Episode 196

“It’s been a long time since the whole family has gathered here.”

But oddly, Dan Woo-hyun didn’t look that good.

First, he looked at Ma Jang-kang, then Namgung Sohye, and then Kwon Mujin.

“One of them failed to catch the guy that they were supposed to kill….”

His gaze turned to Namgung Chun and Sa Dohak.

“I will kill the guy when I catch him… they’re so good at it though.”

“Kuak… no, that bastard keeps messing and provoking other people!”

Sa Dohak was really flustered and tried to make up an excuse. While he was chasing the Black Monster Demon, he became quite enraged at the guy who was sneakily running around here and there.

How can this guy who is running away be this fast… he was surpassing everybody’s imaginations and by the looks of everyone, all of them had their intentions set on him in the end.

And it was Sa Dohak who was doing the chasing.

“If you hit him after getting that close, of course he will die! Do you not even know how to control your strength!?”

Namgung Chun shouted and slapped him.

“No, then you should have just caught him earlier!”

“Didn’t I almost catch him!? You were the one who came and struck him right after I caught him!”

“What now! Who knew that he would die just like that?”

“Of course, if you hit him so hard without thinking, anyone would die! You moron!”

“Moron?! Oh my…! My entire body is really itching for the first time!”

“Hehehe, maybe because it has been so long? Maybe you miss the taste of my sword?”

Woong.

The forces of the two soared high without realizing it. The others nearby held their breaths and broke out into sweat. Such force was not something many people could handle in the Central Plains.

Even if they stood there without using qi, even standing there around them would be tough.

Thud! Thud!

At that time, he heard the sound of banging on something wooden next to them.

“Amitabha, can you all calm down for a moment? It isn’t good to fight.”

Namgung Chun and Sa Dohak glanced at Jang Sam-tae.

Jang Sam-tae smiled at their gazes on him.

An unknown emotion flooded him. Goosebumps spread from his toes to the top of his head, making him tremble.

The two people decided to pretend not to notice him.

“Anyway! It isn’t my fault!”

“Huh! I am not at fault here either.”

Dan Woo-hyun sighed.

He waved his hand, and Namgung Chun and Sa Dohak shut their mouths and looked away.

It seems like the fight between the two angry men hasn’t ended yet.

“So what about you people?”

“That… that is all? Till the very end we did….”

Namgung Sohye glanced at Jang Sam-tae. Not only that, but even Ma Jang-kang and Kwon Mujin’s gaze was directed at Jang Sam-tae. Dan Woo-hyun thought there was a reason and asked.

“What happened?”

“Killing isn’t good.”

“What…?”

Dan Woo-hyun also seemed a bit taken aback and sounded flustered.

The same went for others too. Everyone looked away pretending not to know Jang Sam-tae.

“To be open to death means to accumulate sinful karma, so you have to forgive a person and embrace them with your heart.”

“Ahem.”

Jang Sam-tae spread his hands infinitely with a benevolent smile.

“That is the mercy of Buddha.”

Dan Woo-hyun frowned again. Is this a joke?

A little while ago, they were standing at the crossroads of life and death; it was to kill or be killed. Dan Woo-hyun turned his head and looked to Ma Jang-kang for an explanation.

But he had lowered his head and was breaking into cold sweat.

“What happened?”

“It will be longer if we have to speak about it….”

“Short and clean, get to the point right now….”

Ma Jang-kang caught his breath several times.

‘Isn’t this something I thought of numerous times while coming here? All I need to do is just spit the facts out.’

“That… the… when we were being chased from the Thousand Mountains, we barely succeeded in escaping via water.”

Sa Dohak was surprised at those words. He glared at Jang Sam-tae and Ma Jang-kang with wide eyes and asked,

“What? Thousand Mountains? You guys went there?”

He wanted to grab them by the collar and ask them right away but noticing how Dan Woo-hyun’s gaze turned stern, Sa Dohak kept silent.

Right now, Dan Woo-hyun seems to be more curious about Jang Sam-tae’s condition than the Mountains.

“But the pursuers stuck with us till the end, and we got injured when running, and it was the monks of the Podalap Palace who saved us. We traveled to the Gansu region with them and the people there were impressed by the food that Jang Sam-tae made….”

“So?”

Dan Woo-hyun’s expression gradually contorted.

The more he heard, the more he felt like he was falling into absurd thoughts.

“He felt taken in by what the monks told him, and asked to be a disciple….”

“Sigh….”

A sigh escaped from his mouth.

“Ha, does it even make sense? What kind of people are these at the Podalap Palace, and if they were impressed by the food, does it make sense to make him a disciple? And that guy has Demonic qi inside him!”

In the process of teaching him martial arts, Sa Dohak had to infuse Demonic qi into Jang Sam-tae’s body.

The Podalap Palace is a place that worships the Buddha. It is a place where one can never accept those with Demonic qi, so why did they accept Jang Sam-tae as their disciple?

“So the guy that was the master, took Jang Sam-tae under his wing and trained him insanely for a month… and the result is…”

“What we see.”

Dan Woo-hyun smiled.

They didn’t know what kind of people did this, but surely they were interesting. It was impossible for the innate nature of a human to be changed by using normal means.

Which meant that the tough times which Jang Sam-tae had gone through was visible.

Then it could have been a brainwashing sort of training.

“Master says: no matter where you walk, be it the demonic way, or the Taoist way, never forget the words of Buddha.”

“Ah, forget it, that’s enough now.”

Dan Woo-hyun got up and held his hand out.

Jang Sam-tae, who didn’t understand what he meant, smiled, looking puzzled.

“Give me the moktak.”

“This one?”

“Yes.”

Jang Sam-tae naturally handed over the moktak politely. No matter what he was told to do, the dissatisfaction from the past wasn’t there.

“Buddha is forever merciful, right?”

“Of course. Under no circumstances should we forget the teachings… and…”

“Right, right.”

Dan Woo-hyun held the moktak and tapped it with his fingers. It seemed like it was made of good wood and wouldn’t crack easily.

“It gives off a nice sound right? That moktak is a precious thing which my Master gives you.”

Dan Woo-hyun nodded like he understood. It felt like he wasn’t the least bit concerned about it, whether it was important or not.

Then, he smashed the moktak in his hand to the ground.

Pak!

And the precious moktak shattered into pieces.

At that moment, Jang Sam-tae flinched and his eyes widened. He clearly mentioned how precious this was, so why did he have to destroy it? His lips trembled.

“You won’t curse then?”

“Amitabha—is the presence or absence of a moktak such a huge thing though? Why would vulgar words come from the mouth of a Buddhist disciple? Hahaha.”

Jang Sam-tae took out prayer beads from his sleeve and rotated them between his fingers. Although having to lose the moktak was too much, he was consoling his broken mind by saying the end of the moktak was inevitable.

Those who saw that held their breaths.

Since they had a clear idea of Jang Sam-tae’s nature, they were all watching what happened. Namgung Sohye even had goosebumps rise on her arms.

She rubbed her legs. She couldn’t bear seeing this anymore.

“Is he enjoying it? Look at those eyes. His compassion is overflowing.”

Sa Dohak clicked his tongue and shook his head.

There was a look in his eyes that the old version of Jang Sam-tae wouldn’t have.

“Hahaha, these are the eyes of Buddha. He is watching all of you through my eyes.”

Dan Woo-hyun frowned as he looked at Jang Sam-tae, who was wearing a bright smile. The same went for Sa Dohak and Namgung Chun. They say that if one does something they would not normally do, it means that they are wondering about what would happen when they did it.

And ignoring them was the way best to get back at them.

Dan Woo-hyun seemed to think the same way, so he didn’t pay Jang Sam-tae any attention.

“And the one who ran away?”

“Amitabha—chasing after someone who has lost the will to fight is…”

“We tried chasing after him but we were too late. His footwork was swifter than I thought. But he was injured pretty badly, so he probably couldn’t have gone far.”

Kwon Mujin glanced at Jang Sam-tae and answered. This idiot had chased after the guy and if he made up his mind, he definitely would have caught him.

“Should I chase him?”

“Sir…. The injured need to be shown mercy….”

“No, this guy has nowhere to go anyway. He’ll resurface one way or another.”

Jang Sam-tae rolled his eyes and looked at the two people in turn. It seems like they were talking, but it feels like no one was listening.

He frowned at this not-so-nice behavior.

However, he shook those thoughts off, thinking about the mercy that Buddha shows.

“Anyway, this guy is the problem—this one. I thought it would be going well, but look at him!”

Sa Dohak looked at Jang Sam-tae and frowned. Even though he wanted to ignore it, he apparently didn’t like the fact that Jang Sam-tae couldn’t even do a simple thing.

Jang Sam-tae smiled brighter at the sight of Sa Dohak looking at him.

“I…”

“What?”

“Haha, nothing. If Hinayana sins then isn’t that karma affecting Hinayana too?”

Sa Dohak didn’t like this.

‘I thought I heard something odd?’

Sa Dohak sighed, ignoring this odd feeling bubbling up inside.

“Anyway, even if good things were taught, he doesn’t use them and goes to learn the strangest things? What nonsense is all this? At this rate, he will end up learning the martial arts of the Justice Faction, right? Euk, that idiot.”

Sa Dohak grunted and turned his back. He felt sick to his stomach and continued to look as if this was all absurd to him.

He despised this changed personality.

“It is much better than the Demonic Cult’s martial arts, but damned…”

That was when this low voice spoke.

Some people might not have heard it right as if there was a sound like a mosquito was passing by, but there was no way one could deceive the ears of the three people with the most sensitive hearing.

Jang Sam-tae realized something and quickly lowered his head.

“Ma… master has…”

“Get up.”

Sa Dohak’s gloomy voice said. When Jang Sam-tae, startled, turned his head to look at him, his eyes were burning like the Emperor of Hell.

“Eik!”

Without any further thought, Sa Dohak reached out and grabbed Jang Sam-tae’s bald head.

“Would you come with me for a moment…”

“Sir… Sir, I am tired now…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Seeing as to how you speak nonsense here, it seems like you have enough strength to even shovel the ground.”

Sa Dohak smiled, looking at him.