Chapter 96

The swamp-like clouds enveloped me and refused to let go, and the moment I saw someone in front of me, I subconsciously realized that this was a swamp that would be difficult to get out of.
“……How dare you!”
Black Ho drew his two daggers and stared at the person he’d been fleeing from, his pursuers.
“Namu Amitabha. I didn’t know the wicked and peculiar people of Mado were here.”
“Gakmun, priests. Prepare yourselves.”
“Namu Amitabha, Kuan Yin Bodhisattva!”
The Shaolin Eighty-Nine, the three men face each other, apparently members of the Heavenly Horse Cult.
“……Why, why, why do you. You abandoned your clan, and now you’re here in front of me?!”
Fang Xiang spoke of things I didn’t know, and he spoke with a voice larger than his body. He breathed heavily, ready to leap forward at any moment.
“You’re alive, Zhang Wenyin! You’re alive……, ah!”
“Zhang Wenyin, we’ve brought Elder Guangsheng and others to help you. Don’t worry, we’ll make Madao retreat quickly, and Kunlun will be able to recover quickly.”
He Do and He Gong also seemed to be looking at their own vision. The only one who spoke calmly was the only one among them.
“Bountiful Buddha.”
As I turned around, I could see the first martial artist chanting, but he didn’t say a word, just stared at his surroundings with sharp eyes.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was clear to me that everyone who stood in front of me was different.
How could I tell?
At least in front of me, they were people I had never seen in this life.
Those who had been with me in my previous life, on the walls of the South Palace.
My companions and comrades-in-arms, who had fought alongside me on the battlefield, wielding spears and swords, some of them members of the Aguidan, some of them who had watched my back as Captain of the Heavenly Men.
Each and every one of them looked at me with despair.
I almost fainted. I knew that facing them on Mount Kunlun was neither realistic nor rational.
“Why are you all here?”
I said.
“Captain, why have you abandoned us?”
I hear a gravelly voice say.
“It’s In-tae.”
“Don’t call him.”
Hein-tae, the commander of the unit who said that, was the one who trusted me, who followed me, and who looked at my inner self, not with any prejudice or discrimination because I was a junior officer.
He said.
“When the captain left, we were broken. Broken, broken, broken. Our devotion to you was never recognized, and it was so important for us to abandon our followers and return to our family.”
His words made my heart throb. It was a connection from the past, a foundation that had brought me here safely.
How did I get here…….
Without realizing it, I took a step toward Heintae.
BANG!
A resounding thud woke me from my foggy thoughts.
A flash!
I shook my head as if to clear it,
“I’m glad you’re awake.”
At Kwangseung’s words, I glanced around with a sharp gaze. Black Ho was already slashing his two daggers into the air, and Fang Xiang was slamming his greatsword into the ground.
I tried to stop myself from falling into the dented ground.
“It’s useless. It’s their move, thank goodness.”
Around the corner, the other eighteen Shaolin seemed to have come out of their daze as well as I had.
“Namu Amitabha.”
Gak Mun, Gak Shan, and Gak Bang, all wearing hats, bowed their heads in gratitude to the master. Perhaps the Shaolin masters would have gotten out quickly, as their mental cultivation, based on immobility, would have been incomparable to that of any other martial artist.
I was different.
Heintai and countless others flashed before my eyes.
“You knew it was fake.”
“……Yes.”
Past life connections could not manifest in this life. It didn’t make sense in terms of timing or reality, which is why I was able to quickly escape the delusion. Otherwise, I would have been floundering like Black Lake and Pang Hyang.
At that moment, a golden glow burst forth from the back of the gate.
“I-mu-a-mi-ta-bul, Guan-yin Bodhisattva!”
The call was accompanied by a roar.
“Namu-ami-ta-bul! Kuan Yin Bodhisattva!”
“Namu-ami-ta-bul! Kuan-yin Bodhisattva!”
The backs of Gakshan and Gakbang, as well as the backs of the two men, also burst forth with a brilliant golden radiance. The image of a Buddha, the image of a golden Buddha, was drawn in the air, and the energies of the three merged together.
I was briefly awestruck. The three of them had only just gotten their feet wet. Nevertheless, their aura was majestic and rocky, and I couldn’t help but wring my hands.
This is Shaolin.
The head of the Nine Sects, the eighteen hundred and ninety-four power that Shaolin boasts.
After a brief exclamation, a brilliant glow appeared on each of their clenched fists. The golden power trembled in the air.
Soon, each of them stretched out toward the clouds.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The Kwagaga River!
A golden radiance pierced through the mist, drawing a long rod. At the same time, as the golden pillar of light pierced through, several shadows appeared through the clouds.
Woof! Kwao!
As soon as he felt the sensation, a fierce radiance burst forth. Gaksan stretched out his golden mace countless times towards the shadows.
Kwaaaaah!
A tidal wave of dust and clouds swept in, covering the spot where the radiance had swept through.
But.
Sasasasasac.
The sound of scattered ships moving.
“Where are they going!”
The golden glow from every direction would not allow them to escape. A feast of golden light shook the earth.
Kwagagagagang!
The scattering black pretenders were all scattered.
“…… Namuamitabha.”
Despair shone in everyone’s eyes. They thought there was nothing they could grab.
I plugged in the Arahantship with the energy of Pama three times. They thought it didn’t make sense that there was no response.
Taoism.
For those who walk the path of magic, there is no more powerful energy than the energy of perma.
There should be a reaction, then.
Eighteen days later, the three questioned.
“…… is not madness.”
Kwangseung cleared up.
“What does that mean, old man?”
The Madman shakes his head and shouts.
“They are not Mado. If they were, they should be reacting to your aura.”
“But I could definitely sense the pretense.”
“It’s an illusion.”
At those words, their faces hardened. So they had wasted their energy chasing an illusion.
“Fortunately, I didn’t waste any energy.”
With that, the monk lifted the stones at his feet into the air and shattered them into countless pieces.
Pah-bah-bah-bah!
The crumbs swirled in the air and flew away, only to be repelled by the energy of the Tanzi Xintong.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
I heard the sound of crunching against something, and in that moment, I felt it.
The pressure and suffocating exhaustion were dissipating.
As the fog dissipated, my vision cleared, and I could see.
“That was it.”
Every time I turned my head, I could see the wooden figures embedded in the trees. They seemed to have lost their strength as their necks snapped against the rocks.
Jab, jab, jab.
I grit my teeth. I gritted my teeth.
I could feel Heintae’s tale of woe echoing in my mind, and Pang Hyang and Black Ho still seemed as dazed as I was.
“It’s not just them.”
He gathered the dolls together and burned them with all his might.
“Apostasy.”
Apostasy……?
I stared at him in disbelief. This was the first time I’d heard the name apostasy.
Apostasy, not witchcraft.
“The roots are the same. This is what you do.”
Without breaking his twisted expression, he stared at the burning dolls, which were quickly reduced to ash, and spoke.
“Mado worships power. They do insane things in their rampaging, obsessive madness, but the Apostasy is different. They’re not only imitators, they’re dupes, and they operate under false pretenses.”
The madman grinds his teeth.
“Are you just playing along with their antics, Kisheng?”
It was intolerable to think that an adept had fallen into the hands of the apostates.
“The apostates are skilled in the arts of divination, the arts of the cloak and dagger, the arts of liquor, the arts of fortune-telling, the arts of divorce, and all manner of miscellaneous arts. It will be a mess.”
I shook my head at that.
“Apostasy is the same root as witchcraft.”
“Yes. And then there’s blood ties. They are all of one blood.”
“And the most successful of those groups would be the Mado.”
At that, I looked away without hesitation.
“Perhaps they’ve been watching us since the moment we entered Kunlun, and the timely activation of the True Law is the reason.”
I was angry, too. To have to play into their hands and watch Heintai and his old comrades’ plaintive cries and beady faces.
“What are we going to do?”
“What can I do. They’re a bunch of inferiority complexes, and there’s no point in asking them why they’re not coming out if they’ve already decided to be mean.”
Taking a step forward, I raised the tip of my sword.
At the same time, with each step I took, I moved the tip of the sword in a constant motion, slashing at the trees, the ground, and the air.
“Do you envy the cult because no one else in the world recognizes apostasy, or do you resent the existence of the Heavenly Horse because it represents your roots? What can I say, I can only feel sorry for you, who will continue to struggle under the feet of the cult, no matter how much you express your existence, which is not allowed in the world.”
Seeing no response to the words I had written so many times, I tried to tell everyone that it was futile.
But I said.
“It’s easier to blame enmity on Mado, murder on Mado, and blame everything on Mado, and to prove your existence by imitating Mado, so you, who can’t even tell me where you came from, which is apostasy, really think you can defeat Mado.”
He became even more arrogant, and spoke of things that were disturbing.
It’s like asking about someone’s roots.
Nothing can damage the value of one’s existence, the significance of one’s existence.
In his previous life, he was the youngest Confucius of the Southern Palace.
In this life, the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace.
As someone who has had to feel the changing lifetimes depending on the order of the roots, I know the depth of this better than anyone.
Who comes first and who comes second.
If you come from the same root, arguing about it is a lifelong destiny.
Especially.
“You’re talking out of your asses, you stupid centrist bastards.”
The more inferior they were, the more likely they were to have a seizure at that point.
I turned my head at the sound of the voice.