The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 308

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 308. Righteous Energy…

 

 

Hyeon-gil’s face was filled with a troubled expression.

He had no choice.

Wasn’t this like an outsider declaring they would enter the Sutra Repository right now?

He should have stopped him.

The problem was that this was someone he couldn’t stop.

“The Sutra Repository is one of Shaolin’s most sacred places. It’s not somewhere just anyone can enter. Especially not outsiders.”

Nevertheless, Hyeon-gil said what he had to say.

Ha Mu-baek asked.

“Then. What must I do to enter?”

“You need permission from the Sect Leader, that is, the Abbot.”

“The Abbot… Hmm. Hyeon-gwang? His current condition must be terrible, right?”

Ha Mu-baek was right.

Currently, Hyeon-gwang’s condition was terrible.

His dantian was cracked and split.

No matter how much he practiced circulating energy, those wounds wouldn’t close.

The time he could stop his energy circulation was at most one gak.

If he stopped for longer than that, his dantian would suffer irreversible damage and shatter completely.

Since Hyeon-gwang was currently using all his strength to circulate energy.

He wasn’t in a situation to permit Ha Mu-baek’s entry to the Sutra Repository.

“Just what did you do to Abbot Senior Brother?”

The word “underhanded trick” rose to his throat but he didn’t voice it.

Since he had seen the entire scene himself.

He knew well that there was no such thing.

“It’s because of that guy himself.”

Ha Mu-baek spoke as if it was nothing special.

“Himself…?”

Hyeon-gil tilted his head as if puzzled.

“The energy that damaged Hyeon-gwang’s dantian is energy that followed the nature of the energy you possess.”

Hyeon-gil was startled.

Was such a thing possible?

Wasn’t the nature of energy the unique characteristic of an individual and their martial arts?

To speak so calmly of something completely different from Hyeon-gil’s common sense.

Was this why he was called a monster?

“Since it’s originally the nature of your energy, you should know it best, right?”

At Ha Mu-baek’s question, Hyeon-gil fell deep in thought.

It was energy he had gained and cultivated through the Muscle-Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing Scripture.

From within that, something called a fragment of the primordial had suddenly emerged.

‘The abyss is part of radiance, righteous energy that will illuminate the world, was it…’

This was the will of the abyss conveyed to Hyeon-gil when he first encountered it.

“Righteous energy…”

Ha Mu-baek chuckled once more.

“You monks call it Buddha’s light.”

He was referring to when Hyeon-gil first unleashed his energy against Hyeon-hwang.

“With that guy harboring the heart demon of vengeance against the unorthodox sects deep in his heart, no matter how much he circulates energy with his internal energy. Can he drive out my energy that created cracks in his dantian? At best, he can only prevent the cracks from worsening.”

Ha Mu-baek, uncharacteristically, obediently explained the reason.

Now that he knew the cause, a solution emerged.

He just needed to eliminate the heart demon.

Not just pretending to have eliminated the heart demon to deceive Gwanghae Seong-seung.

He truly needed to cast off heart demons and worldly troubles with a mind like clear, still water.

If he couldn’t do that.

His dantian would shatter.

The time he could stop energy circulation was at most one gak.

Though it was enough time to eat and relieve himself.

As a human, he needed to sleep for at least one sijin per day.

Even though fatigue could be relieved during energy circulation, allowing him to drastically reduce sleep time.

That was only for a day or two.

Eventually, he would need to sleep.

A few months might be possible, but after more than a year, he would reach his limit.

Then Hyeon-gwang’s dantian would eventually shatter.

But if he escaped from the heart demon?

He would no longer look down on the unorthodox sects with such twisted eyes.

Jema Myeolsa.

Cheokma Myeolsa.

Pasa Hyeonjeong.

While firmly walking Shaolin’s path, there would be no mixing of personal desires.

If he succeeded in removing the heart demon, he would be reborn as a true abbot worthy of Shaolin.

If he failed, he would lose his dantian and return to being an ordinary man.

Either way, Hyeon-gwang would at least save his life.

If Hyeon-gil infused his internal energy, Hyeon-gwang could block the cracks somewhat more easily.

Only now, after hearing Ha Mu-baek’s words, did he understand why Hyeon-gil’s internal energy was effective.

Considering what Hyeon-gwang had done, this was an absurdly lenient treatment.

Hyeon-gwang had released Hyeon-hwang.

To capture one person.

That person was the daughter of Ha Mu-baek’s benefactor.

This was what Hyeon-gil had heard when he met privately with Hyeon-gwang.

So it was understandable that Hyeon-hwang had died like that.

The human called Ha Mu-baek that he heard about from Abbot Senior Brother was a monster thorough about gratitude and grudges.

Yet he showed such leniency to Abbot Senior Brother.

It was incomprehensible.

Perhaps sensing such a gaze.

Ha Mu-baek chuckled.

“I have a debt. To that monk Hyeon-gwang.”

Had such a thing happened?

“In the last Murim war. A few of the kids under me received some help. I owe them a life debt.”

The story that his subordinates had received life-saving grace from Abbot Senior Brother.

Had Hyeon-gwang truly intended that?

It seemed like it happened because he was rampaging about defeating the villains of the Blood Cult and Demon Cult.

Whatever his intention, that was the result.

“I spared Hyeon-gwang’s life and even told him how to recover. Plus, I dealt with the public enemy of Murim that he could only seal instead of kill. In exchange for our kids’ life debt plus my entering the Sutra Repository, we’ll call it even.”

Though Abbot Senior Brother Hyeon-gwang’s heart demon toward the unorthodox sects brought disaster.

It also brought a path for Shaolin to proceed more righteously.

Worldly affairs are truly unknowable things.

“Amitabha. Buddha Lord…”

Hyeon-gil only chanted Buddha’s name without answering Ha Mu-baek’s proposal.

“This is not something I can decide alone. I need to discuss it, so please wait a moment.”

Having said that, Hyeon-gil leaped up and flew down toward Shaolin Temple at the middle of Sosil Peak.

 

***

 

“….”

Lips pressed tightly shut.

Hyeon-gwang concentrated on his energy circulation.

His dantian was cracked and ruined with fissures spreading everywhere.

It seemed like it would shatter at any moment if left as is.

He tried to repair the cracks by pouring all his internal energy into them.

Fortunately.

The cracks were manageable.

If they had been any deeper, even the Daera Divine Immortal would have found treatment difficult.

‘Master….’

While focusing his mind on his dantian, Hyeon-gwang thought of other things.

That thought was.

Resentment toward his Master.

The internal energy mental method he had learned.

Prajna Great Power.

It was a mind technique that competed for the highest ranks among the Seventy-Two Unique Arts.

It was a mind technique that only Hyeon-gwang could have received and learned.

But now he couldn’t think of such things.

The Yi Jin Jing that Hyeon-gil had learned.

Only that came to mind.

The internal energy Hyeon-gil had infused briefly sealed some of the cracks.

Though they split open again as soon as his internal energy was depleted.

So resentment toward his Master was inevitable.

The thought that if he had learned Yi Jin Jing instead of Prajna Great Power, he could have quickly resolved such trivial cracks.

Even so, Hyeon-gwang was now diligently operating Prajna Great Power.

Without doing so, he couldn’t prevent the cracks in his dantian from spreading.

Hyeon-gwang chewed on the fasting pills his disciples had brought him in one corner of the Abbot’s Chamber, dedicating himself solely to energy circulation.

His situation was truly pitiful beyond measure.

“This is Hyeon-gil. I’m coming in, Abbot Senior Brother.”

That day.

The day Hyeon-hwang died.

Hyeon-gwang’s true face had been exposed before the disciples corresponding to Shaolin’s renowned masters, including the Vajra Arhats.

Even so, the disciples still treated Hyeon-gwang as Shaolin’s Sect Leader, the Abbot.

That day.

Even that Hyeon-gil who had looked at him with cold eyes.

“What is it?”

In Hyeon-gwang’s eyes as he asked, there was subtle expectation.

The expectation that he might infuse internal energy once more.

Though he knew it would only be temporary.

At least for that moment, he would feel somewhat comfortable.

“Benefactor Ha has come to visit.”

At the answer different from his expectations, Hyeon-gwang frowned.

“Then the tremor from earlier….”

Hyeon-gwang in the Abbot’s Chamber had also felt Sosil Peak’s shaking.

“It was calling for me.”

“There’s no time.”

Hyeon-gwang spoke briefly.

That was right.

At most, only one gak.

Hyeon-gil quickly conveyed the story he had heard from Ha Mu-baek in brief.

Having heard the entire story, Hyeon-gwang trembled.

What kind of absurd meddling was this.

To say he needed to shake off his heart demon to recover his dantian.

“If I just learn Yi Jin Jing….”

At Hyeon-gwang’s words, Hyeon-gil shook his head.

“It’s useless to learn it while possessed by a heart demon, Senior Brother. Whether it’s Yi Jin Jing or Prajna Great Power.”

That was a characteristic of one of the primordial fragments, the shard of radiance.

“Ha Mu-baek….”

Crack.

Hyeon-gwang ground his teeth.

“Benefactor Ha said he owes Senior Brother a debt and will settle it with this much. It would be good if Senior Brother also took this opportunity to escape from the heart demon….”

Hyeon-gwang chewed his lips repeatedly.

“A debt? He does?”

“A debt for his subordinates’ lives.”

“Ah….”

Something came to mind.

During the last Murim War.

He had once rescued the Hocheon Corps from crisis together with the Vajra Arhats.

While crushing enemies, the Hocheon Corps happened to be there.

They had said they fell into a trap.

Ha Mu-baek wasn’t there.

He was attacking elsewhere.

If Ha Mu-baek had been there in the first place, they wouldn’t have fallen into such crisis.

“Wait a moment.”

Hyeon-gwang entered energy circulation again.

Before he knew it, nearly one gak had passed.

Hyeon-gwang’s mind was complicated as he entered energy circulation.

A way to live had appeared.

To lose his dantian and become an ordinary person – for Hyeon-gwang, it was unimaginable.

Before being a monk, he was a martial artist and a person of Gangho.

About half a sijin.

With that much energy circulation, he blocked the urgent cracks again.

Hyeon-gwang opened his eyes.

“And he said he wants to enter the Sutra Repository. To find traces of demonic arts. He’ll consider the debt settled with that.”

“Impudent….”

Hyeon-gwang seemed displeased with Ha Mu-baek’s attitude.

But there was no other way.

That bastard would try to enter by force if necessary.

And there was no one at Shaolin who could stop him.

No, would there be anyone in all under heaven.

He had thought that Hyeon-hwang, who stole sutras from the Sutra Repository and learned whatever was in them, might be able to determine the outcome.

But it was Hyeon-hwang’s delusion, and his own delusion.

If that was the case.

It would look better to finish it as Ha Mu-baek proposed, as payment for telling him how to recover.

It was Ha Mu-baek who had destroyed his dantian as well.

‘Giving both the disease and the cure…’

Though he didn’t like it.

There was no other way.

“Understood. Discuss it with Hyeon Chuk. Tell him I have given permission.”

Having said that, Hyeon-gwang closed both eyes.

“May you escape the heart demon and achieve great enlightenment. Amitabha.”

Hyeon-gil bowed toward his Senior Brother and left the Abbot’s Chamber to find the Sutra Repository.

After that, things went smoothly.

They had already witnessed Ha Mu-baek’s divine prowess.

If they fought to the death.

If all of Shaolin stepped forward.

They might be able to stop him.

But would it really be worth it?

It wasn’t like he wanted to read the secret manuals in the Sutra Repository—he only wanted to examine traces of demonic arts.

And the abbot had already given permission.

So Hyeon Chuk also permitted Ha Mu-baek to enter the Sutra Repository, though with several conditions.

The other senior monks didn’t particularly oppose it either.

Hyeon-gil took this news and climbed Sosil Peak again.

 

“You’re too late.”

A brief remark.

“Exactly one hour in the Sutra Repository. Only one hour, Benefactor Ha.”

What Hyeon-gil said as soon as he arrived.

“That’s enough time.”

“And you must not read any secret martial arts manuals.”

“I have no interest in them.”

“And just in case, Hyeon Chuk, the head of the Sutra Repository, will accompany you.”

“As long as he doesn’t interfere.”

The negotiation of conditions ended quickly.

“Then when will you enter the Sutra Repository?”

“Now.”

Ha Mu-baek answered as if it were obvious.

The two men walked together toward Shaolin Temple.

“The intruder who entered the Sutra Repository. It was that bastard Hyeon-hwang, right?”

“That’s correct.”

Hadn’t he already heard and been certain at that time?

“What did that bastard take from the Sutra Repository?”

“A Buddhist scripture called the Thousand-Hand Sarira Bodhi Sutra.”

“Not a secret manual?”

“A Buddhist scripture.”

Ha Mu-baek’s expression changed subtly.

“The place where Hyeon-hwang, who had disappeared with that, suddenly emerged was over there.”

Ha Mu-baek looked toward Jungeuk Peak.

“Oh my. I was so distracted I forgot the more important place.”

That was right.

The dark cave where Hyeon-hwang had been hiding.

He had hidden there with the Buddhist scripture called the Thousand-Hand Sarira Bodhi Sutra and emerged stronger.

Then there might be something more intense than the lingering traces in the Sutra Repository.

The secret manual of the Thousand-Hand Sarira Bodhi Sutra as well.

“I need to check that place first. Wait for me at Shaolin Temple.”

“Understood. Amitabha.”

Ha Mu-baek leaped into midair and disappeared toward Jungeuk Peak.

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