Baekpal Asura.
It was an alias I was hearing for the first time, but it carried a truly bloodcurdling ring to it.
At the same time, I understood the blind hostility Gakjeong had shown me—or rather, shown my killing intent.
Anyone who had earned an alias like that must have raised quite a ruckus in his younger days.
And if he had been elevated to the position of abbot at the Shaolin Temple, that fully explained the remarkable refinement of his techniques.
However.
"I truly have no idea who you are…"
I know the current abbot of the Shaolin Temple is also quite old, but to think he's the previous abbot.
How could I possibly remember someone who was active before I was even born?
And so, everyone's gaze turned to the eldest person present.
"W-What is with that look?"
It seemed everyone was thinking the same thing as me, as Tang So-wol and Seol Ri-hyang simply stared at Seomun Hwa-rin in silence.
Pushed back by their sparkling gazes, Seomun Hwa-rin hesitated before letting out a deep sigh.
"Hoo. Very well. This one has indeed heard of the alias Baekbal Nachal. However, I do not know much about it in detail."
"That is more than enough."
"…Hoo, so it seems you all don't expect much from this one. That stings a little, doesn't it?"
Seomun Hwa-rin stood crookedly on her short legs, her sharp gaze fixed on them. It was an utterly baseless accusation.
"What we mean is that we know nothing at all, so even a rumor that Senior Seomun Hwa-rin has heard would be more than enough for us."
"Is that so?"
"Of course. Of course, Senior Seomun Hwa-rin has spent her entire life in Gangseo Province and only recently started traveling around, so the martial world information you have is a bit outdated, and sometimes we can feel a generation gap, but that's nothing to worry about, so please don't mind it."
"Kugh!"
Seomun Hwa-rin clutched her chest and crumbled.
Seeing her so thoroughly dejected, Tang So-wol giggled and patted her on the back.
"Isn't that right, Sister Hwa-rin? In other words, doesn't it mean that from now on, you'll get to experience all sorts of things with us?"
"All sorts of things… together…?"
"Yes. Things that you would have likely done at our age, had you grown up ordinarily. For example, protecting a merchant caravan from bandits, like last time."
"Hmm. Indeed, having lived solely focused on my own revenge, I suppose I lack such ordinary experiences of the martial world."
"Or perhaps the treatment one receives as a Martial Artist of the Orthodox Sects, rather than the Unorthodox. In the days when you were called Baekbal Nachal, you couldn't even have set foot near the Shaolin Temple, could you?"
"True. Even if it wouldn't come to a fight, I knew full well I wouldn't hear anything good, so there was no need to make the trip. But now, it's different."
Seomun Hwa-rin looked up at the gate of the Shaolin Temple, as if the sentiment was new to her.
Then, Tang So-wol quietly whispered into her ear.
"Aside from that… there's also romance."
"Th-That's not something to be done together, is it?! What are the young people these days…!"
Seomun Hwa-rin jumped in place, her face flushed bright red.
Seeing her flustered and spouting words like an old woman, Tang So-wol finally couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
"Ahaha! I'm just joking. So why don't we continue where we left off? About what rumors you've heard."
"Hoo, that's fine too, but shouldn't we first finish the business we came for?"
Seomun Hwa-rin said, pointing behind her. There, the bald head of the gatekeeper, silently guarding the mountain gate, gleamed.
It was clear he was troubled by the sight of us chattering among ourselves, having only shown the previous abbot's item without stating any business.
Fair enough. It would be a bit awkward to barge in.
I nodded and brought up our original purpose.
"We wish to tour the Shaolin Temple. Monk Gakjeong said that showing you this would suffice."
"…If it were only the benefactor alone, it would be no problem at all, but the precepts are the precepts, so I cannot give a definite answer for the others. Would you mind waiting a moment?"
"Of course."
The gatekeeper gave a brief bow, handed the mountain gate over to the other gatekeeper, and climbed the stairs above.
I watched him for a moment, then turned to Seomun Hwa-rin.
"It seems it will take a little while, so let's hear Senior Seomun Hwa-rin's old stories in the meantime."
"Don't call it an old story! It was only twenty or so years ago…"
She trailed off, having been counting the years on four bent fingers. Then she looked at Tang So-wol, the eldest among those present besides herself—and even she was only twenty-three—and pouted her lips.
"…Once upon a time. This was back when I still held illusions about the martial world. By then, Beolaksu was already the abbot of Shaolin, and unlike the abbots before him, he was famous for his resolute methods."
Seomun Hwa-rin gave up and began her tale as if she were truly telling an old story.
As if sifting through past memories, she gazed into the air and tapped her chin with her fingertips.
"Though his methods were resolute, he wasn't the type to simply crush the heads of every evildoer he saw. He would knock them down first, then say that if they repented of their crimes, he would help them live a new life."
"Most of them would say they would, I imagine."
"Correct. When one's very life hangs in the opponent's grasp, how could one refuse? …However, I heard he always made the attempt at reformation."
"You mean he made the attempt…"
"Because there was no second chance. If one broke their promise, he would shatter their skull without even hearing an excuse. At the time, the conflict between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects was at its peak, so quite a few people lost their heads, I hear."
This was the generation directly above Seomun Hwa-rin. In other words, this was a story from when the Lord of the Black Alliance was still young.
Since there was no organization like the Black Alliance to unite the Unorthodox Sect martial artists, clashes between Orthodox and Unorthodox martial artists broke out everywhere without any territorial boundaries.
It was a time when the conflict between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects had reached its extreme, and a time when those who exploited others' suffering in the chaos also increased.
At the same time, it was an era when many renowned martial artists appeared in droves.
Baekbal Nachal was one such person.
"Though it was said to be only once, he gave everyone a chance for reformation, so he was a model for Buddhist disciples. And though he was a disciple of the Buddha who should have abhorred taking life, he stained his hands with countless blood, so he was an Asura. In many ways, he was one of the most talked-about supreme masters of that generation."
"I understand he was remarkable, but… isn't it a bit much to elevate him to abbot?"
"Under ordinary circumstances, Hyang-i, your words would have been correct. However, the state of the martial world at that time could only be called an era of chaos. Regardless of Orthodox or Unorthodox, many groups were exterminated and re-established in rapid succession. It was an age that needed someone with power who fulfilled his duties as a Buddhist disciple more than a man without blemish who could be respected."
Even Shaolin could not afford to disregard power in such an era.
One wrong step, and they would have faced the humiliation of sealing their gates for a while—if not outright Clan Extermination.
It was in such times that Beol Aksu appeared, a man fit to lead Shaolin.
"Because of its symbolic status as the center of the Orthodox martial world, Shaolin Temple was attacked on several occasions, but Beol Aksu resolved every single one of those crises."
"…How did a man like that end up losing his internal energy?"
From what he heard, Beol Aksu was a martial artist counted among the top of the Harmony Realm experts of his generation—how had he come to a state where he had to risk his life even against Green Forest bandits?
Suppressing the sigh that threatened to escape from my emptiness.
"I will explain the details as we head to the main hall."
The answer came not from Seomun Hwa-rin, but from the stairs stretching up beyond the mountain gate.
Turning my head, I saw a middle-aged monk there—wearing the same yellow robes as the other monks, but with an orange kasaya draped diagonally over one shoulder.
He carried the clear and upright energy unique to the Buddhist order without even seeming conscious of it, and the gap between us was one I could not yet hope to cross.
The monk, who appeared to be a Harmony Realm martial artist, let out a deep sigh as if speaking on my behalf, and lifted the green jade Buddha statue we had brought.
"I am Jeonghyeon. Was it you benefactors who brought this?"
"Jeonghyeon sunim… Jeonghyeon the Great Master?!"
Tang So-wol's eyes flew open wide as she clasped her hands in a fist-and-palm salute.
"The daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan greets the abbot of Shaolin. Yes. Gakjeong sunim… no, you said you were the previous abbot, so… ahem. We are the ones who received the Buddha statue from the Great Master Gakjeong."
"Ah."
So that was why he was so surprised—that monk must be the current abbot. His alias was surely Divine Monk, wasn't it?
Unlike Gakjeong, who bore the fearsome alias of Baekbal Nachal, this was an alias befitting the abbot of Shaolin Temple.
Seol Ri-hyang and I offered our fist-and-palm salutes a beat late, while Seomun Hwa-rin, whose cultivation and standing were on par with ours, merely gave a slight nod of greeting.
I had meant to show my own respect as the one involved, but Grand Master Jeonghyeon, almost burdeningly, returned the courtesy with equal or even greater formality, pressing his palms together and bowing to each of us in turn.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. And I thank you for coming all this way, bearing news of my master."
Though he looked somewhat younger than I had imagined, he was otherwise the very picture of a model monk. Given his realm, his actual age must have been considerable.
"Ordinarily, Shaolin Temple is off-limits to women, but this matter warrants an exception, so I shall permit the two of you to enter the mountain. As my master said, it is the disciples of Shaolin who lack cultivation."
"Thank you."
I hadn't expected the gatekeeper, who had said he would merely relay our words, to bring the abbot himself.
The gatekeeper stood slightly behind Jeonghyeon with a bewildered expression, as if he hadn't expected it either.
I gave him a brief nod of thanks before following Jeonghyeon up the stairs leading to the main hall.
"…Benefactor. Is my master well?"
"He was so full of energy that it was a problem."
"Hoh?"
When I told the puzzled Jeonghyeon about my encounter with Gakjeong, he burst into loud laughter.
"Heh heh! I cannot tell whether my master is fortunate or unfortunate. I warned him it was dangerous, yet he slipped out behind everyone's back and ended up facing a Green Forest bandit. Fortunately, he received help from you, benefactor, but misunderstanding that help, he spent four days drifting between unconsciousness and waking. Yet in any case, he has returned safely to Mount Song."
"…I should mention this just in case, but I did not repeatedly knock him unconscious out of malice."
"I know, so do not worry. Though he lost his internal energy and his body has aged, he was a man who built martial arts formidable enough to be counted among the finest in Shaolin's history. You must have thought that responding half-heartedly would have been more dangerous instead, no?"
"That is correct."
"Anyone at a stage where things are just beginning to become visible, like yourself, benefactor, would have thought the same, so do not worry. How could I arbitrarily overturn my master's own words that he was rather sorry and punish you? I have no intention of doing so, no justification for it, and no need for it in the first place, so rest assured. …However, there is one thing that troubles me."
"What is it?"
"Why was the Master so fixated on that benefactor? In the past, he was a man resolute enough to be called the Vicious Asura, but now he is not quite that anymore."
"I cannot say I know the exact reason, but… I suspect he may have mistaken something in my killing intent."
"…Killing intent?"
Jeonghyeon's eyebrows twitched. He paused for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
"I see. So that is how it came to be. He said himself that it was no one's fault, yet he still kept it in his heart…"
His voice sounded troubled. He sighed once more and began climbing the stairs again.
"A while ago, you asked how it was that the Master, a martial artist strong enough to be called by the alias Vicious Asura, lost his internal energy. Now I will tell you the reason."
Whether he was looking at the end of the long, steep staircase or gazing up at the sky, he continued speaking.
"The Master took the life of the Heavenly Killing Star of that generation, and then crippled his own Dantian."
"Pardon?"
"And that Heavenly Killing Star was my junior brother. …He was another disciple of the Master."
I understood why he had reacted to my killing intent almost as if in convulsions.