Murim School Record - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 11: Departure (1)

The Kitchen Hall bustled with activity as the evening meal was being prepared.
Dang Duchun started at the sudden visit from Cheong Ak Seonsa.
“Welcome, sir.”
Cheong Ak Seonsa strode into the steaming Kitchen Hall.
His gaze swept across the junior monks working at their tasks before he spoke.
“Where is the boy called Imobek?”
“He’s chopping firewood at the moment, sir.”
“Show me the way.”
Dang Duchun hurried out of the Kitchen Hall.
Unease gnawed at him.
The Patriarch rarely visited the Kitchen Hall.
Of course, many monks depended on it for their meals, and when he did come, he always wore a warm smile and offered encouragement and praise to the junior monks.
But this cold presence—what did it mean?
Dang Duchun led the two men forward with quick steps.
Thud! Thud!
After a short walk, a tremendous crash echoed across the earth.
“There!”
As they rounded a corner thick with pine trees, a clearing came into view, piled high with stacked firewood.
A man wielding a massive axe was splitting logs—it was Imobek.
Dang Duchun hurried forward.
“Imobek!”
Imobek was about to bring the axe down when he stopped and turned.
“Oh, Elder Brother!”
Then he caught sight of Cheong Ak Seonsa and Musang Seonsa approaching, and his eyes widened in shock.
Clatter!
Imobek quickly set down the axe, pressed his palms together, and bowed deeply.
“How are you feeling?”
Imobek lifted his head.
The Patriarch of Shaolin himself would never come in person to check on a junior monk’s health—that much was certain.

‘It’s that.’

What Gwangseung had placed in his mouth.
His body, which had been as heavy as a water-logged cloth, had grown light overnight, and the fact that he could move like this now was surely because of whatever it was that Gwangseung had fed him.
“You met with my brother?”
“I did not see him, sir.”
He had to choose his words carefully.
His ears had been open, but his eyes had been so swollen he couldn’t make out faces.
So he had truly not seen.
“You didn’t see Cheongmong?”
“Someone did come, that much is true. But since I couldn’t see him, I have no way of knowing who it was.”
Whoosh!
Swish-swish-swish!
Robes fluttered as figures flew into the clearing.
The Four Diamond Protectors.

‘So it’s come to this.’

Imobek steeled himself further.
“Is it this one, sir?”
Cheongdong Seonsa’s voice was edged with menace.
“You there, answer every question truthfully. If you speak a single lie, I’ll have your head.”
“Disciples, stand back.”
Cheong Ak Seonsa’s voice was heavy.
Cheongdong Seonsa stepped back one pace.
“You didn’t see them, so someone clearly came, but you don’t know who?”
“That’s correct.”
“What did they give you?”
“Pardon?”
“Cheongmong Seonsa is asking whether he put something in your mouth. Food, water, anything at all?”
“He did.”
“Well then, what was it?”
Cheongdong Seonsa, who had stepped back, pressed forward with sudden urgency.
“I couldn’t see it, so I don’t know what it was. It was terribly bitter. The bitter taste still lingers in my mouth. They say good medicine tastes bitter, so I swallowed it, but if they tried to make me eat it again, I’d… I’d…”
He shuddered as if the thought alone made his skin crawl.
“After I swallowed it, my stomach was so wretched—like someone was raking a knife through my insides.”
Twitch.
Cheong Ak Seonsa’s brow furrowed into a deep V.
The Great Return Pill is sweet.
Its fragrance surpasses even the perfume of the rarest peonies.
Even the most enraged person would find a serene smile crossing their lips at its scent.
The taste is beyond compare.
How to describe it?
It is nothing less than candy from the heavens themselves.
The moment it touches the tongue, rapture spreads from sole to crown.
The problem was that everyone present knew the Great Return Pill only through transmitted descriptions of its taste and fragrance—none of them had ever tasted it.
The expressions of Cheong Ak Seonsa and the Four Diamond Protectors softened slightly.
Based on the account alone, this was absolutely not a Great Return Pill.
The Great Return Pill was described as an immortal medicine from the heavenly realm, with a taste and fragrance unrivaled beneath heaven.
“What color was it?”
A leading question.
He had clearly stated moments ago that his eyes were so swollen he couldn’t open them.
If he answered carelessly now after claiming he hadn’t seen it, his lie would be exposed.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see it.”
Bang!
A sudden burst of yellow light flashed, and a tremendous boom erupted.
Imobek’s body flew backward and crashed mercilessly into a pile of firewood stacked a man’s height high.
“Ugh!”
Imobek crumpled to the ground, his entire body trembling as he gasped in agony.
Whoosh!
Cheongdong Seonsa descended like a striking hawk.
His right hand, still channeling the Lightning Palm, bore a faint yellow tinge.
“I will ask once more. Should you lie even once, I will tear your mouth to shreds and break your legs. Speak again—what of the taste and fragrance?”
Imobek’s face, still sprawled on the ground, had gone ashen.
His roiling stomach seemed ready to heave, but he forced the bile down and spoke.
“In all my years, I have never smelled anything so foul. Excrement would have been perfume by comparison. The stench of a rotting corpse was nothing.”
“You wretch!”
“Stop!”
Just as Cheongdong Seonsa was about to unleash another furious strike, Cheong Ak Seonsa raised his hand.
“Your name?”
“I am called Imobek, sir.”
Cheong Ak Seonsa regarded him for a moment, then turned and walked away.
The Four Diamond Protectors followed, leaving only Musang Seonsa, the leader of the Eighteen Arhats, behind at the scene.
“Listen well—be careful!”
With that single warning, he vanished.
“Imobek!”
Dang Duchun rushed to the fallen Imobek’s side.
“Are you hurt? Are you all right?”
“I think I’ve cracked a rib.”
He gingerly touched his right chest with his left hand.
“We need to go to the Medicine Buddha Hall at once!”
“It’s not a fatal wound.”
Imobek rose with a bitter expression.
Retch.
But as he straightened, blood spilled from his lips.
“I’ve taken a blow.”
“A nasty one, too.”
He shook his head in disbelief at the sheer power of Cheongdong Seonsa’s Lightning Palm.
Thack!
As he reached for the axe handle he’d set down, Dang Duchun stopped him.
“Rest a moment!”
Imobek spat into his palm.
Hack!
Blood mixed with saliva hit the ground. He gripped the axe handle.
“Every last one of those damned monks—I’ll beat them all to death, hear me!”
He bellowed and brought the axe down. The thick log split clean in two.
“Ha! You worthless bastards!”
He let out a roar that seemed to shake Shaolin Temple itself and brought the axe down again.
Watching him, Dang Duchun muttered under his breath.

‘He’s furious.’

“Aaaaaaaaaaah! You’ll seeeeee~”
Imobek raised the axe with a roar that made the whole mountainside tremble.
“Who the hell does he think he iiiis~”
His rage-filled cry was aimed at Cheongdong Seonsa, who had struck him down.
“Dammit… damn youuuu”
Words spilled out between his teeth.

Cheong Ak Seonsa stood at Sungru Hermitage.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, and thick raindrops began to fall, but he made no move to shelter from it.
His thin monastic robe was soon soaked through, clinging to his lean frame.
There in the pouring rain, he steeled himself.

Cheong Ak Seonsa started.
In his master Cheonwoo Seongseung’s hands lay the Green Jade Buddha Staff.

‘How could I refuse it?’

The Green Jade Buddha Staff was the symbol of Shaolin’s leadership.

‘Your elder brother’s Heart Demon has already burrowed to the marrow. What a waste. Born with Heavenly Natural Talent—the heavens blessed him, only to curse him with ruin. There is no remedy.’

So Cheong Ak Seonsa had superseded his senior and become the sect leader.
His master’s lament still rang clear—that heaven had chosen too well, so heaven itself had grown jealous and torn his senior brother down.
“Elder brother!”
As if seized by resolve, he called out to the sealed doors of Sungru Hermitage.
Silence.
Wondering if the rain had drowned out his voice, he channeled his Inner Energy.
“Cheongmong, it is your junior brother, Cheong Ak.”
Whoooosh!
The rain intensified.
“Elder brother, are you within?”
Flash!
A brilliant bolt of lightning tore through the darkness.
Thunder.
And then, cutting through the downpour, came a sound.

‘Hehehehe! Why do you seek me?’

Cheong Ak Seonsa was startled.
The wavering sound carried on the wind was the Six Harmonies Transmission Voice.
A voice distorted by tremendous Inner Energy.
The listener cannot tell where the speaker is due to the voice echoing from all directions.
It was a different order of magnitude from ordinary Sound Transmission Secret Method.
“Where are you, Master?”
As he spoke, he drew his Inner Energy to its limit.
Though it was the Six Harmonies Transmission Voice, he was trying to discern Cheongmong Seonsa’s location through sheer sensation alone.

‘Hehehehe! So the old fool asks why I’ve come looking for him.’

Cheong Ak Seonsa heightened his hearing even further.
“Where are you, Master?”
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Rain as thick as spear-shafts poured down with renewed fury.

‘Hehehehe! Your scheming little mind is unchanged, I see. You think if you keep talking, I’ll give away my location, do you? Foolish. Would a man who wishes to remain hidden deploy the Six Harmonies Transmission Voice?’

Cheong Ak Seonsa’s expression hardened.

‘But Elder Brother—’
‘Spending all those years sitting in that cell has loosened your tongue.’

An oblique way of saying he had become too talkative.

‘The temple’s last Great Return Pill has gone missing.’
‘Hoho! Why are you asking me about that?’

‘I heard that you gave some medicine to a boy named Imobek.’
‘That’s true. But why would that be the Great Return Pill?’
‘Elder… Elder Brother, I meant no such thing.’
‘Hehehehe! You fool, how can you be so blind to what’s right in front of you?’

Cheong Ak Seonsa’s white eyebrows twitched.
What’s right in front.
Not a rebuke about failing to see the physical world before him, but a criticism of his lack of discernment about people.

‘What you should be worried about right now, what you should be agonizing over, is that Shaolin has finished third three years running in the Martial Arts Tournament. In a situation like this, what difference does a Great Return Pill or two make?’

Cheong Ak Seonsa’s eyes widened.
A Great Return Pill or two.
The words belittled not merely one of Shaolin’s supreme treasures, but openly disparaged its worth.

‘Disciple Cheong Ak, do you know how much contempt our disciples meet when they walk the Martial World? Come to your senses! Now is not the time to hunt for pills—it is the time to seize a child born with Heavenly Natural Talent. Do you understand my meaning, foolish disciple?’

‘Elder Brother!’

‘Hehehehe! I am about to enter Wall Facing Meditation for a long time, so do not come looking for me again. Bother me once more and I will smash the Abbot himself to pieces. This conversation is finished.’
‘Elder Brother! Cheongmong!’

He called out loudly, but no answer came.
Flash!
Crack-boom-crash!
Lightning split the sky as the rain fell harder still.
Cheong Ak Seonsa stood motionless in the downpour.

‘Shaolin has finished third three years running in the Martial Arts Tournament.’
Words that cut to the bone.
As Abbot, there could be no greater shame, no deeper humiliation.
Step-step-step!
Then came the sound of footsteps, and the Four Diamond Protectors emerged from the darkness.
All of them were soaked through, yet their eyes blazed with fierce intensity.
Cheong Ak Seonsa looked up at the sky instead of answering, his face etched with sorrow.
Patter-patter-patter!
Heavy rain fell like arrows, stinging his face.
“Abbot?”
Cheongdong Seonsa pressed urgently, demanding to know what had happened.
Whoosh.
Cheong Ak Seonsa wiped the rainwater from his face and turned to face the Four Diamond Protectors.
“He left word that he is entering Wall Facing Meditation, and that no one is to disturb him after this.”
“Senior, Cheongmong senior!”
Cheongdong Seonsa, whose patience had worn thin, flung open the door to Sungru Hermitage and rushed inside.
Creak.
Empty.
The room was immaculate, swept clean of even a speck of dust.
The bedding lay neatly folded at the head of the sleeping mat, a pillow placed carefully on top.
His long robe and monastic garb, which he had worn regularly in their deep purple hue, hung freshly laundered on the rack.
“Who has arranged senior’s quarters like this?”
He had visited Sungru Hermitage from time to time to pay his respects.
Regardless of how his mind had wandered, it was the duty of a junior to honor those senior to him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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