novelraw Chapter 16 : Become My Disciple
Chapter 16 : Become My Disciple
Chapter 16: Become My Disciple
If there was one lesson I gained while living as a beggar, it was that human beings were not things to be trusted.
As expected, this Hungry God Wang Cho’s theory of humanity was winning streak after streak today.
Look over there, at that Unorthodox Faction insect sprawled out even after I served him an opportunity on a silver platter.
Now that I thought about it, Hwa Pyeong had been like that since he was young.
Realms in the Jianghu were simply divided into Third-rate, Second-rate, First-rate, Peak, and Transcendent Peak.
Above those were the Fusion Realm, Profound Mirror, and Life and Death Realm, but since those levels belonged to elders of great sects or higher, Third-rate riffraff of the Jianghu did not particularly count them.
Once one became an elder of the Nine Sects, they were revered as immortals among the common folk.
Perhaps it was because the Nine Sect Alliance held a particularly strong religious color.
Hwa Pyeong was actually not weak.
Even if only considering the level of his martial arts, he was a guy who could hold his own in the Jianghu at the Peak Realm.
However, it was simply his misfortune that this place was the Shaolin under heaven.
To be honest, my pity for him was greater.
Even though I taught him for several weeks, to think he would lose so miserably.
It was the guidance of none other than the former Strongest Under Heaven.
It would be more strange for it not to be effective, yet that bizarre occurrence was happening right before my eyes.
Even Beom Cheon seemed not to have expected this, as he looked at me and spoke.
"Your friend... Hmm, please tell him to work hard."
Just drawing such a reaction from Beom Cheon made Hwa Pyeong’s struggle meaningful.
Because it was quite a rare thing for that guy to be genuinely flustered.
The reason high monks of great virtue could maintain a hollow smile even at extraordinary events was related to the mind-and-body stabilizing function of Buddhist Power.
The old monks of Shaolin Temple were even more so.
Anyway, the plan got a bit twisted. I wanted to let him feel a sense of accomplishment.
In this case, do I have no choice but to take second place even if I have to do it on purpose?
This was absolutely not because I felt like I couldn't beat the Matchless in a Single Strike.
I watched Hwa Pyeong leaving the sparring stage with the corners of my mouth lowered. For some reason, Matchless in a Single Strike was approaching his side.
'Why on earth?'
* * *
Nothing was going right.
No matter how much life was a series of ups and downs, was this not a bit too much?
Hwa Pyeong, who headed to a secluded spot away from the sparring stage, kicked a tree.
It hurt like hell.
While whimpering and clutching his foot, his own situation looked all too pathetic.
'I also put in my own effort.'
The Lord of the Hao Clan primarily practiced hand techniques.
Naturally, Hwa Pyeong, who was nominally his disciple, had also practiced the ultimate art called the Warm Flower Buddha Shadow Hand.
Ultimately, the Hao Clan was a great sect belonging to the Serpent Dao Alliance.
From the perspective of the Orthodox Faction, it was merely an object to be executed.
In such a situation, to act out while performing the Warm Flower Buddha Shadow Hand?
It was a creative method of suicide, to the point where setting fire to the mountain gate of Shaolin would be better.
The young Hwa Pyeong did not want to die yet.
No matter how much he thought about it, the sword did not suit him. No, martial arts itself seemed to dislike this poor gambler.
In the past, his dream was, laughably, to be the Strongest Under Heaven.
A Martial God who could cut down any distant place with the Mind-Guided Sword that was only passed down in legends.
Controlling a sword with the mind. How beautiful was that? However, such vain hopes had long since vanished. Regrettably, he was not a dullard, but he was not a genius either.
At that moment, he hurriedly turned his head at a crackling sound.
There was nothing.
With a thought of 'could it be,' he looked down and saw a young girl. The arrogant look in her eyes suited her quite well. However, she was insanely cute.
It was to the point where he wanted to bite her cheeks.
"You think irreverent thoughts."
The way she spoke was not very cute. The old men of the Hao Clan spoke exactly like that.
A girl who approached with her black hair swaying.
Hwa Pyeong also remembered the superhuman strength she had shown on the sparring stage.
However, what was a young child doing walking around alone like this already?
Even if he was an Unorthodox Faction martial artist, he was a person who was kind to children and the elderly.
"Child, where are your parents?"
The girl tilted her head.
"Are you not afraid of this lady?"
It seemed she had already entered the Age of Ambition (15 years old) unlike her appearance. That was the only way it could be explained. Since that was the period when everyone carried a black dragon in their hearts. He only hoped she wouldn't kick her bedding around at night.
"Oh, is that so? I’m scared, so hurry back to your parents now. If you don't go quickly, a tiger will eat you... Argh!"
The reason he suddenly screamed.
It was because the girl, who had approached before he knew it, strangled his neck while emitting lightning from both hands.
Fortunately, the girl let go of his neck soon with a sigh. He almost truly died.
It came to him anew that this child was a master who easily defeated the Eighteen Arhats of Shaolin.
While Hwa Pyeong was coughing, the Matchless in a Single Strike of the Dark Heaven Society asked him.
"Have you ever practiced Lightning Qi Arts?"
"N-No, I haven't!"
Strange. There was no way. Matchless in a Single Strike tilted her head once more.
Hwa Pyeong flinched at that and shied away.
"Did you happen to be struck by lightning... No. Forget what I just said."
Matchless in a Single Strike, who seemed to be contemplating something for a moment, pointed at Hwa Pyeong with her small index finger and spoke.
"You, become my disciple."
* * *
Martial Arts Competition, Quarterfinals.
I looked at the referee while holding my wooden sword down.
My opponent, a Shaolin monk, was already sitting with his head hanging, slumped over.
He did not concede to the result and kept attacking, so the suppression was quite late.
He was one of the Shaolin Eighteen Arhats and had quite a strong competitive spirit.
He was not a guy I taught.
In the first place, the majority of the guys who received my training did not participate in the sparring competition.
Certainly, being around the level of the Eighteen Arhats meant his level was different.
In fact, my spar was faster than Matchless in a Single Strike’s, and for that reason, the reason she followed Hwa Pyeong was still a mystery.
Surely she wouldn't kill him, right?
I lightly waved my hand to the cheering gamblers and stepped onto the platform again.
Only now was the spar of Matchless in a Single Strike about to begin.
The opponent was the second-generation disciple who defeated Hwa Pyeong.
The nickname Matchless in a Single Strike literally came from the fact that she finished her opponents in a single strike. The peerless master of leg techniques, Hungry Wolf.
Among the masters of the current generation, few could recognize her face.
Primarily because she had become a child through the Rebirth of the Bone and Marrow.
The referee’s resonant voice announcing the start of the spar echoed through the training ground.
In an instant, a fierce wind pressure shot up to the platform.
I, who suppressed the urge for the chair to fly away by applying strength, frowned.
I myself was in a situation where I couldn't properly see the spar.
However, the Shaolin elders didn't hide their somber expressions, having seen something with their eye techniques.
"Hmm. Is it not perhaps an old master who has undergone Rebirth of the Bone and Marrow?"
"Amitabha, that benefactor’s Lightning Qi Art feels somewhat familiar, so I believe I must ask the former generations."
No matter how strong I was in my past life, the reality was that I was currently weaker than those baldies over there.
Their achievement in eye techniques could not help but be higher than mine.
The result of the spar was, as expected, the victory of Matchless in a Single Strike, who trampled the head of the Shaolin monk.
She was discharging lightning from her whole body as if she had no intention of hiding her identity.
Who would see that as a young child? It was natural to see her as an old monster who had undergone Rebirth.
Silence descended upon the sparring stage once again.
Even the commoners seemed to be realizing that the young girl was no simple rising star.
It was because they had seen nothing.
Because the Matchless in a Single Strike’s strike followed so quickly, from the commoners’ perspective, the spar would have ended in the blink of an eye.
If she had started acting as the Matchless in a Single Strike, then I too should finish my spar in a single strike.
I stepped into the spar while twirling my wooden sword. The opponent was a familiar face. The giant Shaolin monk who used to throw punches at me.
He was also the bastard with the deepest achievement among the disciples. He seemed to be a bastard who was born with a natural talent for external arts.
Beom Gak, standing with his arms hanging down. Upon activating the Sun Moon Piercing Technique, a slightly stinging energy lingered around my eyes, and the inner Qi circulating within his body began to be visible.
Judging by the circulation path, it was a right-hand fist technique.
The ultimate art called the Hundred-Step Divine Fist that was said to strike the opponent even from a vast distance.
Soon, sounds like firing cannonballs poured from his body.
I immediately generated Sword Qi from the wooden sword and performed a Blade of Oneness on the fist strike flying toward me.
It was together with the star clusters of the Sun-Drenched Moonlight that I had not generated until now.
Ultimately, the true value of the Star Moon Sword Qi lay in toying with the opponent.
Obscuring the vision was a given, and since each fluttering star cluster was Sword Qi, they could even be utilized as attack forms.
Tap!
Upon leaping after stepping once on the lapis lazuli, Beom Gak’s innocent face came into view.
How should I pierce that solid body?
Since he was around the level of a first-generation disciple, he would likely be clad in protective Qi.
Beom Gak, who turned his waist slightly while clenching his fist.
It was the posture of the Arhat Fist.
He intended to crush my sword form from the front.
Furthermore, he was of a mind that even if his fist was pushed back by my sword form, he wouldn't care.
He was a bastard who took pride in his own hard body from the start.
In reality, my sword power was still insufficient to pierce his body.
However, after experiencing me like that, did he still not know?
I gathered the Star Moon Sword Qi that was floating around back into the iron sword.
The old iron sword let out a cry, woong.
With a smirk, I struck the sword down toward his shoulder.
An elegant half-moon was drawn.
Simultaneously, his heavy fist and my iron sword collided, and the iron sword and fist shook madly.
However, that was only for a moment.
Beom Gak’s fist, which seemed to harbor immense strength, was pushed back to the fullest with the sound of something exploding, and my sword had already dug into his shoulder, creating a single scar.
In a sword form that looked simple, numerous profound principles were mixed.
Traces that a master could not fail to recognize.
Starting from the Internal Heavy Hand Technique that bypassed protective Qi, to the Deflecting a Thousand Pounds with Four Ounces that suppressed the opponent’s great strength with little force, and even to the Grafting a Flower onto a Tree that redirected and flowed away the opponent’s strength by utilizing it against them.
In the first place, the Shaolin monks who had gorged themselves on spirit herbs in Shaolin had more inner Qi than I did.
However, how could a fight be determined solely by inner Qi?
I looked at Matchless in a Single Strike as I descended from the sparring stage.
That phantom of the past called the Hungry Wolf of the Dark Heaven Society.
What remained in those black eyes?
The finals of the sparring competition were tomorrow.
Since obtaining the Lesser Returning Pill was a confirmed situation, my mind was at ease nonetheless.
The Guest Hall of Shaolin was teeming with people due to the sparring competition.
Even if it was conducted informally only within Shaolin, it was a competition hosted by that Shaolin Temple.
Martial artists from the Shaanxi region, as well as Dengfeng County where Shaolin was located, could not help but flock here.
Therefore, the residence for me and Matchless in a Single Strike ahead of the finals was moved to the Eight Guardians of the Temple next to the Abbot’s room.
I sat at a wooden table inside the pavilion and waited for someone.
Sitting with my chin propped up, I really wanted to drink some liquor, but regrettably, I could not find alcohol in a temple.
Out of boredom, I waited while tapping on the table, and soon a creak sound was heard, the door of the pavilion opened, and a girl entered.
"I shall sit."
"According to whose will."
It was Matchless in a Single Strike.