Chapter 310

Beom-mong continued speaking.

“The Embracing Sect leads sentient beings through four methods of embracing. They give through charity, persuade through loving words, do good through beneficial actions, and spread the true dharma by acting together with sentient beings through shared activities. For sentient beings, they eat and sleep with the sick, and for the true dharma, they don’t hesitate to cut flesh from their own limbs, sometimes even giving up their lives. That is the Embracing Sect.”

The Embracing Sect was a sect that understood, persuaded, and saved sentient beings even while enduring their own sacrifice.

Beom-mong continued explaining.

“If the Embracing Sect pursues gentle and inclusive teaching, the Breaking Sect teaches through radical and forceful methods. They directly refute wrong logic, immediately scold wrong actions to make one realize their sins, and severely punish those who deliberately fabricate the true dharma and spread false ideologies to make an example of them.”

Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Making examples in Buddhism? That seems different from the Buddhism I know.”

Beom-mong chanted Buddha’s name and answered.

“Sometimes the secular world misunderstands Buddhist compassion. Look at the Four Heavenly Kings, for instance. The Dhritarashtra Heavenly King rewards the good and punishes the evil. He holds a sword in his hand, and once he wields that sword, he thoroughly punishes evildoers without any compassion.”

“How is merciless violence different from brutality?”

“Sinners who fall into hell receive merciless and cruel punishment, suffering for eons of time. But through pain, they wash away their bodily sins, realize Buddha nature, and gain new life. Death and pain are punishment, but also like granting another chance for renewal.”

Beom-mong did not deny violence.

“So, in other words.”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Beom-mong and summarized.

“When there are opponents, the Embracing Sect would endlessly persuade while the Breaking Sect would purge with force.”

“Purge… If we borrow convenient expression, it could be said so. But the Embracing Sect and Breaking Sect have always existed since Shaolin’s early days until now. Like light and shadow, Shaolin’s Two Great Teaching Gates are inseparable.”

“I heard you well. But I’m curious why you told me about Shaolin Temple’s internal problems now.”

“For a long time, Shaolin’s mainstream was the Embracing Sect.”

Beom-mong said with a slight sigh.

“But in the increasingly harsh and turbulent martial world, the Breaking Sect finally gained power. As I said, the Breaking Sect doesn’t refuse any radical methods for implementing the correct dharma. Even cruelty that ordinary people cannot understand is, to the Breaking Sect, the path to the true dharma.”

“Is that why you blocked my path and gave sermons?”

Beom-mong shook his head while slowly pointing both directions with his Zen staff.

The direction Jin Ja-gang came from and the direction Jin Ja-gang was going.

“You may continue on your path, benefactor. Or you may go back. But whichever direction you choose, you’ll lose one side forever.”

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes turned cold.

On the side Jin Ja-gang came from were the three people Yeong-woon, Pyo Sang-guk, and So-min, and on the side he had to go were those from Yangtze River Sword Sect.

He understood what losing one side meant.

The Breaking Sect had intervened in this matter!

However, Jin Ja-gang glared at Beom-mong briefly, then slowly formed a cold smile.

“Truly strange.”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually, those who come to warn of danger in advance don’t speak like you, Master. Usually…”

Jin Ja-gang raised his internal energy with Mad Blood Heaven Piercing.

“Usually, when they speak, there’s ‘compassion’ in their expression.”

Beom-mong showed a flash of surprise on his benevolent face.

“Ah.”

“So do you know what we call speaking like you do, Master?”

Jin Ja-gang emphasized each word separately.

“It’s called, intimidation.”

Needles rolled out from Jin Ja-gang’s sleeves and hid between his palms. Killing intent arose in Jin Ja-gang’s expression.

Beom-mong burst into hearty laughter.

“This is troublesome. I’m really not used to this.”

Jin Ja-gang emitted killing intent toward Beom-mong.

“Tell me, Master. Are you from the Embracing Sect or the Breaking Sect?”

Beom-mong stroked his beard and smiled broadly.

“Of course the Breaking Sect.”

At that moment, all directions became dark.

It was just a brief instant.

Jin Ja-gang felt Beom-mong’s presence approaching.

Though Jin Ja-gang couldn’t see ahead, he instinctively drew up the Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art and extended both hands at maximum speed while pulling needles from between his fingers with Heaven and Earth Eight Defeats.

Swoosh!

Nine of ten needles shot out with lightning speed toward Jin Ja-gang’s front.

And.

Thud!

Before Jin Ja-gang could recover his sight with internal energy, he felt heavy weight on his shoulder.

No, it wasn’t a mistake.

While his eyes were briefly dimmed, Beom-mong had disappeared from view and was somehow sitting on Jin Ja-gang’s shoulders!

‘Kugh!’

Heavy. Unimaginably heavy.

It was so heavy, like having a thousand-pound stone placed on his shoulders, that he couldn’t stand properly. Jin Ja-gang’s waist bent forward like a hunchback.

Thud!

Jin Ja-gang knelt on one knee.

‘Huff! Huk!’

His waist bent so much his face nearly touched the ground.

Beom-mong sat cross-legged on Jin Ja-gang’s shoulders, or rather back, and dropped the poison needles embedded in his kasaya.

Thud, thud thud.

Jin Ja-gang gritted his teeth and forcibly opened his fingers, but the needles that should have protruded between his fingers didn’t come out. The poison needles weren’t rolling out from his sleeves!

‘Ughhhh!’

Such an absurd thing!

Though he hadn’t raised his internal energy to the maximum, he had been sufficiently on guard. But how could Beom-mong have climbed on his back while receiving lightning speed attacks!

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand. Dialogue? Persuasion? Why does the Embracing Sect try to take such a difficult path?”

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t see, but sharp light was shooting from beneath Beom-mong’s white eyebrows. It was similar to killing intent but wasn’t killing intent. Killing intent without compassion. Exactly the feeling Jin Ja-gang had sensed at the gambling den.

Beom-mong pointed to both sides of the path again.

“I give you another chance. You have no other choices, benefactor. All you can do is go forward or go back.”

Beom-mong tapped Jin Ja-gang’s buttocks with his Zen staff like riding a donkey.

Crack!

His whole body rang out sharply. His legs straightened automatically. Not by his own will but by another’s, Jin Ja-gang stood up awkwardly.

Only in the moment Beom-mong struck with his Zen staff could Jin Ja-gang move his legs.

Beom-mong’s intention to force a choice on Jin Ja-gang was clear.

But even Jin Ja-gang, who was usually decisive in choices, found it difficult to decide this time.

He understood why Yangtze River Sword Sect had been so extremely cautious.

Shaolin Temple. It was because of this Shaolin Temple monk.

So he couldn’t go that way.

The gambling den side was the same. The three people Yeong-woon, Pyo Sang-guk, and So-min hadn’t escaped to safety yet. How could the three handle such a monster that even Jin Ja-gang was caught off guard by?

“Hmm? Trying to buy time? Good. Very good. A very good method. Making the three benefactors escape was a very good choice. In this humble monk’s opinion, if you can hold me for about half an hour, the three benefactors’ chances of survival will greatly increase.”

“Why…”

Jin Ja-gang squeezed out all his strength to ask.

“Why… are you targeting them?”

Suddenly Beom-mong’s body became heavier. Jin Ja-gang’s waist hurt as if it would break. Beom-mong had increased his weight using the Thousand Pound Drop technique.

Beom-mong scolded Jin Ja-gang as if displeased.

“There are only two choices. I won’t permit questioning, nor will I permit any other actions. Let’s see if you can endure half an hour.”

Beom-mong’s body became increasingly heavy. Jin Ja-gang raised his internal energy but could barely endure. His posture was unstable so his internal energy couldn’t circulate properly. His legs trembled. Blood rushed to his head making his face feel like bursting. Sweat dripped steadily.

But Jin Ja-gang stubbornly spat out words.

“Don’t ask anything…? Stop talking nonsense.”

“Hmm? Did this humble monk’s words sound like dog barking?”

“In front of me… after wasting time with all sorts of nonsense about Embracing Sect and Breaking Sect… don’t ask?”

Beom-mong’s voice, which had been responding immediately, was cut off very briefly.

It was because Jin Ja-gang realized Beom-mong had an agenda.

“Hmm. A very perceptive benefactor. But being too quick-witted sometimes becomes poison.”

“Don’t lecture me. You’re just trying to use me in the end, yet babbling about killing karma with a gentle face…!”

Beom-mong’s energy became intense. The weight pressing down on Jin Ja-gang proportionally strengthened.

“Kugh!”

Beom-mong spoke in an angry voice.

“Only the true dharma! What is right and correct exists only in the true dharma! Do not test this humble monk’s patience with narrow views that cannot even see outside the well!”

Jin Ja-gang was bent almost to crumpling, sweating like rain from his face, but he mocked Beom-mong.

“You’ll soon find out who really has narrow vision.”

“What?”

“I threw ten needles a moment ago, didn’t I?”

Beom-mong laughed as if incredulous.

“Kekeke, only nine were embedded in this humble monk’s kasaya. Even those couldn’t penetrate the iron silk. Ten? Trying to mock this humble monk with a three-inch tongue…”

But suddenly Beom-mong was shocked and kicked off Jin Ja-gang’s back, leaping up.

Jin Ja-gang was pushed and rolled on the ground. Simultaneously, one needle that had been falling from the sky embedded where Jin Ja-gang had been.

Thwack!

It was revealed where the remaining needle Jin Ja-gang mentioned had been.

Jin Ja-gang had thrown nine needles to the front while throwing one upward with the maximum arc of the Flying Needle Twelve Branches. If Beom-mong had continued sitting on Jin Ja-gang’s back, his head might have been pierced.

“Huh!”

Beom-mong couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.

“You hid a move in between? How did you predict this humble monk’s actions and execute the move?”

Jin Ja-gang tried to stand upright but staggered and fell several times due to the force Beom-mong had planted when kicking off his back. Only after dissipating that force could he barely find his center and stand.

“Isn’t it obvious? You blocked my vision. Of course, I didn’t expect you to climb on my back.”

Jin Ja-gang regulated his breathing. His waist and knees still ached, but he had finally regained a free body. As the internal energy of Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art flowed smoothly through his limbs and body, fatigue began to fade.

“And about hiding moves, that’s not something someone who planted hidden energy while dodging should say, is it?”

“This humble monk misjudged. Others said not to underestimate Poison Dragon, and now I understand why. To have such deep scheming at such a young age.”

Jin Ja-gang immediately channeled internal energy and drew ten needles from his hands with the technique of Heaven and Earth Eight Defeats.

“Now, it seems we have the atmosphere for proper dialogue.”

Without saying anything, Beom-mong planted his Zen staff on the ground, rolled up his monk’s robe, and raised his right hand forcefully upward. Then he slowly pulled his arm back.

Crackle crackle.

The air flow changed.

Jin Ja-gang’s hair stood on end.

Beom-mong’s lips closed tightly and his eyes gleamed.

Beom-mong’s right fist pulled back was sucking in air like a whirlpool.

Beom-mong’s aged lips lifted.

He was smiling.

“Not permitted.”