novelraw Chapter 187 : The Women’s Garden
Chapter 187 : The Women’s Garden
Chapter 187: The Women’s Garden
There were many famous mountains under heaven besides Mount Song.
One of them was the entrance trail leading up Mount Emei.
Even though we had taken on another grave request—an infiltration mission—Ilhong’s face looked strangely carefree.
“Ehehe, ehehee.”
Her steps were light, and the way she hopped up the hillside was practically springy.
It was as if someone had thrown off heavy shackles—she looked lively and brimming with energy.
Having discarded her male disguise and returned to her original, lovely female attire, she seemed to enjoy the mountain path as the wind tossed her short bob haircut.
It was fortunate that the Emei Sect of this Murim belonged to the Daoist line that did not shave their heads completely. Otherwise, that bright expression of hers might have looked somewhat gloomy right now.
“Troubleshooter friend, once you enter the Emei Sect, please take good care of Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo.”
I had decided to become friends again with Venerable Huiyul, who had guided us this far.
Although she possessed the somewhat frightening inclination of being a woman who desired women, aside from that she was an extremely straightforward and cheerful chivalrous hero.
If you talked with her for a while, there were moments where your temperaments matched.
“Still, it’s a bit of a shame. To think I have to let you go like this. If only I had a little more time…….”
As she looked at Ilhong, she smacked her lips regretfully, as if lamenting that she had not been able to deepen their “friendship.”
Actually, I take back what I said earlier about our temperaments matching. She was clearly a woman with something wrong in the head.
“Hey, didn’t you say you liked women? Get a grip. That one’s pretty, but he’s a man.”
At the moment, Ilhong was in a rather complicated state—she was currently in a situation where she had first been in male disguise and was now again in female disguise.
“Hm, is that really so? The female disguise looks so natural. It feels like she’s truly a woman.”
She stroked her thin chin with a doubtful look.
Well, just as expected of someone with that inclination—her instincts were sharp.
But after examining Ilhong’s upper body carefully, she nodded as if she understood.
“But since he really is a man…… there’s nothing there.”
Fortunately, Ilhong was too absorbed in the mountain path to hear that remark.
Then her gaze slowly swept up and down my own female-disguised appearance.
The softened jawline from the Human-skin Mask, the rounded features, the narrowed shoulders and torso from the Bone-Shrinking Technique.
When my long black hair fluttered in the wind, the corners of Venerable Huiyul’s lips curled upward.
“Hm, an androgynous charm. This might actually be quite possible in its own way…….”
What exactly this crazy woman kept saying was possible, I had no idea.
The sudden appearance of a top-tier predator who did not discriminate between men and women sent a faint chill down my spine.
“You both had handsome foundations to begin with, so now that you’re dressed up, you look quite impressive. Even within the Emei Sect, people like you would be rare talents.”
“Back off already.”
I shoved her face away as she approached without permission.
Maybe I shouldn’t have become friends with her again. She had absolutely no sense of boundaries.
Ever since she had braided her hair and dressed herself neatly, it seemed to have gotten even worse.
“Abbot Beopseong, is it acceptable for someone who cultivates the Way to behave like this? Please say something.”
I turned toward the Abbot of Shaolin Temple behind us and spoke, meaning that since he had taken her in, he should also manage her.
“This humble monk respects the diversity of benefactors.”
But the Abbot, humbly referring to himself as a humble monk, drew a line, saying that since it concerned personal inclinations, he would not interfere.
All things in creation were never fixed and constantly changed into various forms, he said, so such things could also exist.
Watching that worldview so open to all forms of love, a recent incident suddenly came to mind.
“Abbot, do you happen to know a certain monk who sneaks out of Shaolin Temple at night to court a woman on the mountainside?”
At my sudden question, the Abbot’s eyelids trembled slightly.
“…Amitabha.”
Judging from his reaction, he clearly knew.
Unlike Hwang Geolgae, who completely let things run wild, the Abbot did not intervene in Shaolin matters but still seemed to be paying attention.
“Benefactor, do you know the identity of that Shaolin Monk?”
“Of course I do. Isn’t it Arhat Beopgwang? I heard he’s supposed to become Shaolin’s next major figure, but that confession that night was truly pitiful.”
I clicked my tongue and shot the Abbot a meaningful glance, as if asking why he was allowing such a thing while knowing about it.
Abbot Beopseong looked up at the blue sky for a moment before speaking slowly.
“The human heart is like a flowing river. If you block it, it only causes greater splashes. It can only be allowed to flow according to nature.”
He said that the passionate love between men and women was difficult to guide even with the Buddha’s teachings, so he was waiting for the time when it would naturally cool down.
“And I have already spoken to that female benefactor on the mountainside.”
He had asked for her understanding in case it caused inconvenience, and Songryeong had agreed.
Of course, Songryeong probably had not expected that one night the monk’s emotions would surge so strongly that he would storm over like that.
“Benefactor Songryeong is a woman with sound judgment. She will consider things carefully so that no one is hurt.”
In reality, the incident had already occurred the night before last.
But I decided to keep my mouth shut, if only to preserve that monk’s dignity after being rejected.
“And Benefactor Dan, you still have quite a climb ahead before reaching the Emei Sect. Take this with you.”
The Abbot, who had accompanied us all the way to the entrance of Mount Emei, handed us a rather heavy pouch with a benevolent smile.
“What is this?”
I opened it after receiving it.
Inside were dried wheat flatbread, jerky, and a generous amount of drinking water.
“It seemed to me that your appetite was rather remarkable. Since you did not come here for ascetic hardship, you should eat well along the way.”
As expected of the Abbot. Even among Shaolin Monks, I had never seen someone this generous.
He really was a good person.
“You judge people too much by food, Captain.”
At some point Ilhong had come beside me, sniffing the jerky as she spoke casually.
“So what. It’s a habit from my days as a beggar.”
I shrugged. After all, someone willing to provide for others was surely a good person.
Looking at the Abbot who had followed us this far, I spoke.
“But is it really okay for someone like the Abbot to leave Shaolin Temple?”
The Shaolin Abbot answered with a faint smile.
“Benefactor, this humble monk is always empty.”
“…Ah.”
I scratched my chin.
So that was why people had been so shocked when the Abbot appeared at the lay disciple sparring match.
Hwang Geolgae and Beopseong were similar in a subtle way. Perhaps those who had awakened to the Way and cultivated the Buddhist Path inevitably became detached from worldly worries in order to transcend karma.
But the way Beopseong looked at me was strange.
It was a gaze filled with pity and regret, like someone feeling compassion for a stray mortal.
“I secretly examined your physiognomy and fate, Benefactor. No matter how I look at it, you are destined to live a difficult life.”
“….”
My appetite vanished instantly. I put down the jerky I had been holding.
“You must have already lived a harsh life until now, but your destiny indicates that it will become even more so.”
I wanted to dismiss him as a fortune-telling crank, but considering everything I had experienced, the thing lurking inside my mind, and the mysterious aura in the monk’s eyes, I could not easily deny it.
“Even if a cruel fate tries to lead you to ruin, you must endure and resist it firmly.”
Please stop spoiling my life story.
Could he really read heavenly secrets? Perhaps he had followed us this far just to warn me.
“Then… do you see something from me?”
“Vaguely… very faintly. That is all this humble monk can see.”
How much spiritual power did one have to accumulate to see such things?
It sounded almost as if he possessed Heavenly Eye Insight.
Perhaps he already had one foot in the Pure Land beyond this world.
“Continue striving. Just as you have until now—never give up. Perhaps you… might be able to overcome that cruel fate.”
Something distant echoed within his voice, as if someone above had borrowed the mouth of the venerable monk to speak.
I was silent for a moment before nodding.
“Yes. I intended to do that anyway. Fate or not, how can a person live while being dragged around by such things?”
I never believed in that nonsense from the beginning.
If one merely followed a predetermined path, that was no longer the life of the living.
I renewed my resolve to draw my own path without being controlled by any Evil Star.
‘Heh… it’s useless… You think no one’s tried that before…?’
Something flickered red and mocked me.
Although the Salseongi predicted my failure as usual, its words had no effect on me.
“Well then, just trust me and wait. I’ll solve the request from this perverted Emei Sect friend of ours.”
At the word pervert, Venerable Huiyul jumped in outrage.
Receiving the farewell of Abbot Beopseong, who had accompanied us much farther than necessary, I began climbing Mount Emei.
Inside the residence of the Sect Leader of Mount Emei, the cool air of dawn seeped through the window gaps, adding a chill to the room.
The surrounding mountains appeared faintly like a landscape ink painting.
Two women who had once gone to Beijing under the Sect Leader’s orders to make a request—Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo—were kneeling side by side on one knee in that chamber.
“Have you found the woman who betrayed her faith and fled with the Sacred Relic of the Emei Sect?”
The cold voice of Venerable Huiyin echoed through the residence.
Her refined martial arts lent her an elegant bearing, yet the chill within her tone was sharper than ever.
“That is… not yet.”
Gi Hyo spoke hesitantly.
The two women of the Emei Sect bowed their heads with expressions filled with deep worry and anxiety.
“We investigated, but the Troubleshooter seems to have completely vanished.”
The last sighting had been in Henan Province. But not only had they failed to find Venerable Huiyul, the Troubleshooter himself had disappeared without leaving a single trace.
They had heard that none of his previous requests had ever failed.
Why, of all times, had something like this happened during their request?
Overwhelmed by guilt, Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo bit their lips.
“Hah.”
Without moving a single facial muscle, Venerable Huiyin let out a scoffing laugh.
At that cold sneer, the two women felt something strangely unsettling that sent chills down their spines.
“Tsk, I shouldn’t have trusted him.”
The moment those words ended, she flung open the door and strode out.
Her white robe fluttered in the wind, and the door slammed open and shut with a loud echo.
Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo were frozen in place for a moment.
After exchanging glances, they finally released tired sighs.
“She’s… changed somehow.”
Gi Hyo spoke first in the silence, her face downcast.
The coldness left behind by the Sect Leader seemed to linger in the room.
“Right. It really feels like she’s….”
Like she had become a different person.
Before, even when she scolded them harshly for mistakes, there had always been warmth beneath it.
Now it felt as though they were facing someone entirely different.
“Could it be that what Venerable Huiyul said was true…?”
Jeong Yo’s voice scattered with the wind.
These suspicions were exactly what Venerable Huiyul had desperately tried to tell them before fleeing.
At the time they had rejected it as nonsense.
But now, remembering the words of the woman they had once driven away themselves, an unknown anxiety began to creep over them.
As the Emei Sect came into view, the air in the mountains grew even more refreshing.
It felt as though a mysterious Virtuous Qi enveloped the entire peak.
“But Captain, they both believed me right away when I said I was a man?”
Even though she had claimed it herself, Ilhong seemed oddly irritated that they had accepted it so easily.
Following Venerable Huiyul’s earlier gaze, I glanced at Ilhong’s upper body.
“…What was that look just now?”
“Nothing.”
I tried to brush it off, but Ilhong had clearly noticed.
“I wrapped bandages for the sake of the ‘man dressed as a woman’ setting, you know…?”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure.”
I waved it off casually. Regardless of the truth, it had nothing to do with completing the request.
“…Hey! I’m serious!”
Frustrated that I wouldn’t listen, Ilhong began thumping my back.
Was she really hitting an adult? Her manners had deteriorated terribly.
While bickering like that, we finally arrived at the main gate of the Emei Sect.
A dignified signboard stood tall above us.
“Welcome. The Emei Sect welcomes new lay disciples.”
And what unfolded before us was exactly that.
A secret garden of women— a place where men could never set foot.