Chapter 501

Beom-bon is Vajra Indestructible Body.

An Ryeong stopped what Jin Ja-gang was about to say.

“I know.”

She knows?

An Ryeong glared at Beom-bon and said to Jin Ja-gang.

“Don’t look down on our family. There’s a reason we’ve survived in the martial world for so long.”

Beom-bon said with displeasure.

“The An Family Medical Clinic should only practice medicine. That’s the only way to survive. If you continue hovering around the martial world and government, attaching yourselves to this side and that, you won’t be able to survive going forward.”

“Don’t preach. To a descendant of the family you killed.”

An Ryeong stood tragically before Beom-bon. Then she said to Jin Ja-gang.

“I have one request.”

Jin Ja-gang realized from An Ryeong’s expression and tone that he could no longer stop her.

“Tell me.”

“Protect our family.”

Protect the An Family…

It wasn’t something he could easily answer.

It would mean protecting them not only from Shaolin Temple but from all kinds of threats.

“I’m not just asking. If I can be of help, just until our family can stand on its own… help us.”

Jin Ja-gang answered immediately.

“It’s difficult.”

“I know, our family is your enemy. But that’s really too much. In this situation, it would be nice if you’d say yes even as a lie.”

An Ryeong smiled sadly.

“That’s why somehow, even though I like you, I can’t get close.”

An Ryeong’s sadness was transmitted to Jin Ja-gang too.

“…Miss An Ryeong.”

Beom-bon shook his head and said.

“Affection between men and women is futile. What kind of foolish play is this before this humble monk?”

An Ryeong shouted.

“You also came into this world through your father and mother’s affection!”

Beom-bon raised his thick hand and swung it like a fan.

Whooom!

All the tables and broken debris in front of Beom-bon were swept away. An Ryeong’s hair and clothes fluttered as if encountering a strong wind. Debris embedded in her head, face, and body. A vase fragment also stuck in her lips and blood flowed.

An Ryeong was only pushed back slightly by the wind pressure, but without blinking an eye, she looked at Beom-bon. She pulled out the vase fragment stuck in her lips and threw it.

Beom-bon said.

“Oral karma. Sins committed with the mouth are also grave sins. How can a woman speak blasphemously and carelessly of relations between men and women?”

An Ryeong glared at Beom-bon with angry eyes and said.

“You call natural things between men and women blasphemous, speak of women, while actually committing all kinds of sins yourselves. You were also born from a mother’s belly. Who is more detestable?”

“Why, of course…”

Beom-bon narrowed his eyes and smiled.

“The ignorant sentient beings.”

Jin Ja-gang tried to raise his internal energy and face Beom-bon. But An Ryeong blocked Jin Ja-gang’s way.

“Don’t interfere! This is my fight.”

Though An Ryeong’s skill in strangling a Vajra monk to death with bare hands was considerable, she was in a different dimension from Beom-bon. Naturally impossible.

“Don’t be stubborn. He’s not an opponent you can beat with stubbornness.”

Beom-bon interjected in their conversation.

“It’s fine.”

Beom-bon walked forward. Each time Beom-bon walked, his body split in two.

“I’ll face both of you at the same time.”

Without anyone going first, An Ryeong went to the left, Jin Ja-gang to Beom-bon’s right side.

Whoosh! Beom-bon appeared on both sides simultaneously.

The first Beom-bon struck An Ryeong’s jaw with Five-Clawed Dragon and the second Beom-bon kicked Jin Ja-gang’s chest with crane fist.

An Ryeong staggered pushed by the wind pressure of Five-Clawed Dragon and leaned her waist back to dodge. Jin Ja-gang also twisted his body to deflect Beom-bon’s kick, but his body shook greatly from the kick’s wind pressure.

An Ryeong flipped backward and kicked up at Beom-bon’s armpit with her toes. Jin Ja-gang tried to strike Beom-bon’s shin with Capturing Dragon Claw while regaining his center, but hesitated without realizing it.

Beom-bon is Vajra Indestructible Body. The obvious doubt that such attacks wouldn’t work made Jin Ja-gang hesitate.

In an instant, a third Beom-bon appeared and struck An Ryeong with a tiger fist. An Ryeong didn’t dodge but struck Beom-bon’s elbow and wrist with her palm. Beom-bon took no damage but chunks of flesh fell from An Ryeong’s shoulder. An Ryeong hastily rolled on the floor to avoid the follow-up.

The second Beom-bon rotated continuously and kicked Jin Ja-gang in a circle. Jin Ja-gang lowered his arms to block, but with his ribs making a cracking sound in his side, he took the shock directly and flew away. While rolling to get up, his right knee twisted and he knelt awkwardly.

But then Jin Ja-gang saw An Ryeong holding extremely thin multi-layered cloth in her lips. An Ryeong had her index, middle, and ring fingers on each cloth, and the cloths extended long, connected to Beom-bon’s wrist.

An Ryeong narrowed her eyes and concentrated on her lips and fingertips. She grasped without missing any of the cloth’s vibrations transmitted extremely faintly.

“Oh. Indeed the An Family Medical Clinic.”

Beom-bon raised his hand and made a sound of admiration upon seeing the cloth tied to his wrist.

“Did you offer your shoulder to feel this humble monk’s pulse?”

However, An Ryeong’s eyes were darkly blackened.

She was poisoned by the toxic energy Jin Ja-gang had spread while fighting Beom-bon.

As a descendant of a medical family, she couldn’t not know she would be poisoned. Yet was there a reason to endure poisoning and even sustain shoulder injuries to feel Beom-bon’s pulse?

***

Namgung Rak muttered.

“Great Buddha is Vajra Indestructible Body…”

Invincible.

If Beom-bon achieved Vajra Indestructible Body, Beom-bon is invincible. Even if Beom-bon’s martial arts were insufficient to kill an opponent, the opponent also couldn’t kill Beom-bon.

Im Yi-eon said as if talking to herself.

“Vajra Indestructible Body is difficult to achieve but also difficult to break. In the past when a renegade monk from the Western Regions achieved Vajra Indestructible Body, a thousand absolute masters of the orthodox path were needed to kill him.”

Tang Ha-ran’s eyes flashed. If it’s not that there’s no way to kill him!

“How did they kill him?”

“They poured palm force containing massive internal energy until Vajra Indestructible Body broke, and pounded with sword energy. However… in the end, before Vajra Indestructible Body was destroyed, the renegade monk died with his internal organs melted.”

At the gruesome result, Tang Ha-ran gritted her teeth. Was there really no method at all?

Tang Ha-ran asked as if remembering.

“The aperture gate… even Vajra Indestructible Body must have an aperture gate!”

Mu-gak answered.

“When you become Vajra Indestructible Body, the aperture gate is hidden.”

“Hi…dden?”

“For example, the aperture gate of Golden Bell Shield, another type of protective energy, is usually at the Changgang acupoint at the tailbone. If you give a great shock to the Changgang acupoint with internal family heavy hand methods, the flow of internal energy supporting the protective energy is cut off and Golden Bell Shield is destroyed.”

“What happens when you become Vajra Indestructible Body?”

“The acupoint that becomes a weakness is blocked and self-seals.”

Tang Ha-ran’s face turned completely white.

The acupoint that becomes a weakness blocks itself!

Literally it becomes a dead point and can no longer have any effect.

Just like how Jin Ja-gang’s acupoints were completely blocked before and pressure points didn’t work.

If the aperture gate that’s the weakness is sealed, isn’t that something that can no longer even be called a weakness!

“However, even among the sealed points when becoming Vajra Indestructible Body, there are types.”

Mu-gak explained.

“When feeling the pulse of one who became Vajra Indestructible Body, if it beats like water boiling in a cauldron, it’s called boiling cauldron pulse, and the aperture becomes a live point for only six double-hours a day.”

It meant half the day the weakness appears, and it’s hidden for half.

“If the pulse wavers like a fish moving its tail, it’s called fish soaring pulse, and the aperture can only be destroyed with yin-cold internal heavy hand methods. If the pulse is hard like stone, it’s called striking stone pulse, and you must first strike the Kidney Meridian of Foot-Shaoyin for the aperture to open. And…”

Finding the type of sealed point itself was already an extremely tricky domain of medicine. Jin Ja-gang would find it difficult to discover, medicinal herbs aside.

But… even if Jin Ja-gang grasped Beom-bon’s pulse and found the type of sealed point, it’s the same. Opening the hidden aperture itself is complex, and even after opening the aperture, the conditions to destroy it must be met.

How could all this be matched!

No wonder a thousand absolute masters were needed to kill the Western Regions’ renegade monk.

Tang Ha-ran asked haltingly with a face drained of blood.

“Great Buddha’s… what is his sealed point?”

Mu-gak slowly shook his head.

“Only Great Buddha knows that.”

“Still… it’s not like there’s no method. He… surely… will find a way. Surely…”

Tang Ha-ran hugged Poison Heaven tightly with trembling hands.

***

Jin Ja-gang’s mind snapped alert at the sudden voice transmission in his ear.

『Concentrate! Soon Great Buddha’s aperture gate will open. Absolutely don’t miss it!』

An Ryeong was sending voice transmission to Jin Ja-gang while preparing to approach Beom-bon.

『When the aperture is revealed, use all your strength to strike with internal heavy hand. If your strength is even slightly insufficient, Vajra Indestructible Body won’t break.』

But Jin Ja-gang stopped her aloud.

“Stop.”

An Ryeong frowned but Jin Ja-gang gestured with his eyes toward Beom-bon.

“Great Buddha already knows.”

An Ryeong hesitated.

Beom-bon broke the cloth at his wrist and smiled broadly.

“His words are correct. Your grandfather did exactly the same thing.”

Tears welled in An Ryeong’s eyes as she gritted her teeth.

“So that’s it. That’s why even though you guessed the circumstances before and after, you used it as an excuse to kill grandfather. Because you didn’t want to leave behind the future trouble of eliminating Vajra Indestructible Body.”

Beom-bon shook his head.

“That’s a misunderstanding. How would this humble monk consider something like the An Family Medical Clinic as a future trouble? If so, I wouldn’t have said I’d leave the An Family Medical Clinic. Surely you don’t think this humble monk is doing this relying only on Vajra Indestructible Body?”

Beom-bon spread both arms.

“Then try it. Your grandfather didn’t succeed, but perhaps you might be able to.”

Crack!

An Ryeong’s eyes became redder. An Ryeong launched her body toward Beom-bon.

“Die!”

He couldn’t just leave An Ryeong alone. If An Ryeong knew a way to break Vajra Indestructible Body, he had to help her do it.

Jin Ja-gang quickly swallowed a breath and chased after An Ryeong. Because of his misaligned knee, he had no speed and only severe pain. But Jin Ja-gang endured the pain and kicked off.

Reverse Afterimage Soul Movement Technique! Jin Ja-gang’s body momentarily left afterimages and caught up with An Ryeong. Before An Ryeong, Jin Ja-gang’s hand covered Beom-bon’s face. Poison needles were inserted between Jin Ja-gang’s fingers. The poison needles stabbed at Beom-bon’s pupils. Beom-bon lightly blocked Jin Ja-gang’s attack by closing his eyes. The poison needles stuck in his eyelids didn’t go in further.

Jin Ja-gang thrust poison needles into Beom-bon’s ear. Beom-bon very slightly turned his head and the poison needles caught on his earlobe. Beom-bon pushed Jin Ja-gang away with a palm like a pot lid. Jin Ja-gang rolled on the floor several times. Simultaneously, An Ryeong struck Beom-bon’s arm with her palm.

Bang! Bang bang!

She struck palms consecutively following the meridian of the arm. The nine points of the Heart Meridian of Hand-Shaoyin extending from inside the arm to the little finger.

Though there were no traces of impact on the surface, from Beom-bon’s right arm came continuous sounds of firecrackers bursting.

An Ryeong found the way to open Beom-bon’s sealed aperture gate!