Chapter 508

Jin Ja-gang’s entire body was almost shattered.

Son-bi wiped Jin Ja-gang’s body every morning and checked his condition each time, and was amazed every time.

—How can you fight with a body like this?

“I fought because I had to fight.”

—It was something only Poison Dragon in the world could do.

“Not quite. As far as I know, there was at least one more person.”

The existence of Taoist Haewol still remained vividly with Jin Ja-gang.

Son-bi nodded to agree with Jin Ja-gang’s words, then suddenly pouted her lips.

—I thought there were only the two of us here?

She was saying that Taoist Haewol remained in Jin Ja-gang’s heart.

Son-bi wanted time alone with him to continue focusing on her, and had finally gotten that time. So she was throwing a tantrum, asking him to forget Taoist Haewol too.

Jin Ja-gang smiled faintly.

Son-bi turned her head away with a hmph in a sulky manner.

She was Son-bi, who stood out the most in appearance among the Three Dragons and Four Phoenixes. Turning her head with a slightly sullen face, she was pretty.

Even if Jin Ja-gang didn’t obsess over appearance, he wasn’t ignorant of beauty.

“Miss.”

—Why?

Son-bi seemed to speak with her expression without even turning her gaze.

“I’m sorry.”

Son-bi turned her head. Her expression was full of hurt. Son-bi wrote with her finger on Jin Ja-gang’s bare chest.

—I don’t like that either.

“Pardon?”

—How long will you be sorry to me? Please don’t make me feel sorry for you. At least while we’re together here.

“I understand.”

—Don’t say you understand either.

“Haha, then what should I say?”

—Call my name.

Jin Ja-gang called Son-bi’s name.

“Son-bi. Miss Son-bi.”

Just calling her name felt strangely very awkward. However, Son-bi was happy.

—Hearing my name in your voice, that’s what I like best right now.

Son-bi prepared a wet cloth and began wiping Jin Ja-gang’s body.

Inside was a mess but outwardly he looked fine as if completely healed. Different from yesterday again. Scabs fell off and new flesh emerged, revealing Jin Ja-gang’s transparent white entire body. It was the same as a perfectly healthy man lying naked.

Son-bi’s cheeks reddened. No, they had been red for a while. But she didn’t avert her gaze.

—I’m… too bold, aren’t I?

Jin Ja-gang felt awkward and couldn’t answer.

—But I can’t help it. Because this might be my last time with you.

Jin Ja-gang closed his eyes silently.

He understood Son-bi’s heart, but Jin Ja-gang had a path to go.

Right now he had to leave everything to Son-bi and focus on recovery.

The Illusory Demon God was heading to the Tang Family Great Estate.

He had to stand up as soon as possible.

* * *

Shocking news shook the jianghu.

The Great Buddha was defeated by Poison Dragon!

The fact that Yeong-hwi informed the Tang Family Great Estate spread throughout the entire jianghu.

Some didn’t believe it. The Great Buddha’s whereabouts were mysterious. Life and death itself wasn’t confirmed. So there were those who believed he would return.

However, no matter how long they waited, news that the Great Buddha returned to Shaolin Temple didn’t come.

The Righteous Dharma March was temporarily suspended and all Arhat monks set out on the return journey to Shaolin Temple.

The jianghu was engulfed in shock.

Two of the Three Martial Venerables, the Thunder Emperor and the Demon Emperor.

And even the Great Buddha with Vajra Indestructible Body.

Poison Dragon had defeated all the renowned super masters of the jianghu.

The landscape of the jianghu completely overturned.

Everyone watched Jin Ja-gang’s actions. Depending on how Jin Ja-gang moved forward, the flow of the jianghu would change entirely.

The small boy Jin Ja-gang from Yunnan was once merely a curiosity, but now had become a great existence more than capable of controlling the jianghu martial world.

Especially the Tang Family Great Estate, which would become Jin Ja-gang’s in-laws, had their standing leap up.

However, the Tang Family Great Estate couldn’t just be happy.

They also heard from Yeong-hwi that the Great Buddha’s assassin, the Illusory Demon God, was heading to the Tang Family Great Estate.

Some argued they should go rescue Jin Ja-gang since he was seriously injured, but the acting family head Tang Ha-ran didn’t allow it. What was important now was protecting the Tang Family Great Estate.

Thus the Tang Family Great Estate deployed strict vigilance and waited for the Illusory Demon God.

Tang Ha-ran’s trust in Jin Ja-gang was very firm.

Even though she heard from Yeong-hwi that Son-bi was caring for Jin Ja-gang alone…

* * *

Jin Ja-gang invested all his time except for the one meal a day when Son-bi fed him in internal cultivation.

The fight with the Great Buddha Beom-bon also greatly helped Jin Ja-gang.

He reviewed the fight with Beom-bon and ruminated over the enlightenment gained.

Beom-bon’s Vajra Indestructible Body was a wall difficult enough for Jin Ja-gang. He used only basic martial arts but there was nothing he could do. If not for An Ryeong, he wouldn’t have even found Vajra Indestructible Body’s weakness.

After ascending to the Eighth Light Dikes of Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunders Toad Art Technique, it was the first worst fight he experienced. If he met someone close to Vajra Indestructible Body again, could Jin Ja-gang handle it alone?

Of course, even Vajra Indestructible Body wasn’t inhuman. In the end, Beom-bon was also mentally cornered and abandoned his specialty, recklessly using advanced martial arts.

However, to make that happen, one must have enough strength to surpass Vajra Indestructible Body.

What remained for Jin Ja-gang was the Ninth Light Stage.

Nine dikes.

Jin Ja-gang tried calling the Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit.

Come out, Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit.

The Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit awoke from sleep. A vortex-shaped whirlpool formed and the flow compressed the acupoints. If all seven dikes he had were filled with whirlpools, the Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit would become the new eighth dike and embrace all the dikes.

However, right now the acupoints weren’t stable enough to fill all seven dikes. The acupoints barely recovering could be destroyed again by the tremendous flow of the whirlpool. The Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit couldn’t come out and hid again.

Jin Ja-gang rechecked the seven dikes.

The dikes of Jade Void Nine Lights he heard from Dan Ryeong-gyeong were nine in total.

Lower dantian. Middle dantian. Upper dantian. Left and right palm centers, left and right Yongcheon points. Huiyin point, and Mingmen point.

Jin Ja-gang built dikes in seven places excluding the destroyed lower dantian and the Baihui forcibly opened by Mang Ryo. Even so, he ascended to the Eighth Light Stage. He was already on a different path from the path of Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunders Toad Art he heard from Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

“Toad Art has no true words, and the Five Thunders Shaking Heaven Technique remaining in the Xiangjiao has no formulas.”

This was the Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunders Toad Art interpreted by Venerable Woo-am. However, making that judgment was from a time when even Venerable Woo-am didn’t properly know the latter half. Moreover, Venerable Woo-am bore mistranslation and changed the formulas of Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunders Toad Art plainly for Dan Ryeong-gyeong.

The current Jin Ja-gang had surpassed the martial principles interpreted by Venerable Woo-am. He could no longer rely on Venerable Woo-am’s interpretation.

Then what about Yelu Huan?

Ya Yul-hwan explained the final form of Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunders Toad Art as follows:

“The whirlpool is part of the great river and cannot stop the great river’s mighty flow. Unity is the great river. The great river includes all kinds of tributaries and whirlpools.”

Jin Ja-gang created dikes which are tributaries through the Whirlpool Filling Stage and subjugated the Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit which is the great river through the dikes.

Wasn’t this the end of Unity? Wasn’t the Calamity Slaying Demon Spirit the great river?

Then where is the ninth dike?

Yelu Huan said Jin Ja-gang had reached his own Unity.

At the end of that path would be the Ninth Lights Stage.

Jin Ja-gang ruminated from the beginning on what Unity is.

Unity is each being free while maintaining order.

Contradictory but not contradictory.

Yin and simultaneously yang.

Different yet not different, same yet not same…

Jin Ja-gang continued thinking deeply.

“I am now in Unity, but it’s not the end of Unity. The end of Unity is not the end but also the beginning. Unity is… nature’s original form and final form…”

Jin Ja-gang unconsciously raised his hand. No, he couldn’t actually raise his hand wrapped tightly in splints.

However, Jin Ja-gang raised his hand in mental imagery and drew a circle in the air.

Internal energy naturally circulated through Jin Ja-gang’s entire body.

Four Kinds of Birth. Without moving the body directly, energy moved by mind born from energy.

Son-bi witnessed that scene.

She couldn’t help but be too amazed.

On the wall… a circle was being drawn.

Jin Ja-gang didn’t move a fingertip. Yet the wall naturally indented and a round circle was being drawn.

Slowly, yet a perfect circle as if drawn in one stroke…

Son-bi held her breath.

“Eight Ox Pictures…”

An enlightened Taoist drew the training of Taoist mental techniques in eight pictures.

The first picture was of a boy sitting down holding an empty bridle.

Seeking the Ox, meaning just entering training without knowing what to seek.

The second picture was of the boy following the ox’s footprints.

Seeing Traces, the process of gradually finding what one seeks like following the ox’s footprints.

In the third picture, the boy was looking at the rear view of a red ox.

Seeing the Ox, meaning knowing innate internal energy and following it.

The fourth picture was of the boy holding a bridle fighting with the red ox.

Obtaining the Ox, the process of trying to bring in innate internal energy while fighting endless distracting thoughts.

In the fifth picture, the boy gave up on the ox, but the ox followed the boy on its own and was changing from red to pure white.

Tending the Ox, meaning finally obtaining internal energy by not striving to pursue and abandoning the attachment to obtain, even abandoning the mind to catch the ox.

In the sixth picture, the boy rode the ox blowing a flute returning home.

Riding the Ox Home, even the bridle isn’t needed. Being able to train internal energy with an unwavering mind anytime, anywhere.

In the seventh picture, as in the first picture, the ox isn’t visible and only the boy stands alone. However, the boy now stands confidently without being flustered.

Forgetting the Ox, since the boy already found and tamed the ox, he no longer needed to obsess over taming the ox. Likewise, it means internal energy reaches the extreme state even without obsessing over training.

The eighth picture.

Everything is empty [Person and Ox Both Forgotten].

In the last picture of the Eight Ox Pictures, only a single circle is drawn.

Finally the boy forgot himself too. No person, no ox. No person chasing the ox, no bridle, no flute. Finally everything formed unity.

This last picture is Person and Ox Both Forgotten, considered the final mental attainment among Taoist training methods.

Transcending everything and becoming sufficient in everything, the state of returning to emptiness where there’s nothing to become or seek.

“Person and Ox Both Forgotten…”

Son-bi also only heard of it in words and had never seen it happen before her eyes.

The single circle appearing in the last picture of the Eight Ox Pictures.

That Person and Ox Both Forgotten was being drawn on the cave wall right now.