Chapter 376

Jin Ja-gang spent two more days in the cave.

The external injuries he had sustained were almost completely healed. His leg with the torn muscle still limped, but its movement had improved considerably.

Yuk Ha-seon was impressed.

No matter how abundant one’s internal energy might be, she had never seen anyone recover as quickly as Jin Ja-gang. On the surface, Jin Ja-gang looked like someone who had experienced nothing at all.

In comparison, Yuk Ha-seon had a pale, gaunt face with sunken cheeks that made her cheekbones protrude, and even her eyes had sunk in. This was due to having an entire leg crushed and losing too much blood. She was still far from being able to move around on her own.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Yuk Ha-seon briefly, then found some sturdy bamboo and made her a walking stick.

Yuk Ha-seon had been fascinated by Jin Ja-gang’s behavior throughout.

He possessed endless rage, yet still retained warmth on one side.

“Perhaps it doesn’t suit you…”

At Yuk Ha-seon’s inadvertent comment, Jin Ja-gang stared at her intently.

Yuk Ha-seon, sensing something, didn’t say anything for a while. After continuing to observe Jin Ja-gang and half a day later, she threw out words as if speaking to herself.

“Indeed, my thinking was wrong.”

Jin Ja-gang responded to Yuk Ha-seon’s words.

“I told you. I have no interest in things like being the Tang family’s successor.”

“It seems so. You don’t suit being a successor.”

Yuk Ha-seon said with a smile.

“But someone like you might be the most suitable for King of Hell’s position in today’s world.”

Not suitable as King of Hell’s successor but suitable for King of Hell’s position… Depending on how one heard it, it had a strange nuance.

Seeing Yuk Ha-seon’s gaze, Jin Ja-gang let out a short sigh.

“Think as you please. I plan to leave soon. You’re not in a condition to follow anyway.”

Just then, from outside the cave came the beautiful chirping of a bird, like someone playing a flute.

Tweet tweet-tweet tweet-tweet-tweet.

If one listened carelessly, it was the call of a lark commonly heard in the mountains. It seemed to be looking for a mate, moving here and there while calling instead of staying in one place.

But Yuk Ha-seon’s expression changed upon hearing that call. She struggled to stand up with her walking stick and made her way out of the cave to check on the bird.

The lark, quite cleverly, saw Yuk Ha-seon and flew to perch on a tree near the cave. Its body was brown with shimmering patterns on its chest and black stripes on its forehead.

“It’s a Black Aram. It found its way here.”

At Yuk Ha-seon’s words, Jin Ja-gang realized that bird had significance.

Swish.

A needle appeared between Jin Ja-gang’s fingers. If that bird was looking for them, shouldn’t it be eliminated?

But Yuk Ha-seon raised her hand to stop him.

“There’s no need. Black Aram is the only bird in the Poison Sect that symbolizes peace.”

Peace?

Jin Ja-gang looked at Yuk Ha-seon with puzzled eyes. Yuk Ha-seon said.

“You should know too. When Black Aram is calling, it means someone is looking to meet you.”

“How can I tell if they’re coming with good intentions or not?”

“The intentions might not be good. It might not be someone you were waiting for either.”

Jin Ja-gang asked incredulously.

“Yet you say it symbolizes peace? Usually, peace refers to coming with good intentions.”

Yuk Ha-seon burst into laughter and asked Jin Ja-gang in return.

“Aren’t they kindly informing you that they’ll come to find you instead of secretly ambushing? Where else can you find such a peaceful method? Of course, fighting after meeting is a different matter.”

Though he hadn’t expected a great answer, Jin Ja-gang was even more incredulous and had nothing to say. Yuk Ha-seon’s words weren’t wrong either. People from the Poison Sect were so suspicious that even when meeting each other, they hid their hands in their sleeves.

Yuk Ha-seon whistled.

“Tweet.”

The lark seemed to understand the whistle’s meaning and soon spread its wings and took flight.

Yuk Ha-seon returned to the cave leaning on her walking stick and said.

“A guest will come soon. Don’t rush and wait about one more day.”

“Why should I do that?”

“I told you. Someone is coming to find you with peaceful intentions.”

Yuk Ha-seon only smiled faintly with her haggard face.

But was that really peaceful intention?

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t dispel his suspicions.

It was only half a day later.

Two ordinary villagers came looking for the cave.

One was a hunched old man, and the other was a middle-aged man with a darkly tanned face. Both had ordinary faces with good-natured expressions.

However, Jin Ja-gang could tell at a glance that they were the people Yuk Ha-seon had mentioned. Especially the middle-aged man was even carrying alcohol and boiled chicken in his hands.

“So you were in a place like this.”

Even their speech was so ordinary it felt strange due to the disconnect.

Jin Ja-gang stood in front of the cave and asked them.

“Are you the guests?”

“If you see us as enemies, we could be enemies. If you treat us as guests, we could be guests.”

“I don’t particularly like word games.”

“Then should I say excuse me? We don’t have particularly good feelings yet.”

For a moment, killing intent briefly flashed in the old man’s eyes.

Jin Ja-gang slowly drew up his internal energy and asked.

“Do you know me?”

This time the middle-aged man answered.

“I know. Very well.”

Yuk Ha-seon came out from inside the cave. Seeing them, Yuk Ha-seon looked them up and down for a long while before nodding.

“I don’t know which side, but I can guess who you are.”

Yuk Ha-seon said.

“Seeing that you came directly here, it must have been quite urgent. You worked hard coming here. Thousand Face Blade Master Ro-gwan.”

At that moment, the middle-aged man didn’t answer but smiled silently. His snow-white, even teeth contrasting with the darkly tanned villager’s face was eerie.

* * *

Shaolin Temple’s Arhat Hall.

From the entrance to the great hall, five hundred Arhat statues lined both sides, making ordinary people’s knees weak just by entering.

Inside, in the great hall, all of Shaolin Temple’s core figures were gathered, from the current Eight Great Courtyards’ abbots to former Arhat monks and Vajra monks.

A young Arhat monk read King of Hell Tang Qing’s personal letter.

“This Tang Family Main House… surrenders unconditionally. Hereafter, we will completely follow Shaolin Temple’s disposition and…”

After the young Arhat monk finished reading the entire letter, comments came from here and there.

“To think of gathering forces on the surface while sending a document of surrender from behind. King of Hell is indeed King of Hell.”

“Seeing King of Hell keep stalling for time, there must be some scheme.”

“That’s why we shouldn’t have taken lightly the suggestion to kill King of Hell first before starting the Righteous Dharma March.”

Opinions also came from the opposite side.

“If we didn’t want to see this mess, we should have deployed the Arhats to clean up Sichuan when Brother Beom-mong passed away. Didn’t we expect this level of resistance?”

“The time King of Hell can buy by surrendering unconditionally is at most a month. Even if he plays tricks, we just need to clean up other places first.”

After enough discussion had taken place for a while, everyone’s eyes moved to the monk with an upright posture standing in the center.

Hui-neung.

A legend of Shaolin Temple who had never lost once despite nearing his mid-nineties.

Hui-neung raised his eyes and spoke quietly.

“Since when… has our Shaolin paid attention to others’ opinions? The path we walk is not our path alone, but a path shared with tens of millions of Buddhist disciples. There is nothing to fear or be afraid of.”

At the sharp tone close to rebuke, the monks nodded in agreement.

Hui-neung was the head of the Breaking Sect and currently the supreme decision-maker of the emergency committee due to the Righteous Dharma March.

Having received most authority from Abbot Great Buddha Beom-bon, virtually no policy could be pursued in current Shaolin Temple without going through Hui-neung.

Especially his most powerful authority was the right to pass the Green Jade Buddha Staff to the next generation.

Because of this, when the Breaking Sect and Embracing Sect alternated and external policies changed completely, someone above the current abbot’s allocation had to take charge of the temporary emergency committee.

Thinking everyone understood his words, Hui-neung finally turned his head to Great Buddha Beom-bon.

Beom-bon was so massive that even sitting, he was almost the same height as others standing.

“Let me hear the Abbot’s thoughts.”

Only then did Great Buddha Beom-bon open his mouth with his rumbling voice.

“Master Uncle and my fellow brothers. I have listened well to everyone’s words. However, righteous dharma must sweep away everything like a vast flood while simultaneously embracing everything. Extermination is part of purification, not the top priority.”

Hui-neung answered.

“The Righteous Dharma March that has already begun cannot and should not be stopped. The martial world is more chaotic and complicated than ever before. If we cannot uproot evil this time, the martial world will face a very long dark age. The Righteous Dharma March is something that must be carried out even at the cost of our temple’s fate.”

“That would be the same opinion for all of us, even without sectarian differences.”

“Then we must now send a reply to the personal letter. And simultaneously, we must not give him any more time so as not to be played by King of Hell’s schemes. Do you have any opinions on how to proceed?”

Beom-bon showed the palm of his thick, pot-lid-like hand.

“Being caught between advance and retreat, there’s no meaning in being swayed by meaningless proposals. We have already lost much time just by having to respond to the personal letter.”

“Are you saying to ignore the personal letter?”

“We cannot do so according to martial world propriety. Rather, I consider sending an envoy to the Tang Family Main House to accept the surrender.”

Hui-neung’s white caterpillar-like eyebrows twitched.

Other monks also showed dissatisfied looks.

Beom-bon continued.

“However, afterward, it will be the same as always.”

Hui-neung looked at Beom-bon for a moment, then made an expression showing he understood the meaning.

“Same as always” meant bringing King of Hell Tang Qing. Since he said to leave the disposition after surrender to Shaolin Temple, it was a proposal to deal with Tang Qing as the price of surrender.

No matter what anyone said, the core of the Poison Sect was King of Hell Tang Qing. If Tang Qing disappeared, the Poison Sect’s cohesion would inevitably weaken.

One of the Breaking Sect monks listening said as if talking to himself.

“Just in time, the Poison Sect’s Six Cliques suffered great damage due to that child called Poison Dragon, so whatever King of Hell’s plan is, there will surely be setbacks.”

But someone refuted his words.

“Your words… are all wrong.”

Though it was a small, powerless voice, everyone didn’t let the words pass and straightened their posture.

Mu-gak was entering the Arhat Hall with a haggard face, held in an Arhat monk’s arms.

“The situation has changed.”

Everyone turned toward Mu-gak to greet him.

Hui-neung asked.

“Master Uncle, what do you mean?”

Mu-gak tried to answer but coughed.

The Arhat monk holding Mu-gak answered instead.

“Just now, news came that Mount Hua Sect’s Ham-geun was poisoned to death while returning from Henan.”

The monks’ faces hardened.

Hui-neung’s facial expression also visibly worsened. Hui-neung asked the Arhat monk in a low, growling voice.

“Who is the culprit?”

“It’s presumed to be Leper Mound.”

“Leper Mound?”

“Thousand Face Blade Master Ro-gwan has entered Yeonam.”

The faces of the assembled monks reddened. Some couldn’t hide their anger.

“Since when did Henan become a playground for scum like the Poison Sect!”

Mu-gak, whose coughing had subsided, asked the monks.

“King of Hell has joined hands with the Righteous Alliance. Mount Hua Sect is participating in the Righteous Alliance. But why would Leper Mound from the Poison Sect’s Six Cliques strike Mount Hua Sect’s Ham-geun?”