Chapter 213. Preparation (1)

It was a bewildering feeling.

I was gratified to have saved them, but this wasn’t what I had hoped for when I rescued them.

“I am fine. So, how about you all go back to living as you originally did?”

At my words, they were vehemently opposed.

“Having been born a human, how can I turn my back on the grace of having my life saved!”

“That’s right! From now on, our lives are as good as the Great Hero’s!”

“……If I hold your lives and order you around as I please, what would be the difference between me and that Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader?”

However, they showed no signs of yielding.

“It is different! It is not that the Great Hero is threatening us by holding our lives, but that we are volunteering to do so, is it not?”

“Please entrust us with anything! We will do our best to help the Great Hero for the rest of our lives!”

I glanced at my comrades.

The two Senior Sisters and Nam Geon were smiling warmly.

The Tang clan guy seemed to be trying hard to hold back his laughter.

Hwangbo Ak didn’t seem particularly interested, and Paeng Daecheol’s eyes were shining with an unusual brightness.

“Haa. Then, for now, please gather all the people who have collapsed on this mountain in one place.”

“We will do so!”

After the group of four hurriedly left, I spoke to my comrades.

“Let’s get moving too.”

There were hundreds of people we had subdued scattered across the mountain.

Those who were under spells were better off.

Those who had gone mad, intoxicated by drugs and formations.

There was no telling what kind of chaos would erupt when such people woke up from their faint.

***

It didn’t take long to gather the fainted people in one place.

It wasn’t just because the group of four who joined my comrades were all martial arts masters.

The martial artists who had been bound to the Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader’s disciples.

They, too, began to regain their senses one by one and started to help us.

Since their number reached a hundred, organizing the common folk was truly instantaneous.

The people who woke up all had dazed expressions.

Regrettably, I had to tell them the truth.

“You have all been deceived by the Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader. He has neither the power to send you to paradise nor the ability to save those who have already died.”

The reactions were largely divided into two.

“D-don’t lie!! Br-bring him back right now! Bring the Heavenly Emperor back, you demons!!”

Those who screamed in fury.

“……”

And those who stood blankly with faces as if their souls had left them.

Among them, some just shed tears with dazed faces.

I couldn’t help but grit my teeth.

To the point where I wanted to tear the already dead Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader into thousands of pieces again.

I felt I understood how cruel it was to give people a false hope that could not be fulfilled.

While I was wondering what to do with these pitiful people.

I felt a presence from afar.

The presence was approaching at a terrifying speed.

And a short while later.

Two old men emerged from beyond the bushes.

One was an old beggar with a familiar face, and the other was an old monk.

“This junior martial artist greets Senior Gang Leader.”

When I cupped my fist towards the Beggars’ Gang Leader, he flopped down on the ground.

“Aigoo. At this age, running like a dog beaten on a hot summer day is just killing me.”

The Gang Leader said so and gulped down his alcohol.

After watching him for a while, I asked him.

“By the way, what brings a busy senior like you here?”

“You brat. Why do you ask the obvious? I was on my way here after hearing the news about the Heavenly Emperor Cult. But then, I heard the news that you guys just stormed this place on your own! So I ran until the soles of my feet were torn!”

Saying so, the Gang Leader held out his tattered straw sandals.

“Phew. If I had known these guys would take care of it themselves, I could have just walked here leisurely.”

I remembered the time the Gang Leader came to me after the fight with Wi Mugyeol.

And even events further in the past.

It seemed that the Beggars’ Gang being late to the party was a daily occurrence.

Still, this time it wasn’t that late.

“Not at all, Senior. I am just grateful that you came quickly. There was a problem that we couldn’t solve on our own.”

Saying so, I pointed behind me.

The wailing commoners were gathered there.

“They are the pitiful victims of the Heavenly Emperor Cult.”

I additionally gave a brief explanation of the Heavenly Emperor Cult’s proselytizing methods and the situation they were in.

“Look at these rotten bastards! Using drugs and formations to mock people? I feel like my anger would only be relieved if I tore such bastards to shreds!”

“I already did tear them to shreds.”

“Well done! Very well done!”

Unlike the Gang Leader’s praise, the old monk who came with him sighed softly and chanted the name of Buddha.

“Amitabha.”

Only then did the Gang Leader seem to remember something, and he pointed at the old monk and said.

While his body was still lying on the ground.

“Ah. This stuffy monk here is the Abbot of Shaolin.”

“Amitabha. Though unworthy, I serve as the abbot of Shaolin. I have cast aside my secular name, so please address me as Gonggeun.”

Even if one was not a Jianghu person, there was no one living in the Central Plains who had not heard the name Shaolin.

I cupped my fist towards the abbot of Shaolin, which was sometimes called the number one sect in the world.

“The junior martial artist Jin Yuseong greets the Shaolin Abbot.”

My comrades also cupped their fists and paid their respects.

After a brief greeting, I asked the Abbot.

“But what brings the Shaolin Abbot here?”

Honestly, I didn’t particularly like the Shaolin Abbot.

It was because of my memories from my past life.

Even when the ones called the Seven Evils were throwing the entire Jianghu into chaos, Shaolin only protected the vicinity of Mount Song.

They had not actively dealt with the evil deeds of the Seven Evils.

Even though they had the power to be called the number one sect in the world.

It was the Gang Leader who answered my question.

“You brat. Have you forgotten my words already? I told you last time, didn’t I? That I would drag in all the guys my connections reach. Even if I have to kick the asses of those who refuse.”

“……Did you kick his ass and drag him here, Senior?”

Then the Gang Leader snorted.

“If I kicked this guy’s ass, my foot would break.”

The Gang Leader, who had gulped down more alcohol, added.

“This monk said so. That he would make a decision after seeing you in person.”

Then he asked the Abbot.

“So, what was your impression after seeing him in person, you monk.”

At Senior Gang Leader’s question, the Abbot asked me.

“Amitabha. How did the benefactor come to suffer such a great injury?”

“Isn’t it obviously because of the fight with the Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader?”

At my answer, the group of four from before interjected for some reason.

“Pardon me, but may I say a word?

“This Great Hero here was more than capable of killing that Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader on his own.”

“But he was injured like this because he was killing that evil leader while saving us.”

The Abbot nodded at their answer.

“So that was it.”

The Abbot turned his head and looked at the people around him.

Not just my comrades, but everyone gathered here.

“To have kept so many people alive means you must have subdued them all without killing them. Why did you choose such a difficult path?”

“They are innocent people who were moving under the influence of their formation, drugs, and spells. Why would I kill such people?”

“Amitabha. Then why did you kill the one called the Heavenly Emperor Cult Leader and his disciples?”

My face crumpled.

“If you want to talk to me about not killing or anything of the sort, just go back to Mount Song.”

I was using honorifics with the last of my patience.

“It was not about not killing, but simply asking about the benefactor’s thoughts.”

“Haa. Do you not see their condition and still not understand? They were trash who didn’t see people as people! Even if I were to die, I cannot bear to see such trash living in luxury.”

The Abbot nodded at my answer.

“I understand the benefactor’s will well.”

Afterward, the Abbot uttered something completely unexpected.

“Our Shaolin will also join the benefactor. At least until we punish those called the Demonic Cult.”

As soon as the Abbot’s words ended, Senior Gang Leader chuckled and burst into laughter.

“Heheheh. A very good thought. I told you, didn’t I? That he’s a pretty good kid, not like the ones these days.”

But from my perspective, I couldn’t easily accept it.

“Why is that?”

“Huh? What are you talking about, you brat. Are you saying you don’t want to work with Shaolin?”

I answered Senior Gang Leader’s question.

“Isn’t Shaolin uninterested in the secular world?”

Why were those who had been cooped up in the mountains in my past life suddenly trying to come out?

At my question, the Abbot opened his mouth with a bitter tone.

“Originally, our Shaolin’s will was not to stay only in the mountains. We intended to spread teachings to those in the secular world rather than focusing only on individual enlightenment.”

The Abbot said that Shakyamuni himself traveled the world and taught people.

“We believed that saving people like this was the true teaching of Buddhism, and this was called Mahayana.”

“Then, why have you been cooped up in the mountains all this time?”

“……It was the will of our predecessors. He was someone whose name was not known in the secular world, but he was someone who had accumulated very high Buddhist merit. Before he entered nirvana, he left these words. That dark clouds that even the power of Shaolin would find it difficult to clear are casting over the Central Plains.”

That the Central Plains could not be protected with the power of Shaolin. So, at least they had to protect those who were close.

“From then on, our Shaolin focused on building up our strength instead of interfering in the secular world.”

As I listened, a thought occurred to me.

Could it be that the high monk who entered nirvana also came to know a little about the affairs of the Heavenly Realm?

But even so, a question remained.

“Then why has your mind changed now?”

“A few months ago, my Granduncle-Master Hyemyeong, whom the people of the secular world called the Buddha Venerable, also entered nirvana.”

The first one to react to the Abbot’s words was Senior Gang Leader.

“Heo. So the Buddha Venerable also ended up like that……”

The Buddha Venerable had entered nirvana, and the Fighting Venerable was spending his last years in seclusion somewhere.

The Sword Venerable had also not been heard from for a long time.

As if he had the same thought as me, Senior Gang Leader muttered in a bitter voice.

“It has been a long time since all three Venerables went into seclusion, but it truly feels like an era is ending.”

But his original nature hadn’t gone anywhere, as he soon said with a face full of mischief.

“It’s like it’s your era now.”

I wondered what kind of crazy talk that was.

“There’s Senior Gang Leader, and there’s the Abbot here, isn’t there?”

I knew instinctively.

Both Senior Gang Leader and the Abbot were masters who had reached the Heavenly Ladder Realm.

But at my answer, Senior Gang Leader snorted.

“You brat. Both this monk and I are already white-haired. What era are you talking about.”

The Abbot, who smiled faintly at the Gang Leader’s words, gently added.

“On the day my Granduncle-Master left, he left these words. He said that the dark clouds over the Central Plains have thickened, but he sees just one ray of light.”

“Kikikik. Then, the one ray of light the Buddha Venerable spoke of must be that guy!”

“……”

It was a strange feeling.

The Thunder Blade Emperor had argued.

That in the last few hundred years, almost no one had succeeded in ascending to the Heavenly Realm.

It seemed that neither the high monk the Abbot spoke of nor the Buddha Venerable had completely ascended to the Heavenly Realm.

I began to wonder if high monks with high Buddhist merit could feel something, albeit very faintly.

The Abbot smiled faintly in response to Senior Gang Leader’s joke.

“I came here in person to confirm that.”

The Abbot looked at me with clear eyes.

“And after seeing you in person, it seems that the person my Granduncle-Master spoke of is indeed this benefactor here.”

Soon, his gaze turned to the surroundings again.

“I did not judge based solely on the benefactor’s outstanding martial arts. The effort to save innocent people. And even those who follow such a benefactor. It seemed that the benefactor is a person qualified to fight against the dark clouds.”

“……I am not such a grand person.”

“Tsk. If you’re not a grand person, then I told you that most of the guys in Jianghu should just stick their noses in a plate and die, didn’t I?”

“As I said before, the original will of Shaolin is to spread teachings in the secular world. Therefore, I am willing to face the dark clouds that have cast over Jianghu together with the benefactor.”

The situation was flowing in a rather strange way.

Honestly, the talk about it being my era or a ray of light just sounded embarrassing.

I didn’t particularly like Shaolin, which was suddenly trying to step into the secular world now.

But there was no reason to refuse.

“If you are willing to fight together against those Demonic Cult bastards who treat people as elixirs, then I welcome it anytime.”

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