novelraw Chapter 169 : Towards the Honey Pot (5)
Chapter 169 : Towards the Honey Pot (5)
Currently, the Righteous Faction was largely one force, and in a smaller sense, it could be said to be divided into two forces.
The Imperial Palace had long taken a high-handed attitude towards the martial world. It had intentionally overstepped the principle of non-interference between the government and the martial world, and had even forced the martial world to act.
Naturally, the martial world's dislike for the Imperial Palace could not help but grow, and it could not help but lean towards the anti-emperor faction.
And now that all the sects in the Central Plains, except for the neutral Shaolin and Namgung, belonged to the anti-emperor faction, Shaolin and Namgung were under tremendous pressure from the sects belonging to the anti-emperor faction with each passing day.
The two sects were now in a state where all their financial and personal connections to the outside world were cut off.
Shaolin Temple.
The Divine Monk, seeing his disciples gradually withering away, exclaimed a Buddhist prayer.
"Amitabha."
At first, he had thought that this situation was not very serious. Because Shaolin was strong and had enough power to overcome it.
Not only that, but Shaolin now had three peerless martial artists: Murong Seryeong, Eun Ga-young, and the Sword Empress.
But the situation was reversed when the Wudang Sect leader came to visit.
The Divine Monk could tell through his enlightenment that he was not the same person as before.
The shell was definitely the Wudang Sect leader he knew, but the inside was something completely different.
Although it didn't make sense, his enlightenment, his instinct was telling him so.
And the Divine Monk was now being driven into a situation where he had no choice but to accept his proposal.
If Shaolin Temple was like this, what about Namgung?
Far from enduring, wouldn't something have already happened?
It was just a frustrating situation because there was no way to know the situation outside.
The Divine Monk was now in the guest house.
The people here were not related to Shaolin.
They had no need to take risks by being with Shaolin. Of course, from Shaolin's perspective, if they were with them, they would be more reliable than ever. The Divine Monk, despite his shame, could not make such a request.
No! To be more precise, his mind was not yet made up.
That was also the reason why Shaolin had been maintaining its neutrality until now.
Because the Sword Emperor he had seen was by no means a person who would do such a thing.
And there were people here who had the same mind as him.
When the Divine Monk entered, the Sword Empress was the first to greet him.
"You've come."
"Amitabha. It seems it's time to leave soon. Their pressure is getting stronger and stronger. No matter how much Shaolin is, two or three days at most is the maximum."
"Is that so. Do you still think that he is the one who killed the emperor, Divine Monk?"
"I don't know."
"We will leave tonight. I hope you make a wise decision for Shaolin as well."
"I should. By the way, what are you planning to do after leaving this place?"
The Divine Monk knows that the Sword Empress is a member of the imperial family. And now that the former emperor is dead, the Sword Empress, regardless of her own will, was also the person closest to the emperor.
"I'm going to try to create a result that I won't regret. Unlike in the Sword Pavilion."
The Sword Empress was different from him.
She had said to him.
"Sometimes, what is for myself can be for everyone."
"Amitabha."
And so, the meeting between the Divine Monk and the Sword Empress ended.
The Divine Monk later mulled over the Sword Empress's words.
Night came, and they left Shaolin Temple.
The next day, perhaps as expected, the pressure became stronger and faster than that.
A blatant hostility felt from the mountain gate.
"Amitabha."
The Divine Monk looked back.
His disciples were looking at him with determined eyes.
The Divine Monk recalled the Sword Empress's words.
If Shaolin did not decide its course like this, Shaolin might have its last day today.
For Shaolin, it was right for him to stand on the side of the anti-emperor faction. But no matter how much he thought about it, there was something fishy about the anti-emperor faction.
But there was also a fishy side to standing on the side of the emperor's faction.
In a dilemma, where on earth should Shaolin go?
The lives of all of Shaolin's disciples depended on his one decision.
And time did not wait for him.
Boom!
The mountain gate was broken, and the people outside rushed in. At the forefront, a familiar but completely different person appeared.
The Divine Sword, who had become the new leader of Wudang.
And the Divine Star, the lord of the Yong Family of the New Rising Five Families.
"You must make a decision now."
"Divine Monk, where will you stand?"
The Divine Monk made a decision.
He was honestly doubtful whether his disciples would follow his decision. But he had no regrets about this decision.
Even if I was wrong.
Because this is the martial world.
"Hehehe."
Unlike his previous worried expression, a sense of relief was visible on the Divine Monk's face.
"Is it composure?"
"Or is it madness?"
"I will ask you. What do you think the martial world is!"
"If you're trying to buy time, stop."
"Don't show any more ugly sides."
The Divine Monk shouted loudly.
"Since when did the martial world become the henchmen of the government!"
He raised his momentum.
As the greatest elder of the Righteous Faction.
As a single martial artist with a greater affection for the martial world than anyone else.
"Dogs of the government. Come at me. This is the martial world."
"In the end, you're making the wrong choice."
"If you want to die, you should do so."
The Divine Monk said lowly.
"From today on, Shaolin will follow the martial world."
Interests.
Politics.
The law of the strong following the strong, regardless of such things.
"Spread the Arhat Formation!"
At the Divine Monk's shout, the Arhat monks of Shaolin who were behind him all moved at once.
The Divine Monk was located in the center.
The Four Great Vajras were located at each point.
And a total of one hundred and eight Arhat monks in their respective positions.
The rest formed groups of eighteen Arhat monks each.
A huge one-hundred-and-eight-Arhat formation and many small eighteen-Arhat formations were created.
They were supporting and complementing each other like a wheel.
The Divine Monk shouted at the corrupt dogs of the martial world who had become the minions of the government.
"Do not underestimate Shaolin, which has protected one place for a thousand years. You puppies."
The Divine Sword and the Divine Star opened their mouths at the same time.
"Wipe them out."
* * *
A sword with a terrifyingly powerful qi falls.
Sway.
The formation of one hundred and eight people shakes.
This time, a fist with a golden light strikes the formation.
The formation shakes again.
"How about this?"
The sword slowly rises. The energy contained in the sword was not as strong as before. But the eyes of the martial monks who were looking at it were constantly trembling.
That is a martial art that has risen to a position equal to the thousand-year Shaolin.
The peerless martial art that the Wudang Sect boasts, which subdues the strong with softness, the Wisdom Sword.
"It's coming!"
With the Divine Monk's warning.
The sword lightly touched the formation.
The person who had received the sword first was disappointed at the less-than-expected impact.
He even had this thought in his mind.
'They call him the Divine Sword, but the Wudang Sect is nothing special.'
But at the sound of a scream from behind, he urgently turned his head back.
He saw a few people with their arms twisted bizarrely.
'Why?'
With that question, the formation swayed greatly.
And his eyes widened.
Although the first blow was nothing special, the energy was getting bigger as it went on.
As if it were eating their own energy.
The enemy's attacks poured into the collapsed place without fail.
The empty part of the one-hundred-and-eight-Arhat formation was filled by the disciples who were forming the eighteen-Arhat formation around it.
But this method was nothing more than buying time in the end.
Currently, attacks were constantly coming to the eighteen-Arhat formation, and the bigger problem was that two or three people were falling with each drop of that sword.
If they couldn't block that sword, the formation would eventually be destroyed.
"Tah!"
The Four Great Vajras let out a shout and changed their positions to block the Divine Sword's blow.
"Gather!"
With the words of the Four Great Vajras, the power of the people who made up the one-hundred-and-eight-Arhat formation gathered in one place.
And the Divine Monk, through his enlightenment, told them the optimal choice to break the Wisdom Sword.
"Use the seventy-two secret arts, the Dragon Claw Hand!"
The Dragon Claw Hand was one of the few top-level claw techniques left in Shaolin.
The dragon's claw that gathers energy in the fingers and tears apart everything that blocks it.
It was a technique that was a perfect counter to the Wisdom Sword, which used the opponent's energy.
"Interesting."
At this, the Divine Sword let out a faint smile.
If it were the original Divine Sword, he would have been hit by the current attack.
But he was not.
"Divine Monk. How far can your eyes see?"
For a moment, the Divine Sword's atmosphere changed.
The momentum of the flowing gentle energy gradually became stronger.
Energy was another measure that represented a person's temperament and nature. Therefore, it was impossible for the energy to change in the middle.
Unless the person himself changed.
The blue energy that symbolized Wudang gradually turns red.
A creepy goosebump.
The Divine Monk had definitely seen that energy before.
"Red Heaven?"
Grin.
A thin smile is drawn on the Divine Sword's face.
Screech.
The sword rises.
The Divine Monk urgently shouts.
That was not the Wisdom Sword that contained a gentle energy.
The character for break (破).
A strong energy that tears apart everything in front of it.
"Change to the Great Power Vajra Palm!"
The Four Great Vajras urgently fumbled with their energy, but it was too much to suddenly change the nature of the energy gathered from the power of one hundred and eight people to something else.
And so, the Dragon Claw Hand of the Four Great Vajras and the Red Moon of the Red Heaven Lord, who had taken over the Divine Sword's body, collided.
The fingers of the Four Great Vajras who had performed the Dragon Claw Hand were broken one by one. The Divine Monk, through his enlightenment, had figured out the Red Heaven Lord's martial prowess at once.
To be more precise, it would be correct to say that he had deliberately revealed it.
"How long are you planning to hide behind? When all the disciples here are dead?"
If he released the one-hundred-and-eight-Arhat formation, the disciples here would not be able to withstand their attacks and would soon collapse.
On the contrary, if he didn't release it, they would be killed little by little by the Red Heaven Lord's attacks.
The Divine Monk finally made a decision.
He released the one-hundred-and-eight-Arhat formation.
Because he couldn't just watch his disciples die in front of him.
Swish.
The Divine Monk kicks off the ground.
With the form-shifting movement of the Vajra Unmoving Divine Art, he appears in front of the Red Heaven Lord. Such a Divine Monk was gently pulling his arm.
An indescribable energy was gathered in his gently clenched fist.
"Hehehe!"
The Red Heaven Lord, seeing that, laughed even more than before.
Just then, when the Divine Monk's arm was about to straighten.
"I've got you!"
The Red Heaven Lord said, with a sneer at the Divine Monk.
The Divine Monk's head was turned to the side.
The Divine Star Yong Ma-pae was located next to him before he knew it.
"Farewell."
Yong Ma-pae extended his fist.
Crack.
It was accurately embedded in the Divine Monk's side.
"Cough!"
The Divine Monk felt that all his right ribs were gone in one blow. And the broken bone had pierced his internal organs, and moreover, a powerful qi had swept through his body once.
The Divine Monk wanted to collapse right away, but he clenched his teeth and still extended his fist, excluding Yong Ma-pae.
The Red Heaven Lord turned the sword that was aimed at the Four Great Vajras towards the Divine Monk's fist that was approaching him.
The Divine Monk immediately shouted.
"Four Great Vajras, listen! Take the disciples and plan for the future!"
The Four Great Vajras, who had been saved for a moment, were dazed for a moment, but seeing the Divine Monk who was coughing and vomiting blood mixed with his internal organs, they held back their tears and immediately left the place.
"Disciples, follow me!"
"Hehehehe!"
"How absurd."
The Red Heaven Lord and Yong Ma-pae sneered at the disciples of Shaolin Temple who were leaving, abandoning the Divine Monk.
They did not bother to chase them.
Because in the first place, they had visited Shaolin Temple to kill only one person.
"Hehehe."
The Divine Monk, who had let out a laugh, looked ahead.
The Divine Monk, facing hundreds of enemies alone, said.
"Shaolin will not end."
The Red Heaven Lord swung his sword.
The Divine Monk's two arms were hanging down limply.
Clang!
The Divine Monk looks at the one who has blocked his front with surprised eyes.
He turns his head at the presence felt from the side.
"Why on earth?"
At the Divine Monk's question, the Sword Empress answered.
"Because I'm of the principle of not doing things I'll regret anymore."
Murong Seryeong, next to the Sword Empress, raised her sword at the Red Heaven Lord.
"I had to kill you before I go."
When Yong Ma-pae was about to move towards the Sword Empress and Murong Seryeong, a woman blocked his front.
"Jae-ha said to take good care of Shaolin. So I have to keep that promise. Don't move a single step. I'll cut you."
The Red Heaven Lord, still with a sneer, opened his mouth.
"Insignificant things are acting up."
The Sword Empress warned.
"It's coming."
A wave of qi on a different level from before rose from the Red Heaven Lord's body.
"Three-Strike Boundary."
The Red Heaven Lord exerted his boundary.
"From now on, you have only three chances to attack me. And if you can't defeat me within those three times, you will surely die. That is the absolute law of the Three-Strike Boundary.”
(End of Chapter)