Chapter 370

Chapter 370

“…?”

It wasn’t pierced through.

Just a very small hole like being pricked by a needle had formed.

But the fact that Iron Head technique couldn’t deflect the sickle meant Iron Head technique had already begun collapsing.

When Jin Ja-gang swung the folding sickle again and it hit, when he swung the sickle, Gong-do’s head received such a great shock that he almost slammed his forehead into the ground.

Gong-do tensed his neck and braced himself with his hands on the floor.

Only now did he realize the seriousness of the situation.

Each time the sickle’s sharp tip touched Iron Head technique, a little energy release was mixed in.

The technique Taoist Haewol had taught Jin Ja-gang.

Energy release technique that destroys protective energy.

That was what had been breaking down Iron Head technique.

Crack!

Though Gong-do gritted his teeth trying to defend somehow, Jin Ja-gang again swung the folding sickle without rest.

Pop!

This time too the folding sickle’s tip embedded. Gong-do’s pupils shook.

“…!”

“Didn’t you say it wouldn’t penetrate?”

Jin Ja-gang asked back while spinning the folding sickle in his hand. Then immediately swung to strike Gong-do’s head.

The moment the folding sickle made contact, this time an even greater energy release than before burst out.

Bang!

Crack, Gong-do’s head pierced through the floorboards and embedded.

Jin Ja-gang swung the folding sickle to strike again. Gong-do used all his strength to raise his head and tried to deflect the folding sickle with his crown.

But Iron Head technique was already collapsing.

Pop!

The folding sickle embedded one finger-joint deep into Gong-do’s crown.

When Jin Ja-gang pulled out the folding sickle, a small triangular hole was revealed in Gong-do’s crown, and blood spurted from there like a fountain.

Asura Blood penetrated into Gong-do’s brain through where the folding sickle had embedded.

Blood filled Gong-do’s eyes. Stains gradually formed around his eyes and petals began appearing.

Then Mu-gak shouted.

“Break your essence!”

You don’t die without eyes or nose. Same with limbs.

If you protect just the brain, you can survive plenty.

Instantly Gong-do didn’t hesitate and followed Mu-gak’s judgment. Like any Shaolin Temple disciple would know, he broke the refined energy of Child Technique and shattered his essence.

And he drew up the refined energy of Child Technique broken by shattering essence from his testicles to perineum, from perineum through the spine to his head all at once.

There are typically two types of Child Technique.

One is Return to Beginning Child Technique that returns the body to a newborn state with completely unblocked meridians, and the other is Treasure Essence Love Energy Child Technique that firmly controls refined energy, the source of life, without letting it leak externally.

However, though they pursued different directions, the methods of not approaching lust were similar.

Especially both Return to Beginning and Treasure Essence Love Energy were consistent with what Taoists called “returning essence to supplement the brain.” The method of returning essence to supplement the brain is a longevity technique where men don’t discharge refined energy during intercourse but return it to the head to supply the brain with refined energy.

Internal energy is accepting nature’s energy through breathing and accumulating it in the body, and refined energy is that internal energy concentrated and condensed to maximum again.

Mu-gak advised using Child Technique’s refined energy, more powerful than internal energy, directly drawn to the brain to counter Asura Blood.

Soon the Child Technique refined energy Gong-do had drawn up filled his head.

Asura Blood’s poison energy couldn’t penetrate the refined energy Gong-do had purely preserved for decades and circled near his brain.

His mind cleared and turbidity disappeared.

Gong-do protected his brain with refined energy while drawing all the Asura Blood spread throughout his body to gather at his tongue tip.

His tongue went numb and lost sensation.

Gong-do bit his own tongue tip. From the severed tongue tip, Asura Blood’s terrible poison liquid flowed out mixed with saliva and blood, and indescribable fragrances filled his mouth.

Now if he spat out this Asura Blood…!

Just as Gong-do was about to open his mouth, Jin Ja-gang reached out.

Clap.

Jin Ja-gang’s hand covered Gong-do’s mouth.

Though the time it took for Gong-do to shatter essence and drive out Asura Blood using the method of returning essence to supplement the brain was very short, during that time he had been almost defenseless.

Gong-do was horrified.

If he didn’t spit it out quickly, Asura Blood would be reabsorbed through his wounded mouth!

“Hmph! Mph!”

Gong-do shook his head this way and that trying to spit out Asura Blood’s poison liquid somehow. He reached out to remove Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

But while Gong-do’s nerves were completely focused on his mouth, Jin Ja-gang gripped the folding sickle in reverse and brought it to Gong-do’s back of the head. Then pulled up diagonally.

The folding sickle embedded deeply between the back of his head and neck, around the back of his skull where Iron Head technique didn’t reach.

No matter how he protected his brain with refined energy, he couldn’t protect his brain from the folding sickle’s blade that had entered from the back of his skull.

Gong-do’s eyes opened wide and his pupils contracted completely to dots.

Gulp… gul… p…

His eye focus loosened and Gong-do ended up swallowing all the Asura Blood and blood he had tried to spit out. The arm he had stretched forward dropped limply.

Jin Ja-gang removed his hand from Gong-do’s mouth and pulled out the folding sickle embedded in the back of his head.

Thud.

Gong-do’s head collapsed powerlessly to the floor.

Jin Ja-gang immediately surveyed the scene.

Im Yi-eon was helping An Ryeong press Ham-geun, while Yuk Ha-seon sat leaning against the wall with a pale complexion. She was staring blankly with vacant eyes and trembling pale lips as if almost unconscious.

It seemed she had lost consciousness before stopping the bleeding due to losing tremendous amounts of blood in a short time. If left alone, she would die from excessive blood loss within moments.

What about Mu-gak?

Jin Ja-gang turned his head to find Mu-gak.

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters were huddled in a corner, terrified by the hellish scene unfolding in the inn.

Roll roll…

The pill had unfortunately rolled in that direction.

During the fierce battle, the Asura Blood antidote had rolled to the youngsters’ feet.

Step, step.

Gong-hon with a face that looked like it had been scraped with a blade dozens of times was walking over to pick up the pill. Mu-gak was being carried in one of Gong-hon’s arms.

“Aaaaah!”

“Aaah!”

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters screamed and pressed closer to the wall.

However, one youngster with a broken leg had some thought and urgently rushed forward, almost falling over, to pick up the pill.

Gong-hon lifted his scraped and tattered eyelids to glare at the youngster.

“Hand it over.”

His lips were all cut so his pronunciation was unclear. But it was understandable words. The youngster was startled and sat down backing away, then gripped the pill tightly in his hand and shouted.

“P-p-p-please spare me!”

His intention to survive using the poison resistance pill as collateral was clear.

Mu-gak looked at the youngster quietly with his bent neck and asked.

“How many?”

“What?”

The youngster who had been confused for a moment immediately answered.

“Just me alone is enough!”

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters were indignant.

“What a despicable bastard!”

“Trying to save only himself!”

The youngster yelled.

“Shut up, you bastards! My leg is broken so I can’t even move alone!”

It was naturally an excuse. There were plenty with worse injuries than the youngster, and most of all, having intact legs didn’t mean they could escape from here.

Fortunately, Mu-gak answered as if responding to the other youngsters’ wishes.

“No.”

The youngster was startled. He gripped the pill tightly and shouted.

“I-i-if you don’t spare me, this poison resistance pill…!”

Mu-gak stared at him and asked.

“What will you do?”

The youngster swallowed dry saliva and answered.

“I’ll e-eat the poison resistance pill!”

The youngster brought it to his mouth as if he would eat the poison resistance pill immediately.

Mu-gak clicked his tongue.

“Do you want to end up like the guy you just saw?”

Perhaps thinking it was do-or-die, the youngster became vicious.

“This damn! Then you know there won’t be a poison resistance pill either. Crazy monk, want to see who loses more?”

Being desperate, the speech patterns of a thug who had been wandering back alleys was fully revealed.

Mu-gak’s gaze became cold.

“Eat it.”

“…I-I’ll really eat it! This isn’t a joke!”

Tremendous killing intent burst from Mu-gak’s eyes.

“Eat · it.”

At the same time, Gong-hon strode toward the youngster.

The youngster spat out curses.

“This dog-like…”

Gong-hon’s figure disappeared with a whoosh. The moment he disappeared, he appeared right next to the youngster.

The youngster almost became tearful and urgently shoved the pill into his mouth. Mu-gak’s twisted hand emerged from Gong-hon’s embrace.

The youngster used all his nursing strength to clamp his mouth shut tight. He had already seen how Zhuge Gu died earlier. He absolutely had to get it in his mouth to survive. Then they couldn’t carelessly burst his head.

Clack!

He closed his mouth so hard that his teeth collided and the tips broke.

By then Mu-gak’s finger was already touching the youngster’s crown.

The youngster’s front appearance was surprisingly intact.

Mu-gak withdrew his hand while speaking.

“Ill-mannered bastard.”

The youngster clenched his teeth while streaming bloody tears.

“Ugh… ugh ugh.”

He cried making strange wheezing sounds.

But the pill the youngster had put in his mouth was rolling behind him.

Roll roll…

He had definitely thrown it into his mouth and closed it hard enough to break his teeth.

Then the youngster’s body went limp and fell forward, explosively pouring out blood.

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters couldn’t even scream. They trembled like aspen leaves.

The youngster looked fine from the front, but not from behind. Only the front part existed. The back half of his body, including the back of his head, was gone. The back part of his body had become minced meat stuck to the floor where the youngster had originally been sitting.

That’s why the pill he had put in his mouth had passed through his throat and fallen right out.

Now there was no one among the youngsters to interfere with Gong-hon picking up the poison resistance pill.

Gong-hon picked up the poison resistance pill and handed it to Mu-gak.

Jin Ja-gang retrieved his folding sickle, wiping the blood from the blade while throwing a comment to Mu-gak.

“Monk kills people like eating meals.”

Gong-hon turned to face Jin Ja-gang head-on.

Mu-gak trembled his hand as if he would drop the poison resistance pill while responding.

“Do you know a game called Path to Enlightenment?”

“I don’t.”

“It’s a game where you throw dice to move pieces.”

“I’m hearing of it for the first time.”

“The Path to Enlightenment board has various worlds. There’s paradise and hell. You throw dice well and pass through those paths to finally meet Buddha and achieve enlightenment to win.”

Mu-gak continued.

“But this game has a terrible trap. To meet Buddha, you must enter the square of great awakening. If you can’t enter the square, that is, if you don’t achieve great awakening… you must wander eternally through paths connected by six reincarnations: hungry ghost realm, animal realm, human realm, heavenly realm, asura realm, and hell realm.”

Mu-gak pointed at the inside of the inn with his trembling finger.

“How about it. This place… Where do you think this is?”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Mu-gak and answered seriously.

“Does Monk want to say this is the hell realm?”

“It is the hell realm. With all sorts of sinful bastards gathered here, where else would it be but hell realm? In hell, people dying isn’t such a great spectacle. They skin you alive and pierce your mouth with iron skewers heated in fire. They throw you in boiling oil and crush you with iron mountains. How is it different from now?”

“Buddhism has the saying ‘form is emptiness,’ yet Monk judges this place as hell based only on what you see?”

“Really? Then where do you think this is?”

Jin Ja-gang answered immediately.

“Hungry ghost realm.”

Mu-gak’s eyebrows twitched.

“Hungry ghost realm?”

Jin Ja-gang answered.

“From when I first experienced the martial world until now. The martial world has always been the same. Full of inhuman things that bite others to eat even a little more themselves.”

Mu-gak laughed making strange giggling sounds.

“You’re truly strange! Do you make others into hungry ghosts to be aloof alone!”

Jin Ja-gang replied coldly.

“What use is being aloof alone in a world of hungry ghosts? Are you telling me to become king of the hungry ghosts?”

“What?”

Jin Ja-gang wore a bleak smile. Then bared his teeth and said.

“Monk, don’t be mistaken. I came up from hell realm to devour those hungry ghosts.”

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“…?”

It wasn’t pierced through.

Just a very small hole like being pricked by a needle had formed.

But the fact that Iron Head technique couldn’t deflect the sickle meant Iron Head technique had already begun collapsing.

When Jin Ja-gang swung the folding sickle again and it hit, when he swung the sickle, Gong-do’s head received such a great shock that he almost slammed his forehead into the ground.

Gong-do tensed his neck and braced himself with his hands on the floor.

Only now did he realize the seriousness of the situation.

Each time the sickle’s sharp tip touched Iron Head technique, a little energy release was mixed in.

The technique Taoist Haewol had taught Jin Ja-gang.

Energy release technique that destroys protective energy.

That was what had been breaking down Iron Head technique.

Crack!

Though Gong-do gritted his teeth trying to defend somehow, Jin Ja-gang again swung the folding sickle without rest.

Pop!

This time too the folding sickle’s tip embedded. Gong-do’s pupils shook.

“…!”

“Didn’t you say it wouldn’t penetrate?”

Jin Ja-gang asked back while spinning the folding sickle in his hand. Then immediately swung to strike Gong-do’s head.

The moment the folding sickle made contact, this time an even greater energy release than before burst out.

Bang!

Crack, Gong-do’s head pierced through the floorboards and embedded.

Jin Ja-gang swung the folding sickle to strike again. Gong-do used all his strength to raise his head and tried to deflect the folding sickle with his crown.

But Iron Head technique was already collapsing.

Pop!

The folding sickle embedded one finger-joint deep into Gong-do’s crown.

When Jin Ja-gang pulled out the folding sickle, a small triangular hole was revealed in Gong-do’s crown, and blood spurted from there like a fountain.

Asura Blood penetrated into Gong-do’s brain through where the folding sickle had embedded.

Blood filled Gong-do’s eyes. Stains gradually formed around his eyes and petals began appearing.

Then Mu-gak shouted.

“Break your essence!”

You don’t die without eyes or nose. Same with limbs.

If you protect just the brain, you can survive plenty.

Instantly Gong-do didn’t hesitate and followed Mu-gak’s judgment. Like any Shaolin Temple disciple would know, he broke the refined energy of Child Technique and shattered his essence.

And he drew up the refined energy of Child Technique broken by shattering essence from his testicles to perineum, from perineum through the spine to his head all at once.

There are typically two types of Child Technique.

One is Return to Beginning Child Technique that returns the body to a newborn state with completely unblocked meridians, and the other is Treasure Essence Love Energy Child Technique that firmly controls refined energy, the source of life, without letting it leak externally.

However, though they pursued different directions, the methods of not approaching lust were similar.

Especially both Return to Beginning and Treasure Essence Love Energy were consistent with what Taoists called “returning essence to supplement the brain.” The method of returning essence to supplement the brain is a longevity technique where men don’t discharge refined energy during intercourse but return it to the head to supply the brain with refined energy.

Internal energy is accepting nature’s energy through breathing and accumulating it in the body, and refined energy is that internal energy concentrated and condensed to maximum again.

Mu-gak advised using Child Technique’s refined energy, more powerful than internal energy, directly drawn to the brain to counter Asura Blood.

Soon the Child Technique refined energy Gong-do had drawn up filled his head.

Asura Blood’s poison energy couldn’t penetrate the refined energy Gong-do had purely preserved for decades and circled near his brain.

His mind cleared and turbidity disappeared.

Gong-do protected his brain with refined energy while drawing all the Asura Blood spread throughout his body to gather at his tongue tip.

His tongue went numb and lost sensation.

Gong-do bit his own tongue tip. From the severed tongue tip, Asura Blood’s terrible poison liquid flowed out mixed with saliva and blood, and indescribable fragrances filled his mouth.

Now if he spat out this Asura Blood…!

Just as Gong-do was about to open his mouth, Jin Ja-gang reached out.

Clap.

Jin Ja-gang’s hand covered Gong-do’s mouth.

Though the time it took for Gong-do to shatter essence and drive out Asura Blood using the method of returning essence to supplement the brain was very short, during that time he had been almost defenseless.

Gong-do was horrified.

If he didn’t spit it out quickly, Asura Blood would be reabsorbed through his wounded mouth!

“Hmph! Mph!”

Gong-do shook his head this way and that trying to spit out Asura Blood’s poison liquid somehow. He reached out to remove Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

But while Gong-do’s nerves were completely focused on his mouth, Jin Ja-gang gripped the folding sickle in reverse and brought it to Gong-do’s back of the head. Then pulled up diagonally.

The folding sickle embedded deeply between the back of his head and neck, around the back of his skull where Iron Head technique didn’t reach.

No matter how he protected his brain with refined energy, he couldn’t protect his brain from the folding sickle’s blade that had entered from the back of his skull.

Gong-do’s eyes opened wide and his pupils contracted completely to dots.

Gulp… gul… p…

His eye focus loosened and Gong-do ended up swallowing all the Asura Blood and blood he had tried to spit out. The arm he had stretched forward dropped limply.

Jin Ja-gang removed his hand from Gong-do’s mouth and pulled out the folding sickle embedded in the back of his head.

Thud.

Gong-do’s head collapsed powerlessly to the floor.

Jin Ja-gang immediately surveyed the scene.

Im Yi-eon was helping An Ryeong press Ham-geun, while Yuk Ha-seon sat leaning against the wall with a pale complexion. She was staring blankly with vacant eyes and trembling pale lips as if almost unconscious.

It seemed she had lost consciousness before stopping the bleeding due to losing tremendous amounts of blood in a short time. If left alone, she would die from excessive blood loss within moments.

What about Mu-gak?

Jin Ja-gang turned his head to find Mu-gak.

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters were huddled in a corner, terrified by the hellish scene unfolding in the inn.

Roll roll…

The pill had unfortunately rolled in that direction.

During the fierce battle, the Asura Blood antidote had rolled to the youngsters’ feet.

Step, step.

Gong-hon with a face that looked like it had been scraped with a blade dozens of times was walking over to pick up the pill. Mu-gak was being carried in one of Gong-hon’s arms.

“Aaaaah!”

“Aaah!”

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters screamed and pressed closer to the wall.

However, one youngster with a broken leg had some thought and urgently rushed forward, almost falling over, to pick up the pill.

Gong-hon lifted his scraped and tattered eyelids to glare at the youngster.

“Hand it over.”

His lips were all cut so his pronunciation was unclear. But it was understandable words. The youngster was startled and sat down backing away, then gripped the pill tightly in his hand and shouted.

“P-p-p-please spare me!”

His intention to survive using the poison resistance pill as collateral was clear.

Mu-gak looked at the youngster quietly with his bent neck and asked.

“How many?”

“What?”

The youngster who had been confused for a moment immediately answered.

“Just me alone is enough!”

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters were indignant.

“What a despicable bastard!”

“Trying to save only himself!”

The youngster yelled.

“Shut up, you bastards! My leg is broken so I can’t even move alone!”

It was naturally an excuse. There were plenty with worse injuries than the youngster, and most of all, having intact legs didn’t mean they could escape from here.

Fortunately, Mu-gak answered as if responding to the other youngsters’ wishes.

“No.”

The youngster was startled. He gripped the pill tightly and shouted.

“I-i-if you don’t spare me, this poison resistance pill…!”

Mu-gak stared at him and asked.

“What will you do?”

The youngster swallowed dry saliva and answered.

“I’ll e-eat the poison resistance pill!”

The youngster brought it to his mouth as if he would eat the poison resistance pill immediately.

Mu-gak clicked his tongue.

“Do you want to end up like the guy you just saw?”

Perhaps thinking it was do-or-die, the youngster became vicious.

“This damn! Then you know there won’t be a poison resistance pill either. Crazy monk, want to see who loses more?”

Being desperate, the speech patterns of a thug who had been wandering back alleys was fully revealed.

Mu-gak’s gaze became cold.

“Eat it.”

“…I-I’ll really eat it! This isn’t a joke!”

Tremendous killing intent burst from Mu-gak’s eyes.

“Eat · it.”

At the same time, Gong-hon strode toward the youngster.

The youngster spat out curses.

“This dog-like…”

Gong-hon’s figure disappeared with a whoosh. The moment he disappeared, he appeared right next to the youngster.

The youngster almost became tearful and urgently shoved the pill into his mouth. Mu-gak’s twisted hand emerged from Gong-hon’s embrace.

The youngster used all his nursing strength to clamp his mouth shut tight. He had already seen how Zhuge Gu died earlier. He absolutely had to get it in his mouth to survive. Then they couldn’t carelessly burst his head.

Clack!

He closed his mouth so hard that his teeth collided and the tips broke.

By then Mu-gak’s finger was already touching the youngster’s crown.

The youngster’s front appearance was surprisingly intact.

Mu-gak withdrew his hand while speaking.

“Ill-mannered bastard.”

The youngster clenched his teeth while streaming bloody tears.

“Ugh… ugh ugh.”

He cried making strange wheezing sounds.

But the pill the youngster had put in his mouth was rolling behind him.

Roll roll…

He had definitely thrown it into his mouth and closed it hard enough to break his teeth.

Then the youngster’s body went limp and fell forward, explosively pouring out blood.

The Cherry Blossom Corps youngsters couldn’t even scream. They trembled like aspen leaves.

The youngster looked fine from the front, but not from behind. Only the front part existed. The back half of his body, including the back of his head, was gone. The back part of his body had become minced meat stuck to the floor where the youngster had originally been sitting.

That’s why the pill he had put in his mouth had passed through his throat and fallen right out.

Now there was no one among the youngsters to interfere with Gong-hon picking up the poison resistance pill.

Gong-hon picked up the poison resistance pill and handed it to Mu-gak.

Jin Ja-gang retrieved his folding sickle, wiping the blood from the blade while throwing a comment to Mu-gak.

“Monk kills people like eating meals.”

Gong-hon turned to face Jin Ja-gang head-on.

Mu-gak trembled his hand as if he would drop the poison resistance pill while responding.

“Do you know a game called Path to Enlightenment?”

“I don’t.”

“It’s a game where you throw dice to move pieces.”

“I’m hearing of it for the first time.”

“The Path to Enlightenment board has various worlds. There’s paradise and hell. You throw dice well and pass through those paths to finally meet Buddha and achieve enlightenment to win.”

Mu-gak continued.

“But this game has a terrible trap. To meet Buddha, you must enter the square of great awakening. If you can’t enter the square, that is, if you don’t achieve great awakening… you must wander eternally through paths connected by six reincarnations: hungry ghost realm, animal realm, human realm, heavenly realm, asura realm, and hell realm.”

Mu-gak pointed at the inside of the inn with his trembling finger.

“How about it. This place… Where do you think this is?”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Mu-gak and answered seriously.

“Does Monk want to say this is the hell realm?”

“It is the hell realm. With all sorts of sinful bastards gathered here, where else would it be but hell realm? In hell, people dying isn’t such a great spectacle. They skin you alive and pierce your mouth with iron skewers heated in fire. They throw you in boiling oil and crush you with iron mountains. How is it different from now?”

“Buddhism has the saying ‘form is emptiness,’ yet Monk judges this place as hell based only on what you see?”

“Really? Then where do you think this is?”

Jin Ja-gang answered immediately.

“Hungry ghost realm.”

Mu-gak’s eyebrows twitched.

“Hungry ghost realm?”

Jin Ja-gang answered.

“From when I first experienced the martial world until now. The martial world has always been the same. Full of inhuman things that bite others to eat even a little more themselves.”

Mu-gak laughed making strange giggling sounds.

“You’re truly strange! Do you make others into hungry ghosts to be aloof alone!”

Jin Ja-gang replied coldly.

“What use is being aloof alone in a world of hungry ghosts? Are you telling me to become king of the hungry ghosts?”

“What?”

Jin Ja-gang wore a bleak smile. Then bared his teeth and said.

“Monk, don’t be mistaken. I came up from hell realm to devour those hungry ghosts.”

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