secret vault needed the abbot's key too—three in total.
For all its strict management, some entered freely.
The scholar-monks.
Permitted ones came and went at set times.
Golden Arhats opened for them.
Second option: wait for a scholar-monk and slip in.
Hyun Hwang gauged the time until scholar-monks entered today.
'About one shichen left?'
One shichen later, the doors would open.
He agonized.
At that guy's level, he'd have spotted the trap Hyun Hwang set for the girl.
Once he figured it out.
He'd come hunting Hyun Hwang.
An energy unerasable without knowing the abyss.
That bastard would end up at Shaolin eventually.
Hyun Hwang needed the fragment first.
Waiting a shichen felt iffy.
Gambling felt iffy too.
After brief deliberation, Hyun Hwang decided.
Sususuk.
Muffling his footsteps, he darted through the Golden Arhats' blind spots to the pavilion wall, then shot upward.
Reaching the precise spot, he smashed the wall around a vent.
Kwajijik!
Only after the noise did the Golden Arhats notice his figure.
"Intruder!"
"Catch him!"
Deng! Deng! Deng deng deng!
Shouts from the Golden Arhats and blaring alarm bells.
But Hyun Hwang was already inside through the breach.
He checked the shelves immediately.
'There it is!'
Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Sutra.
An ancient book labeled with a simple sutra title.
Hyun Hwang snatched the scripture, tucked it away, then punched through the opposite vent wall and fled.
He had to escape before the senior brother bastard arrived.
Hyun Hwang bolted deep into Mt. Soseung's forests.
Only after he vanished did Hyun Gwang arrive.
"Heh heh. Amitabha. An intruder?"
The Golden Arhats bowed their heads.
No one had detected the intruder approaching this far, so the gate and perimeter guards bowed too.
"Where'd he go?"
Hyun Gwang's gaze shifted.
The Sutra Pavilion Lord Hyun Chuk stood there.
"Still checking, but so far, just one sutra. It was so quick—probably that's all. Abbot senior brother."
Hyun Gwang scowled at Hyun Chuk's words.
Break into Shaolin, raid the Sutra Pavilion, and flee with just one sutra?
What sutra was worth that?
Who in the world would do this?
"Hmmm."
Hyun Gwang swallowed a groan.
"Understood. Devote everything to tracking the intruder. The Sutra Pavilion breached—how can I face the ancestors? Amitabha."
The disciples bowed deeper at Hyun Gwang's words.
He headed straight to the breached shelf.
Just a rack of sutras.
No hesitation from entry to exit, judging by the traces.
'Knew exactly what was here. Came prepared, and struck fast.'
"The missing sutra?"
"Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Sutra."
Hyun Chuk, moving beside him, answered Hyun Gwang's question.
"Hmmm."
Hyun Gwang scowled again.
Valuable sutra, but not unique to Shaolin.
Money could buy it elsewhere.
No reason to risk invading Shaolin.
"Understood."
After inspecting everywhere, Hyun Gwang returned to the abbot's quarters.
He rolled the prayer beads in his hand, organizing his thoughts.
From those he knew, he narrowed to those skilled enough to fool his senses over all Shaolin.
Then to those familiar with Shaolin's defenses and layout.
Eliminated all but those who knew the Sutra Pavilion's structure well.
Few remained.
All Shaolin affiliates.
The expected result.
Non-Shaolin couldn't know the grounds and pavilion that intimately.
Finally.
Those who knew the exact location of the missing book.
All others eliminated.
Only one suspect was a former scholar-monk.
'Hyun Hwang.'
Convinced of the culprit.
Hyun Hwang had been a scholar-monk originally.
Not a martial monk entering Shaolin.
He'd studied sutras and manuals in the pavilion, then learned martial arts.
His talent shone even as a scholar-monk, so they permitted it.
'He took the yaksha path...'
What was in the Sutra Pavilion to change him so?
That brilliant junior brother.
Maybe today he'd find the clue.
Recklessly raiding the pavilion.
Thought hiding his presence and face would conceal his identity?
Hyun Gwang left the abbot's quarters again, launching into the air.
Toward where the intruder fled.
Leaping Shaolin's walls, he entered Mt. Soseung's dense woods, murmuring the Heart Sutra and incantation.
"Tighten hoop, bind hoop, bind hoop..."
Wu Wen Jia-yul and Gong Ya Hui-yeon boarded a boat at Ankyung Port.
As per Gong Ya Hui-yeon's plan, they would take the waterways to Nanchang.
By arrival, Serpent Blade Legion members would be out too.
Wu Wen Jia-yul had sent word to them.
Haomun would've relayed it first, but they would be curious for details—that was Wu Wen Jia-yul's measure.
"...Will he be alright?"
Gong Ya Hui-yeon quietly asked aboard the boat ascending the mighty Yangtze.
Wu Wen Jia-yul smiled.
"Didn't you call him your guardian deity? The world's greatest. You ran away on this perilous venture to see him, so trust him."
Gong Ya Hui-yeon nodded silently at her mother's words.
"What was Instructor Ha like?"
Gong Ya Hui-yeon asked again.
Wu Wen Jia-yul could only give the same answer.
"I was with him just two days. What could I know? I trust him because you do."
"But he was still a child then. Instructor Ha."
She seemed intent on every detail of his actions back then.
In the end, Wu Wen Jia-yul retold the story.
Dredging up memories.
Not pleasant ones for Gong Ya Hui-yeon either.
Because of it, she'd been separated from her mother at a tender age, nearly orphans.
After growing up, she visited often, but trips to the punishment cave weren't easy.
Even with escort warriors.
Yet because it was young Ha Mu-baek, she kept pressing for details.
'Just what does strength mean to you...'
Hiding her pity, Wu Wen Jia-yul spoke gently of those days.
Ha Mu-baek raced toward Shaolin, senses maxed, full throttle.
Hyun Hwang hadn't entered his range yet.
They'd spent a night apart, so the gap was considerable.
No matter.
He was heading to Shaolin anyway.
Ha Mu-baek's face was grim.
First tangible foe since entering the jianghu.
Strong, too.
From clashing directly.
Slightly below Blood Cult Leader level.
If that was all he had.
Two years ago's Ha Mu-baek would've struggled to subdue him.
Not now.
His realm had deepened since.
'Wait. I'll catch you soon.'
Thousand-Li Shadow Step left fiercer storms in its wake.
Shaolin was a day's run away.
The bastard had probably arrived already.
Exactly the delay Ha Mu-baek had endured.
Full speed, no rushing.
If not at Shaolin.
'Just beat up Abbot Hyun Gwang.'
Ultimately, the sect leader bore responsibility.
Shaolin's abbot Hyun Gwang would answer for it.