Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 428

“Hoo, I can’t even look at it for half a day now. I’ve lived long enough, but it’s still disheartening to see my stamina declining.”

Yi Beon patted his back and stood up.

Hae Mun clicked his tongue.

“Is there anything new about that? You’re at an age where it wouldn’t be strange if you went to Buddha’s side tonight. It’s not like your stamina declining is a new thing.”

“Hey, man. Going to Buddha’s side is a blessing. But, you know, I need to achieve something to have the face to see Buddha.”

“Buddha wouldn’t like us doing this.”

“You always have to say something.”

“Wouldn’t he much prefer us seeking the path to enlightenment instead of this? To be honest, what secret of reincarnation is there in eternal life…”

“Here we go again. Ugh, you’re supposed to be able to decipher texts, but all you do is talk.”

“Isn’t it better to chatter than to endure this labor?”

“Alright. I’m going to get some sun. You should take a break after doing enough.”

“No. I gave up everything to come here, I won’t live as carelessly as you, brother.”

“Just wait three more years. The boredom will be unbearable.”

Yi Beon finished their joking conversation, patted his back, and left the cave.

The cave was long. It was so long and winding that it would take at least fifteen days to memorize the path.

Of course, the people here, who were once monks, were so familiar with the internal geography that they could navigate it with their eyes closed. After all, even the youngest member who had joined most recently had been living here for over eight years.

“Hoo.”

Yi Beon’s face was filled with refreshment as he took a deep breath outside.

“People need to get some sun.”

The cave was cooler than expected. With the night-shining pearls and the damp-repelling pearls, it was moderately dry, which made it even cooler.

Yi Beon had turned one hundred and seven years old this year.

In a world where it was difficult for an ordinary person to live even sixty years, he had lived over a hundred years. Moreover, despite being well over a hundred, he looked as hale and hearty as someone in their seventies.

Yi Beon closed his eyes and circulated his inner energy.

Whoooosh.

A serene energy rose from his dantian [energy center below the navel], circulated through his body, and expelled the cold and impure energy that had penetrated his body.

Yi Beon smacked his lips.

“The movement of my inner strength has become slower.”

Having practiced his breathing techniques for over a hundred years, his inner strength was so pure that it could be called the best in the world.

It was a true energy that had been refined and refined, repeating several cycles of perfection. Without such true energy, he would not have been so hale and hearty at this age.

Of course, that was only in terms of inner strength. Having been away from the bloody battles of the martial world for over thirty years, it was now difficult for him to even dodge the blade of an ordinary master.

‘Huh, is it finally my time to go?’

The fact that the movement of his inner strength had slowed meant that his mind had also slowed down.

Inner strength moves with intention. Therefore, when one reaches the ultimate level, the inner strength moves so quickly that it can fully execute a martial art the moment the intention arises.

Although he had not reached that lightning-fast level, Yi Beon was once a master who had almost reached the realm of the Supreme Void. That true energy, which had once moved as fast as his mind could focus, was now moving as slowly as his mind’s focus.

‘Hmm.’

Yi Beon, who had been looking down at his hands, looked up at the sky again.

He smiled faintly.

“I’ve lived a long time.”

When he was sixty, he was afraid of death. Although he was not a monk, but a believer who followed the Buddhist teachings, he could not escape the primal fear of death.

When he was seventy, he was no longer afraid, but he could not help but feel melancholy. The fact that he would eventually disappear from this world, and that the world would not change much even after he was gone, was bitter.

Then, when he turned eighty and then ninety.

Yi Beon was finally able to accept death completely, as a natural flow. No, he could even feel it as a blessing.

For all living things in the world, death is a scheduled rest. It is an eternal sleep, a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the secular world and take true rest.

That is why one must work harder while alive. After all, one will be resting for countless eons. Before that, one would only be moving busily for a few decades.

It was not a mindset befitting a Buddhist believer, but as a human being, entrusting one’s life to the long flow of nature was not an easy thing.

Yi Beon hummed a tune and looked around.

“Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. When will I die, when will I die and see Buddha… Huh?”

Yi Beon blinked.

In his sight was a monk with a thick beard and a freshly shaved head that had grown to the length of a fingernail, which was quite striking.

It was Beom Oh.

Beom Oh was sitting under a rock, muttering something with his eyes half-closed. It seemed he had not eaten or drunk for several days, as he had become very thin.

Yi Beon clicked his tongue.

“There’s another poor soul trapped in agony over there.”

He had heard from Tam-gyeong why Beom Oh had become like that.

After hearing that, he thought. Yeon Ho-jeong was no ordinary child, but that monk with so much fire in his heart was no ordinary man either.

“No matter how sharp a dagger is, it cannot pierce through iron armor. If he was shocked by the harsh words of that child Yeon Ho-jeong, then that monk must have been living with his ears wide open.”

Yi Beon’s face suddenly showed a mischievous glint as he quietly watched Beom Oh.

A moment later.

Splash!

“Hee-uck!”

Beom Oh was startled and quickly stood up.

In front of him, Yi Beon, who had poured water on him with a gourd, was laughing heartily.

“Hey, you. Do you think enlightenment will come to you, or that your accumulated agony will subside, just by being so pathetic?”

“O-old man?”

“You’ve worried enough, so fill your stomach. Even if you want to burn away your agony, you need to be alive to burn it or extinguish it, right? You’ll die if you keep being trapped by your agony, you fool.”

Beom Oh’s expression was bewildered. He was too surprised, and he couldn’t get angry because the person who had poured water on him was a very old man.

Yi Beon smiled and turned around.

“What do you think? Do you agree with me?”

Then, a voice full of laughter was heard.

“I agree with you, junior. One must live first. One must live to see more, hear more, and feel more.”

“Heh heh, that’s not something that applies to you or me. We’re at an age where we wouldn’t regret anything even if we died tonight.”

“I would be sad, though. If you were to leave, brother.”

“That’s none of my business. Rather, you should congratulate me. For finally escaping this hellish world.”

“Hahaha.”

Yi Beon turned his gaze to the young man next to Tam-gyeong, with a smile on his face.

“Oh ho?”

Yi Beon, who had been examining Yeon Ho-jeong from head to toe, suddenly burst into a fit of laughter.

“Hahahaha! My, my, you’ve brought a remarkable young man!”

It wasn’t just Yeon Ho-jeong and Beom Oh who were surprised by the sudden laughter.

Tam-gyeong, who had been brothers with him for a long time, also looked at Yi Beon with surprised eyes. He knew who the young man he had brought was, but he was puzzled by the sudden laughter.

Yi Beon stopped laughing and looked at Yeon Ho-jeong.

“Was your name Yeon Ho-jeong?”

“…Yes.”

“Huh! What a way to answer! But my brother is right. He’s rough, but not arrogant.”

Yi Beon winked one eye.

“Of course, he’ll be different to his enemies, right? Or am I wrong?”

Yeon Ho-jeong couldn’t easily open his mouth.

He had suddenly burst into laughter after looking at him, and then winked at him in a friendly manner, making him think that the old man’s face had a spasm.

Apart from anything else, the strange atmosphere of the old man named Yi Beon was emitting a force that even Yeon Ho-jeong could not easily deal with.

A clear and deep true energy. An inner strength that felt extremely dull and like a single mass, but when that concentrated power flowed through the old man Yi Beon’s voice, it became a comfortable dignity that dominated the atmosphere.

It was amazing. Yeon Ho-jeong was the type of person who would say whatever he wanted, even in front of the King of Fighters. His very nature was such that he would not be intimidated by the atmosphere of others.

Yi Beon asked Tam-gyeong.

“So, have you told him everything about who we are?”

“Not only that, but I’ve also told him what we do.”

“Puh! How could you tell him so easily? When all the Buddhist sects in the Central Plains are keeping their mouths shut.”

“As you can see, he’s not a friend with a loose tongue.”

“I know that, but you never know with people. Even if that child keeps his mouth shut, the martial world always wants to reveal secrets under the guise of truth.”

Even if Yeon Ho-jeong didn’t say anything, someone could capture him and forcibly extract information.

No matter how strong a person is, they don’t know what the future holds. There will come a time when Yeon Ho-jeong will experience defeat, and that defeat could lead to death.

And in the martial world, there are many methods that ordinary people cannot even imagine. If he were to be subjected to a soul-capturing technique or an unknown demonic art, who knows what might happen.

Tam-gyeong said calmly.

“He is the successor of the Four Divine Beasts, he would rather choose death than be subjected to such methods. Moreover, this matter that the Buddhist sects of the Central Plains are keeping secret, who knows how long it will remain buried in Mount Bul [a fictional mountain].”

Yi Beon’s eyes lit up.

“The successor of the Four Divine Beasts… is that certain?”

“It is certain.”

“You’ve already crossed hands with him?”

Tam-gyeong’s smile deepened.

“Not yet.”

“You’re the only one who has caught the eye of our Martial God. But you’re old too. Unless we clash directly, how can we be sure that he is the disciple of the mysterious man you spoke of?”

“That’s also true. But, before that, I wanted to introduce him.”

“You’re something else.”

Yi Beon turned his gaze back to Yeon Ho-jeong.

“You heard everything about what we do?”

“Yes.”

Yi Beon’s lips curled up.

“You don’t think we’re just a bunch of senile old men gathering to whine, do you?”

“I don’t think the old men are senile, but I don’t think the entire Buddhist sect of the Central Plains is a group of lunatics.”

“What? Puhahahaha!”

Yi Beon, who had burst into laughter again, nodded repeatedly.

“That guy is really something? I like him. When I only heard about you, I thought you were a complete disaster, but seeing you in person, you’re quite a magnanimous fellow!”

Yeon Ho-jeong frowned.

“I only heard that the old men were trying to uncover the secret of immortality, but I didn’t hear what that had to do with the Four Divine Beasts.”

“Huh?”

Yi Beon turned to Tam-gyeong.

“You said you told him everything?”

“I told him everything about what we do.”

“But you didn’t mention anything about the Four Divine Beasts?”

“That’s right. I told you, I wanted to introduce you first before we started getting to know each other.”

“…That guy who was so easily lured to come here is something else too.”

Yi Beon, who was shaking his head, asked Yeon Ho-jeong.

“Alright, since we’ve already started talking, let’s talk openly. Kid, you said you don’t know what our work has to do with the Four Divine Beasts?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know this? That the Four Divine Beast martial arts you have cultivated are the unique skills of the Four Directional Martial Emperors who created the legend of the greatest in history three hundred years ago.”

“I’m not certain, but I had some idea.”

“An idea… Alright, good. Then let me ask you one more thing.”

Yi Beon’s expression suddenly became serious.

“Do you think that the Four Directional Martial Emperors, who were figures from three hundred years ago, are dead? Or do you think they are still alive?”

“What is that…?”

“The person who taught you the Four Divine Beast martial arts, who do you think that person is? There is no mention in any martial arts history book that the Four Directional Martial Emperors had any disciples.”

“…?!”