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Chapter 187: Chapter 23, Episode 2: Monk Dae Woo

Its life energy was too weak to be considered an animal’s but too strong to be considered a bug’s. How could he have missed the signal coming from only 10 steps away? It meant his heart had been too chaotic to sense it.

He opened the door and entered. There was no sign of life there. The defecation of wild animals was found in the place where the firewood had been piled up. The stench of the place was overbearing for his nostrils. It seemed like a fire had not been lit up for a long time.

“Huh! My goodness, what is that?”

Mu Ssang’s gaze turned to a corner of the gongyanggan. Two baby raccoons were digging their heads into the ground in an effort to hide. The energy he had sensed had been from them.

He burst out laughing while watching the two fight each other to hide in the ground. It must have been scared by the sudden appearance of a human. Gongyanggan was a much better habitat than the typical mountain cave. The more cunning raccoon attacked its sibling.

It had been over 100 years since humans started using fire. The human digestive system could no longer tolerate raw meat. To live, they needed to go through the mid processes of cooking. If a raccoon was forced to eat its own, then that meant that his teacher either ate raw meat or had given up meat altogether.

“What is the old man doing with the money I’ve sent him to be living in a place like this?”

He wasn’t complaining because he didn’t know. With that money, he would have paid the enrollment fees for the bodhisattvas who whined that they didn’t have enough money, paid for old man Park’s medical bills who complained that he couldn’t get treatment, and he would have taken the young pregnant women who became single mothers to the hospital. Even without witnessing it, it was obvious.

The problem was his teacher’s age. Even with regeneration skills, you couldn’t fight old age. He had to hold the flower ceremony, but the temple cook seemed to no longer be there.

“He’s always the saint. Why do I even bother?”

His sympathetic feelings turned into resentment. The people who came to the temple were mostly leeches. They didn’t want enlightenment because they were too busy robbing his teacher’s pockets. He felt sorry for his teacher, who would laugh and willingly give them everything he had. The only person who filled his teacher’s pocket was himself.

At the gongyanggan, there was a large pot for cooking rice and another for soup. He opened up one of the lids only to find dried up herbs from a leftover soup.

They were radish stems and mugwort. With his sensitive smell, he was also able to pick up hints of perilla powder. It had been at least a month since the herbs were cooked there.

He opened the lid of the other pot. A huge spider sat in the middle of its wide web and stared at him. There were several dead flies stuck on its web.

“Huh! Where’s the firewood?”

He didn’t even see the lumber, which was usually stacked up on the side. Before he had left, he had stacked up three years worth of firewood. All of that had disappeared, and all that was left were wild animals’ dungs. Did the firewood sprout legs and crawled up the mountain by itself?

Maybe, teacher has passed away, and a leech has taken over the empty temple?

His anxiety slowly spread through his body again.

Tap tap tap—

It was the sound of a cane hitting the ground. The sound was low and rhythmic like a resonating howl. Mu Ssang, who had been depressed like an ant who lost its antennae, sprang back up.

His teacher always tapped at the ground with his cane whenever he walked. It was his way to ensure that he didn’t kill a single bug.

“It’s teacher!”

Tuwang—

A black streak stretched and left through Iljumun. A raging wind raced to the bottom of the mountain.

“Ah, Mu has returned. You used your unnatural skills instead of receiving the energy of nature. Tsk tsk, you threw away your basics and forcefully gained your skills. Well, it is what it is. At least you won’t go around getting beaten. Hahaha!”

The severely thin old man broke into a smile.

Clop clop clop—

The old man’s footsteps continued without missing a beat.

Mu Ssang cocked his head in confusion even as he was running. He could hear the continuous tapping of the cane, but no footsteps could be heard. The sound was echoing from only 400 meters away. He would be able to see him once he turned the corner.

Now that he thought about it, he could not sense a life force. The cane was walking by itself.

“Can this be a spirit!”

He was surprised by how little he knew of the immensity of his teacher’s state in the past. This was the difference between a master and a novice. He had no idea before. He would have never understood his teacher’s greatness if he had not realized how to summon spatial awareness and resonance in the Sahel. That was why they said the stupid were brave.

A tornado spun around the mountain. A small old man, who used a cane to walk up the mountain, came into view.

“Teacher! Hahaha!”

Mu Ssang ran towards him in the speed of light and cried as he hugged his bony teacher. He was like a child who had found his mother after being lost at an amusement park.

“Yes, you have come!”

As if he was greeting a child, his teacher’s words were peaceful.

“Wah! I was so worried about you.”

Azrael, the nightmare of war, Kanma, Ange de la Morte, and Black Mamba no longer existed. Once he met up with his teacher, he became the young apprentice he had been before.

“Hmm, have you turned into a child after drinking foreign water?”

Monk Dae Woo stroked his head as if he was greeting one who had returned from praying at the friarhood.

“In front of you, teacher, I am always a child.”

“Hm, let’s take a look at you. Your body has become much stronger.”

The wrinkled hands touched his strong shoulders and stroked his metal-like spine. Monk Dae Woo examined his apprentice’s body with warm eyes. Even in the past, it was a body with many scars. It now had three times as many scars. A large scar remained on his left cheek.

The bigger problem was the smell of blood emanating from his apprentice. It was not 10 or even 100. It was a smell that could only occur when 1000s of lives had been taken.

“You’ve been through hell and back.”

Monk Dae Woo’s voice slightly shook. He had anticipated it, but his heart ached upon realizing what his apprentice might have gone through.

“It’s nothing. Hell is but the living room of chaos. I was more afraid that teacher had passed away.”

“Child, I have not completed my enlightenment, so how could I die just yet? You are not destined to receive much. All there is to give is Amja, which is but the size of my hand. Hahaha!”

“The temple may be small, but the land around it is huge. If I sell it, it will make quite a bit of money.”

“Child, you can sell it after I die. Oh, my leg. What are you doing? Carry me.”

Mu Ssang turned around and carried his teacher on his back. He was weightless like an empty bag. He was not only thin but was practically just skin and bones. He had given up meat, so there was no way he could have retained muscle and fat.

Mu Ssang’s eyes turned cloudy.

“Teacher, why is your body like this? What happened to the temple cook?”

“Don’t worry. It is the result of reverting to raw foods. I got my fortune told by a well-known fortune teller. He told me that I would live with a full stomach thanks to a rich apprentice. Haha.”

He must have only eaten intermittently without utilizing the temple cook. Mu Ssang’s heart ached, and tears started streaming down his face.

“What have you been doing all this time to have turned into a skeleton?”

“Do you still obsess over the exterior? Between a thin puma and a fat one, which do you think is normal?”

“Teacher, you are not a puma but a person.”

At his comment, Monk Dae Woo chuckled loudly. The old teacher and healthy apprentice went on chatting as they climbed up the mountain together.

“Skin is the only difference. We have arrived. Hmph.”

“Oh!”

Mu Ssang jumped in surprise. His teacher, who had been on his back, disappeared like smoke. In the blink of an eye, he was sitting on the patio. It was a skill he couldn’t even attempt to copy.

“Te…teacher!”

“Lower your voice. Dust will fall.”

“What is that?”

Mu Ssang’s eyes glistened.

“Child, do what you need to do. To an old man, yesterday is today, and today is no different than tomorrow. You must have done 10s of 1000s of things. Where, where are you going?”

“I will serve you tea, teacher\'”

“Oh child, don’t make a fuss and just sit. It has been a long time since I have had tea. I don’t even have tea.”

“Why? Don’t you enjoy drinking tea?”

“Even if you were a troublemaker, how could I sit here and sip tea after sending my apprentice to hell.”

“Teacher, your apprentice’s sins are numerous.”

Tears filled Mu Ssang’s eyes. His all-powerful teacher’s only weakness was tea. He must have quit it because he had been worried about his apprentice. He could feel his teacher’s heart, which was filled with love.

“Child, you’re making your teacher tear up. Let’s continue our chat after one hit.”

Crack—

Mu Ssang started blinking at his teacher. Monk Dae Woo’s expression was that of disbelief as he looked at his broken cane. He glanced back and forth between his apprentice’s head and his broken birch tree cane. It was a cane that didn’t break easily even when slammed into a boulder.

“Hm, is this another upgrade to your body?”

“Yeah, I got badly hurt, so my servant had cooked up something similar to wild ginseng to feed me. After I woke up, I became like this.”

Monk Dae Woo cocked his head in confusion. As he listened, he realized there was no such knight like Mu Ssang.

“Hm, your mind has been weakened, and only your body has become stronger. Do you have other symptoms? No, I’ll check it out myself.”

Monk Dae Woo grabbed Mu Ssang’s head with both hands. At once, his 10 fingers landed on all the pressure points of his head.

Swoosh—

A small tornado appeared around Monk Dae Woo. Mu Ssang felt as if a refreshing herb scent was circulating inside of his head.

“How strange. There are no issues with its contents. Who is your servant? What does a humble love look like? No, let’s talk about that later. Did you get to taste some foreign women? According to the young folks, they say that they placed their flags on those white horses. Hahaha!”

Relieved, Monk Dae Woo returned to his joking self.

“Oh teacher, how could you say such things? Buddha would be horrified to hear that.”

Mu Ssang jumped up and down. His teacher’s jokes had become more severe.

“Hm, you know one but not two. Those country boys have to go around poking their flags to make babies so that Buddha has more means to make a living. The ones that are making babies already left for the city, so no rising young monks are entering the monastery.”

“Teacher, please…”

He was horrified by the thought of someone overhearing them, but Monk Dae Woo continued with another inappropriate joke.

“Look at Buddha in the temple. All he does is suck his fingers. Even an old man like me, who wanted to eat hamburgers, has been stuck sucking on my own fingers. There’s no metal in our pockets, only oil. You only end up drooling in front of an old white grandfather’s picture. This is all because you have no tact.”

Monk Dae Woo tapped the patio ground hard with his broken cane. He must have wanted to eat that hamburger badly.

“I can do whatever needs to be done. I brought over 20 female monks last time. However, you kicked all of them out.”

“Oh child, you have to bring fresh ones so that my eyes can at least have a treat. I want one that has no thoughts for Buddha. One who will stare at you with eyes that exhibits a desire to suck your chest and bottom. What am I going to do with the old ones with stinky armpits who can’t even grind properly on you? If you want to go for a ride, always make sure to pick a fresh one.”

Mu Ssang’s head spun at his teacher’s reckless words. His teacher had always threatened to gather his apprentice’s seeds and spread them around. It was hard to withstand it.

“I know all there is to know. I’ve done all there is to be done.”

“Yeah, right. Ever since you left for the country, you haven’t given anyone affection. Do you think your teacher wouldn’t know? You forced yourself to let go of a nice young lady, didn’t you? Nice work. Then, you would have locked yourself inside the bathroom and cried. Tsk tsk!”

“Oh, how did you know?”

Mu Ssang was very surprised. How would his teacher have known about him and Rudrey Edel? Did he read my mind?

“You’re too obvious. You couldn’t even lay a finger on someone willing. What is the purpose of being a soldier if you don’t even have fun picking up women? Even the old ones are hitting on them, so why is a young man like you not interested in women at all? What a waste of a good product. Tsk tsk!”

“You see. Western women have a weird smell…”

“Oh, I was hoping to hear sex tales that involved riding a white or black horse, but I guess that ship has sailed. You should be ashamed. You should also be sorry to the organ that gets up but dies down because it has nothing to do every day.”

Mu Ssang scratched his head. He didn’t necessarily want to keep women at bay. Suddenly, he began to think that his longing for Hae Young and his chivalrous perception of love as a one-time occurrence was stupid. He had focused so hard on training that women never really crossed his mind.

His inhumanly sensitive sense of smell and vision presented a problem too. Instead of embracing women, the idea of a stench emanating from their body, their large pores, and white flaky skin made him avoid them even more.

“I’ve been so busy. I haven’t had time to see any woman.”

“Oh, stupid child. You’re not even aware that your skill is at fault. Tsk tsk!”

When his teacher criticized him, Mu Ssang’s mood suddenly shifted.

“I was breaking my bones to get the money to support you. I didn’t even get the chance to go near a woman.”

Monk Dae Woo looked pathetically at him while tapping his head with his broken cane.

“Hahaha, you novice, a woman has to be seduced. There’s nothing natural about paying a woman who has that sort of occupation. Even if you sow your seeds there, they won’t be able to produce you any seedlings. They say foreign women are easy as long as you don’t get crabs. They drop their panties often. All you’ve to do was suck your fingers while you were there. That was my mistake. I should have taught you how to pick up women instead of training you on the Ohgeumgong.”

Monk Dae Woo stroked his apprentice’s head as he beat his fist against his frustrated heart.

“Oh dear, a couple of them have already taken hold of you.”