Chapter 149: Do You Know the Way? (1)

In the martial world, the Orthodox-Demonic Wars broke out with alarming frequency. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they clashed and fought every single day.

From another perspective, it was an astonishing feat.

Take the Former Heavenly Demon Cult—now the Kergel Magic Tower, for instance. Just think about it. The Divine Cult was one entity, yet the factions charging at them numbered over ten well-organized groups.

They weren’t mere ragtag bands, either. These were renowned sects and clans even in the vast Central Plains.

The Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families banded together under the banner of the Orthodox Sects. Depending on the situation, Neutral Sects joined in as well.

No matter how fanatical a religious group drenched in madness might be, they would inevitably fall short in numbers without exceptional unity.

That was why the Demonic Cult—or rather, the Kergel Magic Tower—occasionally had the Heavenly Demon step in personally to reinforce their bonds.

If this were a corporation holding a team-building retreat…

“Ugh… aaah… aaaaaah…!”

“K-Kill… me… Just kill me…!”

…the Magic Tower prevented defection among the faithful through ‘fear.’ If you leave the main cult, you’ll end up boiled in that cauldron too. The human walls encircling the basin’s rim—now mages—were being branded with the worst imaginable future in their eyes. They couldn’t look away. That’s what awaited them.

Sagagagagagak—!

It was less an explosion and more like the sound of sharpening a pencil lead. It drove home how fleeting human dignity was in the modern Central Plains. That was why martial world folk adapted so well to the City. Both places treated human rights as utterly worthless.

But judging by Staff Master Holy Flame Divine Nun’s furrowed brow, even the Magic Tower Lord’s methods were…

…unacceptable, even by the lowly human rights standards of the martial world.

“People…”

Holy Flame Divine Nun bit her trembling lips with regret.

“…fear death.”

An obvious truth.

“But they fear pain far more.”

“……”

Lee Taebaek had never experienced it himself, but seeing that, he couldn’t help but empathize. Screaming “Just kill me instead of torturing me like this” was surely a genuine plea for mercy. For them right now, mercy meant death.

“Lee Taebaek.”

Holy Flame Divine Nun peered into his eyes and asked.

“In your eyes, who seems to have the upper hand?”

“…Do I have to answer? Obviously the Heavenly Demon Cult… no, the Heavenly Demon alone is wiping out the Orthodox Sects.”

“Exactly.”

Staff Master nodded and took in the slaughter once more. She continued.

“Before the current Heavenly Demon, Myo, appeared, the Orthodox-Demonic Wars had actually reached a stalemate.”

“Then the landscape changed after that.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“It wasn’t just a change. The balance of power simply collapsed.”

“The Orthodox Sects still have you, at least. Though you’re not down there for some reason.”

“That happened so suddenly I arrived too late. Ironically, at that moment, I was…”

Holy Flame Divine Nun bit her lower lip before forcing out the words.

“…in secluded meditation, convinced I’d drawn near to the Buddha’s path. Holed up in a cave, chanting sutras.”

“That’s practically a disaster.”

“You know how to offer comfort, too.”

Holy Flame Divine Nun blinked in surprise, then smiled faintly at the corners of her eyes.

The woman who resembled a Buddha statue—actually was one—expressed emotions richly. It seemed all martial world folk were like this. Whenever Beggar Elder Seo Punggae, Dragon Head Chief Hong Geolgae, or Poison Master Tang Munik spoke of their martial world days, their faces darkened.

Powerlessness or defeat. He could guess where that most fatal emotion for martial artists originated.

“Thanks for the comfort, but I must blame myself.”

Holy Flame Divine Nun said.

“I’ve pursued the Buddha’s path my entire life. And right during that seclusion, I began to see its outline. There was never a better time, then or now.”

“Such moments happen.”

“When I heard the Orthodox-Demonic War had erupted—when my disciple burst through the door—I was… regretful.”

Holy Flame Divine Nun stopped there. Lee Taebaek wisely shut his mouth. From her earlier words, he understood the source of that past regret.

Holy Flame Divine Nun gazed at the carnage. Then she scratched her ear with her pinky and pulled out a toothpick.

Clap.

She clapped, and it stretched out dramatically. One solid hit would shatter bones.

‘Wish-Fulfilling Staff.’

Holy Flame Divine Nun planted the Wish-Fulfilling Staff diagonally into the ground. She stepped barefoot onto it and extended her hand.

“Grab on.”

“…What’s this about?”

“Think of it as experiential learning.”

“Haven’t heard that in ages. Sounds downright alien.”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Plus, it’s a great chance to gauge the Heavenly Demon’s strength and my own powerlessness. Wouldn’t that be a fine opportunity for you?”

Each sect guarded their secret arts with their lives. Shaolin, with its intensely esoteric bent, was especially prickly about it.

Much less the martial arts of a nun who became Shaolin’s leader. They were practically a manual she’d take to the grave.

Yet she offered to show them so readily. Just recently, she’d even handed over an elixir. It was generosity so sweet it could rot teeth.

Of course suspicion arose. These days, even kids would run to the cops if lured like this.

As he hesitated, Staff Master tugged her lips into a broader smile.

“When you don’t know what it is, just grab it first.”

“……”

Lee Taebaek grabbed her hand, figuring he’d play along. Instantly, his vision stretched like taffy. The staff extended at near-sonic speed.

‘Using extension as a mode of transport.’

Did its original owner, Sun Wukong, use it this way? Probably not. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered with the cloud.

“Heavenly Demon!”

They closed the distance in a flash. Staff Master tossed Lee Taebaek upward, then shortened the staff and swung it down at the Heavenly Demon.

Kwaaaaaang!

A mental world. All of it was Holy Flame Divine Nun’s past—a mere illusion to Lee Taebaek.

Whooooong!

Yet how could the shockwave feel so vivid? Feeling only the aftermath from afar made his skin tingle.

Tsz-zuzzuk.

The Heavenly Demon blocked the strike with eerie calm. She swept aside the arm meeting the Wish-Fulfilling Staff and thrust out her right palm. Sasasasak—sharp sounds rang out as the staff spun in a circle.

A high-pitched crack. Finely shattered mind swords clashed with the ultimate staff. True to formless sword, they weren’t visible. But he estimated their number from the clouds scattering like scattered beads.

The Heavenly Demon’s left palm followed. Not petty strikes, but heavy blows. Visions of house-sized giants swinging axes assaulted him.

Staff Master swiftly enlarged the staff to pillar size and swung. That alone diagonally sliced a distant ridgeline.

Lee Taebaek soared higher. Breathing grew hard; he must be nearing the stratosphere.

Gazing at the hunched horizon of the continent, he thought.

‘This is the Heavenly Demon’s mind sword, unbound by the full-hit effect restriction.’

Beyond what Goeun had described.

Even fiercer than when it shredded Illusion Master alive. Likely because she faced a peer in Staff Master. And this was the Heavenly Demon from decades ago.

‘Now she’s a monster beyond imagination.’

The clash between Three Calamities raged on. The Heavenly Demon unleashed countless formless swords. Staff Master wielded the Wish-Fulfilling Staff’s subtleties to perfection—blocking, swinging, targeting vitals. Astonishingly, she even landed effective hits on the Heavenly Demon.

The Wish-Fulfilling Staff didn’t just strike foes; it kneaded the terrain at will. The ridgelines forming dense walls around them shrank steadily.

The Heavenly Demon soared up, entering the staff’s range. Holy Flame Divine Nun lowered into a billiards stance. She thrust the staff through her thumb-over-middle-finger grip, then extended.

Quwaaaaaaaaeng!

Blood fountained from the Heavenly Demon’s left shoulder. The next instant, the staff sprouting from her back ballooned massively.

Wudududuk.

Her upper body vanished by half. Yet her expression remained unchanged. With serene eyes, she fired her right palm.

Kung…!

The mountains quaked violently, peaks vomiting earthen heads like seasick passengers. Landslides. Trees toppled, foliage-covered slopes turning brown.

The Heavenly Demon’s sacrificial lambs fled in the chaos. The survivors were crippled, limping with groans.

The ultimate humiliation for martial artists. Like rats to holes, they crawled desperately toward woodpiles.

A glance.

Holy Flame Divine Nun spared sidelong looks at the martial folk. Her eyes were sad.

‘Holy Flame Divine Nun is trapped in the past.’

Repeating that day of shame in her unique domain. Shaolin’s ultimate goal was liberation. Freedom from earthly concerns.

Yet Staff Master Holy Flame Divine Nun intended to carry this obsession to her grave. The once-World’s Greatest couldn’t forgive herself for missing the moment due to fleeting greed. So she imprisoned herself in the prison of the past, self-flagellating daily. The more cruelly she treated herself, the more the thorns of guilt piercing her soul seemed to dull.

Moments later.

After twenty more exchanges, heaven and earth finally stilled. In conclusion, the transcendent duel ended with Staff Master Holy Flame Divine Nun victorious. The Heavenly Demon was reduced to a head, her dangling spine whipping like a tail as she plummeted.

Lee Taebaek watched the falling head. Even in ruin, it exuded chilling presence.

The spine-tingling aura faded only when the lattice-patterned space crumbled—like defeating a boss and the field vanishing.

An odd feeling.

It was time to return from the serene medieval martial world to the iron-scented reality. As the space crumbled from the corners, Lee Taebaek voiced a sudden thought to Holy Flame Divine Nun.

“You don’t want me to inherit Shaolin. It’s for your own sake.”

The pitch-black backdrop was now a private bamboo grove for just the two. Conversations here wouldn’t leak to the outside world.

“…Your greed to have me slay the Heavenly Demon under Shaolin’s name.”

Staff Master breathed raggedly in silence. No denial meant affirmation.

“The reason you forgave Hyemyeong,”

Lee Taebaek prodded her hidden motives.

“…is because you’re the greediest of all…”

What seemed mercy was… the last shred of conscience left to a mad monk from the past.

Staff Master Holy Flame Divine Nun was.

‘Even in my eyes, ignorant of the Buddha’s path.’

…a practitioner farthest from Bodhidharma’s teachings, Shaolin’s founding patriarch. From that day, she’d lived for decades lost in inner demon possession.

That was why a monk bore the stigma of calamity.

A woman at odds with her facade.

Even embracing her ugliness.

“I’ll take your burden.”

Lee Taebaek was the creator of all things.