Chapter 134: The Buddha Statue, Awakens

Lee Jaseung’s hand, which had been reaching for the iron sphere, came to a halt.

His gaze shifted to the azure Buddha statue. The azure Buddha statue opened its eyes and, as if it were a living person, tilted its head slightly and looked at Lee Jaseung.

It felt truly uncanny.

It felt human, yet not human at all, a sensation that even the battle-hardened Lee Jaseung had never experienced before.

At that moment, the azure Buddha statue began to move.

It stepped forward slowly, and the movement was so natural it looked like a person walking.

But it was not a person. It was truly a Buddha statue that was moving.

Since dark arts did not work on him, it was not an illusion.

So what on earth was it?

Lee Jaseung’s eyes dropped to the sphere below. The azure Buddha statue’s eyes followed. From that reaction he understood it. This was the guardian Buddha statue protecting the mystical sphere.

Fully bracing himself, Lee Jaseung reached toward the sphere again.

In the next instant, the azure Buddha statue lunged, thrusting its sword. Anyone who witnessed that bizarre sight would have cried out, asking how a statue could move so fast.

Shiiing, chaang!

Blade and dagger clashed with a harsh metallic scream.

Those same onlookers would have cried out again, demanding to know how a statue could strike with such power.

Yet it was the azure Buddha statue that was knocked away.

Its attack had been as menacing and destructive as could be.

For an ordinary master, the blow would have shattered not only the blade but the arm. The opponent, however, was Lee Jaseung.

Struck by the overwhelming power of Asura, the azure Buddha statue reeled back in shock.

Even so, Lee Jaseung had taken a jolt himself. He stood there as if unruffled, but his arm tingled and throbbed.

He felt as if his strength had diminished. It was not his imagination. There was a faint sense of being suppressed.

Was it a martial art grounded in the Buddhist gate’s techniques?

They said Jang Wonso’s martial arts were based on Orthodox Buddhist methods. Could this be his technique?

Yet he had never heard of any Orthodox art that animated a Buddha statue like this.

No matter how he looked, it did not seem like an Orthodox method.

It was not an Unorthodox method either. There was no way a martial art existed that he did not know.

Lee Jaseung’s eyes grew razor sharp.

Could it be Demonic Arts? Yet he felt no Demonic Qi. If this was a branch of Demonic Arts, it would have to be an apex technique that perfectly concealed Demonic Qi.

But the sphere belonged to Jang Wonso. It could not possibly be Demonic Arts.

As if it had no interest in his doubts, the azure Buddha statue began circling him in a half moon.

Lee Jaseung stood his ground and watched it move.

Shiiiiing.

The azure Buddha statue sprang again, faster and fiercer than before.

As Lee Jaseung slipped past the thrusting sword, he drove Asura forward.

Pak, pak, pak!

Man and statue brushed past one another.

A flicker of surprise crossed Lee Jaseung’s eyes as he glanced back.

There were gouges in the statue’s body. That was all. Even the razor edge of Asura had left only marks on its shell.

The statue’s material was no ordinary substance.

Could it be Cold Steel of Ten Thousand Years?

Among the metals of the martial world, the one said to be hardest was Cold Steel of Ten Thousand Years. Yet no one would squander such a precious metal to cast a statue.

Most likely some powerful grand protective technique had been laid over common metal. A method that rendered the shell as hard as Cold Steel of Ten Thousand Years.

Papapapapang!

Clenching his fist tight, this time Lee Jaseung shot forward first.

Clang! Crash!

His fist hammered the statue’s body. If the dagger could not penetrate, he wanted to see what bare strikes would do.

The statue shuddered once, hard, but it did not fall.

Lee Jaseung drove in again. He slipped past the thrusting sword and twisted the arm.

Crack.

The arm twisted easily. Ordinarily, the arm should have snapped under the torque, but it remained intact. It was as if it had been designed like a toy that would bend and twist any which way without breaking.

Boom!

This time, Lee Jaseung slid backward. In the instant he was taken aback by the freely bending arm, he let a strike slip through, and it was delivered by the very arm he had just twisted.

He had raised his protective Qi in time, so the impact did not injure him, but the statue’s nimble, startling movement impressed him in spite of himself.

Sensing this would not be an easy fight, his expression hardened.

By contrast, the azure Buddha statue showed neither disturbance nor judgment. It focused solely on fulfilling the implanted order to eliminate the intruder.

Swish! Swoosh!

It dove in with its sword extended. Its movement was flawless. The statue’s swordsmanship was no different from that of a Transcendent Peak Realm master.

What was worse, the longer it fought, the more it seemed to loosen up, growing faster and striking harder.

Swoooowsh!

Its blade tore the air to shreds. If that blow landed, flesh would split and bone would shatter.

The Yama’s Dagger Art did not work on the statue. Or rather, it worked, but the inner Qi required was grossly inefficient. So Lee Jaseung belted the dagger again at his waist and faced the statue using only body art.

The body arts were effective, without question. It was fresh proof that the body techniques he had learned from the Limitless Chest sat one tier above Yama’s Dagger Art.

Because body arts must be driven by extreme Yang inner Qi, he sealed the extreme Yin Qi in his Dantian, a store equal to one hundred eighty years worth.

He had more than enough inner Qi anyway. He held five hundred and forty years worth of extreme Yang inner Qi.

Dodging the statue’s continuing attacks, he waited for an opening. The moment he found one, he would pin it down in a single rush and finish it.

After receiving roughly thirty exchanges, he slipped away at a peculiar angle. To the eye, his stance looked broken, but it was a ruse. With the Limitless Steps, he stepped into a subtle bearing that feigned peril.

Swoosh.

The statue did not miss the chance and struck.

That instant, however, was precisely what he had waited for. The sword the statue thrust skimmed past the side of his head. Everything unfolded according to his calculations.

Driving into the statue’s guard, Lee Jaseung unleashed his fist.

Kwang, kwaang, kwaaang!

Fists packed with inner Qi slammed into the statue’s chest in a rapid string.

The statue rocked. In that opening, he slipped between its armpits, then immediately threw it over his hip and spiked it into the floor.

Kwaaaang!

The statue smashed into the ground without mercy. The body technique had landed true. As it writhed under the massive shock, Lee Jaseung leapt and stamped both feet down on it.

Kwaaaang!

Both feet crashed into the statue’s chest. The strike carried tremendous inner Qi.

Kwang, kwaaang, kwang!

He did not let go once he had a grip. The powerful attacks kept coming. The statue tried to counter, but he gave it no gaps.

Kwang, kwang, kwaang!

After some twenty heavy blows, the statue’s chest caved in completely. Only then did it cease moving altogether.

“Phew.”

Lee Jaseung let out a breath.

He had overwhelmed it in a breath, but it had cost him a considerable amount of energy and inner Qi.

He walked back toward the iron sphere.

Just as he reached out for the sphere, his figure froze. A twitch ran along one eye.

He looked to his left.

The white Buddha statue that had stood with its eyes closed snapped them open now.

That was not all.

The red Buddha statue and the green Buddha statue that stood on the opposite side opened their eyes in succession.

What he had thought, while battling the azure statue, might be possible but surely would not happen, unfolded before him.

Fighting one had been this difficult, and now the remaining three had awakened together.

* * *

“I lost.”

Dan Ah stared down at the sword that had fallen to the ground and spoke in surprise.

Baek Seolyoung stood before her with a sword in hand. For someone who had just won a friendly match, her expression was remarkably composed.

“I had no idea you were this strong.”

She had volunteered to play the role of a servant, but in truth she had been assigned as Baek Seolyoung’s escort. She had gladly accepted the spar so she could gauge Baek Seolyoung’s strength.

Baek Seolyoung smiled and replied.

“It was only because you went easy on me.”

“No. I fought with everything I had.”

It was true. If anything, she had gone harder than usual.

When Baek Seolyoung first asked for a match, Dan Ah had been confident she could win. As the heir of a prestigious Orthodox sect, she had expected Baek Seolyoung to have learned Orthodox, rising styles of martial arts.

In real combat, however, Dan Ah’s experience was far richer. Among the female warriors of the Guard Hall, she was the strongest.

She had been certain she could defeat Baek Seolyoung, yet the result had surprised her.

“Thanks to him, my martial arts have advanced recently.”

“Ah, I see.”

She meant thanks to Lee Jaseung, of course. Because of him, her Northern Sky Sword Art had reached eighth rank.

But it did not end there. She trained whenever she could. She had not simply spent her time learning to cook and cleaning. She had cut into her sleep and practiced every spare moment.

After learning who Lee Jaseung truly was, she had devoted herself even more. She lived in circumstances where it would be no surprise if something dangerous happened at any time.

She did not want to be a burden to Lee Jaseung, and beyond that, she did not want anyone else to decide her life for her.

The outcome of this match was the fruit of her effort.

Baek Seolyoung looked out beyond the far wall.

Lee Jaseung, who had gone to kill Jang Wonso, still had not returned.

My dear, you are fighting well, right?

* * *

Lee Jaseung was indeed fighting very well.

He battled these unidentified statues whose movements were more natural than a person’s, against which neither dagger nor fist seemed to avail.

He poured his entire will into the fight. Had he not, his arms and legs would no longer have been attached.

There had been several moments when his life teetered on the brink. Fighting three statues was not merely three times harder than fighting one.

The three statues executed a flawless combined assault. It felt as though a single being had divided itself into three.

Kwang!

The red statue tumbled across the floor. As he moved to stamp it down, the green statue’s spear carved the air. Lee Jaseung twisted his body and the spear grazed past by the narrowest margin.

A fresh vibration rolled through the floor and a wave of powerful Qi sliced in. It was the sonic attack unleashed by the white statue’s pipa.

The barrage, the blasts, and the thrusts the three unleashed were terrifying. Imagine it this way, and you understand the nature of this battle.

It was a fight against three Transcendent Peak Realms who had reached the Vajra Indestructible state and wielded a perfect combined assault.

Papapapapang!

A flurry of Lee Jaseung’s kicks shoved the three statues skidding back in a line.

They staggered, then reset their stances. They never became exhausted.

Deciding he needed a different approach, he leapt toward the iron sphere.

Taking cover behind it, he drew Asura. Truly, it was absurd, but he found himself taking a lump of iron as a hostage.

Woooong!

A cold blue aura rose along Asura.

“Everyone, stop!”

He made a show of it, implying that if they did not obey, he would cut the iron sphere in two with the blade-Qi.

As if they understood human speech, the three statues paused.

It lasted only a moment. All three thrust their palms at once.

Swoosh!

Three torrents of tremendous palm force hurtled toward Lee Jaseung and the iron sphere.

Watching those forces streak toward him, he understood that the first hostage play of his life had failed.

There was no need to risk himself to protect the sphere, so he hurled himself aside and evaded the force.

Kwaaang!

The iron sphere flew under the impact and smashed into the wall behind.

He understood then why the guardians of the sphere had attacked so boldly. Swept by the blast though it was, the iron sphere had not broken.

Looking at the statues, Lee Jaseung spoke.

“Don’t use dirty tricks?”

His eyes gleamed cold as he clenched both fists.

“Fine, then I’ll do this properly.”

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