Chapter 275: Journey To Shaolin (6)

Qing stood still, just blinking her eyes.

Huh? Not going to space this time? Hmm? Space? Why space? When did I ever go to space? What is this, something I feel like I almost remember.

But no, I shouldn’t try to recall it.

If I do, I’ll pass some point of no return. I have that feeling. No, not a feeling but a certainty.

But somehow I can’t stop thinking about it.

As if someone is forcibly leading my thoughts-

“Oh! You read the insight! Yes! Surely the ninth movement! It’s the ninth movement, right!?”

“Huk.”

Qing’s thoughts were forcibly cut off by the booming voice suddenly gripping both her forearms.

“That’s… ugh.”

Qing’s beautiful face contorted.

For someone who finally had a heavenly face, Qing really used it roughly.

“Why, why are you like this!”

“Master Wuxue, my arm, my arm…!”

“Your arm? Why, it looks fine. Never mind that, what about the insight? It was the ninth movement, right?”

“Ack! A-arm!”

Qing’s right arm started convulsing violently.

No wonder.

She supported the weight of the entire world with one arm.

Even if it was in her mind’s image, it remained clearly in her memory and had an effect.

From the rotator cuff in her shoulder through the triceps and biceps to the, no, from the brachioradialis to the iliopsoas, all the deep muscles and tendons in her fingers were simultaneously overloaded.

In other words, you could say she got cramps all at once from her shoulder to her fingertips.

“Oh my, what’s going on?”

Wuxue Dashi who was poking Qing’s right arm hurriedly pressed her acupoints. It was to completely block and numb the power flowing to her arm.

“Ack! Ack!”

“No, what’s this, why aren’t the acupoints working? And won’t you put away your protective force? I’m not trying to harm you.”

“Ugh, that, automatic. I. Kuaak.”

The state of Qing’s protective energy!?

Now that it had evolved to protective force matching her realm, when Wuxue poked with his fingers, the fierce force rising from inside fiercely defended against the world’s greatest expert.

In fact, since the already dead acupoints wouldn’t work anyway, both Wuxue and the protective force were doing completely useless things.

“My, you’ve already trained your protective force to unfold without thought or intention? What secret method did that Surin use! Was she truly talented at raising disciples!”

Aish, it hurts so much I could die!

Someone is in hellish pain with drool leaking and nose bubbling, but he’s just sitting there in admiration.

No wonder Master called him a stupid monk!

This is the second time her groin has split trying to follow the Celestial Martial Emperor, third if you count the first Absolute Sword Wall encounter.

Still, with Kaleidoscope her realm was so low she didn’t even have the ability to see, feel or experience it, just a mere Peak Realm, like an insect compared to the Celestial Martial Emperor, so the impact wasn’t big.

But after reaching the Transcendent Realm, she vaguely understood that mental image so there was a backlash.

So Qing sniffed back her drool and snot.

Still, it wasn’t painful enough to cry, so that was fortunate, or not.

And then Qing’s pretty hand – of course the world’s most vicious and beautiful White Hand – was nowhere to be seen, swollen to twice its size like a pig’s foot.

It looked like it had gained one cun of flesh in all directions.

Hidden by her sleeve, her whole right arm from the shoulder must be like this, she could immediately tell from the faint pain transmitted.

Seeing this, Wuxue asked:

“So, what was Shaolin’s movement? And, of course it was the ninth movement, right?”

“Um, couldn’t you pretend to worry about my arm a little- urp. Gulp.”

Suddenly something shot into her mouth, hit her palate hard and fell with a thud deep inside her tongue.

Since it’s human instinct to swallow unconsciously when something rises deep in the tongue, Qing ended up doing so.

“It’s a Beauty Pill. It’s just something roughly made with leftovers from making Lesser Return Pills, but here. So. How was it?”

“I wasn’t trying to fish for sympathy. And um, it wasn’t the ninth movement…”

“It wasn’t the ninth movement…”

Wuxue Dashi’s shoulders drooped.

Though he seemed not to care, he was surprisingly very concerned.

“It was the first movement of the Nine Swords of Solitude, a sword strike called Unique Self-Existence.”

At this, Wuxue pondered for a moment then:

“I see, the first movement is better. Since all study under heaven came from Shaolin, the first movement must be the most fundamental. Anyway, Unique Self-Existence. Can you annotate it?”

“Hmm. If I just describe what I saw…”

Qing described the contents she saw in the vision.

Then Wuxue smacked his forehead with his palm with a thwack!

In fact, this was a long tradition of Shaolin passed down from Master Huike who had one arm.

“The cliff approached you and cut itself. Non-movement is the same as movement. Indeed. Indeed.”

“Uh, honestly isn’t that nonsense? You believe it right away?”

At this, Wuxue Dashi smiled faintly.

“When you swing a sword and cut an enemy, think of yourself as the sword, not a person. Did the sword move on its own to cut the enemy? No. From the sword’s perspective, wouldn’t it feel like the enemy approached and offered its body?”

If Qing had been from a science and engineering background, she might have found this conversation very interesting.

In fact, in Qing’s homeland there were also people who claimed that objects that move and collide and objects that stay still and get hit are the same and indistinguishable.

If classified by occupation, these would be physicists, insurance investigators, self-harm fraud groups, and human-shaped insect bastards trying to tow vehicles.

“But I’m not a sword.”

“Haven’t you already experienced sword-body unification? Since weapons are extensions of the body, it’s not wrong to say they’re the same as the body.”

This was why martial arts were difficult.

As it touches on philosophy, metaphysics, or some ideology, it becomes more and more vague and impossible to understand just by hearing the words.

Unless you understand and firmly establish it yourself, you can never understand it, which is why it’s called enlightenment.

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, saying non-self and self are indistinguishable. Erasing oneself from the world is non-self, so if you erase the world, existing alone is self.”

Wuxue Dashi’s expression was strange.

It was an expression like his nose was tickling as if he was about to sneeze, but not quite sneezing.

“Oh my. You’ll have to try meditation to understand. Though I want to welcome you with all my heart, I’m afraid of missing the moment when I’ve grasped the clue, so this old stupid monk must go first.”

“Then it can’t be helped. Please go in quickly.”

“Thank you for understanding. Well then.”

And then as if in a great hurry, he leapt up and flew away, jumping over three zhang at once to kick off the cliff, then kicking off the steep walls of the ravine left and right to soar high and disappear.

And then only Qing was left alone in front of the Absolute Sword Wall.

The medicinal properties of the Beauty Pill or whatever she just took spread refreshingly through her whole body, and meanwhile the pain in her swollen right arm gradually increased.

But those things weren’t important.

This was before the great insight left by the Celestial Martial Emperor.

Qing realized the most important fact.

I’m hungry, I’m hungry…

Grooowl!

Qing’s stomach answered with a loud roar.

Ximen Surin calls Shaolin monks stupid monks.

Of course, Shaolin is already clearly more of a martial arts sect than a temple.

Moreover, forget about a quiet mountain temple, the city called Dengfeng at the foot of Mount Song has developed streets stretching all the way to Shaolin’s front gate.

So just beyond one temple wall, it has become a tourist destination with all kinds of teahouses, restaurants, and high-class inns for pilgrims spread out.

Of course, Ximen Surin didn’t call them stupid monks for these reasons, she just called them that because they were bad bald bastards who wouldn’t let women enter.

Anyway, it also meant Qing didn’t need to go on a long journey of three thousand li clutching her hungry stomach to find a restaurant.

There was no need to worry about what to eat either.

Though Qing’s intelligence can be said to be low originally, there are times when it becomes excellent occasionally.

Excluding when her intelligence soars in front of enemies due to the influence of the Heavenly Slaughter Star, when it comes to eating, her head spins so well that she rarely forgets.

So, Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, Buddha Jumping Over the Wall!

Buddha Jumping Over the Wall means the Buddha jumps over the wall, meaning it’s so delicious that even monks secretly jump over the wall to eat it.

Originally it originated in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, but it’s sold near all famous temples, yet expensive so not everyone can eat it, a very very high-class dish.

From the start, all the ingredients are high-class, so how could it not be delicious when you throw in all the delicious and expensive ingredients and then pour in Shaoxing wine and simmer it?

So which restaurant would be best?

Qing wandered through Dengfeng city as a lone gourmet.

Since it’s a top-class dish where the ingredients determine the taste, you can’t properly taste it at mediocre restaurants.

First she soothed her hungry stomach with a meat dumpling bought on the street while wandering around, and rumors spread that a heavenly fairy had appeared in Dengfeng.

While wandering around receiving all kinds of attention like that, Qing unexpectedly discovered a certain person.

It was Seol Iri who had sneakily left alone to eat, and meat at that.

And she was in quite a pitiful state.

She was glaring fiercely at something on the side of the street, and following her gaze led to a street stall selling wonton noodles.

What is this? Why is she glaring? Maybe it’s really delicious? A famous restaurant?

But for that, business wasn’t good at all, so though they were enthusiastically calling out wonton noodles, there didn’t seem to be anyone buying them.

Then what is it? Someone she knows?

Qing became curious, so she asked:

“Miss Seol. What are you doing?”

“You.”

“Why are you staring so hard your eyes might fall out? Is it someone you know? Or is it a delicious place?”

At this, Seol Iri’s mouth twitched, she clenched and unclenched her fist, hesitated for a long time, and finally gave the answer in a mosquito-like voice:

“I have no money…”

Since the Ice Palace’s circumstances weren’t very abundant, in a place with only ice to begin with, it’s impressive enough just not freezing to death. No products are produced there at all.

At least while staying at the Murim Alliance they give lodging, food, and sometimes pocket money, and even without that there’s not much for women to spend money on.

The occasional pocket money is used up on necessary expenses for women with nothing left over.

In this situation, she set out to chase Qing without any plan saying she would track down a criminal, and ended up realizing the harsh reality of poverty.

Seol Iri was a pauper.

Qing was dumbfounded.

“No, you left so proudly rubbing salt in my wounds saying you were going to eat meat, but how were you going to eat meat without money? Wait, Miss Seol, where are you going?”

“Hunting.”

Her words were still short, so it was unclear whether she meant she would directly obtain meat to eat since she had no money, or if she intended to earn money by hunting to buy food.

But there was one thing that was clearly understandable:

“You’re going to hunt on a mountain with a big temple? And in Shaolin’s front yard at that?”

At this, Seol Iri’s body stopped abruptly.

“Can’t I?”

“Of course not.”

At this, Seol Iri’s shoulders drooped a little.

Seeing that, Qing tilted her head.

What’s with her? Isn’t she a complete airhead?

For Seol Iri to be called an airhead by Qing, if wise people who know Qing like Seol Ganom or Jegal Ihyeon heard, they would say it’s a humiliation where it would be better to bite their tongues and die.

But if they really bit their tongues, since people don’t actually die from that, they would curse that she’s the kind of person who deserves to be called an airhead by that Qing.