Chapter 514

“Vajra Indestructible Body… Vajra Indestructible Body. Vajra Indestructible Body…”

The Bright Demon God muttered.

“Do you want to become Vajra Indestructible Body?”

“I have to…”

The Bright Demon God’s eyes became hazy.

“I can become the true king and save Shaolin. The only thing higher than the Shaolin sect leader is the king.”

“You want to defeat the Great Buddha.”

The Bright Demon God suddenly shouted.

“I can’t defeat my martial brother unless I become Vajra Indestructible Body!”

“Why do you try to win? Do you want to become sect leader yourself?”

“My martial brother is strange. Shaolin also became strange. Only the true king who became Vajra Indestructible Body can stop my martial brother. I have to become Vajra Indestructible Body to become the true king and stop my martial brother.”

Even though his mind was gone, had he been feeling Shaolin Temple’s atmosphere?

“Master said. My martial brother learned the wrong things there.”

The Hungry Ghost King!

The Bright Demon God spoke indignantly.

“My martial brother must have learned how to become Vajra Indestructible Body there behind Master’s back! That’s why I couldn’t become king.”

“Where is there?”

“No!”

The Bright Demon God shouted again.

“Not other people! Everyone becomes strange!”

Jin Ja-gang put strength in his hand and said.

“Didn’t you ask me earlier if I was the true king? I am the king here.”

“Urk.”

The Bright Demon God exhaled a pained groan and raised his pupils to look up at Jin Ja-gang.

Force emanating from tremendous internal energy. Overwhelming martial power.

The Bright Demon God felt like he was facing a high wall.

“Asura…, Asura’s… King!”

The Bright Demon God suddenly muttered.

“The Asura King commands… A king’s words are absolute, so he can do anything. The majesty of the true king can command anyone’s death. Even the Ten Major Precepts cannot stop a king.”

“That’s right. So answer. Where did the Great Buddha come from?”

The Bright Demon God shouted.

“Your Majesty! I shall report. Crescent Moon! My martial brother came from a place where sandstorms blow and crying sounds fill the air!”

Moon Fang means crescent moon.

Thousand-Faced Thief No-gwan shouted.

“Crescent Moon Spring! Singing Sand Mountain’s Crescent Moon Spring!”

A famous location in the middle of Gansu Province’s desert, where a crescent moon-shaped spring that hasn’t dried up for thousands of years exists.

“Singing Sand Mountain, Crescent Moon Spring.”

Jin Ja-gang murmured once more.

Now he had finally found a clue about the Hungry Ghost King’s whereabouts.

The Bright Demon God continued shouting and became rapidly excited. His eyes started rolling back.

“Great compassion great mercy Tao transformed universal! Discipline absorb good absorb absorb all sentient beings, southern Shakyamuni Buddha Buddha Bodhisattva Guanyin!”

The Bright Demon God endured and tried to stand up. His eyes flickered. He glared at Tang Ha-ran and Poison Heaven standing far away and raged.

“Your Majesty! Please permit me! I shall kill them and become free!”

Jin Ja-gang answered immediately.

“Denied!”

“Then release me! I shall secretly kill them and go when the king is absent!”

“I deny it.”

“Your Majesty, I report that I shall enter the sandstorm and become Vajra Indestructible Body! And I will become king!”

“Likewise denied.”

The Bright Demon God ground his teeth hard. Killing intent surged from his entire body.

“Then I’ll kill you and become king!”

The Bright Demon God’s fine hair rose and his muscles swelled tightly. He tried to forcibly stand up.

“Kyaaaah!”

The moment the Bright Demon God stepped one foot to rise, palm force from Internal Heavy Hand Method spewed from Jin Ja-gang’s palm. Unity’s internal energy instantly neutralized the Bright Demon God’s poison resistance ability and seeped into his head along with poison energy.

Pop.

A small sound of something bursting came from inside the Bright Demon God’s head.

Jin Ja-gang said coldly.

“That too is denied.”

Blood slowly filled the Bright Demon God’s wide-open eyes.

Each time he breathed through his nose and mouth, gurgling sounds came and bloody foam boiled up.

Gurgle, gurgle.

Asura Blood circulated throughout the Bright Demon God’s entire body.

The Bright Demon God’s insides began to melt.

“King…”

The Bright Demon God ground his teeth while glaring at Jin Ja-gang.

Gurgle.

“King…”

Gurgle.

The light of life went out from the Bright Demon God’s eyes. Jin Ja-gang grabbed the Bright Demon God’s head and turned it one rotation. The neck as thick as a child’s torso twisted without fail.

Crack!

The Bright Demon God collapsed.

Jin Ja-gang’s appearance of perfectly subduing the Bright Demon God was close to a Martial God.

Everyone looked at Jin Ja-gang.

“He’s no longer just Asura anymore.”

Yuk Ha-seon received Tap Tak-yeon’s murmur.

“He’s the Asura King.”

Jin Ja-gang walked to Namgung Rak. Then he pulled out the Ladle River Divine Sword from his back and held it out.

Namgung Rak looked at the Ladle River Divine Sword broken in half and laughed emptily. Jin Ja-gang had said from the beginning it would be that way, but he didn’t really know it would be like this.

“Thanks to Absolute Slow Sword, I could defeat the Great Buddha.”

Namgung Rak collected the Ladle River Divine Sword and said.

“Consider that you did it in my stead.”

Im Yi-eon approached.

“Where is Son-bi?”

“She left.”

At Jin Ja-gang’s plain tone, Im Yi-eon made a low exclamation of “Ah!”

She seemed to intuit what had happened.

“Then I also no longer need to be here. I’ve been much indebted during this time.”

Im Yi-eon immediately bid farewell to the many people. Despite her injuries not all being healed, she straightened her back and left the Tang Family Great Estate immediately without any delay.

Mu-gak approached the Bright Demon God’s corpse with Yuk Ha-seon’s help. He had the Bright Demon God’s neck turned back to normal and chanted sutras while stroking the Bright Demon God with his fingers.

As sutra sounds rang out and Tang Family warriors cleaned up the disordered space, Jin Ja-gang remained continuously immersed in thought.

* * *

A meeting was held.

Mu-gak, the Tang Family’s leadership, and the Poison Cliques gathered together.

Mu-gak opened his mouth.

“Buddhist sects place great importance on connections. Therefore, all disciples of Shaolin Temple are required to go on jianghu journeys before taking in disciples. The former abbot probably met the Great Buddha while doing so.”

Yuk Ha-seon said.

“The Bright Demon God said his master said the Great Buddha learned the wrong things. The Bright Demon God seemed to think it was Vajra Indestructible Body, but it probably refers to the Great Buddha’s improper beliefs.”

“That must be it.”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“The Great Buddha mentioned his master several times in front of me. He already had a master before catching the abbot’s eye and entering Shaolin Temple.”

Everyone intuited that master was the Hungry Ghost King.

Tang Ha-ran spread out several bamboo slips. Before the meeting, she had mobilized all personnel to collect clues about Crescent Moon Spring and the surrounding area.

“At Crescent Moon Spring, there’s a large estate and a four-story pavilion. The pavilion is used as an inn and the estate…”

Tang Ha-ran paused briefly, then looked around at those gathered and slowly continued.

“It’s said to be a nursery that raises orphans.”

Everyone’s eyes became subtle. They understood why Tang Ha-ran had paused mid-sentence.

They raise orphans!

That was a very meaningful clue.

“It’s said to be a nursery with over two hundred years of tradition. And it still remains even now.”

Beom-bon spent his childhood there. And if he met the Hungry Ghost King as his master there!

Everyone realized. Crescent Moon Spring’s nursery might not be a place that simply cares for orphans.

No-gwan suddenly realized.

He spoke as if shouting.

“Dunhuang! It’s Dunhuang. Next to Mingsha Mountain’s Crescent Moon Spring is the huge desert city of Dunhuang.”

No-gwan had traveled to many places as an assassin. Among them, he had been to Dunhuang.

“Dunhuang is the most remote frontier from the Central Plains while existing in the middle of the desert. Ordinary people find it difficult to approach easily, and it’s a place where they don’t feel the need to go, so it doesn’t stand out. On the other hand, as an important trade route connecting the Western Regions and the Central Plains, countless caravans pass through Dunhuang every day.”

No-gwan continued his explanation.

“In other words, geographically they can obtain all information from the Western Regions and Central Plains, and it’s easy to command people. Since Western Region people and Central Plains people mingle, no matter when, where, or what kind of people come and go, it doesn’t seem strange.”

Yuk Ha-seon rubbed his arms as if getting goosebumps.

“If the Hungry Ghost King’s forces are hiding, it’s the most optimal location.”

The Tang Family elders said.

“That could be.”

“If Dunhuang is the Hungry Ghost King’s base, it explains why it was difficult to find traces of the Hungry Ghost King in the Central Plains.”

“Clearly he’s exerting influence across the entire Central Plains, yet we couldn’t know where the communication network starts…”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“Trading companies.”

The Hungry Ghost King had deep connections with trading companies.

If he exchanged information and issued orders using caravans that constantly came and went, everything is explained…

The elders, Mu-gak, and the Five Poisons and Three Evils looked at each other.

The Hungry Ghost King…

They had learned of the most suspicious location as the Hungry Ghost King’s base.

After a long silence, Baek Oh-sa said.

“Dragon’s pool and tiger’s den. The location of one who gripped and shook the entire jianghu. We don’t know what awaits.”

Yuk Ha-seon asked Jin Ja-gang.

“How can you judge the Nameless Slave’s martial arts?”

“He seemed no less than the Bright Demon God.”

The Tang Family elders sighed.

“How many more such people might there be…”

Even if Jin Ja-gang didn’t know, others couldn’t handle them.

The Tang Family elders seriously focused on Tang Ha-ran.

If there were several more monsters like the Great Buddha there, the Tang Family’s strength alone couldn’t respond. It could become a fight within a complex city. They needed not only many basic personnel but also masters.

One elder suggested with a careful face.

“We must ask other sects for help.”

However, there was also opposing opinion.

“Most jianghu sects were ruined by internal strife, and half of the remaining sects went over to the Righteous Alliance. There are almost no sects with the capacity to help us.”

The re-established Qingcheng Sect would surely help the Tang Family. However, Emei Sect was devastated by the Bright Demon God and its leadership changed. Abbess In-eun was relying on Qingcheng Sect, so it was difficult to ask for help with this matter because of Emei Sect’s problems.

“If we try to pull in too many sects, information might leak. They could run away or erase traces before we go to Dunhuang.”

“However, even so, we can’t jump into fire carrying firewood. If we rashly touch them, we’ll be the ones suffering. Even if we win, if we don’t completely annihilate them, we don’t know how we’ll be retaliated against in jianghu.”

Various opinions went back and forth.

In the end, the one who had to decide this time too was Tang Ha-ran.

Should they accept being known to the Hungry Ghost King and borrow other sects’ strength, or risk danger and strike Dunhuang with only the Tang Family’s power?

Even for Tang Ha-ran, it wasn’t something she could easily decide.

Tang Ha-ran decided to decide after a few days to gather more information.

However, an unexpected event erupted in jianghu.

Baek Li-jung’s Righteous Alliance sent invitations for a martial arts tournament to select a martial alliance leader to all sects throughout jianghu.